The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 168

e'l"ery good ~-ork there is a resurrection appointed. Death is for I\ senson ; God's people csunot be "holden of it." The corn of wheat dies, but it dies to live, and to bring forth much fruit. 4-. In Christ's resurrection the Ohristinu is begotten to a living hope of an immortal inheritance. His people are appointed to share his triumph and his glory. , er. 4-.-" Nt1V1MSS qf l(fe:" a Neu, Year', sermon. Things new and old make up ~e sum of human experiences. All that is new becomes old, and the old disappears to come before us a,,,aa.in in new combinations, in new shapes. The mind of man seems to have a natural leaning in both directions; we like the old because it is old, and the new because it is new. This is one of the contradictions inseparable from human nature. There is some truth in the common saying that the young prefor novelty and the aged cling to "use and wont." It is easy to see how, to the youthful, change should be welcome, for their knowledge is yet very limited, and new experiences are the appoint.ad means of furnishing and equipping the mind. It is less easy to explain the conserratism of age and its dread of innovation, for experience must have taught the old how imperfect is e'l"erything that concerns man's culture and condition ; this trait of character may be largely owing to the increasing feebleness which indisposes to the unwanted exertion of the faculties, or to accommodation to new circumstances. True religion takes advantage of both these tendencies of human nature. It appeals to the natural att.achment we feel to what is ancient and sanctioned by prolonged existence ; and it appeals also to the yearning for progress and for fresh experiences, which we all either have felt in the past or feel to-day. But observe in what way revelation makes use of these natural tendencies, and remark the harmony there is between the moral necessities of man and the Divine communications of Scripture. Broadly speaking, whatever concerns God is commended by its antiquity and unchangea.bleness; whilst that which refeni to man approaches us with the cha.rm and the allurement of no'l"elty. A moment's reflection will show us why this should be so with true religion. Man, in his brief life, with his feeble purposes and his petty achievements, looks away from himself for the et.ernal and the unchanging. Thie he knows is not in himself or in his race ; and he seeks it in the unseen God. And herein he is right. He does not seek these attributes in vain. For, knowing God, he knows that in him there is absolute being, unaffected by the changes to which all creation is subject. Man can find his true stability and his true peace only when he rest5 in the care and love of "the Father of lights, who is without variableness and shadow of turning." But, on the other hand, man, when he knows himself, is aware that his past has been a past unsatisfactory to himself, and blamable by his Creator and Judge. His changes have often been from evil to evil; and he looks forward, mther than behind him, for relief. His only hope is in hie future. The old he can regard only with pain, with regret, with distress. If there is improvement, it must bt: in what is new-in a new condition, new impulses, new principles of the soul, in new associations and new help. Accordingly, Christianity comes to man with gifts of heavenly newness in her hand. Christianity establishes with man a "new covenant," and gives to him a "new commandment;" makes of him a "new cre11tion," traDSfoI'IDJ! him into a "new man." It opens up to him a" new way" unto the Father by the Mediator of a" new testament," gives him a "new name,'' and teaches him a "new song," and inspires him with the hope of a "new heaven and a new earth." In short, it enables him to serve in "newness of spirit," and to walk in "newness of life." "Life" is, in the New Testament, used as equivalent to the history of the spiritual nature. The Lord J eeua professed to be " the Life," " the Life of men ; " he came that "we might have life, and that more abundantly," and the acceptance of him as the Divin.e Saviour is deeignat.ed the "passing from death unto life." Thle being under- stood, it will not be auppaied that by "newness of life " the Apostle Paul refers to the life of the body, or to the outward circumstances ln which physical life may be passed. And yet the context ahowe that he is not treating of the future and blessed life in the nearer presence of God. Accordingly, we understand by "newness of life" that which contrasts with the spiritual deadnese which hung as a cloud of darkness over heathen humanity, and which contrasts also with the earlier and imperfect developments of spiritual vitality. It is a newness of life which is peculiar to the Ohristian diupensa- till. VI. 1-23,] 'l'llE EPIS'l'LE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS.