This section of Robert Haldane's Romans Commentary clearly contrasts the miserable plight of mankind in Adam, one marked by sin and death, with that of righteousness and eternal life for those who by God's grace are in Christ. We pick up his commentary at the last verse of chapter 5.
Unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. — This is that life of which
Jesus Christ, who is risen from the dead, is the author, as the death here
Spoken of is that which He came to destroy. The source of our natural life
is Adam, but he is dead, and in his communion we all die. But a new
source of life is provided in the second Adam, that He may deliver from
death all that are in His communion. ‘The first Adam was made a living
soul,’ that he might communicate natural life to those who had not
received it. ‘The last Adam was made a quickening spirit,’ that He might
impart spiritual life to those who had lost it. The first communicated an
earthly and perishable life, the second a life that is celestial and immortal.
Jesus Christ is that eternal life which was with the Father, and was
manifested unto us; and the Father hath given Him power over all flesh, to
give eternal life to as many as He hath given Him. ‘My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal
life.’ The termination, then, of the reign of death over those whom He
represents, and the establishment of the reign of grace through the
everlasting righteousness which He has brought in, are all by Jesus Christ.
He hath abolished death. By Him came grace and truth; He brought life and
immortality to light. He ‘is the true God, and eternal life.’ And ‘to this end
Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be the Lord both of
the dead and the living.’ The similarity of the Apostle’s commencement in
unfolding the doctrine of justification, and of his conclusion, is very
striking. He begins, ch. 1:17, by declaring that the Gospel of Christ is the
power of God unto salvation, because therein is the righteousness of God
revealed; and he here ends by affirming that grace reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
In this 21st verse the doctrine of the whole preceding context, of the
salvation of believers, is summed up in a manner most beautiful and
striking. Having exhibited in a strong light the righteousness of God, ch. 3:21, 22, the Apostle returns to it in this chapter; and, having contrasted
Christ and Adam, he brings out his conclusion in this verse with a contrast
of the reign of sin and grace. Sin had an absolute sway over all the
descendants of Adam. There was nothing good among them, or in any of
them. Sin existed and predominated in every human soul. Therefore it is said to reign. The absolute and universal influence of sin is figured by the
empire of a monarch exercising authority in uncontrolled sovereignty.
Grace also reigns. There was nothing in men to merit salvation, or to
recommend them in any measure to God. Grace therefore reigns in their
salvation, which is wholly and entirely of free favor. Sin is said to reign
unto, or in, death. This shows that death was, in every human being, the
effect of his sin. The way in which death manifested its universal reign
over the human race, was in causing their death. This most fully proves
that infants are sinners. If sin ruled in causing death to its subjects, then all
who died are the subjects of sin. Death to the human race is in every
instance the effect of the dominion of sin. Sin reigns unto death. — But if
sin has reigned, grace reigns. If the former has reigned in death, the latter
reigns in life; yea, it reigns unto eternal life. How, then, does it reign unto
life.
Is it by a gratuitous pardon? Doubtless it is. But it is not by forgiving the
sinner in an arbitrary way, with respect to the punishment due to sin.
Forgiveness is indeed entirely gratuitous; but if it cost believers nothing, it
has cost much to their Surety. Grace reigns through righteousness. —
How beautifully is thus fulfilled the prophetic declaration of Psalm
85:10-13. Grace did not, could not, deliver the lawful captives without
paying the ransom. It did not trample on justice, or evade its demands. It
reigns by providing a Savior to suffer in the room of the guilty. By the
death of Jesus Christ, full compensation was made to the law and justice
of God.
The Apostle, in the end of this chapter, brings his argument to a close.
Every individual of the human race is proved to be guilty before God and
on the ground of his own righteousness no man can be saved. The state of
the Gentile world is exhibited in the most degrading view, while history
and experience fully concur in the condemnation. Man is represented as
vile, as degraded below the condition of the brutes; and the facts on which
the charge is grounded were so notorious that they could not be denied.
