Romans Commentary

THE Apostle describes in this chapter the blessed accompaniments, the security, and the foundation of justification. This last branch of the subject is interwoven with an account of the entrance of sin and death into the world; while a parallel is drawn between the first and the second Adam in their opposite tendencies and influences. By the first came sin, condemnation, and death; by the second, righteousness, justification, and life. From this comparison, occasion is taken to show why God had made the promulgation of the written law to intervene betwixt the author of condemnation and the author of justification. On the one hand, the extent, the evil, and the demerit of sin, and the obstructions raised up by law and justice to man’s recovery, were thus made fully manifest; while, on the other hand, the superabundant riches of Divine grace, in its complete ascendancy and victory over them in the way of righteousness, were displayed to the greatest advantage, and with the fullest effect.

Ver. 1. — Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore. — This particle of inference draws its conclusion from the whole foregoing discussion concerning justification by faith, though it may have a more immediate reference to the nearest preceding context. The Apostle having fully proved that salvation is by grace, and that it is by faith, now shows the consequences of this doctrine. Justified by faith. — This expression is elliptical; faith must be understood as inclusive of its object. This is very usual in all cases where the thing elliptically expressed is frequently spoken of, and therefore sufficiently explained by the elliptical expression. It is not by faith, abstractly considered, that we are justified, nor even by faith in everything that God reveals. It is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even this phrase itself, namely, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, is still elliptical, and supposes the knowledge of what is to be believed with respect to Christ. It is not believing in His existence, but believing on Him as revealed in the Scriptures, in His person and work. In the same manner as we have the phrase, ‘justified by faith,’ we have the phrase, justified by the blood of Christ. As, in the former case, faith implies its object, so, in the latter, it is implied that we are justified by faith in the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ justifies by being the object of belief and of trust. We have peace with God. — This shows that all men, till they are justified, are at war with God, and that He is at war with them. But when they are justified by faith, the wrath of God, which abideth on those who believe not on His Son, John 3:36, is turned away, and they cease to be enemies to God. Thus peace, succeeding hostility, brings with it every blessing; for there is no middle place for the creature between the love and the wrath of God. This peace, then, arises from righteousness, — the imputation of the righteousness of God by which the believer is justified, — and is followed by a sense of peace obtained. While guilt remains in the conscience, enmity will also rankle in the heart; for so long as men look upon their sins as unpardoned, and on God as the avenger of their transgressions, they must regard Him as being to them a consuming fire. But when they view God in Christ reconciling them to Himself, not imputing their iniquities to them, peace, according to the measure of faith, is established in the conscience.

This never can be experienced by going about to establish our own righteousness. If any man have peace in his conscience, it must flow from Christ’s righteousness — it must be the effect of that righteousness which God has ‘created,’ Isaiah 45:8; and of which the Spirit, when He comes, brings with Him the conviction, John 16:8. Resting on this righteousness, the believer beholds God at peace with him, perfectly reconciled. The belief of this satisfies his conscience, which, being purged by blood, Hebrews 9:14, he is freed from guilty fears, and reconciled to God. Through this sense of the pardon of sin, and of friendship with God, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keeps his heart and mind through Christ Jesus. The maintenance of this peace, by preserving the conscience free from guilt by continual application to the blood of Christ, is the main point in the believer’s walk with God and the powerful spring of His obedience. In the New Testament God is frequently denominated ‘the God of peace.’ The Apostle prays that the Lord Himself may give His people peace by all means, and enjoins that the peace of God should rule in the hearts of believers, to which they are also called in one body, and that they should be thankful. Peace is the fruit of the Spirit; and the kingdom of God is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. — Peace comes through the death of Jesus Christ. The faith, therefore, by which it is obtained, must refer to Him who made peace through the blood of His cross. He alone, as the one Mediator, can make peace between God, who is holy, and man, who is sinful. God has established three covenants, or three ways of communication with man. The first was the covenant of nature; the second, the covenant of the law; the third, the covenant of the Gospel.

Under the first covenant, man, being in a state of innocence, needed no mediator. Under the second, there was a mediator simply of communication, and not of reconciliation, — a mediator as to the exterior, or a messenger who goes between two parties, a simple depository of words spoken on the one side of the other, without having any part in the interior or essence of the covenant, of which he was neither the founder nor the bond. Under the third covenant, Jesus Christ is a true mediator of reconciliation, who has produced a real peace between God and man, and is the founder of their mutual communion. ‘He is our peace.’ It is established by the new covenant in His hands, and is everlasting, being made through the blood of that everlasting covenant. ‘The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake,’ Isaiah 42:21. ‘The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever,’ Isaiah 32:17. This peace, then, is through Jesus Christ and His righteousness, which brings this quietness and assurance.

He is the King of righteousness and Prince of Peace. In parting from His disciples before His death, He said, ‘These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace;’ and this peace He bequeathed to them. ‘Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.’ When He met them again after His resurrection, His first salutation to them was, ‘Peace be unto you.’

Ver. 2. — By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Believers have access into grace as well as peace. — The one is distinguished from the other. In what, then, do they differ? Peace denotes a particular blessing; access into grace, or a state of favor, implies general blessings, among which peace and all other privileges are included. And as they are justified by means of faith, and have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, so likewise it is through Him that they enter into this state of grace; for it is through Him they have access by one Spirit unto the Father, by that new and living way which He hath consecrated for them through the vail; that is to say, His flesh. They have access to a mercy-seat, to which they are invited to come freely; and boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Jesus — boldness to come to the throne of grace, and enter into the holiest by His blood. And as it is by Him they enter into this state of grace, so by Him they stand in it, accepted before God, 1 Peter 5:12; secured, according to His everlasting covenant, that they shall not be cast down; but that they are fixed in this state of perfect acceptance, conferred by sovereign grace, brought into it by unchangeable love, and kept in it by the power of a faithful God. ‘They shall be My people, and I will be their God.’ ‘I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me,’ Jeremiah 32:38,40. And rejoice. — This is an additional blessing. The word here translated rejoice signifies to glory or exult, and is the same that in the following verse is rendered ‘to glory.’ It may designate not only the excess of joy possessed by the soul in the contemplation of the future inheritance, but the language of triumph expressing this joy, which is properly meant by glorying. The Christian should speak nothing boastingly, so far as concerns himself; but he has no reason to conceal his sense of his high destination as a son of God, and an heir of glory. In this he ought to result, in this he ought to glory, — and, in obedience to His Lord’s command, to rejoice, because his name is written in heaven. The hope of eternal salvation through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot but produce joy; for as there can be no true joy without such a hope, so it carries with it the very essence of joy. Joy springing from faith is called the joy of faith, Philippians 1:25, and is made a distinguishing characteristic of the Christian, Philippians 3:3. ‘Where Christ is truly seen,’ says Luther, On the Galatians, p. 85, ‘there must needs be full and perfect joy in the Lord, with peace of conscience, which most certainly thus thinketh: — Although I am a sinner, by the law, and under condemnation of the law, yet I despair not, I die not, because Christ liveth, who is both my righteousness and my everlasting life. In that righteousness and life I have no sin, no fear, no sting of conscience, no care of death. I am indeed a sinner, as touching this present life, and the righteousness thereof, as the child of Adam; where the law accuseth me, death reigneth over me, and at length would devour me. But I have another righteousness and life above this life, which is Christ, the Son of God, who knoweth no sin nor death, but righteousness and life eternal; by whom this, my body, being dead, and brought into dust, shall be raised up again, and delivered from the bondage of the law, and sin, and shall be sanctified together with the Spirit.’ In the hope of the glory of God — This form of expression will equally apply to the glory that God bestows on His people, and to His own glory.

