《The Biblical Illustrator – Romans (Ch. 6b~8a)》

4. In New York there is a board of health. And how much dirt there was found the moment there was an authority to make men look for it. It is not half as dirty as it was a little while ago; but the dirt is more apparent, because it is stirred up. Only give a clearer sense of what is right to men, and they will instantly see in themselves much wrong that they have not before discovered. The probability is that now, in New York, there is more apprehension of danger from a want of cleanliness than there has been during the last twenty-five years put together. This has arisen from the increased sensibility of men on the subject, and the application of a higher test to it. There is special need of an awakened conscience to bring to light these things, that are not less dangerous because men do not know of them, but all the more dangerous.

III. An awakened conscience cannot find peace in any mere obedience. There is this benefit--that when once a man’s conscience has begun to discriminate, he naturally betakes himself to reformation to satisfy his conscience. But his conscience becomes exacting faster than he can learn how to perform. So that the more he does, the less he is satisfied. Here stands an old house, that has been a hundred years without repair. The old master dies, and a new man comes in. He sends for the architect, who commences searching, and it is found that there is decay all through the building. Part leads to part, and disclosure to disclosure, and decay to decay; and it seems as though it were almost impossible ever to make it good. That is but a faint emblem of the work of reformation in the human soul. A house offers no resistance to his attempts to renovate it; but the human disposition is an ever-fertile, ever-growing, ever-recreating centre. And a man is conscious that the more he tries to regulate it, the harder it is to do it. A man who has been drinking all his life, and lost his name and his business, and nearly ruined his family, attempts to reform. After a month he says, “I never had so much trouble in all my experience. It has seemed as though everything went against me, and was determined that I should not lead a good life, and I am almost in despair.” Oh, yes. Laws are like fortifications. They are meant to protect all that are inside, and repel all that are outside; and, if a man gets outside and attempts to come back, he must do it against the crossfire of the garrison. No man departs from the path of rectitude that, when he comes back, does not come back by the hardest. There is the experience of the apostle, “When I would do good, evil was with me. I perceived that the law was holy and just and good, and I approved it in the inward man. But the more I struggled to obey it the worse I was.” “O wretched man that I am,” etc. Then rose up before him that which must rise up as the ground of comfort in every awakened soul--namely, Jesus Christ.

IV. The only refuge of an excited conscience, as a judge and schoolmaster, must be to bring the soul to Christ. A child is taken by a teacher out of the street, wretchedly clad, bad in behaviour, and woefully ignorant. The old nature is strong. Still he begins to study a little, while he plays more. He is fractious, and comes to grief every day; but by and by he comes to that point where he feels himself to be a bad scholar, and in a flood of tears goes to the teacher and says, “It is useless to try and make anything out of me, I am so bad.” The teacher puts his arm round the child, and says, “Thomas, if I can bear with you, can you with me? I know how bad you have been. But I love you; and I will give you time, and you shall not be ruined.” Cannot you conceive that, under such circumstances, there might spring up in the heart of the child an intense feeling of gratitude. And so the teacher carries the child from day to day. Now this is just the work that God’s great heart does for men. And where there is a man that has a rigorous conscience, let him take refuge with one that says, “Shift the judgment seat. I will not judge you by the law of justice, but by the law of love and of patience.” By faith and love in Christ Jesus we may find rest. (H. Ward Beecher.)

Place of the law in salvation of sinners

1. Salvation has been provided; the world’s chief need now is a sense of sin. Food is not wanting, but hunger. There is healing balm; where are the broken hearts? Christ’s work is complete; we need that of the Spirit.

2. This chapter is the history of a holy war, and in the text you have a bird’s-eye view of the whole campaign. In the books of Moses you may find the same three things it contains.

I. A life which a man enjoys in and of himself before he knows God. “I was alive without the law once.”

1. The natural state of fallen man is here called life, and elsewhere death. In God’s sight it is death; in man’s imagination life. Paul gives his view of his unconverted state when he was in it. Ask him now about it, and he will declare, “I was dead in trespasses and sins.”

2. But how could he be so blind as to count himself just with God while running counter to the law? The explanation is, he was alive “without the law.” He could not have lived with it. Why have men so much peace in sin? Because they live without God’s law. Daring speculators cook accounts in order to stave off the evil day. Bolder cheats modify the law of God, that its incoming may not disturb their repose. There is a malformation in some member of your body, and you are ordered to wear an instrument to bring it back to a normal condition. Dreading the pain of the anticipated operation, you secretly take a cast of your own crooked limb, and thereon mould the instrument. When the instrument so prepared is laid upon the limb, the limb will feel easy, but it will not be made straight. Thus men cast upon their own hearts their conception of the Divine law, and, for form’s sake, apply the thing that is labelled God’s Word to their own hearts again, but the application never makes them cry, and the crooked parts are not made straight. The process is pleasant, and it serves the deceiver for a religion.

