The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 107

from the plt of destruction that yawned beneath the feet of our sinful race. Holy boiugs who have kept their first estate may detect a wondrous pathos in the eonga of ransomed saints. The sentence, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread/ bas become e. blessing to our fallen humanity, for by toilsome effort we era.in experience, humility, and strength. And so, by the habit of wreRtling against sinful impulses, we can acquire a security or position which innocent integrity could never guarantee. Which juetifierl believer could really wish never to have had the neces.-itl for gazin17 at the oroes, which melts his soul and transforms his being? Th118 is man s unrigh~U'l- ness made "to commend the righteousness of God." II. WILFUL BIN IB MOT, THEREFORE, TO GO UNPUNlBHED. Mark the deceitfulness of sin, trying to find a cloak for its existence, and even a motive to it.a further com- mission, in the very method whereby God demonstrates his grief at it.a prevalence, and his determination to root it out of his dominions. No traitor could expect to escape judgment on the plea that his rebel designs, being detected, exposed, and defeated by his sovereign, had really only contributed to his monarch's glory. Perhaps the direction in which the apostle's argument needs chief application to-day is in respect of practical antinomianiem. They mistake the intent of the atonement who can live as if the supera.bounding grace of Christ gives liberty to the recipient to neglect righteousness of behaviour. Full forgiveness for past conduct does not imply that all the natural consequences will be averted. The wound may be healed, but the scar aha.II remain. Men receive in themselves the harvest resulting from their seed--<:rop of thoughts and practices. The reasoning of ihe supposed objector in the text reminds one of the self-justifying query of a thief to the policeman, " Wba.t would you do for a livelihood if it were not for the likes of us?" Paul never hesitates to bring complacent sinners into the presence of the great white throne of judgment, in whose searching light delusive pretences fall a.way and leave the soul naked before God. ill. Non IB BIN IN ANY FORM TO BE PERPETRATED WITH A VIEW TO GOOD EFFECTS. The condemnation is just of those who say, "Let us do evil, that good may come." Modem preachers should not be surprised if their utterances get misinterpreted, since even the apostle's clear statements did not prevent opponents from twisting his declarations into a proposition abhorrent to his mind. 'l'o permit sin in his children would be for God to allow the roots of his moral government to be cut. 'l'he casuistry of the Middle Ages was a trifling with the plain utterances of the inner judgment. Onr only safe guide is morality. To do what we know to be wrong is always hurtful, though sometimes we may do harm by what we believe to be right. Man's reason soon begins to spin out of itself a cocoon wherein it lies in dark imprisonment. The prevention of sin is better than its cure. An unrighteous policy is never expedient. Sweet a.t first, it turns to bitterness at the last. For Churches to seek by unrighteous methods to further the kingdom of God is like the action of the Irish a.gent, who, when ordered to take measures for the preservation of a. certain ancient ruin, proceeded to use the stones of the ruin for a. wall of enclosure to protect it against further harm. Righteousness alone can establish any throne and exalt any people. We have need of prayer and converse with Christ, that the spiritual vision may be keen enough to detect Sa.tan, though appearing a.s "an angel of light."-8. R. A. Ver. 23.-.A remedy for o universal need. To assert that the righteousness of God manifested in Christ was "apart from the Law" relegated the Law to its proper position, as the servant, not the master, of religion. And the apostle's substantiation of his further assertion, that this new method of righteousness was not so entirely unheard of a.s that its novelty should be a strong prejudice against i~ truth, but that, on the contrary, the Law itself and the prophets contain intimations of such a Divine ma.nifestation,-thie cut the ground entirely from under the feet of objectors jeruoUil of every innovation which could not be justified by an appeal to the eacred writings. And this righteousness through faith recognized Jew and Gentile as alike in their need of n gospel, and their freedom of access thereto. I, 'l'llERE IB NO DISTINOTION AMONGST MEN IN RESPECT OF TUBIR NEED OF TRB GOSPEL. Mon nro deolared faulty in two respects. 1. By positiw tra11sgre~si,111. '!'hey "sinned," they have done wrong, and they wander continually from the right 109 TKE EPISTLB OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. [oH, m.1-31,