The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 216

context shows .,,.,!.,.,.a to he.vo especie.l refe:r- e~O<!, ~rom the preceding oontei:t, to refer, onco to oxtorne.l oircumetonces of t:rle.J, and pnma~ly e.t leai,t, to participation in Christ', not e.t e.11 to men's own sine. Ce.lv:ln, com- euffenngR ( of. Heh. ii. 10). Coming to ve:r. me~ting on it, quotes St. Augustine e.s 30, we find the following sequence: (I) se.y1~g, "Pecce.te. quoque sue., ordinunte Dei eternal foreknowledge (or eternal purpoB'l), providentie., sanctie ideo non nocero nt poti11s (2) preordination to fellowship with Christ, corum ee.luti ineerviont;" but while he (3) calling (to acceptance of the go;pel), (4) assents to this proposition, he denies, with justification, (5) glorification. 'E/Ju«zfr,,cr, truth, that any such meaning is intended (4) means the participation in God's 011<a,o- here. It me.y be observed, in passing, that cr6v11, the passing into a "state of salvation" Auguetine'e proposition, though it sounde through faith in baptism. But what is etrange, me.y, in a certiiin eenee, be accepted meant by i66!=• (5) has been a subject or ne true: "We must continue.lly err in orde:r discuBSion. Some, in view of the aorist, not to be humble; OW' frailty and sine are the future, tense of the verb, undentand it of tools that God uses" (General Gordon's sandifieatwn subsequent to jUJJtifeatum, 'Letters to hie Sister,' p. 371 ). Flll'ther, Tois regarded e.s participation in the gl<>ry of the ,c>..71.,.ois cannot be understood e.s limiting Divine holiness. Other3, in view or the Tois &:ya1rw,n TOV 0ebv, ns though among significance of the word itself, undenitand those that love God only some are "the future glory, the aorist being e.ccouuted; for called ; " nor can 1<0.Ta. 7rp68ecnv be under- by the apostle's taking in one view the stood as limiting 1e>..71Tol, e.s though even whole process of salvation with it3 final or the coiled not all are called with the result, which ie contemplated as accom- purpose of soving them. Only a precon- plished. Perhaps both ideae a.re included, ceived idea conld surely hav4:1 suggested present sanctification being re.,oarded as the such an interpretation or the verse. In ver. commencement and earnest of the full glory 29 (-y,-yvditr1<Etv bearing the sense of " to to be revealed in "the sons of God" here- determine," as well as of "to know") nf'ter. In any case, we are not bound by 7rpo/-yv., may possibly mean "predeter- what is here said to conclude that final mined" rather than "foreknew." Else- glory of necessity follows the previoru stage.3. where in the New Testament, when used of For -the apostle ll'.ay be only setting forth men, it has the le.tter sense (Acts xxvi. 5; the process and result when grace is not 2 Pet. iii. 17). When used of God, it may, resisted. But certainly he implies tha~ ae here, have either meaning ( er. eh. xi. 2; when the result is glory, all is to be traced, 1 Pet. i. 20); but in the text last referred to not to man's initie.tion or deser,ings, but to the first meaning seems more probable. So Divine grace, e.nd the Divine purpose of olso of .,,.p&")"'..,<T<S in Acts ii. 23 and 1 Pet. meroy from eternity. i. 2. The distinction would not be of much importance but for the fact that the sense In the remainder of this ohe.pter the of" foreknew" has been pressed in support of apostle rises into a strain of glowing the Arminian view; Tiz. the.t Di vine predes- tination WllB consequent on the Divine fore- eloquence, into a very song of triumph, knowledge or what men would be. It would in new or the a..<:sUl'ed hope or faithful not, indeed, reolly prove this view, since it Christie.us. Faithfulness, be it once more might only mean the.t God knew beforehand observed, is presupposed thronghout the the objects or hie intended mercy. Ce.lvin, pe.ssage, which is quite wrongly understood though translating prmcog11ovit, strongly rebuts the Arminian inference, saying, as encouraging confidence in any on the "lnsulsi colligunt illi, quos dixi, Deuw non ground of their oonviction that they are alioe elegisse nisi quos sua grotia dignos fore carte.inly, even in spite of themselves, pre- prrovidit." Again," Sequitur notitiam be.no destinnted to glory: it only encolll'agcs a bene placito pendere, quin. Deus nihil extm perseverance in spite of trie.l on the ground seipsum prroscivit quos voluit adoptl\ndo, sed tantum signo.vit quos eligere volebnt." of OW' reeling that, !if we do per;;e1·ere, w,, npoC:,p,cre (whiob might, perbups, bo better cannot fail, because God is on our side, nnd rendered preordained, which is its proper it is his eternal purpose to su.vo us. meaning, so as to avoid the neoessnry idea of il'resistible dosLiny whioh is oommouly Vere. SI-84.-Whe.t'she.ll we then se.yto nssooiatocl with the word predestinate) must these things1 (,rpl,s 'l'o.un, menning "with be takon, not absolutely, but in oonnootion respoot to," not "against "). If God i-,., for with crvµµ&pcpovs. '!'bat the eleot should in us, who cnn be e.gainst us! (n,·, c~•L T1, in tho first pl11co bo "oonfor1ncd to tho inlt\go oppo~ition to J 0,~s: 1rho-wh-~~ a,lvcr;;o or Christ" is all that i~, horo at lenst, denoted power - oon theru possibly 'tie, ~tr,,nger as proorda.iuod by God. 'rite expresijion, than God?). Ke the.t sparecl nut Ills own <TVJJ.JJ.Opcpoui· Tijs el,c&vos, cto., mny ho \lllcler- Son, bnt delivered him up for us e.ll (evidently  THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS, [011. vm.1-39.