Note 94 — Chapter XV

It will be observed that we place the paragraph after ver. 13, not, as many editions of the Epistle do, after ver. 14. It seems to us clear that ver. 14 has a closer connexion with the following than with the previous context. It looks back, not precisely to ver. 13, but to the general recent argument, that it may then look definitely forward, over new ground.

[95] Ὑπὸ νόμον, ὑπὸ χάριν: the accusative case gives the preposition properly the meaning of motion underwards. But this must not be pressed too far.

[96] p. 157.

[97] Luther's Esto peccator, et pecca fortiter, has been often quoted as if that great saint meant to argue licence from Justification by faith. "God forbid." The words occur in a counsel to Melanchthon, whose anxious conscience doubted whether it were not a sin to communicate in one Kind, even where the true Rite in both Kinds could not be had. It was Luther's glowing paradox, to drive a manifestly morbid and weakening scrupulousness from his friend's mind. See Julius Hare's Vindication of Luther, pp. 178, etc.

[98] So undoubtedly the Greek must be rendered.

[99] See above, p. 173.

[100] We do not forget that many Christians feel a strong repugnance to the use of this word, steeped as it is in associations of degradation and wrong. For ourselves, we would yield to this feeling so far as habitually to prefer the word of milder sound, "bondservant." But surely in this passage the Apostle on purpose so accentuates the thought of our bondservice that its fullest and sternest designation is in place. And, if in any degree we gather the thought of other hearts from our own, there are times and connexions in which the fulness of the joy of service demands that designation in order to its adequate realization.

[101] Μέλη: what "the body" is in such passages as xii. 1 that "the limbs" are in detail.

[102] Exod. xxi. 5, 6; Deut. xv. 16, 17.

[103] We render the bold phrase literally.

[104] See 1 Cor. vi. 17.

[105] No word, for practical purposes, answers better than "self" (as popularly used in Christian parlance) to the idea represented by St Paul's use of the word σὰρξ in moral connexions.

[106] So read, not ἀποθανόντος. The textual evidence supports ἀποθανόντες, and the evidence of the context is all for it. He has elaborately avoided, in applying his illustration, the thought that the Law can die. We die, in Christ, in judicial satisfaction of its most righteous claim. It lives with us, it guides us, with the authority of God. But it is now our monitor, not our avenger of blood.

[107] Such passages as this and its companion, 2 Cor. iii. 4-8, have no reference, however remote, to the "letter and spirit" of Holy Scripture. They contrast Sinai and Pentecost.