Romans 4:5 But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Observe what happens when the cry rises at sea, "A man overboard!" With others on deck, you rush to the side; and, leaning over the bulwarks, with beating heart you watch the place where the rising air bells and boiling deep tell that he has gone down. After some moments of breathless anxiety, you see his head emerge from the wave. Now, that man, I shall suppose, is no swimmer; he has never learned to breast the billows; yet, with the first breath he draws, he begins to beat the water. With violent efforts he attempts to shake off the grasp of death, and by the play of limbs and arms to keep his head from sinking. It may be that these struggles but exhaust his strength, and sink him all the sooner. Nevertheless, that drowning one makes instinctive and convulsive efforts to save himself. So, when first brought to feel and cry, "I perish!" when the horrible conviction rushes into the soul that we are lost. When we feel ourselves going down beneath a load of guilt into the depth of the wrath of God, our first effort is to save ourselves. Like a drowning man, who will clutch at straws and twigs, we seize on anything, however worthless, that promises salvation. Thus, alas! many poor souls toil, and spend weary, unprofitable years, in the attempt to establish a righteousness of their own, and find in the deeds of the law protection from its curse. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. |
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