Bible Commentaries

The Incarnation of God

Romans 1:1-4

We are invited to turn our thoughts with special devotion to that great truth upon which the Gospel, as St. Paul here says, is founded, the awful and overwhelming mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God—the truth expressed in the beginning of St. John's Gospel—"the Word was made Flesh". It must be, indeed, to Christians, their continual thought.

I. Such an event as that can have nothing like it, or parallel to it, while this world lasts. The Gospel of Christ, which, as announced by His Church from the first, has made the Incarnation of the Eternal Son what St. Paul made it, the centre and heart of all teaching, worship, and obedience, the fulfilment and end of all that was old, the starting-point of all that was new—the Gospel of Christ refuses, and must ever refuse, to compromise with any view of religion which puts this tremendous truth in any less than its paramount and sovereign place.

II. The Incarnation was the turning-point in the history of this world; and as a matter of fact, we have before our eyes the consequences which have followed from it. In the good and in the evil, in what the world seems and what it Romans 1:7

I. "All" Saints.—The festival of All Saints is one which ought to touch the hearts of all of us. We celebrate all those who have by the help of God lived holy lives and died in the faith of Christ, all who, like ourselves, have been tempted by the world, the flesh, and the devil, but by the strength of God have overcome, no matter whether they be rich or poor, old or young, powerful or weak No matter what their sect or calling, all are included in the great, broad love of Christ, if only they have done their best to live a saintly life. We look back on the past, and perhaps, with our small knowledge, our eyes only light on some few names conspicuous on the page of history. These were, we know, witnesses of Christ in the world; but were there none besides them? As you read the history of past wars, you come across well-known names, great generals, great admirals, men whose names were in their day household names in every mouth as heroes who had fought or won, but did you ever think, you that read their names, how weak and powerless they would have been of themselves without the common sailors and soldiers to back them up? Could a few generals, however well versed in the arts of strategy, win a campaign by themselves? No; it is the common soldiers and sailors who do their work simply because it is their duty. Their names die, they perish as if they had never been, but have they died in vain? It seems to me almost more heroic to be content to die unknown, simply for the sake of duty, than to struggle to the front and win a noble name. Both classes have done their duty, but the one seems to have some reward; the other none. Such are the men we commemorate today, common soldiers in the great army of God who have for centuries been doing battle against the armies of evil in the battlefield of the world.

II. Our Calling.—"Called to be saints." Let that be our lesson today. St. Paul is not writing to great, well-known people. The Church of Christ in Rome did not number many of the high and mighty in the world. Most of its members were of the low and despised class, many even slaves, but whether high or low, slave or free, St. Paul addresses them all alike as "beloved of God, called to be saints". And surely so are we. We are not called to be great; we are called to be saints. And what do we mean by saints? The word in the original Greek means "holy ones". We are called to holiness. "How can I lead the holy life? With such temptations to evil, with so much wickedness all round me in the world?" Are you saying that? Well, then, All Saints" Day supplies the answer. You can, because others have done so. In fighting the battle against evil in your own hearts and in the outside world, you will not be alone. Some have done their work and have gone to their rest. Others, though perhaps unknown to you, are carrying on the work still. This is the communion of saints; the saints whose rest is won, and the saints who are working still are linked together in one common brotherhood and form one army, and their General is ordering the work, even Christ the Lord.

III. The Tie which Binds All in One.—What is wanted to make ourselves good soldiers in this army? Faith. That is what joins all in one. A belief in the goodness of their cause, a sure trust in the wisdom and goodness of their Leader. Faith is that power which enables a man to live and work in the sight of Christ, although to bodily sight his Leader is invisible. Every one who lives a holy life now, however poor and unknown, is really preaching faith, showing he believes there is something higher and nobler and more worth living for than this world or his own self.

IV. A Plea for Holiness.—And, lastly, reverence holiness in all. We are ready enough to honour it when accompanied by greatness, but do we not sometimes ridicule it and speak of it as a weakness? Perhaps it may be but a weak, a very weak, trial to rise, only a feeble effort to seek after God and holiness; yet holiness and goodness, like all other things, must have a beginning, and our ridicule and disdain may check it in the bud. We are all called to be God's saints. Shall we be ashamed of the name ourselves or speak slightingly of anyone who is trying, however feebly, to live according to his high calling? We are called to be saints, but do we belong to them? Year by year we join in the festival of All Saints, but some day or other a saints" festival will come when we shall not be here. Others will be joining in the hymn of thanksgiving, but our voice will not be heard. Will they then be giving thanks for us? Shall we be among that great multitude who, together with the saints on earth, make up the mighty Church of God? We ought to be there. It will be our own fault if we are not there, for we are all—each one of us—called to be saints.

