The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 131

kind in the atonement, inrlcpendently of, trooo th'l evil to ite original calW). Bat and previously to, tho conversion of believers. here, liaving ehown ,Jew and Gentile to be Faith only appropriates, and obedience testi- on the same footing with r~s;.,ect t,i sin, and fies, the npproprio.tion of an nccornplishcd reooncilintion nvoilo.ble for all mankind. having entered (at eh. iii. 21) on the doc- 'fhat such is the view in the passage before trinal portion of his Epistle, he goes to us is distinctly evident from all that follows Seri pture for the origiJ\ of the evil, and after ver. 12. finde it there attributed to Adam's original Ver. 11.-And not only 10, but we allo transgression, which implicated the h=n glory in God through our Lord leans Christ, race as an organic whole. This is the through whom we have now reoeived the reoonciliation. We not only have an as- scriptural solution of the mystery, which sured hope; we also glory already in our he here gives, not only aa e.cconnting for restoration to peace with God; our mental things beinJ? 68 they are, bat also, in con- state is en exultant one even now. A tacit nection with the stage of the argument at reference may be supposed to eh. iiL 27 and which he has now arrived, 68 explaining iv. 2, where ell human glorying was said to be shut out. Yes, this remains true-in the necessity and the purpose of the atone- ourselves we cannot glory; but in God, who ment for the whole guilty race, e1fected by has reconciled us, we can and do. It is to the second Adam, Christ. be observed that neither this nor other pas- sages (such as eh. viii. 30, seq.), where an Ver. 12.-Wherefore, as through one ll1&ll exultant assurance of salvation is expressed, Bin entered into the world, and death justify the doctrine of assurance, as somo- through Bin; and so death pas■ed upo?!. all times understood; viz. in the sense that an men, for that all sinned. To thi3 sentence, individual believer may and ought to feel introdnced by ff,11Tep, there is no apodosi3. certain of his own final salvation, on the One llas been sought in the course of what ground of having once been justified. The follows, and by some follild in ver. 18. But condition of continued faithfulness is all ver. 18 is a recapitulation rather than re- along implied (cf., among other texts, 1 Cor. BlIDlption of the argument, and is, funher, ix. 27; Heb. vi. 4, etc.; x. 26, etc.). too far removed to be intended as a formal e.podosis. It is not really necessary to find Vera. 12-21.-{b) From consideration of one. The natural one to the first cla~ of the blessed effects on believers of faith in the sentence would have been, " So through the reconciliation through Christ, the apostle One righteoume&l entered into the world, and life through righteousness; " and such me.y now passes to the e.ffecu of that reCO'Tlcilia- be supposed to have been in the writer's tion 1111 the position of the whole human raca mind. But, e.fter his manner. he goes off to before God. His drift is that the recon- enlarge on the idea expresseJ. i,1 ilie sec'OnJ ciliation oorrespoiids to the original trons- clause, and never formally complt!tes his gression ; both proceeded from one, and both sentence. A similar e.nacoluthon is fullild in 1 Tim. i 3. Sin is here, ns elsewhere, include all mankind in their results : as the regarded as a pouier antagonistic to God, one introduced sin into the world, and, ns which has been introduced into the world its consequence, death, so the other intro- of man, working o.nd manifesting itself in duced right~tlll118811, and, as its consequence, concrete human sin (cf. eh. v. 21 ; vi. 12, life. 14; vii. 8, 9, 17). Its ultimat{l origin is not explained. Scripture offer,i no solution of It mny be observed that in eh. i. also he the old insoluble problem, rod,v TI> "'"'"l>•: has in one sense trnoed sin backward through its existence at all under the swe.y of lhe the po.at ages, so ns to show how all man- Omuipotent Goodness in which we believe kind he.d corr.ll to be under oondernnntion is one of the deep mysteries th11i have ever for it. But 11he subjeot was regarded from baffled hume,n reason. All that is here touched on is its entrance into the workl a different point of view, the purpose of the of m1111, the word ,icni,\8• implying th,\t it argument boing also different. There he alrea,ly existed beyond this mundo.ne sphere. woe nddreeeing the heathen world, hie pur- The reference is, of cours,:,, to Gcu. iii., ll:l pose boing to convince the whole of it of the scriptural account of the b.igiuuini:' of sin, on the score of obvious oulpnbility; sin in our own world. It is there attributed to "the serpent," who1n we reg,ud t\S t\ and, euiinbly to this design, his argument symbol of some mysteril)US power o[ evil, l1 based, not on Soripture, but on obeerva- extornal to man, to which prime,-n.l mt\11, iu tlon of the fnote of hunum nature cmd human the 03.orcise of hie pr.irogtdive of l?lltl-will, l!Mory, It <lid no$ fall wUhin his soope to ■uoownbed, Nld so let Bin in. Througli 126 THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. (en, v. 1-2.1.,