Author

The author of the Epistle to the Romans, as he himself states in the introduction, was the Apostle Paul, Romans 1:1. A large part of this great missionary’s life is described in the Acts of the Apostles, and a short history of his youth and of his work as an apostle of Christ is given in articles appended to Acts 9 and Acts 28 of this Commentary. “It will be sufficient to state here that Saul (afterwards called Paul) was born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, of Jewish parents, who possessed the right of Roman citizens; that, when young, he was sent to Jerusalem for the purpose of receiving a Jewish education; that he was there put under the tuition of the famous Rabbi Gamaliel, and was incorporated with the sect of the Pharisees, of whose system he imbibed all the pride, self-confidence, and intolerance, distinguishing himself as one of the most inveterate enemies of the Christian cause; but, being converted by a most singular interposition of Divine Providence and grace, he became one of the most zealous promoters and successful defenders of the cause which he had before so inveterately persecuted.” ^■600 . The letter throughout bears the characteristic impress of Paul, both in content and form. It is a part of the apostolic teaching, a part of Scriptures, given by inspiration of God, to make us wise unto salvation by faith which is in Christ Jesus.

The church at Rome

The letter is addressed to the Romans, that is, “to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints,” Romans 1:7. “From Romans 1:8 and Romans 16:19 it appears that the church at Rome had existed for some time when Paul wrote this epistle. How had it been founded? Evidently not through the services of St. Paul himself. When he wrote his letter, he had never been in Rome (Romans 1:10,13; Romans 15:23). The Roman Catholic Church of to-day claims that St. Peter was the founder of the church in Rome, and that he guided its destinies for twenty-five years as its first bishop. This claim has no foundation in the Bible. Indeed, it is contrary to all the evidence of the New Testament. Here is some of the evidence. (1) Up to the time of the apostolic council … St. Peter was still in Jerusalem (Acts 12:4; Acts 15:7; Galatians 2:1-10). Trustworthy tradition has it that he died in 67. From 51 to 67, however, is not twenty-five years. (2) St. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans early in 58. But in this epistle he makes no mention whatever of St. Peter, as he surely would have done if so prominent an apostle had founded the Roman church. (3) In his epistle (Romans 16:3-16) St. Paul sends special greetings to a large number of Christians at Rome. But St. Peter’s name is not mentioned in the long list of those whom St. Paul greets. What does that mean? It can only mean that St. Peter was not in Rome at the time. It is clear, then, that neither St. Peter nor St. Paul founded the church at Rome. Nor have we any evidence to the effect that any other apostle was the founder. The origin of this church must probably be accounted for in the following manner. Rome, the mistress and metropolis of the world, had a large number of Jewish inhabitants in those days. Some of them were present in Jerusalem on the great day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost was poured out on the disciples (Acts 2:10). In all probability some of these ‘sojourners from Rome’ were among the 3,000 who were converted and baptized. When they returned to Rome, these converts carried the Gospel of Christ with them. That was the beginning of the church at Rome.” ^■601 .

Purpose

The purpose of the epistle is stated by Paul himself (Romans 1:11-15; Romans 15:22-32). Having long intended to visit the congregation at Rome, he here announced his probable coming in the near future. He wanted to prepare the church at Rome to become a suitable basis for carrying the Gospel farther westward. The instructions of Paul in this letter therefore assume the proportions of a full and exhaustive doctrinal treatise, the most systematic and complete of all the epistles of St. Paul: “a presentation of the divine counsel of grace and salvation in its universality, being intended and necessary for Jews and heathen alike.” Then also, the congregation, composed of Jews and Greeks, with the Gentile Christians in the majority, had not yet formed a harmonious whole, the Jews believing that they were destined to enjoy special privileges in the kingdom of God, and the Gentiles exhibiting a tendency to look down upon the Jewish brethren. The exposition of Paul in this letter was intended to unify the two parties. On account of these two features the Epistle to the Romans is the most important writing of Paul, or, as Luther expresses it, “the chief book of the New Testament and the purest Gospel, which is well worthy that a Christian should not only know it by heart, word for word, but daily use it as the daily bread of the soul; for you can never read and study it too often and too well, and the more you use it, the more precious does it become, and the better does it taste.” ^■602 .

Date

From Acts 20:2-3; Romans 16:1-2; Romans 16:23; 1 Corinthians 1:14 it appears that Paul wrote this epistle on his third missionary journey, in the winter of 58-59, just before leaving for Jerusalem. The conditions for sending the letter at this time were favorable, since Phoebe, a deaconess of Cenchrea, a port of Corinth, was on the point of traveling to Rome, and thus became the bearer of the precious message (Romans 16:1-2). The letter was dictated by Paul to Tertius, one of his companions and helpers, in the house of Gaius, at Corinth.

Contents

The Epistle to the Romans is plainly divisible into a doctrinal and a practical part. The first part, including Romans 1–11, includes four sub-divisions. After the introduction the topic of the letter is announced: justification by faith as revealed in the Gospel. The apostle shows that neither the Gentiles nor the Jews are righteous before God, but are by nature under the wrath of God. The righteousness of God, as earned by the vicarious merits of Christ, with all its blessings, is next pictured. A necessary fruit and consequence of imputed righteousness is sanctification, with its manifestation of good works. The universal grace of God is the basis of the election of grace, as Paul shows from the example of Israel and of the Gentile world. In the practical, hortatory section of his letter, the apostle then shows what Christian virtues flow from love toward Christ: humility, charity, obedience, a holy life in general. In the conclusion of the letter, Paul justifies his writing, expresses the hope of coming to Rome soon, commends Phoebe, sends his personal greetings, warns against false teachers, includes greetings of his companions, and concludes with a doxology.

The summary of the entire epistle cannot be given more beautifully than in the words of Luther: “Thus we find in this epistle in richest measure what a Christian should know, namely, what Law, Gospel, sin, punishment, grace, faith, righteousness, Christ, God, good works, love, hope, cross, is, and how we should comport ourselves against every one, whether he be pious or a sinner, strong or weak, friend or enemy, and against ourselves. And all this well established with Scriptures, proved with examples from his own experience and from the prophets, that there is nothing more to be desired here. Wherefore it seems that St. Paul in this epistle for once wanted to condense the entire Christian and Gospel doctrine in a brief summary, and prepare an introduction to the entire Old Testament. For without doubt, he that has this epistle well in his heart has the light and power of the Old Testament in himself. Therefore let every Christian make it his common and steady occupation and exercise. Whereto God give His grace! Amen.” ^■603 .

A bright light

This Epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest Gospel, and is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much, and the more it is dealt with the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes.

Therefore, I, too, will do my best, so far as God has given me power, to open the way into it through this preface, so that it may be the better understood by everyone. For heretofore it has been evilly darkened with commentaries and all kinds of idle talk, though it is, in itself, a bright light, almost enough to illumine all the Scripture.

To begin with we must have knowledge of its language and know what St. Paul means by the words, law, sin, grace, faith, righteousness, flesh, spirit, etc., otherwise no reading of it has any value.

The Law

The little word “law,” you must not take here in human fashion, as a teaching about what works are to be done or not done. That is the way it is with human laws, — the law is fulfilled by works, even though there is no heart in them. But God judges according to what is at the bottom of the heart, and for this reason, His law makes its demands on the inmost heart and cannot be satisfied with works, but rather punishes works that are done otherwise than from the bottom of the heart, as hypocrisy and lies.

Hence all men are called liars, in Psalm 116:11, for the reason that no one keeps or can keep God’s law from the bottom of the heart, for everyone finds in himself displeasure in what is good and pleasure in what is bad. If, then, there is no willing pleasure in the good, then the inmost heart is not set on the law of God, then there is surely sin, and God’s wrath is deserved, even though outwardly there seem to be many good works and an honorable life.

Hence St. Paul concludes, in chapter 2, that the Jews are all sinners, and says that only the doers of the law are righteous before God. He means by this that no one is, in his works, a doer of the law; on the contrary, he speaks to them thus, “Thou teachest not to commit adultery, but thou committest adultery”; and “Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, because thou doest the same thing that thou judgest”; as if to say, “You live a fine outward life in the works of the law, and judge those who do not so live, and know how to teach everyone; you see the splinter in the other’s eye, but of the beam in your own eye you are not aware.”

For even though you keep the law outwardly, with works, from fear of punishment or love of reward, nevertheless, you do all this without willingness and pleasure, and without love for the law; but rather with unwillingness, under compulsion; and you would rather do otherwise, if the law were not there. The conclusion is that at the bottom of your heart you hate the law. What matter, then, that you teach others not to steal, if you are a thief at heart, and would gladly be one outwardly, if you dared?

Though, to be sure, the outward work is not far behind such hypocrites!

Thus you teach others, but not yourself; and you yourself know not what you teach, and have never yet rightly understood the law. Nay, the law increases sin, as he says in chapter 5, for the reason that the more the law demands what men cannot do, the more they hate the law.

For this reason he says, in Romans 7:14, “The law is spiritual.” What is that? If the law were for the body, it could be satisfied with works; but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it, unless all that you do is done from the bottom of the heart. But such a heart is given only by God’s Spirit, who makes a man equal to the law, so that he acquires a desire for the law in his heart, and henceforth does nothing out of fear and compulsion, but everything out of a willing heart. That law, then, is spiritual which will be loved and fulfilled with such a spiritual heart, and requires such a spirit.

Where that spirit is not in the heart, there sin remains, and displeasure with the law, and enmity toward it; though the law is good and just and holy.

Accustom yourself, then, to this language, and you will find that doing the works of the law and fulfilling the law are two very different things. The work of the law is everything that one does, or can do toward keeping the law of his own free will or by his own powers. But since under all these works and along with them there remains in the heart dislike for the law and the compulsion to keep it, these works are all wasted and have no value. That is what St. Paul means in Romans 3:20, when he says, “By the works of the law no man becomes righteous before God.” Hence you see that the wranglers and sophists are deceivers, when they teach men to prepare themselves for grace by means of works. How can a man prepare himself for good by means of works, if he does no good works without displeasure and unwillingness of heart? How shall a work please God, if it proceeds from a reluctant and resisting heart?

Faith alone

To fulfill the law, however, is to do its works with pleasure, and love, and to live a godly and good life of one’s own accord, without the compulsion of the law. This pleasure and love for the law is put into the heart by the Holy Ghost, as he says in Romans 5:5. But the Holy Ghost is not given except in, with, and by faith in Jesus Christ, as he says in the introduction; and faith does not come, save only through God’s Word or Gospel, which preaches Christ, that He is God’s Son and a man, and has died and risen again for our sakes, as he says in Romans 3:25, Romans 4:25 and Romans 10:9.

Hence it comes that faith alone makes righteous and fulfills the law; for out of Christ’s merit, it brings the Spirit, and the Spirit makes the heart glad and free, as the law requires that it shall be. Thus good works come out of faith. That is what he means in Romans 3:31, after he has rejected the works of the law, so that it sounds as though he would abolish the law by faith; “Nay,” he says, “we establish the law by faith,” that is, we fulfill it by faith.

Sin and unbelief

Sin, in the Scripture, means not only the outward works of the body, but all the activities that move men to the outward works, namely, the inmost heart, with all its powers. Thus the little word “do” ought to mean that a man falls all the way into sin and walks in sin. This is done by no outward work of sin, unless a man goes into sin altogether, body and soul. And the Scriptures look especially into the heart and have regard to the root and source of all sin, which is unbelief in the inmost heart. As, therefore, faith alone makes righteous, and brings the Spirit, and produces pleasure in good, eternal works, so unbelief alone commits sin, and brings up the flesh, and produces pleasure in bad external works, as happened to Adam and Eve in Paradise.

Hence Christ calls unbelief the only sin, when he says, in John 16:8, “The Spirit will rebuke the world for sin, because they believe not on me.”

For this reason, too, before good or bad works are done, which are the fruits, there must first be in the heart faith or unbelief, which is the root, the sap, the chief power of all sin. And this is called in the Scriptures, the head of the serpent and of the old dragon, which the seed of the woman, Christ, must tread under foot, as was promised to Adam, in Genesis 3:15.

Grace and gift

Between grace and gift there is this difference. Grace means properly God’s favor, or the good-will God bears us, by which He is disposed to give us Christ and to pour into us the Holy Ghost, with His gifts. This is clear from chapter 5, where he speaks of “the grace and gift in Christ.” The gifts and the Spirit increase in us every day, though they are not yet perfect, and there remain in us the evil lust and sin that war against the Spirit, as he says in Romans 7:14 and Galatians 5:17, and the quarrel between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is foretold in Genesis 3:15. Nevertheless, grace does so much that we are accounted wholly righteous before God. For His grace is not divided or broken up, as are the gifts, but it takes us entirely into favor, for the sake of Christ our Intercessor and Mediator, and because of that the gifts are begun in us.

In this sense, then, you understand chapter 7, in which St. Paul still calls himself a sinner, and yet says, in Romans 8:1, that there is nothing condemnable in those are in Christ on account of the incompleteness of the gifts and of the Spirit. Because the flesh is not yet slain, we still are sinners; but because we believe and have a beginning of the Spirit, God is so favorable and gracious to us that He will not count the sin against us or judge us for it, but will deal with us according to our faith in Christ, until sin is slain.

Faith

Faith is not that human notion and dream that some hold for faith. Because they see that no betterment of life and no good works follow it, and yet they can hear and say much about faith, they fall into error, and say, “Faith is not enough; one must do works in order to be righteous and be saved.”

This is the reason that, when they hear the Gospel, they fall to — and make for themselves, by their own powers, an idea in their hearts, which says, “I believe.” This they hold for true faith. But it is a human imagination and idea that never reaches the depths of the heart, and so nothing comes of it and no betterment follows it.

Faith, however, is a divine work in us. It changes us and makes us to be born anew of God (John 1:13); it kills the old Adam and makes altogether different men, in heart and spirit and mind and powers, and it brings with it the Holy Ghost. O, it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith; and so it is impossible for it not to do good works incessantly. It does not ask whether there are good works to do, but before the question rises; it has already done them, and is always at the doing of them. He who does not these works is a faithless man. He gropes and looks about after faith and good works, and knows neither what faith is nor what good works are, though he talks and talks, with many words, about faith and good works.

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man would stake his life on it a thousand times. This confidence in God’s grace and knowledge of it makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all His creatures; and this is the work of the Holy Ghost in faith. Hence a man is ready and glad, without compulsion, to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything, in love and praise of God, who has shown him this grace; and thus it is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate heat and light from fire. Beware, therefore, of your own false notions and of the idle talkers, who would be wise enough to make decisions about faith and good works, and yet are the greatest fools. Pray God to work faith in you; else you will remain forever without faith, whatever you think or do.

Righteousness, then, is such a faith and is called “God’s righteousness,” or “the righteousness that avails before God,” because God gives it and counts it as righteousness for the sake of Christ, our Mediator, and makes a man give to every man what he owes him. For through faith a man becomes sinless and comes to take pleasure in God’s commandments; thus he gives to God the honor that is His and pays Him what he owes Him; but he also serves man willingly, by whatever means he can, and thus pays his debt to everyone. Such righteousness nature and free will and all our powers cannot bring into existence. No one can give himself faith, and no more can he take away his own unbelief; how, then, will he take away a single sin, even the very smallest? Therefore, all that is done apart from faith, or in unbelief, is false; it is hypocrisy and sin, no matter how good a show it makes (Romans 14:23).

Flesh and spirit

You must not so understand flesh and spirit as to think that flesh has to do only with unchastity and spirit only with what is inward, in the heart; but Paul, like Christ, in John 3:6, calls “flesh” everything that is born of the flesh; viz., the whole man, with body and soul, mind and senses, because everything about him longs for the flesh. Thus you should learn to call him “fleshly” who thinks, teaches, and talks a great deal about high spiritual matters, but without grace. From the “works of the flesh,” in Galatians 5:20, you can learn that Paul calls heresy and hatred “works of the flesh,” and in Romans 8:3, he says that “the law was weak through the flesh,” and this does not refer to unchastity, but to all sins, above all to unbelief, which is the most spiritual of all vices. On the other hand, he calls him a spiritual man who is occupied with the most external kind of works, as Christ, when He washed the disciples’ feet, and Peter, when he steered his boat, and fished. Thus “the flesh” is a man who lives and works, inwardly and outwardly, in the service of the flesh’s profit and of this temporal life; “the spirit” is the man who lives and works, inwardly and outwardly, in the service of the Spirit and the future life.

Without such an understanding of these words, you will never understand this letter of St. Paul, or any other book of Holy Scripture. Therefore, beware of all teachers who use these words in a different sense, no matter who they are, even Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, Origen, and men like them, or above them. Now we will take up the Epistle.

Chapter 1

It is right for a preacher of the Gospel first, by a revelation of the law and of sin, to rebuke everything and make sin of everything that is not the living fruit of the Spirit and of faith in Christ, so that men may be led to know themselves and their own wretchedness, and become humble and ask for help. That is what St. Paul does. He begins in Chapter 1 and rebukes the gross sin and unbelief that are plainly evident, as the sins of the heathen, who live without God’s grace, were and still are. He says: The wrath of God is revealed from heaven, through the Gospel, upon all men because of their godless lives and their unrighteousness. For even though they know and daily recognize that there is a God, nevertheless, nature itself, without grace, is so bad that it neither thanks nor honors Him, but blinds itself, and goes continually from bad to worse, until at last, after idolatry, it commits the most shameful sins, with all the vices, and is not ashamed, and allows others to do these things unrebuked.

Chapter 2

In chapter 2, he stretches this rebuke still farther and extends it to those who seem outwardly to be righteous, but commit sin in secret. Such were the Jews and such are all the hypocrites, who, without desire or love for the law of God, lead good lives, but hate God’s law in their hearts, and yet are prone to judge other people. It is the nature of all the hypocrites to think themselves pure, and yet be full of covetousness, hatred, pride, and all uncleanness (Matthew 23:25). These are they who despise God’s goodness and in their hardness heap wrath upon themselves. Thus St. Paul, as a true interpreter of the law, leaves no one without sin, but proclaims the wrath of God upon all who live good lives from nature or free will, and makes them appear no better than open sinners; indeed he says that they are hardened and unrepentant.

Chapter 3

In chapter 3, he puts them all together in a heap, and says that one is like the other; they are all sinners before God, except that the Jews have had God’s Word. Not many have believed on it, to be sure, but that does not mean that the faith and truth of God are exhausted; and he quotes a saying from Psalm 51:4, that God remains righteous in His words. Afterwards he comes back to this again and proves by Scripture that they are all sinners and that by the works of the law no man is justified, but that the law was given only that sin might be known.

Then he begins to teach the right way by which men must be justified and saved, and says, They are all sinners and without praise from God, but they must be justified, without merit, through faith in Christ, who has earned this for us by His blood, and has been made for us a mercy-seat by God, Who forgives us all former sins, proving thereby that were we aided only by His righteousness, which He gives in faith, which is revealed in this time through the Gospel and “testified before by the law and the prophets.”

Thus the law is set up by faith, though the works of the law are put down by it, together with the reputation that they give.

Chapter 4

After the first three chapters, in which sin is revealed and faith’s way to righteousness is taught, he begins, in chapter 4, to meet certain objections. And first he takes up the one that all men commonly make when they hear of faith, that it justifies, without works. They say, “Are men, then, to do no good works?” Therefore he himself takes up the case of Abraham, and asks, “What did Abraham accomplish, then, with his good works? Were they all in vain? Were his works of no use?” He concludes that Abraham was justified by faith alone, without any works; nay, the Scriptures, in Genesis 15:6, declare that he was justified by faith alone, even before the work of circumcision. But if the work of circumcision contributed nothing to his righteousness, though God commanded it and it was a good work of obedience; then, surely, no other good work will contribute anything to righteousness. On the other hand, if Abraham’s circumcision was an external sign by which he showed the righteousness that was already his in faith, then all good works are only external signs which follow out of faith, and show, like good fruit, that a man is already inwardly righteous before God.

With this powerful illustration, out of the Scriptures, St. Paul establishes the doctrine of faith which he had taught before, in chapter 3. He also brings forward another witness, viz, David, in Psalm 32:1 who says that a man is justified without works, although he does not remain without works when he has been justified. Then he gives the illustration a broader application, and concludes that the Jews cannot be Abraham’s heirs merely because of their blood, still less because of the works of the law, but must be heirs of Abraham’s faith, if they would be true heirs. For before the law — either the law of Moses or the law of circumcision — Abraham was justified by faith and called the father of believers; moreover, the law works wrath rather than grace, because no one keeps it out of love for it and pleasure in it, so that what comes by the works of the law is disgrace rather than grace. Therefore faith alone must obtain the grace promised to Abraham, for these examples were written for our sakes, that we, too, should believe.

Chapter 5

In chapter 5, he comes to the fruits and works of faith, such as peace, joy, love to God and to every man, and confidence, boldness, joy, courage, and hope in tribulation and suffering. For all this follows, if faith be true, because of the over-abundant goodness that God shows us in Christ, so that He caused Him to die for us before we could ask it, nay, while we were still His enemies. Thus we have it that faith justifies without any works; and yet it does not follow that men are, therefore, to do no good works, but rather that the true works will not be absent. Of these the work righteous saints know nothing, but feign works of their own in which there is no peace, joy, confidence, love, hope, boldness, nor any of the qualities of true Christian works and faith.

After this, he breaks out, and makes a pleasant excursion, and tells whence come both sin and righteousness, death and life, and compares Adam and Christ. He says that Christ had to come, a second Adam, to bequeath His righteousness to us, through a new spiritual birth in faith, as the first Adam bequeathed sin to us, through the old, fleshly birth. Thus he declares, and confirms it, that no one, by his own works, can help himself out of sin into righteousness, any more than he can prevent the birth of his own body.

This is proved by the fact that the divine law — which ought to help to righteousness, if anything can — has not only not helped, but has even increased sin; for the reason that the more the law forbids, the more our evil nature hates it, and the more it wants to give rein to its own lust. Thus the law makes Christ all the more necessary, and more grace is needed to help our nature.

Chapter 6

In chapter 6, he takes up the special work of faith, the conflict of the spirit with the flesh, for the complete slaying of the sin and lust that remain after we are justified. He teaches us that by faith we are not so freed from sin that we can be idle, slack, and careless, as though there were no longer any sin in us. There is sin; but it is no longer counted for condemnation, because of the faith that strives against it. Therefore we have enough to do all our life long in taming the body, slaying its lusts, and compelling its members to obey the spirit and not the lusts, thus making our lives like the death and resurrection of Christ and completing our baptism — which signifies the death of sin and the new life of grace — until we are entirely pure of sins, and even our bodies rise again with Christ and live forever.

And that we can do, he says, because we are in grace and not in the law.

He himself explains that to mean that to be without the law is not the same thing as to have no laws and be able to do what one pleases; but we are under the law when, without grace, we occupy ourselves in the work of the law. Then sin assuredly rules by the law, for no one loves the law by nature; and that is great sin. Grace, however, makes the law dear to us, and then sin is no more there, and the law is no longer against us, but with us.

This is the true freedom from sin and the law, of which he writes, down to the end of this chapter, saying that it is liberty only to do good with pleasure and live a good life without the compulsion of the law. Therefore this liberty is a spiritual liberty, which does not abolish the law, but presents what the law demands; namely, pleasure and love. Thus the law is quieted, and no longer drives men or makes demands of them. It is just as if you owed a debt to your overlord and could not pay it. There are two ways in which you could rid yourself of the debt, — either he would take nothing from you and would tear up the account; or some good man would pay it for you, and give you the means to satisfy the account. It is in this latter way that Christ has made us free from the law. Our liberty is, therefore, no fleshly liberty, which is not obligated to do anything, but a liberty that does many works of all kinds, and thus is free from the demands and the debts of the law.

Chapter 7

In chapter 7, he supports this with a parable of the married life. When a man dies, his wife is single, and thus the one is released from the other; not that the wife cannot or ought not take another husband, but rather that she is now really free to take another, which she could not do before she was free from her husband. So our conscience is bound to the law, under the old man; when he is slain by the Spirit, then the conscience is free; the one is released from the other; not that the conscience is to do nothing, but rather that it is now really free to cleave to Christ, the second husband, and bring forth the fruit of life.

Then he sketches out more broadly the nature of sin and the law, showing how, by means of the law sin now moves and is mighty. The old man hates the law the more because he cannot pay what the law demands, for sin is his nature and by himself he can do nothing but sin; therefore the law is death to him, and torment. Not that the law is bad, but his evil nature cannot endure the good, and the law demands good of him. So a sick man cannot endure it when he is required to run and jump and do the works of a well man.

Therefore St. Paul here concludes that the law, rightly understood and thoroughly comprehended, does nothing more than remind us of our sin, and slay us by it, and make us liable to eternal wrath; and all this is taught and experienced by our conscience, when it is really smitten by the law.

Therefore a man must have something else than the law, and more than the law, to make him righteous and save him. But they who do not rightly understand the law are blind; they go ahead, in their presumption, and think to satisfy the law with their works, not knowing what the law demands, viz., a willing and happy heart. Therefore they do not see Moses dearly, the veil is put between them and him, and covers him.

Then he shows how spirit and flesh strive with one another in a man. He uses himself as an example, in order that we may learn rightly to understand the work of slaying sin within us. He calls both spirit and flesh “laws,” for just as it is the nature of the divine law to drive men and make demands of them, so the flesh drives men and makes demands and rages against the spirit, and will have its own way. The spirit, too, drives men and makes demands contrary to the flesh, and will have its own way. This contention within us lasts as long as we live, though in one man it is greater, in another less, according as spirit or flesh is stronger.

Nevertheless, the whole man is both spirit and flesh and he fights with himself until he becomes wholly spiritual.

Chapter 8

In chapter 8, he encourages these fighters, telling them not to condemn the flesh; and he shows further what the nature of flesh and spirit is, and how the spirit comes from Christ, Who has given us His Holy Spirit to make us spiritual and subdue the flesh. He assures us that we are still God’s children, however hard sin may rage within us, so long as we follow the spirit and resist sin, to slay it. Since, however, nothing else is so good for the mortifying of the flesh as the cross and suffering, he comforts us in suffering with the support of the Spirit of love, and of the whole creation.

For the Spirit sighs within us and the creation longs with us that we may be rid of the flesh and of sin. So we see that these three chapters (6-8) deal with the one work of faith, which is to slay the old Adam and subdue the flesh.

Chapters 9-11

In chapters 9, 10, and 11, he teaches concerning God’s eternal predestination, from which it originally comes that one, believes or not, is rid of sin or not rid of it. Thus our becoming righteous is taken entirely out of our hands and put in the hand of God. And that is most highly necessary. We are so weak and uncertain that, if it were in our power, surely not one man would be saved, the devil would surely overpower us all; but since God is certain, and His predestination cannot fail, and no one can withstand Him, we still have hope against sin.

And here we must set a boundary for those audacious and high-climbing spirits, who first bring their own thinking to this matter and begin at the top to search the abyss of divine predestination, and worry in vain about whether they are predestinate. They must have a fall; either they will despair, or else they will take long risks. But do you follow the order of this epistle. Worry first about Christ and the Gospel, that you may recognize your sin and His grace; then fight our sin, as the first eight chapters here have taught; then, when you have reached the eighth chapter, and are under the cross and suffering, that will teach you the right doctrine of predestination, in the ninth, tenth and eleventh chapters, and how comforting it is. For in the absence of suffering and the cross and the danger of death, one cannot deal with predestination without harm and without secret wrath against God. The old Adam must die before he can endure this subject and drink the strong wine of it. Therefore beware not to drink wine while you are still a suckling. There is a limit, a time, an age for every doctrine.

Chapter 12

In chapter 12, he teaches what true worship is; and he makes all Christians priests, who are to offer not money and cattle, as under the law, but their own bodies, with a slaying of the lusts. Then he describes the outward conduct of Christians, under spiritual government, telling how they are to teach, preach, rule, serve, give, suffer, love, live, and act toward friend, foe and all men. These are the works that a Christian does; for, as has been said, faith takes no holidays.

Chapter 13

In chapter 13, he teaches honor and obedience to worldly government, which accomplishes much, although it does not make its people righteous before God. It is instituted in order that the good may have outward peace and protection, and that the wicked may not be free to do evil, without fear, in peace and quietness. Therefore the righteous are to honor it, though they do not need it. In the end he comprises it all in love, and includes it in the example of Christ, Who has done for us what we also are to do, following in His footsteps.

Chapter 14

In chapter 14, he teaches that weak consciences are to be led gently in faith and to be spared, so that Christians are not to use their liberty for doing harm, but for the furtherance of the weak. If that is not done, then discord follows and contempt for the Gospel; and the Gospel is the all-important thing. Thus it is better to yield a little to the weak in faith, until they grow stronger, than to have the doctrine of the Gospel come to naught. This is a peculiar work of love, for which there is great need even now, when with meat-eating and other liberties, men are rudely and roughly shaking weak consciences, before they know the truth.

Chapter 15

In chapter 15, he sets up the example of Christ, to show that we are to suffer those who are weak in other ways, — those whose weakness lies in open sins or in unpleasing habits. These men are not to be cast off, but borne with till they grow better. For so Christ has done to us, and still does every day; He bears with our many faults and bad habits, and with all our imperfections, and helps us constantly.

Then, at the end, he prays for them, praises them and commends them to God; he speaks of his office and his preaching, and asks them gently for a contribution to the poor at Jerusalem; all that he speaks of or deals with is pure love.

Chapter 16

The last chapter is a chapter of greetings, but he mingles with them a noble warning against doctrines of men, which are put in alongside the doctrine of the Gospel and cause offense. It is as though he had foreseen that out of Rome and through the Romans would come the seductive and offensive canons and decretals and the whole squirming mass of human laws and commandments, which have now drowned the whole world and wiped out this Epistle and all the Holy Scriptures, along with the Spirit and with faith, so that nothing has remained there except the idol, Belly, whose servants St. Paul here rebukes. God release us from them. Amen.

The sum and substance of the faith

Thus in this Epistle we find most richly the things that a Christian ought to know; namely, what is law, Gospel, sin, punishment, grace, faith, righteousness, Christ, God, good works, love, hope, the cross, and also how we are to conduct ourselves toward everyone, whether righteous or sinner, strong or weak, friend or foe. All this is ably founded on Scripture and proved by his own example and that of the prophets. Therefore it appears that St. Paul wanted to comprise briefly in this one epistle the whole Christian and evangelical doctrine and to prepare an introduction to the entire Old Testament; for, without doubt, he who has this epistle well in his heart, has the light and power of the Old Testament with him.

Therefore let every Christian exercise himself in it habitually and continually. To this may God give His grace. Amen.

Verses 1-7

The salutation of the letter

Instead of using the usual, conventional form of brief address in this letter, Paul extends the customary salutation in a truly Christian and apostolic manner, in order to include in his opening greeting the wish for the highest spiritual well-being of the brethren in Rome. A servant Paul calls himself. The word, if used alone, denotes the Christian, so far as he, in the discharge of his special Christian calling, surrenders himself completely to God’s will, and excludes his own preference. But Paul modifies the word by calling himself a “servant of Jesus Christ,” not a bondman or slave, as the literal meaning of the word in classical language would have it, since this term contains something of reproach, but a man who is under an obligation to Christ which he can never fully and adequately discharge. He had given, entrusted himself, his person, his life, his powers, to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; he was wholly devoted to Him in the spirit of sacrificial obedience, to the constant, complete, and energetic performance of the divine will. Whereas, however, he had this relation toward Christ in common with every true believer, there was one distinction which he enjoyed, very unusual and singular. He was called as an apostle by a special vocation from God, by an immediate call, Acts 9:1-18; Galatians 1:1,12. The special prerogative of the apostolate was his: he had seen the risen Lord, 1 Corinthians 15:8, he had received direct communications from Him, 1 Corinthians 11:23; 1 Corinthians 15:3. As an apostle, Paul was separated, set apart from other men, given a special office, appointed unto the Gospel of God, for its special ministry. It is the Gospel of God, the glad tidings of which He is the Author, which His grace made possible. The message which Paul brought, by word of mouth and by letter, was not an indefinite philosophy, but the Word of God, as it is intended for the salvation of men.

This Gospel of God, these glorious, happy tidings, is not a new doctrine, but one which God had promised before through His prophets in the holy writings, or Scriptures, the ancient truth, proclaimed by the most credible witnesses, codified in guaranteed writings. Paul’s words here are a testimony to the inspiration of the Scriptures as they were then known to the Jews. It was God that made the proclamation in olden times; they were His prophets that preached and wrote, not what suited their fancy, but what His Holy Spirit told them to put down for future generations; and therefore the writings that have come down through the ages are holy, as a product of the holy God and His Holy Spirit. The fact that the doctrine of Paul coincided fully with the testimony of the prophets is comforting also to us as an assurance that the Gospel, as preached in our midst, is the eternal truth.

The origin of the Gospel is divine; its agreement with the testimony of the prophets cannot be questioned; its content is Jesus. It treats of His, God’s, Son, God Himself, in the Gospel, testifies of His Son. The Son of God, whose eternity and divinity is emphasized by the name, Psalm 2:7, was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. The only-begotten Son of the Father, John 1:14; Colossians 1:15, assumed human nature as a descendant of David, His mother Mary being of the house and lineage of David. Of the seed of David He was born, according to the flesh, Luke 3:23-38; His was a true human nature, flesh and blood like that of all men, all human beings. He was made in the likeness of men, Philippians 2:7, though not after the usual conception and birth; He was made like unto us, His brethren, in every respect, subject to the same weaknesses and ills which flesh is heir to, but without sin, Hebrews 2:17.

This same Jesus, however, that is a true human being is at the same time declared, ordained, appointed, constituted, the Son of God in power, the almighty Son of God. He was always the Son of God, but in the state of His humiliation He had hidden His divine majesty under the form of a servant. But now He was manifested, established, as the Son of God with the full possession of the divine glory and majesty. The Son of David, the weak and despised Jesus of Nazareth, according to His human nature, exercises unlimited authority, absolute sovereignty. And all this was brought about according to the spirit of holiness, according to His higher, heavenly, divine nature, 2 Corinthians 3:17. This unique nature is called a spirit of holiness, because it belongs to the superhuman, supermundane world, because it is found only in Him that is above all, at the right hand of God in the heavenly places, Ephesians 1:20-23. “The whole Gospel of Paul is comprehended in this historical Jesus, who has appeared in the flesh, but who, on the ground of the spirit of holiness, which constitutes His essence, has been exalted as Christ and Lord.” It is the eternal Godhead that now, since He has been exalted to the right hand of God, appears in Christ and determines His entire manner of being. His divine nature has permeated, charged, His human essence with its glory and power. And all this is true in consequence of, by, the resurrection of the dead. By His death, Christ laid aside all human weakness forever. Then He arose from the dead. It was a true resurrection or returning to life; He entered into a new life and being; He assumed the unlimited exercise of the divine attributes which had been transmitted to His human nature. For that reason also, in and with the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of the believers unto eternal life is guaranteed, 1 Corinthians 15:12-23. All these wonderful things are stated of Jesus Christ, the God-man, anointed by God to be the Savior of the world, and therefore our Lord, the Master and King of all believers. All the works of His office He performed, and still performs, in order that we may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

This same Lord Jesus Christ who has been revealed in such a wonderful way is also the One through whom Paul received grace and apostolate. By the activity of the exalted Christ, Paul was converted, he was made partaker of the grace of God in the Redeemer, of full and complete forgiveness of sins. And then, as a special distinction, he received from Jesus, the Lord of the Church, the office of apostle, Galatians 1:1. He belonged to the special class of teachers whom the Lord gave to the Church in the early days for the establishment of His kingdom in the hearts of men. It was the purpose and object of his labors in his office to establish the obedience of faith among all nations, in the midst of all Gentile peoples. The purpose of Paul’s preaching was to work faith, to create in the hearts of men obedience to the norm and rule of the Gospel; for Christian faith is essentially such willing obedience, Romans 10:16; 1 Peter 2:8; 1 Peter 4:17. The preaching of the Gospel, which was the essential work of the apostolate among the Gentiles, has in itself the power to work assent and faith. And therefore the faith of the Christians, by which they accept Jesus as their Savior, serves for the glorification of the name of Jesus, that Christ’s name may be above every name. In the Gospel Jesus is preached, in it He is revealed to men, and their acceptance of His salvation redounds to His glory.

Having thus explained the content and glory of the Gospel and of his office in the proclaiming of the wonderful message, Paul turns directly to the members of the congregation at Rome, telling them that they, the great majority of them, belonged by birth to the Gentile peoples, but were nevertheless the called of Jesus Christ. The call of Jesus Christ through the Gospel has been effective in their case; by virtue of His call they belong to Him as His own, they have been regenerated or converted, they have become subjects of Christ. But not only to these Christians from the Gentiles, to all, rather, that are beloved by God in the city of Rome, belong to God as His beloved children, to all that are called saints, that have become saints by the call of God, that have been separated from the world and been consecrated to God, Paul addresses himself. They were not called by God because they were holy, but their holiness is the result of His call, issued to them out of His great love, an expression of His sincere love for them. Note that Paul addresses all the members of the congregation at Rome with these honoring titles. To him they all are beloved of God and called saints, just as we to-day consider all the members of a true Christian congregation as dear children of God, even though hypocrites may be found in their midst.

Instead of the short formula which custom demanded in formal letters, Paul’s love causes him to expand the word into a greeting showing the full measure of his regard. He wishes them all grace, the full mercy of God, the free forgiveness of their sins, the basis and source of every good gift that comes down from above. He wishes them peace, as the happy result of the possession of grace and mercy. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. His redemption has removed the cause of strife, the Father is reconciled to us. This happy state of the assurance of God’s grace, of the certainty of His reconciled heart, should continue and their faith in these gifts of God be strengthened. God the Father should grant these blessings, but they should, at the same time, proceed also from Christ Himself, in whom we have the right to call God our Father and expect the fulness of spiritual blessings at His hands. God the Father and Jesus Christ are thus in the same measure and with equal force the Source of our salvation. Such comfort there is in faith in Jesus the Savior.

---

Verses 8-15

The introduction to the letter

Paul’s longing to see the Christians of Rome:

In this introduction Paul pursues the course usually adopted by him in his epistles, namely, of first placing himself in relation with his readers; and his first point of contact with them is gratitude for their participation in Christianity. “First,” above all things, before everything else. Very emphatically Paul brings out this thought of his sincere gratitude, which must always stand first in the Christian’s life and precede all prayers and wishes. Note that the apostle refers to “my God.” That is the essence of true faith, that the believer puts his personal trust in God and uses the language of personal application with a full understanding of personal obligation. It is the God whose he is and whom he serves, Acts 27:23. Through Jesus Christ, Paul thanks God; for without the salvation gained by our great Substitute man could not enter into the proper relation with God, nor could any work of man, even prayer and thanksgiving, be pleasing to God. The precious name of Jesus Christ, which has been named three times in the salutation, appears also in the introduction proper, at the head of the letter. His thanks to God concern them all, for they are actuated by the fact that their faith, visible to all men by its fruits and manifestations, by their Christian life, was spoken of in the whole world. Since Rome was the capital of the world, anything unusual happening there was sure to be transmitted and to spread into all parts of the world with great rapidity. It was a fine testimony to the soundness of their faith that the Roman Christians had such an enviable reputation wherever the Christian religion was professed.

The thanksgiving of Paul was naturally a matter between him and God; it was hidden from the observation of men. He therefore appeals to God, who hears his ceaseless prayers for the Roman Christians, as a witness of the truth of his statement, of the sincerity of the love which he bears them, although he had not till now stood in personal relation with them. It was this God to whom Paul here appealed in solemn affirmation, whom he served in his spirit in the Gospel of His Son. His spirit, his regenerated heart, enables him to perform his work in prayerful communion with God. He serves God in the Gospel of His Son, in the preaching of the redemption earned through the blood of the Son of God. This ministry is a sacrificial service, a true act of worship, a fine external manifestation of the internal relation with God. A true minister of the Word does not only serve God in the Gospel when he proclaims the Word publicly and privately, but also when he deals with God alone, in the communion of prayer for himself and all those entrusted to his spiritual care.

To his thanksgiving in behalf of the Roman Christians, Paul added a constant reminder about them, pleading with the Lord whether, in accordance with his prayers, he would ever be so fortunate as to come to them by the will of God. That was one of the most eager wishes of the apostle, to see the brethren in Rome face to face, to be sped on his way to them, to have the good fortune that would enable him to make the journey to see them. But he places the matter into the hands of God. The Lord of the universe and the Church, whose almighty hand shapes circumstances and destinies, could and would surely at His appointed time arrange matters so that Paul would see Rome, James 4:15.

The reason for his earnest petition and pleading Paul states to be his sincere longing to see the Christians in Rome, to become personally acquainted with them, with the purpose of transmitting to them some spiritual gift, in order to confirm, to establish them. Whatever of gracious gift Paul might be able to communicate to them in the form of teaching, admonition, consolation, he did not ascribe to his own personality and gifts, but to the mercy of God, of which they became partakers through the Spirit of God. For it is the Holy Ghost alone that works spiritual benefits in the heart of men through the preaching of the Word. But while the brethren at Rome will thus be confirmed and strengthened in their faith and in their Christian life, Paul himself will not remain without benefit. He himself will find comfort, consolation, Christian encouragement among them when they are strengthened. Both parties will thus gain an advantage through faith in one another, by their mutual faith, whose oneness is here emphasized. As Paul gives evidence of his faith by instructing the Roman Christians, by testifying of his faith, so they give evidence of their faith by accepting the Word of God with gladness. Thus both would receive comfort and cheer in their faith. He that teaches and confirms others, himself has benefit therefrom and is edified, since he sees that the Word is received by the hearers with all indications of the gracious power of God.

