The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 35

•rlltlual dntica nru.l responsibilities of nil human rcbtions. It is nho ccrbin, ,is has been nlrondy intimated, that hnman 11w l,as indirectly aider! religion, hy ennbling mnn to understand more clearly, and appreciate more fully, the relations between the Divine law nnd tho gospel of Christ. But it has been only too obvious in the l1istory of the world, that of itself humnn law has been wholly insufficient- we may oven eny worse than useless-for the direction of man in his responsibilitiea to God his Creator, or for preserving among men the true knowledge of God. Thl3 history of nll the nations of antiquity proves, that the knowledge of God was much soonet, and much more generally, obscured among them than that knowledge of good and evil, which is the basis of human law; while the law, on the other hand, often promoted, or at least sanctioned, superstition and idolatry rather than true religion. In Egypt, for example, the fundamental and original idea was that of one God, not represented by any form ; but his attributes were personified nnder various names, each of which had its own significant form or representation, to which Divine honour nnd worship were paid, A kind of pantheism became polytheism, and this, recognised by the law, filled the land with the grossest idolatry. Whatever may have been the process in each nation through which the belief in one God became corrupted, it is notorious both that the corruption was universal, and that human law, even when it did not_ foster the tendency, nowhere prevented the downward movement. St. Paul, in the beginning of his great argument in the Epistle to the Romans, describe~ how, even among the most civilised and progressive nations of the whole world, such e.s the Greeks, the knowledge of God, which man possesses through the mani- festation of Go.d's eternal power e.nd Divinity in the visible works of creation, was suppressed and perverted. Through their alienation of heart from the living God, "tbough·they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened ; and they changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator." 1 .And the result of tl1is apostasy from the worship of the. one true God wns that he "gave them over to a reprobate mind," a mind incapable of using aright that knowledge of good and evil which it naturally pos- sessed; so. that although they knew, of their own selves, without any revelation, what was the judgment of God upon evil in all its varied forms, and that those who did such things were worthy of death, yet they not only co=itted these evils themselves through the force of temptation, but even lost their consciousness of the distinctions between right and wrong, and approved of those who did evil; a fact of which Greek and Roman literature supplies only too abundant confirmation. Such, St. Paul argues, was the necessity for G-od's law being given, or (as be expresses it) for the anger of God being "re,ealed from heaven against all ungodliness and un- righteousness of men who hold down the truth in unrighteousness." That "wrath of God" has indeed to be yet further revealed against nil impenitent sinners, whether they have sinned without law or under the law, who reject the mercy and goodness of God. But in the first instance, the revelation of God's wrath against sin, and of his condemnation of it, wns made in his law. This was the first and special purpose of the law, to convince man of sin, and compel him to recognise his own transgression;i as offences, not only against the order of human society, but against the a·1thority of God, nnd against the obligations undor which we lie to our Creator, these offences rendering us therefore subject to the penalty of death, spiritual and eternal. To produce this effect, however, it waH necessary that this revelation shoulJ be made in the form, not of religious and moral precepts merely, however holy and good, but 1 Rom. i. 18-25.  :nii INTRODUCTION TO THE PEN1'ATEUCH.