Paul commendeth his calling to the Romans, and his desire to come to them. What his Gospel is, and the righteousness which it sheweth. God is angry with all manner of sin. What were the sins of the Gentiles.
Anno Domini 58.
THE unbelievingJews having violently opposed the Gospel because it was preached to the uncircumcised Gentiles, and because Jesus, whom the Christians called the Christ, was not such a one as they expected; the Apostle, in the inscription of this epistle, affirmed, that the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles in fulfilment of God's promise made by the prophets in the Scriptures, Romans 1:1-2.; and that Jesus, whom the apostles called the Christ, was, as to his flesh, sprung of the seed of David, Romans 1:3; but as to his divine nature, he was with the greatest power of evidence, declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection, Romans 1:4. And because St. Paul was personally unknown to most of the Christians in Rome, he assured them that he was made an apostle by Christ himself, for the purpose of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, Romans 1:5.; of which class of men, most of the inhabitants of Rome were, Romans 1:6. He was therefore authorized to write this letter to all the inhabitants of Rome.—So many particulars crowded into the inscription, has made it uncommonly long. But they are placed, with great judgment, in the very entrance, because they are the foundations on which the whole scheme of doctrine contained in the epistle is built.
Because it might seem strange, that St. Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, had not hitherto visited Rome, the most noted Gentile city in the world, he assured the Romans that he had often purposed to come to them, but had hitherto been hindered, Romans 1:13-14.—However, he was still willing to preach the Gospel in Rome, Romans 1:15.; being neither afraid, nor ashamed, to preach it in that great and learned city; because it reveals the powerful method which God has devised for bestowing salvation on every one who believeth; on the Jew first, to whom it was to be first preached, and also on the Greek, Romans 1:16.—In this account of the Gospel, the Apostle insinuated, that no Jew could be saved by the law of Moses, nor any Gentile by the law of nature. For, if the Jews could have been saved by the one law, and the Greeks by the other, the Gospel, instead of being the power of God for salvation to every one who believeth, would have been a needless dispensation; and the apostle ought to have been ashamed of it, as altogether superfluous.
To prove that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to every one who believeth, the apostle first observes, that therein the righteousness of God by faith is revealed: in the Gospel, the righteousness which God will accept and reward, is revealed to be a righteousness not of works, but of faith. And this being the only righteousness of which sinners are capable, the Gospel which discovers its acceptableness to God, and the method in which it may be attained, is without doubt the power of God for salvation, to all who believe, Romans 1:17. Here an essential defect, both in the law of Moses and in the law of nature, is tacitly insinuated. Neither the one law, nor the other reveals God's intention of accepting and rewarding any righteousness, but that of perfect and immaculate obedience.—Secondly, To prove that the Gospel alone is the power of God for salvation, the Apostle observes, that both in the law of nature, and the law of Moses, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, &c.; that is, these laws, instead of granting pardon to sinners, subject them to punishment, however penitent they may be; consequently, these laws are not the power of God for salvation, to any one. But the Gospel, which promises pardon and eternal life, is the effectual means of saving sinners. In short, any certain hope of mercy which sinners entertain must be derived from revelation alone, Romans 1:18. And as the apostle wrote this epistle to the Romans for the purpose of explaining and proving these important truths, the declaration of them, contained in Romans 1:16-18 may be considered as the proposition of the subjects to be handled in this epistle.
Accordingly, to shew that no person living under the law of nature has any hope of salvation given him by that law, the Apostle begins with proving, that, instead of possessing that perfect holiness, which is required by the law of nature, in order to salvation, all are guilty before God, and doomed by that law to punishment. To illustrate this proposition, St. Paul took the Greeks for an example, because, having carried the powers of reason to the highest pitch, their philosophy might be considered as the perfection both of the light and of the law of nature; consequently, among them, if any where, all the knowledge of God, and the method of salvation, discoverableby the light of nature, and all the purity of manners, which men can attain by their own powers, ought to have been found. Nevertheless, that people, so intelligent in other matters, were in religion foolish to the last degree, and in morals debauched almost beyond belief. For, notwithstanding that the knowledge of the being and perfections of the one true God subsisted among them in the most early ages, Romans 1:19.—being understood by the works of creation, Romans 1:20.—their legislators, philosophers, and priests, unrighteously holding the truth concerning God in confinement, did not glorify him as God, by discovering him to the people in general, and making him the object of their worship: but, through their own foolish reasonings, fancying polytheism and idolatry more proper for the people in general than the worship of the one true God, they themselves at length lost the knowledge of God to such a degree, that their own heart was darkened, Romans 1:21.—Thus the wise men among the Greeks became fools in matters of religion, and were guilty of the greatest injustice both towards God and men, Romans 1:22.—For by their public institutions, they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image of corruptible man, and of birds, &c. which they held up to the people as the objects of worship. And by their own example, as well as by the laws which they enacted, they led the people to worship these idols with the most impure and detestable rites, Romans 1:23.—For which crime, God permitted those pretended wise men, who had so exceedingly dishonoured him, to dishonour themselves with the most brutish carnality; of which the apostle gives a particular description, Romans 1:24-26.; and observes, that those proud legislators and philosophers, who thought they had discovered the highest wisdom in theirreligiousandpoliticalinstitutions,thusreceivedin themselves the recompense of their error, which was meet, Romans 1:27.—So that the abominable uncleanness, which was avowedly practised by the Greeks, and which was authorized by their public institutions, as well as by the example of their great men, was both the natural effect and the just punishment of that idolatry, which, in every state, was established as the national religion.—Farther, because the Grecian legislators did not approve of the true knowledge of God as fit for the people, the great men, as well as the generality of the people whom they deceived, lost all sense of right and wrong in their general behaviour towards one another, Romans 1:28.—most of them being filled with all manner of injustice, fornication, wickedness, &c. Romans 1:29-31. Nay, although by the law of God, written on their hearts, they knew that those who commit such crimes are worthy of death, to such a degree did they carry their profligacy, that they not only committed these things themselves, but encouraged the people at large to commit them, by the pleasure with which they beheld their debaucheries in the temples, and their revellings on the festivals of their gods, Romans 1:32.
