I am debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish. So as much as is in me, I am eager to preach the Good News to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.
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Now I don’t desire to have you unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you, and was hindered so far, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish. So as much as is in me, I am eager to preach the Good News to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.” For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them. For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse. Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.
Parallel Translations
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I am debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish.
So as much as is in me, I am eager to preach the Good News to you also who are in Rome.
For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.
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For I am detter both to the Grekes and to them which are no Grekes vnto the learned and also vnto the vnlearned.
Lykewyse as moche as in me is I am redy to preache the Gospell to you of Rome also.
For I am not ashamed of the Gospell of Christ because it is the power of God vnto salvacion to all that beleve namely to the Iewe and also to the getyle.
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I am detter both to the Grecians, and to the Barbarians, both to the wise men and vnto the vnwise.
Therefore, as much as in me is, I am readie to preach ye Gospel to you also that are at Rome.
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God vnto saluation to euery one that beleeueth, to the Iewe first, and also to the Grecian.
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (80)
- Mark 8:38 (v16) For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him,…
- 2 Timothy 1:8 (v16) Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the…
- 1 Peter 4:16 (v16) But if one of you suffers for being a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this matter.
- 2 Timothy 1:12 (v16) For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to…
- Psalms 40:9-10 (v16) I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, Yahweh, you know. I have not hidden…
Show all 80 cross-references
- Luke 9:26 (v16) For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed, when he comes in his glory, and the glory of the…
- 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6 (v16) and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind…
- 2 Corinthians 4:4 (v16) in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the…
- Romans 10:17 (v16) So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
- 1 Corinthians 1:18-24 (v16) For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,…
- 1 Corinthians 2:2 (v16) For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
- 1 Corinthians 2:4 (v16) My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
- Jeremiah 23:29 (v16) “Isn’t my word like fire?” says Yahweh; “and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
- 1 Corinthians 15:2 (v16) by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
- Hebrews 4:12 (v16) For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both…
- 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 (v16) Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place. For…
- 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (v16) for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations…
- Galatians 1:7 (v16) but there isn’t another “good news.” Only there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Good News of Christ.
- Psalms 119:46 (v16) I will also speak of your statutes before kings, and will not be disappointed.
- Acts 3:26 (v16) God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to you first to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your wickedness.”
- Romans 2:9 (v16) oppression, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
- Isaiah 53:1 (v16) Who has believed our message? To whom has Yahweh’s arm been revealed?
- Luke 2:10-11 (v16) The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people. For there is born…
- Colossians 1:5-6 (v16) because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News which has…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:13 (v16) For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the…
- 1 Timothy 1:11 (v16) according to the Good News of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
- Psalms 71:15-16 (v16) My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure. I will come with the…
- Romans 15:29 (v16) I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of the Good News of Christ.
- Romans 15:19 (v16) in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of God’s Spirit; so that from Jerusalem, and around as far as to Illyricum, I have fully…
- 1 Corinthians 9:12 (v16) If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we didn’t use this right, but we bear all things, that we may…
- 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 (v14) For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good…
- 1 Corinthians 9:18 (v16) What then is my reward? That when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my…
- 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 (v16) But if all prophesy, and someone unbelieving or unlearned comes in, he is reproved by all, and he is judged by all. And thus the secrets of…
- 2 Corinthians 2:12 (v16) Now when I came to Troas for the Good News of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the Lord,
- 2 Corinthians 9:13 (v16) seeing that through the proof given by this service, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the Good News of Christ and…
- Romans 4:11 (v16) He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might…
- 2 Timothy 1:16 (v16) May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain,
- Acts 9:15 (v14) But the Lord said to him, “Go your way, for he is my chosen vessel to bear my name before the nations and kings, and the children of Israel.
- Colossians 3:11 (v14) where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all,…
- Acts 22:21 (v14) “He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.’”
- Acts 26:17-18 (v14) delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light…
- Romans 15:20 (v15) yes, making it my aim to preach the Good News, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build on another’s foundation.
- James 3:17-18 (v14) But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and…
- Psalms 110:2 (v16) Yahweh will send out the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule among your enemies.
- Isaiah 6:8 (v15) I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”
- 1 Corinthians 9:17 (v15) For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.
- Romans 12:16 (v14) Be of the same mind one toward another. Don’t set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Don’t be wise in your own…
- 2 Corinthians 10:15-16 (v15) not boasting beyond proper limits in other men’s labors, but having hope that as your faith grows, we will be abundantly enlarged by you in…
- 1 Kings 8:18 (v15) But Yahweh said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart.
- Isaiah 35:8 (v14) A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called “The Holy Way”. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who…
- Matthew 9:38 (v15) Pray therefore that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest.”
- Acts 13:2-4 (v14) As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them.”…
- Romans 1:22 (v14) Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
- Romans 8:12 (v14) So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
- Romans 13:8 (v14) Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
- Romans 16:19 (v14) For your obedience has become known to all. I rejoice therefore over you. But I desire to have you wise in that which is good, but innocent…
- 2 Corinthians 11:19 (v14) For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise.
- Ephesians 5:15-17 (v14) Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore don’t be…
- Luke 10:21 (v14) In that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these…
- John 4:34 (v15) Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
- Acts 21:13 (v15) Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem…
- Acts 28:2 (v14) The natives showed us uncommon kindness; for they kindled a fire and received us all, because of the present rain and because of the cold.
- Acts 28:4 (v14) When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has…
- Romans 11:25 (v14) For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening…
- 1 Corinthians 1:19-22 (v14) For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.” Where is the wise?…
- 1 Corinthians 2:13 (v14) We also speak these things, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with…
- 1 Corinthians 3:18 (v14) Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.
- 1 Corinthians 14:11 (v14) If then I don’t know the meaning of the sound, I would be to him who speaks a foreigner, and he who speaks would be a foreigner to me.
- 1 Corinthians 14:16 (v14) Otherwise if you bless with the spirit, how will he who fills the place of the unlearned say the “Amen” at your giving of thanks, seeing he…
- 2 Corinthians 8:12 (v15) For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what you have, not according to what you don’t have.
- 2 Corinthians 10:12 (v14) For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But they themselves, measuring themselves by…
- 2 Timothy 2:10 (v14) Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal…
- Titus 3:3 (v14) For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating…
- Proverbs 1:22 (v14) “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?
- Proverbs 8:5 (v14) You simple, understand prudence! You fools, be of an understanding heart!
- Matthew 11:25 (v14) At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding,…
- Mark 14:8 (v15) She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for the burying.
- John 7:35 (v16) The Jews therefore said among themselves, “Where will this man go that we won’t find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks,…
- Romans 12:18 (v15) If it is possible, as much as it is up to you, be at peace with all men.
- 1 Corinthians 14:23-24 (v14) If therefore the whole assembly is assembled together and all speak with other languages, and unlearned or unbelieving people come in,…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (28 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv14–16 14. I am a debtor both to the Greeks…
14. I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, etc. Those whom he means by the Greeks and the Barbarians, he afterwards explains by adding, both to the wise and to the foolish; which words Erasmus has not rendered amiss by “learned and unlearned,” (eruditos et rudes,) but I prefer to retain the very words of Paul. He then takes an argument from his own office, and intimates that it ought not to be ascribed to his arrogance, that he thought himself in a manner capable of teaching the Romans, however much they excelled in learning and wisdom and in the knowledge of things, inasmuch as it had pleased the Lord to make him a debtor even to the wise.
Two things are to be here considered — that the gospel is by a heavenly mandate destined and offered to the wise, in order that the Lord may subject to himself all the wisdom of this world, and make all variety of talents, and every kind of science, and the loftiness of all arts, to give way to the simplicity of his doctrine; and what is more, they are to be reduced to the same rank with the unlearned, and to be made so meek, as to be able to bear those to be their fellow-disciples under their master, Christ, whom they would not have deigned before to take as their scholars; and then that the unlearned are by no means to be driven away from this school, nor are they to flee away from it through groundless fear; for if Paul was indebted to them, being a faithful debtor, he had doubtless discharged what he owed; and thus they will find here what they will be capable of enjoying. All teachers have also a rule here which they are to follow, and that is, modestly and kindly to accommodate themselves to the capacities of the ignorant and unlearned. Hence it will be, that they will be able, with more evenness of mind, to bear with many absurdities and almost innumerable things that may disgust them, by which they might otherwise be overcome. They are, however, to remember, that they are not so indebted to the foolish, as that they are to cherish their folly by immoderate indulgence.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv15–16 He meaneth all them that dwelt in Rome, though…
He meaneth all them that dwelt in Rome, though some of them were not Romans, see the end of the epistle.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv14–16 14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and…
14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.
Ver. 14. I am debtor] Because intrusted with talents for that purpose, 1Co 9:16. {See Trapp on "1Co 9:16"} It might more truly be said of Paul than it was of Cato, that he did- toti natum se credere mundo, believe himself born for a common good (Lucan); or, than it was said to Bucer by his physicians, Non sibi se, sed multorun utilitati esse natum, that he was born for the benefit of many. (Melch. Adam.)
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv14–16 I am debtor; as being obliged by virtue of…
I am debtor; as being obliged by virtue of my calling, and as being intrusted by God with talents to that purpose. You are not beholden to me for this desire, as if it were an arbitrary favour, for it is my bounden duty.
Both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; i.e. to all nations, which he divides into these two sorts, Greeks and Barbarians. The Jews he mentions not, because he was the doctor of the Gentiles.
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Both to the wise, and to the unwise; by these he understands particular persons among the Greeks and Barbarians, for there were among either of them some wise, and some unwise. The gospel is adapted to all sorts of persons, whether wise or simple.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v16 Observe here, 1. The glorious description which the apostle…
Observe here, 1. The glorious description which the apostle gives of the gospel; It is the power of God unto salvation. That is, the preaching of it is attended by, and accompanied with, an almighty power, which renders it effectual to salvation, if we do not bolt our ears and hearts against it.
Learn, That the plain and persuasive preaching of the gospel, is the chosen instrument in God’s hand, which he uses and honours for the conveyance of spiritual life into the souls of men, though it be despised and ridiculed by the men of the world. The gospel is powerful; it is the power, not of men or angels, but the power of God; not the essential, but instrumental power of God; it works as an instrument, yet not a natural, but as a moral instrument in God’s hands; freely, not arbitrarily. The word gives out to us, as God gives in to that; the power of the gospel is not from the preachers of the gospel, therefore do not idolize them; but they are instruments in God’s hand, their words are the vehicle, or organ, through which the vital power of the Spririt is conveyed; therefore do not vilify and think meanly of them.
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Observe, 2. The solemn protestation and bold profession which the apostle makes of his not being ashamed of the gospel of Christ; I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
Where note, 1. He doth not say, I am not afraid to preach the gospel; but I am not ashamed, because shame hinders our readiness more than fear; a man may be fit and ready to preach the gospel, and yet be afraid to undertake it; but he that is ashamed of the work, can never be fit for it.
Note, 2. That when the apostle says, he is not ahamed of the gospel, more is intended than expressed: I am so far from being ashamed, that I account it my glory; as if the apostle had said, "Verily I esteem it the highest honour that God can confer upon me, to preach the gospel at Rome, though it should cost me my life."
Oh how exceeding well doth a bold profession of the gospel become all the ministers and members of Jesus Christ! Let all say with the apostle, We are not ashamed of the gospel; none of the ministers of Christ to preach it, none of the members of Chrsit to profess and practise it.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v16 Paul here enters upon a large discourse of justification,…
Paul here enters upon a large discourse of justification, in the latter part of this chapter laying down his thesis, and, in order to the proof of it, describing the deplorable condition of the Gentile world. His transition is very handsome, and like an orator: he was ready to preach the gospel at Rome, though a place where the gospel was run down by those that called themselves the wits; for, saith he, I am not ashamed of it, Rom 1:16. There is a great deal in the gospel which such a man as Paul might be tempted to be ashamed of, especially that he whose gospel it is was a man hanged upon a tree, that the doctrine of it was plain, had little in it to set it off among scholars, the professors of it were mean and despised, and every where spoken against; yet Paul was not ashamed to own it. I reckon him a Christian indeed that is neither ashamed of the gospel nor a shame to it. The reason of this bold profession, taken from the nature and excellency of the gospel, introduces his dissertation.
I. The proposition, Rom 1:16, Rom 1:17. The excellency of the gospel lies in this, that it reveals to us,
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1. The salvation of believers as the end: It is the power of God unto salvation. Paul is not ashamed of the gospel, how mean and contemptible soever it may appear to a carnal eye; for the power of God works by it the salvation of all that believe; it shows us the way of salvation (Act 16:17), and is the great charter by which salvation is conveyed and made over to us. But, (1.) It is through the power of God; without that power the gospel is but a dead letter; the revelation of the gospel is the revelation of the arm of the Lord (Isa 53:1), as power went along with the word of Christ to heal diseases. (2.) It is to those, and those only, that believe. Believing interests us in the gospel salvation; to others it is hidden. The medicine prepared will not cure the patient if it be not taken. - To the Jew first. The lost sheep of the house of Israel had the first offer made them, both by Christ and his apostles. You first (Act 3:26), but upon their refusal the apostles turned to the Gentiles, Act 13:46. Jews and Gentiles now stand upon the same level, both equally miserable without a Saviour, and both equally welcome to the Saviour, Col 3:11. Such doctrine as this was surprising to the Jews, who had hitherto been the peculiar people, and had looked with scorn upon the Gentile world; but the long-expected Messiah proves a light to enlighten the Gentiles, as well as the glory of his people Israel.
2. The justification of believers as the way (Rom 1:17): For therein, that is, in this gospel, which Paul so much triumphs in, is the righteousness of God revealed. Our misery and ruin being the product and consequent of our iniquity, that which will show us the way of salvation must needs show us the way of justification, and this the gospel does. The gospel makes known a righteousness. While God is a just and holy God, and we are guilty sinners, it is necessary we should have a righteousness wherein to appear before him; and, blessed be God, there is such a righteousness brought in by Messiah the prince (Dan 9:24) and revealed in the gospel; a righteousness, that is, a gracious method of reconciliation and acceptance, notwithstanding the guilt of our sins. This evangelical righteousness, (1.) Is called the righteousness of God; it is of God's appointing, of God's approving and accepting. It is so called to cut off all pretensions to a righteousness resulting from the merit of our own works. It is the righteousness of Christ, who is God, resulting from a satisfaction of infinite value. (2.) It is said to be from faith to faith, from the faithfulness of God revealing to the faith of man receiving (so some); from the faith of dependence upon God, and dealing with him immediately, as Adam before the fall, to the faith of dependence upon a Mediator, and so dealing with God (so others); from the first faith, by which we are put into a justified state, to after faith, by which we live, and are continued in that state: and the faith that justifies us is no less than our taking Christ for our Saviour, and becoming true Christians, according to the tenour of the baptismal covenant; from faith engrafting us into Christ, to faith deriving virtue from him as our root: both implied in the next words, The just shall live by faith. Just by faith, there is faith justifying us; live by faith, there is faith maintaining us; and so there is a righteousness from faith to faith. Faith is all in all, both in the beginning and progress of a Christian life. It is not from faith to works, as if faith put us into a justified state, and then works preserved and maintained us in it, but it is all along from faith to faith, as Co2 3:18, from glory to glory; it is increasing, continuing, persevering faith, faith pressing forward, and getting ground of unbelief. To show that this is no novel upstart doctrine, he quotes for it that famous scripture in the Old Testament, so often mentioned in the New (Hab 2:4): The just shall live by faith. Being justified by faith he shall live by it both the life of grace and of glory. The prophet there had placed himself upon the watch-tower, expecting some extraordinary discoveries (Rom 1:1), and the discovery was of the certainty of the appearance of the promised Messiah in the fulness of time, not withstanding seeming delays. This is there called the vision, by way of eminence, as elsewhere the promise; and while that time is coming, as well as when it has come, the just shall live by faith. Thus is the evangelical righteousness from faith to faith - from Old Testament faith in a Christ to come to New Testament faith in a Christ already come.
II. The proof of this proposition, that both Jews and Gentiles stand in need of a righteousness wherein to appear before God, and that neither the one nor the other have nay of their own to plead. Justification must be either by faith or works. It cannot be by works, which he proves at large by describing the works both of Jews and Gentiles; and therefore he concludes it must be by faith, Rom 3:20, Rom 3:28. The apostle, like a skilful surgeon, before he applies the plaster, searches the wound - endeavours first to convince of guilt and wrath, and then to show the way of salvation. This makes the gospel the more welcome. We must first see the righteousness of God condemning, and then the righteousness of God justifying will appear worthy of all acceptation. In general (Rom 1:18), the wrath of God is revealed. The light of nature and the light of the law reveal the wrath of God from sin to sin. It is well for us that the gospel reveals the justifying righteousness of God from faith to faith. The antithesis is observable. Here is,
1. The sinfulness of man described; he reduceth it to two heads, ungodliness and unrighteousness; ungodliness against the laws of the first table, unrighteousness against those of the second.
2. The cause of that sinfulness, and that is, holding the truth in unrighteousness. Some communes notitae, some ideas they had of the being of God, and of the difference of good and evil; but they held them in unrighteousness, that is, they knew and professed them in a consistency with their wicked courses. They held the truth as a captive or prisoner, that it should not influence them, as otherwise it would. An unrighteous wicked heart is the dungeon in which many a good truth is detained and buried. Holding fast the form of sound words in faith and love is the root of all religion (Ti2 1:13), but holding it fast in unrighteousness is the root of all sin.
3. The displeasure of God against it: The wrath of God is revealed from heaven; not only in the written word, which is given by inspiration of God (the Gentiles had not that), but in the providences of God, his judgments executed upon sinners, which do not spring out of the dust, or fall out by chance, nor are they to be ascribed to second causes, but they are a revelation from heaven. Or wrath from heaven is revealed; it is not the wrath of a man like ourselves, but wrath from heaven, therefore the more terrible and the more unavoidable.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv14–16 I am a debtor both to the Greeks, and…
I am a debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians,.... The meaning is, that he was obliged by the call he had from God, the injunction that was laid upon him by him, and the gifts with which he was qualified, to preach the Gospel to all sorts of men; who are here distinguished into Greeks and Barbarians: sometimes by Greeks are meant the Gentiles in general, in opposition to the Jews; see Rom 1:16; but here they design only a part of the Gentiles, the inhabitants of Greece, in opposition to all the world besides; for the Greeks used to call all others that were not of themselves Barbarians (e): or else by Greeks are meant the more cultivated nations of the world, and by Barbarians the ruder and more uncivil parts of it; to which agrees the next division of mankind,
both to the wise and to the unwise. The Gospel was to be preached "to the wise"; such who thought themselves to be so, and were so with respect to human wisdom and knowledge; though it should be despised by them, as it was, and though few of them were called by it, some were, and still are, though not many; and such wisdom there is in the Gospel, as the wisest of men may learn by it, will be entertaining to them, is far beyond their contempt, and what will serve to exercise their talents and abilities, to search into the knowledge of, and rightly to understand; and it must be preached "to the unwise"; for such God has chosen to confound the wise; these he calls by his grace, and reveals his Gospel to, whilst he hides it from the wise and prudent; and there is that in the Gospel which is plain and easy to the weakest mind, enlightened by the Spirit of God.
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(e) Cornel. Nepos, l. 1. c. 2, 7. & 2, 3. & 3. 6. & 4. 1. & passim. Quint. Curtius, l. 3. c. 4, 7. & 6. 5. & passim.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv14, 16 To the Greeks and the barbarians - He includes…
To the Greeks and the barbarians - He includes the Roman under the Greeks; so that this division comprises all nations. Both to the wise, and the unwise - For there were unwise even among the Greeks, and wise even among the barbarians. I am a debtor to all - I am bound by my divine mission to preach the gospel to them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv14–16 Verse 14. I am a debtor both to the…
Verse 14. I am a debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians] It has been remarked before that all the nations of the earth, themselves excepted, were termed barbarians by the Greeks. See the origin of the word barbarous in the note on Ac 28:2. The apostle considers himself, by his apostolical office and call, under obligation to preach the Gospel to all people, as far as the providence of God might open his way; for this is implied in the Divine commission:-Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature-to the wise and the unwise; to the learned and cultivated as well as to the unlearned and uncultivated. This evidently appears to be the import of the terms.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v16 Rom 1:16. For — In whatever contempt that sacred…
Rom 1:16. For — In whatever contempt that sacred dispensation, and they who publish it, may be held on account of the circumstances and death of its Author, the character of its ministers, and the nature and tendency of its doctrines; I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ — But rather glory in it. To the world, indeed, it appeared folly and weakness, 1Co 1:18; 1Co 1:23. Therefore, in the judgment of the world, he ought to have been ashamed of it; especially at Rome, the head and theatre of the world. But Paul was not ashamed of it, knowing it to be the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth — The great and gloriously powerful means of saving all who accept salvation in God’s own way, namely, the way of faith in Jesus, as the Son of God and Saviour of the world, and in the declarations and promises of God made through him: faith preceded by repentance toward God, accompanied by love to God and all mankind, and productive of all inward and outward holiness. To the Jew first — Who is far from being above the need of it, and to whom, by the special command of the Lord, it is to be first proposed and preached, wherever its ambassadors come; yet it is not to be limited to the Jew, but proclaimed also to the Greek — And the Roman, and Gentiles of every nation under heaven, who are all, with equal freedom, invited to partake of its important benefits. There is a noble frankness, as well as a comprehensive sense, in these words of the apostle; by which, on the one hand, he shows the Jews their absolute need of the gospel, and, on the other, tells the politest and greatest nation of the world, both that their salvation depended on receiving it, and that the first offers of it were in every place to be made to the despised Jews. As the apostle comprises the sum of the gospel in this epistle; so he does the sum of the epistle in this and the following verses. With regard to the names, Jews and Greeks, it maybe proper to observe here, that “after Alexander’s generals had established their empire in Egypt and Asia, the inhabitants of these countries were considered as Greeks, because they generally spake the Greek language; and, as the Jews were little acquainted with the other idolatrous nations, they naturally called all the heathens Greeks. Hence in their language, Jews and Greeks comprehended all mankind.” — Macknight.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv14, 16 I am debtor - This does not mean that…
I am debtor - This does not mean that they had conferred any favor on him, which bound him to make this return, but that he was under obligation to preach the gospel to all to whom it was possible. This obligation arose from the favor that God had shown him in appointing him to this work. He was specially chosen as a vessel to bear the gospel to the Gentiles Act 9:15; Rom 11:13, and he did not feel that he had discharged the obligation until he had made the gospel known as far as possible among all the nations of the earth.
To the Greeks - This term properly denotes “those who dwelt in Greece.” But as the Greeks were the most polished people of antiquity, the term came to be synonymous with the polished, the refined, the wise, as opposed to barbarians. In this place it doubtless means the same as “the wise,” and includes the Romans also, as it cannot be supposed that Paul would designate the Romans as barbarians. Besides, the Romans claimed an origin from Greece, and Dionysius Halicarnassus (book i.) shows that the Italian and Roman people were of Greek descent.
