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And from bondage]

CHAP. VII.

have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (H)

CHAP. VII.

KNOW ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

2 For 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, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but

[to the law. if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

CHAP. VI.

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EXPOSITION.

(H) Ver. 1-23. We must not live in sin, nor suffer it to reign in us.-By a strong and beautiful imagery here introduced, believers are said to be crucified, dead and buried with Christ, by their baptism and Christian profession, in which indeed the early Christians were often exposed to martyrdom but the figures used may farther intimate, 1. Their spiritual union with Christ as the members of his mystical body, "growing together, more and nore, into intimate union and communion with him. 2. Their tender sympathy in is sufferings and death, their lively joy n his resurrection, and the influence of oth in mortifying the flesh and sin, and n raising them to newness of life, and nimating them with the prospect of uture and everlasting felicity. 3. Their ncreasing conformity to his sufferings and leath, by being crucified to the world, and eparated from its criminal pleasures, even

as a man dead and buried is from all the concerns of the present life. The conse quence of which was, that they who had formerly been the slaves of sin, and laboured only for the wages of eternal death, were now enlisted as volunteers in the service of their Redeemer; and so far from living in sin, as had been slanderously reported, they had for ever renounced both its service and its delights: all the members of their body were turned into weapons against the enemy of their souls. And being now liberated from sin, and become the servants of God, they were bringing forth the fruits of holiness, which would end in nothing short of everlasting life; and their continual prayer is—

"O for a heart submissive, meek,

My dear Redeemer's throne;
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone."

NOTES.

Ver. 23. The wages of sin is death.-The term wages, ," according to Macknight, is an allusion articularly to the pay of soldiers. Sin is here decribed as a tyrant, whose service is sure to end in nisery and death; Jesus, as a conqueror, bestowing he rich reward of eternal life and happiness. The leath here mentioned must certainly be more than emporal.

CHAP. VII. Ver. 1. As long as he liveth-Doddr. as IT liveth," meaning the law: but by the gospel he relation is dissolved on both sides. The Christian

is dead to the Mosaic law, and the law to him, as to all hopes of salvation from it.

Ver. 5. When we were in the flesh.-We understand by this expression, an unconverted state. The motions of sins.-Marg. " sinful passions."Which were by the law." By the law was the knowledge of sin," chap. iii. 20. So here, ver. 7.Fruit unto death-i. e. deadly fruits, or wicked works, in opposition to good works, or fruit towards God.

Ver. 6. In newness of spirit-i. c. in a new and spiritual manner, Cox.

The contest between]

ROMANS.

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

9 For I was alive without the law once : but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual but I am carnal, sold under

sin.

[the flesh and spirit,

15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

19 For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not, that I do.

20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

21 I find then a law, 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!

NOTES-Chap. VII. Con.

Ver. 7. Is the law sin ?—i. e. sinful, or inclining us to sin?—I had not known lust-Or what lust was, namely, that it was an inordinate or unlawful desire.Thou shall not covet. See Exod. xx. 17. Paul here refers to his own experience, were it not for his knowledge of God's law, he would not have known the criminality of lust.

Ver. 8. Concupiscence.-Mackn. "strong desire," which here means lust, and is so rendered in the preceding verse.

Ver. 9. I was alive, &c.-Notwithstanding what is said in the Exposition, we do not think this proves the speaker to be either Jew or Gentile, but a converted man. Before he understood the law in its spirituality, as explained by our Lord in Matt. v. 28, he was alive" and well; or, as our Lord expresses it, he was, like other Pharisees, "whole, needing no physician," Matt. ix. 12: but when the law came," i. e. appeared to him as it really is, he was "sick;" he felt the danger he was in, and "died," as to all hope of life or salvation thereby. Ver. 10. Which was ordained to life. - See chap. x. 5.

Ver. 13. Might become-i. e. might evidently appear exceeding sinful-i. e. in its true coloursaltogether criminal and inexcusable.

Ver. 14. The law is spiritual-See on verse 9. Ver. 15. I allow not.-Margin, "know not."

Gataker, Doddr., Mackn., and Cox, "

approve not Ver. 20. Sin that dwelleth in me.-To illustrate this passage, Doddr. alludes to the story of Araspes, in Xenophon's Cyropædia, book i.,who, on being reproved by Cyrus for some improper conduct toward Panthæa, replied-" Alas! now I know myself, and perceive plainly that I have two souls; one that inclines me to good, and the other to evil: in your presence the former prevails; but when I am alone, am conquered by the latter."

