CRITICAL NOTES
Romans 5:5.—The love of God has been poured forth as in a stream (Wordsworth).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Romans 5:5
A hope without shame.—The Christian never finds this world to be his rest. But he has a hope full of immortality. This enlightens his darkness and alleviates his sorrow. Like a helmet, it guards in the day of battle; like an anchor, it secures in the storms of adversity; like a pleasing companion, it travels with him through all the tediousness of the world, and reminds him of the rest that remains for the people of God. Let us consider the excellency and the evidence of this hope. Let us I. Show how it preserves from shame; and II. Ascertain its connection with the love of God.
I. We may take three views of this hope, and oppose it to the hope of the worldling, of the Pharisee, and of the antinomian. Hope causes shame by the insufficiency of its object—and this is the hope of the worldling; by the weakness of its foundation—and this is the hope of the Pharisee; by the falseness of its warrant—and this is the hope of the antinomian. The hope of the Christian has the noblest object, the surest foundation, the clearest warrant; and thus it maketh not ashamed.
1. Hope may cause shame by the insufficiency of its object. Ofttimes men of the world never reach the mark; and when they do, they are disappointed. What they gain does not indemnify for the sacrifices they have made.
“In vain we seek a heaven below the sky:
The world has false but flattering charms;
Its distant joys show big in our esteem,
But lessen still as they draw near the eye;
In our embrace the visions die;
And when we grasp the airy forms,
We lose the pleasing dream.”
Look forward and ask, What does the worldling think as he lays down all his honours, all his riches, on this side of the grave? What does Alexander now think of his bloody trophies? What does Herod now think of killing James and condemning Peter because “it pleased the people”? What does Judas think of his thirty pieces of silver? The crowned votaries of the world seem to be happy, and are envied; but it is only by the foolish and ignorant who know them not. Sometimes they say, We are not happy, and it is not in the power of these things to satisfy our desires. On this dark ground we bring forward the Christian to advantage. The object of his hope is the greatest good a creature can possess. When we propose this hope we exclude every evil we feel or fear. Think of “the house not made with hands,” etc., and the “innumerable company of angels” as the objects of his hope—the blessed hope of being like Christ and dwelling with Him evermore. The Christian need not shrink from a comparison with philosophers, princes, heroes. He leads a sublime life, and takes a grander aim. If shame could enter heaven, he would be ashamed to think that the objects of this hope engrossed so little of his attention.
2. Hope may cause shame by the weakness of its foundation. The Pharisee places dependence on his own works or his own worthiness. He derives his encouragement from negative qualities, from comparison of himself with others, from the number of his performances. Parable of the Pharisee. If his works were spiritual and holy, they need not afford a ground of dependence, being only a part of the building, and not the foundation. They may furnish evidence, but cannot give a title. The indulgence of such a hope is offensive to God. The man who seeks salvation by the works of the law, and not by faith of Jesus Christ, reflects upon God’s wisdom as having been employed in a needless trifle. The Pharisee frustrates the grace of God and makes Jesus Christ to be dead in vain. Thus the Pharisee’s hope will be found like a spider’s web, curiously wrought, but easily destroyed. The basis being too weak, the superstructure falls and crushes the offender. The humbled sinner asks, How shall a man be just before God? The Bible answers, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” “He is the end of the law of righteousness to every one that believeth.” This attracts. He says, Christ is the door, by Him I will enter; Christ is the foundation, on this I will build: I desire no other. This hope is as firm as the truth of God and the all-sufficiency of the Saviour can make it. See the Christian advancing to the throne of God. “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died.” The Christian is marked with the blood of sprinkling.
3. Hope may cause shame by the falseness of its warrant. Any hope which does not purify is false. Every expectation of heaven which those entertain who are leading immoral lives, whatever be their knowledge or their creed, is a mere fancy. A man, with all his ignorance, may as well persuade himself that he is the greatest philosopher; or, with all his indigence, may as rationally conclude that he is possessed of all the wealth of the Indies, as a man may imagine that he is on the way to heaven while he is a stranger to “newness of life”; for “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Indeed, such a man, if he were in heaven, would not be in a beatific state. What warrant have you that heaven is your home? What reason are you able to give of the hope that is in you? The only satisfactory one is that given by the apostle. Therefore consider:—
II. “Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.”—
1. This love is the proof of the divine regard, for the affection is mutual. “We love Him because He first loved us.” And what can we desire more than to know that we are beloved of God?
2. This love marks the characters for whom this happiness is reserved. Who are authorised to claim the promise of eternal life? Those who seek to please and serve God. “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.”
3. This love qualifies for the glory which shall be revealed. The happiness of the future state is derived from the presence of God. What, then, can prepare for it but the love of God? Love must make us delight in each other’s company. By loving God we are prepared for a happiness which is found only in Him.