References.—I:7.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No2320. J. C. Story, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxx. p308. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p65; ibid. (6th Series), vol. viii. p332; ibid. vol. xi. p439. I:7-15.—Ibid. vol. iii. p4. I:8.—Ibid. (5th Series), vol. vi. p247. I:8-17.—Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans 1:13

"I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you." What have we to do with the Apostle's purposes? They were the events of the day, they were of no importance, they were lost in the political ambitions and strifes of the hour. No, they were not; we have a great deal to do with the Apostle's purposes. Here he is on common ground with ourselves—a neighbour, a brother, a friend. He introduces us into the secrets of his love and his desire and his holy ambition. He talks small things to us; he enters into personal plans; he shows us his kind thoughts to the Roman Christians and other Gentiles.

I. The expression occurs a second time in Romans 11:25. What does he say there? He says, "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery". What a different tone! The one neighbourly, the other profound, mysterious, muffled music. "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery"—get into the deeper things; get away from the surface and the frivolity of your piety, and sink deep and live among the rock-truths of God.

II. The next time it occurs is in 1 Corinthians 10:1—"Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant". The same formula, it must mean something. I would not that ye should be ignorant of history, especially, "how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea... and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ" What an interpreter, what a seer, what a man for piercing the thick covering of things and getting at the centre and the real and final meanings of the most obscure prophecies. "I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers"—then we have fathers, have we? Yes, fathers, and they all did something that we have to do. Oh, I see, then there is an essential as well as an accidental unity in the development of the human race? Precisely. But how does it come, that we have lived so long and have not known about it until now? That is the mystery and the beauty, the music and the eloquence of the Bible. Paul rises to interpret what was done in the wilderness and the sea Paul would have us keep a gallery of historic examples. He would have us keep up point by point the organic nerve of history, the continuity of experience and the unity of testimony, till we all come—blessed be God, the human family will not be complete until we arrive. Heaven will have vacant places until we come, and all the history of the world will receive explanation and illumination through our poor vanishing individuality.

III. Where does it occur again? Some men never knew it occurred so often; they will then be surprised when1tell them that it occurs for the fourth time in 1 Corinthians 12:1—"Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant". I like to hear about these spiritual gifts, the gift of gifts. Can I have those spiritual gifts? Yes, and all the Church can have them. God has the remainder of the Spirit, the residue is His, and He will pour it forth as He sheds the rain. Well, I would not have you ignorant about spiritual gifts: there is a spiritual world, a world of the white ones, children of the dream, presences that flash upon us in visions, and we knew it not until we heard the beating of departing wings. I want to tell you about these, said Paul; there is great diversity of gifts, and some men can read the spiritual world more clearly than others can; let that be understood; there are differences, yet there is a common unity.

IV. Where does it occur again? It occurs again in 2 Corinthians 1:8 : "We would not, brethren, have you ignorant" How the formula recurs! What of? "We would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble." We should like to hear about your trouble, and if we can assuage it we will. There are tears we cannot touch, but if we can touch yours there shall not be a tear in your eyes. "Our trouble which came to us in Asia" and every where, "that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life."

Now the feeling that I have after reading all these passages is that Paul was not the man to keep anything from us that he could give to the Church. "Brethren, I would not have you ignorant—I would not have you ignorant—I would not have you ignorant. I am here in all my frankness to tell you about Christ and His Cross and the way heavenly." Well, he came very near to that in his Epistle to the Corinthians when he used a formula not quite identical, but with identical meaning. He said, "Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall hot all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eve, the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."

—Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. vi. p251.

References.—113.—Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p149; ibid. (5th Series), vol. ix. p307. I:14.—W. J. Knox-Little, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p10. J. Bunting, Sermons, vol. i. p329. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p116; ibid. (6th Series), vol. ix. p91. I:14 , 16.—A. M. Fairbairn, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p273. I:15.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxviii. No2286.

