CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
& LIVING

SAVED BY HIS LIFE
A Guide to Understanding Romans

Pastor Harold Brokke

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CONTENTS

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PREFACE

There is no lack of scholarly, edifying books on Paul's Epistle to the Romans. The question may well be asked, "Then why write another one?"

My answer is this: After a careful study of this letter to the Romans and after definite prayer and help from other outlines, I discovered an underlying structure which has done two things for me. First, as a teacher of Romans, this book has given me new confidence concerning the divine logic of its message; second, many of my students of Romans have been able to grasp the meaning of the whole more easily.

The purpose of this study, therefore, is not to present a verse-by-verse commentary of Romans, but rather to discover, at least in part, the main structure and incentive undergirding each chapter and verse. My hope is that others, too, may use this structure and exposition of Romans, either in their personal study or in classes.

The reader of this exposition may become aware that some sections are brief in their content, and others are more detailed. The author is conscious that much more could be said in some parts of the book, but these briefer sections serve as signposts, pointing the directions that the mind must take in understanding each new section.

Another fact has become apparent. In the letter, Paul presents God as the governor of the world. The central person of that government is the risen Christ. His work as Redeemer is not only to bring men out from under the government of sin and death but also to bring them under the government of grace and life. This is truly "the gospel of the kingdom."

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Understanding and obeying these great truths will release power to convert sinners and liberate believers. Praise God for the gospel of the risen Lord Jesus!

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CHAPTER 1 THE STRUCTURE OF THE EPISTLE EXPLAINED

The gospel is the gracious intervention of the government of God into the realm of men through the God-Man, Christ Jesus. The gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified is not a product of religious genius; it is not the invention of a chosen people; it is not a contribution originated by the Church; it is not a contribution originated by the Church; it was not conceived by man's mind, nor could it be. The gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified is heaven's implantation, nurtured in God's love and holiness, exhibited by His Church, for the redemption of all who will believe it and partake of its fruits.

This gospel of Jesus Christ is different from all natural religions in two great ways. First, no other religion can claim the truth of the resurrection of its founder. The fountain of Christianity arises solely from this man who arose from the dead, even Jesus. Second, the way of salvation is not based on works-righteousness but is built on faith in the divine Saviour and Lord.

My purpose in writing this book on Paul's epistle to the Romans is to set forth the structure of God's method for saving us completely. Charles Wesley expresses the gospel's altogether different thought and way in these words:

Through earth I glory to proclaim
The love of my redeeming Lord,
Which could so strange a method find
To save our lost, apostate kind.

God has given us the gospel through Jesus Christ. It concerns His Son, who has been "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4). The foundation of the structure of this epistle is the resurrection of Christ from the dead. This is the unifying theme of Paul's amazing letter to the Christians at Rome.

There are five definite movements of this theme, five main sections, for "God hath raised Christ from the dead" for five purposes. Christ was:

1. Raised to judge the world (2:16)
2. Raised to justify sinners (4:25)
3. Raised to sanctify believers (6:4)
4. Raised to finish His purposes (9:28)
5. Raised to transform His saints (12:1,2)

The following references from these five sections of the book of Romans plainly trace this wonderful theme of the ministry and power of Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God.

1. Raised to judge the world

In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ (2:16).

2. Raised to justify sinners

But for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification (4:24).

Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (5:1).

3. Raised to sanctify believers

We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection (6:4,5).

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God (7:4).

If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you (8:10,11).

4. Raised to finish His purposes

The Lord will execute his word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short (9:28).

The righteousness which is of faith saith thus, Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down:) or, Who shall descend into the abyss? (that is to bring Christ up from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him: for, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (10:6-13).

5. Raised to transform His saints

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (12:1,2).

To this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living (14:9).

I will not dare to speak of any things save those which Christ wrought through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit; so that from Jerusalem, and round about even unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ (15:18,19).

The gospel is both objective and subjective. In I Corinthians the objective gospel is described for us in these words: "Now I make known unto you … the gospel which I preached unto you … For I delivered unto you … that which also I received; that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he appeared" (I Cor. 15:1-5). But in the book of Romans, the subjective gospel is presented-what Christ's death, burial, and resurrection mean in the heart and life of the believer. In Romans the gospel proves to be the power of God unto salvation in actual experience.

In religious circles the popular use of the word salvation is connected with the first assurance a person has that his sins are forgiven and some day he will go to heaven. But this use does not fulfill the whole meaning in the New Testament, for Hebrews 2:3 exhorts Christians not to neglect this so great salvation. Also we are told that Christ has become the Captain of our salvation to lead many sons unto glory (Heb. 2:10).

We prefer, therefore, to use this word salvation in the way that it is predominantly used in the New Testament. There, salvation carries the meaning of God's way through Christ of delivering man from the guilt and dominion of sin and of bringing him into a condition of righteousness and freedom.

The tenses of salvation are three:

1. A past-tense experience-we have been saved: "By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8).
2. A present dynamic-we are being saved. This daily salvation is brought out in a marginal reading of I Corinthians 1:18: "The word of the cross is to them that [are perishing, marg.] it is the power of God."
3. A future salvation-"to be revealed in the last time." In speaking of the inheritance of the Christians, Peter says that they are guarded "by the power of God … through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (I Pet. 1:5).

It is this larger conception of the word salvation that we wish to use in our study of Romans. The gospel is the power of God unto this kind of salvation - a salvation that meets man in every need he knows and feels to be a part of his sin problem. Praise God, the gospel has a full message for every troubled heart.

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CHAPTER 2 PAUL'S INTRODUCTION TO THE EPISTLE
ROMANS 1:1-17

Romans 1:1-7 could be used as a creed or confession. A whole assembly could say these words together and state the very heart of their faith in Christ.

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God (vs. 1).

Which he promised afore through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures (vs. 2).

Concerning his son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh (vs. 3).

Who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord (vs. 4).

Through whom we received grace and apostleship, unto obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name's sake (vs. 5).

Among whom are ye also, called to be Jesus Christ's (vs. 6).

To all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (vs. 7).

Every important aspect of Christ's life is stated or referred to in this introduction:

1. The Saviour promised (vs. 2)
2. Christ's incarnation (vs. 3)
3. Christ's death, resurrection, eternal deity, and power (vs. 4)
4. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit, granting the church grace and apostleship (vs. 5)
5. The essence of the great commission to preach this gospel worldwide (vs. 5)

Verse 7 shows how far this gospel had spread by the time Paul wrote the letter. The next verses (1:8-16) teach the spiritual issues in spreading the gospel and also God's mode of operation in spreading it.

Paul's spiritual service (vss. 8-10). Paul calls on God to be his witness concerning the nature of his service. Here Paul indicates that the source of his service is in his personal spirit. A man's human spirit is the holy of holies in his personality, the fountainhead of spiritual service. It is the dwelling place of God's spirit. As a Jew and a Pharisee, Paul thought he served God even before his conversion but it had been only in "the letter which killeth." Now he served God "in the spirit."

Paul testified to the Galatians that god revealed His Son in him as a spiritual reality so that he might preach Christ among the Gentiles (Gal. 1:16). His spiritual service, Paul says in Romans 1:10, was carried on by ceaseless prayer and continual stretching out after the whole will of God.

Paul's spiritual methods (vss. 11-13). Paul longed to visit the Christians in Rome personally. These verses indicate that no vehicle of the gospel-whether letter, book, radio, television, or anything else-can be substituted for the personal presence of the servant of God. Even though Paul wrote them this wonderful letter that they could read and study, Paul felt a spiritual desire to see the Romans personally "that he might impart unto them some spiritual gift"-likely the gift or the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of Paul's trip to Rome was to come to them in person that he might have fruit among them. Men are God's mode of operation in spreading the gospel. This does not mean that God's servants do not use pen and ink, but rather that the imparting of spiritual power and gifts will never be complete apart from man-to-man contact.

Paul's spiritual attitude (vss. 14-16). Paul's dynamic attitude toward the spreading of the gospel is described in three phrases:

1. I am a debtor (vs. 14)
2. I am ready (vs. 15)
3. I am not ashamed (vs. 16)

With this attitude, Paul reached out to fulfill the great commission in every way. As a result, God could say the same of Paul as Jesus had said of t he woman who anointed Him: [He] hath done what [he] could."

Verses 16 and 17 introduce the main content of the book of Romans. These verses contain the important aspects of salvation: faith, life, and justification.

I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and Also to the Greek. For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith (1:16,17).

Dr. Norman Harrison, in his book on Romans, presents a concise analysis of these two verses, finding in the gospel seven main features:

1. The power of the gospel-God
2. The purpose of the gospel-salvation
3. The availability of the gospel-to everyone who believes
4. The universality of the gospel-to the Jew first and also to the Greek
5. The character of the gospel-wherein is revealed
6. The content of the gospel-the righteousness of God
7. The operation of the gospel-from faith to faith

Note especially that the content of the gospel is the righteousness of God. Righteousness is the sister truth to the great unifying theme of Romans, which is: "God hath raised him from the dead." In Romans 10:9, 10, the theme of the epistle is seen to be related to the righteousness of God:

If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and Shalt Believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.

It is the gospel that reveals the righteousness of God-implying that the righteousness of God described by the law does not produce true righteousness. Paul substantiates this claim by a verse from the prophet Habakkuk: "The righteous shall live by his faith" (Hab. 2:4). "The righteous shall live by his faith" (Hab. 2:4). This verse bears a statement of testimony by both Habakkuk and Paul. It is quoted three times in the New Testament (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38).

Vain are the hopes the sons of men
On their own works have built;
Their hearts by nature are unclean,
And all their actions guilt.

Let Jew and Gentile stop their mouths
Without a murmuring word,
And the whole race of Adam stand
Guilty before the Lord.

In vain we ask God's righteous law
To justify us now;
Since to convince and to condemn
Is all the law can do.

