Romans Commentary

Ver. 18. — For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

The Apostle had been reminding those to whom he wrote, that their sufferings with Christ is the way appointed by God to bring them to glory. Here he encourages them to endure affliction, because there is no comparison between their present sufferings and their future glory. In order to encourage the Israelites to sustain the difficulties that presented themselves to their entry into Canaan, God sent them of the fruits of the land while they were still in the desert. Our blessed Lord, too, permitted some of His disciples to witness His transfiguration, when His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as light. This was calculated to inspire them with an ardent desire to behold that heavenly glory, of which, on that occasion, they had a transient glimpse, and to render them more patient in sustaining the troubles they were about to encounter. In the same manner God acts towards His people when they suffer in this world. He sends them of the fruits of the heavenly Canaan, and allowing them to enjoy a measure of that peace which passeth all understanding, He favors them with some foretastes of the glory to be revealed.

The first testimony to the truth that the, Apostle is here declaring is his own. I reckon. — Paul was better qualified to judge in this matter than any other man, both as having endured the greatest sufferings, and as having been favored with a sight of the glory of heaven. His sufferings, Corinthians 4:9; 2 Corinthians 11:23, appear not to have been inferior to those that exercised the patience of Job, while his being caught up into the third heaven was peculiar to himself. But, independently of this, we have here the testimony of an inspired Apostle, which must be according to truth, as being immediately communicated by the Holy Ghost. Paul makes use of a word which refers to the casting up of an account, marking accurately the calculation, by comparing one thing with another, so as to arrive at the true result. The sufferings of the present time. — By this we are reminded that the present is a time of suffering, and that this world is to believers as a field of battle. The shortness, too, of the period of suffering is indicated. It is limited to the present life, respecting which man is compared to a flower which cometh forth and is cut down; to a shadow that fleeth and continueth not. ‘His days are swifter than a post; and as the flight of the eagle hastening after its prey.’ It is in the present time exclusively that sufferings are to be endured by the children of God. But if they promise to themselves the enjoyment of ease and carnal prosperity, they miscalculate the times, and confound the present with the future. They forget the many assurances of their Heavenly Father that this is not their rest.

They overlook the example of those who by faith obtained a good report.

Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. David, envying for a moment the prosperity of the wicked, having entered the sanctuary and considered their end, views it in a different light. ‘Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; Thou hast holden me by Thy right hand; Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory.’ ‘In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ ‘Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for Thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety.’

Christians often dwell upon their own sufferings, while they overlook the sufferings of their Lord, to whom they must be conformed. They forget their sins, on account of which they receive chastisement that they may not be condemned with the world, and for which they must also partake of their bitter fruits. But as there is no proportion between what is finite, however great it may be, and what is infinite, so their afflictions here, even were their lives prolonged to any period, and although they had no respite, would bear no proportion to their future glory either in intensity or duration The felicity of that glory is unspeakable, but their afflictions here are not insupportable. They are always accompanied with the compassion and the consolations of God. ‘As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.’ The patriarch Jacob, a fugitive from his father’s house, constrained to pass the night without a covering, with stones only for his pillow, enjoyed a vision excelling all with which he had been before favored. This is recorded to show that the believer, in his tribulation, often experiences more joy and peace than in his prosperity. ‘Thus saith the Lord God, although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.’ God never permits the sufferings of His people to be extreme. The glory that shall be revealed. — While the sufferings of believers here are only temporary, the glory which is to be revealed is eternal. Though yet concealed, it is already in existence, its discovery only is future. Now it is veiled from us in heaven, but ere long it shall be revealed. God is a source of ineffable light, joy, knowledge, power, and goodness. He is the sovereign good, and will communicate Himself to them that behold Him, in a way that is incomprehensible. In us. — The glory here spoken of is that to which the Apostle John refers, when he says that we shall see the Lord as He is, and that we shall be made like Him. If the rays of the sun illuminate the darkness on which they shine, what will be that light which the Sun of Righteousness will produce in the children of Him who is the Father of Lights! If the face of Moses shone, when, amidst the terrors of the law, he talked with God, what shall their condition be who shall behold Him, not on the mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, but in the heaven of heavens; not amidst thunderings and lightnings, but amidst the express testimonies of His favor and blessing They shall appear in the sanctuary of the Lord, and discern plainly the mysteries of the wisdom of God.

They shall behold not the ark and the propitiatory, but the things in the heavens which these were made to represent. They shall see as they are seen, and know as they are known. To the enjoyment of this glory after the persecutions and troubles of this life, the Bridegroom is represented as calling His Church. ‘Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.’ As there is no proportion between finite and infinite, so no comparison can be made between the things that are seen and temporal, and the things that are unseen and eternal — between our light afflictions which are but for a moment, and that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that shall be revealed in us. Such is the consolation which the Apostle here presents to the children of God.

Ver. 19-22. — For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God (for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same), in hope that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

In the 18th verse, the Apostle, for the comfort of believers, had declared that there is reserved for them a weight of glory to which their sufferings while in this world bear no comparison. To the same purpose he now refers to the existing state and future destination of the visible creation. In thus appealing to a double testimony — the one the voice of grace uttered by himself, the other the voice of universal nature, which speaks the same language — he encourages the children of God to endure with patience their present trials.

In the verses before us, Paul, by an example of personification common in the Scriptures, which consists in attributing human affections to things inanimate or unintelligent, calls the attention of believers to the fact that the whole creation is in a state of suffering and degradation; and that, wearied with the vanity to which it has been reduced, it is earnestly looking for deliverance.

That interpretation which, according to Dr. Macknight and Mr. Stuart, applies this expectation to mankind in general, is contrary to fact. Men in general are not looking for a glorious deliverance, nor is it a fact that they will obtain it; but it is a fact that there will be new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. All that Mr. Stuart alleges against this is easily obviated. Most of it applies to passages that have been injudiciously appealed to on the subject, which do not bear the conclusion.

But if the earth, after being burnt up, shall be restored in glory, there is a just foundation for the figurative expectation. In order to understand these verses, it is necessary to ascertain the import, — 1st , of the term creation, or creature; 2nd , of that of the vanity to which it is subjected; 3rd , of that deliverance which it shall experience. Creature. — The word in the original, which is translated in the 19th, 20th, and 21st verses, creature, and in the 22nd, creation, can have no reference to the fallen angels, for they do not desire the manifestation of the children of God; this they dread, and, looking forward to it, tremble.

Neither can it refer to the elect angels, of whom it cannot be said that they shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, for to this they were never subjected. It does not apply to men, all of whom are either the children of God or of the wicked one. It cannot refer to the children of God, for they are here expressly distinguished from the creation of which the Apostle speaks; nor can it apply to wicked men, for they have no wish for the manifestation of the sons of God whom they hate, nor will they ever be delivered from the bondage of corruption, but cast into the lake of fire. It remains, then, that the creatures destitute of intelligence, animate and inanimate, the heavens and the earth, the elements, the plants and animals, are here referred to. The Apostle means to say that the creation, which, on account of sin, has, by the sentence of God, been subjected to vanity, shall be rescued from the present degradation under which it groans, and that, according to the hope held out to it, is longing to participate with the sons of God in that freedom from vanity into which it shall at length be introduced, partaking with them in their future and glorious deliverance from all evil. This indeed cannot mean that the plants and animals, as they at present exist, shall be restored; but that the condition of those things which shall belong to the new heavens and the new earth, prepared for the sons of God, shall be delivered from the curse, and restored to a perfect state, as when all things that God had created were pronounced by Him very good, and when, as at the beginning, before sin entered, they shall be fully adapted to the use of man.

As men earnestly desire what is good, and, on the contrary, groan and sigh in their sufferings, the like emotions of joy and sorrow are here ascribed to the inanimate and unintelligent creation. In this way the prophets introduce the earth as groaning, and the animals as crying to God, in sympathy with the condition of man. ‘The land mourneth, for the corn is wasted; the new wine is dried up; the oil languisheth, because joy is withered away from the sons of men! How do the beasts groan! The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee!’ Joel 1:10-20. ‘How long shall the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein?’ Jeremiah 12:4. ‘The earth mourneth and fadeth away; the world languishes and fadeth away; the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled, under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth. The new wine mourneth; the wine languisheth!’ Isaiah. 24:4-7. To the same purpose, Isaiah 13:13, 33:9, 34:4. On the other hand, the Prophet Isaiah, 49:13, predicting a better state of things, exclaims, ‘Sing, O heavens; and be joyful O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains; for the Lord hath comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted!’ And in Psalm 98:4-6, ‘Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth; make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praises! Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof! Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together!’ Thus, in the language of Scripture, the sins of men cause the creation to mourn; but the mercy of God, withdrawing His rebukes, causeth it to rejoice. Vanity. — What is called vanity in the 20th verse, is in the 21st denominated bondage of corruption. When the creation was brought into existence, God bestowed on it His blessing, and pronounced everything that He had made very good. Viewing that admirable palace which He had provided, He appointed man to reign in it, commanding all creation to be subject to him whom He had made in His own image. But when sin entered, then, in a certain sense, it may be said that all things had become evil, and were diverted from their proper end. The creatures by their nature were appointed for the service of the friends of their Creator; but since the entrance of sin they had become subservient to His enemies.

Instead of the sun and the heavens being honored to give light to those who obey God, and the earth to support the righteous, they now minister to rebels. The sun shines upon the wicked, the earth nourishes those who blaspheme their Maker; while its various productions, instead of being employed for the glory of God, are used as instruments of ambition, of avarice, of intemperance, of cruelty, of idolatry, and are often employed for the destruction of His children. All these are subjected to vanity when applied by men for vain purposes. This degradation is a grievance to the works of God, which in themselves have remained in allegiance. They groan under it, but, keeping within their proper limits, hold on their course. Had it been the will of the Creator, after the entrance of sin, the creature might have refused to serve the vices, or even the necessities of man. This is sometimes threatened. In reproving the idolatry of the children of Israel, God speaks as if He intended to withdraw His creatures from their service, in taking them entirely away. ‘Therefore will I return and take away My corn in the time thereof, and My wine in the season thereof, and will recover My wool and My flax given to cover her nakedness,’ Hosea 2:9. And sometimes the creature is represented as reclaiming against the covetousness and wickedness of men. ‘The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it,’ Habakkuk 2:11.

The whole creation, then, groaneth together, and is under bondage on account of the sin of man, and has suffered by it immensely. As to the inanimate creation, in many ways it shows its figurative groaning, and the vanity to which it has been reduced. ‘Cursed is the ground for thy sake; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.’ It produces all noxious weeds, and in many places is entirely barren. It is subject to earthquakes, floods, and storms destructive to human life, and in various respects labors under the curse pronounced upon it. The lower animals have largely shared in the sufferings of man. They are made ‘to be taken and destroyed,’ Peter 2:12, and to devour one another. They have become subservient to the criminal pleasures of man, and are the victims of his oppressive cruelty. Some partake in the labors to which he is subjected; and all of them terminate their short existence by death, the effect of sin. All that belongs to the creation is fading and transitory, and death reigns universally. The heavens and the earth shall wax old like a garment. The earth once perished by water, and now it is reserved unto fire. ‘The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up. The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved.’ The cause of this subjection to vanity is not from their original tendencies, or from any fault in the creatures. They have been so subjected, not willingly, not owing to any natural defect or improper disposition in themselves, but by reason of the sin of man, and in order to his greater punishment. The houses of those who were guilty of rebellion were destroyed, Ezra 6:11; Daniel 2:5, not that there was guilt in the stones or the wood, but in order to inflict the severer punishment on their criminal possessors, and also to testify the greater abhorrence of their crime, in thus visiting them in the things that belonged to them. In the same manner, man, haring been constituted the Lord of the creatures, his punishment has been extended to them. This in a very striking manner demonstrates the hatred of God against sin. For as the leprosy not only defiled the man who was infected with it, but also the house he inhabited, in the same way, sin, which is the spiritual leprosy of man, has not only defiled our bodies and our souls, but, by the just judgment of God, has infected all creation.

