The hope which true believers
entertain, founded upon the very nature of pious exercises, will
never disappoint them. - Romans 5:5
This is Hodge's rendering of Romans 5:15
"for if it is consistent with the divine character that we
should suffer for what Adam did, how much more may we expect tone
made happy for what Christ has done!"
"There can be no participation in
Christ's life without a participation in his death, and we cannot
enjoy the benefits of his death unless we share in the power of his
life." - Romans 6:4
"We strive to obey, not in order
to be saved or to please God, but because God saves us without works
or merit of our own, whom, because he is reconciled in the Beloved,
we delight to serve." Olshausen (as quoted by Hodge on Romans
6:12)
It is as much a matter of justice that
sin should be followed by death as that the laborer should receive
his wages. Those, therefore, who hope for pardon without atonement
hope that God will in the end be unjust. - Romans
6:23
Romans 7:7 "Does the law produce
sin, so that the fruit is to be imputed to the law itself? God
forbid! Certainly not! Let it not be thought that the law is to
blame. On the contrary, so far from the law being evil, it is the
source, and the only source, of the knowledge of sin." as
rendered by Charles Hodge
Hodge says that "by leading the apostle to expect one
thing, sin deceived him by his experiencing another. He expected life
and found death..." How is sin deceiving you today? - Romans 7:11
What Christian does not feel
that he is unspiritual? How cheerfully he recognizes his obligation
to love God with all the heart, and yet how constantly does the
tendency to self and the world, the law in his members, war against
the purer and better law of his mind and bring him into subjection to
sin! - on the latter half of Romans 7
If we share the spiritual benefits
of Christ's death, we also share in his life. If we died with him, we
live with him. This is pertinent to the apostle's main purpose in
this chapter, which is to show that believers can never be condemned.
They are not only delivered from the law and justified by the blood
of Christ, but they participate in his life. - Romans 8:6, 20
When the apostle says that believers
are the heirs of God, he recognizes their claim, in and through the
Redeemer, to the promised good as well as to the certainty and
security of the possession. - Romans 8:17
The purpose of God in the salvation of men was not mainly that men should be holy and happy, but that through their holiness and happiness his glory, in the person of the Son, should be displayed in the ages to come to principalities and powers. Christ, therefore, is the central point in the history of the universe. His glory, as the glory of God in the highest form of its manifestation, is the great goal of creation and redemption. - Romans 8:29
