The Soul's Great Crisis
(No. 3475)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1915.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
24, 1870.
"For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law
once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." Romans
7:8,9.
I REMEMBER once reading a chapter of a book which commenced with this
heading, "The Inside of the World." The book, of course, was occupied
very much with geology and to speculations about the interior of the
globe. Tonight I want you to consider not the inside of the world, but
the little world within us, that microcosm, the human heart, and some
strange things that happen therein–and especially one singular and
mysterious work which goes on in the minds of those who become the
children of God. They are brought from one state into another by a very
remarkable process. A process which, while they are undergoing it, they
do not understand. And for need of knowing what it is and what God is
driving at, some of them are often driven to very great
despondency–some even to despair. Whereas if they would see in the
text what I shall try to hold up and expound–a kind of mirror in which
they might see a reflection of their hearts and their own
experience–they might, perhaps, come into light and liberty all the
sooner. May it be so, even now!
We shall first speak of the words of the Apostle in this way. Here is
life without the Law of God. Here is, secondly, sin coming to the Light
of God. And here is, thirdly, the man himself–death brought by the Law
to him. And, first, let me speak of–
I. LIFE WITHOUT THE LAW OF GOD.
The Apostle says that sin was at one time dead in him and he was alive
without the Law of God. Now, when he says, "without the law," he does
not mean that he never heard the Law of God read, for it was read in
the synagogue every Sabbath. He does not mean that he did not know it,
for he was probably acquainted with every letter of it. He sat at the
feet of Gamaliel and he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees according to
his own profession–and they were a sect much addicted to the study not
only of the Law of God, but of the jots and tittles of it–they held,
in fact, constant discussions and disputes with one another about the
minute particulars of that Law.
He knew the Law in the letter of it, and understood it so far as it
could be understood from his point of view, but yet he says he was
alive without the Law, by which he means this–the Law had never come
home to his heart and to his conscience. It was because of this,
therefore, that he was living in a state of false security. He thought
he had kept it. He believed that if anyone in the world had kept the
Commandments from his youth up, he, Saul of Tarsus, was that man! He
did not dread dying, or standing before the Judgment Seat of God–he
felt himself perfectly ready for that. Wrapped up in his own
Law-keeping, he felt himself perfectly secure. He was at ease and
peace. Nothing disturbed him. He did not lie sleepless on his bed at
night, thinking of his iniquity–on the contrary, he lulled himself to
sleep with some such a prayer as this–"God, I thank You I am not as
other men are–an adulterer or extortioner, or even as this Publican. I
fast twice in the week. I pay tithes of all I possess." He thought he
was perfectly safe! He thought that he was doing all he ought to do,
leaving nothing undone that he ought to have done! He thought that he
was, in fact, in excellent repute in Heaven, and he was certainly on
the very best possible terms with himself! The consequence of this was
that he was alive without the Law of God.
In another sense his security brought him pride–he looked down upon
all others. If by chance a Publican met him in the street, he gave him
all the room he could. If he ever passed by a woman that was a sinner,
he took care to look quite another way, or to let her see how
scornfully he thought of her. If, perchance, he mentioned a Gentile, he
called him a dog–for this great one, Saul of Tarsus, had so kept the
Law of God, and felt so quiet and peaceful within, that he could afford
to stand on the very pinnacle of eminence and look down with derision
on those poorer mortals who were not so good as he was!
The next step that Paul, who was a thorough-going one, took–he
indulged in persecution–for as soon as you think yourself better than
others, you become the judge of others! And the next step is to carry
out your own sentence upon others. And inasmuch as this Saul of Tarsus
heard that there were some who did not believe that they were as good
as he, who did not profess to be saved, as he expected to be by his own
works, but who talked of one Jesus, who was the Son of God, who had
died for their sins and who had risen from the dead and given them
pardon–when he heard that they were trusting to the merits of this
Glorious One, whom, they said, had ascended to the right hand of God,
he was exceedingly angry with them! Why, they were opposed to his
theory of his own excellence! They were practically protesting against
his very comfortable state of mind! They were, in fact, setting up
altogether an opposition Doctrine which laid the axe to the root of the
tree of his belief and might fell the goodly tree beneath which he
found such shelter! So he began at once to haul them to prison, to
compel them to blaspheme in the name of Christ, if he could, and when
he had harried them through Jerusalem, and punished them with all his
might in his own country! Then he must seek letters from the high
priest that he might go to Damascus to carry out the same measures
there! Paul was indeed alive! He was not only as good as he ought to
be, but he was rather better–and he now set out to make other people
better. If he could not make men better by his talking to them, he
would make them better by scourging and killing them! Great "I," how
lofty it stood! How it held up its head! "I was alive," he said. But
alas, Paul, you did not understand the Law of God that soon would have
cut you down and killed you, and killed your, "I," and brained you and
left you dead on the spot!
