Paul's spiritual conflicts.
Rom. vii. 24, 25. O wretched man that I am ! ivho shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
THE Epistle to the Romans, as a clear, full, argu- mentative, and convincing statement of the Gospel salvation, far exceeds every other part of Holy Writ. And the seventh chapter of that epistle equally excels every other part of Scripture, as a complete delinea- tion of Christian experience. The Psalms contain the breathings of a devout soul, both in seasons of trouble and under the impressions of joy. But in the passage before us the Apostle states the operation of the two principles which were within him, and shews how divine grace and his corrupt nature counteracted each other. The good principle did indeed liberate him from all allowed subjection to sin : but the cor- rupt principle within him yet exerted such power, that, in spite of all his endeavours to resist it, he could not utterly overcome it. Having opened thus all the secret motions of his heart, he gives vent to the feelings which had been alternately excited by a review of his own experience, and of the provision which was made for him in Jesus Christ.
In discoursing upon his words we shall shew,
I. The Apostle's experience —
We shall not enter into the general contents of this chapter, but confine ourselves to the workings of the Apostle's mind, in,
1. His views of his sin —
[He considered sin as the most lothesome of all objects. In calling his indwelling corruption " a body of death," he seems to allude to the practice of some tyrants, who fastened a dead body to a captive whom they had doomed to death, and com- pelled him to bear it about with him till he was killed by the offensive smell. Such a nauseous and hateful thing was sin in the Apostle's estimation. He felt that he could not get loose from it, but was constrained to bear it about with him where- ever he went : and it was more lothesome to him than a dead body, more intolerable than a putrid carcass.
The bearing of this about with him was an occasion of the deepest sorrow. Whatever other tribulations he was called to endure, he could rejoice and glory in them, yea, and thank Gocl who had counted him worthy to bear them. But under the burthen of his indwelling corruptions he cried, " O wretched man that I am ! "
Nor was there any thing he so much desired as to be deli- vered from it. When he had been unjustly imprisoned by the magistrates, he was in no haste to get rid of his confinement : instead of availing himself of the discharge they had sent him, he said, " Nay, but let them come themselves and fetch me out." But from his indwelling sin he was impatient to be released ; and cried, " Who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? " Not that he was at a loss where to look for deliverance ; but he spake as one impatient to obtain it.]
2. His views of his Saviour —
[If his afflictions abounded, so did his consolations abound also. He knew that there was a sufficiency in Christ both of merit to justify the guilty, and of grace to sanctify the polluted. He knew, moreover, that God for Christ's sake had engaged to pardon all his sins, and to subdue all his iniquities. Hence, with an emotion of gratitude, more easy to be conceived than expressed, he breaks off from his desponding strains, and exclaims, " I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord ;" I thank him for Christ, as an all-sufficient Saviour; and I thank him through Christ, as my all-prevailing Advocate and Me- diator. While he saw in himself nothing but what tended to humble him in the dust, he beheld in Christ and in God as reconciled to him through Christ, enough to turn his sorrow into joy, and his desponding complaints into triumphant exultation.]