Ver. 24. The body of this death.-Marg. " this body of death," alluding to a cruel custom of fastening the living to the dead. Doddr. says-" It is well known that some ancient writers unention this as a cruelty practised by some tyrants on miserable captives who fell into their hands; and a wore forcible and expressive image of the case represented, cannot surely enter into the mind of mau." That such a cruelty was once practised is certain trom Virgil:

What words can paint those execrable times;
The subjects' sufferings, and the tyrant's crimes!
The living and the dead at his cominand,
Were coupled, face to face and hand to band:
Till choak'd with stench, in loath'd embraces tied,
The ling'ring wretches pined away and died.
Dryden's Virg. Æn. viii. 632.

And the triumph]

CHAP. VII.

who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

25 I thank God through Jesus

[of the latter.

So then with the

Christ our Lord. mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. (I)

CHAP. VII.

EXPOSITION.

(1) Ver. 1-25. The law of Moses compared to that of marriage, and the Christian's deliverance therefrom:-the contest between the flesh and spirit. The law of marriage was originally ordained for life, and no law can follow us beyond the grave. Even the law of Moses, to which the Jews had been married by the Sinai Covenant, had dominion over a man no longer than he lived. But this law was become metaphorically dead, as to any authoritative command over them, upon their being married to Christ by faith. So, on the other hand, they were dead to the law, no longer looking to it for justification or eternal life. This mode of reasoning, though it may appear to us somewhat obscure, was perfectly familiar and intelligible to the Jews, and we shall find several similar examples in Paul's Epistles, and especially in those to the Galatians and to the Hebrews.

The first part of this chapter seems addressed particularly to Jewish converts"I speak (says he) to them that know the law-and of these there were probably many, as a great number of Jews resided in Rome. And when Paul adverts to himself and to h.. own experience, it must be remembered that he also was a Jew, and bor.. under the Mosaic law. The great majority of members might be, however, Gentile converts, who had lived under the law of Nature only, to which they were as much wedded as were the Jews to the Mosaic law; that is, they expected life and salvation therefrom: Paul therefore now adverts to this, and shows that, as a covenant of life, they must be divorced from that also, though not as a rule of life, in which respect the obligation of the moral law is universal and eternal: and therefore Paul himself still obeyed it with his heart and mind, notwithstanding the leanings of his corrupt nature to flesh and sin.

But the chief difficulty in the chapter now before us relates to the contest be

tween the flesh and spirit-the old and new man. Many learned commentators are of opinion that the Apostle here speaks not in his own, but in a borrowed character; and the great majority of them, among whom are Drs. Hammond, Taylor, and Macknight, consider him as speaking in the character of an unconverted Jew. Mr. Alex. Pirie, however (certainly a very ingenious writer), though he admits the personification, is confident that the objector could by no means be a native Hebrew. Could a Jew born and bred, he asks, say, "I was alive without the law once?" He thinks that impossible; and concludes, therefore, that the objector must have been a Gentile proselyted to the Jewish faith, whereby he became married to the Mosaic law, to which he had formerly been a stranger, but was now brought under the yoke of all its ceremonies.

This certainly is a plausible conjecture, but it is a conjecture only; and some things here said are as inapplicable to a proselyte as to a Jew, or indeed to any but a true convert to Christ and Christianity. It is plain the speaker was a convinced sinner, for he says (ver. 11) that sin had "deceived him," and that the law had "slain him." He was convinced that in himself, naturally, there dwelt nothing good. He felt within him the struggle of the contrary principles of flesh and spirit

of good and evil: his flesh or corrupt nature tempting him to sin, whilst in his new or regenerate nature be delighted in the law of God; and though he confessed and bewailed his union to that corrupt nature which was a body of sin and death, yet he thanked God, through Jesus Christ, that notwithstanding all his temptations and his failures, with the heart and mind he served the law of God." Now, then, whether the apostle spake this "of him-: self, or of some other man," that man must have been converted by the grace of God. But it is equally plain that he spake this of himself only for what can be

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NOTES.

Ver. 25. Bat-Doddr. "though;" (Gr. de)with the flesh, &c.-Mackn. and others read these words in the interrogative, but, we think, in direct contradiction to the apostle's train of argument. See the opening of chap. viii.

A more full, and, we think, a complete justification of the application of this chapter to Paul's own case, may be found in Dr. Gill's Cause of God and Truth, vol. i. p. 397-105.

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more express than, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord-with the mind I MYSELF serve the law of God."

The only remaining question is, How can we consistently apply to a pious and virtuous man, as Paul now was, some of the expressions here used? And, first, we would remark that it was his mannereven his glory-to debase himself, and to magnify his Lord. He not only had been the chief of sinners, but even now, when not inferior to the chief of the apostles, still he speaks of himself as "less than the least of all saints." 2. The best and holiest of men in all ages have not scrupled to apply these confessions to themselves and their own experience. Of this Augustine is a striking and well-known instance in the Primitive Church (See Milner's Church Hist. vol. ii. cent. v. ch. 2, and Dr. Jn. Owen on the Spirit, abridged, bk. iii. p. 6); and without making a parade of modern names, those of Bp. Hall and Dr. Watts are abundantly sufficient. Will any living Christian say to such men as these, "Stand by, for I am holier than thou?"