Now in what respect was Paul alive without the Law? To answer this we
will not speak so much of Paul as of many others who are in the same
state. Some are alive without the Law of God because they have never
seen the spirituality of it. Their notion was that, "you shall not
commit adultery" meant simply an act of uncleanness. Therefore they
felt perfectly innocent. But if they had known that it meant a great
deal more–that the Law of God condemned them if there had been even an
unclean thought, and that uncleanness of heart was as obnoxious to God
as uncleanness of life, then their life would soon have come to an
end–their life of pride and security–for they would have found that
the Law would not give them the shelter, though they thought it did.
"You shall not kill." Why, there is no man here, I suppose, but what
would say, "I am clear there. I have never killed anybody." But, my
dear Friend, I can understand your being alive without the Law of God,
if you do not know as you ought to know that that Commandment means
that even anger is murder–and he who is angry with his brother, has
killed him in his heart! What if you have never struck him? Have you
ever wanted to? What if it never came to actually knocking him to the
ground? Yet if you have spoken bitter words–these show what you would
have done and this is set down in God's Book as being a sin–a sin for
which He will require you to give an account at the Last Great Day!
Now Paul had never seen this, but once upon a time, and that was
through the little window of that Commandment, "You shall not covet,"
Paul saw the Light of God and he said to himself, "What? Does this Law
condemn me for having a covetous desire?" "Ah, then," he said, "I am
not as secure as I thought I was! I cannot afford to be proud. I cannot
afford to judge others. I must judge myself." He lived in that proud,
haughty life because he did not understand the Law of God.
There are many others who are living in the same self-righteous
way–good self-righteous people, wrapping themselves up in the garment
of their goodness because they have really been very careless about
what the Law is. They have not looked into it. Whether there is a Law
of God or not, has really never been thoroughly and deeply considered
by them. They know it as a matter of religious teaching, but nothing
more. O Sir, how easily ought your conscience to convict you, for when
a subject does not even care to know whether a king has a law or not,
what a traitor he is! When he says, "It is no business of mine to know
the king's will. I do not care what the king's will is"–why, if he has
committed no overt offense, that of itself is an offense! He stands out
as one convicted of being a traitor and guilty of sedition and treason
against his king!
There are others who say in their heart, if they won't put it into
words, for most fools, according to David, are not such fools as to
speak out loud–"The fool has said in his heart," says David–they say
in their heart, "How does God know, and is there knowledge with the
Most High? What if we do break His Law–does He care about it?" And
then they cap it all by saying, "Is He not very merciful? He won't be
severe with us poor creatures. What if we have offended? We will
whisper a prayer or two when we are dying–and all will be blotted
out." You think that God is such an One as yourself! Because you can
trifle with sin, you imagine Jehovah can do so! Oh, if you did but know
His Law, did but understand how inflexible it is and how true is His
declaration that He will by no means spare the guilty, which means He
will by no means spare you, you would soon lay aside this easy-going
life of yours and no longer could you live as you now live! You would
be slain by the Word of the Lord!
In addition to these, I have no doubt that there are many professors of
religion who are living without the Law of God. I mean that they are
living reputable, respectable Christian lives and they, themselves,
believe they are converted, but they are alive without the Law. That
is, there is mingled with their faith in Christ some sort of trust in
themselves. They have never seen that the Law puts an end to all human
power, strength and merit as any assistance to Christ in the matter of
salvation. I have sometimes wished that some of our younger Brothers
and Sisters who do not seem to have felt very deeply in their hearts
the work of Christ, might for once feel what it is for the Commandment
to come into their souls and lay them prostrate, for if it ever did,
then their new life which they would receive from Christ would be of a
deeper and, I trust, of a more effective power on their hearts and
lives, and upon their general walk towards Christ and His Church.
