The absence of the article before νόμῳ is noteworthy; whereas the Law of Moses, being the one revealed Law, is always designated the Law (6 vépos), νόμῳ denotes law in the abstract, so that this clause comprehends emancipa- tion from all control of externallaw. The freedom was, of course, purely spiritual: Paul continued fully to acknowledge the duty of outward submission to all duly ordained authority, but maintained the absolute independence of his spirit and conscience from its dictates.—iva Θεῷ ζήσω. This clause adds the motive for this death to Law. It was a veritable death unto life: Saul had striven in vain to obtain life before God by zealous ful- filment of every commandment; he now acknowledged his utter failure, surren-
166
Il, 20—2I.
20. Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι: ζῶ δὲ οὐκ ἔτι ἐγὼ, ζῇ δὲ ἐν ἐμοὶ Χριστός: ὃ δὲ νῦν ζῶ ἐν σαρκὶ, ἐν πίστει ζῶ τῇ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ,"
τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντός με καὶ παραδόντος ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ.
21. οὐκ
ἀθετῶ τὴν χάριν τοῦ Θεοῦ: εἰ γὰρ διὰ νόμου δικαιοσύνη, ἄρα
Χριστὸς δωρεὰν ἀπέθανεν.
17. νιου τ. Θεου NACD*EKLP ; τ. Θεον και Χριστου BD'FG.
dered all the pride and ambition of his life, and cast himself in humble trust at the feet of Jesus to receive from Him that precious life which he had sought in vain by his most zealous efforts under the Law.
Ver. 20. Χριστῷ συνεστ. The Greek order throws special emphasis on Χριστῷ: union with Christ became from that time the central feature of his life; it entailed in the beginning a fellowship with his crucifixion, a real crucifixion of heart and will. By this figure he describes the intense agony of spiritual conflict, the crushing load of shame and bitter remorse which he underwent during the three days of darkness and silent despair that followed his vision of the Christ.—_{6 δὲ: And I live. I can perceive no ground for rendering δέ nevertheless (A.V.) or yet (R.V.). There is no contrast here be- tween the life and the previous death: on the contrary, the life is presented as the direct outcome of the death. As the resurrection of Christ was the sequel of the crucifixion, so Paul was joined to Christ in death that he might be joined to Him in spiritual life—otne ἔτι . . . The new life is no longer, like the former, dependent on the struggling efforts of a mere man to draw near to God in his own righteousness. Christ Himself is its source, as the vine is the source of life to the branches.—8 δὲ ζῶ: But in that I live. Our versions make this = ἣν ζωὴν ζῶ; but it seems to me more accordant with the context and with Greek forms of expression to make 6 = in that, as it is rendered by A.V. in Rom. vi. 10. Two instances of this adverbial use of 6 for a connecting particle have been already noted in this Epistle (i. 7, ii. 10). Paul is here accounting for the fact that he now possesses spiritual life, though still in the flesh and subject to motions of sin in his members: it belongs to him in virtue of his faith in the Son of God.—pe... ἐμοῦ. The previous clauses have expressed the intimate per- sonal union between the spirit of Paul and his Divine Master. In harmony with that view an exclusive personal
aspect is ted of the love of Christ and of His sacrifice on the Cross, as though Paul himself had been their sole object.
Ver. 21. Christ died in order that men might live before God by His grace in spite of a broken Law; if men could keep the Law of themselves and live, there would be no call for grace, and the death of Christ would be proved a useless sacrifice.—&ia νόμου. Law was never, like faith, instrumental to justifi- cation (cf. νετ. 16). Accordingly, Paul never speaks of justification through Law, but either ἐκ νόμον or ἐν νόμῳ. Here, as in ver. 19, διὰ νόμον really denotes a legal environment, and the verse argues that if righteousness was really within men’s reach under a legal dispensation, then there was no occasion for the death of Christ at all.