and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv17–23 17. And if children, etc. By an argument, taken…
17. And if children, etc. By an argument, taken from what is annexed or what follows, he proves that our salvation consists in having God as our Father. It is for children that inheritance is appointed: since God then has adopted us as his children, he has at the same time ordained an inheritance for us. He then intimates what sort of inheritance it is — that it is heavenly, and therefore incorruptible and eternal, such as Christ possesses; and his possession of it takes away all uncertainty: and it is a commendation of the exellency of this inheritance, that we shall partake of it in common with the only-begotten Son of God. It is however the design of Paul, as it will presently appear more fully, highly to extol this inheritance promised to us, that we may be contented with it, and manfully despise the allurements of the world, and patiently bear whatever troubles may press on us in this life.
If so be that we suffer together, etc. Various are the interpretations of this passage, but I approve of the following in preference to any other, “We are co-heirs with Christ, provided, in entering on our inheritance, we follow him in the same way in which he has gone before.” And he thus made mention of Christ, because he designed to pass over by these steps to an encouraging strain, — “God’s inheritance is ours, because we have by his grace been adopted as his children; and that it may not be doubtful, its possession as been already conferred on Christ, whose partners we are become: but Christ came to it by the cross; then we must come to it in the same manner.” Nor is that to be dreaded which some fear, that Paul thus ascribes the cause of our eternal glory to our labours; for this mode of speaking is not unusual in Scripture. He denotes the order, which the Lord follows in dispensing salvation to us, rather than the cause; for he has already sufficiently defended the gratuitous mercy of God against the merits of works. When now exhorting us to patience, he does not show whence salvation proceeds, but how God governs his people.
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 vv17–23 Partakers of our father’s goods, and that freely, because…
Partakers of our father’s goods, and that freely, because we are children by adoption.
A proof of the consequent of the confirmation: because that he which is the Son of God, doth enjoy God with Christ.
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Now Paul teacheth by what way the sons of God do come to that felicity, to wit, by the cross, as Christ himself did: and therewithall openeth unto them fountains of comfort: as first, that we have Christ a companion and fellow of our afflictions: secondly, that we shall be also his followers in that everlasting glory.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv17–23 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God,…
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Ver. 17. And if sons, then heirs] All God’s sons are heirs; not so the sons of earthly princes. Jehoshaphat gave his younger sons great gifts of silver, of gold, and of precious things, with fenced cities in Judah; but the kingdom gave he to Jehoram, because he was the firstborn, 2Ch 21:3. God’s children are all higher than the kings of the earth, Psa 89:27.
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 vv17–23 And if children, then heirs; there is a parallel…
And if children, then heirs; there is a parallel text in Gal 4:7. It is not so with the children of earthly princes: see 2Ch 21:3.
Joint-heirs with Christ; or co-heirs with Christ; he is our elder Brother, and is not ashamed to call us brethren: the inheritance is his by nature, ours by grace.
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If so be that we suffer with him; the cross of Christ is the condition of our heavenly inheritance. The pronoun him is not in the original, but fitly supplied in our translation. Suffering with him, is much the same with suffering for him: suffering believers do but pledge Christ in the cup that he began to them.
That we may be also glorified together; or, glorified with him, not with equal glory, but according to our proportion; he was glorified in this way, Luk 24:26, and so must we. Three things are implied in our being
glorified together:
1. Conformiry; we shall in some measure be like him in glory: see Joh 17:22; Phi 3:21.
2. Concomitancy; we shall be present with him in glory, Joh 17:24; 1Th 4:17.
3. Conveyance; our glory will be from him; his glory will reflect on us, and we shall shine in his beams.
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 vv17, 18, 19, 23 Our apostle having asserted and insured the believer’s adoption…
Our apostle having asserted and insured the believer’s adoption in the foregoing verse, doth in this verse infer the certainty of his inheritance: If children, then heirs.
Learn hence, That all God’s children, by special grace and adoption, are undoubted heirs of a blessed and glorious inheritance.
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He next declares whom they are heirs of, and whom they are heirs with; they are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.
1. They are heirs of God, they do inherit God himself, their Father is their portion; man leaves his heirs what he has, God gives his heirs what he is; he which gives them the inheritance, is the inheritance itself which he gives them, by being not only heirs to him, but heirs of him; they have an interest in all his attributes; his wisdom is theirs to guide and direct them, his power is theirs to sustain and preserve them, his mercy and pity is theirs to relieve and succour them.
Oh happy and blessed privilege of God’s adopted ones! they are not only heirs of heaven, but heirs of God himself; they have him for their portion, and exceeding great reward.
2. They are heirs with Christ: as Christ is God’s heir, so are they heirs with Christ; Christ is God’s heir by nature, as he is the Son of God by nature; whatever is God’s is his, and they are heirs with Christ; they are members of him, and shall be heirs with him, 1Co 3:21-23. All his yours, and ye are Christ’s, Eph 1:11. In him we have obtained the inheritance; we are heirs in his right.
Oh blessed Jesus! how endearing are our obligations to thee! All that we have is from thee, by thee, and in thee: We are chosen in thee, justified by thee, sanctified through thee, and shall be glorified with thee; For if children, then heirs: heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. It follows,
Here we see what accompanieth our adoption, namely, present affliction; we are now to suffer, but not alone, we suffer with Christ; If so be that we suffer with him. This if is not a word of ambiguity and doubting, but a word of certainty and assurance and signifies as much as seeing that we suffer with him.
Learn hence, 1. That a state of suffering and affliction on earth is one condition of obtaining our glorious inheritance in heaven; we must suffer that God may be glorified, our graces improved, our love to the world mortified, our longings for heaven increased.
Learn, 2. That the sufferings of believers are the sufferings of Christ; they suffer with him, and he with them; they suffer with him in a way of conformity, he with them in a way of tender sympathy; they are sensible of any indignity offered to him, and he is sensible of any injury offered to them: the suffering saint pledges Christ in his own cup.
Farther, they suffer with him when they suffer for him, when they suffer in his cause, and for his sake; that is, for doing their duty.
Finally, they suffer with him when they suffer by an assistance derived from him, when by his enablement, and by a power communicated from him, they suffer hard things for his name and truth.
Learn, 3. That as sufferings go before, so glory shall certainly follow sufferings; If we suffer with him, we shall be also glorified together. Suffering is the beaten path to glroy, and that which makes it so much the more glorious; suffering fits us for glory, and disposes us for the reception and fruition of it; by the cross we are fitted for the crown.
Learn, 4. That suffering members shall not only be glorified, but be comformable to their glorified Head in glory; as they have here suffered with him, they shall hereafter be glorified together, not with equal glory, but with the same kind of glory.
Three things are implied in our being glorified together with Christ:
1. Conformity; we shall be like him in glory.
2. Concomitancy: we shall accompany him, and be present with him in glory.
3. Conveyance or derivation; we shall be glorified with him; that is, our glory shall be derived from him; his glory shall be reflected upon us, and we shall shine in his beams.
Oh happy condition of God’s adopted and afflicted children! The supports which you have under suffering, the benefits which you have by suffering, and the glory which will follow after suffering, render it not only tolerable but desirable; well may they glory in tribulation, which expect such a glory after 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 v17 In these words the apostle describes a fourth illustrious…
In these words the apostle describes a fourth illustrious branch of the happiness of believers, namely, a title to the future glory. This is fitly annexed to our sonship; for as the adoption of sons entitles us to that glory, so the disposition of sons fits and prepares us for it. If children, then heirs, Rom 8:17. In earthly inheritances this rule does not hold, only the first-born are heirs; but the church is a church of first-born, for they are all heirs. Heaven is an inheritance that all the saints are heirs to. They do not come to it as purchasers by any merit or procurement of their own; but as heirs, purely by the act of God; for God makes heirs. The saints are heirs though in this world they are heirs under age; see Gal 4:1, Gal 4:2. Their present state is a state of education and preparation for the inheritance. How comfortable should this be to all the children of God, how little soever they have in possession, that, being heirs, they have enough in reversion! But the honour and happiness of an heir lie in the value and worth of that which he is heir to: we read of those that inherit the wind; and therefore we have here an abstract of the premises. 1. Heirs of God. The Lord himself is the portion of the saints' inheritance (Psa 16:5), a goodly heritage, Psa 16:6. The saints are spiritual priests, that have the Lord for their inheritance, Num 18:20. The vision of God and the fruition of God make up the inheritance the saints are heirs to. God himself will be with them, and will be their God, Rev 21:3. 2. Joint-heirs with Christ. Christ, as Mediator, is said to be the heir of all things (Heb 1:2), and true believers, by virtue of their union with him, shall inherit all things, Rev 21:7. Those that now partake of the Spirit of Christ, as his brethren, shall, as his brethren, partake of his glory (Joh 17:24), shall sit down with him upon his throne, Rev 3:21. Lord, what is man, that thou shouldst thus magnify him! Now this future glory is further spoken of as the reward of present sufferings and as the accomplishment of present hopes.
I. As the reward of the saints' present sufferings; and it is a rich reward: If so be that we suffer with him (Rom 8:17), or forasmuch as we suffer with him. The state of the church in this world always is, but was then especially, an afflicted state; to be a Christian was certainly to be a sufferer. Now, to comfort them in reference to those sufferings, he tells them that they suffered with Christ - for his sake, for his honour, and for the testimony of a good conscience, and should be glorified with him. Those that suffered with David in his persecuted state were advanced by him and with him when he came to the crown; see Ti2 2:12. See the gains of suffering for Christ; though we may be losers for him, we shall not, we cannot, be losers by him in the end. This the gospel is filled with the assurances of. Now, that suffering saints may have strong supports and consolations from their hopes of heaven, he holds the balance (Rom 8:18), in a comparison between the two, which is observable. 1. In one scale he puts the sufferings of this present time. The sufferings of the saints are but sufferings of this present time, strike no deeper than the things of time, last no longer than the present time (Co2 4:17), light affliction, and but for a moment. So that on the sufferings he writes tekel, weighed in the balance and found light. 2. In the other scale he puts the glory, and finds that a weight, an exceeding and eternal weight: Glory that shall be revealed. In our present state we come short, not only in the enjoyment, but in the knowledge of that glory (Co1 2:9; Jo1 3:2): it shall be revealed. It surpasses all that we have yet seen and known: present vouchsafements are sweet and precious, very precious, very sweet; but there is something to come, something behind the curtain, that will outshine all. Shall be revealed in us; not only revealed to us, to be seen, but revealed in us, to be enjoyed. The kingdom of God is within you, and will be so to eternity. 3. He concludes the sufferings not worthy to be compared with the glory - ouk axia pros tēn doxan. They cannot merit that glory; and, if suffering for Christ will not merit, much less will doing. They should not at all deter and frighten us from the diligent and earnest pursuit of that glory. The sufferings are small and short, and concern the body only; but the glory is rich and great, and concerns the soul, and is eternal. This he reckons. I reckon - logizomai. It is not a rash and sudden determination, but the product of a very serious and deliberate consideration. he had reasoned the case within himself, weighed the arguments on both sides, and thus at last resolves the point. O how vastly different is the sentence of the word from the sentiment of the world concerning the sufferings of this present time! I reckon, as an arithmetician that is balancing an account. He first sums up what is disbursed for Christ in the sufferings of this present time, and finds they come to very little; he then sums up what is secured to us by Christ in the glory that shall be revealed, and this he finds to be an infinite sum, transcending all conception, the disbursement abundantly made up and the losses infinitely countervailed. And who would be afraid then to suffer for Christ, who as he is before-hand with us in suffering, so he will not be behind-hand with us in recompence? Now Paul was as competent a judge of this point as ever any mere man was. He could reckon not by art only, but by experience; for he knew both. He knew what the sufferings of this present time were; see Co2 11:23-28. He knew what the glory of heaven is; see Co2 12:3, Co2 12:4. And, upon the view of both, he gives this judgment here. There is nothing like a believing view of the glory which shall be revealed to support and bear up the spirit under all the sufferings of this present time. The reproach of Christ appears riches to those who have respect to the recompence of reward, Heb 11:26.
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II. As the accomplishment of the saints' present hopes and expectations, Rom 8:19, etc. As the saints are suffering for it, so they are waiting for it. Heaven is therefore sure; for God by his Spirit would not raise and encourage those hopes only to defeat and disappoint them. He will establish that word unto his servants on which he has caused them to hope (Psa 119:49), and heaven is therefore sweet; for, if hope deferred makes the heart sick, surely when the desire comes it will be a tree of life, Pro 13:12. Now he observes an expectation of this glory,
1. In the creatures Rom 8:19-22. That must needs be a great, a transcendent glory, which all the creatures are so earnestly expecting and longing for. This observation in these verses has some difficulty in it, which puzzles interpreters a little; and the more because it is a remark not made in any other scripture, with which it might be compared. By the creature here we understand, not as some do the Gentile world, and their expectation of Christ and the gospel, which is an exposition very foreign and forced, but the whole frame of nature, especially that of this lower world - the whole creation, the compages of inanimate and sensible creatures, which, because of their harmony and mutual dependence, and because they all constitute and make up one world, are spoken of in the singular number as the creature. The sense of the apostle in these four verses we may take in the following observations: - (1.) That there is a present vanity to which the creature, by reason of the sin of man, is made subject, Rom 8:20. When man sinned, the ground was cursed for man's sake, and with it all the creatures (especially of this lower world, where our acquaintance lies) became subject to that curse, became mutable and mortal. Under the bondage of corruption, Rom 8:21. There is an impurity, deformity, and infirmity, which the creature has contracted by the fall of man: the creation is sullied and stained, much of the beauty of the world gone. There is an enmity of one creature to another; they are all subject to continual alteration and decay of the individuals, liable to the strokes of God's judgments upon man. When the world was drowned, and almost all the creatures in it, surely then it was subject to vanity indeed. The whole species of creatures is designed for, and is hastening to, a total dissolution by fire. And it is not the least part of their vanity and bondage that they are used, or abused rather, by men as instruments of sin. The creatures are often abused to the dishonour of their Creator, the hurt of his children, or the service of his enemies. When the creatures are made the food and fuel of our lusts, they are subject to vanity, they are captivated by the law of sin. And this not willingly, not of their own choice. All the creatures desire their own perfection and consummation; when they are made instruments of sin it is not willingly. Or, They are thus captivated, not for any sin of their own, which they had committed, but for man's sin: By reason of him who hath subjected the same. Adam did it meritoriously; the creatures being delivered to him, when he by sin delivered himself he delivered them likewise into the bondage of corruption. God did it judicially; he passed a sentence upon the creatures for the sin of man, by which they became subject. And this yoke (poor creatures) they bear in hope that it will not be so always. Ep' elpidi hoti kai, etc. - in hope that the creature itself; so many Greek copies join the words. We have reason to pity the poor creatures that for our sin have become subject to vanity. (2.) That the creatures groan and travail in pain together under this vanity and corruption, Rom 8:22. It is a figurative expression. Sin is a burden to the whole creation; the sin of the Jews, in crucifying Christ, set the earth a quaking under them. The idols were a burden to the weary beast, Isa 46:1. There is a general outcry of the whole creation against the sin of man: the stone crieth out of the wall (Hab 2:11), the land cries, Job 31:38. (3.) That the creature, that is now thus burdened, shall, at the time of the restitution of all things, be delivered from this bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom 8:21) - they shall no more be subject to vanity and corruption, and the other fruits of the curse; but, on the contrary, this lower world shall be renewed: when there will be new heavens there will be a new earth (Pe2 3:13; Rev 21:1); and there shall be a glory conferred upon all the creatures, which shall be (in the proportion of their natures) as suitable and as great an advancement as the glory of the children of God shall be to them. The fire at the last day shall be a refining, not a destroying annihilating fire. What becomes of the souls of brutes, that go downwards, none can tell. But it should seem by the scripture that there will be some kind of restoration of them. And if it be objected, What use will they be of to glorified saints? we may suppose them of as much use as they were to Adam in innocency; and if it be only to illustrate the wisdom, power, and goodness of their Creator, that is enough. Compare with this Psa 96:10-13; Psa 98:7-9. Let the heavens rejoice before the Lord, for he cometh. (4.) That the creature doth therefore earnestly expect and wait for the manifestation of the children of God, Rom 8:19. Observe, At the second coming of Christ there will be a manifestation of the children of God. Now the saints are God's hidden ones, the wheat seems lost in a heap of chaff; but then they shall be manifested. It does not yet appear what we shall be (Jo1 3:2), but then the glory shall be revealed. The children of God shall appear in their own colours. And this redemption of the creature is reserved till then; for, as it was with man and for man that they fell under the curse, so with man and for man they shall be delivered. All the curse and filth that now adhere to the creature shall be done away then when those that have suffered with Christ upon earth shall reign with him upon the earth. This the whole creation looks and longs for; and it may serve as a reason why now a good man should be merciful to his beast.
2. In the saints, who are new creatures, Rom 8:23-25. Observe, (1.) The grounds of this expectation in the saints. It is our having received the first-fruits of the Spirit, which both quickens our desires and encourages our hopes, and both ways raises our expectations. The first-fruits did both sanctify and ensure the lump. Grace is the first-fruits of glory, it is glory begun. We, having received such clusters in this wilderness, cannot but long for the full vintage in the heavenly Canaan. Not only they - not only the creatures which are not capable of such a happiness as the first-fruits of the Spirit, but even we, who have such present rich receivings, cannot but long for something more and greater. In having the first-fruits of the Spirit we have that which is very precious, but we have not all we would have. We groan within ourselves, which denotes the strength and secrecy of these desires; not making a loud noise, as the hypocrites howling upon the bed for corn and wine, but with silent groans, which pierce heaven soonest of all. Or, We groan among ourselves. It is the unanimous vote, the joint desire, of the whole church, all agree in this: Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. The groaning denotes a very earnest and importunate desire, the soul pained with the delay. Present receivings and comforts are consistent with a great many groans; not as the pangs of one dying, but as the throes of a woman in travail - groans that are symptoms of life, not of death. (2.) The object of this expectation. What is it we are thus desiring and waiting for? What would we have? The adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Though the soul be the principal part of the man, yet the Lord has declared himself for the body also, and has provided a great deal of honour and happiness for the body. The resurrection is here called the redemption of the body. It shall then be rescued from the power of death and the grave, and the bondage of corruption; and, though a vile body, yet it shall be refined and beautified, and made like that glorious body of Christ, Phi 3:21; Co1 15:42. This is called the adoption. [1.] It is the adoption manifested before all the world, angels and men. Now are we the sons of God, but it does not yet appear, the honour is now clouded; but then God will publicly own all his children. The deed of adoption, which is now written, signed, and sealed, will then be recognized, proclaimed, and published. As Christ was, so the saints will be, declared to be the sons of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead, Rom 1:4. It will then be put past dispute. [2.] It is the adoption perfected and completed. The children of God have bodies as well as souls; and, till those bodies are brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God, the adoption is not perfect. But then it will be complete, when the Captain of our salvation shall bring the many sons to glory, Heb 2:10. This is that which we expect, in hope of which our flesh rests, Psa 16:9, Psa 16:10. All the days of our appointed time we are waiting, till this change shall come, when he shall call, and we shall answer, and he will have a desire to the work of his hands, Job 14:14, Job 14:15. (3.) The agreeableness of this to our present state, Rom 8:24, Rom 8:25. Our happiness is not in present possession: We are saved by hope. In this, as in other things, God hath made our present state a state of trial and probation - that our reward is out of sight. Those that will deal with God must deal upon trust. It is acknowledged that one of the principal graces of a Christian is hope (Co1 13:13), which necessarily implies a good thing to come, which is the object of that hope. Faith respects the promise, hope the thing promised. Faith is the evidence, hope the expectation, of things not seen. Faith is the mother of hope. We do with patience wait. In hoping for this glory we have need of patience, to bear the sufferings we meet with in the way to it and the delays of it. Our way is rough and long; but he that shall come will come, and will not tarry; and therefore, though he seem to tarry, it becomes us to wait for him.
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 vv17–23 And if children, then heirs,.... Children, whether natural or…
And if children, then heirs,.... Children, whether natural or adopted, are heirs to their parents, and according to the Roman laws, which some think the apostle here respects, whether male or female; but according to the Jewish laws (c), females did not inherit only in case of want of male issue; for though Job's daughters inherited with his sons, this was a peculiar case; and the Jewish writers say (d), it was , "on account of their worth and beauty"; yet adopted children among them, whether male or female, were equal to natural children in possessing the inheritance; however, the apostle includes both here, who are all one in Christ Jesus, and are all the children of God by faith in him, and so
heirs of God: either efficiently, he makes them heirs; they are not so by nature, nor do they become such by the works of the law; but God his rich grace adopts them into his family, begets them again, and freely bestows the inheritance on them: or subjectively, they are heirs of himself; he not only makes them his heirs, but he himself is their inheritance and portion; they are heirs of all things which are his; they share in his love, grace, and mercy; and his wisdom, power, truth, and faithfulness, and indeed, every perfection of his are engaged on their side, and in their favour; all things are theirs who have God to be their God and Father; the Gospel and the ministers of it are theirs; the world and the things of it, life and death, things present and things to come; heaven and happiness, which go by the names of glory, riches of glory, kingdom, eternal life and salvation, are all represented as things to be inherited by the saints. The Jews speak of God's inheriting of man, as the highest pitch of greatness man can arrive unto; thus explaining and paraphrasing on the names of the places from which the Israelites journeyed, Num 21:18, say (e),
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"when a man makes himself as a wilderness, which is common to all, the law is given to him by gift, as it is said, "and from the wilderness to Mattanah": and when it is given to him by gift, , "God inherits him", as it is said, "and from Mattanah to Nahaliel"; the gloss upon it is, the law becomes to him , "as an inheritance"; and when , "God inherits him", he ascends to his greatness, i.e. to the highest pitch of it, as it is said, from "Nahaliel to Bamot";''
for when a man is worthy of this, as one of their commentators (f) on this place observes, he is called, "the inheritance of God", according to Deu 32:9; but our apostle speaks not of the saints as God's inheritance, which to be sure they are, but of God as theirs; and not of their inheriting the law, but God himself, which is certainly the highest pitch of honour and greatness that men can possibly enjoy. It is added,
and joint heirs with Christ: it is through him they are heirs of God and of glory; and with him will they partake of and enjoy the inheritance, which is secured to them by their being co-heirs with him: nor does this at all derogate from the honour of Christ, as heir of all things, since he is the firstborn among many brethren, and in this, as in all things, he has the pre-eminence. But before the saints enjoy the inheritance with Christ they must expect to suffer with him and for him; though in the issue they may be assured of this, that they shall be glorified together; their sufferings lie in the way to glory, and glory is and will be the end of their sufferings:
if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together: Christ and his people being one, he the head, and they the members, suffer together; when he suffered, they suffered with him and in him, as their head and representative; and they partake of the virtue and efficacy of his sufferings; and they also suffer afflictions, many of them at least of the same kind with Christ, only with these differences; his were penal evils, theirs not; his were attended with a vast sense of wrath and terror, theirs oftentimes with, joy and comfort; his were meritorious, not so theirs. Moreover, many of their sufferings are for the sake of Christ and his Gospel; on the other hand, by reason of that union which is between Christ and believers, he suffers with them, he reckons their afflictions his, and sympathizes with them; and the consideration of this greatly animates and encourages them in their sufferings, and especially when they observe that they shall be "glorified together"; not with his essential glory, nor with his mediatorial glory, but with that glory which his Father has given him for them. There is a glorification of the saints in Christ, and a glorification of them by Christ, and a glorification of them with Christ, which will consist in likeness to him, and in the everlasting vision and enjoyment of him.
(c) Misn. Bava Bathra, c. 8. sect. 2. T. Hieros. Bava Bathra, fol. 16. 1. (d) Jarchi in Job xlii. 15. (e) T, Bab. Nedarim, fol. 55. 1. (f) En Yaacob, fol. 22. 1.
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 vv17–23 Joint heirs - That we may know it is…
Joint heirs - That we may know it is a great inheritance which God will give us for he hath given a great one to his Son. If we suffer with him - Willingly and cheerfully, for righteousness' sake. This is a new proposition, referring to what follows.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv17–23 Verse 17. And if children, then heirs] For the…
Verse 17. And if children, then heirs] For the legitimate children can alone inherit the estate. This is not an estate to which they succeed in consequence of the death of a former possessor; it is like the promised land, given by God himself, and divided among the children of the family.
Heirs of God] It is neither an earthly portion nor a heavenly portion; but GOD himself, who is to be their portion. It is not heaven they are to inherit; it is GOD, who is infinitely greater and more glorious than heaven itself. With such powers has God created the soul of man, that nothing less than himself can be a sufficient and satisfactory portion for the mind of this most astonishing creature.
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Joint heirs with Christ] Partaking of the same eternal glory with the glorified human nature of Christ.
If so be that we suffer with him] Observe, says Dr. Taylor, how prudently the apostle advances to the harsh affair of suffering. He does not mention it till he had raised up their thoughts to the highest object of joy and pleasure-the happiness and glory of a joint inheritance with the ever-blessed Son of God.
We are heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him. This, with the additional consideration that we suffer with Christ, or, as he himself suffered, would greatly qualify the transitory afflictions of this world, and dispose them to attend to the other arguments he had to offer.
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 vv17, 19, 20, 22, 23 Rom 8:17-18. And if children, then heirs — Those…
Rom 8:17-18. And if children, then heirs — Those that are really the children of God by adoption and grace, are not only under his peculiar direction, protection, and care, and shall be supplied with all things which God sees will be good for them; not only have they free liberty of access to God, and intercourse with God, as dutiful children have access to, and intercourse with, their father; but they are heirs of God — Heirs of the heavenly inheritance, and by the redemption of their bodies, being made immortal like God, they shall enjoy that inheritance. See note on 1Pe 1:3. And joint-heirs with Christ — Entering into his joy, Mat 25:21; sitting down on his throne, Rev 3:21; partaking of his glory, Joh 17:22; Php 3:21; Col 3:4; 1Co 15:49; and inheriting all things, Rev 21:7, jointly with him who is heir of all things, Heb 1:2. Only it must be observed, he is heir by nature, we by grace. If so be that we suffer with him — Willingly and cheerfully for righteousness’ sake: that is, we shall enjoy these glorious and heavenly blessings, provided we be willing, not only to deny ourselves all prohibited carnal gratifications, and to govern our lives by his precepts, but also to suffer with him whatever reproach, infamy, persecution, and other injuries we may be called to undergo, in conformity to him, for the honour of God, and the testimony of a good conscience; that we may be also glorified together — With him, which we cannot be in any other way than by suffering with him: he was glorified in this way, and so must we be. Here the apostle passes to a new proposition, on which he enlarges in the following verses; opening a source of consolation to the children of God in every age, by drinking at which they may not only refresh themselves under the severest sufferings, but derive new strength to bear them with fortitude. For I reckon, &c. — Here the apostle gives the reason why he now mentions sufferings and glory. When that glory shall be revealed in us, then the sons of God will be revealed also. That the sufferings of this present time — How long continued and great soever they may be; are not worthy to be compared — Or to be set in opposition to, or contrasted with, (as the original expression, αξια τα παθηματα προς την μελλουσαν δοζαν, evidently implies,) the glory which shall be revealed in us — Which we shall then partake of, and the nature and greatness of which we shall then, and not before, fully understand. For it far exceeds our present most elevated conceptions, and can never be fully known till we see each other wear it. These privileges are a fifth motive to holiness.
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 vv17–23 And if children - If adopted into his family.
And if children - If adopted into his family.
Then heirs - That is, he will treat us as sons. An heir is one who succeeds to an estate. The meaning here is, that if we sustain the relation of sons to God, that we shall be treated as such, and admitted to share his favors. An adopted son comes in for a part of the inheritance, Num. 27.
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Heirs of God - This expression means that we shall be partakers of that inheritance which God confers on his people. That inheritance is his favor here, and eternal life hereafter. This is an honor infinitely higher than to be heir to the most princely earthly inheritance; or than to be the adopted son of the most magnificent earthly monarch.
And joint heirs with Christ - Christ is by eminence the “Son of God.” As such, he is heir to the full honors and glory of heaven. Christians are united to him; they are his friends; and they are thus represented as destined to partake with him of his glory. They are the sons of God in a different sense from what he is; he by his nature and high relation, they by adoption; but still the idea of sonship exists in both; and hence, both will partake in the glories of the eternal inheritance; compare Phi 2:8-9; Heb 2:9-10. The connection between Christ and Christians is often referred to in the New Testament. The fact that they are united here is often alleged as a reason why they will be in glory, Joh 14:19, “Because I live, ye shall live also,” 2Ti 2:11-12; “For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with him, Rev 3:21; “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,” etc., Joh 17:22-24.
If so be - If this condition exist; We shall not be treated as co-heirs with him, unless we here give evidence that we are united to him.
That we suffer with him - Greek, “If we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together.” If we suffer in his cause; bear afflictions as he did; are persecuted and tried for the same thing; and thus show that we are united to him. It does not mean that we suffer to the same extent that he did, but we may imitate him in the kind of our sufferings, and in the spirit with which they are borne; and thus show that we are united to him.
That we may be also glorified together - If united in the same kind of sufferings, there is propriety in being united in destiny beyond the scenes of all suffering, the kingdom of blessedness and love.
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 vv19, 23 The expectation [2] of the creature. He speaks of…
The expectation [2] of the creature. He speaks of the corporal creation, made for the use and service of man; and, by occasion of his sin made subject to vanity, that is, to a perpetual instability, tending to corruption and other defects; so that by a figure of speech, it is here said to groan and be in labour, and to long for its deliverance, which is then to come, when sin shall reign no more; and God shall raise the bodies, and united them to their souls, never more to separate, and to be in everlasting happiness in heaven. (Challoner) --- Waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God. That is, for the time after this life, when it shall be made manifest that they are the sons of God, and heirs of the kingdom of this glory. Several interpreters understand all creatures whatsoever, even irrational and inanimate creatures of this world, which are represented as if they had a knowledge and sense of a more happy condition, of a new unchangeable state of perfection, which they are to receive at the end of the world. See 2 Peter i. 13; Apocalypse xxi. 1. Now every insensible creature is figuratively brought in groaning like a woman in labour, waiting, and wishing for that new and happy state; but in the mean time unwillingly made subject to vanity, i.e. to these changeable imperfections of generations and corruptions, which then they shall be delivered from. (Witham) --- The creature, &c. The creatures expect with impatience, and hope with confidence, to see a happy change in their condition; they flatter themselves that they will be delivered from the captivity of sin, to which man has reduced them, and enter into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. Not that the inanimate creation will really participate the happiness and glory of the elect; although in some sense they may be said to have part in it, since they will enter into a pure, incorruptible and perfect state to the end of ages. They will no longer be subject to those changes and vicissitudes which sin has brought upon them; nor will sinful man any longer abuse their beauty and goodness in offending the Creator of all. St. Ambrose and St. Jerome teach that the sun, moon, and stars will be then much more brilliant and beautiful than at present, no longer subject to those changes they at present suffer. Philo and Tertullian teach that the beasts of prey will then lay aside their ferocity, and venomous serpents their poisonous qualities. (Calmet) --- Other, by the creature or creatures, understand men only, and Christians, who groan under miseries and temptations in this mortal life, amidst the vanities of this world, under the slavery of corruption; who having already (ver. 23.) received the first-fruits of the Spirit,[3] the grace of God in baptism, have been made the children of God, and now, with expectation and great earnestness, wait and long for a more perfect adoption of the sons of God: for the redemption of their bodies, when the bodies, as well as the souls of the elect, shall rise to an immortal life, and complete happiness in heaven. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Expectatio creaturæ, Greek: e gar apokaradokia. St. John Chrysostom, hom. xiv. p. 119. Greek: apokaradokia gar e sphodra prosdokia estin, intenta et sollicita expectatio. See Mr. Legh, Crit. Sac.
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 v18 II. Life in the Spirit in connection with nature…
II. Life in the Spirit in connection with nature as the Resurrection-life, and the Spirit as security of glory
Rom_8:18-39
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A. The present and subjective certainty of future glory, or the glorification of the body and of nature by the spirit (Rom_8:18-27)
18For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared [insignificant in comparison] with the glory which shall be revealed in us [εἰς ήμᾶς].49 19For the earnest [patient] expectation of the creature [creation]50 waiteth [is waiting] for the manifestation [revelation] of the sons of God. 20For the creature [creation] was made subject51 to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same [who subjected it,]52 in hope; [,]53 21Because [That] the creature [creation] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty [freedom of the glory] of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation groaneth [together] and travaileth in pain together until now. 23And not only they [so],54 but [but even we] ourselves also [omit also], which [though we] have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves55 groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption,56 to wit, [omit to wit,] the redemption of our body. 24For we are [were] saved by [in]57 hope: but [now] hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet [still]58 hope for? 25But if we hope for that we see not, then 26do we with patience wait for it [with patience we wait for it]. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities [weakness]:59 for we know not what we should pray for60 as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession [intercedeth] 27for us [omit for us]61 with groanings which cannot be uttered. And [But] he that [who] searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession [pleadeth] for the saints according to the will of God.
B. The future and objective certainty of glory (Rom_8:28-37)
28And we know that all things62 work together for good to them that [those who] love God, to them [those] who are the called according to his purpose. 29For whom he did foreknow [foreknew], he also did predestinate [predestinated] to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among30many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate [predestinated], them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified,them he also glorified. 31What shall we then [What then shall we] say to these32things? If God be [is] for us, who can be [is] against us? He that [Who] spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not withhim also freely give us all things? 33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of34God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. [!]63 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ [or, Christ is Jesus]64 that died, yea rather,65 that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress,or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written,
For thy sake we are killed all the day long;
We are [were] accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that [who] loved66 us.
C. The unity of the subjective and objective certainty of future glory in the already attained glorious life of love, the Spirit of glory (Rom_8:38-39)
38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, [omit nor powers,]67 nor things present, nor things to come, [insert norpowers.] 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature [created thing],68 shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Summary.—The witness of Divine adoption, imparted by the Holy Spirit to believers, comprises at the same time, according to Rom_8:17, the security that they will be heirs of future glory. Then, too, the physical body—which, in their spiritual life in this world, they mistrust, because of its enervation through sin, which they must strictly control by walking in the Spirit, but in which, even here, according to Rom_8:11, a germ of its glorification into the psychico-physical existence is formed—shall be transformed into the glory of the Spirit; and all nature, at present made partaker of corruption, yet groaning and travailing to be spiritualized, shall share in the glory also, as the transformed, illuminated, and appropriated organ of the kingdom of spirits. Rom_8:17 serves as a foundation for the section which now follows, as it terminates the previous section as a final inference.
A. The present and subjective certainty of future glory.
Believers, from their present and subjective sense of life, are certain of future glory; accordingly, all the sufferings of the present time are to them as birth-pangs for future glory. This holds good, first, in respect to the pressure toward development, and the longing and patient waiting of nature in its present state; and this pressure toward development corresponds with that of God’s kingdom. It holds good, secondly, in regard to the birth-pangs of God’s kingdom, as manifested, first, in the groanings, longings, and hopes of believers, and in the unutterable groanings of the Spirit, who intercedes for them. Although believers have the Spirit of adoption, it is because they have it that they still groan for its consummation (2Co_5:1). Their principial salvation is not their finished salvation; but the latter is testified by their hope and confirmed by their patience. But the Spirit proves himself in their hearts by unutterable groanings, as a vital pressure, which harmonizes in this life with the sense of the future exercise of God’s authority, and points to the future objective certainty of glory as founded in the will of God; Rom_8:18 (17)–27.
B. The future and objective certainty of glory.
The love for God by believers is the experience of God’s love for them. But therein lies the security of an omnipotent power for its completion—a power which nothing can oppose, but to which every thing must serve. The certainty of the decisive κλῆσις is the centre and climax of the life, from which the groundwork, as well as the future of life, is glorified. It points backward to God’s purpose, and forward to its consummation. The periods between the pre-temporal, eternal purpose of God, and its future, eternal consummation, are the periods of the order of salvation (Rom_8:29). That this way of salvation leads through suffering to glory, according to the image of Christ’s life, is secured by the omnipotent decision with which “God is for” (Rom_8:31) His children—a decision which is secured by the gift of Christ for them, by their justification, their reconciliation, redemption, and exaltation in Christ; in a word, by the love of Christ. This love leads them in triumph through all the temptations of the world, because it is the expression of Christ’s own conquest of the world (Rom_8:28-37).
C. The unity of the subjective and objective certainty of future glory in the glorious life of love already attained.
Life in the love of Christ is exalted above all the powers of the world (Rom_8:38-39).—Kindred sections: John 17.; 1 Corinthians 15., and others.
Tholuck: “This inheritance will far outweigh all suffering, and must be awaited with steadfast hope (Rom_8:18-27). But as far as we are concerned, we can suffer no more injury; the consciousness of God’s love in Christ rests upon so impregnable a foundation, that nothing in the whole universe can separate ‘him’ from it” (Rom_8:28-39).—Meyer finds, in Rom_8:18-31, “grounds of encouragement for the συμπάσχειν, ἲνα κσυνδοξ. To wit: 1. The future glory will far outweigh the present suffering (Rom_8:18-25). 2. The Holy Spirit supports us (Rom_8:26-27). 3. Every thing must work together for good to them that love God” (Rom_8:28-31). Undoubtedly these things are grounds of encouragement; yet the Apostle evidently designs to encourage by a copious and conclusive didactic exposition of the certainty of the Christian’s hope of future glory, in face of the great apparent contradictions of this hope—an exposition which, in itself, has great value.
[Alford (Rom_8:18-30): “The Apostle treats of the complete and glorious triumph of God’s elect, through sufferings and by hope, and the blessed renovation of all things in and by their glorification.” (Rom_8:31-39): “The Christian has no reason to fear, but all reason to hope; for nothing can separate him from God’s love in Christ.”—Hodge, making the theme of the chapter “the security of the believer,” finds, in Rom_8:18-28, a proof of this “from the fact that they are sustained by hope, and aided by the Spirit, under all their trials; so that every thing eventually works together, for their good.” In Rom_8:29-30, another proof “founded on the decree or purpose of God.” In Rom_8:31-39, yet another, founded “on His infinite and unchanging love.”—R.]
First Paragraph, Rom_8:18-27
Rom_8:18. For I reckon, &c. [λογίζομαι γἂρ, κ.τ.λ. Γάρ connects this verse with Rom_8:17, introducing a reason why the present sufferings should not discourage (De Wette, Philippi). Calvin: Neque vero molestum nobis debet, si ad cœlestem gloriam per varias afflictiones procedenoum est, quandoquidem, &c. Stuart prefers to join it to “glorified with Him;” “we shall be glorified with Christ, for all the sufferings and sorrows of the present state are only temporary.” The connection seems to be with the whole thought which precedes. The verb is thus expanded by Alford: “I myself am one who have embraced this course, being convinced that.” It is used as in Rom_3:28; see p. 136.—R.] Now by his view of the magnitude of future glory, as well as by his conviction of its certainty, he estimates the proportionate insignificance of the sufferings (certainly great when considered in themselves alone) of the present time, since they, as birth-throes, are the preliminary conditions of future glory.
Insignificant, οὐκ ἂξια, not of weight; a stronger expression for ἀνάξια. They are not synonymous.69 The νῦν καιρός is the final, decisive time of development, with which the αἰὼν οὗτος will terminate.
In comparison with the glory which shall be revealed [πρὸς τὴν μέλλουσαν δόξανἀποκαλυφθῆναι. On πρός after οὐκ ἂξια, in the sense of in relation to, in comparison with, see Tholuck, Philippi in loco.—R.] Τὴν μέλλουσαν is antecedent, with emphasis. [To this Alford objects]. That glory is ever approaching, and therefore ever near at hand, though Paul does not regard its presence near in the sense of Meyer, and others.—In us [see Textual Note1]. The εἰς ἡμᾶς does not mean, as the Vulgate and Beza have it, in nobis [so E. V.]; it is connected with the ἀποκαλυφθῆναι. If it is imparted through the inward life of believers and through nature, it nevertheless comes from the future and from above, as much as from within outwardly, and it is a Divine secret from eternity in time—therefore ἀποκἀλυψις.
Rom_8:19. For the patient expectation [ἡγὰρ ἀποκαρα δοκία. On ἀποκαραδοκία. comp. Php_1:20. The verb καραδοκεῖν means, literally, to expect with uplifted head; then, to expect. The noun, strengthened by ἀπό, refers to an expectation, which is constant and persistent until the time arrives. The idea of anxiety (Luther) is not prominent. (So Tholuck, Philippi, De Wette, Meyer.) See below also. Tholuck remarks, that the strengthening of the attributive notion into a substantive makes a double prosopopœia, “not only the creature, but the expectation of the creature waits.”—R.] The γὰρ introduces the first proof of his statement from the course of the whole κτίσις. It may be asked, Shall the future glory be shown in its grandeur (Chrysostom [Hodge, Alford], and most expositors), its certainty (Fritzsche, Meyer), its nearness (Reiche), or its futurity (Philippi)? Tholuck, in its grandeur and certainty.70 If both must combine in one idea, then it is the truth or the reality of the glory, as such. The elements of its grandeur, as of its certainty, are united in the fact that the developing pain of the external κτίσις, as of the inward life of believers—indeed, the groaning of the Divine spiritual life itself—labors for it and points toward it; that it will consist in the removal of all vanity and corruption in the whole natural sphere of mankind.