A further reason for Paul’s desire to come:

To the reason given above, that he wanted to impart to the brethren at Rome some spiritual gift and be strengthened with them, Paul here adds an explanation from the standpoint of his office as apostle to the Gentiles. He does not want them to be ignorant of the fact that he had often had the earnest intention to come to them, Acts 19:21. Up to the present time he had been prevented from carrying out his purpose, Romans 15:20-22. It had not been lack of interest in them, indifference to the work carried on in their midst, which had kept him away, for he was fully aware of his position as the apostle of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. He was anxious to have some fruit among the Romans also, to see some people added to the congregation as a result of his evangelical labors, just as he had seen such results among other Gentile nations; he wanted to gather fruit unto eternal life, John 4:36. The souls which a preacher of the Gospel gains by his testimony are looked upon by the Lord as fruit, as sheaves of the harvest, and for that reason Paul desired to labor in the midst of the world’s capital, to win more souls for the great spiritual harvest.

All this anxiety and desire, therefore, Paul bases upon the obligation which he feels resting upon him, so far as the preaching of the Gospel is concerned. To the Greeks, those that were familiar with the Greek language and the highest culture of the Romans, as well as to the barbarians, the people not conversant with these advantages; to the wise according to the standard of this world as well as to the unlearned and ignorant, he was debtor, he considered himself indebted. He felt that he owed them the Gospel of Jesus Christ; he could not rest content until he had discharged this debt. For that reason his willingness was directed toward the accomplishing of this end: he, on his part, was altogether prepared and ready, his readiness was a fact, he wanted to preach the Gospel in Rome also. This assurance, so fully substantiated, was undoubtedly sufficient to take away any scruples or doubts which the brethren at Rome might have entertained as to the great apostle’s personal feeling toward them. Note: The Gospel of Christ is intended for the uncivilized nations as well as for the civilized; barbarism is as little a hindrance to the spread of the Gospel as worldly culture and learning is an aid to its propagation. Mark also: Christians should at all times feel the obligation to preach the Gospel resting upon them; so long as there is even one individual in the world in whose case no effort has been made to make him acquainted with the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, so long there is a debt scored against the Christians; it is time that we hurry with the discharge of this indebtedness.

---

Verses 16-17

The theme of the letter

Paul had declared his readiness to preach the Gospel at Rome, the capital of the world. And all the wisdom and pride of the haughty metropolis would not deter him from it. “Anywhere, no doubt, one might have misgivings about identifying himself with a message which had for its subject a person who had been put to death as a criminal; anywhere the Cross was to Jews a stumbling-block and to Greeks foolishness. But at Rome, of all places, where the whole effective force of humanity seemed to be gathered up, one might be ashamed to stand forth as the representative of an apparently impotent and ineffective thing. But this the Gospel is not; it is the very reverse of this, and therefore the apostle is proud to identify himself with it.” ^■604 . In no way is Paul ashamed of the Gospel, the glorious message of salvation. For he knows and confesses that a power of God it is unto salvation. What no human doctrine, no worldly philosophy is able to accomplish, the simple message of Jesus Christ brings about. It is not merely accompanied by the power of God under certain circumstances, but it is in itself, at all times, a power of God. Herein it serves the highest, the most wonderful purpose: it brings salvation to every one that believes. In delivering sinners from sin, death, and damnation, it brings and transmits to them life and salvation. The power is there always, whether the Gospel-truth is accepted or not; “but a man can experience and enjoy this power only when he accepts it by faith.” 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; James 1:21. And this power and glory of the Gospel is intended for every one, for the Jew first, but for the Greek as well. To the Jewish people God had revealed Himself first, in their midst the Savior had lived, a continual living manifestation of the Gospel, a revelation of the merciful power of God. But the glad tidings were not confined to the Jews: Jews and Greeks were alike in need of the message of salvation. For neither Law and the works of the Law, on the one hand, nor wisdom and culture, on the other, can deliver mankind from the misery of sin and its consequences. Salvation is possible only through the power of the Gospel.

Just how the Gospel is a divine saving power Paul now explains, namely, since the righteousness of God is revealed in it. Righteousness, the state of being righteous, which is a condition of salvation, is lacking in every member of the human family since the Fall. But now righteousness, the state or condition in which a person is acceptable before God, has God on his side, is revealed, is made known in the Gospel. It is the righteousness of God, not merely a righteousness which has its source in God and comes from God, but a righteousness valid before God, one which finds full recognition in His sight, 2 Corinthians 5:21. It is not a righteousness which has its seat in man, the result of man’s own efforts, but a righteousness which is imputed to man by God, and therefore has full standing in His sight. This righteousness is revealed, uncovered. It is present, has been present from eternity, in Jesus Christ, whose vicarious, active obedience has brought about a merciful judgment of God. But this fact would remain unknown to man without the revelation of the Gospel, and therefore the righteousness which was gained through the merits of Christ is revealed and offered to all men in the Gospel. It is being revealed out of faith into faith: it is a righteousness out of faith, it becomes our full possession as a consequence of faith; and it is a righteousness into faith, it is expressly intended for faith, it can be obtained only by faith. As soon as a person accepts the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he becomes a partaker of the righteousness which is ready for him in the Gospel; a person must simply take what God gives him, and he has the possession and enjoyment of the great blessing upon which life and salvation depend. And in order to show that the doctrine which he here teaches is in full accordance with the writings of the Old Covenant, St. Paul quotes the word of a prophet, Habakkuk 2:4: The just will live by faith, in consequence of, through faith; he will never see destruction, but will be in full enjoyment of the highest form of life, in and with God, forever. And so Paul has given a summary of his Gospel; he has stated, in these two sentences, the theme or thesis of his letter to the Romans.

---

Verses 18-32

The moral decay of the Gentile world

The refusal to heed the natural revelation of God:

Paul had pictured the revelation of the righteousness of God in the Gospel. And this revelation was sorely needed in view of another revelation of God, namely, that of His wrath, which is being uncovered and made known as a reaction of His holiness and righteousness against every transgression of His will. Down upon, against every ungodliness and unrighteousness of men this wrath is made plain and exerts its power. Whether a person is neutral and irreligious, or whether he openly denies and violates the divine Law: in either case God, from the throne of His majesty and power, will reveal, and now reveals, His wrath in the last judgment. The punishment which is being meted out to the wilfully unrighteous blasphemers is a part of the final judgment upon them. Its coming is inevitable, because these irreligious and immoral people are characterized by the fact that they held back, checked, repressed, hindered, the truth in unrighteousness. Men have the truth, the revelation of God in nature. And this truth is intended to have a moral effect, to keep men in check, to guide them in the way of civic righteousness. But they hold back the truth, they resist its influence, they close their eyes to its promptings; and all this in unrighteousness. Men willingly serve unrighteousness in preference to the truth; they reject the truth and accept the unrighteousness and godlessness, and thus their guilt is brought out all the more strongly.

The meaning of the truth which Paul has in mind he brings out in the next sentence. What may be known of God is evident to them, for God has given them evidence to that effect. What is knowable of God, what men can conceive of with regard to His essence by means of their senses, that is plain to the hearts of men: He has given them this knowledge, He has made it plain to them. It is a knowledge which is transmitted to men through the works of creation. For the invisible attributes of God, some phases of His divine essence, are plainly seen since the creation of the world, are brought to the knowledge of men by means of the things that are made, through the creatures themselves. Human reason, when rightly used, cannot help but perceive the divine qualities as manifested in the work of creation and providence. It is clear to human intelligence that there must be an eternal power that governs the universe, and that this Godhead has also other attributes, such as wisdom, goodness. The completed creation preaches these qualities of its Master; it praises the incomparable greatness and glory of God ^■605 . So clear and unmistakable are these evidences of the existence of God, of the creation and preservation of the universe by His almighty power, wisdom, and goodness, that men are without excuse and defense. The impulse given by God that all men should recognize His majesty and prepare their hearts in a corresponding manner is so great that every evasion of their plain duty leaves them with a bad conscience. They will not be able to advance a single reason for the purpose of mitigating their offense. It cannot be the fault of God and His creation if man does not properly recognize and serve Him; on the Day of Judgment no man will be able to allege the innocence of ignorance. Note: The apostle does not represent the natural knowledge of God as a sort of means of grace, by which men might attain to the saving knowledge of God. It is only when a person has been converted to God through the Gospel that he makes the proper use of the natural revelation of God. But the natural knowledge of God is to serve as an incentive to stimulate earnest and untiring search for the true God, Acts 17:27.

Having stated wherein the truth consists which men so consistently hinder and reject, Paul now shows in what way men oppose the truth and nullify its influence. Though men had come to know God by means of the natural knowledge, though this knowledge is before their eyes always, though the idea of monotheism is ever found in the midst of polytheism, yet men would not praise and thank the true God as God. They refuse to have their knowledge influence their actions, their mode of living. They will not permit their passive knowledge to become an active worship. Instead, they fell to reasonings upon the essence and cult of God, and in their perverse, self-willed reasonings and speculations they were made vain; their instinctive perception of God became confused and uncertain; their unintelligent, foolish heart became darkened. Their thoughts were directed toward vain, foolish, evanescent things; they refused to accept instruction for their own benefit. This is the condition of all men by nature. The book of the works of God in creation is before their eyes, and they cannot but acknowledge the existence of God and the presence of certain divine manifestations, but they refuse to have this knowledge influence their thoughts and will; they deliberately hinder all good effects of the instinctive knowledge. And what they reason and speculate themselves, all their conclusions and judgments, is altogether wrong and perverted, just as they have not the slightest desire and intention to manifest any gratitude for the blessings received from the providence of God.

The result of deliberate folly:

Here the result of ignoring God and of deliberately setting aside the guidance of the natural knowledge of God is shown. When men claimed, asserted, boasted their own wisdom, 1 Corinthians 1:22, they became fools, they were stultified in intellect. The true wisdom, which comes down from above, is ever humble, but where the divine truth is missing, human philosophy with its boastful attitude makes its appearance. And so the final result of the vanity of their mind, of the darkness and foolishness of their intellect, was that men have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the semblance of the picture of mortal man. The semblance which was chosen in the place of God was the picture of some man or of some animals, either birds or four-footed beasts or reptiles. Such an idol was to be a representation of the Godhead, Isaiah 44:12-19; Psalm 115:4-8; Psalm 135:15-18. History gives many examples; for the idols of the Greeks and Romans, also of the ancient Germans were statues in the form of men; the eagle of Jupiter and the ibis and hawk of the Egyptians were sacred birds; the white ox of the Egyptians, the golden calf of the Israelites, goats and monkeys in other nations, were four-footed idols; and among the reptiles were the crocodile and various serpents, all of which were given divine honor. Such were and are the manifestations of the false religions of men when they turn from the true God. In the foolishness of their unnatural idolatry they pervert the original order of God. “Man, made in the image of God, now makes God in his own image; and the master of the animal kingdom has so far forgotten his dignity as to worship the pictures of animals which should be subject to him.”

The result of this idolatry is a loss of all true morality as well, a fact which God permitted as a well-deserved punishment. Therefore, because of their godlessness and idolatry, God has delivered the idolaters into uncleanness. It is a divine punishment and destiny; God punishes sin with sin. In the lusts of their hearts, in the condition in which they were in consequence of their godless, irreligious conduct, which they delighted in, God has given them over to uncleanness. The sinful lusts and desires of the heart were the people’s own doing, and the dishonoring practises which followed were God’s punishment. When a person refuses to heed the warnings of God in nature and conscience, then these warnings are finally withdrawn, the unrighteous person is abandoned to the gratification of his desires and lusts, to every form of uncleanness and immorality, just as a physician may finally leave an untractable patient to his own devices. And so the uncleanness of the idolaters results in gross transgressions of the Sixth Commandment, that their bodies are dishonored in themselves. Through all immoral vices the bodies of men are shamefully treated; uncleanness takes away all the honor which the body of man possesses as a creature of God, 1 Corinthians 6:18.

The apostle now emphasizes once more that the motive which prompted God to this punishment lay in the transgressors themselves. It is carried out in the case of all those that changed the truth of God, the true worship of God, the true God Himself, into a lie, into idolatry and idolatrous practises. Men have exchanged the true living God for idols, to whom they falsely attach the name gods. And the creature they have thus honored and served in place of the Creator, in preference to the true God, to whom alone all blessing and honor is due, as Paul emphasizes by the conclusion with the Hebrew Amen. This same emphatic belief and confession must live in the Christians of all times: there is only one true God, He who has revealed Himself in His Word for the salvation of mankind.

The depths of immorality and godlessness:

Here is a striking and terrible arraignment and characterization of the Gentile world in the time of Paul and of the unbelieving world of all times. It was because the Gentiles persisted in their idolatrous practises and refused to give heed to the knowledge which was before their eyes, which was actually bombarding their intelligence on every hand, that God gave them over, abandoned them: they fell to the very lowest depths which bestial passions may reach, into lusts and desires of dishonor and shame. The heinousness of their transgression is marked by the words referring to the sex of the transgressors, for they became guilty of the most unnatural and revolting filthiness, since the persons of the female sex among them (they can no longer be designated as women) changed the natural use according to God’s divine institution into one altogether at variance with nature, women practising unchastity with women. And in the same way the persons of the male sex abandoned, gave up, the natural use of the opposite sex within the bonds of holy matrimony, and burned in their venereal lust and desire toward one another, males perpetrating shameless acts with males, and receiving the reward, the punishment for their error, for their wilful, grievous departure from the order of God. It was necessary that they be punished in themselves, in their own bodies; it was demanded by the holiness and righteousness of God. The punishment for the sins of unchastity here referred to is in proportion to their unnaturalness and to the extent of the sinners’ departure from the service of the true God to all manner of base idolatry.

The apostle now adds another factor in the guilt of the idolaters. Just as they did not consider God worthy of being kept and regarded in their knowledge, God has also abandoned them to their reprobate mind. Their conduct and the consequences of their action are again placed in relation to each other. God had given them the opportunity to know Him, the book of nature was open before their eyes, and they could and did read the revelation offered there. But they refused to accept the finding of their own intelligence; they did not consider it worth while to seek the true God; they did not want to retain the true knowledge of God. A reprobate mind they showed, and to this mind they were condemned. They have lost all moral discrimination, and therefore they are abandoned to their nefarious acts, to do those things which are not proper. The apostle gives a long catalog of their sins in which they find their delight. Cp. 2 Corinthians 12:20; Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Timothy 1:9-10; 2 Timothy 3:2-9. They are filled with, their hearts and minds know nothing but, unrighteousness, they delight in violating not only all divine, but also all human laws, especially such as pertain to the welfare of their neighbor. They are filled with wickedness, with the delight in doing evil, with badness or depravity, with covetousness that seeks only its own advantage. They are full of various vices: envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity. The envious person begrudges his neighbor every advantage, and often reaches the point in which he plans and puts into execution his removal. And if it does not come to that point, there will be quarrels, maligning and calumniating talk. Body and life, money and goods, honor and good name, are attacked by people that have abandoned God and, in turn, have been abandoned by Him. The third group includes, in general, such people as have lost all sense of morality and decency: slanderous whisperers, that welcome every opportunity to harm the reputation of their neighbor; insolent persons hated by God, people that make it a practise to treat their neighbors with abject vileness; overbearing boasters, that put themselves forward at the expense of others, that boast and brag about their real and imaginary advantages and virtues; inventors of all evil and malice which wickedness can devise to harm their neighbor; disobedient to parents, denying even natural affection; without understanding, refusing to accept advice from any one else; without all natural affection of love; without mercy, absolutely callous toward the needs and distress of others; in short, they have denied all human feeling and sympathy, they have become unnatural monsters. And all this because they would not accept God as their God. The depth of their profligacy is finally indicated by a summarizing sentence: Being such people, so constituted, that they knew the righteous judgment of God, fully conceding to Him the right to determine the relation of human beings toward one another, and fully aware also of the fact that all those that commit the sins mentioned by the apostle are guilty of death, yet they not only persist in doing them, but they also encourage obstinate malefactors in their persistent depravity.

This description of the godless world is strikingly correct at all times even in the midst of the highest intellectual enlightenment. If people deliberately take God’s honor away from Him and transfer it to creatures, the result will be that God will abandon them to the most terrible vices, uncleanness, unchastity, lack of charity and compassion, and every form of unrighteousness. Such conditions are not a mark of barbarism, but they are found in the very capitals of culture and learning in our days. The words of the apostle exactly characterize the situation in the world at the present time. Worship of heroes and mental giants has taken the place of true service of the revealed God. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, lasciviousness, unmentionable sins, are prevalent. Corruption, insatiable greed and covetousness, have taken the place of real humanity and altruism, and all efforts at reform, especially by means of legal enactment, are vain. The world is rapidly drifting toward the brink of an abyss and will shortly find to its horror that the Day of Judgment has dawned.

Summary

The apostle salutes the Christians at Rome, tells of his longing to see them and of the duty he owes them in the Gospel message, states the theme of his letter, and pictures the deep depravity of the Gentiles that refuse to heed the admonition of the natural knowledge of God.

Verses 1-10

The guilt of the Jews

Correct knowledge and judgment alone avails nothing:

The apostle had uncovered the deep moral depravity of the Gentile world, a description that may well fill the reader with shuddering, horror, and loathing. But now there was danger, and the apprehension had apparently been realized, that some one, and especially a Jew, as the connection shows, seeing the unexampled moral degradation of the Gentiles, would transfer his condemnation from the sins to the sinner, while he himself stands back in smug self-satisfaction and self-conceit. But such a person forgets that the same principle on which the Gentile is condemned, that of doing evil in spite of better knowledge, condemns him as well. He therefore that judges and condemns another is himself inexcusable, is in the same condemnation. Every one that judges: Paul purposely makes the statement very general, it applies to all men of all times. For in this that thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself: By and through the act of judging the sinful act, by condemning the transgressor, a person passes sentence upon himself, for he makes a practise of committing the same sins which he is so ready to censure in others. Note that the apostle’s words are directed chiefly against the uncharitable condemning of the neighbor’s person, of making personal matters of the transgressions. That class of people is growing in numbers whose members are ever ready with censure and condemnation for the sins of others, but who are themselves guilty of the identical sins concerning whom their horror is so great; and St. Paul’s rebuke is very timely.

To the fact that the uncharitable critics are without defense and excuse the apostle adds an emphatic reference to the coming judgment. We, that is, the apostle, together chiefly with his Jewish readers, know that the judgment of God is in accordance with the truth, it squares with the facts, and is therefore directed against those who make a practise of doing such things. Two facts here stand out: The judgment of God is certain, inevitable; it will strike the guilty ones, no matter what their position, their real or implied importance in life, their supposed superiority over others. This is brought out especially by the rhetorical questions which Paul here inserts, not without some show of irony. Is any one of the opinion that he, for his own person at least, while he is judging those that make it a practise of committing the sins enumerated above and yet is doing the same things, shall escape the righteous judgment of God? The number of paragons of virtue and morality, largely of their own imagination, that believe God will make an exception in their case, that surely their better knowledge and correct judgment will shield them from the wrath to come, has assumed alarming proportions in our days, due to the religion of works which is being proclaimed everywhere. But theirs is a vain hope; the holiness and justice of God expects much more than an imagined superiority and a haughty aloofness.

Paul presents the matter from a slightly different view-point. If a person cannot escape his own judgment, if his own reasoning must condemn him, does he expect to escape on the ground of the peculiar goodness of God? Does he despise the riches of God’s goodness, patience, and forbearance, not understanding or comprehending the true nature and design of the goodness of God, which is to lead him to repentance? The kindness and goodness of God at the present time is merely a manifestation of His providence, Matthew 5:45, and does not justify the conclusion that these blessings will continue indefinitely, nor that the self-restraint, the patient waiting of the Lord may not soon have an end. The goodness of God is rather a tender invitation and admonition to effect a complete change of heart, to work repentance in the heart of man. Note: That has ever been the attitude of the great majority of men toward the providential goodness of God: they look upon His kindness as self-evident, as their due, as an obligation which He owes them, and are highly indignant when “the world does not give them the living they expect.” Only he whom the Word of God has led to the proper understanding of God’s goodness and mercy and thus to proper repentance will make use of the patience and forbearance of God to his own salvation.

The righteous judgment of God:

The goodness of God, far from being an excuse for false security, rather, when abused, results in an aggravation of man’s guilt. He that persists in hardening his heart against the merciful intentions of God and deliberately keeps a heart that will not be converted, will, according to, in the proportion and measure of his obduracy and unrepentant heart, heap up for himself anger in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the justice and righteousness of God in His judgment. The Day of Judgment, whose coming is certain beyond the shadow of a doubt, will be the day of wrath for such a person, 2 Corinthians 1:14; Matthew 11:22; John 6:39; 1 Corinthians 3:13; Hebrews 10:25. He adds sin upon sin, abuses the rich gifts of the divine goodness for the gratification of his fleshly lusts, fills out the hours of the time of grace with transgressions of the divine Law, and will thus finally reap the storm of God’s righteous wrath and eternal punishment.

This thought is now put at the head of another set of clauses, in which the certainty, the inevitableness, the impartiality, and the completeness of God’s righteous judgment is described. God will render, will pay, to every one without exception according to his deeds, Matthew 25:31-46. The works of men will afford the evidence of the faith or unbelief of their hearts, they will be the visible exhibits of the condition of their minds. The apostle illustrates this meaning in both directions. To some God will render, in accordance with their steadfastness, their patient continuance, their life-work in doing good, glory and honor and incorruptibility, as to them that strive after eternal life. God will acknowledge their patient persistence in doing good by granting glory, by having the righteous shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, Matthew 13:43; honor, the distinction of reigning with Christ, 2 Timothy 2:12; incorruptible being and existence, an undefiled and unfading inheritance, 1 Peter 1:4. Just as the believers are constantly zealous for every good work, so they also strive earnestly to be saved; and these manifestations of their faith are rewarded by the payment of God’s merciful gift, eternal life.

The apostle now pictures the opposite side. To them that are actuated by contention and partisan spirit, that are of a mean, selfish disposition, whose entire manner of living is controlled by selfishness, who therefore disobey the truth, the norm and rule for human conduct as laid down by God, and give ready obedience to unrighteousness, to the perversion and transgression of the divine truth: to these God also gives their well-earned reward, lasting indignation, which is always renewed by further anger over their unbelief and disobedience.

The apostle now makes an emphatic restatement of the double payment which the Lord dispenses, in reverse order. Tribulation or affliction from without, anguish or inward distress, the torture of an evil conscience, will come upon every soul of a person that performs, that deliberately and delightedly works, evil, upon every single person, of the Jew first, in accordance with the advantages which his nation enjoyed, but of the Greek as well. But glory and honor and peace, full, complete well-being, perfect happiness, will be the lot of him, of every person, that does that which is good, his inclination not being so active toward the evil as toward the good; and here also both the Jew and the Greek are included, for the reward of God is general. St. Paul here tells what will happen on the great Day of Judgment, just as the Lord gives information concerning the events of that day in other passages, Matthew 16:27; John 5:29; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Galatians 6:7-9; Ephesians 6:8; Colossians 3:24; Revelation 2:23; Revelation 20:12. The position and relation of every person toward Christ is shown by his works, and therefore reference will be made to them on the last day. By rewarding the good works of the believers with the gracious gift of eternal life, the Lord merely crowns His own work in them with His full acknowledgment in the presence of the whole world. Only by faith in the Savior are good works possible, and faith itself is a gift of God; and therefore the Last Judgment will be a glorious proof of the fact that salvation comes to men “all of grace.”

---

Verses 11-29

The necessity of keeping the Law properly

Not the hearing of the Law, but the doing of the Law has value:

The apostle had plainly stated that the judgment of God on the last day would be a righteous judgment. This statement he now establishes by declaring that there is no respect of persons with God; the external condition, position, or station of a person, his wealth and social connections, have absolutely no influence upon Him; He is righteous and impartial. For whatever people have sinned without Law, without Law also perish; and whatever people have sinned in or under the Law will be judged and condemned through the Law. If any people in the world are not in possession of the codified Law, the statement of God’s will as contained in the Ten Commandments, then these people, evidently heathen, will perish, will be lost without a formal judgment according to such rule, they will suffer eternal death. But if any people — and this is true especially of the Jews — led a life of sin while in possession of the Law, with the full knowledge of its demands, promises, and threats, their judgment and condemnation will take place in accordance with and through the sentence of the Law. Whether, therefore, people have actually had the Law or not, whether they have been Jews or Gentiles, in either case the sinner incurs the penalty of God’s wrath. And the special prerogative of the Jews, that they had received the written revelation of God, would have no value as an excuse for the transgression of the Law. For, as Paul very emphatically declares, not the hearers of the Law would be considered just before God, but the doers of the Law would be declared righteous. No degree of external familiarity with the words of the Law will have any weight before the judgment-throne of God; if there is to be justification in connection with the Law, it must be that of a perfect fulfilment of the Law, Luke 10:28. It follows, of course, that no man living can actually be justified by keeping the Law in his own strength, by his own merits. The fact that the believers are regarded by the Lord as doers of the Law, Romans 8:4, is due to the perfect righteousness of Jesus, in which He fulfilled the Law for us, which is transmitted to us by faith and then regarded by God as our own property, though entirely the result of Christ’s vicarious obedience.

The apostle had said, Romans 2:12, that the people who had sinned without the Law would be condemned and suffer eternal damnation without the written Law. This he now proves in a parenthetical sentence. Whenever, as often as, or because the Gentiles who have not the Law, the written Law, yet by nature perform the things enjoined in the Law, do that which is commanded in the Law of Moses on account of the knowledge which they possess by nature, in all such cases these Gentiles, though they have not the Law, yet are a law unto themselves. These facts are fully substantiated in history. There are many heathen, unbelievers, who, by following the prompting of their conscience, shun every form of extraordinary shame and vice, do the work of their calling with all diligence, give assistance to the poor, and otherwise perform deeds which seem in total conformity with the injunctions of the written Law. They are a law unto themselves, they watch over their own deeds and distinguish between good and evil. This is further substantiated in Romans 2:15: They thereby being men that show, prove, that the work of the Law, that which the Law requires, is written in their hearts. As the Jews had the words of the Law written on tables of stone, so the heathen had the contents of God’s holy will written in their hearts, not in its concrete form, but according to its general trend; the knowledge of its demands was an intellectual possession of men. And now the heathen prove the work of the Law as written in their hearts, their own conscience testifying therewith, their own consciousness acting as witness for or against them. The natural law of God, the impress of His holy will in the heart of man, which tells him in general what is right and what is wrong, is accompanied and supplemented by the voice of conscience, which judges the concrete individual acts of a person, tells him whether the specific thing which he has done or is about to do is right or wrong. This is done in such a way that the thoughts between one another accuse or defend each other. The individual judgments, the individual actions of conscience are engaged in a dispute over the permissibility or inadmissibility of certain deeds which the person contemplates or has performed. The description of the apostle reminds of a formal court session, and incidentally brings out the fact that the judgments of conscience are not always reliable, and that an erring conscience is a possibility.

After this parenthetical digression the apostle now continues his thought regarding the judgment of the great day, a thought which is also loosely connected with this sentence: On the day on which God will judge the hidden things of men according to my Gospel, through Christ Jesus. The Gospel, as preached by Paul and emphatically declared to be his Gospel, entrusted to him, that will be the norm according to which sentence will be passed on the last day, John 12:48. The decision concerning salvation or damnation will depend upon the position which a person assumed toward the Gospel and toward Jesus, the Mediator of his salvation, whether he has accepted Jesus and the salvation of the Redeemer by faith or not. And since this faith will reveal itself in words and deeds, therefore it is correct to say also that sentence will be passed on the basis of the works as they have appeared in the life of every person.

The guilt of the Jews:

Here the apostle addresses himself directly to the Jews, whom he had evidently had in mind principally in the entire passage; he speaks to them as a nation. Instead of “behold” we read “but if,” the entire passage showing the intense excitement under which the apostle was laboring: If a person is called a Jew, if he takes pride in applying this name to himself as a distinction above other nations, and rests upon, places his confidence upon, the Law, upon the entire Mosaic system, and makes his boast of God. These were real prerogatives of the Jews, for to them the true, living God had revealed Himself; to them He had given, not only the moral, but also the ceremonial law, and everything that the word embraced in its widest sense. And the Jews believed that these external advantages made their position safe under all circumstances. And they had also other advantages which resulted from their possession of the Law. They knew the will of God, the absolute will, since they had been instructed from the Law, and therefore they were able to make the proper distinction between right and wrong, between good and bad; they could approve the more excellent, decide what was consistent with the will of God. Every Jew also felt confident that he in his own person could be a leader of blind people, of heathen as well as of those that lacked the information possessed by the children of Israel, and thus a light of them that were in darkness. Furthermore, he trusted in himself that he could be an educator of those that lacked proper understanding and judgment, a teacher of young people, since he, with all his fellows in the Jewish nation, had the embodiment of knowledge and of truth in the Law. The Jews, in the Law of Moses, had the full and adequate expression of the divine will, while the natural law, written in the hearts of men, has become almost illegible on account of sin. And the Jews were more than conscious of their favored position, falsely arguing, however, that they held it on account of their own excellencies and therefore developing the typical form of Pharisaism as they showed it in the time of Jesus and the apostles.

Paul now, having established so much, continues in the form of a rhetorical question: Teaching now another, thyself teachest thou not? The possession of the written Law enabled the Jews to be the teachers of others; but their entire conduct was in glaring contrast to the demands of the Law. They themselves were in most decided need of true teaching on the basis of the Law. Preaching not to steal, thyself stealest? Stealing includes all the injustices, all the forms of cheating, of which the Jews became guilty in their commercial enterprises. Saying not to commit adultery, committest thou adultery? Laxness in the observance of matrimonial chastity had ever been a characteristic of the Jewish people. Detesting idols, dost thou become a temple-robber? The Jews showed the greatest horror of heathen idols and professed holy zeal for the Lord Jehovah, but they themselves had an irreverent disregard of God and holy things and withheld from God His due, a robbery and profanation which the prophet denounces in no uncertain terms, Malachi 3:8. Thou that makest thy boast in the Law, through the transgression of the Law dishonorest thou God? A threefold accusation the apostle brings against the Jews: sin against their own bodies, harming their neighbor, and showing lack of reverence toward God. And the guilt of the Jews is even greater than that of the heathen, since they adorned their godlessness and unrighteousness with the Word and name of God. For the name of God was blasphemed on their account among the Gentiles, as it is written. St. Paul here has reference to Isaiah 52:5, adopting the Greek version for his purpose. The Gentiles, seeing such gross transgressions of the Law taking place among the Jews, very naturally drew the conclusion that the God of the Jews Himself taught them this behavior, that it agreed with the religion as it had been revealed to them. That is the severest form of guilt which involves a direct dishonoring and profaning of God. Note: The arraignment of Paul applies also to all hypocrites among the Christians, people that bear the Christian name and boast of the pure doctrine of the divine Word, but incidentally are guilty of dishonesty in business, of sins of unchastity, of irreverence toward God, of withholding their contributions toward the kingdom of God, etc.

False and true circumcision:

To the arraignment of Paul the Jews might have raised the objection that he was forgetting the sacrament of circumcision and the special significance which attached to this rite, by which the Jews were separated, set apart, from the heathen round about them. But circumcision does not change the argument of Paul in one single particular. It is true indeed that it has its value, if one practises the Law, follows its injunctions at all times and in all cases. If a circumcised Jew is a transgressor of the Law, the chief purpose of the sacrament is lost, for it bound the Jews under the obedience of the Law. Unless the keeping of the Law followed circumcision, the Jew was exactly in the same position as the Gentile. If, now, the uncircumcision observe the demands of the Law, will not the uncircumcision of such a person be regarded as circumcision? The argument is: If a Jew, though circumcised, break the Law, he will be condemned; if, therefore, a Gentile, though uncircumcised, keep the Law, he shall be justified. What follows? And the uncircumcision by nature (the Gentile, by nature uncircumcised and therefore unclean) that fulfils the Law will judge and condemn thee, who in spite of the letter and of circumcision art a transgressor of the Law. A heathen who with his imperfect natural law succeeds in keeping some of its demands may well condemn a Jew that boasts of the written Law and of the rite of circumcision, and yet does not honor the Law by keeping it.

And so Paul brings on his conclusion. Not he who seems so according to appearances is really a Jew; neither is that a true circumcision which is obvious as having been performed in the flesh. The mere fact that a person is a descendant of Abraham and has received in his body the rite of circumcision does not make him a member of the real Israel of the Lord, of the chosen people in the real sense of the word. The situation rather is this: He is a Jew indeed, a true Israelite, that is one in heart, in the inner man; and the true circumcision is that of the heart, that which is performed in the spirit, not in the letter. When the Holy Ghost, through the Word, changes the unrepentant, unbelieving heart into a believing heart, that is the true circumcision. And the person in whom this miracle has been performed has his praise not from men, but of God, Deuteronomy 10:16. He does not rely upon mere outward descent and ceremonies, to which he might boastfully point, but he realizes that his conversion is the work of God alone, Deuteronomy 30:6. He gives all praise and honor to God alone. Note: In a similar manner it is true of Baptism, that it must not be regarded as a rite of admission, regardless of faith and change of heart. It is a washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, and both obliges and enables the baptized person to lead a godly life.

Summary

God, the impartial Judge, will render to every person his reward, from the evidence of his works, according to the Gospel; the Jews that make their boast of the Law and yet transgress the Law become guilty before the Lord and will have to bear His wrath; herein circumcision will avail them nothing, for the mere external rite has no value before God unless it is accompanied also by a circumcision of the heart, which is shown in the fulfilling of the Law.

Verses 1-8

Man’s guilt and God’s righteousness

The advantage of the Jew:

The apostle had last shown that the mere outward possession of the Law did not exempt the Jews from judgment and condemnation, since God demands a keeping of the Law and is not satisfied with a mere hearing; he had argued, furthermore, that circumcision in the flesh, though it be the seal of the covenant of God and the pledge of His promises, could be of value only if it was accompanied by a circumcision of the heart. But the Jewish reader might now answer that these statements were inconsistent with the acknowledged superiority and privileges of his nation. This objection the apostle here meets. In consequence of what has just been set forth: What, then, is the advantage, the preeminence, the superiority, of the Jew, or what is the benefit, the value, the profit, of circumcision? The two questions have the same thought, for by circumcision the descendant of Abraham became a member of the Jewish nation. The answer is: Much, in every way, in every respect. The superiority of the Jews was evident in all conditions of life. But Paul here mentions only the chief prerogative: First, the most outstanding and unmistakable advantage, because or that they have been entrusted with the oracles, the special sayings, of God, the revelations of God as included in the Old Testament writings, both Law and Gospel. By the deposit of this treasure in their midst God granted to the Jews a distinction above all other nations; He placed almost unlimited trust in them, and expected a proportional measure of faithfulness from them.

The apostle now finds it necessary to vindicate himself against a further possible objection: For what is the situation? If some were unfaithful, surely their unfaithfulness will not render the faithfulness of God inefficient! The Jews, the majority of the Jews, had been unfaithful; they had not shown the proper appreciation of, and reverence for, the divine revelations; they had not believed the promises of God. And therefore one might conclude that, since they had broken their trust and had not been obedient to the Law of God, God’s part of the covenant had also been annulled. But Paul answers with an emphatic: Indeed not! By no means! The very idea seems to the apostle to savor of blasphemy; the thought that the faith of God has been rendered inefficient, His trust has been withdrawn, is no fair inference from his teaching. There is “no breach of the promises of God involved in the condemnation of the wicked Jews.” The situation rather is this: Let God be true, but every man a liar. God will always be found faithful in keeping His part of the covenant, and He must be seen and acknowledged as true. That will be the final result and consequence of the drift of matters: God will stand before the whole world as the Faithful One, that adhered strictly to His promises, but the Jews as liars, that have abandoned the Word of God. But Paul purposely speaks in general terms. All men, in comparison with God, in their relation toward God, are liars, Psalm 116:11. To all of them God has revealed Himself, though not in the same degree; and all of them have turned from Him to vanity and lies. This statement the apostle substantiates with a Scripture-passage, Psalm 51:4: In order that Thou mayest be justified in Thy sayings and overcome, remain victorious, when Thou art judged. In the final analysis, God will always be found just and truthful, the case will and must be decided in His favor, if not before, then most assuredly on, the last day. The evidence will demonstrate that God showed only kindness and mercy to men, but that they offended Him and broke the covenant of trust at all times. And so the very transgressions of men will serve to bring out the unchanging faithfulness of God all the more strongly. Note: The words of Paul in this instance should be the very strongest incentive to every Christian to prove faithful to Him at all times, and not to rely upon a mere conventional form of religious observation.

God vindicated in every respect:

A new thought is here introduced by the apostle. For if the argument of Romans 3:3-4 is correct, then the unbelief of the Jews actually serves as a foil to set off the faithfulness of God; it makes His truth all the more conspicuous; it actually redounds to His glory: why, then, should they still be exposed to judgment and condemnation? If our unrighteousness, our wickedness, our condition of faithlessness and proneness to lying, actually demonstrates, sets forth, the righteousness, the rectitude, the moral excellence of God, what shall we say, what follows, what conclusion may we draw? A Jew might feel that, with God’s fidelity pledged to his salvation, and his wickedness setting forth God’s rectitude, surely his condition could not be such as to place him in danger of eternal condemnation. St. Paul states such an argument: Can it be? Dare we assume or infer that God is unjust in taking vengeance? Since the entire situation so obviously results in an advantage on the part of God, then, if one wants to argue from a purely human standpoint, does it not seem that God, in inflicting punishment, is acting in a vengeful, spiteful way? But the apostle again rejects the very suggestion with an emphatic: Indeed not! By no means! For if the implication is true that God would resort to such petty forms of vengeance and thereby become unrighteous, how, then, will He judge the world? If He Himself were unrighteous, He surely could not execute His wrath on the unrighteousness of men, Genesis 18:25. If God were actually unjust, it would be out of the question for Him to pass sentence upon the world.

Paul now further amplifies and confirms the answer given to the Jews in Romans 3:6, by placing his own person into the foreground: For if the truth of God through my lie has abounded to His glorification, why should I then still be judged as sinner? He argues as a member of the human family might on the Day of Judgment. If the fact that the adherence of God to His promises is brought out so strongly by the falseness and wickedness of man, if it has made the glory of God the more conspicuous, why should man be judged and condemned as a sinner? God ought to be satisfied with the fact that man’s sin increases His own glory and honor. The answer of Paul is given in the form of his question. The fact that God still condemns is due to the guilt and the culpability of sin, that He, who is and remains the Holy and Just One, cannot do otherwise than pass sentence of condemnation upon the transgression of the sinner, even though this redounds to His honor and glory. The righteousness of God cannot possibly suffer to have him that has done evil go unpunished.

This thought is brought out still more strongly in Romans 3:8. If the argument of the Jews were valid, then not only may every sinner claim exemption, but it would follow that one might freely do evil, with the specious plea that good would come from it: Why is not the situation so as we are being slandered and as some report that we say, Let us do the evil in order that the good may come? If the principle brought out in the objection were correct, then this conclusion would be perfectly logical and acceptable. Every further sin enhances the glory of God; therefore let us sin, by all means. Such proposals were slanderously ascribed to the Christians in those days, just as they are reported to-day. The conclusion drawn by the unbelievers from the doctrine of justification is that the Christians deliberately performed wicked deeds in order that the grace of God, in the forgiveness of sins, might stand out all the more gloriously. But such theory and practise is not found among the Christians, as St. Paul here emphasizes, both by the negative interrogatory particle and by the words: Whose condemnation is altogether just. People that persist in misunderstanding justification by grace through faith, as taught in Scriptures, will bring upon themselves a just punishment. Thus also this last statement of the apostle is a vindication of divine righteousness and justice, and a refutation of the false conclusion that God is unjust in condemning the sinners. Note: The Christians to this day are under suspicion on account of the doctrine of justification. The false conclusion is cast into their teeth: The worse we are, the better; for the more wicked we are, the more conspicuous will be the mercy of God in our pardon. But Christians, in spite of this slander, are fully conscious of the guilt and culpability of sin, of the fact that God’s righteous wrath will strike all transgressors, but above all of the fact that every sin is a cause of grief to the Holy Spirit of God and to Jesus Christ, the Redeemer.

---

Verses 9-20

The Scriptural proof for the universal guilt of mankind

Scripture includes all men under sin:

The apostle now, including himself with the Jews, brings out very clearly the general guilt of mankind, of Jews as well as of Gentiles: How now? What is the situation? Have we, as Jews, any preference or advantage over the Gentiles? Have we any better claim to the privileges of the kingdom of God than they? His answer is a decisive: Not at all. The Jews in no way were more excellent than the Gentiles in their relation toward God; for we have before charged Jews as well as Gentiles that all of them are under sin, their condition is one of transgression and guilt. This the apostle had done at length, beginning with Romans 1:18. Polluted by sin and subject to the condemnation of sinners: that is the situation of all men, whether they be Jews or whether they be Gentiles.

These statements Paul now substantiates by a reference to Scripture. What he himself says and writes is in itself the truth, the Word of God. But in order to overcome all opposition in advance, he adds the authority of the Old Testament prophecy to the inspired word of his letter. There is written: It has been written, and it stands there as the eternal truth. The apostle here quotes freely from the Old Testament, Psalm 14:1-3; Psalm 53; Psalm 5:9-10 ^■606 ; Psalm 10:7; Isaiah 59:7-8; Psalm 36:1. He offers the texts in a free translation or according to the Greek version, the Holy Ghost arranging the words of eternal truth to suit the present argument. This method of reasoning, with application of general passages, is altogether legitimate. The prevalence of certain acts and crimes in a people may well be taken as a manifestation of the national character. It is a terrible arraignment of mankind which is here offered. There is not that is righteous, not even one; the universality of sin is flatly stated. There is not an understanding man, one with real sense and wisdom in religion. There is not one that seeketh God, that uses zeal and diligence in finding the Lord. They have become estranged from God, and are now totally indifferent to His will and worship. All have turned away, out of the right and proper course which the will of God has shown; altogether they have become unprofitable, worthless, good for nothing, so far as spiritual matters are concerned. Not is there any that doeth goodness, not so much as one.

