Romans:

The Gospel of God

By C. Stanley

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Introduction

The writer of these notes would strongly recommend a close, prayerful study of this epistle as the groundwork of all scriptural knowledge. Well does he remember the benefit he derived, for nearly two years, in laying aside all other reading and studying this epistle, with a few others, when young, about forty years ago.

We cannot be surprised that it should contain such solid foundation truth when we bear in mind that it was written to the assembly in the then metropolis of the whole world.

It is important and helpful in reading any of the precious epistles or books of holy Scripture to observe the character and design of each book and also the order and divisions in the same. The object the Spirit had in this epistle was evidently to reveal the relationship of God to man, and man to God — the way God could be righteous in justifying man. Thus it is the foundation of all truth.

The careful reader will at once see the three divisions of the epistle. Chapters 1 to 8 reveal God, the Justifier — the gospel of God to Jews and Gentiles alike, showing the same grace to each. Chapters 9 to 11 show that God has not forgotten His promises to Israel, but that at the appointed time all shall be fulfilled to them as a nation. Chapters 12 to the end contain the preceptive part.

There is, however, a subdivision in the first eight chapters of great importance. Up to chapter 5:11 it is the question of justification from sins; then, on to the end of chapter 8 it is more the question of justification and deliverance from sin. We will now turn to chapter 1.

Chapter 1

“Paul, a [bond] servant of Jesus Christ.” He was not a bond servant of any society or party, but of Jesus Christ. How few can follow Paul in these seven words, and yet how important it should be so, if service is to be acceptable to Christ! Have you thought of this as to the whole course of your life and service? It will make all the difference in the day of reward.

“Called to be an apostle” should be “an apostle by calling.” When the Lord Jesus called him, it was not that he might go to the other apostles and be educated or prepared or ordained to be an apostle; no, he was constituted an apostle at once and without any human authority whatever. He was called to act and preach as an apostle because he was one, not that he might be one. (Compare Acts 26:15-19; Gal. 1:10-16.) Thus Paul was “separated unto the gospel of God.” Well did the Holy Spirit know how all this would be entirely reversed in that very Rome. Yes, this very first verse is of the utmost moment to us, if we would do the will of God. Remember, Paul had been an apostle for some time when the Holy Spirit separated him and sent him to a special tour of service with the approval of the elders (Acts 13:14).

Here we see Paul a bond servant of Jesus Christ, an apostle by calling, separated unto the gospel of God. This word “separated” goes a great way — separated from the world, from the law and from Judaism unto the glorious good news of God. It is not the subject of the church in this epistle, but the gospel of God. The church was not the subject of promise, but the gospel was. (“Which He had promised afore by His prophets in the holy Scriptures.”) The scriptures from Genesis 3 onward contain abundant promises of the gospel of God, “concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” Every promise looked on to the seed, which is Christ. It will be well to lay hold of this. The gospel is not concerning our feelings or doings, but “concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” May that blessed One be ever the beginning and the end of the gospel of God which we preach!

He “was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.” In Him, as Son of David, all promise was fulfilled. What a manifestation of the love of God! The Holy One was made flesh (become truly man), coming down from His own eternal glory into the midst of a fallen, guilty race under sin and judgment, and in that state of sinless humanity He went to the cross! Himself all pure, and yet He was made sin to bear its utmost judgment unto death, and He went down into death itself and delivered us from its rightful power, for He was delivered for our iniquities.

Though He became man in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet He Himself was not “born in sin” and not defiled, not like us who were born of “sinful flesh” and part of fallen humanity or sinful humanity. He was ever the Holy One of God, and was thus determined or “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

We shall find the one great theme of our epistle to be the atoning death of Jesus in its double aspects of propitiation and substitution. There are just two parts in the true gospel: the work accomplished by Jesus in the flesh and His resurrection from the dead.

Let us behold the Son of God, pure and undefiled, all along His path below, not only His blessed acts, but also His nature, holy, according to the Spirit of holiness. Thus, though in the midst of evil, He came in love for us, entering in sympathy into all the sorrow sin has brought and tempted from without in all points as we are, but in Himself, His holy nature was entirely apart from sin. All this was declared in that, having accomplished our redemption, God raised Him from among the dead. Personally, death had no claim on Him — He could not be holden by it. Since He was according to the Spirit of holiness, God in righteousness must raise Him from among the dead and receive Him to glory. He had glorified God in human nature, and as man, He is now raised from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness, and there is now in heaven the Man who has glorified God.

We need to be clear as to what He is in Himself, and then we shall better understand what He has done for us and what He is for us raised from the dead. These truths we hope to notice more fully further on.

From this Holy One raised from the dead, Paul had “received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for His name.” It is important to notice this: Whatever he was as an apostle, it was all grace received. Did not the Lord shine across his path, in pure, free favor, at the very moment he was mad — yes, exceeding mad — against Christ? Did He not call him and make him His chosen apostle to the Gentiles at once, in free, unmerited favor? Is it not the same in principle in every case? Whatever service we may have for Christ, is it not the same grace, the same free favor? Thus the Apostle looked upon the saints at Rome. The same grace had been shown to them. “Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ.” Thus grace shines out in all its fullness. He who met Saul on his way to Damascus, even Jesus Christ as Lord, had also called every believer in Rome. “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.”

The two little words “to be,” introduced by the translators in the clause “called to be saints,” completely change the meaning of this important scripture and have been the cause of serious mistakes in the question of holiness. The word “called” is the same as is used in the first verse, “called an apostle,” or “an apostle by calling.” As the word saint means “holy one,” so the words mean “holy ones by calling.” They were not called to seek to attain to holiness — the common mistake — but just as Paul was constituted an apostle by the Lord who called him, so all believers in Rome were constituted holy ones by calling. This was the ground on which they were exhorted to walk in accordance with what they were.

Every believer is a saint by calling — holy by calling. He is born of God, a partaker of the divine nature, which is holy. By new birth he is holy. He is dead with Christ, risen in Christ — Christ, who has passed through death and is the resurrection and the life, is his life. “He that hath the Son hath life.” Now, if he has the life of the Holy One of God, that life, of which he is now a partaker, is as holy as it is eternal. All believers have eternal life, therefore all believers have a holy life. To seek by any means to attain to one or the other for acceptance is to totally misunderstand our calling and high privileges.

All Scripture bears out this truth. The exhortation to be holy is on this principle: “As obedient children…as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:14-16). Yes, they are to be holy, for they are begotten again unto a living hope; they are kept by the power of God, because they are born of God; and, as children, they have purified their souls in obeying the truth. In a word, as they were holy by calling and nature, and having the Holy Spirit, they were to give all diligence to be holy in life and conversation.

John brings out the holiness of the new nature as born of God. He that is born of God does not practice sin. In each epistle, the holy calling will be found first, and then the holy walk as the result follows. (Compare 1 Thess. 1:1 with ch. 5:23.) It is important to notice the place the Word has, applied by the Holy Spirit, both as to the new birth and also in practical holiness. “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth” (James 1:18). “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.” How sad it is in this day to see all this set aside, and men by the thousands seeking to be holy by sacraments and ceremonies, and not only they, but many who write and teach on holiness entirely overlook what every Christian is constituted by calling and new birth and the indwelling of the Spirit. There is no doubt this is the cause of great weakness and mistake and low walk.

Verse 7. Let us not lightly pass over those other precious words, “Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” What a change from Judaism — the free favor of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and peace to all the beloved of God in Rome. Do our souls enter into this? Instead of law justly requiring perfect obedience from man, now we have perfect peace with God on the principle of free, unmerited favor. Israel, if faithful, could only have known God as Jehovah; we know Him as Father. We shall see in this epistle how His grace and peace can flow out to us unhindered and in perfect righteousness.

As this epistle reveals the ground of a sinner’s standing before God, we notice that the first thing for which the Apostle gives thanks to God, through Jesus Christ, for them all is this: “Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” Thus faith has the first place. Beloved reader, is your faith well-known, or is it doubtful whether you really believe God? This is the first point to be settled; all will follow in order after that. We shall find that if you believe God, then you can say, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Can you with confidence say so? Then drink of that stream of grace and peace ever flowing from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

What real heart-work it was with Paul! He says, “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.” What deep love to those he had never seen! This was no mere outward service, but “with my spirit.” All was done to God in the gospel of His Son. Is it so with us, or mere cold imitation? Was not this the secret of Paul’s success? If lacking with us, must there not be failure?

Paul greatly longed to see the saints at Rome, but hitherto he had been hindered. We see here proof of the wisdom and foreknowledge of God. Had Paul or Peter founded the assembly at Rome, what a plea this would have been for so-called apostolic succession! There is no evidence as to whom the Holy Spirit used in the forming of that important assembly — no evidence that any apostle had been there at this time, though the faith of this assembly, or rather of all the called saints, was thus spoken of and well-known. It is also remarkable that they are not addressed as the church at Rome as in other epistles.

Paul desired to have mutual fellowship with them and to bear some fruit among them, whether this might be in the conversion of souls or in the imparting of some spiritual gift to those already brought to Christ. Having so great a treasure committed to him as the gospel, he felt himself a debtor to impart it to all, both Jews and Gentiles. He could say, “So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.” What entire readiness, yet the most real dependence on God alone. Had he been the servant of men, he might have needed a call from them to preach at Rome or have a human appointment of some sort, but there is no such thought. Why should it not be so now? If we had more divine energy, it would be so. Paul could say, “I am ready.” Yes, with the world behind his back he says, “I am ready as soon as my God shall open the way.” Oh, where are Paul’s successors? May our God awaken us by the consideration of the path of this devoted bond servant of God.

Verse 16. We now begin to approach the question as to what the gospel is. “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.” The reason why he is not ashamed of the gospel is stated clearly. The law commanded but had no power to deliver from sin. It was given that, not sin but, the offence might abound. But in direct contrast, the gospel is the power, not of man but, of God unto salvation. There is a vast meaning in this. We will seek to make this plain to our young readers by a few illustrations.

You may have read and heard much that undermines this truth, for there is much preaching that tells the sinner that he must give up his sins and forsake them before he can come to God and get forgiveness of sins and salvation. This looks very reasonable and plausible. Take this illustration. Let us stand a little above Niagara Falls. How calmly the mighty river flows on, smooth as glass to look at, and the nearer the falls, the smoother it flows along. A boat is seen gliding downstream with two men in it. They hear the ever-increasing roar of the fearful falls. One is awake to his danger — a few minutes and the boat must be over — while the other seems stupefied. Both are alike helpless in the same boat rushing on so smoothly to utter destruction. Now hail them and try the gospel of man. Tell them to forsake that boat, to give up that mighty river, to come to the bank before they go over and you will help them! Man, you tell them to do the impossible. Is it not only to mock them? Is it not cruel thus to mock them? One or two minutes and they are over. What is needed is power to save them.

Is not the sinner on the stream of time hastening to far worse destruction? Yes, he says, the power of sin carries me along. He awakes to his danger: death and judgment close at hand. He hears the roar, but can he save himself? Can he leave the river? If he can, he does not need a Saviour. It would be glad tidings to that man, gliding on the fatal stream, to hail him and assure him there was One ready and able to save him to the uttermost. Yes, and thus God speaks to the helpless, guilty, perishing sinner, as we shall find further on: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Take another illustration. You hear the sudden cry of “Fire, fire!” You have not proceeded more than a few yards and you see a house on fire. Flames issue from all the windows on the first floor. Some persons are known to be on the fourth story. They are either asleep or stupefied with smoke. If they have power to escape, there is no need of the fire escape. The ladder is placed against the upper window. Now watch that bold and able fireman. What does he do? Does he merely tell the inmates that they must first leave the burning house and then he will save them? No, he mounts the ladder, breaks in the window and enters the scene of danger. He brings them out; they are saved.

It is the same in a storm at sea. The helpless wreck is drifting fast to utter destruction, carrying its helpless crew. What would be the use of a lifeboat, if the captain remained on shore, telling the perishing men that they must first leave and give up the wreck and come to shore, and then the lifeboat would save them?

Such is the gospel of man. Man must save himself, and then Christ will save him. And strange to say, men love and accept such folly as this. Now the gospel of God is the very opposite of this: He sent His beloved Son to seek and to save that which was lost. Yes, lost, as those even in the boat so near the roaring falls of the river. Lost, as the inmates in a burning house. Lost, as those sailors drifting on the wreck. Yes, if men only knew and owned their lost and helpless condition, they must then own that gospel to be utter folly that bids them to first save themselves and then God will save them.

Consider one more illustration. A man has been tried and found guilty. He is under judgment, locked up securely in the condemned cell. Would you tell him to come out of that cell, give up his sins, his chains, the prison and the sentence already passed on him, and then, but not till then, would he be pardoned? Would it not be cruel mockery to a man in his condition? This is the sinner’s real condition, and therefore, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”

The question to one who discovers he is gliding helplessly on to the falls or the rocks, who is a guilty sinner under judgment, without strength, to such, the question is this: How can I be saved? How can I, a condemned sinner, be justified? This then is the very question taken up and explained in this first section of the epistle. Yes, it is the very reason why Paul was not ashamed of the gospel. “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith [or, on the principle of faith] to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” It is not righteousness of man, for he has none. How can he have any if he is guilty — under judgment? If he had any, it would be righteousness of man, not of God.

We shall find the righteousness of God to be in direct contrast to righteousness of man. Neither can it be by law, for God cannot be under the law; He was the lawgiver. Had it said, “The righteousness of Christ,” that would have been another truth. But it is righteousness of God, revealed in the gospel on the principle of faith to faith. It was announced repeatedly in the Old Testament, but now it is explained or revealed. “There is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.…Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength” (Isa. 45:21-24). “In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted” (Psa. 89:16).

Let it be noticed that the righteousness of God is the first and great question in our epistle. It is the first subject, and then the love of God. For the love of God will not meet the wrath of God. The question of righteousness is at once raised. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” That wrath is not yet executed, but there can be no doubt of the wrath of God against all the wickedness of men — against sin. It was seen at the flood, in the destruction of Sodom, and on the Holy One made sin for us. It is also revealed that He is coming in judgment, taking vengeance. The wicked will surely be cast into the lake of fire.

Am I a guilty sinner? Then what would the love of God alone avail me in the day of righteous wrath against all ungodliness? It must then be evident that the first great question is the righteousness of God in justifying him who believes. How can God be righteous in accounting such a sinner as I righteous before Him? What a question!

This question, the righteousness of God, is taken up again in chapter 3, verse 21. What then is the object of the Spirit in this large portion of Scripture, from chapter 1:17 to chapter 3:21? Is it not chiefly in utterly setting aside all pretension of righteousness in man, whether without law or under law? This must be done, for man will cling to nothing like his efforts to establish his own righteousness. Therefore every claim of man is examined.

The eternal power of God was manifested in creation and again in the flood. God was certainly known to Noah and his descendants. “When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful.” In a word, they sank into idolatry. They apostatized from God until God gave them up. This is repeated three times. “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness” (vs. 24). “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections” (vs. 26). “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind” (vs. 28). Read the terrible catalog of wickedness into which the whole Gentile world sank. Where then was righteousness of man? To be given up is the act of God in judicial judgment. He thus gave up the Gentiles, and we see what man became.

We also know that when the Jews had fully rejected the testimony of the Holy Spirit, God gave them up, for the present, as a people. Such also will be the end of professing Christendom, “because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:10-12). The fact then that God gave up the Gentiles to the fearful lusts of their hearts proves their utter apostasy from God. All profane history corroborates this inspired description of human wickedness.

It may be asked, Were there not rulers, kings and magistrates who made laws against wickedness and punished crime? “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.” Thus, then as now, the greatest wickedness is found in the rulers or chiefs. For proof we have only to read any of the ancient historians. If man is left to himself, the greater power he has, the greater is his wickedness. It is overwhelming to contemplate the cruelty and dreadful wickedness of heathenism. Such was that world to whom God in mercy sent His Son. In the Gentile world, righteousness was not to be found. Multitudes rushed together in amphitheaters to feast their eyes on cruel wickedness.

Chapter 2

Conscience leaves man without excuse. There is in man a sense of responsibility and, through the fall, a knowledge of good and evil. The fact that one man judges another is a proof of this: “For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.” How true this is, whether of Jew, Gentile or professing Christian! Man cannot deceive God. “But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.”

Do you think, O man, who judges them which do such things and does the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God? What a solemn question! We may judge and punish others for wicked acts in this world, but if we ourselves have to be brought with all our sins into judgment — and judgment is sure to come, and it will be according to truth — how are we to escape? The punishment of evil among all nations proves that we admit that evil ought to be punished. The righteous government of God demands, then, that after death there shall be the judgment. Do look at this question. Reader, do you think you will escape the judgment of God?

Verse 4. “Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” How many are doing this? Indeed, the way in which repentance is preached tends to lead men to despise and ignore the wondrous grace of God altogether. Many preach repentance as works for salvation, as preceding faith in the riches of the goodness of God.

