TEXT. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death. PARAPHRASE. 5 should bring forth fruit unto God'. For when we were after so fleshly" a manner, under the law, as not to comprehend the spiritual meaning of it, that directed us to Christ, the spiritual end of the law, our sinful lust”, that remained in us under the law, or in the state under NOTES. 1 "Fruit unto God." In these words St. Paul visibly refers to chap. vi. 10, where he saith, that "Christ, in that he liveth, he liveth unto God," and therefore he mentions here, his being raised from the dead, as a reason, for their bringing forth fruit unto God, i. e. living to the service of God, obeying his will, to the utmost of their power, which is the same that he says, chap. viii. 11. 5m "When we were in the flesh." The understanding and observance of the law, in a bare, literal sense, without looking any farther, for a more spiritual intention in it, St. Paul calls "being in the flesh." That the law had, besides a literal and carnal sense, a spiritual and evangelical meaning, see 2 Cor. iii. 6 and 17, compared. Read also ver. 14, 15, 16, where the jews in the flesh are described; and what he says of the ritual part of the law, see Heb. ix. 9, 11, which whilst they lived in the observance of, they were in the flesh. That part of the mosaical law was wholly about fleshly things, Col. ii. 14—23, was scaled in the flesh, and proposed no other, but temporal, fleshly rewards. Пalnμara sŵr apapriŵr, literally "passions of sin," in the scripture Greek (wherein the genitive case of the substantive is often put for the adjec tive)" sinful passions, or lusts." • Tà dià où voμe, "which were by the law," is a very true literal translation of the words, but leads the reader quite away from the apostle's sense, and is fain to be supported (by interpreters, that so understand it) by saying, that the law excited men to sin, by forbidding it. A strange imputation on the law of God, such as, if it be true, must make the jews more defiled, with the pollutions set down in St. Paul's black list, ch. i. than the heathen themselves. But herein they will not find St. Paul of their mind, who, besides the visible distinction wherewith he speaks of the gentiles all through his epistles, in this respect doth, here, ver. 7, declare quite the contrary; see also 1 Peter iv. 3, 4. If St. Paul's use of the preposition, dà, a little backwards in this very epistle, were remen:bered, this and a like passage or two more, in this chapter, would not have so harsh and hard a sense put on them as they have. Ti wisiúortwy di áxpoCurias, our translation renders, ch. iv. 11, "that believe, though they "be not circumcised," where they make di ȧxpoCusias, to signify, during "the state, or during their being under uncircumcision." If they had given the same sense to dà us here, which plainly signifies their being in a contrary state, i.e. under the law, and rendered it, "sinful affections," which they had, though they were under the law, the apostle's sense here would have been easy, clear, and conformable to the design he was upon. This use of the word da, I think we may find in other epistles of St. Paul; ra dià Toû cúpar®, 2 Cor. v. 10, may possibly, with better sense, be understood of things done during the body, or during the bodily state, than by the body; and so 1 Tim. TEXT. 6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead, wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. PARAPHRASE. the law, wrought in our members, i.e. set our members and faculties on work, in doing that, whose end was 6 death. But now the law, under which we were heretofore held in subjection, being dead, we are set free from the dominion of the law, that we should perform our obedience, as under the new and spiritual covenant of the gospel, wherein there is a remission of frailties, and not as still under the old rigour of the letter of the law, which condemns every one, who does not perform exact obedi NOTES. ii. 15, dia renvoyovias, "during the state of child-bearing." Nor is this barely an hellenistical use of dia, for the greeks themselves say, diuifae," during the day;" and dia, veròs, "during the night." And so I think die T aylie, Eph. iii. 6, should be understood to signify, "in the time of the gospel, under the gospel dispensation." P "Members," here, doth not signify barely the fleshly parts of the body, in a restrained sense, but the animal faculties and powers, all in us that is employed as an instrument in the works of the flesh, which are reckoned up, Gal. v. 19-21, some of which do not require the members of our body, taken in a strict sense for the outward gross parts, but only the faculties of our minds, for their performance. 