I thank God, &c.— The Clermont and other Greek MSS. which are followed by the Vulgate, read, The grace, or favour of God. Thus stands the argument—the law cannot deliver from the body of death; that is, from those carnal appetites, which produce sin, and so bring death; but the grace of God, through Jesus Christ, [which not only gives strength to conquer, but] which pardons lapses where there is genuine repentance and faith, delivers us from this body, so that it does not destroy us. Whence naturally results this conclusion, There is therefore now no condemnation, &c. chap. Romans 8:1 a chapter which should by no means have been separated from the present, as it is in such immediate connection with it. St. Paul says, I serve, or I make myself a vassal, δουλευω, "I intend, and devote my whole obedience." The terms of life to those under grace, he tells us at large, chap. 6: are, "to become vassals to righteousness and to God;" consonantly whereto, he says here "I myself, I the man, being now a Christian, and so no longer under the law, but under grace, do what is required of me in that state. I become a vassal to the law of God; that is, dedicate myself to the service of it, in sincere endeavours of obedience; and so I, the man, shall be delivered from death;" for he, who, being under grace, makes himself a vassal to God, in a steady persevering purpose of sincere obedience, shall from him receive the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (see chap. Romans 6:18; Romans 6:22.). And thus St. Paul, having shewn here in this chapter, that the being under grace alone, without being under the law, is necessary to the Jews,—as in the foregoing chapter he had shewn it to be to the Gentiles,—hereby demonstratively confirms the Gentile converts in their freedom from the law;which is the scope of the Epistle thus far. I would just add, that the words, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin, is not to be understood of St. Paul or any other Christian believer; because αρα ουν shews it is the grand inference from the whole preceding discourse, as if he had said, "The same person may find in himself two opposite principles; the one subscribing to and approving the law of God; and the other, notwithstanding, bringing him into captivity to sin." Serving the law of God, is not a stronger expression than hating sin, Romans 7:15 and delighting in the law of God, Romans 7:22. But those expressions are applied to the Jew in the flesh, or enslaved by sin; consequently, so may serving the law of God. But serving with the flesh the law of sin, cannot be applied to a true Christian, or such a one as St. Paul was, because he walked not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, and was made free from the law of sin in his members, and from death, the consequent of sin: chap. Romans 8:1-2. See also Romans 7:8-9 of that chapter, where it is said, that they who are in the flesh cannot please God; and it is pronounced of true Christians, that they are not in the flesh. The truth is, that the I, of whom the Apostle here says, αυτος εγω, the same I, is manifestly the εγω, the I, spoken of in his preceding argumentation: and here, after a very lively touch upon the grace of redemption, he sums up what he had proved, thus: "You are delivered from the dominion of sinful lusts, and the curse of the law; and obtain salvation, not by any strength or favour which the law supplies, but by the grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ; for which we are bound to be ever thankful to him. To conclude: the sum of what I have advanced, concerning the power of sin in the sensual man, or even in the merely awakened man, is this; namely, that the same person, in his inward man, his mind and reason, may assent to and approve the law of God; and yet, notwithstanding, by his fleshly appetites, may be brought under servitude to sin." See on chap. Romans 8:1.
Inferences.—There are few Chapter s in sacred Scripture which have been more misrepresented or misunderstood, than that before us. We have endeavoured, by the assistance of the most able and impartial commentators that we could meet with, to give its true and genuine meaning: and we observe farther, in the words of one of them, that, should we be mistaken in the sense of any single period in the chapter, yet surely the subject and drift of the Apostle's argument are evident beyond a doubt: certainly he runs a comparison between the law and the Gospel, with regard to the Jew in the flesh. He here infallibly speaks of the law, and of the state of the law, and of the state of a sinner under the law, which leaves him enslaved to sin without help, and subjected to death without pardon. Then in chap. 8: he undeniably turns to the Gospel, and shews what provision is there made for recovery from the bondage of sin, to sanctity and happiness. Consequently he cannot be supposed, by the wretched character above given, to describe the state of a Christian, unless he can be supposed to represent the Gospel as weak and defective as the law itself. For if, after faith in Christ, and such obedience to him as we can now perform, the Christian still remains under the dominion of sin and the condemnation of the law, (which is the true state described in the above chapter,) then the grace of God is of no use to us, nor are we any nearer to life, by being in Christ and walking after his Spirit according to our present abilities; but still we want a new redemption, and ought to cry out, O wretched man!—who shall deliver me? &c.
