Chapter 6
The apostle having at large
asserted, opened, and proved, the great doctrine of justification by faith, for
fear lest any should suck poison out of that sweet flower, and turn that grace
of God into wantonness and licentiousness, he, with a like zeal, copiousness of
expression, and cogency of argument, presses the absolute necessity of
sanctification and a holy life, as the inseparable fruit and companion of
justification; for, wherever Jesus Christ is made of God unto any soul
righteousness, he is made of God unto that soul sanctification, 1 Co. 1:30. The
water and the blood came streaming together out of the pierced side of the
dying Jesus. And what God hath thus joined together let not us dare to put
asunder.
Verses 1 - 23
The
apostle’s transition, which joins this discourse with the former, is
observable: "What shall we say then? v. 1. What use shall we make
of this sweet and comfortable doctrine? Shall we do evil that good may come, as
some say we do? ch. 3:8. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Shall we hence take encouragement to sin with so much the more boldness,
because the more sin we commit the more will the grace of God be magnified in
our pardon? Is this a use to be made of it?’’ No, it is an abuse, and the
apostle startles at the thought of it (v. 2): "God forbid; far be
it from us to think such a thought.’’ He entertains the objection as Christ did
the devil’s blackest temptation (Mt. 4:10): Get thee hence, Satan. Those
opinions that give any countenance to sin, or open a door to practical
immoralities, how specious and plausible soever they be rendered, by the
pretension of advancing free grace, are to be rejected with the greatest
abhorrence; for the truth as it is in Jesus is a truth according to
godliness, Tit. 1:1. The apostle is very full in pressing the necessity of
holiness in this chapter, which may be reduced to two heads:—His exhortations
to holiness, which show the nature of it; and his motives or arguments to
enforce those exhortations, which show the necessity of it.
I. For the
first, we may hence observe the nature of sanctification, what it is, and
wherein it consists. In general it has two things in it, mortification and
vivification—dying to sin and living to righteousness, elsewhere expressed by
putting off the old man and putting on the new, ceasing to do evil and learning
to do well.
1.
Mortification, putting off the old man; several ways this is expressed. (1.) We
must live no longer in sin (v. 2), we must not be as we have been nor do
as we have done. The time past of our life must suffice, 1 Peter 4:3. Though
there are none that live without sin, yet, blessed be God, there are those that
do not live in sin, do not live in it as their element, do not make a trade of
it: this is to be sanctified. (2.) The body of sin must be destroyed, v.
6. The corruption that dwelleth in us is the body of sin, consisting of many
parts and members, as a body. This is the root to which the axe must be laid.
We must not only cease from the acts of sin (this may be done through the
influence of outward restraints, or other inducements), but we must get the
vicious habits and inclinations weakened and destroyed; not only cast away the
idols of iniquity out of the heart.—That henceforth we should not serve sin.
The actual transgression is certainly in a great measure prevented by the
crucifying and killing of the original corruption. Destroy the body of sin, and
then, though there should be Canaanites remaining in the land, yet the
Israelites will not be slaves to them. It is the body of sin that sways the
sceptre, wields the iron rod; destroy this, and the yoke is broken. The
destruction of Eglon the tyrant is the deliverance of oppressed Israel from the
Moabites. (3.) We must be dead indeed unto sin, v. 11. As the death of
the oppressor is a release, so much more is the death of the oppressed, Job
3:17, 18. Death brings a writ of ease to the weary. Thus must we be dead to
sin, obey it, observe it, regard it, fulfil its will no more than he that is
dead doth his quandam task-masters—be as indifference to the pleasures
and delights of sin as a man that is dying is to his former diversions. He that
is dead is separated from his former company, converse, business, enjoyments,
employments, is not what he was, does not what he did, has not what he had.
Death makes a mighty change; such a change doth sanctification make in the
soul, it cuts off all correspondence with sin. (4.) Sin must not reign in
our mortal bodies that we should obey it, v. 12. Though sin may remain as
an outlaw, though it may oppress as a tyrant, yet let it not reign as a king.