In whatever way it may be attempted to be accounted for, it is a fact that the world and all around us is in a suffering and degraded condition. This state of things bears the appearance of being inconsistent with the government of God, all-powerful, wise, and good. The proud skeptic is here completely at a stand. He cannot even conjecture why such a state of things should have had place. With Mr. Hume, the language of every reflecting unbeliever must be, ‘The whole is a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mystery. Doubt, uncertainty, suspense of judgment, appear the only result of our most accurate scrutiny concerning this subject.’ The Book of God alone dispels the darkness, and unveils the mystery.

Here, then, we learn how great is the evil of sin. It has polluted the heavens and the earth and has subjected the whole to vanity and corruption. Evil and misery prevail, and creation itself is compelled to witness the dishonor done to its Author. It would be derogatory to the glory of God to suppose that His works are now in the same condition in which they were at first formed, or that they will always continue as at present. In the meantime, all the creatures are groaning under their degradation, until the moment when God shall remove those obstacles which prevent them from answering their proper ends, and render them incapable of suitably glorifying Him. But the righteous Judge, who subjected them to vanity in consequence of the disobedience of man; has made provision for their final restoration.

The creation, then, is not in that state in which it was originally constituted. A fearful change and disorganization, even in the frame of the natural world, has taken place. The introduction of sin has brought along with it this subjection to vanity and the bondage of corruption, and all that ruin under which nature groans. How miserable is the condition of those who have their portion in this world! Of them it may be truly said, ‘Surely they have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.’ Of those ‘who mind earthly things,’ it is written, their ‘end is destruction.’ ‘The heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.’ Delivered. — Some suppose that the word delivered signifies an entire annihilation, and in support of this opinion allege such passages as Peter 3:10; Revelation 20:11. But as a tendency of all things in nature is to their own preservation, how could the creation be represented as earnestly expecting the manifestation of the sons of God, if that manifestation were to be accompanied with its final ruin and destruction?

Besides, the Apostle promises not merely a future deliverance, but also a glorious future existence. The Scriptures, too, in various places, predict the continued subsistence of the heavens and the earth, as 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1. Respecting the passages quoted above, as importing their annihilation, it ought to be observed that the destruction off the substance of things differs from a change in their qualities. When metal of a certain shape is subjected to fire, it is destroyed as to its figure, but not as to its substance. Thus the heavens and the earth will pass through the fire, but only that they may be purified and come forth anew, more excellent than before. In <19A226> Psalm 102:26, it is said, ‘They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shall Thou change them, and they shall be changed. ’ That the Apostle Peter, when he says that the heavens shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, does not refer to the destruction of their substance, but to their purification, is evident from what he immediately adds, — ’Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness;’ A little before he had said, ‘The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished,’ although its substance remains as at the beginning. If, then, the punishment of sin has extended to the creatures, in bringing them under the bondage of corruption, so, according to the passage before us, that grace which reigns above sin, will also be extended to their deliverance. And, as the punishment of the sins of men is so much the greater as their effects extend to the creatures, in like manner so much the greater will be the glory that shall be revealed in them, that the creatures which were formed for their use shall be made to participate with them in the day of the restitution of all things. Through the goodness of God they shall follow the deliverance and final destination of the children of God, and not that of His enemies.

When God created the world, He ‘saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.’ When man transgressed, God viewed it a second time, and said, ‘Cursed is the ground for thy sake.’ When the promise that the Deliverer should come into the world to re-establish peace between God and man was given, the effect of this blessed reconciliation was to extend even to the inanimate and unintelligent creation; and God, it may be said, then viewed His work a third time, and held out the hope of a glorious restoration.

The creature, then, has been subjected to the indignity which it now suffers, in hope that it will one day be delivered from the bondage of corruption, and partake of the glorious freedom of the children of God.

This hope was held out in the sentence pronounced on man, for, in the doom of our first parents, the Divine purpose of providing a deliverer was revealed. We know not the circumstances of this change, how it will be effected, or in what form the creation — those new heavens and that new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, suited for the abode of the sons of God — shall then exist; but we are sure that it shall be worthy of the Divine wisdom, although at present beyond our comprehension. Manifestation of the sons of God. — Believers are even now The sons of God, but the world knows them not, 1 John 3:1. In this respect they are not seen. Their bodies, as well as their spirits, have been purchased by Christ, and they are become His members. Their bodies have, however, no marks of this Divine relation, but, like those of other men, are subject to disease, to death, and corruption. And although they have been regenerated by the Spirit of God, there is still a law in their members warring against the law of their mind. But the period approaches when their souls shall be freed from every remainder of corruption, and their bodies shall be made like unto the glorious body of the Son of God. Then this corruptible shall put on in corruption, and then shall they shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. It is then that they shall be manifested in their true character, illustrious as the sons of God, seated upon thrones, and conspicuous in robes of light and glory.

Ver. 23. — And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

In the four preceding verses, the Apostle had appealed to the state of nature, which, by a striking and beautiful figure, is personified and represented as groaning under the oppression of suffering, through the entrance of sin, and looking forward with ardent expectation, as with outstretched neck, to a future and better dispensation. He now proceeds to call the attention of believers to their own feelings and experience, meaning to say that if the unintelligent creation is longing for the manifestation of the sons of God, how much more earnestly must they themselves long for that glorious event.

Christians who have received the foretastes of everlasting- felicity, sympathize with the groans of nature. They enjoy, indeed, even at present, a blessed freedom. They are delivered from the guilt and dominion of sin, the curse of the law, and a servile spirit in their obedience to God.

Still, however, they have much to suffer while in the world; but they wait for the redemption of their bodies, and the full manifestation of their character as the children of God. Their bodies, as well as their spirits, have been given to Christ. They are equally the fruit of His purchase, and are become His members. But it is not till His people shall have arisen from the grave that they will enjoy all the privileges consequent on His redemption. The first fruits of the Spirit. — These are love and joy in the Holy Ghost, peace of conscience, and communion with God. They are the graces of the Spirit conferred on believers, called first fruits, because, as the first fruits of the fields were offered to God under the law, so these graces redound to God’s glory. And as the first ears of corn were a pledge of an abundant harvest, so these graces are a pledge to believers of their complete felicity, because they are given to them Of God for the confirmation of their hope.

They are a pledge, because the same love and grace that moved their Heavenly Father to impart these beginnings of their salvation will move Him to perfect the good work. These first fruits, then, are the foretastes of heaven, or the earnest of the inheritance. This is the most invaluable privilege of the children of God in the present life. It is a joy the world cannot give and cannot take away. The error which would represent these privileges as peculiar to the Apostles and the first Christians, and restrict the fruits of the Spirit to miraculous gifts, ought not for one moment to be admitted. The Apostle is speaking of all the children of God to the end of the world, without excepting even the weakeSt. As the first fruits of the harvest were consecrated to God, so we should be careful not to abuse the gifts of the Spirit of God in us. As the first fruits were to be carried to the house of God, so, as God has communicated to us His grace, we should also go to His house making a public profession of His name. The children of Israel, in offering the first fruits, were commanded to confess their miserable original state, and to recount their experience of the goodness of God, Deuteronomy 26:5. In the same way we should consider the graces of the Holy Spirit in us as the first fruits of the heavenly Canaan which God hath given us, and confess that we were by nature children of wrath, dead in trespasses and sins, and that the Lord, having had compassion on us, has delivered us from the servitude of sin, and the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. Groan within ourselves. — Not only they — the whole creation or every creature — but also believers themselves, will all their advantages, groan.

Even they find it difficult to bear up under the pressure which in their present state weighs them down, while carrying about with them a body of sin and death. Of this groaning the Apostle, as we have seen, ch. 7:24, presents himself as an example, — ’O wretched man that I am;’ and again when he says, ‘We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened,’ 2 Corinthians 5:4. In the same manner David groaned, when he complained that his iniquities were a burden too heavy for him.

Believers groan on account of indwelling sin, of the temptations of Satan and the world, and of the evils that afflict their bodies and souls. They feel that something is always wanting to them in this world. There is nothing but that sovereign good, which can only be found in God, fully able to satisfy their desires. Believers groan within themselves. Their groanings are not such as those of hypocrites, which are only outward; they are from within. They do not always meet the ear of man, but they reach the throne of God. ‘All my desire,’ says David, ‘is before Thee, and my groaning is not hid from Thee,’ Psalm 38:9. These groanings are sighs and prayers to God, which are spoken of in the 26th verse of this chapter, where we learn their efficient cause, which is not flesh and blood. They are fruits of the Spirit, so that by them believes observe in themselves the spirit of regeneration. Waiting for the adoption. — Believers have already been adopted into the family of God, and are His children; but they have not yet been openly declared to be so, nor made in all respects suitable to this character. If they are the sons of God, they must be made glorious, both in soul and body; but till they arrive in heaven, their adoption will not be fully manifested. Adoption may be viewed at three periods. It may be considered in the election of His people, when God decrees their adoption before they are called or united to Jesus Christ; yet they are even then denominated the children of God. In the eleventh chapter of John, where Caiaphas, prophesying of the death of Jesus, says that he should die, not for that nation only, but for all the children of God that were scattered abroad. Under the term children of God were comprehended those who had not yet been called, Acts 18:10. In their calling and regeneration they are adopted into God’s family, being then united to Christ; but as their bodies do not partake in that regeneration, and are not yet conformed to the glorious body of Jesus Christ, they still wait for the entire accomplishment of their adoption, when, at the resurrection, they shall enter on the full possession of the inheritance. Accordingly Jesus denominates that blessed resurrection ‘the regeneration,’ because then not only the souls of believers, but also their bodies, shall bear the heavenly image of the second Adam. Then they shall enter fully into the possession of their inheritance; for in that day Jesus Christ will say to His elect ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ Heaven, into which they will then enter, is an inheritance suitable to the dignity of the sons of God, and for this they are waiting.

The children of God wait for the accomplishment of all that their adoption imports. They wait for it as Jacob did. ‘I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord!’ Genesis 49:18. They wait as the believers at Corinth were waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 1:7; and as all believers who through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, Galatians 5:5. ‘Looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, even our Savior Jesus Christ,’ Titus 2:13.

And as the Thessalonians, who, having been turned from idols to serve the living and true God, waited for His Son from heaven, 1 Thessalonians 1:10; also as is recorded in Hebrews 9:28; James 5:7,8; 2 Peter 3:12. In this manner Paul waited for his crown, 2 Timothy 4:8. It was this waiting for, or expectation of, deliverance from the Lord, that encouraged Noah to build the ark, and Abraham to leave his country, and Moses to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, and the elders who obtained a good report through faith, to seek a better, that is, an heavenly country. It was the expectation of eternal life that sustained those who shed their blood for the testimony of Jesus. The redemption of our body. — That there might be no mistake respecting the meaning of the adoption in this unusual application, the Apostle himself subjoins an explanation — even the redemption of our body, because the body will then be delivered from the grave, as a prisoner when redeemed is delivered from his prison.

But why, it may be asked, does the Apostle here employ the term redemption rather than that of resurrection, which is so common in the New Testament? To this it may be replied, that the Holy Scriptures often make use of this expression to represent a great deliverance, as in <19A702> Psalm 107:2: ‘Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy’ And as in Isaiah 63, where those are spoken of who are redeemed of the Lord from the hand of the enemy. It is evident that Paul employs this expression forcibly to designate the greatest of all deliverances, the highest object of our desires, which is to be the subject of our eternal gratitude. When this term is so used, it commonly denotes two things, — the one, that the deliverance spoken of is effected in a manner glorious and conspicuous, exhibiting the greatest effort of power; the other, that it is a complete deliverance, placing us beyond all danger. On this ground, then, it is evident that no work is better entitled to the appellation of redemption than that of the re-establishment of our bodies, which will be an illustrious effect of the infinite power of God. It is the work of the Lord of nature — of Him who holds in His hands the keys of life and death. His light alone can dispel the darkness of the tomb. It is only His hand that can break its seal and its silence. On this account the Apostle appeals, with an accumulation of terms, to the exceeding greatness of the power of God to upward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, Ephesians 1:19,20.

