Volume IV
The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans.
With John Brown’s marginal references, notes and reflections · Vol. IV, p. 316
Rome was, and is, the chief city of Italy, and was long the mistress of the then known world. To the Christians there, though not converted by his ministrations, Paul, as the apostle of the Gentiles, about A.D. 60, wrote this epistle, in order to establish their minds in the leading principles of the gospel, and direct them to a suitable improvement of it. After an introduction, asserting his own apostolic mission, and commending their faith, ch. 1. 1-17, he represents both Gentiles and Jews as being so sinful, that they could not possibly be justified before God by their own works, ch. 1. 18; ii.; 3. 1-20: how God's free grace reigns, through Jesus Christ's righteousness, to the justification of the greatest sinners, ch. 3. 21; iv.; v.: what obligations to holiness in heart and life are laid upon believers, by the happy freedom and rich privileges which they enjoy in him, ch. vi.-viii.: and while he traces up all heavenly blessings to the eternal and wise purpose of God as their true original, he points out how the just rejection of the Jews for their unbelief, and the gracious calling of the Gentiles by the gospel, because of their repentance and good works, was exactly answerable thereto, ch. ix.-xi.: and finally, exhorts to a multitude of personal and relative duties, incumbent on these Romans as members of the commonwealth, and especially of the church, ch. xii.-xvi.
[Letter-writing upon sacred subjects was an ancient practice among the prophets of the Lord. Thus Elijah not only wrote (2 Ch. 21. 12-15) to warn Jehoram to flee from the wrath to come; but he appears to have written the letter before his translation to heaven, that it might come as with all the solemnity and sanction of one sending a message from the world of spirits. Thus, again, we find Jeremiah (ch. xxix.) writing a letter to the captives in Babylon, exhorting them to quietness, to beware of false prophets, and promising their return after seventy years. Other portions of the prophecies seem also to have been written and sent as letters—such as several of the 'burdens' of particular countries or cities, of which the chief use must have lain in their speedy communication to the parties addressed. See for example Is. 13. 1; 15. 1; 17. 1, &c.; Je. 36. 1-10, 18, 32; 44. 1-14; Eze. 28. 1, 2, &c. Thus also the prophecy of Haggai, ch. 1. 1, seems to have been a letter to Zerubbabel and Joshua; and Malachi, the last of the prophets, seems to have written his 'burden,' ch. 1. 1, first as a general epistle to all Israel, and then as a special lesson of rebuke and instruction to the priests, ch. 2. 1.
Of the New Testament a large portion is composed of letters, some to individuals and some to communities. Among these the epistle to the Romans occupies a conspicuous place. By consent of all historic antiquity it is ascribed to Paul. It appears to have been the fifth of his apostolic letters, but is placed at the head of the collection, either because Rome was the imperial city, or because it is the longest and most comprehensive of his epistles, embracing the case both of Jews and Gentiles, and presenting the general doctrines of Christianity in a regular and systematic form.