But here it may be objected,—"Are not even good and holy men attended with such sensual appetites and affections; and therefore may we not very justly apply to them the Apostle's description of a Jew in the flesh?"—To this we answer, it is undoubtedly true, that even good and holy men are attended with various appetites and affections, and such as will exercise vigilance, self-denial, faith, and patience, while they are in the body. For this cause St. Paul kept his body under, and brought it into subjection, least that by any means, when he had preached to others, he himself should be a cast-away. But still this will not justify us in applying what the Apostle says here of the Jew in the flesh, to true Christians,—to good and holy men: because though such have, and while in this world will have, flesh and blood, as well as principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places, to struggle with, yet they are not such as prevail, and bring them into captivity to sin; for then they would lose their character, and cease to be good and holy men. They are not such appetites and affections as conquer them, but such as they oppose, conquer, and mortify, at least. And therefore it is false and injurious to true religion, to set them upon a level with the Jew here in the flesh, who is supposed to be conquered, and brought into captivity to the law of sin and death.
But it may be said, "We find in Scripture, that sometimes good men have fallen foully into sin."—And what then? Does it thence follow that all good men are in the flesh, carnal, and sold under sin,—that they are brought into captivity to the law of sin and death?—Surely no. Good men have fallen into sin; but their falling does not denominate them good men, but their recovering themselves again to repentance. For had they remained under the power of sin,—carnal, and sold under it, they would for ever have lost the character of good men. All that we can learn from the faults of good men in Scripture is, that they are obnoxious to temptation, and may be overcome, if they be negligent and secure: and farther, that through the mercy of God it is possible, that he who has sinned may see the error of his way, and return to the obedience of the just. But we cannot from the faults of good men infer, that there is no difference between them and wicked men, who live habitually in sin; or that David, when, in abhorrence of his crimes, he humbled himself before God, renounced and forsook them, was not a whit better as to the principle in his heart, but the same man as when he committed adultery and murder.
But the prophet says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9. To which we may answer, that Christians, too generally neglecting the study of Scripture, content themselves with a few scraps, which, though wrongly understood, they make the test of truth, and the ground of their principles, in contradiction to the whole tenor of revelation. Thus this text of Jeremiah has been misapplied, to prove that every man's heart is so desperately wicked, that no man can know how wicked his heart is; whereas the Spirit of God is shewing the wretched error of trusting in man, Romans 7:5-6.; and the blessedness of trust in God, Romans 7:7-8. And then in Romans 7:9 he subjoins a reason which demonstrates the error of trusting in man; The heart is deceitful, &c. "We cannot look into the hearts of those we trust: under great pretences of kindness, they may cover the blackest designs. But God, the universal Judge, knows what is in every man, and can preserve those who trust in him from the latent mischievous counsels of the wicked and treacherous." Romans 7:10. I the Lord search the heart, &c. This text, therefore, does not relate to the difficulty which any man has to know his own heart, but the hearts of those in whom he may confide.
It may be farther urged, "Do we not experience that we have corrupt and wicked hearts? and that the Apostle's description above given but too well suits what we find in ourselves?"—We answer, every man can best judge what he finds in himself: but if any man really finds that his heart is corrupt and wicked, it is the duty of a minister of the Gospel to exhort him earnestly to use those means, which the grace of God has provided, for cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and for perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1.). Let such a corrupt person, as he values the salvation of his soul, hear and learn the truth as it is in Jesus, Ephesians 4:22-23 whereby he will be taught to put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of his mind.