You see then, dear Friends, there is such a thing as being alive
without the Law of God. A man may be in such a state as to think it is
all right because he does not know the Law–and let me say there is no
more foolish and dangerous condition in the world than this! A man who
has never cared about the Law of God and does not know it and,
therefore, concludes that he is righteous, is like a person who thinks
he is rich, or tries to think he is–and keeps up a large house and his
carriage with a large expenditure. Can he afford it? How about his
books? Well, he has had some few difficulties but he met one debt by a
loan, and when that loan comes due he will meet that with another. He
says he is all right–he believes he is all right–he thinks he is all
right! Does he ever look at his books? Oh, no! He says they are very
dry reading. He does not need any stock taking–he does not want
anybody to look into his affairs. Now without any kind of guesswork,
every business man knows how that will end! He knows that it means
bankruptcy–ruin. So it does! With a man who says, "All right, I do not
care to enquire about my soul-affairs. I dare say it is as I hope it
is–I think it is, and I am not going to concern myself about it." It
will end in everlasting bankruptcy, my dear Hearer–sure to, sure
to–it cannot be anything else! You are like a ship at sea that ought
to have been long ago given up to the ship breaker. There she is out at
sea. The captain does not care to enquire whether the timbers are
sound, or whether they are well caulked, or whether the pumps will work
well or not. She has seemed to go very well in fair weather and he does
not care to know anything else. There is none of us who would like to
go to sea in a vessel like that! We would want to know whether the
vessel would stand the strain of a storm, whether she was seaworthy
and, if she were not so, we would rather stay on shore! Many of you are
in rotten vessels tonight–ships that are worm-eaten through and
through, and you will find them go to pieces when once a storm comes
up! God have mercy upon you and deliver you from these false hopes, and
this living without His Law! And may the Law of God come on board your
vessel even now, and begin to test the timbers, and if you should stand
by and discover that the thing is only fit to be broken up, why, then I
trust you will get on board a better vessel, a vessel that shall stand
all storms, of whom Christ is the Captain–a vessel which, indeed, is
Christ, Himself. Now we must pass on to the second point.
II. THE REVIVAL OF SIN.
Paul says, "The commandment came, and sin revived." It seemed to him
before as if it were quite dead. He did not believe he had any great
sin in him. Other people might have, but Saul of Tarsus was so good
there could not be much sin in him. "But when the commandment came, sin
revived." What does it mean by the commandment coming? It means this,
that he understood its meaning. He never saw it before–that it had
respect to his thoughts, his wishes and desires. Now that he saw this,
sin revived in him! It means, next, that he saw that the Law was not a
thing to be trifled with, that the Law of God was not meant to be
written and there to lie like a dead letter, but that God had sworn by
Himself that He would carry out that Law and would not spare those who
dared to break it! That He would execute judgment upon all those who
defy Him to His face and break His Commandments. When Saul saw that,
the commandment had come, and sin revived. But best of all, this Saul
of Tarsus felt, as I know many of you have, the power of the Law
working on the soul. There is no sharper instrument with which to lance
the soul than the broken Law of God! There is no harrow that can tear
the soul like that harrow of the Ten Commandments. There is no arrow
that can go forth and slay the soul's self-satisfaction as God's
Commandments do when we see that they are holy, just, good–and that we
have broken every one of them–broken them a thousand times, and that
every breach of the Law is calling out for vengeance against us! It is
a dreadful thing, but a necessary thing, that we should all of us have
the Commandments thus coming home to us. Paul thought they were buried.
But as soon as the commandments came, sin revived. He means by that
that he now saw that sins that had laid buried without monuments
suddenly burst their cerements and rose up like the dead on the day of
resurrection. "There they are," he seemed to say–"the Commandments
have come, and my sins, like a great cloud, have revived–they live,
and every one points at and accuses me as the Law of God condemns me."
Then sin revived in another sense, for Paul said to himself, "How could
God have given me such a Law? How can He be so stern and strict? I do
not love this Law–neither do I love God." He thought he did until
then. When he understood the Law, he found that he did not either love
God or the Law–and the rebellion which had always been in his spirit
now began to show itself–and He began to feel in his heart a hatred
against the Law of God that condemned him, and against the God whom he
had offended. Sin revived! The very display of the Law produced it and
yet though it was thus manifested, it had always been there! Saul did
not know it, but sin had always been there–all that the Law did was to
come with a candle and just show him what he never thought was there! A
person goes down into a cellar that has been shut up for a long time
and there are lots of foul creatures on the floor and spiders on the
walls. He goes down without a candle, and he does not see them. But
another time he takes the candle–and how soon he wishes to get out of
the place! Now the candle shows him the spiders and the other loathsome
things, but it does not make them, it only shows what existed before.
