Romans Commentary

Ver. 31: — What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Here the Apostle makes a sudden and solemn pause, while he emphatically demands, What shall we then say to these things? What can be said against them? Is it possible to value them too highly? What use shall we make of such consoling truths? What comfort shall we draw from them? Can anything detract from the peace they afford? On the foundation that God is for him, the eternal interest of the Christian is secured, and though he wrestles not only against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world; though of himself he can do nothing, yet, through Christ strengthening him, he can do all things. But what shall they say to these things who reject the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints; who maintain that God allows some to perish whom He hath justified; and that many things, instead of working for their good, contribute to their ruin? A conclusion entirely the reverse is to be deduced from all the consolations previously set forth by the Apostle, in reference to which he now exclaims, If God be for us who can be against us?

The expression if, which Paul here uses, does not denote doubt, but is a conclusion, or consequence, or affirmation, signifying since; as if he had said, Since we see by all these things that God is for us, who shall be against us? For is it not evident that God is for us, since He hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father;’ since the Spirit helps our infirmities; since all things work together for our good; since we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son? When we were alienated from Him, He called us; when we were sinners, He justified us; and, finally, translating us from a scene of trouble and afflictions, He will confer on us a crown of immortal glory. Since, then God thus favors us, who can be against us?

Many, however, in every age, speak of these things very blasphemously.

They are far from being pleasing to man’s wisdom. But they excite a different feeling in the breast of every Christian. They give a security to God’s people which supports them under a sense of their own weakness.

If they had no strength but their own, if there were no security for their perseverance but their own resolutions, they might indeed despond; for how could they ever arrive at heaven? But as this passage shows, that all things are secured by God, and that in His almighty hands all the links of the chain that connects them with heaven are indissolubly united, they have no language in which they can adequately express their wonder, gratitude, and joy. No truth can be more evident than this — that although we have innumerable enemies, and are ourselves utter weakness, yet, if God be for us, nothing can be so against us as finally to do us injury. As the angel said to Gideon, ‘The Lord is with thee,’ so the same is said in this passage to every Christian. ‘No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.’ ‘All men forsook me,’ said Paul, ‘but the Lord stood by me.’ As God had said to Israel, and Moses, and Joshua, so He said, ‘Fear not, Paul, for I am with thee.’ When Christians, surrounded with difficulties and enemies, are disposed to say, with the servant of Elisha, ‘Alas, what shall we do?’ the passage before us speaks the same language as did the Prophet, ‘Fear not, for they that be with us, are more than they that be with them,’ and likewise that of Hezekiah, ‘There be more with us than with them. With them is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles.’ It is added, ‘And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, King of Judah.’

In the verse before us we have two propositions. One is, that God is for us; the other, that nothing can be — that is, can prevail — against us.

From this we may consider who are against, and who is for believers.

There is arrayed against them a formidable host composed of many powerful enemies. There are Satan and all wicked spirits; there are the world, and indwelling sin; there are all sufferings, and death itself. How could believers themselves withstand the power of such antagonists? But, on the other hand, the Apostle shows in one word who is for them. God, says he, is for us! God is the shield of His people: He holds them in His hand, and none can pluck them out of it. ‘The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms!’

Ver. 32. — He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

In the preceding verse, the Apostle had comforted believers from the consideration that, if God, with all His glorious attributes, were engaged for their defense, they might look without dismay upon an opposing universe. Here, in order to confirm their confidence in God, he presents an argument to prove that God is with them of a truths and also to assure them that they shall receive from Him every blessing.

There are two circumstances calculated to inspire distrust in the mind of the believer. The one is the affections which press upon him in this world; and these of two kinds, namely, such as are common to all men, and such as are peculiar to the followers of Christ. The other circumstance calculated to cloud the hopes of the Christian, is the sins of which he is guilty. When suffering so many troubles, he has difficulty in persuading himself that he is favored by God, and is ready, with Gideon, to exclaim to the angel, ‘Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us?’ And, on the other hand, as he is by nature a child of wrath, and sins daily, how can he be sure that God is with him, and not rather against him? To these objections the Apostle here opposes the declaration that God hath not spared His own Son, but delivered Him up to the death for His people. No stronger argument could be offered in proof of His favor to them than the gift of His own Son. Him He has given to redeem them from all their sins and all their troubles; while such is the dignity and excellency of Christ, that the Apostle, arguing from the greater to the less, further proves that after such a gift as that of His own Son, nothing can be refused which is consistent with the glory of God and the salvation of their souls. He thus assures them of freedom from the evils they might dread from sin and suffering.

Paul does not say that the Father has given His Son, but that God has given Him. This is calculated to establish the confidence of believers more firmly, since, by referring to God, He brings into view all His perfections as infinitely good, powerful, wise, and able to render them supremely blessed in holiness and eternal glory. Another effect is to draw their attention to the greatness of the love of God; for one to whom we are in some respects equal may confer upon us His favors, but here we are reminded that the bestower is infinitely above us, being the Creator to whom we are indebted even for our existence. His goodness, then, is so much the more wonderful, that though He is the infinite Jehovah, dwelling in light which is inaccessible, of whom it is said ‘that He humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven’ <19B306> Psalm 113:6, still He draws near to us, and condescends to raise us up, who are as nothing before Him, and who, being the Creator of all things, has set His love on those who are sinful, and poor, and miserable.

What God has given is His own Son. — This imports that He is His Son in the sense of that relation among men. It is sonship in this sense only that shows the immensity of the love of God in this gift. This proves that it was greater than if He had given the whole creation. If His Son were related to Him in merely a figurative sonship, it could not be a proof of His ineffable love. God did not spare Him. — Not sparing Him may either mean that He spared Him not in a way of justice, 2 Peter 2:4, that is, exacted the utmost farthing of debt He had taken upon Him; or that He spared Him not in a way of bounty, that is, withheld Him not God spared Abraham’s son, but He spared not His own Son. This passage shows that Christ was given over by the Father to the sufferings which He bore, and that these sufferings were all necessary for the salvation of His people.

Had they not been necessary, He would not have exposed His Son to them. ‘It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.’ From all this it appears that God, who cannot deny Himself, 2 Timothy 2:13, could not show mercy to us without satisfying the demands of His justice, vindicating the authority of His law, and magnifying and honoring all the perfections of His nature. Delivered Him up for us all. — When the Jews seized and crucified our Lord Jesus Christ, He was delivered up by the Father’s decree, and by the direction of His providence, though it was through the guilty criminality of the Jews that He was put to death. It took place when His appointed hour arrived, for till then they could not accomplish their purpose. ‘Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.’ As the Father delivered Him up, the great end of His suffering was satisfaction of the justice of God; and as He bore the whole curse of the broken law, His people are never, on that account, to bear any portion of vindictive wrath. ‘It was exacted, and He answered,’ Isaiah 53:7. ‘Then;’ says the Son Himself, ‘I restored that which I took not away,’ Psalm 69:4. Thus the Father delivered up His Son to humiliation, involving an assumption of our nature and our transgressions. He delivered Him up to sorrows unparalleled, and even to death itself, — to death, not merely involving the dissolution of the soul and body, but the weight of the sins of men, and the wrath of God against sin. God thus delivered up His Son, that He might rescue us from that misery which He might have justly inflicted upon us, and might take us, who were children of wrath, into His heavenly presence, and there rejoice over us for ever, as the trophies of His redeeming love. For us all. — That is, for all to whom the Apostle is writing, whom he had addressed as beloved of God, called, saints, Romans 1:7, among whom he ranks himself. But as these epistles to the churches equally apply to all believers to the end of time, so this expression includes all the elect of God — all who have been given to Jesus — all in whose behalf He addressed the Father in His intercessory prayer. ‘I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me,’ John 17:9,20. That those to whom Paul here refers when he says, ‘for us all,’ applies to none but believers, is evident, — 1st, because in the preceding and following verses the Apostle speaks of those who love God, and who are the called according to His purpose; 2nd, he says in express terms that He will with Him freely give us all things, which implies that we have faith, by which we receive Jesus Christ. This absolute gift, then, concerns only those who, being elected by God, believe in Him. How shall He not with Him freely give us all things? — This is the most conclusive reasoning. If He has given us the greatest gift, He will not refuse the lesser. His Son is the greatest gift that could be given, — plainly, then, nothing will be withheld from those for whom He has given His Son. This also assumes the fact as granted, that Jesus is the Son of God in the literal sense; for in no other sense is the inference just. If Jesus were only figuratively a son, there is no room to infer, from the gift of Him to us, that the Father will give ‘us all things.’ These ‘all things’ are what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard. He will give His Spirit and eternal life. His children are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, whom He hath appointed heir of all things. The Apostle does not here speak of himself alone, as if this were a privilege peculiar to himself, to receive freely all things with Christ, but of all believers, — He will freely give us . And the expression, How, with which he commences, imports the absolute certainty that on all such they shall be bestowed.