The Glory and Power of the Gospel

Romans 1:16

It was wonderful, indeed, that St. Paul could speak with such absolute confidence about this Gospel, calling it the great power of God, anticipating the time when the despised name of Jesus would be incomparably mightier than Caesar"s, and when the truths which had their centre in the cross would have prevailed over all the magnificent pride and intellectual glory of that ancient world. Yes, it required a great prophetic vision to speak these words then: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth".

I. It requires no prophetic vision now. We can hardly imagine any Romans 1:16

So wrote St. Paul to the little band of Christians crouching under the threatening shadow of the haughtiest despotism which the world has ever seen, where Imperial Home affected religious tolerance with a limitation which then, as now, tended to exclude any possible rival or anything which happened to be unpopular at the moment. Do we trace in his words a kind of challenge to his own courage, the accusation of an excuse, as in one who felt that a message so apparently hopeless, claims so tremendous as those of the Gospel, might reasonably be charged with folly in those who put them forward in such an atmosphere?

He is assuring himself while he is encouraging his hearers, that his claims were not the dream of an enthusiast, or the folly of a fanatic. He knew what was meant by power, and the world had not yet seen the highest possible demonstration of it He could point to it, he could proclaim it, and lead to it And in a few centuries the Roman Empire itself would bow to it in the despairing cry of expiring Paganism, O Galilœe vicisti.

I. As we have traced the suspicion of a sinking heart in the bold challenge flung by St Paul into the midst of Roman despotism, so we should do well in no way to minimise the strength of the evil which is arrayed against us, with which as Christians we have to contend, and to meet which Christ invests us with His power.

In times full of anxiety such as these, when we are face to face with an organised conspiracy of evil seeking to engulph all that is most tender and beautiful in Christian life, we do well to remember that we can always count on the heart, which is naturally Christian, and the deep consciousness of humanity, which has never really given in its adherence to the sophistries which for the moment seemed to condone its weakness, and to deify its lusts. The testimony of mankind is too uniform, too solemn, too serious, to be lightly swayed from its real estimate of sin. There comes a time when the poor sufferer curses the platitudes which were destined to deceive him, and out of the intolerable burden of his pleasures and the utter degradation of his Romans 1:16

I met but one human being that forenoon, a dark military-looking wayfarer, who carried a game-bag on a baldric; but he made a remark which seems worthy of record. For when I asked him if he were Protestant or Catholic—"Oh," said Romans 1:17

The two statements of the previous verse—that the Gospel is the power of God to salvation, and that it proves itself to be so to every one who believes—are further explained and confirmed by these words.

I. What, then, is the righteousness of God? The phrase is capable of misconstruction, and, in fact, often has been misunderstood. The ostensible meaning might seem to be the righteousness which is a characteristic or attribute of God. But it cannot be said that this in any special sense is a revelation of the Gospel. It may more truly be described as the great theme of Old Testament teaching, the prophets never wearying of vindicating its claims, and of showing how certainly it will finally prevail. Moreover, it is impossible to see how the revelation of righteousness in such a sense could constitute the saving power of the Gospel. The righteousness of God, as is evident from the passage which St. Paul quotes from Romans 1:20

To apprehend the power of God we need not look at these coincidences, interferences, miracles, judgments, visitations, on which the ignorant and superstitious are prone to insist; not the violations of law, but the law itself, is the witness to the Divine power. To heal a disease, to restore a maniac, fills a crowd with surprise. But to preserve the delicate organisms of millions from succumbing to disease; to keep the fine tissues of the brain in order, so that sanity is the rule and insanity the exception; this is what should fill us with daily wonder and gratitude. The simple truth Romans 1:20

Underlying the whole teaching of the New Testament is that deep and mysterious revelation as to the threefeld personality of the one God which is called the doctrine of the Trinity. It is hard to grasp, but unless we do believe and accept it in faith we must give up the doctrine of the Incarnation, the doctrine of the Atonement, the doctrine of the mission of the Comforter—in fact, everything which makes Christianity precious to us, and that invests the sacrifice from the Cross with such unspeakable blessing and power.

The eye, the ear, the tongue, these are organs that we all of us possess. With the ear we associate harmony; with the eye, beauty; with the tongue, speech. I propose, then, to take these three, harmony, beauty, speech, and to inquire: What do we understand by these terms; what is their meaning, their history, and significance?