This last deliverance will be so perfect, that nothing can be more complete, since ‘the children of the resurrection’ shall be restored not to their first life, but to a state which will be one of surpassing glory and never-ending immortality. Death will be swallowed up in victory. Earthly warriors may obtain two sorts of victories over their enemies. One may be called a temporary or partial victory, which causes the enemy to fly, which deprives him of part of his force, but does not prevent him from re-establishing himself; returning to the field of battle, and placing the conqueror in the hazard of losing what he has gained. The other may be termed a complete and decisive victory, which so effectually subdues the hostile power, that it can never regain what it has lost. There are also two sorts of resurrections, one like that of Lazarus, in which death was overcome but not destroyed, since Lazarus died a second time; the other is, that of believers at the last day, when death will not only be overcome, but cast out and for ever exterminated. Both of these may be properly called a resurrection; but to speak with greater force, the second is here called a redemption. Besides, the Apostle, in employing this term, has reference to the redemption which Jesus Christ has effected at the infinite price of His blood. It is true this price was fully paid on the day of His death; yet two things are certain: the one is, that our resurrection will only take place in virtue of the value and imperishable efficacy of that blood, which has acquired for us life and happiness; the other, that the redemption accomplished on the cross and the resurrection are not two different works. They are hut one work, viewed under different aspects, and at different periods; the redemption on the cross being our redemption by price, and the resurrection our redemption by power — a perfect and undivided salvation begun and terminated.

The day, then, of the redemption of our bodies will be the day of the entire accomplishment of our adoption, as then only we shall enter on the complete possession of the children of God. In Jesus Christ our redemption was fully accomplished when He said on the cross, ‘It is finished.’ In us it is accomplished by different degrees. The first degree is in this life; the second, at death; the third, at the resurrection. In this life, the degree of redemption which we obtain is the remission of our sins, our sanctification, and freedom from the law and the slavery of sin. At death, our souls are delivered from all sin, and their sanctification is complete; for the soul, at its departure from the body, is received into the heavenly sanctuary, into which nothing can enter that defileth; and as to the body, death prepares it for in corruption and immortality, for that which we sow is not quickened except it die. It must therefore return to dust, there to leave its corruption, its weakness, its dishonor. Hence it follows that believers should not fear death, since death obtains for them the second degree of their redemption. But as our bodies remain in the dust till the day of our blessed resurrection, that day is called the day of the redemption of our body, as being the last and highest degree of our redemption. Then the body being reunited to the soul, death will be swallowed up in victory; for the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, for till then death will reign over our bodies. But then the children of God shall sing that triumphant song, ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ ‘I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy plague; O grave, I will be thy destruction.’

The elevation of His people to glory on the day of their redemption, will be the last act in the economy of Jesus Christ as Mediator. He will then terminate His reign and the whole work of their salvation. For then He will present the whole Church to the Father, saying, ‘Behold I and the children whom Thou hast given Me.’ Then He will deliver up the kingdom, having nothing further to do in the work of redemption. This will be the rendering of the account by the Son to the Father of the charge committed to Him; and for this reason the Apostle says, ‘When all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all;’ because, as His economy commenced by an act of submission of the Son to the Father, when in entering into the world He said, ‘Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God,’ it will also terminate by a similar act, as the Son will then deliver up the kingdom to Him from whom He received it.

Believers are here said to have received the first fruits of the Spirit, and to be waiting for the redemption of their bodies. In the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle says, ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.’ As this last passage has so much similarity to the one before us, and as they are calculated to throw light on each other, it may be proper in this place to consider its meaning.

The sealing of believers implies that God has marked them by His Spirit to distinguish them from the rest of mankind. Marking His people in this manner as His peculiar property, imports that He loves them as His own; that they are His ‘jewels,’ or peculiar treasure, Malachi 3:17. But the Apostle does not say that believers have been merely marked, but that they have been sealed, which implies much more; for although every seal is a mark, every mark is not a seal. Seals are marks which bear the arms of those to whom they belong, and often their image or resemblance, as the seals of princes. Thus the principal effect of the Holy Spirit is to impress on the hearts of His people the image of the Son of God. As the matter to which the seal is applied contributes nothing to the formation of the character it receives, and only yields to the impression made on it, so the heart is not active, but passive, under the application of this Divine seal, by which we receive the image of God, the characters of which are traced by the Holy Spirit, and depend for their formation entirely on His efficiency. As seals confirm the covenants or promises to which they are affixed, in the same manner this heavenly signet firmly establishes the declaration of the Divine mercy, and makes it irreversible. It confirms to our faith the mysteries of the Gospel, and renders certain to our hope the promises of the covenant. The seal of man, although it alters the form, makes no change on the substance of the matter to which it is applied, and possesses no virtue to render it proper for receiving the impression. But the seal of God changes the matter on which it is impressed, and although naturally hard, renders it impressible, converting a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. The seal of man is speedily withdrawn from the matter it impresses, and the impression gradually becomes faint, till it is at length effaced. But the seal of the Holy Spirit remains in the heart, so that the image it forms can never be obliterated.

The Apostle not only affirms that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, but says that we are sealed unto the day of redemption; that is, this seal is given us in respect of our blessed resurrection; as the pledge of our complete transformation into the likeness of Christ. This Divine seal is that by which the Lord our great Judge will distinguish the righteous from the wicked, raising the one to the resurrection of life, and the other to the resurrection of damnation. It is also the Holy Spirit which forms in us the hope of that future redemption, our souls having no good desire whatever of which He is not the author. These things are certain; but it does not appear to be the principal design of the Apostle to enforce them here. It seems rather to be to teach that the Holy Spirit is to us a seal or assured pledge of the reality of our resurrection, or, as is said, ‘the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.’ Besides this, the Holy Spirit confirms in our souls everything on which the hope of our resurrection depends.

That hope depends on the belief that Jesus Christ has died for our sins, of which the Holy Spirit bears record in our hearts by giving us the answer of a God conscience. It depends on knowing that Jesus Christ has in dying overcome death, and has gloriously risen again to restore to us life which we had forfeited. This is a truth which the Holy Spirit certifies to us, since He is the Spirit of Christ given in virtue of His resurrection. It depends on knowing that Jesus Christ is in heaven, reigning at the right hand of the Father, and that all power is given unto Him, that He may give eternal life to all His people. The Holy Spirit testifies to us this glory since His coming is its fruit and effect. ‘The Holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified;’ and the Savior Himself says that He will send the Comforter, ‘even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father,’ concerning which the Apostle Peter declares, ‘Being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.’ As if he had said that this marvelous effusion of the Holy Spirit is an effect, and consequently an assured proof, of the heavenly glory of Jesus Christ.

Since God gives His Holy Spirit to His children to seal them to the day of redemption, it is evident that His care of them must extend to the blessed consummation to which He purposes to conduct them. He will not withdraw His gracious hand from them, but will bring them to the possession and enjoyment of His glory. ‘The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.’ ‘Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.’

It may be remarked that the Apostle says ‘unto the day of redemption,’ and not simply, to the redemption. This expression, the day of redemption’s leads us to consider the advantage that grace has over nature, and the future world over that which we now inhabit. When God created the universe, He made light and darkness, day and night; and our time consists of their alternate successions. But it will not be so in the second creation, for ‘there shall be no night there.’ It will be one perpetual day of life without death, of holiness without sin, and of joy without grief.

The day here referred to may be viewed in contrast with two other solemn days, both of which are celebrated in the Scriptures. One is the day of Sinai, the other of Pentecost: this is the day of redemption. In the economy of the Father, the first was a day of public and extraordinary grandeur, appointed to display in the most remarkable manner His glory, when God descended with awful majesty amidst blackness, and darkness, and tempest: In the economy of the Holy Ghost, the second was the day when He came as a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, when the Apostles were assembled, and, under the symbol of cloven tongues of fire, rested upon them. In the economy of the Son, there will also be a day of public magnificence, and that will be the day of judgment, when, seated on the throne of His glory, Jesus Christ will come with His mighty angels to judge the quick and the dead. Then calling His elect from the four winds, with the voice of the archangel, He will raise them from the dust, and elevate them to the glory of His kingdom. The first of these days was the day of the publication of the law; the second was the day of the publication of grace; and the third will be the day of the publication of glory. This will be the day of the complete redemption of the children of God, unto which they have been sealed, and of their manifestation in their proper character. It will be the day when their bodies shall come forth from the grave, made like unto the glorious body of the Son of God, by the sovereign efficacy of the application of His blood, and by His infinite power. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Then they shall inherit the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, which they now expect according to the promise, for God will make all things new. Then they shall be with Jesus where He is and shall behold His glory which God hath given Him.

Let those rejoice who are waiting for the Divine Redeemer. Their bodies indeed must be dissolved, and it doth not yet appear what they shall be.

But at that great day they shall be raised up incorruptible, they shall be rendered immortal, and shall dwell in heavenly mansions. And that they may not doubt this, God has already marked them with His Divine seal They have been sealed by the Holy Spirit of God unto the day of the redemption.

Ver. 24. — For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

For we are saved by hope. — According to the original, this phrase may either be translated by hope, or in hope; but from the connection it appears that it ought to be translated, as in the French versions, in hope .

The word salvation, or saved, signifies all the benefits of our redemption, — namely, remission of sins, sanctification, and glorification. ‘The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost.’ In this sense Jesus Christ is called the Savior, because it is by Him that we are justified and sanctified, and glorified. This word has in Scripture sometimes a more limited, and sometimes a more extended, meaning. In particular places salvation is spoken of as already possessed, as where it is said, God has ‘saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.’ Generally it signifies all the benefits of our redemption, when fully possessed by our final admission to glory, as when it is said, ‘He that endureth to the end shall be saved.’ In this verse it is regarded as enjoyed only in hope, — that is to say, in expectancy, since we have not yet been put in possession of the glory of the kingdom of heaven, In order to distinguish the measure of salvation which believers have in possession, and what they have of it in hope, we must consider its gradations. The first of these is their eternal election, of which the Apostle speaks, Ephesians 1:3,4, according to which their names were written in heaven before the creation of the world. The second gradation is their effectual calling, by which God has called them from darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son, so that their souls are already partakers of grace, and their bodies habitations of God through the Spirit, and members of Jesus Christ. Of these gradations of their salvation they are already in possession. But the third gradation, in which sin shall be entirely eradicated from their souls, and their bodies shall be made like to the glorious body of the Lord Jesus Christ, is as yet enjoyed by them only in hope.

The term hope is used in two different senses, — the one proper, and the other figurative. Properly, it means the mixture of expectation and desire of that to which we look forward, so that we are kept students to one object, as where it is said, ‘Hope is the anchor of the soul.’ Figuratively, it signifies that which we hope for, as when God is called our hope — ’Thou art my hope, O Lord God,’ Psalm 71:5; or, ‘Jesus Christ, which is our hope,’ 1 Timothy 1:1; and as when it is said, we give thanks to God ‘for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven,’ Colossians 1:5. The word hope, then, either denotes as in the verse before us, the grace of hope, in reference to the person hoping, or the object of hope, in reference to the thing hoped for.

Hope is so closely allied to faith, that sometimes in Scripture it is taken for faith itself. They are, however, distinct the one from the other. By faith we believe the promises made to us by God; by hope we expect to receive the good things which God has promised; so that faith hath properly for its object the promise, and hope for its object the thing promised, and the execution of the promise. Faith regards its object as present, but hope regards it as future. Faith precedes hope, and is its foundation. We hope for life eternal, because we believe the promises which God has made respecting it; and if we believe these promises, we must expect their effect. Hope looks to eternal life as that which is future in regard to its remoteness; but in regard to its certainty, faith looks to it as a thing that is present. ‘Hope,’ says the Apostle, ‘maketh not ashamed;’ and he declares that ‘we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.’ Thus he ascribes to it the same certainty as to faith; and in the Epistle to the Hebrews he speaks of ‘the full assurance of hope.’ Faith and hope are virtues of this like, which will have no place in the life that is to come. ‘Now abideth faith, hope, and love.’ Faith and hope will cease; and in this respect love is the greatest, as love will abide for ever.

The objects of the believer’s hope are spiritual and heavenly blessings.

