St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans: A Practical Exposition. Vol. I

87

See on this subject Life and Letters of Dr. Hort (Macmillan), vol. ii. p. 337: 'Faith itself, not being an intellectual assent to propositions, but an attitude of heart and mind, is present in a more or less rudimentary state in every upward effort or aspiration of man.' Also Gibson, Thirty-Nine Articles (Methuen), ii. p. 420.

88

Rom. viii. 4.

89

Isa. lii. 5.

90

See in Ezek. xxxvi. 22: 'My holy name, which ye have profaned among the nations, whither ye went.'

91

Dr. Gifford suggests that the LXX was subsequently modified by St. Paul's citation (as in the next chapter, iii. 10-18), instead of his citation being moulded by the LXX. Is there any evidence in support of this view?

92

Chapters ix-xi.

93

The points are resumed in ix. 1.

94

Ps. xxxii.

95

Dr. King (The Psalms in Three Collections, &c.: Cambridge, 1898) has remarked that Ps. xiv. 1-3 closely resembles the general condemnation of 'all flesh upon the earth' in Gen. vi. 5, 12.

96

Cf. above ver. 4, from Ps. xxxii.

97

See Ps. li. 4; Job xxxii. 2; Prov. xvii. 15; Isa. v. 23; Matt. xi. 19; Luke vii. 29; x. 29; xvi. 15.

98

Cf. Dan. ix. 4-20.

99

The word for 'fall short' in ver. 23 is a 'middle' verb, and apparently implies not only failure in point of fact, but conscious failure. Thus in Luke xv. 14, the prodigal son begins to feel his destitution (middle). But in Matt. xix. 20, the rich young man asks, 'What, as a matter of fact, is wanting to me' (active)? See Gifford, or S. and H. in loc.

100

Cf. app. note C, on recent reactions from the teaching about hell.

101

Jer. xiii. 33.

102

Except the sins which slew Him.

103

I have combined this passage with the illustrative passages in St. Paul's speeches to the heathen. Acts xiv. 16: 'Who in the generations gone by suffered all the nations to walk in their own ways.' Acts xvii. 30: 'The times of ignorance God overlooked (winked at); but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent.' Wisd. xl. 23: 'Thou overlookest (winkest at) the sins of men to the end they may repent.'

104

This paragraph gives distinctness to a somewhat latent thought in vers. 25, 26. But I feel convinced that this, and nothing else, is the thought.

105

Verses 5, 25, 26.

106

Rom. iii. 22.

107

Phil. iii. 9.

108

2 Cor. v. 21.

109

Rom. ix. 31.

110

Rom. ii. 5.

111

Cf. 1 John i. 9: 'Faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins.'

112

Joseph, the 'righteous' man in Matt. i. 19, is kindly. But his kindliness has still the elements of moral severity. And it must be remembered that in Rom. v. 7 'righteous' is still put in contrast to 'good.'

113

See Acts ii. 38: 'Be baptized … unto the remission of your sins.' xxii. 16: 'Be baptized and wash away thy sins.'

114

Acts xxvi. 18, i.e. forgiveness and fellowship in the consecrated body, the new Israel; cf. xx. 33.

115

2 Macc. vii. 37.

116

4 Macc. vi. 28, 29.

117

John xi. 50.

118

None the less immoral as Caiaphas intended it, because, as St. John perceives, a divine truth uttered itself through his lips (John xi. 51).

119

John i. 29.

120

Matt. xxvi. 28; Luke xxii. 19; 1 Cor. xi. 24.

121

Robertson-Smith, Religion of the Semites (Black, 1889), p. 418.

122

Ps. l. 21; cf. Eccles. viii. 11.

123

On some of the difficulties felt about the doctrine of the Atonement, see app. note D.

124

Gen. xv. 5, 6.

125

Ps. xxxii.

126

Gen. xvii.

127

None of the promises are verbally to this effect. But this is the substantial outcome of them.

128

Or 'of Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh' (margin).

129

1 Macc. ii. 52; cf. Ecclus. xliv. 20.

130

James ii. 21, 22.

131

Cf. S. and H. p. 101.

132

There is contemporary evidence for this illustration of their position; see Ephesians, app. note C.

133

James ii. 14-26.

134

Isa. xxviii. 16: 'He that believeth shall not be put to shame' (Greek version).

135

Gal. v. 4.

136

Cf. also p. 310.

137

verses 2, 3, 11.

138

The tense is an aorist, 'the Holy Ghost which was given' at a definite past moment; not as in the unrevised Bible 'is given.'

139

An a fortiori argument means an argument with a 'still more' in it: – If something is so then still more something else.

140

The words in brackets are the suppressed premise in the argument – suppressed, but none the less evident.

141

Acts xvii. 26.

142

ver. 20.

143

ver. 13, 14, 19.

144

1 Cor. xi. 3; 1 Tim. ii. 13-15.

145

Rom. iv. 15; v. 13.

146

Much more (the argument implies) after the law had been given and sin could be 'imputed' as sin again.

