Romans Commentary
THIS chapter presents a glorious display of the power of Divine grace, and of the provision which God has made for the consolation of His people.
While the Apostle had proved, in the sixth, that his previous doctrine gave no license to believers to continue in sin, he had still kept in view his main purpose of establishing their free justification. In the seventh he had prosecuted the same object, declaring that by their marriage with Christ they were delivered from the law as a covenant of life or death, while he vindicated its character, use, and authority. In this chapter, he continues the subject of justification, and resumes that of the believer’s assurance of his salvation, of which he had spoken in the fifth, establishing it on new grounds; and from the whole train of his argument from the commencement of the Epistle, he now draws the general conclusion, that to them who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. While this could not have been accomplished by the law, he shows that it had been effected by the incarnation of the Son of God, by whom the law has been fulfilled for all who are one with Him as members of His body. Paul next points out the difference of character between those who, being in their natural state under the law and under sin, are carnally-minded; and those who, being renewed by grace, in whom the law has been fulfilled, are spiritually-minded. The condition of the former is death, that of the latter life and peace. Of these last he proceeds, through the remainder of the chapter, to assert the high privileges and absolute security.
Those who are spiritually-minded have the Spirit of Christ, and possess spiritual life. Although their bodies must return to the dust, they shall be raised up again. They are led by the Spirit; they are the sons of God, and in His service are delivered from a spirit of bondage. They look to Him as their Father; are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. To encourage believers to sustain the sufferings to which, while in this world, they are exposed, the most varied and abundant consolations are exhibited.
Their salvation is declared to have taken its rise in the eternal counsels of God, by whom, through all its steps, it is carried into effect. Their condemnation, then, is impossible; for who shall condemn those whom God justifieth, — for whom Christ died, and rose, and intercedes? The Apostle concludes by defying the whole universe to separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In this manner he follows out, in this chapter, what had been his grand object through all the preceding part of the Epistle.
Ver. 1. — There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jews who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Therefore. — This is an inference from the general strain of the doctrine which the Apostle had been teaching in the preceding part of the Epistle; especially it follows from what he had asserted, in the sixth and seventh chapters, with respect to believers dying with Christ, and consequently being dead to sin and to the law. Now no condemnation. — This implies that there would have been condemnation to those to whom he wrote, had they remained under the law; but now, since they have died with Christ, and thereby given complete satisfaction to the law, both in its penalty and precept, it is not possible that by it they can be condemned. And, to mark the completeness of this exemption, he says, there is now no condemnation to them; the reason of which he fully explains in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th verses. This now, then, distinguishes two conditions of a man, namely, his condition under the law, and his condition under grace, — that is, his natural and his supernatural conditions. For by nature we are children of wrath, but now God has rendered us accepted in the Beloved. Being now in Christ, we are not under the curse of the law, because He has borne it for us In the moment in which we believed in Him, we were redeemed from its curse; we entered into another covenant, in which there is nothing but grace and pardon. That there is now no condemnation to them that are in Him is according to our Lord’s declaration, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and ‘shall not come into condemnation.’ It is often remarked that the Apostle does not say that there is in them which are in Christ Jesus neither matter of accusation nor cause of condemnation; and yet this is all included in what he does say. In themselves there is much indeed for both, but here they are viewed exclusively in Jesus Christ. Afterwards, in express terms, he denies that they can be either accused or condemned — which they might be, were there any ground for either. All that was commendable in them, which was sin, has been condemned in their Surety, as is shown in the 3rd verse. To them. — The Apostle, discoursing in the preceding chapter of the remainder of sin in believers, speaks of himself in his own person, in order to show that the highest advances in grace do not exempt from the internal warfare which he there describes. But in this verse he changes the number, and does not say, there is no condemnation to me, but to them, who are in Christ Jesus. This was proper, lest believers, who are often disposed to deprive themselves of those consolations which the Scriptures present, and prone either to despair or to presume on account of their own righteousness, should say that such a declaration was right and suitable in an Apostle, who enjoyed peculiar privileges, but it did not follow that they could say of themselves, ‘There is for us no condemnation.’ Paul therefore here changes the expression, and speaks in general terms, to show that he ascribes nothing peculiar to himself, but that he refers to the general condition of believers, in order that each of them might apply to himself the fruit of this consideration. In the seventh chapter he had spoken of himself to prove that the holiest among men have reason to humble themselves before God, and to acknowledge that, if God should view them in themselves, they would be found to be a body of death, — that is to say, guilty of eternal death. But here he does not speak in his own person, in order that we may not doubt that he refers to the condition of believers in general. Again, in the 4th verse, he speaks of the righteousness of the law being fulfilled in us; thus showing that the unspeakable blessing of deliverance from condemnation equally belongs to all the people of God. In the 2nd verse, for an obvious and important reason, as we shall presently see, he reverts again to the singular number, and says, ‘hath made me free.’ This manner of expressing himself ought to be particularly noted; for we are certain that, in the word of God, nothing of this kind occurs without a purpose. Which are in Christ Jesus. — To be in Christ Jesus is to be one with Him, as united to Him by faith. Those and those only who are the one with Him are the persons to whom there is no condemnation. All who are not in Christ Jesus are under the law and its curse. It is not here said that Christ is with His people, or at their right hand, but that they are in Him, in order that they may know that, being in Him, they have nothing to fear; for what evil can reach those who are one with the Son of God? This union is represented in Scripture by various terms and by many similitudes; its efficacy and power are shown, when it is said, ‘He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.’ It is in virtue of this union that the sufferings and obedience of Christ are imputed to His people, they being one with Him who fulfilled the law, and satisfied the justice of God. Their union with Him is the source of that spiritual life by which they are quickened together with Christ, and from which they derive their justification, their sanctification, and consolation. ‘It is impossible,’ Luther remarks, ‘for a man to be a Christian without having Christ, and if he has Christ, he has at the same time all that is in Christ. What gives peace to the conscience is, that by faith our sins are no more ours, but Christ’s, upon whom God hath laid them all; and that, on the other hand, all Christ’s righteousness is ours, to whom God hath given it. Christ lays His hand upon us, and we are healed. He casts His mantle upon us, and we are clothed; for He is the glorious Savior, blessed for ever.’ This union was typified under the law in the person of the high priest, who carried on his breast the twelve stones, on which were engraved the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel; so that, when he appeared before God, all the people appeared in him, thus showing that all believers are before God in Jesus Christ, their great High Priest. They are all delivered from condemnation, as being one body with Christ. As the debts of a wife must be discharged by her husband, and as, by her marriage, all her previous obligations are at once transferred to him, so the believer, being married to Christ, is no longer exposed to the curse of the law. All its demands have been met and satisfied by His covenant Head, with whom, as the wife is one with the husband, so he is one.
It is by the human nature of Jesus Christ that we enjoy union with His Divine nature, and that He is Emmanuel, God with us. His humanity is the medium by which His divinity communicates itself with all its graces.
Under the former dispensation, God communicated with His people through the ark of the covenant, which was a type of the human nature of Jesus Christ, in order to show us that by it we have union with the whole of His person. And by union with the person of Jesus Christ we obtain communion with the Father. ‘At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.’
It is not by nature that we enjoy this union, since by nature we are ‘children of wrath’ and ‘without Christ.’ The means by which we are united to Christ are on His part by His Spirit, and on our part by faith. He communicates His Spirit to us, which is as the soul that unites all the members of the body with the head, so that ‘he who is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit.’ On our part we receive Jesus Christ by faith produced in us by His Spirit, in order that we may reciprocally receive Him in our hearts. He dwells in our hearts by faith; and thus we learn what is meant when it is said we are justified by faith, not as being a work, or anything meritorious, but as the medium through which His righteousness, and all the graces and blessings that are in Jesus Christ, are communicated to our souls. ‘Faith,’ says Luther, ‘unites the soul with Christ as a spouse with her husband. Everything which Christ has, becomes the property of the believing soul: everything which the soul has, becomes the property of Christ. Christ possesses all blessings and eternal life: they are thenceforward the property of the soul. The soul has all its iniquities and sins: they become thenceforward the property of Christ. It is then that a blessed exchange commences: Christ who is both God and man, Christ who has never sinned, and whose holiness is perfect, Christ the Almighty and Eternal, taking to Himself, by His nuptial ring of faith, all the sins of the believer, those sins are lost and abolished in Him; for no sins dwell before His infinite righteousness. Thus, by faith, the believer’s soul is delivered from sins, and clothed with the eternal righteousness of her bridegroom Christ. O happy union! The rich, the noble, the holy Bridegroom takes in marriage his poor, guilty, and despised spouse, delivers her from every evil, and enriches her with the most precious blessings. Christ, a King and a Priest, shares this honor and glory with all Christians. The Christian is a king, and consequently possesses all things; he is a priest, and consequently possesses God; and it is faith, not works, which brings him all this honor. A Christian is free from all things, above all things, faith giving him richly all things.’
On account of this union, all believers bear the name of Christ, being that of their Head. ‘For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,’ 1 Corinthians 12:13. ‘We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones,’ Ephesians 5:30. And in this Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle denominates the Church not only the body of Jesus Christ, but even His fullness. God ‘gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all,’ Ephesians 1:22. He thus shows that this union with Jesus Christ is such that He who filleth all things would consider Himself without His people to be imperfect and incomplete. Who walk not after (according to) the flesh, but after (according to) the Spirit. — These words not being found in all the manuscripts, are considered by some as spurious. But they connect perfectly well with the preceding clause of the verse, as characterizing those who are in Christ Jesus. In no respect, however, do they assign the cause of exemption from condemnation to them who are in Christ. The Apostle does not say, because they do not walk, but who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. There is an essential difference between asserting the character of those who are freed from condemnation, and declaring the cause of their being delivered from it. These words refer to the proof of our justification, which proceeds from the efficacy of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, who applies the merit of the blood of Jesus, and imparts a new and eternal life, opposed to sin and corruption, which the Scriptures call death in sin, for the minding of the flesh is death, but the minding of the Spirit is life. In this way, then, we may be assured that we are in Christ Jesus, and that there is no condemnation to us, if we experience the effects of His Spirit in our hearts causing us to walk in holiness. For the life which Jesus Christ has merited for us on the cross, consists not only in the remission of sins, which is a removal of what is evil, but also in the communication of what is good, namely, in our bearing the image of God. The same words as in the clause before us occur again in verse 4th, in which their genuineness is not disputed, where their full import shall be considered.
Ver. 2. — For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
This verse, as is evident by the particle for , is connected with the preceding. It connects, however, with the first part of that verse, where the great truth of which it is explanatory is announced, assigning the reason why there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus; which is continued to the middle of the 4th verse, in the latter part of which the last clause of the first is repeated. On the supposition of that clause being genuine, the Apostle follows here the same method as in the second chapter of this Epistle, where the 14th verse connects with the first part of the 12th. Many, by the phrase ‘law of the Spirit of life,’ understand the commanding influence of the Holy Spirit in the sanctification of the believers to be intended, and by ‘the law of sin and death,’ the corrupt principle, or power of sin in them, as in chapter 7:23 and 25. But these explanations do not suit the context. The main proposition contained in the preceding verse is, that to them who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. But why is there no condemnation?
Is it because they are sanctified? No; but because by their union with Christ they have been freed from the law and its curse, as the Apostle had shown in the preceding chapter, verse 4. Besides, it is not true that believers are delivered from the law of sin that is in them as respects their sanctification, which would contradict what Paul had just before said of the Christian’s internal warfare with sin, as exhibited in his own experience, to which deliverance he looked forward, but which he had not yet obtained. It is further to be observed, that the above explanations do not accord with the two following verses, which point out the ground of that freedom from condemnation which is here asserted, being explanatory of the verse before us, declaring that sin has been punished in Christ, and that the righteousness which the law demands has been fulfilled by Him in those who belong to Him. Law of the Spirit. — Various significations belong to the term law, according to the connection in which it stands, and to which it is applied.
