1. It is not consistent with the common and familiar import of the expression, to be dead to anything, which occurs frequently in the New Testament; as Gal. ii. 19, "dead to the law;" 1 Pet. ii. 24, "dead to sins;" Rom. vii. 4; Col. ii. 20; Gal. vi. 14, &c. In all cases the meaning is, to be free from. Sin has lost its power over the believer, as sensible objects are not able to affect the dead. 2. The opposite phrase, to live therein, requires this interpretation. 3. The object of the apostle does not require that a formal, argumentative answer should be sup posed to commence in this verse. He simply denies the justice of the inference from his doctrine, stated in ver. 1, and asks how it is possible it should be correct. How can a Christian, which is but another name for a holy man, live any longer in sin?
VERSE 3. Know ye, not, that so many of us as ivere baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? In this and the following verse, AVC have something more in the form of argu ment in answer to the objection in question. The apostle reminds his readers, that the very design of Christianity was to deliver men from sin; that every one who embraced it, embraced it for that object; and, therefore, it was a contra diction in terms to suppose that any should come to Christ to be delivered from sin, in order that they might live in it. And, besides this, it is clearly intimated that such is not only the design of the gospel, and the object for which it is embraced by all who cordially receive it, but also that the result or neces sary effect of union with Christ is a participation in the benefits of his death. Or Jcnoiv ye not, -/j d^oelTe, or are you ignorant? If any doubt what is said in ver. 2, he must be ignorant of the nature and design of baptism, and of the relation to Christ which it involves. Ba-n'^cj s^ always means to baptize in reference to. When it is said that the Hebrews were baptized unto Moses, I Cor. x. 2; or when the apostle asks the Corinth ians, 'Were ye baptized unto the name of Paul?' 1 Cor. i. 13; or when we are said to be baptized unto Christ, the meaning is, they were baptized in reference to Moses, Paul, or Christ; i. e. to be brought into union with them, as their disciples, or wor shippers, as the case may be. In like manner, in the expression baptized into his death, the preposition expresses the design and the result. The meaning therefore is, 'we were baptized inf order that we should die with him,' i. e. that we should be united! to him in his death, and be partakers of its benefits. Thus, "baptism unto repentance," Matt. iii. 11, is baptism in order to repentance; ''baptism unto the remission of sins," Mark i. 4,. that remission of sins maybe obtained; "baptized unto one body,'' 1 Cor. xii. lo, i. e. that we might become one body, &c.! Paul (toes not design to teach that the sacrament of baptism, from any inherent virtue in the rite, or from any supernatural power in him who administers it, or from any u^jj^J^jjV^t tend ing Divine influence, always secures the regeneration of the soul. This is contrary both to Scripture and experience. No fact is more obvious than that thousands of the baptized are unregenerate. It cannot be, therefore, that the apostle intends to say, that all who are baptized are thereby savingly united to Christ. It is not of the efficacy of baptism as an external rite, that he assumes his readers are well informed: it is of the' import and design of that sacrament, and the nature of the union with Christ, of which baptism is the >ign and the seal. It is the constant usage of Scripture to address professors as believers, to predicate of them as professors what is true of them only as believers. This is also the usage of common life. We address a company of professing Christians as true Christ ians; we call them brethren in Christ; we speak of them as beloved of the Lord, partakers of the1 heavenly calling, and heirs of eternal life. Baptism was the appointed mode of professing!! faith in Christ, of avowing allegiance to him as the Son of God,:j and acquiescence in his gospel. Those, therefore, who were baptized, are assumed to believe what they professed, and to be what they declared themselves to be. They are consequently addressed as believers, as having embraced the gospel, as having put on Christ, and as bein^;. in virtue of their baptism as an act of faith, the children of God. When a man was baptized unto Christ, he was baptized unto his death; he professed to regard himself as being united to Christ, as dying when he died, as bearing in him the penalty of sin, in order that he might be reconciled to God, and live unto holiness. How could a man who was sincere in receiving baptism, such being its design and import, live in sin? The thing is impossible. The act of faith implied and expressed in baptism, is receiving Christ as our.sanctification as well as our righteousness. "Extra controver- Isiam cst," says Calvin, " induere nos Christum in baptismo; et hue legc nos baptizari, ut unum cum ipso simus." Baptism, therefore, as an act of faith, as the formal reception of Christ •as our Saviour, brings us into intimate union with him: "For as many as have been baptized unto Christ, have put on Christ." Gal. iii. 27. And this baptism has special reference to the death of Christ; we are baptized unto his death. That is, we arc united to him in death. His death becomes ours; ours as an expiation for sin, as the means of reconciliation with God, and consequently as the means of our sanctification. Although justification is the primary object of the death of Christ, yet justification is in order to sanctification. lie died that he might purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. If such is the intimate connection between jus tification and sanctification in the purpose of God in giving his Son to die for us, there must be a like intimate connection between them in the experience of the believer. The very act of faith by which we receive Christ as the propitiation for sin, is spiritually a death to sin. It is in its very nature a renun ciation of every tiling which it was the design of Christ's death to destroy. Every believer, therefore, is a saint. He renounces sin in accepting Christ.
VERSE 4. Therefore we are buried with him bij baptism into death. This is an inference from ver. 3, to confirm the proposi tion in vcr. 2, viz. that those dead in sin cannot live therein. Therefore, says the apostle, such being the nature of our union with Christ, expressed in baptism, it follows, that those who are baptized are buried with Christ; they are as effectually shut out from the kingdom of Satan, as those who are in the grave are shut out from the world. The words dta rorJ fia-Tia/jtaroz e/C rov $avarov go together; by baptism unto death, i. e. by a baptism which has reference to Christ's death, and by which we are associated with him therein. We are buried with him, i. e. we are cut off from the world in and with him. If the words unto death are connected with we were buried, the sense would be, we ivere buried unto death, i. e. we were buried so as to come ' into the power of death. But this is an incongruous idea, and an unexampled form of expression. As in ver. 3, the apostle had said c/c rov d-awcov a'j~orj ifa—iathlijL*v, there is no reason to doubt that he here designs to speak of baptism unto dcatli. Compare Col. ii. 12, "hurled with him in baptism." The same idea is expressed in ver. 8, by saying "we are dead with him," and in ver. 5, "we are planted with him in the likeness of his death." It is not necessary to assume that there is any refer-5 encc here to" thc_jmmcmon of ^ji^Tm!^ sfThmurh itwere a burial. No such allu-i<>n can "BFTsupposed in the next verse, where we arc said t» l»~ i>l<nitt''l with him. The reference is not to the mode of baptism, but to its effect. Our baptism unites us to Christa so that we died with him. and rose with him. As he died to sin, so do we; as he rose to righteousness and crlorv, so do we. The same doctrine concerning baptism, and of the nature of union with Christ, therein expressed, is taught in Gal. iii. 27, and Col. ii. 12.