147

The references in Hos. vi. 7, Isa. xliii. 27, Job xxxi. 33, are not certainly, or even probably, to Adam. There is an obscure but interesting reference in Ezek. xxviii. 14-16, in which 'the fall' seems to be treated as representative of Tyre's fall, and presumably therefore of all situations in which divine gifts and vocations are squandered and lost.

148

Wisd. ii. 23, 24; cf. Rom. v. 12.

149

Ecclus. xxv. 24. The first clause need not mean more than 'she was the first to sin.'

150

2 Esdras iii. 7.

151

Apoc. Baruch xxiii. 4, and elsewhere. In parts of this book the penalty of Adam's sin is regarded as being not death, but premature death: see liv. 15, lvi. 6, and Mr. Charles' notes.

152

See Matt. vii. 11; John ii. 25; iii. 3, &c.

153

2 Esdras iii. 21, 22; iv. 30; vii. 48.

154

The matter is to be dealt with more at length in app. note E.

155

See E. B. Tylor in Encycl. Brit. ii, s. v. ANTHROPOLOGY, p. 114: 'The polygenist view (i.e. the doctrine of a plurality of origins) till a few years since was gaining ground. Two modern views, however (i.e. the belief in the antiquity of man and the development of species), have tended to restore, though under a new aspect, the doctrine of a single human stock.' Cf. Darwin, Descent of Man (2nd ed.), p. 176: 'Those naturalists who admit the principle of evolution … will feel no doubt that all the races of men are descended from a single primitive stock.' See also Keane in app. note E.

156

Mozley's Lectures and Theol. Papers (Longmans), pp. 157 ff.

157

2 Tim. i. 10.

158

John vi. 50; viii. 51.

159

See app. note E.

160

2 Thess. i. 7-10; 2 Cor. ii. 16.

161

ver. 17.

162

See Gal. v. 13: 'Only use not your freedom for an occasion of the flesh.' Cf. 2 Pet. iii. 16, and the implications of St. James' Epistle.

163

1 Thess. iv. 14.

164

The meaning of ver. 4 is interpreted in vers. 10, 11.

165

Ver. 4; cf. John xi. 40. 'The glory of God' is specially manifest in the resurrection of the dead.

166

This is the original suggestion of the word 'united' in ver. 5.

167

Cf. Col. ii. 12.

168

The Greek words represented by 'leave at the disposal of,' 'make an offering to,' are different parts of the same verb. 'The tense of the former expresses continuance, habit; … of the latter, a single irrevocable act of surrender' (Vaughan, in loc.).

169

John xii. 24, 25.

170

It is one gain of the R.V. that for 'ye are dead' (Col. iii. 3, ii. 20), 'we are dead' (Rom. vi. 2, 8), &c., we read 'ye died,' 'we died,' i.e. at the definite moment of baptism.

171

Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc. ii. 31: 'To whom (Chlovis) as he enters the font to be baptized, the holy man of God (Remigius) thus eloquently spoke – "Meekly bow thy neck, Sigambrian: adore what thou hast burnt; burn what thou hast adored."'

172

Baptism by 'affusion' began within the first century, but as the exception, not the rule. See app. note F.

173

By infant baptism under right conditions, I mean the baptism of infants when there is some real security provided, through their parents or proper sponsors, for their Christian education, according to the intention of the Church. On the primitive origin of infant baptism, see Ephesians, pp. 230, 231.

174

'Stirb und werde!

Denn so lang du das nicht hast,

Bist du nur ein trüber Gast

Auf der dunkeln Erde' (quoted by M. Arnold).

175

John vi. 53-58; xiv. 19, 20; xv. 1-10; xvii. 21-23.

176

P. 81 (2nd ed.): 'The three essential terms of Pauline theology are not, therefore, as popular theology makes them —calling, justification, sanctification: they are rather these —dying with Christ, resurrection from the dead, growing into Christ.' Cf. p. 76: 'How did Paul's faith, working through love, help him to control appetite and self-will? It enabled him to reinforce duty by affection. In the central need of his nature, the desire to govern these motives of unrighteousness, it enabled him to say: Die to them! Christ did. If any man be in Christ, said St. Paul – that is, if any man identifies himself with Christ by attachment, so that he enters into His feelings and lives with His life – he is a new creature; he can do, and does, what Christ did.' It would be truer, surely, to say in the first of these two passages not 'the three essential,' &c., but 'the three central.' Nothing can be more truly essential to Pauline theology than the terms, calling, justification, atonement; but the two last of them at least do not belong to the central region of religion, but have to do with the removal of preliminary obstacles to our entrance upon it.

177

The apparent exception is John x. 18; but even there the word rendered 'take' would perhaps be better rendered 'receive.' Christ had the right to lay down His own life and the right to receive it again from the Father. So Hort, First Ep. of Peter, pp. 34, 84.

178

Luke xvi. 9.

179

1 Cor. ix. 27.

180

The tense of the verb in 'shall we sin' appears to indicate an act, not a habit of sin.

181

John viii. 34.

182

Serm. xxxix. 2.

183

2 Tim. i. 13.

184

Cf. Luke i. 1-4; 1 Cor. xi. 23; xv. 3, 4.