4. This love is the foretaste of future happiness. We take the likeness of the excellency we contemplate, and are exalted into the perfection we adore. If our love be fixed on God, we shall become divine and heavenly. Oh the comforts of this love! They are heaven come down to earth. Heaven is the sphere of love. The heaven of love must be in us before we are in heaven. We attain the full assurance of hope neither by dreams, nor visions, nor sudden suggestions, nor by an inexplicable consciousness, but by keeping ourselves in the love of God, and abounding therein more and more.—W. Jay.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Romans 5:5
“And hope maketh not ashamed.”—The hope which true believers entertain, founded on the very nature of pious exercises, shall never disappoint them (Psalms 22:5). The ground of this assurance, however, is not the strength of our purpose or confidence in our goodness, but the love of God. The latter clause of the verse assigns the reason why the Christian’s hope shall not be found delusive: it is because “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” The love of God is His love to us, and not ours to Him, as appears from the following verses, in which the apostle illustrates the greatness and freeness of this love by a reference to the unworthiness of its objects. To “shed abroad” is to communicate abundantly, and hence to evince clearly (Acts 2:17; Acts 10:45; Titus 3:6). This manifestation of divine love is not any external revelation of it in the works of providence, or even in redemption, but it is “in our hearts.” And this inward persuasion that we are the objects of the love of God is not the mere result of the examination of evidence, nor is it a vain illusion, but it is produced by the Holy Ghost: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13-14). As, however, the Spirit never contradicts Himself, He never bears witness that “the children of the devil” are the children of God—that is, that the unholy, the disobedient, the proud, or the malicious are the objects of the divine favour. Any reference, therefore, by the immoral to the witness of the Spirit in their favour must be vain and delusive.—Hodge.
God’s love in the heart.—These words stand at the end of a list of blessings which come to the Christian simply by his faith. See context, Romans 5:1-5. “The love of God” spoken of in the text is God’s love to us, not our love to God. In Romans 8:39 it is called “the love of God in Jesus Christ.” Similarly is it described in the context (Romans 5:6-8). This love the text declares is “shed abroad” in the believer’s heart “by the Holy Ghost which is given unto” him. Inquire how or in what particulars this is so.
I. Because the Holy Ghost is given to believers on the exercise of their faith to work this work within them.—For Christ, by His atoning work, procured the Holy Spirit for men.
II. It is the work of the Holy Ghost thus given to open to us the love of God.—Nothing but the Holy Ghost can disclose to us the love of God at the first. Nothing else does. Hence so many read and hear of the love of God, and yet do not apprehend it. But the Holy Spirit coming to the believer as described, “takes of the things of Christ,” and therein shows to him the love of the Father (see John 16:13-14). The Holy Spirit shows thus the wonderfulness, the extent, heights, depths, lengths, breadths, of the love of God in Christ, and its unchangeableness (see context, Romans 5:6-8, and Romans 8:35-39).
III. The Holy Ghost thus given carries the love of God beyond our mere intellect into our inmost nature.—We are more than intellect. In our best nature we are “heart.” To this the Holy Spirit can penetrate—no other power like it—and can pervade and fill and possess the whole with the wonderful infinite love of God in Christ. Every faculty and power of holy emotion in the soul can thus be moved and stirred, and fresh faculty and power of holy emotion can thus be given. Thus the love of God is “shed abroad” or poureth forth “in our hearts.” So oil poured into a vessel, whatever the character of the vessel, finds its way into every part, and even permeates through the vessel itself. So incense shed forth in a room fills every part of it with its fragrance, which often extends beyond. So the breath we breathe from the fresh morning air penetrates in its effects to our very flesh and blood and bones, and is seen in the glow of our health, in the lightness of our step, and in the flash and brightness of the eye. Do we know the love of God? and is it “shed abroad in our hearts”? If so, then to what extent do we know it?—John Bennett.
Hope as a consoler.—Hope is the sweetest friend that ever kept a distressed soul company; it beguiles the tediousness of the way, all the miseries of our pilgrimage.
“Jam mala finissem letho; sed credula vitam
Spes fovet, et melius cras fore semper ait.”
Therefore, Dum spiro spero, said the heathen; but Dum exspiro spero, says the Christian. The one, Whilst I live I hope; the other also, When I die I hope. So Job, “I will hope in Thee, though Thou killest me.” It tells the soul such sweet stories of the succeeding joys; what comforts there be in heaven; what peace, what joy, what triumphs, marriage songs, and hallelujahs there are in that country whither she is travelling, that she goes merrily away with her present burden.—Adams.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 5
Romans 5:5. Dying of weariness.—As life goes on most people begin to feel that the word “happy” has no light meaning. Sick of herself through very selfishness, the wife of the Grand Monarque, Louis XIV., thus spoke in her hour of death: “Do you not see that I am dying of weariness amidst a fortune that can scarcely be imagined? I have been young and pretty; I have tasted pleasure; I have been everywhere loved. In an age more advanced I have passed some years in the commerce of the mind; and I protest to you that all conditions leave a frightful void. I can endure no more; I wish only to die.” Here surely is an illustration of the words, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it.”
Romans 5:5. “Don’t you find it dull?”—A little street waif was once taken to the house of a great lady, and the childish eyes that had to look so sharply after daily bread were dazzled by signs of splendour on every hand. “Can you get everything you want?” the child asked the mistress of the mansion. “Yes, I think so,” was the reply. “Can you buy anything you’d like to have?” The lady answered, “Yes”; and the child, who was of a meditative turn of mind, looked at her half pityingly, and said wonderingly, “Don’t you find it dull?” To the little keen mind, accustomed to live bird-like from day to day, and to rejoice over a better supply with the delight born of rarity, the aspect of continual plenty, and desires all gratified by possession, contained an idea of monotony that seemed almost wearisome. Many an owner of a well-filled purse has found life “dull,” and pronounced, in the midst of luxury, that all things are vanity.