That //'/;•<' //.<? <. 7//-/X/ //v/x raixfil?//> fr»m tli? dead fy/ flic </l>n/ of tin" Faf/n'r'. I'l'Di HO ire alx<> xlmuld walk In ni'trnf** of //'ft'. We die with (Jhrist, in order that we should live with him. AVo share in his death, that we may be partakers of his life. Justi fication is in order to sanctification. The two arc inseparable. Tin-re can be no participation in Christ's life without a partici pation in his death, and we cannot enjoy the benefits of his death unless we are partakers of the power of his life. Wo must be reconciled to God in order to be holy, and we cannot be reconciled without thereby becoming holy. Ant inomiani.- or the doctrine that the benefits of the atonement can be enjoved without experiencing the renewing of the Holy Ghost, is therefore contrary to the very nature and design of redemp tion. As Christ died and rose airain literally, so his people die and rise spiritually. As Christ's resurrection was the certain consequence of his death, so is a holv life the certain con sequence of our dving with Christ. There is not only an analogy between Christ's literal death and resurrection, and the spiritual death and resurrection of the believer, but there is a causal relation between the two. The death and resurrection of Christ render certain the justification and sanctification of his people. Paul says Christ rose, ota r7^ oo^z TO~J 7/arooc, by the glory of the Father. J6~a, glory, is the excellence
, of God, tlic sum of all his perfections, or anyone perfection specially manifested. The exhibition, therefore, of God's holi ness, or of his mercy, or of his power, is equally an exhibition of his glory. Here the reference is to his omnipotence, which was gloriously displayed in the resurrection of Christ. In 1 Cor. vi. 14, and 2 Cor. xiii. 4, it is said Christ was raised, kx ou\,dtj.*ioz 6so~j, hy the poiver of God. In Col. i. 11, the apostle refers the sanctincation of believers to the xocho- TY^ u<)=r^ fi-or), to the power of Jus glory. It is according to the analogy of Scripture, that the same event is attributed at one time to the efficiency of the Father, and at another to that of the Son. Christ rose from the dead by his own power. He had power to lay down Ins life, and he had power to take it nirain. This is perfectly consistent with the apostle's declara tion, that he was raised by the power of God. The three per sons of the Trinity are one God. The efficiency of the Father is also the efficiency of the Son. What the Father does, the Son also does. That we should walk in newness of life, iv M^or^t!>^C- The idea of purity is associated with that of ' newness in the word of God — a new heart, a new creature, the ' new man. Newness of life is a life that is new, compared with! what is natural and original; and it is a holy life, springing, from a new source. It is not we that live, but Christ that livetli in us; and therefore our life is, in its manifestations, ' ' analogous to his. His people are like him.
VKKSK 5. For if ive have been planted together in the likeness ' of liis death, we shall he also in the likeness of his resurrection. This is a confirmation of what precedes. We shall walk in newness of life, if we arc partakers of Christ's death, for com munity of death involves community of life. The general meaning of the verse is plain, although there is doubt as to the force of some of the words, and as to the construction. First, as to the words. Calvin arid many others render ovfjupuroz insitus, inserted, engrafted, as though it were derived from (ftj~£'jw. it is, however, from (f'j(o, which means both to bear and to grow. Hence aujjupuro^ sometimes means born with, in the sense of innate; sometimes it expresses community of origin, or nature, in the sense of cognate, congenial; and some times it is used in reference to things born or produced at the same time. From the other meaning of the word <pju), come the senses growing with, overgrown with. &c. In all cases there is the idea of intimate union, and that is the idea which the word vs here intended to express. As to the construction, so far as the first clause of the verse is concerned, we may connect ff'j/jL<f'jTos with bftouottari* we have grown tugctlier in death, i. e. been united in a like death; or we may supply the words TW Xntff-w. we have been united with Christ, as to, or by, similaritv of death. The former, as it requires nothing to he sup plied, is to be preferred. In the second clause, the word bit.O!(!)-fJLT! may be supplied, as in our version: we shall be (united) in the likenf** of hi* resurrection. But as a'j[JL(fi)Toz mav be construed with the genitive as weil as the dative, many commentators unite ff'jtic'JTu: r/~c avaaTaazcoz iobfiid-a^ we xltull i_mrt(ikt'. <>f t/(e resurrection. The sense is the same: if united in death, we shall be united in life: if we die with him, we.-hall live with him. The future iaitttzfta does nut here express obli gation, nor futurity. The reference is not to what is to happen hereafter, but to the certain! v of sequence, or causal connection. If the one thinur happt-ns, the other shall certair.ly follow. Thei doctrine of this passage is not simply that the believer dies and rises, ax Christ died and rose; that there is -in analogy between his death and theirs; but. as before remarked, the main idea is. the necessary eonneetion between the death and resurrection of Christ and the death and resurrection of his people. Such is the union between them and him, that his death and resurrec tion render theirs a matter of necessity. The life or d<v of a tree necessitates the life or death of the branches. Says''
Calvin, "Insitio, non tantuni exempli conformitatem designat, sed arcanam conjunctionem per quam cum ipso coaluimus, ita ut nos Spiritu suo veg<itans ejus virtutcm in nos transfundat. Er«-o ut sureulus C()iuniunem habet vittc et mortis conditionem
cum arbore in quaui insertus est; ita vine Christi non minus quam et mortis purticipes nos essc consentaneum est." That
the resurrection here spoken of is a spiritual rising from the dead, seems plain, both from what precedes and from what follows. The whole discussion relates to sanctification, to the necessary connection between the death of Christ as an atjnement for sin, and the holiness of his people. Those who are cleansed from tlio guilt of sin, arc cleansed also from its pollu tion. Although this is obvious, yet all reference to the future resurrection of the body is not to be excluded. In chap. viii. 11, the apostle represents the quickening of our mortal bodies as a necessary consequence of our union with Christ, and the indwell ing of his Spirit. If, therefore, we are baptized unto the death of Christ, united and conformed to him in his death, the sure result will be, that we shall be conformed to him in a holy life here, and in a life of glorious immortality of the soul and body hereafter. All this is included in the life which flows to us from Christ.
VERSE 6. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, &c. What in the preceding verses is represented as the consequence of our union with Christ as a matter of doctrine, is here presented as a matter of experience. We are united to Christ as our head and representative, so as to be partakers of his death and resurrection, as a matter of law or of right.
jjWhat is thus done, as it were, out of ourselves, is attended by an analogous spiritual experience. This knowing, i. e. expe-
,'j riencing this. Our inward experience agrees with this doctrinal statement. Our old man, that is, our corrupt nature as opposed to the new iiMin, or holy nature, which is the product of rege neration, and the effect of our union with Christ. In Eph. iv. 22, 24, we are exhorted to put oft* the old man, and to put on the new man. Col. iii. 8, 9. The Scriptures everywhere assert or assume the fall and native depravity of man. We are born the children of wrath. We are aliens from the common wealth of Israel, without God, and without hope. This is the inward state and outward condition in which every man comes into the world. Through the redemption that is in Christ, a
I become new. The old man, the nature which is prior in the order of time, as well as corrupt, is crucified, and a nature new and holy is induced. The word man is used, because it is no one disposition, tendency, or faculty that is changed, but the man himself; the radical principle of his being, the self. Hence Paul uses the pronoun I — "I am sold under sin;" "I cannot do the things that I would." It is plain from this whole repre sentation, that regeneration is not merely a change of acts, or
;f the affections in distinction from the understanding, but a change of the whole man. Another thing is also plain, viz. that such a radical change of nature cannot fail to manifest itself in a holy walk and conversation. This is what Paul here insists upon. To the believer who knows that the old man is crucified with Christ, the objection that gratuitous justification leads to licentiousness, is contradictory and absurd. The old man is said to be crucified, not because the destruction of the principle of sin is a slow and painful process, but because Christ's death was by crucifixion, in which death we were associated, and because it is from him, as crucified, the death of sin in us pro ceeds. " Ilunc veterem hominem (licit es>e ailixum cruel Christi, quia ejus virtute conficitur. Ac nominatim allusit ad crucem, quo expressius iudicaret 11011 aliunde nos mortificari, quam ex ejus mortis participatione."