The Law of God does that. Perhaps those loathsome creatures were all
quiet while there was darkness, but when the candle came, there they
scurried to and fro to escape its light! All the things which otherwise
had slept. And when the Law comes, it just does that–it lets out all
the loathsomeness of our sinful nature which had been dammed up
before–it lets it go forth and we find out that it was there, already,
and always there, and then, like the writer of this memorable Epistle,
we say, "Sin revived and I died."
"A strange experience!" you will tell me, but I assure you it is only
the usual experience of the children of God! It is the way in which we
have been brought to Christ! The Law of God has come to us, and sin has
revived in us, and we have died. Now the third point is to show what
Paul means by saying he "died."
III. THE MEANING OF DEATH THROUGH THE LAW.
What died in Paul was that which ought never to have lived. It was that
great, "I," in Paul–"sin revived, and I died"–that, "I," that used to
say, "I thank You that I am not as other men"–that, "I," that folded
its arms in satisfied security–that, "I" that bent its knee in prayer,
but never bowed down the heart in penitence–that, "I," died! The Law
of God killed it. It could not live in such light as that. It was a
creature only fit for darkness–and when the Law came, this great, "I,"
died!
And I think it means this. First, he died in this respect–he saw he
was condemned to die. He heard pronounced upon himself the sentence of
condemnation! He had just thought so–he would have felt insulted if
anybody had told him so, but now he seemed to see the great Judge of
All summoning him before Him and accusing him of having broken His
commands and saying, "Depart you cursed one, for you have broken My
Law." He died, then, in the sense that he felt condemnation pronounced
upon him. A dreadful feeling, that!
Then next, all his hopes from his past life died. He used to look back
with great comfort upon his fasting, his almsgiving and temple
attendance–but now he felt, "What an awful hypocrite I have been all
along, for I have only been there with my body–my heart never went
there–I was keeping God's Laws, I thought, but I never loved that Law
at all. I find now I hated it. Or, if I had understood what it was, I
would have hated it. I only loved the shell of it. I did not know its
kernel. I merely loved its outward breath because I hoped to gain by
it, but the Law, itself, I did not love, nor did I love God, either."
So all the past withered up, and the Paul–the Saul–the, "I," that had
been so great as to his past, died.
And then again, all his hopes as to the future died. Before, when he
had fallen into any outward sin, he had always said to himself, "Never
mind, we will do better next time. We shall mend this matter yet–we
will keep the Law in fu-ture–we will make the phylacteries wider and
the garments broader. But now he saw that–
"Could his tears forever flow,
Could his zeal no respite know,
All for sin could not atone."
He had broken the Law of God and all attempts to keep it in the future
could not mend the past breaches and transgressions! And he knew that
as he had broken it in the past, he would be sure to break it in the
future–and in that respect he died.
And then again, all his powers seemed to die. Formerly he had said, "I
can keep the Law," but now, when he saw the blaze of this mysterious
holiness, when he perceived that every thought, word and wish would
condemn him, he sat at the foot of Sinai and trembled and entreated
that those words might not be spoken to him anymore. He felt the Law
was too great, too terrible for him to ever hope to keep it! And he
fell at the feet of the Law as one that was dead. So died all his
hopes. Now he felt that he was condemned forever. The last ray of hope
was gone. And mark, there is no despair that is more deep than the
despair of one who was once quite secure, and even boastful! Many have
I seen who were once self-
righteous–and I have pitied them from my heart. When God has turned
His blazing light of Truth on all their life, righteousness has gone!
Oh, they have not known what to do–they have wished they had never
been born! Like John Bu-nyan, they have wished they had been frogs or
toads sooner than be men! They had felt they could have cursed the day
of their birth, now that all hope was gone once and for all. And when
they have told me of this, all I could do was to smile in their faces
and say, "Thank God! I am very glad of it," and then they have thought
me cruel, but I have said, "It must be so, for now you will be saved."
God must clear away all your rubbish before He can give you His Grace!
So with this I shall conclude. If there are any of you tonight passing
through what I have described–if you are as one dead tonight because
your former hopes have been killed by the Law of God, I am so glad of
it! But let me tell you, do not think your case an unusual one. Do not
go home and say, "I have been killed." Thousands of God's servants have
been the same. Ah, when I had made the discovery that I had broken
God's Law so often, and that I must perish and be cast into Hell on
account of my sins, I remember what sin worked in me and what loathing
of myself I felt–and that by the space of months and years
together–because I did not hear the Gospel fully preached, for, had I,
I would have had peace much sooner! Now you, dear Friends, will be
helped tonight when I tell you it is nothing unusual. It is a Valley of
the Shadow of Death, but most pilgrims go through it, and all go
through it more or less–and again, I say I am glad of it! When the
Countess of Huntingdon said to Whitfield, "What makes you look so sad,
Mr. Whitfield?" he replied, "Oh, I may well look sad, for I am lost."
