Romans 8:8

Romans 8:8

Man's Inability to Please God.

I. How comes it to pass that man in his natural state cannot please God? We reply that the very fact of our being creatures of God, as we undoubtedly are, places us under an irreversible obligation to consecrate our every power and talent to God, whether or not He may have issued any direct law to which He demanded obedience. Ours is not a case in which there could be debate as to the authority of the lawgiver, neither is it one in which submission may be refused without actual hostility. But who can think it a disputable point, whether a man whilst in the flesh, whilst in his natural state before conversion, submits himself to God's law? Who can be so ignorant of his own native tendencies as not to know that they impel him directly to what the law forbids and away from what the law requires?

II. An unconverted man may endeavour to conform himself to the precepts of his Maker, but there is something so distinct and contrary between that which is to obey and that which is to be obeyed, that the attempt will only issue in fresh proof of the alleged impossibility. It is not a slight change which passes over men when they are converted. Before conversion they are at enmity with God, in a state which makes the pleasing of God impossible, and it is come to pass, as the result of conversion, that they have a mind which is love toward God and which finds its great delight in keeping His commandments; and therefore we may well say that the change is not slight, not such as could take place without being felt or observed. If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature. We are born heirs of wrath, and we must undergo a great internal radical change before we can become heirs of glory.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2225.

References: Romans 8:8. M. Rainsford, No CondemnationNo Separation,p. 38. Romans 8:9. Homilist,new series, vol. ii., p. 348; D. Ewing, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 299; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., p. 281; vol. v., p. 274.Romans 8:9. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. v., p. 471.Romans 8:10. T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. v., p. 131; J. Jackson, Church Sermons,vol. i., p. 185; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 31.