That tltc body of sin iiii<jlit be destroyed. "'The body of sin"j; is only another name for "the old man," or rather for its con-l crete form. The design of our crucifixion with Christ is the destruction of the old man, or the bodv of sin; and the design of the destnict.on of the inward power or principle of evil, is our spiritual freedom. This latter idea, the apostle expresses by saying, t/cil henceforth tee should not scree sin, i. e. be in bondage to it. The service of sin is a dooXzia, a slavery, a state from which we cannot free ourselves; a power which coerces obedience in despite of the resistance of reason, conscience, and as the apostle teaches, even of the will. It is a bondage from which we can be delivered in no other way than by the death of the inward principle of evil which possesses our nature, and lies back of the will, beyond the reach of our power, and which can be destroyed only by union with Christ in his death, who died for this very purpose, that he might deliver us from the bondage of corruption, and introduce us into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Compare John viii. o4; lieb. ii. 14 — 16. Although the general sense of this verse is thus plain, there is great diversity of opinion as to the precise meaning of the words aa)[w. r^c (tfj.a.fjTiaZ) body of sin. 1. Some say it means the sinful body, that is, the body which is the seat and source of sin. But it is not the doctrine of the Bible, that sin has its source in matter; it is spiritual in its nature and origin. The body is not its source, but its instrument and slave. Moreover, the design of Christ's death is never said to be to destroy the body. 2. Others say that a Co ij.fi means the physical body, nor as the source, but as the appurtenance of sin, as belon^ino- to it, and ruled by it. But this is subject in part to the same objection. 8. Others say that atotta means mass, "the mass of sin." "Corpus peccati," says Calvin, "non carnem et ossa, sed massain designat; homo enim naturae pro-prise relictus massa est ex peccato conflata." 4. Others assume that aatim has the same sense as ad<>^ corrupt nature; so that "body of sin" means our "sinful, carnal nature." This no doubt is the idea, but it is not expressed by the word atona, which is not equiva lent to ad()2. 5. Others take ocotm, in accordance with the Rabinical use of the corresponding Hebrew word, to mean essence, or substance; for which, however, there is no authority from the usus loqucndi of the Scriptures. 6. Perhaps the most satisfactory view is that of those who understand the phrase as figurative. Sin is personified. It is something that has life, is obeyed; that can be put to death. It is represented as a body, or organism; as having its members. Compare Col. iii. 5. In Col. ii. 11, the apostle speaks of putting off "the body of the sins of the flesh," by which he means the totality of our corrupt nature. So here, "the body of sin," is sin considered as a body, as something which can be crucified.
VERSE 7. For he t licit is dead is free from sin. The Greek here is, b jao faod-avcov ozdr/auora! d~b r£c buaprlaz, for he who has died is justified from sin. The particle?dp, for, shows that this verse is a confirmation of what precedes: ' The believer (he who is by faith united to Christ in his death) cannot any longer serve sin, for he who has died is justified from sin.' The word d-o&avcov may be taken in a physical, a moral, or a mys tical sense. If in a physical sense, then the meaning is, that death frees from sin. This maybe understood in two ways: first, on the theory that the body is the source of sin, death, or freedom from the body, involves freedom from sin; or, secondly, death considered as a penalty, is the expiation of sin; so that he who dies, is judicially free from sin. Some who adopt this interpretation, suppose that the apostle sanctions the unscriptural Jewish doctrine, (see Eisenmenger's Entdeckt. Judentlium,
II., p. 283,) that death is the full penalty of sin, and therefore its expiation. Others say he is to be understood as speaking only of sin or guilt in relation to human law: k Ho who has died for his crime is free from guilt or further liability.' In either way, the only relation which this verse, when understood of physical death, can have to the apostle's argument, is that of an illustration: 'As the man who has suffered for his crime is freed from it, so he who is crucified with Christ is free from sin. In cither case the power of sin is destroyed/ If the moral sense of the word be adopted, then the meaning is either, ' he who is spiritually dead is free from sin,' (which amounts to saying, 'he that is holy is holy:') or, 'he who is spiritually dead is justified from sin.' JJut this last sense is utterly unsuited to the context, and implies that spiritual death, or holiness, is the ground of justification; which is contrary to all Scripture, and especially to Paul's doctrine. The mystical sense of the word is the only one consistent with the context. Tho apostle has not been speaking of natural death, but of death with Christ; of the believer being crucified with him. It is of that he is now speaking. lie had just said that the believer cannot continue to serve sin. lie here gives the reason: 1<>f he who has died (with Christ) is justified, and therefore tVeo from sin, free from its dominion. This is the great evangelical truth which underlies the apostle's whol" doctrine of sanctification. The natural reason assumes that acceptance with a holy and just God must be founded on character, that men must bo holy in order to be justified. The gospel reverses this, and teaches that God accepts the ungodly; that we must be justi fied in order to become holy. This is what Paul here assumes as known to his readers. As justification is the necessary means, and antecedent to holiness, he that is justified becomes holy; he cannot live in sin. And he who is dead, i. e. with Christ, (for it is only his death that secures justification,) is jus tified from sin. To be justified from yin means to be delivered from sin by justification. And that deliverance is twofold; judicial deliverance from its penalty, and subjective deliverance from its power. Both are secured by justification; the former directly, the other consequentially, as a necessary sequence. Compare Gal. ii. 19, 20, vi. 14; Col. ii. 13, iii. 3; 1 Pet, iv. 1, and other passages in which the sanctification of believers is represented as secured by the death of Christ.
VERSES 8 — 11. These verses contain the application of thetruth taught in the preceding passage: 'If we are dead with Christ, we shall share in his life. If he lives, we shall live also. As his life is perpetual, it secures the continued supplies of life/ to all his members. Death has no more any dominion over! him. Having died unto, or on account of, sin once, he now ever\ lives to, and with God. His people, therefore, must be con formed to him; dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.' This passage does not contain a mere comparison between the literal death and resurrection of Christ, and the spiritual death and resurrection of believers, but it exhibits the connection between the deatli and life of the Redeemer and the sanctifica tion of his people.
VERSE 8. AW, if we be dead with Christ, &c. If the truth, stated in the preceding verses be admitted, viz. that our union with Christ is such that his death secures our deliverance from the penalty and power of sin, we believe we shall also live with That is, we are sure that the consequences of his death are not merely negative, i. e. not simply deliverance from evil, moral and physical, but also a participation in his life. We believe, i. e. we have a confidence, founded on the promise and revealed purpose of God. It is not a conclusion of reason; it is not simply a hope, a peradventure; it is a faith, an assured conviction that God, after having justified us through the blood of Christ, will not leave us spiritually defiled. We shall live, ff'j^vouzv, the future, referring not to what is to happen here after, but to what is the certain consequence of our union with Christ, If we are united mystically with Christ in his death, we shall certainly live with him, i. e. we shall certainly partake of his life. As, however, this life is a permanent and eternal life, as it pertains to the body as well as to the soul, a partici pation of his life now involves a participation of it, with all its glorious consequences, for ever. To live with Christ, therefore, includes two ideas; association with him, and similarity to him. We partake of his life, and consequently our life is like his. |j In like manner, since we die with him, we die as he died. So, I too, when we are said to reign with him, to be glorified together, '!
both these ideas are included; see chap. viii. 17, and many similar passages. The life here spoken of is that a eternal life" which believers are said to possess even in this world; see John iii. 36", v. 24; and which is manifested here by devotion to God, and hereafter in the purity and blessedness of heaven. It includes, therefore, all the consequences of redemption. Wo are not to consider the apostle as merely running a parallel between the natural death and resurrection of Christ, and the spiritual death and resurrection of his people, as has already been remarked, but as showing that, in consequence of union to him in his death, we must die an he died, and live <is he lives. That is, that the effect of his dearth is to destroy the power of Bin; and the result of his living is the communication and pre servation of Divine life to all who are connected with him. This being the case, the objection stated in ver. 1 of this chapter, is seen to be entirely unfounded. This life of Christ, to which we are conformed, is described in the following verses, lirst as per petual, and secondly, as devoted unto God.