When it is here said that God will give us all things, we are reminded that all the good things that we obtain or hope for are from God, who is the Author of every good and perfect gift: for a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven; and all that God gives us He gives freely, without money and without price. Here it may be remarked that the Apostle’s manner of reasoning, who concludes that, since God has not spared His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, He will with Him also freely give us all things, teaches us that the believer ought to reason out of the Scriptures, and draw the necessary consequence from what is said in them.

Ver. 33. — Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

Among the temptations to which the believer is exposed in this life, some are from without, others are from within. Within are the alarms of conscience, fearing the wrath of God; without are adversity and tribulations. Unless he overcomes the first he cannot prevail against the last. It is impossible that he can possess true patience and confidence in God in his afflictions, if his conscience labors under the apprehension of the wrath of God. On this account the Apostle, in the fifth chapter of this Epistle, in setting forth the accompaniments of justification by faith, first speaks of peace with God, and afterwards of glorying in tribulations. In the chapter before us he observes the same order; for, in this last part of it, in which he speaks of the triumph of the believer, he first fortifies the conscience against its fears from guilt, and next secures it against external temptations from afflictions. As to the first, he says, ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; it is Christ that died, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.’ And as to the last, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors.’

He does not mean to say that nothing shall occur to trouble believers, but that nothing shall prevail against them. In assuring them of this, he ascends to their election as the source of all their blessings. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? — The Apostle speaks here of God’s elect. This reminds believers that their election is not to be ascribed to anything in themselves, but is to be traced solely to the grace and mercy of God, by whom they were chosen in Christ before the, foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4. Their election demonstrates the vanity of all accusations that can be brought against them, either by their own conscience, by the world, or by Satan. Thus, while the Apostle removes every ground of boasting and vainglory, and all presumptuous thoughts of themselves, of their freewill and self-righteousness, he lays the sure foundation of joy and peace in believing. He leads us to the election of God as the source of all the good we enjoy or hope for, in order to set aside every ground for vainglory, and all presumption as to any worthiness in ourselves of our own will or righteousness, so that we may fully recognize the grace and mercy of God to us, who, even when we did not exist, chose us for Himself, according to His own good pleasure, Ephesians 1:4,5. He likewise does so that we may have a sure foundation to rest on, even God’s eternal and unchangeable purpose, instead of any fallacious hope from reliance on anything in ourselves.

When it is said here, ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?’ it does not refer to men generally, but to believers as the elect of God. The word elect must be taken in this place in its connection with called, as in the preceding verses, since it is here found connected with justification.

For a man might be elected, and yet not be for the present justified, as Paul, when he persecuted the Church, who was not justified till he actually believed, though even then elected, and, according to God’s purpose and counsel, ordained to salvation. It is God that justifeth. — This is the first thing which the Apostle opposes to the accusations that might be brought against the elect of God:

God justifies them. There is none that justifies besides God. None can absolve and acquit a sinner from guilt, and constitute and pronounce him righteous, but God alone! ‘I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake,’ Isaiah 43:25; for it is God alone against whom sin is committed, in reference to future condemnation. ‘Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned,’ Psalm 51:4. It is God alone that condemns, and therefore it is God alone that justifies. If, then, God has made believers just or righteous, who is he that will bring them in guilty? There are here two grounds upon which the Apostle founds the justification of believers. One is taken from its Author — it is God that justifies; the other is taken from the subjects of this privilege — they are the elect. And thus the freeness of justification, and its permanency, are both certified.

It is here established that the elect are saved in such a way that nothing can be laid to their charge. All their debt, then, must be paid, and all their sins must be atoned for. If full compensation has not been made, something might be laid to their charge. This shows that salvation is by justice, as well as by mercy, and gives a view of salvation that never would have entered into the heart of man. Nay, it is so far from human view, that even after it is revealed, it still lies hid from all the world, except from those who are taught of God. And some, even of them, being slow of heart to believe, are but partially enlightened in this glorious view of the salvation of the guilty.

Ver. 34. — Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Who is he that condemneth? — In the preceding verse it is asked, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? here it is demanded, Who shall condemn them? They who cannot be accused cannot be condemned.

God Himself is pleased to justify the elect, to deliver them from condemnation, and views them as possessing perfect righteousness; and being in this justified state by the judicial sentence of God, who shall dare to condemn them? None can discover a single sin of which to accuse them as still subjecting them to the curse of the law, and to bring them into that condemnation, from which they have been delivered by what God Himself hath done for them. It is here supposed that their condemnation is impossible, because it would be unjust. In similar language, the Lord Jesus Christ, the first elect of God, speaking by the Prophet Isaiah, 50:8, says, ‘He is near that justifieth Me; who will contend with Me?’ These words relate to His confidence in His Heavenly Father, who would uphold Him as His righteous servant; and it is on His righteousness and work that the acquittal of all those whom the Father hath given Him, and who are elected in Him, is rested. The Apostle having said that it is God that justifieth them, next proceeds to give the reasons of their freedom from condemnation. Four grounds are here stated: — 1st , Christ’s death; 2nd , His resurrection; 3rd , His enthronement at the right hand of God; and, 4th , His intercession. It is Christ that died. — By His death, the penalty of the holy law, on account of its violation by His people, was executed, and satisfaction made to Divine justice. In answer to the question, Who is he that condemneth? the Apostle replies that Christ died. By this he intimates the impossibility of our being absolved from sin, without satisfaction for the injury done to the rights of God’s justice and the sacred majesty of His eternal laws which had been violated; for the just God could not set aside His justice by His mercy, and justify sinners without an atonement. It is on this account that God had instituted sacrifices under the law, to hold forth the necessity of a satisfaction, and to prove that without shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin. There is, then, a manifest necessity of repairing the outrage against the perfections of God, which are the original and fundamental rule of the duty of the creature. This reparation could only be made by a satisfaction that should correspond with the august majesty of the holiness of God; and consequently it must be of infinite value, which could only be found in a person of infinite dignity.

To the death of Jesus Christ as the atonement for sin, our eyes are constantly directed throughout the Scriptures, whether by types, by prophecies, or by historical descriptions of the event. Death was the punishment threatened in the covenant of works against sin. But Jesus Christ had neither transgressed that covenant, nor could participate in the imputation of the sin of Adam, because He sprang not from him by the way of natural generation. Being, therefore, without sin, either actual or imputed, the penalty of death could not be incurred on His own account.

Death, then, which is the wages of sin, must have been suffered by Him for sinners. Their iniquities were laid on Him, and by His stripes they are healed. His death, therefore, utterly forbids the condemnation of the elect of God, who were given to Him, and are one with Him, of whom only the context speaks. It must be a just and full compensation for their sins. It is evidently implied that none for whom He died can be condemned. For if condemnation be forbidden by His death, then that condemnation must be prohibited with respect to all for whom He died. His death made satisfaction to justice for them, and therefore, in their case, both accusation and condemnation are rendered impossible. Yea rather, that is risen again. — This is the second ground affirmed by the Apostle against the possibility of the condemnation of God’s elect.

What purpose would the death of Christ have served, if He had been overcome and swallowed up by it? ‘If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.’ If He be not risen, it must be because He had not expiated those sins for which He died, and was therefore retained a prisoner by death. But since the Surety has been released from the grave, complete satisfaction must have been made; for if but one sin which had been laid upon Him had continued unatoned for, He would have remained for ever in the grave, death being the wages of sin. But now, since He has risen from the grave, the obligation against His people must be effaced and entirely abolished, His resurrection being their resurrection, Colossians 2:12. It is on this account that the Apostle here opposes to condemnation not only the death of Christ, but also His resurrection, as something higher, and as being our full absolution. And, by the commandment of Jesus Christ, the Gospel was not announced to the Gentiles, nor spread through the world, till after His resurrection, as He Himself said, Luke 24:46: ‘It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations.’

The resurrection, then, of Christ, is the proof of His victory, and of the entire expiation of His people’s sins. It is therefore opposed to their condemnation, as being the evidence and completion of their absolution and acquittal; for as the death of Jesus Christ was His condemnation, and that of all united to Him, so His resurrection is His absolution and also theirs. As the Father, by delivering Him to death, condemned their sins in Him, so, in raising Him from the dead, he pronounced their acquittal from all the sins that had been laid upon Him. This is what the Apostle teaches respecting the justification of Jesus Christ. He was justified by the Spirit, 1 Timothy 3:16; that is, declared and recognized to be righteous; and with regard to His people’s justification in Him, that as He had died for their sins, so He was raised for their justification. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was a manifestation of His Godhead and Divine power. He was declared to be the Son of God, and consequently possessing over all things absolute power and dominion. ‘For to this end Christ both died and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.’ Who is even at the right hand of God. — This is the third ground on which the security of God’s elect is rested. Jesus Christ sits at God’s right hand.

