10. * This whole struggle of one who is under the law, under the spirit of fear and bondage, is beautifully described by the apostle in the foregoing chapter, speaking in the person of an awaken’d man. I (saith he) was alive without the law once, ver. 9. I had much life, wisdom, strength and virtue; so I thought: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. When the commandment, in its spiritual meaning, came to my heart, with the power of God, my inbred sin was stirred up, fretted, inflamed, and all my virtue died away. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to beunto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me, ver. 10, 11. It came upon me unawares, slew all my hopes, and plainly shewed, in the midst of life I was in death. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good, ver. 12. I no longer lay the blame on this, but on the corruption of my own heart. I acknowledge that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin, ver. 14. I now see both the spiritual nature of the law, and my own carnal, devilish heart; sold under sin, totally inslaved: (like slaves bought with money, who were absolutely at their master’s disposal.) For that which I do, I allow not; for what I would, I do not; but what I hate, that I do, ver. 15. Such is the bondage under which I groan; such the tyranny of my hard master. To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do, ver. 18, 19. I find a law, an inward constraining power, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in (or consent to) the law of God, after the inward man: (ver. 21, 22.) In my mind: (so the apostle explains himself in the words that immediately follow: and so ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος, the inward man, is understood in all other Greek writers.) But I see another law in my members, another constraining power, warring against the law of my mind, or inward man, and bringing me into captivity tothe law, or power, of sin, ver. 23, dragging me as it were at my conqueror’s chariot-wheels, into the very thing which my soul abhors. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death! ver. 24. Who shall deliver me from this helpless, dying life: from this bondage of sin and misery! Till this is done, I myself (or rather, that I, αὐτὸς ἐγὼ, that man I am now personating) with the mind, or inward man, serve the law of God; my mind, my conscience is on God’s side: but with the flesh; with my body, the law of sin, ver. 25, being hurried away by a force I cannot resist.
11. How lively a portraiture is this of one under the law! One who feels the burthen he cannot shake off; who pants after liberty, power and love, but is in fear and bondage still! Until the time that God answers the wretched man, crying out, Who shall deliver me, from this bondage of sin, from this body of death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ thy Lord.
III. 1. Then it is, that this miserable bondage ends, and he is no more under the law, but under grace. This state we are, Thirdly, to consider, the state of one who has found grace or favour, in the sight of God, even the Father, and who has the grace, or power of the Holy Ghost, reigning in his heart: who has received, in the language of the apostle, the Spirit of adoption, whereby he now cries, Abba, Father!
2. He cried unto the Lord in his trouble, and God delivers him out of his distress. His eyes are opened in quite another manner than before, even to see a loving, gracious God. While he is calling, I beseech thee shew me thy glory, he hears a voice in his inmost soul, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord: I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy. And it is not long before the Lord descends in the cloud, and proclaims the name of the Lord. Then he sees, (but not with eyes of flesh and blood) The Lord, the Lord God: merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth: keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquities and transgression and sin.
3. Heavenly, healing light now breaks in upon his soul. He looks on him whom he had pierced, and God who out of darkness commanded light to shine, shineth in his heart. He sees the light of the glorious love of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. He hath a divine evidence of things not seen by sense, even of the deep things of God; more particularly of the love of God, of his pardoning love to him that believes in Jesus. Overpowered with the sight, his whole soul cries out, My Lord, and my God! For he sees all his iniquities laid on him, who bare them in his own body on the tree; he beholds the Lamb of God taking away his sins. How clearly nowdoes he discern, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself! Making him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God through him! And that he himself is reconciled to God, by that blood of the covenant!
4. Here end both the guilt and power of sin. He can now say, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, even in this mortal body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Here end remorse and sorrow of heart, and the anguish of a wounded spirit. God turneth his heaviness into joy. He made sore, and now his hands bind up. Here ends also that bondage unto fear; for his heart standeth fast, believing in the Lord. He cannot fear any longer the wrath of God; for he knows it is now turned away from him, and looks upon him no more as an angry judge, but as a loving father. He cannot fear the devil, knowing he has no power, except it be given him from above. He fears not hell, being an heir of the kingdom of heaven; consequently, he has no fear of death; by reason whereof he was in time past, for so many years subject to bondage. Rather, knowing that if the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, he hath a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens: He groaneth earnestly, desiring to be cloathed upon with thathouse which is from heaven. He groans to shake off this house of earth, that mortality may be swallowed up of life: knowing that God hath wrought him for the self same thing; who hath also given him the earnest of his Spirit.
5. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; liberty not only from guilt and fear, but from sin, from that heaviest of all yokes, that basest of all bondage. His labour is not now in vain. The snare is broken and he is delivered. He not only strives, but likewise prevails; he not only fights, but conquers also. Henceforth he doth not serve sin (chap. vi. ver. 6, &c.) He is dead unto sin and alive unto God. Sin doth not now reign, even in his mortal body, nor doth he obey it in the desires thereof. He does not yield his members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but as instruments of righteousness unto God. For being now made free from sin, he is become the servant of righteousness.
6. Thus having peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, and having power over all sin, over every evil desire, and temper, and word, and work, he is a living witness of the glorious liberty of the sons of God: all of whom, being partakers of like precious faith, bear record with one voice, We have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father!
7. It is this spirit which continually worketh in them, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.It is he that sheds the love of God abroad in their hearts, and the love of all mankind; thereby purifying their hearts from the love of the world, from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. It is by him they are delivered from anger and pride, from all vile and inordinate affections. In consequence, they are delivered from evil words and works, from all unholiness of conversation: doing no evil to any child of man, and being zealous of all good works.
8. * To sum up all. The natural man neither fears nor loves God; one under the law, fears; one under grace, loves him. The first, has no light in the things of God, but walks in utter darkness; the second sees the painful light of hell; the third, the joyous light of heaven. He that sleeps in death, has a false peace. He that is awakened has no peace at all. He that believes has true peace, the peace of God filling and ruling his heart. The heathen, baptized or unbaptized, hath a fancied liberty, which is indeed licentiousness: the Jew (or one under the Jewish dispensation) is in heavy, grievous bondage: the Christian enjoys the true glorious liberty of the sons of God. An unawakened child of the devil, sins willingly: One that is awakened sins unwillingly: a child of God sinneth not, but keepeth himself, and the wicked one toucheth him not.To conclude; the natural man neither conquers nor fights; the man underthe law fights with sin, but cannot conquer: the man under grace fights and conquers, yea is more than conqueror, through him that loveth him.