Vi-iKSK!). Knowing that C///vV/, />«•//>// r<iii«'<l from tin- <!>'<t<l, diet/i no wow. Knowing sroorsc is either equal to -/JL'. mnu.'Liv, and w<>. kn'Hi\ thus introducing a new idea, or it is causal, because we know. The latter is to be preferred. We are sure we shall be partakers of the life of Christ, because we know that he lives, \\ere he not a living Saviour, if his life were not perpetual, he could not be the source of life to his people in all ages. The perpetuity of Christ's life, therefore, is presented,
1. As the ground of assurance of the perpctiiitv of the life of believers. We shall partake of the life of Christ, i. e. of the spiritual and eternal blessings of redemption, because he ever lives to make intercession for us, and to grant us those supplies of grace which we need; see chap. v. 10; John xiv. 1'J; 1 Cor. xv. 2o, &c. As death has no more dominion over him, there is no ground of apprehension that our supplies of life will be cut off. This verse, therefore, is introduced as the ground of the declaration, "we shall live with him," at the close of ver. 8.
2. The perpetuity of the life of Christ is one of the points in which our life is to be conformed to his. Christ dicth no more, death hath no more dominion over him This repetition is for the sake of emphasis. Christ's subjection to death was voluntary. It was not from a necessity of nature, nor from any obligation to justice. He laid down his life of himself. He voluntarily submitted to death for our sakes, and was the master of death even in dying; and therefore he is, so to speak, in no danger of ever being subject to its power. The object of his voluntary submission to death having been accomplished, he lives for evermore. This is more fully expressed in the follow ing verse.
VERSE 10. For in that he died, lie died unto sin once, &c. He can never die again, for in dying he died once for all. By the one offering of himself, he has for ever perfected them that are sanctified. The apostle, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, while arguing to show the necessity of the death of Christ as a sacrifice for sin. argues also to show that such was the efficacy of that sacrifice, it need not, and cannot be repeated. Heb. vii. 27, ix. 12, x. 10; 1 Pet. iii. 18.
In that he died, b dxe&fws; b may be taken absolutely, quod attinet ad id, quod, as to that he died, so far as concerns his dying; compare Gal. ii. 20; or the relative maybe taken as the object, the death he died. Sec Winer, III., § 24. 4. 2. lie died unto sin, r/j famoria d-sftavzu, so far as the words arc con cerned, admits of different interpretations. It may mean, he died/ur the destruction of sin; or, he died for its expiation, i. e. on account of sin; or, in accordance with the force of the same words in ver. 2, and the analogous expression, vsxpobz TTJ brjiaffT'M, dead to sin, ver. 11, he died as to sin, was by death freed from sin. In this last sense, although the words are the same, the idea is very different in the two cases. The believer dies to sin in one sense, Christ in another. In both cases the idea of separation is expressed; but in the case of the believer, it is separation from personal, indwelling sin; in that of Christ, it is separation from the burden of his people's sin, which he bore upon the cross. The context and the argument favour this last interpretation. Death has no more dominion over Christ, for he died to sin; by the one sacrifice of himself, he freed him self from the burden of sin which he had voluntarily assumed. The law is perfectly satisfied; it has no further penalty to inflict. Of course the same truth or doctrine is expressed, if the other expositions of the phrase be preferred. It is only a question as to the form in which the same general truth is pre sented. Christ's death was for the destruction of sin, for its expiation; and it was a deliverance from it, i. e. from the burden of its imputed guilt. lie came the first time with sin; he is to come the second time 'without sin, (without that burden.) unto salvation. In that he Ureth, he lie nth unto God. This is said in contrast to what precedes. lie died unto sin, he lives unto God. So must the believer. Deatli must be followed by life; the one is in order to the other. It is of course not implied that our Lord's life on earth was not a living unto God, i. e. a living having God for its end and object. The antithetical expression is used simply to indicate the analogy between Christ and his people. They must be freed from sin, and be devoted to God, because their Lord and Saviour, in whose deatli and life they share, died unto sin, and lives unto God. Many of the Fathers, and some later interpreters, take -w OKU as equivalent to r/y d'JsdtiZ'. Torj (:)zu~j^ fit/ tin1 ]><>ic<'r <>f (l<nL J)iit this is unsuited to the connection. It is not the source of Christ's life, but tho nature of it, as perpetual and holy, that the apostle would bring into view. Olshausen says ~w &=<u means f<>r '/<"/, i. c. for righteousness, as opposed to sin, in the first clause: uHe died for the destruction of sin, he lives for the promotion of right eousness.'' Uut this is unnecessary, and inconsistent with tho context.
VERSI-: 11. 7v/A'v//v'.sv reckon //<' also yourselves t<> /»' d< nd ind».'d unto *//>. l>at alive unto Cn>d, «Jcc. What is true in itself, should be true in their convictions and consciou>ness. If in point of fact believers are partakers of the death and life of Christ; if they die with him, and live with him, then they should so regard themselves. They should receive this truth, with all its consoling and sanctifying power, into their hearts, and manifest it in their lives. So aho i/<>, O''JTCO y.a.l u/tztz, a point may be placed after ufi-7^; so that the sense is, *» alxo are y<>, as is dune by Griesbaeh and others. The simpler and more common method is to read the words continuously: s» afxo r('</<ir<! i/i' yourselves as dead to sin, \>i7.<>(nz, ~'// cLuaoTiOL; not reckon yourselves to le dead, as the word £?v/.', although found in the common text, is omitted by almost all the critical editors, on the authority of the oldest manuscripts, and the sense is complete without it; lopr£(7$ac T^d T,, means to regard one as something. Believers are to look upon themselves in their true light, viz. as dead to sin, freed from its penalty and dominion. This is a freedom which belongs to them as believers, and there fore the apostle adds, ev X{HGTW '/^<TOL>, not through, but in Christ Jesus, that is, in virtue of union with him. These words belong equally to both clauses of this verse. It is in Christ that the believer is dead to sin, and alive to God. The old man is crucified; the new man, the soul as renewed, is imbued with a new life, of which God is the object; which consists in fellow ship with him, and which is manifested by devotion to his service, and by obedience to his will. The words our Lord, TW KuoUo fyjLcov, are not found in the best manuscripts.
1. Truth cannot lead to unholiness. If a doctrine encourages sin, it must be false, vs. 1, 2.
"2. There can be no greater contradiction and absurdity than for one who lives in sin to claim to be a Christian, ver. 2.
3. Antinomianism is not only an error, it is a falsehood and a slander. It pronounces valid the very objection against the gospel which Paul pronounces a contradiction and absurdity, and which he evidently regards as a fatal objection, were it well founded, vs. 2 — 4, &c.
4. Baptism includes a profession of the religion taught by him in whoso name we are baptized, and an obligation to obey his laws, vs. 3, 4.
5. The grand design of Christianity is the destruction of sin. When sincerely embraced, therefore, it is with a view to this end, ver. 3.
6. The source of the believer's holiness is his union with Christ, by which his reconciliation to God, and his participation of the influences of the Holy Spirit are secured, vs. 4, 6.
7. The fact that Christ lives, renders it certain that his people shall live in holiness here, and in glory hereafter, ver. 8.
8. The only proper evidence that we are partakers of the benefits of the death and life of Christ, is our dying to sin, and living to God, ver. 11.
9. The gospel, which teaches the only true method of justifi cation, is the only system that can secure the sanctification of men. This is not only the doctrine of this section, but it is the leading truth of this and the following chapter.
1 As the most prominent doctrinal truth of this passage is, that the death of Christ secures the destruction of sin wherever it secures its pardon; so the most obvious practical inference is. that it is vain to hope for the latter benefit, unless we labour for the full attainment of the former, vs. "2 — 11.
2. For a professing Christian to live in sin, is not only to give positive evidence that he is not a real Christian, but it is to misrepresent and slander the gospel of the grace of (lod, to the dishonour of religion, and the injury of the souls of men,
8. Instead of holiness being in order to pardon, pardon is in order to holiness. This is the mystery of evangelical morals, ver. 4. \*c.