II. The escape from that false life by a dying: “The commandment came, sin revived, and I died.”

1. “The commandment came.”

2. “Sin revived” at the entrance of this visitant, and thereby he first felt sin like a serpent creeping about his heart, and loathed its presence.

3. “I died.” The life in which he had hitherto trusted was extinguished then.

III. He lives in another life.

1. No interval of time separated the two. The death that led from one life was the birth into another. We do not read, “I am dead,” but, “I died.” It is the voice, not of the dead, but of the living. The dead never tell us how they died. The death through which Paul passed at conversion is like that which lays a Christian’s weary body in the grave, and admits his spirit into the presence of the Lord. “He that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” The fact, like the person, has two sides. If you stand on this side and look, he dies. If you stand on that side and look, he is born.

2. Throughout the whole of his previous history, Paul had stood on the ground and breathed the atmosphere of his own merits. Probably, like other people, he had frequently to remove from place to place in that region. But even the law could not drive him forth. What the law could not do, God did by sending His Son. Christ brought His righteousness into contact with Paul’s. Now, the law chasing him once more, chased him over. Out of his own merits went the man that moment, and into Christ. Then he died; and from the moment of his death he lived. Henceforth you find him continually telling of his life, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”; “Our life is hid with Christ in God.”

3. Let the line be distinctly marked between what the law can, and what it cannot do. It may shake down all the foundations of a man’s first hope, but it cannot bear away the stricken victim from the ruins. It can make the sinner more miserable, but it cannot make him more safe. It is only when Christ comes near with a better righteousness that even the commandment, raging in the conscience, can drive you from your own. We owe much to that flaming justice which made the old life die, but more to that love which received the dying as he fell into life eternal. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

The condemnatory power of the law

I. In the way of preliminary observation it may be noticed that by the law here mentioned we are to understand the moral law. It is the moral law which says, “Thou shalt not covet,” as we read in verse 7. It is by the moral law we arrive at the knowledge of sin, as we see from the text, compared with Romans 3:20. It is to the moral law, as a covenant of works, that believers are dead in consequence of their union with the living head of the Church. It is by the moral law that sin takes occasion to deceive and destroy mankind, as you read in Romans 3:11. And finally, it is the moral law which is holy, just, and good, in its precepts, promises, and even threatenings.

II. Consider the false opinion which Paul entertained of himself before his conversion. So completely was he blinded by sin, that he falsely imagined himself to be alive--that is, he thought that he had well-grounded hopes of the favour of God and of eternal life, while in reality he was dead in trespasses and in sins. He was therefore at that time under the influence of a strong delusion. It will be of great consequence here to mark out the circumstances which, through the blindness of his mind, occasioned his mistake, that so we may place a beacon upon the rock which, without the interposition of Divine grace, had proved fatal to the apostle. He laid great stress on his religious education (Acts 22:3). Now, this was in itself a very distinguished privilege. But Paul in his unconverted state did not understand the proper improvement of it. Instead of rendering these advantages subservient to a higher end, he valued himself so much upon them that he thought they would contribute towards his acceptance with God. Another circumstance which, through the blindness of his mind, tended to mislead him was his full connection with the Jewish Church, whereby he was entitled to a variety of high external privileges. Had these things been kept in their proper place and rendered subservient to a higher end, they would have formed such beauties of character as to render it an object of admiration. But, alas! Paul being at this time under the influence of a self-righteous spirit, he considered these as constituting his title to eternal life, and so foolishly concluded that he was “alive,” while in reality he was under the sentence and the power of death, both spiritual and eternal. But further, Paul’s delusion in his unconverted state was chiefly owing to his deep ignorance of the purity, spirituality, and extent of the holy law of God. A thorough, inward, deep, and personal conviction of sin is that which lies at the very foundation of vital Christianity, and all religion without this must be delusion for without a sense of sin men will not come to the Saviour, and unless they come to the Saviour they must be irrecoverably undone.

III. The means that were blessed of God for correcting the erroneous opinion which Paul entertained of his spiritual state while a Pharisee.

1. The first means employed by God for discovering his real character was the coming of the commandment. The Lord Jesus, appearing to him when he was near to Damascus, sent by His Spirit the law or commandment home to his conscience in the extent of its requisitions, with such light, authority, and energy as produced a complete revolution of sentiment. This discovery destroyed the very foundation of the delusive hopes of eternal life which he previously entertained.

