The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 244

'groaning in ourselves for "the adoption, to wit, the redomption of our brYly;" and there is a gron.ning, in and with ours, of God's Spirit likewise, for thP, doin,,. away of all contradictions such as now are, and the nshering in of th/3 day of Gr,d, the perfect, day. Hore, then, is the law of B spiritual instinct, which, like all true instinct, how- ever vaguely it may be conscious of its exact purport, is yet the pledue of its own 0 realization. Let us, then, not be ashamed to hope, to intensely hope, for that we see not, for the hope is heaven-born. But because of the very divineneu of the hope itself, and the consequent certainty ofrealization, let us with patience wait for it.-T. F. L. Vers. 28-30.-God's purpose in Christ. The apostle has indicated the hope of the future glory, in comparison with which all suffering now is as nought. He bas also shown how .this hope is no vain imagining of a diseased mind. but the inspiration of God's Spirit. And now he goes on to show that, since this divinely inspired hope corresponds with the great purpose of God concerning ns, all things which entP-r into God's plan for our governance, including apparently evil things which are suffered by him to befall us, must ultimately subserve hie purpose and be for the fulfilling of our hope. All this, assuming that we "love God;" thus any carelessness or sin of Ollr!I is utterly excluded from the reckoning. It is, indeed, this inward principle of love which transmutes the evil into good, and prepares for the final glorifying. We have, then- the purpose ; the process. I. THE PURPOSE. God's purpose concerning man dates back to the eternal past, for to God's mind all things are ever present. But, objectively, it dates back to the wreck of the primal purpose in man's transgression and death. On the first purpose a second purpose was built; out of the wreck of the old race a new race should be formed. 1. The Firstborn,. Since the first man had betrayed his trust, and become the progenit-0r of a fallen race, there should be a second Man, the Lord from heaven. He should he God's own Son, for the redemption-work was one which needed the powers of Divinity; he should be man's Son also, one in whom the nature of the race might be concentrated, who might therefore redeem men, as God, but through the medium of a true humanity. He should humble himself, be shorn of his splendour, suffer and die, being baptized with blood for the remission of our sins; he should also, " dying, draw the sting of death," and, _rising as the Firstfruits of a justified race, pass into the heavens as our Forerunner. Being perfect in all things as Son of man, obedient to the Father, and having performed a perfect work, he should enter perfected into life, glorified with the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. 2. The many brethren. Such was God's purpose in his Son. But, glorifying his Son, he should al.so "bring many sons unto glory" (Heb. ii. 10); for the Son, "having been made perfect," should become "unto all them that obey him the Author of eternal salvation" (Heb. v. 9). For them he suffered, and therefore they also must suffer, "becoming conformed unto his death" (Phil. iii. 10); but, just as he passed through death unto life, so they also, dying with him, should with him "attain unto the resurrection from the dead" (Phil. iii. 11). "Conformed to the image of his Son:" yes, this was Gud's purpose in Christ for man, the inward conformation of consummate holiness, and the outward confor- mation of consummate happiness. II. THE PRO0Ess. Those, then, who by their own free choice should become Christ's people-for all others are here left out of account-were foreknown and foreordained by God, "according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Je8us," as sharers together with him in the perfect adoption of sons of God. Now, such a purpose, formed by God, and formed in the eternal past-such a purpose concerning believers and faithful ones (for, ns above, nll possible misuse of freedom on the part of man, whether for rejecting God's grace, or for casting awny a grace received, is here waived, and it ie as!umed that the purpose formed by God is embraced and ndhered to by mnn)-such a purpose cannot foil of its result, but the process of God's working must issue in its complete accomplishment. 1. Called. 'l'he summons in accord:mce with the purpose. God calls bis people, by the outward Word, by the inward Spirit; or, in other words, invites them, summons them, to enter into Iifo. Cau his ,vord be broken? Can his Spirit dooeive? He means what he says, and, res110udiu~ to his c.'lll, his peoplo havo o guarnntee which is moro sure than the pilllll"ll of the univel'88 (Matt. ao11u.111e. •  'l'HE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. [ae, vm. l-3Q.