O J I
4. Th" only effectual method of gaining the victory over our sins, is to live in communion with Jesus Christ; to regard his death as securing the pardon of sin, as restoring us to the Divine favour, and as procuring for us the influences of the Holy Spirit. It is those who thus look to Christ not only for pardon, but for holiness, that are successful in subduing sin; while tho li'ij<tl!xt remains its slave, vs. t>. S.
f). It is a consolation to the believer to know, that if he has evidence of being m»fv a Christian, he may be sure that he shall live with Christ. As long and as surely as the head lives, so long and so surely must all the members live, ver. 8, &e.
6. To be in Christ is the source of the Christian's life; to bo like Christ is the sum of his excellence; to be with Christ is the fulness of his joy, vs. 2 — 11.
PAUL having shown, in the preceding section, that union with Christ secures not only the pardon, but the destruction of sin, exhorts his brethren to live agreeably to the nature and design of the gospel, vs. 12, 13. As an encouragement in their efforts to resist their corruptions, he assures them that sin shall not have dominion over them, because they are not under the law, but under grace, ver. 14. This is another fundamental princi ple in the doctrine of sanctification. Holiness is not attained, and cannot be attained by those who, being under the law, are still unreconciled to God. It is necessary that we should enjoy his favour, in order to exercise towards him right affections. This doctrine is not justly liable to the objection, that we may sin with impunity if not under the law, ver. 15. The true situation of the Christian is illustrated by a reference to the relation between a servant and his master. Believers, before conversion, were the servants of sin; after it, they are the servants of righteousness. Formerly they were under an influ ence which secured their obedience to evil; now they are undei an influence which secures their obedience to good. The con sequence of the former service was death; of the present, life. The knowledge of these consequences tends to secure the con tinued fidelity of the Christian to his new Master, vs. 16 — 23.
VERSE 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal />'."///, &c. This is a practical inference (o5v) from what pre cedes. Since the believer is in fact united to Christ in his death and life, he should live accordingly. The exhortation contained in this and the following verse has a negative and positive form — yield not to sin, but give yourselves up to God — corresponding to the clauses, dead to sin, and alive unto G-ud, in ver. 11. To reign signifies to exercise uncontrolled authority. S;n, although mortified in the believer, is not destroyed. Its power to injure remains after its dominion is overthrown, The exhortation is, that we should not yield to this dethroned adversary of Christ and the soul, but strenu ously strive against its efforts to gain ascendency over us, and to bring us again into bondage. Let not sin reign in your mortal boJy. This is a difficult clause. 1. Mortal body may be a periphrase for -you: ''Let not sin reign within you;' as in the next verse, your members may stand for yourselves. 2. Others say that i>vrfi6- (mortal] is to be taken in the figura tive sense in which j/s^o'c, dead, i. e. corrupt, is often used. 8. Others take awtta in the sense of <ra/^, corrupt nature, including everything in man as fallen, which is not dm.- to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Thus Calvin says, " Xuper
admonui voccm Corporis non pro came et cute et ossibus accipi, sed pro tota hominis massa, ut ita loquar. Id certius colligere licet ex pnesenti loco: quia alterum membrum, quod niux subjiciet de corporis partibus, ad animiim quoque extenditur. Sic autein crasse Paulas terrenum lioiuineni significat." lie savs the word mortal is used, fciper contemptum, ut docean totam houiinis naturam ad mortem et exitium inclinare." So also
Philippi, among the modern commentators, savs that here, as as in Horn. viii. 10, 1-5, (where fti&a-uw ra^ ~(>d-Z!~ rov adttm- TU^ is opposed to '/JI~<L (jdoxa ^7^,} au)[ta is the antithesis of rr>£v////. the latter being the soul as pervaded bv the Spirit of God, and the former our nature considered as corrupt. This, however, i.- so contrary to the general usage of Scripture, that the ordinary sense of the words is to be preferred. 1'aul does riot teach that the body is the source of sin, nor its exclusive or principal seat: but it is the organ of its manifestation. It H that through which the dominion of sin is outwardly revealed. The body is under the power of sin, and that power the apostle would have us resist; and on the other hand, the sensual appe tites of the body tend to enslave the soul. Body and soul are so united in a common life, that to say, 'Let not sin reign in your mortal body,' and to say, 'Let not sin reign in you,' amount to the same thing. When we speak of sin as dwelling in the soul, we do not deny its relation to the body; so neither does the apostle, when he speaks of sin dwelling in the body, mean to deny its relation to the soul.
That ye should obey it (a^ny, i. e. sin,) in the lusts thereof.. (auro7}, viz. of the body.) We should not obey sin by yielding to carnal appetites. The common text has here, ecz TO unaxo'jeiv a'jTTJ kv r«?c Ixtd-upicuz auTou. Knapp, Lachmann, and other editors, adopt the simpler and better authenticated read ing, £/c TO u-axo'jztv r«?c &7ri&v/jitcus a'JTOi), to obey its lusts, i. e. the lusts of the body. "A man," says Olshauscn, "must
Always serve. There is no middle ground between the service of sin and the service of God. We have justification completely, or we have it not at all. Sanctification, as springing from a living faith, and as the fruit of God's love to us, admits of degrees, and may be more or less earnestly cultivated; but this determines, not our salvation, but only the measure of future blessedness. No wisdom or caution," he adds, "can guard this doctrine from misunderstanding, whether such misunderstand ing arise unintentionally from the understanding, or designedly from insincerity of heart. It nevertheless is the only way which leads to God, in which the sincere and humble cannot 'err." "The key to the mystery," he goes on to say, "that the doctrine of redemption, although not demanding good works, produces them, is to be found in the fact that love excites love and the desire for holiness. Hence obedience is no longer slavish. We strive to obey, not in order to be saved or to please God, but because God saves us without works or merit of our own, whom, because he is reconciled in the Beloved, we delight to serve."
VERSE 13. Neither yield ye your members, &c. Do not permit sin to reign in you, nor yield your powers as its instru ments. Neither yield, /r^os xapeffTdistTS. The word means to place by, to present, (as an offering,) Luke ii. 22; Rom. xii. 1; to give up to the power or service of, vs. 16, 19, &c. Your members, either literally, members of the body, the eye, ear, hand, &c., or figuratively, your powers, whether of mind or body. The choice between the literal and figurative interpretation depends on the view taken of the preceding verse. If there acofia (body) be understood literally, then your members can only mean the members of the body; but if mortal body is there a periphrase for you, then your members must mean your facul ties. The /uty (members) are the parts of which the consists; and therefore if the acoaa stands for the whole person, the members must include all our powers, mental as well as cor poreal. In vii. 5, Paul says that sin "dul work in our mem bers;'' and in ver. 23, he speaks of "a law in his members." In neither of those cases is the reference exclusively to the body. As instruments of unrighteousness. That is, instru ments which unrighteousness uses, or which are employed to effect unrighteousness. The word orjji. is generic; it is used in the general sense of instruments, for the tackle of a ship, the tools of an artisan, though most frequently for weapons. On account of this general usage, and of Paul's own use of the word in xiii. 1-, k' armour of light/' (- Cor. vi. V, ik armour of righteousness." and "2 Cor. x. 4, "the weapons of our warfare/') many prefer the restricted sense in this place. Our members are regarded as weapons which sin uses to regain its dominion, or the predominance of unrighteousness. The context, however, does not favour the assumption of this allusion to a strife; and therefore the general sense of instruments, or implements, is more in keeping with the rest of the passage. />xf i/i Id your* si'li'f.i x/if" '/"</; a//'/. ~a.(Hj.arflGv~z, />uf. c/< t/tc contrary, pre sent yourselves, i. e. give yourselves up to God, not only your several powers, but your very selves, a dedication which of necessity involves that of each sepnrato faculty. In the first clause of the verse the present tense, Tisotff-dvzrs, is used; here it is the first aorist, present yourselues once for all. As alive fro/a t//e dead, i. c. as those who having been dead, are now alive. Having been quickened by the power of God, raised from the death of sin and all its dreadful consequences, they were bound to live unto God. AYho, having been restored to life, would desire to return to the loathsomeness of the grave? Awl, i. e. and especially, your members (i. e. xeptardvsr£, present your members) as instruments of righteousness to God. Present all your powers to God, to be employed by him as implements of righteousness; that is, instruments by which righteousness may be effected.
