The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 132

,;,. enterro all!() dMtA BB it.s consequence; dil'Rppee.rs: but auoh is its aspeot to tho which (rrimuily at leut) mllllt mean here natural mnn: R.nd thus we can enter iuto phYl'i<'Rl death, this being all that is de- the soriptura.l idea of death, ns it oomes t.o u, ootro in Henesis (comp. iii. 19 with ii. so inevitably now, being something not origin• 17\ and nl'('('88Rn" to be understood in whRt elly meent for man, though we may be un- foH0ws in the chapter before us (t>ee ~. able to BILY how it would hnvo been with him It). But he"' a difficnltT presents iblelf to had not sin entered. (2) Though physirnl modem thought. Are 'we to unden;hl.lld dMth, obvious to men's eyes, and not spi.r.i- that man wu originally II() oonstituteJ as tue.l death of the soul either iu this worlcl not to die ?-that even his bodily organiza- or iu the world to come, is here evidently. tion -.ras immortal, and would ha'l"e con- in view (see ver, 14), yet we must be!U' ,iii tinued so but for the fatal taint of sin P mind . the ~ere.I idea. nssociated with th~ We find it difficult at the preseut day to word "denth" in tho New Testament.· ~. oonoeive this, howernr bound we may feel is sometimes Ull.ed BO as to imply 111ore iliq'n to submit our reason to revelRtion in a the mere parting of the soul fro[ll the b*~ ma~r l!O remote, so unl.-nown, and so mys- including in the conception of .whnt it' :i.:i. tenc>lll! as the beginning of human life on all the woes and iufirmities that flesh is heir the earth, in whate'l"er aspect viewed, and to, which are its precursors in the present indeed of all conscious life, must eYer be. st.ate of things (cf. 1 Cor. xv. 31; 2 Cor. iv. But St. Paul himself., in another place, 10, 12, 16; vi. 9), being thus regarded al~ speaks of "the first man" hanng been, e,en as the visible sign before our vyes of ml\n',~ 011 his first orea"on, "of the earth, earthy n present alienation from the life the.t is ig. (1 Cor. :IT. 45, 47), with a body, like God. St. Paul, then, iu the passage befote ours, of" flesh and blood," in its owu nature us, thongh alleging merE! natural death as corruptible (1 Cor. :IT. 50). Neither is the sufficient evidence of sin, may be conceived D&m1tive of Gen. i1L iuconsistent with this as hn,ing in his view Denth armed as he idea.. For it seems to imply that, but for has been with e. peculiar sting to mun his e:<ting of the mystioe.l "tree of life" through all known time. The main poilit (whate,er may be meant by it), the fust of his argument is that the doom recordeil man was in his own nature morle.l, and thnt iu Genesis as having been pronounced o~ his liahility to death ensued on his being Adam had obviously remained iu fore'11 debarred from it (Gen. iiL 22). It may be throughout the ages ; and there is surely impossible for Dll t.o understand or explain. no diliioulty in assenting to the positiou ttnt The following considerations, however, may the dominion of death, as it hn~ been exer- perhaps help Dll iu some degree. (1) When cised since that doom, is evidence of its we pay regard to man's spiritual capabilities continue.nee, and consequently of sin. , "For and aspirations, even as he is now, death that all siuned ".. (more correctly so than, does seem to us an anomaly-a contradic- as in the Authorized Version, "all hnl'O tion to the ideal of his inner self. That a sinned") seems to mean, not that e.ll since beast of the field should die appears to Dll Adam in their own persons committed sin, no snch anomaly; for it has done all that it but that all sinned iu him-were implionted eeems to have been meant to do, or to be in the sin of the, progenitor ( cf. ver.15; capable of doiug : it has served as a link also I Cor. xv,. 22, •• in Adam all die.;,\' in the continuance of ita kind, not having and 2 Cor. v. 14:, where all are said to ha-w:e been consciollll, as far as we know, of any- died t,o sin in the death of 9hris~. The thing beyond it.a BlllTonndings. But man doctrine of original, as distinct from actual. (i~. mao as he is capable of being, so as to sin, thus intimated, has been, 118 is well reprtscnt the capacity of humanity) con• known, the 11Ubject of much controversy nect,; himself in his inner self with eternity; since the time of Pele.gins, It does not fall his mind resents the idea of death, as an within tlle proper scope of this Commentary unwelcume stoppage to its development and to discuss the theories of divines, but rnther itE yee.miDge. li goes on ever maturing to set forth candidly what the langunge of itE power, enlarging it.a range1 thirsting for the portions of Boripturo commented on In higher knowledge, entE:rtaiowg e.ffectioos itself most obviously means,viewed iu the that llf:elil eternal; and then bodily decay light afforded by general Boriptnre teoc.h- and dt:e.th arrest its progress as it were iu iDg. With respect to the passage boforo us, mid-career. Thus death, as it comes to U8 it may 11Uffloe to say: (I) 'fhnt more must aod affect. Dll now, seems to involve a con- be understood than the mero· impuf.atlon ·of tr..diction between man's inner conacious- Adam's transgression to his desoendante, Dl:88 and the facts of his existence at present; irrespectively of any guilt of theirs,· , Thie it is slmmk from as 110mething that ought notion, which jau on our conoeptlpn, 9l not tr, bf:. It ia true that, when faith has Divine j11J:1tice, is preeh1dcd.,by tb.o c11iire or,~ E,'?Up0d the idea of bodily death being drift of the C11-rlier chapters of this EpMle, '¥ but ,. tnmnti.on to a bt-tkr life, anomall which w1111 tile actual culp11blUtv of majl- lj ! ' , ' ~I ! ,, • ,' ' ' I • I' oa. v. 1-21.J THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. 