Of the creation, τῆς κτίσεως. The great question is, What is the κτίσις? Lexically, the word may mean the act of creation, as well as what is created, the creation;71 but actually, the question here can only be the creation in the broader or more limited sense. Tholuck: “κτίσις in the passive sense can mean the same as κτίσμα, the single creature; Rom_8:39; Heb_4:13. Ἡ κτίσις, Book of Wis_2:6; Wis_16:24; Heb_9:11; or even ὂλη ἡ κτίσις, Book of Wis_19:6; πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις, Jdt_16:17, the created world. But in that case, as also with ὂλος ὁ κόσμος (Joh_12:19), it is metonymically confined to the human world (Col_1:23; Mar_16:15; and also with the Rabbis, בְּרִיאָה כּל, &c.), or to irrational nature, exempting man.”
The explanations are divided into different groups:
1. The natural and spiritual world. The universe. Origen: Man as subject to corruption; souls of the stars. Theodoret: also the angels. Theodore of Mopsvestia, Olshausen: The whole of the universe. Köllner, Koppe, Rosenmüller(tota rerum universitas).
2. Inanimate creation. (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Calvin, Beza, Fritzsche: mundi machina.)
3. Animate creation. a. Humanity (Augustine, Turretine,72 &c.; Baumgarten-Crusius: still unbelieving men); b. unconverted heathen (Locke, Light-foot, and others). Rabbinical usage of language: the heathen: כְּרִיאָה; c. the Jewish people, because the Jews were called God’s creation (Cramer, and others); d. the Gentile Christians, because the proselytes were called new creatures (Clericus, Nösselt); e. Jewish Christians (Gockel; for the same reason as under c.); f. Christians in general (καινὴ κτίσις, Socinians and Arminians).—Evidently there is no reference, on one hand, to the mathematical or astronomical character of the heavenly bodies, nor, on the other, to the real rational or spiritual world, but to a creature-life, which can groan and earnestly expect.
4. Inanimate and animate nature, in contradistinction from humanity73 (Irenæus, Grotius, Calovius, Neander, Meyer, De Wette) [Hodge, Alford].—[Schubert: “Even in the things of the bodily world about us there is a life-element which, like that statue of Memnon, unconsciously sounds in accord when touched by the ray from on high.”—P. S.] But the distinction from mankind must be confined to the distinction from the spiritual life of renewed mankind; for sinful mankind is utterly dependent upon nature, and even believers have their natural side (2Co_5:1 ff.). Nor can the universe, in its merely natural side, be altogether meant, since the Holy Scriptures distinguish a region of glory from the region of humanity in this life.
5. Tholuck: “The material world surrounding man.” The Scriptures very plainly distinguish between an earthly natural world related to mankind, and a region of glory. (See the ascension; 1 Corinthians 15; Heb_9:11, &c.) The former alone is subject to vanity, and hence it alone can be intended. But there is no ground for making divisions in reference to this human natural world. The Apostle assumes, rather, that this creature-sphere is in a state of collective, painful striving for development, which expresses itself as sensation only proportionately to the sensational power of life, and hence is more definitely expressed, appears more frequently, and reaches its climax in living creatures and in the natural longing which mankind feels (2Co_5:1). The real personification of nature in man is the final ground for the poetical personification of nature.
[6. The whole creation, rational as well as irrational, not yet redeemed, but needing and capable of redemption, here opposed to the new creation in Christ and in the regenerate. The children of God appear, on the one side, as the first-fruits of the new creation, and the remaining creatures, on the other, as consciously or unconsciously longing after the same redemption and renewal. This explanation seems to be the most correct one. It most satisfactorily accounts for the expressions: expectation, waiting, groaning, not willingly (Rom_8:20), and the whole creation (Rom_8:22). The whole creation, then, looks forward to redemption; all natural birth, to the new birth. As all that is created proceeded from God, so it all, consciously or unconsciously, strives after Him as its final end. What shows itself in nature as a dim impulse, in the natural man, among the heathen, and yet more among the Jews, under the influence of the law, comes to distinct consciousness and manifests itself in that loud cry after deliverance (Rom_7:24), which Christ alone can satisfy; and then voices itself in happy gratitude for the actual redemption. Olshausen aptly says: “Paul contrasts Christ, and the new creation called forth by Him, to all the old creation, together with the unregenerate men, as the flower of this creation. The whole of this old creation has one life in itself, and this is yearning for redemption from the bonds which hold it, and hinder its glorification; this one yearning has forms different only according to the different degrees of life, and is naturally purer and stronger in unregenerate men than in plants and animals; in them, the creation has, as it were, its mouth, by which it can give vent to its collective feeling. Yet the most of these men know not what the yearning and seeking in them properly mean; they understand not the language of the Spirit in them; nay, they suppress it often, though it is, meanwhile, audible in their heart; and what they do not understand themselves, God understands, who listens even to prayers not understood. But however decided the contrast between the old and new creation, yet they may not be considered as separated thoroughly. Rather, as the new man, in all distinctness from the old, still is in the old, so is the new creation (Christ, and the new life proceeding from Him) in the old world. The old creation, therefore, is like an impregnate mother (comp. Rom_8:23), that bears a new world in her womb—a life which is not herself, neither springs from her, but which, by the overmastering power that dwells in it, draws her life, with which it is connected, on and on into itself, and changes it into its nature, so that the birth (the completion of the new world) is the mother’s death (the sinking of the old).”—P. S.]
[This last view seems to be that of Dr. Lange himself. It is ably defended by Forbes, pp. 310–330. The limitation to creation, as capable of redemption, implies that only so much of creation as is linked with the fall of man, and subject to the curse, should be included. Thus it differs from 1. Col_1:20, however, gives a hint as to the extent of this connection with man. The context renders such a limitation necessary. On the other hand, it differs from 4, in including man in his fallen condition. The reasons for excluding humanity have been given above. It will appear that, against this view, they are of comparatively little weight. Certainly the burden of proof rests with those who adopt 4; for man is the head of the creation, to which they apply κτὺσις; not merely as the final and crowning work of the repeated creative agency which brought it into being, but as the occasion of its present groaning condition. Besides, man, viewed on one side of his nature, is a part of this material and animal creation. It seems arbitrary to sunder him from it in this case. At all events, we may admit that his material body involuntarily shares in this expectation, to which his unregenerate soul responds with an indefinite longing. In this view the degradation of sin is fearfully manifest. Nature waits, but the natural man is indifferent or hostile. The very body which, in his blindness, he deems the source of sin, waits for glorification, while his soul uses its power over it to stifle the inarticulate desire. On the whole subject, see Usteri, Stud, und Krit., 1832, pp. 835 ff., Tholuck, Meyer in loco, Delitzsch, Bibl. Psych., pp. 57 ff. and pp. 476 ff. (a most profound and eloquent sermon on Rom_8:18-23). Comp. Doctr. Notes, and Dr. Lange, Das Land der Herrlichkeit.—R.]
For the earnest expectation of the creature. As the καραδοκεῖν means, strictly, to expect with raised head, it is very proper to regard the καραδοκία (intense expectation), and the ἀποκαραδοκία (Php_1:20) (intense longing, waiting for satisfaction), as an allusion to the conduct of irrational creatures in reference to the future transformation of the sphere of nature.
Is waiting [ἀπεκδέχεται. Here, also, the preposition implies the continuance of the waiting until the time arrives.—R.] Even the poor creatures, whose heads are bowed toward the ground, now seized by a higher impulse, by a supernatural anticipation and longing, seem to stretch out their heads and look forth spiritually for a spiritual object of their existence, which is now burdened by the law of corruption.74 Certainly this representation has the form of a poetical personification; but it cannot, on this account, be made equivalent, as Meyer holds (p. 255), to the usual prosopopœias in the Old Testament, although these declare, in a measure, the sympathy between the natural and human world. Meyer would exclude from the idea not only the angelic and demoniac kingdom, but also Christian and unchristian mankind. But how, then, would Paul have understood the groaning of the creature, without human sympathy?
The revelation of the sons (children) of God [τὴν ἀποκἀλυψιν τῶν υἱῶν τοῦ θεοῦ]. The children of God in the pregnant sense of His sons. The creature waits for its manifestation; that is, for the coming of its δόξα to full appearance (1Jn_3:2) with the coming of Christ (Mat_25:31), which will be the appearing of the δόξα of the great God (Tit_2:13); therefore the absolute ἀποκάλυψις itself,75 the fulfilment of all the typical prophecies of nature—and not only as complete restoration, but also as perfect development.
Rom_8:20. For the creation was made subject [ἡ κτίσις ὑπετάγη. Dr. Lange takes the verb as middle. It is the historical aorist, at the fall of man. See below. Comp. Gen_3:17-18.—R.]. God was the one who subjected (so say most expositors)—[This is evident from the curse, if the reference be to the time of the fall.—R.];—not Adam (Knachtb., Capellus); nor man (Chrysostom, Schneckenburger); nor the devil (Hammond).
To vanity. Ματαιότης. The Septuagint, instead of חֶכֶל, שָׁרְא, רִיק. The word does not occur in the profane Greek; it means the superficial, intangible, and therefore deceptive appearance; the perishable and doomed to destruction having the show of reality. Earlier expositors (Tertullian, Bucer, and others) have referred the word to the μἁταια = idols, understanding it as the deification of the creature. Yet the question here is a condition of the creature to which God has subjected it. Further on it is designated as δουλεία τῆς φθορᾶς. Therefore Fritzsche’s definition, perversitas (Adam’s sin), is totally untenable. But what do we understand by “subject to ματαιότης”? Explanations:
1. An original disposition of creation; the arrangement of the corruption of the creature. (Grotius, Krehl, De Wette. Theodoret holds that the original arrangement was made with a view to the fall.)
2. A result of the fall of man. (The Hebrew theology, Berechith Rabba, many Christian theologians: Œeumenius, Calvin, Meyer, and others). No. 1 is opposed by the ὑπετάγη, &c. [by οὐχ εκοῦσα, ἀλλά, which presupposes a different previous condition, and by the historical fact (Gen_1:31); Meyer.—R.]; and No. 2 by the originality of the arrangement between a first created and a second spiritual stage of the cosmos (1Co_15:47-48).
3. We must therefore hold, that Paul refers to the obscurity and disturbance of the first natural stage in the development of our cosmos produced by the fall.76 As, in redemption, the restoration occurred simultaneously with the furtherance of the normal development, so death entered, at the fall, as a deterioration of the original metamorphoses, into the corruption of transitoriness. Tholuck approaches this explanation by this remark: “As the Rabbinical theology expresses the thought that man, born sinless, would have passed into a better condition ‘by a kiss of the Highest,’ so, in all probability, has Paul regarded that ὰλλαγῆναι of which he speaks in 1Co_15:52 as the destination of the first man.” Yet Tholuck seems, in reality, to adhere to De Wette’s view.
Not willingly. The οὐχ ἑκοῦσα cannot mean merely the natural necessity peculiar to the creature-world; it applies rather to an opposition of ideal nature, in its ideal pressure toward development, to the decrees of death and of the curse of their real developing progress (Genesis 3; 2Co_5:1 ff.). Bucer: Contra quam fert ingenium eorum, a natura enim omnes res a corruptione abhorrent.
[But by reason of him who hath subjected it, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν ὑποτάξαντα. Dr. Lange renders: the creature-world subjected itself to vanity, not willingly, but on account of Him who subjected it, in hope. The force of διά with the accusative is on account of; but the E. V. is correct, indicating a moving cause—i. e., the will of God.—R.] This unwillingness is expressed, according to what follows, in the groaning of the whole creation. The translation: “it was made subject (ὑπετάγη, passive), by reason of Him who hath subjected the same,” is opposed to the logical conception. [The simplest grammatical as well as logical interpretation accepts the verb as passive, with a reference to God as “Him who subjected the same.” (So Meyer, Tholuck, Hodge, De Wette, Alford, and most commentators.)—R.] Moreover, the reference of the διὰ τὸν ὑποτάξαντα to man, to Adam,77 does not remove this logical difficulty, since, in that case, the ὑπετάγη would have to relate to another subject than the ὑποτάξαντα. We therefore find ourselves driven, with Fritzsche, to the middle construction of ὑπετάγη. Thereby we gain the idea, that even the disharmony which nature had suffered has become, in turn, a kind of order, since nature has been found in the service of corruption by virtue of its elasticity, relative dependence, plasticity, and pliability, and its absolute dependence upon God; and pious nature is all the dearer to God because it is subjected in hope. [So Hodge, accepting the middle sense: the creature submitted to the yoke of bondage in hope of ultimate deliverance.—R.]
[In hope, ἐπ’ ἐλπίδι. Not precisely in a state of, which would be expressed by ἐν, but resting on hope (De Wette: auf Hoffnung hin).—R.] This means not merely, “hope was left to it” (Tholuck), but it is also a motive of positive hope in suffering nature. Just as the fallen human world shall be led in its ἀποκατάστασις beyond its primitive paradisaical glory, so shall nature come through this humiliation to a richer elevation, namely, as the transformed organism of the glorified Christ and His joint-heirs. The ἐπ’ ἐλπίλδι must be joined with ὑπετάγη, not with διὰ τ. ὑποτ. (Vulgate, Luther, and others). [The question of connection is a difficult one. Of the two views here mentioned, Dr. Lange rightly prefers the former, since the latter would attribute the hope to the one subjecting, not the one subjected
(Alford). Ewald, making all that precedes in this verse parenthetical, joins in hope with Rom_8:19, and thus finds a reason for the emphatic repetition of κτίσις in Rom_8:21. See Textual Note78, where the view of Forbes is given. It seems to give greater clearness to the passage as a whole.—R.]
Rom_8:21. That the creation itself also [ὂτι καὶ αὑτὴ ἡ κτίσις. See Textual Note5. The current of exegesis sets strongly in favor of the view which connects ὂτι with ἐπ’ ἐλπίδι, in the sense of that. Alford, who, in his commentary, defends because, is one of the authors of a revision which adopts that. Meyer suggests that the purport of the hope must be given, in order to prove the expectation of the κτίσις as directed precisely toward the manifestation of the sons of God. Alford indeed objects, that this subjective signification of the clause would attribute “to the yearnings of creation, intelligence and rationality—consciousness of itself and of God;” but the same objection might be urged against the reference of κτίσις to inanimate creation, in Rom_8:19-20; Rom_8:22, as well as here. If the figurative idea of longing be admitted at all, it may be carried out to this extent with equal propriety. The repetition may be readily accounted for, either by considering Rom_8:20 parenthetical, or by regarding αὐτὴ ἡ κτίσις as emphatic.—R.] This explains the hope of the creature-world introduced in the preceding verse. With Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others, we regard the καὶ αὑτὴ as a higher degree, itself also, and not merely as an expression of equality, also it. Meyer says, that the context says nothing of gradation. But the gradation lies essentially in the fact that the creature-world constitutes a humiliation in opposition to spiritual life, especially for contemplating the old world.
Shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption [ἐλευθερωθήσεται ἀπὸ τῆς δουλείας τῆς φθορᾶς]. We do not hold (with Tholuck, Meyer, and others) that τῆς φθορᾶς is the genitive of apposition. For the question is, in the first place, concerning a bondage under vanity; so that the creature, even in its deliverance, will remain in a state of the δουλεία in relation to the children of God himself. The φθόρα is not altogether the same as ματαιότης, but its manifestation in the process of finite life in sickness, death, the pangs of death, and corruption; while the ματαιότης, as such, is veiled in the semblance of a blooming, incorruptible life. [There seems to be no good reason for objecting to the view of Tholuck, Meyer, Philippi, and others, that the bondage, which results from the vanity, and is borne not willingly (Rom_8:20), consists in corruption. This preserves the proper distinctions. The corruption is the consequence of the vanity; the unwilling subjection to a condition which is under vanity, and results in corruption, is well termed bondage.—R.] The alteration of the expression φθόρα into an adjective, “corruptible bondage” (Köllner), is as unwarranted as the translation of the ἐλευθερία τῆς δόξης by glorious liberty (Luther [E. V.]).
[Into the freedom of the glory of the children of God, εἰς τὴν ἐλευθερίαν τῆς δόξης τῶν τέκνων τοῦ θεοῦ. The construction is pregnant. (So Meyer: Aecht Griechische Prügnanz. See Winer, p. 577.) We may supply: καὶκατασταθήσεται, or είςαχθήσεται, shall be brought or introduced into, &c. The freedom is to consist in, or at least to result from a share in, the glory of the children of God. Hence the hendiadys of the E. V. (glorious liberty) is totally incorrect. It makes the most prominent idea of the whole clause a mere attributive. Besides, were the meaning that expressed by the E. V., we should find this form: εἰς τὴν δόξαν τῆς ἐλευθερίας τῶν τέκ. τ. θεοῦ.—R.] The εἰς τὴν ἐλευθερίαν can mean only the sharing in the liberty of God’s children by the organic appropriation on their part, and by the equality with the children of God produced by means of the transformation; but it cannot mean an independent state of liberty beside them. Their freedom will consist in its helping to constitute the glory, the spiritualized splendor of the manifestation of God’s children. As Christ is the manifestation of God’s glory because He is illuminated throughout by God, and the sons of God are the glory of Christ as lights from His light, so will nature be the glory of God’s sons as humanized and deified nature. Yet we would not therefore take the τῆς δόξης as the genitive of apposition, since the glory proceeds outwardly from within, and since it is here promised to nature as recompense, so to speak, in opposition to the corruption. It shall therefore share, in its way, in the glory belonging to God’s children. But why is not the ἀφθαρσία, incorruption, mentioned (1Co_15:45), in opposition to the φθόρα, corruption? Because the idea of corruption has been preceded by that of vanity. The real glory of the manifestation in which its inward incorruption shall hereafter be externally revealed, is contrasted with the deceptive, transitory glory of the manifestation in which the creature-world in this life appears subject to vanity. The elevation of the children of God themselves from the condition of corruption to the condition of glorification, constitutes the centre of the deliverance into this state of glory; but the creature is drawn upward in this elevation, in conformity with its dynamical dependence on the centre, and its organic connection with it.79
Rom_8:22. For we know that the whole creation [οἲδαμεν γὰρ ὂτι πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις]. The Apostle furnishes, in Rom_8:22, for we know, the proof of the declaration in Rom_8:21. Since he has proved the proposition of Rom_8:19 by Rom_8:20, and of Rom_8:20 by Rom_8:21, Meyer, without ground, goes back with this for to Rom_8:20 : ἐπ’ ἐλπίδι; De Wette [Philippi], to Rom_8:19. [If Rom_8:21 be taken as stating the purport of the hope, then Meyer’s view is the most tenable one. Philippi finds here a more general affirmation of the existence of the “patient expectation,” as an admitted truth.—R.]
Tholuck asks, Whence does the Apostle have this we know? and he opposes the view that it is an assumption of the universal human consciousness (according to most expositors), or rather, that the Apostle seems (according to Bucer, Brenz) to speak from the Jewish-Christian hope which rested on the prophets, as, even in Rom_2:2; Rom_3:19; Rom_7:14; Rom_8:28, the οἲδαμεν is understood best as the Christian consciousness.80 We must not subject the Apostle to the modern sense of nature. But we can still less reduce the Apostle’s knowledge to that of the prophets. The modern sense of nature, in its sound elements, is a fruit of apostolical Christianity; and as the harmony between spirit and nature has been essentially consummated in Christ, so, too, has the knowledge of the language (that is, the spiritual meaning) of nature been consummated in Him—a knowledge which was reproduced in the apostles as a fountain, and ready for enlargement. This knowledge is, indeed, universally human chiefly in elect souls alone, under the condition of Divine illumination.
Groaneth together and travaileth in pain together [συνστενάκει Ζαὶ συνωδίνει]. The συν in συνστενάζει and συνωδίνει has been referred, by Œeumenius, Calvin, and others, to the children of God; Köllner, and others, have viewed it as a mere strengthening of the simple word. Tholuck and Meyer explain it, in harmony with Theodore of Mopsvestia, as a collective disposition of the creature. The latter: βοῦλεται δὲ εἰπεῖν, ὂτι σύμφωνος ἐπιδείκνυται τοῦτο πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις. Estius: genitus et dolor communis inter se partium creaturœ. On the linguistic tenableness of this explanation, by accepting the presumed organization of nature in single parts, see Meyer, against Fritzsche. It is, indeed, against the reference of the συν to the groaning of Christians that this groaning is introduced further on as something special.
Reiche holds that συνωδίνει refers to the eschatological expectation of the Jews, the חֶכֶלֵי־הַמַּשֵיחַ, dolores messiœ; against which Meyer properly observes, that those dolores messiœ are special sufferings which were to precede the appearance of the Messiah; but the travailing of nature had taken place from the beginning, since Gen_3:17. Yet Tholuck remarks, with propriety, that the Apostle must have been acquainted with that term of Rabbinical theology. Likewise the developing suffering of nature will ascend toward the end to a decisive crisis (see the eschatological words of Jesus). But the “dolores messiœ” comprise also ethical conflicts. Therefore this continuous travailing of the world’s development is related to the dolores messiœ, as the preparation is to the fulfilment, or as the judgment of the world, immanent in the history of the world, is related to the final catastrophe. The ὠδίνειν denotes the birth-pangs of a woman in labor. The figure is happily chosen, not only because it announces a new birth and new form of the earth, but because it reflects in travailing Eve the fate of the travailing earth, and vice versâ. Tholuck: “By pain, it will wrest the new out of the old; perhaps στενάζειν has reference to bringing forth (comp. Jer_4:31), but better, as Luther explains the στεναγμοί, Rom_8:26, the groaning, earnest expectation, which is intensified by the being in travail which follows.” Yet the groaning also indicates the painful announcement of positive sufferings, which subsequently arise from the groaning of Christians for redemption (στενάζομεν βαρούμενοι, 2Co_5:4).
[Until now, ἂχρι τοῦ νῦν. Any reference to the future is forbidden by the use of οἲδαμεν, which refers to experience (Alford). While it is not necessary to insist upon an important distinction between μέχρι and ἂχρι (see p. 181), it would seem best to consider that the idea of duration81 is the prominent one here. If any point of time is emphasized, it must be that of the beginning of the groaning, when the curse of wearying labor and travail came upon man, and through him the curse upon nature.—R.]
Rom_8:23. And not only so, but even we ourselves [οὐ μόνον δέ, ὰλλὰ καὶ αὐτοί. See Textual Notes82 and7. The reading of the Vaticanusis followed here.] Meyer’s mode of stating the connection with the preceding verse is utterly incorrect: “Climax of the previous proof that the κτίσις in Rom_8:21 is correct in the ἐπ’ ἐλπίδι, ὂτι. Even we Christians would, indeed, do nothing less than unite in that groaning.” The principal thought is, not the deliverance of the κτίσις, Rom_8:20-21, but the future glory of the children of God, Rom_8:18. The first proof therefor is the groaning of nature; the second, which now follows, is the groaning of spiritual life. Therefore Christians do not unite in anywise in the groaning of creation, but vice versâ: the groaning of creation joins in the groaning of Christians. Consequently, we must not translate: “But also we (Christians) on our part,” &c., but: even we Christians ourselves—namely, we who are most intimately concerned. The expression καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς brings out prominently the truth that these same Christians, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, are also saved by hope, though at heart they must still groan and earnestly expect. Thus αὐτὸς ἐγὼ, in Rom_7:25, means: I, one and the same man, can be so different; with the mind I can serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Tholuck: “The difference between the readings seems to have arisen rather from purposes of perspicuity or style.” Augustine, Chrysostom, and others, hold that the connection—in which the subject is Christians in general—is decidedly against the odd limitation of the αὐτοί to the apostles (Origen, Ambrose, Melanchthon, and Grotius. Reiche, and others: the Apostle Paul alone. Others: Paul, with the other apostles). The former expositors maintain that the second καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτοί consists, in a more intense degree, of the apostles.83 But the addition is rather occasioned by the contrast presented: saved, and yet groaning (“the inward life of Christians shines”).
Though we have the first-fruits of the Spirit [τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ πνεύματος ἒχοντες. The participle may be taken as simply defining the subject: we ourselves, those who have (Luther, Calvin, Beza, Hodge); or be rendered: though we have, despite this privilege. The latter is more forcible; the former sense would require the article οἱ (Tholuck, Philippi, Meyer, Alford). Ἀπαρχή in itself occasions no difficulty; it means first-fruits, with the implied idea of a future harvest. Comp., however, Rom_11:16.—R.] The ὰπαρχὴ τοῦ πνεύμ. is differently interpreted.
1. The genitive is partitive, having this sense: the apostles (they alone, according to Origen, ?cumenius, Melanchthon, and Grotius), and the Christians of the apostolic period, have the first foretaste of a spiritual endowment, which, when complete, will extend to all future Christians (De Wette, Köllner, Olshausen, Meyer). But by this division the Apostle would not only have adjudged to later Christians the full harvest of the Spirit, which is contrary to the real fact, but he would also have obscured rather than strengthened his argument by a superfluous remark. For it is a fact, which will ever remain perfectly the same from the time of the apostles to the end of the world, that the life of Christians in the Spirit is related to their physical perfection and glorification, as the firstlings are to the harvest. But the following division has just as little force.
2. Our present reception of the Spirit is only preliminary, in contrast with the future complete outpouring in the kingdom of heaven (Chrysostom, and others; also Huther, Calvin, Beza, Tholuck, Philippi [Hodge, Alford, Stuart]). Apart from the fact that this view is not altogether apostolical, it adds nothing to the matter in question, and removes the point of view: the inference of the future δόξα from the present πνεῦμα.
3. Therefore the genitive of apposition.84 The Holy Spirit is himself the gift of the first-fruits, if the completion of Christian life is regarded as the harvest (Bengel, Winer, Rückert, and others). The Spirit is the earnest, ἀῤῥαβόιν, of the future perfection (2Co_1:22; 2Co_5:5; Gal_6:8). Eph_1:14; Eph_4:30; and 1Pe_4:14, τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς δόξης, are of special importance. Meyer’s only objection to this explanation is, that the Apostle’s expression would have been misunderstood, since the ἀπαρχἠ would have to be understood as a part of a similar whole. But the sheaves offered as first-fruits are not merely the first portions of the first sheaves collectively; they are the precious tokens and sure pledges of the full harvest, to which they constitute, if we may so speak, a harmonious antithesis. But the δόξα must be regarded as commensurate with the spiritual life; yet not as a new and higher outpouring of the Spirit, but as the perfect epiphany of the operation of the Spirit. Tholuck admits, at least, that this third explanation is also admissible with the second. On the singular explanations of Fritzsche and Schneckenburger, see Meyer.
Even we ourselves groan within ourselves [καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς στενάζομεν. We, although we have the first-fruits, are far from being complete; despite this, we groan within ourselves. The inward, profound nature of the feeling is thus emphasized.—R.] Groaning is the expression of the longing which feels that it is delayed in its course toward its object; expression of the inclination contending immediately with its obstacles.
Waiting for the adoption [ἱοθεσίαν ἀπεκδεχόμενοι. Wait for, await, wait to the end of (Alford). The adoption is already ours (Rom_8:15) as an internal relation, but the outward condition does not yet correspond (Meyer). Alford paraphrases: awaiting the fulness of our adoption.—R.]. The object of the longing is the υἱοθεσία, which believers wait for in perfect patience. This is here identified with the redemption of our body. It is the perfect outward manifestation of the inward υίοθεσία; it is the soul’s inheritance of the glorified life which is attained on the perfect deliverance of the body from the bondage of the first state of nature, and from subjection to death and corruption; see 2Co_5:4. The Apostle’s addition of “the redemption of our body,” proves that he does not mean merely the entire υίοθεσὶα, but this υίοθεσία viewed specifically as complete.
[The redemption of our body, τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν. Epexegetical clause.] Τοῦ σώματος is explained by Erasmus, Luther, and others (also Lutz, Bibl. Dogm.), as redemption from the body; but this is totally foreign to the connection, and also to the matter itself. [Were this the meaning, there would probably be some qualifying term added, as Php_3:21 (Meyer).—R.] Tholuck explains the redemption of the body as applying to its materiality; this is also the object of the earnest expectation of the κτίσις. Perhaps this is from Origen and Rothe; see, on the contrary, 1 Corinthians 15. Tholuck’s quotation from Augustine is better (De doctr. christ.): Quod nonnulli dicunt, malle se omnino esse sine corpore, omnino falluntur, non enim corpus suum sed corruptiones et pondus oderunt; Php_3:21; 1 Cor. xv; The most untenable view is: deliverance from the morally injurious influence of the body by death (Carpzov, and others). [It is so natural to refer this phrase to the glorification of the body at the coming of Christ, that it is unnecessary to state arguments in favor of this reference (comp. Php_3:21; 2Co_5:2 ff.; 1Co_15:42 ff.). The redemption is not complete until the body is redeemed. Any other view is not accordant with the grand current of thought in this chapter. The fact that even here, where the longing of Christians is described, so much stress should be laid on the redemption of the body, the material part of our complex nature, confirms the view of κτίσις, which takes it as including material existences. In fact, since “even we ourselves” are represented as waiting for an event, which shall redeem that part of our nature most akin to the creation (in the restricted sense of Meyer, and others), it would appear that the subject here is not necessarily in antithesis to “creation,” but rather a part of it; “subjected in hope,” like the whole creation, but also as having the first-fruits of the Spirit, “saved in hope” (Rom_8:24).—R.]
Rom_8:24. For we were saved. (ἐσώθημεν.) Delivered, and participating in salvation. The dative τῇ ἐλπίδι, in hope, does not describe the means, but the mode of the deliverance. [So Bengel, and many others. Comp. Winer, p. 203. The phrase is emphatically placed. Luther is excellent: we are indeed saved, yet in hope.—R.] Even if we were to admit that the Apostle understood faith to be the hope here mentioned (Chrysostom, De Wette, and others)—which, as Meyer correctly observes, is controverted by Paul’s definite distinction between faith and hope,85—the admission of the dative of instrument would be too strong. But even if we accept the dative as denoting modality, it does not denote “that to which the ἐσώθ is to be regarded as confined” (Meyer), but the condition: in hope of. Therefore the ἐσώθημεν must be here explained conformably to the conception of the υἱοθεσία in Rom_8:23, not as being the principial attainment of salvation in the Spirit—which is already complete there—but as being the perfect attainment of salvation in glory. This has become the portion of Christians, but in such a way that their faith is supplemented by their hope. They have the inward υἱοθεσία in the witness of the Spirit; but the υἱοθεσία of δόξα in the pledge of the Spirit.
Now hope that is seen is not hope [ἐλπὶς δὲ βλεπομένη οὐκ ἔστιν ἒλπίς]. Tholuck: the second ἐλπίς is concrete, the object of hope. [This usage is common in emphatic phrases in all languages (Philippi). Comp. Col_1:5; 1Ti_1:1; Heb_6:18, where ἐλπίς is objective.—R.] Luther: “The word hope is used in two ways. In one case it means great courage, which remains firm in all temptations; in the other, the finite salvation which hope shall get; here it may mean both.” Seeing means, here, the acquired presence of the object, which can be “grasped with the hands;” however, the beholding also may momentarily afford heavenly satisfaction; see 1 Cor. xiii.; 2Co_5:7.
For what a man seeth [ὂ γὰρ βλέπειτίς]. Thus the hope of believers proves that they are to expect a state of completion, but that they must wait for it perseveringly.
Why doth he still hope for? [τί καὶἐλπίζει; See Textual Note86. Adopting καί as well established, it seems best to take it as = etiam (Meyer). Why does he still hope, when there is no more ground for it? Comp. Hartung, Partikellehre, i. p. 137, on this use of Ζαί. Bengel: cum visione non est spe opus.—R.]
Rom_8:25. But if we hope for that, &c. Hope is no vain dreaming; it is proved as religious confidence in the ethical labor of patience. The ὑπομονή denotes perseverance amid obstacles; therefore always, also passiveness, or patience and steadfastness. But the connection here authorizes the predominance of the former idea. And though complete salvation comes from the future and from above, patience in this life must coöperate with its future—therefore: to persevere.87 Grotius; Spes ista non infructuosa est in nobis, sed egregiam virtutem operatur, malorum fortem tolerantiam.
Rom_8:26. Likewise the Spirit also [ὡσαὑτως δὲ kαὶ τὸ πνεῦμα. Likewise (ὡσαὑτως) introduces, as contemporaneous with the “waiting” (Rom_8:23), the divine assistance of the Holy Spirit (Tholuck).—R.] De Wette and Meyer explain: The Holy Spirit. The latter commentator appeals to Rom_8:16; Rom_8:23. But, in Rom_8:23, the new spiritual life is spoken of,88 which certainly consists in the fellowship of the human spirit with the Holy Spirit, but is, nevertheless, not the Holy Spirit itself. To say of the Holy Spirit in himself that He groans—indeed, that He gives vent to groanings which are unutterable by Him—is altogether inadmissible. Neither can we, with Nösselt, substitute the gospel; nor, with Morus, the Christian disposition; nor, with Köllner, the Christian element of life. According to the opposition of πνεῦμα and νοῦς in 1Co_14:14, it is the new basis of life, which constitutes to the conscious daily life an opposition of the life which, though apparently unconscious, is really the higher consciousness itself, the heavenly sense of the awakened soul. As, in the unconverted state, the influences of the unconscious basis of the soul invade the conscious daily life with demoniacal temptation, so vice versâ, does the unconscious spiritual life of the converted man come as a guardian spirit to the help of the daily life. Therefore the groaning of the spirit itself (see Rom_8:15) corresponds with the groaning of the consciousness in its natural feeling. [This position of Dr. Lange is not in accordance with the view of the best modern commentators. Tholuck, De Wette, Ewald, Stuart, Hodge, Philippi, Meyer, Alford, Wordsworth, Jowett, as well as the older commentators in general, all refer it to the objective, Holy Spirit. Olshausen, however, adopts the subjective sense. The proof must be very strong which will warrant us in referring it to any thing other than the Holy Spirit itself; for the Apostle uses τὸ πνεῦμα, as he has done in Rom_8:23; Rom_8:16, &c., where the Holy Spirit is meant. The only reason urged against such a meaning here is, that the “groaning,” &c., cannot be predicated of Him. But we have no right to depart from the obvious meaning, because, in the next clause, that is predicated which, we fancy, cannot be predicated of the Holy Spirit. The predicate in this clause cannot, with strict propriety, be referred to any spirit save the Holy Spirit. That Dr. Lange’s view weakens the thought, is also evident.—R.]
Helpeth our weakness [συναντιλαμβάνεται τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ ἡμῶν. See Textual Note89. On the verb, comp. Luk_10:40, where Martha asks that Mary be bidden to help her—i. e., take hold of in connection with. It requires a weakening of its force to make this applicable to the new spiritual life. The subjective side has been brought out in Rom_8:23-25. Hence a reference to the Holy Spirit accords with the progress of thought.—R.] Meyer urges, with Beza, the συν in συναντιλ: ad nos laborantes refertur. At all events, it would refer to only the conscious side of our effort. But it is clear, from the further definition, that ἀσθένεια is the only correct reading. Tholuck understands this ἀσθένεια as referring to occasions of invading faintness. But the Apostle speaks of a permanent relation of our weakness in this life, which certainly becomes more prominent in special temptations. This is the incongruity between the new principle and the old psychical and carnal life.
[The singular must be accepted as the true reading. It then refers to a state of weakness, already described (Rom_8:23). The dative, as in Luk_10:40, denotes not the burden which the. Spirit helps us bear (so Hodge, and many others), but that which it helps. (Alford: “helps our weakness—us who are weak, to bear the burden of Rom_8:23.” Meyer: “Er legt mit Hand an mit unserer Schwachheit .”) It should not be limited to weakness in prayer (Bengel), but is the general weakness in our waiting for final redemption.—R.]
For we know not what we should pray for as we ought [τὸ γὰρ τί προςευξώμεθα καθὸ δεῖ οὐκ οἲδαμεν. Τό belongs to the whole clause. Γάρ introduces an illustration of our weakness, and how it is helped. The aorist προςενξώμεθα, which we accept as the correct reading, is more usual than the future, but either is grammatically admissible. See Winer, p. 280.—R.] Tholuck holds that this not knowing refers to special states of obscure faith, and has a twofold meaning: ignorance of the object toward which prayer should be directed, and the language in which we should pray. But the supposition of special states is incorrect; otherwise the expression would be: we often do not know. But the language can by no means be under consideration, neither can a mere ignorance of the object be meant. Therefore De Wette and Meyer explain thus: we do not know what, under existing circumstances, it is necessary to pray for. We refer the καθὸ δεῖ as well to the heavenly clearness of the object of redemption as to the subjective purity, definiteness, and energy of desire corresponding to it.90 The conscious, verbal prayer is related to the spirit of prayer, as the fallible dictate of conscience is to the infallible conscience.
But the Spirit itself intercedeth [ἀλλ̓α̣ὐτὸ τὸ πνεῦμα ὑπερεντυγχάνει. On the omission of ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν (Rec.), which Meyer finds in the verb itself, see Textual Note91. The verb occurs only here. The simple verb means, to meet; then, compounded with ἐν, to approach in order to make supplication (Act_25:24, ἐντυγχάνειν); the ὑπερ seems to show that the supplication is in favor of the persons in question. Dr. Lange rejects this, in order to avoid a reference to the Holy Spirit.—Αὐτὸ τὸ πνεῦμα brings into prominence the Intercessor, who knows our wants (Tholuck, Alford).—R.] Since the ὑπερεντυγχάνει must be read without the addition of the Recepta, we refer the ὑπερ to our want in not knowing what to pray for, as it is proper for us, and in harmony with our destiny. Tholuck regards the ὑπερ as merely a higher degree, as in ὑπὲρπερισσεύειν; Meyer [so Philippi] sees here a ὑπὲρ ἡμω̄ν, according to the analogy of ὑπεραποκρίνομαι, &c.
With groanings which cannot be uttered [στεναγμοῖς ἀλαλήτοις]. Analogous to 1Co_14:14; against which Tholuck remarks, that there the subject in question is the human πνεῦμα. Meyer even declares that those explanations are rationalistic which do not interpret the πνεῦμα to be the Holy Spirit (Reiche: the Christian, sense; Köllner: the Spirit obtained in Christ). Chrysostom’s calling it the χάρισμα εὐχῆς, and Theodoret’s not understanding by the expression the ὑπόστασις of the Spirit, are declared to be an arbitrary alteration. Meyer does not accede to the opinion of Augustine, and most commentators, that the sense is, that man himself, stirred up by the Holy Ghost, utters groanings. It is rather the Holy Spirit himself; but certainly He needs the human organ for His groanings. He claims that the analogy, “that demons speak and cry out of men,” is adapted to this view. The analogy of demoniacal possession! Besides, Meyer, in his exposition of the ἀλαλήτοις, prefers the interpretation of most expositors, unutterable, to the opposite rendering, unuttered, dumb (Grotius, Fritzsche, and others), because it denotes greater intensity. But we get from this the result, that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God in His glory, not only groans, but also cannot utter His groans.
[Notwithstanding this attempt at a reductio ad absurdum, the view must still be held, that the Holy Spirit is here represented as interceding. To avoid this conclusion, Dr. Lange must first weaken the subject into the human spirit, and then the force of ὑπερ in the verb. It is far better to accept the obvious sense, and then explain it in a way which escapes the extreme conclusions of Meyer. The Holy Spirit is here spoken of as dwelling in us; in this indwelling He makes the intercession. This view presents no absurdity; it rather accepts the prominent thought of the previous part of the chapter (Rom_8:9; Rom_8:11; Rom_8:14; Rom_8:16), and implies not only that, by this indwelling, we are taught to pray what would otherwise be unutterable (Calvin, Beza), but that the Holy Ghost “himself pleads in our prayers, raising us to higher and holier desires than we can express in words, which can only find utterance in sighings and aspirations” (Alford). So Hodge, Stuart, De Wette, and most commentators.—R.]
On the threefold view of ἀλάλητοις (not utterable, not spoken, not speaking), see Tholuck.92
Rom_8:27. But he who searcheth the hearts [ὁ δὲ ἐρευνῶν τὰς καρδἱας. Δέ is slightly adversative: These groanings are unutterable, but He, &c. The ἐρευνῶν describes God according to the Old Testament phraseology (1Sa_16:7; Psa_7:10; Pro_15:11), as omniscient.—R.] In 1Co_2:10 it is said of the Holy Spirit that He searcheth all things; here, according to the just cited reference of the groaning Spirit to the Holy Spirit, this very Holy Spirit would be an object of the searching God. [This objection is of little weight, since the object of the all-searching God is the mind of the Spirit, hidden (even to us) in the unutterable sighings, &c.—R.]