The view and enjoyment of God’s glory is the hope of believers. It is the glory that shall be revealed in them when they shall he glorified together in Christ — when they shall behold the glory which the Father hath given to the Son, and which the Son gives to them, John 17:22-24. Thus faith relies on the truth of what God has promised, and hope expects the enjoyment of it. This hope is full of rejoicing, because everything it looks for depends on the truth and faithfulness of a covenant God. There can be no failure on His part, and consequently on the believer’s no disappointment.

Here it should be particularly observed, that before saying one word of the fruits Produced by the believer, the Apostle describes him as rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. He represents him as drawing no motive of consolation but from a view of God in Christ, whom he has received as his Savior by faith; and this is the true source of his hope and joy. The disciples, after the day of Pentecost, as soon as they heard the word that Peter preached, gladly embraced it, and did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. In the same way, when Christ was preached to them, the eunuch and the jailor rejoiced the moment they believed. This hope is indeed capable of confirmation; but if it has not its origin in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice alone, it is a false hope. As soon as a man believes the Gospel of Christ, he ought to imitate the faith of Abraham, and give glory to God, resting securely on the sure foundation which is the basis of the hope; and he never can acquire a different title to glory, than that of which he is in possession in the moment when he believes, although, as he grows in grace, he perceives it more distinctly. Paul, while he urges the brethren at Colosse to a higher degree of conformity, in many particulars, to the will of God, yet gives thanks to the Father, who had already made them meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, Colossians 1:12.

This was the state of the thief on the cross, and is so of every converted sinner, in the moment when he is united to Christ; for then he is justified by faith, and has peace with God. Christians are characterized as holding fast the beginning of their confidence, and the rejoicing of their hope, firm unto the end, Hebrews 3:6-15. The beginning of their confidence and hope of salvation rested wholly on the person and righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Surety of the new covenant. It is true that at the commencement of their new life, faith is often weak, and its object seen indistinctly. Love, and joy, and hope, cannot transcend the faith from which they flow. Hence the propriety of that prayer by all the disciples of Jesus, ‘Lord, increase our faith;’ hence also the necessity of using diligence in the work and labor of love, to the full assurance of hope unto the end, Hebrews 6:11.

Ver. 3. — And not only so, but hope glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience.

Not only does the believer rejoice in hope of future glory, but he rejoices even in tribulations. This rejoicing, however, is not in tribulations considered in themselves, but in their effects. It is only the knowledge of the effects of afflictions, and of their being appointed by his heavenly Father, that enables the Christian to rejoice in them. Being in themselves an evil, and not joyous but grievous, they would not otherwise be a matter of rejoicing, but of sorrow. But viewed as proceeding from his heavenly Father’s love, Hebrews 12:6; Revelation 3:19, they are so far from depriving him of his joy, that they tend to increase it. The way to the cross was to his Savior the way to the crown, and he knows that through much tribulation he must enter into the kingdom of God, Acts 14:22.

The greatest tribulations are among those things that work together for his good. God comforts him in the midst of his sorrows, 2 Corinthians 1:4.

Tribulation, even death itself, which is numbered among his privileges, Corinthians 3:22, shall not separate him from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Apostle Peter addresses believers as greatly rejoicing in the hope of salvation, though now, if need be, they are in heaviness through manifold trials. Tribulation worketh or effecteth patience. — Christians should be well instructed on this point, and should have it continually in their eye: their happiness is greatly concerned in it. If they forget the end and tendency of afflictions, they will murmur like the Israelites. Patience is a habit of endurance; and Christian patience implies submission to the will of God.

Paul says here that affliction worketh patience, and James 1:3, says that the trying of faith worketh patience. This proves that the afflictions of a Christian are intended as a trial of his faith. What by the one Apostle is called tribulation, is by the other called trial of faith. The effect of affliction is patience, a grace which is so necessary, as we are all naturally impatient and unwilling to submit unreservedly to the dispensations of God. Patience gives occasion to the exercise of the graces of the Spirit, and of submission under afflictions to the will of God.

Ver. 4. — And patience, experience; and experience, hope.

Experience. — The Greek word translated experience signifies trial or proof. Here it means proof; for trial may detect a hypocrite as well as a manifest saint. But proof implies that the trial has proved the genuineness of the tried person, and also of the faithfulness and support of God, which will enable us to overcome every difficulty. And proof worketh hope.

That is, when the genuineness of our profession is manifested by being proved, our hope of enjoying the glory promised to the genuine people of God is confirmed. Hope is here introduced a second time. This should be carefully noticed. At first, as we have seen, it springs solely from a view of the mediation and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here; it acquires a new force, from the proof the believer has of the reality of his union with the Savior, by his being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ. Thus the ‘good hope through grace’ must be produced solely by faith, and confirmed, not produced, by the fruits of faith.

Ver. 5. — 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.

Hope maketh not ashamed. — This may import, either that hope will not be disappointed, or that hope will not allow us to be ashamed of its object.

Various passages speak of the believer as not being put to shame in the day of retribution; and the expression here is generally interpreted to signify that hope will not be disappointed, but will receive the object of its anticipation. This is an important truth; yet the Apostle may rather be understood as speaking of the usual effect of hope as exemplified in the life of a Christian; and that it is not the future effect of hope in believers, but its present effect, as it is the present effect of the other particulars mentioned, to which he refers. Besides, the primary signification of the word in the original is, not to disappoint, but to shame, put to shame, or make ashamed. Paul here evidently speaks of hope as a general principle, which, in every instance, and on all subjects, has this effect ascribed to it.