In the conclusion of the preceding chapter, and in the verse before us, where it occurs twice, it is employed in three different senses. In the first of these it is denominated the ‘law of sin,’ namely, the strength of corruption acting with the force of a law. In the end of the verse before us, where the term ‘death’ is added to that of sin, it imports the moral law, the transgression of which is sin, and the consequence death, and is employed in the same sense in the two following verses. To the law of the spirit of life belongs a different meaning, signifying the power of the Holy Spirit, by which He unites the soul to Christ, in whose righteousness as being thus one with Him, it therefore partakes, and is consequently justified.
This law is the Gospel, whereof the Holy Ghost is the author, being the authoritative rule and the instrument by which He acts in the plan of salvation. It is the medium through which He promulgates Divine testimony, and His commands to receive that testimony, and exerts His power to produce this effect; by which, also, He quickens and enlightens those in whom He dwells, convinces them of their sin and of the righteousness of Christ, and testifies of the almighty Savior, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. The Gospel may thus be properly denominated the law , or power of the Holy Spirit, because, as a law has authority and binds to obedience, so the Gospel bears the stamp of Divine authority to which, in all that it reveals, we are bound to ‘submit,’ ch. 10:3. It requires the obedience of faith, and for this end is to be made known to all nations, ch. 1:5, 16:26; and when men refuse this submission, it is said that they have not ‘obeyed the Gospel,’ ch. 10:16. Although, therefore, the Gospel is proclaimed as a grace, it is a grace accompanied with authority, which God commands to be received. Accordingly it is expressly called a ‘law,’ Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2. ‘Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.’ In the Book of Psalm it is again and again called ‘ the law;’ and in <19B002> Psalm 110:2, referring to the power exerted by its means, it is said, ‘The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion,’ that is, the Gospel. ‘Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies,’ namely, by Thine almighty power. The Gospel, then, is the law of the Spirit by which He rules, and the rod of His strength, or His power, by which He effects our salvation, just as, in chapter 1:16, it is denominated ‘the power of God unto salvation.’ The Gospel is itself called ‘the Spirit,’ as being ministered by the Holy Spirit, 2 Corinthians 3:8.
The Gospel is the law of the Spirit of life, the ministration of which, being committed to the Apostles, ‘giveth life,’ in opposition to the ‘letter,’ or old covenant that killeth, 2 Corinthians 3:6. ‘It is the Spirit that quickeneth,’ John 6:63, as it is said, ‘I shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live,’ Ezekiel 37:14. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians 15:45, the Apostle speaks of two sources of life. He says, ‘The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.’ By the living soul is meant the principle of natural life which we derive from Adam by natural generation. The quickening spirit refers to the heavenly and supernatural life communicated by the Holy Spirit from Jesus Christ. The reason of the comparison is, that as Adam, receiving a living soul, his body was made alive; in like manner, believers, receiving in their souls the Spirit of Christ, receive a new life. It is not meant that the Spirit of Christ is not also the author of natural life, Job 33:4. Jesus Christ is the life itself, and the source of life to all creatures. But here the life referred to is that life which we receive through the Gospel, as the law or power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which the Apostle calls ‘the life of God,’ Ephesians 4:18.
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus . — Jesus Christ is set before us in two aspects, namely, as God, and as Mediator. As God, the Spirit of life resides essentially in Him; but as Mediator, and having in that character satisfied the justice of God by His death, the Spirit of life has been given to Him to be communicated to all who are one with Him. On this account the Spirit was not given in His fullness, John 7:39, till Jesus Christ as Mediator had entered into heaven, to appear in the heavenly sanctuary with His blood, when the Father, solemnly receiving His satisfaction, gave this testimony of His acceptance, in pouring out the abundance of the Spirit on His people. Jesus Christ accordingly says, ‘It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you,’ John 16:7. And the Apostle declares that ‘God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,’ Ephesians 1:3. He says, ‘spiritual blessings,’ because he speaks of the graces of the Holy Spirit. He says, ‘in Christ,’ because it is through the Mediator, and in His communion, that our spiritual life and those graces are bestowed on us. He adds, ‘in heavenly places,’ because, as anciently the high priest entered the sanctuary with the blood of the sacrifice, in order that God, in accepting that blood, might bestow His blessing on the people; in like manner, Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, has entered the heavenly sanctuary, that, being accepted, He should, as Mediator, and so receiving the Holy Spirit, be the source of life, even of that spiritual and eternal life to which He rose from the dead, and of all grace, to communicate it to His Church. This is what His forerunner John teaches when he says that ‘God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him,’ and is the reason why it is said that He was ‘full of grace and truth,’ and that ‘of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.’ The Apostle John, too, speaks of the anointing which believers have received from Jesus Christ; for as the oil was poured on the head of the high priest, and ran down to the skirts of his garments, in like manner Jesus Christ has been anointed with the Holy Spirit, as He says, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed Me;’ and this anointing was to be poured out on all His body, which is the Church.
That the Spirit of life, then, is in Jesus Christ, not only as God, but also as Mediator, is a ground of the most unspeakable consolation. It might be in Him as God, without being communicated to men; but, as the Head of His people, it must be diffused through them as His members, who are thus complete in Him. Dost thou feel in thyself the sentence of death? — listen, then, to the testimony of the Scriptures concerning Him. ‘This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in His Son.’ ‘I am come that they might have life.’ He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me, shall never die.’ ‘Because I live, ye shall live also.’ ‘I am that bread of life; he that eateth of this bread shall never die.’ ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’ ‘This life, then, is in Jesus Christ, and is communicated to believers by the Holy Spirit, by whom they are united to Christ, and from whom it is derived to all who through the law of the Spirit of life are in Him. It is on this account that, in the passage above quoted, Corinthians 15:45, Jesus Christ, as Mediator, is said to be made a quickening spirit. In obtaining this life, the believer receives his justification, the opposite of condemnation, which without this life cannot subsist, and from which it cannot be separated. Law of sin and death. — In the preceding chapter, verses 23 and 25, ‘the law of sin,’ which the Apostle says he served with the flesh, signifies, as has been observed, the powerful corrupt principle in the heart, operating with the force of a law. But in the former part of the same chapter, the word ‘law’ is employed to denote the moral law. It is there spoken of as the law of God, which, though holy, and just, and good, is to fallen man the occasion both of sin and death; and, accordingly, in the point of view in which the Apostle is here regarding it, it is called ‘the law of sin and death.’ It may be called the law of sin, since without it sin could not exist; for ‘sin is the transgression of the law,’ 1 John 3:4; but ‘where no law is, there is no transgression,’ and ‘sin is not imputed when there is no law,’ Romans 5:13. ‘The motions of sin are by the law,’ Romans 7:5; and ‘the strength of sin is the law,’ 1 Corinthians 15:56. ‘By the commandment sin becomes exceeding sinful,’ Romans 7:13. ‘The law entered that the offense might abound,’ Romans 5:20. As, therefore, sin could have no existence but by the law, and as the law is the strength of sin, and makes it to abound, the law may, as here, be properly denominated ‘the law of sin.’
The holy law may also be called the law of death. It threatens with death in case of disobedience, and on account of transgression adjudges to death. ‘The commandment,’ says the Apostle, ‘which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.’ It brings the sinner under the penalty of death. ‘In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ The law ‘killeth;’ and the ministration of the law, written and engraved on stones, was death, 2 Corinthians 3:6,7. By the law ‘death reigned from Adam to Moses,’ Romans 5:14; and the wages of sin, which is the transgression of the law, is death. Since, then, the law of God, which, though it commands holiness, gives the knowledge of sin, and the breach of it is death, and since, without the law, there could neither be sin nor death, it may, without arguing the smallest disrespect or disparagement to the holy law, be called the law of sin and death. That it is so denominated in the verse before us, appears from the repetition of the term law in the beginning of the following verse, evidently in connection with that in the end of this verse, where the reference is clearly to the moral law, namely, the law which had been spoken of from the 4th to the 13th verse of the foregoing chapter, which the Apostle had there shown, as he asserts in verse 3 of this chapter, could not set free from sin and death. Besides, that by the law of sin and death is here meant the moral law, appears unquestionable, when it is considered that if the same meaning be attached to it as belongs to the phrase ‘the law of sin’ in the conclusion of the preceding chapter, the Apostle must be held to have contradicted himself. For in that case he bitterly laments his being under the power of the law of sin, and speaks only of his hope of future deliverance; and here, in the same breath, he unqualifiedly asserts his freedom from it. Notwithstanding, then, the similarity of these two expressions, and their juxtaposition, it is impossible, without charging a contradiction on the Apostle, to assert that he attached the same meaning in both places to the word law, which in different connections is capable of significations quite distinct. Hath made me free. — The reason why there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus is, that being in Him they have been made free from the law of sin and death, all its requirements having been fulfilled by Him in them, as is affirmed in verse 4. This freedom is likewise declared in 2 Corinthians 3:17, in which passage it is said, ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’ ‘If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.’ Me free. — Here it is to be observed that the Apostle, instead of speaking generally of believers, as he does in the first and fourth verses, saying ‘them’ and ‘us,’ changes, as has been above remarked, the mode of expression, and refers to himself personally — ’hath made me free.’ A very striking contrast is thus pointed out between his declaration in the 24th verse of the preceding chapter, and that contained in the verse before us. There, he is speaking of the power of sin, which operates in believers as long as they are in this world. Here, in reference to condemnation, he is speaking of the guilt of sin, from which they are perfectly freed the moment they are united to the Savior. In the former case, therefore, where he speaks respecting sanctification, he refers in verse 24th to his deliverance as future, and exclaims, ‘Who shall deliver me?’ In reference to the latter, in which he is treating of justification, he speaks of his deliverance as already obtained, and affirms, He ‘hath made me free.’
The following explanation of the verse before us is given in the Westminster Confession of Faith. ‘Albeit the Apostle himself (brought in here for example’s cause), and all other true believers in Christ, be by nature under the law of sin and death, or under the covenant of works (called the law of sin and death, because it bindeth sin and death upon us, till Christ set us free); yet the law of the Spirit of Christ Jesus, or the covenant of grace (so called because it doth enable and quicken a man to a spiritual life through Christ), doth set the Apostle, and all true believers, free from the covenant of works, or the law of sin and death; so that every man may say with him, ‘The law of the Spirit of life,’ or the covenant of grace, hath made me free from the law of sin and death, or covenant of works,’ ed. 1773, p. 434.
Every believer should take to himself all the consolation which this verse contains, and with Paul he may with confidence say, ‘The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.’