Jesus, how glorious is Thy grace
When in Thy name we trust!
Our faith receives righteousness
That makes the sinner just.
--Isaac Watts

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CHAPTER 3 THE CONDITION OF THE CONDEMNED

After presenting his introductory remarks to the five main parts of the gospel (1:1-17), Paul next gives a declaration of God's first purpose in raising Jesus from the dead-to judge the world which was under the wrath of God (1:18-3:20). This passage is a complete picture of the condition of the condemned. Paul's purpose is to plow up the ground of the depraved human heart. He has put his hand to the plow of inspiration and fixed his eye on the definite object. It is very necessary for us to know what Paul's object is.

This object is stated in Romans 3:9, which explains why Paul speaks as he does. He wants to prove that both the Jew and the Gentile are depraved. First he asks a question: "Are we [Jews] better than they [Gentiles]?" Then he proceeds to answer his own question:

No, in no wise: for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they re all under sin (3:9).

Paul's object in this section is to show that all men are under the rule of sin; all are serfs and slaves of sin and depravity.

Section I, then, pictures the supreme court of the universe. It could be thought of as God's authority-both governmental and judicial-over a rebellious humanity. Already God's kingdom is fully realized in heaven, but our oft-repeated prayer is: "Thy kingdom come … in earth, as it is in heaven." This is a courageous and brave prayer, and it will be answered. Some day the power of Christ will eliminate every hindrance in God's government-moral, spiritual, and physical. Ultimately and visibly God will rule over angels and men.

Chapters 1 through 3 of Romans describe the elements of God's government.

1. There is a divine Governor and Ruler who is the present judge of a sinful and disobedient people.

Christ is the divine Governor of the universe. Isaiah prophesied that the government would be upon His shoulder (Isa. 9:6,7). As divine Ruler, He has infinite attributes; in fact some of His attributes are stated as being His essential nature. For instance, we read in John's first epistle: "God is light" (I John 1:5) and God is love" (4:8,16); that is, God's divine will is holiness (light) and love. The epistle to the Romans states:

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (1:18).

We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against them that practise such things (2:2).

In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ (2:16).

All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God (3:23).

The desire of created beings to transgress God's divine will has always brought trouble. Before man ever came on the scene, the angels who "kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day" (Jude 6). Here Judge reveals God as a God of order and judgment as well as a God of love. Likewise, God gave Adam and Eve their proper habitation and told them their privileges and obligations. But they too left their proper state and came under the judgment of sin and death.

2. God's kingdom has order. He governs by laws.

The work of the law written in their hearts, Their conscience [inner law] bearing witness (2:15).

Having in the law [the outer law] the form of knowledge and of the truth (2:20).

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God (3:19).

All government has laws and commands. Laws are meant not merely for man's prohibition but also for his safety and well-being. God gave commandment to Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This command helped the first pair to be truly moral beings. It was meant to insure them full access to t he garden of paradise and the tree of life. A holy God can do no less.

I remember in my college there were some fellow students who hardly knew rules existed because they were in such accord with them. On the other hand, others complained about the rules of the school. Only when we are irritated or led into some disposition contrary to rules do they become troublesome.

3. God has made a penalty for broken law.

After thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to man according to his works (2:5, 6).

Penalty must be not only stated but also enforced. The above-stated punishments-physical, spiritual, and eternal death-are God's method of enforcement. In the first place, God in His justice declares and passes the sentence of physical death. The actuality of death is evident to all men. Moreover, as long as men are yet physically alive, the Holy Spirit presses home to each sinner's conscience that while he remains in his sins, he is in the dangerous condition of spiritual death. He is dead while he lives, or, as the Apostle Paul says of the unregenerate person, "dead through your trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1).

The day will come when Christ will announce the final penalty-the horrors of the second death-that is eternal separation from God. John the apostle announces the is fact in Revelation 21:8: "The fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death."

We have an up-to-date testimony of God's enforcement of the law of physical death every time a funeral service is conducted. Even though the music may be sweet and the surroundings beautiful, the fact of physical death as the divine penalty for sin cannot help but sober the minds of those gathered for the service.

Spiritual death is also a reality. Though he be an agnostic, a skeptic, or an atheist, every man knows that such things as death, turbulence, sickness, disorder, insanity are ominous and often inescapable. Though a man is dead in his trespasses and sins, he still realizes that the message of the gospel touches issues he cannot thoroughly eliminate from his mind. These issues are stubborn symptoms of a moral and spiritual disorder.

God is giving a time of reprieve (postponed penalty) for the guilty (the unpardoned).

Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (2:4).

The present condition of the sinner in its legal aspect is like the condition of Starkweather, the notorious murderer. Until the final execution in 1958, Starkweather lived on in his cell only on the basis of several reprieves-that is, on the basis of delays of punishment of actual execution. Death was inevitable, however. Not any judge on earth nor any human justification could release him.

It is the very same with fallen man. God in mercy is giving the guilty a time of delayed sentence. In a recent article, "The Missing Note in Present-day Preaching," L. R. Shelton says: "Fallen man is not on trial, not on probation, but under a reprieve. He is already tried, already condemned, and already sentenced to death by the supreme Judge of the universe, in the condemned cell behind the prison bars of sin. He is already held captive by Satan, a prisoner of hell, and with no possibility of appeal nor grounds for appeal. Because he is already found guilty, the sentence has already been passed. Therefore unless mercy intervenes, the only thing to look forward to is death and judgment."

God, therefore, has put all mankind under a state of reprieve, a postponed penalty. In the forbearance and love of God, the execution of the death penalty is delayed and not immediately enforced. John's Gospel states: "He that believth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18, A.V.). The condemnation has already been passed; the execution is pending.

When a condemned man is headed for his execution and his days are numbered, death is all around him and life continues only in the hope of mercy. The world's pleasures become a matter of indifference. Because he is a condemned man, his mind turns from the optional to the critical, to matter of life and death. Every rumor or suggestion that mercy might be found becomes more important to him than anything else this world could offer him.

When the sinner realizes that God's law has been violated, that the divine government has declared him guilty, and that he is in the condition of reprieve, then such a one must understand that he is cast on the mercy of God alone.

If such a man tries to meet God on the basis of his own merits and works (on the basis of the law), he must finally find that his mouth has been stopped and he stands before God in abject moral and spiritual guilt.

By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight (3:20).

What then is an awakened sinner's attitude towards the offer of pardon in Christ Jesus? All flippancy is gone. All coldness and indifference appears brazen and disgusting. Such a man does not bargain with God or "just put in a vote for Jesus."

How does a sinner who recognizes he is guilty receive his pardon? The rest of the epistle to the Romans explains the issues clearly. It will be sufficient to say here that the conditions of pardon are twofold. First, a sinner must turn absolutely and unconditionally from all sin. His intention to turn from his own way or self-gratification must be complete. He must decide that he will never offend his holy Creator intentionally from this moment on.

Second, if this is his intention, he must also be ready to come under the supervision of Jesus Christ, the One who obtained his pardon by His death. For the rest of his life, the pardoned one will no longer be in a condition of reprieve (delayed sentence) but of probation (released with pardon). Too fulfill his probationary period, he must continue in the same attitude and the same spirit he had when he obtained the pardon. Christ is to be in charge of the days of his probation.

The Holy Spirit draws very sharp distinctions. In Romans 8, the chapter where the highest blessing of grace is revealed, Paul gives this warning to those in Christ:

Brethren … if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (8:12-14).

The Gospels present the fact that Jesus is to be not only the Saviour of the sinner but also his Lord. Men cannot be saved without submitting to the One who obtained their pardon. But when two things are settled-repentance from sin and submission to Christ-the receiving of the pardon is a very spontaneous act of faith. The convicted sinner does not need to try to believe; in the soil of repentance his faith grows naturally. To all those who thus understand that they have been kept alive only on the basis of a reprieve, the gospel message is truly good news-the news that Jesus offers full and free pardon.

Man's reprieve, therefore, is a period of time given him by God to find out that justification before God is not by law, but Christ is the propitiation for his sins. The w hole purpose of God's reprieve to a sinner is to give him an opportunity to discover God's love and mercy as God's way of justification and peace.

What then can the law do and what can it not do? The law can condemn sins-it cannot forgive them. The law can require freedom-it cannot grant freedom. The law can demand spiritually-it cannot produce it. The fact that Jesus can forgive and give freedom and produce spirituality in men who feel their need indicates the great importance of presenting the law of God in its full force. The law makes men know that condemnation awaits them, that sinful bondages bind them, and that they have no spiritual life. All this makes necessary the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ.

To a man who has broken the Ten Commandments, the law has no grace nor forgiveness to offer; but it is "the ministration of death." The more a man faces the law as a transgressor, the more necessary it is that someone or some power apart from or outside of the law brings that deliverance for which the heart cries. John the Apostle heralds out the message: "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

The crowning function of the law is to make men turn to the Lord Jesus. The law is become "our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Gal. 3:24). The honorable function of the law is to make men heartily feel and consciously acknowledge their need of Christ. When the law does such a blessed work as this, how can we so foolishly neglect it?

For mercy's sake God gives probation to all pardoned ones who believe in His blood.

God set forth [Jesus Christ] to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance [reprieve] of God (3:25).

After a sinner receives pardon for his sins and welcomes Christ as his Saviour, his relationship to God is founded on an entirely new basis. He has passed from the condition of reprieve to the condition of probation-from the certainty of death to the fresh possibilities of life and glory in Christ, his new Lord and Saviour.

The desperateness of man's sinful revolt against God's government must dawn not on the sinner and the world only but also on the believer in the church. If believers are to be soul-winners, they must see and feel the need of the sinner. They must see that each man who rejects Christ and refuses to turn away from his own way is like a man sitting in his cell awaiting the execution of the sentence. There is no probation in that, for he is condemned already "because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God."

These then are the six strong elements by which God judges the world in order to bring them to seek His love and mercy. God, the divine Governor and Ruler, is the present judge of a sinful and disobedient people. He governs by laws, for which there is a penalty when broken. This penalty is enforced. To the unpardoned sinner, God gives a period of delayed sentence. To the pardoned who believe in Christ's blood, He gives probation for His mercy's sake.