It is its nature, with regard to everything which is its object, to destroy shame, and excite to an open avowal, and even glorying in it, though it may be a thing of which others may be ashamed, and which is ridiculed in the world. The experience of every Christian confirms this view. When is he inclined to be ashamed of the Gospel? Not when his hopes are high, his faith unwavering, and his impressions of future glory strong. It is when His hopes fade and grow weak. Just in proportion as his hope is strong, will he make an open and a bold profession of the truth. Here, then, by a well-known figure, the assertion before us appears to import that, so far from being ashamed, believers glory and exult. Hope causes Christians, instead of being ashamed of Christ and His word (which without hope they would be), to glory and proclaim their prospects before the world, Galatians 6:14; 1 Peter 1:6-8, 5:1; 1 John 3:2. They glory in the cross of Christ through hope. This shows the great importance of keeping our hope unclouded. If we suffer it to flag or grow faint, we shall be ashamed of it before men, to which, from the enmity of the world against the Gospel, there is much temptation. Accordingly, our blessed Lord, who knew what was in man, has in the most solemn and awful manner warned His disciples against it; and the Apostle Peter enjoins on believers to add to their faith virtue — courage to profess it. Because. — This casual particle may be understood to intimate the reason why hope makes not ashamed, or to give an additional reason why Christians are not ashamed. Agreeably to the latter interpretation, hope is one reason, and then another is subjoined; and certainly the love of God is a strong reason to prevent us from being ashamed of the Gospel. Love of God — This phrase in itself is ambiguous, and, according to the connection or other circumstances, it may be understood, in its different occurrences, to refer either to God’s love to us, or to our love to God, — two things which are entirely distinct. God’s love to us is in Himself; but the love lie pours into our hearts may signify either a sense of His love to us, or, as Augustine explains it, our love to Him. The use of language admits of the first of these meanings, which appears to be the true one; and it is certain that it contributes more to our consolation to have our minds fixed upon God’s love to us, than upon our love to God; while our hope does not depend on our love to God, but on our sense of His love to us. The connection, too, leads us to understand the phrase in the sense of God’s love to us. It connects with what follows, where the Apostle proceeds to prove God’s love to His people from the wonderful manner in which, as is said in the 8th verse, He commendeth His love towards us in the way He has acted in the gift of His Son, notwithstanding our unworthiness and enmity against Him. In the same way it is said, John 3:16, ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ It coincides, too, with such declarations as, ‘In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.’ ‘We have known and believed the love of God to us,’ 1 John 4:9,16. We cannot be beforehand with God in love, and we must perceive His love to make us love Him. The first feeling of love springs up in the heart from a view of His grace and mercy to us in Jesus Christ. His love to us is the foundation of our love to God; and it is a view of His love that not only produces, but maintains and increases, our love to Him. ‘Thy love is better than wine.’ Poured out. — This refers to the abundant measure of the sense of the love of God to us, which is communicated to His people, and poured into their hearts, through all the faculties of their souls, moving and captivating their affections. By the Holy Ghost. — It is the Holy Ghost who pours out into the heart of the believer a sense of the love of God to him, fully convincing him of it, and witnessing this love to his spirit, Romans 8:16. This sense of the love of God never exists in the human heart till communicated by the Holy Ghost. All men naturally hate God, Romans 8:7; and it is only when they have a view of His love thus given by the promised Comforter, and behold His love in the gift of His Son, that they repent and love God. Given unto us. — The gift of the Holy Ghost, in His operation in the heart in His sanctifying influences, was not confined to Apostles and Evangelists, but is enjoyed in common by all the saints, in all of whom the Holy Spirit dwells, and who are habitations of God through the Spirit, Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:22; Romans 8:9. Here we see that everything in us that is good is the effect of the Spirit of God. Man possesses by nature no holy disposition. The lowest degree of true humility, and godly sorrow for sin, and a sense of the love of God, and consequently our love to God, are not to be found in any of the children of Adam till they are enlightened by the Spirit through the knowledge of the Gospel, nor can they be maintained for one moment in the soul without His sacred influence. Though sinners should hear ten thousand times of the love of God in the gift of His Son, they are never properly affected by it, till the Holy Spirit enters into their hearts, and till love to Him is produced by the truth through the Spirit. Here also we may see the distinct work of the Holy Spirit in the economy of redemption. Each of the persons of the Godhead sustains a peculiar office in the salvation of sinners, and it is the office of the Spirit to convert and sanctify those for whom Christ died.

What fullness and variety of instruction and consolation are contained in the first five verses of this chapter! The work of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is exhibited, all severally acting, as God alone can act, in the various parts of man’s salvation. The righteousness of God is imputed to the believer, who is therefore justified, and pronounced by the Judge of all the earth righteous. As righteous, he has peace with God, and free access to Him through Jesus Christ; and being thus introduced into the favor of God, he stands in a justified state, rejoicing in hope of future glory. Being justified, he is also sanctified, and enabled to glory even in present afflictions. He enjoys the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, through whose Divine influence the love of God is infused into his soul. Here, then, are the peace, the joy, the triumph of the Christian. Here are faith, hope, and love, the three regulators of the Christian’s life. Faith is the great and only means of obtaining every privilege, because it unites the soul to Christ, and receives all out of His fullness. Hope cheers the believer in his passage through this world, with the expectation of promised blessings to be accomplished in future glory, and is thus the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which holds it firm, and enables it to ride out all the storms and troubles of life. Love is the renewal of the image of God in the soul, and the true principle of obedience. ‘The end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.’

Faith is thus the root of the whole. Faith in the resurrection of Christ produces a good conscience, 1 Peter 3:21; the conscience being discharged from guilt, the heart is purified; and from the heart when purified proceeds love. Thus faith purifies the heart, Acts 15:9; faith works by love, Galatians 5:6. Faith overcomes the world,1 John 5:4.

Ver. 6. — For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

For. — This introduces the proof of the love of God to us, not a reason why the hope of the Christian will not disappoints him. Having spoken of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, the Apostle here declares the evidence of this love. Though the Holy Ghost inspires our love to God, yet in doing so He shows us the grounds on which it rests, or the reasons why it should exist. In making us love God, He makes us perceive the grounds on which we ought to love Him. This also shows us another important fact, namely, that the Holy Spirit works in His people according to their constitution or the nature that He has given them; and, in endowing us with proper feelings and affections, He discovers to us the proper objects towards which they ought to be excited. The word of God through the Spirit, both in conversion and growth of grace, acts according to the original constitution that God has been pleased to bestow on the Christians. Without strength. — Christ died for us while we were unable to obey Him, and without ability to save ourselves. This weakness or inability is no doubt sinful; but it is our inability, not our guilt, that the Apostle here designates. When we were unable to keep the law of God, or do anythingtowards our deliverance from Divine wrath, Christ interposed, and died for those whom He came to redeem. In due time. — At the time appointed of the Father, Galatians 4:2,4.

The fruits of the earth are gathered in their season; so in His season, that is, at the time appointed, Christ died for us, 1 Timothy 2:6. For the ungodly. — Christ died for us, considered as ungodly, and without His gift of Himself we must have for ever continued to be so. It was not then for those who were in some degree godly, or disposed in some measure to do the will of God, that Christ died. There are none of this character by nature. It is by faith in His death that any are made godly.

Ver. 7. — For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

For. — This brings into view a fact that heightens and illustrates the love of God to sinners. A righteous or just man. — A just man is distinguished here from a good or benevolent man. They are quite distinct characters among men. A just man is approved — a benevolent man is loved.

