this ebook was produced by david widger with the help of derek andrew's text from january 1992 and the work of bryan taylor in november 2002. book 45 romans 45:001:001 paul, a servant of jesus christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of god, 45:001:002 (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 45:001:003 concerning his son jesus christ our lord, which was made of the seed of david according to the flesh; 45:001:004 and declared to be the son of god with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: 45:001:005 by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: 45:001:006 among whom are ye also the called of jesus christ: 45:001:007 to all that be in rome, beloved of god, called to be saints: grace to you and peace from god our father, and the lord jesus christ. 45:001:008 first, i thank my god through jesus christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 45:001:009 for god is my witness, whom i serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing i make mention of you always in my prayers; 45:001:010 making request, if by any means now at length i might have a prosperous journey by the will of god to come unto you. 45:001:011 for i long to see you, that i may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; 45:001:012 that is, that i may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. 45:001:013 now i would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes i purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that i might have some fruit among you also, even as among other gentiles. 45:001:014 i am debtor both to the greeks, and to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. 45:001:015 so, as much as in me is, i am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at rome also. 45:001:016 for i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ: for it is the power of god unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the jew first, and also to the greek. 45:001:017 for therein is the righteousness of god revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith. 45:001:018 for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 45:001:019 because that which may be known of god is manifest in them; for god hath shewed it unto them. 45:001:020 for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead; so that they are without excuse: 45:001:021 because that, when they knew god, they glorified him not as god, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 45:001:022 professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 45:001:023 and changed the glory of the uncorruptible god into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 45:001:024 wherefore god also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 45:001:025 who changed the truth of god into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed for ever. amen. 45:001:026 for this cause god gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 45:001:027 and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 45:001:028 and even as they did not like to retain god in their knowledge, god gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 45:001:029 being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 45:001:030 backbiters, haters of god, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 45:001:031 without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 45:001:032 who knowing the judgment of god, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. 45:002:001 therefore thou art inexcusable, o man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. 45:002:002 but we are sure that the judgment of god is according to truth against them which commit such things. 45:002:003 and thinkest thou this, o man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of god? 45:002:004 or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of god leadeth thee to repentance? 45:002:005 but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of god; 45:002:006 who will render to every man according to his deeds: 45:002:007 to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: 45:002:008 but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 45:002:009 tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the jew first, and also of the gentile; 45:002:010 but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the jew first, and also to the gentile: 45:002:011 for there is no respect of persons with god. 45:002:012 for as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; 45:002:013 (for not the hearers of the law are just before god, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 45:002:014 for when the gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 45:002:015 which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) 45:002:016 in the day when god shall judge the secrets of men by jesus christ according to my gospel. 45:002:017 behold, thou art called a jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of god, 45:002:018 and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; 45:002:019 and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, 45:002:020 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. 45:002:021 thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? 45:002:022 thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? 45:002:023 thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou god? 45:002:024 for the name of god is blasphemed among the gentiles through you, as it is written. 45:002:025 for circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. 45:002:026 therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? 45:002:027 and shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? 45:002:028 for he is not a jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 45:002:029 but he is a jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of god. 45:003:001 what advantage then hath the jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 45:003:002 much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of god. 45:003:003 for what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of god without effect? 45:003:004 god forbid: yea, let god be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. 45:003:005 but if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of god, what shall we say? is god unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (i speak as a man) 45:003:006 god forbid: for then how shall god judge the world? 45:003:007 for if the truth of god hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am i also judged as a sinner? 45:003:008 and not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. 45:003:009 what then? are we better than they? no, in no wise: for we have before proved both jews and gentiles, that they are all under sin; 45:003:010 as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one: 45:003:011 there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after god. 45:003:012 they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 45:003:013 their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 45:003:014 whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 45:003:015 their feet are swift to shed blood: 45:003:016 destruction and misery are in their ways: 45:003:017 and the way of peace have they not known: 45:003:018 there is no fear of god before their eyes. 45:003:019 now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before god. 45:003:020 therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 45:003:021 but now the righteousness of god without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 45:003:022 even the righteousness of god which is by faith of jesus christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 45:003:023 for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of god; 45:003:024 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in christ jesus: 45:003:025 whom god hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of god; 45:003:026 to declare, i say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in jesus. 45:003:027 where is boasting then? it is excluded. by what law? of works? nay: but by the law of faith. 45:003:028 therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 45:003:029 is he the god of the jews only? is he not also of the gentiles? yes, of the gentiles also: 45:003:030 seeing it is one god, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. 45:003:031 do we then make void the law through faith? god forbid: yea, we establish the law. 45:004:001 what shall we say then that abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? 45:004:002 for if abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before god. 45:004:003 for what saith the scripture? abraham believed god, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 45:004:004 now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 45:004:005 but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 45:004:006 even as david also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom god imputeth righteousness without works, 45:004:007 saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 45:004:008 blessed is the man to whom the lord will not impute sin. 45:004:009 cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to abraham for righteousness. 45:004:010 how was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 45:004:011 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: 45:004:012 and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. 45:004:013 for the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 45:004:014 for if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 45:004:015 because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. 45:004:016 therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of abraham; who is the father of us all, 45:004:017 (as it is written, i have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even god, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 45:004:018 who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. 45:004:019 and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of sarah's womb: 45:004:020 he staggered not at the promise of god through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to god; 45:004:021 and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 45:004:022 and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 45:004:023 now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 45:004:024 but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up jesus our lord from the dead; 45:004:025 who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. 45:005:001 therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ: 45:005:002 by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of god. 45:005:003 and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 45:005:004 and patience, experience; and experience, hope: 45:005:005 and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of god is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost which is given unto us. 45:005:006 for when we were yet without strength, in due time christ died for the ungodly. 45:005:007 for scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 45:005:008 but god commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, christ died for us. 45:005:009 much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 45:005:010 for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to god by the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 45:005:011 and not only so, but we also joy in god through our lord jesus christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. 45:005:012 wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 45:005:013 (for until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 45:005:014 nevertheless death reigned from adam to moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. 45:005:015 but not as the offence, so also is the free gift. for if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of god, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, jesus christ, hath abounded unto many. 45:005:016 and not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 45:005:017 for if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, jesus christ.) 45:005:018 therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 45:005:019 for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. 45:005:020 moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 45:005:021 that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by jesus christ our lord. 45:006:001 what shall we say then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 45:006:002 god forbid. how shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 45:006:003 know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into jesus christ were baptized into his death? 45:006:004 therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 45:006:005 for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 45:006:006 knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 45:006:007 for he that is dead is freed from sin. 45:006:008 now if we be dead with christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 45:006:009 knowing that christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 45:006:010 for in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto god. 45:006:011 likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto god through jesus christ our lord. 45:006:012 let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 45:006:013 neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto god, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto god. 45:006:014 for sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 45:006:015 what then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? god forbid. 45:006:016 know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 45:006:017 but god be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 45:006:018 being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 45:006:019 i speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 45:006:020 for when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 45:006:021 what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 45:006:022 but now being made free from sin, and become servants to god, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 45:006:023 for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord. 45:007:001 know ye not, brethren, (for i speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 45:007:002 for the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 45:007:003 so then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. 45:007:004 wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto god. 45:007:005 for when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 45:007:006 but now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. 45:007:007 what shall we say then? is the law sin? god forbid. nay, i had not known sin, but by the law: for i had not known lust, except the law had said, thou shalt not covet. 45:007:008 but sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. for without the law sin was dead. 45:007:009 for i was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and i died. 45:007:010 and the commandment, which was ordained to life, i found to be unto death. 45:007:011 for sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 45:007:012 wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 45:007:013 was then that which is good made death unto me? god forbid. but sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. 45:007:014 for we know that the law is spiritual: but i am carnal, sold under sin. 45:007:015 for that which i do i allow not: for what i would, that do i not; but what i hate, that do i. 45:007:016 if then i do that which i would not, i consent unto the law that it is good. 45:007:017 now then it is no more i that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 45:007:018 for i know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good i find not. 45:007:019 for the good that i would i do not: but the evil which i would not, that i do. 45:007:020 now if i do that i would not, it is no more i that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 45:007:021 i find then a law, that, when i would do good, evil is present with me. 45:007:022 for i delight in the law of god after the inward man: 45:007:023 but i see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 45:007:024 o wretched man that i am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 45:007:025 i thank god through jesus christ our lord. so then with the mind i myself serve the law of god; but with the flesh the law of sin. 45:008:001 there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in christ jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. 45:008:002 for the law of the spirit of life in christ jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 45:008:003 for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, god sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 45:008:004 that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. 45:008:005 for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit. 45:008:006 for to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 45:008:007 because the carnal mind is enmity against god: for it is not subject to the law of god, neither indeed can be. 45:008:008 so then they that are in the flesh cannot please god. 45:008:009 but ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of god dwell in you. now if any man have not the spirit of christ, he is none of his. 45:008:010 and if christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. 45:008:011 but if the spirit of him that raised up jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. 45:008:012 therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 45:008:013 for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 45:008:014 for as many as are led by the spirit of god, they are the sons of god. 45:008:015 for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, abba, father. 45:008:016 the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of god: 45:008:017 and if children, then heirs; heirs of god, and joint-heirs with christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 45:008:018 for i reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 45:008:019 for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of god. 45:008:020 for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 45:008:021 because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of god. 45:008:022 for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 45:008:023 and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 45:008:024 for we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 45:008:025 but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. 45:008:026 likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 45:008:027 and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of god. 45:008:028 and we know that all things work together for good to them that love god, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 45:008:029 for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 45:008:030 moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 45:008:031 what shall we then say to these things? if god be for us, who can be against us? 45:008:032 he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 45:008:033 who shall lay any thing to the charge of god's elect? it is god that justifieth. 45:008:034 who is he that condemneth? it is christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of god, who also maketh intercession for us. 45:008:035 who shall separate us from the love of christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 45:008:036 as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 45:008:037 nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 45:008:038 for i am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 45:008:039 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of god, which is in christ jesus our lord. 45:009:001 i say the truth in christ, i lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the holy ghost, 45:009:002 that i have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 45:009:003 for i could wish that myself were accursed from christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 45:009:004 who are israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of god, and the promises; 45:009:005 whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh christ came, who is over all, god blessed for ever. amen. 45:009:006 not as though the word of god hath taken none effect. for they are not all israel, which are of israel: 45:009:007 neither, because they are the seed of abraham, are they all children: but, in isaac shall thy seed be called. 45:009:008 that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of god: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. 45:009:009 for this is the word of promise, at this time will i come, and sarah shall have a son. 45:009:010 and not only this; but when rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father isaac; 45:009:011 (for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of god according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 45:009:012 it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. 45:009:013 as it is written, jacob have i loved, but esau have i hated. 45:009:014 what shall we say then? is there unrighteousness with god? god forbid. 45:009:015 for he saith to moses, i will have mercy on whom i will have mercy, and i will have compassion on whom i will have compassion. 45:009:016 so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of god that sheweth mercy. 45:009:017 for the scripture saith unto pharaoh, even for this same purpose have i raised thee up, that i might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 45:009:018 therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 45:009:019 thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will? 45:009:020 nay but, o man, who art thou that repliest against god? shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? 45:009:021 hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 45:009:022 what if god, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 45:009:023 and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 45:009:024 even us, whom he hath called, not of the jews only, but also of the gentiles? 45:009:025 as he saith also in osee, i will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. 45:009:026 and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living god. 45:009:027 esaias also crieth concerning israel, though the number of the children of israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: 45:009:028 for he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the lord make upon the earth. 45:009:029 and as esaias said before, except the lord of sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as sodoma, and been made like unto gomorrha. 45:009:030 what shall we say then? that the gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. 45:009:031 but israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 45:009:032 wherefore? because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. for they stumbled at that stumblingstone; 45:009:033 as it is written, behold, i lay in sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 45:010:001 brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to god for israel is, that they might be saved. 45:010:002 for i bear them record that they have a zeal of god, but not according to knowledge. 45:010:003 for they being ignorant of god's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of god. 45:010:004 for christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 45:010:005 for moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. 45:010:006 but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring christ down from above:) 45:010:007 or, who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up christ again from the dead.) 45:010:008 but what saith it? the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 45:010:009 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the lord jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that god hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 45:010:010 for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 45:010:011 for the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 45:010:012 for there is no difference between the jew and the greek: for the same lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 45:010:013 for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved. 45:010:014 how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 45:010:015 and how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! 45:010:016 but they have not all obeyed the gospel. for esaias saith, lord, who hath believed our report? 45:010:017 so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of god. 45:010:018 but i say, have they not heard? yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. 45:010:019 but i say, did not israel know? first moses saith, i will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation i will anger you. 45:010:020 but esaias is very bold, and saith, i was found of them that sought me not; i was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. 45:010:021 but to israel he saith, all day long i have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. 45:011:001 i say then, hath god cast away his people? god forbid. for i also am an israelite, of the seed of abraham, of the tribe of benjamin. 45:011:002 god hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. wot ye not what the scripture saith of elias? how he maketh intercession to god against israel saying, 45:011:003 lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and i am left alone, and they seek my life. 45:011:004 but what saith the answer of god unto him? i have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of baal. 45:011:005 even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 45:011:006 and if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. but if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. 45:011:007 what then? israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. 45:011:008 (according as it is written, god hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. 45:011:009 and david saith, let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: 45:011:010 let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. 45:011:011 i say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? god forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. 45:011:012 now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the gentiles; how much more their fulness? 45:011:013 for i speak to you gentiles, inasmuch as i am the apostle of the gentiles, i magnify mine office: 45:011:014 if by any means i may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. 45:011:015 for if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? 45:011:016 for if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. 45:011:017 and if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; 45:011:018 boast not against the branches. but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. 45:011:019 thou wilt say then, the branches were broken off, that i might be graffed in. 45:011:020 well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. be not highminded, but fear: 45:011:021 for if god spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. 45:011:022 behold therefore the goodness and severity of god: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. 45:011:023 and they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for god is able to graff them in again. 45:011:024 for if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? 45:011:025 for i would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to israel, until the fulness of the gentiles be come in. 45:011:026 and so all israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of sion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from jacob: 45:011:027 for this is my covenant unto them, when i shall take away their sins. 45:011:028 as concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes. 45:011:029 for the gifts and calling of god are without repentance. 45:011:030 for as ye in times past have not believed god, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 45:011:031 even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 45:011:032 for god hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. 45:011:033 o the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of god! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 45:011:034 for who hath known the mind of the lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 45:011:035 or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 45:011:036 for of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. amen. 45:012:001 i beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of god, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto god, which is your reasonable service. 45:012:002 and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of god. 45:012:003 for i say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as god hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. 45:012:004 for as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: 45:012:005 so we, being many, are one body in christ, and every one members one of another. 45:012:006 having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; 45:012:007 or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; 45:012:008 or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. 45:012:009 let love be without dissimulation. abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. 45:012:010 be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; 45:012:011 not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the lord; 45:012:012 rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; 45:012:013 distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. 45:012:014 bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. 45:012:015 rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. 45:012:016 be of the same mind one toward another. mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. be not wise in your own conceits. 45:012:017 recompense to no man evil for evil. provide things honest in the sight of all men. 45:012:018 if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 45:012:019 dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, vengeance is mine; i will repay, saith the lord. 45:012:020 therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 45:012:021 be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. 45:013:001 let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. for there is no power but of god: the powers that be are ordained of god. 45:013:002 whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of god: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 45:013:003 for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 45:013:004 for he is the minister of god to thee for good. but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of god, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 45:013:005 wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. 45:013:006 for for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are god's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. 45:013:007 render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. 45:013:008 owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 45:013:009 for this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 45:013:010 love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 45:013:011 and that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 45:013:012 the night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 45:013:013 let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 45:013:014 but put ye on the lord jesus christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. 45:014:001 him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 45:014:002 for one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. 45:014:003 let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for god hath received him. 45:014:004 who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. yea, he shall be holden up: for god is able to make him stand. 45:014:005 one man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 45:014:006 he that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the lord he doth not regard it. he that eateth, eateth to the lord, for he giveth god thanks; and he that eateth not, to the lord he eateth not, and giveth god thanks. 45:014:007 for none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. 45:014:008 for whether we live, we live unto the lord; and whether we die, we die unto the lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the lord's. 45:014:009 for to this end christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be lord both of the dead and living. 45:014:010 but why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of christ. 45:014:011 for it is written, as i live, saith the lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to god. 45:014:012 so then every one of us shall give account of himself to god. 45:014:013 let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. 45:014:014 i know, and am persuaded by the lord jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 45:014:015 but if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. destroy not him with thy meat, for whom christ died. 45:014:016 let not then your good be evil spoken of: 45:014:017 for the kingdom of god is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the holy ghost. 45:014:018 for he that in these things serveth christ is acceptable to god, and approved of men. 45:014:019 let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. 45:014:020 for meat destroy not the work of god. all things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. 45:014:021 it is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. 45:014:022 hast thou faith? have it to thyself before god. happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. 45:014:023 and he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. 45:015:001 we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 45:015:002 let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. 45:015:003 for even christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. 45:015:004 for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 45:015:005 now the god of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to christ jesus: 45:015:006 that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify god, even the father of our lord jesus christ. 45:015:007 wherefore receive ye one another, as christ also received us to the glory of god. 45:015:008 now i say that jesus christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of god, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: 45:015:009 and that the gentiles might glorify god for his mercy; as it is written, for this cause i will confess to thee among the gentiles, and sing unto thy name. 45:015:010 and again he saith, rejoice, ye gentiles, with his people. 45:015:011 and again, praise the lord, all ye gentiles; and laud him, all ye people. 45:015:012 and again, esaias saith, there shall be a root of jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the gentiles; in him shall the gentiles trust. 45:015:013 now the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the holy ghost. 45:015:014 and i myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. 45:015:015 nevertheless, brethren, i have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of god, 45:015:016 that i should be the minister of jesus christ to the gentiles, ministering the gospel of god, that the offering up of the gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the holy ghost. 45:015:017 i have therefore whereof i may glory through jesus christ in those things which pertain to god. 45:015:018 for i will not dare to speak of any of those things which christ hath not wrought by me, to make the gentiles obedient, by word and deed, 45:015:019 through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of god; so that from jerusalem, and round about unto illyricum, i have fully preached the gospel of christ. 45:015:020 yea, so have i strived to preach the gospel, not where christ was named, lest i should build upon another man's foundation: 45:015:021 but as it is written, to whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand. 45:015:022 for which cause also i have been much hindered from coming to you. 45:015:023 but now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you; 45:015:024 whensoever i take my journey into spain, i will come to you: for i trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first i be somewhat filled with your company. 45:015:025 but now i go unto jerusalem to minister unto the saints. 45:015:026 for it hath pleased them of macedonia and achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at jerusalem. 45:015:027 it hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. for if the gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things. 45:015:028 when therefore i have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, i will come by you into spain. 45:015:029 and i am sure that, when i come unto you, i shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of christ. 45:015:030 now i beseech you, brethren, for the lord jesus christ's sake, and for the love of the spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to god for me; 45:015:031 that i may be delivered from them that do not believe in judaea; and that my service which i have for jerusalem may be accepted of the saints; 45:015:032 that i may come unto you with joy by the will of god, and may with you be refreshed. 45:015:033 now the god of peace be with you all. amen. 45:016:001 i commend unto you phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at cenchrea: 45:016:002 that ye receive her in the lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also. 45:016:003 greet priscilla and aquila my helpers in christ jesus: 45:016:004 who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only i give thanks, but also all the churches of the gentiles. 45:016:005 likewise greet the church that is in their house. salute my well-beloved epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of achaia unto christ. 45:016:006 greet mary, who bestowed much labour on us. 45:016:007 salute andronicus and junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in christ before me. 45:016:008 greet amplias my beloved in the lord. 45:016:009 salute urbane, our helper in christ, and stachys my beloved. 45:016:010 salute apelles approved in christ. salute them which are of aristobulus' household. 45:016:011 salute herodion my kinsman. greet them that be of the household of narcissus, which are in the lord. 45:016:012 salute tryphena and tryphosa, who labour in the lord. salute the beloved persis, which laboured much in the lord. 45:016:013 salute rufus chosen in the lord, and his mother and mine. 45:016:014 salute asyncritus, phlegon, hermas, patrobas, hermes, and the brethren which are with them. 45:016:015 salute philologus, and julia, nereus, and his sister, and olympas, and all the saints which are with them. 45:016:016 salute one another with an holy kiss. the churches of christ salute you. 45:016:017 now i beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. 45:016:018 for they that are such serve not our lord jesus christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. 45:016:019 for your obedience is come abroad unto all men. i am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet i would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. 45:016:020 and the god of peace shall bruise satan under your feet shortly. the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you. amen. 45:016:021 timotheus my workfellow, and lucius, and jason, and sosipater, my kinsmen, salute you. 45:016:022 i tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the lord. 45:016:023 gaius mine host, and of the whole church, saluteth you. erastus the chamberlain of the city saluteth you, and quartus a brother. 45:016:024 the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you all. amen. 45:016:025 now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of jesus christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 45:016:026 but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting god, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: 45:016:027 to god only wise, be glory through jesus christ for ever. amen. from www.ebible.org with slight reformatting by martin ward. book 45 romans 001:001 paul, a servant of jesus christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the good news of god, 001:002 which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 001:003 concerning his son, who was born of the seed of david according to the flesh, 001:004 who was declared to be the son of god with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, jesus christ our lord, 001:005 through whom we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name's sake; 001:006 among whom you are also called to belong to jesus christ; 001:007 to all who are in rome, beloved of god, called to be saints: grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ. 001:008 first, i thank my god through jesus christ for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. 001:009 for god is my witness, whom i serve in my spirit in the good news of his son, how unceasingly i make mention of you always in my prayers, 001:010 requesting, if by any means now at last i may be prospered by the will of god to come to you. 001:011 for i long to see you, that i may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established; 001:012 that is, that i with you may be encouraged in you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine. 001:013 now i don't desire to have you unaware, brothers, that i often planned to come to you, and was hindered so far, that i might have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the gentiles. 001:014 i am debtor both to greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish. 001:015 so, as much as is in me, i am eager to preach the good news to you also who are in rome. 001:016 for i am not ashamed of the good news of christ, for it is the power of god for salvation for everyone who believes; for the jew first, and also for the greek. 001:017 for in it is revealed god's righteousness from faith to faith. as it is written, "but the righteous shall live by faith."{habakkuk 2:4} 001:018 for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 001:019 because that which is known of god is revealed in them, for god revealed it to them. 001:020 for the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse. 001:021 because, knowing god, they didn't glorify him as god, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. 001:022 professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 001:023 and traded the glory of the incorruptible god for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. 001:024 therefore god also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves, 001:025 who exchanged the truth of god for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. amen. 001:026 for this reason, god gave them up to vile passions. for their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. 001:027 likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. 001:028 even as they refused to have god in their knowledge, god gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 001:029 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, 001:030 backbiters, hateful to god, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 001:031 without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful; 001:032 who, knowing the ordinance of god, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. 002:001 therefore you are without excuse, o man, whoever you are who judge. for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. for you who judge practice the same things. 002:002 we know that the judgment of god is according to truth against those who practice such things. 002:003 do you think this, o man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of god? 002:004 or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of god leads you to repentance? 002:005 but according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of god; 002:006 who "will pay back to everyone according to their works:"{psalm 62:12; proverbs 24:12} 002:007 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life; 002:008 but to those who are self-seeking, and don't obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation, 002:009 oppression and anguish, on every soul of man who works evil, to the jew first, and also to the greek. 002:010 but glory, honor, and peace go to every man who works good, to the jew first, and also to the greek. 002:011 for there is no partiality with god. 002:012 for as many as have sinned without law will also perish without the law. as many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 002:013 for it isn't the hearers of the law who are righteous before god, but the doers of the law will be justified 002:014 (for when gentiles who don't have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, 002:015 in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them) 002:016 in the day when god will judge the secrets of men, according to my good news, by jesus christ. 002:017 indeed you bear the name of a jew, and rest on the law, and glory in god, 002:018 and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, 002:019 and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 002:020 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth. 002:021 you therefore who teach another, don't you teach yourself? you who preach that a man shouldn't steal, do you steal? 002:022 you who say a man shouldn't commit adultery. do you commit adultery? you who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 002:023 you who glory in the law, through your disobedience of the law do you dishonor god? 002:024 for "the name of god is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you,"{isaiah 52:5; ezekiel 36:22} just as it is written. 002:025 for circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 002:026 if therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won't his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision? 002:027 won't the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? 002:028 for he is not a jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; 002:029 but he is a jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from god. 003:001 then what advantage does the jew have? or what is the profit of circumcision? 003:002 much in every way! because first of all, they were entrusted with the oracles of god. 003:003 for what if some were without faith? will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of god? 003:004 may it never be! yes, let god be found true, but every man a liar. as it is written, "that you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment."{psalm 51:4} 003:005 but if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of god, what will we say? is god unrighteous who inflicts wrath? i speak like men do. 003:006 may it never be! for then how will god judge the world? 003:007 for if the truth of god through my lie abounded to his glory, why am i also still judged as a sinner? 003:008 why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), "let us do evil, that good may come?" those who say so are justly condemned. 003:009 what then? are we better than they? no, in no way. for we previously charged both jews and greeks, that they are all under sin. 003:010 as it is written, "there is no one righteous; no, not one. 003:011 there is no one who understands. there is no one who seeks after god. 003:012 they have all turned aside. they have together become unprofitable. there is no one who does good, no, not, so much as one."{psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-3; ecclesiastes 7:20} 003:013 "their throat is an open tomb. with their tongues they have used deceit."{psalm 5:9} "the poison of vipers is under their lips;"{psalm 140:3} 003:014 "whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness."{psalm 10:7} 003:015 "their feet are swift to shed blood. 003:016 destruction and misery are in their ways. 003:017 the way of peace, they haven't known."{isaiah 59:7-8} 003:018 "there is no fear of god before their eyes."{psalm 36:1} 003:019 now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of god. 003:020 because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 003:021 but now apart from the law, a righteousness of god has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; 003:022 even the righteousness of god through faith in jesus christ to all and on all those who believe. for there is no distinction, 003:023 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of god; 003:024 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in christ jesus; 003:025 whom god set forth to be an atoning sacrifice{or, a propitiation}, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in god's forbearance; 003:026 to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in jesus. 003:027 where then is the boasting? it is excluded. by what manner of law? of works? no, but by a law of faith. 003:028 we maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 003:029 or is god the god of jews only? isn't he the god of gentiles also? yes, of gentiles also, 003:030 since indeed there is one god who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith. 003:031 do we then nullify the law through faith? may it never be! no, we establish the law. 004:001 what then will we say that abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh? 004:002 for if abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward god. 004:003 for what does the scripture say? "abraham believed god, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."{genesis 15:6} 004:004 now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as debt. 004:005 but to him who doesn't work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. 004:006 even as david also pronounces blessing on the man to whom god counts righteousness apart from works, 004:007 "blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 004:008 blessed is the man whom the lord will by no means charge with sin."{psalm 32:1-2} 004:009 is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? for we say that faith was accounted to abraham for righteousness. 004:010 how then was it counted? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 004:011 he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them. 004:012 the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father abraham, which he had in uncircumcision. 004:013 for the promise to abraham and to his seed that he should be heir of the world wasn't through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 004:014 for if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. 004:015 for the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience. 004:016 for this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of abraham, who is the father of us all. 004:017 as it is written, "i have made you a father of many nations."{genesis 17:5} this is in the presence of him whom he believed: god, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. 004:018 who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, "so will your seed be."{genesis 15:5} 004:019 without being weakened in faith, he didn't consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of sarah's womb. 004:020 yet, looking to the promise of god, he didn't waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to god, 004:021 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 004:022 therefore it also was "reckoned to him for righteousness."{genesis 15:6} 004:023 now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, 004:024 but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised jesus, our lord, from the dead, 004:025 who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification. 005:001 being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ; 005:002 through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. we rejoice in hope of the glory of god. 005:003 not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering works perseverance; 005:004 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope: 005:005 and hope doesn't disappoint us, because god's love has been poured out into our hearts through the holy spirit who was given to us. 005:006 for while we were yet weak, at the right time christ died for the ungodly. 005:007 for one will hardly die for a righteous man. yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die. 005:008 but god commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, christ died for us. 005:009 much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from god's wrath through him. 005:010 for if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to god through the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life. 005:011 not only so, but we also rejoice in god through our lord jesus christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. 005:012 therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned. 005:013 for until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. 005:014 nevertheless death reigned from adam until moses, even over those whose sins weren't like adam's disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come. 005:015 but the free gift isn't like the trespass. for if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of god, and the gift by the grace of the one man, jesus christ, abound to the many. 005:016 the gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. 005:017 for if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, jesus christ. 005:018 so then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. 005:019 for as through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. 005:020 the law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; 005:021 that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through jesus christ our lord. 006:001 what shall we say then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 006:002 may it never be! we who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? 006:003 or don't you know that all we who were baptized into christ jesus were baptized into his death? 006:004 we were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, so we also might walk in newness of life. 006:005 for if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; 006:006 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. 006:007 for he who has died has been freed from sin. 006:008 but if we died with christ, we believe that we will also live with him; 006:009 knowing that christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. death no more has dominion over him! 006:010 for the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to god. 006:011 thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to god in christ jesus our lord. 006:012 therefore don't let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 006:013 neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to god, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to god. 006:014 for sin will not have dominion over you. for you are not under law, but under grace. 006:015 what then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? may it never be! 006:016 don't you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 006:017 but thanks be to god, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered. 006:018 being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness. 006:019 i speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. 006:020 for when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 006:021 what fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 006:022 but now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of god, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life. 006:023 for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of god is eternal life in christ jesus our lord. 007:001 or don't you know, brothers{the word for "brothers" here and where context allows may also be correctly translated "brothers and sisters" or "siblings."} (for i speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? 007:002 for the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. 007:003 so then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man. 007:004 therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit to god. 007:005 for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring forth fruit to death. 007:006 but now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. 007:007 what shall we say then? is the law sin? may it never be! however, i wouldn't have known sin, except through the law. for i wouldn't have known coveting, unless the law had said, "you shall not covet."{exodus 20:17; deuteronomy 5:21} 007:008 but sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. for apart from the law, sin is dead. 007:009 i was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and i died. 007:010 the commandment, which was for life, this i found to be for death; 007:011 for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. 007:012 therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. 007:013 did then that which is good become death to me? may it never be! but sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful. 007:014 for we know that the law is spiritual, but i am fleshly, sold under sin. 007:015 for i don't know what i am doing. for i don't practice what i desire to do; but what i hate, that i do. 007:016 but if what i don't desire, that i do, i consent to the law that it is good. 007:017 so now it is no more i that do it, but sin which dwells in me. 007:018 for i know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. for desire is present with me, but i don't find it doing that which is good. 007:019 for the good which i desire, i don't do; but the evil which i don't desire, that i practice. 007:020 but if what i don't desire, that i do, it is no more i that do it, but sin which dwells in me. 007:021 i find then the law, that, to me, while i desire to do good, evil is present. 007:022 for i delight in god's law after the inward man, 007:023 but i see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. 007:024 what a wretched man i am! who will deliver me out of the body of this death? 007:025 i thank god through jesus christ, our lord! so then with the mind, i myself serve god's law, but with the flesh, the sin's law. 008:001 there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus, who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.{nu omits "who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit"} 008:002 for the law of the spirit of life in christ jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. 008:003 for what the law couldn't do, in that it was weak through the flesh, god did, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; 008:004 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. 008:005 for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. 008:006 for the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the spirit is life and peace; 008:007 because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards god; for it is not subject to god's law, neither indeed can it be. 008:008 those who are in the flesh can't please god. 008:009 but you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if it is so that the spirit of god dwells in you. but if any man doesn't have the spirit of christ, he is not his. 008:010 if christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 008:011 but if the spirit of him who raised up jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up christ jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. 008:012 so then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 008:013 for if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 008:014 for as many as are led by the spirit of god, these are children of god. 008:015 for you didn't receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, "abba{abba is an aramaic word for father or daddy, often used affectionately and respectfully in prayer to our father in heaven.}! father!" 008:016 the spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of god; 008:017 and if children, then heirs; heirs of god, and joint heirs with christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. 008:018 for i consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. 008:019 for the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of god to be revealed. 008:020 for the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 008:021 that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of god. 008:022 for we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. 008:023 not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body. 008:024 for we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. for who hopes for that which he sees? 008:025 but if we hope for that which we don't see, we wait for it with patience. 008:026 in the same way, the spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don't know how to pray as we ought. but the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can't be uttered. 008:027 he who searches the hearts knows what is on the spirit's mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to god. 008:028 we know that all things work together for good for those who love god, to those who are called according to his purpose. 008:029 for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.{the word for "brothers" here and where context allows may also be correctly translated "brothers and sisters" or "siblings."} 008:030 whom he predestined, those he also called. whom he called, those he also justified. whom he justified, those he also glorified. 008:031 what then shall we say about these things? if god is for us, who can be against us? 008:032 he who didn't spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things? 008:033 who could bring a charge against god's chosen ones? it is god who justifies. 008:034 who is he who condemns? it is christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of god, who also makes intercession for us. 008:035 who shall separate us from the love of christ? could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 008:036 even as it is written, "for your sake we are killed all day long. we were accounted as sheep for the slaughter."{psalm 44:22} 008:037 no, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 008:038 for i am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 008:039 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of god, which is in christ jesus our lord. 009:001 i tell the truth in christ. i am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the holy spirit, 009:002 that i have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. 009:003 for i could wish that i myself were accursed from christ for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to the flesh, 009:004 who are israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; 009:005 of whom are the fathers, and from whom is christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, god, blessed forever. amen. 009:006 but it is not as though the word of god has come to nothing. for they are not all israel, that are of israel. 009:007 neither, because they are abraham's seed, are they all children. but, "in isaac will your seed be called."{genesis 21:12} 009:008 that is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of god, but the children of the promise are counted as a seed. 009:009 for this is a word of promise, "at the appointed time i will come, and sarah will have a son."{genesis 18:10,14} 009:010 not only so, but rebecca also conceived by one, by our father isaac. 009:011 for being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of god according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, 009:012 it was said to her, "the elder will serve the younger."{genesis 25:23} 009:013 even as it is written, "jacob i loved, but esau i hated."{malachi 1:2-3} 009:014 what shall we say then? is there unrighteousness with god? may it never be! 009:015 for he said to moses, "i will have mercy on whom i have mercy, and i will have compassion on whom i have compassion."{exodus 33:19} 009:016 so then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of god who has mercy. 009:017 for the scripture says to pharaoh, "for this very purpose i caused you to be raised up, that i might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."{exodus 9:16} 009:018 so then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. 009:019 you will say then to me, "why does he still find fault? for who withstands his will?" 009:020 but indeed, o man, who are you to reply against god? will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "why did you make me like this?"{isaiah 29:16; 45:9} 009:021 or hasn't the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? 009:022 what if god, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction, 009:023 and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, 009:024 us, whom he also called, not from the jews only, but also from the gentiles? 009:025 as he says also in hosea, "i will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; and her 'beloved,' who was not beloved."{hosea 2:23} 009:026 "it will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'you are not my people,' there they will be called 'children of the living god.'"{hosea 1:10} 009:027 isaiah cries concerning israel, "if the number of the children of israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved; 009:028 for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the lord will make a short work upon the earth."{isaiah 10:22-23} 009:029 as isaiah has said before, "unless the lord of armies{greek: sabaoth (for hebrew: tze'va'ot)} had left us a seed, we would have become like sodom, and would have been made like gomorrah."{isaiah 1:9} 009:030 what shall we say then? that the gentiles, who didn't follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; 009:031 but israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness. 009:032 why? because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. they stumbled over the stumbling stone; 009:033 even as it is written, "behold, i lay in zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed."{isaiah 8:14; 28:16} 010:001 brothers, my heart's desire and my prayer to god is for israel, that they may be saved. 010:002 for i testify about them that they have a zeal for god, but not according to knowledge. 010:003 for being ignorant of god's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn't subject themselves to the righteousness of god. 010:004 for christ is the fulfillment{or, completion, or end} of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 010:005 for moses writes about the righteousness of the law, "the one who does them will live by them."{leviticus 18:5} 010:006 but the righteousness which is of faith says this, "don't say in your heart, 'who will ascend into heaven?'{deuteronomy 30:12} (that is, to bring christ down); 010:007 or, 'who will descend into the abyss?'{deuteronomy 30:13} (that is, to bring christ up from the dead.)" 010:008 but what does it say? "the word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;"{deuteronomy 30:14} that is, the word of faith, which we preach: 010:009 that if you will confess with your mouth that jesus is lord, and believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 010:010 for with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 010:011 for the scripture says, "whoever believes in him will not be disappointed."{isaiah 28:16} 010:012 for there is no distinction between jew and greek; for the same lord is lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him. 010:013 for, "whoever will call on the name of the lord will be saved."{joel 2:32} 010:014 how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? how will they believe in him whom they have not heard? how will they hear without a preacher? 010:015 and how will they preach unless they are sent? as it is written: "how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!"{isaiah 52:7} 010:016 but they didn't all listen to the glad news. for isaiah says, "lord, who has believed our report?"{isaiah 53:1} 010:017 so faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of god. 010:018 but i say, didn't they hear? yes, most certainly, "their sound went out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."{psalm 19:4} 010:019 but i ask, didn't israel know? first moses says, "i will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, with a nation void of understanding i will make you angry."{deuteronomy 32:31} 010:020 isaiah is very bold, and says, "i was found by those who didn't seek me. i was revealed to those who didn't ask for me."{isaiah 65:1} 010:021 but as to israel he says, "all day long i stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people."{isaiah 65:2} 011:001 i ask then, did god reject his people? may it never be! for i also am an israelite, a descendant of abraham, of the tribe of benjamin. 011:002 god didn't reject his people, which he foreknew. or don't you know what the scripture says about elijah? how he pleads with god against israel: 011:003 "lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars; and i am left alone, and they seek my life."{1 kings 19:10,14} 011:004 but how does god answer him? "i have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to baal."{1 kings 19:18} 011:005 even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 011:006 and if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. but if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. 011:007 what then? that which israel seeks for, that he didn't obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened. 011:008 according as it is written, "god gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day."{deuteronomy 29:4; isaiah 29:10} 011:009 david says, "let their table be made a snare, and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them. 011:010 let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. bow down their back always."{psalm 69:22,23} 011:011 i ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? may it never be! but by their fall salvation has come to the gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy. 011:012 now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the gentiles; how much more their fullness? 011:013 for i speak to you who are gentiles. since then as i am an apostle to gentiles, i glorify my ministry; 011:014 if by any means i may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them. 011:015 for if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead? 011:016 if the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. if the root is holy, so are the branches. 011:017 but if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the root and of the richness of the olive tree; 011:018 don't boast over the branches. but if you boast, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you. 011:019 you will say then, "branches were broken off, that i might be grafted in." 011:020 true; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. don't be conceited, but fear; 011:021 for if god didn't spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 011:022 see then the goodness and severity of god. toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off. 011:023 they also, if they don't continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for god is able to graft them in again. 011:024 for if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? 011:025 for i don't desire you to be ignorant, brothers,{the word for "brothers" here and where context allows may also be correctly translated "brothers and sisters" or "siblings."} of this mystery, so that you won't be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to israel, until the fullness of the gentiles has come in, 011:026 and so all israel will be saved. even as it is written, "there will come out of zion the deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from jacob. 011:027 this is my covenant to them, when i will take away their sins."{isaiah 59:20-21; 27:9; jeremiah 31:33-34} 011:028 concerning the good news, they are enemies for your sake. but concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake. 011:029 for the gifts and the calling of god are irrevocable. 011:030 for as you in time past were disobedient to god, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, 011:031 even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy. 011:032 for god has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all. 011:033 oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of god! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! 011:034 "for who has known the mind of the lord? or who has been his counselor?"{isaiah 40:13} 011:035 "or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?"{job 41:11} 011:036 for of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. to him be the glory for ever! amen. 012:001 therefore i urge you, brothers, by the mercies of god, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to god, which is your spiritual service. 012:002 don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of god. 012:003 for i say, through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think reasonably, as god has apportioned to each person a measure of faith. 012:004 for even as we have many members in one body, and all the members don't have the same function, 012:005 so we, who are many, are one body in christ, and individually members one of another. 012:006 having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, if prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; 012:007 or service, let us give ourselves to service; or he who teaches, to his teaching; 012:008 or he who exhorts, to his exhorting: he who gives, let him do it with liberality; he who rules, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. 012:009 let love be without hypocrisy. abhor that which is evil. cling to that which is good. 012:010 in love of the brothers be tenderly affectionate one to another; in honor preferring one another; 012:011 not lagging in diligence; fervent in spirit; serving the lord; 012:012 rejoicing in hope; enduring in troubles; continuing steadfastly in prayer; 012:013 contributing to the needs of the saints; given to hospitality. 012:014 bless those who persecute you; bless, and don't curse. 012:015 rejoice with those who rejoice. weep with those who weep. 012:016 be of the same mind one toward another. don't set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. don't be wise in your own conceits. 012:017 repay no one evil for evil. respect what is honorable in the sight of all men. 012:018 if it is possible, as much as it is up to you, be at peace with all men. 012:019 don't seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to god's wrath. for it is written, "vengeance belongs to me; i will repay, says the lord."{deuteronomy 32:35} 012:020 therefore "if your enemy is hungry, feed him. if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head."{proverbs 25:21-22} 012:021 don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 013:001 let every soul be in subjection to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from god, and those who exist are ordained by god. 013:002 therefore he who resists the authority, withstands the ordinance of god; and those who withstand will receive to themselves judgment. 013:003 for rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. do you desire to have no fear of the authority? do that which is good, and you will have praise from the same, 013:004 for he is a servant of god to you for good. but if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn't bear the sword in vain; for he is a servant of god, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil. 013:005 therefore you need to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience' sake. 013:006 for this reason you also pay taxes, for they are servants of god's service, attending continually on this very thing. 013:007 give therefore to everyone what you owe: taxes to whom taxes are due; customs to whom customs; respect to whom respect; honor to whom honor. 013:008 owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 013:009 for the commandments, "you shall not commit adultery," "you shall not murder," "you shall not steal," "you shall not give false testimony," "you shall not covet,"{tr adds "you shall not give false testimony,"}{exodus 20:13-15,17; deuteronomy 5:17-19,21} and whatever other commandments there are, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself."{leviticus 19:18} 013:010 love doesn't harm a neighbor. love therefore is the fulfillment of the law. 013:011 do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed. 013:012 the night is far gone, and the day is near. let's therefore throw off the works of darkness, and let's put on the armor of light. 013:013 let us walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy. 013:014 but put on the lord jesus christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts. 014:001 now accept one who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions. 014:002 one man has faith to eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 014:003 don't let him who eats despise him who doesn't eat. don't let him who doesn't eat judge him who eats, for god has accepted him. 014:004 who are you who judge another's servant? to his own lord he stands or falls. yes, he will be made to stand, for god has power to make him stand. 014:005 one man esteems one day as more important. another esteems every day alike. let each man be fully assured in his own mind. 014:006 he who observes the day, observes it to the lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the lord he does not observe it. he who eats, eats to the lord, for he gives god thanks. he who doesn't eat, to the lord he doesn't eat, and gives god thanks. 014:007 for none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. 014:008 for if we live, we live to the lord. or if we die, we die to the lord. if therefore we live or die, we are the lord's. 014:009 for to this end christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be lord of both the dead and the living. 014:010 but you, why do you judge your brother? or you again, why do you despise your brother? for we will all stand before the judgment seat of christ. 014:011 for it is written, "'as i live,' says the lord, 'to me every knee will bow. every tongue will confess to god.'"{isaiah 45:23} 014:012 so then each one of us will give account of himself to god. 014:013 therefore let's not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother's way, or an occasion for falling. 014:014 i know, and am persuaded in the lord jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 014:015 yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. don't destroy with your food him for whom christ died. 014:016 then don't let your good be slandered, 014:017 for the kingdom of god is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy spirit. 014:018 for he who serves christ in these things is acceptable to god and approved by men. 014:019 so then, let us follow after things which make for peace, and things by which we may build one another up. 014:020 don't overthrow god's work for food's sake. all things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating. 014:021 it is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak. 014:022 do you have faith? have it to yourself before god. happy is he who doesn't judge himself in that which he approves. 014:023 but he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn't of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin. (14:24) now to him who is able to establish you according to my good news and the preaching of jesus christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret through long ages, (14:25) but now is revealed, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal god, is made known for obedience of faith to all the nations; (14:26) to the only wise god, through jesus christ, to whom be the glory forever! amen.{tr places verses 24-26 after romans 16:24 as verses 25-27.} 015:001 now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 015:002 let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up. 015:003 for even christ didn't please himself. but, as it is written, "the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me."{psalm 69:9} 015:004 for whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through patience and through encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. 015:005 now the god of patience and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to christ jesus, 015:006 that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the god and father of our lord jesus christ. 015:007 therefore accept one another, even as christ also accepted you,{tr reads "us" instead of "you"} to the glory of god. 015:008 now i say that christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of god, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers, 015:009 and that the gentiles might glorify god for his mercy. as it is written, "therefore will i give praise to you among the gentiles, and sing to your name."{2 samuel 22:50; psalm 18:49} 015:010 again he says, "rejoice, you gentiles, with his people."{deuteronomy 32:43} 015:011 again, "praise the lord, all you gentiles! let all the peoples praise him."{psalm 117:1} 015:012 again, isaiah says, "there will be the root of jesse, he who arises to rule over the gentiles; in him the gentiles will hope."{isaiah 11:10} 015:013 now may the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the holy spirit. 015:014 i myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers{the word for "brothers" here and where context allows may also be correctly translated "brothers and sisters" or "siblings."}, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish others. 015:015 but i write the more boldly to you in part, as reminding you, because of the grace that was given to me by god, 015:016 that i should be a servant of christ jesus to the gentiles, serving as a priest the good news of god, that the offering up of the gentiles might be made acceptable, sanctified by the holy spirit. 015:017 i have therefore my boasting in christ jesus in things pertaining to god. 015:018 for i will not dare to speak of any things except those which christ worked through me, for the obedience of the gentiles, by word and deed, 015:019 in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of god's spirit; so that from jerusalem, and around as far as to illyricum, i have fully preached the good news of christ; 015:020 yes, making it my aim to preach the good news, not where christ was already named, that i might not build on another's foundation. 015:021 but, as it is written, "they will see, to whom no news of him came. they who haven't heard will understand."{isaiah 52:15} 015:022 therefore also i was hindered these many times from coming to you, 015:023 but now, no longer having any place in these regions, and having these many years a longing to come to you, 015:024 whenever i journey to spain, i will come to you. for i hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first i may enjoy your company for a while. 015:025 but now, i say, i am going to jerusalem, serving the saints. 015:026 for it has been the good pleasure of macedonia and achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at jerusalem. 015:027 yes, it has been their good pleasure, and they are their debtors. for if the gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them also to serve them in fleshly things. 015:028 when therefore i have accomplished this, and have sealed to them this fruit, i will go on by way of you to spain. 015:029 i know that, when i come to you, i will come in the fullness of the blessing of the good news of christ. 015:030 now i beg you, brothers, by our lord jesus christ, and by the love of the spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to god for me, 015:031 that i may be delivered from those who are disobedient in judea, and that my service which i have for jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints; 015:032 that i may come to you in joy through the will of god, and together with you, find rest. 015:033 now the god of peace be with you all. amen. 016:001 i commend to you phoebe, our sister, who is a servant{or, deacon} of the assembly that is at cenchreae, 016:002 that you receive her in the lord, in a way worthy of the saints, and that you assist her in whatever matter she may need from you, for she herself also has been a helper of many, and of my own self. 016:003 greet prisca and aquila, my fellow workers in christ jesus, 016:004 who for my life, laid down their own necks; to whom not only i give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the gentiles. 016:005 greet the assembly that is in their house. greet epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first fruits of achaia to christ. 016:006 greet mary, who labored much for us. 016:007 greet andronicus and junias, my relatives and my fellow prisoners, who are notable among the apostles, who also were in christ before me. 016:008 greet amplias, my beloved in the lord. 016:009 greet urbanus, our fellow worker in christ, and stachys, my beloved. 016:010 greet apelles, the approved in christ. greet those who are of the household of aristobulus. 016:011 greet herodion, my kinsman. greet them of the household of narcissus, who are in the lord. 016:012 greet tryphaena and tryphosa, who labor in the lord. greet persis, the beloved, who labored much in the lord. 016:013 greet rufus, the chosen in the lord, and his mother and mine. 016:014 greet asyncritus, phlegon, hermes, patrobas, hermas, and the brothers{the word for "brothers" here and where context allows may also be correctly translated "brothers and sisters" or "siblings."} who are with them. 016:015 greet philologus and julia, nereus and his sister, and olympas, and all the saints who are with them. 016:016 greet one another with a holy kiss. the assemblies of christ greet you. 016:017 now i beg you, brothers, look out for those who are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and turn away from them. 016:018 for those who are such don't serve our lord, jesus christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the innocent. 016:019 for your obedience has become known to all. i rejoice therefore over you. but i desire to have you wise in that which is good, but innocent in that which is evil. 016:020 and the god of peace will quickly crush satan under your feet. the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you. 016:021 timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, as do lucius, jason, and sosipater, my relatives. 016:022 i, tertius, who write the letter, greet you in the lord. 016:023 gaius, my host and host of the whole assembly, greets you. erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you, as does quartus, the brother. 016:024 the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you all! amen. 016:025 {see romans 14:23} 016:026 {see romans 14:23} 016:027 {see romans 14:23} {tr places romans 14:24-26 at the end of romans instead of at the end of chapter 14, and numbers these verses 16:25-27.} weymouth new testament in modern speech, romans third edition 1913 r. f. weymouth book 45 romans 001:001 paul, a bondservant of jesus christ, called to be an apostle, set apart to proclaim god's good news, 001:002 which god had already promised through his prophets in holy writ, concerning his son, 001:003 who, as regards his human descent, belonged to the posterity of david, 001:004 but as regards the holiness of his spirit was decisively proved by his resurrection to be the son of god--i mean concerning jesus christ our lord, 001:005 through whom we have received grace and apostleship in his service in order to win men to obedience to the faith, among all gentile peoples, 001:006 among whom you also, called, as you have been, to belong to jesus christ, are numbered: 001:007 to all god's loved ones who are in rome, called to be saints. may grace and peace be granted to you from god our father and the lord jesus christ. 001:008 first of all, i thank my god through jesus christ for what he has done for all of you; for the report of your faith is spreading through the whole world. 001:009 i call god to witness--to whom i render priestly and spiritual service by telling the good news about his son--how unceasingly i make mention of you in his presence, 001:010 always in my prayers entreating that now, at length, if such be his will, the way may by some means be made clear for me to come to you. 001:011 for i am longing to see you, in order to convey to you some spiritual help, so that you may be strengthened; 001:012 in other words that while i am among you we may be mutually encouraged by one another's faith, yours and mine. 001:013 and i desire you to know, brethren, that i have many a time intended to come to you--though until now i have been disappointed- in order that among you also i might gather some fruit from my labours, as i have already done among the rest of the gentile nations. 001:014 i am already under obligations alike to greek-speaking races and to others, to cultured and to uncultured people: 001:015 so that for my part i am willing and eager to proclaim the good news to you also who are in rome. 001:016 for i am not ashamed of the good news. it is god's power which is at work for the salvation of every one who believes- the jew first, and then the gentile. 001:017 for in the good news a righteousness which comes from god is being revealed, depending on faith and tending to produce faith; as the scripture has it, "the righteous man shall live by faith." 001:018 for god's anger is being revealed from heaven against all impiety and against the iniquity of men who through iniquity suppress the truth. god is angry: 001:019 because what may be known about him is plain to their inmost consciousness; for he himself has made it plain to them. 001:020 for, from the very creation of the world, his invisible perfections- namely his eternal power and divine nature--have been rendered intelligible and clearly visible by his works, so that these men are without excuse. 001:021 for when they had come to know god, they did not give him glory as god nor render him thanks, but they became absorbed in useless discussions, and their senseless minds were darkened. 001:022 while boasting of their wisdom they became utter fools, 001:023 and, instead of worshipping the imperishable god, they worshipped images resembling perishable man or resembling birds or beasts or reptiles. 001:024 for this reason, in accordance with their own depraved cravings, god gave them up to uncleanness, allowing them to dishonour their bodies among themselves with impurity. 001:025 for they had bartered the reality of god for what is unreal, and had offered divine honours and religious service to created things, rather than to the creator--he who is for ever blessed. amen. 001:026 this then is the reason why god gave them up to vile passions. for not only did the women among them exchange the natural use of their bodies for one which is contrary to nature, but the men also, 001:027 in just the same way--neglecting that for which nature intends women- burned with passion towards one another, men practising shameful vice with men, and receiving in their own selves the reward which necessarily followed their misconduct. 001:028 and just as they had refused to continue to have a full knowledge of god, so it was to utterly worthless minds that god gave them up, for them to do things which should not be done. 001:029 their hearts overflowed with all sorts of dishonesty, mischief, greed, malice. they were full of envy and murder, and were quarrelsome, crafty, and spiteful. 001:030 they were secret backbiters, open slanderers; hateful to god, insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of sin, disobedient to parents, destitute of common sense, 001:031 faithless to their promises, without natural affection, without human pity. 001:032 in short, though knowing full well the sentence which god pronounces against actions such as theirs, as things which deserve death, they not only practise them, but even encourage and applaud others who do them. 002:001 you are therefore without excuse, o man, whoever you are who sit in judgement upon others. for when you pass judgement on your fellow man, you condemn yourself; for you who sit in judgement upon others are guilty of the same misdeeds; 002:002 and we know that god's judgement against those who commit such sins is in accordance with the truth. 002:003 and you who pronounce judgement upon those who do such things although your own conduct is the same as theirs- do you imagine that you yourself will escape unpunished when god judges? 002:004 or is it that you think slightingly of his infinite goodness, forbearance and patience, unaware that the goodness of god is gently drawing you to repentance? 002:005 the fact is that in the stubbornness of your impenitent heart you are treasuring up against yourself anger on the day of anger--the day when the righteousness of god's judgements will stand revealed. 002:006 to each man he will make an award corresponding to his actions; 002:007 to those on the one hand who, by lives of persistent right-doing, are striving for glory, honour and immortality, the life of the ages; 002:008 while on the other hand upon the self-willed who disobey the truth and obey unrighteousness will fall anger and fury, affliction and awful distress, 002:009 coming upon the soul of every man and woman who deliberately does wrong--upon the jew first, and then upon the gentile; 002:010 whereas glory, honour and peace will be given to every one who does what is good and right--to the jew first and then to the gentile. 002:011 for god pays no attention to this world's distinctions. 002:012 for all who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned whilst living under the law, will be judged by the law. 002:013 it is not those that merely hear the law read who are righteous in the sight of god, but it is those that obey the law who will be pronounced righteous. 002:014 for when gentiles who have no law obey by natural instinct the commands of the law, they, without having a law, are a law to themselves; 002:015 since they exhibit proof that a knowledge of the conduct which the law requires is engraven on their hearts, while their consciences also bear witness to the law, and their thoughts, as if in mutual discussion, accuse them or perhaps maintain their innocence-002:016 on the day when god will judge the secrets of men's lives by jesus christ, as declared in the good news as i have taught it. 002:017 and since you claim the name of jew, and find rest and satisfaction in the law, and make your boast in god, 002:018 and know the supreme will, and can test things that differ- being a man who receives instruction from the law-002:019 and have persuaded yourself that, as for you, you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 002:020 a schoolmaster for the dull and ignorant, a teacher of the young, because in the law you possess an outline of real knowledge and an outline of the truth: 002:021 you then who teach your fellow man, do you refuse to teach yourself? you who cry out against stealing, are you yourself a thief? 002:022 you who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? you who loathe idols, do you plunder their temples? 002:023 you who make your boast in the law, do you offend against its commands and so dishonour god? 002:024 for the name of god is blasphemed among the gentile nations because of you, as holy writ declares. 002:025 circumcision does indeed profit, if you obey the law; but if you are a law-breaker, the fact that you have been circumcised counts for nothing. 002:026 in the same way if an uncircumcised man pays attention to the just requirements of the law, shall not his lack of circumcision be overlooked, and, 002:027 although he is a gentile by birth, if he scrupulously obeys the law, shall he not sit in judgement upon you who, possessing, as you do, a written law and circumcision, are yet a law-breaker? 002:028 for the true jew is not the man who is simply a jew outwardly, and true circumcision is not that which is outward and bodily. 002:029 but the true jew is one inwardly, and true circumcision is heart-circumcision--not literal, but spiritual; and such people receive praise not from men, but from god. 003:001 what special privilege, then, has a jew? or what benefit is to be derived from circumcision? 003:002 the privilege is great from every point of view. first of all, because the jews were entrusted with god's truth. 003:003 for what if some jews have proved unfaithful? shall their faithlessness render god's faithfulness worthless? 003:004 no, indeed; let us hold god to be true, though every man should prove to be false. as it stands written, "that thou mayest be shown to be just in the sentence thou pronouncest, and gain thy cause when thou contendest." 003:005 but if our unrighteousness sets god's righteousness in a clearer light, what shall we say? (is god unrighteous- i speak in our everyday language--when he inflicts punishment? 003:006 no indeed; for in that case how shall he judge all mankind?) 003:007 if, for instance, a falsehood of mine has made god's truthfulness more conspicuous, redounding to his glory, why am i judged all the same as a sinner? 003:008 and why should we not say--for so they wickedly misrepresent us, and so some charge us with arguing--"let us do evil that good may come"? the condemnation of those who would so argue is just. 003:009 what then? are we jews more highly estimated than they? not in the least; for we have already charged all jews and gentiles alike with being in thraldom to sin. 003:010 thus it stands written, "there is not one righteous man. 003:011 there is not one who is really wise, nor one who is a diligent seeker after god. 003:012 all have turned aside from the right path; they have every one of them become corrupt. there is no one who does what is right--no, not so much as one." 003:013 "their throats resemble an opened grave; with their tongues they have been talking deceitfully." "the venom of vipers lies hidden behind their lips." 003:014 "their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." 003:015 "their feet move swiftly to shed blood. 003:016 ruin and misery mark their path; 003:017 and the way to peace they have not known." 003:018 "there is no fear of god before their eyes." 003:019 but it cannot be denied that all that the law says is addressed to those who are living under the law, in order that every mouth may be stopped, and that the whole world may await sentence from god. 003:020 for on the ground of obedience to law no man living will be declared righteous before him. law simply brings a sure knowledge of sin. 003:021 but now a righteousness coming from god has been brought to light apart from any law, both law and prophets bearing witness to it-003:022 a righteousness coming from god, which depends on faith in jesus christ and extends to all who believe. no distinction is made; 003:023 for all alike have sinned, and all consciously come short of the glory of god, 003:024 gaining acquittal from guilt by his free unpurchased grace through the deliverance which is found in christ jesus. 003:025 he it is whom god put forward as a mercy-seat, rendered efficacious through faith in his blood, in order to demonstrate his righteousness--because of the passing over, in god's forbearance, of the sins previously committed-003:026 with a view to demonstrating, at the present time, his righteousness, that he may be shown to be righteous himself, and the giver of righteousness to those who believe in jesus. 003:027 where then is there room for your boasting? it is for ever shut out. on what principle? on the ground of merit? no, but on the ground of faith. 003:028 for we maintain that it is as the result of faith that a man is held to be righteous, apart from actions done in obedience to law. 003:029 is god simply the god of the jews, and not of the gentiles also? he is certainly the god of the gentiles also, 003:030 unless you can deny that it is one and the same god who will pronounce the circumcised to be acquitted on the ground of faith, and the uncircumcised to be acquitted through the same faith. 003:031 do we then by means of this faith abolish the law? no, indeed; we give the law a firmer footing. 004:001 what then shall we say that abraham, our earthly forefather, has gained? 004:002 for if he was held to be righteous on the ground of his actions, he has something to boast of; but not in the presence of god. 004:003 for what says the scripture? "and abraham believed god, and this was placed to his credit as righteousness." 004:004 but in the case of a man who works, pay is not reckoned a favour but a debt; 004:005 whereas in the case of a man who pleads no actions of his own, but simply believes in him who declares the ungodly free from guilt, his faith is placed to his credit as righteousness. 004:006 in this way david also tells of the blessedness of the man to whose credit god places righteousness, apart from his actions. 004:007 "blessed," he says, "are those whose iniquities have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered over. 004:008 blessed is the man of whose sin the lord will not take account." 004:009 this declaration of blessedness, then, does it come simply to the circumcised, or to the uncircumcised as well? for abraham's faith--so we affirm--was placed to his credit as righteousness. 004:010 what then were the circumstances under which this took place? was it after he had been circumcised, or before? 004:011 before, not after. and he received circumcision as a sign, a mark attesting the reality of the faith-righteousness which was his while still uncircumcised, that he might be the forefather of all those who believe even though they are uncircumcised- in order that this righteousness might be placed to their credit; 004:012 and the forefather of the circumcised, namely of those who not merely are circumcised, but also walk in the steps of the faith which our forefather abraham had while he was as yet uncircumcised. 004:013 again, the promise that he should inherit the world did not come to abraham or his posterity conditioned by law, but by faith-righteousness. 004:014 for if it is the righteous through law who are heirs, then faith is useless and the promise counts for nothing. 004:015 for the law inflicts punishment; but where no law exists, there can be no violation of law. 004:016 all depends on faith, and for this reason--that acceptance with god might be an act of pure grace, 004:017 so that the promise should be made sure to all abraham's true descendants; not merely to those who are righteous through the law, but to those who are righteous through a faith like that of abraham. thus in the sight of god in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and makes reference to things that do not exist, as though they did, abraham is the forefather of all of us. as it is written, "i have appointed you to be the forefather of many nations." 004:018 under utterly hopeless circumstances he hopefully believed, so that he might become the forefather of many nations, in agreement with the words "equally numerous shall your posterity be." 004:019 and, without growing weak in faith, he could contemplate his own vital powers which had now decayed--for he was nearly 100 years old--and sarah's barrenness. 004:020 nor did he in unbelief stagger at god's promise, but became mighty in faith, giving glory to god, 004:021 and being absolutely certain that whatever promise he is bound by he is able also to make good. 004:022 for this reason also his faith was placed to his credit as righteousness. 004:023 nor was the fact of its being placed to his credit put on record for his sake only; 004:024 it was for our sakes too. faith, before long, will be placed to the credit of us also who are believers in him who raised jesus, our lord, from the dead, 004:025 who was surrendered to death because of the offences we had committed, and was raised to life because of the acquittal secured for us. 005:001 standing then acquitted as the result of faith, let us enjoy peace with god through our lord jesus christ, 005:002 through whom also, as the result of faith, we have obtained an introduction into that state of favour with god in which we stand, and we exult in hope of some day sharing in god's glory. 005:003 and not only so: we also exult in our sufferings, knowing as we do, that suffering produces fortitude; 005:004 fortitude, ripeness of character; and ripeness of character, hope; 005:005 and that this hope never disappoints, because god's love for us floods our hearts through the holy spirit who has been given to us. 005:006 for already, while we were still helpless, christ at the right moment died for the ungodly. 005:007 why, it is scarcely conceivable that any one would die for a simply just man, although for a good and lovable man perhaps some one, here and there, will have the courage even to lay down his life. 005:008 but god gives proof of his love to us in christ's dying for us while we were still sinners. 005:009 if therefore we have now been pronounced free from guilt through his blood, much more shall we be delivered from god's anger through him. 005:010 for if while we were hostile to god we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, it is still more certain that now that we are reconciled, we shall obtain salvation through christ's life. 005:011 and not only so, but we also exult in god through our lord jesus christ, through whom we have now obtained that reconciliation. 005:012 what follows? this comparison. through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so death passed to all mankind in turn, in that all sinned. 005:013 for prior to the law sin was already in the world; only it is not entered in the account against us when no law exists. 005:014 yet death reigned as king from adam to moses even over those who had not sinned, as adam did, against law. and in adam we have a type of him whose coming was still future. 005:015 but god's free gift immeasurably outweighs the transgression. for if through the transgression of the one individual the mass of mankind have died, infinitely greater is the generosity with which god's grace, and the gift given in his grace which found expression in the one man jesus christ, have been bestowed on the mass of mankind. 005:016 and it is not with the gift as it was with the results of one individual's sin; for the judgement which one individual provoked resulted in condemnation, whereas the free gift after a multitude of transgressions results in acquittal. 005:017 for if, through the transgression of the one individual, death made use of the one individual to seize the sovereignty, all the more shall those who receive god's overflowing grace and gift of righteousness reign as kings in life through the one individual, jesus christ. 005:018 it follows then that just as the result of a single transgression is a condemnation which extends to the whole race, so also the result of a single decree of righteousness is a life-giving acquittal which extends to the whole race. 005:019 for as through the disobedience of the one individual the mass of mankind were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of the one the mass of mankind will be constituted righteous. 005:020 now law was brought in later on, so that transgression might increase. but where sin increased, grace has overflowed; 005:021 in order that as sin has exercised kingly sway in inflicting death, so grace, too, may exercise kingly sway in bestowing a righteousness which results in the life of the ages through jesus christ our lord. 006:001 to what conclusion, then, shall we come? are we to persist in sinning in order that the grace extended to us may be the greater? 006:002 no, indeed; how shall we who have died to sin, live in it any longer? 006:003 and do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into christ jesus were baptized into his death? 006:004 well, then, we by our baptism were buried with him in death, in order that, just as christ was raised from among the dead by the father's glorious power, we also should live an entirely new life. 006:005 for since we have become one with him by sharing in his death, we shall also be one with him by sharing in his resurrection. 006:006 this we know--that our old self was nailed to the cross with him, in order that our sinful nature might be deprived of its power, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin; 006:007 for he who has paid the penalty of death stands absolved from his sin. 006:008 but, seeing that we have died with christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; 006:009 because we know that christ, having come back to life, is no longer liable to die. 006:010 death has no longer any power over him. for by the death which he died he became, once for all, dead in relation to sin; but by the life which he now lives he is alive in relation to god. 006:011 in the same way you also must regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to god, because you are in christ jesus. 006:012 let not sin therefore reign as king in your mortal bodies, causing you to be in subjection to their cravings; 006:013 and no longer lend your faculties as unrighteous weapons for sin to use. on the contrary surrender your very selves to god as living men who have risen from the dead, and surrender your several faculties to god, to be used as weapons to maintain the right. 006:014 for sin shall not be lord over you, since you are subjects not of law, but of grace. 006:015 are we therefore to sin because we are no longer under the authority of law, but under grace? no, indeed! 006:016 do you not know that if you surrender yourselves as bondservants to obey any one, you become the bondservants of him whom you obey, whether the bondservants of sin (with death as the result) or of duty (resulting in righteousness)? 006:017 but thanks be to god that though you were once in thraldom to sin, you have now yielded a hearty obedience to that system of truth in which you have been instructed. 006:018 you were set free from the tyranny of sin, and became the bondservants of righteousness-006:019 your human infirmity leads me to employ these familiar figures- and just as you once surrendered your faculties into bondage to impurity and ever-increasing disregard of law, so you must now surrender them into bondage to righteousness ever advancing towards perfect holiness. 006:020 for when you were the bondservants of sin, you were under no sort of subjection to righteousness. 006:021 at that time, then, what benefit did you get from conduct which you now regard with shame? why, such things finally result in death. 006:022 but now that you have been set free from the tyranny of sin, and have become the bondservants of god, you have your reward in being made holy, and you have the life of the ages as the final result. 006:023 for the wages paid by sin are death; but god's free gift is the life of the ages bestowed upon us in christ jesus our lord. 007:001 brethren, do you not know--for i am writing to people acquainted with the law--that it is during our lifetime that we are subject to the law? 007:002 a wife, for instance, whose husband is living is bound to him by the law; but if her husband dies the law that bound her to him has now no hold over her. 007:003 this accounts for the fact that if during her husband's life she lives with another man, she will be stigmatized as an adulteress; but that if her husband is dead she is no longer under the old prohibition, and even though she marries again, she is not an adulteress. 007:004 so, my brethren, to you also the law died through the incarnation of christ, that you might be wedded to another, namely to him who rose from the dead in order that we might yield fruit to god. 007:005 for whilst we were under the thraldom of our earthly natures, sinful passions--made sinful by the law--were always being aroused to action in our bodily faculties that they might yield fruit to death. 007:006 but seeing that we have died to that which once held us in bondage, the law has now no hold over us, so that we render a service which, instead of being old and formal, is new and spiritual. 007:007 what follows? is the law itself a sinful thing? no, indeed; on the contrary, unless i had been taught by the law, i should have known nothing of sin as sin. for instance, i should not have known what covetousness is, if the law had not repeatedly said, "thou shalt not covet." 007:008 sin took advantage of this, and by means of the commandment stirred up within me every kind of coveting; for apart from law sin would be dead. 007:009 once, apart from law, i was alive, but when the commandment came, sin sprang into life, and i died; 007:010 and, as it turned out, the very commandment which was to bring me life, brought me death. 007:011 for sin seized the advantage, and by means of the commandment it completely deceived me, and also put me to death. 007:012 so that the law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, just and good. 007:013 did then a thing which is good become death to me? no, indeed, but sin did; so that through its bringing about death by means of what was good, it might be seen in its true light as sin, in order that by means of the commandment the unspeakable sinfulness of sin might be plainly shown. 007:014 for we know that the law is a spiritual thing; but i am unspiritual- the slave, bought and sold, of sin. 007:015 for what i do, i do not recognize as my own action. what i desire to do is not what i do, but what i am averse to is what i do. 007:016 but if i do that which i do not desire to do, i admit the excellence of the law, 007:017 and now it is no longer i that do these things, but the sin which has its home within me does them. 007:018 for i know that in me, that is, in my lower self, nothing good has its home; for while the will to do right is present with me, the power to carry it out is not. 007:019 for what i do is not the good thing that i desire to do; but the evil thing that i desire not to do, is what i constantly do. 007:020 but if i do that which i desire not to do, it can no longer be said that it is i who do it, but the sin which has its home within me does it. 007:021 i find therefore the law of my nature to be that when i desire to do what is right, evil is lying in ambush for me. 007:022 for in my inmost self all my sympathy is with the law of god; 007:023 but i discover within me a different law at war with the law of my understanding, and leading me captive to the law which is everywhere at work in my body--the law of sin. 007:024 (unhappy man that i am! who will rescue me from this death-burdened body? 007:025 thanks be to god through jesus christ our lord!) to sum up then, with my understanding, i--my true self--am in servitude to the law of god, but with my lower nature i am in servitude to the law of sin. 008:001 there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus; 008:002 for the spirit's law--telling of life in christ jesus- has set me free from the law that deals only with sin and death. 008:003 for what was impossible to the law--powerless as it was because it acted through frail humanity--god effected. sending his own son in a body like that of sinful human nature and as a sacrifice for sin, he pronounced sentence upon sin in human nature; 008:004 in order that in our case the requirements of the law might be fully met. for our lives are regulated not by our earthly, but by our spiritual natures. 008:005 for if men are controlled by their earthly natures, they give their minds to earthly things. if they are controlled by their spiritual natures, they give their minds to spiritual things. 008:006 because for the mind to be given up to earthly things means death; but for it to be given up to spiritual things means life and peace. 008:007 abandonment to earthly things is a state of enmity to god. such a mind does not submit to god's law, and indeed cannot do so. 008:008 and those whose hearts are absorbed in earthly things cannot please god. 008:009 you, however, are not devoted to earthly, but to spiritual things, if the spirit of god is really dwelling in you; whereas if any man has not the spirit of christ, such a one does not belong to him. 008:010 but if christ is in you, though your body must die because of sin, yet your spirit has life because of righteousness. 008:011 and if the spirit of him who raised up jesus from the dead is dwelling in you, he who raised up christ from the dead will give life also to your mortal bodies because of his spirit who dwells in you. 008:012 therefore, brethren, it is not to our lower natures that we are under obligation that we should live by their rule. 008:013 for if you so live, death is near; but if, through being under the sway of the spirit, you are putting your old bodily habits to death, you will live. 008:014 for those who are led by god's spirit are, all of them, god's sons. 008:015 you have not for the second time acquired the consciousness of being--a consciousness which fills you with terror. but you have acquired a deep inward conviction of having been adopted as sons--a conviction which prompts us to cry aloud, "abba! our father!" 008:016 the spirit himself bears witness, along with our own spirits, to the fact that we are children of god; 008:017 and if children, then heirs too--heirs of god and co-heirs with christ; if indeed we are sharers in christ's sufferings, in order that we may also be sharers in his glory. 008:018 why, what we now suffer i count as nothing in comparison with the glory which is soon to be manifested in us. 008:019 for all creation, gazing eagerly as if with outstretched neck, is waiting and longing to see the manifestation of the sons of god. 008:020 for the creation fell into subjection to failure and unreality (not of its own choice, but by the will of him who so subjected it). 008:021 yet there was always the hope that at last the creation itself would also be set free from the thraldom of decay so as to enjoy the liberty that will attend the glory of the children of god. 008:022 for we know that the whole of creation is groaning together in the pains of childbirth until this hour. 008:023 and more than that, we ourselves, though we possess the spirit as a foretaste and pledge of the glorious future, yet we ourselves inwardly sigh, as we wait and long for open recognition as sons through the deliverance of our bodies. 008:024 it is *in hope* that we have been saved. but an object of hope is such no longer when it is present to view; for when a man has a thing before his eyes, how can he be said to hope for it? 008:025 but if we hope for something which we do not see, then we eagerly and patiently wait for it. 008:026 in the same way the spirit also helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what prayers to offer nor in what way to offer them. but the spirit himself pleads for us in yearnings that can find no words, 008:027 and the searcher of hearts knows what the spirit's meaning is, because his intercessions for god's people are in harmony with god's will. 008:028 now we know that for those who love god all things are working together for good--for those, i mean, whom with deliberate purpose he has called. 008:029 for those whom he has known beforehand he has also pre-destined to bear the likeness of his son, that he might be the eldest in a vast family of brothers; 008:030 and those whom he has pre-destined he also has called; and those whom he has called he has also declared free from guilt; and those whom he has declared free from guilt he has also crowned with glory. 008:031 what then shall we say to this? if god is on our side, who is there to appear against us? 008:032 he who did not withhold even his own son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not also with him freely give us all things? 008:033 who shall impeach those whom god has chosen? god declares them free from guilt. 008:034 who is there to condemn them? christ jesus died, or rather has risen to life again. he is also at the right hand of god, and is interceding for us. 008:035 who shall separate us from christ's love? shall affliction or distress, persecution or hunger, nakedness or danger or the sword? 008:036 as it stands written in the scripture, "for thy sake they are, all day long, trying to kill us. we have been looked upon as sheep destined for slaughter." 008:037 yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors through him who has loved us. 008:038 for i am convinced that neither death nor life, neither the lower ranks of evil angels nor the higher, neither things present nor things future, nor the forces of nature, 008:039 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of god which rests upon us in christ jesus our lord. 009:001 i am telling you the truth as a christian man--it is no falsehood, for my conscience enlightened, as it is, by the holy spirit adds its testimony to mine-009:002 when i declare that i have deep grief and unceasing anguish of heart. 009:003 for i could pray to be accursed from christ on behalf of my brethren, my human kinsfolk--for such the israelites are. 009:004 to them belongs recognition as god's sons, and they have his glorious presence and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the ancient promises. 009:005 to them the patriarchs belong, and from them in respect of his human lineage came the christ, who is exalted above all, god blessed throughout the ages. amen. 009:006 not however that god's word has failed; for all who have sprung from israel do not count as israel, 009:007 nor because they are abraham's true children. but the promise was "through isaac shall your posterity be reckoned." 009:008 in other words, it is not the children by natural descent who count as god's children, but the children made such by the promise are regarded as abraham's posterity. 009:009 for the words are the language of promise and run thus, "about this time next year i will come, and sarah shall have a son." 009:010 nor is that all: later on there was rebecca too. she was soon to bear two children to her husband, our forefather isaac-009:011 and even then, though they were not then born and had not done anything either good or evil, yet in order that god's electing purpose might not be frustrated, based, as it was, not on their actions but on the will of him who called them, she was told, 009:012 "the elder of them will be bondservant to the younger." 009:013 this agrees with the other scripture which says, "jacob i have loved, but esau i have hated." 009:014 what then are we to infer? that there is injustice in god? 009:015 no, indeed; the solution is found in his words to moses, "wherever i show mercy it shall be nothing but mercy, and wherever i show compassion it shall be simply compassion." 009:016 and from this we learn that everything is dependent not on man's will or endeavour, but upon god who has mercy. for the scripture said to pharaoh, 009:017 "it is for this very purpose that i have lifted you so high- that i may make manifest in you my power, and that my name may be proclaimed far and wide in all the earth." 009:018 this is a proof that wherever he chooses he shows mercy, and wherever he chooses he hardens the heart. 009:019 "why then does god still find fault?" you will ask; "for who is resisting his will?" 009:020 nay, but who are you, a mere man, that you should cavil against god? shall the thing moulded say to him who moulded it, "why have you made me thus?" 009:021 or has not the potter rightful power over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for more honourable and another for less honourable uses? 009:022 and what if god, while choosing to make manifest the terrors of his anger and to show what is possible with him, has yet borne with long-forbearing patience with the subjects of his anger who stand ready for destruction, 009:023 in order to make known his infinite goodness towards the subjects of his mercy whom he has prepared beforehand for glory, 009:024 even towards us whom he has called not only from among the jews but also from among the gentiles? 009:025 so also in hosea he says, "i will call that nation my people which was not my people, and i will call her beloved who was not beloved. 