We know and believe that the goodness of God in sending His beloved Son to die for our sins leads us to and produces in us repentance — indeed, we can only know the depths of our sin and guilt by knowing the depths into which He had to descend to save us. Thus, the goodness of God leads to an entire change of mind about ourselves — the full judgment of ourselves in deep abhorrence of our sins and full confession of them to God — and, at the same time, an entire change of mind about God. Thus, the difference between truth and error is this: It is not our repentance that leads to, or causes, the goodness of God to us, but it is the goodness of God that leads to, and causes, repentance in us.

Oh, beware lest you should so despise the grace of God, and, “after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” Mark, it must be either the goodness of God now and repentance here, or the righteous judgment of God in that coming day of wrath hereafter.

Some have had difficulty in understanding chapter 2, verses 6-29; others have perverted these statements as though they taught salvation by works. This would be in direct contradiction of the whole teaching of the epistle. What, then, do we learn here? First, the righteousness of God is His reward to the Jew under law, or the Gentile not under law. This is distinctly and fully stated. Second, we then get the inquiry, Are there any Jews or Gentiles who answer to these requirements of God and can thus be rewarded?

We start, then, with the certainty that in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, He “will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.” Also, in like manner, in that day, “tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil.” This then is the basis of righteous judgment on which God will act: “in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” The police go about the streets and arrest men and take them to be judged for public crimes, but is it not equally true that Death goes about the streets as God’s policeman to take men, who, after death, shall have every secret thing judged they have done? Can you stand in that searching judgment? God will judge in righteousness. “Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil.” All will be brought out — every hidden thing!

It is well to dwell on this. From that righteous judgment there will then be no escape. Man, when left to himself, sank into doing evil continually. As we have seen, the whole Gentile world had sunk into the grossest sin. What then of the Jew, the religious man? Yes, the religious man — is he not superior every way? He rests in the law, boasts of God — the only true God. He knows His will, is instructed and is an instructor, a confident guide of the blind. Now, if he knows the will of God and does it, and has the law and keeps it, will not this give him boldness in the day of righteous judgment? But if he is not a doer of good, if he is a breaker of the law, what better is he than the Gentile who has not the law? He is even found to be worse. How then can the Jew, under law, meet God in judgment?

Reader, if this is your position — a religious man under law, desiring most earnestly to keep it and yet breaking it, knowing the will of God and not doing it — how can you meet God in righteous judgment, however religious you appear before men, to have every secret brought out in judgment? Do all your efforts give you confidence in looking forward to the day of certain judgment?

Chapter 3

In every way the Jew had great advantage. He had the oracles of God (and so have you). What an advantage to have the very inspired Word of God! The oracles of God were committed to them.

Verse 3. Let us notice how remarkably faith is introduced again. Righteousness of God had always been on the principle of faith. “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?” However the bulk of the nation had disbelieved, yet their unbelief and unrighteousness had not changed God — He remained the same. He remains true to the unchangeable principles of right and wrong; otherwise, how shall He judge the world?

The truth of setting aside the law as a means of acquiring righteousness might be perverted, as some did, saying the Apostle taught that we might thus do evil that good might come. This perversion is strongly condemned, the righteousness of God having been maintained in the judgment of all evildoers. The Apostle now appeals to the Jews’ own scriptures, and from them proves that all are guilty: “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.”

Verse 19. We cannot deny that these words were written to those under the law. What a terrible description of man under law! Every mouth is thus stopped, and all the world stands guilty before God. Yes, mark, this is not what man is before his fellowmen, but what he is before God. And if all under law and all not under law are guilty, what can the law do for the guilty? Its very perfection as a perfect rule for man can only condemn the breaker of the law. If a man has got false weights in his shop, what could the test of standard weights do but condemn him? The standard weights would show how far he was short, but, if short, could not show that they were just weights. The law just did this, “for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Since then all are guilty, it is evident “therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.”

Verse 21. Man is thus set aside, and so are all his efforts and pretensions to righteousness by works of law. “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.” This is altogether new and distinct from everything that is of man. It is not the righteousness of man, for he has none. What a fact that in all this world there was not one found righteous! No, not one. It is the righteousness of God, entirely and apart from the law — what God is in Himself and what He is for man. Now God could not be righteous in justifying man by the law, for the law could only condemn man; he was guilty. God was surely always righteous in His dealings with man — perfectly consistent with His own glory. But this is now manifested apart from law, though witnessed by law and prophets. This then is the revelation, “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: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

How distinctly faith of Jesus Christ now takes the place of law, and this unto all, both Jews and Gentiles! The righteousness of God, then, is what He is in Himself and what He is to us. All is absolutely of God. He so loved; He so gave His beloved Son that, through His sacrifice on the cross, He might be eternally righteous in justifying us, or accounting us righteous.

Verse 24. “Being justified freely by His grace.” Yes, accounted righteous freely, without anything on our part, except believing Him — and even faith is the gift of God — it is by His free favor, grace. But how is God righteous in justifying us freely by His free favor, “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”? Not merely—blessed as that is — justified from every charge of sins, not merely sheltered from judgment, like Israel in Egypt, by the blood of the Lamb, but redeemed — fully delivered — redemption through His precious blood.

Well, you may say, That is all very blessed, but how am I to know that I have a share in redemption? How am I to be assured that it applies to me? Since God is righteous in freely justifying us through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, let us inquire what that redemption is and how you may know it is unto you and applies to you.

What is redemption? The emancipation or redemption of all the slaves in the West Indies some years ago will illustrate what redemption is. A vast sum was given, voted by the English government, for the complete redemption of the slaves. They were, so to speak, redeemed forever — forever emancipated, delivered from the wretchedness of slavery.

Now, when the proclamation or glad tidings of their redemption arrived in the West Indies, how were they to know it applied to them? Suppose an aged slave, with many a scar of whip and chain upon him, had inquired in the following words: Yes, I have no doubt so many millions have been paid — I have no doubt the proclamation of redemption, emancipation, everlasting deliverance is good and glorious — but how am I to know it applies to me? What would you have said? Why, are you not a slave? Are not those scars a proof of it? Were you not born a slave? If you were a free man, it could not apply to you, but since you are a slave, it must and it does apply to you. The proclamation is to you. Believing the proclamation, this moment you are, in perfect righteousness, forever free. Would you not say so?

If we took our true place and owned our true condition as born slaves, conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity, then all difficulty would soon vanish as to seeing how redemption applies to us. Have you ever owned, do you own, that by nature you were the bond-slave of sin — sold under sin? The poor West Indian slave might possibly escape from his master, but have you not found yourself utterly without power to escape from Satan and sin? Have you any ugly scars of sin? If you think, bad as you are, that God will help you to keep the law, and so at last you hope to get to heaven, then you do not know your need of redemption.

If the English government voted so much in the council of Parliament, what did God vote in the councils of eternity? Was it to give silver or gold for your redemption? It was to give His well-beloved Son. Yes, He is the One “whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.” Poor, helpless slave of sin, that redemption is unto you. If you are such, then it must be unto you. Yes, the slave who believed the proclamation was at that moment forever free. It is just so with you. God grant it to all who read this paper.

Dear young believer, it is most important to understand this: You are not only justified freely (all sins being forgiven, God sees no iniquity), but you are also redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Yes, you have been delivered from that state of slavery forever. If that great sum of gold set the slaves free forever, has not the infinite propitiation of Christ set us free, redeemed us forever? Shall we allow a shadow of a doubt? No; He gave Himself for us — all free, unmerited favor. Not one thing did we do for our redemption; it was all accomplished before we had one desire or thought of redemption. Now we hear the glad tidings unto us poor slaves of sin — we believe and are forever free.

Glory, glory everlasting,

Be to Him who bore the cross.

But we must further inquire how the righteousness of God is affected by all this.

Verses 25-26. “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. To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

You notice God has set forth the propitiation of Christ to declare two things. His righteousness needed to be revealed in these two things: His passing over, in forbearance, sins that are past, and that He might be just and the Justifier of him who believes in Jesus.

Here we would warn our readers of a serious mistake, often found, as to “sins that are past,” as though it meant sins that have been committed before our conversion to God — that sins up to that time are pardoned, or remitted, through the propitiation of Christ, that God would therefore be righteous, through the death of Christ, in thus pardoning past sins before conversion. This error leaves the believer in utter perplexity as to sins, should they be committed after conversion; indeed, this view leaves the Christian worse off than the Jew, as he had another day of atonement every year. But if the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ only met our sins or atoned for sins up to conversion, then there remains no sacrifice, no remedy, for sins after conversion. For “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” (Heb. 10:26). On this finite view of the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, who could be saved? The one infinite sacrifice must have met all the sins of a finite sinner, from first to last.

What then does this scripture mean? Simply this: God had passed over, in forbearance, the sins of all believers before Christ died, and now He was the Justifier of all who believe, reckoned them as righteous, as though they had never sinned.

But the great question was this: How could God be righteous in doing both these things? How could this be revealed, declared, explained? Without an answer to this inquiry, how can any soul have peace with God?

If all had been guilty, how could God be righteous in passing over the sins of those who believed, whether Jews or Gentiles? If all are proven guilty now — if you are proven guilty — how can God declare of you, like Israel of old, that He has not beheld and does not behold iniquity in you? Clearly He could not be righteous on account of anything in us or done by us under law or not under law. Here the eye of faith must rest solely on the blood of Jesus, “a propitiation through faith in His blood.” This alone explains, declares, the righteousness of God, both as to the sins of past believers and ours now.

Let us, however, remember that on the propitiatory mercy-seat, the blood was placed before the eye of God! “And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat eastward; and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times” (Lev. 16:14). This had to be done again; the blood of a bullock had to be sprinkled before God on that golden mercy-seat once every year. The blood of other victims often had to be shed. Not so the blood of Christ; that blood, once shed and sprinkled, can never be shed or sprinkled again.

Oh, my soul, think what that blood is for all your sins before the eye of God! The blood sprinkled on the gold shows what the blood of Christ is, as meeting, upholding, declaring the righteousness of God. Yes, He was righteous in justifying David a thousand years before the blood was shed, just as He is righteous in justifying us hundreds of years after. Jesus must needs suffer for both.

Thus we see the great mistake of those who say, The righteousness of God is that by which He makes us righteous. No. The righteousness of God is that by which He Himself is righteous in reckoning us poor sinners righteous. The difference is immense. If the voice of what calls itself the church says one thing and the Word of God says another thing, which must I believe? Doubtless the latter.

“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; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Dwell on each sentence. Is it not the righteousness of God that He might be just? Do you believe in Jesus — that He has thus glorified God by His expiatory sacrifice — that now at this time, through that death, He is able, in righteousness, to justify all that believe? Is God thus revealed to your soul as just in reckoning you righteous?

Since righteousness is wholly of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, “where is boasting then?” Is it on the principle of works that we have done? No. Such a thought is excluded. “By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith.” For we have seen faith finds righteousness in God. I cannot then boast of having been, or being, righteous in myself, since we are proven guilty and know it to be true, and, on the principle of works or law, we can only be condemned. Justification cannot be on that ground, however we may struggle to make it so.

Justification, then, must be on another principle. “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” What else could Scripture conclude, since all are guilty, and justification is not what we are to God, but what He is to us, set forth in Christ? Do not mix these two things together. Let your salvation be entirely on the principle of faith — what God is to you.

To be justified by faith is what God is to us through Christ. Deeds of the law are on the principle of what we are to God. Amazing grace! We are justified by the one, without the other. In this, the “no difference” doctrine is fully maintained. The same righteousness of God is to all, Jews or Gentiles, on the principle of faith and by means of faith.

Those who maintain that we are still under the law make it void, because it curses those under it, because they do not keep it. Those who were under it once had to be redeemed from its curse by the death of Jesus. Thus, if Scripture put us under it again, then Jesus would need to die again to redeem us from its curse. (See Gal. 3:10-13; 4:45). “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Jesus revealed, to the eye of faith, bearing the curse of the broken law for those who were under it—if this does not establish the claims of the law of God, what could do so? But if we were put under it again, then its claims would have to be established again, or it would be made void.

Chapter 4

We must bear in mind that we are not on the subject of righteousness before men. For that subject we must turn to James. There we find the question of justification from an entirely different point of view. A man is not justified before his fellowmen by faith, but by works, proving the genuineness of his faith. (See James 2:18-26.)

It may now be fairly asked, If the whole human race—Jews and Gentiles — has been found guilty before God, on what principle could any have been justified? Clearly, on the principle of law, which condemns the guilty, none could have been justified. Two remarkable cases are cited in proof: No less persons than Abraham, the very father of the Jews, and David, the sweet singer of Israel. The one was justified four hundred and thirty years before the law was given, and the other, about five hundred years after, and that when he had merited its curse by fearful transgression.

If anyone could be justified by works, surely Abraham could, and if he were before men, as in James, he had to glory, “but not before God.” It is still the solemn question of man before God. What says the Scripture about this man, before the law was given to anyone — even to him? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted [reckoned] unto him for righteousness.” This is Scripture’s answer and principle of how a man can be justified without the deeds of the law. Abraham believed God and it (his faith) was reckoned as, not for, righteousness.

Much depends on the true meaning of the word in the original, translated “imputed,” “reckoned” and “counted” in this chapter.[1] It means reckoned as such or esteemed so; it is not the word which is used to mean simply imputed or set to the account of a person; that word is only found twice in the New Testament. First, in Romans 5:13: “But sin is not imputed when there is no law.” It is not placed to the account of a person as transgression of law, when no law has been given which could thus be transgressed. Second, in Philemon 18 it is more fully and correctly translated: “If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account”; impute it to me.

Let us illustrate the two words. We say, Such a person has paid into a bank $500 to the account of another; it is set to his account. In the other case, a nobleman marries a poor woman. Is she reckoned poor after that? She has not a penny of her own right, but she is reckoned as rich as her husband, judicially accounted so, or reckoned so.

Abraham believed God and it was reckoned as righteousness. This may also be seen confirmed in Abel. “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts.” In both cases the principle of faith is the same. Abel believed God and brought the sacrifice. Abraham believed God. Both were reckoned as righteous.

And this is not on the principle of works, not on the ground of what Abraham or Abel was to God, but God reckoned faith to them as righteousness. “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for [as] righteousness.”

I met an aged man the other day, with hair as white as snow, and said to him, “You have made a profession of Christ for many years, and yet you do not know that you have eternal life. You are not sure you are justified, and if you should die, you have not the certainty that you would depart and be with Christ.”

The poor aged countenance fell. He said, “It is all true.”

I then said: “Let me tell you the reason of this. You have never yet seen God’s starting point. You have been striving all these years to be godly, believing that God justifies the godly. You have not yet believed that God justified the ungodly; there is the starting point. Godliness will come after. ‘But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for [as] righteousness.’”

He responded, “I never saw that before.”

I ask you solemnly, Have you ever really seen this and believed God who justifies the ungodly? You may have striven long to take the place of a godly man before God by ordinances of men and so-called good works, trying hard to falsify this scripture. Yes, it often takes a long life of failure to bring a soul to this true starting place of grace. Certainly it must be on a different principle from law that God can justify the ungodly. It is to him who works not, but believes.

Verse 6. Now let us have David’s inspired explanation of this matter. “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God [reckons] righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not [at all reckon] sin.” It is not that they are reckoned righteous because they have never sinned, for all have sinned, but they are those whose sins have been covered, whose iniquities have been forgiven. It is not, however, that only their past sins have been covered by the atoning death of Christ, but there is this further statement of infinite grace and perfect righteousness: “The Lord shall not at all reckon sin.” This is indeed marvelous, and in perfect harmony with all Scripture.

Such is the efficacy of that one sacrifice, the value of the blood of Jesus, that it cleanses from all sin. There needs no more sacrifice for sins; there is none. God remembers no more the sins of those who are once purged (Heb. 10; 1 John 1:7).

As to the reckoning of guilt or sins, the justified are reckoned righteous — as righteous as though they never had, and never did, sin. As to his standing before God, sin is not at all reckoned to the justified man; he is thus truly and continuously blessed. Will such love and righteousness as this, such eternal salvation, make the enjoyer of the blessing careless and say, Let us, then, “continue in sin, that grace may abound”? We shall see, as to that, further on.

It was utterly impossible for God to have justified the ungodly on the principle of law, but the propitiation through the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, explains the righteousness of God in not reckoning sins unto him who believes.

It may be asked, Does propitiation apply to future as well as to past sins? That is exactly what Scripture does teach, and, strange as it may seem, the knowledge of this very fact is made known to us that we may not sin. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:12). And in another place, speaking of believers, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). And again, “When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). Oh, wondrous grace — free grace! “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” He will not, He cannot in righteousness, reckon them to us.

Reader, do you really believe God? Yes, the question is this, as we read these pages of the riches of His grace, Do we believe God? Remember we are yet only on the entrance ground, the very beginning of the gospel of God. Does this blessedness come only upon those under law, that is, the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised? It was an undeniable fact, which the Jews at Rome could not deny, that faith was reckoned as righteousness to Abraham when he was uncircumcised and long before the law was given. What an overwhelming argument, then, that it must be all of grace and not of the law! And mark, he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had being uncircumcised. That is, circumcision was a mark of his separation to God; he was the first person, the father of it. But it had nothing to do with justifying him; he was reckoned righteous first, entirely apart from all works or circumcision.