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CHAPTER 4 THE GENTILE CONDEMNED
ROMANS 1:18-32

Romans 1:18-32 states the condition of the Gentile world. Throughout these few verses the pronouns used to refer to the Gentiles are they and them. Verse 19 says, "is manifest in them … unto them," and verse 20, "that they may be without excuse." But who are they and them? How far back into history does Paul trace the condition of the Gentiles?

Adam and Eve and the pre-flood world did not do everything described in these verses; therefore these verses do not trace the guilt of the Gentile world as far back as the Garden of Eden. They point to a time following the flood. They deal with Noah's posterity. The history given in the details of these verses can be traced back to the great rebellion at the tower of Babel, very likely to the day of Nimrod, "the mighty hunter before Jehovah" (Gen. 10:8,9).

According to one translation, Nimrod was "a mighty rebel against the Lord." Verses 18-32 describe a time before the advent of the law on Sinai but nonetheless a time of moral responsibility.

A very instructive quotation concerning the tower of Babel from the book The Origin of Heathendom will clarify the time element of Romans 1:18-32.

In Genesis 11 everything seemed to favor the idea that it was the time for the fruition of the Satanic purpose. But as we learn from later Scriptures, the 'times and seasons' are subject to the overruling of the Most High; and on this occasion the Most High intervened: `The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city' (Gen. 11:5-8). To understand this passage, we must read it in connection with the parallel passage, Romans 1:18-28.

Most commentators, when dealing with these verses, explain them as referring to what they rather hazily describe as the heathen world. Nothing, in my judgment, could be farther from the truth.

Where did the heathen world come from?

The two passages quoted above describe not the heathen world, but the origin of the heathen world. Further, I submit that these two passages, when read in their proper connection (i.e. the Romans passage being understood as descriptive of the moral condition of the people under consideration in Genesis 11:1-9), give us an explanation of the origin of heathendom which is acceptable to the human understanding; a rational explanation as opposed to the popular orthodox explanation, which is, in fact, as silly as it is unsatisfactory.

The popular explanation is something like this: man has a religious instinct, a tendency to worship. But man is a primitive state is ignorant, and hence incapable of rightly directing his religious tendencies. In his ignorance he bows down to whatever appeals vividly and forcefully to his imagination and understanding-natural phenomena such as rain, wind, thunder, the heavenly bodies, and so on. But when these ignorant ones come under the enlightening influence of civilization, when their eyes are opened and they are more or less educated, they gradually perceive that their former ideas are absurd, and eventually they take the same attitude towards religion as their instructors.

If that view be correct, idolatry is certainly not blameworthy. It is a condition that is natural-one might even say necessary-to a being constituted as man is constituted, in a condition of ignorance and inexperience.

But a Christian man, especially if he is a man who knows something about Scripture and is accustomed to think for himself, will ask, 'Why, if that is the proper explanation, is idolatry so emphatically and unsparingly denounced in the Scriptures-denounced not as a mistake but as the very essence of iniquity? Why are such terrible penalties attached to it?'

If anything is to be explained aright, all the facts are essential. The weak point in the popular explanation of idolatry is that instead of dealing with facts, it deals with one fact only, and that one fact it does not explain. The expounder of the poplar theory, in proof of the correctness of his position, will point out how some savage tribe or nation has responded to outside influences and become more or less civilized and relinquished its old-time ways and superstitions. Now the tribe is a fact. But it is an unexplained fact. How did that particular company of people come to be established where they were? How did they get into their original condition of ignorance and degradation?

If the expounder is of a scientific turn of mind, he will probably suggest evolution as the explanation. If he is a religionist, he will assume that God made them like that and put them there. The religionist will then promptly turn his own quite gratuitous assumption into one of the pet problems of theology-the problem of the origin of heathendom. How can the existence of large numbers of men and women in varying conditions of savagery and debasement be reconciled with the omnipotence, the omniscience, and the love of God? How could a God whose nature (if the Scriptures are to be followed) is essentially love, deliberately bring such creatures into existence and then leave them indefinitely? How could He do it? Just so. How could He? But did He?

Most of my readers are aware that on one occasion certain Sadducees came to the Lord and asked Him a question connected with resurrection. He said, referring to their question, `Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures.' Whenever I hear Christian people discussing the origin of heathendom from the above standpoint, I always feel inclined to quote and say, `Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures.'

Problem! There is no problem about it. The explanation is as plain and complete as could be desired. It is contained in those verses in Genesis 11 and Romans 1, quoted above.

In Genesis 11 we have the human race as it then existed, gathered in the land of Shinar; and we learn from Romans 1:18-29 that although they knew God, they deliberately gave Him up in three definite connections. As a result of their threefold repudiation of God (vss. 21-23, 25, and 26-28) and of God's threefold rejection of them (vss. 24, 26 and 28), they came to be in the awful state of corruption set forth in Romans 1:18-32, and also occupied materially in the manner set forth in Genesis 11:1-9. Thereupon God scattered them abroad as stated in Genesis 10:25 and 11:7,8. The heathen world, then, according to the Scriptures, owes its origin to the apostasy of the race and their dispersion resulting from this.

We cannot read Genesis 11:1-9 and Romans 1:18-29 without being struck by the fact that the moral condition of these people, awful as it was, is ignored in the Genesis passage. Of course, as we see from Romans 1, it was not really ignored. It was dealt with in the most drastic fashion, dealt with on principles set forth in a later Scripture: `They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices' (Prov. 1:30-31).

In other words, God allowed what we call natural law to take its course. Hence we read: 'Wherefore God also gave them up … to dishonour their own bodies … receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet … being filled with all unrighteousness' (Rom. 1:24, 27, 29). (The Origin of Heathendom, by Ben Adam, Copyright 1963, published by Bethany Fellowship, Inc., Mpls., MN. Pages 41-47).

At the tower of Babel before the law was given at Sinai, what made man morally responsible? There were three things: conscience, nature, and knowledge. First, man had a conscience. He had instinctive knowledge of God within him. Verse 19 states:

The invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.

Thirdly, man had knowledge of God and His will. This knowledge was directly available and sufficient to Noah and his descendants, for Paul says,

Knowing God, they glorified him not as God (vs. 21).

They refused to have God in their knowledge (vs. 28).

Knowing the ordinance of God (vs. 32).

Men sinned against conscience, against nature, and against knowledge. By sinning against all three, they sinned against God.

These verses also indicate that man's sinfulness touches three areas of his personality: spirit, mind, and body. (These three overlap.) Every part of man's being was contaminated by sin's influence.

1. Man's spiritual fall (vss. 19-21)
2. Man's mental and moral fall (vss. 22-25)
3. Man's bodily fall (vss. 26-28)
4. Man's total fall (vss. 29-32)

Two facts are clear: first, man entered into his condition of sin by his own choice; secondly, man consequently began to experience conditions that he did not choose. Unexpected depravities followed his rebellious choices. Man is therefore a moral criminal, suffering also a moral calamity. Man made choices that he should not have made and became involved in conditions he could not control. These verses stand in bold denial of an evolution of manhood. They bear testimony to the devolution of mankind. They grace the descent of man from godly nobility to godless iniquity.

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CHAPTER 5 THE JEW CONDEMNED
ROMANS 2:1-38

When Paul has finished his description of the conditions of the Gentile world, he realizes that many moralists and pharisaical religious zealots will agree with the divine X ray of Gentile sinfulness.

At this juncture, the Holy Spirit moves Paul to direct the divine X ray at the heart of the man who claims a better morality than the heathen. Paul proclaims a daring sentence:

Thou art without excuse, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou Judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; For thou that judges dost practise the same things (2:11).

As the chapter progresses, this charge is made more specific. The Jew is named, the Jew who feels that his heritage and enlightenment are far above the gross darkness of the Gentile world.

Paul uses a twofold approach to prove Jewish guilt: first, God's principles of judgment (2:1-16); secondly, the reality of Jewish guilt (2:17-3:8).

God's principles of judgment must be clear. We see first that God's judgment is according to truth, that is, according to man's real condition (2:1-3). Next His judgment is according to a man's works (2:4-6). Third, His judgment has no respect of persons (2:7-11). And the final principle is that His judgment is according to the gospel of Jesus Christ (2:12-16). These four principles must be clear in order that every man who wrongly claims justification from sin by culture, by relationship to race or creed, or by law, may be seen in his true condition of guilt. All man's own methods of justification are useless because they all retain selfish independence, and this is the main problem of depravity.

In the light of these four principles of divine judgment, the Holy Spirit now points out the reality of Jewish guilt. He who bears the name of Jew has certain privileges and can make certain claims (vss. 19 and 29). But in the light of these privileges and claims, Paul puts the Jew and every religious professor under a spiritual third degree, so to speak, concerning his own practical righteousness. The Holy Spirit seeks only genuine righteousness in man.

Teachest thou not thyself? (vs. 21).

Dost thou steal? (vs. 21).

Doest thou commit adultery? (vs. 22).

Dost thou rob temples? (vs. 22).

Finally Paul says:

Thou who gloriest in the law, through thy transgression of the law Dishonorest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed Among the Gentiles because of you, even as it is written (vss. 23,24).

Paul's next argument (2:25-29) is simple. The last citadel of Jewish pride in Paul's day was circumcision. But circumcision, which is a fleshly sign, does not fulfill the divine requirement of the law. He is truly a Jew who is a Jew inwardly in his heart before he is a Jew outwardly in his flesh.

Next Paul answers the question,

What advantage then hath the Jew? or What is the profit circumcision? (3:1).

Israel was separated first and foremost to bring to the world God's written revelation, "the oracles of God." Yet Israel's lack of faith robbed them of the sense of this glorious privilege so that they were like a great house wired with electrical current but with the fuse missing and the switch unpulled. Lack of faith caused the darkness, but the faithfulness of God remained unchanged.