Let us now enquire which of the expressions here used is inapplicable to a wise and good man, as was St. Paul. The strongest expression here used is in verse 14-"I am carnal, sold under sin :" but it is very obvious the expression is not used absolutely, but comparatively-"The law is spiritual, but I am carnal,”-not absolutely and wholly so; but as to the flesh (ver. 18), and in comparison with the infinitely pure law of God. With regard to the expression" sold under sin," it is materially different from what is said of Ahab (with which it often has been compared), who "sold himself to work evil" (1 Kings xxi. 20); whereas the apostle

was "sold under sin;" brought into captivity by that "carnal mind," of which he says in the next chapter (ver. 7), it is "not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be." (See the 9th and 15th Articles of the Church of England.)

Again, he complains that, in his flesh, he finds "no good thing :"-that though he had a will to do good, he had not of himself strength to perform it; so that the good which he would he often did not, while he often did what he could neither allow nor approve but this language is so far from suiting the character of an unconverted man, that he could not use it with propriety; for though such an one may often sin against his judgment and his conscience, yet his heart goes with his sin. When St. Paul says, "If I do that I would not, it is no more 1 that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me;" we are aware the language has been often adopted by bad men as an apology for sin; but for what sin did Paul thus apologise? His language is that of penitence and regret: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" or this dead body of sin, which, like a corpse chained to him, dragged down his new and spiritual nature towards the earth and sin.

It is also a mistake to attribute moral perfection, or even infallibility of conduct, to any inspired person, even the chief of the apostles; for not only does Paul thus bewail himself, but James says, "In many things WE ALL offend" (James iii. 2): and even the amiable and beloved John, "If WE say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."1 John i. 8.

NOTES.

CHAP. VIII: Ver. 1. No condemnation.-The Greek is emphatic, "Not one condemnation."Who walk not after—(Gr, kata) "according to;" so throughout the chapter.

Ver. 3. What the law could not do.-Literally, "the impossible of the law." This expression is evidently elliptical, and Boothroyd thus supplies the ellipsis" What the law could not do

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God (hath done) sending, &c.-And for sin Marg. "By a sacrifice for sin." The word sin is, in both 'Testaments, sometimes used in the sense of a sacrifice for sin. See 2 Cor. v. 21.-Condemned sin-i. e. punished it in our surety under a legal sentence, on our account.

Ver. 4. In us. This is the most usual sense, but it often means for us, and both senses may be here

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might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

[spiritual mind contrasted.

11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye

shall live.

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (K)

CHAP. VIII.

EXPOSITION.

(K) Ver. 1-16. The privileges of believers in conversion and adoption.-This chapter is generally considered as closely connected with the preceding; so much so, that Dr. Doddridge considers their separation as one of the most unhappy divisions made of the chapters of the New Testament. "With the mind" (says Paul), that is, with the nobler powers of my spirit, "I myself serve the law of God, though with the flesh the law of sin:" but the main question is, While this contention prevailed within, which way was his life and conversation bent? Did he "walk after the flesh," fulfilling the lusts thereof? or did he not, notwithstanding the struggle

which it cost him, turn his back upon these, and follow the dictates of his new nature, and of the Spirit of God, by which it was inspired? His well known character and conduct must give the answer. "Walking" therefore "after," or according to "the Spirit," he justly inferred that there was no condemnation to him: "For (saith he) the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus," that is, the spiritual life which I enjoy, hath "prevailed and triumphed over the law" or power "of sin and death;" and liberated me from its dominion. "For what the law could not do "What was that? The law could neither justify nor sanctify; but "what the law could not do, in that it was weak

NOTES.

included. The law was fulfilled for us by Christ, and is fulfilled in us by the work of his Holy Spirit. Ver. 6. For-(Doddr. "Now ")-to be carnally minded-Gr. Phronema sarkos-Marg. "the minding of the flesh." See the 9th Article of the Church of England.To be spiritually minded.-Marg. "The minding of the spirit."

Ver. 7. Because the carnal mind.-See the verse preceding. Neither indeed can be." The carnal mind may be subdued, but cannot be converted or eradicated; for, as the article just referred to expresses it," This infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated."

Ver. 8. They that are in the flesh-i. e, that "walk after the flesh;" as in verse 1. Ver. 10. The body is dead-i. e. mortal, or condemned to die.

Ver. 11. By his spirit.-Marg. "Because of his spirit:" but we prefer the text.

Ver. 15. Spirit of bondage-Or" of slaves." See Gal. iv. 3.

Ibid. We cry, Abba, Father.-Abba is Syriac for Father. M. Claude says, "St. Paul alludes to a law among the Jews, which for bad slaves to call a freeman Abba." Robinson's Claude, vol. i. 159

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