The mind of the Spirit. His φρὁνημα; see Rom_8:6. His purely divine and ideal striving, but here as clear thought, denoting the excogitated sense of that language of groans. [If the reference to the Holy Spirit be accepted, then the sense not even excogitated by us is included.—R.]
Because he pleadeth for the saints [ὅτι. .. ἐντυγχνει ὑπὲρ ἁγίων.How can the human spirit, even when possessed by the Holy Spirit, be said to plead for the saints?—R.] The explanation of ὅτι by for [because], according to most expositors (De Wette, Philippi, &c.), is opposed by Meyer (in accordance with Grotius, Fritzsche, Tholuck, and others), who urges instead of it, that. A very idle thought: God knows the mind of the Holy Spirit, that He intercedes for the saints in a way well-pleasing to God. The οἶδε is perfectly plain in itself, even if not taken in the pregnant sense (with Calvin and Ruckert).93 He knows well that He, as the searcher of hearts (Psa_139:1) and as hearer, is conscious of the thought and pure purpose of these holy groans. Wherefore? Because it is well-pleasing to God.
[According to the will of God (χατὰθεόν) is the correct paraphrase of the E. V.—R.] Not, according to Deity (Origen); nor before God, nor with God (Reiche, Fritzsche); nor by God, by virtue of God (Tholuck.—How can we hold that the Holy Ghost should intercede because of God’s impulse?), but according to God, in harmony with the Divine will (Meyer).94 The Divine impulse is, indeed, indirectly implied here; but then it follows again, that the groaning Spirit cannot be identical with the Holy Spirit. [Not with the Holy Spirit as without us, but as within us.—R.]
Second Paragraph, Rom_8:28-37
Rom_8:28. And we know [οἴδαμεν δέ. Meyer, Philippi, and others, take δέ as introducing a general ground after the more special ones in Rom_8:26-27. Alford finds it slightly adversative, the antithesis being found in Rom_8:22. The former is preferable. Οἴδαμεν, Christian consciousness.—R.] The subjective assurance of the future consummation reaches its climax in the fact that believers are lovers of God. But in this form it indicates the objective certainty, which is its lowest foundation. However, instead of the most direct inference, that those who love God are previously beloved by Him, and are established on God’s love (an inference controlling this whole section; see Rom_8:29; Rom_8:31-32; Rom_8:35; Rom_8:39), the Apostle applies this inference to the condition of Christians in this world. The whole world seems to contradict their hope of future glory. All things visible, especially the hatred of the hostile world, seem to oppose and gainsay their faith. And yet this fearful appearance can have no force, since all things are subject to the omnipotent and wise administration of God, on whose loving counsel their confidence is established. Still more, if all things are subject to God’s supreme authority, and this authority is exhibited in the development of His loving counsel, they know, with the full certainty of faith, that all things work together for their good. This follows, first, from the decree, plan, and order of salvation (Rom_8:28-30). It follows, second, from God’s arrangement, act, and facts of salvation (Rom_8:31-34). It follows, third, from the experience proved in the Old Testament, that the Lord’s companions in salvation and the covenant are His companions in suffering, as His companions in conflict; but as His companions in suffering, they are also His companions in victory, for whose glorification all surmounted obstacles are transformed into means of advancement (Rom_8:35-37). The conclusion (Rom_8:38-39) expresses so strongly the subjective, and also the objective certainty of the future completion, that we believe it necessary to make it prominent as a special paragraph.
That all things, πάντα; not merely all events (Meyer), or all afflictions (Tholuck) [Calvin, Hodge, Stuart]; for, besides events (Rom_8:35), all the powers of the world are mentioned (Rom_8:38-39).—Work together, συνεργεῖ.95 The beautiful and correct term, serve for the good of, must nevertheless follow the more specific definition. For the principal factor of the completion of Christians is the central one: Christ over them and in them, the love of Christ or the Spirit of glory, the free and dominant impulse of their new life. With this first and central factor there now coöperates the second and peripherical one—that course of all things and all destinies about them which is placed under God’s authority and Christ’s power, and constitutes their guidance to glorification.
For good, εἰς ἀγαθόν. Strictly, for good. The article is wanting, for the Apostle has in mind the antithesis: not for evil, injurious, and destructive working; and because every thing shall be useful to them, and promotive, in a special way, of their good. For the good is, the promotion of life. Every good thing of this kind relates, indeed, to the realization of their eternal salvation, but it is not directly this itself (Reiche). [Bengel: In bonum ad glorificationem usque.—R.]
Those who love God [τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν τὸν θεόν. Alford: “A stronger designation than any yet used for believers.” Comp. 1Co_2:9; Eph_6:24; Jam_1:12.—R.] The Apostle defines this expression more specifically with reference to its purpose, by the addition:
To those who are the called according to his purpose [τοῖς κατὰ πρόθεσιν χλητοῖς οὖσιν]. Yet the addition is not designed to furnish a definition for the explanation of the name, those who love God (Meyer); nor did the Apostle wish thereby to qualify the preceding clause (Rückert), but to represent more clearly the foundation of the life of those who love God, &c. (Tholuck, Fritzsche, Philippi, and others). The intention or purpose of God is the rock of their salvation, and the same purpose directs all things. The love of believers for God is therefore not the ground of their confidence, but the sign and security that they were first loved by God. But the Apostle uses for this another expression, which indicates as well the evidence as the firmness of the love which has gone out for them. The evidence of their salvation lies in the fact that they are called by God to salvation (in the operative κλῆσις with which the gospel has pervaded their hearts). This evidence refers to the firmness of their salvation in the purpose of God; the genuine χλῆσις of true Christians depends upon the πρόθεσις, and testifies of it. See Doctr. Notes.96
Rom_8:29-30. In the following grand and glorious exposition, the Apostle represents God’s purpose as being unfolded and realized in its single elements. It is developed as the ante-mundane and eternal foundation of the historical order of salvation in the two parts, foreknowing and predestinating, with reference to the eternal limit, the glory. It is then historically realized in the saving acts of the calling and the justifying. It is finally completed in the glorifying of believers. The foreknowing proceeds, in truth, from eternity to eternity; the predestinating passes from eternity over into time; and finally, the glorifying passes from time over into post-temporal eternity, while in the calling and justifying the two eternities are linked together, and reveal eternity in time.
For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated [ὅτι οὓς προἐγνω, χαὶ προώρισεν]. The twice-repeated πρό comes under the treatment before the examination of the single elements. Tholuck: “According to a later view of Meyer, the πρό expresses only precedence before the call; but it is against the analogy of προγινώσχω in Rom_11:2; 1Pe_1:20; and of προορἰζω in 1Co_2:7; Eph_1:5; Eph_1:11.” It is certainly clear that the Apostle will here establish the eternal end, the δὀξα, upon an eternal beginning (ἀρχή).
First element: Whom he foreknew. Tholuck says, that “προγινὡσκενιν has been explained in four different ways, and in such a manner that each of the accepted meanings has its predestinarian as well as its anti-predestinarian advocates.” These four definitions are: 1. To know beforehand; 2. To acknowledge beforehand, approbare; 3. To select, or choose beforehand; 4. To determine beforehand, decernere, prœdestinare.
The knowing beforehand was understood by the Greek and Arminian expositors in an anti-predestinarian sense as the foresight of faith; and by the Lutheran exegetical writers as the foresight of perseverance in the bestowed faith. Meyer: Foreknowledge of those destined for salvation. A knowing of the predestinated beforehand, as, according to Tholuck, was accepted by Augustine in later life, and by Zwingli, is very tautological.97 But this view passes over, in reality, into a second: approbavit; and we then have Tholuck’s arrangement, by which eight antitheses—four predestinarian and four anti-predestinarian—must be limited, yet not carried out. The approbavit is, indeed, defended in both an Augustinian and an Arminian sense. But, in the former, it coincides with the third view, elegit (Calvin, and others). But if the decernere is also understood in a predestinarian sense, to determine concerning a person, it is only a stronger expression for the elegit in the predestinarian sense. With respect to further treatment of this point, we must refer to the well-known commentaries.
If we turn away from the verbal explanation, there are really but two constructions of this passage, the predestinarian and the anti-predestinarian; in addition to these, there comes at most only the germ, or intimation of the possibility, of a third. The predestinarian explanation of the word προγινώσχειν by “to acknowledge,” approbare (Beza, and others), or by decernere, “to determine” (Luther: “ordained,” not foreseen), is linguistically untenable; but it is linguistically tenable when explained by to elect beforehand, to choose (Calvin, Rückert, De Wette);98 and now means predestination as a doctrinal truth, now as a temporary Pauline view, and now, in the most universal sense possible, the general election for salvation (De Wette, and others).
The anti-predestinarian interpretation of the expression is also varied: the seeing or knowing beforehand of those who are worthy through faith, of those endowed with faith, &c.; and again, in the sense of loving or approbans beforehand (Grotius, and others).
As far as a third exposition is concerned, the observation has been made that God’s foreknowledge is a loving knowledge (see Tholuck, p. 449), or a creative knowledge, a being placed in the idea of Christ (Neander, Apost. Zeitalter, p. 822).99 Yet Neander’s explanation does not go to the bottom of the matter. It is this: “Those whom God, in His eternal view, has known as belonging to Him, through Christ, have been predestinated thereto by Him.” We are, indeed, in want of a term which definitely expresses the truth that the loving or fixing knowledge is an absolutely original one, which determines the idea of the one to be perceived, but does not predetermine it.100 Meyer’s reminder, that προχγινώσχειν, in the classical sense, never means any thing but foreknowledge, has no weight here, where we have to do with an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον in the centre of the Christian doctrine of salvation. [See Meyer’s note.] The one collective Hebrew term for knowing, loving, being present at, and begetting (Gen_4:1), is only a modification of the theocratic thought that God calls by name those who do not yet exist, as if He would be, and in order that He may be, their God (Jer_31:3; Psa_132:9; Psa_148:6). “To call by name” (Isa_43:1), “to grave upon the hands” (Isa_49:16), and similar expressions, denote figuratively the unity of that knowing and loving which fix in idea the subject in its peculiarity (certainly in Christ), in order that, in consequence of the idea, they may be called into existence. The distinction of prescience and predestination in the first foundation of the world, is connected with a defective comprehension of the peculiar character of personal life. (See the Doctr. Notes.)
Second element: He also predestinated. The προορἰζειν presupposes God’s first determination of man,101 which establishes his individuality in relation to other individualities, and to Christ, the centre. Here the question is the predetermination of the historical destiny of the individual, the establishment of the historical guidance to salvation, just as all kindred definitions, together with προορἰζειν in Act_4:28; 1Co_2:7; Eph_1:5-11; ἀφορἰζειν in Rom_1:1; Gal_1:15; and ὁρἰζειν in Act_10:42; Act_17:26 (where we have ὁροθεσία also), are determined by the fundamental thought of the ὅρος, which is the limitation and condition in time and space, that are identical with the destiny in its relation to salvation, the object of man—a relation which reaches its climax in the τάσσειν (Act_13:48). Therefore the Apostle also adds here the destination to conformity to the image of God’s Son, undoubtedly with reference to the definite conformity of the historical way of life—through sufferings to glory (Rom_6:4 ff.; 2Ti_2:11; Heb_2:9-11), and to historical confirmation and completion (Php_2:5-11, and elsewhere).
[To be conformed to the image of his Son, συμμόρφονς τῆς εἰχόνος τοῦ υἱοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ. The word σύμμορφος is followed by the genitive here; by the dative, Php_3:21. Hence Stuart thinks it is to be taken as a substantive in this case; but Alford remarks that it is like σύμφυτος (Rom_6:5), in being followed by either. Comp. Kühner, ii. p. 172. It is the accusative of the predicate; see Winer, p. 214.—R.] Evidently, we have to deal here with a specifically new ordination on God’s part, though it is in harmony with the previous one. The meaning of μορφή comes into consideration in order to explain more definitely the συμμόρφους (to which we need not supply an εἶναι, because the predestination involves a predescription). Tholuck: “The term μορφή means frequently, but not invariably, the phase of the human form, as well as the form in general, and even the μορφὴ ἐπίων (see Plato, Phœd., pp. 103, 104). Aristotle distinguishes εἶδος, the inward forming power; μορφή, the phenomenal form; and ἐνέργεια, its concrete reality, &c., and συμμορφοῦσθαι, from the conformity of appearance or situation.”
The further definition, conformably to the image, or conformity of the image, which is still stronger, brings the idea of the phenomenal form still more strongly into the light. Therefore Theodoret, Augustine, Fritzsche, and Meyer, would confine the expression merely to a share in the glorified corporealness of Christ (Php_3:21), or to the δόξα (Rom_8:10). Meyer and De Wette maintain, contrary to Calvin, Grotius, Calovius, and others, that “fellowship of suffering is here remote;” against which view Tholuck observes, that the object is expressed by the subsequent ἐδόξασε. Tholuck, p. 450, says, in speaking of συμμόρφους, “that the grand thought of Christ, as the prototype of all humanity, elevated through sufferings to the δόξα and to the συμβασιλεύειν τῷ θεῷ, occurs in the Scriptures in interchangeable forms; Joh_12:26; Joh_17:22-24; Rom_8:17 (Eph_4:13); 2Ti_2:12; 1Jn_3:3; Rev_3:21.” He also says, on p. Rom 451: “Since mention was made of the sufferings of Christians, many expositors (Calvin, and others) have been led, by reference to Heb_2:10, to suppose a conformity to the glory to be obtained through sufferings; but, as Cocceius remarks, this declaration of gradation is justified neither by the expression, nor by the Apostle’s purpose.” These two statements do not harmonize well. But the predestination of the suffering life, and of the end to be attained, is here a collective idea. The end is historical confirmation (“the Lamb that was slain,” Rev_5:12; “these are they which came out of great tribulation,” Rev_7:14), and the way thither is nothing else than the following of Christ crucified (comp. Heb_2:10-11). A sundering of the two elements thus destroys the specific character of the determination. As doubts in regard to the apparent conformation of believers with Christ himself have been raised into prominence, and attempts have been made to solve them, they will disappear of themselves, if we adhere closely to the idea of the συμμόρφους (see Tholuck, p. 451; Chrysostom: “Οπερ γὰρ ὁ μονογενὴς ἦνφύσει, τοῦτο καὶ αὐτοὶ γεγόνασι κατὰ χὰριν, &c.).
[The word σύμμορφος occurs only here and in Php_3:21, where the reference is to the body of Christ. (The cognate verb is found in Php_3:10, in connection with the death of Christ.) The view which restricts the meaning to the glorified corporealness of Christ (Meyer, De Wette), seems scarcely in keeping with the context. Doubtless this is included. We may then choose between the reference to “that entire form, of glorification in body and sanctification in spirit, of which Christ is the perfect pattern, and all His people shall be partakers” (Alford; so Philippi); or may extend it also to the present partaking in sufferings and moral character like His (Stuart, Hodge, Webster and Wilkinson, following Calvin, &c.). There seems to be no objection to this wide reference; in fact, the immediate context rather favors it, but the latter idea (moral character) has perhaps gained too great prominence, in the effort to justify thereby the fact of predestination, as predestination to holiness. The thought of sufferings is not so “remote,” as, besides being the keynote of the section (Rom_8:18), it is implied in Rom_8:28, and recurs in Rom_8:31, to be the prominent thought throughout the rest of the chapter.—R.]
That he might be the first-born among many brethren. The εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸνπρωτότοτον ἐν πολλοῖς ἀδελφοῖς is, at all events, a clause not merely of result, but of purpose. [The reference in the aorists to the past decree of redemption requires us to take this clause as telic.—R.] According to De Wette, the principal thought is, that He, the first-born, might be among many brethren; according to Meyer, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. Tholuck: The chief thought is, the share of the ἀδελφοί in the possession of the First-born. The πρωτότοκος (Col_1:15-17) implies not merely the element of time and rank (Tholuck), but also that of causal priority; and this element cannot be wanting in the present passage.102 The expression therefore denotes, according to the prominence given to His conformity with believers, also his elevation above them; but it is an elevation which is in harmony with inward uniformity, a true fraternization.
We do not think it advisable to lay stress on either the many brethren or on the first-born. The real aim, after all, is Christ (for him, Col_1:16), but Christ as the first-born (not merely the μονογενής of God) among many brethren; therefore the people of His kingdom, a choir of brethren, are to be with Christ, and all around Him. [The end of the foreknowing and predestining is the glorification of Christ in us, His people. The ideas become as inseparable as the glorified brethren themselves are.—R.]
Rom_8:30. Them he also called [τοὑτουοκαὶ ἐκὰλεσεν]. The καλεῖν, like the κλῆσις, is without suffix, since the idea, prepared by the Old Testament להַקִ, is generally known and elucidated; in addition to this, there is a still greater New Testament fundamental conception. The sense is this: called to the community of Christ as to the communion of salvation, to the Supper of the Lord, to life, &c. But as election comprises a twofold idea, a historical (Joh_6:70) and a mystical or transcendental one, so does κλῆσνς also comprise a twofold conception (Mat_22:14). Evidently, we have here to deal with the idea of an inward χλῆσις; that is, a κλῆσις become inward from a merely external one. Meyer denies that this κλῆσις relates to the inward operations of grace, but holds that the effects of the call result from the relation of preaching to the existing qualification of men. But such an effect is hardly conceivable without the operation of grace. Tholuck opposes any distinction between a vocatio externa and interna, between a vocatio inefficax and efficax. The idea may have been represented one-sidedly by predestinarian theologians; but the fact of the distinction is continually corroborated in every village church where the gospel is preached. We gain no clearer view by the remark, that the spirit of Plato is contained in the Platonic writings, for thousands have not found the Platonic spirit in them. This remark applies only to such spiritualists as, on the one hand, place the “dead” word without the spirit, or, on the other, the spirit without the word. We may enlarge by saying, that if the κλῆσις stands midway between προορίξειν and the δικαιοῖν, the specific idea necessarily becomes apparent. The καλεῖν is that effect of God’s word completed in the gospel, which is divided into illumination and awakening. It is prepared by the effect of the προορἰζειν: Laboriousness and burdensomeness (Mat_11:28); it unites with these, and, by conversion through penitence and by believing confidence, prepares the δικίωσις for saving faith.103 But, of course, if the question is concerning the χλητοῖς, the χλῆσι also comprises the διχαίωσι, and even the beginnings of the δοξάζειν.—In that case, also the idea of the δικαιοῦν between καλεῖν and δοξάζειν results in the most definite way (see chap. iii.).
[Them he also justified, τούτους καὶ ἐδικαίωσεν. See the exhaustive notes of Dr. Schaff, pp. 130 ff., 138 ff.—R.]
And whom he justified, them he also glorified [οὓς δὲ ἐδικαίωσεν, τουτους καὶἐδόξασεν]. The exegetical writers begin here to wonder at the aorist, while their surprise ought to have begun at least with the ἐκάλεσεν. For, at the time when the Apostle wrote these words, only a very few of the whole future body of believers were really called. Therefore the aorist ἐδόξασε cannot stand here for the future (according to Vorstius and Glass), nor for the present (according to Köllner), nor in the sense of taking care of (according to Flatt). Meyer holds that the Apostle here describes the actually certain future glorification as so necessary and certain, that it is the same as if it had already taken place.104 Tholuck regards the aorist here as the prophetic preterite. [So Stuart.]
We will now consider more particularly the antithesis which Meyer calls special attention to—that Grotius, and others, have regarded the act of δοξάζειν as having only happened in the purpose of God,105 but that Chrysostom, and others, on the contrary, have referred the δόξα to the gift of grace in this world. The Apostle’s starting-point is evidently his present time, the fellowship of the κλητοί and of the δικαιούμενοι in which he stands. This is even literally established, in a certain relation, by the expression, καὶ ἐδόξασεν. For δοξάζειν means not merely to invest one with δόξα at the end of time, but to lead gradually by the πνεῖματῆς δόξης (1Pe_4:14) to glory. The whole guidance of believers is δοξασμός in the biblical sense. This δοξασμός had therefore already begun for the companions of the Apostle, and, in his believing confidence, it was just as good as completed (see Rom_8:38-39).106 But if the Apostle had merely wished to describe this standpoint of the Christians of that day—that is, merely the standpoint of experience—he would have had to commence with the οὓς ἐκάλεσεν, and return from the οὓς ἐδικαίωσεν to προώρισεν, and finally to προέγνω. But he has changed the statement of his experience of that period into a doctrinal statement for all time, in order to exhibit the πρόθεσις of God in its full splendor. His sorites has then chiefly a historical meaning. Many had already completely passed over this stationed way; for example, Stephen, and James the Elder. In the same manner this way had, and will always have, to many, a distinguishing meaning; that is, it applies to the secure developing progress of the elect in a special sense. It has, finally, for all: a. a methodological meaning; that is, they experience here the final consequence of God’s saving acts in the ordo salutis; b. the meaning of evangelical promise. If they stand in the circle of the κλῆσις and δικαίωσις, they can be certain, retrospectively, of their election and foreordination (historical determination), and prospectively certain of their guidance to glory. Paul assumes throughout the ethical facts and conditions that correspond to these acts of God; but he does not name them here, because the connection requires that the superiority of the Divine ground of salvation to human weakness should alone be glorified107 (see Doctr. Notes).
Rom_8:31. What then shall we say to these things? [Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν πρὸς ταῦτα; On τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν, comp. Rom_3:5; Rom_4:1; Rom_6:1; Rom_7:7; Rom_9:14, where it introduces a false conclusion; here, and Rom_9:30, a correct one; De Wette.—R.] Tholuck: “Τί ἐροῦμεν is used here, contrary to the Apostle’s custom, in a conclusion which has not a doubtful character.” But the apparently doubtful element lies in the conclusion which might be drawn, that the Christian can have no opposition. He has, indeed, says Paul, no veritable opposition; all the opposition that he really has, only helps him. What follows from the fact that God has so securely established our salvation through all its stages?108 The conclusion is this:
If God is for us, who is against us? [Εἰὁ θεὸς ὐπὲρ ἡμῶν, τίς καθ’ ἡμῶν;] (Psa_91:1-7). Every thing which is against us, in an earthly sense, must, in a heavenly sense, promote our welfare through God’s sovereignty. [How God is for us, has been set forth; the question therefore implies, not doubt, but joyous certainty. Hence the E. V. is not strong enough.—R.] This confidence of the Apostle, in opposition to the hostile forces of the world, assumes a bold and almost challenging tone. Tholuck: “There begins with this expression a series of victorious questions and triumphant answers, in reference to which Erasmus exclaims: ‘Quid unquam Cicero dixit grandiloquentius? ’ Just such a triumphant acclamation is found in 1Co_15:54.”
[Philippi: “In fact, as Rom_8:19-23 may be called a sacred elegy, so we may term Rom_8:31-39 a sacred ode; that is as tender and fervent as this is bold and exalted in matter and in manner; that, an amplification of ‘we do groan, being burdened’ (2Co_5:4); this, a commentary on 'this is the victory that overcometh the world' (1Jn_5:4). Augustine, De doctr. christi, iv. 20, cites Rom_8:31 as an example of the grande dicendi genus, quod non tam verborum ornatibus cerutum est, quam violentum animi affectibus.—Satis enim est ei propter quod agitur, ut verba congruentia, non oris eligantur industria, sed pectores sequantur ardorem. Nam si aurato gemmatoque ferro vir fortis armetur, intentissimus pugnœ, agit quidem illis armis quod agit, non quia pretiosa, sed quia arma sunt.”—R.]
Rom_8:32. He who spared not his own Son [ὅς γε τοῦ ἰδίου υἱοῦ οῦκ ἐφείσατο. Meyer, and others, take this as an interrogative answer to the preceding question. It does indeed answer it, but is, at the same time, an advance (see below). The enclitic γε has the force of even, quippe qui, but Alford is not justified in saying that this takes “one act as a notable example out of all;” for this is the crowning proof of love, including all the others, and hence establishing the main clause: how shall he not, &c.—R.] After the Apostle has described negatively, in Rom_8:31, the elevation of God’s children above the hostile world, he portrays it positively in Rom_8:32. The logical construction is as follows: God, who has already established our δόξα; is for us, with the whole energy of His purpose. a. He is for us in person as our protector, and therefore no person and no thing can be against us; b. He is for us to such a degree that He gave His Son109 for us. Οὐκ ἐφείσατο involves here two ideas: He did not save Him (Bengel: paterno suo amori quasi vim adhibuit), and, He did not spare Him.
But delivered him up for us all [ὰλλὰὑπὲρ ἡμῶν πάντων παρέδωκεν αὐτόν. On the verb, comp. Rom_4:25. On the preposition ὑπἑρ, in behalf of, comp. Rom_5:6.—R.]. Deliverance to death for us, for our redemption.110 The notion which would explain Joh_3:16 as a “deliverance to finiteness” (mentioned by Tholuck on p. 455), belongs rather to the philosophy of Schelling in his early period, than to the christological standpoint.
[Freely give us all things? τὰ πάνταἡμῖν χαρίσεαι; A question a majori ad minus (Meyer). Philippi and Meyer join καί with πῶς οὐχί, not with σὺν αὐτῷ. It is perhaps more grammatical, but the thought is still the same: that with Christ, and because of Christ, all else shall come.—R.] Τὰ πάντα. Tholuck: “Every thing which we need.” This is against Brenz, who explains thus: “All the blessings comprised in Christ.” But why not simply, every thing, in harmony with Rom_8:17 and 1Co_3:22? For, after all, we “need” every thing, and the “blessings comprised in Christ” are the whole universe. Therefore the σύν is not merely based on the idea of the προζθὴκη.
Rom_8:33-35. Two lines of the certainty of salvation have been drawn from the one fundamental idea of the λησις χατὰ πρόθεσιν; that is, of the assurance of salvation. There is, first, the line of the certainty of individual, inward, and personal salvation (Rom_8:28; Rom_8:30); the causa principalis: grace. Then we have, second, the line of historical salvation, which corresponds with the first line as the causa mediatrix. This latter appears as the almighty gift of salvation, in opposition to the contradiction of the world. As the Apostle looks at the fearful appearance of this contradiction, he now presents throughout the negative character of the historical salvation. That is, he develops the thought placed at the outset—that nothing can be against us, because God is for us; so very much for us, that He delivered even His Son for us. But the Apostle then brings out the fact, though more indirectly, that God will, with Him, also freely give us all things. Thus there is, first of all, the exalted mediation of salvation. “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?”
Different constructions of the following three verses (Rom_8:33-35):
a. Rom_8:33-34 are antitheses which must be read as question and answer, according to our translation. [So E. V.] (See Luther, Castalio, Beza, Calvin, Fritzsche, Philippi [Stuart, Hodge), and others.)
b. The three answers also stand in the form of questions, thus: Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? Will God, who justifieth, do it? Who is He that condemneth? Will Christ, who died for us, do it? (This is the view of Augustine, Ambrose, Koppe, Reiche, Olshausen, De Wette [Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, Jowett], and others.)
c. An altered form of presenting the antitheses: 1. Who shall lay any thing to the charge? Answer: It is God that justifieth; who, therefore, is He that condemneth? 2. Answer: It is Christ that died, &c., who also maketh intercession for us; who, therefore, shall separate us from the love of Christ? This construction of the antithesis, which was laid down by Origen, Chrysostom, and Theodoret, has been neglected by nearly all recent expositors, but is urgently recommended by Meyer. [Wordsworth follows it in his text, but is impressively silent on the subject in his notes. See Meyer, not only in defence of his own view, but for a resumé of other opinions.—R.]
Tholuck very properly remarks, in opposition to this third combination of sentences, as follows: “It can be le‘, satisfactory of all; for, if we adopt it, that rhetorical conformity of the sentences is lost which is apparent in the other constructions,” &c. But this construction not merely obliterates the grand simplicity of the antitheses, but also obscures their real order. The question, Who shall lay any thing to the charge? remains totally unanswered. But, on the contrary, the question, Who is He that condemneth? would receive two answers: first, the expression, “it is God that justifieth,” and afterward, “it is Christ that died,” &c. In addition to this, the clear thoughts, justification, in Rom_8:33, the atonement, in Rom_8:34, and holiness or glorification, in Rom_8:35-37, would be totally confused.
The second construction appears to be favored by the fact, that the third question, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” seems, in turn, to be answered by a rhetorical question (tribulation, or distress, &c.?). But the third question is continued through Rom_8:35-36, and the answer to it follows in a positive declaration in Rom_8:37.
Thus elegance of both form and matter pronounces in favor of the antithesis of three questions and three answers. If it be objected, that the answers would be still strengthened by the form of rhetorical questions, we might reply, that they would indeed be strengthened even to overstraining and obscurity. For there are, indeed, accusers and condemners enough against believers, which is plain from what follows: tribulation, distress, persecution, &c. But the principal thing is, that they stand as accusers against the justifying God himself, and as condemners of the future Judge of the world, Christ the Messiah, who is the Saviour of believers; and therefore, that their charge and condemnation are not only impotent, but must even advance the glory of believers, just as tribulation, distress, persecution, &c., are not only unable to separate them from the love of Christ, but must establish them in His love as decided victors. But Paul could hardly have expressed, even in the form of a rhetorical question, the thought that God could be the accuser of believers, and Christ could be their condemner, even if we consider the question apart from the fact that he would thereby have destroyed the antithesis: if God be for us, who can be against us? Meyer remarks, against the former construction, that θεὸς ὁ δικαίῶν and τίς ὁ κατακρἱνων would be essentially correlative. This is altogether incorrect. The δικαίωσις removes the charge of condemnation; the atonement made by Christ abolishes the condemnation itself. That Paul did not write τίς κατακρινεῖ to correspond with the τὶς ἐγκαλέσει, is not only unimportant, but is based upon the supposition that there could be many accusers, but that there could be only one condemner at the tribunal. Meyer holds that, by the first construction, Christ must have been represented as Judge, in harmony with the ὁ κατακρίνων in Rom_8:34. But apart from the consideration that Christ opposes all the worldly condemnations of men pronounced on unbelievers, by interceding for them at God’s right hand, we hold that the reading Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς (the Sinaiticus favors the same), which seems to have been early given up from a misconception, serves as a satisfactory explanation. As, therefore, the first sentence is: God is the justifier, the second is this: Christ the Messiah, the expected Judge of the world, is Ἰησοῦς ὁ ἀποθανών. The article before Ἰησοῦς is given with the adjective designations.111 Tholuck has declined to decide concerning the punctuation.
[The pointing adopted in the E. V. has been so fully defended by Dr. Lange, that the following remarks will suffice in addition. (1) Even the most rhetorical style would scarcely indulge in seventeen successive questions, without an answer, as view b. would maintain. (2) View c. disturbs the flow of the passage, without adding to this force. (3) The grand thought of the certainty of salvation seems to be even more fully established by accepting three questions and three answers following each in turn, while there is no reasonable objection to the correspondence thus claimed between each question and its answer.—R.]
Rom_8:33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? [τίς ἐγκαλέσεικατὰ ἐκλεκτῶν θεοῦ; The verb is usually followed by the dative, only here with κατά. The article is omitted with ἐκλεκτῶν, giving prominence to the attribute of the persons (Meyer). That it refers to the persons under discussion throughout, is obvious.—R.] The idea of the ἐκλέγεσθαι theocratically resting on the Old Testament יחַבִּ, corresponds with that of the προγινώσκειν; but in the concrete name of the ἐκλεκτοί, it denotes the deepest establishment of the whole character of believers in the εὐδοκία of God (see Doctr. Notes).
It is God that justifieth! [θεὸς ὁ δικαιῶν! The expression is more energetic than θεὸς δικαιοῦ; comp. Mat_10:20 (Philippi). The θεον͂, occurring immediately after θεοῦ, has a rhetorical emphasis (Meyer).—R.] According to Tholuck, the question really is the intercessor in opposition to the charge, and, on the other hand, the δικαιοῦν in opposition to the κατακρίνειν. But this would not correspond with the connection. As the authorized accusers, the law and the conscience, are silenced in the δικαίωσις, which God himself executes, we must here have in mind principally the weakness of the unauthorized accusers, at whose head stands Satan, κατὴγορος (Origen), who opposes Christians not only in heathen adversaries (Photius, Theophylact, Grotius), but also in Jewish adversaries. The δικαιωῦν has evidently here also a forensic meaning. Tholuck: “Luther excellently says, in harmony with the sense, ‘God is here.’ ”
Rom_8:34. Who is he that condemneth? The ὁ κατακρίνων declares, that in an authorized form there can only be one, the Messiah, but it is just He who is their propitiator and intercessor.
It is Christ, &c. [Χριστὸς ἀποθανώςν, χ.τ.λ.] The Apostle expresses complete deliverance from condemnation in four essential elements of Christ’s redeeming work. In the two elements of His death and resurrection there is comprised full deliverance from the real guilt of condemnation (see Rom_4:25); and in His sitting at the right hand of God, and in His intercession, there is comprised His protection against the unauthorized accusers from without, and the condemnatory results of the injury of the new life from within.—Meyer: “μᾶλλον δὲ χαι,112 a higher degree of importance: immo adeo. The ὃς χαὶ has a somewhat festive sound.”
Rom_8:35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸτῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Χριστοῦ;] The reading τοῦ θεοῦ is but weakly supported. Meyer, with Tholuck, De Wette, Philippi, and others, properly says in favor of the construction Χριστοῦ, that it is the genitive subjective; and, therefore, that it denotes Christ’s love toward His followers (see Rom_8:37; Rom_8:39). But when he says that this forbids the interpretation of others who understand it to be love for Christ (Origen, Köllner [see Forbes, p. 332, on this view], and others), his remark is only correct in form; for, in reality, confidence in love on Christ’s part for His children cannot be separated from love for Him (see Rom_8:28).113 The afflictions which now follow are personified by τίς [instead of τί, which we might expect].
But how is the possibility of this separation to be regarded? Meyer: A possible sundering of men from the influx of Christ’s love by intervening hindrances. De Wette: The joyous sense of being beloved by Christ. Philippi: Afflictions can seem to us to be an indication of Divine wrath, and thus mislead us into unbelief in Divine love. Tholuck: The firmness of the consciousness of this Divine relation of love. The sense of the question is this: Can an affliction lead us to fall from the operation and experience of Christ’s love? By answering in the negative, there is assumed not merely the Divine purpose of grace according to the predestinarian view, and also not merely the purity and perseverance of faith according to the Arminian view, but the connection between the two, the new bond which is secured by the recognition of tribulation, distress, &c., as powers overcome by Christ, and made serviceable to His love itself.
Shall tribulation, &c. [θλῖψις, κ.τ.λ.] The forms of affliction are in harmony with the relations of Christians at that time, and especially of the Apostle; there is the apparently fearful number seven, but the seventh leads to the triumphant conclusion in martyrdom. First of all, believers are pressed into anxiety by the world. [On θλῖψις and στενοχωρία, see ii. 9, p. 99, the former external, the latter internal.—R.] Then there comes persecution itself, which drives them out to famine and nakedness; the end is peril, the danger of death, and sword, death itself.
Rom_8:36. As it is written [καθὼς γέγραπται ὅτι. Ὅτι is the usual quotation-mark.] Psa_44:22, according to the Septuagint.114 This Psalm contains a description of the sufferings which God’s people had to suffer for the Lord’s sake, and is therefore correctly regarded by Paul as a typical and prophetical prelude to the sufferings of the New-Testament people of God for God’s sake. De Wette does not regard the passage as a prophecy (Tholuck),115 but thinks that Paul probably cites it as prophecy. But even Tholuck’s expression, “a real parallel to the conflicts of God’s ancient people,” is by no means sufficient for the idea of typical prophecy, for the type is much more than a parallel.
Rom_8:37. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors [ἀλλ’ ἐν τούτοιςπᾶσιν, κ.τ.λ . Some connect this with Rom_8:35, and hence Rom_8:36 has been made parenthetical; but there is no necessity for this, since the course of thought is unbroken, and this verse is antithetical to both Rom_8:35-36.—R.] That is, far beyond the necessary measure (ὑπερνιχᾷν). Recollection of prayers for persecutors (Stephen), hymns of praise in prison (Paul and Silas), and the joyous spirit of the martyrs.
Through him who loved us [διὰ τοῦἀγαπήσαντος ἡμᾶς. See Textual Note116.] Meyer refers the aorist to “the distinguished act of love which Christ has performed by the offering of His own life.” Though this reference is undoubtedly correct, there is something inadequate in the translation, loved. The aorist ἐπίστευσαν does not merely affirm that they believed, but that they became believers (see Joh_10:42); and thus the act of our Lord’s only revelation of love also involves here the continuation of that relation: who has proved and bestowed His love.—Through him. The reading διὰ τόν (Semler, Koppe: propter) is a smoother exegetical interpretation.117 Chrysostom, Theodoret, Bengel, and Fritzsche, refer the expression ἀγαπήσας to God: but on account of Rom_8:39, Rückert, De Wette, Tholuck, Meyer, and Philippi, on the contrary, refer it to Christ. This latter view is favored by the relation of the present passage to τοῦ Χριστοῦ in Rom_8:35, as the aorist serves as an intimation of the historical fact of redemption. The expression, “through Him that loved us,” denotes not only Christ’s assistance in general, but the power of His victory. As His death is principially our death, and His resurrection is our resurrection, so is His victory also our victory through faith (1Jn_5:4). But the power of this victory is divided into the subjective principle of victory in the heart of believers, and the objective victorious principle of Christ’s rule at the right hand of God. Nevertheless, the Apostle does not say, “through Him who hath conquered for us,” because Christ’s love shall be manifested as the permanent motive of the free and ethical loving life of Christians in their faith.
Third Paragraph, Rom_8:38-39
Tholuck: “Ἔνθεος γενὀμενος, as Chrysostom says, embraces the whole world—who can rob him of his consciousness of the love of God?” But he has here passed beyond the consciousness of opposition which he had uttered in Rom_8:33-35. He rather proclaims here the absolute subjection of all the powers of the world to the consciousness, or rather conscious being, of God’s love in Christ.
The Apostle declares the immovableness of his confidence, first of all by the decided πέπεισμαι, I am persuaded. He follows this up by portraying the powers of the world in great antitheses, which not only describe the victorious career of the individual Apostle through the world and through time, but, in prophetic sublimity, comprise the whole victorious career of God’s people until the end of the world.
Tholuck distinguishes the antitheses thus: 1. Human events (death and life); 2. Superhuman spheres (angels, principalities; afterwards δυνάμεις); 3. Time (things present, things to come), in which he thinks that the δυναμεις belonging here, according to A. B. C., &c., disturbs the sense; 4. Space (height and depth). The more general form of this description in relation to the oppositions represented above, appears especially in the fact that here the question is evidently not merely concerning threatening or hostile powers, but also such as can exert a seductive, misleading, and relaxing influence. Accordingly, we have not merely to regard an objective influence of these forces, but also the possibility of the subjective misconstruction of their operations.
[Neither death, nor life, οὔτε θάνατος, οὔτε ζώή]. If we look closely at the possibilities above referred to, we shall see that, first of all, with death there is connected the fear of death and the darkness of the kingdom of death; and, with life, that there is connected the charm of life and the love of life, or even the apparent distance from the Lord (Heb_2:14; Joh_16:33; 2Co_5:5-6). On death and life, see Rom_14:8. Grotius: metus mortis, spes vitœ, which Meyer objects to; but his objection to Koppe’s interpretation, which is as follows, is more appropriate: quidquid est in rerum natura: aut vivat, aut vita careat.
Nor angels, nor principalities, οὔτε ἄγγελοι, οὔτε ὰρχαί. See Textual Note118, and below.] As far as the second category is concerned, the Apostle could not think that God’s angels should desire to separate him from the love of Christ, but, according to Colossians 2 :, the Gnostic Jews soon opposed a morbid adoration of angels to a pure and full resignation to Christ as their head; and even Pharisaic Jewish Christians would have been quite capable of adulterating the pure gospel, according to Gal_1:8, by an appeal to angelic revelation. But it is well known how the subsequent worship of angels really led to an obscuring of the sun of Christ’s love.
The threat of the powers of the Gentile world then takes its place beside the Jewish angelic visions. It is plain enough that the ἀρχαί named with the ἄγγελοι cannot again mean “angelic powers” (Meyer). The Apostle had to deal more and more with the powers of the Gentile world (2Ti_4:17). The ἄγγελοι are interpreted by Chrysostom, Theophylact, Beza, Meyer, and others, as good angels, “because the evil angels are never called ἄγγελοι without some qualifying expression.” Meyer opposes the objection of Reiche, and others, that good angels could not make such an attempt to separate Christians from God, by saying that Paul, in Gal_1:8, did not believe this possibility, but only presented it hypothetically. According to Clement of Alexandria, Grotius [Stuart], and others, the ἄγγελοι denote evil angels; but according to Bucer, Bengel [Hodge], and others, good and evil angels. Melanchthon has interpreted the ἀρχαί as human tyrants, because he correctly saw that they, being placed beside ἄγγελοι, could not themselves be angels.