Romans 3:4-8 is man's last stand for self-justification-an attempt of a guilty sinner to cast a shadow on God's character. He questions God's faithfulness (3:3), His righteousness (3:5), His truth (3:7), and His justice (3:8). Why? Because he reasons that God gets a measure of advantage out of his sin. But can a criminal claim a right to leniency before his judge because a crime gives continued employment to policemen, lawyers and judges? When a sentence is passed on the guilty, can the law-enforcement officers be blamed for injustice? No. "Let God be true and every man a liar."

The conclusion of the whole matter concerning mankind's guilt is given in 3:9: "What then, Are we [Jews] better than they [Gentiles]? No, in no wise: for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin."

Man's sin is against God. For Him to override His own justice and release man from the penalty of sin would be to nullify His law and His government. As judge of the whole world, God must judge all sin.

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CHAPTER 6 ALL THE WORLD CONDEMNED
ROMANS 3:9-20

The Holy Spirit makes tow staggering claims in Romans 3:9-20. First, all people are guilty before God. Secondly, man has no righteousness apart from God. No other Scriptures present these two facts so conclusively.

The Holy Spirit's first claim here is that all men are guilty. This truth is widely accepted. Paul underlines the fact of universal guilt in the language:

They are all under sin.
There is none righteous, no, not one.
There is none that seeketh after God.
They have all turned aside.
They are together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one.
All the world may be brought under the Judgment of God.
No flesh [shall] be justified (vss. 9-20).

The second claim is that without God man has no righteousness. This truth is hard to accept, even when we understand the words Paul writes. To try to apply the claims of verses 10-18 does not seem to fit every unsaved person that we know-the unrighteous as well as those who seem to be righteous. What, then, is the meaning of these verses? They are a picture of a man who lacks not only God's regenerating power but also God's restraining power. This description fits any man whom God has "given up" to his own way. After all, a man's keeping the law does not change the basic fact of his inward capacity for moral failure. All men have sinned. All men are wholly defiled by sin. This sin is essentially moral depravity.

What is moral depravity? First, man is born without an inner relationship with God. Ephesians 2:12 says man is "without God in this world." He is without the Spirit. This means that man has no inward spiritual resources in God. He is cooped up, so to speak, within his own powers of mind, flesh, and will.

Second, man is born of the flesh and "that which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6). This means that a little baby's first inward resources are the sensibilities of the flesh. After that, a child's will and his reason are developed.

Third, at birth a child is influenced first of all by the automatic inclinations and appetites of the flesh rather than by the voluntary choices of his will and reason. This means he is influenced more quickly by fleshly desires than by the voice and consciousness of the Spirit.

Fourth, as a child's will consciously operates, he yields to the insistence of the fleshly desires which have already formed habits in his life. Self-gratification becomes the end for which he lives. This is the beginning of moral depravity. This produces in man the conception of sin and the spirit of disobedience.

The first section of this great epistle (1:18-3:20) declares that God's purpose in raising Jesus from the dead is to judge a world that is under the wrath of God. At the end of this section, which exposes the state of man's sinful conditions, we have Romans 3:20 as a summary verse.

Because by the works of the law shall no Flesh be justified in his sight; for through The law cometh the knowledge of sin.

Embedded in this verse we have a dual truth about the law: (1) what the law can do-probe the heart; (2) what the law cannot do-cure the heart. Here is the balance of truth that we need to understand and appreciate in preaching and experience. It is the gospel which is the cure.

In fundamental churches we have gone through an era in which we have preached the gospel cure but have neglected the law's probing diagnosis. Christians, in general, believe in the cure-the good news of the wonderful, saving power of Christ's life, death, burial, and resurrection for the remission of our sins. But we have acted as if we did not want any diagnosis. Men have been suspicious of any preaching of the Ten Commandments, which diagnose man's sinful condition. Yet the knowledge of sin is by the law (3:20). The experience of salvation of many men has often been pale and uncertain because sin has been more of an abstraction than a conviction.

Imagine a doctor who recommends a cure at random without any kind of diagnosis. Such a doctor would lose his reputation and finally his practice. That is exactly what the Church is faced with when it ceases to preach the law of God as the divine diagnosis of man's state. Only when man is under the searchlight and the X ray of God's divine law and when the Holy Spirit is working in his heart is the divine cure of the gospel greatly attractive to him. Only then does he search for a cure for himself.

On the day of Pentecost this working of the Spirit was experienced by the 3,000. Conviction gripped the people's hearts, and they knew they were sinners. It was not the apostles but these convicted people who gave the altar call, crying out, "What must we do to be saved?" To them peter declared the saving grace that is in Jesus Christ.

We must have both the law and the gospel-the law as a diagnosis and the gospel in contrast to the law as God's method of saving us, it seems as if we speak disparagingly of the law. Paul himself seems to imply this when he says in Romans 7 that in the death of Christ the believer already died to the law. Paul's argument in Romans 7 is that the law has no saving power. But in order to rescue the law from disrepute and defend it, Paul asks the question: "Is the law sin?" and answers that the law is not sin but that it is good (7:7)

This question arises then: In what way is the law defective? Why must we, as Scripture says, die to the law? (Rom. 7:4). The answer is that the law has not failed at all. It has fulfilled its function. But our attitude and relationship to the law is wrong. A man who seeks justification by the law is exercising the very center of his depraved condition-self. He is exercising independence of God. He is still bound by his wretched self-centeredness. Besides trying to run his life himself, he is trying to have righteousness by himself. In the sight of God, it is this self-righteousness, this independent righteousness, which is "filthy rags."

There should be no confusion between the law and the gospel. They are similar in one main issue: both of them insist on the necessity of righteousness in the life of man. However, even though they have similar and ultimate goals, they have two completely different functions. The law is a map pointing to a moral destination-righteousness. But you cannot get to your destination by seeing directions on the map. The law is light, revealing what God demands and what God can provide.

But the law is not the dynamic to bring us to righteousness any more than a map provides the dynamic to arrive at a destination. The law can do nothing but diagnose. The gospel is the power of God to bring us to righteousness.

The law, as we have already seen, has a divinely necessary work to do, but it has limits. As a preview to a more complete discussion, we now present three premises concerning the law's limitations.

1. The law condemns the sinner but cannot cancel his sin. The Ten Commandments are God's method of conviction, for by the law is the knowledge of sin (3:20). But the law has no grace or forgiveness to offer. It is the "ministration of death." The more a man as a transgressor faces the law, the more a man as a transgressor faces the law, the more it necessitates someone or some power outside of the law to bring that forgiveness for which the heart cries. From the condemnation of the law, a man needs release.
2. The law demands a freedom it cannot grant. The law aggravates man's slavery to sin but cannot set him free. This is clearly dramatized in Romans 7. The law could not set the wretched man of Romans 7 free from his slavery but could only sharpen the contrast of the two opposing laws which warred in his members. The man in this condition is like a slave who has been brought under a master who describes to him a better life. When he sees other men who are free, his bondage becomes more cruel than ever. A glimpse of what he could be does not bring deliverance. He must have freedom through someone who can come and redeem him.
3. The law demands a spirituality that it cannot impart. Paul declared, "The law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin." A spiritual law cannot be fulfilled by a man committed to carnality. The law demands a transformation of personality. It demands that a man be emancipated from a fleshly mind and come under the control of the Holy Spirit. But the spiritual demand of the law can give a man nothing but a greater sense of his carnality. The contrast becomes unbearable.
4. All these factors-what the law demands and what the law cannot give-make the fullness of the gospel "good news:" indeed. The Apostle John had the contrast between law and gospel in mind when he said, "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." By the gift and baptism with the Holy Spirit, grace and truth become operative in us.

The law is God's method of diagnosing man's problem, to show man his sin, and to reveal to man his selfishness. The law cannot cure. A doctor may say to the patient, "You have cancer," or "You have a disease." But knowledge of it only increases the patient's dilemma if the disease is incurable. His cry is for a moral and spiritual cure, found only in Jesus Christ.

The gospel is the glorious message introduced in Section II of Romans. This we have entitled "God hath raised Him from the dead to justify sinners."

Jesus, my Advocate above,
My Friend before the throne of love,
If now for me prevails Thy prayer,
If now I find Thee pleading there-

If Thou the secret wish convey
And sweetly prompt my heart to pray,
Hear, and my weak petition join,
Almighty Advocate, to Thine.

Jesus, my heart's desire obtain,
My earnest suit present and gain,
My fullness of corruption show,
The knowledge of myself bestow.

Save me from death; from hell set free;
Death, hell are but the want of Thee.
My Life, my only heaven Thou art;
Oh, let Thy presence fill my heart.
--Charles Wesley

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CHAPTER 7 THE SINNER'S RECONCILIATION

Some of the old Scottish divines used to ask young aspiring preachers to explain Romans 3:23-26. They called these four verses the "marrow of theology."

In the first three chapters of Romans, Paul revealed God's wrath against the unrighteousness and sin of the world and the impossibility of justification by the law. The law could demand but could not produce righteousness in the heart. The next chapters show how man is freed. God raised up Jesus Christ to justify sinners by His blood and righteousness.

Apart from [outside] the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested … even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ (3:21,22).

Justification is made available by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and His shed blood.

Three great facts about justification are explained in Section II:

1. Justification by blood (3:21-26)
2. Justification by faith (3:27-4:25)
3. Justification by grace (5:1-21)

It is important to notice that God's approach to man is a governmental approach. The government of man cannot adequately reveal every facet of the kingdom and government of God, yet the following analogy will at least help to understand God's actions toward sinfulness.

For the purpose of order and peace in society, all good government action is twofold-that is, its executive powers go in two main directions. One form of action of all good government is benevolent and defensive. It gives aid where aid is needed. It extends honor, mercy, protection, and improvement for the people under it. It works for the public as a friend! Many people who live and die under such a rule have no sense of governmental opposition.

The other form of action of good government is judicial and offensive. It authorizes police officers and penitentiaries to arrest, imprison, and punish lawbreakers. Because it demands public order within the realm of its governing power, it penalizes broken laws. It can also conscript an army and declare war on a foe that may threaten the security of the nation. Good government, therefore, has power to display wrath as well as benevolence.

