The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 188

th11t th<' oontivt in ita cssenee is b0twC'<'n plete the subject which we I\Unounoed n1 exneted oonformit'I" to 11.n extern11\ rode being that of the sixth, soventh, and eighth twhich Wl\S the oh1uaoteristic of the old chaptera, viz. " the moral reenlta to bo- ror-C"nant) and inspired 111.\egianoo to the Law of God ,rritten on t.he hea.rt (which is lieV8l'II of the revealed righteouane&S of the chanoteril!tic of the new). God." Two questions have bun miaed and dis- ,en. 7-2.S.---(ll) T1te relation o.f lmD to cussed with regard to vera. 7-25. (1) ....., and hoN' lato prepm-n the ro,d for f'ffl<TR· Whether St. Paul, who writes throughout eipat;on in OAmt jf'Offl the domillton of sin. the passage in the first person singular, is In the fleetion of the argnm(lnt which begins describing his own personal experience, or at eh. ,ii. l we have seen tha.t the idea. of only so writing in order to give vividness being under Bin bas pa..ssed into that of being and reality to his picture of the experience under Lna, in such apparent e.onnection of of any human soul. (2) Whether he is thought as to identify the positions. The describing the mental experience of e.n un- apostle, seeing that readers might be per- regenerate or of a regenerate man. plexed by such identification, now, in the As to (1), his purpose undoubtedly is not first place, ex:plains what be bas meant by (like that of Augustine in his • Confessions ') it.. Is the La", then, sin? No, replies the to tell us about himself, but to depict gene- apostle; the Law itself (with especial re- rally the throes of the hlllll6n soul when ference to the Mosaic Law as the great and convinced of sin. But, in doing this, he authentic expression of Dirine law) is as undoubtedly draws on his own past ex- holy; nnd its connection with sin is only perience ; recollections of the struggle he tbis-that, in virtue of its very holiness, it bad himself gone through gleam evidently convinces of sin, and makes it sinfnL And throughout the picture ; he paints so vividly then, to the end of eh. vii., he goes on to because be has felt so keenly. This makes show bow this is by an e.nalysis of the opera-- the passage so peculiarly interesting, as tion of law on human consciousness. He being not only e. striking analysis of human presents to us a vivid picture of a man sup- consciousness, but also an opening out to us pasoo e.t fust t.o be without law, e.nd there- of the great apostle's inner self; of the inward fare unconscious of sin ; bnt then, through pangs and dissatisfaction with himself which law coming in, acquiring a sense of it, and had, we may well believe, distracted him yet una.ble to avoid it. The man assents in through the many years when he had been e. his conscience to the good, bnt is dragged zealot for the Law and apparently satisfied down by the infection of his nature to the evil. with it, and when-perhaps partly to stiJle He seems t.o have, as it were, two contrary disturbing thoughts-he had thrown himself laws within him.self, distracting him. And into the work of persecution. l!O the external Law, appealing to the higher Then, further, the sudden change of tone law within himself, good and holy though it observable in the eighth chapter, which is be, i6, in a sense, killing him ; for it reveals like calm and sunshine after storm, revee.ls l!in to him, e.nd makes it deadly, but rloee to us the change that ho.d come over him not deliver him from it, till the crisis comes (to which he often elsewhere refers), when in the desperate cry, " 0 wretched man that "the light from heaven" had shown him an I e.m I who shall deliver me from the body escape from bis mental chaos. He was then 0f this death?" (ver. 24). But this crisis is "a new creature : old things bad po.seed the precursor of deliverance; it is the lest away ; behold, all things had become new" throe preooiiog the new birth ; the Law has (2 Cor. v. 17). now done its work, having fully convinced As to question (2), an answer bas been of sin, e.nd exciu,d the yearning for deliver- already virtually given; viz. that the condi• ar,ce, and in " tbe law of the Spirit of life , tlon described is that of the 11nregenerate: in Christ Jesus" the deliverance comes. in tLis sense-that it is of one still under the How it comes ill sc:t fortL in eh. vili, where boudage of sin and law, before the revela- tht siaie of peace and hope, consequent on lation t.o the soul of the righteousness of deliverance through fa.ith in Christ, ill por- God, and the consequent rising t.o a new life iDJE:d in glowiDg tenm, 110 u th111 t.o com- in Chrl.et, Thu seems obvioUB from ilil  1 6it. vt:r.1-26.) rl1E EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROM.ANS. 185