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النشر الإلكتروني

TEXT.

12 Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

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13 Neither yield ye your members, as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead; and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

14 For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

PARAPHRASE.

dead to sin, freed from that master; so as not to suffer yourselves any more to be commanded or employed by it, as if it were still your master; but alive to God, i. e. that it is your business now to live wholly for his service, and to his 12 glory h, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Permit not, therefore, sin to reign over you by your mortal bodies, which 13 you will do if you obey your carnal lusts: Neither deliver up your members to sin, to be employed by sin, as instruments of iniquity, but deliver up yourselves unto God, as those who have got to a new life from among the dead', and choosing him for your Lord and Master, yield your members to him, 14 as instruments of righteousness. For if you do so, sin shall not have dominion over you m, you shall not be as its slaves,

NOTES.

11"Sin" is here spoken of as a person, a prosopopoeia made use of, all through this and the following chapter, which must be minded, if we will understand them right. The like exhortation upon the same ground, see 1 Pet. iv. 1-3. See Gal. ij. 19. 2 Cor. v. 15. Rom. v. 4. The force of St. Paul's argument here seems to be this: in your baptism you are engaged into a likeness of Christ's death and resurrection. He once died to sin, so do you count yourselves dead to sin. He rose to life, wherein he lives wholly to God; so must your new life, after your resurrection from your typical burial in the water, be under the vassalage of sin no more, but you must live entirely to the service of God, to whom you are devoted, in obedience to his will in all things.

12 "In your mortal bodies;" iv, in the apostle's writings, often signifies, by. And he here, as also in the following chapters, ver. 18 and 24, and elsewhere, placing the root of sin in the body, his sense seems to be, let not sin reign over you, by the lusts of your mortal bodies.

13 "Sinful lusts," at least those to which the Gentiles were most eminently enslaved, seem so much placed in the body and the members, that they are called "the members," Col. iii. 5.

l'Ex vexpv," from among the dead." The Gentile world were dead in sins, Eph. ii. 1, 5. Col. ii. 13. Those, who were converted to the Gospel, were raised to life from among those dead.

14 "Sin shall not have dominion over you," i. e. sin shall not be your absolute master, to dispose of your members and faculties in its drudgery and service, as it pleases; you shall not be under its control, in absolute subjection to it, but your own men that are alive, and at your own disposal, unless, by your own free VOL. VIII.

X

TEXT.

15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace ? God forbid !

16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey,

PARAPHRASE.

in its power, to be by it delivered over to death. For" you are not under the law, in the legal state; but you are under 15 grace, in the Gospel-state of the covenant of grace. What then, shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but 16 under the covenant of grace? God forbid! Know ye not

NOTES.

choice, you enthral yourselves to it, and by a voluntary obedience give it the command over you, and are willing to have it your master. It must be remembered, that St. Paul here, and in the following chapter, personates sin as striving with men for mastery, to destroy them.

"For." The force of St. Paul's reasoning here stands thus: you are obliged, by your taking on you the profession of the Gospel, not to be any longer slaves and vassals to sin, nor to be under the sway of your carnal lusts, but to yield yourselves up to God, to be his servants, in a constant and sincere purpose and endeavour of obeying him in all things; this if you do, sin shall not be able to procure you death, for you Gentiles are not under the law, which condemns to death for every the least transgression, though it be but a slip of infirmity; but, by your baptism, are entered into the covenant of grace, and, being under grace, God will accept of your sincere endeavours in the place of exact obedience, and give you eternal life through Jesus Christ; but if you, by a willing obedience to your lusts, make yourselves vassals to sin, sin, as the lord and master to whom you belong, will pay you with death, the only wages that sin pays. 15 What is meant by being "under grace," is easily understood, by the undoubted and obvious meaning of the parallel phrase, "under the law." They, it is unquestioned, were under the law, who having by circumcision, the ceremony of admittance, been received into the commonwealth of the Jews, owned the God of the Jews for their God and King, professing subjection to the law he gave by Moses. And so in like manner he is under grace, who, having by baptism, the ceremony of admittance, been received into the kingdom of Christ, or the society of Christians, called by a peculiar name the Christian church, owns Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messias, his King, professing subjection to his law, delivered in the Gospel. By which it is plain, that being under grace, is spoken here, as being under the law is, in a political and national sense. For whoever was circumcised, and owned God for his king, and the authority of his law, ceased not to be a Jew or member of that society, by every or any transgression of the precepts of that law, so long as he owned God for his Lord, and his subjection to that law; so likewise he who, by baptism, is incorporated into the kingdom of Christ, and owns him for his sovereign, and himself under the law and rule of the Gospel, ceases not to be a Christian, though he offend against the precepts of the Gospel, till he denies Christ to be his King and Lord, and renounces his subjection to his law in the Gospel. But God, in taking a people to himself to be his, not doing it barely as a temporal prince, or head of a politic society in this world, but in order to his having as many, as in obeying him perform the conditions necessary, his subjects for ever, in the state of immortality restored to them in another world; has, since the fall, erected two

TEXT.

his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin; but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered

you.

18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteous

ness.

