ROMANS, EPISTLE TO THE

demns him in so far as he commita it. His keener conscience, if it leaves him unrepentant, will evoke the heavier penalty. God will judge all men according to their deeds. Both Jew and Gentile will be judged alike, the conscience in the Gentile corresponding to the Law in the case of the Jew^ (2^ -i^) . This passage is usually referred to the Jews .whose habit of judging and condemning others is rebuked in Mt 7^ It may have a wider appUcation. The remainder of the chapter deals with the Jews. The principle of judgment according to deeds will be applied without distinction of persons. The

Srivileges of the Jew will not excuse him in the eyes of God. either the Law nor circumcision will cover transgression. The true Jew must be a Jew inwardly: the actual Jews have by their crimes caused the name of God to be blasphemed. A Gentile who does not know the Law and yet obeys it is better than the Jew who knows and disobeys (217-29). But is not this condemnation a denial of the Jews' pnvileges? No, the privileges are real, though the Jews are unworthy of them; and themercy of God is magnified by their ingratitude. Yet even so, if God's mercy ia brought to the light by their sin, why are they condemned? The full discussion of this difficulty is reserved to chs. 9-11. Here St. Paul only lays down the broad truth that God must judge the world in ri^teousneas, and apparently he further replies to Jewish objectors by a tu quoque argument. Why do they condemn him if, as they say, his lie helps to make the truth clearer? (31-s). St. Paul now returns to his main point, the univer-saUty of sin, which he re-states and re-enforces in the language of the OT. The whole world stands guilty in the sight of God, and the Law has butiutensified the conviction of sin (33-20).

To meet this utter failure of men, God has revealed in Christ Jesus a new way of righteousness, all-embracing as the need. Here too is no distinction of persons; all have sinned, and salvation for all stands in the free mercy of God, sealed to men in the propitiatory sacrifice of His Son, whereby we know that our past sins are forgiven, and we enter the new life, justified in the sight of God. The righteousness of God is thus assured to men who will receive it in faith. Faith is not defined, but it seems to mean a humble trust in the loving God revealed in Jesus. There can no longer be any question of establishing a claim on God by merit, or of superiority over our fellows. All need grace, and none can be saved except by faith. Jew and Gentile here stand on the same level (321-30).

Does not this righteousness through faith make void the Law? St. Paul scarcely answers the general question, but at once goes on to prove that the father of the race, Abraham, was justified by faith, i.e. by humble trust in God, in whose sight he could claim no merit. His trust in God was reckoned unto him for righteousness. His blessed-ness was the blessedness of the man whose sins are hidden, St. Paul here introducing the only beatitude found in his letters. This blessing came to Abraham before circumcision, on which clearly it did not depend. Similarly, the promise of inheriting the earth was given to him apart from the Law, and the seed to whom the promise descends are the faithful who follow their spiritual ancestor in believing God even againstnature, as Abrahamand Sarah believed Him. Surely it was for our sakes that the phrase ' was reckoned unto him for righteousness' was used in the story of Abraham. It enables us to believe in salvation through our faith in Him who raised Jesus from the dead (_3^^-4:^).

At this point opens the second main stage in the doctrinal section of the letter. The fact of justification by faith has been established. It remains to say something of the Ufe which must be built on this foundation. Jesus has brought us into touch with the grace of God. His death is the unfailing proof of God's love to us sinful men. What can lie before us save i)rogress to perfection? Reconciled to God while yet enemies, for what can we not hope, now that we are His friends? Christ is indeed a second Adam, the creator of a new humanity. His power to save cannot be less than Adam's power to destroy. Cannot be less? Nay, it must be greater, and in what Jiilicher rightly calls a hymn, St. Paul strives to draw out the comparison and the contrast between the first Adam and the Second. Grace must reign till the kingdom of death has become the kingdom of an undying righteousness {5^-^).