They are different from earthly blessings. The men of the world hope for riches and the perishable things of this life; the believer hopes for an inheritance in heaven, that fadeth not away. For this hope Moses gave up the riches and treasures of Egypt. By this hope David distinguishes himself from the ungodly. ‘Deliver me from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly Thou fullest with Thy hid treasure; they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness,’ Psalm 17:13-15. And, contrasting his condition with that of the children of this world, he says, Psalm 73:7, ‘Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish;’ but as to himself, he had been plagued all the day long, and chastened every morning; yet he adds, ‘Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.’ If it should be said by believers, May not we also hope for perishable and temporal blessings? the answer is, that Christian hope is founded on the promises of God, and on them it is rested. The hope which exceeds these promises is carnal and worldly. To know, therefore, what is the object of Christian hope, we must observe what are the promises of God. It is true that godliness has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come; but respecting this life God’s promises are conditional, and to be fulfilled only as He sees their accomplishment to be subservient to His glory and our good; while as to the life that is to come, they are absolute. Are we, then, to expect only ease and happiness in this world, to whom it has been declared that ‘we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God;’ and to whom the Lord Himself says, ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me?’ The people of God should therefore rest their hope on the absolute promises of God, which cannot fail, of blessings that are unperishable, and of a real and permanent felicity.

The foundations and support of Christian hope are firm and certain. First, the word and immutable promise of God; for heaven and earth shall pass away, but His word shall remain for ever. God has promised heaven as the eternal inheritance of His people. Shall they doubt His fidelity? He has said, ‘The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed,’ Isaiah 54:10. He has accompanied His promise with His oath. ‘Willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have ‘died for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,’ Hebrews 6:17. We have, besides, the blood of the Son of God, with which His promise has been sealed; and His obedience even unto death, which He has rendered to His Father, for the foundation of this hope. We have also the intercession of our great High Priest, of whom the Apostle, in establishing the grounds of the assurance of faith and hope, says not only that He is dead, but that He is risen, and at the right hand of God; who also maketh intercession for us. He declares, too, that our hope enters into heaven, where Jesus our forerunner has entered for us. To these foundations of our hope may be added, that it is said, ‘Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession.’ The Apostle calls this hope an anchor of the soul, — representing the believer, in the temptations and assaults to which he is exposed, under the similitude of a ship tossed by the sea, but which has an anchor fixed in the ground, firm and steadfast, which prevents its being driven away by the waves. This hope is not only necessary in adversity, but also in prosperity, in raising our affections to things above, and disengaging them from the world. The good hope through grace tranquilizes the soul. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God,’ Psalm 43:5. This hope consoles us in life and in death. It softens the bitterness of affliction, supports the soul in adversity, and in prosperity raises the affections to heavenly objects. It promotes our sanctification; for he who hath this hope of beholding Jesus as He is, purifieth himself even as He is pure, 1 John 3:3. It assures us that, if Jesus died and rose again, them all who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. Let believers renounce their vain hopes of happiness in this world. Here they are strangers and pilgrims, and absent from the Lord. Let them hope for His presence, and communion with Him in glory. ‘Now,’ says the Apostle, ‘the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.’

Christian hope is a virtue produced by the Holy Spirit, in which, through His power, we should abound, and by which, resting on the promises of God in Jesus Christ, we expect our complete salvation. This hope is a part of our spiritual armor against principalities and powers, and spiritual! wickedness, with which we have to wrestle. We are commanded to put on ‘for an helmet the hope of salvation,’ 1 Thessalonians 5:8.

In the preceding verse the Apostle had said, ‘We wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.’ Here he gives it as a reason of our waiting, that as yet we are saved only in hope. As far as the price of redemption is concerned, we are already saved; but in respect to the power by which we shall be put in possession of that for which the price has been paid, namely, our deliverance from the remainder of sin under which we groan, the resurrection of our bodies, and the enjoyment of the eternal inheritance, we are saved only in hope. The hope of all this is present with us, but the enjoyment is future. Hope that is seen is not hope. — That is, hope cannot respect anything which we already enjoy. For it is impossible, as the Apostle subjoins, for a man to hope for that which he possesses. Hope and possession are ideas altogether incongruous and contradictory.

Believers, then, are as yet saved only in hope. They have received but the earnest and foretaste of their salvation. They groan under the weight which is borne by them, and their bodies are subject to the sentence of temporal death. If they were in the full possession of their salvation, faith would no longer be the conviction of things hoped for, as things hoped for are not things enjoyed. This corresponds with what the Apostle says elsewhere, when he exhorts believers to work out their salvation, and when he remarks that our elevation is nearer than when we first believed. When it is said we are saved in hope, as it supposes our felicity to be future, so it implies that all the good we can for the present enjoy of that distant and future felicity is obtained by hoping for it; and, therefore, if we could not hope for it, we should lose all the encouragement we have in the prospect.

Ver. 25. — But; if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Hope produces patience with respect to all the, trials, and labors, and difficulties that must be encountered before we obtain its object. Since we hope for what we see not, — that is, for what we possess not, — there must consequently be a virtue by which, being held firm, we wait for it, and that is patience. For between hope and enjoyment of the thing hoped for a delay intervenes, and there are many temptations within, and afflictions from without, by which hope would be turned into despair, if it were not supported by patience. As long as hope prevails, the combat will not be given up. In the 23rd verse, believers are said to be waiting for the adoption; here the inducement to their waiting, and patiently waiting, is stated, — it is their hope supported by patience. Patiently bearing their present burden, and waiting for heaven, implies their expectation that it is reserved for them. They have been begotten again to a lively hope of possessing it by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which is a sure pledge of the redemption of their bodies from the grave. This verse and the preceding teach the importance of hope to believers, and of their obeying the exhortation to give all diligence to the full assurance of hope.

The hope of beholding Jesus as he is, and of obtaining ‘a better resurrection,’ is calculated to enable them patiently to sustain the sufferings of the present time. This hope is represented as encouraging the Lord Himself, ‘who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,’ Hebrews 12:2.

Ver. 26. — Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Believers have need of patience, that, after they have done the will of God, they may receive the promise; but their patience is not perfect as it ought to be, and they are often ready to cast away their confidence, although it hath great recompense of reward. For their support, then, in their warfare, which is attended with so much difficulty, the Apostle presents a variety of considerations. He had reminded them, in the 17th verse, of their communion with Jesus Christ, and that, if they suffer with Him, they shall with Him also be glorified. In the 18th verse, he had told them that their sufferings bear no proportion to that glory of which they shall be made partakers. He had next drawn an argument, from the present state of creation, suffering, but waiting for and expecting its deliverance, and the manifestation of the sons of God; and reminding them of the pledges they had already received of that glorious manifestation, he had spoken of its certainty, although still future, and therefore as yet enjoyed only in hope.

But as they might still object, How, even admitting the force of these encouragements, can we, who are so weak in ourselves, and so inferior in power to the enemies we have to encounter, bear up under so many trials? the Apostle, in the verse before us, points out an additional and internal source of encouragement of the highest consideration, namely, that the Holy spirit helps their infirmities, and also prays for them, which is sufficient to allay every desponding fear, and to communicate the strongest consolation.

At the close of the sacred canon, the Church is represented as saying, ‘Come, Lord Jesus.’ Being a stranger on earth, and her felicity consisting in communion with her glorious Lord, she groans on account of His absence, and ardently desires His holy and blessed presence. In the meantime, however, He vouchsafes to His people great consolation to compensate for His absence. He assures them that He has ascended to His Father and their Father, to His God and their God; that in His Father’s house are many mansions; that He is gone to prepare a place for them; and that, when He has prepared a place He will return and receive them to Himself, that where He is they may be also. They also know the way, He Himself being the way and their guide. How encouraging is this doctrine, and how well calculated for the support of hope and patience in expecting the return of the Bridegroom! If He is gone to their common Father, communion in His glory will not long be delayed. If there be many mansions in the house of their Heavenly Father, these are prepared to receive not only the elder Brother, but all His brethren; for were there only one abode, it would be for Him alone. If He is gone to prepare a place, and if He is soon to come again to receive them to Himself, is it not calculated to fill them with joy in the midst of troubles and afflictions? But all these consolations would be insufficient unless Jesus had added, that He would not leave them orphans, but would give them another Comforter to abide with them for ever, even the Spirit of truth. Without such support they would be overwhelmed by the weight of their afflictions, and overcome by their manifold temptations. But since they have not only an almighty Surety, but also an almighty Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, who dwells in them, and abides with them, this is sufficient to confirm their joy, to establish their hope, and to give them the assurance that nothing shall separate them from the love of Christ. Such is the consolation, in addition to all the others which, in the passage before us, the Apostle presents. Likewise the Spirits also helpeth our infirmities. — Likewise, or in like manner, as we are supported by hope, so the Spirit also helps our infirmities. The expression helpeth our infirmities, is very significant. The Apostle intends to say that the Holy Spirit carries, or bears with us, our afflictions. If it be inquired why this help which we received from the Holy Spirit is distinguished from the support we have from hope and patience, the answer is, that the Holy Spirit supports us, as being the efficient principle and first cause; and hope and patience supports as His instruments. On this account the Apostle, after having referred to the two former, speaks of this support of the Spirit. And here we find the most abundant consolation in Him who is the promised Comforter, for the all-powerful God Himself comes to help our infirmities.

Paul does not say infirmity, but infirmities, that we may remember how numerous they are, and may humble ourselves before God, renouncing our pride and presumption, and imploring His support. He also says, our infirmities, thus recognizing them as also his own, and reminding the strongest of their weakness. The burdens of believers are of two kinds: the one is sin, the other is suffering. Under both of these they are supported.

As to sin, Jesus has charged Himself with it. ‘He bore our sins in His own body on the tree;’ and as to sufferings, they are helped by the Holy Spirit, but only in part, by imparting strength to bear them; for all Christians must bear their cross in following Jesus. But in the kingdom of heaven, where every tear shall be wiped from their eyes, they shall be for ever delivered from all suffering.

Christians have at present many infirmities; they are in themselves altogether weakness; but the Holy Spirit dwells in their hearts, and is their strong consolation. Without Him they could not bear their trials, or perform what they are called to endure. But as He dwells in them, He gives them that aid of which they stand in need. Are we weak, and our troubles great? Here the almighty God comes to support us. Are we bowed down under the weight of our afflictions? Behold, He who is all-powerful bears them with us! The care of shepherds over their flocks, and the care of mothers who carry their infants in their bosoms, are but feeble images of the love of God and the care He exercises over His people.

A mother may forsake her sucking child, but the Lord will not forsake His children. ‘When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.’ For we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. — There are two things in prayer: namely, the matter of prayer, that is, the things we ask for, and the act of prayer, by which we address God respecting our desires and necessities. But so great is the infirmity and ignorance of the believer, that he does not even know what he ought to ask. He is not thoroughly acquainted either with his dangers or his wants.

He needs not only to be supplied from on high, but also Divine guidance to show him what he wants. When he knows not what to ask, the office of the Holy Spirit in the heart is to assist him in praying. Though, in a peculiar sense, Jesus is the believer’s intercessor in heaven, yet the Holy Spirit intercedes in him on earth, teaching him what to ask, and exciting in him groanings expressive of his wants, though they cannot be uttered; that is, they cannot be expressed in words. Yet these wants are uttered in groans, and in this manner most emphatically express what is meant, while they indicate the energy of the operation of the Spirit. Here the Apostle goes farther than in the former clause of the verse, and shows that the Spirit helpeth our infirmities, by referring to a particular example of this aid. In order to prove the extent of our weakness, the importance of the help of the Holy Spirit, and the greatness of the assistance He gives, Paul declares that we know not what we should pray for as we ought. Our blindness and natural ignorance are such, that we know not how to make a proper choice of the things for which we ought to pray. Sometimes we are ready to ask what is not suitable, as when Moses prayed to be allowed to enter Canaan, although, as being a type of Christ, he must die before the people, for whom he was the mediator, could enter the promised land; and as Paul, when He prayed to be delivered from the thorn in his flesh, not understanding that it was proper that he should be thus afflicted, that he might not be exalted above measure. Sometimes, too, we ask even for things that would be hurtful were we to receive them; of which there are many examples in Scripture, as James 4:3.

The people of God are often so much oppressed, and experience such anguish of mind, that their agitated spirits, borne down by affliction, can neither perfectly conceive nor properly express their complaints and requests to God. Shall they then remain without prayer? No; the Holy Spirit acts in their hearts, exciting in them sighs and groans. Such appear to have been the groanings of Hezekiah, when he said, ‘Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter; I did mourn as a dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward; O Lords I am oppressed, undertake for me.’ Such also was the experience of David in the <197701> seventy-seventh Psalm, when he says, ‘I am so troubled that I cannot speak.’ Thus, too, Hannah ‘space in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.’ No words of Peter in his repentance are recorded; his groanings are represented by his weeping bitterly; and in the same way we read of the woman who was a sinner as only washing the feet of Jesus with her tears, which expressed the inward groanings of her heart.

