' For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the law of sin and of death.'
The words are much vexed by expositors («). I will rather speak my own judgment of them, and reconcile them, than dash one man's judgment against another ; for that tends not to edification. ' The law of the Spirit of life,' &c. The meaning of the words is plain, if we compare it with other Scriptures.
' The law.' It is nothing but a commanding power ; for so the word written the law, in the apostle's meaning, is but a power forcing and com- manding. So the ' law of the Spirit of life' is the commanding and forcing power of the ' Spirit of life in Christ Jesus ;' and so the ' law of sin,' it is either the tyrannical command and forcing power of sin, or else the con- demning for sin afterwards, as we shall see hereafter. For we shall unfold the words better in the particulars.
First, then, here we have set down what estate we are in by nature : ' We are under the law of sin and of death.'
And then, here is our freedom and deliverance from that : ' We are mada free from the law of sin and of death.'
And then the author of it, Christ Jesus : ' The law of the Spiiit of life in Christ Jesns hath freed me from the law of sin and of death.'
THE SPIRITUAL JUBILEE, 227
In the words, and those that go a little before, there are these three main fundamental points of religion :
The misery and boiidar/e of man.
The deliverance of man.
And his duty.
Here you have his misery. He is under ' sin and death.'
Here is his deliverance. He is ' free from this by Christ.'
And for his duty ; you have it in the last verse of the former chapter, speaking of his deliverance. ' Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me fi'om the body of this death ?' Then it follows, ' Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Thankfulness is due, not verbal thankfulness only. Indeed, the whole life of a Christian, after his deliver- ance, is a real thanksgiving. But that is not in my text.
To speak, therefore, of our estate by nature, and of our deliverance ; our estate is, that we are under the law of sin and death. , ' We are under the law of sin.'
Ohs. We are under sin. What sin ? We are under a threefold sin.
1. We are under the first sin of our first father ; for as Levi paid tithes in Abraham to Melchisedec, so we all sinned in the loins of Adam our first parent ; and the guilt of that first sin lies upon us.
2. Secondly, There is another sin that is derived and springs from that first sin ; which is the deprivation of the image of God, the pravation of our nature. We call it original sin, whereby we are stripped of that good we had in our first creation, and have the contrary' image, the image of Satan stamped upon us. So we are under the first sin, the guilt of it; and we are under the sin of nature, which we call original sin, because it is derived to us even from our birth and first original we had in Adam.
3. And then we are under actual sins, which are so many bonds to tic us fast under sin. We are dead by nature ; but we are dead and rotten by actual sins. We superadd to the guilt of our sin by our daily conversation. We are blind by nature ; but we are blinded indeed much more by our cus- tom of life. Every sin doth, as it were, tie us faster to damnation, and keeps us faster under the bondage of sin. Every new sin takes awaj'' some part of the light of the understanding, and takes away some freedom of the will. It darkens the judgment more and more, and enthralls the will and afiiections ; and binds a man more and more to the just sentence of God, that, as it is Prov. v. 22, ' the sinner is tied with the bonds of his own sins.' He is under the chains of an habituated wicked course of life, as well as of the sin of nature, which is the spring of all.
This is the miserable state of man ; and these chains of his sins reserve him to further chains. Even as the devil is reserved in chains ; that is, in terrors of his conscience, which as chains bind him till he be in hell, the place he is destinated to ; so we being in the chains and bondage, vexed with our sins, we are at the same time in the chains of terrors of conscience, the beginnings of hell, and reserved to chains of damnation and death world without end. It is another manner of matter, our estate by nature, than it is usually taken for. If men had but a little supernatural light, to see what condition they are in, till they get out into Christ Jesus, they would not continue a minute in that cursed estate.