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Barbarians - All who were not included under the general name of Greeks. Thus, Ammonius says that “all who were not Greeks were barbarians.” This term “barbarian,” Βάρβαρος Barbaros, properly denotes one who speaks a foreign language, a foreigner, and the Greeks applied it to all who did not use their tongue; compare 1Co 14:11, “I shall be unto him that speaketh, a barbarian, etc. that is, I shall speak a language which he cannot understand. The word did not, therefore, of necessity denote any rusticity of manners, or any lack of refinement.
To the wise - To those who esteemed themselves to be wise, or who boasted of their wisdom. The term is synonymous with “the Greeks,” who prided themselves much in their wisdom. 1Co 1:22, “the Greeks seek after wisdom;” compare 1Co 1:19; 1Co 3:18-19; 1Co 4:10; 2Co 11:19.
Unwise - Those who were regarded as the ignorant and unpolished part of mankind. The expression is equivalent to ours, ‘to the learned and the unlearned.’ It was an evidence of the proper spirit to be willing to preach the gospel to either. The gospel claims to have power to instruct all mankind, and they who are called to preach it, should be able to instruct those who esteem themselves to be wise, and who are endowed with science, learning, and talent; and they should be willing to labor to enlighten the most obscure, ignorant, and degraded portions of the race. This is the true spirit of the Christian ministry.
So, as much as in me is - As far as opportunity may be offered, and according to my ability.
I am ready ... - I am prepared to preach among you, and to show the power of the gospel, even in the splendid metropolis of the world. He was not deterred by any fear; nor was he indifferent to their welfare; but he was under the direction of God. and as far as he gave him opportunity, he was ready to make known to them the gospel, as he had done at Antioch, Ephesus, Athens, and Corinth.
This closes the introduction or preface to the Epistle. Having shown his deep interest in their welfare, he proceeds in the next verse to state to them the great doctrines of that gospel which he was desirous of proclaiming to them.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv14–16 I am a debtor. That is, I am bound…
I am a debtor. That is, I am bound to preach the word of God to all. (Witham) --- by Greeks, in this place, are understood the Romans also, and by Barbarians, all other people who were neither Greeks nor Romans. The Greeks called all barbarians, who did not speak the Greek language, even the Latins themselves. But after the Roman became masters of the world, they were excepted, through policy, from the number of barbarians, and particularly after they began to cultivate the science of the Greeks. Græcia victa ferum victorem cepit, et artes
Intulit agresti Latio.
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--- St. Paul says, that he is a debtor both to Greeks and barbarians, to the wise, the philosophers, those who pass for sages amongst the pagans, and to the simple, ignorant, unlettered class of mankind: not that he had received any thing at their hands, but because it was his duty, in quality of apostle, to address himself to the whole world, and preach to the great and to the small, to the learned and the unlearned. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v16 The Fundamental Theme
III
The Fundamental Theme
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Rom_1:16-17
16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ58 [omit Christ]: for it is the power of God [God’s power] unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first,59 and also to the Greek. 17For therein is the righteousness of God [God’s righteousness] revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just [The righteous] shall live by [of] faith (Hab. 2 4).60
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Third Section.—The fundamental theme. The joy of the Apostle to proclaim the gospel of Christ, since it is a power of God for Jews and Gentiles as a revelation of the righteousness of God—a righteousness by and for the faith.
Rom_1:16. For I am not ashamed [not even in the metropolis of the heathen world.—P. S.]. Evidently, this general declaration refers not merely to Rom_1:15, but also to Rom_1:14. There could be no difficulty to the Apostle to preach to the believers in Rome; but it was difficult to preach to the whole Gentile world, especially to its wise men, who were so much inclined to despise the gospel as foolishness. And finally, it was particularly difficult to preach to the Gentiles in the proud metropolis of Rome, the central seat of the culture and pride of the ancient world. It is plain from Rom_1:15, you that, are at Rome, that he would not confine himself to the congregation of Christians in Rome. The designation of his disposition is exact in relation to that pride of wisdom which everywhere opposed him, as he had experienced particularly in Athens and Corinth. He is not afraid of the threats of the world; he does not avoid the offence of the Jews; nor is he ashamed in view of the contempt of the Greeks and of the wise men. And this is not only expressive of his real joy in general, but of his Christian enthusiasm, by which he could glory in the cross of Christ (Rom_5:2; Gal_6:14). [I am not ashamed, is an answer, by anticipation, to an objection which was readily suggested by the word Rome, with all its associations of idolatry, worldly power, pride, pomp, corruption, decay, and approaching persecution of Christians. Tacitus, the heathen historian, says of Rome, that there cuncta undiquc atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebranturque (Annal. Rom 15:44). See Chrysostom, Alford, Wordsworth, Hodge in loc. Meyer explains the term more with reference to the past experiences of Paul in other heathen cities, as Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, and to the general character of the religion of the cross (1Co_1:18). It is true that human nature, as such, in its carnal pride, is apt to be ashamed of the gospel. But this carnal pride culminated at the time in Rome, and found a fit expression in the blasphemous worship of the emperors as present deities. That Paul has special reference to Rome, is also evident from his definition of the gospel as a power of God, which puts to shame the world-power of Rome (ῥώμη, strength). Dealing with the Greeks, who excelled in wisdom, he defines the gospel to be the wisdom of God, which turns the wisdom of this world into folly. When afterwards a prisoner in Rome, Paul was not ashamed of his bonds (2Ti_1:12), in which he felt more free, mighty, and happy than the emperor on the throne.—P. S.].
Of the gospel of Christ. Here, also, we can not separate the concrete unity of the gospel and its promulgation.
For it is a power of God.61 The for announces the reason: it is the highest manifestation of the power of God—the highest manifestation of the compassionate love and grace of God; it is the blessing of salvation for faith throughout the world. The power of God. This cannot apply to the preaching of the gospel alone, but to the objective gospel itself, which combines with evangelization for complete operation. The question whether there is a metonyme62 here (see Tholuck), becomes important only when that unity is dissolved. The gospel, in the objective sense, implies: 1. The revelation of God in Christ; 2. redemption by Christ; 3. the victory, the glory, and the kingdom of Christ; 4. the presentation of this salvation through the medium of the Church in word and sacrament, under the operation of the Holy Spirit.63
Unto salvation. Both the negative and positive sides of the idea of the σωτηρία must be elucidated, the former denoting redemption, the latter adoption. The operation of σωτηρία reaches from the depths of hell to heaven. When man is truly delivered, he is always delivered from the depths of hell, and raised to the heights of heaven; because he is saved from the condemnation of his conscience, and from the judgment of wrath, and is made a participant of salvation through the righteousness of faith which leads to righteousness of life. The expression, blessedness, denotes the highest effect and the highest aim of the σωτηρία. Comp. Act_4:12; Act_13:26; Rom_10:1. The opposite is ἀπώλεια, θάνατος, and similar terms.
To every one that believeth. De Wette: “The παντί is opposed to Jewish particularism, and the πιστεύοντι to Jewish legalism.”64 The highest operation of God’s power is not at all a fatalistic or mechanical operation; it is a personal dealing of love, and presupposes personal relations. For as it cannot be said, on the one hand, that faith completes objective salvation, so we cannot say, on the other, that it is a compulsory operation of salvation. It is the condition of the efficacy of salvation (Joh_3:16, &c.; see Genesis 15), the causa apprehendens.
To the Jew first. This priority is economical, as it rests upon the Old Testament revelation of God, and the faith of Abraham (Rom_4:9); and as such it is: 1. The genetic priority. “Salvation is of the Jews” [Joh_4:22]. 2. The historical priority (Chrysostom, and others). 3. A legal priority (as to form) of the nearest claim to the gospel in accordance with the direction given to the apostles, Act_1:8 (Calov, De Wette, Tholuck). But notwithstanding all this, the Jew had no real right to the gospel, since salvation, 1. is not a product of Judaism, but of free grace; 2. faith is older than Judaism (chap. 4); 3. faith itself is the reality and substance of which Judaism was only the symbol.65
And also to the Greek. The Ἔλλην is here the representative of all who are not Jews. [Jew and Greek here refer not to the national distinction, as Greek and Barbarian, Rom_1:14, but to the religious antagonism of the world at the time, so that Greek is equivalent to Gentile. Ἔλλ. κ. Βάρβ. is the Greek, Ἰουδ. κ.̓́ Ελλ. the Jewish, designation of all mankind; comp. Act_14:1; 1Co_10:32.—P. S.]
Rom_1:17. For therein is the righteousness of God. Proof of the previous proposition. The δν́ναμις θεοῦ εἰς σωτηρίαν is ἀποκάλυψις of the δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ, &c.
[Preliminary Philological Remarks on δικαιοσύνη and the Cognate Terms.—These are of primary importance in Paul’s Epistles, especially the Romans and Galatians. Their root, according to Aristotle (Eth. Nic. v. 2), is δίχα = twofold; hence δικάζειν, to divide into two equal parts, to judge; δικαστής, judge, dispenser of justice. Others derive them from δίκη (the daughter of Zeus and Themis), custom, right, judgment. At all events, the fundamental idea of δικαιοσύνη is an even relation between two or more parts where each has its due, or conformity to law and custom, a normal moral condition. According to Homer, he is δικαιότατος who best fulfils his duties to God and men. Plato develops the idea of righteousness in his Polieia, and identifies it with moral goodness. In the Bible, the will of God, as expressed in the written law, and more fully in the perfect life of Christ, is the standard both of morals and religion, which are always viewed as essentially connected. God Himself is righteous—i.e., absolutely perfect in Himself, and in all His dealings with His creatures, and requires man to aim at this perfection (Mat_5:48). Accordingly, we may define the several terms (referring to the dictionaries and concordances for passages) as follows:
δίκαιος, צַדּיק, conform to the law, inwardly as well as outwardly, holy, perfect. It is used in the absolute sense of God, in a relative sense of man, also of things. Du Cange: “Δίκαιος dicitur vel de re vel de persona, in qua nee abundat aliquid nec deficit, quœ muneri suo par est, numeris suis absoluta.”
δικαιοσύνη, צְרָקָה, justitia, the normal, moral and religious condition. If used of man, it means conformity to the holy will and law of God, godliness, or true piety toward God, and virtue toward man. If used of God, it is one of His moral attributes, essentially identical with His holiness and goodness, as manifested in His dealings with His creatures, especially with men.
δικαιόω (λογίζειν εἰς δικαιοσύνην), הִצְדִּיק, justificare, to put right with the law, i.e., to declare or pronounce one righteous, and to treat him accordingly. Etymologically, the word ought to mean, to make just (since the verbs in όω, derived from adjectives of the second declension, signify, to make a person or thing what the primitive denotes, as τυφλόω, δουλόω, ὀρθόω, φανερόω, τελειόω=τυφλόν, &c., ποιεῖν). But in Hebrew and Hellenistic, and often also in classical usage, it has a forensic sense, to which, however, when used of God, the objective state of things, either preceding or succeeding, must correspond, for God’s judgment can never err, and His declaration is always effective. More of this, ad Rom_2:13 and Rom_3:21-31. Now for the particular explanation of δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ in our passage.
δικαίωσις (λογισμὸς τῆς δικαιοσύνης) justificatio, the act of putting a man right with the law, or into the state of δικαιοσύνη.
δικαίωμα, a righteous decree, judgment, ordinance.—P. S.]
In view of the widely divergent explanations, it is necessary to make close distinctions. The righteousness of God, understood absolutely in its complete New Testament revelation, or ἀποκάλυψις, cannot apply immediately to righteousness before God (ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ), in which case the genitive is taken objectively in a wider relation (thus Luther, Fritzsche, Baur, Philippi). For this righteousness of faith presupposes justification. Nor can the word of itself denote the act of justification, even if we connect with it the result, the righteousness of faith, the genitive being taken in this case subjectively66 in this sense: “the rightness which proceeds from God, the right relation in which man is placed by a judicial act of God” (Meyer, after Chrysostom, Bengel, De Wette, and others).67 For the justification presupposes the atonement (Rom_3:25), and the atonement is founded on the exercise of God’s righteousness. To this exercise the Apostle evidently refers in Rom_3:25-26, and he therefore does it here also in the theme, which, from its very nature, must encompass the whole idea of the Epistle. Absolute righteousness, like absolute grace and truth, is first revealed in Christianity. It is the righteousness which not only institutes the law of the letter, and requires righteousness in man, and, in its character of judge, pronounces sentence and kills, but which at last reveals itself in union with love, or as grace in the form of righteousness, and produces righteousness in man. It accomplishes all this: 1. As law-giving—that is, establishing the right—it institutes the law of the Spirit; that is, it reveals it in the life of Christ as the personal power of the atonement. 2. In the power and suffering of this personal righteousness, it satisfies the demands of the righteousness of the law, and thus changes the symbolical ἱλαστήριον into a real one. The atonement. 3. It communicates to believers the work and efficacy of Christ’s righteousness, by the spirit of His righteousness, as a gift of grace and principle of the new life in creative, operative justification.
Or briefly: The righteousness of God is the self-communication of the righteousness which proceeds from God, which becomes personal righteousness in the person of Christ, which, in His passion as propitiation, satisfies the righteousness of the law (in harmony with the requirement of conscience), and, by the act of justification, applies the atonement to the believer for the sanctification of his life.
As the δόξα, which avails before God, can be none other than the δόξα, which proceeds from God, and became personal in Christ, so can the righteousness which avails before God be none other than a righteousness which comes from God. It is the δικαιοσύνη ἐκ θεοῦ, in opposition to the δικ. ἡ ἐμή, Php_3:9; and therefore the δικαιοσύνη ἐνώπιον θεοῦ, Rom_3:21, in opposition to the δικαιοσύνη ἐκ τοῦ νόμου, Rom_10:5. Therefore it is God’s righteousness also in this sense, that man can never make out of it a righteousness of his own, though the Divine justification becomes the principle of his new life. Tholuck likewise allows a combination of the objective and subjective meanings, but decidedly rejects the interpretation of δικαιοσύνη, as an attribute of God, which he considers incompatible with the prophetic passage adduced. But this quotation does not explain righteousness, but faith. The statement of Tholuck, that Hofmann (Schriftbeweis, i. 625 f.) describes the δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ as an attribute of God, is not exact; he declares it only as a righteousness existing on the part of God.68 We go so far as to understand by righteousness here a synthesis of righteousness and of love—a synthesis which, as grace according to its different relations under the supremacy of righteousness, and as the grace that establishes the new and the absolute right of the Spirit, is called righteousness, but which, under the supremacy of love, as the fountain of the new life, is called love. This impartial righteousness is revealed to believers as grace, and to unbelievers as wrath. When Tholuck says that δικ. is not the righteousness of God in fulfilment of the promises (Ambrose), nor retributive justice (Origen), nor the essential righteousness which belongs to God (as Osiander once taught, and recently Hofmann), nor the goodness of God (Morus), nor impartiality toward Jews and Gentiles (Semler), he has collected into one all the disjecta membra of the central idea, that the δικαιοσύνη (from δίχα, a relation between two, according to the Aristotelian derivation of the word), establishes, maintains, and restores the relation between the personal God and the personal world according to their respective character (for the protection of personality). The omission of the article does not justify us in reading here, a righteousness of God; being inseparably connected with θεοῦ, it means rather the proper righteousness of God (see Winer’s Gramm.).69
[Upon the whole, I agree with this interpretation. The majority of evangelical commentators restrict the δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ to God’s justifying righteousness; some even ungrammatically identity it with justification (δικαίωσις), or God’s “method of justification.” The fundamental idea of the Epistle as set forth in the theme, every expression used in Rom_1:16-17, and the contrast presented in Rom_1:18, point to a more comprehensive meaning, answering to the definition of the gospel as “the power of God unto salvation,” full and final, from “all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” This implies a righteousness imputable as well as imputable, or sanctifying as well as justifying—a righteousness inherent in God, and manifested in Christ, which, by a living union with Christ, is to become the personal property and higher nature of the believer, so that, at the final judgment, no trace of unrighteousness will remain. Wordsworth (an Anglican) and Forbes (a Scotch Presbyterian LL.D.) independently arrive substantially at the same view with Lange. Wordsworth in loco says: “This significant phrase, the righteousness of God, is not to be lowered, weakened, and impaired, so as to mean only the method of justification by which God acquits and justifies mankind. But it is the very righteousness of God Himself, which is both imputed and imparted to men in Jesus Christ ‘the Righteous’ (Joh_2:1), who is ‘the Lord our righteousness’ (Jer_23:6; Jer_33:16), and who, being God from everlasting, and having also taken the nature of man, is made righteousness to us (1Co_1:30), and does effectually, by His incarnation, and by our incorporation into Him, justify us believing on Him, and making Him ours by faith, so that we may not only be acquitted by God, but may become the righteousness of God in Him (2Co_5:21).” Forbes, in a long and able dissertation (Anal. Com., p. 102 ff.), combines here the three Scripture meanings of δικαιοσύνη, when used of God, viz.: “1. God’s retributive righteousness or justice (now manifested in God’s condemnation of sin, shown in giving His Son to die for man’s sin on the cross—to induce thereby the believer to concur cordially in its condemnation in himself); 2. God’s justifying righteousness (now manifested in Christ’s exhibiting in the character of man a perfect righteousness—imputable to and appropriable by the believer, for his pardon and acceptance with God); 3. God’s sanctifying, righteousness (also manifested in Christ as “the Lord our righteousness,” changing the believer’s heart the moment he is united by faith to Christ, and progressively mortifying within him all sin, and imparting eventually to him universal righteousness—appropriable in like manner through faith by the believer).” For further information, comp. the Exeg. Notes on chaps. Rom_2:13, and Rom_3:21-31; Doctrinal and Ethical on Rom_3:21-31, No. 5; also the following works: Winzer, Progr. de voce. δίκαιος, δικαιοσύνη et δικαιοῦν in P. ad Rom. Ep., Leipzig, 1831; Rauwenhoff, Disquisitio de loco Paulino, qui est de δικαιώσει, Lugd. Bat., 1852; Lipsius, Die Paulinische Rechtfertigungslehre, mit Vorwort von Liebner (who differs from Lipsius), Leipzig, 1853 (220 pp.);70 Schmid, Biblische Theologie, Stuttg., 1853, vol. ii. p. 331 ff.; Wieseler, Com. on Gal_2:16, Gött., 1859, p. 176 ff. (who very learnedly and ably defends the orthodox Protestant view); Hodge, on Romans, 3:20 (new ed., Philad., 1866, p. 126 ff.); Forbes, on Romans (Edinb., 1868), pp. 102–144. The doctrinal treatises on justification by faith will be mentioned below, ad Rom_3:21-31, Doctrinal and Ethical, No. 5, pp. 138 f.—P. S.]
Is revealed [ἀποκαλύπτεται is being revealed; the present tense marks the continuous, progressive revelation of righteousness.—P. S.]. The αποκαλύπτειν is distinguished from the φανεροῦν by being God’s revelation, which proceeds from God, and addresses itself to the inward spiritual world (Gal_1:16); while the φανεροῦν denotes the same revelation as manifested in the outward life from the inward spiritual world (Joh_2:11). The revelation of wrath is also an ἀποκάυψις (Rom_1:18), although the wrath is revealed in external manifestation; for it is only by the conscience, that the facts connected therewith are first recognized as the phenomena of wrath, and it is only in the light of the New Testament truth that they are recognized completely. ἐν αὐτῷ. The gospel is the medium.
From faith to faith. [It is connected with the verb ἀποκαλύπτεται by De Wette, Meyer, Tholuck (ed. 5), Alford; with the noun δικαιοσύνη (sc. οὐσα or γενομένη) by Bengel, Philippi, Hodge, Forbes. The former agrees better with the position of the words, and with εἰς πίστιν, the latter with ἐκ πίστεως, comp. Rom_9:30; Rom_10:6.—P. S.] The idea of faith appears here in accordance with the comprehensive idea of righteousness, and therefore as a hearty, trustful self-surrender (to rest and lean upon, הֶאֱמִיו), which includes both knowledge and belief, assent and surrender, appropriation and application. [Faith is neither the efficient cause nor the objective ground of justification, but the instrumental cause and subjective condition; as eating is the condition of nourishment. As the nourishing power is in the food, which, however, must be received and digested before it can be of any use, so the saving power is in Christ’s person and work, but becomes personally available, and is made our own, only by the appropriating organ of faith. This appropriation and assimilation must be continually renewed; hence ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν.—P. S.] The distinction between from faith and to faith is variously explained. Origen refers it to Old Testament and New Testament faith.71 Œcumenius [Olshausen, De Wette, Alford, Philippi]: ἀπὀ πἱστεως εἰς πιστεύοντα [for the believer; comp. Rom_3:22, where the δικ. θεοῦ is said to be εἰς πἀντας τοὺς πιστεύοντας.—P. S.]. Theophylact, and others: For the promotion of faith. Luther: From weak to strong faith.72 Baumgarten-Crusius: From faith as conviction to faith as sentiment. De Wette: 1. Faith as conditional; 2. faith as receptive. For other meanings, see Tholuck (also the view of Zwingli, that the second πίστις means the faithfulness of God). [Meyer: The revelation of righteousness proceeds from faith and aims at faith, ut fides habeatur (similarly Fritzsche, Tholuck). Bengel and Hodge connect ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πὶστιν with δικαιοσύνη, and take it as intensive, like the phrase, “death unto death,” “life unto life,” so as to mean fidem meram, entirely of faith, without any works. Ewald understands ἐκ πὶστεως of Divine faith (?), εἰς πίστιν of human faith, which must meet the former.—P. S.] It may be asked, if the key to the passage may not be sought in Rom_3:22, since the second half of that chapter is in general a commentary on this passage. Comp. Heb_12:2 : “The author and finisher of our faith.” At all events, the Apostle acknowledges, like the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the difference between a degree of faith which receives the revelation prophetically and apostolically, in order to proclaim it, and a more general degree of faith, which, through the agency of preaching, extends into the world. Comp. Heb_11:1 ff.
As it is written. The same quotation from Hab_2:4 is found in Gal_3:11 and Heb_10:38. The Apostle will here (as in Rom_1:2 and chaps.4 and 10) prove the harmony of the gospel with the Old Testament. The passage in the Prophet Habakkuk declares: The just shall live by his confidence, his faith (Isa_28:16). Therefore the most of the elder expositors, and some of the recent ones (Philippi, and others), thus explained the maxim of the Apostle: The just shall live by his faith. But according to Beza, Meyer [Hodge], and others, the Apostle’s expression must be construed thus: The man who is justified by faith, shall live. Meyer properly says: Paul had a good reason to put this meaning into the prophetic expression: since the just man, if he would live by faith, must have been justified by faith. We read in Habakkuk two concrete definitions: “Behold, puffed up [חִנֵּה עֻפְּלָה], not upright is his soul [his life] within him [לֹא־יָשְׁרָה נַפְשׁוֹ בּוֹ]. But the just man, he shall live by his faith.” That is, as the puffed-up soul is puffed up because it is not upright, and has no sound life, so is it the mark of the just man that he acquires his life by faith. The additional profundity which the New Testament gives to this Old Testament expression, does therefore not really change even the expression, much less the sense. [I prefer the connection of ἐκ πίοτεως with ζήσεται, which is more agreeable to the Hebrew (although the other is favored by the Masoretic accentuation), and this is adopted also by Tholuck, De Wette, Philippi, Delitzsch (ad Hab_2:4), Ewald, Forbes. See Textual Note 3above. The sense, however, is not essentially altered. The emphasis lies, at all events, on πίστις, which is, of course, living faith. ζήσεται is to be taken in the full sense of the ζωὴ αἰώνιος, as revealed in Christ. The Apostle, as Delitzsch remarks, puts no forced meaning into the words of the prophet, but simply places them into the light of the New Testament. Habakkuk ends where Paul begins.—P. S.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The fundamental theme. The joyfulness of the Apostle in anticipation of preaching the gospel without shame even in Rome, the central seat of the conceit of human wisdom. The source of this cheerfulness: The gospel is the power of God, &c. The heroic spirit of faith, philanthropy, and hope, elevates him above all hesitation. But how far is the gospel a power of God? See Rom_1:17, and the Exeg. Notes thereon. Especially on the righteousness of God, and the two fundamental forms of faith (the faith which has established preaching, and the faith which is established by preaching).