Let it not make laws, nor preside in councils, nor command the militia; let it
not be uppermost in the soul, so that we should obey it. Though we may be
sometimes overtaken and overcome by it, yet let us never be obedient to it in
the lusts thereof; let not sinful lusts be a law to you, to which you would
yield a consenting obedience. In the lusts thereof—en
tais epithymiais autou. It refers
to the body, not to sin. Sin lies very much in the gratifying of the body, and
humouring that. And there is a reason implied in the phrase your mortal
body; because it is a mortal body, and hastening apace to the dust,
therefore let not sin reign in it. It was sin that made our bodies mortal, and
therefore do not yield obedience to such an enemy. (5.) We must not yield
our members as instruments of unrighteousness, v. 13. The members of the
body are made use of by the corrupt nature as tools, by which the wills of the
flesh are fulfilled; but we must not consent to that abuse. The members of the
body are fearfully and wonderfully made; it is a pity they should be the
devil’s tools of unrighteousness unto sin, instruments of the sinful
actions, according to the sinful dispositions. Unrighteousness is unto sin; the
sinful acts confirm and strengthen the sinful habits; one sin begets another;
it is like the letting forth of water, therefore leave it before it be meddled
with. The members of the body may perhaps, through the prevalency of
temptation, be forced to be instruments of sin; but do not yield them to be so,
do not consent to it. This is one branch of sanctification, the mortification
of sin.
2.
Vivification, or living to righteousness; and what is that? (1.) It is to walk
in newness of life, v. 4. Newness of life supposes newness of heart, for
out of the heart are the issues of life, and there is not way to make the
stream sweet but by making the spring so. Walking, in scripture, is put for the
course and tenour of the conversation, which must be new. Walk by new rules,
towards new ends, from new principles. Make a new choice of the way. Choose new
paths to walk in, new leaders to walk after, new companions to walk with. Old
things should pass away, and all things become new. The man is what he was not,
does what he did not. (2.) It is to be alive unto God through Jesus Christ
our Lord, v. 11. To converse with God, to have a regard to him, a delight
in him, a concern for him, the soul upon all occasions carried out towards him
as towards an agreeable object, in which it takes a complacency: this is to be
alive to God. The love of God reigning in the heart is the life of the soul
towards God. Anima est ubi amat, non ubi animat—The soul is where it loves,
rather than where it lives. It is to have the affections and desires alive
towards God. Or, living (our live in the flesh) unto God, to his
honour and glory as our end, by his word and will as our rule—in all our ways
to acknowledge him, and to have our eyes ever towards him; this is to live unto
God.—Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is our spiritual life; there
is no living to God but through him. He is the Mediator; there can be no
comfortable receivings from God, nor acceptable regards to God, but in and
through Jesus Christ; no intercourse between sinful souls and a holy God, but
by the mediation of the Lord Jesus. Through Christ as the author and maintainer
of this life; through Christ as the head from whom we receive vital influence;
through Christ as the root by which we derive sap and nourishment, and so live.
In living to God, Christ is all in all. (3.) It is to yield ourselves to
God, as those that are alive from the dead, v. 13. The very life and being
of holiness lie in the dedication of ourselves to the Lord, giving our own
selves to the Lord, 2 Co. 8:5. "Yield yourselves to him, not only as the
conquered yields to the conqueror, because he can stand it out no longer; but
as the wife yields herself to her husband, to whom her desire is, as the
scholar yields himself to the teacher, the apprentice to his master, to be
taught and ruled by him. Not yield your estates to him, but yield yourselves;
nothing less than your whole selves;’’ parasteµsate
eautous—accommodate vos ipsos Deo—accommodate
yourselves to God; so Tremellius, from the Syriac. "Not
only submit to him, but comply with him; not only present yourselves to him once
for all, but be always ready to serve him. Yield yourselves to him as wax to
the seal, to take any impression, to be, and have, and do, what he pleases.’’
When Paul said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? (Acts 9:6) he was
then yielded to God. As those that are alive from the dead. To yield a
dead carcase to a living God is not to please him, but to mock him: "Yield
yourselves as those that are alive and good for something, a living
sacrifice,’’ ch. 12:1. The surest evidence of our spiritual life is the
dedication of ourselves to God. It becomes those that are alive from the dead
(it may be understood of a death in law), that are justified and delivered from
death, to give themselves to him that hath so redeemed them. (4.) It is to
yield our members as instruments of righteousness to God. The members of
our bodies, when withdrawn from the service of sin, are not to lie idle, but to
be made use of in the service of God. When the strong man armed is
dispossessed, let him whose right it is divide the spoils. Though the powers
and faculties of the soul be the immediate subjects of holiness and
righteousness, yet the members of the body are to be instruments; the body must
be always ready to serve the soul in the service of God. Thus (v. 19), "Yield
your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. Let them be under the
conduct and at the command of the righteous law of God, and that principle of
inherent righteousness which the Spirit, as sanctifier, plants in the soul.’’ Righteousness
unto holiness, which intimates growth, and progress, and ground obtained.
