 |  |
Rom. 7: is largely occupied with the law as a means of revealing the utter need we
have of Christ. The story is now complete, and so important is it that we venture to
repeat the series already given, adding the place of the law, that we too may rest alone in
the grace-gift of God.
THE NEED.--Adam's sin is threefold. It is a parabasis, a paraptoma, a parakoe,
that is, a stepping aside, a falling aside, a hearing aside.
THE NEED MADE EVIDENT.--The law was brought in first, alongside,
pareiserchomai (see Gal. 2: 4).
THE NEED SUPPLIED.--In the "giving aside", paradidomi, of the Son of God.
The very nature of our study, with its careful tabulation of words, their derivations,
usages and meanings, must of necessity make these preliminary articles of the inner
section of Romans somewhat heavy. But the words of God pave the way that leads to
glory, and surely the possibility of condemned and fallen sinners "reigning in life" and
becoming "more than conquerors" should be enough warrant for incurring ten times the
fatigue involved both in study and in reading. In this connection we would quote a few
lines from a previous number of this magazine dealing with the subject of the High Priest
of Israel, in the hope that they may help to keep all hearts in the right attitude before the
Lord while we search and dig to ascertain the meaning of His wondrous Word:--
"If we could only and ever keep the close association that this makes between the
High Priest and the Scriptures, every study would become a sanctuary; the spirit would
rejoice as the understanding was illuminated; worship ands work, grammar and grace,
glossaries and glory would be blessedly intermingled, and the lexicon and concordance
would be but rungs in the ladder that leads from earth to heaven, to the right hand of the
Majesty on high."
#32.
"The reign in life" (6:--7:).
pp. 165 - 169
By reason of the nature of the material and the necessity for accuracy, the last two or
three articles have been somewhat involved, and there is always a possibility that some
reader may in the mass of detail miss the great essential. Without losing anything of the
accuracy and information we have gathered, we may profitably seek for this essential
feature. It is found in 5: 17:--
"For if by the fall aside of one, death reigned by one, much more they which receive
the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ."
All leads up to, and away from, that one statement, "They shall reign in life". It is not
merely to live, not merely to have aionion life, not merely to have justification of life, but
to reign in life. So we have the revelation that "death reigned" and "sin reigned" and
"grace reigns", that we may see how the dominion of sin may be broken, and how those