Chapter 7
We may observe in this chapter, I.
Our freedom from the law further urged as an argument to press upon us
sanctification (v. 1 endash 6). II. The excellency and usefulness of the law
asserted and proved from the apostle’s own experience, notwithstanding (v. 7
endash 14). III. A description of the conflict between grace and corruption in
the heart (v. 14, 15, to the end).
Verses 1 - 6
Among
other arguments used in the foregoing chapter to persuade us against sin, and
to holiness, this was one (v. 14), that we are not under the law; and
this argument is here further insisted upon and explained (v. 6): We are
delivered from the law. What is meant by this? And how is it an argument
why sin should not reign over us, and why we should walk in newness of life? 1.
We are delivered from the power of the law which curses and condemns us for the
sin committed by us. The sentence of the law against us is vacated and
reversed, by the death of Christ, to all true believers. The law saith, The
soul that sins shall die; but we are delivered from the law. The Lord
has taken away thy sin, thou shalt not die. We are redeemed from the
curse of the law, Gal. 3:13. 2. We are delivered from that power of the law
which irritates and provokes the sin that dwelleth in us. This the apostle
seems especially to refer to (v. 5): The motions of sins which were by the
law. The law, by commanding, forbidding, threatening, corrupt and fallen
man, but offering no grace to cure and strengthen, did but stir up the
corruption, and, like the sun shining upon a dunghill, excite and draw up the
filthy steams. We being lamed by the fall, the law comes and directs us, but
provides nothing to heal and help our lameness, and so makes us halt and
stumble the more. Understand this of the law not as a rule, but as a covenant
of works. Now each of these is an argument why we should be holy; for here is
encouragement to endeavours, though in many things we come short. We are under grace,
which promises strength to do what it commands, and pardon upon repentance when
we do amiss. This is the scope of these verses in general, that, in point of
profession and privilege, we are under a covenant of grace, and not under a
covenant of works-under the gospel of Christ, and not under the law of Moses.
The difference between a law-state and a gospel-state he had before illustrated
by the similitude of rising to a new life, and serving a new master; now here
he speaks of is under the similitude of being married to a new husband.
I. Our
first marriage was to the law, which, according to the law of marriage, was to
continue only during the life of the law. The law of marriage is binding till
the death of one of the parties, no matter which, and no longer. The death of
either discharges both. For this he appeals to themselves, as persons knowing
the law (v. 1): I speak to those that know the law. It is a great
advantage to discourse with those that have knowledge, for such can more
readily understand and apprehend a truth. Many of the Christians at Rome were
such as had been Jews, and so were well acquainted with the law. One has some
hold of knowing people. The law hath power over a man as long as he liveth;
in particular, the law of marriage hath power; or, in general, every law is so
limited-the laws of nations, of relations, of families, etc. 1. The obligation
of laws extends no further; by death the servant who, while he lived, was under
the yoke, is freed from his master, Job 3:19. 2. The condemnation of
laws extends no further; death is the finishing of the law. Actio moritur
cum personâ—The action expires with the person. The severest laws could but
kill the body, and after that there is no more that they can do. Thus while we
were alive to the law we were under the power of it-while we were in our
Old-Testament state, before the gospel came into the world, and before it came
with power into our hearts. Such is the law of marriage (v. 2), the woman is
bound to her husband during life, so bound to him that she cannot marry
another; if she do, she shall be reckoned an adulteress, v. 3. It will make her
an adulteress, not only to be defiled by, but to be married to, another man;
for that is so much the worse, upon this account, that it abuses an ordinance
of God, by making it to patronise the uncleanness. Thus were we married to the
law (v. 5): When we were in the flesh, that is, in a carnal state, under
the reigning power of sin and corruption-in the flesh as in our element-then the
motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members, we were
carried down the stream of sin, and the law was but as an imperfect dam, which
made the stream to swell the higher, and rage the more. Our desire was towards
sin, as that of the wife towards her husband, and sin ruled over us. We
embraced it, loved it, devoted all to it, conversed daily with it, made it our
care to please it. We were under a law of sin and death, as the wife under the
law of marriage; and the product of this marriage was fruit brought forth unto
death, that is, actual transgressions were produced by the original corruption,
such as deserve death. Lust, having conceived by the law (which is the strength
of sin, 1 Co. 15:56), bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death, Jam. 1:15. This is the posterity that springs from
this marriage to sin and the law. This comes of the motions of sin working in
our members. And this continues during life, while the law is alive to us, and
we are alive to the law.
