[←709]
Luther does not see quite the whole of this great text, though he sees much of it. To understand it, we must connect what has gone before with it; beginning with verse 12. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: even so death passed upon all men through him in whom all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” Man — the whole race — sinned in and with the first man; each individual, distinctly and personally, having been created with, and being inseparable from him, when he personally committed the one transgression. Though sins were committed afterwards by the several individuals of the race, as brought out, one after another, into manifest existence, these were not imputed, but they were dealt with on the ground of the first transgression, in which they were distinctly, individually, and personally, parties by means of their union and unity with Adam. The law afterwards “stole in,” that the offence might be multiplied; or as in Galatians, because of offences;* that is, that there might be more than one offence; that many offences might be added to the first.
With whatever little variety this text maybe read and understood — whether added because of, or put into the hand of a Mediator because of — it must imply, if it does not express, the same broad truth that the law had no other effect and design than to multiply transgressions. Again, the application of Rom. 7.7 is equally just when that text is understood in its fulness — the provocation which the law gives to sin — as in its inferior and more common interpretation, of mere teaching.
It is not, therefore, merely the communication of the knowledge of sin, that was sought and conveyed by that institution, but multiplication of transgression; that, with regard to the Lord’s people, who are the displayers of God, specially as that God which is love — love to the uttermost — love in the way of grace and mercy — the God of all grace might be shown as what He is, in the much more abounding of grace, where sin has abounded. Sin has never been imputed by God to man, any more than by man to himself, without express and absolute enactment. The command, or prohibition, in the garden was of this sort; and there has been none given since, save the law which was confined to one family, the seed of Abraham, for a while the visible church — and a second, declaredly a universal one, “Repent and believe the Gospel.” On the former of these universal commands, death was suspended; on the latter, life was suspended. He that believes (which implies repentance) shall be saved; he that does not believe — which implies impenitence — shall perish.
[←710]
The whole force of the argument from this clause, “By the law,” etc., is this: if the law, which does so little, is necessary, what is Freewill by itself? Luther, however, did not thoroughly apprehend the nature and design of that interposed covenant and dispensation; its twofold relation to Israel as the elect nation, and as the visible church — its universal typicality — its strict temporariness — and its precise adaptedness to teach sin; that is, to teach those who have made themselves sinners before they are born into the world, and as such are under the wrath of God, how just that wrath is.
[←711]
The believer alone is righteous before God. It is not pretended by those, with whom Luther reasons, that Freewill makes any man a believer: it is a power and exercise distinct from, and prior to faith. If, then, the faithful man alone is just, what is the Freewill man — and of what character is his act? — It is scarcely necessary to notice here, that Luther speaks of God’s
manifested righteous ones. Those who have been justified from everlasting, in the covenant transactions between the divine persons, referred to the Father and to the Lord Jesus Christ (the Father’s will appointing to receive them as just, through the merits of the most precious death and passion of his dear Son) are manifested to be such, by the blessed Spirit’s acting upon and within them in due season, and thereby enabling, indeed, constraining them to believe. Now, therefore, they have conformed with that edict of God described above (Sect. 13. note c), which says, “Repent and believe the Gospel:” nor is it until this manifestation has thus been made, that any of their personal actings become the acts of the righteous — or can it in any way consequently be accounted as righteous acts. The acts of Freewill, therefore, being performed before the man has entered into this state, are acts of sin.
[←712]
Latin: per fidem Iesu Christi (Rom 3:22 VUL)
‘by the faith of Jesus Christ.’ Also Greek: διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Rom 3:22 SCR) “through the faith of Jesus Christ.” (genitive case)
[←713]
It will be seen presently, that I consider Luther wrong in the account which he gives here of “the glory of God;” but he is excessive and erroneous, even upon his own representation of his thunderbolt. Freewill, he says, is evil because it is destitute of ‘the glory of God;’ by which he understands ‘assurance that we please God.’ She is in fact guilty of unbelief, in not having it. This is outrageous, because faith is not, ‘I believe God has a favour toward me,’ but ‘I believe in God.’ Neither is it true that God has favour toward everybody. What are Luther’s reprobates, then? If everybody is to believe this, many are to believe a lie.
[←714]
Luther’s bolts are five; 1. The righteousness of God is here declared to be perfectly distinct from the righteousness pf the law. 2. Whatever is not of faith is sin. 3. All have sinned. 4. All have come short of the glory of God. 5. The justified are all justified freely. — I would rather consider this magnificent and comprehensive passage as one vast bolt; the very emission of which lays Freewill prostrate, because it declares what her state was, to give occasion to such an emission. This vast bolt, however, may be considered as expanding itself into several smaller bolts, each of which contuses Freewill.
Luther breaks the shock of this bolt, in some measure, by not exactly discerning the order of the Apostle’s argument. He considers Paul as speaking of the preached Gospel in its reception and effects, from Rom 1.16; whereas from 1.18 to 3.20 he is setting out the condemnation of all men, first of the Greek, and secondly of the Jew, as being without the Gospel. And then, having previously shown that there is nothing but condemnation without it, both without and with the law, he proceeds to open the Gospel as the revelation of the counsel and performances of God’s free favour, with which Freewill neither has, nor can have, any thing to do, and which her necessities have rendered necessary, if every individual of mankind — already shown to be in a damned state — were not to be continued in that damned state forever and ever. — I also consider Luther as interpreting some of his bolts erroneously; while each, truly interpreted, is a bolt indeed!
“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the Prophets.” The righteousness of God is that righteousness which God freely bestows — which, on many accounts, might specially be called His; but which is specially so-called in opposition to man’s own righteousness — a law righteousness — the result of a man’s own personal obedience. “Not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” (Phi 3.9) Luther speaks much of distinctness and opposition, but he did not discern the extent of this, and he was for bringing the law in again, after having cast it out. But the words cwriv nome banish all connection with the law forever; just as cwriv criste (Eph 2.12) and cwriv eme (Joh 15.5) declare entire severance from Christ. Indeed, what is severance, unless it is perfect? — “Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all those who believe.”
I say, by the faith of Jesus Christ, meaning the Gospel, as strictly opposed to the Law, and so preserving a distinctness from that which follows, “those who believe” — the distinguishing character of those to whom the Gospel is made the power of God unto salvation. It is unto these —