The future here is not to be understood as expressing either a command or an exhortation, not only because the third, and not the second person is used, but also because of the conncc- tion, as indicated by for. We should yield ourselves to God, for sin shall not have dominion, &c. It is not a hopeless struggle in which the believer is engaged, but one in which victory is certain. It is a joyful confidence which the apostle here expresses, that the power of sin has been effectually broken, and the triumph of holiness effectually secured by the work of Christ. The ground of the confidence that sin shall not have dominion, is to be found in the next clause: For ye are not under the law, but under grace. By law here, is not to be understood the Mosaic law. The sense is not, ' Sin shall not have dominion over you, because the Mosaic law is abroo-ated.' The word is to be taken in its widest sense. It is the rule of duty, that which binds the conscience as an expression of the will of God. This is plain: 1. From the use of the word through this epistle and other parts of the New Testament. 2. From the whole doctrine of redemption, which teaches that the law from which we are delivered by the death of Christ, is not simply the Mosaic law; we are not merely delivered from Judaism, but from the obligation of fulfilling the law of God as the condition of salvation. 3. Deliverance from the Mosaic law does not secure holiness. A man may cease to be a Jew, and yet not be a new creature in Christ Jesus. 4. The anti thesis between law arid grace shows that more than the law of Moses is here intended. If free from the Mosaic law, they may ptill be under some other law, and as little under grace as the Pharisees. To be under the law is to be under the obligation to fulfil the law of God as a rule of duty, as the condition of salva tion. Whosoever is under the law in this sense, is under the curse; for the law says, "Cursed is every one who continucth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." As no man is free from sin, as no man can perfectly keep the com mandments of God, every man who rests upon his personal conformity to the law, as the ground of his acceptance with God, must be condemned. We are not under the law in this sense, but under grace; that is, under a system of gratuitous justifica tion. We are justified by grace, without works. We are not under a legal dispensation, requiring personal conformity to the law, and entire freedom from sin, past arid present, as the con dition of our acceptance; but we are under a gracious dispensation, according to which God dispenses pardon freely, and accepts the sinner as a sinner, for Christ's sake, without works or merit of his own. Whoever is under the law in the sense just ex plained, is not only under condemnation, but he is of necessity under a legal or slavish spirit. What he does, he does as a slave, to escape punishment. But he who is under grace, who is gratuitously accepted of God, and restored to his favour, is under a filial spirit. The principle of obedience in him is love, and not four. Here, as everywhere else in the Bible, it is assumed that the favour of God is our life. We must be recon ciled to him before we can be holy; we must feel that he loves us before we can love him. Paul says it was the love of Christ to him, that constrained him to live for Him who thus loved him and gave Himself for him. The only hope therefore of sinners, is in freedom from the law, freedom from its condemnation, free dom from the obligation to fulfil it as the condition of accept ance, and freedom from its spirit. Those who are thus free, who renounce all dependence on their own merit or strength, who accept the offer of justification as a free gift of God, and who are assured that God {'or Christ's sake is reconciled to them, are so united to Christ that they partake of his lii'e, and their holiness here and salvation hereafter are rendered perfectly certain.
VERSK 1-"). Wltat then? shall we, sin, be.eau*>> w<: are n»t under tin' liw, but under grace? God forbid. Because works are not the ground of our justification; because we are justified freelv bv his grace, are we at liberty to sin without fear;md without restraint? Does the doctrine of gratuitous salvation give a license to the unrestrained indulgence of all evil? Such has been the objection to the doctrines of grace in all ages. And the fact that this objection was made to Paul's teachings, proves that his doctrine is the same with that against which the same objection is still urged. As the further consideration of this difficulty is resumed in the following chapter, the apostle here contents himself with a simple negation, arid a reference to the constraining influence under which the freely pardoned sinner is brought, which renders it as impossible for him to serve sin, as it is for the slave of one man to be obedient to another man. The slave must serve his own master.
VERSE 16. Know ye not, that to whom ye yidd yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, &c. 4 Know ye not that those who obey sin are its slaves • hurried on from one degrading service to another, until it works their ruin; but those who serve holiness are constrained, though sweetly, to constancy and fidelity, until the glorious consum mation of their course?' As a servant or slave is under an influence which secures obedience to his master, so also, in spiritual or moral relations, a man who serves sin is under an influence which secures the continuance of his obedience, and he who serves holiness is under an influence which effectually secures the constancy of his service. This being the case, it is not possible for the Christian or servant of holiness to be found engaged in the service of sin. The language and the construc tion are here nearly the same as in vcr. 13. Here, as there, we have nspiffToiusTS in the sense of giving up to the power and disposal of. Paul says, that those who give themselves up to another as douAouc; e^ faaxoyu, slaves to obedience, are the doitAoe of him whom they thus obey. It enters into the idea of slavery, that the subjection is absolute and continued. The slave does not obey his own will, but his master's. lie is subject not for a time, but for life. He is under an influence which secures obedience. This is as true in spiritual as in external relations. He who serves sin is the slave of sin. He is under its power. He cannot free himself from its dominion. He may hate his bondage; his reason and conscience may protest against it; his will may resist it; but he is still constrained to obedience. This is the doctrine of our Lord, as taught in John viii. 34: u He that committeth sin is the slave of sin." This remains true, although this service is unto death: "The wages of sin is death." The death intended is spiritual and eternal. It is the absolute loss of the life of the soul, which consists in the favour and fellow ship of God, and conformity to his image. What is true of sin is true of holiness. He who by virtue of union with Christ is made obedient to God, becomes, as Paul says, a ooD/oc bxctxoYjS, a slave of obedience. Obedience (personified) is the master to which he is now subject. He is not only bound to obey, but he is made to obey in despite of the resistance of his still imper fectly sanctified nature. He cannot but obey. The point of analogy to which reference is here made, is the certainty of the effect, and the constraining influence by which that effect is secured. In the case both of sin and of holiness, obedience is certain; and it is rendered certain by a power superior to the will of man. The great difference is, that in the one case this subjection is abnormal and destructive, in the other it is normal and beneficent. A wise man is free in being subject to his reason. The more absolute and constant the authority of reason, the more exalted and free is the soul. In like manner, the more completely God reigns in us, the more completely we are subject to his will, so much the more are we free; that is, so much the more do we act in accordance with the laws of our nature and the end of our being. Servants of obedience unto righteousness; otxatoa'jy/j must here be taken in its subjective sense. It is inward righteousness, or holiness. And in this sense it is eternal life, and therefore antithetical to l}d^a~o^, which is spiritual and eternal death. The service of sin results in death, the service of God results in righteousness; that is, in our being right, completely conformed to the image of God, in which the life of the soul consists.
VERSI-; IT. Hut God be thanked, that ye were the servants if six; but i/e have obeyed from the, heart, &c. As it is the apostle's object to show that believers cannot live in sin, inas much as they have become the servants of another master, he applies the general truth stated in the preceding verses more directly to his immediate readers, and gives thanks that they, being emancipated from their former bondage, are now bound to a master whose service is perfect liberty. The expression in the first member of this verse is somewhat unusual, although the sense is plain: " God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin;" that is, that this slavery is past; or, 'God be thanked, that ye, being the servants of sin, have obeyed,' &c.