Scarcely, however, would any one give his life for the former, yet perhaps some one might do so for the latter. Scarcely. — This furnishes the reason why the Apostle uses the word righteous or just, when he denies that any one would die in his stead, because he does not mean to make the denial universal. ‘Even.’ — This is designed to qualify the verb to die, not the verb to dare, though it stands immediately before it. It is not even dare, but dare even to die. This intimates that to die is a thing to which men are of all things most averse. It is the greatest trial of love, John 15:13. ‘Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid His life down for us,’ 1 John 3:16.

Ver. 8. — But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

His love. — Here God’s love to us is distinguished in the original as His own love, which in this place takes away all ambiguity from the expression. Yet sinners. — This is literally true with respect to all who are saved since Christ’s death, and is substantially true of all who were saved before it. This may be said of Abel as well as of Paul. Christ died for him as a sinner. It was Christ’s death through which Abel was accepted. For us. — Not for us as including all men, but for those believers and himself whom the Apostle was addressing; and this equally applies to all believers, — to all who are or shall be in Christ. Christ’s death for us as sinners, in an astonishing manner, commends, manifests, or exhibits God’s love to us.

Ver. 9. — Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

If God’s love to us were such that Christ died for us when we were sinners, much more, when we are perfectly righteous through that death, He will save us from future punishment. The meaning of the expression much more in this verse, which is repeated in the 10th, 15th, and 17th verses, is not at first sight obvious in these different occurrences, since the things, which are compared to what follows, are complete in themselves.

The sense appears to be, that in using these expressions, the Apostle, though inspired, reasons on the common principles that commend themselves to the mind of man. Having stated one thing, he proceeds to state another as still more clear to our perception. Justified by His blood. — This shows that when we are said to be justified by faith, faith includes its object, and imports that we are not saved by faith as a virtue. It shows also that Christ’s death was not that of a mere witness to the truth which He declared, but that it was for sin, and in order that we should be saved from wrath through Him. All men are by nature the children of wrath; and without the death of Christ, and faith in Him, we must have continued in that awful condition. ‘He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.’ Dr. Macknight’s explanation of this verse is as follows: — ’Much more then being now allowed to live under the new covenant, through the shedding of His blood, we shall be saved from future punishment through Him, if we behave well under that covenant.’ In his note he adds: — ’Here justified by His blood means, that, in the view of Christ’s shedding His blood, Adam and Eve were respited from death, and, being allowed to live, be and they were placed under a new covenant, by which they might regain immortality. This is what is called justification of life, ’ 5:18. And this explanation follows naturally from what he gives as the meaning of the foregoing verse: — ’His own love to man, God hath raised above all human love because we being still sinners, Christ died for us, to procure us a temporary life on earth, under a better covenant than the first.’ On such interpretations it is unnecessary to remark. They contain statements the most unscriptural and heretical, exhibiting most deplorable ignorance. He supposes, too, that it is here implied that some are said to be justified who are not saved from wrath.

But this is not the fact. Justification is spoken of as having taken place, and salvation as future, — not because any shall be punished who have been justified, but because the wrath spoken of is future. The salvation of the Christian from wrath is said to be future, in reference to the time of the general execution of wrath in the day of judgment. It is evidently implied in the expression, that they who are justified shall never be punished. This expression, justified by His blood, gives a most awful view of the infinite evil of sin, of the strict justice of God, and of His faithfulness in carrying into execution the first sentence, ‘In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.’ Without the shedding of His blood, and entering with it into the holy place, Christ could not have obtained eternal salvation for those who had sinned. On the other hand, what an astonishing view is thus presented of the love of God, who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for His people, and who with Him will freely give them all things.

The Divine wisdom is admirable in the manner in which the Scriptures are written. It is not without design that inspiration varies the phraseology respecting justification. Each variety is calculated to meet a different abuse of the doctrine. The human heart is so prone to self-righteousness, that the very doctrine of faith has been made to assume a legal sense. Faith is represented as a work; and the office assigned to it is not merely that of the medium of communicating righteousness, but it is made to stand itself for a certain value, either real or supposed. Had inspiration never varied the expressions, and always used the phrase justified by faith, though there would have been no real ground to conclude that faith is in itself the ground of justification, yet evidence to the contrary would not have been exhibited in the manner in which it is held forth by varying the diction.

Instead of ‘justified by faith,’ we here read justified by the blood of Christ.

This shows that when we are said to be justified by faith, it is not by faith as a work of the law, but by faith as a medium, — that is, faith in the blood of Christ. To the same purpose, also, is the expression in the following verse, reconciled to God by the death of His Son. On the other hand, there are some who, strongly impressed with the great evil of making faith a work, have plunged into a contrary extreme, and are unwilling to look at the subject in any light but that in which it is represented in the phrase, ‘justified by His blood,’ as if justification were independent of faith, or as if faith were merely an accidental or unimportant thing in justification. This also is a great error. Faith is as necessary in justification as the sacrifice of Christ itself, but necessary for a different purpose. The blood of Christ is the price that has value in itself. Faith, which unites the soul to Christ, is the necessary medium, through the Divine appointment.

Again, we have justified freely by grace, Romans 3:24.

Self-righteousness is fruitful in expedients. It is difficult to put it to silence. It will admit that justification is by faith in its own legal sense, and that it is through Christ’s blood, as a general price for the sins of all men; but it holds that every man must do something to entitle him to the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice. Here, then, the phrase justification by grace comes in to cut off every evasion.

Another variety of phraseology on this subject we have in the expression justified by Christ, Galatians 2:17. This points to the ground of our justification, or our union with Christ. We are accounted perfectly righteous, having paid the debt of sin, and having fulfilled the whole law, by our union or oneness with Christ, as we were sinners by our natural connection with Adam. It is of immense importance to the satisfaction of the mind of the believer, constantly and steadfastly to consider himself as a member of Christ — as truly a part of Him. He rose for our justification.

When He was justified from the Sins which He took on Him by having suffered for them, and when He had fulfilled the law, we were justified in His justification. We are therefore said not merely to be pardoned, but to be justified, by Christ. We have suffered all the punishment due to our sins, and have kept every precept of the law, because He with whom we are one has done so. It is also worthy of remark that, while the Apostle speaks of being justified by Christ, he had in the preceding verse spoken of being justified by the faith of Christ. This shows that faith is the way in which our union with Christ is effected.

Ver. 10. — For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death by His Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Enemies. — It greatly enhances the love of God that He gave His Son for us while we were yet His enemies. Had we discovered any symptoms of willingness to obey Him, or any degree of love to Him, His love to us would not have been so astonishing. But it is in this light only that the proud heart of man is willing to view his obligations to redeeming love. He will not look upon himself as totally depraved and helpless. He desires to do something on his part to induce God to begin His work in him by His Spirit. But Christ died for His people when they were the enemies of God, and He calls them to the knowledge of Himself when they are His enemies.

