The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 110

in a di■pen!llltion where much is reee"9d, ad a judgment to oome oan alone afford the opportunity of putting things right. Suppose, then, that the right to punish evtl-doera is denied on this ground of their contributing to God's glory; it is phtin that the whole idea of judpnent., either pNll!ent or to oome, must fall to piecos. In these circumetanoee wt' should have no judge to appeal t.o, and no hope of even checking triumphant wrong. Faith in the Divine admioistration would be loat, and society would really relapse into barbarism. Hence God's rights as Judge must be respeoted, and evil-doers prepare theillll81ves for wrath, if they refuse to be reconciled t.o him. This guarantee of God's rigbb; u Judge is one of the marks of the Old Testament revelation. There we see, 1100ner or IMer, ju~eot overtaking evil-doing. Even when the evil-doer is, like Da,id, an Oriental despot, God's judgments search him out; so that the one hope of the sinner is to betake himself to peniteoce, and if he can, as in the fifty-first psalm, acknowledge his sin and justify God, as he condemns and visits with displeasure the sin (Pa. Ii. 4; eh. iii 4), then the pardon and the peace 'and the joy of believing may be bis. But the Judge must be recognized and hie rights respected, else the indi- vidual and IOciety itself must remain unsaved..-R. M. E. Ven. 9-20.-Knowledge of sin through the Law. Having described the Jewish privileges and the Dinne judgment for the abuse of these privileges, the apostle now prooeeds to ask and to answer the question," .Aie we [Jews] preferred (wpo•x.0µ•611.)?" This means, in God's esteem; and it is answered without hesitation," No, in no wise." And the proof has already been given: "For we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they an all under sin" (Revised Version). We are, consequently, face to face in this section with the truth of universal guilt-a fact proclaimed alike by the heathen conscience and the Jewish Scriptures. L JEWS "-"D GREEKS ABB ALL UNDER SIN. (Ver. 9.) It is here that & gracious work must begin in the soul All possibility of self-righteous confidence must be taken away ; the sonl must be brought low through a sense of sin. Instead, therefore, of JeWB being put into a class of Divine favourites, accept.ad because of their descent or circumcision, they are put by Panl into the one universal class of guilty men. They have as little ground of hope in themselves as the most abandoned heathen. It is here, 1oDCOrdingly, that we must &ll come. We must take our stand with the race and realize that we are &ll guilty before God. We come under a law of condemnation, and no amount of Pharisaic self-righteoneness will make any of us an exception. God will not respect the persons of any ; &ll must first humble themselves before him under a genuine &eillle of sin. II. USIVEBBA.L GUILT IB A.SSEBTBD DI TBE JEWISH SCBIPTUBEB. (Vere. 10-18.) Paul, in making his quotations, gives us some from the Psalms, some from Proverbs, some from the Prophet Isaiah; but the sad chorus is in perfect unison about human guilt and its accompanying depravity. The psalm from which he quotes first, the fourt.eenth, represents God as looking down from heaven to see, if possible, some righteous mim; but the verdict to which he is compelled to come is that " there is none righteous, no, not one." Instead of the knowledge of hie Name, and its corre- sponding righteousness, there was nothing visible but guilt and corruption. Human history was one long catalogue of selfishness and crime. There were no redeeming features in humanity, wherever left to itself. Hence the "oracles" possessed by the Jews were no flattering unction for Jewish soul& Bo far from this, the Old Testament Scriptures demon..strated the gnilt and waywardness of the chosen peo}Jle, as well as of the surroundiria heathen, and ma.de the most sweeping charges against one and all. If Jews hope for"C'Jwrideration and acceptance on the ground of their possession of the book, they were entirely mistaken, for they were simply custodians of their own con• damnation. And, indeed, this is one of the wonders of the world, that a llterature which is 10 faithful with guilty men, that is always knocking down their self-righteous- ness and flatteriog them never, should, notwithstanding, be ao popular among them, The' severest censor of all has, nevertheless, become the most revere,!. It is in this light a great encouragerm,nt to all who have the desire to be faithful with their follows, that faithfulness will 8(J(1ner or later be appreciated I ill Ko HOPE CAN O'JNBEQ,UElllTLY BE PLACIUJ IN IIUl(Al'I' MEIUT. (Ver. 19.) 'J'he aevert judgUJent expnsse<l in the Jewish Law is not xneant merely for heathens, but on. ttt. 1-81.] THE ltPIBTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. 106