Ye have obeyed from the heart; this obedience is voluntary and sincere. They had not been passively transferred from one master to another; but the power of sin being broken, they gladly renounced their bondage, and gave themselves unto God. Ye obeyed, says the apostle, the form of doctrine which was delivered to you. The T'J~O^ ucoayj^, the form of doctrine, may mean the doctrine which is a T'J~O-, a model or standard to which we should conform — sentiendi agendique norma et rcgula. Calvin says it means "expressam justitioe imaginem, quam cordibus nostris Christus insculpsit." Another explanation assumes TUTZOZ to be equivalent to form, contents, or substance of the doctrine. Compare p-ooytoat:; TTJZ fvwffscoz, ii. 20. The former explanation is sustained by a reference to 2 Tim. i. 13, where Paul speaks of a uTroruTicoact; uftatvovrcov Ibrajy, a form of sound words; that is, sound words which are a pattern or standard of faith. Compare Acts xxiii. 25: ' Having written an epistle containing this type,' i. e. form of words. By form of doctrine is to be understood the Gospel, either in its limited sense of the doctrine of gratuitous justification through Christ, of which the apostle had been speaking; or in its wider sense of the whole doctrine of Christ as a rule both of faith and prac tice. The former includes the latter. He who receives Christ as priest, receives him as a Lord. He who comes to him for justification, comes also for sanctification; and therefore obedi ence to the call to put our trust in Christ as our righteousness, implies obedience to his whole revealed will. The words U7irr ov Trapedo&^Te TU~OP otoayj^, may be resolved thus, TUTTw dtou.yj^, ecz oi> Trapedoftyre, ye have obeyed the type of doctrine to which ye have been delivered. That is, the mould into which, as it were, ye have been cast; as Beza says, the gospel is regarded " quasi instar typi cujusdam, cu4 veluti immittamur, ut ejus figurse conformemur." This last idea is unnatural: £/c ov napedo&yrs is either equivalent to #c xaped- 6&Y] ujjTiU, which was delivered unto you, (see Winer, § 24. 2,) or, to which ye were delivered, "cui divinitus traditi estis." That is, to which ye were subjected. The intimation is, that faith in the gospel is the gift of God, and obedience is our con sequent act. "The passive (Kapedddyre,)" says Philippi, "indi cates the passive relation of men to the work of regeneration, of which his activity (bnrjxo'jGars) is the consequence, according to the familiar dictum: Ita a Spiritu Dei agimur ut ipsi quoque agamus."
VERSE 18. Being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. This verse may be regarded as the conclusion from what precedes, os being used for ow: 'Being freed then from sin,' &c.; or it may be connected immediately with vcr. 17.
a comma instead of a period intervening: 'Ye havo obeyed tho form of doctrine, having been freed," &c. The latter is better. Freed by the grace of God from sin as a despotic master, ye became the servants, sooy/w^rs, ye were made slaves to right eousness. It was not license, but a change of masters, that they had experienced. This being the case, it is impossible they should serve sin; they have now another master. A manumitted slave docs not continue subject to his former
master. "Absurdum cst, ut post manumissionem o^iis in servitutis conditione maneat. Observandum, c^uoinodo nemo possit justituc servire nisi Dei potentia ct beneiicio prius a peccati tyranriide liberatus." Calvin. To the same effect our Lord
says: "If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John viii. ol>. This subjection to righteousness is perfect liberty. It is the subjection of the soul to God, reason, and conscience, wherein true liberty consists. This being the case, the apostle in the following verse explains the reason why ho used a figure apparently so incongruous, in speaking of tho relation of the believer to righteousness.
VKRSE 10. / speak after the manner of men, dvd-pcb-woi*).k*((.o; I say what is human, i. e. common among men. Tho only difference between this expression and tho more common phrase, YJI.-" fcitiito-uy /5fo», is, that the former characterizes as human the thing said, and the other the manner of saying it. The idea in this case is the same. The apostlo means to say, that he uses an illustration drawn from tho common relations of men, to set forth the relation of the believer to God. Tho slave is bound to serve his master; the obedience of the believer to God is no less certain. The one is slavery, because the obe dience is independent of the will, and coerced; the other is perfect freedom, because rendered from the heart, and with full consent of the will. Yet both are a ou'jhiu, so far as certainty of obedience is concerned. This is the common and natural interpretation of this clause. Others, however, take &vd-pa)7twov in the sense in which it is used in 1 Cor. ix. '2'2. There it is opposed to what is superhuman, beyond the strength of man to bear: ' I demand only what is human. The obedience required is, on account of the weakness of your flesh, only such as you are able to render. For as ye served sin, so you can serve righteousness. The one is as easy as the other. The one is the measure of the other.' But this does violence to the con nection. The wG-sfj — o'jTco do not refer to the measure of the obedience, but to the change of masters: 'As ye served sin, so now serve God.' Besides, the principle that the measure of obedience is determined by our ability, is utterly at variance with the word of God and the dictates of conscience. The simple design of the apostle in this passing or parenthetical remark is, to state the reason why he designated our new rela tion to God a slavery. He used this illustration, he says, on account of the weakness of their flesh; not intellectual weak ness, but such as arose from the crdoz, their nature as corrupt. It was their lack of spirituality which rendered such illustra tions necessary. The ydf) (for) of the next clause refers to vcr. 18: 'Being freed from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness; for as ye yielded your members,' &c. Your members, yourselves, your various faculties, with special refer ence to their bodily organs as the outward, visible instruments of evil. Ye yielded your members, ooD/a, bound. This is the only passage in the New Testament in which &>D/oc is used as an adjective. They yielded their members to uncleanness and to iniquity, TTJ dxa&apfflqt. xae TTJ dvo/jtla. These two words express the same thing under different aspects. Sin subjec tively considered is pollution, a defilement of the soul; rela tively to the law of God, it is dvopla, what is unlawful, what fails of conformity to the law. In the next clause, unto iniquity, the word is used in a wider sense. They gave them selves up to iniquity, that is, to do evil; e/c TT^ dwjuiav being equivalent to e^ TO ~o>*cu avotiiay. Men give themselves up to sin as a master, to do what the law forbids. The same idea is expressed, if £/c rr^ dwfilav means, for the mani festation of iniquity. So now yield your members as servants to righteousness. Having been delivered from bondage to the tyrant sin, ye should act as becomes your new relation, and be obedient to your new master, even to him who hath bought you with his blood. To righteousness, unto holiness, ect; bytafffiov, so as to be pure in heart and life. The proximate result of obedience to God is inward conformity to the Divine image. Compare 1 Thess. iii. 3, 4, 7.
VERSE 20. For when ye were tJte servants of sin, ye w^re free from righteousness. This verse introduces a confirmation of what precedes. The foregoing exhortation is enforced by the consideration developed in vs. 21, 22, that the service of sin is death. The particle fdto, therefore, is used in its common sense, for, and not namely. Formerly, when the slaves of sin, ye were iteud-epoe ~fj dtxatoa'jvfl, that is, either 'free in the esti mation of righteousness,' ("An ille mllti liber, cui mulier imperat?" Cicero;} or, what is more natural, as to righteousness; so far as righteousness is concerned, ye were free. Righteous ness had no power over you; your service was rendered to another master. This is not to be understood ironically, as though the apostle designed to refer to their former state as one of freedom in their estimation. It is the simple statement of a fact of experience. While the servants of sin, they did not and could not serve righteousness. Here are two services, which is to be preferred? This is the question which the apostle pre sents for their consideration.