Here, then, is the love of God. At the time when Christ died for us, we were not His friends, but His enemies. ‘The carnal mind is enmity against God.’ Reconciled to God by the death of His Son. — The word rendered ‘reconciled,’ signifies to change the state of matters between persons at variance, by removing their grounds of difference. The Divine word and declarations, as well as the Divine persecutions, forbid us to imagine that God will clear the guilty. In order, then, to reconciliation with God, satisfaction must be made to His justice. What is meant here, is not our laying aside our enmity to God, but God’s laying aside His enmity to us, on account of the death of His Son. It is true that we lay aside our enmity to God when we see that He has laid aside His enmity to us, and never till then will we do so; but what is here meant is, that God is reconciled to us.

In Scripture this is spoken of as our being reconciled to God. We are reconciled to God, when He is pacified towards us through His Son, in whom we believe. This is quite agreeable to the use of the term in Scripture with respect to other cases, 1 Samuel 29:4; Matthew 5:23,24. Socinians, however, maintain that reconciliation between God and man consists only in bending and pacifying the heart of man towards God, and not in averting His just anger. This error, arising from their denial of the satisfaction made by Jesus Christ, is refuted by the consideration that God pardons our sins: whence it follows that He was angry with us; and the redemption of Jesus Christ is declared to be made by a propitiatory sacrifice, which clearly proves that God was angry. To this the idea of a sacrifice necessarily leads; for a sacrifice is offered to pacify God towards men, and not to reconcile men to God. Aaron was commanded to make an atonement for the congregation, for there was wrath gone out from the Lord. ‘And be stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed,’ Numbers 16:46. God’s anger was thus turned away by making this atonement. In David’s time, by offering burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, the Lord was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. By this it is clear that the primarily intention of such sacrifices, and consequently of the priest who offered them, immediately respected the reconciliation of God. The same is evident from the following passages: — ’Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of The people; Thou hast covered all their sin. Selah. Thou hast taken away all Thy wrath; Thou hast turned from the fierceness of Thine anger,’ Psalm 85:2,3. ‘Though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortedst me,’ Isaiah 12:1. ‘I will establish My covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified (reconciled, Leviticus 8:15 16:20; 2 Chronicles 29:24) toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God,’ Ezekiel 16:63.

All men being sinners, are in themselves, while in unbelief, under the displeasure of God, who cannot look upon iniquity, Habakkuk 1:13, and are by nature children of wrath, or of the judgment of God; but as viewed in Christ, and in relation to His death, the elect are the objects of God’s everlasting love, and this love in His good time takes effect. He sends His Son to be a propitiatory sacrifice for them, — thus making satisfaction to His justice, and removing every obstacle to His being reconciled. He unites them to the Son of His love; and in Him, clothed with His righteousness, they become the children of God, and then in themselves the proper objects of His love. The ministry committed to the Apostles is called the ministry of reconciliation. Men are besought to be reconciled to God from the consideration of His having made Him to be sin for His people who knew no sin. Here is a double reconciliation, namely, of God to men, and of men to God. The latter is urged from the consideration of the former, and this consideration is effectual for all for whom the reconciliation was made. The whole of this reconciliation is through the death of His Son. Thus does God call His people with a holy calling. He invites them to friendship with Himself, through an all-sufficient atonement; and they lay aside their enmity to Him when they see that God has laid aside His anger against them. They are reconciled to Him through the death of His Son.

What, in the preceding verse, is spoken of as the blood of Christ, is here spoken of as His death. These varied terms are useful to express the idea in such a manner that it cannot be innocently evaded. Christ’s blood was an atonement, as it was His death. This shows that no degree of suffering would have been sufficient as an atonement for our sins without the actual death of the sacrifice, according to the original sentence against man. Jesus Christ might have suffered all that He did suffer without a total extinction of life; but He must not only suffer, — He must also die. This phraseology, then, is calculated to meet the error of those Christians who, from a desire of magnifying the efficacy of the blood of Christ, have said that one drop of it would have been sufficient to save. Had one drop been sufficient, two drops would never have been shed. Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. — If we were reconciled by His death, much more clear is it that we shall be saved by His life. Some find a difficulty in this, as if it implied that the atonement and price of redemption were not complete at the death of Christ. But the Apostle is not speaking on that point. He is speaking of the security of the believer from any danger, by Christ as alive. The meaning is, we shall be saved by Him as existing alive, or as living, Hebrews 7:25. We need Christ raised from the dead to intercede for our daily transgressions, and to save us from wrath. The efficacy of the death and the intercession of Jesus Christ have the same objects and the same extent, John 17:9. He intercedes for all those for whom He died. ‘It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us,’ Romans 8:34. For us, that is, for those whom the Apostle is addressing as beloved of God, and called,, and saints, ch. 1:7, and all that are such.

Two comparisons are made in this passage, one between the past and the present state of believers they were once the enemies, they are now the friends, of God. The other is between the past and the present condition of Christ: He was once dead, He is now alive. And the proposition that unites these two is, that reconciliation with God is entirely owing to the death of Christ as its meritorious cause. Since, then, the death of the Redeemer could produce so great an effect as the reconciliation to Himself of those who were the enemies of the Most High, what room can there be to doubt that the life of Christ is sufficient to accomplish what is less difficult; that is to say, to obtain the continuation of the Divine friendship and benevolence for those whose reconciliation has been already purchased at a price of such infinite cost? By the death which He suffered in their place, they are freed from condemnation, the rigor of the law having run its course, and received its execution by the punishment of their sins in Him; and thus they are saved from the effects of wrath. By His resurrection, His life, and His entrance into eternal glory, the reward reserved for His work as Mediator, they become partakers of that glory. ‘In My Fathers house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.’ ‘Because I live, ye shall live also.’ ‘Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me.’ Thus Jesus Christ, who was delivered for the offenses of His people, was raised again for their justification; and this unparalleled love of God, who has not spared His well-beloved Son, is the surest foundation for the absolute and unlimited confidence in Him of every man who, renouncing his own righteousness, submits to His righteousness. At the same time, the necessity of the shedding of blood infinitely precious, in order to the justification of believers, is the strongest proof of the infinite evil of sin, and of the infinite holiness and awful justice of God. It shows the extreme difficulty there was in reconciling God to man, as it could only be done by a satisfaction to His justice, which could not be accomplished but by the death of His only-begotten Son.

Ver. 11. — And not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

This verse exhibits the last of those fruits which proceed from being brought into a state of justification. The first of them is peace with God, involving the communication and enjoyment of every blessing which the creature is capable of receiving; for if God be with us, who can be against us? and when this peace is known to be permanently established, immediately the cheering hope of future glory springs up in the mind. This hope, transporting the believer beyond this world, and looking forward to unbounded blessedness, enables him to bear up under those tribulations that are inseparable from his present state. In them, through not in themselves joyous but grievous, be even glories; and, experiencing their salutary effects, they confirm his hope of future and eternal enjoyment.