Is it not so with every believer? His separation to God and a holy life are a sign that he has been reckoned righteous first, apart from law or works. But God calls him and justifies him while ungodly. That is, it is there where God begins with man. Has He so begun with you, or are you seeking to be justified by works when you become godly?

Now another principle of great importance is brought out. Promise clearly depended alone on God, and this was given to Abraham long before the law; therefore it could not be through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. The covenant of Sinai was in direct contrast with promise: there the blessing depended on man’s obedience, and he utterly failed to keep the covenant. Man could fail under covenant and thus forfeit all claim on the ground of works, and he did fail. But God could not fail; therefore the promise still stands sure to all who believe: “Therefore [again] it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed.”

Thus Abraham believed the promise of God, because God could not fail. “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded, that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” “He considered not his own body.” Now, such confidence as this in a covenant of works would have been confidence in himself, which would not have been faith, but presumption. His faith has unbounded confidence in God alone — in the promise of God. Therefore faith was reckoned as righteousness. He, even Abraham, was justified by faith, reckoned righteous before God.

These remarks about Abraham were written for us. For blessed as it was to Abraham to believe the promise of God, there is something still more blessed, “for us also, to whom it shall be reckoned, if we believe [or, believing] on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” Abraham believed the promise of God. We believe God concerning these two facts about Jesus our Lord, and the promise is fulfilled. We are thus reckoned righteous before God.

But it may be asked, Do not many still rest their soul’s salvation on the promises? What would you say if a wife rested on the former promise of her husband for evidence that she was his wife? Would not this show that she was doubtful as to whether the marriage had really been accomplished or was valid, or to say the least, that she did not understand it? Is it not something like this when we try to rest on the promises? There must be some doubt or misunderstanding about these two accomplished facts before us. Doubtless there are many precious promises on which we do well to rest. But this is not a promise about the future! Righteousness is reckoned to us, believing on Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. It is reckoned to us; that is not a promise. No, if we are believers, the righteousness of God is upon us. We are reckoned righteous. Then the resurrection of our Lord is not now a matter of promise. God has raised Him from the dead. If not, there is no gospel and we are yet in our sins. (See 1 Cor. 15:14-17.)

Let us then proceed carefully and note the change in the language. It is not now the propitiatory view of the death of Christ, as in chapter 3, verses 22-26. There, that death has first glorified God. The blood before Him, His righteousness is maintained, established on His throne, the mercy-seat, and thus mercy is toward all without infringing on the righteousness of God. But here in chapter 4, verses 24-25, Christ is the Substitute of His people, answering to the second goat of atonement. The sins of Israel were transferred to that goat — laid on it and borne away. Just so here: “Who was delivered for our offenses.”

Was He delivered for the sins of the whole world as their Substitute to bear them away? Then clearly they would have been borne away, for God has accepted the Substitute. This is certain, for He has raised Him from the dead. This would teach the fatal error of universal redemption. Hence the need of carefully noting that these words are distinctly limited to believers. “If we believe,” or “believing.” Abraham believed God and that was reckoned to him as righteousness. We believe God that He has “raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” The next chapter will also show that this must be limited to believers. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” To apply these words then to all is to destroy their effect to all, or to teach what is false on the face of it, that all will be saved.

Let us take the facts in their order. God is speaking to us here. Do we believe Him, that He has raised up Jesus from among the dead? That alone would not be enough; the devils know it, and many an unconverted man does not doubt it. But mark the next fact: “Who was delivered for our offenses.” Had it said, “our transgressions,” it would not have taken in Gentiles, who were not under law. The word “offenses” takes in all our sins — whether under law or without law. Do you believe that Jesus was delivered up to the cruel hands of men, nailed to the cross and there bore the wrath of God due to your sins? Before you read another line, we entreat you to answer that question. Can you look back and see the Holy One of God bearing your sins, as truly as if there was not another whose sins He bore on the cross? Oh, what a sight! Is He yours?

Not only did His death make the infinite payment that infinite justice demanded, but He “was raised again for our justification.” Thus God has shown His acceptance of the ransom — the death of our Substitute, but He could in no way more distinctly have shown our everlasting discharge than by raising up the Substitute for our justification. Oh, how wondrous! He was raised up from among the dead, that believing God, we might justly be reckoned righteous before God. Our sins are borne away, never to be reckoned to us, as though we had never sinned. We are justified — reckoned righteous before and by God our Father. Thus we have more than promise — all is accomplished fact. All our sins — for they were all alike future then — have been borne by Jesus, “who was delivered for our offenses.”

God has raised Him again for our justification. Believing God, we are justified, reckoned righteous. Mark, “raised again for our justification” cannot possibly mean because we were justified; this thought entirely sets aside faith. It means for the purpose of our justification, when through grace we believe.

Chapter 5, verse 1. “Therefore being justified by faith” — being reckoned righteous on the principle of faith — “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Many souls are perplexed as to whether they have the right faith — “justified by faith.” If we separate this verse from the end of the previous chapter, we get occupied with faith as an abstract matter, and we make faith that which somehow merits justification, and soon it becomes a question of examining our own feelings. It may be said, But did not “many believe in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men” (John 2:23-24)? Just so, but what did they believe? No doubt they believed in Him as the Messiah when they saw the miracles that He did. But that was quite a different matter from what we have before us here.

Well, you say, I long to have peace with God, but I am not sure I have it. How is this? You say, Partly because I ask myself, Have I the right faith? But the fact is, my horrid sins and iniquities rise up before me and press me, until I am almost ready to conclude I have no part in Christ. My conscience also says it is all true.

Was not Jesus, the holy, holy One, delivered for those very iniquities? Do you believe God has raised Him from the dead — He “who was delivered for our offenses”? This is a very different affair from miracles, important as they are in their place. Mark, this is real substitution—Christ, the delivered Substitute of the believer. We must not confound this with the propitiation, which was not only for us, but for the whole world. God is glorified about sin, so that free pardon is preached to every creature — to all men.

Let us look at a picture or type in the Old Testament of both propitiation and substitution. After the blood of one goat had been sprinkled on the golden mercy-seat before God, showing the righteousness of God met by the blood of Jesus before the eye of God (that is propitiation), then comes the substitution: “He shall bring the live goat: and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited” (Lev. 16:21).

Now compare this with another scripture, showing substitution: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.…And He bare the sin of many” (Isa. 53:5-12).

The Scriptures do not teach that He bare the sins of all, but, as the Substitute, the sins of many, and this in contrast with the doom of those who reject Him and must therefore be judged. Yes, mark the contrast. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin, unto salvation” (Heb. 9:27-28).

Now faith is not believing that I feel or believing that I believe; it is taking God at His word. But do you believe that God has raised Him as your Substitute from the dead? The first question as to your iniquities is, Were they transferred to Christ, were they laid on Him? Not the sins of one year, like Israel on the day of atonement, but all your sins and iniquities, even before you were born. Did He take the whole responsibility of them, according to the righteous claims of God? Did He come and was He delivered for this very purpose? Was it bearing the wrath of God against your sins that made Him cry out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Oh, love beyond all words or thought!

Did He fail? No. Hear His words: “It is finished.” Yes, that work He came to do is finished. God is glorified. Our iniquities have been laid on Him, transferred to Him, borne by Him; not some of our sins, but all our iniquities were laid on Him. The Lord Jehovah laid them on Him, and it is finished. Oh, my soul, ponder this well — “It is finished”! He has made your peace with God by His own blood. And now what does He say to you? “Peace unto you.” Do you say, But, oh, my horrid sins? He replies, They were all laid on Me; peace to you. He shows His hands and His side. But I have denied Thee. “Peace unto you.”

God having judged our sins, all of them, on His Son, can He again in righteousness judge them on us? Do you say, I do not for a moment doubt Jesus died on the cross as my Substitute and bore my sins in His own body on the tree, still, I have not the blessed certainty that I am justified and have peace with God; I do not experience that happiness which I should. Does this scripture, or any other, say we are either justified or have peace by experience? Does it say that we are to look at our feelings for evidence that we are justified?

God has done a certain thing to give to faith the certainty of our justification, and that one thing, which He has done for this very purpose, has been greatly overlooked. Jesus not only was delivered for our offenses, but “was raised again for our justification.” Yes, God raised Him from among the dead, not because we were justified, but for the express purpose that, believing Him, we might be justified. Thus, if Christ be not raised, we are deceived and yet in our sins (1 Cor. 15:17). But He is raised, and to faith the whole question is settled.

Do you say, But must not I accept the atonement of my Substitute? No, in this case it is God who has shown to us that He has accepted the one sacrifice for our sins by raising Jesus from the dead and giving Him a place above all heavens.

And as to your sins, fellow-believer, where are they? They have been transferred to your Substitute. They could not be on you and on Him. No. Where are they then? Are they on Christ? No. But they must be on Him, if on anyone, as He has taken the whole responsibility of them before His God. They are not on Him; then they cannot be on you. Oh wondrous grace! God says He will remember them no more. If He did, He must remember them as against Christ, and this is impossible.

Christ is in the unclouded presence of God in light. Then so are you justified from all things — not hoping to be so. Could anything be more certain than this resting on the very words of God? Did not God give His beloved Son for this very purpose, that we might have unclouded peace with Him? Why should we doubt Him?

1 “‘Reckoned as’ is the nearest approach to the sense in English. ‘For’ I object to, because then faith is made of positive worth, having the value of righteousness; whereas the sense is that he was holden for righteous in virtue of faith” (Rom. 4:3 JND footnote).

Chapter 5

Connecting the first eleven verses of chapter 5 with the last verse in chapter 4, we have three things made sure to us. First, being justified (accounted righteous before God), we have peace with God as to all our sins. Yet we fully recognize His holiness and righteousness, and that this peace is not through anything we have done, but through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is peace resulting from the blessed knowledge by faith that all our sins have been put away by the blood of Jesus, so that God can have no charge of guilt against us. We have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. As to the past, all is cleared away.

Then the second thing: “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.” We enter by faith into the full, unclouded favor of God. This grace implies the free favor, revealed in the redemption we have, being justified freely. This is our happy, abiding place; there we stand. What a wondrous, present peace! We need not say this cannot be enjoyed if we are walking carelessly or allowing sin in any way.

And the third thing, as to the future: We “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” We do not hope to be justified or to have peace — these we have — but we hope, with rejoicing, for the glory of God. Is it not joy to our hearts to know that we shall soon be in the scene where all is to the glory of God, all suited to Him, all pure within and without? Yes, we shall be in a state of sinless purity suited to Him, when He who has redeemed us has come and taken us to Himself. Can anything give our hearts such joy as this — to be with Him and like Him?

Verses 35. “And not only so” — not only have we peace with God, present access into the free favor of God and the longing hope for His glory, but this enables us to glory in present tribulations also. “Knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: 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.”

We must notice a very common mistake as to these verses. They are often read as meaning the exact opposite of what they say, as though we must have this experience in order that the love of God may be shed abroad in our hearts, and that if we pray much and are very diligent in patience, experience and hope, then we may hope that the Holy Spirit will be given us. No words can tell how utterly wrong all this is. The Holy Spirit is given to us because Jesus has finished the work of redemption, and He being now glorified, we are sealed by the Spirit, and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Thus, to suppose that the Holy Spirit will be given because of any efforts or experience or devotedness of our own is to set aside the perfect work of Christ. No, the truth is the very opposite; all this blessed, patient experience is because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.

Now just suppose you are invited to dine with her Majesty the Queen, and she shows you every possible attention and kindness. But, instead of enjoying that kindness, you say to those present that you shall pray earnestly that you may have a queen and a queen that will show you kindness. What would she — what would anyone — think of such conduct? Blind and deaf persons alone could make such a mistake. No doubt those who know such a queen best are most loyal, and those who know that the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto them will love Him most and have this blessed experience because of the very fact.

What shall we say of the blind and deaf who see nothing of God’s love to us or its being shed abroad in our hearts, but, turning this precious scripture into legality, think and say that God will love us only as long as we love Him, and who say, The more we love God, the more He will love us! This thought is at the root of a great amount of spurious effort of holiness in man. Many would be startled to see it in plain dress.

What would you say to striving to make the flesh holy, in order that God might love it? Are not thousands doing so? Is this the very thing you have been doing? Have we not practically said the old “I” must be holy in order that God may love me? Truly the flesh must be subdued, but not even that, that God may love me, but because He has.

We will now consider how He has loved us and in what state we were when He loved us.

Verses 6-11. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Have our hearts been bowed down to this fact? Not only were we guilty, but we had no strength, were without strength to be better. While we were in that very state, infinite love to us was displayed; “in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” There was no other means possible for God to justify the ungodly but by His Son dying for the ungodly. Through His death the love of God shines out to us. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Was this on the principle that the more we love God the more He will love us? Can there be a greater display of His love than “Christ died for us”? Impossible! But this was while we were yet sinners.

Oh, pause and dwell on the love of God to us — not our love of God first, not that we loved God, but that He thus loved us. The more this takes possession of our souls, the more shall we love Him.

Do you say, All this may be quite true as to the past, but may we not fail in the future, and then will not God cease to love us? Having known the love of God, may we not at last be left to everlasting wrath? Let us hear the answer of the Holy Spirit to this most solemn question. If God has thus commended His love to us that when we were sinners, Christ died for us, “much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Mark, being justified by His blood is always immutably the same; it is not having been justified once by His blood, we need to be again, but, being justified, it ever stands. His blood is ever the same before God, having atoned for all our sins. Therefore we are ever justified by His blood. There is no change. Then, not only we are, but “we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Oh, precious, infinite grace!

And there is still more: “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.” Oh what pains our Father takes to convince us of His everlasting, unchanging love! Just think — the whole atoning work of reconciling us to God was done by the death of His Son. God was glorified; our sins, all our sins, were transferred to Christ and borne by Him, when we were enemies! And now we are justified from all things, redeemed to God, made His children. He who reconciled us by His death lives to serve, to wash our feet, to save to the end by His priesthood and by His advocacy if we fail.

“Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” This certainty as to the future removes every hindrance to the heart’s full joy in God. Not only have we this certainty of being saved to the end by His life, “but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

This ends the whole question as to our sins. God is absolutely righteous in the way in which He has put them away by the death of His Son. They have been laid on the atoning Substitute in infinite love to us when we were enemies and without strength. He who once bare them in His own body is raised from the dead for our justification. We are justified and we have peace with God. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. The love of God and the righteousness of God are fully revealed and displayed in reconciling us to Himself by the death of His Son.

Our future, practical deliverance and salvation from wrath are absolutely certain. We have received in our souls the full effect of all this as to our sins. And, oh, wondrous privilege! We have now unhindered joy in God!

Salvation is entirely of God, and we know Him so as to have joy in God, according to all that He is. We need not say this could not be through the law. If even the law could have justified from past sins — which was impossible — who could stand on his own responsibility as to the future and joy in God? No, it is all through our Lord Jesus Christ, from first to last. Let us beware of letting slip this perfect grace, of letting in the least bit of confidence in the flesh. It is Christ in the future, as Christ in the past.

Verse 11, then, closes the question of sins — the acts of disobedience against God. The question of sin — the flesh within — will come before us presently. May the Holy Spirit deepen in all our souls a sense of the infinite grace of our God, so that we may continually joy in Him.

Verse 12. We now come to the question of sin — man’s fallen nature — and the heads of the two families: the one head, Adam, by whom sin entered into the world, and the other head, Christ, by whom grace has abounded over sin.

Many who believe their sins are forgiven are greatly perplexed to find the root, sin, in the flesh. Much of this confusion arises from want of carefully noticing the distinction between sins and sin. As we have seen, verse 11 closes the question of sins. Verse 12 takes up sin.

“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.” In this verse there are two proofs of the origin of evil: first, sin entered into the world by one man, and second, of the whole race of mankind all sin and all die. What absolute consistency in the Word of God and with facts!

And death reigned whether man was placed under law or was without law. After sin had come in and man fell, the law was not given for two thousand five hundred years. “For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed [or, put to account] when there is no law. 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” (vss. 13-14). That is, they had not transgressed a given law; yet there was death, the proof that sin was there.

Sin and death came into the creation by its head, Adam. Death is not merely the penalty of a broken law, but sin having once come in, death is its result, as the Word says, “The wages of sin is death.”

In contrast with the sin and death that came in by the first head, God is pleased to reveal to us that righteousness and life have come in for a new race by the gift of His own Son. Only the infinite gift must abound over the finite, dreadful as has been the result of man’s sin. God could not, in His free favor to us, give a gift that would come short of our need. Hence, the Holy Spirit carefully shows us how the gift of free favor has bounded over the sin (the root of evil) and the death that came in by Adam.

