The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 165

711 not, that to whom ye yield your1elve1 Vere. 17, 18.-But than.u be to God, thai ■ ervant1 to obey (litera,lly, wnto obedience), ye were the servant■ of llll, but ye obeyed hill servants ye are to whom ye obey ; from the heart that form of doctrine where- whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto ye were delivered. (Not, a.a in the unto righteoll8nes11 This is not a truism, A~thorized Version, which wtu ckli-.e'Ted you). as it would seem to be ir it only meant, Bemg then mad~ free from llll, ye became "whose servants ye become, his servants ye the servants of nghteousneu. There is no are." " Ye yield yourselves" ( wa.p,uTd.v•T•, contradiction between what is here said of. ver. 13) denotes acts of yielding. "Ye and the fear previously implied les1 the are" (tuT•) denotes condition. The mean- persons addressed might still serve sin. He ing is that by our conduct we show which refers them back to the time of their baptism master we are under; and we ce,nnot serve when he conceives them both to have under: two (Ma.tt. vi. 24; Luke xvi. 13; cf. John stood their obligation (cf. ver. 3), and alBO viii. 34, "Whosoever committeth sin is the to have been heartily sincere. The fear servant of sin;" and 1 John iii. 7, "He was lest they might have relau,d since, that doeth righteousness is righteous"). The perhaps through infection with antinomian two incompatible services are here said to teaching. By the "form of doctrme" or be of sin and of obedience, with their re- " of instrnotion " ('Tlnrov 6,Ba.x,is) is not at speoti ve tendencies or reBUlta, death and all likely to be meant (as some have !lllp- righteousness. A more exe,ot antithesis to the posed) any diatincti ve type of Christian first clause would have been "of righteous- teaching, such as the Pauline (so :licyer). ness unto life; " life being the proper anti- UBUally elsewhere, where St. Paul nses the thesis of death, and righteousness being word Tlnror, it is of per.wns being examples afterwo.rds said, in vers. 18 and 19, to be or patterns to others (1 Cor. L 6 ; Phil. iii what we ought to be in bondage to. But 17 ; 1 These. i. 7 ; 2 Thess. iii 9 ; 1 Tim. though the sentence seems thus defective iv. 12; Titus ii 7). Somewhat similarly, in form, its meaning is plain. 'T,ra,,co,)r in oh. v. U, Adam is -rlnros Tou µ.eMovror; mee,ns here specifically obedience to God, and in 1 Cor. x. 6 the things which happened not obedience to any master as in ver. 16; to the Israelites in the wilderness were and though in English " servants of obedi- -rlnro, to us. These are all the instances of ence," as though obedience were a master, is the nse of the word in St. Paul's Epistles. nn awkward phrase, yet we might properly Here, therefore, it may be best to understand so.y, "servants of duty," in opposition to it (so as to retain the idea of pattern) as the "servants of sin;" and this is what is meant. general Christian code into which converts It may be tho.t the apostle purposely o.voided had been indoctrinated, regarded as o. norma here speo.king of believers being sla'1Jes of agendi. "Norma. ilia. et regula, ad quam se righteousness in the sense in which they conformat servus, tantum ei per doctrinam had been slaves of sin, because subjection ostenditur; urgeri eum non opus est" (Bengel to righteousness is not properly slavery, on 616ax,ir). but willing obedience. He uses the ex- Ver. 19.-1 speak after the manner of pression, indeed, afterwards (ver. 18), but men beoause of the iniinni.ty of your fleah. adds at once, li.118pwwwov >..l-yo,, etc. ( see note Here li.v8prfnr111ov AE"fOJ (" I speak humanly") on this last expression). Death, "unto" me.y be to.ken as referring to the expression which the service of sin is here so.id to be, immediately preceding, -viz. t6ouM19'rr• rff oo.nnot be mere n11tural death, to which all 61,ca,ouvvp. St. Paul mo.y mean, "In saying nre subjeot. Meyer (with Chrysostom, Theo- you were mode sl.1fles to righteousness, I am phyluot, and other 1moients) takes it to using human lnnguo.ge not properly appli- menn eternal death, ns the final result of oe.ble to your spirituo.l relations. :For yuu bomfage to sin; 611,a.iou61171, autithetioolly are not ret\lly in bondage now ; you ha,·e oorrol11tive, being rego.rded as applying to been emo.noipated from your former bondoge the time of flnnl perfection of the faithful to sin, 11nd l\rB now called upon to render a in tho world to oome-" the righteousness free willing l\llegie.noo to rightoou.sne&i; which is nwo.rded to them in the j1.1dg111e11t." being, in faot, sons, not slaves." This view Seeing, however, tho.t the word 611<R1ou61171 of the true position of tho Christian being is used thrnughout the Epistle to denote one of freedom recurs so often allll so forcibly whnt is o.tto.ino.ble in this present life, nud with St. Pnul th11t it is peoulil\rly likely to that 8d.va'Tor is often used to express I\ stnte be the thought bcfo~ him here ; the very of spiritunl death, which men mny he in at word /60~>..,(,811T< would be likely to suggest nny timo (see nddition11l note on ver. 12; it (llf. eh. viii. 15, seq.; 2 Cor. iii. 17; Gn.l. and of. oh. vii. 9, 10, 19, 24; viii. 6, 19; iv. 4-7; v. I, IS). If (he would say) you o.lso John v. 24:; 1 John iii. 14), it is at fully realized your position 115 soru of God, lenst n quostion whether the finnl doom of you would foe! it impossiblo even to think tho 111st judgment is horo at 11ll e:s:olusivcly of sinning willingly ; but. in ncc,,ruwodati,,n ln the npostlo's view. to your human w81\kuess, I put the Ot\Se llOll.lANS, ll 162 THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. [oH, v1. 1-28,·