Every phase of the government of God originates in His holy love. His government also has two actions toward man: the one is benevolent, the other judicial; the one is defensive, the other offensive. The only difference is this: all men have broken God's laws; all men are under the judgment of God; all men are under the law. God's verdict against all men is this:

That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God (3:19).

These two actions of God's government-the benevolent and the judicial-have never been outmoded. Today all men must decide whether they will live under God's benevolent action (grace) or under His judicial action (law). (See Romans 6:14). All men must decide what condition will exist in their hearts.

As we have noticed, it is important for us to see that God's approach to man is a governmental approach. He has policies and laws concerning His dealings with mankind. His laws never meant to take the place of the gospel; neither was the gospel meant to eradicate or annihilate the law. The law is not a substitute for grace but a discipline preparing us for grace. As Paul indicates in Galatians 3:24, "The law is become our tutor to bring us unto Christ."

Law and grace each has its particular function. Each exists apart from the other. The law is God's present method of conviction to aid in the exposure of man's sin and rebellion. In it God is revealed as a God of judgment and order. On the other hand, the gospel is God's eternal and present method of acceptance and regeneration. In it God is revealed as the God of mercy.

Both law and grace aim at one result-the righteousness of God. The law presents the demand for righteousness, and the gospel presents the dynamic for righteousness. In this emphasis on righteousness they agree.

God's problem as a benevolent ruler was to deliver sinners from just condemnation for sin but at the same time to remain righteous. The righteousness of God is a central element in the New Testament. The epistle to the Romans is full of truth relative to His righteous government. Righteousness is to God's kingdom and government what good citizenship is to human society.

Because of man's commitment to self-gratification, he is not inclined to keep the law that condemns him. God, therefore, set forth His action of mercy and remission in His Son, Jesus Christ. In Him men discover that God's just government is a government not only of judgment but also of mercy and grace.

At this particular point in Romans, therefore, Paul is presenting the merciful and divine act of God's government. Paul is showing God's loving provision for sinful man's justification "apart from [outside] the law." God's purpose in raising up Jesus Christ from the dead was to justify sinners by Christ's blood and righteousness:

Justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus (3:24).

All men are either under law or under grace. Any person who defends his own attempts at justification is operating on the basis of works and is approaching God through the dispensation of law. He is meeting God in His holiness and justice. But any person who admits his sin, turns from the law of works, casts himself on the mercy of God, and depends solely on the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus is operating on the basis of the law of faith and is approaching God through grace. He meets the same God but discovers God's heart of mercy and love.

The foundation of God's throne is justice, righteousness, and holiness. These attributes are at the core of all God does, whether it be the giving of the law for the knowledge of our sins, or the giving of His Son as a propitiation for our sins. The only way to know the One who sits upon the throne and to understand his loving heart is to approach God in repentance and faith through Jesus' blood and righteousness.

Jesus, my Advocate above,
My Friend before the throne of love,
If now for me prevails Thy prayer,
If now I find thee pleading there-

If Thou the secret wish convey
And sweetly prompt my heart to pray,
Hear, and my weak petition join,
Almighty Advocate, to Thine

Jesus, my heart's desire obtain,
My earnest suit present and gain,
My fullness of corruption show,
The knowledge of myself bestow.

Save me from death; from hell set free;
Death, hell are but the want of Thee.
My Life, my only heaven Thou art;
Oh, let Thy presence fill my heart.
--Charles Wesley

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CHAPTER 8 CHRIST'S BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
ROMANS 3:21-26

Here Paul speaks of the solution of the greatest problem that can ever confront God or man-the problem of man's sin versus God's holiness. It is the blood of Jesus Christ which settles this great problem which came as a result of man's fall. It is His death that is God's means for man to obtain the righteousness of God.

Much is included in the phrase "the righteousness of God." In 3:21-26 the righteousness of God stands in complete contrast to that which Paul calls "a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law" (Phil. 3:9). God's means of obtaining this righteousness in the heart of man is the blood of Jesus Christ.

Paul clearly declares justification by Christ's blood:

God set forth [Christ] to be propitiation [the blood-sprinkled mercy seat] for sin, through faith, in his blood (3:25).

Being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him (5:9).

The four great effects of the blood of Jesus Christ.

1. Jesus, through His shed blood, is the propitiation for our sins. He provides a mercy seat for the sinner (vs. 25). This is the Godward aspect of the cross.
2. The blood of Jesus cleared man's guilt from a holy God, justifying repentant sinners (vs. 26). This is the manward aspect of the cross.
3. The blood of Jesus that was to be shed made possible the forbearance of God for sins committed before redemption was accomplished (vs. 25). This is the cross pointing backward before Christ died.
4. The blood of Jesus obtains remission for those who have come to Him after He died. This is the cross pointing forward to meet all repentant sinners since He died.

The blood of Jesus points Godward and manward. It obtained remission before the death of Jesus, and it is the source of grace and justification to those of us who have lived after His death. We will now treat these four great effects of the blood of Jesus in detail.

The Blood of Jesus Godward

God is absolutely holy in His rule. The divine abhorrence for sin cannot be settled by simply saying "God is love." Love does "find a way." But that does not eliminate the fact that the terror of the Lord against sin is revealed to us:

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (1:18).

Concerning the impenitent we read:

After thy hardness and impenitent heart Treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his works … Unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek (2:5,6,8,9).

God's wrath is not a mere emotional response to man's sin. Propitiation is shown to be a person in the New Testament-and that person is Christ. He is our mercy seat, the place where all sin can be covered and forgiven. Propitiation is not man's act or attempt to appease an angry God. This is a heathen conception. The heathen believes he can appease God's wrath with gift or sacrifice. However, the Bible teaches that propitiation is God's act in order to provide a mercy seat for sinful man. This act is rooted in God's love. It is not meant to be an emergency release valve to alleviate the pressure of God's wrath. The Apostle John describes it as god's act and as a provision of love: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (I John 4:10).

God set forth Jesus to be a propitiation, Through faith, in his blood (3:25).

Stephen availed himself of this office of Jesus as the propitiation before the throne. While he was being martyred, his appeal was this: "Lord Jesus, lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts 7:60). Stephen knew well that the only way God could manifest His mercy for the crime of killing a saint was by an appeal to the son of man himself. It was the prayer of Stephen that made it possible for Jesus to meet Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus with the encounter of mercy.

The Blood of Jesus Manward

The blood of Jesus not only acts as a mercy seat for man, but it justifies man. For those who repent of their sins and come for the mercy provided for in Jesus Christ, there is a manward effect of the blood. God will not lay sin to the account of the repentant man but rather He will lay to his account the righteousness of Christ. By the blood of Jesus, God changes the standing of the penitent from that of guilty to that of "accepted in the beloved" (Eph. 1:6). Thus the condemnation of sin has been completely removed. God can now deal in divine favor and love with a repentant person.

The Blood of Jesus Typified Before He Came to Die

The cross points backward and forward-the period before Calvary and the period after Calvary.

First of all, the blood of Jesus obtained remission for Old Testament believers in God. It was always god's plan to send Hi Son to die for man's sin and thereby extend forbearance (reprieve) and remission for sins committed before redemption was accomplished at Calvary.

In the Old Testament God's open testimony to this fact of remission was revealed in the tabernacle in the wilderness. By means of its brazen altar where the blood of bulls, goats, and lambs were constantly slain, God indicated that He would manifestly deal with sin by means of the future sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. This sacrifice of Jesus would make possible God's passing over the sins done aforetime"-the exercising of forbearance to the Old Testament would, not only toward the Jews but toward the Gentiles.

If God had not fulfilled His promises in the sacrifice of His Son, Satan could have claimed the death penalty for all who believed in God before Calvary, for God could not justly have kept them alive. But Satan was kept from advantage over the Old Testament believers because god had sworn by himself that there would be an adequate sacrifice for the sins of men. Thus God kept back wrath from the Old Testament world and kept it in a state of reprieve.

The Old Testament relationship to Calvary's cross would be somewhat the same as that of a man condemned for a crime and yet released on bail. Because the courtroom scene has not yet been enacted, he lives in comparative freedom, even though he is worthy of death. Why? Because the sentence has not yet been decided. Calvary was God's great courtroom scene. There in the death of Christ on a cross, God made it possible to clear away all the past issues of guilt and condemnation from the Old Testament believers and thus to magnify before men, angels, and demons the purpose of His wonderful forbearance and longsuffering.

The Blood of Jesus Christ for the Present Age

The cross also pointed to the future-to those who would yet believe on Christ after Calvary. The blood of Jesus is a propitiation before the throne of God and it obtained justification for all men, both before and after Calvary. It brought remission to the believers of the Old Testament, and also to those who now come to Jesus Christ. This is the meaning of Romans 3:26:

For the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus

This is the glad message of the church. By the blood-shedding of Jesus Christ on the cross, every problem of fallen man has been potentially and graciously settled. Nothing can be added to this great sacrifice. It stands complete and perfect for all time. No wonder Charles Wesley wished to declare this message to all mankind:

Oh, for a trumpet voice
On all the world to call,
To bid their hearts rejoice
In Him who died for all;
For all, for all the Saviour died!
For all my Lord was crucified!

CONTENTS PAGE

CHAPTER 9 THE LAW OF FAITH
ROMANS 3:27 - 5:9

Paul continues to unfold the revelation of Christ "raised again for our justification." He shows that the channel through which we receive God's righteousness and justification is faith in Jesus.

Paul presents the primacy of faith in these three subjects:

1. The Principle of Law of Faith (3:27-31)
2. The History of Faith (4:1-16)
3. The Dynamic of Faith (4:17-5:9)

The Principle or Law of Faith (3:27-31)

Since the time of the Reformation, we have spoken freely about justification by faith alone. Yet something has happened to the word faith. Often we lose the original meaning and content of Scriptural words; or even more dangerous than that, we tend to put other meanings into Scriptural words, meanings not found in the Bible. It is as though we put apple juice on the label but vinegar in the bottle. People sometimes become suspicious of labels. Thus we need to re-emphasize the true meaning of faith.