Verse 15. “But not as the offense, so also is the free gift [the act of favor]: for if through the offense 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.” No doubt the effect of the offense of Adam’s sin on the many, even all his posterity, is great and terrible, and we all belong to that “many.” Death passed upon all men. Yet if we have passed from death unto life in the risen Head of the new creation, we have now to see how the grace of God, and the gift by grace, by One — Jesus Christ — has abounded unto the many in Him.

Verse 16. “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 offenses unto justification.” In Adam we see one sin, and the consequences that have flowed from it in judgment. Now look at the free gift. See Jesus, our Substitute: all our iniquities have been made to meet on Him, and this for the very purpose that by faith we might be justified from them all. And, much more than this, not only justified from all our iniquities by His blood, but He, having died for our offenses, was raised again for our justification. Let us dwell on this great fact — the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. His resurrection was for the express purpose of our complete, abounding justification.

When Jesus was raised from the dead, He took to Himself that holy life He had and was. He could assume it in perfect righteousness, having glorified God, and having redeemed “the many” according to that glory, He could communicate to them (to us) that same eternal life — a justified life in unchanging and ever-subsisting righteousness. It will be very blessed if our souls understand this reigning, subsisting justification of life, though fully admitting that our life, as children of Adam, was forfeited.

Verse 17. “For if by one man’s offense 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.” (This verse closes the parenthesis begun in verse 13.) Can anyone deny that death reigns over Adam’s race through sin? Where is the physician that can stay the reign of death? Jesus says of His many, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” Death has positively no claim on those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. They reign in life by One — Jesus Christ. Nothing can stay the course of this grace; none can pluck them out of His hand.

Verse 18. “Therefore as by the offense of one [by one offense] judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one [by one act of righteousness] the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” The true sense of this verse is: by one offense came judgment toward all men; so, by one act of righteousness came the free gift toward all unto justification of life. It is, as in verse 19, the effect of the two acts — Adam’s sin and Christ’s obedience unto death—on the two “manys” — the two families. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

It is of the utmost importance to see that this justification of life is connected with, and results from, His resurrection from the dead. It is not written that He kept the law for our justification, but that God raised Him from the dead for that very purpose — for our justification. It is not and could not be our life in the flesh under the law that is justified; that could not be in any way. It is judged and set aside. The life that we have now before God is the life of one who has passed through death for us, and everything that the righteous claims of God had against us is fully met by that one death of our Substitute.

Christ is our life. Can there be a charge against Him, even as our Substitute? We have, then, through the abounding of grace, a life against which there is, and can be, no charge — therefore a justified life.

In Adam or in the flesh under law nothing can justify us or that sinful life. Death and judgment are written upon it. In Christ we have a life that reigns, a life completely justified, which nothing can condemn. As to our sins, we are accounted righteous — faith is reckoned as righteousness — and, being justified, we have peace with God. As to our sinful Adam nature, life and standing, we are no longer in it, but in Christ raised from the dead, and the eternal life we have in Him is justified life — in Him, how completely justified! It is of the utmost importance to lay fast hold of this — completely justified from our sins by Him, and, as in the new creation, completely justified in Him raised from the dead. It is wholly of God, both by and in Christ Jesus.

Dear young believer, do you know that you are no longer in Adam or connected with the old things that belong to him? The great point for you to see is this: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God” (2 Cor. 5:17-18). What a sad mistake would you make to go back or cling to the old things—law and a sinful nature — and suppose that anything would improve that nature or justify you under the law, now passed away! Mark, your righteousness and life is to you all new and all of God. What is of God must be perfect. Thus we are perfectly and forever justified in the risen Christ.

Verses 20-21. Oh, the marvelous free favor of God! Do you ask, Why was the law given, if man cannot be justified by it, or if it cannot give a justified life? “The law entered, that the offense might abound.” It may even have been so in your personal experience. It may have entered with killing power, and the more you have struggled to keep it, the more the offense has abounded. How you may have struggled to make the flesh holy, and the more you have struggled, the more you have failed.

“But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Do you believe God as to this? Can you now cease from works and rest in the boundless, free favor of God? “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign” — yes, and that “through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.” It is not grace alone that reigns, for that would be indifference to sin; neither is it righteousness alone, or the sinner must be condemned; but it is grace, through righteousness. Yes, it reigns on, on, unto eternal life.

But, if we are constituted righteous by and in Christ, entirely apart from any works of our own, sins being forgiven and sin not reckoned to us, a question is then raised as to practical righteousness — shall we continue in the practice of sin? The enemies of the grace of God always raise this question or put it as a charge, that those who hold the doctrines of the sovereign grace of God imply that they live in sin that grace may abound. The charge is as common in this day as it was by the Pharisees in that day against the Apostle. In the next chapter we have his inspired answer to the usual calumny. But rest assured, nothing short of this abounding grace can give rest to the soul.

Chapter 6

The question is: If grace has abounded over sins and sin — over all our iniquities which we have committed and over the sin we have inherited, and where sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded — is it true, then, that abounding grace leads to continuance in the practice of sin? From Paul’s day to this, the rejecters of the gospel have always said it is so. If you are completely justified, not by your own works, but in and by the subsisting, unchanging righteousness of God in Jesus Christ our Lord raised from the dead — then that implies you hold that you may be careless, and indeed may practice sin!

What does the Holy Spirit by the Apostle say as to this argument? “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” Far be the thought. “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Here is that principle of deliverance from sin so greatly ridiculed — deliverance from sin by death. Neither shall we find any other deliverance from sin in the Word of God. For centuries many sincere souls sought deliverance by fastings and seclusion in monasteries. Now many sincere souls seek it by trying for a false perfection of the flesh. But the truth of God is deliverance from sin by death.

Only mark, it is not the future death of our bodies, should we die, but this — “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” What does this mean, “we that are dead to sin”? Do you say, It may mean those who have attained to perfection? Is there such a thought? No, in order to show how assuredly this applies to all Christians, the Apostle says, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? 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” (vss. 34). So he carefully shows that this principle of deliverance from sin by death applies to all who have been baptized unto the death of Christ. Nothing could be more plain, and yet nothing is less known. It should surely be well understood, for the Apostle says, “Know ye not?”

Do you understand this great practical truth of deliverance from sin? Do you say, as one said to us a few days ago, We are all sinners and unfit for heaven; we must seek in every way to improve our sinful nature, but I fear it will never, in this world, be quite fit for heaven. Fit for heaven! Is a corpse fit for heaven? It is dead; it is not fit for heaven or earth. It must be buried. Do you bury it to make it suddenly or gradually perfect? It is a mass of corruption; there is no life in it, not a particle, nor can there be, until the putting forth of the power of God in resurrection.

Is it not so as to our whole moral being? Our neighbor, sincere as he is, is spending his life in seeking to improve himself — the flesh, by sacraments and ritual; he fears he will never be able to do it so as to be fit for heaven. How blind to that which even his baptism should teach him. The fact is, we do not believe God that we are as bad as He says we are — so bad, so vile, so loathsome, so offensive, so dead to all that is good, in the flesh as children of Adam. Have you ever said, I am only fit to be buried out of sight. Yes, bury me, bury me out of sight. I am not fit for heaven; I am not fit for earth. Oh, bury me out of the sight of God and out of my own sight? “Here is water,” said the eunuch, “what doth hinder?” (Acts 8:36).

Mark well, then, that deliverance from sin is not the improvement of self or an evil nature (the flesh), but “we are buried with Him by baptism into death.” We are not baptized unto the work of the Spirit in us, but unto His death who died for us and rose again. The death, then, that delivers from sin is not a death unto sin, which we attain to, but the death of Christ on the cross and our identification with it — “buried with Him.”

You will notice that there is no thought of baptism communicating life. Baptism is unto death, and beyond it is life in the risen Christ.

Christ not only died, but He was “raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.” How glorious the new creation! Christ, the beginning of that new creation, was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. “Even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Not only are old things passed away and all become new, but we are in that new creation by the glory of the Father. “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” The resurrection side of this subject is brought out more fully in Colossians 2, only here let us note that baptism unto His death is the chief point to show what all Christians should know — the truth of deliverance by death.

Verse 6. “Knowing this, that our old man is [or, has been] crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed [annulled], that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed [or, justified] from sin.” Now the question is this: Is the old man crucified when the believer attains to perfection, as it is called—that then the old nature ceases to exist, or is all turned good? There is no thought in this text of its being a state peculiar to some Christians, and not the state of others.

The very truth of our Christian position is that our old man has been crucified. When? In our experience? That is not the thought here, but, “Has been crucified with Him.” Surely that was on the cross. Not only did He, in infinite love, bare our sins on the cross, but our old man was fully judged there too. It is indeed made good to our souls’ experience when we become identified with this crucified Jesus, of which baptism is a figure. Are we thus identified with the death of Jesus? Not the improvement or restoration of our old nature, but can we look back to the cross, and say, There I was crucified with Christ? All that of which I might boast had to be crucified. Most assuredly this was so, that the body of sin might be annulled, made powerless, for a dead man is powerless, or he would not be dead.

We have seen how God justifies His people from their sins by the blood of Jesus. Now we see how He justifies them from sin, the root, or nature. “For he that is dead is justified from sin” (margin). Sins are forgiven, and now sin cannot be imputed to him that is dead; he is justified from sin.

But there would be no power for a holy life in merely being dead to sin. What true power is we shall find when we reach Romans 8, verse 2; only we must carefully notice that we are as truly identified with Christ risen, or more so, than we were identified with Him in death.

Verses 8-10. “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” The one follows the other. And this forever. “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.” He has nothing more to say to sin, or sin to Him. He was here once, and bore its utmost curse. He was made sin, or a sin offering. What sin? His own? He had none. Sin, our sin, has nothing more to say to Him, or He to it. It is all gone from the sight of God. He who was once under it, even unto death, now lives to God. Oh, precious, soul-sustaining truth! Sin can have no more to say to Him, and no more to say to us. Once identified with Him in death — more than identified, alive in Him forevermore. Oh, my soul, do you not believe God?

Verse 11. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through [in] Jesus Christ our Lord.” Is it, then, that the old nature, or sin, is eradicated, dead? Does it no longer exist in the believer? There is no such thought here. If it were really so, really dead, we should have no need to reckon it so. Did you ever hear that a corpse was reckoned dead?

We are so identified with Christ, that God wishes us to reckon ourselves dead with Him, and alive in Him. He wishes us to treat the old nature as if it were dead unto sin, and we alive in Christ risen from the dead; only, as we said, the latter ever goes beyond the former, for if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (the word “through,” in verse 11, should be “in”). We have peace with God, as to our sins, through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. But God, who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ, has also raised us up in Him, so that we are alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Nothing suits Satan’s purpose more than to set all this aside: both the finished work of Christ, by which we are justified from our sins, being identified with His death unto sin, and also the work of God, in raising us up in Christ and thus delivering us from sin and making us alive unto Him. Yes, instead of the plain truth of this scripture, deliverance from sin has been held out as a future attainment of the believer, attained only by some. This is the root of self-righteous perfection in the flesh.

What God says to us in these verses gives the only principle of deliverance from sin. All other methods are mere deception. But you say, I find my old nature is not dead as to fact. Just so, but you are to reckon yourself dead unto sin and alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord. We shall find much that follows to be the unfolding of this all-important principle. It will affect every step of our walk in this world. How ought we to walk to show our identification with a crucified Christ? Yes, we are crucified with Him. You may know many who walk as if they were dead to the things of God and His Christ, and fully alive to the world that crucified Jesus. May God use these solemn truths in sanctifying power to our souls!

Verse 12. “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” Far be the thought that you should practice sin that grace may abound. To live in sin is the very opposite of death to sin, as seen above. Dead with Christ, as professed in baptism, is surely not to live in sin. And now, also, we are alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. He does not say you are to reckon it extirpated (pulled up by the roots). If an enemy no longer existed in a country, there would be no need to say, Do not let that enemy reign.

Neither could you say, “That ye should obey it in the lusts thereof,” if there were no sinful lusts to subdue and to resist. But we are not to yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, “but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.” Yes, the very principle of a holy walk is our death with Christ and our being alive unto God. It is not for a moment to attain unto this state, but, reckoning ourselves thus dead, and alive again, we are so to walk. Conflict is clearly recognized, but there is deliverance.

Verse 14. “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Thus, having life in Christ, we can now look at sin, at our old sinful self, as an enemy, but an enemy that shall not have dominion. What a deliverance this is! To one who knows the utter vileness of the old nature, no words can sufficiently express the greatness of deliverance from the reign of sin. There may be sudden temptation—yes, failure — but sin shall not have dominion — it shall not reign.

Why shall not sin reign? Because you “are not under the law, but under grace.” The whole history of Christendom and the history of every individual believer proves the truth of this statement, and also its opposite. Just in proportion as the free favor of God through Christ Jesus is known and enjoyed, so is the deliverance from the slavery of sin, and we can live a holy life. The law can give no power to those under it; it can only curse them.

The moment you make the favor of God to be conditional, whether it be concerning the law of Moses or the precepts of the gospel, you begin at the wrong end and will soon find nothing but misery and doubt. You will say, I do not keep the commands of God as I ought, or, I do not love Christ as I ought, so am I a Christian at all? Now, is all that law or grace? Clearly it is law. The Word says that sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under that principle, but under grace. There surely can be no holiness of life, unless the heart be perfectly free, in the unbounded, free, unconditional favor of God.

Has He taken me up, an ungodly sinner, who deserved hell? Has He, in pure, unmerited love, given His Son to die for our sins? Has He raised Him from the dead for our justification? Has He given us eternal redemption through His blood? Have we thus peace with God, according to all that God is? Are we identified with Christ in all the merit of His death, and more, alive in Him to God — and all this absolute, free grace, the grace of Him who changes not?

Now I am alive to God, I can reckon myself, my old man, dead. Thus I am delivered from myself, to live to God. All unchanging grace to me, then I am not on the ground of law, or conditions for life, or salvation, or deliverance, but absolutely under grace, free and eternal. Oh, now I am free to serve the Lord in real separation from, and abhorrence of, evil. Oh, glorious truth! Sin shall not have dominion.

No doubt, dear young believer, many will tell you that such doctrine as that will lead you to sin as your old nature likes. “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid [or, far be the thought].” They who talk so have never known what the grace of God is, or what true liberty is — not liberty to sin, but liberty from sin.

Mark, these words are not to such as are trying to experience that they are dead to sin or dead with Christ and alive to God. They have made the profession in baptism that they are dead and buried with Christ, identified with Him in death. They reckon themselves dead unto sin and thus are justified from sin and alive to God. Oh, wondrous, almost forgotten, truth! Dead to sin — the only deliverance from sin.

But what deliverance would there be without life in Christ to God? How can you walk in newness of life if you have not got newness of life? If your old nature were placed under law, then, surely, sin would have dominion. But because God has given you a new life — and that His free gift — and now placed you in His own unchanging, boundless grace, “What then? shall we sin [that is, practice sin], because we are not under the law, but under grace?” Far be the thought.

We are quite sure that all who would put you under law have never yet truly known what the grace of God is. Do not forget that all this shows the connection there is between grace and practical holiness, or righteousness of walk. This is clear in the next verse.

Verse 16. “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?” Once we were the slaves of sin—“without strength.” Sin, as a slave-owner, was complete master. We have been redeemed freely from that condition, and delivered, by the death of Jesus, from that old master. It was then sin unto death. Which master do we obey, sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness? Are we alive to God in order that we should obey the old slave-master, sin? Is that the purpose of the grace of God? Far from it.

Now, can you apply verse 17 to yourself? “That ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you”? Now, do not shirk this point.

A slave is compelled to do what his owner bids him. He has no power to resist him; though he may hate the thing, he cannot refuse to do it. Have you known this awful slavery of sin? Had sin the mastery? Did you do the things you hated, and had you no power to escape that cruel master? God be thanked, we can own it was so, and, God be thanked, He met us there. What is that form of doctrine to which we were delivered? Was it not death with Jesus, as our baptism typified?

Have you obeyed it — identification with Christ in death — and in Him are alive from the dead? Then the word to you is this: “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants [or, slaves] of righteousness” (vs. 18).

Yes, this is how you changed masters, through perfect grace. While under sin, you were free from righteousness; now you are servants of righteousness and free from the slavery of sin. Yes, sin and righteousness are looked at as two masters. The Christian is perfectly free from the old tyrant. “So now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.”

It is quite true: man used the very law which God gave to prove his guilt to set up his own self-righteousness. Others may abuse the grace of God as license to sin. Yet it is most clear that the object the Holy Spirit has in unfolding these truths of infinite grace is that we may, as alive to God, yield our members servants to righteousness, unto holiness.

Verse 20. “For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.” Yes, that was our condition—slaves of sin. Oh how deep the shame upon us in all the terrible fruits of that slavery. But what a change!

Verse 22. “But now being made free from sin [that is, from the slavery, not from conflict], and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” We must carefully note: there is no thought here, either of improvement of the sinful nature or of perfection of that nature. No, death is not improvement.