To hear some persons talk, one would imagine that they thought it their duty, and a mark of sincerity and goodness, to be always complaining of corrupt and desperately wicked hearts; and, consequently, that they ought to have, or in fact should always have, such hearts to complain of. But let no man deceive himself: a wicked heart is too dangerous a thing to be trifled with.—I would not here be thought to discourage the humble sentiments that every man should have of himself under our present infirmities: but we may greatly wrong ourselves by a false humility; and whoever carefully peruses the New Testament will find, that however we are obliged to repent of sin, a spirit of complaining and bewailing is not the spirit of the Gospel; neither is it a rule of true religion, nor any mark of sincerity, to have a corrupt heart, or to be always complaining of such a heart. On the contrary, the Gospel is intended to deliver us from all iniquity, and to purify us into a peculiar people zealous of good works, and to sanctify us throughout in body, soul, and spirit, that we may now be saints,—may now have peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, and at length be presented without spot or blemish, before the presence of God. This is the invariable sense of revelation: nevertheless, it is manifestly true, that while we are in the body, we shall be exercised with the infirmities and passions thereof: but then this is not our corruption and wickedness, but the trial of our virtue and holiness; and it is the real character of every true Christian, that he crucifieth the flesh with the affections and lusts, and ardently labours to perfect holiness in the fear of God. Whatever is evil and corrupt in us we ought to condemn; not so as that it shall still remain in us, and that we may always be condemning it, but that we may speedily reform, and be effectually delivered from it.
To give, therefore, a direct and final answer to the objection taken from the chapter before us, we may thence gather, that we are very apt, in a world full of temptation, to be deceived and drawn into sin by bodily appetites:—that when once we are under the government of these appetites, it is impracticable to recover ourselves by the mere force of reason; consequently, that we stand in need of that life-giving Spirit whom the Apostle mentions, chap. Romans 8:2. That the case of those who are under a law threatening death to every sin, must be quite deplorable, if they have not relief from the mercy of the Lawgiver: which sad case the Jews, who adhered to the law, and rejected the Gospel, chose for themselves. Of course, we can by no means infer, that the Apostle is describing his own case at the time when he wrote, or the case of any genuine Christian believer; though it be true, that he had and that all upright Christians, while in the body, have passions to resist and mortify. But then, as they are in Christ, it is their real character, that they do resist and mortify, not that they are overcome and brought into captivity by them,—which is the sad case and character described in the above chapter, and which character, if it be finally our own, we shall undoubtedly perish.
We have been more copious in our Inferences from this passage of Scripture, in order to free Christians from a dangerous state into which, it is to be feared, many have fallen, who hence have concluded, that they might by their lusts be hindered from doing that good which they are convinced is their duty, and by the law in their members might be brought into servitude by the law of sin;—and yet, as to their spiritual state, be in as good a condition as St. Paul himself,—a persuasion which manifestly tends to give us too favourable an opinion of the workings of criminal affections, to make us remiss in mortifying them, to encourage us to venture too far in sensual indulgencies, and to lull conscience asleep, when we are fallen under their dominion; or, if a better mind preserves a man from these worst consequences of this mistake, yet, so long as it remains, he must rob himself of due encouragement to pious industry, and a cheerful progress in the Christian course. For after all his upright endeavours in sole dependence on divine grace, he will imagine that he makes very small or no advances in a religious life:—still he is but where he was, still carnal and sold under sin;—still under the worst of habits, and in the most wretched condition.
To make this good, common infirmities are magnified into the blackest crimes; and such untoward sentiments cannot fail to enfeeble hope, love, and joy. The Gospel is glad tidings of great joy, which introduce a blessed, glorious, lively hope, give us the most pleasing sentiments of the divine love, inspire a comfort and peace far superior to all temporal enjoyments, and expressly require us to rejoice in the Lord,—and to hold fast the confidence of hope.—But what room can there be in our breasts for spiritual joy and hope, if we shall conceive ourselves to be in a state which the Scripture every where condemns?—If we are still carnal and sold under sin, how can we lift up a cheerful face towards heaven?—In short, we must be destitute of every comfort resulting from a heart purified by the faith of Jesus, and remain under gloomy doubts and fears, which no marks or evidences of grace and sanctification can dissipate or remove.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The Apostle had asserted, that we are not under the law; and in what sense he here explains. He was addressing himself to them who knew the law, and would admit it as the most obvious truth, that the law can no longer be binding than the person lives under it. As for instance: The woman which hath an husband, is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth: but if the husband be dead, the bond of wedlock is dissolved, and she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but the case is quite different if her husband be dead, for then she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
Now such was our case.