Scripture calls man's basic failure in obtaining the righteousness of God "the law of works." It calls man's basic success in obtaining righteousness "the law of faith." These two laws need to be considered carefully.

In Romans 3:27 Paul gives one of the main secrets of the difference between these two laws:

Where then is the glorying? It is excluded. By what manner of law? Of works? Nay: but by a law of faith (3:27).

The law of works promotes boasting; faith excludes it. The law of works fails to make men righteous; the law of faith succeeds in making them righteous. God insists o n faith rather than law for personal justification. The law of faith cancels pride in order to preserve God's glory. God says, "Not of works, that no man should glory."

When a man works to attain righteousness, he is thrown on his own resources, his own moral energy. Thus when he achieves a relative standard of righteousness which seems to be better than other men's, he glories; he is boastful; he is proud. The law of works makes man boast in his own achievements; the law of faith glories in God alone.

This is exactly the thought that Jesus taught in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee prayed thus with himself: "I thank thee; that I am not as the rest of men, … or even as this publican" (Luke 18:11). The Pharisee was self-righteous. A man is self-centered if he is not God-centered, for all men have some motivation. Men who operate under the law of works have a morality, but it is self-centered. The main element in all depravity is selfishness. By the law of works the very self that Jesus said His disciples should deny is enthroned. Self-enthronement is an abomination in the sight of God. No wonder the prophet Isaiah said, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy garments."

Over this very issue of independence Satan began his deceptive career. His first temptation was to entice the human race to act independently. Eve acted independently of Adam, and Adam acted in dependently of God. They acted from their own souls, from their own selves. Thus depravity came in and contaminated the whole human race.

Self has no innate qualities of true holiness apart from God. Jesus gave one flat command concerning self: "Deny thyself." The most cultured ways of self are the ways of death. But the law of works propagates and preserves the spirit of independence. The law of works operates against God's whole plan in creating and redeeming mankind. Man certainly has the power to choose freely-but only that he might choose the way God has designed for him.

One common expression and attitude abroad in our day concerning the law is this: "No one can keep the law. Nobody is perfect!" Though this expression may be true of each man in his unrepentant state-because he is still committed to self-gratification-it seriously limits God's divine provision in Christ. Humanity has neither a righteousness of its own which could ever please God nor a perfection of its own. Scripture emphasizes the truth that all men are sinners, and God must visit wrath on all unrepentant sinners.

Again we say, from the divine side, that to deny the possibility of righteousness is to frustrate the very meaning of redemption through Christ and His cross. The church sometimes parrots statements about our inabilities to keep the law, and then these statements become a convenient smoke screen. To make practical steps of faith null and void. Isolated verses of Scripture may seem to convey the thought that unrighteousness must continue to remain in believers. But when such verses are studied in the light of their context, we see that God's revealed purpose for man is practical holiness and righteousness "in all manner of living."

For instance, the statement "All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God: is a fact which is true of man in his sinful state. But this statement cannot be applied to a man who has found the "much more" of the grace of Jesus or to the man who knows the power of Christ's blood and Christ's Spirit.

It is so good to k now that verses about man's sinfulness are meant to announce not an unalterable fate for man but rather a universal fact about fallen man. No fate hangs over mankind determining a permanent sinful state within him. Rather, in God's Word there is announcement of man's failure to be what he ought to be before a holy God.

The Bible never teaches that man's failure to attain righteousness is a life-long necessity. It points out, instead, that man's failure is due to a basic problem which when recognized and remedied can establish the law.

What are the characteristics of the law of faith? Faith in Jesus Christ is not self-centered, man-centered, or independent. Faith is God-centered. Faith leans. Faith glorifies God. Faith has everything to do with God's way but nothing to do with man's way. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the beginning of a new righteousness which finds God in Christ Jesus at its very center.

The parables of Jesus teach man's dependence on God. Jesus illustrated this dependence when He said that He was the Vine and we are the branches. A branch has no life except in a vine. Without the vine a branch is dead. Even so, the law of faith grafts us into Jesus Christ; the law of works leaves us without the life of the true Vine.

Jesus also said He was the Good Shepherd and we are the sheep. A sheep has no guidance except through a guide, a shepherd. Without a shepherd, a sheep is lost. Without our Shepherd, we are lost. The law of faith keeps us close to Jesus Christ, our wonderful Shepherd, who laid down His life for us that we might be saved completely. But the law of works robs us of our Shepherd, leaving us in a cold wilderness of man's morality, and ending in death.

Why has God chosen faith as the channel for our justification? Faith is essentially a part of God's order in creation. In one sense faith was not chosen by God. Let me explain.

If God had a choice as to how men should be justified, only one of two ways could be taken: either by the law (principle) of works or by the law (principle) of faith. But by its very nature, the law of works strengthens man's depravity and independence and therefore is contrary to God's will. Works are man-cantered and make men boasters, for they throw man back on his own resources. The law of works is really a rejection of God's rule over man's life.

It is the law of faith which glorifies God, exalting His saving work and making God the center of man's salvation. We must therefore receive our justification as a gift from God. We cannot manufacture it ourselves. God's method of receiving faith follows the same rule that Paul laid down when he said, "What has thou that thou didst not receive? But if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?" (I Cor. 4:7).

This faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified has omnipotent powers to slay the rule of sin and to transform all of life. In the Bible this faith is not intellectual but rather it is the whole man resting his whole life on the perfect Redeemer and Lord. Thus the testimony of I John 5:4,5: "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith. And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

Moreover, this law of faith does not make its appeal to only a segment of mankind but is the way for God to be God of Gentile and Jew alike.

Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yea, of Gentiles also (3:29).

The History of Faith (4:1-16)

In these verses Paul presents two leaders, Abraham and David. No two Old Testament characters were so revered as Abraham, the father of the nation, and King David, the father of the established kingdom. Both Abraham and David testify to justification by grace through faith and not by circumcision and law.

Abraham was justified by faith before the advent of circumcision or law:

Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned Unto him for righteousness (4:3).

David was justified by grace after circumcision and law were deeply incorporated into the life of Israel:

David also pronounceth blessing upon the Man, unto whom God reckoneth righteousness Apart from works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin (4:6-8).

How then is the reckoning of righteousness possible? By two radical acts: first, an objective occurrence-the vicarious death of Jesus Christ and His actual bearing of our guilt and sin. This occurred once for all at Calvary nearly two thousand years ago (II Cor. 5:21; Isa. 53:5,6). Secondly, a subjective act-a change in each individual sinner through repentance and faith. Repentance is turning from sin, from self-vindication, and from self-trust. Faith is a turning unto Christ as the one source of forgiveness and righteousness.

The Dynamic of Faith (4:17-5:0)

The Apostle Paul next describes the power of Abraham's faith in God to fulfill God's promises to him that in his seed would all the nations of the earth be blessed. In Abraham's life the following issues are clear (4:17-22).

1. The God of the promise to Abraham is the God of creation and resurrection:

A father of many nations have I made thee, before whom he believed, even God, who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were (4:17).

2. The promise was stated to Abraham:

In hope [Abraham] believed against hope, To the end that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which has been spoken (4:18).

3. Both Abraham and Sarah were impotent to fulfill the promise:

Without being weakened in faith he considered not his own body now as good as dead … and the deadness of Sarah's womb (4:19).

4. Abraham's faith rested on God's promise.

Yet, looking unto the promise of God…(4:20).

5. Abraham's faith glorified the God of the promise.

Waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God (4:20).

6. Abraham's faith obtained the reality.

Fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform (4:21)

7. Abraham's faith was his righteousness.

Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness (4:22).

We also receive this blessing in our lives (4:23-5:1) by faith in God's promise, just as Abraham had righteousness imputed to him by faith in God, who raised Jesus from the dead. Justification by faith can become a reality for all men.

In Romans 5:1-9 we have not the explanation of justification by faith as much as a record of the blessed results in the justified heart. First, the guilt of sin is removed. The believer begins to have fellowship with the redeeming Lord. A believer comes to have peace with God.

Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (5:1).

Second, God gives a believer access in prayer to His very throne, access whereby he can obtain grace to live for Him.

Through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand (5:2).

The same faith that justified gives access to the unmerited, enabling grace of God.

At the end of chapter 5, Paul explains the truth that grace, the mighty force of redemption, is stronger than all the power of sin and death. Because of this grace, we can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (5:2). This hope means that believers have expectation of full restoration through God's glorious redemption.

The next three verses introduce the fact that "through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom."

And not only so, but we also rejoice in our Tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh steadfastness; and steadfastness, approvedness; and approvedness, hope: and hope putteth not to shame; because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given Unto us (5:3-5).

Tribulation works patience in the saint; that is, it works steadfastness. Steadfastness exercises the Christian's devotion. It gives him experience. Difficulties and obstacles help to develop maturity of character, that is, "approved faith and tried integrity" (5:4, A.N.T.). Character of this kind produces a buoyant hope, a living expectancy that the love of God is for him and in him. A new power of good will is the crowning act of regeneration.

The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us (5:5).

One of the first warnings that the apostles gave to the church was that the Christian life on the horizontal level would not be without tribulation, but that in the midst of it the Christian would make his boast in the Lord, knowing that tribulation is in the control of the love of God.

Next Paul gives a most penetrating analysis of divine love.

For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: for peradventure for the good man some one would even dare to die. But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (5:6-8).

Love is described as God's activity meeting man in his most depraved state and redeeming him through the death of Jesus Christ. God's love is never tardy. With outstretched and nail-scarred hands, it meets every crisis.

Christ meets men when they are without strength, ungodly, sinners, and enemies. These are the conditions of the alienated heart of man. Man did not ascend to God, but rather the love of God in Christ Jesus descended to embrace man in his deepest need.

The apostles John and Paul said these same things through their two different personalities. John said, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" (John 3:16). Paul said,

God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (5:8).

