14-15'. The practical problem of the relation of the weak brother to the strong within the Church.
15*"". Both Jew and Gentile have their place in the purpose of God (the return to this topic is apparently dictated by the need of insisting on unity).
(/) Conclusion (15"-end).
1514-33 Personal explanations ; motive of the Epistle ; visits to Rome and Jerusalem, and the collection for the saints.
16'"'^.* Greetings to various friends.
16""™. A warning against false teachers.
lg2i-23 Greetings sent by St. Paul's companions.
16-'"°'. Doxology.
8. The argument of the Epistle. — The problem to be solved is the method by which man may attain righteousness. The underlying idea in this is not merely salvation, regarded as something external — the winning of certain privileges and the escape from punishment. It is an inner state of the man, bringing him into a right relation to God. No doubt in virtue of this he will escape the wrath of God's righteous judgment (2° 5"), but this is not the primary thought. St. Paul's answer may be best understood if we approach it from the point of view of his own spiritual experi- ence.t In this we can trace three main elements.
(a) There is the consciousness of his own sin and impotence ; the Law had not helped him in the past to attain the righteousness he desired ; it had only brought the sense of failure and of guilt, and
* On the question whether thia ch. in fact forms part of the Epistle see § 2 (a).
t Attempts have been made, e.g. by Schweitzer (Geschichte der paulinhchen Fnrsckung , Tiibingen, 1911, p. 192), to deny the influence of St. Paul's e.\perience, and in particular of his con- version, on his thought. It is true he does not make many direct references to this, but it is impossible to read such an Epistle as Romans sympathetically without realizing that the experience of himself and his converts is always in the back- ground.
KUMANS, EPISTLE TU THE
KUMAMS, EPISTLE TO THE 415
this experience was general both with Jew and with Gentile (2. 7"''- 8').
{//) On his surrender to Christ at his conversion he became conscious of an entire breach with the past and of a conqdetely new point of view. The death and resurrection of Christ have introduced a new factor into the relation between (iod and man (3249. 425 581. 8.«ir.), 'I'lie starting-point is now what He has done, not what man can succeed in doin^' for himself. But this work of Christ does not remain something' external to the believer ; trans- actional theories of the Atonement and unethical views of salvation have always been based on the isolation of the work, generally the death, of Christ, regarded as a past event which the believer has only to accept. To St. I'aul the Christian is ideutilied with Christ and shares in His death, burial, and resurrection (6. 8""-); this truth is absolutely central in his teaching. The term which he applies to this identification of the self with Christ is ' faith.' It is well known that to him faith is not the intellectual acceptance of a creed, but a personal surrender to a new power ; the believer is a new creature ; he is in ("lirist and Christ in him (see Sanday-Headlam, p]). 102, 162) ; faith is inseparable from the mystical union. The external method by which the union is ett'ected is baptism. With regard to this it must be re- membered that to St. Pan] and to the Krst Chris- tians in general baptism was always the accom- paniment of a definite conversion and change of life, by which the convert died in a very real sense to the old past, turning his back not only on its sins, but on its religious beliefs and practices, its habits of life, and very often on its friendships and social ties. The primary result of this new ex- perience is a sense of forgiveness or justification (3^, etc.); the believer, having died to the sinful past, can now be ' treated as righteous ' before God ; he starts afresh * (see, further. Justification).
(c) The third element is the sense of new power which comes from the union with Christ. This may be described as sanctification through the Spirit, or as a present sharing of the resurrection of Christ (6*- " 7^ 8'") ; it is very difficult to trace anj' real or final distinction between the Spirit and Christ (cf. the interchange of terms in Ko 8). That the sense of the possession of the Spirit is primarily based on experience comes out most clearly in the question of Gal 3", Avhich is the starting-point of St. Paul's argument, ' Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith ? ' It is common ground that a new force has come into the convert's life ; the only question is whether it is to be ascribed to the gospel or to the Law. This new power, then, is inseparably connected with the conversion experiences and with faith, though it does mark a development which for certain pur- poses may be distinguished from them ; i.e. sancti- fication is not the same as justifioation ; it is the fruit which grows from this root. But the close- ness of the connexion avoids all danger of the unethical conclusions which some were ready to draw from St. Paul's teaching (Ko 6'). The life of righteousness must follow ; in a certain sense it is unthinkable that the Christian can continue in sin,t and practical moral injunctions fill the latter