This is a figurative expression taken from the custom of earthly monarchs, to express special favor, and denotes, with respect to Christ, both dignity and power. ‘When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.’ Having finished the work of redemption, this was the result of His labors, and the testimony of its consummation. His thus sitting down indicates an essential difference between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Levitical priests. ‘Every priest standeth daily ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sin, for ever sat down on the right hand of God.’ The Levitical priests had never finished their work: it was still imperfect. They stood, therefore, ministering daily, in token of continued service. But Christ having offered one sacrifice for sins, by which He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified, for ever sat down on the right hand of God, Hebrews 10:12.

Jesus Christ, then, is not only raised from the dead, but has also ascended into heaven, and is possessed of all power and glory, and is there to defend His people. His seat at the right hand of God signifies His permanent exaltation as Mediator, and His communion with God in sovereign power and authority, reigning as the Head and King of His Church. The amount of the Apostles reasoning is, that such being the condition of Him who was dead and is risen again, possessed of the keys of hell and of death, who shall dare to appear before Him to bring an accusation against His members or to condemn the elect of God? Who also maketh intercession for us. — This is the fourth and last ground of the security of God’s elect. The intercession of Jesus Christ is the second act of His priesthood, and is a necessary consequence of His sacrifice, which is the first act, and precedes the third, namely, His coming forth from the heavenly sanctuary to bless those whom He has redeemed to God by His blood. His intercession consists in that perpetual application which He makes to His Father; in the name of His Church, of the blood which He shed on the cross for the salvation of His people, in order to obtain for them the fruits of that oblation. It was necessary that His sacrifice should be offered upon earth, because it was an act of His humiliation; but His intercession which supposes the establishment of righteousness and peace, is made in heaven, being an act of His exaltation.

This intercession was figuratively represented by the high priest in Israel, when, after having offered in his linen garments the sacrifice, without the precincts of the holy place, he took the blood of the victim, and, clothed in his sacerdotal golden robes, entered alone into the most holy place, and sprinkled the blood on and before the mercy-seat. Jesus Christ, then, who suffered without the gate, Hebrews 13:12, in accomplishing the truth of this figure, first offered upon earth His sacrifice, and afterwards entered in His glory into heaven, to present to His Father the infinite price of His oblation by the mystical sprinkling of His blood. This is not to be understood as being any bodily humiliation, as bowing the knee before God, but it is the presenting of His blood of perpetual efficacy. It is the voice of that blood which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel.

The blood of Jesus Christ being the blood of the everlasting covenant — that blood which was to reunite God with men, and men with God — it was necessary, after its being shed on the cross, that it should be thus sprinkled in heaven. ‘I go,’ says He to His disciples, ‘to prepare a place for you.’ It was necessary that this blood should be sprinkled there, and also upon them, before they could be admitted. But by its means they were prepared to enter into heaven, and heaven itself was prepared for their reception, which without that sprinkling would have been defiled by their presence. ‘Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.’ Jesus Christ is not only seated at the right hand of God, but He is there for the very purpose of interceding for His people. By the perpetual efficacy of His blood their sins are removed, and consequently every ground of their condemnation. This never-ceasing intercession of Him who ever liveth to advocate their cause, not only procures the remission of their sins, but also all the graces of the Holy Spirit; and by the efficacy of the Holy Spirit an internal aspersion is made upon their hearts when they are actually converted to God, and when by faith they receive the sprinkling of the blood of their Redeemer. For them He died, He rose, He ascended to heaven, and there intercedes. How, then, can they be condemned? How can they come short of eternal glory?

Ver. 35. — Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

In the contemplation of those glorious truths and Divine consolations which the Apostle had been unfolding, he had demanded, Who shall accuse, who shall condemn, the elect of God? he here triumphantly asks, Who shall separate them from the love of Christ? Having pointed out the grounds on which the fears of behaviors from within are relieved, he now fortifies them against fears from without. This order is the more proper, since their internal fears and misgivings are more formidable than their outward trials, and the hatred and opposition of the world; and until the believer, as has been observed, has overcome the former by having the answer of a good conscience towards God, he is not prepared to withstand the latter. Although the people of God are exposed to all the evils here enumerated, these shall not prevail to separate him from the love of Christ.

The term the love of Christ, in itself, may signify either our love to Christ, or Christ’s love to us; but that it is Christ’s love to us in this place there can be no question. A person could not be said to be separated from his own feelings. Besides, the object of the Apostle is to assure us not so immediately of our love to God, as of His love to us, by directing our attention to His predestining, calling, justifying, and glorifying us, and not sparing His own Son, but delivering Him up for us. In addition to this, it contributes more to our consolation to have our minds fixed upon God’s love to us than upon our love to God; for, as our love is subject to many failings and infirmities, and as we are liable to change, to endeavor to impart consolation from the firmness of our love, would be less efficacious than holding forth to us the love of God, in whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of change. The language, too, employed, favors this sense; for the Apostle does not say, ‘Who shall separate Christ from our love?’ but, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’ and, in the 37th verse, the meaning is determined by the expression, ‘We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. ’ God, however, in loving His children, makes them love Him; and believers are enabled to love Christ because He loves them. It is He who first loved us, and in loving us has changed our hearts, and produced in them love to Him. Paul prays that believers, ‘being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that they may be filled with all the fullness of God.’

To have a just idea of the love of Christ, we must contemplate its duration. It was from before the foundation of the world — from all eternity. We must consider that He who has loved us is the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, who dwelleth in light that is inaccessible; before whom the angels veil their faces, crying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts;’ and before whom the inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers, and the nations as a drop of a bucket. We must remember, too, who we are, who are the objects of His love, — not only creatures who are but dust and ashes, dwelling in houses of clay, but who were His enemies, and by nature children of wrath. We must also reflect on the greatness of His love, that it is His will we should be one with Him, and that He guards us as the apple of His eye. He loves His people as His members, of whom He is the Head, and sympathizes with them when they suffer. He calls their sufferings His sufferings, and their persecutions His persecutions, as He said to Saul persecuting His members, ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?’ He will also say to those on His right hand in the day of judgment that He hungered, and thirsted, and was naked, and that they gave Him to eat and drink, and clothed Him, when these things were done to the least of His members. He loves His people, too, as being their Husband, by that spiritual marriage He has contracted with them, as it is said, ‘Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.’

The love here spoken of as the security of believers being the love of Christ, Christ must be God. Were Christ not God, we might come short of heaven without being separated from His love. He might love, and yet not be able to save the objects of His love.

It is likewise to be remarked, that the confidence of believers that they shall not be separated from the love of Christ, is not founded on their high opinion of themselves, or on their own ability to remain firm against temptations, but is grounded on Christ’s love, and His ability to preserve and uphold them. As nothing can be laid to their charge — as none can condemn them — as all things that happen to them, instead of proving injurious, work together for their good, — it is impossible that they can be finally lost. If Christ so love them, what shall separate them from that love?

In specifying those evils which in appearance are calculated to separate the believer from the love of Christ, the Apostle points out the sufferings of the people of God, the time of these sufferings — all the day long; the manner — as sheep for the slaughter; the cause — for Thy sake. He distinguishes the seven evils that follow: — 1st , Tribulation. — This is placed first, as being a general term, comprehending all the particulars which he afterwards enumerates. It means affliction in general. It refers not only to the general state of suffering which, when man had sinned, it was pronounced should be his lot — ’In sorrow shalt thou eat of it (of the produce of the ground) all the days of thy life’ — but also more particularly to the tribulation which the disciples of Christ shall all more or less experience. ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation,’ John 16:33. The tribulation of unbelievers is the effect of the wrath of God; but the afflictions of His people are salutary corrections, which, so far from separating them from His love, yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and are for their profit, that they might not be condemned with the world, but be partakers of His holiness. ‘As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.’

To tribulation is added, 2nd , Distress, which signifies straits, difficulties, critical situations. It means the perplexity in which we are, when, under pressure or trouble, we see no way of deliverance, and no way to escape presents itself.

