Romans 6:18

Romans 6:18

The Strictness of the Law of Christ.

I. Religion is a necessary service; of course it is a privilege too, but it becomes more and more of a privilege the more we exercise ourselves in it. The perfect Christian state is that in which our duty and our pleasure are the same, when what is right and true is natural to us, and in which God's service is perfect freedom. And this is the state towards which all true Christians are tending: it is the state in which the angels stand; entire subjection to God in thought and deed is their happiness; an utter and absolute captivity of their will to His will is their fulness of joy and everlasting life. But it is not so with the best of us, except in part. We have a work, a conflict all through life.

II. I may seem to have been saying what every one will at once confess. And yet, after all, nothing perhaps is so rare among those who profess to be Christians, as an assent in practice to the doctrine that they are under a law: nothing so rare as strict obedience, unreserved submission to God's will, uniform conscientiousness in doing their duty. Most Christians will allow in general terms that they are under a law, but then they admit it with a reserve; they claim for themselves some dispensing power in their observance of the law. Whether men view the law of conscience as high or low, as broad or narrow, few indeed there are who make it a rule to themselves.

III. Let us not deceive ourselves: what God demands of us is to fulfil His law, or at least to aim at fulfilling it; to be content with nothing short of perfect obedience, to attempt everything, to avail ourselves of the aids given us, and throw ourselves, not first but afterwards, on God's aid for our shortcomings. We Christians are indeed under the law as other men, but it is the new law, the law of the Spirit of Christ. We are under grace. That law which to nature is a grievous bondage, is to those who live under the power of God's presence, what it was meant to be, a rejoicing. Let us go to Him for grace. Let us seek His face. "They that wait upon the Lord," says the Prophet, "shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons,vol. iv., p. 1.

References: Romans 6:18. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxv., No. 1482.Romans 6:19. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 18. Romans 6:20. H. J. Wilmot Buxton, The Life of Duty,vol. ii., p. 61.Romans 6:21. Prothero, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxix., p. 161.Romans 6:22. Homilist,new series, vol. iv., p. 653; 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 39; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vi., p. 21; Church of England Pulpit,vol. xxi., p. 125; R. Molyneux, Ibid.,vol. v., p. 189.