 |  |
The parallel passage of Rom. 15: 12, 13 brings Jew and Gentile together in hope.
The force of this passage is blunted in the A.V. by the rendering of the word "hope" in
verse 12 as "trust". The passage should read:--
"There shall be a Root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles: in
Him shall the Gentiles HOPE, now the God of the HOPE fill you with all joy and peace
in believing, that ye many abound in the HOPE through the power of the Holy Ghost."
The argument of chapter 2: is that the Jew, equally with the Gentile, shall be judge;
the argument of chapter 15: is that the Gentile, equally with the Jew, shares in the hope
brought in by the "Root of Jesse". These trains of thought we must take up more fully
in the series devoted to the epistle to the Romans. For the moment we pass on to
chapter 8:
The creature.
Here we leave Jew and Gentile, and deal with the creature as such. In Rom. 5: 12
Adam is introduced, and from that verse to the end of chapter 8: we are dealing with
deeper issues than those connected with either Gentile or Jew, considered separately.
Here we find suffering endured in view of glory.
"The glory that shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature
waiteth for the revelation (apokalupsis) of the sons of God" (Rom. 8: 18, 19).
Here we have "the creature", a deeper principle than that of nationality, Jew or
Gentile. Here, too, we have "sons of God", equally a greater sphere, and going back to
Adam and Eden (Luke 3: 38).
This revelation of the sons of God awaits resurrection, when
"the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption in the liberty of
the glory of the children of God . . . . . awaiting for the adoption, the redemption of our
body" (Rom. 8: 21-28).
This "salvation by hope" that looks forward to the complete emancipation of "the
creature", the "redemption of the body", demands such intimate acquaintance with the
arguments of chapters 5:, 6: and 7: that we leave this passage also for closer study in
due course. For the moment the one thing that concerns us is the gathering up of the
varied items in Romans that illuminate the doctrine of the Lord's coming.
With this passage, that goes back to Adam and Eden, it is only natural that we should
take Rom. 16: 20 that likewise goes back to the same occasion:--
"The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly" (Rom. 16: 20).
"I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed;
it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. 3: 15).
While in the first instance this prophecy looks to Christ Himself at Calvary, it also
looks forward to the second coming when all the "seed" shall have entered by "adoption"