Although these sightings or groanings of the children of God are here ascribed to the Holy spirit, it is not to be supposed that the Divine Spirit can be subject to such emotions or perturbations of mind; but it is so represented, because He: draws forth these groans from our hearts and excites them there. Thus it is for hearts that groan, but the operation and emotion is from the Holy Spirit; for the subject of these, and He who produces them, must not be confounded. In this way the Apostle speaks in the fourth chapter to the Galatians. ‘Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.’ And in the 15th verse of the chapter before us, he shows that it is we who cry ‘Abba, Father,’ in order that we may observe that it is not the Spirit who cries, who prays, who groans, but that He causes us to cry, and pray, and groan. Such, then, is the work of the Holy Spirit here spoken of in the heart of believers, from which we learn that if there be any force in us to resist evil, and to overcome temptation, it is not of ourselves, but of our God. And hence it follows that if we have borne up under any affliction or temptation, we ought to render thanks to God, seeing that by His power He has supported us, and to pray, as David did, ‘Uphold me with Thy free Spirit.’

The Holy Spirit often, in a peculiar manner, helpeth the infirmities of the children of God in the article of death enabling them to sustain the pains and weaknesses of their bodies, and supporting their souls by His consolations in that trying hour. The body is then borne down with trouble, but the mind is sustained by the consolations of God. The eye of the body is dim, but the eye of faith is often at that season most unclouded. The outward man perisheth, but the inward man is renewed.

Then, when Satan makes his last and greatest effort to subvert the soul, and comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him, exciting in the believer a more ardent faith, and consoling him, though unable to express it, with a strong conviction of the Divine love and faithfulness. It is by this means that so many martyrs have triumphantly died, surmounting, by the power of the Spirit within them, the apprehension of the most excruciating bodily torture, and rejoicing in the midst of their sufferings.

Ver. 27. — And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

It might be objected, To what purpose are those groanings which we cannot understand? To this the Apostle very fully replies in this verse, — 1. God knows what these prayers mean, for ‘He searcheth the hearts’ of men, of which he hath perfect knowledge. The believer sighs and groans, while, owing to his perplexity and distress, he cannot utter a word before God; nevertheless these sighs and groanings are full of meaning. 2. God knoweth what is ‘the mind of the Spirit,’ or what He is dictating in the heart, and therefore He must approve of it; for the Father and Spirit are one. 3. Because, or rather, ‘that He maketh intercession.’ We are not to understand His intercession as the reason why God knows the mind of the Spirit, but as the reason why He will hear and answer the groans which the Holy Spirit excites. A further reason is, that this intercession is made for the saints; that is, for the children of God, of whom He hath said, ‘Gather My saints together unto Me, those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice,’ Psalm 1:5.

Finally, it is added, that it is ‘according to God,’ or to the will of God.

These prayers, then, will be heard, because the Spirit intercedes for those who are the children of God, and because He excites no desires but what are agreeable to the will of God. From all this we see how certain it is that these groanings which cannot be uttered must be heard, and consequently answered. For ‘this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us.’ The best prayers are not those of human eloquence, but which spring from earnest desires of the heart.

This verse is replete with instruction as well as consolation. We are here reminded that the Lord is the searcher of hearts. ‘Hell and destruction are before the Lord; how much more then the hearts of the children of men.’

The reasons of the perfect knowledge that God has of our hearts, are declared in the <19D901> 139th Psalm: — 1. The infinity, the omnipresence, and omniscience of God. 2. He forms the heart, and knows His own work. 3. He preserves and maintains the heart in all its operations. 4. He conducts and leads it, and therefore knows and sees it. The prayer of the heart, then, is attended to by God, as well as the prayer of the lips. Yet this does not prove that oral prayer is unnecessary — not even in our secret devotions.

This passage teaches us to look to God for an answer to the secret groanings of our heart; but it does not teach us to neglect communing with God with our lips, when we can express our thoughts. This is abundantly taught in the word of God, both by precept and example. Searching the heart is here given as a characteristic peculiar to God. As, then, it is ascribed in other passages to our Lord Jesus Christ, He must be God. This passage clearly establishes the personal distinction between the Father and the Holy Spirit.

The persons to whom the benefit of this intercession of the Spirit extends are said to be saints This proves that none can pray truly and effectually except the saints. It is only in the saints that the Spirit dwells, and of whose prayers He is the Author; and it is they only who are sanctified by Him. It is the saints, then, emphatically, and the saints exclusively, for whom the Spirit makes intercession. Such only are accepted of God, and fit subjects for the operation of the Spirit; but this is not the first work of the Spirit in them. He first sanctifies and then intercedes. First, He puts into us gracious dispositions, and then stirs up holy desires; and the latter supposes the former. In those in whom the Spirit is a Spirit of intercession, in them He is a Spirit of regeneration. These are therefore joined together in Zechariah 12:10, ‘The Spirit of grace and of supplications.’ None but saints have an interest in the blood of Christ, as applied unto them, and in His intercession. None are able to pray for themselves, for whom Christ does not likewise pray. We can only approach God by the Spirit. ‘We have access by one Spirit to the Father,’ Ephesians 2:18. We can only pray under the influence of the Holy Spirit with groanings which cannot be uttered; while the wicked may groan without prayer. ‘They have not cried unto Me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds,’ Hosea 7:14.

The other reason which renders acceptable to God the prayers and sighs excited in the saints by the Holy Spirit, is, that they are according to the will of God. The Spirit Himself being God, these requests must be agreeable to God. The carnal mind, it is said in verse 7, is enmity against God; but the mind (the same word here employed) of the Spirit is agreeable to God. The intercession made by the Holy Spirit is according to the command and the revealed will of God, and in the name and in dependence on Christ the Mediator. The Holy Spirit, then, teaches the saints how to pray, and what to pray for. What He teaches them to ask on earth, is in exact correspondence with that for which Jesus, their great High Priest, is interceding for them in heaven. The intercession of Jesus before the throne is an echo to the prayer taught by the Holy Spirit in their hearts. It is therefore not only in perfect unison with the intercession of Christ, and the indicting of the Holy Spirit, but it is in exact conformity to the will of God. Such, then, is the security to the saints that their prayers, although only expressed in groans, shall be heard by their Father in heaven. ‘The prayer of the upright is His delight,’ Proverbs 15:8. ‘He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him,’ <19E519> Psalm 145:19.

Ver. 28. — And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

Nothing is more necessary for Christians than to be well persuaded of the happiness and privileges of their condition, that they may be able to serve God with cheerfulness and freedom of spirit, and to pass through the troubles and difficulties of the world. Here, then, is further consolation:

Christians are often in sorrows, sufferings, and trials. This is not in itself joyous, but grievous; but in another point of view it is a matter of joy.

Though afflictions in themselves are evil, yet in their effects as overruled and directed by God, they are useful. Yea, all things, of every kind, that happen to the Christian, are overruled by God for his good!

Having previously spoken of the various sources of consolation, and, in the two preceding verses, of the Spirit helping our infirmities, and dictating those prayers which are heard of God, the Apostle now obviates another objection. If God hears our sighs and groanings, why are we not delivered from our afflictions and troubles? In answer, it is here shown that afflictions are salutary and profitable; so that, although they are not removed, God changes their natural tendency, and makes them work for our good. But in order that none should hereby be led into carnal security, the Apostle adds, that those for whom all things work together for good are such as love God, and are the called according to His purpose. This is not only true in itself, but it is here asserted to be a truth known to believers.

The Apostle had proposed various considerations, to which he now says we know this is to be added. This does not mean that believers know it merely in a speculative manner, but that it is a knowledge which enters into their heart and affections, producing in them confidence in its truth. It is a knowledge of faith which implies certainty and self application, by which the believer not only knows but applies the promises of God, and is able to say, This promise is mine, it belongs to me. For otherwise, what advantage would there be in a general knowledge of this fact? where would be its consolation, and where its practical use? ‘The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.’ The experience, too, of the believer brings home to his mind the conviction of this encouraging truth. The Church of Rome accuses of presumption those who make such an application to themselves. They allow that the Christian should believe, in general, the promises of God, but that, as to a particular self-application or appropriation of them, he should hold this in doubt, and be always uncertain as to his own salvation. This is to destroy the nature of those consolations, and to render them useless. For if, in order to console one who is afflicted, it be said to him, ‘All things work together for good to them that love God,’ he will answer, True, but I must doubt whether this belongs to me; and thus the consolation is made of no effect. But if this error be not imbibed, and the duty of such appropriation be not denied, why is it that so many believers experience so little of this consolation in their afflictions? Is it not because they have little of that knowledge of which the Apostle speaks when he says, ‘We know that all things work together for good to them that love God?’ Carnal affections, the love of the world, and indulgence of the flesh, prevent this consideration from being deeply impressed on their minds; they also darken their understandings, so as not to allow the light of the consolations of God to enter their hearts. But in proportion as their hearts are purified from these affections, in the same degree it is confirmed in their minds.

The objection, why sufferings are not removed, should be answered by reminding believers that all things work together for their good. All things work together for good to them that love God. — All things, whatever they be — all things indefinitely — are here intended. The extent of this expression is by many limited to afflictions. ‘Paul, it must be remembered,’ says Calvin on this text, ‘is speaking only of adversity;’ and he adds, ‘Paul is here speaking of the cross; and on this account the observation of Augustine, though true, does not bear on this passage — that even the sins of believers are so ordered by the providence of God as to serve rather to the advancement of their salvation than to their injury.’

It is true that the Apostle had been referring to the present sufferings of believers, and enumerating various special topics of consolation; but, approaching to the conclusion of his enumeration, it might be expected that the last of them would be no longer of a special but of a most comprehensive description. That it is so, the terms he employs warrant us to conclude. All things, he says. If the context necessarily limited this expression, its universality ought not to be contended for; but it does not If it be, as Calvin admits, that what is here said is true even of the sins of believers (and if applicable to sins, what else can be excepted?), why should the sense be limited to sufferings It is much more consolatory, and consequently more to the Apostle’s purpose, if literally all things be comprehended; and in this view it would form the most complete summing up of his subject. He had been pointing out to believers their high privileges as heirs of God, and partakers of glory with Christ. He had said that their sufferings in the present time are not worthy to be compared with that glory. He had suggested various topics to induce them to wait for it with patience; and had given them the highest encouragement, from the fact of the working of the Spirit of all grace within them, and of the acceptance of that work by God. Is it then more than was to be expected, that he should conclude the whole by saying that all things, without exception, were concurring for their good? Is it too much to suppose that it must be so to them whom he had addressed as heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, who are therefore under the guidance of the Good Shepherd, and honored by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost? Is it more than the Apostle says on another occasion, when he uses the very same expression, all things, and, so far from intimating any exception, adds a most comprehensive catalogue? ‘All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, for ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s,’ Corinthians 3:21. And again, ‘All things are for your sakes,’ Corinthians 4:15. Finally, ought the expression here to be restricted, when it is impossible to believe that the same expression, occurring a few sentences afterwards, verse 32, can be restricted? That all things work together for the good of them that love God, is a truth affording the highest consolation. These words teach believers that whatever may be the number and overwhelming character of adverse circumstances, they are all contributing to conduct them into the possession of the inheritance provided for them in heaven. That they are thus working for the good of the children of God, is manifest from the consideration that God governs the world. The first cause of all is God; second causes are all His creatures, whether angels, good or bad men, animals, or the inanimate creation.

Second causes move only under His direction; and when God withdraws His hand, they cannot more at all, as it is written, ‘In Him we live, and move, and have our being.’ As God, then, the first cause, moves all second causes against His enemies, so, when He is favorable to us, He employs all to move and work for our good, as it is said, ‘In that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground; and will break the bow, and the sword, and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely,’ Hosea 2:18. And as of men it is said, ‘When a man’s ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies-to be at peace with him,’ Proverbs 16:7.

If all things work together for good, there is nothing within the compass of being that is not, in one way or other, advantageous to the children of God.