The word denotes a narrow place, in which we are so much pressed or straitened that we know not where to go or turn; which expresses the condition of the believer when he is not only oppressed, but reduced to extremity. ‘Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress,’ Psalm 4:1. 3rd , Persecution is affliction for the profession of the Gospel. The persecuted have often been pursued and constrained to flee from place to place, as the Lord Jesus was carried into Egypt when Herod sought to kill Him. ‘If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.’ But so far is persecution from separating believers from the love of Christ, that ‘Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.’ 4th , Famine. — To this the persecuted are frequently subjected, though they may have been rich and powerful. 5th , Nakedness. — The disciples have often been reduced to indigence and poverty, stripped by their enemies, and obliged to wander naked in deserts, and to hide themselves, like wild beasts, in caves of the earth, Hebrews 11:38. Paul himself was frequently exercised with hunger, and thirst, and fastings, and cold, and nakedness. 6th , Peril. — This refers to the dangers to which the Lord’s people are exposed. These, at some times, and in some countries, are exceedingly many and great; and at all times, and in all countries, are more or less numerous and trying. If God were not their protector, even in this land of freedom, the followers of the Lamb would be cut off or injured. It is the Lord’s providence that averts such injuries, or overrules events for the protection of His people. This is too little considered even by themselves, and would be thought a most unfounded calumny or fanatical idea by the world. But let the Christian habitually consider his safety and protection as secured by the Lord, rather than by the liberality of the times. That time never yet was when the Lord’s people could be safe, if circumstances removed restraint from the wicked. Those who boast of their unbounded liberality would, if in situations calculated to develop their natural hatred of the truth, prove, after all, bitter persecutors. f44 7th , Sword. — This means violence carried to the utmost extremity. It is persecution which stops not with smaller injuries but inflicts even death.

Ver. 36. — As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

As it is written. — To the enumeration of evils presented in the foregoing verse, the Apostle here adds the testimony of the Scriptures, by which he verifies what is declared in the fifteenth chapter. ‘For whatever things were written afore time, were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.’ And to what purpose would, it be to appeal to the afflictions of the Church under the former dispensation, were it not to lead us to patience under the Gospel?

For if believers in that period bore their trials with patience, how much more should we do so when God now clearly reveals His saving grace, and not as formerly in figures and shadowed. In this manner the Lord and His Apostles frequently appeal to the Old Testament Scriptures, by which they testify to them as the word of God, and also show the agreement between the Old Testament and the New. The reference, then, is not intended to state a similar fact in similar language, by way of what is called accommodation, according to the interpretation of Mr. Stuart, Mr. Tholuck, and others. A greater indignity to the Scriptures, and the Spirit of God, by whom they were dictated, cannot be offered, than to assert that passages of the Old Testament, which are quoted by the Apostles as predictions, are only an accommodation of words. This would not merely be silly, but heinously criminal. It is not only irreverent to suppose that the Apostles, in order to enforce the truth of what they were teaching, would quote the language of the Spirit in a meaning which the Holy Spirit did not intend to convey, but it is a charge of palpable falsehood and dishonesty against the writers of the New Testament, as calling that a fulfillment which is not a fulfillment, and appealing to the Old Testament declarations as confirmatory of their own doctrine, when they were aware that it was merely a fanciful accommodation of words, and that they were deluding their readers. Are practices to be admitted, in explanation of the word of God, which are never tolerated on other subjects, and which, if detected, would cover their authors with disgrace?

The quotation here shows that this passage in the Psalm, to which the reference is made, was in its fullest sense a prediction, and this regards the fulfillment. It was indeed a historical fact, and verified with respect to the Jews. But this fact, instead of proving it not to be prophetical and typical, is the very circumstance that fits it for that purpose. ‘The quotation here,’ says Professor Stuart, ‘comes from Psalm 44:22 [Septuagint 43:22], and is applied to the state of Christians in the Apostle’s times, as it was originally to those whom the Psalmist describes; in other words, the Apostle describes the state of suffering Christians, by the terms which were employed in ancient days to describe the suffering people of God.’

What could be more degrading to the book of God than the supposition that the Apostles ever quoted the Scriptures in this manner, by way of accommodation? How does this hide the glory of the perfection of the Old Testament, as in figure it exhibits Christ and His Church! For Thy sake. — It was for God’s sake that the Jews were hated and persecuted by the other nations, because, according to the commandment of God, they separated themselves from them in all their worship. They could have not religious fellowship with them, and on that account they were regarded as enemies to the rest of mankind. In like manner, when Christianity appeared, preferring a solemn charge of falsehood against all other religions in the world, Christians were accused of hating all mankind.

This was the grand accusation against them in primitive times by the heathens, and even by such historians as the so-called philosophic Tacitus.

Christians, in the same way, are still hated by the world, because they profess that salvation is only through the blood of Christ. As this implies that all who do not hold that doctrine are in error and ignorance, and under condemnation, it excites in the strongest manner the enmity of the world.

But the cause of this hatred must be traced to a principle still deeper, even the enmity of the carnal mind against God, and against His image in man, wherever it is seen. It is the working of that enmity which God put at the beginning between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, Genesis 3:15 The afflictions and trials of the people of God are here referred to, to induce believers to exercise patience, to teach them not to promise themselves exemption from the treatment experienced by those who formerly lived under the covenant of God, but rather to remember that, if sometimes spared, it is owing to the forbearance and mercy of God. They are appealed to in order to lead them to consider the goodness of God in former times, as exhibited in the issues of the afflictions with which He visited His people, not to separate them from His love, but to do them good in the latter end. ‘Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.’

How much consolation and joy should Christians experience in suffering affliction of any description whatever, when they can appeal to their Lord and Savior, and say, It is for ‘Thy sake,’ Matthew 5:11. So far from being separated from the love of Christ by such sufferings, they are by them made more conformable to His image. In suffering for evil, men are conformable to the image of the first Adam. We are killed. — In speaking of those sufferings, which shall not separate believers from God, the Apostle here refers to death, the highest point to which they can be carried. As to the time, he speaks of it as ‘all the day long;’ that is, they are constantly exposed to the greatest measure of suffering in this life, and are frequently exercised with it. As to the manner, he says, We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. — The enemies of the people of God have often given them up to death with as little reluctance as sheep are driven to the slaughter. There is pity even for the murderer on the scaffold, but for Christ and His people there is none. The cry still is against the servants, as it was against the Master, ‘Crucify, crucify.’ Even in death they find no sympathy. This is attested by history in every age and country; witness the repeated and dreadful persecutions of Christians during the first three centuries, when they were treated not like men but as wild beasts, and the cry of the multitude was, ‘The Christians to the lions.’ When there is a respite from persecution, it is through the kind providence of God, when He restrains the malice of him who was a murderer from the beginning, and the evil passions of men, who are the willing instruments of Satan.

Ver. 37. — Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.

The sufferings of believers above enumerated, which, as the Apostle had just shown, verify the truth of the ancient predictions of the word of God, shall not separate them from the love of Christ, but, on the contrary, are to them the sources of the greatest benefits. Through them they are more than conquerors. — This is a strong expression, but in its fullest import it is strictly true. The Christian not only overcomes in the worst of his trials, but more than overcomes his adversaries, and all those things which seem to be against him. It is possible to overcome, and yet obtain no advantage from The contest, nay, to find the victory a loss. But the Christian not only vanquishes, he is also a gainer by the assault of his enemy. It is better for him than if he had not been called to suffer. He is a gainer and a conqueror, both in the immediate fruits of his sufferings, as God overrules them for his good, bringing him forth from the furnace as gold refined, and also in their final issue; for ‘our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ The term conquerors reminds us that the life of a believer is a warfare, in which he is called to combat, both within and without. We may remark, too, the difference between the judgment of God, and the judgment of men, respecting the victory of believers. In the world, persecutors and oppressors are judged as the conquerors; but here, those are pronounced to be such, who are oppressed and persecuted. They are the servants of Him whom the world put to death, but who said to His disciples, ‘Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’ Through Him that loved us. — The Apostle says that we are more than conquerors, not through Him that loves us, but through Him that loved us, — using the past time, thus directing our attention to Christ dying for us.

His love to us is the character by which Christ is often described, as if it were that by which He should be best known to us, and as if, in comparison, there was none but He alone who loved us. ‘Who loved me,’ says the Apostle, ‘and gave Himself for me.’ ‘Who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.’ ‘Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.’ This expression shows that the confidence spoken of in this place is a confidence wholly grounded on Christ’s love and power, and not on our own firmness. It is not by our own loyalty and resolution, but through Him that loved us, that we are more than conquerors. In the Apostle Peter we see the weakness of all human affection and resolutions.

All the glory, then, of this victory which we obtain is to be ascribed solely to God; for it is He who is at our right hand, and who supports us in all our afflictions. In the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Revelation, the Lamb, who is Jesus Christ, is represented as combating against the enemies of His Church. He is our shield, our rock, and our refuge. It is declared that we are ‘kept (as in a garrison) by the power of God,’ Peter 1:5, in order that we may not presume on our own strength, or attribute to ourselves the glory of our preservation; but that we may keep our eyes fixed upon Him who, with His outstretched arm, conducts us to the heavenly Canaan.

Ver. 38. — Far I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come.