II. Our
second marriage is to Christ: and how comes this about? Why,
1. We are
freed, by death, from our obligation to the law as a covenant, as the wife is
from her obligation to her husband, v. 3. This resemblance is not very close,
nor needed it to be. You are become dead to the law, v. 4. He does not
say, "The law is dead’’ (some think because he would avoid giving offence
to those who were yet zealous for the law), but, which comes all to one, You
are dead to the law. As the crucifying of the world to us, and of us to the
world, amounts to one and the same thing, so doth the law dying, and our dying
to it. We are delivered from the law (v. 6), kateµrgeµtheµmen—we are nulled as to the law; our obligation to it as
a husband is cassated and made void. And then he speaks of the law being dead
as far as it was a law of bondage to us: That being dead wherein we were
held; not the law itself, but its obligation to punishment and its
provocation to sin. It is dead, it has lost its power; and this (v. 4) by
the body of Christ, that is, by the sufferings of Christ in his body, by
his crucified body, which abrogated the law, answered the demands of it, made
satisfaction for our violation of it, purchased for us a covenant of grace, in
which righteousness and strength are laid up for us, such as were not, nor
could be, by the law. We are dead to the law by our union with the mystical
body of Christ. By being incorporated into Christ in our baptism professedly,
in our believing powerfully and effectually, we are dead to the law, have no
more to do with it than the dead servant, that is free from his master, hath to
do with his master’s yoke.
2. We are
married to Christ. The day of our believing is the day of our espousals to the
Lord Jesus. We enter upon a life of dependence on him and duty to him: Married
to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, a periphrasis of
Christ and very pertinent here; for as our dying to sin and the law is in
conformity to the death of Christ, and the crucifying of his body, so our
devotedness to Christ in newness of life is in conformity to the resurrection
of Christ. We are married to the raised exalted Jesus, a very honourable
marriage. Compare 2 Co. 11:2; Eph. 5:29. Now we are thus married to Christ,
(1.) That we should bring forth fruit unto God, v. 4. One end of
marriage is fruitfulness: God instituted the ordinance that he might seek a godly
seed, Mal. 2:15. The wife is compared to the fruitful vine, and children
are called the fruit of the womb. Now the great end of our marriage to Christ
is our fruitfulness in love, and grace, and every good work. This is fruit unto
God, pleasing to God, according to his will, aiming at his glory. As our old
marriage to sin produced fruit unto death, so our second marriage to Christ
produces fruit unto God, fruits of righteousness. Good works are the children
of the new nature, the products of our union with Christ, as the fruitfulness
of the vine is the product of its union with the root. Whatever our professions
and pretensions may be, there is no fruit brought forth to God till we are
married to Christ; it is in Christ Jesus that we are created unto good works,
Eph. 2:10. The only fruit which turns to a good account is that which is
brought forth in Christ. This distinguishes the good works of believers from
the good works of hypocrites and self-justifiers that they are brought forth in
marriage, done in union with Christ, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Col. 3:17.
This is, without controversy, one of the great mysteries of godliness. (2.) That
we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter,
v. 6. Being married to a new husband, we must change our way. Still we must
serve, but it is a service that is perfect freedom, whereas the service of sin
was a perfect drudgery: we must now serve in newness of spirit, by new
spiritual rules, from new spiritual principles, in spirit and in truth, Jn.
4:24. There must be a renovation of our spirits wrought by the spirit of God,
and in that we must serve. Not in the oldness of the letter; that is, we
must not rest in mere external services, as the carnal Jews did, who gloried in
their adherence to the letter of the law, and minded not the spiritual part of
worship. The letter is said to kill with its bondage and terror, but we are
delivered from that yoke that we may serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness,
Lu. 1:74, 75. We are under the dispensation of the Spirit, and therefore must
be spiritual, and serve in the spirit. Compare with this 2 Co. 3:3, 6, etc. It
becomes us to worship within the veil, and no longer in the outward court.