As every sinful act confirms the sinful habit, and makes the nature more and
more prone to sin (hence the members of a natural man are here said to be
servants to iniquity unto iniquity—one sin makes the heart more disposed
for another), so every gracious act confirms the gracious habit: serving
righteousness is unto holiness; one duty fits us for another; and the more we
do the more we may do for God. Or serving righteousness, eis
hagiasmon—as an evidence of
sanctification.
II. The motives or arguments here used to show the necessity of sanctification. There is such an antipathy in our hearts by nature to holiness that it is no easy matter to bring them to submit to it: it is the Spirit’s work, who persuades by such inducements as these set home upon the soul.
1. He
argues from our sacramental conformity to Jesus Christ. Our baptism, with the
design and intention of it, carried in it a great reason why we should die to
sin, and live to righteousness. Thus we must improve our baptism as a bridle of
restraint to keep us in from sin, as a spur of constraint to quicken us to
duty. Observe this reasoning.
(1.) In
general, we are dead to sin, that is, in profession and in obligation.
Our baptism signifies our cutting off from the kingdom of sin. We profess to
have no more to do with sin. We are dead to sin by a participation of virtue
and power for the killing of it, and by our union with Christ and interest in
him, in and by whom it is killed. All this is in vain if we persist in sin; we
contradict a profession, violate an obligation, return to that to which we were
dead, like walking ghosts, than which nothing is more unbecoming and absurd.
For (v. 7) he that is dead is freed from sin; that is, he that is dead
to it is freed from the rule and dominion of it, as the servant that is dead is
freed from his master, Job 3:19. Now shall we be such fools as to return to
that slavery from which we are discharged? When we are delivered out of Egypt,
shall we talk of going back to it again?
(2.) In
particular, being baptized into Jesus Christ, we were baptized into his
death, v. 3. We were baptized eis Christon—unto Christ, as 1 Co. 10:2, eis
Moµseµn—unto Moses. Baptism binds us
to Christ, it binds us apprentice to Christ as our teacher, it is our
allegiance to Christ as our sovereign. Baptism is externa ansa Christi—the
external handle of Christ, by which Christ lays hold on men, and men offer
themselves to Christ. Particularly, we were baptized into his death, into a
participation of the privileges purchased by his death, and into an obligation
both to comply with the design of his death, which was to redeem us from all
iniquity, and to conform to the pattern of his death, that, as Christ died for
sin, so we should die to sin. This was the profession and promise of our
baptism, and we do not do well if we do not answer this profession, and make
good this promise.
[1.] Our
conformity to the death of Christ obliges us to die unto sin; thereby we know
the fellowship of his sufferings, Phil. 3:10. Thus we are here said to
be planted together in the likeness of is death (v. 5), toµ
homoioµmati, not only a conformity, but a
conformation, as the engrafted stock is planted together into the likeness of
the shoot, of the nature of which it doth participate. Planting is in order to
life and fruitfulness: we are planted in the vineyard in a likeness to Christ,
which likeness we should evidence in sanctification. Our creed concerning Jesus
Christ is, among other things, that he was crucified, dead, and buried;
now baptism is a sacramental conformity to him in each of these, as the apostle
here takes notice. First, Our old man is crucified with him, v. 6. The
death of the cross was a slow death; the body, after it was nailed to the
cross, gave many a throe and many a struggle: but it was a sure death, long in
expiring, but expired at last; such is the mortification of sin in believers.
It was a cursed death, Gal. 3:13. Sin dies as a malefactor, devoted to
destruction; it is an accursed thing. Though it be a slow death, yet this must
needs hasten it that it is an old man that is crucified; not in the prime of
its strength, but decaying: that which waxeth old is ready to vanish away, Heb.