127 ------------------------- ----- ----- - kind at large, and also by what follows here, worlcl, infecting a:rJ. The ;'\loeafo Law i1 sin itself being spoken of-not the impnte.- spoken of as the distinct revelation of Divine tion of it only-as being in the world aft.er Law to man; and therefore attention ia Ado.m, and universal too, ns evidenced by first clrawn to the fact that before that re- the continued reign of death. All men a.re velation, no less than after it cleath had 1aid to hnvo sinned in the sin of the first reigned _over all. But is it thus implied transgressor, because sin was thus intro- that until the Law from ;\fount Sinai men duced, ne a power in hnmnn nature o.ntago- bad been without any kind of law for tram,- nietio to God, and because this "infection gressing which they were responsible? :S-at of no.ture" has continued since. And thus BO, That La.w is indeed regarded as the (2) the Pele.gian position is also precluded, first definite enunciation of law under eri, eocording to which "original ein stancleth dent Di vine sanction, after which, to those (onl11) in tµe following of Adam" (Art. ix.), that were under it, sin became indubitably i.e. in actual imitation of his sin, which man and exceeding sinfnl; but that men are is supposed to have still, as Adam had, the conceived as having sinned previo113ly power to avoid. For it is expressly said against law of some kind. appea.rs from the (ver. 14) that death reigned over-in proof phrase," E-,;en otier these (,cal hl -ro/Js) who that sin infected-even those who had not bad not sinned after the similitude of Adam's sinned after the similitude of his transgres- transgression," i.e. conscionaly against e. sion. But (3) we must guard against con- known command. This surely implies I.hat fusion between the idea of man's natural some had so sinned; and thns the e.,sential liability to condemnation on the ground of point of the argument is that even over transmitted sinfulness, and that of God's those who had not so sinned (such a.a the aotual dealing with him. It is nowhere unenlightened and invincibly ignorant. or said or implied that the natural infection persona dying in infancy) death had eqnally which they could not help will be visited reignecl. Who is the figure of him that was on individuals in the final jndgment. All to come. This is added BO as to bring that is fnsisted on by St. Paul is that man, round the thonght to the main subject of in himself, as be is now, fa.Ila short of the the chapter, viz. the reconciliation of all glory of God, and cannot put in a l)lea for mankind tb.Jough Christ, to which the acceptance on the ground of bis own right- scriptural ncconnt of the condemnation of eousneBB. But he no less emphatically de- all mankind through Adam had. at ver. 12, clares that "where sin abounded, grace did been adclucecl as analogous. Who refers to much more a.bound." Adam, who ha.a just been for the fint time Vere. 13, 14.-For until Law (i.e. all named; he that was to com,, is Christ, who through the time previous to the revelation is called, in 1 Cor. xv. 45, "the last Adam." of law) sin was in the world: but sin is Adnm. was a type (mos) of Cbrist in that not'imputed when there ia no law. Never- both represented entire homanitv; one as theless death reigned from Adam to Moses, the representative and e.nthor of flillen, the even over them that had not Binned after other of restored. humanity-the tran.sare:.- the similitude of Adam's transgression. sion of the one o.nu the obedience of' the Though vl,µ.os, where it first ocours in ver. other alike affecting all (see vers. IS, 19.). 13, refers definitely, o.s appears from the But there is a difference between the two context, to the Law of Moses, yet it is with- cases; and this is pointeu out in .ers. IS, out the nrticle, ns denoting the principlo of 16, 17, which follow. lo.w, of which the Moso.io oode was the em- v~rs. 15-17.-But not as the treapau, so bodiment; nnd it has therefore, in o.coord- also is the free gift. For if by the treapasa o.nce with the rule lo.id down in this trons- of the one the many died (not, 11d ckad, u lo.tion, been rendered o.s o.bove. Tho purport in the Authorized Version. Observe aoo of these two verses, oonnected by ")!tip with the urtioles befoni "one" o.nd "many"), wdv-r•s +jµ.ap-rov of ver. 12, is to prove that muoh more the graoe of God, and the gift by the primevnl sin did reo.lly infect nnd impli- graoe, of the one llan, 1IIIUll Christ, abounded co.te the whole ra.co of mankind. It might unto the many. And not u through one be supposed tho.t those only would be im- that sinned, so ill the gift : for the judgmw l)lioated who ha.d themselves tro.usgressed, was of one (l{ ,~~s) unto oondemnation, but ns Ado.m did, a. lcnown oommnud; it being the free gift 1s of (be) many o1f'enou unto an ncknowledgcd principle of Di vino justico justification. l!'or if by the o1f'enae of the tho.t only sin o.tl"•1iust lo.w of whioh tho sinner one death reigned through the one, mnah is consoious 1s imputed to him for oon- more they which reoeive the abundance of demno.tion (cf. eh. iv. 15; also John h. 41). graoe and of the gift of righteousnees shall Nny, but the univorsa.l dominion of donth, reign in life through the One, 1•us Christ, tho doom of sin, ovc>: nll o.liko, whothor or The purl!ort oftheso verses is (while k,'<lpiug not they had thomsdvos so sinned, was up tho v1e1v of ooudemu,,tiou 1md justitieu. proof thnt sin wne o.ll 11loug dominnnt in the tion bclu:; both dt,rivod. to all from oue) tQ  THE EPISTLE OP PAUL TO THE ROMANS. [011. v. 1-21