"Oh," she said, "Mr. Whitfield, I am so glad, for Jesus Christ came to
seek and save that which was lost." I could preach all night if I had a
congregation that felt themselves quite lost–because then they would
be sure to be saved! It would be no use preaching otherwise. When the
Law once preaches, it makes you weep and feel you are lost. And then,
when you are like the soil that is well plowed ready for the seed to be
scattered in the furrows, the precious Seed of God will be scattered,
and, perhaps, before long, up springs the harvest–you are blessed and
God is glorified!
Let me say to any who have been killed by the Law, "It was necessary
that you should be. You may now understand where salvation lies. You
have no merits of your own–you do not need any. Christ has all the
merits that you need to take you to Heaven." But can you get Christ's
merit? Yes, get it tonight! If you will, with your heart, believe on
the Lord Jesus, and with your mouth make confession of Him, you shall
be saved. If you will trust Him to save you, He will save you and His
merit shall be yours! As long as you have any good in yourself, I know
you will have nothing from Christ. But when all your hope from your own
merit is laid at the foot of the Law, then what an opportunity there is
for the Gospel to come in! It comes, and it says this, "Come unto Me
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It
points you to Jesus crucified, who carried your sins, who was punished
instead of you–shows you how God's Justice has been satisfied in
Christ. Believe and live! Take the mercy God freely offers you. Take it
without money and without price. Take it without fitness or
preparation. Take it now! Simply take it as God presents it to you.
Just as you are without having any plea but the one plea that Jesus
died–just as you are–take Jesus, and put yourself on Him. What can
you do otherwise, you dead one? What can you do otherwise, you filthy
one? You are condemned, you are guilty–God has pronounced your
sentence! Touch the silver scepter freely held out to you now. You
cannot be saved by works. Let others try it if they will–you cannot,
you know you cannot! Oh, then, be saved by Grace! God freely offers it
by His dear Son in the preached Gospel. He will not deny it to any one
of you, however filthy you may have been, or however vile you may feel
yourself to be! You have but to come, but to trust, but to believe in
Jesus, but to rely upon Him–to throw yourself upon Him, to lean on
Him, to hang on Him, to depend on Him–and you will be saved!
Oh, that the Lord may grant you Grace to do so! And I know He will! If
you have been slain by the Law, He will make you alive by the
Gospel–for have you never read the words, "I kill and I make alive. I
wound and I heal"? Oh, the mercy of that, "I heal"! He heals the broken
in heart, and binds up their wounds! He will have regard to the prayer
of the destitute. He will not despise their prayers. "I am poor and
needy, yet the Lord thinks about me"–is not that you again? "Though
your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are
red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Ah, Soul, what good news for
you, that if the Law has killed you, you did not need the Law–you have
got Christ, who is better! You can still have salvation, though you
forfeited it by your own works. You can have that from mercy which you
cannot have from justice! You may have that from Jesus which you might
never have from Moses. I want to preach but a short sermon. Sometimes
they are all the better remembered. God bless you, and write His Truth
on your hearts! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:
The Soul's Great Crisis PSALM 110; ROMANS2:25-29; 3.
PSALM 110.
Verses 1, 2. The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, untilI
make Your enemies Your footstool The Lord shall send the rod of Your
strength out of Zion: rule You in the midst of Your enemies. You do not
need a comment upon this Psalm when you remember how our Lord applied
it to Himself. It is David speaking concerning the Son of David, who is
also David's Lord and our King, who at this hour is sitting at the
right hand of Jehovah, the Lord of All, waiting until His monarchy
shall be extended visibly over all creation!
3. Your people shall be willing in the day of Your power, in the
beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: You have the dew of
Your youth. Christ, like the rising sun, shall not come alone in His
brightness, but, as with the sun we see an innumerable company of
sparkling dewdrops, so shall the forces of Christ be as numerous as the
drops of the morning dew which spring from the womb of the morning!
God's Infinite Grace shall lead forth willing troops when Christ shall
come!
4. The Lord has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. That is, a priestly King, a kingly
Priest–Priest and King united in one Person!
5. The Lord at Your right hand shall strike through kings in the day of
His wrath. No power shall stand against our coming Lord! When He once
comes to the battle, the victory shall be sure!