009:026 and in the place where it was said to them, `no people of mine are you,' there shall they be called sons of the everliving god." 009:027 and isaiah cries aloud concerning israel, "though the number of the sons of israel be like the sands of the sea, only a remnant of them shall be saved; 009:028 for the lord will hold a reckoning upon the earth, making it efficacious and brief." 009:029 even as isaiah says in an earlier place, "were it not that the lord, the god of hosts, had left us some few descendants, we should have become like sodom, and have come to resemble gomorrah." 009:030 to what conclusion does this bring us? why, that the gentiles, who were not in pursuit of righteousness, have overtaken it- a righteousness, however, which arises from faith; 009:031 while the descendants of israel, who were in pursuit of a law that could give righteousness, have not arrived at one. 009:032 and why? because they were pursuing a righteousness which should arise not from faith, but from what they regarded as merit. they stuck their foot against the stone which lay in their way; 009:033 in agreement with the statement of scripture, "see, i am placing on mount zion a stone for people to stumble at, and a rock for them to trip over, and yet he whose faith rests upon it shall never have reason to feel ashamed." 010:001 brethren, the longing of my heart, and my prayer to god, on behalf of my countrymen is for their salvation. 010:002 for i bear witness that they possess an enthusiasm for god, but it is an unenlightened enthusiasm. 010:003 ignorant of the righteousness which god provides and building their hopes upon a righteousness of their own, they have refused submission to god's righteousness. 010:004 for as a means of righteousness christ is the termination of law to every believer. 010:005 moses says that he whose actions conform to the righteousness required by the law shall live by that righteousness. 010:006 but the righteousness which is based on faith speaks in a different tone. "say not in your heart," it declares, "`who shall ascend to heaven?'"--that is, to bring christ down; 010:007 "nor `who shall go down into the abyss?'"--that is, to bring christ up again from the grave. 010:008 but what does it say? "the message is close to you, in your mouth and in your heart;" that is, the message which we are publishing about the faith-010:009 that if with your mouth you confess jesus as lord and in your heart believe that god brought him back to life, you shall be saved. 010:010 for with the heart men believe and obtain righteousness, and with the mouth they make confession and obtain salvation. 010:011 the scripture says, "no one who believes in him shall have reason to feel ashamed." 010:012 jew and gentile are on precisely the same footing; for the same lord is lord over all, and is infinitely kind to all who call upon him for deliverance. 010:013 for "every one, without exception, who calls on the name of the lord shall be saved." 010:014 but how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? and how are they to believe in one whose voice they have never heard? and how are they to hear without a preacher? 010:015 and how are men to preach unless they have been sent to do so? as it is written, "how beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good!" 010:016 but, some will say, they have not all hearkened to the good news. no, for isaiah asks, "lord, who has believed the message they have heard from us?" 010:017 and this proves that faith comes from a message heard, and that the message comes through its having been spoken by christ. 010:018 but, i ask, have they not heard? yes, indeed: "to the whole world the preachers' voices have sounded forth, and their words to the remotest parts of the earth." 010:019 but again, did israel fail to understand? listen to moses first. he says, "i will fire you with jealousy against a nation which is no nation, and with fury against a nation devoid of understanding." 010:020 and isaiah, with strange boldness, exclaims, "i have been found by those who were not looking for me, i have revealed myself to those who were not inquiring of me." 010:021 while as to israel he says, "all day long i have stretched out my arms to a self-willed and fault-finding people." 011:001 i ask then, has god cast off his people? no, indeed. why, i myself am an israelite, of the posterity of abraham and of the tribe of benjamin. 011:002 god has not cast off his people whom he knew beforehand. or are you ignorant of what scripture says in speaking of elijah- how he pleaded with god against israel, saying, 011:003 "lord, they have put thy prophets to death, and have overthrown thy altars; and, now that i alone remain, they are thirsting for my blood"? 011:004 but what did god say to him in reply? "i have reserved for myself 7,000 men who have never bent the knee to baal." 011:005 in the same way also at the present time there has come to be a remnant whom god in his grace has selected. 011:006 but if it is in his grace that he has selected them, then his choice is no longer determined by human actions. otherwise grace would be grace no longer. 011:007 how then does the matter stand? it stands thus. that which israel are in earnest pursuit of, they have not obtained; but god's chosen servants have obtained it, and the rest have become hardened. 011:008 and so scripture says, "god has given them a spirit of drowsiness- eyes to see nothing with and ears to hear nothing with- even until now." 011:009 and david says, "let their very food become a snare and a trap to them, a stumbling-block and a retribution. 011:010 let darkness come over their eyes that they may be unable to see, and make thou their backs continually to stoop." 011:011 i ask, however, "have they stumbled so as to be finally ruined?" no, indeed; but by their lapse salvation has come to the gentiles in order to arouse the jealousy of the descendants of israel; 011:012 and if their lapse is the enriching of the world, and their overthrow the enriching of the gentiles, will not still greater good follow their restoration? 011:013 but to you gentiles i say that, since i am an apostle specially sent to the gentiles, i take pride in my ministry, 011:014 trying whether i can succeed in rousing my own countrymen to jealousy and thus save some of them. 011:015 for if their having been cast aside has carried with it the reconciliation of the world, what will their being accepted again be but life out of death? 011:016 now if the firstfruits of the dough are holy, so also is the whole mass; and if the root of a tree is holy, so also are the branches. 011:017 and if some of the branches have been pruned away, and you, although you were but a wild olive, have been grafted in among them and have become a sharer with others in the rich sap of the root of the olive tree, 011:018 beware of glorying over the natural branches. or if you are so glorying, do not forget that it is not you who uphold the root: the root upholds you. 011:019 "branches have been lopped off," you will say, "for the sake of my being grafted in." 011:020 this is true; yet it was their unbelief that cut them off, and you only stand through your faith. 011:021 do not be puffed up with pride. tremble rather--for if god did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 011:022 notice therefore god's kindness and god's severity. on those who have fallen his severity has descended, but upon you his kindness has come, provided that you do not cease to respond to that kindness. otherwise you will be cut off also. 011:023 moreover, if they turn from their unbelief, they too will be grafted in. for god is powerful enough to graft them in again; 011:024 and if you were cut from that which by nature is a wild olive and contrary to nature were grafted into the good olive tree, how much more certainly will these natural branches be grafted on their own olive tree? 011:025 for there is a truth, brethren, not revealed hitherto, of which i do not wish to leave you in ignorance, for fear you should attribute superior wisdom to yourselves--the truth, i mean, that partial blindness has fallen upon israel until the great mass of the gentiles have come in; 011:026 and so all israel will be saved. as is declared in scripture, "from mount zion a deliverer will come: he will remove all ungodliness from jacob; 011:027 and this shall be my covenant with them; when i have taken away their sins." 011:028 in relation to the good news, the jews are god's enemies for your sakes; but in relation to god's choice they are dearly loved for the sake of their forefathers. 011:029 for god does not repent of his free gifts nor of his call; 011:030 but just as you were formerly disobedient to him, but now have received mercy at a time when they are disobedient, 011:031 so now they also have been disobedient at a time when you are receiving mercy; so that to them too there may now be mercy. 011:032 for god has locked up all in the prison of unbelief, that upon all alike he may have mercy. 011:033 oh, how inexhaustible are god's resources and god's wisdom and god's knowledge! how impossible it is to search into his decrees or trace his footsteps! 011:034 "who has ever known the mind of the lord, or shared his counsels?" 011:035 "who has first given god anything, so as to receive payment in return?" 011:036 for the universe owes its origin to him, was created by him, and has its aim and purpose in him. to him be the glory throughout the ages! amen. 012:001 i plead with you therefore, brethren, by the compassionsof god, to present all your faculties to him as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to him. this with you will be an act of reasonable worship. 012:002 and do not follow the customs of the present age, but be transformed by the entire renewal of your minds, so that you may learn by experience what god's will is- that will which is good and beautiful and perfect. 012:003 for through the authority graciously given to me i warn every individual among you not to value himself unduly, but to cultivate sobriety of judgement in accordance with the amount of faith which god has allotted to each one. 012:004 for just as there are in the one human body many parts, and these parts have not all the same function; 012:005 so collectively we form one body in christ, while individually we are linked to one another as its members. 012:006 but since we have special gifts which differ in accordance with the diversified work graciously entrusted to us, if it is prophecy, let the prophet speak in exact proportion to his faith; 012:007 if it is the gift of administration, let the administrator exercise a sound judgement in his duties. 012:008 the teacher must do the same in his teaching; and he who exhorts others, in his exhortation. he who gives should be liberal; he who is in authority should be energetic and alert; and he who succours the afflicted should do it cheerfully. 012:009 let your love be perfectly sincere. regard with horror what is evil; cling to what is right. 012:010 as for brotherly love, be affectionate to one another; in matters of worldly honour, yield to one another. 012:011 do not be indolent when zeal is required. be thoroughly warm-hearted, the lord's own servants, 012:012 full of joyful hope, patient under persecution, earnest and persistent in prayer. 012:013 relieve the necessities of god's people; always practise hospitality. 012:014 invoke blessings on your persecutors--blessings, not curses. 012:015 rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. 012:016 have full sympathy with one another. do not give your mind to high things, but let humble ways content you. do not be wise in your own conceits. 012:017 pay back to no man evil for evil. take thought for what is right and seemly in every one's esteem. 012:018 if you can, so far as it depends on you, live at peace with all the world. 012:019 do not be revengeful, my dear friends, but give way before anger; for it is written, "`revenge belongs to me: i will pay back,' says the lord." 012:020 on the contrary, therefore, if your enemy is hungry, give him food; if he is thirsty, quench his thirst. for by doing this you will be heaping burning coals upon his head. 012:021 do not be overcome by evil, but overcome the evil with goodness. 013:001 let every individual be obedient to those who rule over him; for no one is a ruler except by god's permission, and our present rulers have had their rank and power assigned to them by him. 013:002 therefore the man who rebels against his ruler is resisting god's will; and those who thus resist will bring punishment upon themselves. 013:003 for judges and magistrates are to be feared not by right-doers but by wrong-doers. you desire--do you not?--to have no reason to fear your ruler. well, do the thing that is right, and then he will commend you. 013:004 for he is god's servant for your benefit. but if you do what is wrong, be afraid. he does not wear the sword to no purpose: he is god's servant--an administrator to inflict punishment upon evil-doers. 013:005 we must obey therefore, not only in order to escape punishment, but also for conscience' sake. 013:006 why, this is really the reason you pay taxes; for tax-gatherers are ministers of god, devoting their energies to this very work. 013:007 pay promptly to all men what is due to them: taxes to those to whom taxes are due, toll to those to whom toll is due, respect to those to whom respect is due, honour to those to whom honour is due. 013:008 owe nothing to any one except mutual love; for he who loves his fellow man has satisfied the demands of law. 013:009 for the precepts, "thou shalt not commit adultery," "thou shalt do no murder," "thou shalt not steal," "thou shalt not covet," and all other precepts, are summed up in this one command, "thou shalt love thy fellow man as much as thou lovest thyself." 013:010 love avoids doing any wrong to one's fellow man, and is therefore complete obedience to law. 013:011 carry out these injunctions because you know the critical period at which we are living, and that it is now high time, to rouse yourselves from sleep; for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first became believers. 013:012 the night is far advanced, and day is about to dawn. we must therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness, and clothe ourselves with the armour of light. 013:013 living as we do in broad daylight, let us conduct ourselves becomingly, not indulging in revelry and drunkenness, nor in lust and debauchery, nor in quarrelling and jealousy. 013:014 on the contrary, clothe yourselves with the lord jesus christ, and make no provision for gratifying your earthly cravings. 014:001 i now pass to another subject. receive as a friend a man whose faith is weak, but not for the purpose of deciding mere matters of opinion. 014:002 one man's faith allows him to eat anything, while a man of weaker faith eats nothing but vegetables. 014:003 let not him who eats certain food look down upon him who abstains from it, nor him who abstains from it find fault with him who eats it; for god has received both of them. 014:004 who are you that you should find fault with the servant of another? whether he stands or falls is a matter which concerns his own master. but stand he will; for the master can give him power to stand. 014:005 one man esteems one day more highly than another; another esteems all days alike. let every one be thoroughly convinced in his own mind. 014:006 he who regards the day as sacred, so regards it for the master's sake; and he who eats certain food eats it for the master's sake, for he gives thanks to god; and he who refrains from eating it refrains for the master's sake, and he also gives thanks to god. 014:007 for not one of us lives to himself, and not one dies to himself. 014:008 if we live, we live to the lord: if we die, we die to the lord. so whether we live or die, we belong to the lord. 014:009 for this was the purpose of christ's dying and coming to life- namely that he might be lord both of the dead and the living. 014:010 but you, why do you find fault with your brother? or you, why do you look down upon your brother? we shall all stand before god to be judged; 014:011 for it is written, "`as i live,' says the lord, `to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall make confession to god.'" 014:012 so we see that every one of us will give account of himself to god. 014:013 therefore let us no longer judge one another; but, instead of that, you should come to this judgement--that we must not put a stumbling-block in our brother's path, nor anything to trip him up. 014:014 as one who lives in union with the lord jesus, i know and am certain that in its own nature no food is `impure'; but if people regard any food as impure, to them it is. 014:015 if your brother is pained by the food you are eating, your conduct is no longer controlled by love. take care lest, by the food you eat, you lead to ruin a man for whom christ died. 014:016 therefore do not let the boon which is yours in common be exposed to reproach. 014:017 for the kingdom of god does not consist of eating and drinking, but of right conduct, peace and joy, through the holy spirit; 014:018 and whoever in this way devotedly serves christ, god takes pleasure in him, and men highly commend him. 014:019 therefore let us aim at whatever makes for peace and mutual upbuilding of character. 014:020 do not for food's sake be throwing down god's work. all food is pure; but a man is in the wrong if his food is a snare to others. 014:021 the right course is to forego eating meat or drinking wine or doing anything that tends to your brother's fall. 014:022 as for you and your faith, keep your faith to yourself in the presence of god. the man is to be congratulated who does not pronounce judgement on himself in what his actions sanction. 014:023 but he who has misgivings and yet eats meat is condemned already, because his conduct is not based on faith; for all conduct not based on faith is sinful. 015:001 as for us who are strong, our duty is to bear with the weaknesses of those who are not strong, and not seek our own pleasure. 015:002 let each of us endeavour to please his fellow christian, aiming at a blessing calculated to build him up. 015:003 for even the christ did not seek his own pleasure. his principle was, "the reproaches which they addressed to thee have fallen on me." 015:004 for all that was written of old has been written for our instruction, so that we may always have hope through the power of endurance and the encouragement which the scriptures afford. 015:005 and may god, the giver of power of endurance and of that encouragement, grant you to be in full sympathy with one another in accordance with the example of christ jesus, 015:006 so that with oneness both of heart and voice you may glorify the god and father of our lord jesus christ. 015:007 habitually therefore give one another a friendly reception, just as christ also has received you, and thus promote the glory of god. 015:008 my meaning is that christ has become a servant to the people of israel in vindication of god's truthfulness--in showing how sure are the promises made to our forefathers-015:009 and that the gentiles also have glorified god in acknowledgment of his mercy. so it is written, "for this reason i will praise thee among the gentiles, and sing psalms in honour of thy name." 015:010 and again the psalmist says, "be glad, ye gentiles, in company with his people." 015:011 and again, "praise the lord, all ye gentiles, and let all the people extol him." 015:012 and again isaiah says, "there shall be the root of jesse and one who rises up to rule the gentiles. on him shall the gentiles build their hopes." 015:013 may god, the giver of hope, fill you with continual joy and peace because you trust in him--so that you may have abundant hope through the power of the holy spirit. 015:014 but as to you, brethren, i am convinced--yes, i paul am convinced- that, even apart from my teaching, you are already full of goodness of heart, and enriched with complete christian knowledge, and are also competent to instruct one another. 015:015 but i write to you the more boldly--partly as reminding you of what you already know--because of the authority graciously entrusted to me by god, 015:016 that i should be a minister of christ jesus among the gentiles, doing priestly duties in connexion with god's good news so that the sacrifice--namely the gentiles--may be acceptable to him, being (as it is) an offering which the holy spirit has made holy. 015:017 i can therefore glory in christ jesus concerning the work for god in which i am engaged. 015:018 for i will not presume to mention any of the results that christ has brought about by other agency than mine in securing the obedience of the gentiles by word or deed, 015:019 with power manifested in signs and marvels, and through the power of the holy spirit. but--to speak simply of my own labours- beginning in jerusalem and the outlying districts, i have proclaimed without reserve, even as far as illyricum, the good news of the christ; 015:020 making it my ambition, however, not to tell the good news where christ's name was already known, for fear i should be building on another man's foundation. 015:021 but, as scripture says, "those shall see, to whom no report about him has hitherto come, and those who until now have not heard shall understand." 015:022 and it is really this which has again and again prevented my coming to you. 015:023 but now, as there is no more unoccupied ground in this part of the world, and i have for years past been eager to pay you a visit, 015:024 i hope, as soon as ever i extend my travels into spain, to see you on my way and be helped forward by you on my journey, when i have first enjoyed being with you for a time. 015:025 but at present i am going to jerusalem to serve god's people, 015:026 for macedonia and greece have kindly contributed a certain sum in relief of the poor among god's people, in jerusalem. 015:027 yes, they have kindly done this, and, in fact, it was a debt they owed them. for seeing that the gentiles have been admitted in to partnership with the jews in their spiritual blessings, they in turn are under an obligation to render sacred service to the jews in temporal things. 015:028 so after discharging this duty, and making sure that these kind gifts reach those for whom they are intended, i shall start for spain, passing through rome on my way there; 015:029 and i know that when i come to you it will be with a vast amount of blessing from christ. 015:030 but i entreat you, brethren, in the name of our lord jesus christ and by the love which his spirit inspires, to help me by wrestling in prayer to god on my behalf, 015:031 asking that i may escape unhurt from those in judaea who are disobedient, and that the service which i am going to jerusalem to render may be well received by the church there, 015:032 in order that if god be willing i may come to you with a glad heart, and may enjoy a time of rest with you. 015:033 may god, who gives peace be with you all! amen. 016:001 herewith i introduce our sister phoebe to you, who is a servant of the church at cenchreae, 016:002 that you may receive her as a fellow christian in a manner worthy of god's people, and may assist her in any matter in which she may need help. for she has indeed been a kind friend to many, including myself. 016:003 greetings to prisca and aquila my fellow labourers in the work of christ jesus-016:004 friends who have endangered their own lives for mine. i am grateful to them, and not i alone, but all the gentile churches also. 016:005 greetings, too, to the church that meets at their house. greetings to my dear epaenetus, who was the earliest convert to christ in the province of asia; 016:006 to mary who has laboured strenuously among you; 016:007 and to andronicus and junia, my countrymen, who once shared my imprisonment. they are of note among the apostles, and are christians of longer standing than myself. 016:008 greetings to ampliatus, dear to me in the lord; 016:009 to urban, our fellow labourer in christ, and to my dear stachys. 016:010 greetings to apella, that veteran believer; and to the members of the household of aristobulus. 016:011 greetings to my countryman, herodion; and to the believing members of the household of narcissus. 016:012 greetings to those christian workers, tryphaena and tryphosa; also to dear persis, who has laboured strenuously in the lord's work. 016:013 greetings to rufus, who is one of the lord's chosen people; and to his mother, who has also been a mother to me. 016:014 greetings to asyncritus, phlegon, hermes, patrobas, hermas, and to the brethren associated with them; 016:015 to philologus and julia, nereus and his sister and olympas, and to all god's people associated with them. 016:016 salute one another with a holy kiss. all the churches of christ send greetings to you. 016:017 but i beseech you, brethren, to keep a watch on those who are causing the divisions among you, and are leading others into sin, in defiance of the instruction which you have received; and habitually to shun them. 016:018 for men of that stamp are not bondservants of christ our lord, but are slaves to their own appetites; and by their plausible words and their flattery they utterly deceive the minds of the simple. 016:019 your fidelity to the truth is everywhere known. i rejoice over you, therefore, but i wish you to be wise as to what is good, and simple-minded as to what is evil. 016:020 and before long, god the giver of peace will crush satan under your feet. the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you! 016:021 timothy, my fellow worker, sends you greetings, and so do my countrymen lucius, jason and sosipater. 016:022 i, tertius, who write this letter, send you christian greetings. 016:023 gaius, my host, who is also the host of the whole church, greets you. so do erastus, the treasurer of the city, and quartus our brother. 016:024 [] 016:025 to him who has it in his power to make you strong, as declared in the good news which i am spreading, and the proclamation concerning jesus christ, in harmony with the unveiling of the truth which in the periods of past ages remained unuttered, 016:026 but has now been brought fully to light, and by the command of the god of the ages has been made known by the writings of the prophets among all the gentiles to win them to obedience to the faith-016:027 to god, the only wise, through jesus christ, even to him be the glory through all the ages! amen. this ebook was produced by david widger from etext #1581 prepared by dennis mccarthy, atlanta, georgia and tad book, student, pontifical north american college, rome. the holy bible translated from the latin vulgate diligently compared with the hebrew, greek, and other editions in divers languages the old testament first published by the english college at douay a.d. 1609 & 1610 and the new testament first published by the english college at rheims a.d. 1582 with annotations the whole revised and diligently compared with the latin vulgate by bishop richard challoner a.d. 1749-1752 the epistle of st. paul the apostle to the romans st. paul wrote this epistle at corinth, when he was preparing to go to jerusalem with the charitable contributions collected in achaia and macedonia for the relief of the christians in judea; which was about twenty-four years after our lord's ascension. it was written in greek; but at the same time translated into latin, for the benefit of those who did not understand that language. and though it is not the first of his epistles in the order of time, yet it is first placed on account of sublimity of the matter contained in it, of the preeminence of the place to which it was sent, and in veneration of the church. romans chapter 1 he commends the faith of the romans, whom he longs to see. the philosophy of the heathens, being void of faith and humility, betrayed them into shameful sins. 1:1. paul, a servant of jesus christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of god. 1:2. which he had promised before, by his prophets, in the holy scriptures, 1:3. concerning his son, who was made to him of the seed of david, according to the flesh, 1:4. who was predestinated the son of god in power, according to the spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection of our lord jesus christ from the dead: predestinated, etc... christ as man, was predestinated to be the son of god: and declared to be so (as the apostle here signifies) first, by power, that is, by his working stupendous miracles; secondly, by the spirit of sanctification, that is, by his infinite sanctity; thirdly, by his ressurection, or raising himself from the dead. 1:5. by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith, in all nations, for his name: 1:6. among whom are you also the called of jesus christ: 1:7. to all that are at rome, the beloved of god, called to be saints. grace to you and peace, from god our father and from the lord jesus christ. 1:8. first, i give thanks to my god, through jesus christ, for you all: because your faith is spoken of in the whole world. 1:9. for god is my witness, whom i serve in my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing i make a commemoration of you: 1:10. always in my prayers making request, if by any means now at length i may have a prosperous journey, by the will of god, to come unto you. 1:11. for i long to see you that i may impart unto you some spiritual grace, to strengthen you: 1:12. that is to say, that i may be comforted together in you by that which is common to us both, your faith and mine. 1:13. and i would not have you ignorant, brethren, that i have often purposed to come unto you (and have been hindered hitherto) that i might have some fruit among you also, even as among other gentiles. 1:14. to the greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise, i am a debtor. 1:15. so (as much as is in me) i am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are at rome. 1:16. for i am not ashamed of the gospel. for it is the power of god unto salvation to every one that believeth: to the jew first and to the greek. 1:17. for the justice of god is revealed therein, from faith unto faith, as it is written: the just man liveth by faith. 1:18. for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain the truth of god in injustice: 1:19. because that which is known of god is manifest in them. for god hath manifested it unto them. 1:20. for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. his eternal power also and divinity: so that they are inexcusable. 1:21. because that, when they knew god, they have not glorified him as god or given thanks: but became vain in their thoughts. and their foolish heart was darkened. 1:22. for, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. 1:23. and they changed the glory of the incorruptible god into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man and of birds, and of fourfooted beasts and of creeping things. 1:24. wherefore, god gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness: to dishonour their own bodies among themselves. 1:25. who changed the truth of god into a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed for ever. amen. 1:26. for this cause, god delivered them up to shameful affections. for their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. god delivered them up... not by being author of their sins, but by withdrawing his grace, and so permitting them, in punishment of their pride, to fall into those shameful sins. 1:27. and, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts, one towards another: men with men, working that which is filthy and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error. 1:28. and as they liked not to have god in their knowledge, god delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient. 1:29. being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness: full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity: whisperers, 1:30. detractors, hateful to god, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 1:31. foolish, dissolute: without affection, without fidelity, without mercy. 1:32. who, having known the justice of god, did not understand that they who do such things, are worthy of death: and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them. romans chapter 2 the jews are censured, who make their boast of the law and keep it not. he declares who are the true jews. 2:1. wherefore thou art inexcusable, o man, whosoever thou art that judgest. for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. for thou dost the same things which thou judgest. 2:2. for we know that the judgment of god is, according to truth, against them that do such things. 2:3. and thinkest thou this, o man, that judgest them who do such things and dost the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of god? 2:4. or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and patience and longsuffering? knowest thou not that the benignity of god leadeth thee to penance? 2:5. but according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath, against the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of god: 2:6. who will render to every man according to his works. 2:7. to them indeed who, according to patience in good work, seek glory and honour and incorruption, eternal life: 2:8. but to them that are contentious and who obey not the truth but give credit to iniquity, wrath and indignation. 2:9. tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that worketh evil: of the jew first, and also of the greek. 2:10. but glory and honour and peace to every one that worketh good: to the jew first, and also to the greek. 2:11. for there is no respect of persons with god. 2:12. for whosoever have sinned without the law shall perish without the law: and whosoever have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. 2:13. for not the hearers of the law are just before god: but the doers of the law shall be justified. 2:14. for when the gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law; these, having not the law, are a law to themselves. 2:15. who shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them: and their thoughts between themselves accusing or also defending one another, 2:16. in the day when god shall judge the secrets of men by jesus christ, according to my gospel. 2:17. but if thou art called a jew and restest in the law and makest thy boast of god, 2:18. and knowest his will and approvest the more profitable things, being instructed by the law: 2:19. art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them that are in darkness, 2:20. an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, having the form of knowledge and of truth in the law. 2:21. thou therefore, that teachest another, teachest not thyself: thou, that preachest that men should not steal, stealest. 2:22. thou, that sayest men should not commit adultery, committest adultery: thou, that abhorrest idols, committest sacrilege: 2:23. thou, that makest thy boast of the law, by transgression of the law dishonourest god. 2:24. (for the name of god through you is blasphemed among the gentiles, as it is written.) 2:25. circumcision profiteth indeed, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. 2:26. if then, the uncircumcised keep the justices of the law, shall not this uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? 2:27. and shall not that which by nature is uncircumcision, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law? 2:28. for it is not he is a jew, who is so outwardly: nor is that circumcision which is outwardly in the flesh. 2:29. but he is a jew that is one inwardly and the circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter: whose praise is not of men, but of god. romans chapter 3 the advantages of the jews. all men are sinners and none can be justified by the works of the law, but only by the grace of christ. 3:1. what advantage then hath the jew: or what is the profit of circumcision? 3:2. much every way. first indeed, because the words of god were committed to them. 3:3. for what if some of them have not believed? shall their unbelief make the faith of god without effect? god forbid! 3:4. but god is true and every man a liar, as it is written: that thou mayest be justified in thy words and mayest overcome when thou art judged. god only is essentially true. all men in their own capacity are liable to lies and errors: nevertheless god, who is the truth, will make good his promise of keeping his church in all truth. see st. john 16.13. 3:5. but if our injustice commend the justice of god, what shall we say? is god unjust, who executeth wrath? 3:6. (i speak according to man.) god forbid! otherwise how shall god judge this world? 3:7. for if the truth of god hath more abounded through my lie, unto his glory, why am i also yet judged as a sinner? 3:8. and not rather (as we are slandered and as some affirm that we say) let us do evil that there may come good? whose damnation is just. 3:9. what then? do we excel them? no, not so. for we have charged both jews and greeks, that they are all under sin. 3:10. as it is written: there is not any man just. there is not any man just, viz... by virtue either of the law of nature, or of the law of moses; but only by faith and grace. 3:11. there is none that understandeth: there is none that seeketh after god. 3:12. all have turned out of the way: they are become unprofitable together: there is none that doth good, there is not so much as one. 3:13. their throat is an open sepulchre: with their tongues they have dealt deceitfully. the venom of asps is under their lips. 3:14. whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 3:15. their feet swift to shed blood: 3:16. destruction and misery in their ways: 3:17. and the way of peace they have not known. 3:18. there is no fear of god before their eyes. 3:19. now we know that what things soever the law speaketh, it speaketh to them that are in the law: that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may be made subject to god. 3:20. because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before him. for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 3:21. but now, without the law, the justice of god is made manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. 3:22. even the justice of god, by faith of jesus christ, unto all, and upon all them that believe in him: for there is no distinction. 3:23. for all have sinned and do need the glory of god. 3:24. being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in christ jesus, 3:25. whom god hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to the shewing of his justice, for the remission of former sins, 3:26. through the forbearance of god, for the shewing of his justice in this time: that he himself may be just and the justifier of him who is of the faith of jesus christ. 3:27. where is then thy boasting? it is excluded. by what law? of works? no, but by the law of faith. 3:28. for we account a man to be justified by faith, without the works of the law. by faith, etc... the faith, to which the apostle here attributes man's justification, is not a presumptuous assurance of our being justified; but a firm and lively belief of all that god has revealed or promised. heb. 11. a faith working through charity in jesus christ. gal. 5.6. in short, a faith which takes in hope, love, repentance, and the use of the sacraments. and the works which he here excludes, are only the works of the law: that is, such as are done by the law of nature, or that of moses, antecedent to the faith of christ: but by no means, such as follow faith, and proceed from it. 3:29. is he the god of the jews only? is he not also of the gentiles? yes, of the gentiles also. 3:30. for it is one god that justifieth circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith. 3:31. do we then, destroy the law through faith? god forbid! but we establish the law. romans chapter 4 abraham was not justified by works done, as of himself, but by grace and by faith. and that before he was circumcised. gentiles, by faith, are his children. 4:1. what shall we say then that abraham hath found, who is our father according to the flesh? 4:2. for if abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before god. by works... done by his own strength, without the grace of god, and faith in him. not before god... whatever glory or applause such works might procure from men, they would be of no value in the sight of god. 4:3. for what saith the scripture? abraham believed god: and it was reputed to him unto justice. reputed, etc... by god, who reputeth nothing otherwise than it is. however, we may gather from this word, that when we are justified, our justification proceedeth from god's free grace and bounty; and not from any efficacy which any act of ours could have of its own nature, abstracting from god's grace. 4:4. now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned according to grace but according to debt. to him that worketh... vis., as of his own fund, or by his own strength. such a man, says the apostle, challenges his reward as a debt due to his own performances; whereas he who worketh not, that is, who presumeth not upon any works done by his own strength, but seeketh justice through faith and grace, is freely justified by god's grace. 4:5. but to him that worketh not, yet believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reputed to justice, according to the purpose of the grace of god. 4:6. as david also termeth the blessedness of a man to whom god reputeth justice without works: 4:7. blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven: and whose sins are covered. blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered... that is, blessed are those who, by doing penance, have obtained pardon and remission of their sins, and also are covered; that is, newly clothed with the habit of grace, and vested with the stole of charity. 4:8. blessed is the man to whom the lord hath not imputed sin. blessed is the man to whom the lord hath not imputed sin... that is, blessed is the man who hath retained his baptismal innocence, that no grievous sin can be imputed to him. and, likewise, blessed is the man, who after fall into sin, hath done penance and leads a virtuous life, by frequenting the sacraments necessary for obtaining the grace to prevent a relapse, that sin is no more imputed to him. 4:9. this blessedness then, doth it remain in the circumcision only or in the uncircumcision also? for we say that unto abraham faith was reputed to justice. in the circumcision, etc... that is, is it only for the jews that are circumcised? no, says the apostle, but also for the uncircumcised gentiles: who, by faith and grace, may come to justice; as abraham did before he was circumcised. 4:10. how then was it reputed? when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 4:11. and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the justice of the faith which he had, being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, being uncircumcised: that unto them also it may be reputed to justice: 4:12. and he might be the father of circumcision; not to them only that are of the circumcision, but to them also that follow the steps of the faith that is in the uncircumcision of our father abraham. 4:13. for not through the law was the promise to abraham or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world: but through the justice of faith. 4:14. for if they who are of the law be heirs, faith is made void: the promise is made of no effect. be heirs... that is, if they alone, who follow the ceremonies of thelaw, be heirs of the blessings promised to abraham; then that faith which was so much praised in him, will be found to be of little value. and the very promise will be made void, by which he was promised to be the father, not of the jews only, but of all nations of believers. 4:15. for the law worketh wrath. for where there is no law, neither is there transgression. the law worketh wrath... the law, abstracting from faith and grace, worketh wrath occasionally, by being an occasion of many transgressions, which provoke god's wrath. 4:16. therefore is it of faith, that according to grace the promise might be firm to all the seed: not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of abraham, who is the father of us all, 4:17. (as it is written: i have made thee a father of many nations), before god, whom he believed: who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things that are not, as those that are. 4:18. who against hope believed in hope; that he might be made the father of many nations, according to that which was said to him: so shall thy seed be. 4:19. and he was not weak in faith. neither did he consider his own body, now dead (whereas he was almost an hundred years old), nor the dead womb of sara. 4:20. in the promise also of god he staggered not by distrust: but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to god: 4:21. most fully knowing that whatsoever he has promised, he is able also to perform. 4:22. and therefore it was reputed to him unto justice. 4:23. now it is not written only for him that it was reputed to him unto justice, 4:24. but also for us, to whom it shall be reputed, if we believe in him that raised up jesus christ, our lord, from the dead, 4:25. who was delivered up for our sins and rose again for our justification. romans chapter 5 the grounds we have for hope in christ. sin and death came by adam, grace and life by christ. 5:1. being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with god, through our lord jesus christ: 5:2. by whom also we have access through faith into this grace wherein we stand: and glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of god. 5:3. and not only so: but we glory also in tribulation, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 5:4. and patience trial; and trial hope; 5:5. and hope confoundeth not: because the charity of god is poured forth in our hearts, by the holy ghost who is given to us. 5:6. for why did christ, when as yet we were weak, according to the time, die for the ungodly? 5:7. for scarce for a just man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man some one would dare to die. 5:8. but god commendeth his charity towards us: because when as yet we were sinners according to the time. 5:9. christ died for us. much more therefore, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him. 5:10. for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to god by the death of his son: much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 5:11. and not only so: but also we glory in god, through our lord jesus christ, by whom we have now received reconciliation. 5:12. wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world and by sin death: and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned. by one man... adam, from whom we all contracted original sin. 5:13. for until the law sin was in the world: but sin was not imputed, when the law was not. not imputed... that is, men knew not, or made no account of sin, neither was it imputed to them, in the manner it was afterwards, when they transgressed the known written law of god. 5:14. but death reigned from adam unto moses, even over them also who have not sinned, after the similitude of the transgression of adam, who is a figure of him who was to come. 5:15. but not as the offence, so also the gift. for if by the offence of one, many died: much more the grace of god and the gift, by the grace of one man, jesus christ, hath abounded unto many. 5:16. and not as it was by one sin, so also is the gift. for judgment indeed was by one unto condemnation: but grace is of many offences unto justification. 5:17. for if by one man's offence death reigned through one; much more they who receive abundance of grace and of the gift and of justice shall reign in life through one, jesus christ. 5:18. therefore, as by the offence of one, unto all men to condemnation: so also by the justice of one, unto all men to justification of life. 5:19. for as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners: so also by the obedience of one, many shall be made just. 5:20. now the law entered in that sin might abound. and where sin abounded, grace did more abound. that sin might abound... not as if the law were given on purpose for sin to abound: but that it so happened through man's perversity, taking occasion of sinning more, from the prohibition of sin. 5:21. that as sin hath reigned to death: so also grace might reign by justice unto life everlasting, through jesus christ our lord. romans chapter 6 the christian must die to sin and live to god. 6:1. what shall we say, then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 6:2. god forbid! for we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? 6:3. know you not that all we who are baptized in christ jesus are baptized in his death? 6:4. for we are buried together with him by baptism into death: that, as christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the father, so we also may walk in newness of life. 6:5. for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. 6:6. knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer. old man--body of sin... our corrupt state, subject to sin and concupiscence, coming to us from adam, is called our old man, as our state, reformed in and by christ, is called the new man. and the vices and sins, which then ruled in us are named the body of sin. 6:7. for he that is dead is justified from sin. 6:8. now, if we be dead with christ, we believe that we shall live also together with christ. 6:9. knowing that christ, rising again from the dead, dieth now no more. death shall no more have dominion over him. 6:10. for in that he died to sin, he died once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto god. 6:11. so do you also reckon that you are dead to sin, but alive unto god, in christ jesus our lord. 6:12. let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof. 6:13. neither yield ye your members as instruments of iniquity unto sin: but present yourselves to god, as those that are alive from the dead; and your members as instruments of justice unto god. 6:14. for sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace. 6:15. what then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? god forbid! 6:16. know you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey, whether it be of sin unto death or of obedience unto justice. 6:17. but thanks be to god, that you were the servants of sin but have obeyed from the heart unto that form of doctrine into which you have been delivered. 6:18. being then freed from sin, we have been made servants of justice. 6:19. i speak an human thing, because of the infirmity of your flesh. for as you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity, unto iniquity: so now yield your members to serve justice, unto sanctification. 6:20. for when you were the servants of sin, you were free men to justice. 6:21. what fruit therefore had you then in those things of which you are now ashamed? for the end of them is death. 6:22. but now being made free from sin and become servants to god, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end life everlasting. 6:23. for the wages of sin is death. but the grace of god, life everlasting in christ jesus our lord. romans chapter 7 we are released by christ from the law and from the guilt of sin, though the inclination to it still tempts us. 7:1. know you not, brethren (for i speak to them that know the law) that the law hath dominion over a man as long as it liveth? as long as it liveth... or, as long as he liveth. 7:2. for the woman that hath an husband, whilst her husband liveth is bound to the law. but if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 7:3. therefore, whilst her husband liveth, she shall be called an adulteress, if she be with another man: but if her husband be dead, she is delivered from the law of her husband: so that she is not an adulteress, if she be with another man. 7:4. therefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law, by the body of christ: that you may belong to another, who is risen again from the dead that we may bring forth fruit to god. 7:5. for when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death. 7:6. but now we are loosed from the law of death wherein we were detained; so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. 7:7. what shall we say, then? is the law sin? god forbid! but i do not know sin, but by the law. for i had not known concupiscence, if the law did not say: thou shalt not covet. 7:8. but sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. for without the law sin was dead. sin taking occasion... sin, or concupiscence, which is called sin, because it is from sin, and leads to sin, which was asleep before, was weakened by the prohibition: the law not being the cause thereof, nor properly giving occasion to it: but occasion being taken by our corrupt nature to resist the commandment laid upon us. 7:9. and i lived some time without the law. but when the commandment came, sin revived, 7:10. and i died. and the commandment that was ordained to life, the same was found to be unto death to me. 7:11. for sin, taking occasion by the commandment, seduced me: and by it killed me. 7:12. wherefore the law indeed is holy: and the commandment holy and just and good. 7:13. was that then which is good made death unto me? god forbid! but sin, that it may appear sin, by that which is good, wrought death in me: that sin, by the commandment, might become sinful above measure. that it may appear sin, or that sin may appear, viz... to be the monster it is, which is even capable to take occasion from that which is good, to work death. 7:14. for we know that the law is spiritual. but i am carnal, sold under sin. 7:15. for that which i work, i understand not. for i do not that good which i will: but the evil which i hate, that i do. i do not that good which i will, etc... the apostle here describes the disorderly motions of passion and concupiscence; which oftentimes in us get the start of reason: and by means of which even good men suffer in the inferior appetite what their will abhors: and are much hindered in the accomplishment of the desires of their spirit and mind. but these evil motions, (though they are called the law of sin, because they come from original sin, and violently tempt and incline to sin,) as long as the will does not consent to them, are not sins, because they are not voluntary. 7:16. if then i do that which i will not, i consent to the law, that it is good. 7:17. now then it is no more i that do it: but sin that dwelleth in me. 7:18. for i know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. for to will is present with me: but to accomplish that which is good, i find not. 7:19. for the good which i will, i do not: but the evil which i will not, that i do. 7:20. now if i do that which i will not, it is no more i that do it: but sin that dwelleth in me. 7:21. i find then a law, that when i have a will to do good, evil is present with me. 7:22. for i am delighted with the law of god, according to the inward man: 7:23. but i see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind and captivating me in the law of sin that is in my members. 7:24. unhappy man that i am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 7:25. the grace of god, by jesus christ our lord. therefore, i myself, with the mind serve the law of god: but with the flesh, the law of sin. romans chapter 8 there is no condemnation to them that, being justified by christ, walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. their strong hope and love of god. 8:1. there is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in christ jesus, who walk not according to the flesh. 8:2. for the law of the spirit of life, in christ jesus, hath delivered me from the law of sin and of death. 8:3. for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, god, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and of sin, hath condemned sin in the flesh. 8:4. that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. 8:5. for they that are according to the flesh mind the things that are of the flesh: but they that are according to the spirit mind the things that are of the spirit. 8:6. for the wisdom of the flesh is death: but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace. 8:7. because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to god. for it is not subject to the law of god: neither can it be. 8:8. and they who are in the flesh cannot please god. 8:9. but you are not in the flesh, but the spirit, if so be that the spirit of god dwell in you. now if any man have not the spirit of christ, he is none of his. 8:10. and if christ be in you, the body indeed is dead, because of sin: but the spirit liveth, because of justification. 8:11. and if the spirit of him that raised up jesus from the dead dwell in you; he that raised up jesus christ, from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of his spirit that dwelleth in you. 8:12. therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. 8:13. for if you live according to the flesh, you shall die: but if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. 8:14. for whosoever are led by the spirit of god, they are the sons of god. 8:15. for you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear: but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: abba (father). 8:16. for the spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of god. the spirit himself, etc... by the inward motions of divine love, and the peace of conscience, which the children of god experience, they have a kind of testimony of god's favour; by which they are much strengthened in their hope of their justification and salvation; but yet not so as to pretend to an absolute assurance: which is not usually granted in this mortal life: during which we are taught to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. phil. 2.12. and that he that thinketh himself to stand, must take heed lest he fall. 1 cor. 10.12. see also, rom. 11.20, 21, 22. 8:17. and if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of god and joint heirs with christ: yet so, if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. 8:18. for i reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us. 8:19. for the expectation of the creature waiteth for the revelation of the sons of god. the expectation of the creature, etc... he speaks of the corporeal creation, made for the use and service of man; and, by occasion of his sin, made subject to vanity, that is, to a perpetual instability, tending to corruption and other defects; so that by a figure of speech it is here said to groan and be in labour, and to long for its deliverance, which is then to come, when sin shall reign no more; and god shall raise the bodies and unite them to their souls never more to separate, and to be in everlasting happiness in heaven. 8:20. for the creature was made subject to vanity: not willingly, but by reason of him that made it subject, in hope. 8:21. because the creature also itself shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of god. 8:22. for we know that every creature groaneth and travaileth in pain, even till now. 8:23. and not only it, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the spirit: even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of god, the redemption of our body. 8:24. for we are saved by hope. but hope that is seen is not hope. for what a man seeth, why doth he hope for? 8:25. but if we hope for that which we see not, we wait for it with patience. 8:26. likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmity. for, we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings, asketh for us... the spirit is said to ask, and desire for the saints, and to pray in us; inasmuch as he inspireth prayer, and teacheth us to pray. 8:27. and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what the spirit desireth: because he asketh for the saints according to god. 8:28. and we know that to them that love god all things work together unto good: to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints. 8:29. for whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his son: that he might be the firstborn amongst many brethren. he also predestinated, etc... that is, god hath preordained that all his elect should be conformable to the image of his son. we must not here offer to pry into the secrets of god's eternal election; only firmly believe that all our good, in time and eternity, flows originally from god's free goodness; and all our evil from man's free will. 8:30. and whom he predestinated, them he also called. and whom he called, them he also justified. and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 8:31. what shall we then say to these things? if god be for us, who is against us? 8:32. he that spared not even his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all things? 8:33. who shall accuse against the elect of god? god is he that justifieth: 8:34. who is he that shall condemn? christ jesus that died: yea that is risen also again, who is at the right hand of god, who also maketh intercession for us. 8:35. who then shall separate us from the love of christ? shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? 8:36. (as it is written: for thy sake, we are put to death all the day long. we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.) 8:37. but in all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us. 8:38. for i am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, i am sure... that is, i am persuaded; as it is in the greek, pepeismai. 8:39. nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord. romans chapter 9 the apostle's concern for the jews. god's election is free and not confined to their nation. 9:1. i speak the truth in christ: i lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the holy ghost: 9:2. that i have great sadness and continual sorrow in my heart. 9:3. for i wished myself to be an anathema from christ, for my brethren: who are my kinsmen according to the flesh: anathema... a curse. the apostle's concern and love for his countrymen the jews was so great, that he was willing to suffer even an anathema, or curse, for their sake; or any evil that could come upon him, without his offending god. 9:4. who are israelites: to whom belongeth the adoption as of children and the glory and the testament and the giving of the law and the service of god and the promises: 9:5. whose are the fathers and of whom is christ, according to the flesh, who is over all things, god blessed for ever. amen. 9:6. not as though the word of god hath miscarried. for all are not israelites that are of israel. all are not israelites, etc... not all, who are the carnal seed of israel, are true israelites in god's account: who, as by his free grace, he heretofore preferred isaac before ismael, and jacob before esau, so he could, and did by the like free grace, election and mercy, raise up spiritual children by faith to abraham and israel, from among the gentiles, and prefer them before the carnal jews. 9:7. neither are all they that are the seed of abraham, children: but in isaac shall thy seed be called. 9:8. that is to say, not they that are the children of the flesh are the children of god: but they that are the children of the promise are accounted for the seed. 9:9. for this is the word of promise: according to this time will i come. and sara shall have a son. 9:10. and not only she. but when rebecca also had conceived at once of isaac our father. 9:11. for when the children were not yet born, nor had done any good or evil (that the purpose of god according to election might stand): not yet born, etc... by this example of these twins, and the preference of the younger to the elder, the drift of the apostle is, to shew that god, in his election, mercy and grace, is not tied to any particular nation, as the jews imagined; nor to any prerogative of birth, or any forgoing merits. for as, antecedently to his grace, he sees no merits in any, but finds all involved in sin, in the common mass of condemnation; and all children of wrath: there is no one whom he might not justly leave in that mass; so that whomsoever he delivers from it, he delivers in his mercy: and whomsoever he leaves in it, he leaves in his justice. as when, of two equally criminal, the king is pleased out of pure mercy to pardon one, whilst he suffers justice to take place in the execution of the other. 9:12. not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said to her: the elder shall serve the younger. 9:13. as it is written: jacob i have loved: but esau i have hated. 9:14. what shall we say then? is there injustice with god? god forbid! 9:15. for he saith to moses: i will have mercy on whom i will have mercy. and i will shew mercy to whom i will shew mercy. 9:16. so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of god that sheweth mercy. not of him that willeth, etc... that is, by any power or strength of his own, abstracting from the grace of god. 9:17. for the scripture saith to pharao: to this purpose have i raised thee, that i may shew my power in thee and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. to this purpose, etc... not that god made him on purpose that he should sin, and so be damned; but foreseeing his obstinacy in sin, and the abuse of his own free will, he raised him up to be a mighty king, to make a more remarkable example of him: and that his power might be better known, and his justice in punishing him, published throughout the earth. 9:18. therefore he hath mercy on whom he will. and whom he will, he hardeneth. he hardeneth... not by being the cause or author of his sin, but by withholding his grace, and so leaving him in his sin, in punishment of his past demerits. 9:19. thou wilt say therefore to me: why doth he then find fault? for who resisteth his will? 9:20. o man, who art thou that repliest against god? shall the thing formed say to him that formed it: why hast thou made me thus? 9:21. or hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour? the potter... this similitude is used only to shew that we are not to dispute with our maker, nor to reason with him why he does not give as uch grace to one as to another; for since the whole lump of our clay is vitiated by sin, it is owing to his goodness and mercy, that he makes out of it so many vessels of honor; and it is no more than just, that others, in punishment of their unrepented sins, should be given up to be vessels of dishonor. 9:22. what if god, willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, 9:23. that he might shew the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he hath prepared unto glory? 9:24. even us, whom also he hath called, not only of the jews but also of the gentiles. 9:25. as in osee he saith: i will call that which was not my people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved; and her that had not obtained mercy; one that hath obtained mercy. 9:26. and it shalt be in the place where it was said unto them: you are not my people; there they shall be called the sons of the living god. 9:27. and isaias cried out concerning israel: if the number of the children of israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. a remnant... that is, a small number only of the children of israel shall be converted and saved. how perversely is this text quoted for the salvation of men of all religions, when it speaks only of the converts of the children of israel! 9:28. for he shall finish his word and cut it short in justice: because a short word shall the lord make upon the earth. 9:29. and isaias foretold: unless the lord of sabbath had left us a seed, we had been made as sodom and we had been like unto gomorrha. 9:30. what then shall we say? that the gentiles who followed not after justice have attained to justice, even the justice that is of faith. 9:31. but israel, by following after the law of justice, is not come unto the law of justice. 9:32. why so? because they sought it not by faith, but as it were of works. for they stumbled at the stumblingstone. 9:33. as it is written: behold i lay in sion a stumbling-stone and a rock of scandal. and whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded. romans chapter 10 the end of the law is faith in christ. which the jews refusing to submit to, cannot be justified. 10:1. brethren, the will of my heart, indeed and my prayer to god is for them unto salvation. 10:2. for i bear them witness that they have a zeal of god, but not according to knowledge. 10:3. for they, not knowing the justice of god and seeking to establish their own, have not submitted themselves to the justice of god. the justice of god... that is, the justice which god giveth us through christ; as on the other hand, the jews' own justice is, that which they pretended to by their own strength, or by the observance of the law, without faith in christ. 10:4. for the end of the law is christ: unto justice to everyone that believeth. 10:5. for moses wrote that the justice which is of the law: the man that shall do it shall live by it. 10:6. but the justice which is of faith, speaketh thus: say not in thy heart: who shall ascend into heaven? that is to bring christ down; 10:7. or who shall descend into the deep? that is, to bring up christ again from the dead. 10:8. but what saith the scripture? the word is nigh thee; even in thy mouth and in thy heart. this is the word of faith, which we preach. 10:9. for if thou confess with thy mouth the lord jesus and believe in thy heart that god hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved. thou shalt be saved... to confess the lord jesus, and to call upon the name of the lord (ver. 13) is not barely the professing a belief in the person of christ; but moreover, implies a belief of his whole doctrine, and an obedience to his law; without which, the calling him lord will save no man. st. matt. 7.21. 10:10. for, with the heart, we believe unto justice: but, with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. 10:11. for the scripture saith: whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded. 10:12. for there is no distinction of the jew and the greek: for the same is lord over all, rich unto all that call upon him. 10:13. for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved. 10:14. how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? or how shall they believe him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 10:15. and how shall they preach unless they be sent, as it is written: how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things? unless they be sent... here is an evident proof against all new teachers, who have all usurped to themselves the ministry without any lawful mission, derived by succession from the apostles, to whom christ said, john 20.21, as my father hath sent me, i also send you. 10:16. but all do not obey the gospel. for isaias saith: lord, who hath believed our report? 10:17. faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of christ. 10:18. but i say: have they not heard? yes, verily: their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the whole world. 10:19. but i say: hath not israel known? first, moses saith: i will provoke you to jealousy by that which is not a nation: by a foolish nation i will anger you. 10:20. but isaias is bold, and saith: i was found by them that did not seek me. i appeared openly to them that asked not after me. 10:21. but to israel he saith: all the day long have i spread my hands to a people that believeth not and contradicteth me. romans chapter 11 god hath not cast off all israel. the gentiles must not be proud but stand in faith and fear. 11:1. i say then: hath god cast away his people? god forbid! for i also am an israelite of the seed of abraham, of the tribe of benjamin. 11:2. god hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. know you not what the scripture saith of elias, how he calleth on god against israel? 11:3. lord, they have slain thy prophets, they have dug down thy altars. and i am left alone: and they seek my life. 11:4. but what saith the divine answer to him? i have left me seven thousand men that have not bowed their knees to baal. seven thousand, etc... this is very ill alleged by some, against the perpetual visibility of the church of christ; the more, because however the number of the faithful might be abridged by the persecution of jezabel in the kingdom of the ten tribes, the church was at the same time in a most flourishing condition (under asa and josaphat) in the kingdom of judah. 11:5. even so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace. 11:6. and if by grace, it is not now by works: otherwise grace is no more grace. it is not now by works, etc... if salvation were to come by works, done by nature, without faith and grace, salvation would not be a grace or favour, but a debt; but such dead works are indeed of no value in the sight of god towards salvation. it is not the same with regard to works done with, and by, god's grace; for to such works as these, he has promised eternal salvation. 11:7. what then? that which israel sought, he hath not obtained: but the election hath obtained it. and the rest have been blinded. 11:8. as it is written: god hath given them the spirit of insensibility; eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, until this present day. god hath given them, etc... not by his working or acting in them; but by his permission, and by withdrawing his grace in punishment of their obstinacy. 11:9. and david saith: let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them. 11:10. let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see: and bow down their back always. 11:11. i say then: have they so stumbled, that they should fall? god forbid! but by their offence salvation is come to the gentiles, that they may be emulous of them. that they should fall... the nation of the jews is not absolutely and without remedy cast off for ever; but in part only, (many thousands of them having been at first converted,) and for a time; which fall of theirs, god has been pleased to turn to the good of the gentiles. 11:12. now if the offence of them be the riches of the world and the diminution of them the riches of the gentiles: how much more the fulness of them? 11:13. for i say to you, gentiles: as long indeed as i am the apostle of the gentiles, i will honour my ministry, 11:14. if, by any means, i may provoke to emulation them who are my flesh and may save some of them. 11:15. for if the loss of them be the reconciliation of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? 11:16. for if the firstfruit be holy, so is the lump also: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. 11:17. and if some of the branches be broken and thou, being a wild olive, art ingrafted in them and art made partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree: 11:18. boast not against the branches. but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root: but the root thee. 11:19. thou wilt say then: the branches were broken off that i might be grafted in. 11:20. well: because of unbelief they were broken off. but thou standest by faith. be not highminded, but fear. thou standest by faith: be not highminded, but fear... we see here that he who standeth by faith may fall from it; and therefore must live in fear, and not in the vain presumption and security of modern sectaries. 11:21. for if god hath not spared the natural branches, fear lest perhaps also he spare not thee. 11:22. see then the goodness and the severity of god: towards them indeed that are fallen, the severity; but towards thee, the goodness of god, if thou abide in goodness. otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. otherwise thou also shalt be cut off... the gentiles are here admonished not to be proud, nor to glory against the jews: but to take occasion rather from their fall to fear and to be humble, lest they be cast off. not that the whole church of christ can ever fall from him; having been secured by so many divine promises in holy writ; but that each one in particular may fall; and therefore all in general are to be admonished to beware of that, which may happen to any one in particular. 11:23. and they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for god is able to graft them in again. 11:24. for if thou were cut out of the wild olive tree, which is natural to thee; and, contrary to nature, wert grafted into the good olive tree: how much more shall they that are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? 11:25. for i would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery (lest you should be wise in your own conceits) that blindness in part has happened in israel, until the fulness of the gentiles should come in. 11:26. and so all israel should be saved, as it is written: there shall come out of sion, he that shall deliver and shall turn away ungodliness from jacob. 11:27. and this is to them my covenant: when i shall take away their sins. 11:28. as concerning the gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election, they are most dear for the sake of the fathers. 11:29. for the gifts and the calling of god are without repentance. for the gifts and the calling of god are without... his repenting himself of them; for the promises of god are unchangeable, nor can he repent of conferring his gifts. 11:30. for as you also in times past did not believe god, but now have obtained mercy, through their unbelief: 11:31. so these also now have not believed, for your mercy, that they also may obtain mercy. 11:32. for god hath concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all. concluded all in unbelief... he hath found all nations, both jews and gentiles, in unbelief and sin; not by his causing, but by the abuse of their own free will; so that their calling and election is purely owing to his mercy. 11:33. o the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of god! how incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! 11:34. for who hath known the mind of the lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 11:35. or who hath first given to him, and recompense shall be made him? 11:36. for of him, and by him, and in him, are all things: to him be glory for ever. amen. romans chapter 12 lessons of christian virtues. 12:1. i beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of god, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto god, your reasonable service. 12:2. and be not conformed to this world: but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and the acceptable and the perfect will of god. 12:3. for i say, by the grace that is given me, to all that are among you, not to be more wise than it behoveth to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety and according as god hath divided to every one the measure of faith. 12:4. for as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office: 12:5. so we, being many, are one body in christ; and every one members one of another: 12:6. and having different gifts, according to the grace that is given us, either prophecy, to be used according to the rule of faith; 12:7. or ministry, in ministering; or he that teacheth, in doctrine; 12:8. he that exhorteth, in exhorting; he that giveth, with simplicity; he that ruleth, with carefulness; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. 12:9. let love be without dissimulation. hating that which is evil, cleaving to that which is good, 12:10. loving one another with the charity of brotherhood: with honour preventing one another. 12:11. in carefulness not slothful. in spirit fervent. serving the lord. 12:12. rejoicing in hope. patient in tribulation. instant in prayer. 12:13. communicating to the necessities of the saints. pursuing hospitality. 12:14. bless them that persecute you: bless, and curse not. 12:15. rejoice with them that rejoice: weep with them that weep. 12:16. being of one mind one towards another. not minding high things, but consenting to the humble. be not wise in your own conceits. 12:17. to no man rendering evil for evil. providing good things, not only in the sight of god but also in the sight of all men. 12:18. if it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with all men. 12:19. revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place unto wrath, for it is written: revenge is mine, i will repay, saith the lord. 12:20. but if the enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him to drink. for, doing this, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. 12:21. be not overcome by evil: but overcome evil by good. romans chapter 13 lessons of obedience to superiors and mutual charity. 13:1. let every soul be subject to higher powers. for there is no power but from god: and those that are ordained of god. 13:2. therefore, he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of god. and they that resist purchase to themselves damnation. 13:3. for princes are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good: and thou shalt have praise from the same. 13:4. for he is god's minister to thee, for good. but if thou do that which is evil, fear: for he beareth not the sword in vain. for he is god's minister: an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil. 13:5. wherefore be subject of necessity: not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. 13:6. for therefore also you pay tribute. for they are the ministers of god, serving unto this purpose. 13:7. render therefore to all men their dues. tribute, to whom tribute is due: custom, to whom custom: fear, to whom fear: honour, to whom honour. 13:8. owe no man any thing, but to love one another. for he that loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the law. 13:9. for: thou shalt not commit adultery: thou shalt not kill: thou shalt not steal: thou shalt not bear false witness: thou shalt not covet. and if there be any other commandment, it is comprised in this word: thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 13:10. the love of our neighbour worketh no evil. love therefore is the fulfilling of the law. 13:11. and that, knowing the season, that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. for now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. 13:12. the night is passed and the day is at hand. let us, therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. 13:13. let us walk honestly, as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy. 13:14. but put ye on the lord jesus christ: and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences. romans chapter 14 the strong must bear with the weak. cautions against judging and giving scandal. 14:1. now him that is weak in faith, take unto you: not in disputes about thoughts. 14:2. for one believeth that he may eat all things: but he that is weak, let him eat herbs. eat all things. viz., without observing the distinction of clean and unclean meats, prescribed by the law of moses: which was now no longer obligatory. some weak christians, converted from among the jews, as we here gather from the apostle, made a scruple of eating such meats as were deemed unclean by the law; such as swine's flesh, etc., which the stronger sort of christians did eat without scruple. now the apostle, to reconcile them together, exhorts the former not to judge or condemn the latter, using their christian liberty; and the latter, to take care not to despise or scandalize their weaker brethren, either by bringing them to eat what in their conscience they think they should not, or by giving them such offence, as to endanger the driving them thereby from the christian religion. 14:3. let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not: and he that eateth not, let him not judge him that eateth. for god hath taken him to him. 14:4. who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own lord he standeth or falleth. and he shall stand: for god is able to make him stand. 14:5. for one judgeth between day and day: and another judgeth every day. let every man abound in his own sense. between day, etc... still observing the sabbaths and festivals of the law. 14:6. he that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the lord. and he that eateth eateth to the lord: for he giveth thanks to god. and he that eateth not, to the lord he eateth not and giveth thanks to god. 14:7. for none of us liveth to himself: and no man dieth to himself. 14:8. for whether we live, we live unto the lord: or whether we die, we die unto the lord. therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the lord's. 14:9. for to this end christ died and rose again: that he might be lord both of the dead and of the living. 14:10. but thou, why judgest thou thy brother? or thou, why dost thou despise thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of christ. 14:11. for it is written: as i live, saith the lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to god. 14:12. therefore every one of us shall render account to god for himself. 14:13. let us not therefore judge one another any more. but judge this rather, that you put not a stumblingblock or a scandal in your brother's way. 14:14. i know, and am confident in the lord jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 14:15. for if, because of thy meat, thy brother be grieved, thou walkest not now according to charity. destroy not him with thy meat, for whom christ died. 14:16. let not then our good be evil spoken of. 14:17. for the kingdom of god is not meat and drink: but justice and peace and joy in the holy ghost. 14:18. for he that in this serveth christ pleaseth god and is approved of men. 14:19. therefore, let us follow after the things that are of peace and keep the things that are of edification, one towards another. 14:20. destroy not the work of god for meat. all things indeed are clean: but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. 14:21. it is good not to eat flesh and not to drink wine: nor any thing whereby thy brother is offended or scandalized or made weak. 14:22. hast thou faith? have it to thyself before god. blessed is he that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth. 14:23. but he that discerneth, if he eat, is condemned; because not of faith. for all that is not of faith is sin. discerneth... that is, distinguisheth between meats, and eateth against his conscience, what he deems unclean. of faith... by faith is here understood judgment and conscience: to act against which is always a sin. romans chapter 15 he exhorts them to be all of one mind and promises to come and see them. 15:1. now, we that are stronger ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. 15:2. let every one of you please his neighbour unto good, to edification. 15:3. for christ did not please himself: but, as it is written: the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me. 15:4. for what things soever were written were written for our learning: that, through patience and the comfort of the scriptures, we might have hope. 15:5. now the god of patience and of comfort grant you to be of one mind, one towards another, according to jesus christ: 15:6. that with one mind and with one mouth you may glorify god and the father of our lord jesus christ. 15:7. wherefore, receive one another, as christ also hath received you, unto the honour of god. 15:8. for i say that christ jesus was minister of the circumcision for the truth of god, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: minister of the circumcision... that is, executed his office and ministry towards the jews, the people of the circumcision. 15:9. but that the gentiles are to glorify god for his mercy, as it is written: therefore will i confess to thee, o lord, among the gentiles and will sing to thy name. 15:10. and again he saith: rejoice ye gentiles, with his people. 15:11. and again: praise the lord, all ye gentiles: and magnify him, all ye people. 15:12. and again, isaias saith: there shall be a root of jesse; and he that shall rise up to rule the gentiles, in him the gentiles shall hope. 15:13. now the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing: that you may abound in hope and in the power of the holy ghost. 15:14. and i myself also, my brethren, am assured of you that you also are full of love, replenished with all knowledge, so that you are able to admonish one another. 15:15. but i have written to you, brethren, more boldly in some sort, as it were putting you in mind, because of the grace which is given me from god, 15:16. that i should be the minister of christ jesus among the gentiles: sanctifying the gospel of god, that the oblation of the gentiles may be made acceptable and sanctified in the holy ghost. 15:17. i have therefore glory in christ jesus towards god. 15:18. for i dare not to speak of any of those things which christ worketh not by me, for the obedience of the gentiles, by word and deed, 15:19. by the virtue of signs and wonders, in the power of the holy ghost, so that from jerusalem round about, as far as unto illyricum, i have replenished the gospel of christ. 15:20. and i have so preached this gospel, not where christ was named, lest i should build upon another man a foundation. 15:21. but as it is written: they to whom he was not spoken of shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand. 15:22. for which cause also, i was hindered very much from coming to you and have been kept away till now. 15:23. but now, having no more place in these countries and having a great desire these many years past to come unto you, 15:24. when i shall begin to take my journey into spain, i hope that, as i pass, i shall see you and be brought on my way thither by you: if first, in part, i shall have enjoyed you. 15:25. but now i shall go to jerusalem, to minister unto the saints. 15:26. for it hath pleased them of macedonia and achaia to make a contribution for the poor of the saints that are in jerusalem. 15:27. for it hath pleased them: and they are their debtors. for, if the gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they ought also in carnal things to minister to them. 15:28. when therefore i shall have accomplished this and consigned to them this fruit, i will come by you into spain. 15:29. and i know that when i come to you i shall come in the abundance of the blessing of the gospel of christ. 15:30. i beseech you therefore, brethren, through our lord jesus christ and by the charity of the holy ghost, that you help me in your prayers for me to god, 15:31. that i may be delivered from the unbelievers that are in judea and that the oblation of my service may be acceptable in jerusalem to the saints. 15:32. that i may come to you with joy, by the will of god, and may be refreshed with you. 15:33. now the god of peace be with, you all. amen. romans chapter 16 he concludes with salutations, bidding them beware of all that should oppose the doctrine they had learned. 16:1. and i commend to you phebe, our sister, who is in the ministry of the church, that is in cenchrae: 16:2. that you receive her in the lord as becometh saints and that you assist her in whatsoever business she shall have need of you. for she also hath assisted many, and myself also. 16:3. salute prisca and aquila, my helpers, in christ jesus 16:4. (who have for my life laid down their own necks: to whom not i only give thanks, but also all the churches of the gentiles), 16:5. and the church which is in their house. salute epenetus, my beloved: who is the firstfruits of asia in christ. 16:6. salute mary, who hath laboured much among you. 16:7. salute andronicus and junias, my kinsmen and fellow prisoners: who are of note among the apostles, who also were in christ before me. 16:8. salute ampliatus, most beloved to me in the lord. 16:9. salute urbanus, our helper in christ jesus and stachys, my beloved. 16:10. salute apellas, approved in christ. 16:11. salute them that are of aristobulus' household. salute herodian, my kinsman. salute them that are of narcissus' household, who are in the lord. 16:12. salute tryphaena and tryphosa, who labour in the lord. salute persis, the dearly beloved, who hath much laboured in the lord. 16:13. salute rufus, elect in the lord, and his mother and mine. 16:14. salute asyncritus, phlegon, hermas, patrobas, hermes: and the brethren that are with them. 16:15. salute philologus and julia, nereus and his sister, and olympias: and all the saints that are with them. 16:16. salute one another with an holy kiss. all the churches of christ salute you. 16:17. now i beseech you, brethren, to mark them who make dissensions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them. 16:18. for they that are such serve not christ our lord but their own belly: and by pleasing speeches and good words seduce the hearts of the innocent. 16:19. for your obedience is published in every place. i rejoice therefore in you. but i would have you to be wise in good and simple in evil. 16:20. and the god of peace crush satan under your feet speedily. the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you. 16:21. timothy, my fellow labourer, saluteth you: and lucius and jason and sosipater, my kinsmen. 16:22. i, tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the lord. 16:23. caius, my host, and the whole church saluteth you. erastus, the treasurer of the city, saluteth you: and quartus, a brother. 16:24. the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you all. amen. 16:25. now to him that is able to establish you, according to my gospel and the preaching of jesus christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret from eternity; 16:26. (which now is made manifest by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the precept of the eternal god, for the obedience of faith) known among all nations: 16:27. to god, the only wise, through jesus christ, to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever. amen. _st. paul's_ _epistle to the romans_ _a practical exposition_ by charles gore, m.a., d.d. of the community of the resurrection canon of westminster; chaplain to the king vol. ii (chapters ix-xvi) new impression london john murray, albemarle street 1901 oxford horace hart, printer to the university {v} preface there would be no need for a preface to this second volume were it not that a very kindly and careful review of the first volume in _the guardian_ of may 24 last, requires a word of notice. the reviewer warns me off 'the dialogue system of exegesis.' now no doubt this principle, like every other, may be abused. 'the jewish objector' may, as the reviewer complains, be allowed to 'run riot.' still i cannot doubt that the jewish objector is a reality of an illuminative kind in the argument of such passages as romans iii. 1-8, or the great passage (ix-xi), to which the first part of this volume is devoted. of the other points of detail noticed by the reviewer--which a volume of this kind is not the place to discuss--many are confessedly doubtful, and some unimportant. on most of {vi} them i am still disposed to retain my former opinion, but i would, in accordance with my critic's wishes, alter 'the actual life' (vol. i. p. 203) into 'the principle of life,' and (p. 213) instead of saying that the principle of living by dying 'belongs only to a fallen world' say that 'it belongs, _as st. paul views it, though probably not in its ultimate law_, to a fallen world.' i agree that in its deepest sense the principle appears to be an ultimate law of all created life of which the conditions are known to us. c. g. westminster abbey, _conversion of st. paul_, 1900. {vii} table of contents the epistle to the romans. page division iv _the theodicy or justification of god for his dealings with the jews_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 chapter ix. 1-13 § 1 the present rejection of israelites no breach of a divine promise . . . . . . . . . . 14 14-29 § 2 god's liberty in showing mercy and judgement always retained and asserted . . . . . . . . . 31 30-x.21 § 3 lack of faith the reason of israel's rejection 44 xi. 1-12 § 4 god's judgement on israel neither universal nor final . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 13-36 § 5 god's present purpose for the jews through the gentiles: and so for all humanity . . . . . 68 division v _practical exhortation_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 xii. 1-2 § 1 self-surrender in response to god . . . . . . . 97 3-21 § 2 the community spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 xiii. 1-7 § 3 the christians and the imperial power . . . . . 116 8-10 § 4 the summary debt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 11-14 § 5 the approach of the day . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 xiv. 1-23 § 6 mutual toleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 xv. 1-13 § 7 unselfish forbearance and inclusiveness . . . . 159 {viii} division vi _conclusion_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 xv. 4-33 § 1 st. paul's excuse for writing, and his hope of coming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 xvi. 1-2 § 2 a commendation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 3-16 § 3 personal greetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 17-20 § 4 final warning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 21-23 § 5 salutations from companions . . . . . . . . . . 200 25-27 § 6 final doxology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 appended notes:-a. the meanings of the word 'faith' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 b. the use of the word 'conscience' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 c. recent reactions from the teaching about hell . . . . . . . 210 d. difficulties about the doctrine of the atonement . . . . . . 215 e. evolution and the christian doctrine of the fall . . . . . . 219 f. baptism by immersion and by affusion . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 g. a prayer of jeremy taylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 h. the origin of the maxim 'in necessariis unitas, &c.' . . . . 239 i. st. augustine's teaching that 'the church is the body of christ offered in the eucharist' . . . . . . . . 240 {1} the epistle to the romans division iv. chapters ix-xi. _the theodicy or justification of god for his dealings with the jews._ st. paul has concluded his great exposition of the meaning of 'the gospel': that in it is the disclosure of a divine righteousness into which all mankind--jews and gentiles on the same level of need and sin--are to be freely admitted by simply believing in jesus. the believer in jesus first welcomes the absolute and unmerited forgiveness of his sins, which his redeemer has won for him, and thus acquitted passes into the spiritual strength and joy and fellowship of the new life, the life of the redeemed humanity, lived in jesus christ, the second adam or head of our race. the {2} contemplation of the present moral freedom, and the glorious future prospect, of this catholic body--the elect of god in jesus christ--has in the eighth chapter filled the apostle's language with the glow of an enthusiasm almost unparalleled in all the compass of his epistles. and he is intending to pass on to interpret to the representatives of this church of christ at rome some of the moral obligations which follow most clearly from the consideration of what their faith really means. this ethical division of the epistle begins with chapter xii. the interval (ix-xi) is occupied with a discussion which is an episode, in the sense that the epistle might be read without it and no feeling of a broken unity would force itself upon us. none the less the discussion not only confronts and silences an obvious objection to st. paul's teaching, but also brings out ideas about the meaning of the divine election, and the responsibility involved in it, which are vital and necessary for the true understanding of the 'free grace of god.' for these chapters serve really to safeguard the all-important sense of our human responsibility under the rich and unmerited conditions of divine privilege in which we find ourselves. {3} st. paul's argument so far has involved an obvious conclusion. god's elect are no longer the jews in particular. on the contrary, the jews in bulk have lost their position and become apostates in rejecting the christ. this result in the first place cuts st. paul to the heart, for his religious patriotism was peculiarly intense. but in the second place it furnishes an objection in the mouth of the jew against st. paul's whole message. for if god had really rejected his chosen people, he had broken his word in so doing. god had pledged himself to israel: the old testament scriptures were full of passages which might be quoted to this effect. thus- 'my mercy will i not utterly take from david 'nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. 'my covenant will i not break, 'nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. 'once have i sworn by my holiness; 'i will not lie unto david; 'his seed shall endure for ever, 'and his throne as the sun before me. 'it shall be established for ever as the moon, 'and as the faithful witness in the sky[1].' but according to st. paul's teaching, had not god 'broken his covenant'? what had {4} become of the 'faithful witness'? to this objection, then, st. paul sets himself to reply. the chapters we are now to consider may be best represented as an animated defence of his teaching directed toward a jew who pleads this objection. st. paul, no doubt, had heard too much of it since he began to preach the gospel, and had felt it too deeply in his own mind in the earlier days, when the word of jesus was as a goad against which he was kicking, for it to be possible for him to pass it by. and his defence--his 'theodicy' or justification of god--is in brief this: god never committed himself or tied himself to israel physically understood. he always kept hanging over their heads declarations of his own freedom in choosing his instruments, and warnings of possible rejection, such as ought to have prevented their resting satisfied with merely having 'abraham to their father' (ix). and if the question be asked: why has israel been rejected? the answer is: that so far as actual israel has fallen out of the elect body, it is because they refused to exhibit the correspondence of faith (x); but also israel, as such, has not been rejected; for, as of old, so now there is a faithful remnant. nor again is the partial alienation of israel which {5} has occurred final. god is simply waiting for their recovery of faith, to restore them to their ancient and inalienable position of election. meanwhile he uses their temporary alienation as the opportunity of the gentiles, who in their turn can only retain their newly won position by maintaining the correspondence of faith with the purposes of god, and who also wait for their fulfilment and the perfecting of their joy upon the recovery of israel as a body. thus through all stages of election and rejection--by both methods of mercy and of judgement--god, in his inscrutable wisdom, works steadily for the opportunity of showing his mercy upon all men. when we have a brief analysis of the argument of these chapters under our eyes, we may well rub them in astonishment, and look again, and ask why, in the reaction against calvinism[2], we had come (to put it frankly) to dislike these chapters so much. we know that as a fact these chapters have been taken as a stronghold of the calvinistic position by both its {6} friends and foes. they have come to constitute in modern literature a sort of reproach upon christianity[3], just on the ground on which the best christian conscience of our time is most sensitive. many of us would have to admit that we have shrunk from these chapters as we have heard them read, and probably avoided them in our own reading. we have shrunk from the sound of the words--'the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of god according to election might stand, not of works but of him that calleth'--'jacob have i loved, and esau have i hated'--'whom he will he hardeneth'--'hath not the potter power over the clay.' yet these texts, with their arbitrary, unfair and narrow sound, appear as steps in an argument which has for its conclusion the most universal conception possible of the purpose of the divine love. 'god shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.' the conclusion of the argument is so unmistakable, and so plain against any calvinistic attribution to god of {7} a narrow and arbitrary favouritism, that there must have been some great mistake in our understanding of its main point and drift. it is worth while then to indicate at starting where the error has lain. 1. it has been in part owing to our mistaken habit of taking isolated 'texts' out of their connexion, as if they were detached aphorisms. now st. john, in his meditative method, does very generally round off a fundamental christian truth into an aphorism which really admits of being detached and quoted apart from its context. and no doubt there are in st. paul detachable texts. but on the whole st. paul, least of all men, admits of being judged by detached fragments. his thought is always in process. it looks before and after. he is seriously wronged by the mere fact of his epistles being divided into separate verses, and sometimes arbitrary chapters, as in the authorized version. thus in the case of these three chapters, the common mistake as to the meaning of particular phrases could hardly have arisen if the argument had been kept in mind as a whole, and especially its conclusion as to the universal purpose of divine love--'to have mercy upon all.' 2. for, among other things, the true meaning {8} of 'election' in these chapters would then have been apparent. st. paul has been popularly misunderstood to be referring to god's 'election' of some individual men to salvation in heaven, and his abandonment of the rest to hell. whereas the argument as a whole and its conclusion make it quite certain that what he is speaking of is the election of men in nations or churches (only subordinately of individuals)[4] to a position of special spiritual privilege and responsibility in this world, such as the jews had formerly occupied, and the christians were occupying now--an election to be the people of god, and bear his name in the face of the world--the sort of election which carries with it a great joy and a special opportunity, but not by any means a certainty of final personal acceptableness to {9} god, apart from moral faithfulness. apart from such faithfulness the 'children of the kingdom shall be cast into the outer darkness,' and the highest shall be put lowest, while the lowest are raised highest. 3. another cause of misunderstanding has been forgetfulness of the point of view of the opponent with whom st. paul is arguing. in modern times assertions of divine absoluteness, like st. paul's, have been made by teachers who were refusing to recognize any such freedom of the will in the individual human being--any such power to control his own personal destiny--as seems to our common sense to be involved in moral responsibility in any real sense. st. paul has therefore been supposed, like these more recent teachers, to be asserting divine absoluteness, or the unrestricted freedom of divine choice, as against human freedom, or in such a way as to destroy the idea of moral responsibility. but in fact st. paul is vindicating moral responsibility. his opponent is the jew, who holds that god had so tied his hands and lost his liberty in choosing israel once for all for his elect people, that every child of abraham can at all times claim the privileges of his election for no other reason than because of his {10} genealogy. such a doctrine of election does indeed destroy all real moral responsibility in the subject of it, and all freedom of moral choice in god. st. paul, on the other hand, asserts that god remains free and absolute to elect and to reject, irrespective of all questions of race, where he will and as he will. the absolute reason of god's selections, the reason why certain races and individuals are chosen for special privileges and as special instruments of the divine purpose, lies in a region into which we cannot penetrate. but because god has shown us his moral character and requirement, we can know how, and how only, we may hope to retain any position which god has given us; it is by exhibiting moral correspondence with his purpose--that is faith--or malleability under his hand. this is a doctrine then which lays upon 'the elect,' at any particular moment, the moral responsibility of correspondence with a divine purpose. in a word, st. paul asserts divine sovereignty in such a sense as vindicates instead of destroying moral responsibility, while his opponent is claiming for israel a sort of freedom from being interfered with, which would really destroy their moral responsibility altogether. {11} thus, as has already been pointed out[5], nothing can well be more important than to keep clearly in mind, here as elsewhere, _with whom_ st. paul is arguing. 4. it is worth while remarking, before we apply ourselves to st. paul's argument in detail, that it is essentially 'apologetic': it is a justification of god in view of certain felt difficulties: and it is an argument _ad hominem_, that is an argument with certain people on their own assumptions, the sort of argument which takes the form of saying, 'you at least have no right on your own principles to urge such and such difficulties.' now we are bound to recognize how very important at all periods this _ad hominem_ appeal is: how very important it is to get men to see what their own principles really involve. a great part of the evil of the world comes through people not thinking out what they really mean and believe. but on the other hand, this sort of argument, which proceeds upon a certain set of assumptions, has often a merely temporary force, and carries with it an accompanying danger. when the state of mind contemplated becomes a matter of history, the argument based on its assumption has lost its power. in {12} view of a quite different set of assumptions it may become even misleading. for example, bishop butler argued for the truths of natural and revealed religion, on the analogy of the facts of nature and on the assumption of a divine author of nature, thus--if, as you admit, god made nature, and yet nature is shown to contain such and such facts or processes, how can you argue against the divine authorship of natural religion and revelation on the ground that it attributes to god similar facts and processes? this was a very effective argument so long as men did treat the doctrine of god having created the world as a matter of course. but when 'agnosticism' arose--when men ceased to discover in nature any decisive argument for god or against god, and professed only an inability to draw any conclusion at all, butler's argument had lost its force, and the difficulties in nature and religion to which he called attention could even be used against ascribing a divine authorship to either. apologetic arguments are always liable to this peril. thus st. paul's arguments, based on an unhesitating belief that the old testament contained really the words of god, that what they asserted about god was certainly true, and that god was certainly just {13} and the standard of justice, may have an effect very contrary to his intention when they are applied to people who feel no such certainties. st. paul may seem to be making the difficulties of believing in the bible only more obvious, by calling attention to its 'harsh and unedifying' elements. but this unfortunate result of most 'apologies' is, at least in the case of st. paul and bishop butler, only superficial. if the apologetic argument is really deep, it retains, if not exactly its original value, yet a value not the less real. butler's indications of the profound analogy which holds between the doctrines of religion and the facts of nature, can never be out of place or lose force. still less can men ever cease to learn the deepest lessons from his temper of mind and method. and that it is so with st. paul's apology--that it contains the profoundest and most abiding lessons about the responsibility and danger of all elect bodies and individuals--will appear plainly enough in what follows, now that we are in a position to approach his argument in detail. [1] ps. lxxxix. 33-7. [2] by this phrase is commonly meant the doctrine that god created some men absolutely and irresistibly predestined to eternal life and joy, and created the rest of mankind absolutely and hopelessly abandoned to eternal misery. [3] matthew arnold, _st. paul and protestantism_ (smith, elder, 1870), p. 99, admits that st. paul 'falls into calvinism,' but patronizingly excuses him on the ground that this calvinism is with him secondary, or even less than secondary. [4] of course the election of the nation or the church is felt, especially in the new testament, or whenever in the old testament individuality is fully realized, to involve the election of each of the persons composing the nation or the church. but still their election is a challenge to their faith, and no guarantee of ultimate salvation. st. paul is left praying and suffering 'for the elect's sake that they also may obtain the salvation ... with eternal glory' (2 tim. ii. 10). the elect have to 'make their calling and election sure' (2 peter i. 10). it should, however, be noticed that election may be, and in the gospels is, used to describe the final selection of those who are proved worthy of the 'marriage supper of the lamb.' (matt. xxii. 14.) [5] vol. i. pp. 114 f. {14} division iv. § 1. chapter ix. 1-13. _the present rejection of israelites no breach of a divine promise._ st. paul has finished his glowing description of the position and prospects of the elect people of god. and then, by contrast, the misery of the outcast people once called elect--his own people--wrings his heart with pain. the very idea that in his new enthusiasm for the catholic church he can be supposed to be forgetting those who are of his own flesh and blood, stirs him to a profound protest. he solemnly asseverates that the pain which israel's rejection causes him is acute and continuous. he has caught himself at the point of praying to be himself an outcast from christ, if so be he could bring the people of his own kindred and blood into the church. for who indeed could seem to have so good a title to be there? they are the israelites--that is god's own people: the eye of god was so specially upon this race {15} that he redeemed it and made it his own son[1]: to them was vouchsafed the shining of his continual presence in the tabernacle[2]: to them, in the persons of the patriarchs and of moses, god gave special covenants, that is to say, pledged his word to them in an unmistakable manner and repeatedly that he should be their god and they should be his people: thus in pursuance of a divine purpose they were brought under the education of the divinely given law and ritual worship: and all this with direct and repeated promises of a more glorious position in the future to be brought about by the divine king, the christ who was to be. to them finally belongs all the sanctity which can attach to a people from having numbered among its members the holy ones of god: for of this race were the patriarchs, the friends of god; and of this race, so far as human birth is concerned, came in fact the christ who, born a jew, is sovereign of the universe and ever blessed god. surely then, st. paul implies, that this race, now that the christ they were expecting is at last come, now that the goal of all god's dealings with them is at last reached, should have fallen outside the circle of his people and be no longer sharers in {16} the sonship or the election, would seem a result too monstrous to contemplate. the contrast between what they were and were intended for, and what in present appearance they are, is indeed appalling. yet the natural conclusion for the jew to draw, which at this point flashes into st. paul's mind, the conclusion that god has proved unfaithful, is not the true one. no: god's word, god's promise, has not broken down. for, if the facts are looked at, it appears quite plainly that the israel of god was never simply the israel of physical descent, nor the children of abraham simply his physical seed. plainly not. for isaac and ishmael were equally abraham's seed, physically considered, but for the purpose of god the promise is given only to the family of the younger son, isaac (gen. xxi. 12), who moreover was born, not in the mere natural order, but under circumstances of special divine promise and intervention (gen. xviii. 10). and if in this case it be said that the younger son isaac was the only son of sarah, the wife and free woman, and therefore had a natural prerogative over ishmael, yet the same inscrutable principle of selection is apparent in the next generation, in a case where there is no possible inequality {17} of natural claim--in the case of the two sons born simultaneously to isaac of the same mother. prior to their birth, and prior therefore to any possible merit or demerit on their own part--so that god's absolute freedom of choice should appear quite conspicuously--the younger jacob was deliberately preferred over the elder esau (gen. xxv. 23). and in fact this race of esau, this edom--though they were israelites after the flesh--appear in history as something much worse than merely secondary to the true israel; for god speaks by malachi and declares that, whereas israel is his beloved son, esau, that is edom, he has 'hated' (mal. i. 3). no israelite therefore who reads his scriptures (st. paul would conclude) ought to have failed to perceive an inscrutable element in god's choice of his chosen people. he ought not to have felt in his own case, any more than in that of the first children of abraham or isaac, that he could be sure of membership in the people of god merely because of his physical descent. i say the truth in christ, i lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the holy ghost, that i have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. for i could wish[3] that i myself were anathema from christ for my {18} brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service _of god_, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom is christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, god blessed for ever. amen. but _it is_ not as though the word of god hath come to nought. for they are not all israel, which are of israel: neither, because they are abraham's seed, are they all children: but, in isaac shall thy seed be called. that is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of god; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. for this is a word of promise, according to this season will i come, and sarah shall have a son. and not only so; but rebecca also having conceived by one, _even_ by our father isaac--for _the children_ being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of god according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. even as it is written, jacob i loved, but esau i hated. 1. st. paul's earnest asseveration is very noticeable in form. it shows so much of his instinctive inward life. he lives 'in christ,' who is light as well as life[4], and to speak the truth is the very atmosphere of this new life[5]. as it comes natural to many people to say 'upon my word as a gentleman,' it comes natural to st. paul to say, 'speaking as in christ, who is the light.' and his natural conscience--that is the faculty of passing judgement on one's own actions, {19} which in st. paul's case bears witness to the truth of what he says by passing no censure on him--that too does not act of itself merely, but in the spirit of the new life, the holy spirit of christ, which inspires and ratifies the moral judgement, otherwise so liable to be degraded or perverted or silenced: his conscience bears witness with his word in the holy ghost. here, then, is the whole secret of christian truthfulness. the christian is truthful because he lives and speaks in god, in christ, in the spirit. as to st. paul's half-expressed prayer ('i was praying,' he says, i.e. 'i caught myself praying'), it resembles that of moses for his rebellious people[6]. 'and now, o lord, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, i pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.' but st. paul's instinctive desire is not apparently like that of moses, to perish with his people rather than be saved without them; but to offer himself for rejection with a view to their salvation. the prayer is, as st. paul implies, an impossible prayer, but it expresses, as hardly anything else could, the intensity of his feeling. and such intensity of feeling was natural to the deep religious patriotism of a jew. {20} we may illustrate st. paul's feeling by comparing a fine expression of a more commonplace sorrow over the ruin of israel from a period after the destruction of jerusalem[7]. 'now therefore i will speak; touching man in general, thou knowest best; but touching thy people will i speak, for whose sake i am sorry; and for thine inheritance, for whose cause i mourn; and for israel, for whom i am heavy; and for the seed of jacob, for whose sake i am troubled.' 'thou seest that our sanctuary is laid waste, our altar broken down, our temple destroyed; our psaltery is brought low, our song is put to silence, our rejoicing is at an end; the light of our candlestick is put out, the ark of our covenant is spoiled, our holy things are defiled, and the name that is called upon us is profaned; our freemen are despitefully treated, our priests are burnt, our levites are gone into captivity, our virgins are defiled, and our wives ravished; our righteous men carried away, our little ones betrayed, our young men are brought into bondage, and our strong men are become weak; and, what is more than all, the seal of sion--for she hath now lost the seal of her {21} honour, and is delivered into the hands of them that hate us.' 2. as we read st. paul's enumeration of the glories of israel, it is of course obvious for us to pursue the line of thought taught us elsewhere by st. paul, and in the epistle to the hebrews; and to recognize how each element of the 'glory,' which belonged once to the jewish 'ministration of condemnation,' belongs in deeper and fuller measure to the christian 'ministration of the spirit[8].' ours is the vocation of the chosen people; ours is the sonship to god; and the perpetual presence; and the security of divine covenant; ours is the divine law, and with it, what is much better, the spirit for its accomplishment; ours is the corporate worship in spirit and in truth, the church's eucharist; for us, too, are promises which the realization of those of the first covenant has made 'more sure'; ours finally is the communion of the saints from abraham onward into the body of christ. and in proportion therefore to the greatness of our privileges, even as compared with those of the older covenant, is the greatness of our responsibility; 'for i would not, brethren, have you ignorant[9],' st. paul would {22} say; he would not have us fail to profit by the warnings of old days. and another voice warns us 'of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the son of god, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace[10].' 3. there has been amongst critics, since erasmus, much controversy over the clause, 'who is over all, god blessed for ever.' there is no doubt that it is translated most naturally, and most agreeably to the balance and movement of the sentence, if we attribute it to christ, as above. but many critics, including some who were orthodox, have stumbled at the idea of st. paul speaking of christ straight out as 'over all, god blessed for ever.' generally no doubt 'god' is used by st. paul as a proper name of the father. but christ is continually recognized as possessing strictly divine attributes, and exercising strictly divine functions; and in all st. paul's epistles, beginning with his earliest to the thessalonians, he is god's son, his own or proper son[11]. his blood, as shed for our ransoming, is god's own blood, or {23} (possibly) the blood of one who is 'his own'[12]. he subsisted eternally in the form, or essential attributes, of god, and in possession of equality with him; and he possesses now, as glorified in humanity, the divine name of universal sovereignty, the object of universal worship[13]. therefore he is in the strictest sense divine; and whatever or, i should say, whoever is essentially divine and proper to the being of god, can rightly be called god. for, indeed, there is nothing in the strict sense divine but god himself. it was then merely a question of time when christians would become sufficiently familiar with the new revelation of the threefold name to apply the word god to the son and the spirit as naturally as to the father. and there is nothing really to surprise us in st. paul here applying it to christ[14]: nothing certainly to warrant us in doing violence to the sentence, in order to obviate the conclusion that he did so, by putting a full stop after 'flesh,' and then supposing an abrupt exclamation 'he who is over all is god blessed for ever[15]!' {24} let it be recognized, then, that st. paul here plainly speaks of christ as 'over all,' i.e. in his glorified manhood, and also as 'god blessed for ever'--that is, as the one proper and eternal object of human praise; and that he speaks of him again elsewhere[16], as 'our great god and saviour.' it was only because he was essentially and eternally 'god' that he could, in our manhood and as the reward of his human obedience, be exalted to divine sovereignty and be 'over all.' 4. in the rest of the section st. paul is arguing with a jew, who makes the claim that because of the divine covenant god is bound to the israelites, and to all israelites for ever. 