1. Our first marriage was to the law; we were under it as a covenant of works, and the fruits of that marriage were dreadful. For when we, Jews as well as Gentiles, were in the flesh, in our natural, corrupt, and unregenerate state, the motions of sin, the passions and vile affections of our fallen hearts, which were by the law considered as a covenant of works, that demanded an immaculate perfection which we could not pay, and denounced a curse we could not endure; our corruptions, I say, were but the more irritated by the strictness of the prohibition, and the severity of the sanction, and did work in our members with such mighty and irresistible energy, as to bring forth fruit unto death, producing all those actual transgressions which spring from the original root of bitterness in our nature; and, unless we are delivered from the guilt and dominion of them, must issue in eternal death: and, as long as any soul is under the law as a covenant, this must be his miserable case. But,
2. We are married to another, even to Christ Jesus. Our first husband, the law, being dead, wherein we were held, we are delivered from its obligations as a covenant, and from the curse that it denounced on the transgressors. We are no more in these respects under it, than a wife is subject to her departed husband. We are become dead to the law, and the law unto us, by the body of Christ; for he hath satisfied all the demands of that perfect law of innocence: and we are thus discharged from all connection with and obligation to our former husband, that we might be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, the risen and exalted Saviour, to whom we now pledge our fidelity, and by ties of love are drawn to a willing subjection to his pleasing yoke, that we should bring forth fruit unto God, the fruits of grace and holiness produced through the quickening influences of his Spirit, which, till this union with Christ commences, never can be brought forth,—and tending to advance the divine glory, acceptable also to God through Jesus Christ; and that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter: though made free from the law as a covenant of life, yet under the law to Christ, receiving from him the new heart, walking before him under the influence of new principles, and enabled to shew forth a very different conversation, in righteousness and true holiness, from what we ever did or could practise, when under the power of the old man; and regarding the law as a covenant of life, which only provoked, instead of restraining, the corruption of our hearts.
2nd, An objection might be raised from what the Apostle had said, as if he had most dishonourably reflected on the law. What shall we say then? is the law sin? With indignation he replies, God forbid: the law is good, the evil is all in ourselves.
1. The law is in itself most holy, just, and good; it contains a transcript of God's purity, inculcates the most perfect obedience, demands nothing but what essentially flows from the very relation of Creator and creature, and in its nature is, like its Author, excellent.
2. The advantages of the law are great, as it convinces the conscience, and humbles the soul under a sense of sin. I had not known sin, but by the law; so far is the law from leading to sin, or approving it, that it discovers and condemns the most secret workings of evil. For I had not known lust, the sinfulness of the first motions of corrupt desire, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet; the law therefore is not sinful; but, as the bright mirror discovers that deformity which would otherwise have been overlooked, so does the law discover the deformity of sin. The evil is all in ourselves, where sin, taking occasion by the commandment, raged even the more violently because of the prohibition, and wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, whilst in my Pharisaical state I knew not its spirituality and extensive demands, sin was dead, did not terrify my conscience, and to my apprehension was entirely subdued; so that I counted myself, as touching the righteousness which is by the law, blameless. For I was alive without the law once; in those days of my vanity, when Pharisaical pride swelled my bosom, I counted my title to life clear on the footing of my own obedience, being a perfect stranger to the spiritual nature and extent of the law: but when the commandment came, laid open to my conscience by the Spirit in its purity and spirituality, conviction flashed on my mind; sin revived, and brought unnumbered charges against me, which I had overlooked; and I felt its living power in my heart, when I thought it had been utterly destroyed, and, in consequence thereof, I died; I saw myself a condemned criminal, most justly obnoxious to the divine displeasure, and in the eye of the law under the fearful sentence of eternal death. And the commandment which, if perfectly obeyed, was ordained to be a covenant of life to man in innocence, I found to be unto death; and through the corruption of my nature rendering me incapable of keeping it, I perceived that the only thing it could do for me was, to consign me over to the wrath of God as a transgressor. For sin, that native principle of corruption in my heart, taking occasion by the commandment to rebel against the law, as if it was unreasonably severe, deceived me with hopes of pleasure and impunity, and by it slew me, like an assassin that, having misled the traveller, plunges his dagger into his heart. Wherefore all these dire consequences are to be ascribed wholly to our desperate corruption, while the law is holy, and no blame to be laid against it, and the commandment is holy, just, and good.
