{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ROM","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Romans","commonName":"Romans","introduction":"THE GENUINENESS of the Epistle to the Romans has never been questioned. It has the unbroken testimony of all antiquity, up to CLEMENT OF ROME, the apostle's \"fellow laborer in the Gospel, whose name was in the Book of Life\" (Phi 4:3), and who quotes from it in his undoubted Epistle to the Corinthians, written before the close of the first century. The most searching investigations of modern criticism have left it untouched.\n\nWHEN and WHERE this Epistle was written we have the means of determining with great precision, from the Epistle itself compared with the Acts of the Apostles. Up to the date of it the apostle had never been at Rome (Rom 1:11, Rom 1:13, Rom 1:15). He was then on the eve of visiting Jerusalem with a pecuniary contribution for its Christian poor from the churches of Macedonia and Achaia, after which his purpose was to pay a visit to Rome on his way to Spain (Rom 15:23-28). Now this contribution we know that he carried with him from Corinth, at the close of his third visit to that city, which lasted three months (Act 20:2-3; Act 24:17). On this occasion there accompanied him from Corinth certain persons whose names are given by the historian of the Acts (Act 20:4), and four of these are expressly mentioned in our Epistle as being with the apostle when he wrote it--Timotheus, Sosipater, Gaius, and Erastus (Rom 16:21, Rom 16:23). Of these four, the third, Gaius, was an inhabitant of Corinth (Co1 1:14), and the fourth, Erastus, was \"chamberlain of the city\" (Rom 16:23), which can hardly be supposed to be other than Corinth. Finally, Phœbebe, the bearer, as appears, of this Epistle, was a deaconess of the Church at Cenchrea, the eastern port of Corinth (Rom 16:1). Putting these facts together, it is impossible to resist the conviction, in which all critics agree, that Corinth was the place from which the Epistle was written, and that it was despatched about the close of the visit above mentioned, probably in the early spring of the year 58. The FOUNDER of this celebrated church is unknown. That it owed its origin to the apostle Peter, and that he was its first bishop, though an ancient tradition and taught in the Church of Rome as a fact not to be doubted, is refuted by the clearest evidence, and is given up even by candid Romanists. On that supposition, how are we to account for so important a circumstance being passed by in silence by the historian of the Acts, not only in the narrative of Peter's labors, but in that of Paul's approach to the metropolis, of the deputations of Roman \"brethren\" that came as far as Appii Forum and the Three Taverns to meet him, and of his two years' labors there (Act 28:15, Act 28:30)? And how, consistently with his declared principle--not to build on another man's foundation (Rom 15:20) --could he express his anxious desire to come to them that he might have some fruit among them also, even as among other Gentiles (Rom 1:13), if all the while he knew that they had the apostle of the circumcision for their spiritual father? And how, if so, is there no salutation to Peter among the many in this Epistle? or, if it may be thought that he was known to be elsewhere at that particular time, how does there occur in all the Epistles which our apostle afterwards wrote from Rome not one allusion to such an origin of the church at Rome? The same considerations would seem to prove that this church owed its origin to no prominent Christian laborer; and this brings us to the much-litigated question.\n\nFor WHAT CLASS of Christians was this Epistle principally designed--Jewish or Gentile? That a large number of Jews and Jewish proselytes resided at this time at Rome is known to all who are familiar with the classical and Jewish writers of that and the immediately subsequent periods; and that those of them who were at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Act 2:10), and formed probably part of the three thousand converts of that day, would on their return to Rome carry the glad tidings with them, there can be no doubt. Nor are indications wanting that some of those embraced in the salutations of this Epistle were Christians already of long standing, if not among the earliest converts to the Christian faith. Others of them who had made the apostle's acquaintance elsewhere, and who, if not indebted to him for their first knowledge of Christ, probably owed much to his ministrations, seemed to have charged themselves with the duty of cherishing and consolidating the work of the Lord in the capital. And thus it is not improbable that up to the time of the apostle's arrival the Christian community at Rome had been dependent upon subordinate agency for the increase of its numbers, aided by occasional visits of stated preachers from the provinces; and perhaps it may be gathered from the salutations of the last chapter that it was up to that time in a less organized, though far from less flourishing state, than some other churches to whom the apostle had already addressed Epistles. Certain it is, that the apostle writes to them expressly as a Gentile Church (Rom 1:13, Rom 1:15; Rom 15:15-16); and though it is plain that there were Jewish Christians among them, and the whole argument presupposes an intimate acquaintance on the part of his readers with the leading principles of the Old Testament, this will be sufficiently explained by supposing that the bulk of them, having before they knew the Lord been Gentile proselytes to the Jewish faith, had entered the pale of the Christian Church through the gate of the ancient economy.