2. Another means here mentioned which, under Divine influence, subserved the purpose of correcting the erroneous opinion which Paul, when a Pharisee, entertained of himself was the reviving of sin. In the apostle’s state of unregeneracy sin lived in its latent powers and principles; but through the blindness of his mind he did not perceive, its existence, neither was he sensible of its various operations in his soul. But when the commandment came with light, authority, and energy, he obtained such a view of the numberless evils of his own heart which he never saw before; that sin which once appeared to be dead, now revived. And this is the first view in which sin appears to be alive in the soul of a true penitent. Again, sin revived upon the coming of the commandment, because that commandment, being enforced by the power of the supreme Lawgiver, vested sin with a power to condemn. Sin revived in him on the coming of the commandment also, because the more the holy law urged obedience, the keener opposition did the heart naturally corrupted give to the requirements of the law. And now sin was found not only to exist, but to exist in all its power and strength.

3. The next means which, under Divine influence, corrected the mistaken apprehension which Paul once entertained of himself was that which is here mentioned, “I died.” The death here mentioned is nothing else than the death of legal hope; and yet no sinner will submit to this kind of death till the law is applied to his conscience by the Holy Ghost convincing him of guilt and of its tremendous demerit. (John Russell.)

The law and the gospel

The main design of the apostle in this chapter is to show that the law would not give peace of mind to the troubled sinner. Note man’s condition--

I. Without the law. When I was unacquainted with its high, spiritual demands, I was peaceful and self-satisfied. I lived an earthly life, trusting to my own righteousness.

II. Under the law. When the law was revealed to me in its purity and integrity, I discovered my sinfulness, and fell down as one slain.

III. Above the law. Having found that there is no life in the law, I turned to the gospel. This is the purpose of the law--a schoolmaster. In Christ I found life. (D. Thomas, D. D)

Want of conviction the source of mistaken apprehensions

We have here--

I. The good opinion which Paul once had of himself, while he was in an unregenerate state. “I was alive.” This is no uncommon thing. Many have deceived themselves with a name to live, while they are dead. He doubtless refers to the time when he was a Pharisee; and there were such persons long before the Pharisees (Job 30:12; 2 Kings 10:16-31; Isaiah 29:13; Isaiah 58:1-2; Isaiah 65:5). Concerning Paul himself, read Philippians 3:5. And yet, when it pleased God to call him by His grace, he saw himself “the chief of sinners.” What an amazing change was here! Though once alive in his presumptions and performances, he finds himself dead in law, dead in sin.

II. The ground of the apostle’s mistake. “I was without the law.”

1. Not that the apostle could be so ignorant as to imagine that he was without law; for as a Jew he had the written law, and as a Pharisee he made his boast of it, and expected life by his own obedience to it.

2. He means, “I was alive without the law in its purity and spirituality. I only considered the letter, especially I fell in with the glosses of our Rabbins. But when I was led to view the law in all its extent and spirituality, I saw my mistake--I condemned myself as a most miserable sinner.”

3. While men aim only at the external law, there is little difficulty in obeying its precepts; but when they consider it as the very image of God Himself, it is no wonder if their fears begin to be awakened. Without the law, separated from and uninfluenced by it, the sinner receives no uneasiness; but if it be impressed upon his conscience, all his vain hopes are at an end. So, then, the true reason of the apostle’s mistake was the want of better acquaintance with the law. They who have most light have the lowest thoughts of themselves. Hence we see--

III. The means by which his mistake was rectified.

1. The commandment came, the law, in its pure and holy precepts. Now, if it be inquired how it is that the law comes home to the conscience, we answer, It is by the Spirit of the Lord. He opens the blind eye to discern the purity of the object presented, and exerts His almighty power to put the sinner upon comparing his heart and life with this law, and to hold him to it.

2. Sin revived.

3. “I died.” “I saw myself to be in a state of death and condemnation. I found myself insufficient to anything. All my attempts were fruitless, and I lay at the foot of mercy without any claim or plea.” In this hopeless and helpless state does Christ find us when He comes to bring us salvation. Oh, how precious is pardon to the ungodly, hope to the hopeless, mercy to the miserable!

Conclusion: A word--

1. To such as are dead, while they think themselves alive, How necessary is self-examination! The apostle, having been convinced of his past mistake, earnestly recommends this (2 Corinthians 13:5).

2. Those that feel themselves dead, bless God for the discovery. Where God hath made this discovery of sin, He will lead the heart to Him who is able to subdue sin.

3. Let all who have received life from Christ seek daily supplies from Him. Guard against all sin as contrary to that new life you have in and from Christ (Colossians 3:1). (J. Stafford.)

