PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 251,651 words · 349 reading sections
Contents
Produced by Charles Franks, John Hagerson, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., Litt. D. ROMANS CORINTHIANS _(To II Corinthians, Chap. V)_ ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., Litt. D. THE WITNESS OF THE RESURRECTION (Romans i. 4, R.V.) PRIVILEGE AND OBLIGATION (Romans i. 7…
385 wordsSECTION 2The Witness Of The Resurrection
'Declared to be the Son of God with power, ... by the resurrection of the dead.'--ROMANS i. 4 (R.V.). It is a great mistake to treat Paul's writings, and especially this Epistle, as mere theology. They are the transcript of his life's experience. As has been well said, the gospel of Paul is an interpretation of the s…
819 wordsSECTION 3The Witness Of The Resurrection
II. The Resurrection interprets Christ's Death. There is no more striking contrast than that between the absolute non-receptivity of the disciples in regard to all Christ's plain teachings about His death and their clear perception after Pentecost of the mighty power that lay in it. The very fact that they continued d…
663 wordsSECTION 4Privilege And Obligation
'To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints.'--ROMANS i. 7. This is the address of the Epistle. The first thing to be noticed about it, by way of introduction, is the universality of this designation of Christians. Paul had never been in Rome, and knew very little about the religious stature of the c…
877 wordsSECTION 5Privilege And Obligation
God forbid that any words that ever drop from my lips should seem to cast the smallest shadow of doubt on that great truth, 'God so loved the world that He gave His Son!' But God forbid, equally, that any words of mine should seem to favour the, to me, repellent idea that the infinite love of God disregards the charact…
661 wordsSECTION 6Privilege And Obligation
Now the next step is purity, which is the ordinary idea of sanctity. Purity will follow consecration, and would not be worth much without it, even if it was possible to be attained. Now, look what a far deeper and nobler idea of the service and conditions of moral goodness this derivation of it from surrender to God gi…
686 wordsSECTION 7Paul'S Longing[1]
Paul's letter, addressed to the 'beloved in God,' the 'called saints' that are in Rome, found its way to the people for whom it was meant. If a letter so addressed were dropped in our streets, do you think anybody would bring it to you, or to any Christian society as a whole, recognising that we were the people for who…
683 wordsSECTION 8Paul'S Longing[1]
But now, dear brethren, let us draw one lesson. Unless there be this manly, honest, though oftenest silent, Christian affection, the sooner you and I part the better. Unless it be in my heart I can do you no good. No man ever touched another with the sweet constraining forces that lie in Christ's Gospel unless the hear…
685 wordsSECTION 9Paul'S Longing[1]
And, now, what are the lessons that I take from this? Two very simple ones. First, no Christian teacher has any business to open his mouth, unless he is sure that he has received something to impart to men as a gift from the Divine Spirit. To preach our doubts, to preach our own opinions, to preach poor platitudes, to …
699 wordsSECTION 10Paul'S Longing[1]
III. And now, lastly, note the lowly consciousness that much was to be received as well as much to be given. The Apostle corrects himself after he has said 'that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift,' by adding, 'that is, that I may be comforted (or rather, encouraged) together with you by the mutual faith both o…
719 wordsSECTION 11Debtors To All Men
Dear brethren, the encouragement of the minister is in the conversion and the growth of the hearers. And I pray that in this new lease of united fellowship which we have taken out, be it longer or shorter--and advancing years tell me that at the longest it must be comparatively short--I may come to you ever more and mo…
946 wordsSECTION 12Debtors To All Men
And that oneness which makes us debtors to all men is shown to be real by the fact that, beneath all superficial distinctions of culture, race, age, or station, there are the primal necessities and yearnings and possibilities that lie in every human soul. All men, savage or cultivated, breathe the same air, see by the …
765 wordsSECTION 13Debtors To All Men
So to all men we are bound, as much as in us is, to carry the Gospel. The distinction that is drawn so often by the people who never move a finger to help the heathen either at home or abroad, between the home and the foreign field of work, vanishes altogether when we stand at the true Christian standpoint. Here is a m…
696 wordsSECTION 14Debtors To All Men
We can almost hear the rattle of the guns on the north-west frontier of India to-day. There is another specimen of the injuries inflicted. This is not the place to talk politics, but I feel that this is the place to ask this question, 'Are Christian principles to have anything to do in determining national actions?' Is…
264 wordsSECTION 15The Gospel The Power Of God[1]
'I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.'--ROMANS i. 16. To preach the Gospel in Rome had long been the goal of Paul's hopes. He wished to do in the centre of power what he had done in Athens, the home of wisdom; and with superb confidence, not…