The Holy Ghost, too, sheds abroad the love of God in his heart; while his attention is directed to what God has done in giving for him His Son to the death, even while he was in the most determined state of hostility towards God. From the whole, the Apostle argues how much more it is evident that, being reconciled, he shall be saved from all the fearful effects of the wrath and displeasure of God against sin. The view of all of these unspeakable blessings conducts to that feeling of exultation and joy, with the declaration of which the enumeration is here terminated, of the effects which the knowledge of his justification in the sight of God, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, produces in the heart of the believer. Not only so. — That is, we shall not only escape the wrath to come, by the death of Christ, but attain to glory by His life. The measure of excess is future glory above mere exemption from misery. These two things are entirely distinct, and afford distinct grounds of thanksgiving. Joy in God. — The word here translated joy, is the same which in verse 2 is rendered rejoice, and in verse 3, glory. It was before declared that believers have peace with God, that they have access to Him, and that they rejoice in the hope of His glory. Now, the Apostle represents them as arrived at the fountain-head, looking through all the blessings conferred on them, and rejoicing, boasting, or glorying in God Himself as the source of them all.

The Christian’s joy is all in God. He exults in his prospects; but all are ascribed to God, and not to anything in Himself. God, even His own covenant-God, is the great and ultimate object of his joy. ‘My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.’ ‘O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.’ ‘I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.’ ‘The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, my portion for ever. I will go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.’ The sentiment of the love of God, in so great a salvation, and of joy in Him, is more deeply impressed upon the believer, by considering the rock from which he has been hewn, and the hole of the pit from which he has been dug. In the above verses, the former situation of those who are saved is declared in the strongest language. They wereWITHOUT STRENGTH, GODLY,SINNERS,UNDER WRATH,ENEMIES TO GOD. If such, then, was their original condition, what reason have they not only to rejoice in the hope of glory, but, above all, in the goodness and mercy of God, who has now reconciled them to Himself! Philippians 3:1, 4:4. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. — Joy in God, with all those unspeakable blessings above enumerated, are again and again declared to come by Him, through whom God manifests His loves and is reconciled to His people.

The name of Jesus Christ being here introduced so often, should be especially remarked. The Christian joys and glories in God only through Christ; without Christ, God could not be viewed as a friend. He must be an object of hatred. Our friendly relation to God is all through Christ. By whom we have now received the atonement, or reconciliation, according to the translation of the same word in the preceding verse. Atonement has been made through the death of Christ. The Apostle, and they whom he addressed, being believers, had received the atonement, which Christ has not only accomplished, but makes His people receive it. Among the various errors that have discovered themselves in modern times, few are more lamentable or dangerous than the views of the atonement that have been adopted by many. Instead of considering the atonement of Christ as a real compensation to the Divine justice for the sins of those who are saved, so that God may remain just, while He is merciful to the chief of sinners, many look on it as nothing but a mere exhibition of the displeasure of God against sin, intended for the honor and maintenance of His government of the universe. This altogether destroys the Gospel, and in reality leaves men exposed to the Divine justice.

It is alleged by those who represent the atonement as only a expedient, subservient to the interests of morality, that sins are called debts merely in a figurative sense. But nothing can be more clear than that the Scriptures, which speak of sin as a debt, speak quite literally. The word debt extends to everything that justly demands an equivalent. We are said to be bought with the blood of Christ, as the price paid for our sins, which certainly implies that the blood of Christ is that which has given an equivalent to the justice of God, and made an atonement for those who, according to justice, must otherwise have suffered the penalty of sin, which is death. In the remission, then, of the sins of those who have received the atonement, God is at once the just God and the Savior, which He could not be without this atonement.

In reference to the sacrifice of Christ, by which He made the atonement, it is said, ‘Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood,’ Revelation 5:9. ‘Without shedding of blood is no remission, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul,’ Hebrews 9:22; Leviticus 17:11. The blood is the life, Deuteronomy 12:23. It was the shedding, then, of the blood of Christ, which signifies His death, that procured this remission of sin. This was the ransom that God declared He had found, by which He saved His people from going down to destruction, Job 33:24. It was their redemption. Redemption signifies a purchasing back, and supposes an alienation of what is redeemed; and thus Christ redeemed them with His blood, which was the price He paid, and they are ‘His purchased possession.’ His blood was the ransom paid to the justice of God; without which it was impossible they should have been released from the bondage of Satan and the sentence of death. He died for the ungodly, who, being justified by His blood, shall be saved from wrath. The ransom, then, which Christ paid, was the price that Divine justice demanded; and, having made His soul an offering for sin, God has declared Himself ‘well pleased for His righteousness’ sake,’ He having ‘magnified the law, and made it honorable.’ It was necessary that He should yield obedience to its precepts, and suffer the penalty annexed to its violation.

The law condemned sinners to eternal death. In order, then, to redeem them, it behooved Him to suffer, and He did actually suffer, the full equivalent of that death by which He made atonement for sin, and through faith His people receive that atonement. His blood is put, by a usual figure of speech, for His death, in which His sufferings and His obedience terminated, and which was their consummation, containing a full answer to all the demands on His people, of law and justice. God, then, is now ‘faithful and just to forgive them their sins, and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness,’ 1 John 1:9. Believers have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14.

Ye are bought with a price, 1 Corinthians 7:20-23. ‘Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ,’ 1 Peter 1:18.

Many who look on atonement as something real, yet overturn it by making it universal. This is an error which at once opposes the Scriptures, and could be of no service, even were it true. Where is the difference, as respects the Divine character, whether a man does not obtain pardon, from his sins not being atoned for by the blood of Christ, or because he has not been elected to eternal life? If Christ’s death pays the price of the sins of all men, all men must be saved. If His redemption be universal, then all are redeemed from the captivity of Satan and the guilt of sin, and delivered from wrath. For what can they be punished, if atonement has been made for their sins? If a man’s debts are paid, how can he afterwards be imprisoned for those debts? A just God cannot punish a second time for the same offense. If Christ has paid the debt of all sinners, there is nothing remaining to pay in the case of any man. Would it be just that any should be punished in hell for the sins for which Christ was punished on earth? If Christ bore the sins of all men in His own body on the tree, shall any man bear them a second time? Had the sins of all men been imputed to Christ, in that case His sacrifice did not answer its end. It left the greater part of them for whom it was offered under the curse of the broken law. But God, in appointing Christ to make atonement for sin, and Christ Himself, in undertaking to perform it, had in view from all eternity a certain select number of mankind, who were and still are known to God. For their salvation only was that atonement made, and for them it will be ultimately effectual. A Savior being provided for any of the lost children of Adam was an act of pure grace; and therefore the extent of this salvation depends solely on Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of His own evil.

