+I. Is spiritual regeneration.+
+II. Is being buried and raised again with Christ.+
+III. Is secured by an active, realising faith in the power of God.+
+IV. Renders circumcision and all outward rites valueless as means
of salvation.+
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13, 14.
_The Transition from Death to Life._
In relation to man, the physical order is a descent from life to
death, the spiritual order an ascent from death to life. The soul of
man is held captive in the dark and dismal prison-house of sin, and
the Divine law--at once its judge and gaoler--has declared its
condemnation to death. The great Mediator offers Himself a ransom for
human sin. He is accepted. The sentence of condemnation is cancelled,
and spiritual liberty proclaimed.
+I. That the natural condition of humanity is one of moral and
spiritual death.+--1. _Man is in a condition of spiritual
insensibility._ "You, being dead in your sins" (ver. 13). The dead
know not anything. They are as unconscious as the dust in the midst
of which they slumber. The sweetest sounds or the brightest scenes
appeal in vain to the locked-up senses. This figure strikingly
depicts the moral condition of man. The soul may be keenly alive to
the relations and interests of the outer world, and at the same time
dead to the grandest spiritual realities. He is insensible to the
character and claims of God, to the sublimest truths, to the most
ravishing prospects. With faculties to appreciate all that is lovely
in nature and wonderful in art, he is insensible and unresponsive to
the highest moral beauty.
2. _Man is in a condition of moral corruption._--"And the
uncircumcision of your flesh" (ver. 13). Death unbinds the forces
that brace up the body in life and health and leaves it a prey to the
ever-active power of corruption. The _flesh_ is the carnal
principle--the old corrupt nature; and its uncircumcision indicates
that it has not been cut off, mortified, or conquered. It is the
loathsome, putrid fruit of a nature spiritually dead--the outworkings
of a wicked, unrenewed heart, through all the channels of unchecked
appetites and passions--moral putrescence fattening on itself. No
description of sin can surpass the revolting spectacle of its own
self-registered results.
3. _Man is in a condition of condemnation._--(1) The Divine
ordinances record an indictment against the transgressor. "The
handwriting of ordinances that was against us" (ver. 14). A
_handwriting_ imports what any one writes with his own hand, and is
usually applied to a note of hand, a bond, or obligation, as having
the signature of the debtor or contracting party. The primary
reference in the terms used is to the Jews, who might be said to have
signed the contract when they bound themselves, by a curse, to
observe all the enactments of the law (Deut. xxvii. 14-26).
_Ordinances,_ though referring primarily to the Mosaic ordinances,
includes all forms of positive decrees (ordinances) in which moral or
social principles are embodied or religious duties defined. Man
everywhere is under law, written or unwritten; and he is morally
obligated to obey it. That law has been universally violated, and its
ordinances and sanctions are against us. We are involved in legal
condemnation; we owe to God what we can never pay. (2) The Divine
ordinances are hostile towards the transgressor. "Which was contrary
to us" (ver. 14). We are often painfully reminded of our broken bond,
as the debtor is often distressingly reminded of his undischarged
obligation. Our peace is disturbed, our conscience troubled, our
prospects darkened. The sense of condemnation pursues us in every
part of life and haunts us with visions of terrible vengeance to come.
+II. That the believer is raised into a condition of spiritual
life.+--1. _Spiritual life begins in the consciousness of liberty._
"Having forgiven you all trespasses" (ver. 13). Sin enthrals the soul
in an intolerable bondage and smites it with a deathly blow. There is
no return to life until liberty is bestowed. Forgiveness confers that
liberty. Pardon is the point at which spiritual life begins. The
sense of liberty is the first glad thrill in the soul of a new and
nobler life. The pardon is ample; it is all-comprehensive--having
forgiven you _all_ trespasses. Every legal barrier is removed. All
guilt is cancelled. Every stain is purged away. Every vestige of
corruption disappears. The Divine mercy triumphs in the prompt,
generous, loving, full forgiveness of sins.
2. _Spiritual life implies a freedom from all condemnation._--(1) The
indictment recorded in the Divine ordinances is cancelled and
abolished. "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was
against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way,
nailing it to His cross" (ver. 14). Every assurance is given to the
trembling believer that his guilt is pardoned, and his condemnation
removed. The handwriting is blotted out--as it were, cross-strokes
are drawn through it; and that all suspicion it may again become
legible, may be allayed, it is added, "and took it out of the way";
it is entirely removed. But lest, haply, it should again be found and
produced, it is declared--it is destroyed, torn, nailed to the cross,
and so made utterly useless ever to witness anything against the
believer. "Now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein
we were held" (Rom. vii. 6). The handwriting against us is removed
and destroyed by the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. There
we behold the cancelled sentence torn and rent by the very nails that
pierced the sacred body of the world's Redeemer. (2) Freedom from
condemnation is effected by the cross. "His cross." Much as the
doctrine of salvation through the vicarious sufferings of Christ may
be misunderstood and despised, it is the only method by which pardon
can be bestowed, condemnation removed, and spiritual life imparted.
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a
curse for us."
+III. That the transition of the soul from death to spiritual life is
a Divine work.+--"You hath He quickened together with Him" (ver. 13).
God only can raise the dead. He who first fashioned us in His own
image, who raised from the dead Jesus, the great Shepherd of the
sheep, rescues man from the gloomy domain of spiritual death, and
inspires him with a new and holier life. It is a life of blessed
union with the Divine. Its activities are spontaneous and Godward in
their tendencies. It has the power of growth and endless development.
Its aspirations are the purest and noblest. It is intensely
individual. It is the movement of the Divine in the sphere of the
human, not defacing or destroying the human, but exalting and
perfecting its worthiest traits.
+Lessons.+--1. _All men are dead in sin._ 2. _Law condemns but cannot
deliver._ 3. _Pardon of sin is the gateway of spiritual life._
4. _Pardon is obtained only by looking to the cross._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._