Many, however, will say, We should be happy indeed if we could, with Paul, adopt this language; but what assurance can we have of being free from condemnation, and of being in Christ Jesus, since the flesh is so strong in us and the spirit so weak, — since we are still prone to so many sins, and subject to so many defects? Assuredly if a man is satisfied in sinning and following carnal desires, and is not desirous to turn from these ways, he has no ground to conclude that he is freed from condemnation, for such is not the state of any believer. But if, on the other hand, he groans on account of his sins, crying out with the Apostle, ‘O wretched man that I am;’ if they displease him, if he have a godly sadness on account of having committed them, and earnestly prays to God to be delivered from them, he may be assured of his salvation. For the Christian is not one who is without sin and evil inclinations, as is abundantly shown in the preceding chapters; but one who resists and combats against them, and returns to God by repentance. His groans on account of his sins, and his meditating on the word of God, — his earnest endeavors to be holy and to grow in grace, although not with all the success he desires, — are proofs of his regeneration. For if he were dead in his sins, he would not be affected on account of them, nor would he resist them. And whoever resists the flesh by the Spirit of God, will in the end obtain the victory, for the Holy Spirit in us is greater in goodness and power than all that is against us, — Satan, and the world, and the flesh. All this should inspire the believer with courage to fight the good fight of faith, and to follow the movements of the blessed Spirit, and the Lord will say to his soul, ‘I am thy salvation,’ Psalm 35:3; ‘My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness,’ 2 Corinthians 12:9; and he, on the other hand, may say with confidence, ‘O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord,’ Psalm 16:2.
Ver. 3. — For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, and sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh: This verse confirms the interpretation that has been given of the preceding, with which it stands connected. It is introduced to explain what is said in the two preceding verses. Both this and the following verse are illustrations of that great truth, that to the believer in Christ there is no condemnation There are here three principal considerations: namely, the misery of our natural condition; the mercy of God in the incarnation of His Son; and the effect of sending Him into the world, which is our redemption. Under these three heads, the Apostle removes the difficulties that might present themselves from the supposition that, on account of some imperfection in the law, it could not justify. In answer to this, it is here shown that the imperfection is not in the law, but in us. The law could justify those who fulfilled it, as it is said, ‘The man that doeth them shall live in them; ‘but the corruption of human nature renders this impossible. And as it might be objected that the law, which subjects every transgressor to death, is violated by the freedom from it which we obtain by the death of Jesus Christ, the Apostle shows that the punishment it demands was inflicted upon Him. Hence the first proposition, that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, is established; and in the following verse it is added, that the law, which we were required to fulfill, has by Him been fulfilled in us. In this view, the justice of God, which naturally terrifies man, inspires us with confidence. For if God is just, will He exact double payment and satisfaction? Will He condemn those for whom the Surety has borne the condemnation? No; ‘He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,’ for ‘the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’ For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the Flesh. — The law here meant is the same as that spoken of in the end of the preceding verse, namely, the moral law, under which our first parents in the state of innocence were placed, and which was afterwards promulgated by the ministry of Moses. This law was ordained to life, ch. 7:10, — that is, to justify man, if he had remained in innocence; but by his sinning it condemns him, as the Apostle adds, ‘I found it to be unto death;’ so that the law, the breach of which constitutes sin, and which on account of this awards death, is now unable to justify, but powerful to condemn.
This verse proves that the method which God takes to justify the sinner is entirely consistent with law and justice. Firsts the Apostle shows the necessity of this method. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. — What is it that the law could not do? It could not justify. Mr. Frazer, however, says that the reason of this alleged weakness of the law forbids this interpretation. ‘That,’ says he, is not the reason why the law cannot justify.’ But surely it is the very reason why the law cannot justify. Were it not for the weakness of the flesh, or the corruption and sinfulness of man, the law could justify. ‘But,’ he continues, ‘to turn the disability of the law to justify the sinner upon the corruption of his nature, as the text would do, according to the interpretation I am considering, would imply something by no means consistent with the Apostle’s clear doctrine, viz., that after a person had transgressed he might be justified, even by the law, for returning to his duty, and for his subsequent righteousness, if the weakness and poverty of his nature, called the flesh, did not disable him from doing his duty; which how contrary to Scripture doctrine I need not stay to prove, the thing is so clear.’ But did this acute and worthy author overlook what our Lord says to the rich young man, ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments’? In fact, however, the commandments could not be kept unless every commandment that respects man is obeyed; therefore the commandment in the garden of Eden is included; because, being guilty of breaking it, no man can be said to have obeyed God as he ought. The weakness of the flesh includes everything that befell us by the fall. Every man is as truly accountable for that first sin of Adam as he is for his own personal sins; and therefore, as long as he is under condemnation for that sin, he cannot be said to keep the commandments. ‘By the law is the knowledge of sin.’ It is the test of men being sinners. If it were kept, this would prove that we were not sinners. It entered, that the offense might abound; and the Lord applied this test for the young man’s conviction. Yet what he said was truth: if the young man had kept the commandments, he would, as a holy creature, have enjoyed life; he would not have been a sinner. But he was so ignorant as to say he had kept them all. The Lord replied, ‘One thing thou lackest,’ and said, ‘Follow Me.’ If he had really kept the commandments, he would have had no need of a Savior; but he was a sinner, and Christ informed him of the only way of salvation. The law could not give life to one by whom it was forfeited.
The weakness of the law through the flesh Mr. Stuart explains thus: ‘Because, through the strength of our carnal inclinations and desires, it was unable to regulate our lives, so that we should be perfect or actually free from sin.’ But as Christ is said to do what the law through this weakness could not do, this interpretation supposes that Christ has enabled us to regulate our lives so as to be entirely free from sin. Nothing can be more obvious than that the weakness of the law through the flesh is its inability to justify, as it would have done, had not sin entered. The weakness of the law for justification is no disparagement to it. It was never designed to save a sinner. How could it be supposed that a creature who had apostatized, and was a rebel against God, could re-establish himself in the Divine favor? Yet such re-establishment, in order to the enjoyment of the favor of God, was necessary. A creature in such circumstances could only be re-established by God Himself, and that by an act of free and sovereign mercy, compatible with His Justice and truth, as well as with the essential glory of His character. It is also impossible that mercy could be extended in any other way than that which the Gospel reveals. How could the justice of God be satisfied but by an atonement of infinite value, to meet the infinite evil of sin? And how could such an atonement be made for man but by one who was at the same time both God and man — the infinite God manifest in human nature? This was the remedy which God provided; therefore it was the best remedy. It was the highest possible remedy; therefore there could be no other. It would be inconsistent with infinite wisdom to employ means greater than are necessary in order to accomplish an end. The law was strong to perform its own office, — that is, to justify all by whom it was perfectly obeyed. Its weakness was through the flesh, — that is, the guilt and corruption of our nature. The weakness is not in the law; it is in man. God sending His own Son. — God sent His Son to do that which the law could not do. He sent Him in consequence of His great love to His people, 1 John 4:9; and as the accomplishment of His Divine purpose, Acts 4:28. The object, then, of Christ’s mission was not merely that of a messenger or witness; it was to effect the salvation of guilty sinners in the way of righteousness. He did what the law could not do. The law could justify those only by whom it was observed; but it could not justify or save those who should violate even the least of its commands. But Christ Jesus both justifies and saves the ungodly. His own son — Christ was God’s own Son in the literal sense. It is on this supposition only that the sending of Him is a manifestation of infinite love to men. There is no more appearance of any figurative meaning in the use of this appellation, when ascribed to Jesus Christ, than there is when Isaac is called the son of Abraham. He is here emphatically called not only the Son of God, but the Son of Himself, or His own Son — His very Son.
Whether Christ’s sonship is a relation in Godhead, or a figurative sonship, has been much disputed. Many who hold the Godhead of Christ explain the passages that assert His sonship as referring to His incarnation. That the phrase Son of God imports the Divine nature of Jesus Christ, there can be no doubt, John 5:18 (see pp. 21-25); and that it relates not merely to His incarnation, but to His eternal relation to the Father, appears the obvious testimony of Scripture. No reasoning from the import of the relation among men can form a valid objection to this view.
Adam is called the son of God because he was created by the immediate exercise of Divine power. The angels are called the sons of God on account of their creation, and the greatness of their condition; believers, by the right of their adoption and regeneration; but none except the Messiah is called the Only-begotten of the Father. These words, ‘I have begotten Thee,’ are indeed applied to Jesus Christ, Acts 13:33, not with respect to His eternal generation, but to His resurrection and establishment in the priesthood; and import that He was thus made known to be the Son of God, as it is said, Romans 1:4, that He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by His resurrection from the dead. The exaltation of Jesus Christ, whether in His office of Mediator or in sovereign glory, is the authoritative declaration of the Father that He was His Son, His only-begotten Son; and this is signified in the second Psalm. There, the elevation of Jesus Christ to the sovereign dominion of the world is spoken of. ‘I have set My King upon My holy hill of Zion.’ It is as to the act of His elevation that this declaration is made. ‘I will declare the decree: The Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.’ Thus, according to the usual style of Scripture, things are said to be done when they are declared or publicly manifested. When it is said, ‘This day have I begotten Thee, the eternal dignity of the Savior, which had been before concealed, was brought to light and fully discovered. In the likeness of sinful flesh. — Jesus Christ was sent, not in the likeness of flesh, but in the flesh. He was sent, however, not in sinful flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh. Nothing can more clearly prove that the Lord Jesus Christ, though He assumed our nature, took it without taint of sin or corruption. To His perfect holiness the Scriptures bear the fullest testimony. ‘He knew no sin.’ ‘The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me.’ He was ‘holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.’
His absolute freedom from sin was indispensable. As God becoming manifest in the flesh, He could not unite Himself to a nature tainted with the smallest impurity. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, and did not spring from Adam by ordinary generation; and, not belonging to his covenant, had no part in his sin. His freedom from sin, original and actual, was necessary, in order that He should be offered as ‘a Lamb without blemish and without spot,’ so that He might be the truth of His types, the legal sacrifices, which it was expressly provided should be free from all blemish; thus distinctly indicating this transcendent characteristic of Him who was to be the one great sacrifice.
If the flesh of Jesus Christ was the likeness of sinful flesh, there must be a difference between the appearance of sinful flesh and our nature, or flesh in its original state when Adam was created. Christ, then, was not made in the likeness of the flesh of man before sin entered the world, but in the likeness of his fallen flesh. Though He had no corruption in His nature, yet He had all the sinless infirmities of our flesh. The person of man, in his present state, may be greatly different from what it was when Adam came from the hand of his Creator. Our bodies, as they are at present, are called ‘the bodies of our humiliation,’ Philippians 3:21. Jesus Christ was made in man’s present likeness. Tradition speaks of the beauty of His person when on earth; but this is the wisdom of man. The Scriptures nowhere represent Christ in His -manhood as distinguished by personal beauty. No observation of this kind, proceeding either from His friends or enemies, is recorded in the Gospels. And for sin. — The reason of the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ into the world — of His incarnation and humiliation — was the abolition of sin, its destruction, both as to its guilt and power. The same expression occurs, 1 Peter 3:18, ‘Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.’ It is sin that is the cause of separation from God; and by its removal reconciliation is made, and peace restored. Condemned sin in the flesh. — Here, by the flesh is meant, not the body of Jesus Christ only, but His human nature. In this sense the word flesh is used where it is said, ‘the Word was made flesh,’ — that is to say, was made man, and took our nature, composed of body and soul. The nature and the person who suffered must also be distinguished. Respecting the person, it is Jesus Christ, God and man; as to the nature in which He suffered, it is in the flesh. Of the person we can say that it is God, as the Apostle says that God hath purchased the Church with His own blood, and consequently that His suffering was of infinite value, since it is that of an infinite person; and this is the more evident, since Jesus Christ is Mediator in both His natures, and not in His human nature only. For if this were so, His suffering would be finite, since His human nature, in which alone He could suffer, by which He offered His sacrifice, was in itself only finite; and if He had been Mediator only as to His human nature — which, however, could not be, as He represents both God and man — He could not have been the Mediator of the Old Testament, when He had not taken the human nature. And as it is necessary that, in regard to His person, we should consider Jesus Christ suffering, it is also necessary that we consider that it was in the flesh that He suffered, — that is to say, in our nature, which He took and joined personally to the Divine nature. In this we may admire the wisdom of God, who caused sin to be punished and destroyed in the human nature, in which it had been committed. Condemned sin. — Condemnation is here taken for the punishment of sin.
