The book of Romans is perhaps the profoundest work in the world. It was written by the greatest man, the apostle Paul, and on the greatest theme, salvation by grace. The apostle was in the very prime of his powers when he wrote it, having been a preacher and an apostle of Christ for about twenty years. For years he had been accustomed to meet the advocates of salvation by the law, the Judaizers, who taught the Gentiles, "Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved," and who boldly affirmed of them, in the great council at Jerusalem, "that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses." He was one of the most prominent members of that council; and when the matter was settled, he, with Barnabas and others, went forth to publish the decrees of the apostles' and elders to the churches. He had finished his first and second great missionary journeys, as the records are given in Acts, and, at the time of writing this letter, was just ready to return from the third. He had written the two letters to the Thessalonians, the one to the Galatians, and the two to the Corinthians. And, above all else in fitting him for this his crowning work, the favor of God rested upon him as perhaps it had never done upon any other man. Then the letter was written to the church located in the metropolis of the world, a church of such greatness and goodness that [243] its faith was "spoken of throughout rite whole world." It is not strange, therefore, that this should be the most wonderful letter ever written. Lard says of it: "Paul's language is bold, vigorous, and fresh," that "it is replete with the force and buoyancy of the new divine life." Johnson speaks of "the depth of thought, logical reasoning, and profound comprehension of the divine government" shown in it, and quotes Luther as saying, "It is the chief part of the New Testament;" Meyer, as saying it is "the grandest, boldest, most complete composition of Paul;" Godet, as calling it "the cathedral of the Christian faith." Lange represents Paul as contemplating "human depravity and the counteracting redemption through the three stages of development in the most universal and exhaustive contemplation." S. T. Coleridge, quoted by Lange, calls it "the most profound work in existence," and he affirms that "the only fit commentator on Paul was Luther," who, he says, was "not by any means such a gentleman as the apostle, but almost as great a genius."

      It has been my good fortune for a number of years to take a class through this book each year. We study it as carefully as we know how, analyze it and study each division and subdivision by itself and in connection with the whole; we go over it again and again, and the classes memorize the entire book; yet we see farther into it, appreciate it more, and enjoy it more at every fresh investigation. It is my object in this discourse to call attention to some of the plainer, more practical and more profitable lessons of the argumentative portion of the work.

      After a suitable introduction, the apostle announces his theme in verses 16 and 17 of chapter 1, and with verse 18 he begins his most intense, profound, and wonderful argu- [244] ment, which he closes with the "amen" at the close of chapter 11. The remainder of the book is taken up with exhortations based upon this argument, instructions about practical matters, commendations and salutations.

      The argument itself seems to me to stand in three sections. In the first (1:18 to 5: 11), Paul shows that by a system of grace through faith man can be justified, and in this way alone, since all men, both Jews and Gentiles, have gone astray, and justification by works of law is therefore impossible.

      In the second section (from 5:12 to the end of chapter 8) he shows the antagonism of sin and grace, and the superiority of grace. Sin came in through Adam, law condemned and death reigned over the human race; grace came by Jesus Christ, overcame law, and offers life to all who accept it. Sin cursed the world, but much more does grace bless it: where sin reigns, the curse abounds; but where grace reigns, much more does the blessing abound. God withholds nothing good from him who is in Christ under grace; there is no condemnation to him; all things work together for his good, whether they be pleasant or painful, from friends or foes; nothing can separate him who is in Christ from the love of God, and hence from the good that that love always works.

      In the third section (chapters 9-11), he discusses the great mistake of the flew. It was never God's purpose to choose a people for the kingdom of the Messiah because of their fleshly relationship to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as the Jews supposed but because of their seeking him by faith. Being ignorant of this, God's system of righteousness, they endeavored to establish their own, and did not submit themselves to God's righteousness. God is the Lord and Creator [245] of both Jews and Greeks, and in the matter of salvation there is no distinction between Jew and .Greek. When, therefore, the Jews believe, they will also be saved; if the Gentiles lose faith, they will be cast off.

