The truth of justification by faith is an Old-Testament truth, illustrated in the case of Abraham, and applicable to both Jews and Gentiles. The true seed of Abraham are those who fol-
* Some, however, maintain that the epistle was written at Cenchreae, after Paul had left Corinth on his return toSyria. See notes on ch. xiv. 23; xvi. L
low him, not in circumcision but in faith. The saving provi- sion in Christ is coextensive with the results of the fall in Adam, and assures present and future salvation to its subjects. The office of the law was to develop and manifest the sin which originated in Adam’s fall, and thus to give full scope to the re- demptive work of Christ.
This truth neither encourages immorality nor convicts God of unfaithfulness to His covenant with Israel. Justification by faith involves personal union with Christ, and consequent death to sin and moral resurrection to newness of life. Grace does not imply liberty to sin, but a change of masters and a new obedience and service. Grace does not do away with God’s holy law, but only with the false relation of the natural man to that law ; in which sin made use of the law to excite man’s opposition to it, and thus to bring him into bondage and death. This is illustrated from Paul’s own experience.
The deliverance from this bondage, which the law could not effect, is wrought by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which frees from condemnation and initiates a life of sonship inspired and controlled by the Spirit of God. The power of this life appears in the assurance of hope which it imparts amid the trials of this mortal state, a hope founded in the divine election.
To the claim that God cannot reject the unbelieving Jew without breaking His own covenant and stultifying His decree, is opposed the doctrine of absolute divine sovereignty, uncon- ditioned by human merit or service, but exercised in perfect righteousness and mercy, which are vindicated by God’s forming for Himself a people of believers, both Jew and Gentile. It is further shown that this divine economy includes the operation of human free agency no less than of divine sovereignty, and that the rejection of Israel] was therefore due to their blind reliance on their original election, and their refusal of the right- eousness which is through faith in Christ. This rejection is only partial and temporary. God has not cast off His people, but has overruled their unbelief for the salvation of the Gen- tiles, who, in turn, shall be the means of the restoration of the Jews. See note at the end of ch. xi.
xii INTRODUCTION.
The practical and hortatory portion of the epistle, which begins with ch. xii., treats of the cultivation of different graces, civil duties, the right of private judgment, and the doctrine of christian expediency in its relations to weak faith.
Critics are not unanimous as to the integrity of the epistle. The authenticity of the doxology has been questioned, and the Tiibingen critics declared the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters to be spurious. By some, the greater part of ch. xvi. is sup- posed to be addressed to the Ephesians. See on ch. xiv. 23; xvi. 25.
The epistle is characterized by system, masculine vigor, logic- al acuteness, copiousness of thought, and depth of feeling. Logic is backed by history, and christian doctrine and precept are illumined from the Prophets and Psalms. Neither personal feeling nor national sentiment is allowed to turn the keen edge of truth. The opening theme—all alike under sin—is evolved with remorseless sternness. The picture of the moral condition of the pagan world is the work of an eye-witness, and is terri- ble in its stark realism. Yet the logic is aglow with intense feeling, which rises at times toward the level of the Ephesian epistle. ‘The emotion is as deep as in Second Corinthians, but less turbulent. The irony of that epistle is almost wholly absent. The opening of the ninth chapter is a veritable sob. The personal expressions are affectionate and laudatory, but the companion and friend who appears in First Thessalonians, Philippians, and Philemon, mostly gives place to the apostle and teacher. The powerful dramatic element in the epistle is over- looked in the popular impression of a hard theological treatise. It appears in the forensic moulds in which the great spiritual processes are occasionally cast ; in the embodiment of the an- tagonism of sin and holiness in a personal struggle; in the introduction of objections as by an interlocutor; in the vivid contrasts of life and death, spirit and flesh, bondage and free- dom, condemnation and acquittal; in the impersonation of the whole creation groaning and travailing for deliverance from the bondage of corruption.