we may

live

as truly unto God, as Christ for ever

lives with God, in the "glory which he had with him before the world was.” 7 *

SECTION XVIII.

CHAP. VI. ver. 12-23.

ARGUMENTS FOR A LIFE OF HOLINESS, FROM THE CONSIDERATION OF THE OPPOSITE SERVICES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SIN.

In the last section I endeavoured to show you how, in the first eleven verses of the chapter, the apostle enforces and illustrates the inseparable connexion between justification and sanctification, from the consideration of the sacrament of baptism. In the remaining part of the chapter, he powerfully inculcates the same important truth under the very expressive image, which he first introduced at the end of the fifth chapter, of sin and grace, as two lords or masters, demanding the obedience of those who have respectively yielded themselves to obey them.

Now those to whom the apostle was writing, had been baptized in the name of Christ, and were, by profession, therefore, his soldiers and servants. Let

not sin therefore, as he says, reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you : for ye are not under the law, but under grace.' It is quite certain, brethren, that sin will be always endeavouring to tyrannize even over the people of God. That, as it has been truly said, is sin's own work, and not ours. But, in the above verses, St. Paul appeals to the Roman converts, and says, See that sin does not reign in you, considering always that to the reign of a king, the obedience of the subjects must, as it were, not only passively, but actively concur; for it is the part of a subject freely and heartily to love the person of his king, and to rejoice in his service.-Let not sin therefore so reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.* Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God. In these words, yield yourselves unto God, the apostle seems to appeal to the Roman converts with peculiar emphasis, saying, God might easily destroy you against your will, but it is only with your will, (he himself having made you willing,) that he saves

1 Ver. 12-14.

2 Bishop Reynolds.

See Note 33.

you.

Yield yourselves, therefore, unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

4

When the apostle here tells us to yield ourselves unto God, and to yield our members as instruments of righteousness unto him, we are reminded of his exhortation in the twelfth chapter, where he calls upon us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. There, indeed, he exhorts us to devote our bodies as a 66 living SACRIFICE:" here, adopting another image, he calls on us to yield our members as instruments, or weapons, of righteousness unto God; so that all the powers of body and soul, (part being evidently here intended for the whole,) may be employed in his service, as the instruments, with which we may perform all righteousness to his glory, or as the weapons, with which we may fight his battles against sin, the world, and the devil. And fear not, as he seems to say, that your former lord and master shall recover his power, or be "able to do you violence;"5 for sin shall not have dominion over you: in other words, Sin may, and will remain in you, as an enemy or a rebel, but it shall not subdue you as a conqueror; for ye are not under the law, but under grace. That is to say; You are not under the condemning power of the law, as a covenant of works, exacting perfect obedience, 3 Chap. xii. 1. 48λα See margin. 5 Ps. lxxxix. 23. P. B. T.

and ministering no strength to perform it; but you are under a covenant of grace in Christ, a covenant which provides, through the merit of Christ's death, for the free forgiveness of your sins, and, through the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, for the destruction of those sins; so that the spirit of sanctification ever reigns over you, as a king reigns over his subjects, to support you in all dangers, and to carry you through all temptations.' 6

It is quite evident, from the whole scope of the passage before us, that St. Paul is here speaking of the law, when considered as a covenant of works; but he knew how easy it would be for the perverse disputers of this world to misinterpret his language, by tearing the words from the context in which they are found, and thus depriving them of all their form and comeliness; and therefore, as if in anticipation of such pernicious mistatements he thus proceeds: What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered 7 you: or, as the last verse may be

• Collect for fourth Sunday after Epiphany. 7 Ver. 15-17.

interpreted, God be thanked, that whereas ye were formerly the servants of sin, ye have now obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

:

The apostle, you observe, thanks Gov for the obedience of the Roman converts. Consider, then, how necessary it is, brethren, that you should be continually applying to Him from whom only the grace of obedience proceeds, beseeching him to "enlarge your hearts" that you may "run the way of his commandments." 8 You are here called upon, also, heartily to thank God for every fresh instance of the work of his grace in the hearts of others for observe, in the second place, how the apostle speaks of obeying, from the heart, the doctrines of the gospel; thus emphatically reminding you that, whilst it is impossible for the unbeliever to rejoice from the heart in the yoke and bondage of sin, the believer obeys from the heart, that blessed will of God which is revealed to us in the Scriptures! Observe, in the last place, how the apostle says, that form of doctrine which was delivered you; or, as it is expressed in the margin, whereto ye were delivered.9 If we adopt the latter interpretation, we may consider him as employing the term, with reference to the foregoing figure of servitude, in order to denote that the converts had been delivered over from one master to another; viz. from the slavery of sin, to the service of the gospel. I may 9 εἰς ὃν παρεδόθητε.

Ps. cxix. 32.

*See Note 34.