8:13. Crucified with him—synestauroµtheµ, not in respect of time, but in respect of causality. The
crucifying of Christ for us has an influence upon the crucifying of sin in us. Secondly,
We are dead with Christ, v. 8. Christ was obedient to death: when he died, we
might be said to die with him, as our dying to sin is an act of conformity both
to the design and to the example of Christ’s dying for sin. Baptism signifies
and seals our union with Christ, our engrafting into Christ; so that we are
dead with him, and engaged to have no more to do with sin than he had. Thirdly,
We are buried with him by baptism, v. 4. Our conformity is complete. We are
in profession quite cut off from all commerce and communion with sin, as those
that are buried are quite cut off from all the world; not only not of the
living, but no more among the living, have nothing more to do with them. Thus
must we be, as Christ was, separate from sin and sinners. We are buried,
namely, in profession and obligation: we profess to be so, and we are bound to
be so: it was our covenant and engagement in baptism; we are sealed to be the
Lord’s, therefore to be cut off from sin. Why this burying in baptism should so
much as allude to any custom of dipping under water in baptism, any more than
our baptismal crucifixion and death should have any such references, I confess
I cannot see. It is plain that it is not the sign, but the thing signified, in
baptism, that the apostle here calls being buried with Christ, and the
expression of burying alludes to Christ’s burial. As Christ was buried, that he
might rise again to a new and more heavenly life, so we are in baptism buried,
that is, cut off from the life of sin, that we may rise again to a new life of
faith and love.
[2.] Our
conformity to the resurrection of Christ obliges us to rise again to newness of
life. This is the power of his resurrection which Paul was so desirous
to know, Phil. 3:10. Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, that is, by the power of the Father. The power of God is his glory;
it is glorious power, Col. 1:11. Now in baptism we are obliged to conform to
that pattern, to be planted in the likeness of his resurrection (v. 5),
to live with him, v. 8. See Col. 2:12. Conversion is the first
resurrection from the death of sin to the life of righteousness; and this
resurrection is conformable to Christ’s resurrection. This conformity of the
saints to the resurrection of Christ seems to be intimated in the rising of so
many of the bodies of the saints, which, though mentioned before by
anticipation, is supposed to have been concomitant with Christ’s resurrection,
Mt. 27:52. We have all risen with Christ. In two things we must conform to the
resurrection of Christ:—First, He rose to die no more, v. 9. We read of
many others that were raised from the dead, but they rose to die again. But,
when Christ rose, he rose to die no more; therefore he left his grave-clothes
behind him, whereas Lazarus, who was to die again, brought them out with him,
as one that should have occasion to use them again: but over Christ death
has no more dominion; he was dead indeed, but he is alive, and so alive
that he lives for evermore, Rev. 1:18. Thus we must rise from the grave of sin
never again to return to it, nor to have any more fellowship with the works of
darkness, having quitted that grave, that land of darkness as darkness itself. Secondly,
He rose to live unto God (v. 10), to live a heavenly life, to receive that
glory which was set before him. Others that were raised from the dead returned
to the same life in every respect which they had before lived; but so did not
Christ: he rose again to leave the world. Now I am no more in the world,
Jn. 13:1; 17:11. He rose to live to God, that is, to intercede and rule,
and all to the glory of the Father. Thus must we rise to live to God: this is
what he calls newness of life (v. 4), to live from other principles, by
other rules, with other aims, than we have done. A life devoted to God is a new
life; before, self was the chief and highest end, but now God. To live indeed
is to live to God, with our eyes ever towards him, making him the centre of all
our actions.
2. He
argues from the precious promises and privileges of the new covenant, v. 14. It
might be objected that we cannot conquer and subdue sin, it is unavoidably too
hard for us: "No,’’ says he, "you wrestle with an enemy that may be
dealt with and subdued, if you will but keep your ground and stand to your
arms; it is an enemy that is already foiled and baffled; there is strength laid
up in the covenant of grace for your assistance, if you will but use it. Sin
shall not have dominion.’’ God’s promises to us are more powerful and
effectual for the mortifying of sin than our promises to God. Sin may struggle
in a believer, and may create him a great deal of trouble, but it shall not
have dominion; it may vex him, but shall not rule over him. For we are not
under the law, but under grace, not under the law of sin and death, but under
the law of the spirit of life, which is in Christ Jesus: we are actuated by
other principles than we have been: new lords, new laws. Or, not under the
covenant of works, which requires brick, and gives no straw, which condemns
upon the least failure, which runs thus, "Do this, and live; do it not,
and die;’’ but under the covenant of grace, which accepts sincerity as our
gospel perfection, which requires nothing but what it promises strength to
perform, which is herein well ordered, that every transgression in the covenant
does not put us out of covenant, and especially that it does not leave our
salvation in our own keeping, but lays it up in the hands of the Mediator, who
undertakes for us that sin shall not have dominion over us, who hath himself condemned
it, and will destroy it; so that, if we pursue the victory, we shall come off
more than conquerors. Christ rules by the golden sceptre of grace, and he will
not let sin have dominion over those that are willing subjects to that rule.
