It has been the temptation of Christians sometimes to regard the truth and exposition of Justification as if there were a certain hardness and as it were dryness about it; as if it were a topic rather for the schools than for life. If excuses have ever been given for such a view, they must come from other quarters than the Epistle to the Romans. Christian teachers, of many periods, may have discussed Justification as coldly as if they were writing a law-book. Or again they may have examined it as if it were a truth terminating in itself, the Omega as well as the Alpha of salvation; and then it has been misrepresented, of course. For the Apostle certainly does not discuss it drily; he lays deep indeed the foundations of Law and Atonement, but he does it in the manner of a man who is not drawing the plan of a refuge, but calling his reader from the tempest into what is not only a refuge but a home. And again he does not discuss it in isolation. He spends his fullest, largest, and most loving expositions on its intense and vital connexion with concurrent truths. He is about now to take us, through a noble vestibule, into the sanctuary of the life of the accepted, the life of union, of surrender, of the Holy Ghost. [Sidenote: Ver. 1.] =Justified therefore on terms of faith,[63] we have peace[64] towards our (τὸν) God,= we possess in regard of Him the "quietness and assurance" of acceptance, =through our Lord Jesus Christ,= thus delivered up, and raised up, for us; [Sidenote: Ver. 2.] =through whom we have actually (καὶ) found[65] our (τὴν) introduction,= our free admission, =by our (τῇ) faith, into this grace,= this unearned acceptance for Another's sake, =in which we stand,= instead of falling ruined, sentenced, at the tribunal. =And we exult,= not with the sinful "boasting"[66] of the legalist, =but in hope= (literally, "_on hope_," ἐπ' ἐλπίδι, as _reposing on_ the promised prospect) =of the glory of our (τοῦ) God,= the light of the heavenly vision and fruition of our Justifier, and the splendour of an eternal service of Him in that fruition. [Sidenote: Ver. 3.] =Nor only so, but we exult too in our tribulations,= with a better fortitude than the Stoic's artificial serenity, =knowing that the tribulation works out, develops, patient persistency,[67]= as it occasions proof after proof of the power of God in our weakness, and thus generates _the habit_ of reliance; =and then (δὲ) the patient persistency= develops =proof,= brings out in experience, as a proved fact, that through Christ we are not what we were; =and then the proof= develops =hope,= solid and definite expectation of continuing grace and final glory, and, in particular, of the Lord's Return; =and the hope does not shame,= does not disappoint; it is a hope sure and steadfast, for it is the hope of those who now know that they are objects of eternal Love; =because the love of our (τοῦ) God has been poured out in our hearts;= His love to