'we have abraham to our father,' and that is enough[17]. the higher prophetic spirit of the old testament had already realized that god's election of israel was a challenge to her to prove herself worthy of an undeserved privilege[18], and that, though a faithful remnant would {25} never fail, yet unfaithfulness in the bulk of the nation would bring destruction upon them and loss of god's favour[19]. the prophetic spirit had realized also that god's servant israel was not 'called' for his own selfish honour's sake, but was entrusted with a divine ministry to fulfil for all the nations of the earth[20]. it is to this higher sense of what israel's position meant, and the perils it involved, that john the baptist and our lord himself had sought to recall the jews. they must not 'think to say within themselves, they had abraham for their father; for god was able of the stones to raise up children unto abraham.' for 'many should come from the east and the west, and sit down with abraham, and isaac, and jacob, in the kingdom of god, and the sons of the kingdom should be cast into {26} the outer darkness[21].' but it is evident that this higher meaning of the doctrine of election had been forgotten by contemporary judaism, and they would not be recalled to it. they refused to contemplate the spiritual risk of missing their vocation, or the universal purpose for which it was given. they chose to think that israel, i.e. the actual israelites in bulk, _must_ remain god's elect; that the christ, when he came, must come to exalt their race and nation: that they were bound to inherit the blessings of the world to come: that the divine government of the world existed for their sakes[22]. st. paul, then, is here intending to vindicate the real meaning of election, in the sense in which it is bound up with the ethical character of god and carries with it a deepened feeling of responsibility in those who are the subjects of it. {27} but his argument is directed, first of all, to one point only--to bringing the eyes of the jews straight up to their own scriptures, and forcing them to see that _they_ do not justify the idea of election purely by race. it is not all of a certain seed, but only part of it, that is chosen. there is nothing to hinder a great part of the race again becoming as ishmael or as edom by the side of israel. ultimately, no doubt, there are _two_ points to be proved. first, that god's method of choosing an elect body to be his people in the world is inscrutable, so that we cannot produce or determine his election by any calculation, or by any real or supposed merits, of ours; secondly, that though we cannot create our vocation, we can retain it by moral correspondence or faith, and by that only. but at present it is only the first point that is insisted upon--the absolute, inscrutable element in the divine choice. and that, we should notice, is a fact not merely of scriptural evidence but of common experience. men are born to higher and lower positions of privilege and opportunity. they are born jacobs or esaus, in respect of moral, intellectual, religious, or physical endowment--with ten talents, or five, or two, or one; and god does not often give us so {28} much as a glimpse of the reason why. all he does make clear to us is that the determination of human vocations, higher or lower, is in wiser hands than ours. it is of course evident, as has already been said, that what st. paul is speaking about is the election of men, and specially races or nations of men, to a position of _spiritual privilege in this world_. we know now, better than the jews of the old covenant could know it, that behind all the apparent injustices and inequalities of this world lies the rectifying equity of god. st. peter had come to believe that the divine mercy had rectified in the world beyond death the apparently rough and heavy handed judgement upon the rejected mass of mankind in the time of the flood. that physical catastrophe at least was an instrument of mercy in disguise[23]. st. paul believed the same about all god's rejections, as well as elections, in this world. they served one universal purpose: 'that he might have mercy upon all[24].' but {29} all the same here and now in this world god does work by means of enormous inequalities. there are jacobs whom he plainly loves, upon whom he showers all his richest blessings, and esaus whom, to judge from present evidence, we should say he hates--whom he sets to live in hardest and most cramping surroundings. and no man can determine which lot he shall enjoy. that lies in the inscrutable selectiveness of god. that there is no question at all about the eternal welfare of the individual esau's soul--that the question is simply of the comparative status of israel and edom in this world--appears plainly in the passage of malachi, which st. paul quotes. and we must notice how unexpected an application st. paul gives to this passage in a direction most unfamiliar to jewish thought. for edom was to the jew the very type of all that was most hateful. he anticipated for the edomites god's worst vengeance, as for israel god's best blessings. but st. paul forces him to think--why should he assume that he will be better off than edom? edom was once physically on israel's level, or his superior in claim, when their first fathers were but just born infants. but god chose one {30} and not the other. he may exercise the like unscrutable selectiveness upon the seed of israel to-day. and edom did not remain in a merely secondary position. he sank to be a byword for all that is most hateful to god. be warned, st. paul would say, it may be that 'with change of name the tale is told of thee[25].' [1] exod. iv. 23; hos. xi. 1. [2] exod. xvi. 10. [3] or 'pray' (marg.) literally 'i was praying.' [4] cf. eph. v. 8-14. [5] cf. col. iii. 9. [6] exod. xxxii. 32. [7] 2 esdr. viii. 15-16, x. 21-23. the latter passage is not spoken to god, but by one jew to another. [8] 2 cor. iii. 8. [9] see 1 cor. x. 1-13. [10] heb. x. 29. [11] 1 thess. i. 10; rom. viii. 3. [12] acts xx. 28. [13] phil. ii. 6-11. [14] without the article which makes it a proper name of the father. [15] r. v. margin^2. it does further violence to the greek to translate as r. v. margin^1, 'he who is god over all is (be) blessed for ever.' i have nothing to add on the matter to s. and h. _in loc._, especially p. 236. [16] tit. ii. 13. this is probably the right rendering. [17] st. matt. iii. 9. [18] great stress was laid by the prophets on the absence of any original merit or power in israel, which caused the divine election; see ezek. xvi, deut. xxvi. 5. [19] see especially amos ix. 7-10: 'are ye not as the children of the ethiopians unto me, o children of israel? saith the lord. have not i brought up israel out of the land of egypt, and the philistines from caphtor, and the syrians from kir? behold, the eyes of the lord god are upon the sinful kingdom, and i will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that i will not utterly destroy the house of jacob, saith the lord. for, lo, i will command, and i will sift the house of israel among all the nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. all the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, the evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.' [20] gen. xii. 3; isa. lxvi. 18; zech. viii. 23, &c. [21] matt. viii. 11, 12. [22] in weber's _jüdische theologie_ (leipzig, 1897, formerly called _system der altsynagog. palästin. theol._ or _die lehre des talmud_), pp. 51 ff, there are striking illustrations from the talmud of this fixed tendency of thought among the jews. thus 'there exists no clearer proof of the talmudic conviction of the absolutely holy character of israel than that in all the places of scripture in which israel is reproved and has evil attributed to it, the expression, "the haters of israel," is substituted for israel.' 'we read: isaiah was punished, because he called israel a people of unclean lips,' &c. cf. s. and h., p. 249, and my _ephesians_, p. 261. [23] 1 pet. iv. 6. 'the gospel was preached to' these 'dead men that they might be judged according to men in the flesh,' i.e. by perishing in the flood, 'but live according to god in the spirit,' i.e. through our lord's preaching in hades. there is, i think, so far, no ambiguity about this passage. [24] not, however, without regard to man's will to respond to the divine offer, see later, p. 82 ff. [25] mal. i. 2, 3. 'was not esau jacob's brother? saith the lord: yet i loved jacob; but esau i hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness. whereas edom saith, we are beaten down, but we will return,' &c. this passage (1) plainly refers to _esau_ as meaning _edom_, the people; (2) describes not the original lot of esau, which was secondary indeed, but highly blessed (gen. xxvii. 39, 40); but the ultimate lot of esau when he had misused his original endowment in violence and cruelty. {31} division iv. § 2. chapter ix. 14-29. _god's liberty in showing mercy and judgement always retained and asserted._ but the obvious reply of the jewish objector to st. paul's assertion of the absolute and apparently arbitrary freedom of god's election is that it is unfair. it convicts god of unrighteousness. to this objection (ver. 14), which st. paul deprecates with horror, he replies not by any large consideration of divine justice, but still by keeping the jew to his own scriptures. the god revealed in scripture must be to the objector still the just god. he cannot call god unjust if his method as it now appears is that to which he called attention long ago. look back, then, at the past records. did god disclose himself as bound to show mercy on moses the israelite, or to harden and judicially condemn pharaoh the egyptian? no, he declares to moses his unrestricted freedom to exhibit his {32} compassion on whom he will (exod. xxxiii. 19). men cannot by any choice or efforts of their own produce an exhibition of divine favour such as was shown to moses the leader of israel: the absolute initiative must come from god, and in taking that initiative he declares himself absolutely free. in the same way god implicitly asserts his sovereign freedom when he brings pharaoh out upon the stage of history as an example of the way in which he hardens men's hearts with a hardening which is the prelude to overthrow, that men all over the world may see and tremble at the divine power. it is not because pharaoh is an egyptian that he is hardened. he is hardened, as moses has compassion shown him, simply because it is the will of god so to do in his case. but the objector comes forward again (ver. 19): 'if this is the arbitrary method of god--if we are simply powerless puppets in the hands of an absolute and arbitrary will, to be saved or be destroyed--at any rate he has no reason to complain of us. if all the power is his, so is the responsibility.' now st. paul has it in his hand to show that there remains to man a very real power to retain his position, and consequently a very real responsibility and room for {33} being blamed or praised: for if we cannot create our vocation, we can and we are required to correspond with it in a reverent and docile faith; and it was exactly here that the jews had failed, in spite of all their prophets had taught them. but he keeps back this answer awhile, because he finds the attitude of such an objector toward god in itself so reprehensible. such an one has not given consideration to what the relation of man to god really is--the creature to the creator. his critical, complaining attitude is nothing better than foolish. thus he takes his antagonist back upon the old prophetic metaphor of the potter and his clay, with which isaiah and jeremiah had rebuked the arrogance and impatience of men long ago: 'shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, he hath no understanding; and shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, what makest thou[1]?' he follows, however, most closely upon the later writer of the book of wisdom: 'for a potter, kneading soft earth, laboriously mouldeth each several vessel for our service: nay, out of the same clay doth fashion both the vessels that minister to clean uses, and those of a contrary sort. all in {34} like manner; but what shall be the use of each vessel of either sort, the craftsman himself is the judge[2].' the thought was often in st. paul's mind of the inequality of lots in the world and the church. there are more and less honourable limbs in the body politic: there are vessels for honourable and vessels for dishonourable purposes in the great social economy[3]. so it is with the races of men. they are all of one blood--of the one lump. but some have high and others low vocations, and the right to determine of what sort the lot shall be in each case lies absolutely with the divine potter. it is childish to dispute his title. and not only so: when the potter, whom jeremiah was ordered to observe, found a vessel he was making marred under his hand, 'he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it[4].' accordingly, when the chosen material (i.e. the jews) would not mould to the high purpose for which the potter was fashioning it, who shall complain if he diverted it to lower uses or threw it away to destruction, and produced out {35} of his stores other vessels which he had already prepared and destined for glorious functions (that is to say, the gentile christians)? but the case is even stronger than this. who indeed shall complain if, when the vessels originally destined for the higher uses prove fit for nothing but destruction, the divine potter--though willing, now as in the case of pharaoh, to let his wrath fall and to manifest his power--yet shows almost unlimited forbearance with them (as in fact god did with the jews); and when at last he does let his wrath fall, only does so in order to manifest anew the resourcefulness of his mercy[5] upon a new and larger israel, gathered not from among the jews only, but from among all nations, to be the object of his compassionate regard? indeed, the prophet hosea (ii. 23, i. 10) foresaw this choice of a yet unrecognized people to be god's people. isaiah again (x. 22) anticipated no more than a remnant surviving of all the multitudes of israel, because of the sharpness and conclusiveness of the divine judgement upon them. and (i. 9) it is only to the compassion of god that he attributes their exemption by means {36} of the faithful remnant from entire annihilation, like that of the cities of the plain. what shall we say then? is there unrighteousness with god? god forbid. for he saith to moses, i will have mercy on whom i have mercy, and i will have compassion on whom i have compassion. so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of god that hath mercy. for the scripture saith unto pharaoh, for this very purpose did i raise thee up, that i might shew in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth. so then he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth. thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he still find fault? for who withstandeth his will? nay but, o man, who art thou that repliest against god? shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why didst thou make me thus? or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? what if god, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory, _even_ us, whom he also called, not from the jews only, but also from the gentiles? as he saith also in hosea, i will call that my people, which was not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. and it shall be, _that_ in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people, there shall they be called sons of the living god. and isaiah crieth concerning israel, if the number of the children of israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the {37} remnant that shall be saved: for the lord will execute _his_ word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short. and, as isaiah hath said before, except the lord of sabaoth had left us a seed, we had become as sodom, and had been made like unto gomorrah. what has been already said will have been enough to guard against the main sources of mistake in reading this section. st. paul might have much to say about god's righteousness in general, and large ways of vindicating it. but here he holds fast to the single aspect of righteousness according to which it means that god has been true to the original principles of his covenant. the god who chose abraham and moses is the god who is now, and rightly on his own declared principles of government, rejecting the greater part of the people of abraham and moses. this--faithfulness to his own declared principles--is what st. paul here means by his righteousness. and as it was god's declared principle to retain his own liberty to show mercy on men according to his free will, inside or outside the chosen people, so on the other hand he retained his liberty to exhibit his judgement of hardening according to his will inside or outside the chosen people. he who brought pharaoh the egyptian upon the stage {38} of history[6], as an example of hardening judgement, is within his right in doing the same now with (the mass of) the people of his choice. the liberty asserted for god is wholly consistent with his being found, in fact, to have 'hardened' those only who have deserved hardening by their own wilfulness. it was for such a moral cause that god hardened the hearts of the jews, that 'seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not hear[7].' we can feel no doubt that some similar moral cause underlay the hardening of pharaoh. but this is not st. paul's present point. all his argument is directed to asserting god's liberty to show mercy or harden, irrespectively of considerations of race, when and where he in his sovereign moral will chooses. we should notice that st. paul's method is here, as elsewhere, what is called ideal or abstract, in the sense that he makes abstraction {39} of a particular point of view; and, apparently indifferent to being misunderstood, substantiates his argument upon the particular aspect which he has taken apart from the whole matter in hand, till it is done with, and then other points can be taken in their turn. and he does not, as a modern writer would do, painfully correlate the various aspects of the subject[8]. by means of the famous simile of the potter st. paul asserts two principles about god: (1) that god is free, and condescends to give no account to his creatures, in absolutely determining the high or low vocations of men. to one man or nation he gives five talents, to another two, to another one. he makes vessels to honourable and vessels to (comparatively) dishonourable uses. he makes men jews or assyrians, englishmen or hottentots, at his absolute discretion. (2) that god is absolutely free, when the human material which he is moulding for his purposes proves intractable, to repudiate and reject what has, by its refusal to mould, become a 'vessel of wrath' fit 'to be taken and destroyed.' and it is only by a voluntary limitation of this freedom that he exhibits long toleration with the intractable and {40} obstinate, and is longsuffering with them even when his wrath is ready and waiting to show itself. these are the two distinct points in the simile of the potter. we must distinguish carefully between the 'vessels _destined for_ dishonour'--the 'less honourable limbs' of humanity--and the 'vessels _of_ wrath,' or 'vessels fitted for destruction,' i.e. those which have proved themselves unfit for the vocation to which they were destined and have to be rejected. we note that st. paul does not say that _god fitted_ vessels for destruction, but that he bore long with those which had so _become fitted_. st. paul never gives us any real justification--if we look at his language carefully--for the idea of any predestination to _rejection_, as distinct from predestination to higher or lower purposes. and the new testament is full of assurances that a predestination to a low vocation in this world may be a predestination to high glory in eternity, if the humble calling is faithfully followed. it ought not to be denied, however, that in all this passage st. paul's feet, as he moves along his argument, are dogged by the metaphysical difficulty of finding room for human free-will inside the universal scope of the divine action and the prescience of the divine wisdom. this {41} is a perennial difficulty. but st. paul does not touch it. he does not even touch the question of whether god does actually (in our sense) _foreknow_ the final destiny of every individual, and how he will act on each occasion[9]; he does not touch the question how or how far human wilfulness can be allowed to disturb the divine order. in the pharisaic schools he would certainly have been brought up, as josephus tells us, both to 'attribute everything to fate and god,' and also to recognize that it 'lay with men for the most part to do right or wrong': to believe that 'everything was foreseen,' and also that 'free-will was given'; or, as josephus elsewhere puts it (as if it made no difference), to believe 'that some things, but not all, are the work of fate, and other things are in men's own power and need not happen[10].' that is to say, he would have been educated to believe both in predestination and in freedom, without any {42} special attempt to reconcile the two. we can tell for certain that this inherited belief was further moralized in st. paul's case by his enlarged view of the divine purpose as working through high and low estates alike, for the final good of all men; and by his deepened perception of the correspondence with god's purpose, which, in the exercise of our freedom, is required of us. but, so far as we know, st. paul left the strictly metaphysical question exactly where he found it--as an imperfectly reconciled antithesis. and there perhaps we men shall always have to leave it, or at least till we come to know even as we are known. in the quotations from the old testament, with which the section concludes, we notice that st. paul varies the original application of the passages from hosea. in the prophet they refer to the recovery of dejected and dishonoured _israel_, while the apostle applies them to the exaltation of _the gentiles_ from their low estate. as is often the case, while other passages in the prophets were there to prove exactly what he wanted[11], st. paul takes the words which come {43} into his mind with a considerable latitude of application, and without any critical argument. thus, if he makes somewhat free with the particular texts, it is in order to vindicate the real teaching of the old testament. he has, if not exact criticism, what is much better, profound spiritual insight. the passages quoted from isaiah are characteristic and central. this great prophet first clearly perceived that most striking law of human history--that progress comes, not mostly through the majority of a nation, but through the faithful remnant. it is the few best through whom alone god can freely work. it is the best who in the long run determine the moral level of the nation, and either keep the mass of men around them from corruption, or, if that is impossible, provide a fresh point of departure and hope in a society now inevitably, as a whole, hastening to decay and judgement. 'as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth, when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock thereof[12].' [1] isa. xxix. 16, xlv. 9, lxiv. 8; jer. xviii. 6; ecclus. xxxiii. 13. [2] xv. 7. [3] 1 cor. xii. 22-5; 2 tim. ii. 20. [4] jer. xviii. 4. the passage continues with a strong assertion of god's freedom to govern the destinies of nations on moral principles. [5] when moses asked to see god's glory (exod. xxxiii. 18), what was revealed to him was his goodness and free mercy, and what st. paul here means by god's glory is his mercy especially. [6] in the original the words run, 'for this cause have i made thee to stand,' i.e. probably, 'i have preserved thy life under the plague of boils, and other plagues, in order to make thee an example of a more conspicuous judgement.' but st. paul, departing from the greek bible, uses a word 'raised thee up,' which in pharaoh's case, or in that of cyrus, means to bring upon the stage of history. isa. xli. 2; cf. jer. 1. [xxvii in the greek] 41; hab. i. 6. [7] see matt. xiii. 14, 15; mark iv. 12; john xii. 40. [8] cf. vol. i. p. 75. [9] on the meaning of divine foreknowledge in st. paul see vol. i. p. 317. [10] see joseph. _antiq._ xiii. 5, 9; xviii. 1, 3; _bell. jud._ ii. 8, 14. cf. schürer, _jewish people_ (english trans.), div. ii. vol. ii. pp.14 ff.; james and ryle, _ps. of solomon_, p. 96. the essenes, josephus says, believed in fate, and not in free-will; the sadducees in free-will and not in fate; but the pharisees in both. no doubt josephus is importing greek philosophical views into his account of jewish parties, but substantially his account is probably true. [11] e.g. isa. xix. 24; ezek. xvi. 55. (the exaltation into the fellowship of the chosen people of egypt, assyria, sodom, and samaria.) [12] isa. vi. 13. {44} division iv. § 3. chapter ix. 30-x. 21. _lack of faith the reason of israel's rejection._ what is to be our conclusion then? that gentiles, men beyond the pale of god's covenant, who made no pretension of pursuing righteousness, all at once laid hold on righteousness and made it their own, simply by accepting in faith the divine offer which came their way; while israel, the chosen people, devoted to pursuing a law of righteousness, never caught up with that of which it was in pursuit. the result seems strange enough. but the reason of it is apparent. israel[1] had been put under a divine election, which required of them the open ear, the responsive will, of faith. but instead of cultivating this temper of faith, they fastened upon the specified {45} observances of the mosaic law, and blindly adhered to them, as if god had nothing deeper or greater to teach them, and they had nothing deeper or greater to receive. thus, when the christ came, with his completer light and claims, they would not have him. they wanted nothing further, nothing more than they were accustomed to. and thus isaiah's prophecy was fulfilled, that the christ, the tried foundation stone, the destined security of all who should believe in him, would turn out to be a stone at which the chosen people should stumble, and a rock on which it should meet disaster[2] (ix. 30-33). and here is the pathos of the situation. here is what puts passion into st. paul's desire and his prayer for israel's entrance into the great deliverance. it is that they have such a real zeal for god, though without any spiritual insight to guide it. a real zeal for god! of that st. paul's own experience qualified him to testify. but in what sense without insight? in the sense that with jesus of nazareth there appeared a divine righteousness, which god was communicating to men[3]; but the jews, {46} preoccupied with maintaining a standard of righteousness which they had taken for their own--which had become identified, that is to say, with their own self-satisfaction and pride of privilege and independence of interference--failed to perceive the divine purpose, and, in fact, refused to submit themselves to it. for that principle of law which the jews had come to regard as god's final word, he really intended only as a temporary discipline to be brought to an end by the coming of the christ, and by the disclosure of the real righteousness which, in christ, god should offer and man should simply accept in faith. law and faith are in sharp and intelligible contrast. under the law of works a man, as moses says[4], stands to preserve his life (or save his soul) according as he performs the specified requirements (as if man were an independent being who could thus stand over against god on his merits). but faith, attributing nothing to itself, simply accepts the offer of god, the divine message of compassion brought near to it. moses of old told the israelites[5] that the commandment was not {47} too hard for them, neither was it far off. _it was not in heaven, that they should say, who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring_ it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? neither was it beyond the sea, that they should say, _who shall go_ over the sea for us, _and bring_ it unto us, and make us to hear it that we may do it? but _the word was very nigh unto them, in their mouth and in their heart_, that they might do it. these words really describe the character of the christian message of faith, of which the apostles are the heralds. truly there is no need for the believer in jesus to seek some one to scale heaven to reach a remote god, for christ is come down. or to descend into the abyss to seek a christ dead and lost, for christ is risen. the great deliverance is offered to us on very easy terms. a man has only openly to confess that the human jesus is really the divine lord, and heartily to believe that god raised him from the dead. let him heartily accept that message, and the fellowship in the divine righteousness is his. let him publicly confess that creed, and the great salvation is open to him. it is the old teaching of isaiah[6]--if a man but believe (in the christ) there is no {48} fear of his being put to shame. and here jews and greeks are all on the same level of need and opportunity. there is over all the same lord christ, with the same inexhaustible good will towards all who simply call on him. again the old scripture testifies that it is every one who calls on the name of the lord who shall be saved[7]. the conditions then are very simple. to call on the lord, we may say, men must believe in him. to have the opportunity of believing on him, they must have heard about him. to hear about him, they need one to speak in his name. and how can men speak in the name of god except as his apostles, as men commissioned and sent from him? and these terms we know well enough have all been fulfilled. the commissioned heralds of the good tidings of god have gone forth, so that all men may hear and believe and call out to god. truly isaiah's vision of the welcome preacher of good tidings[8] is realized to-day (x. 1-15). now we have clear before us the simplicity of the gospel, the message to faith. and we have before us the plain fact that the israelitish people, preoccupied with their own temporary {49} and misunderstood standard of the law, have not generally accepted it. but this is no more than isaiah led us to expect. 'lord,' he cries, 'who gave credence to our message[9]?' (faith, you see, according to the prophet, requires just a listening to a divine message; and this message has come to men by the preaching about christ.) and can it be pleaded that the jews have not had the opportunity of hearing the message? no, truly, as the psalmist says, the voice of god's messengers has gone over all the earth, and their words to the end of the inhabited world[10]. or can it be said that israel did not know that a preaching to the _gentiles_ was to be looked for? no, a succession of warnings had reached them. thus moses foretold that it should be a nation which (religiously speaking) was no nation, a people without understanding, that god would use to provoke his people to jealousy, and stimulate their emulation[11]. again, isaiah uses startling words, and declares that god has been discovered by those who never sought him, and revealed to those who never asked for him[12]--that is the gentiles. but the words of isaiah {50} that follow describe truly the relation of god and israel. god has tenderly and persistently been offering his love to them, but they have proved themselves only rebellious and full of contradiction (x. 16-21). this, then, is the plain summary. israel is rejected because, after every offer, and with every opportunity, they have refused god's leading, refused to be docile, refused to believe, refused to obey. what shall we say then? that the gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith: but israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at _that_ law. wherefore? because _they sought it_ not by faith, but as it were by works. they stumbled at the stone of stumbling; even as it is written, behold, i lay in zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence: and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. brethren, my heart's desire and my supplication to god is for them, that they may be saved. for i bear them witness that they have a zeal for god, but not according to knowledge. for being ignorant of god's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of god. for christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth. for moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby. but the righteousness which is of {51} faith saith thus, say not in thy heart, who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring christ down:) or, who shall descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring christ up from the dead.) but what saith it? the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth jesus _as_ lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that god raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. for the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame. for there is no distinction between jew and greek: for the same _lord_ is lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him: for, whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved. how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? even as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things! but they did not all hearken to the glad tidings. for isaiah saith, lord, who hath believed our report? so belief _cometh_ of hearing, and hearing by the word of christ. but i say, did they not hear? yea, verily, their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. but i say, did israel not know? first moses saith, i will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, with a nation void of understanding will i anger you. and isaiah is very bold, and saith, i was found of them that sought me not; i became manifest unto them that asked not of me. {52} but as to israel he saith, all the day long did i spread out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. in this passage st. paul gives us the other side of the question of the rejection of the israelites. god had retained an absolute freedom, not to be questioned by men, to reject whom he willed. that was the first point. but can we see whom our god wills to reject, or why in particular he rejected (though not finally, as will appear) the chosen people? it is because they failed in faith. and faith is precisely that which is necessary to maintain correspondence with god--it is _the_ faculty of fellowship with him. they failed because the false principle of justification by works had obscured in their minds the need and meaning of faith. the false principle meant, as we have already seen, the maintaining an accepted standard of conduct and divine service, especially in outward matters, and for the rest claiming to be left alone. the accepted standard was that which distinguished israel from the rest of the world, and what they had become accustomed to. it was a righteousness of 'their own.' they prided themselves on it. their public opinion required its observance. it had come to usurp the place of any direct {53} relationship to the voice of god. they had no idea that god could have anything more or deeper to require of them. they had lost personal touch with him. therefore seeking to establish this, their own righteousness, they failed to submit themselves to the (now newly revealed) righteousness of god in christ. this unprogressiveness of the jewish ideal, this substitution of the accepted standard under the law for the word of god, on the part of the pharisees, the religious representatives of israel, is precisely what the pages of the gospel record. therefore the 'corner stone of sure foundation' for the divine building became to them the stone on which they stumbled and fell. and yet that the law was a temporary expedient, and not the whole counsel of god, was the deepest witness of the old testament; and in being false to the further revelation of the will of god in christ, they were false to their own deepest principles. all this ground we have gone over already, and need not traverse again[13]. so also we have already become familiar with the simplicity of the message of god in christ, and the simplicity of the faith which, {54} rooted in the consciousness of sin and need, and equally possible for all men who can share this consciousness, is required to welcome god's offer, and so be brought by christ into living union with him. all this st. paul has already elaborated, and is here only resuming and recapitulating by the way. but one or two points in the recapitulation require notice. 1. st. paul takes the basis of his statement of the principle of grace and faith out of the heart of the books of moses--the idea of the 'word very nigh thee,' of the simple message claiming only to be simply accepted, and of the 'very present help' of a gracious god needing only to be welcomed. the fact is that st. paul usually idealizes when he treats of 'the law of moses'; as, for example, when he here says that 'moses writeth that the man that _doeth_ the righteousness ... shall _live_ thereby,' as if that was all that moses said. the principle of law, as saul the pharisee had learned to understand it, is the dominant principle in the five books of the law, but not the only one. 'grace, already existing in the jewish theocracy, was the fruitful germ deposited under the surface, which was one day to burst forth and become the peculiar character {55} of the new covenant[14].' the god of the new covenant is the god also of the old, and was there already intimating his truer and deeper character. to this st. paul bears witness by resting his statement of the principle of the new covenant upon the words of the old. 2. in this passage we have the germ of what we call the creed. the lordship of jesus, in the sense which implies his proper divinity, and his resurrection and triumph over death--was already matter of public confession in the christian church: to make profession that 'jesus is lord' qualified for 'the salvation'[15]: and in this lay hid all that is essential to the christian creed. already then in the earliest church subjective faith involved a certain objective and public creed[16] which came very soon to be called 'the faith.' in this passage also, as in xiv. 9 and in st. peter's epistle, we recognize, as an element in the common tradition, the belief in the descent into hades (the abyss). 3. st. paul incidentally shows us his {56} instinctive feeling that to be a trustworthy ambassador for god one needs 'apostolate.' 'how shall they preach except they be _sent_?' and this apostolate, as he uses it, means not only an inward sense of mission, but an external sending by christ himself; and in pursuance of the same principle, when once the church has been established, it would mean a sending by those authorized to send in his name. this is the root principle of the christian 'stewardship.' as the subapostolic clement expresses it, 'christ (was sent) from god, and the apostles from christ. each came in due order from the will of god. therefore, having received the words of command, and having been fully convinced by the resurrection of our lord jesus christ, and been assured in the message of god with conviction of the holy ghost, they came forth, preaching the gospel that the kingdom of god was to come. therefore as they preached in country and towns they established their first-fruits, when they had put them to the proof, to be bishops (i.e. presbyters), and deacons of those who were to come to the faith.' and afterwards, in view of disputes over the presbyteral office, which divine inspiration enabled them to anticipate, they made provision for a due succession {57} in the 'episcopate' on the death of those first appointed[17]. 4. st. paul's singularly free, but deeply inspired, manner of applying texts from the old testament is especially illustrated in this passage. thus the passages quoted from isaiah about the stone, which st. paul applies to christ, refer originally to jehovah simply in one case (isa. viii. 14), and probably to his will and covenant as the foundation of israel's polity in the other (isa. xxviii. 16). jewish tradition had possibly already referred them to the christ[18]; and certainly our lord's use of ps. cxviii. 22--'the stone which the builders rejected'--as applying to his own rejection, made the reference more obvious. it is indeed in deepest accordance with the spirit of isaiah: and st. peter (1 peter ii. 6), we notice, follows st. paul in the use of them. another passage (lii. 7) about 'the feet of those who preach good tidings' is transferred, with added meaning, from the heralds of the redemption from babylon, to the heralds of the greater redemption. and the opening of chapter lxv, which originally refers altogether to apostate israel, is divided, {58} and applied in part to the gentiles, in part to the jews. (other passages in the prophets, we should observe, would justify the former application.) again, a passage from ps. xix is transferred very beautifully from the witness of the heavens to the witness of the gospel; as if st. paul would say--grace is become as universal as nature. the language of a passage from deuteronomy, as we have seen, is taken from the law to express the spirit of the gospel. the calling upon jehovah in joel becomes in st. paul's quotation the calling upon christ. all this free citation, uncritical according to our ideas and methods, yet rests upon a profoundly right apprehension of the meaning of the old testament as a whole. the appeal to the old testament, even if not to the particular passage, is justified by the strictest criticism. [1] i have endeavoured sometimes in this analysis to expand what st. paul means by 'pursuing righteousness,' by 'works' and by 'faith,' in accordance with the meaning already assigned to these words; see vol. i. pp. 7-24. [2] isa. viii. 14; xxviii. 16. cf. matt. xi. 6. [3] see above, vol. i. p. 17. [4] levit. xviii. 5. [5] deut. xxx. 11-14. i have italicized the words substantially reproduced by st. paul, but i have quoted the whole passage because its whole meaning is in his mind. [6] isa. xxviii. 16. [7] joel ii. 32. [8] isa. lii. 7. [9] isa. liii. 1. [10] ps. xix. 4. [11] deut. xxxii. 21. [12] isa. lxv. 1, 2. [13] see vol. i. pp. 7 ff., 165 f., 250 ff. [14] godet _in loc._ [15] cf. 1 cor. xii. 3. the lordship of jesus, we see in this passage, means that he can have applied to him the sayings of the old testament about the lord jehovah; and can be 'called upon' as such in prayer (joel ii. 32). [16] cf. 1 cor. xv. 1-3. [17] clem, _ad cor._ 42, 44. [18] see s. and h. _in loc._ {59} division iv. § 4. chapter xi. 1-12. _god's judgement on israel neither universal nor final._ but if israel has thus by her own fault fallen from her high estate, are we then to suppose that god has simply rejected his own chosen people? such a thought cannot be entertained. how could it have been in the mind of such an israelite as st. paul, one who came of abraham's genuine seed, and of the tribe which held so fast by judah? no: the people on whom from eternity god's eye rested, to mark them out for himself and for his purposes, assuredly cannot, as a people, have been cast away[1]. what has happened now is only what is recorded long ago in the history of elijah. then, as now, a general unfaithfulness in the bulk of the nation concealed the existence of a faithful remnant. yet god had, as he assured the prophet, {60} reserved for himself such a remnant, and of very considerable numbers. and now also such a remnant of true israelites exists in accordance with the selective action of grace--that is to say, god's gratuitous and unmerited good will. yes: let there be no mistake about it; their position is due to nothing else than the original and continuous action of god's grace; and grace means god's absolutely gratuitous and unmerited good will (which may therefore come upon gentiles equally with jews). it excludes the idea of these remnants owing their position to previous merits, or of its being in any way god's response to an antecedent claim[2]. this then is what we have to recognize. what israel in bulk sought for (by way of its supposed merit), that it did not get, but a select remnant got it; and upon the rest there fell that judicial hardening--that reversal of their true relation to god--which moses and isaiah already discerned in the chosen people[3]: an abiding {61} stupor, and deafness, and blindness, with regard to god's purpose and will for them. david too, as god's righteous servant, demands, as a divine requital upon his bitter and cruel enemies, that their very abundance should betray them into captivity and prove their stumblingblock; that their spiritual vision should be lost and their backs bent downward to the ground. which is just what has happened to israel through their rejection of the son of david. the bulk of the people then has stumbled. but we must not exaggerate what has happened. as it is not all of them who have stumbled, so also it is not for ever. their stumbling is not equivalent to a final fall. already we can perceive how it may be reversed. the refusal of the jews to recognize the christ has been the occasion for a turning to the gentiles. thus the salvation of the christ has come to them. and this has happened in the divine providence in order that, as moses anticipated, they may in their turn provoke the jews to jealousy--to a jealous determination not to lose their old {62} privileges. thus if even the transgression of israel has proved the occasion for enriching the world as a whole, if even the deficiency of israel (leaving vacant space, as it were, in the church) has proved the occasion for enriching the gentiles, how much more enrichment is to be expected when the chosen people are recovered in their full number? i say then, did god cast off his people? god forbid. for i also am an israelite, of the seed of abraham, of the tribe of benjamin. god did not cast off his people which he foreknew. or wot ye not what the scripture saith of elijah[4]? how he pleadeth with god against israel, lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars: and i am left alone, and they seek my life. but what saith the answer of god unto him? i have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to baal. even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. but if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. what then? that which israel seeketh for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened: according as it is written, god gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this very day. and david saith, let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them: {63} let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow thou down their back alway. i say then, did they stumble that they might fall? god forbid: but by their fall salvation _is come_ unto the gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the gentiles; how much more their fulness? 1. we learn a little more exactly about st. paul's doctrine of election in this chapter. god's final purpose for good is, as we shall see at the end of the chapter--and in what sense we shall have to consider--upon all men whatsoever. but this universal purpose is worked out through special 'elect' instruments. thus god recognized[5] israel beforehand, i.e. in his eternal counsels, as the people to bear his name in the world. this was the selection of israel, and was an act of which the initiative was wholly on god's side. it was a pure act of the divine favour. this 'selection of grace' was upon israel as a whole, but at later stages of the history, frequently enough, owing to the disobedience and apostasy of the majority, it is found to rest in an effective sense only upon a 'remnant' whom god has reserved for himself, because they have not utterly refused to {64} correspond to the original and continuous call of the divine grace. for the rest their privileges become the occasion of their fall: their light becomes their darkness. for judgement always and inevitably waits upon any form of misused privilege. thus, when the christ came, only an elect remnant of the nation welcomed him. the rest fell under judgement. but god overrules even this apostasy. he takes the opportunity of the absence of those who should have been at the marriage supper of the king's son, to fill the great vacancy from the gentile world. they are brought within the scope of the selecting call. but god's original vocation is still irrevocably upon apostate israel. the new gentile converts are to stimulate them to recover their lost privileges. their wilfulness and obstinacy is to give place to humility and faith; and jew and gentile all together are to constitute the elect catholic church. this is very simple and cheerful teaching. it leaves for us to consider later the question whether god's original and special vocation resting upon the jews is finally to _constrain_ them all to conversion, and whether in the same way his ultimate purpose of salvation for all men is to take place infallibly in all cases. this {65} question is still to be considered. but at any rate the doctrine of election has lost all that gave it a colouring of arbitrariness and injustice and narrow sympathies. we ought to notice in the above passage how st. paul, in recalling the continual obstinacy and hardening of the majority of the chosen people, is following on the lines of st. stephen's speech (acts vii. 51). 2. the imprecatory psalms are, especially in our anglican public services, a great stumblingblock to many--especially the 69th (here cited by st. paul) and the 109th. these psalms do not represent barely the cry of an individual sufferer invoking god's curse upon his private enemies. the sufferer, who is the psalmist, or with whom at least the psalmist identifies himself, represents afflicted righteousness. it is god's people, his 'servant' and 'son' according to the language of the old testament, that is under persecution from the enemies of god. and he calls upon god to vindicate himself by punishing the adversary; to let it be seen that his word and promise is truth. 'how long, o god, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge?' even from this point of view, however, when with the assistance {66} of the modern critics we have in the main purged away the element of private vindictiveness, these psalms no doubt remain with the stamp of narrowness and bitterness upon them. they have none of the larger new testament sense that the worst enemies of the church may be converted and live: that our attitude towards all men is to wish them good, purely good and not evil, even though it be under the form of judgement: 'rejoice when men revile you and persecute you'; 'bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them which despitefully use you'; 'that by your good works which they shall behold, they may glorify god in the day of visitation.' but granted the limitation and bitterness still remaining in these psalms, their citation in the new testament shows us what is for us the right use of them. they are by implication taken up--where we should least expect them--into the mouth of the son of man[6]. that is to say, it is his enemies on whom the judgements are imprecated. there is a wrath of the lamb. there is a divine sword of judgement which proceeds out of his mouth. he, the administrator of the righteousness of god, {67} expects from his father judgement on his enemies. it is not necessarily, as st. paul here indicates, final judgement: the judgement upon the jews was not yet that; but judgement of some sort--temporal or final--upon his wilful adversaries, the son expects of the father. and we men, as we repeat these psalms, are, like the first christians in face of the suicide of judas, to identify ourselves with the divine righteousness and accept the law of just retribution. this is the deepest and truest sense in which we can still say the imprecatory psalms; and in these days of a philanthropy that often lacks the stern savour of righteousness, it is very necessary that we should make this sense our own. [1] three times--1 sam. xii. 22, ps. xciv. 14, xcv. 3 (in the greek)--the promise occurs 'the lord will not cast away his people.' [2] the vocation and election which made israel the chosen people were absolutely of god. what distinguished the faithful remnant from the bulk of the nation was simply that they had not altogether failed in faith, so that the unchanging election was not in their cases practically suspended, but god 'reserved them for himself.' [3] st. paul refers chiefly to isa. xxix. 10--the description of a besotted people whose prophets are eyes that cannot see, and their seers ears that cannot hear; so that the word of god has become as a sealed book; cf. also isa. vi. 9. but there is a similar passage in deut. xxix. 4, which partly moulds his language, and supplies the words 'unto this day.' [4] rather, as margin, in elijah, i.e. the passage of scripture about elijah. [5] this--to recognize or mark out beforehand--is the meaning of divine 'foreknowing' in st. paul. see vol. i. pp. 317 f. [6] both in this passage and in acts i. 20. {68} division iv. § 5[1]. chapter xi. 13-36. _god's present purpose for the jews through the gentiles: and so for all humanity._ st. paul would not have it supposed that, in his zeal for the recovery of israel, he was proving faithless to his vocation as the apostle of the gentiles. on the contrary, he explains (assuming the roman christians to be gentiles in the mass) that he is, by this very zeal, fulfilling that vocation. the conversion of the gentiles was meant to react as a stimulus on the jews. when st. paul magnifies his gentile ministry, he does so always with the motive of stinging the jealousy of his own people, and so bringing some of them to salvation. how can such a consummation be too eagerly desired? for if even so pitiable an event as their rejection has yet, in god's providence, been overruled for {69} a good end--the bringing back of the outside world into the fellowship of god[2]: can we doubt that so happy an event as their recovery would be indeed (what ezekiel saw in vision in the valley of the dry bones) a veritable resurrection? for the consecration of god is still upon them. the holy (i.e. consecrated) people they still remain. as the 'heave offering' of the 'first of the dough'[3] consecrates the whole lump, so the first of the nation offered to god--abraham, isaac, and jacob--have consecrated the whole nation. the holiness of the root of god's olive tree[4] has passed to the latest branches. it is quite true that some of these branches of the jewish olive tree were broken off, and that the gentiles were introduced in their place; like a wild olive grafted upon the root of a cultivated plant, and so sharing its rich sap. but that--to let the metaphor continue--gives the wild olive no ground for an insolent contempt of the branches which naturally belonged to the tree. what advantage it now has it wholly derives from that which it is {70} affecting to despise. it is the root that supports it, not it the root. and are the gentiles disposed to argue that these rejected jewish branches were broken off in order that they might take their place; and that they, the gentiles, are thus plainly preferred by god to the jews? the answer is plain. why were they broken off? because they would not maintain the correspondence of faith with the purpose of god; and it is simply by maintaining this attitude that the newly introduced gentiles can hope to retain their place. they had better exhibit, not a groundless pride, but a reasonable fear. is god likely to be more sparing towards them than towards his first chosen? god has displayed before their eyes both his attributes of severity and goodness, and they must take note of both. at the present moment it is severity towards jews, goodness towards gentiles. yes, goodness towards gentiles; but so long only as they abide faithfully in his goodness, no longer. when they fail of faithfulness, they too, like their jewish predecessors, shall be cut off. and, on the other hand, when those jews change their attitude, and their hardness melts and faith returns, they shall be recovered and reingrafted into the old olive tree. if god {71} could graft into it branches cut out of an alien and inferior stock, how much more easily can he reingraft into it what is really part of its very self? here then we have a real disclosure of a divine secret[5], to which the gentiles would do well to keep their eyes open, lest (like the jews before them) they mistake for wisdom their own self-conceit. the hardening of the jews has been used by god as an opportunity for the gathering in of the full number of the nations of the earth; and that with the further purpose that, when the nations are gathered in, israel in all its completeness should be recovered too. and so shall be fulfilled isaiah's prophecy of a redeemer from zion, who should restore israel, and of a new covenant with them, based on a fresh forgiveness of their sins[6]. thus if we think of the actual relation of the jews to the present preaching of the gospel, we must think of them as god's enemies, and as having by their very enmity secured the gentiles their opportunity; but if we think of them in relation {72} to god's eternal choice, they still must appear as sharing the divine love which rests on the people of abraham, isaac, and jacob. god's gifts and vocation do not admit of being repented of and recalled. thus we know what to expect. as the gentiles passed out from disobedience under the divine compassion through the opportunity afforded by the disobedience of the jews; so now the divine compassion which rests on the gentiles is intended (by stimulating the jews to recover their lost privileges) to prove the means of recovering them too out of their disobedience into the shelter of the divine compassion which is the common heritage of all. we see, in fact, all men in turn shut up in disobedience to god, as in a prison house: it is god who has so shut them up; but it is done in view of the largest and most compassionate purpose which can be even conceived. it is done that (when men have become wearied of their own wilfulness, and have experienced their own need) the divine mercy may welcome and embrace all alike at last. and if this is the purpose of god disclosed to us, how can we fail to adore the fathomless resourcefulness of his wisdom in determining how to act, and his skill in executing what he {73} has determined? how can we fail to recognize our utter incompetence to explore his judgement, or track out his ways? like inspired men of old[7] we must recognize that the absolute initiative is his, and our only reasonable attitude the humblest correspondence. truly in counsel and operation we have contributed to god nothing of our own: we have no claim with which to approach him. he is the unique source of whatever is, and the sole executor of whatever takes place, and the only end to which all things tend: and to him, therefore, alone all praise is due, and shall be given. but i speak to you that are gentiles. inasmuch then as i am an apostle of gentiles, i glorify my ministry: if by any means i may provoke to jealousy _them that are_ my flesh, and may save some of them. for if the casting away of them _is_ the reconciling of the world, what _shall_ the receiving _of them be_, but life from the dead? and if the firstfruit is holy, so is the lump: and if the root is holy, so are the branches. but if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree; glory not over the branches: but if thou gloriest, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee. thou wilt say then, branches were broken off, that i might be grafted in. well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. be not highminded, but fear: for {74} if god spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee. behold then the goodness and severity of god: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, god's goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. and they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in: for god is able to graft them in again. for if thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which are the natural _branches_, be grafted into their own olive tree? for i would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen israel, until the fulness of the gentiles be come in; and so all israel shall be saved, even as it is written, there shall come out of zion the deliverer; he shall turn away ungodliness from jacob: and this is my covenant unto them, when i shall take away their sins. as touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake. for the gifts and the calling of god are without repentance. for as ye in time past were disobedient to god, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shewn to you they also may now obtain mercy. for god hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. o the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of god! how unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past tracing out! for who hath known the mind of the lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed {75} unto him again? for of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. to him be the glory for ever. amen. 1. there is a true patriotism which must at times be content to wear the guise of disloyalty; and not even jeremiah 'weakening the hands of the men of war[8]' in the conflict with the power of babylon, while all the time his very heart was bleeding for jerusalem, presents a more pathetic and moving picture of such patriotism than does st. paul as he here shows himself to us. while he was shaking off the dust of his feet, as he left the synagogues to turn to the gentiles, while he was throwing all his tremendous energy into the apostolate of the nations, and vindicating their cause, even to fierceness, against the narrowness of his own nation, all the time the thought which buoyed him up was that when the catholic church had become an established fact--when it should have become plain, even to jewish eyes, that the elect people of god is now a fraternity of all nations, and not their own race only--then it could not fail to happen, that the members of the ancient people, finding themselves in their turn 'alienated,' 'strangers,' and 'far off,' while {76} they knew so well, and needed so deeply, the fellowship of the covenant, should be stimulated to resume their former privileges. surely then at last israel 'should remember her way and be ashamed,' and 'receive' her gentile 'sisters,' though they had been to her as 'sodom and samaria,' and though they were now given to her for 'daughters, but not by her covenant'--not by any means on her own terms[9]. all the time that st. paul is fighting judaism and vindicating catholicism, laying down the lines of the great church of the nations, this is the vision that cheers him--an israel, penitent, humbled, worshipping the christ whom she had crucified, and therefore welcomed back again with the honour due to her great memories and her inextinguishable vocation. but we notice by the way, as throwing an unmistakable light on the circumstances of roman christianity, that while st. paul thus shows his own jewish feeling, he speaks to the roman christian as in the mass gentile[10]. 2. if so miserable an event, one so revolting to the divine heart, as the apostasy of israel, had yet in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of god been overruled so as to {77} become the occasion for the calling of the gentiles, it must needs be, st. paul argues, that an event so dear to the heart of god as the recovery of israel, would have a result even more blessed, nothing less than 'life from the dead.' what does this last expression mean? does st. paul mean that when once the chosen people was recovered into a really catholic church, there would be no further delay--the consummation would be reached, the resurrection of the dead which is to accompany the (second) coming of the christ would take place at once? this thought would be very natural to st. paul, and thoroughly agreeable to the old messianic expectation; and it would give, as nothing else gives so well, the needed climax to the sentence. moreover it cannot be said that the idea of the resurrection was not intimately associated among christians with the return of the christ in glory. but, on the other hand, nowhere else does st. paul speak of 'the resurrection' so absolutely and without explanation as the goal of all things; and, if he had meant so to speak of it here, he would surely have said '_the_ resurrection,' and not used the vaguer expression 'life from the dead.' as he has used this we must interpret it in terms {78} of ezekiel's vision[11]: the recovery of israel will be nothing less than a case of dead men coming to life again, of dry bones revivified. the only drawback to this interpretation is--what need not trouble us much--the failure of rhetorical climax. this revival of dead israel is hardly a greater thing than the reconciliation of an alienated world. and, though it would improve the rhetorical climax to interpret the phrase as meaning that the whole catholic church would have new life put into it by israel's recovery, and though we should expect this idea to prove true, yet i do not think it is natural to introduce it here. 3. st. paul's language--'beloved for the fathers' sake,' 'if the root be holy, so are the branches'--comes very close to the current jewish language about 'the merits of the fathers,' and yet is deeply distinguished from it. the jews as represented in the talmud--and the belief goes back to st. paul's time[12]--believed that no prayer was so effective as that which was offered in the name of 'the fathers.' thus: 'how many prayers did elijah speak on mount carmel that fire might fall from heaven, and he was not heard; but when he mentioned {79} the name of the dead, and called jehovah the god of abraham, isaac and jacob, then at once he was heard. so was it in the case of moses. when the israelites had accomplished that bad work, moses stood up and spoke for their justification forty days and forty nights, and was not heard. but when he mentioned the dead, he was at once heard.... therefore as the living vine supports itself on a dead stock (i.e. grows out of a stock dry and seemingly dead), so israel lives and supports itself on the fathers since they are dead[13].' the individual israelite, moreover, could supply his own deficiencies in righteousness out of the treasury of merits which belonged to him in virtue of his descent from the common fathers of the race, or the holy progenitors of his own family. in other words the israelites in various ways and senses depended for salvation on having 'abraham to their father.' and it has already appeared sufficiently how dangerous this belief was; and how utterly st. paul, like ezekiel[14] and john {80} the baptist before him, repudiated this idea of genealogical and traditional merit as a ground of confidence before god. on the other hand, this belief in the transference of merit was based on a true idea of the organic unity of the race. the jewish race was bound up into one with its great progenitors; and it is these men who are its true representatives. they show what their race can be and is meant to be, and along what lines it is meant to move. their election and walk with god laid a consecration on all who came after them; as st. paul elsewhere says that the children of a christian parent in a mixed marriage are holy, i.e. have a consecration laid upon them by their partly christian parentage[15]. the patriarchs exhibit israel as god means it to be. and god, so to speak, cannot forget that every israelite is a child of abraham and isaac and jacob, and that in their faith and religion lies his possibility and his glory. thus stated, the idea of the 'communion of saints' in the jewish race is nothing else than a ground of hope, and a stimulus to recovery. and the idea admits at once of being transferred to the catholic israel, as in fact its jewish {81} parody has, at certain periods, been only too fully and fatally transferred. i say, the true idea admits of being transferred. we belong to the same body as the apostles and martyrs, the virgins and saints, the jewish patriarchs and prophets also. their possibilities are ours. their god is our god for ever and ever. and god looks on us as in one body with them. we too are beloved for these our fathers' sakes. and they too, we cannot doubt, are conscious of our fellowship with them, and if we are trying to live in the same spirit with them, we must believe, all the limitations of our knowledge notwithstanding, that they are supporting and helping us, as in christ our sympathetic advocates and allies. 4. the metaphor of the olive and the grafting is intelligible enough without explanation. we know how often the olive and the vine are taken in the old testament and in other jewish writings--as in the passage just quoted from the talmud--for a symbol of israel; we must frankly recognize that st. paul, apparently in forgetfulness and not by design, accommodates the physical process of grafting to its spiritual counterpart; for in physical fact, of course, the ingrafted shoot (which represents the gentiles), {82} and not the stock upon which it is grafted (which represents the jews), would determine the character and produce of the tree: but when this is once recognized it may be forgotten, and the metaphor is as intelligible to us as if the physical process of grafting were really as st. paul represents it. 5. as we read the words, 'and so all israel shall be saved,' we cannot help asking ourselves--does st. paul mean us to believe this of all israelites without exception, or even of israel in general with an absolute necessity? i think the answer should be a negative in both cases[16]. just above st. paul says, looking at the matter from the side of israel, 'they also, _if they continue not in unbelief_, shall be grafted in.' here he is looking at the matter from the side of god. it lies in the divine purpose that the establishment of the catholic church, and the experience of alienation on the part of the jews, should stimulate them to regain their ancient privileges on a new basis; 'and so,' looking at the matter from the point of view of the divine intention, 'all israel shall be saved.' just below, from the same point of view, it is stated to be god's purpose {83} 'to have mercy upon all men.' but, in interpreting this latter passage, we are doing violence to what st. paul says elsewhere with emphatic distinctness, if we imagine that he asserts that all individual men without exception shall ultimately attain the end of their being and the fellowship of god. in these passages, as elsewhere, st. paul looks at things from two points of view, without attempting to present us with a harmony of them. from one point of view we have spread out before us the 'mystery,' or revealed secret of god, and discern the purpose of his love working on, and finding its opportunities even in the gravest moral disasters. from the other point of view we detect human wilfulness, able in a measure, but never completely or on the whole, to baffle and thwart the divine purpose. st. paul, i say, is content to recognize both points of view, and not to hold them in complete combination. he uses the perception of the divine purpose--in this case, the recovery of the jews--as a motive for hope and thankfulness and renewed energy; but he does not, apparently, ask himself the metaphysical questions whether god foreknows how particular individuals or groups of men will act, or, if we must say that god does so foreknow how each {84} man will act, how this is reconcilable with his moral freedom. he is content to adore the divine purpose, and rest upon it; and recognize, on the other hand, the thwarting power of human wilfulness. from the point of view of god's patiently loving purpose, then, a great and fresh opportunity is being prepared for the recovery of the whole of israel, when 'the times of the gentiles' are fulfilled and the church stands really catholic before their eyes. just in the same way, in the larger field of all mankind, the purpose of god is at work through all rejections, and all judgements of hardening, to convince all men of their need of god, and so prepare their hearts 'that he might have mercy upon all.' but from the other point of view god respects human freedom. thus over against the divine purpose stands the ambiguous human 'if'--'if they continue not in their unbelief.' this ambiguous human element is a prominent feature in old testament prophecy, though there too the thwarting power of man's perverseness is limited. if not in one way then in another, if not through one set of agents then through others--on the whole the purpose of god finds its sure way to accomplishment. {85} * * * * * _retrospect over the argument_ and now that we have given all the pains we can to entering into the spirit of these chapters, may we not say that they have become no longer repellent but deeply attractive? where could we find a more liberating outlook over the wide purpose of god in redeeming the world? sin is a stern fact, and demands stern dealing to overcome it by moral discipline. men of all sorts must be brought to realize their need of god, utterly to expel the false dream of independence, and humbly to welcome the unmerited bounty of the divine 'mercy,' the free gift of pardon and new life. this then is the way in which the fundamental purpose of god for man shows itself in a world of sin; it is by a discipline preparing men to welcome a divine mercy of which they have learnt to know their need. 'that he may have mercy upon all'--this is the generous end upon which all the divine dealings with men converge. the jews by one kind of discipline while they still were standing together as the elect people of god, and by another when, having rejected the christ and fallen out of their religious leadership, they were to be stirred to {86} jealousy by the spectacle of a divine fellowship from which they were excluded: the gentiles by a different sort of discipline, and each separate race by its own; nay more, every individual, jew and greek, englishman or hindoo, by a distinctive personal chastening, in as many ways as man is various and god is resourceful: all men are so to be dealt with as that all men shall be brought to confess themselves to be as they are in god's sight, and surrender themselves to him to be refashioned after the divine image. through all national and personal vocations realized, by which human character is educated: through all national and personal humiliations, which are divine judgements by which human character is corrected and made docile: god's untiring patience and forbearance, in sternness and in love, works on to the one universal end--that he might have mercy upon all. the uttermost and most pitiable collapse, even the imminence of death itself, may be, nay certainly in god's intention is, his remedy for human wilfulness: a means by which- 'god unmakes but to remake the soul he else made first in vain, which must not be[17].' {87} --must not be, that is, so far as the resourcefulness of divine love, going all lengths short of destroying the fundamental moral choice of the soul, can avail to prevent it. this teaching of st. paul suggests a wonderful way of reading human history, and inspires us with the right sort of patience and hopefulness in our attitude towards the wider problems of missionary work and our own dealings with individuals. the races to whose conversion we would fain minister seem so immovable and so indifferent. the men and women whom we would fain help seem so hardened or so weak. but 'the gifts and callings of god' within them and about them, 'are without repentance.' god's remedies for them are not yet exhausted. we therefore have a right to hope and labour on, 'never despairing[18].' and where is a nobler presentation to be found than here of the idea of divine election? that in the great household of the world there are magnificent and (comparatively, at least) ignominious vocations among races and individuals; {88} that some men are born for the top, and other men for the bottom of society; that there are 'honourable' and 'dishonourable' limbs in the body of humanity, the latter fulfilling their necessary function no less than the former, is an indisputable fact. it is no use challenging it, any more than any other fundamental law of the universe. and, if we can see why certain races and certain individuals are fitted for certain tasks, yet on the whole we can advance but a very little way in seeing the reason of human inequalities as in fact they exist. all that lies in the inscrutable and free counsels of god, and the responsibility is--in spite of the modifying effects of human sin--ultimately his[19]. but in st. paul's treatment of it, the recognition of the fact that god works universal ends through selected races and individuals, is robbed of all that ministers to pride and narrowness in the elect, or to hopelessness and a sense of injustice in the rest. the new testament writers in general would teach us that with god is no respect of persons; {89} so that the lowest vocation may result in the highest glory, where it is faithfully fulfilled, and the highest vocation, misused, in the deepest degradation; but st. paul in particular makes us feel the humbling responsibility which attaches necessarily to any state of election. the jews failed because they lacked the faith and docility which would have enabled them to correspond to god's larger leading. the time came when god who had, 'through the jews, prepared the christ for the world,' had also, 'through the gentiles, prepared the world for christ'; but the jews were ready neither to welcome the christ, nor to 'receive' the world. thus the richest ministry ever vouchsafed to a race was waiting for the jews, and they proved false to it, because they had turned their privileges into an occasion for pride and selfishness, and would not learn the new truth or rise to the new opportunity. here is a serious warning to the 'elect' of every age. how often has the church at large, or a national church, refused the call to expansion, and lost some rich part of its heritage because it was self-satisfied, and therefore blind? how often does a 'good catholic' fail to recognize that he is utterly misusing the gifts of grace, {90} if his catholicism does not mean a generous and self-sacrificing desire to win the lost and save the world? how often has the profession of being 'saved' put an end to spiritual growth and the struggle with sin? how many religious orders and societies have lived on the reputation of the past, and appeared to fancy that the achievements of their founders--'the merits of the fathers'--would justify the apathy and carelessness of those who had inherited an honourable name? indeed, to whatever we are elect--whether national, or ecclesiastical, or personal privileges--the temptation dogs us to rest on our inherited merits and have no open ear to the guiding voice of god, as it calls us to fresh ventures and renewed sacrifices, like those which laid the basis of the position of which we now make our empty or insolent boast. but thus to evade the uncomfortable requirements of the present by an appeal to the achievements of the past--whether it be the past of catholic tradition or 'the reformation settlement'--is to expose ourselves inevitably to divine condemnation. those who keep the open ear are the 'remnant' in every age and church and nation. they are the men who refuse to 'make the word of god {91} of none effect,' because of the blinding, deadening force of social tradition. they are alive and awake to 'buy up the opportunity,' as it presents itself. and for such st. paul's teaching, inherited from the prophets, of the function of the remnant is full of encouragement. the bible is a book contemptuous of majorities. the mass of men, conventional, easily satisfied, self-centred, accomplish nothing, redeem and regenerate nothing. but those who have ears to hear have every motive, though they be few in number, to live at the highest level possible, and believe to the full that the purpose of god can be realized. god's purpose can work, and has in history worked, through small minorities, through single individuals. they are the true representatives of their church, their nation, their class. and when the inner history of any epoch comes to be known, while the inert mass of people, 'important' or 'unimportant,' is lost in the dim background, they will be seen distinctive in the foreground: the real movement of god in history, the real witness of the truth, the real spiritual succession of the kingdom of god, will be seen to have been carried on through them for the enriching of the whole world. i would add two reflections on subordinate, {92} but still important points. it is the function of the catholic church to let its light so shine before men that it shall 'provoke to jealousy,' by the manifest presence of god in the midst of it, the ancient and now alienated people, the jews. at the moment, with the anti-semite cry strong throughout europe, and on the morrow of the 'affaire dreyfus,' these words ring with a bitter irony. and in our own east london how utterly unlikely it is that the spectacle of our christianity should make the jews feel that christian society cannot but be divine! indeed, the unfulfilled debt christendom owes to the jews is appalling. that ancient and indomitable race retains, with all its faults, its close-knitting sense of brotherhood, its faith, its frugality, its industry, its patience, its heroism. we are meant to show it the greater glories of the new covenant, the splendour of the purity, the unworldliness, the expansiveness, the love of the brotherhood of christ. and we do show it--what? is there that in our common christianity, as they see it, which should obviously make judaism ashamed of itself? could st. paul, looking at our christendom, have expected 'all israel to be saved' by the spectacle of a catholic church? these are considerations {93} which indeed should drive us to bitter penitence and earnest prayer. finally, before we leave these chapters, we shall do well to look steadily at st. paul's habit of mind in dealing with antithetic or complementary truths. no one could believe with a more glorious conviction than st. paul in the dominance of the purpose of god in the world: in the certainty of the accomplishment of what god has predestined. if the very rejection of the christ by the jews was turned into an opportunity for the conversion of the gentiles, what crime can be too great for the divine wisdom to overrule it for good? no one, on the other hand, could realize more deeply the responsibility which lies upon men: their strange power to correspond with god, or partly thwart his purpose for them and through them. my point is only this: he is true to both sides of an antithesis, even though the exact relationship and interworking of the twin truths is necessarily and finally obscure. he refuses to be one-sided at the requirement of an incomplete human logic. it has been often pointed out, and in many directions, how prone we all are to take up with one side of truth--with predestination or free-will, with the divinity or the manhood {94} of christ, with the unity or the trinity of the godhead, with sacraments or conversion, with authority or personal judgement; and if we are intellectually disposed, we call our one-sidedness 'being logical.' but we had better let st. paul teach us once for all that impartiality is a greater thing than this cheap logic; even as church history teaches us that a sharp-witted but one-sided zeal for truth is one main cause of bitterness, narrowness, and schism. [1] i follow, by preference, the paragraphs of the r.v., unless there is very strong reason to the contrary. [2] cf. 2 cor. v. 19, 'god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself.' [3] num. xv. 20, 21. [4] 'the lord called thy name a green olive tree.' jer. xi. 16; hos. xiv. 6. [5] on 'mystery,' see _ephesians_, p. 73. it means a divine secret disclosed to the elect. [6] isa. lix. 20, according to the greek, and xxvii. 9. cf. ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26. [7] isa. xl. 13. cf. job xxxviii. 4; xli. 11; wisd. ix. 13. [8] jer. xxxviii. 4. [9] ezek. xvi. 61. [10] see above, vol. i. 3. [11] ezek. xxxvii. [12] see my _ephesians_, pp. 258 ff. [13] quoted, with much other illustrative matter, by weber, _l.c._, pp. 293 ff. the fancy is based on 1 kings xix. 36; exod. xxxii. 13. cf. on cant. i. 5, 'i am black but comely'--'the congregation of israel speaks: i am black through mine own works, but lovely through the works of my fathers.' [14] ezek. xiv. 14. [15] 1 cor. vii. 14. [16] 'all israel,' in 1 kings xii. 1, 2 chron. xii. 1, dan. ix. 11, means 'israel in general.' [17] these words (which in their full sense seem to go beyond what we have a right to say) occur in browning's _ring and the book_. it is the pope's final reflection, when he condemns guido to death, that his execution may be the one chance for his spiritual recovery- 'in the main criminal i see no chance except in such a suddenness of fate.' [18] luke vi. 35, or 'despairing of no man,' marg. r.v. [19] we hold, therefore, with regard to the lots of men in this world, exactly the opposite of what plato suggested under the impulse of the doctrine of transmigration, 'it is the man's own choice, god is blameless.' {95} division v. chapters xii-xv. 13. _practical exhortation._ we must almost all of us, in climbing some high hill, have experienced the necessity for two distinct efforts, the second more or less unanticipated. we started to climb to the apparent summit, only to find, when we got there, that it was no real summit at all, but a prominent spur, and that a second climb was required of us before we were really at the top. an intellectual experience not unlike this is the lot of the student of the epistle to the romans. the apparent climax of the epistle is the end of chapter viii, and the student at starting expects his brain to be chiefly taxed in following the closely knit argument which is to lead him thither. but he reaches it only to find another like effort of mind required of him in grasping the meaning of the section (chapters ix-xi) in which st. paul is occupied in justifying god's dealings with the chosen people. but now, intellectually speaking, his work is almost over. {96} as the climber, seated on the summit of the hill when at last it is gained, lets his eye range over a rich and wide prospect, and takes in its vastness and variety, or traces below him the delightful descent: so it is with the reader of this epistle who has entered sincerely into the spirit of st. paul. his intellectual scruples as to the divine dealings have been just laid to rest; before that his mind had been convinced, and his heart and will attracted and won, by the unfolding of the divine righteousness, that is to say of the free grace and love of god. and now, proportionate to the greatness of the effort by which this satisfaction of intellect and heart and will has been won, is the joy of expansion which remains--the joy of the surrendered mind in appreciating all that is practically possible for it in the light of the love of god. 'i will run the way of thy commandments, because thou dost enlarge my heart,' that is, expand it with a sense of liberty and joy[1]. 'all things are ours,' if but once in completeness of self-surrendering faith 'we are christ's' as assuredly 'christ is god's[2].' 'i can do all things in christ that strengtheneth me[3].' [1] ps. cxix. 32. see driver's _parallel psalter_, oxford (1898). [2] 1 cor. iii. 21-3. [3] phil. iv. 13. {97} division v. § i. chapter xii. 1-2. _self-surrender in response to god._ and first of all the general attitude of mind is defined, which it befits us to adopt towards god as he has now revealed himself to us. it is the response of entire self-surrender--the response of sacrifice to sacrifice. st. paul 'beseeches,' or rather 'encourages,' or 'summons' the roman christians, using for his motive power[1] all the rich store of divine compassions which he has just been occupied in disclosing or explaining to them, to make the only response really possible to such an exhibition of divine love; and that is to present themselves in sacrifice to god. what god asks is not dead victims but living men, in body as well as spirit consecrated to his service and rendered acceptable in his sight: and this sort of self-oblation, {98} on the pattern of christ, is the only reasonable sort of divine service for man to offer. the transitory world, to which such an ideal is quite alien, is indeed all around them, but they are not to suffer themselves to be assimilated to its fleeting fashion. their whole point of view is changed and become new; and this must result in so thorough a transformation of their old worldly ways of thinking that a new inward light will shine in their hearts, and they will be able to discriminate and see what god's will is, and so to follow the way of perfection. i beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of god, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to god, _which_ is your reasonable service. and be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of god. this short paragraph is full of meaning, and is profoundly characteristic of st. paul in thought and language. the 'therefore' is one of the great transitional 'therefores[2]' by which st. paul shows his constant sense of the inter-connexion of doctrine and life: the doctrine passing by a clear logic into the practical life, and the life drawing all its {99} practical motives from the realities disclosed in the doctrine. it is truly nothing whatever but shallowness and 'shortness of thought' which can suffer us to imagine that the christian character--i do not say all morality, but the christian character--could long survive the christian creed. and the character of this summary exhortation shows us that any idea of a faith which stops short of moral identification with its object is utterly alien to st. paul's mind. faith is no true christian faith, if it is content to receive from the father, or from christ, a gift which leaves it still outside the life of god. the faith which christ inspires asks for and receives nothing less than real fellowship in his divine and human life, and that life is, in its joys as well as its sorrows, a life of self-surrender, of sacrifice. thus the christian only welcomes the gift of pardon through christ's sacrifice in order to be admitted into the freedom of the dedicated life in christ, which is the life of sacrifice. it is the sort of sacrifice (as st. paul's language indicates) which is as different as possible from any such asceticism as is prompted by contempt of the flesh or the body, or refusal of joy, or love of death. it is sacrifice which seeks to cultivate {100} into full vitality every faculty of body as well as of mind (and that in an active society or brotherhood), in order to consecrate all we are or can be to the service of god, and so realize in conscious correspondence with the divine will the rational worship for humanity. st. paul's words here about a 'living' as opposed to a bloody, and a 'rational' as opposed to an animal sacrifice, may be the basis on which the eucharist, the christian worship 'in spirit and in truth,' was often called in early times the 'reasonable' and 'bloodless sacrifice[3].' and whether this be the case or no, at any rate we must relearn the lesson that st. augustine is for ever insisting upon, that the eucharistic sacrifice essentially involves and implies the offering of the church as the body of christ, {101} that is, the offering of ourselves as members of the body; and we may feel profoundly thankful that, in our service of holy communion, this truth has been restored to its proper prominence, after having been, in the pre-reformation service, almost ignored. 'and here we offer and present unto thee, o lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto thee.' in this prayer is really the climax of our sacrificial worship[4]. the true service of god is intelligent correspondence with the divine will--this is perfection; and to correspond with the divine will we must be able to know it: and this is what we can do if we are true to the principle of our new birth, and suffer it _radically and permanently to transform_ us and our point of view (for nothing less than this is carried by st. paul's expression rendered 'transform'). negatively, this means that we must maintain our separateness from the worldly world, to which we died at our baptism--the world of human society as it devotes itself to its business and its pleasures, {102} leaving god out of account[5]. for if the worldly world is suffered to _fashion us in accordance with its shallow and transitory show_ (this is the idea conveyed by the word rendered 'fashion'), we shall be blinded to what our regeneration ought to have made plain to us. [1] for the use of 'by,' cf. xv. 30; 1 cor. i. 10 ('through' is the same word); 2 cor. x. 1. [2] see further, _ephes._ pp. 172 ff. [3] it is more likely, however, that the phrases 'rational worship' and 'bloodless sacrifice' had an earlier jewish origin. they occur in _the testament of the xii patriarchs_, which is apparently a jewish document christianized. there the _angels_ are said (_levi._ 3) to 'offer to the lord a rational odour of sweet savour and a bloodless offering.' philo also, as mr. conybeare points out to me, in several passages describes the true sacrifices as 'bloodless': and by bloodless sacrifices he means either the meal offerings as opposed to the animal sacrifices (_de anim. sacrif._ ed. mangey ii. 250), or truly spiritual acts as opposed to merely outward (_de ebreitate_, i. p. 370, cf. ii. 254). these two ideas run easily into one another, and the earliest uses of the expression 'bloodless sacrifice' for the eucharist have a similar ambiguity. [4] see further, p. 179. i may be allowed to express the earnest desire that we might have liberty in our church to read _both_ of the post-communion prayers, which seem supplementary rather than alternative to one another. [5] see _ephes._ p. 92. {103} division v. § 2. chapter xii. 3-21. _the community spirit._ and when st. paul, justifying himself here, as before and later on, by the special divine favour which has made him the apostle of the gentiles[1], proceeds to develop his exhortation, it appears that with him, as with st. james[2], the form in which 'divine service' shows itself must be love of the brethren. to be called into the body of christ--the society which is bound into one by his life and spirit--is to be called to social service, that is, to live a community life, and to cultivate the virtues which make true community life possible and healthy. of these the first is humility, which in this connexion means the viewing oneself in all things as one truly is, as a part of a whole. of the faith by which the whole body lives, a share, but only {104} a share, belongs to each member--a certain measure of faith--and he must not strain beyond it. but he is diligently to make the best of his faculty, and do the work for which his special gift qualifies him, in due subordination to the welfare of the whole, whether it be inspired preaching, or ordinary teaching, or the distribution of alms, or presidency, or some other form of helping others which is his special function. besides humility there are other virtues which make the life of a community healthy and happy, and st. paul enumerates them, as they occur to his mind, in no defined order or completeness. there must be sincerity in love, that is in considering and seeking the real interest of others; there must be the righteous severity which keeps the moral atmosphere free from taint; there must be tenderness of feeling, which makes the community a real family of brothers; and an absence of all self-assertion, or desire for personal prominence; and thorough industry; and spiritual zeal; and devotion to god's service; and the cheerfulness which christian hope inspires; and the ready endurance of affliction; and close application to prayer; and a love for giving whenever fellow christians need; and an eagerness to entertain them when they are {105} travelling--for 'the community' embraces, not one church only, but 'all the churches.' nay in a wider sense the community extends itself to all mankind, even those who persecute[3] them. according to his lord's precepts, the christian is only to bless his persecutors. generally he is to be, in the deep, original sense, sympathetic with his fellow men everywhere in their joys and sorrows, and (to return to the christian community) he is to seek to let it be pervaded by an impartial kindness; and, not thinking himself a superior person suited only for superior affairs, he is to let the current of ordinary human needs bear him along. he is not to set undue store on his own opinions[4]; he is utterly to banish the spirit of retaliation; he is deliberately to plan so to live as that his life shall prove, not a stumblingblock, but a moral attraction to men in general[5]; he is never to quarrel with any one if he can possibly help it; he is completely to suppress his resentment {106} when he is wronged, and simply to leave the matter to the wrath of god, as indeed the law would have him do[6]; so that, by his very meekness and returning good for evil, he may, according to the wise man's saying, heap burning shame upon his enemy, like coals of fire[7]. evil is all around the christian, and it is a strong man armed; but the christian has with him the forces of good which are yet stronger, and by no passive withdrawal, but by the active exercise of good, he is to win the victory over evil. for i say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but so to think as to think soberly, according as god hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. for even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are one body in christ, and severally members one of another. and having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, _let us prophesy_ according to the proportion of our faith; or ministry, _let us give ourselves_ to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching; or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting: he that giveth, _let him do it_ with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. let love be without hypocrisy. abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. in love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honour preferring one another; in diligence not slothful; {107} fervent in spirit; serving the lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing stedfastly in prayer; communicating to the necessities of the saints; given to hospitality. bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse not. rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep. be of the same mind one toward another. set not your mind on high things, but condescend to things that are lowly. be not wise in your own conceits. render to no man evil for evil. take thought for things honourable in the sight of all men. if it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto wrath: for it is written, vengeance belongeth unto me; i will recompense, saith the lord. but if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shall heap coals of fire upon his head. be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. (1) it is the idea of corporate life which dominates all this exhortation. no writing in the new testament has done more than the epistle to the romans to strengthen the sense of spiritual individuality, and to rouse the individual spirit to protest, as it protested in luther, against spiritual tyranny. but it is a complete mistake to suppose that the epistle is individualistic in tendency. the life into which the individual's faith in jesus admits him is the life of a community, and its virtues are the virtues of community life. the strengthened individuality is to go to enrich an organized society. {108} this is expressed in the familiar metaphor of the body which had been employed in non-christian thought before st. paul identified it with himself and christianity by the vigorous and profound use which he made of it[8]. the christian community is a body bound together in a common life by a common inspiring presence and spirit. the divine grace and good favour of christ shows itself in special 'gifts' (in the greek this word 'charisma' expresses a particular embodiment of the general grace, 'charis,' of god); and no individual member is without his special endowment. it is not a few officers of the community who are gifted, but all; and all are to co-operate in the common life and work. of gifts there are various sorts which we hear of in the new testament. there are the official gifts, the result of what we call ordination, as the gift which was 'in' timothy 'by the laying on of hands.' and those among the christians at rome, who 'presided' and 'ministered,' would have been, we should suppose, official presbyters or 'bishops,' and deacons. but the roman christians hardly constituted yet an organized church, and we cannot tell whence such officers of {109} the community received their appointment. there is no ground for a positive assertion of any kind[9]. again we hear of special gifts, such as powers of healing, speaking with tongues and prophesying, which sometimes accompanied the bestowal of the spirit, through the laying on of hands which was given to all. and the gift of prophesying among the roman christians may have been a gift of this kind. but st. paul is perhaps writing with the circumstances of the corinthian church, rather than those of the roman christians, in his mind; and we can gather but little about the exact condition of things at the capital. once more, st. paul uses the word 'gifts' for more personal and moral endowments, as for the bent of mind which leads men, under divine guidance, towards celibacy or marriage[10]. but in this place he is not distinguishing. he is hardly speaking in view of any special circumstances at rome. he is but emphasizing the fact which is the basis of all the life of christians everywhere--the fact that each individual member of the body has a special gift, and a special function for the good of the whole body, by which the gift is to express itself. what every individual christian has to do, {110} then, is to realize his own gift and correspond to it. the gift involves a certain 'measure of faith.' the faith of each individual christian is the same in its basis. it holds him in spiritual allegiance to the same lord, and in confession of the same elemental creed. but, besides this, it involves a special insight, which is the peculiar endowment of the individual. there is something which each man can realize and impart, as no one else is qualified to do. the church is the poorer if he holds back or fails to stir up this gift of his own, and on the other hand he incurs the peril of presumption if he ventures beyond it. even the inspired man, the prophet, must prophesy within the limits of what his own special proportion of faith enables him to perceive and grasp[11], even though another prophet with a larger faith might rightly say what he may not venture upon. 'let each man be fully {111} persuaded in his own mind.' for any assertion which goes beyond what the faith of the individual enables him to be convinced of, is for him 'sin.' we greatly need this exhortation to-day. the convictions of many are vague and uncertain, and their teaching without heart or force, because, like parrots, they catch up and repeat what others may have insight enough to warrant their asserting, but they have not. to correspond with one's own personal gift of faith is to realize one's vocation; and, by the development of the individual points of view, inside the common 'tradition,' the fullness and richness of the corporate faith is secured. the cohesion of the body lies in each one's realizing his own gift, and also reverencing that of others. here is humility. humility is not self-contempt, or cringing to others. to realize one's own gift, one's own relation to god, gives to each man a dignity, a power to stand upright and face the world. the sovereign master and giver has given me my own life and my own gifts. he is responsible for the existence which he gave me, and i am not to shame him by shrinking from making the best of it. but also humility is, in all relations, truth about ourselves. it is truth about ourselves as regards god, who {112} is simply the giver of whatever we have and are; and it is truth about ourselves as regards our fellow men--our own gifts being justly appraised only when they are regarded as means of serving the body as a whole, without any self-aggrandizement, with a due respect to the gifts of others, and even a positive will to let them have higher place than ourselves. indeed we shall do well to meditate deeply on this. what good work is there which is not in more or less continual danger of suffering, or even being abandoned, because fellow christians, zealous fellow christians, will plainly, and it must be wilfully, yield to the ambition to be first: will not be content to be second or third: will not do the unobtrusive work: will think 'how can i shine,' rather than 'how can i serve'? in fact, how very unwilling we are to recognize, in our ideals of education, and in our theory of grown life, that ambition, in the strict sense of the word--the desire to obtain distinction for ourselves, as distinct from the desire to serve--is not a motive which christianity can sanction, or from which it can hope for a blessing. we linger lovingly, wistfully, on the picture of the corporate life of a christian community. has it vanished from the earth, this real fraternal {113} living, 'high and low, rich and poor, one with another,' each supplementing the deficiencies of the other, and receiving of their fullness? may we not do something more than we are doing to realize it in our congregations or parishes? is nearly enough emphasis laid on the _social_ relationship of each congregation of fellow worshippers or each local church? dimly through the mist of ages in old churchwardens' accounts, in the rare instances where they have been preserved from days before the reformation, we discern what a really fraternal, self-governing and mutually co-operative community the mediaeval english parish was. let me extract a few sentences from the excellent preface[12] which bishop hobhouse prefixed to an edition of the surviving _churchwardens' accounts_ of a number of somersetshire parishes. 'the (parish) community was completely organized with a constitution which recognized the rights of the whole and of every adult member to a voice in self-government, but kept the self-governing community under a system of inspection and (if need should be) restraint from central authority.' 'the whole adult population were accounted parishioners, and had an equal voice {114} when assembled for consultation under the rector. seeing that both sexes served the office of warden, there can be no doubt that both had a vote.' the strongly existing spirit of good will and pride in the parish church found all the necessary funds for the maintaining of the church and the services, and for the provision of often a sumptuous and rich treasury of ornaments. the needs of the church were met generally by the local industry of 'such as were wise-hearted'--builders, carpenters, workers in gold and silver, bell-founders, embroiderers, writers, illuminators, book-binders, and others. hard by the church the church-house was the centre of the popular recreations of the holy day or holiday. the parish elected and paid its own officers, except the rector, and the affairs and ornaments of the church, even in part the arrangement of the services, were under the government, not of the rector, but of the parish meeting, of which he was president, under the restraining hand of the rural dean and archdeacon. the support of the poor or disabled was a wholly voluntary matter. 'the brotherhood tie was so strongly realized by the community, that {115} the weaker ones were succoured by the stronger as out of a family store.' 'all the tendency of the feudal system, working through the machinery of the manorial court, was to _keep the people down_. all the tendency of the parochial system, working through the parish council, holding its assemblies in the churches, where the people met on equal terms as children and servants of the living god, and members of one body in christ jesus, was to _lift the people up_.' in these assemblies there was no distinction between lord and vassal, high and low, rich and poor; in them the people learnt the worth of being free. here were the schools in which, in the slow course of centuries, they were disciplined to self-help, self-reliance and self-respect[13]. no doubt these descriptions of mediaeval parish life represent an ideal very imperfectly realized. but is it not an ideal we need to recover? is there not a call for church reform, both moral and formal, to restore to us the community life of our parishes, and fill st. paul's language again with its primary and natural meaning? [1] see i. 5, 11-15; xv. 15-17. [2] jas. i. 17. [3] the word is the same as st. paul has just used to describe the eager 'pursuit' of opportunities of hospitality by the christian. he 'pursues' opportunities of doing good, while he is himself 'pursued' by enemies to do him evil. [4] cf. xi. 25, and prov. iii. 7. [5] prov. iii. 4 lxx. 'provide things honourable in the sight of the lord and of man.' [6] deut. xxxii. 35. [7] prov. xxv. 21. [8] the truth, however, which underlies the metaphor of the body is, we may say, equally present in all the new testament writers. [9] see, however, p. 196. [10] 1 cor. vii. 7. [11] dr. liddon, with many others, interprets 'according to the proportion of _the_ faith,' i.e. according to 'the majestic proportion of the (objective) faith.' this is the characteristically latin, as against the greek, interpretation, and the greek is certainly to be preferred, because 'according to the proportion of our faith' follows naturally upon 'according as ... the measure of faith' just above; indeed 'faith' in this context can hardly have assigned to it without violence the objective meaning which, however, in the context of the pastoral epistles it no doubt frequently bears. cf. app. note a, p. 205. [12] _somersetshire records_, vol. iv, 1890. [13] dr. jessop, 'parish life in england before the great pillage,' _nineteenth century_, jan. 1898, p. 55; cf. also dom gasquet on 'the layman in the mediaeval period,' _tablet_, sept. 2, 1899. {116} division v. § 3. chapter xiii. 1-7. _the christians and the imperial power._ it is possible that the thought of the innocent victim of injustice and wrong waiting upon the divine wrath, brings to st. paul's mind the idea of the state which exists to represent divine justice in the world, and minister divine wrath on behalf of the innocent. but, whether this particular connexion of thought was really in st. paul's mind or no, at any rate the previous section has made it plain that the 'love of the brethren' must extend itself to become a right relation to all men, whether christians or not[1]. in particular, therefore, the relation of the christians to the imperial authority could not fail to be a matter which required attention and apostolic counsel. the jews, whose theocratic {117} principles made submission to government by 'the uncircumcised' at least a real abandonment of a religious ideal[2], had always an instinctive tendency to rebellion; and the christian church built upon judaism might easily have inherited this instinct. the catholic church of the new covenant, might have claimed to be a theocracy like that of the old. especially at rome, where the jews were a vast and formidable body who had recently given trouble and been expelled[3], the attitude of the christians, who were identified with them, might easily be misunderstood. or on the other hand the jews themselves, at rome as at thessalonica[4], might represent the christians as disloyal to caesar. moreover, apart from all unjustified slanders, the spirit of the 'fifth monarchy men' has seldom been altogether absent from periods of christian enthusiasm; and the restless and undisciplined {118} tendencies at thessalonica[5], which the mistaken expectation of the immediate second coming of christ had encouraged, were a sign that christians might easily find it difficult to settle down as good citizens in the great empire of the world. st. paul therefore, here and elsewhere, would make it quite plain that the catholic church, if it is like the ancient israel, is like it only as it was in exile--when the children of israel were bidden to be good citizens of the babylonian empire, and to seek the peace of the city whither god had caused them to be carried away captive, and to pray unto the lord for it, for in the peace thereof they should have peace[6]. thus the church was not a theocracy, but a 'settlement of strangers and exiles[7],' waiting for the visible establishment of the kingdom or city of god, and meanwhile maintaining a polity or ordered social life of their own, but on a voluntary and catholic (or non-national) basis. therefore, so long as god maintains 'the present world,' they must be good citizens of whatever earthly state they happen to live under. on this basis, then, st. paul reminds each single person {119} of the duty of political loyalty. the earthly state is of god's establishing, as well as the kingdom of christ, and fulfils a divine purpose with divine authority. it exists to suppress moral outrage and lawlessness[8], to maintain justice and right. its officers are god's ministers (as truly as the officers of the church, though in a different order), and must be obeyed accordingly, under peril not only of civil punishment for disobedience, but under peril of divine judgement also, and as a matter of conscience. the good man, and therefore the good christian, has nothing to fear from the empire or its officers. and he will readily, and as a matter of conscience, pay his tribute as a subject, and his taxes as a citizen, to the proper authorities, and give to each imperial officer the respect which is his due. let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of god; and the _powers_ that be are ordained of god. therefore he that resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of god: and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgement. for rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. and wouldest thou have no fear of the power? do {120} that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same: for he is a minister of god to thee for good. but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is a minister of god, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil. wherefore _ye_ must needs be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience sake. for for this cause ye pay tribute also; for they are ministers of god's service, attending continually upon this very thing. render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute _is due_; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. our lord, by his whole bearing towards jewish nationalism and by his clear prophecy of the destruction of jerusalem, as well as by his particular injunction to 'render unto caesar the things that were caesar's,' had made it evident to his disciples that the sceptre had departed from judah, and had determined the attitude of christians towards the empire. they could not indeed be as other inhabitants of the empire, for they were waiting, and praying, and working, for the visible establishment of a city and kingdom of god on earth--little as either the 'times and seasons,' or the character and manner, of that city and kingdom had been revealed to them. thus the roman empire could not but be in their eyes a kingdom of this world destined for overthrow. but it was by the methods of meekness, and by purely spiritual weapons, that the kingdom of {121} god was to come, and the great overthrow, whatever it should prove to be, was to be effected. this at least was certain; and meanwhile the roman empire represented the divine principle of authority and order, and must be obeyed. st. paul no doubt had, more than any other apostle, a real feeling for the empire and the city of which he was a citizen. moreover, he saw in the organization of the empire a great framework and vehicle for the establishment and spread of the catholic church. and hitherto certainly (at least, since the fatal moment of pilate's weakness) the church had continually experienced the assistance of the imperial authorities. it was a misused _spiritual_ authority, before which the protest had to be made, 'we must obey god rather than man[9].' it was the jewish authorities who persecuted the church. it was the jewish king who put james to death. at paphos, thessalonica, corinth, ephesus, the imperial authorities had been more or less friendly, and even at philippi they had been reduced to an attitude of apology by the bare mention of roman citizenship. st. paul's experiences, therefore, had prepared him to 'appeal unto caesar,' and to expect justice {122} and freedom for himself and his cause. even the beginnings of the experience of imperial hostility and persecution did not quash or even weaken this attitude in st. peter[10]. st. peter and st. paul idealize the empire almost as if it could do no wrong, and the righteous had nothing to fear from it. of course, when this expectation had been rudely shattered--when the imperial authority had come chiefly to mean the persecution of the saints--an opposite sort of idealism takes place, and rome appears as the great 'beast' of violence in the apocalypse of john. both idealizations represent truth--the truth of what the state is meant to be on the one side, and of what it may become on the other. but after considerable experience of persecution, clement of rome is still full of admiration for the divine order of the imperial rule, and recognizes the duty of obedience to his 'rulers and governors upon earth,' side by side with the duty of obedience to 'god's almighty and most excellent name'; and as it is god who has given the rulers their authority, he prays for grace to submit to them, and offers rich prayer for their welfare and that of the empire. and the spirit lived on in the christian {123} church through all the persecutions, and the apologists for christianity loved to protest their loyalty to the empire, and to think of their church as 'the soul of the world,' maintaining it by prayer and virtue in the midst of impiety and corruption. in england this passage has often been put to two conspicuously unjustifiable uses. first, it was the stronghold of the maintainers of 'the divine right of kings' and of 'passive obedience.' in reality it asserts the divine right of civil authority, but not of any particular kind of civil authority. indeed the government of the empire was still nominally a republic in its fundamental forms, though it was becoming a despotism in fact. and supposing the senate and people had--as is of course conceivable--reasserted their authority over their 'emperors,' or military officers, the christian doctrine of divine right would have afforded no guidance as to which of the claimants to authority had the divine will on its side. what is barely asserted is the divine right of the existing civil authority, democratic or regal. and while our passage exalts the normal duty of obedience, it suggests no answer to the question--is there not a point where a government so manifestly fails to {124} maintain the divine order in the world, or to represent the will of god and the best interests of the people, that it deserves to be put an end to? at such a point christianity can only serve to reinforce the natural instincts of justice and right. and again, the words, 'the powers that be are ordained of god: therefore he that resisteth the power withstandeth the ordinance of god,' have often been used in england to justify a claim on behalf of the state to coerce and govern the church and the consciences of men in spiritual matters. but such an idea is utterly alien to the mind of the new testament. in the matters which concern our spiritual salvation, the authority which is to discipline and control us is the binding and loosing, absolving and retaining, authority which is entrusted not to the state, but to the church. attempts are recorded in history on the part of the state to crush out the church, and on the part of the church to usurp the authority of the state and use its weapons. such attempts, we trust, belong to past history. an attempt, too, specially identified with england, has been made to identify a national church and state as only different aspects of the same society, so that the government of the national church can be more {125} or less fused in that of the state. but whatever may be said of such an attempt in the past, in our modern england the plain facts of the political and religious situation are flatly repugnant to it; and there can evidently be no reasonable religious government in the church of england till it is conducted again in obedience to the fundamental christian principle that our national and local church is part of a great catholic society, which christ endowed with an independent spiritual authority, and a law and constitution and ministers of its own. the state may need an established national church as much as ever to enable it to fulfil its highest functions, but any 'establishment' in these days must be consistent with the fullest recognition of the spiritual and political liberties of those members of the state who belong to other religious bodies, and also must be based upon recognition that the church and state are fundamentally distinct, and relatively independent societies. but it behoves us churchmen, not only to assert the spiritual liberties of the church, but also to realize a great deal more fully than we do, the divine authority of the civil ministers and civil laws in their own department. the state {126} exists to embody and represent in the world the divine justice, which is to be the basis of the government of men. its ministers--magistrates, legislators, officers of justice--are 'god's ministers': laws which are passed by the state in fulfilment of its divine mission--laws intended to maintain the health and prosperity of the people as a whole--have a divine sanction; and we churchmen can only be what the church should be, 'the soul of the world,' if we make it a matter of conscience, a great deal more deliberately than it is at present with most of us, to aid vigorously in the administration of the good laws which already exist, national and municipal, and to promote intelligently and enthusiastically the purposes of civil government by helping towards better laws; so that our government, as a whole, may become a continually completer image of the equitable and impartial righteousness of god. [1] cf. 2 pet. i. 7, 'in your love of the brethren supply love,' i.e. let the temper bred inside the closer bond of christian fellowship extend itself universally. [2] deut. xvii. 15, 'thou mayest not put a foreigner over thee, which is not thy brother.' [3] acts xviii. 2. 'claudius had commanded all the jews to depart from rome,' cf. suetonius, claud. 25. 'the jews who had been persistently breaking into disturbances at the instigation of chrestus (christ?) he expelled from rome.' we cannot certainly explain these words, but st. paul knew all about the occurrence from priscilla and aquila, whom the expulsion had brought across his path at corinth. [4] acts xvii. 7. [5] 1 thess. iv. 11; v. 14; 2 thess. iii. 6. [6] jer. xxix. 7; cf. 1 tim. ii. 2. [7] 1 pet. i. 11. the word for such a 'settlement of strangers,' _paroecia_, has become, by a suggestive history, our 'parish.' [8] cf. 2 thess. ii. 6. 