979 wordsSECTION 16The Gospel The Power Of God[1]
But, further, notice that my text is also Paul's text for this Epistle, and that it differs from the condensed summary of which I have been speaking only as a bud with its petals closed differs from one with them expanded in their beauty. And now, if you will take the words of my text as being the keynote of this lette…
664 wordsSECTION 17The Gospel The Power Of God[1]
Now, brethren, I have ventured to dwell so long upon this matter, because it is no use talking about the Gospel unless we understand what we mean by it, and I, for my part, venture to say that that is what Paul meant by it, and that is what I mean by it. I plead for no narrow interpretation of the phrases of my text. I…
1,063 wordsSECTION 18The Gospel The Power Of God[1]
Now before I pass from this part of my subject there is only one thing more that I want to say, and that is, that you cannot apply that glowing language about 'the power of God unto salvation' to anything but the Gospel that Paul preached. Forms of Christianity which have lost the significance of the Incarnation and De…
978 wordsSECTION 19The Gospel The Power Of God[1]
But there is yet another source of certitude open to us all, and that is the history of the centuries. Our modern sceptics, attacking the truth of Christianity mostly from the physical side, are strangely blind to the worth of history. It is a limitation of faculty that besets them in a good many directions, but it doe…
919 wordsSECTION 20World-Wide Sin And World-Wide Redemption
As one who sees the lengthening shadows falling over the darkening field, may I say one word to my junior brethren, with all whose struggles and doubts and difficulties I, for one, do most tenderly sympathise? I beseech them--though, alas! the advice condemns the giver of it as he looks back over long years of his mini…
699 wordsSECTION 21World-Wide Sin And World-Wide Redemption
As a matter of fact, there was a far profounder and more inward conviction of sin among the Jews than in any heathen nation. Contrast the wailings of many a psalm with the tone in Greek or Roman literature. No doubt there is a law written on men's hearts which evokes a lower measure of the same consciousness of sin. Th…
683 wordsSECTION 22World-Wide Sin And World-Wide Redemption
The message is so familiar to us that we may easily fail to realise its essential greatness and wonderfulness when first proclaimed. That God should give righteousness, that it should be 'of God,' not only as coming from Him, but as, in some real way, being kindred with His own perfection; that it should be brought to …
752 wordsSECTION 23No Difference
'There is no difference.'--ROMANS iii. 22. The things in which all men are alike are far more important than those in which they differ. The diversities are superficial, the identities are deep as life. Physical processes and wants are the same for everybody. All men, be they kings or beggars, civilised or savage, ric…
799 wordsSECTION 24No Difference
Oh, dear friends! it is not a question of degree, but of direction; not how far the ship has gone on her voyage, but how she heads. Good and evil are the same in essence, whatever be their intensity and whatever be their magnitude. Arsenic is arsenic, whether you have a ton of it or a grain; and a very small dose will …
851 wordsSECTION 25No Difference
But there _is_ a difference. Sin cannot dam God's love back, but sin has a terrible power in reference to the love of God. Two things it can do. It can make us incapable of receiving the highest blessings of that love. There are many mercies which God pours 'upon the unthankful and the evil.' These are His least gifts;…
655 wordsSECTION 26No Difference
IV. Lastly, there is no difference in the way which we must take for salvation. The only thing that unites men to Jesus Christ is faith. You must trust Him, you must trust the power of His sacrifice, you must trust the might of His living love. You must trust Him with a trust which is self-distrust. You must trust Him …
634 wordsSECTION 27Let Us Have Peace
'Let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.'--ROMANS v. 1. (R.V.). In the rendering of the Revised Version, 'Let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,' the alteration is very slight, being that of one letter in one word, the substitution of a long 'o' for a short one. The majority of ma…
830 wordsSECTION 28Let Us Have Peace
Now a word, in the next place, as to the necessity and importance of this exhortation. There underlies it, this solemn thought, which Christian people, and especially some types of Christian doctrine, do need to have hammered into them over and over again, that we hold the blessed life itself, and all its blessings, o…
849 wordsSECTION 29Let Us Have Peace
Lastly, a word or two as to the ways by which this exhortation can be carried into effect. I have tried to explain how the peace of which my text speaks comes originally through Christ's work laid hold of by my faith, and now I would say only three things. Retain the peace by the exercise of that same faith which at …
399 wordsSECTION 30Access Into Grace
