and therefore are born in a state of condemnation. They need redemption from the moment of their birth ; and therefore the seal of redemption is applied to them in baptism, which otherwise would be a senseless ceremony.
V. 4. The apostle having thus described the natural state of men, in this and the following verses, unfolds the manner in which those to whom he wrote had been delivered from that dreadful condition. It was by a spiritual resurrection. God, and not themselves, was the author of the change. It was not to be referred to any goodness in them, but to the abounding love of God. The objects of this love were not Jews in dis- tinction from the Gentiles, nor the Gentiles as such, nor men in general, but ws, i. 6. Christians, the actual subjects of the life-giving power here spoken of. All this is included in this verse.
Ὃ δὲ Θεὸς, but God, i. 6. notwithstanding our guilt and corruption, God, being rich in mercy, πλούσιος av ἐν ἐλέει, i. 6. because he is rich in mercy. Ελεος is, ipsum miseris succurrendi studium, ‘the desire to suc- cour the miserable ;’ οἰκτιρμός is pity. Love is more than either. It was not merely mercy which has all the miserable for its object ; but Zove which has defi- nite individual persons for its objects, which constrained this intervention of God for our salvation. Therefore the apostle adds, διὰ τὴν πολλὴν ἀγάπην αὐτοῦ. Aud is not to be rendered through, but on account of. It was to satisfy his love, that he raised us from the death of sin.