is the end of redemption, for Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. Titus 2,14. Those therefore who live in sin are not the subjects of this redemption.
Οἷς προητοίμασε, is variously interpreted. The verb signifies properly to prepare beforehand. As this pre- vious preparation may be in the mind, in the form of a purpose, the word is often used in the sense of pre- ordaining, or appointing. Compare Gen. 24,14. Matt. 25, 34. 1 Cor. 2, 9. Rom. 9, 23. This however is rather the idea expressed in the context than the proper signification of the word. The relative is by Bengel and others connected, agreeably to a common Hebrew idiom, with the following pronoun, οἷς ἐν αὐτοῖς, in which, and the verb taken absolutely. The sense then is, ‘ In which God has preordained that we should walk.’ By the great majority of commentators οἷς is taken for a, by the common attraction, ‘which God had _ pre- pared beforehand, in order that we should walk in them.’ Before our new creation these works were in the purpose of God prepared to be our attendants, in the midst of which we should walk. <A third interpretation supposes οἷς to be used as a proper dative, and supposes ἡμᾶς as the object of the verb. ‘To which God has pre- destined ws, that we should walk in them.’ The second of these explanations is obviously the most natural.
Thus has the apostle in this paragraph clearly taught that the natural state of man is one of con- demnation and spiritual death ; that from that condition