Does this trust in the grace of God mean that we are to continue in sin? Far from it. The very baptismal immer-sion in which we make profession of our faith symbolizes our dying to sin and our rising with Christ into newness of life. If we have become vitally one with Him, we must share His life of obedience to God. The fact that we are under grace means that sin's dominion is ended. If we do not strive to live up to this we fail to understand what is involved in the kind of t^ching we have accepted. If we are justified

804

ROMANS, EPISTLE TO THE

by faith, we have been set free from sin that we may serve God, that we may win the fruit of our faith in sanctification, and enjoy the free ^ft of eternal life (6^-23). The new life likewise brings with it freedom from the Law; it is as com-plete a break with the past as that which comes to a wife when her husband dies. So we are redeemed from the Law which did but strengthen curpassions (T'-'J. Not that the Law was sin; but as a matter of experience it is through the commandment that sin deceives and destroys men {7^-^^, Is, then, the holy Law the cause of death? No, but the exceeding sinfulness of sin lies in its bringing men to destruc-tion through the use of that which is good. And then in a passage of mtense earnestness and noble self-revelation St. Paul describes his pre-Christian experience. He recalls the torturing consciousness of the hopeless conflict between spirit and flesh, a consciousness which the Law only deepened and could not heal. The weakness of the flesh, sold under sin, brought death to the higher life. But from this law too, the law of sin and of death, Christ has set him free (7"-^). For the Christian is not condemned to endure this homeless struggle. God, in sending His Son, has condemned sin m the flesh. The alien power, sin, is no longer to rule. The reality and the strength of the Spirit of God have come into our hves with Jesus, so that the body is dead, to be revived only at the bidding of the indwelling Spirit CS^-'^). We are no longer bound to sin. God has put it into our hearts to call ' Him ' Abba, Father.' We are His little ones already. How glorious and how certain is our inheritance! That redemp-tion for which creation groans most surely awaits us, far more than recompensing our present woes; and patience becomes us who have already received the first-f nuts of the Spirit. The Spirit of God prays for us in our weakness, and we know that we stand in God's foreknowledge and calUng. All must be well (S'^-^i). And then in a final triumph-song St. Paul asks, 'If God be for us, who can be against us?' The victory of the Christian life requires a new word: we are more than conquerors. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (8''-").

Almost abruptly St. Paul turns to his third main question. The rejection of the Jews, by which the grace of God has come to the Gentile, grieves him to the heart. How is God's treatment of the Jews to be justified? There was from the first an element of selectiveness in God's deaUngs with the race of Abraham. The promise was not the necessary privilege of natural descent. It was to Isaac and not to Ishmael, to Jacob and not to Esau (9'-"). God's mercy is inscrutable and arbitrary, but it must be just. Whom He wills. He pities: whom He wills, He hardens. If it be said, ' Then God cannot justly blame men; how can the clay resist the potter? ', St. Paul does not really solve the problem, but he asserts most emphatically that God's right to choose indi-viduals for salvation cannot be limited by human thought (9"-!i). The justice of God's rejection of the Jews cannot be questioned a priori. But what are the facts? 'The Jews, in seeking to establish their own righteousness, have failed to find the righteousness of God. They have failed, because the coining of Christ puts an end to legal righteousness, a fact to which Moses himself bears testimony. They ought to have realized this, and they cannot be excused on the ground that they have had no preachers. They are re-sponsible for their own rejection: -they have heard and known and disobeyed (9»»-10«). But though God has the nght to reject His people, and though the Jews are them-selves responsible for.their refusal to accept the gospel, yet St. Paul cannot beUeve that it is final. Even now a remnant has been saved by grace; and the present rejection of Israel must have been intended to save the Gentiles. What larger blessing will not God bestow when He restores His people? The Gentiles must see in the fall of Israel the goodness of God towards themselves, and the possibilities of mercy for the Jews. This is enforced by the illustration of the wild olive and the natural branches (ll^-^i). The Jews are enemies now, in order that God may bless the Gentiles. But they are still beloved, for the sake of the fathers. No, God has not deserted His people. If they are at present under a cloud, it is God's mercy and not His anger that has willed it so. And the same unsearchable mercy will one day restore them to His favour (ll^s-ai).

_ With the thought of the infinite mercies of God so stri-kingly evidenced, St. Paul begins his practical exhortation, belt-surrender to God is demanded as man's service. ' Thou must love Him who has loved thee so.' A great humiUty becomes us, a full recognition of the differing gifts which God bestows on us. A willingness to bear wrong will mark the Chnstian. He must be merciful, since his confidence IS in the mercy of God. The conclusion of ch. H underlies the whole of oh. 12. St. Paul goes on to urge his readera to obey the governing powers; to pay to all the debt of