This depravity of men is manifested in their speech as well as in all their actions. A widely opened grave is their throat: they breathe forth death, they have in mind only to do injury with their tongues. With their tongues they deceive: they make smooth their tongues, they flatter, they speak treacherously, deceitfully. The poison of asps is under their lips: in the midst of all their feigned friendliness and flattery they have evil, treacherous intentions, to inflict suffering delights their malignant soul. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. And they do not stop with maledictions and blasphemy, but continue in their course with sins of violence. Swift are their feet to shed blood: they are eager, they cannot wait, they find their delight in taking their neighbor’s life; wherever they can harm their neighbor in body and life, they seize the opportunity with murderous joy. Destruction and misery are in their ways: their path through life is marked by poor unfortunate people whom they have trodden under foot and plunged into grief. And the way of peace they have not learned to know: a manner of living by which they might dispense peace, salvation, blessings, has never engaged their serious attention. There is no fear of God before their eyes: that is the cause of their entire depravity; the absence of the fear of God, of reverence, of piety, is shown in their entire life and in all their deeds. A person that has the fear of God in his heart and the picture of God before the eyes of his mind will make every effort to lead a life in accordance with His will. Thus St. Paul has given a complete description of natural man’s depravity, a picture which holds true at the present time just as it did several thousand years ago. Of man as he left the Creator’s hand, with the imprint of the divine image on his reason and will, there is left only a caricature, which fills the heart of the beholder with shuddering and horror.

A special word to the Jews:

In the previous passage the apostle had spoken of men in general, both Jews and Gentiles, giving a full and detailed description of their natural condition. He now applies the thought to the Jews in particular, to those that were under the Law in a special sense. Now we know, it is a fact generally conceded, it is a statement which may be assumed at once, without further proof. Whatever things, all the things which the Law tells, it speaks with reference to the Lawgiver and to the purpose of His will, to them that are under the Law, who made their boast of the Mosaic Law, whose entire life, down to the minutest details, was regulated by its provisions. But the purpose of the Law and of all instruction in the Law is that every mouth should be silenced, and that the entire world should become guilty before God. In the case of the heathen the deeds of their depravity were evidently culpable. But the Jews, in whose case the vices and transgressions were often covered with a certain external righteousness and show of sanctity, were equally guilty before the Law of God. Not one mouth can be opened in a plea of innocence and righteousness, but the whole world, regardless of race and nationality, should stand convicted of guilt, be liable to punishment on account of sin. And why will all the world become guilty before God? Because by the deeds of the Law will no flesh be justified before Him. It is impossible for any person, by means of the works which are demanded by the Law, to stand before God, to be accepted by Him, as a just person; no sinner can fulfil the Law in its real requirements, actually keep all its demands in regard to omission and commission. For through the Law, by the Law, is the knowledge of sin. The Law convicts us of sin; it shows us our manifold transgressions; it condemns us by bringing home the fact that our sin deserves the wrath of God; and this knowledge is full and accurate. “Through the Law my conscience grows and fills me with wrath against the Law and against God that has given the Law, the sin thus becoming exceedingly sinful through the commandment.” (Luther.) To justify a sinner, to pronounce him just in the sight of God, that is not the purpose of the Law; for that it was never intended. Note: This purpose of the Law is utilized by the Christians every day in examining their lives; for, as in a mirror, it reveals the sins and shortcomings of man, it convinces him of his guilt and damnation.

---

Verses 21-31

Justification by faith

The righteousness of God revealed:

“Having proved that justification, on the ground of legal obedience or personal merits, is for all men impossible, Paul proceeds to unfold the method of salvation presented in the Gospel.” (Hodge.) In Romans 3:20 the sentence of condemnation concerning them all has been declared. And only he that has this knowledge of sin will incidentally comprehend, understand, what is really meant with the righteousness which is valid before God. The apostle places his statements as an expression of logical consequence: “But now.” Although, then, all men are under the sentence of condemnation, there is still hope for them, there is a way of justification, of salvation, open for all of them. Without the Law the righteousness of God is revealed, manifested. The Law has nothing to do with this revelation; the righteousness which is here spoken of is not that of the Law. It is God’s method of justification which is here presented, as in Romans 1:17. It is the righteousness of which God is the Source and Author, which comes from Him alone, which He alone can give, and which therefore is acceptable in His sight. It is the righteousness which is imputed to us by God for the sake of Jesus Christ, of which Luther confesses: “Therefore this is a majestic preaching and heavenly wisdom that we believe: our righteousness, salvation, and consolation are outside of us, that we should be righteous, acceptable, holy, and wise before God, and still there is in us only sin, unrighteousness, and foolishness. In my conscience there is nothing but the feeling and the memory of sin and of the terrors of death, and yet I should look elsewhere and believe that sin and death is not there.” ^■607 . Justification does not designate a moral change in man, but signifies a forensic act on the part of God, by which He imputes to us, makes us possessors of, a righteousness which was not ours, which we did not merit: But whom God justifies, declares to be righteous, he is righteous, although all the world and all devils unite in condemning him, though even his own conscience blames and condemns him. This righteousness has been manifested, it has been made plain, placed in the light. The sentence of God according to which the sinner is declared righteous was spoken and existed in Christ before the foundation of the world. And this is now made known to sinners through the Gospel, by the witness of the Law and the prophets, the two principal parts of the Old Testament Scriptures, in both of which parts the Gospel-message was plainly contained; for the prophecies of Christ proclaimed the salvation in and through Christ.

This thought is again taken up in the next verse for further explanation: The righteousness, namely, before God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and upon all that believe. That is the righteousness to which the apostle refers, the righteousness which is valid before, acceptable to, God, and which becomes the possession of all those that believe in Jesus Christ, the God-man, the Messiah, and thus accept the salvation which has made justification possible. The Gospel-message works faith in the hearts of men, and this faith does not earn or merit righteousness before God, but accepts, receives, and appropriates the imputed righteousness. Faith is the trustful acceptance of the mercy of salvation. By believing the Gospel, the believer accepts and appropriates his Savior, Jesus Christ, and therefore also the righteousness which Jesus has prepared. The righteousness of God is intended for all those that believe, and therefore it also is poured forth like a stream upon all those that believe. Whoever believes, no matter what his antecedents and his history, by his faith receives what God offers, and thus becomes the possessor of this great blessing of the New Testament.

That there can be neither the merit of a natural excellency nor even that of the act of believing in the believers, is evident from the next words of the apostle: For there is no difference, no distinction among men as to their relation toward God, for they all, also the believers, have sinned and are lacking the glory of God; they have no standing before God by nature, they have nothing that they can boast of before Him. It is because they are conscious of their own sinfulness and of their moral destitution before the omniscient and holy God that they cling to their Savior in faith and accept His righteousness, which makes them acceptable and just before God.

Justification is thus, as the apostle states, transmitted freely, as a gift, through the grace of God, which alone can be the source of mercy. And it is made possible through the redemption, literally, through the deliverance by the paying of ransom, of Jesus Christ. Jesus had redeemed us from all our sins and from the wrath of God by staking a price, a ransom, for our souls, Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 2:14. And this price of ransom was none other than His own precious blood, Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:20 ^■608 ; 1 Peter 1:18-19. And the manner in which He paid this wonderful price is fully described. God has set Him forth as a mercy seat through faith in His blood; that was the purpose, the intention, of God as put into practise in the sacrifice of Calvary, John 3:14. Jesus is the true Mercy-seat, of whom the cover of the ark in the Most Holy Place was but a feeble type. Just as the high priest of the Old Testament, on the great Day of Atonement, sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice against the lid of the ark, thereby making reconciliation for the sins of the entire people, Leviticus 16:30, thus Jesus is the perfect Mercy-seat in His own blood. High Priest, Sacrifice, and Mercy-seat in one person, Jesus has fulfilled all types of Old Testament sacrifices by the shedding of His holy blood as a ransom for the sins of the world. Thus He became the true Mediator between God and men, covering all our sin, guilt, shame, and nakedness before the eyes of God, and obtaining a perfect redemption for all men. And the reconciliation thus obtained becomes our possession and property by faith in His blood: God looks upon the precious blood of His Son, through which the sins of the whole world are expiated, through which all sinners are delivered from sin, guilt, wrath, and damnation, and for the sake of this bloody sacrifice and perfect merit of Christ He pronounces the sinners just and holy.

Having set forth the nature and ground of the Gospel method of justification, Paul now states its object: For the declaration of His righteousness. God has set forth Jesus, His Son, the Redeemer, as the true Mercy-seat, is still setting Him forth before the eyes of the entire world of sinners, Galatians 3:1, in order to show forth His righteousness. It was an act of the righteousness of God that He condemned His Son, the Substitute for all sinners, to the violent death of the cross; by setting forth Christ in His wounds and blood before the eyes of all men, He declared His righteousness before the whole world. The avenging righteousness and holiness of God could not be satisfied with less, it must demand the supreme sacrifice. And such an open declaration and demonstration of the essential righteousness of God was all the more necessary because of the passing over of the sins committed before in the forbearance of God. On account of the great patience and forbearance of God in the period before Christ the sins of men had remained unpunished, apart from a few extraordinary manifestations of God’s avenging justice, Acts 14:16; Acts 17:30. Even though death, the wages of sin, reigned from Adam to Christ, yet it was a time of comparative impunity, and it was a demonstration of the forbearance of God that sinful people could live years and generations in their sins before they were called away by death. But now, at the present time, in the new dispensation, God demonstrated His righteousness. The very act of overlooking the sins in the time before the advent of Christ had been done in view of this demonstration of His righteousness in the present time. During all the centuries before the coming of Christ, the divine justice, on account of the righteousness of God, had demanded the punishment of sinners. And the full punishment had been meted out to Christ, the Substitute for all sinners of all times. “The death of Christ vindicated the justice of God in forgiving sin in all ages of the world, since those sins were by the righteous God punished in Christ.” The punishment of the sinners which was taken over by Christ is full expiation for all sins; by His suffering and death He has paid the debt in full, He has exhausted wrath and judgment. And the setting forth of Christ as the true Mercy-seat was done finally for the purpose, in order to be Himself just and to justify him who is of the faith of Jesus. In demanding from Christ, the Substitute of sinners, the full payment of the guilt of sin, God proved Himself to be the Just One. And in sending forth Christ to make this vicarious sacrifice, and in being in Christ for the reconciliation of the world, God justified the sinners, pronounced them pure and righteous, the justification actually becoming the possession of him that accepts it by faith in Jesus, in whom this faith is characteristic, whose entire religious and moral nature has its source in his faith in Jesus ^■609 .

The great conclusion of the apostle:

Here the apostle offers the conclusion of the glorious plan of salvation as he has just unfolded it. Since this is the case, where, then, is the act of glorying? What reason for indulging in boasting have men? All men by nature, not only the Jews, have a proud heart, which delights in boasting every one’s own virtues and deeds. But now boasting is absolutely, once and for all, shut out, it is not admissible. Through what law, by what rule or order, speaking generally? By the rule which requires works? The rule of works is identical with the Law of God. Here, indeed, there would be some chance of glorying, since carnal-minded persons are addicted to self-approbation and self-congratulation on account of an outward, literal fulfilment of the Law’s demands. All boasting is, however, effectually excluded by the rule or norm of faith, by the order of salvation as it is presented in the Gospel and includes faith. The Gospel continually speaks of the necessity of faith, not in the sense of demanding faith as a meritorious work, but in the sense of an invitation extended to all men to accept the promise of God. Justifying faith can in no way be construed or understood as an act by which the salvation of Jesus is merited, no more than a beggar can be said to earn the slice of bread or the coin for which he has extended his hand. So far as the Gospel, therefore, is concerned, all boasting is excluded, eliminated, for (Romans 3:28) we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without, apart from, the deeds of the Law. That is the conclusion which every true Christian must reach with Paul. Justification, the forensic act of God by which He pronounces a sinner righteous, pure, holy, acceptable before Him, is received by faith, the sinner simply believing the fact of Christ’s redemption and applying it to himself. Works of man, works of the Law, any personal merits are excluded. The ground of our justification is placed entirely outside of ourselves. The contrast, as one commentator remarks, is between what is done by us, whether in a state of nature or in a state of grace, and what Christ has done for us. By faith, and by faith alone, which is altogether and alone a gift of God, do we enter into that relation to God that we are acceptable before Him and become His dear children.

The apostle had purposely and emphatically written: A man is justified; any man, every person, regardless of race or nationality. But he feels that it is necessary to bring out the universality of justification by an express declaration, and thus exclude the idea of a particular grace, of racial or national distinction before God. Or of Jews only is He God? not also of Gentiles? (Are the Jews entitled to any advantage? Have they any prerogative with reference to the content of faith?) Paul answers: Yes, of Gentiles also. And why? Since God is one. From the unity of God, as an axiom, Paul argues the universality of the salvation presented in the Gospel. Consequently He will justify the circumcision on the ground of faith and the uncircumcision by means of faith. All men, Jews and Gentiles, are justified and saved in the same way, namely, by faith. Faith is the means of justification; faith alone is necessary for the appropriation of the righteousness of God, for the righteousness which is valid before God. One God and one Mediator, one salvation and one way of salvation for all mankind, all members of which are in the same condemnation, that is the preaching of Paul, that is the fundamental teaching of Christianity ^■610 .

In concluding this section, Paul meets a possible objection, one which has ever been made against this central doctrine of Christianity. Do we then make void, annul, put out of commission, the Law? For the present he is satisfied to reject the very idea with a curt: Indeed not, rather we establish, confirm, the Law. Not a single moral obligation is weakened, not a single sanction is disregarded, 1 Timothy 1:8-9. Just how the new obedience follows out of faith he shows in another part of his epistle. “Faith fulfils all laws; the works do not fulfil a single tittle of the Law.” (Luther.)

Summary

Man is and remains culpable before God, even though the falseness of men does not invalidate the truth of God, and though the sins of men redound to God’s glory; and so man is justified without the deeds of the Law, without all boasting and merit, only through grace, through the redemption of Christ, this being the only way of salvation for all men, both Jews and Gentiles.

---

Related Kretzmann Article

Verses 1-25

The righteousness of God demonstrated from history

The justification of Abraham:

Paul had taught that we are justified by faith. To demonstrate and confirm this doctrine, as well as to anticipate a probable objection on the part of the Jews, he now refers to the case of Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation. What, then, shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh? How must his case be judged? What did he gain according to the flesh, by his obedience to the Law and to all the commands of God, especially the rite of circumcision? If he obtained the unusual blessings he enjoyed, particularly his justification, on the strength of his outward observance of the Old Testament sacrament, then the Jews would certainly be entitled to consideration for the same reason. The answer is implied: We must say that Abraham was not justified by works. This conclusion the apostle defends. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has reasons for expecting glory and praise, he might indeed assert his claim to the confidence and favor of his fellow-men; but he would have no reason for boasting before God. The argument, which is contracted, would read in full: If Abraham was justified by works, he could boast of his merits; but now he has nothing which he could adduce as being worthy of praise; therefore he was not justified by works. That Abraham had no ground for boasting in relation to God, Paul proves from Scriptures. For what does the Scripture say, Genesis 15:6? Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. According to this infallible authority, Abraham was declared to be righteous and just; justification was credited to his account, since he accepted it by faith. In this way the faith of Abraham, in itself anything but righteousness, in itself without merit, was counted to him for righteousness. Although he had neither inherent nor habitual righteousness, he was looked upon and treated by God as righteous. The value of Abraham’s faith, therefore, did not lie or consist in any subjective quality, but in its object and content; because the faith was directed to God, and, in God, to Christ, the Redeemer, therefore the righteousness of Christ was imputed to Abraham as his own, and he was declared to be acceptable in the sight of God.

This the apostle explains more fully in Romans 4:4-5. Now to him that works, that keeps the Law with the idea of obtaining an equivalent reward, adequate wages for his labor, the reward is reckoned not of grace, but of debt. But to him who does not work, does not make his works a basis of hope toward God, but believes in Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. There are only two possibilities that we can consider at all, to be justified and saved by works and by faith; there is an absolute contrast between righteousness of works and righteousness of faith. In the case of Abraham, therefore, who was justified by faith, the other possibility, righteousness by works, was excluded. The apostle here does not argue the matter that a complete and adequate righteousness of works is impossible for all men, as a simple matter of fact. If a workman has done his work according to specifications, he receives the promised and stipulated wages, as his due reward, which he can justly claim. So also in the spiritual field: If one that is active in works of the Law intends to satisfy the demands of God and keeps all the commandments, then God will give to him the promised reward, righteousness, as a matter of justice, provided, of course, that he has rendered a perfect obedience. The very opposite of such a man is the person that puts his faith, not as a mere assent, but as an act of trust, in Him that justifies the ungodly, that is, he that has violated the divine right, that has refused God the proper obedience, that has lacked all reverence toward Him. When a godless person of this kind stands before the judgment-seat of God, he can, by human computation, expect nothing but the sentence of everlasting condemnation. But instead of pronouncing this expected sentence, God declares the sinner to be just and righteous, Isaiah 1:18. It is not the purpose of Paul to show here just how this sentence is possible, that the sinner must feel and acknowledge his guilt, that he must rely on the mercy of God in Jesus, his Savior: St. Paul deliberately makes the contrast as great as possible in order to bring out the unequaled consolation of the doctrine of justification. Truly, He is a wonderful God, as He has revealed Himself in Christ, in the Gospel, the God that justifies the ungodly, that imputes the sinner’s faith for righteousness. “It is a miracle. It is a thing that only God can achieve, and that calls into act and manifestation all the resources of the divine nature. It is achieved through an unparalleled revelation of the judgment and the mercy of God. The miracle of the Gospel is that God comes to the ungodly with a mercy which is righteous altogether, and enables them through faith, in spite of what they are, to enter into a new relation to Himself, in which goodness becomes possible for them. There can be no spiritual life at all for a sinful man unless he can get an initial assurance of an unchanging love of God deeper than sin, and he gets this at the Cross. He gets it by believing in Jesus, and it is justification by faith.” ^■611 . Note: The act of justification, the imputation of righteousness, in itself has nothing to do with the moral character of those concerned. To declare that justification is the infusion of moral righteousness, as the Papists do, is to confuse justification and sanctification, Law and Gospel.

A proof from the Psalms:

The apostle here introduces a new witness to the truth of the comforting doctrine which he is teaching. Genesis 15:6 agrees exactly with Psalm 32:1-2. Just as also David expresses, pronounces, blessing, speaks the felicitations of the man. The whole passage from David is a declaration concerning the happiness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness aside from works, without reference to anything that he has done. Here righteousness is represented as the immediate object of God’s imputation, identical with the imputation of faith unto righteousness. The absence of all possible merit on the part of man is most emphatically brought out. As in the days of Abraham, in the beginning of Old Testament history, so during the Golden Age of the Jewish people, the one way of salvation was taught, which is now proclaimed to all men through the Gospel. Blessed are the people whose transgressions of the Law are forgiven, and whose sins are covered over. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not impute. To impute righteousness without works, and freely to forgive sins, evidently are one and the same thing to Paul. Forgiving, or remitting, sin, covering up sin, not taking sin into account, are all parallel expressions for that of justifying a sinner. The declaration of the acceptability before God is thus also an actual bestowal of His grace, an actual acceptance with God. The consequences of sin may still be present, but the Lord’s forgiveness covers it up before His own eyes, “making it invisible before the holy God and just as if it had not happened.” The act of justification and the act of forgiveness of sins are identical ^■612 . “This word shows with more than sufficient emphasis how Paul understands justification. Not as a moral change of man, nor yet as a divine recognition of a corresponding moral condition of man, but identical with forgiveness of sins, as acceptableness of man in the eyes of God in spite of the absence of a corresponding moral quality.” (Luthardt.)

Justification does not presuppose the fulfilment of the Law:

St. Paul had proved that Abraham had not been justified on account of his keeping the Law, by reason of his merits in general; he now shows that circumcision is neither the basis nor the condition of his acceptance. That the joyful exclamation of David at the blessedness of the people whom he describes could be applied to the circumcised needed no proof; but the difficulty was whether it could be applied also to people that had not received the sacrament of circumcision. And so the apostle again takes up the case of Abraham. This blessedness now, does it come upon the circumcision or upon the uncircumcision? Does the psalmist’s declaration of blessedness concern the circumcised people only? Is circumcision necessary to justification? For we say that faith was imputed to Abraham for righteousness. This declarative sentence serves as an illustration for the question, it states a concrete fact, on the basis of which alone the general question may be answered. How, then, was it imputed? In what condition was Abraham when he received the declaration of God concerning his justification? History gives the answer: Not when he was circumcised, but when he was uncircumcised, before the Lord had given him the rite of the Old Testament initiation. The justification of Abraham took place some fourteen years before his circumcision; therefore it was not the specific Jewish rite upon which he depended for acceptance with God. What was the relation, then, between God’s declaration and between the institution of the sacrament? What was the true nature, design, and object of circumcision? Abraham received the sign of circumcision, the sign which consisted in the circumcision, as a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had had in his uncircumcised state. The Jews took a great delight in boasting of circumcision, not only as a mark to distinguish them from the heathen, but as a form of merit, teaching that every circumcised person by that token became a partaker of the blessings of the Kingdom. Thus they believed also of Abraham that he had been acceptable to God on account of the mere external work of carrying out the command of God to circumcise all the males of his household. But Paul here emphasizes that Abraham received the rite as a gift, not as a merit; and furthermore, that Abraham was circumcised only after he had been justified by the express sentence of God. And the purpose of God in ordering matters in this way was a twofold one. Abraham was to be the spiritual father, first, of those who, like himself, received justification while in the state of uncircumcision, in order that to them also righteousness might he imputed. And, in the second place, Abraham was to be the spiritual father of those that, having received the rite of circumcision, proved themselves true children of Abraham by walking in the footsteps of the faith that he had long before God instituted the sacrament and entrusted it to him. “It was God’s intention that Abraham should be the representative and typical believer, in whom all believers without distinction should recognize their spiritual father.” Note: The righteousness of the Christians is the righteousness of faith, that is, the righteousness which they receive by faith and apply to themselves. Mark also: All believers are spiritual children of Abraham, they have their father’s manner, they possess the same justifying faith. “Thus all those that, according to the model of Abraham, believe, are the seed of Abraham and partakers of the blessing, whether they be Gentiles or Jews, circumcised or uncircumcised.” ^■613 .

The promise is not by the Law:

The apostle had explained that Abraham was intended to be the spiritual father of all believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, circumcised or uncircumcised, because he had been justified by faith before he was under the rite of circumcision. For not through the Law did the promise reach, come to, Abraham or to his seed, his descendants, that he should be the heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith. If God had attached the promise which He made to Abraham to the order establishing the Old Testament sacrament, then it would have been connected with the Law. But the promise made to Abraham that he should be the heir of the world (since the earthly Canaan was only a type of the perfect heritage, of the heavenly Canaan), was connected with his being justified, and therefore, since the promise is not by the Law, justification cannot be either. This is confirmed by the history of Abraham; for to him as believer, after he had been justified by faith, the possession of Canaan and therefore also of the world to come was assured. And like Abraham, all his seed, all his spiritual children, have the promise of the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, Hebrews 11:10. It is theirs through the righteousness of faith, through the acceptance, by faith, of the righteousness which is valid before God. He that is justified before God by faith thereby becomes an heir of the world of God, the world of glory, the home of everlasting righteousness, which God has prepared for the children of men.

On the other hand, Paul argues, if those of the Law be heirs, faith is emptied of all power, is made void and of none effect with respect to its object, and the promise is abolished. Faith was the original condition, that under which God gave the promise. If, therefore, a new condition be substituted, according to which the people that have the nature of the Law in themselves, that hope to be saved by the works of the Law, are made heirs, then faith, of course, is rendered useless, it is made empty and vain, it has nothing to hold to, and the promise is done away with: the entire plan and order of salvation is subverted. And this, in turn, follows from the fact that the Law worketh wrath: for where there is no Law, there is also no transgression. If the promise depended upon the Law, upon the fulfilment of the Law, then, since all men are transgressors of the Law, the wrath of God is brought upon them, and the promise of salvation will fall as a matter of consequence. The Law, from its very nature, demands perfect obedience and condemns all that are not perfect; therefore, by its very nature, it is unsuited to give life to sinners. If thus God had given the promise of salvation with the condition of keeping the Law, promising the inheritance of His eternal blessings to them that are of the Law, the promise of God would by that mere fact be rendered of none effect. It thus follows once more that the promise is attached to faith. For that reason it is of faith, that it might be according to grace. Because of this fact, that the promise of God would be useless from the start, it is attached to faith; the blessed inheritance of the happiness of heaven is of faith, in order to be in accordance with grace. Faith and grace are correlates: as a man is justified by grace, through faith, so he also is saved by grace, through faith. And to this end has God given the promise of the inheritance of the world to come out of free grace, without the slightest consideration of, and reference to, the works of men, in order that the promise of salvation might be sure and certain, being dependent, not upon any work or condition of man, but entirely and alone on the grace of God apprehended by faith. And Paul emphasizes the universality of the grace and promise by saying that it is to all the seed, to all the descendants of Abraham, not only to those that have the way and form of the Law, that is, the believing Jews, but also to that which is of the faith of Abraham, the spiritual children of Abraham among the heathen, who had nothing in common with Abraham except his faith. The promise is to all believers, whether Jews or Gentiles; for Abraham is the spiritual father of them all, and their faith makes them partakers of the inheritance promised to Abraham, Genesis 17:5. Note: All Christians are Israelites in truth, children of Abraham indeed, by the faith which they hold in common with him, which unites them in a closer relationship with the ancient patriarch than mere blood and family ties ever could.

The Scriptural proof:

That Abraham is the father of all believers is in agreement with Scripture, Genesis 17:5. Not only according to the inspired exposition of Paul, but also according to the evident understanding of the original text, the passage referred to must be understood of spiritual posterity. Now, in the time of the New Testament, Abraham is set as the father of many nations, of all the believers, of whatever race or nationality they may be. Before God, who had appeared to him, and before whom Abraham stood as the father of many nations, he also believed; his entire life, lived before the omniscient eye of God, was a life of faith. And this God possessed such attributes as would enable Him to fulfil His promise. He quickens the dead, He makes them alive; He calls that which is not as though it were. The conversion of the many nations to be the spiritual children of Abraham was a true raising from the dead, Ephesians 2:4-9; Colossians 2:13. And God calls that which does not exist as being, Isaiah 48:13; Isaiah 41:4; Ephesians 2:10; the conversion of the heathen is an act of the creative power of God. Thus Abraham, although without children, stood before God and was declared by God to be the father of many nations; and the God who quickens the dead and calls into being that which before did not exist will in due time awaken the heathen world, at present dead in trespasses and sins, to a new spiritual life and call the children of Abraham into being by His powerful, creative Word. And this was the content and object of Abraham’s faith: he believed the Lord, he trusted in His promises, also to the degree in which they were later fulfilled.

This faith of Abraham is now described more exactly. He against hope believed in hope. So far as nature was concerned, his faith was contrary to hope; and yet it rested on hope, confidently believing that God could do in his case what nature could not. So he maintained his trust against all human hope and reasonable expectation, in order that he might become a father of many nations. That was the end and aim of God with reference to the faith of Abraham, in itself His work, that people of many nations should follow in the footsteps of Abraham and thereby become the children of Abraham. For the patriarch trusted firmly in the word of the Lord: So shall thy seed be, Genesis 17:6; Genesis 15:5. That is the characteristic of faith at all times, that against hope it believes in hope, that against nature and apparently against reason it relies simply upon the Word of the Lord.

There follows a further statement concerning the faith of Abraham in its practical proof. He was not weak in faith and therefore did not consider, did not take note of, his own body, which was long past the age for the begetting of children, since he was now about one hundred years old; neither did he consider the barrenness of Sarah, now long past the age for bearing children, since she was ninety years old. These circumstances, these physical hindrances, Abraham did not consider, he did not permit them to have weight and to influence him, he did not fix his mind on the apparent difficulties of the case as it presented itself to him. Cp. Genesis 17. He put the thought of his own physical condition and that of his wife entirely aside, and did not let nature, reason, feeling, perception, affect and weaken his faith. Rather, on the contrary, he, so far as the promise of God was concerned, did not doubt through unbelief, though there was an inward conflict with doubt in his mind, Genesis 17:17. But he became strong in faith with reference to the promise of God. Because, like all true believers, he directed his attention altogether and alone upon the promise of God and not upon reasonable understanding and explanation, therefore he was strengthened; he strengthened himself by the steadfast gaze of faith, thus also giving all glory to God. Unbelief robs God of His glory, but faith with its absolute, simple trust in the Word of God and in His almighty power thereby gives to the Lord the worshipful appreciation which is due to Him at all times. That is the characteristic of saving faith even to-day. The believer trusts God and knows that He will, in spite of all lack of merit and worthiness on the sinner’s part, give him what He has promised him in and through Christ: righteousness, life, salvation; and this faith redounds to the praise and honor of God. Thus Abraham was fully persuaded, altogether assured, that God is able to do what He has promised. He knew that the truth of God bound Him to fulfil His promise, and that His power enabled Him to do it. And for that reason His believing was imputed unto him for righteousness; for that reason God was graciously pleased to place his faith to his account for righteousness. Faith was not the ground, but the condition of his justification, “just as now we believe, and are accepted as righteous, not on account of any merit in our faith, but simply on the ground of the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to us when we believe” (Hodge).

The conclusion of the argument:

What is written of Abraham in this chapter and in other parts of the Bible, especially in the book of Genesis, is not written for the sake of Abraham alone. The story of the faith and consequent justification of Abraham was not included in Scriptures with the mere intention of offering a correct history of the patriarch, to let posterity know that his faith was imputed to him for righteousness. Throughout the discussion, Abraham must be regarded as a representative of all believers. What became true in his case will become true of all men that stand in the same relation to God. The Lord has only one method of justifying sinners. So the record of Abraham’s faith is preserved for our sake, for the sake of the believers of the New Testament; for it is the intention of God that the same righteousness is to be imputed to us also, if we believe on Him that raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead. Jesus was not one of the ordinary mortals whom the almighty power of God called back to life in a miracle, such as are recorded in the gospels and in several books of the Old Testament, but He is the Lord, our great Representative and Head. And therefore the act of raising Jesus from the dead was a proclamation that He is in reality what He claimed to be, the Son of God and our Redeemer. Since the resurrection of Christ was the decisive evidence of the divinity of His work and the validity of all His claims, therefore to believe that He arose from the dead is to believe that He is the Son of God, the atonement for our sins, the Redeemer and Lord of men. He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification. On account of our offenses, our sins and transgressions, God raised Christ from the dead, because His object was to justify us, and this object was attained in the resurrection. Thus the resurrection of Christ effected our justification. The expiation through Christ’s sufferings on the cross, the atonement of death, have been sealed by the resurrection of Christ; for it is a declaration before all the world that the object of Christ’s death has been gained, that God has accepted the reconciliation, that the victory of Jesus is a formal and solemn absolution which God has pronounced upon sinful mankind. And so He is our Lord, and we have become His own. By the faith which God wrought in our hearts, we have accepted His atonement and are declared to be righteous in the sight of God.

Summary

Abraham is the spiritual father of all believers, inasmuch as they all, like him, are justified by faith alone, through grace, thus receiving the inheritance, inasmuch as the faith of Abraham lives in all believers, disregarding their own person and clinging to the promise of God alone.

Verses 1-11

The blessed consequences of justification

A recital of the blessings:

The apostle takes up the thread of his discussion by naming some of the blessed results that follow from the state of being justified, by picturing the work of God in our behalf, as He shows it to justified sinners, by showing the relation of the believers to God arising from the expiation of sin and the consequent justification. Having therefore been justified out of faith, the apostle writes. The state or condition of righteousness, of justification, has become ours, we have entered into it as the result of faith. And therefore we, literally, have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ. As the result of the vicarious work of Christ, the enmity which existed between God and us as the result of our sins has been taken away; through Him peace in relation to God was acquired and is now made the property of men in justification. This peace, then, is not the result of absolute forgiveness of our sins, but is based upon the reconciliation founded upon the atonement, which has completely altered the relation of God to them. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ this peace has been brought about, through Him by whose agency we also have had access by faith to that grace in which we now stand. The entrance, the way to salvation, lies open before us; Christ has opened the door which leads directly to grace; through Him we now have a standing as Christians. Hence the relation of peace toward God. We are justified from sins, our sins are forgiven, there is no obstruction between God and us. As a consequence, we boast upon the basis of hope of the glory of God. The Christian’s hope is a precious possession, on account of which he rejoices and glories, because the object of this hope is the glory of God, of which we shall finally be partakers, Romans 8:17. The future which opens up before the eyes of the believer is of a nature well calculated to make his entire life a waiting of eager anticipation. And therefore we glory in tribulations also, we make our boast of them. Their presence and affliction is not a source of grief to us, but of rejoicing, since we know that tribulation is followed by patience, and patience by approval, and approval by hope. The afflictions of the present life all result in our benefit, for in these trials our faith is exercised and approved. The first benefit is patience, endurance, steadfastness. The more severe the trials, the more need there is of patient endurance of suffering, of faithfulness to truth and duty. And this endurance produces approvedness, the state of the mind which has endured the test, James 1:12. During the affliction, faith is on trial, is being tested out. If it is of the right kind, it will emerge from the crucible purified and refined, it will be strengthened in the hope of the glory of God. And the hope of the Christian will not make ashamed; its fulfilment is absolutely certain, it must bring salvation, Romans 9:33, it cannot disappoint, Psalm 22:5. This is the golden chain of blessings which come upon the believer on account of his justification, which make his whole life a happy awaiting of the glory which shall be revealed unto us on the great day.

The basis of the Christian’s hope:

Why the hope of the Christian will not put him to shame, will not prove delusive, is now explained by the apostle: For the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Ghost that is given to us. The love of God, that love which He has toward us, of which He gave us a definite proof and demonstration in the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, that love has been, and continues to be, shed abroad into our hearts, to be communicated to us abundantly. Not in small measure, but in a full and rich stream of divine affection, it spreads itself abroad through the whole soul, filling it with the consciousness and the extreme happiness of His presence and favor. And this has been done through the Holy Ghost that has been given to us, Acts 10:45; Titus 3:6. It is the testimony of the Spirit that convinces us, richly and daily, that God loves us, that His love is our full property in Christ, our Savior; we are absolutely sure and certain of our blessedness. The love of God, resting upon Christ’s vicarious death, is the sufficient and certain foundation of our hope of the future salvation.

In what respect the love of God is the surety of the Christian’s hope is now explained, Romans 5:6-11. For Christ already when we were still weak, when we were in a condition of inability to do anything good, at the appointed time, at the time fixed by God in His eternal counsel of love, died for the ungodly. Christ died for us godless people, and that fact reveals the mysteriousness of the divine love. On the part of man there was only a total moral worthlessness; on the part of man there was not a single item to call forth the favorable contemplation of God. It was rather that godlessness had reached a crisis, with no hope held out for the transgressors. But then came the vicarious work of Christ, culminating in His death on the cross, a death in our stead, as our Substitute, 1 John 4:10. Thus was the love of God manifested, thus, in the completeness of Christ’s sacrifice, do we have the assurance of the continuance and constancy of the love of God. The apostle brings out the greatness of this love by another comparison, Romans 5:7: For hardly will one die for a righteous man; for a good cause, namely, one might perhaps venture to die. There is some possibility that a man might, under circumstances, die in the stead of a righteous person, as his substitute; there is more probability that a person will give his life in a good cause, as a mere proposition in civic righteousness. Such is the condition among men when all things are peculiarly favorable to an external morality. But God demonstrates and proves His love toward us that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died in our stead, for our sakes. There was not a single feature to recommend us: we were not righteous, our cause was anything but good and commendable. Therefore the love of God in Christ stands out so prominently by contrast: He proves His love toward us in that which Christ did for us. The salutary effects of the death of Christ continue for all time; they are there to-day for all men, even if the latter are utterly worthless and do not merit the slightest show of love. That is the singular, incomparable love of God, a love which exceeds all that we can conceive of, which our human mind vainly tries to grasp and to measure.

And therefore the apostle, from the fact of God’s fervent love for us worthless sinners, draws the conclusion, Romans 5:9. Consequently, if such grace was shown us then, when we were in sin and godlessness, how much more, how much rather, how much more certainly will we now, justified as we have been by the blood of Christ, be saved from the wrath of God through Him! As enemies, we were justified by the blood of Jesus; as being His fellow-participants in peace, we shall be preserved from the wrath and punishment of the last great day. Our justification is our guarantee of our deliverance from the wrath to come; godless we were, but have now become righteous and just, we are exactly as God wants us to be, due to His act of pronouncing us just: therefore we are safe against condemnation. This thought the apostle repeats in order to impress its comforting truth upon the believers. If, when we were enemies, when we were the objects of God’s displeasure, we were reconciled to God, were put into possession of His grace, were placed into such a relation toward Him that He no longer had to be our adversary, how much rather will we be saved by His life, since we have been reconciled, since we have been restored to His grace! While objects of the divine hostility, such unbounded mercy was shown to us; therefore it follows that the love which wrought in such a wonderful measure for us in our extremity will undoubtedly carry out our salvation to the end. The same Savior that died for us has arisen to everlasting, perfect life, and His life is devoted to that one end, to sanctify, protect, and save us eternally, to bring us into that wonderful life of divine glory.

And so the apostle breaks forth in the joyful exclamation: But not only that, we also glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Nothing could illustrate more thoroughly and exactly the complete restitution of the relation of love toward sinners than these words. The reconciliation of God toward the sinners is so thorough that He feels the warmest friendship for them, and that they, in turn, rejoice and glory in their God. Every believer that is reconciled to God through Christ is sure that all further enmity is excluded. “We glory in God that God is ours and we are His, and that we have all goods in common from Him and with Him in all confidence.” (Luther.) This is no self-righteous boasting, for that would result in the immediate loss of all spiritual gifts and blessings, but a cheerfulness and confidence through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has expiated our guilt, canceled our debt. And thus all apprehension as to the final outcome is removed from our hearts; the hope of eternal salvation, which is a consequence of our justification, is a certain and definite hope, a hope which fills the heart of the believers with quiet joy, and causes them to be absorbed with all their mind in the glorious fact of their justification.

---

Verses 12-21

The first and the second Adam

Death the consequence of sin:

The apostle here introduces an extended comparison between the salvation which we owe to Christ, and the calamity of Adam’s transgression with its results. Very emphatically he opens this section: Wherefore, or, because. From the facts which he has adduced regarding the method of justification, it follows that as by one man all became sinners, so by one all are constituted righteous. By one man, through Adam, who followed Eve in eating the forbidden fruit, sin came into the world. Sin is every transgression of the divine Law, when the works, thoughts, and desires of men miss their object, do not conform to the will of God. By the disobedience of Adam sin came into the world, it made its appearance in the world, it began to exist. And through sin death came. The disobedience of Adam bore bitter fruits: first, he was the cause of sin, he brought it to mankind, he was instrumental in having it invade the race; and therefore, by means of sin, men became subject to death. Adam sinned, and the consequence, the punishment of his sin, was death; the death of Adam was the beginning of human mortality. On the day that Adam ate of the forbidden fruit began the performance of the threatened disaster, the execution of the sentence of death; from that hour the germ of death was in his nature, his body was a mortal body, and it was only a question of time when it would return to dust. And thus, in this manner, death passed through to all men, reached all, because all sinned. Death is universal because sin is universal; all men, even by their conception and birth, are subject to death; their entire life is a course which has death as its object. So absolutely is man subject to death, from the very first moment of conception, that St. Paul makes the statement only of death that it has passed through to all men. And this is true because all sinned, sinned in Adam, sinned through or by that one man. Not as though they all had actually, in the person of their progenitor, performed that first transgression of the command of God, but that through his disobedience all men are regarded and treated as sinners by God. On account of the disobedience of Adam, God looks upon them all as sinners; God has imputed to all men the sin of Adam. It is a principle which runs through all the great dispensations of Providence: posterity, natural and federal, bears the blame (Canaan, Gehazi, Moabites and Amalekites, etc.).

As a proof for the statement just made, Paul introduces a historical fact. He refers to the time before the Law, before the Law was formally given, written, and codified. At that time sin was nevertheless in the world, people did transgress the holy will of God. But sin is not charged to the transgressor’s account in the absence of a definite law, it is not entered on the debit side by God as a transgression of a divine commandment. Cp. Romans 4:15. And yet death ruled in the human race, had absolute kingly authority from Adam to Moses, during the entire interval, even over those that had not sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam. There was unrestrained sovereignty and tyranny of death with regard to all men, not only those that had never broken any positive, codified law, but also those that had never in their own persons violated any individual command, by which their sentence of death could be accounted for. Paul thus plainly teaches that the sinners of the first period of the world, before Moses, became subject to death on account of the one transgression of Adam. Death came upon them before they had committed positive sins of their own; but as the punishment of death implies a violation of law, it follows that God regarded and treated them as sinners on the ground of Adam’s disobedience. This is true at all times. The one transgression of Adam was the cause that brought about the death of all men. It is true indeed that every sin merits death, even if it has not become a conscious transgression of the divine Law, even if it exists only in the innermost desire of the heart which is contrary to the holiness of God. But it is true also that the disobedience of Adam, which drew down upon him the curse of death, is so thoroughly imputed to all men that they are actually born into death. But this same death God now uses to punish individual sins and sinfulness. Of Adam the apostle finally says: Who is the impression, the figure, the type of Him that was to come. The first Adam is a prophetical type, 1 Corinthians 10:6-11, of the Adam that was to come, of Christ. The resemblance between the two is not casual, but predetermined. The sin of the first Adam was the ground of our condemnation; the righteousness of the second Adam is the ground of our justification.