Such is St. Paul's account of the manners of the Greeks: from which it appears, that theirboasted philosophy, notwithstanding it enabled them to form excellent plans of civil government whereby the people were inspired with the love of their country, and good laws formaintaining the peace of society, it proved utterly ineffectual for giving the legislators the knowledge of salvation, and for leading them to establish a right publicreligions;—defectswhichentirely destroyed any influence which their political institutions mightotherwise have had, in aiding the people to maintain a proper moral conduct. In short, the vicious characters of the false gods whom the legislators held up to the people as objects of their worship, and the impure rites with which they appointed them to be worshipped, corrupted the morals of the people to such a degree, that the Greeks became the most debauched of mankind, and thereby lost all claim to the favour of God. But if this was the case with the most intelligent, most civilized, and most accomplished heathen nations, under the tuition of their boasted philosophy, it will easily be admitted, that the light of nature, among the barbarous nations, could have no greater efficacy in leading them to the worship of the true God, and in giving them the knowledge of the true method of salvation. The most civilized heathen nations, therefore, equally with the most barbarous, having, under the guidance of the light of nature, lost the knowledge of God, and become utterly corrupted in their morals, it is evident, that none of them could have any hope of a future life from the law of nature, which condemns all to death without mercy, who do not give a sinless obedience to its precepts. Wherefore, both for the knowledge of the method of salvation, and for salvation itself, the Greeks were obliged to have recourse to the Gospel, which teaches, that because all have sinned by breaking the law of God, God has appointed for their salvation, a righteousness without law, that is, a righteousness which does not consist in immaculate obedience to any law whatever;—even the righteousness of faith; and at the same time declares that God will accept and reward that kind of righteousness through Christ. These inferences, indeed, the apostle has not drawn in this part of his letter, because he intended to produce them, (chap. Romans 3:20-28.)as general conclusions concerning all mankind, after having proved the insufficiency of the law of Moses for justifyingthe Jews. Yet it was fit to mention them here, that the reader might have a complete view of the apostle's argument.
I shall finish this illustration with the following remarks.
1. The picture which the apostle has drawn of the manners of the Greeks, is by no means aggravated. It was given by the unerring inspiration of the Holy Ghost. And we mayadd, that the intercourse which he had with the philosophers, and more especially with his own disciple, Dionysius the Areopagite, enabled him to form a just judgment of the learning and religion of that celebrated people; as his long residence in Athens, Corinth, and other Greek cities, made him perfectly acquainted with their manners. But though his description is not exaggerated, we must remember that it does not extend to every individual. It is an image of the manners of the Greek nations in general.
2. My second remark is, that although the revelation of the wrath of God from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, mentioned by the apostle, Romans 1:18 certainly implies, that no sinner can have any hope of salvation from the law of nature, it does not follow, that the pious heathens had no hope of salvation. The heathens in general believed their deities placable, and in that persuasion offered to them propitiatory sacrifices, and expected to be pardoned and blessed by them even in a future state: nay, many of thembelieved they were to re-animate their bodies. But these hopes they did not derive from the law or light of nature, but from the promise which God made to the first parents of mankind. For that promise being handed down by tradition to Noah and his sons, they communicated the knowledge thereof, together with the use of sacrifice, to all their descendants. So that the hope of pardon and immortality, which the pious heathens entertained, was the very hope which the Gospel has more clearly brought to light, and was derived from the same source, namely, from divine revelation. Withal, being agreeable to the natural wishes of mankind, and the only remedy for their greatest fears, these circumstances contributed to preserve it in the world—Since then the hope of pardon and of a future state, which the heathens entertained, was derived not from the light of nature, but from the primitive revelations, the Apostle's reasoning in this chapter is clear and evident, and this conclusion stands firm; namely, that the light and law of nature hold out no method in which a sinner can be saved, and that it is the Gospel alone which has brought the important secret to light, by explaining and enlarging the primitive revelations, and by teaching in the clearest manner, that God will accept men's faith for righteousness, and, at the judgment, reward it for the sake of Jesus Christ, as if it were a righteousness which fulfilled the law of innocence.
3. My third remark is, that the description which the Apostle has given of the national manners of the Greeks, however disgraceful to human nature, being perfectly true, merits attention; because it is a complete confutation of those who contend, that natural reason has always been sufficient to lead mankind to just notions in religion, and to a proper moral conduct. For after the weakness of human reason, in matters of religion and morality, has been so clearly demonstrated by experience in the case of the Greeks, who, of all mankind, were the most distinguished for their intellectual endowments, the futile pretence of the sufficiency of the light of nature, set up by modern infidels, for the purpose of rendering revelation needless, should be rejected with a contempt due to so gross a falsehood. And all who are acquainted with the actual state of the world under the guidance of the light of nature, ought thankfully to embrace the instruction contained in the Gospel, as the most effectual means of trainingignorantsinfulcreaturestoholinessandheaven; and should humbly submit to the method of salvation by Christ, therein revealed, as of divine appointment, and as the only method in which sinners can be saved.