All the attributes of God, all the offices of Christ, all the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, are combined for their good. The creation of the world, the fall and the redemption of man, all the dispensations of Providence, whether prosperous or adverse, all occurrences and events — all things, whatsoever they be — work for their good. They work together in their efficacy, in their unity, and in their connection. They do not work thus of themselves: it is God that turns all things to the good of His children. The afflictions of believers, in a peculiar manner, contribute to this end. ‘Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept Thy word. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Thy statutes.’ ‘Tribulation worketh patience.’ ‘No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness Unto them which are exercised thereby.’ And believers are chastened by God for their profit, that they may be partakers of His holiness. The Apostle himself was an example of this, when a thorn in his flesh was sent to him to prevent his being exalted above measure. We see how much the sufferings of those spoken of in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews were calculated to detach their affections from this present world, and lead them to seek a better, even a heavenly country. There is often a need be for their being in heaviness through manifold temptations.

Even the sins of believers work for their good, not from the nature of sin, but by the goodness and power of Him who brings light out of darkness.

Everywhere in Scripture we read of the great evil of sin. Everywhere we receive the most solemn warning against its commission; and everywhere we hear also of the chastisements it brings, even upon those who are rescued from its finally condemning power. It is not sin, then, in itself that works the good, but God who overrules its effects to His children, — shows them, by means of it, what is in their hearts, as well as their entire dependence on Himself, and the necessity of walking with Him more closely. Their falls lead them to humiliation, to the acknowledgment of their weakness and depravity, to prayer for the guidance and overpowering influence of the Holy Spirit, to vigilance and caution against all carnal security, and to reliance on that righteousness provided for their appearance before God. It is evident that the sin of Adam, which is the source of all their sins, has wrought for their good in raising them to a higher degree of glory. Believers fall into sin, and on account of this God hides His face from them, and they are troubled; and, like Hezekiah, they go softly. God left Hezekiah to himself, but it was to do him good at his latter end.

But if our sins work together for our good, shall we sin that grace may abound? Far be the thought. This would be entirely to misunderstand the grace of God, and to turn it into an occasion of offending Him. Against such an abuse of the doctrine of grace, the Apostle contends in the 6th chapter of this Epistle. Sin should be considered in its nature, not as to what it is adventitiously, or in respect to what is foreign to it. Sin as committed by us is only sin, and rebellion against God and the holiness of His nature. It ought therefore to be regarded with abhorrence, and merits eternal punishment. That it is turned to good, is the world of God, and not ours. We ought no more to conclude that on this account we may sin, than that wicked men do what is right when they persecute the people of God, because persecutions are overruled by Him for good. That all things work together for good to them who love God, establishes the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints; for if all things work together for their good, what or where is that which God will permit to lead them into condemnation?

That all things happen for the best is a common saying among people of the world. This is a fact as to the final issue of the Divine administration, by which all things shall be made to contribute to the glory of God. But as to sinners individually, the reverse is true. All things are indeed working together in one complex plan in the providence of God for the good of those who love Him; but so far from working for good, or for the best to His enemies, everything is working to their final ruin. Both of these effects are remarkably exemplified in the lives of Saul and David. Even the aggravated sin of David led him to deep humiliation and godly sorrow, to a greater knowledge of his natural and original depravity, of the deceitfulness of his heart, and to his singing aloud of God’s righteousness. The sins of Saul, as well as everything that befell him in God’s providence, led to his becoming more hardened in his impiety, and at last conducted him to despair and suicide. The histories of many others, both believers and sinners, recorded in the Old Testament, abundantly confirm the words of the Psalmist, ‘The Lord preserveth all them that love Him, but all the wicked will be destroyed.’ ‘The way of the wicked He turneth upside down.’

There are two scriptures which should fill the people of God with joy and consolation. The one is, ‘The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that love Him,’ Psalm 84:11. The other is the passage before us, ‘All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.’ If, then, God will withhold nothing that is good for us, and will order and dispose of all things for good to us, what can be wanting to our absolute and complete security? How admirable is the providence of God, not only as all things are ordered by Him, but as He overrules whatever is most disordered, and turns to good things that in themselves are most pernicious. We admire His providence in the regularity of the seasons, of the course of the sun and stars; but this is not so wonderful as His bringing good out of evil in all the complicated acts and occurrences in the lives of men, and making even the power and malice of Satan, with the naturally destructive tendency of his works, to minister to the good of His children. That love God. — What is said of all things working together for good is here limited to those who love God. This is given as a peculiar characteristic of a Christian. It imports that all behaviors love God, and that none but believers love Him. Philosophers, falsely so called, and men of various descriptions, may boast of loving God; but the decision of God Himself is, that to love Him is the peculiar characteristic of a Christian. No man can love God till He hath shined into his heart to give him the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. It is therefore only through faith in the blood of Christ that we can love God. Until our faith gives us some assurance of reconciliation with God, we cannot have the confidence which is essential to loving God. Till then we dread God as our enemy, and fear that He will punish us for our sins. In loving God, the affections of the believer terminate in God as their last and highest end; and this they can do in God only. In everything else, there being only a finite goodness, we cannot absolutely rest in it. This is the rest that David had when he said, ‘Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee; God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever,’ Psalm 73:25. This is what satisfies the believer in his need and poverty, and in every situation in which he may be placed, for it suffices him to have God for his heritage and his possession, since God is his all; and as this Divine love expels the love of the world, so it overcomes the immoderate love of himself. He is led to love what God loves, and to hate what God hates, and thus he walks in communion with God, loving God, and more and more desiring to comprehend what is the breadth and length, and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. To those who are the called according to His purpose. — This is a further description or characteristic of God’s people. They are called not merely outwardly by the preaching of the Gospel, for this is common to them with unbelievers, but called also by the Spirit, with an internal and effectual calling, and made willing in the day of God’s power. They are called according to God’s eternal purpose, according to which He knew them, and purposed their calling before they were in existence; for all God’s purposes are eternal. It imports that their calling is solely the effect of grace; for when it is said to be a calling according to God’s purpose, it is distinguished from a calling according to works. ‘Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,’ 2 Timothy 1:9. It imports that it is an effectual and permanent calling; for God’s purposes cannot be defeated. ‘The counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.’ Their calling is according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will,’ Ephesians 1:11.

Ver. 29. — For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

The Apostle having exhibited to believers many grounds of consolation, to induce them patiently to endure the sufferings of this present time, now points to the source of their future glory, in order to assure them of its certainty. The easy and natural transition to this branch of his subject should be particularly noticed. He had declared in the foregoing verse that all things work together for good to them who love God; but as it is always necessary to keep in mind that our love to God is not the cause of His love to us, nor, consequently, of the privileges with which we are favored, but the effects of His loving us, Deuteronomy 7:6-8; Jeremiah 1:5, the Apostle adds, ‘Who are the called according to His purpose.’ This declaration leads at once to a full and most encouraging view of the progress of the Divine procedure originating with God, and carried, through all its connecting links, forward to the full possession of that glory which shall be revealed in us. For whom He did foreknow. — The word foreknow has three significations. One is general, importing simply a knowledge of things before they come into existence. In this general sense it is evident that it is not employed in this passage, since it is limited to those whom God predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. He foreknows all things before they come to pass; but here foreknowledge refers only to particular individuals. A second signification is a knowledge accompanied by a decree. In this sense it signifies ordinance and providence, as it is said, Acts 2:23, ‘Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God;’ that is to say, by the ordinance and providence of God. The reason why this word is used to denote the Divine determinations is because the foreknowledge of God necessarily implies His purpose or decree with respect to the thing foreknown. For God foreknows what will be, by determining what shall be. God’s foreknowledge cannot in itself be the cause of any event; but events must be produced by His decree and ordination. It is not because God foresees a thing that it is decreed; but He foresees it because it is ordained by Him to happen in the order of His providence. Therefore His foreknowledge and decrees cannot be separated; for the one implies the other. When He decrees that a thing shall be, He foresees that it will be. There is nothing known as what will be, which is not certainly to be; and there is nothing certainly to be, unless it is ordained that it shall be. All the foreknowledge of future events, then, is founded on the decree of God; consequently He determined with Himself from eternity everything He executes in time, Acts 15:18. Nothing is contingent in the mind of God, who foresees and orders all events according to His own eternal and unchangeable will. Jesus Christ was not delivered by God fore knowing it before it took place, but by His fixed counsel and ordination, or His providence. Thus believers are called elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, 1 Peter 1:2; and in the same chapter, ver. 19, 20, the Apostle Peter says that Jesus Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Here foreknown signifies, as it is rendered, fore-ordained.

The third signification of this word consists in a knowledge of love and approbation; and in this sense it signifies to choose and recognize as His own, as it is said, Romans 11:2, ‘God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew,’ — that is, whom He had before loved and chosen; for the Apostle alleges this foreknowledge as the reason why God had not rejected His people. In this manner the word ‘know’ is often taken in Scripture in the sense of knowing with affection, loving, approving; as in the first Psalm, ‘The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish.’ To know the way of the just, is to love, to approve, as appears by the antithesis. Paul says to the Corinthians, ‘If any man love God, the same is know of Him,’ 1 Corinthians 8:3; and to the Galatians, ‘But now after ye have known God or rather are known of Him.’ In the same way, God said by His Prophet to Israel, ‘You only have I known of all the families of the earth,’ Amos 3:2. At the day of judgment Jesus Christ will say to hypocrites, ‘I never knew you,’ Matthew 7:23; that is to say, He never loved or acknowledged them, although He perfectly knew their characters and actions. In this last sense the word foreknow is employed in the passage before us. Those whom God foreknew — those whom He before loved, chose, acknowledged as His own — He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son It is not a general anticipated knowledge that is here intended. The Apostle does not speak of all, but of some, whom in verse 33 he calls ‘God’s elect;’ and not of anything in their persons, or belonging to them, but of the persons themselves, whom it is said God foreknew. And He adds, that those whom He foreknew He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son; and whom he predestinated He also called, and justified, and glorified.

By foreknowledge, then, is not here meant a foreknowledge of faith or good works, or of concurrence with the external call Faith cannot be the cause of foreknowledge, because foreknowledge is before predestination, and faith is the effect of predestination. ‘As many as were ordained to eternal life believed,’ Acts 13:48. Neither can it be meant of the foreknowledge of good works, because these are the effects of predestination. ‘We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works; which God hath before ordained (or before prepared) that we should walk in them,’ Ephesians 2:10. Neither can it be meant of foreknowledge of our concurrence with the external call, because our effectual calling depends not upon that concurrence, but upon God’s purpose and grace, given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, Timothy 1:9. By this foreknowledge, then, is meant, as has been observed, the love of God towards those whom He predestinates to be saved through Jesus Christ. All the called of God are foreknown by Him, — that is, they are the objects of His eternal love, and their calling comes from this free love. ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn thee,’ Jeremiah 31:3. He also did predestinate. — Foreknowledge and predestination are distinguished. The one is the choice of persons, the other the destination of those persons to the blessings for which they are designed. To predestinate signifies to appoint beforehand to some particular end. In Scripture it is taken sometimes generally for any decree of God, as in Acts 4:28, where the Apostles say that the Jews were assembled to do whatsoever the hand and the counsel of God had determined (predestinated) before to be done. And Paul says, 1 Corinthians 2:7, ‘We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained (predestinated) before the world unto our glory.’

Sometimes this word is taken specially for the decree of the salvation of man, as Ephesians 1:5, ‘Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.’ In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.’ In the same way, in the passage before us, ‘Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.’ As the term is here used, it respects not all men, but only those of whom God has placed His love from eternity, and on whom He purposes to bestow life through Jesus Christ. As, then, it is absolute and complete, so it is definite; and the number who are thus predestinated can neither be increased nor diminished. It is not that God had foreseen us as being in Christ Jesus by faith, and on that account had elected us, but that Jesus Christ, being the Mediator between God and man, God had predestinated us to salvation only in Him. For as the union which we have with Him is the foundation of all the good which we receive from God, so we must be elected in Him; that is to say, that God gives us to Him to be His members, and to partake in the good things to which God predestinates us. So that Jesus Christ has been the first predestinated and appointed to be the Mediator, in order that God should bless us with all spiritual blessings in Him.