Parallelism and contrast:

The apostle here explains his statement as to Adam’s being a type of Christ. But not as the offense, the transgression, so also is the gift of grace, the gift which is freely provided for sinners in the Gospel, in its effects upon men. The emphasis upon righteousness and life, in which the salvation in Christ consists, is brought very strongly by the apostle. The fall is not like the gracious restoration. It is true, of course, that through the fall of the one, of Adam, the many, all the other people in the world, have become subject to death and have died; but, on the other hand, it is true, also, that the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man Jesus Christ has much more, much more certainly, abounded to those same people, the many. The regrettable mistake, the transgression of the one man indeed had evil, terrible consequences, but the blessings procured by Christ are infinitely greater than the evils caused by Adam. And not only that, but the grace of God and that gift which is expressed in, consists in, the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, by which we have salvation, is much more certainly to be relied upon. The one thing has indeed happened — condemnation is come upon all men; but the other fact has such indubitable evidence on its side that we can safely place our trust in it in life and death.

And closely connected with this thought is another: Not as through one that sinned the gift. On the side of the type, Adam, that which was done, which came upon all men, was occasioned by the one person that sinned. On the other side, in the antitype, in the gift of Christ, the same condition does not obtain. The sentence of condemnation which passed on all men for the sake of Adam was for one offense of one man, whereas we are justified by Christ for many offenses. For the judgment is from one man unto a sentence of condemnation, but the gift of grace from the trespasses of many unto a condition of righteousness, a judgment of justification. God judged the people, all men, and His finding has resulted in a sentence of condemnation on account of the one man, Adam. Since the sin of Adam has been imputed to all men, therefore the curse of sin, death, resulted as the consequence of the condemnatory sentence upon sin. On the other hand, the gift of grace has resulted in the condition of righteousness from the trespasses of many. That was the former condition of the many, of all men: they were in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2:1. But that condition has now been left behind, and they have entered into a new, a different status, that of imputed righteousness, of justification. Not only is the one transgression of Adam, which was imputed to them all, forgiven, but they are absolved from all their individual sins and transgressions, they have been pronounced just.

This fact, that we are justified through Christ not only from the guilt of Adam’s first sin, but from our own innumerable transgressions, receives further confirmation: For if, through the trespass of one, death has reigned through the one, much more, much sooner, much more certainly, those that receive the abundance of the grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. On the one hand we have the type: Through the one man, Adam, through his offense or trespass, it has come to pass that death now has sovereign power on earth; his offense was the cause of death’s coming upon all men, his sin was the ground of the sentence of condemnation, which has been passed upon all mankind. But now, on the other hand, if this is really the case, therefore the other will happen all the more certainly, namely, that we shall reign in life. Eternal life is deliverance, liberty; it elevates those that receive it to a position of authority and dominion, 1 Corinthians 4:8; 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; 2 Timothy 2:12. This right and authority is transmitted to us because we receive by faith the abundance of the grace and of the gift of righteousness. The grace of God has abounded toward us, we receive it richly and daily; and it is the source of the gift of righteousness, righteousness itself being the gift offered and received. And all this is ours through Jesus Christ, for He it is that merited life for us, that has prepared the fulness of righteousness for us. And the dominion of life is much more certain than the dominion of death. Christ has not only repaired the damage inflicted by Adam, but also justified all men from their individual transgressions; and therefore it is much more certain that they that receive this incomparable gift and blessing of righteousness will reign in life than that the sin of the one has brought death to all the children of men. There is only one thing more certain to the believer, that has been justified through the merits of Christ, than the fact that he must die, and that is the fact that he will live and reign with Christ, in the life which is his by the free gift of God.

A summary of the argument:

Paul now takes up the thread of the argument which he introduced in Romans 5:12. He introduces the inference from the whole discussion with “wherefore.” As by the trespass of one the result for all men was condemnation, so through the righteousness of One the result for all men is justification of life. When Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, it was a single act of disobedience; but as the consequence of that one trespass the sentence of condemnation has been passed upon all men. On the other hand, the righteousness of Christ, His fulfilling all the demands of the righteousness of the Law, has resulted in the fact that all men are declared to be righteous, the judgment of life being pronounced upon them. And in close connection herewith are two other facts: For just as through the disobedience of the one man many, all men, were presented before God as sinners, so also through the obedience of One all men are presented as just and righteous. First the disobedience of Adam was imputed to all men: God looked upon them as disobedient on account of the sin of Adam; but then came Christ with His perfect obedience for all men, with His complete fulfilment of the Law, and through this vicarious obedience the many, all men, are placed in the rank, in the category of just and righteous people. In this way Christ earned righteousness for all men; the objective justification concerns the whole world: every person without exception belongs to the number of those for whom the benefit of Christ’s work has been obtained. Of the fact that this objective justification actually becomes the property of the individual person by faith, Paul speaks elsewhere; but here we have the full comfort of the assurance that the righteousness of Christ was sufficient to place all men in the class of those for whom the obstacles of their salvation have been removed and full righteousness obtained.

Thus the comparison between Adam and Christ is closed. But the apostle had above, Romans 5:13, referred to the Law and to Moses. The question might therefore arise what connection these have with the present discussion, since they stand midway between Adam and Christ in history. St. Paul states: The Law entered in addition, as an accessory or subordinate thing; it did not have the decisive significance and influence which sin had in its coming. It came only for the purpose that the trespass of Adam might be increased or augmented by actual transgressions of a fixed, written Law. For now that there was a definite norm of the will of God, the number of sins which could be shown as existing was increased enormously. But by that very fact the gracious intention of God toward men received an opportunity to reveal itself. Where, however, sin abounded, grace superabounded; it was dispensed in richest measure and in the very same sphere. And thus the Law did not frustrate, but furthered the gracious end contemplated in the work of Christ. For the dominion of sin, which was emphasized by the Law, had to yield to the dominion of grace: in order that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Death, spiritual as well as temporal, was the sphere or province in which the power or triumph of sin was exercised and manifested. But the goal, the end, of grace is eternal life. The unmerited love of God in Christ Jesus is abundantly and effectively shown in securing eternal life. This glorious effect is secured by means of righteousness, the full and complete righteousness which is through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And so the blessed results of the redemption of Jesus Christ, which are imparted to men by faith, find their glorious realization in that life of everlasting bliss which is the end of justification.

Summary

The apostle describes the blessed consequences of justification as they are guaranteed to us by the love of God and the death of Christ; he shows that, as the sin of Adam has resulted in the condemnation of all men, so the righteousness of Christ resulted in the justification of all men, whose end, for the believers, is eternal life.

Verses 1-14

Sanctification as a fruit of justification

Justification does not lead to indulgence of sin:

The apostle has concluded his exposition of the doctrine of justification, bringing out, throughout the argument, that salvation is full and free. He now feels constrained to meet the most common, the most plausible, and yet the most unfounded objection to the doctrine of justification by faith, namely, that it permits men to live in sin, to continue doing evil, in order that grace might abound. What shall we then say? What inference shall we draw from the doctrine of grace? Shall we remain with sin, in sin, in order that grace may abound? This conclusion has ever been advanced by the enemies of Christ, from the early period of the Church down to the most recent times; the argument that the doctrine of justification by grace through faith furthered sin and undermined true morality. But Paul rejects the very insinuation with horror: By no means! Only one that knows nothing whatever of grace will speak and argue thus. Any one that has the faintest idea of the glory and beauty of grace will always hate and abhor sin and will bring out his appreciation of God’s mercy in his entire life. How should we, how could we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Because the believers have tasted the richness of God’s mercy, because they have died unto sin, have given up all communion with sin, therefore they can no longer live in sin. Death and life are opposites, they exclude each other. We turned our backs definitely upon sin when we received Christ as our Savior. It is therefore a contradiction in terms to say that free justification is a license to sin. The very fact that we died to sin, and are therefore free from sin, no longer under its dominion and in its power, must result in our hating sin, in shunning every transgression of the holy will of God. God delivered us from the bondage of sin, and this fact is the foundation of Christian sanctification. The state of a Christian is a state of freedom from sin.

The power of Baptism:

The fact that Christians are delivered from the power and bondage of sin is brought out by Paul by a reference to Baptism and its power. Or do you not know, are you ignorant of the fact? If his readers should doubt that justification has caused them to die to sin, they should remember what they knew with regard to their Baptism, whose meaning had been explained to them. As many of us as are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into His death. The Christians are not merely baptized with reference to Christ, to be united to Him in His death and to be partakers of its benefits, but, as the papyri have shown, any one baptized into the name of a person of the Godhead thereby became the property of the divine person indicated ^■614 . Christ’s salvation is our salvation, because we were baptized into His death. By taking our sins upon Him and paying the full price for them by His suffering and death, Christ has delivered us not only from the guilt and punishment, but also from the power of sin. And since we have become Christ’s own by Baptism and have been baptized into His death, we are delivered from the power of death; its authority and sovereignty over us is at an end.

Since this is the nature of our union with Christ, given and sealed to us in Baptism, it follows that we are buried with Christ through Baptism into death, Colossians 2:12, in order that, just as Christ was raised up from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we should walk in newness of life. In Baptism the believer dies with Christ, in a spiritual sense. He passes through a death, dies unto sin, is really, totally, dead unto sin. But this dying and being buried with Christ had the purpose, and that was the intention of God, that, in accordance with the resurrection of Christ, we also should walk in newness of life. Christ left the weakness of humiliation of His body and sin which He bore on His body in the grave. And He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, by a manifestation especially of His omnipotence, and entered into a new, spiritual life. And to this life of Christ the new life of the Christians, the life after Baptism, corresponds. It is a new life, and in this new life we are supposed to walk, to have our conversation, to show it in all the acts of our daily life. The salvation of which we become partakers in Baptism works sanctification in us. The idea of purity is always associated with that of newness in Scriptures, and so we say with Luther that the consequence of our Baptism must be that we live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Just how this new life has been wrought in us is explained in the next sentence, Romans 6:5: For if we are grown together with the likeness of His death, we shall also be with that of His resurrection. We have grown together, we have entered into the most intimate union with the death of Christ by virtue of our dying typically in Baptism. Our dying to sin and Christ’s death are thus similar, and the apostle can speak of a likeness, of a picture, which is the death of Christ. Now, if united with Christ in death, we shall certainly be united with Him in life. The one thing having happened, the other is sure to follow. In the case of Christ, His death and resurrection were intimately connected. He, therefore, that has part in His death also has part in His resurrection and is bound to show the new spiritual life with which he has been endowed, which he has received in Baptism. All this can be asserted, knowing, as we do, that our old man is crucified with Christ, in order that the body of sin may be put away entirely, may lose all influence, power, and dominion, to the end that we no longer serve sin. Christians should at all times know and remember that their old man, their corrupt, sinful condition and state, their natural depravity, is crucified with Christ in Baptism, since in Baptism they have become partakers of the death of Jesus on the cross and of its fruit. As a result, the body of sin, the sinful body, that body which sin has used as its instrument, is now put out of commission as such, can no longer serve in that capacity, and therefore we no longer serve sin. That is God’s object and intention, that we henceforth no more, as before, serve sin; this our Baptism has worked, effected, in us. Because the old Adam, in Baptism, has been killed with all his evil lusts and no longer controls the organism of the body as his instrument, therefore we no longer need, we no longer shall, serve sin. For, as Paul declares in the next sentence, in the form of a general axiom, he that is dead is free from sin, is absolved, acquitted from sin, is pronounced just and free from sin in every respect, from its dominion as well as its curse, with the emphasis upon the deliverance from its jurisdiction. Since our old man was crucified with Christ, the axiom finds its application in such a way that sin has now lost power and dominion over us, and that we are no longer obliged to serve and obey sin. That is the wonderful blessing and benefit of Baptism.

But the apostle draws a further conclusion from the fact of our participating in the death of Christ: If we have died with Christ, if we are dead with Christ, we believe, we are confident of the fact, we trust, that we shall also live with Him. We have not merely been delivered from evil of every kind by becoming partakers of His death, but we have also received positive benefits. And this is further explained: Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will die no more; death no longer rules over Him. Since Christ was raised from the dead, the dominion of death is at an end in His case. When Jesus died on the cross, He yielded up His spirit, He laid down His life. But in His resurrection He reassumed His life and showed that death was not His lord and master. He has entered upon the full and unhampered enjoyment of the life of which He is the Lord. For: what He died He died unto sin once and for always; but what He lives He lives to God. Jesus had been in relation to sin, He had taken sin upon Himself, and what He did as our Substitute He performed for the purpose of expiating sin, the crowning work of His life in this respect being His death, by which sin was removed, forever put away, so far as Christ is concerned. Therefore for us also, by virtue of our Baptism into the death of Christ, sin is removed, it has lost its dominion and power. What Christ now lives He lives unto God, His heavenly Father. He has entered into the state of His glorification, at the right hand of His heavenly Father. And therefore we also, according to the admonition of the apostle, consider, reckon ourselves as being dead to sin, but living unto God in Christ Jesus. In the same manner as Christ, though not in the same degree, we Christians, by virtue of our Baptism, are dead unto sin and live unto God, because the new life of God is planted into our hearts in Baptism. We live unto God according to the internal man, according to the regenerated mind and heart. And this is possible for us because we live in the communion with Christ and our life is hidden with Christ in God.

The reign of sin definitely closed:

This is the practical inference and deduction from the preceding discussion. Since the believers have entered into the most intimate union with Christ, with the fruits of His death and with the blessings of His life, through Baptism, therefore they must break with all the former associations: Sin now shall not reign in your mortal body, to obey its lusts. The body of man, also of the believer, is mortal, and as such subject to death and to sin. Man, being mortal, must die. But sin, although it still lives in the body and apparently makes it subject to its own wages, shall not be the lord and master over the body; the sinful lusts should not exert their dominion over the body, they should not make the members of the body their tools and instruments for the working of evil. If the Christians should yield obedience to the lusts and desires of their heart, then they would make their mortal body a sinful body, one that submits to sin, is subject to sin. The sanctification of the Christians will rather show itself in this way, that the Christians control the body with all its members, hands, feet, eyes, ears, tongue, etc., keeping them back from the service of sin, not permitting the lusts to find their gratification in actual transgressions. The will of the Christians will place itself in opposition to sin and thus keep the body within the bounds prescribed by the Word and will of God. They will not offer their members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin.

That is the one side of sanctification. But there is also the positive side: Rather present yourselves to God, place yourselves at the disposal of God, as alive from the dead, and your members as weapons of righteousness unto God. The Christians were formerly, before the regenerative power of Baptism came to them, in a condition of spiritual death, Ephesians 2:1-10. In that condition they served all the lusts, were subject to all vices. But from this spiritual death they have been awakened and therefore should devote themselves, their life, their bodies, their members, their hearts, their minds, their thoughts, to the service of God, for the promotion of His honor and glory. This does not imply that the Lord demands a false asceticism, but is an admonition which shall find its application in the ordinary, every-day life of every Christian, in the performance of the works of his calling. If the body and all its members thus serve God in the righteousness of life, then the work of sanctification will be carried on in a God-pleasing manner.

And the Christians can obey these commands, follow these injunctions, as the encouragement of the apostle, Romans 6:15, shows. It is not a hopeless struggle in which the Christians are engaged, in which the outcome, from the start, is destined to be unfavorable to their faith and spiritual life, but it is an effort which is bound to succeed. The apostle is joyfully confident, knowing that the power of sin is definitely broken, and that the triumph of the cause of Christ is assured by the completeness of Christ’s work. For sin will not rule over you, it will not gain the ascendancy again. And the reason is: For not are you under the Law, but under grace. The Law ever demands, but does not give the strength to perform its demands, and therefore it cannot deliver from the dominion of sin. But grace, under which we have placed ourselves in conversion, in Baptism, not only delivers us from the guilt and power of sin, but also gives us the ability to withstand sin, to shun the evil, and to do that which pleases the Lord. Thus we renounce all dependence upon our own merit and strength, accept the offer of grace, of free justification as a gift of God, and receive deliverance from sin and the power to please our heavenly Father.

---

Verses 15-23

The service of righteousness

The impelling power of this service:

The apostle finds it necessary once more to obviate a possible misunderstanding, a false conclusion which might be made from the statement that we are under grace. What then? What is the situation? How do matters stand? Shall we sin since we are not under the Law, but under grace, because the rule of the Law does not extend over us, but only the pleasant reign of grace? Are we to commit sin because our life is not governed by statutes in the Old Testament sense of the term, but inspired by the sense of what we owe to the free pardoning mercy of God? Shall we transgress the holy will of God because we are given the assurance that God justifies the ungodly through the merits of Christ? And again comes the apostle’s horrified: By no means! And he substantiates his emphatic rejection of the idea: Do you not know that you are slaves unto obedience to him to whom you offer yourselves as slaves, whether it be as slaves of sin unto death or as servants of obedience unto righteousness! If a person voluntarily places himself under the dominion of another and of his own free will yields him his obedience, he enters into slavery; he no longer has liberty to do as he pleases, but is obliged to do what his lord demands of him; and he is bound to this lord, he cannot leave him at his own pleasure. This general rule Paul now applies in the case of sinners and in the case of believers. He that has yielded himself to the service of sin is the slave of sin; he is under its power, in its bondage. He may hate his master, his reason and conscience may argue and protest against it, but the subjection is continued and absolute. And the end of this slavery is death, spiritual and eternal death, Romans 6:23; John 8:34. On the other hand, if a person becomes the servant of obedience to God unto righteousness, if he gives to God that obedience which is due to Him and should properly be rendered by all men, if he performs in all things what the obedience of God demands of him, then the result will be a righteousness of life, a conformity to the will, to the image of God, the habit of an upright life, approved by God.

The apostle feels certain, he assumes in the case of all his readers, that they have entered into the obedience of God and are living in that state of righteousness which is well pleasing to the Lord. And therefore his heart overflows with a doxology: Thanks be to God that you were the servants of sin, that that condition of shameful slavery is past forever, but have now given full obedience from the heart to the form of doctrine which was delivered to you, or rather, unto which you were delivered, to emphasize the fact that there was no merit on their part. In conversion the believers renounce the bondage of sin, and they give full and free obedience, they yield themselves in voluntary and sincere submission to the type of doctrine to which they have been delivered, to the evangelical truth in that form as it appeared in the preaching of Paul, the form which the preaching in the Christian Church should exhibit at all times. The obedience to the Christian doctrine is nothing but faith, for faith is obedience to the Gospel and therefore to Christ. And this voluntary obedience of faith is a gift of God, for which all thanks and praise must be given to God, and to Him alone. And now the apostle draws the conclusion from the preceding: But being set free, being emancipated from sin, you have become servants to righteousness. Sin was a despotic master, a slave-driver. But by the grace of God the believers are set free from sin’s galling tyranny and at the same time made subject to righteousness, servants of righteousness. They are now committed to righteousness, their whole life is devoted to righteousness, the righteousness of life becomes, as it were, their second nature. And this subjection of the Christians to God and to the obedience of faith, which results in true sanctification, is the essence of true spiritual liberty, John 8:36.

Servants of righteousness unto everlasting life:

Paul had used a very strong expression, “slavery of righteousness,” to illustrate his meaning, a comparison taken from the common relations of men, to set forth the relation of the believers to God. And so he here apologizes, in a way, for using this human figure of the relation of slave to master to convey the great spiritual truth which he intends to impress upon his readers. It was necessary to speak thus plainly, in such homely phrases and figures, on account of the weakness of their flesh, not so much on account of their intellectual as on account of their moral weakness, the heathen Christians still tending somewhat toward laxity in morals, toward abuse of Christian liberty. And therefore Paul continues the application of his strong figure of speech: As they had yielded, offered, set forth, the members and organs of their bodies, bound in slavery to uncleanness, pollution of their own body, soul, and mind, and to iniquity, lawlessness, transgression of the divine Law in general. Such are the fruits of the natural state of man: evil in its various forms, a progression in lawless behavior, one sin being the cause and instigation of another. But their changed status now demands, and the apostle adds the urgency of his admonition: So now offer, set forth, your members as bound under righteousness unto holiness. The believers are not merely obligated to a life of righteousness, but they are in its bonded service. And the result is purity in heart and life, an inward conformity to the divine image, 1 Thessalonians 4:7.

The apostle now gives further confirmation to his admonition: When you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. So far as righteousness was concerned, they were free; they were not concerned with righteousness, they were serving another master; they had nothing in common with righteousness, were absolutely unable and unfit to perform anything that would have been acceptable in the sight of God. And what was the result? What fruits were matured under those conditions? What was the product of the slavery of sin? The answer can be only one: Such things as now cause you to be ashamed as you remember your former conversation, for they were horrible vices, shameful delights, which will invariably plunge into death and destruction for both soul and body. Now, however, the situation is reversed: Having been emancipated, set free, from sin, and bound to the Lord, you have in your possession your fruit to sanctification, but the end eternal life. The entire situation presents the contrast to carnal-mindedness. In the case of the believers the evil master, sin, has been deposed; instead, there is the controlling influence of the Spirit’s power. And the product of the service of God thus entered into is holiness, all desires, thoughts, and actions being devoted to the performing of God’s will. And the end, the result of this service of righteousness, is eternal life, the fulness of life in the presence of God forever and ever. The apostle, therefore, concludes with an axiomatic statement: For the wages of sin is death; what sin, as the tyrannical ruler, pays its subjects, is their due and well-deserved reward. Sin cannot be allowed to go unrewarded, that is, unpunished. For a confirmed sinner to hope for pardon without atonement is to hope for the impossible, namely, that God will, in the end, prove unjust. But, by a contrast as great as that between heaven and hell: The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. There is not a word, not a hint of reward here: everlasting life is a free, an unmerited gift of grace and mercy. The punishment of hell is always merited, the bliss of heaven never. In Jesus Christ the possession of eternal life is assured, for He has made its attainment possible, and in and through Him we are placed in possession of this glorious gift. With this blessed goal before their eyes, the believers will also walk circumspectly on the paths of righteousness and withstand every effort of sin to regain the ascendancy, lest they lose the gift which has become theirs by faith and the hope which the heavenly calling holds before them in Christ Jesus.

Summary

The apostle admonishes the Christians no longer to serve sin, but to walk in righteousness, by reminding them of the fact that in Christ Jesus they have died unto sin and have become partakers of the new spiritual life, by which they have become servants unto righteousness and have before them the goal of everlasting life.

Verses 1-6

Freedom from the Law

Paul here introduces another illustration of the statement in Romans 6:14 that we are not under the Law, but under grace: Or do you not know, brethren, that law has power over a man as long as he lives? He appeals to their knowledge of, their familiarity with, law and legal procedure, especially on the basis of the Mosaic Law. If a person does not want to accept Paul’s argument that the believers are free from all legal obligations, there is only one alternative left, namely, to assume that the persons to whom it is directed are ignorant of that great principle according to which all obligations to the Law are terminated with death. The authority and right of the Law with regard to any man extends over his entire life, but not beyond. When a person is dead, there can be neither fulfilment nor transgression of the Law. The apostle, of course, argues entirely from the standpoint of the Law. And he demonstrates and illustrates his general statement by adducing an example, namely, that of the obligation of the marriage-tie. The woman subject to the man, the married woman, is bound to her husband by the law while he lives; but when her husband is dead, the law binding her to her husband, the command concerning the husband, is canceled, to wit, that she is his wife and that of no other man. By her husband’s death the legal relation to her husband is invalidated, rendered void, broken off, and she is free, she is no longer bound by that particular rule. And from this presentation it follows that she will be designated as an adulteress if she have become a wife, have entered into relations as a wife, with another man, while her husband is yet living; but the death of her husband gives her freedom from that particular law, in order that she might not be an adulteress if she become the wife of another. That, according to the divine economy, is the object of her freedom from the law, of her being liberated from the special ordinance concerning married women, that she may marry after the death of her husband without becoming guilty of adultery. And it is implied that the man also, by his death, is no longer bound by the law relating to his wife. The institution and ordinance of marriage embraces a mutual obligation and liability, which loses its validity when one of the contracting parties dies.

What the apostle had in mind with this reference to the obligation of the marriage law is brought out in his application: And thus, my brethren, you also have become dead to the Law through the body of Christ, in order that you should become subject to another one, unto Him that was raised from the dead, that we may bear fruit to God. The case of the believers in the New Testament is very similar to that of the married woman just discussed. They are dead to the Law. Christ was put to death, with violence, and they with Him. But by this fact they have been completely severed from any connection with the Law, through the death of Christ, and they now belong to Jesus by virtue of His resurrection. The similarity and the symbolism is clear throughout. Just as death releases every person from the obligation of the Law, so the death of Christ has definitely released us from the liability of the Law, has annulled the Law, in fact. And whereas the believers before their conversion were bound under the Law, they are now, by the death of Christ, liberated from the former obligation and now belong to the resurrected Christ as their rightful Spouse. And the result of this wonderful union is the bringing forth of fruit unto God, the fruit of good works, which are done to the praise and honor of God.

Having thus shown that the believers are freed from the Law by the death of Christ, the apostle proceeds to show the necessity and the consequence of that change: For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, the evil tendencies of sins, which were made operative, set in motion by the Law, were active in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are freed from the Law, the Law being invalidated in our case, by having died unto that in which we were being firmly held, the result being that we serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. This result can and shall be attained in our case. All men, in the state before their conversion, are in the flesh, they are sinful, weak, mortal creatures, with a mind continually directed toward that which is evil, or at best satisfied with an external morality. In that condition, the passions, the affections and desires that dominate man in his unconverted state were operative, active in our members, since our members executed the evil ideas of the heart. And the passions were all the more successful in this because they were incited by the Law. The Law, therefore, in carnal man, serves only to further or increase sin, since it does not remove the passions, but only serves to stir them up. And the object of the passions was, in the final analysis, that we should bring fruit to death. That is ever the tendency of the passions, to be operative and active in actual sins, to bring forth such shameful works as will result finally in death and destruction for the sinner, James 1:15. But through Christ a change has been brought about. The Law has been placed out of commission so far as we are concerned, it no longer has dominion over us. And this has been effected by our having died unto that in which we were being firmly held. By accepting Christ in faith, we have become partakers of His vicarious death, which was a satisfaction to the Law. And therefore we, having died unto our sinful flesh and unto sin, are thereby delivered from the rule of the Law. In our present state, then, in consequence of this freedom from the Law, we serve God in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. In the former condition of man, under the Law, he has only the literal demands of the Law before him, which afford no strength and power for good, but only stir up all the sinful desires. But in the Christian the new life and being is created and controlled by the Spirit of God. It is the resurrected Christ who through the Holy Spirit works all good things in the Christians, brings forth splendid fruits of sanctification. Note: We Christians have become partakers of all the blessings of Christ’s redemption, and thus are freed not only from the curse of the Law, but also from the rule and liability of the Law. The Law, the written Law of Moses, is no longer our lord and master, we are no longer bound by its fetters. As regenerated children of God, as His new creatures, we are bound to His good pleasure and do His will for the sake of our blessed Redeemer. We are governed only by love, led only by grace.

---

Verses 7-25

The purpose of the Law and its effect

The object of the Law:

In the previous section the apostle had testified to the Christians that they had been freed both from sin and from the Law, thus placing emancipation from the slavery of sin and from the yoke of the Law on the same level. He now finds it necessary to meet a false conclusion which might be drawn from these statements: What inference shall we draw then? Is the Law sin; is it evil in itself? Does it produce harm? St. Paul answers with an emphatic: Most certainly not! And yet, though the Law is not in itself evil, it stands in a certain relation to sin. It is the source and the only source of the knowledge of sin: I should not have come to know sin but through the Law; as also I should have had no knowledge of lust if the Law had not said: Thou shalt not covet. Paul is here speaking from the standpoint of the regenerated believer, and is recounting his experiences, such as are common to the experience of men just before and at the time of their conversion. What he says, in effect, is this: Every person lives in errors, trespasses, and sins from the hour of his birth, but will admit nothing but natural weaknesses, small mistakes, such as every person is liable to make; it is only when the Law opens his eyes that he sees his sin to be what it really is, a godless conduct, an insult to the holiness and purity of the Lord. And in gaining this knowledge, the command not to covet is of great importance. That command shows to man the consciousness of his desire, as it strives against the Law. For since the evil desires and lusts for all sins are revealed as a transgression of the Law, as an evil in the sight of God, therefore their presence reveals to man the evil source whence they spring. In this way a person is convicted of the fact that all the desires, imaginations, lusts, and thoughts of his heart by nature are opposed to the will of God.

But there is another point to be remembered in regard to the relation between the Law and sin. The Law not only serves for the knowledge of sin, but assists also in bringing forth evil desires: But sin, taking an incitement through the commandment, worked in me lust of every kind; for without the Law sin was dead. When the Law is held before the eyes of the sinner, the result is that it acts as a stimulus, an incitement, an offense to his sinful heart. Brought face to face with sin as it really exists, and with the wrath and condemnation of God, the heart of man will be filled with resentment against God and His Law, with hatred against Him who, by this revelation of sin, brings discomfort and the feeling of guilt to the sinner. The sin, then, the depravity of nature, brings about every form of lust and evil desire, and finally also every kind of sinful deed.

In just what way sin, the perverse tendency of man’s naturally evil will, uses the commandment as a stimulus and incitement to evil lust, the apostle explains: For without the Law sin was dead; I, however, once lived without the Law; but when the commandment came, sin revived. Where there is no law, there is no sin, and therefore a person could not be aware of its existence; and where there is no knowledge of the Law of God, there is no knowledge of sin. Sin is unknown, is not recognized as such, until it is brought to light by the Law. And Paul says, using his own example for that of all regenerated persons that have had a similar experience, that, while unconscious of the Law, he lived his life without the Law and sinned in ignorance of his real culpability; he had no painful consciousness of sin, even though his conscience may have bothered him more or less. But when the commandment was brought to his attention, when the Law was revealed to him in its full extent and in the spirituality of its demands, then sin revived, it regained its real vitality and power in its enmity toward God, in its activity in opposition to His holy will. Just because there is a definite prohibition, the natural heart of man resents the command as an unwarranted interference with his rights, like a wild mountain stream that finds its path obstructed by a dam. There is no essential difference, in this case, whether a person actually shows his resentment in deliberate works of sin, or whether he is influenced by external considerations to exhibit a Pharisaical righteousness, while the heart incidentally is a tumult of the wildest lusts and desires.

What the result of this revelation of sin was in his own case St. Paul openly states: But I died, and it was found that, so far as I was concerned, the commandment, really designed for life, in my case resulted in death. For sin, in taking offense at the command, deceived me and through it killed me. With the sense of conscious guilt the sense of the penalty of death makes its appearance. If a person could keep the Law, then he could live through the Law. But this object cannot be realized; on the contrary, the sinner, face to face with the condemnation of the Law, begins to feel the terror of death and hell. He realizes his utter inability to fulfil the Law as God demands it, and that consciousness draws the picture of death before his eyes. Sin, in its foolish resentment against the Law of God, attempts to portray the forbidden joys and pleasures as a most desirable gain, as great happiness. But all that is base deceit, for the forbidden fruit contains the germ of death and destruction in itself, and every one that yields to the tempting pleading will find himself under the condemnation of death, a candidate of eternal damnation. The same result must be recorded if sin tries to persuade a person to exert his own strength in defiance of God; every effort to attain to perfection by means of the Law only aggravates the sinner’s guilt and misery.

And so the apostle draws a conclusion which almost sounds like a paradox: And thus the Law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. The Law in itself is holy according to its entire content, with all its demands it is a revelation of the holiness of God, and every one of its mandates is holy, right, and excellent, demanding from man only what is just, good, and praiseworthy. Man’s weal, not his woe, is its natural object and end. Thus Paul averts a possible misunderstanding of his position over against the Law of God. Note: Christians are not Antinomians, they do not reject the Law of God; but, with Paul, they make a very careful distinction between being under the Law and being under grace.

The practical effect of this teaching:

To make sure that every misunderstanding is definitely removed, Paul here, in speaking of the struggle of the regenerated for sanctification, asks: Has the good, then, become death to me? Is the commandment, which is holy, just, and good, the cause of my death? And with great emphasis he answers: Indeed not! It was not the Law, which is good, but, on the contrary, sin, which proved fatal to him. Sin, in order to be revealed, to appear openly as sin, was fatal to him in this way, that it worked death in him through the good, by means of the Law, the object being that sin thus might become sinful in excess through the commandment. The evil, the deceitful quality of sin, is shown in this very way, that it misuses the holy and good Law for the purpose of working death and destruction. Herein sin actually surpassed itself and executed a veritable masterpiece of perversity, by pressing the commandment into its service, and turned it to man’s curse and destruction.

That the Law does not share in this condemnation of sin, Paul further affirms: For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Here is a perfect vindication of the Law. Because it was given by God, it bears the quality of God, of the divine Spirit, and this spiritual manner is shown in the fact that it demands a spiritual, holy behavior, one that pleases the spiritual God, one that can be found only in a person who has been changed to live at all times in accordance with the will of God. But Paul, speaking of his present, regenerated condition, Romans 7:22, in which his spirit, indeed, is totally devoted to God’s will, but in which, incidentally, his old Adam causes him a continual struggle, says of himself that he is carnal, fleshly; the manner and condition of sinful nature still impresses itself upon his whole conversation, and to such an extent that he is actually sold under the power of sin. He is no longer a willing slave, as in his unregenerated state, but he is subjected to a power, placed into its bondage, although he struggles and earnestly desires to be free, which still asserts its authority, to a greater or less extent. “This is precisely the bondage to sin of which every believer is conscious. He feels that there is a law in his members bringing him into subjection to the law of sin; that his distrust of God, his hardness of heart, his love of the world and of self, his pride, in short, his indwelling sin, is a real power from which he longs to be free, against which he struggles, but from which he cannot emancipate himself.” (Hodge.)

The apostle shows how he is held in subjection: For what I do and perform, what I actually carry into action, I know not; that is, according to Greek usage in similar connections, he does not recognize what he does as right and good, he does not acknowledge it as his own, he does not admit it as something with which he has connection. For what he wants, what his spiritual will desires, that he does not practise; what he loves and delights in according to the inner, regenerated man, that he cannot bring himself to be busy with at all times. But what he hates according to the knowledge that he has gained from the proper understanding of the will of God, that he does, that he finds himself performing. Note: Every Christian knows from his own experience that this struggle is going on within his heart, and that the outcome is usually that which is here so graphically described. Pride, lack of charity, slothfulness, and many other feelings which he disapproves and hates are constantly bothering him and reasserting their power over him. And with the best of will and intention his performance falls far short of his desire.

There are two conclusions which the apostle reaches from these facts thus represented: If, then, I do this thing which I do not want, I agree fully with the Law that it is good, to be admired; and thus I no longer perform it, but the sin which lives in me. St. Paul, therefore, feels and acknowledges the fault to be his own, and not to be laid to the blame of the Law. And yet he asserts that this condition is entirely consistent with his being a Christian. The fact of his doing evil, which he knows to be evil, shows that his judgment agrees with that of the Law, that he freely acknowledges its excellence. And though he by no means wishes to extenuate his own fault and guilt, yet he wishes to show that his experience, on account of the extent and power of indwelling sin, is yet consistent with his being a Christian. The depth and power of evil in the old Adam is so great that it succeeds again and again in asserting its mastery. But of this the Christian’s new life does not approve, against it he struggles, from it he seeks deliverance.

The struggle between the flesh and the spirit in the believer:

St. Paul here, for the sake of emphasis, repeats and amplifies his statements concerning the struggle between flesh and spirit in the regenerate: For I know that there lives not in me, that is, in my flesh, anything good. He makes a distinction between himself, his real, regenerated self, and his flesh, his old, perverted nature. Inasmuch and in so far as he still has this nature in himself, nothing good lives in him. This implies, incidentally, that in the real self of the regenerated person there is indeed something good, something spiritual, something that agrees with the demands of the will of God. For the willing, the determination to do good, lies beside him, is ready for him, and its use offers no difficulty. But to perform that which is excellent he finds not, he does not know where it is, it is not to be found. So the purpose to perform the holy will of God is there, but the difficulty lies in the execution of that which he acknowledges as being excellent. For the good that he desires he does not perform, but the evil which he does not desire, that he practises. The determination to live in accordance with the will of God is not altogether without effect, the struggle is never given for an instant, although the evil is committed again and again. And so the apostle again concludes: If, then, I perform that which I do not purpose, then it is no longer I that do it, but the sin which dwells in me. “The things which I do, when contrary to the characteristic desires and purposes of my heart, are to be considered as the acts of a slave. They are indeed my own acts, but not being performed with the full and joyful purpose of the heart, are not to be regarded as a fair criterion of character.” (Hodge.)

The difficulty of the struggle and the plea for deliverance:

St. Paul now gives an explanation of the peculiar situation which he has just described. He has discovered and found, by experience, a constant fact, a rule, or law, that when his inclination and intention is to do good, evil is present with him, is always at hand. His desire and determination is to do good, but the evil, always present, offers itself, mixes with all his performing and omitting. He is not speaking of an unusual, an exceptional condition, but of one that is the rule, one in which he finds himself day after day, an experience, also, which is common to all believers. This statement the apostle both explains and confirms: For I find my delight in the will of God according to the inner man; but I see, I become aware of, another rule, a different norm, in my members, which struggles, battles, against the Law of my mind that forcibly subjects me, that brings me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. The inner man, the regenerated self, the new man of the apostle, rejoices over, finds his delight in, the Law of God, in doing His holy will. But there is that other, that different rule and norm, represented by the will of the old Adam in his members. The rule in the members of the body is the law of sin, sin itself, in so far as it tries to govern and direct the actions of the members into sinful channels. The perverted mind and will, as represented in the old Adam, is anxious to keep the members of the body in subjection to its will and direction. And that brings on the struggle. As the lower nature prevails, it leads the person captive to the law of sin which exhibits and exerts its power through the members of the body. In the soul of the regenerated person the regenerated mind struggles with the perverted flesh, and the mind, though it wages incessant warfare against the flesh and always keeps the ideal of perfect sanctification in view, cannot free itself altogether from the dominion and power of the flesh. And therefore the regenerated person, chafing and fretting and struggling in his unwilling service, longs for the day when he will enjoy the final, complete redemption from the power of sin

This thought brings on the last exclamation of the apostle: O miserable, afflicted, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me, tear me out of this body of death, or, the body of this death? All the longing of the believer for the final deliverance of his mortal body, which is still such an uncertain, weak organ of the Spirit and so easily becomes subject to sin, is here expressed. Every Christian is eagerly awaiting the day when his slavery to sin will definitely be at an end, when he, with transfigured body and in eternal life, will live unto God and will serve God without any hindrance. But the apostle’s cry for deliverance is followed by one of thanksgiving: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! The deliverance has already been gained, the final redemption is certain, and its full consummation for every believer is only a matter of a few days or years. So, then, Paul for himself, according to his regenerated self, with his mind, with his new man, serves the Law of God, but with his flesh, with his old Adam, the law of sin. His real, willing service is therefore offered to God, even though his flesh still compels him to yield at times. And so the feeling of joy and gratitude prevails in the life of Christians. In the midst of their present sinful wretchedness they never give up the struggle against sin, they never lose sight of the fact that they are Christians, and therefore also always thank God through Jesus Christ, to whom they owe their present blessed state of regeneration.

Summary

The apostle reminds the Christians that they belong to Christ, their risen Savior, and are governed by His Spirit; he shows that the Law teaches the knowledge of sin and causes death on account of sin, which makes use of the Law; he pictures the constant struggle between flesh and spirit, but finally points to the coming deliverance from all evil.

Verses 1-17

The life in the Spirit

Walking after the Spirit:

“Therefore,” an inference especially from the last verse of the preceding chapter. For since the Christians with their flesh still serve the law of sin and, on account of the weakness of their corrupted flesh, sin daily and much, the conclusion might be drawn, also by themselves, that they are heaping God’s wrath and condemnation upon themselves by their sins of weakness with which they are daily battling, that they, although in a state of justification through the merits of Christ, are in a state of condemnation and can never be certain of God’s fatherly affection. But this feeling, which would tend also to take away the certainty of redemption, is not justified. “Although sin still rages in the flesh, yet it does not condemn, because the spirit is just and battles against it.” (Luther.) This Paul declares with great emphasis: Condemnation is in every sense out of the question; there is none, of any kind or degree; no sentence of condemnation can touch them. It is true, of course, that all sins of the Christians, also sins of weakness, are in themselves under the judgment of condemnation, that the believers must daily seek forgiveness for them in the wounds of Christ. These facts, however, have been fully discussed in connection with the justification of a poor sinner before God. But here St. Paul is treating of the great work of sanctification, which follows upon justification. There are Christians that are deeply concerned about the fact that their life and works, their conversation as believers, is still so far from perfection, that their performance of God’s will remains so far behind their intention and desire. But here we are given the assurance that God, reconciled to all men in Christ Jesus, looks upon the justified sinners, upon the regenerated, believing Christians, as though they were altogether in the Spirit, as though they had no sinful flesh to hinder them any more. To them that are in Christ Jesus, that are in Him vitally, by that wonderful union of which the Lord speaks, John 15:1-7, that have their being in Him by justifying faith, to them that walk not, do not regulate their entire life according to the flesh, according to their sinful desires, but follow the commands of the Spirit, to these there is no sentence of condemnation.