'By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.'--ROMANS v. 2. I may be allowed to begin with a word or two of explanation of the terms of this passage. Note then, especially, that _also_ which sends us back to the previous clause, and tells us that our text adds something to what was spoken o…
668 wordsSECTION 31Access Into Grace
Now if we take all these three thoughts as blended together in the grand metaphor of the Apostle, of the ample space into which the Christian man passes, we get such lessons as this. A Christian life may, and therefore should, be suffused with a continual consciousness of the love of God. That would change everything i…
795 wordsSECTION 32Access Into Grace
Then, further, I said there was another meaning in these great words. The love which may suffuse our lives, the gifts, the consequence of that love, which may enrich our lives, should, and in the measure in which they are received will, adorn and make beautiful our lives. For 'grace' means loveliness as well as goodnes…
738 wordsSECTION 33Access Into Grace
Further, in regard to this attitude, which is the result of the possession of grace, we may say that it indicates not only stability and steadfastness, but erectness, as in opposition to crouching or bowing. A man's independence is guaranteed by his dependence upon, and his possession of, that communicated grace of God…
713 wordsSECTION 34The Sources Of Hope
Brethren, God is infinitely willing to give the choicest gifts of His love to us all, to gladden, to enrich, to adorn, to make stable and erect. But He cannot give them unless you will trust Him. 'It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.' That alabaster box is brought to earth. It was broken on the …
869 wordsSECTION 35The Sources Of Hope
The very heart of Christianity is that the Divine Light of which that Shekinah was but a poor and transitory symbol has 'tabernacled' amongst men in the Christ, and has from Him been communicated, and is being communicated in such measure as earthly limitations and conditions permit, and that these do point on assuredl…
802 wordsSECTION 36The Sources Of Hope
And so, brethren, if you wish to brighten that great light that fills the future, see to it that your present Christianity is fuller of 'peace with God,' 'access into grace,' and the firm, erect standing which flows from these. When the springs in the mountains dry up, the river in the valley shrinks; and when they are…
701 wordsSECTION 37The Sources Of Hope
So there are the two sources, you see: the one is the blessedness of the Christian life, the other the sorrows of the outward life, and both may converge upon the brightening of our Christian hope. Our rainbow is the child of the marriage of the sun and the rain. The Christian hope comes from being 'justified by faith,…
755 wordsSECTION 38A Threefold Cord
'And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.'--ROMANS v. 5. We have seen in former sermons that, in the previous context, the Apostle traces Christian hope to two sources: one, the series of experiences which follow 'being justified by f…
726 wordsSECTION 39A Threefold Cord
But I pass altogether from this, and fall back on the great words which, to me at least, if there were no other, would determine the whole answer to this question as to when the Spirit was given: 'This spake He of the Holy Ghost, which they that _believe_ on Him should receive'; and I would ask the modern upholders of …
867 wordsSECTION 40A Threefold Cord
'Such rebounds the inmost ear Catches often from afar. Listen, prize them, hold them dear; For of God, of God, they are.' But we must not forget, too, that, according to the whole strain of New Testament thinking, the means by which that Divine Spirit does pour out the flashing flood of the love of God into a man's…
710 wordsSECTION 41A Threefold Cord
That love, we may be very sure, will not foster in us hopes that are to be disappointed. Now, it is a fact that the more a man feels that God loves him, the less is it possible for him to believe that that love will ever terminate, or that he shall 'all die.' In the lock of a canal, as the water pours in, the vessel ri…
623 wordsSECTION 42What Proves God'S Love
'God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'--ROMANS v. 8. We have seen in previous sermons on the preceding context that the Apostle has been tracing various lines of sequence, all of which converge upon Christian hope. The last of these pointed to the fact that the lo…
838 wordsSECTION 43What Proves God'S Love
Dear brethren, I dare say some of you do not take that view, but I know not how justice can be done to the plain words of Scripture unless this is the point of view from which we look at the Cross of Calvary--that there the Lamb of Sacrifice was bearing, and bearing away, the sins of the whole world. I know that Christ…
791 wordsSECTION 44What Proves God'S Love
Suppose some great martyr who dies for his fellows. Well, all honour to him, and the race will come to his tomb for a while, and bring their wreaths and their sorrow. But what bearing has his death upon our knowledge of God's love towards us? None whatever, or at most a very indirect and shadowy one. We have to dig dee…
673 wordsSECTION 45What Proves God'S Love
And now lastly-- III. What kind of love does Christ's death declare to us as existing in God? A love that is turned away by no sin--that is the thing that strikes the Apostle here, as I have already pointed out. The utmost reach of human affection might be that a man would die for the good--he would scarcely die for …