The greatest of all mistakes about this chapter is to suppose that freedom from sin is a matter of attainment. It is by death — the death of Christ — and that is not our attainment. And reckoning ourselves dead with Him is not attainment. It is not by serving God that we become free from sin; that would be human merit. Is it not the exact opposite? Read the words carefully: “But now, being made free from sin, and become the servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness.”

Thus every Christian is made free from sin, and, “being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (vs. 18). It does not say, You became the servants of righteousness, and then you were made free from sin. There can be no true fruit unto holiness until we are made free from sin. These great truths will occupy us, if the Lord will, in chapter 7. In the meantime these are true, solemn facts!

Verse 23. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through [in] Jesus Christ our Lord.” What a gift! Oh, how few believe this! We have no hand in meriting this, or it would not be the gift of God.

Chapter 7

Chapter 6 told us of our deliverance. This chapter gives details about it. We will not understand the chapter unless we see this order, for the truth of chapter 6 must have its full place before we attempt to understand chapter 7. The Apostle had said, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” This is a very important statement, and the Apostle now explains how we have (that is, those who are under it) been delivered. He then describes the condition of a quickened soul under law before deliverance. This he does very fully, and finally takes up with joy the theme of deliverance, thus leading on to chapter 8.

Verse 1. First, how were those under law delivered from it? “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?” This fact shows the importance of the truth already brought out—identification with the death of Christ; reckoning ourselves dead with Him, and alive to God. For if those once alive under it were still alive under it, they must be responsible to fulfill its every jot and tittle, or it must curse them. Thus Christianity in that case would be valueless. Man would be still under the curse. The law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. His responsibility to law only ends in death. The law as to marriage proves this: death alone dissolves the tie of responsibility. While one husband lives, the wife cannot be to another. She would be an adulteress. This was self-evident to all who knew the law.

In like manner the believer cannot, so to speak, have two husbands. He cannot be alive in the flesh, married to the law (under law), and also be married to Christ. No doubt men say this must be so, that you must have both the law and Christ, but we are not explaining what men say, but Scripture. God tells us we cannot have Christ and law. As a wife is only free from the old husband by death, so we can only be delivered from the old husband, the principle of law, by death. Now while it is true we have not actually died, yet mark the importance of the truth we have learned in chapter 6 to reckon ourselves dead, identified with Christ in death. Only now this is seen in its special bearing with respect to law.

Verse 4. “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.” Thus they were as dead to the law by the body of Christ as though they had actually died. They pass from under its dominion into another, entirely new state. They have no more to say to the old husband, but enter into a new relationship, married to a new husband, to one raised up from among the dead, even Christ.

But would not great teachers tell you this is antinomianism, to be dead to the law, to have no more to say to it, or it to you? This, they say, would lead to bring forth fruit unto sin; it would be dreadful. But what does God say? He says all this is “that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” This is perfectly in keeping with what has gone before. “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” To be under the law is to be under its curse, for all are proved guilty (chapter 3). But now we are one with the risen Christ, sins forgiven and sin judged, that we may bring forth fruit unto God.

Verse 5. “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.” This verse determines the character of the teaching that follows. You cannot say, When we were in the flesh, unless you have been delivered from that state. You could not say, When we were in London unless you have left it. It is very important to understand this.

It is often asked, Is this part of chapter 7 the proper experience of a Christian? Certainly not, or it would not have said, “When we were in the flesh.” Yet it is, as we shall soon see, the experience through which most, if not all, Christians have passed. Then again, it is said to be the experience of the unconverted. Neither can this be, for they do not “delight in the law of God after the inward man” (vs. 22). It is evidently the experience of a quickened soul, born of God, having a new nature that delights in the law of God after the inward man, but one who is still under law, and has not yet learned what deliverance by death is.

It would be true to say that the experience described in verses 5-24 is the wretched experience of every person born of God if put under law. When we remember how many Christians are in that very condition, there is no wonder that so many are thus miserable.

We must understand the words “for when we were in the flesh” to mean while we were under the first husband, the law. The law can only have to say to man as alive. It so regarded man and commanded and required obedience, as regarding the one under it alive in the flesh. Once dead, all commands and requirements cease. You cannot tell a dead man either to love God or his neighbor, but being alive in a nature which can only sin, the command can only bring out transgression. The law might require righteousness, but as man was not righteous, it became a ministration of judgment and death. The Christian position is this: to reckon himself dead as to the flesh and alive to God — a wholly new life to God.

The whole subject will be greatly simplified if we keep these two things distinct: the old life or old nature, called the flesh (the ground on which man was tested under law), and the new life, or the new nature, which the believer has, even the very eternal life of the risen Christ. We have seen how we have been delivered from the slavery of sin by being dead to the one and alive in the other. It is not that sin is eradicated, but we are dead to it.

Verse 6. This same principle of death and resurrection-life in Christ is applied to the question of law. The law is not dead or abolished in itself, but we are dead to it: “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.”

The law did produce this truly miserable experience, but we are delivered from the law. Can you truthfully say so? It is most important to have this question settled before we examine that wretchedness from which we have been delivered. By the death and resurrection of Christ we are not only fully justified from our sins, but we have passed from one condition of sin and death into an entirely new condition; yes, into a new creation of life and righteousness. We have passed from what we were to what Christ is. We stood with Adam in sin and death; we now stand united, one with Christ in resurrection, where He is and what He is. “As He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). His very life is communicated to us. Being a new creation in Christ Jesus is as real now to faith as it will be shortly to sight.

This is full, complete justification from sins and sin and deliverance from all claims of law. Again we ask, Are you thus delivered? There must be this complete deliverance to serve in newness of life. Have you thus passed from the flesh — the Adam state — to Christ? Can you say, Yes, it is now all Christ? Do you say, The flesh is still there, and it is sin? That is true. The law is still there. Quite true. I have sinned. Yes, that also is true. But what did Christ die for? Was it not for both your sins and sin? Are you sinning now or delivered from sin? We shall see all this more fully brought out in chapter 8. We only press this point: It is a delivered soul who can understand the awful experience described in what follows.

The unconverted or the deceived Pharisee knows nothing of this bitter experience. Only when the new, holy nature has been implanted, and with it the deep soul-longing for true holiness, does the soul find no power in the flesh to do that which it longs to do. Yes, the law of sin and death is like a slave-master, and there is no power to escape. The more we attempt to keep the law, addressed to men as alive in the flesh, the deeper is the wretchedness of doing the very things the new and holy nature hates. Yes, that which would give no trouble to one unconverted, or rather to one not born of God, fills the quickened soul with intense misery.

Is this your state? If quickened and under law, we are sure it is in some degree. Oh, how much of the excitement and effort of this day is to drown out and help you to forget your misery. Well, do not despair; we believe everyone born of God passes more or less through this, and often those who pass through the deepest are those chosen to glorify God the most. We do not question that both equally mistake the chapter, those who make it the experience of an unconverted sinner and those who make it the proper experience of a Christian.

Verse 7. If left to ourselves, even when there is the new life (the new, holy nature implanted), we would naturally turn to the law and place ourselves under it. This is always the case where the Holy Spirit is not known. It is remarkable in these verses that the Holy Spirit is not once named. As we have said, there are few who do not pass through this experience, and those who have gotten deliverance can look back and see the great profit they derived from this exercise of heart.

The law is not sin, but by it we learn what sin is. The law exposes the root — sin — in us. “I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” When the new nature was given, the spirituality of the law was felt. A man without the new nature would say, Lust is not sin, unless you commit the very sin in transgression. But when the law comes home into the conscience, it detects the lust, and I say, Why, that is sin. Yes, the very lust is sin; that is, the nature is sin.

Verse 8. That nature, being sin, takes occasion by the commandment to work in me all manner of desire for that which is forbidden. “For without the law sin was dead.” It was inactive. Forbid a child to go into the garden, at once he desires to go, and, if will be at work, he goes. Now, not only may the nature be inactive, but I think that I am alive.

Verse 9. “For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” You never met a person, before he was quickened, but that person thought he was alive, and could do and live. Yes, he says, I thought I was alive without the law once. Ask a natural man, Are you saved? He will reply, I do not know; I hope so. I attend my place of worship, and I am doing the best I can, and I hope I shall be in heaven at last. Oh, yes, he says, I am alive. There is not a thought in his soul that he is lost. Not a word does he confess of the least need of a Substitute on the cross. If you will but ask, even professing Christians, you will get, where you least expect it, such an answer.

Now, the moment a soul is born of God, all this is changed. Why, he says, how is this — I have a nature that desires the very thing God forbids? He turns to the word of God’s law, and he dies to all hope of being in the flesh what he thought he was. “And I died.” Yes, now we have the hard death of the old “I.” He longs for holiness and turns to the commandments ordained to life — those who do it shall live in it (Ezek. 20:11) — but he finds it unto death. He finds sin has the mastery and uses the very commandment to slay him. Do not forget that this is “when we were in the flesh.” How the last hope of goodness in the flesh was driven out of us!

Verse 12. The law was of God; it was not bad or sin; it was “holy, and just, and good.” It was not death to me, but sin, that it might appear sin. Oh, to find that I—my nature — as a child of Adam was only sin, and that by the commandment it might and did become exceeding sinful.

Verse 14. The work in the soul goes deeper still. “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Yes, the law justly demands righteousness. What do I find in me? “I am carnal, sold under sin.” Do you know this? Have you learned it as a helpless slave of sin? That is all that the flesh is — a slave. I hate the thing I do. I find I have no power to do the thing I would, and all the while I own that the law is good and only requires of me what is good.

Verse 17. “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” This is a discovery. I learn that there is a nature, sin, still in me, yet I can look upon it as distinct from myself, the new “I.” Well, I say, What, then, is there in that old nature, the old “I”? There is not a bit of good in me, that is, in my flesh, my old nature.

Verse 18. “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.” This is very humbling, to find in myself as a child of Adam no power whatever to do good, but the very opposite. “For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” This is the true character of the old nature, even when the new nature desires to do good and to be holy as born of God. So it is not the new nature, the new “I,” that does evil, but it is the old nature that does the very thing the new nature condemns.

Verse 20. “Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it” — no longer what I am, as a new creature—“but sin that dwelleth in me.” Then there are two principles (two natures) in the man born of God. The principle of the old, depraved nature is called a law.

Verse 21. “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” This is the fixed principle of the old nature — “when I would do good, evil is present with me.” Yes, you say, that is just what I have found to my deep sorrow; indeed, it has made me almost conclude that I cannot have been born of God at all. Those who are not born of God never discover themselves to be half as bad as you find your old self to be. But do not the very next words prove that you are born of God, that you have a new “I,” or new nature?

“For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Surely this proves, beyond a doubt, that there are two natures, for how could the old nature, which is sin, delight in the law of God? But it is so. “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Well, you say, it seems like a contradiction. That is exactly what the two natures are to each other; yes, the old nature is in direct contradiction to that inward man which delights in the law of God. It says:

Verse 23. “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.” Thus, to deny the two natures in a man born again is to deny the plain teaching of the Word of God. Did not Jesus say, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”? Thus it is a wholly new birth, new nature, new creation, which is of the Spirit and is spirit. That which is born of a sinful flesh, or nature, is, remains what it is—flesh, or sin.

Here we learn, if under law — that is, if we are on the ground of the flesh, under law for its improvement, as thousands are — then we find, in the war of the two natures, that we are brought into “captivity to the law of sin which is in [our] members.” It is a terrible fact, but the utter badness of our old nature must be learned practically, if we do not believe what God says about it. But if all this be the case, a man born of God, under law not knowing the distinction of the two natures, must be extremely wretched if sincere and earnestly longing for holiness and righteousness of life. That is just what we find.

Verse 24. “O wretched man that I am!” It is now no longer, Who shall help me to improve the flesh? but, “who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Yes, self, the old man, the body of this death, must be given up. We must have a deliverer, and that deliverer is Christ.

Verse 25. “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Few words, but, oh, what a glorious deliverance and victory! After arriving at the full discovery of my utter helplessness and the unchangeable badness of the old nature, the eye is now lifted up to Christ and the heart swells up in the full joy of thankfulness. This deliverance will be more fully explained in the next chapter.

There is one mistake often made here, against which we must most carefully guard. It is often said, or implied, that what we have seen as to the old nature, the flesh, the law of sin in the members, is all quite true of a believer before he gets deliverance, but after that, it is changed or eradicated — at all events, greatly improved, suddenly or gradually sanctified — and that there is no such evil nature left in the delivered or sanctified saints. Is this so, or is it not so? Let the very next words, after our deliverance and thanksgiving, determine this important question.

Verse 25. “So then with the mind [or, new man] I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh [the old nature] the law of sin.” We are no longer on the ground of the flesh, as alive under law, seeking to improve the flesh — no longer in the flesh. But that the flesh remains in the delivered saint is stated in the strongest possible way — in the very person that with the new mind or nature serves the law of God. But the flesh and the law of sin still remain in me. We may cavil and reason and ridicule, but here is the truth of Scripture and what every believer finds to be true. So we need preserving, spirit, soul and body, blameless.

Place that old nature under law, try to find some good in it, and immediately find our experience to be as here described.

One question more, before we leave this subject. How is it that so many Christians are in this experience? Simply because, though born of God, they are through false or defective teaching placed under law and have never known the true character of deliverance. Let us, then, inquire what that deliverance is.

Chapter 8

Verse 1. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” What a wonderful statement! It is not a question merely of what will be the justification of the believer when manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, but “now” there is nothing to condemn those who are in Christ Jesus. If I look at myself in the flesh, it is, “O wretched man that I am!” If I look at what I am in Christ Jesus, there is now no condemnation. I am dead to what I am as a child of Adam; I am dead to sin and dead to law, but I am alive to God in Christ Jesus. Thus, being in and to another, to Christ Jesus raised from the dead, it is not only to bring forth fruit unto God, but “there is therefore now no condemnation.” Do you get hold of this? Is there any condemnation possible to that risen Christ in the glory of God? Then, if you are in Him, how can there be condemnation to you?

The next words, “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,” are omitted in the best translations; we shall find them, however, as a result, in verse 4. Here they have at some time been inserted as a condition, or guard.

We would linger over and press this first verse as the very foundation of deliverance. No soul can know deliverance from the power of sin that does not first know the unclouded favor of God in Christ. How marvelous, after such a chapter of bitter experience, after coming to the utter end of all hope of good in self, the old nature, to find that as dead with Christ and alive from the dead in Christ we are in the unclouded favor of God, without condemnation! What perfect peace! Nothing to disturb, nothing to condemn. It is God who speaks the word—“no condemnation.” Dear young believer, is this the solid foundation on which, and in which, you stand?

Verse 2. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” We have seen the terrible law or power of sin; have we not also known and felt it? But what new law, or power, or principle, is this? Is it the power of my new nature as born of God? No; though, as such, I did delight in the law of God, but that did not make me free from the law of sin, as we have seen. But this law does — the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This is God the Holy Spirit dwelling in us; it is not now death, but the Spirit of life.

As we have seen in chapter 5, we have a justified life. In this chapter we find that we have power — the law of the Spirit of life. Elsewhere we learn that the life we now have is eternal. The Spirit is eternal; so the power we have is eternal. We have seen that the flesh, or sin, is still in us, but here is deliverance from its power. We are made free from the law of sin and death, made free by infinite, eternal power — the law of the Spirit of life. It is not that it “will” make me free, but, it “hath” made me free.

So terrible is our depraved, old, sinful nature, that, though born of God, delighting in the law of God and longing to keep it, yet the law of sin in my members brought me into captivity. Has it not been so? But now we are made free from its power by a greater power—the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

This verse sums up the whole of chapter 6. It is the principle of reckoning ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God in Jesus Christ, applied by the power of the Spirit. Oh, for more simple faith in the Word of God; yes, and also in the Holy Spirit dwelling in us!

Many a young reader may have this difficulty in passing through the experience of the utter badness of the flesh, as described in chapter 7. He may say, I see how my sins were forgiven me, but I have found since that the old nature I have is so utterly bad that I have found no power to keep the law of God, however much I have desired to do so. I have found to my surprise an evil nature, a law of sin, that has held me captive. The law I longed to keep could only curse me, for my very nature — sin in the flesh — only did that which I hated and condemned. How, then, can you tell me there is no condemnation? We will look at the next verse for an answer.

Verse 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 for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Here is what the law could not do, and what God has done. The law could not deliver from either the guilt or the power of sin. It was weak either to deliver or to help man in the flesh, for the flesh was sin, and if it acted under law, it could only transgress, even in one quickened and longing for deliverance.

Now consider this question: Is deliverance a matter of apprehension of truth or mere knowledge of truth? Israel’s deliverance from Egypt answers that question. Like a quickened soul, they believed the word of God through Moses and Aaron (Ex. 3:7-10; 4:31-32), and they longed for deliverance (ch. 5:13). They, as it were, passed through the experience of Romans chapter 7 in the brick-kilns of Egypt and became more wretched than ever, not delivered at all. Was it, then, increase of knowledge or apprehension that delivered them? Did the knowledge of the promises in Exodus 6 deliver them? Did the further knowledge of the providential favor of God (chapters 7-11) deliver them? Not in the least. They were delivered truly on the ground of redemption, but it was by the power of God.