[2. St. Bernard: Justus ex fide sua vivet, utique si vivat et ipsa: aliter quomodo vitam dabit, si ipsa sit mortua (The just man shall live by his faith, if his faith itself live; otherwise how shall that which is itself death, give life?).—P. S.]
[3. “If the subject of the Epistle is to be stated in few words, these should be chosen: τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, δύναμις Θεοῦ εἰς σωτηρίαν παντὶ τῷ πιστεύοντι. This expresses it better than merely ‘justification by faith,’ which is, in fact, only a subordinate part of the great theme—only the condition necessitated by man’s sinfulness for his entering the state of salvation: whereas the argument extends beyond this, to the death unto sin and life unto God and carrying forward of the sanctifying work of the Spirit, from its first fruits even to its completion;” Alford. Forbes (Anal. Com., p. 7.) likewise denies that justification by faith, especially if presented in a bare, forensic form, is the leading doctrine of the Epistle. “The grand truth here enunciated is the warm, living reality of a personal union with Christ (contrasted with the previous union with Adam), by which, in place of the sin unto death communicated by the first head of humanity, Christ’s righteousness and life are communicated to the believer, and become the inward quickening mover of every thought, feeling, and action. Thus is the distinction preserved, yet the indissoluble connection clearly evinced, between justification and sanctification, as being but two aspects of one and the same union of the believer with Christ—just as the dying branch ingrafted into the living vine is then only reckoned, and may justly be declared to be, a sound, living branch, when the union has taken place—because the assurance is then given of its being made so finally and fully, the vital juices of the vine having already begun to circulate within it.”—P. S.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Whence is it that many are ashamed of the gospel of Christ? Either, 1. They do not know it fully; or, 2. if they know it, they have not the courage to confess it.—Why do we not need to be ashamed of the gospel of Christ? Because, 1. It is of Divine origin; 2. of Divine import; 3. of Divine operation.—He who is ashamed of the gospel, is also ashamed of the Lord. True shame comes from God, false shame from the devil. Shame and shame.—Christianity the universal religion.—The shades of the law vanish; the stars of Greece grow pale at the rising sun of the gospel.—The righteousness which God approves is the chief import of the gospel.—The fundamental thought of the Epistle to the Romans is also the fundamental thought of the Reformation.
Luther: The power of God is such a force as to elevate man from sin to righteousness, from death to life, from hell to heaven, from the kingdom of the devil to the kingdom of God; and gives him eternal salvation.
Starke: As the gospel is a power of God, he denies it who constantly appeals to his weakness, and presents it in opposition to the gospel.—Though the gospel is the power of God, no one will be compelled to be saved, but every one possesses his own freedom to resist, and is therefore responsible.—Hedinger: Who would be ashamed of medicine when he is sick? or of light when he is blind, and would like to see? Wo to those who are ashamed of the words and office of Christ!
Lange: Many a person is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; but yet, if he is ashamed to follow Christ, he is in reality ashamed of the gospel itself in its true application and appropriation.—Faith is like a bucket, by which we draw grace for grace from that fulness of Jesus which contains the gospel.
Spener: Faith in Christ, confidence in the grace of God in Christ, is the beginning of our salvation, and will remain its instrument to the end. Therefore, faith must always endure and increase, and will thus grow from faith to faith—from one degree of light and power to another.
Bengel: No one need be ashamed of what is mighty and Divine (Rom_1:16).
Gerlach: There is something in the gospel of which the natural man is ashamed; therefore the Apostle confesses that this shame is conquered in his own case.—The effective power of God is not merely in the gospel, but it is the gospel itself. It is not merely a strength, from God, but it is His own strength. He works in and through the gospel.
Lisco: The gospel is a power of God; that is, a power in which He operates Himself. Therefore it is a holy, mighty, creative force, capable of saving all who believe it. On our part, faith is the condition that we must fulfil, the way to which we must conform, in order to obtain real salvation and deliverance from temporal and eternal destruction by the gospel.
Heubner: The danger of being ashamed of the gospel is easily incurred. Yet it is a shame which is very reprehensible; for, 1. It is a miserable weakness and want of principle to be ashamed of what is best; 2. It is the grossest contempt of God to place the world higher and fear it more than Him; and, 3. it is the meanest ingratitude toward God.
Fr. A. Wolff: The more the world boasts of its unbelief, the less should true Christians be ashamed of their faith. This is required: 1. For the honor of the truth; 2. the conversion of unbelievers; 3. the salvation of our own souls.
J. P. Lange: How sad the contrast between the false shame of Christians and the boldness and shamelessness of the world.—Who should be ashamed of the gospel? i.e., 1. Of God’s power and honor; 2. of the deliverance of men for their final salvation; 3. of the grand task of uniting Jews and Greeks (the law and culture) into a higher life.—The twofold confirmatory power of the gospel: 1. The first for: its Divine operation (Rom_1:16); 2. the second for: its Divine import (Rom_1:17).—The threefold for (Rom_1:16-17), or the three grounds of joyous, evangelizing activity.—The righteousness of faith: 1. Very old (Habakkuk); 2. eternally new (Paul, Luther); 3. always confirmed by true life.
[Burkitt: The power of the gospel is not from the preachers of the gospel; therefore do not idolize them. But they are God’s instruments, and their words are the organ of the Spirit’s power; therefore do not think meanly of them—A justified man lives a more holy, useful, and excellent life than all others; but the life that a justified man lives is always one of faith.—Henry (condensed): The reason why the Apostle made such a bold profession was, that sinners might be saved and believers edified.—Macknight: The Apostle insinuates with great propriety that the gospel is not an institution like the heathen mysteries, which were concealed from all but the initiated. The precepts of the gospel, being honorable in themselves and beneficial to society, cannot be too openly published.—Hodge: The salvation of men, including the pardon of their sins and the moral renovation of their hearts, can be effected by the gospel alone.—The power of the gospel does not lie in its pure theism, or perfect moral code, but in the cross—in the doctrine of justification by faith in a crucified Redeemer.—Whether we be wise or unwise, orthodox or heterodox, unless we are believers, and receive “the righteousness which is of God” as the ground of acceptance, we have no share in the salvation of the gospel.—Sermons on Rom_1:16, by B. Whichcote, John Owen, Bishop Ward, G. Esty, J. Erskine, Bishop Gilbert, Isaac Watts, Bishop Stillingfleet, Zollikofer, E. Brackenbury, Geo. Burder, W. E. Channing, R. McCheyne, and Thomas Arnold.—J. F. H.]
Footnotes:
[58]Rom_1:16.—The Codd, A. B. C. D., &c., read τὸ εὐαγγέλιον without the addition of τοῦ Χριστοῦ. [Cod. Sin. likewise omits τοῦ Χριστοῦ, as do nearly all the critical editors, Mill, Bengel, Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, &c. The words are found in the Complutensian Text and in Elzevir, and are defended by Wetstoin and Matthaei.—P. S.]
[59]Rom_1:17.—The πρῶτον is left out by Codd. B. and G. [not A., as Lange has it]; probably because it had an offensive appearance. [MSS. א. A. C. D. K. L. have it Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford, and others retain it. Lachmann puts it in brackets.—P. S.]
[60]Rom_1:17.—[This is a free translation of the Hebrew (Hab_2:4): וְצַדִּיק בֶּאֶמוּנָ־ו̇ יִחְיֶה, lit., the righteous shall live in (by) his faithfulness. The Masoretic accentuation, however, connects the first two words: The righteous in his faith, shall live. The Hebrew אֶמוּנָה and the Christian πίστις both rest on the fundamental idea of trust in God. Paul follows in his rendering the Septuagint, but properly omits the μου which these insert: ὁ δίκαιος μου ἐκ πίστεωςζήσεται. Vulgate: justus in fide sua vivet. Most commentators connect ἐκ πίστεως with the verb ζήσεται. But Dr. Lange, with Beza and Meyer, connects ἐκ πίστεως with ὁ δίκαιος, and translates: He that righteous by faith, shall live. See the Exeg. Notes.—P. S.]
[61][To δύναμις θεοῦ, comp. 1Co_1:24, where Christ is called θεοῦ δύναμις and θεοῦ σοΦία.—P. S.]
[62][i.e., here rei per instrumentum effectæ pro instrumento, as if we say, the knife cuts, while it is the hand of man that cuts with the knife. So it is the Holy Spirit that operates through the gospel as the instrumentality.—P. S.]
[63][δύναμις θεοῦ is not to be resolved into divine power (Jowett), but the gospel is a power in and through which God Himself works efficaciously, i.e., so as to save the sinner by rousing him to repentance, faith, and obedience. θεοῦ is gen. autoris or rather possessivus. Comp. 1Co_1:18. Alford explains: “The bare substantive δύναμις hero (and 1Co_1:24) carries a superlative sense: the highest and holiest vehicle of the divine power, the δύναμις κατ̓ ὲξοχήν.” Umbreit remarks that the law is never called God’s power, but a light or teaching, in which man must walk.—P. S.]
[64][Or rather: every one, implies the universality; that believeth, the subjective condition, of the gospel salvation; faith being the apprehending and appropriating organ. Paul says not: to every one who is circumcised, or baptized, or obeys the law, but, to every one that believeth. Without faith, sacraments and good works avail nothing. But true saving faith is of course a living faith, including knowledge of the truth, assent to the truth, and trust or confidence in Christ; it submits to all the ordinances of Christ, and necessarily produces good works.—P. S.]
[65][Alford: “Not that the Jew had any preference under the gospel; only he inherits and has a precedence.” Wordsworth: “First, in having a prior claim, as the covenanted people of God: first, therefore, in the season of its offer, but not in the condition of its recipients after its acceptance.” Dr. Hodge refers πρῶτον merely to the priority in time, which is not sufficient.—P. S.]
[66][Or as genitive of origin and procession. See Meyer.—P. S.]
[67][So also Alford: “God’s righteousness—not His attribute of righteousness, ‘the righteousness of God,’ but righteousness flowing from and acceptable to Him.” He then subjoins De Wette’s note. Hodge: “The righteousness which God gives, and which He approves.” He also quotes the remark of De Wette: “All interpretations which overlook the idea of imputation, as is done in the explanations given by the Romanists, and also in that of Grotius, are false.” M. Stuart confounds δικαιοσύνη with δικαίωσις, and explains: “δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ is the justification which God bestows, or the justification of which God is the author.”—P. S.]
[68][Hofmann says, l. c., p. Rom 626: “Einerseits bezeichnet δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ eine Gerechtigkeit, welche Gottes ist; andererseits muss nach dem Zusammenhange etwas gemeint sein, das uns zu Theil wird.” He takes the word to mean, not an attribute of God, but a righteousness which God has established, and which constitutes the subject of the gospel preaching, and makes it a power of God unto salvation to every believer. Hence the apostolic office is called ὴ διακονια τῆς δικαιοσύνης. in opposition to the διακονία τῆς κατακρίσεως, 2Co_3:9.—P. S.]
[69][Seventh ed. by Lünemann, § 19, No. 26, p. 118. The article is often omitted before such substantives as are followed by a genitive of possession, e.g., εἰς εὐαγγέλιον θεοῦ, Rom_1:20; ἐπὶ πρόσωπον αύτῶν, Mat_17:6; νοῦν κυρίου, 1Co_2:16, &c.—P. S.]
[70][Lipsius says, p. 22, without proof: “The general Greek significance of the word δικαιόω remains justum facere, and must therefore have the preference before justum habere.” To this Dr. Liebner, and Wieseler, on Gal_2:16, p. 179, justly object. Lipsius admits, however, that δικαιόω in Paul means justum habere, only not always, nor exclusively.—P. S.]
[71][So also Chrysostom and Theodoret. A modification of this view is Tertullian’s: Ex fide legis in fidem evangelii.—P. S.]
[72][This is only a modification of the preceding explanation, and is substantially held also by Erasmus, Melanchthon, Calvin, Beza, Wordsworth, Forbes. The sense is: Beginning and ending with faith from one degree of faith to another; faith is a vital principle and constant growth, receiving grace for grace, going from strength to strength, till it is transformed from glory to glory. Development is the law of spiritual as well as physical life; but in all the stages of growth of Christian life, the vital principle is the same; hence ἐκ πίστεως εὶς πίστιν, from or out of faith as the root, unto faith as the blossom and fruit; faith, as Bengel says, the prora et puppis, the fore-deck and hind-deck of a ship—i.e., all in all. Comp. ἀπὸ δόξης εὶς δόξαν, “from glory to glory,” 2Co_3:18, and “from strength to strength,” Psa_84:7.—P. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv14–16 I am debtor both to the Greeks--cultivated
I am debtor both to the Greeks--cultivated
and to the Barbarians--rude.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv14, 16 14. Debtor—Christ had, by granting him grace and apostleship,…
14. Debtor—Christ had, by granting him grace and apostleship, brought him under an infinite indebtedness, which he was obliged to pay off to the world needing a like salvation.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv14–16 14. I am debtor] i.e. “I owe it to…
14. I am debtor] i.e. “I owe it to them to impart to them the Gospel.” See 1Co_9:16-17; where St Paul speaks as a “dispenser” or “steward” of the Gospel, who is absolutely bound (“it is laid on me”) to give the “portion of food in due season” to those whom he can reach.
the Greeks, and to the Barbarians] A familiar division of mankind. Barbarus originally meant “a speaker of an unintelligible tongue;” then, in Greek, the speaker of a language not Greek. Thus the Romans were as much barbari as the Scythians; and indeed in the older Latin writers we find the word used by themselves, with reference to their own language, as a sort of synonym for “non-Greek.” But when Rome more and more added culture to power the word was practically restricted to nations other than Greek and Latin, and so probably here. The word “Greeks” (Hellenes), in such contrasts as this, had come, by St Paul’s time, to include Romans. Every educated Roman was trained in Greek speech and literature. Some of the “Roman” Christians were no doubt true Hellenes, and, as a body, evidently, they understood Greek. See Introd. ii. § 2.
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the wise, and to the unwise] Practically, the cultured and the uneducated. He contemplates literary hearers on one side, and on the other rude tribes, and peasantry and workmen, and women and children. The word rendered “unwise” is a strong one; elsewhere (e.g. Luk_24:25; Gal_3:1; Tit_3:3;) rendered “fools,” “foolish,” or the like. Here the Apostle probably uses it as from the point of view of the “wise:”—“those whom the philosopher would think to be mind-less.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv14–16 (14) To the Greeks, and to the Barbarians.—The Apostle…
(14) To the Greeks, and to the Barbarians.—The Apostle does not intend to place the Romans any more in the one class than in the other. He merely means “to all mankind, no matter what their nationality or culture.” The classification is exhaustive. It must be remembered that the Greeks called all who did not speak their own language “Barbarians,” and the Apostle, writing from. Greece, adopts their point of view.
Wise and foolish.—(Comp. 1Co_1:20; 1Co_1:26-28.) The gospel was at first most readily received by the poor and unlearned, but it did not therefore follow that culture and education were by any means excluded. St. Paul himself was a conspicuous instance to the contrary. And so, in the next century, the Church which began with such leaders as Ignatius and Polycarp, could number among its members before the century was out, Irenæus, and Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria, and Hippolytus, and Origen—the last, the most learned man of his time.
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(14, 15) Why is the Apostle so eager to come to them? Because an obligation, a duty, is laid upon him. (Comp. 1Co_9:16, “necessity is laid upon me.”) He must preach the gospel to men of all classes and tongues; Rome itself is no exception.
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The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv14–16 Vers. 14, 15. Both to Greeks and Barbarians, both…
Vers. 14, 15. Both to Greeks and Barbarians, both to wise and unwise, I am debtor. So, as much as is in me, to you also that are at Rome, I am ready to preach the gospel. The two divisions of mankind into
(1) Ellhnev kai Barbaroi ,
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(2) sofoi kai anohtoi , are intended to include all, independently of nationality and culture, regarded from a Greek or Roman point of view. The Greeks, as is well known, called all others than themselves Barbaroi , so that Ellhnev kai Barbaroi included the whole world. Here the Romans are intended to be included among Ellhnev , being partakers in Hellenic culture, and in fact at that time its prominent representatives (el. "Non solum Graecia et Italia, sod etiam omnis barbaria," Cicero, "De Fin.," 2:15). Of course, sofoi also includes them. The obvious intention of the writer is to place them in each of the higher categories, and so, while after his manner he pays his expected readers a delicate compliment, to insist that his mission is to the highest in position and culture as well as the lowest, cud that, bold in his convictions, he is not ashamed to preach the cross even to them. "Audax facinus ad crucem vocare terrarum Dominos" (Alex. More. quoted by Olshausen).
Vers. 14-17. The gospel a message for every one.
Narrow views of the gospel are very common. Amongst the very wealthy, what an erroneous idea often exists about the gospel and its claims! They think that religion may do very well for the poor, but they have no need of it. Amongst the very poor, on the other hand, you will often find the idea that religion may do very well for respectable people, but that it has nothing to do with them. Then, again, you will meet with a certain class of intellectual men not always the most cultured or most thoughtful who imagine that the gospel may do very well for commonplace, ordinary people, but that they have got far beyond such a childish belief. Even among Christian people what narrow views of the gospel and its scope! How slow the Christian Church has been in realizing its mission to the heathen world! There are many who still think that the heathen are well enough off; that there is no need to send the gospel to them. There are many who will tell us that there is "no use" in sending the gospel to the Mohammedan or the Jew. But the Apostle Paul took a very different view. In his view the gospel is a message for every one; and it is the work and duty of the Christian Church to bring it within the reach of every one.
I A FACT STATED. "The gospel of Christ," says St. Paul, "is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (ver. 16). This was the cause of his readiness to go and preach the gospel at Rome also (ver. 15), just as he had already preached it to bigoted and fanatical Jews, and to the cultured and sceptical Greeks. He knew no difference of nation or of language, of creed or class, so far as the need of the gospel and the power of it were concerned. His message was that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and he knew that he would find sinners everywhere.
1. The gospel is a message for the rich. It tells them of a treasure that is incorruptible, that fadeth not away. It shows them how to become rich toward God first, by having Christ, and having him, we have all things; and then, by making a good use of the earthly possessions which God has given them.
2. The gospel is a message for the poor. It teaches them to be industrious and contented. It shows them in the earthly life of Jesus Christ himself, and in the lives of hundreds of his followers, how a peaceful and happy mind may exist, and how a useful life may be spent, even amid circumstances of outward poverty.
3. The gospel is a message for the men of intellect and learning. What sublime ideas it puts before us! with what pure and lofty motives it inspires us! and with what a glorious hope it cheers us on! Contrast the future to which the atheist or the agnostic looks forward, with the future which is the Christian"s hope, an eternity of conscious enjoyment of what is noblest and best. The gospel has a claim upon the ignorant and poor because of its simplicity and its comforts. But it has just as strong a claim upon men of giant intellect and vigorous understanding. And observe how some of the foremost men in science, in literature, and in statesmanship have recognized that claim, and responded to it. What names in literature and science stand higher than those of Newton and Faraday, Thomas Chalmers and Hugh Miller, Sir John Herschel and Sir David Brewster, all humble believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? Or to take one case only from our British statesmen, that of the late Lord Cairns, Lord Chancellor of England. During the term of office of the last Conservative administration a Russian war was felt to be imminent, and much excitement prevailed both within and without the cabinet. One day the wife of a junior member of the cabinet inquired of Lady Cairns, "What is the secret of the lord chancellor"s constant and unruffled calmness, which my husband tells me pervades the whole place so soon as Lord Cairns appears? "It is this," was the reply; "he never attends a cabinet meeting without spending half an hour immediately beforehand alone with his God." Upon young men of education and learning, upon young men of thoughtful minds, we would press home the claims of the gospel; yes, the personal claims of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The gospel is a message for every one. It is a message for the sorrowing. It is a message to the sinner. It has melted the hardest heart; it has made the impure man pure, the intemperate man temperate, the dishonest man honest; and changed the proud and haughty man into a man of humble and gentle spirit. Over and over again it has proved itself to be "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.
II A REASON GIVEN AND AN OBLIGATION FELT,
1. St. Paul gives a reason why the gospel is a message for every one. "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith" (ver. 17). A gospel that tees of a perfect righteousness is the universal need of the human heart. In the opening chapters of this Epistle the apostle enlarges on that idea more fully. He shows how the heathen needed a righteousness. Then he shows how the Jews needed a righteousness, condemned as they were by that holy Law whose requirements they failed to fulfil. And then, having shown the universal need all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom_3:23) he speaks of the universal righteousness which is unto and upon all them that believe. There is no difference in the need. There is no difference in the gospel message.
2. We have here also an obligation felt. "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise" (ver. 14). There are few statements so sublime as that from any human pen. The old Latin poet represents one of his characters as saying, "Homo sum, nihil humanum a me alienum puto" ("I am a man, and everything human has an interest for me"). This is a fine sentiment; but here, in the case of St. Paul, we have a man expressing his personal obligation to seek the spiritual good of every man whom he could reach. He, a Jew, counted himself under obligation to do something for the barbarians; he, a learned and intellectual man, counted himself under obligation to do something for the unwise and ignorant as well as for the wise and the cultured. We, too, need to think more of our own personal indebtedness to Christ. Then we too, like St. Paul, shall he anxious to carry the gospel to rich and poor, learned and unlearned, Jew and Gentile. C.H.I.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv14, 16 I am debtor both to the Greeks and to…
Rom_1:14-16
I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians.
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I am debtor
The text raises a question on points which, in mercantile phraseology, would be designated--
I. The business.
1. A merchant, embarked in an extensive foreign trade, has fallen into the habit of doing a good deal of petty business at home on which the profit is small; but it is near, and therefore occupies time out of all proportion to its worth. In the meantime rumours are rife that in one foreign market prices had suddenly fallen before his goods arrived; that in another his agents had sold his cargo and absconded; and that in a third direction an investment, not insured, had been lost at sea. He declines to examine these reports, because he does not like the subject; and to keep his mind free from painful reflections he throws himself with redoubled energy into his huckstering, and exults over the halfpence of profit which each transaction produces. The man is mad, you say. He is. But probably thou art the man.
