INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
The Epistle to the Romans is the fullest and most coherent manifesto of the Christian gospel in the New Testament. In it the apostle Paul unfolds 'the whole counsel of God’—man’s sin and lostness, Christ’s death to save him, faith in Christ as the sole condition of his acceptance, the work of the Holy Spirit for his growth in holiness, the place of Israel in the purpose of God, and the ethical implications of the gospel. There is a grandeur, a comprehensiveness, a logic about his exposition which has commanded the admiration and compelled the study of all succeeding generations.
It is dangerous to isolate four chapters from the Epistle’s sixteen, but the exigencies of four one-hour Bible Readings at a one-week convention made it necessary, and chapters 5-8 do form a compact unity.
They are without doubt among the greatest and most glorious chapters of the whole New Testament. They portray our Christian privilege, the privileges of those whom God has 'made new’, those whom He has 'justified’, that is, declared righteous and accepted in Christ. The earlier chapters of the Epistle are devoted to the need and the way of justification. They are concerned to make it plain that all men are sinners under the just judgment of God, and can be justified solely through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus—by grace alone, through faith alone. Now, at this point, having set forth the need and explained the way of justification, Paul goes on to describe its fruits, the results of justification in a life of sonship and obedience on earth and a glorious hereafter in heaven.
This is very important, because there are too many of us who think and behave as if the gospel were good news of justification only, and not good news also of holiness and of heaven. We speak as if, having come to God through Jesus Christ, we had arrived, full stop, and that was the finish. We talk as if we had come to a dead end; as if there were no further road to travel. But this is not so. The very first verse of this chapter begins with the words, Therefore, since we are justified by faith . . '. That is to say: now that we are justified, these are the consequences, these are the fruits, of our justification. Having been brought into acceptance with God through trust in Jesus Christ, this is what follows.
These four chapters, then, depict the great privileges of justified believers, of Men Made New, the rich inheritance (both now and in eternity) which is ours if we are Christ's. What are these privileges? Each chapter concentrates on one of them: first peace with God (chapter 5), next union with Christ (chapter 6), then freedom from the law (chapter 7), and finally life in the Spirit (chapter 8). We shall examine each in turn.