9 Kapwopofñoas Taváre, "Bringing forth fruit unto death," here, is opposed to " bringing forth fruit unto God," in the end of the foregoing verse. Death here being considered as a master, whom men serve by sin, as God in the other place is considered as a master, who gives life to them, who serve him, in performning obedience to his law. 6 In newness of spirit," i.e. spirit of the law, as appears by the antithesis, oldness of the letter, i. e. letter of the law. He speaks in the former part of the verse of the law, as being dead; here he speaks of its being revived again, with a new spirit. Christ, by his death, abolished the mosaical law, but revived as much of it again, as was serviceable to the use of his spiritual kingdom, under the gospel, but left all the ceremonial and purely typical part dead, Col. ii. 14-18, the jews were held, before Christ, in an obedience to the whole letter of the law, without minding the spiritual meaning, which pointed at Christ. This the apostle calls here serving in the oldness of the letter, and this he tells them they should now leave, as being freed from it, by the death of Christ, who was the end of the law for the attaining of righte ousness, chap. x. 4, i.e. in the spiritual sense of it, which 2 Cor. iii. 6, he calls spirit, which spirit, ver. 17, he explains to be Christ. That chapter and this verse here give light to one another. Serving in the spirit, then, is obeying the law, as far as it is revived, and as it is explained by our Saviour, in the gospel, for the attaining of evangelical righteousness. TEXT. 7 What shall we say then? is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. PARAPHRASE. 7ence to every tittle'. What shall we then think, that the law, because it is set aside, was unrighteous, or gave any allowance, or contributed any thing to sin? By no means: for the law, on the contrary, tied men stricter up from sin, forbidding concupiscence, which they did not know to be sin, but by the law. For I had not known concupiscence to be sin, unless the law had said, Thou 8 shalt not covet. Nevertheless sin, taking opportunity”, during the law, or whilst I was under the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence: for NOTES. That this sense is also comprehended, in not serving in "the oldness of "the letter," is plain from what St. Paul says, 2 Cor. iii. 6. "The letter "killeth, but the spirit giveth life." From this killing letter of the law, whereby it pronounced death, for every the least transgression, they were also delivered, and therefore St. Paul tells them here, chap. viii. 15, that they "have "not received the spirit of bondage again to fear," i. e. to live in perpetual bondage and dread under the inflexible rigour of the law, under which it was impossible for them to expect aught but death. 7" Sin." That sin here comprehends both these meanings expressed in the paraphrase, appears from this verse, where the strictness of the law against sin is asserted, in its prohibiting of desires, and from ver. 12, where its rectitude is asserted. 66 we. "I." The skill St. Paul uses, in dexterously avoiding, as much as possible, the giving offence to the jews, is very visible in the word I, in this place. In the beginning of this chapter, where he mentions their knowledge in the law, he says, "ye." In the 4th verse he joins himself with them and says, But here, and so to the end of this chapter, where he represents the power of sin, and the inability of the law to subdue it wholly, he leaves them out, and speaks altogether in the first person, he means all those, who were under the law. 8 St. Paul here, and all along this chapter, speaks of sin as a person, endeavouring to compass his death; and the sense of this verse amounts to no more but this, that, in matter of fact, that concupiscence, which the law declared to be sin, remained and exerted itself in him, notwithstanding the law. For if sin, from St. Paul's prosopopoeia, or making it a person, shall be taken to be a real agent, the carrying this figure too far will give a very odd sense to St. Paul's words, and, contrary to his meaning, make sin to be the cause of itself, and of concupiscence, from which it has its rise. * See note m, ver. 5. TEXT. 9 For I was alive without the law, once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. PARAPHRASE. 9 without the law, sin is dead', not able to hurt me; And there was a time once, when I being without the law, was in a state of life; but the commandment coming, sin got life and strength again, and I found myself a dead NOTES. y "Dead." It is to be remembered not only that St. Paul, all along this chapter, makes sin a person, but speaks of that person and himself, as two incompatible enemies, the being and safety of the one consisting in the death, or inability of the other to hurt. Without carrying this in mind, it will be very hard to understand this chapter. For instance, in this place St. Paul has declared, ver. 7, that the law was not abolished, because it at all favoured, or promoted sin, for it lays restraints upon our very desires, which men, without the law, did not take notice to be sinful; nevertheless sin, persisting in its design, to destroy me, took the