      It is manifest to the thoughtful student of the first section of this argument that Paul has in his mind two, and only two, methods of justification before God one, by works; the other, by grace through faith. It does not seem to occur to him that there is any other possible or conceivable way of being justified before the Lord, and it is certain there is no other way. Indeed, if a man is justified in any court, before any tribunal, it must be either by works or by grace. A little reflection will show there is no other way with men, as there is none other with God, unless it be by deceiving the court. If the one accused has done right, and this is made plain to the court, he is justified by law. If he has sinned, he can never be justified by law; his only chance for justification is by grace. This is true before all tribunals, human and divine. Has a man committed murder? Then he is forever a murderer before the law, and he can never be justified by works of righteousness, because he has not done right. The law says: "Thou shalt not kill." He has broken the law; and by the law he is condemned. t does not justify him to show that of the millions who inhabit the earth he has murdered that one only, that he has been very kind and benevolent toward all other men; nor, if it were possible to show that he had never done any other wrong at all, would he be thereby justified. Doing right in a thousand cases cannot make that one wrong right, however much an otherwise righteous life might [246] accomplish in securing the grace of the court. If I do right to-day, it is no more than I ought to do, and it will not cover up nor make right the sins which I committed yesterday. The Holy Spirit says: "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou dost not commit adultery, but killest, thou art become a transgressor of the law." (James 2: 10, 11.) In earthly courts, when men have been condemned by law, it is common for them to endeavor to obtain the grace of the governor, that he may pardon them. Sometimes they make successful appeals to the sympathies of a weak governor, sometimes they bribe a corrupt one and are unjustly pardoned. They obtain the grace (favor) of the governor by foul means. Sometimes, by living lives of diligence and uprightness, they make it possible for the governor to be just before the law of the land and pardon them. Before the court of heaven things are different. When a man is convicted there, his only chance to obtain the pardoning grace of God is by faith in Jesus Christ. There is no such thing as deceiving, overpowering, or corrupting that court. The man who does not give himself in loving, trusting, obedient faith to Jesus Christ will be lost.

      But no man ever did right before God but Jesus Christ. He was and is justified by law; by works of righteousness. He entered into heaven by right, not by grace. If a man were to do right, as Jesus did--transgress no law, commit no sin--he would enter heaven also by right, without need or use of the cleansing blood of Calvary; but it is doubtful if any other man ever lived a life of freedom from sin even for one day. Who but the Savior could truthfully say: [247] "I have lived a perfect life to-day; I have been right in word, thought, and deed; I have sinned neither by omission nor commission?" I have never seen the day when I dared say it. The all-wise Spirit says: "There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God; they have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one." Let no man, therefore, comfort himself with the reflection that he who does right will be saved; for no man, in the church or out of it, does right. Paul, in the height of his power as an apostle of Christ, says of himself: "The good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practice."

      "But if a man were to do the best he knows how, would he not be saved?" Certainly he would; that is what Jesus did; and he would be justified by works, just like Jesus was. To him there would be no need of grace or of the blood of Christ. To him God could say in the last day: "I have observed your life during every moment of it; and every time I have looked upon you, you were living fully up to the light you had, doing the very best you could do." God can say that to one man, the God-man, Christ Jesus, but to no one else. The Holy Spirit says all others have "turned aside." Do you do the best you know how? Did you ever do it even for one day? Remember, if you fail once, the chain is broken, and you can never again hope to be drawn by it into the everlasting kingdom. It is foolish for a man to talk about being saved by doing the best he knows how, when he has already failed thousands perhaps millions--of times to do it. If a man were to do the best he knows how all through his life, God would have no fault to find with him; but--alas!--our consciences condemn us con- [248] tinually, and we are forced to give up all hope of justification by law and to accept in their full force the words of the apostle: "By works of law shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for through law cometh the knowledge of sin." The Gentiles have violated "the law written in their hearts;" the Jews, the law written on the tables of stone; the Christians, the law of the new covenant. No hope remains for us, except in the pardoning grace of God.

      But how can this grace be obtained? In one way only-namely, "through faith in Jesus Christ." Abraham believed in God and walked by faith, and thus was justified. Thus was Noah justified and saved from the destruction which came upon the world, he walked with God, he lived a life of faith. So must we, if we would be saved. But what is it to obtain the grace of God? It is to please him. To abide in it is to continue to please him; to grow in it is to please him more and more. No man can please God, and continue to please him, except by entering into and abiding in Christ. Hence out of Christ there is no salvation for the sinner. Moreover, it is not enough to be "baptized into Christ Jesus," "into his death;" for, if we stop at that, we will soon lose our place there, and, like a fruitless branch, be cut off and cast to destruction. If we would grow in the grace of God, and thus insure our everlasting salvation, we must grow constantly more like Jesus; for that pleases him, and a failure to do it displeases him. May God help each of us who has taken upon himself his holy name to think, talk, and act daily more like our great Lord.

      Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin," and far and wide has extended the curse that [249] thus came through Adam. All briers, thorns, and thistles; all sickness, pain, and sorrow; all jealousy, enmity, and hatred; all war, bloodshed, and death, with every evil thing, have come from the mighty tide of sin which .began with the fall in the garden, and which has been increased by every wrong committed since. The earth itself, with every man, woman, and child that has lived on it, not excepting even the Savior, has come under its blighting influences and suffered from its awful power.

      But--thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ grace came with a mighty hand to meet this great, dark, cursing, onrushing tide of woe and death, to roll it back, to free men from death and the earth from every curse of sin, and to give to it a glory and beauty never dreamed of by Adam and Eve in the midst of their Edenic home. This earth, with its surrounding heaven, is to be made over, and on the fair face of the new earth God himself will dwell with all the sons and daughters of men who have been redeemed through grace. "Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly; that, as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Through Adam we lose our natural, earthly life; through Christ those under the grace of God gain eternal life: through Adam we lose our earthly bodies; through Christ we gain spiritual bodies, which are infinitely better: through Adam we lose access to the tree of life; through Christ we enter into the eternal city, to the tree of life, the river of life, and to the very throne of the Eternal: through Adam we lost the garden of Eden; through Christ we gain the paradise o£ God.

      Moreover, while we are in this world, there is "no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," and all things [250] work together for the good of those who love the Lord. It is true God's children suffer, but only so much as is necessary for their correction, purification, and development. So even their sufferings are good for them. Their Father loves them and withholds no good thing from them. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?" Whatever "tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword," may come, Paul cries: "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Then he adds: "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." So all any man needs is to enter into and abide in Jesus Christ, and then all things always work for his good. Jesus taught as much when he said: "Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." When men believe and are baptized, they enter into Christ (see Mark 16: 16; Rom. 6: 3, 4; Gal. 3: 96-29); when they study his word daily, diligently, and strive prayerfully with increasing energy to do his will, they are seeking his righteousness. To such a man the love of God makes everything work for good always. He grows in grace more and more, and becomes more like Jesus every day.

      This lesson is drawn from the third section of the argument, chapters 9-11. The Jew made a great mistake. He thought that because he was descended from Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob, the law was given to him: and [251] that, if he would be zealous in observing the rites and ceremonies of the law, he would please the God of heaven, and would certainly enter into the kingdom which he was to set up. He had "a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge;" and going about to justify himself by his own way--that is, by the works of the law--he did not submit himself to God's way, by faith in Christ. It did not occur to the Jew that the Gentile would have any part in this kingdom, except to be a conquered slave to the Jew. The Jew is God's child, he thought; the Gentile is a dog; he thought he was of better blood than other people, and that no others would ever be fit to associate with him; he thought he was predestined to be the child of God, that he had been made for that purpose, and that the Gentiles were nonelect; but Paul shows "there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him"--that he will save all those who call upon him in truth. He made all men, and he offers salvation to all. The Gentiles have been received, not because they are Gentiles, but because they follow Christ, believing in him; the Jews have been rejected, not because they are Jews, but because they have not sought God by faith in Jesus. The elect, both Jews and Gentiles, are added to the church; only the nonelect are rejected. The nonelect are those who have not sought the election by faith in Christ. The elect are the chosen; and God chooses for his kingdom those who love and follow his Son. When men follow Christ faithfully to the end of life, they make their "calling and election sure." But the Gentile should not be unduly elated as though on account of his own goodness he was chosen; for if the Jew repents and believes in Christ, he will be received into the body of Christ; if the Gentile [252] falls from his faith, he will be cast off. God is the maker of both Jews and Gentiles, and he so loved them all as to give his only begotten Son, that all of them who believe on him should not perish, but have eternal life. We were all sinners and under the curse of law. The Gentiles had violated the law "written in their hearts;" the Jews had broken the law of Moses; and now God offers salvation by grace to all these lost souls through faith in Jesus Christ. Who can study the unfolding of this great scheme of grace as it is faintly shadowed in the patriarchal age, as it brightens under Moses, and bursts into its full glory under Christ, opening the very gates of the eternal city to the enraptured eyes of the child of God, without being ready with all his heart to join in the grand doxology with which Paul's argument is closed: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen?" And who, in the light of his argument, does not appreciate the more the exhortation with which the next chapter begins: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God?" For thus alone can we abide in the grace of God, where all things work for our good, and thus alone can we attain to the eternal kingdom.

J. A. Harding.      

      NOTE: In this discourse I have quoted from the Revised Version, and in some instances have preferred the marginal reading to the text. J.A.H.