The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 232

the world that he gave his own Son for our salvation. It is not the fault of the Sr,a. Christ so.ye, "I am come that ye might have life." It is not the fault of the Spirit, who is consta.ntly striving with us. If Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, surely it is clear that there is no salvation in any other. "He that oolieveth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath ngt believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God" (,Joh~ iii. 18). -0.H.I. Vere. 12-30.-The privllegu and responn"bi1itia o/ the children of God. • The apostle in these verses makes a high claim for believers---the claim of being children of God. In this eighth chapter he unfolds, as in a panoramic view, the whole plan of salvation. He begins with the idea that those who are in Christ Jesus are delivered from condemnation. But salvation is something more than that. It means sr,nship also. And step by step, verse by verse, the apostle advances, at each step 11nfolding some fresh view of the Christian's privileges, till at last, as he surveys the whole field of sin and sorrow, of joy and suffering, of trials and temptations, of time and eternity, he grows stronger in the confidence of his sonship, and exclaims, "For I am persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of Ged, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." I. THE PBIVILEGEB OF THE CHILDREN OF Gon. 1. God is their Father. They can say that in a special and spiritual sense. In one sense all human beings are the offspring of God. We are all the creatures of his hand, and are dependent continnally upon his bonntifnl care. But sin has come in and separated us from him. It has made us prone to disobey rather than to fulfil our Father's commands. Jesus can:?e into this world that he might bring us back again into the relationship of God's spiritual children. He became a child of humanity that we might become children of God. He became "sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteous- ness of God in him." All who believe on him are born again. They are by creation God's children; now they are his by a spiritual birth. Now they receive "the Spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father" (ver. 15). Oh, the greatness of our heavenly Father's love t He has not cast us off. He has sent his own Son to bring ns back, to restore his image in our hearts, and by-and-by to have us sit down with him in his everlasting kingdom. 2. Jesus Christ is their elder Brother. "If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (ver. 17). The inheritance wb.ich Christ has we have, if by receiving him we become children of God. It is almost too great a privilege to conceive, but it is plainly revealed to us by God. U we are Christ's, all things are ours; for we are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Christ's own prayer was, "Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am." And then there is a family likeness between the children of God by adoption and their elder Brother. If children of some humble rauk were adopted int-0 a noble or royal family, there would be a great dissimilarity between them and the children of that family. '!'here would not be community of feeling. It seems s wonderful thing that we, poor. weak, sinful creatures, should be adopted into the family of Goo, aod made the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. How can there be any likeness between ns and him? But God has provided for this. Those are remarkable words, " For whom he did foreknow, he also did predesnnat.i to be conformed to the image. of hi& Son, that he might be the Firstborn among many brethren" (ver. 29). Thus God has provided that as we are to be the brethren of Christ, we shall be like him. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that, when he shrul appear, we shall be like him: for we shnll see him as he is." This likeness to Christ is a gradual growth. It is the development of the Christian character. It is not in the infant lying in the orndle that much likeness to its parent can be detected. But as the body matures, ns the features become more marked, as the individuality of clmmctor lX'gins to show itself, th1>n wo see the likeness, :wd we say, "He is his father's son,"" She is her mother's daughter." Those beautiful statues c1t the Louvro or of Florence, which are the ndmirntion of the world, did not spring by ruagio from the sculptor's hcmds. He had his ideal. He hnl\ his plan. With that ideal beforo him, he took tho rough mnterinl, o.nd on it he gradually worked out his plsna. 230 THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. [oH. vm. 1-39,