opportunity of my being under the law, to stir up concupiscence in me; for without the law, which annexes death to transgresion, sin is as good as dead, is not able to have its will on me, and bring death upon me. Conformable hereunto, St. Paul says, 1 Cor. xv. 56, "the strength of "sin is the law;" i. e. it is the law, that gives sin the strength and power to kill men. Laying aside the figure, which gives a lively representation of the hard state of a well-minded jew, under the law, the plain meaning of St. Paul here is this: "Though the law lays a stricter restraint upon sin, than men have without it: yet it betters not my condition thereby, because it enables me "not wholly to extirpate sin, and subdue concupiscence, though it hath made "every transgression a mortal crime. So that being no more totally secured "from offending, under the law, than I was before, I am, under the law, ex"posed to certain death." This deplorable state could not be more feelingly expressed than it is here, by making sin (which still remained in man, under the law) a person who implacably aiming at his ruin, cunningly took the opportunity of exciting concupiscence, in those, to whom the law had made it mortal. 92 Пori," once." St. Paul declares there was a time once, when he was in a state of life. When this was, he himself tells us, viz. when he was without the law, which could only be, before the law was given. For he speaks here, in the person of one of the children of Israel, who never ceased to be under the law, since it was given. This work therefore must design the time between the covenant made with Abraham, and the law. By that covenant, Abraham was made blessed, i. e. delivered from death. That this is so, see Gal. iii 9, &c. And, under him, the israelites claimed the blessing, as his posterity, comprehended in that covenant, and as many of them, as were of the faith of their father, faithful Abraham, were blessed with him. But, when the law came, and they put themselves wholly into the covenant of works, wherein each transgression of the law became mortal, then sin recovered life again, and a power to kill; and an israelite, now under the law, found himself in a state of death, a dead man. Thus we see it corresponds with the design of the apostle's discourse here. In the six first verses of this chapter, he shows the jews that they were at liberty from the law, and might put themselves solely TEXT. 10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 12 Wherefore the law is holy; and the commandment holy, and just, and good. PARAPHRASE. 10 man; And that very law, which was given me for the attaining of life, was found to produce death' to me. 11 For my mortal enemy, sin, taking the opportunity of my being under the law, slew me by the law, which it inveigled me to disobey, i. e. the frailty and vicious inclinations of nature remaining in me under the law, as they were before, able still to bring me into transgressions, each whereof was mortal, sin had, by my being under the law, a sure opportunity of bringing death upon me. 12 So that the law is holy, just, and good, such as the eternal, immutable rule of right and good required it to be. NOTES. under the terms of the gospel. In the following part of this chapter, he shows them, that it is necessary for them so to do; since the law was not able to deliver them from the power, sin had to destroy them, but subjected them to it. This part of the chapter showing at large what he says, ch. viii. 3, and so may be looked on as an explication and proof of it. 10 That the commandments of the law were given to the israelites, that they might have life by them; see Lev. xviii. 5, Matt. xix. 17. The law, which was just, and such as it ought to be, in having the penalty of death annexed to every transgression of it, Gal. iii. 10, came to produce death, by not being able so to remove the frailty of human nature, and subdue carnal appetites, as to keep men entirely free from all trespasses against it, the least whereof, by the law, brought death. See chap. viii. 3, Gal. iii. 21. 11 The sense wherein I understand dià T vous," by the law," ver. 5, is very much confirmed by dia rs loans, in this and ver. 8, by which interpre tation the whole discourse is made plain, easy, and consonant to the apostle's purpose. d" Inveigled." St. Paul seems here to allude to what Eve said in a like case, Gen. iii. 13, and uses the word "deceived," in the same sense she did, i. e. drew me in. 12", "so that." Ver. 7, he laid down this position, that the law was not sin; ver. 8, 9, 10, 11, he proves it, by showing, that the law was very strict in forbidding of sin, so far as to reach the very mind and the internal acts of concupiscence, and that it was sin, that remaining under the law (which annexed death to every transgression) brought death on the israelites; he here infers, that the law was not sinful, but righteous, just, and good, just such as by the eternal rule of right it ought to be. |