brings to the believer the life which is in Christ Jesus brings with it also the Divine law for the believer’s life; but it is now, as Paul says in Gal. iii. 21, a “ yépnos 6 δυνάµενος ζωοποιῆσαι,᾽ not an impotent law written on tables of stone,
-and hence righteousness comes by it;
it proves more than a match for the authority exercised over man by the forces of sin and death. Paul would not have called the Divine law (even as a series of statutes) a law of sin and death, though he says τὸ γράμμα ἀἄπο- - κτείνει; Sin and Death are conceived objectively as powers which impose their own law on unredeemed men. Ver. 3. He now explains how this was done. It was not done by the law: that is the first point. If τὸ ἀδύνατον is active (= ‘the inability’ of the law) we must suppose that Paul meant to finish the sentence, ‘‘ was overcome,” or “ was removed” by God. If it is passive (= ‘that which is impossible” for the law), we must suppose he meant to finish it, ‘“was achieved” or ‘“‘ accomplished ”’ by God. There is really no way of decid- ing whether ἀδύνατον is active or passive, and the anacoluthon makes it impossible to tell what construction Paul had in his mind, i.e., whether ἀδύνατον is nomina- tive or accusative. For the best exami- nation of the grammar see S. and H. ἐν ᾧ probably refers to ἀδύνατον: the point at which the law was impotent, in which it was weak through the flesh. This is better than to render ἐν ᾧ ‘“‘in that,” or “‘because’’. For the meaning ¢f. vii. 18. What the law could not do, God did by sending τὸν ἑαυτοῦ νυἱὸν His own Son. With the coming of so great a Person,