Verses 7 - 14a
To what he
had said in the former paragraph, the apostle here raises an objection, which
he answers very fully: What shall we say then? Is the law sin? When he
had been speaking of the dominion of sin, he had said so much of the influence
of the law as a covenant upon that dominion that it might easily be
misinterpreted as a reflection upon the law, to prevent which he shows from his
own experience the great excellency and usefulness of the law, not as a
covenant, but as a guide; and further discovers how sin took occasion by the
commandment. Observe in particular,
I. The
great excellency of the law in itself. Far be it from Paul to reflect upon the
law; no, he speaks honourably of it. 1. It is holy, just, and good, v.
12. The law in general is so, and every particular commandment is so. Laws are
as the law-makers are. God, the great lawgiver, is holy, just, and good,
therefore his law must needs be so. The matter of it is holy: it commands
holiness, encourages holiness; it is holy, for it is agreeable to the holy will
of God, the original of holiness. It is just, for it is consonant to the rules
of equity and right reason: the ways of the Lord are right. It is good in the
design of it; it was given for the good of mankind, for the conservation of peace
and order in the world. It makes the observers of it good; the intention of it
was to better and reform mankind. Wherever there is true grace there is an
assent to this-that the law is holy, just, and good. 2. The law is spiritual
(v. 14), not only in regard to the effect of it, as it is a means of making us
spiritual, but in regard to the extent of it; it reaches our spirits, it lays a
restraint upon, and gives a direction to, the motions of the inward man; it
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, Heb. 4:12. It
forbids spiritual wickedness, heart-murder, and heart-adultery. It commands
spiritual service, requires the heart, obliges us to worship God in the spirit.
It is a spiritual law, for it is given by God, who is a Spirit and the Father
of spirits; it is given to man, whose principal part is spiritual; the soul is
the best part, and the leading part of the man, and therefore the law to the
man must needs be a law to the soul. Herein the law of God is above all other
laws, that it is a spiritual law. Other laws may forbid compassing and
imagining, etc., which are treason in the heart, but cannot take cognizance
thereof, unless there be some overt act; but the law of God takes notice of the
iniquity regarded in the heart, though it go no further. Wash thy heart from
wickedness, Jer. 4:14. We know this: Wherever there is true grace
there is an experimental knowledge of the spirituality of the law of God.
II. The
great advantage that he had found by the law. 1. It was discovering: I had not
known sin but by the law, v. 7. As that which is straight discovers that
which is crooked, as the looking-glass shows us our natural face with all its
spots and deformities, so there is no way of coming to that knowledge of sin
which is necessary to repentance, and consequently to peace and pardon, but by
comparing our hearts and lives with the law. Particularly he came to the
knowledge of the sinfulness of lust by the law of the tenth commandment. By
lust he means sin dwelling in us, sin in its first motions and workings, the
corrupt principle. This he came to know when the law said, Thou shalt not
covet. The law spoke in other language than the scribes and Pharisees made
it to speak in; it spoke in the spiritual sense and meaning of it. By this he
knew that lust was sin and a very sinful sin, that those motions and desires of
the heart towards sin which never came into act were sinful, exceedingly
sinful. Paul had a very quick and piercing judgment, all the advantages and
improvements of education, and yet never attained the right knowledge of
indwelling sin till the Spirit by the law made it known to him. There is
nothing about which the natural man is more blind than about original
corruption, concerning which the understanding is altogether in the dark till
the Spirit by the law reveal it, and make it known. Thus the law is a
schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ, opens and searches the wound, and so
prepares it for healing. Thus sin by the commandment does appear sin (v. 13);
it appears in its own colours, appears to be what it is, and you cannot call it
by a worse name than its own. Thus by the commandment it becomes exceedingly
sinful; that is, it appears to be so. We never see the desperate venom or
malignity there is in sin, till we come to compare it with the law, and the
spiritual nature of the law, and then we see it to be an evil and a bitter
thing. 2. It was humbling (v. 9): I was alive. He thought himself in a
very good condition; he was alive in his own opinion and apprehension, very
secure and confident of the goodness of his state. Thus he was once, pote—in times past, when he was a Pharisee; for it was
the common temper of that generation of men that they had a very good conceit
of themselves; and Paul was then like the rest of them, and the reason was he
was then without the law. Though brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, a
