Romans 4:25

delivered As the Victim. Cp. Romans 8:32. Here the Father delivers up His Son. In Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:2, &c.; we have the self-surrender of the Son. See Psalms 40:8-9, for the union of the two truths. "Lo, I come; … I delightto do Thy will."

for our offences Lit. because of our offences; "because we had offended." Such is the natural meaning of the Gr. The fact of our sins demanded, for their just remission, nothing less than the Lord's Death.

for our justification Lit. because of our Justification. The construction is identical. This, and the balance of the clauses, seem to demand the exposition: "He was raised, because our justification was effected;" not, "in order to give usjustification," as many interpret it. The parallel is complete: "We sinned, therefore He suffered: we were justified, therefore He rose." To this it is objected that the thought is not doctrinally true; justification being, for each believer, datednot from the Lord's death, but from the time of faith (see ch. Romans 5:1). But the answer is obvious: the Apostle here states the Ideal of the matter; he means not individual justifications, but the Work which for ever secured Justification for the believing Church. A close parallel is the "It is finished" (John 19:30). (See too the ideallanguage in Romans 8:30; and instructive parallels in Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 10:14.) In the Divine Idea every future believer was declared to be justified, through an accomplished Propitiation, when Jesus rose. His resurrection proved His acceptance as our Substitute, and therefore our acceptance in Him. No doubt the other interpretation is true as to fact:He was raised that, through the Gospel, (which but for His resurrection would never have been preached,) we might receive justification. But the Gr. construction, and the balance of clauses, are certainly in favour of that now given.