2. We are all merchants. We have business with both worlds; but our stake in the one is slight, in the other all but infinite. It becomes, therefore, an important question whether our attention to these two is in due proportion to their comparative worth. Alas! there are many foolish traders who are anxious about the balance of their accounts for time, and leave the interests of eternity to sink or swim.
3. Paul was a diligent and energetic man. Had he been a merchant, the keenest wit in all the Exchange could not have overreached him. He closely examined the worth of an article, and nicely calculated how much it would bring. He embarked all in one business, and then pushed it to the uttermost. He did not neglect the necessary affairs of this life, but his treasure was in heaven, and his heart followed it.
II. The debt.
1. However good mens position in the present world, in their greatest business all begin in debt, and no efforts of their own can ever discharge it. Some heirs would fain get quit of their heritage. When a man discovers his property is burdened beyond the worth of all that he has or can ever hope to win the consequences are disastrous. If there were any hope of success, he might strive by industry to diminish gradually his burden; but the debt is obviously so great that, in spite of all his efforts, its amount will grow greater every year. He loses heart, and abandons himself to his fate. Such is the condition of men in relation to God. We are born with a debt, and the amount of our liabilities has increased and is still increasing day by day. In this extremity a Daysman comes in between the Judge and the guilty and pays the debt. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The handwriting that was against us is blotted out; the bond is cancelled, and we are free.
2. The forgiven sinner is clear in the book of Gods judgment; but he owes much to his Redeemer. He is as deeply in debt as ever, but it is now a debt of gratitude. It is greater than he can ever pay; but the more he realises its greatness the happier he grows.
3. But Paul confesses here that he is a debtor to man--to every man. How comes this? Thus: In the complicated processes of modern merchandise a man often finds himself in debt to unknown persons. You have done business with a merchant at a distance, and the result is a pecuniary balance in his favour, while in transactions with another party the balance is against him. With a view to the convenience of himself and his correspondent, instead of getting money from you and paying it to his creditor, he hands over to that creditor the claim which he holds against you; or, to make the analogy more complete, the merchant to whom you owe money desires to help certain destitute persons in your city, and to them makes over the bill as an equivalent for money. The person who possesses that claim so transferred presents it for payment, and you must pay. Thus you become debtors to persons whom you never saw. Thus Paul became a debtor to the Greeks; and he owed all that he had and was to Christ, who transferred his claim, and Paul was bound to honour it. So wherever there is a man in want, spiritual or temporal, there a legal claim is presented to the disciples of Christ; and if they repudiate they dishonour their Lord. This principle is exhibited in the story of the woman with the alabaster box of ointment (Mar_14:3-9).
4. The root and life of true religion is personal devotion to a personal Redeemer; thereafter and thereon grows active service in his cause. These are the first and second commandments of the New Testament decalogue. Neither of these can thrive alone. Devotion without work degenerates into monkery; work without devotion sinks into a shallow, fitful secularism. If we have got mercy from Christ, we owe mercy to men.
5. Nor does the worlds apathy release a Christian from his obligations. If a company of poor people held a claim against a citizen, and if he should take advantage of their ignorance and poverty to evade the payment, he would be a dishonourable man. In like manner, although those who now hold Christs claim on us, not knowing its value, do not present it for payment, we are bound in honour to seek them out and discharge our obligations.
III. The composition; in what manner and to what amount the insolvent proposed to pay. Carefully observe that the most devoted life is not offered as an adequate return to the Saviour. As well might a man purchase his pardon at first from the Judge as repay the Redeemer for it afterwards. He pays, not in the spirit of bondage, but in the spirit of grateful love; not that he looks to a time when the debt will be paid off, but that he delights in the act of paying it. Having announced his principle, Paul plunged at once into its practical details (Rom_1:15). Adopting the natural and Scriptural order, we shall suggest first some installments of the debt that are due to parties--
1. At home. It is not necessary that the debtors should go far away in order to find a person authorised to receive the payments. The original creditor has secured that properly qualified receivers should be at band. Wherever there is being in wretchedness within your reach, to that human being you am a debtor. Behold the open spring of all home mission effort! When certain institutions which at first were supported by voluntary contributions were transferred to a tax imposed on the community by imperial authority the difficulties of the managers disappeared. Ah, the treasury of mission would always be full if the authority of Christ were as effective in the hearts of Christians as that of the government! But let it not be supposed that it is in money only or chiefly that Christians should pay their debt. Personal service is the legal tender, and it is only to a limited extent that money may be received as an equivalent. Personal dealing is the need of our day.
2. Abroad. A rich man dies, leaving a large family of young children, of whom another rich man obtains the guardianship. Partly by law and partly by violence he drives off all competitors and constitutes himself sole trustee of the wealthy minors. He then proceeds to enrich himself out of the inheritance of his wards. We have masterfully, not to say unjustly, ousted all other claimants, and assumed absolute guardianship over the vast populations of India. We have enriched ourselves by the inheritance of those little children. As a Christian nation, therefore, we are debtors to them. (W. Arnot, D. D.)
Debtor and creditor
The text suggests that Christian missions are a new way to pay old debts. The debts are indeed old; the way to pay them is new. The creditors have been increasing in numbers, while the debt, with interest, has been growing. The debtors, too, have been growing in numbers and in ability to discharge their obligations. But still the debt is, to a large extent, unpaid.
I. The debtor and his debt. The apostle used these words as representing the whole Church. The Church is not a company under the Limited Liability Act, but is a partnership, and each partner is involved to the uttermost of his possessions. Consider--
1. The ground of this indebtedness. Pauls words are not used directly of his relation to God. Yet we must remember that there is an intimate connection between our debt to God and our debt to our fellow men. The question, How much owest thou unto thy Lord? must ever precede the other, How much owest thou to thy neighbour? Because we are debtors to God we are debtors to man, and just in proportion as we recognise the one shall we recognise the other. The true ground of this indebtedness is found, therefore, in the relation of the regenerate man to God as a subject of the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
2. Looked at in this light, the debt is a debt of honour. I do not use the term, as is often done, in such a way as to imply that there may be no dishonour in neglecting debt in other forms. But as in this case no writ can be issued, it is therefore peculiarly a debt of honour. When God gave us His salvation it was not for ourselves alone, but for the family of man, of whom we are but members. Our honour is concerned, therefore, in fulfilling to the utmost the purpose of God thus made known. A trustee has a charge committed to him by another whose representative he is. The due administration of the trust is with him a point of the highest honour. Every Christian is, in virtue of his Christianity, a trustee of the gospel for mankind at large, and therefore in honour bound to see that the members of the race get their full share.
3. Granted this, I think you will admit that to the man of honour it is a sad thing to be in debt. Paul was no pessimist; but he was far too true a man to shut his eyes to the real state before God of those who knew not Christ. There were, therefore, two sides to his experience, as there must be to that of every Christian. Looking Godward, he was gladdened by the rays of the Sun of Righteousness; looking manward, he was saddened by the thick darkness of his unregeneracy and death in sin. So it came about that he was sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, and his sorrow wakened in him a deep sense of responsibility which found expression in the words I am debtor.
4. The Christian debtor, seeing the true ground of his indebtedness, moved by a sense of honour to Christ, and saddened by the thought of his responsibility, will make strenuous and self-denying efforts to discharge his debt. Thus it was with Paul. In spite of the scanty means of transport at his disposal he managed to reach nearly all the chief centres of the then known world. Brief as was his Christian course, it was packed full of action. He flew across the world, and at every point he touched he held meetings of his creditors--meetings the object of which was, not to offer a composition, but to pay twenty shillings in the pound--as he unfolded to them the unsearchable riches of Christ. The debt is owing still. There is no statute of limitations cancelling our obligations to preach the gospel to every creature.
II. The creditor and his claim.
1. Where is he? The touching cry of the widow to Elisha was, The creditor is come, Aye, the creditor is come. Civilisation has brought him, Time was when the heathen was afar off; but railroad and steamboat, telegraph and telephone, have unified the race. In three weeks you may be among the teeming millions of India. You may know today what took place in China yesterday, as William Carey could not have known in Northampton what had transpired in London the day before. The discoveries of science have laid fresh and weighty burdens of responsibility on the Church of God, but at the same time help us to discharge our obligations.
2. Who is he? I, too, am a man, he says; no evolutionised ape, much as appearances are against me, but of the creation of God. Your father Adam was my father too. The common brotherhood constitutes the claim of man upon man in regard to the gospel. When God, in the mystery of the Incarnation, was pleased to take humanity into union with Himself, it was not English humanity or civilised humanity, but humanity as such. The brotherhood of the race, established in creation in the person of the first man, is confirmed in Incarnation in the person of the Second Man. The creditor, then, is your long-lost brother asking for his share of that salvation which God came near to man to secure.
3. His claim. This is emphatically the day of the people. The day of oligarchy and of aristocracy has set; the day of democracy, whether we like it or not, has dawned. The few have had their day, the many are now to have theirs, The rights of man as man are being rapidly brought to the front. He who discerns the signs of the times hears the ever-swelling cry of the proletariat claiming a larger share of privilege, and alongside of it the equally eager though silent cry from the heathen world for a fuller communion in Christian privilege and blessing. He who notes these things will still have sounding in his ears the cry, Come over and help us!
3. How is this claim to be met? The claims of the widows creditor were met by a supply given by God. The debts we owe to the heathen must be paid by that which we receive from the same Divine source. When God had multiplied her oil, the prophet said, Pay thy debt and live, thou and thy children, of the rest. Home work will not suffer because the demands of the outside world are met. I do not undervalue money nor men; but in order to the bringing out in fuller measure both of men and money we need that which neither money can buy nor men create--a fuller measure of Divine power in the whole Church. (W. P. Lockhart,)
Debtors
1. The language is commercial, and yet the obligation is not precisely that which a merchant commonly understands. Debt is that which a man owes to another for something received. But Paul was not in any such way indebted to the Gentiles, He owed no one a penny. Neither did he owe the Gentiles any gratitude, for in almost every city he had suffered wrong. It was not, therefore, on this ground that Paul acknowledged himself to be a debtor, but solely on the ground that he had received something for them. The glorious gospel of the blessed God had been committed to his trust; he had been allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. This, therefore, he could not honestly hold back. On the one hand he had been signally blessed by Christ. Then, on the other side, were the needs of the Gentile world. The vision of the Macedonian crying, Come over and help us, was, indeed, a special Divine indication of what the Lord would have him to do; but it came in that form and time because it was already in the line of all his desires. He knew the hollowness and degradation of the idolatries of the Gentiles, and having learned the value of his own soul at the Cross of Christ, he was eager to be the means of communicating the same revelation and conveying the same life to them. Whether they should accept it or not rested with themselves. But as for the proclamation, necessity was laid upon him, and he felt that it was at his peril if he should hold his peace,
2. How that motive operated is seen by his course at Athens. He was there alone. He had not intended without companions to do anything publicly there; but when he saw the state of things his spirit was so stirred that, at the risk of scorn and persecution, he could not but speak. He was always on the outlook for opportunities of paying this debt, He was not afraid to speak to men like Sergius Paulus or Festus; and yet he was not above seeking the salvation of a runaway slave like Onesimus. He was equally earnest in the little prayer meeting at Philippi and upon the summit of Areopagus, and even in Rome he found a congregation large enough for his ambition in the soldier that was chained to his right arm. He never saw a man without remembering that he had a debt to pay to him, and so, not more for the benefit of the stranger than for the exoneration of his own conscience, he sought his highest welfare. When I put it so, I cease to wonder at the unwearying assiduity of the great apostle, while at the same time I am filled with shame at the paltry littleness of our modern Christianity.
3. His was only a specific instance of a principle, which holds for us as really and powerfully as it did for him, viz., that personal possession of privilege is of the nature of a trust, and involves the obligation to use it not for individual profit merely, but for the welfare of others. The greatness of exceptional endowment carries with it an obligation to exceptional service. The highest of all, by virtue of his very elevation, is to be the servant of all. The power of the strong is Divinely mortgaged in the interests of the weak; the sufferer has a God-given claim upon me for relief and the ignorant for instruction. This is clearly the true interpretation of the parable of the good Samaritan; and indeed it is the true and proper outcome of the gospel itself. I know that selfishness would repudiate all such indebtedness. The man of wealth, rank, learning, power, says he has won his position, and that he has a right to use it as he will, no matter what may become of others.
4. But Christ has reversed all that by introducing the principle on which I am now insisting, and already we see indications of its operations among us. Take power, for example; and how readily now men assent to the statement that it has its duties, i.e., debts, as well as its prerogatives! Then as to wealth: the conviction is becoming stronger among us that the man who is blessed with it is a debtor to the community of which he is a member. The same is true of education, etc. True, we are a very long way yet from a full recognition of this principle; but it is making its way.
5. The principle has had its origin in the gospel, for until Christ came men cared little for anything outside of themselves. The question of Cain, Am I my brothers keeper? gives the key to the explanation of all the enormities Of the ancient civilisations. But Christ taught His followers to look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. And this principle furnishes what is needed to meet the perils of our modern civilisation. The tendency of the times is to increase the separation between different classes. We continually hear it said that the rich are becoming richer and the poor are growing poorer. The gulf which has long yawned between employer and employed is widening. Now some of that is no doubt inevitable. We can never have a dead level of absolute equality. What we have to do is to bring the gospel principle to bear upon this subject with more force; for see how it takes the poison out of all this diversity of condition. It makes the powerful man the trustee for the weak, the rich man the guardian for the poor, the learned man the teacher of the ignorant, and the free man the emancipator of the enslaved. When His followers disputed among themselves which should be greatest, the Lord, instead of seeking to uproot ambition, gave a new definition of greatness as service, and bade them be ambitious of that. And in precisely the same way here the gospel, far from blotting out all distinctions in society as the Communist would do, makes the very privileges which mark the distinction between a higher class and a lower the basis of obligation, so that the one is the debtor of the other, and the obligation increases with the increase of the privilege.
6. But we should expect to find the highest manifestation of this principle in the Christian Church. And here, though it has not attained anything like its legitimate development, we are not entirely disappointed, for it has originated and sustained the great missionary enterprise; and though the Church as a whole has not yet anything like come up to the level of Paul, still there have been individuals who are not unworthy to be compared even with the great apostle of the Gentiles. While we here at home are enjoying our privileges with self-complacency and satisfaction, and thinking that we perform our part by giving a small annual donation, missionaries are labouring with devoted heroism to carry the gospel into benighted lands. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Every Christian a debtor to the pagan
I. The nature and strength of that particular motive to labour for the spread of the gospel which is presented in the text. The feeling of indebtedness in an honourable mind is--
1. A powerful one. It lies under all the commerce of the world, and is the spring which impels all the wheels of secular business. Never are the secular abilities of a man braced up to a more vigorous activity than when, under the sense of obligation, he proceeds with perfect integrity to obey the injunction, Owe no man anything.
2. A cheerful and an encouraging motive. Men distinguished in the monetary world have described the gush of pleasure which they experienced in the earlier days of their career from the excitement incident to a gradual but certain overcoming of their liabilities.
II. Its source and foundation. Every Christian owes the gospel to the pagan--
1. Because of the deep interest which Christ takes in the pagan. In the account of the last judgment we are taught that all neglect of human welfare is neglect of Christ, and that anything that is done for human salvation, in any nation or age, is done for Him. We have no conception of the immensity of that Divine compassion for man which moved Christ to take our infirmities and bear our sicknesses. So absorbed was He in His merciful work that His friends went out to lay hold on Him. This compassion originated partly from His Divinity and partly from His humanity. The Divinity in His complex person gave the eye to see, and the humanity the heart to feel and suffer; and when such an eye is united with such a heart the sorrow and the sympathy are infinite. As God, the Redeemer was the Creator of men, and as Man He was their Elder Brother; and therefore He can so unify Himself with mankind, as He does in these wonderful utterances, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me, etc.
2. Because of his own personal indebtedness to Christ. Language fails to express the absoluteness of the right which the Redeemer has to the service of His redeemed people. The right to mans service which He has by virtue of His relation as a Creator is immeasurable; but this claim which God as Redeemer possesses upon a human being who He has saved from eternal death is even greater. This it was that made Paul say, I am debtor, etc.
I owe the knowledge of this great atonement which my Redeemer has made for the sin of the whole world to every creature.
Conclusion: Every Christian--
1. Should look upon the work of evangelising the world as a debt he owes to Christ and to his fellow man. He should heartily acknowledge this debt and not attempt to free himself from it by explaining it away as a figure of speech. Freely ye have received, freely give. This was the command which the Saviour gave to His twelve disciples when He endowed them with miraculous powers against unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Suppose now that they had attempted to use this supernaturalism for their own selfish purposes, how instantaneously would the wrath of the Redeemer have fallen upon them! But the case would have been the same had they neglected to make any use of their gifts. They were debtors, and owed these healing mercies to the sick and the dying, and the mere non-use of them would have been a sin and a crime. Precisely such is the relation which every Christian sustains to that power of healing spiritual maladies which is contained in the gospel of Christ. We cannot too carefully remember that the work of missions is not an optional matter; it is a debt. Woe is me, said St. Paul, if I preach not the gospel. It is like the manna, which, so long as Israel used it, was the bread of heaven; but when they hoarded it, it became corruption in their very hands. If this sentiment of indebtedness declines, then the Church will lapse back into indifference and apathy, and these are the harbingers of a corrupt Christianity, which will be buried in one common grave with paganism, Mohammedanism, and all forms of human sin and error.
2. Should labour zealously to discharge this debt. The debt which the believer is to pay is not his debt to eternal justice. That he can never discharge. Christians are not to send the gospel to the Greek and the Barbarian for the purpose of making atonement for their sins, and thereby cancelling their obligations to law and justice. That debt Christ Himself has paid. But our debt is to preach the gospel to every creature. If the providence and Spirit of God indicate that we are to go in person, then we are to go in person. If the providence of God has placed in our hands the silver and the gold by which we can send our representative, then we are to give our silver and our gold, with our prayers for the Divine blessing upon it. And, by the grace of God, this can be done. The labour is of that moderate and proportioned species which consists in giving back to Christ what we have received from Him.
3. Will be rewarded for his discharge of his obligations. Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. God rewards His own grace. (G. T. Shedd, D. D.)
The Christian a debtor to mankind
I. How was Paul a debtor?
1. Not for special benefits conferred. He had the Roman citizenship, indeed, an he was not unmindful of its privileges; but he did not have it as a peculiar grant in consequence of any peculiar favour of the Roman people. He had received benefits from contact with the Greek literature and art, the influence of which pervaded the atmosphere of the world in that age; but even this was not a benefit which was conferred upon him as separate from others. And these benefits, whatever they were on any human calculation, were wiped out by the treatment which Roman and Greek alike gave to him.
2. Still less was he indebted to the barbarian who had nothing whatever to give him.
3. He felt the obligation of those who have special gifts of power or grace entrusted to them of God to use them for the benefit of others.
(1) He had a knowledge which the world as yet had not attained--the knowledge of God, in the person of His Son, by the power of His Spirit, giving redemption to the world, providing for man purification from sin, into the white beauty of Gods holiness. It was the knowledge most necessary of all to personal welfare, for the guidance of men in this life, and for their preparation for the great life beyond. It was the knowledge most prolific of public benefit; under whose transforming energy the empire itself should be purged of its savageness and converted to Christ.
(2) He had extraordinary power, too, given him of God for the proclamation of this knowledge; and because he had such eminent gifts he felt himself under proportionate obligations to others destitute of them.
II. The important and helpful suggestions which flow from this.
1. What reason the poor and the weak always have to bless God for the gospel. It is simply the gospel of Christ taking the current of mans natural inclination--arresting it, and then reversing it--which gives to the poor, the weak, and the friendless their recognised claim upon those who are stronger.
2. What a beautiful civilisation it is which the gospel contemplates as its result in the world--a civilisation the key of which is in this doctrine; that weakness confers right, and power simply imposes obligation.
3. What the test is of the progress of Christian civilisation in the world. Not in the multiplying inventions of mechanism; in the accumulating wealth of cities; in the extension of free institutions; in the spread of literature, and the steady advance of science in the earth; but in the answer to this one question: How far does society recognise its obligation to the weakest and the poorest in it?
4. Here is the practical test of our individual Christian experience. Not in outward belief; not in ecstasy of spirit, but here: How much have I of the feeling of Paul toward all around me that, by whatever of power and grace, and of His supreme knowledge God has given to me, I have become the more indebted to them? (R. S. Storrs, D. D.)
Christian debt
I. Its nature and our power to pay it.
1. When a footpad starts to relieve a traveller of his purse he says to himself, The world owes me a living, and a living I must have. Many a one cherishes the same feeling. A scholar murmurs, as he gazes upon his unsold volume, The world owes me fame and a hearing! The woman of fashion declares, The world owes me a position! As the politician clamours for votes he insists, The world owes me a place! The ancients exercised themselves much in the attempt to answer the question, What is man? One said, It is the animal which laughs. Another said, It is the animal who cooks his food. A truer answer is, It is the animal who never is appreciated. There lives not the man who is restful under the estimate he receives. And if that great burden bearer--the world--should attempt to pay all the bills for undervaluation presented to it from day to day, it would be hopelessly bankrupt in a single generation.
2. Now precisely here the gospel meets our race. When Jesus hears the cry, The world owes me, He answers, Well, I will pay you all it owes; I will pour out upon you such a wealth of resource that the balance due shall be reversed; then you will in turn owe the world. Here is a man who has been wont to say, The world owes me a competence, for it is the duty of the strong to take care of the weak. To him Christ says in the gospel, I admit that principle. You shall have all you need. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, etc. Concern yourself no more about money. If you implicitly trust Me, I will see that the treasure never falls. Remember steadfastly your own principle. You owe the world a living. I have furnished you with vast resources. You are to spread the kingdom which crowns you. Just so of everything else. If one demands happiness, influence, position, the gospel bestows it beyond any measurement. All that it ever says the world owes, is so copiously transcended that the obligation rushes across the ledger into a new balance. And now it is the Christian man who is in debt, and that upon his own showing; for he is strong, and the strong are to care for the weak.
II. The parties who hold our obligations. The apostle specifies the ranks and the races he owes. He meant, simply, he owed everybody. As he says elsewhere, he was to do good to all men. And all Christianity is embodied in Paul. Owe no man anything, but to love one another. Love is the fulfilling of the law, and ye are the children of God!
III. The purpose of all which has been said is this--
1. There is a lesson of deepest importance here to all young Christians. Life is certain to be moulded by the ideal one has of it, and the principles which he makes to underlie it at the start. A child of opulent parents who goes forth into life saying, The world owes me honour, ease, flattery, and place, will make a very different man from the child of many prayers who enters the conflict saying, I owe the world a work and a duty. So the gospel sets the Christian on the search, not how much he may claim in the wrestle of existence, but how much he may give.
2. There is something instructive in those instances when men have put forth all their energies to pay their debts. Sir Waiter Scott once tried to rest his half-delirious brain. But he had no time to be sick, as the outstanding obligations matured. This is folly, said he to the startled servant, as he sprang up from the couch; bring in the pens and paper! There is no fertility of genius like the pressure of a great debt. Necessity is the mother of invention.