[The difficulty in deciding the meaning of the word ἀρχαί arises from the fact that it is used in the New Testament in all the senses given above. The prevailing reference is undoubtedly to superhuman creatures (Eph_3:10; Eph_6:12; Col_1:16; Col_2:10; Col_2:15). It seems more natural to take δυνάμεις (in its separate position) as “earthly powers,” especially as that meaning here gives an anti-climax. The disposition to insert δυνάμενς immediately after, shows that a classification of angels was assumed here (comp. Eph_1:21; Col_1:16). Whether we should understand good angels, or bad, or both, is more difficult to determine. To take “angels” as referring to the former, and “principalities” to the latter, gives an abrupt antithesis; to refer both to good angels, leaves evil spirits out of view in this extended catalogue, unless we find them named in δυνάμεις; to refer both words to both classes (Bengel, Hodge), is perhaps least objectionable, yet with this view the absence of any attribute is remarkable. Still, we infer from other passages that both good and bad angels were classified somewhat in this manner, ἀρχαί denoting a superior order. Comp. Lange’s Comm., Colossians, i. 16, p. 22.—R.]
The δυνάμεις, which Melanchthon interprets as the warlike hosts of tyrants, do not belong here, and therefore still less in the category of angels. They belong in the third category: Nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers [οὔτεἐνεστῶτα, οὔτε μέλλοντα,119 οὔτε δυνάμεις]. (See 1Co_3:22.) The present time was so grievous to Paul and the believers of his period, that they earnestly longed for the second coming of our Lord (1 Thess.); but even the future had a gloomy aspect, for our Lord’s coming was to be preceded by the apostasy, and by the appearance of Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2 :). But with this appearance there were to come just these gloomy, seductive, and Satanic forces (ἐν πάσῃ δυνάμει καὶ σημείοις καὶ τέρασι ψεύδοις). We thereby hold that Tholuck’s objection, that the δυνάμεις120 would here “disturb the sense in a threefold way,” is removed (p. 463). The one objection, that it would disturb the bipartite rhythm, is removed by Meyer’s observation, that the Apostle first arranges by couples, and then combines the three parts twice more. According to Tholuck, the δυνάμεις would be first introduced, and then removed. Meyer urges that ἐνεστ. does not mean things present, but things standing before—those which are about to enter. Thus things present are distinguished from things to come. De Wette opposes to Glöckler’s interpretation of δυνάμεις as miracles, that of powers.
Fourth category: [Nor height, nor depth, οὔτε ὕψωμα, οὔτε βάθος.] The Apostle looks down from the height of an inspired sense of life, many times elevated to heaven (2Co_12:2), which could well have become to him a temptation (2Co_12:7), into the depth of the demoniacal kingdom, with which he had to fight a spiritual conflict with his contemporaries (Eph_6:12), as well as into the depth of the realm of the dead in which he had, at all events, to pass through a painful unclothing (2Co_5:4); but he saw in the future altogether new forms of the world arise, whose strangeness and splendor, by their attractiveness, could be regarded as dissipating his view from Christ, the centre.
Tholuck: “ὕψωμα, βάθος. Explanations: Heaven and hell (Theodoret, and others; Bengel, Baumgarten-Crusius); heaven and earth (Theophylact, Fritzsche); happiness and unhappiness (Koppe); honor and shame (Grotius); lofty and lowly (Olearius); higher and lower evil spirits (Origen). Sapientia hœreticorum et communes υulgi furores (Melanchthon).” [The generic idea here is that of space. If a more specific definition is required, heaven and hell is the simplest explanation, though this cannot be insisted on as the precise meaning.—R.]
Nor any other created thing. In connection with the great antithesis of height and depth, the κτίσις ἑτέρα can hardly mean merely “any thing else created” (Meyer), or a creature in general (Luther, Tholuck).
Shall be able love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The love of God in Christ, or Christ himself, is now perceived by believers as the all-prevailing principle, and is therefore spiritually appropriated by them (Eph. i.).—The absolute δύναμις is for them also in the ethical sense. It is the completed revelation of the love of God in Christ, overcoming the world and bringing it into their service, by which believers are embraced, and which they in turn have embraced (Rom_5:8).
[Alford: “God’s love to us in Christ; to us, as we are in Christ; to us, manifested in and by Christ.” Stuart thus sums up: “This is indeed ‘an anchor sure and steadfast, entering into that within the vail;’—a blessed, cheering, glorious hope, which only the gospel and atoning blood can inspire.”—On the parallelism between chaps. Romans 5 : and Romans 8 :, see Forbes, pp. 333 ff.—R.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
First paragraph, Rom_8:18-27
A. The groaning of the creature121 (Rom_8:18-22).
1. The Scriptures ascribe to the whole universe, even to the heavenly regions, the necessity of the renewal of created being by transformation (Psa_102:26-28; Isa_51:6; Rev_21:5); but they distinguish between the regions of glory, which are renewed, and the present form of the world, which must be renewed by passing through corruption and the destruction of the world (2 Peter 3:10, 23). The throne of God, the ascension of Christ. Even astronomy recognizes this great contrast between the regions of prevalent growth and of prevalent completed existence in the nature of light (see my work, Das Land der Herrlichkeit, pp. 42 ff.). But also in reference to the sphere of humanity, which does not embrace merely the earth (also Sheol), we must distinguish between the pure condition of nature in its antithesis to perfection (1Co_15:47 ff.), and the obscurity which nature has experienced in consequence of sin; see the present passage. According to the nature of the ἄνθρωπος κοïχός, his whole sphere stood in need of development—in need of a metamorphosis (2Co_5:1 ff.; 1Co_15:50); but this development has become abnormal through sin; and the metamorphosis has, by a metastasis, become death in the pregnant sense, φθορά, corruption. But from this correspondence of nature with the human world in the state of fall and decay, there also follows an expectation of their correspondence in the delivering restoration which will be also the completion of the normal development.
2. The Holy Scriptures everywhere render prominent the coherence and correspondence between the spiritual and natural world. There must be a heaven, because there are heavenly objects—because there is a God—because there are angels and saints. There must be a hell, because there are devils. Thus Paradise corresponded with Adam in his state of innocence; the cursed ground, with fallen man; the Promised Land, as the type of the future Paradise, with the typical people of God; a darkening and desolation of the land with every religious and moral decline of the people (Deu_28:15 ff.; Isa_24:17; Joel 2 :; Zep_1:14, &c.), and with every spiritual period of salvation an exaltation of nature (Deu_28:8 ff.; Psalms 72 :; Isa_25:6 ff.; Isaiah 35 :; Hos_2:21, &c.); and thus the sun was darkened at the death of Christ, and the renewal of the earth was announced by the earthquake at His death. Now this parallelism extends in a more intense degree through the New Testament period, both as to the overthrow of the old form of the world, and the sufferings preceding it (Luk_16:25; 2Pe_3:10; Rev_16:1 ff.), and as to the renewal succeeding it (Isa_11:6; Revelation 20-22).
3. It corresponds to the connection of the impersonal creature-world with the personal life of man, that the former participates in the anxious expectation of believing humanity for perfection. As nature in space aspired beyond itself, in so far as it received the impress of man’s nature, so also does it aspire, even in time, beyond itself, in so far as it shares with man his progress toward the change or transformation into the super-terrestrial and glorified form. The waiting of the creature for that perfection, as with erect head, just as it is with the human outlook, may be called prosopopœia; the fundamental thought itself, namely, its suffering, its sense of the impulse toward development—an impulse confined and disturbed by the abnormal condition—is a real relation, an actual course of conduct. We do not include herein the normal forms of death in the brute world. The fundamental idea of this appearance of death is no selfish struggle for existence, but the idea of sacrificing love. The weaker beast, which becomes a prey to the stronger, cannot and should not voluntarily offer itself upon the altar of life, even though it be only a beast; but when the beast in a torpid state pays to the stronger, as though in a dream, its tribute for the joy of its existence, there is reflected the voluntary deliverance to death in a higher region. The most apparent phenomena of the sufferings of the creature, next to the innumerable sufferings of human nature in subjection to diseases, wars, battles, pestilences, are the sufferings of the brute world as they appear to be immersed in the fate of the human world, and are represented in the noblest form in the sacrifice of the brute, and in the grossest form in the pangs of the brute. Yet not only over the brute world, but also over the whole realm of vegetable life, there has extended, with the morbid tendency of the human centre of the world, a morbid development of the most subordinate forms, such as we find in parasites and dwarfs, together with the rapid increase of the common and lowest forms above the more noble, and, in fact, an increase of degenerations of all kinds. But the apostolical, as well as the modern Christian and humane apprehension of nature, extends still beyond the perception of the real groaning of brutes and the degeneration of vegetable life. The sense of the most profound life perceives a groaning of the creature in the most general sense, first, as a longing, developing impulse of the creature-world toward perfection and to the second higher form of existence, and secondly, as a painful suffering under the law of an abnormal and more intense corruptibleness, and thirdly, as a mournful concert, a harmony of all the keynotes of the χόσμος in its homesickness for a new paradise. These keynotes were heard by the prophets (see No. 2, above); Christ has definitely characterized them in His eschatological discourse (Mat_25:29, and the parallels in Mark and Luke); and Paul sketches them here in brief outline, while the Book of Revelation speaks of them in great figures. Through all the periods of the Church there extends a profound sense of this earnest connection between the moral and physical decline of the human world, and we notice its rëecho in the voices of the poets (Shakespeare, for example), down to the Romanticists of recent date (Fr. von Schlegel, Bettina). But in the department of the most recent literature, in which the sense of this anxious expectation and sadness is blunted, there has arisen on the side of the degenerating extreme a fantastical and gloomy view of the “battle for existence,” and it would not be surprising if even this materialism should, in turn, degenerate into dualism. Moreover, the expectation of the l‘ catasrophe refers back to the catasrophes underlying the creation of the world, and whose reflection in the Deluge is still proved by our recollection of the most remote antiquity.
4. The Apostle has described the δόξα in 1Co_15:54 as ἀφθαρσία. Peter speaks of an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away (Rom_1:4). Here the δόξα means, on the one hand, the deliverance of the body, and, on the other, the freedom of God’s children. The body, therefore, in its new form, shall be exempted from the natural necessity of physical life; for, as the real body, it has put off, at death, the old bodily form with its sinful propensities. In this life it has become, in many ways, a source of temptation and hindrance to the inward life; but in its higher form it shall become the perfect outward expression of the inward life. To be wholly adapted to the spirit, and therefore not only exempt from the corruption, but also the constraint of nature, and to be wholly an organ, an expression, and an image of the spirit—these are the individual characteristics of the glorification in which nature also shall participate, since it is rendered free to share in the freedom of the glory of God’s children. In general, the conception of real ideality is the object to which they shall be raised; that is, an ideality in which its idea shall not only be delivered from all deformity, but shall even be elevated above the symbolism of the beautiful splendor in which poetry involuntarily becomes prophecy, into the real nature of the beautiful appearance. We shall find an analogue to the representation of the new form of things, if we compare the present form of the earth and of the creature-world with the rough forms of the earth and the gross forms of the creature, which, according to the testimony of paleontology, have preceded the present form of our cosmos (see my Land der Herrlichkeit; Vermischte Schriften, vol. ii.).
5. The different eschatologies of antiquity here come in for consideration. As for the relation of the Persian to the Jewish eschatology, it seems, after all, demonstrable that the originality of the theocratic eschatology is reflected in Parsism (Vendidad, Bundehesh), just as the Christian eschatology is reflected in the old German Edda. On the development of the Old Testament eschatology, see Tholuck, note on p. 422; Psalms 72.; Isa_11:6; Isa_25:8; Isa. 45:66; Hos_2:21 ff.; Amo_9:13; Zephaniah, &c.; and on the Jewish-Rabbinical eschatology, see Tholuck again, p. 423. It is noteworthy that Rabbinical Judaism has even assimilated itself to heathendom, in that its expectation has become chiefly retrospective, like the longing of the heathen for the golden age (that is, an expectation of the grotesque restoration of sensuous glory), while the Old Testament anticipation of Israel, the “people of the future,” has been consummated in the eschatology of the New Testament. On the eschatology of the New Testament, we must refer to biblical and dogmatic theology (see Commentary on Matthew, pp. 418–434; 1 Corinthians 15.; 2 Peter, pp. 46 ff.). For remarks on ecclesiastical eschatology, especially on Luther’s discourses concerning the future form of the world; on the question de duratione brutorum; on the distortion of the end of the world into the gross representation of an utter destruction of the world by the Lutheran doctrinal writers of the seventeenth century; and on the restriction of the Apostle’s entire description to mere human relations, &c., see Tholuck, pp. 425–428.—It is a beautiful idea of Theodore of Mopsvestia, that “things visible and invisible” constitute a κόσμος, for the comprehension of which (consisting, as it does, of all created things together), in one pledge of love, man (consisting, as he does, of both worlds) was created; that, after his fall, the higher spirits alienated themselves from him; but at the prospect of his restoration, they dedicated themselves to his service, and now rejoice in his restoration, &c. This idea is more in place in the passage relating to the original founding of the new world in the absolute atonement (Col_2:20), than in the present passage, relating to the glorification of the present world.—We can avoid all fanciful ideas in regard to the question de duratione brutorum, and apply Christian principles only, by treating it in brief allusions:
(1) The morbid sundering of types analogous to the formation of human heathendom. The opposite must therefore be a return of nature to collective fundamental types.
(2) The morbid increase of individuals, analogous to the extravagant generation of the human proletarian. The opposite is the preponderance of constant existence over an excited growth.
(3) The rise of a preponderance, of the most subordinate forms, of parasites, of forms doomed to decay. The opposite is the dynamical dominion of pure forms, the negation of parasites.
(4) The reflexive formation of the morbid form of death in original, ideal forms.
(5) The absolute connection of the creature thus idealized with man, and its appropriation by man.
Here, as well as to the following paragraph, belong Psalms 72.; Isa. 45:66; John Walther’s hymn, “It makes one heartily rejoice;” G. Arnould’s hymn, “O Breaker of all bonds;” Schiller’s poem, “Oh, from this valley’s depths;” and expressions of Fr. von Schlegel, Bettina, and others, on the anxious expectation of nature.
6. The most prominent views on eschatology may be distinguished thus: (1) The Gnostic-dualistic view, with which we must also unite the recent theosophic views in general; (2) The Positivist, which holds to an absolute catastrophe without interpositions; (3) The Rationalistic, which does not get beyond the notion of a gradual idyllic improvement of nature and humanity; (4) The christologico-dynamical, which defines eschatology from the centre (which operates as a principle), of the death, the resurrection, and the glorification of Christ. This is also essentially the patristic view. To modern philosophical unbelief the beginning of the world, as well as its end, is sunk in mist and night, because to it the centre of the world—the historical Christ—is sunk in mist and night.
The christological and dynamical view stands in particular need, at the present time, of a vigorous development. It appears everywhere throughout the Scriptures, and is strongly expressed in Eph_1:19, and also in Php_3:21. Tholuck: “It is noteworthy that in Php_3:21 the same ὑποτάσσειν, which here expresses subjection to matter, denotes the operation of Divine power through which matter shall be glorified.”
B. The groaning of believers themselves (Rom_8:23-25).
1. The Apostle speaks of a twofold testimony of the language of groans, which is further divided into a threefold one. The creature groans in its painful struggle for perfection; the life of believers groans. But as believers groan in their consciousness and conscious sense of life, so also does the spirit, in its ethical struggle, groan in the ground of its life.
2. The groaning is related to tears, as labor is to rest. Tears relieve the passive resignation of the soul to God’s counsel amid its conflict with the hindrances of life; the groaner labors in his recourse to God’s act in heaven against the power of hindrances. Tears flow from this opposition, since they come from God; the groaner protests against the opposition by appealing to God. Both are twin children of the ὑπομονή, which now proves itself as patience and now as steadfastness. Compare the history of the groans and tears of Christ. On the great power and importance which tears and groans have as signals of the most extreme distress of the invisible world in conflict with the visible, and of the higher in conflict with the lower, compare the evidences of the Holy Scriptures by the aid of a concordance. Herder: “The smoke from the burning forest does not rise so high heavenward as does the burdened man’s groan” (see Jam_5:9).
3. The idea of the ἀπαρχή denotes not merely the first beginning—harvest, for example—and not only the most excellent, but also the pledge and representation of the future totality which is assured in the successful beginning. But so is God’s Spirit the pledge of glory. See the Exeg. Note.
4. Without a comprehension (which is often very defective) of the relation between the principial Christian life and the same life in its broadest completion—which is suggested even by the development of every grain of wheat—it must appear a wonderful thing that the believer already possesses adoption, according to Rom_8:16, and that, according to Rom_8:23, he first expects the adoption with groaning; that he has righteousness, and yet must strive after righteousness (2Ti_4:8); that he is truly delivered and saved, and yet is only delivered and saved in hope. The grand and mysterious elaboration of this development renders its comprehension more difficult, and therefore many speak of an ideal possession, and the like. The principial possession is, indeed, also an ideal one, in so far as the idea of perfection is, contained in the principle, and always appears more grand from it, but the realization of the idea is only begun in it; it perfectly exists as a foundation in the germ. On the variety of such antitheses as βασιλεία, σωτηρία, and ἀπολύτρωσις, see Tholuck, p. 436. Theodoret has even perverted the antithesis into that of ὄνομα and πρᾶγμα; the Socinians distinguished tenere fide and frui, Tholuck speaks, with De Wette, of a “partial definition of the idea of υἱοθεσία;” and Luther translated thus: “We patiently wait for the adoption, and expect,” &c. The Codd. D. F. G., in surprise at the expectation of the adoption, leave out the υἱοθεσίαν.
5. No grander and more glorious thing can be said of the original state of the human body, than that its full deliverance (from sinfulness, misery, death, decay, and perishableness) shall be its transformation to the glorious freedom of the children of God. That the resurrection of the flesh is also declared with the glorification of the body, comp. my Vermischte Schriften, vol. ii. pp. 232 ff.
C. The groaning of the Spirit imparted to believers (Rom_8:26-27).
1. On the contradictions arising from the identification of the groaning spirit with the Holy Spirit itself, comp. the Exeg. Notes. We are led here to the antithesis which the Apostle brings out in 1Co_14:15. It is the Christian, religious-ethical formation of an antithesis, whose physical foundation is the twofold form of consciousness originally peculiar to the present human life.122 Compare, on this point, Deutsche Zeitschrift für christliche Wissenschaft, &c., 1851, p. 242.
2. According to Tholuck’s view (p. 438), when the believer is in the greatest distress, he knows least of all how to find a verbal expression of his prayer. But, according to the Psalms, necessity teaches how to pray; the greatest distress becomes prophetical when recourse is had to God. But it is just in the calmest states that the believer needs most of all the interceding Spirit. Indeed, distress gives to prayer a strong expression of human feeling, and in so far Tholuck’s view is applicable to the prayer of distress in a more special sense. The intercession of the Spirit denotes the more direct access which God’s children, in their inmost heart, have gained to the Father through Christ, according to Joh_16:26. For the real Advocate with the Father is Christ (1Jn_2:1); the Holy Spirit, as such, is the present Comforter of believers, in opposition to the world (Joh_14:16).123
3. The real nature of true prayer is the union of the human and divine Spirit, prompted by God’s Spirit. Hence the prophetical confidence of the Amen. This union, according to which God is not only the author and finisher, but also the disposer of prayer, is represented most of all in the mystical adoration of a spirit absorbed in communion with God. On this point, see the expression of Jelaleddin, in Tholuck, p. 443.
4. On the groaning of the creature, see Bucer’s beautiful expression, in Tholuck, p. 440.
Second Paragraph, Rom_8:28-37
A. The certainty of salvation in the saving purpose of Divine grace, as the causa primaria (efficiens) of salvation (Rom_8:28-30).
1. The certainty of salvation is divided into two lines, one of inward and individual life, and the other of external relations. Both have three starting-points in common: a. The causa primaria, the purpose of God (Rom_8:29); b. The causa meritoria, the gift of His Son (Rom_8:32); c. The causa apprehendens, or organica, faith in its development into the life of love (Rom_8:28). Believers are here called those who love God, because, in their love for God, the reflection of God’s love has become manifested in them. The progress of the expectation and joyfulness of personal life toward the dark and concealed ground of life, as to the absolute and spiritually clear personality, which is one with love itself, is not the ground, but the sign and evidence that our personal life has been appointed and called into being by God’s eternal counsel of love and grace. In our love for God there is revealed His love for us, and in our personality there shines the reflection of His personality. But with this there appears the dynamical central line of life—that of the Divine determinations of the persons allied to God—to which the whole succession and course of things is made subservient.
2. The divine πρόθεσις denotes the eternal relation of God to the course of the world called into being by Him, but also called to free self-development under His authority; just as is the case with the two terms βουλή and εὐδοκία. All these definitions denote God’s eternal thought and plan of the world; but they denote it in different relations. The εὐδοκία designates the central point of the Divine purpose, its anticipating love, the ideal perception and contemplation of the personal kingdom. Beside it there stands, on the one hand, the βουλή, God’s going to himself for counsel, the look of His intelligence at the necessities of the free development of the world; and, on the other hand, there stands the πρόθεσις, as the establishment of His government over the beginning, the middle, and the ultimate object of His institution of love. The εὑδοχία settles the children of salvation; the βουλή perceives the conditions of salvation; and the πρόθεσις determines the stages of salvation. But that this is not the decree of fate, but rather qualified and communicated according to the stages of the free spiritual kingdom, is plain from the very term used to describe Christians: that they are called according to the purpose—called, not compelled. Tholuck: “πρόθεσις. The πρό is not the temporal before, as in προέγνω, which Beza and Pareus hold, but as the prefix in προτίθεσθαι. Yet they are not merely nude, called according to a Divine decree, but according to one whose stages to the ultimate object of the ἐδόξασε are laid down.” But the idea of the χλῆσις appears here in a narrower sense as a definition of God’s children, characterized by penitence and faith, baptism and confession; the more general idea, on the contrary, appears in Rom_8:28.
3. All things and events must be subordinate and subservient to, and promotive of, the highest purposes of God—the realization of His kingdom of love, and therefore the salvation of His elect. Augustine: Deus est adeo bonus, quod nihil mali esse permitteret, nisi adeo esset potens, ut ex quolibet malo possit elicere aliquod bonum (Tholuck, p. 444).
4. And we know (Rom_8:28). We know not what we should pray for as we ought; but God knows the meaning of the groaning of our spirit, and we know, too, that all things work together for good to them that love God. This knowledge is not merely a direct confidence of the spirit, but is based upon the most certain argument: a. In our love for God, His love for us appears; b. But God reigns omnipotently, and disposes all things according to the counsel of His love; c. Consequently, all things must become providences of the loving God.
5. We hold that the passage in Rom_8:29-30 contains the whole Divine plan of salvation, from the first foundation to the ultimate object, and we have repeatedly treated it from this point of view (see my Positive Dogmatik, p. 956). We remark first of all, exegetically, that the passage in Eph_1:4-14 is an explanatory parallel to the present passage. As the foreknowing here precedes the predestinating, so there the choosing (Rom_8:4) precedes the predestinating (Rom_8:5); from which it follows that both the foreknowing and the electing mean essentially the same thing—an act preceding the predestination. To καλεῖν or κλῆσις in the present passage there corresponds in that passage ἐκαρίτωσεν, accepting, &c., in Rom_8:6, which the Apostle resumes in Rom_8:11, and specially elaborates. To the justifying here, there then corresponds there the following: “in whom we have redemption,” &c, in Rom_8:7. But finally, the glorifying here is reflected in the “wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom,” &c. But Paul also there refers all these individual parts to the “good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself” (in Rom_8:9). So that it plainly follows there that the “predestinating” relates specifically to the “purpose,” while the “purpose” appears to be qualified by the βουλή, “counsel,” as this latter is qualified by the “good pleasure.” But we learn, in reference to the first act, the “choosing” in the Epistle to the Ephesians, that election took place in Christ before the foundation of the world (see John 17.), just as we learn that the glorifying or guidance of believers to “glory” will be identical with being led “to the praise of his glory,” according to the idea that the beholding of the glory of God will constitute the glory of believers, and that the former will be revealed in the latter (1Jn_3:2).—We may further observe, that a real difference exists between election and foreordination, or predestination, and that the προγινώσκειν cannot possibly mean foreknowledge, in God’s idea, of subjects already present (for whence would they have come into God’s idea?), but that it can only mean the loving and creative sight, in God’s intuitive vision, of human personalities for a preliminary ideal existence. The doctrine of predestination of Augustine, of the Middle Ages, and of the Reformers, could not reach this idea of election intellectually (Christian faith has always reached it in spirit), because the distinction between the idea of the individual personality of man and the idea of the “specimen of every kind” had not yet been definitely attained. It is now clear that such a “foreknowing” of God in relation to all human individuals must be accepted, because man is an individual thought of God; and that the same must hold good of “electing,” in so far as each individual is distinct in his solitary separation from all other individuals, and has a solitary call (see Rev_2:17). But it follows from this that the foreknowing of the “elect,” when it has become manifest, must be accepted in the most emphatic sense, analogously to the fact that Abraham is, in God’s typical kingdom, the elect κατ’ ἐξοκήν, and that Christ is the elect in God’s real kingdom in the absolute sense, so that all His followers are chosen together with Him as organic members, according to their organic relations (Ephesians 1.). From both propositions it follows, further, that election does not constitute an infinite opposition between such as are ordained to salvation and such as are ordained to condemnation, but an infinite difference of destinations for glory; which difference, however, can be the basis of an actual opposition (see Mat_25:24), and therefore is also combined with this. As the foreknowing expresses the collective foundation, the godlike spiritual nature of the elect as the product and object of Divine love, there is comprised in the electing not only their election from the mass of the world, but also the distinguishing feature of their καρίσματα and characters. In addition to the earlier perversions of this doctrine of the eternal foundation of personal essence—a doctrine of the highest importance to our times—we may add the recent assertion of Hofmann (Schriftbeweis, vol. i. p. 227), that the ἐκλέγεσθαι relates not merely to individuals, but to the entire body, and, accordingly, to individuals as members of the body. The Apostle says οὕς four times, and τούτους three times. After the ideal determinations of personalities themselves, there can now follow the predestination of their ὅρος in time and space, their whole lot (including the previously determined permission and control of the fall). For the foundation of the world corresponds to the history of the world. But the fate of each individual is designed to mature him, under gratia prœveniens, for conversion, and when this object is reached, it is his turn; he is τεταγμένος (Act_13:48). From this it now follows that the “calling,” in a special sense, first makes its appearance with the theocratical and evangelical revelation and its preaching of salvation. Those in whom the outward call of God has become an inward one, are “called” in the specific sense; yet the typical “call” first becomes perfectly real in the New Testament. As the life-sphere of election is the spiritual kingdom, and the life-sphere of foreordination is the history of the world, so is the Church the life-sphere of the call. But if godly sorrow leadeth to salvation, and germinating faith to saving faith, the justifying will be realized. This becomes decided by the Spirit of “adoption,” which spirit, however, now begins to operate also as πνεῦμα τῆς δόξης, and in reciprocal action with it even the whole historical experience of God’s children becomes a δοξάζεσθαι, a guidance to glory. On the modes of this guidance, which have been but little developed doctrinally, see my Positive Dogmatik, p. 1064.
As far as the five divine saving acts are concerned, five human elements must correspond with them, according to the sphere of love and freedom. According to the christological idea, the Divine acts and human elements should come together in five points of union, somewhat as follows:
Election.Ordination.Call (as awakening and illumination).Justification.Glorification.Religious Foundation.Destiny.Conversion.Faith.Holiness.Determination to salvation.Pilgrimage, or striving.Life of Prayer.Peace, Adoption.Godly life of Love.If we reduce the five elements to three: foundation, execution, end (ἀρχή, τρόπος, τέλος), the two elements of execution—call and justification—denote the incipient and decided new birth (from water and the Spirit). The δόξα denotes regeneration in the sense of completion (Mat_19:28). The sum of all the Divine operations taken together is grace; the sum of all the human elements is the growing freedom of God’s children; and the sum of all points of union is eternal life.
It is only from the standpoint of the call and of justification that man can look retrospectively at his ordination and election in the light of God’s love, and prospectively at his object, the δόξα. But if, on the other hand, he would infer his own justification from his assumed election, this would be a standpoint of self-deception, and he would make his own justification out of the fragmentary work of holiness, and this would become self-torment or self-righteousness. The believing sinking into the image and righteousness of Christ, is a sinking into the fountain of eternal life, which then sinks thereby, as though unobserved, into the heart.124
B. The certainty of salvation in its historical gift and establishment in Christ, in opposition to historical contradiction in persecutions (Rom_8:31-37).
1. The thesis of the perfect historical securities of the salvation of Christians. Rom_8:31 says: If God be for us, all the hindrances and restrictions to our salvation are nullified as such. Nothing can harm us. Rom_8:32 : Since God did not spare His own Son for us, He has given us already every thing in principle, in order to give it to us in His own time in reality; all the aids for our salvation are given to us; every thing contributes to our good.
2. The Apostle represents, in four distinct elements, the complete security of our perfect salvation in Christ. His death removes our deserved condemnation. His resurrection raises us above the sense of condemnation into the confidence and spiritual life of adoption. His sitting at the right hand of God protects us against all condemning powers, and is the pledge of our acquittal at the judgment. His intercession abolishes the last remains of condemnation in our life, and secures us against relapse. On the dissensus between the Reformed and Lutheran theology in reference to Christ’s sitting at the right hand of God, see Tholuck, p. 458. Tholuck decides in favor of the view that the right hand of God is ubique, and the sitting at the right hand of God indicates the Saviour’s entrance into, absolute freedom from all restraint. But if we will not regard the “absolute freedom from all restraint” in a purely negative sense, we are driven with this freedom itself to the positiveness of an absolute situation and standpoint in glory. On the views relating to the intercessio, see Tholuck, p. 459. According to Tholuck, the intercessio must be strictly regarded only with reference to Heb_7:25; Heb_9:24; 1Jn_2:1; according to Meyer, it is vocalis et oralis. But it may be asked, Is it analytical, or synthetical? The glorified Christ, in His eternal purpose of love, is himself, as the personal and complete Word, the personified intercession. He appears in the presence of the Father for us (Heb_9:24). For statements relating to this subject, see Tholuck, p. 461.
C. Conclusion.
1. The Apostle has enumerated seven oppositions that can operate against us as temptations to relapse. There are seven, from the beginning of labor to rest. He here enumerates the forces which can oppose us in our fellowship of love with the Lord; these are ten in number. But this is the number of the finished course of the world. By height we might have in mind the ὕψωμα, in the sense of 2Co_10:5; and by depth, Rev_2:24. Yet both terms are essentially the same, and we prefer the explanation given in the Exeg. Notes.
2. The assumption that different classes of angels are spoken of in this passage, has resulted in various changes of the text. Also in Eph_1:21, the Apostle has chosen expressions which comprise as well present powers of the world as future spiritual powers. The same holds good in reference to Col_1:16. Paul has given no ground for a definite hierarchy of angels; neither has Peter done so in 1Pe_3:22. On Tholuck’s discussion concerning angelic classes, see pp. 461 ff.
3. There is a special need, in our day, of bringing forward the absolutely dynamical view of the world in opposition to a groundless and illimitable atomistic one. But the vital way to bring about this view, is the experience and developed perception of the absolute operation of the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
4. Thus chap. 8. advances from the certainty of freedom from condemnation, in Rom_8:1, to the certainty of eternal salvation, in Rom_8:39.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Rom_8:18-23. The groaning of the creature. 1. What are we to understand by “creature” here? 2. Why does it groan? 3. For what does it groan? (Rom_8:18-23.)—The magnitude of the future glory of God’s children. 1. It makes us forget all the sufferings of this present time; 2. It satisfies not only our expectation, but also the anxious expectation of the whole creation (Rom_8:18-23).—Why are the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared to the future glory? 1. Because our sufferings, however great, come to an end with this present time; 2. The glory, on the contrary, will continue forever (Rom_8:18).—Comparison of the sufferings of this present time with the glory which shall be revealed in us: 1. The former bring pain, cares, and tears; 2. The latter brings eternal health, peace, and joy (Rom_8:18).—The revelation of God’s children is a revelation of their life (concealed with Christ in God) of courageous faith, fervent love, and calm hope; Col_3:3 (Rom_8:19).—The creature in the service of corruption (Rom_8:21).—The creature transformed to glory (Rom_8:21).—Believers in the possession of not only the first-fruits of the Spirit (faith, knowledge, love, patience, chastity, &c.), but also in the possession of God’s full adoption, since the body also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption (Rom_8:23).
Luther: God will not only make the earth, but also heaven, more beautiful. This present time is His working garb; afterward He will put on an Easter coat and a Pentecostal robe (Rom_8:18-23).
Starke: Wonder and rejoice, ye cross-bearers, for your heavy and wearisome sufferings are only a drop compared with the boundless sea of joys, and as a grain of sand in the balance against hundreds of thousands of pounds (2Co_4:17). “Non sunt condignœ passiones hujus sœculi ad prœteritam culpam, quœ remittitur; ad prœsentem consolationis gratiam quœ immittitur; ad futuram gloriam quœ promittitur;” Bernh., De Convers. ad cleric, c. 30 (Rom_8:18). The creature will not be utterly annihilated, but renewed, and placed in a more glorious state (Rom_8:21).—Hedinger: Woe to those who revile, torment, and abuse God’s creatures! (Rom_8:19.)
Spener: What would not a soldier suffer, if he knew that he should become a General? But here is a glory succeeding suffering, beside which all the glory of the greatest emperors and kings is only a shadow (Rom_8:18).—Roos: The sufferings of this present time are infinitely small compared with this infinite weight of glory (Rom_8:18).—The glory is contrasted with the corruption, and freedom with bondage. That which is glorious will last eternally; and that which is free may indeed be used and enjoyed by others, but is not in a state of bondage or slavery (Rom_8:20-21).—What is spiritual, will become completely spiritual, and, consequently, will be revealed in great glory. Paul calls this state of glory the state of adoption, because God’s children will then completely show their honor in themselves, fully enjoy their Father’s love—in a word, will be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Rom_8:22-23).
Gerlach: As the mother in travail delivers the living child, as it were, from death, so does nature, groaning under the power of death, struggle to bring forth from itself a new and incorruptible creation. “Not you alone, but what is much lower than you are, and without reason and conscience, shall share with you your blessings. The creation will be free from the bondage of corruption; that is, it will no more be corruptible, but will keep pace with the glorification of your body. For as it became corruptible when you did, so will it again follow you when you become immortal. As a nurse who fostered a king’s son will herself enjoy his possessions as soon as he attains his father’s throne, so will it be with creation. Do you see how man everywhere goes ahead, and every thing happens for his sake? Do you see how the Apostle comforts the struggling one, and points him to the unutterable love of God? But he does not merely comfort; he also shows the certainty of what he says. For if the creature which was created for your sake has hope, how much more do you have hope for whose sake the creature shall enjoy all these blessings! Thus, when the son appears in his glory, shall men clothe their servants in more glorious robes to the honor of the son;” Chrysostom (Rom_8:18-23).
Lisco: The magnitude and universality of the future perfection (Rom_8:18-23).—All the sufferings of this present time, both physical and spiritual, which we must endure on the way to our future glorification, bear no comparison to this perfection. The proof of this is, that the creature, the whole creation, both irrational creation and every thing which is still outside of fellowship with Christ, is anxiously waiting for the revelation of the still concealed glory of God’s children, the truly new-born; in which glorification the whole creation will participate, for it is universal and great. The ground of this anxious expectation of the whole creation is partially owing to the subjection of the latter to vanity, and in part to the hope that it shall be delivered from that state which is subject to vanity, and shall participate in the glorious freedom of God’s children (Rom_8:18-21).
Heubner: “Temporal sufferings are a differential of the future glory which shall be revealed; that is, they are so infinitely small that they have no value compared with the future glory” (Silberschlag, Dreieinigkeit, vol. iv. p. 138).—The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us: 1. In respect to duration; 2. Quantity; and 3. Quality.—The sufferings are a mote, the glory is a hundred-weight; the former are but a drop, the latter a sea (Rom_8:18).—Paul designs to show: 1. The certainty of this future in opposition to doubters, as in 2Pe_3:4, who say that all things continue as they were; he answers, by saying: No; nature does not remain unchangeable; nature itself has a tendency to transformation and completion; 2. The magnitude of salvation, for it is the object and limit of the whole creation; it must therefore be exceedingly abundant.—Revelation of the children of God. What will then be revealed? 1. The inmost and deepest nature of their hearts; 2. The distinguished grace of God toward them, which is the glorious destination to which God elevates them. To whom will the revelation be made? To themselves, to the angels, to the believing children of God, to the world, and to all devils (Rom_8:19).—The vanity to which the creature is subject is manifested specifically as follows: 1. The creation has lost its original charm, its beauty, its durableness, and its uniformity; 2. It has become corrupted by much that is injurious or useless; 3. It is now given over to abuse (Rom_8:20-21).—How is the self-anxiety of nature to be regarded? We must suppose nature to have a consciousness, a feeling, and that it would say: “What must I suffer! how must I be abused!” Supposing particular objects to speak, the sun would say: “How must I shine upon the wicked works of men! how am I compelled to see every thing!” The earth: “What must I bear! what blood must I absorb!” The gardens and fields: “How are we wasted in excess!” Gold and silver: “How are we perverted into idols!” Beasts: “How are we tormented and abused!” If the Almighty were to open the mouths of many beasts of burden, how would the irrational brutes complain against rational man! (Rom_8:22.)—The Christian is l’homme de désir (St. Martin), a man of longings.
Besser: The martyrdom of the creature is twofold, and its coronation will also be twofold: 1. It suffers death, under whose pains the elephant groans and the worm writhes; 2. It suffers violence and injustice from the ungrateful and malicious; and it suffers involuntarily, for it is subject to these through God’s authority (Rom_8:19). The glory of God’s children is freedom—freedom from sin and death—freedom from the tyranny of the devil and the world (Rom_8:21).—The Apostle says: We are waiting for the adoption. It is the mystery of Christianity, that we wait for what we already have, or that we are and at the same time are not what we shall be. We are righteous and sinful; we are holy and impure; we are kings and slaves; we are free and bond; we are living and dead; we are saved and condemned;—we are all the former, apart from ourselves, in Christ; we are all of the latter in ourselves, apart from Christ (Rom_8:23).
Rom_8:24-28. The salvation of Christians in the present life is a salvation: 1. In hope; 2. In patience; 3. In prayer (Rom_8:24-28).—The one Christian hope in distinction from the many worldly hopes. 1. It has a good ground—Christ, on whom we can build; 2. A certain object—eternal salvation (Rom_8:24).—What a man seeth he cannot hope for; if we therefore hope, the object of our hope must be invisible (Rom_8:24-25).—Christian patience: 1. In what does it consist? 2. In whom is it found? (Rom_8:25).—Intercession for us by the Spirit of God. 1. How does it take place? 2. With what results? (Rom_8:26-27).—It is only when we perceive our infirmities that God’s Spirit intercedes for us with unutterable groans (Rom_8:26).—A glance at the inmost life of prayer of God’s saints. We here perceive: 1. Our great weakness; 2. The comforting intercession by the Spirit of God; 3. God’s friendly hearkening to our prayer (Rom_8:26-28).—Praise God for His compassion shown in the Spirit’s helping us in our infirmities (Rom_8:26).—The unutterable groanings of the Spirit (Rom_8:26).—God knoweth the heart (Rom_8:27).—Are we also saints? Does God’s Spirit also intercede for us? Can we also hope that our prayer will be answered? (Rom_8:26-27).—Under what circumstances do we, too, know that all things work together for our good? 1. When we love God; 2. When we are conscious of our call (Rom_8:28).—The Christian view of human destiny (Rom_8:28).—How many men are still very far from knowing that all things must work together for good to them that love God! 1. Proof that such is the case; 2. Statement of the grounds of this phenomenon.
Starke: Impatience in distress arises from want of hope; 2Ki_6:29; 2Ki_6:31 (Rom_8:25).—Spener: We do not know what would always be useful to us, and, if left completely to our own choice, would often pray for things which might be injurious, rather than useful. We also do not understand how prayer should be best formed, and in such a way as most likely to be heard, especially in seasons when necessity is great, and the heart is perplexed; but the Spirit intercedes for us in the best way, with unutterable groanings (Rom_8:26).—We, in whom there are such groans, often do not ourselves understand what we pray for, for the anxiety of the heart is so great that it can express nothing more than a sorrowful but confident desire for the grace of God; but the remaining prayer is shaped by the Holy Spirit, and brought before God’s throne (Rom_8:27).—Roos: Here (Rom_8:27) the Holy Spirit intercedes for us as a wise father intercedes for his child, who does not know how to address a great nobleman as he should, when he puts into his mouth refined language and a fitting compliment.
Bengel: In this purpose of God lie concealed the very first roots of the justification and glorification of believers (Rom_8:28).