In the preceding verses Paul had proclaimed the triumph of believers over everything within and without them, that seemed to endanger their security. He had spoken of tribulation, and distress, and persecutions, and famine, and nakedness, and peril, and sword, over all of which he had pronounced them more than conquerors. He now proceeds, in the same triumphant language, to defy enemies still more formidable; asserting that all the conceivable powers of the universe shall not be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ. For I am persuaded — Here Paul introduces his own persuasion of the love of God to His people, that in so doing others may imitate him. This appears more fully in the next verse, by his making the constancy of God’s love a privilege not peculiar to himself, but common to all His people. He sets before believers this persuasion, to confirm them in the conviction that they need not fear the want of God’s support to enable them to overcome all trials, and surmount all dangers. For this persuasion is not conjectural, but an assured confidence, such as he expresses when he says, ‘I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day,’ Timothy 1:12.

Here we see the nature and quality of faith as opposed to the doctrine of the Church of Rome, which holds it to be merely a general belief of all that God has said, without confidence in His promises, or assurance of His grace. But the object of the Gospel, which is called ‘the Gospel of peace,’ is, that those who have fled for refuge to the hope set before them, should have strong consolation, Hebrews 6:18, and peace in their conscience.

The words, ‘I am persuaded,’ used by the Apostle, about that faith is a persuasion, and a union and conformity of heart to the word which we believe. Our reception of the promises, then, is a special application of them, when we take home to ourselves the grace and love of God, as the Apostle does when he says, verse 39, that nothing shall be able to separate us, to prove that he speaks in the name of all believers, and that, in this triumph of faith, he employs language common to them all. The objection that the language he used was appropriate only to Apostles, would set aside his intention and object altogether. The Church of Rome, however, objects, that in order to this application of faith, the Gospel should speak to each individual by his name, and say, ‘Thou art saved, thou art pardoned.’ But if, as they admit, the law, by its general propositions, obliges every one to obey it, while it names no person individually, and in saying, ‘Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them,’ condemns every man who does not yield obedience to its commands, why should they deny that the propositions of the Gospel comprise every believer in particular, or affirm that in saying, ‘He that believeth in Jesus hath eternal life,’ it does not speak to all who believe in Jesus, and declare that each one of them hath eternal life? When the law says, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ ought any one to doubt that these commandments are addressed to him? But, in the Gospel, we find the same manner of speaking. ‘If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.’ Every believer, then, should rejoice in the declarations and promises of the Gospel, as if they were addressed to him by name. That neither death. — Death itself shall not separate believers from the love of God, nor should they question His love because He has appointed that they should die once. Death, with all its accompaniments, which are always solemn and sometimes terrible, may wear the semblance of God’s displeasure. But, notwithstanding the pains and sufferings by which it is usually preceded, especially when inflicted by persecution, to which there may be here a particular allusion, — notwithstanding the humiliating dissolution of the body into dust, — yet God is with His children when they walk through this dark valley, and ‘precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.’ In their death they have fellowship with Him who has disarmed it of its sting, and destroyed him that had the power of death. So far from separating them from God, it is His messenger to bring them home to Himself. If its aspect be terrible, it is still like the brazen serpent in the wilderness, which had but the form of a serpent, without its deadly poison. It dissolves the earthly house of their tabernacle, but introduces them into their house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. It discharges the soul from the burden of sin, that it may be clothed with perfect holiness; for death, although the effect of sin, is the occasion of slaying and destroying it in the believer. Nor life. — This is the next thing that the Apostle enumerates as threatening to separate believers from the love of God. It includes all the dangers and difficulties they have to encounter while passing through this world, and carrying about with them a body of sin and death amidst the various temptations from prosperity or adversity to which they are exposed. Yet Christ is their shepherd, and the Holy Spirit their leader. So far from separating them from the love of God, life as well as death are included among the privileges which belong to the children of God, Corinthians 3:22.

Nor angels. — Some restrict this to good angels, and some to evil angels.

There is no reason why it should not include both. Mr. Stuart asks, How can the good angels, ‘who are sent forth to minister to such as are heirs of salvation ( Hebrews 1:14), be well supposed to be opposers and enemies of Christians?’ But how could Mr. Stuart pronounce such a judgment in the face of the Apostle himself on another occasion/ If ‘an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.’ Could an angel from heaven be supposed a false preacher rather than a persecutor? But such suppositions are common in Scripture. They do not imply the possibility of the things supposed; and it fully justifies them, if the consequence would follow from the supposition, were it realized. By the expression, ‘nor height, nor depth,’ Mr. Stuart understands is meant neither heaven nor hell. Did he not observe, then, that this is inconsistent with his objection to explaining the term principalities and powers as referring to heavenly angels? If height means heaven, surely it is the inhabitants of the place who are meant, not the place itself. Nor principalities, nor powers. — This is also variously interpreted. Some confine it to angels, and some to civil rulers. There is no reason that it should not extend to the words in their widest meaning. It is true of civil powers; it is equally true of all angelic powers. It is as true with respect to principalities in heaven, as it is with respect to those in hell. Were all the principalities, through all creation, to use their power against Christians, it would not succeed. They have Christ on their side; who, then, can prevail against them? This justifies strong expressions in the exhibition of Divine truth. We are warranted by this to illustrate Scripture doctrine from the supposition of things impossible, in order the more deeply to impress the human mind with the truth inculcated. This fact is of great importance as to the explanation of Scripture. Nor things present, nor things to come. — Neither the trials nor afflictions in which the children of God are at any time involved, nor with which they may at any future period be exercised, will avail to separate them from Christ. There is nothing that can happen against which the providence of God does not secure them. What dangers should they dread when He says, ‘Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel’ ‘When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior.’ Nothing does happen, nothing can happen, which, from eternity, He hath not appointed and foreseen, and over which He hath not complete control.

Ver. 39. — Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God , which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nor height, nor depth. — These expressions appear to comprise all that had been said of angels, principalities, and powers, including them altogether to give greater force to the declaration concerning them.

Wherever they were, or whatever other power might inhabit heaven above, or hell beneath, if either a part of them, or the whole in combination, were to assail those whom Jesus loves, it would be of no avail. A reference may also be made to the highest state of prosperity to which a man may be elevated, or the lowest degree of adversity to which he may be depressed — of honor or of reproach. Neither the situation of Solomon the king, amidst the splendors of royalty, nor that of Lazarus the beggar, clothed in rags and covered with sores, although both are dangerous in the extreme, shall separate the believer from the love of God. Nor any other Creature. — The Apostle here, in conclusion of his discourse, after his long enumeration, intending to accumulate into one word all possible created existence in the whole universe, adds this expression, which completes the climax. Any other creature, that is, any creature which at present or hereafter should exist, all being created by and for Jesus Christ, and subordinate to His power, — no such creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Him. From all the evils above enumerated God has delivered His people, not that they should not suffer them, but that they should not be overcome by them. The love of God. — Here what was before called the love of Christ is called the love of God. Could such a variety of expressions be used if Christ were not God as well as the Father? Among all the uncertainties of this life, that which is certain and can never fail, is the love of God to His children. On this ground, Job, when deprived of all his earthly possessions, exclaims, ‘Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him,’ Job 13:15. ‘My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever,’ Psalm 73:26. In Christ Jesus our Lord. — The love of God is here declared to be in Christ Jesus, to show that it is not God’s love in general that is here referred to, but that covenant love with which God loves us as His children, His heirs, and joint heirs with His only-begotten and well-beloved Son. If it were simply said that God loves us, we might say, in reflecting on our sins, how can God love such sinful creatures as we are; and how can we assure ourselves of the continuance of His love, since we are daily sinning, and provoking Him to anger? The Apostle, therefore, sets forth to us Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, as the medium of this love, in order that while we see that we are sinners and worthy of condemnation we may regard ourselves as in Jesus Christ, in whom we are reconciled, and washed from our sins in His blood.

It is this medium to which the Apostle refers when he says, ‘He hath made us accepted in the Beloved,’ and God ‘hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in, heavenly places in Christ; ‘He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,’ Ephesians 1:4. As, then, Jesus Christ is the true object of the love of the Father, as He testified by the voice from heaven, so in Him He loves His people with an everlasting love. To Him He had given them from eternity, and has united them to Him in time, that He might love them in Him, and by Him. Thus the Father loves no man out of the Son. As the sins of men had rendered them enemies to God, His justice could never have permitted them to be the objects of His love, if He had not expiated their sins, and washed them in the blood of His Son. Whoever, then, is not or shall not be in Christ, is not loved by the Father, but the wrath of God abideth on him. As the Apostle John testifies that God hath given us life, and this life is in His Son, so the Apostle Paul here declares that God hath given us His love, but that this love is in Jesus Christ. Consequently, we should not look for its cause in our works, or in anything in ourselves, but in Jesus Christ alone. Its incomprehensible extent and eternal duration are seen in His own words, when, addressing His Father, He says, ‘And hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me;’ and again, ‘Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world,’ John 17:23.

The love of God, then, to His people, flows entirely through Jesus Christ.

Men in general are fond of contemplating God as a God of benevolence.