3. Note, also, the industry and thrift it promotes. That man pays most of his dues whose unfailing hammer rings earliest in the morning and latest at night. He lessens debt the most whose shuttle weaves the most yards in faithful toil. Diligence in business keeps the bailiff a stranger. Put this commonplace alongside of devout Christian life, and so learn the lesson. A child of God who really feels that he is a debtor to the whole world will surely find some shrewd way of his own to discharge the duly. Conclusion: Sometimes you notice a new church coming into being. Once a pastor was asked, When will this building be completed? He easily gave the time. Will the congregation be in debt? Oh yes, awfully; sometimes it frightens me to think of it! Then came the question, Why did you begin when you had not the money? Then the minister of God answered, Oh, we have money enough; we shall have no such debt as that; but think how much a church like this is going to owe the community and the world! How they will look to us for mans love and Gods grace! Is our church debt paid? How much owest thou? Souls are looking to us for help. The true test of piety is a sense of debtorship to souls. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Debtors to all men
Then I am afraid there are a great many dishonest Christians who scarcely recognise, and never pay, their debts! What was it that Paul felt he owed to the whole world? It was the gospel, the message of Gods love in Jesus Christ.
I. We are all debtors by the possession of a common humanity. The differences between slave or free, cultured or uncultured, rich or poor, are but the surface. What lies beneath is the one human heart, with the same wants, the same weaknesses, the same aspirations, the same fears, the same possibilities. Here stand a range of Alps, separate, frowning, white-topped, the Jungfrau, the Eiger, and the Monch, and all the brother giants of that mountain system, parted from each other by profound gulfs. Yes! so they are, at the top; but at the bottom all rise up from the one formation. And so mankind. And that unity involves, as a distinct consequence, the thought that every man possesses all his possessions in order that through him the benefit and the use of them may pass to his fellows.
II. We are debtors by the possession of a common salvation. Gods purpose in giving you and me Christ for ours is that we should give Him to others. The world needs healing; you there have the healing that the world needs. Is anything more required to prescribe duty? What would you say about a man that, in the midst of famine, sat at home and feasted luxuriously whilst his brethren were starving, and then pleaded that nobody had bade him go out to supply their wants?
III. We English Christians are debtors, in many cases, to the world, by benefits received. This great commercial, maritime, colonising nation, what does it not owe; what do your homes not owe; what does the business of Manchester not owe to the heathen, to whom you owe your Saviour? We have received our civilisation in its germs, our language, and much high thought, from that far off East which is still the possession of the English Crown.
IV. We are debtors by injuries inflicted. That is a sad but, as it would appear, almost an inevitable law, that the contact of the superior, or, at all events, of the civilised, with the inferior or uncivilised races, shall result in the gradual fading of the latter from before the stronger conquerors. And, in addition to that injury, the vices of our modern civilisation are carried whithersoever our ships and our colonies and our commerce goes. How much owest thou unto thy Lord? You pay Christ when you pay your fellows. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Christendoms debt to the world
If A gives me property to be employed for the use of B, my debt is to B. God has given the gospel to Christendom to impart to mankind, and Christendom owes it as a debt. This is a debt--
I. Whose magnitude is immense.
1. It is the gospel. Who can estimate this treasure? It is the pearl of great price, Gods unspeakable gift.
2. It is the consecration of life to the diffusion of the gospel. We owe not merely the gospel, but all our powers and circumstances in order to its diffusion. Not merely the preaching of it, but the living it, and that forever. What a debt is this! We are not our own.
II. Whose justice is indisputable. Think of--
1. The terms of its bestowment. It was given in trust; not to monopolise, but to diffuse, Go ye fate all the world, etc.
2. The universality of its provisions. They are not for a class, but, like the elements of nature, for universal man--the bread and water of life to all.
3. The conscience of its possessors. All its genuine disciples feel that they ought to communicate it. Necessity is laid upon me.
4. The condition of its claimants, Those to whom we owe it are perishing for the lack of it.
III. Whose discharge is urgent. It is urgent as far as--
1. The creditor is concerned--the whole heathen world, sunk in ignorance, superstition, and misery. The recovery of these fallen millions depends on our paying the debt.
2. The debtor. He who neglects to discharge it is injuring his own nature, character, prospects, and usefulness.
Conclusion: Let us all rise to discharge this debt.
1. It has long arrears.
2. Is ever accumulating.
3. May be on our hands at death. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Our debtorship
I. Pauls estimate of the gospel.
1. He designates it the gospel of Christ, not so much because Christ is the author, as because He is the subject of it. It is the good news about Christ as our Substitute and Sacrifice. In this sense only is it good news. Ignore the doctrine, and the bare facts of the history are no more a gospel than any other story of a life or death would be. Only when you speak of a Christ who has died for our sins will you put music into the heart of a sin and sorrow-stricken world.
2. In view of Pauls anticipated visit to Rome this expression is especially suggestive. The Romans prided themselves on power, and worshipped it, and Paul seizes on this historic fact to tell the Romans that he knew of a greater power even than theirs. The emblems of this power are the dew, the seed, the light, the leaven, things which work quietly; mighty forces, resistless in the might of their stillness. Sometimes, it is true, God comes to men in the thunders of the law, as when He made Felix tremble; but more frequently it is with the gentle persuasiveness which opened Lydias heart to the gracious message as the flower unfolds its petals to drink in the dew. I have seen machines used in Nottingham lace work with power enough to rend the whole fabric into a thousand pieces, yet working with such exquisite nicety that they do not break the finest thread. So in the gospel, though God brings His Omnipotence to bear upon the soul, He influences men through means and motives so sweet yet strong that they willingly and gladly yield.
3. And the sphere of the gospels operation is to be as broad as its power is boundless. To everyone, etc. There is an old Turkish proverb which declares that Islam can flourish only where the palm tree grows. But there is no such legend for the gospel as that. The word of life which Paul sought to plant will grow in every soil.
II. Pauls sense of the obligation in which the possession of the gospel involved him. I am debtor, etc.
1. Debt implies obligation, and obligation is--
(1) A law of nature. Nothing in the material world lives to itself. The flower made sweet by the breath of God is constrained to shed its fragrance on the air. The sun, filled with warmth and radiance, flings them abroad to gladden the dark places of the earth and to make her desert smile. Basking in his beams the birds sing, the corn ripens, and the trees bend down with rich ripe clusters. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not toll. Why? Simply because it is under the same beneficent constraint. Thus Nature everywhere and by everything proclaims with sublime though silent voice, I am debtor.
(2) An instinct of human life--the genial, gracious bond which unites all hearts. As no man liveth by himself, so no man may live to himself. We all live through others and are dependent on their ministries. And every generous nature feels that unless he gives back to the world as much service as he takes from it he is a delinquent.
2. Christianity enlarges and ennobles this feeling.
(1) Sitting at the foot of the Cross men catch the spirit of Him who hangs upon it, who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, etc. Christs life was love in action. And as His disciples we learn from His lips as from His life, that He designs sweet and sympathetic ministries to be the golden coinage of our new nature, the currency of our affections, and that if we try to be misers of such wealth we shall suffer the fate of misers. But if grace has rightly done its work in us we cannot help sharing it. It will flow forth from us as spontaneously as heat from a fire, or fragrance from a June rose. Like the box of ointment which Mary broke, it will shed its perfume all around.
(2) The gospel, too, strengthens the instinct of debtorship by revealing men in a new light. Apart from the gospel we are almost ready to question whether some of our dark and depraved fellows are worth saving at all; but the gospel reveals the fact that the most depraved are men after all, and precious in Gods sight. Outcasts and prodigals, as children of the same Father, have a claim on our brotherly sympathy and succour. As trustees of an inheritance to which they have an equal right, they demand that we share with them our riches.
(3) Again we are laid under obligation by positive command of the Master. When the Crusades were being preached the one cry which provoked a response from every lip was this: God wills it! The plea in our case is more urgent than in theirs, and shall our sense of obligation be less. It is not merely God wills it, but Christ commands it. It comes direct, not merely as the Divine wish, but as the Divine injunction. When Christ says Go, who will dare to stay?
3. And having laid the obligation on us, the Master has opened the way for its fulfilment. Never have the nations been so accessible as they are today. As Englishmen we mix with the world everywhere. Now, why has God thus brought us into touch with all the nations? Merely that we might fill the coffers of our merchants or sharpen to a keener point the boast about An empire on which the sun never sets? Conclusion: Do we realise our obligation, and, if so, are we ready and willing to discharge it? Paul said, not only I am debtor, but I am ready. So ready that neither pain, nor peril, nor privation could root out of him his eagerness. Thus ready, like Paul, to proclaim the gospel, let us rejoice in the assurance that it will be as resistless in our hands as it was in his. When the knights of Germany offered their swords to Luther in behalf of his cause he replied: The Word shall do it. And he was right. There is an old story about the conqueror of Rome, who dashed his sword down into the scales when the ransom was being paid; and Christ flings His two-edged sword into the scale when we are weighing resources, and the other scale kicks the beam. Only make sure that your hand grips His, and then nothing can withstand you. A young officer detailed by the Iron Duke for some dangerous service, asked for one grasp of the great commanders all-conquering hand, to fit and fire him for the death-daring enterprise. (J. Le Huray.)
The Christians obligation to diffuse the gospel
This declaration of the apostle implies--
I. The adaptation of the gospel to all the varieties of human character. There are three reasons which prove this fact, which fact constitutes the basis of all missionary duty, and gives encouragement to missionary exertion.
1. The perfection of its evidence. There is no species of moral proof by means of which the understanding can be convinced, the heart impressed, the conscience affected--that is, not brought before us in that evidence which establishes and illustrates the divinity of the gospel.
2. The completeness of its discoveries. Jesus is expressly termed the Finisher of the faith. He has not only announces it, but completed it. Whatever respects the character of God, the way of salvation, the rule of duty, the source of happiness--whatever belongs to the faith, the hope, the holiness of the Christian--is fully revealed in this sacred testimony.
3. The results of its influence. We can look back on the workings of this mighty system for eighteen centuries, and see how it has always been attended by the same gracious power, and secured the same spiritual results, and thus has been demonstrably proved the truth that it is the power of God to salvation unto everyone that believeth.
II. The obligations which Christians are under to secure by all practical and divinely appointed means its universal diffusion.
1. The obligation respects yourselves. There is a question which should always take the precedency when we are contemplating any line of benevolent effort. Have you fled to the refuge of mercy? Is the gospel testimony cordially believed by you? Let these be your feelings, and then you will be at once prepared to appreciate the force of the apostles statement: I am a debtor, etc. Having yourselves tasted that the Lord is gracious, you will be delighted to invite others to partake with you in the rich banquet of mercy. The very fact of receiving it carries along with it the obligation to make it known as well as imparts to the mind receiving it an holy activity in its diffusion.
2. In what respects may we regard this obligation as a debt?
(1) Gratitude to the Redeemer requires that we should regard this debt and attempt to discharge it. What is there that we do not owe to Christ?
(2) It is a debt of honour. If there were no explicit command, yet recollecting how much you owe to the Saviour, and your high privileges, every honourable feeling should bring you to His service.
(3) It is a debt of justice. You have what every man wants, and what has been given you for every man; therefore it is unjust to withhold it. What would have been the condition of this land, or our personal conditions, if others had acted towards us on the same feeling of selfish indifference and forgetfulness of this plain and palpable duty?
(4) It is a debt for the payment of which we shall be amply compensated. No man lends in this work of labour and love without finding an abundant interest. To be in any measure instrumental, directly or indirectly, in saving the souls of men, will confer a great happiness compared with which all other sources of enjoyment are less than nothing and vanity.
(5) It is enforced by the command and authority of the Divine Redeemer, It is not, therefore, left to your calculations or to your feelings. (J. Fletcher, D. D.)
The Christians obligation to propagate the gospel
I. The obligation under which the apostle lay. I am a debtor. Necessity was laid upon him (1Co_9:16). But there it was a necessity laid on him to Godward; here it is towards man. How so?
1. There is an obligation in man towards man, established by the law of creation, which nothing can set aside. One proof of it will be seen in the character of the man who disowns the obligation. He is anti-social. He opposes the fundamental law of society by which it is seen that men are formed for each other. And, if so, no limitation either of country or peculiarity of condition, can supersede this law. The parable of the good Samaritan establishes and illustrates this position. It was the old commandment from the beginning, though in Christ new both as to motive, extent, and object.
2. But there is an obligation which results from the condition on which good is imparted by the great Giver of all good. Freely ye have received, freely give. The apostle himself states that Christ was revealed in him, that he might preach Him among the heathen. And in another place that a dispensation or stewardship was committed unto him (1Co_9:17), to make all men know the fellowship of the mystery (Eph_3:9).
3. But, while the apostle would quicken his own zeal by thoughts of responsibility and by the plea of necessity, he delighted rather to dwell upon the more constraining obligation of love. He was one of a redeemed brotherhood. He could honour all men. Hence he could look on everyone he met, whether Barbarian or Scythian, bond or free (Col_3:11), as one of the families which are all blessed in Christ.
II. The manner in which the apostle discharged the obligation. The proposition is, that the debt owing from every Christian man to another is the gospel: the preaching or communicating the gospel is the discharge of that debt. How so? The substance of all good is comprised in the gospel. Everything short of it leaves a man short of salvation, is an abridgment of human happiness. The gospel brings the sinner near to God (Eph_2:13; Eph_2:18; 2Co_5:21), and restores man to his former position of love to his fellow (Eph_2:19-22). The preaching of it satisfied all the claims, because it answered all the wants, of man. (Canon Jacob.)
The duty of proclaiming the gospel
I. An urgent Christian obligation. There is an obligation in man towards man which nothing can destroy. It is instituted and established.
1. By mutual expediency. The interest of one demands the good of all. One bad man in a community will destroy the peace of all. One diseased person may infect a whole nation.
2. By the fundamental laws of society. All men are made for each other.
3. By the law of benevolence. Even heathens have felt the force of this sentiment, and among the early Christians it became particularly prominent.
4. By the condition on which all good is imparted to us. Freely ye have received, freely give.
II. The Christians manner of carrying this obligation out. There is--
1. Undaunted purpose. I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. Rome had everything which was opposed to the nature and character of Christianity, and could endanger the apostles life. How little do we imitate this example! Do we care for mens moral and social well-being to such an extent that we should be willing to sacrifice home, comfort, or even self, for their advantage?
2. A limitation of power. So far as in me is.
(1) This limitation has its use. It prevents us from despair when our talents are small or our opportunities few. Not all of us can go as ambassadors to Rome. But we can help so far as in us lies. If we cannot go, we can send those who can.
(2) But this limitation is also made an abuse. Persons urge it as an excuse for their negligence, sloth, or parsimony. (Homilist.)
The missionary spirit
I. The missionary estimate. The power of God to salvation, and from this the debtorship to extend it rises.
1. You would not have expected that Paul would have had this estimate. The doctrine was incredible, the demand insupportable, the blessings impalpable and vague--belonging either to the world of the spiritual or of the future. And how could he expect such a gospel to he accepted? But Paul knew what it had been to himself and dared not despair. He took it everywhere, and the new power, wherever it went, although ignored by the better and despised by the worse forces of society, made its calm and even way. Its very incredibilities were the things that won credence of the human heart, and its insupportable demands came to men as a dignity Which they were proud to wear, and its impalpable blessings of peace with God of light, of heavenly hope came to them as the balm of heaven.
2. But it is not the acceptance that the apostle accentuates. A man may accept a creed, and if it has no influence there is no great importance in the acceptance of it; but this creed men accepted to a throne of mighty influence, It wrought marvels, It was the Omnipotence of God unto salvation. You know how hard it is to touch the character; how that is the aim and the despair of all reform. The necessary thing is to lift mens manhood, then you lift everything about them. But it is just here that other reforms fail. But where everything else failed the gospel never failed, but lifted them up into what Paul calls salvation. And it did this universally. Philosophers wanted specially fitted disciples to receive their truths, mysteries wanted some culture, other doctrines wanted some congruity; but the glory of the gospel was this--that whoever believed it in him it was omnipotent.
3. That was Pauls estimate of the gospel after twenty years experience; the estimate and experience of all that preached it. Let us today remember that what we have got in our hands is no feeble thing, but the omnipotence of God for salvation to everyone that believeth.
II. The missionary instinct. I am debtor, etc.
1. This is not exclusively Christian, it is a human instinct; we all have to say, I am debtor. From infancy to age no day passes but we are enriched with some comfort that comes to us from the service of our fellow men. We did not work our freedom; others wrought the laws which give us protection; others achieved the sciences which gives us delight; others opened wide those very avenues of trade by which men make their wealth. What would we be without the example, influence, sympathy of other men? We cannot pay the debt back to those that have gone; we can only pay it forward to those they make their heirs, and every generous nature feels that unless he gives back to the world as much service as he lakes from it, he is a delinquent and short of honour.
2. And this instinct blossoms into many forms--into neighbourly affection, into righteousness, patriotism, philanthropy, sympathy. Sometimes this instinct is thwarted in its growth. But in the degree in which there is nobility, in that degree men look not to societys duty to them, but to their duty to society. Sometimes thwarted by the action of pride and fear and weakness; when this sense of debtorship meets with the gospel, then it comes forth in all its lordly strength. Everything helps to develop it then--penitence deepens it; gratitude increases it; it thrives beneath the dew of Calvary and especially under the influence of grace, because it moves love, and sees men in the new light. Outside the light of the gospel men may almost question whether their fellow men are worth helping. But when we begin to see them precious in Gods sight, then our fellow men put on a dignity which makes it worth our while to serve them. It has, therefore, been the singular mark of the Church of Christ. At Pentecost men saw the love of God and copied it, and none said that aught of the things that he possessed was his own. The widows hearts began to sing for joy with the new kindness that had dawned upon the world. Now it blossoms into the care of the infants cast out into the streets of the heathen cities; now in the redemption of captives; now in the ministry to the sick. All the fairest names in the Churchs history are the names of those who felt that debtorship to proclaim the gospel of Christ to their fellow men. You do not wonder, then, that Paul should feel this debtorship. He saw a creditor in the face of every man--his creditor wanting gold that he could give him; and he woke glad and eager to pay his debt.
III. The missionary consecration. I am ready--that is Paul in three words. The first question at conversion was, What wilt Thou have me to do? and that was the last, the hourly question. So ready was he that forthwith he preached Christ in the synagogues of Damascus and in Jerusalem; so ready that God had to stop him and send him to Arabia to meditate and pray. So ready that if tonight he dreams of the Man of Macedonia, in the morning he is looking out for the ship that will carry him across the wave. So ready that nothing can root out of him his eagerness. He was ready always, and now--a battered, withered old man--he is ready to assail Rome itself, and believes in the possibility of converting that secular empire, and all its degradation, to Christ. Of what infinite value that readiness is in any man! Presence of mind is good, but presence of heart is better. It saves time, freshness, and penetrative power. What a different story there would have been in Christianity if Pauls readiness had not been so bright! The gospel grew richer with every new effort to proclaim it. Pauls heaven has grown larger and richer from that hour to this, as daily still the pilgrims have entered it who were led by him to know and to choose the Lord! He was ready, but we are unready. We are rich, but not ready. Strong minds and warm hearts are ready for commerce, war, science, but the great ambition does not seem to touch them. (R. Glover.)
The Grecian
There are four departments of human nature spoken of in these verses, with only one of which we can now deal. Four characteristics marked Grecian life and religion.
I. Restlessness.
1. Polytheism divided the contemplation over many objects, etc. The Grecian was to obtain wisdom from one Deity: eloquence from Mercurius; purity from Diana, etc. Hence dissipation of mind: that fickleness for which the Greeks were famous. All stability of character rests on the contemplation of changeless unity.
2. And all the results of science have been to simplify and trace back the manifold to unity. It is ever tending towards unity of law. Hence science is calm and dignified, reposing upon uniform fact.
3. So also in religion. Christianity proclaimed One God and one Mediator, etc. St. Pauls view of the gospel, the salvation of the Gentiles, was the eternal purpose, and his own personal election was part of an eternal counsel. Now see the effect on character. First, on veracity (2Co_1:18, etc.). He contemplated the changeless yea of God--his own yea became fixed as Gods. Again in orthodoxy--Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Be not carried about by divers and strange doctrines. Truth is one--Error manifold--many opinions, yet there can be but one faith. See how calm and full of rest all this spirit is. St. Johns view of the gospel recognised it rather as the manifestation of love. Pain and pleasure, the sigh and smile, the sunshine and the storm, were but the results of eternal love. Hence came deep calm--the repose which we are toiling all our lives to find, and which the Greek never found.
II. Worldliness. There are men and nations who live as if they had no aspiration above it. If ever there was a nation who understood the science of living, it was the Grecian. This world was their home and the object of their worship. The results were three fold.
1. Disappointment. Lying on the infinite bosom of Nature, the Greek was yet unsatisfied. The worldly man is trying to satiate his immortal hunger upon husks.
2. Degradation. Had you asked the Greek his highest wish, he would have replied, This world, if it could only last--I ask no more. This is to feed on husks: but husks which the swine did eat.
3. Disbelief in immortality. The more the Greek attached himself to this world, the more the world unseen became a dim world of shades. Accordingly, when Paul preached at Athens the resurrection of the dead, they mocked. This bright world was all, and the Greeks hell was death. The dreadfulness of death is one of the most remarkable things that meet us in their ancient writings. And these men were startled by seeing a new sect rise up to whom death was nothing. For the Cross of Christ had crucified in their hearts the Grecians world. The rise of the higher life had made this life nothing, and delivered those who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject unto bondage.
III. The worship of the beautiful.
1. The Greek saw this world almost only on its side of beauty. He looked at actions in the same way. If he wanted to express a perfect man, he called him a musical or harmonious man. What was the consequence? Religion degenerated into the arts. Hence, necessarily, sensuality became religious. There is a peculiar danger in refinement of sensuous enjoyments. Coarse pleasures disgust and pass for what they are; but who does not know that the real danger and triumph of voluptuousness are when it approaches the soul veiled under the drapery of elegance? They fancied themselves above the gross multitude; but their sensuality, disguised even from themselves, was sensuality still--ay, and at times even, in certain festivals, broke out into gross and unmistakable licentiousness.
2. There is this danger now. Men are awakened from coarse, rude life to the desire of something deeper. And the God of this world can subtly turn that aside into channels which shall effectually enfeeble and ruin the soul. Refinement, imagery, witchery of form and colour, music, architecture: all these, even coloured with the hues of religion, producing feelings either religious or quasi-religious, may yet do the worlds work. For all attempt to impress the heart through the senses, to make perfect through the flesh, is fraught with that danger beneath which Greece sunk. This, too, is the ruinous effect of an education of accomplishments. An education chiefly romantic or poetical, not balanced by hard practical life, is simply the ruin of the soul.
3. If anyone ever felt the beauty of this world it was Christ, but the beauty which He exhibited in life was the stern loveliness of moral action. The King in His beauty had no form or comeliness: it was the beauty of Divine self-devotion. The Cross tells us that it is the true beautiful which is Divine: an inward, not an outward beauty, which rejects and turns sternly away from the meretricious forms of the outward world, which have a corrupting or debilitating tendency.