As Christ prayed not, John 17:9, so He died ‘not, for the world,’ but for those whom God had given Him out of the world. And all that the Father giveth Him shall come to Him. For those for whom He is the propitiation He is the Advocate, and for whom He died He makes intercession, and for no others. In Israel there were sacrifices accompanied with the burning of incense, but these were not for the world but for Israel.

The sin-offering, on the great day of atonement, was for Israel only. It was for Israel, whose sins were laid upon the scape-goat, that intercession was made; and when, after offering his sacrifice, the high priest came out from the holiest of all, it was Israel who received the blessing. Of whose redemption was the deliverance of Israel from Egypt a figure? For whose healing was the serpent lifted up in the wilderness? In one word, of whom was Israel a type? Not of all mankind, but only of the people of God. As, then, the high priest under the law offered sacrifice only for Israel, interceded only for then., and blessed them only, so Christ, the High Priest of our profession, has offered His sacrifice only for His people, for whom He intercedes on the ground of that sacrifice, and whom, in consequence of His sacrifice and intercession, He will at last come out of the heavenly sanctuary to bless, Matthew 25:34; thus discharging for them, and for them only, the three functions of the priestly office. His sacrifice and intercession, then, which are inseparable, are of the same extent, and for all for whom He offered His sacrifice He presents His intercession, which is founded upon it. Could it be supposed that He never intercedes for those for whom He gave the highest proof of His love in laying down His life?

Did He bear in His own body on the tree the sins of those to whom at last He will profess, ‘I never knew you,’ and will leave them under the curse, saying, ‘Depart from Me, ye cursed,’ whose sins, as the Lamb of God, He had taken away, on account of which, notwithstanding, He will consign them to punishment everlasting? Far different is His language respecting those whom He calls His sheep, for whom He says He lays down His life.

Them He professes to know, and declares that they know Him. ‘I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, so know I the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life.’

Witsius, in his Economy of the Covenants, observes: — ’That fictitious satisfaction for the reprobate and those who perish is altogether a vain and useless thing. For whom does it profit? Not certainly God, who by no act can be rendered happier than He is. Not Christ Himself, who, as He never seeks them, so He never receives them, for His peculiar property, and neither is He enriched by possessing them, though supposed to have purchased them at a dear rate. Not believers, who, content with their portion in God and in Christ, and fully redeemed by Christ, enjoy a happiness in every respect complete. In fine, not those that perish, who are constrained to satisfy in their own persons for their sins, to the uttermost farthing. The blood of Christ, says Remigius, formerly Bishop of Lyons, is a great price; such a price can in no respect be in vain and ineffectual, but rather is filled with the superabundant advantage arising from those blessings for which it is paid. Nay, the satisfaction of Christ for the reprobate had not only been useless, but highly unworthy both of God and of Christ. Unworthy of the wisdom, goodness, and justice of God, to exact and receive satisfaction from His most beloved Son for those whom He neither gave nor wanted to give His Son, and whom He decreed to consign to everlasting confinement to suffer in their own persons, according to the demerit of their crimes. Unworthy of Christ, to give His blood a price of redemption for those whom He had not in charge to redeem.’ ‘In respect of its intrinsic worth,’ says Brown of Haddington, ‘as the obedience and sufferings of a Divine person, Christ’s satisfaction is sufficient for the ransom of all mankind, and, being fulfilled in human nature, is equally suited to all their necessities. But in respect of His and His Father’s intention, it was paid and accepted instead of the elect, and to purchase their eternal happiness. Christ died for those only for whom He undertook, asSURETY, in the covenant of grace, in order to obtain their eternal salvation.’ Brown of Wamphray, in his Arguments against Universal Redemption, says: — ’All that Christ died for must certainly be saved. But all men shall not be saved. Christ’s death was a redemption, and we are said to be redeemed thereby. And therefore all such as He laid down this redemption or redemption-money for, must of necessity be redeemed and saved; and consequently He did not die for all, seeing all are not redeemed and saved. That all such for whom this redemption-money was paid, and this ransom was given, must be saved, is clear, otherwise it were no redemption; a ransom given for captives doth say that these captives, in law and justice, ought to be set at liberty. Christ’s intercession is really a presenting unto God the oblation made. Therefore, says the Apostle, Hebrews 9:24, that Christ is entered into heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God for us; and so, by appearing, He intercedeth, and His appearing in His own blood, whereby He obtained eternal redemption, Hebrews 9:12; and so His intercession must be for all for whom the oblation was made, and the eternal redemption was obtained.’

Many suppose that in preaching the Gospel it is necessary to tell every man that Christ died for him, and that if Christ did not actually atone for the sins of every individual, the Gospel cannot be preached at all. But this is very erroneous. The Gospel declares that Christ died for the guilty, and that the most guilty who believe it shall be saved. ‘It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,’ even the chief of sinners. The Gospel does not tell every individual to whom it is addressed, that Christ died for him, but that if he believes he shall be saved. This is a warrant to preach the Gospel unto all men; and it is only as he is a believer that it is known to any man that Christ died for him individually. To preach the Gospel then to every man, and call on every one to believe and be saved, is quite consistent, as it is a truth that whoever believes shall be saved. If the most guilty of the human race believe in Jesus, there is the most perfect certainty that he shall be saved. If any man is straitened in preaching the Gospel, and finds a difficulty in calling on all men to believe, except he can at the same time tell them that Christ died for every individual of the human race, he does not clearly understand what the Gospel is. It is the good news that Christ died for the most guilty that believe, not that He died for every individual, whether he believe or not. To the truth that every man shall be saved who believes, there is no exception. If there are any sins that will never be pardoned, they imply that the individuals guilty of them will never believe; for if they believe, they will be saved. Whatever, then, the sin against the Holy Ghost may be supposed to be, it implies final unbelief; and the best way to relieve those persons who may think they are guilty of this sin, is not to labor to make them understand what the sin against the Holy Ghost is, but to make them see that, if they now believe, they cannot have ever committed the unpardonable sin. To suppose that any believe who will not be saved, is to suppose a contradiction in the word of God.

The difficulty of those who feel themselves restrained in exhorting sinners to believe the Gospel, on the ground that the atonement of Christ was not made for all, is the same as that which is experienced by some who, believing the doctrine of election, suppose it inconsistent to exhort all indiscriminately to believe the Gospel, since it is certain that they who are not chosen to eternal life will never be saved. In this they err. The Gospel, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, is to be made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. It is certain, however, that they for whom Christ did not die, and who do not belong to the election of grace, will not believe. These are secret things which belong to God, to be revealed in their proper time. But the Gospel is the fan in Christ’s hand, who, by means of it, will thoroughly purge His adore, separating those who are His sheep from the rest of the world lying in the wicked one. He has therefore commanded it to be preached to all men; and by it those will be discovered for whom His atonement was made, and whom God hath chosen from the foundation of the world, and predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself We are not, then, to inquire first, either for ourselves or others, for whom Christ died, and who are chosen to eternal life, before we determine to whom the Gospel is to be preached; but to preach it to all, with the assurance that whoever believes it shall receive the remission of sins. In believing it, we ascertain for ourselves that Christ bare our sins in His own body on the tree, and that God from the beginning hath chosen us to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.