doctor of the law, though himself a great student in the law, a strict observer
of it, and a zealous stickler for it, yet without the law. He had the
letter of the law, but he had not the spiritual meaning of it—the shell, but
not the kernel. He had the law in his hand and in his head, but he had it not
in his heart; the notion of it, but not the power of it. There are a great many
who are spiritually dead in sin, that yet are alive in their own opinion of
themselves, and it is their strangeness to the law that is the cause of the
mistake. But when the commandment came, came in the power of it (not to
his eyes only, but to his heart), sin revived, as the dust in a room
rises (that is, appears) when the sun-shine is let into it. Paul then saw that
in sin which he had never seen before; he then saw sin in its causes, the
bitter root, the corrupt bias, the bent to backslide,—sin in its colours,
deforming, defiling, breaking a righteous law, affronting an awful Majesty,
profaning a sovereign crown by casting it to the ground,—sin in its
consequences, sin with death at the heels of it, sin and the curse entailed
upon it. "Thus sin revived, and then I died; I lost that good opinion which
I had had of myself, and came to be of another mind. Sin revived, and I
died; that is, the Spirit, but the commandment, convinced me that I was in
a state of sin, and in a state of death because of sin.’’ Of this excellent use
is the law; it is a lamp and a light; it converts the soul, opens the eyes,
prepares the way of the Lord in the desert, rends the rocks, levels the
mountains, makes ready a people prepared for the Lord.
III. The
ill use that his corrupt nature made of the law notwithstanding. 1. Sin,
taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence,
v. 8. Observe, Paul had in him all manner of concupiscence, though one of the
best unregenerate men that ever was; as touching the righteousness of the law,
blameless, and yet sensible of all manner of concupiscence. And it was sin that
wrought it, indwelling sin, his corrupt nature (he speaks of a sin that did
work sin), and it took occasion by the commandment. The corrupt nature would
not have swelled and raged so much if it had not been for the restraints of the
law; as the peccant humours in the body are raised, and more inflamed, by a
purge that is not strong enough to carry them off. It is incident to corrupt
nature, in vetitum niti—to lean towards what is forbidden. Ever since
Adam ate forbidden fruit, we have all been fond of forbidden paths; the
diseased appetite is carried out most strongly towards that which is hurtful
and prohibited. Without the law sin was dead, as a snake in winter,
which the sunbeams of the law quicken and irritate. 2. It deceived men.
Sin puts a cheat upon the sinner, and it is a fatal cheat, v. 11. By it
(by the commandment) slew me. There being in the law no such express
threatening against sinful lustings, sin, that is, his won corrupt nature, took
occasion thence to promise him impunity, and to say, as the serpent to our
first parents, You shall not surely die. Thus it deceived and slew him.
3. It wrought death in me by that which is good, v. 13. That which works
concupiscence works death, for sin bringeth forth death. Nothing so good but a
corrupt and vicious nature will pervert it, and make it an occasion of ins; no
flower so sweet by sin will such poison out of it. Now in this sin appears sin.
The worst thing that sin does, and most like itself, is the perverting of the
law, and taking occasion from it to be so much the more malignant. Thus the
commandment, which was ordained to life, was intended as a guide in the way to
comfort and happiness, proved unto death, through the corruption of nature, v.
10. Many a precious soul splits upon the rock of salvation; and the same word
which to some is an occasion of life unto life is to others an occasion of
death unto death. The same sun that makes the garden of flowers more fragrant
makes the dunghill more noisome; the same heat that softens wax hardens clay;
and the same child was set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. The
way to prevent this mischief is to bow our souls to the commanding authority of
the word and law of God, not striving against, but submitting to it.
Verses 14b-25
Here is a
description of the conflict between grace and corruption in the heart, between
the law of God and the law of sin. And it is applicable two ways:—1. To the
struggles that are in a convinced soul, but yet unregenerate, in the person of
whom it is supposed, by some, that Paul speaks. 2. To the struggles that are in
a renewed sanctified soul, but yet in a state of imperfection; as other
apprehend. And a great controversy there is of which of these we are to
understand the apostle here. So far does the evil prevail here, when he speaks
of one sold under sin, doing it, not performing that which is good, that it
seems difficult to apply it to the regenerate, who are described to walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit; and yet so far does the good prevail in
hating sin, consenting to the law, delighting in it, serving the law of God
with the mind, that it is more difficult to apply it to the unregenerate that
are dead in trespasses and sins.