Gerlach: The personality of man is no passing show, and does not pass away into universal life; but it only lives truly a life of the spirit when the personal Spirit of God is the soul of its life—when God is in it—when the Spirit of the eternal fellowship of the Father and of the Son, of God and of His creation, is in it (Rom_8:26). By this means the prayer of the believing Christian first receives a strong and sure ground that the Spirit prays out of him; and by this means it becomes clear how such great petitions as the first three of the Lord’s Prayer are placed by the Lord in the mouth of the weakest believer (Rom_8:27).—It is God who worketh all in all for our salvation (Php_2:13); therefore all things, His creatures who live, move, and have their being in Him, coöperate for the same end; not with Him, or beyond Him, but in Him and through Him. Even all the evil that takes place on the earth coöperates for good; for the will of the creature, which tears itself asunder from its Creator, is evil, and the evil continues to exist in this will; but the evil that results as the work of this will is, in so far as it interferes with God’s order of the world, God’s own work, is overruled by Him for good. If a child or friend of ours is struck by lightning, or killed by a murderer, it is God’s work in both cases, so far as the matter concerns us; even God’s own retributive judgments, which requite the evil deed with evil, become a blessing to him who learns to love Him under the blows of His rod, so that then His penal justice is no more revealed therein, but purifying love and grace (Rom_8:28).
Lisco: Patience waits; it is established on hope, which is the direction of the spirit toward a future good. Hope is established on faith, which is the grasping of the promise that holds out the blessing; this promise, which is contained in God’s word, is the ground of faith; God’s word is therefore the ground of all (Rom_8:25).
Heubner: Hope is advanced faith (Rom_8:24).—To hope, and to act in hope, are the strength of the soul (Rom_8:25).—The heart of the Christian is a sanctuary, a dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit (Rom_8:26).—Divine omniscience has a very comforting side. God knows the inmost faithfulness of the Christian’s heart. The true Christian desires to be searched, and to have his heart seen; the false Christian fears this (Rom_8:27).—“Deus nihil mali sinit accidere, ex quo non aliquid boni possit et velit elicere;”
Augustine (Rom_8:28).
Rom_8:29-39. Summary of the Christian order of salvation. 1. Election; 2. Ordination; 3. Call; 4. Justification; 5. Glorification (Rom_8:29-30).—The Only-begotten of the Father is at the same time the first-born among many brethren (Rom_8:29).—Let us never forget that we should be brethren of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom_8:29).—The call, justification, and glorification correspond to the threefold office of Christ (Rom_8:29-30).—Why do we, as Christians, not need to fear? 1. Because God, who delivered His only Son for us, and with Him will also freely give us all things, is for us; 2. Because Christ is here, who has finished His work for us; 3. Because we ourselves, for the sake of Him who hath loved us, are able to endure every danger, and to allow nothing to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom_8:31-39).—If God be for us, who can be against us? Or, God’s protection bids defiance to our enemies (in times of war) (Rom_8:31).—If God be for us, who can be against us? 1. Ask whether God is for us; 2. Look at the enemies (Rom_8:31).—The gracious gift of God’s Son (Rom_8:32).—Four believing and joyous questions of the Apostle, with the same number of answers evincing certainty of triumph (Rom_8:31-39).
Starke: The precious chain of the blessings of salvation, which far excels all golden chains and jewels (1Jn_3:1-2) (Rom_8:30).—Even the smallest child of God can defy the whole world; therefore, what a great privilege all the children of God have! O man, be converted, and this day become a child of God! (Rom_8:31.)—Though the whole world condemn you, and cry out against you: “Crucify him! crucify him! away with him!” smile at it; for if God justifies you, nothing can condemn you (Rom_8:33).—“Hoc habet proprium ecclesia: dum persecutionem patitur, floret; dum opprimitur, crescit; dum contemnitur, proficit; dum lœditur, vincit; dum arguitur, intelligit; tune stat, cum superari videtur;” Hilarius, 1. 8, De Trinit. (Rom_8:37).—Strong heroic faith, which will allow nothing to separate from the love of God in Christ. Oh, Almighty God, arm us with the same sense, in order that we may remain true to death! 2Ti_4:8 (Rom_8:39).—Lange: What will it help you, poor man, if you have many great, rich, and mighty men in the world, and even a partial judge at the judgment? If God and your own conscience be against you, how soon will the table be turned against you? Job_9:4 (Rom_8:31).—Osiander: Even though Satan should make a row against our sins before God’s judgment-seat, he will not be able to accomplish any thing, but will be compelled to pack off to hellish fire with his charge (Rom_8:33).
Spener: It is the order of Divine beneficence that foreknowledge and foreordination take place in eternity, but the call, justification, and glorification occur in time (Rom_8:30).—He who has not hesitated to give the greatest blessing, will also not be sparing of smaller ones (Rom_8:32).
Roos: Many would be against us, but they are nothing against God (Rom_8:32).—Paul had previously spoken (Rom_8:32-34) of judicial charges, but now he speaks of hostile powers that would violently snatch us away, and separate us from the love of Christ, which he afterward calls the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom_8:35-39).
Gerlach: The Apostle has now, in spirit, reached the top of the mount of glorification, and looks back once more at the transitory hindrances, and the victory of believers, in the midst of their unfinished conflicts. That which here disturbs the peace of believers, and threatens to deprive them of their comfort, is of a twofold character: it is inward and outward. Inwardly it is sin, outwardly it is tribulation; in part it is the necessity of life in general, and in part it is the temptations specially appointed for the Christian (Rom_8:31-39).
Lisco: The blessed certainty of the grace of their God strengthens believers to conquer all temptations and embarrassments (Rom_8:31-34).—As Abraham’s love of God strengthened him for the greatest and sorest sacrifice, so is the greatest expression of God’s love for us the gift of His Son; it is an act of love which infinitely exceeds all else that God has done for us as Creator, Preserver, and Ruler (Rom_8:32).—With the strongly established conviction of God’s grace toward us Christians, temporal sufferings, still less than those temptations (Rom_8:33-34), cannot lead us astray in our certainty of salvation and glorification (Rom_8:35-39).
Heubner: Christ is the true and real Ideal of human virtue, to whom we should be conformed, and to whom we are appointed as Christians to be conformed. The higher we think of Christ, the higher must we think of ourselves (Rom_8:29).—The Christian is a brother of Jesus Christ (Rom_8:29).—”Faith,” says Luther, “puts such courage into a man, that he can say, ‘Though all devils should pounce upon me, and all kings, emperors, heaven, and earth, were against me, I nevertheless know that I shall be sustained.’ He who has faith is in the Lord, and although he dies immediately, he must live again” (Rom_8:31).—Compare also Paul Gerhard’s excellent hymn, “If God be for me, I tread on all against me” (Rom_8:31).—The power of the Christian reaches further than his trials; his strength will never be wholly exhausted. And this strength is called love through Him who hath loved us; He, whose love raises us above all sufferings, strengthens us (1Co_15:57; 2Co_2:14; 1Jn_4:4; 1Jn_5:4).
Besser: The triumph of faith (Rom_8:31-39).
The Pericope for the 4th Sunday after Trinity, Rom_8:18-23.
Heubner: How the Christian regards the evils and imperfections of this world—the future rejuvenation of the earth.—The history of the earth. 1. What was the earth? A scene of God’s glory. 2. What has it become? A scene of sin and death. 3. What shall it become? Renewed, glorified, and a part of heaven. 4. Who will live on it? Mat_5:5.—The comfort which the gospel gives the suffering Christian.—Appuhn: The connection of the creation with man: 1. The creature has fallen with man; 2. It serves him against its will; 3. It bears his image in itself: as men contend and fight together, so is it among the lower orders of creation; 4. It anxiously expects deliverance with man.—Genzken: The token of future glory: 1. The anxious expectation of the creature; 2. The expectation of believers.—Kapff: The deliverance of the groaning creature: 1. In nature; 2. In humanity in general; 3. In believers.—Ranke: The hope which Christians have of their future glory: 1. What is implied in this hope; 2. Its connection with the life of the Christian; 3. Its blessings.
The New Rhenish Pericopes: 1. Rom_8:24-30, for New- Year’s Day. Deichert: The great privilege of God’s children, to be able constantly to hope for the best. 1. It is only God’s children who know what is best; 2. It is only they who hope for it in a proper way; 3. Their hope rests upon the strongest grounds.
2. Rom_8:31-39, for the 13th Sunday after Trinity. Deichert: The blessedness of God’s child, who lies in His bosom in full faith of eternal love. 1. Such a child of God has every thing which can truly benefit him; 2. He is no more afraid that any thing can harm him; 3. He continues unseparated from eternal love.
On Rom_8:28. Schleiermacher: On improving occasions of public calamity. 1. They appeal to us to know ourselves; 2. They greatly benefit us by making us better acquainted with God himself. (Delivered in Halle soon after the French occupation.)
Lange: Christians, as God’s children, are heirs of future glory. 1. The right of inheritance established on the New Testament; 2. Anxious waiting for the decision; 3. Its eternal institution; 4. The opponents of the right of inheritance; 5. Its assurance; 6. The infinite value of the inheritance.—The anxious expectation of the creature, as contrasted with man without this expectation in our day, is the same picture on a large scale which Balaam’s ass presents on a small one. The Spirit in nature in opposition to the worldly-mindedness of skeptical natural philosophy.—Unspirituality in the garb of pretended natural philosophy, judged by its declarations: 1. Nature was not called into being by the Spirit of the Lord; 2. It does not testify to the dominion of the Spirit; 3. It does not strive for the revelation of the glory of the Spirit.—The true meaning of the groans: 1. Of the creature; 2. Of believers; 3. Of the Divine Spirit in their new life.—How does the case stand in reference to the battle of your life? 1. If God is not for you, every thing is against you, though every thing seems to be for you. 2. If God be for you, nothing is against you, though every thing seems to be against you. Nothing can harm us, for nothing can separate us.—Our fortress of rock: God’s love in Jesus Christ our Lord.
[Burkitt: How will God’s adopted children be made manifest? 1. In their persons; 2. In their actions; 3. In their condition.—The Holy Spirit intercedes for us: 1. By assisting us in duty; 2. By quickening our affections; 3. By enlarging our desires; 4. By setting us to groaning after the Lord.—Groaning denotes the strength and ardency of desire, which, through its fervency, puts the soul to pain and to a holy impatience till it is heard. If we want words, let us not want groans; Lord, let Thy Spirit help us to groan out a prayer when we want ability to utter it; for silent groans, proceeding from Thy Spirit, shall be heard in Thine ears when the loudest cries shall not be heard without it.
[Henry: Though the soul be the principal part of man, yet the Lord has declared himself for the body also, and has provided for it a great deal of honor and happiness. The future adoption of God’s children is: 1. The adoption manifested before the world, angels, and men. Their honor is now clouded, but God will then publicly own all His children. The deed of adoption is now written, signed, and sealed; then it will be recognized, proclaimed, and published. 2. It is the adoption perfected and completed. The children of God have bodies as well as souls, and the adoption is not perfect until those bodies are brought into the glorious liberty promised the children of God.—Difference between faith and hope: 1. Faith has regard to the promise; hope, the thing promised. 2. Faith is the evidence of things not seen; hope is the expectation of them. 3. Faith is the mother; hope is the daughter.—Scott: All that we owe to the flesh is a holy revenge for the injuries already done, and the hindrances continually given us; and instead of rendering our state doubtful, by living after it in any degree, we should, by the Spirit, continually endeavor more and more to mortify it, and repress all its actions.—Sin has filled the world with suffering, yea, with unspeakable disorder and misery; all creatures seem to proclaim man’s fatal apostasy, and to recommend the inestimably precious salvation of Christ. But the gospel opens a brighter prospect; a glorious crisis approaches, of which all things seem in anxious expectation.—Clarke: Fluency in prayer is not essential to praying; a man may pray most powerfully in the estimation of God, who is not able to utter even one word. The unutterable groan is big with meaning, and God understands it, because it contains the language of His own Spirit. Some desires are too mighty to be expressed; there is no language expressive enough to give them proper form and distinct vocal sound. Such desires show that they came from God; and as they came from Him, so they express what God is disposed to do, and what He has purposed to do (Rom_8:27).
[Hodge: Observe, 1. As there is a dreadful pressure of sin and misery on the whole creation, we should not regard the world as our home; 2. It is a characteristic of genuine piety to have exalted conceptions of future blessedness, and earnest longings after it; 3. The reason why all things work together for the good of God’s children is, that all things are under His control; 4. The plan of redemption, while it leaves no room for despondency, affords no pretence for assumption; 5. As there is a beautiful harmony and necessary connection between the several doctrines of grace, so must there be a like harmony in the character of the Christian.—The gospel is: 1. Wonderful; 2. Glorious; 3. Secure.—Barnes: Reasons why we are continued here in this state of vanity: 1. Christians are subjected to this state to do good to others; 2. Their remaining here shows the power of the gospel in overcoming sin, and in thus furnishing living evidence to the world of the power and excellence of that gospel; 3. It furnishes occasion for interesting exhibitions of character, and for increasing and progressive excellence; 4. It is a proper training for heaven.—Reasons why Christians do not know what to pray for: 1. They do not know what would be really best for them; 2. They do not know what God might be willing to grant them; 3. They are, to a great extent, ignorant of the character of God, the reason of His dealings, the principles of His government, and their own actual wants; 4. They are often in real and deep perplexity; and, if left alone, would neither be able to bear their own trials, nor know what to ask at the hand of God.—J. F. H.]
[Homiletical Literature on the Whole .—The homiletical literature on this chapter is very voluminous; we select the following, as being most important.—Bishop Cowper, Heaven Opened, &c., Works, 11 (1619); E. Philips, Certaine Godly Sermons, 243; Edw. Elton, Triumph of a True Christian Described (Three Excellent and Pious Treatises, 1653); H. Binning, The Sinner’s Sanctuary, &c.; being Forty-eight Sermons on the 8th Chapter of Romans, Works, 1, 257; T. Jacomb, Sermons Preached on the Whole 8th Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans (only the sermons on the first four verses have been published, 1672); T. Horton, Forty-six Sermons upon the Whole 8th Chapter of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans (1674); T. Manton, Forty-seven Sermons, Works, 2; J. Mestrezat, Sermons sur la 8e chap. de l’Epitre aux Romains (1702); T. Bryson, A Comprehensive View of the Real Christian’s Character, Privileges, and Obligations (1794); A. Short, The Witness of the Spirit with our spirit, Illustrated from the 8th Chapter of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (Bampton Lectures, 1846); O. Winslow, No Condemnation in Christ Jesus, as unfolded in the 8th Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans (new ed., 1857).—Homiletical Literature on the Carnal Mind and Man’s Enmity to God.—C. Simeon, Works, 15, 195; Bishop Stillingfleet, Serm., 3, 294; B. Ibbot, Disc., 1, 365; J. Evans, Disc., 1, 93; J. Drysdale, Serm., 1, 213; R. Graves, Works, 4, 159; The Carnal and the Spiritual, Village Preacher, 1, 181; C. Simeon, Works, 15, 199; G. T. Noel, Serm., 2, 452; S. Charnock, Works, 9, 175; Archbishop Leighton, Serm., Works, 3, 195; J. Jamieson, Serm. (4) on the Heart, 2, 263, 381, 439, 465; G. Burder, Village Serm., 5; J. Venn, Serm., 3, 56; T. Dwight, Theology, 4, 441; C. Scholl, Serm., 158; E. Cooper, Pract. Serm., 5, 17; T. Chalmers, Works, 9, 66; H. Caulfield, Irish Pulpit, 2, 263; J. Cooper, Serm., 28; C. Simeon, Works, 15, 202; E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons, 2, 362; J. Fenn, Serm., 52.
[Homiletical Literature on Life after the Spirit (Rom_8:13-14), and on the Spirit of Bondage and Adoption.—S. Clarke, Serm., 8, 23; Bishop Hall, Serm., Works, 5, 527; T. Jacomb, Morning Exerc., 3, 585; R. South, Serm., 5, 293, 326; T. Wilson, Serm., 1, 389; L. Atterbury, S. Clapham, Serm., selected, 2, 173; M. Hole, On the Church Cat., 1, 55; N. Carter, Serm., 155; I. Pearse, Serm., 219; D. Waterland, Serm., Works, 9, 325; R. Robinson, Village Serm., 267; T. Belshum, Disc., 1, 72; T. Biddulph, Plain Serm., 3, 168; H. Draper, On the Collects, 2, 275; C. Simeon, Works, 15, 270; Bishop Heber, Parish Serm., 1, 443; S. F. Surtees, Serm.; T. Knowles, Disc., 3, 267; A. W. Hare, Serm., 1, 77; W. G. G. Cookesley, Serm., 2, 254; C. Neat, Disc., 223; A. B. Evans, Serm., 230; H. E. Manning, Serm., 4, 27; A. Watson, Serm. (1843), 134; N. Meeres, Serm., 329; Bishop Wilberforce, Serm., 39; W. Howorth, Serm., 32; Bishop J. Jackson, Witness of the Spirit, 145; I. Williams, Serm., 2, 145; C. J. Vaughan, Serm. (1847), 77; C. Bullen, Serm., 43; H. Alford, Serm., 3, 309; J. J. Blunt, Plain Serm., 56; W. Gresley, Parochial Serm., 365; C. E. Kennaway, Serm. at Brighton, 1, 222; Bishop W. Nicholson, On the Apostles’ Creed, 99; J. Cameron, Opera, 536; J. Wallis, Serm., 153; E. Beeston, Serm., 375; J. Evans, Disc., 1, 350; J. Wesley, Serm., Works, 5, 98; B. Beddome, Short Disc., 8, 151; S. E. Pierce, Essay, &c., 149; C. Simeon, Works, 15, 276; J. H. Stewart, Serm., 189; G. T. Noel, Serm., 2, 471; W. Muir, On the Holy Spirit, 144; T. Ainger, Parochial Serm., 134; C. Neat, Disc., 239.
[Homiletical Literature on the Witness of the Spirit.—J. Donne, Works, 2, 42; I. Watts, Evang. Disc., Works, 2, 292, 302; P. Doddridge, Serm., 2, 378; 3, 1; Archbishop J. Sharp, Works, 5, 1; W. Stephens, Serm., 1, 287; Bishop Sherlock, Disc., Works, 1, 153; Archbishop Secker, Serm., 7, 221; T. Randolph, The Witness of the Spirit (1768); A View, &c., 2, 223; J. Wesley, Serm., Works, 5, 111; J. Dickinson, Sermons and Tracts; W. Hey, Tracis, 487; C. Simeon, Works, 15, 283; W. L. Bowles, Paulus, &c., 103; Bishop Philpotts, Orig. Fam. Serm., 2, 237; E. Cooper, Pract. Serm., 7, 380; C. W. Le Bas, Serm., 3, 89; S. Clarke, Serm., 2, 73; Forty Sermons, 205; J. Penn, Serm., 2, 125.—Homiletical Literature on the Groaning and Travail of Creation.—N. Homes, Resurrection Revealed, Raised above Doubts; C. E. Kennaway, Serm. at Brighton, 2, 34; J. H. Gurney, Serm., 173; J. H. B. Mountain, Serm., 95; A. Leger, Nouveaux Serm., 2, 168; H. Grove, Posth. Works, 2, 109; J. Wesley, Serm., Works, 6, 241; R. Balmer, Lect., 2, 507; H. Stowell, Serm. (1845); J. Cumming, Voices of the Night, 131; J. C. Dannhawerus, Crit. Sac. Theo., 2, 503; E. W. Goulburn, Bampton Lect., 269; A. Horneck, Serm. (1677); A. Townson, Disc., 224; F. H. Hutton, Serm., 306; W. Vickers, Serm., 233; J. Slade, Plain Serm., 7, 76; H. Hughes, Serm., 107; W. Cadman, Bloomsbury Lect., 10, 31; W. Fenner, Works, 1, 295; T. Boston, Works, 9, 263, 286; W. Cruden, Serm.; J. Martin, Remains; J. Garbett, Serm., 2, 187; Bishop Wilberforce, Serm. on Sev. Occ., 1; W. Richardson, Serm., 2, 146; T. Arnold, Serm., 1, 139; C. Marriott, Serm., 1, 179; R. Montgomery, God and Man, 311; E. B. Pusey, Serm., 2, 304.—J. F. H.]
Footnotes:
[49]Rom_8:2.—[The weighty MSS., א. B. F. G., and some fathers, read σε; but this might readily be repeated from the preceding syllable, -σεν. A. C. D. K. L., most versions, give με, now generally adopted. There is slight authority for ημᾶς. Freed me, is literal, and to be preferred to hath made me free, set me free. It refers to a definite past act (aorist).
[50]Rom_8:4.—[The E. V. uses righteousness, very indefinitely, to translate several words of kindred meaning. Here it is obviously incorrect, as δικαίωμα means, literally, a righteous decree, ordinance, statute, act (see pp. 74, 184); and in this case refers to the summing up of all the requirements of the law, as fulfilled by Christ. Lange: Gerechtsein, requirement, is not strictly exact, but is adopted by Alford, Amer. Bible Union. Version of five English clergymen: righteous demand. See Exeg. Notes.
[51]Rom_8:4.—[According to, is the phrase which now best expresses the meaning of κατά, though after (German, nach) is literal. It is becoming unusual in this sense.
[52]Rom_8:6.—[The E. V., with its usual fondness for hendiadys, has departed from a literal rendering in Rom_8:6-7, at the expense of both accuracy and force.
[53]Rom_8:6.—[Is not subject (E. V.), is correct, but the above emendation brings out the middle force of ὑποτάσσεται.
[54]Rom_8:8.—[So then, is a gloss, rather than a translation. It is a difficult matter to reproduce all the delicate shades of antithetical force expressed by the frequently recurring δέ. Some alterations in the verses immediately succeeding have been made with this in view.
[55]Rom_8:9.—[Have is conditional, but hath is preferable, as intimating more decidedly that the state of things really exists. For the same reason, dwelleth is preferable to dwell, in Rom_8:11.
[56]Rom_8:11.—[The better supported reading is Ἰησοῦν; the article is inserted in some MSS., as also before Χριστόν. There is also the usual number of variations, so common when these words occur in the text.
[57]Rom_8:11.—[Will, to express the simple future in the third person. The E. V. seems to prefer shall in such cases, and, indeed, some still defend it. The usage of the present time is undoubtedly against it.
[58]Rom_8:11.—[Here two readings present themselves, supported by authorities of equal weight. The genitive: διὰ τοῦ ἐνοικοῦν τοῦ πνεύματος is found in Rec., א. A. C., many versions and fathers, as is adopted by Lachmann, De Wette, Krehl. The accusative: διὰ τὸ ἐνοικοῦν αὐτοῦ πνεῦμα, is supported by B. D. E. F. K. L., many cursives and fathers, by Griesbach, Scholz, Fritzsche, Mill, Bengel, Tischendorf (in later editions), Meyer (who cites Lachmann also in its favor), Tholuck, Rückert, Alford, Wordsworth, Tregelles, Lange. It will be seen that a majority of critical editors adopt the latter reading. The reasons which have determined this decision seem to be, that two such readings could not have existed without one being a premeditated corruption. The question then arises, Which reading would best serve a polemic purpose, and hence be most likely to have been the corrupted one? That question is answered by the controversy between the Macedonians and Orthodox (latter part of the fourth century) respecting the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. The Macedonians charged the Orthodox with an alteration of the text into the genitive. The genitive can only mean, by means of His Spirit, &c.; while the accusative may include that idea of agency in connection with the thought, on account of His Spirit, &c. It is plain that the Macedonians had less motive to alter the text than the Orthodox. Alford thinks the variation dates back of this controversy, and is not due to either of the then disputant parties; but the same reason would hold good at a previous point of theological discussion. Lange well remarks, that, in any case, “the raising act of God is distinguished in this verse from the working of the Spirit.” Hodge sums up the internal evidence in favor of the common reading; but all his remarks only prove that the other is a more unusual reading, and hence likely to have been altered. It is better to follow the current of criticism, and adopt the accusative.
[59]Rom_8:13.—[The simple dative πνεύματι is best rendered, by the Spirit. Through should be reserved as a translation of διά.
[60]Rom_8:13.—[D. E. F. G., many fathers, have τοῦ σάρκος; but τοῦ σώματος is supported by א. A. B. C. K. L., and nearly all modem editors. The former was probably a correction, arising out of a misunderstanding of the passage.
[61]Rom_8:14.—[Rec., K. L., have εἰσιν υἱοὶ θεοῦ; א. A. C. D., υἱοὶ θεοῦ εἰσιν; B. F. G., υἱοί εἰσινθεοῦ. The last reading is adopted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford, Wordsworth, Tregelles. It is supported by the majority of the fathers, and the variations are more readily accounted for on the supposition that it is the original reading; εἰσιν, if once passed over, would be inserted at the beginning or end (Meyer).
[62]Rom_8:15.—[The aorist ἐλάβετε refers to a definite past time; hence, did not receive, received.
[63]Rom_8:16.—[See Exeg. Notes.
[64]Rom_8:17.—[With him, is as proper here as in the preceding clause. See Exeg. Notes.—R.]
[65][It seems doubtful whether Dr. Lange means the Holy Spirit here; but as he certainly insists that the Holy Spirit is the agent producing this life, it is better to indicate it by printing this word with a capital letter.—R.]
[66][Alford thus heads the section: “Although the flesh is still subject to the law of sin, the Christian, serving not the flesh, but walking according to the Spirit, shall not come into condemnation, but to glory with Christ.” Hodge, making the theme of the Apostle “the security of believers,” gives the first verse a wide reference, both present and future, and considers the whole chapter a series of proofs of this proposition.—R.]
[67][Dr. John Brown renders γάρ, moreover, or would connect it with the thanksgiving in Rom_8:25. He refers this verse to sanctification, and Rom_8:1 to justification; hence would avoid making the former the ground of the latter.—R.]
[68][The absence of the article is not decisive against this connection, though it favors more the connection with ζωῆς. Still, the parallelism strongly supports that view which joins it with the verb.—R.]
[69][Law is here to be taken in the wide sense as = norm, principle, ruling power (comp. Rom_3:27; Rom_7:21-23).—P. S.]
[70][Dr. Hodge, following Witsius, takes the law of the spirit of life as = the gospel. His objections to the other views arise mainly from a too exclusive reference of Rom_8:1 to the forensic idea of justification. It certainly confuses anew the meaning of the word law, to adopt this interpretation. Even should it mean gospel, it must mean the gospel in its life-giving aspect, as wrought by the Spirit; or Paul would not have chosen such terms. If in Christ Jesus be joined with freed, then the reference to the objective ground of justification is implied in the statement of our subjective possession of it in Christ Jesus. (See Lange, above.) Agreeing with Calvin, in the main, we interpret: “The power of the life-giving Spirit delivered me in Christ Jesus (in virtue of union to Him the fulfiller of the law and the deliverer from the law) from the law of sin and death.”—R.]
[71][Alford paraphrases: all claim of sin on him is at an end—he is acquitted; but, as he admits, “we are on higher ground now.”—R.]
[72][The simplest explanation is that of Meyer and Philippi: “God condemned sin in the flesh—a thing which was impossible on the side of the law.” This takes it as nominative absolute, passing judgment in advance on what God did, so as to give prominence to the inability of the law, as well as a reason why God did it. On the grammatical objections to taking it as accusative absolute, see Meyer. Ἀδύνατον may be either active, = ἡ ἀδυνμία, or passive, = what was impossible. Tholuck urges the genitive in favor of the former, while Meyer contends that usage supports the latter.—R.]
[73][Wordsworth finds in our phrase an argument against the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.—R.]
[74][This interpretation, adopted by Hodge and Stuart, is rejected by every German commentator of note, even by Philippi and Alford. The passages in the New Testament (Heb_10:6; Heb_10:8; Heb_10:18; Heb_13:11; Gal_1:4) which seem to favor it, all contain a distinct reference to sacrifices, independently of περὶ ἁμαρ. In Gal_1:4 (see in loco p. 13), the “gave himself” introduces the same thought. The wider meaning, of course, implies such an expiation; but it is not brought prominently forward in this expression. (Philippi: um die Sünde sühnend zu tilgend; to which Meyer unnecessarily objects, since his own view includes this.)—R.]
[75][See Philippi’s view below. Hodge is decided in his preference for this interpretation, regarding all others as arbitrary, and contrary to the context.—R.]
[76][So Alford, Schaff. Stuart makes this antithesis with Rom_8:1 : “There is now no κατάκριμα for Christians; but there is a κατάκριμα of their carnal appetites and desires.” This he justifies by finding here “a paranomasial use of words;” but this mode of interpretation is of doubtful propriety.—R.]
[77][So Wordsworth, Webster and Wilkinson, Forbes. This view is, indeed, open to the charge of indefiniteness; but as the clause sets forth both what the law could not do, and what God did do in sending Jesus Christ, there can be little objection to a wide manning here, provided Rom_8:4 be applied definitely to the work of sanctification. Dr. Lange himself in the next paragraph reaches the same point.—R.]
[78][Wordsworth: “Sin had tyrannized over us in our flesh, as the seat of its empire; and by our flesh, as its instrument and weapon. But God used our flesh as an instrument for our deliverance, and for the condemnation of sin, and for the establishment of his own empire in us.”—R.]
[79][This seems doubtful. It is true that this is a condition of the final fulfilment, a condition which implies the Divine Spiritual power as its cause; but this is not the idea which is prominent here. The method is now introduced, so as to point out, in what follows, the difference between the workings of the law of the Spirit of life, and the law of sin and death, which find their corresponding expressions in the phrases: according to the Spirit, according to the flesh.—R.]
[80][It were better to say that it is the same idea under a different aspect. In Rom_8:4, with reference to the outward life; here, with reference to the actual state.—R.]
[81][In 4th ed., Meyer agrees with Tholuck, taking this second γάρ as explicative, according to classical usage. So Rückert, Stuart, Hodge. (De Wette, Alford, follow the view attributed to Meyer above.) The contrast, already indicated in Rom_8:4, is continued here.—R.]
[82][Φρόνημα (Lange: Gesinnung; Bengel: sentiment, in the French) means the disposition, which manifests itself in the Φρονεῖν (Rom_8:5). The E. V. is therefore correct in thought, though not in form.—R.]
[83][Meyer, who, as usual, limits “death” to eternal death, must define “life” in the same way. Life is the direct antithesis to death; but a subjective characteristic is added, as Bengel suggests, to prepare the way for the following description of enmity.—R.]
[84][It is easy to construct this inference: The mind of the flesh = death; because the mind of the flesh = enmity against God: therefore, enmity against God = death.—R.]
[85][For fuller discussions, see Tholuck, Meyer, and De Wette in loco.—R.]
[86][Accepting δικ. as implanted righteousness, we paraphrase as follows: But if Christ be in you, (though) your body indeed is dead (having in it the seeds of death, and about to die) on account of sin (whose effects are not yet totally removed), but your spirit (permeated by the Holy Spirit) is life (already and to be yet more truly so) on account of righteousness (implanted in you by the Holy Spirit, in virtue of your union to Christ).—R.]
[87][As Alford suggests: non solum de ultima resurrectione, would be more correct. For a very full discussion, both of the textual variations and the exegetical opinions, see Meyer in loco. He defends the exclusive reference to the resurrection of the body.—R.]
[88][Stuart follows Winer, p. 306, in governing the genitive by ὀφειλέται (so Fritzsche). This is harsh, and most commentators take the genitive as that of design or result, according to a very common usage.—R.]
[89][The most comprehensive idea of death seems to be demanded by the context. Granting that the antithesis is ζωῄ (Rom_8:10), the present and spiritual reference is still required. Rom_8:6 forms the best guide to the meaning of the terms here (so Tholuck).—R.]
[90][The New Testament uses the word generally in malam partem; and so here, whether in a more or less restricted sense. It does not refer to the definite acts so strictly as ἔργα, but includes the general conduct, &c. (Philippi).—R.]
[91][Dr. Lange does not seem to determine definitely in favor of either view. But his objection here is based on the assumption that our spirit is = self-consciousness. Is there not in Christians, during this time of witness-bearing, such a division still remaining, as to justify the interpretation which accepts a twofold witness? The witness is to the man as self-conscious, needing such testimony and borne both by the Holy Spirit, and the renewed nature, over against the remaining sinful nature. With our view of Rom_8:15, it is necessary that a new witness of this kind be introduced here. Philippi accepts the twofold witnessing here, claiming, however, that the other sense is possible only in case the reference in Rom_8:15 be to a filial spirit.—R.]
[92][On the witness of the Spirit, see Doctr. Note13, and the works referred to in the list of Homiletical Literature on this section.—R.]
[93][In Galatians, polemic necessity occasions a fuller and somewhat modified statement of this idea; see Lange’s Comm. in loco.—R.]
[94][The Jewish law gave a double portion to the eldest son; the Roman law made all children (adopted ones also) equal. (So the Attic law.) The point of this controversy about the reference to Jewish or Roman law of inheritance, is, that the former presents believers as heritors, sharing through the grace of Christ, the chief Heir, the latter, in in virtue of their sonship. Philippi calls the latter “profane, far-fetched, incongruous.” Meyer and Tholuck think it appropriate in an Epistle to the Romans, and say that the only legal basis for the illustration is the Roman law. On the other hand, the genitive Χριστοῦ, where the dative might properly be used, may be urged in favor of the other view. In any case, the right of the adopted children is through the mediation of Christ. The context points to fellowship with him, so that heirship in him is an appropriate thought. Schmoller (Galatians, p. 98) deems the whole controversy pedantic—R.]
[95][In Col_1:24, such sufferings are termed “the afflictions of Christ;” so intimate is the fellowship of Christ and his body, the Church. See also Heb_2:10.—R.]
[96]Rom_8:18.—[It is difficult to render εἰς ἡμᾶς literally. In us (E. V.) implies that we are the subjects of the revelation, and this is the main thought. Alford renders: with regard to us; Lange: auf und an uns.
[97]Rom_8:19.—[ Κτίσις occurs four times in Rom_8:19-22, with the same meaning. In Rom_8:22 it is best to render it creation, and in the other cases it should conform. Lange: die Kreatürliche Welt, Kreatur-Welt. On the various limitations of meaning, see Exeg. Notes.
[98]Rom_8:20.—[Lange renders ὑποτάγη, unterwarf sich, adopting the middle sense; but as this sense is doubtful, the English text has not been altered.
[99]Rom_8:20.—[In hope is not to be joined with what immediately precedes, hence a comma must be inserted. Griesbach and Knapp make οὐκ. . . ὑποτάξαντα parenthetical, but without sufficient reason. Amer. Bible Union also makes a parenthetical clause: but by reason of him who made it subject; yet this only seems to add confusion. See the next note.
[100]
Rom_8:20.—[Lange puts a full stop after hope. Meyer, and many others, a comma, connecting the next verse: that the creation, &c. (the purport of the hope). Forbes gives the parallelism thus:
19. a. Ἠγὰρ ἀποκαραδοκία τἦς κτίσεως
b. τὴν ἀποκάλυψιν τῶν υἱῶν τοῦ θεοῦ ἀπεκδέχεται,
20. τῇ γὰρ ματαιότητι ἡ κτίσις ὑποτάγη,
ουκ ἑκοῦσα ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν ὑποτάξαντα,
21. a. ἐπ’ ἐλπίδι ὅτι καὶ αὐτὴ ἡ κτίσις ἐλευθερθήσεται ἀπὸ τῆς δουλείας τῆς φθορᾶς
b. εἰς τὴν ἐλευθερίαν τῆς δόξης τῶν τέκνων τοῦ θεοῦ.
19. a. For the earnest expectation of the creation
b. Is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God,
20. For the creation was made subject to vanity,
Not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected it,
21. a. In hope, that the creature itself shall also be delivered from the bondage of corruption,
b. Into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
This makes the whole of Rom_8:20, except in hope, parenthetical, and connects Rom_8:21 with that phrase, as giving the purport of the hope. On this last view, Forbes does not insist, however. In hope is thus made to refer to both lines of the parenthesis, yet with a main reference to ἀπεκδέχεται, is waiting. The two lines of Rom_8:19 find their parallels in Rom_8:21, while a. a. refer to the expectation or hope that animates creation; b. b. to the final consummation to which it points. At the beginning of Rom_8:21, Lange reads denn, Alford, because, but Tholuck, Phillippi, Meyer, Amer. Bible Union, Noyes, five Anglican clergymen, &c., favor that, introducing the purport of the hope.
[101]Rom_8:23.—[So, or this should be supplied; the meaning is: Not only it this so. The E. V. is therefore inexact. The latest revisions adopt so.
[102]Rom_8:23.—[There is considerable variation in the text here, not affecting the sense, however. B. reads κα ὶαὐτοὶ τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ πνεύματος ἔχοντες καὶ αὐτοί; adopted by Tischendorf, Meyer, Lange, Tregelles. The Rec. inserts ἡμεῖς after the second καί; א. A. C, Lachmann, Alford before it, so Tregelles, in brackets; while D. F. G., Fritzsche insert the same after the first καί. The original reading was probably that of B.; ἡμεῖς being inserted as an explanatory gloss, hence the variation in position (Meyer). As καί αὐτοί is repeated, it is better to render even we ourselves in both cases.
[103]Rom_8:23.—[D. F. G. omit υἱοθεσίαν, which is strongly attested, however. The omission may have arisen from the thought that the word meant something already possessed, and hence was inappropriate here.
[104]Rom_8:24—[The dative, τῇ ἐλπίδι, is not instrumental. Now is the better rendering of the logical δέ, which follows.
[105]Rom_8:24.—[ א. A. C. K. L., read τί καί (Rec., Meyer, Wordsworth, Lange); B. D. F. omit καί (Lachmann, Alford. Tregelles). The latter reading gives the sense: Why doth he hope (at all)? the former, which is preferable: Why doth he still hope for? καί = etiam.
[106]Rom_8:26.—[Instead of ταῖ ς. ἀσθενείαις (Rec., K. L.), which was probably a marginal gloss, א. A. B. C. D., most cursives, versions, and fathers, read τῇ ἀσθενίᾳ; adopted by most editors.
[107]Rom_8:26.—[ א. A. B. C., Lachmann, Alford, Wordsworth, Tregelles, read προσευξώμεθα (aorist); D. K. L., Griesbach, Tischendorf, προσευξ ό μεθα. Both are grammatical, either may have been original; but the former is slightly better attested.
[108]Rom_8:26.—[Ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν (Rec. א3. C. K. L.) is omitted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford, Wordsworth, Lange, Tregelles, on the authority of א1. A. B. D. F. G. Probably added for closer definition.
[109]Rom_8:28.—[א. A. B. insert ὸ θεός (as subject) after συνεργεῖ. It is omitted in C. D. F. K. L., and rejected by most editors. The seeming necessity of some such subject led to its insertion, which was rendered easier by the presence of θεόν (immediately before). Lachmann, who retains it, inserts τὸ before ἀγαθόν, on insufficient authority.
[110]Rom_8:33.—[In Rom_8:33-35, Lange adopts the punctuation followed in the E. V., except in this trifling particular. Very many, however, place an interrogation point after each clause. (See Alford, who incorrectly quotes Meyer as favoring this view.) Tischendorf and Meyer place a colon after δικαιῶν, and also after ὑπὲρ η̇͂ μῶν (Rom_8:34). Tregelles a comma after the former, a colon after the latter. The relation of the clauses, which involves the punctuation, is discussed in the Exeg. Notes.
[111]Rom_8:34.—[After Χριστός, א. A. C. F. L. insert Ἰησούς (adopted by Lange). It is omitted in B. D. Κ., by Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford, Tregelles, and most editors. Hence the rendering of Lange (bracketed in the text) is doubly doubtful: first, on account of the dubious reading; second, as a somewhat forced exegesis. See Exeg. Notes.
[112]Rom_8:34.—[Μᾶλλον δὲ καί (Rec.) is supported by D. F. K. L.; καί is omitted in א. A. B. C. (by Lachmann, Tregelles, bracketted by Alford), but, as Meyer suggests, was easily overlooked between δΕ and Εγ.
[113]Rom_8:37.—[Instead of the well-supported τοῦ ἁγαπήσαντος, D. E. F. G., and many Latin fathers, read: τὸνἀγαπήσαντα; objectionable on both critical and exegetical grounds.
[114]Rom_8:38.—[The order in א. A. B. C. D. F. is οὕ τεένεσ τῶτα, οὔ τεμέλλοντα, οὔ τεδυνάμεις; adopted by Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford, Tregelles, and critical editors generally. The Recepta puts οὔ τεδυνάμεις first (K. L., some versions). This may readily be accounted for; δύναμις is associated with ἅγγελοι or ἀρχή in Eph_1:21; 1Co_15:24; 1Pe_3:22, hence the seeming necessity for a closer connection here. In Col_2:15, δυνάμεις is omitted, but in all the passages cited, ἐξουσία is found; hence we find it as a variation here, but very slightly attested.
[115]Rom_8:39—[Τὶςκτίσις cannot, of course, mean creation here.—R.]
[116]On the controversy between the Protestant and Catholic theologians in regard to the meritum condigni, as connected with this passage, see Tholuck, p. 421. [Comp. Philippi on both meritum condigni and meritum congrui. Also Calvin. As Dr. Hodge remarks, the idea of merit “is altogether foreign to the context.”—R.]
[117][The primary reference seems to be to its greatness; but a secondary reference to its certainty and futurity would necessarily be implied in “the patient expectation.”—R.]