This is a very comfortable word to all true believers. If we were under the
law, we were undone, for the law curses every one that continues not in every
thing; but we are under grace, grace which accepts the willing mind, which is
not extreme to mark what we do amiss, which leaves room for repentance, which
promises pardon upon repentance; and what can be to an ingenuous mind a
stronger motive than this to have nothing to do with sin? Shall we sin against
so much goodness, abuse such love? Some perhaps might suck poison out of this
flower, and disingenuously use this as an encouragement to sin. See how the
apostle starts at such a thought (v. 15): Shall we sin because we are not
under the law, but under grace? God forbid. What can be more black and
ill-natured than from a friend’s extraordinary expressions of kindness and
good-will to take occasion to affront and offend him? To spurn at such bowels,
to spit in the face of such love, is that which, between man and man, all the
world would cry out shame on.
3. He
argues from the evidence that this will be of our state, making for us, or
against us (v. 16): To whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his
servants you are. All the children of men are either the servants of God,
or the servants of sin; these are the two families. Now, if we would know to
which of these families we belong, we must enquire to which of these masters we
yield obedience. Our obeying the laws of sin will be an evidence against us
that we belong to that family on which death is entailed. As, on the contrary,
our obeying the laws of Christ will evidence our relation to Christ’s family.
4. He
argues from their former sinfulness, v. 17 endash 21, where we may observe,
(1.) What
they had been and done formerly. We have need to be often reminded of our former
state. Paul frequently remembers it concerning himself, and those to whom he
writes. [1.] You were the servants of sin. Those that are now the
servants of God would do well to remember the time when they were the servants
of sin, to keep them humble, penitent, and watchful, and to quicken them in the
service of God. It is a reproach to the service of sin that so many thousands
have quitted the service, and shaken off the yoke; and never any that sincerely
deserted it, and gave themselves to the service of God, have returned to the
former drudgery. "God be thanked that you were so, that is, that
though you were so, yet you have obeyed. You were so; God be thanked that we
can speak of it as a thing past: you were so, but you are not now so. Nay, your
having been so formerly tends much to the magnifying of divine mercy and grace
in the happy change. God be thanked that the former sinfulness is such a foil
and such a spur to your present holiness.’’ [2.] You have yielded your
members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity, v. 19. It
is the misery of a sinful state that the body is made a drudge to sin, than
which there could not be a baser or a harder slavery, like that of the prodigal
that was sent into the fields to feed swine. You have yielded. Sinners
are voluntary in the service of sin. The devil could not force them into the
service, if they did not yield themselves to it. This will justify God in the
ruin of sinners, that they sold themselves to work wickedness: it was their own
act and deed. To iniquity unto iniquity. Every sinful act strengthens
and confirms the sinful habit: to iniquity as the work unto iniquity as the
wages. Sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind; growing worse and worse, more and
more hardened. This he speaks after the manner of men, that is, he
fetches a similitude from that which is common among men, even the change of
services and subjections. [3.] You were free from righteousness (v. 20);
not free by any liberty given, but by a liberty taken, which is licentiousness:
"You were altogether void of that which is good,—void of any good
principles, motions, or inclinations,—void of all subjection to the law and
will of God, of all conformity to his image; and this you were highly pleased
with, as a freedom and a liberty; but a freedom from righteousness is the worst
kind of slavery.’’
(2.) How
the blessed change was made, and wherein it did consist.
[1.] You
have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you,
v. 17. This describes conversion, what it is; it is our conformity to, and
compliance with, the gospel which was delivered to us by Christ and his
ministers.—Margin. Whereto you were delivered; eis
hon paredotheµte—into which you were delivered.