I. Apply it
to the struggles that are felt in a convinced soul, that is yet in a state of
sin, knows his Lord’s will, but does it not, approves the things that are more
excellent, being instructed out of the law, and yet lives in the constant
breach of it, ch. 2:17 endash 23. Though he has that within him that witnesses
against the sin he commits, and it is not without a great deal of reluctancy
that he does commit it, the superior faculties striving against it, natural
conscience warning against it before it is committed and smiting for it
afterwards, yet the man continues a slave to his reigning lusts. It is not thus
with every unregenerate man, but with those only that are convinced by the law,
but not changed by the gospel. The apostle had said (ch. 6:14), Sin shall
not have dominion, because you are not under the law, but under grace, for
the proof of which he here shows that a man under the law, and not under grace,
may be, and is, under the dominion of sin. The law may discover sin, and
convince of sin, but it cannot conquer and subdue sin, witness the predominancy
of sin in many that are under very strong legal convictions. It discovers the
defilement, but will not wash it off. It makes a man weary and heavy laden (Mt.
11:28), burdens him with his sin; and yet, if rested in, it yields no help
towards the shaking off of that burden; this is to be had only in Christ. The
law may make a man cry out, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?
and yet leave him thus fettered and captivated, as being too weak to deliver
him (ch. 8:3), give him a spirit of bondage to fear, ch. 8:15. Now a soul
advanced thus far by the law is in a fair way towards a state of liberty by
Christ, though many rest here and go no further. Felix trembled, but never came
to Christ. It is possible for a man to go to hell with his eyes open (Num.
24:3, 4), illuminated with common convictions, and to carry about with him a
self-accusing conscience, even in the service of the devil. He may consent
to the law that it is good, delight to know God’s ways (as they, Isa.
58:2), may have that within him that witnesses against sin and for holiness;
and yet all this overpowered by the reigning love of sin. Drunkards and unclean
persons have some faint desires to leave off their sins, and yet persist in
them notwithstanding, such is the impotency and such the insufficiency of their
convictions. Of such as these there are many that will needs have all this
understood, and contend earnestly for it: though it is very hard to imagine why,
if the apostle intended this, he should speak all along in his own person; and
not only so, but in the present tense. Of his own state under conviction he had
spoken at large, as of a thing past (v. 7, etc.): I died; the commandment I
found to be unto death; and if here he speaks of the same state as his
present state, and the condition he was now in, surely he did not intend to be
so understood: and therefore,
II. It
seems rather to be understood of the struggles that are maintained between
grace and corruption in sanctified souls. That there are remainders of
indwelling corruption, even where there is a living principle of grace, is past
dispute; that this corruption is daily breaking forth in sins of infirmity
(such as are consistent with a state of grace) is no less certain. If we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, 1 Jn. 1:8, 10. That true grace
strives against these sins and corruptions, does not allow of them, hates them,
mourns over them, groans under them as a burden, is likewise certain (Gal.
5:17): The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the
flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the
things that you would. These are the truths which, I think, are contained
in this discourse of the apostle. And his design is further to open the nature
of sanctification, that it does not attain to a sinless perfection in this
life; and therefore to quicken us to, and encourage us in, our conflicts with
remaining corruptions. Our case is not singular, that which we do sincerely
strive against, shall not be laid to our charge, and through grace the victory
is sure at last. The struggle here is like that between Jacob and Esau in the
womb, between the Canaanites and Israelites in the land, between the house of
Saul and the house of David; but great is the truth and will prevail.
Understanding it thus, we may observe here,
1. What he
complains of-the remainder of indwelling corruptions, which he here speaks of,
to show that the law is insufficient to justify even a regenerate man, that the
best man in the world hath enough in him to condemn him, if God should deal
with him according to the law, which is not the fault of the law, but of our
own corrupt nature, which cannot fulfil the law. The repetition of the same
things over and over again in this discourse shows how much Paul’s heart was
affected with what he wrote, and how deep his sentiments were. Observe the
particulars of this complaint. (1.) I am carnal, sold under sin, v. 14.