I. Harmony.—Now harmony is revealed to us in the works of great musical composers as executed through the agency of skilled performers. Harmony in its essence existed long before there was a human composer or performer to give it body and expression, and it is impossible to conceive a time when harmony was not there, capable at any moment of manifestation. In the book of Job we read how that when God laid the foundations of the earth the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

a. This conception of music as surrounding the Throne of God Romans 1:20

Aspects of nature in different ages have changed before the eye of man; at times fruitful of many thoughts; at other times either unheeded or fading into insignificance in comparison of the inner world. When the Apostle spoke of the visible things which "witness of the Divine power and glory," it was not the beauty of particular spots which he recalled; his eye was not satisfied with seeing the fairness of the country any more than the majesty of cities. He did not study the flittings of shadows on the hills, or even the movements of the stars in their courses. The plainest passages of the book of Nature were, equally with the sublimest, the writing of a Divine hand.... The Apostle, in the abundance of his Romans 1:21-22 (with2:19)

A self-contented man is the hardened swelling on the breast of society. He is my sworn enemy. He fills himself with cheap truths, with gnawed morsels of musty Romans 1:25

I. It is much easier for us to realise the blessedness of God when we think of His derivative rather than of His essential and eternal blessedness. Let us approach this mysterious and profoundly interesting subject from the easiest standpoint, that of the future. We project our vision through dim ages yet to come. The curse has gone from the universe, like an old dream of terror that troubled a long-forgotten night of childhood. No trace of it is left. All nations have been blessed in Him, and they stand before the throne of this solitary Potentate of love, and call Him blessed in their songs. But I may be reminded that if we look at God's infinite and unfathomable blessedness, from the standpoint of the far future, the subject is not without its difficulties. Is there no reservation in that blessedness? On the far-off confines of all this blessedness, is there not the smoke of a torment that ascendeth up for ever and ever? Well, in God's ripe summer-time evil will be insignificant beyond degree in comparison with good. "But was not God the Father of these lost ones?" God could not be perfectly happy if He had left a single thing undone to save men. In respect of the damned even He has the blessedness of knowing that He has done for them all that infinite love and patience and resource could.

II. Let us see if we can realise God's blessedness from the standpoint of the present. How can He be infinitely blessed whilst His watching Spirit is present in this world of unresting anguish? It may be asked, "Is not God's present relation to pain a qualification of His blessedness?" (1) He lives in the presence of perpetual pain, it is true, but then He is ever exercising a ministry of pity and healing to pain, and there is no pause in the unseen work of that ministry: and the satisfactions it yields more than transcend the touch of possible grief that may be the germ of His sympathy. (2) And then God's blessedness can suffer no eclipse from contact with pain, because it is His will to make pain the vehicle for the manifestation of conspicuous tenderness. (3) And then God's blessedness is not overshadowed by human pain, even when rescue and healing from His presence tarry for awhile, because by pain God is teaching us sympathy with each other, and conformity to His own pattern of helpfulness and high beneficence. (4) And yet again, God looks upon pain from the standpoint of that wider epoch when sorrow and sighing shall have fled away; and pain so viewed cannot darken His ineffable gladness. But is not the present existence and activity of sin a qualification of the Divine blessedness? He looks into the future, and He sees the coming members of the race transformed into the holy image of His first-born son.

III. Let us try and realise God's infinite and absolute blessedness in relation to the past We go back to the mysterious epochs when the worlds had not issued upon their courses. How can we reconcile the Divine blessedness with solitude? (1) Well, the beneficence of character that was the spring of all after triumph and achievement was there. (2) More still: the Son, who was to be the instrument for the accomplishment of all the Father's purposes, was already a willing instrument in the Father's bosom. And thus before all worlds God has been indescribably gladdened by the anticipation of a triumphant future of redeemed and regenerated life. He is blessed from all ages.

References.—I:25.—J. A. Alexander, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p61. I:28.—W. G. Horder, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p363. H. Parnaby, British Congregationalist, 18th October, 1906 , p273. I:29.—Expositor (5th Series), vol. x. p114. II:1.—W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p57. II:1-29.—Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p87. II:2.—Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p69. II:4.—P. McAdam Muir, Modern Substitutes for Christianity, p3. J. F. Crosse, Sermons (2Series), p157. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iii. p97. J. H. Bell, Persuasions, p97. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix. No1714 , and vol. xlix. No2857. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p422; ibid. vol. ii. pp64 , 65. II:4 , 5.—Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p141. II:6.—Ibid, pp23 , 209; ibid. vol. x. p107.