25 November

Bible in 365 Days                         

Romans 4-7

Romans 4

The Apostle now dealt with another difficulty that might arise in the mind of the Jew, showing that the method of grace, namely, imputing righteousness in response to faith, is in harmony with the whole history of Israel. As an illustration of this the apostle took the case of Abraham, father and founder of the nation, and showed how he was accepted and rewarded through faith, and not through works, both by his personal acceptance by God, and by his position as recipient of the promise of a coming deliverance. In this connection was made the declaration which must have been astonishing indeed in the ears of a Jew - that Abraham was the father, not merely of circumcised men according to the flesh, but of all who believe, even though they be in uncircumcision.

The Messianic hope came to Abraham, not through law, for it burned in his heart, and was the center of the nation of which he was the founder at least 400 years before the law was given. The apostle shows the value of this history. It bears testimony which strengthens the faith and confidence of those who look to, and believe in, Jesus. Resurrection life which follows the settlement of the question of sin by our justification is the bestowment of God on those who believe in Jesus.

Romans 5

The apostle now dealt with the values of justification. The value to the individual is a threefold blessing. This nature as to cause the heart to rejoice.

The apostle now showed the difference between the first and second man, the first and last Adam, in their race headship and the results produced by each. The whole argument is based on the literal accuracy of the account of the fall of man chronicled in Genesis, the apostle making no fewer than nine references thereto in so short a passage. In the case of the first Adam, disobedience issued in sin, judgment, condemnation, death for the race. In the case of the last Adam, obedience issued in grace, justification, righteousness, life for the race. These are coextensive. So far as the evil results of the first Adam's sin have spread, so far do the benefits of the last Adam's work extend.

By faith in Jesus, the last Adam, man can be set free from all the results of the disobedience of the first Adam. By continuity in the disobedience of the first Adam, man is excluded from the values of the work of the last Adam.

Romans 6

The Apostle declared, "We died to sin," that is, we were set free from our relationship to sin. On that basis he asked his question, How can we live in that to which we have died? Taking baptism as an illustration, he showed that it is the sign of death and resurrection. Therefore the injunction, "Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus." The whole new man is to be yielded to God, and his members are to become instruments of righteousness unto Him. The servant of sin is the slave of sin. The servant of righteousness is the bond servant of righteousness. The past experience of these people witnessed the yielding of themselves to sin, with the result that they were mastered by sin. The present experience is to see the yielding of the members to righteousness with the issue of experimental sanctification.

It is at the close of this statement that we have that verse so full of glorious meaning and so often quoted, "The wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Sin as the master of the life pays the wage of death in every department of life. The contrast is not merely with reference to the finality, but with reference to the whole process, for God begins with life bestowed as a free gift, which is at once the root and the force, as it will be the final fruitage.

Romans 7

Continuing his argument, the Apostle showed under the marital figure that a change of covenant changes the center of responsibility.

Then we have one of the great personal and experimental passages of the Pauline writings. The pronouns change from the plural to the singular. The whole of the seventh chapter gives us a picture of the religious experience of Paul up to the time of his meeting with Christ. It deals with his condition before the law, his experience at the coming of the law, and his subsequent experience under the law. He made two statements: "I was alive apart from the law once"; "The commandment came . . . and I died." When was the apostle alive apart from the law, and when did the commandment come, so that he died? When he spoke of having been alive apart from law, he referred to those days of his infancy and childhood in which without consciousness of law there was no consciousness of sin and he was living the life that was without any sense of distance between himself and God. "The commandment came, sin revived, I died." The apostle carefully declared what particular commandment it was that brought home to him this sense of sin. "Thou shalt not covet." In that he discovered that he was violating the divine commandment, and so he died.

The experience next described is of a man seeking the highest. Here is a double experience in the life of one man, doing hated things, and by his very hatred of them consenting to the goodness of the law which forbids them. Terrible indeed is the condition, so terrible that he broke out in that cry that tells the whole story of his inner consciousness. "Wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?" While thus the apostle wrote the words which reveal the agony of his past condition, he wrote them from his present sense of victory and deliverance, and so parenthetically answered his question, in the words, "I thank God through Christ Jesus our Lord."