On the other hand, we may not widen the pronoun further; we cannot allow that the sonship here signified is man's natural relation to God, that to which he was born by creation. This robs the word "adoption" of its distinctive force. The sonship in question, while grounded "in Christ" from eternity, is conferred "through" the incarnate and crucified "Jesus Christ"; it redounds "to the praise of the glory of His _grace_." Now, grace is God's redeeming love toward sinners. God's purpose of grace toward mankind, embedded, as one may say, in creation, is realized in the body of redeemed men. But this community, we rejoice to believe, is vastly larger than the visible aggregate of Churches; for how many who knew not His name, have yet walked in the true light which lighteth every man.
There lies in the words "in Christ" a principle of exclusion, as well as of wide inclusion. Men cannot be in Christ against their will, who persistently put Him, His gospel and His laws, away from them. When we close with Christ by faith, we begin to enter into the purpose of our being. We find the place prepared for us before the foundation of the world in the kingdom of Divine love. We live henceforth "to the praise of the glory of His grace!"
[26] Ch. ii. 7, iii. 5, 21; Col. i. 26.
[27] Vv. 13, 14; Rom. viii. 2-6, 16; 1 Cor. ii. 12; Gal v. 16, 22-25.
[28] =eis auton=, _for Him_; not =autô=, _to Him_.
[29] Ch. v. 25-27; Col. i. 27-29; Jude 24.
[30] On _sonship_, see Chapters XV.-XVII. and XIX. in _The Epistle to the Galatians_ (Expositor's Bible).
[31] From a valuable and suggestive paper by W. E. Ball, LL.D., on "St Paul and the Roman Law," in the _Contemporary Review_, August 1891.
[32] See vv. 12, 13, where Jews and Gentiles, collectively, are distinguished; and ch. ii. 11, 12, iii. 2-6, 21, iv. 4, 5, v. 25-27.