The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 278

s ~trange thini! that Jesns, the &viour of men, should at l\ll be set before us in this w:1~. Bnt the truth is, the great object. is to cause us to consider wh11t our own atti- tude i~ toward Christ, Have I accepted Jesus as my Saviour, or am I hesitating to oommit myself t-0 him? Am I clinging to him as my Rock of safoty, or am I being repelled from him as from a rock of offence? It was no new idea, this which St. Paul brings forward here, of Christ being a Stumbling-stone. It was spoken of by Isaiah, when he said, "And he shall be for a Sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a Rock of offence to both the houses of Israel" (Isa. viii. 14). Jesus himself alluded t-0 the same idea when he said t-0 the chief priests and Pharisees, "Did ye never read in the Scriptures_ The St-0ne which the builders rejected, the same is become the Head of the comer?" And then he added, to show the evil results of rejecting him, "And whosoever shall f&ll on this Stone shall be broken : but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him t-0 powder" (Matt. xxi. 42, 44). The Stone of stumbling, the Rock of offence, and the Stone against which men fall to their own destruction,-all these convey the same truth. It is a truth which conveys a soleJlln warning-the danger of rejecting Christ. How is it, then, that men stumble at Christ? L THERE ARE SOME THINGS IN CHRIST'S LIFE A.ND WORK AT WHICH 111EN STUMBLE, I do not mean to say that there is anything in the life and work of Jesus Christ at which men ought to stumble, but such is the depravity of the human heart, such is the power of the great enemy of souls, that men find difficulties even in the way of sal-rntion. They raise mental objections to the very way in which the Creator of the world wants to give them a share in his heavenly inheritance, and have their doubts as to whether there might not be some other way, some other Teacher, some other Sanour, just as good as the eternal Son of God, who, in his matchless love, gave himself t.o die for the redemption of their souls. 1. Christ is a Stumbling-stone to many because of the wag in which he came ink> theworl,d, So it was when he was on earth. Men asked the question," Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" And when he was come into his own country, they said, "Whence hath this Man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's Son? . . . And they were offended in him" (Matt. xii. 54-57), or stumbled at this difficulty of his lowly parentage. And yet there shonld be no difficulty, no stumbliDg-block iD this; for Jesus came in the very way and in the very place it had been predicted several hundred years before that he would come. Micah had predicted the place of his birth when he spoke of Bethlehem, and Isaiah the =nner of his birth when he spoke of the miraculous event of a virgin who shonld conceive and bear a son, a.nu call his name Immanuel. That which is a stnmbling-block t.o many ought to be a strength and confirmation of faith in the Son of God. 2. Others, again, find a difficulty in the 6'11/T'roundings of his daily life. It was with the poor and lowly that he chiefly mingled; he ate and drank with publicans and sinners, and his intimate followers and disciples were chosen mainly from the hnmbler walks of life. Here, however, is the very proof that Christ was indeed Divine. God is no respecter of persons. Had Christ been a mere man, with an ambition to fonnd an earthly kingdom. he would have sought the society of the great; he would not have put away from him e.11 the attempts to Illllke him a King. But his kingdom was not of this world. The very persons whom he chose to be its first ambassadors and founders were in themselves a proof that their religion was Divine. Without earthly rank or riches, without learning or worldly influence, they went forth from an obscure province of the Boman empire, and, only by the power of the words they spoke, founded a religion which to-day is placing a girdle round the world, and before whose mighty power the temples of heathenism and the mosques of the Mohammedan are destined yet to fall God hath indeed chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. 'l'his fact also about Jesus Christ, his lowly surroundings and hie humble followers, ir.i6t.t:ad of being a stumbling-block, should be a strength to faith. 8. '!'here are many who find a great dilficult1! in the d«ith of Christ. St. Paul said that In his day Obrist crucified WIit! to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness. And it le the crOII of Christ that ii the stumbling-block to many at the present day. Thoy are williog to regard C,'hriat u the great.eat of all teachers, as a beautiful and holy example, but ,hey can 1188 no mean.iDg ha the atonement. They stumble at the cross. Thoy ~ll the preachillg of -1.atlaD bJ the 1ufferinge of Uh.net "~ doctrme of blood." Do oh. tx. 1-39.) TlIE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO TlI:E ROMANS. 277