We have next the highest expression of divine joy.

We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation (5:11).

Paul states plainly three abiding realities of justification in the Christian life: faith (vs. 1); hope (vs. 2); love (vs. 5). The truly justified man has all the necessary endowments of divine grace to begin to lay hold of the full inheritance of sanctification. According to Romans 5:1-9, then, the believer has peace and access to God and grace. He has hope of heaven and glory. He has a new patience in tribulation and a knowledge of the love of God, the love of God pervading the heart by the Holy Spirit. The truly justified is ready to "press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Every true Christian deeply appreciates Paul's words:

Being therefore justified by faith, we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (5:1).

With this message, Paul heralds throughout the Roman empire that which shook the church loose from the works-righteousness of the Pharisees.

In the first half of the eighth century, John of Damascus wrote the following lines exalting Jesus who was raised from the dead for his justification:

'Tis the spring of souls today,
Christ has burst His prison,
And from three days' sleep in death
As the Son has risen;
All the winter of our sins,
Long and dark, is flying
From His light, too whom we give
Land and praise undying.

In the sixteenth century the battle cry of the Reformation were to Martin Luther, and thousands through him, these lines:

Being therefore justified by faith,
we have peace with God.

CONTENTS PAGE

CHAPTER 10 THE MUCH MORE OF GRACE
ROMANS 5:10-21

Paul had already mentioned that justification is accomplished by Christ's blood and by faith. In Romans 5:1 he says that we are justified by faith, and in 5:9 that we are justified by Christ's blood. Now in 5:10-25 Paul exalts the grace of God as much more effective than any evident power of sin and death.

The illustration Paul uses is that of two kingdoms that assert their reign and influence; first, the reign of sin and death; secondly, the reign of righteousness and life. Note these two reigns in the words Paul uses:

1. The Reign of Sin and Death-Law

Death reigned from Adam until Moses (5:14).

Death reigned through the one (5:17).

Sin reigned in death (5:21).

2. The Reign of Righteousness and Life-Grace

They that receive he abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life (5:17).

Grace reigns [s] through righteousness (5:21).

The argument is this: Paul claims that in every way the kingdom of righteousness and life which came through Christ is stronger than and superior to the kingdom of sin and death which came through Adam. Paul proclaims the following contrasts:

1. The gift of grace is more dynamic than Adam's offense.

Much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many (5:15).

2. Justification has a larger capacity and effect than condemnation.

The judgment came of one unto condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses unto justification (5:16).

3. The recipients of grace are rulers, whereas the victims of sin are ruled over.

Much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ (5:17).

4. The justification of life is as universal and available as condemnation.

The free gift came unto all men (5:18).

5. Christ's obedience makes us righteous as certainly as Adam's disobedience makes us sinners.

Through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous (5:19).

6. In the very place that sin and death reign, grace can set up the reign of righteousness and life.

Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly (5:20).

Verses 15 and 16 tend to be confusing because they combine a similarity with a difference. In the King James Version we read,

Not as the offence, so also is the free gift. … And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift (5:15, 16).

To read this passage with understanding, two facts concerning the manner of the reigns of death and of life must be kept in mind; first, these two reigns are alike as to their sphere of influence; secondly, they are unlike as to their manner of influence. Though the sphere of sin is the same as the sphere of grace, the manner of influence is utterly different. Adam's sin was a weak inclination; Jesus' redemption was a holy obligations. Those under the reign of death are passive subjects; those under the reign of life are active kings. The condemnation of Adam is the result of strict justice; the justification of the sinner is a result of abundant mercy.

The wonderful message of these verses is that of abundant, overwhelming grace and power in Christ. From the standpoint of God's provision, there is more reason for us to be righteous than sinful. Holy living and spiritual life are stronger than uncleanness and spiritual death.

Paul is comparing two opposite kingdoms: the kingdom of sin and death (through Adam), and the kingdom of grace and life (through Christ). A look at the chart on the federal headship of Adam and Christ (pages 84) will clarify the fact of the two kingdoms. Chart number five illustrates the relationship of man to sin, law and grace.

No man can have allegiance to both Adam and Christ at the same time. To have allegiance to Christ, one must repudiate his relationship to sin in the kingdom of Adam, receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, and thus come under the kingdom of Christ. Into this picture comes the law of God to accentuate the danger of sin and to necessitate the abounding grace of God.

The following quotation from The Cross and Sanctification by T. A. Hegre, clarifies both the federal headship of Adam and Christ and the fact that grace is presented as a mighty dynamic for victorious righteousness.

Adam was more than just the first man on earth. He was head of the whole human race, so that 'in Adam' the whole race fell from a sinless level (where there was fellowship and communion with God) to a new level of sin (where there was a break in relationship with God). This new level to which Adam and the race fell is the sin and flesh level, where man lives for self. All men are born into the world on this level. Sin is inevitable there.

It is evident that God knew the Fall would occur. Long before the creation, He made provision for the Fall by `the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world' (Rev. 13:8, A.V.) For this provision to become actual history, the eternal Word of God had to leave heaven, come to earth, become flesh, and to be the first to walk on the sinless level (the same level on which Adam walked before the Fall). 'Christ Jesus … existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped [clung to], but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men' (Phil. 2:5-7).

Jesus met every temptation and every trial that Adam should have met and that Adam would have met had he not fallen. Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, and yet God says He was without sin (Heb. 4:15). Jesus did not fail. Surely such a One, who himself hath suffered being tempted, is able to succor us who are tempted (Heb. 2:18).

Having fully finished His earthly testings, on the day of His death Jesus stepped down from the sinless level to the sin and flesh level. He was made to be sin on our behalf (II Cor. 5:21). As soon as He touched our sin and took sin upon himself, He died--`obedient' even unto death, yea, the death of the cross' (Phil. 2:8). That was Calvary!

Most of us have not had any difficulty understanding or believing that we were all involved in Adam's fall and were born not in the image of God but in the fallen image of Adam. This is depravity and is clearly manifested by our weakened bodies, our impaired minds, and our disturbed emotions. It is also manifested in that a child becomes committed to selfishness even before reason is developed. Thus the Bible categorically states that everyone chooses sin: 'All we like sheep have gone astray'-because of the depravity mentioned above and also because of the devil's temptations, the pull of the world, and the almost-universal example of selfishness.

We must bear in mind that we are born into an anti-Christ, pro-self world. The result of choosing self (selfness, selfishness) is moral depravity-depravity of the free will. Each man becomes a voluntary transgressor and is verily guilty.

Though Adam was the federal head of the human race, the representative man, he was but the 'figure of him that was to come' (Rom. 5:14). The real head is the last Adam, Christ. Yet if Adam, the figure, could take the whole human race into sin, surely Christ, the substance of that figure, could take the whole race back to God.

As Jesus Christ hung on the cross of Calvary, He died not only for us (as our substitute) but as us (as our representative). He was united with the human race and became our representative so that when He hung on the cross, we hung there with Him. When He died, we died. When He was buried, we were buried. As far as God is concerned, the sinful human race was crucified, dead, and buried at Calvary. 'We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death' (Rom. 6:4).

The varying attitudes of men and of God toward Christ's death is illuminating. Had Pilate cared to write an inscription on the stone at the door of the sepulcher, he would have written, 'Here lies Jesus, King of the Jews.' If the scribes and Pharisees had written the epitaph, they would have written, 'Here lies the imposter who claimed to be the Son of God.' Had Satan written the inscription, it would have read, 'Jesus of Nazareth, whom I have overcome.' But if God had written the inscription, it would have red, 'Here lies the sinful human race.'

This then is the deeper meaning of Christ's death. The Bible account declares that when Jesus himself was crucified, `with him were two others, malefactors, one on either side.' The truth is that far more than two others were crucified with Him, for He identified himself with the whole sinful race.' He bore us all to Calvary. In the person of Christ, we died.

There should be no difficulty in understanding this truth, for we all accept this fact of federal headship in the matter of the Fall. Adam acted for the whole human race, so that when he, the head of the race, chose sin rather than obedience, he plunged all of us to that sin and flesh level. Genesis 5:1, 3 clearly tells us that though Adam was created in the likeness of God, Adam's posterity was begotten in his own likeness. After the Fall this likeness was therefore a fallen likeness so that we are all born 'fallen,' which is really not our fault but our calamity.

We are not considered guilty simply because we are born in the image of fallen Adam; we are guilty because by sin of our own we endorse Adam's sin and fall. No one is condemned for being born in Adam's fallen image but, on the contrary, for rejecting Christ as man's Saviour from this heredity. Our condemnation is for persisting in going our own way, for endorsing Adam's sin by sinning. We have become sinners by practice and therefore are guilty before God.

It is exactly this same principle with regard to endorsing Christ's death on Calvary. Positionally we were all taken there. In the mind of God the whole human race died with Christ. But as we endorsed Adam's sin by sinning and thus became guilty sinners, so now we must endorse Christ's death by dying to sin and self. Only in this way do we renounce all that Adam entered into by his sin and fall. Jesus struck at the very heart of this fact when He said, "If any man would come after me let him deny himself' (Matt. 16:24). 'Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot by my disciple' (Luke 14:33).

It is possible to know all these great truths and still be entirely without the benefits they confer. It is not enough to believe in our identification with Christ in His death in an abstract way. The truth of identification must be experiential.

Let us keep in mind again and again that we become guilty when we endorse Adam's sin by sinning. But we are forgiven and delivered when we endorse Christ's death and resurrection by dying and being raised with Him. Jesus says that denial of self (giving up of all personal rights, renouncing everything that belongs to the old life-in other words, a complete about-face) is a step we must take. Only then will the Holy Spirit make t his great truth real in our personal experience so that we will receive its full benefits-namely, ability to live unto God, as well as deliverance from the power of sin, the devil, and the world.

