The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle of St Paul to the RomansMoule, H. C. G. (Handley Carr Glyn)
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans
Moule, H. C. G. (Handley Carr Glyn)
Bible. Romans -- Commentaries
And now he sums up the whole in one comprehensive inference and
affirmation. "_The One_," "_the many_"; "_the One_," "_the all_"; the
whole mercy for the all due to the one work of the One;--such is the
ground-thought all along. It is illustrated by "_the one_" and "_the
many_" of the Fall, but still so as to throw the real weight of every
word not upon the Fall but upon the Acceptance. Here, as throughout
this paragraph, we should greatly mistake if we thought that the
illustration and the object illustrated were to be pressed, detail by
detail, into one mould. To cite an instance to the contrary, we are
certainly not to take him to mean that because Adam's "_many_" are not
only fallen in him, but actually guilty, therefore Christ's "_many_"
are not only accepted in Him, but actually and personally meritorious
of acceptance. The whole Epistle negatives that thought. Nor again are
we to think, as we ponder ver. 18, that because "_the condemnation_"
was "_to all men_" in the sense of their being not only condemnable
but actually condemned, therefore "_the justification of life_" was
"_to all men_" in the sense that all mankind are actually justified.
Here again the whole Epistle, and the whole message of St Paul about
our acceptance, are on the other side. The provision is for the
_genus_, for man; but the possession is for men--who believe.[82] No;
these great details in the parallel need our reverent caution, lest we
think peace where there is, and can be, none. The force of the
parallel lies in the broader and deeper factors of the two matters. It
lies in the mysterious phenomenon of covenant headship, as affecting
both our Fall and our Acceptance; in the power upon the many, in each
case, of the deed of the One; and then in the magnificent fulness and
positiveness of result in the case of our salvation. In our Fall, sin
merely _worked itself out_ into doom and death. In our Acceptance, the
Judge's award is positively crowned and as it were loaded with gifts
and treasures. It brings with it, in ways not described here, but
amply shewn in other Scriptures, a living union with a Head who is our
life, and in whom we possess already the powers of heavenly being in
their essence. It brings with it not only the approval of the Law, but
accession to a throne. The justified sinner is a king already, in his
Head, over the power of sin, over the fear of death. And he is on his
way to a royalty in the eternal future which shall make him great
indeed, great in his Lord.
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