6. 7. He shall judge among the heathen, He shall fill the places with
the dead bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall
drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall He lift up the head.
Like a stern warrior that seeks not luxury, like Gideon's men that
lapped, He shall drink of the brook as He marches on to the conflict.
And because He scorns self-indulgence and human luxury, therefore shall
He be exalted King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
ROMANS2:25-29.
Verse 25. For circumcision verily profits, if you keep the Law: but if
you are a breaker of the Law, your circumcision is made
uncircumcision.Paul is dealing with the Jew, who was apt to think that
he must have a preference beyond the Gentiles on account of his
circumcision.
26-29. Therefore if the uncircumcision keeps the righteousness of the
Law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And
shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the Law,
judge you, who by the letter and circumcision transgress the Law? For
he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly;
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the
letter: whose praise is not of men, but of God. If this principle were
fully recognized everywhere, it would certainly put an end to all that
notion of sacramentarianism which some men hold! It is not the outward,
not the external, not the form and ceremony–it is the inward work of
the Holy Spirit–it is holiness and change of heart. Let none of us
ever fall into the gross error of those who imagine that there is
attached to certain ceremonies a certain degree of Divine Grace. It is
not so. He is not a Christian who is one outwardly–he is a Christian
who is one inwardly.
ROMANS3.
Verses 1, 2. What advantage then has the Jew? Or what profit is there
of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were
committed the oracles of God. The Jews of old had a great advantage,
for they had the Truth of God when other men had not. The voice of God
spoke to them clearly, when only here and there, to a few chosen ones
beside, was the voice of God delivered at all.
3. For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect?It was a privilege to belong to the Jewish
people, even though some, and many through their unbelief, did not
avail themselves of the privilege.
4-7. God forbid! Yes, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is
written, That You might be justified in Your sayings, and might
overcome when You are judged. But if our unrighteousness commends the
righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes
vengeance? (I speak as a man). God forbid! For then how shall God judge
the world? For if the Truth of God has more abounded through my lie
unto His glory: why am I yet also judged as a sinner? Here is another
objection–if it is so that, somehow or other, the sin of man is
overruled to magnify the Grace of God, why am I, then, blameworthy? But
the Apostle stamps this out as an evil suggestion and a very moral
disease.
8-11. And not ratheer (as we are slanderously reported, and as some
affirm that we say). Let us do evil, that good may come? Whose
damnation is just. What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise:
for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all
under sin. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. The
whole human race has sinned against the Most High and has become
alienated in mind from the great and good Creator!
12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable: there is none that does good, no not one. What can be
more expressive? What can be more plain than this? The whole human race
estranged from God and given up to sin!
13-18. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. Thepoison ofasps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full
of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.
Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace have
they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Here is a
description of all men. If some say, "Well, my feet were never swift to
shed blood," you probably have not been put into circumstances which
would evoke that cruel passion! So we thought till lately–we thought
we were all so civilized that we were to have no more war. Believe me,
let the trumpet be sounded and cannon be heard, and there is a devil in
our humanity which would not soon be awakened, and we, too, might
become as fierce as any other nation! It is still true of men.
19, 20. Now we know that whatever things the Law says, it says to them
who are under the Law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the
world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the La w
there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the Law is the
knowledge of sin. It is like a mirror that shows us our blots, but it
does not wash them away. The Law of God is the standard which shows us
how short we are of God's Glory, but it does not make up our
shortcomings. It is a killing, not a saving thing! By the Law, no man
ever was, or ever will be saved! By the Law, we guilty ones are
condemned!
21, 22. But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested,
being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. Even the righteousness of
God which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe: for there is no difference–No difference, first of all, in
the sin. We are all guilty and all condemned! And no difference in the
way of salvation–whoever believes in Jesus is justified by faith in
Jesus–there is no difference.
23-26. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, being
justified freely by His Grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His
blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time
His righteousness, that He might be just, and the Justifer of him who
believes in Jesus. "Where is boasting then? It is excluded." It is shut
out. If men are saved not at all by works, but altogether by the Free
Grace of God through the merits of Christ, then boasting has the gate
shut in its face! But by what law is boasting shut out?
27. Where is boasting then?"By works?" No, but by the law of faith.
27. It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.
If we were to say God justified man on the ground of the Law of God
without their perfectly keeping it, we would make void the Law of God!
But when we teach that God justifies men by His Free Grace and mercy on
account of Christ's having kept the Law and having fulfilled all its
demands, we do not make void the Law–we establish it!