The effect of law on obedience

The terrors of the law have much the same effect on our duty and obedience as frost has on a stream--it hardens, cools, and stagnates. Whereas, let the shining of Divine love rise upon the soul, repentance will then flow, our hardness and coldness thaw and melt away, and all the blooming fruits of godliness flourish and abound. (Toplady.)

Death of the moral sense

The gambler that can take another’s money, and feel no compunction of conscience at his villainy, who can continue to walk the streets as if he were an honest man, while all the time a gambler’s money is in his pocket and a gambler’s joy in his heart, illustrates how thoroughly sin can get the mastery of a human being. How many people can lie in the way of slander, in the way of innuendo, in the way of suspicion, and still sleep at night as if they were as innocent as babes. Such people are dead in trespasses and sins. You run a pin into your body and you scream, because it is a live body. And so, while conscience is alive, the thrust of a wicked thought through it causes exquisite torture. But when one can lie, and steal, and be drunken--when these barbed iniquities can be driven day by day into the very centre of a man’s life, and conscience receives the stab without a spasm--then is it dead. And this is the law, that with whatever faculty you sin, the sin which that faculty commits kills the corresponding moral sense. Hence, sin is moral suicide; the drug works slowly but surely. The spirit which is compelled to eat of it is thrown gradually into a torpor, which deepens and deepens with every breath, until the capacity for inspiration is fatally weakened and the spirit dies. (W. H. H. Murray.)

Experience teaching the value of grace

In the olden time when the government of England resolved to build a wooden bridge over the Thames at Westminster, after they had driven one hundred and forty piles into the river, there occurred one of the most severe frosts in the memory of man, by means of which the piles were torn away from their strong fastenings, and many of them snapped in two. The apparent evil in this case was a great good; it led the commissioners to reconsider their purpose, and a substantial bridge of stone was erected. How well it is when the fleshly reformations of unregenerate men are broken to pieces, if thus they are led to fly to the Lord Jesus, and in the strength of His Spirit are brought to build solidly for eternity. Lord, if Thou sufferest my resolves and hopes to be carried away by temptations and the force of my corruptions, grant that this blessed calamity may drive me to depend wholly on Thy grace, which cannot fail me. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Moral life and death

The death of sin is the life of man; and the life of death is the sin of man. (Calvin.)

And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.--

The fatal effects of the law

Suppose a person liable to two bodily disorders of a different kind. He is weak, but the means taken to restore health and strength raise a fever in his veins. If we could keep him weak, he might live; as it is, he dies. So it might be said of the law, that it is too strong a medicine for the human soul. (Prof. Jowett.)

The original and the actual relation of man to law

1. The reader of St. Paul’s Epistles is struck with the seemingly disparaging manner in which he speaks of the moral law. “The law entered that the offence might abound”; “the law worketh wrath”; “sin shall not have dominion” over the believer, because he is “not under the law,” has “become dead to the law,” is “delivered from the law,” and “the strength of sin is the law.” This phraseology sounds strange. “Is the law sin?” is a question which he himself asks, because aware that it will be likely to start in the mind of some of his readers.

2. The difficulty is only seeming, and the text explains it. The moral law is suited to produce holiness and happiness. It was ordained to life. If everything in man had remained as it was created, there would have been no need of urging him to “become dead to the law,” to be “delivered from the law,” etc.

3. The original relation between man and the moral law was precisely like that between nature and its laws. There has been no apostasy in the system of matter. The law of gravitation rules as it did on the morning of creation. The law here was ordained to life, and the ordinance still stands and will stand until a new system of nature and a new legislation for it are introduced. But the case is different with man. He is out of his original relations to the law and government of God, and therefore that which was ordained to him for life, he now finds to be unto death. The food which is suited to minister to the health of the well man, becomes death to the sick man.

4. Let us now consider some particulars in which the commandment is found to be unto death. The law of God shows itself in the human soul in the form of a sense of duty. Every man hears occasionally the words, “Thou shalt; thou shalt not,” and finds himself saying to himself, “I ought; I ought not.” This is the voice of law sounding in the conscience. Cut into the rock of Sinai or printed in our Bibles, it is a dead letter; but wrought into the fabric of our own constitution, and speaking to our inward being, the law is a possessing spirit, and according as we obey or disobey, it is a guardian angel or a tormenting fiend. We have disobeyed, and therefore the sense of duty is a tormenting sensation; the commandment which was ordained to life is found to be unto death, because--

I. It places man under a continual restraint.

1. To be reined in and thwarted renders a man uneasy. The universal and instinctive desire for freedom is a proof of this. Now, the sense of duty opposes the wishes, thwarts the inclination, and imposes a restraint upon the desires and appetites of sinful man. If his inclination were only in harmony with his duty, there would be no restraint from the law; in doing his duty he would be doing what he liked.