There was no power in the holy law of God to deliver. Its only prerogative was to curse the guilty. In Romans 8:2 we have the power that has set us free from the law of sin and death. In verse 3 we have the helplessness of the law to deliver through the weakness of the flesh, and then how God has delivered and the ground on which deliverance is wrought.

How can there be no condemnation to me, seeing the flesh is so utterly vile? By “God sending His own Son” to deliver. Just as when all had failed to deliver from Egypt, the lamb was brought forth and slain. The Israelite, though not yet delivered, was completely sheltered by the blood. So the ground of deliverance is “God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin [or, a sacrifice for sin], condemned sin in the flesh.” He was not only delivered for our iniquities and raised again for our justification as we have already seen, but the atoning death of the sent Son of God was for sin—the very root. Both sins and sin having been judged and condemned, there is therefore nothing, positively nothing, left to condemn.

On the ground of the atoning work of the Son, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus gives complete deliverance. As deliverance from Egypt was being brought out of the place or condition of bondage into the condition of liberty, so the believer is by the Spirit of life brought out of one place or condition called “in the flesh” into another place or condition called “in Christ,” sin having been perfectly judged by the holy Son of God being made sin for us. This was done, not that we should continue in bondage, but be free, delivered, that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Israel was in bondage, then she was set free, delivered, to serve Jehovah. So we, after we were quickened, were still in bondage to the flesh, or under law. Having learned the utter badness of the flesh and our powerlessness over it, we no longer seek its improvement. We are no longer in it, but in Christ, made free by the Spirit. We are now to walk after the Spirit, and the Spirit will act in us in power on the ground of the work of Christ.

Verse 5. The flesh is given up by those “who walk not after the flesh.” Another position is taken by those who walk “after the Spirit.” There are, so to speak, two parties. “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.” The one is death; the other is life. Further, the mind of the flesh is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (vs. 7). It follows that they who are on that ground of “in the flesh” cannot please God.

Have you, dear young believer, come to that conclusion—that your old nature, the flesh, sin, is utterly incapable of pleasing God? It is a root that only bears evil, however you seek to improve it. It is only enmity against God. Do not listen to that abominable sentiment that lust is not sin unless you commit it in act. Sin is the very root of lust, as we see in chapter 7, verse 8. No, this very root had to be judged, and the infinite sacrifice was for sin. “For He hath made Him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). On this ground alone we are delivered from the guilt and condemnation due to our sin, the flesh, and on this ground we are no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

Here comes in a deeply interesting and important question for both young and old believers. When and how may we conclude, or know, that we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit? Let us look at it most carefully. While there is no doubt about the final result — “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” — yet there are different stages of the work of God in the soul, as we have seen typified in Israel’s redemption.

Verse 9. This verse will answer our question, When may we conclude we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit? “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” Plainly, if the Spirit of God dwells in you, you may safely conclude you are not in the flesh. Is there, then, a distinct stage between the quickening, or new birth, of a soul and the dwelling of the Spirit of God in us? Yes, be it long or short, Scripture bears out the fact in every case. Consider the case of Cornelius and his company, as well as the baptized believers at Samaria who did not receive the Holy Spirit until the apostles came down from Jerusalem.

Cornelius was evidently a quickened soul, and all his house (Acts 10:2), but he was not delivered, and hence it was that he was in the flesh until the word came with the power of the Holy Spirit and then the Holy Spirit Himself (Acts 10:44). This, then, is the question: “Have ye received the Holy Spirit?” If not, though quickened, you are still in the flesh, seeking its improvement — it may be by works of law. Cornelius could not be said to be a Christian until he received the Holy Spirit; neither can you, in the full sense of the word, until you have received the Spirit. “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”

We met an aged man the other day who said he had been in Egypt thirty years. Where are you, reader — in bondage or delivered? In the flesh or in the Spirit? This is not a question to be trifled with.

Verse 10. “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin.” This does not imply sin eradicated or the evil nature improved. If the doctrine of perfection in the flesh were true, the body could neither be dead, nor could it die, for by sin came death. We see the effect of sin in the body, even death. “But the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” There is death on account of sin; there is life on account of righteousness — not ours, but the righteousness of God, accomplished by the death of His Son for us.

Verse 11. “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from [among] the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from [among] the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Is the body, then, to remain dead because of sin? No. How complete the victory of Christ! The redemption of our bodies is thus certain. Does the Spirit of God dwell in us? Then the quickening of our mortal bodies is certain.

We are not, then, in the flesh, though it is in us, but we are not debtors to it, to live after it. The end of sin, or flesh, is death. It is ever ready, we find to our sorrow, to act in the body. “But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” If our old nature was not still left ready to act, we should not need to mortify the deeds of the body. It is not mortifying the body, but the deeds of the body. The great thing to see is that it is through the Spirit. This is fully brought out in Galatians 5:16-25.

Verse 14. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Jesus said, “And the servant abideth not in the house forever: but the Son abideth ever” (John 8:35). We are not in bondage, but in the wondrous liberty and privileges of the Son. Was not this His first message by Mary in resurrection? “Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God” (John 20:17). “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons [children] of God” (1 John 3:1).

What is the proof of all this? “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” It is also said, “But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Gal. 5:18). Assuredly the Spirit cannot lead us under that ministration of law which is done away. (See 2 Cor. 3:7-18.) As we have seen all along, for a believer to be placed under, or led under, law is to be under the ministration of death and the curse. The Spirit will ever lead us to behold the glory of the Lord and to be changed into the same glory. The Spirit gives liberty, not bondage. Which is your portion — the liberty of the sons of God, or the bondage of the servant, the slave? The sons do not cease to be sons and become slaves again.

Verse 15. “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.” Can a son cease to be a son? Can Christ, the Son, cease to be the Son? Have we not heard from His lips that God is our Father, even as He is His Father? That relation can never change, can never cease to be. Oh, the riches of His grace! We, who are conscious that we only deserved His eternal wrath, are brought into such an unchanging relationship — the sons of God — one spirit with the Son — not bondage or fear again, but the Spirit of adoption. Do we now cry, as sinners far from God, Have mercy upon us? No, but, Abba, Father. Mark, this is the very special witness of the Spirit.

Verses 16-17. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the 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 together.” Yes, the two great facts of which the Spirit bears witness are these: in this scripture to our abiding sonship and heirship, and in Hebrews 10 that we are perfected forever (continuously) by the one sacrifice of Christ, so that God will not remember our sins any more. Nothing is more frequently denied, or at least doubted, than these two blessed facts.

Yes, it is a fact that we, if believers, are perfected forever. It is also a fact that we are joint-heirs with Christ. And if joint-heirs of all the coming glory of Jesus, the Son of Man, do not overlook these few words, “If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.” That this was the case, see the whole history of the Acts. The world, and especially the religious part of it, hated the disciples of Christ, as they hated the Lord. They suffered with Him.

How is it that it is not so now? Because the religious world now pretends to be Christian, and, alas! we sink very much to its level. But, in proportion as we are led by the Spirit, we shall certainly suffer the world’s hatred. Do you, beloved reader, know anything of being led by the Spirit, or are you led by the organizations and plans of the religious world? If so, is there any wonder that you should be a stranger both to the enjoyed relationship of a child of God and to suffering for Christ’s sake? Can you say you are led by the Spirit in your daily life — your shop, your business — or are you led simply by the maxims of the world? If so, you grieve the Spirit, and cannot enjoy the blessed relationship of sons of God — joint-heirs with Christ. It is a wonderful thing to have the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, always abiding with us, well able to take care of us, and all our interests here below, as the children of God. Oh, to be led at all times by Him.

We cannot overestimate or overstate the work of the Spirit, whether in us, as verses 2-13, or His work for us, verses 14-27. Then, to the end of the chapter, we shall find God for us, in all His eternal and absolute sovereignty — blessed, ultimate purpose of God, that we may be also glorified together with Christ. Yes, let us remember this is the end God has in view, in all our sufferings and afflictions. Let every reader, however, know that if he has not the Spirit of Christ, if that does not characterize him, he is none of His. And, further, if he is not suffering with Christ, it is most questionable whether he is a joint-heir of Christ, led by the Spirit.

Refuse to be led by the Spirit, and you may have the honors and applause of the religious world. If led of the Spirit, you will certainly be despised, as Christ was despised, and it will be your happy privilege to suffer with Him. But, oh, the glory so soon to be revealed in us. What a contrast — to be led by the Spirit, or to be led by the fashions of this world. Oh, how many there are who will sacrifice eternity for the fashions of this poor, deceived world, and all the while, pretend, yes, think themselves Christians. Fatal delusion! If this should be the state of any reader of these lines, may God use these words to awaken him out of this delusive slumber. Surely we all need these searching words: “If so be that we suffer with Him.”

Verses 18-19. “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. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Who ever was better able to reckon on this matter than Paul? Bonds and imprisonments awaited him in every city — a life of constant suffering with Him he so loved to serve; yet he says, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Indeed, even “the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” What a solution of the perplexing paradox of all creation! The groans of battlefields shall cease; the misery, poverty and degradation of the multitude shall pass; the sufferings of creation shall come to an end.

Verse 21. “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” What a day that will be! Yes, creation must share in the glorious liberty. “He tasted death for every thing.” It is a pleasant thought. If misery and death have reigned so long, and man’s sin so affected creation, even so the emancipation of creation shall be the result of the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

Verse 22. “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 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.” Mark, it is not for the salvation of our souls that we wait and hope, but for the redemption of the body. It may be from the grave, or it may be we shall be changed in a moment. It will be at the coming of the Lord.

As to the body, even we have no relief from groaning and suffering, until the coming of our Lord. We see not that yet, and therefore we wait and hope. It is a fatal mistake to suppose all this means that we do not know we have salvation; on the contrary, we know we have eternal life — “He that believeth hath eternal life.” There is no waiting or hoping for that. But we can wait in patience for the redemption of the body.

Verses 26-27. “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. 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.” This is very blessed for us. He knows all that concerns not only us, but the plans and purposes of God. It may be a few days or years until the redemption of the body. He surely knows what is suited for us in such circumstances. God who hears knows what is the mind of the Spirit. If we do not pray in the Spirit, we shall be sure to ask for things quite inconsistent with the dispensation or period in which we live.

We now enter upon the third and last division of our chapter.

Verse 28. We may not always be able to understand, but we can say, “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.” We know this because God is absolutely for us. This is brought out in the end of the chapter for “them who are the called according to His purpose.”

God has not called us on account of any good in us, or any purpose in us. Let us carefully mark what His purpose was, for His call is the result of His purpose. This is His purpose: “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.” He foreknew whom He should call, and He predestinated them, those whom He called to this glorious destiny, to be like, that is, to be conformed to the image of His Son. What a purpose that His Son should be the firstborn among many brethren! How great the privilege to be called to share this place of glory!

Verse 30. Let us not alter a single word to suit human thoughts or reason. “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.” Here all is of God, who cannot fail. This is His order: predestinated, called, justified, glorified. From eternity to eternity, what a golden chain! What solid comfort to the sorely tempted children of God! Has He called us? Then that proves He had predestinated us, and He has justified us, and will not fail to bring us to glory. Faith will surely trust Him. Unbelief would gladly let Satan reason all this foundation-truth away.

Now, “what shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” Yes, if God be thus for us, who is he and what is he that can be against us? See how God condescends to reason with us.

Verse 32. “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?” What a question! Thus it is manifested that all things must work together for good to us, since God spared not His own Son. What infinite and eternal love to deliver Him up for us all! We can expect all things according to the immensity and character of that love.

Verse 33. Since it is God in His righteousness, as has been seen in this epistle, who is the Justifier, “God that justifieth,” “who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Who is he that condemns? If God is our Justifier, can any creature condemn us? It was God who showed His acceptance of our ransom by raising Jesus from the dead for our justification. God delivered Him up for us all, and He raised Him from the dead for the justification of us all, and He is the unchanging righteousness of all God’s elect. “Who is he that condemneth?” God cannot condemn us without condemning Him who was raised from the dead to be our righteousness. Our justification could not be more perfect, for it is all of God. Our justification, then, is complete and settled for eternity.

There is just one other question. Can any possible circumstance alter the love of Christ or the love of God in Christ to us? It is a serious question, for many doubt the love of Christ unless they in some way continue to deserve it. Is it not a great mistake to suppose that we ever did, or do, or shall deserve that love? But does the Spirit of God set before us our deservings?

Verses 34-39. How beautiful and simple: He sets Christ before us. Let us follow the word sentence by sentence. “Christ that died.” Did He die for us because we deserved His love? Was ever love like His, and for us when dead in trespasses and sins? “Yea rather, that is risen again.” View Him risen from the dead as the beginning of the new creation, for this express purpose — for our justification — and all when we deserved eternal wrath. “Who is even at the right hand of God.” He who bore our sins, and was made sin for us, our Representative, is at the right hand of God, as it were in possession of that place for us.

Now the enemy who deceived Eve would just step in here and say, That is all true if you never sin after your conversion, but if any man who is a Christian should sin, then surely that sin will separate him from the love of Christ. Dear young believer, mind your shield is not down when the devil gives you this thrust. Precious answer, “Who also maketh intercession for us.” Yes, “He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). From how many sins does that intercession preserve us! But to the point, if a child of God, through not being watchful, should sin, will He still plead in His own infinite, unchanging love the cause of the failing one? “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:12). Yes, even then, in unchanging love, He is the same Jesus, “who also maketh intercession for us.” Thus all is of God and cannot fail.

Read now the whole list in these verses, and let us, with the Apostle, be persuaded that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” There is no condemnation to those whom God justifies (whom He accounts righteous). There is no separation from the infinite and eternal love of God to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Chapter 9

It will be noticed that there is now a change in the epistle. The next three chapters form a parenthesis. The righteousness of God has now been fully revealed and explained in His dealings with both Jew and Gentile, bringing them to Himself. Both were alike guilty and now both alike justified, so that there is no condemnation and no separation from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. But if this be so, what becomes of all the special promises to Israel in the prophets? This is the subject taken up in these three chapters.

Had the Apostle, who had so clearly brought out this truth of no difference now in God’s dealings with both, ceased to love the nation of Israel? No, his love for them was so intense that, like Moses of old, he had, as it were, been beside himself. He says, “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” In some cases, that intense love carried him beyond the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:22; 21:4). The Lord bore with His devoted servant and overruled all for good — ours at least — though Paul suffered imprisonment and death. How much this must have added to his grief of heart — to be hated and persecuted in every city by those he so deeply loved. How like his Lord, whom he so devotedly served.

Verse 4. He owns their full national privileges. “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.” What privileges! They were the adopted nation with whom God had dwelt in the tabernacle. These privileges were never given to any other nation. The eternal God had become incarnate, taking flesh from that nation. All this is fully allowed. He who is over all, God blessed forever, as to the flesh, the body, He was born of Mary, of the royal seed of that nation.

But now another principle is brought out. God had unquestionably made a difference even in the seed of Abraham. The seed of Abraham were not all the elect, adopted children of promise, “but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” “The children of the promise are counted for the seed.” A multitude sprang from Abraham, but Ishmael was rejected, and in Isaac alone was the chosen seed.

There was the same purpose of God in the election of Jacob. It was said unto Rebekah, “The elder shall serve the younger.” It was also written hundreds of years after by Malachi, “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau.” This matter of the free, sovereign favor of God is of great moment for Paul’s explanation, and no one who believed the Scriptures could doubt it, in the cases referred to above, and God had said to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” Surely then, God had a sovereign right to show mercy to the Gentiles, the very thing that so offended the Jews. It is remarkable how those who say they are Jews now or take Jewish ground always dispute the sovereign grace of God.

Verse 16. Many learned men deny divine sovereignty, but God is wiser than men. We must not forget that man is proved by the cross to be at enmity with God. He has no desire, naturally, toward God. “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” This is very humbling, but surely true.

Verse 17. Pharaoh is given as an example of the wickedness of man and of God’s just judgment upon him. How long God bore with his daring infidelity and rebellion, until, in the just government of God, he was given up, hardened, to his own destruction. Let every rebel against God beware, lest Pharaoh’s doom be his own. Pharaoh was a blasphemer. He said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go” (Ex. 5:2).

Let the scoffer of this day beware, lest his heart be hardened against the Lord, to his eternal destruction. “Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.” Men may say, If that is the case, “why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will?” Did not Pharaoh resist God? Have not you resisted and refused God? “Who art thou that repliest against God?”

Has the mere creature, the thing formed, a right to question, “Why hast Thou made me thus?” Nay, has God formed me thus? Far from it. Is He the Author of man’s rebellion and sin? Mark, it is not a statement, but a question — “Hath not the potter power over the clay?” Is not God sovereign? It does not say He has made some unto dishonor. His wrath against all ungodliness is made known, but how long has He first endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? Did not Pharaoh fit himself to destruction? So of every sinner.

It is, however, most blessedly true that He prepares beforehand the vessels of mercy unto glory. As to that, it is all sovereign favor, according to the riches of His glory. “And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory.” Man fits himself unto destruction, as the Jews were doing. God fits the vessels of mercy to glory.