This epistle has always attracted the peculiar attention of interpreters; 'yet no considerable difference of interpretation (observes Haldane) has ever been given of its contents by those who have renounced their own wisdom, and have determined to follow implicitly the obvious meaning of the Word of God.' In the first chapter, after declaring his own rank and authority in the church, the apostle proceeds by directing attention to the Son of God, in his incarnation in time, and his divine nature from eternity, as the great object of the gospel which he was commissioned to proclaim. Then, after an affectionate Christian salutation to the church, he proceeds to announce the doctrine he intends to inculcate and establish, viz. that the gospel is 'the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;' and then presents the reason and the means, because 'therein is the righteousness of God revealed;' and that unless such righteousness had been brought in and rendered available, all men must have perished, because 'the wrath of God (has been) revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.' Accordingly, in the first chapter, the apostle proceeds, by an appeal to facts, to establish the charge of 'ungodliness and unrighteousness' against the Gentiles, who had outraged reason in rejecting the Creator, and adopting the creatures as their gods, while they violated even the fragments of the law written in their hearts, disregarded the admonitions of their own consciences, and took their pleasure in sin and sinners, though aware of the righteous judgment of a holy God against all the workers of iniquity. In the second chapter the Jews, who would have lent a ready ear to the indictment and condemnation of the Gentiles, are themselves to be arraigned. But before they could well be aware of what was to follow, like David before Nathan, they pronounce their own doom, by concurring in a sentence by which an indefinite character is pronounced 'inexcusable' when he himself condemns another, and yet is guilty of the same crimes. The Jews are then proved guilty of violating the law delivered at Sinai, and instructed in the vanity of trusting to outward ceremonies and ordinances, while the heart is polluted with sin, and alienated from God. In the third chapter, the apostle proceeds to arraign both Jews and Gentiles under one common indictment, and draws from 'the Old Testament, and especially from the Psalms, that anatomy of the human heart, a fearful picture of their common depravity and guilt. Thus having proved, by an undeniable appeal to facts, that every man in his natural state lies under the just condemnation of God, because a rebel against him, whether as revealed in the visible creation, in the hearts and consciences of men, or in the positive ordinances and eternal principles of a written law, he arrives at the inevitable conclusion, that by obedience to the law no living man shall be justified; for that so far from justifying him, each form of this threefold revelation proves him to be a transgressor, and therefore worthy of condemnation.
The way is thus prepared for the grand display of the grace and mercy of God announced in the gospel. What the law could not do, not from any deficiency in itself, but owing to the depravity of man, God has fully accomplished. Man has no righteousness of his own, but God has provided a living way for him, a living way provided solely by grace and received solely by faith; it is placed to the account of the believer, when he repents of his sins and receives Christ as his Savior. Yet so far from being contrary to the justice of God. this method of justification 'freely by grace' illustrates his justice, and vindicates his former dealings with men. So far from making the law void, it establishes the law in all honour and authority. This way of salvation equally applies to all, both Jews and Gentiles, men of every nation and of every character; there is no difference here, for all, without exception, are sinners.
In the fourth chapter the apostle proceeds to obviate certain objections. First, that drawn from Abraham's alleged justification by works when he delivered up his son at the commandment of God, see Ja. 2. 21-24. Now this he admits, with James, to be a justification before men, a thing capable of being shown outwardly by one to another, comp. Ro. 4. 2 with Ja. 2.18, but demonstrates to be no justification before God, because no present obedience, however conspicuous, can possibly obliterate past sin, and because this is a work to which grace alone is adequate. Secondly, he obviates the Jewish objection against the justification of the Gentiles, who, because 'salvation was of (began with) the Jews,' would have confined it to them, or to proselytes of circumcision. This the apostle obviates, by showing that the promise of God was made, the faith of Abraham professed, and the righteousness of God bestowed before circumcision, when Abraham was still as a Gentile, and that circumcision was a mere seal of that righteousness received by faith, which he already had; that so, being of God, pronounced a 'father of many nations,' he might become the representative and fountain-head of all upon whom God, by his Spirit, should confer like precious faith in the Saviour. While thus obviating objections, the apostle casts much additional light upon his great topic, and in order to complete his view, describes in the fifth chapter the blessed effects connected with a state of justification, especially peace with God, access to the throne of grace, hope of glory, ability for all trials, deliverance from wrath, joy in God, eternal salvation and reign in glory through the Lord Jesus Christ. But now, as free grace in the justification of a sinner might be supposed to set aside the necessity of obedience to God, the apostle proceeds in the sixth and seventh chapters to prove, that so far from this being the case, his