They attempt to flatter Him by praising His beneficence. But God’s love to man is exercised only through the atonement made to His justice by the sacrifice of His Son. Those, therefore, who rejoice Christ and hope to partake of God’s love through any other means than Christ’s all-powerful mediation, must fail of success. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby a sinner can be saved. As there was no protection in Egypt from death by the destroying angel except in those houses that were sprinkled with the blood of the paschal lamb, so none will be saved in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, except those who are sprinkled with the blood of atonement.

The order followed by the Apostle in all this discourse is very remarkable.

First, he challenges our enemies in general, and defies them all, saying, ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ Next, he shows, in detail, that neither the want of anything good, nor the occurrence of any evil, ought to trouble us. Not the want of any good, for ‘God hath not spared His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; how, then, shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’ Not the occurrence of any evil, for that would be either within us or without us. Not within us, for the evil that is within us is sin, and as to sin, ‘It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.’ Not anything without us, for it would be either in the creatures, or in God. Not in the creatures, for that would be ‘tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.’ But ‘in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.’ Not in God, for then there must be variableness and change in His love. ‘Now,’ says the Apostle, ‘I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ On this he rests the believer’s peace and assurance, and with these words he concludes his animated and most consolatory description of the victory and triumph of faith.

Well, indeed, may the Gospel be called the wisdom of God. It harmonizes things in themselves the most opposite. Is it not astonishing to find the man, who before had declared that there was no good thing in him, here challenging the whole universe to bring a charge against any of the elect of God? With respect to every Christian, in one point of view, it may be asserted that there is nothing good in him; and in another, it may be as confidently asserted that there is in him nothing evil. How could Paul say of himself, after he was a partaker of the holiness of the Spirit of truth, that there was nothing good in him? It was as concerned his own corrupt human nature. On what principle could he say, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It was as they are in Christ Jesus. This is beautifully exhibited, 1 Corinthians 1:30. God hath united us to Christ Jesus in such an intimate manner, that His obedience is our obedience; His sufferings are our sufferings; His righteousness is our righteousness, for He is made unto us righteousness. This fully explains the ground on which we stand righteous before God: we stand in Christ. He has taken away all our sins. He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. It is of the highest importance fully to understand our oneness with Christ. This will give the utmost confidence before God, while we entertain of ourselves the lowest opinion.

Besides all the other strong grounds of consolation contained in this chapter, it incontrovertibly establishes the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, which, though clearly exhibited in so many other parts of Scripture, is opposed by the Church of Rome, which teaches that believers may finally fall from the love of God, thus representing that love as variable and inconstant. They make the grace of God to depend on the will of man for its effect; and as the will of man is mutable, so they believe that the grace of God is likewise mutable; and, having ascribed to their free will the glory of perseverance, they have like many who call themselves Protestants, lost altogether the doctrine of the perseverance of believers unto eternal life. Closely connected with this doctrine of perseverance, is the believer’s knowledge of his acceptance with God, without which that of final perseverance, or, more properly speaking, the certainty of preservation by God, could impart to him no comfort. When one of these doctrines is mentioned in Scriptures, the other is generally referred to.

Both of them are intimately connected with the Christian’s love to God, his joy and peace, and with his being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God. The enemies of this doctrine insist that it sets aside the necessity of attending to good works. On the contrary, it establishes them, and obliges us to perform them, not from servile fear, but from gratitude, and filial love to our Heavenly Father. God combats for us against principalities, and powers, and all our enemies; we ought, therefore, to fight under His banner. The believer combats along with God, while the issue of the combat and all the victory is from God, and not from the believer.

It was one great object of the apostle to hold out strong consolation to all who had fled for refuge, to lay hold of the hope set before them, and to urge them to give all diligence to the full assurance of hope. In exhorting to the duties of the Christian life, they proceeded on the ground that those to whom they wrote had the knowledge of their interest in the mediation of Christ, of the forgiveness of their sins through His love, and of the enjoyment of the love of God, to whom, by that Spirit of adoption which they had received, they cried, ‘Abba, Father’ and from all their Epistles it appears that those whom they addressed enjoyed this assurance. Paul accordingly exhorts the believers at Ephesus not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby they were soaked unto the day of redemption, and immediately after enjoins on them the duty of forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, had forgiven them. ‘Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of light.’ When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shalt ye also appear with Him in glory; mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth,’ Colossians 3:4. The Apostle Peter exhorts those to whom he wrote to love one another fervently, seeing they had purified their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit. And the Apostle John enjoins on the little children, the young men, and the fathers, not to love the world, because their sins were forgiven; because they had known Him that is from the beginning, and because they had known the Father. The exhortations of the Apostles are in this manner grounded on the knowledge that those to whom they were directed were supposed to have of their interest in the Savior. Without this, the motives on which they are pressed to obedience would be unavailing.

The whole strain of the apostolic Epistles is calculated to confirm this knowledge, which is referred to as the spring of that joy unspeakable and full of glory with which those who were addressed rejoiced, 1 Peter 1:8.

Their faith, then, must have been an appropriating faith, taking home to themselves individually, according to its measure, the promises of mercy, and enabling them to say each for himself, with the Apostle, ‘I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I have; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.’ No believer, without this persuasion that Christ gave Himself for him, and that he is ‘dead unto sin,’ and ‘alive unto God,’ should rest satisfied. If, in opposition to this, it be said that assurance of our interest in Christ is a gift of God, which He bestows as He sees good, it should be recollected that so also are all spiritual blessings; and if of these it is our duty diligently to seek for a continual supply and increase, it is our duty to seek for this personal assurance among the rest. It is glorifying to Christ our Savior, and highly important to ourselves. This assurance is what we are commanded to aim at, and to give all diligence to attain; and full provision is made for it in the Gospel, Hebrews 6:11-20; 2 Peter 1:10. We enjoy this assurance of our salvation, when we are walking with God, and in proportion as we walk with Him.

The full assurance of faith, in which believers are commanded to draw near to God, stands inseparably connected with having their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. An evil conscience accuses a man as guilty, as deserving: and liable to punishment, and keeps him at a distance from God.

It causes him to regard the Almighty as an enemy and avenger, so that the natural enmity of the mind against God is excited and strengthened. On the contrary, a good conscience is a conscience discharged from guilt, by the blood of Christ. Conscience tells a man that the wages of sin is death, and that he has incurred the penalty; but when the atonement made by Christ is believed in, it is seen that our sins are no more ours, but Christ’s, upon whom God hath laid them all, and that the punishment due for sin, which is death, has been inflicted upon Him; the demands of the law have been fulfilled, and its penalty suffered. On this the believer rests, and his conscience is satisfied. It is thus purged from dead works, and this is what is called the answer of a good conscience toward God, 1 Peter 3:21. This answer of a good conscience cannot be disjoined from assurance of our acceptance with Him to whom we draw near; and the degree in which both this assurance, and a good conscience, are enjoyed, will be equal. As far, then, as the duty of a Christian’s possessing this assurance is denied, so far the duty of having the answer of a good conscience is not admitted.

The same also is true respecting the grace of hope. Hope is the anchor of the soul, to the attainment of the full assurance of which believers are commanded to give all diligence, and they are encouraged to hold fast the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. It is when they have the hope of beholding Jesus as He is that they purify themselves even as He is pure, 1 John 3:3. The ‘hope of salvation’ covers their heads in the combat in which they are engaged, which they are therefore commanded to put on, and wear as an helmet, 1 Thessalonians 5:8. In writing to the Thessalonians, the Apostle ascribes to God and the Lord Jesus Christ the everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace, which had been given to them. And he prays for the believers at Rome that the God of hope may fill them with all joy and peace in believing, and that they might abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.

This good hope through grace, then, as well as a conscience purged from dead works — the duty of possessing which no Christian will deny — stand inseparably connected with the personal assurance of an interest in the Savior, and all of them lie at the foundation of love to God, and consequently of acceptable obedience to Him. We love Him when we see that He hath loved us, and that His Son is the propitiation for our sins. ‘Thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes, and I have walked in Thy truth,’ Psalm 26:3. ‘Lord, I have hoped for Thy salvation, and done Thy commandments,’ <19B9166> Psalm 119:166. In this manner was David led to serve God. When, according to the precious promise of our blessed Lord, the Spirit takes of the things that are His — the glory of His person, and the perfection of His work — and discovers them to us, we then know whom we have believed, the conscience is discharged from guilt; and thus, hoping in God, and having our hearts enlarged, we run the way of His commandments, <19B932> Psalm 119:32, and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, and peace. But how can there be love without a sense of reconciliation with God; and how can the fruits of joy and peace be brought forth till the conscience is discharged from guilt? It is earnestly and repeatedly enjoined on believers to rejoice in the Lord; but how can they rejoice in Him unless they have the persuasion that they belong to Him? ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength,’ Nehemiah 8:10. ‘The end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned,’ 1 Timothy 1:5. Love flows from a pure heart, a pure heart from a good conscience, and a good conscience from true faith. The necessity of a good conscience, in order to acceptable obedience to God, is forcibly pointed out, Hebrews 9:14. ‘How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?’ Till this takes place, all a man’s doings are dead works , or, as the Apostle expresses it in the seventh chapter of this Epistle, ‘fruit unto death.’ An evil or guilty conscience leads a man to keep at a distance from God, like Adam, who, conscious of his guilt, hid himself among the trees of the garden. But when the conscience is made good, — that is, is at peace, — the heart is purified, and love is produced. Then, and not till then, when ascribing praise to the Lamb who has washed us from our sins in His own blood, and having a sense of reconciliation with God, and of the enjoyment of His favor, we serve Him in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter — not from servile fear, but with gratitude and filial affection. Thus, having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, His flesh; and having an High Priest over the house of God, we draw near with a true heart, in the full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. We enjoy the persuasion that by His mercy we are saved by the wishing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. ‘Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.’ What is this rest but that peace and repose of the soul which can never be found but in God? Then we can adopt the language of the Psalmist, ‘I will go unto God, my exceeding joy.’

