cause he seemed to impute blame to them; and answered him, saying, "Are we blind also?"-these were not persons to confess, we are carnal, but the law is spiritual. Still less are they the reflections of those who have practised sin till the conscience is seared: become callous, insensible, past feeling. These are the reflections of one who knows that the law is holy, reaching to the thoughts and intents of the heart: but who also perceives that in himself, that is, in his flesh, dwelleth no good thing: and who also perceives that this sinfulness sets him at a distance from God; for God requires holiness, and he is at present under the power of sin. And why is he thus contradicting his better judgment? Because there is a principle within him, stronger than his conscience or his reason. If I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I am constrained to act against myself: against my better part: I am under the dominion of an inward tyrant, who overpowers the conviction of my mind; and this, without excusing my transgression, aggravates the misery of my state. My will is enslaved: and though in my inward man I consent unto the law that it is good, yet when temptation comes, it leads me away in despite of my reason and resolutions. Sin is too strong for me, causes me to do violence to my own convictions: what I would, in my inward mind approving, that I do not, but what I hate, what my judgment disallows, that I do. These must be the feelings of one who is held by a law which he confesses to be holy, and just, and good, but finds not how to perform it. And thoughts like 3 John ix. 40. these may be treated in various ways. They may be quieted by suggesting to the mind:-This is our case; but it is the case with multitudes: why should we be uneasy? They may be silenced by reflecting: To will is present with me. My heart therefore is good: and God will accept the will. Or it may seem enough to urge, In me dwelleth no good thing: I inherited a sinful nature; and God will not call me into judgment for that which was born with me. If I am sinful, he is merciful. 4 St. Paul, however, is not so satisfied. He knew that not the hearers, not the approvers of the law would be justified before God, but the doers. If we are bound by the law, we must fulfil the law. And if we had no other hope than from the righteousness that is of the law, our condition would be nothing else than desperate. So he describes it. 21. I find then a law,5 that when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23. But 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. 24. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. I thank God, that through Jesus Christ there is deliverance from a state which would otherwise be a state of condemnation. Without him, if I look to my condition before God, it is but a body of death. 4 ii. 13. 5 A principle in my nature. 5 My original nature, before it is renewed by the Spirit of God, is carnal, sold under sin quite incapable of fulfilling the requirements of a spiritual law. And even when we are "renewed in the spirit of our mind," the body of death still clings to us and hangs about us. "The flesh is weak," even if "the spirit is willing." The tendency of the law in our members is still to bring us into captivity. "There is no man that liveth, and sinneth not:" so that there is no man living who can be justified by the works of the law. Therefore, thanks be to God, that as regards us, "the law is now dead whereby we are held." "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." By him we are justified from all things." He "has redeemed us from the curse of the law." So that although, to the end, the flesh will lust against the spirit: though with the flesh I serve the law of sin, even while in the mind I serve the law of God; still I thank God, that where sin abounds, 66 grace has still more abounded." "Christ Jesus bore our sins in his own body;"" and being "justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him:" nay, "an entrance shall be ministered unto us abundantly into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour."9 ד 66 What then, it may be asked, are these the words of an apostle speaking of himself? Yes. He is thus led by the course of his argument to record his own experience: and to show the difference of his Nothing more than this is necessarily to be inferred from the word αιχμαλωτίζοντα. 6 1 Kings viii. 46. 7 Acts xiii. 39; Gal. iii. 13. 9 2 Pet. i. 11. state, under the law, and under the Gospel. The law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. Such was his original nature. "We ourselves," as he says elsewhere, "were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." A change had now been wrought: but the remainder of sin still maintains a harassing conflict within him. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but 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. No doubt Paul felt this: felt the tendency of his corrupt nature to prevail over the law of his mind; so that it was needful for him to " keep under his body, and bring it into subjection, lest whilst he preached to others, he himself should be a cast-away." And he describes his own feelings, his abiding hope and consolation, when he sees nothing in the law, but condemnation: and looks to "eternal life as the gift of God through Jesus Christ." For he desired to be saved, not having his own. righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:"3 to expect eternal life, not as a reward that might be claimed, but as a mercy to be thankfully received. Wretched man that he would be, if he had only himself to depend on, no confidence but in his own. righteousness! 2 And thus describing the process of his feelings, he has given us a test by which we may try our own. 1 Tit. iii. 3. 3 Phil. iii. 9. 21 Cor. ix. 27. It is, indeed, one great benefit of St. Paul's writings, that he is led incidentally to show the effect upon his own mind and character of the doctrine which he was inculcating. The feelings here represented must be, in the main, the thoughts of every man who sets himself in earnest to the work of salvation. Every man must contend against the law of sin which is in his members. Every man must seek deliverance through the one name under heaven by which salvation is granted to man. Every man will discover to the end a principle in the flesh which serves the law of sin, though the mind serves the law of God. And this makes it needful at last as at first, to thank God, that "if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins."4 LECTURE XXI. THE SPIRITUAL CHARACTER OF THOSE THAT ARE REDEEMED BY CHRIST JESUS. ROMANS viii. 1-7. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. If a man were judged according to the letter of ↑ 1 John ii. 1. |