An Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, Volume 3

The mercies of God, as illustrated by the revelation of the righteousness which is received by faith, was the grand subject which had occupied Paul in the former part of this Epistle. He had announced at the beginning that he was “not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; because it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that belie veth — to the Jew first and also to the Greek.“” This great truth he had undertaken to demonstrate, and he had done so with all the authority and force of inspiration, by exhibiting on the one hand, the state and character of man; and on the other, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

In the prosecution of this subject, the Apostle had shown that the wrath of God was revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; and by arguments the most irresistible, and evidence that could not be gainsaid, he had brought in both Jews and Gentiles as guilty and condemned sinners, justly obnoxious to the vengeance of heaven. Had the Almighty been pleased to abandon the apostate race of Adam to perish in their sins, none could have impeached his justice, or arraigned the severity of the Divine procedure. But in the unsearchable riches of the mercies of God, he was pleased to bring near a righteousness by which his broken law should be magnified, and a multitude whom no man can number rescued from destruction. This righteousness is revealed in the gospel — a righteousness worthy of the source from which it flows — a righteousness which shall for ever abase the pride of the creature, while it brings glory to God in the highest. The mercies of God are thus dispensed in such a way as to cut off all ground for boasting on the part of those who are justified. They are, on the contrary, calculated to exalt the Divine sovereignty, and to humble in the dust, those who are saved before Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will, and without giving any account of his matters, either justifies or condemns the guilty according to his sovereign pleasure.

At the end of the eleventh chapter, the apostle finishes his argument, and in a manner concludes his subject. He there vindicates God’s dealings, both towards the Jews and the Gentiles — showing that since all were guilty and justly condemned, God was acting on a plan by which, both in the choice and partial rejection and restoration of the Jews, the divine glory would be manifested; while in the result, the sovereign mercies of Jehovah would shine forth conspicuous in regard to all his dealings toward the children of men. Lost in admiration of the majesty of God as discovered in the gospel, the apostle prostrates himself before his Maker, while, in language of adoring wonder, he summons all whom he addresses to unite in ascribing glory to him who is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the Almighty.

From this point Paul next turns to the contemplation of the practical results which naturally flow from the doctrine he had been illustrating. He was addressing those who were at Rome, “beloved of God, called to be saints,” and by the remembrance of those mercies of which, whether Jews or Gentiles, they were the monuments, he beseeches them to present their bodies a living sacrifice to God, whose glory is the first and the last end of creation. In thus demanding the entire surrender or sacrifice of their bodies, he enforces the duty by designating it their reasonable service. Nothing can be more agreeable to the dictates of right reason, than to spend and be spent in the service of that God, whose glory is transcendent, whose power is infinite, whose justice is inviolable, and whose tender mercies are over all his works. On this firm foundation, the apostle establishes the various duties to which men are called, as associated with each other in society, whether in the ordinary relations of life, or as subjects of civil government, or as members of the Church of Christ. The morality here inculcated is the purest and most exalted. It presents nothing of that incongruous mixture which is discernible in the schemes of philosophy. It exhibits no traces of confusion or disorder. It places every thing on its right basis, and every thing in its proper place. It enjoins our duty towards God and towards man; and in this it differs from all human systems, which uniformly exclude the former or keep it in the back ground. It shows how doctrine and practice are inseparably connected — how the one is the motive, the source, or the principle — how the other is the effect; and how both are so united that such as is the first, so will be the last. According to our views of the character of God, so will be our conduct. The corruption of morals, which degraded and destroyed the heathen world, was the natural result of what infidels have designated, “their elegant mythology.” The abominable characters of the heathen gods and goddesses, were at once the transcript and the provocatives of the abominations of their worshippers; but whereever the true God has been known — wherever the character of Jehovah has been proclaimed, there a new standard of morals has been erected; and even those by whom his salvation is rejected are induced to counterfeit the virtues to which they do not attain. True Christianity and sound morals are indissolubly linked together; and just in proportion as men are estranged from the knowledge and service of God, so shall we find their actions stained with the corruptions of sin.

Where, in all the boasted moral systems of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca, or the rest of the Greek and Roman philosophers, shall be found any thing comparable to the purity and beauty of the virtues enjoined by Paul in the closing chapters of this Epistle? Even modern writers on ethics, when departing from the only pure standard of virtue, discover the grossest ignorance and inconsistency. But Paul, writing without any of the aids of human wisdom, draws his precepts from the fountain of heavenly truth, and inculcates on the disciples of Jesus a code of duties, which, if habitually practised by mankind, would change the world from what it is — a scene of strife, jealousy, and division — and make it what it was before the entrance of sin, a paradise fit for the Lord to visit and for man to dwell in.

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