The Spirit of God being holy, will not produce Christian assurance without at the same time producing sanctification, and by this sanctification the persuasion is confirmed of our communion with God; for although our sanctification be imperfect, it is a certain mark of our election.

When we feel a holy sadness for having offended God, we enjoy the blessedness of those who mourn, and are assured that we shall be comforted. When we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we have the promise that we shall be filled. This mourning for sin, and thirsting after righteousness, on which the Savior pronounces His blessing, can only proceed from the Spirit of God, and not from the desire of the carnal mind, which is enmity against God. The fruits of the Spirit are first produced by believing in Christ, trusting in Him, and regarding what He has done without us, and are increased and confirmed by what He is doing within us. Abounding in the fruits of righteousness, we make our calling and election sure. Keeping his commandments, we prove our love to our Savior, and He manifests Himself to us as He doeth not unto the world.

Personal application, or the appropriation of faith, is often signalized in Scripture. Moses says; ‘The Lord is my strength and my song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God,’ Exodus 15:2. Job says, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God,’ Job 19:25. ‘I know,’ says David, ‘that God is for me,’ Psalm 56:9. ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,’ Psalm 23:1. ‘The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup,’ Psalm 16:5. ‘I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower,’ Psalm 18:1. ‘I know,’ says Paul, ‘whom I have believed.’ John says, ‘We have known and believed the love that God hath to us.’ Peter, classing himself with those to whom he wrote, blesses God that he and they were begotten again to a lively hope of an inheritance reserved in heaven; and, referring to their final perseverance, he adds, that they were ‘kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation.’ In the hope of that salvation, those who received the doctrine of the Apostles rejoiced as soon as it was announced to them, Acts 2:41, 8:39, 16:34. Their joy, then, had not its source in reflection on, or consciousness of, their faith, or its effects, although afterwards so confirmed, but arose, in the first instance, from the view they had of the glory and all-sufficiency of the Savior, and His perfect righteousness made theirs by faith, resting on the Divine warrant and promise, ‘In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him,’ Ephesians 3:12.

Although the assurance of sense be confirmatory of the assurance of faith it is not so strong as the latter. ‘Sanctification,’ says Rutherford, ‘does not evidence justification as faith doth evidence it, with such a sort of clearness as light evidences colors, though it be no sign or evident mark of them; but as smoke evidences fire, and as the morning star in the east evidenceth the sun will shortly rise; or as the streams prove there is a head-spring whence they issue; though none of these make what they evidence visible to the eye; so doth sanctification give evidence of justification, only as marks, signs, effects, give evidence of the cause. But the light of faith, the testimony of the Spirit by the operation of free grace, will cause us, as it were, with our eyes, see justification and faith, not by report, but as we see the sun’s light.’

If it be objected that a man cannot know that he has faith without seeing its effects; it is replied that this is contrary to fact. When a thing is testified, or a promise is made to us, we know whether or not we believe it, or trust in it. According to this objection, when Philip said, ‘If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest,’ the eunuch should have replied, ‘You ask me to tell you a thing I cannot know;’ but instead of this, he answers, ‘I believe.’ When the Lord asked the blind man, ‘Believest thou in the Son of God?’ he did not ask a question which it was impossible to answer. Does the Spirit of God cry in the hearts of believers, ‘Abba, Father,’ and witness with their spirits that they are the children of God, without their being able to know it? If, however, the flesh raises doubts in the believer, from the weakness of his faith, he should consider that the weakness of his faith does not prevent it from being true faith; that God accepts not the perfection but the reality of faith; that Jesus Christ recognized the faith of him who said, ‘Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief; ‘and that these doubts are not in his faith, but opposed to it.

They are in the flesh, with the believer resists, and says with Paul, ‘Now, if I do what I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.’ ‘In the first act of believing,’ says Mr. Bell in his work On the Covenants , ‘sinners have no evidence of grace in themselves: they feel nothing within but sin; they see a word without them as the sole foundation of faith, and on that alone they build for eternity. This is a point of no small importance to saints and sinners. Many of the modern builders are at great pains to keep their hearers from all confidence till they first discern the evidences of grace in their hearts; and, having got evidence, then, and not till then, can they have any just, lawful, or well-grounded confidence, — nay, they seem pretty plainly to intimate that a sinner’s right to Christ turns on something wrought in him, or done by him, and till he have evidence of this, he can claim no interest in Christ, nor assure himself of salvation by Him. According to this, Christ, the Tree of Life, is forbidden fruit, which the sinner must not touch till he has seen inward evidence. I confess I have not so learned Christ. The sinner’s right to Christ turns not at all upon any inward gracious qualifications, but purely on the Divine warrant revealed in the word. Faith is not a qualification in order to come to Christ, but the coming itself; it is not our right to Christ, but our taking and receiving Him to ourselves on the footing of the right conveyed by the Gospel offer.’ ‘Tis a thing of huge difficulty,’ says Archbishop Leighton, ‘to bring men to a sense of their natural misery, to see that they have need of a Savior, and to look out for one. But then, being brought to that, ‘tis no less, if not more difficult, to persuade them that Christ is He; that as they have need of Him, so they need no more, He being able and sufficient for them. All the waverings and fears of misbelieving minds do spring from dark and narrow apprehensions of Jesus; Christ. All the doubt is not of their interest, as they imagine; they who say so, and think it is so, do not perceive the bottom and root of their own malady. They say they do no whit doubt but that He is able enough, and His righteousness large enough, but all the doubt is, if He belong to me. Now, I say this doubt arises from a defect and doubt of the former, wherein you suspect it not. Why doubtest thou that He belongs to thee? Dost thou fly to Him, as lost and undone in thyself? Dost thou renounce all that can be called thine, and seek thy life in Him? Then He is thine. He came to seek and to save that which was lost .

Oh I but I find so much not only former but still daily renewed and increasing guiltiness. Why? Is He a sufficient Savior, or is He not? If thou dost say He is not, then it is manifest that here lies the defect and mistake.

If thou sayest He is, then hast thou answered all thy objections of that kind: much guiltiness much or little, old or new, neither helps nor hinders, as to thy interest in Him, and salvation by Him. And for dispelling of these mists, nothing can be more effectual than the letting in of those Gospel beams, the clear expressions of His riches and fullness in the Scriptures, and eminently this — made of God wisdom and righteousness.’ The religion of the Church of Rome leaves a man nothing but doubts respecting his salvation. It teaches, as has been formerly remarked, that a Christian should believe in general the promises of God, while personal application of these promises, and assurance of God’s love, it calls presumption. This subject was one of the grand points of discussion between that church and the Reformers. But how many Protestants have forsaken the ground which their predecessors here occupied, and have gone over to that of their opponents! The doctrine of the duty of our personal assurance of salvation, and the persuasion of our interest in Christ, is denied by many, and doubts concerning this are even converted into evidences of faith, although they are directly opposed to it. Doubts of a personal interest in Christ, are evidences either of little faith or of no faith. ‘O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’ If this assurance were built on anything except on the foundation that God Himself hath laid, it would indeed be eminently presumptuous. But, in opposition to such opinions, the Apostle John has written a whole Epistle to lead Christians to this assurance. ‘He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar: because He believeth not the witness which God hath witnessed concerning His Son.