In the passage above quoted, Ephesians 1:5, the cause of predestination is traced solely to God. After saying that God had predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, it is added, ‘to Himself,’ to show that God has no cause out of Himself moving Him to this grace. In order to enforce this, it is further added, ‘according to the good pleasure of His will;’ and, in the third place, it is subjoined, ‘to the praise of the glory of His grace;’ from all which it follows that it must necessarily be by grace, — that is, free, unmerited favor. Love to God, or conformity to the image of Christ, cannot in any respect have its origin in fallen man. ‘Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.’ ‘We love Him, because He first loved us.’ ‘It is a foolish inference,’ says Calvin, ‘of these disputants, who say that God has elected such only as He foresaw would be worthy of grace. For Peter does not flatter believers, as if they were elected for their own individual merits, but refers their election to the eternal counsel of God, and strips them of all worthiness. In this passage, also, Paul repeats in another word what he had lately intimated concerning God’s eternal purpose; and it hence follows that this knowledge depends on the good pleasure of His will, because, by adopting whom He would, God did not extend His foreknowledge to anything out of Himself, but only marked out those whom He intended to elect.’

The foundation of predestination is Jesus Christ, by whom we receive the adoption of children. Its object is man, not invested with any quality which moves God to predestinate him, but as corrupted and guilty in Adam — dead in trespasses and sins until quickened by God. The blessing to which God had predestinated those whom He foreknew is salvation, as it is said, ‘God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ;’ or, as it is expressed in the verse before us, ‘to be conformed to the image of His Son.’ The means to all this are our calling and justification. The final end of predestination is the glory of God, — ’to the glory of His grace;’ ‘and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory.’ On the consideration of their election, the Apostles urge believers to walk in holiness. ‘Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering,’ Colossians 3:12. ‘Ye are a chosen (elected) generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,’ 1 Peter 2:9.

In the election of some, and the passing by of others, the wisdom of God is manifest; for by this means He displays both His justice and mercy, — otherwise one of these perfections would not have appeared. If all had been withdrawn from their state of corruption, the justice of God would not have manifested itself in their punishment. If none had been chosen, His mercy would not have been seen. In the salvation of these, God has displayed His grace; and in the punishment of sin in the others, He has discovered His justice and hatred of iniquity. This doctrine of election is full of consolation, and is the true source of Christian assurance. For who can shake this foundation, which is more firm than that of the heavens and the earth, and can no more be shaken than God Himself? The sheep whom God hath given to His Son by His predestination no one can pluck out of His hands.

But although this doctrine of election of the people of God to eternal life is a doctrine so consoling to them, and must have necessarily entered into the plan of salvation to render it consistent with itself, yet there are many who, in preaching the Gospel, deem it improper, notwithstanding they have the express example of our Lord, John 6:37,44,65, to declare it before promiscuous multitudes, or even generally to believers, although so frequently introduced by the Apostles in their Epistles to the churches.

Against this practice, prompted by worldly wisdom, Luther has forcibly remonstrated in the following appeal to Erasmus: — ’If, my Erasmus, you consider these paradoxes (as you term them) to be no more than the inventions of men, why are you so extraordinarily heated on the occasion?

In that case your arguments affect not me; for there is no person now living in the world who is a more avowed enemy to the doctrines of men than myself. But if you believe the doctrines in debate between us to be (as indeed they are) the doctrines of God, you must here bid adieu to all sense of shame and decency thus to oppose them. I will not ask, whither is the modesty of Erasmus fled? but, which is much more important, where, alas! are your fear and reverence of the Deity, when you roundly declare that this branch of truth, which He has revealed from heaven, is at best useless and unnecessary to know? What! shall the glorious Creator be taught by you, His creature, what is fit to be preached, and what to be suppressed? Is the adorable God so very defective in wisdom and prudence, as not to know, till you instruct Him, what would be useful and what pernicious? Or, could not He, whose understanding is infinite, foresee, previous to His revelation of this doctrine, what would be the consequences of His revealing it, till these consequences were pointed out by you? You cannot, you dare not, say this. If, then, it was the Divine pleasure to make known these things in His word, and to bid His messengers publish them abroad, and to leave the consequences of their so doing to the wisdom and providence of Him in whose name they speak, and whose message they declare, who art thou, O Erasmus, that thou shouldst reply against God?’ To be conformed to the image of His Son. — This implies that the children of God must all be made to resemble Christ, their head and elder brother.

This likeness respects character and suffering, as well as all things in which such similarity is found to exist. The Lord Jesus Christ, the first elect of God, is the model after which all the elect of God must be formed. Man was created in the image of God; but when sin entered, he lost this image; and Adam ‘begat a son in his own likeness after his image,’ Genesis 5:3; thus communicating to his posterity his corrupted nature. But as God had determined to save a part of the fallen race, it was ‘according to His good pleasure’ to renew His image in those whom He had chosen to this salvation. This was to be accomplished by the incarnation of His Son, ‘who is the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person,’ to whose image they were predestinated to be conformed.

This image of the Son of God, consisting in supernatural, spiritual, and celestial qualities, is stamped upon all the children of God when they are adopted into His family. Imparting to them spiritual life, He renders them partakers of the Divine nature; that is to say, of His image, being the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. They are the workmanship of God, erected in Christ Jesus, being born of the Spirit, and the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them; and he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. Thus the souls of believers are confirmed to the image of Christ, as their bodies will be also at his second coming, when they shall be ‘fashioned like unto His glorious body.’ To this conformity to the image of His Son, all those whom God foreknew are predestinated. For as they have borne the image of the earthy, they shall also bear the image of the heavenly Adam.

Believers are conformed to the image of the Son of God in holiness and suffering in this life, and in glory in the life to come. They are conformed to Him in holiness, for Christ is made unto them sanctification. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, they are changed into the same image.

They put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that erected him. In suffering they are conformed to Him who was ‘a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.’ They must endure tribulation, and fill up what is behind of His affection. As the Captain of their salvation was made perfect through sufferings, and through sufferings entered into His glory, so the sufferings of His people, while they promote their conformity to Him in holiness constitute the path in which they follow Him to that glory. ‘Ye are they who have continued with Me in My temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom.’ What the Apostle hath said in the 17th verse, that if believers suffer with Christ they share also be glorified together, is here confirmed by his declaration that they are predestinated to be conformed to His image. This image, of which the outlines are in this world traced in them, is only perfected in heaven. That He might be the Firstborn among many brethren. — Here is a reason for those whom God foreknew being conformed to the image of His Son; and a limitation of that conformity which they shall have to Him. The reason is, that He might have many brethren. Next to the glory of God, the object of His incarnation was the salvation of a multitude which no man can number of those whose nature He assumed, and this was accomplished by His death. Referring to this, He Himself says, ‘Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.’ Accordingly, in the everlasting covenant between the Father and the Son, when grace was given to His people in Him before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9, and when God promised to Him for them eternal life also before the world began, Titus 1:2, it was determined that when He should make His soul an offering for sin, He should see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, and that by the knowledge of Him many should be justified. He was to bear the sins of many. ‘ Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee; as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He might give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.’ By His obedience many were to be made righteous. As the Captain of their salvation, He was to bring many sons unto glory. To Him many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. ‘The gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many.’ And as He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, He is not ashamed to call them brethren. But as in all things He must have the pre-eminence, so this limitation is introduced, that among them all He must be the ‘firstborn;’ that is to say, the first, the principal the most excellent, The Governor, the Lord.

Under the law, the firstborn had authority over their brethren, and to them belonged a double portion, as well as the honor of acting as priests, — the firstborn in Israel being holy, that is to say, consecrated to the Lord Reuben, forfeiting his right of primogeniture by his sin, its privileges were divided, so that the dominion belonging to it was transferred to Judah, and the double portion to Joseph, who had two tribes and two portions in Canaan, by Ephraim and Manasseh; while the priesthood and right of sacrifice was transferred to Levi. The word first to born also signifies what surpasses anything else of the same kind, as ‘the firstborn of the poor,’ Isaiah 14:30, that is to say, the most miserable of all; and the firstborn of death, Job 18:13, signifying a very terrible death, surpassing in grief and violence. The term firstborn is also applied to those who were most beloved, as Ephraim is called the firstborn of the Lord, Jeremiah 31:9, that is, His ‘dear son.’ In all these respects the appellation of firstborn belongs to Jesus Christ, both as to the superiority of His nature, of His office, and of His glory.

Regarding His nature, He was as to His divinity truly the firstborn, since He alone is the only-begotten — the eternal Son of the Father. In this respect He is the Son of God by nature, while His brethren are sons of God by grace. In His humanity He was conceived without sin, beloved of God; instead of which they are conceived in sin, and are by nature children of wrath. In that nature He possessed the Spirit without measure; while they receive out of His fullness according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Regarding his office, He is their King, their Head, their Lord, their Priest, their Prophet, their Surety, their Advocate with the Father, — in one word, their Savior. It is He who of God is made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. They are all His subjects, whom He leads and governs by His Spirit, for whose sins He has made atonement by His sufferings. They are His disciples, whom He has called from darkness into His marvelous light. Concerning His glory, ‘God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.’ ‘He is the head of the body, the Church; what is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence He is the firstborn from the dead, as being raised the first, and being made the first-fruits of them that slept; and by His power they shall be raised to a life glorious and eternal.

Ver. 30. — Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.

Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called — Here the Apostle connects our calling, which is known, with God’s decree, which is concealed, to teach us that we may judge of our election by our calling Peter 1:10. For Paul says, they whom God hath predestinated He hath also called and justified; so we may say, those whom He hath called and justified He hath elected and predestinated. If God hath called us, then He hath elected us. Paul had spoken of God’s predestining His people to be conformed to the image of His Son: He now shows us how this is effected.

They are to be molded into this likeness to their elder Brother by being called both by the word and Spirit of God. God calls them by His grace, Galatians 1:15, — that is, without regard to anything in themselves.

Effectual calling is the first internal operation of grace on those who are elected. They are not merely called externally, as many who are not elected. The scriptures speak of the universal call of the Gospel, addressed to all men; but this is not inseparably connected with salvation; for in this sense the Lord has said that ‘many are called, but few are chosen.’ At three periods, all mankind were called. They were called through Adam; they were called by Noah; and, finally, by the Apostles, Colossians 1:23; yet how soon in each period was the external call forgotten by the great body of the human race ‘They did not like to retain God in their knowledge.’

In the passage before us, and in various other places, as in verse 28, it is effectual calling that is spoken of. This calling, then, signifies more than the external calling of the word. It is accompanied with more than the partial and temporary effects which the word produces on some, and is always ascribed to the operation of God by the influence of the Holy Spirit. Even when the external means are employed to most advantage, it is God only who gives the increase, 1 Corinthians 3:6. It is He who opens the heart to receive the word, Acts 16:14, — who gives a new heart, Ezekiel. 36:26, — who writes His law in it, — and who saves His people, not by works of righteousness which they have done, but by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, Titus 3:5.

That which is meant, then, by the word called in this passage, and in many others, is the outward calling by the word accompanied with the operation of God, by His Spirit, in the regeneration and conversion of sinners. When Jesus Christ thus calls, men instantly believe, Matthew 4:19. Grace — the operation of the favor of God in the heart — is communicated, and the sinner becomes a new creature. Regeneration is not a work which is accomplished gradually; it is effected instantaneously. At first, indeed, faith is often weak; but as the new-born infant is as much in possession of life as the full-grown man, so the spiritual life is possessed as completely in the moment of regeneration as ever it is afterwards, and previous to that moment it had no existence. There is no medium between life and death: a man is either dead in sin, or quickened by receiving the Holy Spirit; he is either in Christ, or out of Christ; God has either begun a good work in him, or he is in a state of spiritual death and corruption. By means of the word, accompanied by His Spirit, God enlightens the understanding with a heavenly light, moves the will and the affections to receive and embrace Christ, and forms in the heart His image and the new man, of which the Apostle says that it is created in righteousness and true holiness. God says, ‘Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.’ He prophesies upon the dry bones, and the Spirit enters into them. Thus the same grace that operates in the election of the saints is exercised in their calling and regeneration, without which they would remain dead in trespasses and sins. ‘No man,’ says Jesus, ‘can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me, draw him.’