IV. The worship of humanity.
1. The Greek had strong human feelings and sympathies. He projected his own self on nature: humanised it: gave a human feeling to clouds, forests, rivers, seas. In this he was a step above other idolatries. It was not merely power, beauty, or life, but human power, etc., which was the object of his profoundest veneration. His effort therefore was, in his conception of his god, to realise a beautiful human being. Much in this had a germ of truth--more was false. This principle, which is true, was evidently stated: The Divine, under the limitations of humanity, is the only worship of which man is capable; for man cannot conceive that which is not in his own mind. They wanted humanity in its glory--they asked for a Son of Man. Christ is Deity under the limitations of humanity. But there is presented in Christ for worship, not power, nor beauty, nor physical life, but the moral image of Gods perfections. Through the heart and mind and character of Jesus it was that the Divinest streamed. Divine character, that was given in Christ to worship.
2. Another error. The Greek worshipped all that was in man. Every feeling had its beauty and its divine origin. Hence thieving had its patron deity, and treachery and cunning, and lust had its temple erected for abominable worship. All that was human had its sanction in the example of some god. Christ corrects this. Not all that is human is Divine. There is a part of our nature kindred with God; the strengthening of that, by mixture with Gods Spirit, is our true and proper humanity--regeneration of soul. There is another part whereby we are related to the brutes; and whoever lives in that, sinks not to the level of the brutes, but below them, to the level of the demons; for he uses an immortal spirit to degrade himself, and the immortal joined with evil, as the life to the body, is demoniacal. Conclusion: In all this system one thing was wanting--the sense of sin. The Greek would not have spoken to you of sin: he would have told you of departure from a right line, want of moral harmony, discord within: he would have said that the music of your soul was out of tune. Christ came to convince the world of sin; and for this there is only one remedy--that which is written in the Redeemers blood. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
The Roman
The Roman nation was one of the noblest that the world has seen. We may judge from the fact of St. Pauls twice claiming his Roman citizenship, and that at a time when a luxurious Greek could purchase his freedom. We may conceive what it had been once, when even the faint lustre of its earlier dignity could inspire a foreigner, and that foreigner a Jew, and that Jew a Christian, with such respect. At the outset, then, we have a rare and high-minded people and their life, to think of.
I. The public life of Rome.
1. The spirit of its religion--the very word means obligation, a binding power. Very different from the corresponding Greek expression, which implies worship by a sensuous ceremonial (threskeia). The Roman began from the idea of duty. The fabulous early history of Rome preserves the spirit of the old life when it does not preserve the facts. Accordingly, the tradition taught that the building of Rome was done in obedience to the intimations of the will of Heaven. Its first great legislator (Numa) is represented as giving laws after secret communion with the superhuman. It was the belief of Roman writers that the early faith taught access to God only through the mind: that therefore no images were found in earliest Rome. War itself was a religious act, solemnly declared by a minister of religion casting a spear into the enemys territory. Nay, we even find something in spirit resembling the Jewish sabbath: the command that during the rites of religion no work should go on, but that men should devoutly contemplate God.
2. This resulted in government. Duty, and therefore law on earth, as a copy of the will of Heaven. Beauty was not the object of the Roman contemplation, nor worship; nor was harmony. Hence, when Greece was reduced to a Roman province, in 146 B.C., the Roman soldiers took the noblest specimens of Grecian painting and converted them into gambling tables. You may distinguish the difference of the two characters from the relies which they have left behind them. The Greek produced a statue or a temple, the expression of a sentiment. The Roman, dealing with the practical, has left behind him works of public usefulness: roads, aqueducts, bridges, drains, and, above all, that system of law which has so largely entered into modern jurisprudence.
3. In accordance with this, it is a characteristic fact that we find the institutions of Rome referred to inspiration. Turning to Scripture, whenever the Roman comes prominently forward, we always find him the instrument of public rule and order. Pilate has no idea of condemning unjustly: Why, what evil hath He done? But he yields at the mention of the source of law, the emperor. The Apostle Paul appeals to Caesar, and Festus respects the appeal. The tumult at Ephesus is stilled by a hint of Roman interference. When the angry mob was about to destroy Paul, Claudius Lysias comes with an army, and rescues him. It was always the same thing. The Roman seems almost to have existed to exhibit on earth a copy of the Divine order of the universe, the law of the heavenly hierarchies.
II. Private life.
1. The sanctity of domestic ties.
(1)Very touching are the anecdotes--that, e.g., of the noble matron, who felt, all spotless as she was, life dishonoured, and died by her own hand. The sacredness of home was expressed strongly by the ides of two guardian deities (Lares and Penates) who watched over it. There was no battle cry that came so to the Romans heart as that, For the altar and the hearth. The whole fabric of the Commonwealth rose out of the family. First the family, then the clan, then the tribe, lastly the nation.
(2) Very different is it in the East. A nation there is a collection of units, held together by a government. When the chief is slain, the nation is in anarchy--the family does not exist. Polygamy and infanticide, the bane of domestic life, are the destruction too of national existence.
(3) There is a solemn lesson in this. Moral decay in the family is the invariable prelude to public corruption. The man whom you cannot admit into your family cannot be a pure statesman. A nation stands or falls with the sanctity of its domestic ties. Rome mixed with Greece, and learned her morals. The Goth was at her gates; but she fell not till she was corrupted and tainted at the heart.
(4) We will bless God for our English homes. Partly the result of our religion. Partly the result of the climate which God has given us, so that darkness, making life more necessarily spent within doors, is domestic. When England shall learn domestic maxims from strangers, as Rome from Greece, her ruin is accomplished.
2. Let us break up this private life into particulars.
(1) We find manly courage. Courage, manhood, virtue, were one word. Among the degenerate descendants of the Romans virtue no longer means manhood: it is simply dilettantism. This courage was not merely animal daring. Like everything Roman, it was connected with religion. The Roman legions subdued the world, not by their discipline, strength, or brute daring, but by their moral force. A nation whose heroes could thrust their hand into the flame, or come from captivity and advise their countrymen against peace, and then go back to torture and death, or devote themselves by solemn self-sacrifice (like the Decii), could bid sublime defiance to pain and count dishonour the only evil. The world must bow before such men; for unconsciously here was a form of the spirit of the Cross: self-surrender, unconquerable fidelity to duty, sacrifice for others.
(2) The honour of her women. There was a fire in Rome called Eternal, which was tended by the Vestals, and implied that the duration of Rome was co-extensive with the preservation of her purity of morals. The Roman was conspicuous for the virtues of this earth; but moral virtues are not religious graces. There are two classes of excellence, each of which is found at times disjoined from the other. Men of almost spotless earthly honour scarcely seem to know what reverence for things heavenly and devout aspirations towards God mean; and men who have the religious instinct yet fall in matters of common truth and honesty. Morality is not religion. Still, beware of talking contemptuously of mere morality.
III. The decline of Roman life.
1. First came corruption of the moral character. The soul of the Roman, bent on this worlds affairs, became secularised, then animalised, and so at last, when there was little left to do, pleasure became his aim. Then came ruin swiftly. When the emperors lived for their elaborately contrived life of luxury--when the Roman soldier left his countrys battles to be fought by mercenaries--the doom of Rome was sealed. Lofty spirits rose to stem the tide of corruption and the death throes of Rome were long and terrible.
2. Scepticism and superstition went hand in hand. The lower classes sunk in a debased superstition--the educated classes, too intellectual to believe in it, and yet having nothing better to put in its stead. Or perhaps there was also a superstition which is only another name for scepticism: infidelity trembling at itself--shrinking from its own shadow. This is as true now. Men tremble at new theories, new views, the spread of infidelity; and they think to fortify themselves against these by multiplying the sanctities which they reverence. But it is not by shutting out inquiry and resenting every investigation as profane, that you can arrest the progress of infidelity. Faith, not superstition, is the remedy.
3. Religion degenerated into allegiance to the State. In Greece it ended in taste. In Rome it closed with the worship of the emperor, and the word sacrament meant an oath of allegiance. In the Christian Church it is also the oath of highest fidelity. Here we offer and present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a living sacrifice. And in this contrast of the sacramental vows were perceptible the different tendencies of the two starting points of revealed religion and Roman. Judaism began from law or obligation to a holy Person. Roman religion began from obedience to a mere will. Judaism ended in Christianity; whose central principle is joyful surrender to One whose name is Love. The religion of Rome stiffened into Stoicism, or degenerated in public spirit.
4. The last step is the decline of religion into expediency. It is a trite and often quoted observation of a great Roman, that one minister of religion could scarcely meet another without a smile upon his countenance. And an instance of this, I believe, we have in the town clerk of Ephesus, who stilled the populace by an accommodation to their prejudices, much in the same way in which a nurse would soothe a passionate child. He was the friend of Paul, yet he assures the people that there could be no doubt that the image fell down from Jupiter--great goddess Diana. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Neglecting to extend the gospel
The late Hugh Stowell said:--In the Isle of Man, as I was one day walking on the seashore, I remember contemplating, with thrilling interest, an old grey ruined tower, covered with ivy. There was a remarkable history connected with the spot. In that tower was formerly hanged one of the best governors the island ever possessed. He had been accused of treachery to the king during the time of the Civil Wars, and received sentence of death. Intercession was made on his behalf, and a pardon was sent; but that pardon fell into the hands of his bitter enemy, who kept it locked up, and the governor was hanged. His name is still honoured by the Manx; and yon may often hear a pathetic ballad sung to his memory to the music of the spinning wheel. We must all feel horror struck at the fearful turpitude of that man who, having the pardon of his fellow creature in his possession, could keep it back, and let him die the death of a traitor. But lot us restrain our indignation, till we ask ourselves whether God might not point His finger to most of us and say: Thou art the man! Thou hast a pardon in thine hands to save thy fellow creatures, not from temporal but eternal death. Thou hast a pardon suited to all--sent to all--designed for all; thou hast enjoyed it thyself, but hast thou not kept it back from thy brother, instead of sending it to the ends of the earth?
Pauls desire to extend the gospel
Paul was anxious to do more good, to get more good, to be more good. He sought to win souls. He wanted to make Christs name known. An ardent passion inflamed him; a high enthusiasm inspired him. Tent making, it is true, was his trade, but tent making did not monopolise quite all his heart, and soul, and strength. Does your secular vocation absorb all your thoughts? Though Paul was proud of his industry, and could say, conscientiously, My own hands have ministered to my necessities, yet preaching the gospel was the one thing he pursued as his life work. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv14–16 14. I am a debtor. He owed it, or…
14. I am a debtor. He owed it, or was under obligation to preach the gospel both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians. The Greeks called other people but themselves barbarians, but in the apostolic age the Romans were excepted. The cultured Greeks and the proud Romans looked with contempt on all other races. Paul is a debtor to both, and must give them the gospel. Hence he is so anxious to labor at Rome. Both to wise and unwise. Here the division into two classes turns on knowledge, instead of race. His meaning is that the gospel must be offered to every class.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v15 Rom_1:16. The power of God unto salvation.—In and by…
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom_1:16. The power of God unto salvation.—In and by the gospel God shows and exerts moral power. The best equivalent for “unto” is “for.” It signifies direction. The Greek word used for mental and carnal direction. Gospel, from the old Gothic guth, good, and spillon, to announce. Either “good spell” or “God’s spell.”
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Rom_1:17. The righteousness of God.—The justification which God bestows, or that of which He is the author. The state of pardon and acceptance as the result of the mediatorial scheme. δικαιοσύνη, man’s perfect moral condition; conformity of conduct in the divine law. It was said, Great is faith, for as the reward of it the shechinah rested on Israel. The just shall live by faith was spoken by Habakkuk to encourage the Jews when fainting under the oppression of the Chaldeans.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_1:15-17
The brave confession of a bold preacher.—The gospel of seeming weakness the apostle was ready to preach to the lovers of imperialistic ideas. The gospel of apparent defeat he was ready to proclaim among those who delighted to go forth conquering and to conquer. And why? Because the seeming is not the real. The gospel is not weakness, but power.
I. Consider the gospel as a power.—
1. One may infer power from the fact of simple existence. The lowest forms of either vegetable or animal life testify to the presence of power. There are growth and development. The gospel is still derided as weakness, but by its existence it confronts us to-day as a power in the midst of the great powers of our modern life. Its moral force is not abated through the lapse of time.
2. Power may be inferred from the capacity to survive attacks. There is power in the oak to gather strength from the storm, and to gain an increase of beauty from the onslaught of winter’s blasts—power in the nation which, in spite of external attacks and internal feuds, moves on in the pathway of progress. Tried by this test, what a power is the gospel! The Christian religion, from the time of its rise, has been one long trial of its power to survive attacks, and it has vindicated the apostle’s confidence.
3. Power may be concluded from ability to influence. Influence is in itself a power. What a being is man who can project from himself a force that shall go on operating when his voice is hushed in the silence of the tomb! Now Christianity, which is the gospel in action, is the great formative force in the noblest of modern civilisations. Its influence has been felt where its divine authority has not been acknowledged. Banish the gospel from civilised society, and there would be a collapse. Eliminate the Christian element from our literature, and it would become often a Babel. The Christian religion is not yet an inert institution. It has exerted a glorious influence, and its power must still increase.
II. Consider the gospel as a supreme power.—As Joseph’s sheaf among the sheaves of his brethren, so the gospel power amid the powers of earth. It is the sphere in which the power of God manifests its sublime energies and exemplifies its grandeur. It is as if all preceding ages had been concentrating themselves upon the production of this great work of power—as if the Almighty Himself, through a past eternity, had been preparing for this revelation of moral might.
1. There was power in creation. The world not self-evolved. We have been told that power is the source of elements, wisdom of affinities—power might create a chaos, wisdom must fabricate a world. Surely power has to do both with elements and combinations. Power must produce atoms and bring them into cohesion. Wisdom must devise, power must execute. The wisdom of the architect and the power of the builder must be combined to erect a temple. The gospel a display of divine wisdom and power. It is the one system which reveals the mightiest moral energy of the divine Being.
2. Power in the Old Testament economy. Wonderful the history of the Jewish race. Glorious the rites and ceremonies of the Levitical dispensation. The ministration of the law was glorious, but the ministration of the gospel transcends in glory. Here in the gospel of God are seen:
(1) The power of wisdom to devise. The wisdom of this world seen in cumbrous plans with inadequate results. The wisdom of God seen in simple plans and sublime results. Man plans, but power of execution fails. There is no hiatus between God’s plan and God’s finished work—that is, no hiatus of incompetency, though there may be the hiatus of time according to human reckoning.
(2) The power of justice. Therein is the righteousness of God revealed. The eternal righteousness of the infinitely holy God is displayed in the gospel. What other religion can show a scheme wherein any attempt is made to vindicate the righteousness of the deity worshipped? God’s condescension is seen in revealing His righteousness.
(3) The power of infinite love. “God commendeth His love,” etc. On Calvary’s solemn heights mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. Infinite love as well as incarnate love, the love of the Father as well as the love of the Son, seem to speak to us in the sweat-drops that bead the brow of the sublime crucified One.
III. Consider this supreme power in its saving efficacy.—This is the essential glory of the gospel, that it is a power unto salvation. This is a feature never before attempted by any philosophical theories, ethical systems, or religious schemes. Philosophy, with all its boasted power, could not have accomplished the work, had it been bold enough to make the attempt. Philosophy could but film the ulcerous sore, while the rank corruption mined within. The gospel sets itself to cure the festering moral sores of a diseased humanity, and that which it set itself to do it has shown itself in millions of instances well able to accomplish. Roman power was destructive and selfish; it only concerned itself with the increase of Roman greatness. Dreary ruins marked the pathway of its triumphant progress. Christ seeks to conquer the kingdoms of this world, and every kingdom thus conquered is made more glorious. Christ seeks to subdue the individual, and every individual thus subjugated is really enfranchised and enriched with immortal treasures. This divine power saved from (a) the guilt of sin; (b) the pollution of sin; (c) the misery of sin; (d) the weakness engendered by sin; (e) the perversity of the moral judgment produced by sin. The reception of the gospel is the starting-point for noble endeavour, sublime deeds, heroic feats of moral daring. This salvation is to peace, to joy, to highest priesthood, noblest kingship, and the bright glories of heaven.
IV. Consider this scheme of salvation in its comprehensiveness.—Christianity is cosmopolitan. Among all the religions of a race bewildered by the number of its strange pantheons, Christianity is the one comprehensive religion. In this passage let us take the Jew as central and the Greek as circumferential. The circumference is to embrace the whole of humanity. This power must finally subdue all other powers. Ultimately it shall conquer the stubbornness of the Jew, overturn the power of Rome, confute the wisdom of the Greek, undermine the subtleties of the Hindoo, overthrow the inveterate prejudices of the Chinese, remove the darkness from African jungles, and demolish everywhere the strong holds of sin on this fair earth.
V. This comprehensive scheme has its wise condition.—It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Faith is the apprehending and appropriating organ, and thus the moral condition is on the same plane as the material condition. Food and medicine must be taken in order to save and strengthen. Faith is acceptance. God by the condition honours our moral and mental nature. Without faith sacraments and good works avail nothing. But true saving faith is of course a living faith, including knowledge of the truth, assent to the truth, and trust or confidence in Christ. It submits to all the ordinances of God, and necessarily produces good works. Accept God’s promise through Jesus Christ, and salvation is yours. If the apostle was saved, the vilest sinners may hope. This gospel saved Saul, the persecutor and blasphemer; the dying thief; the Philippian jailor; John Newton, the swearing slave captain; John Bunyan, the wild tinker boy; and its efficacy is far from being exhausted. It has a hopeful message to sinners of deepest dye. If Paul was not ashamed of this gospel, why should we be? Some moderns seem to make light of Paul. Even one Christian preacher is reported to have said, “If we are not wiser than the apostles, we are great fools.” Where is your modern preacher who can preach like Paul? Where is your writer who can equal him in argumentative skill, rhetorical power, and sublimity of imagination? Where is your philanthropist who can be compared to him in works of benevolence, in a life of self-denial? Surely, then, I may count myself a fool if I am ashamed of that in which the apostle gloried.
“Ashamed of Jesus! sooner far
May evening blush to own a star;
Ashamed of Jesus! just as soon
May midnight blush to think of noon;
Ashamed of Jesus, that dear Friend
On whom my hopes of heaven depend!
No! when I blush be this my shame,
That I no more revere His name.
Ashamed of Jesus! yes, I may,
When I’ve no crimes to wash away,
No tears to wipe, no joys to crave,
No fears to quell, no soul to save:
Till then—nor is the boasting vain—
Till then I boast a Saviour slain.
And oh, may this my glory be,
That Christ is not ashamed of me!”
Rom_1:16-17. St. Paul’s confidence in the gospel.—Our text expresses St. Paul’s readiness “to preach the gospel at Rome also,” as he had done in so many other cities—a readiness which sprang from his confidence in the truth. We propose to show briefly the grounds of this confidence.
I. The certainty of his own call from heaven to be a teacher of that religion which he had once persecuted.
II. His thorough conviction of the divinity of the Author of the gospel of which he was made a minister.—He could not hesitate to put it into comparison with any religious system which Rome could exhibit as its competitor. He knew that it was from its author, God, and that God, the author, was always with it. “Christ is God.” What a glory is thus given to His gospel! There are those who reject this truth; but how different is their gospel from ours! Their Christ is man; ours, God made man. The affection of their Christ is the benevolence of a creature; of ours, the love of God, only measured by His condescension to stoop from heaven to earth. To them Christ is gone, and they are left orphans; to us He is ever present.
III. The effects produced by Christianity at Rome.—What he has seen in other places resulting from the gospel he had heard of at Rome. Religion is a practical thing, and its effects when received are a true test.
IV. Another ground of confidence is stated in the text.—“For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” He thus silently contrasts the gospel with every religion known among men. This is power, they are weakness; this saves, they leave man in sin and danger still. In the gospel the power of God is employed to illuminate, to quicken, to comfort, to regenerate, and to sustain. Its power is glorifying. It raises the body from the ruins of its mortality to the glory of a deathless life.
V. Another ground of confidence on which the apostle rested is not the least.—“For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” It is so because it contains a revelation of the terms on which God forgives sin, or justifies men by pardon who are actually guilty. The principle of the divine government is righteousness. A righteous government is the result of necessity. God may be merciful, but He must be just. The only way in which He could be at once just and merciful must be by the provision of an adequate atonement, so that all the ends of a righteous government, the character of which is to uphold authority by the punishment of offence, might be answered. No other system had the true atonement, and it was this which exalted Christianity above them all. This gospel claims from us the most devout acknowledgment. How ought this mercy, which crowns every other, and without which every other were in vain showered upon us, to excite our gratitude! “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” The gospel claims an unshrinking avowal. “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,” says the apostle; and he was ready to assert its divine claims in every place. Such ought to be the spirit with which we are influenced—modest and humble, but decided and yielding. The gospel claims our grateful and practical acceptance. Salvation is the great end of the gospel. Nothing less than this can be supposed to be an adequate final cause for so wonderful an interposition as the incarnation and sufferings of the Son of God. Not to set up new forms of worship did He undergo His humiliations, but to save us from the curse of the law, the dominion of sin, and the wrath of God.—R. Watson.
Rom_1:14-17. The Grecian and the Roman.—We live surrounded by Christian institutions, breathe an atmosphere saturated by Christianity. It is exceedingly difficult even to imagine another state of things. And to know what we have from Christianity, it is well to cast the eyes sometimes over the darkness from which the advent of Christ redeemed us. The apostle felt that the gospel was the power of God unto salvation to the Greeks, the Romans, the Barbarians, and the Jews.
Restlessness.—Polytheism divided the contemplation over many objects; and as the outward objects were manifold, so was there a want of unity in the inward life. The Grecian mind was distracted by variety. He was to obtain wisdom from one deity, eloquence from that Mercurius for whom Paul was taken, purity from Diana for whom Ephesus was zealous, protection for his family or country from the respective tutelary deities, success by a prayer to Fortune. Hence dissipation of mind, that fickleness for which the Greeks were famous, and the restless love of novelty which made Athens a place of literary and social gossip: “Some new thing.” All stability of character rests on the contemplation of changeless unity. Christianity proclaimed, “One God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” St. Paul’s view of the gospel contemplated it as an eternal divine purpose. He contemplated the changeless “yea” of God. Truth is one—error manifold—many opinions, yet there can be but one faith.
Worldliness.—There are men and nations to whom this world seems given as their province, as if they had no aspiration above it. If ever there were a nation who understood the science of living, it was the Grecians. The results were threefold:
1. Disappointment. Lying on the infinite bosom of nature, the Greek was yet unsatisfied. And there is an unsatiable desire above all external forms and objects in man—all men—which they can never satisfy. Hence his cravings too, like all others, were from time to time, “Who will show us any god?”
2. Degradation. Religion aims at an ideal life above this actual one—to found a divine polity, a kingdom of God, a Church of the best. And the life of worldliness pronounces this world to be all. This is to be adorned and beautified.