And this is the witness, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.’ ‘This assurance,’ says Archbishop Leighton, ‘is no enemy to holy diligence, nor friend to carnal security; on the contrary, it is the only thing that doth eminently enable and embolden the soul for all adventures and services. Base fears and doubtings, wherein some place much of religion, and many weak Christians seem to be in that mistake, to think it a kind of Holy Spiritual temper to be questioning and doubting. I say, then, base fears can never produce anything truly generous, no height of obedience, — they do nothing but entangle and disable the soul for every good work; perfect love casts out this fear, and works a sweet unperplexing fear, a holy wariness, not to offend, which fears nothing else. And this confidence of love is the great secret of comfort, and of ability to do God service. Nothing makes so strong and healthful a constitution of soul as pure love: it dare submit to God and resign itself to Him; it dare venture itself in His hand, and seeks no more but how to please Him. A heart thus composed goes readily and cheerfully unto all services, to do, to suffer, to live, to die, at His pleasure; and firmly stands to this, that nothing can separate from that which is sufficient to it, what is all its happiness, the love of God in Christ Jesus.’ ‘It is true that all Christians have not alike clear and firm apprehension of their happy and true state, and scarce any of them are alike at all times; yet they have all and always the same right to this state and to the comfort of it; and where they stand in a right light to view it, they do see it so, and rejoice in it. Many Christians do prejudice their own comfort, and darken their spirits, by not giving freedom to faith to act according to its nature and proper principles; they will not believe till they find some evidence or assurance, which is quite to invert the order of the thing, and to look for fruit without settling a root for it to grow from. Would you take Christ upon the absolute word of promise tendering Him to you, and rest on Him, this would ingraft you into life itself, for that He is; and so those fruits of the Holy Ghost would bud and flourish in your hearts. From that very believing on Him would arise this persuasion, yea, even to a gloriation, and an humble boasting in His love, — who shall accuse? who shall condemn ? who shall separate? ’ In opposition to the believer’s personal assurance of salvation, Satan will represent to him the number and enormity of his sins, and the strictness of God’s justice, which has often fallen on those whom He hardens. But believers will answer, ‘We know that to God belongeth righteousness, and unto us confusion of faces, but mercy and pardon belong to the Lord our God. If our sins ascend to heaven, His mercy is above the heavens. It is true that sin abounds in us; but where sin abounded grace and mercy have much more abounded; and the greater our misery, the greater towards us is the glory of the mercy of God. In entering into paradise, our Lord Jesus Christ has not taken with Him angels, but the spirit of a malefactor, that we might know that the greatest sinners are objects of His compassion. He came into the world to save sinners, and He calls to Himself those who are heavy laden with sin. He came to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. The more, then, that we feel the power of sin, the closer we cleave to Him. If Peter, affrighted, exclaimed, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord,” let us, on the contrary, say, Lord Jesus, we come to Thee, and the more so because we are sinners; for Thou hast been made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Thee. We have sinned seventy times, and seventy times have fallen again into sin; but God, who commands us to forgive offenses even seventy times seven, will many more times pardon! In comparison of His love, the love of man is not as a drop to the ocean.’

The foundation on which believers repel doubts concerning their salvation rests on the excellence of their Mediator, His love and compassion for them, the merit of His obedience, and their communion with Him. As to the excellence of their Mediator, He is the eternal Son of God, the Beloved of the Father, for whom they are beloved in Him, and His intercession for them is acceptable to God and efficacious. ‘We have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.’ ‘He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.’ It rests on the love and compassion of Jesus. ‘For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.’ His love to us has been stronger than death; and He Himself saith, ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ Having thus given Himself for us, will He reject us? Having ascended to heaven, will He forget us, for whom He descended to earth and for whom, as the forerunner, He hath again entered heaven to intercede for us, to prepare a place, and to receive us to Himself?

Believers rest their assurance of salvation on the merit of their Redeemer’s obedience; for when their sins are red as crimson, they shall be made white as snow. Our robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, whose blood cleanseth us from all sin. It is impossible that sin can be more powerful to destroy us, than the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ to save us. We are condemned by the law; but, in answer to the law, we plead the blood of Jesus Christ, who hath borne the curse of the law, and who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. We have been condemned by the justice of God; but to this justice we present the righteousness of Christ, who is ‘Jehovah our righteousness.’ God hath been angry with us; but in Jesus Christ He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel.

To the temptations of Satan, believers also oppose their union with Jesus Christ; for Jesus Christ and they are one. We are His members, bone of His bones, and flesh of His flesh; His obedience is our obedience; for as we are one body with Him, we appear before our God in Him. We are found in Him, not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. By union with Him we are already seated together in heavenly places in Christ. As Jesus Christ has risen to die no more, but to live eternally, it follows that the righteousness which He has wrought is an everlasting righteousness, and that, being united to Him as His members, we derive from Him a life which cannot fail, so that we shall never die; for as the risen Head dies no more, and His life is an everlasting life, in like manner, whoever receives spiritual life from Him, receives a life which can never terminate. Hence it follows that the resurrection of Jesus Christ, assuring us of our justification and eternal life, is a source of the greatest joy and consolation. The Psalmist, accordingly, prophesying of the resurrection of Christ, says ‘that his heart is glad, and his glory rejoiceth.’

The first words of Jesus Christ to Mary, after His resurrection, were, ‘Woman, why weepest thou?’ and to the other women, ‘Be not afraid;’ and to the disciples, ‘Why are ye troubled?’ His resurrection ought to wipe away the tears of His people, to tranquilize their minds, and dissipate their fears, by the assurance it gives of their acquittal from condemnation before God, and of the destruction of him who had the power of death. ‘The words of Jesus, above referred to,’ says an eloquent writer, ‘are generally applicable to the life of a Christian. He can look upon that rich field of privilege and of promise placed before him in the Bible, and can say that it is all his own. And where is the want that the blessed fruits of that field cannot supply, the distress which they cannot relieve, the wound that they cannot heal, the fear that they cannot quiet, or the sorrow for which they do not furnish abundant consolation? Where, then, is the cause of depression? Friend of Jesus, why weepest thou? If you have an Advocate with the Father, through whom you sins are all forgiven, and you are made a child of God, — and the Holy Ghost is given you as your Sanctifier and Comforter, — and you are assured of having almighty power for your support, and unerring wisdom for your guide, and heaven for your eternal home — what can overbalance or suppress the joy which naturally results from such privileges as these? Trials we may, we must, meet with; but can these depress us, when we know that our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory? If tried by bodily pain, we feel more keenly the happiness of the hope which anticipates the time when we shall have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens! Worldly losses will not overwhelm us, if we know that we are undoubted heirs of an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Friends may change, but we will be comforted by the assurance that in Christ we have a brother born for adversity, — nay, a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. There rolls between us and our Father’s house the deep and restless tide of this world’s corruption, through which we must of necessity pass, and the deeper and still more dangerous tide of the corruption of our hearts, and we are surrounded by enemies on every side; and when we feel our own weakness, we may be ready to fear lest we should one day fall by the hand of some of them. But every distressing fear is removed, when we recollect that we shall not be tempted beyond what we are able to bear, and that, in point of fact, there is no limit to our power, for we can do all things through Christ strengthening us, and that the life that is in us is the life of Christ, a life which no power can extinguish in any one of Christ’s members, any more than it can extinguish it in our glorious Head.’

From the 28th verse to the conclusion of the chapter, the greatest encouragement is held out to repose all our confidence on the love of God in Christ Jesus, with the assured conviction that, receiving Him, we shall be enabled to persevere unto the end. The impossibility of plucking His people out of the Savior’s hand is here established in the most triumphant manner. Whatever objection is raised against it, is contrary to the power of Jesus Christ, contrary to His love, to the virtue of His sacrifice, and to the prevalence of His intercession, — contrary to the operation of the whole Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in every part of the plan of salvation. If we look upwards or downwards, — to heaven above, or the earth or hell beneath, — to all places, to all creatures, — neither any nor all of them together shall prevail against us. Were heaven and earth to combine, and all the powers of hell to rise up, they would avail nothing against the outstretched arm of Him who makes us more than conquerors.

The power of Jesus, who is our Head, ascends above the heavens, and descends beneath the depths; and in His love there is a breadth, and length, and depth, and height, which passeth knowledge. ‘Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep,’ Psalm 36:5. Can anything prevail to pluck out of the hands of Jesus Christ those who have fled to Him as their surety, — those who are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones, — those whom He hath purchased with His precious blood?

The feelings of the believer, viewed in Christ, as described in the close of this chapter, form a striking contrast with what is said in the end of the former chapter, where he is viewed in himself. In the contemplation of himself as a sinner, he mournfully exclaims, ‘O wretched man that I am!’

In the contemplation of himself as justified in Christ, he boldly demands, Who shall lay anything to my charge? Who is he that condemneth? Well may the man who loves God defy the universe to separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus his Lord. Although at present the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together, although even he himself groaneth within himself, yet all things are working together for his good. The Holy Spirit is interceding for him in his heart; Jesus Christ is interceding for him before the throne; God the Father hath chosen him from eternity, hath called him, hath justified him, and will finally crown him with glory. The Apostle had begun this chapter by declaring that there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus: he concludes it with the triumphant assurance that there is no separation from His love. The salvation of believers is complete in Christ, and their union with Him indissoluble.