Gr
98
dXXu zara, but according to or after the spirit , ver. 4,
note.
2. N o'(ao s roD rrvsvfiarog) the law of the spirit , the Gospel in- scribed on the heart ; comp. ch. iii. 27 ; 2 Cor. iii. 8. The spirit makes alive, and this life invigorates [vegetat] the Christian. — YjXivdspuGs /4,s, hath made me free) a mild term, and in the preterite tense ; he had formerly put the weightier verb pUerai in the future. Grace renders that most easy, which seems difficult to man under the law, or rather does it itself. Both are opposed to the phrase, bringing me into captivity , ch. vii. 23. — d/xap- r'tag zai rou Owarov, of sin and death ) He has respect to those things which he said in behalf of the law of God, ch. vii. 7 and 13. Observe that and is put here, and is not put at the beginning of the verse in the antithesis, rrviu/xarog rr\r of the spirit of life , where either the conjunctive particle is wanting, of spirit , [and] of life , or it must be explained thus, ro Uveu/xa rr\g %uijg, the Spirit of life.
3. To) This word has the force of an adjective [or epithet ], to be simply explained thus : God has accomplished the condem- nation of sin, which was beyond the power of the law ; God condemned sin in the flesh (a thing which the law could not do , namely, condemn sin, while the sinner is saved). To adumrov , what was impossible , has an active signification in this passage ; and the paraphrase of Luther is according to the meaning of the apostle. — See Wolfii Cur. on this place. — rou vo/xou) of the law , not only ceremonial, but also moral ; for if the moral law were without this impossible [impossibility of condemning sin, yet saving the sinner], there would have been no need that the Son of God should have been sent. Furthermore, the word impossible , a privation [of something once held], supposes that the thing was previously possessed : formerly the law was able to afford righteousness and life, ch. vii. 10. Hence it is that man so willingly follows the traces of that first path even after the fall. — baurou) 7diovj ver. 32. His own , over whom sin and death had no power. — rre/x-^ccg, sending ) This word denotes a sort of separation, as it were, or estrangement of the Son from the Father, that He might be the Mediator. — sv b/xoido/xan capzog u/xapr/ocg , in the likeness of the flesh of sin [ sinful flesKf) The construction is with zurszpiv g, condemned [not as Engl. Vers.