And so observe, First, The rule of grace, that form of doctrine—typon
didacheµs. The gospel is the great rule both
of truth and holiness; it is the stamp, grace is the impression of that stamp;
it is the form of healing words, 2 Tim. 1:13. Secondly, The nature of
grace, as it is our conformity to that rule. 1. It is to obey from the
heart. The gospel is a doctrine not only to be believed, but to be obeyed,
and that from the heart, which denotes the sincerity and reality of that
obedience; not in profession only, but in power-from the heart, the innermost part,
the commanding part of us. 2. It is to be delivered into it, as into a
mould, as the wax is cast into the impression of the seal, answering it line
for line, stroke for stroke, and wholly representing the shape and figure of
it. To be a Christian indeed is to be transformed into the likeness and
similitude of the gospel, our souls answering to it, complying with it,
conformed to it-understanding, will, affections, aims, principles, actions, all
according to that form of doctrine.
[2.] Being
made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness (v. 18), servants
to God, v. 22. Conversion is, First, A freedom from the service of
sin; it is the shaking off of that yoke, resolving to have no more to do with
it. Secondly, A resignation of ourselves to the service of God and
righteousness, to God as our master, to righteousness as our work. When we are
made free from sin, it is not that we may live as we list, and be our own
masters; no: when we are delivered out of Egypt, we are, as Israel, led to the
holy mountain, to receive the law, and are there brought into the bond of the
covenant. Observe, We cannot be made the servants of God till we are freed from
the power and dominion of sin; we cannot serve two masters so directly opposite
one to another as God and sin are. We must, with the prodigal, quit the
drudgery of the citizen of the country, before we can come to our Father’s
house.
(3.) What
apprehensions they now had of their former work and way. He appeals to
themselves (v. 21), whether they had not found the service of sin, [1.] An
unfruitful service: "What fruit had you then? Did you ever get any
thing by it? Sit down, and cast up the account, reckon your gains, what fruit
had you then?’’ Besides the future losses, which are infinitely great, the very
present gains of sin are not worth mentioning. What fruit? Nothing that
deserves the name of fruit. The present pleasure and profit of sin do not
deserve to be called fruit; they are but chaff, ploughing iniquity, sowing
vanity, and reaping the same. [2.] It is an unbecoming service; it is that of
which we are now ashamed—ashamed of the folly, ashamed of the filth, of
it. Shame came into the world with sin, and is still the certain product of
it-either the shame of repentance, or, if not that, eternal shame and contempt.
Who would wilfully do that which sooner or later he is sure to be ashamed of?
5. He
argues from the end of all these things. it is the prerogative of rational
creatures that they are endued with a power of prospect, are capable of looking
forward, considering the latter end of things. To persuade us from sin to
holiness here are blessing and cursing, good and evil, life and death, set
before us; and we are put to our choice. (1.) The end of sin is death (v. 21): The
end of those things is death. Though the way may seem pleasant and
inviting, yet the end is dismal: at the last it bites; it will be bitterness in
the latter end. The wages of sin is death, v. 23. Death is as due to a
sinner when he hath sinned as wages are to a servant when he hath done his
work. This is true of every sin. There is no sin in its own nature venial.
Death is the wages of the least sin. Sin is here represented either as the work
for which the wages are given, or as the master by whom the wages are given;
all that are sin’s servants and do sin’s work must expect to be thus paid. (2.)
If the fruit be unto holiness, if there be an active principle of true and
growing grace, the end will be everlasting life—a very happy end!—Though the
way be up-hill, though it be narrow, and thorny, and beset, yet everlasting
life at the end of it is sure. So, v. 23, The gift of God is eternal life.
Heaven is life, consisting in the vision and fruition of God; and it is eternal
life, no infirmities attending it, no death to put a period to it. This is the
gift of God. The death is the wages of sin, it comes by desert; but the life is
a gift, it comes by favour. Sinners merit hell, but saints do not merit heaven.
There is no proportion between the glory of heaven and our obedience; we must
thank God, and not ourselves, if ever we get to heaven. And this gift is through
Jesus Christ our Lord. It is Christ that purchased it, prepared it,
prepares us for it, preserves us to it; he is the Alpha and Omega, All
in all in our salvation.
Excerpt from:
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible
Matthew Henry (1662 - 1714)
Rick Meyers.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible. e-Sword ®: www.e-sword.net