3rdly, A new objection is started from the title he gives to the law as good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? might one suggest; can that which is so good in its nature be in its effects so deadly? and is the law of God the cause of all human miseries? God forbid. It is not the law, but the crime committed against it, which causes the death of the malefactor. Thus sin, the concupiscence of my corrupted nature, that it might appear sin, and be discovered to my conscience in its true malignity, working death in me by that which is good, and taking occasion to rebel from the very purity and perfection of the holy law of God, brought the sentence of death upon me; that sin by the commandment, so clearly forbidden, yet rising in wilful opposition thereto, might appear exceeding sinful; and that this corruption of my nature, the source of all my actual transgressions, might be seen in the blackest colours that words can express, or thought conceive (κατ υπερβολην αμαρτωλος).
The Apostle farther proceeds to describe the state of an awakened sinner, drawn from his own experience during the interval between his miraculous conviction, and his conversion at Damascus, or from his general and perfect acquaintance with the experience of mourners in that awakened state. For we know that the law is spiritual, reaching to the thoughts and intents of the heart, and requiring inward as well as outward obedience; but I am carnal, feel myself a poor fallen creature, sold under sin; by the first man's transgression delivered into the tyrant's hands, and born the slave of corruption, the dire effects of which I daily feel, and groan under. For that which I do, I allow not; when in thought, word, or deed, my wretched heart yields to the tempter's wiles, my judgment disapproves the evil that I commit; and, far from a deliberate choice, my soul rises against it, and I loath both the sin and myself. For what I would, and in my better part approve and desire, that do I not; I desire always with the most intense application, that my soul should be fixed on God, and engaged in his blessed work and service: yet how short do I come of that spirituality of temper and conduct which I wish to exercise! But what I hate, that do I; insensibly, through infirmity, surprise, or temptation, betrayed into things that habitually I abhor. If then I do that which I would not, whilst I feel a settled aversion to this hateful service, I consent unto the law (συμφημι), give my full approbation to it, that it is good, most excellent in itself, most becoming God to enjoin, and me to obey; and even if its fearful penalty were levied upon me, I must own the sentence righteous, just, and good. Now then it is no more I that do it; but sin, my native corruption, that dwelleth in me, which overpowers me, and is most burthensome to me. For I know, by sad experience, that in me, (that is in my flesh), in my carnal self, there dwelleth no good thing, but evil only: for to will is present with me, and my judgment approves the things that are excellent, and my choice determines me to walk with and please God; but how to perform that which is good I find not; the storms of temptation and the power and current of corruption carry me out of the course I mean to steer; so that I cannot keep in the straight way of holiness, nor proceed with that steadiness and speed I wish for and purpose. For the good that I would, even to be found in the will of God, I do not, cannot attain unto; but the evil which I would not, but condemn, disapprove, and disallow, that I do, feeling myself weak as an infant, and unable to make resistance. Now if I do that I would not, as I said before, it is no more I that do it; sin is in my eyes an abominable thing, and I feel an aversion to it, and a hearty approbation of the holy law of God; but all the evil proceeds from sin, that corrupted principle, which dwelleth in me, and overcomes me. I find then a law, my fallen nature acting in me with such mighty influence, that when I would do good, evil is present with me; some discouragement is suggested to deter me, some snare to allure me, or some evil desire rises up, quenches the gracious purposes that I had formed, and turns me aside from the path of righteousness. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: my inmost soul does not only approve the law in all its spirituality as good, but feels a most earnest desire to obtain that revelation of Jesus Christ in my heart, and that principle of divine love implanted in my soul, which may give me constant dominion over sin. But (which is the bitterest burthen under which I groan) I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members; while overpowered, reluctantly I am drawn aside, not a willing slave, but an unhappy captive. O wretched man that I am! thus tied and bound with the chain of my sins, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? from this fallen nature, which, like a body consisting of various members, works so powerfully, and must, for any thing I can do to help myself, bring me under the sentence of eternal death. But, though I feel my helplessness, and lie down under self-despair, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. By his grace I am delivered from condemnation; and by his Spirit I am saved from the power of evil. So then the sum of my whole argumentation above, in the character of a penitent sinner, is shortly this: with the mind, in my settled judgment and choice, I myself serve the law of God with the full consent of my judgment; but with the flesh the law of sin, feeling its workings in me, though disallowed and condemned, and reluctantly brought under its hateful power.