[118][The English word creation has precisely the same twofold sense; but it always has a general reference when used in the passive sense. Κτίσις undoubtedly has a more special reference in many cases, but it would seem that the more general signification preceded the more special one, and hence that the limitation of meaning must always be derived from the context.—R.]
[119][This is the view adopted and defended at some length by Professor Stuart in an Excursus on this verse. Notwithstanding his able argument, the interpretation is entirely too restricted to meet with general acceptance. An instinct of immortality is assumed, and pressed as the main thought. Comp. Hodge, in opposition to Stuart’s view—R.]
[120][The reasons for excluding man are: 1. Believers are distinguished here from the κτίσις (Rom_8:23). 2. Such an expectation does not exist in mankind as a whole. 3. Rom_8:20 represents the subjection to vanity as unwilling, which is not true of man. 4. Rom_8:21 implies that deliverance shall take place, and we have no evidence that this is true of humanity as a whole. If Rom_8:21 gives the purport of the “hope” (Rom_8:20), then this reason is of little weight.—R.]
[121][Comp. the analogous Old Testament expressions: Deu_32:1; Job_12:7; Job_12:9; Psa_19:2; Psa_68:17; Psa_98:8; Isa_1:2; Isa_14:8; Isa_55:12; Isa_65:17; Eze_31:15; Hab_2:11. Also Revelation 21; 2Pe_3:13; Act_3:21.—R.]
[122][The reference to this event is undoubted. It is a new expression of the deep-seated consciousness of fellowship with Christ, which leads the Apostle to call this “the revelation of the sons of God,” not of the Son of God. It should be remarked, that our Lord calls it the coming of the Son of Man. The event is throughout regarded in a strictly soteriological aspect.—R.]
[123][The difference between 2 and 3 is slight. Both point to an actual curse at the fall; the latter only adds the thought, that the previous condition was not, after all, the final one, thus preparing the way for an explanation of “not willingly.” Both should, it seems, include the thought that the glorification to ensue will transcend both the original state and that which could be attained by a normal development.—R.]
[124][The objection to this reference is well stated by Alford: (1) The verb implies a conscious act of intentional subjugation. (2) The accusative (indicating the moving, rather than the efficient cause) is in keeping with the Apostle’s reverence; thus removing the supreme will of God to a wider distance from corruption and vanity. Meyer suggests that the absence of any explanatory cause presupposes a well-known subject; God had subjected it. Jowett makes Christ the subject: “on account of whose special work the creature was made subject to vanity.” This is novel, so, much so, that it seems far-fetched.—R.]
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 vv17–23 And if children, then heirs--"heirs also."
And if children, then heirs--"heirs also."
heirs of God--of our Father's kingdom.
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and joint-heirs with Christ--as the "First-born among many brethren" (Rom 8:29), and as "Heir of all things" (Heb 1:2).
if so be that we suffer--"provided we be suffering with Him."
that we may be also glorified together--with Him. This necessity of conformity to Christ in suffering in order to participate in His glory, is taught alike by Christ Himself and by His apostles (Joh 12:24-26; Mat 16:24-25; Ti2 2:12).
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 vv17–23 17. Heirs—Entitled by graciously divine right to an eternal…
17. Heirs—Entitled by graciously divine right to an eternal inheritance.
Joint heirs with Christ—Who is our elder brother, (Rom_8:29.) And as Christ is sure of his inheritance, then, so long as we are joint with him, there can be no failure for us. But in our case there is a condition yet to be completely fulfilled, namely, the following IF. And this if, implying a contingency lasting as long as our probation, must be presupposed in the whole of this passage, (18-39.) The law of inheritance cannot fail; the scheme of advancement (29, 30) cannot be broken, but we may fall out of it by the way. All these progressive stages belong to us not as physical persons, but as characters, and are forfeited by our persons if the character ceases.
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If so be—On this if hangs our eternity.
That—To the divinely established result that.
Glorified together—That glorification with Christ arrived at in Rom_8:30; the ultimate to which our heirship looks.
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 vv17–23 17. and if children, &c.] Here St Paul reasons…
17. and if children, &c.] Here St Paul reasons onward from the primary fact, witnessed to by the Spirit, of the Christian’s sonship. He has in view now, more than ever yet in the Epistle, the hope of eternal Glory, when in the fullest sense the saints shall possess the Kingdom of God. This possession he views as an Inheritance by virtue of Birth into the Family of God.—For the figure, cp. Mat_25:34; Act_20:32; 1Co_15:50; Gal_4:7; Eph_1:14; Jas_2:5; 1Pe_1:4; &c., &c.
joint-heirs with Christ] The Divine and Human Eldest Brother (Rom_8:29.)
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if so be] Same word as Rom_8:9. St Paul reminds his readers of the great fact and principle that the path of obedience and self-denial is the one path to Heaven. And he chooses phraseology (see note on “if so be,” Rom_8:9,) which suggests to the reader’s soul the self-enquiry whether the will is really brought into “the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ.” (Php_3:10)—To “suffer with the Lord” is not only generally to follow Him in patience and meekness; but specially to bear, in loving fidelity, the pains of that conflict (outward, or inward, or both,) against sin, to which we are inevitably called by the fact of our union to Him as His brethren. Such “sufferings,” in one form or another, are never out of date.
that we may be, &c.] “Suffering with Christ” is the necessary antecedent to “glorification with Him;” by way, not of merit, but of preparation. The eternal bliss is a gift in the most absolute sense; (Rom_6:23, &c., &c.,) but the capacity to enjoy it is, certainly in a great measure, imparted only in the school of trial. See, for an illustration of this passage, 1Pe_1:5-7.
together] i.e. “together with Him;” in His eternal presence, and as sharers in the joy and dignity of His eternal kingdom. Before the throne of the Lamb, His servants “shall reign for ever and ever.” (Rev_22:5.) See too Col_3:4; 1Pe_4:13; 1Jn_3:1-2; Rev_3:21.
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 vv17–23 (17) One characteristic of the son is that he…
(17) One characteristic of the son is that he is his father’s heir. So it is with the Christian. He, too, has an inheritance—an inheritance of glory which he will share with Christ. But he must not be surprised if, before sharing the glory, he also shares the sufferings.
Suffer with him.—All who suffer for the sake of the gospel are regarded as suffering with Christ. They “drink of the cup” that He drank of (Mat_20:22-23). (Comp. 2Co_1:5; Php_3:10; Col_1:24.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv18, 19, 20, 22, 23 Vers. 18, 19. For I reckon that the sufferings…
Vers. 18, 19. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. (So, as in the Revised Version, or upon us, as Tyndale and Cranmer, rather than in us, as in the Authorized Version. The expression is eiv hmav , and the idea is of Christ appearing in glory, and shedding his glory on us, cf. 1Jn_3:2) For the earnest expectation of the creature (or, creation) waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God. "Revelatur gloria: et tum revelantur etiam filii Dei" (Bengel). God"s sons will be revealed as being such, and glorified (cf. 1Co_4:5; also 1Jn_3:2). H ktisiv , in this verse and afterwards, has been variously understood. The word properly means actus creationis, and is so used in Rom_1:20; but usually in the New Testament denotes what has been created, as, in English, creation. Sometimes, where the context limits its application, it denotes mankind, as Mar_16:15 and Col_1:23; or it may be used for an individual creature. (cf. Rom_8:39 Heb_4:13) Where there is nothing to limit its meaning, it must be understood of the whole visible creation, at any rate in the world of man. Thus in Mar_10:6 13:19 2Pe_3:4. And so here, except so far as the context limits it; for see especially pash h ktisiv in ver. 22. It is, indeed, apparently so limited to the part of creation of which we have cognizance at present; for see oidamen in ver. 22, which denotes a known fact. But is there any further limitation, as many commentators contend? Putting aside as untenable, in view of the whole context (see especially ver. 23), the view of those who understand the new spiritual creation of the regenerate to be meant, we may remark as follows:
(1) That h ktisiv includes certainly all mankind, not excepting the regenerate. Kai hmeiv autoi in ver. 23 means that "we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit" are included, not that we are a class apart.
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(2) The whole animal creation is included too. So general a term as pasa h ktisiv could not surely have been used if man only had been meant. And it is obviously true that the whole sentient creation, as well as man, has a share now in the general suffering. To the objection that the irrational creatures cannot be conceived as sharing in the "hope" and "earnest expectation" spoken of, it may be replied that, so far as it seems to be implied that they do, it may only be that the apostle, by a fine prosopopeia, conceives them as feeling even as the human mind feels concerning them. But, further, conscious hope and expectation does not seem, if the language of the passage be examined, to be distinctly attributed to them. All that is of necessity implied is that they share in the groaning from which we crave deliverance.
(3) Inanimate nature too may be included in the idea, it also seeming to share in the present mystery of evil, and falling short of our ideal of a terrestrial paradise. Tholuck appositely quotes Philo as saying that all nature asyeneian endecetai kai kamnei . It may be that St. Paul had in his mind what is said in Genesis of the cursing of the ground for man"s sake, and of the thorns and thistles; and also the pictures found in the prophets of a renovated earth, in which the desert should rejoice and blossom as the rose. Calvin comments on the whole passage thus: "Omissa expesitionum varietate, hunc locum accipio, nullum esse elementum, nullamque mundi pattern, quae non, veluti praesontis miseriae agnitione tacta, in spem resurrectionis intenta sit." Again, "Spem creaturis quae sensu carent ideo tribuit, ut fideles oculos aperiant ad conspectum invisibilis vitae, quamvis adhuc sub deformi habitu lateat.
For what of all these present sufferings, these present drawbacks to the lull triumph of the pneuma in you, these present evidences that the swma nekron still clings to you? They are nothing to the destined glory; they are not worth consideration in comparison with it.
Suffering quenched in glory.
It is not easy to weigh the future against the present. To children, and to the unreflecting, the present seems so real, and the future so shadowy, that the least advantage or relief today seems immensely preferable to something in itself more desirable, but which is deferred to a distant date. As knowledge and thought advance, the power of realizing the future increases. Hence in worldly affairs the useful virtue of prudence emerges, and men deny themselves now in order to make provision for the coming years. The same principle is applicable in religion. Those who believe themselves destined to a future and immortal existence are capable of looking forward to the life to come, and of allowing that life to exercise upon their minds a mighty influence, so that their present attitude of spirit is largely governed and controlled by their expectations of the future. It is, indeed, far from being the highest of motives that influences men, if they do good to avoid future misery and secure future happiness. For religion consists in the love of truth and right for their own sake, as supremely desirable, in the love of God as supremely excellent. Yet, as the text shows, Christianity holds out the prospect of immortal happiness as fitted to cheer and encourage the pilgrims of the night amidst the difficulties and darkness of time.
I THIS IS A CALCULATION WHICH IS NOT INTENDED TO DISPARAGE THE PRESENT SUFFERINGS OF CHRISTIANS. Paul does not mean to say the sufferings to be endured here are in themselves inconsiderable. For the fact is otherwise; every man, and much more every Christian, has much to bear. "They that will live godly must suffer persecution." In some cases, the amount of opposition and calumny and neglect involved in fidelity to the Saviour is far from trifling. But the apostle means to affirm that so vast is the recompense, so exceeding and eternal the weight of glory hereafter, that even the direst persecution, the fiercest conflict, the keenest self-denial, are all extinguished in the lustre, the blaze, of heavenly day.
II THIS IS A CALCULATION BASED UPON THE REVELATIONS OF SCRIPTURE. Reason unaided could never have arrived at this result. For one of the members of the comparison is beyond the range of reason. We know by experience the sufferings of the present; but only Divine foresight can acquaint us with the glory of the future. It is granted that in the present condition of Christians is nothing which can justify an expectation so glowing. The star is in its station in the heavens, although hidden beneath a cloud; when the sky is cleared, the star shines out in its brilliancy. So, for the present, our life is "hid with Christ in God;" and "we know not what we shall be." Our capacities and circumstances do not allow of our comprehension of a state which only the glorified nature can take in. The coming glory is spiritual, consists in closer fellow, ship with the Saviour and in perfect harmony with God himself. "When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear, we also shall appear with him in glory." This is the prospect of the sons of God, the joint-heirs with Christ, the partakers of their Lord"s character and spirit. It is the prospect of an endless blessedness; for its eternity is part of its Divine perfection. Nothing less than a glory which never wanes is worthy of the Giver, or satisfying to the recipient. The quality and the immortality of the glory of heaven, when taken together, manifestly outweigh all the privations the conflicts, the temptations, in a word, the "much tribulation" through which we must enter into the kingdom of heaven.
III THIS IS A CALCULATION WHICH GOVERNED THE APOSTLE"S PERSONAL LIFE. Observe that he says, "I reckon." It was his own deliberately reached conclusion. He had adopted this opinion long ago, and he retained it still. Otherwise he would not have continued to lead the life of a Christian and an apostle. His choice had brought him much outward suffering and adversity. From the first, he had been exposed to persecution from Jews and Gentiles; he had endured many hardships and dangers in his missionary life; he had suffered the loss of all things. His choice had occasioned him much spiritual conflict. The strife between the old nature and the new, the anxiety he felt as to his own fidelity, the buffetings of Satan he encountered, all these were sufferings strictly consequent upon his union with Christ. Yet it is clear that Paul did not repent his choice. Even to the end he counted all things as loss, that he might win Christ, and be found in him for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord." He had present consolations, very precious and sustaining; for he was supported by the grace which ever proved sufficient for him, and, knowing whom he trusted, he was persuaded that he was able to keep that which was committed unto him against that day. And when the mercy and favour of the present were added to the glorious prospects of a heavenly inheritance, how could the sufferings of life be allowed to counterbalance privileges so precious and hopes so bright?
IV THIS IS A CALCULATION WHICH HAS SUSTAINED THE FAITH AND COURAGE OF MULTITUDES OF BELIEVERS IN CHRIST IN EVERY AGE. This has been the case, not only with those who have been called upon to witness to their Saviour by public labours and by public sufferings, with those who have contended upon the high places of the field; but also with myriads of lowly, faithful, patient hearts, that have endured in silence the reproach of Christ, that have borne in silence the cross of Christ. The well-founded hope of glory has animated and sustained such amidst petty persecutions, amidst galling misrepresentations, amidst spiritual conflicts, fightings without and fears within. The hymns of the Church are a witness to this; in every land and in every age these hymns have expressed the longings of the universal heart of Christendom for the repose, the fellowship, the delights, of the heavenly Jerusalem. And they have been wont to make these longings centre in that Divine Redeemer who is the Sun of the eternal city, and whose presence makes it light and glorious.
V THIS IS A CALCULATION WHICH MAY BE COMMENDED TO ALL CHRISTIANS WHO ARE CAST DOWN AND DISTRESSED BY THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE WAY. Some are tried by adversity, and are tempted to say of the circumstances surrounding them, "All these things are against me." Others are smitten by bereavement; their dear and trusted friends are taken from their side by death. Others are persecuted for righteousness" sake. Others endure great spiritual conflicts, and sometimes know not how to bear up against the assaults of the adversary. Others are weary, in body and in mind, under the pressure of cares and responsibilities. To all such it is lawful to say, end of all things is at hand." The period of probation is nearly over. Hold on a little longer. "Be faithful unto death." There awaits you rest after your pilgrimage, and triumph after your warfare, songs after your tears, and glory after your depression. The revelation of which the text speaks is not far off. And, in the glory it shall manifest, all your weariness and woes shall be forgotten. You shall see Jesus, and in his presence no darkness is.
Vers. 18-25. The redemption of the creation
"If so be that we suffer with him." Then we do suffer? Yes, even as he did. For ours is a redemptive history, and redemption is not without pain. But the future oh, how the glory eclipses all the momentary trial! So was it with himself. "For the joy that was set before him," he "endured the cross, despising the shame". (Heb_12:2) And so shall it be with us. We may well join the apostle in his triumphant outburst of hope, "For I reckon," etc. Ours is the hope of an immortal glory; nay, the hope is the hope of the world: "the earnest expectation of the creation," etc. So, then, we have for our consideration the present pains, the future glory.
I THE PRESENT PAINS.
1. Of the creation. This expression must not be toned down. It refers to all the creation, outside of man himself, with which man has to do; our "world," which is connected by a mysterious solidarity with ourselves, sorrowing in our sorrow, rejoicing in our joy. Once? It was "very good;" all was harmony, beauty, peace. We may not tell what were the joys of the early creation, but it was the garden of the Lord, the paradise of man. The ravages of the storm, the desolations of the wilderness, were then unknown; the creatures preyed not one upon another then; love, liberty, and life were all in all. But man"s fall drew a shadow-oh, how dark! across the beauty; and for love, liberty, and life, there were then strife, bondage, death! "The creation was subjected to vanity;" yes, cursed was the world for man"s sake. And now? Look around you: "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together." The earthquake and storm, the arid desert and dreary seas, the inhospitable clime, the unfriendly skies, the blighted harvests the shadow of the cross! And the ravages of the animal world: destruction, pain, death. And at last? "The fashion of this world passeth away!
2. Of ourselves. The nature-part of us is likewise subject to vanity:" we groan. Disease, death of our own frame and organic life; of our relationships. Oh, how we are mocked: dust, dust, dust!
II THE FUTURE GLORY.
1. Of ourselves. We are God"s children by faith in Christ; his adopted ones. But though the adoption is real, it is not yet manifest to the universe. No, nor to ourselves in its fulness. As though a beggar-child were adopted by a king, but for a while must still appear in beggar-garments. Oh, it shall not be always so! The beggar-garments shall be cast away, and the royal robe assumed; our sonship shall be made manifest to all: we wait "for the redemption of our body." Yes, God"s purposes shall be accomplished; in the resurrection of the Son they are pledged to fulfilment; the body of our humiliation shall be made like to the body of his glory, and "then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
2. Of the creation. But if we wait, and wait in hope, so does our creation wait, groan, yearn for the revealing of the sons of God. The apokaradokia ! The decay and death not intrinsically pertaining to it; no, not if God"s world. The vanity to which it was subjected, the mockery of aim, the frustration of purpose, this was all "in hope." And as by man came the curse, by man comes the blessing. Bondage, corruption, through the sin? Yes; and liberty, glory, through the great redemption! Whatever of evil was done, shall be undone; the blot shall be wiped away; the shadow shall pass that the eternal light may shine. And all our relationships with the world, and with one another, these shall be remade then; delivered, glorified! Oh, how the heart has bled bled because of the frustrations and rendings of this world. Oh, how the heart shall bound bound with the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ; a gospel, not in word only, but in power, delivering power that shall work its deliverance on man"s whole nature, all man"s relationships, man"s whole world!
Shall ours, then, not be the patience wait for it "? Yes for he giveth grace. But shall we not know something of the triumph too? Shall we not grasp the future, and almost live in it as though the present were not? Yes; for ourselves, for our dear ones, for our dear world, "I reckon" etc. T.F.L.
Vers. 18-30. Salvation in spite of suffering.
"Paradise regained" in this life is not a sorrowless and painless condition. The sons of God are chastened. They know what suffering is. And there is here the great religious evidence. When the world sees men and women composed and even cheerful amid untold tribulation, then it sees a reality in religion. Job, for instance, was an evidence for the reality of religion that, even Satan himself could not gainsay or deny. How is it that the Christian spirit can assert its supremacy amid suffering of the most intense character? It is because it is enabled to keep its eye on the hidden good, and bless God for it. And so in this section we have the spirit of the apostle asserting itself upon this important subject.
I THERE IS THE CONTRAST BETWEEN PRESENT SUFFERINGS AND THE PERFECTED SANCTIFICATION. (Ver. 18) God"s end in his dispensations is to create a glory in us of an eternal character the glory of sanctification when it comes in fulness. We may see the price we pay in the stanzas of the poetess. "Through long days did Anguish, And sad nights did Pain, Forge my shield, Endurance, Bright and free from stain! "Doubt, in misty caverns, "Mid dark horrors sought, Till my peerless jewel, Faith, to me she brought, "Sorrow that I wearied Should remain so long, Wreathed my starry glory The bright crown of Song. Strife that racked my spirit Without hope or rest, Left the blooming flower, Patience, in my breast. (Miss Procter"s "Legends and Lyrics")
Now, when we look at what is paid and what is bought, we must admit that the bargain is a good one, for the glory of sanctification is weighty and eternal. "The light affliction," says the apostle elsewhere, "which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. (2Co_4:17)
II IN SUFFERING WE ARE IN FELLOWSHIP WITH THE WHOLE CREATION. (Vers. 19-22) When we look into the Book of Job we see that the man of God is a special sufferer. But God points out in the sequel of the book that the perplexity in Job"s experience is matched by the perplexity which pervades all nature. So is it with suffering. We may see it all through nature. Suffering human nature is only in line with suffering nature. And here we have to remark that:
1. The study of nature shows long progress through suffering towards higher forms. This is the lesson of evolution so far as it is a truth. The "struggle for existence" is painful progress towards more perfect forms. It may seem to our philosophic laureate a mystery that nature should be "so careful of the type," and "so careless of the single life;" nay, he goes on to see that she lets "a thousand types" go, and seems to care for nothing.But if we take the great procession as a whole, we may see that it embodies progress through pain to more perfect form. The groaning creation thus sheds light on sanctification through suffering and pain.
2. Out of the present is to be born a new state of things in which nature shall share in the restoration of the sons of God. The very word "nature," which signifies "something about to be born," is a prophecy similar to what the apostle here gives. If Nature, without any moral fault, has been subjected to vanity; if it has, without consent on her part, been made the painful illustration of moral and spiritual truth; then we may expect a just Governor like God to give Nature compensation, and allow her to share in the glorious liberty of his children. It is surely significant that that manly Christian, Frank Buckland, when he was dying, said, "I am going a long journey where I think I shall see a great many curious animals. This journey I must go alone." As animals were saved in the ark with Noah, and in Nineveh with the penitent Ninevites, is it not reasonable to suppose that they shall have some share in the regeneration of all things?
III MAN AS THE SOUL OF THE WORLD INTERPRETS THE TRAVAIL OF THE CREATION. (Vers. 23-27) And here we cannot do better than take up the points as St. Paul gives them.
1. Man"s aspiration about the body. (Ver. 23) For the body is to be redeemed, not discarded. It is this "hope" which saves us in our present distresses (ver. 24). If we had not this hope, we should inevitably despair. And along with hope comes patience, so that "the patience of hope" becomes the attitude of all faithful souls. Then:
2. The Holy Spirit endorses our groaning after the better bodies. (Ver. 26) Prayer is not all articulate. A groan, a sigh, a tear, may have all the elements of prayer addressed to the heart of the Most High. Now, some saints have had such suffering communicated to them as compelled them to groan with desire after a better, because promised condition. These groans, that are too deep to be articulate, are Spirit-prompted. He pressed from tried spirits these unutterable longings.
3. God, the Heart-searcher, responds to these unutterable groans. (Ver. 27) We have here the whole philosophy of prayer. It is the inspired expression, articulately or otherwise, of what is agreeable to the Divine will, and the Heart-searcher recognizes in the prompted prayer the return to him of his own will, and so can answer it. ()
IV THIS IS THE BEST POSSIBLE WORLD FOR ONE WHO LOVES GOD. (Ver. 28) There is a certain idealism which inspires us all. According to our inward state is our outward world. in ourselves that we are thus or thus." Consequently, if we have learned to love God, we take all things as animated by a Divine purpose of good to us. Suffering may come, but it comes to sanctify. Faith thus becomes optimistic. It lifts up its head, knowing that its redemption draweth nigh. It refuses to be pessimistic. In spite of all drawbacks, the glory of sanctification is on its way. And so those who have been called by a loving God to the exercise of love, find as they look about them that all things are co-operating for God"s holy end of making his children holier and fitter for his fellowship. We could not be better situated than we are for sanctification. A poet on the subject "It is well" has thus written "So they said, who saw the wonders Of Messiah"s power and love; So they sing, who see his glory In the Father"s house above: Ever reading in each record Of the strangely varied past, "All was well which God appointed, All has wrought for good at last." "And thus, while years are fleeting, Though our joys are with them gone, In thy changeless love rejoicing We shall journey calmly on; Till at last, all sorrow over, Each our tale of grace shall tell, In the heavenly chorus joining: "Lord, thou hast done all things well! (Cf. Randolph"s "Changed Cross, and other Poems")
V CONFORMITY TO CHRIST"S GLORIOUS IMAGE IS WHAT GOD HAS IN VIEW FOR THOSE HE CALLS. (Vers. 29, 30) The gospel is God"s plan for securing a multitude of children who shall all become Christ-like. He sent his only Child, "the only begotten Son," into the world to secure many brethren, and be the Firstborn among them. No narrow jealousies here! In the holiest sense it is true regarding God"s family that "the more" there are in it, "the merrier" will all be. Now, God"s purpose, foreknowledge, and predestination are robbed of every repulsive feature, when we bear in mind that individuals are not predestinated to salvation without regard to their moral state. They are predestinated to become Christ-like. Men may reject the call of God to Christ-likeness, but his purpose is not nullified by such wickedness. His purpose was pure in calling them, even though they reject the call. And so it is in the light of this holy purpose to make men Christ-like that we are to regard the predestination, and the call, and the justification, and the glorification. The glory when reached, the glory of Christ-likeness, sheds its heavenly halo over all. May we all reach that paradise of experience, likeness to our blessed Lord! R.M.E.
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 vv17, 18, 19, 23 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and…
Rom_8:17
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.
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Sonship: certainty and uncertainty about
It is not easy to imagine a more cautious, lawyer-like record than that of Lord Eldons, I was born, I believe, on the 4th of June, 1751. We may suppose that this hesitating statement refers to the date, and not to the fact of his birth. Many, however, are just as uncertain about their spiritual birth. It is a grand thing to be able to say, We have passed from death unto life, even though we may not be able to post a date to it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Sons and heirs
God Himself is His greatest gift. The loftiest blessing which we can receive is that we should be heirs, possessors of God. The text tells us--
I. No inheritance without sonship,
1. The lower creatures are shut out from the gifts which belong to the higher forms of life, because these cannot find entrance into their nature. Man has higher gifts because he has higher capacities. In man there are more windows and doors knocked out. He can think, and feel, and desire, and will, and resolve; and so he stands on a higher level.
2. And so Spiritual blessings require a spiritual capacity for the reception of them; you cannot have the inheritance unless you are sons. Salvation is not chiefly a deliverance from outward consequences, but a renewal of the nature that makes these consequences certain.
3. But the inheritance is also future, and the same principle applies there. There is no heaven without sonship; because all its blessings are spiritual. It is not the golden harps, etc. that makes the heaven of heaven; but the possession of God. To dwell in His love, and to be filled with His light, and to walk for ever in the glory of His sunlit face, to do His will, and to bear His character stamped upon our foreheads--that is the glory and the perfectness to which we are aspiring. Do not then rest in the symbols that show us, darkly and far-off, what that future glory is.
4. Well then, if all that be true, what a flood of light does it cast upon the text! For who can possess God but they who love Him? who can love but they who know His love? How can there be fellowship betwixt Him and any one except the man who is a son because he hath received of the Divine nature, and in whom that Divine nature is growing up into a Divine likeness?
II. No sonship without a spiritual birth.
1. The Apostle John, in that most wonderful preface to his Gospel, teaches that sonship is not a relation into which we are born by natural birth, that we become sons after we are men, and that we become sons by a Divine act, the communication of a spiritual life, whereby we are born of God. The same apostle, in his Epistles, contrasts the sons of God who are known for such because they do righteousness, and the world which knew not Christ, and says, In this the children of God are manifested and the children of the devil--echoing thus Christs words, If God were your Father, ye would love Me: ye are of your father, the devil.
2. Nothing in all this contradicts the belief that all men are the children of God inasmuch as they are shaped by His Divine hand, and He has breathed into their nostrils the breath of life, But, notwithstanding, it still remains true that there are men created by God, loved and cared for by Him, for whom Christ died, who might be, but are not, sons of God.
3. Fatherhood! what does that word itself teach us? It involves that the Father and the child shall have kindred life, and that between the Fathers heart and the childs heart there shall pass answering love, flashing backwards and forwards, like the lightning that touches the earth and rises from it again. A simple appeal to your own consciousness will decide if that be the condition of all men. No sonship except by spiritual birth; and if not such sonship, then the spirit of bondage. You are sons because born again, or slaves and enemies by wicked works.
III. No spiritual birth without Christ. If for sonship there must be a birth, the very symbol shows that such a process does not lie within our own power. The centre point of the gospel is this regeneration. If we understand that the gospel simply comes to make men live better, to work out a moral reformation--why, there is no need for a gospel at all. If the change were a simple change of habit and action on the part of men, we could do without a Christ. But if redemption be the giving of life from God, and the change of position in reference to Gods love and Gods law, neither of these two changes can a man effect for himself. No new birth without Christ; no escape from the old standing-place, enemies to God by wicked works, by anything that we can do. But Christ has effected an actual change in the aspect of the Divine government to us; and He has carried in the golden urn of His humanity a new spirit and a new life which He has set down in the midst of the race; and the urn was broken on the Cross of Calvary, and the water flowed out, and whithersoever that water comes there is life, and whithersoever it comes not there is death!
IV. No Christ without faith. Unless we are wedded to Jesus Christ by the simple act of trust in His mercy and His power, Christ is nothing to us. We may talk about Christ for ever. He may be to us much that is very precious; but the question of questions, on which everything else depends, is, Am I trusting to Him as my Divine Redeemer? am I resting in Him as the Son of God? Ceremonies, notions, beliefs, formal participation in worship is nothing. Christ is everything to him that trusts Him. Christ is nothing but a judge and a condemnation to him that trusts Him not. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Heirs of God
We begin in order with the privilege itself, which belongs to Gods children by virtue of their adoption: And if children, then heirs. That all Gods children are heirs. Whosoever do partake of the relation, they do partake of the inheritance. This is suitable and agreeable to some other places of Scripture (Gal_3:28-29; Gal_4:7; Tit_3:7). Now there is a various account which may be given hereof unto us, which we may take in these following particulars. First, their Fathers affection and special love which He bears unto them. Affection has a very great influence oftentimes upon an inheritance. There is affection and there is the constancy and immutability of it. Secondly, as there is their Fathers affection, so there is likewise their Fathers promise; as we know how Bathsheba urged it to David in the case of Solomon, against Adonijah (1Ki_1:17). Thirdly, their very relation and condition wherein they are it gives them right and title hereto. Fourthly, the largeness and vastness of the estate, that is another advancement hereunto. All Gods children are heirs, because there is means enough for them all. But here it may be seasonably demanded, What is it that Gods children do inherit, and are heirs unto? First, for the things of this life. They are heirs of them, and have a special right and title to them. All things are yours, says the apostle, and amongst the rest he reckons the world (1Co_3:21-22). It is true that these things are not their portion. But yet they are oftentimes their possession. Gods children they have an interest and a propriety even in temporal blessings; and such as none other else have besides themselves, for they have a sanctified right in them. No good thing will God withhold from them that walk uprightly. Secondly, they are heirs more especially of the things of a better; and they are reducible to two heads, as the Scripture itself reduces them. Grace and glory (Psa_84:11)--the one considered as the means, and the other considered as the end. Gods children they are heirs of them both. First, for grace and holiness. This is not a small kind of portion which Gods children have an interest in. Heirs of the grace of life (1Pe_3:7). All the graces of the Spirit, they belong to the children of God, and they are heirs, as it were, of them. Secondly, which is here principally to be understood: they are heirs of glory, and so frequently denominated. Heirs of salvation (Heb_1:14); heirs of the kingdom (Jam_2:5); heirs of eternal life (Tit_3:7; Col_1:12). This we have assured unto us by the firstfruits of the Spirit within us. We may see what we are likely to have hereafter by what already we partake of here, in the beginnings of heaven to us. In what proportion this inheritance of the saints is dispensed and distributed unto them. Because it is said here that they all have a share in this business. That though all Gods children are heirs of eternal happiness and glory, yet they are not all of them in the same degree partakers of it. As a father may give portions to all his children, but one may have a greater portion than the rest. It is said of Elkanah, in his carriage to Hannah, that he gave her a worthy portion, or, as some read it, a double portion. And Benjamins lot from Joseph it was five times as much as of the rest of his brethren. Thus is it likewise in Gods dispensations. He gives a portion to all His children, but He gives not the same portion to them all. Though the same for kind and specification, yet not the same for degrees and intention. All the saints shall come to heaven, but some may go further in than the rest. Therefore this should stir us all up to an endeavour after the greatest measure that may be. And now for the life and application of the whole doctrine itself to our selves. We may draw it forth in a threefold improvement especially. First: Here is that which may satisfy Gods children which are in a mean and low condition here in the world, as it is possible for them to be, and as sometimes they are. Though they may be destitute of many things here, yet they are heirs of heaven. Secondly, it further teaches Gods children to live answerably to this noble condition, and the inheritance which they are appointed unto. First, in a holy magnanimity and nobleness of spirit. Secondly, in making good their titles, and clearing their evidences for heaven. Those who are great heirs they are careful to make good their inheritances, and to prove their right and interest in them, Thirdly, in more cheerful service and obedience to Gods commands. We should henceforth serve Him not as bare hirelings, but as those who are sons and heirs. Fourthly, take heed of losing it and parting with it upon any terms whatsoever. Take heed of Esau, that parted with his birthright. Lastly, seeing Gods children are heirs, and are heirs of glory, we see then from hence the vanity of those persons who would make salvation to be a matter of merit. The second is the explication or amplification of this privilege to them, and that consists of two branches. The first is taken from the person that they are heirs of: heirs of God. And the second is taken from the person that they are heirs with: joint heirs with Christ. We begin with the first of these branches, viz., the person that they are: Heirs of God. This is added here by the Apostle Paul both by way of explication and of enlargement. When we hear that Gods children are heirs we might be ready, it may be, presently to dream of some earthly inheritance. They are heirs of God, as the giver of the inheritance; and they are heirs of God, as the inheritance itself which is given unto them. First, they are so relative. Heirs of God, as related to Him for such a purpose as this is. It is He that does entitle them to all the things. They are heirs of God, they have a worthy and an honourable inheritance. There is some credit in being heir unto Him. Secondly, in point of profit, heirs of God. Heirs of God; therefore not only honourable, but rich. They must needs be great heirs, because He is great Himself and has great revenues (1Co_10:26). Thirdly, in point of conveniency and accommodation. There is a great matter in point of inheritance. The manner of ordering and disposing of it to the best advantage of him that shall heir it, and as to the circumstances wherewith he does enjoy it. Secondly, heirs of God. They are such as do inherit God Himself. He that is their Father is also their portion. And He which gives them the inheritance is the inheritance itself which He gives them. Sometimes the Lord is pleased to account His people to be His inheritance. The Lords portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance (Deu_32:9). And sometimes again He is pleased to declare Himself to be theirs (Psa_73:25-26; Lam_3:24; Psa_16:5; Gen_16:1-16; Gen_17:1). Now for the opening of this point unto us, that we may know what this business is of inheriting God Himself. The meaning of it is this--to have full interest in all His attributes. His wisdom is theirs, to direct them. His power is theirs, to preserve them. His goodness is theirs, to relieve them. His justice is theirs, to avenge them. His faithfulness is theirs, to support them. Every good is so much the more excellent, and the rather to be prized by us, as it is anything more large and comprehensive, and is containing of other things in it. Why thus it is now to be an heir of God. We have in Him everything else. All the beams of comfort in the creature they are derived from this Sun. And so again, in the want of other things, he may very much comfort himself in this. Alas, what are the stars to the sun? And what are the streams to the fountain? The second is taken from the person whom they are heirs with--Joint heirs with Christ. Believers, they do partake of the same inheritance with the Son of God Himself. First, here is this implied, that Christ Himself is an heir, and an heir of God. Thus Heb_1:2 He is called the heir of all things. Again, besides, as He is an heir by nature, so He is also an heir by donation. Therefore He is said in the place before alleged to be appointed heir. The Father hath given all things to Christ (Mat_11:27). Thus is Christ an heir by gift. Therefore we see what great cause we have to please Him, and to endeavour to be in favour with Him. We see how it is amongst men. How careful they are to give contentment to an heir if it be but of some ordinary inheritance. The second is that which is expressed, that as Christ Himself is an heir, so Gods children are heirs also with Him (Gal_4:7; Mat_19:28). This must needs be so. First, in regard of that union which is knit betwixt Christ and His Church. Gods children, they are members of Christ, therefore they must be heirs with Him (1Co_12:12; 1Co_12:22). Secondly, this is grounded in His promise which He hath made to us. Thirdly, His prayer for us (Joh_17:20-24). Fourthly, His office towards us as He is the Mediator of the Church. Therefore all things which come to us they must come to us through His hands. Now the life of all to ourselves comes to this. First, we see here how nearly it concerns us to find ourselves to be ingrafted into Christ and to become members of Him. Secondly, we may from hence see the certainty and infallibility of a Christians salvation. We are joint-heirs with Christ. Therefore He being glorified, we shall be glorified also. Thirdly, we should hence learn to love Christ, and to give Him the glory of all. Considering that all we have it is from Him, and by Him. If we are elected, we are elected in Christ. If we are justified, we are justified for Christ. If we are sanctified we are sanctified through Christ. If we are glorified we are glorified with Christ. Christ is all in all unto us. (Thomas Horton, D.D.)
Heirs of God
I. The privileges of Gods children.
1. Heirs of God.
2. Joint heirs with Christ.
3. Glorified together.
II. The connection between the privilege and the relation.
1. None but children.
2. All children participate.
III. The condition of final glory.
1. If so be we suffer.
2. With Christ.
3. For Him.
4. Like Him. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Heirs of God
I. The ground of heirship.
1. It does not follow from ordinary creation. It is not if creatures, then heirs.
2. Neither is it found in natural descent. It is not if children of Abraham then heirs (Rom_9:7-13).
3. Nor can it come by meritorious service. It is not if servants, then heirs (Gal_4:30).
4. Nor by ceremonial observances. It is not if circumcised or baptized, then heirs (Rom_4:9-12).
5. Our being born again of God by His Spirit is the one ground of heirship. Let us inquire--
(1) Have we been born again (Joh_3:3)?
(2) Have we the spirit of adoption (Gal_4:6)?
(3) Are we fashioned in the likeness of God (Col_3:10)?
(4) Have we believed on Jesus (Joh_1:12)?
II. The universality of the heirship. Children, then heirs.
1. The principle of priority as to time cannot enter into this question. The elder and the younger in the Divine family are equally heirs.
2. The love of God is the same to them all.
3. They are all blessed under the same promise (Heb_6:17).
4. They are all equally related to that great First-born Son through whom their heirship comes to them. He is the first-born among many brethren.
5. The inheritance is large enough for them all. They are not all prophets, preachers, apostles, or even well-instructed and eminent saints; they are not all rich and influential; they are not all strong and useful; but they are all heirs. Let us, then, all live as such, and rejoice in our portion.
III. The inheritance which is the subject of heirship. Heirs of God.
1. Our inheritance is Divinely great. We are--Heirs of--
(1) All things (Rev_21:7; 1Co_3:21).
(2) Salvation (Heb_1:14).
(3) Eternal life (Tit_3:7).
(4) Promise (Heb_6:17).
(5) The grace of life (1Pe_3:7).
(6) Righteousness (Heb_11:7).
(7) The kingdom (Jam_2:5).
2. Whereas we are said to be heirs of God, it must mean that we are heirs of--
(1) All that God possesses.
(2) All that God is. Of His love; for God is love. Hence heirs of all possible good; for God is good.
(3) God Himself. What an infinite portion!
(4) All that Jesus has and is, as God and man.
IV. The partnership of the claimants to heirship. And joint heirs with Christ.
1. This is the test of our heirship. We are not heirs except with Christ, through Christ, and in Christ.
2. This sweetens it all. Fellowship with Jesus is our best portion.
3. This shows the greatness of the inheritance. Worthy of Jesus. Such an inheritance as the Father gives to the well-beloved.
4. This ensures it to us; for Jesus will not lose it, and His title-deed and ours are one and indivisible.
5. This reveals and endears His love. That He should become a partner with us in all things is love unbounded.
(1) His taking us into union with Himself secures our inheritance.
(2) His prayer for us attains it.
(3) His going into heaven before us prepares it.
(4) His coming again will bring us the full enjoyment of it.
6. This joint heirship binds us faster to Jesus, since we are nothing, and have nothing apart from Him.
Conclusion--
1. Let us joyfully accept the present suffering with Christ, for it is part of the heritage.
2. Let us believe in the ultimate glorification and anticipate it with joy. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Heirs of God
I. Then the Christian is going to a rich home and a glorious future. Therefore, he ought not to be too much elated or depressed by the pleasures or privations of the journey. An eye to the rest and glory at the end should keep him from getting weary of the way.
II. Then the Christian should not debase himself by an undue attachment to the things of time. How unreasonable to see an heir of God so swallowed up in the world that he has neither taste nor time to pray, or make suitable efforts to get ready for His Heavenly inheritance.
III. Then no man should speak of having made sacrifices in becoming a Christian.
IV. Then an heir of God should be made meet for his inheritance. Without a meetness for it, the inheritance would be a burden rather than a blessing.
