innocence of mute, irrational nature. If you will not submit your heart to the tide of influence pouring up from struggling creation, it will be a power to overwhelm you. What elements of terror and wrath are around you, within you, beneath you, above you! How has God hedged and hampered you! How he thwarts you! How does violated nature sometimes recoil against you! How puny is man, and how powerful is God! Who knoweth the power of his anger? Man is an insect, caught by some terrible enginery, whirled around and borne on; yet he plays and is proud; he sins and perishes." O sinner, turn and live! If you die in your iniquities, the sighs of earth will be followed by sighs in hell, and the groans of earth by the screams of the damned. 27 CHAPTER VIII. VERSES 24-30. DELIVERANCE IS SURE TO COME. LET US WAIT. THE SPIRIT HELPS US, ESPECIALLY IN PRAYER. ALL IS WORKING WELL BY A PLAN WHICH INVOLVES THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it. 26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 24. FOR we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? Wiclif, Tyndale, Cranmer, Genevan, Rheims, Doway, Chrysostom, Doddridge, and others read the verse as the authorized version-by hope. But Coverdale and Peshito read, in hope. Calvin explains it as if it read, in hope. Bp. Hall's paraphrase is, in assured hope, we are saved; Locke's, we have hitherto been saved but in hope and expectation; Macknight's, we are saved only in hope; Stuart's translation is, we are saved [only] in hope; Conybeare and Howson's, our salvation lies in hope. Scott's comment is, "True believers are saved 'by' or in 'hope;' they have been actually brought into a state of safety; but their comfort consists in hope,' rather than fruition." It is true Grotius says, "we have not eternal salvation as yet, but we hope for it." Yet it will not do to say that believers have not eternal life, even here. Our Saviour expressly said, "Whosoever drinketh of the water I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life;" "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life;" "Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life." John 4: 14; 6:47, 54. His bosom friend says: "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him," 1 John 3:15. If eternal life is not possessed here, then what is here said of the murderer is as true of the believer. Is not the believer as fully pardoned and accepted as he ever shall be? The first verse of this chapter says, There is no condemnation on him. To others Paul says: "But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God," 1 Cor. 6:11. There are many passages parallel to these. Our verse itself is at war with such an idea. The verb literally rendered is, We were saved and not we are saved, meaning that when they were converted, they were saved. If any object and say that believers have not yet got their crown of glory, the answer is, that is so, but they have as indefeisible a title to it as they ever shall have, Rev. 22: 14. If it be said, that our bodies must yet die, and lie in the grave and be raised before all the blessings of salvation will be actually in our possession, the reply is, that is true, but is any one prepared to say that the penitent thief, and Paul, and Stephen, and Peter are not saved, and will not be saved till after the resurrection? for their bodies are still in the dust. If any say with Tholuck that faith is the instrument whereby we receive salvation, that is true also; but can any one prove, or will any good man attempt to show that because faith is the bond that unites believers to Christ, therefore the Christian grace of hope bears no important part in accomplishing man's salvation? If so, let him read his Bible with a little care and candor, and he will change his mind. The fact is that hope is as necessary as faith. Leighton: "The difference of these two graces, faith and hope, is so small, that the one is often taken for the other in scripture; it is but a different aspect of the same confidence, faith apprehending the infallible truth of those divine promises of which hope doth assuredly expect the accomplishment, and that is their truth; so that this immediately results from the other. This is the anchor fixed within the veil which keeps the soul firm against all the tossings on these swelling seas, and the winds and tempests that arise upon them. The firmest thing in this inferior world is a believing soul." And what is faith but the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen? Heb. 11: 1. Is it then going too far to invite men to believe that salvation is a blessing received and enjoyed in this life, and that hope is an important means of effecting it? If any say that great things are to be done for the saved, in the future, that is gloriously true, and ever will be; but it does not prove that great things in the way of actual salvation are not done in this world for all that hope in God's mercy. But hope that is seen is not hope. The word hope, as found in this clause, may be taken in the concrete-for the object of hope. Then the sense would be that things, which if future might be objects of hope, are not so when we behold them at hand. Or if we take the word in the abstract, then Guyse gives the sense: "Hope of things that are already enjoyed, is not properly speaking, hope, which is a comfortable persuasion of some future good." The explanation offered by some is that the word seen in this place means enjoyed, and they refer to Matt. 5:8; John 3: 36, in proof. But the word rendered seen in this place is not the same as in those places cited. Calvin says, Paul means simply to teach us, that since hope regards some future and not present good it can never be connected with what we have in possession. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? This is very much a repetition of what he had already said. One may impatiently expect a messenger, but when he arrives, whether he bring good or bad tidings, we cease to look for him. 25. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord, Lam. 3: 26. As in our verse, so here and in many other places, hoping and patient waiting are connected. Were this not so, waiting would be turned into the sullenness of despair, or entirely given up in a vain attempt to find satisfaction in things that perish. An examination of the Old Testament scriptures and especially of the devotional parts thereof will satisfy any one that patient waiting is in God's esteem a great grace, indispensable to the comfort of the poor, suffering child of God. And as all christians under the Gospel, especially in early times, experienced the sorest tribulations which malice and cruelty could bring upon them, this exercise was of paramount importance. Calvin: "When we console ourselves with the hope of a better condition, the feeling of our present miseries is softened and mitigated." 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. The word rendered helpeth is very strong, and might be rendered helpeth together. Calvin renders it, co-assists, and Beza, lifts up together. Schleusner: "It means to succor those whose strength is unequal to carry their burden alone." It is found in but one other place, Luke 10: 40, where Martha petitions Christ to bid Mary that she help me. This is the precise idea in this place. Infirmities, commonly so rendered, a few times weakness, once sickness, and once diseases. In 1 Tim. 5: 23, it refers to bodily infirmities alone. In Matt. 8: 17 and Heb. 4: 15, it means such infirmities of our nature as were innocent and could be borne by the Holy Saviour. It is the word used by Paul when he says, I glory in my infirmities, and I take pleasure in infirmities, 2 Cor. 12: 9, 10. The infirmities of the Christian are many. They are bodily and mental. They are natural and spiritual. His understanding is feeble and greatly needs enlightening. His graces are weak and constantly require strengthening. Paul now mentions a particular weakness in relation to prayer: We know not what we should pray for as we ought. We are so 'ignorant, forgetful, or unbelieving, that we know not what to ask for, or how to ask for any thing in a proper manner, and with proper affections.' This indeed is a sad case, a terrible infirmity. Left to ourselves, what could we do? In a thousand respects, a good, though imperfect man may be in doubt both as to the matter and manner of prayer. Hodge: "We cannot tell what is really best for us. Heathen philosophers gave this as a reason why men ought not to pray!" No doubt the wicked one often tempts good men to restrain prayer because of their uncertainty whether it is best or not to ask for a given thing. But God leaves not his children alone in their trials. The Spirit itself comes to our relief. Maketh intercession for, a word found nowhere else in the New Testament, though its leading compound is found in vs. 27, 34 of this chapter and rendered maketh intercession. It is also found elsewhere. This word differs from that in having a prefix, which may be rendered abundantly. He not only pleads God's cause with us, but pleads our cause with God, by awakening proper desires within us and teaching us to pray as John could not teach his disciples. Thus he becomes to us what the prophet calls him, "the spirit of grace and of supplications," Zech. 12: 10. He does his work effectually. The prayer he indites is inwrought in the soul of believers, and so it is "with groanings which cannot be uttered," or which are not uttered, for the Greek may be rendered either way. Thus when Hannah prayed, her pious soul was mightily stirred, yet she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken, and so charged it upon her. But she answered |