doctrine establishes the only sufficient grounds of a cheerful, loving, and holy obedience. This foundation is union with the Redeemer, through that faith by which the believer is justified. Whereas the law, instead of sanctifying, operates by its restraints to stimulate the corruptions of the human heart, and rouses them into action; while, at the same time, it condemns all who are under it. But, through their union with Christ, believers are delivered from the law; and being under grace, which produces love, they are enabled to bring forth fruit acceptable to God. The law, however, is holy, just, and good, and is employed by the Spirit of God to discover the nature and extent of sin in the heart, and thereby to demonstrate the value of the remedy by which this disease is to be healed. As a general conclusion, the believer's entire freedom from condemnation, through union with his glorious Head, and his consequent sanctification, are both asserted in the eighth chapter,—effects, neither of which could ever have been accomplished by the law. The doctrine of God's sovereignty occupies the greater part of the ninth chapter; in the end of which, and throughout the tenth, the error of the Jews in seeking righteousness by the law, and refusing the righteousness which is by faith, is clearly exhibited. After which he propounds the freeness of salvation through the Redeemer, and the certainty that all who accept it shall be saved. And since faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, the necessity of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles is inferred and asserted. In the eleventh chapter the doctrine of election is resumed, and affirmed to be wholly of grace. Upon which is founded a most consolatory view of the issue of the present dispensation, in the final ingathering of the Jews with the fulness of the Gentile nations. He then proceeds to vindicate the providence of God, both toward Jews and Gentiles; showing that God was acting upon a plan which would finally issue in the fullest manifestations of the divine attributes of wisdom, justice, and mercy. While, as it were, lost in the height and depth, and length and breadth of his subject, the apostle prostrates himself in humble adoration, and summons all to join him in ascribing the glory of salvation to God alone! As the natural result of correct views of God's providence and grace, the apostle, in the twelfth chapter, proceeds to inculcate the moral duties of the Christian life. These he founds on the mercies of God through Jesus Christ, and sums up in two points,—the body for a sacrifice, the spirit for renewal. And here it may be proper to observe that, as in the visible world, we infer that nothing short of divine wisdom and power could have produced the heavens, Ps. 19. 1, so nothing short of divine inspiration could have produced the morality of the Scriptures. The whole array of philosophers can produce no such gem of morality as the twelfth chapter of this epistle. So many ideas in so few words are nowhere, unless in Scripture, again to be found. Paul was either the prince of all philosophers, or he was inspired. Philosophers will not acknowledge the first point; in denying it, however, they establish the second. He was inspired; and the superiority of his moral system to all that unassisted reason could produce, or human depravity tolerate, furnishes an internal evidence to the fact that infidelity, if it could reason, could neither gainsay nor resist. In the thirteenth chapter the apostle proceeds to inculcate the political relations and duties of Christians. They are subjects of a kingdom which is 'not of this world,' and lest they should conclude that they are, therefore, not also subject to the kingdoms which are 'of this world,' he inculcates obedience, in things lawful before God, to 'the powers that be,' without any distinction whatsoever as to mere forms of government. In the fourteenth, and to the thirteenth verse of the fifteenth chapter, he inculcates the duty of mutual forbearance among Christians, in relation to things indifferent; such as observance of days, with abstinence from, or use of, certain meats. These were subjects of keen and irritating discussion in the days of the apostle, though the questions concerning them may now, for a time, have gone to rest; but other things equally indifferent may arise, and have arisen, to occupy their room, and the doctrine of forbearance inculcated by the apostle may still find ample room for its patient and charitable exercise. In the succeeding portion of the fifteenth chapter he offers up earnest prayer for the believers at Rome, recounts his apostolic labours, and declares his purpose and hope of visiting them in due time. And in chapter sixteenth, he concludes with sundry personal notices, with salutary warnings against divisions, and earnest commendations to the grace of God. C.
We have internal evidence both of the date of this epistle, and of the place where it was written. In ch. 15. 25 Paul says, 'But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.' From 1 Co. 16. 1 we learn that the contribution to which he refers was given by the church at Corinth; and from Ac. 24. 17 we learn that Paul with others went from Corinth to Jerusalem, bearing the offerings. In ch. 16. 1 Paul mentions Cenchrea, the port of Corinth. In ver. 23 of the same chapter he mentions Gaius, his host, who was a native of Corinth, 1 Co. 1. 14, and Erastus, 'the chamberlain of the city.' It appears, therefore, that the epistle was written from Corinth, when Paul was about to leave that city for Jerusalem, in the spring of A.D. 58. P.]