185

Cf. Rom. vi. 3; Heb. vi. 1-6; 1 Cor. x. 15, 16; xi. 23 ff.; Acts ii. 38.

186

Didaché, 8; cf. below, p. 293.

187

Heb. vi. 1, 2; 1 Thess. iv. 1, 2; v. 2.

188

See Hort, First Ep. of Peter, p. 18, for the fact that 'a recognized belief or idea of the threefold Name seems to be everywhere presupposed.'

189

Cf. above, pp. 31, 32.

190

Matthew Arnold, St. Paul and Protestantism, p. 76.

191

Eph. v. 22.

192

'I was myself in both flesh and spirit, but more myself in what I approved than in what I disapproved.' – Augustine, Confessions, viii. 5.

193

Rather, as margin, 'I find then in regard of the law': see below, p. 269.

194

Cf. 1 Cor. xv. 56; Gal. iii. 10; 2 Cor. iii. 6; Rom. iii. 20; iv. 15; v. 20.

195

See J. B. Mayor in The Epistle of St. James (ii. 10), p. 86.

196

Gal. v. 3.

197

Phil. iii. 6.

198

It is disappointing, I think, that the grave appeal to the Church as regards social duty, made by the bishops assembled at Lambeth last year in commending to the notice of us all the report of their Committee on Industrial Problems, has received such scant attention, except from a certain group of Churchmen who were already occupied with the problem. It might have been expected that this solemn appeal would have vastly widened the area of attention.

199

'Inter regenerandum.' St. John will not speak of a wilful sinner as truly 'begotten of God,' 1 John iii. 9; v. 18, &c.

200

See Dale, quoted in Ephesians, p. 86.

201

Eph. vi. 12.

202

Cf. 2 Thess. ii. 9-11: 'The working of Satan with all … deceit of unrighteousness … a working of error, that they should believe a lie.' 2 Cor. xi. 14: 'Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light.' 1 Tim. ii. 14: 'The woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression.' Cf. Heb. iii. 13: 'The deceitfulness of sin.'

203

It never appears to be used, as in classical Greek, for 'custom,' either in LXX or N.T.

204

The passage in brackets expands the sense in which St. Paul conceives the Father to have passed sentence of condemnation on sin, in the person and through the sacrifice of Christ, in accordance with such passages as vers. 21-24; iv. 25; Phil. ii. 8-10; Eph. i. 15 ff.

205

Phil. ii. 7.

206

2 Cor. v. 21.

207

See Heb. x. 6, cf. 18, 26; xiii. 11; 1 Pet. iii. 18; 1 John ii. 2; iv. 10.

208

ii. 15.

209

Verses 2, 9, 11.

210

Verses 4, 5, 6, 9, 10.

211

Verses 9-11.

212

Eph. iii. 14-19.

213

John xiv. 16, 18, 23, 26.

214

Rom. xiii. 9.

215

Ezek. xxxvii. 9; Rev. xi. 11.

216

1 John iii. 9.

217

'Ye received' (at a particular time), not 'ye have received'; cf. above, p. 214, note 1.

218

Prov. xvii. 2.

219

See Chase, Lord's Prayer in the Early Church ('Texts and Studies,' Cambridge), p. 23. Cf. Hort on 1 Pet. i. 17.

220

xi. 2.

221

S. and H., in loc.

222

Cf. Vaughan and Gifford, in loc.

223

1 Cor. iii. 16.

224

Isa. lx. 21.

225

Matt. v. 5.

226

Matt. xix. 29.

227

2 Tim. ii. 11.

228

iii. 17-19; v. 29.

229

xxiv. 5-7.

230

i. e. Messiah, son of David, son of Pherez (Ruth iv. 18).

231

Bereshith Rabbah, xii. 5.

232

Isa. lxv. 17, lxvi. 22; cf. 2 Pet. iii. 13; Rev. xxi. 1; Acts iii. 21.

233

Book of Enoch, xlv. 4, 5.

234

St. Paul's word 'creation' (verses 30-22) is used in St. Paul's sense in Wisd. xvi. 34, xix. 6.

235

2 Pet. i. 16-19.

236

Cf. Latham, Service of Angels (Cambridge, 1894).

237

Eph. ii. 5.

238

Rom. viii. 24.

239

1 Cor. xv. 2; 2 Cor. ii. 15. (The present tense in both cases.)

240

Rom. v. 9, 10; xiii. 11: cf. 1 Tim. iv. 16; 2 Tim. iv. 18.

241

Andrew Murray's With Christ in the School of Prayer (Nisbet 1891), p. 71.

242

2 Cor. xii. 8: cf. Phil. i. 22, 'What I shall choose I wot not.'

243

Verse 34.

244

Not 'the saints' in the Greek.

245

1 Tim. ii. 1.

246

Rom. xi. 32; 1 Tim. ii. 4.

247

Amos iii. 2: cf. Ps. i. 6; Hos. xiii. 5; Matt. vii. 23.

248

Cf. Hort on 1 Pet. pp. 19, 80.

249

See especially Rom. xi. 29-33.

250

Ps. xliv. 22.