God punished sin in Christ’s human nature. This is the method that God took to justify sinners. It was God who, by His determinate counsel and foreknowledge, Acts 2:23, punished sin by inflicting those sufferings on Christ of which men were only the instruments. Sin had corrupted the flesh of man, and in that very flesh it was condemned. The guilt and punishment of sin are eminently seen in the death of Christ. Nowhere else is sin so completely judged and condemned. Not even in hell are its guilt and demerits so fully manifested. What must be its demerit, if it could be atoned for by nothing but the death of the Son of God? and what can afford clearer evidence of God’s determination to punish sin to the utmost extent of its demerit, than that He thus punished it even when laid on the head of His only-begotten Son.
In all this we see the Father assuming the place of judge against His Son, in order to become the Father of those who were His enemies. The Father condemns the Son of His love, that He may absolve the children of wrath.
If we inquire into the cause that moved God to save us by such means, what can we say, but that it proceeded from His incomprehensible wisdom, His ineffable goodness, and the unfathomable depth of His mercies? For what was there in man that could induce the Creator to act in this manner, since He saw nothing in him, after his rebellion by sin, but what was hateful and offensive? And what was it but His love that passeth knowledge which induced the only-begotten Son of God to take the form of a servant, to humble Himself even to the death of the cross, and to submit to be despised and rejected of men? These are the things into which the angels desire to look.
But besides the love of God, we see the wonderful display of His justice in condemning sin in His Son, rather than allowing it to go unpunished. In this assuredly the work of redemption surpasses that of creation. In creation God had made nothing that was not good, and nothing especially on which He could exercise the rigor of His justice; but here He punishes our sins to the utmost in Jesus Christ. It may be inquired if, when God condemned sin in His Son, we are to understand this of God the Father, so as to exclude the Son; or if we can say that God the Son also condemned sin in Himself. This can undoubtedly be affirmed; for in the Father and the Son there is only one will and one regard for justice; so that, as it was the will of the Father to require satisfaction for sin from the Son, it was also the will of the Son to humble Himself, and to condemn sin in Himself. We must, however, distinguish between Jesus Christ considered as God, and as our Surety and Mediator. As God, He condemns and punishes sin; as Mediator, He is Himself condemned and punished for sin.
When sin was condemned or punished in the Son of God, to suppose that He felt nothing more than bodily pain, would be to conclude that He had less confidence in God than many martyrs who have gone to death cheerfully, and without fear. The extremity of the pain He suffered when He said in the garden, ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death,’ was the sentiment of the wrath of God against sin, from which martyrs felt themselves delivered. For the curse of the law is principally spiritual, namely, privation of communion with God in the sense of His wrath.
Jesus Christ, therefore, was made a curse for us, as the Apostle says, Galatians 3:13, proving it by the declaration, ‘Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.’ For this punishment of the cross was the figure and symbol of the spiritual curse of God. As in His body, then, He suffered this most accursed punishment, so likewise in His soul He suffered those pains that are most insupportable, such as are suffered by those finally condemned. But that was only for a short time, the infinity of His person rendering that suffering equivalent to that of an infinity of time. Such, then, was the grief which He experienced when on the cross He cried, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ What forsaking was this, unless that for a time God left Him to feel the weight of His indignation against sin? This feeling is the sovereign evil of the soul, in which consists the griefs of eternal death; as, on the other hand, the sovereign good of the soul, and that in which the happiness of eternal life consists, is to enjoy gracious communion with God.
In this verse we see the ground of the Apostle’s declaration, that there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, because their sin was punished in Him. This is according to numerous other passages in Scripture, as, Isaiah 53:4-6; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24; Revelation 5:9; and, as it is said in 1 Timothy 2:6, ‘who gave Himself a ransom for all.’ For our sins are debts of which the payment and the satisfaction for them is their punishment — a payment without which we were held captives under the wrath and by the justice of God. All this shows that sin was really punished in Jesus Christ; and it is evident that, according to the justice and truth of God, such a punishment was necessary in order to our redemption.
Ver. 4. — That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. — God not only sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, that He might punish sin in that nature in which it had been committed, but that all which the law demands might by Him be fulfilled in those who are united to Him; for which purpose He obeyed its precepts as well as fulfilled its penalty. The original word here translated righteousness is the same as is rendered judgment or sentence, Romans 1:32, where, and also in the verse before us, it is in some of the French versions, and in the Dutch annotations, rendered ‘right.’ It is properly here the right of the law. The right of the law is twofold, being that which belongs to it at all times, or what only belongs to it in the event of sin. The first is obedience to its precepts; the second, subjection to its penalty. The first, or what may be called the proper right of the law, corresponds with its prosper end, according to which it was ordained unto life to all who obey it. What it demands beyond its proper or first end, is the fulfillment of its penalty, as cursing all who disobey it. For it is not the first end of the law to curse men, but only what it demands since the entrance of sin. Such is the right of the law.
The Gospel does not take away this right; for it does not make void the law, Romans 3:31, but establishes it. In those, therefore, who are saved by the Gospel, they being all sinners, both the one and the other of the rights of the law are fulfilled in Christ, who is the end or fulfilling of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, Romans 10:4. His people having sinned, He fulfills its right as to them, in suffering the punishment of sin, — namely, the curse of the law, to save them from punishment. And to introduce them into life. He accomplishes its proper or original right, according to which, as it is said, ‘the man that doeth them shall live in them.’ For if the Gospel establishes the law, it must do so as to its first end, and it must also do so as to its end since the entrance of sin, otherwise the law would, as to those who are saved, rather be abolished than fulfilled by the Gospel. In this way Christ has fully satisfied the law, having fulfilled its righteousness, — all that conformity to it which is its right in every respect, and under every aspect, and as to every state of those who are its subjects. And as His people are in Him, so the law is thus, in all its extent, fulfilled in them, which is the very circumstance in which their justification consists. For if they are one body, or one with Him, as the Apostle had been showing, His fulfillment of the law is their fulfillment of it. Such being their communion with Him, that they sit with Him in heavenly places, Ephesians 2:6; and by the same communion His righteousness is their righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21.
The end, then, of Christ’s mission was, that the right of the law might be fulfilled in His people. Here we see the ground on which believers are saved. It is in a way consistent with the law, a way in which all that it has a right to demand is fulfilled in them. The mercy, then, which saves sinners does not interfere with justice. They who are saved by mercy have that very righteousness which the law demands. In Christ they have paid the penalty of their disobedience, and in Christ they have yielded obedience to every precept of the law. This fulfillment of the law cannot signify, as some commentators erroneously explain it, that obedience which believers are enabled to yield by the Holy Spirit in their regenerate state; for it is obvious that this is not the righteousness of the law. The very best of all their actions and thoughts come short of the perfection which the law demands; besides, its penalty would in this way be unfulfilled. They are indeed sanctified, but their sanctification is far from being commensurate with the claims of the holy law, either as to its penalty or its precept.
Here, then, is solid consolation for the believer in Jesus. For, divested as he is of righteousness in himself, he enjoys the blessedness of having the righteousness of God — the righteousness of his Lord and Savior — imputed to Him, so that the law which had been broken is fulfilled in him in all its precepts, and in its full penalty.
Hitherto, from the beginning of the 2nd verse, the Apostle had been illustrating the truth contained in the first clause of the first verse, namely, that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. He now repeats the last clause of that verse which he goes on to illustrate to the end of the 8th verse. Who walk not after (according to) the flesh, but after ( according to) the Spirit. — These words characterize those in whom the righteousness of the law is fulfilled and serve the double purpose of showing that they who are walking according to the principles of the renewed spiritual nature, and according to that covenant of which the Lord Jesus is the spirit, are one with Him, and that none are united to Him who are living after the principles of their corrupt nature, and seeking justification and acceptance with God, by cleaving to the covenant of works. The expression, to ‘walk,’ is frequently employed in Scripture regarding any particular line of conduct, as when it is said, Acts 21:21, ‘that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs; ‘or it denotes the course of life in which we are proceeding as in Ephesians 2:2, ‘Ye walked according to the course of this world.’ In this way, comparing our life to a journey, in the usual style of Scripture, the Apostle comprehends all our actions under the figure of walking. To walk, then, according to the flesh, is to act agreeably to the principles of corrupt nature. To walk according to the Spirit, means to regulate the conduct according to the influence and dictates of the Holy Spirit, who has given us a new nature, serving God in newness of spirit.
The terms flesh and spirit have various significations, and are employed in different senses in this chapter. The word flesh is used in a sense either bad or indifferent. Sometimes it means simply human nature, and sometimes corrupt human nature, or man in his natural state without the Holy Spirit, and frequently wicked works. At other times it denotes outward services in adherence to the law for justification, Philippians 3:4. To the word spirit various meanings are likewise attached. It imports either the angelic nature, or the soul of man, or the Holy Spirit, or the renewed image of the Son of God in the soul. In both of these last senses it is employed by our Lord, when, declaring the necessity of regeneration, He says, ‘That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ Sometimes, when opposed to flesh or to letter, it is used as equivalent to the new covenant, — ’who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit.’ The expression, walking not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, in the verse before us, is generally interpreted as referring exclusively to the practice of good or of wicked works. It is supposed that the Apostle is here guarding his doctrine of gratuitous justification from abuse, by excluding all claim to union with Christ, and to exemption from condemnation, where there is not purity of conduct, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. This is undoubtedly a highly important truth, which is to be constantly affirmed and insisted on. Holiness of life and conversation is an inseparable concomitant of union with Christ; for to whom He is made righteousness He is also made sanctification, and they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Of this the Apostle never loses sight, not indeed in any point of view as the cause of that union, but as its never-failing consequence and concomitant, as he has abundantly proved in the sixth chapter. There are, however, many different paths in the broad way; that is, many ways of walking after the flesh, all of which lead to destruction. Among these, that of seeking acceptance with God by works of righteousness, either moral or ceremonial, is equally incompatible with union to Christ and freedom from condemnation, as living in the grosser indulgence of wicked works; and this way of going about to establish their own righteousness, by those who profess to have received the Gospel, and who have even a zeal of God, ch. 10:2, is probably that by which the greater number of them are deceived. There is the greatest danger lest the fleshly wisdom, under the notion of a zeal for God and of regard for the interests of virtue, should set men on the painful endeavor of working out their salvation, in part at least, by keeping the law as a covenant, thus attending to its requirements for justification, serving in the oldness of the letter, and not in the newness of spirit. In this ways multitudes who profess to have received the Gospel, are walking after the flesh, seeking to satisfy their conscience, and saying peace when there is no peace.
While, therefore, the other ways of walking according to the flesh may all be comprehended under the term as here employed by the Apostle, for they are all involved in each other, it would appear (especially as in the 5th verse, minding the things of the flesh, which certainly denotes immoral conduct, is distinguished from walking after the flesh) that it is to the above import of the word, rather than to immoral conduct, that he is referring in this place. In this way Paul himself walked before his conversion, when he thought that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth; and it was this same way of walking according to the flesh which he so strenuously opposes in his Epistle to the churches of Galatia. We see, too, how suitable to his purpose it would be in confirming the doctrine he had been teaching, particularly to direct to this point the attention of those to whom he was writing. Paul, then, appears to be here prosecuting his main design, which is to prove that believers are to be justified, not by works of righteousness which they have done, of whatever description, but solely by faith in Jesus Christ, in whom their reconciliation with God is complete. It is this grand truth which, from the beginning of the Epistle, he had been exhibiting, for the conviction and establishment in the faith of those whom he addressed. It is indeed a truth in which Christians need to be fully instructed, which they are all apt to let slip out of their minds, but by which they are saved, if they keep it in memory. There is nothing which so much retards them in their course as their proneness to walk according to the flesh, in seeking to establish their own righteousness; and nothing more powerfully tends, when giving way to it in any degree, to bring them into bondage, to lead them to serve in the oldness of the letter, and not in newness of spirit, and to mar their joy and peace in believing. In the sense here ascribed to it, the word flesh is employed in the beginning of the fourth chapter of this Epistle. Flesh, in that place, cannot, it is evident, signify immoral conduct; for that Abraham was justified by wicked works could never be supposed.