'that which restraineth' the outbreak of lawlessness is (almost certainly) the empire, and 'he that restraineth' (ver. 7) the emperor. [9] acts v. 29. [10] 1 pet. ii. 13-17. {127} division v. § 4. chapter xiii. 8-10. _the summary debt._ christians are willingly to pay tribute and tax as a debt, a thing due in god's sight to his ministers. but this obligation is a specimen of innumerable obligations which we owe to our 'neighbours'--debts only limited by human need. and the christian is to take a wide view of his obligations, and to let there be no legitimate claim upon him unfulfilled, no debt unpaid, except the one which a man ought always to be paying and still to be owing, for it is infinite--the debt of love. here, in loving each other man with the same real regard to his personal interests as we devote to our own, is the satisfaction of the moral law. all the particular 'commandments'--those of the second table, and any other there may be--are comprehended in this one. for love can do no harm to any other, and can therefore break no commandment. {128} owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the law. for this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shall not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. love worketh no ill to his neighbour: love therefore is the fulfilment of the law. st. paul gives here a very noticeable expansion to the idea of not being in debt. in its literal sense we have all of us a horror of it, at least in theory. 'no debtor's hands are clean however white they be.' we must both let that theoretic horror of debt dominate our practice in money matters, and also expand our idea of 'debts.' according to christ's teaching, the priest and levite did not pay their debt to their samaritan neighbour, because they thought him a stranger with no claim on them. dives ignored his rich man's debt to lazarus. of those who are to appear on the left hand of christ's judgement-seat, each will be condemned because he never realized his debt to christ in the persons of all those who had needs to which he might have ministered. st. paul, as an apostle, acknowledged his debt {129} to all the gentile world[1], and we members of a church, catholic in idea, but as yet so far from catholic in fact--we englishmen, members of an imperial and spreading race, responsible for the name of christ all over the world--have a portentous and lamentably unfulfilled debt to the races of africa and india, and to the whole world. we can all think of manifold debts--to the lonely whom we might visit, the misunderstood whom we might sympathize with, the ignorant whom we might teach, the weak and oppressed whom we might support and combine, the sinful whom we might convert and establish in good living; so many debts to family and friends; so many debts to englishmen and fellow christians, to africans and asiatics. is it not bewildering even to attempt to realize our debts? and yet, let a man make a beginning, and all will be well. let him steadily set himself to behave towards those whom he employs or those who employ him, towards his domestic servants or his masters, towards railway porters and shop assistants and others who minister to his convenience, as being men and women with the same right to courteous treatment, and to a real opportunity to {130} make the best of themselves, as he has himself; let him steadily refuse to 'exploit' those immediately concerned with him, or treat them as merely means to his ends or instruments of his convenience; let him thus realize his debts to his nearest 'neighbours,' and the whole idea of humanity, of brotherhood, will be deepened and made real to him. serving the few, he will come to serve the many. his prayers will go before his actions, and enlarge their scope. he will get a habit of considerateness and thoughtfulness for others, as belonging to christ, which will express itself habitually towards all, and especially the weak. his 'neighbour' will come to mean, as in our lord's parable and in st. paul's expression in this place, any 'other man[2].' and in our days when the old personal relations of masters to workers have been so largely merged in the relation of companies to unions or to men and women in masses, we shall never allow ourselves to forget that combinations are combinations of individuals, and that neither individual responsibility, nor responsibility for the individual, can be obliterated by union or by numbers. st. paul, we notice, is here plainly {131} reproducing our lord's saying about love and the law[3]; and he would seem to have the teaching of the parable about the good samaritan in his mind; as in the previous section the saying 'render unto caesar the things that are caesar's,' and in the end of the preceding one (xii. 14, 19) the prohibition of vengeance and the injunction of love to enemies in the sermon on the mount. st. paul's ethical teaching is in fact found to be throughout based on our lord's, whether our lord's words were with him in a written form or came to him simply in the oral tradition. and we do well to remember, as we read this familiar passage, that here is the centre and kernel of christianity. it is the revelation of a new and universal duty, based on a revealed relationship of all men to a common father: the duty which lies upon all men of loving all men, because god loves all men with a father's love, or rather because god is love, and only by the life of love can we share his fellowship[4]. the {132} christian 'enthusiasm for humanity' has thus its roots in a disclosure of the character of god, and of his mind towards every man. [1] rom. i. 14. [2] ver. 8, 'his neighbours': margin, 'the other.' [3] matt. xxii. 40; cf. gal. v. 14, and james ii. 8. [4] it has been commonly said that christianity almost created a new word to express the new duty. but this now appears not to be strictly the case. _agape_, love, is a word unknown indeed to classical writers, but it is found in the popular speech of alexandria in the second century b.c. see deissmann, _bibelstudien_ (marburg, 1895), p. 80. (i was referred to this work by dr. bernard, _pastoral epistles_, p. 24.) hence, i.e. from the popular speech of greek egypt, it passed into the greek bible and so into christianity. {133} division v. § 5. chapter xiii. 11-14. _the approach of the day._ and the motive for paying our debts, in this wide sense, is that we must 'agree with our adversary quickly, while we are with him in the way,' for the day of account is at hand. this worldly world lies asleep to the spiritual realities, but its short night--the time of darkness--is nearly over. the great deliverance is nearer to us than when we first became christians. the day of the lord is almost dawning. let us see to it then that all that is only fit for the darkness is stripped off us: that we are suitably equipped for the day, so that when it suddenly dawns it shall not put us to shame. sensual lusts and loveless passions indulged--gross sins, such as none of the christian communities had quite got rid of--will appear improper conduct indeed when the sun rises. and there is only one garment proper for the day; it is the garment of christ's righteousness, or rather of christ himself, with whom we must invest {134} ourselves. as for our lower nature, it is to be our servant merely--not a master, whose clamorous demands we are to study to satisfy. 'and this, knowing the season, that now it is high time for you to awake out of sleep: for now is salvation nearer to us than when we _first_ believed. the night is far spent, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. but put ye on the lord jesus christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to _fulfil_ the lusts _thereof_. st. paul, no doubt, was still in eager expectation of the immediate second coming of christ; and that expectation has proved mistaken. now our lord plainly did not mean his disciples to know when his judgement was to be made manifest, and st. paul apparently recognized this[1], so that his immediate anticipation of the end can never have been part of his faith--never more than the reflection of the eager desire which filled the heart of the church. on the other hand, our lord did mean his disciples to go on expecting him. thus {135} st. paul's admonition is as applicable now as ever. the future of the world and of each nation and institution is precarious: things which seem solid and strong may crumble and melt; how soon god is to make plain his judgements, in part or on the whole, we do not know; when each one of us is to pass by death to the great account we do not know. there is no reasonable attitude towards the unknown coming of judgement except to be ready, and, though the darkness of the alienated and godless world is all around us, to live as children of the light eagerly expecting the dawning of the day[2]. and to meet christ we must be like christ. and to be like christ we must be in christ, clothed with his righteousness, invested with his new nature, fighting with the weapons of his victorious manhood. the 'evil' which is in ourselves, the unregulated flesh, we can only 'overcome with good'--the good which is jesus himself: for it is no longer we that live in our bare selves, but christ that liveth in us. we are baptized into him, we possess his spirit, we eat his flesh and drink his blood. what remains is practically to clothe ourselves in {136} him[3], appropriating and drawing out into ourselves by acts of our will his very present help in trouble. so can we become like him, and be fitted to see him as he is[4]. this passage played a memorable part in st. augustine's life; for when the child's voice had bidden him 'open and read,' these were the words upon which he opened, and which sealed his conversion to the faith he served so nobly--'not in rioting and drunkenness, ... but put ye on the lord jesus christ.' 'i had no wish,' he tells us, 'to read any further, nor was there any need. for immediately at the end of this sentence, as if a light of certainty had been poured into my heart, all the shadows of doubt were scattered[5].' [1] 1 thess. v. 1: 'the day of the lord so cometh as a thief in the night.' to know this is to have answer enough to questions about the times and seasons of the coming (v. 1). [2] it is interesting to compare this passage with the closely similar one of thess. v. 1-4. cf. eph. v. 14 ff.; vi. 11. [3] christ is 'put on' in baptism by all, gal. iii. 27; but we all still need to appropriate what we have received, and so 'put him on' for ourselves; cf. eph. iv. 24; col. iii. 12. [4] see app. note g, p. 238, for an admirable prayer by jeremy taylor based on this thought. [5] _conf._ viii. 12. {137} division v. § 6. chapter xiv. 1-23. _mutual toleration._ st. paul's practical exhortations show no definite scheme, but flow out of one another in a natural sequence. he began with the fundamental moral disposition required by life in the christian community (xii). he proceeded to the relation between the christian community and the government of the world outside (xiii. 1-7). this led him to lay brief and vigorous emphasis upon the universal range of christian obligation (8-10), and the motive which is to make christians zealous in rising to its fulfilment (11-14). now[1] he comes back to the difficulties which arise among christians--the difficulties in actually living together as members of the same community--difficulties on those small points of religious observance which seem so unimportant {138} in the abstract, and which, in the actual experience of intercourse, prove to be so terribly important, and so easily give rise to a 'crisis in the church.' how were the reasonably-minded majority[2], who thought that all kinds of food were morally indifferent, to behave towards the scrupulous who would only eat vegetables? how were those christians, who recognized no distinction between one day and another, to behave towards people who still held the mind of the writer of ecclesiasticus, that 'some days god had exalted and hallowed, and some he had made ordinary days[3]'? the problem of 'lawful meats' had often been before the early christians. it could not but have been so, seeing that those among them, who had passed under jewish influences had been brought under a system in which the distinction between clean and unclean meats had been rigorously observed. true, our lord had 'made all meats clean[4],' as he had opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. and the vision which reassured st. peter on the {139} latter point, and forbade him 'to call any man common or unclean[5],' was expressed in a form which implied that the same principle would apply to food. but this fundamental catholic principle, in its sharp opposition to jewish particularism, was not accepted without a struggle at every point. how hotly, for a time, the struggle raged, we dimly perceive in the narrative of the acts, and especially in st. paul's epistle to the galatians[6]. but at the jerusalem conference the fundamental catholic principle was unmistakably reaffirmed. gentiles were to be admitted to brotherhood without circumcision or the keeping of the law. henceforth then the reactionaries had no ground to stand on. the law of clean and unclean meats had gone with the rest of the jewish laws. but while the gentiles won a complete victory on the main principle, they were required by the apostolic council to make concessions to jewish habits in eating, such as could not affect the main principle. they were to eat meat killed in the jewish manner, with the blood thoroughly drained out. this in itself would probably exclude them from {140} the gentile shambles, where also much of the meat which was for sale would have been offered to idols[7]. by the observance of such a concession, then, jew and gentile were to live and eat together in peace. the actual enactment of the jerusalem conference had a limited application to the gentile christians of antioch and syria and cilicia[8]. but the principle was a vital and universal one: to hold firm the catholic or 'indifferentist' principle, but to make concessions for love's sake and to facilitate mutual fellowship. and this same principle st. paul soon had reason to apply again at corinth. there the problem was not--how could jew and gentile live and eat together? but how far could gentiles, who had become christians, associate with gentiles who were still adherents of the old religion, and eat their meats? st. paul, in answering this question for the corinthians, strongly asserts the indifferentist principle--that meat of all kinds is god's gift and good, and that it can have contracted no moral pollution through any idolatrous ceremony to which it has been subjected. no questions, therefore, are to be asked as to its antecedents. in this physical sense meats which had been {141} offered to idols might be freely eaten. but when such eating could do harm, when, for instance, one man points out to another that a particular portion of food has been part of a sacrifice, and it is plain he will be scandalized by the eating of it, then the other must abstain[9], restricting his own lawful liberty for charity and christian brotherhood's sake. now st. paul had heard of a new form of the old difficulty at rome[10]. there was a jewish asceticism--similar to what is found frequently among orientals, and was practised in europe among the pythagoreans--which required men to abstain from animal food altogether and from wine. such was probably the rule of the essenes in palestine[11], as of the therapeutae in egypt, and such was, according to a very early authority, the rule of st. james, the lord's brother. such a practice, then, had found favour among a minority of christians at rome. and {142} st. paul in the passage we are now to study, in principle plainly approves of the indifferentist practice of the majority. he knows, and _is persuaded in the lord jesus_, that nothing is unclean of itself. it is, he implies, a weak and unduly scrupulous conscience which makes men vegetarians. but, on the other hand, this weaker brother--this man with less clear perception of christian principle in the matter--must in no way be alienated. he is to be made welcome. there is no obligation upon him to eat meat. god laid no such requirement upon him when he became a christian. 'god received him.' the church must continue the like liberality, and not even seek to pronounce judgement in the matter. in life and death each man is christ's servant, and is responsible to god for what he does or does not do. therefore let each man simply be faithful to his own conscience before god in this matter, so that whatever he eats he can 'say his grace,' or 'give thanks,' with a good conscience; and let him be respectfully tolerant of his brother's practice--the strong not despising the weak, nor the weak judging and condemning the strong. so far for liberty. but if, by using our liberty to eat meat, we are found to run a risk of really {143} troubling our brother, or even (what is worse) leading him to act against his conscience and eat what he feels he ought not[12], then we must abstain. this becomes matter of character and peaceable fellowship and spiritual joy, and these are the really material things in the kingdom of god. sooner than do injury to this really divine cause, sooner than be a hindrance to his brother, the christian had better willingly abstain altogether from flesh and wine too. in passing st. paul had noticed another indifferent matter besides the eating of meats. it was the observance of days. st. paul undoubtedly considered that all distinction of high days and common days, all distinction of the sabbath from other days, had been in principle abolished by christianity. for gentile christians, like the galatians, to be 'observing (jewish) days, and months, and seasons, and years[13],' is to show a miserable disposition to fall back upon a superannuated legal idea of religion--to fall back from the religion of the spirit to the religion of the letter; from the substance to the {144} shadow. for the christian, in fundamental principle, there are no 'sacred days,' for all days are indifferently sacred. as instructed christian men could eat all meats, so they could regard all days as on the same level in god's sight. but all christians had not the full perception of principle. among the galatians, indeed, the tendency to observe days is viewed more severely as part of a general reactionary tendency. but at rome it appears to have represented simply the practice of a harmless, if imperfectly enlightened, minority, and st. paul merely ranks it among things indifferent, which are to be frankly tolerated. it is to be purely left to the individual conscience. with these preliminary explanations--which in this case will serve our purpose better than an analysis--we can read this section without experiencing any great difficulty. but him that is weak in faith receive ye, _yet_ not to doubtful disputations[14]. one man hath faith to eat all things: but he that is weak eateth herbs. let not him that eateth set at nought him that eateth not; and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth: for god hath {145} received him. who art thou that judgest the servant of another? to his own lord he standeth or falleth. yea, he shall be made to stand; for the lord hath power to make him stand. one man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day _alike_. let each man be fully assured in his own mind. he that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the lord: and he that eateth, eateth unto the lord, for he giveth god thanks; and he that eateth not, unto the lord he eateth not, and giveth god thanks. for none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself. for whether we live, we live unto the lord; or whether we die, we die unto the lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the lord's. for to this end christ died, and lived _again_, that he might be lord of both the dead and the living. but thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or thou again, why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgement-seat of god. for it is written, as i live, saith the lord, to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to god[15]. so then each one of us shall give account of himself to god. let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge ye this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock in his brother's way, or an occasion of falling. i know, and am persuaded in the lord jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself: save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. for if because of meat thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer in love. destroy not with thy meat him for whom christ died. let not then your good be evil spoken of: for the kingdom of god is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the holy ghost. for he that herein {146} serveth christ is well-pleasing to god, and approved of men. so then let us follow after things which make for peace, and things whereby we may edify one another. overthrow not for meat's sake the work of god. all things indeed are clean; howbeit it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. it is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor _to do anything_ whereby thy brother stumbleth. the faith which thou hast, have thou to thyself before god. happy is he that judgeth not himself in that which he approveth. but he that doubteth is condemned if he eat, because _he eateth_ not of faith; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin. 1. according to st. paul a catholic church ought to mean a tolerant church, and a 'good catholic' a large-hearted christian. if men of all races, with all sorts of traditional instincts and habits, were to live together in close social cohesion in the christian community--and that was essential--this must involve much mutual forbearance, much self-restraint, and deliberate toleration of differences[16]. st. paul plainly not merely uses, but loves, the language of toleration. 'one man eateth, another man eateth not,' 'one man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. let each man be fully assured in his own mind,' 'receive ye him ... not with a view to decisions of disputed questions.' thoroughly in st. paul's spirit is {147} the familiar saying 'in necessary things unity: in those less than necessary liberty: in all things charity[17].' in necessary things unity. to st. paul this principle meant a clear limit to toleration. there is a common teaching which lies at the basis of the church which must not be interfered with, which is strictly necessary. 'though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema[18].' 'how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? but if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither hath christ been raised: and if christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain[19].' plainly there is an essential fundamental creed which must not be trifled with. the same is true about the moral law. in respect of that also the christian body must exercise upon its members the severity of judgement[20], that 'he that hath done' the evil deed 'might be taken away from among them,' or excommunicated. once more, we cannot conceive st. paul making the necessity of visible unity a secondary consideration[21], nor {148} the recognition of the authority of the apostolic ministry which is to be the centre of unity, nor the sacraments, which again are not only means of divine grace to the individual but instruments and bonds of unity. nor again would st. paul undervalue the spirit of obedience to the rules of the church. he hates the spirit of heresy or separatism. 'we have no such custom,' he would say to the recalcitrant, 'neither the churches of god[22].' once again, st. paul is prepared to let everything turn on even a small and unessential point, if that point has become the symbol of a vital principle for good or evil. thus, in itself, 'circumcision was nothing,' but when among the galatians the practice of it came to mean a practical judaizing--a practical abandonment of the fundamental christian principle--then 'behold, i paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, christ will profit you nothing[23].' here, then, are st. paul's essentials, as to which he is intolerant--a fundamental tradition of faith and morals: the maintenance of the unity of the body by means of the apostolic stewardship, and through the 'one baptism,' and the 'one loaf': and the spirit of due subordination {149} which is necessary to corporate life. but in a spirit very unlike what has at times become prevalent in the church, he would clearly minimize the action of authority, and leave large room for the free movement of conscience in christians. 'let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, even this shall god reveal unto you: only, whereunto we have already attained, by that same _rule_ let us walk[24].' surely it is not very difficult to apply this spirit of st. paul to our own time, in view of those subordinate points which excite such deep animosities. men are by fundamental disposition, in great measure, ritualist or puritan, ecclesiastically or individually minded, disciplinarian or mystical. and the church should lay on all a certain common law of doctrine and morals and worship, sufficient to keep them all together in one body. but, consistently with the coherence of the body, why should there not be both an ornate and a bare ritual of worship, both societies of strict observance and individual freedom, and a wide field of open questions in which we do not even expect 'decisions of doubts'? instead of my own reflections on this {150} subject i will ask my readers' attention to the following extracts from a suggestive book[25]. 'at all times there are those to whom what we may call the minor symbolism of ritual is far from being as helpful as it is to others. there is the greatest diversity here. modes of worship, which repel one man as bleak and bare, attract another by their very simplicity. the diversity is so natural and so obvious that it calls for neither apology nor explanation; yet it is easily strained into a cause of disruption.' 'st. paul is speaking of strong brethren and of weak; of those who need earthly guides and of those who do not; of those who attach high value to rules and forms and helps; and of those for whom ordinances have but little significance; of mystics and disciplinarians.' 'again, do we not still want a scientific theology? i mean a theology which should do what any scientific treatise does. it should lay down clearly and plainly the essential conditions of unity, and as regards the unessential should content itself with saying, "here men differ; one thinks thus, another thus." ... ask yourself, what is it that will carry me, being {151} what i am, to heaven? what is it will carry my brother here, who is so unlike me, to heaven? what is it that will carry us both to heaven? there you will find the essential.' st. paul, we observe, lays great stress upon honesty of conscience. he wishes men, even in small matters, seriously to cultivate a conscience of what is right, as men should do who even in small things expect a divine judgement; and seriously also to cultivate the faculty of not interfering with their brother's conscience. ('hast thou faith? have it to thyself.' do not parade your superior enlightenment.) he is greatly afraid of people leading others, or being led for mere agreement's sake, to do what their own conscience does not justify. and to do even a good thing because another does it whom we want to be like, without ourselves feeling sure it is good, or with a doubtful conscience[26], this, st. paul says, is sin. this warning we really need to lay to heart in our age, when fashion is such a very strong force in religion. this individual follows that individual and 'supposes it must be all right, as every one seems to do it'; this congregation follows that {152} congregation in adopting a popular practice, without its real basis and justification being considered. but fashion and the influence of members is a great danger in religion. 'let every man be fully assured in his own mind.' 'whatever is not of faith is sin[27].' 2. plainly, when st. paul wrote his epistles, there was no observance of a sabbath obligatory upon christians[28]. but was there none of sunday? 'the first day of the week' was already 'the lord's day,' so far as that christians who could not meet to 'break the bread' every day, met on that day specially to commemorate the death of their risen lord till he should come again[29]. it was already sufficiently distinctive for st. paul to name it as the appropriate day for laying by alms for the poor[30]. but these special observances of it were not obligatory. christians, when they could meet every day, might make their eucharist every day. no such observance of sunday was yet enjoined as was incompatible with regarding {153} all days of the week alike. nothing less than this can satisfy st. paul's words. in principle, as bishop lightfoot said[31], 'the kingdom of christ has no sacred days or seasons, because every time alike is holy.' yet the bishop adds, 'appointed days are indispensable to her efficiency.' this was soon found to be the case. probably before the end of the first century, the _didache_ mentions not only the observance of sunday by the eucharistic service, but the observance also of the wednesday and friday fasts. clement, about the same date, strongly emphasizes the principle of order in place and time, as still belonging to christian worship. 'they, therefore, that make their offering at the appointed seasons are acceptable and blessed.' the canons of hippolytus show that by the end of the second century there must have been a great development of ecclesiastical regulations, so far restraining the individual {154} liberty of the earliest days, and that, as far as we know, without protest or sense of alarm. nor need st. paul have been in opposition to such church rules. the spirit of regulation is strong in him[32]. on the other hand, there is no doubt that the church has not generally, one might say has hardly ever, been conscious, as st. paul was, of the danger of religious regulations as such. it is so much easier to keep certain rules than to acquire and maintain a certain mind and spirit and principle of action. in the history of the church st. paul, we feel, would very often have been saying, 'i am afraid of you: the rules are good in themselves, but there are dangers attaching to all rules of which you seem to be quite unconscious. there is a lower sort of religion of forms and observances, and you may fall back into it as easily as the galatians.' but after all, rules for living religiously, private or ecclesiastical, are, we all know, invaluable, and practically necessary. a man or a church that should attempt to dispense with them would come to disaster. it is very difficult to fathom the depth of the mischief that has come {155} about in the corporate social life of the church of england, through the neglect of the surely moderate amount of regulation which was provided for us by the prayer book in the way of festival and fast days and of daily service. to keep a few simple, intelligible, religious rules all together gives almost as much as a common creed the feeling of social coherence. even the extremest paulinist need have no fear so long as the ecclesiastical regulations do not reach the point of becoming a burden--so long as no one could be in danger of priding himself on 'acquiring merit' by their mere observance; and so long also as the principle is kept clearly in view that 'the rules were made for man and not man for the rules.' but i do not think there can be any reasonable doubt that st. paul would repudiate the idea that any rules of worship and observance, other than those which are necessarily involved in the administration of the sacraments, can obtain by prescription a right to permanence. 'they may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men's manners.' they were made for man; and the church or the churches--with due regard to mutual fellowship--can modify or abolish them. {156} 3. 'overthrow not for meat's sake the work of god.' 'it is good not to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor to do anything whereby thy brother stumbleth.' 'wherefore, if meat maketh my brother to stumble, i will eat no flesh for evermore, that i make not my brother to stumble[33].' here is the right principle of 'total abstinence' which does not deny the legitimate use of what it yet permanently abandons for love's sake. st. paul would have timothy use a little wine when it was for his health's sake, but when health was not in question, he would have all men ask, not how much liberty in this or that is lawful for them, but how they can avoid causing offence--how they can do most good. this principle admits of application in many directions. for instance, it may be very hard to determine why certain minor forms of gambling are wrong, or whether they are positively wrong. but st. paul would have the other question asked--can it be denied that the best way to avoid leading my brother into one of the most common dangers of our time, is to keep altogether free from a habit which in any case can do no good to body or mind? {157} 4. here, as in x. 7, st. paul touches upon the descent into hades, and indicates the purpose of it. 'for this end christ died, that he might be lord of the dead.' it might have been imagined that the dim realms of the dead were outside the jurisdiction of christ--that the dead have no king--that the kingdom of redemption does not include them. to obviate such an idea, to show the universality of his realm, christ went down among the dead. 5. in many places of the new testament there is mention of the thanksgiving before food--the christian's 'saying grace.' whether he eat flesh or vegetables he 'giveth god thanks[34].' and the word used is the word which, in its substantive form, is 'eucharist.' and indeed there is meaning in this. the thankful reception by the christian of the ordinary bread of his daily life as coming from god, touched his common meals with something of the glory of divine communion; and the eucharist in its turn {158} is the common blessing and breaking of the bread, raised by the holy spirit to a higher power and consecrated to become the vehicle of the bread of life[35]. [1] possibly his mind passes by a natural reaction from the thought of sensual licentiousness (xiii. 13) to that of unenlightened asceticism. [2] it is implied (xiv. 1; xv. 1 and 7) that the strong-minded brethren were in the ascendant. it is them chiefly to whom st. paul addresses himself. [3] ecclus. xxxiii. 9. [4] mark vii. 19. [5] acts x. 28. [6] the matter of 'eating with the gentiles' was prominent, cf. ii. 12. [7] 1 cor. x. 25. [8] acts xv. 23. [9] 1 cor. viii, and x. 23-33. [10] the exact point--abstaining from all flesh meat--is so different from what had presented itself at corinth that there must be a particular reference to roman circumstances, of which st. paul was probably informed by priscilla and aquila. [11] this seems to follow from philo's statement that they did not make animal sacrifices: and from josephus' description of their way of life as pythagorean. [12] cf. 1 cor. viii. 10. [13] gal. iv. 10; cf. col. ii. 16, 17: 'let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is christ's.' [14] or _for decisions of doubts_, marg. this, or something like this, is the right meaning; cf. hebr. v. 14: 'for decision between good and evil.' 1 cor. xii. 10: 'discernings of spirits,' i.e. decisions as to their true character. [15] from isa. xlv. 33. [16] cf. ephes. pp. 271 f. [17] see app. note h, p. 239. [18] gal. i. 8. [19] 1 cor. xv. 12, 13. [20] 1 cor. v. 6 [21] cf. ephes. p. 126. [22] 1 cor. xi. 16. [23] gal. v. 2. [24] phil. iii. 15, 16. [25] _unity in diversity_, by charles bigg, d.d. (longmans, 1899), pp. 84, 85, 95. [26] 'whatever is not of faith is sin--that is whatever is against conscience.' aquinas, quoted in _s. and h. in loc._ [27] cf. xii. 6: 'let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith.' [28] col. ii. 16: 'let no man judge you in respect of a sabbath day.' [29] this is probably implied in acts xx. 7. [30] 1 cor. xvi. 1. [31] _philippians_, on 'the christian ministry,' p. 181. the language in the immediate context i cannot make my own. but the statement quoted is surely true. and to this day i suppose, for those living in religious communities and similar institutions, there is very little practical difference between sundays and week-days. this almost complete absence of distinction, however, must always come about, if it is to be legitimate, by raising the week-days to the spiritual level of the sundays, and not by the opposite process. [32] especially in the pastoral epistles: but also in the epistles to the thessalonians and corinthians. [33] 1 cor. viii. 13. [34] cf. 1 cor. x. 30: 'why am i evil spoken of for that for which i give thanks.' 1 tim. iv. 3, 4: 'meats, which god created to be received with thanksgiving.... for every creature of god is good ... if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified through the word of god and prayer. cf. acts xxvii. 35: 'and when he had taken bread, he gave thanks to god in the presence of all: and he brake it, and began to eat.' [35] matt. xxvi. 26; cf. luke xxiv. 30. {159} division v. § 7. chapter xv. 1-13. _unselfish forbearance and inclusiveness._ it was essential, as has been said, that men whose prejudices and instincts were different should live in the same church and eat at the same love feast. this would require a large-hearted and unselfish self-control. formerly, as in syria and palestine, it was the jews who occupied the position of vantage in the christian communities, and were not disposed to tolerate the ways of the gentiles. now the tables are turned, and the gentiles are in the majority. the danger is now that those whose instincts are gentile should bear hardly upon the minority whose prejudices are more or less jewish. such st. paul anticipates, or knows from priscilla and aquila, will be the danger among the roman christians. formerly judaic narrowness had been a formidable danger. it had developed a most perilous heresy, and st. paul had dealt with it as a deadly poison. now what remained {160} of jewish feeling was a weakness to be generously borne with. it affords st. paul an opportunity of falling back on the general principle, that the measure of christian strength and full-grown manhood is the readiness to bear the weaknesses of others. to be told he must not use his normal liberty, must not eat his usual meal or drink his usual cup of wine, because it might scandalize some christian with the ascetic prejudices of an essene, or even induce him to do the same against his own conscience--to be told this was annoying to a man who held the 'strong' christian conviction that all kinds of food were indifferently allowable. the weak scruple of his brother christian had become an annoying burden of self-denial and self-restraint laid on himself. but this, st. paul says, is how christian strength--whether it be the moral strength of clear convictions, or any other sort of faculty[1]--must show itself, in readiness to suffer on account of other people's deficiencies, in not resenting the restraints they lay on us, in not expecting to do as we please, but being {161} ready to accommodate ourselves to our neighbour's tastes where it is for his good. that is what our great example did. plainly his whole human life was putting himself under the restraints which our weaknesses and narrownesses and slownesses laid on him. the righteous man in the psalm complains that he has to bear all the reproaches of god which impatient and rebellious israelites might utter; and that is the picture of christ bearing our infirmities. (the reproaches which fell on him were for the very largeness of his love; 'because he received sinners,' and because he received them on the sabbaths as well as on other days. they were reproaches of god, like jonah's, because he was too forbearing, too generous.) then st. paul pauses a moment to justify his use of the psalms. these ancient scriptures did not fulfil their purpose in their own time, or for the old covenant. god intended them for christians. their teaching is what they need. the burdens of life are so many, its requirements upon their patience so constant, that they find it hard to maintain their hope. yet what is the old testament so full of? lessons of endurance and words of encouragement. the encouragement and endurance then, which they gain from {162} the old testament, are to help them to maintain christian hope. they must not lose heart. the end is a great one: it is the maintenance of a united spirit in the church, such as christ can approve, such as can express itself in a really unanimous adoration of him whom christ recognized as his god and father. may the god who inspires endurance and encouragement, grant them not to fail in this great end! here is the central requirement, then, which a catholic church lays on them. it is to be unselfishly inclusive, to welcome into fellowship people who are not naturally to their taste. our lord did not scrutinize us men, but received us, of whatever sort we were, that god might be glorified in human brotherhood. he vindicated the truth of god by fulfilling the covenant of circumcision: first, to confirm the promises given to the fathers of israel[2]; and, secondly, to enlarge the compass of israel, so that the gentiles too might share its blessings, out of god's pure mercy apart from any promises. and this also--the fellowship of jew and gentile--was matter of ancient prediction by psalmist {163} and prophet. the roman christians must not therefore let themselves be discouraged because they have a difficult task to fulfil. and the apostle prays that god, the inspirer of hope, may fill them with such a rich sense of the blessings of believing in him, that his spirit, dwelling in them, may make hope to abound in their hearts. now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. let each one of us please his neighbour for that which is good, unto edifying. for christ also pleased not himself; but, as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me. for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope. now the god of patience and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to christ jesus: that with one accord ye may with one mouth glorify the god and father of our lord jesus christ. wherefore receive ye one another, even as christ also received you, to the glory of god. for i say that christ hath been made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of god, that he might confirm the promises _given_ unto the fathers, and that the gentiles might glorify god for his mercy; as it is written, therefore will i give praise unto thee among the gentiles, and sing unto thy name. and again he saith, rejoice, ye gentiles, with his people. {164} and again, praise the lord, all ye gentiles; and let all the peoples praise him. and again, isaiah saith, there shall be the root of jesse, and he that ariseth to rule over the gentiles; on him shall the gentiles hope. now the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the holy ghost. 1. the connexion of thought in this passage is undoubtedly somewhat obscure. but we know to-day, as well as ever, how difficult it is to bear with what is disagreeable to us in others, with what seem to us their deficiencies, without breaking real christian brotherhood and co-operation. and we know also that where we are possessed by an enthusiasm for brotherhood such as inspired the early christians, the divisions which small differences tend to produce are peculiarly discouraging, because they suggest that real brotherhood is impossible where men are so differently constituted. we ought not, therefore, to be at a loss to see why st. paul should pass so easily from speaking of divisions among christians to speak of the grounds of patience and encouragement and hope. the christian hope is--in substantial part--the hope {165} of a really catholic church--a real brotherhood among people of different races, classes, tastes, and habits; and it is this great hope which, even in st. paul's day, was continually suffering discouragement and continually needed reinforcing. and the reinforcement must be 'supernatural.' it is the divine love of the spirit possessing us which alone can give it vigour. when we are full of the divine consolation, then it is that we are least inclined to be critical, and most disposed 'to receive one another, as christ also received us, to the glory of god.' for this is the thought we are to have constantly in view, when we find people 'aggravating'--christ received us, and made the best of those whom 'god gave him,' in spite of the infinite annoyances which we men, even the apostles, caused him; he dealt with us with infinite patience; he made us welcome; he 'received us.' in fact, the reason why the connexion of thought in this passage seems obscure to us, is probably in part that we have ceased to think of the real fellowship of the naturally unlike--fellowship in all that makes up human life--as a necessary part of the christian religion. but to st. paul there was no christianity without the reality of catholic brotherhood. {166} 2. st. paul here, as in writing to the corinthians[3], shows himself specially anxious that gentile christians should not think they could make light of the old testament, or imagine that 'christ was the end of the law' in any such sense as would make the books of the old covenant superfluous under the new. their value, he insists, remains permanent. when he is writing to the corinthians, he finds it in the moral warnings--the warnings of divine judgement upon the chosen people--of which the history is full. in this epistle he is thinking chiefly of the lessons of 'endurance' and divine 'encouragements,' which histories and prophets provide. in his epistle to timothy[4] he thinks of the books as instruments by the use of which the minister or representative of god may become fully educated and equipped for all the purposes of moral supervision and discipline. they can thus educate and equip him, st. paul {167} teaches, because they were originally written under the influence of a divine inspiration; but it is only when faith has finally attained its true object in jesus christ that their real meaning becomes apparent. and this last principle is implied in almost all his use of the old testament. it is a comfort to perceive that none of the elements of permanent value, which st. paul discerns in the old testament, are the least likely to be affected by reasonable criticism of its documents. its history, critically read, does not become less truly pregnant with moral warnings or lessons of endurance. the encouragements of the prophets are in no respect reduced in force when they are brought into right relation to their own times. the whole library of books is, at least, as capable of educating and equipping the minister of christ as ever. their inspiration is still obvious, when it is interpreted candidly in view of all the facts. and still they can only be rightly regarded when they are looked upon as various elements in a progress which has christ for its goal. in his use of particular passages in the old testament st. paul here shows himself as free as ever, but with the same fundamental {168} adherence to the true tendency of the old testament as a whole. in quoting ps. lxix. 9 (ver. 3) he is seeing in the afflicted righteous man a type of christ. this psalm is constantly cited in the new testament with the same reference[5]. it has been supposed[6] that st. paul here adopts a cry addressed _to god_ by the righteous sufferer in the psalm, and represents it as addressed by christ _to his brother man_. 'the reproaches aimed at thee, my despised brother, have fallen upon me.' but, as i have tried to show in the analysis above, this supposition is not needed. christ is represented appealing to god for succour, because he utterly refuses to take the line of self-pleasing; but bears all that men's impatience of god lays upon him--all their 'wild and weak complaining.' and it is suggestive to remember, with origen, that it was christ's 'receiving of sinners and eating with them,' receiving them on the sabbath as well as other days, that chiefly brought on him the reproaches of men. this was probably in st. paul's mind. in ps. xviii. 49 (quoted ver. 9) the victorious {169} king declares that he will praise god for his victory 'among the nations.' st. paul applies this to christ, whose victory among the nations means their redemption--their becoming his people. in deut. xxxii. 43 (ver. 10) 'the nations are invited to congratulate israel on possessing a god like jehovah, who will effectually take up his people's cause. such an invitation addressed to the nations (cf. isa. xlii. 10-12; ps. xlvii. 2, lxvii. 1-7, &c.) involves implicitly the prophetic truth that god's dealings with israel have indirectly an interest and importance for the world at large[7].' this is still more plainly implied in ps. cxvii. 1 (ver. 11). isa. xi. 10 (ver. 12) is quoted from the greek bible, which is paraphrastic; but the hebrew also asserts that the messianic king of david's line is to be a 'signal to the nations,' and that they are to 'resort to him' as to an oracle or place of refuge[8]. [1] we are all 'strong' in some respect, origen remarks, so that 'ye that are strong bear the infirmities of the weak' comes to be as broad a precept as 'bear ye one another's burdens.' [2] cf. gal. iv. 4, 5: 'christ, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them which were under the law, that we (jews and gentiles) might receive the adoption of sons.' [3] 1 cor. x. ii: 'these things happened unto them (the jews in the wilderness) by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.' [4] 2 tim. iii. 15-17. 'sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in christ jesus. every scripture inspired by god _is_ also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of god may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.' [5] cf. above, xi. 9; in the gospels, matt. xxvii. 34; john ii. 17; xix. 28; also acts i. 20. [6] see _s. and h. in loc._ [7] driver, _in loc._ [8] cheyne, _in loc._ {170} division vi. chapters xv. 14-xvi. 27. _conclusion._ the long letter is almost ended. st. paul has developed the meaning of the revelation of the divine righteousness. he has vindicated the ways of god to the jews. he has drawn out sufficiently the moral conclusions from god's mercy to mankind. now he has only to secure again his good terms with the roman christians--which he does with the same tact and the same anxiety as at the beginning[1],--to explain his movements, to send his greetings to individuals, and to bid farewell. [1] vol. i. p. 53. {171} division vi. § 1. chapter xv. 14-33. _his excuse for writing and his hope of coming._ st. paul is very anxious not to be understood as if, while giving the christians at rome these exhortations which we have just been reading, he stood in any doubt himself of their goodness of heart and full grasp of christian principles, or of their fitness to admonish one another. he has only been bold to put them in mind of what they already knew, because of the priestly commission on behalf of his lord towards all the gentiles, which the divine grace has bestowed upon him as apostle of the gentiles. the gospel entrusted to him requires him as a priest to prepare and offer sacrifice; and the sacrifice which he is to prepare, which the consecration of the indwelling spirit alone can make acceptable, is that of the whole gentile world. the extent to which this great charge laid upon him has been fulfilled, gives him good reason for {172} boasting as he stands before god--not in himself, but in christ jesus. his work has been a pioneer's work. he has made it his ambition purely to lay foundations. taking words of isaiah[1] for his motto, he had resolved to go nowhere where any other had been before him to make christ known. but in that free and open area of a yet unevangelized world, christ had worked through him to bring the gentiles to his obedience, and had accompanied his preaching with evidences of miraculous power and with the strong manifestations of the spirit. so that in the result the work of proclaiming the gospel had been accomplished, starting from jerusalem, in an extending circuit[2] or irregular progress, as far as illyria. this world-wide mission would give st. paul his title to visit rome[3]. but its very greatness has hitherto hindered him. now however he is hoping to satisfy the desire that has so long possessed him, and to pay them a visit of some length on his way to spain. that is to say, he hopes to come to them when the task is over {173} which is immediately occupying him. the good will of the churches in macedonia and achaia has shown itself in a collection of money for the poor christians at jerusalem. this is really the payment of a debt to those to whom they owe their fellowship in christ's salvation. when then st. paul has handed over this collection, and secured to its recipients this fruit of his mission, he hopes to pass to spain by way of rome; and again, as in his introduction[4], he expresses his confidence that at rome, as elsewhere, the fullness of the rich gifts of christ will accompany his coming. meanwhile he makes his urgent request, by their allegiance to christ and their fellowship in the spirit of love, that they will join with him in wrestling with god in prayer for the success of his present undertaking--that he may escape the danger to which he is exposed from the hostility of the unbelieving jews, and that the gift, as ministered by him, may not prove unacceptable to the jerusalem church; so that he may get happily to rome and find repose there with them. and he prays for the blessing of the god of peace upon all of them. {174} and i myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. but i write the more boldly unto you in some measure, as putting you again in remembrance, because of the grace that was given me of god, that i should be a minister of christ jesus unto the gentiles, ministering[5] the gospel of god, that the offering up of the gentiles might be made acceptable, being sanctified by the holy ghost. i have therefore my glorying in christ jesus in things pertaining to god. for i will not dare to speak of any things save those which christ wrought through me, for the obedience of the gentiles, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the holy ghost; so that from jerusalem, and round about even unto illyricum, i have fully preached the gospel of christ; yea, making it my aim so to preach the gospel, not where christ was _already_ named, that i might not build upon another man's foundation; but, as it is written, they shall see, to whom no tidings of him came, and they who have not heard shall understand. wherefore also i was hindered these many times from coming to you: but now, having no more any place in these regions, and having these many years a longing to come unto you, whensoever i go unto spain (for i hope to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first in some measure i shall have been satisfied with your company)--but now, _i say_, i go unto jerusalem, ministering unto the saints. for it hath been the good pleasure of macedonia and achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints that are at jerusalem. yea, it hath been their good pleasure; and their debtors they are. for if the gentiles have been {175} made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it _to them_ also to minister unto them in carnal things. when therefore i have accomplished this, and have sealed to them this fruit, i will go on by you unto spain. and i know that, when i come unto you, i shall come in the fulness of the blessing of christ. now i beseech you, brethren, by our lord jesus christ, and by the love of the spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to god for me; that i may be delivered from them that are disobedient in judaea, and _that_ my ministration which _i have_ for jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints; that i may come unto you in joy through the will of god, and together with you find rest. now the god of peace be with you all. amen. 1. st. paul has a habit of representing those he writes to in the best light[6]. but the words 'full of goodness,' 'filled with all knowledge,' 'able to admonish,' are no idle compliments. it is not too much to suggest that st. paul, as he sees the high part which the church of the capital must play in the world, perceives also, in what he hears of the roman christians, evidences of the spirit which will enable them to fulfil it. and history verifies the apostle's anticipation. the letter of the roman church to the corinthians, which passes under clement's name, and was written some forty years after {176} this letter of st. paul's, is the very embodiment of the spirit of goodness, knowledge, and power to admonish. the princely generosity of the roman church in all directions was proverbial in the second century[7]. if it did not become as distinguished as alexandria in theological science, it did become a chief centre of theological orthodoxy and government. and the repeated evidences we gain that rigorists, from hippolytus to novatian, were so dissatisfied with the policy of the roman bishops as to separate themselves from their communion, give us good reason to believe that the internal policy of this church was, within just limits, liberal and tolerant. 2. st. paul here describes his apostolic commission in priestly language. 'the sacrificial terminology is far more marked in the original than it can be in a translation[8].' the word for 'minister of christ jesus' is a technical word for priest in the greek old testament[9]. the word translated 'ministering' means 'offering sacrifice.' (that which st. paul describes {177} himself as offering in sacrifice is not the gospel, as our translation might imply: the gospel assigns the sphere of the sacrifice[10], but the sacrifice he has to offer is that of the gentile world, in christ, consecrated to be a fit sacrifice by the spirit.) the phrase also, 'in things pertaining to god' (cf. hebr. ii. 17), is appropriate to the priest as he stands before god. 'but this is all symbolical language,' it is said. that depends on what we take as the standard of reality in the sacrificing priesthood. if christ is the standard of priesthood, and his method of making sacrifice the standard method, then st. paul's account of his priestliness is not appreciably metaphorical, except so far as metaphor belongs to all earthly expressions of heavenly realities; it is rather true to say that the jewish or heathen priest, with his material victims, was but the dim shadow of a true priest. the point is that the true christian idea of sacrifice makes the substance of it to be always persons returning to god the life he gave them. if we must offer sacrifices of money and fruits of the earth, that is because we cannot offer ourselves without our bodies[11], or our bodies {178} without the material supplies on which they depend. 'all things come of god, and of his own do we give him.' and all our labour and prayer for others must be an offering of them, or a preparation to offer them[12], to god; which again is only our assisting them to offer themselves. and all this offering in sacrifice of ourselves and others is rendered possible by the one effectual sacrifice, through which alone we and all men have access to the father. it takes place 'in christ jesus,' who, 'through eternal spirit offered _himself_ without spot to god.' there, at the head of all, is the sacrifice of the person, and that person the son of man, who can take up into his very life and sacrifice even all mankind. throughout it is a sacrifice of persons, or of things only as appertaining to persons. this is the fundamental christian idea, and this at the bottom necessarily forbids us to separate the thing offered from the person offering, the victim from the priest. the priest is the victim, for what he offers is himself. it is this idea of sacrifice which is realized in the eucharist. the eucharist is the central sacrifice of the christian body. it is to start {179} with a presentation of material things, bread and wine of the fruits of the earth, with alms and other offerings it may be: and these oblations are accompanied with prayers and symbolic rites. but all is done that both by word and act the one sacrifice may be commemorated and pleaded. the outward rite but finds its meaning and justification in that--the sacrifice of the person. again we can only take part in it with any spiritual reality by becoming ourselves sharers of his sacrifice--ourselves the sacrifice we offer. 'and here,' we cry, 'we offer and present unto thee ourselves.' we men, st. augustine does not scruple to say, are the body of christ, which is offered in that sacrifice[13]. and a quite new light is shed on intercessory prayer, in the eucharist and in the rest of life, when we view it as st. paul would have us view it, as a presenting in sacrifice before god those for whom we pray, according to the true idea of them which the sanctification of the spirit would make possible and actual. and a quite new light is shed upon all work for others, when we regard it as the preparing of such a sacrifice for the holy spirit to consecrate. from a different point of view st. paul's {180} conception of his mission as the priest of the gentile world, might well suggest reflections to the church of england. if a christian nation in the providence of god is to overrun the world and possess the nations not yet christian, it goes with a mission entrusted to it by god. its mission may be expressed, according to st. paul's idea, as that of evangelizing the world, but also as that of preparing the heathen nations to be offered to god. it is the return of all humanity to himself that god desires, and we are to be the ministers of this perfected offering. it strikes us with profound humiliation to realize how 'far fetched' st. paul's idea would appear to-day to the mass of our nation, which, more than any other, is called by circumstances to an apostolate of the world. 3. st. paul speaks, here and in many places elsewhere, of his grounds for 'glorying,' or rather 'boasting[14],' in what christ has wrought through him, and of his 'being ambitious' to preach only where no one had been before him[15]. and in reading such passages the question {181} sometimes arises in christian minds--was there, after all, a strain of egotism unsubdued in st. paul's character? now no doubt, unlike other apostles whose writings remain in the new testament, st. paul had that sort of passionately personal and individual nature which easily passes into spiritual egotism. this at least is discernible in his epistles. it is also true that the necessity which lay so long upon him of vindicating his own apostolic authority, makes it necessary for him at times to talk about himself and his experiences and his personal methods in a way that to some minds suggests egotism; and there is no obligation upon us to maintain that st. paul was perfect. but we only understand these passages aright when we remember that there runs through them all a conscious irony. the basis of st. paul's whole theology was the denial of any possible ground for a man to boast in himself. 'where is boasting? it is excluded.' 'he that boasteth, let him boast in the lord.' it is christ who 'leads st. paul in' his 'triumph.' what he boasts of is not his own, but christ's. of course, this sort of language very easily admits of self-deception. st. paul shows himself conscious of its danger[16]. but there can {182} be no question of the vehement sincerity of st. paul in repudiating any homage to himself which seemed to put him in the place of christ, or to substitute the teacher for his message[17]. and where his personal gifts of intellect might most easily have shone, he had determined to abjure all 'the wisdom of men' in the method of his preaching[18]. it is remarkable again that as soon as ever the real peril from judaism was over in the church, st. paul drops his anti-judaistic polemic, and all that brings the personal element into prominence. he is absolutely free from the charge of pursuing his advantage so as to magnify a personal victory. the more thoroughly we grow to know st. paul, the more, i think, we feel that his profession is true that he will 'boast' only 'in the cross of our lord jesus christ'; and that truly the world, with all its personal ambitions, had been for him nailed to the cross and killed[19]. but what exactly was it that st. paul had to 'boast' that christ had wrought through him? he had, he says, accomplished the preaching of the gospel in an irregular circuit from jerusalem to illyria. after he had made a beginning of christian preaching at damascus, he {183} had, in fact, shared the apostolic preaching at jerusalem (acts ix. 29), but his own special work began at tarsus, or rather at antioch. after that he had 'fulfilled the proclamation of the gospel,' so far, that is to say, as it belonged to the apostolic office, by founding churches in a gradually enlarging circuit, especially in the chief centres, as the narrative of the acts shows us, till travelling by the egnatian way he would have come within sight of the illyrian mountains at thessalonica[20]. he may even have entered illyria when the acts vaguely describes him as going to macedonia and then 'passing through those parts[21]'; but the expression in this epistle does not require this. it is sufficient that the border of illyria, through which the egnatian way led to rome, had been so far his nearest point to the capital. st. paul certainly implies that rome was included in his province of work, and that he owed them a yet unpaid debt[22]. this must surely mean, according to st. paul's principle, that no other of the greater apostles had yet evangelized them or founded the church there[23]. {184} rome was no other man's foundation. but none the less, the elements of a church had collected there. the gospel was being preached there by 'apostles' from among his own circle. and st. paul, for this reason, does not contemplate any permanent stay with the romans, but regards rome only as a place where he can rest and refresh himself, as well as supply deficiencies in the spiritual equipment of the church there, before he passes further west to the untouched region of spain. st. paul, we see plainly enough, had no power to foresee the future. but after the long residence at rome during his first captivity, which he did not the least anticipate, did he, we ask, actually get to spain? there is certainly no good reason to say he did not, for his movements are, in the main, unknown to us in the last period of his life; and on the other hand in clement's letter to the corinthians, written within the first century, he is said to have passed before his martyrdom to 'the limits of the west'--the extreme west--which is certainly most naturally interpreted of spain[24]. 4. st. paul speaks of having wrought 'signs and wonders.' the two words are habitually {185} combined in the new testament. the word 'wonders' describes the miraculous and astonishing character of the events, while 'signs' indicates that moral witness and significance which distinguishes christian miracles from vulgar portents. we read of st. paul working miracles in the acts. what he says here, and elsewhere[25], implies that they were frequently worked, and especially at corinth, where no such events are recorded in the history. what it is important for us to recognize is, that st. paul so plainly and repeatedly appeals, in the face of those who could bear witness, to the fact that he himself had power given to him to work miracles, as if it were indisputable. 5. st. paul tells us that he had it specially laid upon him by the apostles of the circumcision that he was to 'remember the poor,' i.e. the poor christians at jerusalem; where poverty was specially rife, because, as we should gather, the wealthier jews had held aloof from christianity[26]. and this, he adds, was the very thing he himself was zealous to do[27]. how much it was in his mind, both the acts and his own epistles bear witness. we hear much in {186} the epistles to the corinthians[28] of the collection made in the churches of macedonia and achaia. not only was this expression of gentile good will intended to conciliate the half-alienated and suspicious jewish christians of jerusalem, but the acceptance of the gift at st. paul's hands, as the fruit of his own labour, was to diminish their suspicion of himself. st. paul was at pains to prevent any suspicion attaching to his administration of this bounty, and at every point we perceive how much trouble he took about the matter. but, hopeful and zealous as he was about this work of charity, he did not underrate its dangers. his urgent request for the roman christians' prayers in this passage, and his readiness to meet his death, if need be, at jerusalem, as expressed in the narrative of the acts, show us that he knew the danger he was incurring from the fierce hostility of the jerusalem jews. 6. this passage about the collection[29], coupled with the allusion to cenchreae, the port of corinth, at the beginning of the next chapter, and the allusion to the corinthian gaius as st. paul's host[30], enable us to fix the occasion of {187} the writing of this epistle exactly at the moment recorded in acts xx. 3--the end of his three months' residence in greece. we also gather from the acts[31], as well as from this epistle, that it was his intention at that period, when he had paid his visit to jerusalem, to go to rome. once more we know from the acts[32] that sosipater and timothy were with him at this point, and they join in the greetings of the epistle[33]. so that all the indications taken together fix with wonderful accuracy the exact point when the epistle was written[34]. 7. we do well to note the word used by st. paul in asking the roman christians' prayers. he begs them to 'strive together' with him in their prayers. this word is a derivative of that which describes our lord's 'agony' in prayer; and origen's comment upon it is this: 'hardly any one can pray without some idle and alien thought coming into his mind, and leading off and interrupting the intended direction of his mind to god.... and, therefore, prayer is a great striving (_agon_, wrestling), so that the fixed direction of the soul towards god may {188} be maintained, in spite of the enemies which interfere and seek to scatter the sense of prayer; so that one who prays may justly say, with st. paul, "i have fought a good fight; i have finished my course."' [1] lii. 15, according to the greek. [2] 'round about,' literally 'in a circle,' as opposed to a straight course; cf. mark vi. 6, 'round about the villages.' [3] cf. i. 13-16. [4] i. 11. [5] '_ministering in sacrifice_' marg. [6] cf. the opening of 1 cor., a letter which contains on the whole so much blame. [7] euseb. _h. e._ iv. 23. [8] sanday, _conception of priesthood_ (longmans), p. 89. [9] like 'agape' (see above, p. 131, n. 2) so this word 'liturgus' appears to have been adopted in its priestly sense by the greek translators of the bible from the current greek of alexandria, cf. deissmann, _bibelstudien_, pp. 137 f. [10] cf. _s. and h. in loc._ 'making sacrifice as a priest under the gospel.' [11] cf. xii. x. [12] col. i. 28: 'teaching every man ... that we may present every man,' i.e. present him in sacrifice. [13] for his repeated statements see app. note i. p. 240. [14] cf. 1 cor. ix. 15; xv. 31; 2 cor. i. 14; vii. 4, 14; viii. 24; ix. 3; x. 8, 13; xi. 10, 16-xii. 9; phil. ii. 16; 1 thess. ii. 19. these passages are worth examining in connexion. [15] cf. 2 cor. x. 15, 16. [16] see 2 cor. xi. 17; xii. 1. [17] 1 cor. i. 13 ff. [18] 1 cor. ii. 1-5. [19] gal. vi. 14. [20] see _s. and h. in loc._ [21] acts xx. 2. [22] i. 14, 15. [23] not peter therefore, though he was doubtless afterwards at rome. [24] _ad cor._ 5, see lightfoot _in loc._ [25] 2 cor. xii. 13. [26] cf. jas. ii. 5, 6. [27] gal. ii. 10. [28] 1 cor. xvi. 1-4; 2 cor. viii, ix. [29] cf. acts xxiv. 17. [30] rom. xvi. 23. cf. 1 cor. i. 14, which shows us a gaius at corinth. cf. the allusion to erastus in the same verse, coupled with 2 tim. iv. 20. [31] acts xix. 21. [32] acts xx. 4. [33] rom. xvi. 21. [34] see further, on the purpose of the epistle, vol. i. pp. 4 ff. {189} division vi. § 2. chapter xvi. 1-2. _a commendation._ one strong link among christians of different towns, constraining them to remember that their brotherhood did not depend on physical nearness or personal acquaintance, lay in the 'letters of commendation' from one local church to another, which the christian traveller carried with him. and here we have an example of such a letter given by st. paul to the corinthian deaconess, phoebe, who was probably the bearer of his letter to the roman christians. i commend unto you phoebe our sister, who is a servant[1] of the church that is at cenchreae: that ye receive her in the lord, worthily of the saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever matter she may have need of you: for she herself also hath been a succourer of many, and of mine own self. the necessity of instructing women inquirers or catechumens, visiting them at their homes, preparing them for baptism, attending to their {190} unclothing and reclothing at the font, and looking after them afterwards, forced upon the church the institution of an order of deaconesses, side by side with the deacons and for similar purposes. pliny found these female officers among the christians in bithynia in the beginning of the second century, and there is no reason why already at this date the female order should not have existed[2]. 'here we learn,' says origen on this passage, 'that female ministers are recognized in the church.' phoebe is also called a succourer or 'patroness' of christians, including st. paul, which suggests a woman of wealth and influence. if so, we have here an example of wealth, not asserting itself but devoting itself to service, according to our lord's teaching: 'he that is greatest among you shall be your servant (deacon)'; 'i am in the midst of you as he that serveth (the deacon)[3].' such an one is to be received in a manner 'worthy of the saints,' the consecrated family of god, and to be allowed to lack nothing which the roman christians can supply her with. [1] or _deaconess_, as margin. [2] see on this subject deaconess cecilia robinson, _the ministry of deaconesses_ (methuen, 1898), and bernard, _pastoral epistles_, p. 59. with lightfoot, he interprets 1 tim. iii. 11 of deaconesses rather than of the wives of the deacons. [3] matt, xxiii. 11; luke xxii. 37. {191} division vi. § 3. chapter xvi. 3-16. _personal greetings._ then st. paul, according to his custom, winds up his epistle with personal greetings. in this case they are sent to the individual christians, among those who from various parts of the empire had collected at rome, whose names his memory--so retentive of personal relationships--enabled him to recall. salute prisca and aquila my fellow-workers in christ jesus, who for my life laid down their own necks; unto whom not only i give thanks, but also all the churches of the gentiles: and _salute_ the church that is in their house. salute epaenetus my beloved, who is the firstfruits of asia unto christ. salute mary, who bestowed much labour on you. salute andronicus and junias[1], my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also have been in christ before me. salute ampliatus my beloved in the lord. salute urbanus our fellow-worker in christ, and stachys my beloved. salute apelles the approved in christ. salute them which are {192} of the _household_ of aristobulus. salute herodion my kinsman. salute them of the _household_ of narcissus, which are in the lord. salute tryphaena and tryphosa, who labour in the lord. salute persis the beloved, which laboured much in the lord. salute rufus the chosen in the lord, and his mother and mine. salute asyncritus, phlegon, hermes, patrobas, hermas, and the brethren that are with them. salute philologus and julia, nereus and his sister, and olympas, and all the saints that are with them. salute one another with a holy kiss. all the churches of christ salute you. 1. aquila, a pontic jew, had resided in rome, doubtless in pursuit of his business as a tent-maker; but the edict of claudius had compelled him to quit the capital in common with his brethren, and he had taken refuge at corinth with his wife prisca (as st. paul calls her), or priscilla (according to st. luke[2]); and there, shortly after their arrival, st. paul had found them, made their acquaintance, and combined with them in a common trade. to this was possibly due their conversion to christianity. when st. paul left corinth, they accompanied him to ephesus, and remained there when he left for jerusalem; their influential position in the christian community being indicated to us by their dealings with so important a teacher as {193} apollos. when st. paul had returned to ephesus, and was writing his first epistle to the corinthians, their house was the centre for a christian congregation[3]. it was possibly during the ephesian disturbances that they risked their lives, or 'laid down their own necks' for st. paul. whether on account of this peril incurred, or for whatever reason, they returned, as they were now free to do, to rome. the epistle to the romans follows the first epistle to the corinthians by not more than a year, and it finds prisca and aquila established at rome, with a church meeting at their house. probably they had been st. paul's informants as to affairs among the roman christians. a good many years afterwards, when st. paul was writing his second epistle to timothy[4], we hear of them again at ephesus. so much travelling as we find in their life was not unusual in the roman empire, and perhaps least of all among the jews. the fact that priscilla is generally mentioned before her husband, both by st. paul and st. luke[5], as if she were more important, combined with (1) a tradition which connects her with the {194} _titulus_ (or parish-church) _priscae_ at rome, (2) evidence connecting the _coemeterium priscillae_ with the acilian gens,--has led some scholars to believe that priscilla was a noble roman lady married to a jewish husband. but the evidence is not cogent, and it is more likely that both she and her husband owed their roman names to being freedmen[6]. it was probably her prominence among the christians which led to her name preceding that of her husband. we need only think of phoebe and priscilla to understand how influential women were in the earliest christian churches. 'the church (which met) at their house' is a significant phrase[7]. the wealthier christians, or those whose houses were commodious, turned them into churches, where the neighbouring christians met for worship, love feast and eucharist. several of the oldest churches {195} in rome grew in this manner out of private houses. 2. st. paul's brief characterizations of individuals are full of personal memory and tenderness--'my beloved, who is the firstfruits of asia unto christ[8],' 'who bestowed much labour on you,' 'my kinsmen (i.e. jews) and fellow prisoners (on some occasion which we cannot fix, but which st. paul remembers), who also were in christ before me,' 'our fellow worker,' 'the man approved in christ,' who has been tried and found not wanting, 'his mother and mine.' st. paul, notwithstanding his wide ecclesiastical plans and theological labours, as he thought no pains too much to bestow on the details of his scheme for collecting gentile money for the needs of poor jews, so also never lets great designs obscure the memory of persons and their intricate relations to himself. 3. andronicus and junias (or junianus) are 'of note among the apostles.' there are other indications that the term 'apostle' was not confined to the twelve. not st. paul only, but barnabas also, and the lord's brother, were included in it. later, in the _didache_, we find it used in a wide but somewhat dim sense, for the {196} chief teachers of the church who were not settled in particular churches[9]. nevertheless, this passage describing two men of unknown names as 'conspicuous among the apostles' is surprising. probably the real requirement for sharing the title of apostle was to have received commission from the lord (as 'other seventy' did besides the twelve), and to have seen him after his resurrection. these two--'early disciples' as st. paul tells us--may have fulfilled these requirements. they were jews like himself, who with him had laboured and suffered. they would be centres of authority among the christians at rome[10]: and possibly to the laying on of their hands other brethren at rome who 'ruled' or 'taught' or 'ministered' owed their qualifying gift. chrysostom takes the second name to be a woman's--junia; and expresses his astonishment at finding a woman thought worthy of the title of an apostle. 4. 'them that are of the household of aristobulus.' this aristobulus was very probably the {197} grandson of herod the great, who lived and died at rome in a private station, and whose 'household' would naturally include many jews and orientals. the following name of a jew suggests connexion with the herods. 5. 'rufus' may very likely be the son of simon of cyrene, whom st. mark, writing probably at rome, refers to as well known[11]. 6. 'a holy kiss.' 'it was from this and similar words,' says origen, 'that it has been handed down as a custom in the church that after the prayer the brethren should welcome one another with a kiss.' he goes on to urge that this ritual kiss should be neither unchaste nor without real feeling. 7. 'all the churches of christ salute you.' this unique phrase is probably used, as dr. hort suggests, to express how 'the church of rome was an object of love and respect to jewish and gentile churches alike.' [1] or _junia_ (a woman's name), as margin. [2] see the readings of rom. xvi. 3; 1 cor. xvi. 19; 2 tim. iv. 19 (in r. v. which is probably right); and of acts xviii. 2, 18, 26. [3] 1 cor. xvi. 19. [4] 2 tim. iv. 19. [5] twice out of three mentions in each case. [6] perhaps both freedmen of the same member of the acilian gens. for priscus or prisca (or priscilla) was a favourite cognomen in the gens, and the nomen itself was commonly written aquilius. this nomen a male slave, when freed, would have borne (besides his own name and his master's praenomen); and a female could have borne the cognomen prisca or priscilla. '[greek] _akúlios_ could be corrupted into {greek] _akúlas_, the greek form of a different name aquila. [7] cf. acts xii. 12; col. iv. 15; philem. 2. see _s. and h. in loc._ [8] cf. 1 cor. xvi. 15. [9] the term 'apostle' is also used in 2 cor. viii. 23, phil. ii. 25, apparently in the sense of messenger. [10] others, including liddon, would translate 'highly esteemed among, i.e. _by_, the apostles' but this is not probable. [11] mark xv. 21. {198} division vi. § 4. chapter xvi. 17-20. _final warning._ something occurred before the letter to the romans was concluded and dispatched to make st. paul insert a final warning against false teachers, who were causing divisions and perverting the gospel as all christians had at first received it, in the interests of their personal aggrandizement. st. paul makes a brief but vigorous appeal to the romans to be true to their first obedience, and maintain their reputation unsullied. now i beseech you, brethren, mark them which are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which ye learned: and turn away from them. for they that are such serve not our lord christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent. for your obedience is come abroad unto all men. i rejoice therefore over you: but i would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple unto that which is evil. and the god of peace shall bruise satan under your feet shortly. the grace of our lord jesus christ be with you. {199} this abrupt insertion strongly reminds us of the epistle to the galatians (see i. 7-9, vi. 13), and of the similar outburst in the epistle to the philippians (iii. 1-3). st. paul believed that such judaizing teaching was inconsistent with the fundamental christian 'tradition.' he does not imply that rome was already corrupted, but he scents danger. {200} division vi. § 5. chapter xvi. 21-23. _salutations from st. paul's companions._ timothy my fellow-worker saluteth you; and lucius and jason and sosipater, my kinsmen. i tertius, who write the epistle, salute you in the lord. gaius my host, and of the whole church, saluteth you. erastus the treasurer of the city saluteth you, and quartus the brother. most of these persons are very probably otherwise known to us. leaving aside the well-known timothy, we find a lucius of cyrene among the prophets in acts xiii. 1[1]; a jason at thessalonica, as st. paul's host, in acts xvii. 5 ff; a sopater (or sosipater) of beroea, acts xx. 4. gaius was one of the few whom st. paul had baptized at corinth (1 cor. i. 14), and the christian church, it appears, met at his house. erastus, the treasurer of corinth, is probably the man mentioned in 2 tim. iv. 20. [1] and closely associated with st. paul. {201} division vi. § 6. chapter xvi. 25-27. _final doxology._ now to him that is able to stablish you according to my gospel and the preaching of jesus christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal god, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith; to the only wise god, through jesus christ, to whom[1] be the glory for ever. amen. there is no idea in this doxology with which this epistle has not made us familiar in substance. we have been led to think of the gospel, now proclaimed and entrusted to st. paul, as the disclosure of a divine purpose long working secretly: we have been bidden to adore the unfathomable resourcefulness of the wisdom of god: we have been constantly referred to the {202} testimony borne by law and prophets to the gospels: we have been made familiar with the object of the evangelical preaching, as being to secure 'the obedience of faith among all the nations.' and a particular phrase in an epistle written about the same time[2]--'we speak the wisdom of god in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which god foreordained before the worlds unto our glory, which ... unto us god revealed by his spirit,'--is strikingly parallel to the beginning of the doxology. at the same time the elaborate richness of the style, as well as many of the ideas, reminds us irresistibly of the epistle to the ephesians[3]. this, coupled with the fact that there is considerable authority for placing the doxology at the end of chap. xiv, has led some scholars to adopt the idea--accepted and elaborated by dr. lightfoot--that st. paul first wrote the epistle down to xvi. 23, as his epistle to the romans, and subsequently, perhaps during one of his sojourns at rome, turned it into a circular letter, omitting for this purpose the last two chapters, with their personal matter, and adding the doxology in {203} the rich manner of the epistle to the ephesians. subsequently the doxology would have been added also to the complete epistle. there are many difficulties in such a theory. especially why should the beginning of chap. xv be cut off from the end of chap. xiv, when there is no break in thought? but i do not pursue the subject here[4], for it would be out of place, and alien to our practical purpose. there is no ground for doubting that the whole of what we receive as the epistle was written by st. paul; and no ground for thinking that any part of the whole, down to xvi. 23, was not found in the letter as originally carried by phoebe; but it cannot be denied that some mystery, not easily solved, hangs about the manifold and interrupted conclusions of the epistle; and that the rich style of the doxology is somewhat unlike both the rest of the epistle, and the other epistles of this period. however, whether or no it was written at a later date, at least it forms a splendid summing up of what is probably the greatest and most influential letter ever written. and there is no teaching which we more {204} urgently need to-day than the teaching of this epistle. whether the need be to expand our personal religion into social service, and also to reinvigorate our social service with the power of personal religion; or so to reassert the divine authority of the church as never to forget that it depends for its vitality upon personally converted hearts; or to teach men to remember the inexorable severity of divine judgement, as well as the depth of the divine compassion; or to rebuke the shallowness which attempts to separate christian character from christian doctrine; or to harmonize individual freedom with the social claim; or to impart to self-sacrifice the spirit of humility and gladness and indomitable hope; or at once to exalt and restrict the function of the state; or to emphasize the true grounds and limits of toleration in a catholic church--whatever, one may almost say, be the need to which the special deficiencies and perils of our church and age give rise, or of which at the moment we are most conscious, the teaching of st. paul in this epistle is found to meet it full face. truly we may thank god with a continually growing gratitude for the gift to us of a letter so inexhaustibly full of spiritual wealth, and so complete in its provision for the whole of life. [1] if we retain the words 'to whom' the grammar of the sentence breaks down, but the object to whom praise is ascribed is probably the father. [2] 1 cor. ii. 7, 10. [3] see especially eph. iii. 1-13. cf. also 2 tim. i. 9-11; titus i. 2, 3. [4] it is fully treated in lightfoot's _biblical essays_ (macmillan, 1894), pp. 287 ff, by lightfoot himself and hort from different points of view, and by s. and h., pp. lxxxv. ff. {205} appended notes note a. see vol. i. p. 59. the meanings of the word 'faith.' the history of the original hebrew and greek words for believing or faith, is very interesting. the hebrew verb ('aman') means 'to prop' or 'support'[1]. now (1) a form of this verb means 'to be supported,' hence 'to be firm,' hence '_to be trustworthy_'; (2) another form of the verb means 'to support oneself on,' and hence '_to trust_,' '_to believe_.' from (1) comes the hebrew substantive ('emunah') meaning 'faithfulness,' 'trustworthiness,' which is used, as elsewhere, so also in habakkuk ii. 4. in that passage it is revealed to the prophet, that, while the apparently overwhelming wave of chaldaean barbarism rolls over him and passes away, 'the just man shall live (or save his life) by his faithfulness.' but this faithfulness of the righteous israelite means a faithful holding on through the dark days to the word of god as to a secure ground of confidence; and thus the substantive used in this place in the greek bible ('pistis') tends to pass into the meaning which it mostly, though not always[2], has in the new testament--a meaning derived {206} not from form (1) but from form (2) of the hebrew verb mentioned above (which however had no corresponding substantive)--trust or faith in the word and promise of another, especially god or christ; or, still more characteristically, trust in _the person_ of christ and so of god. even under this heading of belief or trust the range of the word's meaning is considerable. in one passage of st. james' epistle it is a bare intellectual recognition of the truth of things, without any moral value ('the devils also believe' that god is one, james ii. 19). more often it is that confidence in the divine word or promise, by which the good man, in lack of present evidence, sustains his courage or his prayer and wins his victory over the world: so especially in hebr. xi, luke xviii. 8, james ii. 23, 2 cor. v. 7, 1 john v. 4. but its most characteristic use, as said above, is what first appears in the gospels. the person of jesus is there represented as eliciting from men a supreme trust in his power to heal diseases, and also to satisfy that deeper human need of which the disease is an outward symbol. and this power of jesus to heal men in body and soul is seen in the gospels to depend upon the extent of their faith: 'thy faith hath saved thee;' 'according to thy faith be it unto thee.' thus jesus christ appears constantly as inspiring, requiring, and rewarding faith in himself, and that as the manifested son of god, e.g. john xiv. 1. this is 'the faith which is through him,' i.e. which he produces; and which as 'faith in his name' remains the characteristic christian quality when he is gone from sight (acts iii. 16). 'the faith' in the acts (vi. 7, xiii. 8, xiv. 22, &c.) means this christian attitude towards the unseen but living and energizing christ. thus when st. paul came to believe in jesus christ, 'faith in jesus,'--as meaning not merely acceptance of his claim or of his word or of his grace, but {207} whole-hearted devotion to his person, entire self-surrender or self-committal to christ or god in christ--became the dominant note of his new state: 'i know him whom i have believed, and i am persuaded that he is able to guard that which i have committed unto him against that day' (2 tim. i. 12[3]). and this same devotion to christ becomes, in st. paul's theology, in its various stages, the only ground of man's acceptance with god. and though he uses 'faith' in a morally lower sense, as distinct from love--the faith which qualifies for miracles (1 cor. xiii. 2)--yet in his characteristic sense of the term it involves the deepest love towards its divine object[4]. naturally, as faith is thus _the_ characteristic of christianity, and this faith in a person involves a belief about him--his divine sonship, his resurrection, his mission of the spirit--so 'the faith' comes to mean (objectively) that which the christian believes, or his creed; and this sense of the word appears almost in the acts, in gal. i. 23, and in eph. iv. 5, and certainly in the pastoral epistles frequently (see dr. bernard in _camb. gr. test._ on 1 tim. i. 19) and st. jude's epistle, verse 2. [1] we are familiar with the derived adverb of confirmation, 'amen.' [2] in rom. iii. 3, matt, xxiii. 23, it is still used for 'faithfulness.' [3] in spite of ellicott, holtzmann, and bernard, i believe this to be the true rendering, and not that of the r.v. margin. [4] on the development of the principle of faith in the soul, see vol. i. pp. 29, 30; and on its naturalness, in the highest sense, for man, see pp. 21, 22. note b. see vol. i. p. 103. the use of the word 'conscience.' there is no word for conscience in the old testament. 'the conception,' says delitzsch (_bibl. psychology_, clark's {208} trans., p. 160), 'is not yet impressed upon it.' and he accounts for this by quoting, 'the positive law took away its significance from the natural moral consciousness.' the jews, that is--like other nations at certain stages of their history--lived so constantly under the detailed guidance of a law believed to be divine, that there was not much room for reflection as to the right and wrong of things. for the idea of conscience to develop, the will of god must be less clearly and decisively pronounced as to the details of conduct. there was, however, of course among the jews, in proportion to their belief in a clear divine law, the consciousness of having done wrong; and on this account a man's 'heart' is described as 'privy to' an offence, and as 'reproaching' or 'smiting' him: see 1 kings ii. 44, job xxvii. 6[1], 1 sam. xxiv. 5, xxv. 31, 2 sam. xxiv. 10. here is the root of the idea of conscience, i.e. of something in the man behind his surface self, reflecting upon what he has done, a self behind himself acquitting or condemning him, and so anticipating the divine judgement. for, as stated above[2], this was in the main the stoic doctrine of conscience, and it was among them that the idea was first developed. conscience was conceived of as that in man which lay behind his working self and reflected on his actions _after they were done_, bringing them into the light of the 'law of nature' or universal divine law for man. there is thus, as it were, in each man a double self, or double consciousness (_conscientia_), so that one can reflect upon himself, and pass judgement on his own actions. it is in this sense of a self-judging faculty in all men reflecting on what they have done, anticipating a divine {209} judgement, that the idea of conscience was acclimatized among the jews. thus, in wisdom xvii. 11, we read, 'for wickedness, condemned by a witness within, is a coward thing, and being pressed hard by conscience, always forecasteth the worst lot.' in st. john viii. 9, according to one reading, the jews are 'convicted by their own conscience.' so st. paul, in the passage discussed above (ii. 15), seems to distinguish the subsequent reflective 'conscience' from the previous informing reason, 'the effect (equivalent) of the law written in their hearts.' and in most of the passages of the new testament, this meaning of conscience--the faculty by which we sit in judgement on what we have already done--is sufficient. but sometimes, as also among the stoics[3], the word passes into meaning the positive directing faculty, as when (1 cor. viii. 10) a man's 'conscience' is said to be 'emboldened' to adopt a new practice, or (hebr. ix. 14) to be cleansed for positive service. moreover, though it is an individual faculty (see rom. ii. 15), and exists primarily to pass judgement on one's own actions only, yet perforce it must also look without and condemn or approve the actions of others (2 cor. iv. 2, v. 11). st. paul also brings into notice that our conscience is a faculty for the condition of which we are responsible. it is not the voice of god, but a faculty capable of reflecting his voice, if it be well guarded. thus you may have a 'weak' or a 'strong,' i.e. a more or less enlightened, conscience (1 cor. viii). and a man may 'defile' his 'mind and conscience,' i.e. he may corrupt his moral reason and powers of moral self-judgement (tit. i. 15). {210} then the 'conscience' may become hardened and 'seared' (1 tim. iv. 2), so that 'the light that is in' men becomes itself 'darkness' according to our lord's warning (st. matt. vi. 23). and there is nothing which is more necessary at the present day than to remind men that they are not 'safe' because they are not acting against their conscience, unless they are also constantly at pains to enlighten their conscience and keep it in the light, by the help of the best moral thought of their time, the guidance of the church and the word of god. our conscience, if it is rightly to reassure us by its witness, must, like st. paul's conscience, bear its witness 'in the holy ghost' (rom. ix. 1). with us moderns 'conscience' has generally the wider meaning of the whole practical moral consciousness. it enjoins as well as judges, and is occupied with the present and the future, as well as with the past. [1] in lxx [greek] _ou gàr súnoida emautô átopa práxas_. [2] vol. i. p. 103, n. 2. [3] e.g. when conscience was described by epictetus as the grown man's inward tutor [pedagogue], which must obviously mean that it is to instruct as well as reprove. note c. see vol. i. p. 129. recent reactions from the teaching about hell. there is no doubt that there has been within the last forty years a great, and in large measure legitimate, reaction from the old--mediaeval and calvinist--teaching about hell. but one who reads the early chapters of the epistle to the romans, or the gospels, or other parts of the new testament, in view of this reaction, will probably feel an uncomfortable sense that it has gone too far. it is worth while then to try and discriminate. to put the matter in as brief a summary as befits a note, i should hold that the reaction has been legitimate so far as it has involved a repudiation of-{211} (1) the calvinist doctrine that god has created some men, no matter whether many or few, inevitably doomed to everlasting misery. this doctrine is flat contrary to some particular statements of the new testament (as to its general spirit) and is only a misunderstanding of others (see above, pp. 8, 29). (2) any such crude idea of the divine judgement as that god condemns men for merely _external_ reasons, e.g. because in fact, apart from any question of will, they were not baptized, or remained pagans or heretics. such a conception is quite inadequate, for the divine judgement penetrates to the heart. god is a father: he is absolutely equitable: he judges men in the light of their opportunities. he will reject none whose will is not set to evil. 'this is the judgement that ... men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil' (john iii. 19). (3) the tendency to exaggerate what is revealed to us, and what, therefore, we can say we _know_ about the state of man after death. thus (_a_) there is nothing really revealed to us as to the relative proportions of saved and lost. (_b_) it is certain that we only _know_ of a probation for man here and now--'now is the accepted time--now is the day of salvation.' and the absolutely equitable father may see the conditions of an adequate probation equally in every man's earthly lot. it is therefore foolish to entertain, or encourage any one else to entertain, an expectation of any other state of probation except that which we certainly have here in this world. 'it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgement.' but if st. peter could speak (as of a familiar subject) of the 'gospel' as having been 'preached' by our lord's human spirit in hades 'to the dead,' i.e. to those who had perished in their wickedness under the divine judgement of the flood: and preached with the intention {212} that _the judgement might be turned into a blessing and means of spiritual life_--and he certainly does speak thus (1 peter iv. 6, cf. iii. 19): i do not see how we can deny the possibility at any period, or in the case of any person, of an unfulfilled probation being accomplished beyond death. (_c_) careful attention to the origin of the doctrine of the necessary immortality or indestructibility of each human soul, as stated for instance by augustine and aquinas[1], will probably convince us that it was no part of the original christian message, or of really catholic doctrine[2]. it was rather a speculation of platonism taking possession of the church. and this consideration leaves open possibilities of the ultimate extinction of personal consciousness in the lost, which augustinianism somewhat rudely, closed. but to have convicted our forefathers of going, in certain parts of their teaching, beyond what was certainly revealed, affords no justification for doing the same ourselves in an opposite extreme; by asserting for example positively (_a_) that almost all men will be 'saved'; or (_b_) that there is probation to be looked for beyond death; or (_c_) that the souls of 'the lost' will be at the last extinguished. these positive positions are no more justified than those of our forefathers which we have deprecated. we must recognize the limits of positive knowledge. and when we have come to the end of what a legitimate reaction from the teaching of our forefathers restores to us, in the direction of a 'larger hope,' we are still face to {213} face with the fact of 'eternal judgement.' men, as far as their individual destinies are concerned, are passing towards one of two ends, not towards one only--a divine judgement of approval _or_ of condemnation; and both judgements are represented as final and irreversible; and they are the inevitable outcome of the moral law by which our probation is realized--that voluntary acts form habits, and habits stereotype into a fixed character. it is foolish to look to the process or moment of death for redemption from sin; for death, as far as we know, only transplants us with the character we have made for ourselves, and with continuous consciousness, into the unknown world; so that if in this life we have unfitted ourselves for god, we must find it out beyond death, and know there the full meaning of our awful miscalculation here. and the awakening of the 'lost' to what they have cast away--to the meaning of irreversible self-exclusion from the presence of god--is imaged as unspeakably awful; and their state is pictured in metaphors and phrases descriptive both of torment and finality--'outer darkness,' 'gnawing worm,' 'unquenchable fire,' 'eternal punishment,' 'eternal sin,' 'sin which shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come,' eternal 'death,' or exclusion from eternal life, 'eternal ruin,' 'wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish.' in face of all these sayings, it seems to me indisputable that 'universalism'--the teaching that there are to be none finally lost--is an instance of wilfulness. to speak of that which lies beyond death, even in the case of the worst and most impenitent criminal, as a place 'where god unmakes but to remake the soul he else made first in vain--which must not be,' is, i cannot but feel, in flat contradiction to the whole tone of the new testament. {214} it is no doubt true that there is in the new testament an expectation of a final unity of the whole universe in god, and that we find it hard to conceive the relation of lost souls in hell to this final unity. certainly all legitimate avenues of dim conjecture that a very limited revelation allows to be kept open, ought to be kept open. certainly we know in part--the partialness of our knowledge can hardly be exaggerated. but we must be true to both elements in what is disclosed to us; and dr. martineau has reminded us[3] how deeply 'the belief in a separate heaven and hell, and a corresponding distribution of men into only two classes of good and bad, friends and enemies of god,' though 'at first sight nothing can appear more unnatural and defiant of all fact,' is yet bound up with 'the inward look' of moral evil and the fundamental reality of moral choice. in fact it seems to be true to say that a really christian theism, and a really christian doctrine of human freedom, are inseparable from the belief in the possibility of wilful sin leading to final ruin. 'it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgement'; and this judgement in the case of those of us who have wilfully hardened themselves, or remained loveless and love-rejecters, in face of the real offer of god to man in christ jesus, is a divine condemnation which takes effect in an eternal punishment, the bitterness as well as the justice of which the soul realizes, and which--if it does not necessarily mean an everlasting continuance of personal consciousness--is yet final and irreversible, and unspeakably awful[4]. [1] _summa_, pars. 1, qu. 75, art. 6, 'respondeo dicendum, quod necesse est dicere, animam humanam, quam dicimus intellectivum principium, esse incorruptibilem.' [2] see dr. agar beet's _last things_ (hodder and stoughton, 1898), pp. 194 ff, and gladstone's _studies subsidiary to butler_ (oxford, 1896), part ii. pp. 260 ff. [3] see _types of ethical theory_ (oxford, 1885), ii. pp. 60 ff. [4] the only passage in the new testament which strongly suggests an _everlasting_ persistence of personal consciousness of pain, is rev. xx. 10, 'shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.' this is explicit enough. but i am persuaded that all the numbers and expressions for periods of time in the apocalypse are strictly symbolical. 'a thousand years,' 'forty and two months,' 'three days and a half,' 'day and night for ever and ever,' are expressions which have to be translated into some moral equivalent before they can be made the basis of literal teaching. thus 'day and night for ever and ever' describes in a picture the _completeness_ of the final overthrow and the anguish of the enemies of the lamb. the symbolical character of the expression is further indicated by 'the beast' and 'the false prophet'--themselves symbolical figures--being with the devil the subjects of the torment. some will say that the deterrent effect of the doctrine of hell depends upon its being held to be a state of strictly endless conscious torment. i do not believe this is the case. the language of the new testament is full enough of deterrent horror if we are faithful to it. and after all, this is all we have a right to be. {215} note d. see vol. i. pp. 143 ff. difficulties about the doctrine of the atonement. i have endeavoured above to sketch the positive conception of the atonement, as st. paul seems to put it before us. christ inaugurates the church of the new covenant, the new life of union with god. he lays its basis in a great act of reparation to the righteousness of god, which 'the old adam' had continually outraged. this act of reparation lies in a moral sacrifice of obedience, carried to the extreme point by the shedding of his blood. this is the great propitiation in virtue of which god is enabled, without moral misunderstanding, to forgive freely the sins of any one who comes in faith to unite himself to christ, and set him free to begin the new life. the subject is a divine 'mystery,' and we shall never adequately probe it. nay more, one man's thought will rightly seem inadequate to another, who has gained, or thinks he has gained, some special avenue of insight into {216} the divine depths. but when we pass from special points of view, which are necessarily more or less individual, and can never become certainties for men in general--when we pass on to the ground of what should be the common church belief, the statement of the original revelation, it is not, it seems to me, liable to any of the familiar moral objections, or indeed a subject of any special difficulty. the difficulties experienced by the moral consciousness of our age have been due to gross and unnecessary misunderstandings, of which the following are, perhaps, the most considerable. (1) the propitiation has become separated from the new life, for which it merely prepares the way. it has been elevated, with disastrous moral results, from a means to an end. christ's work _for us_ has been treated apart from his work _in us_, in which alone it is realized. he alone can act _for_ all men, because he only can be their new life within. but on this see vol. i. pp. 141 f, and _ephes._ pp. 54 ff. (2) the idea of injustice has been introduced into the 'transaction' of the atonement, and has been the most fruitful source of difficulty;--but quite unnecessarily. there is a story that when edward vi was a child, and deserved punishment, another boy was taken and whipped in his place. this monstrously unjust transaction has been taken by christian teachers as an illustration of the atonement; and it is truly an illustration of the atonement as they misconceived it. but the misconception is gratuitous: there is no real resemblance in the two cases. for first, what is represented to us in the new testament is not that jesus christ, an innocent person, was punished, without reference to his own will, by a god who thus showed himself indifferent as to whom he punished so long as some one suffered. but he, being himself very god, the son of the father, the administrator of the {217} moral law and judge of the world, of his own will became man, and suffered what the sin of the world laid upon him, in order that he might lift the world out of sin. voluntary self-sacrifice for others is at least not to be described as injustice. at least we rejoice to recognize that god accepts such self-sacrifice. it is to vicarious self-sacrifice like our lord's that the human race owes the greater part of whatever moral progress it has hitherto made. secondly, god is not represented as imposing any specially devised punishment on his only son in our nature. as the matter is stated in the new testament, he required of him obedience, the obedience proper to man; and, if we regard sympathy with our fellow men as a part of our duty to god, we may say obedience only. thus, 'lo, i come to do thy will, o god' is the one cry of the christ. in his simple acceptance of the whole of human duty lies the moral essence and value of his sacrifice. all the physical and mental sufferings of christ came out of his fulfilment of the human ideal, godward and manward, and were involved in it. he died because obedience to the terms of his mission--'the word of truth, and meekness, and righteousness'--in a world of sin such as this is, involved dying. 'he was obedient' without reserve--'unto death, even the death of the cross[1].' the value of the bloodshedding lies in this, so far as scripture enables us to judge--that it represents utter obedience under conditions which human sin, the sin of jews and gentiles, laid upon him: and it was in this sense, which does not leave out of consideration the mental torment caused to his sinless spirit by contact with sin[2], that he 'bare our sins in his body {218} on the tree,' and that 'the lord made to light on him the iniquity of us all.' what is ascribed to the father is that he 'spared not' his only son by miraculously exempting him from the consequences of his mission; and that he foresaw, overruled, and used for his own wise and loving purposes the sin of men[3]. thirdly and lastly, the christ (as represented in the new testament) did not suffer in order that we might be let off the punishment for our own sins, but in order to bring us to god. 'by his stripes we are'--not excused punishment, but--'healed.' in fact, there are two distinguishable punishments for sin. there is the spiritual punishment, which is involved in being morally alienated from god, which may become irreversible and eternal, but which is gone when the moral alienation is gone. from this christ delivers us in making us at one again with the father, but he himself did not endure it. god forbid that we should imagine such a thing! besides this there is the temporal penalty which our sins bring as inevitable consequences upon ourselves and upon the race. all these consequences of human sin the sinless christ bore for us, but not that we might be let off {219} bearing them. we must bear them too--both the death of the body and the chastisement of particular sins. christ bore the punishment of sins that were not his own, in order that in our case the punishments of sins which are our own might, through his bringing us back to god, be converted into healing chastisements and gracious penances. the record of god's dealings with his saints is still, as in ps. xcix. 8, that they are heard, forgiven and punished. how gratuitously then the idea of injustice has been introduced into the doctrine of christ's sacrifice for us becomes evident when once it is brought within the scriptural limits. christ suffered voluntarily. he suffered simply what was involved in becoming man in a world of sin. he suffered, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us back to god, that so we might have grace to bear our own sufferings and share his. this alone, it seems to me, is what the new testament certainly teaches. and the matter of most importance is that, ridding our minds of distracting and often needless difficulties, we should drink in, with heart and intelligence alike, the full force of what is certainly part of the gospel--the doctrine of the one, full, perfect, and sufficient atonement with the father, won for us by the self-sacrifice of the christ. [1] phil. ii. 8; hebr. x. 5-9. [2] the perfect man perfectly realized the misery and horror of the sins on behalf of which he suffered. how much is involved in this in the way of detailed realization of each individual sin of each individual sinner, is a matter on which we have no clear grounds for exact statement. [3] i believe that nothing more than this is really suggested by scripture. the phrase, 'made _sin_ for us' (2 cor. v. 21), means, i believe, according to the clear use of the word in the lxx, 'made a _sin-offering_ for us.' the same words in the hebrew stand for sin and sin-offering, and the use of the greek follows: see especially (in lxx) lev. iv. 31, 'it is the sin (= sin-offering) of the assembly;' 24, 'it (the goat) is a sin;' 29, 'he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin;' vi. 25, 'this is the law of the sin'; viii. 14, 'the bullock of the sin.' cf. hos. iv. 8, &c. note e. see vol. i. p. 196. evolution and the christian doctrine of the fall. there is a wide-spread and popular notion that a marked contradiction exists between the biological theory {220} of evolution and the christian doctrine of the fall, which may be stated and examined under several heads:-i.--'according to the theory of evolution man began his career at the bottom, emerging from purely animal life, and slowly struggled upwards to his present level of attainment. according to the christian doctrine, on the contrary, he was created perfect, and then subsequently fell into sin and accompanying misery. thus, according to one theory, man began at the bottom; according to the other, he began at the top.' now there is no doubt that when so stated the evidence is all in favour of the scientific point of view, and against the christian. but such a contrast requires the greatest modification on both sides before it can be taken as truly representing the facts. thus, it is not the case that the bible suggests that man was created perfect, i.e. perfectly developed, and that his later course has been simply the effect of the fall, i.e. a downward course. leaving first out of account gen. i-iii, we notice that the bible is conspicuously, and in marked contrast to the religious books of other nations, the book of development. it looks continuously and systematically forward, not backward, for the perfecting of man. it traces the beginning of civilization in abel, the keeper of sheep, cain, the tiller of the ground, in jabal, 'the father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle,' in jubal, the father of music, 'of all such as handle the harp and pipe,' in tubal cain, the first forger of brass and iron work; it indicates the origin of religious worship (in some sense) at the time of enoch, and the origin of building with the tower of babel. the names of noah, abraham, moses, samuel, david, &c., represent stages of advance along the line of a chosen people; and later on it appears also that upon the chosen people centres a hope for all nations, and a purpose is discovered in universal history. the special {221} intellectual qualities of various races or civilizations, as of egypt and tyre, are recognized by some of the prophets, and recognized as part of a divine purpose for the world[1]. the bible then is the book of development; it looks forward, not backward. but it is also true that all this development is represented as having been (we may say) a second-best thing. it has not been according to god's first purpose. there has been a great and continual hindrance, which has consisted in a persistent rebellion or sin on man's part against god; and this again has had its root in a certain perversion of the heart of mankind which is regarded as approximately universal. if we now take into account again the first three chapters of genesis (which, however, have left much less trace than is commonly supposed in the old testament as a whole[2]) we find that they describe an original act of rebellion on the part of the first human pair, which is there spoken of as at least entailing external consequences of a penal sort upon their descendants--that is death, pain, and the loss of paradise; and that later, especially in the teaching of st. paul, the universal moral flaw in human nature (original sin) is also represented as having its source in this initial act of rebellion. sin is therefore, according to our christian scriptures, something unnatural to man: the violation of his nature by his rebellion; and it is a continual element of deterioration. but the idea that man was created perfect, i.e. so as not to need development, is not suggested. no doubt theologians, from the age of augustine down to recent times, have done something more than suggest it. thus robert south supposes that 'an aristotle was but the rubbish of an adam, and athens but the rudiments of paradise'; and milton implanted the idea in the {222} imagination of englishmen; but it is in no way suggested by the bible, and was expressly repudiated by the earliest christian theologians in east and west. thus, in answer to the question whether adam was formed perfect or imperfect, clement of alexandria replied, 'they shall learn from us that he was not perfect in respect of his creation, but in a fit condition to receive virtue.' and irenaeus says that it was in the power of god to make men perfect from the beginning, but that such an initial perfection would be contrary to the law of human nature, which is the law of gradual growth[3]. we must therefore modify the statement of christian doctrine from which we started, thus:--_man has been slowly led, or has slowly developed, towards the divine ideal of his creator; but his actual development has been much less rapid and constant than it might have been, owing to the fact of sin from which he might have been free_. now, can it be fairly said that science can take any legitimate exception to such a statement? the progress of man which anthropological science discloses is very broken, very partial; if development of some sort is universal, progress is very rare, distinct deterioration not uncommon. science, like poetry and philosophy, must bear witness to the disappointing element in human nature, of which he was so conscious of whom it is said that 'he did not trust himself to man, because he needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man'--the sad secret of human untrustworthiness and unsatisfactoriness[4]. again, can science assert that this actual development of man, so thwarted and tainted and partial, has been the only possible development, and that there could not have been a better? if it cannot say this, there is in the {223} general view of human progress and deterioration no antagonism between religion and science. ii.--but it may be said, 'science certainly does say that the actual development of man has been the only possible development. science excludes the idea of sin in the sense of something which need not have happened, because it excludes the idea of freedom or contingency altogether. good and bad characters are like good and bad apples--mere facts of natural growth'; or more suggestively, 'sin (so called) is only the survival of brute instincts, which, from a higher condition of evolution, men have come to be ashamed of.' it cannot be made too emphatic that here is the real battle-ground of religion and science to-day, though the fact is often concealed in popular controversy. _i do not believe there is any real difficulty in adjusting sufficiently the relations of religion and science as to the fall when once the idea of sin has been admitted--that is, the idea of free, responsible action, with its correlative, the possibility of wrong action which might have been avoided_. christian and other teachers have, no doubt, often failed to see how limited human freedom is, but they have never been wrong in asserting that the reality of freedom within limits is essential to christianity and morality. sin is not a mere fact of nature. it is a perversion which ought not to have been. this subject is not what is directly before us now; but the heart of the controversy is here; and i will make the following very brief remarks upon it. (1) a theory that cannot be put into practice, or a theory that cannot account for the facts, is a false or at least inadequate theory. now the theory of necessary determinism cannot be put into practice. to believe that our own conduct is not really under our own control--that the idea of responsibility is at bottom an illusion--is to destroy the basis of human life and education. even {224} the holders of the theory admit that it must be kept out of sight in practice. further, it is a theory that cannot account for the facts--viz. for the existence of the universal sense of responsibility; and the application to human action of moral blame and praise, which penetrates the whole of thought and language, and which holds too large a place in human life to be a delusion. we are not ashamed of a physical accident, but we are ashamed of telling a lie. and this difference is fundamental and based on reality. (2) the christian assumption may be stated as follows: granted that we cannot increase the sum of force which passes from external sources into our system, and passes out again in manifold forms of human action, yet within certain limits we can direct it for good or evil--i.e. the 'voluntary' part of a man's action may be determined from below, so to speak, by purely animal motives, or by rational and spiritual motives. in the latter case, the action is of the proper human quality, and stamps a rational and spiritual character upon all that falls within its range. in the former case, it may be truly regarded as a survival of the physical instincts of animal progenitors, and no doubt it emerges as a part of the physical order of the world. but, considered as human action, it represents a lapse, a culpable subordination of the higher to the lower in our nature, a violation of the law proper to manhood[5]. this is the point. st. john says, 'all sin is lawlessness,' and (by the exact form of expression which he uses) he implies also that all lawlessness is sin. here, and here only where voluntary action begins, do you see violation of law, and therefore, within limits, a disturbance of the divine order--something which ought to have been otherwise. {225} (3) the belief that the moral evil of our nature does not properly belong to our nature but is its violation, and that if once the will be set right it can be remedied, has been the secret of the moral strength of christianity. christianity has said to all men, however corrupted your nature, the corruption does not essentially belong to you. give your wills to god, and, if slowly, yet surely, if not fully in this world, then beyond it, all can be set right. 