V. Then, in securing this meetness, the Christian may confidently expect Divine aid. (T. Kelly)
.
Heirs of God
I. The privilege of Gods children.
1. As the law of nature and the institutions of society authorise children to expect the possession of property which once belonged to their parents, so God has pledged Himself that He will act the part of a Father.
2. Looked at with the eye of sense, the inheritance of Gods children on this world is not much to be envied; but, in reality, whatever be their outward lot, they are all the while richer than the richest, and greater than the greatest.
3. They may be said to be heirs of God even at present, inasmuch as they are entitled, by virtue of His covenant, to as much of what God is, and has, as shall be requisite for their welfare.
4. Of the future inheritance we have various accounts. It is--
(1) An inheritance among them that are sanctified. Heaven will confer on those who are admitted into it, a much higher degree of holiness than they before attained.
(2) An inheritance of the saints in light. In heaven we shall receive a great addition to our knowledge.
(3) An inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. The circumstances of earthly parents may be suddenly reversed, and their children therefore deprived of the inheritance. But the children of God have nothing to apprehend from reverses. All those ideas are epitomised in the text. God shall be, in heaven, fully and perfectly His peoples portion. More than this God cannot promise or give.
5. Further particulars are included in the phrase, joint-heirs with Christ, and glorified together, viz:--
(1) That we are altogether indebted to Gods mercy in Christ, for our title to the inheritance. Heaven is a purchased possession; not by penitence or faith, holiness or usefulness, suffering or dying, but by the precious blood of Christ.
(2) That the title of true believers is in the highest degree valid and satisfactory. Christs title is unquestionable; what He hath amply merited He hath a right to bestow; and He wills to bestow it upon all believers. There are, indeed, differences between Christs title and ours. His is original, earned by Himself; ours is borrowed. His is one actually recognised. He is in possession of the inheritance; whereas we are but on our way to it. But He has gone as our forerunner to take possession for us.
(3) That there shall be a blessed similarity in point of nature--though, of course, not in degree--between the enjoyment of Christ in heaven and the enjoyment of His glorified people there. The glory which Thou givest Me I have given them.
II. The connection between this privilege and our relation to God as His children. If children, then heirs. This, of course, implies--
1. That none but children will be recognised as heirs, or be allowed to inherit.
2. That all children are heirs. In the arrangements of human society, and it often happens that the estates descend exclusively to the male children, or to the eldest. But this is not the rule which God will adept. If children--it matters not whether sons or daughters--then heirs. Nor will this inheritance lose any value from being distributed among so many. Every man in heaven will feel himself much the happier, because he will know there are so many millions of ransomed spirits who share the same bliss.
III. The way in which we are to walk so as to secure the actual bestowment of this privilege. First of all, to become children, we must apply to God in the way of penitence and faith that our sentence of alienation may be reversed. But if children, we are not to conclude that there is no further need of watchfulness or prayer. We are to remember the other clause:--If so be, etc. Not that the sufferings of the saints are--like those of Christ--meritorious. Yet they may be fitly termed suffering with Christ--
1. Because a large portion of the suffering of good people comes upon them in consequence of their devotedness to the truth, and cause, and service of Christ. If we would forsake Christ we should then escape much of--
(1) The worlds reproach.
(2) Temptation from Satan.
(3) Self-denial.
(4) Providential sufferings. Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
2. If it be endured in the temper and spirit of Christ, who said, Not My will, but Thine be done. The servant is not above his lord. Ought the private soldier to complain of privations or perils to which his general submits? It is not hard or unreasonable that we suffer with Christ before we are glorified, because the subsequent glory will far more than compensate the previous suffering (verse 18). Conclusion: We learn from this subject the extreme desirableness and importance of being found among the regenerated people of God. Many of you have realised these privileges. Then--
1. Be thankful.
2. Be submissive to your worldly lot.
3. Be consistent, be heavenly minded.
4. Remember what God requires of you in order to your being glorified--that you should suffer with Him. (J. Bunting, D.D.)
The heirs of God
I. The supposition. If children, then heirs.
1. Unquestionably, in a general sense, God is the Father of all mankind. But the New Testament continually speaks of a higher form of paternity and childhood. This men may or may not sustain. If all men, without exception, were the children of God there would be no if about it, just as any hypothetical expression is unknown in heaven; or if all men were so placed that it was impossible for them ever to sustain any relation to God, but the general one of creatures, then, also, there would be no room for question, just as there is none in respect to the brutes that perish, or to the devils and the damned in hell. The possibility of using conditional language, in relation to men, involves the idea that while they may be, in the language of Scripture, children of the wicked one, they may also be sons of God in the highest and most emphatic acceptation. In relation to this subject, we may employ the language, Howbeit, that is not first that is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual. In neither case, however, does it necessarily follow that the spiritual must succeed the natural. Men may live and never be changed in the spirit of their minds; and they may die, and not rise after the likeness of the Lords glorious body. But if any man is a child of God, then the Scripture teaches that this is his second state, not his first; that he has undergone, or been the subject of, a process by which he has passed from the one to the other.
2. This process is described as being born of the Spirit, created anew, quickened, raised from the dead, etc., and we cannot suppose that this is accomplished by the mechanical agency of any outward rite. It is represented as connected with repentance and faith in Christ.
3. In addition to an actual spiritual birth, we have the frequent use of the word adoption, to illustrate the process by which man passes from his first to his second condition. This word is used in allusion to the reception into a family of a slave or a stranger. In like manner men, who, contemplated as sinners, are strangers, foreigners, and in bondage to the devil, are taken out of this state of distance and degradation, and, by an act of Gods grace adopted into His family and constituted His sons.
4. And however humbling it may be to think of the necessity in which we stand of adoption and renewal, yet that nature is not to be disparaged, respecting which such things are possible. A brute animal could not be adopted and made a child by man; nor if it were could it be made the subject of human sympathies and affections. And so, unless man, in spite of all his corruption, had within him a nature distinguished by moral and religious capacity, it would be impossible for him to be either adopted by or born of God; and that nature of which this can be said, however ruined now, must have been originally great and God-like.
II. The distinguished privilege.
1. An heir is one who, by legal or natural right, possesses a title to an inheritance. A stranger may be constituted such, in virtue of the will and deed of another; a child may be such from natural relationship. Both these ideas are employed in Scripture to illustrate the subject. Men, considered as guilty, need pardon or justification, which is a legal as well as merciful act on the part of God, by which the relation of men to law is altered. It is in connection with this act that adoption is more especially to be regarded, and the heirship of the adopted as flowing from that act. Thus Paul speaks in the Epistle to Titus--being justified, we are made heirs, according to the hope of eternal life. As possessing a corrupt nature men need to be regenerated, in virtue of which they become Gods children, not merely by a legal or declaratory act, but by the positive sanctification of their nature, and then heirship results by way of natural consequence. Thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir.
2. Heirs of God. It would seem to be impossible to have too high ideas of what may be anticipated by those who are the children and heirs of a Divine Parent; of Him who created and who possesses all things; whose paternal affection is measureless, and who even speaks of Himself as the portion of His people.
3. Joint heirs with Christ. There is something in this expression more than the idea of filial relationship to God. That to which the Christian is heir is not merely the inheritance of a son, but of such a son as Christ is represented to be: the only begotten and well-beloved of the Father, in whom He is ever well pleased. The Church is His body, and whatever glory invests the head, the members participate.
Conclusion: From all this we learn--
1. The love and power of God.
2. The ultimate security of the Church.
3. Obligations and motives to obedience.
4. Encouragement to all anxious and earnest men, who are seriously inquiring for and seeking after God. (T. Binney)
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The believers heirship
This little word if intimates to us that all men are not children of God. No doubt there is a sense in which His intelligent creatures generally may be regarded as His offspring. But the title sons of God is confined exclusively to those who have been re-created in His image.
I. How, then, may we know whether we be the children of God or not?
1. By the consciousness we have that we have complied with those conditions of repentance and faith, on the fulfilment of which the privilege is suspended.
2. By believing the testimony of the Word, which declares that all those who thus repent and believe are acknowledged to be the children of God.
3. By considering the fruits of grace in our lives, and then comparing these with the characteristics of sonship which are delineated in the Word of God.
4. By the fact that we have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
5. By the direct witnessing of the Spirit itself, with and to our spirits, that we are the children of God.
II. if children, then heirs. The children of the wealthy and noble are the heirs of nobility and wealth. Now, it is not strange that Gods children should also be heirs; for who is so rich and noble as their Heavenly Father?
1. They come into possession of their inheritance, not on the death of their Father (for He can never die), but when they reach their majority. This occurs at different periods of spiritual life, and under varying circumstances of purification and trial; for some are no sooner born of God than they are ready for translation, while others have, like the Captain of their salvation, to be made perfect through suffering.
2. That inheritance is--
(1) A reality. It may not, indeed, consist of tangible tenements, land, silver and gold; but it does consist of all that can gratify the cravings of an immortal spirit. Whether you call heaven a place or a state, it is a possession and an enjoyment--
(2) Vast and grand, surpassing all that earthly potentates have ever coveted or earthly conquerors won.
(3) Pure and undefiled, neither acquired by injustice nor retained by wrong.
(4) Ensured. Every child of the new birth is born to it; nor is there any man who can rob him of it.
(4) Enduring. It fadeth not away.
(5) There is this difference, that whereas on earth the portion of each diminishes as the number of heirs is increased, in heaven it is quite the reverse. Have we not, then, a direct interest in seeking to take others with us to glory?
III. joint heirs with Christ.
1. Our heavenly happiness is to be of the same nature as His. If His consists of transcendent holiness, and dignity, authority, and power, then ours will comprehend the same elements of felicity.
2. Our happiness will be realised in the same state, or place, or sphere as His. Where He is, we shall be also.
3. Our inheritance has been purchased, or procured by the same means as His. By His sufferings, for after these came the glory; and all those sufferings were endured for us. Jesus has conquered for us our inheritance by the conquest of His own.
In conclusion:
1. Be humble. The heirs of earthly kingdoms are apt to be elated with pride in proportion to the magnitude of their prospective possessions. But with the sons of God, the clearer their views of future glory, the more astounded are they with the greatness of the gift of God; and this proportionally makes them feel their own unworthiness.
2. Be hearty. How much owest thou to thy Lord? How, then, shouldst thou love, praise, own, obey, and serve Him!
3. Be holy. Thou art an heir of glory. How, then, shouldest thou prepare for it? (T. G. Horton.)
The Christians heirship
I was in a provincial town some time ago, when I was told of a nobleman who for many years worked as a porter in the railway station, because he did not know his true position in the world, till one day a gentleman entered the station, and after saluting him said, Sir, may I ask your name? John--, was the answer. I have come to tell you that you are the Earl of--, and entitled to a large estate, replied the visitor. Do you think that man stood about the station touching his cap for tips any longer? Not he. He took possession of his inheritance at once. That is just what we Christians should do.
The joint heirs and their Divine portion
Let us--
I. Consider the terms of the will.
1. Our right to the Divine heritage stands or falls with Christs right to the same.
(1) If He be not truly an heir, neither are we.
(a) If there be any flaw in the will, then it is no more valid for Christ than it is for us.
(b) Perhaps there may be a suit in law made against the will. But then it is Christs interest that is at stake as well as mine. If Satan bring an accusation against us, that accusation is made against Christ, for we are one with Him. You must enter your suit against the Head if you would attack the members.
(c) Yet suppose, after the will has been proved, it shall be found that nothing is left to distribute, or a debt against the estate? Why, if we get nothing, Christ gets nothing; if there should be no heaven for us, there is no heaven for Christ.
(d) And then suppose that, though there be something left, yet it be a mere trifle; that heaven should be but inferior joy, such as might be found even in this world. Then saints with little glory means Christ with little.
(2) 1 have been dwelling upon the black side in order to bring the bright one out by contrast. Let us revel in that contrast.
(a) There is no flaw in Gods will with regard to Christ, and He has said, I will that they whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am.
(b) No suit in law can stand against Christ. He has satisfied Gods law. Who shall accuse the Redeemer? Nor can any creature accuse His saints, nor infringe upon our title so long as His title stands.
(c) And there is no fear that the Son of God, the infinitely rich, will have a trifling portion. And all things are yours, for ye are Christs, and Christ is Gods.
2. If we are joint heirs with Christ, we legally have no inheritance apart from Him. The signature of the one will not avail to alienate the estate, nor can he sell it by his own right, nor have it all at his own separate disposal. You have no right to heaven in yourself; your right lieth in Christ. The promises are yea and amen, but only in Christ Jesus, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.
3. Christ, as co-heir, has so identified Himself with us, that His rights are not to be viewed apart from ours. Before we leave this point, note what an honour is conferred upon us. To have anything to do with a great man is thought to be a distinguished privilege; but what honour is conferred on the believer to be joint heir with the King of kings I Lift up thine head; think no mans princeship worth thy coveting; thou art greater than the greatest, for thou art joint heir with Christ.
II. View the estates.
1. The inheritance of suffering.
(1) Just on the edge of your Fathers great inheritance lies the swamp of affliction. Now this is yours. If this be not yours, neither are the rest, for they are bequeathed to you in the same will. The same legacy that left peace also left tribulation. No cross, no crown. But, remember, Christ is co-heir with you in this. In all their afflictions He was afflicted.
(2) You must also be the heir of persecution. Christ had to be persecuted, and so must you.
(3) Another black portion is temptation. In this, too, Christ is your co-heir. He was tempted in all points like as we are.
2. Now let us march joyfully to the other part of the inheritance. As in matters of wills everything should be proven and sworn to, let us have the evidence of God, that cannot lie.
(1) As co-heirs with Christ, we are heirs of God (Psa_16:5; Psa_63:26).
(2) In Rom_4:13 the promise made to the Seed was that He should be heir of the world. Ask of Me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, etc. The world is ours, because it is Christs by right of inheritance. There is nothing here below which does not belong to a believer. If he hath wealth, let him use it in his Masters service, for it is his. If he hath poverty, poverty is his to help him to be sanctified, and to long for heaven. Whatever happens to him--sickness or health--everything is his here below. The meek shall inherit the earth.
(3) In Heb_1:2, we are told that God has appointed Christ heir of all things. Then we are heirs of all things conceivable and inconceivable, finite and infinite, human and Divine. Christs property extends to all, and we are co-heirs.
(4) Then in Jam_2:5, we are spoken of as being heirs of the kingdom. Doth Christ call Himself a King? He hath made us kings. Does He sit upon a throne? We shall overcome and sit down with Him upon His throne. Will He judge the nations? The saints shall judge the world. Will He be received with triumph by His Father? So shall we when His Father shall say, Well done, good and faithful servant. Hath He joy? We shall have His joy. Is He everlasting? So shall we be, for because He lives, we shall live also.
III. Administer the effects.
1. There is one part of the property which we may enjoy at once. Take your cross up and bear it with joy. Resignation takes the weight out of the cross, but a proud spirit that will not bow to Gods will changes a wooden cross into an iron one. Say, I count it to be my joy to be permitted to be a partaker of the sufferings of Christ. All the sheep of the Great Shepherd are marked with the cross, and this not only in the fleece, but in the flesh. If ye be without chastisement whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons.
2. Why cannot we administer also to the blessed part of the testament?
(1) If you have faith enough, you may this morning be raised up to sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus,
(2) God has given Christ the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost ends of the earth for His possession, and we are co-heirs with Him. Let us advance to take the property. Some of you can do so by preaching in the streets. Others, by teaching your children in the class. You can say, God has given these souls to Christ; I am going to take them in Christs name. Others, who can do little themselves, can assist by sending forth men to preach the gospel. All that the Church wants to-day is courage and devotion. Let her, then, as Christs queen, claim the earth as hers, and send her heralds forth from sea to sea to bid all men bow before Him, and confess Him to be their King. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The glory of the good
They are in a distinguishing sense--
I. The children of God. They have--
1. A special resemblance to Him.
2. A special affection for Him.
3. A special attention from Him.
II. The inheritors of all good. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.
Suffering with Christ
Believers suffer with Christ--
I. In the same cause--that of truth and righteousness.
II. For the same end--the glory of God and the good of His Church.
III. From the same hand--Satan, their common enemy, and the world.
IV. In the same manner, and with the same spirit of patience and resignation. (T. Robinson, D.D.)
Suffering with Christ, a condition of glory with Christ
I. Sonship with Christ necessarily involves suffering with Him.
1. We misapprehend the force of this passage if we suppose it to refer merely to outward calamities, and see in it only that the sorrows of daily life may have in them a sign of our being children of God, and some power to prepare us for the glory that is to come. The text does not merely contain a law for a certain part of life, but for the whole of life. The foundation of it is not that Christ shares in our sufferings; but that we, as Christians, participate in Christs.
2. Do not suppose that I am forgetting the awful sense in which Christs suffering stands as a thing by itself, incapable of, and needing no, repetition. But do not let us forget that the very writers that emphasise this, say to us, Be planted together in the likeness of His death: you are crucified to the world by the Cross of Christ; you are to fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ. He Himself speaks of our drinking of the cup that He drank of, etc. The fact is, that the life of Christ remains to be lived by every Christian, who in like manner has to fight with the world, to stand, by Gods help, pure in the midst of a world that is full of evil.
(1) The sufferings of the Lord were not only those that were wrought upon Calvary. Conceive of that perfect life in the midst of a system full of sin, and ask yourselves whether part of His sufferings did not spring from the contact with it. Oh that I had wings like a dove, etc., must often be the language of those who are like Him in spirit and in consequent sufferings.
(2) Another branch of the sufferings of Christ is to be found in that deep and mysterious fact that Christ wrought out His perfect obedience as a man, through temptation and by suffering. There was no sin within Him. The Prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me. But yet, when that dark Power stood by His side, and said, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down, it was a real temptation, and not a sham one. And though the doing of His Fathers will was His delight; yet obedience, sustained in the face of temptation and the contradiction of sinners, may well be called suffering.
(3) But not only is the life of Christ as a life of suffering a model for us, but His death, besides being an atonement, is a type of the Christians life, which is to be one long and daily dying to sin, to self, to the world. There is the old man, the flesh, the old Adam, your own godless, independent, selfish, proud being. And crucifying, plucking out the right eye, maiming self of the right hand, mortifying the deeds of the body, teach us that there is no growth without sore sorrow. And not until you can say, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, have you accomplished that to which you are consecrated and vowed by your sonship--being conformed unto the likeness of His death, and knowing the fellowship of His sufferings. On this high level, and not upon the lower one--viz., that Christ will help us to bear afflictions--do we find the true meaning of all that Scripture teaching; which says to us, If you want the power for holy living, have fellowship in that atoning death; and if you want the pattern of holy living, look at that Cross and feel, I am crucified to the world by it, and the life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.
3. Such considerations, however, do not necessarily exclude the comforting thought, In all our affliction He is afflicted. In some trackless lands, when one friend passes through the pathless forests, he breaks a twig ever and anon as he goes, that those who come after may see the traces of his having been there, and know that they are not out of the road. So when we are journeying through the murky night, and the dark woods of affliction, it is something to find here and there a spray broken, or a leafy stem bent down with the tread of His foot and the brush of His hand as He passed; and to remember that the path He trod He has hallowed, and thus to find lingering fragrances and hidden strengths in the remembrance of Him as in all points tempted like as we are, bearing grief for us, with us, like us.
4. Do not keep these sacred thoughts of Christs companionship in sorrow for the larger trials of life. If the mote in the eye be large enough to annoy you, it is large enough to bring out His sympathy; and if the grief be too small for Him to compassionate and share, it is too small for you to be troubled by it. If you are ashamed to apply that Divine thought, Christ bears this grief with me, to those petty molehills that you magnify into mountains sometimes, think it a shame to stumble over them. But never fear to be too familiar in the thought that Christ is willing to bear, and help me to bear, the most insignificant of daily annoyances. Whether it be a poison from one serpent sting, or from a million of tiny mosquitoes, if there be a smart, go to Him, and He will bear it with you; for if so be that we suffer with Him, He suffers with us.
II. This community of suffering is a necessary preparation for the community of glory.
1. I name this principally for the sake of putting in a caution. The apostle does not mean that if a son of God have no occasion, by brevity of life or other causes, for passing through the discipline of sorrow, his inheritance would be forfeited. We must always take such passages as this in conjunction with the truth which completes them, that when a man has the love of God in His heart, there and then he is fit for the inheritance. Christian people make vast mistakes sometimes in talking about being made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, about being ripe for glory, and the like. It is not the discipline that fits, it only develops the fitness. God hath made us meet. That is a past act. The preparedness for heaven comes at the moment--if it be a momentary act--when a man turns to Christ. The one may be dispensed with, the other cannot. A Christian at any period of his Christian experience, if it please God to take him, is fit for the kingdom; yet in His mercy He is leaving you here, training you, disciplining you; and that all the glowing furnaces of fiery trial, and all the cold waters of affliction, are but the preparation through which the rough iron is to be passed before it becomes tempered steel, a shaft in the Masters hand. And so learn to look upon all trial as being at once the seal of your sonship, and the means by which God puts it within your power to win a loftier throne, a nobler crown, a closer fellowship with Him who hath suffered, being tempted, and who will receive into His own blessedness and rest them that are tempted.
III. That inheritance is the necessary result of the suffering that has gone before. The ground of mere compensation is a low one on which to rest the certainty of future bliss. But the inheritance is sure, because the one cause--union with the Lord--produces both the present result of fellowship in His sorrows, and the future result of joy in His joy, of possession in His possessions. The inheritance is sure, because earths sorrows not merely require to be repaid by its peace, but because they fit us for it, and it would be destructive to all faith in Gods wisdom not to believe that what He has wrought for us will be given to us. Trials have no meaning, unless they are means to an end. The end is the inheritance; and sorrows here, as well as the Spirits work here, are the earnest of the inheritance. Measure the greatness of the glory by what has preceded it. If a fair measure of the greatness of any result be the length of time taken for getting it ready, we can dimly conceive what that joy must be for which seventy years of strife and sorrow are but a momentary preparation; and what must be the weight of that glory which is the counterpoise and consequence to the afflictions of this lower world. The further the pendulum swings on the one side, the further it goes up on the other. The deeper God plunges the comet into the darkness, the closer does it come to the sun at its nearest distance, and the longer does it stand glowing in the full blaze of the glory from the central orb. So in our revolution, the measure of the distance from the farthest point of our darkest earthly sorrow to the throne may help us to the measure of the closeness of the glory above when we are on the throne: for if so be that we are sons, we must suffer with Him; if so be that we suffer, we must be glorified together! (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Sharing with Christ
I. What becomes of good men in the future? They are glorified with Christ. We have here--
1. A positive conception of the blessedness of heaven. Elsewhere we are told what heaven is not, rather than what it is. We seem more frequently to have promised to us relief from sufferings--no more sickness, night, curse, nor death--all of which we shrink from as if their absence was enough to make our bliss. But here heaven is presented as glorification with Christ.
2. A striking contrast to those carnal views which unspiritual men hold upon this subject.
3. A heaven already realised--in the person of our Lord. He is already glorified. In the glorifying of Christ, our glorifying is involved.
4. A most consolatory and satisfactory prospect therefore. It is the fellowship, not the place, that makes up our happiness. With Christ fully revealed to us we could be happy anywhere.
II. What precedes this blessedness? Suffering with Him. To suffer with is to sympathise (1Co_12:1-31.).
1. Christs sufferings were--
(1) Voluntary.
(2) Caused by sin.
(3) The result of the contrariety of His pure nature to the depravity of men amongst whom He came to live.
2. We partake of them--
(1) Beneficially. There is a sense in which this is the only way whereby we can be partakers of His suffering--in which, therefore, lie is alone in suffering (Isa_63:3).
(2) In consequence of our contact with the world. As He was, so are we in this world. They who are like Christ must expect to have His sorrows and His treatment repeated.
(3) Non-meritorious. Suffering for Christ as martyrs do is really suffering with Him, and finds its joy in the suffering itself. Only such minds could suffer with Him, and the having such a mind is itself the blessed thing. (P. Strutt.)
Suffering in relation to sonship
The apostle does not affirm the absolute necessity of much suffering in order to our reaching heaven; for there are souls whose course on earth is short and happy; still less that there is any merit in our suffering; for nothing is plainer than that such a doctrine would be flatly opposed to the whole argument of this Epistle.
I. Suffering is a common condition of sonship. Christ never promised His followers in this world anything else but tribulation, save only that in the midst of it all they should enjoy His peace and His Fathers protection; and all the apostles speak of suffering as the common lot of the saints (1Pe_4:12-13; 1Pe_4:16; 1Th_1:6; 1Th_2:14; 1Th_3:4; Heb_12:1-29.). In all these passages the same principle is involved which is contained in the text. The cause of our sufferings as Christians is found in the simple fact that we are Christians.
II. This affords a test of our sonship--
1. In the way of its infliction. If the world persecute us for Christs sake, if it deem us worthy of such distinction, it must be because it is convinced that we are Christians, and therefore we may be comforted by the very malice of our enemies. The villains censure is the good mans praise.
2. In the manner in which we endure it. It is only the true saint who can bear reproach with meekness, take joyfully the spoiling of his goods, refuse to avenge himself, love his enemies, and yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness.
III. The nature of the believers sufferings.
1. There are many which are not associated with Christ, and which do not result from sympathy with Him. The ungodly are not without their sufferings--the results of sinful folly and excess, or visitations of Divine indignation, and issue in the aggravated impiety of those who endure them. Beside which, how many of our trials and annoyances do we bring on ourselves by our pride and self-will, or by our compliance with evil temptation!
2. Sufferings with Christ are divisible into those which come from men and those which come from God. The former are persecutions; the latter, salutary chastisements.
(1) Christ was persecuted, even unto death, and He has warned His disciples to expect the same treatment (Mat_5:12). We in happy England are exempt from the fiery trial. But let us suppose the case to be otherwise. Could we, if called to it, bear imprisonment and torture, and final execution, for the Lords sake? If so, how is it that we are so soon offended when the least troubles arise in connection with our Christian profession? And yet there are some who are not persecuted for Christs sake. There are tradesmen who lose custom because they will be faithful to conscience. There are artisans who are injured and insulted unceasingly by their fellow-workmen for the same reason. There are wives whose piety brings on them rudest treatment from brutal husbands. But, after all, how light and little does this kind of trial appear in comparison with what our predecessors in the faith have endured. But, such as it is, it is a suffering with Christ, and should be met with calmness and borne with patience, fortitude, and hope.
(2) The other class are those which resemble the pangs of Jesus, when it pleased the Father to put Him to grief. It became Him, etc. But there are important points of difference. Both have relation to sin; but while ours are connected with our own sins, His were endured for the sins of others. His sufferings only exert an expiating efficacy. Yet Christ also learned obedience by the things which He suffered, in this respect our sufferings may resemble His. God may try us, as He tried Him, for the simple purpose of teaching us to renounce our own wish and will, and to say, with Christ, Father, not my will, but Thine be done.
IV. If we suffer with Christ, we shall also be glorified together. Our afflictions are not for naught. They are like the early processes of the garden, when the soil is broken up and weeded, in order that fair flowers may at length adorn it. They are the quarrying and the chiselling of the marble before the living statue can stand out in symmetrical proportions. They are the tuning of the instruments, without which no harmony can be secured in the ultimate concert. They are the medicine of our convalescence, the drudgery of our education, the spring-pruning of our vine trees, without which we can never be healthy or happy, fit for heaven, or qualified to bring forth fruit whereby our Father may be glorified. Wherefore murmur not and faint not. Thou canst tread no path of hardship which Jesus hath not hallowed by His footsteps. (T. G. Horton.)
Suffering attends Gods children
In the text itself there are two general parts considerable--the supposition and the inference. The supposition that is in these words, If so be we suffer with Christ. First, here is the condition of Gods children considered absolutely. And that is, that it is a state of suffering, If so be that we suffer. Many are the troubles of the righteous. Not to stand upon the proof of that by testimony, which experience does so frequently evidence, we may take some account of it in these particulars. First, there is somewhat for it in their nature, which they have in common with other men (Job_5:7). But, secondly, not only so, but more particularly which is founded in grace, and that holy profession which they bear upon them. First, I say, the malice and hatred of the world. Those whom men hate, they will afflict and disturb, if it lies in their power. Secondly, there is also the goodness of God, and His wise providence towards His servants, which has an influence hereupon likewise. God will have His people here in this world to suffer for divers reasons. As, first, for the trial and exercise of their graces. Secondly, God orders afflictions to His children, thereby to wear off that rust which is in them, and to take away their defilements from them, as it is in Isa_27:9. Thirdly, to wean them from the world and an inordinate love of these things here below, and to make them more willing to be gone when He calls for them. Lastly, in Fatherly discipline, to keep His children regular and in good order, and to prevent them from worse things to come (1Co_11:32). The consideration of this point may be thus far useful to us. First, as it serves to teach us patience under those trials which God at any time in His providence exercises us withal. Secondly, we learn hence also to expect it and to prepare for it. Thirdly, we learn from hence also to take heed of passing rash censure either upon ourselves or other men, occasionally from these conditions. Now the second is, as it is considerable relatively; and that is, that it is a suffering with Christ. If we suffer with Him. This they are called, first, from that mystical union which is betwixt Him and us. As by virtue of this union, that which is His, is ours; so, by virtue of the same union, that which is ours is also His. Secondly, by way of sympathy and compassion, we suffer with Him, and He suffers with us, in a suitableness and correspondency of affection. Thirdly, the sufferings of Gods children are called the sufferings of Christ, forasmuch as it is He that strengthens them and enables them for to suffer them, and as we suffer by Him. With Him; that is, with His assistance and through His enablement, and by power communicated from Him. The godly have a supply from Christ for the enduring of that which they endure. And their sufferings are in that respect His. Fourthly and lastly, and principally, they are the sufferings of Christ, forasmuch as they are in Christs cause, and for the particular things which He suffered; that is, indeed, for righteousness sake, and the doing of that which is good (thus Psa_38:20; 1Pe_3:17-18; Mat_5:11-12). This teaches also Christians not to rest themselves contented in this, that they suffer, but to observe both how and what they suffer for. What they suffer for as to the cause of their suffering; and how they suffer, as to the manner and carriage of their suffering--each of which have a necessary influence upon this business of suffering with Christ, and are most requisite ingredients to the making and constituting of it. The second is the inference in these words, That we may be also glorified together. First, to look upon this passage according to the exclusive emphasis; and so I say there is this in it: that there is no coming to glory but by suffering. Suffering it is the beaten path to glory, and that common road which all take that come to that end. Now there is a various account which may be given hereof unto us. First, that herein we may be conformable to Christ our Head. Secondly, suffering goes before glory, thereby to set a greater price upon glory itself, and to make it so much the more glorious. Thirdly, that so by this means He may in some manner fit us for glory, and prepare us and dispose us thereunto (Col_1:12). But against this may be haply objected that there are divers of the children of God, and such as we have cause to hope well of, who yet have a very quiet and comfortable life, wherein they meet with little sorrow or trouble at all. And how, then, is this so generally true whereof we now speak? To this I answer, that the providence of God is very mysterious in this particular in His different carriage to different of His servants here in this life. And that with some it fareth better than others in this respect. But yet there are none but in some kind or other, at some time or other, in some sense or other, have the experiment of this truth upon them. Sometimes the servants of God are more troubled with inward conflicts than with outward afflictions. Sometimes, again, God afflicts them in others, though not immediately in their own persons, which yet, notwithstanding, according as they improve it, proves an affliction unto them. As Esther mourning for her people and kindred while she was herself in great prosperity; and Nehemiah, for his brethrens captivity, when himself was in great favour. But then, further, this is that which all Gods children do in a manner prepare for, and so dispose themselves as to make account of it. And it is their wisdom so to do. As a man that takes a journey by sea, he may chance to sail, it may be, without storms, in regard of the event; but yet he expects them, and makes account of them, as incident unto him. And so must Christians in this sea of the world. Now the second is that emphasis which is inclusive. If we suffer with Him, we shall be also glorified together; that is, the one it shall certainly follow upon the other. Wherein, again, there are two things further considerable. The one is the conjunction of conditions, and the other is the conjunction of persons, in reference to those conditions. First, here is the conjunction of conditions: glory joined with suffering. Christians that suffer in this life, they shall be glorified in the life to come. So after that He hath called them to suffering, He does at last bring them to glory. This He does in His infinite wisdom and goodness, and as carrying a special comeliness and congruity with it (as 2Th_1:6-8). As there is a beauty in all the works and ways of God besides, so amongst the rest also in this. Look at those who have had the greatest pleasure and delight in sin, they shall hereafter have the greatest punishment and vexation. There are three considerations especially which are matters of great supportment and satisfaction to Gods children in suffering. First, the comfort which they have in it. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. Gods children have never more embracings and cherishings from Him than at such time as they are under greatest afflictions. As the mother tends the sick child especially, and is most fond of that. Secondly, the benefit which they have by it or from it; that is another thing here considerable. Thirdly, another encouragement is the glory which comes after it (Mat_19:28; 2Ti_2:11-12; 2Co_1:7). Where still we must observe and remember this: that it is said, If we suffer with Him. It is not suffering considered indefinitely that does entitle to glory. First, not mere suffering in a way of common providence, which even a natural man may do. Secondly, not suffering in a way of public, justice, which an evil man may do. Thirdly, not suffering neither with murmuring and repining. There may want glory as to either of these things. The second is the conjunction of the persons in reference to these conditions. Believers are joined with Christ, and in particular joined with Him in glory. This phrase of together with Him does imply divers things in it. First, conformity. We shall be glorified with Him; that is, we shall be like to Him in glory (thus Joh_17:22). Secondly, concomitancy. We shall be glorified with Him; that is, we shall be joined to Him and present with Him in glory (Joh_17:24; 1Th_4:17). A concomitancy both of fate and of time, there and then. Thirdly, conveyance or derivation. We shall be glorified with Him; that is, we shall be glorified from. Him. His glory shall reflect upon us and be transmitted to us. We shall shine in His beams. Affliction, it is such a condition as is irksome to flesh and blood, and we all by nature are ready to shrink at it and at the thoughts of it; but grace is much satisfied about it. God will at last make all His children amends for any troubles which here He lays upon them. Heaven, it will swallow up all. (Thomas Horton, D.D.)
The reward of glory
Samuel Rutherford used to say, I wonder many times that ever a child of God should have a sad heart, considering what the Lord is preparing for him. When we shall come home, and enter into the possession of our Brothers fair kingdom, and when our heads shall find the weight of the eternal crown of glory, and when we shall look back to pains and suffering, then shall we see life and sorrow to be less than one step or stride from a prison to glory, and that our little inch of time-suffering is not worthy of our first nights welcome home to heaven.
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 vv17–23 17. If children, then heirs. Observe the chain of…
17. If children, then heirs. Observe the chain of argument: (1) We are the sons of God. (2) This is shown by our having received the Spirit of adoption. (3) Both God's Spirit and our own spirit witness together that we are children of God. (4) But children are heirs; hence we are “heirs of God; joint heirs with Christ.” Under the Jewish law the older brother had a double portion, but Christ admits all to a joint share of the great inheritance. If so be that we suffer with him. In the figure, we suffer with him when we are “baptized into his death” (6:3). We are crucified (6:6); become dead (6:2); “are buried with him” (6:4); “are planted in the likeness of his death” (6:5). Hence, in these respects we have the “fellowship of his sufferings” (Phil. 3:10). But we must be ready, for his sake, to bear the cross through life. If we do all these things, we shall be “glorified with him also.” We shall share with him in all things.
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 vv18–19 MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_8:18
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_8:18
Is life worth living?—Question much asked by present-day philosophers. What is real answer? Prayer Book says Yes: “We thank Thee for our creation.” Does Bible say so? Our passage gives answer Yes or No—depends upon belief in future life as revealed in Scripture.
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Apart from future life, no, for large majority of human beings. In most lives painful sensations predominate over pleasant. Many sufferings. Atheist poet, who knew much of world, says:—
“Cast up the cares thy life has seen,
Cast up the years from sorrow free,
And know, whatever thou hast been,
’Twere something better not to be.”
If Bible revelation be true, yes. Life is not pain, but school; not happiness, but preparation for happiness; not glory, but way to glory, if lived with Christ.
Universal rule—glory of any kind slowly, painfully gained: manhood, success, fame, conquest, even redemption of man.
We can understand men doubting the future life; we cannot understand their telling us that we shall be happier if we do not anticipate it. Without it we sail in unpiloted ship on shoreless ocean, over seas on which sun never shines. With it we look up and onward in spirit of our text. Thank God.—Dr. Springett.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom_8:18
Suffering Christians have the true prosperity.—Prosperity is to be measured by the amount of peace. It is a better treasure than either gold or silver. What trouble there is to get wealth, and when gotten what trouble for fear we lose the hoarded treasure! Peace is the true wealth—soul wealth, heart wealth. It is a treasure which makes happy. Call not that man happy and prosperous who with the increase of wealth has the increase of care and sorrow. Call that man happy and prosperous whose soul is kept in perfect peace amid the storms and hurricanes of time. Sweet home of refreshment and delight is the strong tower of perfect peace. Great peace have they that love and keep God’s law. Prosperity is to be measured by the amount of true happiness. Do we call that man prosperous who sits a miserable wretch amid his treasures and asks for what can never be given, the neglected prosperity of former days? Do we call that man prosperous whose head aches with the oppressive weight of a crown and whose soul is troubled and fever-stricken with “the fierce light that beats upon a throne”? We call that man prosperous who enjoys as much happiness as is given to mortals here below. That man is prosperous who can sing in a cell, while that man is not prosperous who weeps on a throne. The question has been sceptically asked, Happiness—what is it? A word. Where found? Our reply would be that the truest happiness to be found in this world, the most solid good, is to be obtained while walking in the pathway of duty and of godliness, for religion’s ways are indeed ways of pleasantness and her paths are peace. Let us look round upon modern society, and we shall find that its most prosperous and happiest members are those who wisely and joyously keep God’s commandments. Prosperity is to be considered in relation to the end. The psalmist was troubled, like other people, at the prosperity of the wicked. It was to him a perplexing problem. How is it consistent with the moral government of Him who is said to reign in righteousness? “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency; for the righteous are plagued and chastened, while the ungodly prosper in the world, and increase in riches.” He saw no way out of the bewildering maze until he went into the sanctuary of God, and understood their end. At the last, the dreadful last, desolation seized upon them as its lawful prey. They are utterly consumed with terrors. Come not my soul into the secrets of their dying horrors. Prosperous is the man who can sing, “My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever” Paul looked forward, and saw a bright light piercing the dark cloud of sorrow. The sufferings of the present are great. The sufferings of the persecuted how great we can scarcely understand, and yet they are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. Amid the shame of the present look onward to the revealing glory. Bring down the light of heaven to cheer the murkiness of earth. Let the eternal sunlight scatter the thick mists of time.
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 vv17–23 17. “But if children, indeed heirs, truly heirs of…
GLORIFICATION
17. “But if children, indeed heirs, truly heirs of God, and fellow heirs of Christ; if we suffer along with him in order that we may also be glorified along with him.” None but disciples go to heaven. The disciple is a follower. Therefore we must follow Christ in all the grand, salient points of His Messiahship. We must follow Him to the manger, and be born in utter obscurity; to the Jordan, and receive the Holy Ghost; through Gethsemane, and die to our own will, sinking eternally into the will of God; to Pilate’s bar, and have the whole world sign our death warrant; and, finally, up rugged Calvary, there, nailed to the cross, our sinful humanity must be crucified, after the similitude of His sinless humanity. These grand, salient, experimental foci include providential intervening periods, replete with worldly contempt, hardships, privation and persecution, which we must gladly endure for Christ’s sake. After all of His suffering, walking out of the tomb, and glorified on Mount Olivet, He ascended up to heaven to reign forever. We have the blessed assurance that if we follow Him in His humiliation, we shall also follow Him in His glorification. This Epistle is transcendently climacteric, devoting Chapter 1 to Chapter 3:18 to the Sinai gospel on conviction; Chapter 3:19 to Chapter 5 to justification; Chapter 6 to sanctification; Chapter 7, the battle with inbred sin, culminating in the entire sanctification of Paul in Arabia (Rom 8:25); Chapter 8:1-16, Paul’s triumphant shout ringing on after he got sanctified (Chapter 7:25). Now the wonderful climax continues, the next pile in the heavenly monument being glorification. The silly idea prevails that sanctification is the end of the new creation. Justification is primary salvation; sanctification, full salvation; and glorification, final salvation. Of this grand and stupendous work the popular pulpit has nothing but the first, thus keeping the people back in rudimentary Christianity, homogeneous with Judaism. This glorification is to reach the body, mind, and spirit, thus qualifying humanity in its triple departments to go up and live with God forever. Many ignorantly oppose sanctification on the ground of its unattainability till death, thus making a fatal mistake, and identifying it with glorification, which must follow sanctification. This is a trick of Satan to keep people from sanctification, which is indispensable to prepare them for glorification. Thus they vainly congratulate themselves that sanctification will come at death without an effort on their part, which is a dangerous delusion, and will turn them over to the devil world without end. It is true that glorification comes in death irrespective of our volition, wrought by the Holy Ghost on the human spirit and mind simultaneously with the evacuation of the body. You have frequently seen an unearthly radiance lingering in the face of the dead in the coffin. This is the splendor of the glorified soul reflected back on the vacated tenement as it retreated away; as the setting sun ever and anon throws back the thousand variegated tints and hues bespangling the firmament far over to the eastern horizon simultaneously with his retreat through the gates of Hesperus. We have a most wonderful Savior. He is going to clear up everything, making a full and final restitution, not only restoring the body to heavenly glory, but even this earth is to be sanctified by fire (2Pe 3:10), made new again and restored to heaven, where it belonged before the devil broke it loose in view of adding it to hell. Thus earth and firmament made new (Revelation 21), inhabited by glorified saints and angels like all other heavenly worlds, will shine and shout forever. When you die, your soul and mind will be glorified by the Holy Ghost simultaneously with the evacuation of the body, so that you actually go to heaven in the glorified state. All the saints living on the earth when the Lord returns will be glorified, soul and body simultaneously, and caught up to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4). God has two methods of glorifying the body, i. e., translation, for which I, along with the apostles and their contemporaries, am on the daily outlook. The other method is the resurrection. We must all be transfigured into the similitude of our Savior’s glorified body, soul and spirit. This may come any moment by translation.
