Note 119 — Chapter XVII
Reading edition
"In this surpassing chapter the several streams of the preceding arguments meet and flow in one 'river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,' until it seems to lose itself in the ocean of a blissful eternity."—David Brown, D.D., "The Epistle to the Romans," in "Handbooks for Bible Classes."
[120] There can be no reasonable doubt that the words "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," should be omitted. They are probably a gloss from ver. 4; inserted (perhaps first as a side-note) by scribes who failed to appreciate the profound simplicity of the Apostle's dictum.
[121] We thus indicate the thought given by the otherwise difficult "For" of ver. 2. That "for" cannot mean to imply that there is no condemnation because the Spirit has enabled us to be holy; this would stultify the whole argument of chapters iii.-v. What, in that context, it must imply is the complex fact (1) that we are in Christ—where there is no condemnation, and (2) that we are there by the Holy Spirit, who brought us to saving faith. Now we are to learn (3) what that Spirit has done also for us in giving us union with Christ.
[122] Τοῦ πνεύματος τῆς ζωῆς ἐν Χπριστῷ Ἰησοῦ. In the Greek of the N. T. it is possible so to interpret. Classical Greek would require τῆς ζωῆς τῆς ἐν Χ. Ἰ. The rendering, however, "the law of the Spirit of life, in Christ Jesus," (making the last three words govern the whole previous thought,) is amply admissible.
[123] Περὶ ἁμαρτίας: the phrase is stamped with a sacrificial speciality by the Greek of the O. T. See e.g. Levit. xvi. 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 15, 16, 25, 27. And cp. Heb. x. 8.
[124] "The way of him that is laden with guilt is exceeding crooked." Prov. xxi. 8 R.V.
[125] We do not translate the δὲ. It seems to be best represented in English by connecting the clause only by position with what goes before.
[126] The Greek lays a solemn emphasis by position on Θεῷ.
[127] We refer the word πνεῦμα here, as throughout the passage, to the Holy Ghost. No other interpretation seems either consistent with the whole context, or adequate to its grandeur.
[128] We read thus, not διὰ τοῦ κτλ ("by means of, by the agency of, His Spirit"). The two readings have each strong support, but we think the balance of evidence is for the accusative not the genitive. Happily the exegetical difference is not serious. The accusative gives indeed a meaning which may well include that given by the genitive, while it includes other ideas also.
[129] We are aware that ver. 11 has been sometimes interpreted of present blessings for the body; as if the fulness of the Holy Ghost was to effect a quasi-glorification of the body's condition now; exempting it from illness, and at least retarding its decay. But this seems untenable. If the words point this way at all, ought they not to mean a literal exemption from death altogether? But this manifestly was not in the Apostle's mind, if we take his writings as a whole. That spiritual blessings may, and often do, act wonderfully in the life of the body, is most true. But that is not the truth of this verse.