The atonement of Christ is of infinite value; and the reason why all men are not saved by it, is not for want of its being of sufficient value, but because it was not made for all. In itself, it was sufficient to make atonement for the sins of all mankind, had it been so intended. His sacrifice could not have been sufficient for any, if it had not been sufficient for all.

An atonement of infinite value was necessary for every individual that shall be saved, and more could not be necessary for all the world. This intrinsic sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice was doubtless in view in the Divine appointment concerning it. God made provision of such a sacrifice as was not only sufficient effectually to take away the sins of all the elect, but also sufficient to be laid before all mankind, in the dispensation of the Gospel. In the Gospel it was to be declared to all men, that in their nature the Son of God had made an atonement of infinite value, and brought in everlasting righteousness, which shall be upon all that believe. This atonement, then, being all-sufficient in itself, is proclaimed to all who hear the Gospel. All are invited to rely upon it for pardon and acceptance, as freely and fully as if they knew that God designed it for them from all eternity; and all who thus rely upon it shall experience the blessing of its efficacy and infinite value. In the proclamation of the Gospel, no restriction is held forth respecting election or reprobation. No difference is announced between one sinner and another. Without any distinction the call is addressed, and a gracious welcome proclaimed, to all the children of Adam. ‘Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.’ And well might the Apostle say in his own name, and that of the believers whom he addresses in the passage before us, ‘We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.’ We come now to the second division of this chapter, from verse 12 to 19.

Having spoken of justification by faith, and having called our attention to several points connected with it, the Apostle now speaks of it as it was as figuratively exhibited in the condemnation of the human race in Adam. He first directs attention to the one man by whom sin was brought into the world, and declares that death came by sin. This necessarily imports that death is the lot of all that sin, and of none but such as are sinners. If death entered because of sin, it could affect none who were not guilty. But the Apostle does not leave this to be inferred, although this inference is both necessary and obvious. He draws it himself. ‘So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned; ‘thus plainly asserting that all are sinners upon whom death passes. Every step in this process is natural and obvious. We may trace the very train in the Apostle’s mind. We may see the reason of every subjoined expression. Having said that all are sinners who die, it immediately occurs to him that to some this would appear strange; he proceeds, therefore, to show how all have sinned. This he does by observing that sin was in the world before the law of Moses, and that it had existed from Adam until the law was given. But this, as he observes, could not have been the case, had not law existed; ‘for sin is not imputed where there is no law.’ What, then, is the evidence that sin existed before the law of Moses? The evidence is, that death reigned. And what is the evidence that sin existed in infants? The evidence is, that death reigned over them. If death came upon man by sin, it could have no dominion over any of the human race who were not sinners. Adam is called the figure of Him that was to come; and this must not be confined to one or two particulars, but must extend to everything in which Christ’s seed are one with Him, as contrasted with everything in which Adam’s seed are one with him. If Christ’s seed are one with him in any characteristic point in which Adam’s seed are not one with him, then the ‘figure,’ or type, would fail. Having shown the similarity, the Apostle proceeds to show the dissimilarity, or the abounding of grace over what was lost in Adam. This he continues to the end of verse 19, summing up in the 18th and 19th verses what he had referred to in the 12th, from which he was led by the considerations above specified.

In proceeding to analyze what is taught in verses 12-19, Mr. Stuart professes to feel great difficulty. Considering the lamentable manner in which he has perverted and misrepresented the whole passage, this is not at all surprising. In his Synopsis, he says, ‘As the consequences of Adam’s sin were extended to all men, so the consequences of Christ’s obedience (viz., unto death) are extended to all; i.e., Jesus and Gentiles, all come on an equal footing into the kingdom of Christ,’ p. 196. And again he says, that verses 12-19 ‘are designed at once to confirm the statement made in ch. 3:23-30, and 4:10-19; i.e., to confirm the sentiment that Gentiles as well as Jews may rejoice in the reconciliation effected by Christ; while, at the same time, the whole representation serves very much to enhance the greatness of the blessings which Christ has procured for sinners by the contrast in which these blessings are placed,’ p. 198. There is here no reference at all to the distinction between Jews and Gentiles. The design is evidently to show the likeness between the way in which righteousness and life came, and the way in which condemnation and death came, the former by Christ, the latter by Adam. He adds, ‘I cannot perceive the particular design of introducing such a contrast in this place, unless it be to show the propriety and justice of extending the blessings of reconciliation to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews, and to set off to the best advantage the greatness of these blessings.’ But the extension of these blessings to the Gentiles, however important a truth, and however much dwelt on in other places, has nothing to do in this place, or with this contrast. The contrast here introduced is the same, whether the blessings are supposed to be confined to the Jews, or also extended to the Gentiles. The contrast is not between Jew and Gentile, but between Adam and Christ, between the way of condemnation and the way of justification. How does Mr. Stuart bring in the distinction between Jews and Gentiles? He might as well introduce it into the history of the creation. But the common view of the passage is quite in accordance with the preceding context. The difficulty he feels is a difficulty to reconcile it with his own unscriptural views of this part of the word of God.

The following observations of President Edwards on the connection of this passage, in reference to the Commentary of Dr. Taylor, are equally applicable to the difficulties experienced respecting it by Mr. Stuart: — ’No wonder, when the Apostle is treating so fully and largely of our restoration, righteousness, and life by Christ, that he is led by it to consider our fall, sin, death, and ruin by Adam; and to observe wherein these two opposite heads of mankind agree, and wherein they differ, in the manner of conveyance of opposite influences and communications from each. Thus, if this place be understood, as it is used to be understood by orthodox divines, the whole stands in a natural, easy, and clear connection with the preceding part of the chapter, and all the former part of the Epistle; and in a plain agreement with the express design of all that the Apostle had been saying; and also in connection with the words last before spoken, as introduced by the two immediately preceding verses where he is speaking of our justification, reconciliation, and salvation by Christ; which leads the Apostle directly to observe how, on the contrary, we have sin and death by Adam. Taking this discourse of the Apostle in its true and plain sense, there is no need of great extent of learning, or depth of criticism, to find out the connection; but if it be understood in Dr.

Taylor’s sense, the plain scope and connection are wholly lost, and there was truly need of a skill in criticism, and art of discerning, beyond, or at least different from, that of former divines, and a faculty of seeing something afar off, which other men’s sight could not reach, in order to find out the connection.’ — Orig. Sin, p. 312. It would be well if those who will not receive the kingdom of God as little children, would employ their ‘skill in criticism, and art of discerning,’ on any other book than the Bible.