3. Disbelief in immortality. The more the Greek attached himself to this world, the more the world unseen became a dim world of shades. The earlier traditions of the deep-thinking Orientals, which his forefathers brought from Asia, died slowly away; and any one who reminded him of them was received as one would now be who were to speak of purgatory. The cultivated Athenians were for the most part sceptics in the time of Christ. Accordingly, when Paul preached at Athens the resurrection of the dead, they “mocked.” And these men were startled by seeing a new sect rise up to whom death was nothing, who almost courted it.
The worship of the beautiful.—The Greek saw this world almost only on its side of beauty. His name for it was kosmos, divine order or regularity. He looked at actions in the same way. One and the same adjective expressed the noble and the beautiful. If he wanted to express a perfect man, he called him a musical or harmonious man. The cross tells us that it is the true beautiful which is divine—an inward, not an outward, beauty, which rejects and turns sternly away from the meretricious forms of the outward world, which have a corrupting or debilitating tendency.
The worship of humanity.—The Greek had strong human feelings and sympathies. He projected his own self on nature; humanised it; gave a human feeling to clouds, forests, rivers, seas. His effort therefore was, in his conception of his god, to realise a beautiful human being. Christ is deity under the limitations of humanity. But there is presented in Christ for worship, not power nor beauty nor physical life, but the moral image of God’s perfections. Through the heart and mind and character of Jesus it was that the divinest streamed. Divine character, that was given in Christ to worship. In all this system one thing was wanting—the sense of sin. Christ came to convince the world of sin. For this Greece had no remedy. The universe has no remedy but one. There is no prescription for the sickness of the heart but that which is written in the Redeemer’s blood. The nation which we contemplate to-day was a noble one—humanly, one of the noblest that the world has seen; next to the Jewish, the very highest. We may judge from the fact of St. Paul’s twice claiming his Roman citizenship and feeling the indignation of a Roman citizen at the indignity of chastisement.
The public life of Rome.—First, I notice the spirit of its religion. The very word shows what that was. “Religion,” a Roman word, means “obligation, a binding power.” Very different from the corresponding Greek expression, which implies worship by a sensuous ceremonial (θρησκεία). The Roman began, like the Jew, from law. He started from the idea of duty. But there was an important difference. The Jew was taught duty or obedience to the law of a personal, holy God. The Roman obeyed, as his Etruscan ancestors taught him, a fate or will; and with very different results. But at present we only observe the lofty character of the early religion which resulted from such a starting-point. Different nations seem, consciously or unconsciously, destined by God to achieve different missions. The Jew had the highest—to reveal to the world holiness. The Oriental stands as a witness to the reality of the invisible above the visible. The Greek reminded the world of eternal beauty; and the destiny of the Roman seems to have been to stamp upon the minds of mankind the ideas of law, government, order. The Roman seems almost to have existed to exhibit on earth a copy of the divine order of the universe, the law of the heavenly hierarchies.
Private life.—We observe the sanctity of the domestic ties. Very touching are all the well-known anecdotes—that, for instance, of the noble Roman matron who felt, all spotless as she was, life-dishonoured, and died by her own hand. The sacredness of home was expressed strongly by the idea of two guardian deities (Lares and Penates) who watched over it. A Roman’s own fireside and hearthstone were almost the most sacred spots on earth. There was no battle-cry that came so near to his heart as that “For the altar and the hearth!” How firmly this was rooted in the nation’s heart is plain from the tradition that for a hundred and seventy years no separation took place by law between those who had been once united in wedlock. There is deep importance in this remark; for it was to this that Rome owed her greatness. Moral decay in the family is the invariable prelude to public corruption. We will bless God for our English homes, partly the result of our religion—partly the result of the climate which God has given us, according to the law of compensation by which physical evil is repaid by moral blessing; so that, its gloom and darkness making life more necessarily spent withindoors than it is among Continental nations, our life is domestic and theirs is social. We find manly courage. This too is preserved in a word. “Virtue” is a Roman word—manhood, courage; for courage, manhood, virtue, were one word. Deep as Roman greatness was rooted in the courage of her men, it was rooted deeper still in the honour of her women. Personal purity is the divinest thing in man and woman. It is the most sacred truth which the Church of Christ is commissioned to exhibit and proclaim.
The decline of Roman life.—First came corruption of the moral character. The soul of the Roman, bent on this world’s affairs, became secularised, then animalised, and so at last pleasure became his aim. Scepticism and superstition went hand in hand. An example of the former we have in Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” Faith, not superstition, is the remedy. In Rome religion degenerated into allegiance to the State. “Sacrament” perhaps is the highest word of symbolical life in both. In Rome it meant an oath of allegiance to the Senate and Roman people. In the Christian Church it is also the oath of highest fidelity, but its import there is this: “Here we offer and present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a lively sacrifice.” The last step we notice is the decline of religion into expediency. Therefore it was necessary that One should come who should be true; the truest of all that are woman-born; whose life was truth, who from everlasting had been the truth. The penalty of that true life was the sacrifice which is the world’s atonement. Men saw the mortal die. But others saw the immortal rise to take His place at the right hand of Power; and the Spirit which has been streaming out ever since from that life and death is the world’s present light, and shall be its everlasting life.—F. W. Robertson.
Rom_1:16. The gospel a divine and saving power.—Christ and His disciples were spoken of with derision; the early Christians were described as “a sect everywhere spoken against.” Yet St. Paul was anxious to visit Rome that he might preach the gospel there. At this time Rome was mistress of the world. But, notwithstanding all the things which distinguished the city of the Cæsars, the apostle says, “I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed,” etc. His reason for thus boasting in the gospel is found in the gospel itself. He was not ashamed of the gospel:—
I. Because it is a power.—The ambition of the Romans was for power. So the apostle says that the gospel is a strong thing, a “power.” Power is of different kinds. There is material force. The powers of nature are of this order. There is muscular force, which is common both to brutes and men. It is higher than mere material energy, inasmuch as its exercise involves life and volition. There is mental force, the power of ideas, the might of reason. Who can conceive the greatness of this power? By its exercise man makes the forces of nature his servants. How mighty has been the influence of some books! There is spiritual force, a thing which it is difficult to analyse or define. “The wind bloweth where it listeth,” etc. Power to arouse the conscience, to bring the will into activity and give direction to it, to inspire devotion and reverence, and to kindle affection—this is the very highest power. Now the gospel is a mental and spiritual power. It is rational in the highest degree. It appeals to the conscience, summons the will into right exercises, and presents such a revelation of God as is fitted to awaken profoundest reverence and holiest love. The gospel is a power sublime and great.
II. Because it is the power of God.—In its sublime and perfect fitness to accomplish its design we have evidence of its divine source. God inspired and sent forth men to prepare the world for it, and then sent His Son to make it known. It is not simply a power of God, but “the power of God.” It is the grandest display of the divine power. It is a greater thing to convert a soul from sin unto holiness than to create a world; we have in it a completer manifestation of “the fulness of the Godhead.” The gospel is “the highest and holiest vehicle of the divine power.” Behind all its forces God is.
III. Because it is the power of God to save.—Some great forces are destructive. The earthquake and avalanche carry ruin and death with them. Some great minds have been abused by being exercised so as to injure and destroy. The licentious poem spreads a more terrible ruin than any pestilence. So also the book which aims at shaking men’s faith. To destroy is an easy thing. To destroy the good and beautiful is diabolic. But to create, to heal, to save, is a divine and, humanly speaking, difficult work. In it the power of God is exerted to put away human sin, heal human sorrows, transform man into the divine image.
IV. Because it is the power of God to save man without distinction of nation or class.—“To the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” “Jews and Greeks” was a Jewish expression for all mankind. The corresponding expression amongst the Greeks was “Greeks and Barbarians.” The gospel is for all men, but it was proclaimed first to the Jews. Our Lord came to them, and they are called “His own.” “He came unto His own,” etc. And the apostle, writing of them, said, “Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came.” The apostles were commanded to preach the gospel in all the world and to every creature, “beginning at Jerusalem.” The gospel is the power of God to save man as man, without any distinctions, social or national. Its provisions are suited to all, offered to all, free for all.
V. Because it is the power of God to save all men on the simplest conditions.—“To every one that believeth.” The condition of salvation is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the simplest condition. Faith is possible to all. The little child can exercise it; so can the philosopher. In many things we believe too readily. Believe in Christ, and be saved. Faith in Him as the condition of salvation is sublimely reasonable. The gospel is unalterable. Believe, and be saved.—William Jones.
Why Paul was not ashamed of the gospel.—It is of great moment to know the proper value of a thing before we either praise or dispraise it. Let us beware of either overrating or underrating anything of which we are called to speak. Of the gospel the apostle speaks as one who knew its value. The apostle so knew it as to be able to say, I am not ashamed of it. We are apt to be ashamed of it. It looks weak, foolish, unintellectual, unphilosophical. It lags behind the age. It is beginning to be supplanted by learning and eloquence. There were some places in which the apostle might have been specially tempted to be ashamed of the gospel or afraid of preaching it,—at Jerusalem, for there the whole strength of Jewish ritualism rose against it; at Athens, for there it was confronted by the power of Grecian wisdom; at Ephesus, for there the dazzling subtleties of heathen magic rose against it; at Corinth, for there the torrent of human lust and pleasure rushed against it; at Rome, for there was the concentrated energy of earthly idolatry. Yet none of these things moved him. We are tempted in our day to be ashamed of the gospel. If any might have been ashamed of it, Paul much more. His education, his life, his teachers, his companions, were all such as to make him turn aside from a thing so plain. But why was the apostle not ashamed of it? It was mighty—mightier than philosophy or argument or eloquence. It was “power.” Many “apologists” for the gospel have, in their defence of it, assumed somewhat different ground from that of the apostle here. They defend it because it is noble, philosophical, reasonable, benevolent. It is all this, and more. Yet such are not Paul’s reasons for glorifying in it. He has fathomed man’s infinite need and misery; he has, with divinely opened eyes, looked into man’s present condition and his prospects. He sees in that gospel that which meets man’s great necessity as a lost being; and it is this glorious suitableness that makes him prize it so much. Had it been less than this, however intellectual and philosophical, he would have been ashamed of it. In thus listening to Paul’s reasons for not being ashamed of the gospel, let us learn what he thinks of that gospel and what he understands it to be.
I. It is God’s power unto salvation.—Men were lost. Nothing but a great salvation could deliver—a salvation which embodied omnipotence. We may say it is a gospel preceded by omnipotence, succeeded by omnipotence, accompanied by omnipotence, containing omnipotence. God’s power was needed. Where has God placed it? In the gospel. The power that is needed for the salvation of a sinner is that which is contained in the gospel. The gospel alone contains this saving power. Who, then, are saved by it? Only they who believe. It is in believing this gospel that we are saved—saved at once, freely, completely, for ever. This gospel is wide as the world. It embraces all kindreds and nations and tongues. There is salvation for thee; not by working, or waiting, or praying, or reforming, but simply by believing. He who believes is saved, whoever or whatever he may be.
II. It is the revelation of God’s righteousness.—This mighty gospel saves in a righteous way. Its power unto salvation consists in its being a revelation of the righteousness of God. This righteousness is not that which we call the attribute of God. It is a righteousness planned by God, provided and prepared by God, exhibited and unfolded by God to the sinner.
1. It is a righteousness revealed. No longer concealed, or but darkly unfolded; but fully and brightly displayed by God in Christ.
2. It is a divine righteousness—the righteousness of Him who was both God and man.
3. It is a righteousness by faith. This is the meaning of the words. “Therein is that righteousness of God, which comes to us by believing, revealed to be believed.”
4. It is righteousness presented to us to be believed. Believe what God says to you concerning it, and straightway it is yours.
5. It is the same righteousness which was possessed by the Old Testament saints. “The just shall live by faith.” The patriarchs “lived” by believing in Him who was to come; we “live” by believing in Him who has come. But it is one Saviour, one salvation, one cross. God’s testimony to this righteousness is very full and explicit. He tells us what kind of righteousness it is, whose it is, and how we get it. It is divine, perfect, glorious, suitable—begun, carried out, completed by Christ during His life and death below: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” The power of the gospel is wholly saving; it is armed with power—just in order to save. There is nothing else in our world that can save but this.—H. Bonar.
The gospel the saving power of God.—One of the bravest utterances of one of the bravest of men. He had counted the cost, and knew the adverse influences he would have to cope with at Rome. His entry was the dearest wish of his heart. Though a prisoner in bonds, he was in truth the mightiest conqueror that ever graced the streets of the metropolis. He wielded a power mightier far than the armies of the empire. All forces opposed to him must go down. In the result of the contest he had not the shadow of a doubt. Why then need he be ashamed?
I. Divine power.—“The power of God.” This was the first reason why the apostle was not ashamed of the gospel.
1. It is power. The history of Christianity proves its claim to power. Wherever it goes it conquers. It proved more than a match for the iron despotism of Rome. It is the most potent force the world has ever known. False religions fall before it, and it changes the face of society.
2. God’s power. The secret of its triumphs is that God is in it. The gospel was not the product of the world’s wisdom. It came from above, and it is the highest and holiest means whereby God works on the race. A force was introduced unknown before, and it is impossible to account for it apart from God.
II. Saving power.—“Unto salvation.” All power is not saving power. The power manifested in creation and providence is truly divine, but not necessarily saving. The power that resides in the gospel is meant to save men.
1. It comes with a message of forgiveness. “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” To free from just condemnation is a mightier attribute than to rule a kingdom, and God alone supplies the remedy in the forgiveness of sins. The gospel struck at the root of the evil when every other system failed. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.”
2. It is a power for the renewal of man’s nature. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” This is a task beyond unaided human resources. The design of Christ’s mission was to save men from the dominion of sin as well as from condemnation. And for this we need a power not our own. Salvation is not the result of a combination of divine grace and human effort. It is grace all through, from first to last. The new creation is the work of the Spirit dwelling in the heart. Thus provision is made in the gospel, not only for the justification of man, but for his restoration to the divine image.
III. Universal power.—“To every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” This was a third reason why the apostle was not ashamed of the gospel. He was sure it would be its own witness, and work marvels in the imperial city, as it had done elsewhere. In the centre of the most solid of empires it would exert its power. It suits the needs of man everywhere. It owns no party; it favours no sect. Its home is everywhere. It extends a helping hand to all, without respect to nation or social standing. It knows no distinction between the classes and the masses. “To the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” The Jews despised it and fell, but their fall was the riches of the world. Rejection by this one or that will not prevent its universal spread. No cause therefore for being ashamed of the gospel. The words of a crucified Man are to-day more influential than the edicts of the Cæsars. For three hundred years the battle raged between Christianity and Roman paganism, till one of the most hostile emperors was compelled to exclaim with his dying breath, “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean.” And the day will come sooner or later when all the world over it will be acknowledged that the Galilean King has won the day. “Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me,” etc.—D. Merson, B.D.
Rom_1:17. Justified by faith.—Note the change in the Revised Version. The term “just” is eliminated: the “righteous” shall live by faith. The text is used as the groundwork of the doctrine of justification by faith.
I. What is justification by faith?—If we apply the term “justification” to any one, we imply that he is just—i.e., righteous, honest, exact, upright, proper, accurate in all his doings. But more than that: he is held to be innocent. Justification is that which declares a man blameless, innocent. When God justifies a man, this is how He looks upon him: He considers him a blameless, innocent man, not under the penalty of sin. That does not say that the man has been blameless, for every man has been, or is, a sinner; but God is so gracious towards him, that He looks over the sin and treats the man as though he had no sin.
II. The conditions of justification.—“By faith”—i.e., by faith in Christ Jesus. We must believe in Christ as our Saviour, as dying to make peace for us with God. This is an emphatic condition for pardon. But go further. If we take up another verse, which really belongs to the principle here discussed, we have a clearer idea. The just shall live by faith; but “by grace are ye saved through faith”—i.e., God pardons us, and holds us guiltless, if we have faith; but not simply because we have faith, but because He loves us—loves us when we have no claim to His love.
III. Definition of terms.—
1. The “just” = the “righteous” = the upright, the honest, those who are careful in all their doings, and, in these Christian days, sincere and earnest followers of Christ.
2. “Shall live.” Pre-eminently this means “justified,” held guiltless in God’s sight, with sins all pardoned, and thus eligible for the life of the righteous and their reward. The righteous shall live here—i.e., shall be happy, comforted, sustained, shall feel safe, and in time of temptation shall be succoured. The righteous also live the eternal life with God in “the many mansions.”
3. What is faith? A. Negative aspect.
(1) Not bare belief. The heathen had some indistinct idea which constituted faith—e.g., that there is a God mighty, etc.
(2) “The devils believe.” They know more of God than men do.
(3) Not a bare assent to doctrine. Admit the Apostles’ Creed; but that, for any person, is intellectual concession, bare assent to the fundamental principles of the Christian religion. B. Positive aspect.
(1) We have to accept all just mentioned—and more. When Paul said to the jailor, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” etc., he surely did not mean “believe that there was such a man,” but more, “believe in His power, and trust in it.” Confidence! But more still: taking God at His word, and coming to claim the promise, such as pardon. The old Puritans called this Christian faith a lying upon Christ, a leaning upon Him, a resting upon Him—just as the tottering man would lean on the arm of the strong one.
(2) It must not be fitful, but continued, confidence. Is it “once saved always saved”? No. Though pardoned, you need continued faith to watch that “no man take your crown.” Note in this connection that the three ideas of the text are interwoven: we live by faith; we live by our reliance on Christ; but it is the just only who so live. Those only who have sought and found pardon can enter into the rest that remaineth for the people of God.
IV. The need for this text to-day.—Because, with passing years, there is the fact of a growing trust in external religion—a danger that faith would grow to mean, not trust and confidence in God and in Christ’s merits, but trust in good works. The history of the Church points to the tendency to depart from the line of faith, and take up works as man’s passport into heaven. Luther’s heaviest blows were against justification by works. This had brought the Romish Church into great scandal. The Romish authorities had taught that good works cleanse men from all actual sin and reconcile us to God—a deliberate violation of the fundamental truth which declares that Christ, and not works, such as penance, fasting, etc., is the medium of our salvation.
V. The effect of a life of faith.—
1. It makes a man a better citizen. The Christian must not sit aside, and say, I must not defile myself with earthly affairs. He may well be an active citizen, a loyal subject, patriotic to the backbone.
2. It makes a man a better neighbour.
3. Not a single duty of life but it is ennobled by Christianity.
4. The life of faith revolutionises a man—all his acts and purposes.
5. His life has a splendid effect on his surroundings. “The light of the world”; “the salt of the earth.” If the heart be right with God, the works that a man shall do must be God-pleasing.—Albert Lee.
Rom_1:16. Ashamed of the gospel.—Paul had the orator’s very natural desire to refrain from saying anything calculated to shock the prejudices of his audience. When he addressed the men at Athens, he commenced by complimenting them on their devotion to religion. It had been a sufficiently difficult and delicate task to preach the gospel to Athenians, but now Paul contemplates preaching to Romans. He announces his intention in the course of a letter to the Church at Rome. He is fully conscious of the daring nature of his venture. If there were in the world one place where the gospel might be deemed more superfluous than another, surely it was Rome. Certainly the Romans would not be likely to be conscious of any need of the gospel. With Paul’s experience to guide us, let us inquire why it is that so many persons are ashamed of the gospel.
I. Because of social pride.—The astonishing thing is that a man with Paul’s abilities, heritage, and prospects of advancement should have cared to associate with such disreputable people as the early Christians were esteemed to be. Paul knew it, for he says: “Not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: but God chose the foolish things of the world, … the weak things, … and the base things, … and the things that are despised.” If a person wanted to find suitable associates, he must go to the heathen temple. Everybody who was anybody went there. Nobody in his senses would think of attending the upper room where Christians met for such a purpose. The first Christian Churches were composed of members of the lower ranks of society. Slaves constituted the majority. Poverty was almost universal. In later days a good deal of pomp and circumstance gathered about the worship of the Christian Church. Rites and ceremonies were introduced of which the apostles knew nothing. As persons of higher rank joined the community there became less occasion for shame. When at last the emperor Constantine became a convert, all the shame arising out of social prejudice became a thing of the past. Those who followed the fashion followed the emperor and joined the Christian Church in thousands.
II. Because of intellectual pride.—It seemed a foolish tale that the first Christians had to tell. It was the constant sport of heathen writers that Christians worshipped a dead man of Palestine as God and as the Son of God. Paul knew that if his message excited attention in Rome, it would be attacked by men of keen intellect. His gospel would be riddled through and through with the polished shafts of sarcasm and ridicule. The majority of Romans had ceased to believe in any religion. Even the soothsayers dared not look each other in the face when performing their functions, lest they should be overcome with laughter. They had found out the emptiness of the most respected religions, and were not likely to believe such an improbable story as the Christians had to tell. When the gospel could be no longer ignored, Christians were treated with a contemptuous sneer, as those who believed the most palpable of falsehoods. Among educated young people to-day one often finds a disposition to look upon all religion as superstition. There is also a sort of empty conceit which knows no other way of indicating the possession of brains than by pretending that it is too cool and intellectual to be “taken in” by the story so often told from the pulpit.
III. Because of moral pride.—The greatest obstacle Paul had to overcome was his moral pride. His manner of life had been exemplary. “Ye have heard of my manner of life,” he could say fearlessly. He had left a highly reputable religion, in which he had obtained distinction, for one which in many ways gave its enemies occasion to blaspheme. Paul was writing his epistle from Corinth, and much had happened in the Christian community there of which he was heartily ashamed. Unbelief, strife, and licentiousness had made the gospel a byword amongst them, and yet Paul was not ashamed of it. I have heard it said of our own Churches that their religious tone is such that one cannot with a clear conscience urge young folks to become members of them. Worse cannot be said of our Churches than was said of the Corinthian Church, and we may fearlessly take Paul’s position, and with the clearest conscience urge you to join in fellowship with them. The remark is mostly a prejudiced slander; but even if it were true, it would constitute no ground for being ashamed of the gospel. We freely enough admit that often the holiness of Church members is very low, and at times brotherly love has not been all it should be, and love to Christ has grown cold. Sometimes it has been with the Churches as it is in domestic affairs—when poverty has come in at the door, love has flown out of the window. The struggle against adverse circumstances has told heavily upon temper.—Rev. R. C. Ford, M.A.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom_1:15-17
Paul’s heroism.—Suppose a new moral system originated in some obscure village in the principality of Wales, suppose the originator of that system to have suffered the extreme penalty of the law as a malefactor, and that such a death was the essential part of that moral system, what would be thought of the heroism of the man who should go to London, and say, I am not ashamed of that system? Would any of the great preachers in London, remembering the origin of their own religion, condescend to examine the man’s claims? For after all this is something like the position of our apostle. Palestine in its physical aspect insignificant? a tract of land running along the shores of the Mediterranean, one hundred and forty miles in length, forty miles in average breadth, about the size of Wales. Nazareth an obscure village or town. “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” was a proverbial saying. Jesus Christ the Nazarene suffered a death equivalent to that which is now inflicted on the murderer. Such a death was and is a vital part of the gospel economy. We cannot understand a gospel which either ignores or stultifies the sacrificial nature of the Saviour’s death. Thus let us try to picture the heroism of the apostle, who declares that he was ready to preach the gospel at Rome, the proud mistress of the world, the central seat of pomp, pride, and culture, with all its associations of idolatry and worldly power.
