\-i. Theology and charactkristic Ideas. — An article like the present neither requires nor permits a full discussion of these ; but it would be incomplete without a brief enumeration of the principal characteristic conceptions of the Epistle.
1. Kor his riincrption of God, St. Paul is depen- dent on the Old Testament. In other words, he does not so much analyze the idea of God as the absolute or perfect Being, as insist upon the char- acter of Gocl as it has entered into human experi- ence in the course of God's dealings with men. This has been the case in two main waj's. On the one hand, God has revealed Himself to man througii nature (l'-"^-) and conscience (ii"'-). 'His eternal power and divineness' and the doom due to sin are made known to man apart from direct revelation, and moral apostasy is therefore without excuse. On the other hand, the will (2'") and character of God have been specially revealed, and Divine promises have been given, to a particular nation entrusted with His 'oracles' (9'"^- 3'). Both Jew and Gentile, in their several ways, have the terrible knowledge, antecedent to Christ, of the wrath of God (!'*). This conception is with St. Paul pri- marily esrfiatolofjicnl (see Sanday-Headlam, in lor., and on 5"), hut the certainty of its unveiling in the ' day of wrath ' (2') is a, present certainty. The wrath of God in our E])istle is the category which includes the sternly retributive attitude of God towards sin. His dtKaioKpurla (2'). It stands in the closest relation to the OT conception of the Divine Holiness (see Expositor, March 1899, p. 193). If the Divine wrath is an experience common to Jew and Gentile alike, the Divine Riohtkousnkss (see the two artt. on this subject) is one specilically related to revealed religion. This is, of course, tnie on the view very commonly taken of the phrase Sikmoitvi'-ij 0eo!) in 1" and other passages of the Epistle, viz. that it denotes, not an attribute of God Himself, l)ut a righteousness which man derives from God as its source. This view, which has influenced the RV of 1", supplies an idea so obviously necessary to St. Paul's contrast between the false righteousness and the true (10' etc.), and is in such clo.se correspondence with his language in 2 Co 5", Ph 3" etc., that it must, in some way or other, be included in any satisfactory explana- tion of the phrase in 1" and cognate passages. But there is a marked tendency in many quarters to go hack to the sense suggested by the parallelism
302 ROMANS, EPISTLE TO THE
EOMANS, EPISTLE TO THE
of Sivafus $eoO and SiK. Seov in l'"'" as the primary one, and to reoojjnize the antithesis between the wratli of God as the ' revelation ' antecedent to the gospel, and the ' righteousness of God ' as the specific revelation of the gospel itself. The main objection to this is the presupposition that by God's ' righteousness ' must be meant His stern retribu- tive justice, i.e. His anger against sin. The result of an examination of the use of the conception of God's righteousness in the Old Testament is, how- ever, adverse to this presupposition. The subject is siih judice, and it is beyond the province of this article to attempt to decide it (see above, § iv. ; Sanday-Headlam, p. 24 fl"; Expos., March 189.3, p. 187 fl'. ; Haring, StK. 6. bei Paulus, Tiibingen, 1896 ; Beck in Nate Jahrb.f. deutsche T/ceol. 1895, p. 249 ft".; Kblbing in SK, 1S95, p. 7ff. Haring, p. 14 fl'., tabulates the i)rincipal alternative views). There is, at any rate in this Epistle, the closest correlation between the righteousness of God and the justification of the believer in Christ (3^).
A similar correlation exists between the final Balvation of man and the Glory of God. By this expression St. Paul sometimes means the honour due to God from His creatures (1 Co 10", Ro IG^') ; but there is a sense, specially characteristic of our Epistle, in which it denotes the supreme destiny of^ man, realized in the ultimate salvation of the redeemed (3'^ 9^, cf. 8'»- »'•*'). The idea of the word 5(5|a here seems to be the positive counter- part of the more negative airoK6.\v\j/is. The latter suggests the removal of something which hides, the former the shining forth of the thing previ- ously hidden in all its sublime reality. Relativelj-, this is seen in any signal display of Divine power, e.g. in the resurrection of Christ (6*). Absolutely, it is reserved for the consummation of all things, when the kingdom of God shall appear in its per- fection, and the righteous shall shine forth in it as the sun. In this connexion the Divine PRK- DESTINATION must be taken into account. In 9^, though the general context relates more especially to the Divine predestination of men to funHion, i.e. to the several parts they play in the providen- tially ordered course of history, there is in the immediate context unquestioned reference to those whom God has prepared for glory (see above), in contrast to those who are ' made ready' (it is not said 'by God Himself ') for destruction. There is neither here nor elsewhere in the Epistle any- thing said of the 'double predestination.' But the predestination of the saints is clearly laid down in S-'"". Only, in the latter passage /ore/;>?ojo- ledge precedes predestination. On the whole, whUe frankly recognizing the predestinarian language used, we must also recognize its limitations. The apostle does not appear to be giving expression to a systematized scheme of thought on the subject.