457 wordsSECTION 46The Warring Queens
'As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.'--ROMANS v. 21. I am afraid this text will sound to some of you rather unpromising. It is full of well-worn terms, 'sin,' 'death,' 'grace,' 'righteousness,' 'eternal life,' which suggest dry t…
679 wordsSECTION 47The Warring Queens
And what is it, in our actions or in ourselves considered in reference to God, that makes our actions sins and ourselves sinners? Remember the prodigal son. 'Father! Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.' There you have it all. He went away, and 'wasted his substance in riotous living.' To claim myself for m…
681 wordsSECTION 48The Warring Queens
Again I say, let us understand our terms. I suppose, there are few of the keywords of the New Testament which have lost more of their radiance, like quicksilver, by exposure in the air during the centuries than that great word Grace, which is always on the lips of this Apostle, and to him had music in its sound, and wh…
812 wordsSECTION 49The Warring Queens
But it is not so much that physical fact with its accompaniments which Paul is thinking about when he says that 'sin reigns in death,' as it is that solemn truth which he is always reiterating, and which I pray you, dear friends, to lay to heart, that, whatever activity there may be in the life of a man who has rent hi…
685 wordsSECTION 50'The Form Of Teaching'
And the other subsidiary clause completes the thought: 'through Christ.' In Him is all the grace, the manifest love, of God gathered together. It is not diffused as the nebulous light in some chaotic incipient system, but it is gathered into a sun that is set in the centre, in order that it may pour down warmth and lif…
794 wordsSECTION 51'The Form Of Teaching'
Jesus Christ did not come and talk to men about God, and say to them what His Apostles afterwards said, 'God is love,' but He lived and died, and that mainly was His teaching about God. He did not come to men and lay down a theory of atonement or a doctrine of propitiation, or theology about sin and its relations to Go…
767 wordsSECTION 52'The Form Of Teaching'
II. Secondly, notice that this teaching is in Paul's judgment a mould or pattern according to which men's lives are to be conformed. There can be no question but that, in that teaching as set forth in Scripture, there does lie the mightiest formative power for shaping our lives, and emancipating us from our evil. Chr…
737 wordsSECTION 53'The Form Of Teaching'
So, dear friends, on the one hand, let us remember that our religion is meant to work, that we have nothing in our creed that should not be in our character, that all our _credenda_ are to be our _agenda_; everything _believed_ to be something _done_; and that if we content ourselves with the simple acceptance of the t…
792 wordsSECTION 54'Thy Free Spirit'
'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.'--ROMANS viii. 2. We have to distinguish two meanings of law. In the stricter sense, it signifies the authoritative expressions of the will of a ruler proposed for the obedience of man; in the wider, almost figurative sens…
696 wordsSECTION 55'Thy Free Spirit'
That communicated power must impart life. Nothing short of a Spirit of life, quick and powerful, with an immortal and intense energy, will avail to meet the need. Such a Spirit must give the life which it possesses, must quicken and bring into action dormant powers in the spirit that it would free. It must implant new …
875 wordsSECTION 56'Thy Free Spirit'
And this bold declaration is to be vindicated as a prophetic confidence in the supremacy and ultimate dominion of the new power which works even through much antagonism in an imperfect Christian. Paul, too, calls 'things that are not as though they were.' If my spirit of life is the 'Spirit of life in Christ,' it will …
603 wordsSECTION 57Christ Condemning Sin
'For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.'--ROMANS viii. 3. In the first verse of this chapter we read that 'There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' The reason of that i…
832 wordsSECTION 58Christ Condemning Sin
II. Christ's condemnation and casting out of the tyrant. The Apostle points to a triple condemnation. 'In the likeness of sinful flesh,' Jesus condemns sin by His own perfect life. That phrase, 'the likeness of the flesh of sin,' implies the real humanity of Jesus, and His perfect sinlessness; and suggests the first …
891 wordsSECTION 59The Witness Of The Spirit
Such is, in the most general terms, the statement of what Christ does 'for us'; and the question comes to be the all-important one for each, Do I let Him do it for me? Remember the alternative. There must either be condemnation for us, or for the sin that dwelleth in us. There is no condemnation for them who are in Chr…
686 wordsSECTION 60The Witness Of The Spirit
Let us take these three thoughts, and dwell on them for a little while. I. Our cry 'Father' is the witness that we are sons. Mark the terms of the passage: 'The Spirit itself beareth witness _with_ our spirit--.' It is not so much a revelation made to my spirit, considered as the recipient of the testimony, as a reve…
1,075 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.