Verse 24. “Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles,” quoting Hosea as proof of this: “I will call them My people, which were not My people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.” Thus he proves from their own prophet that mercy should be shown to the Gentiles.

Then he quotes from Isaiah and shows that it is only a remnant of Israel that shall be saved. Yes, “except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.” Surely their rejection of Jesus, whom God had made both Lord and Christ, proved their guilt could not be greater. But human perversity went beyond even rejection. They killed the Just and Holy One of God, and even then clung to the law of righteousness.

Verse 30. “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.” The Jews sought righteousness by keeping the law, but never reached it. Is it not so to this day? All who take Jewish ground and seek to be righteous by keeping law — no matter what law — never reach it. They never can be sure they are sufficiently righteous for God to justify them, thus they never attain to peace with God. The more religion an unconverted man has, the more difficult it is for the gospel to reach him. Why did they not attain to righteousness or justification? “Wherefore? because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone.”

How did the Gentiles arrive at righteousness and peace with God? They heard the glad tidings of mercy to them, through the Redeemer’s blood; they believed God; they were justified; they had, believing God, peace with God. Is it not even so now? The gospel is heard by a person brought up under law, hoping, some day, to keep it so as to be righteous, and then hopes in another world after the judgment-day to have eternal life and peace with God. Often filled with gloomy doubts — even foreboding of eternal wrath — he tries human expedients such as a priesthood to whom he unburdens, if sincere, the darkness of his soul, the weight of his sins and the dread of the future. Does he attain to a righteousness that fits him for the presence of God? Never. Will any other religious expedient give this blessed peace with God? Not one.

How different, when a poor, guilty, ignorant, heavy-laden sinner hears the gospel and believes it like the Gentiles of old! They had not the law and did not seek righteousness by its works. They heard the sweet story of the love of God to sinners such as they. They heard how God had pitied them — yes, had given His beloved Son to die for them. He had died, the Just for the unjust, and God had raised Him from the dead. They heard the glad tidings of forgiveness of sins through Him. They heard, they believed and they were justified from all things. They had peace with God.

Have you so heard, so believed? Are you thus justified? If so, have you not peace with God? Our next chapter will bring all this out more fully.

Chapter 10

Here the Apostle pauses a little. It is the pressure of his heart’s love. “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” They had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. He was greatly distressed at the troublers, who sought to pervert the Galatians. He even longed that they would cut themselves off. But how he grieved over the mass of deceived Jews. Are we so grieved for the mass around us? Can we say our heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they might be saved?

Verse 3. “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.” You will remember the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. (See ch. 1:17; 3:21-25.) Thus the Jews who rejected the gospel of necessity remained in ignorance of that righteousness. Thus it is at this day that all who refuse the revelation that God is just and yet the Justifier of the ungodly must, if at all anxious to be saved, seek to establish their own righteousness and thus refuse to submit to the fact that God is righteous in justifying freely through the redemption in Christ Jesus.

The father’s meeting of the prodigal in Luke 15 illustrates this subject. The prodigal, like the poor Gentile, had come to himself. The whole parable is most striking: the shepherd had come to seek the lost sheep, and, as we know, died for it. The Holy Spirit has been sent down from heaven and seeks the lost. Now the father has his full joy in receiving the lost son. He, the father, came to meet him.

Deep exercise of conscience had taken place in the prodigal. A sense that there was plenty in the father’s house and a readiness to confess his sin marks the Spirit’s work in him. But as yet he was ignorant of the best robe. He hoped to be a servant, like every human heart, but was totally ignorant of all that was in store for him. He had his rags, his guilt, his shame. He owned all this to his father. Had he a robe for the father? He had nothing but rags. Did the father tell him he must make a robe, a garment to fit him for his house? No. The father had a robe for him.

Oh, look at the father: “When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” This is how God meets the repentant sinner in his rags, without a robe. The father said, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.” Thus joy fills the heart of God to receive the lost sinner.

What about the elder brother? He prefers to work out a righteousness of his own. What a contrast! A sad and fatal mistake for him! The prodigal had no robe for the father. He had nothing but rags and sin. The Father had the best robe, the righteousness of God, for the prodigal. Yes, and the ring for his hand, everlasting love, and the walk provided for, shoes for his feet. All things were new and all were of God.

Israel, like the elder brother, would not have this compassion and righteousness of God. Indeed, they were ignorant of it. “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.” They had followed after the law of righteousness; they had tried to keep the law so as to be righteous. They had tried to make a robe to bring to God, but were ignorant of the best robe that God had to give to them.

Is this your case? Are you trying to work out a righteousness to bring to God? Do you say, Must I not try to keep the law so as to be good and be fit for the presence of God? Do you not see your mistake? Are you not trying to bring the robe to God? What then is the best robe?

Verse 4. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Yes, Christ is the best robe — the end of all the requirements, and all the sacrificial types of the law. God has made Him to be unto us righteousness. We need no other to go into the presence of God our Father. Practical righteousness before men is another question, but not the subject here.

Verse 5. “Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.” But the prodigal had not done these things. We have not done these things. We are guilty and have no righteousness to bring to God. But believing God, He can, and does reckon us righteous, and that by a work done, not something which has to be done. Christ does not now need to come down from heaven to die on the cross. He has already come and died for our sins. He does not need to be raised from the dead; he has been raised. All is done; it is finished.

Just as the father met the prodigal, “the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart…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.” This is what Israel would not do. They would not confess that God had made that same Jesus, whom they had rejected and crucified, both Lord and Christ. They would cling to the law for righteousness, and they would not in their hearts believe on Christ as their righteousness before God. How many are doing the same today! They will seek to be righteous, but never attain to it. They never know the righteousness of God in justifying them the moment they believe.

Verse 11. Now the Apostle quotes their own scripture in proof. “For the Scripture saith, whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” This proves there must be a time when the no-difference doctrine should be in force. “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek [or, Gentile]: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him” (Rom. 10:12). “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered” (Joel 2:32). What a blessed fact is this: all, whether Jew or Gentile, that really come to the Lord, calling on Him, are as sure of a welcome as was the prodigal.

Which do you prefer? If it were possible, would you prefer that you had never sinned and that you had a righteousness fit to bring unto God, thus bringing your own robe to God, or, owning all that you are and have done as a hell-deserving sinner, confess with your mouth and believe with your heart the Lord Jesus as your ever-subsisting righteousness before God? We cannot abhor ourselves too much, but, oh, His deep compassion to meet us just as we are, and clothe us with the best robe, the ring and the shoes.

How is this righteousness of God made known? Read verses 14-15 for the answer. It is by hearing the word, the sent gospel of peace. What glad tidings! Those who sought righteousness by law hated those good tidings and the preachers of the gospel. It is exactly so to this day, by all who say they are Jews and are not. Is it not a most astounding fact that man should hate and reject his greatest good, the gospel of peace? He will try or hope to try someday to make his own peace with God. But he will not have the peace made by the blood of Jesus — the peace preached to them that are afar off and them that are nigh. Yes, peace is proclaimed to all.

Verse 16. “But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?” The word of the gospel was preached to all Israel: but they would not believe it. It is preached now, perhaps as it never was before, to all Christendom, but they will not believe it. We shall see the final result of all this in the next chapter.

Verse 20. God has His own, in spite of all man’s perverseness, whether Jews or Gentiles, as Isaiah boldly said, “I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me.” Thus has the Apostle proved from their own Old Testament scriptures two things: no difference, and the sovereignty of God. Whosoever, Jew or Gentile, shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved — and oh, blessed soul-sustaining truth, He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. Was Israel then lost because God was not willing to save them? “But to Israel He saith, All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.” They would not come unto Him. They refused the best robe, the ring and the shoes. May this not be the case with the readers of these lines. He who comes unto Him shall not be cast out.

Chapter 11

“I say then, hath God cast away His people? God forbid.” Paul himself was a proof of this, for he was an Israelite. “God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew.” It is not God who has rejected His ancient people: “He saith, All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.” It is important to see this side of the truth — the perfect readiness of God that Israel — no, that all men — should be saved. It is man who is the rebel, the breaker of the law and now the rejecter of the mercy of God.

Verse 3. But then there is the other side also. When Israel had so rebelled against God, Elijah said that he alone was left. He said: “Lord, they have killed Thy prophets, and digged down Thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.” Here we have the deep, universal rejection and hatred of man against God. This is man in the full exercise of his own will. But has God left all men to their own free choice and wicked course?

“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.” God does not say they have reserved or preserved themselves; no, He says, “I have reserved.” Just as we have seen in chapter 9, if God had not done this, they would all have been as Sodom and Gomorrha.

Verse 5. “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” Yes, at that very time none could deny that the nation, as such, was mad in its hatred and rejection of Christ. Saul himself was a proof of the exceeding madness of the Israelites against Christ. But, just as in the days of Elijah, there was then an election of grace, of free, unmerited favor of God.

Dear young believer, you will be greatly tempted to reject this abounding, electing, free favor of God. In this day few heartily believe it. We would have you embrace it with your whole soul. Is it not evident that both Israel and we Gentiles are so bad, such utter rejecters of the grace of God, that, if it had not been for His election, in grace, none would have been saved. All, yes all, would have been like Sodom.

The total ruin of man and the election of God stand or fall together. You cannot truly hold the one and reject the other. Mark, these scriptures show there is no unwillingness on God’s part, but man will not have the grace of God. When this is seen, how precious to the believer is the blessed truth of the election of grace!

Verse 6. “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” This is self-evident. Salvation by works, of whatever kind, must set aside the free favor of God. Do you stand in the free, full, everlasting favor of God, or are you seeking to attain to it by works?

Verses 7-10. Israel sought favor by works, but “Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for.” With all their hatred of God, as revealed in Christ, they were at the same time zealous of the law and seeking righteousness by works. Rejecting the free favor of God, they never would obtain it by works. On this very account their city was destroyed and they were scattered or slain. “But the election hath obtained it,” that is, the free favor of God in which they stood. As to the rest, the rejecters of free, unmerited favor, they “were blinded.” And the Old Testament scriptures are abundantly quoted to prove that this would be so. The prophets foretold that these rejecters would be given up to judicial blindness, and it has been so for many centuries.

If a self-conceited rejecter of the truth of the election of grace should read this, oh, beware lest He give you up also to blindness and hardness of heart. How long has God held out His hands ready to receive you? Are you still a rejecter, like self-righteous Israel? God may, in righteous judgment, give you up to hardness of heart and to the darkness fast setting in.

But will the present rejection of the grace of God by Israel and their consequent blindness ultimately alter the purpose and promise of God? We must now look carefully at the dispensational bearing of this question. God had overruled their fall for great blessing to the Gentiles. If this be the case, how much greater will be the blessing of their fullness? The Gentile world had been given up to gross idolatry, as stated in chapter 1. But now, if the casting away of Israel as a nation has been “the reconciling of the world,” what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? The Apostle is not here speaking of the calling, or heavenly privileges, of the church, but of earthly privileges.

When God called out Abraham and separated him from the nations, he became the olive-tree of blessing and promise on earth. His seed became that tree of privilege, of which he was the root. It is not a question, then, of being branches in Christ, but branches of the olive-tree of promise and privilege. It involved relative holiness, too, or separation from the world. Some of the natural branches were broken off — not all Israel, but some. To carry out the figure, Gentiles had been grafted into this olive-tree of privilege.

However, let not the Gentile boast, for He says, “Thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.” Mark, it was because of unbelief they were broken off. It was not because God willed to break them off, but because of their unbelief. The Gentile stands by faith. “Be not high-minded, but fear.” There was judgment, severity towards Israel, which fell through unbelief, but toward the Gentiles, goodness — “If thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” God is also able to graft Israel in again.

It is utterly contrary to nature to graft the wild olive into the good. In all nature the good olive is grafted into the wild. But God had taken the poor, wild Gentile and grafted him into the good Abrahamic tree of privilege. Further, the Apostle would not have them ignorant of this dispensational truth, “that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written.”

Verses 25-26. The time of no difference shall come to a close. The purpose of God in the gathering out of the Gentiles shall be accomplished. Then all Israel shall be saved, as it is written. Then shall every promise to them be fulfilled. The whole then-spared nation of Israel shall be gathered to their own land, and be born of God, as it is written. Such is the purpose of God. Though they are the bitterest enemies now, God elects so to do.

Verse 29. “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” He never changes. Not one jot or tittle of His word can fail.

Verses 30-31. The literal translation of these verses is important. “For as indeed ye [also] once have not believed in God, but now have been objects of mercy, through the unbelief of these; so these also have now not believed in your mercy, in order that they also may be objects of mercy.” This is very wonderful and shows out the principle — He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. The Gentiles had no claim to salvation. They were dead in sins, in unbelief. God showed them pure mercy. Israel would not believe such mercy and forfeited all their privileges through unbelief that God might at last save them as a whole nation, but as objects of mercy.

Verse 32. “For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches.” Not one shall be found in the church above or in the future kingdom of God on earth but who has been saved as an object of mercy. The free favor of God in both cases thus reigns triumphant.

We close this chapter on the solemn warning that if Gentile Christendom does not abide in His goodness, it, too, will be cut off. Was there ever a time when the goodness and free favor of God were more distinctly rejected than the present moment? Never, since the days of the apostles, has the full, free grace of God been so preached, and therefore never so rejected. We lately visited a large town where an excellent, large room had been built for the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God. It was closed. Nearby a very large building was occupied by those who are, like Israel of old, seeking to attain to righteousness by works and ritual and the barely concealed Mass. Standing and sitting room were crowded. Will God bear this forever? Surely the end is near. The Gentile branches much be cut off. Thus has the Spirit of God explained this period of “no difference,” in these three chapters — 9, 10 and 11. After its close will come the dispensation of the kingdom of Christ as foretold in all the prophets. At that time all Israel will be saved, as objects of His mercy. “To whom be glory forever. Amen.”

This closes the doctrinal part of this most wonderful revelation of the righteousness of God in His dealings with man, the reading of which will profit us nothing unless made good in our souls by the Holy Spirit. Has He, as we have passed along its wondrous pages, thus used His own Word? Have we truly owned ourselves as ruined, ungodly sinners? Have we learned that there neither has been, nor can be, any good in the flesh? Have we believed God who has “raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences”? Have we considered those offenses and seen that they were transferred to our holy Substitute? Can we say He was raised from the dead for my justification? Surely, then, we are justified by faith and have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, standing in this abounding, free favor of God, what should be our walk? Being made free and having the Spirit of life, what should be the fruit? The remaining chapters give the answer to these questions.

Chapter 12

We come now to practical righteousness, the state and walk of those who have been made the recipients of the grace of God, who have been taken up in sovereign, free favor, justified from all things, and who are without condemnation in Christ. It is by this very compassion of God that these precepts are addressed to them. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies [or, compassion] of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable [or, intelligent] service.” It certainly does require some intelligence, as to these bodies, to yield them up thus in intelligent service. We are “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (ch. 8:23). They are about to be “fashioned like unto His glorious body.” We are about to “bear the image of the heavenly.” Even as to our bodies, we shall soon see Him and be like him (Phil. 3:20-21; 1 Cor. 15:49; 1 John 3:2).

Having intelligence as to all this, we can give up our bodies beforehand to be His now, to be used in holy separation to Him and for Him. What a privilege! But this cannot possibly be if we are conformed to this world—a world at enmity with Him. We are exhorted, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”

If God has saved us in pure mercy and compassion, then let us intelligently seek to know His will and prove what that will is. This will require spiritual intelligence as to the dispensation in which we are found. The “good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” as to this can only be known and proved in lowliness of soul and entire dependence.

Verse 3. “For I say, through the grace given unto me.” What a constant need of the sense of the free favor shown to us individually and given unto us! It is this that enables us to have low thoughts of self, and to think soberly so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith.

Verses 4-5. As there was one nation in the flesh in the past dispensation and a covenant of commandments adapted to that dispensation, “so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” What a contrast this is to Israel. We must have intelligence as to this, or we cannot prove the excellent will of God to us now.

In the past no person could be in Christ. Christ must die and be raised from the dead or else remain alone, but now we are one body in Christ. This truth must rule all our obedience to Christ. We are to act in union, like the various members of the human body, even as we are one body in Christ. It is not so much the doctrine of the one body here, as the practice of all the members of that one body.

Verse 6. Then we are to remember that we have “gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.” Surely, whatever may be one’s service in the one body in Christ, it is all of grace, all free favor. With this blessed sense of the free favor of God, let us be diligent in service, whatever it may be — whether prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation or ruling. Let all be done with cheerfulness.

These heavenly precepts are so plain, they need no explanation, further than seeing that all must be done in reference to the one body in Christ. Yet each precept is of the utmost importance and can only be kept as walking in the Spirit; indeed, these are fruits of the Spirit. Will the flesh, which is still in us, “cleave to that which is good” or will it be “in honor preferring one another” or will it “bless them which persecute you”? No it will not. It will ever persecute that which is born of the Spirit.