For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death. The present, regenerated state of the Christians, in which we walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, is a proof of the fact that the Spirit has really delivered us from the law of sin and of death. The law of the Spirit of Life is the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as He determines our entire conduct and transmits to us the life which is in Christ, causing us to live in Christ and with Christ. And in doing this for us, the Spirit has set us free from the law of sin and of death, of sin, which wanted to control and direct our life and deliver us into the power of death, to which we were subject by nature. Thus it is no longer sin, but the Spirit that is the controlling factor in the lives of the believers. Through the work of the Spirit we have died unto sin and become partakers of the resurrection of Christ. “Where the Spirit is not, there the Law is weakened and transgressed through the flesh, making it impossible for the Law to help a man but only unto sin and death. Therefore God sent His Son and laid upon Him our sin, and thus helped us to fulfil the Law through His Spirit.” (Luther.) So far as the weakness, the faintness of the Law is concerned, a condition of impotency which was due to its being weakened through the flesh, it should always be remembered that God, in sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and on account of sin, condemned the sin in the flesh. The Law of God is not in itself weak and impotent, but it is rendered so, its power and effect is suspended through the influence of the sinful flesh. Our depravity makes it impossible for the Law to save us, because it makes the fulfilment of the Law impossible. But when this was the situation, altogether hopeless, so far as man’s salvation was concerned, the mercy of God stepped in. He sent His own Son, the Son that was equal with Him in essence and power, Possessor of the same deity. He sent Him in the likeness of the flesh of sin, like unto the sinners in humanity, a real man, and man’s Substitute and Representative in bearing the sin of the whole world with all its consequences, for the sake of doing away with sin and its guilt forever. Christ was the expiation, the sacrifice, for sin. And thus God condemned, spoke the sentence of condemnation upon, sin in the flesh; the sacrifice, the death, of Christ shows that God’s justice condemned the sin which rules in the corrupt nature of man. Christ was made a curse, because He bore the curse which must strike sin. And thereby God has declared that sin no longer has the right to keep man in subjection and to force him to transgress the Law of God; He has delivered men from the jurisdiction of sin. And thus the precept, the rightful demand, of the Law may be satisfied, may be fulfilled in us, that is, in those persons that do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. By delivering us from the dominion of sin, Christ has made it possible for us to fulfil the Law of God, to deny and crucify the flesh and to live according to the Spirit. And the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the life in Christ, has loosed us from the bonds, from the dominion and jurisdiction of sin and of death, and now teaches us to walk, to lead our entire lives, in conformity with God’s will.

The difference between the carnal mind and the spiritual mind:

In this section there is a further illustration and amplification of the contrast between flesh and Spirit and between those that are devoted to either. Those that are after the flesh, that have the moral nature and essence of the flesh, have their entire mind taken up with the things of the flesh; the interests of the flesh engage their entire attention. All their imagination, their lusts and desires are centered upon the gratification of sensual, worldly thoughts and ideas, Galatians 5:24. But those that have the nature of the Spirit, that are born anew out of the Spirit, have only one aim, namely, that of performing the works of the Spirit and bringing forth His fruits, Galatians 5:22-23. For the thinking of the flesh, the object and goal of the imagination of the natural, sinful heart, is death. The carnal joys and pleasures of man will finally result in death, in eternal death. But the thinking of the Spirit, the result of the Spirit’s desiring, the object upon which the anxious longing of the Spirit is centered, as He lives in the mind of regenerated man, is life and peace. The spiritual life of a Christian, as manifested in all its thinking, is not the cause of the life in peace with God, of the realization of the reconciliation with God, but this life and peace is given by God to the spiritual life. This contrast between flesh and Spirit is emphasized from another side: Because the mind, the disposition, of the flesh is enmity toward God. The flesh finds the goal of its thinking to consist in eternal death because of its hostility to God, the Fountain of life. The people that follow the dictates of their flesh deliberately choose the works of the flesh, because they are evil, opposed to God and His holy will. To the Law of God the flesh will not yield obedience, the very idea of doing so being foreign to its nature. The contrast between the flesh, the sinful nature of man, and the pure and holy Law of God is so great that an agreement is out of the question: the chasm between them cannot be bridged. Those that are in the flesh, that bear in themselves the nature, the peculiarity of the flesh, cannot please God. The essence of the carnal mind is rebellion and hatred against God, and this disposition cannot be shown in any other way but by a deliberate expression of this tendency in acts which are displeasing to the Lord. The Christians are thoroughly distinct from people that exhibit such hostility toward God: You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; the Spirit of God that lives in the believers is their sphere of life and activity, in Him they live and move. And they cannot but be under the rule and guidance of the Spirit, if the Spirit indeed, truly, lives in them. The entire life and bearing of the Christians is in full accord with the demands of the true spiritual life, because that is the natural, the inevitable result and consequence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. It is necessary to stress this point; for if any one have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. A person must be regenerated in truth, and not merely in appearance; he must actually have received the Spirit of Christ and have this Spirit dwelling in Him, otherwise Christ will not acknowledge him as one of His own. Note that the Spirit is here called the Spirit of Christ, that Christ is therefore placed on an equality with the Father as the One from whom the Spirit proceeds.

And now the apostle presents his conclusion: If, however, Christ is in you, if He is the impelling power of your lives, brought into your hearts by the work of His Spirit, John 14:16-18,23, then the body indeed, the instrument of sin, is dead, that is, subject to death on account of sin from the first moment of its existence; but the spirit, the human spirit regenerated and renewed, the new man, is life because of righteousness. The spirit, the soul of man, having received the perfect righteousness of Christ in justification, has the spiritual life which will secure for it immortal and blessed existence. By faith in Christ the Christians become partakers of eternal life. So it is implied here also that the supreme blessing of eternity is based upon Christ only, in order that no one might have any reason for boasting. And we not only have the pledge of immortal life in and through Christ, so far as our soul is concerned, but we have the assurance also that our bodies will rise again: If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead live in you, then He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will quicken, will return to life your dead bodies through the Spirit that has His dwelling in you. The life which we have in our soul by faith will finally result in a complete triumph over death. Note how appropriate this description of God is in this connection. Mark also that the three persons of the Godhead are here mentioned as taking part in the final resurrection of the dead, just as they all have been active in the conversion of man. The same God that raised up Jesus from the dead, thus proving that He is the Source, the almighty Fountain of life, will make alive, will give life to, our dead bodies; and this work He will perform through His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Son. Christ is the Mediator of our salvation, having died and risen again for our sakes, having prepared for us the life of glorification. Our resurrection and glorification has its basis in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Thus the spiritual life of the Christians, the Spirit of God and of Christ that lives in the Christians, has for its goal eternal life, with the glorification of our bodies.

The Spirit of adoption in the Christians:

Having pictured the blessed state of the Christians, the apostle now presents an admonition to them in the form of a conclusion: So, then, brethren, debtors we are. All Christians are under a very strong obligation on account of benefits and blessings received. But not to the flesh, to live in accordance with the flesh, as natural man is apt to believe that he owes his flesh the gratification of its desires, that he is obliged to live in accordance with its demands. By this figure of speech the apostle brings out very strongly the implication which he has in mind: We are debtors to the Spirit. For, he argues, if you Christians live in accordance with the flesh, following its dictates and inclinations, then the inevitable consequence, that which is bound to come upon you, is death. The mere fact that a person has embraced the truth in Christ at some time of his life will by no means make him safe for all times. If Christians permit their flesh, their old evil nature, to regain the ascendancy, to govern their life and actions, then there is only one result possible, eternal death. But if the Christians will at all times by the Spirit, through the power of the Holy Ghost in them, put to death the practises, the deceitful doings of the body, as an instrument of evil, then they will live, be preserved for eternal life: holiness, happiness, and everlasting bliss.

This fact, the certainty of the gift of eternal life through the mercy of God, if we remain on the way of righteousness and destroy the deeds of the body, is now proved: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Only those that have the Spirit of God are in truth members of Christ. And this Spirit moves, leads, urges the Christians on, all those under this constant and effectual influence of the Spirit being considered sons of God, being made sons of God, in fact, by the work of the Spirit. In and through Christ, whose redemption is imparted to them by the Spirit, they are brought into that intimate relation to God that He is their Father and they are His children by adoption, Galatians 3:26. And their state and relation of children is evidenced and proved by the fact that the Spirit is continually leading them in the way of righteousness. This relation to God is also a pleasant relation, one that invites and creates confidence: For not have you received the spirit of bondage again toward fear. Every man by nature leads a life of dread and fear, like that of a slave who fears the anger and punishment of his master. In a measure, the religion of the Old Testament was a religion which stimulated the spirit of bondage, according to which the Jews were always in dread and doubt as to their perfect keeping of the Law. But the Spirit which the believers have received is the Spirit of adoption, that of being made the children of God. The Holy Ghost brings about this relation of the believers toward God, He assures them with the confidence wrought by faith that God has adopted them as His children for the sake of Jesus, and in this confidence they cry out to Him: Abba, Father, the latter word being the translation of the Aramaic word which is in use to this day. It is an earnest cry, a vehement address, full of desire, trust, and faith. Thus the Spirit of God in us, in teaching us to trust in God with simple, childlike faith, gives us a certain, an indubitable witness, a definite proof and certainty, that we are the children of God. It is a conviction which is not found in our own spirit, which no man can have by his own reason and strength, which the Spirit of God alone can and does give. The very fact that this witnessing of the Spirit is entirely independent of our own feelings, of our state of mind at any given time, makes it so certain and reliable that we are dear children of our heavenly Father. But if children, then also heirs. If we are the children of God, then we are also sure of partaking of the inheritance of the saints in light; we are sure of the possession of the inheritance of Christ Himself, with whom we are joint-heirs by the fact of our adoption. As children of God we have a claim to the bliss of heaven, as God has prepared it for His only-begotten Son, for Him that was born out of the fulness of His divine essence. There is only one outward condition which is inevitable: If so be, if only we suffer with Him, in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Christians are partakers of the sufferings of Christ, they are bound to endure afflictions of many kinds for His name’s sake. To attempt to evade these sufferings is equivalent to refusing to bear the cross of Christ, Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23. The bearing of the cross is not an absolute condition, but the inevitable lot of those that are awaiting the glory of eternal bliss, Galatians 4:7. And thus the beautiful, comforting doctrine of the adoption of the Christians as children of God, of their inheritance of eternal life, serves to admonish them to die unto the flesh and to live by the Spirit.

---

Verses 18-39

Comfort in the manifold afflictions of this life

The sighing of creation:

In Romans 8:18 the apostle briefly states the topic of the second part of this chapter: For I consider; he gives it as an expression of his strongest assurance, not as an uncertain opinion or the dubious result of conjecture. Not worthy are the sufferings of the present time, that pertain to this life only and come to an end with the close of this world-period, in comparison with the glory which is to be revealed to us. All the distress, all the afflictions, all the persecutions, all the sorrow that comes upon the Christians for the sake of Jesus, is a matter of but a moment’s duration, as time is reckoned before God, and in addition is so outweighed by the glory which the saints are to inherit that it cannot properly come into consideration. “Behold how he turns his back to the world and fixes his face toward the future revelation, just as though he nowhere on earth saw misfortune or woe, on the contrary, nothing but joy. Truly, even if we are in bad straits, he says, what is our suffering in comparison with the ineffable joy and glory which shall be revealed in us? It is not worthy to be compared or to be called a suffering.” ^■615 .

Having thus stated the leading thought of this entire section, Paul now emphasizes the greatness of the glory which shall be revealed in us by describing the coming deliverance of the creation in general, which, with all its blessings, is immeasurably greater than all the suffering of the present state could be. The earnest expectation, the watching with outstretched head, the eager, anxious longing of creation, of the sum total of organic and inorganic created matter, especially the brute creatures, awaits patiently, expectantly, the revelation of the children of God. In this world the sons of God usually do not appear to advantage in the eyes of the world, they are not manifested; it does not appear openly what a great and glorious thing it is to be a child of God, what wonderful blessings the Lord has provided for them that love Him. But the time will come when they shall be manifested, when the glory of heaven shall be revealed to them and be made their own in the sight of all men. And for that day the entire brute creation, all nature, is eagerly waiting. For now creation, this sum total of God’s creatures about us, which we commonly call nature, is subjected to vanity, not willingly, but because of Him that subjected it, because God in His wisdom willed it. As the universe and all the visible objects about us came into existence out of the hand of God, it had the power of life in itself. But with the fall of man and the subsequent curse came the subjection of nature to the vanity, the unprofitableness, the uselessness of man’s sinful desires and intentions. As Luther says, sun, moon, and stars, heaven and earth, the grain that we eat, the water or wine that we drink, oxen, cows, sheep, and everything that men use, is lamenting and crying over the fact of its subjection to vanity, to the service of sin in the hands of man. But God, in including creation in general in His curse upon sin, at the same time had a future change of this lamentable condition in mind, according to which the suffering creation may hope for a deliverance from this condition of unwilling subjection; for creation itself, all nature about us, will be set free from the bondage of corruption, the slavery that has resulted from the corruption due to sin, to the glorious liberty of the children of God, to the freedom from the vanity and corruption of sin and its consequences. The Day of Judgment will bring deliverance to the brute creation, to all organic and inorganic matter, from the tyranny of man that uses the creatures of God for purposes of vanity and sin. When heaven and earth shall pass away, when the earth and the works therein shall be burned up, 2 Peter 3:10, that will mean the end of unwilling slavery throughout the world. And as the believers will then look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, 2 Peter 3:13, so all the substances of the old earth, having thrown off the tyranny of sin, will enjoy that freedom for which the Lord created them in the beginning. In the mean time we know that the entire creation is groaning with us believers and feeling the most vehement pains to the present time. And in this way the entire creation is suffering and waiting, as Luther says; and for what? “For the glorious liberty of the children of God, when she will not only be set free from her service, that she will no more serve any scoundrel, but shall also be free, and much more beautiful than she is now, and serve only the children of God, no longer be captive under the devil, as she is now captive.” ^■616 .

The sighing hope of the Christians and the Spirit’s intercession:

But not only so, not only does the whole creation groan and long for deliverance, but also we ourselves that have the first-fruits of the Spirit: we also ourselves sigh within ourselves, longing for the adoption, the redemption of our body. We Christians, having received the Spirit of God from above, have the first-fruits of the future world, of the heavenly glory, in our hearts, as a definite guarantee of the full bliss which shall be ours in the future, Ephesians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 1:22. And yet sighs arise from the depths of our soul, groans and cries for deliverance. We Christians are deeply affected, painfully touched, by the woes and miseries of the present world. And therefore our sighing incidentally represents and expresses our anxious, eager longing for the full revelation of our sonship. We are children of God even now, by faith, through the working of the Spirit. But we long to enter into the full possession and enjoyment of our inheritance above, into the redemption of our body, the complete deliverance from all the consequences of sin. All eyes and all hearts are directed toward that blessed hour when Christ will finally and completely deliver our mortal body from the bonds of vanity and of death, when He will change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, Philippians 3:21.

The Christians are sure of the final participation in the deliverance of the body and of the full enjoyment of their sonship. But meanwhile the present time, the time in this world, is a time of waiting and hoping. We have the glories of heaven in expectation or prospect: salvation is a blessing which we have in hope, which we are sure of possessing in the future. For if the object of hope, the full enjoyment of our adoption, the perfect deliverance from sin and its consequences, were a matter of the present time and possession, then we could not speak of hope; for if one sees a thing before him, why should he yet hope? Hoping and seeing exclude each other. And so the apostle concludes regarding the peculiarity of hope, its essential feature: If we hope for that which we see not, then we wait through patience and endurance, we steadfastly and longingly wait for it. At the present time we Christians are placed under the obligation of patience, under the necessity of anxious expectation. Knowing the certainty of our future bliss, all the affliction of the present time and life cannot shake our hope. “Salvation, in its fulness, is not a present good, but a matter of hope, and, of course, future; and if future, it follows that we must wait for it in patient and joyful expectation.” (Hodge.)

Having shown that all creation longs for deliverance, and that the Christians are likewise groaning and sighing for the full revelation of their salvation and its glorious blessings, the apostle now states, for our further encouragement, that the Spirit likewise comes to the aid of our infirmity. Although we Christians have the knowledge which pertains to our salvation and are sure of the final revelation of the glory of God in us, yet we are always battling with our own weakness in faith and hope; we sometimes find it difficult to keep a firm hold on the promises of God concerning our sonship. And so the Spirit comes to the aid of our faltering, uncertain footsteps; His strength serves to uphold us in our infirmity. The divine assistance, therefore, is so necessary because we Christians have not the proper conception of the manner and importunity of prayer for the things that we are in need of; our prayers rarely measure up to the importance of the blessings for which we ask, they are not adequate to the object of our prayers. And therefore the Spirit comes to our assistance; He holds before our eyes that great blessing toward which all prayers of the Christians finally converge, the salvation of our souls. And not only that, but He Himself intercedes for us with sighings and groanings that cannot be clothed in the speech of man. The contrast between the present state of oppression and tribulation and the future state of glory is so great that we Christians cannot find the proper words of beseeching appeal, which would adequately express our longing for the final deliverance. But our great Comforter and Advocate, in His groanings for us, presents our cause to God; He speaks to God through the inarticulate groanings of the believers’ hearts. When the cross of the Christians becomes heavy to bear, when they feel forsaken and alone, when they have no comforter among men that understands what troubles their hearts, then an inexpressible longing and sighing is pressed out of their soul for the redemption of their body. And then their tottering faith is renewed in strength, then a new joy and consolation takes possession of their hearts, and the believers may again look up to God in believing confidence. All such inarticulate sighs in the hearts of the Christians, although they are not and cannot be clothed in the words of human speech, are nevertheless fully intelligible to God. He that searches, investigates, the hearts is fully conscious of, perfectly acquainted with, the mind of the Spirit. The omniscient God knows what the Spirit has in mind in those groanings whose content cannot be expressed in the words of human language. For the Spirit intercedes for the saints, as the believers are fitly called on account of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ which they have experienced, in a manner which agrees fully with the will and with the glory of God. With holy, godly zeal, in full accordance with the immeasurable, divine content of our hope, with the fervor of divine love He intercedes before God in our behalf, to insure to us the glory which has been prepared for us in heaven. Thus the unspeakable greatness of the glory which shall be revealed in us, and for our possession of which the Holy Ghost adds His interceding pleading and groaning, is a source of permanent, glorious comfort to the Christians.

The assurance of God’s eternal decree:

In his chain of arguments for the comfort and consolation of the Christians, Paul now adds another link: Further, we know. It is a matter of the certainty of faith that to them that love God, in whom their faith has brought forth this fruit of loving trust in God, all things, also the sufferings of this present time, work together, are of assistance, serve for good, for the best, and therefore also for the glory which Paul has in mind in the entire section. In accordance with the purpose of God everything, also affliction and suffering, must result in a good and salutary way for them that love God, or, as they are further described, that are called in accordance with a purpose, in whom the call of God unto salvation has been effective, who have really been brought to accept the blessings to which God invites all men in the Gospel. By the call of God they have been placed in the fellowship of Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 1:9; they have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light, 1 Peter 2:9. It was not a matter of their own doing, whose insufficiency might afterwards cause doubts to arise in their minds as concerning the certainty of their salvation, but it is the effectual call of the faithful God, 1 Corinthians 1:9. With regard to those that do not heed the invitation and call of God in the Gospel nothing is said in this passage. The present and future state of such people is not due to any decree of God. With regard to the unbelievers the Bible merely states that God extends the invitation and call of the Gospel to them also, that He has overlooked and omitted nothing in their behalf, but that they on their part wilfully hindered the effect of the Word, consistently and deliberately resisted the Holy Ghost in His efforts at converting them, that they would not listen to His appeal, and therefore have only themselves to blame for their final perdition. The fault of any man’s damnation in no way lies in God, but altogether and alone in man. But in our passage the apostle discusses only those that have been regenerated by the call of God, and in the number of these he includes himself and his readers quite generally, without any invidious distinctions.

Of them that are thus called according to the purpose of God, the statement is now made: Whom, however, He did foreknow, them He also called. The calling of God is the result of His previous foreknowledge: He knew them beforehand as His own, it was an eternal foreknowledge coupled with effective love; He fixed His mind upon them in grace, He selected them in advance as such whom He would, in time, make His own. And in accordance with this foreknowledge the call of God was issued to them and was effective in them when they heard the Word of the Gospel. But before this took place, there was a second act on the part of God: For whom He foreknew He also foreordained, determined, decreed, to be conformed to the image of His Son, that they should, in appearance and acts, be like His Son, in order that He might be the First-born among many brethren. Because of and in His foreknowledge, because of His eternal selection by grace, God also foreordained, or predestinated, the selected ones to the divine sonship, with its fulness of heavenly glory, Christ being the first-born and the only-begotten Son and Heir of God, but all the many adopted children partaking of the same bliss in richest measure with Him. Thus the purpose and decree of God with reference to those in whom His call is effective, includes both foreknowledge and foreordination, and has for its object the presenting of heavenly glory in Christ.

And now the actual carrying out of this decree and purpose as it was made and formed in eternity is described: Whom He foreordained, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified. The foreordination of God was put into execution in those whom He had selected for His own, in mercy. His gracious call, in their case, was effectual; it kindled faith in Jesus Christ and His redemption. And thus the call, or conversion, resulted in their justification, the righteousness of Christ being given to them, God declaring them to be righteous for the sake of Jesus Christ, whom they had received by faith. And thus the justification, in turn, brings on, and merges with, the glorification. The full revelation of the glory is still in the future, but its possession is secure even now, only its enjoyment being a matter of hope. Thus the decree of God and its execution are pictured by the apostle in their sequence according to the gracious hand of God upon the believers. He has brought out in a splendid manner the certainty of the future redemption and glory as based upon the eternal counsel and decree of God.

The assurance of God’s unchangeable love in Christ Jesus:

In all the letters of Paul there are few passages that equal, and none that exceed, this paean of triumph, of victorious faith, in lofty and sustained power. Addressed to Christians as it is, it should never fail of rousing them to the greatest pitch of faith’s enthusiasm and to the utmost confidence and trust in the mercy of God and their Savior Jesus Christ. “What shall we then say?” What inference shall we draw from the entire presentation? “The apostle has disparaged the suffering to be endured by those who would share Christ’s glory in comparison with that glory, Romans 8:18; he has interpreted it, Romans 8:19–27, as in a manner prophetic of the glory which shall follow; he has in these last verses asserted the presence through all the Christian’s life of an eternal victorious purpose of love.” (Denney.) What conclusion must he now draw and with him every believer? If God for us, who against us? The first conclusion is that God is on our side; that God who has destined us for glory and is carrying out His decree in our case is on our side, and therefore no enemy can really harm us; all their attempts must come to naught. It is not a challenging cry, but one of assured victory, in the assurance that all the power of the enemy is rendered futile in advance.

The ground of this confidence and security is the love of God: He that did not spare even His very own Son, but gave Him as a sacrifice into death for us all, — how is it possible that He would not with Him, out of free grace, give us all things? Paul here includes himself with all the believing, elect children of God. Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. But the purpose of His sacrifice is realized only in the believers; they only actually apply the love of God to themselves and become partakers of His redemption, the Son of God Himself being the greatest gift of grace and including all other blessings of God, especially the future salvation and glory. These blessings are inseparably connected with Christ, and he that receives the Redeemer thereby becomes partaker of the full wealth of God’s treasures of mercy. Who will bring any accusation against the elect of God? It is God that justifieth. If any one wants to summon the chosen of God, the believers spoken of in Romans 8:28, before God’s bar of justice, he will find himself sadly disappointed. For instead of proving his point as to their being under God’s sentence of condemnation, he will find that God has declared them to be just. Who would speak the sentence of condemnation upon them? There are four conclusive reasons adduced why such a sentence is out of the question: the death of Christ, His resurrection, His exaltation, and His intercession. Christ died, but not for Himself, only as our Substitute, paying the price of all our guilt with His death; He arose from the dead, thus receiving the seal and assurance of God’s acceptance of the sacrifice; He ascended to the right hand of God, He assumed the full use of His divine power and glory, also according to His human nature; and His constant work at the present time is His intercession for us, His acting as our Advocate with God, 1 John 2:1.

And now comes the very last step in the climax of the apostle’s argument, “the very summit of the mount of confidence, whence he looks down upon his enemies as powerless, and forward and upward with full assurance of a final and abundant triumph.” Accusation has no effect, condemnation cannot harm us, and even every attempt at violence must fail from the very start. Who shall separate us, take us away, from the love of Christ? With Christ we are inseparably connected on account of His love toward us, by faith. Can any one or anything sever the bond of our communion with Christ and take faith out of our hearts? The apostle names a few of the factors most likely to harm us in this respect, hostile powers and influences as they are employed by Satan and by the children of the world: Tribulation; distress, emergencies of all kinds; persecution on the part of our enemies; hunger, nakedness, peril, sword, in which persecution under certain circumstances will find its climax. Parenthetically Paul shows that the endurance of all such difficulties and afflictions is prophesied in Scriptures, by referring to Psalm 44:22, where the Church of the Old Testament laments that many of its members must suffer martyrdom for the sake of their firm stand on the side of God, that they are reckoned and treated as sheep for the slaughter. But all these things Paul brushes aside with an abruptness approaching impatience: Rather in all these things, in all these afflictions and difficulties, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Our enemies are not only not able to do us real harm, but they are actually conquered before they have had an opportunity for working evil. The Christian is assured of victory in advance, not in His own strength and power, but through his Redeemer Jesus Christ and His love. And so Paul closes in a burst of triumphant eloquence: For I have the full persuasion — as have all true Christians with him — that neither death, martyrdom, nor life, with its various vicissitudes and trials; neither angels nor principalities, the mighty spirits of every grade; neither things present, now incumbent upon us, nor things to come, no matter how threatening their aspect; nor powers, no matter of what kind; neither height nor depth, all hostile attacks, whether from above or from beneath, having their origin in forces inimical to God; nor any other creature, an all-comprehending specification, shall be able to separate us from, to sever our intimate communion with, the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Thus the song of faith reaches its climax in a victorious burst of melody, bringing out the certainty of the Christian, his confidence of faith in the love of God and of Christ. It is a subject which is well worthy of being celebrated in such a hymn of faith.

Summary

The apostle reminds the Christians that they are under obligations to follow the guidance of the Spirit that lives in them and gives them the guarantee of their adoption, also that the present time, a period of tribulations, is designed to set forth, by an all the more glorious contrast, the greatness and the certainty of the final redemption, of which no one can rob us.

---

Related Kretzmann Article

Verses 1-13

The distinction between the true and the false Israel

The rejection of the Jews a matter of sorrow:

The apostle has closed the first part of his letter, the positive exposition of his Gospel. He now opens up an entirely new section, devoting himself to some practical problems which are connected with the teaching of the Gospel of salvation through Christ Jesus. The truth I speak in Christ, I lie not. It is a most solemn and emphatic protestation in a matter which is very near to his heart. He is speaking the truth in Him whose rule and government he has accepted in all conditions of life, thus putting into practise his communion with Christ: not merely as an honest man, but as a Christian and as a servant of Jesus Christ he says the truth, he gives proof of the faith of his heart. And to emphasize the truth of his statement still more he affirms that his conscience bears witness with his words in the Holy Ghost. Paul is fully conscious and certain of the fact that his conscience is not in error in this case, that the Holy Spirit Himself is his guide in this matter, and that the testimony of his conscience is thus altogether reliable. The content of his solemn assertion is, first of all: Great heaviness I have and continual sorrow in my heart. He is bearing a heavy load of sorrow and pain, which causes his heart great distress. He could hardly find words strong enough to convey his feeling. For he was anything but an indifferent spectator of the sorrows, temporal and spiritual, which were about to come upon his countrymen. He now employs the very strongest terms to express his boundless love for his Jewish brethren: I could wish that I myself might be a curse away from Christ for my brethren, instead of my brethren, my relatives according to the flesh. To this extreme Paul would be ready to go, if it were in accordance with the will of God, if the matter were allowable, possible, proper. His own soul’s salvation Paul is willing to place into jeopardy, to give in exchange for the curse and doom of destruction which is threatening the Jews, his kinsmen according to the flesh. Paul here, like Moses before him, Exodus 32:32, is ready to place his soul as a ransom for the souls of his people, thus exhibiting an almost unbelievable power, depth, and ardor of love, far surpassing ordinary sympathy. The innermost recesses of his being were shaken by his loving affection for the people of his own race.

Paul now enumerates some of the advantages of his people which enable us to appreciate the ardor of his love for them and the depth of his grief on account of their exclusion from salvation in Christ: Being such persons as are Israelites, distinguished and honored by the name given to the patriarch Jacob by the Angel of the Lord, Genesis 32:28 ^■617 , of which they were very proud. Theirs was the sonship: they were chosen by God to be His people in a peculiar sense, Hosea 11:1; Exodus 4:22-23; Exodus 19:5, “selected to be the recipients of peculiar blessings, and to stand in a peculiar relation to God.” To them belonged the glory of the Lord, that singular manifestation of the presence of God according to which God lived in the midst of His people with His merciful presence, Exodus 40:34; Exodus 29:43; Leviticus 16:2; 1 Kings 8:11. They had the covenants, or testaments. God had repeatedly made a formal covenant with the patriarchs, giving them the express assurance that He would be their God and the God of their seed after them. Their privilege had been the giving of the Law, the solemn and impressive declaration of the divine will from Mount Sinai, this being a distinction of which the Jews were inordinately proud. Theirs had also been the service, the whole ritual, the beautiful and impressive form of worship in use in the Tabernacle and in the Temple. To them belonged the promises of the Messiah and His redemption; they had been received in their midst by their own prophets. To the Jewish people belonged also the fathers, the progenitors of the Messiah, from whom Jesus, in being born of the Virgin Mary, herself truly a Jewess, took His human nature. This was truly the greatest privilege and distinction of all, as St. Paul brings out in his doxology: Who is over all God, blessed into eternity, Amen. Jesus Christ, true man, born as a member of the Jewish race, is at the same time God over all, true God from eternity, with His almighty power extending over all the world, over all creatures. And as such the honor given to God is due to Him, blessing and glory into eternity, forever and ever. To this declaration we say Amen, for it is true. Note that the deity of Christ is here most emphatically affirmed and brought out, just as in the entire Gospel of John and in other passages of Scriptures, Philippians 2:6; Colossians 2:9: Ephesians 5:5; 2 Thessalonians 1:12: Titus 2:13. Mark also that the great privileges and advantages which St. Paul here enumerates, offer a sufficient explanation for the fervency of his love. He was anything but an enemy of his people; his solicitude was prompted by the most sincere affection.

The promises of God concern the spiritual descendants of Abraham:

From what the apostle had said in the first verses of the chapter the Jews might argue that he was setting aside the very promises of God which he had just mentioned as a privilege of the Israelites. He therefore proceeds to show that the rejection of the Jewish people does not prove that the promises of God given to them are not being fulfilled. He makes his meaning clear: But I do not mean to say that the Word of God has fallen to the ground, has come to nothing. The promise of God that Israel was to be the people of God and the bearer of the prophecy concerning Christ was still valid and reliable. The Prophet of Nazareth was the Savior of Israel also, He was to be given to all children of Abraham. And yet the external Israel has become a curse and an abomination before the Lord. This apparent contradiction Paul now solves: For not all that are of Israel, that belong to the Jewish race by carnal descent and relationship, are really Israel in the sense in which God uses the expression, meaning the spiritual descendants of Israel, those who followed the patriarch in his faith. Neither are those that are the seed, the children of Abraham according to the flesh, all children in truth, and acknowledged as such by God; but: In Isaac shall be named to thee seed, Genesis 21:12; after Isaac shall thy seed be called; Isaac’s descendants, speaking literally, are to be considered the true children of Abraham. A mere carnal descent from the patriarchs cannot be made a basis of boasting, for Ishmael was rejected in spite of his natural descent from Abraham, and therefore God may well reject the Jews, though they can trace their lineage back to Abraham.

In addition to the proof from history to which Paul has just referred, he now brings out the spiritual meaning contained in the promise of God to Abraham: That is to say, Not the children of the flesh, that are born according to the regular course of nature, are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned for seed, as the true descendants of Abraham. For the word of promise is this: According to this time, the time required by the course of nature, I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. Viewed from the historical side only, these words, Genesis 18:10, might mean that Isaac was born by virtue of a special promise. But the apostle includes here the wider, spiritual sense. The children of the promise are those that have accepted the promise, the prophecy and message of the Messiah, by faith, Galatians 4:24-28. In this sense Isaac is the type of the spiritual children of promise, those that have become children of God by virtue of their acceptance of the divine promise in Christ Jesus, the believers of all time. So the trend of Paul’s argument is, that just as God made a distinction between the children, the offspring of Abraham, so He is discriminating still; the fact that many people, the great majority of the Jews, do not receive the Gospel and are cast away by God no more proves that the promise has failed than the fact that God of old chose Isaac only and set aside Ishmael.

An additional example of rejection:

To give additional corroboration to his statements, Paul introduces another example from the history of the patriarchs: But not only this. The instance just cited is not the only one; Rebecca also furnishes evidence for the point in question. “In the former case it might be supposed that Isaac was chosen because he was the son of Sarah, a free woman, and the legitimate wife of Abraham, whereas Ishmael was the son of a maidservant.” (Hodge.) But here such a supposition would not hold. For Jacob and Esau had one father, one mother, and were twin sons, children of the same conception and birth. There was, therefore, only one point, humanly speaking, in which a preference might be shown, and that was by reason of the right of the first-born. But this very factor was disregarded by God when it was said to Rebecca: The greater, the older, shall serve the smaller, the younger, Genesis 25:21-26. By the will of God and through His power Jacob, the younger, representing the Jewish nation, received the promise of God, became the bearer of the Messianic prophecy, while Esau, the older, representing the Edomites, was not a member of the chosen people of God. This general statement regarding the preference of God and His deliberate choice is explained and placed into its relation to the argument of the apostle by three modifying clauses. The first is: For although they were not yet born, neither had done anything good or bad. This is for the information of people that were not acquainted with the situation and might therefore think that the decree of God was determined by the actions of the two sons. God in no way considered the natural condition or conduct of Esau and Jacob. The second explanation is: That the decree of God according to choice might remain. God had said to Rebecca that the older would serve the younger, in order that the purpose of God according to election might stand, be fulfilled and realized. God had firmly determined to accept Jacob’s offspring as His people and to reveal to them His judgments and testimonies, according to which the Savior of the world should issue from Jacob. This was a selection, or choice; God chose the younger son of Rebecca for His purpose. Jacob, not Esau, was to be the progenitor of the people of God, was to transmit the promise of the inheritance, was to be the forefather of the Redeemer Himself. The third modifying clause is: Not of works, but of Him that called. The statement of God to Rebecca was not made on the basis of works, not in consideration of a future better conduct of the younger son, but solely by reason of Him that called, because God, in His sovereign freedom, chose to make Jacob the bearer of the promise; by His words to the mother, God installed Jacob in his office as patriarch. And the call of Jacob was the consequence, the realization, of the selection of God.

The truth thus brought out is further confirmed by a passage from the Old Testament Scriptures: Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated, Malachi 1:2-3. The special distinction which was conferred upon Jacob according to the sovereign will of God was denied to Esau. Scripture here speaks in accord with a man’s manner of judging the situation; in the case of men such treatment as is here described would be the effect of love and hatred; with God it is the manifestation of gracious love in the one case and the withholding of the same in the other. God bestowed upon Jacob and his descendants the prerogative of His revelation and of His presence, according to which He accepted the Jews as His people and entrusted to them His Word and promise. The entire passage, therefore, does not refer to the election of grace unto salvation, but only to the relative position of the Israelites and the Edomites over against the history of salvation. Ishmael as well as Esau may very well have been saved; there is no passage in Scriptures which compels us to assume their final condemnation. But the general trend of Paul’s argument stands and is confirmed by this historical reference. Esau, being excluded from the inheritance of the promise, offers evidence of the fact that not all Israelites that are descendants of Abraham are Israelites in the true sense of the word. And even as Jacob was chosen by God for his prominent position in the history of salvation without any merit or worthiness in himself, so the spiritual children of God, the believers, are chosen from the midst of redeemed humanity by the merciful election of God.

---

Verses 14-33

The divine sovereignty and its result

A serious objection answered:

What inference shall we draw from the argument as presented in the first part of the chapter? The apostle makes ready to meet an objection which he anticipates, not only on the part of the Jews, but on the part of every person that might read these words, namely, that the sovereign freedom of God is essentially unjust. He shows that God does not act unjustly in His sovereign choice, since He claims for Himself in Scriptures the liberty both to favor and to harden as He will. With horror, therefore, the apostle rejects the insinuation: Surely we cannot say that there is unrighteousness with God? By no means! The principles which the sovereign God chooses for His own actions cannot be unjust, even if our weak human understanding should feel inclined to draw that conclusion. And the apostle quotes a passage from the solemn interview of God with Moses, Exodus 33:18-19, to prove His contention. God there said to Moses: Mercy I will show to whomsoever I will show mercy, and compassion I will have upon whomsoever I will have compassion. The mercy and compassion of God have their foundation in God only, in His mercy and compassion; they depend solely upon His own sovereign will; He is responsible to no one outside of Himself; He must render an account to no one but Himself; He is under no obligation to any man. It is important to note that these words were spoken in the case of Moses, for in His case, if in that of any person in the world, the Lord might have been induced to make an exception. But since the same rule was applied in his case as in that of all other men, Paul concludes: So, then, it is not a matter of him that wills nor of him that runs, but of God that manifests mercy. In no way is the merciful application of God’s compassion dependent upon the efforts and endeavors of men, but solely upon God. And what God thus declares to be right and good by that token is right and good. The apostle rests his case upon two assumptions, namely, that the Scripture from which he quotes is the Word of God, and that no act of God can be actually unrighteous. And so he has answered every objection.

But still Paul is not satisfied. He wants to demonstrate also from the case of one that has experienced God’s wrath and displeasure that there is no unrighteousness and injustice in God. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, Exodus 9:16: To this end have I had thee arise, come forward, appear in history, that I might show in thee My power, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth. That was the reason why the Pharaoh of Scriptures appeared on the stage of history, that he might be an example of the revelation of God’s power, the power which is able to effect the destruction of obstinate sinners. And this design of God having been accomplished, Exodus 9:15-17, the account of the punishment of Pharaoh and the deliverance of the children of Israel was spread far and wide among the heathen nations and served to establish the judgment and justice, the glory of God. And so Moses concludes, taking Pharaoh as a type of the hardened sinners: So, then, God has mercy upon whom He will, but whom He will He hardens. The example of Pharaoh shows the terrible effect of self-hardening. God has thoughts of grace and mercy toward all men, He seriously wants the salvation of all men. He offers His gifts of mercy to all without exception, 1 Timothy 2:4; Romans 11:32; Ezekiel 33:11. God had extended His call also to Pharaoh; He sent His messengers to him, He pleaded with him, He chastised him to lead him to the way of repentance and righteousness. But the proud king refused to heed each and every offer; he deliberately turned from the attempts of God to direct his feet to the way of peace. And therefore God finally delivered him to his evil mind and intention; He withdrew His hand, His saving grace, from him. That was the judgment by which the heart of Pharaoh was hardened ^■618 .

Silencing the reasonable objector:

Paul here introduces the objection, not of a humble seeker after truth, but of a truly modern faultfinder, who prides himself upon his intellect and logic. Hearing that God withdraws His gracious hand from the hardened sinner, such a one might ask, Why does God go on finding fault? For His expressed will, who will withstand? The blasphemous objector presents the thought that, if God seriously wanted to manifest His grace and mercy to all men, He certainly could do so. And who could resist Him? The answer is implied: No one! If God employs His sovereign majesty and glory in the performance of any work, His almighty power will always bring the attempt to a successful conclusion. But God does not choose to deal with men in this manner in the matter of their salvation. He works through the means of the Gospel and the Sacraments, without any arbitrary application of sovereign power. If a person, therefore, consistently rejects the means of grace and refuses to heed all the attempts of God, in whatever way shown, then his self-hardening is justly punished by the withdrawal of God’s grace, and he has only himself to blame for his damnation. God is not responsible for evil, and the blame for a person’s hardening cannot be laid to His charge.

The apostle, therefore, does not even choose to show the fallacy and foolishness of the opponent’s argument, but introduces a counter-question containing a distinct reproof for the irreverent spirit with which men judge the acts of God: Yes indeed, man, who are you that reply to God? How will any mere man dare to call God to account or to question His justice? Man’s insignificance and weakness in comparison with the perfection of the great God is so great that even the suspicion as though He were in any way guilty of injustice is irreverence and presumption. Surely the thing formed will not say to him that formed it, Why do you make me thus! Or has not the potter power over the clay out of the same lump or mass to make one vessel to honor, the other to dishonor? The apostle places an alternative before the eyes of his opponent, either to recognize the absolute authority of God in silence, or to make the preposterous claim that the potter has no power over the clay which he uses to form vessels therefrom. The figure employed by the apostle is one often found in the Old Testament, and in similar thought connections, Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 45:9; Isaiah 64:8 ^■619 ; Jeremiah 18:6. The very thought that a vessel made by a potter should object to the form and to the intended use for which it is designed seems so foolish that no answer is necessary. But just as preposterous it is, according to Paul’s argument, for any person in the world to call God to account for the manner in which He governs the world. God, as Creator and Sovereign, has the right to have mercy upon whom He will, and to harden whom He will, in the sense as shown above. The apostle does not go beyond that fact, nor does he enter the realm of speculation. He wants no conclusions drawn that tend to provoke rebellion. Note: For a Christian to indulge in speculation regarding doctrines which God has not revealed in His Word is not only a waste of time, but very often leads to a false understanding of the truths that are plainly set forth in the infallible Book of God.

God’s power exerted in the interest of men:

If the question is one merely of right on the part of God, then the answer can be only that which St. Paul gave, Romans 9:19-21. But a different question entirely is that, whether God makes use of this absolute sovereignty and power with regard to the eternal fate of man, his salvation or condemnation. But if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has borne in much long-suffering the vessels of wrath destined to condemnation — ! Will the reasonable objections still be maintained? Although God, in carrying out the judgment of hardening and condemnation upon the sinners, thus wanted to exhibit His wrath and make known His power, yet He bore the vessels of this wrath previously with the greatest patience. Men had incurred God’s wrath, they deserved the full measure of His indignation and anger. But the Lord was full of mercy and long-suffering; His patience had the purpose of leading the sinners to repentance, 2 Peter 3:9. Even though the sinners were altogether fitted for destruction, still God had patience with them; the measure of their transgression is full to overflowing, and yet God does not pour out upon them the vials of His wrath. He leaves no stone unturned in the effort to bring them to their senses. This is the other side of the essence of God, in which His love and mercy comes into consideration. This is the manner in which the patience of God is manifested, as many examples from history will demonstrate. And these facts take away all strength from the opponent’s argument.