'according to thy faith be it unto thee.' and the practical power of this appeal, shows its agreement with reality. (4) on the other hand, it cannot be claimed that the theory is contrary to any real scientific _knowledge_; for biology confesses that it knows very little as to the actual methods by which force is redistributed in human action. it is contrary only to some large and unverifiable assumptions--assumptions which ignore the abstract character of biological psychology, as of other sciences. now granted this reality of free voluntary action, it will hardly be denied that history discloses to us a practically universal prevalence of sin[6], in the present and in the past; and we can hardly fail to perceive, lying behind actual sins, a tendency to sin--what shelley calls 'the ineradicable taint of sin,' a perverse inclination inhering in the stock of our manhood, which is what theology calls original sin. iii.--but here a more modern objection occurs. christianity assumes that this moral flaw or taint, weakness or grossness, in human nature is the outcome of actual transgressions, in other words that original sin is due to actual sin, whereas the tendency of recent biological science is to deny that acquired characters can be inherited, and therefore to deny that any acts of any man or men could have any effect on the congenital moral nature of their descendants; the taint or fault in {226} human nature, must be a taint or fault in that original substance which what is called man derived from his pre-human ancestry. to this i reply:--this is no doubt the view which professor weismann has made more or less prevalent. the substance of heredity ('germ-plasm') is taken to be a substance _per se_, which has always occupied a special 'sphere' of its own, without any contact with that of 'somatoplasm' further than is required for its lodgement or nutrition; hence it can never be in any degree modified as to its hereditary qualities by use-inheritance. it has been absolutely continuous 'since the first origin of life.' but this doctrine does not appear yet to have assumed a fixed form[7]; and in its extreme or absolute form it is highly disputable, and rejected by large sections of biologists. professor haeckel[8] declares contemptuously that he should feel it more reasonable to accept the mosaic account of special creations! the late mr. romanes, after summing up the evidence on both sides without any contempt, decides: 'no one is thus far entitled to conclude against the possible transmission of acquired characters[9].' again, 'that this substance of heredity is largely continuous and highly stable, i see many and cogent reasons for believing. but that this substance has been uninterruptedly continuous since the origin of life, or absolutely stable since the origin of sexual propagation, i see even more and better reasons for disbelieving[10].' and he remarks[11], 'i doubt not weismann {227} himself would be the first to allow that his theory of heredity encounters greater difficulties in the domain of ethics than in any other--unless indeed, it be that of religion.' i ought to add, in view of the apparently improbable event of the doctrine of weismann becoming in its absolute form the accepted doctrine of biologists, that of course it only concerns the material organism. no one who is not a materialist would deny the _possibility_ of the character of the parent modifying at its very root that of the child, without even the smallest conceivable modification of the physical organism; because in the origination of a spiritual personality, and in the link which binds it to the antecedent personalities to which it owes its being, there is that which lies outside the purview of biological science. there _may_ be an inheritance of sinful tendencies derived from sinful acts in the region of the spiritual personality, even if no physical transmission is possible. however it be explained, it appears to be the case that christianity is bound to maintain the position that in the region of moral character there is, in fact, a solidarity in humanity. we are bound together. our acts, as they form our own character, do somehow or other, however slightly, modify the characters of our descendants for good or evil. and this modification of the tendencies of the race by the acts of individuals may have been more marked at the beginning than it is to-day. on the other hand christianity is not in any way interested in denying that man derives a physical heritage of habits and tendencies from a pre-human ancestry. all i imagine that christianity is interested in affirming is this--that when the animal organism became the dwelling-place of the human spirit (so to speak) that human spirit might have taken one of two courses. it {228} might have followed the path of the divine will; and in that case human development would have represented a steady and gradual spiritualizing of the animal nature reaching on towards perfection. it might have taken, on the other hand, and did in fact take (more or less), the line of wilful disobedience. and the moral effects of this wilfulness and disobedience from the beginning onwards have been felt from parent to son. so that the springs of human conduct have been weakened and perverted, and no man has started without some bias in the wrong direction which would not have been there if his ancestors for many generations had been true to god. it is worth noticing in passing that 'original sin' is not a fixed quantity derived from one lapse of the original man, but is a moral weakness continually reinforced by every actual transgression, and, on the other hand, reduced in force by moral resistance and self-control. individuals start at very different levels of depravity. only it would appear that practically in no man but one is there any reason to believe the fundamental nature immaculate. iv.--but it will be said 'you have not yet touched upon a big central contradiction between religion and science. according to the christian doctrine mankind is derived from a single specifically human pair, made human by a special inspiration of the divine spirit. according to the theory of evolution, a certain species of apes under specially favourable conditions gradually advanced to become what might be called man, though of a very low type.' to this i am inclined to make reply thus: christianity is really bound up with maintaining four positions--(1) the reality of moral freedom; (2) the fact of sin, properly so called as distinct from imperfection; (3) its practical universality, at least as an inherited tendency; and (4) the unity of the human race in such {229} sense that the same postulates may be made with regard to all men, and the same capacity for moral redemption (more or less) assumed to be in them. now, as regards the first three of these positions enough has been said already, and the last of them does not appear to be at present in dispute between science and religion. st. paul says, 'god made of one' (or 'of one blood,' for this reading is possibly right) 'every nation of men' (acts xvii. 26). and of one blood, if not of one individual, all men are, according to the present conclusions of biological science. a recent work on ethnology, by mr. keane (cambridge geographical series), speaks thus:--'the hominidae are not separately evolved in an absolute sense--i.e. from so many different anthropoid precursors, but the present primary divisions are separately evolved from so many different pleistocene precursors, themselves evolved through a single pliocene prototype from a single anthropoid precursor[12].' it does not seem to me, then, that christianity is really bound up with anything more than the unity of the human race, which science also strongly asserts. but to pass from these positions, which may be regarded as certain, to something more conjectural (apart from any question of the literary character of genesis iii), we may argue thus: sin is a fact having the same character universally in human history, though the sense of sin has varied greatly, reaching back as far as human history extends. this would lead us to suppose that it goes back to the roots of the race. it suggests some original {230} fall, some tainting of the race in its origin. i do not see, then, anything absurd or contrary to evidence in such a hypothesis as this.--the divine spirit is assumed to be at work in all the development of the world. the 'laws of nature' are but his methods. at a certain moment a new thing had emerged in the universe hitherto inorganic. it was the fact of life. it was new[13]. but it was in continuity with what had gone before. this principle of life had its great development, vegetable and animal. it had attained a form in certain anthropoid apes such as we are familiar with in men. suppose then that the divine spirit breathes himself, again in a new way, into one single pair or group of these anthropoid animals. there is lodged in them for the first time a germ of spiritual consciousness, continuous with animal intelligence, and yet distinct from it. from this pair or group humanity has its origin. if they and their offspring had been true to their spiritual capacities the animal nature would have been more rapidly spiritualized in motives and tendencies. development--physical, moral, spiritual--would have been steady and glorious. whereas there was a fall at the very root of our humanity; and the fall was repeated and reiterated and renewed, and the development of our manhood was tainted and spoiled. there was a lapse into approximately animal condition, which is dimly known to us as primitive savagery. so that the condition of savage man is a parody of what god intended man in his undeveloped stages to be, just as the condition of civilized man in london and paris is a parody of what god intended developed man to come to. and there have been long and dreary epochs when men have {231} seemed to lose almost all human ideals and divine aspirations; when, in st. paul's phrase, they were 'alive without the law,' living a physical life unvisited by the remorse consequent upon any knowledge of better things. and there have been, on the other hand, epochs and special occasions of spiritual opportunity and spiritual restorations. and so, on the whole, side by side with the continually deteriorating effect of sin, has gone on the slow process of redemption, the undoing of the evil of sin and the realization of the divine purpose for man. such an idea of human history, partly only hypothetical, partly assured, conflicts with no scientific ethnology, and is but a restatement of old-fashioned christianity in all that has religious importance. v.--of course, in all this i am assuming that the doctrine of sin and of the fall in its true importance has a much securer basis than the supposition that genesis iii is literal history. the doctrine of the fall is, as i have said, not separable from the doctrine of sin, or the doctrine of sin from that of moral freedom. it rests upon the broad basis of human experience, especially upon christian experience, which is bound up with its reality. most of all it rests, for christians, on the teaching of christ. for christ's teaching and action postulate throughout the doctrine of sin. but that doctrine in its turn goes back upon the old testament, which is full of the truth that the evils of human nature are due, not to its essential constitution, but to man's wilfulness and its results; that the disordering force in human nature has been moral, the force of sin; that human history represents in one aspect a fall from a divine purpose, a fall constantly reiterated and renewed in acts of disobedience. these constant acts of disobedience are in part caused by an evil heart in human nature, and this in its turn exhibits the fruits of past sins. granted this, {232} the story in genesis iii, whether it be historical or whether (as not only many modern christians, but some of the greatest of early christians, have thought) it be not an historical account of a single event, but a generalized account of what is continually happening, has, at any rate, vital spiritual truth. the character of its inspiration is apparent. teach a child what sin is, first of all on the ground of general christian experience and the teaching of christ, and then read to it the story of genesis iii, and the child must perforce recognize the truth in a form in which it cannot be forgotten. there in that story all the main points of truth as to the meaning of sin are suggested, and the main sources of error precluded. sin is not our nature, but wilfulness; sin is disobedience to the divine law, the refusal of trust in god; there is such a thing as being tempted to sin, and yielding to it, and then finding that we have been deceived, being conscience-stricken and fearing to face god; and the curse of our manhood springs from nowhere ultimately but our own evil heart. and if our sins lay us under an outward discipline, which is god's punishment, yet in the very discipline lies the hope of our recovery. god the destroyer is also the god who promises redemption. thus all that we most need to know about god and man, about obedience and disobedience, about temptation, about the blessing and the cursing of human nature, about conscience good and bad, is to be found in the story of genesis iii, written in language suitable to the childhood of the individual and of the race. vi.--but once more, and for the last time, the biologist will reply, 'you are not going to get off so easily. the fact of physical death is inextricably interwoven into the structural growth of the world long before men appeared. but christianity regards it as a mere consequence of human sin.' this is not the case. long before science {233} had investigated the early history of life on our globe, christian teachers both in east and in west--st. augustine as well as st. athanasius--had taught that death is the law of physical nature, that it had been in the world before man, and that 'man was by nature mortal,' because, as being animal, he was subject to death. how, then, do they interpret the language of scripture? in this way: they hold that if man had been true to his spiritual nature, the supernatural life, the life in god, would have blunted the forces of corruption, and lifted him into a higher and immortal state. certainly, in some sense, death, as we know it, for man, is regarded, especially in the new testament, as the penalty of sin. but then what do we mean by death? if sin is said to have introduced human death, christ is constantly said to have abolished it. 'this is the bread that cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.' 'whosoever believeth on me shall never die.' 'christ jesus abolished death.' sin, then, we may suppose, only introduced death in some sense such as that in which christ abolished it. christ has not abolished the physical transition from this world to the invisible world, but he has robbed it of its terror, its sting, its misery. apart from sin we may suppose man would not have died; that is, he would never have had that horrible experience which he has called death. there would have been only some transition full of a glorious hope from one state of being to another. we are again in the region of conjecture. all that i am here interested in asserting is that christianity never has held to the position that human sin first introduced death _into the world_. what it has taught is that _human_ death, as men have known it, with its horror and its misery, has represented not god's intention for man, but the curse of sin. {234} vii.--now i have endeavoured to face and meet the points which are urged in the name of science against the christian doctrine of the fall. i have endeavoured to point out that what is essential to christianity is to believe in the reality of moral freedom, and the consequent reality of sin, as something which need not have been in the individual, or in the race considered as a unity. this is all that christianity is really pledged to maintain. in maintaining this we are maintaining what is absolutely essential to the moral well-being of the race, and, moreover, what has the deepest roots in man's moral experience and in the teaching of christ. in holding this we hold the doctrine of the fall, a doctrine, that is, that man's condition has been throughout a parody of the divine intention, owing to the fact of sin tainting and spoiling his development from the root. but christianity is not in any kind of way pledged against the doctrine of development, only against the doctrine which no reasonable science can hold, that the actual development of man has been the best or only possible one. nor, i have urged, can it be reasonably said that the christian doctrine of sin and of the fall is bound up with one particular interpretation of genesis iii. all, then, that we must admit in the way of collision between christianity and science is, on the one hand, that christianity is not intended to teach men science, and that when there is any great advance in human knowledge it takes a little while for christianity to extricate itself from the meshes of the language and ideas belonging to one stage of scientific knowledge, and to assimilate the terms and ideas of the new. but, on the other hand, there is perennial and necessary warfare between christianity and materialistic science, or a science which denies the reality of moral freedom. and as to christianity giving up what is proper to its own ground--its teaching about {235} freedom and sin and the fall, and god's purpose for man, and the love shown in his redemption--to give up this is to give up what is the best and deepest motive of human progress, and what is most surely certificated by the witness of christ and the spiritual experience of christendom. indeed all schemes of human improvement are shallow and inadequate, which do not deal with man as what, in fact, he has been proved to be, a sinful, that is a fallen, being, needing not only education but redemption. before leaving this attempt to show that there is no necessary conflict between biological and theological science, it is important to call the attention of the intelligent public to the fact that what formerly appeared to be the solid consistency of the 'darwinian' creed, has been broken up into a state not far removed from chaos. it has become apparent how very little way has really been made towards showing what have been the actual factors in evolution--how the fact of evolution through variation has actually occurred. thus mr. bateson[14] remarks, 'if the study of variation can serve no other end, it may make us remember that the complexity of the problem of specific difference is hardly less now than it was when darwin first showed that natural history is a problem, and no vain riddle.' what is the cause of variations occurring? what law do they exhibit in their occurrence? do variations occur with a certain degree of sudden completeness[15]? or how are we to {236} explain the maintenance of variations, which in a more developed stage are to be very useful, before they can be shown to be useful at all? what is the place held in evolution by 'natural selection'? what, if any, the place held by use-inheritance? is the factor of 'mimicry,' supported by darwin, an important or even real factor in evolution? what is to be the issue of the controversy between the biologist and the physicist on the question of the time required for organic development? are we to suppose that organic development at the beginning proceeded very much more rapidly than at a later stage? or even that it exhibited laws of which we have no experience now, such as would admit of a 'natural' development of life out of what is not living? all these, and many more questions, appear to be so completely open that, granted the general theory of continuous evolution as against special creation, hardly anything as regards the factors or causes of evolution can be said to be scientifically settled. thus on such subjects as the origin of the human race, its exact relation to an animal ancestry, and the right interpretation of the fact of sin, {237} before science can make demands on theology, there must be more agreement in her own camp. [1] see especially ezekiel xxviii, xxxi. [2] see vol. i. p. 193. [3] clem. alex. _strom_, vi. 12. 96; iren. _c. haer._ iv. 38. [4] see also above, vol. i. pp. 78, 79. [5] on the meaning of 'freedom of will,' see vol. i. pp. 230 ff. [6] see above, vol. i. pp. 80-1. [7] romanes, _examination of weismannism_ (longmans, 1893), pp. 61-70, 153. [8] _the last link_ (black, 1899), p. 79. [9] romanes, _darwin and after darwin_ (longmans, 1895), ii. p. 279. [10] _examination of weismannism_, pp. 114, 115. [11] _darwin and after darwin_, ii. p. 90. [12] see also in haeckel, _last link_, p. 148: 'we assume the single monophyletic origin of mankind at one place, in one district'; and passages cited above, vol. i. p. 196, n. 1. the science of comparative religions also suggests the same conclusion. everywhere common underlying religious needs and tendencies appear. acts xvii. 27 is justified by a comparison of religions. [13] it must not be left out of sight that the idea of life as naturally derived from what was inorganic, has not yet been made to appear even scientifically probable, in view of the evidence. [14] w. bateson, _materials for the study of variations, treated with especial regard to discontinuity in the origin of species_ (macmillan, 1894), p. xii. [15] biologists are now apparently more disposed than formerly to admit the sudden appearance of considerable and important modifications and rapid developments. cf. haeckel, _l. c._ p. 144, and bateson, p. 568. he concludes that 'discontinuity of species results from discontinuity of variation.' 'the existence,' he says, 'of sudden and discontinuous variation, the existence, that is to say, of new forms having from their first beginning more or less of the kind of perfection which we associate with normality, is a fact that disposes, once and for all, of the attempt to interpret all perfection and definiteness of form as the work of selection. the study of variation leads us into the presence of whole classes of phenomena that are plainly incapable of such interpretation.' this relative perfection of variations at starting mr. bateson attributes in great measure to the principle of 'symmetry,' or 'repetition of parts' in living things. an organism is symmetrical, and thus what happens in one of many similar organs repeats itself normally in all the others. change in one part is not an isolated fact, but there is 'similarity and simultaneity of change.' note f. see vol. i. p. 215. baptism by immersion and by affusion. the following passage in the didache, c. 7, is of the plainest importance for the history of this matter: 'if thou have not living [i.e. running] water, baptize into other water; and if thou canst not in cold, then in warm. and if thou have not either [in sufficient amount for baptism, i.e. immersion in the water] pour forth water thrice upon the head into the name of father and son and holy ghost.' cf. dr. taylor, _teaching of the twelve apostles_ (cambridge, 1886), p. 52: 'the primitive mode of baptism was by immersion. according to the jewish rite a ring on the finger, a band confining the hair, or anything that in the least degree broke the continuity of contact with the water, was held to invalidate the act. the greek word "baptize," like the hebrew _tabol_, means to dip: to "baptize" a ship is to _sink_ it. the construction [in the above passage of the didache] "baptize _into_ other water," points to immersion, as likewise does hermas, when he writes (_simil._ 9): "they go down therefore into the water dead, and come up living;" and barnabas (chap. xi): "herein he saith that we go down into the water laden with sins and filthiness, and come up bearing fruit in our heart, and having our fear and our hope towards jesus in the spirit." this was still the normal way of administering the rite, but it was no longer insisted upon as necessary: {238} "_if thou have not either_," not enough of "living" or "other" water for immersion, "_pour water thrice upon the head_," &c.' note g. see vol. ii. p. 136. a prayer of jeremy taylor. o holy and almighty god, father of mercies, father of our lord jesus christ, the son of thy love and eternal mercies, i adore and praise and glorify thy infinite and unspeakable love and wisdom; who hast sent thy son from the bosom of felicities to take upon him our nature and our misery and our guilt, and hast made the son of god to become the son of man, that we might become the sons of god and partakers of the divine nature; since thou hast so exalted human nature be pleased also to sanctify my person, that by a conformity to the humility and laws and sufferings of my dearest saviour i may be united to his spirit, and be made all one with the most holy jesus. amen. o holy and eternal jesus, who didst pity mankind lying in his blood and sin and misery, and didst choose our sadnesses and sorrows that thou mightest make us to partake of thy felicities; let thine eyes pity me, thy hands support me, thy holy feet tread down all the difficulties in my way to heaven; let me dwell in thy heart, be instructed with thy wisdom, moved by thy affections, choose with thy will, and be clothed with thy righteousness; that in the day of judgement i may be found having on thy garments, sealed with thy impression; and that, bearing upon every faculty and member the character of {239} my elder brother, i may not be cast out with strangers and unbelievers. amen. o holy and ever blessed spirit, who didst overshadow the holy virgin-mother of our lord, and caused her to conceive by a miraculous and mysterious manner; be pleased to overshadow my soul, and enlighten my spirit, that i may conceive the holy jesus in my heart, and may bear him in my mind, and may grow up to the fullness of the stature of christ, to be a perfect man in christ jesus. amen. to god, the father of our lord jesus christ; to the eternal son that was incarnate and born of a virgin; to the spirit of the father and the son, be all honour and glory, worship and adoration, now and for ever. amen.--jeremy taylor, _holy living_; see his _works_, vol. iii. p. 238. note h. see vol. ii. p. 147. the origin of the maxim--'in necessariis unitas, etc.' the expression 'in necessariis unitas, in non necessariis libertas, in omnibus caritas' is cited by richard baxter in the dedication of _on the true and only way of concord of all christian churches_, 1679, thus, 'i once more quote you the pacificator's old and despised words.' but the pacificator appears to be no one older than a protestant who wrote (1620 to 1640), under the name of rupertus meldenius, a _paraenesis votiva pro pace ecclesiae ad theologos augustanae confessionis_. in the paraenesis occurs the sentence 'si nos servaremus in necessariis unitatem, in non necessariis libertatem, in utrisque caritatem optimo certe loco essent res nostrae.' see a. p. stanley in _macmillan_, {240} sep., 1875, referring to g. c. f. lücke, _ueber das alter, den verfasser, die ursprüngliche fonn und den wahren sinn des kirchlichen friedensspruchs_: 'in necessariis unitas &c.,' göttingen, 1850. this information was supplied me in correction of a mistaken attribution of the saying of which i was guilty in a sermon; and has been verified for me by mr. arthur hirtzel. the saying has been commonly attributed to st. augustine, and indeed the matter of it is thoroughly in his spirit; cf. my _ephesians_, p. 272; and see also _de gen. ad litt._, viii. 5: 'melius est dubitare de occultis quam litigare de incertis.' _de civ. dei_, xix. 18: 'qua [i.e. faith in scripture] salva atque certa, de quibusdam rebus quas neque sensu, neque ratione percepimus, neque nobis per scripturam canonicam claruerunt, nec per testes, quibus non credere absurdum est, in nostram notitiam pervenerunt, sine iusta reprehensione dubitamus.' note i. see vol. ii. p. 179. st. augustine's teaching that 'the church is the body of christ offered in the eucharist.' the following passages are full of interest:--_de civ. d._ x. 6: 'so that the whole redeemed city, that is the congregation and society of the saints, is offered as a universal sacrifice to god by the high priest, who offered nothing less than himself in suffering for us, so that we might become the body of so glorious a head, according to that 'form of a servant' which he had taken. for it was this (our human nature) that he offered, in this that he was offered, because it is in respect of this that he is mediator, priest and sacrifice.' then after a reference to rom. xii. 1-6 {241} he continues, 'this is the christian sacrifice: the "many" become "one body in christ." and it is this that the church celebrates by means of the sacrament of the altar, familiar to the faithful, where it is shown to her that in what she offers she herself is offered.' and x. 20: of christ's perfect sacrifice of himself 'he willed the church's sacrifice to be a daily sacrament. for as she is the body of him the head, she learns through him to offer up herself.' again xix. 23: 'god's most glorious and best sacrifice is we ourselves, that is his city, of which we celebrate the mystery in our oblations, which are known to the faithful.' cf. xxii. 10: 'the sacrifice itself is the body of christ, which is not offered to them (the martyrs), for they themselves also are it' (quia hoc sunt et ipsi). cf. _serm._ 227: 'if you have well received (the body of christ in the sacrament) you are what you have received ... he willed us to be his sacrifice.' in all this we have a very plain and much forgotten teaching. but we must not misunderstand st. augustine's use of apparently exclusive language--as if the sacrifice of ourselves was the only sacrifice offered in the eucharist. the sacrifice of the church is offered up through christ. thus he also speaks of the celebration of the eucharist (on the occasion of his mother's death, _conf._ ix. 12) in the phrase 'the sacrifice of our ransom (pretii nostri) was offered for her.' we do well to remember by the way that in _de civ._ x. 5, 6, st. augustine twice over defines what he means by sacrifice thus: 'a true sacrifice is everything that is done in order that we may by a holy fellowship inhere in god.' oxford: horace hart printer to the university _a series of simple expositions_ _of_ _portions of the new testament_ by the rev. charles gore. the sermon on the mount. the epistle to the ephesians. the epistle to the romans. in two vols. in contemplation. the epistles of st. john. _st. paul's_ _epistle to the romans_ _a practical exposition_ by the right rev. charles gore, d.d. lord bishop of worcester vol. i (chapters i-viii) london john murray, albemarle street, w. 1902 first edition . _february_, 1899. _reprinted . . . . . march_, 1900. _reprinted . . . september_, 1900. _reprinted . . . . october_, 1902. oxford horace hart, printer to the university {v} preface a good excuse is needed for adding to the large number of excellent commentaries on the epistle to the romans which already exist. but i think there is such an excuse. these commentaries are not of the sort which readers who are educated but not scholarly find it easy to master; so that in fact this epistle is at the present day very much misunderstood or ignored by such people. and again, partly owing to its interpretation at the period of the reformation and by some evangelicals of later date, it is still practically to a great extent viewed with discomfort and neglected by those who most value the name of catholic. my excuse, then, for adding to the expositions of the romans lies in these facts. one who is necessarily immersed in the practical work of the christian ministry, and is yet struggling to keep himself in some sense in line with biblical scholarship, if his life involves special disadvantages, may yet hope to be useful in interpreting to ordinary christians {vi} the results of the scholars. and i am persuaded that it requires one who enters thoroughly into the spirit of churchmanship, or the obligation of the one body, to interpret with any completeness the mind of st. paul. this volume has practically no more connexion with lectures delivered in westminster abbey last lent, than is implied in its being an exposition of the same epistle by the same person. the method of exposition in this volume is the same as that pursued in its predecessor on the epistle to the ephesians. after a general introduction, each section of the revised version is taken, or in some cases two sections are taken together, and prefaced by an analysis or paraphrase, as seems most useful, and followed by further explanation of the main ideas or phrases which each section contains. the 'appended notes' i have been obliged to defer to the end of the second volume--which, i hope, will appear within a year--with a view of approximately equalizing the size of the two volumes. charles gore. westminster abbey, _conversion of st. paul_, 1899. {vii} table of contents page introduction. (i) origin and circumstances of the epistle . . . . . . . . 1 (ii) 'justification by works' or 'by faith' . . . . . . . . 6 (iii) justification, sanctification, and church membership . 25 (iv) st. paul's doctrine and modern spiritual needs . . . . 41 the epistle to the romans. chapter i. 1-7 salutation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 8-17 introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 division i _universality of sin and condemnation_ . . . . . . . 63 18-32 § 1 judgement on the gentile world . . . . . . . . 66 ii. § 2 judgement on the jews . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 iii. 1-8 § 3 jewish objections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 9-20 § 4 sin and condemnation universal . . . . . . . . 121 division ii _justification by faith only_. 21-31 § 1 christ our propitiation . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 iv. § 2 the true seed of abraham . . . . . . . . . . . 155 {viii} division iii _the accepted life or the moral consequences of justification_. v. 1-11 § 1 the holy confidence of the justified . . . . . 175 12-21 § 2 the second adam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 vi. 1-14 § 3 the christian life a living by dying . . . . . 204 15-23 § 4 the perfect freedom in god's service . . . . . 225 vii. 1-6 § 5 freedom from the law by union with christ . . 236 7-25 § 6 the function and failure of the law . . . . . 245 viii. 1-11 § 7 life in the spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 12-17 § 8 the life of sonship . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 18-30 § 9 the hope of the creation . . . . . . . . . . . 298 31-39 § 10 christian assurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 {1} the epistle to the romans _introduction._ i. st. paul's great epistle to the romans was written, as may be quite confidently asserted, from corinth, during the second visit to greece recorded in the acts[1], i.e. in the beginning of the year commonly reckoned 58, but perhaps more correctly 56 a.d.--the year following the writing of the epistles to the corinthians. the reasons for this confident statement, and indeed for all that needs to be said about the circumstances under which st. paul wrote and the conditions of christianity at rome, become apparent chiefly in connexion with the later parts of the epistle which are not included in this volume. they {2} shall therefore be omitted here, and we will content ourselves for the moment with a very brief statement of the results in which scholars are now finding, as it would seem, final agreement. the existence of christians at rome was due not to any apostolic founding, for no apostle appears yet to have visited rome, but to the sort of 'quiet and fortuitous filtration[2]' of christians from various parts of the empire to its great centre which must naturally have taken place; for from all quarters there was a tendency to rome. 'some from palestine, some from corinth, some from ephesus and other parts of proconsular asia, possibly some from tarsus, and more from the syrian antioch, there was in the first instance, as we may believe, nothing concerted in their going; but when once they arrived in the metropolis, the freemasonry common among christians would soon make them known to each other, and they would form, not exactly an organized church'--that may well have been the result of the later presence of st. paul and st. peter--'but such a fortuitous assemblage of christians as was {3} only waiting for the advent of an apostle to constitute one[3].' among this assemblage of christians it appears evident from st. paul's language[4] that there must have been jews as well as gentiles; but the dominant character of the church was gentile[5]. it is perhaps only putting this in another way to say that there would have been among the roman christians elements of hostility to st. paul and his teaching, but christianity as st. paul taught it would have been in the ascendant. and probably st. paul's special informants about affairs there would have been his special friends, prisca and aquila[6]. the character of the epistle written to these christians of the capital is marked. it has beyond any other of st. paul's epistles the character of an ordered theological treatise. of course it assumes the existence of accepted christian principles--the rudimentary instruction or christian 'tradition'--in the minds of those to whom it was addressed[7]. but it takes certain of these principles of the christian {4} religion and develops them systematically and argumentatively; though again, it must be explained, the argument is very far from being barely logical, but is full of the deepest feeling, showing itself in passages of memorable eloquence which live in the hearts of all of us. why this particular epistle should have this character of a systematic treatise is not hard to see. st. paul was reaching the end of his great controversy for the catholicity of the gospel, against the judaizers--that is, for the equal position of gentiles and jews in the church, and against the obligation upon the gentiles of circumcision and the ceremonial law. that controversy was the occasion of the apostolic conference at jerusalem, which is described both by st. luke in the acts[8] and, from the point of view of st. paul's own 'apology,' in the epistle to the galatians[9]. it is felt at its whitest heat in that intensely concentrated and passionate epistle. but by the time that the epistle to the romans came to be written the controversy was quieting down. the victory of catholicism over judaism was as good as won. the great principle of justification by faith, not by works of the law, had developed itself lucidly {5} and clearly in st. paul's mind, and flowed out in our epistle in an ordered sequence of thought, rich, profound, and mature. and there were special reasons why it should have been expressed in writing at this moment, and to the roman christians. though the heat of the conflict inside the church was over, the fierce hostility of many of the jews, both within and without the church, to st. paul personally was by no means past. now st. paul was on his way up to jerusalem with the money collected in the gentile churches for the poor brethren there. he attached great importance to this expression of gentile goodwill, and almost more importance to its acceptance at his hands by the jerusalem christians[10]. it was to be a link of mutual, practical love to bind the divergent elements in the church together. but he felt, and as experience showed rightly, that his enterprise would be attended with great peril to his life. this epistle therefore, like his speech at miletus, has something of the character of 'last words[11].' he is in writing it committing to the future the fruits of his labours, so far as they can be expressed in a doctrine, at a moment when he feels that their continuance is being {6} seriously imperilled. and this summary of his life's teaching in its most characteristic aspect is most fitly addressed to the christians of the great city which was the centre of the then world. st. paul already conceived of christianity as, in prospect at least, the religion of the empire. it was vastly important, therefore, that the capital should know it and hold it in its full glory and richness. he himself, if he escaped safe through the visit to jerusalem, was bent on immediately going thither and securing this great end by his personal ministry[12]. but he could not depend on the future. he must seize the golden moment--buying up the opportunity at least by a letter. this, in very brief words, is an account of the circumstances and conditions under which the epistle to the romans was written, and it must suffice for the moment till some of the details are presented to us in its later chapters. ii. there are men of whom it is especially true that their teaching is the outcome of their own {7} personal experience. if a man's teaching is to have any real force this must be in a measure true in any case. but in some men the personal experience has set an exceptionally strong impress upon the intellectual convictions, and so upon the teaching. such men--otherwise very different from one another--are augustine, dante, luther, bunyan, newman. such an one was st. paul. his intellectual theory is on fire with the emotions bred of a personal experience, both bitter and sweet, but always intense. and if there is professedly more of autobiography in the epistle to the galatians, yet in fact we know st. paul's interior life, both before and after his 'conversion,' so far as we know it at all, mainly through the generalized account of it in the epistle to the romans. for the doctrine of justification by faith, not by works of the law, developed in this epistle, is the record of his personal experience reduced to a general principle. st. paul had, on the lines of his pharisaic education, in the first half of his life zealously sought to be justified by works, and had found out his mistake. what is the real meaning of this phrase? ordinarily we englishmen find it natural to appropriate st. james' 'common sense' language {8} about justification rather than st. paul's[13], and say that faith is surely of no moral value without works or good actions, and that we can be justified by nothing else except our conduct. or if the pharisees are pointed to with their rigid ecclesiastical observances as types of men seeking to be justified before god by the merits of their works, then, in this sense of works, we feel that the idea of justification by such means, apart from deeper moral effort, is one which has passed out of our horizon. yet if we get to the moral essence of the pharisaic idea, we may still find it lying very close at hand to us, even though we do not know what a phylactery means, and are at a safe distance from fasting twice in the week, or giving tithes of all that we acquire. a well-to-do englishman, of whatever class, has a strong sense of respectability. he has a code of duty and honour which he is at pains to observe. a soldier, a gentleman, a woman of fashion, a peasant's wife, a schoolboy, and an undergraduate, representing not more than the average moral levels of their different classes, will all of them make really great sacrifices to fulfil the requirements of their respective codes. their conscience requires {9} this of them, and they would be miserable in falling short of it. but their conscience is also limited to it. they resent the claim of a progressive morality. conscientious within the region of the traditional and the expected, they are often almost impenetrable to light from beyond. they are nervously afraid of the very idea of subjecting their life to a fundamental revision in the light of christ's claim, or to the idea of surrender to the divine light wherever it may lead. but this frame of mind--conscientiousness within a limited and well-established area accepted by public opinion, coupled with resentment at whatever completer and diviner claim may interfere to disconcert one's self-satisfaction, and bid one begin afresh on a truer basis--is that very attempt to be justified by works which appeared in the case of the pharisees, only dressed in very different guise to that in which the conditions of modern england clothe it. for the pharisees of the gospels were the later representatives of the hasidaeans, i.e. chasidim or 'pious' folk, whom we hear of in the books of maccabees[14]. the later religious development of israel lay along the lines of {10} rigid reverence for the law. in days then of general laxity and a general prevalence of greek customs, these pious israelites united themselves to promote the devout observance of their law. their relation to maccabaean heroes and rulers varied, as religious or political motives were uppermost in the maccabaean house. they themselves pursued one consistent aim. they came to be known as the pharisees, the separated or the separatists, the party who kept aloof from everything common or unclean. as such they represented the religious nation in its later development. they had the bulk of the people, and especially the women, with them. they had consequently, as josephus tells us, an irresistible influence upon public affairs, and especially upon religious affairs, and they held the social position befitting the legitimate religious leaders of god's own people. this position, with its accompanying reputation, they doubtless deserved by their zeal for the law, and for the 'traditions of the fathers' which hedged about or interpreted the law. but according to the solemn witness of christ and st. paul, a disastrous lowering of the best moral standard of the old testament scriptures had taken place among them. the mosaic law was, {11} of course, a matter mainly of outward observance, and therefore would become a matter of rigid social requirement within the area of such a body as the pharisees. nowhere does public opinion act more strongly than in a close religious circle. but the social requirement according to tradition came to be substituted for that deeper spiritual relation of the 'holy nation' and the individuals composing it to god and his will, which is the real moral essence of the old testament. 'how can ye believe,' our lord said to them, 'which receive glory one of another, and the glory that cometh from the only god ye seek not[15]?' this is the central moral weakness of the pharisaic position. a social or ecclesiastical tradition had taken the place of the will of god. this social tradition was rigid and stern in respect of the 'tradition of the elders,' but it did not revise itself constantly or at all in the light of the mind of god, and therefore its moral standard became debased. it 'made void the word of god because of the tradition.' it 'tithed mint and anise and cummin, and left undone the weightier matters of the law, judgement, and mercy, and faith.' it 'strained out the gnat, and swallowed the camel[16].' it {12} came to be almost purely external and consistent with even the grossest spiritual hypocrisy, as both st. paul and our lord himself assure us. above all, it was completely satisfied with itself. 'we have abraham to our father.' 'i thank thee that i am not as other men are.' that is the characteristic tone of pharisees and of all who, however unlike them otherwise, are living by a strong social standard and priding themselves on belonging to a respectable and dignified class. this it is that st. paul calls seeking to be justified or commended to god by 'works' or 'works of the law'--not, we must observe, 'good works,' such as are the fruit of a right disposition towards god, of which st. paul never spoke with any disparagement. it is the characteristic of the pharisaic attitude that a man holds by a strict code enforced by the public opinion of his church or circle; a code which he diligently and even painfully obeys. but it is characteristic of this attitude also that it resents new light, and tacitly claims independence even of god, provided that 'the law' is kept or the accepted standard maintained. thus the pharisees resented the christ, when renewing the voice of the old prophets, without respect of persons, he exposed the {13} moral weaknesses of these religious leaders, and bade them, in effect, begin again and think afresh what god's will really meant: when he warned them that the one unpardonable sin is to be self-satisfied in one's own eyes, and to repudiate as an impertinent intruder the fresh divine light. the story is very familiar. they resented and rejected the christ because he made the unlimited divine claim upon them: because he spoke to them as god to the human soul, and not as the representative of 'the tradition.' 'seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of god[17].' now we understand what it is to seek to be justified by works. it is to have a social or ecclesiastical code, and to claim acceptance in god's sight because we perform it, meanwhile making 'the law' under which we act, believed to be divine, a substitute for the living and personal god, and resenting any fresh and immediate claim of god on the human soul. in this mixture of subservience and independence, of religious humility and human pride, saul of tarsus had been brought up 'at the feet of gamaliel in jerusalem.' his was not {14} one of those slack consciences which enable men to take the lowest line which respectable public opinion will allow. in every ecclesiastical system the strict law comes to be mitigated by various dispensations and compensations--generally substitutions of the easier ceremonial for the harder moral requirement. but young saul no doubt took the law in its fullest sense as the thing to be kept, with all its accompanying traditions. so taken, it constituted no doubt what st. peter calls it[18]--an intolerable yoke. a strict jew must have had a very difficult life of it. but it was not this yoke of specific outward requirements that staggered st. paul. what he found crushing was the inward claim--'thou shall not covet[19].' he who had determined to appear before god at the last with a clear record as one who had kept the law, found himself confronted by an inner and searching claim of the divine righteousness, to which no blamelessness in outward conduct enabled him to correspond. he could not help feeling himself a sinner in the eye of god; and the sacrificial system plainly gave his conscience no relief at all. he does not even allude to it in this connexion. meanwhile, as he moved {15} about in jewish society of the empire at tarsus and elsewhere, he found that it required no spiritual microscope to discover that the law in many of its plainest moral injunctions was in fact not being observed at all. he seemed to see that instead of the law being really the means of justification, it in effect put 'the righteous nation' simply in the position of condemned sinners, and himself among them, as fully as if they were simply without a divinely given law, like the 'sinners of the gentiles.' we know well how, when the way of god had been learnt more perfectly, this earlier moral experience of the effect of the law on himself and others worked itself out in st. paul's mind into a deep theory of the function, not of 'the law' only, that is the mosaic law, but of law altogether--of 'the letter' of any body of external enactments. law, he found, could enlighten the conscience, but it could never reach deep enough to the springs of will to strengthen and purify them. god must become more intimate to man than any external law can make him. a law of ordinances can only be a preparatory discipline, intended by the very falsity of the assumption on which it is based to teach men that they are not what they fancied themselves. {16} they fancied themselves beings sufficiently independent to stand on their own basis and enter into a covenant with god, to make a compact with him to observe a law and to abide by the result. it is the function of such a compact as between independent parties to convince men that any such relation between god, the creator and giver, and man, the creature and simply the receiver--still more between god the holy and man the defiled and weakened--is simply contrary to fundamental facts[20]. as yet, however, st. paul was only rendered miserable by his experience under the law. to feel himself a sinner alienated from god was a profound humiliation to his spiritual pride. he was fired no doubt by the lofty ideal of the righteous nation, standing before god in virtue of its righteousness, of its performance of the divine law, and therefore making its claim on god to vindicate it before the whole world. he threw himself zealously into rigid observance: only, however, to find himself humiliated and perplexed. meanwhile, he was becoming conscious of the {17} claim of jesus of nazareth to be the christ. under what conditions that claim began to confront him we do not in the least know. but he must have known in the period before his conversion that the severest attack on the spiritual position of the pharisees ever delivered had been delivered by him who claimed to be the christ; that the pharisees in consequence had thrown all their influence into the rejection of his claim, and if they had not been the most direct instruments of his death, yet had encouraged and sanctioned it. thus the more dissatisfied he became in his own conscience, the more zealous he grew for the pharisaic position, and the more fanatical, therefore, against the followers of the crucified jesus. at what point it began to dawn upon his conscience that perhaps jesus was right and not the pharisees; that perhaps it was in his teaching that his own restless heart was to find repose, we can only wonder. some struggle such as this dawning consciousness would involve he certainly passed through. 'it was hard for him to kick against the goad[21].' at last, and at a definite moment, god 'triumphed over him' in christ, and he gave in his {18} allegiance to jesus as the christ on the road to damascus. many a man has thus after a struggle surrendered to god at discretion: many a man has shown the will, as faber calls it, 'to lose my will in his, and by that loss be free.' but to no man can it ever have involved a completer sacrifice of his own pride and prejudice--of his own personal comfort and safety--than it did to st. paul: and, therefore, in no man did it ever involve a vaster increase of spiritual illumination. hitherto he had stood on the basis which his pride in his religious position gave him and, starting thence, had sought to erect the spiritual fabric of a life acceptable to god. but the more he had known of god and the more he had struggled, the less satisfied he had become. god seemed to be in no other attitude towards him than that of a dissatisfied taskmaster. now he had surrendered at discretion into god's hands. he had no position of his own to maintain. he had put himself in god's hands. in his sight he was content to be treated as a sinner, just like one of the gentiles--to be forgiven of his pure and unmerited love, and of his pure and unmerited love endued with a spiritual power for which {19} he could take no credit to himself, for it was simply a gift. once more, he had henceforth no prejudices and recognized no limitation on what he might be required to bear or do. his life was handed over to be controlled from above. thus when st. paul sets justification by faith and faith only in opposition to justification by works of the law, he is contrasting two different attitudes towards god and duty, which in the two halves of his own sharply sundered life he had himself conspicuously represented. the contrast may be expressed perhaps in four ways. 1. the man under the law of works is mainly concerned about external conduct and observances--the making clean of the outside of the cup and the platter: the man of faith is concerned almost altogether with the relation of his heart to god at the springs of action. faith is a disposition of the heart which indeed results in a certain kind of outward conduct, but which has its value already, prior to the outward conduct, because of what it inwardly is. faith, as calvin said, pregnant with good works, justifies before they are brought forth. this distinction between faith and works underlies st. paul's teaching in parts, but is never very prominent. {20} it accounts, however, for st. paul's shrinking from any insistence upon outward observances in the church, such as do not necessarily convey any spiritual meaning or power. 'why,' he cries to the colossians, 'do ye subject yourselves to ordinances; handle not, nor taste, nor touch (all which things are to perish with the using), after the precepts and doctrines of men?[22]' 2. inasmuch as 'the law' was a national thing, so 'works of the law' were a supposed means of justification confined to israel, and an occasion of contempt for other nations. faith, on the other hand, the mere capacity to feel our own wants and to take god at his word, is a universal quality and belongs, or may belong, to all men. thus justification by faith is opposed to justification by works of the law, as the universal or catholic to the merely jewish or national, and in this aspect the contrast occupies a great place in st. paul's thought and teaching. 3. but it is not in the things it is occupied about, or in the range of its activity, that faith is most centrally contrasted with works. it is in the attitude of man towards god which it represents. the 'worker' for justification always {21} retains his own independence towards god. he works upon the basis of a definite covenant by which god is bound as well as himself. he has the right to resent additional claims. faith, on the other hand, means an entire abandonment of independence. it is self-committal, self-surrender. 'i know him whom i have believed, and i am persuaded that he is able to guard that which i have committed unto him against that day[23].' the man of faith throws all the responsibility for life on god, and says simply and continually, 'speak, lord, for thy servant heareth.' it is of the utmost importance to notice that this is the only attitude of man towards god which corresponds with the ultimate facts of human nature, as science and philosophy are bound to represent them. man is, in fact, an absolutely dependent being, physically and spiritually. his virtue must lie, not in originativeness, but in correspondence. supposing him a free agent in god's universe, his freedom can only consist in a power to correspond with divine forces and laws intelligently and voluntarily; or on the other hand to disturb the divine order of creation in a measure by {22} wilfulness and sin. now faith is simply the faculty of loving correspondence with god. 'justification by faith' is the only conception of justification which is possible in the light of the root facts of human nature. but of course the practical appeal of this conclusion to the heart and will is immensely increased, if men can be shown to have acted as if they were independent and to have found it a failure; if life lived in independence of god, with god as it were withdrawn from the actual scene of life to its far-off horizon, is found to have resulted in havoc, weakness and despair. so, in fact, st. paul's doctrine of the true means of justification is based on an appeal, not so much to the ultimate constitution of our human nature as to the experienced results of our independence of god, to the facts of sin, whether among gentiles or jews. 4. finally, the principle of justification by faith is contrasted with that of justification by works of the law in the view which it involves of the character of god. the law, as st. paul interprets it, views god as a lord and taskmaster. faith presents him as the father of our spirits, always waiting upon us with his eternal, unchangeable love; bearing with us; {23} dealing with us even on a false basis which by our sins we have forced upon him, in order to bring us to a recognition of the true; anyway acting or withholding action, if by any means we can be won to recognize his true character and our true life. these are the broad contrasts between the alternative methods of justification by faith or by 'works of the law.' the law, and the attitude towards god which the law suggested, are, in st. paul's view, the main characteristic of the old testament. this is a point of view which we should expect in one trained by the pharisees. we may possibly feel that st. paul tends to identify with the old testament as a whole one particular element in it which specially characterized one particular period. but at least the element was there, and occupied there a highly important place in the whole development; and if st. paul in his idealizing manner sometimes speaks as if it was the whole of the older covenant, as if he had forgotten all the teaching of prophet and psalmist, yet he is not really forgetful. law is to him the characteristic of the old covenant. but behind the law god's dealings with abraham are for ever in his imagination witnessing against the law's {24} limitation, and a similar witness is kept up all along: so that st. paul can take out of one of the books of moses his very central statement of the principle of faith[24]. in what has just been said justifying faith has been treated as if it were simply, as it is really, faith in god; whereas in st. paul's language the object of justifying faith is constantly 'jesus[25].' the explanation of this is that in jesus christ god has manifested his character as father, and has come near to men, 'reconciling the world unto himself,' by the atonement wrought through his incarnate son, and giving conspicuous evidence of his saving power by raising him from the dead[26]. thus, if jesus is the proximate object of justifying faith, it is jesus as manifesting the father, jesus as god incarnate; and st. peter is strictly interpreting st. paul when he represents the object of christ's sacrifice and resurrection in the phrase, 'that your faith and hope might be in god[27].' the faith of the christian is the old faith of abraham and habakkuk, the faith in the lord {25} jehovah only now made manifest in a new and completer manner, in a more intimate relation to human life, and with a more winning appeal to the human heart. iii. now that we have gained a general idea of what st. paul meant by justification by faith, as opposed to justification by works of law, we are in a position to deal with a number of questions which have been famous in ecclesiastical history. does justification mean being made righteous, or being reckoned for righteous? if it means the latter, how can god reckon us as being what in fact we are not? again, what is the relation of this justification to sanctification? are these two stages, of which the first is over before the second can begin? again, what is the relation of justification to church membership? is justification a purely individual process or fact, of which membership in the church or, what comes to the same thing, reception of the sacraments, is a merely secondary and strictly unessential consequence? the answers to these questions are all connected with one another. justification, to begin with, is a judicial or, as it is called, 'forensic' {26} word. it expresses the verdict of acquittal. the use of the word in the bible made this quite indisputable[28]. thus god justifies whenever he refuses to condemn--when, whatever may have been our sins, he ignores them, and therefore positively admits us into the accepted people. and he declares his willingness to do this simply because a man believes in jesus christ. let a man believe, or take god in jesus christ at his gracious word, and the value of this act of trust or allegiance is such that god reckons it for righteousness, and admits a man into the accepted people, as if he were already fit for such fellowship in his actual habits or character. there is 'imputation' here, but it is the right sort of imputation. it is dealing with us not as we are, nor exactly as we are not, but as we are becoming in virtue of a new attachment under which our life has passed: and this, as the engrossing modern conception of development makes it easy for us to perceive, is the only true and profound way of regarding anything. not the standard already reached, but the movement, direction, or vitality is the important matter. faith, then, is 'reckoned for righteousness' because it puts us upon the right {27} basis and in the right relation to god; and therefore is a root out of which, provided it continues to subsist, all righteousness can healthily grow; whereas the most brilliant efforts or 'works' on a wrong basis may have neither sound root nor principle of progress in them. to believe in jesus is to have the root of the matter in oneself. therefore, when a man first believes, god can ignore all his previous life, and deal with him simply on the new basis, in hope. of course this preliminary acquittal or acceptance is provisional. as the servant[29] who had been forgiven his debts found them rolled back upon him when he behaved in a manner utterly inconsistent with the position of a forgiven man, so our preliminary justification may be promptly cancelled by our future conduct if we behave as one who has 'forgotten the cleansing from his old sins[30].' the prodigal son, after he has been welcomed home, may go back again to the 'far country.' but it remains the fact:--of such infinite value and fruitfulness is faith in god, as he has shown himself in jesus, that when a man first believes--aye, whenever, over and over again, he returns to believe--he is in god's sight on a new basis, however dark be the {28} background of his previous sins; and he can be dealt with simply on the new basis, according to the movement of the father's heart of love which his faith has set free. now the justifying faith of the conscience-stricken sinner, whose case st. paul always has in the foreground of his imagination, means first of all and most obviously that he consciously takes god at his word as being ready to forgive his sins, and accept him for jesus' sake in whom he believes. it is belief in god as forgiving, or in jesus as--he does not stop to inquire how--obtaining and giving him forgiveness. and st. paul laid great stress on this simple acceptance of the gift of pardon, as the gate of the new life and the first act of faith, because the readiness to be treated as a sinner and merely forgiven in spite 'f our sins is, as he knew full well in his own case, the final overthrow of spiritual pride. but this simple 'reliance on the merits of christ,' and acceptance of forgiveness at his hands and for his sake, is a profound movement of the heart--of the spring of human actions--which involves much more than appears. luther was hopelessly wrong and unlike st. paul when he isolated this mere reliance on another's merits, and, setting it apart from all {29} deeper movement of will or love, would have it, and it only, concerned with our justification. to st. paul even the first movement of faith is a surrender of independence, and a recognition in intellect, and much more in will, of the lordship of jesus. it is, in other words, a change of allegiance, and this is the important thing about it. and the absolved man, in thanking god for his forgiveness, finds himself, as it were, inevitably and without any fresh act, embarked on a new service. if he does not find this, he is not a man of faith at all. faith is so deep a principle that, though it shows itself first as the mere acceptance of an undeserved boon from the divine bounty, it involves such hanging upon god as necessarily enlists the will to choose and serve him, the intellect to know and worship him with a growing perception as he is revealed in jesus, and the affections to desire and love him. the life of justification thus proceeds 'from faith to faith'--from faith in christ 'for us' to faith in christ 'in us.' the justified man, accepted into the 'body of christ' by baptism and made a participator of the life of christ, receives the continual gifts of the divine bounty in their appointed channels, and his faith exercising its natural {30} faculty of correspondence, absorbs and appropriates the divine gifts--intellectually, so that the eyes of the understanding are opened in increasing knowledge--practically, so that 'christ dwells in the heart by faith,' and it is no longer the bare human self which lives, but christ which lives in the renewed man, with a continual display of moral power. the first justification or acceptance is therefore a preliminary step: it is acceptance for admission into the divine household, or city of god, or life in christ. it is a means to an end, and that end the fellowship of christ, and continually developing assimilation to him. does this mean, then, that justification and sanctification are processes following the one on the other, of which the former is over before the latter begins? such a statement must be repudiated so far as its latter clause is concerned. you cannot thus logically sever a vital process. they are two parts of one vital process; and the man who is not on the way to being made like christ (however far off it he may be at the moment) is by that very fact shown to be not in a state of justification or acceptance with god. at any stage of spiritual life there must be movement in order to make forgiveness {31} possible. grant this however and it becomes true that justification, as meaning acquittal, is a preliminary to sanctification, that is, the being made like christ. the having our 'heart set at liberty' is a preliminary to 'running the way of god's commandments.' but even so we must recognize that st. paul never exactly uses this language. when he describes the stages of god's dealings with the soul he passes from justification to glorification, or (final) deliverance from sin and wrath[31]. or, on one occasion, he mentions sanctification before justification[32]. this is in part accounted for by the fact that the word translated 'sanctify' or 'sanctification' means rather 'consecrate' (as to priesthood) or 'consecration.' and though this consecration involves 'sanctity' (in our sense) because of the character of god to whom we are dedicated, yet it may precede it; and we are in fact consecrated and hallowed at the moment when we are accepted into the 'priestly body' and anointed with the divine unction[33]. this exact meaning of the term sanctification in part accounts for st. paul not speaking of sanctification and justification as successive stages of the spiritual life. when he {32} is speaking about justification he is answering the question, what is the attitude of the human soul towards god which sets god free, so to speak, to accept it and work upon it? and the answer is, the attitude of faith. when he speaks of sanctification, or rather consecration, he is answering the implied question, how is the individual to be thought of when he has been admitted by baptism into the christian community? and the answer is, he is to be thought of as consecrated, or as sharing the life of a consecrated people[34]. st. paul's language in one place would suggest that if 'justification' qualifies for admission into the life in christ, the result of this admission is again a justification, not now merely of our persons, but of our whole moral being--a 'justification of life[35].' but this is, at least, not his usual use of the word. and now we approach the question of the relation of our individual justification to membership in the church and all that goes with that. to put the question in a rough controversial way--is the epistle to the romans, as it has been {33} frequently held to be, a thoroughly protestant work? the prophet ezekiel first clearly discerned and expressed the truth that the new covenant of god with man must be based upon the conversion of individual wills and hearts. so it was realized. the basis of the church was a profound movement of individual faith and love and allegiance, in the apostles and first disciples. and that on which it is based is that by which it must progress--the real assent and correspondence of individual wills and hearts. they that receive the testimony must set to their seals that god is true. thus one cannot possibly exaggerate the importance in christianity of the individual spiritual life, or of individual conversion and faith, if he does not isolate it. he cannot possibly exaggerate the stress laid in the epistle to the romans on individual faith and its results, if he does not forget its context. but what is meant by this proviso? this simply. st. paul, in his doctrine of justification by faith, is describing the basis of the new covenant of god with man which is, as truly as the old, a covenant with a community, an israel of god. the faith which justifies, therefore, means the faith which qualifies for the community as truly {34} as it admits into the favour of god. the very evidence that god accepts the first movement of faith is that the believing man is admitted by baptism into the body of christ. the idea of a faith in jesus which does not seek admission into 'the body,' or disparages it even while it accepts it, does not even present itself to st. paul's mind. a faith which is content to remain outside christ is no faith at all, and the act of being 'baptized into christ' is an act by which 'in one spirit we are baptized into one body.' again, the conception impressed upon the institution of the eucharist is that christ's atoning sacrifice is the basis of a new covenant with a society which is to share his life[36]. elsewhere st. paul expresses this by saying that what christ bought for himself was a church, a new israel[37]. what his sacrifice purchased was a new _community_. there is the less necessity to insist upon this truth because it is now being very generally perceived. the most powerful influence in recent german protestant theology is that of albrecht ritschl, and through him the truth has come back, through unexpected channels, that the object {35} of the sacrificial death of christ, and therefore of the divine justification, is not the individual but the church[38]; or, if we may venture to modify the phrase, the object of divine justification is the individual only as becoming and remaining (so far as his will is concerned) a member of the church. in fact, 'justification' may be rendered, without any false idea being attached to it, 'acceptance for membership in the sacred people, the israel of god.' and where any one has become a member of the church without even the rudimentary faith which can render him acceptable in god's sight, there the awakening of such faith is the condition of profitable or 'saving' membership. from this point of view it is not difficult to see the relation of our epistle, broadly, to protestantism and catholicism. protestantism was a reaction against one-sided ecclesiasticism. the church is the household of god, the home of his people. she guides and disciplines their souls. she feeds them with the bread of life. but her representatives may suffer her to lose the spiritual characteristics of the new covenant {36} and fall back upon those of the old. she may come to be characterized by a mere authoritativeness. the spirit of 'the law of ordinances' may come to prevail again. the sacraments may be treated as charms; or, in other words, all moral and spiritual requirement may be summed up in mere obedience, or in doing this and that. so, in fact, it happened to a great extent in the popular mediaeval system; and protestantism was a reaction. it was a reaction based on truth, as luther seemed to himself to re-discover it in the epistles to the romans and the galatians. but the reaction broke up the communion of christians. it thus impaired the sense of the one body, and very often resulted in obliterating the perception of any obligation to the visible body of christ at all. it became individualist, and disparaged the sacraments which are at once both the outward means of union with christ and the bonds of cohesion for his body, the church. but as we now look back upon the matter, we can see as clearly as it is possible to see anything, that both mediaeval catholicism and lutheran protestantism (or modern english protestantism) represent one-sided developments in which thoughtful men cannot permanently acquiesce. the preliminary justifying {37} faith of the individual does but warrant his admission into the body of christ, the divine society, by baptism. and once admitted into the body, and instructed in her tradition, faith finds its function intellectually in meditating upon and appropriating the full meaning of the mystery of god, and spiritually in appropriating and digesting the powers of that divine and human life into which baptism admits us, and in which the sacramental feast and sacrifice continually makes us anew participators. the church with its sacramental gifts, and the personal faith of the converted heart, are no more to be set in antithesis than food and digestion, or the 'virtue which went out of christ' and the faith in him which made men whole. the sacraments certainly do not save us without conversion and faith, and faith which leaves us voluntarily isolated from the visible communion of the one body is not what st. paul meant by 'justifying faith.' 'ah, yet consider it again!' is what we are continually tempted to exclaim to some of our modern controversialists who appear to be still repeating the watchwords of the sixteenth century. for in fact the famous controversial positions of the period of the reformation were {38} intensely one-sided, and have been antiquated by completer and maturer study--not least in the matter of justification. thus calvin's position on the subject was based upon and permeated by a conception of god as predestinating and creating and internally constraining some men to eternal life, and equally predestinating and creating and abandoning other men, without possibility of recovery, to eternal misery. such a conception is utterly abhorrent to modern consciences: and we shall have occasion to observe with how little reason any conception of god predestinating man to eternal misery has been attributed to st. paul[39]. luther again, who identified himself, as no other teacher has ever done, with st. paul's epistles of justification, was so zealous to separate the faith in virtue of which god justifies us from all idea of merit, that he represented it as a bare acceptance of the divine offer without any moral quality at all--a bare believing ourselves to be saved, without any moral reason in it. thus, accepting an existing scholastic distinction between an 'informed' faith, i.e. a faith ensouled {39} by love, and a 'formless' or bare faith, he held the faith on account of which god justifies us to be rigidly of the formless kind; and while fully recognizing the richer sort of faith as the god-given quality of those already justified, declared that it had nothing to do with their justification. but this conception of two separate sorts of faith, of which only the loveless sort, that involves no moral worth, has to do with our acceptance with god, is not only a high road to moral laxity or antinomianism, but is also utterly alien to the spirit of st. paul, in whom the whole life of faith is one and continuous[40]. it could only have arisen at a particular moment of theological controversy which is past and gone. and the same must be said of the allied doctrine of the total depravity of our fallen nature, which drove men to violent misinterpretations alike of scripture and of their moral instincts. and what of the tridentine theology? no doubt in its general view of our fallen human nature it is far more reasonable and pauline than the lutheran; and it is also truer to st. paul in laying the main stress on a divine righteousness {40} actually imparted to us, and not on christ's merits imputed and not imparted; or, in other words, in recognizing that forgiveness is only a prelude to the development of a new life of holiness. but on the other hand it puts itself hopelessly out of relation to st. paul's language and thought by interpreting justification as the being made righteous, and accordingly speaking of baptism as the instrument by which we are justified, whereas to st. paul justification means our preliminary acceptance without regard to what we have been, and the initial faith which enables men to be thus accepted would normally, in those he is thinking about, have preceded baptism, as in his own case, or that of cornelius, or of the eunuch. who can doubt that the faith of st. paul's conversion is what enabled god to accept him, though it remained for him, as for other men, to 'wash away his sins' by being 'baptized into christ[41]?' may we not truly say that deeper and maturer study of st. paul has for us undercut and antiquated the theological standing-grounds of the {41} sixteenth century, and substituted for them something both truer, completer, and freer? iv. it only remains to make more emphatic what has been already suggested, that the pauline doctrine of justification is of much more than antiquarian interest. we do not, as has been already shown, get rid of the 'danger of thinking to be saved by works' because we are not, like the pharisees, abandoned to ecclesiastical observances. all moral codes or standards, sanctioned by a society or class and involving no more than a limited liability, come under the moral category of 'works of a law.' they all are apt to leave men as independent of god as the pharisees, and as resentful of the fuller light. the late master of balliol expresses a characteristic opinion that the notions of 'legal righteousness,' or of 'the pride of human nature,' or 'the tendency to rebel against the will of god, or to attach an undue value to good works[42],' are 'fictions as applied to our own time[43].' but {42} this is surely lamentably untrue. men all round us dread the idea of committing themselves to god. they do not know how far it will carry them. they are like would-be soldiers who should refuse to enlist till they had had some assurance as to the extremest risk that their service might involve. thus, because they cannot get this assurance, they will make no beginning of the life of real faith. they live by a limited code which retains their independence for them. if they are also ecclesiastically minded, the 'legal righteousness' always involved in this sort of morality becomes even outwardly more like that of the pharisees, and it is not very uncommon among churchmen. but the whole habit of mind, inside or outside the area of professed churchmanship, has its root in what is properly and profoundly human pride and the false clinging to independence of god. this 'pride of life' seems to be almost more dangerous and, in fact, disastrous than even 'the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes.' thus if we can only get st. paul's doctrine of the necessity of faith rightly understood, there is no teaching more necessary for these times. and, on the other hand, where men are really ready to follow the light and do god's will, they {43} need--they need exceedingly for the good of the whole body--to realize st. paul's teaching about justification, that is, about god's constant attitude towards men, in order to obtain that peace which is meant to be, not the far-off goal of christian life, but its basis and foundation. when a person is continuously apprehensive and excited about his spiritual state, he is not in the temper of mind in which he can best serve god or work out his own or other men's salvation. 'peace must go before as well as follow after; a peace, too, not to be found in the necessity of law (as philosophy has sometimes held), but in the sense of the love of god to his creatures. he has no right to this peace, and yet he has it.' in these words of the same writer whom we just now were obliged to criticize we may find a simple expression of the truth. 'wherefore, being accepted of god simply because we take him at his word, let us have and hold peace with god through our lord jesus christ[44].' then we can throw ourselves without embarrassments into the life of love and sacrifice, the life which has the love of god in christ for its motive, and reflects it among men. no doubt we must admit that st. paul's {44} doctrine of justification has not been generally appreciated in the church--the fact is strange, but it is indisputable. no doubt also we must admit that those who have chiefly been identified with it have often even disastrously distorted it. no doubt, as a result both of this neglect and of this distortion, the ordinary religious englishman of the present day is disposed to pass it by as having little meaning for him. nevertheless it remains true that no revival of religion can ever attain to any ripeness or richness unless this central doctrine of st. paul's gospel resumes its central place with us also. for, as st. paul preached it, it means this above all else--personal devotion to jesus christ as our redeemer. this personal devotion begins by accepting from him the unmerited boon of forgiveness of our sins, and (what is only the other side of such forgiveness) inheritance in the consecrated body. but the consciousness of what we have received from christ, and the price it cost him to put it at our disposal, gives to the whole subsequent life the character of a devotion based on gratitude. this is the christian life according to st. paul--personal devotion to christ and personal service based on gratitude for what he has done for us. 'for the love of christ {45} constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and he died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again.' [1] acts xx. 23. [2] hort's _prolegomena to romans and ephesians_ (macmillan, 1895), p. 9. [3] sanday and headlam's _commentary_ (t. & t. clark, 1895), p. xxviii. this commentary is henceforth referred to as s. & h. [4] see rom. ii. 17; iii. 9, &c. [5] see rom. i. 13; xi. 13-32; xv. 14-21. [6] rom. xvi. 3. [7] see rom. vi. 17, and remarks p. 234; cf. s. & h., p. xli. [8] acts xv. 1-35. [9] gal. ii. 1-10. [10] rom. xv. 25-32. [11] hort, l.c., p. 44. [12] rom. i. 10, 11; xv. 22-24. [13] on the relation between the two, see later, p. 168. [14] 1 macc. ii. 42; vii. 13 ff. [15] john v. 44. [16] matt. xv. 6; xxiii. 23. [17] rom. x. 3. [18] acts xv. 10. [19] rom. vii. 7. [20] see the argument of gal. iii. 15-22. 'god is one' in a sense which excludes the idea of any relatively independent contracting party over against him. [21] acts xxvi. 14. [22] col. ii. 20-22. [23] 2 tim. i. 12. [24] rom. x. 5-8. [25] cf. iii. 22, 26, &c. [26] 2 cor. v. 19; rom. iv. 25. [27] 1 pet. i. 21. it is of course the case that the name god in the new testament is _generally_ reserved for the father, though the proper divinity of son and spirit is constantly implied. [28] see below, p. 124. [29] matt. xviii. 23-35. [30] 2 pet. i. 9. [31] rom. v. 9-11. [32] 1 cor. vi. 11. [33] cf. hort, _first ep. of peter_ (macmillan, 1898), p. 70. [34] it is noticeable that st. paul never uses the verb translated 'to be sanctified' of persons in the present tense. it always describes an already existing state rather than a process. [35] rom. v. 18, but cf. later, p. 202. [36] hort, l.c., p. 24. [37] eph. v. 25; tit. ii. 14; cf. acts xx. 28. [38] ritschl, _rechtfertigung und versöhnung_, ii. p. 217 ff. cf. s. & h., p. 122; and orr, _ritschlian theology_ (hodder and stoughton, 1898) p. 169 ff. [39] the subject comes forward especially in connexion with chapters ix-xi. [40] i know that any brief statement about luther's doctrine may be disputed, for his own statements vary considerably. but i think the tendency of his teaching is fairly represented above. [41] 'acceptance' is already acquittal; but only in view of the new life of the body of christ which is to emancipate man from the power of sin. thus it is only as incorporated into christ that he finds his former sin 'put away.' 'i believe in one baptism for the remission of sins.' [42] he should say, if he would represent st. paul, 'works,' not 'good works.' [43] essay on 'righteousness by faith,' in _epistles of st. paul_ (murray, 1894), vol. ii. p. 264. the whole essay is very characteristic and very interesting, but not very pauline. [44] rom. v. 1. {46} the epistle to the romans chapter i. 1-7. _salutation._ it was the custom in the days of the romans to begin a letter with a brief indication from whom it came and to whom it was addressed, in the form of a complimentary salutation, thus--to take an example from the new testament--'claudius lysias unto the most excellent governor felix, greeting[1].' we are familiar in our day with the like forms for beginning and ending letters, serving the same purpose and generally no other. st. paul then accepts the epistolary form of his day, but pours into it an increasing wealth of personal meaning[2]. thus in this place the necessary address--'paul the apostle {47} to the believers in jesus christ which are in rome, greeting'--is expanded into a salutation extraordinarily full of meaning, explaining (1) who it is who writes the letter; (2) with what justification; (3) to whom; and (4) with what greeting. (1) it is paul who is writing, and he describes himself both personally and officially. personally, since the day when he surrendered himself on the road to damascus, he has been 'the slave of jesus christ,' bound in all things to do his will, and exulting all the time in the moral liberty which that bondage gave him. officially, he has received a commission and an office equal to that of the older apostles in the kingdom of christ: he has been 'called to be an apostle, separated to proclaim the good tidings of god.' (2) it is then this glorious commission that justifies his writing. these good tidings of god are the fulfilment of an age-long promise for which the world had been waiting. of ancient days there were 'prophets,' men commissioned to speak for god, whose writings remained after them and are held in highest reverence as 'holy scriptures.' these men foretold good days from god that were to come to his people in the {48} coming of the divinely anointed king, the christ. and now they are come. god has sent to redeem men not a servant, but his own son. true, he came as man among men: as one of the royal house of david, the house from which the christ was promised; yet simply man in outward nature and appearance, or 'according to the flesh.' but besides that ordinary seeming manhood, there was in him something higher--a sacred spiritual nature. and this higher nature it was that finally determined the estimate in which he was to be held. if 'according to the flesh' he was a man of david's house, according to this 'spirit of holiness' he was decisively designated by god's own act as son of god in miraculous power, and that especially when he was made the example of a resurrection from the dead. thenceforth 'jesus' of nazareth is 'christ' and 'the lord' of christians. it is he through whom st. paul and his fellows received the outpouring of the divine bounty for their own lives, and their apostolic commission on behalf of the name of christ to bring all the nations of the earth to the obedience of faith. and this commission extends as far as the roman christians and justifies st. paul in writing to them. {49} (3) to all the christians at rome, then, 'called to be saints,' i.e. called into the consecrated body and to the consecrated life, st. paul is writing. he does not say 'to the church which is at rome,' as in the other epistles of this date he writes 'to the church at corinth' and to 'the churches of galatia.' and though this might be accidental, yet probably it is due to the fact that st. paul thought of the roman christians as individuals who, many of them, had been converted elsewhere and for various reasons had come to be living at rome; so that in fact they had hardly yet attained the consistency of a single ordered church. (4) and to these christians he gives his greeting by wishing for them those gifts which may be taken as summing up the blessings of christ about which this epistle is to say so much--'grace,' which is god's love to us in actual operation, and 'peace,' which is the state of mind of one who realizes god's love--from the father and the son. this benediction is, however, but a christian form of that of aaron, 'the lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace[3].' {50} paul, a servant of jesus christ, called _to be_ an apostle, separated unto the gospel of god, which he promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his son, who was born of the seed of david according to the flesh, who was declared _to be_ the son of god with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead; _even_ jesus christ our lord, through whom we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name's sake: among whom are ye also, called _to be_ jesus christ's: to all that are in rome, beloved of god, called _to be_ saints: grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ. there is, i believe, nothing in the above analysis which is not implied at least in the original language of this salutation. and it is a remarkable summary of the grounds of st. paul's christian belief, more exact and explicit than the 'remember jesus christ, risen from the dead, of the seed of david, according to my gospel[4].' there are some points in it which require further notice:-1. the use of 'spirit of holiness' in connexion with christ (in ver. 4). here it is put in antithesis to 'the flesh,' i.e. christ as he appeared to the outward eye in his natural manhood; and describes, vaguely and without further definition, the higher nature of which, behind {51} his visible manhood, men became conscious[5]. elsewhere 'spirit' is more exactly used to describe (1) the human spirit in us or in christ[6]; (2) disembodied persons or angels or devils[7]; (3) the holy ghost[8]; (4) the being of god[9]; (5) generally what has will and consciousness, as opposed to the merely external, the 'flesh' or the 'letter[10].' sometimes, as in 2 cor. iii. 17, it is hard to feel sure about the exact shade of meaning. 2. we have here, in a very brief compass, st. paul's conception of 'christian evidences.' he begins from christ, 'according to the flesh.' 'and why,' asks chrysostom, 'did he not begin from the higher side? because matthew also, luke and mark, begin from the lower. one who would lead others upwards must begin from below. and this was in fact the divine method. first they saw him (christ) as man on the earth, and then perceived him to be god.' it was, in other words, through the {52} experience of his manhood that they arrived at his godhead. and the evidence of his divine sonship was in part miraculous; but it was not mere miracle. it was miracle 'according to a spirit of holiness.' it was miracle filled with spiritual and moral meaning. it was a resurrection vindicating perfect righteousness. 3. the phrase 'the resurrection of the dead' is translated more exactly by wiclif 'agenrisynge of dead _men_! christ's resurrection is the great example of what is to be general. 4. the obedience of faith exactly describes the human faculty as it showed itself in st. paul himself at his conversion. with him to believe was, without any possibility of question, to obey him whom he believed, and st. paul knows no faith which does not involve a like obedience; cf. xv. 18; xvi. 26; 1 pet. i. 2. [1] acts xxiii. 26. [2] the salutation of the first epistle to the thessalonians, the earliest epistle, is the most nearly formal. those to the romans and to titus are the fullest and richest. [3] num. vi. 25, 26; see hort, _first ep. of peter_, p. 25. [4] 2 tim. ii. 8. [5] cf. 1 tim. iii. 16, 'justified in the spirit,' where the use is approximately the same. [6] see 1 thess. v. 23; 1 cor. v. 5; james ii. 26; matt. v. 3; xxvi. 41; 1 pet. iii. 18; mark viii. 12. [7] luke xxiv. 39; heb. xii. 23; i. 14; matt. viii. 16, &c. [8] matt. iii. 16; luke x. 21, r.v. &c. [9] john iv. 24. [10] john vi. 63; rom. ii. 29; 2 cor. iii. 6. {53} chapter i. 8-17. _st. paul's introduction._ the salutation is immediately followed by a passage in which st. paul introduces himself specially to the christians at rome. he had a delicate task to perform. the roman christians had been gathered probably from many parts of the empire, because rome was the centre of all the world's movements, and adherents of whatever was going on in the empire were sure by force of circumstances to find their way to rome. thus, though no apostle had yet preached at rome, christians had gathered there. many of them had not seen st. paul's face. but they had heard of him, no doubt, in jewish circles as a very dangerous man who was upheaving and subverting established traditions and principles. he was a man to be looked at askance. he must introduce himself therefore carefully. it was of the greatest importance {54} to him, the apostle of the gentiles, that he should gain full recognition among these christians at rome, the centre of the gentile world. we observe then in this introduction what a gentleman, if i may say so, in the very deepest sense of the term, st. paul shows himself to be. he speaks indeed with an admirable mixture of tact and candour. we can hardly conceive any better address in a delicate situation than this address of st. paul with which he makes his approach to the roman christians. he begins with what is pleasant for them to hear, namely, that the report of their faith throughout all the world is a good one. 'i thank my god through jesus christ for you all that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.' then he goes on to add, as is usual in his introductions, that he continually prays for them. it was a remark of general gordon's that it makes a great difference in our feeling towards a stranger if before we meet him we have prayed for him. and we may with equal truth say that it makes a great difference in the feelings of others towards us if they have reason to believe that we have prayed for them. st. paul therefore gives himself this advantage. he says, 'god is my witness, whom i worship in my {55} spirit in the gospel of his son, how unceasingly i make mention of you always in my prayers.' then he goes on to tell them that he not only prays for their welfare, but prays that he may have the advantage of seeing them face to face and knowing them. and here he puts his desire to see them on the true ground. he wants to visit them because he has something of the utmost value to give them--that he may 'impart unto them some spiritual gift.' whatever may be the exact nature of the 'spiritual gift' st. paul is thinking of, it is clearly something for which his bodily presence is necessary. there is some divine power which he as an apostle can communicate to them only when he comes among them. in this sense he means that 'when he comes to them he will come in the fulness of the blessing of christ[1].' he implies that the roman christians needed him and must wait for him to supply their deficiencies. but we observe that with beautiful tact he at once balances this assertion of a divine power entrusted to him for their good, by representing his own need of them. he does not speak _de haut en bas_ as if he had everything to give and nothing to receive. {56} no: as the people depend on the apostle for spiritual gifts, so he depends on the people for spiritual encouragement. he must live by the experience of their spiritual growth. 'i desire,' he says, 'to come to you that i may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end that ye may be established' (built up and made strong in the faith). and then he interprets:--that is 'in order that i with you may be encouraged[2] among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine.' then he goes on to tell them why he in particular is bound to come to them, though hitherto he had been hindered by circumstances. it is because he is 'a debtor.' st. paul was the apostle, not of the jews, but of the gentiles. therefore he is in debt to all the gentiles till he has given them the gospel, and more particularly to the centre of the gentile world, to rome. and he would owe no man anything. he would have no unsatisfied creditors. he will pay his debt therefore to the roman christians. 'i am a debtor,' he says, 'both to greeks and to barbarians'--that is to all the gentiles, whether they were of greek race or not. and {57} the greeks were so identified with civilization or education that this leads him on to say, 'i am a debtor both to the educated and to the uneducated.' this general debt includes rome. it was natural to include the dwellers at rome under the head of greeks, for it was through the medium of greek that st. paul made his appeal to them. and, in fact, the christians at rome were, for the first two hundred and fifty years or more of the church's life, a greek-speaking people--a greek colony in the latin city. only towards the end of the third century did the roman church become latinized in language and spirit. st. paul then is a debtor to these greek-speaking dwellers at rome. 'so as much as in me is i am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are in rome.' but the name of rome was, as he thought of it, a name of awe. it brought in upon his mind the tremendous undertaking that lay before him and before the christian church as they found themselves confronted with this vast imperial organization, which might at any time lay its iron hand upon them to stop their progress. therefore he adds that, even in view of rome, he has courage in his heart: 'for i am not ashamed of the gospel,' even under the shadow {58} of the mighty name, and though it was 'to the jews a stumbling-block and to the greeks foolishness.' and why? because he knows what the gospel means. it is not mere words; it is a power. it is a 'power of god,' a divine force, which, like the wind, bloweth where it listeth, and which nothing can stop. it is a power of god. it is a power of god 'unto salvation,' a power that is to work men's deliverance, and that in the deepest sense. roman emperors not very long after st. paul's time are commemorated in public inscriptions as 'saviours of the world[3].' that is in the sense of maintaining peace and civil order. but christ's salvation was of a deeper sort. it was salvation from the bondage of sin, a salvation which enabled people to be truly and eternally free. it is a power of god unto salvation, and that 'to every one that believeth,' on the mere basis of the simple willingness to take god at his word; 'to the jew first and also to the greek.' 'for'--and here st. paul reaches the great text of his whole epistle--'therein' (that is, in the gospel) 'is disclosed,' or revealed here and now in the world, {59} 'a righteousness of god.' by this phrase it will appear that he means both a righteousness which is god's own, and also a righteousness which god gives to men; for the gift of god is real moral and spiritual fellowship with his own life. this is what is now offered to men. a righteousness of god is revealed, starting from faith and at every stage moving on upon the support of faith, 'a righteousness of god by faith unto faith'; and that not in repudiation of the old covenant, but in fulfilment of its vital principle: 'as it is written.' for the words of habakkuk may be interpreted to express the central spirit of the old testament--'the righteous shall live by faith[4].' first, i thank my god through jesus christ for you all that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. for god is my witness, whom i serve in my spirit in the gospel of his son, how unceasingly i make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if by any means now at length i may be prospered by the will of god to come unto you. for i long to see you, that i may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that is, that i with you may be comforted in you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine. and i would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes i purposed to come unto you (and was hindered hitherto), that i might have some fruit in you also, even {60} as in the rest of the gentiles. i am debtor both to greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. so, as much as in me is, i am ready to preach the gospel to you also that are in rome. for i am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of god unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the jew first, and also to the greek. for therein is revealed a righteousness of god by faith unto faith: as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith. 1. origen's comment on the words 'through jesus christ' (at the beginning of this section) is very interesting. 'to give god thanks is to offer a sacrifice of praise, and therefore he adds "through jesus christ," as through the great high priest.' indeed, the doctrine of the high priesthood of christ, if it is not mentioned in st. paul's own epistles, is implied there from the first. 2. st. paul, we notice, expresses his intention to come to rome with reserve, 'if by any means by the will of god' ... 'so much as lies in me.' and this reserve was no matter of mere words. he was going up to jerusalem with an offering of money, about which he felt the greatest anxiety, and he knew not how he would be received, or what would befall him[5]. 3. it is not possible to decide what sort of {61} 'spiritual gift' st. paul is thinking of. we know that as an apostle he was qualified to impart the holy ghost by the laying on of hands, and that certain 'gifts' frequently accompanied his inward presence. thus, 'when paul had laid his hands upon some men at ephesus, the holy ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues and prophesied.' we know, further, that the corinthian church, whence st. paul was writing this letter, was specially rich in 'spiritual gifts,' such as 'tongues and prophecy.' on the other hand, the roman christians had not yet received an apostolic visit and they may have been lacking in such endowments, while the reception of them would be calculated to encourage them and strengthen their faith. it is possible, therefore, that he refers to a gift of this kind, and the exact language he uses certainly suggests some definite endowment, for the bestowal of which his bodily presence was necessary. the thought of the miraculous power working through him, 'the power of signs and wonders, the power of the holy ghost[6],' was not far from his mind when he wrote this epistle. origen's comment on this passage also is {62} interesting. 'first of all we ought to learn that it is an apostolic work to long to see our brethren, but for no other reason than that we may confer on them something in the way of a spiritual gift if we can, and if we cannot, that we may receive in the same kind from them. otherwise, the longing to go about among the brethren is not to be approved.' we cannot doubt, i think, that when st. paul's letter was read at rome this introduction, so full of tact, would have given him access to many hearts inclined at starting to be prejudiced against him. [1] rom. xv. 29. [2] 'to encourage' and 'encouragement' are probably the best words to translate what in our bible is rendered by 'comfort.' [3] hadrian and trajan: see _c.i.g._ vol. ii. p. 1068, no. 2349 m.; vol. iii. p. 170, no. 4339, p. 191, no. 4380. these references i owe to mr. h. w. b. joseph, of new college. [4] hab. ii. 4; cf. app. note a on meanings of the word 'faith.' [5] rom. xv. 25 ff.; acts xx. 22. [6] rom. xv. 19. {63} division i. (chapters i. 18-iii. 20.) _the universality of sin and condemnation._ st. paul has enunciated his great thesis. there has arrived into the world a new and divine force making for man's fullest salvation: the disclosure of a real fellowship in the moral being of god, which is open to all men, jew and gentile equally, on the simple terms of taking god at his word. this word of good tidings st. paul is to expand and justify in his epistle; but first he must pause and explain its antecedents. why was such a disclosure needed at this moment of the world's history? why has st. paul spoken of 'salvation,' or why does he elsewhere speak of 'redemption,' instead of expressing such ideas as are most popular among ourselves to-day--development or progress? it is because, to st. paul's mind, man as he is is held in a bondage which he ought to find intolerable, and the first step to freedom lies in the recognition of this. again, why does st. paul {64} lay such emphasis on faith, mere faith, only faith--why is he to insist so zealously on the exclusion of any merit or independent power on man's part? it is not only because faith, the faculty of mere reception and correspondence, represents the normal and rational relation of man to god, his creator, sustainer, father. it is also, and with special emphasis, because there has been a great revolt, a great assertion of false independence on man's part; and what is needed first of all is the submission of the rebel, or much rather the return of the prodigal son, simply to throw himself on the mercy of his father and acknowledge his utter dependence upon him for the forgiveness of his disloyalty and his outrages, as well as for the fellowship which he seeks in the divine life. the fuller statement therefore of st. paul's gospel must be postponed to the uncloaking of what man is without it. the note of severity must be struck before the message of joy. we must be brought to acknowledge ourselves to be not men only, but corrupt men--men under the divine wrath--doomed men powerless to deliver ourselves, and ready therefore to welcome in simple gratitude the large offer of god's liberal and almost unconditional love. {65} it is to produce this acknowledgement that st. paul now addresses himself. this argument of the first part of the epistle is a very simple one. it elucidates two plain propositions:-1. that the wrath of god is, and is necessarily according to eternal and unalterable principles of moral government, and in the case of every man without any possibility of exception, upon sin. 2. that all men, jews and gentiles, are held in sin, and therefore lie under the divine wrath. thus st. paul immediately follows up his initial statement of the revelation of a divine righteousness with the assertion of another 'revelation' made plain to the consciences of men. 'the wrath of god is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,' and he proceeds to demonstrate the prevalence of sin first of all in the heathen world and to lay bare its meaning. {66} division i. § i. (chapter i. 18-32). _judgement on the gentile world._ before we read this passage certain points should be plain to our minds. 1. by sin st. paul means essentially wilfulness--wilful disobedience. there is such a thing as an inheritance of moral weakness or perversity which passes to men without their fault and without their knowledge. this, the real existence of which hardly any one can deny, is what is called original sin; and later on we shall find st. paul speaking of it. but it is not what is most properly called sin. god is absolutely equitable. 'sin is not reckoned' as sin in his sight, apart from knowledge and will. sin, most properly speaking, begins and ends where wilful disobedience begins and ends. st. paul on this matter is completely at one with st. john {67} when he makes sin and lawlessness identical as realities in the world. 'sin is lawlessness[1].' and we cannot even make a beginning of advance along st. paul's line of thought till we recognize the real existence of sin as something different in kind from ignorance or weakness or lack of development, and as an incomparably greater evil than those. sin is the created will setting itself against the divine will. it is, as a state or an act, the refusal of god. and the recognition of the awful existence of this refusal of god is the main clue to understanding the miseries of the present world. 2. sin therefore, involving as it does _wilful_ disobedience, can only be spoken of as prevalent over the heathen world because, not merely one chosen race, but all men in general have had the opportunity of the knowledge of god. st. paul indeed elsewhere modifies the general assertion of the fact which he makes in this place, by broadly recognizing that there are states of human existence which are low in their moral standard, but are rendered comparatively guiltless by the absence of moral knowledge--states of life where sin exists but is not reckoned {68} as sin[2]. for 'sin,' he says, 'is not reckoned' as sin where there is no enlightening law and no consequent condemnation of conscience. but in this passage, looking at humanity in general, he asserts, like the author of the book of wisdom or the perhaps contemporary jewish author of the apocalypse of baruch[3], that all men have had the opportunity of knowing god from his works in nature, and that their present state is the result of a wilful refusal of him. they are 'without excuse.' the sources of the natural knowledge of god are indeed twofold, for there is the moral conscience, individual and social, of which st. paul speaks later; but here it is the evidence of nature alone of which st. paul speaks: the witness of the creatures to 'the {69} invisible things' or attributes of their creator, that is to say, to his power and (generally) his divinity. 3. assuming then the opportunity of the knowledge of god as lying behind human records, st. paul traces the history of sin. it had its roots in the refusal of the human will to recognize god and give him the homage of gratitude and service due to him. men 'held down the truth in unrighteousness,' that is, restrained it from having free course in their hearts and in the world because of the painful moral obligations which it involves. knowing god, they refused to acknowledge him with thankfulness or 'give him the glory.' rather they would themselves 'be as gods.' they 'refused to have god in their knowledge.' then from this root in the rebel will sin passed to the obscuring of the understanding, as is shown in the ridiculous aberrations of idolatry. 'they became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise,' the nations in their worship showed themselves fools. idolatry had long ago appeared simply ridiculous to isaiah: he pointed the finger of scorn at the idolaters. 'they know not,' he cried, 'neither do they {70} consider: the lord hath shut their eyes that they cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot understand. and none calleth to mind, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, i have burned part of the wood in the fire; yea, also i have baked bread upon the coals thereof; i have roasted flesh and eaten it: and shall i make the residue thereof an abomination? shall i fall down to the stock of a tree? he feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand[4]?' isaiah's language and thought had been elaborated and developed in the book of wisdom[5], and st. paul appropriates it. to mistake creatures for the creator, or to think of the glorious and spiritual god as if he were in the form of the corruptible body of man or beast or bird or reptile--so st. paul alludes to the man worship of greece and the animal worship of egypt--is simple blindness and folly; blindness and folly in which st. paul sees the just punishment of {71} the rebellious will in the region of the intellect. but it has another punishment in the region of the appetites or passions. as men deliberately 'repudiated' the knowledge and obedience of god, god 'repudiated' men in penal retribution. he gave them up to become vile in their own eyes and to find out their impotence to control their own lusts. they ran riot even in all sorts of unnatural and lawless ways, so that the world became full of sins of all kinds; sins against god and sins against man; antisocial sins of all sorts, the sins which destroy the state and friendship and commerce and the home: and at the last the very ideal of righteousness had come to be lost. st. paul, we notice, makes the lowest moral stage of all to consist, not in merely doing these wicked things, but in abandoning all distaste for them--consenting unrestrainedly to those who do them; and this profoundly true remark explains the moral impotence of much that is from other points of view excellent in greek literature. 4. for the punishment of all this sin st. paul is not content to look to the 'day of judgement,' though that is to be the final and characteristic expression of divine wrath, and that 'day of wrath' he still probably anticipated in the more {72} immediate future; but he sees already in the actual world of human society as he knows it the manifold evidence of the divine wrath here and now. men are receiving in themselves the fitting reward of their perversity. their life has found its own punishment. the divine wrath is actually disclosed in the facts of experience. 'look,' st. paul seems to say, 'at the way men are living, and ask yourselves if there is any interpretation but one of the facts you see. there is but one conclusion possible. god has condemned and is showing his wrath on the human nature which he made.' just in the same way in an earlier epistle st. paul speaks of the jews, even before the destruction of jerusalem, as already judged, already the subject of the divine wrath[6]. and god's method of judgement is this. the punishment lies in the natural consequences of the lawless actions. the wages of sin is also its fruit[7]. and further, this punishment of sin involves the increased liability to sin again. one sin 'gives us over' to another, as one good action facilitates another. this idea was familiar to jewish teachers. among the 'sayings of the fathers' we find, 'every fulfilment of duty is rewarded by another, {73} and every transgression is punished by another[8].' st. paul, in fact, in this chapter, may be said to be concentrating for the christian church all that is best and deepest in the moral philosophy of judaism. now we are in a position to read the first section of st. paul's argument without perhaps finding any single idea to the interpretation of which we have not a clue. for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold down the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of god is manifest in them; for god manifested it unto them. for the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, _even_ his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse: because that, knowing god, they glorified him not as god, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible god for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. wherefore god gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonoured among themselves: for that they exchanged the truth of god for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed for ever. amen. {74} for this cause god gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due. and even as they refused to have god in _their_ knowledge, god gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful to god, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful: who, knowing the ordinance of god, that they which practise such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with them that practise them. 1. perhaps the first question which arises in our minds when reading this passage is, whether st. paul's general account of the heathen world is not unjustifiably severe. does he not paint it too black? in fact, the account he gives coincides with the account given by other jews of the gentile world as in their experience they found it; and this, we must remember, means the gentile world of the great cities of the empire. they thought, as they moved about the world and saw what they could not but {75} see, that god had forsaken the gentiles because they refused to acknowledge his law. there was sin enough in israel, but it was remediable. the sin of the gentiles was irremediable. god had forsaken them[9]. this last idea is of course one entirely alien to st. paul's mind. to him all god's judgements, at least in this world, have one intention--to awaken men to recognize the truth and to stir them to conversion, 'that he may have mercy upon all.' but otherwise st. paul's view of the gentile world, as he experienced it in the cities of mixed greek and asiatic population of the roman empire, and especially in the notoriously wicked corinth where he was writing[10], was the ordinary jewish view. and a contemporary stoic philosopher, who wrote at ephesus under the name of heracleitus, gives a picture of society in that city fully as black[11]. at the same time, if we are to be fair, we must recognize that the account, while true, is not complete. the gentile life was not without its 'salt.' there was a great deal of virtue, both domestic and philosophical, in the {76} empire--more perhaps in the country, of which st. paul knew little, than in the towns. and the existence of this salt he acknowledges when, in the second chapter of this epistle, he speaks of gentiles which have no revealed law but do by nature the things of law, being a law unto themselves, and having the effect of the law written in their hearts, and a witnessing conscience, individual and social, to help them[12]: and again, when he intimates that there is an uncircumcision which puts the circumcision to shame by keeping the law[13]. but it is not st. paul's way to exactly correlate the different aspects of his subject as a modern writer would do. he is a prophet and preacher, not a formally systematic writer. it is enough for him that the sin which he is describing is a reality: that its tendencies are what he describes them to be: that, whatever other counter tendency there may be, sin is so dominant in the world that its results are as he represents them, and that the conscience and experience of those to whom he writes will respond to his indictment. nor, if we give its metaphorical meaning to 'idolatry,' is there a word which st. paul says in this chapter which would not be true of our {77} modern civilization in london or paris or new york. with us indeed christianity has been sufficiently vigorous to provide a counteracting force, of infinitely stronger power than existed in the roman world, to resist corruption. the agencies of divine strength and recovery, the centres of health and light, are infinitely more numerous, stronger, more constant, more progressive. but the world of sin is still what it was: and always there lies upon it the same stamp of the divine condemnation. we look around on the life of our city, with its selfish and disgusting lusts, with its drunkenness, with its enervating luxury, with its selfish wealth, with its reckless and immoral gambling, with its dishonest commerce, with its grasping avarice so neglectful of the lives of those whom it makes its instruments: we look round, i say, not on the whole life, but on the sinful life of our city, and we see what human nature is plainly meant not to be, either in its characteristics or in its miserable issues. and by the interval between what we see life to be and what we know it was meant to be, we can measure the reality of the divine judgement. the facts press upon us the truth which st. paul would teach. the sinful life is a condemned life. here is an {78} actual disclosure of the wrath of god upon all unrighteousness and sin. 2. but what will 'science' say to st. paul's account of human degeneracy and degradation? does not st. paul seem to talk, as moralists in general have been disposed to talk, as if the course of the world's history had been a downward course? and is not this the religious view? and is it not directly opposed to the scientific view of a gradual process of development and advance? this is a very common form of question to suggest itself to our minds. and the answer to it appears to be this[14]:--the biblical view of the world is not by any means that as a whole it has gone from bad to worse. it recognizes periods and areas of degradation, and suggests periods and areas of stagnation. and this is what anthropology and history equally suggest. but its main concern is with the history of one particular line of human advancement under divine guidance through abraham and moses and prophets and kings, through christ and his church: an advancement which is to be finally world-wide, and even more than world-wide, in its effects. other lines of progress in civilization and knowledge {79} the bible recognizes but is not largely concerned with. but it is in its general effect thoroughly in accord with science, which suggests not general and equable advance over the whole region of humanity, but advance in special departments along the line of select races, continually impeded in its progress by counter tendencies, by periods and areas of degradation, and still more of stagnation[15]. science, indeed, utters no word of promise at all as to the ultimate result of all this evolution[16]. it is faith, of whatsoever sort, not science, that can make us optimistic as to the issue of human history. but no doubt the bible does throughout postulate the existence of sin; and it claims that sin everywhere, and from the first, has been a cause of degradation in the individual and the race. now here is the real point at issue in the relations of religion and science. the {80} main question is not about human origins or a primaeval fall. it is simply on the comparatively easy field of actual human existence. is human freedom--freedom within limits to choose and act--a reality? can man therefore misuse this freedom to do what he need not have done and ought not to have done? and has he, in fact, constantly been doing morally wrong things, wilfully and knowingly, which he need not have done? does, therefore, the area of human history present at every stage a result or product which human wilfulness and lawlessness, that is, sin, has contributed to spoil and to degrade below its natural level? now it is this--the real existence of countless human actions which need not have been and ought not to have been--which contemporary science, with a necessitarian bias, is largely occupied in denying. granted the reality within limits--limits which have no doubt often been grossly exaggerated, but granted the reality within due limits--of human freedom, and therefore the possibility and reality of actual sin and guilt and degradation which need not have been, i do not believe there remains any serious conflict in the moral region between religion and science. the conflict, i say, is continually {81} being taken back into the region of original sin or the original fall. but this is a quite secondary area of debate, in which i believe there can be no serious disagreement, if there is agreement in the primary area of actual human sin. the universal moral consciousness and common sense of man bears witness to the fact that we can do and do do what we ought and need not. it recognizes, moreover, the moral truth of st. paul's idea that this lawlessness of the will has its perverting effects on the intelligence and on the passions. the human conscience then responds to st. paul's account of the origin and history of human sin, and of its fruits both in the individual and in society. and if psychological science is inclined to deny the very existence of any faculty of free choice such as makes sin possible, it will be found on examination to be going very far beyond what it can prove. for the reality of guilt and sin, and the degradation which results from it, we have the human consciousness; against it we have no positive evidence: nothing in fact but the habitual unwillingness of specialist science, physical or theological, to recognize its limits. 