He speaks of the Corinthians as carnal, 1 Co. 3:1. Even where there is
spiritual life there are remainders of carnal affections, and so far a man may
be sold under sin; he does not sell himself to work wickedness, as Ahab
did (1 Ki. 21:25), but he was sold by Adam when he sinned and fell-sold, as a
poor slave that does his master’s will against his own will-sold under sin,
because conceived in iniquity and born in sin. (2.) What I would, that I do
not; but what I hate, that do I, v. 15. And to the same purport, v. 19, 21,
When I would do good, evil is present with me. Such was the strength of
corruptions, that he could not attain that perfection in holiness which he
desired and breathed after. Thus, while he was pressing forward towards
perfection, yet he acknowledges that he had not already attained, neither was
already perfect, Phil. 3:12. Fain he would be free from all sin, and perfectly
do the will of God, such was his settled judgment; but his corrupt nature drew
him another way: it was like a clog, that checked and kept him down when he
would have soared upward, like the bias in a bowl, which, when it is thrown
straight, yet draws it aside. (3.) In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no
good, v. 18. Here he explains himself concerning the corrupt nature, which
he calls flesh; and as far as that goes there is no good to be expected, any
more than one would expect good corn growing upon a rock, or on the sand which
is by the sea-side. As the new nature, as far as that goes, cannot commit sin
(1 Jn. 3:9), so the flesh, the old nature, as far as that goes, cannot perform
a good duty. How should it? For the flesh serveth the law of sin (v. 25), it is
under the conduct and government of that law; and, while it is so, it is not
likely to do any good. The corrupt nature is elsewhere called flesh (Gen. 6:3,
Jn. 3:6); and, though there may be good things dwelling in those that have this
flesh, yet, as far as the flesh goes, there is no good, the flesh is not a
subject capable of any good. (4.) I see another law in my members warring
against the law of my mind, v. 23. The corrupt and sinful inclination is
here compared to a law, because it controlled and checked him in his good
motions. It is said to be seated in his members, because, Christ having set up
his throne in his heart, it was only the rebellious members of the body that
were the instruments of sin-in the sensitive appetite; or we may take it more
generally for all that corrupt nature which is the seat not only of sensual but
of more refined lusts. This wars against the law of the mind, the new nature;
it draws the contrary way, drives on a contrary interest, which corrupt
disposition and inclination are as great a burden and grief to the soul as the
worst drudgery and captivity could be. It brings me into captivity. To
the same purport (v. 25), With the flesh I serve the law of sin; that
is, the corrupt nature, the unregenerate part, is continually working towards
sin. (5.) His general complaint we have in v. 24, O wretched man that I am!
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The thing he complains of
is a body of death; either the body of flesh, which is a mortal dying body
(while we carry this body about with us, we shall be troubled with corruption;
when we are dead, we shall be freed from sin, and not before), or the body of
sin, the old man, the corrupt nature, which tends to death, that is, to the
ruin of the soul. Or, comparing it to a dead body, the touch of which was by
the ceremonial law defiling, if actual transgressions be dead works (Heb.
9:14), original corruption is a dead body. It was as troublesome to Paul as if
he had had a dead body tied to him, which he must have carried about with him.
This made him cry out, O wretched man that I am! A man that had learned
in every state to be content yet complains thus of his corrupt nature. Had I
been required to speak of Paul, I should have said, "O blessed man that
thou art, an ambassador of Christ, a favourite of heaven, a spiritual father of
thousands!’’ But in his own account he was a wretched man, because of the corruption
of nature, because he was not so good as he fain would be, had not yet
attained, neither was already perfect. Thus miserably does he complain. Who
shall deliver me? He speaks like one that was sick of it, that would give
any thing to be rid of it, looks to the right hand and to the left for some
friend that would part between him and his corruptions. The remainders of
indwelling sin are a very grievous burden to a gracious soul.