But if Adam, 'the figure of him that was to come,' could work such havoc with the race, taking us all down to sin, Christ, the substance of that figure, can do infinitely more. If Adam's fall is drastic and far-reaching, how much more is Christ's so-great redemption and deliverance when He not only took us to death and the grace but also raised us up with Him to the spiritual level? Remember that burial is not the end. The gospel delivered unto us is that Christ died and rose. 'We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that … we also might walk in newness of life' (Rom. 6:4).

Many seem to think that Christ's power of full redemption is much less than the consequences of Adam's fall. But we are told five times that the power of Christ's redemption is much more than the consequences of the Fall (Rom. 5). There is superabundance of grace! There is enough grace for not only the forgiveness of sins and to get man somehow into heaven but enough grace for a victorious life, for a life that will fully please God. 'If, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ' (Rom. 5:17). Rejoice in all such promises.

Long before creation, man's redemption in the person of God's Son was planned. When the fullness of time came, it was executed and became history. On the basis of that redemption, God's power is now able to save and to restore us to the life which God planned for us."

CONTENTS PAGE

CHAPTER 11 THE BELIEVER'S FREEDOM

He died that sin in us might die-
Condemned when Jesus breathed His last,
Sin in the flesh we now defy,
Its guilt and tyranny are past;
And dying of its mortal wound,
It soon shall be no longer found.

The righteousness Thy law requires
Shall then be all in us fulfilled,
Who now renounce our own desires,
And to Thy Spirit's motions yield;
And following our celestial Guide,
Go on till wholly sanctified.

In us t he full obedience true
Which Jesus for His people wrought
Shall be by Him performed anew-
As saints in deed and word and thought,
Filled with the triune God, we prove
The righteousness of perfect love.
--Charles Wesley

The Believer's Freedom

Romans 5 began with the exaltation of the grace of God which brought complete justification, and then it concluded with those wonderful verses (see 5:9-21), in which the question arose: Does grace also include a dynamic for righteousness? Here Paul indicates that the grace of God h as much more power to bring us into righteousness than Adam's sin ever had to bring us into bondage and death.

In this new section (Rom. 6, 7, and 8), Paul declares another purpose of God in raising Christ from the dead-to sanctify believers.

In Romans 6 the same gospel that is for the justification of the sinner is the gospel for the sanctification of the believer.

Like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life (6:4).

Romans 7 and 8 carry the issue of holiness further yet, saying that this righteousness is not a legal attempt to be righteous, even by the strivings of redeemed man. Christians must die to the law as well as to sin. A new law, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, must pervade the life of the Christian.

An amazing pattern that Paul has used in preceding chapters comes to plain view at this point. If we had lived in Rome when Paul's letter arrived, this pattern would likely have been evident to us, because Paul presents the truths of deliverance from moral bondage not only as a series of doctrines but also as a series of very definite pictures. Here are Paul's six pictures of our deliverance from moral bondage (Rom. 2-8).

1. A Courtroom Scene (1:18-5:9)
2. The Kingdom of Death and the Kingdom of Life (5:10-21)
3. Two Slave Houses (6:1-23)
4. A Marriage (7:1-6)
5. A Living Man Bound to a Corpse (7:7-8:4)
6. A Father and His Family (8:12-39)

The First Picture-A Courtroom Scene (1:18-39)

Two truths are evident in the first three chapters of Romans: (1) the condemned sinner's guilt before his Judge; (2) the manner of justification for the guilty sinner-faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, the sinner's Advocate and Redeemer. Christ was raised from the dead to judge the world.

The Second Picture - The Kingdom of Death and the Kingdom of Life (5:10-21)

This picture presents two kingdoms: the kingdom of death, whose federal head is Adam, and the kingdom of life, whose federal head is Christ. In this picture, again two facts are presented:

1. Because of the sin of Adam, man came under the reign of death. The absence of the law from Adam to Moses did not deliver men from death's reign. Nor did the entrance of the law at the time of Moses until the time of Christ bring man any deliverance; on the contrary, sin abounded through the definition of law.

2. Man is rescued from the reign of death by only the grace and obedience of Jesus Christ.

As sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord (5:21).

This deliverance from death is accomplished by the gift of life and righteousness (5:7,10,17,18). It is by an experience of regeneration that sinners are delivered from death's reign. By regeneration they are freed from the kingdom of death and come into Christ's kingdom. Christ was raised from the dead on purpose to justify sinners. Praise God for this deliverance!

The Third Picture-Two Slave Houses (6:1-23)

This new section (Rom. 6,7,8) is concerned with the power of the risen Christ to sanctify the believer and deliver him from sin's power and dominion.

The picture is of two slave houses, one ruled by the slavemaster Sin; the other ruled by the slavemaster Righteousness. The slave house of sin operates on the principle of selfishness, but the slave house of righteousness operates on the principle of divine love. This is a very clear and vivid picture.

To bring t his truth to our attention, two facts are clearly delineated. In the first place, man is not only guilty before God because he has lived in sin, but he has also become a bondservant of sin. Paul points this out by the words,

His servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness (6:16).

In the next place, Paul describes the divine fact that we have been identified with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. The grace of God brings us not only forgiveness and regeneration but accomplishes an entire deliverance from the old manner of life so that we are able to serve in the household of righteousness and thus reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord (6:11).

The Fourth Picture-A Marriage (7:1-6)

These verses present the picture of deliverance from bondage to the law. Paul represents the law as a husband.

Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth? For the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth; but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband (7:1, 2).

In previous chapters, Paul has indicated that a sinner is brought out from under guilt through the provision of justification (Rom. 5). Through the provision of regeneration he is also brought out from under the bondage of death (Rom. 5), and through the provision of sanctification from under the bondage to sin (Rom. 6). The believer must now be brought out from under the bondage to the law (Rom. 7).

The Holy Spirit unveils two things here in this seventh chapter of Romans:

1. Those who have been under the bondage of sin (which is a transgression of the law-I John 3:4) are automatically under the dominion of the law. The believer is to enjoy freedom from the heavy yoke of striving to get righteousness by the law. God never planned that righteousness should be an exterior idea connected with rules and laws but rather a blessed awareness of Christ within. "Christ Jesus, ... was made unto us ... righteousness" (I Cor. 1:30).

2. The method of deliverance is always through Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Paul says,

Wherefore ... ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God (7:4).

The Fifth Picture-A Living Man Bound to a Corpse (7:7-8:4).

Here is a most personal and sordidly intimate picture of sin and its connection with mankind. The Romans' method of punishing a chronic transgressor of the law was to bind the living offender face to face with a dead man. The condemned man was bound to a corpse. He wanted to be free but he was unable to get free. He was not only guilty but wretched. Moreover, the penalty for anyone who tried to deliver the guilty from the corpse was the same fate as the wretched man had himself.

The old theologians called indwelling sin "the sinning sin" or "inbred sin." Paul declares here that the law of God discovers indwelling sin and the spirit of independence and lust in the believer. This spirit is contrary to God's law and to God himself. No wonder Paul cried out,

Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? (7:24).

Paul's answer is this:

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord (7:25).

Christ not only died but also rose again.

CONTENTS PAGE

CHAPTER 12 LOVE-SLAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
ROMANS 6:1-23

In 1838 the British government sent word to Jamaica that slavery should be abolished. For the memorial night of their emancipation, the slaves prepared a mahogany coffin and dug a grave. Then they filled the coffin with whips, torture irons, branding irons, fragments of the treadmill, handcuffs, and coarse frocks and shirts. When all these relics and remnants of their previous unhappy bondage were cast into the coffin, the slaves then screwed the lid down and at the stroke of midnight lowered it into the grave. Thus they celebrated their liberation and joyously sang their doxology.

This act is a vivid picture of the burial of a sinner's past. Just as the slaves' burial of their tokens of slavery represented their great external deliverance, so Christ's death on our behalf at Calvary represents our great spiritual release from the past tokens of our slavery to sin.

However, the message of Romans 6 goes a step further. At Calvary God put not merely the tokens of sin's slavery in the grave. In Christ He put the slave himself to death and then raised him up a "new creature." Thus Jesus Christ brought more than our sins to the cross; he also brought the old slave himself, called our "old man."

To teach the death of the old man, Paul takes an illustration from the practice of slavery, which was so common in the Roman world of Paul's day. Every Roman slave was expected to be obedient to his master. But the life of the slave was determined by the master's nature, whether he was a good man or evil, whether he was righteous or unrighteous.

In describing our deliverance from the old man, Paul presents two households: a household of sin and a household of righteousness. As head over the one household, he presents the old master by the words "unrighteousness" and "sin" (Rom. 6:13, 16). Over the new household he presents the new master by the words "righteousness" and "God" (Eph. 4:24).

The question that then presents itself is this: How does a believer transfer from one household to the other? How does the slave of sin in the household of sin break his entire connection with bondage to sin? In the household of righteousness, how does he begin to live unto righteousness?

In his message about Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, Paul gives the clue when he declares to the Roman Christians:

We, who died to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? (6:2).

The slave's death breaks the dominion of the old master, sin. Jesus Christ came into the household of sin and joined himself to "the old man," the servant of the old master. Because God's holy law sentenced the old man to death, Jesus accepted the death penalty for him. But since in His humanity Jesus was also joined to us, it was our old man which was crucified with Christ. Therefore Christ's death destroyed any necessary connection between our bodies and the dominion of sin. Through Christ, the master sin can no longer expect service from his dead slave, for he that is dead is freed from sin (Rom. 6:7).

To experience this transfer of households, this freedom from sin, we all instinctively feel that we must concur completely with the message of Romans 6.

Sometimes, however, the argument is given that we are not able to surrender to God wholly because we do not know the future and cannot predict our reactions to those things which will happen. This would be a reasonable conclusion if our fickle hearts and minds were the only factors involved in our surrender. But the Holy Spirit can lead in making a surrender. In Hebrews 9 we receive light about the Holy Spirit's part. Even Jesus, when He offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins, offered himself through the eternal Spirit. In His humanity Christ did not offer himself purely as a human act. He depended on the aid of the Holy Spirit who was with Him to make that act effective. Of course, we could never do