All who are elected are in due time effectually called, and all who are effectually called have been from all eternity elected and ordained to eternal salvation. Effectual calling, then, is the proper and necessary consequence and effect of election, and the means to glorification. As those whom God hath predestinated He hath called, so He hath effectually called none besides. These words before us, therefore, are to be taken not only as emphatical, but as exclusive. Consistently with this, we read of the faith of God’s elect, Titus 1:1, as that which is peculiar to them. With this calling sanctification is inseparably connected. It is denominated a holy calling. ‘Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, Timothy 1:9. The Author of it is holy, and it is a call to holiness. ‘As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation,’ 1 Peter 1:15. ‘Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,’ 1 Peter 2:9. It is a calling into the grace of Christ, Galatians 1:6. In this effectual calling the final perseverance of the saints is also secured, since it stands connected on the one hand with election and predestination, and on the other hand with sanctification and glorification. ‘The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.’ Calling, as the effect of predestination, must be irresistible, or rather invincible, and also irreversible.

The Church of Rome perverts the meaning of this calling; for, instead of considering it as accompanied with the communication of life to the soul, they view it merely as an act which excites and calls into action some concealed qualities in man, and awakens some feelings of holiness that are in him, and some virtues which he possesses, to receive the grace that is proclaimed to him. In this way it must not be said, with the Scripture, that God communicates life to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and regenerates them, but that He only aids their weakness, and calls forth their own exertions.

If it be inquired whether God calls all men with a calling sufficient for their salvation, that is to say, if He gives to all grace sufficient to save them, it is replied, that this calling may be considered as sufficient or insufficient in different points of view; for the sufficiency of grace may be considered either on the part of God or of man. On the part of God, it must be said that His general calling is sufficient, for God having created man upright, with a disposition to obey Him, if we consider this general calling connected with that original perfection, there can be no doubt that it is sufficient. But, on the part of man, viewed in his natural state of corruption, assuredly the outward call is not sufficient, unless accompanied with the internal operation of the Holy Spirit, to enlighten the eyes of the understanding, and to open the heart to receive the calling of God, any more than if Jesus Christ had spoken to a deaf or dead man, without removing his deafness, or imparting to him life. If the voice of Jesus calling Lazarus had been unaccompanied with His power, it would not have been sufficient to raise him from the grave. The calling, then, which is not accompanied with the power of the Spirit of God, is not sufficient in regard to man, while man is inexcusable, and has no just ground of complaint, for he resists that call which, unless he was a sinful creature and an enemy to God, would be sufficient. He is, as the Psalmist says, ‘like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of the charmers, charm they never so wisely.’

If, again, it be inquired whether men can resist the calling of God, it is evident that, when the calling is only external, and unaccompanied with the internal operation of the Spirit, they can, and always will, resist it, Genesis 6:3; Acts 7:51. But when the calling is, at the same time, internal, — when God regenerates men, and makes them new creatures, — the question, if they can resist this, is altogether nugatory; for it is as if it were inquired if a man could resist his creation, or a dead man his being brought to life. God here acts by His almighty power, without, however, forcing our will; for communicating to us spiritual qualities, He gives us to will and to do of His good pleasure. It is therefore absurd to say that a man can resist this influence by the hardness of his heart, since it removes that hardness, and is the converting of hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.

In opposition to this, the saying of our Lord is stated as an objection: ‘Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.’ On this it is to be remarked, that the reference here is to Christ’s miracles, not to His preaching; and what is said of Tyre and Sidon is by comparison, what is meant being, as it seems, that the hardness of heart of those of Chorazin and Bethsaida surpassed that of Tyre and Sidon, and that if such miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would not have had so little effect as upon the former, although it is not said that the latter would have repented unto life, or that they could have been conferred to God except by the operation of His Spirit. Here the declaration of our Lord in the same context is decisive: ‘At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things (the truths of God which He proclaimed) from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.’ And this He resolves, not into the difference found in man, but into the sovereignty of God. ‘Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight.’ And He immediately adds, ‘Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.’ This must refer to an internal revelation; for as to that which was solely external, Jesus was declaring it to all. Jesus Christ knew from the beginning who they were that would believe and who would not believe, because He knew who they were whom the Father had given Him and would draw unto Him. And it is this eternal decree which He here shows is the rule of God’s calling, according to which the Son is or is not revealed: ‘Ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep, as I said unto you.’ And whom He called, them He also justified. — They whom the Holy Spirit effectually calls by the Gospel to the knowledge of God are also justified. They are ‘ungodly,’ Romans 4:5, till the moment when they are called; but, being then united to Christ, they are in that moment justified. They are instantly absolved from guilt, and made righteous, as having perfectly answered all the demands of the law, for by Him it has been fulfilled in them, verse 4. To justify signifies to pronounce and account righteous such as have transgressed, and forfeited the favor of God, as well as incurred a penalty, conveying to them deliverance from the penalty, and restoration to that favor. And they who are thus accounted righteous by God, must be righteous, for God looks upon things as they really are; as, being one with Christ, they are perfectly righteous. ‘Justification,’ says Luther, ‘takes place when, in the just judgment of God, our sins, and the eternal punishment due to them, are remitted, and when clothed with the righteousness of Christ, which is freely imputed to us, and reconciled to God, we are made His beloved children, and heirs of eternal life.’ The connection between calling and justification is manifest, for we must be united to Christ to enjoy the good derived from Him. We must be members of Christ that His obedience may be ours that in Him we may have righteousness. Now, he is by our calling that we are brought into His communion, and by communion with Him to the participation of His grace and blessing, which cannot fail to belong to them who are with Him one body, one flesh, and one spirit. Those who are called must therefore be justified. They who are the members of Jesus Christ must be partakers in His righteousness, and of the Spirit of life that is in Him. Whom He calls He justifies. This proves that there are none justified till they are called. We are justified by faith, which we receive when we are effectually called. Whom He justified, them He also glorified. — A man is justified the moment He believes in Christ; and here being glorified is connected with justification. No believer, then, finally comes short of salvation. If he is justified, he must in due time be glorified. To be glorified is to be completely conformed to the glorious image of Jesus Christ; when we shall see Him as He is, and be made like unto Him, enjoying that felicity which the Psalmist anticipated: ‘Thou wilt show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ The glorifying of the saints will have its consummation in the day of the blessed resurrection, when their bodies shall be made like unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ; when that natural body, which was sown in corruption, in dishonor, in weakness, shall be raised a spiritual body in corruption, in glory, in power. Then death will be swallowed up in victory, all tears shall be wiped away, the Lamb will lead and feed them, and God shall be all in all.

In this verse glorification is spoken of as having already taken place, because what God has determined to do may be said to be already done. ‘He calls those things that be not as though they were.’ The Apostle does not say that those whom God predestinates He calls, and that those whom He justifies He glorifies; but, speaking in the past time, he says that those whom God did predestinate, them He hath also called, and justified, and glorified. By this he expresses the certainty of the counsel of God. In the same way, in the Old Testament, things future were spoken of as already accomplished, on account of the infallibility of the promises of God; so that, before Jesus Christ came into the world, it was said, ‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.’ And He Himself speaks of what is future as already accomplished. ‘I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.’ ‘Now I am no more in the world,’ John 17:4,11. In like manner the Apostle speaks here of glory as already come, to show how certain it is that those who are called and justified shall be glorified. And this is in accordance with the object he has in view, which is to console the believer amidst his afflictions. For when he thus suffers, and all things appear to conspire for his ruin, and to be opposed to his eternal salvation, he is represented as already glorified by God, and during the combat as having already received the crown of life.

The plan of salvation is here set before us in its commencement, in the intermediate steps of its progress, and in its consummation. Its commencement is laid in the eternal purpose of God, and its consummation in the eternal glory of the elect. He calls those whom He hath predestinated to faith in Christ, to repentance and to a new life. He justifies by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ those whom He hath called; and, finally, He will glorify those whom He hath justified. The opponents of the doctrine contained in this passage distort the whole plan of salvation. They deny that there is any indissoluble connection between those successive steps of grace, which are here united by the Apostle, and that these different expressions relate to the same individuals. They suppose that God may have foreknown and predestinated to life some whom He does not call, that He effectually calls some whom He does not justify, and that He justifies others whom He does not glorify. This contradicts the express language of this passage, which declares that those whom He foreknew He predestinated, that those whom he predestinated them He also called, that those whom He called them He also justified, and that those whom He justified them He also glorified. It is impossible to find words which could more forcibly and precisely express the indissoluble connection that subsists between all the parts of this series, or show that they are the same individuals that are spoken of throughout.

The same doctrine is in other places explicitly taught: ‘Of Him ’ (by God, according to His sovereign election) ‘are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God’ (by the appointment of God) ‘is made unto us wisdom’ (in our calling), ‘righteousness’ (by the imputation of His righteousness), ‘sanctification’ (in making us conformed to His image), and ‘redemption’ (in giving us eternal glory). ‘These truths are also declared in 2 Thessalonians 2:13. ‘God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth whereunto He called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

It is, indeed, often objected to the doctrine of grace, that, according to it, men may live as they list; if they are certainly to be saved, they may indulge in sin with impunity. But, according to Paul’s statements in this chapter, all the doctrines respecting the salvation of the elect are indissolubly connected, and a single link in the chain is never wanting. He who has ordained the end, has ordained the means. He who has chosen them in Christ, from before the ‘foundation of the world, has chosen them through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, Thessalonians 2:13. If they are predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Son, they are in due time called by the word and Spirit of God. If they are called, they are justified, so that there is no unrighteousness to stand in the way of their acceptance. If they are justified, they will also be glorified in the appointed season. How fatally erroneous, then, is the opinion of those who say that, if we are predestinated, we shall obtain eternal glory in whatever way we live! Such a conclusion breaks this heavenly chain. It is vain for human ingenuity to attempt to find an imperfection in the plans of Divine wisdom in ordering the steps in the salvation of His people: ‘the word of God effectually worketh in them that believe,’ 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

In the passage before us, we see that all the links of that chain by which man is drawn up to heaven, are inseparable. In the whole of it there is nothing but grace, whether we contemplate its beginning, its middle, or its end. Each of its parts furnishes the most important instruction. If we are elected, let us feel and experience in ourselves the effects of our election. If we are called, let us walk worthy of our vocation. If we are justified, let us, like Abraham show our faith and prove our justification by our works. If we shall be glorified, let us live as fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God. Let our conversation be in heaven, and let us confess that we are pilgrims and strangers on the earth.

In looking back on this passage, we should observe that, in all that is stated, man acts no part, but is passive, and all is done by God. He is elected, and predestinated, and called, and justified, and glorified by God.

The Apostle was here concluding all that he had said before in enumerating topics of consolation to believers, and is now going on to show that God is ‘for us,’ or on the part of His people. Could anything, then, be more consolatory to those who love God, than to be in this manner assured that the great concern of their salvation is not left in their own keeping God, even their covenant God, hath taken the whole upon Himself. He hath undertaken for them. There is no room, then, for chance or change: He will perfect that which concerneth them.

The same great truths are held forth in every part of the new covenant which God makes with His people, Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:8-12. It consists exclusively of absolute promises on the part of God, and from beginning to end is grace and only grace. But does the doctrine of grace encourage licentiousness? To assert this directly contradicts the Scriptures, which show that grace has the very opposite tendency. ‘The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world,’ Titus 2:11,12. Such is the testimony of God. ‘The grace of God manifests His love, and produces love in us, which is the first-fruit of the spirit, and the foundation of all acceptable obedience.

Let every believer glory in this grace of God by which he is predestinated, and called, and justified, and glorified. This is all his consolation and all his joy, for it is an indissoluble chain, which neither the world nor the powers of hell can break. Does he feel a holy sadness for having offended God, a holy desire to struggle against the corruptions of his heart, and to advance in the work of sanctification? does he hunger and thirst after righteousness, and is he seeking to put on the new man, and to possess more of the image of Christ? Let him conclude, from these certain marks of his calling, that he is justified, the righteousness of Christ being imputed to him, and that his happiness is as certain as if he was already glorified. But, on the other hand, let none abuse these doctrines. No one shall be glorified who does not previously partake of this holy calling. Let no one attempt to take away any of the parts of this chain, and to pass from election without the intermediate steps to glory. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.