Verse 16. It should be, “Have the same respect one for another, not minding high things, but going along with the lowly.” This is the very opposite of this world’s ways.

Verse 17. These are words that need to be put up in every office, shop and house: “PROVIDE THINGS HONEST IN THE SIGHT OF ALL MEN.” How liable we are to forget this blessed teaching. How ready the flesh is to return evil for evil. How sad when indolence takes the place of providing things honest in the sight of all men. Yes, without carefulness, the Christian may fall into the almost universal dishonesty of the world. Is not a deceitful, dishonest transaction of the same character as highway robbery? Oh, for more faith and unswerving obedience in the common things of everyday life. We are persuaded it is carelessness in these things, if not worse than carelessness, that is the cause of much of our weakness.

Verses 19-20. How the flesh in each of us would avenge ourselves! But these are the words of the Spirit to us: “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves.” Did He, whose precious name we bear, avenge Himself? The day of vengeance, of judgment on an ungodly world, will come, but are we not the followers of Him who healed His enemy’s ear? Oh, to be more like Him. What tender words are these: “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink.” Where shall we find such words apart from the inspired Scriptures of truth? Leave man to himself: will he act thus? No, no, these are the precious fruits of the Spirit. May they abound in us more and more.

Chapter 13

The path of the heavenly man on earth is continued. What is to be his conduct as to the government of this world? He is to be subject. He is to regard the powers of government that exist, as appointed of God. He is to be far from lawlessness and insubordination. “And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation,” that is, shall bring guilt upon themselves. The Christian is, even for conscience sake, to “render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”

Let it be observed that there is no precept here that we should take a place, or part, in the world’s politics, but be subject. The church and each individual in it is always looked at as not of the world, yet, as in it, he must be subject to the authorities God has ordained in it. Be subject, dear young believer; God is wiser than we are.

Verse 8. “Owe no man anything.” These few words are very comprehensive. We are not merely to make payments on debts when due, but to seek to pay all demands as soon as due. To do this, a Christian should always seek to live below his income and do his business within his means. This may require much diligence and self-denial, but what misery will be avoided. These words, then, are important, when applied to income and expenditure. Also, whatever kindness may be shown us, let us seek to return it with large interest. “Owe no one anything, unless to love one another” (vs. 8 JND). That is a debt never fully paid, for it is to love one another as He has loved us.

“The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:5). Now, in its exercise, it flows out to others — the love of God in our hearts by the Spirit — and the result is, “He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” Thus the commands as to our neighbor are all fulfilled. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” This is by the twofold power of the love of God, already shed abroad in our hearts, and by the Spirit which has been given. God is not putting the Christian under law again and telling him, if he keeps it, He will love him and give him the Holy Spirit. Neither is He telling him to pray for the Spirit, that he may keep the law. It is the opposite of all this. He has the love of God in his heart by the Spirit and that love works no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. How beautiful the order of God is, and the effect is never put before the cause.

Verses 11-13. There must be intelligence in order that there be a “knowing the time.” If Christians do not know the time, but suppose on the very contrary that the world is about to be converted and get better, that the night is not far spent, indeed, that it is not night at all but a grand day of development and human advancement, how can they know the perfect will of God for a walk of holy separation from a world doomed to judgment? Is it not impossible?

What a word for this moment! “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.…The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” What an arousing motive for holiness! Beware of all pretended holiness that has not this intelligence and this motive. What? Is the Lord at hand, and we, Christians, asleep? How near is our salvation and joy to be forever with the Lord. How near is the day of wrath and judgment on a rejecting world.

“Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” If the world is steeped in dishonesty in this dark night, “let us walk honestly, as in the day.” What a change there would be in the conduct, even of Christians, if we were really to awake, to expect our Lord, day by day.

Would you like to be found of Him walking in rioting and drunkenness, in chambering and wantonness, or in strife and envying? Surely not. “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” Oh, that we may awake from sleep, and, waiting for our Lord, thus put Him on. The world will not hear the gospel, and they will not read Christ in the Word. May they, then, see Christ in us, and in all we do — living epistles, read and known of all men.

They will look at us; narrowly will they watch us. They know not how Satan seeks to trip us up. They know not the temptations and buffetings of the believer, and how, without constant dependence on the power of God, he is liable to fail. May the world never see us making provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. The Lord bless these precious precepts to both writer and reader. The night is far spent; the day is at hand. Oh, how soon we shall be forever with the Lord!

Chapter 14

“Now, him that is weak in the faith receive, not to the determining of questions of reasoning” (vs. 1 JND). We may make a mistake either way. We may become so narrow as to reject a brother weak in faith, or we may make our receiving a cavilling person the determining of doubtful questions and reasoning speculations. The Holy Spirit would have us carefully avoid both these extremes. In many things — such as eating and drinking, esteeming one day holy or all days alike — in all such matters, we are not to judge one another, but walk together in love.

Verse 10. “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand [or, be placed] before the judgment seat of Christ.” This is not a question of being brought into the judgment of sins or sin. That has been settled earlier in the epistle (ch. 8:1,33-34). The Lord assures us that we shall not be brought into judgment (John 5:24). What then is meant here? Simply the question in hand. The fact that all will be placed before God, who cannot make a mistake in what He approves, should be a wholesome check in preventing the injurious habit of judging one another. “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more.”

Surely this does not teach us to be indifferent when the Person of Christ or the truth in Him is attacked. In this Paul had to withstand even a Peter to his face. But it does teach us “that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.” To do so is not to walk according to love. A weak brother might, by seeing me eat things offered to idols, be led to do so, and his conscience being defiled, he might fall into idolatry and get, for the time being, under the power of Satan, out of fellowship with Christ. In fact, he might get just where the wicked person was who had to be put away for the destruction of the flesh (1 Cor. 5:5). This would be destroying a brother, instead of the flesh, or, on the other hand, his conscience might be destroyed. In any case love would seek to put no stumblingblock in a brother’s way.

We have also known cases where a person has observed the Lord’s Day as the Sabbath, in a pious but Jewish way. Another person, to show his superior knowledge, has done things on the Lord’s Day that were a desecration in the eyes of the former, and the result has been most disastrous to both. For years both conscience and communion were lost or destroyed.

Do not for a moment suppose that these words “destroy not him” can possibly mean the destruction of eternal life. Scripture cannot contradict itself. If it seems to do so, it is evident we have not got the true sense of at least one of the texts. If the eternal life we have in Christ could be destroyed, then it would not be eternal. Of those who have eternal life, Jesus says, “They shall never perish.” That is enough for faith. It is, however, a most wholesome and important thing to have the judgment seat of Christ constantly before us. It would preserve us from much judging or devouring one another.

Verses 17-18. “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.” The great point here is serving Christ in a manner acceptable to God. These are precious words: “righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” If God reigns in our hearts, there will be consistency, that which is consistent with the holy place we are in.

Verse 19. “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.” This will lead us to do nothing, whether in eating flesh or drinking wine, whereby a brother may be stumbled. This must not, however, lead us to compromise the gospel. Had Paul refused to eat with the Gentiles lest he should offend Peter, that would not have been for edification, but it would have compromised the gospel. It was saying, Christ is not enough for your eternal salvation; you must also keep the law. Thus by some, the law was held as superior to Christ.

In like manner, if a society of men were to say, Christ alone is not enough for the deliverance of a sinner and his complete salvation; you must take a pledge with us not to drink wine — it would not be of faith, or love, or edification thus to compromise the gospel. It would soon be, as with the Judaising teachers, to seduce from Christ.

If Christ has not the preeminence, something else will take His place. Satan ever seeks to use that which is good to displace Christ. Law is good, and temperance is good, but let us watch lest we use either to rob us of Christ. We need to be kept on the right hand and on the left. These remarks are only intended to apply where temperance is put in the place of Christ. Let everyone be fully persuaded in his own mind, and let us each remember “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Let us ask ourselves in the presence of God, Do I need this for my body which is the Lord’s? Is there any brother I know who will be stumbled if I take it? Have I faith, is it pleasing to the Lord that I take it, or that I do this?

Let us be very careful as to boasting in these matters or in judging our brother. “Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.”

Chapter 15

The Apostle says, “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” How tender we ought to be in these days when all are weak and feeble together.

Verse 2. “Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification.” Is not this truly lovely? Where shall we find it perfectly exemplified? Oh, there is One, yes, one perfect One. “For even Christ pleased not Himself.” No self-vindication, “but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached Thee fell on Me.” His eye was ever on the Father, and He was the expression, the revelation of the Father. He was God manifest. All the reproaches He felt to be against His Father. Reproached, He answered not again. He pleased not Himself, but His ineffable delight was to bear all and to do the will of Him that sent Him.

Verses 5-6. “Now, the God of patience and consolation, grant you to be likeminded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus: that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” What a prayer! How needed at all time, but more especially in these last days of discord. He is the perfect copy; it is “according to Christ Jesus.” He has received us to the glory of God, yes, as objects of mercy according to the riches of His grace. In receiving one another, let us never forget how He has received us.

Then the Apostle quotes Scripture to show how grace has, and was, to abound to the Gentiles. This showed that Jewish believers were not to reject them. These scriptures will have their complete fulfillment in the millennial kingdom. “There shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in Him shall the Gentiles trust.”

Then follows another prayer, “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.” How distinctly the state of the soul is connected with the coming of the Lord, though it is not the subject of this epistle! May we know our Father as the God of patience and the God of hope.

Verse 14. “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.” In this verse, it must be noted, there is no thought of the first bishop of Rome. Is it not remarkable that in the whole of this inspired letter to the saints at Rome, there is not a single sentence that can have the slightest recognition of, or reference to, such a person as a bishop of Rome. The brethren were able to admonish one another, and each was responsible according to the measure of grace bestowed, as in chapter 12. The first bishop of Rome and his successors are a pure invention of aftertimes.

Had Peter or any other brother been the bishop of Rome, Paul must here have recognized him as such. Does he not rather declare his own apostleship, as minister of the Gentiles (vss. 16-20). All this to Paul was the free favor of God, “because of the grace that is given to me of God, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.” The result of all this blessed favor he could offer up to God, “being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.” All being of the free favor of God, he could glory: “I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God.”

The young believer will do well to ponder these precious, divine principles of service — how the Gentiles had been made obedient to the gospel, not by human wisdom or eloquence, but through the power of the Spirit of God. What a mission to the Gentiles!

Mark the true work of this evangelist. It was not to build on another’s foundation. “Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named.” This is most important. Oh, think of how many thousands of nominal Christians are in the towns and villages, who have never heard the gospel. In many places there is a real thirst for the simple truth. It is most cheering to know how God in sovereign grace is using tracts. Still, it is pleasing in His sight that His saints should not only spread these in faith, in regions beyond, but also the evangelist take the glad tidings everywhere.

Some may say, We are not evangelists. No, but you can help the evangelist. Let him be well supplied with tracts and books: these greatly help him in his blessed work in winning souls to God and in building them up when converted. You can help most, perhaps, in prayer and sympathy. You can help him to take lodgings in the distant village. In a word, if our hearts are stirred up in the sympathy of Christ for precious souls, He will open a way in which we can be fellow-helpers in this work. The Lord give us more of the yearning after souls we have in these verses.

Verses 22-23. “For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.…And having a great desire these many years to come unto you.” Here a fact of no little importance is recorded. The Holy Spirit well knew the future arrogance of the professing church, and how Rome would be the ultimate head of those pretensions. He has therefore carefully excluded all knowledge as to who first preached Christ at Rome. It is evident from these words that the Apostle of the Gentiles had, as yet, never been there. Neither is there a particle of evidence that either Peter or any other apostle had been there when it was founded, and the brethren were able to edify one another.

This epistle was written about the time that Paul went up to Jerusalem to carry the contributions to the poor saints. That is a little before he was sent a prisoner to Rome (Acts 20-21). He did not know what means the Lord would employ to send him to Rome. Let us learn in this that the Lord can, and will, accomplish all His purposes.

Verse 29. “And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.” Yes, and though bonds and imprisonment and the fierce Euroclydon awaited him as companions to Rome, yet his Lord did not disappoint him. It was from Rome and at Rome the Lord used him in bringing out the fullness of the gospel in the revelation of the church. From thence he sent the precious stream of truth to the Ephesians, the Philippians and the Colossians. Thus, in the severest storms of life we may rest in patience, assured that He does all things well. In verses 30-31 we see how the Apostle valued the prayers of saints he had never seen, and yet the Lord answers those prayers in His own way.

He has in this chapter spoken of God as the God of hope and the God of patience. “Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.” Thus we surely need to know Him as the God of hope, patience and peace. How important thus to know Him in these last and difficult days.

Chapter 16

We now have the closing remarks and salutations. The Lord would not have the devoted Phebe forgotten. She was a deaconess, or servant, of the church in Cenchrea. They were told: “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 succorer of many, and of myself also.”

These verses throw much light on the true character of the deacon, as appointed by the apostles before the failure of the church set in so sadly. There is not a shadow of the modern clerical idea. She was “a succorer of many.” Evidently this was in temporal things. She was to be received in the Lord, in that relationship. What beautiful love and care. She was to be assisted in whatsoever business she had in Rome. It might then be said, See how these Christians love one another.

Also at this time, we find Priscilla and Aquila in Rome. Their devotion is noted, and “the church that is in their house.” Unto verse 16, we have various companies of saints, which appear to belong to different houses, all forming the one assembly of God in Rome. (See vss. 14-15.) And there were “all the saints which are with them.”

Those who took an oversight of these several companies of brethren were called elders, or overseers, in other early epistles. Why is there no Bishop of Rome addressed? Simply and evidently because there was no such person. No, it is most remarkable that there is not one word in this epistle that can be used as an authority for the episcopacy of Rome. How strikingly this displays in the foreknowledge and wisdom of God!

Contrast the Rome of that day with this. What do we find in the church as it was in Rome when these salutations were written? No pope, no cardinals, no clergy, no monks or nuns, not a single priest performing mass, no grand buildings. Instead, we find different gatherings of “saints by calling” who know their sins forgiven, are justified from all things, have peace with God and are able to admonish one another. All these assemblies were under the care of the Holy Spirit and laboring brethren are named in each company — the whole being members of the one body of Christ. We are compelled to own that there is no similarity whatever between the church in Rome in the year 60 and the Church of Rome in these days. Rome today is evidently a departure from the true church of God.

Is it not remarkable that the only official person named — if we may so regard the deaconess — is a woman. Lest the persons saluted should be regarded or referred to as priests, or episcopoi, women are named among them. How beautiful it was when these brethren were dwelling together in the unity of the Spirit, and some of them were laboring much in the Lord — such as the beloved Persis. Dear young believer, is there any reason why we should not be content with the same simplicity now?

Verse 17. “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause [or, form] divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” Two things here we must carefully notice. Division is an evil in itself — it is strongly condemned in other scriptures. (See 1 Cor. 1, 3.) We also learn that if any are practicing that evil by causing or forming divisions contrary to the doctrine they had received, others were to avoid them, that is, to separate from them. But if believers thus separate from and avoid those who form divisions, do they not also form a sect or division? No, obedience to the Word is not division. Further, those who cause divisions may always be known by the spirit in which they act: “For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We never go wrong if Christ is the only object. Happy is it when it can be said, “For your obedience is come abroad unto all men.…Yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.” It is most deadening to all spiritual life to be occupied with evil.

Verse 20. “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” That is certain. Whether he persecutes or seduces, it is but for a little while. He is the accuser, but shortly he will be cast down. In the meantime, “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” This is repeated — verse 20 and verse 24. Yes, that unclouded favor, that unchanging love, both sovereign and free, be with you all.

The salutations of others follow. Even Timothy is “my workfellow.” What unfeigned humility and brotherly love!

As Paul commended the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20), so here he says, “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, but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets [or, by prophetic scriptures (JND)], according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: to God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.”

Yes, God is able to establish all believers according to that which Paul calls “my gospel.” The glad tidings committed to Paul have a wide range. The solid foundation of those glad tidings we have seen unfolded in this epistle — the righteousness of God revealed in justifying the ungodly — both as to sins, up to chapter 5:11, and also as to sin, chapter 5:12-8:4. It also contains the glad tidings of deliverance from sin and law; peace with God; no condemnation to them in Christ Jesus, whether as to sins or sin, and no possible separation from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

Here is also a reference to a still further revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began. This mystery is fully explained in Ephesians 3. This was not made manifest in the scriptures of Old Testament times. How could it, since it was then a profound secret? But it was revealed by prophetic scriptures, that is, of the New Testament. It is, however, remarkable how soon that heavenly mystery was lost and Christendom went back to an earthly Judaism. It not only put itself under law for righteousness, but it set up a worldly church government in imitation of Judaism. Soon all trace of the church, as seen in Scripture, was lost for long ages. Such is man. He has always become foolish. All his wisdom is folly.

The closing words of the epistle direct us not to man or to what calls itself the church, but “to God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” However man has failed and however the church may fail as a testimony for God on earth, God shall be eternally glorified, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16