CHAPTER 8. For the place of this chapter in the argument see chap. 6, _ad init_. The general subject is the life in the spirit, by which the power of sin is broken, and the believer enabled to live to God. It falls into three parts (1) Romans 8:1-2, in which the spirit as opposed to the flesh is des... [ Continue Reading ]
οὐδὲν ἄρα νῦν κατάκριμα τοῖς ἐν Χ. Ἰ. The οὐδὲν is emphatic: condemnation is in every sense out of the question. νῦν is temporal: it distinguishes the Christian from the pre-Christian period of life. The bold assertion is an inference (ἄρα) from what is implied in the thanksgiving to God through Jes... [ Continue Reading ]
The Spirit as the principle of righteousness and life.... [ Continue Reading ]
There is no condemnation, for all ground for it has been removed. “The law of the spirit of the life which is in Christ Jesus made me [thee] free from the law of sin and death.” It is subjection to the law of sin and death which involves condemnation; emancipation from it leaves no place for condemn... [ Continue Reading ]
He now explains how this was done. It was not done by the law: that is the first point. If τὸ ἀδύνατον is active (= “the inability” of the law) we must suppose that Paul meant to finish the sentence, “was overcome,” or “was removed” by God. If it is passive (= “that which is impossible” for the law)... [ Continue Reading ]
All this was done ἵνα τὸ δικ. τοῦ νόμου πληρωθῇ ἐν ἡμῖν : that the just requirement of the law (_i.e._, a righteous life) might be fulfilled in us. See note on Romans 3:31. ἐν ἡμῖν (not ὑφʼ ἡμῶν), for it is not our doing, though done in us (Weiss). τοῖς μὴ κατὰ σάρκα κ. τ. λ. = inasmuch as we walk n... [ Continue Reading ]
The meaning of the sentence “is not contained in the repetitions of γὰρ by which it is hooked together” (Jowett). οἱ κατὰ σάρκα ὄντες are those whose nature is determined simply by the flesh; their “mind,” _i.e._, their moral interest, their thought and study, is upon τὰ τῆς σαρκός : for which see G... [ Continue Reading ]
f. The reason why the mind of the flesh terminates so fatally: it is hostility to God, the fountain of life. Alienation from Him is necessarily fatal. It is the flesh which does not (for indeed it cannot) submit itself to God; as the seat of indwelling sin it is in permanent revolt, and those who ar... [ Continue Reading ]
Paul applies to his readers what he has said in Romans 8:5-8. ὑμεῖς is emphatic. _You_ can please God, for you are not in the flesh, etc. εἴπερ has its proper force: “if, as is the fact”: _cf._ Romans 3:30; Romans 8:17; and the excellent examination of other N.T. instances in Simcox, _Language of th... [ Continue Reading ]
Consequences of this indwelling of Christ in the Christian. In one respect, they are not yet so complete as might be expected. τὸ μὲν σῶμα νεκρὸν : the body, it cannot be denied, is _dead_ because of sin: the experience we call death is inevitable for it. τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα ζωή : but the spirit (_i.e._, t... [ Continue Reading ]
But though the present results of the indwelling of the spirit are not all we might desire, the future is sure. The indwelling spirit is that of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, and as such it is the guarantee that our mortal bodies also (as well as our spirits) shall share in immortality. The sa... [ Continue Reading ]
f. The blessed condition and hopes of Christians, as described in these last verses, lay them under obligations: to whom, or to what? Not (Romans 8:12) to the flesh, to live according to it: to it they owe nothing. If they live after the flesh they are destined to die the final doom in which there i... [ Continue Reading ]
Ye shall live, for as many as are led by God's Spirit are God's sons, and life is congruous to such a dignity. υἱὸς suggests the rank and privileges of the persons in question; τέκνον (in Romans 8:16 f.) their kinship in nature to God. Yet this cannot everywhere be urged in the N.T.... [ Continue Reading ]
Sons, οὐ γὰρ ἐλάβετε πνεῦμα δουλείας. The aorist refers to the time of their baptism, when they received the Spirit. It was not the Spirit proper to slaves, leading them again to shrink from God in fear as they had done when under the law of sin and death, but πνεῦμα υἱοθεσίας, a spirit proper to th... [ Continue Reading ]
The punctuation in W. and H. margin deserves notice. “In that we cry, Abba, Father, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit,” etc. Our own spirit tells us we are God's children, but the voice with which it speaks is, as we know, prompted and inspired by the Divine Spirit itself. For simila... [ Continue Reading ]
Yet this last is involved, for “if children, also heirs”. _Cf._ Galatians 4:7 where κληρονόμος is relative to υἱὸς; and all the passages in which the Spirit is regarded as “the earnest” of an inheritance: 2 Corinthians 1:22; 2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:14. It is from God the inheritance comes, an... [ Continue Reading ]
The passage extending from this verse to Romans 8:27 is described by Lipsius as a “threefold testimony to the future transfiguration which awaits suffering believers”. In Romans 8:19-22 there is the first testimony the sighing of creation; in Romans 8:23-25 the second, the yearning hope of Christian... [ Continue Reading ]