2. What he
comforts himself with. The case was sad, but there were some allays. Three
things comforted him:—
(1.) That
his conscience witnessed for him that he had a good principle ruling and
prevailing in him, notwithstanding. It is well when all does not go one way in
the soul. The rule of this good principle which he had was the law of God, to
which he here speaks of having a threefold regard, which is certainly to be
found in all that are sanctified, and no others. [1.] I consent unto the law
that it is good, v. 16, sympheµmi—I give my vote to the law; here is the approbation of
the judgment. Wherever there is grace there is not only a dread of the severity
of the law, but a consent to the goodness of the law. "It is a good in
itself, it is good for me.’’ This is a sign that the law is written in the
heart, that the soul is delivered into the mould of it. To consent to the law
is so far to approve of it as not to wish it otherwise constituted than it is.
The sanctified judgment not only concurs to the equity of the law, but to the
excellency of it, as convinced that a conformity to the law is the highest
perfection of human nature, and the greatest honour and happiness we are
capable of. [2.] I delight in the law of God after the inward man, v.
22. His conscience bore witness to a complacency in the law. He delighted not
only in the promises of the word, but in the precepts and prohibitions of the
word; syneµdomai
expresses a becoming delight. He did herein concur in affection with all
the saints. All that are savingly regenerate or born again do truly delight in
the law of God, delight to know it, to do it-cheerfully submit to the authority
of it, and take a complacency in that submission, never better pleased than
when heart and life are in the strictest conformity to the law and will of God.
After the inward man; that is, First, The mind or rational
faculties, in opposition to the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh. The
soul is the inward man, and that is the seat of gracious delights, which are
therefore sincere and serious, but secret; it is the renewing of the inward man,
2 Co. 4:16. Secondly, The new nature. The new man is called the inner
man (Eph. 3:16), the hidden man of the heart, 1 Pt. 3:4. Paul, as
far as he was sanctified, had a delight in the law of God. [3.] With the
mind I myself serve the law of God, v. 25. It is not enough to consent to
the law, and to delight in the law, but we must serve the law; our souls must
be entirely delivered up into the obedience of it. Thus it was with Paul’s
mind; thus it is with every sanctified renewed mind; this is the ordinary
course and way; thitherward goes the bent of the soul. I myself—autos
egoµ, plainly intimating that he speaks
in his own person, and not in the person of another.
(2.) That
the fault lay in that corruption of his nature which he did really bewail and
strive against: It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
This he mentions twice (v. 17, 20), not as an excuse for the guilt of his sin
(it is enough to condemn us, if we were under the law, that the sin which does
the evil dwelleth in us), but as a salvo for his evidences, that he might not
sink in despair, but take comfort from the covenant of grace, which accepts the
willingness of the spirit, and has provided pardon for the weakness of the
flesh. He likewise herein enters a protestation against all that which this
indwelling sin produced. Having professed his consent to the law of God, he
here professes his dissent from the law of sin. "It is not I; I disown the
fact; it is against my mind that it is done.’’ As when in the senate the major
part are bad, and carry every thing the wrong way, it is indeed the act of the
senate, but the honest party strive against it, bewail what is done, and enter
their protestation against it; so that it is no more they that do it.—Dwelleth
in me, as the Canaanites among the Israelites, though they were put under
tribute: dwelleth in me, and is likely to dwell there, while I live.
(3.) His
great comfort lay in Jesus Christ (v. 25): I thank God, through Jesus Christ
our Lord. In the midst of his complaints he breaks out into praises. It is
a special remedy against fears and sorrows to be much in praise: many a poor
drooping soul hath found it so. And, in all our praises, this should be the
burden of the son, "Blessed be God for Jesus Christ.’’ Who shall
deliver me? says he (v. 24), as one at a loss for help. At length he finds
an all-sufficient friend, even Jesus Christ. When we are under the sense of the
remaining power of sin and corruption, we shall see reason to bless God through
Christ (for, as he is the mediator of all our prayers, so he is of all our
praises)—to bless God for Christ; it is he that stands between us and the wrath
due to us for this sin. If it were not for Christ, this iniquity that dwells in
us would certainly be our ruin. He is our advocate with the Father, and through
him God pities, and spares, and pardons, and lays not our iniquities to our
charge. It is Christ that has purchased deliverance for us in due time. Through
Christ death will put an end to all these complaints, and waft us to an
eternity which we shall spend without sin or sigh. Blessed be God that
giveth us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
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