It must there signify works, moral or ceremonial, as is proved by the rest of that chapter.
In the Epistle to the Galatians, the terms flesh and spirit are likewise used in this acceptation. ‘Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?’ Galatians 3:3. ‘Having begun your Christian course by receiving the doctrine of the new covenant, namely, justification by the righteousness of Christ, are ye seeking to be made perfect by legal observances, or works of any kind?’ In this passage the word flesh cannot be taken for wicked works, any more than in the fourth chapter of the Romans, just quoted. It must be understood in the sense of working for life, or self-justification, in opposition to the way of salvation according to the Gospel. The Apostle’s main object, in the whole of that Epistle, is to reclaim the Galatian churches from the error of mixing ceremonial observances, or any works of law, with the faith of Christ, and thus walking according to the flesh, and not according to the Spirit. ‘Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from (the doctrine of) grace. For we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.’ This reasoning applies to all works of law, of whatever description, as clearly appears by the third chapter of that Epistle.
In the same manner, the terms flesh and Spirit are employed, Philippians 3:3, ‘For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.’
Here the word flesh, opposed to Spirit, just as in the passage before us, cannot signify immoral conduct, in which it would be absurd to suppose that the Apostle placed confidence. In the sequel, Paul furnishes a practical commentary on these words, by referring to his own conduct, as having formerly walked according to the flesh, resting in external privileges, and observances, and his obedience to the law; but afterwards as renouncing them all, and relying solely on ‘the righteousness which is of God by faith.’
According, then, to the above signification of the word flesh, as employed in the fourth chapter of this Epistle, and of the word Spirit; denoting the new covenant, 2 Corinthians 3:6, this clause, ‘who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit,’ indicates the course of those who are not walking according to the old covenant, in seeking justification by the works of law, but who attain it by faith in Him who is the Lord the Spirit, 2 Corinthians 3:17. The same idea appears to be expressed here as in the preceding chapter, where the Apostle reminds believers that they are delivered from the law under which, while in the flesh, they were held, that they should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. This is consistent with the whole of the previous train of the Apostle’s reasoning, in which, as was already noticed, he has been asserting the freedom of believers from the law, and their justification by the righteousness of Christ through faith, in opposition to all self-justifying efforts or obedience of their own. They, then, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, are no longer seeking justification by works of law, but are brought to act on Gospel and spiritual principles. They live in the Spirit, and they also walk in the Spirit.
All men who profess to worship God in any form, walk by nature according to the flesh. As man was originally placed under the law to live by his obedience to it, so, ever since it has been broken, he naturally seeks acceptance with God, and justification by the works of law. This is fully verified at all times, and in all nations, by those who are not in Christ. All men, without exception, have the work of the law written in their hearts, and if ignorant of the only Savior of sinners, they attempt to satisfy their conscience by means of some religious observances or moral works, — the idolater, by his sacrifices; the Mohammedan, by his lustrations; the Brahmin, by his austerities; the Roman Catholic, by his masses and penances; the Socinian, by his vaunted philanthropy; the nominal Christian, by his assiduous attendance at the Lord’s Supper and other religious services: and all, in some way or other, by the merit of their works, moral or ceremonial, seek to obtain their acquittal from sin before God, and a favorable sentence at His tribunal. All of them are going about to establish their own righteousness, being ignorant of the righteousness of God. In this way Saul of Tarsus, as has been noticed, describes himself as having walked, when he had ‘confidence in the flesh.’ To wait, through the Spirit, for the hope of righteousness by faith, Galatians 5:5, is peculiar to those to whom, being in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation, and in whom the righteousness of the law is by Him fulfilled.
The verse before us, and the three preceding, contain a summary of the whole that Paul had advanced in the foregoing part of the Epistle, both respecting the justification and the sanctification of believers, and open the way for illustrating the difference between those who are carnal — remaining in their natural state — and those who are spiritual, as renewed by grace. This afterwards leads to a particular and most interesting description, through the remainder of the chapter, of the various trials of believers, as also of their unspeakably glorious privileges, and of the gracious operations and influences of the Holy Spirit in the great work of their sanctification, and to the Apostle’s concluding the whole by the most sublime view of the eternal source and absolute security of the state of dignity and blessedness to which, through Divine favor, they have been elevated.
Ver. 6. — For they that are after the, flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
This appears to confirm the explanation that has been given of the last clause of the first verse and of that of the fourth; for the Apostle here distinguishes between walking after the flesh, and mining the things of the flesh, and between walking after the Spirit, and minding the things of the Spirit. As he had proved that union with Christ was necessary to justification, he here shows that its certain consequence is also sanctification; while they who do not enjoy this union are still under the dominion of sin. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. — This verse connects with the preceding, and contrasts the opposite effects that follow from walking according to the flesh, or according to the Spirit. The word here translated ‘mind,’ includes both the understanding and the affections, and signifies the strong bent of the mind regarding the object desired. The minding of the flesh comprehends all the faculties of man in his unregenerate state, there being no power of the mind exempt from sin.
If, then, a man walks according to the flesh, seeking acceptance with God by his own works, moral or ceremonial, however earnest or sincere he may be in his endeavors, he will remain under the prevalence and dominion of sinful appetites. Such persons have their minds intent on the things that gratify their corrupt nature. They have no relish for spiritual things; whatever they may be induced to do from dread of punishment, or hope of reward in a future world, their desires are, in reality, centered in the things of this world. Whatever may be their profession of religion, their hearts are supremely engrossed with earthly things; and for these, if they could obtain their wish through eternity, they would gladly barter all the glories of heaven. In one word, they mind the things of the flesh, they love the world, and all that is in the world. ‘If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.’ But they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. — They who act according to the principles of the renewed spiritual nature, and seek acceptance with God by faith in Him who is ‘the Lord the Spirit,’ Corinthians 3:17, mind spiritual things. Jesus Christ is the source of every blessing, and they who are in Him are not only justified, and consequently freed from condemnation, but also walk in newness of life. They employ their thoughts and efforts about the things of God. To these they attend, and on these their affections are fixed. None will seek the things which are above, but those who serve God in newness of spirit. All others will ‘mind earthly things,’ Philippians 3:19.
On the verse before us Mr. Adam of Wintringham remarks, ‘For they that are after the flesh, that is, according to the common interpretation, not led and governed by the Spirit in practice, “still under the direction of the flesh and its sinful appetites,” says Mr. Lock, do mind the things of the flesh: very true; but then this is only affirming a thing of itself, or saying it twice over. And therefore, to clear St. Paul of this absurdity, we suppose that by “they that are after the flesh,” he means those who are destitute of faith, or not in Christ: and of them he affirms that, let them pretend to do what they will, they are still under the prevalence of flesh and its appetites, and cannot act from a higher principle, or a nature which they have not. And it must be observed that he is now advancing a step farther in the doctrine of faith, and, besides the necessity of it in order to justification, showing its happy effects as a principle of holiness: but they that are after the Spirit — in the Spirits dispensation of grace, through faith — and say that. Jesus is the Lord by the Holy Ghost, by whom only they can say it, mind the things of the Spirit, now possessing and ruling them.’
Ver. 6. — For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
In the preceding verse the Apostle contrasts the dispositions and practices of believers and unbelievers; here he contrasts their opposite states and conditions. These two states of carnal and spiritual mindedness include and divide the whole world. All men belong either to the one or the other.
They are either in the flesh or in the Spirit; in a state of nature or in a state of grace. For to be carnally minded is death. — This is the awful state of the carnal mind — the mind of the flesh without faith in Christ, and renovation of the Spirit of God. It is death spiritual and eternal. All the works of those who are in this state are ‘dead works,’ Hebrews 9:14. ‘The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,’ although the Lord commanded to offer sacrifices, which therefore was in itself a good work. ‘She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.’ All by nature being in this carnal state, are ‘dead in trespasses and sins.’ Let those whose minds are set on the things of the world consider this fearful saying, that to be carnally minded is death, and let them look to Jesus the Savior of the guilty, through whom alone they can escape condemnation. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. — These are the effects of being enlightened and guided by the Spirit of God, and so having the mind turned from earthly things to the things of the Spirit. To be spiritually minded is life, even eternal life. This life is already enjoyed by the believer. ‘Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life;’ and with his Redeemer he has risen from the death of sin to walk in this new life. It is also peace, both here and hereafter. This peace is the harmony of all the faculties of the soul with God, and with His will, and is altogether the opposite of that enmity against God, which in the following verse is affirmed concerning the carnal mind. While there is nothing so miserable for man as war with his Creator, there is nothing so blessed as peace and communion with God. It is peace in the conscience, in opposition to doubt, for which the Church of Rome contends, as if the effect of being spiritually minded, instead of peace and confidence in God, was servile fear and harassing distrust. That church maintains that the man who is regenerated should doubt of his salvation, and be uncertain of God’s love to him. What, then, becomes of this peace that flows from being spiritually minded — which passeth all understanding, keeping the heart and mind through Christ Jesus — this peace, which is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and a characteristic of the kingdom of God? Romans 14:17.
The peace here spoken of is opposed to the terrors of conscience which the unregenerate experience, and to the opposition in their hearts to God, as well as to every species of false peace by which they may be deluded. ‘There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.’ And again it is said, ‘Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.’
Ver. 7. — Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to law of God neither indeed can be Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. — The word rendered carnal mind — or, as it may be rendered, minding of the flesh — comprehends the acts both of the understanding and of the will. Some render it the prudence, or wisdom, of the flesh — or the wise thoughts.
The carnal mind in its wisest thoughts is rooted enmity against God. This is the reason why the carnal mind is punished with death. The mind of the flesh, or of man in his unconverted state, walking according to the flesh, in its best as well as in its worst character — however moral in conduct — .whether seeking acceptance with God by its own services, or following altogether the course of this world in its sinful practices — is not merely an enemy, but enmity itself against God in the understanding, will, and affections. Every man whose heart is set on this world hates God, John 2:15. ‘If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him;’ and the heart of every one who has not been renewed in his mind by the Spirit of God is set on this world. Such men hate the holiness of God, His justice, His sovereignty, and even His mercy in the way in which it is exercised. Men of this character, however, have no notion that they hate God. Nay, many of them profess to love Him. But God’s testimony is, that they are His enemies; and His testimony is to be taken against the testimony of all men. This, however, does not suppose that men may not imagine that they love God. But is it not the true God whom they are regarding, but a God of their own imagination — a God all mercy, and therefore a God unjust; while they abhor the just God, and the Savior, who is the God of the Scriptures. ‘He that cometh to God must believe that He is,’ Hebrews 11:6. He must believe that He is what He is. For it is not subject to the law of God. — The carnal mind is not under subjection to the law of God. Whatever it may do to obtain salvation or avoid wrath, it does it not from subjection to the law. It has a rooted aversion to the spiritual law of God, and admits not its claim to perfect and unceasing obedience. All its performances in the way of religion spring from selfish motives, and a hope that, on account of these doings, it will be accepted; whereas the holy law of God utterly rejects all such service. So far from giving the law all its demands, the carnal mind gives it nothing.