But God had also a second object in view in enduring the vessels of wrath: In order to make known the wealth of His glory upon the vessels of mercy which He has prepared before unto glory, us, whom He also has called, not only of Jews, but also of Gentiles. The very fact that God showed such an abundance of patience in the case of the vessels of wrath incidentally had the object to give a proof and manifestation of His glory upon the vessels of mercy, the believers, in whom His glorious purpose is realized. By calling the believers from the midst of both the Jews and the Gentiles, by converting them to Christ, He has glorified Himself, Ephesians 1:6; His work has redounded to His own praise and honor. For by the call of God the vessels of mercy have received His mercy, He has made them the recipients and bearers of His grace in Jesus Christ. And the same people have been prepared beforehand for the glory of heaven, Matthew 25:34; both their call and their entrance into glory is a result of God’s counsel of grace. Thus God glorified Himself upon the vessels of mercy through the manifestation of His grace, and at the same time He gathered for Himself, from Jews and Gentiles, a people that here sees and enjoys the abundance of His goodness and mercy and will finally behold His glory in all eternity.

These facts St. Paul now substantiates by a reference to the Old Testament Scriptures, giving first of all a free quotation from Hosea 2:23, to show that God’s people were to be gathered from the Gentiles also: I will call that which is not My people My people, and her who is not beloved, beloved; and it will be in the place where it was said to them, My people you are not, there will they be called the sons of the living God. Cp. 1 Peter 2:10. Although the prophet refers to the readmission of Israel as the people of God, Paul’s quotation of the passage in favor of the acceptance of the Gentiles is fully justified, for the words incidentally indicate the manner in which God at all times accepts strangers into communion with Him. Out of the land of the heathen, from out of the midst of the Gentiles, from all nations on earth, the Lord wanted to gather and is gathering to Himself His Church. He is extending His mercy, calling, converting the heathen also, making them His own, to live under Him in His kingdom, to serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

But St. Paul brings quotations also to substantiate his statement that God is calling the members of His Church from the midst of the Jews. He refers to Isaiah 10:22-23, where Isaiah calls out over Israel: If the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved; for the word, the oracle of God, is brought to an end and fully decided upon in righteousness; for the judgment will be quickly carried out. It is a final and decisive work which the Lord executes in the land by saving the remnant of Israel in the midst of the general destruction which comes upon the obstinate sinners. When the great mass of Israel is struck by the tidal wave of God’s judgment of destruction, the Lord will save a remnant, will bring a few of them to the knowledge of their Savior, the true Messiah. The second quotation from Isaiah 1:9, is in verbal agreement with the Greek translation: If the Lord of Sabaoth had not left us a seed, as Sodom we should have become and been made like unto Gomorrah. Over the great majority of the Jewish people the judgment of God was poured out from the time of Isaiah to the final destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. According to man’s judgment, the end would have been the annihilation of the Jewish race, as in the fate which overtook Sodom and Gomorrah. But the Lord preserved for Himself a seed, an escaped part, a remnant, saved for future growth, the little band of true Israelites that accepted Jesus as their Redeemer. And thus, just as Paul contends, the Lord has chosen His own from both Gentiles and Jews, gathering them unto Himself into His Church. Therefore, also, every objection to the work of God must be withdrawn, all offense must be acknowledged to be wrong and foolish. The facts here presented are bound to remove all false conceptions of God. If we but keep the love and mercy of God before our eyes, as we have experienced them so abundantly, then the only sentiment to be found in our hearts will be a feeling of joy and gratitude over the miracles of God’s grace, as shown to us daily.

The conclusion:

The apostle had shown that God was building His Church by calling His own from among the Gentiles and from a small remnant of Israel, the great majority of the Jewish people, the nation as such, being rejected. What conclusion is to be drawn from these facts, which agreed exactly with the prophecies? Paul brings the answer in the form of a paradox, in which the words sound like a contradiction: The Gentiles, which have not followed after righteousness, obtained righteousness, but the righteousness of faith. The Gentiles made no attempt to become perfect by the keeping of the Law, they did not concern themselves about the righteousness of life as required by God’s holy Law. But in the Word of the Gospel the righteousness was placed before them, not that they were made holy and perfect, but that they were given righteousness by faith. God wrought faith in their hearts through the Gospel, and through this faith they seized righteousness; God declared them to be righteous, He looked upon them as though they were perfectly pure and righteous. And this fact the apostle mentions for the sake of emphasizing the condition of the Jews. But Israel, following after, earnestly seeking, the law of righteousness, did not attain to that law. The Jews had the Mosaic Law, and they believed that they could fulfil this Law perfectly and thus obtain the righteousness which would make them acceptable before God through their works. But all these efforts proved futile; Israel did not come up to the demands of the Law, it could not come up to the requirements which it sought. An external veneer of right living the Jews managed to acquire, but the true spiritual fulfilment of the Law they did not attain. Since, however, perfect righteousness is a condition of salvation, the rejection of the Jews, wrath and condemnation, followed as a matter of course.

And the connection is brought out in the last verses. Why did Israel never attain to that point that it was in perfect agreement with the Law? Why did the Jews fail to secure righteousness? Because they sought after it not by faith, but, as people will commonly say, as though they could obtain it, by works of the Law. The Law being inadequate for the needs of the sinners, God had proposed a method of justification which alone was suitable for sinners. But of this they were wilfully ignorant; they rejected the perfect righteousness prepared for them; they refused to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And thus they stumbled over the stone of offense, the Messiah Himself; as had been predicted, they took offense at the plan of salvation revealed in Jesus Christ and made possible by His vicarious sacrifice. They stumbled over Him and thereby came to grief. And thus the prophecy of Isaiah 28:16; Isaiah 8:13-15, was fulfilled, as its content is briefly given by Paul: Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and he that believes on Him shall not be put to shame. The precious stone which the Lord laid as a foundation and corner-stone in His spiritual temple is Jesus, the only Source of salvation. But Israel has repudiated the redemption of this Messiah, and therefore He has become to the disobedient, unbelieving people a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. That is God’s judgment upon the wilful despisers of His grace and method of salvation: they take offense at Christ and the Gospel and thus are finally brought to a point where they can no longer accept the redemption and are given up to condemnation and destruction. Note: He that rejects the plan and method of salvation proposed by God, and tries to obtain righteousness by his own works and fulfilment of the Law, will find himself in the position of the unbelieving Jews and will share their condemnation.

Summary

The apostle shows that the promise of God to the patriarchs had not been without effect, but had found its application in the spiritual children of Abraham; that God indeed has sovereign power to show mercy and to harden, but that He actually has shown great patience toward the disobedient people, and has gathered His Church out of Gentiles and Jews, the nation as such being rejected on account of its repudiation of the Messiah.

Verses 1-21

The Jews the cause of their own rejection

Their refusal to accept the righteousness of God:

The apostle continues the line of thought which he had begun in Romans 9:30. But he cannot go on without giving expression to the deep grief which the situation causes him. He assures his brethren, his readers in the congregation at Rome and elsewhere, that the salvation of the Jews is a matter of prayerful concern to him, that he feels anything but satisfaction at the necessity devolving upon him to speak of their rejection by God. His kind and earnest desire in their behalf, the supreme wish of his heart, which finds its expression in his supplication to God, is their salvation. That is the object which he has in mind as he makes his plea before God, as he intercedes in their behalf, that they might obtain salvation. Far from desiring to exaggerate and to play up the evil of their conduct, the apostle is rather inclined to give them full credit for whatever may be commendable in their behavior. He bears them witness, he is perfectly willing to testify in their behalf that they have a zeal for God, toward God. So much one must acknowledge and yield to them, that they are not indifferent to God and to His glory. For centuries they had held fast to the doctrine and cult of their fathers as they understood it, even enduring bloody persecutions for the sake of Jehovah. And they believed that by this insistence upon the outward formalities of religion they were meriting salvation, Acts 26:7. But in spite of all this well-meant effort their zeal was not in accordance with correct knowledge. Their lack of proper knowledge was not only an intellectual, but also a moral fault. In spite of all the teaching on the part of the prophets, they persisted in their external worship, refusing to accept the proper knowledge of God. A service of God as they had developed it for themselves they adhered to, and all other opinions were rejected by them. But the true zeal for God and His glory stays within the bounds of God’s revelation and does not follow human opinion.

And now Paul pictures the contrast to his own desire and prayer in the behavior of the Jews according to their false knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they have not placed themselves under the righteousness of God. Instead of the proper knowledge the Jews showed ignorance; instead of having the true righteousness, they were bound to bring out their own. God has found a way of justifying sinners; He has prepared for them a perfect righteousness: He offers them this righteousness in the Gospel. But because the Jews are wilfully ignorant of this righteousness of God, because they maliciously ignore His justification and are determined to set up their own righteousness of works, therefore they would not and did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God, the divine order and arrangement for the salvation of men, the way of justification. And therefore all their zeal for God will avail them nothing, since they refuse to see the one way of salvation, by the acceptance of the righteousness of God through faith.

And Paul brings another proof that the pursuit of one’s own righteousness by the observance of the Law is a mistake and cannot result in salvation: For the end of the Law is Christ unto righteousness to every one that believes. Christ is the end of the Law: He has fulfilled all its demands perfectly, in every detail, and therefore in Christ the Law has found its end, its termination. That the Law still has its value, even in the Church of the New Testament, the apostle has shown above, Romans 3:20; Romans 7:7-25. The Law, being fulfilled by Christ, can no more accuse and condemn us, for full and complete righteousness is now present and ready for every one that believes; that is the aim of Christ’s being the end of the Law. A person need but accept the fulfilment of the Law, the perfect obedience rendered to the Law by Christ, and he will, by such faith, be the possessor of the righteousness of Christ, imputed to him in and by the act of justification. And this is true not because of any intrinsic merit in the act of faith, but because it is the only means of apprehending and appropriating the righteousness of Christ as gained for us. In this way Romans 10:4 is a summary of the entire Gospel-message.

The universality of the righteousness of faith proved by the Old Testament:

The apostle had clearly shown that faith in the righteousness provided by God was at all times a condition of salvation. And he now brings proof from the Old Testament which clearly indicates that Moses taught the distinction between the two forms of righteousness. For Moses writes concerning the righteousness of the Law, Leviticus 18:5, that the man who doeth it will live in it. Every person that keeps all the commandments and precepts of the Law perfectly will by that token obtain life, the true, eternal life, Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10; James 2:10; Luke 10:28. That is the prerequisite, the one condition upon which salvation depends: perfect obedience to the Law. Not, indeed, as though any person had ever been saved by the keeping of the Law, for the simple reason that no one, since the fall of Adam, ever did fulfil its precepts. The righteousness of the Law does not exist in reality, but is a demand of God upon all men, a condition of salvation, just as Moses writes of it in the passage quoted. Moses describes the righteousness of the Law, but he does not assert that it exists in any human being. If a person thus understands the situation, he will despair of the righteousness of the Law and turn to the righteousness of faith as the one possibility of being saved.

This contrast is brought out in the next verses, where the content of Deuteronomy 30:11-14 is brought in a free rendering. But the righteousness which is of faith has this to say, the righteousness which God imputes by faith describes its own character in words taken from the writings of Moses, but applied to the situation as created by the work of Christ. The advice which this righteousness gives, is this: Do not say in thine heart: Who will ascend up into heaven? or: Who will descend into the abyss? That the righteousness of the Law, by means of works, is unattainable, the words of Moses had implied. But how about the righteousness of faith? No one should have the idea or propose to himself: Who will go up into heaven, in order to get Christ down from heaven? Who will go down into the deep, into the place of the dead, to fetch Christ from the dead? Such desponding and anxious inquiries are altogether foolish. It is not necessary to go to all that trouble, it is not required to fetch Christ from a great distance, for He is not so unattainable. On the contrary, the Redeemer is present; Christ has come down from heaven, He has arisen from the dead for the salvation of all men; He has done His work on earth and fulfilled the righteousness of the Law. In and with Christ perfect righteousness has been gained for all men. And therefore the righteousness of faith has a bold and joyful admonition: Near to thee is the Word, in thy mouth and in thy heart: this is the Word of the faith which we proclaim. For Christ, of whom he has spoken in the first part of his admonition, Paul substitutes the Word of the Gospel, the Word which had been entrusted to him to proclaim, the Word of faith, which should simply be believed, whose content, Jesus Christ, should be accepted by faith. Christ and His full salvation is always present with us, in the Gospel-message which is proclaimed, in the Scriptures which are read, in the texts from the Bible which are memorized. And nothing more is needed than faith in this Word, assent to its content, and confidence in its promises.

The apostle further explains this statement and applies it to the average believer in his life: Because, if thou with thy mouth confessest Jesus Christ, and believest in thine heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved; for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth one confesses unto salvation. Faith and confession are here mentioned as the two requisites for salvation. So near is the redemption of Jesus to every person in the world, in the Word of the Gospel-message, that it is necessary only to believe with the heart and to confess with the mouth in order to become a partaker of all its blessings. If any person believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth that Jesus is the Lord and that God has raised Him from the dead, then he has the faith which will give him salvation. Note that Paul here represents Jesus the Lord as the summary and content of the Gospel, of faith and salvation. The thought is so important for every person in the wide world that Paul repeats it in a parallel sentence, placing a heart believing unto righteousness and a mouth making confession unto salvation side by side. The faith of the heart is sufficient for the attainment of righteousness, and the confession of the mouth is sufficient for the attainment of salvation. The faith of the heart, as expressed in the confession of the mouth, brings righteousness and salvation to the believer, and no work and merit will have this result. Just as the heart and the mouth are mentioned together, so faith and confession cannot be separated: faith must find its expression in the confession of the mouth. “The faith of the heart, followed by the confession of the mouth, results in righteousness and salvation.” Paul is speaking of a true and living faith, not of a hypocritical makeshift and substitute. In Christ, in the Word of salvation, God has brought salvation to all men, and He recognizes only that confidence of the heart which, by His working, actually appropriates the redemption and makes an open confession of that fact before all men.

The testimony of Scripture for the righteousness of faith:

The form or method of salvation as taught in the Gospel is not only the sole way to get to heaven, but it is also the only method which can be made applicable to Jew and Gentile alike: to be saved by faith. This St. Paul substantiates with a passage from Scripture, a name used throughout to designate the collection of Old Testament writings as in use in the midst of the Jews. It is a sweeping, all-inclusive statement: Every one that believeth on Him shall not be brought to shame, Isaiah 28:16. The two thoughts which the apostle has in mind are here clearly brought out. Whosoever, every one, no matter of what race or nationality he is, no matter what his antecedents have been; there is no difference. And whosoever believes: faith is the one means of securing the blessings of salvation, it is the one condition of acceptance by God. And the apostle explains: For there is no difference between the Jew on the one side and the Greek on the other. So far as their relation to salvation, to its need, and to the method of obtaining it, is concerned, God will accept either one, just as soon as he believes. For the same one, Jesus Christ, is Lord of all, a possessor of riches, of inestimable spiritual blessings and benefits to all and for all that call upon Him. Christ is the Lord and Savior of all believers, and His command of spiritual means and riches is such as to make Him able to dispense the riches of His grace to each and every one, and to all together, that call upon Him in faith, who worship Him as their Redeemer. For that the salvation of their souls is the object of their prayer is evident from the words: Every one that calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Cp. Joel 2:32. To call upon the name of Jehovah is identical with calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians call upon, worship, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as that of God. Their worshiping is a fruit, an expression of their faith. And by that faith, expressed in this confession, they take hold upon eternal salvation, they are saved by that Lord in whom they have put their trust. Thus the apostle brings out the universality of salvation, of the fact that it is intended for all men, that the Gospel, therefore, must be proclaimed in the whole world.

This is the thought which is now expanded, the necessity of universal Gospel-preaching:

The apostle here explains what is implied in calling upon the Lord, Romans 10:13. He had stated that this worship of the Lord in faith was a condition of salvation, and he now follows up that thought, showing what is involved in that word of the Lord. How is it possible for them to call upon Him in whom they do not believe? Worship is an act of faith; therefore, where faith is not present, the proper worship of the Lord is excluded. How is it possible for them to believe in Him of whom they have not heard, or, where they have not heard? Where the voice of Christ has not been heard in the Gospel, there faith is out of the question. And this leads to the next question: But how can they hear without one that preaches? If there is no one there to proclaim the Gospel, the hearing of the joyful message of salvation is manifestly not to be thought of. And finally: How can they preach the Gospel if they have not been sent? 1 Corinthians 1:17. If the Lord does not send preachers of the Gospel, if He does not make men’s hearts willing to prepare for the office, if He does not issue His call through the medium of the congregation or the Church, how can the office be supplied? Thus Paul, by a series of convincing logical inferences, brings out his conclusion of the duty of preaching the Gospel to all people. “As invocation implies faith, as faith implies knowledge, knowledge instruction, and instruction an instructor, so it is plain that if God would have all men to call upon Him, He designed preachers to be sent to all, whose proclamation of mercy being heard, might be believed, and, being believed, might lead men to call on Him and be saved.” (Hodge.) This reasoning agrees exactly with a prophecy of Isaiah, the present need is met by the prophetic saying, Isaiah 52:7: How beautiful the feet of those that preach the Gospel of peace, that preach the Gospel of good things! The feet of the messengers of the Gospel are lovely, because their coming is delightful, because they are eager to bring the tidings of joy. The content of their proclamation is peace, reconciliation with God through Jesus, good things, the fulness of God’s blessings through the work of Jesus. In this way the declaration of the prophet, in speaking of the joy with which the coming of the messengers of the Gospel will be received everywhere, is used to prove the necessity of preaching the Gospel to all men.

Faith and unbelief in their relation to the Gospel:

Paul had stated that the preaching of the Gospel to both the Jews and the Gentiles was in accordance with the will of God. Since He wants all men to be saved, He also wants the Gospel preached to all men. And this remains true, although not all men (with special reference to the Jews) have given obedience to the Gospel; many have rejected its beautiful message. And this behavior has also been foretold by Isaiah 53:1: Lord, who will believe our report, the message we communicate? The report, or message, of Isaiah, the evangelist of the Old Testament, is identical with the Gospel-preaching of all times; and his experience agrees with that of the apostles and preachers of the New Testament. Few, very few, are found that are willing to give ear to the message of their salvation. It is a bitter lament to which the prophet gives voice and at the same time a grievous accusation.

The apostle now draws a conclusion from the words of the prophet: So, then, faith comes through the message of preaching. Where the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, one may well expect faith to be kindled; for this preaching is the prerequisite of faith, faith depends upon the preaching of the Gospel. And preaching, in turn, is through the Word of Christ. Preaching is done by virtue of, on the basis of, the word and command of Christ, who as the Lord of the Church sends out apostles and preachers of the Gospel. The message brought by these men is thus a sure foundation of faith. All the greater, then, is the culpability of the Jews and of all unbelievers in resisting the order of salvation as fixed by God, in frustrating God’s design and preparation for their everlasting happiness.

But the apostle here himself raises an objection: But I say, have they not heard? It surely is not possible that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has never reached their ears. The apostle wants to correct the impression as though he had said too much, as though his supposition that all the Jews, even those outside of Palestine, had had a chance to hear the Gospel was wrong. But he immediately denies that such an excuse for the unbelief of the Jews may be asserted. Nay, rather: Into every land is gone forth their sound, and to the ends of the earth their words. The apostle here clothes his argument in the words of Psalm 19:4. The sound of the Gospel, the voice of the preachers of the Gospel, has gone forth into all the world; even at the time when Paul was writing, it had been carried out into practically all parts of the great Roman Empire, especially to those countries where Jews were living. The name of Christ was known throughout the civilized world. And therefore the Jews cannot excuse their unbelief with the pretext that they had had no opportunity to hear the message of the Gospel.

The apostle having thus anticipated all objections and rejected all excuses in advance, continues: But I say, did Israel not know? Surely no one will want to assume the incredible, in saying that Israel, the chosen people of God, to whom God had entrusted His Word and promises of old, did not know them, refused to acknowledge and accept them, wilfully ignored and rejected them! The question is one not only of astonishment and surprise, but also of indignation over the fact that Israel did not want to know, did not want to believe. But this behavior agrees with the prophecy of Scriptures, not only in one, but in several instances. As the first one, Moses says, Deuteronomy 32:21: I will incite you to jealousy with a nation which is not a nation, with a foolish nation I will provoke you to anger. This the Lord had spoken even through Moses. Just as the children of Israel, even in those early days, had provoked God by worshiping idols, that were not gods, He would, in turn, provoke them. In the eyes of God there was only one nation, His chosen people, the children of Israel. All the nations of the heathen did not merit that honoring title. But God would deliberately receive the people from those non-nations as His own, to the great chagrin and indignation of the Jews. Because they had shown themselves lacking in understanding, therefore the Lord would choose as His own people whom they considered foolish. Cp. Acts 13:42-52.

And Moses was not the only one that predicted the rebellion and the apostasy of the Jews. Isaiah makes a very bold statement, Isaiah 65:1-2: I have been found by those that did not seek Me, I have been revealed to them that did not ask for Me. The Lord, according to this prophecy, has manifested Himself and has permitted Himself to be found by strangers, by people that were in no communication with Him before. The heathen, originally strangers to the covenant of promise, were converted and turned to God as the message of the Gospel was brought to them. All the greater, then, is the contrast as represented by the Jews, to whom the Lord says, in the same passage: The entire day I have extended My hands toward a people that is disobedient and gainsaying. God had stretched forth His hands in a gesture of invitation, of appeal, even of supplication; He had urged the Jews time and again to return to Him, but they had wilfully spurned all His efforts in their behalf. Cp. Matthew 23:37. And the same holds true of the unbelievers of all times. God’s earnest invitation and appeal goes forth again and again: Be ye reconciled to God, and yet they reject His offers of love and eternal salvation. And therefore they have but themselves to blame when the inevitable punishment descends upon their guilty heads.

Summary

The apostle bitterly laments the fact that, while the Gentiles have accepted the righteousness of faith, Israel refused obedience to the Gospel and rejected the salvation offered to all men.

Verses 1-10

A remnant of Israel saved

Meeting a further objection:

The apostle here in his own words states a false conclusion which some of his readers might draw from his previous presentation. Is it to be inferred that God has rejected His own people, those who are in truth His own? Cp. Psalm 94:14 ^■620 . Note the emphasis on the pronoun “His.” There is a vast difference between the people of the Jews and His people Israel. Considering that fact: Is the doctrine of Paul inconsistent with the Word of God? Paul answers with great emphasis: By no means! God would be contradicting Himself were He to reject His own people. And to substantiate his words, Paul refers to his own case. He himself was an Israelite according to the flesh, the blood of the patriarchs of old flowing in his veins. He was a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob, or Israel. The fact that Paul claimed for himself a part in the kingdom of the Messiah showed that he did not teach the rejection of the true Israel.

The apostle repeats his assertion in Romans 11:2: Not did God reject His people whom He foreknew. The true Israel, the spiritual Israel, the real children of God, stood before the eyes of God from eternity as His own people, as those whom He had selected for His own, whom He, according to His eternal counsel, chose for His own. That fact makes the later rejection of the people an impossibility.

An example from history:

St. Paul quotes a Scripture-passage from Elijah, from the section of the Old Testament which treats mainly of the life and deeds of Elijah, in confirmation of his contention. Even in the darkest days of Israel there was ever a remnant, a small number of such as remained true to the Lord and were saved. The Prophet Elijah at that time had addressed himself to the Lord in a word of pleading against Israel, a form of accusation, stating in brief that the children of Israel had killed the Lord’s prophets, that they had utterly destroyed His altars, and that he, the prophet, had been left as the only one of the true believers, and even his life was in constant danger on account of their enmity and hatred, 1 Kings 19:10. King Ahab and his adulterous wife Jezebel were especially active in their efforts to extirpate the true religion in Israel. And therefore Elijah was totally discouraged, believing that the worship of the true God was practically abandoned, and that no true worshiper of God remained. But the divine oracle, or answer, showed that the situation was altogether different from his conception of it. For the Lord had left for Himself, had retained for His own, seven thousand men that had not bowed their knee to Baal, in the cult of the Phenician goddess Baaltis, or Astarte. In the midst of general apostasy and persecution the Lord had reserved for Himself these faithful few. And thus at the present time also, so St. Paul argues in conformity with Old Testament experience, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. The people of Israel in general have spurned the grace of the Lord and have been in turn rejected by Him; but a few of the nation have proved themselves true Israelites; they have accepted the Savior, they have entered the Church of Christ. And this they have done because of the election of grace, because God, in His wonderful grace and mercy, chose them to that end. Out of the mass of the children of Israel, all of them redeemed by the blood of Christ, God has selected them to become partakers of His salvation.

And the fact that this election is made on the basis of God’s grace only is brought out in its full strength by the apostle: But if out of grace, then no more out of works, since otherwise grace is no more grace. Grace ceases to be grace just as soon as the work and conduct of man is mingled with it in any way whatsoever. The terms “grace” and “works” are mutually exclusive. If the thoughts, acts, and conduct of men influenced God in His election of grace, then this election ceases to be one of grace, and the doctrine no longer belongs to the Gospel, but to the Law. If out of works, then there is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. If one wants to speak of works and of grace also, at the same time and in the same connection, there is again a contradiction in itself, because a work that does not actually obtain its object in the form of a reward no longer has merit, cannot be considered a performance which has intrinsic value. What, then, is the conclusion of the entire argument, if the assumption of Romans 11:1 cannot stand, if it cannot be true that God has rejected His own people? The situation is this: Israel, the nation as such, has not obtained that after which it strove so earnestly. The people as a whole, the nation as such, was determined to merit eternal salvation by works; but since this method is not God’s way, and since they refused to accept the method which He held out to them in the Gospel, salvation was lost to them on account of their own perverseness; their rejection is their own fault, just as it is that of all such as place their trust in their own work and self-chosen way to heaven.

The result of refusing God’s way of salvation:

Only the election, those that were elected according to God’s gracious decree, obtained salvation in Christ. But the rest, the great majority, the entire people of Israel as such, in fact, became hardened. They rejected God’s way of salvation, and therefore God rejected them; their wilful resistance to God’s will and Word was the cause of this hardening; they were the sole cause of their own downfall. And this result had been foretold by the prophets. It had been predicted, as Paul writes by combining Deuteronomy 29:4 with Isaiah 29:9-12: God has given them a spirit of torpor, eyes not to see and ears not to hear, until the present day. They have become so stunned and stupid that they simply find it impossible to understand the Word of prophecy properly. The blinding and hardening of Israel began in the days of Isaiah, it may even be said to extend back to the days of Moses; but the prophecy was fulfilled in its terrible completeness in the time of Jesus and the apostles, Matthew 13:14-15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; Acts 28:26-28. And the last quotation is from Psalm 69:22, a Messianic prophecy, where the suffering, dying Messiah laments over the shame which He is forced to endure at the hands of His enemies: May their table become a snare, a trap or net, and to a stumbling-block and to a reward of punishment to them; let their eyes be darkened not to see, and bend their back together always. The table of the enemies of Christ, their joy, delight, and happiness, should turn into a snare for their feet, to a trap, in which their feet might be caught and cause them to fall, to a chase and destruction, as the hunt becomes to the game, to a retribution, by which God would punish them for their enmity against Christ. All this is meant, of course, in a spiritual sense. The punishment of the disobedient and hostile Jews was that they became so thoroughly blinded that they could no longer see the way of salvation; that their spiritual strength was taken from them that they could no longer walk in the way of God’s commandments. Thus God gave them up to their hardened mind and withdrew His Spirit and grace from them. And even so to-day the persistently disobedient and unbelieving enemies of Christ will be punished in the way they themselves chose: abandoned by God and His Spirit, they are altogether unfit to know the truth and to come to repentance, faith, and obedience.

---

Verses 11-36

An admonition and encouragement to Gentiles and Jews

The result of Israel’s defection for the Gentiles:

The apostle here again guards against a false conclusion: Surely Israel, the great mass of the Jewish nation, did not stumble for the purpose of falling? Was the fall of the Jews, the result of their taking offense at the Messiah, a purpose and object of God, in the sense that He takes pleasure and satisfaction in their destruction? That is a gross misunderstanding of God’s essence and qualities which many people even to-day read into the arguments of Paul. And therefore he interposes a horrified: By no means! God under no circumstances purposes and plans the destruction of any man; He never takes delight in the wrong-doing and the consequent damnation of sinners. But the design which God took out of the self-imposed misfortune and condemnation of the Jews was another: that through their transgression salvation should come to the Gentiles, and that the Jews should be provoked to zeal, to be stimulated to follow. The unbelief of the Jews, their rejection of the Messiah, has resulted in this, that the Gospel of salvation was brought to the Gentiles, as the Book of Acts shows in many instances. But the fact that the Gentiles now accepted the Word of salvation had the purpose to excite the emulation of the Israelites, to urge them to follow the example of the Gentiles and also to become partakers of the redemption in Christ. In the great mass of the Jews that had not yet accepted Christ there were many that had not yet hardened their heart, but that simply followed their leaders without proper knowledge of the dangerousness of their position. Upon these, the remnant according to the election of grace, the fact that the Gentiles accepted the Gospel and the Messiah was intended to make such an impression that they would thereby be urged also to accept the salvation of Christ.

And a further result of the transgression of Israel is noted: Furthermore, if their trespass is the wealth of the world, and their diminution the wealth of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness! The transgression of the Jews, their denial and rejection of the Messiah, has brought these same riches, salvation in Christ, to the world at large; it was due largely to their defection that the apostles were obliged to turn to the Gentiles. And so the loss of the Jews, what they lost, their damage, their hurt, what they deprived themselves of by their foolishness, was the gain of the world outside of Israel, it brought salvation to the Gentiles. But if this is true, how much more will the fulness of the Jews result in the benefit of the Gentiles! The fulness is that which is filled up, made full, completed, the sum total of those out of the midst of the Jewish people who are under the election of grace, Romans 11:5. The fact that their full number is gradually reached, that the body of believers from their midst is made complete, will result in a further gain for the world. This is treated at length in the next section.

An admonition to the Gentiles:

The apostle in the entire section now following addresses himself to his Gentile readers. In so far as he is indeed the apostle of the Gentiles, he intends to praise his ministry. He wants the Gentiles to remember that he, in his capacity as apostle of the heathen, brings glory upon this office of his in its faithful execution also by the fact that he thereby wants to arouse and stimulate the Jews, and thus, if possible, to save some of them. The Gentile Christians should know that the apostle, in the midst of his earnest work in their behalf, always feels responsibility for the Jews also. If he can but succeed in inciting emulation among them that are of his flesh, at least some of them, bring them to the knowledge and acceptance of their Savior and thus bestow upon them the blessings of salvation: that is the apostle’s earnest desire. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life out of death? With the rejection of the Jews, by their own fault, the reconciliation could be made known and thus realized in the wider circles of the whole world. The Gospel of the reconciliation of God with man, as accomplished in Christ, was carried out into the heathen world as a result of the rejection of the Jews. But if this punishment of the Jews had such a blessed result, what blessings, what life will flow from their acceptance, from the conversion of such as might still be gained through the method employed by the apostle! When the remnant out of Israel has been converted to the Messiah, then the object of God will have been realized, then will come the glorious life in and with Christ through all eternity, then both Jews and Greeks will inherit, through faith, the Kingdom which was prepared for them before the foundation of the world. Note: History repeats itself, also with regard to the reception of the Word of God and its reaction on the behavior of men. The Gospel is taken from the ungrateful and given to such as are more appreciative of its value. And in many instances the establishment of new congregations, where the first love brought forth rich fruits, has reacted favorably upon older congregations in stimulating new interest for the work of the kingdom of God.

A warning to the Gentile Christians:

The apostle here guards against a danger, namely, that of misunderstanding his previous exposition. For what he had written regarding the fall and the consequent rejection of the Jews might cause such Gentile Christians as were easily guided by their flesh to be filled with pride and overweeningness and to give way to boasting at the expense of the Jews. Paul first of all, by way of introduction, states a general truth: If the first of the dough is holy, then also the entire mass; and if the root is holy, then also the branches. The apostle alludes, in the first half of the sentence, to the fact that the first of the dough, the first dough made out of the flour of every new harvest, had to be given unto the Lord, Numbers 15:19-21. This first part of the dough and the entire offering became holy by being consecrated to the Lord. The picture in the second part of the sentence has the same meaning: the root being consecrated to God and accepted by Him, the branches will also be acceptable to Him. The root of the true Israel, of the body which is and always will be consecrated to the Lord, are the patriarchs, and the branches are the true spiritual children of the patriarchs, together with some that had the appearance of true branches, but whose deceptive nature was discovered in time, with the result that they were removed. The olive-tree therefore represents the entire mass of the true spiritual children of Abraham, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, of all times. Every person that accepts the Messiah by faith is a branch of this trunk or body, becomes a partaker of the divine promise and blessings.

Keeping well within this picture, the apostle brings out an earnest admonition to every overweening Christian from among the Gentiles: If some of the branches are broken off, and thou, as a wild olive-tree, wert grafted in among them and didst become a joint partaker of the root of the fatness of the olive-tree, then do not boast against the branches. The breaking off of the branches took place at the same time that the twigs of the wild olive-tree were grafted in. The advent of Christ into the world brought on a crisis for all the Jews. A great number of them took offense at the crucified Christ and at the preaching of the Cross, and the result was that they were broken off the tree of the Church and removed. For with the coming of the Messiah the Church of believers had become the Church of Jesus Christ, and every one that did not accept Jesus as the promised Messiah excluded himself from the communion of saints, for the touchstone of faith consisted in applying the Messianic prophecies to Jesus of Nazareth. In the place of such branches, however, that had lost their character and therefore been removed, the Lord grafted in some branches from a wild olive-tree; He called some Gentiles to the fellowship of the saints. They were taken from the midst of the lost and condemned heathen world, they were received into the communion of the Lord and thus became living members of His congregation. And at the same time they became partakers of all the benefits of salvation, of reconciliation with the Father, of remission of sins, of full and complete justification, of victory over death, and of eternal bliss. The thought which the apostle brings out is this, that the Jews were the original children of God, that they were the first possessors of these advantages and privileges, that to them as to the first the blessings of God in Jesus were revealed, Matthew 8:11; John 10:16; Ephesians 2:11-22. And therefore the Gentile Christian should guard very carefully against boasting at the expense of the Jews, against the very ones that had foolishly neglected to accept the Messiah in the fulness of time. To boast of possessions which have not been merited, but are the gift of free grace, instead of giving all glory to God alone, is always foolish and reprehensible, but to do so at the expense of those that have been rejected because they, in their blindness, excluded themselves from the blessings of the Kingdom, is the very height of blamable behavior.

The apostle, therefore, follows up his warning with an explanation: But if thou shouldst boast (if you cannot resist the temptation to exhibit vainglory), then remember, not thou bearest the root, but the root thee. The root consists of the patriarchs of Israel, they having been made so by God’s Word and promise. And this same strength is keeping the branches alive. The Jews were the channel of blessings to the Gentiles; salvation was from the Jews. Therefore all ungenerous and self-confident boasting on the part of the Gentile Christians and of the Christians of all times should be excluded. And if one of them should want to object in a spirit of the same ungenerous self-complacency: The branches were broken out in order that I might be grafted in; then Paul has the answer: Very well, let that stand, it is true enough that the rejection of the Jews after their repudiation of Christ resulted in the conversion of the Gentiles; but this was not because the heathen were better by nature than the Jews or because the Lord took special pleasure in the Gentiles. Such an inference would be altogether wrong. Not because they were Jews had the Lord rejected them, but through their unbelief, because of their unbelief they were broken off; because they refused to accept the Savior the Lord had rejected them, since faith is the only means by which the relation with God may be maintained. The Gentiles were in a condition of grace and salvation only by faith, the gift of God’s mercy. Instead, then, of boasting, of being proud in their own conceit, of forming an unwarranted estimate of their own importance in the eyes of God, they should fear, Philippians 2:12-13. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He might not spare thee either. Since the Gentile Christian is in a state of grace only by faith, and since faith excludes boasting, he had better beware lest in his pride he fall away from faith and share the very fate of those whom he was tempted to despise. As a matter of fact, the Jews were more likely to be spared than the Gentiles, all things being equal, since they had so long been connected with Him in a most intimate manner.

The apostle now draws a conclusion from the facts just presented: Behold, therefore, the kindness and the severity of God; upon those that have fallen severity, but upon thee the kindness of God, if thou hold closely to His kindness, since, in the opposite case, thou, too, shalt be cast off, Romans 11:22. In the case of those that have fallen, whose unbelief has excluded them from the grace and the fellowship of God and the saints, the severity of God has been manifested. In His holiness and justice God is obliged to show His displeasure to those that leave the fellowship in which they enjoyed His grace and kindness, by withdrawing from them all His mercy and love. But in the case of the Gentile Christian, God has shown His goodness and kindness in taking him out of the midst of godlessness and enmity toward God and accepting him as a member of His Church. For such a person, therefore, it is a matter of working out his salvation with fear and trembling, of holding fast to the goodness of God, lest he also be cast off by God, John 15:1-6. If Christians forget that they owe their state of grace, their membership in the congregation of the Lord, to the kindness and mercy of God only and presume to elevate themselves over others, especially by despising the rejected ones, then they, in turn, deny the kindness of God, lose their faith, and are cast off. In their case they challenge the goodness of God to be turned into severity.

And there is another point which must not be overlooked by the Gentile Christian if he feels presumptive thoughts rising in his heart: But they also, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in again, for God is fully able to graft them in again, Romans 11:23. Those that are standing to-day may very easily and quickly fall, especially if thoughts of pride and self-complacency fill their hearts. On the other hand, the mercy of God will quickly turn to those that have fallen if they do not remain in their unbelief, if they have not hardened their hearts to the point of final rejection at the hands of God. If they but heed His call and turn to Jesus as their Savior, God will gladly receive them again as members of His Church and grant them all the rights and privileges of the other believers. And what is more, this event, if considered by itself, is more probable than the calling of the Gentiles. For if thou, cut out of thy natural tree, the wild olive-tree, wert, contrary to thy nature, grafted into the good olive-tree, how much more will those that are branches by nature be grafted into their own olive-tree! Romans 11:24. The Gentile Christians were the branches from the wild olive-tree, having no natural connection with the good olive tree into which they were grafted; the Jews were the natural branches. Now what is in accordance with nature will happen far more easily than that which is against nature. Therefore the reunion of the Jews with the body of the Church of God, which they have foolishly left, could be accomplished far more easily, according to all probability, than the union of the Gentile Christians with a community with which they never did have anything in common. Not that the Jews, as a race, were more susceptible to the Gospel than the Gentiles; for Jews and Gentiles are alike unfit and unable to save themselves or to perform the slightest meritorious work for their own salvation, a truth which is valid and should be heeded for all times.

The fulness of the Gentiles and all Israel:

There is here no basis for the millennial dream of the final conversion of all Jews, but the apostle speaks of Israel in the same sense that he has employed almost exclusively in the entire letter. Paul had stated that the total hardening would not take place in the case of all the members of the Jewish race, but that there is a possibility of the conversion of some of them throughout the entire New Testament era. But in connection herewith the apostle intends to impart to his brethren, the members of the congregation at Rome, which was composed largely of Gentile Christians, a secret: I do not want you to remain in ignorance of this mystery, this secret, in order that you be not wise within yourselves. The secret of which Paul speaks is this: That obduration, blindness, in part has happened to Israel, until the full number of the heathen be come in, and thus all Israel will be saved. In order that the Roman Christians might not form their own opinion in regard to the matter, might not follow the drift of their own thoughts, he feels that it is best to tell them this at once. The blinding or hardening that he had been speaking of did not affect every member of the nation, but affected them only in part, namely, in so far as some of them had been finally rejected; but of the rest it was true that some of them were continually and gradually being converted and saved. While the fulness of the heathen is being gathered for Christ, while the number of those out of the Gentiles that will finally make up the body of those that are destined for salvation is being called through the Gospel, souls will also be gained from the midst of the Jews. Until the day of the revelation of Jesus Christ in His glory, therefore, there will always be some from the midst of the self-hardened Israelites that will come to the knowledge of the Savior. And thus the final result will be that all Israel will be saved, all those that are in deed and truth the children of Abraham, not according to the flesh only, but according to the spirit. These are the ones, from every nation under the sun, whom the Lord has chosen as His own and whom His saving call will reach sooner or later.

That this is the correct understanding of the text appears also from the Messianic prophecy which the apostle now quotes: There will come out of Zion the Deliverer; He will turn away godlessness from Jacob. And this is My covenant toward them, what I have firmly decided within Myself with regard to them when I shall take away their sins. This is a combination of various prophetical sayings, Isaiah 59:20-21; Isaiah 10:11-12; Isaiah 27:9; Jeremiah 31:31-34. In the principal prophecy to which the apostle has reference those members of the Jewish race that persist in their rejection of the mercy of God are placed in contrast with those that will be converted to the Messiah. When Jesus, the Messiah, came to Israel, He brought deliverance, He turned away godlessness from Jacob. And His covenant consisted in the forgiveness of their sins; therein was His covenant realized. The benefit of the Messiah’s work was therefore not confined to the children of Israel according to the flesh, but included all those that accepted the Redeemer as their Deliverer and entered into that wonderful covenant with Him whereby their sins were forgiven.

God’s mercy upon all:

This statement is parallel to the previous one; it makes practically the same assertion regarding the great mass of the unbelieving Jews. According to the Gospel, so far as the Gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sakes, but according to the election, so far as the election is concerned, they are beloved because of the fathers. On the one hand, the Jews are enemies of God, because they are hostile in their attitude to the Gospel. And this attitude has resulted in the benefit of the Gentiles, it has given them salvation. This is true of unbelief in general. On the other hand, they are beloved of God, so far as the election is concerned. God loves the Jews, to whom the apostle here refers, because He has chosen them from the beginning, has selected them for His own. This act of God was done for the sake of, in the interest of, the fathers, the patriarchs; for unregretted are the gifts and the calling of God. What God has once decided upon with reference to the election of grace is not subject to change and recall on His part. In extending His gracious call to the patriarchs, in making them the bearers of the promise, He has called them to salvation in Christ. Because God has chosen the Jews from the beginning and called them by and in the promise given to the fathers unto salvation in Christ, and because this election and call of God must surely accomplish its object, therefore the Jews whom Paul here has in mind are even now, although as yet without faith, beloved of God. According to their unbelief, they are enemies of God, who must condemn their hatred of Him; but according to the election, they are His beloved, although not yet in possession of salvation.