First testimony to this glorious future: creation sighs for it. In some sense the hope and promise of it is involved in the present constitution of the world. For a fine speculative interpretation see E. Caird's _Evolution of Religion_, ii., 124 f. In Paul, however, the spirit of the passage is rath... [ Continue Reading ]
For creation was subjected to vanity, etc. ματαιότης is not classical, but is often used in the LXX, especially for הֶבֶל. The idea is that of looking for what one does not find hence of futility, frustration, disappointment. ματαιότης ματαιοτήτων is the “vanity of vanities” in Eccl, the complaint o... [ Continue Reading ]
Contents of the hope. It makes no difference in meaning, whether we read ὅτι or διότι. αὐτὴ ἡ κτίσις : creation as well as man. ἡ δουλεία τῆς φθορᾶς : a system in which nothing continues in one stay, in which death claims everything, in which there is not even an analogy to immortality, is a system... [ Continue Reading ]
οἴδαμεν γὰρ κ. τ. λ.: How Christians know this Paul does not say. Perhaps we may say that the Christian consciousness of sin and redemption is in contact with the ultimate realities of the universe, and that no interpretation of nature can be true but one which, like this, is in essential harmony wi... [ Continue Reading ]
Second testimony to the glorious future. οὐ μόνον δὲ _sc._ ἡ κτίσις not only all creation, but we Christians: we ourselves, τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ πνεύματος ἔχοντες. τοῦ πνεύματος is gen of apposition: the spirit which Christians have received is itself t the first fruits (elsewhere, the earnest: see on Ro... [ Continue Reading ]
f. This sentence explains why Paul can speak of Christians as _waiting_ for adoption, while they are nevertheless in the enjoyment of sonship. It is because salvation is essentially related to the future. “We wait for it: for we were saved _in hope_.” The dat τῇ ἐλπίδι is that of mode or respect. Ou... [ Continue Reading ]
Third testimony to the glorious future: the sighing of creation, our own sighing, and this action of the Spirit, point consistently to one conclusion. συναντιλαμβάνεται, _cf._ Luke 10:40. The weakness which the Spirit helps is that due to our ignorance: τὸ γὰρ τί προσευξώμεθα καθὸ δεῖ οὐκ οἴδαμαν. T... [ Continue Reading ]
This intercession, with which our heart goes, though it is deeper than words, the Heart Searcher understands. τί τὸ φρόν. τοῦ πνεύματος : what the Spirit is set upon, the whole object of its thought and endeavour. ὅτι, _viz._, that He intercedes κατὰ θεόν in agreement with God's will, see 2 Corinthi... [ Continue Reading ]
Conclusion of the argument: the Apostle glories in the assurance of God's eternal and unchangeable love in Jesus Christ. οἴδαμεν δὲ = further, we know: in a sense this is one ground more for believing in the glorious future: God is ever with us, and will not abandon us at last. πάντα συνεργεῖ (ὁ θεό... [ Continue Reading ]
f. These verses give the proof that God in all things co-operates for good with the called. They show how His gracious purpose, beginning with foreknowledge and foreordination perfects all that concerns them on to the final glory. οὓς προέγνω : those whom He foreknew in what sense? as persons who wo... [ Continue Reading ]
τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν πρὸς ταῦτα; the idea underlying all that precedes is that of the suffering to be endured by those who would share Christ's glory (Romans 8:17). The Apostle has disparaged the suffering in comparison with the glory (Romans 8:18); he has interpreted it (Romans 8:19-27) as in a manner pr... [ Continue Reading ]
The Christian's faith in providence is an inference from redemption. The same God who did not spare His own Son will freely give us all things. οὐκ ἐφείσατο, _cf._ Genesis 22:12, οὐκ ἐφείσω τοῦ υἱοῦ σου τοῦ ἀγαπητοῦ διʼ ἐμέ. It vivifies the impression of God's love through the sense of the sacrifice... [ Continue Reading ]
f. The punctuation here is a very difficult problem: see the text and margin of R.V. The reminiscence of Isaiah 50:8 f. in Romans 8:33 makes it more difficult; for it suggests that the normal structure is that of an affirmation followed by a question, whereas Paul begins with a question to which the... [ Continue Reading ]
f. τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Χριστοῦ; If this verse is to be most closely connected with Romans 8:34, τοῦ Χριστοῦ will appear the more probable reading, for there Christ is the subject throughout; but at Romans 8:28; Romans 8:31; Romans 8:39 the love of _God_ is the determining idea, and a... [ Continue Reading ]
ὑπερνικῶμεν : a word probably coined by Paul, who loves compounds with ὑπέρ. The Vulg. gives _superamus_, with which Lipsius agrees (_obsiegen_, like _over-power_): but Cyprian _supervincimus_. Later Greek writers distinguish νικᾶν and ὑπερνικᾶν (see Grimm, _s.v_), and justify the happy rendering “w... [ Continue Reading ]
f. The Apostle's personal conviction given in confirmation of all that has been said, especially of Romans 8:37. πέπεισμαι _cf._ 2 Timothy 1:12. οὔτε θάνατος οὔτε ζωὴ : death is mentioned first, either with Romans 8:36 in mind, or as the most tremendous enemy the Apostle could conceive. If Christ's... [ Continue Reading ]