3. st. paul finds the root of sin in the refusal {82} of man in general to recognize god. he asserts that they might have known him, or rather did know him, but declined to act on that knowledge. now it is noticeable that he does not ascribe this knowledge of god, which he declares to have been possible to man everywhere, to an original revelation, nor even in this place to the moral conscience, but to the evidence of nature. in this, as in his ridicule of idolatry, he is in accordance, not only with jewish thought, but with contemporary greek philosophy. the argument from design had become habitual in the schools, having been stated first of all with transparent simplicity by xenophon in his account of the reasoning of socrates. st. paul then finds in this instinctive inference from nature up to nature's god, 'a testimony of the soul naturally christian.' he is able, at lystra and athens, to assume that men will respond to it. it is another question, into which st. paul does not specifically enter, how far back in human history the appreciation of this reasoning goes. but it is worth noticing that among our contemporary investigators of the history of religion, some at least of the most acute have been coming back to what we may call a modified {83} form of the doctrine of an original monotheism[17]. they think that even savage religions generally bear traces, that are plainly independent, of a belief in one great and mostly good god; and that there is no evidence that this higher belief was developed out of the lower belief in manifold spirits of more ambiguous characters. they see no reason to suppose that the higher belief has been gradually arrived at within any period into which the human mind can penetrate with its investigations or its well-grounded conjectures. humanity appears to them to have been haunted from its origins with this belief in the one god; and they regard all the higher religious movements as attempts not so much to arrive at, as to retain hold on, a belief which is continually in danger of being overlaid and forgotten. it does not appear that anthropological science is at all likely to disprove such a view which on the other hand has a great deal of evidence to justify it. at least, the {84} evidences of deterioration in the history of religion are manifold and conspicuous. the lowest view of god and man is not by any means always the oldest. and the recognition of such facts is quite consonant with the doctrine of the evolution of religion in its more reasonable forms. meanwhile, every one is in sufficient harmony with st. paul's argument who recognizes the universal facts of sin and guilt and needless moral deterioration among men; and who recognizes also that the secret of sin is the wilful refusal on men's part to know god as they might have known him, and obey him as they might have obeyed him. 4. besides these difficult questions, we should mark what is both plain and instructive, that st. paul regards man as necessarily living either above himself or below himself. man's true nature is to be in dependence upon god. therein is his true liberty and dignity of sonship. when he tries to be independent, to be his own master simply, he loses the true principle of self-government and becomes the victim of his own passions. god 'gave men up,' handed them over as slaves to dishonouring passions. this theory of human nature is intimately bound up with all st. paul's {85} teaching about grace and redemption, and we shall hear more of it. 5. we shall do well to notice, finally, one consequence which follows from recognizing that the lowest stage of moral degradation lies, not merely in doing what is wrong, but in having ceased to disapprove of it. that is to say, the lowest moral stage carries with it a complete loss of ideal, or absence of the standard of right and wrong; and this lowest stage is anticipated before it is reached. it follows, therefore, and we must not forget it, that the actual conscience of the individual, or of the society, at any particular moment affords no adequate standard of right and wrong. the moral conscience, like the intelligence in general, requires enlightenment. it supplies no trustworthy information, except so far as we are at pains to keep it enlightened. more than this, its capacity to keep us admonished depends on our habitually observing its injunctions. to disobey conscience is to dull it, and finally to make it obdurate and insensitive. the absence of conscientious objection to a particular course of action may therefore be due either to our having neglected to enlighten our conscience or to having refused to obey it. the duty of an {86} individual to himself is not only to obey his conscience, but also take pains to enlighten it. and the duty of the individual to society is to make continual efforts to keep the corporate conscience up to standard. [1] 1 john iii. 4. the greek phrase implies exactly that all sin is lawlessness, and all lawlessness is sin. [2] rom. v. 13, 14. [3] cf. wisd. xiii. 1-9: 'for verily all men by nature were but vain who had no perception of god, and from the good things that are seen they gained not power to know him that is, neither by giving heed to the works did they recognize the artificer.... for from the greatness of the beauty even of created things in like proportion does man form the image of their first maker.... but again even they are not to be excused. for if they had power to know so much ... how is it that they did not sooner find the sovereign lord of these his works?' apoc. bar. liv. 17, 18: 'from time to time ye have rejected the understanding of the most high. for his works have not taught you, nor has the skill of his creation which is at all times persuaded you.' [4] isa. xliv. 18-20. [5] wisd. xi. 15; xiii, xiv, xv. st. paul's debt to the book of wisdom is apparent (1) in the kinds of idols he mentions; (2) in the way in which the thought of idolatry leads on to that of uncleanness and sexual immorality; and (3) in the idea of retribution by the natural law of results. [6] 1 thess. ii. 16. [7] butler's _analogy_, part i. ch. 2. [8] _pirqé aboth_, iv. 2 (cited by s. and h.). [9] s. and h. p. 49. [10] he implies, as dr. farrar points out, 1 cor. v. 9-10, that pure society did not exist in corinth. [11] see my _ephesians_, pp. 91, 92, 255. [12] rom. ii. 13-15. [13] rom. ii. 26. [14] see also app. note e on physical science and the fall. [15] cf. f. b. jevons, _introd. to the hist. of religion_ (methuen), pp. 394, 395: 'everywhere it is the many who lapse: the few who hold right on. the progressive peoples of the earth are in a minority.' 'though evolution is universal, progress is exceptional.' [16] cf. huxley, _evolution and ethics_ (romanes lecture, 1893, macmillan), p. 36: 'the theory of evolution encourages no millennial anticipations. if, for millions of years, our globe has taken the upward road, yet, some time, the summit will be reached, and the downward route will be commenced.' [17] the allusion is to (1) jevons (_op. cit._ cap. xxv), who seems to think some 'amorphous' form of monotheism may very probably lie behind totemism. he strongly repudiates the notion that the lower form is necessarily the older. (2) andrew lang, _making of religion_ (longmans, 1898), chaps. ix and xv. cp. also orr's _christian view of god and the world_ (elliot, 1893), pp. 212 ff., and notes e, f, g. {87} division i. § 2. chapter ii. 1-29. _judgement on the jews._ st. paul in his judgement of the gentile world is but repeating, with more of moral discernment, what he would have learned in his jewish training. but the strict jews who had taught st. paul, though some among them must have been good men, ready to enter into the deeply penitential spirit of their psalmists and prophets, do not seem as a rule to have liked to think of their own people as liable to divine condemnation. they chose to suppose that the gentile world alone was the area upon which divine vengeance would light, while the jews were to appear as the instruments of god's judgements, or at least themselves exempt from them. they had forgotten all the superabundant warnings against such a spirit which the prophets from amos to john the baptist had let fall. this frame of mind--censorious when {88} it looks without, lenient to the point of blindness when it looks within--sometimes appears when one thinks of things in the abstract as almost impossible, in the form at least in which st. paul here proceeds to attribute it to the jews. we can hardly believe that any responsible beings could be so blind as st. paul implies that his pious fellow-countrymen were. but it needs only experience to convince us that even in its grosser forms this frame of mind is extraordinarily common in individuals, in nations, and in churches. certainly the nation of england is not, and the representatives of religious england too often are not, exempt from the common failing. and in the case of the jews we have also the witness of our lord. he represents the religious jewish world as honeycombed with hypocrisy of a plain and gross sort. they are to him very types of the men who behold the mote that is in their brother's eye, but consider not the beam that is in their own eyes. st. paul's witness then is only the same as the christ's. here then st. paul turns abruptly upon a jew who may be supposed to have been listening to the indictment of the gentiles with expressions of sympathy, and bids him look {89} within and recognize that the jew also falls under the same indictment and on the same grounds. and he proceeds sternly to cut away any possible ground of confidence which he might derive from the thought that he had 'abraham to his father.' god's judgement is directed by an absolutely impartial 'truth' or estimate of the facts in their inner reality. if in any particular case of persistent sin his judgement seems to linger, it is not that he has forgotten or will overlook; it is only that he is merciful and forbearing, and gives long space for repentance[1]. but, meanwhile, if the opportunity is not taken, if the heart is hard and impenitent, a store is being laid up against the offender in the place of judgement, which will break out in the great day in manifested wrath. god's principle of judgement is absolutely free from partiality. there are men {90} who have steadily in view the true aim of human life, its imperishable glory, its final and permanent honour, and, therefore, preferring eternal to temporal things, patiently go on doing good; they may be jews or greeks, but in either case indifferently, the reward that they have sought will be theirs with the accompaniment of inward peace. there are other men who are contentious, and refusing the leading of the truth, make themselves servants to unrighteousness. they may be jews or gentiles, but the divine wrath, showing itself in outward suffering and inward anguish, will be upon them all equally. for god judges men impartially in the light of their opportunities. those who have the advantage of a revealed law shall be judged and acquitted according as they have, not listened to it merely, but obeyed it. for a law known and not kept, so far from commending us to god, is but the instrument of our judgement. and those who have not this advantage are yet not without an inward light in the natural moral consciousness of mankind. those who have sinned against this light shall find nothing else was needed to bring them to their ruin. and those, on the other hand, who by its help keep the moral law in effect, without {91} any assistance from a revealed law, are their own law for themselves. they have the law in its practical result written in their hearts as their conduct shows, and their natural conscience bears its accompanying witness. for conscience, both individual and social, reflecting on all human actions to condemn, or, more rarely, to acquit, anticipates the final divine judgement which, as st. paul continually announces, it will be the office of jesus the christ to pass unerringly upon things secret as well as open in the 'day of the lord.' the specially revealed law on which the jew relied, which it is his boast to have received from god, and in virtue of which he could rightly claim to have a knowledge of divine things which other men had not, and to be the teacher of the nations, the interpreter to other men of the divine will--this law finds its first application to those themselves to whom it is given. how can they preach the commandments, whether it be the eighth or the seventh or the second that is in question, so long as they have so bad a reputation for keeping them? they cannot deny that as of old, so now, their moral conduct causes the heathen to blaspheme their religion, instead of {92} being drawn towards it. to have received circumcision in physical fact is of no profit at all, unless it be accompanied by the obedience of which the mark in the flesh is but the symbol. disobedience is in god's sight uncircumcision. and where the obedience is, god will reckon it as if the symbol were there also. the morally obedient gentile will sit in judgement on the morally disobedient jew. for that is the divine principle. god everywhere and always looks to the spiritual reality as it is seated in heart and will, and is satisfied never by outward distinctions. jew (judah) means 'praise.' but if the jew is to merit his name, he must not be satisfied with the applause of men. he must commend himself to god who sees the heart. wherefore thou art without excuse, o man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest dost practise the same things. and we know that the judgement of god is according to truth against them that practise such things. and reckonest thou this, o man, who judgest them that practise such things, and doest the same, that thou shall escape the judgement of god? or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of god leadeth thee to repentance? but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the {93} day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of god; who will render to every man according to his works: to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honour and incorruption, eternal life: but unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, _shall be_ wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the jew first, and also of the greek; but glory and honour and peace to every man that worketh good, to the jew first, and also to the greek: for there is no respect of persons with god. for as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned under law shall be judged by law; for not the hearers of a law are just before god, but the doers of a law shall be justified: for when gentiles which have no law do by nature the things of the law, these, having no law, are a law unto themselves; in that they shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith[2], and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing _them_; in the day when god shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by jesus christ. but if thou bearest the name of a jew, and restest upon the law, and gloriest in god, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them that are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth; thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? {94} thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou rob temples? thou who gloriest in the law, through thy transgression of the law dishonourest thou god? for the name of god is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you, even as it is written. for circumcision indeed profiteth, if thou be a doer of the law: but if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is become uncircumcision. if therefore the uncircumcision keep the ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? and shall not the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who with the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law? for he is not a jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of god. 1. as at the end of the first chapter we asked whether st. paul was fair to the gentile world, so now we ask whether he is fair to those of his own race whose religious tendencies he had known so well from inside. and the answer again is that he undoubtedly represents aright the dominant tendency and temper among them. the prophets had always had to fight against the natural but false idea of divine election, which held the jewish race secure in the favour of jehovah, simply because he was their god and they were his people. they bring to bear {95} all the activities of an inspired intelligence and heart to make their fellow-countrymen perceive that they are only secure in god's favour so long as they are like him in character. now down to the period of the captivity, the prophets could also denounce the people because they were constantly false to jehovah in matters of worship as well as of morality. after the captivity, however, the tendency to idolatry is gone for ever. after the maccabean period the exclusive and legitimate worship of jehovah becomes a matter of passionate enthusiasm in the jewish race. henceforth therefore their danger from the false idea of election passes into a new phase. we must be in the favour of god, they now could plead, because we have abraham to our father, and because we keep to the worship of our god with an irreproachable zeal for his law. against this sort of strengthened pleading john the baptist, the last of the prophets, aims his bare moral teaching. god's wrath is just about to fall upon his people he declares, because it lacks in real moral righteousness. repent ye, be changed, get you a new heart--is his one word of preaching. this keynote passes intensified into the teachings and the denunciations of christ. nothing {96} more surely stamps the narrative of 'the woman taken in adultery' as historically genuine[3], than its profound truth to the moral attitude of christ in face of scribes and pharisees. the point of his reply to their trial question is that they who would enforce a divine law, and thus stand for god before the world, must themselves be morally sound. 'he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.' it is moral conformity, not merely orthodoxy, which qualifies us to act for god. it is then precisely this attitude of christ towards the jews zealous for the law, which st. paul is reproducing in the passage which we have just read. he suggests also in its last words--where he is playing on the meaning of the name of judah--another deep element in christ's depreciation of the religious spirit of the jews. their religion was a matter of public opinion--with all the stagnancy which belongs to the public opinion of a compact society--not a matter which lived with ever fresh life in the inner relation of the conscience to god. 'how can ye believe which receive glory one of another, and the glory which cometh from the only god ye seek not?' {97} st. paul then is certainly right in his estimate of jewish religion. one indeed who describes with as vivid reality as he does the pride of a jew in his religious privileges--one who had all the reason that saul of tarsus had for knowing what it was to feel this emotion from within--could hardly have been wrong in his estimate of its weaknesses. and if the particular moral defects which st. paul attributes to the religious jew are surprisingly grave--theft, adultery, and temple-robbery--here too what he says out of his own experience is confirmed from other quarters. avarice was a notorious sin of jews. our lord accuses the scribes of 'devouring widows' houses[4]' under cloak of religion, and denounces the pharisees also for leaving their outwardly purified cups and platters inwardly full of 'extortion.' it is only a subtler form of theft that he alludes to when he denounces them for sanctioning the practice of dedicating property as a 'corban' to the purposes of religion in order to evade the righteous claims of parents. the story of susanna, the brief but stern words of our lord about the seventh commandment in his sermon on the mount, and his {98} significant language on the occasion already alluded to of the woman taken in adultery, interpret st. paul's language as to sins of the flesh. and the language of the town clerk at ephesus in exculpating st. paul and his company, suggests that 'temple-robbery' was a not unfamiliar imputation upon jews. it appears that with all their horror of idols--and though everything connected with an idol was expressly declared to be 'an abomination,' unless it had been already desecrated by gentiles[5]--they could not always resist the opportunity of appropriating the rich stores of the temples. the 'religious' scribes and pharisees (though not of course the best of them) were, in fact, as a body truly hypocrites, as our lord summarily said they were. and there lies in the moral failure of the jews a very much needed warning to us nineteenth-century christians against censoriousness. 'judging' occupies so large a part in our ordinary conversation. in the religious world, we condemn so freely--romanists, dissenters, those who are of a different party to ourselves: in the social world--those of a different class, those who employ us, or whom we employ, {99} those whom in any way we do not like or who go contrary to us. we are always judging. but to judge, we are taught, is a great responsibility. with what judgement we judge, we shall be judged. it is of the utmost consequence that before we judge others we should have judged ourselves. and to have done that truthfully has a tendency to make us charitable in our estimate of others, because we are deeply conscious of our own need of merciful and lenient consideration. 2. what st. paul teaches about the moral consciousness, and possibility of moral goodness, among the gentiles has not a jewish sound at all. the jewish teachers generally would not have admitted any goodness acceptable to god in the heathen world. in fact, st. paul is here, as in his speech at athens, accepting the principle of a universal presence and operation of god in the human heart, outside the limit of any special revelation, and he accepts it in terms largely derived from current stoic philosophy. the stoics, arising when the greek city life was decaying, contemplated man as an individual, and undertook to show him how to lead a good life. a good life means a 'life according {100} to nature,' or 'according to reason': the reason of the individual being a part of the universal reason or god. and as a help in living according to reason, the stoics laid stress upon the conscience in each man, i.e. a faculty lying behind his ordinary surface self, passing judgement according to reason upon his actions, and 'making cowards of us all,' inasmuch as we all do wrong. 'no one,' said seneca, st. paul's contemporary, 'will be found who can acquit himself; and any man calling himself innocent has regard to the human witness, not to his own conscience.' he quotes an 'admirable saying of epicurus,' 'the beginning of safety is the knowledge of sin.' he inculcates the duty of strict self-examination, and tells us how he performed it himself at night: 'when the light is removed, and my wife, who is by this time aware of my practice, is now silent, i pass the whole of my day under examination.' then he 'opens out his conscience to the gods.' and this conscience is to every man a sort of inward god[6]. it is in fact the representative in each man of the universal, immutable, and divine moral law, the {101} law of nature, in conformity with which is the only true freedom and citizenship of the world. 'for this' (the world of the moral order), said another contemporary of st. paul, also a philosopher, 'is the common home of all, and its law is no written document (letter), but god. and if a man transgresses what the law imposes, he will be impious; or rather he will not dare transgress, for he could not escape. justice has many furies, watch-dogs for sins[7].' there is in cicero's _republic_ a magnificent expression of the principle of the law of nature: 'there is a true law which is right reason, agreeable to nature, diffused among all men, constant, eternal, which calls us to duty by its injunctions, and by its prohibitions deters us from wrong; which upon the good lays neither injunction nor prohibition in vain; while for the bad, neither its injunctions nor its prohibitions avail at all. this law admits neither of addition nor subtraction nor abrogation. the vote of neither senate nor people can discharge us from our obligation to it. we are not to look for some other person to expound or interpret it; nor will there be one law for rome and another for athens, nor {102} one at this date and another later on; but one law shall embrace all races over all time, eternal and immortal; and there shall be hereby one common master and commander of all--god, who originated this law and proposed it and arbitrates concerning it; and if any one obeys it not, he shall play false to himself and shall do despite to the nature of man, and by this very fact shall pay the greatest penalties, even if he should escape all else that is reckoned punishment.' it is of interest to notice that the words cited by st. paul before the areopagus[8], 'we are also god's offspring,' occur in a hymn of the stoic cleanthes, full of the thought of man's relation through his reason to the universal and divine law. of this type of thought and language then st. paul avails himself, in spite of the immense differences which disclose themselves below the surface between the stoic and the christian ideas of god. he avails himself of stoic phraseology about men being god's offspring in his speech at athens, as being in accordance with what he, the christian apostle, had to teach. and here he adopts in substance the stoic language with regard to conscience. as by inference from {103} nature all men can know of god's power and divine attributes, so, st. paul says, from the witness of conscience they may know the principles of his moral government[9]. st. paul, however, rightly refuses to be satisfied with the individual conscience. the social judgement--the social verdicts of condemnation or acquittal continually being passed--co-operate with it to anticipate the judgements of god. and in virtue of the inward light of reason, and the conscience[10] both individual and social, he held that men who lie outside the region of special revelation can possess the moral law in effect in their hearts, and, it is implied, can keep it. st. paul is mainly occupied in this epistle in contrasting the christian church, as a region where spiritual power is given in response to faith to enable a man to fulfil the divine law, both with the heathen world, plunged in moral wickedness, and with the jewish church in its failure to attain to divine righteousness by the law of works--of which more hereafter. {104} but there were among the jews true sons of abraham: and there were among the gentiles good men acceptable to god, like righteous job. st. paul does not theorize about this. but there is at least no reason to deny that he would have declared these righteous men to be justified by faith and sanctified by grace, i.e. justified by that degree of truthful correspondence with god which was possible for them; and kept in harmony with the will of god by his spirit. there is no reason to believe that st. paul would not have admitted some action of faith and grace among the non-christian gentiles, as he undoubtedly does among the prae-christian jews who lived under or before the law. when he says of the good heathen that they do '_by nature_ the things contained in the law,' he uses the expression not as equivalent to 'by their own unassisted powers, without the help of god,' but simply to mean 'without the help of any special revelation[11].' {105} universally then, according to st. paul, two sources of the knowledge of god exist; nature, with its evidences of the divine power and other similar attributes, and conscience, with its witness to divine righteousness. and, though the sciences of nature and man have grown since st. paul's day past recognition, nothing (we may boldly say) has really weakened either element of this double witness. it is, and remains true, that the only reasonable argument from the universal order of nature is to a universal reason or mind: and that the method by which the moral conscience may be believed to have developed out of 'animal intelligence,' makes no difference as to the cogency of its witness to a divine righteousness, in response to which alone it could have developed as in fact it has done. it is worth notice also before we leave this part of our subject, that st. paul's line of thought affords a true explanation of the double fact that, on the one hand, the actual moral standards with which the conscience of different individuals, races, and generations is satisfied, greatly varies; and, on the other hand, that all the standards tend towards unity in a common idea of righteousness. the tendency towards unity st. paul would attribute to the divine righteousness {106} which lies behind conscience and which it exists to reflect. the variations would be due to the different degrees of development reached; or still more to the different degrees of faithfulness or unfaithfulness, attention or inattention, with which the conscience of the race or the individual has responded to the light. the conscience, like the speculative reason, is an instrument for coming to the truth; but an instrument capable of every variety of racial or individual error or obtuseness. 3. it appears clearly enough in this chapter, that st. paul's doctrines of free grace and justification by faith must be grossly and carelessly misconceived unless they are viewed upon a deep background of what we commonly call 'natural religion,' that is (practically) the religion that appeals straight off to the conscience of almost all honest and civilized men. it is 'natural religion' to believe that god will judge men with absolute power and insight and impartiality according to their conduct and their characters: that there can be no 'making believe,' no substitute for a good character, and no escaping with a bad one. the prophets are full of this principle. our lord reasserts it. it is emphasized by st. james, whose plain {107} point is that we are justified not by right belief (which is what he means by 'faith'), but by a good life. but no one could assert the principle more simply and absolutely as the basis of all his special evangelical teaching than st. paul. and whatever is true about free grace and justification by faith only, is true because, and only because, this free grace and this justifying faith are necessary means or steps towards the realization of actual righteousness. so st. paul states it--'that the requirement of the (divine) law might be fulfilled in us who walk[12]' according to the principles of the 'gospel of the grace of god.' the doctrine of grace is rooted and based upon the truths of natural religion, and leads up to their realization. it has been then a most perilous mistake when missionaries have preached the doctrines of grace and redemption in regions where there had been no preparatory training in natural religion--in the truth of the unity and power and moral character of god: of the reality of our responsibility towards him: of his inexorable holiness: of his inaccessibility to any kind of bribe or attempt to find some substitute for moral obedience. men must have known what {108} it is to tremble in the recesses of their being 'as guilty men surprised' before god's awful righteousness; to 'tremble,' like felix, at the message of 'righteousness, temperance, and judgement to come,' before they can safely learn the lesson of his grace and pardon. and there are two minor elements in natural religion, as commonly understood, for which st. paul here makes himself responsible. it has been generally understood that all men instinctively desire their own happiness, and that this is natural and right; and that as we should reasonably prefer our more permanent and deeper good to what is only transitory and superficial, so we should strive for the happiness and satisfaction which is eternal--the eternal reward, which only the stern pursuit of virtue can obtain for us. this deep desire for our own substantial happiness our lord sanctions and continually suggests as a principal motive for right living. the love of others does not annihilate it. 'thou shalt love thy neighbour _as thyself_.' so then st. paul also, following his master, recognizes it as lying at the heart of what is right and true in mankind, that we should 'seek' for ourselves 'glory, honour, and incorruption'--the glory and honour which abide {109} eternally. it is plain that he would have us pay no heed to that truly unnatural modern altruism which would disparage and depreciate this motive of a right self-love, and which would treat the desire for eternal happiness, and fear of eternal loss, as a base and unworthy element in religion. no doubt it is not the only motive. it is not even the characteristically christian motive. but it is a natural and legitimate motive all the same. it is an inextinguishable consciousness in us that we were meant for blessedness. but, once more, the only true happiness is moral happiness: it is a 'glory and honour' springing out of the man's character and belonging to it: it is a happiness that is in this sense deserved. true, the servant of god in heaven will always feel that what he is receiving is infinitely beyond his deserts, and that his deserts are what god has wrought in him, not he himself. none the less the reward springs out of and belongs to what god has actually made him to be. heaven is not a happy place in such a sense that we could be made happy by being 'put there' by an arbitrary fiat of god. it is fellowship with god, the all-holy; and god's holiness is intolerable, it is 'devouring fire and {110} everlasting burnings,' to those who are not morally like him. here lies the reason why a heaven is not possible to moral beings without the accompanying possibilities of a hell. for the moral possibility of acquiring the holy character involves the opposite moral possibility: and it does not lie in the moral nature of things that the bad character should receive anything except what it deserves--the 'indignation and wrath' which god, because he is god, must express towards the sinful, wilful character, and which to the character itself means 'tribulation and anguish.' this, st. paul says positively, must be the lot of 'every soul of man that doeth evil.' it is this inevitably two-sided law that a large part of the kindly-disposed world to-day are trying to get rid of, or to forget, on its severe and dark side. but it is in fact a law that works even more necessarily and inexorably than physical laws, inasmuch as it is the expression of god's necessary moral being. god cannot 'let us off' the punishment of our sins, which is only their inevitable fruit. nor does he disclose to us any necessary limit to the ruin which we may work in our being. this stern principle of natural religion is taken up into, and indeed intensified in, the gospel. {111} st. paul, however, neither here nor elsewhere uses 'immortality' to describe the future state of those whom god condemns. he uses it only of god and of those who enjoy the vision of god. the 'immortality of the soul'--the idea that every soul as such necessarily and consciously exists to all eternity--is an idea which the language of scripture does not seem to warrant. 4. there are also two less prominent points in the second chapter that we must not entirely pass over. st. paul, we should find, if we were to investigate the matter, is wholly true in his interpretation of the old testament in general. he interprets its spirit and meaning with perfect insight. but he is not always what we should call critically exact, any more than the other interpreters of his day, in his use of particular texts. thus, in this chapter he gives to some words of isaiah[13] a meaning which is indeed to be found elsewhere in the prophets[14], but does not really belong to the original of this particular passage. isaiah is saying that god's name is being blasphemed _by the oppressors of {112} israel_--'continually all day long my name is blasphemed.' but the greek version of the bible inserted the words 'through you' (the jews[15]); and st. paul interprets this insertion to mean that it was the moral inconsistency of the chosen people themselves which caused god's name to be blasphemed. perhaps the fact that he uses the formula of quotation 'as it is written' after the words referred to, is a sign that he had employed the words in his own sense before he became conscious that they were in fact a quotation. but in any case he shows no anxiety to follow critically the original meaning of a particular passage which he cites. at the end of this passage occurs the antithesis familiar in modern language of 'the letter and the spirit.' in its modern sense it is used as equivalent to the literal and the metaphorical, or the definite and the vague. but this is not at all its sense in st. paul. with him 'the letter' means the written law, and 'spirit' means, in this connexion, what we may broadly describe as vital moral energy. thus, {113} in its most characteristic use with st. paul, the antithesis distinguishes the mere external information as to god's will, which was all the written law ('the letter') could give the jews, from the activity of the holy spirit or the spiritual power of moral freedom which, through the gifts of the holy spirit, we enjoy under the gospel. in this passage the antithesis is similar, but not the same. it contrasts the merely physical state of circumcision according to the written law--'with the letter and circumcision' means 'having the written law and being accordingly circumcised'--with what the old testament had called 'the circumcised heart,' i.e. the really obedient will or 'spirit' which may exist independently of the outward rite. 'spirit,' we observe, may refer to the activity of either the holy spirit of god, or of the human will, or of both without discrimination. [1] cf. eccles. viii. 11: 'because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is emboldened to do evil.' ps. x. 11: 'he saith in his heart, god hath forgotten.' wisd. xi. 23: 'thou overlookest the sins of men to the end they may repent.' ecclus. v. 4: 'say not, i sinned, and what happened unto me? for the lord is longsuffering.' 2 pet. iii. 9: 'the lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to youward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.' cf. also isa. lvii. 11. [2] or rather 'their own conscience bearing witness with them and, in their mutual relations, their reflections accusing or even excusing them.' [3] it is certainly misplaced as it stands (john vii. 53-viii. 11). [4] mark xii. 40; luke xx. 47; matt. xxiii. 25. [5] cf. s. and h. _in loc._ [6] see for seneca, lightfoot, _philippians_, 'st. paul and seneca,' pp. 278-280. [7] see _pseudo-heracleitus_, letter ix, p. 91 (bernays). [8] acts xvii. 28. [9] see rom. i. 32 as well as rom. ii. 14. [10] 'conscience,' as used by st. paul's contemporaries and by himself, is not a repository for positive moral guidance, but rather a faculty for reflecting upon our own already accomplished actions. see further, app. note b, on the idea of conscience. [11] see on this subject _life and letters of dr. hort_ (macmillan), vol. ii. p. 337: 'faith itself, not being an intellectual assent to propositions, but an attitude of heart and mind, is present in a more or less rudimentary state in every upward effort or aspiration of man.' also gibson, _thirty-nine articles_ (methuen), ii. p. 420. [12] rom. viii. 4. [13] isa. lii. 5. [14] see in ezek. xxxvi. 22: 'my holy name, which ye have profaned among the nations, whither ye went.' [15] dr. gifford suggests that the lxx was subsequently modified by st. paul's citation (as in the next chapter, iii. 10-18), instead of his citation being moulded by the lxx. is there any evidence in support of this view? {114} division i. § 3. chapter iii. 1-8. _jewish objections._ this passage is interesting as showing us, what is more often the case than appears on the surface, that st. paul has in mind as he reasons the familiar objections of an opponent--his own objections, perhaps in part, before he was a christian. st. paul, that is to say, very frequently writes controversially, and argues _ad hominem_: and his own reasoning is only rightly understood when we have clearly in view what he is opposing. it of course very frequently happens in literature generally that a saying is completely misunderstood, because that with which it is contrasted is overlooked. thus, john the baptist's advice to the soldiers to 'be content with their wages' is commonly interpreted to mean--'be satisfied with your wages {115} as they are, and do not ask for more.' this might have been good advice or bad advice to give to the soldiers, but it is not john the baptist's. he means, 'be satisfied with your pay and do not supplement it by robbery and unauthorized exaction.' here then the implied contrast is necessary to enable us to interpret aright the positive advice. similarly in the case of st. paul, his doctrine of the absoluteness of the divine election, as stated later in this epistle[1], has been misunderstood, because it has been supposed that he is asserting the divine absoluteness as against the claim of man to moral freedom, and to equitable judgement in accordance with responsibility. but in fact this is what he is indirectly vindicating. what he is arguing against is the claim of the jews that god was bound to their race. it is against this claim--this immoral claim to perpetual privilege on the part of one race, however they might behave--that st. paul exalts the absolute freedom of god to choose or reject as he sees fit. it is of great importance then, especially with a writer so frequently controversial as st. paul, to watch continually to see which is the phase of thought or feeling that {116} he is opposing. frequently, as i say, it hardly appears on the surface of st. paul's writing that he really has a definite opponent in view. sometimes, as in the passage now to be considered, it becomes apparent, and the argument is best exhibited in the form of a dialogue (though to let the dialogue appear clearly, missing links have to be supplied) thus-_jewish objector._ but if all this is true--if jews are no better off than gentiles--of what use is it to be a jew? what is the value of our circumcision and the position into which it initiates us? (ver. 1) _st. paul._ its value is manifold. to take one point first[2], it lies in the fact that the oracles of god--his teaching and promises--were entrusted to our race (ver. 2). _j. o._ but if god thus of old gave special promises to us as his special people, and if now we are simply like the heathen under his wrath, the conclusion is that he has been false to his promises (argument implied in ver. 3). _s. p._ no: that is not to be thought of. it is not god who has played false, it is man: it is our race. the jews refused to believe: not however all of them, but some. if there is {117} a trial between god and his people as to which has been true, it is god who must be vindicated as the psalmist says[3] (vers. 3, 4). _j. o._ but if, as your teaching proves, all our unrighteousness is made to serve as a background on which god makes his righteousness all the more evident--that is enough. our wrong-doing serves its purpose in this way. god has no right both to use our wrong-doing for his own purposes, and then, besides this, to visit his wrath upon us (ver. 5a). _s. p._ such thoughts our human nature suggests (ver. 5b). but we know they are false. god is the judge of the world, and his action necessarily supplies the standard of all judicial righteousness (ver. 6). j. o. but do consider my point. if the result of my playing false to god is that his fidelity is only thrown into higher relief and the whole process ministers to his glory, why am i, the unconscious instrument of his glory, treated as an offender? and why should i not resolve to go on freely doing wrong (as you yourself are sometimes accused of teaching), so as to give god more abundant opportunities to overrule my action for the greater good? (vers. 7, 8a.) {118} _s. p._ a man stands justly condemned in the very using of such an argument (ver. 8b). what advantage then hath the jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? much every way: first of all, that they were intrusted with the oracles of god. for what if some were without faith? shall their want of faith make of none effect the faithfulness of god? god forbid: yea, let god be found true, but every man a liar; as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy words, and mightest prevail when thou comest into judgement. but if our unrighteousness commendeth the righteousness of god, what shall we say? is god unrighteous who visiteth with wrath? (i speak after the manner of men.) god forbid: for then how shall god judge the world? but if the truth of god through my lie abounded unto his glory, why am i also still judged as a sinner? and why not (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), let us do evil, that good may come? whose condemnation is just. what is of interest here is to notice that st. paul reproduces the argument of his jewish opponent with great sympathetic force. it had clearly been weighed in his own mind. it was urged, no doubt, against his own teaching, that it gave an excuse for sinning by suggesting that the greatness of the sin only glorified the super-abundant greatness of the pardoning love. it is only too probable that some of his followers were persuaded by some such argument or acted as {119} if they were. thus st. paul states it with vigour, but thereby only makes all the more apparent the meagreness of his reply. not that the argument is such as makes reply difficult. in a slightly different form st. paul deals with it elaborately in chapters ix-xi. but here he clearly treats it as contemptible when its true character has once been disclosed. and why? because it is professedly an explanation of the ways of god with man, which is at the same time an excuse for immorality. it is an intellectual exercise at the expense of conscience. and st. paul shows, by the very contempt with which he treats it, that a man who will play false with his conscience, and then proceed to find intellectual justifications, is not to be met in the intellectual region at all. he has been condemned already. st. paul then, we find, will not argue with one who reasons at the expense of his conscience; and this is an important principle. when the intellect is acting purely, it must be free, and must be dealt with seriously on its own ground. but the conscience must be followed first of all. its light is clearer than the light of intellect, and must be left supreme. whatever be the bewilderment of my intellect, i am self-condemned, {120} god-condemned, if i play false to the moral light. and arguments to the contrary, however clever-sounding or philosophical, are in fact sophistry. there is, we must confess, a good deal of such sophistry to-day in the use of arguments drawn from the current philosophy of necessitarianism and the idea of heredity. [1] chapters ix-xi. [2] the points are resumed in ix. 1. [3] ps. xxxii. {121} division i. § 4. chapter iii. 9-20. _sin and condemnation universal._ at this point the direct argument with an opponent is dropped; and st. paul restates what he has so far been occupied in proving. it is not that jews are in a worse position than gentiles. it is that all together are involved in the same moral failure. to deepen the impression that this is a true statement, st. paul culls from various psalms and from isaiah a series of passages describing a general state of depravity, moral blindness, apathy, failure, unprofitableness, falsity, hatred, and outrage against god and man. these utterances of the book of 'the law' (here used for the old testament scriptures generally) are meant for those first to whom this law belonged. they condemn jews as well as gentiles. they show all equally to be under {122} divine judgement. they prove that if the written law could teach men god's will, it could not, by the works that it enjoined, enable him to satisfy god. it had its function only in teaching him to know his sinfulness by contrast to his plainly declared duty. the conclusion is then that all men, jews and gentiles alike, are involved in sin, are under the wrath of a holy god, and are in utter need of a deliverance which they are incapable of procuring for themselves. what then? are we in worse case than they? no, in no wise: for we before laid to the charge both of jews and greeks, that they are all under sin; as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after god; they have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one: their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit: the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of god before their eyes. now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every {123} mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgement of god: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for through the law _cometh_ the knowledge of sin. 1. the 'scripture proof' which st. paul here offers of universal human corruption is, according to a recognized hebrew practice, made up by stringing together a number of separate texts,--ps. xiv. 1-3, v. 9, cxl. 3, x. 7, isa. lix. 7, 8, ps. xxxvi. 1. they represent the impression made by human wickedness upon the righteous observer. the estimate covers israel as well as, indirectly, the world at large[1]. it is thus an authoritative rebuke to jewish self-complacency. it is as if an english preacher were to rebuke similar self-complacency in englishmen by a collection of passages from standard english authorities, in which our nation was judged, in common with others, in a manner most humiliating to its pride. it is this, though, inasmuch as the psalmists and prophets were and are believed to have spoken under the inspiration of the spirit of god, it is also something more. it is well known that, as the quotations in {124} the new testament have frequently affected the greek text of the old, so here this conglomerate of quotations came to be attached altogether to ps. xiv in some greek mss., increasing it by four verses. thence they passed into the later latin vulgate. thence into coverdale's bible and into the great bible, and so into the prayer book version of the psalms. but our present bible version remains true to the hebrew original. 2. 'to be justified,' in ver. 20, means to be acquitted, or proved righteous, or reckoned righteous in the trial before god. this, and not to _make_ righteous, is the meaning of the word 'to justify,' both in the old and new testament and elsewhere. there is scarcely an exception. it is a forensic word, that is, a word derived from processes of law, and it describes the favourable verdict after a trial. it is used of vindicating god's character to his people[2], or of vindicating one's own character; of god's judicial acceptance of men or men's judicial acceptance of one another[3]. and so far as real righteousness is necessary for judicial {125} acquittal, the word implies real righteousness, but it does not primarily mean it. 3. here we find briefly stated st. paul's apparently wholly original view of 'the law,' as given simply to enlighten the conscience by keeping men informed as to their duty, without supplying them with any moral assistance in performing it. thus the ultimate aim of the law was to make man know his own sinfulness; to convince him that his attempted independence was a failure, and that he could not save himself; and so to prepare him to cry out for the gift of grace, and to welcome it when it was given. 'the law was given,' as st. augustine is fond of saying, 'that grace might be sought, and grace was given that the law might be kept.' this antithesis is thoroughly after st. paul's mind. this first division of our epistle gives us as a whole a great deal to think about. there are, we may say, two spiritual evils conspicuous to-day. people with consciences in any degree awakened are apt to be nervous, anxious, despondent, complaining, sullen. the second division of our epistle supplies the antidote to this error by consolidating the awakened conscience in divine peace. but there is another, {126} and perhaps more conspicuous, spiritual evil of our day which this first division is calculated to meet--the habit of excusing oneself--the absence of the sense of sin. hold thou the good: define it well: for fear divine philosophy should push beyond her mark, and be procuress to the lords of hell. because philosophy and science have been bringing into prominence the influence of heredity and physical environment on character, we use this consideration, and often with little enough knowledge of real science, to obliterate the sense of sin. we are apt to regard sin as it appears in the world at large as a result of ignorance, or social conditions--as in one way or another a form of misfortune. and so viewing it in the world, we view it in ourselves. we make excuses for ourselves. we have largely lost the sense that sin is wilfulness; that it is an inexcusable offence against god; that it does, and necessarily does, bring us under god's indignation; that necessarily, because god is what he is, the consequences of sin in this life, and much more beyond this life, are inconceivably terrible. it is this sense of sin that st. paul must help to restore in us. we must believe {127} that god is holy, and we must learn to tremble under his necessary holiness, before we can in any right sense realize that he is loving. we must learn once again to be really penitent; to confess our sins in general and in particular with utter humiliation; to expect the divine judgement upon them; to use with reality the stern language about sin of the bible and the prayer book. and learning this for ourselves with regard to our own personal sins, we must learn also to feel, like daniel, what our church and nation deserve in god's sight. we must confess our own sins and the sins of church and nation[4]--aye, of the human race. only through such a restoration of evangelical severity can there be a restoration of evangelical joy. the deepened sense of personal sin is the needful step to spiritual progress. certainly no more in our case than in that of the jews will orthodoxy, or ritual accuracy, or frequent services, or superior education, or philanthropic zeal, be accepted as a substitute for moral severity, for the spirit of penitence and the readiness for penance. let us judge ourselves, brethren, that we be not judged of the lord. and it is all-important what our standard of {128} judgement is. the jews failed because they judged themselves by a mainly external and therefore easy standard. so do most respectable englishmen. we are satisfied if we do nothing discreditable. but the religious sense of sin, as it is experienced by the psalmists, or st. paul, or luther, or john keble, arises from the intense perception of a personal relation to the all-holy. the 'falling short,' or rather 'experienced need[5],' of which st. paul goes on to speak, is the experienced need of something very lofty, to which it is possible for men to be quite insensible--'the glory of god.' god's divine brightness, the eternal light, streams forth into nature. 'the whole earth is full of his glory.' man also in his natural and moral being is meant to have fellowship with god. he is meant for the divine glory also. it is in proportion as he realizes what he was meant for, and becomes conscious in himself of a capacity for god, that his present actual pollution and sinfulness becomes a reality to his consciousness. it is in the light of god, {129} and in aspiration after the glory of god, that the sense of sin really awakens. 'thou requirest truth in the inward parts,' says the psalmist. 'against thee, thee only, have i sinned.' 'if thou, lord, shouldst be extreme to mark what is done amiss, lord, who may abide it?'[6] [1] dr. king (the psalms in three collections, &c.: cambridge, 1898) has remarked that ps. xiv. 1-3 closely resembles the general condemnation of 'all flesh upon the earth' in gen. vi. 5, 12. [2] cf. above ver. 4, from ps. xxxii. [3] see ps. li. 4; job xxxii. 2; prov. xvii. 15; isa. v. 23; matt. xi. 19; luke vii. 29; x. 29; xvi. 15. [4] cf. dan. ix. 4-20. [5] the word for 'fall short' in ver. 23 is a 'middle' verb, and apparently implies not only failure in point of fact, but conscious failure. thus in luke xv. 14, the prodigal son begins to _feel_ his destitution (middle). but in matt. xix. 20, the rich young man asks, 'what, as a matter of fact, is wanting to me' (active)? see gifford, or s. and h. _in loc._ [6] cf. app. note c, on recent reactions from the teaching about hell. {130} division ii. chapters iii. 21-iv. 25. _justification by faith only._ § 1. (iii. 21-31.) _christ our propitiation._ now we have been brought to recognize the true state of the case as between ourselves and god--the facts about ourselves as we are in god's sight. we were meant for fellowship in the divine glory. 'the glory of god,' says an old father, 'is the living man: the life of man is the vision of god.' but, meant for fellowship in the divine glory, we have fallen short of it and have come to appreciate our failure. we have sinned, and that universally and wilfully. we are such that god cannot accept us as we are: the 'day of his appearing' could be for us but a 'day of wrath.' and in this dire situation we are helpless. we can supply no remedy. 'can the ethiopian change his {131} skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil[1].' but to acknowledge this--to abandon the claim so dear to the human heart, that we can be independent and manage our own life successfully: to repudiate all our false pride, and to come before god all of us on the same level, confessing our failure and our sin--this is to let man's necessity be god's opportunity, and to open the flood-gates of the divine righteousness. god is righteous in all the richest meaning of that word, and that righteousness of his he is now extending to us and giving us admittance into it. and this he does purely and simply as his gift. on his side it is pure and gratuitous giving, on our side simple and unmeritorious receiving. we contribute nothing. no distinctions are admitted between those inside the law and those outside it. the gift is quite apart from the law, though law and prophets bore witness to it. no questions are admitted as to what we have done or what we have left undone. purely and simply out of the freedom of his love, who is our creator and our father, now, when a bitter experience has taught us again our true attitude towards him, he offers us {132} admission into his righteousness, all on the same level, if we will simply believe in jesus christ his son, that is, take him at his word and believe his promises (vers. 21-24). and what is this offer? it is, first of all, what befits the captives of sin: it is redemption. god, who of old bought his people out of captivity in egypt, without any co-operation of theirs, by a pure act of his power, has now again, without any co-operation of ours, but by a manifestation this time of self-sacrificing love, in the person of jesus christ, bought our freedom from sin. and this redemption he offers to us first of all in the form which befits sinners conscious of sin and guilt, as the mere gift of forgiveness, the mere power to break with the past, the mere right to stand and face the future with a clean record. for as the brazen serpent was lifted up before the eyes of rebellious israel, bitten of the fiery serpents, and those who looked unto it lived, so upon the open stage of history god set forth jesus christ shedding his life-blood--obedient, that is, to god and righteousness unto death, even the death of the cross. and this sacrificial shedding of the life-blood of the son of god--to which we {133} contributed nothing[2]--is accepted by the father as propitiatory, that is, as something which enables him to show his true character of righteousness, and to acquit or accept among the righteous, irrespective of what he has done or been, every one who has faith in jesus (vers. 24-26). and why (we in our age are disposed to ask) did not god simply declare his forgiveness? why this roundabout method of a propitiatory sacrifice? it was (st. paul's language suggests) to prove or vindicate his righteousness, which means both holiness and mercy. all the long ages past of the times of ignorance, god had been 'overlooking' or 'passing over' sins in his forbearance, never 'suffering his whole displeasure to arise,' but allowing all nations to walk in their own ways and to find out their own mistakes and helplessness[3]. the result of their being thus left to themselves was that men did indeed become conscious of their misery {134} and need, but also came to entertain all sorts of slack or unworthy ideas about god. a mere declaration of forgiveness might have left men with an impression of an easy-going or 'good-natured' god who would make light of sin. but the awful burden laid upon jesus on account of human sin, the awful sacrifice of his life which he readily offered, restores the sterner element to our thoughts about god, just at that crisis or opportunity in the divine dealings, when by god's declaration of free forgiveness we are made to feel his love. god does forgive us, but it costs him much. and no one who under these conditions comes and takes at the hand of jesus the gift of pardon can fail to receive with it the awful impression of the divine holiness and of the severity of the divine requirements. all the former 'passing over of the sins done aforetime' was made morally possible because god had in view that 'now at the present season,' or opportunity, he would 'show,' or prove, his whole righteousness, and be before men's eyes the righteous being that he is in fact (righteous rather than merely 'just'); and be able, without the danger of a great misunderstanding, to give his righteousness full scope by admitting into {135} it, by a pure act of pardon, every one who comes simply taking jesus at his word[4]. here then there is no room for pride or glorying. it is utterly excluded because there is here no consideration of human merit. it is a pure and unmerited boon of the divine bounty bestowed, without reference to any law known or observed, simply on those who, utterly confessing their need, accept in faith the offer of love. again there is no reference to any chosen race. jew and gentile, circumcision and uncircumcision, are all in the same case. all have the same need. god is the same, with the same offer, for all alike. he will accept the jew because he believes, and he will accept the gentile with no other equipment but his faith. yet this principle of faith involves no repudiation of the principle of law; rather, it realizes the very end which law was intended to serve (vers. 27-31). but now apart from the law a righteousness of god hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of god through faith in jesus christ unto all them that believe; for there {136} is no distinction; for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of god; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in christ jesus: whom god set forth _to be_ a propitiation, through faith, by his blood, to shew his righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of god; for the shewing, _i say_, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in jesus. where then is the glorying? it is excluded. by what manner of law? of works? nay: but by a law of faith. we reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. or is god _the god_ of jews only? is he not _the god_ of gentiles also? yea, of gentiles also: if so be that god is one, and he shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith. do we then make the law of none effect through faith? god forbid: nay, we establish the law. i. for our understanding of this famous passage a good deal depends on our fixing, as exactly as possible, what the 'righteousness of god' here spoken of means. beyond all question it means in part god's own moral character. this is quite certain, as in the bible generally, so in this very chapter[5]. but it is also certain that god's character is, especially in this epistle, viewed as revealed to us in such a sense that we can take hold of it and become identified with it. {137} thus (especially in i. 17) _human_ faith is spoken of as the starting-point or region for revealing divine righteousness. it extends to and embraces the believers[6]. it is a righteousness communicated to us from god on the basis of faith[7]. the 'righteousness of god' is what we men are to become[8]. this transition of meaning from what god is in himself to what we are by the gift of god is of course thoroughly natural. the grand idea of the bible is that of a moral fellowship between man and god. the grand idea of the new testament is, further, that of a disclosure and communication to us of the divine life. and what is this moral quality described by 'righteousness' which belongs to god and is communicated to us? righteousness is a term belonging primarily to man. a righteous man, in the old testament, is one who fulfils all that is expected of him, one who is blameless--towards man, but especially towards god. but if god expects such and such conduct in men it is because of what he himself is. his requirements express his character. god himself therefore is believed to be righteous, incorruptibly and awfully righteous. but a great {138} strain is put upon this belief in the 'wild and irregular scene' of this world, the governor of which appears so often indifferent to the sufferings of his most faithful servants. thus the righteous cry out to god to vindicate himself, and god's righteousness is, in the old testament, largely identified with god's vindication of his own character by righteous acts or judgements accomplished in the past or expected in the future; acts of such a character as that in them the wicked and insolent are put to confusion, and the meek and holy justified and exalted. such righteous judgement is expected to characterize the kingdom of the christ. of course, in the general lowering of moral ideals among the pharisaic jews, the idea of righteousness suffered with all else. the righteous came to mean those who strictly keep the outward jewish law; and god's righteousness was identified with his expected vindication of those who keep the law, i.e. the pious jew, at the coming of the messiah[9]. our lord, and his disciples after him, were engaged in nothing so much as in deepening the idea of righteousness again. especially it is something much more than the mere observance of outward ordinances. {139} it was, in fact, the fundamental error of the jews to confuse the two. righteousness in man must be real likeness to god, and god's righteousness is his holy character which he is now once more manifesting in the gospel of his son; a character which is still shown in acts of justice[10], in punishing the wicked and rewarding the righteous, but which manifests itself also more especially as love, and by gracious promises of forgiveness and acceptance[11]. thus, in rom. i. 17, 18, the present 'revelation of divine righteousness' is a gracious manifestation which is put in contrast to the 'revelation of divine wrath,' the place of which it is intended to take. and yet, though the quality of mercy is made emphatic, it is not isolated. god's righteousness is not mere good nature. it would not be rightly revealed by any mere ignoring or passing over of sin. god's mercy is inseparable from his holiness, and his righteousness includes both[12]. it needed the severe requirement of the atoning sacrifice, as well as {140} the free gift of forgiveness and new life, to prove or exhibit it. and if god's righteousness shows itself first of all in a simple act of justification of sinners--in simply forgiving men or pronouncing them righteous, irrespective of what they are in themselves at the moment, if only they will take god at his word--three points have to be borne in mind. first, that the mere offer of forgiveness is put in the forefront because this readiness on our part to be treated as helpless sinners is the annihilation of the one great obstacle to our reconciliation with god--the proud independence which led the jews, and has led men since their day, to resent being dealt with by mere mercy, and to want to justify themselves. if the christian character is to grow aright, it must have its root in an utter acknowledgement that we owe to god our power even to make a beginning in his service: that we can run the way of his commandments, because, and only because, he by his own act has set our hearts at liberty. just as i am, without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, o lamb of god, i come! {141} to many really good christians this sort of language has come to have an unreal sound because they have been surfeited with it, and because it has been associated with a very one-sided christianity. but, for all that, the moral necessity remains that we should dig out of its last refuges the claim of human independence, if the christian character is to grow healthily. in other words, the only root of christian thankfulness and progress is the recognition that our spiritual life rests at its basis on a pure act of the divine bounty in accomplishing our redemption from sin and giving us the forgiveness of all our sins. secondly, it must be borne in mind that our forgiveness through the sacrifice is only the first step towards fellowship with god. it is only the removal of the preliminary obstacle which guilt had raised against actual admittance into the life of god. the language of the new testament refuses to allow us to separate the forgiveness of our sins from our admission into the 'body of christ' by baptism[13], or, in other words, our incorporation into the life of the redeemed people, the new israel. for the faith {142} which accepts forgiveness is the same identical quality which corresponds with all the later movement of the new life. god's free gift of grace is not forgiveness only, but forgiveness and new life; it is 'forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in christ[14].' st. paul does not contemplate, or contemplates only to repudiate, a faith which accepts forgiveness and stops there--indifferent to actual holiness or baptismal incorporation. for it would be no real faith at all. the preliminary justification or acquittal is simply and solely to serve as a basis for the life of consecration and glory. the stages of justification and sanctification are separable in idea but not in fact. the refusal to proceed from the threshold of the acquittal into the palace of the new life would expel even from the threshold; even as the failure of the unthankful servant to behave as one should behave who has been excused the debt he could not pay, cancelled all his acquittal and left him with the weight of the old debt rolled back upon him to his destruction. lastly, and in one word, it must never be left out of sight that even the initial movement of {143} faith, the taking christ at his word and believing his promises, involves the element of moral allegiance. his gracious person and character attract even while the boon is being accepted, and a new motive enters into life. justifying faith at its very root is a faith which yields allegiance to its object. ii. to a jew, and to almost all races when st. paul wrote, the idea of an expiatory sacrifice for sin seemed natural and obvious. but for the special christian doctrine of expiation the basis is to be found in the memorable chapter liii of the 'later isaiah.' that great prophet of the captivity is assuring israel of their restoration to their own land. this restoration is to follow on the due punishment of her sins--'she hath received of the lord's hands double for all her sins.' and the restored people is to be, before all else, a righteous people--'all righteous'--a people of god's favour, because they are living according to god. but there is so much sin still remaining in them as to make it necessary that the new life of the recovered people should be based on a great act of {144} propitiation. the righteous servant of jehovah, who is, at starting, the idealized people itself, but who comes to be represented as an individual acting for the people while repudiated by them, offers his life a willing sacrifice for their sins. the chastisement of their iniquities falls on him, and he accepts the burden, and is obedient unto death. dying he makes his soul a guilt offering: and, living through death exalted and powerful, he becomes an intercessor accepted with god, the head of a new seed whom he 'justifies' before god by the intimate knowledge of god's mind and character which in his voluntary humiliation he has won. this wonderful prophetic picture represents a vast advance in moral teaching on what had gone before. it is not only that the self-sacrifice of a perfect human will is substituted for the animal victims to which the enlightened conscience of god's people already refused to allow any real efficacy; but also that the idea of propitiation is put in a context where it is made plain that it can only be the prelude to a state of actual righteousness in those who are to be justified by it. it occurs as part of the answer to the question, not--how is israel to escape punishment? but, how is israel to {145} become the really righteous nation, living in the likeness of god? in the later books of the maccabees we have this idea of the expiatory sacrifice and intercession of the ideal israelite still retained, but degraded, probably under greek influences. 'and i, as my brethren,' says the maccabean martyr, 'give up both body and soul for the laws of our fathers, calling upon god that he may speedily become gracious to the nation ... and that in me and my brethren may be stayed the wrath of the almighty, which hath been justly brought upon our whole race[15].' 'be propitious to my race,' prays eleazar, in another alexandrian version of the story, 'being satisfied with our punishment on their behalf. make my blood a propitiation for them, and receive my life as a substitute for theirs[16].' these passages are on a lower moral level than isaiah's, because in them the prominent idea of propitiation is that it is a means of procuring from god exemption from further punishment, not a step to the restoration to holiness. the idea both of what god desires and of what man desires is lower. and indeed all conceptions of propitiation may be distinguished into true {146} or false, according as righteousness or exemption from punishment is the end which is specially in view. thus when we pass on into the new testament we find in caiaphas' saying, 'it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not[17],' the typical expression of the quite immoral notion[18] of the forcible sacrifice of an innocent person in order to exempt a guilty race from punishment. in our lord's teaching, on the other hand, we find the doctrine of atonement raised to its highest moral power. as the forerunner had revived the teaching of the later isaiah by pointing to him as 'the lamb of god who taketh away (i.e. taketh up and expiateth) the sin of the world[19],' so christ himself spoke unmistakeably of the new covenant which he came to inaugurate, as to be based upon the sacrificial offering of his body and the outpouring of his blood[20]: spoke also of 'the remission of sins' as the benefit to be expected {147} from his expiation. but no teacher in the world ever made it so plain that god can be satisfied with nothing that any other can do for us--with nothing but actual likeness to him in ourselves. no teacher ever made it so plain that what we are to desire is not to be let off punishment, but to be actually freed from sin. he left no room for doubt that only by following his steps, even to the cross and surrender of our lives, can we share his fellowship. the very life which is offered in sacrifice to lay the foundation of the new covenant is a life or spirit which we are to share. we are to eat and drink his sacrificed flesh and blood--the blood which is the life--and so to be one with him and he with us. he sacrificed himself, in other words, in order to make possible, through his life and spirit, a new covenanted society, in which men should have perfect fellowship with god and with one another. he did not reject the idea of a propitiation won for man by his vicarious sacrifice--the truth is far from that--but he keeps it in inseparable connexion with the life which is to be based upon it; and in the eucharist he brought back the idea of sacrifice to what had been its starting-point in all primitive usages. 'the one point,' says {148} professor robertson-smith, 'that comes out clear and strong (from the examination of ancient sacrificial customs), is that the fundamental idea of ancient sacrifice is sacramental communion, and that all atoning rites are ultimately to be regarded as owing their efficacy to a communication of divine life to the worshipper, and to the establishment or confirmation of a living bond between them and their god[21].' still christ's sacrifice of propitiation, to which we contribute nothing, in which we do not share, remains a necessary prelude to the establishment of the new life. it is in virtue of this that we are justified and accepted and allowed to start afresh. this fact the new testament in general takes for granted, and offers no explanation of it; as indeed the human heart has in general accepted the benefit in all thankfulness and asked no questions. but the speculative modern intellect has found a difficulty in the matter--in the matter at least as commonly represented--and we have noticed that a suggestion of explanation is made by st. paul in this passage. god had long gone on 'passing over' sin all over the world in loving forbearance, bearing with all men's sinfulness, {149} till they had thoroughly learnt the lesson of their own need of god and inability to save themselves. but this very forbearance rendered god's character liable to complete misunderstanding. he might have been supposed to be kind indeed, but indifferent to sin. 'these things hast thou done and i kept silence: thou thoughtest that i was altogether such an one as thyself[22].' thus the severity manifested in the claim of the 'righteous father' upon the son of man, his claim of an obedience unto the shedding of his blood, and the ready response to his claim on the part of the son of man gladly rendering up his life in homage to the father--these taken together, the claim of the father and the sacrifice of the son, vindicated within the area of the christian faith the true character of god, and forced the believer in jesus to hold the severity and the love in their inseparable unity as making up the divine righteousness. does not this thought open at least an intelligible vista into the mystery of the atonement? christ is the son of man. he is to inaugurate the true manhood. but first he must deal with the manhood that has gone {150} astray, and make an act of reparation to the father for all the outrage that our sins have done him. thus in contrast to all our self-pleasing, self-indulgence, self-excusing, in contrast to all our clamorous insolence towards god and indifference to his laws, we behold the son of man recognizing the father's strict requirements, and lifting before his eyes, in the name of the manhood which he represents, the great reparation of an unshrinking obedience and loyalty unto death. the father spared not his only son the natural consequences of obedience in a world of sin. the son spared not himself, but shed his blood--the 'blood which is the life'--at the father's will. this is the one full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. it is the sacrifice offered in the power of nothing less than 'eternal spirit.' henceforth, then, no man can come to god in faith in jesus, in the faith which even at its root is moral allegiance, and think lightly either of god's holiness or of his own or others' sin. god forgives him his sin, but it cost him much to forgive it. the cross is the measure of the antipathy between god and sin. and it is well to notice how the great {151} thought of this passage is made intelligible to the ordinary english reader again, only by the revised version. in the old bible the word signifying 'passing over' of sins is translated 'remission'--the very thing with which it is in fact contrasted. it is not an exaggeration to say that, in this and very many places of the epistles, the revised version for the first time renders the thought of the apostles again intelligible to the english reader. and if the revised version is not popular, as the booksellers tell us it is not, this is, i fear, only a sign that the majority of english christians do not really care to _understand_ the meaning of the message with which, as a matter of words, they are so familiar. iii. the metaphor of 'redemption' and the metaphor of 'propitiation' complete and check one another. as in the parables it is only the exact point of comparison between the earthly and the heavenly which can be pressed for the spiritual lesson, so it is with these metaphorical words, which are in fact parables compressed. the word 'redemption' is meant to suggest a price paid by god, or by christ, for our being {152} made free; it is the price of the son's death. he 'gives his life a ransom for many.' the word 'propitiation' again is meant to suggest that the offering of the life in sacrifice was the means to win for us forgiveness from god. so far, both metaphorical words have their clear and harmonious meaning. but in old days the metaphor of redemption was worked out by origen and others beyond the exact point of the original suggestion. the price, they argued, must have been paid to the enemy who held us captive; i.e. christ's life was offered as a price to the devil in order that his claim might be satisfied and we might be justly set free. but this extension of the scope of the metaphor is wholly alien to the new testament. on the other hand, the idea of propitiation has suggested at many periods the horrible notion that the son wrung from the angry father the pardon which he was unwilling to give. such a notion is again wholly alien to the new testament. but in fact the two metaphors are mutually corrective; and each tends to exclude the misuse of the other. the idea that christ offered anything to the devil is corrected by the notion inherent in the phrase 'propitiation (of the father).' what the son offered was a sacrifice {153} directed to the father only. on the other hand, the idea that the mind of the father needed to be changed towards us, is corrected by the suggestion inherent in the other metaphor of redemption; for it is he who, because he loved us, gave up his own son to buy us out of the slavery of sin. each metaphor suggests a single idea--each complementary of the other, and corrective of its misuse--and both combine to tell us of the one inseparable love of the father and the son, uniting in a sacrificial act which is ascribed to both, to redeem us from the tyranny of sin and to set the pardoning love free to work upon us, without obscuring the true hatefulness of sin or the true character of god. if, especially recently, the doctrine of the atonement[23] has involved intellectual difficulty, on the other hand it has proved itself, as the popular christian literature of all ages sufficiently shows, widely and deeply welcome to the human heart. this wide welcome which it has received shows that it contains a deep truth. and from this point of view, from the point of view of our practical spiritual needs, we do well to meditate {154} much and deeply upon this doctrine. we can depend upon it, that if we are to go on patiently doing good in a world like this, so full of disappointments and anxieties and moral failures and torturing scruples, we must have peace at the heart. and this is what the really evangelical doctrine is capable of giving us. it bids us continually look out of ourselves up to god, and assures us that his love, manifested in the sacrifice of his son, is there continually, unchangeably. it is there, waiting till first we turn to him, to give us the assurance of entire absolution and admission into the divine fellowship, wholly irrespective of what we have been or done; and it is there continually, however often we fall, with the same large and liberal hand to pour out continual forgivenesses, and never wearies of restoring us again and again to the solid foundation of the peace and grace which are by jesus christ. we are not meant to be miserably anxious or morbidly introspective. we must confess our sins, and that with exactness, without self-sparing, without self-excusing, in utter humility and truth; but 'if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' [1] jer. xiii. 33. [2] except the sins which slew him. [3] i have combined this passage with the illustrative passages in st. paul's speeches to the heathen. acts xiv. 16: 'who in the generations gone by suffered all the nations to walk in their own ways.' acts xvii. 30: 'the times of ignorance god overlooked (winked at); but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent.' wisd. xl. 23: 'thou overlookest (winkest at) the sins of men to the end they may repent.' [4] this paragraph gives distinctness to a somewhat latent thought in vers. 25, 26. but i feel convinced that this, and nothing else, is the thought. [5] verses 5, 25, 26. [6] rom. iii. 22. [7] phil. iii. 9. [8] 2 cor. v. 21. [9] rom. ix. 31. [10] rom. ii. 5. [11] cf. 1 john i. 9: 'faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins.' [12] joseph, the 'righteous' man in matt. i. 19, is kindly. but his kindliness has still the elements of moral severity. and it must be remembered that in rom. v. 7 'righteous' is still put in contrast to 'good.' [13] see acts ii. 38: 'be baptized ... unto the remission of your sins.' xxii. 16: 'be baptized and wash away thy sins.' [14] acts xxvi. 18, i.e. forgiveness and fellowship in the consecrated body, the new israel; cf. xx. 33. [15] 2 macc. vii. 37. [16] 4 macc. vi. 28, 29. [17] john xi. 50. [18] none the less immoral as caiaphas intended it, because, as st. john perceives, a divine truth uttered itself through his lips (john xi. 51). [19] john i. 29. [20] matt. xxvi. 28; luke xxii. 19; 1 cor. xi. 24. [21] robertson-smith, _religion of the semites_ (black, 1889), p. 418. [22] ps. l. 21; cf. eccles. viii. 11. [23] on some of the difficulties felt about the doctrine of the atonement, see app. note d. {155} division ii. § 2. chapter iv. _the true seed of abraham._ st. paul has been repudiating the principle of justification by works of the law. to those with whom he had been brought up, this was in the highest degree to dishonour the jewish law, and indeed the principle of divinely-given law at all. but in the last words of the previous chapter he refuses to admit this inference. 'god forbid that we should make law of none effect. nay, we establish law.' this idea of the gospel, rightly understood, establishing the law even while it superseded it, is with st. paul a very favourite one, and he elaborates it in different ways. sometimes he shows how the function of the written law, or 'the letter,' is only to awaken the conscience and make men know their sinfulness. it can give men no help in corresponding to the moral requirement which it expresses. having {156} convicted the conscience of sin, it has done its work, and must yield its place to a more effective spiritual agency. the letter killeth, in order that the spirit may give life to those whom it has killed. and, on the other hand, the one object of this new spiritual agency, this life-giving spirit, is to infuse the power of moral obedience, which the law could not give, into men's lives, 'that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk after the spirit.' in this place, however, st. paul only alludes to this argument and in the main adopts another. he shows from the book of the law, that the father of the faithful, himself the typical instance of a justified man, was justified, not by works which he had done, but simply because he believed; not upon the basis of any law or covenant, but as a man simply and not as a circumcised man; and again, that david, the man after god's own heart, living under the law, would have us rest our hopes of blessedness, not on our merits as having kept the law, but simply on the forgiving bounty of divine grace. let us inquire, he says, into the case of abraham, whom we jews are proud to own for our national ancestor. what are we to say of him? if abraham approached god in virtue {157} of his merits in having kept a law, and so was accepted by god because of what he had done of himself, there is something for him to boast of. but this in fact is not his relation to god according to the scripture at all. there- 'merit lives from man to man, but not from man, o lord, to thee.' the whole initiation is god's. he simply makes a promise of his own pure goodwill--'thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven'--and abraham simply believed him; and this, and nothing but this, was 'counted to him for righteousness[1].' the two suggested relations of abraham to god are broadly contrasted and can be generally applied. in the one case you have a compact between god who imposes, and man who accepts, an allotted task with a payment attached to its fulfilment. if the man fulfils it, his payment can be classed as due to him under the compact. in the other case you have nothing done, no claim alleged, but a pure act of god, accepting one of our sinful race, as he is, simply because he takes god at his word. and this is how david also views our relation to god. you find him[2] opening his mouth to tell {158} us what sort of man is truly blessed, truly to be congratulated. and he thinks not of one who claims a reward because of his merit, but of one who has found no comfort or resource except in penitent confession of his sins, and whose sins god has forgiven and has consented to treat as if they did not exist. it is the unmerited act of the divine bounty, it is god justifying the sinful, which is the source of blessedness (vers. 1-8). now we go back to the case of abraham to inquire whether the blessing of divine acceptance was pronounced upon him because he was the head of the chosen race marked out by circumcision--which was, so to speak, the first part of the law. no, it was before he was circumcised. the token of circumcision came afterwards[3], as the seal or external confirmation of what he had already received simply as a believing man; so that he might have for his true sons believers, whether uncircumcised or circumcised, and they might share his acceptance simply by believing god as he believed him (vers. 9-12). plainly when god made abraham the promise that he should be the heir of the world[4], no law {159} was introduced into the relationship. it was purely a matter of god promising and abraham taking god at his word. indeed it could not have been otherwise. introduce law, and you introduce a compact between god and man which annuls the relationship of god simply promising and man simply believing--a compact which throws a strain on man's independent powers, which they are not able to bear. the one inevitable result of the law is to put man in the position, in which apart from law he cannot find himself, of a defaulter who knows himself, as a defaulter, under the divine wrath. the true relationship leaves matters in the hands of god, who purely promises of his good favour--man simply in faith receiving (vers. 13-16a). this resting everything on god's promise and man's faith gives security for the fulfilment of the promise to 'all the seed.' and the 'seed to whom the promise was made' includes, not only the race chosen later to receive the law, but believers of all races; abraham being in this sense 'a father of many nations,' as he stands under the eyes of god whom he believed in--god who had power to make his promise good, even by recalling to life again the dead faculties of abraham's old age, and summoning children {160} which did not yet exist as if they were already there. here is the point: abraham believed that god had the power to be as good as his word, in spite of all obvious reasons to the contrary. therefore he looked the facts steadily in the face--his own and sarah's great age. but he did not suffer this to weigh in the balance against god's promise. he made quite sure that god would do as he promised, and glorified god by this strong act of faith. this it is that was reckoned to him for righteousness, i.e. this it is that enabled god to accept him as righteous without any consideration of deeds done. and the record of this acceptance is made for our sakes to-day. god is still taking men into the number of the righteous, and he still does it on the same principle. he will reckon us for righteous if we will take him at his word, and believe in his power to do as he has promised. and in our case he has given us fresh ground for such confident belief; for jesus, on whom as lord our hopes rest and who died to make atonement for our sins, he has by his power raised up from the dead, that by faith in him, dead and yet alive again, we might be taken like abraham without more ado into the number of the righteous. {161} what then shall we say[5] that abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, hath found? for if abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not toward god. for what saith the scripture? and abraham believed god, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. even as david also pronounceth blessing upon the man, unto whom god reckoneth righteousness apart from works, _saying_, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. blessed is the man to whom the lord will not reckon sin. is this blessing then pronounced upon the circumcision, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say, to abraham his faith was reckoned for righteousness. how then was it reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision: and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them; and the father of circumcision to them who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father abraham which he had in uncircumcision. for not through the law was the promise to abraham or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith. for if they which are {162} of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect: for the law worketh wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there transgression. for this cause _it is_ of faith, that _it may be_ according to grace; to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, a father of many nations have i made thee) before him whom he believed, _even_ god, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were. who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, so shall thy seed be. and without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of sarah's womb: yea, looking unto the promise of god, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to god, and being fully assured that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him; but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised jesus our lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification. 1. no doubt, on the text of gen. xv. 6, st. paul is right. it was abraham's _faith_ that is declared to have been reckoned to his account by god as equivalent to righteousness. but when we get beyond a mere text, is it not, we are inclined to ask, more true to the general {163} spirit of scripture to say, with the author of the first book of the maccabees, 'was not abraham found faithful in temptation, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness[6]?' or with st. james, 'was not abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up isaac his son upon the altar? thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect[7].' no doubt certain rabbis state the principle pedantically when they speak of abraham having kept the whole mosaic law by anticipation[8], but is it not true to say that abraham was accepted by god, and on the whole is represented in the bible as so accepted, _not_ only because he believed, but also because he 'was found faithful in temptation,' and did good works, or acted as a good man? now, if by 'accepted' is meant 'finally accepted,' st. paul would say this as of abraham, so of every other accepted man. he must be finally judged and must receive according to his works or character. as we shall see, there is no real discrepancy between st. paul and st. james on this matter. and st. paul never disparages 'good works' which are the fruit of {164} faith, only 'works' or 'works of the law' which represent a false attitude of man to god. but the question which he is here asking is, what is the ground of acceptance for a man _at starting_? what is it puts him at starting in the right relation to god? in other words, what is the root of real righteousness? and his answer to this question is, it is only self-surrendering faith which brought abraham, or which brings any other man, into acceptance. in giving this answer st. paul had in view another attitude with which he had been long familiar, and which he calls 'seeking to be justified by works of the law.' it was the attitude of the jews, especially as they appear in st. john's gospel. they were proud of their divine law and of belonging to the chosen people, the children of abraham and moses. they knew how to make good their standing-ground with god. by keeping the law, as the law had come to be understood among themselves, they could accumulate merits altogether out of proportion to their failures or demerits. they could even be helped by the merits of the old saints[9]. thus they could {165} stand before god on the basis of a certain engagement or covenant, into which god had entered with his people, and claim their due reward. this utterly demoralizing attitude--leading as it does to formalism and hypocrisy, or, at the best, unprogressive stagnation--this attitude, which left out of sight all the higher and infinite elements in the old testament, was the actual attitude of contemporary pharisaic jews. the characteristics with which it endowed them were pride in the law; a sense of personal merit coupled with a contempt for 'sinners of the gentiles,' or the common 'people which knew not the law'; a self-satisfied stagnation which made them utterly resent the new light of the gospel; a regard for the public opinion of their class, which made them slaves to convention; and moral hollowness and rottenness within. it was because this was their attitude that they rejected the christ. 'going about to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit themselves to the righteousness of god.' it was because st. paul had been brought up in the school of the pharisees, but had come to perceive its moral rottenness and to accept jesus as the christ, that he bases all his {166} doctrine on the substitution of justification by faith for justification by works. by 'works' or 'works of the law' he means an attitude towards god which left a man largely independent of him. under the divine covenant the man of the covenant has a certain task to do, a certain law to keep: that kept, especially in its external requirements as contemporary authority enforces it, he is his own master. he is entitled to resent any further claims upon him. this religious ideal means, as we have seen, pride, stagnation, conventionalism, hypocrisy. and the more it is considered the more unnatural it appears. for (1) it ignores the fundamental relation of man to god, viz. that, as a creature, he depends absolutely and at every stage on god. he has no initiative in himself. thus the only attitude towards god which expresses the reality is one in which god is recognized as continually supplying, or promising, or offering, or claiming, and man is continually accepting, or believing, or corresponding, or obeying. (2) it ignores the ineradicable taint of sin in man, and the accumulated guilt of particular sins. a man may gloss over his inward sinfulness, and cloak and ignore his secret sins; he {167} may live outwardly in high reputation; but if he comes to know himself, he knows himself as a sinner, who depends, at starting, absolutely on god for forgiveness and 'deliverance from coming wrath.' (3) it is quite contented to leave all mankind, except a small elect body, out of the conditions of acceptance with god. in substituting 'faith' for works of the law, then, as the principle of justification, st. paul was really 'returning to nature'; he was realizing facts, and supplying a basis for a morality both progressive and universal. further, he was true to all the highest teaching of the old testament, which continually finds the source and ground of sin and failure in man's independence of god; which is averse to nothing so conspicuously as to substituting external conformity for moral character; which is heavy with the consciousness of sin; which humbly expects a fuller, wider, and richer disclosure of the kingdom of god. finally, he was true to that deep and summary teaching of our lord to the jews, 'this is the work of god, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.' no doubt it may still be said st. paul argues in an 'uncritical' manner on the basis of a particular {168} text. but in doing this he was doing as his jewish contemporaries did; and if the particular text is used to prove a real or true principle, who shall complain of it? 2. and now to conciliate st. paul and st. james. it is a satisfactory task, for the statements which appear so contradictory admit, when they are examined, of an easy harmony. let us suppose, what is highly probable, that the report of st. paul's teaching reached st. james at jerusalem at second-hand, in a fragmentary and perverted manner--perhaps as illustrated by unfortunate specimens of its influence where it was wilfully misunderstood. 'men are justified before god by faith without consideration of works.' st. james' holy and beautiful, but no doubt somewhat unphilosophical mind, was alarmed and scandalized. by faith he understood an intellectual quality--the acceptance of the divine truth revealed; and he points out with the simplicity of moral common sense, that never in the old testament is right belief represented as the ground of acceptance with god without the right conduct which is its natural sequence. who can deny that the devils have a 'right belief' in the existence of god? faith, in fact, without {169} works--orthodox belief without moral obedience--is a lifeless form, a body without spirit[10]. to all this st. paul would of course have agreed, in st. james' sense of the word faith. in fact, st. james' faith, i.e. bare orthodox belief, is closely akin to, and apt to keep company with, formal ecclesiastical observance, which is part of what st. paul means by 'works.' both were characteristic of the pharisaic jews. st. paul and st. james would have been at one in saying, 'there must be life in this dead shell of orthodox belief, if it is to have value with god; and what alone can give it life is the real spirit of moral obedience to the will of the holy and good god'--which is what st. james means by 'works.' the disagreement between them is then, so far, only verbal. but st. paul goes deeper, into a region where st. james does not follow him, and asks what is the real starting-ground of the truest obedience--the real root of the moral life? and he finds this starting-ground, this fundamental establishment of the right relation to god, in what he called faith; that is, no mere orthodoxy of intellect, but a fundamental relationship of man towards god--the utterly receptive faculty, {170} the profound quality of the self-surrendering will. 3. there is a young philosophical inquirer in plato's dialogue of the _republic_ who is so anxious to get at the ultimate principle of justice, as distinct from its consequences and secondary qualities, that socrates laughingly tells him he is 'scrubbing and polishing it like a statue.' now st. paul has the philosopher's instinct to get at a principle in its pure simplicity. he scrubs faith clean of all extraneous accidents. he is most anxious that we should disengage its activity from all the other closely-interconnected elements in human nature; and so perceive that, whatever a man has been or is in race or conduct or antecedents, once let him exhibit faith, the faith which takes god at his word, and by that very fact and no other, all the obstacles to god's acceptance of him are overcome. the true relation of the man to god is restored in its elementary principle. and nothing but this, however elaborate its apparent performances, can restore the fundamental relationship. it is faith only, and not works, however splendid, which justifies or enables god to take a man, place him amongst the righteous, and work upon and in him. but this elemental {171} act of simply abandoning independence, trampling on pride and taking god at his word, is an act or attitude of the whole man which necessarily (granted that it be not withdrawn) becomes correspondence of the whole being with god, a lifelong obedience, an allegiance and homage of every faculty of will, and emotion, and intellect. 'faith,' then, as calvin once said, 'is pregnant with good works, but it justifies before they are brought forth.' that the rudimentary justifying faith, on which st. paul is here insisting, is a developing thing, a living and germinating principle, the basis of a life which grows--but always 'from faith to faith,' from one stage of faith to another--will appear clearly enough as we go on. but even here, in this chapter, it appears already that faith is something quite inconsistent with remaining as we are. faith looks to a divine promise--a promise of astounding change--and believes that god is able to realize it in us. such was abraham's faith. such, we may add, was the faith of those in the gospels who came to be healed, and to whom it was said, 'according to your faith be it unto you.' our faith then also must expect and desire some amazing transformation of our human nature, {172} according to a divine promise--nothing less than power out of impotence, life out of death. and it is from this point of view that the resurrection is apparently regarded in this chapter, as holding the place it does in the 'scheme' of our justification by faith. we are to believe that god is able to bring life morally out of death. he makes that act of faith possible or easier for us by the resurrection of jesus christ. this evidence of god's power in the case of jesus, the person on whom our divine faith is to rest, gives an adequate support and reasonable security to our faith. 'he was designated as the son of god with power, by the resurrection from the dead,' and thus becomes the natural object for such a faith in the power of god to carry out his promises as is necessary for our justification. this is probably the meaning of the particular words with which the fourth chapter closes--'who died for our sins (that is, in order that, in virtue of his atoning sacrifice, our sins might be forgiven) and rose again for our justification' (i.e. in order that our faith might have in the risen lord an adequate object). but of course the relation of faith to the risen lord is by no means exhausted in this thought. {173} 4. we englishmen are possessed with the idea that there is nothing so alien to our characters as the temper of the pharisees or the doctrine of the merit of good works. but if we can look at the matter below the surface, we can hardly fail to realize that the spirit which st. paul so mightily repudiates lies in some respects very close to our natural instincts. the englishman has a standard, of his class, his college, his profession, which it is his pride not to fall short of; but he is intensely alarmed at any claim upon his moral independence over and above this allowed standard; he is inclined to turn his back completely upon the idea of fundamental surrender to the unknown and infinite claim of god; he is contented with himself and his standard, and occupies himself in comparing it favourably with the standards of other classes, or still more of other nations. but what is this spirit but, for good or for evil, the spirit of pharisaism under a wholly different dress? 'they going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of god.' 'how can ye believe which seek glory one of another, and the glory that cometh from the only god ye seek not?' 'they measuring themselves by {174} themselves and comparing themselves amongst themselves are not wise.' here are typical condemnations of the self-satisfied pharisaic temper so expressed as to prevent us from supposing that we shall escape condemnation with the pharisees merely because we do not say long prayers in public places, or distinguish ourselves by a careful ritualism. [1] gen. xv. 5, 6. [2] ps. xxxii. [3] gen. xvii. [4] none of the promises are verbally to this effect. but this is the substantial outcome of them. [5] or 'of abraham, our forefather according to the flesh' (margin). [6] 1 macc. ii. 52; cf. ecclus. xliv. 20. [7] james ii. 21, 22. [8] cf. s. and h. p. 101. [9] there is contemporary evidence for this illustration of their position; see _ephesians_, app. note c. [10] james ii. 14-26. {175} division iii. chapters v-viii. _the accepted life or the moral consequences of justification._ § 1. chapter v. 1-11. _the holy confidence of the justified._ peace is a fundamental spiritual need of the human soul. but the peace that is god's gift comes only through the breaking up of the peace of soul which comes from ignoring god. the pharisee on the temple steps was at peace when he thanked god that he was not as other men are--at peace in his misplaced pride. the mass of men in heathen corinth, where st. paul was writing, were at peace in their sins. and st. paul has set himself with all his might, as in his preaching generally, so in this particular letter, to break up this false peace of conscience. like the prophet of old he spurns those who would 'heal the hurt of the daughter of god's {176} people lightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace.' thus he has been arousing the conscience of gentiles and jews equally, and forcing upon them the conviction that their present life is a condemned life, under the doom of a righteous god. but when the conviction is driven home, when the wound is fairly recognized and probed, comes in due course the healing remedy. it lies in the recognition of what god really is--of the sort of character which he is manifesting now in his son jesus christ. for behold! wholly apart from any question of what we are or have been, god is found waiting for us with the offer of his love, which is also the power to accomplish what he offers. it is pardon and new life he offers to us. it is for us simply to take him at his word, and without any delay or reckoning up of accounts, to be acquitted and accepted for righteous simply because we have believed his word. the secure ground of peace in the soul, therefore, lies in the frank and severe recognition of our own sinfulness, but also, and even more, in looking away from ourselves and simply fixing our whole consideration on the character of god, who in certain acts has shown his {177} good-will toward us, and his power to make his goodwill effectual. all hope for us starts simply from god and his mind of love toward us. 'not that we loved god, but that he loved us and sent his son.' thus we find st. paul, in the passage we are now to consider, beginning a fresh appeal to believers in christ on this basis, which he has already made so secure. seeing, he says, that we have now been accepted simply because we believed, let us enter into that heritage of peace which our lord jesus christ by his redemption has won for us. for what is our present condition? through his redeeming sacrifice we have received an introduction, at no other cost than that of believing, into a new standing-ground before god, a new state in which the whole atmosphere is one of grace or divine favour. we can therefore enjoy a solid peace in the present based on the sure consideration of the divine goodwill, and we can make it our boast that we have a well-grounded hope of future restoration to that highest fruition of which our nature is capable--fellowship in the divine glory. and while we enjoy these present privileges of ours, let us show that we really value them by making {178} the outward hardships which accompany them a matter of boasting also. for we know that only such hardships, bravely encountered, can give to our characters the quality of steadfastness; and steadfastness through the experience of life makes of us men of approved moral metal; and this process of probation, in which we are tried and not found wanting, again generates hope in us--the same hope in god's love which accompanied the beginning of our justification, only now confirmed in us by our own experience. and this divine hope has nothing treacherous about it[1]. it is grounded on what god has already done. he has already given us his holy spirit, and by that gift poured forth his love into our hearts: he would not have done this in order to cheat us at the last. we can indeed test and measure the mind of god toward us by human comparisons. in our experience of men we might perhaps find some one brave enough even to die for another, if that other was, i do not say merely an upright man, but a good and loveable one. but what is the fact in god's dealings with us? it was {179} when we were sinful and helpless in our sinfulness--nay rather, when we were living in flat antagonism to god--that he proved his own pure love toward us by taking advantage of the divine opportunity to give his son to die for us. and he, thus dying on our behalf, won for us by the shedding of his blood a reconciliation with god, which lay altogether outside anything which our state naturally suggested. well then, god would not, so to speak, have gone out of his way to make this beginning, unless he had intended to carry the work through, so as finally to save us out from under the divine wrath, or, in other words, into the divine fellowship. certainly, accepted as we have been in virtue of christ's blood-shedding, and thus reconciled to god when our natural state was hostility to him, we can trust him, now that he has made us his friends, to accomplish our deliverance, not by any further blood-shedding, but by admitting us into the life of christ risen from death. but, to end where we began, it is not only the hope of a future deliverance that makes us glad. we also make our boast of our present relation and friendship with god through his son. {180} being therefore justified by faith, let us have peace with god through our lord jesus christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and let us rejoice in hope of the glory of god. and not only so, but let us also rejoice in our tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, probation; and probation, hope: and hope putteth not to shame; because the love of god hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the holy ghost which was given unto us. for while we were yet weak, in due season christ died for the ungodly. for scarcely for a righteous man will one die: for peradventure for the good man some one would even dare to die. but god commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, christ died for us. much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath _of god_ through him. for if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to god through the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life; and not only so, but we also rejoice in god through our lord jesus christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. 1. we feel in this passage, and in those which follow, that a great transition is being accomplished, or has been accomplished, in the argument, we hardly know how: the transition from the thought of our preliminary justification or acceptance with god for christ's sake, to that of our sanctification, or the life consecrated in christ: the transition from the thought of christ's work _for us_ to that of christ's work _in us_: from {181} the gift of acquittal to the gift of the spirit (ver. 5), and the life of the baptized (vi. 3). st. paul is not conscious of the transition, as modern theologians or christians acquainted with theological controversy cannot but be, because the two stages are to his mind absolutely inseparable. those to whom he wrote had like himself come, with whatever of struggle, to believe in christ; believing, they had been baptized into christ, and had received by the laying on of hands the gift of the holy ghost. this fellowship in christ's life, this possession of the spirit, constituted christianity. to enjoy these things was to be a christian. the idea of a christianity which stopped short of incorporation into christ, or which claimed this incorporation outside his body which is the church, and apart from the visible sacramental means of union, did not occur to st. paul. a christianity which did not own allegiance to the church was not in question. but his entire present aim is to convince the heart and reason of christians that the whole privilege of their new 'state of grace' belongs to them simply in virtue of faith. as he asks the galatians: 'received ye the spirit,' i.e. did ye become christians, 'by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?' that is his point. {182} they were not made christians because they had done anything to deserve it. they were simply helpless sinners, and it was the gratuitous mercy of god which looked upon them and provided a means of forgiveness for them, and justified them or set them upon a new basis of acceptance, without any consideration of what they were or had done, purely and simply because he loved them and meant that the mere spectacle of his unmerited love and bounty should inspire their gratitude and win their hearts. therefore he lays such emphasis on their initial need of forgiveness: on their helplessness to get rid of their own sins: on their dependence for forgiveness on a sacrifice to which they could contribute nothing: on their being justified by simply receiving in trust the offer of god. but the offer when it is listened to is found to consist in forgiveness indeed--but forgiveness as a step toward new life in the body of christ. thus what christ won for man, what becomes available for each man in virtue of believing the message, is here described as 'our introduction' (rather than 'access') 'into this grace wherein we stand'--an introduction into a spiritual region where god's favour is the prevailing atmosphere, or, to use a later phrase, into 'a state of grace'; a {183} district of security out of which, however, men may fall again by deliberate unfaithfulness, as st. paul warns the galatians[2]: 'ye are severed from christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace.' and st. paul's language does not let us suppose that the whole of what he means by our 'salvation' is included in our preliminary acceptance[3]. that is simply our first introduction into a permanent state. our 'salvation' is here, as elsewhere, spoken of as equivalent to deliverance from wrath in the day of judgement, which means that our whole moral being has become such as can bear the scrutiny of the divine righteousness and the fellowship of the divine glory. 2. where the revised version above[4] reads 'rejoice,' it is important to remember that the word is that used for the illegitimate 'glorying' or 'boasting' of iii. 27 and iv. 2. christians have something to boast of, but it is not their own; it is god's gift. therefore they are especially delighted when god's strength is shown in their weakness, and they will more particularly 'boast of their weaknesses' (cf. 2 cor. xi. 30). {184} 3. st. paul's argument that the christian hope is fundamentally trustworthy is based, we may notice, on a twofold appeal. first (ver. 5), he appeals to the gift of the spirit which at a definite time[5] each christian received, doubtless by the laying on of hands. this gift is in itself an outpouring of the divine love and an 'earnest' of future glory (2 cor. i. 22, v. 5). no doubt almost all the christians had more or less intensely _felt_ the reality of the divine love in the indwelling spirit. but st. paul lays stress rather on the fact than on the feeling. secondly (vers. 6 ff.), he appeals to the great redemptive act of god. god had gone out of his way to make a great sacrifice in order to reconcile us when we were enemies, and therefore may be trusted to carry out the preliminary reconciliation into full spiritual deliverance or salvation by christ's life. the greater effort carries with it the less. [1] isa. xxviii. 