on the exertion of man. There is a mysterious co-operation between the two agencies, which is
expressed in the profound paradox: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it
is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure."^807 The believer is
mystically identified with Christ from the moment of his conversion (sealed by baptism). He died
with Christ unto sin so as to sin no more; and he rose with him to a new life unto God so as to live
for God; he is crucified to the world and the world to him; he is a new creature in Christ; the old
man of sin is dead and buried, the new man lives in holiness and righteousness. "It is no longer I
(my own sinful self) that lives, but it is Christ that lives in me: and that life which I now live in the
flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me."^808 Here is the
whole doctrine of Christian life: it is Christ in us, and we in Christ. It consists in a vital union with
Christ, the crucified and risen Redeemer, who is the indwelling, all-pervading, and controlling life
of the believer; but the union is no pantheistic confusion or absorption; the believer continues to
live as a self-conscious and distinct personality. For the believer "to live is Christ, and to die is
gain." "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we
live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s."^809
In Romans 12, Paul sums up his ethics in the idea of gratitude which manifests itself in a
cheerful sacrifice of our persons and services to the God of our salvation.^810
(5.) Glorification (δοξάζειν). This is the final completion of the work of grace in the believer
and will appear at the parousia of our Lord. It cannot be hindered by any power present or future,
visible or invisible, for God and Christ are stronger than all our enemies and will enable us to come
out more than conquerors from the conflict of faith.
This lofty conviction of final victory finds most eloquent expression in the triumphal ode
which closes the eighth chapter of Romans.^811
IV. The Historical Progress of the gospel of salvation from Jews to Gentiles and back again
to the Jews.^812 Salvation was first intended for and offered to the Jews, who were for centuries
prepared for it by the law and the promise, and among whom the Saviour was born, lived, died,(^807) Phil. 2:12, 13. The apostle emphatically uses the same verb, ἐνεργῶν and ἐνερφεῖν, while the E. V., with its usual love for
variation, renders "worketh" and "to do." Augustin (De dono persev. 33): "Nos ergo volumus, sed Deus in nobis operatur et velle
nos ergo operamur, sed Deus in nobis operatur at operari." Phil. 2:13 "supplies at once the stimulus to, and the corrective of
the precept in the preceding verse: ’Work, for God works with you;’and ’The good is not yours but God’s.’" Lightfoot, in loc.
Comp. also Calvin, Alford, and Braune, in loc.
(^808) Gal. 2:20. This passage is obscured in the E V. by the omission of οὐκέτι, "no longer," and the insertion of "nevertheless."
(^809) Gal. 3:27; Eph. 5:30; 1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Cor. 1:3, 5; 5:17; 13:4; Col. 3:4; Phil. 1:21; Rom. 6:4-8; 14:8; 1 Thess. 5:10. Comp.
those numerous passages where Paul uses the significant phrase ἐν Χριστῷ, living and moving and acting in Him, as the element
of our spiritual existence.
(^810) Hence the Heidelberg Catechism, following the order of the Ep. to the Romans, represents Christian life, in the third and
last part, under the head: "Thankfulness."
(^811) Erasmus justly regarded the conclusion of Rom. 8:31-39 as unsurpassed for genuine eloquence: "Quid unquam Cicero dixit
grandiloquentius It is only equalled by the ode on love in 1".
(^812) This is the subject of Rom. 9–11. These three chapters contain a theodicy and an outline of the philosophy of church history.
They are neither the chief part of Romans (Baur), nor a mere episode or appendix (De Wette), but an essential part of the Epistle
in exposition of the concluding clause of the theme, Rom. 1:17 ... "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (or Gentile). Romans
9 treats of divine sovereignty; Rom. 10 (which should begin at Rom. 9:30) treats of human responsibility; Rom. 11 of the future
solution of this great problem. They must be taken together as a unit. Romans 9 alone may be and has been made to prove
Calvinism and even extreme supralapsarianism; Rom. 10 Arminianism; and Rom. 11 Universalism. But Paul is neither a Calvinist
nor an Arminian nor a Universalist in the dogmatic sense. See the doctrinal expositions in Lange on Romans, much enlarged in
the translation, pp. 327-334.
A.D. 1-100.