\n\nIt remains only to speak briefly of the PLAN and CHARACTER Of this Epistle. Of all the undoubted Epistles of our apostle, this is the most elaborate, and at the same time the most glowing. It has just as much in common with a theological treatise as is consistent with the freedom and warmth of a real letter. Referring to the headings which we have prefixed to its successive sections, as best exhibiting the progress of the argument and the connection of its points, we here merely note that its first great topic is what may be termed the legal relation of man to God as a violator of His holy law, whether as merely written on the heart, as in the case of the heathen, or, as in the case of the Chosen People, as further known by external revelation; that it next treats of that legal relation as wholly reversed through believing connection with the Lord Jesus Christ; and that its third and last great topic is the new life which accompanies this change of relation, embracing at once a blessedness and a consecration to God which, rudimentally complete already, will open, in the future world, into the bliss of immediate and stainless fellowship with God. The bearing of these wonderful truths upon the condition and destiny of the Chosen People, to which the apostle next comes, though it seem but the practical application of them to his kinsmen according to the flesh, is in some respects the deepest and most difficult part of the whole Epistle, carrying us directly to the eternal springs of Grace to the guilty in the sovereign love and inscrutable purposes of God; after which, however, we are brought back to the historical platform of the visible Church, in the calling of the Gentiles, the preservation of a faithful Israelitish remnant amidst the general unbelief and fall of the nation, and the ultimate recovery of all Israel to constitute, with the Gentiles in the latter day, one catholic Church of God upon earth. The remainder of the Epistle is devoted to sundry practical topics, winding up with salutations and outpourings of heart delightfully suggestive. \n\n\n\nNext: Romans Chapter 1\n\n","order":45,"numberOfChapters":16,"sha256":"b8a602d2ed3395e50b3ee5f84c6c9c736a6e21b7c0aabb38a28263eef72f3b6d","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ROM/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ROM","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":16,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ROM/16.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ROM","chapter":16},"totalNumberOfVerses":385},"chapter":{"number":13,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Whosoever therefore resisteth the power--\"So that he that setteth himself against the authority.\" \n\nresisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation--or, \"condemnation,\" according to the old sense of that word; that is, not from the magistrate, but from God, whose authority in the magistrate's is resisted.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["For rulers are not a terror to good works--\"to the good work,\" as the true reading appears to be \n\nbut to the evil.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["he beareth not the sword in vain--that is, the symbol of the magistrate's authority to punish.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath--for fear of the magistrate's vengeance. \n\nbut also for conscience' sake--from reverence for God's authority. It is of Magistracy in general, considered as a divine ordinance, that this is spoken: and the statement applies equally to all forms of government, from an unchecked despotism--such as flourished when this was written, under the Emperor Nero--to a pure democracy. The inalienable right of all subjects to endeavor to alter or improve the form of government under which they live is left untouched here. But since Christians were constantly charged with turning the world upside down, and since there certainly were elements enough in Christianity of moral and social revolution to give plausibility to the charge, and tempt noble spirits, crushed under misgovernment, to take redress into their own hands, it was of special importance that the pacific, submissive, loyal spirit of those Christians who resided at the great seat of political power, should furnish a visible refutation of this charge.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["For, for this cause pay ye--rather, \"ye pay\" \n\ntribute also--that is, \"This is the reason why ye pay the contributions requisite for maintaining the civil government.\" \n\nfor they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing--\"to this very thing.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Render therefore to all their dues--From magistrates the apostle now comes to other officials, and from them to men related to us by whatever tie. \n\ntribute--land tax. \n\ncustom--mercantile tax. \n\nfear--reverence for superiors. \n\nhonour--the respect due to persons of distinction.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Owe no man anything, but to love one another--\"Acquit yourselves of all obligations except love, which is a debt that must remain ever due\" [HODGE]. \n\nfor he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law--for the law itself is but love in manifold action, regarded as matter of duty.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["For this, &c.