16: 'he that believeth shall not be put to shame' (greek version). [2] gal. v. 4. [3] cf. also p. 310. [4] verses 2, 3, 11. [5] the tense is an aorist, 'the holy ghost which was given' at a definite past moment; not as in the unrevised bible 'is given.' {185} division iii. § 2. chapter v. 12-21. _the second adam._ st. paul had spoken, at the end of the passage we have just been reading, of our being 'saved by (or 'in') christ's life.' and this brings him to what is truly the central point of his theology--the life in christ by the spirit: the thought that the glorified man, with all the power of the divine life at work in him, though he is hidden from sight, is still perpetuating his life by his spirit in that society which he has established to be his body. it stands to reason that if real fellowship in the life of christ is the privilege of the christian, this must be a greater thing by far than any preparatory gift of acquittal or justification, which indeed has its value simply in virtue of that to which it admits us. st. paul then loves to contrast the new {186} manhood of believers in christ, the life in christ, in all its moral characteristics, with the old manhood, enslaved to sin, as it existed substantially identical in its bondage under the outwardly differing conditions of gentile and jewish society. and as that old life of our race had a unity which st. paul believed was due to a common origin in the first man adam, so he thought of christ as a second adam--the 'last adam'--a spiritual progenitor from whom was to be derived another human race by spiritual generation with a better unity of its own; or rather a new spiritual progenitor from whom the whole of the old race might gradually derive, by spiritual regeneration, a new life, which should penetrate and spread, and oust the corruption of the old manhood, till the whole was redeemed and ushered into the glory for which it had been originally destined. and here, in the passage we are now to read, st. paul develops the thought of the influence of adam and his sin upon the human race, and draws from it an argument for the deeper and greater influence of the new man upon the same race, reconstituted under a new head. adam's sin--the disobedience of the one man--had a disastrous effect upon his race as a {187} whole. it introduced sin, and through sin its penalty, death; and it passed to all mankind--the penalty, because also the sin. all men sinned in fact, and all died. this can be stated without exception. it is quite true that where there is no special law to instruct men, they may sin ignorantly, and therefore without its being imputed to them as guilt; yet the sin is there all the same, and its presence, before the mosaic law was given to enlighten men, was marked by the reign of death, even in the case of persons innocent of any actual sin like adam's. sin then, as marked by death, exists universally, apart from any knowledge of it or even any actual offence, as the effect of adam's transgression upon his whole race. but to adam corresponds in the divine purpose christ. he is the new head of the race--to transmit the free gift of life, as adam transmitted the penalty of death. his life was one summary obedience: one perfectly acceptable object to the eyes of god. and there flows from it an abundant river of the good favour of god--which is also the good favour of the man jesus christ--and of the gift by which that good favour shows itself, the gift of righteousness extending on into an eternal life. therefore we may argue {188} _a fortiori_[1] from the influence of adam to the influence of christ--[_a fortiori_, because, though god has been, so to speak, constrained to punish us, his whole desire is to do us good; and the method of diffusion which he has allowed to operate for evil, we can be much more sure he will set to work for good][2]. we see the trespass of the one generating universal death, and we are sure that the counter influence of christ is as universally diffusive and incomparably more powerful. we see the one man's offence appealing to god for judgement and producing a condemned race; but we see, on the other hand, a multitude of sins appealing to the divine compassion to let loose the free gift which shall make for acquittal. if the consequence of the transgression was inevitable, and a reign of death followed, so much more certainly must the divine gift, abundant as it is, bring about the triumph of eternal life. if the one fault diffused itself in universal condemnation, so the one act which meets the divine approval must diffuse itself to produce {189} universally an accepted life. one disobedience made the whole race sinners: one obedience shall make the whole race righteous. the law came in parenthetically to the world of sin and death to let actual sin, like adam's, have its full and fatal scope. but the greatness of the sin only magnifies still more the greatness of the remedy which divine goodness supplies, that the sovereignty of sin in a world of death might be swallowed up in the sovereignty of divine goodwill working through righteousness unto life eternal through jesus christ our lord. therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned:--for until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. nevertheless death reigned from adam until moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come. but not as the trespass, so also _is_ the free gift. for if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of god, and the gift by the grace of the one man, jesus christ, abound unto the many. and not as through one that sinned, _so_ is the gift: for the judgement _came_ of one unto condemnation, but the free gift _came_ of many trespasses unto justification. for if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, _even_ jesus christ. so then as through one trespass _the judgement came_ unto all men to {190} condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness _the free gift came_ unto all men to justification of life. for as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous. and the law came in beside, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly: that, as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through jesus christ our lord. 1. st. paul in this section, as also in part in his speech at athens, teaches, as matter which can be assumed and need not be emphasized, that god made 'of one' (adam) 'every nation of men[3]'; that adam, by actual transgression of a divine commandment, introduced sin, and with sin death which is its punishment, into the world of man; and that as a result all men sinned. this universal sin he would, no doubt--as in chapter i, so here--ascribe in part to men's own wills. in this very chapter he asserts that what finally 'abounded' was actual 'transgression' like adam's[4]. but this is not the whole account of the matter. prior to all question of actual sins; prior to all question of knowledge or consequent responsibility, death was universal, and death marked the inward reign {191} of sin. men in the mass were, through adam's sin, constituted sinners[5]. st. paul then, assuming here as elsewhere[6] the narrative of gen. iii as true in substance if not in form, teaches (1) the unity of our race as derived from adam; (2) the original transgression of adam, as being partly the example of subsequent sins and partly the source of a moral corruption, which since his fall has been inherent in our race independently of any actual sins; and (3) the introduction of death _into the human race_ as the punishment of sin. on the other hand, the common idea of an imputation of adam's guilt to his descendants he expressly does not teach. sin is not imputed or reckoned as guilt to the individual apart from the knowledge necessary to constitute responsibility[7]. it is extraordinary how the idea of imputed _guilt_ can have come to be ascribed to st. paul when he expressly guards against it. what the descendants of adam inherit is an actual inherent weakness or sinfulness. again, st. paul does not attempt to analyze the actual sin of the world so as to discriminate between the factors of inherited {192} weakness on the one hand and reiterated acts of rebellion on the other; but he recognizes both. his language indeed here, and in chapter vii, would be satisfied by a very moderate doctrine of the effects of original sin, that is, of the transmitted effect of sin, considered apart from its repetition. there is no warrant whatever in st. paul for the idea that one man's sin resulted in the total depravity of human nature. once more he is content, as usual, to teach generally and without exactness. thus he does not consider the exceptions to the universal law of death recorded in the old testament--enoch and elijah--though he, no doubt, recognized them. that in spite of these exceptions he still states the law with such universality: 'death reigned from adam to moses even over them that had not sinned[8]' is a warning not to understand st. paul's universal propositions with an exactness only applicable to those of a schoolman or a modern man of science. 2. so much for the substance of st. paul's teaching; and now what is to be said as to its sources? st. paul states his doctrine of original sin as if it were a commonplace which he could {193} assume and argue from. now the book of genesis certainly spoke of a primaeval disobedience in our first parents, and of the infliction on them, as a penalty for their disobedience, of conditions of strife and pain and death. but the idea of the transmission of _sinfulness_ does not seem to be suggested. moreover, this narrative made remarkably little impression on the old testament literature as a whole[9]. the doctrine, however, of the introduction of _death_ through the temptation and sin of adam and eve is found again in the apocryphal literature: thus, 'god created man for incorruption, ... but by the envy of the devil death entered into the world[10].' from a woman was the beginning of sin; and because of her we all die[11].' unto adam thou gavest thy one commandment, which he transgressed, and immediately thou appointedst death for him and in his generations; and there were born of him nations and tribes, peoples {194} and kindreds, out of number[12].' 'adam sinned, and death was decreed against those who should be born[13].' this was also the prevalent doctrine of the rabbis represented in the talmud. the idea of an inheritance of _moral_ corruption--but not specially associated with adam's fall--may be found in the cry of the psalmist, 'in sin hath my mother conceived me!' perhaps also in other passages of the old testament, and in our lord's teaching, as recorded both by the synoptists and in st. john's gospel[14]; but as connected with adam's sin it does not, so far as can be ascertained, appear for certain in jewish literature till we get to the second book of esdras, a jewish apocalypse later than st. paul. there it is taught that there was originally a seed of evil, 'a wicked heart,' in adam as he was created, side by side with the good in him, and that he by his sin gave it preponderance in the race[15]--a form of teaching not by any means identical with st. paul's. on the whole, then, it remains a matter of some doubt what exactly was the source {195} whence st. paul got the certainty and completeness of his doctrine of 'the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is ingendered of the offspring of adam.' 3. the more important question for us, however, is not whence st. paul derived the materials for his teaching, but whether it is true--whether it can hold in the light of modern anthropology. and to this question only a partial answer--the answer that appears to be most necessary--will be attempted here[16]. we are in our generation rightly anxious if we are asked to accept any professedly historical statement for which we feel the evidence is doubtful. we know that from the point of view of history the origin of our human species is lost in dense obscurity and uncertainty. and it relieves many consciences to realize that, if st. paul states his argument in a form which implies the historical character of the narrative in genesis iii, all that is necessary for his argument is to assume (1) that the human race is organically one, and can be dealt with as one; (2) that sin is universal in our race; (3) that at least the sting or curse or bondage of death is due to sin. if we realize that this is all that {196} need be allowed in order to give us full fellowship in st. paul's religious teaching, we shall be able to investigate the further truth of his teaching, from a scientific and historical point of view, with a free mind. and the three propositions stated above are not reasonably open to doubt, (1) that our race is one species, and derived from one source, is the conclusion of the modern ethnologist as much as of st. paul[17]. the general theory of evolution has effectively counteracted the previous tendency to postulate the existence of various independent races of men. (2) there are many professors of psychology who deny the existence of moral freedom and consequently of sin in st. paul's sense at all. as i have already pointed out, this is the real battle-ground between theology and science. but granted the reality of moral freedom and of {197} sin, i.e. of something which need not and ought not to have been committed, it is impossible to deny that, below the innumerable sins of which human history is full, there exists deep in our nature an 'ineradicable taint'--a morbid tendency to do wrong--a bias or propensity to evil--which is the heritage of our race; which indeed men may become unconscious of by acquiescing in sin, but of which they become painfully conscious again as soon as they are awakened to a moral ideal. the late dr. mozley collected a remarkable series of passages from what he calls 'worldly philosophers and poets'--notably byron and shelley--testifying to the belief in universal sin[18]. this of course we may say is only the inheritance of animal tendencies from an animal ancestry; but if so, it is exactly what our higher spiritual nature might and ought to have subdued long ago and brought into subjection. its presence with us and in us now is the result of sins innumerable--innumerable wilful preferences of the lower to the higher nature, which have let it loose and given it force. it is, in the strictest sense, the inheritance of sin in the race. (3) the new testament frequently reiterates {198} the assertion that christ has robbed death of its sting or delivered men from its bondage. and this is also expressed (both by st. paul and by our lord himself, as reported by st. john) by saying that christ has 'abolished death[19]' or that the believer shall never die[20]. but if christ has abolished death, then there is at least a certain sense in which sin has been the cause of death. the essence of death, according to this use of the word, lies not in the physical transition from one state of existence to another, which is no more death than it is birth. death means destruction, ruin and collapse. and what is called death--the death of the present body--has only gathered about it such terrible associations because men have become corrupt, and godless and therefore short-sighted in their estimate of life. in the moral sense then in which christ abolished death, sin certainly introduced it for man. now there is, i think, reason to believe more exactly with st. paul than is involved in these three positions[21]. but i feel sure that any one who accepts these three positions--no one of which any believer in god and morality can well {199} reject--may find himself in complete practical fellowship with st. paul's religious thought and with the whole argument of this epistle. humanity, in spite of all its racial differences, is a great unity: it is, if not 'of one' individual, yet 'of one blood,' and it is as a whole infected with sin; this is in effect the doctrine of the 'old adam.' and because it is one, and universally tainted, therefore christ can deal with it as one, in order to accomplish its restoration. and all st. paul's argument holds good. god has made humanity one, and so one that what each does tends to affect all. thus it has come about that the force of sin--the wilful refusal of the higher life and choice of the lower--has passed in its effects into the moral fibre of our race, and weakened and corrupted the whole. god tolerates this, for man must be, and must be dealt with as being, one and free. but god desires the well-being of man. he hates sin. it has all but baffled his purpose for man. therefore, if he has tolerated the use which sin has made of the organic unity of the human race, he can much more be trusted to use that same unity for the purpose of good. as man is one in sin, so we can be one in righteousness: as the old adam has been {200} universal, so can the new. as sin has been propagated physically, so christ can spiritually propagate the new manhood. the forces of recovery shall spread and permeate more radically than the forces of evil, and shall finally triumph. of course, in view of all the deep racial differences between, for instance, europeans, chinamen, and the races of india, to believe in the unity of humanity in any real sense at all is a great act of faith. but it is an act of faith in which science encourages us, and not least the comparative study of religions. our religious instincts and faculties are found in very different degrees of development, but they are fundamentally the same. and it is an act of faith to which christ and christianity fundamentally commit us, though it is probably true to say that since new testament times the brotherhood of men has been practically found to be the most difficult of christian dogmas. 4. it is not inopportune, in view of recent controversy, to call attention in this connexion to the fact that st. paul's doctrine of christ as the second adam of necessity involves in some form his miraculous birth. st. paul indeed says nothing about christ's nativity of {201} the virgin as an event in history; but he conceives of the christ as a fresh start in manhood, a new man, who yet drew the substance of his manhood from the old stock, for he was 'born of a woman,' and 'of the seed of david.' there is thus physical continuity between the old adam and christ, and yet, from the moral point of view, the break is complete. the inheritance of sin which has followed, and must according to natural law follow, physical descent, is quite cut off. christ is man of our old substance and yet new man, wholly free from any taint of sin. this involves a new creative act upon the manhood of christ in its source. it involves something strictly miraculous conditioning the continuity of his descent from david. there is continuity, and yet a break in continuity. and this is exactly what the strongly-attested fact of the virgin birth--whatever be the physiological account which is to be given of it--is calculated to supply. it presents us with a christ born of a woman, of the substance of our nature, and yet only so constituted by a new creative act of god. 5. it will of course be noticed that the drift of st. paul's argument in this passage is directly towards universal salvation, for 'the many' {202} means 'the whole mass.' this is the case in other places where he is considering what we may call the natural tendency and scope of the gospel, 'as in adam all die, even so in christ shall all be made alive.' but there are passages of a different tendency in st. paul's epistles, where he is considering the human attitude towards the purpose of god; and there he appears to emphasize strongly the power of the human will to refuse the light and turn god's blessing into a curse. if the 'savour' of the apostle's preaching is to 'those who are being saved a savour proceeding from life and tending to life,' even eternal life, it is for the wilful who are perishing in their wilfulness 'a savour as from death and tending to death': for they shall 'suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the lord, and from the glory of his might[22].' what this eternal destruction means, and how it is to be harmonized with the vision of unity, we cannot precisely tell. verily, 'we know' but 'in part.' but at least we must recognize that st. paul asserts both sides of the picture: and that the 'terror' and the hope are not dissociable. 6. we must also notice, before we leave the {203} passage, that the application of the word justification receives a certain extension. as the 'grace' of god is associated with a 'gift of righteousness[23],' that is to say, of real fellowship in the life of god, so the preliminary 'justification of sinners,' in which the divine grace first of all conspicuously shows itself, is to pass into a 'justification of life' (or 'a justification taking effect in life'); that is to say, the actual life is to become acceptable. god begins with accepting sinners and dealing with them as if they were righteous if only they will believe. but it is in view of a moral process which is to produce a new life, and is to end in making acceptable not themselves only, in spite of their lives, but their life itself. the object of the justifying faith is, and must be, as we saw, a living person. it is christ who was 'raised again for our justification.' and the living christ can be satisfied with nothing short of a living fellowship between us and himself in his own life and spirit. [1] an _a fortiori_ argument means an argument with a 'still more' in it:--if something is so then _still more_ something else. [2] the words in brackets are the suppressed premise in the argument--suppressed, but none the less evident. [3] acts xvii. 26. [4] ver. 20. [5] ver. 13, 14, 19. [6] 1 cor. xi. 3; 1 tim. ii. 13-15. [7] rom. iv. 15; v. 13. [8] much more (the argument implies) after the law had been given and sin could be 'imputed' as sin again. [9] the references in hos. vi. 7, isa. xliii. 27, job xxxi. 33, are not certainly, or even probably, to adam. there is an obscure but interesting reference in ezek. xxviii. 14-16, in which 'the fall' seems to be treated as representative of tyre's fall, and presumably therefore of all situations in which divine gifts and vocations are squandered and lost. [10] wisd. ii. 23, 24; cf. rom. v. 12. [11] ecclus. xxv. 24. the first clause need not mean more than 'she was the first to sin.' [12] 2 esdras iii. 7. [13] _apoc. baruch_ xxiii. 4, and elsewhere. in parts of this book the penalty of adam's sin is regarded as being not death, but _premature_ death: see liv. 15, lvi. 6, and mr. charles' notes. [14] see matt. vii. 11; john ii. 25; iii. 3, &c. [15] 2 esdras iii. 21, 22; iv. 30; vii. 48. [16] the matter is to be dealt with more at length in app. note e. [17] see e. b. tylor in _encycl. brit._ ii, _s.v._ anthropology, p. 114: 'the polygenist view (i.e. the doctrine of a plurality of origins) till a few years since was gaining ground. two modern views, however (i.e. the belief in the antiquity of man and the development of species), have tended to restore, though under a new aspect, the doctrine of a single human stock.' cf. darwin, _descent of man_ (2nd ed.), p. 176: 'those naturalists who admit the principle of evolution ... will feel no doubt that all the races of men are descended from a single primitive stock.' see also keane in app. note e. [18] mozley's _lectures and theol. papers_ (longmans), pp. 157 ff. [19] 2 tim. i. 10. [20] john vi. 50; viii. 51. [21] see app. note e. [22] 2 thess. i. 7-10; 2 cor. ii. 16. [23] ver. 17. {204} division iii. § 3. chapter vi. 1-14. _the christian life a living by dying._ it has now been made apparent that belief in christ introduces a man into a new sphere of 'life in christ' or 'state of grace'--a state, that is, in which the divine grace or goodwill is the atmosphere and motive force. and just as with his natural life he inherited all the taint and curse attaching to sin in the unredeemed manhood, so now in his new state he receives from christ all the bountiful outpouring, not of acquittal only, but of divine life. what he is called to witness is the triumph of the divine goodwill over the old forces and tendencies of sin in himself and in the world. but now a monstrous suggestion presents itself, akin to that attempt of the jew (of which we heard in chapter iii) to claim exemption from the divine judgement on his own sins on the ground that jewish unfaithfulness had but given {205} god a background upon which to reveal himself and his righteousness more effectively. st. paul, we saw, indignantly crushed that attempt to use logic against conscience. now, however, a similar suggestion makes itself heard, only from the side not of jewish factiousness, but of gentile lawlessness. would it not give divine grace a still better opportunity to show its quality if, now that we are christians, we go on living our old life of sin? the more it has got to forgive in us, the more superabundant will its mercy appear. shall we not then continue in sin that grace may abound? we have other reasons, besides this passage, for believing that st. paul's teaching about divine grace and justifying faith not only admitted of being misunderstood, but was misunderstood, in his own time[1] as at later periods, in such a way as to cut the roots of moral effort. 'unlearned and unstable men were wresting his words to their own destruction.' and to any lawless suggestions based upon the misuse of god's free grace, st. paul had already given the easiest answer when he had laid it down {206} as an absolutely universal truth that god will at last 'render to every man according to his works ... to them that are factious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil'; or when he had met the developed logic of the self-excusing jew with the sharp and final rejoinder--'whose condemnation is just.' here however st. paul gives not the easiest answer to the antinomian suggestion, but a deep, fruitful, and decisive one. he demonstrates the absolute incompatibility of principle between the life of sin and the christian state. by the very nature of the case no man can belong to both. as st. john said, 'he that is begotten of god' in the new life in christ 'cannot sin' without thereby abandoning his new standing-ground. at the moment when we became christians by the act of baptism, we said good-bye to the old life of sin as completely as a dying man says good-bye to the familiar scenes and passes over to 'yonder side.' we were admitted by baptism into christ jesus; that is, we were admitted into a certain sort of human life with a certain law or character. what is then the character and law of christ's life? 'we believe that {207} jesus died and rose again[2].' that is the central and summary fact about him. he passed to life through death. and this physical death of his on the cross was not merely a fact in history, it was a fact with a moral significance[3]. while he had been in this sinful world of ours he had borne its sin, but had no part in it. he was in the sinful world, but not of it. he was to sin and all its motives as one dead. and by his physical death upon the cross he gave summary expression to this moral alienation. he made a final and outward breach with sin, and passed out of its range, for evermore 'separated from sinners.' 'he died to sin once for all.' and the glory of the father[4] broke forth from its customary concealment and vindicated the christ by raising him from the dead, because of what his death had morally meant. thus the 'likeness,' or moral counterpart, of christ's death is to be, like him, dead to sin. and if we are not called to be physically crucified, we are called to its moral counterpart. we must become morally 'of one growth' with {208} christ's death[5], like the slip with the tree it is grafted into. only so can we share the new life of his resurrection. this is represented in the very ceremony of our baptism. it was impressed upon us by all its outward symbolism that to become a christian we must die to the old life. we were brought to the margin of the water as to a death, and descended, bowed beneath the waves, as into the tomb with christ: in order so, and only so, as having died and been buried, to emerge again into the new life under the conditions of which henceforth we are to conduct ourselves[6]. and this new life is not only an actual present fellowship in the risen christ (ver. 4): it expects to become so (ver. 5) in a fuller and completer measure, but always on the basis of one and the same clear conviction, which we may express thus--when christ was nailed to the cross, our old sinful manhood was nailed there with him, so that henceforth our animal nature, hitherto the haunt and stronghold of sin, might be paralyzed and rendered as powerless as any crucified criminal, and we, set free to become new men, might no longer be sin's slaves. that old sinful self of {209} ours was put to death, and we passed, as new men, into another life. henceforth the tyrant sin has no claim on us, for death closes all scores and acquits of all claims. 'the man is dead' is a summary and final plea against all claimants, and that is our plea against the claim of sin. we have died to it once and for all. therefore, and only therefore, we can hope to share the deathless glory of christ's resurrection. he died once, and passed henceforth altogether out of death's control. for the death that he died was to make an end with sin, and that was done once for all. henceforth there is nothing left but life, and that life in the eternal god. this therefore is the view we are to take of ourselves as now included in christ: we are, in regard to sin, dead men who are no longer responsive to its impulses or alive to its interests: and therefore, in regard to god, we are alive in christ to whom we are united. and (ver. 12) the practical duty which follows from this is plain. christians must not acknowledge a tyrant whose strength and power is gone for ever, by letting sin still reign in the lower part of their nature--the body still subject to physical death--and so bring their higher nature into an unnatural subjection to its appetites: they must {210} not leave the limbs of their redeemed selves at the disposal of the dethroned king sin, to be used as weapons for the warfare of iniquity. no: they must correspond to the privileges of the new life in god into which they have passed, by making an offering of themselves[7] to god, with all the free will which befits those who were dead and are alive again; and an offering also of their limbs, now restored to their own control, as weapons for god's warfare of righteousness. sin shall no longer be their lord. that despotism belonged to the days when they were under the law. now it is not the law they are under, but the sovereignty of the divine goodwill. what shall we say then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? god forbid. we who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into christ jesus were baptized into his death? we were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, so we also might walk in newness of life. for if we have become united with the likeness of his death, we shall be also with the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with _him_, that the body of {211} sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he that hath died is justified from sin. but if we died with christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; knowing that christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over him. for the death that he died, he died unto sin once: but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto god. even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto god in christ jesus. let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof: neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto god, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto god. for sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace. 1. in the analysis of the passage given above, the order of the ideas has been somewhat altered, and their meaning expanded, with the intention of rendering the real argument more intelligible; while i believe that no idea is suggested that is foreign to the original. the passage, however, is extraordinarily condensed, and is full of some of the most characteristic of st. paul's thoughts--amongst them that of the life in christ as being a living by dying, or a life out of death. it is impossible to try to lead a human life under any standard that can be called moral without knowing that it involves some sort of 'mortification' of selfish and sensual appetites. there {212} is that in human nature which, as moralists generally must recognize and in fact have in a measure recognized, must be 'done to death.' it was this principle that was expressed with such terrible vigour by our lord when he bade us pluck out the offending eye and cut off the offending hand. but the novelty in christianity was the emphasis which it laid rather on the living than on the dying; it was its teaching as to the infusion into human life of a new and positive spiritual force, which was to overcome evil with good and swallow up death in victory. it was by their belief in a gift of the spirit imparted to them, and by their resulting power to think and act freely according to god, that the christians were distinguished from the rest of the world. it is this upon which their apostolic teachers continually insist. 'i have written unto you young men, because ye are strong.' 'as many as are lead by the spirit of god, they are the sons of god.' it is only as it were in the second place that it appears that this living in the new life will involve dying to an old one. thus the dying is always made to appear to be in order to a living. the end is always the life. 'i came that they may have life,' our lord had said, 'and have it abundantly.' {213} the phrases about dying in order to live have their root in our lord's teaching, as st. john represents it[8], but belong most characteristically to st. paul. the principle which they enforce belongs only to a fallen world, for it is only the sin within us and about us that has to be put to death, or to which we have to die. but it finds its highest exemplification in the case of christ who, sinless himself, came into a world of sin and lived under its conditions. therefore he had to 'die' to sin and selfishness in the world in order to 'live' in his own proper life to god. and this dying to sin--this refusing it and repudiating it--is summarily represented in his death upon the cross. the worldly world killed him because he would have none of its selfishness and sin. he, by voluntarily dying sooner than surrender to the demands of this world, made a final separation of himself from sin. thus he lived his life to god at the cost of dying. and this law of christ's life is to be the law of ours. we must die to sin--not on a visible cross, but by a repudiation of it as thorough and real: nor to sin outside us only, but to sin in ourselves. it is only to express this attitude toward sin in ourselves in other {214} words, to say that we have to mortify and crucify our own carnal and selfish selves. and just as christ summed up his attitude towards the world by his death upon the cross, so the christian's attitude to the world was summed up in his baptism. at that moment he died to the world of sin[9]. this state of deadness to sin has to be constantly renewed, or again and again recovered. but it was in that sacramental moment realized in principle and symbolically represented. the convert who was immersed beneath the baptismal waters and emerged again, realized easily that this 'bath of regeneration' was, what the early christians called it, 'his grave and his mother.' all the circumstances of his baptism forced it upon him that he had passed out of an old life into a new--that he died to one state of things and came to life in another. the christians of st. paul's churches, like newly-made christians in central africa or india to-day, were very often highly imperfect; but they knew--they could not but know--that they had passed under a new allegiance; that like the just-converted frankish {215} idolater, they must 'burn what they had adored, and adore what they had burned[10].' we in our generation, and in a country where christianity has become traditional, realize this much less easily. it is not only that we have, in our church and country, almost wholly lost the symbolism which belongs to baptism by immersion[11]; though that is as great a loss as any symbolic action, not necessary to the administration of a sacrament, can be. it is not only that we are as a general rule baptized in infancy, for that under right conditions[12] embodies a fundamental christian principle and comes down from the origin of christianity. it is much more that christianity has been allowed to become conventional and cheap. it requires no effort or moral courage to own, in a formal sense, the name of christ. the result is that masses of {216} men belong to the church who are in practice living purely worldly lives, and that the church and the world are fused together. hence it follows again that what the majority of christians do is supposed to represent a tolerable manner of life for an ordinary christian, who does not profess to be better than his neighbours. under these circumstances there is nothing which is more important than to reassert the law of life through death as the only christian law of living. the 'old man' is as vigorous as ever. the world is still gratifying its sensual appetites and grasping after wealth without regard to the law of god. malice, jealousy, and hatred are alive and flourishing. god is still being ignored, refused, blasphemed. that is to say, the world of sin is still what it always was. it is still under the same unchangeable wrath of god; and still therefore to live to god is only possible for one who will, and that deliberately and persistently, die to the world. the renunciation must be conscious and deliberate. the mortification and crucifixion of the 'old man' and 'the body of sin' must be painful, at times even agonizing. a reasonable christian will be indeed surprised if something painful is not being continually required of him. and a reasonable christian {217} rejoices to purchase, even by great sacrifices, the pearl of great price, which is fellowship with christ:--'that he may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.' this is the point. it is not enough for us to be baptized. our baptism is evacuated of all meaning unless we are also 'being converted,' or 'turning' from the world to god; unless we are turning our back upon its lawless lusts, its worldly ambitions, its graspings after money, its refusals of pain, its selfish and unloving life. nay: all this renunciation was already involved in the name spoken over us at our baptism. the christian name pledges us to the christian law of living by dying, progress by conversion. you cannot refuse the dying without repudiating the name. 'die and re-exist,' said goethe, 'for so long as this is not accomplished thou art but a troubled guest upon an earth of gloom[13].' 'reckon ye, therefore, yourselves to be dead unto sin.' this phrase, addressed to common christians, supplies a magnificent instance of st. paul's idealism, that is to say, of his love of {218} considering things, and his desire that others should consider things, in the light of their central and dominant idea or principle--as they ought to be rather than as they are. this is his continual practice: to idealize not in the sense of thinking unreally of things, but in the sense of thinking of them in the light of that which is most fundamental in them. it is in this way that he thinks of 'the world,' or godless human society, and seems to represent it as worse than it sometimes appears, because its governing principle is radically evil. it is in this way that he thinks of the church, and speaks of it in terms of glory not justified by the facts simply as they appear; because it has that at work within it which is capable of transforming it until it not only is, but looks like, the body of christ, or the city of god. this idealizing method is naturally distasteful to english common sense in most departments of thinking, and perhaps particularly in the region of religion. but we suffer from an over-close adhesion to the 'matters of fact' or 'the things which do appear.' we do not think of our life, ourselves, our church according to the divine principle which they embody, or 'according to the pattern shown to us in the mount.' thus {219} we are never uplifted, enlarged, ennobled by the vision of ... the gleam, the light that never was on sea or land. that light never was or is manifest on the surface of actual experience, and yet it is always latent--the touch of glory in common things, the radiance in even our dim world, 'the master light of all our seeing.' we have almost all of us got to learn the practical power of the christian imagination, disciplined and spiritually enlightened, to enrich and ennoble actual life. the objects which our imagination should reflect are realities, but realities not yet developed. what our imagination should do for us is to teach us to see things not as they are, but as they are coming to be. 2. 'life in christ jesus,' 'christ living in me'--there can be no question that these beautiful phrases which, if st. john's witness be true, represent the teaching of christ himself[14], express also what is most central in st. paul's idea of christianity. it was the great merit of matthew arnold's _st. paul and protestantism_[15] that it {220} recalled the fact to notice in ordinary educated circles. recent scientific study of st. paul has gone in the same direction. the doctrines of atonement and justification are essential to st. paul's theology, but not central: the doctrine of life in christ, spiritual and moral identification with christ, is both essential and central. the maintenance of this life of union is again, as matthew arnold teaches us, the final and most developed function of faith--'that christ may dwell in our hearts by faith'; for faith is, or grows to be, such devotion to christ's person as desires to lose itself and its selfish aims in him and his work. but matthew arnold strangely leaves out of sight the two-sidedness of this relation: we abide in christ by faith, {221} because christ first of all abides in us by his loving-kindness and grace. it is his love, always beforehand with us--not merely to forgive us our sins, but to pour itself out in the communicated spirit--that takes us up within the circle of his own life; it is the act of god incorporating us into christ which evokes and makes possible the response of our faith to realize his indwelling and make the adhesion mutual. god's gift is prior to our response and the ground of it; and moreover god's gift is permanent and abiding. it would indeed be a thought of despair if the bond between christ and us depended upon the continuous energy of our faith to maintain it. nay, it is always there--unintermittent through all our broken efforts and vicissitudes of will--always there for us to recur to. we are to reckon ourselves 'dead to sin and alive to righteousness,' because and only because we are also to reckon ourselves 'in christ.' that is our permanent state, and it is the function of faith not to create, but to realize it. it is st. paul's clear and vivid perception of a divine gift given, a relationship to god established by god's act, not ours, and that at a particular time, which is closely connected with his {222} sacramental teaching. if a divine gift is to be given (1) definite at a definite time, (2) to men of body as well as spirit in a world not only spiritual but material, (3) publicly as to members of a social organization--it is most natural that the gift should be embodied in an outward rite and outward vehicle. so st. paul appears to think. there is no shrinking about his sacramental language. it can be said with justice that certain forms of sacerdotal or ecclesiastical government which have appeared in church history would to his mind have savoured, or more than savoured, of bondage to men and bondage to the 'beggarly rudiments' of ceremonial observances. st. paul is very jealous of maintaining what we may call spiritual individuality and personal liberty. but there is no justification to be found in st. paul's epistles for saying that he connects sacramentalism--i.e. the idea of necessary spiritual gifts divinely promised on the occasion, and through the medium, of certain outward religious rites of a community--with that 'bondage' to 'beggarly rudiments' of which he has so great a dread. st. paul's language does not admit of our supposing that he knew of any other way of admission 'into christ' except through the gate {223} of baptism, or any other means of communion in christ's body and blood except 'the breaking of the bread.' 3. it will be necessary before we leave this great passage to give some special attention to three phrases. '_christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father_.' in the new testament the sacrifice of christ, the atonement won by christ, is continually ascribed to the father, acting through and in the son--'god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself.' so also the resurrection is uniformly ascribed to the father's power acting in the case of the son[16]. our current christian language has in both cases departed too widely from apostolic practice. the doctrine of the holy trinity would be more intelligently held, and the worship of the church more normally offered in the spirit through the son to the father, if we had not fallen into the habit of so speaking of the action of the son in dying and rising as habitually to leave out of sight the truth that his action, as son, is and {224} must always be the father's action through him; and that reversely our worship of the son must always be really, and ought to be in our habitual consciousness, the worship of the father through him. '_our old man was crucified with him_.' as shelley said that, when adonais died, ''tis death is dead, not he,' so in an infinitely deeper sense st. paul says that what was killed upon the cross was (he does not say 'instead of christ,' but 'with christ') sin and the 'old man.' the 'old man' means the old way of living, or rather the old way of living considered as having been appropriated by the sinful individual and thus made his own self. thus it was the old self that was put to death on the cross, and a new self came to life, which was the same in unchanged personality and yet so practically different in all its relationships, that it could assert and claim exemptions from the obligations contracted by the 'old man.' '_that the body of sin might be done away_.' the identification of sin with the individual had been specially with his body. his bodily appetites and impulses and parts had been so used to the ways of sin as to become a 'body of sin,' and this, st. paul says, has to be 'done away' or {225} annulled. it is not that we are to harm the body itself: for the body itself is good, and is to be offered, with all its members, to become the weapon of christian warfare. there is indeed no material thing as such that is evil. the 'body of sin' means exactly 'the body considered as having become the receptacle of sin': as when our lord speaks of the 'mammon of unrighteousness[17],' he means money which has become the instrument of unrighteousness, but which the children of light are to convert to profitable uses. 'to annul the body of sin' means, therefore, almost the same as 'to annul sin in the body' and leave the body free; but it emphasizes the fact that sin has got such hold of the body that to annul sin involves annulling the body: as st. paul says elsewhere, 'i buffet' (or 'distress') 'my body and bring it into bondage[18].' [1] see gal. v. 13: 'only use not your freedom for an occasion of the flesh.' cf. 2 pet. iii. 16, and the implications of st. james' epistle. [2] 1 thess. iv. 14. [3] the meaning of ver. 4 is interpreted in vers. 10, 11. [4] ver. 4; cf. john xi. 40. 'the glory of god' is specially manifest in the resurrection of the dead. [5] this is the original suggestion of the word 'united' in ver. 5. [6] cf. col. ii. 12. [7] the greek words represented by 'leave at the disposal of,' 'make an offering to,' are different parts of the same verb. 'the tense of the former expresses continuance, habit; ... of the latter, a single irrevocable act of surrender' (vaughan, _in loc._). [8] john xii. 24, 25. [9] it is one gain of the r.v. that for 'ye are dead' (col. iii. 3, ii. 20), 'we are dead' (rom. vi. 2, 8), &c., we read 'ye died,' 'we died,' i.e. at the definite moment of baptism. [10] gregory of tours, _hist. franc._ ii. 31: 'to whom (chlovis) as he enters the font to be baptized, the holy man of god (remigius) thus eloquently spoke--"meekly bow thy neck, sigambrian: adore what thou hast burnt; burn what thou hast adored."' [11] baptism by 'affusion' began within the first century, but as the exception, not the rule. see app. note f. [12] by infant baptism under right conditions, i mean the baptism of infants when there is some real security provided, through their parents or proper sponsors, for their christian education, according to the intention of the church. on the primitive origin of infant baptism, see _ephesians_, pp. 230, 231. [13] 'stirb und werde! denn so lang du das nicht hast, bist du nur ein trüber gast auf der dunkeln erde' (quoted by m. arnold). [14] john vi. 53-58; xiv. 19, 20; xv. 1-10; xvii. 21-23. [15] p. 81 (2nd ed.): 'the three essential terms of pauline theology are not, therefore, as popular theology makes them--_calling, justification, sanctification_: they are rather these--_dying with christ, resurrection from the dead, growing into christ_.' cf. p. 76: 'how did paul's faith, working through love, help him [to control appetite and self-will]? it enabled him to reinforce duty by affection. in the central need of his nature, the desire to govern these motives of unrighteousness, it enabled him to say: _die to them_! _christ did_. if any man be in christ, said st. paul--that is, if any man identifies himself with christ by attachment, so that he enters into his feelings and lives with his life--he is a new creature; he can do, and does, what christ did.' it would be truer, surely, to say in the first of these two passages not 'the three _essential_,' &c., but 'the three _central_.' nothing can be more truly essential to pauline theology than the terms, calling, justification, atonement; but the two last of them at least do not belong to the central region of religion, but have to do with the removal of preliminary obstacles to our entrance upon it. [16] the apparent exception is john x. 18; but even there the word rendered 'take' would perhaps be better rendered 'receive.' christ had the right to lay down his own life and the right to receive it again from the father. so hort, _first ep. of peter_, pp. 34, 84. [17] luke xvi. 9. [18] 1 cor. ix. 27. {226} division iii. § 4. chapter vi. 15-23. _the perfect freedom is god's service._ the reiterated mention of the deliverance of the christian from the yoke of the law--'ye are not under law, but under grace'--brings up the excuse for licentious living in a new form:--'this very abolition of the strict power of the law in favour of a system of which the ruling principle is god's goodness, at least makes one willing to contemplate any particular act of sin[1], with a good hope of escaping punishment.' st. paul meets the suggestion with a 'god forbid,' and then gives a deep reason for repudiating it, a reason however which is but a version of our lord's saying, 'every one that committeth sin is the slave of sin[2].' every man is always acting under obedience. what he {227} does in a particular case represents an act of obedience to some master; that is to say, a taking service with him. moreover it appears on reflection that it must be with one of two masters and cannot be with both, for 'no man can serve two masters.' it is either with sin, whose service ends in spiritual as well as physical death, or with him to whom obedience is properly due, whose service ends in righteousness. what gives st. paul reason for thankfulness in thinking of the conversion of the christians at rome, is not that those who became christians became thereby exempt from obedience, but that they changed their allegiance from sin to christ. at their conversion they gladly submitted to a pattern or standard of teaching--the teaching of christ--to which they were handed over for the fashioning of their lives--that is to say, they were made free from sin only to become slaves to righteousness. he uses the word slavery because so long as their weak flesh shrinks from divine obedience, they must recognize that the life which is really liberty must be accepted even as a bondage, till it cease to seem so. in old days they offered their limbs as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness, and the result was a lawless life. {228} now they must yield their limbs as slaves to righteousness with a view to a consecrated life. and the change of allegiance is surely matter for congratulation. they can recall the days when they were free from the service of righteousness, as being slaves of sin, and they can remember what fruit they enjoyed as the result of experiences which they now blush to bring to mind. of such experiences death, moral no less than physical, is the result. now, set free from sin's slavery and made god's slaves, they enjoy the present fruit of consecration to god and the ultimate prospect of eternal life. so long as sin was their master he would pay them their wages, and the wages which sin pays is always death. but now that they are surrendered into god's hands, and simply dependent on his loving-kindness, there is no question of wages, but the gift of his bounty is eternal life, in him whose life includes their own, jesus christ their lord. what then? shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? god forbid. know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves _as_ servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? but thanks be to god, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching {229} whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. i speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members _as_ servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members _as_ servants to righteousness unto sanctification. for when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness. what fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. but now being made free from sin, and become servants to god, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life. for the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of god is eternal life in christ jesus our lord. 1. st. paul is here expounding the real meaning of human liberty. it is generally regarded as the power 'to do as one pleases' or a state of independence. but such a state does not exist. there is indeed such a thing as the absence of external control up to a certain point. that is an element of liberty, but it reaches but a little way. the true liberty is the power to realize one's nature and make the best of oneself--the power to be what one ought to be or is meant to be. the instinct of language, as applied to man, recognizes this. when we see a drunkard, we recognize a man the balance of whose nature is upset. the higher part of his nature is being dragged at the chariot-wheels of his lower. so, {230} be he never so free a citizen, we call him a slave--a slave of drink. on the same principle we speak of the slaves of lust or the slaves of money or the slaves of fashion or the slaves of popularity. by these phrases we describe various moral states in which some external or purely animal force dominates a man, and he loses his self-control, and his whole nature becomes disordered. the true order of human nature is that a man's body should be controlled by his will. then he is self-determined. his whole life is the expression of a rational principle. he makes the best of himself. he is free to be a real man, according to the proper idea of manhood. but how can this be? can this reason or rational will in man stand and work of itself? is it so constructed as to be independent? no. just as truly as a man's bodily forces are drawn from sources outside himself, so his spiritual being depends on sources and motives beyond himself. what does man's 'freedom of will' consist of? speaking exactly, it consists of a power to _direct_ a certain amount of physical force which passes into one's bodily frame, and to let it go out in one or another form of action, deed or word or {231} thought, more or less moral or immoral, spiritual or carnal. and this liberty of direction, when more closely examined, is found to consist in a power which the will has to choose between motives which present themselves as ideas to the mind and to hand itself over to one or the other. some of these motives are derived from physical or worldly appetites; some are derived through the conscience or faculty of spiritual apprehension. if, in cases where the lower motives conflict with the higher, a man still yields himself to the latter, his life is spiritual; and it is so because it is determined by motives and reinforced by influences which come from beyond himself, and are in fact the motives and forces of the spirit of god. but in neither case is he independent and free from obedience. he stands at a meeting-point of the spiritual and material world, and must be governed by one or the other. in either case man's life is played upon and dominated by motive-forces, infinitely vaster and mightier than himself. let him try (as he has tried) to forget his necessary dependence--to detach himself from the higher obedience and to 'be as god,' independent--and he falls necessarily under the dominion of the lower forces, of his flesh or of the world. if he is to cease {232} to live below himself, he must consent to surrender to what is above himself. he must yield his spirit to the divine spirit, which is its natural master. so he ceases to be carnal, or governed by the flesh, and becomes spiritual, or governed by the divine spirit. and that is liberty. 'that man,' said leo the great, 'has true peace and liberty whose flesh is controlled by the judgement of his mind, as his mind is directed by the government of god[3].' god's service, and that only, is perfect freedom. man then is so constructed that he can only cease to fall below himself by being raised above himself. his life cannot fail to be stamped with the impress of sin unless it is stamped with the impress of god. the state of the christian, surrendered to the fashioning of god, is that true dependence which is the true liberty. independent of god, man stands at last over against god to get what his independent action has merited; and that is penal death, the inevitable outcome of misused faculties, enslaved to sin. surrendered to god in faith, on the other hand, he receives into his nature, through all its open portals, the inflooding tide of divine love; and enters, enriched and uplifted, into the life that {233} is eternal, the life which he shares with jesus, the life that is truly human and really divine. it is of great practical importance that we should get a just idea of what our freedom consists in. there are men who, under the impulse of a purely materialist science, declare the sense of moral freedom to be an illusion. this is of course a gross error. but what has largely played into the hands of this error is the exaggerated idea of human freedom which is ordinarily current, an idea which can only be held by ignoring our true and necessary dependence and limitation. it is this that we need to have brought home to us. there is an admirable story among george crabbe's tales, called 'the gentleman farmer.' the hero starts in life resolved that he will not put up with any bondage. the orthodox clergyman, the orthodox physician, and orthodox matrimony--all these alike represent social bondage in different forms, and he will have none of them. so he starts on a career of 'unchartered freedom,' 'to prove that _he alone was king of him_.' and the last scene of all represents him the weak slave of his mistress, a quack doctor, and a revivalist--'which things are an allegory.' {234} 2. the phrase 'a form' or 'pattern of teaching,' is interesting. it suggests the idea of the church as holding a 'pattern of sound words[4],' a definite body of instruction, which is to form the life of each person who gives himself over to her loving discipline. christian faith is not a formless impulse; it is self-surrender to a corporate life ruled on a definite model of religious and moral teaching. what st. paul has here chiefly in mind is moral teaching. but the moral teaching was inseparable from religious facts and motives. nor is it difficult to ascertain from the allusions of the new testament what the subjects were in which the first christians were orally instructed, or, in other words, what constituted 'the tradition' which lies behind the written books of the new testament. it comprised instruction in (1) the facts of our lord's life, death, and resurrection[5]; (2) the meaning of sacred rites--baptism, laying on of hands, eucharist[6]--including the lord's prayer[7]; (3) the moral duties of 'the way,' and the doctrine 'of the resurrection of {235} the dead and of eternal judgement[8]'; (4) the meaning of 'the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost[9].' on all these subjects the books of the new testament do not give the primary instruction, but imply that it has been already given. 3. the word rendered 'sanctification' (vers. 19, 22) is one which needs to have its primitive force restored to it[10]. the 'saint' is the person set apart for the worship and service of god. what is here translated 'sanctification' means literally (1) 'the process of being made fit for such worship and service,' that is, consecration as of a priest; or (2) by a slight transition of meaning, the result of such consecration, i.e. 'holiness.' [1] the tense of the verb in 'shall we sin' appears to indicate an act, not a habit of sin. [2] john viii. 34. [3] _serm._ xxxix. 2. [4] 2 tim. i. 13. [5] cf. luke i. 1-4; 1 cor. xi. 23; xv. 3, 4. [6] cf. rom. vi. 3; heb. vi. 1-6; 1 cor. x. 15, 16; xi. 23 ff.; acts ii. 38. [7] _didaché_, 8; cf. below, p. 293. [8] heb. vi. 1, 2; 1 thess. iv. 1, 2; v. 2. [9] see hort, _first ep. of peter_, p. 18, for the fact that 'a recognized belief or idea [of the threefold name] seems to be everywhere presupposed.' [10] cf. above, pp. 31, 32. {236} division iii. § 5. chapter vii. 1-6. _freedom from the law by union with christ._ st. paul is full of two thoughts. the first is that of life out of death, living by dying. he had lived an old life in which 'those multitudinous motions of appetite and self-will which reason and conscience disapproved, reason and conscience could yet not govern, and had to yield to them. this, as we shall see, is what drove paul almost to despair[1].' he had passed to a new life in which he found in actual, blessed experience that he could do the thing that he would. he could do all things--through christ that strengthened him. for it was christ who had been the means of transferring him from the old life to the new, and that by his own way of dying to live. christ himself had lived 'by the spirit' deliberately and always. he {237} had never failed morally to do the thing that he would. but so violent was the antagonism between his life of divine obedience (with the claims that it involved upon other men) and 'the sinful, wilful, weak world around, that the world could not tolerate his presence in it; and it came to this--that he could only live by the spirit at the cost of dying to the world, i.e. choosing to be put to death sooner than give up obedience to his father. he chose to die, and thus dying he lived through death in the life of the spirit, and was raised again from death in body also. now christ had brought st. paul--as he would bring all men--into union with his new life, and by the same method. st. paul had had to die to the sinful world in order to live to god. but he, being not only a man but a sinner, was obliged not only, like christ, to die to sin in the world--he had also to die to sin in himself. in other words, he had to 'crucify his flesh with its affections and lusts'--that is, 'his old man' or old way of living. he had, by the help of christ's spirit, to assert his inner self or personality against a false self--a false way of life--which had appropriated him and held him captive. only by being emancipated from the {238} 'old man' could he come to live 'in christ.' it is this transference from the 'old man,' or old way of life, to the new, by means of a death that st. paul here describes under the figure of a second marriage. the man's true self was as a wife married to 'the old man.' the old man was nailed to christ's cross (vi. 6)--that is, the old way of life was put an end to, even with violence. thus the wife, the human personality, is, according to the law of marriage, free to contract a second union with christ, the second man. this is one of the main thoughts in st. paul's mind. but it is entangled with a second. the 'old man' was closely associated with 'the law'--the law which had awakened it out of its life of moral apathy by its stern reminders of the will of god. the law had reminded, instructed, enlightened; but it could not give the inward power needed to obey its requirements. it served but to bring to light the tyranny of sin which made man incapable of yielding obedience to the will of god; it even augmented its power by stimulating it to opposition. the law therefore belonged purely and simply to the old condition of moral impotence--the life 'in the flesh' and not 'in the spirit.' it fulfilled the {239} only function it could fulfil in awaking the consciousness of sin. thus to pass from 'the life of the flesh' to 'the life in the spirit' was to pass out of its dominion. this is the other thought with which st. paul is occupied in the passage we are just going to read. this too he expresses with the help of the figure of death. human law only regards a living man. death acquits him from law by taking him out of the region where it applies. therefore, when a man dies with christ to the 'old man,' he passes out of the reach of the law which threatened the old man but had no function beyond that. each of these two thoughts is quite distinct and clear; but they are fused in the present passage. st. paul begins with the second, to show that the 'dead' christian is free from the law (ver. 1; cf. vi. 7). but marriage law is taken as an example of law, and by this link we pass from the second thought to the first. but the second thought requires the man's _self_ to die with christ to escape from the region of law. the first thought, on the other hand, requires the 'old man,' or old mode of life, to die, to leave the man's real self free to be married to christ; and this change of subject {240} introduces confusion into the passage. the attempts to show that there is no confusion are not successful. in ver. 1 the idea plainly is that the self dies, as in vi. 7. in ver. 4 the main idea plainly is that the 'old man' is dead, and has left the self free to contract a new marriage. but the other idea is still sufficiently dominant to cause st. paul to say 'ye died to the law,' instead of 'your old man was crucified.' morally, of course, the two phrases mean the same thing; and one who, like st. paul, is _dictating_ a letter, is specially liable to verbal confusions even when his thought is clear. after these explanations the analysis shall be made as brief as possible. st. paul, having, in the latter part of the sixth chapter, shown that the abolition of the power of the law is no excuse for sin, recurs to and develops the principles which he has now guarded from abuse, viz. that the power of the law is past for the christian. he is writing, he says, to men, whether themselves jews or not, who understand what law means, and that its dominion over a man ends with his death. it has no jurisdiction beyond the grave. he takes the marriage law ('the law of or {241} 'concerning the husband,' ver. 2) as an illustration. without noticing the exceptions in the way of possibilities of divorce which the jewish law admitted, he lays it down generally that 'the law of the husband' binds the wife till death, but death dissolves its power. when her husband is dead she is 'discharged' and free to be married again. (here we have passed from the idea of a man escaping by death out of the dominion of law to that of his death dissolving the force of law in the interests of another, viz. his wife.) that is the state of the christian's real self. christ's body, st. paul says, was nailed to the cross, and you were put to death there with him; or rather, your 'old man' was put to death there, and you were left, like wives discharged from the marriage law by the intervention of death, free to be united to the risen christ, and to see fruits of your new union such as god can approve. there were fruits from the former union with the 'old man,' in the days when you were still under the power of the flesh. the body was subject to feelings and emotions which, under the provocation of the law, became the instruments of sin; and these all at work in our limbs (constituting the 'old man,' and having {242} ourselves for the subject-wife) brought forth the fruits of actions fit only for a kingdom of death. but now we are discharged from the law, like the wife whose husband is dead, having died to that in which we were held captive, and come to life in a new region; so that we can be slaves--that, as we have seen in the last chapter, we must always be, so far as yielding a complete obedience is concerned--only no longer under the old bondage of a written law, but in the new freedom of the empowering spirit. or are ye ignorant, brethren (for i speak to men that know the law), how that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth? for the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth; but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband. so then if, while the husband liveth, she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man. wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of christ; that ye should be joined to another, _even_ to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto god. for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. but now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were holden; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. {243} 1. if we ask ourselves what is practically meant by st. paul's idea of the marriage of the redeemed soul to christ, which supplements his thought of the whole church as the bride of christ[2], the answer seems to be that it is made up of a moral and a theological factor. the moral factor is the idea of the devotion of the believer to christ--'as a young man marrieth a virgin.' the theological idea is that of the risen christ making the soul of the believer fruitful in good works by infusing into it his own spirit or life. 2. the conception of the freedom of the redeemed from the moral and ceremonial law is very easily realized by reference to our ideas of civic freedom in connexion with the criminal law. the criminal law exists, and the policemen are among its administrative officers, but the respectable citizen is free in his relation to the criminal law, and passes the policeman without any sense of alarm--not because he is at liberty to break the law, but because he has become accustomed to a way of living with which the agents of the law are not called upon to interfere. it is in a sense like this that st. paul conceives the christians to have escaped from the bondage of the mosaic law. {244} 3. what is the meaning of the common phrase our 'passions'? it refers to those feelings which we experience without any action of our will. it may be a mere neutral sensation of smell. it may be a feeling of hunger, thirst, desire, anger. these are our 'passions' as opposed to our actions. these appeal to the will as motives, and it appertains to the will to determine whether it will yield to them and so translate passions into voluntary actions. when the will is weak, and passion is allowed to pass into action uncontrolled, the man becomes the slave of sin, and his passions, in themselves innocent or only constituting the material of temptation, become the 'sinful passions' of which st. paul speaks in this place. [1] matthew arnold, _st. paul and protestantism_, p. 76. [2] eph. v. 22. {245} division iii. § 6. chapter vii. 7-25. _the function and failure of the law._ the somewhat confused passage just dealt with, in which several moral ideas and metaphors are struggling for the mastery, is followed by a famous passage of luminous power in which st. paul expounds, with a profound insight into human nature, the function and failure of law. the close alliance into which st. paul constantly puts 'the law' with the reign of sin, an alliance hardly suggested by any other new testament teacher, suggests inevitably the idea that st. paul, like the later gnostics, regarded the law itself as 'sin,' that is, as owing its origin to the power of evil and working for its ends. such an idea he of course repudiates. but all the same it is law, written or proclaimed, and law only, which both awakens the sense of sin in man and stimulates sin itself to put {246} forth its power. let me take myself, we may imagine st. paul as saying (for the 'i' of this passage is very far from being strictly autobiographical), as representing man in his moral history. i was alive apart from any law once. that is to say, i lived as suited me best, according to my instincts, asking no moral questions and troubled by no scruples. and all this time sin, considered as a moral tyrant, was as if dead. i had no defined moral ideal and consequently no struggle and no failure. then comes the law with its 'thou shalt not covet' (or do this or that). it imposes limits in the name of god on my life of instinct. it cries 'hands off!' at once i find opposition between me and the law. i do covet this and that which the law says i must not have. i find myself in the eye of the moral law a transgressor. and there is something more than my own lawless desire in opposition to the law. i become conscious of a great power of sin at work in the world and in me--something greater than myself, which intervenes in the struggle and reinforces the opposition to the law. the tyrant sin rouses himself on the pretext afforded by the hostile commandment, and exercises his power both by stimulating my desires, like eve's (ver. 8), and {247} deceiving my intelligence, like hers, to believe that good is evil (ver. 11), and so brings me by means of the commandment into a state of flat disobedience to the law, which is death. for the law was given for life--'this do, and thou shalt live'; but there is the necessary converse--'this transgress, and thou shalt die' (vers. 7-11). the law then, it is quite plain, is the expression of the will of god. and the particular commandment is holy and righteous and good. is the good then my poison? no. but what has happened is this--the expression of the good in the law has brought the tyranny of sin out into the light. it had me in its power before, but i did not know it and i did not struggle. but as soon as the law aroused in me the beginning of moral consciousness, sin used the commandment as its knife to kill me; and so showed its hideous character--which indeed it was the divine intention to uncloak by means of the law (12-13). for this it is that we must recognize as the true state of the case. on the one hand a spiritual law proclaimed over me. on the other hand a man who in virtue of my fleshly nature have been sold to be a slave of sin, and who as a slave {248} find myself doing acts by force of circumstances, the true nature of which i do not understand, and which, so far from choosing, i hate (vers. 14, 15). for i am not only of this fleshly nature; i have also a conscience which responds to the claim of the law and recognizes it as right. but my wish to obey the law is not strong enough to carry my flesh with it. thus my actual practice is in flat contradiction to the ideal of my choice. but henceforth my will is on the side of the law, and myself is in my will[1]. what runs so uncontrollably to evil is, it appears, not myself at all, but the alien tyranny of sin which has taken possession of me and made my flesh its haunt and instrument--the haunt and instrument of evil only and not of good. so i can only wish good and practise evil, and become more and more conscious that i am not my own master. the law of god, accepted by my will, becomes the law of my mind or inner being; but when i seek to impose it on my limbs and act accordingly, i find another law--the law of the tyrant sin--holding sway in my lower nature; my authority is defied and {249} i myself am dragged in humiliating captivity to sin in my lower nature (vers. 16-23). my body has become the death of my spirit. it is my prison-house. i cry out in my misery for deliverance. and it is this deliverance which i praise god for having given me through jesus christ our lord. (by union with him my higher self is reinforced, and i can control my lower nature and become my own master.) but in my isolated, unassisted self, the best that i can get to is a flat contradiction between the service of the law of god in my mind and the service of sin in my flesh (vers. 24, 25). what shall we say then? is the law sin? god forbid. howbeit, i had not known sin, except through the law: for i had not known coveting, except the law had said, thou shall not covet: but sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting: for apart from the law sin is dead. and i was alive apart from the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and i died; and the commandment, which was unto life, this i found _to be_ unto death: for sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me. so that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good. did then that which is good become death unto me? god forbid. but sin, that it might be shewn to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good;--that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful. for we know that the law is spiritual: but i am carnal, {250} sold under sin. for that which i do i know not: for not what i would, that do i practise; but what i hate, that i do. but if what i would not, that i do, i consent unto the law that it is good. so now it is no more i that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. for i know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. for the good which i would i do not: but the evil which i would not, that i practise. but if what i would not, that i do, it is no more i that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. i find then the law[2], that, to me who would do good, evil is present. for i delight in the law of god after the inward man: but i see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. o wretched man that i am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? i thank god through jesus christ our lord. so then i myself with the mind serve the law of god; but with the flesh the law of sin. i. st. paul, as has been said, is constantly in his epistles of this period stating briefly or alluding to the failure of 'the law' to supply man with the moral strength needed to live a good life at peace with god. thus: 'the power of sin is the law.' 'as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse.' 'the letter (the written law) killeth.' 'through the law cometh the {251} knowledge of sin.' 'the law worketh wrath.' 'the law came in beside, that the trespass might abound[3].' the first of these sayings, occurring as it does altogether out of apparent connexion with the context, shows us as clearly as anything could how full of the idea his mind was. but only here, in this chapter, does he open his heart to us to show us the experience on which such a strange and original conclusion was based. we can imagine a youth of intensely susceptible moral and religious nature like saul of tarsus passing out of the home of his boyhood into the school of gamaliel in jerusalem. the one subject of instruction there was 'the law'--the divine law which was the pride of israel's race--in all the grand severity of its moral requirement and in all the complexity of its ritual regulations. it was the one topic. and all about him he saw the pharisees building up the fabric of a meritorious life before god out of their observances. now, no doubt the most easily self-satisfied pharisees made much of the principle of compensation--that 'obedience to certain laws' (e.g. the law of the sabbath or 'the law of fringes') 'was as good as obedience to the {252} whole[4].' the pharisee of our lord's parable who went up to the temple to pray, satisfied himself because he observed certain practices beyond the requirements of the law. our lord bears witness that the scribes and pharisees paid tithe of mint and anise and cummin--traditional extensions of the law--and omitted the weightier matters, judgement, mercy, and faith, yet were righteous in their own eyes. on the other hand, the maxim of st. james, 'whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all,' was a commonplace of the jewish schools. there can be no doubt that it must have been the severer teaching that fastened upon young saul's mind. he acknowledged himself a 'debtor to keep the whole law[5].' and in ritual detail, though no doubt the effort required was immense, he managed to be 'blameless[6].' but in the weightier and deeper matters it was not so. the moral law, enforced and commented upon, continually confronting him with its 'thou shalt not,' brought to light in him the fact of sin--in desire, we should gather, rather than in act or word. the law said 'thou shalt not covet' (or {253} lust). and saul said, 'but i do lust after this and that and the other. my heart and my desires are not in harmony with the law. nay, the very fact that the law prohibits it seems to make my wrong desire stronger.' so the whole pharisaic idea of a moral life--the standing over against god and building up a fabric of merits--seemed to be unsatisfactory. the fabric in his own case was full of internal rottenness. it would not bear severe examination. moreover he could not but observe the lives of those around him who were so well satisfied with their moral edifices, and he recognized that their satisfaction was due to nothing but hypocrisy or shallowness. as he went later to jewish settlements in various centres, he saw always the picture of a life fair in its own eyes and rotten in fact. his general experience of jewish life is summed up strongly enough in the second chapter of this epistle. thus he drew the conclusion that the law could not be really kept--it was only possible to keep it by means of evasions and compensations which made it worse than useless. meanwhile there was forming itself in saul's mind the conviction that the whole attitude of the pharisees towards god was false. they lived as if god had made a contract or covenant with {254} them, and within the terms of this covenant man could deal with god on an independent basis. god must keep to his covenant and not augment it or change it. and on their side the people of god under the covenant had nothing to do but to keep their part of the bargain and claim their reward with a conscious and proper pride in the merits of their race and of themselves. this was exactly the spirit in which they rejected jesus as the christ, as it was also exactly this spirit which he had chosen for his sternest denunciations. but all this idea of merits, all this boasting, must have come to seem to saul's mind monstrously untrue to the real fundamental relation of man to god. for who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou, o jew, that thou didst not receive? and if thou didst receive it, why dost thou boast thyself as if thou hadst not received it? thus st. paul's training must not only have made him feel that he could not satisfy himself in keeping the whole law; but it must also have convinced him that law itself as a principle, law as understood and represented among the orthodox jews, was fundamentally and permanently incompatible with the real relation of man to god. there were many elements in the old testament, {255} notably in the psalms, in which a quite different relation of man to god was indicated--a relation of meek trust as of a son to a father, and of penitence and dependence and peace. but in the teaching st. paul had received, the law, the legal covenant of man and god, which suggested a quite different moral attitude, was the essential element; and that, we must suppose, he felt increasingly sure was a foundation on which he could not stand. no doubt these deep questionings about the law, and the growing misery accompanying them, made him at first all the more zealous for it. no doubt they explain his fanaticism against the christians. no doubt his 'kicking against the goad' represents the rebellion of his heart against anything which seemed to threaten the position of the law of his fathers, and especially against the utter upheaval of foundations involved in accepting for christ him whom the leaders of his people had rejected and caused to be crucified. but when he had effected the great transition, when he had found in jesus christ all that satisfied his deepest instincts about god and his deepest desires for union with him, his old experience of the law took shape in a profound theory of its place in the divine {256} education of the human race. ultimately man is meant to be in such close and harmonious relations to the divine spirit that he should both know what is right and do it by an inner light and power. but an outward written law was a necessary prelude to this; and that in the main because sin--individual sins and the long tradition of sin--had hardened men's consciences and blinded their eyes, and the divine law as proclaimed through the conscience had become in consequence either utterly inadequate or had even been silenced altogether. a written law therefore, peremptory and explicit, and announcing its sanction in definite penalties, was needed to teach men anew what god really required. it was given in such a mode as threw men on their own independent moral strength, and by that very fact convinced the best among them of their inward weakness and sin; while to many more it appeared rather as involving an impossible effort--as 'a yoke which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear.' in either case it was their 'tutor to bring them to christ'--with his teaching of god, not as a taskmaster, but as a father, righteous indeed, but still more loving. and if there were others again, shallow or worthless men, whom the law simply hardened {257} in the superficial self-righteousness of mere 'observances,' or the worst sort of religious hypocrisy, that was only another way of demonstrating its inadequacy. it left the world to choose between the pharisees and christ as representing real righteousness. this 'doctrine of the law' involves both its necessary function and its failure. there can be indeed to no thoughtful mind any doubt as to its necessary function. conscience, individual and social, is continually going to sleep. it may be taken quite for certain that if christ were amongst us in manifest power by his spirit to-day--as he ought to be in the church--our society as a whole would be smitten anew with a sense of sin, and not least of social sin[7]. our familiar excuses for our selfish indulgence of our lusts, for our weak surrenders to passion and impulse, for our commercial dishonesties, for our failures to carry righteousness into politics, for our social injustices, for our selfishness and {258} luxury, for our scamped and half-hearted work--the familiar pleas of commercial or physical necessity, or political exigencies, or lack of knowledge, or absence of responsibility, or the influence of heredity--would dry up and wither on our lips under the powerful glare of the divine 'letter'--thou shalt, thou shalt not. god hath not 'given any man license to sin,' he hath given no man exemption from the trouble or the suffering or the loss involved in doing right. the obligation is peremptory to be just, to be merciful, to be honest, to be self-denying, to be pure. and if we do not care to take the trouble to be so, the only alternative is to have christ for our adversary, and find at last the horrible depth of meaning which his words contain--'thus and thus have ye made void the word of god by your tradition.' 'inasmuch as ye did it not, depart, ye cursed, into eternal fire!' 'it is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of god maimed or halt or with one eye, rather than having two hands or feet or eyes to be cast into hell, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.' these and the like words are metaphorical--but metaphors which are intended to teach the heart only the more vividly because they are metaphorical. {259} indeed, in each age, and therefore in ours, most fertile of excuses, we need the letter to kill us; the stern, outward, unmistakable announcement of god's will to assure us that god does not change with our whims or feelings, and cannot accommodate himself to immoral necessities. in each age, and therefore in ours, most capable of moral self-deception, we need continual and forcible reminders that a quiet conscience is no adequate guarantee of agreement with god, unless we have taken pains to keep our conscience enlightened by meditating on the divine word. and if st. paul's account of the function of 'the law' is true, so also is his account of its necessary failure. it is obviously true if you confine 'the law' to meaning what in the tradition of the pharisees it had come to mean, or what in his ideal way of thinking st. paul defined it to mean--that is, not the whole old testament with its anticipations in prophecy and psalm of the temper of sonship and its evangelical forecasts of the new covenant, but bare precept, expressing externally and unmistakably the will of god. mere law, instructing men truly and searchingly as to god's requirement in thought as well as word and deed, instructing {260} men and challenging them, and doing nothing more, is so manifestly incomplete an expression of god's relation to man, quite apart from all question of its ritual elements, that it can in the nature of things serve only a temporary purpose in the conscience, by leading us to a truer knowledge of him who terrifies indeed, but only in order to reassure, and kills but only in order to raise to life again. ii. at this point it is necessary to answer the two much-disputed questions--and it is possible to do it briefly--is st. paul, in giving this summary of moral experience, speaking 'of himself or of some other man'? and--is the struggle described in verses 14-24 to be regarded as occurring without or within the frontiers of the regenerate state? there is no doubt that st. paul must be in part really describing an experience through which he passed. he was really, we may imagine, 'alive without the law once' in the sense that he was brought up a happy jewish child, under the law but not deeply feeling the terror of its claims, until he was growing towards {261} the 'independent' period of life and found himself confronted with its requirements in detail. there need be no doubt that he is speaking of some experience of his own when he alludes, here as elsewhere, to the deceitfulness of sin; and when he describes the two stages of moral progress--the first, in which the conscience of the man is awakened to recognize that his habitual practice is not in any full sense controlled by his reason and will; and the second, in which the will is deliberately enlisted on the side of good, and the man only made thereby the more conscious that his will is in no real control of his actions, but that he is the captive of the alien power of sin. in some sense, though st. paul does not give us the materials for saying exactly in what sense, he must have passed through these stages of experience. he must have really felt himself the slave of sin, though the sin was of a sort which left him, 'as touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.' he must have felt that he could not do what he ought; and the bitterness of his persecuting zeal may have been in part the reflection of this sense of impotence. and so far as st. paul is speaking of himself, there can be no shadow of doubt that the state {262} of conflict lay almost wholly outside his conversion and regeneration. it was 'prevenient grace'--god's dealing with him before he acknowledged christ--that set his will so strongly to desire and approve the right; and his new personal faith in jesus, and the might of the spirit of jesus to whom he became united, gave him the power to do what he had so long and so ineffectually been willing. this was his experience, and he bears witness to it. even though he would have made no claim to sinlessness after his conversion, yet the sense of sin which possessed him so strongly, which made him call himself 'not worthy to be called an apostle,' 'less than the least of all saints,' and 'chief of sinners,' was in the main a memory of what was past. the present sense was the consciousness of power in christ. it is inconceivable that st. paul should describe himself, while a christian, as 'sold under sin.' and it was an idea of human corruption quite different from st. paul's which prevented augustine and calvin from recognizing that either a pious jew, or a gentile which had not the law, could be moved by the divine spirit to 'rejoice in the law of god after the inner man' (ver. 22), quite independently of any knowledge of christ. {263} but if st. paul is in a real measure autobiographical in this passage, there is no reasonable doubt that he is not merely so. he has generalized his experiences to represent the moral experiences of the race. the 'i' is the human individual in general. thus 'alive without the law,' if it can in a certain sense describe what st. paul had once been, describes much better the state of men--greeks and romans, or men all the world over 'before the law came'--who had an easy social standard and lived natural lives without any troublesome moral ideals, and were wholly unvisited by conscientious scruples or the terrors of the divine holiness. upon such men comes the severer knowledge of the righteousness of god through the teaching of some prophet or founder of religion. it may come to men collectively in a nation or group, and result in some general movement of conscience. or it may come to an individual through some circumstance which confronts him with a higher moral claim than he has ever faced before--through the example of a friend, through a book or a sermon. to many in st. paul's day the synagogues, where 'moses had in every city them that preached him,' had been the means of their awakening to the moral {264} claim of god. and whenever men are thus confronted with the divine law of righteousness, in a more or less perfect form and with more or less of impressiveness laying its prohibitions upon them--'thou shalt not do this or that'--if they do not harden their hearts to it, they pass through the stages of experience which st. paul has so admirably idealized. there is that in them which the prohibitions of the divine law stimulates into antagonism. they become conscious of a power which beguiles or cheats them into breaking the law; they awake to the sense of sin and failure to do god's will, and find that they are not their own masters, but are drifting under the impulse of what is not themselves. there awakens in them the conscience and will to approve and choose what is right, and with that a 'self-contempt bitterer to drink than blood,' as they realize that though they approve and choose the right they cannot do it. thus the conviction is strengthened that their true selves are on the side of god and right, and that which holds them captive is an alien tyranny which has got its lodgement in their lower nature. this is the psychological moment for the arrival of the gospel. the man who simply {265} desires the right and is paralyzed by his own impotence to realize it in his own strength, out of the depth of his despair learns that god is not a taskmaster and judge, but a father; that he is not his adversary, but is on his side; that if he will simply surrender himself to the divine love, as it is made evident in christ, all his past failures and sins are as if they had never been, and for the future god will not teach him from outside and leave him to struggle alone, but will work in him to will and to do his good pleasure. then the sense of moral impotence may pass into the sense of power in christ. and in proportion as any man's actual life-history, or the history of any group of men, corresponds to this ideal sketch, the period of moral struggle and failure may fall in the main outside the regeneration and new life in christ. but, almost from the beginnings of christianity, and increasingly as christianity has become popular, men have been 'christened' in infancy or in mature life without the moral issue having been defined or the moral will awakened. an ordinary englishman, for example, is baptized in infancy. this means that he is actually regenerate and introduced into {266} the body of christ. in rare cases he is so brought up as to realize this, and corresponds so willingly with the teaching that he lives the life of the regenerate from the first, and never, except in a very refined form, knows the sense of impotence or passes through the period of hopeless struggle. he has never found god's commandments grievous. but in most cases there is no such pains taken to enlighten the young conscience, or no such readiness of correspondence. the man lives as his surroundings suggest--a decent enough life, very likely, and more or less honourable, but never in face of the full divine law. and such an one is 'alive without the law.' for him all the experiences st. paul describes are still to come, inside the circle of his actual regeneration. and they may be very gradual and slow, and may repeat themselves, more or less, innumerable times. st. paul's is an ideal picture; but the intended issue is always the same. when we find ourselves saying, 'to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not,' we may be quite certain that we are not realizing the power of our new birth. we are as men whom god has as yet only externally visited. we are conscious of our own weakness and of the {267} strength of evil; but not of the third force, stronger than either ourselves or the power of evil, which is at our disposal if we will draw upon it. what is needed is a deliberate and whole-hearted realization that we are in christ and christ is in us by his spirit; an unconditional surrender of faith to him: a practice, which grows more natural by exercise, of remembering and deliberately drawing by faith upon his strength in the moments of temptation and not merely upon our own resources. 'in the name of jesus christ of nazareth i will do thus and thus.' so we too may form like st. paul the habit of victory. we too may cry in sober earnest 'it is no longer i that live (in my naked self), but christ that liveth in me.' 'i thank god through jesus christ our lord.' when that sense of struggle or failure which st. paul describes occurs, as is generally the case with us traditional christians, in the process of our awakening to the knowledge of the new birth, we may in a sense say that the struggle is part of the process of regeneration[8]; but the word 'regeneration' best describes, not a process, but a single divine act upon us and in {268} us[9], and this single divine act is consistently identified in the new testament with our baptism, though it is only realized by our moral conversion when we awake to claim the privileges of our new life. iii. there are two smaller points which claim notice. we are reminded by the way in which st. paul speaks of sin, in this and other passages--as a force or power greater than the individual man, which possesses him and dominates him through his lower nature--and especially by the consciousness which he betrays of its 'beguiling' power, that he believed in personal agencies of evil. 'our wrestling is not against flesh and blood (merely), but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places[10].' particularly it is in the deceitfulness of sin that st. paul realizes what one must call the personal character of the evil power[11]. he is profoundly conscious that {269} there makes itself heard in temptation a voice as of a person which lies to us, as it lied to eve, as to the true character of the suggested action; and when we have been deceived and seduced, and have done the deed, and its real character has become apparent, 'the tempter' turns round upon us with the grin of unmasked malevolence. is there any one who can really dissociate from his own spiritual experience this idea of the tempter and the deceiver? we do well to remember in reading this passage the meaning of the recurring word 'law.' in modern english it has come to mean the principle or method observable in anything. such and such a thing, we say, exhibits such and such a law, i.e. acts constantly in such and such a way. it is natural therefore for us to read this meaning into the word in verse 21, as in the authorized version, 'i find then a law, that, when i would do good, evil is present with me,' i.e. i find that this is what constantly happens. but the greek word, as used in the old and new testaments, does not bear any meaning like this[12]. it means always the {270} injunction or set of injunctions imposed by a law-giver. in this passage it is used seven times of the divine (mosaic) law. when the will accepts this law and would impose it on the lower nature, it becomes 'the law of the mind,' i.e. the law which the mind enjoins (verse 23). with this conflicts 'the law of sin,' 'the different law,' which sin or the evil one would impose and which has gained actual sway 'in our members.' we must then interpret verse 21 in harmony with this use, and taking the sentence to be a broken one, translate, as the margin of the revised version, 'i find then, in regard of the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present.' [1] 'i was myself in both [flesh and spirit], but more myself in what i approved than in what i disapproved.'--augustine, _confessions_, viii. 5. [2] rather, as margin, 'i find then in regard of the law': see below, p. 269. [3] cf. 1 cor. xv. 56; gal. iii. 10; 2 cor. iii. 6; rom. iii. 20; iv. 15; v. 20. [4] see j. b. mayor in _the epistle of st. james_ (ii. 10), p. 86. [5] gal. v. 3. [6] phil. iii. 6. [7] it is disappointing, i think, that the grave appeal to the church as regards social duty, made by the bishops assembled at lambeth last year in commending to the notice of us all the report of their committee on industrial problems, has received such scant attention, except from a certain group of churchmen who were already occupied with the problem. it might have been expected that this solemn appeal would have vastly widened the area of attention. [8] 'inter regenerandum.' st. john will not speak of a wilful sinner as truly 'begotten of god,' 1 john iii. 9; v. 18, &c. [9] see dale, quoted in ephesians, p. 86. [10] eph. vi. 12. [11] cf. 2 thess. ii. 9-11: 'the working of satan with all ... deceit of unrighteousness ... a working of error, that they should believe a lie.' 2 cor. xi. 14: 'satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light.' 1 tim. ii. 14: 'the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression.' cf. heb. iii. 13: 'the deceitfulness of sin.' [12] it never appears to be used, as in classical greek, for 'custom,' either in lxx or n.t. {271} division iii. § 7. chapter viii. 1-11. _life in the spirit._ if we were to represent the epistle to the romans as a _bas relief_, there would be two passages which would have to stand in the highest relief--the end of the third chapter, in which st. paul speaks of that free justification which is given to all men on the equal basis of faith in christ the propitiation for their sins; and this eighth chapter, in which he speaks of the triumph which belongs to the life of the justified, lived in the power of christ's spirit. the note of this chapter is struck in the words 'no condemnation' at the beginning--'there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in christ jesus.' st. paul knew so well what it was to be conscious of being under condemnation. he had never been what we should call a sinner. he had always been a man who, according to the standards of the {272} pharisaic righteousness, was pre-eminently righteous; he had always been a man who did much for religion. but he had known, in a form in which it is known to very few of us, what it was to be conscious of being under god's condemnation. god had been to him as a taskmaster over against him, breaking in upon his life with continual and searching warnings as to the divine requirements, with continual threatenings and continual terrors; and he had been as one standing over against god with the consciousness that, do as he might, he could never satisfy, or climb up to the level of, the requirements of the righteous god. there was always the haunting sense that he fell short--always the haunting sense that he was on his trial, and on that trial was condemned. but now all had been changed; and that by a process which in a certain sense was as simple as possible, but than which nothing could be more fundamental and deep. all was changed because the relation had begun at the other end. no longer was there a climbing up of man to god, no longer the effort of a saul to commend himself to god. the relationship had begun at the other end, at god's end. or rather, what had begun was the realization on the man's {273} part of the true order. for god had been beforehand with saul all along. all the time that he was striving, working, slaving to commend himself to a god whose righteousness he could never attain to, god was waiting there for him to find out his mistake--waiting to reveal himself as no hard taskmaster, but as the creator, the father of his spirit. the process had now begun anew from the other side. god had simply of his own pure initiative manifested his love. he had sent his son out of his own essential being into this world as it was, not asking whether it was a fit world for the son to enter into; but taking it simply as it was, because it appealed to the divine compassion by the very multitude of its sins and the very vastness of its need, god had sent forth his only begotten son out of the bosom of his love and of his pure initiative; had sent him to take this nature of ours upon him, in it to make atonement for us with god, and in it, raised from death and glorified, to be the source of a new and spiritual life, such as should triumph over sin in all who will believe in him. that is the great point. it was all purely god's doing: a pure disclosure and act of god, who showed himself ready to take {274} men as they were, to forgive them and entrust them with the divine spirit, if they would only trust him. god is no longer the taskmaster over against men, with his threats and his terrors. he is the father who has given his son, who has given men a sacrifice whereby he can forgive their sins, and has given them the spirit of his son into their hearts. god is on their side, and they are on god's side. that is the great change. and the object of it all is that what formerly seemed so unattainable might now be the very thing that proved itself practicable--to live according to god; that the requirement of the law might be no longer an impossible claim over us, terrorizing us with its perpetual threats, but that by the power of the new life in which we live, 'the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.' the following is a paraphrase of the passage we are now to study:-the result then of all that has been said is that the divine verdict of guilty, which went forth over men on account of their sins--that 'disclosure of divine wrath' which st. paul had so profoundly felt and interpreted--hangs no longer over those who have passed into the new {275} life in christ jesus. in the old life, sin with its attendant death held sway over us and gave the law to our actions. but we were freed from that despotism in passing under a new and stronger authority. it is the divine spirit, by whom we have been brought into the life in christ, who now controls us. of old the mosaic law was powerless to help us. it could inform us of god's will, but it could not enable our poor weak human nature to keep his requirements. but god has provided an effective remedy for this state of things. he has sent his own son to take our nature upon him, and come in among our sinful race without any apparent difference between us and him. he put him simply among us and in our position, to be the sacrifice for sin; and thereby did for us what we had so failed to do for ourselves--passed effective sentence of condemnation on sin, and that in our own nature. [do we ask how sin was condemned? the answer is, it stood condemned by the perfect sacrifice of reparation for sin, which the sinless man made to the divine character on our behalf, when at the requirement of obedience he shed his blood. it stood condemned, still more fully, by the fact that god raised him from the dead and exalted {276} him far beyond the reach of sin, to the glory of his right hand, and made him the head of a redeemed manhood, and poured forth his spirit to be the new life of all that believe in him][1]. and the object of this mission of the son, and this judgement on sin in his person, was the creation of that new humanity to which we belong, which lives not under the control of human appetite, but under the control of spirit: and because it so lives, in the life of another, succeeds in the one point where man had hitherto failed, in keeping the righteous requirements of the divine law. our new way of life, therefore, is contrasted with the old in its whole tone. for just as, if we live in fact under the control of our weak manhood with its wants and appetites, our mind and conscious aim is directed to minister to its purposes, so in the same way if our life is in fact controlled by spirit, our conscious aim also is directed to spiritual purposes. and the two lives are contrasted no less markedly in their prospects. {277} the mind controlled by human appetites is under the doom of death, temporal and eternal. the mind controlled by the spirit is in a state of life, so far as concerns itself, and of peace towards god. the mind controlled by human appetites is under the doom of death because it is at war with god. it does not, it cannot, keep his commandments. those therefore who so live in their own strength merely, cannot please him. but that is not now our state. we now live in the power of spirit, since the spirit of god and christ--that is, christ himself--dwells in us. to have him is the very meaning of being a christian. not to have christ's spirit, that is himself, dwelling in us, is not to belong to him. but if he does dwell in us, then, though the body must still pay the debt of death, because of sin to which it has belonged--nay though it is already as good as dead--yet the spirit within us is a superior principle of life, because of the divine righteousness which it bestows upon us. and this life shall triumph over death in our case, as in christ's. for god, who raised up christ from the dead, shall also by the working of the divine spirit which dwells in us, give life again even to our bodies, though now they are subject to death. {278} there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in christ jesus. for the law of the spirit of life in christ jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, god, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and _as an offering_ for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit. for the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the spirit is life and peace: because the mind of the flesh is enmity against god; for it is not subject to the law of god, neither indeed can it be: and they that are in the flesh cannot please god. but ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of god dwelleth in you. but if any man hath not the spirit of christ, he is none of his. and if christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. but if the spirit of him that raised up jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up christ jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies through his spirit that dwelleth in you. 1. st. paul declares that the father sent his own son to redeem us in 'the likeness of the flesh of sin.' the word 'likeness' is the same as that used in the similar passage[2], where we are told that the eternal son in love for us 'emptied himself' so far as to take the 'form,' {279} or essential characteristics, of our servile human nature; nor only its essential characteristics, but also the outward conditions or 'likeness' of common men as they are. the point is that christ, who himself as man 'knew no sin[3],' appeared amongst us under all the circumstances of sin, and with no outward or apparent difference between us and him--'in all points like as we are' with the single exception of sin in the will or in the nature. 2. in verse 3 the authorized version, and the margin of the revised, translating the greek literally, give us, 'god sending his own son ... _for sin_.' but the phrase 'for sin' is continually used in the greek of the old testament for the sin-offering, and in the new testament always has the sacrificial meaning attached to it[4]; and accordingly its meaning here must be so defined. 3. the flesh of man, considered as a material thing, is not evil. it was that which the son took, and it was 'in the flesh' so assumed that he pronounced sentence on sin--in that very flesh which was sin's domain; as, in the epistle {280} to the ephesians[5]. he is said to have 'abolished the enmity in his flesh.' the flesh as such then is not evil; but when, as in our fallen state, the proper order of our complex manhood has been reversed, and the flesh has become the predominant partner, having the mastery of the spirit, then it becomes a 'flesh of sin.' to live 'in the flesh,' or 'according to the flesh,' is to let the flesh have its way and be the master instead of the slave. then the whole life becomes carnal--a carrying out 'the works of the flesh'--and even the rational faculty becomes a 'carnal mind.' what our redemption effects is to restore the right order and make the flesh again the instrument of the spirit--of the human spirit, that is, empowered by the divine spirit, without which it cannot hold its ground. then the whole life, with all its bodily faculties, becomes spiritual and carries into effect 'the works of the spirit.' in the passage we have been considering, the revised version distinguishes, by the use of capital letters, between the divine spirit[6] and the human[7], or spirit in general; but the fact that the divine spirit is what liberates and restores the human spirit is so much in st. paul's {281} mind that it seems better to make the primary reference to the divine spirit throughout. it is of the greatest practical moment to grasp that, to st. paul, the change in human life which comes about through our conversion and new birth is a change in order. what was managed from below is now controlled from above. that is the point on which we need to examine ourselves. where do we begin from? are we in the position of men struggling to manage their own lives, and commend themselves according to some standard more or less right, which either their personal pride or their social circle or the divine law has set up? if so, god is over against us, our taskmaster, our adversary, our stern judge, and our life is 'according to the flesh.' it is managed from below. it is ruled on its own level, and it fails. but there is another life which begins at once from the thought of god. god has made us, and therefore he is responsible for us. he has made me because he loves me. therefore he is bound to make the best of me. if i will only put myself into his hands he is pledged, simply because he created me, therefore to redeem me, to save me, to glorify me. he takes that responsibility upon himself. he has shown his {282} love by the sending and the sacrifice of his son and by the gift of his spirit. and his spirit i have received. at a definite moment he came upon me. he entered into my life, as into those first christians to whom st. paul wrote, at baptism and by the laying-on of hands. this is the fact then. god is on my side. he makes himself responsible for my being. if i will only entrust myself to him with the cordial return of trustful love, then all that he has ever breathed into my heart of human possibility he will realize and bring to perfection. the requirement of the law shall be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.--this is a point of view upon which it is worth while reflecting deeply, and over and over again. unless we are continually practising ourselves in this conception of life, we find ourselves falling back again into the attitude of one standing over against god with god for his taskmaster. and that is the false and always ruinous idea. we must also take careful note of what st. paul means by 'spiritual' and 'carnal.' 'carnal' does not mean made of flesh, and 'spiritual' does not mean immaterial. that is carnal which is ruled by the flesh, ruled from {283} below. that life is carnal in which our spirit, meant for god, is dragged at the chariot-wheels of our lower life; and that is spiritual which is ruled and mastered by the spirit. we must not suppose that we shall make our religion spiritual by disparaging external acts or bodily exercises of worship. no; that is spiritual which is ruled by the spirit. the worship in 'spirit and in truth,' for us men who belong to the religion of the incarnation, must be a worship in body. but it will be spiritual if it is full of spiritual intention. secular business again is spiritual if it is ruled by the divine spirit according to the law of righteousness. politics are spiritual, commercial and municipal life are spiritual, art and science are spiritual, and everything that develops our faculties is spiritual, if we will allow the divine spirit to rule in all according to the law of righteousness, truth, and beauty. for the whole of our being, with all its sum of faculties, is made by god and meant for god. what a mistake it is then, when people speak, as they so often do, as if sin were really natural, as if lust and worldliness were natural, and as if spirituality were something unnatural, belonging to another world. it is exactly the opposite. the only _natural_ position for us is when our {284} flesh is ruled by the spirit. it is an unnatural usurpation when the spirit is dragged at the chariot-wheels of the flesh, when our life is dominated by lusts or appetites. that is the very overthrow of nature. and grace does but restore to us the true order of our being, when the flesh and all the faculties of our body are again controlled by the spirit, so that our whole being expresses a spiritual purpose and obeys a spiritual law. the same external acts are spiritual or carnal, natural or unnatural, according as they express or do not express the mind of the spirit. the same physical facts are the basis of true married love, and of the wildest licentiousness. in the latter case they are carnal because they express no spiritual purpose; in the other case they are spiritual because, consecrated in the family life, they become the organ and the vehicle of the divine spirit. god will be responsible for our whole life, our politics, our commerce, our marriage, the workings of our intellect, the workings of our emotions, all the parts of our nature. he will raise our nature up through death; he will consecrate it to life immortal in the divine city; he will sanctify it here and now: if only, and in all things, we will believe that he who made our {285} life is capable of making the best of it, and show ourselves ready to entrust it to his disposal. 4. we must notice what is implied in this passage about the holy trinity. st. paul speaks[8] of 'the spirit of god' (the father), 'the spirit of christ,' 'christ,' and then again, the 'spirit of him that raised up christ,' as if all these expressions were identical; as elsewhere[9] he prays that the father will strengthen men by his spirit, in order that christ may dwell in their hearts, and they be filled with the fullness of god. all which language means that where the spirit is, christ is, and where christ is, god the father is. so in st. john, our lord speaks of the holy spirit as 'another' advocate who is to come 'in his name' from the father; and yet adds that in the spirit's coming he himself will come; and with him the father--'we will come[10].' the sacred 'persons' are spoken of as distinct--personally distinct--and yet as so mutually involved in the action one of another that the coming of one is the coming of all. so truly is god one in three. we find something like this in human personalities under the influence of love. each single personality is not {286} self-contained and exclusive. love, to a real degree, fuses persons; and thus the husband and wife and child (to take the highest example) may be said to live and act in one another and through one another's influence. but this is only to a limited extent. we are also mutually exclusive. our responsibility and actions remain individual and impermeable. what i am doing, i am doing, and not another. but with god the mutual interpenetration of father, son, and holy spirit, is represented in the inspired language as far more complete. the godhead is a fellowship and relationship of perfect love 'in three persons.' but god is not three separate individuals. what each 'person' does the others do. the action of one involves all. god is inseparably one in his being and in his action. if the father creates, he creates through the son and by the spirit. if the son redeems, the redemption proceeds from the father and is effected in the spirit. if the spirit sanctifies, it is from and in the father and the son. thus when the spirit came forth at pentecost out of the uplifted manhood of the son to impart to us all his richness, he came not merely to supply his absence, but to accomplish his presence. he makes christ present within us, and also the {287} father: so that god, three in one, dwells in the hearts of his people. 5. 'the requirement of the law is to be fulfilled in us.' do we ask how we are to keep the whole of that terrible law? it is by obeying the commandment to love our neighbours as ourselves, in which the whole law is 'briefly comprehended[11].' 6. if in the last verse of this passage we read 'through his spirit,' and not (as the margin) 'because of his spirit,' then the holy spirit is expressly spoken of as the agent of our resurrection and, by implication, of the resurrection of christ. and this is the natural function for the 'giver of life': indeed 'spirit' means nothing else than 'breath'--the 'breath of life from god[12].' [1] the passage in brackets expands the sense in which st. paul conceives the father to have passed sentence of condemnation on sin, in the person and through the sacrifice of christ, in accordance with such passages as vers. 21-24; iv. 25; phil. ii. 8-10; eph. i. 15 ff. [2] phil. ii. 7. [3] 2 cor. v. 21. [4] see heb. x. 6, cf. 18, 26; xiii. 11; 1 pet. iii. 18; 1 john ii. 2; iv. 10. [5] ii. 15. [6] verses 2, 9, 11. [7] verses 4, 5, 6, 9, 10. [8] verses 9-11. [9] eph. iii. 14-19. [10] john xiv. 16, 18, 23, 26. [11] rom. xiii. 9. [12] ezek. xxxvii. 9; rev. xi. 11. {288} division iii. § 8. chapter viii. 12-17. _the life of sonship._ we are now in the spirit. the divine spirit dwells within us, and restores our nature to its proper balance by giving us control over our lower nature. the moral meaning and obligations of such a condition are plain, and st. paul proceeds to enforce them. when our impulses and appetites solicit us to let them have their own way, we must give them to understand that they are making a claim which we cannot recognize and which, if we did, would lead us the way of death. on the contrary, it is these merely physical tendencies--the practices of the body when left to itself--that we must put to death by the power of the spirit. and if we do this we are on the way of life. why so certainly? because we are sons of god--nothing less. those who thus act under the spirit's guidance are all of them sons of god. further, {289} if we ask ourselves what sort of spirit we received when we became christians, we know that it was not a spirit appropriate to slaves and calculated to bring us again into a condition of terror under a law. it was a spirit appropriate to those who have been adopted for sons of god, and it is in the power of that spirit that we cry out to god by the name of abba, father, in our familiar supplication. we have thus in our own spirits the sense that we are sons; and behind that and reinforcing it, the divine spirit, by putting the word father into our lips, bears the same witness. well then, if we are thus children of god, we have the child's prospect of entering into our inheritance. christ, our elder brother, has already entered into it, and we shall enter into it with him, if we are content to take the christian maxim for true, and suffer with him on this side of death, that we may share his glory beyond. so then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. for as many as are led by the spirit of god, these are sons of god. for ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, abba, father. the {290} spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of god: and if children, then heirs; heirs of god, and joint-heirs with christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with _him_. there are several phrases in this passage which we shall do well to notice. 