sanctify us that we may be really purified. He adds that it is life-giving, (for the genitive case, after
the manner of the Hebrew, is to be taken as an adjective,) it hence follows, that they who detain
man in the letter of the law, expose him to death. On the other hand, he gives the name of the law
of sin and death to the dominion of the flesh and to the tyranny of death, which thence follows: the
law of God is set as it were in the middle, which by teaching righteousness cannot confer it, but on
the contrary binds us with the strongest chains in bondage to sin and to death.
The meaning then is, — that the law of God condemns men, and that this happens, because as
long as they remain under the bond of the law, they are oppressed with the bondage of sin, and are
thus exposed to death; but that the Spirit of Christ, while it abolishes the law of sin in us by
destroying the prevailing desires of the flesh, does at the same time deliver us from the peril of
death. If any one objects and says, that then pardon, by which our transgressions are buried, depends
on regeneration; to this it may be easily answered, that the reason is not here assigned by Paul, but
that the manner only is specified, in which we are delivered from guilt; and Paul denies that we
obtain deliverance by the external teaching of the law, but intimates that when we are renewed by
the Spirit of God, we are at the same time justified by a gratuitous pardon, that the curse of sin may
no longer abide on us. The sentence then has the same meaning, as though Paul had said, that the
grace of regeneration is never disjoined from the imputation of righteousness.
I dare not, with some, take the law of sin and death for the law of God, because it seems a harsh
expression. For though by increasing sin it generates death, yet Paul before turned aside designedly
from this invidious language. At the same time I no more agree in opinion with those who explain
the law of sin as being the lust of the flesh, as though Paul had said, that he had become the conqueror
of it. But it will appear very evident shortly, as I think, that he speaks of a gratuitous absolution,
which brings to us tranquillizing peace with God. I prefer retaining the word law, rather than with
Erasmus to render it right or power: for Paul did not without reason allude to the law of God.^238
3.For what was impossible for the law, etc. Now follows the polishing or the adorning of his
proof, that the Lord has by his gratuitous mercy justified us in Christ; the very thing which it was
impossible for the law to do. But as this is a very remarkable sentence, let us examine every part
of it.
That he treats here of free justification or of the pardon by which God reconciles us to himself,
we may infer from the last clause, when he adds, who walk not according to the flesh, but according
to the Spirit For if Paul intended to teach us, that we are prepared by the spirit of regeneration to
overcome sin, why was this addition made? But it was very proper for him, after having promised
gratuitous remission to the faithful, to confine this doctrine to those who join penitence to faith,
(^238) Ca1vin has, in his exposition of this verse, followed Chrysostom, and the same view has been taken by Beza, Grotius,
Vitringa, Doddridge, Scott, and Chalmers. But Pareus, following Ambrose, has taken another view, which Haldane has strongly
advocated, and with considerable power of reasoning, though, as some may perhaps think, unsuccessfully. The exposition is
this, — “The law of the spirit of life” is the law of faith, or the gospel, which is the ministration of the Spirit; and “the spirit of
life” means either the life-giving spirit, or the spirit which conveys the life which is in Christ Jesus. Then “the law of sin and
death” is the moral law, so called because it discloses sin and denounces death. It is said that this view corresponds with the “no
condemnation” in the first verse, and with the word “law” in the verse which follows, which is no doubt the moral law, and with
the truth which the verse exhibits. It is also added that freedom or deliverance from the law of sin, viewed as the power of sin,
is inconsistent with the latter part of the former chapter; and that the law of faith, which through the Spirit conveys life, makes
us free from the moral law as the condition of life, is the uniform teaching of Paul. “This freedom,” says Pareus, “is ascribed to
God, to Christ, and to the Gospel, — to God as the author, Romans 7:25, — to Christ as the mediator, — and to the Gospel as
the instrument: and the manner of this deliverance is more clearly explained in the verse which follows.”