96 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. VIII.
the succession of time is introduced, not as metaphysically true, but in concession to human limitations of thought. Hence the coordinating force of xal also.
3. That a predetermination of God is clearly stated as ac- companying or (humanly speaking) succeeding, and grounded upon the foreknowledge.
4. That this predetermination is to. the end of conformity to the image of the Son of God, and that this is the vital point of the passage.
5. That, therefore, the relation between foreknowledge and predestination is incidental, and is not contemplated as a special point of discussion. God’s foreknowledge and His decree are alike aimed at holy character and final salvation.
**O thou predestination, how remote Thy root is from the aspect of all those Who the First Cause do not behold entire ! And you, O mortals! hold yourselves restrained In judging ; for ourselves, who look on God, We do not know as yet all the elect ; And sweet to us is such a deprivation, Because our good in this good is made perfect, That whatsoe’er God wills, we also will.” DANnrTE, ‘‘ Paradiso,” xx., 130-138.
To be conformed (cuppudpdovs). With an inner and essen- tial conformity. See on transfigured, Matt. xvii. 2.
To the image (rijs ecxdvos). See on ch. i. 23. In all respects, sufferings and moral character no less than glory. Compare vv. 18, 28, 31, and see Philip. iii. 21; 1 Cor. xv. 49; 2 Cor. i. 18; 1 John iii. 2,3. “There is another kind of life of which science as yet has taken little cognizance. It obeys the same laws. It builds up an organism into its own form. It is the Christ-life. As the bird-life builds up a bird, the image of itself, so the Christ-life builds up a Christ, the image of Him- self, in the inward nature of man. . . . According to the great law of conformity to type, this fashioning takes a specific form. It is that of the Artist who fashions. And all through life this wonderful, mystical, glorious, yet perfectly definite
Cu. VIILJ THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 97
process goes on ‘until Christ be formed’ in it” (Drummond, “Natural Law in the Spiritual World ”).
First-born (zpwrdroxov). See on Apoc. i. 5. Compare Col. x. 15, 18, note.
32. Spared (édeicaro). Mostly in Paul. Elsewhere only Acts xx. 29; 2 Pet. ii. 4,5. Compare Gen. xxii, 16, which Paul may have had in mind.
His own (édvov). See on Acts i. 7; 2 Pet. i. 3, 20.
With Him. Not merely in addition to Him, but all gifts of God are to be received, held, and enjoyed in communion with Christ.
Freely give. In contrast with spared.
33. Shall lay—to the charge (éyxadéoe.). Only here by Paul. Frequent in Acts. See xix. 38, 40; xxiii. 28,29; xxvi. 2,7. Lit., “to call something én one.” Hence call to account iM bring a charge against.
The following clauses are differently arranged by expositors. I prefer the succession of four interrogatives: Who shall lay ? etc. Js 2 God? ete. Who is He that condemneth? Is it Christ ? etc.*
34. Rather (waArov). “Our faith should rest on Christ’s death, but it should rather also so far progress as to lean on His resurrection, dominion, and second coming” (Bengel). “From the representations of the dead Christ the early believ- ers shrank as from an impiety. To them He was the living, not the dead Christ—the triumphant, the glorified, the infinite, —not the agonized Christ in that one brief hour and power of darkness which was but the spasm of an eternal glorification ” (Farrar, “ Lives of the Fathers,” i., 14).
*So Alford, De Wette, Jowett. The objections are based mainly on the supposed logical correlation of the sentences ; on which it seems superfluous to insist in a rhetorical outburst like this. Meyer’s arrangement is adopted by Rev. and Dwight; Lange and Schaff and Riddle hold to the A. V.