The life and work of St. Paul

TO THE ROMANS, AND THEOLOGY OF 8T PAUL. 457
fication by faith, 1 which he illustrates and supports by quoting the Septuagint
version of Hab. ii. 4. The necessity for this mode of salvation rests in the
universality of sin a fact taught, indeed, by human experience, but too apt
to be overlooked, and therefore needing to be argumentatively enforced.
Thus Jews and Gentiles are reduced to the same level, and the exceptional
privileges of the Jew do but add to his condemnation (i. 16 iii. 20). Conse-
quently by the works of the Law whether the natural or the Mosaic Law
no flesh can be justified, and justification can only be obtained by the faith
of man accepting the redemption of Christ, so that all alike are dependent on
the free will of God (iii. 21 30). 2 Aware of the extreme novelty of these
conclusions, he illustrates them by Scripture (iii. 31 iv. 25), and then dwells
on the blessed consequences of this justification (v. 1 11). These consequences
are foreshadowed in the whole moral and religious history of man-
kind as summed up in the two periods represented by Adam and by Christ
(v. 12 21). Having thus completed the statement of his great doctrine, he
meets the objections which may be urged against it. So far from diminishing
the heinousness, or tending to the multiplication of sin, he shows that it
involves the radical annihilation of sin (vi.). If any were startled at the
close juxtaposition of the Law and sin, he points out that while the Law iii
itself is holy, just, and good, on the other hand what he has said of it,
relatively to mankind, is demonstrated by its psychological effects, and that
in point of fact the Law is, for the changed nature of the believer, superseded
by a new principle of life by the Spirit of God quickening the heart
of man (vii. 1 viii. 11). This naturally leads him to a serious appeal to his
readers to live worthily of this changed nature, and to a magnificent outburst
of thanksgiving, which rises at last into a climax of impassioned eloquence
(viii. 1239).
At this point he finds himself face to face with the question from which
his thoughts probably started the relations of Judaism to Heathenism,
and of Christianity to both. In an episode of immense importance, especially
to the age in which he wrote, he shows that God's promises to Israel, when
rightly understood, both had been, and should be, fulfilled, and that so far
as they seemed for the moment to have been made void the failure was
due to the obstinate hardness of the chosen people (ix. ri.). The remainder
of the Epistle is more practical and popular. He urges the duties of holi-
ness, humility, unity, the faithful use of opportunities, hope, and above all
love, on which he dwells earnestly and at length (xii). Then, perhaps with
special reference to the theocratic prejudices of Jewish Christians, he enforces
the duty of obedience to civil authority, and reverts once more to love as the
chief of Christian graces ; enforcing these practical exhortations by the thought
that the night of sin and ignorance was now far spent, and the day waa
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