sin for two reasons. 1. Because without law there would be no sin, Rom. 4, 15. The very idea of sin is want of conformity on the part of moral creatures to the law of God. If there be no standard to which we are bound to be conformed, there can be no such thing as want of conformity. Sin is the cor- relative, not of reason, nor of expediency, but of law. If you take away law, men may act unreasonably, or in a way injuri- ous to themselves or others, but they cannot sin. 2. Because if there be no law there can be no condemnation. Sin is not imputed where there is no law, Rom. 5, 13. There is still another reason, which, though presented elsewhere by the apostle, is foreign to this connection, and that is, that the law not only reveals and condemns sin, but it exasperates and ex- cites it, and thus gives it strength, Rom. 7, 8-12.
57. But thanks (be) to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The victory here meant is, of course, the victory over death and the grave. Thanks be to God, who delivers us from the power of death, redeeming even our bodies from the grave, and making us partakers of everlasting life. This is done through Jesus Christ our Lord, i. e. our divine possessor and absolute ruler. It is through him, and through him alone. 1. Because he has satisfied the demands of the law. It has no power to condemn those who are clothed in his righteousness. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, Rom. 8, 1. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth ? Rom. 8, 33. 34. Christ by his death hath destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage, Heb. 2, 14. 15. That is, in virtue of the death of Christ, by which the demands of justice are satisfied, Satan, the great executioner of divine justice, has no longer the right or power to detain the people of Christ under the power of death. If, therefore, it be the law which gives sin its reality and strength, and if sin gives death its sting, he who satisfies the law destroys the strength of sin, and consequently the sting of death. It is thus that Christ deprives death of all power to injure his people. It is for them disarmed and ren- dered as harmless as an infant. 2. But Christ not only gives us this victory through his justifying righteousness, but by his