The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 183

separated through his burial in the tomb. Godet, in a note to his comment UP')n this passage, gives a beautiful illustrntion of the truth from what a Bechuana C()nvert sai,l to the missionary Casalis some years ago. The convert was a shepherd and thus expressed himself: "Very soon I shall be dead, and they will bury me in' my fiekl. My sheep will come and pasture above me. But I shall no more attend to them nor go out of my tomb to seize them and carry them back with m1:. into the sepul:hre. They will be strange to me and I to them. Behold the imaire of my life in the mid~t of the world, from the time that I have believed in Christ." The idea, therefore, is that by our baptism, ,.e. by our union with the Christian Church, we are buried out of the world. The Church proves, eo to speak, the cemetery where, in holy peace ancl blissful fellowship, God's people rest. And so, as we manfully throw in our lot with Christ, we pass into the guve-like peace of the Christian Church, and enjoy therein fellowship with Obrist and bis peaceful people. It ie to this burial out of the world and into the kingdom of God we arc called. Ill. ALONG WITH THIS DEATH AND BUBIAL WITH 0mtIBT THERE I8 EXPER=CED A CRUCIFIXION OF OUB OLD NATURE. Historically the crucifixion precedes the death, but experimento.lly we shall find that, ae the apostle here puts it, it succeeds it (ver. 6). It is when we have realized our death in Jesus for sin, and our burial with Jesus out of the world, that the crucifixion and mortification of our old nature begin. A counter- part of the crucifixion is realized within us. The "body of sin," elsewhere called "the flesh" (<Tapn, must be destroyed, and we nail it to the cross, eo to speak, with as mnch alacrity as the Roman soldiers crncified Christ. We "crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts; " we " mortify our members which are upon the earth " (Gal v. 24; Col. iii. 5). We feel that "our old man" is incapable of amendment; that the only way in which to improve him is to improve him off the face of the earth and out of existence. This is, consequently, the steady effort of the regenerate soul to kill. by patient crucifixion, the old nature within. AB the Saviour was several hours on the cross, as crucifixion, though in his case compautively speedy, is yet a. tardy ordeal, not a momentary execution ; so the death of our old nature takes time for its accom plisb- ment, and must be patiently passed through. We must be crucified with Christ, as well as feel that we have died in Christ for sin (Gal. ii. 20). IV. OuB BUBIAL WITH JESUS IS WITH A VIEW TO OUB BESIJ'RBECTIOR WITH HDl INTO NEWNESS OF LIFE. A.fter death and burial there came to Jel!US, as the Father's glorious gift, resurrection to a new life. Let us consider what resurrection as an experience brought to Jesus. From the cradle to the cross Christ bad been the "Man of sorrows." The weary weight of all t,his sinful, sorrow-stricken world lay on him; the Father had laid on his strong and willing shoulders the iniquity of us all. It wu not wonderful, then, that his life was one long burden, taking end only on the cross. But the first glimpse we get of the risen Saviour conveys the notion of sturdy, stalwart strength, for the Magdalene mistakes him for the gardener. .And all that we can gather from subsequent interviews with his disciples goes to show that life has ceased to be the burden it was once, and is now free, joyous, triumphant. All sense of sin-bearing is gone like a dream of the night ; be is out in the glad morning of the resurrection with everlasting joy upon his head. Now, such a joyful experience should be the possession of every regenerate soul. We should feel not only that guilt is cancelled through the death of Josus for us, and that we are" accepted in the Beloved.," but also that n new life is ours-a life of fellowship with God. For just as Jesus during " the great forty days" was more in the unseen with the Father than in the seen with the disciples, so in our now life we shall largely cultivate fellowship with the Father. V. '!'Hill NEW LIFE WE LEAD WILL DE LI.KE OIJ'B LORD'S, ONE OF ENTIRB CONSBCRA- TI0N TO GOD. Now, of the risen Saviour it may well be said that he lived unto God. All his faculties and powers were instruments of righteousness unto God. So it is in the Ohristian life. It is one of entire consecration. In this way it will be seen that justification lends necess1uily to sanctification. The leading facts of our Lord's history get duplicated in our experience, and death, burial, resurrection, and consecrs.tiou become ours,-R, M. E. Vere, 12-23.-The reign of grace. We saw in last section how the leading facts of our Lord's life get oopied into the experienoe of the regenerate; so that we have a death 1S0 THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. [on. vx. 1-28,