Nothing which it does constitutes obedience to the law. The law does not in any degree, or in any instance, recognize the works of the carnal mind as obedience to its requirements. Neither indeed can be. — Not only is it a matter of fact that the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, but such subjection is impossible.
Sin cannot be in subjection to the law. This would be a contradiction in terms. For, so far as it would be subject to the law of God, it would be holy. If, then, sin is essentially, and in direct terms, contrary to holiness, the sinful nature can never yield subjection to the holy law. Men may speculate about metaphysical possibilities; but whatever explanation may be given of the matter, the decision of the inspired Apostle determines that the thing is impossible.
That an unconverted man cannot be subject to the law of God, appears to many a hard saying; but it is the uniform doctrine of the word of God. All men in their natural state, though they boast that they are free, are the slaves of sin. Then Jesus, addressing the Jews who professed to believe in Him, but who understood not His doctrine, said to them, ‘Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,’ they answered, ‘We were never in bondage to any man; how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?’ In the same manner the unconverted boast of their freedom. They affirm that their will is free; and that, as they can choose the evil, so they can choose the good. If, by this freedom, they intend that they can choose without any external force constraining or preventing them, it is true that, in this sense, they are free. But a moral agent chooses according to his inclinations or dispositions. It should always be recollected that the will is the will of the mind, and the judgment the judgment of the mind. It is the mind that judges and that wills. A fool judges foolishly; a wicked man judges wickedly; a good man wills that which is good. In Scripture, it is said that God cannot deny Himself; that He cannot lie. His nature being perfectly holy, it is impossible that He can do what is wrong. On the other hand, the wicked and condemned spirits cannot choose what is holy. When the devil ‘speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.’ Man, therefore, in his carnal state, chooses what is evil; but he cannot choose what is good, not indeed because of any external obstruction, for in that case he would not be criminal, but by reason of the opposition of his perverse dispositions. He is inclined to do evil, and evil he will do. ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.’ His language is, ‘I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.’ ‘As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee.’ ‘My people would not hearken to My voice, and Israel would have none of Me.’ They say ‘unto God, Depart from us.’ ‘Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.’ ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’ ‘Let us break their bands asunder, and cast their cords from us.’
It is thus that ‘wickedness proceedeth from the wicked.’ ‘Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.’ ‘Wept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ ‘Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’ ‘How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?’ ‘No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me, draw him.’ ‘Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me except it were given unto him of My Father.’ ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.’ ‘Their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken.’ ‘How can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.’ ‘The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive.’ ‘Why do ye not understand My speech? even because ye cannot hear My word.’ ‘No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.’
According, then, to Scripture, the natural man is entirely incapable of choosing what is good, although it is his duty, and therefore fit that it should be enjoined on him. He is ‘ungodly,’ a ‘sinner,’ an ‘enemy to God,’ and ‘without strength,’ Romans 5:6,10. Men in this state are represented as walking according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; as being under ‘the power of Satan,’ and ‘taken captive by him at his will.’ They are his lawful captives, because they are so voluntarily. From this slavery they cannot be freed but by means of the word of God, the sword of the Spirit, which the Lord employs; granting to those to whom it seemeth good to Him the blessing of regeneration; ‘distributing His gifts, and dividing to every man severally as He will.’ It is God ‘who hath delivered us,’ says the Apostle, ‘from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.’ ‘Who worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.’ ‘If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.’
When God purposes to do good to men, He fulfills to them this gracious promise, ‘I will give them a heart to know Me.’ It was this preparation of heart that David prayed to God to grant to his son Solomon. At the same time, he acknowledged with gratitude that his own willingness to offer to God, of which he was Conscious, and that of his people, were from Him.
After celebrating the praises of Jehovah, David says, ‘But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.
O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of Thy people, and prepare their hearts unto Thee,’ 1 Chronicles 29:10-18.
There is nothing to prevent men from obeying the will of God but their own depraved dispositions, and aversion to the things of God. The natural faculties of men would be sufficient to enable them to do what He commands, if they employ them properly. If they employ them otherwise, the fault rests exclusively with themselves. And as the corruption of our nature does not deprive a man of any of his natural faculties, or of perfect liberty to act conformably to the decision of his own mind, the obligation under which he lies to do right continues in full force. From this we see, first, how justly God punishes men for their crimes, who, unless inclined and enabled by His grace, cannot liberate themselves from the slavery of sin; and further, that the inability of men to obey God, not being natural but moral inability, cannot deprive God of the right to command obedience, under the pain of His most awful displeasure.
On this subject, the distinction between natural and moral inability should always be kept in view. Natural inability consists in a defect in the mind or body, which deprives a man of the power of knowing or doing anything, however desirous he may be of knowing or doing it. Natural inability, then, can never render a man criminal. Moral inability consists in an aversion to anything, so great that the mind, even when acting freely — that is, without any external impulse or constraint — cannot overcome it.
When this aversion exists as to what is good, it is inseparable from blame; and the greater this aversion is, the greater is the criminality. All men are daily accustomed to make these distinctions, and according to this rule they constantly form their opinion of the conduct of others.
In the nature of things, it is impossible that the justice of God can ever demand of reasonable creatures less than perfect obedience. To say that the moral inability of man to obey the law of God destroys or weakens, in the smallest degree, his obligation to obey that law, is to add insult to rebellion. For what is that moral inability? It is, as has been observed, no other than aversion to God, the depraved inclination of the carnal mind, which not only entertains and cherishes enmity against God, but is itself that enmity. And let it not be said that the view the Scriptures give of the natural depravity of men, and of the sovereign and efficacious grace of God, reduces them to the condition of machines. Between men and machines there is this essential difference, and it is enough for us to know that man is a voluntary agent both in the state of nature and of grace. He wills and acts according to his own dispositions, while machines have neither thought nor will. As long, then, as a man’s will is depraved and opposed to God, his conduct will be bad, — he will fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and, on the other hand, when God gives the sinner a new disposition, and a new spirit, his conduct will undergo a corresponding change. ‘The liberty of a moral agent consists in the power of acting conformably to his choice. Every action performed without external constraint, and in pursuance of the determination of the soul itself, is a free action. The soul is determined by motives; but we constantly see the same motives acting diversely on different minds. Many do not act conformably to the motives of which they yet acknowledge all the force.
This failure of the motive proceeds from obstacles opposed by the corruption of the heart and understanding. But God, in giving a new heart and a new spirit, takes away these obstacles; and, in removing them, far from depriving a man of liberty, He removes that which hindered him from acting freely, and from following the light of his conscience, and thus, as the Scriptures express it, makes him free. The will of man, without Divine grace, is not free but enslaved, and willing to be so.’
Is it objected, that if a man be so entirely corrupt that he cannot do what is right, he should not be blamed for doing evil? To this it is sufficient to reply, that if there be any force in the objection, the more a voluntary agent is diabolically wicked, the more innocent he should be considered. A creature is not subject to blame if he is not a voluntary agent; but if he be so, and if his dispositions and his will were absolutely wicked, he would certainly be incapable of doing good, and, according to the above argument, he could not be blamed for doing evil. On this ground the devil must be excused, nay, held perfectly innocent, in his desperate and irreconcilable enmity against God. A consequence so monstrous totally destroys the force of the objection whence it is deduced. But if the objection be still pressed — if any one shall proudly demand, who hath resisted His will?
Why hath He made me thus? — the only proper answer is that of the Apostle, ‘Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?’
Some, indeed, taking a different and the most common view of this matter, deny the innate depravity of their nature, and, in spite of all that the Scriptures declare on this subject, persist in maintaining that they have not an inclination to evil, and are under no moral incapacity to do what is right.
To such persons the same reply should be made as that of our Lord to the ignorant young man who asked Him what he should do to inherit eternal life. ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’ You cannot refuse to admit that this is your duty. You ought to love God with all your heart, and soul, and strength, and in all things constantly to obey Him.
Have you done so? No! Then, on your own principles, you are justly condemned, for you say that you can do what is right, and yet you have not done it. If, then, you will not submit unconditionally, and without reserve, to be saved in the way which the Gospel points out, in which you learn at once your malady and the remedy of which you stand in need, your blood will be upon your own head. ‘Now, you say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.’ The whole, then, resolves itself into this, that all is according to the good pleasure of God. ‘Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit. Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Ye shall know them by their fruits.’ Every man, then, being by nature bad, must be made good before he can do good. In this and the two preceding verses we observe the strong, and expressive, and accumulated terms in which the Apostle describes the alienation of the natural man from God. 1st , He declares that they who walk after the flesh, mind the things of the flesh; 2nd , That the minding of the flesh is death; 3rd , That the carnal mind is enmity against God; 4th , That it is not subject to the law of God; 5th , That so great is the corruption of the carnal mind, that this is impossible.
From the passage before us, we learn how miserable the state of man is by nature, since even his wisdom and intelligence, in his unconverted state, is enmity against God, so that he cannot submit himself to His law. We learn, too, that the ability both to will and to do anything good must be from God. We should adore His compassion and mercy to us, if our natural enmity against Him has been subdued, and we have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. In proportion to the greatness of this compassion, we should place our entire confidence in Him as our covenant God. For if, when we were enmity against Him, He loved us, how much more now that we are reconciled and His children? Romans 5:10. And, since there are still remains of the flesh and enmity against God and His holy law in our minds, we ought to deny ourselves daily, and flee to Him who can and will entirely deliver us from the body of this death.
Ver. 8. — So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
This is the result of what has been said. A man must be born of the Spirit before he can even begin to serve God. How unscriptural and pernicious, then, is that system which teaches men to seek to please God by commencing a religious life, that God may be induced to co-operate with them in their further exertions. If the man who is not born again cannot please God, every act of the sinner before faith must be displeasing to God. An action may be materially good in itself, but unless it proceeds from a right motive — the love of God — and be directed to a right end — his glory — it cannot be acknowledged by God. Before a man’s services can be acceptable, his person must be accepted, as it is said, ‘The Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering. ’ ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God.’ It is by faith we are united to Christ, and so reconciled to God; and till this union and reconciliation take place, there can be no communion with Him. If, then, no man who is in the flesh — that is, in his natural or unconverted state — can please God, how dreadful is the situation of those who do not even profess to be renewed in the spirit of their mind! How many are there who discard the idea of regeneration!
However specious may be the works of such persons in the eyes of men, they cannot please God; and not pleasing God, they must abide the condemnation that awaits all His enemies.
Ver. 9. — But we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God and dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.
In the preceding verses the Apostle had given a description of carnal and spiritual mindedness. Here he applies what he had said to those whom he was addressing. Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. — As the flesh is here taken for the nature of man corrupted by sin, so to be in the flesh signifies to be in a state of natural corruption. On the other hand, to be in the spirit signifies to be in a state of grace or regeneration, John 3:6.
Flesh is a principle that attaches to the earth, and the things of the earth; but the spirit of regeneration is as a light, which, coming from heaven, elevates the mind to those things that are celestial. As to the understanding, the man in the flesh, or the carnal man, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness Unto him; but he who is in the spirit, or spiritual, knows and approves the will of God, having ‘the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God,’ ‘the eyes of his understanding being enlightened.’ The will of the carnal man is such that the imagination of his thoughts are only evil continually; but he who is spiritual his conscience purged from dead works to serve the living God.
The affections of him who is carnal are enmity against God, and in rebellion against His law; but the spiritual man delights in the law of God, and loves His commandments. The former considers the things of the world as his sovereign good; the latter seeks the things that are above at the right hand of God.