This saying sounds so self-contradictory that Paul adds a further word of explanation: For even as you at one time were disobedient to God, but now have experienced His mercy through the unbelief of these Jews, thus also these now have become disobedient, in order that through the mercy which you have experienced they also now might receive mercy, Romans 11:30-31. The Gentile Christians before their conversion had been disobedient to the will of God, Romans 1:18-23. But now, having heard the Gospel, these former Gentiles had experienced and received the mercy of God. And this great boon had come upon them through the disobedience of the Jews, because the Jews at that time did not want to accept the Messiah and the obedience of the Gospel. And in the same manner, St. Paul argues, the Jews have entered into the state of disobedience, of unbelief, and therefore may well be shown the mercy of God unto conversion, the same mercy and grace which the heathen have experienced. What God did to the Gentiles He is fully able to do for the Jews, who are now in the position with reference to God which the Gentiles formerly occupied; He is able to change the disobedience of the Jews into obedience, just as He did in the case of the Gentiles. For God has comprehended, taken together, all these under disobedience, in order to have mercy upon all; He has abandoned all the people of whom the apostle has spoken to disobedience, that in His time He might bring them to faith and impart to them His mercy in Jesus Christ. What an untold wealth of mercy is that of our God in using even the obstinacy and the trespasses of men in order to bring the riches of His grace to others! Note: This mercy should have its effect upon us also in this way, that we make use of merciful patience in judging and in dealing with other people. God may well do for those that are now in the depths of unbelief and contradiction against God what He did for us, and thus bring them into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ.

A concluding doxology:

The apostle has brought the historical part of his exposition to a close. And with all the miracles of God’s grace and mercy in mind as they appear in His dealing with both Jews and Gentiles, Paul feels constrained to break forth in a hymn of praise and thanksgiving. What depths, unplumbed and unknowable depths of His riches, both of wisdom and of knowledge, are here spread out before our eyes! His essential wisdom is such that He always knows how to reach His object, that He always chooses the proper means. The knowledge of God is so rich that no man can possibly grasp or measure it; His wisdom is so deep that no human reason can sound its depths. His judgments are beyond the investigation of men, and His ways beyond their comprehension. The judgments of God are principally His sentences of hardening and condemnation. The very fact that God permits obstinate sinners to be caught in the meshes of their own opposition and then turns their rejection in favor of the vessels of His mercy, exceeds our power of comprehension and leaves us in helpless bewilderment. The very fact that God’s providence upholds the world until He has carried His designs of mercy into execution with regard to the elect, shows such unsearchable, incomprehensible wisdom and mercy that we can only stand in adoring admiration; we cannot lift the veil that would uncover the wonder of these mysteries of God.

That the judgments and ways of God are unsearchable and incomprehensible the apostle now emphasizes in three questions, taken from Isaiah 40:13; Job 41:11 ^■621 . Whoever understood the mind of the Lord? Or who became His counselor? Or who first gave to Him, and it will be given back to him in return? Who has the knowledge of the mind and designs of God, and the reason of His decrees? Who, then, stood by His side to give Him advice as to the mode of their execution? How would it be possible for any man, for any creature, in fact, to place God under obligations? Only three cases could be conceived of in which a man might know what God has planned and how He intends to carry out His plans: If he had access to the mind, to the thoughts of God; if he had taken part in the planning; if he were able, from the merits of his own relation toward God, to figure out what he may expect of God in return. The creature has absolutely no merit with respect to God, for God is Himself all in all: From Him, and by Him, and to Him are all things. All things that happen in the world, particularly all circumstances connected with man’s salvation, have their origin in God, are put into execution by God, and serve the purposes of God. Instead, therefore, of trying to penetrate the mysteries of God and to uncover His unsearchable, incomprehensible wisdom, all men, and especially all believers, shall bow their knees in praise and adoration and say with the apostle: To Him be glory forever! Amen.

Summary

The apostle laments the fact that the Jews rejected their salvation, shows that the rejection of the Jews, in turn, served for the benefit of the heathen, as well as the saving of the remnant in Israel, the elect from both Jews and Gentiles finally making up the fulness of the spiritual Israel; he finally adds a prayer of wondering thankfulness to the wisdom of God.

Verses 1-21

The Christian’s life a reasonable service to God

The fundamental exhortation:

Paul has finished the first part of his letter to the Romans, the doctrinal section. He has described the manifold and varied manifestations of divine compassion and mercy to men, of God’s searching love in the midst of disobedience and ungratefulness. On the basis of this manifestation of God’s love the apostle now adds the practical part of his epistle. Now, or, therefore, I beseech you. His entire exhortation is based upon the facts contained in the exposition of his thesis, Romans 1:16-17, upon the facts of man’s justification, sanctification, salvation. He does not write: I command you, but: I beseech, call upon, ask, admonish, beg you. His is evangelical exhortation, not the demanding of the Law. The matters which he discusses are such as bring the Christian’s life into conformity with the holy will of God, but not in the sense that the works, in themselves, merit salvation. He calls the Christians at Rome brethren, as children with him of the same heavenly Father and therefore under willing obligation to Him at all times and in all things. Through the mercies of God the apostle admonishes and beseeches. What he had written till now had been a proclamation, a praise of the many evidences and manifestations of the mercy of God, of His grace in Christ Jesus. This unmerited grace of God, His unsearchable riches of mercy which the readers have experienced in their own hearts and lives, that is the proper motive and incentive for a Christian mode of living. “He does not say: I command you; for he preaches to them that are already Christians and pious through faith in the new man, that are not to be forced with commandments, but to be admonished willingly to do what is to be done with the sinful old man. For whosoever does not do it willingly, on the basis of kind admonition only, is no Christian; and he that forces it with laws out of those that are unwilling is even then no longer a Christian preacher or ruler, but a worldly jailer. … Who, therefore, does not permit himself to be incited and coaxed with such sweet and lovely words of the mercy of God, given to us in Christ in such an immeasurable quantity, that he also do thus with desire and love, to the honor of God and for the good of his neighbor, is nothing, and everything is lost in his case. … It is not the mercy of men, but God’s mercy that is given us, and which St. Paul wants to have us regard, to incite and to move us.” ^■622 .

The apostle admonishes the Christians, first of all, to set forth, to present their bodies as a living sacrifice. Cp. Romans 6:12-13,19. Their bodies, their physical organism with all its members, are to be devoted to the service of God. The Christians offer their bodies as a sacrifice to God if they do not look upon them as their own property to use or abuse as they see fit, but always consider them as the instruments of God’s holy will. In this way the bodies of the Christians are living sacrifices, their whole life is spent in the service of the Lord, and all the acts of all their members are to be good works. And therefore these sacrifices are also holy, separated unto God, devoted to God, having the hallowing of His name as their object, and acceptable, well-pleasing to God, who takes a great delight in them. And incidentally the entire offering of this sacrifice, throughout the life of a Christian, is a reasonable service, a cult, or worship, of God, seeking His honor only, made with the spirit or mind, as controlled by the Spirit of God. Thus the service which a Christian offers to God in yielding all his members to do the holy will of God is not a dead and formal ritualism, but is a cult, a worship of the spirit, the mind being ceaselessly active in planning and thinking how the body with all its members may live for the honor of God.

The same thought is now offered from another side: And be not conformed to this world, but assume a different form through the renewing of your mind, that ye seek to find out what is the will of God, what is good and well-pleasing and perfect. The Christian’s habit, behavior, his entire way of comporting himself, must not agree with the present world, with the behavior of people that live for this world only, Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 2:1; 2 Corinthians 4:4. Believers will under no circumstances accommodate themselves to the evil customs, habits, practises that are in use in the world. Because they have been, so far as their inner man, their heart and soul, is concerned, removed from the world, because they are no longer of the world, though still living in the world, therefore they will assume a different character and appearance in the world. This they will do through the renewal of their mind, through the change in their hearts, which begins in conversion and continues through their whole life, since the battle between flesh and spirit must be carried on without intermission. The change in the external character and habit of a man is the result of the inner change. And so the Christian’s unceasing concern is to examine carefully, to try to find out always what the will of God is, that is, what is good and well-pleasing and perfect in His eyes. Natural man has only one idea and concern, namely, to do that which pleases his sinful flesh. But a Christian, in spite of the fact that his ability and his performance do not measure up to his willingness, yet is active, indefatigable in making a study of the will of God from the revelation in Scriptures, and then in practising the knowledge thus gained in all conditions of life, under all circumstances, toward every person in the world. Such conduct and behavior is the real character of the Christians, helping them to attain the real end and purpose of their being in the world.

The proper use of God’s gifts of mercy:

The general exhortation of the first verses St. Paul now carries out in detail by specializing and applying its content to actual situations in the lives of the believers. In this section he speaks of the special gifts of grace which find their application in congregational life. Every Christian having received some such gift, it is the will of God that he apply it, that he give practical proof of it in the business of the Church. Paul makes this admonition through the grace which had been given him, by virtue of his apostleship, Romans 15:15; Ephesians 3:7-8, which enables him to speak with authority; the ordinary and extraordinary gifts which he had thus received qualified him for his duties and gave authority to his instructions.

And his very first instruction concerns a very grievous nuisance and sin which was often found, and is found to-day, in such as possess certain gifts in the Church: That he should not think more of himself than he ought to think, but to think with the object of being modest. And this the apostle says to every one of them, to each one as God dealt out the measure of faith. The special gifts of grace which God at all times has given to the members of His Church in some measure, such as executive ability, fitness and skill in teaching, an aptitude for simple and clear exposition of Scriptures, and others, have ever been coveted and exercised by some Christians for purposes of self-exaltation. And therefore Paul says to every one of them, no matter who he is and what position he may hold, that he should not hold an opinion of himself which exceeded the measure of Christian modesty. A Christian may be partly or fully conscious of some gift in the Church which the Lord has given him. But this consciousness must not result in self-glorification. Simple, sane modesty and humility must characterize the Christian’s judgment of his abilities and of his work in the kingdom of God. And this he should do, because, in the first place, his special gift comes from God, is a free present of His grace; and, secondly, this gift is connected with faith, since God has dealt out to every Christian his measure of faith, of firmness, trust, confidence in God, 1 Corinthians 12:9. If a Christian is to apply his special gift of grace properly, then a certain measure of confidence is necessary, the conviction that God requires certain work of him, that he must serve God and the congregation of God with his gift, and that he possesses the proper cheerfulness to this end. The apostle, of course, does not speak of the strange self-delusions, according to which people imagine themselves to be called for positions for which they have neither fitness nor ability, and rely entirely upon their own perverted judgment. He expressly warns against such delusions and self-exaltation.

This warning against high-mindedness and his admonition to modest-mindedness the apostle now substantiates with the fact: For just as we in one body have many members, but all the members have not the same function, thus we, being many, have one body in Christ, but every one members of another, Romans 12:4-5; Cp. 1 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 4:15-16; Colossians 1:18. The human organism has many members; but these are not all alike, differing, rather, very decidedly in function or business, and yet serving the body, each in his own sphere and in his own special way. And in the same way we many, all we Christians together, form the body of Christ, the communion of saints, but individually, so far as our individual relation is concerned, we are members one of another, and can therefore serve the body properly only by working in unison, guided by the mind and Spirit of God. The apostle thus, in this figure, intends to show that the diversity of offices and gifts among Christians, far from being inconsistent with their union as one body in Christ, rather is necessary to the perfection and usefulness of the body. In supplementing and serving one another, all the believers are serving Christ.

The apostle now continues his thought by showing that we, who have such varied gifts, should now also use them in accordance with the purpose of God, in a way agreeing with His will. The gifts of grace found in the Christians are many and various, but their end and object is the same, to serve the Lord, not to serve their own advantage. If one has the gift of prophecy, let him use it according to the analogy of faith. If we take prophecy to mean here the special gift of the apostolic age, as an extraordinary exposition of divine truth, then the admonition of the apostle means to say that all such exposition must agree with the inspired Word and bring out the confidence of faith. But since prophecy in this passage probably refers to the explanation of Scripture at all times, with the gifts as they have been given to many members of the New Testament Church, the words could be transcribed: All exposition of Scriptures at all times must follow the analogy of faith, of saving faith. As this faith is based entirely and alone upon the inspired Word of God, and never follows reason or philosophy, so Bible explanation which really merits the name never goes at its task with preconceived notions and ideas, with a system of doctrine to which the Scripture-passages must be fitted by hook or by crook, but it draws the truth out of Scriptures, it rests upon the Bible alone, 1 Corinthians 2:13.

The apostle continues: If we have a service or office, let us pay attention to that service. All offices in the Church are tributary to the great service of the preaching of the Word, but there are many forms of this service. No matter, however, what peculiar vocation any person might have in the church, or congregation, no matter for what special work he may have received endowments, he should attend to it gladly, modestly, without intruding into the sphere of others or envying them their superior endowments. This applies first to such as hold the office of teachers in the congregation, no matter in what form: If one is a teacher, let him attend to his teaching. If God has called any person to be a preacher for the public proclamation of the Word, or a teacher for the instruction of the children and youth in the way of salvation, then the work of that office should engage his attention, herein he should be active and accomplish something under the blessing of God, for the benefit of the congregation and of all the members. If any one is an exhorter, let him attend to his exhorting. If any Christian has received the special gift of applying the Word of God in the various circumstances of life, the meeting of the congregation or that of any body in the service of the congregation will give him plenty of opportunity to make use of this talent and thus to be of service to the Lord. And, in general, the apostle writes: If one gives, imparts, some of his richer blessings to the poorer in this world’s goods or to such as are in need or want, let him do so in sincerity, with the single and undivided purpose to be of service, and not to raise a monument to himself or to get praise and honor from men. If any one rules, occupies a position of distinction as a leader or superintendent of any church-work, he should perform his work with zeal, never debase it by treating it as a sinecure, and by being given to inertness and carelessness, but always devoting to it full attention. If any one shows mercy, let him do so with a prompt mind. The sick and afflicted among the brethren and sisters should be given the mercy, the active sympathy of the others, not with grudging uncharitableness, but in the spirit which rejoices in the opportunity of being able to help others, which always shows a compassionate, smiling countenance at the prospect of alleviating suffering of every kind.

The Christian’s conduct in his personal relations:

The apostle now speaks in general of the Christian’s relation to his fellow-Christians and to his fellowmen. Of love in general he says that it should not be dissimulated, consisting not merely in words, but in sincere deeds; it should come from the heart and truly desire the welfare of one’s neighbor. It is a feature of such true love that it will not hesitate to rebuke every form of sin and trespass, and likewise to acknowledge and further the good which it finds in one’s neighbor. This admonition is incidentally a summary of all the exhortations now following. So far as brotherly love is concerned, your love toward each other and toward one another as children in the one great family of God should be tenderly affectioned. The relation of believers toward one another, as members of the one body of Christ, as possessors of the same faith in the redemption of their Savior, is, in a way, more intimate than that of blood relation between members of a family. And therefore it should be tender and affectionate in its manifestations. And with this love should be connected mutual respect: through honor preferring one another, going before each other in giving honor. There should be a friendly rivalry between Christians to outdo one another in every form of kindly reverence as partakers of the same grace of the heavenly Father. A mere passive feeling, however, is not sufficient, according to the apostle’s admonition: In zeal or willingness not lazy, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. When it comes to the question of serving one’s brother or neighbor in any way, there should be no hesitating, laggard steps, and we should not grow indolent or weary. Rather, should our spirit be fervent with eagerness, we should be interested in his welfare with persevering enthusiasm. And, with a decent regard for the exigencies of the various circumstances of life, the Christian should nevertheless never forget that his activity and zeal is actuated and governed by the desire to serve Christ, a factor which will tend also to keep down any thought of self-exaltation and pride in the performance of our duties. The thought that the Christians in all the works of their calling are in the service of the Lord will have a further beneficial effect: As to hope, full of gladness; they will rejoice inasmuch as they are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, that they may also become partakers of His glory, 1 Peter 4:13. As to oppression, distress, misery, tribulation of every kind, patient; remembering always that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed, Romans 8:18. In prayer, be intent and persevering; the Christians should apply themselves to this indication and manifestation of their spiritual life with all ardor and importunity, as the Lord so often admonishes them, not with conventional deadness, but with the zeal which grows from firm trust in His fatherly goodness.

Having thus shown just how the feeling of personal service toward God will influence the Christian’s personal conduct, the apostle again turns to his relation toward his neighbor, Romans 12:13-16. Take part in the needs of the saints, let them be your earnest concern as well as those with which you have to battle, make their necessity your own and act accordingly. And this is further explained: Following after hospitality. Because believers are members of the body of Christ, they will naturally share their sorrows as well as their joys. During times of persecution, such as often came upon the early Christians, there was great need for the believers to entertain the strangers of the household of faith, as they were driven from their homes by tyrants. But in the midst of such persecutions the Christians were not to forget the example and the command of their Lord as to their enemies: Bless those that persecute you; bless, and do not curse. For the sake of emphasis the apostle repeats his admonition that the believers must be active in blessing their enemies. Even if persecution rises to unbearable heights, Christians must cultivate the habit of wishing well to their persecutors. “It is not sufficient to avoid returning evil for evil, nor even to banish vindictive feelings; we must be able sincerely to desire their happiness.” (Hodge.) And in cultivating this state of mind, we shall find ourselves all the better able to heed the admonition that again concerns chiefly the brethren: to be glad with those that are glad, to weep with those that weep. The interest of a Christian brother or sister enhances their joy over any blessing of the Lord; and their sympathy relieves any heavy burden, especially if their words are not the conventional, stereotyped phrases of so-called polite society, but the words of heartfelt compassion dictated by the love of Christ. That same love will also effect this, that Christians think the same thing toward one another; a feeling of concord, or harmony, of unanimity governs their actions, Philippians 2:2; Philippians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 13:11. Because the love of the Christian for his fellow-Christian will always cause him to place himself in the position of the other, therefore he will be able to combat discord and disharmony. All the better will he succeed in this by following the injunction: Not having in mind, not setting your thoughts upon high things, but be willing to be drawn along with the lowly; be not wise in your own estimation. All pride of self is out of harmony with the demands of Christian love; not to be aspiring, but to be humble must be the character of every follower of the lowly Nazarene. Inordinate ambition, which despises all those that have not received equal intellectual or spiritual gifts, on the one hand, together with a contempt for their lowly persons or pursuits, are absolutely inconsistent with the idea of perfect Christian unity which the Lord at all times had in mind. The lowliness of mind which was found in Christ Jesus, who consorted with publicans and sinners, with the very outcasts of society, because they had accepted His message of salvation, must be found in all His true servants. But if any one becomes puffed up by his pride of intellect, by a fancied superiority to others, then he deliberately disrupts the harmony which should characterize the Christian community, and cannot properly lay claim to the spirit that lives in the Master.

The Christian’s relation to his enemies:

The relation toward his fellow-Christians demands a great deal from the true disciple of Christ, and he is obliged daily to learn humility and service from Him who is our model for all time. But, in a way, the relation of a Christian toward those that are not of the household of faith requires still more, because he may expect nothing but enmity and bitter persecution from them. Therefore St. Paul writes: To no one return evil for evil; no matter how great the provocation on the part of their enemies, the Christians should not pay back in kind; retaliation and revenge must be foreign to their nature. We should rather endeavor to attain to that which is excellent before all men, we should at all times conduct ourselves so as to command the confidence and respect of all men, to commend ourselves to them as honorable, straightforward, clean in all our dealings, letting no spot stain our characters in the sight of the world. Cp. Proverbs 3:4. This includes another manifestation of Christian character: If it is possible, so far as you are concerned, keep peace with all men. Christians never pick quarrels, neither are they defenders of the peace-at-any-price slogan. There are times when a quarrel is forced upon the Christians, when truth, right, justice, duty demand that they defend themselves, just as the Lord did in the palace of the high priest. But as long as it is possible with a good conscience, the Christians will maintain peace with all men; they are never the cause of dissension and strife in the sense that the guilt actually rests with them. And this includes a further thought: Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give way to wrath. These words contain a further application and amplification of the last thought. The idea of revenge must be foreign to the hearts of believers, to those that are the beloved of the Lord, that are rejoicing in the fulness of His love and mercy. And when carnal anger wants to come into their hearts, when it comes along like a wild beast to take possession of the mind, then we should give it a wide berth and not let it gain its object, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, James 1:19-20; Colossians 3:8. On the contrary, we should remember what is written, Deuteronomy 32:35: To Me belongs vengeance; I will repay, saith the Lord. In the hands of the Lord we should therefore leave the punishing of evil and not attempt to take it into our own hands. The prerogative of God as a revenger of evil upon those that do evil must not be usurped by any man. A Christian that is actually imbued with the spirit of Christ will rather follow what St. Paul urges: Rather, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in doing this thou wilt heap coals of fire upon his head. The apostle here speaks in words of the Old Testament, Proverbs 25:21-22, and follows the earnest admonition of the Lord, Matthew 5:44. The fiery coals fitly represent the uneasiness of conscience which is bound to follow in the case of kindness shown under the circumstances assumed in the context. Instead of taking advantage of his enemy’s misfortune, no matter what form it may take, the Christian takes the opportunity to show him every kindness. And this repaying good for evil in most cases will so deeply affect his enemy that he will be gained, or, at least, that his heart must acknowledge his own inferiority in the face of such treatment. And so the apostle concludes: Be not conquered by the evil that thy enemy may show thee, do not let this incite thee to thoughts of enmity and revenge under any circumstances; rather conquer the evil by doing good. Subdue your enemies by kindness, not by meanness. For doing good is the sphere in which we believers should move at all times, and this must exert its influence in the case of our enemies. Many a bitter enemy has been overcome by Christian magnanimity and has become the friend of the Christian cause.

Summary

The apostle admonishes the Christians to serve faithfully in the congregation and to show true Christian love toward the brethren and to all men.

Verses 1-14

Of obedience to the government, love toward one’s neighbor, and the walk in the light

Government powers of God:

The apostle now, in his exhortation, shows the duties which every person owes the government, and in which the Christians will lead all others with a cheerful sense of duty. Since this is the only place in which Paul treats at greater length of the duties toward civil authorities, it is probable that circumstances made it necessary for him to include this information at this point, either to curb the spirit of the Jewish Christians or to prepare all the Christians of Rome for the treatment which they afterward received at the hands of the tyrant Nero. Paul’s statements are very general, and find their application in all ages of the world; they indicate exactly the divine right and the divine dignity of the government, but, at the same time, limit the functions of the civil authorities to matters pertaining to this world, to the physical well-being of the subjects and to the duties of citizenship.

The apostle’s words are all-inclusive: Let every soul subject itself to authorities existing above it. Every person, without exception, within a community, state, or country is spoken of and addressed in this command. He should be subject to, submit himself willingly, without the application of force or restraint, to the existing powers or authorities, to the persons that are invested with power, to the incumbents of the governmental office. The governmental powers vested in these people by virtue of God’s providence or permission gives them a position in which they excel us in dignity and authority; they are our superiors in the sense of the Fourth Commandment. This is expressly brought out: For there does not exist an authority except by God; but those that exist are ordained by God. If a government is actually in power, whether tyrannical or otherwise, its existence cannot be explained but by the assumption that it is due to God’s establishment, either by His providence or by His permission. It would be impossible for any government to keep evil in check if the almighty hand of God were not the sustaining power. “Not only is human government a divine institution, but the form in which that government exists, and the persons by whom its functions are exercised, are determined by His providence. All magistrates of whatever grade are to be regarded as acting by divine appointment; not that God designates the individuals, but that, it being His will that there should be magistrates, every person who is in point of fact clothed with authority, is to be regarded as having a claim to obedience, founded on the will of God.” (Hodge.) This being the case, therefore, whosoever, every one that, resists the power resists the institution of God. If any person refuses obedience to the government to which he is subject in any point left free by God’s express command or prohibition, he rebels, not only against the lawful authority of the government, but incidentally against God Himself, who established government. And they that resist will receive to themselves judgment, the sentence of condemnation. Not only will they make themselves liable to prosecution and punishment on the part of the government, but they will be looked upon and treated as rebels by God, who will not have the authority vested by Him disregarded. History shows that the visitations of God upon rebellious peoples have been very severe.

The apostle now brings another reason for the duty enjoined in the first verse: For the authorities, those that rule, are a terror, a cause for fear, not to the good work, but to the evil. That is the purpose for which God has established government: it is to be a matter of fear, its power is to strike terror into the hearts of the rebellious, just as its dignity is to cause reverence and respect in the minds of all subjects. It is only he that does evil who must fear the civil authorities, not he that does good. He that transgresses the laws of the country, and refuses to live in accordance with the demands of civil righteousness, must expect to be treated as his behavior merits. If, then, a person does not want to live in continual fear of the government in the rightful discharge of its duties, he should be concerned about doing good, about living up to the laws of the country, about doing his duty as a citizen. Then he will have praise from the authority, or government; he will be recognized and treated as a good, dutiful citizen. For the magistrates, the persons in authority that are actually conscious of the responsibility and power vested in them, will then act so that the government will be the servant of God to every good citizen for good. For that purpose the government is established and upheld by God, for the benefit of the citizens that are law-abiding, to protect and defend them against wrong, to seek the welfare of society in every way. But if some one will do wrong, will deliberately transgress the laws of the city, state, or country in which he lives and whose protection he enjoys, then he should fear. For the government nowhere bears the sword, the symbol of authority, in vain; it is not for nothing that the civil authorities are invested with the right to punish, if necessary, by administering the condemnation of death upon the transgressors of the law. God’s minister the government’s power is, both in protecting and in punishing, and, in the latter case, avenging unto anger, manifesting and exercising revenge and wrath upon him that makes it a practise to do evil. Thus the government, according to God’s will, is the guardian of law and order, including external morality. And this reason is sufficient to keep the Christians peaceful and law-abiding, no matter under what form of government they are living, no matter if the persons in authority are morally corrupt. If the members of God’s kingdom can but lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty and build up the Church of Christ, they are duly thankful to God. And if a hostile government uses tyrannical measures to suppress the work of the Church, Christians will not assume a rebellious attitude, but will try to gain their object by legitimate means, by invoking the statutes and the constitution of their state or country. It is only when the government demands anything plainly at variance with the revealed will of God that the Christians quietly, but firmly refuse to obey, Acts 5:29.

Subject for conscience’ sake:

For necessity’s sake the Christians are subject to the government; they feel that they are under obligation; they know that this behavior is part of their obedience to God. And herein they are influenced not by wrath, not because they fear the inevitable punishment, which would make their obedience much like that of a slave. But they submit themselves for the sake of conscience, from conscientious motives. The Christians know that the Lord whom they are serving has established the government and made it His agency to perform His will as to the preservation of law and order in the world. So they yield cheerful obedience to the civil authorities for the Lord’s sake. And the situation thus having been made plain, the admonition of St. Paul is well founded: For on this account pay taxes. Since the government is established for the benefit of society and for the protection and defense also of the believers, therefore they should cheerfully pay the money necessary for its support. For they, the magistrates, the members of the government, are servants of God, knowingly or unknowingly, and are busily engaged with this very thing, with protection against wickedness and with their efforts for the peace of the city; they are active in the service and for the benefit of all good citizens. “He that by virtue of his office serves the community has the right and duty to demand of the community the support necessary for the performance of his office.” This fact the apostle emphasizes in a specializing admonition: Pay, then, to all that which you owe, discharge what is due: to him that demands taxes, the taxes; to him that demands custom pay the custom; to him that ought to be feared render fear; to him that ought to be honored give honor. The government has a right to levy personal and property taxes, and it is the Christian’s duty to pay the taxes; evasion of this duty is sinful. The government has the right to collect duty on merchandise exported or imported, and the Christian coming under such ruling will render the payment exacted. The government occupies a position of reverence and fear, and fear and reverence shall be given all its representatives. And in the last admonition St. Paul goes even beyond the magistrates, urging upon all believers to give honor to all men to whom honor is due, whether on account of their position or on account of meritorious work for the public weal. In this way every Christian performs the duties of his citizenship and serves the Lord according to the Fourth Commandment.

The obligation of Christian love:

The apostle has spoken at length of the duties and obligations resting upon the Christians in their capacity as citizens of the state and country. But he now extends the admonition to cover the relation of a Christian to his fellow-men in general. And there his injunction is: Owe no man anything, keep your affairs in such a shape that no person has a rightful claim upon you, especially as to taxes, custom, fear, and honor. In this external respect be under obligation to no one, no matter who it is in all the wide world; the duties incumbent upon us in every condition of life must be discharged properly, cheerfully, and in time. But one duty, one obligation there is which can never be discharged adequately, namely, the duty of love toward one’s neighbor. It is a duty which can never exhaust its demands; as a matter of fact, the more it is exercised, the more it feels its own obligation. Paul brings evidence to support this demand: For he that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law. If a person were actually able to give to his neighbor the fulness of a free and unselfish love under all circumstances of life, he would thereby have fulfilled the Law. For all the commandments which the apostle now quotes, the Sixth, the Fifth, the Seventh, the Eighth, the Ninth, and any other commandment that may be mentioned, — they are all included under one heading, in one summary, and that is: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Note that St. Paul here, as the Scriptures elsewhere, Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20; James 2:11, does not follow the conventional order of the commandments, as given in the Decalog; the enumeration and the order of the commandments is of very minor importance, their content is the essential factor. And they all are included and comprehended in that one injunction, namely, to love one’s neighbor, every fellowman, with the same love with which we regard our own interests and guard them against every infringement. And this is further confirmed by the statement: Love works no evil to one’s neighbor; a person that is actually filled with the love that agrees with the will of God will engage in nothing which may cause ill to befall his neighbor, will avoid all the sins that are mentioned in the commandments. The word “neighbor” is here explained in the original text as the one who is near us. Any person in our immediate vicinity with whom we have had dealings, whom the providence of God has placed near us, is our neighbor, and towards such a one, especially if he be of the household of faith, Galatians 6:10, our love should exhibit itself in deeds of kindness, according to the will of God. And therefore the fulfilling of the Law is love, the proof and evidence for the completed fulfilment; in love the doing of all the commandments, of both the first and second tables, is included, its essence fills and covers all demands. It is an ideal which the believers strive and work for all their lives, to measure up to this standard, and by the grace of God they always make some little headway toward their goal.

The Christian’s walk in light:

As the Christian’s whole life is a walk in love, with the earnest purpose to conduct himself at all times as one trying to fulfill the will of his heavenly Father, so it is also a walk in light, in righteousness and holiness which is acceptable to God. To this end it is very necessary to avoid being tarnished by the world and its evil ways. The admonition therefore fits most admirably: And knowing this, namely, the time, that the hour is now upon us to awake from sleep. The Christians are acquainted with the time and the circumstances under which they live, and they should therefore attend closely to the lesson which the contemplation of the situation brings home to them. They should not wait, lose no time, but watch with the greatest care in what direction all indications are pointing and what necessity devolves upon them. It is high time, the critical moment, for the believers to awake from sleep, Ephesians 5:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:6. The apostle refers to the spiritual sleep, which differs in no essential feature from spiritual death, the sleep of sin. To awake from sleep, to be wide-awake in spiritual matters is the special duty resting upon the Christians, to renounce all sinful walk and conduct, to direct the entire mind and heart to the fulfilment of God’s holy will. This condition was attained in the believers when they were converted, when they turned from darkness to light, from unrighteousness to righteousness, from the power of Satan to God. But the work of regeneration begun in that moment or at that time must be continued through life; there must be ceaseless progress in sanctification. That is the business of the Christian, so far as his own spiritual life is concerned, ever to be alert and attentive, lest he fall back and be snared in his former sins and lusts. In this sense the entire life of a Christian is a continual conversion; in this sense, also, this admonition is always timely, for the new man in the heart must daily come forth and arise.

Why it is now, always, time for the believers to be wide-awake and alert the next sentence shows: For now is our salvation nearer than when we began to believe. The salvation of the believers is near. Just as the children of God in the Old Testament, beginning with Eve, were always watchful and alert for the coming of the Messiah and never permitted their interest to lag although a number of millenniums went by without bringing the promised salvation, thus the believers of the New Testament are ever on the lookout for their final redemption. Everything that pertains to the perfect salvation of the believers has been accomplished, and they are therefore eagerly awaiting the dawn of the final great redemption, when the final deliverance from all evil will come to them. At the time when we attained to faith, we were chiefly concerned with deliverance from the wrath of God, with our justification in His sight, Galatians 2:16. But now that we have attained to the reconciliation with God, the eyes of our faith are directed in eager longing to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 1:7.

In order to stimulate our watchfulness and to work proper alertness in our hearts, the apostle adds: The night has advanced, the day is very near; it is almost time for the dawn to break. The day on which our final salvation will be completed upon us, the day which brings us the full possession of the blessings of our Savior, is the last day, the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, Philippians 1:6; Philippians 2:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 1 Corinthians 3:13. The night which precedes this glorious day is the period of this world. The time in which we are living is night, being governed by sin and death; the prince of darkness has his work in the children of unbelief. At the present time the believers are sighing: Watchman, what of the night? But we know it is the last hour. But a little while, and the dawn of eternity will break; the day of our salvation will come, and with it our reward of mercy, our eternal salvation.

But this being true, let us, then, lay aside the works of darkness, and let us rather put on the weapons of light. Because the day of eternal blessedness is about to dawn, therefore we should take off and cast aside, like an unclean garment, the works of darkness, the works which men commonly commit in the dark, the sins which they do not want the omniscient eye of God to see. Acts that cannot bear the light of day should be shunned at all times by Christians, but especially now that the great day of final redemption is so near. Instead of the filthy garment of such works the Christians should put on, clothe themselves with, the weapons of light. Paul does not speak of garments, but of weapons, armor of light, because a righteous conduct is also a steady battle with the forces of darkness, Ephesians 6:10-17. The new man was indeed created in the believers in Baptism, but they still have the sinful old Adam to crucify and subdue, not to speak of the hostile world and Satan. Therefore the war must be waged without ceasing, particularly in view of the fact that the night of this world will be ended soon, and salvation will dawn. Therefore we hasten to the coming of the day of God with all holy conversation and holiness, 2 Peter 3:11-12, therefore we strive to be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, Philippians 1:10-11.

And again Paul shouts his warning admonition: As in the day, let us conduct ourselves honestly in our walk; let us live with all decency, in a proper, seemly, decorous manner. This manner of living excludes three sins to which there was great temptation in Rome, the capital of the world: intemperance, impurity, discord. Children of God will not walk and be found engaged in feastings, carousals, nor in intoxications; all the disorderly conduct which characterized the great heathen feasts then and now must be absent from the conduct of Christians. They will also not be found in chambering, in forbidden sexual intercourses, nor in any kind of wantonness and lasciviousness, sins of all kinds against the Sixth Commandment, many unnatural and revolting sins being practised then as now. Children of God also cannot take part in quarrels, wranglings, and rivalry, in discord of any kind. All these works are found in the children of unbelief. But they all cannot bear the light of the great day, they cannot stand in the sight of the holy God; on their account the wrath of God will come upon the unbelievers, Ephesians 5:6. Christians, therefore, although subjected to the most insidious temptations on the part of the children of this world, seconded by their own lusts and desires, must conquer all these evil affections and sins.

As the apostle has warned the Christians against the great trespasses which threaten to stain their soul, so he also holds before them the positive side of their conduct: Rather put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior and Lord, whom we have put on in Baptism, Galatians 3:27, we should continue to put on day after day, we should clothe our soul in His example and model, and follow Him on the paths of sanctification. Christ lives in His believers, in their entire life and conduct, and the virtues of Christ, His holiness, pureness, chastity, love, goodness, humility, kindness, are evident in all their words and deeds. And thus, with the image of Christ as their greatest ornament, the believers are looking forward to that great day when they shall finally be renewed after the image of Him that created them. Incidentally, therefore, the Christians do not make provision for the flesh for the purpose of gratifying its sensual appetites or any evidence of the corrupt nature. To take proper care of the body, to keep it in health by fulfilling the demands of a sensible hygiene, that is the duty of every Christian. But the great danger is that the body is spoiled by false tenderness, by an excessive care which tends to arouse, instead of subduing, the desires and lusts. Since this would interfere decidedly with the calling of the Christians and with their preparation for the coming of the great day, therefore they will avoid this danger with its temptations and keep themselves pure.

Summary

The apostle enjoins obedience to government as an agency of God, love for one’s neighbor as the fulfilment of the Law, and an open and honest behavior in view of the fact that the day of the Lord is near.

Verses 1-23

The conduct of Christians toward such as are weak in faith

Scruples with regard to food:

The present section of St. Paul’s letter has reference to a special class of people in the Roman congregation, namely, to such as were weak in the faith, the apostle giving both them and the other members of the congregation a few rules as to their deportment toward each other. He addresses himself first of all to those that are firmly grounded in the faith, that are not bothered with scruples of conscience concerning various foods, especially the meats that were offered for sale in the shops. Him that is weak in the faith, that is not yet so firmly established on the basis of his faith, receive, welcome as a member in full and equivalent standing. There were only a few of such members in the congregation at Rome, but Paul was just as solicitous about their spiritual welfare as though there had been a great number. This small minority was to be welcomed and given all the privileges of membership in the congregation, but not for the condemnation of thoughts, not with the purpose of passing judgment upon their strange notions or scruples. The members should show all kindness and brotherliness, deal with the few scrupulous ones with all Christian tact, lest uncharitable criticism cause dissension. For the one, being strong in faith, has confidence to eat all things. The stronger members did not deem it much of a venture to eat all foods, even meat, and their behavior did not result in any spiritual damage to themselves. Their conscience remained clear, no matter what food it was that was placed before them. They had the conviction that their conduct in eating all things was in no way displeasing to God and did not interfere with their Christianity. And this conviction, in turn, rested upon their faith in Christ, which caused them to choose and to do only such things as were agreeable to their Savior. But those that lacked this confidence ate vegetable food only, fearing to partake of flesh that might have been offered as a heathen sacrifice, or they believed that the eating of meat in itself was harmful to their spiritual life. St. Paul addressed himself to both parties, giving to each one the instruction necessary for the maintenance of Christian harmony and charity: Let him that eats not despise him that eats not; such a one should not look down with contempt upon his weaker brother and his scruples with regard to food. And on the other hand, one that refuses to partake of meat should not condemn him that eats, as though he were less spiritual, as though his Christianity were not so strongly expressed and so consistently carried out. This warning against judging is substantiated by the statement: For God has accepted him; a person that eats meat without scruples is acting in full accordance with God’s will, he is assured of the grace of God. For who is he that ventures to judge and condemn the servant of another man? It is not the proper thing, it should not be done, that any one should pass judgment upon a Christian brother who is Christ’s own; Christ has accepted him as one of His servants. He stands or falls with respect to his own lord. It is the business of each master, it concerns only him whether his servant stands or falls; he will take care of that. But he will remain standing, he will continue in his Christian state; for God is fully able to keep him upright, to hold him up and not let him come to grief in his Christianity. It is an easy matter for God to guide and guard also such a brother whose conscience permits him to partake of all manner of foods, with relation to whose constancy the weaker brethren are unduly concerned.

A second point of controversy is now touched upon: One, indeed, makes a distinction between various days, while the other rates all days alike; let every one be fully persuaded in his own opinion. He that clings to a certain day does so to the Lord; and he that does not insist upon a certain day does so to the Lord, Romans 14:5-6. The weaker brethren in the congregation at Rome made a distinction between days for conscience’ sake, preferring a certain day of the week for the worship of the Lord, believing that it was absolutely necessary to devote one day entirely to prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, to spiritual edification. But the others, those that were stronger in faith, that had the confidence of Christian conviction based upon their knowledge of God’s will, esteemed all days alike and gave special preference to none. To them all days were equally holy and fit for the worship of God and for the study of His Word. And now the apostle says that both he that insists upon a distinction between days and he that does not favor such a preference should be fully persuaded in his own mind that his way is the one which suits his individual needs best. He intimates thereby that before God there is no distinction of days in the New Testament, and that therefore the choice of a certain day of the week as a day of worship is entirely a matter of Christian liberty. And therefore he that is concerned about a certain day and believes it to be in the interest of his spiritual life always to observe one certain day observes it unto the Lord; he must keep in mind that it is to the Lord’s service and honor that he makes the distinction, and not get the idea that he is performing an unusual work of merit. As a matter of fact, the stronger also, that keeps all days alike, sanctifying every one through the Word of God and prayer, serves the Lord. So “the strong should not despise the scrupulous, nor the scrupulous be censorious toward the strong.” This is evident again from the distinction between eating certain foods and abstaining from their use. If one eats all foods, not concerning himself about any specific distinctions, Acts 10:14-15, nor worrying about the fact that the meat was taken from animals sacrificed to idols, 1 Corinthians 10:25, he makes use of the liberty which he has in Christ, thus honoring his Lord and Savior, as appears also from the fact that he returns thanks to God for the food, 1 Corinthians 10:30; 1 Timothy 4:4. And if one does not eat, if he abstains from eating meat or any other food in the belief that he will thus be placed into a better position to serve the Lord, he does so to his Lord; but he also gives thanks to God for whatever food he might partake of. So far as the expression of religious conviction is concerned and the condition of the heart with relation to God, there is no difference between the strong and the weak in faith.