--better thus: \"For the [commandments], Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and whatever other commandment [there may be], it is summed up,\" &c. (The clause, \"Thou shalt not bear false witness,\" is wanting in all the most ancient manuscripts). The apostle refers here only to the second table of the law, as love to our neighbor is what he is treating of.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Love worketh no ill to his--or, \"one's\" \n\nneighbour; therefore, &c.--As love, from its very nature, studies and delights to please its objects, its very existence is an effectual security against our wilfully injuring him. Next follow some general motives to the faithful discharge of all these duties.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["And that--rather, \"And this [do]\" \n\nknowing the time, that now it is high time--literally, \"the hour has already come.\" \n\nto awake out of sleep--of stupid, fatal indifference to eternal things. \n\nfor now is our salvation--rather, \"the salvation,\" or simply \"salvation.\" \n\nnearer than when we--first \n\nbelieved--This is in the line of all our Lord's teaching, which represents the decisive day of Christ's second appearing as at hand, to keep believers ever in the attitude of wakeful expectancy, but without reference to the chronological nearness or distance of that event.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["The night--of evil \n\nis far spent, the day--of consummated triumph over it \n\nis at hand: let us therefore cast off--as a dress \n\nthe works of darkness--all works holding of the kingdom and period of darkness, with which, as followers of the risen Saviour, our connection has been dissolved. \n\nand let us put on the armour of light--described at length in Eph 6:11-18.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Let us walk honestly--\"becomingly,\" \"seemingly\" \n\nas in the day--\"Men choose the night for their revels, but our night is past, for we are all the children of the light and of the day (Th1 5:5): let us therefore only do what is fit to be exposed to the light of such a day.\" \n\nnot in rioting and drunkenness--varied forms of intemperance; denoting revels in general, usually ending in intoxication. \n\nnot in chambering and wantonness--varied forms of impurity; the one pointing to definite acts, the other more general. \n\nnot in strife and envying--varied forms of that venomous feeling between man and man which reverses the law of love.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["But--to sum up all in one word. \n\nput ye on the Lord Jesus Christ--in such wise that Christ only may be seen in you (see Co2 3:3; Gal 3:27; Eph 4:24). \n\nand make no provision--\"take no forethought.\" \n\nfor the flesh, to fulfil the lust thereof--\"Direct none of your attention to the cravings of your corrupt nature, how you may provide for their gratification.\"\n\nNote, (1) How gloriously adapted is Christianity for human society in all conditions! As it makes war directly against no specific forms of government, so it directly recommends none. While its holy and benign principles secure the ultimate abolition of all iniquitous government, the reverence which it teaches for magistracy, under whatever form, as a divine institution, secures the loyalty and peaceableness of its disciples, amid all the turbulence and distractions of civil society, and makes it the highest interest of all states to welcome it within their pale, as in this as well as every other sense--\"the salt of the earth, the light of the world\" (Rom 13:1-5). (2) Christianity is the grand specific for the purification and elevation of all the social relations; inspiring a readiness to discharge all obligations, and most of all, implanting in its disciples that love which secures all men against injury from them, inasmuch as it is the fulfilling of the law (Rom 13:6-10). (3) The rapid march of the kingdom of God, the advanced stage of it at which we have arrived, and the ever-nearing approach of the perfect day--nearer to every believer the longer he lives--should quicken all the children of light to redeem the time, and, seeing that they look for such things, to be diligent, that they may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless (Pe2 3:14). (4) In virtue of \"the expulsive power of a new and more powerful affection,\" the great secret of persevering holiness in all manner of conversation will be found to be \"Christ IN US, the hope of glory\" (Col 1:27), and Christ ON US, as the character in which alone we shall be able to shine before men (Co2 3:8) (Rom 13:14).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Romans Chapter 14\n\n"]}],"introduction":"SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED--POLITICAL AND SOCIAL RELATIONS--MOTIVES. (Rom 13:1-14)\n\nLet every soul--every man of you \n\nbe subject unto the higher powers--or, \"submit himself to the authorities that are above him.\" \n\nFor there is no power--\"no authority\" \n\nbut of God: the powers that be are ordained of God--\"have been ordained of God.\"\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ROM/13.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ROM","chapter":13},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ROM/14.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ROM","chapter":14},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ROM/12.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ROM","chapter":12},"numberOfVerses":13}