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If our Lord tarrieth till we die, then we will waive the glorious transfigured body until the resurrection, our soul and mind being glorified when we die. The apostles and saints lived and died looking for the Lord to come and translate them (2 Corinthians 5). We are eighteen hundred years nearer His coming than they were. Hence we should certainly be on the constant outlook. The most glorious privilege of the ages is to be living on the earth sanctified and ready for the Lord to come and translate us. In that case we will never see death, and never evacuate the body, but be transfigured and glorified, soul, mind and body simultaneously, when our Lord calls us to fly up and meet Him in the air (1Th 4:16). Entire sanctification does the only qualification we need. The Holy Ghost will attend to all the balance, miraculously glorifying us, soul, mind and body. This is the grandest conceivable inspiration to a holy experience and life. Oh, that the preachers would all hold it up before the people. It would stir heaven, earth and hell.
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 vv17, 19, 23
Romans
SONS AND HEIRS
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Rom 8:17.
God Himself is His greatest gift. The loftiest blessing which we can receive is that we should be heirs, possessors of God. There is a sublime and wonderful mutual possession of which Scripture speaks much wherein the Lord is the inheritance of Israel, and Israel is the inheritance of the Lord. ‘The Lord hath taken you to be to Him a people of inheritance,’ says Moses; ‘Ye are a people for a possession,’ says Peter. And, on the other hand, ‘The Lord is the portion of my inheritance,’ says David; ‘Ye are heirs of God,’ echoes Paul. On earth and in heaven the heritage of the children of the Lord is God Himself, inasmuch as He is with them for their delight, in them to make them ‘partakers of the divine nature,’ and for them in all His attributes and actions.
This being clearly understood at the outset, we shall be prepared to follow the Apostle’s course of thought while he points out the conditions upon which the possession of that inheritance depends. It is children of God who are heirs of God. It is by union with Christ Jesus, the Son, to whom the inheritance belongs, that they who believe on His name receive power to become the sons of God, and with that power the possession of the inheritance. Thus, then, in this condensed utterance of the text there appear a series of thoughts which may perhaps be more fully unfolded in some such manner as the following, that there is no inheritance without sonship, that there is no sonship without a spiritual birth, that there is no spiritual birth without Christ, and that there is no Christ for us without faith.
I. First, then, the text tells us, no inheritance without sonship.
In general terms, spiritual blessings can only be given to those who are in a certain spiritual condition. Always and necessarily the capacity or organ of reception precedes and determines the bestowment of blessings. The light falls everywhere, but only the eye drinks it in. The lower orders of creatures are shut out from all participation in the gifts which belong to the higher forms of life, simply because they are so made and organised as that these cannot find entrance into their nature. They are, as it were, walled up all round; and the only door they have to communicate with the outer world is the door of sense. Man has higher gifts simply because he has higher capacities. All creatures are plunged in the same boundless ocean of divine beneficence and bestowment, and into each there flows just that, and no more, which each, by the make and constitution that God has given it, is capable of receiving. In the man there are more windows and doors opened out than in the animal He is capable of receiving intellectual impulses, spiritual emotions; he can think, and feel, and desire, and will, and resolve: and so he stands on a higher level than the beast below him.
Not otherwise is it in regard to God’s kingdom, ‘which is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’ The gift and blessing of salvation is primarily a spiritual gift, and only involves outward consequences secondarily and subordinately. It mainly consists in the heart being at peace with God, in the whole soul being filled with divine affections, in the weight and bondage of transgression being taken away, and substituted by the impulse and the life of the new love. Therefore, neither God can give, nor man can receive, that gift upon any other terms, than just this, that the heart and nature be fitted and adapted for it. Spiritual blessings require a spiritual capacity for the reception of them; or, as my text says, you cannot have the inheritance unless you are sons. If salvation consisted simply in a change of place; if it were merely that by some expedient or arrangement, an outward penalty, which was to fall or not to fall at the will of an arbitrary judge, were prevented from coming down, why then, it would be open to Him who held the power of letting the sword fall, to decide on what terms He might choose to suspend its infliction. But inasmuch as God’s deliverance is not a deliverance from a mere arbitrary and outward punishment: inasmuch as God’s salvation, though it be deliverance from the penalty as well as from the guilt of sin, is by no means chiefly a deliverance from outward consequences, but mainly a removal of the nature and disposition that makes these outward consequences certain,-therefore a man cannot be saved, God’s love cannot save him, God’s justice will not save him, God’s power stands back from saving him, upon any other condition than this that his soul shall be adapted and prepared for the reception and enjoyment of the blessing of a spiritual salvation.
But the inheritance which my text speaks about is also that which a Christian hopes to receive and enter upon in heaven. The same principle precisely applies there. There is no inheritance of heaven without sonship; because all the blessings of that future life are of a spiritual character. The joy and the rapture and the glory of that higher and better life have, of course, connected with them certain changes of bodily form, certain changes of local dwelling, certain changes which could perhaps be granted equally to a man, of whatever sort he was. But, friends, it is not the golden harps, not the pavement of ‘glass mingled with fire,’ not the cessation from work, not the still composure, and changeless indwelling, not the society even, that makes the heaven of heaven. All these are but the embodiments and rendering visible of the inward facts, a soul at peace with God in the depths of its being, an eye which gazes upon the Father, and a heart which wraps itself in His arms. Heaven is no heaven except in so far as it is the possession of God. That saying of the Psalmist is not an exaggeration, nor even a forgetting of the other elements of future blessedness, but it is a simple statement of the literal fact of the case, ‘I have none in heaven but Thee!’ God is the heritage of His people. To dwell in His love, and to be filled with His light, and to walk for ever in the glory of His sunlit face, to do His will, and to bear His character stamped upon our foreheads-that is the glory and the perfectness to which we are aspiring. Do not then rest in the symbols that show us, darkly and far off, what that future glory is. Do not forget that the picture is a shadow. Get beneath all these figurative expressions, and feel that whilst it may be true that for us in our present earthly state, there can be no higher, no purer, no more spiritual nor any truer representations of the blessedness which is to come, than those which couch it in the forms of earthly experience, and appeal to sense as the minister of delight-yet that all these things are representations, and not adequate presentations. The inheritance of the servants of the Lord is the Lord Himself, and they dwell in Him, and there is their joy.
Well then, if that be even partially true-admitting all that you may say about circumstances which go to make some portion of the blessedness of that future life-if it be true that God is the true blessing given by His Gospel upon earth, that He Himself is the greatest gift that can be bestowed, and that He is the true Heaven of heaven-what a flood of light does it cast upon that statement of my text, ‘If children, then heirs’; no inheritance without sonship! For who can possess God but they who love Him? who can love, but they who know His love? who can have Him working in their hearts a blessed and sanctifying change, except the souls that lie thankfully quiet beneath the forming touch of His invisible hand, and like flowers drink in the light of His face in their still joy? How can God dwell in any heart except a heart which has in it a love of purity? Where can He make His temple except in the ‘upright heart and pure’ ? How can there be fellowship betwixt Him and any one except the man who is a son because he hath received of the divine nature, and in whom that divine nature is growing up into a divine likeness? ‘What fellowship hath Christ with Belial?’ is not only applicable as a guide for our practical life, but points to the principle on which God’s inheritance belongs to God’s sons alone. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’; and those only who love, and are children, to them alone does the Father come and does the Father belong.
So much, then, for the first principle: No inheritance without sonship.
II. Secondly, the text leads us to the principle that there is no sonship without a spiritual birth.
The Apostle John in that most wonderful preface to his Gospel, where all deepest truths concerning the Eternal Being in itself and in the solemn march of His progressive revelations to the world are set forth in language simple like the words of a child and inexhaustible like the voice of a god, draws a broad distinction between the relation to the manifestations of God which every human soul by virtue of his humanity sustains, and that into which some, by virtue of their faith, enter. Every man is lighted by the true light because he is a man. They who believe in His name receive from Him the prerogative to become the sons of God. Whatever else may be taught in John’s words, surely they do teach us this, that the sonship of which he speaks does not belong to man as man, is not a relation into which we are born by natural birth, that we become sons after we are men, that those who become sons do not include all those who are lighted by the Light, but consist of so many of that greater number as receive Him, and that such become sons by a divine act, the communication of a spiritual life, whereby they are born of God.
The same Apostle, in his Epistles, where the widest love is conjoined with the most firmly drawn lines of moral demarcation between the great opposites-life, light, love-death, darkness, hate-contrasts in the most unmistakable antithesis the sons of God who are known for such because they do righteousness, and the world which knew not Christ, nor knows those who, dimly beholding, partially resemble Him. Nay, he goes further, and says in strange contradiction to the popular estimate of his character, but in true imitation of that Incarnate love which hated iniquity, ‘In this the children of God are manifested and the children of the devil’-echoing thus the words of Him whose pitying tenderness had sometimes to clothe itself in sharpest words, even as His hand of powerful love had once to grasp the scourge of small cords. ‘If God were your Father, ye would love Me: ye are of your father, the devil.’
These are but specimens of a whole cycle of Scripture statements which in every form of necessary implication, and of direct statement, set forth the principle that he who is born again of the Spirit, and he only, is a son of God.
Nothing in all this contradicts the belief that all men are the children of God, inasmuch as they are shaped by His divine hand and He has breathed into their nostrils the breath of life. They who hold that sonship is obtained on the condition which these passages seem to assert, do also rejoice to believe and to preach that the Father’s love broods over every human heart as the dovelike Spirit over the primeval chaos. They rejoice to proclaim that Christ has come that all, that each, may receive the adoption of sons. They do not feel that their message to, nor their hope for, the world is less blessed, less wide, because while they call on all to come and take the things that are freely given to them of God, they believe that those only who do come and take possess the blessing. Every man may become a son and heir of God by faith in Jesus Christ.
But notwithstanding all the mercies that belong to us all, notwithstanding the divine beneficence, which, like the air and the light, pervades all nature, and underlies all our lives, notwithstanding the universal adaptation and intention of Christ’s work, notwithstanding the wooing of His tender voice and the unceasing beckoning of His love, it still remains true that there are men in the world, created by God, loved and cared for by Him, for whom Christ died, who might be, but are not, sons of God.
Fatherhood! what does that word itself teach us? It speaks of the communication of a life, and the reciprocity of love. It rests upon a divine act, and it involves a human emotion. It involves that the father and the child shall have kindred life-the father bestowing and the child possessing a life which is derived; and because derived, kindred; and because kindred, unfolding itself in likeness to the father that gave it. And it requires that between the father’s heart and the child’s heart there shall pass, in blessed interchange and quick correspondence, answering love, flashing backwards and forwards, like the lightning that touches the earth and rises from it again. A simple appeal to your own consciousness will decide if that be the condition of all men. Are you, my brother, conscious of anything within you higher than the common life that belongs to you because you are an immortal soul? Can you say, ‘From God’s hand I have received the granting and implantation of a new and better life?’ Is your claim verified by this, that you are kindred with God in holy affections, in like purposes, loving what He loves, hating what He hates, doing what He wills, accepting what He sends, longing for Himself, and blessed in His presence? Is your sonship proved by the depth and sincerity, the simplicity and power, of your throbbing heart of love to your Father in heaven? Or are all these emotions empty words to you, things that are spoken in pulpits, but to which you have nothing in your life corresponding? Oh then, my friend, what am I to say to you? What but this? no sonship except by that spiritual birth; and if not such sonship, then the spirit of bondage. If not such sonship, why then, by all the tendencies of your nature, and by all the affinities of your moral being, if you are not holding of heaven, you are holding of hell; if you are not drawing your life, your character, your emotions, your affections, from the sacred well that lies up yonder, you are drawing them from the black one that lies down there. There are heaven, hell, and the earth that lies between, ever influenced either from above or from below. You are sons because born again, or slaves and ‘enemies by wicked works.’ It is a grim alternative, but it is a fact.
III. Thirdly, no spiritual birth without Christ.
We have seen that the sonship which gives power of possessing the inheritance and which comes by spiritual birth, rests upon the giving of life, spiritual life, from God; and unfolds itself in certain holy characters, and affections, and desires, the throbbing of the whole soul in full accord and harmony with the divine character and will. Well then, it looks very clear that a man cannot make that new life for himself, cannot do it because of the habit of sin, and cannot do it because of the guilt and punishment of sin. If for sonship there must be a birth again, why, surely, the very symbol might convince you that such a process does not lie within our own power. There must come down a divine leaven into the mass of human nature, before this new being can be evolved in any one. There must be a gift of God. A divine energy must be the source and fountain of all holy and of all Godlike life. Christ comes, comes to make you and me live again as we never lived before; live possessors of God’s love; live tenanted and ruled by a divine Spirit; live with affections in our hearts which we never could kindle there; live with purposes in our souls which we never could put there.
And I want to urge this thought, that the centre point of the Gospel is this regeneration; because if we understand, as we are too much disposed to do, that the Gospel simply comes to make men live better, to work out a moral reformation,-why, there is no need for a Gospel at all. If the change were a simple change of habit and action on the part of men, we could do without a Christ. If the change simply involved a bracing ourselves up to behave better for the future, we could manage somehow or other about as well as or better than we have managed in the past. But if redemption be the giving of life from God; and if redemption be the change of position in reference to God’s love and God’s law as well, neither of these two changes can a man effect for himself. You cannot gather up the spilt water; you cannot any more gather up and re-issue the past life. The sin remains, the guilt remains. The inevitable law of God will go on its crashing way in spite of all penitence, in spite of all reformation, in spite of all desires after newness of life. There is but one Being who can make a change in our position in regard to God, and there is but one Being who can make the change by which man shall become a ‘new creature.’ The Creative Spirit that shaped the earth must shape its new being in my soul; and the Father against whose law I have offended, whose love I have slighted, from whom I have turned away, must effect the alteration that I can never effect-the alteration in my position to His judgments and justice, and to the whole sweep of His government. No new birth without Christ; no escape from the old standing-place, of being ‘enemies to God by wicked works,’ by anything that we can do: no hope of the inheritance unless the Lord and the Man, the ‘second Adam from heaven,’ have come! He has come, and He has ‘dwelt with us,’ and He has worn this life of ours, and He has walked in the midst of this world, and He knows all about our human condition, and He has effected an actual change in the possible aspect of the divine justice and government to us; and He has carried in the golden urn of His humanity a new spirit and a new life which He has set down in the midst of the race; and the urn was broken on the cross of Calvary, and the water flowed out, and whithersoever that water comes there is life, and whithersoever it comes not there is death!
IV. Last of all, no Christ without faith.
It is not enough, brethren, that we should go through all these previous steps, if we then go utterly astray at the end, by forgetting that there is only one way by which we become partakers of any of the benefits and blessings that Christ has wrought out. It is much to say that for inheritance there must be sonship. It is much to say that for sonship there must be a divine regeneration. It is much to say that the power of this regeneration is all gathered together in Christ Jesus. But there are plenty of people that would agree to all that, who go off at that point, and content themselves with this kind of thinking-that in some vague mysterious way, they know not how, in a sort of half-magical manner, the benefit of Christ’s death and work comes to all in Christian lands, whether there be an act of faith or not! Now I am not going to talk theology at present, at this stage of my sermon; but what I want to leave upon all your hearts is this profound conviction,-Unless we are wedded to Jesus Christ by the simple act of trust in His mercy and His power, Christ is nothing to us. Do not let us, my friends, blink that deciding test of the whole matter. We may talk about Christ for ever; we may set forth aspects of His work, great and glorious. He may be to us much that is very precious; but the one question, the question of questions, on which everything else depends, is, Am I trusting to Him as my divine Redeemer? am I resting in Him as the Son of God? Some of us here now have a sort of nominal connection with Christ, who have a kind of imaginative connection with Him; traditional, ceremonial, by habit of thought, by attendance on public worship, and by I know not what other means. Ceremonies are nothing, notions are nothing, beliefs are nothing, formal participation in worship is nothing. Christ is everything to him that trusts Him. Christ is nothing but a judge and a condemnation to him who trusts Him not. And here is the turning-point, Am I resting upon that Lord for my salvation? If so, you can begin upon that step, the low one on which you can put your foot, the humble act of faith, and with the foot there, can climb up. If faith, then new birth; if new birth, then sonship; if sonship, then an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ.’ But if you have not got your foot upon the lowest round of the ladder, you will never come within sight of the blessed face of Him who stands at the top of it, and who looks down to you at this moment, saying to you, ‘My child, wilt thou not cry unto Me “Abba, Father?”‘
Romans
SUFFERING WITH CHRIST, A CONDITION OF GLORY WITH CHRIST
Rom 8:17.
In the former part of this verse the Apostle tells us that in order to be heirs of God, we must become sons through and joint-heirs with Christ. He seems at first sight to add in these words of our text another condition to those already specified, namely, that of suffering with Christ.
Now, of course, whatever may be the operation of suffering in fitting for the possession of the Christian inheritance, either here or in another world, the sonship and the sorrows do not stand on the same level in regard to that possession. The one is the indispensable condition of all; the other is but the means for the operation of the condition. The one-being sons, ‘joint-heirs with Christ,’-is the root of the whole matter; the other-the ‘suffering with Him,’-is but the various process by which from the root there come ‘the blade, and the ear, and the full corn in the ear.’ Given the sonship-if it is to be worked out into power and beauty, there must be suffering with Christ. But unless there be sonship, there is no possibility of inheriting God; discipline and suffering will be of no use at all.
The chief lesson which I wish to gather from this text now is that all God’s sons must suffer with Christ; and in addition to this principle, we may complete our considerations by adding briefly, that the inheritance must be won by suffering, and that if we suffer with Him, we certainly shall receive the inheritance.
I. First, then, sonship with Christ necessarily involves suffering with Him.
I think that we entirely misapprehend the force of this passage before us, if we suppose it to refer principally or merely to the outward calamities, what you call trials and afflictions, which befall people, and see in it only the teaching, that the sorrows of daily life may have in them a sign of our being children of God, and some power to prepare us for the glory that is to come. There is a great deal more in the thought than that, brethren. This is not merely a text for people who are in affliction, but for all of us. It does not merely contain a law for a certain part of life, but it contains a law for the whole of life. It is not merely a promise that in all our afflictions Christ will be afflicted, but it is a solemn injunction that we seek to know ‘the fellowship of His sufferings, and be made conformable to the likeness of His death,’ if we expect to be ‘found in the likeness of His Resurrection,’ and to have any share in the community of His glory. In other words, the foundation of it is not that Christ shares in our sufferings; but that we, as Christians, in a deep and real sense do necessarily share and participate in Christ’s. We ‘suffer with Him’; not He suffers with us.
Now, do not let us misunderstand each other, or the Apostle’s teaching. Do not suppose that I am forgetting, or wishing you to account as of small importance, the awful sense in which Christ’s suffering stands as a thing by itself and unapproachable, a solitary pillar rising up, above the waste of time, to which all men everywhere are to turn with the one thought, ‘I can do nothing like that; I need to do nothing like it; it has been done once, and once for all; and what I have to do is, simply to lie down before Him, and let the power and the blessings of that death and those sufferings flow into my heart.’ The Divine Redeemer makes eternal redemption. The sufferings of Christ-the sufferings of His life, and the sufferings of His death-both because of the nature which bore them, and of the aspect which they wore in regard to us, are in their source, in their intensity, in their character, and consequences, unapproachable, incapable of repetition, and needing no repetition whilst the world shall stand. But then, do not let us forget that the very books and writers in the New Testament that preach most broadly Christ’s sole, all-sufficient, eternal redemption for the world by His sufferings and death, turn round and say to us too, ‘“Be planted together in the likeness of His death”; you are “crucified to the world” by the Cross of Christ; you are to “fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ.”‘ He Himself speaks of our drinking of the cup that He drank of, and being baptized with the baptism that He was baptized with, if we desire to sit yonder on His throne, and share with Him in His glory.
Now what do the Apostles, and what does Christ Himself, in that passage that I have quoted, mean, by such solemn words as these? Some people shrink from them, and say that it is trenching upon the central doctrine of the Gospel, when we speak about drinking of the cup which Christ drank of. They ask, Can it be? Yes, it can be, if you will think thus:-If a Christian has the Spirit and life of Christ in him, his career will be moulded, imperfectly but really, by the same Spirit that dwelt in his Lord; and similar causes will produce corresponding effects. The life of Christ which-divine, pure, incapable of copy and repetition-in one aspect has ended for ever for men, remains to be lived, in another view of it, by every Christian, who in like manner has to fight with the world; who in like manner has to resist temptation; who in like manner has to stand, by God’s help, pure and sinless, in so far as the new nature of him is concerned, in the midst of a world that is full of evil. For were the sufferings of the Lord only the sufferings that were wrought upon Calvary? Were the sufferings of the Lord only the sufferings which came from the contradiction of sinners against Himself? Were the sufferings of the Lord only the sufferings which were connected with His bodily afflictions and pain, precious and priceless as they were, and operative causes of our redemption as they were? Oh no. Conceive of that perfect, sinless, really human life, in the midst of a system of things that is all full of corruption and of sin; coming ever and anon against misery, and wrong-doing, and rebellion; and ask yourselves whether part of His sufferings did not spring from the contact of the sinless Son of man with a sinful world, and the apparently vain attempt to influence and leaven that sinful world with care for itself and love for the Father. If there had been nothing more than that, yet Christ’s sufferings as the Son of God in the midst of sinful men would have been deep and real. ‘O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?’ was wrung from Him by the painful sense of want of sympathy between His aims and theirs. ‘Oh that I had wings like a dove, for then I would fly away and be at rest,’ must often be the language of those who are like Him in spirit, and in consequent sufferings.
And then again, another branch of the ‘sufferings of Christ’ is to be found in that deep and mysterious fact on which I durst not venture to speak beyond what the actual words of Scripture put into my lips-the fact that Christ wrought out His perfect obedience as a man, through temptation and by suffering. There was no sin within Him, no tendency to sin, no yielding to the evil that assailed. ‘The Prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.’ But yet, when that dark Power stood by His side, and said, ‘If thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down,’ it was a real temptation and not a sham one. There was no wish to do it, no faltering for a moment, no hesitation. There was no rising up in that calm will of even a moment’s impulse to do the thing that was presented;-but yet it was presented, and, when Christ triumphed, and the tempter departed for a season, there had been a temptation and there had been a conflict. And though obedience be a joy, and the doing of His Father’s will was His delight, as it must needs be in pure and in purified hearts; yet obedience which is sustained in the face of temptation, and which never fails, though its path lead to bodily pains and the ‘contradiction of sinners,’ may well be called suffering. We cannot speak of our Lord’s obedience as the surrender of His own will to the Father’s, with the implication that these two wills ever did or could move except in harmony. There was no place in Christ’s obedience for that casting out of sinful self which makes our submission a surrender joined with suffering, but He knew temptation. Flesh, and sense, and the world, and the prince of this world, presented it to Him; and therefore His obedience too was suffering, even though to do the will of His Father was His meat and His drink, His sustenance and His refreshment.
But then, let me remind you still further, that not only does the life of Christ, as sinless in the midst of sinful men, and the life of Christ, as sinless whilst yet there was temptation presented to it-assume the aspect of being a life of suffering, and become, in that respect, the model for us; but that also the Death of Christ, besides its aspect as an atonement and sacrifice for sin, the power by which transgression is put away and God’s love flows out upon our souls, has another power given to it in the teaching of the New Testament. The Death of Christ is a type of the Christian’s life, which is to be one long, protracted, and daily dying to sin, to self, to the world. The crucifixion of the old manhood is to be the life’s work of every Christian, through the power of faith in that Cross by which ‘the world is crucified unto Me, and I unto the world.’ That thought comes over and over again in all forms of earnest presentation in the Apostle’s teaching. Do not slur it over as if it were a mere fanciful metaphor. It carries in its type a most solemn reality. The truth is, that, if a Christian, you have a double life. There is Christ, with His power, with His Spirit, giving you a nature which is pure and sinless, incapable of transgression, like His own. The new man, that which is born of God, sinneth not, cannot sin. But side by side with it, working through it, working in it, leavening it, indistinguishable from it to your consciousness, by anything but this that the one works righteousness and the other works transgression, there is the ‘old man,’ ‘the flesh,’ ‘the old Adam,’ your own godless, independent, selfish, proud being. And the one is to slay the other! Ah, let me tell you, these words-crucifying, casting out the old man, plucking out the right eye, maiming self of the right hand, mortifying the deeds of the body-they are something very much deeper and more awful than poetical symbols and metaphors. They teach us this, that there is no growth without sore sorrow. Conflict, not progress, is the word that defines man’s path from darkness into light. No holiness is won by any other means than this, that wickedness should be slain day by day, and hour by hour. In long lingering agony often, with the blood of the heart pouring out at every quivering vein, you are to cut right through the life and being of that sinful self; to do what the Word does, pierce to the dividing asunder of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and get rid by crucifying and slaying-a long process, a painful process-of your own sinful self. And not until you can stand up and say, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,’ have you accomplished that to which you are consecrated and vowed by your sonship-’being conformed unto the likeness of His death,’ and ‘knowing the fellowship of His sufferings.’
It is this process, the inward strife and conflict in getting rid of evil, which the Apostle designates here with the name of ‘suffering with Christ, that we may be also glorified together.’ On this high level, and not upon the lower one of the consideration that Christ will help us to bear outward infirmities and afflictions, do we find the true meaning of all that Scripture teaching which says indeed, ‘Yes, our sufferings are His’; but lays the foundation of it in this, ‘His sufferings are ours.’ It begins by telling us that Christ has done a work and borne a sorrow that no second can ever do. Then it tells us that Christ’s life of obedience-which, because it was a life of obedience, was a life of suffering, and brought Him into a condition of hostility to the men around Him-is to be repeated in us. It sets before us the Cross of Calvary, and the sorrows and pains that were felt there;-and it says to us, Christian men and women, if you want the power for holy living, have fellowship in that atoning death; and if you want the pattern of holy living, look at that Cross and feel, ‘I am crucified to the world by it; and the life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.’
Such considerations as these, however, do not necessarily exclude the other one {which we may just mention and dwell on for a moment}, namely, that where there is this spiritual participation in the sufferings of Christ, and where His death is reproduced and perpetuated, as it were, in our daily mortifying ourselves in the present evil world-there Christ is with us in our afflictions. God forbid that I should try to strike away any word of consolation that has come, as these words of my text have come, to so many sorrowing hearts in all generations, like music in the night and like cold waters to a thirsty soul. We need not hold that there is no reference here to that comforting thought, ‘In all our affliction He is afflicted.’ Brethren, you and I have, each of us-one in one way, and one in another, all in some way, all in the right way, none in too severe a way, none in too slight a way-to tread the path of sorrow; and is it not a blessed thing, as we go along through that dark valley of the shadow of death down into which the sunniest paths go sometimes, to come, amidst the twilight and the gathering clouds, upon tokens that Jesus has been on the road before us? They tell us that in some trackless lands, when one friend passes through the pathless forests, he breaks a twig ever and anon as he goes, that those who come after may see the traces of his having been there, and may know that they are not out of the road. Oh, when we are journeying through the murky night, and the dark woods of affliction and sorrow, it is something to find here and there a spray broken, or a leafy stem bent down with the tread of His foot and the brush of His hand as He passed, and to remember that the path He trod He has hallowed, and thus to find lingering fragrances and hidden strengths in the remembrance of Him as ‘in all points tempted like as we are,’ bearing grief for us, bearing grief with us, bearing grief like us.
Oh, do not, do not, my brethren, keep these sacred thoughts of Christ’s companionship in sorrow, for the larger trials of life. If the mote in the eye be large enough to annoy you, it is large enough to bring out His sympathy; and if the grief be too small for Him to compassionate and share, it is too small for you to be troubled by it. If you are ashamed to apply that divine thought, ‘Christ bears this grief with me,’ to those petty molehills that you sometimes magnify into mountains, think to yourselves that then it is a shame for you to be stumbling over them. But on the other hand, never fear to be irreverent or too familiar in the thought that Christ is willing to bear, and help you to bear, the pettiest, the minutest, and most insignificant of the daily annoyances that may come to ruffle you. Whether it be a poison from one serpent sting, or whether it be poison from a million of buzzing tiny mosquitoes, if there be a smart, go to Him, and He will help you to endure it. He will do more, He will bear it with you, for if so be that we suffer with Him, He suffers with us, and our oneness with Christ brings about a community of possessions whereby it becomes true of each trusting soul in its relations to Him, that ‘all mine {joys and sorrows alike} are thine, and all thine are mine.’
II. There remain some other considerations which may be briefly stated, in order to complete the lessons of this text. In the second place, this community of suffering is a necessary preparation for the community of glory.
I name this principally for the sake of putting in a caution. The Apostle does not mean to tell us, of course, that if there were such a case as that of a man becoming a son of God, and having no occasion or opportunity afterwards, by brevity of life or other causes, for passing through the discipline of sorrow, his inheritance would be forfeited. We must always take such passages as this-which seem to make the discipline of the world an essential part of the preparing of us for glory-in conjunction with the other undeniable truth which completes them, that when a man has the love of God in his heart, however feebly, however newly, there and then he is fit for the inheritance. I think that Christian people make vast mistakes sometimes in talking about ‘being made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light,’ about being ‘ripe for glory,’ and the like. One thing at any rate is very certain, it is not the discipline that fits. That which fits goes before the discipline, and the discipline only develops the fitness. ‘God hath made us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light,’ says the Apostle. That is a past act. The preparedness for heaven comes at the moment-if it be a momentary act-when a man turns to Christ. You may take the lowest and most abandoned form of human character, and in one moment {it is possible, and it is often the case} the entrance into that soul of the feeble germ of that new affection shall at once change the whole moral habitude of that man. Though it be true, then, that heaven is only open to those who are capable-by holy aspirations and divine desires-of entering into it, it is equally true that such aspirations and desires may be the work of an instant, and may be superinduced in a moment in a heart the most debased and the most degraded. ‘This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise,’-fit for the inheritance!
And, therefore, let us not misunderstand such words as this text, and fancy that the necessary discipline, which we have to go through before we are ready for heaven, is necessary in anything like the same sense in which it is necessary that a man should have faith in Christ in order to be saved. The one may be dispensed with, the other cannot. A Christian at any period of his Christian experience, if it please God to take him, is fit for the kingdom. The life is life, whether it be the budding beauty and feebleness of childhood, or the strength of manhood, or the maturity and calm peace of old age. But ‘add to your faith,’ that ‘an entrance may be ministered unto you abundantly.’ Remember that though the root of the matter, the seed of the kingdom, may be in you; and that though, therefore, you have a right to feel that, at any period of your Christian experience, if it please God to take you out of this world, you are fit for heaven-yet in His mercy He is leaving you here, training you, disciplining you, cleansing you, making you to be polished shafts in His quiver; and that all the glowing furnaces of fiery trial and all the cold waters of affliction are but the preparation through which the rough iron is to be passed before it becomes tempered steel, a shaft in the Master’s hand.
And so learn to look upon all trial as being at once the seal of your sonship, and the means by which God puts it within your power to win a higher place, a loftier throne, a nobler crown, a closer fellowship with Him ‘who hath suffered, being tempted,’ and who will receive into His own blessedness and rest them that are tempted. ‘The child, though he be an heir, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors.’ God puts us in the school of sorrow under that stern tutor and governor here, and gives us the opportunity of ‘suffering with Christ,’ that by the daily crucifixion of our old nature, by the lessons and blessings of outward calamities and change, there may grow up in us a still nobler and purer, and perfecter divine life; and that we may so be made capable-more capable, and capable of more-of that inheritance for which the only necessary thing is the death of Christ, and the only fitness is faith in His name.
III. Finally, that inheritance is the necessary result of the suffering that has gone before.
The suffering results from our union with Christ. That union must needs culminate in glory. It is not only because the joy hereafter seems required in order to vindicate God’s love to His children, who here reap sorrow from their sonship, that the discipline of life cannot but end in blessedness. That ground of mere compensation is a low one on which to rest the certainty of future bliss. But the inheritance is sure to all who here suffer with Christ, because the one cause-union with the Lord-produces both the present result of fellowship in His sorrows, and the future result of joy in His joy, of possession of His possessions. The inheritance is sure because Christ possesses it now. The inheritance is sure because earth’s sorrows not merely require to be repaid by its peace, but because they have an evident design to fit us for it, and it would be destructive to all faith in God’s wisdom, and God’s knowledge of His own purposes, not to believe that what He has wrought us for will be given to us. Trials have no meaning, unless they are means to an end. The end is the inheritance, and sorrows here, as well as the Spirit’s work here, are the earnest of the inheritance. Measure the greatness of the glory by what has preceded it. God takes all these years of life, and all the sore trials and afflictions that belong inevitably to an earthly career, and works them in, into the blessedness that shall come. If a fair measure of the greatness of any result of productive power be the length of time that was taken for getting it ready, we can dimly conceive what that joy must be for which seventy years of strife and pain and sorrow are but a momentary preparation; and what must be the weight of that glory which is the counterpoise and consequence to the afflictions of this lower world. The further the pendulum swings on the one side, the further it goes up on the other. The deeper God plunges the comet into the darkness out yonder, the closer does it come to the sun at its nearest distance, and the longer does it stand basking and glowing in the full blaze of the glory from the central orb. So in our revolution, the measure of the distance from the farthest point of our darkest earthly sorrow, to the throne, may help us to the measure of the closeness of the bright, perfect, perpetual glory above, when we are on the throne: for if so be that we are sons, we must suffer with Him; if so be that we suffer, we must be glorified together!
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv17–23 and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and…
and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him . [In interpreting this passage we should remember that Paul is speaking to those already converted. Hence, in these and in the preceding verses, he is not telling them how to become children of God, but how to continue such. Now, it is true that the Spirit lays down the terms by which we may become Christians, and if we obey these terms, then both the Holy Spirit and our own spirits testify that we are sons of God. But since Paul is not addressing converts, such an interpretation would be wide of his thought, which is this: If the Holy Spirit indeed leads us in a conflict with sin and a steady effort towards righteousness, and if we submit to be thus led, then the Holy Spirit unites with our spirit to testify that we are God's children. The testimony is, of course, self-directed. i. e., the testimony is for the purpose of assuring and confirming our own faith. If we are led, we know it, and so our own spirit testifies to us. If we are led, in the godly, spiritual path, it can be none other than the Holy Spirit who leads; and so, in the very act of leading, the Spirit testifies to us. And, lastly, if we are led, and if we follow, this union of our spirit and God's Spirit in joint action proves us children of God; for our co-operation with God in this paternal government of his shows us accepted of him as his children. But we can not be children in this one respect of government without being children also in the other respect of heirship. We are, therefore, God's heirs, joint-heirs with his only begotten Son, provided that we are truly led of the Spirit as he was, which we may readily test, for the Spirit led him through suffering to glory, and should lead us by the same pathway, if we are to enjoy somewhat of the same glory.]
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 v23 Lit. placing as sons. See Adoption, Rom 8:15.
adoption
Lit. placing as sons. See Adoption, Rom 8:15.
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 vv18, 23 Comfort in the Manifold Afflictions of this Life.
Comfort in the Manifold Afflictions of this Life.
The sighing of creation:
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v. 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
v. 19. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
v. 20. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope.
v. 21. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
v. 22. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
In v. 18 the apostle briefly states the topic of the second part of this chapter: For I consider; he gives it as an expression of his strongest assurance, not as an uncertain opinion or the dubious result of conjecture. Not worthy are the sufferings of the present time, that pertain to this life only and come to an end with the close of this world-period, in comparison with the glory which is to be revealed to us. All the distress, all the afflictions, all the persecutions, all the sorrow that comes upon the Christians for the sake of Jesus, is a matter of but a moment’s duration, as time is reckoned before God, and in addition is so outweighed by the glory which the saints are to inherit that it cannot properly come into consideration. "Behold how he turns his back to the world and fixes his face toward the future revelation, just as though he nowhere on earth saw misfortune or woe, on the contrary, nothing but joy. Truly, even if we are in bad straits, he says, what is our suffering in comparison with the ineffable joy and glory which shall be revealed in us? It is not worthy to be compared or to be called a suffering."
Having thus stated the leading thought of this entire section, Paul now emphasizes the greatness of the glory which shall be revealed in us by describing the coming deliverance of the creation in general, which, with all its blessings, is immeasurably greater than all the suffering of the present state could be. The earnest expectation, the watching with outstretched head, the eager, anxious longing of creation, of the sum total of organic and inorganic created matter, especially the brute creatures, awaits patiently, expectantly, the revelation of the children of God. In this world the sons of God usually do not appear to advantage in the eyes of the world, they are not manifested: it does not appear openly what a great and glorious thing it is to be a child of God, what wonderful blessings the Lord has provided for them that love Him. But the time will come when they shall be manifested, when the glory of heaven shall be revealed to them and be made their own in the sight of all men. And for that day the entire brute creation, all nature, is eagerly waiting. For now creation, this sum total of God’s creatures about us, which we commonly call nature, is subjected to vanity, not willingly, but because of Him that subjected it, because God in His wisdom willed it. As the universe and all the visible objects about us came into existence out of the hand of God, it had the power of life in itself. But with the fall of man and the subsequent curse came the subjection of nature to the vanity, the unprofitableness, the uselessness of man’s sinful desires and intentions. As Luther says, sun, moon, and stars, heaven and earth, the grain that we eat, the water or wine that we drink, oxen, cows, sheep, and everything that men use, is lamenting and crying over the fact of its subjection to vanity, to the service of sin in the hands of man. But God, in including creation in general in His curse upon sin, at the same time had a future change of this lamentable condition in mind, according to which the suffering creation may hope for a deliverance from this condition of unwilling subjection; for creation itself, all nature about us, will be set free from the bondage of corruption, the slavery that has resulted from the corruption due to sin, to the glorious liberty of the children of God, to the freedom from the vanity and corruption of sin and its consequences. The Day of Judgment will bring deliverance to the brute creation, to all organic and inorganic matter, from the tyranny of man that uses the creatures of God for purposes of vanity and sin. When heaven and earth shall pass away, when the earth and the works therein shall be burned up, 2Pe 3:10, that will mean the end of unwilling slavery throughout the world. And as the believers will then look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, 2Pe 3:13, so all the substances of the old earth, having thrown off the tyranny of sin, will enjoy that freedom for which the Lord created them in the beginning. In the mean time we know that the entire creation is groaning with us believers and feeling the most vehement pains to the present time. And in this way the entire creation is suffering and waiting, as Luther says; and for what? "For the glorious liberty of the children of God, when she will not only be set free from her service, that she will no more serve any scoundrel, but shall also be free, and much more beautiful than she is now, and serve only the children of God, no longer be captive under the devil, as she is now captive."
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 vv18, 20, 23 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul reminds us as believers that our bodies will be changed at the redemption of our bodies in this section which ends in Romans 8:25.
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For
This emphasizes "I consider." It does not mean "because."
I consider that ... are not worthy to be compared with
You can translate this in an active form. AT: "I cannot compare the sufferings of this present time with" (See: Active or Passive)
will be revealed
You can translate this in an active form. AT: "God will reveal" or "God will make known" (See: Active or Passive)
the eager expectation of the creation waits for
Paul describes everything that God created as a person who eagerly waits for something. (See: Personification)
for the revealing of the sons of God
You can translate this in an active form. AT: "for the time when God will reveal his children" (See: Active or Passive)
sons of God
Here this means all believers in Jesus. You can also translate this as "children of God."
translationWords
suffer
worthy
glory
reveal
create
sons of God
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 vv17, 19, 22, 23 8:17 Jesus is heir to all of God’s promises…
8:17 Jesus is heir to all of God’s promises (Mark 12:1-12; Gal 3:18-19; Heb 1:2), and as those who belong to Jesus, we share with him in that glorious inheritance. However, just as it was for Jesus, our path to glory is also marked by suffering. We experience the difficulties that come from striving to live righteously in a world dominated by sin (2 Cor 1:5; Phil 1:29; 3:10).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.