The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 109

uncler a Divine diecipliae and education from tbe do.ye of Abraham down to the days of Christ. Not only so, but the revelation turned the minds of its possessors rowa.rds ~ho future, Rpeaking of o suffering as well as glorified Messiah, who was comin<t t-0 ~et up h!s kin~rlom. The revelation was th_us ~ founta.i~ of hope for a.II who posse;sed 1~. Besides, 1t was a. means of sclf-exammat10n, for 1t analyzed the motives and exposed the deprnvity of the human heart. To say that there was no literature possessed by other nations to be compared for a moment with the Hebrew literature is to state the case tamely. The nation possessing such "holy oracles" ought to hl\ve been the holiest, most humble, and most hopeful of all the nations. God was clearly calling them as a people into an exceeding great and glorious inheritance. I;. pure and inspiring literature is a chief national possession. Beside this, all other advantages ·are trifling. And so the circumcised Jew might well rejoice in being the custodian of the most splendid national literature existing in the world . . II. SOME, WHILE PRESERVING THE BOOK, DID NOT BELIEVE THE ME88AGE THAT IT BROUGHT. (Ver. 3.) It is admitted on all hands that the Old Testament wa.~ preserved by the Jews with scrupulous care. Texts and even letters were counted, and nothing wao left to be desired so far as custody is concerned. But many, alas! c:,f the custodians did not appreciate the message which the book brought them. It 4,id not undermine their pride; its utterances about the deceitfulness of the h=n heart were referred to other people. . Its statements also about the sufferings of Messiah were largely ignored, so that when Messiah came as a Man of eorrows they rejected him, e.nd continued to look for another Messiah, who would pose in triumphant majesty at the heo.d of a.n emancipated nation. Accordingly, they did not believe either in ti:\e book or in the Messiah it promised. They thought, indeed, that they had eternal life in the book, but they refused to come to the Person the book pointed out, and who !1.le>ne had eternal life to bestow (cf. ,Iohn v. 39, 40). They thus gave the lie to revelation, and to_ok up arms against God and his Son. Yet such unbelief did not invalidate the Divine revelation or interfere with God's faithfulness. The book contained threatenings as well as promises; it has its Ebal as well as its Gerizim. If, therefore, souls insist on disbelieving God's promises and threa.tenings, he can still ~bide faithful, and does not need to deny himself. He can e:s:ecute ju~ament on the ltn believers, and so secure his glory in their despite. . Ill THE EXPEDIENOY DOCTRINE OF DOING EVIL THAT GOOD MAY COME MERITS THE STRONGEST REPROBATION. (Vers. 4--8.) Unbelief does not, as we have seen, invalidate. God's faithfulness. God preserves his glory in man's despite. In these circumstances, the objection is easily raised that unbelief, and indeed unrighteousness i)il !1,11 its forms, contribute to God's glory; his righteousness is seen to the more adve.n- ~age through this foil. The sinner is consequently contributing to the Divine glory, ~Jld so should not suffer for thus co-operating. In the light of God's providential plan, every evil-doer is contributing to the display of the Divine righteousness. Now, this doctrine of expedient evil, witb. its resultant good, has been the continual resort of the unscrupulous. But it is worthy of the very strongest reprobation. For, in the first place, it overlooks the fact that evil-doers are not voluntary contributors to the Divine glory. Evil-doing is really the running counter to God's will in all things. If evil-doers are contributors to God's glory, it is in spite of themselves. They deserve no consideration, therefore, on this account. And, in the second place, while God pverrules their evil-doing for his glory, he is in no sense the .Author of sin, and so in no sense does evil that good may come. For, in granting freedom to his creatures, God was granting the one condition of the exfotence of virtue, and has no responsibility when his creatures diverted it into the cha.nnel of waywardness and sin. The evil is the act of his creaturoo entirely ; with them the responsibility rests ; all that God does is to transmute the evil into good by his wondrous wisdom, justice, I\Dd lo,e. Conse- quently the doing of evil can only be under the pretence of good resnl_ting_ fro~ it. J<~vil-doers wax worse l\nd worne; they may pretend to seek good, but thell' spmt gives the lie to their profession, and warrants their condemuation. It is diabolical doctrine, e.nd its de.mnl\tion is jURt. IV. GoD'S RIGH'l'S AB JUDGE CANNOT BE DISREGARDED. (Vers. 5, 6.) A general judgment is expected b)'. all impnr~ial _miuds.. It _is ~eeu by a_ll not blinded by good fortune that good and evil are not d1stnbuted 1n this life accordrng to dc~ert. ,v e aN  THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO TH~ llOMANa. [011. ru.1-81.