In the first eight chapters of Romans we get the gospel fully brought out. It is the answer to the question, “How can a man be just with God?” This is the great question of the whole Epistle. We do not get resurrection with Christ in this Epistle, nor is there union. It is death with Christ and life through Him. When you get resurrection with Christ, you are associated with Him in life, and when union is taught, you never find justification. A new creation clearly does not want justifying. This is the teaching of Ephesians, where you get nothing about justification, but all the privileges and duties of the new creation. In Romans we get sinners, and they want justification. In Ephesians we are looked at as “dead in trespasses and sins.”
Two Parts of Justification
There are two parts of justification — “from sins” and “of life.” The first is the clearing me of my old state, while the second puts me into a new place before God. These two parts are treated of distinctly in this Epistle, dividing chapters 18 into two parts. The first part ends at chapter 5:11. In chapter 1 we see the ground that called for justification: “The wrath of God is revealed . . . against all ungodliness” (vs. 18). It is not governmental wrath, but wrath against the sinner, for “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)). All the dealings of Christianity are on the ground of that. You must either walk in the light or have nothing to do with God.
In chapter 1 the fact is first stated that the righteousness of God is revealed; in chapter 2, the proof of this and the condition of man. In chapter 3, the Apostle gives us first the privileges of the Jew, and then he says that the very thing you boast of is that which condemns you. Then all are brought under sin. What is wanted is fitness to stand in God’s presence and not come short of His glory.
The Goodness of God’s Character
Propitiation meets God as a righteous, holy Judge. When a person has offended or wronged another, he requires propitiation. God provides the propitiation and sets Christ forth as such. The death of Christ glorifies God Himself. It is of immense importance to see the way God puts away the sins of the old man; there can be no peace without it. It is another thing to see how God makes a new man.
We get two distinct characters of blessedness in these chapters: the first, chapter 5:1-11; the second, chapter 8. In chapter 5, I get higher things about God than I do in chapter 8. In chapter 5, I find what God is to the sinner; in chapter 8 it is what He is to the new man in Christ Jesus. God is more fully revealed in the absolute goodness of His character in chapter 5, because there His dealings are with the sinner who is guilty before Him, and has come short of His glory. But the saint is in a higher place in chapter 8 — there God is for me. In the first place (ch. 5), God is known as the Justifier; in the second (ch. 8), as Abba, Father. Part 1 ends at chapter 5:11; that is the way God deals with a sinner about his sins. Now we come to part 2. Part 1 has nothing to do with experience, for there I get my debts paid. This may produce very happy feelings, as we see in chapter 5. Part 2 has everything to do with experience.
The Fruit and the Tree
It is the fruit, and not the tree, that is judged in part 1. The tree itself is judged in part 2. In part 1, we have a man who has done this, that and the other, and Christ died for him. God has raised up Christ, and I believe in Him and am justified. It is ratified. Justification was not completed on the cross, although the work by which we are justified was. I do not get the assurance of it until I see Christ in resurrection. The work on the cross is that by which I am justified, but He was raised again in order to our justifying. He was delivered, our offences being before His mind. He was raised, our justifying being before His mind.
Then chapter 5 begins, “Having been justified . . . we have peace.” Here we get the whole past, present and future: justified as to the past, having peace with God and standing in the favor of God as to the present, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God as to the future. I have learned by all this process not only what I am, but what He is. I have the Holy Spirit in me, as a consequence of justification, shedding abroad the love of God in my heart. When I know that all is settled and that I am reconciled, then I have peace.
The State of the Race
But when we come to chapter 5:12, we come to man’s condition. It is the state of the race, and not of the individual. I get more troubled about sin in me than by my past sins. But here we find the remedy too — not that Christ has died for my sins, but that I died with Christ to sin. This is justification of life here. We have now the positive side of justification: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:11There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)). In the first eleven verses of chapter 5, we see the blessedness of the believer as the result of what the Apostle had been bringing out in the previous part of the epistle, while in chapter 8 we have the blessedness which is the result of what the Apostle had brought out from chapter 5:12 to the end of chapter 7. In part 1 we have sins put away; in part 2 it is a question of what man is. We find no forgiveness here. Sin is never forgiven, but condemned. “God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3)). Sins are put away by blood; sin is gotten rid of by death.
We see that the grace must have an aspect as large as the sin. The presentation of grace is to the whole world, although its application is only to those who receive the gift. “As . . . by one offence towards all men to condemnation, so by one righteousness towards all men for justification of life” (Rom. 5:1818Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. (Romans 5:18) JND). The gift of righteousness is unto all. As the sin of Adam addresses itself to the whole race, so does the righteousness of one. Here I get justification connected with life.
Not only has the Lord Jesus put away sin, but He has borne all our sins, confessed them as if they were His own, and they are all gone. It is never said Christ died for the sins of the world. In Romans 67, I am dead and justified from sin. Now I can reckon myself dead. It is not I; I have had enough of “I.” Now Christ is “I.” If I am alive through Christ, I died through Christ. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)). The individual is cleared from what he was as a child of Adam and gets the privileges of a child of God.
Perfectly Free
Now you are perfectly free. You were a slave to sin: Now yield yourself to God. In chapter 7 we have the same principle applied to law. You cannot have both the law and Christ. Verse 6 should be, “Having died in that wherein we were held.” It is not the law that is dead, but I am dead. The law is the jailer; I am the prisoner. The mistake people are making is that they are killing the jailer instead of the thief. The jailer is not dead; the thief is. This chapter is the experience of a quickened soul under law. Experience comes in here, and not in the first part of the epistle. In chapters 23 it is what a man has done. In chapter 7 it is what he is in himself. It is not only that I have done bad things, but “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (vs. 18). This must be learned experimentally, and not merely known as a doctrine. The soul here learns three things: first, that in himself, that is, in his flesh, dwells no good thing; second, he sees that the flesh is not himself, for he hates it; third, that it is too strong for him, and he cries out for deliverance. It is God bringing a man to the full knowledge of himself; then he says, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:2424O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)). Then Christ comes in, and we have the full deliverance of chapter 8.
My Experience
This chapter, then, is experimental, and the truth must be learned, not merely as a theory, but experimentally. To say my sins are forgiven is not experience, but if you tell me something about myself, either my experience answers to it, or it does not. We never give up the flesh till we have learned how thoroughly bad it is. I must learn to say, “It is not I,” though not to say it lightly, because as a child of Adam responsible, it is I, but I have found out another I. As to the flesh, there is no question of forgiveness—I want deliverance from it. Romans 5:1-111Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. (Romans 5:1‑11), then, is what God was in love to the sinner. Chapter 8 is the condition of the believer with God.
J. N. Darby, adapted from
Collected Writings, 21:193-200