Living unto the Lord:

The apostle here makes the application of the thought suggested in the first verses of the chapter, basing it upon a larger truth of which it is a part. The mind of the Christian, whether he partakes of certain foods or not, whether he observes certain days or not, is always directed to the Lord, because the whole life of the Christian, as well as his death, is devoted and consecrated to the Lord. Since his soul and body, his thoughts and acts, are dedicated to the Lord, therefore the believer will naturally think of His honor first in all things. For none of us lives unto himself, and none dies unto himself; if, then, we live, to the Lord we live, and if we die, to the Lord we die, Romans 14:7-8. No Christian considers himself his own master, to do with his gifts, abilities, and time what he pleases, according to his own will or for his own ends. In the service and for the honor of the Lord the whole life of the Christians is spent. And when they die, they willingly follow the call of the Lord; they cheerfully entrust their souls to the hands of their heavenly Father and their Savior Jesus Christ; they are glad to leave this world and come to Him, commending everything to His gracious will. And this behavior on our part with reference to the Lord is based upon the fact that we are the Lord’s, His precious possession, whether we are still alive in this world, or whether we are leaving this world to be forever with Him. We are Christ’s, because He has paid the ransom for our redemption. And therefore throughout life and beyond the grave we are His own, in all eternity. “In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me!” For this we have the guarantee of His death and resurrection: For to this end Christ died and returned to life, in order to be the Lord both over the dead and over the living, Romans 14:9. It was the definite intention of the Lord, and this intention has been fully realized, that He might become our Lord in life and death, and we His own. Through His death Christ entered into life and thus attained to the glorious station which is the crown of His redemptive work; He has earned the right to be our Lord. As the living, exalted Christ He has, through His Word and Spirit, claimed us as His own in faith, not only in life, but beyond death, when we shall live and reign with Him in all eternity. But if we serve the Lord and belong to the Lord whether we are alive or whether we are dead, then surely the smaller contrast between eating and not eating cannot come into consideration. It should rather be an easy matter for Christians, in their fraternal relations, to overlook such unimportant matters in true charity.

And so the apostle returns to his first warning: But thou, utterly insignificant beside the Lord, why dost thou judge and condemn thy brother? In view of our common responsibility to Him and the fact that we are all one in Him, how dare we judge each other? Or thou also, the weaker, why despisest thou thy brother? It is altogether inconsistent with the brotherhood of the believers to let a carping and criticizing attitude mar the relationship. It is a practise not only out of harmony with the spirit of Christ that lives in the believers, but also very dangerous: For we must all stand before the judgment-seat of God. How will any one dare to anticipate the prerogative which belongs to Christ and God only, namely, to pass sentence upon a brother? Through Christ God will judge the world; the judgment-seat of Christ is that of God, 2 Corinthians 5:10; John 5:22. Therefore we must refrain from interfering with the work which is peculiarly His, especially since we shall be equal before His throne of judgment, as the prophet writes, Isaiah 45:23: As I live, says the Lord, to Me shall every knee be bent, and every tongue shall confess to God, shall recognize His authority as God, the supreme Ruler and Judge. Note that, according to the teaching of St. Paul, Jesus Christ is God. From this it follows for the Christians: Therefore now every one of us must give an account of himself to God, Romans 14:12. Every one, without exception, every one for his own person, will be called upon to answer for his works; therefore we should await His decision and not presume to act the part of judges over our brethren. He that always keeps this fact before his eyes will very easily conquer the desire to carp and criticize.

Of the abuse of Christian liberty:

His entire admonition up to this point the apostle now condenses in the one short expression: No more, now, let us judge one another. Not only the condemnation of the strong by the weaker is here referred to, but also the contempt which the strong are apt to feel for the weak. All such manifestations are decidedly out of place among Christians. Christian liberty, as directed by true love, is rather exercised in this way, that we make this our rule or maxim in our dealings with the brethren, not to put a stumbling-block for our brother or an offense. We should neither put something in the weaker brother’s way over which he will fall, nor should we place an offense before him which would incite him to sin. In what way this may be done the next sentence explains: I know and have the full conviction in the Lord Jesus that nothing is common in itself, but only to him that thinks something is common, to him it is common. Paul has the divine assurance based upon his intimate union with Christ, whose servant he is, that nothing in itself, no food, not even the meat of animals bought in the meat-stalls, in itself is of a nature to render a person unclean. No matter what food it is that the Christian might choose for himself, the eating of it will not in itself stain his conscience or be a sin. Only one limitation is made, namely, that resulting from the state of mind of him that eats: except as the opinion of the eater takes it to be profane and harmful. If a person thinks that some food will make him unclean, he sins in partaking of this food. It is not that the food has the inherent power to work uncleanness, but that the person believing that there is a distinction between clean and unclean foods commits a sin in offering violence to his conscience. And this sin is occasioned by the brother who abandons all consideration and tact, and deliberately, in the presence of the weaker brother, partakes of the food in question, and thus by his example entices the other to follow him. The weaker brother in that case has not yet reached a state of knowledge according to which his erring conscience has been corrected, and the result is a sin. And thus the reaction strikes also the stronger brother: For if through thy food thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no more according to love. The indulgence in itself may be harmless and innocent enough, but if in this way it becomes injurious to the Christian brethren, then the indulgence becomes a violation of the law of love, an uncharitable act, a sin. By eating of the food in question in the presence of the weaker brother, and thus challenging him to partake of the same food, the stronger Christian, upon whom the obligation of love rests, becomes guilty of uncharitable behavior. The admonition, therefore, is very emphatic: Do not destroy through thy food him for whom Christ died. It cost Christ His very life to save your brother from everlasting damnation, and it is a terrible thing to endanger the salvation of any person by an uncharitable harping upon Christian liberty. Surely it is not asking too much to renounce the eating of a certain food for the sake of a brother, to avoid giving him any offense, if Christ gave His life as a ransom to keep him from eternal perdition! “If Christ so loved him as to die for him, how base it would be in us not to submit to a little self-denial for his welfare!”

At the same time, the Christians should lead such a life and at all times, in all circumstances, comport themselves so that they do not give offense to those that are without: Let, then, your good thing not be blasphemed. This is addressed to all Christians and should be kept in mind by them always. The great possession of the Christians, the highest and most glorious good, is salvation in Christ, through which redemption has been transmitted to them. The believers should never give the unbelievers occasion to speak abusively of, to blaspheme this wonderful gift, as they would if they haggle about foods. Such behavior on the part of the members of the Church naturally causes the unbelievers to assume that mere external matters are the essence of Christianity, that salvation depends upon the fact of a person’s using or abstaining from certain foods. This the apostle substantiates: For not is the kingdom of God eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; for he that serves Christ herein is well-pleasing to God and acceptable to men. The matters about which the Christians should be concerned are those which pertain to the kingdom of God, to that great invisible Kingdom established by Christ, the communion of saints. The act of eating and drinking does not influence a person’s standing either way in this Kingdom. The matters that do count very emphatically are justification, the certainty that we possess the righteousness of God by faith, peace with God through the merits of Jesus Christ, and the joy of faith which is characteristic of all true Christians, which is wrought in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. These are the essential blessings of the kingdom of God, upon which everything depends. If any person, in the certainty of the possession of these gifts and blessings, lives in accordance with this realization, then God takes pleasure in him, and he will be acceptable to men. Every one that has been justified before God through Christ, that has peace with God through Christ, that truly rejoices in the redemption given by faith in Christ, will make it the object of his life to serve the Lord Jesus with all the powers of body and mind. Thus the remembrance of the relation in which a person stands to God, together with the Christian conduct which results therefrom and its effect upon the unbelievers, will cause all Christians to heed the admonition of the apostle not to let their good be evil spoken of.

Avoid all offense:

Paul now draws a conclusion which is applicable to all conditions and circumstances of Christians: Let us now follow after the things which pertain to peace and to one another’s edification. Everything that brings about and preserves peace, everything that results in mutual edification, should be earnestly pursued and promoted by the Christians at all times. Because through Christ we have peace with God, we want to serve Him in this way, that we live together in peace and edify one another in faith and conduct, instead of quarreling and harming one another. And therefore Paul repeats the thought of Romans 14:15: Do not on account of food destroy the work of God. If we, instead of edifying, building up our fellow Christian in faith, in his spiritual life, tear down the work of God, the spiritual temple, in his heart, and this on account of some paltry food, we certainly become guilty in His sight. It is true indeed that all things are pure, every kind of food is in itself clean and will not produce spiritual uncleanness; but they are all bad and objectionable in the case of him that eats of them with offense, with a bad conscience. Therefore we dare not tempt and lead a brother to do what he believes to be wrong, thus destroying the work of God in him. If our conduct causes our weak brother to eat with offense, to partake of what he esteems impure, then our behavior is harmful, objectionable. On the other hand, it is proper, praiseworthy, not to eat meat nor to drink wine nor to do anything at which our brother takes offense, Romans 14:21. As in the case of meat, so it was with wine in those days: many of the weaker Christians may have feared its use on account of the fact that it may have been used in sacrifices to idols. It is not so much the question of doing the right thing for one’s own person as to avoid doing wrong to one’s weak brother; hence the admonition of the apostle. This is held before us in the next sentence: The faith that thou hast have with thyself before God. The form of the sentence is emphatic: So far as thou art concerned, thou hast the firm confidence, the unshakable conviction, that in eating meat and drinking wine thou art doing right before God. The stronger brethren were not required to make a concession of principle or to renounce the truth; all that was asked of them was that they use their liberty in a considerate and charitable manner. Their conviction they could hold just the same in the sight of God; it was not to be paraded to the injury of some one else, for God would see and recognize it.

And so Paul concludes: Happy is he that does not condemn himself in that which he approves of. The strong in faith uses food and drink of all kinds, also meat and wine. And it must be a source of great satisfaction and happiness to him if he has the conviction of a free conscience and is sure that he is doing right. It is fortunate if one can make use of all the gifts of God without reproaching himself. But what evil consequences it may have if some one makes a tactless use of his Christian liberty and thus offends his weak brother, is shown in the last sentence: But he that holds doubts when he eats is condemned, since it is not of faith; everything, however, which is not of faith is sin. If the weaker Christian comes to that point that he wavers and doubts, he may finally, before coming to the right understanding, follow the example of the stronger Christian and thus at last eat and drink what in his conscience he still condemns. But such a violation of conscience cannot be reconciled with faith, since it is not done with the certainty that it is right, with the certainty of the conviction based upon knowledge. But whatever a person does without being certain that he does the right thing in so doing, whatever a person indulges in with the fear that it probably is wrong, that is sin. “Any and every action of man of which he is not convinced that it is in conformity with the will of God is sinful.”

Summary

The apostle admonishes the weak not to condemn the others, the strong in faith, not to despise the weak nor to give them any offense, and both parties to strive after that which promotes peace and mutual edification.

---

Related Kretzmann Article

Verses 1-13

An admonition to patience and harmony

Christians should not please themselves:

In the preceding section Paul had spoken of things indifferent and of the consideration which the strong in faith ought to show to the weak in this respect. He now extends the notion of strong and weak somewhat and speaks of the behavior of the Christians in general, with reference to the example of Christ. But it is the duty of us that are strong to tolerate the weaknesses of the weak and not please ourselves. The strong, or able, are the Christians that are enjoying a strong, vigorous Christianity, without, indeed, being perfect; the weak, on the other hand, are the unsteady, the feeble, that are weak in both knowledge and Christian life. Luther says of the latter: “Such weak ones are they that sometimes stumble in open sin, or those that we in German call strange heads and peculiar people, that fly up at a slight provocation or have other weaknesses, for which reason it is difficult to get along with them; as this may happen especially between husband and wife, between master and servant, between government and subjects.” ^■623 . It is the duty of the strong to tolerate, to bear, the weak, to hold them up in their weakness, in their prejudices, errors, and faults, the purpose of such kindness being to aid our fellow-Christian in getting rid of his faults, in being cured of his weakness. For the object and aim of a Christian’s life and conduct is not to please himself, to live only for his own benefit; such behavior as aims only at its own edification is the height of selfishness and smug hypocrisy.

Paul teaches that a real Christian shows an altogether different disposition and conduct: Let every one of us please his neighbor unto good, for edification. Instead of being concerned about their own advancement in spiritual knowledge only, true Christians will always be ready, though not officious, in endeavoring to promote the spiritual life of their neighbors in the Church as well, for the good which we must chiefly have in mind is the religious improvement of others, especially if they have not had the advantages which we have enjoyed by the grace of God. In doing so we are inspired and urged onward by the highest possible example: For also Christ did not please Himself, but He acted according to what was written concerning Him: The reproaches, the vituperations, of them that reproached Thee have fallen on Me. The apostle here quotes from Psalm 69:9, from a Messianic psalm; for the Savior Himself spoke through the inspired prophet and pictured some of the incidents of His suffering. Cp. John 2:17; John 15:25; John 19:28; Acts 1:20. Even Jesus, though exempt from such obligations by the fact of His being true God, did not live for His own pleasure only, did not live merely to enjoy the glory which had been imparted to His human nature, but was concerned without ceasing for the deliverance and salvation of sinful mankind, being undeterred in this object by all the blasphemous reproaches of all the enemies that attempted to frustrate His work. If Christ, therefore, laid aside all consideration of self and made the welfare of sinners the chief aim of His life, surely no Christian will consider himself too good to follow that example and endeavor in every possible way to aid in the edification of his neighbor unto eternal life. There can and must be no thought of burden, but only of privilege.

Paul now justifies his use of the Old Testament passage and shows that the facts recorded in Scriptures are designed for our instruction and may therefore readily be applied in their fulfilment. For all things written beforehand, in olden times, for our instruction were they written, in order that through the patience and through the consolation of the Scriptures we might have the hope, Romans 15:4. The reference of the apostle is to the entire Old Testament as it was then in use. The books which were known under the collective title “The Scriptures” were not composed by their authors to serve only their own contemporaries, but the Holy Ghost, the Editor-in-chief, the real Author of the Bible, had in mind the conditions of all times to the end of time. The Bible, therefore, is the teacher, the instructor, of the Church after Christ as well as before Christ. Such an application of Scripture, then, as here made by the apostle is entirely in accord with the purpose of the holy Book; it should serve for strengthening Christians in their faith. One of the aims of Scriptures is named by the apostle, namely, to give us instruction, in order that we through the patience and the consolation which Scripture produces and works in us might have and hold firmly the hope of the future glory. This object may be attained in us because the Bible not only admonishes us to hold out patiently and steadfastly to the end, but also comforts us with the assurance of the help of the Holy Spirit, and thus works in us both patience and consolation to wait and to endure, since the realization of our hope is a matter of only a short time. If we use Scripture regularly and properly, then we draw out of it from day to day more strength, comfort, courage, and confidence, and thus ever keep before our eyes the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls.

The apostle now concludes his admonition with the cordial wish: But the God of patience and consolation give to you to think the same thing toward one another according to Christ Jesus, that you, of one mind and in one mouth, may praise God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 15:5-6. As the Scriptures were just called the instruction for our patience and consolation, so the same titles are here applied to God: He is the God of patience and comfort, inspiring steadfastness and encouragement in our hearts through the use of the Scriptures in which He reveals Himself. And if these gifts of God are found in us by the gift of God, then we and all Christians will be like-minded toward one another, then there will be God-pleasing harmony among us, then we shall consider one another as brothers and show a true brotherly spirit, free from all selfishness. Such brotherly harmony according to the spirit of Jesus Christ is presupposition and foundation of the mutual bearing, of the mutual furtherance and edification which should be found in every Christian congregation. That is the will of Christ, whose prayer for this gift should always be kept in mind by all believers, John 17:11. And thus it will follow that those who are really a unit in the Spirit of God will also, with one accord, unite in a chorus of praise to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all these great spiritual gifts are derived, whose love in Christ Jesus has made them possible and transmitted them to us. Note: God is the God as well as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; it is a most singular relation, assumed, however, for the salvation of mankind.

Brotherly harmony makes the common praise of God possible:

Therefore, in order that such praise might be possible, and that the object of such harmonious praise be attained, receive, welcome, one another; let both parties show the spirit which is in Christ, according to the will of Christ. And this mutual acceptance and kindly treatment should be according to the measure of Christ’s acceptance of us and should redound to the glory of God, the final end of the Christian’s whole life. We Christians are called to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, 1 Corinthians 1:9. The obligation thus rests upon us to cultivate the spirit of harmony. The harmonious life and worship of the believers is now described in detail: For I say that Christ became a servant of the circumcision for the sake of the truth of God, to confirm the promises given to the fathers, Romans 15:8; and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, Romans 15:9. When Christ came, His first direct service was in the interest of the circumcised people or nation, the Jews; in His ministry He served principally the Jews, because He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 15:24, and out of their midst gathered His own little congregation of disciples. And the apostles took up His work where He had ceased: they preached to the Jews first and established congregations in Judea. This work of His prophetic office Christ carried on in this manner for the sake of the truth of God, in the interest of God’s veracity, namely, in order to confirm the promises made to the fathers. The Messiah had been promised to the patriarchs and then to the children of Israel; out of them, according to the flesh, He was to be born; in their midst He was to live and perform His work. This promise of God was fulfilled; the veracity of God was vindicated. And all the true Israelites that have, by faith, become partakers of Christ’s salvation now praise God and extol His glory for keeping His promises to the fathers. But while the Jews praised God for confirming, for carrying into effect His promises, the heathen glorify His name on account of His mercy, because God out of free grace has given them the same glorious gift and benefit as the children of Israel, to whom the promises were entrusted. Thus Jesus Christ became a minister also to the Gentiles, namely, by sending out His messengers to all nations and gathering His Church out of all the people of the world by the preaching of the Gospel. To the faithfulness of God the Jews and to the mercy of God the Gentiles owe their possession of salvation in Jesus Christ.

This last thought is now substantiated by the apostle by a reference to several passages of the Old Testament in which the conversion of the Gentiles was prophesied, thus indicating that the eternal counsel of God was being put into execution in their case. The first reference is to Psalm 18:49: For this reason I will confess to Thee, glorify Thee exceedingly, among the Gentiles and sing hymns to Thy name. The Messiah, speaking through the mouth of David, praises the wondrous things which God has done to the nations, in the midst of the Gentiles, for their salvation. And the message of salvation provokes the praises of the Gentiles, as the following quotations prove: Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people, Deuteronomy 32:43; All ye Gentiles, praise the Lord; and praise Him highly, all ye people, Psalm 117:1. The Gentiles, together with the children of Israel, are urgently invited to sing praises to God for the fulness of His mercy, and thus show their membership in the true, spiritual Israel. The fourth quotation is from Isaiah 11:10: There will be the Root of Jesse, and He that shall arise to rule over the Gentiles; in Him will the Gentiles hope. Christ, the descendant of Jesse, the offspring of David according to the flesh, will extend His dominion of grace among the Gentiles, through the preaching of the Gospel, and the result will be that the Gentiles will place their hopes in Him as their only Savior and Redeemer. Thus the Church of the New Testament is a communion of believing Jews and regenerated Gentiles, united in the worship of the true God and the Father of Jesus Christ, their Savior. And this harmony shall properly find its expression in the entire relation of the believers toward each other, charitable consideration for the brethren being the motive of all their actions. This ideal, of course, cannot be reached by their own reason and strength; it necessitates the continual assistance of the Holy Spirit. And therefore Paul, in closing this section and the body of the letter, writes: But the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, to make you abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit, Romans 15:13. The God who is able to grant, and does give, hope, who keeps the mind of the believers directed upon the great fulfilment of all their desires, is able also to fill the hearts of His children with the greatest joy, with all possible joy, and with that peace which passes all understanding, since these both rest upon, and flow out of, faith in Jesus the Savior. With this assistance on the part of God, the hope of the Christians will not be a wavering and uncertain opinion, but a divine certainty, making them abound in hope, giving them the joyful confidence in the fulfilment of their salvation, in the realization of future glory. This wonderful gift is made possible in us through the power of the Spirit, who causes joy and peace to grow stronger with hope, and thus leads our hearts and minds forward to the blessed goal of our destination.

---

Verses 14-33

The epilog of the letter

Paul’s reason for writing:

The apostle now, having finished both instruction and admonition to the Christians of Rome, with his usual mildness and modesty adds an explanation to show why he had addressed them in the manner that he did. Giving them the intimate and honoring title “my brethren,” he frankly tells them that he, for his own person, is fully convinced concerning them that they, on their part, are filled with goodness, that they possess the right Christian disposition and excellence. He also is persuaded to an extent which admits of no doubt that his readers are filled with all knowledge, that they have the full and correct understanding of Christian doctrine. This good opinion naturally results in the confidence that they will do what is right and proper under all circumstances. If there is any teaching or exhorting in doctrine and life necessary, they will surely attend to that in an adequate manner. Since Paul was personally acquainted with the leading members of the congregation at Rome, and also knew the power of the Gospel which was preached among them, he could make this assertion in all confidence. His manner of writing would serve as an incitement and spur to them to make rapid progress in both understanding and sanctification.

But in spite of this good opinion which he held of them, Paul had been under obligation to write to them: For I have written to you quite boldly in part, as one that was reminding you through the grace that is given me by God, Romans 15:15. There were portions of his letter in which Paul had used much boldness, had brought out his points with striking and telling force. And in this method he was justified altogether; he could not have done differently, since it was his duty to recall to their memory certain things. What the Christians have once learned, know, and understand, they must ever be reminded of again, in order that their knowledge may be furthered and confirmed. The believers of all times will turn again and again to the instructions contained in this inspired epistle, in order to become ever better acquainted with the mysteries of their justification and salvation, to become ever more fervent in faith, hope, and love.

But there was another duty that made it incumbent upon Paul to address this letter to the Christians at Rome, namely, the grace that was given him from God that he should be a servant, a minister, of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, to administer the Gospel of Christ and God, in order that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Ghost, Romans 15:15-16. His office, his apostleship, was a gift of God’s grace, a service of which he knew himself to be unworthy, Ephesians 3:8. But it had been given to him by a special call of God, and he must, therefore, as a true priest of God, administer the Gospel, proclaim it among the Gentiles, in order that by its instrumentality the offering of the Gentiles might be brought about. The heathen themselves, persuaded by the Gospel-message, were a sacrifice unto God, they offered themselves as a living sacrifice to their Lord, Romans 12:1. Due to the influence and work of the Gospel, then, their sacrifice was well-pleasing, acceptable, to God, Philippians 2:17; 2 Timothy 4:6. For the sake of Jesus, God has turned to the former Gentiles in grace. And therefore they are also hallowed in the Holy Ghost, because the Spirit has sanctified, consecrated, their hearts to God. At all times and in all places, wherever the Gospel is preached, the hearts of men are renewed, converted to God, offered up as God’s own; and the purpose of the Gospel is to keep them in the state of sanctification, until hope and faith are replaced by everlasting possession.

Paul’s praise of his apostleship:

The apostle is anxious to have his readers understand just what this gift of his apostleship includes, and why it was incumbent upon him to write so boldly in both instruction and exhortation: I have, then, glorying in Christ Jesus, namely, in that which pertains to God. As an apostle to the Gentiles, to whom the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been entrusted, he has reason to boast and to be proud of his work for God, of the call which was given him by God. At the same time he is conscious always that his boasting is in Christ Jesus, is done on account of His grace, and not on account of his personal ability or worthiness for the office. Of what he is proud and in what way, he states very plainly: For I shall not dare to speak anything of those things which Christ did not effect through me for the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God, so that I from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum have fulfilled, completed, fully preached, the Gospel, Romans 15:18-19. The purpose of Christ’s calling has been realized; he has succeeded in doing much for the obedience of the Gentiles, to establish the obedience of faith among the Gentiles. This he has effected by word and deed, mainly through his preaching, but also through the example of his life. Success has come to him through signs and wonders, miracles of various kinds which he performed and which served to substantiate his preaching. But mainly he ascribes the effect of his labors to the power of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God. The Holy Ghost is in the Word of the Gospel and works faith, the obedience of the Gospel, through this very Word. Paul has done successful work through all the countries from Jerusalem to Illyricum. In Jerusalem he had received the command to be God’s messenger to the heathen, Acts 22:21. He had not hesitated to testify of Christ in the very city which had known him as a blasphemer, Acts 9:20-22. And then he had visited all the countries which lie between Jerusalem and Illyricum, forming a sort of semicircle around the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. Illyricum, the country west of Macedonia, Paul had but recently visited, on his third missionary journey. In all these countries Paul has fulfilled the Gospel of Jesus Christ, completed it, carried out its ministry to the end, preached the full counsel of God for the salvation of men, bringing about an understanding and an acceptance of the Gospel by his work as apostle, Colossians 1:25. That is the business, the aim of the Gospel with regard to all people of the earth, namely, that it be made known and accepted everywhere; and this work of the Gospel Paul has carried out. And yet, in spite of the success which has attended his efforts, Paul would not dare to take credit and to speak of something in a boasting manner unless Christ had accomplished it through him; the real effectiveness and efficiency of Gospel-preaching he properly ascribes to Christ alone. Like every preacher of the Gospel, Paul was an organ, an instrument, of Christ and of His Spirit.

In his restless activity in mission-work Paul has another factor in mind, namely, to work only where the Gospel was as yet unknown, so that the evidence of his apostleship might be undeniable: But so I have made it a point of honor to preach the Gospel not where the name of Christ was called upon, in order that I might not build upon the foundation of another man, Romans 15:20. Paul was sensitive on this point, not in a spirit of rivalry, but in his ambition to work for the Lord: he had never sought to preach Christ where Christianity had already been established, he had never interfered with another man’s work, had never built upon a foundation which he had not himself laid; he was willing to take the blame for any mistakes, just as he gave all honor to Christ. This maxim of his work he found in Isaiah 52:15: The people to whom nothing was proclaimed of Him, they shall see, and they that have heard nothing shall understand. The prophet had plainly said that the kings and nations of the earth would, at the time of the Messiah’s coming, hear and see something which had not penetrated to them before, namely, the glorious news of the Servant of God. Therefore Paul brought the Gospel to such places and countries where it had been unknown before, although this principle did not hinder him from writing to, and communicating with, such congregations as had not been founded by him, that of Rome itself being an example. His office as apostle of the Gentiles made this obligatory.

The reasons which hindered Paul’s visit to Rome:

For this reason, because Paul had desired to make Christ known where He had not been preached before, he had been hindered from coming to Rome. This had been so in most cases when there had been an opportunity to make the journey to Rome; his work in the Orient had kept him too busy; at other times there may have been other factors which prevented his coming. But now he has no more room in those regions, his work in the Orient has been brought to an end. Whatever remains to be done can well be taken care of by the congregations that have been founded. Since, therefore, Paul had for many years had the desire, the earnest wish, to come to Rome, he hoped and intended to carry out his plan as soon as he would make his journey to Spain. His intention was, in coming from the East, from Palestine, to journey through Rome, to stop off there for some time in order to see the brethren of Rome, to visit with them, and he expected to be conducted on his way from the capital to his destination by a delegation from their midst, but only after he had enjoyed their company, had had the pleasure of associating with them for some time. This was his plan. Before that could be executed, however, Paul had an important duty to perform. He was now about to make the contemplated journey to Jerusalem in a certain service to the saints, the members of the congregation in that city. For the congregations in Macedonia and Achaia, especially those of Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Corinth, had willingly decided to make a contribution of some size for the poor people among the members at Jerusalem. In receiving this collection, the poor in Jerusalem would partake of the abundance of the brethren in Macedonia and Achaia. And that was as it should be, and the decision was only to be commended, because the Gentile Christians were really in debt to the Jewish Christians. In Jerusalem was the mother church of Christendom, and all the spiritual gifts and benefits of Christianity had spread over the earth from Jerusalem. And therefore it was only right and just that the converted Gentiles serve those of whose spiritual gifts they had become partakers with their abundance in earthly goods. This principle might well be remembered in our days, when people are so liable to forget the instruments of God’s grace to them, whether these are individual men or entire communities.

A word in conclusion:

The trip to Jerusalem had to be taken first, that plan could not be changed. But as soon as Paul had brought this business to its end and consigned, safely delivered, into the hands of the members of the church in Jerusalem this fruit of love, as the collection could well be termed, being the outgrowth of faith which was active in love, then he would pass through Rome on his way to Spain. And of one thing he was sure even then, namely, that in coming to them he would come with the fulness of the blessing of Christ and of the Gospel. That he would be supplied with, that he would bring along in rich abundance. For he was convinced that Christ, who through his labors had shed forth such abundant spiritual blessings upon the Gentile believers, would not overlook the congregation at Rome.

But with all his confident promises, Paul cannot help voicing an apprehension, a presentiment of evil. He had suffered so much in persecution on the part of the Jews that he could not quite throw off a foreboding of harm which might befall him in Jerusalem. Therefore he earnestly begs the Christians of Rome, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to wage warfare with him in their prayers to God for him. By the work of Jesus Christ all believers are united in a most intimate communion and may intercede for one another with all fervor. And the love which is planted in the hearts of the Christians by the Holy Spirit urges them to come to one another’s aid in prayer. And so earnest and urgent is their prayer that it partakes of the nature of a battle, a fight against the invisible, hostile powers that are endeavoring to hinder the labors of the apostle. With such prayers to assist him, he may expect to be delivered from the disobedient in Judea, from those that refused obedience to the Gospel. And their intercessory prayer may effect also so much that his service to Jerusalem will be made acceptable to the saints, that they will gladly avail themselves of the assistance which was thus brought to them by Paul and his companions. From Acts 21:17-36; Acts 23:11; Acts 28:14-16 ^■624 we know that the prayer of Paul and of the Christians at Rome was heard, that he was received with joy by the members of the congregation at Jerusalem. And, although Paul did not come to Rome in the way in which he planned to go at this time, he was nevertheless, by the providence of God, brought there in due time, was welcomed by them with great joy, and found some refreshment for further apostolic labors through his intercourse with them. With the earnest prayer, which amounts to a blessing, that the God of peace, He that is reconciled to us through Christ, our Peace, may be with them all, St. Paul closes the epilog of his letter.

Summary

The apostle admonishes the Christians to bear the weaknesses of the brethren and always to live, as a true household of God, in brotherly harmony; he tells them of his plan to visit Rome on his way to Spain, and asks them to remember him in their prayers.

Verses 1-27

A recommendation, greetings, and a final admonition

A recommendation of Phoebe:

The epistle proper had ended with the fifteenth chapter, but Paul here, in the form of a postscript, adds various personal matters. He commends to the special care of the brethren at Rome Phoebe, a Christian sister, very likely the bearer of this letter to Rome. She was a member of the congregation at Cenchrea, the eastern port of the city of Corinth, and held the office of a deaconess. Just as the congregation at Jerusalem had elected deacons to minister to the poor and needy, so other congregations in apostolic times had deaconesses, principally for the work among women, 1 Timothy 3:11. Phoebe was about to make the journey to Rome, leaving from the western port of the city of Corinth, Lechaeum. The apostle wanted the Christians of Rome to receive her in the Lord, as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, as it behooved saints. They were not only to show her hospitality, but also to render her every service that would aid her in whatever business she might have need of them. In this way the Christians of Rome were to give evidence of their mutual communion with Christ. Paul gives Phoebe a fine testimony, saying that she had acted as a true friend, guardian, helper, patroness of many, including himself. As a fellow-Christian, therefore, and as one that had distinguished herself in the service of the Lord, she should be shown every consideration and gladly given the assistance she might require. Note: It would be of great value to the Church if all Christians that travel to other parts of the country or the world where orthodox congregations are located, would apply to their pastors for letters of recommendation, and if the brethren in every congregation would receive their fellow-Christians in the spirit of Christ. Christian kindness and courtesy costs little and may bring rich returns.

Greetings sent by Paul to friends and acquaintances:

This is a beautiful passage and most interesting on account of the light which it throws upon the intimacy of love which united the early Christians. Incidentally, the interest which Paul showed in the individual Christians, and the manner in which he brings out their special merits, is very characteristic. His first salutation, or greeting, goes to Priscilla, or Prisca, and her husband Aquila, the wife being named first as being the more gifted and energetic. These two were old friends of the apostle and earnest workers for the kingdom of Christ. Paul had lodged with them at Corinth, Acts 18:2, and they had worked with him not only at the same trade, that of tent-makers, but also in the same cause, that of Christ. They had accompanied him to Ephesus, Acts 18:18, and there also had been his colaborers for the Kingdom. And now, as at Ephesus, they had gathered a house-congregation at Rome: true missionaries always. Paul gives them the testimony that in the interest of his life they had risked their own necks, probably at the time of the Ephesian tumult, Acts 19, for which reason not only he owed them sincere thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles, since through their efforts the life of Paul had been preserved for further labors in the vineyard of the Lord. Such self-devotion and self-sacrifice in the interest of the Gospel and its extension may well serve as an example to this day. Paul includes in his greetings also the congregation which was accustomed to assemble at their house. Cp. 1 Corinthians 16:19.

Of the persons mentioned in the other greetings of Paul we have no other information. Of Epaenetus it is said that he was the first-fruits of Asia (not Achaia) for Christ; he was the first man out of the Roman province of Asia to be won for Christ. Of Mary, a Jewess according to her name, the apostle states that she at some time had rendered him assiduous service. According to some readings, her toil was in the interests of the believers at Rome. Andronicus and Junias are mentioned as related to Paul and as at one time his fellow-prisoners. Cp. 2 Corinthians 11:23. These two men were of note, distinguished, highly respected among the apostles in the wider sense of the term, or by the apostles in the narrower sense of the word. They had also been in Christ before Paul, had been converted in the early days of the Church, before the Lord Himself had called Paul as the instrument of His grace. Amplias is characterized by Paul as his beloved in the Lord and Stachys as his beloved; but of Urban he says that he is his helper in the Lord, that he was active in the service of Christ, and of Apelles, that he was an approved, a tried Christian, that he had given evidence of the faith living in him. Paul included in his salutation also those Christians that belonged to the household of one Aristobulus and of one Narcissus, slaves that belonged to their estates. Such lowly brethren were just as near and dear to the great apostle as the most influential members of the congregation. Herodion is mentioned as Paul’s relative. Tryphena, Tryphosa, and particularly Persis are included in the list as women that worked for the Lord, whose love found a way to spread the Gospel by individual service. Rufus is distinguished as the chosen in the Lord, one of those that are precious in the sight of God and distinguished in His service before men. The special designation is all the more apt since Rufus was probably the son of the Simon that bore the cross of Christ, Mark 15:21. The mother of Rufus had shown the apostle much motherly love and care, probably at the time when he was in Jerusalem, and he therefore honors her with the title “mother.” The men and women named in Romans 16:14-15 were such as were known to Paul, with whom he had become acquainted, of whom he had heard, but with whom he had not entered into such intimate relations as with the rest, mentioned above. Note how the titles “beloved” and “well-beloved” bring out the depth of Christian sympathy and love which was characteristic of the first period of Christianity. In sending greetings to all the house-congregations, the apostle has remembered all the members of the Roman church. And he now admonishes them to give evidence of the communion of love in which they stood by saluting one another with the holy kiss. This was not an indiscriminate token of natural affection, but a custom which continued for a long time in the first congregations, after prayer and before the celebration of the Holy Communion, the men saluting the men and the women the women, thus expressing their mutual affection and equality before God. The apostle finally sends greetings from all the congregations. His plan of visiting Rome at the first opportunity was well known, and therefore the Christians in all the cities that he visited commissioned him to remember them to the brethren at Rome.

A warning against false teachers:

This warning comes into the postscript in the nature of an after-thought. Very likely the congregation at Rome had not yet been troubled, but Paul feels it necessary to warn his Christians against a danger which might strike them at any time. It is not the open enemies of the Christian Church that work the greatest harm, but the false teachers that call themselves after the name of Christ and purport to believe in, and to teach, the Bible, and who, by insidious propaganda, subvert the foundations of sound teaching. St. Paul, therefore, warns the believers at Rome and the Christians of all times against such people as teach a doctrine at variance with the plain truths as he has proclaimed them. He begs them, as Christian brethren, most earnestly to mark them, literally, to keep their eye on them, to be on the constant lookout for them, that cause factions and scandals contrary to the doctrine which they had learned, which had been preached in Rome all these years, and to turn away from these false teachers. The apostle may have had in mind such opponents and disturbers of the peace as had attempted to hinder the course of the Gospel in Antioch, in Galatia, and in Achaia. Such men would undoubtedly try to enter into the congregation at Rome also and to spread their false teaching. But Paul distinctly tells the Roman Christians and the true believers of all times that they are not only to reject the false doctrine, but also to avoid the false teachers of every kind and degree. It is the express will of God that Christians and Christian organizations with sound Biblical basis must separate themselves, and remain separate, from all denominations in which false doctrine and false teachers are permitted. All unionism, which attempts to unite truth and falsehood in the same church organization, is clearly condemned in this passage. Cp. 2 Thessalonians 3:6; Titus 3:10; 1 Corinthians 5:11; 2 John 10.

The reason for this unequivocal stand is given by Paul: For such men, people that belong to their class, are not engaged in the service of Christ, our Lord, but in that of their own belly, and through specious talking and pretty words they deceive the hearts of the unwary, Romans 16:18. Although false teachers pretend to be serving the Lord Jesus Christ, this assumed zeal is intended to make an impression upon the unwary: base interests of their own are their real object. With an insinuating tone and in fine style, with glittering words and attractive phrases they try to cover up their real intention. “The description here given is applicable, in a great degree, to errorists in all ages. They are not actuated by zeal for the Lord Jesus; they are selfish, if not sensual; and they are plausible and deceitful.” (Hodge.) “The Church of God has ever been troubled with such pretended pastors — men who feed themselves, not the flock; men who are too proud to beg and too lazy to work; who have neither grace nor gifts to plant the standard of the Cross on the devil’s territories, and by the power of Christ make inroads upon his kingdom, and spoil him of his subjects. On the contrary, by sowing the seeds of dissension, by means of doubtful disputations, and the propagation of scandals, by glaring and insinuating speeches, for they affect elegance and good breeding, they rend Christian congregations, form a party for themselves, and thus live on the spoils of the Church of God.” ^■625 .

The apostle now shows why he has uttered his warning, Romans 16:19. As distinguished from the simple, the unwary, the obedience which the believers of Rome gave the Gospel had gone out to all men, it was known in all Christian congregations. Paul had full confidence in them that they would be able to meet also such a situation with the proper wisdom, in accordance with the obedience to the Gospel which they had always shown. And yet he cannot help conveying a feeling of his anxiety. He is rejoicing over them, but just the same he wants them to be wise toward the good, but pure and innocent with reference to the evil, to all that which is bad, not to be enmeshed in the net of false doctrine. At the same time, it is a comforting thought for both Paul and the Christians at Rome that the God of peace will crush, tread under foot, Satan, in whose service the false teachers are standing, and that shortly. The day is not far distant when the Lord will crush Satan, stamp him out, render him helpless forever, and thus deliver them that are His from all attacks of the old Evil Foe. Cp. Genesis 3:15. The benediction: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, closes this section of the postscript. It is God’s powerful mercy which alone can establish and uphold the Christians in all conditions of life.

Greetings from companions and friends of Paul:

In many of the letters of Paul, Timothy’s name is associated with that of Paul in the opening salutation, especially if he was personally known in the congregation and had rendered valuable services in some way. This was not the case at Rome, but as a fellow-worker of Paul he naturally took a deep interest also in the Roman Christians and sent his regards. Together with his name are mentioned those of Lucius, Jason, Acts 17:5, and Sopater, Acts 20:4. It is very probable that these men were the delegates of their respective congregations in the matter of the collection for the poor at Jerusalem and had come to Corinth to accompany Paul from this city to Judea. Tertius, the amanuensis, or scribe, that wrote the letter at Paul’s dictation, inserted his own salutation. Then Paul continued dictating, sending greetings from Gaius, in whose house he was lodging, who kept open house for all Christians near and far, 1 Corinthians 1:14. Even from Erastus, the quaestor, the treasurer of the city, a salutation was included. Although their number was small from the beginning, 1 Corinthians 1:26, there were always some of the richer and more influential people that were won for Christ by the preaching of the Gospel. Paul here repeats his apostolic benediction, for his heart is burning with fervent love toward the Christians of Rome, and he would fain have them assured of the fulness of God’s grace and mercy in Jesus Christ, their Savior.

The concluding doxology:

It is altogether in harmony with the rich content of the letter to the Romans that Paul closes it with such a remarkable doxology, a veritable effusion of glowing thoughts, interwoven with a beautiful eulogy of the Gospel. He gives all glory to God, to Him that is able to make the Christians firm and constant in faith and holy life. God establishes, confirms, the believers in their faith according to the Gospel; that is both norm and means through which God works. This Gospel, so far as its contents are concerned, is nothing but the preaching of Jesus Christ, who is Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, of all true evangelical preaching. The Gospel is further described as being a mystery, namely, the secret concerning Christ and salvation in Christ. It had been hidden, kept secret, unknown and undiscoverable by human reason, from ancient times, from eternity. The counsel of God for the redemption of mankind had been hid in God, Ephesians 3:9, and it had not been made known in its fulness and glory for several millenniums after the creation of the world. But now this mystery has been uncovered, made known, become manifest. Jesus Christ has carried out the counsel of God for salvation, the revelation has been committed to the apostles with the command to preach it to all creatures. And the preaching is being done through the Scriptures of the prophets, the apostles always referring to the promises of the Messiah and demonstrating their fulfilment in Christ. Through the preaching of the Gospel the very writings of the prophets are made clear and are shown to contain glorious Gospel-truths. And so the work of the New Testament ministry is being carried forward according to the commandment of the eternal God, unto the obedience of faith, to work this obedience in the hearts of men, to be made known to all the Gentiles. In brief, the Gospel, revealed in the preaching of the New Testament, is to serve for the salvation of all men. And God, who works faith in Christ Jesus through the Gospel, will through that same preaching strengthen and confirm the believers in faith unto the end. To Him, therefore, who alone is wise, who is the essence of all wisdom, as is shown by His wonderful plan for the salvation of all men, be glory forever and ever, through Jesus Christ, our Savior! Glory be to the Father and to the Son, equal in power, majesty, and glory, throughout eternity! Amen.

Summary

The apostle sends greetings, both his own and those of his companions, inserts a warning against false teachers, and concludes with a wonderful doxology. ^■626