* * * * * "The last words of Mr Honest were, _Grace reigns_. So he left the world." Let us walk with the same watchword through the world, till we too, crossing that Jordan, lean with a final simplicity of faith upon "the obedience of the One." [75] It will be seen that we assume, between διὰ τοῦτο and ὥσπερ, some such implied thought as "_the case stands_." We think it may be thus grammatically; and that even if a less simple explanation of the _construction_ is adopted, such an insertion gives the import of the whole passage aright. [76] It will be seen that the rapid steps of thought lead, in this one verse, from one meaning of the word "_law_" to another. He means that there was sin before the Code of the Decalogue, but not therefore before God had, in some degree, expressed His royal will, and man had broken it. [77] See Schöttgen, _Horæ Hebraicæ_, on 1 Cor. xv. 45. He quotes from the Rabbis: "As the First Adam was one, was first, אחד, in sin, so Messiah shall be the last, האחרן, for the utter taking away of sins." [78] So we interpret ἑνὸς, in the light of the πολλὰ παραπτώματα just below. [79] Δικαίωμα: the form of the word indicates not a process, or a principle, but an act. Apparently, by context, it may mean either a moral act of righteousness (see Rev. xix. 8, and perhaps below, ver. 18), or a legal "act and deed" of acceptance. The parallel with κατάκριμα pleads here for the latter. [80] We adopt the reading ἐν ἑνί. The other, τῷ τοῦ ἑνός, amounts to the same import, but without the pregnant force of the word "_in_." [81] We supply this word, and not "_transgression_," because of the parallel just below, "_the One, Jesus Christ_." [82] As to the universality of _the offer_, it is interesting and important to find Calvin thus writing, on ver. 18:--Communem omnium gratiam fecit, quia omnibus exposita est, non quod ad omnes extendatur re ipsa. Nam etsi passus est Christus pro peccatis totius mundi, atque omnibus indifferenter Dei benignitate offertur, non tamen omnes apprehendunt. "The Lord," thus says the great French expositor, "suffered for the sins of the whole world," and "is offered impartially to all in the kindness of God." [83] Δικαίωμα: see note above, p. 150. It seems to us almost equally possible to explain this word here (as in our translation) of the Lord's Atoning Act, satisfying the Law for us, and of the Accepting "Act and Deed" of the Father, declaring Him accepted, and us in Him. CHAPTER XIV _JUSTIFICATION AND HOLINESS_ ROMANS vi. 1-13