VEKSE 21. The sense of this verse depends mainly on the pointing. It may be read thus: ' What fruit had ye then of those things of which ye are now ashamed? (Answer, Xon<>,) for the end of those things is death/ Or, 'What fruit had yo then? (Answer, Such,} of which ye are now ashamed, for,' &c. The choice between these interpretations is not very easy, and accordingly commentators are about equally divided between them. The Vulgate, the English version, Calvin, ])e/.a, Jiengel, Meyer, Fritzshe, &c., adopt the former. Luther, Melanethon,.Koppe, Tholuek, l)e Wette, Olshausen, &c., the latter. The decision seems to depend principally on the meaning iriven to the phrase, to I/or,1 fruit. If this means, to derive benefit, then the sense is, 'What benefit did you derive from the things of which you are now ashamed?' The natural answer is, 'None; a course of conduct which ends in death can yield no benefit.' This gives a pertinent sense: it is suited to ver. 22, where fruit may also mean advantage; and especially it agrees best with the words iy oF^, which otherwise must refer to xapxbu, (fruit of which,) which is not natural. In favour of the second inter pretation, however, it is urged that fruit is never in the New Testament used of reward or emolument, but always of acts
The familiar illustration is that of a tree whose fruit is good or bad according to its nature. According to this view, Paul means to ask, 'What fruit did you then produce? Such,' he answers, 'of which you are now ashamed.' Besides this general use of the word (fruit,) it is urged that in vcr. 22, this is the natural sense of the word: " Ye have your fruit unto holiness;" that is, 'Ye produce fruit which tends to holiness.' "This
figure," says Olshausen, "is the more significant, because it is so directly opposed to that Pelagianism which is so congenial with our fallen nature. The natural man, destitute of the knowledge of God, of himself, and of sin, dreams that by his own strength and efforts he can produce a form of virtue which can stand before the bar of God. He does not know that of necessity, arid by a law of his nature, he can only produce evil fruit, just as a wild tree can produce only bitter fruit. Even should he succeed in calling into exercise all the good he has in the most perfect form, it is so destitute of love, and so cor rupted by conceit, that it merits condemnation, as fully as though the life were openly immoral. The beginning of truth, of which holiness, (which is true liberty,) by a like organic necessity and law of nature, is the fruit, is for man the acknowledgment that death reigns in him, and that he must be imbued with life." All this is true, and all this is really
involved in the familiar figure which our Lord uses to illus trate the relation between the state of the heart and of the outward life. But this does not seem to be the idea which the apostle here intends to present. The phrase, xar>~bu notelv, does indeed always mean to produce fruit, and figura tively, to do good or evil; but xao~bv e%sw, to have fruit, means to have the advantage, or profit. Thus, in i. 13, Paul says: "That I might have some fruit among you;" i. e. that he might gain something, win some souls for Christ. If this be the true meaning of the phrase here, then the former of the two interpretations is to be preferred. What advantage had you of the service of sin? None; for the end of those things, the rs/oc, the final result of the service of sin, is death; not physical death, but the death of the soul, final and hopeless perdition. Such was their former condition; to this the con trast is given in the next verse.
VERSE 22. But now, being made free from sin, £/.£' ^j/rcc d~b r£c duapriaz; having been emancipated from one master, do'jXo)$si>TSZ ok TM Qiw, and become slaves to G-od, i. e. being subject to his controlling influence by the power of his Spirit, ye lave your fruit unto holiness; that is, the benefit or effect derived from the service of God is holiness. Sanctification is the proximate result of this new service. And the end eternal life. The final issue of this service is complete salva tion; the restoration of the soul to the favour and enjoyment of God for ever. " Quemadmodum duplicem peccati finem ante proposuit, ita mine justitiie. Peccatum in hac vita malre conscientiie tormenta affert, deinde aeternam mortem. Justitinc proesentcin fructum coiiigimus, sanctificationem: in futurum, speramus vitam aeternam."
VKRSE 2-3. For the wages of sin is deaf It; but the gift of (rod is eternal life, tltrouglt Jesus Christ our Lord. The reason why death is the result of sin is, that sin deserves death. Death is due to it in justice. There is the same obligation in justice, that sin should be followed by death, as that the labourer should receive his wages. As it would be unjust, and therefore wrong, to defraud the labourer of his stipulated reward, so it would be unjust to allow sin to go unpunished. Those, there-fore, who hope for pardon without an atonement, hope that God will in the end prove unjust. The word oc/wv/a is, strict! v, the rations of soldiers; in a wider sense, the same as (Vs~in.:ni)'.u., or tum^o^, anything which is due as a matter of debt. Jint tin' gift of Grod, TO os %dptff/m TO~J 6zo~j, the free, unmerited gift of God, is eternal life. The connection between holiness and life is no less certain than that between sin and death, but on different grounds, ^in deserves death; holiness is itself the gift of God, and is freely crowned with eternal life. The idea of merit is everywhere and in every way excluded from the gospel method of salvation. It is a system of grace, from the beginning to the consummation. Through (rather in) Jesus Christ our Lord. It is in Christ, as united to him, that we are made partakers of eternal life. Jesus Christ and his gospel, then, instead of being the ministers of sin — as the Jews, and since them, the opponents of the doctrines of grace, confidently asserted — effectually secure what the law never could accomplish, an obedience resulting in holiness here, and in eternal life hereafter.
1. The leading doctrine of this section, and of the whole gospel, in reference to sanctification, is, that grace, instead of leading to the indulgence of sin, is essential to the exercise of holiness. So long as we are under the influence of a self-l righteous or legal spirit, the motive and aim of all good works | are wrong or defective. The motive is fear, or sonic merely natural affection, and the aim, to merit the bestowment of good. But when we accept of the gracious offers of the gospel, and feel that our sins are gratuitously pardoned, a sense of the divine love, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, awakens all holy affections. The motive to obedience is now love, and its aim the glory of God, ver. 14, &c.
2. Paul teaches that it is not only obligatory on Christians to renounce the service of sin, but that, in point of fact, the authority and power of their former master are destroyed, and those of their new master experienced, whenever they embrace the gospel. This is the very nature of the change. The charge, therefore, that the gospel leads to the service of sin, is an absurdity, vs. 15 — 18.
3. Religion is essentially active. It is the yielding up of our selves, with all our powers, to God, and the actual employment of them as instruments in doing good. Nothing can be at a greater remove from this, than making religion a mere matter of indolent profession, (a saying, Lord, Lord,) ver. 12, £c.
4. Both from the nature of things, and the appointment of God, the wages of sin is death. It renders intercourse with God, who is the fountain of life, impossible. It consists in the exercise of feelings, in their own nature, inconsistent with hap piness; it constantly increases in malignity, and in power to destroy the peace of the soul. Apart from these essential tendencies, its relation to conscience and the justice of God, renders the connection between sin and misery indissoluble, \ Salvation in sin is as much a contradiction, as happiness io1' misery, vs. 21, 23.
£. Eternal life is the GIFT of God. It does not, like eternal death, flow, as a natural consequence, from anything in us. With the holy angels, who have never lost the favour of God. this may be the case. But the tendency of all that belongs to us, is to death; this must be counteracted; those excellences, in which life consists, and from which it flows, must be pro duced, sustained, and strengthened by the constant, condescend ing, and long-suffering grace of the Holy Spirit. The life thus graciously produced, and graciously sustained, is at last gra ciously crowned with eternal glory, vs. 22, 23.
1. We should cultivate a sense of the Divine favour as a means to holiness. We must cease to be slaves, before we can be children. We must be free from the dominion of fear, before we can be under the government of love. A self-righteous spirit, therefore, is not more inconsistent witli reliance on the righteousness of Christ, in order to justification, than it is with the existence and progress of sanctification. A\ hatcvcr tends/ to destroy a sense of the Divine favour, must be inimical to holiness. Hence the necessity of keeping a conscience void of'
' offence, and of maintaining uninterrupted our union with Christlas our sacrifice and advocate, ver. 14, etc.
2. Those Christians are under a great mistake, who suppose that despondency is favourable to piety. Happiness is one of the elements of life. Hope and joy are twin daughters of piety, and cannot, without violence and injury, be separated from their parent. To rejoice is as much a duty as it is a privilege, ver. 14, &c.
3. Sinners are slaves. Sin reigns over them; and all their powers are delivered to this master as instruments of unright eousness, lie secures obedience with infallible certainty; his bonds become stronger every day, and his wages are death. From his tyranny and recompense there is no deliverance by the law; our only hope is in Jesus Christ our Lord, vs. 12, 13, 16, &c.
4. Christians are the servants of God. He reigns over them, J }and all their powers are consecrated to him. He, too, secures;!