Nor could the most uncultivated Pagans offer any apology for their
conduct. Their sins were against nature, and their ignorance of God was in
spite of the revelation of His character in the works of creation. They are
condemned by the standard they themselves recognize, and their own mutual recriminations and defenses prove that they were fully aware of sin
and responsibility.
But are not the Jews excepted from this black catalogue of crimes? Are they
not righteous through that holy, Just, and good law which they received
from the God of Israel? By no means. By the testimony of that revelation
which they received, all men are guilty, and this testimony directly implies
those to whom the revelation was given. With this experience also
coincides. The Apostle charges them as actually doing the same things
which they condemned in the heathens. Both, then, are guilty; and, from
their superior light, the Jews must be the most guilty.
Nor was it ever in contemplation of the law of Moses to give the Jews a
righteousness by their own obedience. The law was designed rather to
manifest their guilt. By the law there was to no individual a righteousness
unto life; by the law was the ‘knowledge of sin.’ All men, then, without
exception, were shut up unto condemnation.
But this law veiled the truth which the Apostle now unfolds and exhibits
in the strongest light. He proclaims a righteousness so perfect, as to
answer all the demands of law, both as to penalty and obedience — a
righteousness so free, as to extend to the very chief of sinners. This
righteousness is in Jesus Christ. He has borne the curse of the law, and
perfectly obeyed all its precepts. All His obedience becomes ours by
believing the testimony of the Father concerning His Son, and trusting in
Him. The most guilty child of Adam, whether he be Jew or Gentile,
becomes perfectly righteous the moment he believes in the work of Christ.
This glorious plan of salvation vindicates the law, exalts the character of
God, and reconciles mercy with justice. In the Gospel grace appears; in the
Gospel grace reigns; but it reigns not on the ruins of law and justice, but in
the more glorious establishment of both; it reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. In the salvation of men by the
Son of God, the law is not made void. It is magnified and made honorable.
In this salvation sin is not represented as harmless. It is here seen in a
more awful light than in the future punishment of the wicked. The Gospel
is the only manifestation of God in the full glory of His character as the
just God, yet the Savior — punishing sin to the utmost extent of its demerit, at the same time that His mercy reaches to the most guilty of the
children of men.
Romans Commentary, Chapter 5 - Robert Haldane.
Robert Haldane: Commentary on Romans, Chapter Six.
Introduction
IN the preceding part of the Epistle the universal depravity and guilt of man, and the free salvation through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, had been fully exhibited. Paul now proceeds to prove the intimate connection between the justification of believers and their sanctification. He commences by stating an objection which has in all ages been advanced as an unanswerable argument against salvation by grace. He asks, What is the consequence of the doctrine he has been inculcating? If justification be bestowed through faith, without works, and if, where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded, may we not continue in sin that grace may abound? No objection could be more plausible. It is such as will forcibly strike every natural man, and is as common now as it was in the days of the Apostle.
Paul repels this charge by declaring the union of believers with Jesus Christ, by whom, as is represented in baptism, His people are dead to sin, and risen with Him to walk in newness of life. Having established these important truths, he urges (ver. 11) on those whom he addresses the duty of being convinced that such is their actual state. In verses 12 and 13, he warns them not to abuse this conviction; and for their encouragement in fighting the good fight of faith, to which they are called, assures them, in the 14th verse, that sin shall not have dominion over them, because they are not under the law but under grace. Thus the Apostle proves that, by the gracious provision of the covenant of God, ratified by the blood of Him with whom they are inseparably united, they who are justified cannot continue to live in sin; but though sin shall not have dominion over them, still, as their sanctification is not yet perfect, he goes on to address them as liable to temptation. What he had said, therefore, concerning their state as being in Christ, did not preclude the duty of watchfulness; nor, since they had formerly been the servants of sin, of now proving that they were the servants of God, by walking in holiness of life. Paul concludes by an animated appeal to their own experience of the past, and to their prospects for the future. He asks, what fruit had they in their former ways, which could only conduct to shame and death? On the other hand, he exhorts them to press onwards in the course of holiness, at the end of which they would receive the crown of everlasting life. But, along with this assurance, he reminds them of the important truth, that while the just recompense of sin is death, eternal life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