19 I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your

PARAPHRASE.

that, to whom you subject yourselves as vassals, to be at his beck, his vassals you are whom you thus obey, whether it be of sin, which vassalage ends in death; or of Christ, in obeying the Gospel, to the obtaining of righteousness and life. 17 But God be thanked, that you, who were the vassals of sin, have sincerely, and from your heart, obeyed, so as to receive the form, or be cast into the mould of that doctrine, under whose direction or regulation you were put, that you might 18 conform yourselves to it. Being therefore set free from the

vassalage of sin, you became the servants or vassals of 19 righteousness'. (I make use of this metaphor, of the passing

NOTES.

kingdoms in this world, the one of the Jews, immediately under himself, another of Christians, under his Son Jesus Christ, for that farther and more glorious end of attaining eternal life; which prerogative and privilege of eternal life does not belong to the society in general, nor is the benefit granted nationally to the whole body of the people of either of these kingdoms of God, but personally, to such of them who perform the conditions required in the terms of each covenant. To those who are Jews, or under the law, the terms are perfect and complete obedience to every tittle of the law, "do this and live" to those who are Christians, or under grace, the terms are sincere endeavours after perfect obedience, though not attaining it, as is manifest in the remaining part of this chapter, where St. Paul acquaints those who ask whether they shall sin, because they are not under the law, but under grace? that, though they are under grace, yet they, who obey sin, are the vassals of sin; and those, who are the vassals of sin, shall receive death, the wages of sin.

16 'Tлаиой", "obedience." That which he calls here simply waxon, "obedience," he in other places calls ὑπακοὴ πίσεως, “ obedience of faith,” and ὑπακοὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, "obedience of Christ," meaning a reception of the Gospel of Christ, 17 1 Eis ov waped69nre, "unto which you were delivered;" no harsh, but an elegant expression, if we observe that St. Paul here speaks of sin and the Gospel, as of two masters, and that those he writes to were taken out of the hands of the one, and delivered over to the other, which they having from their hearts obeyed, were no longer the slaves of sin, he whom they obeyed being, by the rule of the foregoing verse, truly their master.

18 'Edouλάiênte dixioσúvn, “ye became the slaves of righteousness." This will seem an harsh expression, unless we remember that St. Paul, going on still with

TEXT.

flesh for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness, unto holiness.

20 For, when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteous

ness.

21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

PARAPHRASE.

of slaves from one master to another, well known to you Romans, the better to let my meaning into your understandings, that are yet weak in these matters, being more accustomed to fleshly than spiritual things.) For as you yielded your natural faculties obedient, slavish instruments to uncleanness, to be wholly employed in all manner of iniquity"; so now ye ought to yield up your natural faculties to a perfect and ready 20 obedience to righteousness. For, when you were the vassals of sin, you were not at all subject to, nor paid any obedience to righteousness; therefore, by a parity of reason, now righte ousness is your master, you ought to pay no obedience to sin. 21 What fruit or benefit had you then in those things, in that course of things, whereof you are now ashamed? For the end of those things, which are done in obedience to sin, is death. 22 But now, being set free from sin, being no longer vassals to that master, but having God now for your Lord and Master, to whom you are become subjects or vassals, your course of 23 life tends to holiness, and will end in everlasting life. For the wages that sin pays is death: but that which God's

NOTES.

the metaphor of master and servant, makes sin and righteousness here two persons, two distinct masters, and men passing from the dominion of the one into the dominion of the other.

19. 'Av0púmivov Xfyw, "I speak after the manner of men." He had some reason to make some little kind of apology, for a figure of speech, which he dwells upon quite down to the end of this chapter.

t "Members," see ch. vii. 5. Note.

"To iniquity unto iniquity," see Note, ch. 1. 17.

23 "The wages of sin," does not signify here the wages that are paid for sinning, but the wages that sin pays. This is evident, not only by the opposition that is put here in this verse, between "the wages of sin, and the gift of God," viz. that sin rewards men with death, for their obedience; but that which God gives to those, who, believing in Jesus Christ, labour sincerely after righteousness, is life eternal. But it farther appears, by the whole tenour of St. Paul's

PARAPHRASE.

servants receive from his bounty is the gift of eternal life *, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

NOTES.

discourse, wherein he speaks of sin as a person and a master, who hath servants, and is served and obeyed, and so the wages of sin, being the wages of a person here, must be what it pays.

"The gift of God." Sin pays death to those who are its obedient vassals: but God rewards the obedience of those, to whom he is Lord and Master, by the gift of eternal life. Their utmost endeavours and highest performances can never entitle them to it of right; and so it is to them not wages, but a free gift. See ch. iv. 4.

SECTION VI. NO. 4.

CHAPTER VII. 1-25.

CONTENTS.

ST. Paul, in the foregoing chapter, addressing himself to the convert Gentiles, shows them, that not being under the law, they were obliged only to keep themselves free from the vassalage of sin, by a sincere endeavour after righteousness, forasmuch as God gave eternal life to all those who, being under grace, i. e. being converted to Christianity, did so.

In this chapter, addressing himself to those of his own nation in the Roman church, he tells them, that the death of Christ having put an end to the obligation of the law, they were at their liberty to quit the observances of the law, and were guilty of no disloyalty in putting themselves under the Gospel. And here St. Paul shows the deficiency of the law, which rendered it necessary to be laid aside by the coming and reception of the Gospel. Not that it allowed any sin, but, on the contrary, forbade even concupiscence, which was not known to be sin without the law. Nor was it the law that brought death upon those who were under it, but sin, that herein it might show the extreme malignant influence it had upon our weak fleshly natures, in that it could prevail on us to transgress the law, (which we could not but acknowledge to be holy, just, and good) though death was the declared penalty of every transgression: but herein lay the deficiency of the law, as spiritual and opposite to sin as it was, that it could not master and root it out, but sin remained and dwelt in

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