The power of God is such a force as to elevate man from sin to righteousness, from death to life, from hell to heaven, from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God, and gives him eternal salvation.—Luther.
No reason to be ashamed.—The gospel had been proclaimed to all classes with the same results. It had won converts from them all. Over all alike it had achieved its triumphs. A greater difference in character, in habits, and in the institutions could hardly be met with than existed amongst those to whom the gospel had already found its way, and everywhere the effect was the same. There are many who can endure toil and physical suffering without shrinking, but who feel keenly contempt and ridicule. These things unman them; they recoil from them as from the most exquisite torture. All these the apostle bore with unfailing fortitude. The shame of the cross did not dismay him. The more men scorned it the more he gloried in it. To these stings he was not insensible—no generous nature can be. But the cross vanquished them all. With Christ in his eye the world might hurl what obloquy it pleased upon him. He gloried in that which men esteemed his reproach. With these facts before you, try to conceive the fulness of meaning there is in the statement, “I am not ashamed of the gospel.” What a generous appreciation of the highest manifestation of the wisdom and love of God! The degree in which the spirit which animated Paul is possessed by us will measure our fitness for Christ’s service and the likelihood of the success of our efforts to diffuse His gospel. None of us indeed can occupy the position which he did. His office was extraordinary. None of us is ever likely to be favoured with visions and revelations as he was. Still, let us never forget that unless our estimate of the gospel is similar to his and we are influenced by something of the same spirit, any hope of extensive usefulness is vain. What he was, not as an apostle, but as a Christian man, is what in our measure every one of us ought to be. Can we say, with something of the same meaning attached to the language, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ”? Indeed, any sufferings we may be called upon to endure for the gospel, or any sacrifices we may have it in our power to make for it, are a perfect trifle in comparison with what we find verified in Paul’s case. Do we so esteem the gospel that we withhold nothing that is meet to promote its success? Has it ever cost us the sacrifice of a convenience or an indulgence to advance its interests? We hear often of the necessities of Christ’s cause. How much have we spared to meet these necessities? Is it not often too true that the Master has reason to be ashamed of us, and that if men were to judge of our interest in the gospel by what we do for it, the question might well arise whether we understood it at all? Are there not many professing Christians whose prayers for the extension of Christ’s kingdom are cold and few, out of all proportion to their own admission of the magnitude of its claims? Does not what they contribute to this object present a singular contrast to the amount they squander on their own personal gratifications? Let us strive to wipe off the reproach of such inconsistency. Blessings on our own soul and the smile of God on all our work will be sure to follow.—J. Kelly.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Rom_1:15. The doing architect.—All the Lord’s people should be preachers, not with eloquent sermons, but with pure lives—not in pulpits, but in farm, and shop, and mart, and lane, and street. Two architects were once candidates for the building of a certain temple at Athens. The first harangued the crowd very learnedly upon the different orders of architecture, and showed them in what manner the temple should be built. The other, who got up after him, only observed that what his brother had spoken he could do; and thus he at once gained the cause. The man who can do the gospel may be mightier than the man who can speak the gospel. Let us be ready to preach the gospel, not at Rome, not in London, not in a costly marble pulpit, but in the home, in the business, in the lowest sphere.
Rom_1:16. The power of God.—The Thracians had a very significant emblem of the almighty power of God. It was a sun with three beams—one shining upon a sea of ice and dissolving it, another upon a rock and melting it, and a third upon a dead man and putting life into him. What a striking illustration of the power of God in the gospel! It melts the hardest heart and raises to a life of righteousness those who were “dead in trespasses and sin.” The power of the gospel.—A little girl, one Sabbath morning, was much affected under the sermon, and on her return home earnestly entreated her mother would accompany her to church in the evening to hear how delightfully the minister talked about Jesus Christ. The child was so intent on this object that she made the request with tears, and the mother at last consented to accompany her importunate girl to the place of worship. The preacher chose for his text Rom_1:16. The woman was seriously and effectually impressed by the word of God, was led earnestly to seek salvation, and obtained mercy by faith in Christ Jesus. The wife now naturally became anxious for the salvation of her husband, and persuaded him also to attend the chapel. He also submitted to the influence of the truth; and both the parents became grateful to God for the child whose importunity led them to hear the gospel of salvation.—Cheever.
Rom_1:16. John Frith.—“Do ye think,” said John Frith, martyr, to the archbishop’s men that would have let him go, “that I am afraid to declare mine opinion unto the bishops of England in a manifest truth? If you should both leave me here, and go tell the bishops that you had lost Frith, I would surely follow as fast after as I might, and bring them news that I had found and brought Frith again.”—Trapp.
Rom_1:16. The captive whose faith saved him.—A captive was brought before an Asiatic prince; the scimitar was already raised over the captive’s head to destroy, when, pressed by intolerable thirst, he asked for water. A cup was handed him; he held it in his hand as if apprehensive lest the scimitar should fall while he was in the act of drinking. “Take courage,” said the prince, “you shall be spared till you drink this water.” The captive instantly dashed the cup of water to the ground. The good faith of the barbarian saved him. The word had passed, it was enough, and the captive went on his way rejoicing. God’s word has passed. Believe, and be saved.
Rom_1:16. Tholuck’s conviction of the truth of Christianity.—“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” In early boyhood infidelity had forced its way into my heart, and at the age of twelve I was wont to scoff at Christianity and its truths. And hard indeed has been the struggle through which I have passed, before attaining to that assurance of faith with which I am now blessed. But I acknowledge it with praise to the Almighty that the longer I live the more does serious study, combined with the experiences of life, help me to recognise in the Christian doctrine an inexhaustible fountain of true knowledge, and serve to strengthen the blessed conviction that all the wisdom of this world is but folly when compared with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv14–16 14. “I am debtor both to Greeks and barbarians,…
14. “I am debtor both to Greeks and barbarians, to the wise and the unwise.” The Greeks in every ramification of culture and civilization (i. e., poetry, oratory, philosophy and the fine arts) had stood at the top of the world the last five hundred years. Meanwhile, through the Alexandrian conquest, she had given to the world the most wonderful language of all ages, in the providence of God the vehicle for the transmission of the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. Hence the Greeks enjoyed a universally recognized pre-eminence above the nations of the earth, all others, even the Jews, contrastively denominated “barbarians.” Paul was God’s cosmopolitan missionary, like Bishop Taylor at the present day. God help us to feel that we, too, are debtors to all men indiscriminately.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv14, 16
Romans
DEBTORS TO ALL MEN
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Rom 1:14.
No doubt Paul is here referring to the special obligation laid upon him by his divine call to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. He was entrusted with the Gospel as a steward, and was therefore bound to carry it to all sorts and conditions of men. But the principle underlying the statement applies to all Christians. The indebtedness referred to is no peculiarity of the Apostolic order, but attaches to every believer. Every servant of Jesus Christ, who has received the truth for himself, has received it as a steward, and is, as such, indebted to God, from whom he got the trust, and to the men for whom he got it. The only limit to the obligation is, as Paul says in the context, ‘as much as in me is.’ Capacity, determined by faculties, opportunities, and circumstances, prescribes the kind and the degree of the work to be done in discharge of the obligation; but the obligation is universal. We are not at liberty to choose whether we shall do our part in spreading the name of Jesus Christ. It is a debt that we owe to God and to men. Is that the view of duty which the average Christian man takes? I am afraid it is not. If it were, our treasuries would be full, and great would be the multitude of them that preached the Word.
It is no very exalted degree of virtue to pay our debts. We do not expect to be praised for that; and we do not consider that we are at liberty to choose whether we shall do it or not. We are dishonest if we do not. It is no merit in us to be honest. Would that all Christian people applied that principle to their religion. The world would be different, and the Church would be different, if they did.
Let me try, then, to enforce this thought of indebtedness and of common honesty in discharging the indebtedness, which underlies these words. Paul thought that he went a long way to pay his debts to humanity by carrying to everybody whom he could reach the ‘Name that is above every name.’
I. Now, first, let me say that we Christians are debtors to all men by our common manhood.
It is not the least of the gifts which Christianity has brought to the world, that it has introduced the new thought of the brotherhood of mankind. The very word ‘humanity’ is a Christian coinage, and it was coined to express the new thought that began to throb in men’s hearts, as soon as they accepted the message that Jesus Christ came to give, the message of the Fatherhood of God. For it is on that belief of God’s Fatherhood that the belief of man’s brotherhood rests, and on it alone can it be secured and permanently based.
Here is a Jew writing to Latins in the Greek language. The phenomenon itself is a sign of a new order of things, of the rising of a flood that had surged over, and in the course of ages would sap away and dissolve, the barriers between men. The Apostle points to two of the widest gulfs that separated men, in the words of my text. ‘Greeks and Barbarians’ divides mankind, according to race and language. ‘Wise and unwise’ divides them according to culture and intellectual capacity. Both gulfs exist still, though they have been wonderfully filled up by the influence, direct and indirect, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The fiercest antagonisms of race which still subsist are felt to belong to a decaying order, and to be sure, sooner or later, to pass away. I suppose that the gulf made by the increased culture of modern society between civilised and the savage peoples, and, within the limits of our own land, the gulf made by education between the higher and the lower layers of our community-I speak not of higher and lower in regard to wealth or station, but in regard to intellectual acquirement and capacity-are greater than, perhaps, they ever were in the past. But yet over the gulf a bridge is thrown, and the gulf itself is being filled up. High above all the superficial distinctions which separate Jew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian, educated and illiterate, scientific and unscientific, wise and unwise, there stretches the great rainbow of the truth that all are one in Christ Jesus. Fraternity without Fatherhood is a ghastly mockery that ended a hundred years ago in the guillotine, and to-day will end in disappointment; and it is little more than cant. But when Christianity comes and tells us that we have one Father and one Redeemer, then the unity of the race is secured.
And that oneness which makes us debtors to all men is shown to be real by the fact that, beneath all superficial distinctions of culture, race, age, or station, there are the primal necessities and yearnings and possibilities that lie in every human soul. All men, savage or cultivated, breathe the same air, see by the same light, are fed by the same food and drink, have the same yearning hearts, the same lofty aspirations that unfulfilled are torture; the same experience of the same guilt, and, blessed be God! the same Saviour and the same salvation.
Because, then, we are all members of the one family, every man is bound to regard all that he possesses, and is, and can do, as committed to him in stewardship to be imparted to his fellows. We are not sponges to absorb, but we are pipes placed in the spring, that we may give forth the precious water of life.
Cain is not a very good model, but his question is the world’s question, and it implies the expectation of a negative answer-’Am I my brother’s keeper?’ Surely, the very language answers itself, and, although Cain thinks that the only answer is ‘No,’ wisdom sees that the only answer is ‘Yes.’ For if I am my brother’s brother, then surely I am my brother’s keeper. We have a better example. There is another Elder Brother who has come to give to His brethren all that Himself possessed, and we but poorly follow our Master’s pattern unless we feel that the mystic tie which binds us in brotherhood to every man makes us every man’s debtor to the extent of our possessions. That is the Christian truth that underlies the modern Socialistic idea, and, whatever the form in which it is ultimately brought into practice as the rule of mankind, the principle will triumph one day; and we are bound, as Christian men, to hasten the coming of its victory. We are debtors by reason of our common humanity.
II. We are debtors by our possession of the universal salvation.
The principle which I have already been laying down applies all round, to everything that we have, are, or can do. But its most stringent obligation, and the noblest field for its operations, are found in reference to the Christian man’s possession of the Gospel for the joy of his own heart, and to the duties that are therein involved. Christ draws men to Himself for their own sakes, blessed be His name! but not for their own sakes only. He draws them to Himself, that they, in their turn, may draw others with whose hands theirs are linked, and so may swell the numbers of the flock that gathers round the one Shepherd. He puts the dew of His blessing into the chalice of the tiniest flower, that it may ‘share its dewdrop with another near.’ Just as every particle of inert dough as it is leavened becomes in its turn leaven, and the medium for leavening the particle contiguous to it, so every Christian is bound, or, to use the metaphor of my text, is a debtor to God and man, to impart the Gospel of Jesus Christ. ‘Greek and Barbarian,’ says Paul, ‘wise or unwise’; all distinctions vanish. If I can get at a man, no matter what colour, his race, his language, his capacity, his acquirements, he is my creditor, and I am defrauding him of what he has a right to expect from me if I do not do my best to bring him to Jesus Christ.
This obligation receives additional weight from the proved adaptation of the Gospel to all sorts and conditions of men. Alone of all religions has Christianity proved itself capable of dominating every type of character, of influencing every stage of civilisation, of assuming the speech of every tongue, and of wearing the garb of every race. There are other religions which are evidently destined only to a narrow field of operations, and are rigidly limited by geographical conditions, or by stages of civilisation. There are wines that are ruined by a sea voyage, and can only be drunk in the land where the vintage was gathered; and that is the condition of all the ethnic religions. Christianity alone passes through the whole earth, and influences all men. The history of missions shows us that. There has yet to be found the race that is incapable of receiving, or is beyond the need of possessing, or cannot be elevated by the operation of, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So to all men we are bound, as much as in us is, to carry the Gospel. The distinction that is drawn so often by the people who never move a finger to help the heathen either at home or abroad, between the home and the foreign field of work, vanishes altogether when we stand at the true Christian standpoint. Here is a man who wants the Gospel; I have it; I can give it to him. That constitutes a summons as imperative as if we were called by name from Heaven, and bade to go, and as much as in us is to preach the Gospel. Brethren! we do not obey the command, ‘Owe no man anything,’ unless, to the extent of our ability, or over the whole field which we can influence at home or abroad, we seek to spread the name of Christ and the salvation that is in Him.
III. We are debtors by benefits received.
I am speaking to men and women a very large proportion of whom get their living, and some of whom amass their wealth, by trade with lands that need the Gospel. It is not for nothing that England has won the great empire that she possesses-won it, alas! far too often by deeds that will not bear investigation in the light of Christian principle, but won it.
What do we owe to the lands that we call ‘heathen’ ? The very speech by which we communicate with one another; the beginning of our civilisation; wide fields for expanding population and emigration; treasures of wisdom of many kinds; an empire about which we are too fond of crowing and too reluctant to recognise its responsibilities-and Manchester its commerce and prosperity! Did God put us where we are as a nation only in order that we might carry the gifts of our literature, great as that is; of our science, great as that is; of our law, blessed as that is; of our manufactures, to those distant lands? The best thing that we can give is the thing that all of us can help to give-the Gospel of Jesus Christ. ‘Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?’
IV. Lastly, we are debtors by injuries inflicted.
Many subject-races seem destined to fade away by contact with our race; and if we think of the nameless cruelties, and the iliad of woes which England’s possession of this great Colonial Empire has had accompanying it, we may feel that the harm in many aspects outweighs the good, and that it had been better for these men to be left suckled in creeds outworn, and ignorant of our civilisation, than to receive from us the fatal gifts that they often have received. I do not wish to exaggerate, but if you will take the facts of the case as brought out by people that have no Christian prejudices to serve, I think you will acknowledge that we as a nation owe a debt of reparation to the barbarians and the unwise.
What about killing African tribes by the thousand with the vile stuff that we call rum, and send to them in exchange for their poor commodities? What about introducing new diseases, the offspring of vice, into the South Sea Islands, decimating and all but destroying the population? Is it not true that, as the prophet wailed of old about a degenerate Israel, we may wail about the beach-combers and other loafers that go amongst savage lands from England-’Through you the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles.’ A Hindoo once said to a missionary, ‘Your Book is very good. If you were as good as your Book you would conquer India in five years.’ That may be true or it may not, but it gives us the impression that is produced by godless Englishmen on heathen peoples. We are taking away their religion from them, necessarily, as the result of education and contact with European thought. And if we do not substitute for it the one faith that elevates and saves, the last state of that man will be worse than the first.
We can almost hear the rattle of the guns on the north-west frontier of India to-day. There is another specimen of the injuries inflicted. This is not the place to talk politics, but I feel that this is the place to ask this question, ‘Are Christian principles to have anything to do in determining national actions?’ Is it Christian to impose our yoke on unwilling tribes who have as deep a love for independence as the proudest Englishmen of us all, and as good a right to it? Are punitive expeditions and Maxim guns instalments of our debt to all men? I wonder what Jesus Christ, who died for Afridis and Orakzais and all the rest of them, thinks about such conduct?
Brethren, we are debtors to all men. Let us do our best to influence national action in accordance with the brotherhood which has been revealed to us by the Elder Brother of us all; and let us, at least for our own parts, recognise, and, as much as in us is, discharge the debt which, by our common humanity, and by our possession of the universal Gospel we owe to all men, and which is made more weighty by the benefits we receive from many, and by the injuries which England has inflicted on not a few. Else shall we hear rise above all the voices that palliate crime, on the plea of ‘State necessity,’ the stern words of the Master, ‘In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of poor innocents.’ We are debtors; let us pay our debts.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv14–16 I am debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians…
I am debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians [foreigners, those who did not speak the Greek language] , both to the wise and to the foolish .
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v16 The Heb. and (Greek - ἀλεκτοροφωνία, safety, preservation, healing,…
salvation
The Heb. and (Greek - ἀλεκτοροφωνία, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness). Salvation is the great inclusive word of the Gospel, gathering into itself all the redemptive acts and processes: as justification, redemption, grace, propitiation, imputation, forgiveness, sanctification, and glorification. Salvation is in three tenses:
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(1) The believer has been saved from the guilt and penalty of sin Luk 7:50; 1Co 1:18; 2Co 2:15; Eph 2:5; Eph 2:8; 2Ti 1:9 and is safe.
(2) the believer is being saved from the habit and dominion of sin Rom 6:14; Php 1:19; Php 2:12; Php 2:13; 2Th 2:13; Rom 8:2; Gal 2:19; Gal 2:20; 2Co 3:18.
(3) The believer is to be saved in the sense of entire conformity to Christ. Rom 13:11; Heb 10:36; 1Pe 1:5; 1Jn 3:2. Salvation is by grace through faith, is a free gift, and wholly without works; Rom 3:27; Rom 3:28; Rom 4:1-8; Rom 6:23; Eph 2:8. The divine order is: first salvation, then works; Eph 2:9; Eph 2:10; Tit 3:5-8.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v16 The Theme of the Letter. 1:16-17
The Theme of the Letter. 1:16-17
v. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
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v. 17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Paul had declared his readiness to preach the Gospel at Rome, the capital of the world. And all the wisdom and pride of the haughty metropolis would not deter him from it. "Anywhere, no doubt, one might have misgivings about identifying himself with a message which had for its subject a person who had been put to death as a criminal; anywhere the Cross was to Jews a stumbling-block and to Greeks foolishness. But at Rome, of all places, where the whole effective force of humanity seemed to be gathered up, one might be ashamed to stand forth as the representative of an apparently impotent and ineffective thing. But this the Gospel is not; it is the very reverse of this, and therefore the apostle is proud to identify himself with it. " In no way is Paul ashamed of the Gospel, the glorious message of salvation. For he knows and confesses that a power of God it is unto salvation. What no human doctrine, no worldly philosophy is able to accomplish, the simple message of Jesus Christ brings about. It is not merely accompanied by the power of God under certain circumstances, but it is in itself, at all times, a power of God. Herein it serves the highest, the most wonderful purpose: it brings salvation to everyone that believes. In delivering sinners from sin, death, and damnation, it brings and transmits to them life and salvation. The power is there always, whether the Gospel-truth is accepted or not; "but a man can experience and enjoy this power only when he accepts it by faith. " 1Co 15:1 ff. ; Jas 1:21. And this power and glory of the Gospel is intended for everyone, for the Jew first, but for the Greek as well. To the Jewish people God had revealed Himself first, in their midst the Savior had lived, a continual living manifestation of the Gospel, a revelation of the merciful power of God. But the glad tidings were not confined to the Jews: Jews and Greeks were alike in need of the message of salvation. For neither Law and the works of the Law, on the one hand, nor wisdom and culture, on the other, can deliver mankind from the misery of sin and its consequences. Salvation is possible only through the power of the Gospel.
Just how the Gospel is a divine saving power Paul now explains, namely, since the righteousness of God is revealed in it. Righteousness, the state of being righteous, which is a condition of salvation, is lacking in every member of the human family since the Fall. But now righteousness, the state or condition in which a person is acceptable before God, has God on his side, is revealed, is made known in the Gospel. It is the righteousness of God, not merely a righteousness which has its source in God and comes from God, but a righteousness valid before God, one which finds full recognition in His sight, 2Co 5:21. It is not a righteousness which has its seat in man, the result of man’s own efforts, but a righteousness which is imputed to man by God, and therefore has full standing in His sight. This righteousness is revealed, uncovered. It is present, has been present from eternity, in Jesus Christ, whose vicarious, active obedience has brought about a merciful judgment of God. But this fact would remain unknown to man without the revelation of the Gospel, and therefore the righteousness which was gained through the merits of Christ is revealed and offered to all men in the Gospel. It is being revealed out of faith into faith: it is a righteousness out of faith, it becomes our full possession as a consequence of faith; and it is a righteousness into faith, it is expressly intended for faith, it can be obtained only by faith. As soon as a person accepts the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he becomes a partaker of the righteousness which is ready for him in the Gospel; a person must simply take what God gives him, and he has the possession and enjoyment of the great blessing upon which life and salvation depend. And in order to show that the doctrine which he here teaches is in full accordance with the writings of the Old Covenant, St. Paul quotes the word of a prophet, Hab 2:4: The just will live by faith, in consequence of, through faith; he will never see destruction, but will be in full enjoyment of the highest form of life, in and with God, forever. And so Paul has given a summary of his Gospel; he has stated, in these two sentences, the theme or thesis of his letter to the Romans.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v16 I am not ashamed of the gospel
I am not ashamed of the gospel
You can translate this in a positive form. AT: "I trust completely in the gospel" (See: Litotes)
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it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes
Here "believes" means that one puts his trust in Christ. AT: "it is through the gospel that God powerfully saves those who put their trust in Christ" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
for the Jew first and for the Greek
"for Jewish people and also for Greek people"
first
Here "first" means coming before all others in order of time.
For in it
Here "it" refers to the gospel. Paul explains why he completely trusts in the gospel.
God's righteousness is revealed from faith to faith
Paul speaks about the gospel message as if it were an object that God could physically show to people. You can translate this in an active form. AT: "God has told us that it is by faith from beginning to end that people become righteous" (See: Active or Passive)
as it has been written
You can translate this in an active form. AT: "as someone has written in the Scriptures" (See: Active or Passive)
The righteous will live by faith
Here "righteous" refers to those who trust in God. AT: "It is people who trust in God that he considers right with him, and they will live forever" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
good news
power
save
believe
Jew
Greek
righteous
reveal
faith
written
life
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14, 16 1:14 to people in both the civilized world and…
1:14 to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world (literally to Greeks and barbarians): The Greeks prided themselves on being sophisticated and cultured, while regarding people from other cultures as inferior. They mocked other peoples’ poorly spoken Greek, claiming that they could only say “bar bar,” a nonsense phrase from which our word barbarian comes. Paul uses this cultural divide to emphasize his intention to preach the Good News to all kinds of people.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.