Monday, October 29, 2012

An Adventure In Romans, Part 4 - Charles Hodge (Chapters 1-8)

Following are some quotes from Charles Hodge's Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Romans. These are quotes that stood out to me as I have been reading through this commentary. This only covers chapters 1-8. Some background to this is posted here. I think most of the quotes are self-explanatory, but please comment if you have any questions.


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 

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