1. _if by the spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live_. mortification is absolutely necessary, and at every stage of the christian life. it is the carrying into effect in detail of the fundamental law of our new life--the law which the baptismal ritual was intended to teach--life by means of death. for the body had gained the upper hand: it had come to control the weakened spirit. therefore the reinvigorated spirit must react upon the body and its impulses. it must make its government felt, and the physical tendencies must be checked, pruned, cut back. this is the christian circumcision. and as christ was first born, then circumcised the eighth day; so each new birth in christ must be followed by a like circumcision of the luxuriance of animal appetites. we learn the lesson when we are children: we expect to be restrained and curbed: and unless we are very foolish we learn the lesson only more deeply in later life. there {291} is no single faculty or function of our being which can escape this law. no friendship can be cemented without mutual self-denial. no marriage, however founded on affection, can be blessed without the mutual pain of self-repression and concession. no art or science can be mastered by mere intelligence without moral discipline. no gift can be consecrated in its natural luxuriance. 'every branch in christ that beareth fruit, he pruneth it that it may bring forth more fruit.' 2. _as many as are led by the spirit of god, these are sons of god_. the new testament language would have us regard all the baptized as regenerate and sons of god, but it will not let us mistake the meaning of this teaching. in any effective sense it is they, and only they, who are really _controlled by_ the divine spirit who can call themselves sons. as st. john says, freedom from sin is the only test of divine birth[1]. and the best way to make our new birth effective is to meditate on the gift which we, when we became christians, did actually receive. we who, like the first christians, received baptism with the laying-on of hands, did then and there receive (such is the implication {292} of st. paul's language)[2] a spirit proper not to slaves but to sons of god, qualifying us to call on god as our father, and to co-operate in the purposes of his kingdom. it remains for us to claim these powers and privileges of our sonship, and to claim them to the full. yet how many anxious-minded christians of our day would appear to have received nothing more nor less than the spirit of slaves! they realize their religion as a restraint, a responsibility, a cause of fear. and such a servile religion is no doubt better than a hypocritical sense of sonship unaccompanied by the fear of sin. the wise man remarks that 'a servant that dealeth wisely shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part in the inheritance among the brethren[3].' but the spirit of the slave is not what we are called to. if we had more religion, if we would give it freer course, if we would consent to think less of our circumstances and more of god and his gifts, there would be less fear and more joy both in our work and our prayer. 3. _abba, father_. our lord, speaking in {293} aramaic, the vernacular of palestine, is recorded by st. mark in his hour of agony to have said _abba_. and even in the greek-speaking churches of st. paul's day, that sacred word was still used side by side with its greek equivalent, according to the witness of this and the parallel passage, gal. iv. 6. st. paul appears to be referring to some occasion on which the church was in the habit of calling on god with the aramaic and greek words side by side, and it is more than likely[4] that he is making a definite reference to the lord's prayer, as recited by the roman and galatian christians in the form prescribed for us in st. luke's version[5], beginning 'father.' the retention by greek christians of an aramaic word in a familiar religious formula, is like the later retention by the latins of the greek prayer, _kyrie eleison_, or the retention by us of the names _te deum, magnificat_, &c. st. paul's meaning would come home to us better if we were to read--'whereby we cry _our father_.' 4. '_the spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of god_.' this is a very {294} important passage for showing that st. paul did not in any way confuse the divine spirit and the human, and that in his belief the divine indwelling did not in any way annihilate the human personality. even in the closest union god remains god and man man. but the passage is at least as important as opening up a special avenue of insight into st. paul's conception of christian worship and spiritual life generally. he speaks first of a witness of the individual spirits of christians to the fact of their divine sonship; and he distinguishes from it something greater, a witness of the divine spirit, supporting the human. what exactly does he mean by this witness of the divine spirit as distinct from the consciousness which--under the leading of the divine spirit--christians are led themselves to form? how are we to distinguish the spirit's witness from the witness of our own hearts inspired by him? is it merely[6] that the 'consciousness (of the individual) is analyzed, and its _data_ are referred partly to the man himself, partly to the spirit of god moving and prompting him?' i do not think that a closer examination will lead us to be satisfied with this. {295} the witness of the divine spirit is apparently fixed by the context to consist in the supply to us of the phrase 'abba, father[7]'. it is the spirit 'in whom we cry' (or, as the passage in the galatians says, 'who himself comes into our hearts crying) abba, father,' who thus, by suggesting this cry to us, bears witness with our own spirits that we are sons of god. thus the supporting witness of the spirit lies especially in a certain mode of address to god or formula of prayer which he supplies. but this 'cry' or prayer the spirit supplies to the hearts of the church as a whole. the whole church, and not the individual soul only, is the spirit's home. 'know ye not that ye are (corporately) a temple of god, and the spirit of god dwelleth in you'[8]? the witness of the spirit is thus a witness borne in the whole church, which supports and sustains the witness of the individual soul. this is a thought full of consolation. the life of the individual christian reposes upon, and is infolded by, the larger life of the whole body. behind his own spiritual consciousness, with all its vicissitudes, lies the inspired consciousness of the whole body, the witness of the spirit; and this in part expresses itself in inspired {296} formulas--the lord's prayer, the psalms, the creeds of the divine name, the church's worship; and these formulas, representing our best self, are to sustain us in our fluctuations of feeling, and carry us over our periods of dryness and insensibility. 'the spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit.' 5. 'the inheritance' of the children of god, which in the old testament begins by meaning the holy land, was spiritualized into meaning the kingdom of the messiah. 'they shall inherit the land for ever[9]': 'the meek shall inherit the earth[10].' and this kingdom of the messiah is an eternal kingdom: 'they shall inherit eternal life[11]'--that is to be our inheritance as the chosen people of the lord. and it is an inheritance not only incorruptible but inexhaustible: all share in it to the full of their capacities, and the abundance of those who share diminishes nothing from the richness that remains. and into that inheritance christ is 'the way.' his life shows the law by which it is to be won. it was a current christian saying--'a faithful saying'--'if we died with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign {297} with him[12].' and whenever we are inclined to complain at anything we may have to suffer, there is one thought capable at once of quenching all murmuring, because of its indisputable reasonableness--'it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master.' [1] 1 john iii. 9. [2] 'ye received' (at a particular time), not 'ye have received'; cf. above, p. 214, note 1. [3] prov. xvii. 2. [4] see chase, _lord's prayer in the early church_ ('texts and studies,' cambridge), p. 23. cf. hort on 1 pet. i. 17. [5] xi. 2. [6] s. and h., _in loc._ [7] cf. vaughan and gifford, _in loc._ [8] 1 cor. iii. 16. [9] isa. lx. 21. [10] matt. v. 5. [11] matt. xix. 29. [12] 2 tim. ii. 11. {298} division iii. § 9. chapter viii. 18-30. _the hope of the creation._ st. paul has touched upon the familiar topic of christian suffering, and he ends his great argument with a splendid encouragement to believers to suffer gladly, and that for a manifold reason. first (18-25), that the suffering is altogether inconsiderable by comparison with the glory to which it leads, and is in itself only a part of the universal travail-pang through which created nature as a whole is to produce a glorious new earth to be the habitation of righteousness. secondly (26-30), that we are not alone in our sufferings. we have the support, within us and around us, of the holy spirit as our effective intercessor, and the consciousness of an eternal and infallible purpose of divine love which is taking effect stage by stage in the case of each one of us whom god has made members of his elect body. the following is a paraphrase. {299} the sufferings in which this present situation involves us christians are quite inconsiderable by comparison with the heavenly glory which is destined to be disclosed and to include us. the sense of this glorious future pervades the whole creation. nature is like some on-looker at a spectacle craning the neck to see what is coming. she is waiting for the final disclosure of the children of god in their true position; knowing that she too--as a new heaven and a new earth--will share that glorious future. at present her powers are continually frustrated; failure is everywhere; the law of corruption is upon her like a bondage. this curse she was subjected to, through no will of her own, by the simple fiat of her creator--but not for ever: she was left to hope for deliverance from this bondage into a state of freedom--a share, that is, in the freedom which is to belong to the final glory of the children of god. with this in mind we can bear the universal spectacle of pain. what we have always heard hitherto, wherever we have lent our ear all through nature, has been groans; but they are the groans as of a woman in travail: and in these groans we, god's chosen people, though we already possess the first instalment of the divine spirit, {300} the pledge of what is yet to come--in these groans we bear our part, and also in the hope that accompanies the groaning. we groan expecting to realize our sonship, as that can only be realized when body as well as soul is redeemed from all evil. hope is thus the very condition on which we received our spiritual deliverance when we became christ's. and hope means nothing else than a condition of expecting good things not yet in sight. it means the readiness to endure till they come. and there is another reason why we should be glad to bear our present sufferings. it is because, though we are weak in ourselves, we are not left alone. of ourselves we should be bewildered and not know even what we ought to ask god to give us. but we have in the spirit who dwells in us a divine advocate and intercessor. his intercession makes itself perceptible to us in groaning desires after a better condition, desires which cannot be put into words, but which are intelligible enough to god. he who searches the hearts interprets the longings we cannot express--understands, that is, the spirit's meaning; for he is god's own spirit, and the intercessions he makes for us, the consecrated people, express god's own {301} intention. and what that intention is towards us we know. we know that it is an intention of good which cannot fail for those who love god; or, in other words, for those who are the subjects of the divine purpose and call--an intention of good to which everything, even seeming evils, must minister. for god's purpose reaches from eternity to eternity, and cannot be baffled from without or fail by the way. those whom in eternity he designated beforehand as instruments of his will, those he also eternally destined for the highest human perfection--for the blessed lot of being made like his own son, as he should be hereafter incarnate, so that he might be an elder brother in a great human family: and those who were thus appointed beforehand for this high destiny, in due course he called into the elect body. and those whom he thus called he acquitted and accepted for righteous: and whom he thus accepted he crowned with glory. for i reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. for the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of god. for the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage {302} of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of god. for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. and not only so, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for _our_ adoption, _to wit_, the redemption of our body. for by hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? but if we hope for that which we see not, _then_ do we with patience wait for it. and in like manner the spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to _the will of_ god. and we know that to them that love god all things work together for good, _even_ to them that are called according to _his_ purpose. for whom he foreknew, he also foreordained _to be_ conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. i. there are passages in the new testament which are unique. such is the passage in st. peter's epistle about christ preaching in his disembodied human spirit to other spirits in hades--a passage vaguely suggestive of wide thoughts and hopes, and leading us to suppose {303} that the ideas which it contained were familiar in the apostolic circle, but standing alone, with practically nothing to elucidate it from outside. and the passage just read about the groaning of creation in travail-pains is unique, not because there is not a good deal to elucidate it in other parts of the bible, but because st. paul in his treatment of common material strikes a note of sympathy with nature from nature's point of view, which is heard nowhere else in the bible. in genesis we read that 'the ground was cursed[1]' because of man's sin, in the sense apparently that, as the penalty of his sin, nature was to be made a rougher home for him, and he was to extract his food from it only with pain and sweat. isaiah is perhaps interpreting this primitive lesson in more modern tones when he cries that 'the earth is polluted under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the ever-lasting covenant. therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are found guilty: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. the new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth[2].' in this sense certainly, if not in some more recondite {304} sense also, the ground is stricken with a curse as a result of human sin. and there are parts of the world where no lesson seems more patent. at any rate, whatever be the interpretation given to it, it was part of the common jewish teaching that 'though all things were made very good, yet when the first man sinned they were corrupted, and shall return no more to their proper state until the son of pherez[3] shall come[4].' for the curse was not to be for ever. there was a good time to come--a new heaven, a new earth, wherein righteousness should dwell--'a restoration of all things,' and not merely of man[5], which should accompany the coming of the messiah. this was a most popular idea in jewish hearts. 'i will transform the heaven and make it an eternal blessing and light. and i will transform the earth and make it a blessing and cause mine elect ones to dwell upon it: but the sinners and evil-doers shall not set foot thereon[6].' here then we have the common belief which st. paul inherits and uses. he lays indeed very little stress upon the connexion of the earth's present condition with human sin, if he {305} even alludes to it. he only says it was 'subjected to vanity' by the decree of the creator, and that with a glorious prospect. it is upon the present aspect of the creation and its great prospect that his eyes are set. and his superiority to contemporary jewish thought is shown by the fact that in his vision of the future he is catholic and cosmic. what he is contemplating is not a world renovated in order that one chosen race may be happy and glorious, but a renovated world for a perfected humanity. and in his representation of the present aspects of nature he strikes an extraordinarily modern note by exhibiting, as it were unintentionally, a deep and real sympathy with nature in her pain from her own point of view. the psalms can supply examples of a real sympathetic fellowship in the happiness of creation--a happiness which modern pessimists strangely ignore. but here we have, as nowhere else in the bible--perhaps nowhere in ancient literature--a man who feels with the pain of creation[7]. he notes how much 'vanity' there is in nature--how much that is ineffective and disappointing, how much waste and sadness--by reason of the omnipresent law of corruption, {306} dissolution and decay under which she is laid. he feels this as from nature's own heart. and he has an ear for the universal cry of positive pain, pain as of a woman in travail, which is one at least of the most unmistakeable voices of nature. but he has got an explanation of this universal pain which makes it tolerable to him. it is the pain which accompanies a birth. the pain, as in the case of the woman, is to be justified by the issue. nature 'eagerly expects' as well as 'groans': and will doubtless 'remember no more the anguish, for joy' of that which is the fruit of her agony. for there is a destiny for the whole material world which includes man. as man is to be perfected and spiritualized in body no less than in mind; so the whole man, perfected in glory, is to have his place in a world emancipated in like manner from failure and pain. perhaps the most important consideration to be derived from this passage is that st. paul's thought is equally alien to a one-sided spiritualism and a one-sided materialism. a one-sided spiritualism, such as is represented to-day by (most falsely-called) 'christian science,' either disbelieves in the reality of matter altogether, or regards it with its attendant qualities of weakness and pain as evil and a thing to be ignored. the religion of {307} the incarnation, on the other hand, as represented by st. paul, recognizes it as god's creation and the temple of his presence. in our manhood, as scientific investigation assures us, we can exercise no activity of spirit except as parts of a material world, through the senses and by the instrumentality of the bodily organs. spirit and matter are in us so linked together that the real difficulty to a thinking christian is to conceive at all of a 'disembodied' state of the personal human spirit after death which is in any sense a living state. but such a 'disembodied' state--if the word really represents the truth--is unnatural and temporary. the perfected human spirit is to have an embodiment which is to be material, as being truly a body, but also spiritual, because it is to be the fitting organ of the perfected spirit, in no way embarrassing or clogging its activity by any grossness or corruption. this is the christian hope, definite in principle, if quite unaccompanied by any anticipated knowledge of method or details. and this destiny of the human body cannot be separated from the destiny of the material universe as a whole. matter as a whole is to have an unending development like spirit, and a development with a justifying purpose of glory in it. {308} and st. paul is equally opposed to the materialism which gives to matter a substantive existence apart from spirit. metaphysical inquiry assures us that we can have no conception of a material object, or of matter in general, except as related to a consciousness or spirit; or, in other words, except as an adjunct to some sort of personality. such metaphysical inquiry did not lie in st. paul's way. but he is in harmony with its results when he contemplates a glorified nature as still relative to glorified personalities. nature is to share the revelation of the glory of the _sons_ of god. we cannot help wondering, as we read these verses, whether st. paul had in mind that occasion when, before the chosen witnesses, christ was bodily transfigured on the holy mount by an anticipation of the glory destined for his sonship; and the apostles felt their hearts thereby encouraged to believe more surely in the teaching of the prophets about the general glory that was to accompany the final manifestation of the christ[8]. when st. paul talks of nature 'groaning' and (still more) 'eagerly expecting,' is it merely a poetical personification, as chrysostom and most {309} commentators suppose, like that of the psalmist when he makes 'the floods clap their hands'? it may be so. george crabbe, in his _delay is dangerous_, draws a singularly beautiful picture of a late autumn morning as it appeared to a dejected man, and he ends the description with the lines:- these things were sad in nature, or they took sadness from him, the likeness of his look. is the latter the true explanation? is there no sadness or eager desire in nature independently--i will not say of spirit, but of the human spirit? it is sometimes very difficult to believe this. and may not the christian belief about angels make the fancy legitimate, that every created thing has some accompanying intelligence--higher or lower--which consciously realizes its beauty and its joy, and also its pain and its hope? if this be so, then there is not merely deficiency and pain, but the consciousness of this deficiency and pain, a real groaning and a real expectation, in the great fabric of nature. we may legitimately imagine this; but we have probably no right to attribute such an imperfectly-based speculation to st. paul[9]. {310} ii. it is very interesting to notice the various points of view from which st. paul contemplates the great ideas of 'redemption,' 'adoption,' 'salvation.' christ redeemed us by the shedding of his blood, and we entered into the redeemed state individually and were adopted as sons when we became christians. this is, beyond all question, st. paul's belief. but when he contemplates the outward conditions of the redeemed man, and finds them quite incongruous with freedom and sonship, so wholly unashamed is he to require that these outward conditions shall be transformed, and body as well as spirit shall be redeemed, that he speaks as if the great hope were still unrealized and we were still only expecting to be redeemed and adopted--'waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.' he thus retains the intensely jewish language of what we may call christ's own apocalypse, when he bids his disciples, as the day of the lord approaches, to 'look up and lift up their heads: because their redemption draweth nigh.' the uses of the words 'saved' and 'salvation' are still more remarkable. if we are {311} contemplating the finished work of christ, we are led to say, 'by grace have we been saved[10].' if we are considering our own individual entrances into this great salvation at the time of our believing or becoming christians in baptism, we say, 'it was upon a basis of hope that we were saved[11].' if we are considering the progressive life of the believer, we say, 'he is being saved[12].' if we are looking to the great and final hope, we say, 'we shall be saved.' 'our salvation is nearer than when we became believers[13].' this simple set of facts about new testament language throws a great light on the popular revivalist question--'are you saved?' iii. our lord once asked one who came to him to be healed--'what wilt thou that i should do unto thee?' and a very devout modern writer[14] builds upon this an argument that we ought to learn continually to pray with more definiteness and detail. probably it is true to say {312} that the advanced christian learns to pray more definitely for spiritual things, as he grows in spiritual discernment and sees more distinctly what god's moral will is for himself and others. but there is no similar growth to be expected in the knowledge of what outward gifts will really help or hinder us and others. and it is with his eye chiefly on the outward conditions of the christian's life that st. paul here says--'we know not what we should pray for as we ought'; and teaches us that 'the spirit makes intercession for the saints according to god.' we must be content to recognize, even while we half-ignorantly pray for what we think we need, that '_all_ (outward) things work together for good to them that love god.' st. paul had learnt that lesson when he himself 'besought the lord thrice' that his great physical trouble might be removed from him, and was refused[15]. the son of man himself prayed only 'father, _if it be possible_, let this cup pass from me,' and learned in experience that it was not possible. these lessons may suffice to humble any one who grows over-confident that he knows what outward circumstances are best for himself or his friends or the church. {313} we all feel deeply the imperfection of our prayers: how weak, how ignorant they are! and st. paul consoles us with the belief in an intercession--perfect, all-knowing, divine--which supports and sustains and, we may say, includes ours. the 'intercession of the spirit' in our behalf, carried on, it is implied, 'in the hearts' of the saints which only god searches, is mentioned nowhere in the new testament but here. but it is not to be separated from the intercession of christ which is mentioned just below[16]. christ's intercession is 'at the right hand of god,' but also he has by the spirit taken us up into his own life. he dwells in us by his spirit. by his spirit we are knit into one and made his body. doubtless, then, dwelling thus by the spirit in the body, christ intercedes for us. this is the intercession of the spirit, which is also the intercession of christ--an intercession gathering up into one, and sustaining and connecting and perfecting, all the imperfect prayers of all the saints. this interceding spirit is in himself perfectly conscious of god's mind and purpose, and god is perfectly conscious of his. he intercedes 'according to god.' this intercession {314} is but a form of the perfect divine life. but in the heart of the church this desire of the spirit can make itself felt only in groanings for the divine manifestations which, like the aspirations which music suggests or expresses, are too deep to admit of articulate utterance. st. paul, when he speaks of groanings which cannot be put into words, is perhaps thinking of the 'tongues' in which the spiritual emotion of the first christian churches found expression. and we should think of some earnest act of corporate christian worship when, under the workings of the one spirit, the strong desire after what is holiest and highest possesses men, and binds them together with a sense of longing for the divine manifestation which could not be put into definite words. st. paul speaks of the groaning of suffering nature (ver. 22), and the groaning of the individual christians (ver. 23), and also the groaning of the divine spirit in the church (ver. 26). no word could express more powerfully the intense desire after the manifestation of the divine kingdom which, in st. paul's mind, should lie at the heart of true christian prayer. and the true prayer of the spirit--the prayer which is according to god--is described (ver. 27) {315} as 'on behalf of saints[17]'--on behalf of a separated and consecrated body. it follows, that is to say, the lines of christ's own prayer--'i pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me.' it is through the sanctified life that the divine influences are to spread over the world: and by praying for the consecrated body we are praying that that life may be exhibited more and more perfectly amongst men so as to strike their consciences and move them to conversion; that through our good works which they now behold they may glorify god in the day when they themselves are visited. the new testament method of praying for the world is thus in great part indirect. but the direct method is also enjoined. we are also to pray directly 'for all men[18].' iv. there is, i think, no point on which st. paul has been more misrepresented than on his teaching about predestination. he teaches plainly that it is god's purpose to 'have mercy upon all': that he 'willeth that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the {316} truth[19].' but he works towards this universal end through a method of selected human instruments--through an elect body. such an elect body had been the jewish nation--selected, we cannot tell why, but very possibly in part because of its capacity for coherence and toughness, coupled with a singular aptitude for simple religious ideas--qualities which in themselves of course were the gift of god. this nation might have expanded, as was intended, into a catholic church. but, as it refused to correspond with its vocation in this respect, in fact the catholic church appears in history as taking its place, even while it was developed out of it--an elect body gathered out of 'every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues.' the election of this catholic body to be the heirs of salvation and to bear the name of god in the world was, it would have been held, a self-evident fact. st. paul reasons not up to this fact but from it. he uses the admitted fact to strengthen its individual members under stress of trial. they must bear earthly troubles because they form the appointed discipline for the individuals who form the select body. let men but love god, and then all outward things {317} whatsoever work together for good for them. the fact that they love god is the sufficient evidence of their election. those who love god are also those who are 'called according to his purpose.' but, we ask, have none received the call and rejected it? were none called, who do not love god? is it not true, that 'many are called and few chosen'? st. paul says not a word to the contrary. but that is not the question he is considering. the members of the christian church, devoted to god, to whom he is writing _have_ been called. this call of which they have become the subject is, st. paul assures them, no afterthought, no momentary act of god, which as it came into being in a moment so may pass away. it is not a being taken up by god and then perhaps dropped again. his gifts and calling are without repentance on his side, because they represent an eternal will. in the eternal mind god 'foreknew' this chosen body. to 'know' as used of god (in contexts where it is implied that others are not 'known') means to 'take knowledge of or mark out for a divine purpose, as god said of the jews, 'you only have i known of all the families of the earth[20],' that is, your {318} nation only have i singled out or designated[21]. this divine marking out then was an eternal act. god eternally marked out certain persons, those presumably whom a certain preparatory discipline and moral education, jewish or heathen, should have made apt for his purpose, such aptitude being of course again his gift. anyway, for reasons which we cannot probe, god did eternally foreknow or mark out beforehand a body of men to be his catholic church. and those so marked out were in the eternal counsels appointed for a high spiritual vocation, to be made like the divine son, who was to be made man, so that, with christ as heir and elder brother, they together might represent in the world the divine ideal for man. and upon those so marked out and foreordained, in due time the divine call came by the apostolic preaching. and, at the first movement of corresponsive faith, they had been acquitted of all their old sins and planted all at once upon a new basis in christ jesus. and those thus set upon the new basis god also had already in his divine counsels clothed with glory, their share in the glory of the divine son which is only waiting to be fully manifested. every {319} christian therefore who has felt a movement of god in his heart, under which he has become a christian, knows that he is in god's keeping. god will not fail him. he who has begun the good work will perform it. trouble and anxiety within or without need not alarm him. he has but to keep himself, joyful and confident, in god's hands. the movement of god upon him and within him, as it proceeds out of the eternal mind, so it passes securely on into the eternal issue. no doubt st. paul would say they might tear themselves by utter wilfulness out of the divine hand, as for the time at least the jews had mostly done. but short of that they are safe. the movement of god, the protection of god, the purpose of god, is upon them and around them, and goes before them preparing their way, individually and corporately. this is the moral use st. paul makes of the doctrine of predestination. and it is to do egregious violence to his general teaching to suggest that he entertained the idea of persons created with an opposite predestination--to eternal misery. st. paul is dealing here only with what god has already shown of his purpose in the actual vocation of some. ultimately {320} he assures us all men share the divine purpose for good[22]. but, on the other hand, he never suggests that they may not resist it, or allows us to say that so far as concerns themselves they may not defeat it. [1] iii. 17-19; v. 29. [2] xxiv. 5-7. [3] i.e. messiah, son of david, son of pherez (ruth iv. 18). [4] _bereshith rabbah_, xii. 5. [5] isa. lxv. 17, lxvi. 22; cf. 2 pet. iii. 13; rev. xxi. 1; acts iii. 21. [6] _book of enoch_, xlv. 4, 5. [7] st. paul's word 'creation' (verses 30-22) is used in st. paul's sense in wisd. xvi. 34, xix. 6. [8] 2 pet. i. 16-19. [9] cf. latham, _service of angels_ (cambridge, 1894). [10] eph. ii. 5. [11] rom. viii. 24. [12] 1 cor. xv. 2; 2 cor. ii. 15. (the present tense in both cases.) [13] rom. v. 9, 10; xiii. 11: cf. 1 tim. iv. 16; 2 tim. iv. 18. [14] andrew murray's _with christ in the school of prayer_ (nisbet 1891), p. 71. [15] 2 cor. xii. 8: cf. phil. i. 22, 'what i shall choose i wot not.' [16] verse 34. [17] not 'the saints' in the greek. [18] 1 tim. ii. 1. [19] rom. xi. 32; 1 tim. ii. 4. [20] amos iii. 2: cf. ps. i. 6; hos. xiii. 5; matt. vii. 23. [21] cf. hort on 1 pet. pp. 19, 80. [22] see especially rom. xi. 29-33. {321} division iii. § 10. chapter viii. 31-39. _christian assurance._ st. paul has brought his great argument to an end. and before he passes to its manifold application in the later parts of his epistle, he applies it in words which spring glowing from a heart on fire with the gospel he loves, to reassure disheartened and nervous christians. it was a natural feature of the apostolic age that the disciples should lose their first courage and become afraid, when the hard experience they were to expect became plain to them. the epistle to the hebrews is written full in face of this failure of courage among jewish christians. for the gentiles whom st. paul has more particularly in view there were manifold causes of alarm--fears derived from their own weakness, from spiritual uncertainty, and from their precarious position. it was not only that outward calamity--famine and pestilence--might {322} come on them like other people. they plainly felt--st. paul plainly felt, as he thought of the bitter hostility of the jews actually ready to break out upon the church, and of the jealousy of the empire, not yet hostile but easily capable of becoming so--that times of persecution were at hand: that the christians were truly in the world as 'lambs in the midst of wolves.' therefore he would have them realize the whole secret of that invincible strength, that power to endure and triumph, which ought to be theirs. what is to be our practical conclusion, he asks, from all this theology, from all this consideration of revealed facts and truths? the sum of it all is that god is not our taskmaster and critical judge. he is altogether on our side. and if this be so, whose hostility can by comparison come into consideration at all? god showed his mind toward us by the greatest possible act of self-sacrifice, the giving up of his own divine son to die for us. and, plainly, if of his free love he gave us his greatest gift, he will not fail to accompany it with everything that love can suggest. or, to put the matter in another way, if god, in full knowledge of what we were thought proper to take us for his chosen {323} people and to put us in a position of acceptance with him, who can with any hope of success bring a charge against us or pass condemnation on us? for we know the mind of the only judge. or, once again, what can be so reassuring as to consider the person of our advocate or mediator? it is christ jesus, god's own son in our nature, who died a sacrifice for our sins, but so far from being conquered by death, was raised from among the dead, and exalted to the right hand of god, and there is occupied in presenting himself before the father in intercession for us--covering all our approach to god with his acceptableness. out of the protecting power of this love of christ, then, who shall tear us? it is quite true that troubles may beat upon us--outward affliction, or inward trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword. we may find that only the words of the psalmist[1] suit our case, 'for thy sake are we being put to death the whole day: the estimate formed of us is that of sheep meant for slaughter.' but in all these contingencies the love of christ can supply us with a more than victorious power. for this is st. paul's conviction, that no conceivable power {324} of life or of death, or of the angelic hierarchy, nothing in present circumstances or future destiny, no possible force, neither the highest height of heavens or the deepest depth of hell, no possible creation of god other than what we now know to exist, shall be able to tear us from that which holds us in a grasp stronger than the strongest--the love of god which is in christ jesus, who is our lord. what then shall we say to these things? if god _is_ for us, who _is_ against us? he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? who shall lay anything to the charge of god's elect? it is god that justifieth; who is he that shall condemn? it is christ jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of god, who also maketh intercession for us. who shall separate us from the love of christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? even as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. for i am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of god, which is in christ jesus our lord. there is not much that needs comment in these verses. we may notice the contrast {325} between the tone of the psalmist quoted by st. paul--weighed down, like many a servant of the older covenant, with the unintelligible experience of the persecution of god's faithful people--and the exultant faith of st. paul which finds no difficulty in the experience at all. again, we do well to observe that among the forces enumerated by st. paul which cannot tear us out of the hand of god, he does not include our own wills, and we could not even conceive him so including them. once again, we take note how 'the love of christ' (ver. 35) is resolved (ver. 39) into the 'love of god in christ jesus.' christ's love is god's love, as christ is truly proper and essential to the being of god, his own very son. these words, i say, need very little comment, but they thrill our souls as hardly any other words of st. paul. they are the real summary of this epistle, and show us how the glorious apostle of christian liberty would have us view our life. we are not to build the edifice of a life which at the top is to be within sight of god. we are to start from god who from eternity and all along has been beforehand with us: in his external personal love predestinating, creating, calling, pardoning, holding, and keeping us {326} in continual growth for eternal glory. and the one power of religion is therefore faith, that faculty by which we look continually out of ourselves, and starting from god, committing ourselves wholly to god, raise the fabric of life, in the community of a true human brotherhood, upon the secure basis of the love of him who created us, and will satisfy utterly the being which he has given us. this is the summary lesson of the great epistle. [1] ps. xliv. 22. end of vol. i _a series of simple expositions_ _of_ _portions of the new testament_, by the right rev. charles gore, d.d., lord bishop of worcester. _crown 8vo, green cloth, 3s. 6d. each volume._ the sermon on the mount. the epistle to the ephesians. the epistle to the romans. vol. i. cap. i-viii. vol. ii. cap. ix-xvi, with appendices. other works by the right rev. charles gore, d.d. lord bishop of worcester. _crown 8vo 2s. 6d._ the mission of the church. four lectures delivered in the cathedral church of st. asaph. contents:--i. the mission of the church.--ii. unity within the church of england.--iii. the relation of the church to independent and hostile opinion.--iv. the mission of the church in society.--appended notes. 'it is a twofold work--to sanctify what can be hallowed, to pass judgement on that which must be condemned. from this point of view the interest of mr. gore's new book is great.'--_church quarterly_. _8vo, 7s. 6d._ the bampton lectures, 1891; the incarnation of the son of god. _8vo, 7s. 6d._ dissertations on subjects connected with the incarnation. _crown 8vo, 5s. net._ essays on church reform. eleven essays on the present and future position of the church of england. by the right rev. charles gore, d.d.; and other eminent british, colonial, and american writers. _crown 8vo, 6s._ lux mundi. a series of studies in the religion of the incarnation. by various writers. edited by the right rev. charles gore, d.d. london: john murray, albemarle street, w. expositions of holy scripture alexander maclaren, d.d., litt. d. romans corinthians _(to ii corinthians, chap. v)_ expositions of holy scripture alexander maclaren, d.d., litt. d. romans contents the witness of the resurrection (romans i. 4, r.v.) privilege and obligation (romans i. 7) paul's longing (romans i. 11, 12) debtors to all men (romans i. 14) the gospel the power of god (romans i. 16) world-wide sin and world-wide redemption (romans iii. 19-26) no difference (romans iii. 22) 'let us have peace' (romans v. 1, r.v.) access into grace (romans v. 2) the sources of hope (romans v. 2-4) a threefold cord (romans v. 5) what proves god's love (romans v. 8) the warring queens (romans v. 21) 'the form of teaching' (romans vi. 17) 'thy free spirit' (romans viii. 2) christ condemning sin (romans viii. 8) the witness of the spirit (romans viii. 16) sons and heirs (romans viii. 17) suffering with christ, a condition of glory with christ (romans viii. 17) the revelation of sons (romans viii. 19) the redemption of the body (romans viii. 23) the interceding spirit (romans viii. 26) the gift that brings all gifts (romans viii. 32) more than conquerors (romans viii. 37) love's triumph (romans viii. 38, 39) the sacrifice of the body (romans xii. 1) transfiguration (romans xii. 2) sober thinking (romans xii. 3) many and one (romans xii. 4, 5) grace and graces (romans xii. 6-8) love that can hate (romans xii. 9, 10, r.v.) a triplet of graces (romans xii. 11) another triplet of graces (romans xii. 12) still another triplet (romans xii. 13-15) still another triplet (romans xii. 16, r.v.) still another triplet (romans xii. 17, 18, r.v.) still another triplet (romans xii. 19-21) love and the day (romans xiii. 8-14) salvation nearer (romans xiii. 11) the soldier's morning-call (romans xiii. 12) the limits of liberty (romans xiv. 12-23) two fountains, one stream (romans xv. 4, 13) joy and peace in believing (romans xv. 13) phoebe (romans xvi. 1, 2, r.v.) priscilla and aquila (romans xvi. 3-5) two households (romans xvi. 10,11) tryphena and tryphosa (romans xvi. 12) persis (romans xvi. 12) a crushed snake (romans xvi. 20) tertius (romans xvi. 22, r.v.) quartus a brother (romans xvi. 23) the witness of the resurrection 'declared to be the son of god with power, ... by the resurrection of the dead.'--romans i. 4 (r.v.). it is a great mistake to treat paul's writings, and especially this epistle, as mere theology. they are the transcript of his life's experience. as has been well said, the gospel of paul is an interpretation of the significance of the life and work of jesus based upon the revelation to him of jesus as the risen christ. he believed that he had seen jesus on the road to damascus, and it was that appearance which revolutionised his life, turned him from a persecutor into a disciple, and united him with the apostles as ordained to be a witness with them of the resurrection. to them all the resurrection of jesus was first of all a historical fact appreciated chiefly in its bearing on him. by degrees they discerned that so transcendent a fact bore in itself a revelation of what would become the experience of all his followers beyond the grave, and a symbol of the present life possible for them. all three of these aspects are plainly declared in paul's writings. in our text it is chiefly the first which is made prominent. all that distinguishes christianity; and makes it worth believing, or mighty, is inseparably connected with the resurrection. i. the resurrection of christ declares his sonship. resurrection and ascension are inseparably connected. jesus does not rise to share again in the ills and weariness of humanity. risen, 'he dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.' 'he died unto sin once'; and his risen humanity had nothing in it on which physical death could lay hold. that he should from some secluded dimple on olivet ascend before the gazing disciples until the bright cloud, which was the symbol of the divine presence, received him out of their sight, was but the end of the process which began unseen in morning twilight. he laid aside the garments of the grave and passed out of the sepulchre which was made sure by the great stone rolled against its mouth. the grand avowal of faith in his resurrection loses meaning, unless it is completed as paul completed his 'yea rather that was raised from the dead,' with the triumphant 'who is at the right hand of god.' both are supernatural, and the virgin birth corresponds at the beginning to the supernatural resurrection and ascension at the close. both such an entrance into the world and such a departure from it, proclaim at once his true humanity, and that 'this is the son of god.' still further, the resurrection is god's solemn 'amen' to the tremendous claims which christ had made. the fact of his resurrection, indeed, would not declare his divinity; but the resurrection of one who had spoken such words does. if the cross and a nameless grave had been the end, what a _reductio ad absurdum_ that would have been to the claims of jesus to have ever been with the father and to be doing always the things that pleased him. the resurrection is god's last and loudest proclamation, 'this is my beloved son: hear ye him.' the psalmist of old had learned to trust that his sonship and consecration to the father made it impossible that that father should leave his soul in sheol, or suffer one who was knit to him by such sacred bonds to see corruption; and the unique sonship and perfect self-consecration of jesus went down into the grave in the assured confidence, as he himself declared, that the third day he would rise again. the old alternative seems to retain all its sharp points: either christ rose again from the dead, or his claims are a series of blasphemous arrogances and his character irremediably stained. but we may also remember that scripture not only represents christ's resurrection as a divine act but also as the act of christ's own power. in his earthly life he asserted that his relation both to physical death and to resurrection was an entirely unique one. 'i have power,' said he, 'to lay down my life, and i have power to take it again'; and yet, even in this tremendous instance of self-assertion, he remains the obedient son, for he goes on to say, 'this commandment have i received of my father.' if these claims are just, then it is vain to stumble at the miracles which jesus did in his earthly life. if he could strip it off and resume it, then obviously it was not a life like other men's. the whole phenomenon is supernatural, and we shall not be in the true position to understand and appreciate it and him until, like the doubting thomas, we fall at the feet of the risen son, and breathe out loyalty and worship in that rapturous exclamation, 'my lord and my god.' ii. the resurrection interprets christ's death. there is no more striking contrast than that between the absolute non-receptivity of the disciples in regard to all christ's plain teachings about his death and their clear perception after pentecost of the mighty power that lay in it. the very fact that they continued disciples at all, and that there continued to be such a community as the church, demands their belief in the resurrection as the only cause which can account for it. if he did not rise from the dead, and if his followers did not know that he did so by the plainest teachings of common-sense, they ought to have scattered, and borne in isolated hearts the bitter memories of disappointed hopes; for if he lay in a nameless grave, and they were not sure that he was risen from the dead, his death would have been a conclusive showing up of the falsity of his claims. in it there would have been no atoning power, no triumph over sin. if the death of christ were not followed by his resurrection and ascension, the whole fabric of christianity falls to pieces. as the apostle puts it in his great chapter on resurrection, 'ye are yet in your sins.' the forgiveness which the gospel holds forth to men does not depend on the mercy of god or on the mere penitence of man, but upon the offering of the one sacrifice for sins in his death, which is justified by his resurrection as being accepted by god. if we cannot triumphantly proclaim 'christ is risen indeed,' we have nothing worth preaching. we are told now that the ethics of christianity are its vital centre, which will stand out more plainly when purified from these mystical doctrines of a death as the sin-offering for the world, and a resurrection as the great token that that offering avails. paul did not think so. to him the morality of the gospel was all deduced from the life of christ the son of god as our example, and from his death for us which touches men's hearts and makes obedience to him our joyful answer to what he has done for us. christianity is a new thing in the world, not as moral teaching, but as moral power to obey that teaching, and that depends on the cross interpreted by the resurrection. if we have only a dead christ, we have not a living christianity. iii. resurrection points onwards to christ's coming again. paul at athens declared in the hearing of supercilious greek philosophers, that the jesus, whom he proclaimed to them, was 'the man whom god had ordained to judge the world in righteousness,' and that 'he had given assurance thereof unto all men, in that he raised him from the dead.' the resurrection was the beginning of the process which, from the human point of view, culminated in the ascension. beyond the ascension stretches the supernatural life of the glorified son of god. olivet cannot be the end, and the words of the two men in white apparel who stood amongst the little group of the upward gazing friends, remain as the hope of the church: 'this same jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.' that great assurance implies a visible corporeal return locally defined, and having for its purpose to complete the work which incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension, each advanced a stage. the resurrection is the corner-stone of the whole christian faith. it seals the truths that jesus is the son of god with power, that he died for us, that he has ascended on high to prepare a place for us, that he will come again and take us to himself. if we, by faith in him, take for ours the women's greeting on that easter morning, 'the lord hath risen indeed,' he will come to us with his own greeting, 'peace be unto you.' privilege and obligation 'to all that be in rome, beloved of god, called to be saints.'--romans i. 7. this is the address of the epistle. the first thing to be noticed about it, by way of introduction, is the universality of this designation of christians. paul had never been in rome, and knew very little about the religious stature of the converts there. but he has no hesitation in declaring that they are all 'beloved of god' and 'saints.' there were plenty of imperfect christians amongst them; many things to rebuke; much deadness, coldness, inconsistency, and yet none of these in the slightest degree interfered with the application of these great designations to them. so, then, 'beloved of god' and 'saints' are not distinctions of classes within the pale of christianity, but belong to the whole community, and to each member of the body. the next thing to note, i think, is how these two great terms, 'beloved of god' and 'saints,' cover almost the whole ground of the christian life. they are connected with each other very closely, as i shall have occasion to show presently, but in the meantime it may be sufficient to mark how the one carries us deep into the heart of god and the other extends over the whole ground of our relation to him. the one is a statement of a universal prerogative, the other an enforcement of a universal obligation. let us look, then, at these two points, the universal privilege and the universal obligation of the christian life. i. the universal privilege of the christian life. 'beloved of god.' now we are so familiar with the juxtaposition of the two ideas, 'love' and 'god,' that we cease to feel the wonderfulness of their union. but until jesus christ had done his work no man believed that the two thoughts could be brought together. does god love any one? we think the question too plain to need to be put, and the answer instinctive. but it is not by any means instinctive, and the fact is that until christ answered it for us, the world stood dumb before the question that its own heart raised, and when tortured spirits asked, 'is there care in heaven, and is there love?' there was 'no voice, nor answer, nor any that regarded.' think of the facts of life; think of the facts of nature. think of sorrows and miseries and pains, and sins, and wasted lives and storms, and tempests, and diseases, and convulsions; and let us feel how true the grim saying is, that 'nature, red in tooth and claw, with rapine, shrieks against the creed' that god is love. and think of what the world has worshipped, and of all the varieties of monstrosity, not the less monstrous because sometimes beautiful, before which men have bowed. cruel, lustful, rapacious, capricious, selfish, indifferent deities they have adored. and then, 'god hath established,' proved, demonstrated 'his love to us in that while we were yet sinners christ died for us.' oh, brethren, do not let us kick down the ladder by which we have climbed; or, in the name of a loving god, put away the christian teaching which has begotten the conception in humanity of a god that loves. there are men to-day who would never have come within sight of that sunlight truth, even as a glimmering star, away down upon the horizon, if it had not been for the gospel; and who now turn round upon that very gospel which has given them the conception, and accuse it of narrow and hard thoughts of the love of god. one of the scripture truths against which the assailant often turns his sharpest weapons is that which is involved in my text, the scripture answer to the other question, 'does not god love all?' yes! yes! a thousand times, yes! but there is another question, does the love of god, to all, make his special designation of christian men as his beloved the least unlikely? surely there is no kind of contradiction between the broadest proclamation of the universality of the love of god and paul's decisive declaration that, in a very deep and real manner, they who are in christ are the beloved of god. surely special affection is not in its nature, inconsistent with universal beneficence and benevolence. surely it is no exaltation, but rather a degradation of the conception of the divine love, if we proclaim its utter indifference to men's characters. surely you are not honouring god when you say, 'it is all the same to him whether a man loves him and serves him, or lifts himself up in rebellion against him, and makes himself his own centre, and earth his aim and his all.' surely to imagine a god who not only makes his sun to shine and his rains and dews to fall on the unthankful and the evil, that he may draw them to love him, but who also is conceived as taking the sinful creature who yet cleaves to his sins to his heart, as he does the penitent soul that longs for his image to be produced in it, is to blaspheme, and not to honour the love, the universal love of god. god forbid that any words that ever drop from my lips should seem to cast the smallest shadow of doubt on that great truth, 'god so loved the world that he gave his son!' but god forbid, equally, that any words of mine should seem to favour the, to me, repellent idea that the infinite love of god disregards the character of the man on whom it falls. there are manifestations of that loving heart which any man can receive; and each man gets as much of the love of god as it is possible to pour upon him. but granite rock does not drink in the dew as a flower does; and the nature of the man on whom god's love falls determines how much, and what manner of its manifestations shall pass into his true possession, and what shall remain without. so, on the whole, we have to answer the questions, 'does god love any? does not god love all? does god specially love some?' with the one monosyllable, 'yes.' and so, dear brethren, let us learn the path by which we can pass into that blessed community of those on whom the fullness and sweetness and tenderest tenderness of the father's heart will fall. 'if a man love me, he will keep my words; and my father will love him.' myths tell us that the light which, at the beginning, had been diffused through a nebulous mass, was next gathered into a sun. so the universal love of god is concentrated in jesus christ; and if we have him we have it; and if we have faith we have him, and can say, 'neither life, nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord.' ii. then, secondly, mark the universal obligation of the christian life. 'called to be saints,' says my text. now you will observe that the two little words 'to be' are inserted here as a supplement. they may be correct enough, but they are open to the possibility of misunderstanding, as if the saintship, to which all christian people are 'called' was something future, and not realised at the moment. now, in the context, the apostle employs the same form of expression with regard to himself in a clause which illuminates the meaning of my text. 'paul, a servant of jesus christ' says he, in the first verse, 'called to be an apostle' or, more correctly, 'a called apostle.' the apostleship coincided in time with the call, was contemporaneous with that which was its cause. and if paul was an apostle since he was called, saints are saints since _they_ are called. 'the beloved of god' are 'the called saints.' i need only observe, further, that the word 'called' here does not mean 'named' or 'designated' but 'summoned.' it describes not the name by which christian men are known, but the thing which they are invited, summoned, 'called' by god to be. it is their vocation, not their designation. now, then, i need not, i suppose, remind you that 'saint' and 'holy' convey precisely the same idea: the one expressing it in a word of teutonic, and the other in one of classic derivation. we notice that the true idea of this universal holiness which, _ipso facto_, belongs to all christian people, is consecration to god. in the old days temple, altars, sacrifices, sacrificial vessels, persons such as priests, periods like sabbaths and feasts, were called 'holy.' the common idea running through all these uses of the word is _belonging to god_, and that is the root notion of the new testament 'saint' a man who is god's. god has claimed us for himself when he gave us jesus christ. we respond to the claim when we accept christ. henceforth we are not our own, but 'consecrated'--that is, 'saints.' now the next step is purity, which is the ordinary idea of sanctity. purity will follow consecration, and would not be worth much without it, even if it was possible to be attained. now, look what a far deeper and nobler idea of the service and conditions of moral goodness this derivation of it from surrender to god gives, than does a god-ignoring morality which talks and talks about acts and dispositions, and never goes down to the root of the whole matter; and how much nobler it is than a shallow religion which in like manner is ever straining after acts of righteousness, and forgets that in order to be right there must be prior surrender to god. get a man to yield himself up to god and no fear about the righteousness. virtue, goodness, purity, righteousness, all these synonyms express very noble things; but deep down below them all lies the new testament idea of holiness, consecration of myself to god, which is the parent of them all. and then the next thing to remind you of is that this consecration is to be applied all through a man's nature. yielding yourselves to god is the talismanic secret of all righteousness, as i have said; and every part of our complex, manifold being is capable of such consecration. i hallow my heart if its love twines round his heart. i hallow my thoughts if i take his truth for my guide, and ever seek to be led thereby in practice and in belief. i hallow my will when it bows and says, 'speak, lord! thy servant heareth!' i hallow my senses when i use them as from him, with recognition of him and for him. in fact, there are two ways of living in the world; and, narrow as it sounds, i venture to say there are only two. either god is my centre, and that is holiness; or self is my centre, in more or less subtle forms, and that is sin. then the next step is that this consecration, which will issue in all purity, and will cover the whole ground of a human life, is only possible when we have drunk in the blessed thought 'beloved of god.' my yielding of myself to him can only be the echo of his giving of himself to me. he must be the first to love. you cannot argue a man into loving god, any more than you can hammer a rosebud open. if you do you spoil its petals. but he can love us into loving him, and the sunshine, falling on the closed flower, will expand it, and it will grow by its reception of the light, and grow sunlike in its measure and according to its nature. so a god who has only claims upon us will never be a god to whom we yield ourselves. a god who has love for us will be a god to whom it is blessed that we should be consecrated, and so saints. then, still further, this consecration, thus built upon the reception of the divine love, and influencing our whole nature, and leading to all purity, is a universal characteristic of christians. there is no faith which does not lead to surrender. there is no aristocracy in the christian church which deserves to have the family name given especially to it. 'saint' this, and 'saint' that, and 'saint' the other--these titles cannot be used without darkening the truth that this honour and obligation of being saints belong equally to all that love jesus christ. all the men whom thus god has drawn to himself, by his love in his son, they are all, if i may so say, objectively holy; they belong to god. but consecration may be cultivated, and must be cultivated and increased. there is a solemn obligation laid upon every one of us who call ourselves christians, to be saints, in the sense that we have consciously yielded up our whole lives to him; and are trying, body, soul, and spirit, 'to perfect holiness in the fear of the lord.' paul's letter, addressed to the 'beloved in god,' the 'called saints' that are in rome, found its way to the people for whom it was meant. if a letter so addressed were dropped in our streets, do you think anybody would bring it to you, or to any christian society as a whole, recognising that we were the people for whom it was meant? the world has taunted us often enough with the name of saints; and laughed at the profession which they thought was included in the word. would that their taunts had been undeserved, and that it were not true that 'saints' in the church sometimes means less than 'good men' out of the church! 'seeing that we have these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit; perfecting holiness in the fear of the lord.' paul's longing[1] 'i long to see you, that i may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; 12. that is, that i may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith both of you and me.'--romans i. 11, 12. i am not wont to indulge in personal references in the pulpit, but i cannot but yield to the impulse to make an exception now, and to let our happy circumstances mould my remarks. i speak mainly to mine own people, and i must trust that other friends who may hear or read my words will forgive my doing so. in taking such a text as this, i desire to shelter myself behind paul, and in expounding his feelings to express my own, and to draw such lessons as may be helpful and profitable to us all. and so there are three things in this text that i desire to note: the manly expression of christian affection; the lofty consciousness of the purpose of their meeting; and the lowly sense that there was much to be received as well as much to be given. a word or two about each of these things is all on which i can venture. i. first, then, notice the manly expression of christian affection which the apostle allows himself here. very few christian teachers could or should venture to talk so much about themselves as paul did. the strong infusion of the personal element in all his letters is so transparently simple, so obviously sincere, so free from any jarring note of affectation or unctuous sentiment that it attracts rather than repels. if i might venture upon a paradox, his personal references are instances of self-oblivion in the midst of self-consciousness. he had never been in rome when he wrote these words; he had no personal relations with the believers there; he had never looked them in the face; there were no sympathy and confidence between them, as the growth of years. but still his heart went out towards them, and he was not ashamed to show it. 'i _long_ to see you,'--in the original the word expresses a very intense amount of yearning blended with something of regret that he had been so long kept from them. now it is not a good thing for people to make many professions of affection, and i think a public teacher has something better to do than to parade such feelings before his audiences. but there are exceptions to all rules, and i suppose i may venture to let my heart speak, and to say how gladly i come back to the old place, dear to me by so many sacred memories and associations, and how gladly i reknit the bonds of an affection which has been unbroken, and deepening on both sides through thirty long years. dear friends! let us together thank god to-day if he has knit our hearts together in mutual affection; and if you and i can look each other, as i believe we can, in the eyes, with the assurance that i see only the faces of friends, and that you see the face of one who gladly resumes the old work and associations. but now, dear brethren, let us draw one lesson. unless there be this manly, honest, though oftenest silent, christian affection, the sooner you and i part the better. unless it be in my heart i can do you no good. no man ever touched another with the sweet constraining forces that lie in christ's gospel unless the heart of the speaker went out to grapple the hearts of the hearers. and no audience ever listen with any profit to a man when they come in the spirit of carping criticism, or of cold admiration, or of stolid indifference. there must be for this simple relationship which alone binds a nonconformist preacher to his congregation, as a _sine qua non_ of all higher things and of all spiritual good, a real, though oftenest it be a concealed, mutual affection and regard. we have to thank god for much of it; let us try to get more. that is all i want to say about the first point here. ii. note the lofty consciousness of the purpose of their meeting. 'i long to see you, that i may impart unto you some spiritual gift.' paul knew that he had something which he could give to these people, and he calls it by a very comprehensive term, 'some spiritual gift'--a gift of some sort which, coming from the divine spirit, was to be received into the human spirit. now that expression--a spiritual gift--in the new testament has a variety of applications. sometimes it refers to what we call miraculous endowments, sometimes it refers to what we may call official capacity; but here it is evidently neither the one nor the other of these more limited and special things, but the general idea of a divine operation upon the human spirit which fills it with christian graces--knowledge, faith, love. or, in simpler words, what paul wanted to give them was a firmer grasp and fuller possession of jesus christ, his love and power, which would secure a deepening and strengthening of their whole christian life. he was quite sure he had this to give, and that he could impart it, if they would listen to what he would say to them. but whilst thus he rises into the lofty conception of the purpose and possible result of his meeting the roman christians, he is just as conscious of the limitations of his power in the matter as he is of the greatness of his function. these are indicated plainly. the word which he employs here, 'gift' is never used in the new testament for a thing that one man can give to another, but is always employed for the concrete results of the grace of god bestowed upon men. the very expression, then, shows that paul thought of himself, not as the original giver, but simply as a channel through which was communicated what god had given. in the same direction points the adjective which accompanies the noun--a '_spiritual_ gift'--which probably describes the origin of the gift as being the spirit of god, rather than defines the seat of it when received as being the spirit of the receiver. notice, too, as bearing on the limits of paul's part in the gift, the propriety and delicacy of the language in his statement of the ultimate purpose of the gift. he does not say 'that i may strengthen you,' which might have sounded too egotistical, and would have assumed too much to himself, but he says 'that ye may be strengthened,' for the true strengthener is not paul, but the spirit of god. so, on the one hand, the christian teacher is bound to rise to the height of the consciousness of his lofty vocation as having in possession a gift that he can bestow; on the other hand, he is bound ever to remember the limitations within which that is true--viz. that the gift is not his, but god's, and that the spirit of the lord is the true giver of all the graces which may blossom when his word, ministered by human agents, is received into human hearts. and, now, what are the lessons that i take from this? two very simple ones. first, no christian teacher has any business to open his mouth, unless he is sure that he has received something to impart to men as a gift from the divine spirit. to preach our doubts, to preach our own opinions, to preach poor platitudes, to talk about politics and morals and taste and literature and the like in the pulpit, is profanation and blasphemy. let no man open his lips unless he can say: 'the lord hath showed me this; and this i bring to you as his word.' nor has a christian organisation any right to exist, unless it recognises the communication and reception and further spreading of this spiritual gift as its great function. churches which have lost that consciousness, and, instead of a divine gift, have little more to offer than formal worship, or music, or entertainments, or mere intellectual discourse, whether orthodox or 'advanced,' have no right to be; and by the law of the survival of the fittest will not long be. the one thing that warrants such a relationship as subsists between you and me is this, my consciousness that i have a message from god, and your belief that you hear such from my lips. unless that be our bond the sooner these walls crumble, and this voice ceases, and these pews are emptied, the better. 'i have,' says, paul, 'a gift to impart; and i long to see you that i may impart it to you.' oh! for more, in all our pulpits, of that burdened consciousness of a divine message which needs the relief of speech, and longs with a longing caught from christ to impart its richest treasures. that is the one lesson. and the other one is this. have you, dear friends, received the gift that i have, under the limitations already spoken of, to bestow? there are some of you who have listened to my voice ever since you were children--some of you, though not many, have heard it for well on to thirty years. have you taken the thing that all these years i have been--god knows how poorly, but god knows how honestly--trying to bring to you? that is, have you taken christ, and have you faith in him? and, as for those of you who say that you are christians, many blessings have passed between you and me through all these years; but, dear friends, has the chief blessing been attained? are you being strengthened day by day for the burdens and the annoyances and the sorrows of life by your coming here? do i do you any good in that way; are you better men than when we first met together? is christ dearer, and more real and nearer to you; and are your lives more transparently consecrated, more manifestly the result of a hidden union with him? do you walk in the world like the master, because you are members of this congregation? if so, its purpose has been accomplished. if not, it has miserably failed. i have said that i have to thank god for the unbroken affection that has knit us together. but what is the use of such love if it does not lead onwards to this? i have had enough, and more than enough, of what you call popularity and appreciation, undeserved enough, but rendered unstintedly by you. i do not care the snap of a finger for it by comparison with this other thing. and oh, dear brethren! if all that comes of our meeting here sunday after sunday is either praise or criticism of my poor words and ways, our relationship is a curse, and not a blessing, and we come together for the worse and not for the better. the purpose of the church, and the purpose of the ministry, and the meaning of our assembling are, that spiritual gifts may be imparted, not by me alone, but by you, too, and by me in my place and measure, and if that purpose be not accomplished, all other purposes, that are accomplished, are of no account, and worse than nothing. iii. and now, lastly, note the lowly consciousness that much was to be received as well as much to be given. the apostle corrects himself after he has said 'that i may impart unto you some spiritual gift,' by adding, 'that is, that i may be comforted (or rather, encouraged) together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.' if his language were not so transparently sincere, and springing from deep interest in the relationship between himself and these people, we should say that it was exquisite courtesy and beautiful delicacy. but it moves in a region far more real than the region of courtesy, and it speaks the inmost truth about the conditions on which the roman christians should receive--viz. that they should also give. there is only one giver who is only a giver, and that is god. all other givers are also receivers. paul desired to see his roman brethren that he might be encouraged; and when he did see them, as he marched along the appian way, a shipwrecked prisoner, the acts of the apostles tells us, 'he thanked god and took courage.' the sight of them strengthened him and prepared him for what lay before him. paul's was a richly complicated nature--firm as a rock in its will, tremulously sensitive in its sympathies; like some strongly-rooted tree with its stable stem and a green cloud of fluttering foliage that moves in the lightest air. so his spirit rose and fell according to the reception that he met from his brethren, and the manifestation of their faith quickened and strengthened his. and he is but one instance of a universal law. all teachers, the more genuine they are, the more sympathetic they are, are the more sensitive of their environment. the very oratorical temperament places a man at the mercy of surroundings. all earnest work has ever travelling with it as its shadow seasons of deep depression; and the christian teacher does not escape these. i am not going to speak about myself, but this is unquestionably true, that every elijah, after the mightiest effort of prophecy, is apt to cover his head in his mantle and to say, 'take me away; i am not better than my fathers.' and when a man for thirty years, amidst all the changes incident to a great city congregation in that time, has to stand up sunday after sunday before the same people, and mark how some of them are stolidly indifferent, and note how others are dropping away from their faithfulness, and see empty places where loving forms used to sit--no wonder that the mood comes ever and anon, 'then, said i, surely i have laboured in vain and spent my strength for nought.' the hearer reacts on the speaker quite as much as the speaker does on the hearer. if you have ice in the pews, that brings down the temperature up here. it is hard to be fervid amidst people that are all but dead. it is difficult to keep a fire alight when it is kindled on the top of an iceberg. and the unbelief and low-toned religion of a congregation are always pulling down the faith and the fervour of their minister, if he be better and holier, as they expect him to be, than they are. 'he did not many works because of their unbelief.' christ knew the hampering and the restrictions of his power which came from being surrounded by a chill, unsympathetic environment. my strength and my weakness are largely due to you. and if you want your minister to preach better, and in all ways to do his work more joyfully and faithfully, the means lie largely in your own hands. icy indifference, ill-natured interpretations, carping criticisms, swift forgetfulness of one's words, all these things kill the fervour of the pulpit. on the other hand, the true encouragement to give a man when he is trying to do god's will, to preach christ's gospel, is not to pat him on the back and say, 'what a remarkable sermon that was of yours! what a genius! what an orator!' not to go about praising it, but to come and say, 'thy words have led me to christ, and from thee i have taken the gift of gifts.' dear brethren, the encouragement of the minister is in the conversion and the growth of the hearers. and i pray that in this new lease of united fellowship which we have taken out, be it longer or shorter--and advancing years tell me that at the longest it must be comparatively short--i may come to you ever more and more with the lofty and humbling consciousness that i have a message which christ has given to me, and that you may come more and more receptive--not of _my_ words, god forbid--but of christ's truth; and that so we may be helpers one of another, and encourage each other in the warfare and work to which we all are called and consecrated. [footnote 1: preached after long absence on account of illness.] debtors to all men 'i am a debtor both to the greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.'--romans i. 14. no doubt paul is here referring to the special obligation laid upon him by his divine call to be the apostle to the gentiles. he was entrusted with the gospel as a steward, and was therefore bound to carry it to all sorts and conditions of men. but the principle underlying the statement applies to all christians. the indebtedness referred to is no peculiarity of the apostolic order, but attaches to every believer. every servant of jesus christ, who has received the truth for himself, has received it as a steward, and is, as such, indebted to god, from whom he got the trust, and to the men for whom he got it. the only limit to the obligation is, as paul says in the context, 'as much as in me is.' capacity, determined by faculties, opportunities, and circumstances, prescribes the kind and the degree of the work to be done in discharge of the obligation; but the obligation is universal. we are not at liberty to choose whether we shall do our part in spreading the name of jesus christ. it is a debt that we owe to god and to men. is that the view of duty which the average christian man takes? i am afraid it is not. if it were, our treasuries would be full, and great would be the multitude of them that preached the word. it is no very exalted degree of virtue to pay our debts. we do not expect to be praised for that; and we do not consider that we are at liberty to choose whether we shall do it or not. we are dishonest if we do not. it is no merit in us to be honest. would that all christian people applied that principle to their religion. the world would be different, and the church would be different, if they did. let me try, then, to enforce this thought of indebtedness and of common honesty in discharging the indebtedness, which underlies these words. paul thought that he went a long way to pay his debts to humanity by carrying to everybody whom he could reach the 'name that is above every name.' i. now, first, let me say that we christians are debtors to all men by our common manhood. it is not the least of the gifts which christianity has brought to the world, that it has introduced the new thought of the brotherhood of mankind. the very word 'humanity' is a christian coinage, and it was coined to express the new thought that began to throb in men's hearts, as soon as they accepted the message that jesus christ came to give, the message of the fatherhood of god. for it is on that belief of god's fatherhood that the belief of man's brotherhood rests, and on it alone can it be secured and permanently based. here is a jew writing to latins in the greek language. the phenomenon itself is a sign of a new order of things, of the rising of a flood that had surged over, and in the course of ages would sap away and dissolve, the barriers between men. the apostle points to two of the widest gulfs that separated men, in the words of my text. 'greeks and barbarians' divides mankind, according to race and language. 'wise and unwise' divides them according to culture and intellectual capacity. both gulfs exist still, though they have been wonderfully filled up by the influence, direct and indirect, of the gospel of jesus christ. the fiercest antagonisms of race which still subsist are felt to belong to a decaying order, and to be sure, sooner or later, to pass away. i suppose that the gulf made by the increased culture of modern society between civilised and the savage peoples, and, within the limits of our own land, the gulf made by education between the higher and the lower layers of our community--i speak not of higher and lower in regard to wealth or station, but in regard to intellectual acquirement and capacity--are greater than, perhaps, they ever were in the past. but yet over the gulf a bridge is thrown, and the gulf itself is being filled up. high above all the superficial distinctions which separate jew and gentile, greek and barbarian, educated and illiterate, scientific and unscientific, wise and unwise, there stretches the great rainbow of the truth that all are one in christ jesus. fraternity without fatherhood is a ghastly mockery that ended a hundred years ago in the guillotine, and to-day will end in disappointment; and it is little more than cant. but when christianity comes and tells us that we have one father and one redeemer, then the unity of the race is secured. and that oneness which makes us debtors to all men is shown to be real by the fact that, beneath all superficial distinctions of culture, race, age, or station, there are the primal necessities and yearnings and possibilities that lie in every human soul. all men, savage or cultivated, breathe the same air, see by the same light, are fed by the same food and drink, have the same yearning hearts, the same lofty aspirations that unfulfilled are torture; the same experience of the same guilt, and, blessed be god! the same saviour and the same salvation. because, then, we are all members of the one family, every man is bound to regard all that he possesses, and is, and can do, as committed to him in stewardship to be imparted to his fellows. we are not sponges to absorb, but we are pipes placed in the spring, that we may give forth the precious water of life. cain is not a very good model, but his question is the world's question, and it implies the expectation of a negative answer--'am i my brother's keeper?' surely, the very language answers itself, and, although cain thinks that the only answer is 'no,' wisdom sees that the only answer is 'yes.' for if i am my brother's brother, then surely i am my brother's keeper. we have a better example. there is another elder brother who has come to give to his brethren all that himself possessed, and we but poorly follow our master's pattern unless we feel that the mystic tie which binds us in brotherhood to every man makes us every man's debtor to the extent of our possessions. that is the christian truth that underlies the modern socialistic idea, and, whatever the form in which it is ultimately brought into practice as the rule of mankind, the principle will triumph one day; and we are bound, as christian men, to hasten the coming of its victory. we are debtors by reason of our common humanity. ii. we are debtors by our possession of the universal salvation. the principle which i have already been laying down applies all round, to everything that we have, are, or can do. but its most stringent obligation, and the noblest field for its operations, are found in reference to the christian man's possession of the gospel for the joy of his own heart, and to the duties that are therein involved. christ draws men to himself for their own sakes, blessed be his name! but not for their own sakes only. he draws them to himself, that they, in their turn, may draw others with whose hands theirs are linked, and so may swell the numbers of the flock that gathers round the one shepherd. he puts the dew of his blessing into the chalice of the tiniest flower, that it may 'share its dewdrop with another near.' just as every particle of inert dough as it is leavened becomes in its turn leaven, and the medium for leavening the particle contiguous to it, so every christian is bound, or, to use the metaphor of my text, is a debtor to god and man, to impart the gospel of jesus christ. 'greek and barbarian,' says paul, 'wise or unwise'; all distinctions vanish. if i can get at a man, no matter what colour, his race, his language, his capacity, his acquirements, he is my creditor, and i am defrauding him of what he has a right to expect from me if i do not do my best to bring him to jesus christ. this obligation receives additional weight from the proved adaptation of the gospel to all sorts and conditions of men. alone of all religions has christianity proved itself capable of dominating every type of character, of influencing every stage of civilisation, of assuming the speech of every tongue, and of wearing the garb of every race. there are other religions which are evidently destined only to a narrow field of operations, and are rigidly limited by geographical conditions, or by stages of civilisation. there are wines that are ruined by a sea voyage, and can only be drunk in the land where the vintage was gathered; and that is the condition of all the ethnic religions. christianity alone passes through the whole earth, and influences all men. the history of missions shows us that. there has yet to be found the race that is incapable of receiving, or is beyond the need of possessing, or cannot be elevated by the operation of, the gospel of jesus christ. so to all men we are bound, as much as in us is, to carry the gospel. the distinction that is drawn so often by the people who never move a finger to help the heathen either at home or abroad, between the home and the foreign field of work, vanishes altogether when we stand at the true christian standpoint. here is a man who wants the gospel; i have it; i can give it to him. that constitutes a summons as imperative as if we were called by name from heaven, and bade to go, and as much as in us is to preach the gospel. brethren! we do not obey the command, 'owe no man anything,' unless, to the extent of our ability, or over the whole field which we can influence at home or abroad, we seek to spread the name of christ and the salvation that is in him. iii. we are debtors by benefits received. i am speaking to men and women a very large proportion of whom get their living, and some of whom amass their wealth, by trade with lands that need the gospel. it is not for nothing that england has won the great empire that she possesses--won it, alas! far too often by deeds that will not bear investigation in the light of christian principle, but won it. what do we owe to the lands that we call 'heathen'? the very speech by which we communicate with one another; the beginning of our civilisation; wide fields for expanding population and emigration; treasures of wisdom of many kinds; an empire about which we are too fond of crowing and too reluctant to recognise its responsibilities--and manchester its commerce and prosperity! did god put us where we are as a nation only in order that we might carry the gifts of our literature, great as that is; of our science, great as that is; of our law, blessed as that is; of our manufactures, to those distant lands? the best thing that we can give is the thing that all of us can help to give--the gospel of jesus christ. 'who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?' iv. lastly, we are debtors by injuries inflicted. many subject-races seem destined to fade away by contact with our race; and if we think of the nameless cruelties, and the iliad of woes which england's possession of this great colonial empire has had accompanying it, we may feel that the harm in many aspects outweighs the good, and that it had been better for these men to be left suckled in creeds outworn, and ignorant of our civilisation, than to receive from us the fatal gifts that they often have received. i do not wish to exaggerate, but if you will take the facts of the case as brought out by people that have no christian prejudices to serve, i think you will acknowledge that we as a nation owe a debt of reparation to the barbarians and the unwise. what about killing african tribes by the thousand with the vile stuff that we call rum, and send to them in exchange for their poor commodities? what about introducing new diseases, the offspring of vice, into the south sea islands, decimating and all but destroying the population? is it not true that, as the prophet wailed of old about a degenerate israel, we may wail about the beach-combers and other loafers that go amongst savage lands from england--'through you the name of god is blasphemed among the gentiles.' a hindoo once said to a missionary, 'your book is very good. if you were as good as your book you would conquer india in five years.' that may be true or it may not, but it gives us the impression that is produced by godless englishmen on heathen peoples. we are taking away their religion from them, necessarily, as the result of education and contact with european thought. and if we do not substitute for it the one faith that elevates and saves, the last state of that man will be worse than the first. we can almost hear the rattle of the guns on the north-west frontier of india to-day. there is another specimen of the injuries inflicted. this is not the place to talk politics, but i feel that this is the place to ask this question, 'are christian principles to have anything to do in determining national actions?' is it christian to impose our yoke on unwilling tribes who have as deep a love for independence as the proudest englishmen of us all, and as good a right to it? are punitive expeditions and maxim guns instalments of our debt to all men? i wonder what jesus christ, who died for afridis and orakzais and all the rest of them, thinks about such conduct? brethren, we are debtors to all men. let us do our best to influence national action in accordance with the brotherhood which has been revealed to us by the elder brother of us all; and let us, at least for our own parts, recognise, and, as much as in us is, discharge the debt which, by our common humanity, and by our possession of the universal gospel we owe to all men, and which is made more weighty by the benefits we receive from many, and by the injuries which england has inflicted on not a few. else shall we hear rise above all the voices that palliate crime, on the plea of 'state necessity,' the stern words of the master, 'in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of poor innocents.' we are debtors; let us pay our debts. the gospel the power of god[1] 'i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ: for it is the power of god unto salvation to every one that believeth.'--romans i. 16. to preach the gospel in rome had long been the goal of paul's hopes. he wished to do in the centre of power what he had done in athens, the home of wisdom; and with superb confidence, not in himself, but in his message, to try conclusions with the strongest thing in the world. he knew its power well, and was not appalled. the danger was an attraction to his chivalrous spirit. he believed in flying at the head when you are fighting with a serpent, and he knew that influence exerted in rome would thrill through the empire. if we would understand the magnificent audacity of these words of my text we must try to listen to them with the ears of a roman. here was a poor little insignificant jew, like hundreds of his countrymen down in the ghetto, one who had his head full of some fantastic nonsense about a young visionary whom the procurator of syria had very wisely put an end to a while ago in order to quiet down the turbulent province; and he was going into rome with the notion that his word would shake the throne of the cã¦sars. what proud contempt would have curled their lips if they had been told that the travel-stained prisoner, trudging wearily up the appian way, had the mightiest thing in the world entrusted to his care! romans did not believe much in ideas. their notion of power was sharp swords and iron yokes on the necks of subject peoples. but the history of christianity, whatever else it has been, has been the history of the supremacy and the revolutionary force of ideas. thought is mightier than all visible forces. thought dissolves and reconstructs. empires and institutions melt before it like the carbon rods in an electric lamp; and the little hillock of calvary is higher than the palatine with its regal homes and the capitoline with its temples: 'i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ, for it is the power of god unto salvation.' now, dear friends, i have ventured to take these great words for my text, though i know, better than any of you can tell me, how sure my treatment of them is to enfeeble rather than enforce them, because i, for my poor part, feel that there are few things which we, all of us, people and ministers, need more than to catch some of the infection of this courageous confidence, and to be fired with some spark of paul's enthusiasm for, and glorying in, the gospel of jesus christ. i ask you, then, to consider three things: (1) what paul thought was the gospel? (2) what paul thought the gospel was? and (3) what he felt about the gospel? i. what paul thought was the gospel? he has given to us in his own rapid way a summary statement, abbreviated to the very bone, and reduced to the barest elements, of what he meant by the gospel. what was the irreducible minimum? the facts of the death and resurrection of jesus christ, as you will find written in the fifteenth chapter of the first epistle to the corinthians. so, then, to begin with, the gospel is not a statement of principles, but a record of facts, things that have happened in this world of ours. but the least part of a fact is the visible part of it, and it is of no significance unless it has explanation, and so paul goes on to bind up with the facts an explanation of them. the mere fact that jesus, a young nazarene, was executed is no more a gospel than the other one, that two brigands were crucified beside him. but the fact that could be seen, plus the explanation which underlies and interprets it, turns the chronicle into a gospel, and the explanation begins with the name of the sufferer; for if you want to understand his death you must understand who it was that died. his death is a thought pathetic in all aspects, and very precious in many. but when we hear 'christ died according to the scriptures,' the whole symbolism of the ancient ritual and all the glowing anticipations of the prophets rise up before us, and that death assumes an altogether different aspect. if we stop with 'jesus died,' then that death may be a beautiful example of heroism, a sweet, pathetic instance of innocent suffering, a conspicuous example of the world's wages to the world's teachers, but it is little more. if, however, we take paul's words upon our lips, 'brethren, i declare unto you the gospel which i preached ... how that christ died ... according to the scriptures,' the fact flashes up into solid beauty, and becomes the gospel of our salvation. and the explanation goes on, 'how that christ died for our sins.' now, i may be very blind, but i venture to say that i, for my part, cannot see in what intelligible sense the death of christ can be held to have been for, or on behalf of, our sins--that is, that they may be swept away and we delivered from them--unless you admit the atoning nature of his sacrifice for sins. i cannot stop to enlarge, but i venture to say that any narrower interpretation evacuates paul's words of their deepest significance. the explanation goes on, 'and that he was buried.' why that trivial detail? partly because it guarantees the fact of his death, partly because of its bearing on the evidences of his resurrection. 'and that he rose from the dead according to the scriptures.' great fact, without which christ is a shattered prop, and 'ye are yet in your sins.' but, further, notice that my text is also paul's text for this epistle, and that it differs from the condensed summary of which i have been speaking only as a bud with its petals closed differs from one with them expanded in their beauty. and now, if you will take the words of my text as being the keynote of this letter, and read over its first eight chapters, what is the apostle talking about when he in them fulfils his purpose and preaches 'the gospel' to them that are at rome also? here is, in the briefest possible words, his summary--the universality of sin, the awful burden of guilt, the tremendous outlook of penalty, the impossibility of man rescuing himself or living righteously, the incarnation, and life, and death of jesus christ as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, the hand of faith grasping the offered blessing, the indwelling in believing souls of the divine spirit, and the consequent admission of man into a life of sonship, power, peace, victory, glory, the child's place in the love of the father from which nothing can separate. these are the teachings which make the staple of this epistle. these are the explanations of the weighty phrases of my text. these are at least the essential elements of the gospel according to paul. but he was not alone in this construction of his message. we hear a great deal to-day about pauline christianity, with the implication, and sometimes with the assertion, that he was the inventor of what, for the sake of using a brief and easily intelligible term, i may call evangelical christianity. now, it is a very illuminating thought for the reading of the new testament that there are the three sets of teaching, roughly, the pauline, petrine, and johannine, and you cannot find the distinctions between these three in any difference as to the fundamental contents of the gospel; for if paul rings out, 'god commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners christ died for us,' peter declares, 'who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,' and john, from his island solitude, sends across the waters the hymn of praise, 'unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.' and so the proud declaration of the apostle, which he dared not have ventured upon in the face of the acrid criticism he had to front unless he had known he was perfectly sure of his ground, is natural and warranted--'therefore, whether it were i or they, so we preach.' we are told that we must go back to the christ of the gospels, the historical christ, and that he spoke nothing concerning all these important points that i have mentioned as being paul's conception of the gospel. back to the christ of the gospels by all means, if you will go to the christ of all the gospels and of the whole of each gospel. and if you do, you will go back to the christ who said, 'the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.' you will go back to the christ who said, 'and i, if i be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.' you will go back to the christ who said, 'the bread that i will give is my flesh, which i will give for the life of the world.' you will go back to the christ who bade his followers hold in everlasting memory, not the tranquil beauty of his life, not the persuasive sweetness of his gracious words, not the might of his miracles of blessing, but the mysterious agonies of his last hours, by which he would have us learn that there lie the secret of his power, the foundation of our hopes, the stimulus of our service. now, brethren, i have ventured to dwell so long upon this matter, because it is no use talking about the gospel unless we understand what we mean by it, and i, for my part, venture to say that that is what paul meant by it, and that is what i mean by it. i plead for no narrow interpretation of the phrases of my text. i would not that they should be used to check in the smallest degree the diversities of representation which, according to the differences of individual character, must ever prevail in the conceptions which we form and which we preach of this gospel of jesus christ. i want no parrot-like repetition of a certain set of phrases embodied, however great may be their meanings, in every sermon. and i would that the people to whom those truths are true would make more allowance than they sometimes do for the differences to which i have referred, and would show a great deal more sympathy than they often do to those, especially those young men, who, with their faces toward christ, have not yet grown to the full acceptance of all that is implied in those gracious words. there is room for a whole world of thought in the gospel of christ as paul conceived it, with all the deep foundations of implication and presupposition on which it rests, and with all the, as yet, undiscovered range of conclusions to which it may lead. remember that the cross of christ is the key to the universe, and sends its influence into every region of human thought. ii. what paul thought the gospel was. 'the power of god unto salvation.' there was in the background of the apostle's mind a kind of tacit reference to the antithetical power that he was going up to meet, the power of rome, and we may trace that in the words of my text. rome, as i have said, was the embodiment of physical force, with no great faith in ideas. and over against this carnal might paul lifts the undissembled weakness of the cross, and declares that it is stronger than man, 'the power of god unto salvation.' rome is high in force; athens is higher; the cross is highest of all, and it comes shrouded in weakness having a poor man hanging dying there. that is a strange embodiment of divine power. yes, and because so strange, it is so touching, and so conquering. the power that is draped in weakness is power indeed. though rome's power did make for righteousness sometimes, yet its stream of tendency was on the whole a power to destruction and grasped the nations of the earth as some rude hand might do rich clusters of grapes and squeeze them into a formless mass. the tramp of the legionary meant death, and it was true in many respects of them what was afterwards said of later invaders of europe, that where their horses' hoofs had once stamped no grass ever grew. over against this terrific engine of destruction paul lifts up the meek forces of love which have for their sole object the salvation of man. then we come to another of the keywords about which it is very needful that people should have deeper and wider notions than they often seem to cherish. what is salvation? negatively, the removal and sweeping away of all evil, physical and moral, as the schools speak. positively, the inclusion of all good for every part of the composite nature of a man which the man can receive and which god can bestow. and that is the task that the gospel sets to itself. now, i need not remind you how, for the execution of such a purpose, it is plain that something else than man's power is absolutely essential. it is only god who can alter my relation to his government. it is only god who can trammel up the inward consequences of my sins and prevent them from scourging me. it is only god who can bestow upon my death a new life, which shall grow up into righteousness and beauty, caught of, and kindred to, his own. but if this be the aim of the gospel, then its diagnosis of man's sickness is a very much graver one than that which finds favour amongst so many of us now. salvation is a bigger word than any of the little gospels that we hear clamouring round about us are able to utter. it means something a great deal more than either social or intellectual, or still more, material or political betterment of man's condition. the disease lies so deep, and so great are the destruction and loss partly experienced, and still more awfully impending over every soul of us, that something else than tinkering at the outsides, or dealing, as self-culture does, with man's understanding or, as social gospels do, with man's economical and civic condition, should be brought to bear. dear brethren, especially you christian ministers, preach a social christianity by all means, an applied christianity, for there does lie in the gospel of jesus christ a key to all the problems that afflict our social condition. but be sure first that there is a christianity before you talk about applying it. and remember that the process of salvation begins in the deep heart of the individual and transforms him first and foremost. the power is 'to every one that believeth.' it is power in its most universal sweep. rome's empire was wellnigh ubiquitous, but, blessed be god, the dove of christ flies farther than the roman eagle with beak and claw ready for rapine, and wherever there are men here is a gospel for them. the limitation is no limitation of its universality. it is no limitation of the claim of a medicine to be a panacea that it will only do good to the man who swallows it. and that is the only limitation of which the gospel is susceptible, for we have all the same deep needs, the same longings; we are fed by the same bread, we are nourished by the same draughts of water, we breathe the same air, we have the same sins, and, thanks be to god, we have the same saviour. 'the power of god unto salvation to every one that believeth.' now before i pass from this part of my subject there is only one thing more that i want to say, and that is, that you cannot apply that glowing language about 'the power of god unto salvation' to anything but the gospel that paul preached. forms of christianity which have lost the significance of the incarnation and death of jesus christ, and which have struck out or obscured the central facts with which i have been dealing, are not, never were, and, i may presumptuously venture to say, never will be, forces of large account in this world. here is a clock, beautiful, chased on the back, with a very artistic dial-plate, and works modelled according to the most approved fashion, but, somehow or other, the thing won't go. perhaps the mainspring is broken. and so it is only the gospel, as paul expounds it and expands it in this epistle, that is 'the power of god unto salvation.' dear brethren, in the course of a sermon like this, of course, one must lay himself open to the charge of dogmatising. that cannot be helped under the conditions of my space. but let me say as my own solemn conviction--i know that that is not worth much to you, but it is my justification for speaking in such a fashion--let me say as my solemn conviction that you may as well take the keystone out of an arch, with nothing to hold the other stones together or keep them from toppling in hideous ruin on your unfortunate head, as take the doctrine that paul summed up in that one word out of your conception of christianity and expect it to work. and be sure of this, that there is only one name that lords it over the demons of afflicted humanity, and that if a man goes and tries to eject them with any less potent charm than paul's gospel, they will turn upon him with 'jesus i know, and paul i know, but who are you?' iii. what paul felt about this gospel. his restrained expression, 'i am not ashamed,' is the stronger for its very moderation. it witnesses to the fixed purpose of his heart and attitude of his mind, whilst it suggests that he was well aware of all the temptations in rome to being ashamed of it there. think of what was arrayed against him--venerable religion, systematised philosophies, bitter hatred and prejudice, material power and wealth. these were the brazen armour of goliath, and this little david went cheerily down into the valley with five pebble stones in a leathern wallet, and was quite sure how it was going to end. and it ended as he expected. his gospel shook the kingdom of the roman, and cast it in another mould. and there are temptations, plenty of them, for us, dear friends, to-day, to bate our confidence. the drift of what calls itself influential opinion is anti-supernatural, and we all are conscious of the presence of that element all round about us. it tells with special force upon our younger men, but it affects us all. in this day, when a large portion of the periodical press, which does the thinking for most of us, looks askance at these truths, and when, on the principle that in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is the king, popular novelists become our theological tutors, and when every new publishing season brings out a new conclusive destruction of christianity, which supersedes last season's equally complete destruction, it is hard for some of us to keep our flags flying. the ice round about us will either bring down the temperature, or, if it stimulates us to put more fuel on the fire, perhaps the fire may melt it. and so the more we feel ourselves encompassed by these temptations, the louder is the call to christian men to cast themselves back on the central verities, and to draw at first hand from them the inspiration which shall be their safety. and how is that to be done? well, there are many ways by which thoughtful, and cultivated, students may do it. but may i venture to deal here rather with ways which all christian people have open before them? and i am bold to say that the way to be sure of 'the power of god unto salvation' is to submit ourselves continually to its cleansing and renewing influence. this certitude, brethren, may be contributed to by books of apologetics, and by other sources of investigation and study which i should be sorry indeed to be supposed in any degree to depreciate. but the true way to get it is, by deep communion with the living god, to realise the personality of jesus christ as present with us, our friend, our saviour, our sanctifier by his holy spirit. why, paul's gospel was, i was going to say, altogether--that would be an exaggeration--but it was to a very large extent simply the generalisation of his own experience. that is what all of us will find to be the gospel that we have to preach. 'we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen.' and it was because this man could say so assuredly--because the depths of his own conscience and the witness within him bore testimony to it--'he loved me and gave himself for me,' that he could also say, 'the power of god unto salvation to every one that believeth.' go down into the depths, brother and friend; cry to him out of the depths. then you will feel his strong, gentle grip lifting you to the heights, and that will give power that nothing else will, and you will be able to say, 'i have heard him myself, and i know that this is the christ, the saviour of the world.' but there is yet another source of certitude open to us all, and that is the history of the centuries. our modern sceptics, attacking the truth of christianity mostly from the physical side, are strangely blind to the worth of history. it is a limitation of faculty that besets them in a good many directions, but it does not work anywhere more fatally than it does in their attitude towards the gospel. after all, jesus christ spoke the ultimate word when he said, 'by their fruits ye shall know them.' and it is so, because just as what is morally wrong cannot be politically right, so what is intellectually false cannot be morally good. truth, goodness, beauty, they are but three names for various aspects of one thing, and if it be that the difference between b.c. and a.d. has come from a gospel which is not the truth of god, then all i can say is, that the richest vintage that ever the world saw, and the noblest wine of which it ever drank, did grow upon a thorn. i know that the christian church has sinfully and tragically failed to present christ adequately to the world. but for all that, 'ye are my witnesses, saith the lord'; and nobler manners and purer laws have come in the wake of this gospel of jesus christ. and as i look round about upon what christianity has done in the world, i venture to say, 'show us any system of religion or of no religion that has done that or anything the least like it, and then we will discuss with you the other evidences of the gospel.' in closing these words, may i venture relying on the melancholy privilege of seniority, to drop for a minute or two into a tone of advice? i would say, do not be frightened out of your confidence either by the premature paean of victory from the opposite camp, or by timid voices in our own ranks. and that you may not be so frightened, be sure to keep clear in your mind the distinction between the things that can be shaken and the kingdom that cannot be moved. it is bad strategy to defend an elongated line. it is cowardice to treat the capture of an outpost as involving the evacuation of the key of the position. it is a mistake, to which many good christian people are sorely tempted in this day, to assert such a connection between the eternal gospel and our deductions from the principles of that gospel as that the refutation of the one must be the overthrow of the other. and if it turns out to be so in any case, a large part of the blame lies upon those good and mistaken people who insist that everything must be held or all must be abandoned. the burning questions of this day about the genuineness of the books of scripture, inspiration, inerrancy, and the like, are not so associated with this word, 'god so loved the world ... that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,' as that the discovery of errors in the second book of chronicles shakes the foundations of the christian certitude. in a day like this truth must change its vesture. who believes that the dissenting churches of england are the highest, perfect embodiment of the kingdom of god? and who believes that any creed of man's making has in it all and has in it only the everlasting gospel? so do not be frightened, and do not think that when the things that can be shaken are removed, the things that cannot be shaken are at all less likely to remain. depend upon it, the gospel, whose outline i have imperfectly tried to set before you now, will last as long as men on earth know they are sinners and need a saviour. did you ever see some mean buildings that have by degrees been gathered round the sides of some majestic cathedral, and do you suppose that the sweeping away of those shanties would touch the solemn majesty of the mediã¦val glories of the building that rises above them? take them away if need be, and it, in its proportion, beauty, strength, and heavenward aspiration, will stand more glorious for the sweeping away. preach positive truth. do not preach doubts. you remember mr. kingsley's book _yeast_. its title was its condemnation. yeast is not meant to be drunk; it is meant to be kept in the dark till the process of fermentation goes on and it works itself clear, and then you may bring it out. do not be always arguing with the enemy. it is a great deal better to preach the truth. remember what jesus said: 'let them alone, they are blind leaders of the blind, they will fall into the ditch.' it is not given to every one of us to conduct controversial arguments in the pulpit. there are some much wiser and abler brethren amongst us than you or i who can do it. let us be contented with, not the humbler but the more glorious, office of telling what we have known, leaving it, as it will do, to prove itself. you remember what the old woman, who had been favoured by her pastor with an elaborate sermon to demonstrate the existence of god, said when he had finished; 'well, i believe there is a god, for all the gentleman says.' as one who sees the lengthening shadows falling over the darkening field, may i say one word to my junior brethren, with all whose struggles and doubts and difficulties i, for one, do most tenderly sympathise? i beseech them--though, alas! the advice condemns the giver of it as he looks back over long years of his ministry--to be faithful to the gospel how that 'jesus christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.' dear young friends, if you only go where paul went, and catch the inspiration that he caught there, your path will be clear. it was in contact with christ, whose passion for soul-winning brought him from heaven, that paul learned his passion for soul-winning. and if you and i are touched with the divine enthusiasm, and have that aim clear before us, we shall soon find out that there is only one power, one name given under heaven among men whereby we can accomplish what we desire--the name of 'jesus christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of god, and also maketh intercession for us.' if our aim is clear before us it will prescribe our methods, and if the inspiration of our ministry is, 'i determine not to know anything among you save jesus christ and him crucified,' then, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear, they shall know that there hath been a prophet among them. [footnote 1: preached before baptist union.] world-wide sin and world-wide redemption 'now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before god. 20. therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21. but now the righteousness of god without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22. even the righteousness of god which is by faith of jesus christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference: 23. for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of god: 24. being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in christ jesus; 25. whom god hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of god; 26. to declare, i say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in jesus.'--romans iii. 19-26. let us note in general terms the large truths which this passage contains. we may mass these under four heads: i. paul's view of the purpose of the law. he has been quoting a mosaic of old testament passages from the psalms and isaiah. he regards these as part of 'the law,' which term, therefore, in his view, here includes the whole previous revelation, considered as making known god's will as to man's conduct. every word of god, whether promise, or doctrine, or specific command, has in it some element bearing on conduct. god reveals nothing only in order that we may know, but all that, knowing, we may do and be what is pleasing in his sight. all his words are law. but paul sets forth another view of its purpose here; namely, to drive home to men's consciences the conviction of sin. that is not the only purpose, for god reveals duty primarily in order that men may do it, and his law is meant to be obeyed. but, failing obedience, this second purpose comes into action, and his law is a swift witness against sin. the more clearly we know our duty, the more poignant will be our consciousness of failure. the light which shines to show the path of right, shines to show our deviations from it. and that conviction of sin, which it was the very purpose of all the previous revelation to produce, is a merciful gift; for, as the apostle implies, it is the prerequisite to the faith which saves. as a matter of fact, there was a far profounder and more inward conviction of sin among the jews than in any heathen nation. contrast the wailings of many a psalm with the tone in greek or roman literature. no doubt there is a law written on men's hearts which evokes a lower measure of the same consciousness of sin. there are prayers among the assyrian and babylonian tablets which might almost stand beside the fifty-first psalm; but, on the whole, the deep sense of sin was the product of the revealed law. the best use of our consciousness of what we ought to be, is when it rouses conscience to feel the discordance with it of what we are, and so drives us to christ. law, whether in the old testament, or as written in our hearts by their very make, is the slave whose task is to bring us to christ, who will give us power to keep god's commandments. another purpose of the law is stated in verse 21, as being to bear witness, in conjunction with the prophets, to a future more perfect revelation of god's righteousness. much of the law was symbolic and prophetic. the ideal it set forth could not always remain unfulfilled. the whole attitude of that system was one of forward-looking expectancy. there is much danger lest, in modern investigations as to the authorship, date, and genesis of the old testament revelation, its central characteristic should be lost sight of; namely, its pointing onwards to a more perfect revelation which should supersede it. ii. paul's view of universal sinfulness. he states that twice in this passage (vs. 20 to 24), and it underlies his view of the purpose of law. in verse 20 he asserts that 'by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified,' and in verses 23 and 24 he advances from that negative statement to the positive assertion that all have sinned. the impossibility of justification by the works of the law may be shown from two considerations: one, that, as a matter of fact, no flesh has ever done them all with absolute completeness and purity; and, second, that, even if they had ever been so done, they would not have availed to secure acquittal