The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 176

things. and u, enter into his glory Y" (Luke xxiv. 26). (2) As tc devotion to God. (a) Dinnely: God could not suffer hia Holy One to see corruption; "having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost" (Acts ii. 33); (b) humanly: "be liveth unto God;" for us. 2. Our relation th1·011gh the life of Ohrist to God. Identifioation as beiore-potentia.l for all, actual through faith. (1) As to /at10ur with God. (a) Acquiescence in the approval : gratitude; (b) acquiescence in the joy : for me I (21, Ar; to deootion lo God. (a) A life claimed by God: nenoeforth we bear these'' marks; ' (b) a life yielded to God: "the likeness of his resurrection." So our faith in Christ ha.s regard, not only negatively to sin, but positively to God. We are his; freemen in Christ ; risen ones I • "Reckon ye•• this I The potential fact will but aggravate our condemnation and our woe, if it be not actualized through fait.h. Enter into spiritual sympathy with the work of the Redeemer; be dead to the past, be alive to all the glorious future of an immortality in God.-T. F. L. Vers. 12-14:.-The two dominions. A renewed application of the subject just discussed. The reign of sin ; the reign of grace. L 'I'B::E BXIGN OF SIN. 1. The self yiel<led to sin. Man's higher self-reason, conscience, and will-should dominate over the "soul" and the "flesh," the mere passions and lnsts; man's spirit should be king. But the true self has been discrowned, and the lower self-the lusts-has gained the mastery. And in this false mastery of the flesh. sin reigns. Oh, degradation I we are led in chains, and sin lords it over us I 2. The members yitilded to unrighteousness. Man's lower nature should be the instru- ment of the higher, for the working of all that is just and good. In Paul's philosophy of human nature, the "body n is synonymous with all the active life; and is not the activity of our whole life to be used subordinately to the dictates of the enlightened will? But the activity of life is yielded to the usurping power of sin, instrumental to unrkht.eousness. IL THE BEIGK OP GB.ACE, L The self yield,ed to God. Man is not an irresponsible rnler of his own nature; his sovereignty is delegated by God. And only in absolute devotion to God does he realize a true self-conquest. God claims again possession of the spirit which has been tom from him by the power of sin. The claim is one of authority ; but the authority is the authority of love. 2. The members yielded to righteousnesr.. God requires the homage of the heart; he also requires the service of the life. Only through the heart can the life be rightly swayed. "Not under law." A resurrection., and a resurrection-power. Yes, because he lives, we may live also I Bnt the appropriation of this power is of man: "Present yourselves." Here is the marvellous gift of human freedom, which may be a freedom unto death; but there is the boundless power of love and life I Therefore choose life, that thou mayest live 1-T. F. L. Vers. 15-23.-&n,anta to obey. A slight but suggestive difference between the question of ver. 15 and that with which the chapter opens. "Shall we continue in i;in," the apostle had asked, "that grace may abound?" And he had flung a.way =h a thought by the presentation of the believer's new life as a life pledged to God through Christ. In vers. 12-14 a.lao he had insisted on the consistent fulfilment of the pledge. But now he supposes another and more subtle question-Shall we, not "continue" in sin. but sin, once and again, as we may please, presuming on the easily procured pardon of a gracious God? Alas I how this question insinuates itself into the Christian conscio11BDess ! how readily we condone our carelessness by thoughts of the rest.oring mercy of God I But we are grievoU!!ly wrong if we think u, ourselves that sin and obedience may be played with. We have the dread power u, choose our master; but he u a master, and onr choice in either case commits us to a course, and to a CODBequence. The train may be tumed on u, this line or that, but the line must be followed, and the destinatio1ll are wide as the poles apart. Let us look at these three thought&-A choice, a course, a consequence. L A OHOIOE. The false doctrine of law in the necesaarian scheme of morale-so many we~t.e upon tl,e scale. But man's will is not a dead scale, determined by weighta; it is a living thing, and unless its peculiar life be taken into account all calculations must be wrong. True, if we know the caures, we can predict the result, OH, vr.1-28.) THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. 173