Not being in the flesh, but in the spirit, was the state of all in the church at Rome. All belonging to it were, as far as man could judge, ‘saints,’ ch. 1:7, the regenerated children of God. The Apostle was persuaded that they were all ‘his brethren’ in Christ, ‘full of goodness,’ ch. 15:14. It was meet for him to think this of them all, Philippians 1:7. They were not then in the corrupt state of nature, but in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, renewed by the Spirit of God. How different at that period was the church at Rome from that apostate body which now usurps its name! Nor only are natural or carnal men recognized as its members, but, like the temples of heathenish, it is filled with abominations and filthiness. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. — The Apostle, in order to confirm those to whom he wrote in the assurance of their happy condition, now calls their attention to the evidence of being in a converted state, namely, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. ‘Hereby we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit,’ John 4:13. This indwelling of the Spirit is a sure evidence of a renewed state; and believers should be careful not to grieve the Spirit, and should labor to enjoy a constant sense of His presence in their hearts.
In this verse the word spirit in the first occurrence imports the gift and grace of regeneration. In the 2nd and 3rd it denotes the Author of that gift, namely, the Holy Spirit, who is Jehovah, a person in the self existent Godhead; equal with the Father and the Son in every attribute. He is called the Spirit, as being the breather or inspirer of spiritual life. Everything done by Him in this character tends to holiness, and therefore He is so often called the Holy Spirit. It is His Divine office to apply the salvation of Jesus, and to make it effectual. He does all in the heirs of promise. The Father gave them to the Son, the Son redeemed them, but they are in the common mass of corruption, dead in trespasses and sins, till the Spirit of life opens their hearts to receive Him, enters into them, unites them by faith to the Savior, and makes them the subjects of a new birth. Of the Holy Spirit it is said, 1 Corinthians 3:16, ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?’ If it be asked how the Holy Spirit, who is co-essential with the Father and the Son, and consequently infinite, can dwell in believers, the answer is, that though everywhere present, He is said nevertheless to dwell in them on account of His operation and the grace of regeneration, which He produces. It is the Holy Spirit who unites them to Christ the Lord. It is He who quickens and regenerates them, on account of which regeneration is called he ‘renewing of the Holy Ghost.’ He it is who leads, rules, and governs them, as it is said in the 14th verse, that as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. What this expression, ‘dwell in you,’ imports is, that being united to Jesus Christ and regenerated, the Holy Spirit dwells in His people not as inactive, but operates in them continually, and leads and governs them. In the indwelling, then, of the Holy Spirit, is included His gracious and continuing presence, and His operations in the soul. The effects of these are illumination, sanctification, supplication, and consolation. Of the Holy Spirit, one of the early Christian writers says, ‘He is the author of regeneration, the pledge of the promised inheritance, and, as it were, the handwriting of eternal salvation; who makes us the temple of God and His house, who intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, acting as our advocate and defender, dwelling in our bodies, and sanctifying them for immortality. He it is who fights against the flesh, hence the flesh fights against the Spirit.’
It is Jesus Christ who gives to His people the Holy Spirit. ‘It is expedient for you,’ He says, ‘that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.’ At the ancient Pentecost, God gave the law to the people of Israel fifty days after the institution of the Passover. Jesus Christ, as being the body and truth of the typical ordinances, having chosen to suffer at the feast of the Passover, was pleased also to send forth the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, who by His power accomplishes in the hearts of believers what the law outwardly required; for the law was a letter written in stone, and therefore in itself without efficacy; but the Holy Spirit is that internal power which He puts within them and writes on their hearts. As, then, in the ancient Pentecost, God had given the law inscribed in tables of stone, so on the Christian Pentecost, Jesus Christ, by the power of His Spirit, writes it in their hearts. ‘Ye’ says the Apostle, ‘are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.’ And why do we so often read in the New Testament of the contrast between the spirit and the letter, but to teach us that we have in the Christian Pentecost, by the Spirit of Christ, the truth and effect which the law in vain required from sinners. Now, or rather, But, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. — Here is a necessary reservation. If the Spirit of God did not really dwell in any of those whom the Apostle addressed, they were still in the flesh, notwithstanding all their profession, and all their present appearances, and his persuasion respecting them. And no doubt some will be found to have escaped for a time the pollutions of the world, who may afterwards show that they were never renewed in heart. Many ridicule the pretensions of those who speak of the Holy Spirit as dwelling in believers; yet if the Spirit of God dwell not in any, they are still in the flesh; that is, they are enemies to God.
The same Spirit that is called the Spirit of God in the preceding part of the sentence, is in this latter part called the Spirit of Christ, because Christ having, by virtue of His sacrifice, obtained the Spirit for His people, sends Him into their hearts, John 16:7. Christ, then, who sends the Holy Spirit, must be God. Every Christian has the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him. When Christ takes possession of any man as His, He puts His Holy Spirit within him. Without the presence of His Spirit, we can have no interest in Christ.
Ver. 10. — And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
The Apostle having affirmed in the 2nd verse that the law of the Spirit of life had made him free from the law of sin and death, and having declared in the 3rd and 4th verses in what manner we are freed from the law as the law of sin, it remained for him to show how we are freed from it as the law of death. This he accordingly does here, and in the following verse. In the 7th and 8th verses, he had confirmed his declaration in the 6th, that to be carnally minded is death. He now illustrates the opposite declaration, that to be spiritually minded is life. He admits, however, that notwithstanding the believer’s communion with Christ, the body is dead; but to this he opposes the double consolation of the eternal life of our souls on account of the righteousness of Christ, and, in the next verse, the resurrection of our bodies through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
There is in this verse a triple opposition: first, of the body to the soul; second, of a state of death to a state of life; third, of sin to righteousness.
It was necessary to remove the objection replied to in this verse, especially as the Apostle had said that to those who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. Whence, then, it might be asked, does it happen that we who are in Him are still subject to death like other men? He answers, If Jesus Christ be in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. In what follows, he abundantly shows that the temporary sufferings of believers, among which is the death of the body, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in them; and that in the meantime all things that happen to them are working for their good. The term body is, in this verse, to be taken, as is evident from the following verse, in its literal signification; and by the spirit, as opposed to it, is meant the soul, as in the 16th verse, where our spirit is distinguished from the Holy Spirit.
And, or rather, But, if Christ be in you. — The Apostle had just affirmed that if any man have not the, Spirit of Christ, he is none of His; but if He be in us, then the consequences here stated follow. Jesus Christ, in regard to His Divine nature, is everywhere present; but He is in a special manner in believers, as it is said, Ephesians 3:17, ‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.’ This indwelling of Christ signifies two things, namely, the close and intimate union we have with Him, and His operation in us. As the Scriptures declare that Jesus Christ is in us, so they also assure us that we are in Him, ch. <450801> 8:1; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 1:27. And thus we dwell in Him and He in us, John 6:56. This union with Jesus Christ is necessary, in order that He should work in us. For He works only in His members; so that, for this purpose, we must be first incorporated in Him, John 15:4. By this union we participate in His grace; because, as we are in Him and He in us, we have all things with Him in common. Our sins are reputed His sins, and His righteousness ours. He that persecutes His people persecutes Him; he that touches them touches the apple of His eye. And as in this life they partake of His grace, so in the life to come they shall participate in His glory. The body is dead — Notwithstanding our union with Jesus Christ, our bodies are dead. The Scriptures speak of three kinds of death: one is in this life, the other at the end of this life, and the third after this life. The first is spiritual death, Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13. Natural death takes place at the separation of the soul from the body; and after this life is the second, or eternal death, which consists in everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. It is only of the second or natural death that the Apostle here speaks, for believers are delivered from the first and the third. He says the body is dead, to show that it is the lowest part of man that for a time is affected by death, as it is said, ‘Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was,’ Ecclesiastes 12:7. Because of sin. — Men die for the sin of Adam. ‘By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin’ and God said, ‘In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ But why do believers die, since death is the punishment of sin, and as to them God hath remitted this punishment? for the Apostle shows, chapter 4, that their sins are not imputed to them; in chapter 6, that they are dead to sin; and in the beginning of the chapter before us, that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ, too, has made complete satisfaction for the punishment of their sins, sin having been condemned in His flesh. The Apostle also says, ‘Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us;’ but death is among the curses of the law. We must then distinguish between death considered in itself, and in its nature, and as having changed its nature in Jesus Christ our Lord. In itself, death is the punishment of sin and the curse of the law, and it is such to the wicked and unbelievers. But, by the work of Christ, it is to His people no more a punishment of sin, but the destruction of sin. It is no more the curse of the law, but is changed into a blessing, and has become the passage to eternal life, and the entrance into the heavenly paradise.
The death of believers does not, then, in the least degree derogate from the complete satisfaction of Jesus Christ, and the perfect redemption from the curse of the law, since their death is not a punishment of sin in vindictive justice, as all the afflictions of this life as well as death are to the enemies of God. But by Jesus Christ, in respect to those whom the Father hath given to Him, and who are united to Him, God acts in mercy, and afflictions and death are only chastisements from His fatherly hand — trials of their faith, and salutary discipline, as the Apostle in this chapter declares that all things work together for good; and in the First Epistle, to the Corinthians 3:22, that all things are theirs, whether life or death, God has established another covenant, which is that of grace, according to which those who partake in the death of Christ, by which that sentence was, as to them, carried into full execution, must indeed die; but death to them is swallowed up in victory; and instead of the day of their death being a day of punishment of sin, it is a day of triumph over death. The death of the body is as to them the preparation for its immortality and in corruption, as the seed deposited in the earth passes in such a way through death as to overcome it, and revives and fructifies, so that when in the earth it is not lost. In like manner the bodies of believers do not perish by death, but derive from the grave what is contrary to its natural character. They are sown in corruption, but they are to rise in corruption.
They are sown in weakness, but they are to rise in power. They are sown in dishonor, but they are to rise in glory. They are sown natural bodies, but they are to rise spiritual bodies. And as to the soul, death indeed separates it from the body, but transmits it to God. It is evident, then, that such a death is not a punishment of sin, or a curse of the law. Its end and use to the regenerate, as to their bodies, is to extirpate and destroy the sin that remains in them: they must die in order to be purified. The infusion of that moral poison has so corrupted our bodies, that, like the leprous house, they must be taken down and renewed, to be purified from sin. As the grain is not quickened except it die, in the same way our bodies die and molder in the dust, to be revived and reconstructed in holiness.
If it be said that God, without dooming His people to die, could have changed them in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, as He will do with respect to those who shall survive to the day of His coming, it should be considered that the wisdom of God hath judged it proper that the believer should be subjected to the death of the body. This tends to lead him to hold sin in abhorrence whence death proceeds. He also sees in death the goodness and the severity of God, and by it and his other afflictions he may judge what will be the end of those whom God punishes in His anger.
He may observe in it the goodness of God to him in depriving it of its sting, and ordering it so that he may more fully taste the sweetness of a lasting and immortal life. Such discipline, too, tends to humble the believer, by which also his graces, given to him by God, are increased, and the power of the Lord made manifest in his weakness. Finally, believers die, that in their death they may be conformed to Jesus Christ; for it He died, shall they, who are His members, be exempt from this lot? and if He must in that way enter into His glory, shall they, who are His members, enter by any other way? And this assuredly is a great consolation, that in dying we follow Jesus Christ, our Head, who hath gone before us.
The eye of nature, which loves its preservation, regards death with fear, in which it sees its destruction. The eye of the flesh, which is enmity against God, regards it with still greater dread, perceiving in it the summons to stand before the tribunal of God. But the believer, by the eye of faith, discovers in death what dissipates the fears of nature, and repels the despair of the flesh. To nature, which apprehends its destruction, faith opposes the weakness of death, which cannot prevent the resurrection; and to the condemnation which the flesh apprehends, opposes that life which it discovers under the mask of death. It sees that, though its appearance be terrific, yet in Christ it has lost its sting. It is like the phantom walking on the sea which approached to the terrified disciples, but it was Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior. If unknown evils that may happen in death be apprehended, the believer remembers that the very hairs of his head are all numbered. Jesus, who is with him he knows will not abandon him. He will not permit him to be tempted above what he is able to bear, for ‘precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.’
The nature, then, of death, is changed to believers by Jesus Christ, so that ‘the day of their death is better than the day of their birth.’ Death to them is no more a curse, but a blessing, which puts an end to their sins and troubles, causing them to pass to perfect holiness and happiness, and from being absent from the Lord to carry them into His presence in paradise.
From being strangers on the earth, it introduces them into their heavenly inheritance. From their wanderings and agitations here below, it brings them into the haven of everlasting rest. If the children of Israel, when they arrived at the river Jordan, were dismayed at the over flowings of its waters, had they not reason to rejoice when they beheld on the other side that fertile land which God had promised them, and into which they were about to enter to enjoy its fruits? But, above all, had they not cause of encouragement when they saw that the ark of the covenant was in the midst of Jordan? Death is the passage of Jordan by which believers enter the heavenly Canaan. In order that its waves may not overwhelm them in passing, Jesus Christ arrests them, since He is in His people, and consequently with them. This was David’s support, ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me.’ When the devouring lion roars around His people, ready to destroy them, Jesus Himself is still nearer to defend them; and He commands His angels to encamp about them, who have in charge to bear their spirits to the paradise of God. But the spirit is life. — To the fact that the body is dead, the Apostle here opposes, as a ground of comfort, the consideration that our souls are life.
The life here spoken of is the life of God in the soul; it is the new and eternal life which His Spirit communicates in regeneration. The souls of believers are possessed of this spiritual life, of which the Scriptures inform us when they say that God hath ‘quickened us together with Christ.’ ‘Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life.’ It is life, and eternal life, already possessed, and the commencement of that glorious life which shall be enjoyed in heaven. It is the blessing which the Lord commands, ‘even Life for evermore.’ This life, which, being borne down by so many encumbrances here, is still feeble, and but imperfectly enjoyed, shall, in the world to come, flourish in full vigor, and without any abatement. It is the life of our Lord and Savior, subsisting in Him, and derived from Him. In Him, His people shall rise and live, and live for ever.
He Himself hath said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth, and believeth in Me, shall never die.’
In the verse before us we have a remarkable example of the accuracy with which the Scriptures are written. The Apostle does not say that the body is dead, and the spirit alive or living; or that the body is death, and the spirit life. Either of these would have formed the natural contrast; but neither would have conveyed the important sense of this passage, but, on the contrary, a false one. He says the body is dead, and the spirit is life.
The body is not death, that is, in a state of everlasting death; it is only dead, and shall live again. On the other hand, the spirit is not merely said to be alive, which it might be although under sentence of death, afterwards to be inflicted; but it is life in the sense of that declaration of our Lord, ‘He that hath the Son hath life.’ The body is dead on account of Sin; that is, the body is not only mortal, but may, in some sense, be said to be already dead, being under sentence of death, and in constant progress towards dissolution. It remains with its infirmities unaltered. There is no difference between the body of the wicked man and the body of the believer. Every one may perceive a difference in their minds. The believer’s body is dead because of sin, according to the original sentence, ‘Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.’ But the spirit is life — possessed of life eternal, in virtue of its union with Him who is ‘the life.’ Became of righteousness. — Here a great difficulty is removed; for it may be said, If our bodies are dead because of sin, how is it that our souls are life, since they are stained with sin, and that it is on account of their sinfulness that our bodies are infected with the same malady? The Apostle, in answer, brings into view the righteousness of Him who is in us, and shows that it is on account of His righteousness that our souls are life. And this necessarily follows; for if we have such union with our Lord and Savior, that we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones, that we are His members, and if He and we are one; His righteousness must be ours; for where there is one body, there is one righteousness. On the other hand, through the same union our sins have been transferred to Him, as is said by the Prophet Isaiah, ‘The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all.’ And the Apostle Peter says that He ‘bore our sins in His own body on the tree;’ He bore their punishment. ‘He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.’ An exchange, then, of sin and righteousness has taken place. By imputation He has been made sin, and by imputation we also are made righteousness.
Jesus Christ, as being the surety of the new covenant, has appeared before God for us, and consequently His righteousness is ours.
In the verse before us we have an undeniable proof of the imputation to us of righteousness, for otherwise it would be a manifest contradiction to say that we die on account of our sins, and that we have life on account of our righteousness; for what is sin but the opposite of righteousness? Whoever, then, dies on account of the sin that is in him, cannot obtain life by his own righteousness. Now, if all men die on account of sin, as the Apostle here teaches, then no man can have life be his own righteousness.
Ver. 11. — But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.
The Apostle here obviates a difficulty which might present itself from what he had said in the preceding verse, of the bodies of believers being dead though their souls have life. He now assures them that, if the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in them, God will also raise up their bodies, though at present mortal. Thus he sets before them, first, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and next their own resurrection, as being His members; for he deduces their resurrection from His resurrection. Their Head has conquered death and the grave, and with Him they shall overcome. Their freedom, then, from death he rests on the same foundation on which he had already shown that their freedom from sin was secured — on Jesus Christ, the surety of God’s gracious covenant.
The Apostle elsewhere proves the resurrection of the bodies of believers, by comparing Jesus Christ with Adam, saying, ‘As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,’ 1 Corinthians 15:22; showing that if we do not rise by virtue of Jesus Christ our Lord, Christ would be inferior to Adam. For could the sin and death of Adam have more power to subject those who were in Him to death, than the righteousness and resurrection of Jesus Christ to deliver those who are in Him from death? The Apostle also declares that Jesus Christ, having risen from the dead, has become the first fruits of them that slept, and adds, ‘Every man in his own order; Christ the first fruits, afterwards the that are Christ’s at His corning.’ This he does for the purpose of showing that, as the first fruits of the ground precede the harvest, so the first fruits of the resurrection of Christ will be followed by that great harvest, in which the bodies of believers sown in the earth, after having died like grain cast into it, shall be revived and raised up. The life which has been communicated to our souls will, at the glorious resurrection, be also communicated to our bodies. All men will then arise, but not in glory, as all will not arise in virtue of the resurrection of our Lord. The wicked shall arise by the power of their Judge, to receive in their body the punishment of their sins, and to suffer ‘the second death;’ but believers, in virtue of the resurrection, and by the Spirit of Jesus Christ as their Head. For that Spirit which has been communicated to them from Jesus Christ, as from the head to the members, and who hath made their bodies His temples on earth, will raise them from the dust, and will perfect His work in them. Believers, then, may defy the grave, and glory over death, being assured of this resurrection. From the guilt of sin they have been delivered, it being ‘condemned’ in Christ — punished in His death; from the power of death they are released by His resurrection. On Jesus Christ, then, the sure foundation, is the whole of our salvation built.
In Him God is well pleased; through Him the Holy Spirit is vouchsafed.
Christ is the Alpha and the Omega; He is the ‘All in All.’ Quicken your mortal bodies. — From this it appears that, as to their substance, the bodies of believers will in their resurrection be the same as those that died. ‘Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God,’ Job 19:26. ‘Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead,’ Isaiah 26:19. The soul of each man will be reunited to his own body in which he has done good or evil. For as the body is the organ of the soul in this world, so it must participate in the felicity or punishment that shall follow, whether the whole man has remained under the law, or has been received into the covenant of grace. But as to the qualities of the bodies of believers, these will be different from what they were here, as the Apostle teaches, 1 Corinthians 15:50. For as in this world they have borne the image of the first man, who was of the earth earthy; so, in the resurrection, when this corruptible shall put on in corruption, they shalt bear the image of the second man, who is heavenly; the bodies of their humiliation being fashioned like unto the glorious body of the Son of God, Philippians 3:21, not only in having a perfect beauty, exempt from all maladies, but as being spiritual, adapted to their spiritual and heavenly state. And as, when Jesus was transfigured, His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as light, so the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. From all this we may judge what will be the condition of the soul, and what its glory conformable to so glorious a body. We see also what is the death of believers, which is only a sleep, since it is to be followed by such a resurrection. Inasmuch as this mystery of the resurrection exceeds our reason, so is it clearly represented to us in Scripture. f40 By the Spirit that dwelleth in you. — The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who communicates life to those who are habitations of God through Him, is here set before believers as a pledge that their bodies shall not remain under the power of death. This indwelling, which renders their resurrection certain, imports His love, His government, the operation of His grace, and His care to adorn and to beautify the temple in which He resides; and the end of it is to confer everlasting life, everlasting purity, and everlasting communion with Himself. It would be derogatory to the majesty and glory of the blessed Spirit to allow those bodies, in which He dwelt as His temple, to lie for ever in ruins in the dust. And God, who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, will raise up the bodies of His people in virtue of that blood, which purchased not only the redemption of their souls, but also of their bodies, verse 23. The power and efficacy of the three glorious persons of the Godhead are thus brought into view as securing the complete re-establishment of the bodies of believers, which, though at present mortal, shall hereafter partake in all the glories and blessedness of eternal life.
This concurrence of the power of the Godhead in the plan of redemption, in which the Father provides for our salvation, the Son merits it, and the Holy Spirit applies it, is established in a multitude of passages of the Holy Scriptures. In this economy the Father occupies the place of the founder of the Church, the sovereign of the world, the protector and avenger of His laws, and the first director of the work of our salvation. The Son has become the Mediator between God and man, to do everything necessary for our redemption, while the Holy Spirit has assumed the office of the comforter and sanctifier of the Church. The first preparation for our salvation is found in what the Father has done, namely, in the plan which He has formed, in the election of His people, and His giving them to His Son; in the appointment of the sacrifice, in the transfer of our sins to Him who has suffered, and in respect to the satisfaction He has received. The second step is seen in what the Son has merited and effected in coming into the world, by His obedience, His death, and resurrection. The third discovers the Holy Spirit making actual application of the whole, uniting us to the Savior, producing in us faith and sanctification, diffusing in our hearts the sentiment of our peace with God in our justification, causing us to persevere to the end, and raising us up again, as He will do, at the last day. In this Divine economy the Son has received His mission from the Father to come into the world. On this account He so often refers His first advent to His being sent by the Father to take on Himself the office of the Prophet, the Priest, and the King of His Church. To this inequality of office such passages as the following ought to be referred: ‘— my Father is greater than I,’ John 14:28; and that in 1 Corinthians 15:28, where it is said, ‘Then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him;’ thus terminating His mediatorial office in delivering up the kingdom by an act of humiliation, in the same way as He had entered upon it. For in neither of these texts is any personal inequality spoken of between the Father and Son, but an inequality of office according to which the Father is greater than the Son, and the Son inferior to the Father.
The resurrection of Christ, in the passage before us, is ascribed to the Father and the Holy Spirit; but in other places this is also ascribed to the Son Himself. The Father, and the Holy Spirit, and the Son, then, must be one God. It is only those in whom the Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead dwells, who shall have their mortal bodies thus quickened, so as to rise again in glory. Christ, indeed, will also raise His enemies, but His own people will be made alive — which is never said of the wicked — to live with Him in glory for ever.