Acts xxvi. 18. — sv roTg vtoT$ rr)$ awsideias, in the children of dis obedience or disbelief) Disobedience, or disbelief, in regard to the Gospel, shows of itself how powerful that spirit is. Akin to this is the phrase, children of wrath, ver. 3. Wrath abides upon unbelievers , John iii. 36.
3. Ka/ JUA&TS) we also, viz. Jews. In the last times of the Old Testament sin had greatly prevailed, even among the Jews, in order that grace might more abound ; Rom. v. 6, 20 ; Tit. iii. 3; Luke i. 17, 79; Matt. iv. 16. — avscrpd^^sv, we were conversant \_had our conversation or way of life]) This is some what more specious J [outwardly decorous] than to walk, ver. 2. rqg ffapxbc, of the flesh) without the Spirit of God. — rtjs <tapxb<; xai ruv diavoiuv, of the flesh and of the thoughts) The thoughts imply the more subtle and practised purpose of sinning ; the flesh rushes on with a blind impetuosity [impulse]. — pi<re/, by nature) Nature denotes the state of man without the grace of God in Christ. We owe this to our nature [although we have been Jews, Isa. i. 13. — V. g.], that we are the children of ivrath. — opyris, of ivrath) whilst we all the time thought that we were the children of God. The antithesis is in ver. 4. — oi XOIKOI) 1 Thess. iv. 13 : the others, who do not believe, or at least not yet.
4. nXourf/og, rich) "over all," Rom. x. 12. — l^'szi — a/a^v, in mercy — love) Mercy takes away misery ; love confers salvation.
5. K«/, even) This is connected with you, when you were, ver. 1. — was, us) both, JewTs and Gentiles. — <rwg£wocro/>j<« rti Xpiffrti' ^dpiri sars csffufffA&voi, hath quickened together with Christ ; by grace ye are saved) Quickening precedes the " raising up " [ver. 6], and ch. i. 20 ; the raising up presupposes life. We were made alive at the time when Christ was made alive ; comp. 2 Cor. v. 15, concerning the death of Christ, and so of the other steps. But when faith is received, all those things are applied to man by God, and they are considered as ratified by man. The apostle, enumerating this very order of salvation, shows that grace is the beginning and the end [proram et puppim] in this and in the eighth verse, and sometimes he uses indiscriminately the first and second person, on account of the equal footing of
1 The Gentiles (ye) openly walked in sins. The Jews (we «7so), in the way of life and inward character, though not openly walking in the grosser sins of the former, were essentially like them in living to the flesh. — ED.