3]. That is simply our first introduction into a permanent
state. Our 'salvation' is here, as elsewhere, spoken of as equivalent
to deliverance from wrath in the day of judgement, which means that our
whole moral being has become such as can bear the scrutiny of the
divine righteousness and the fellowship of the divine glory.

2. Where the Revised Version above[4] reads 'rejoice,' it is important
to remember that the word is that used for the illegitimate 'glorying'
or 'boasting' of iii. 27 and iv. 2. Christians have something to boast
of, but it is not their own; it is God's gift. Therefore they are
especially delighted when God's strength is shown in their weakness,
and they will more particularly 'boast of their weaknesses' (cf. 2 Cor.
xi. 30).

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3. St. Paul's argument that the Christian hope is fundamentally
trustworthy is based, we may notice, on a twofold appeal. First (ver.
5), he appeals to the gift of the Spirit which at a definite time[5]
each Christian received, doubtless by the laying on of hands. This
gift is in itself an outpouring of the divine love and an 'earnest' of
future glory (2 Cor. i. 22, v. 5). No doubt almost all the Christians
had more or less intensely _felt_ the reality of the divine love in the
indwelling Spirit. But St. Paul lays stress rather on the fact than on
the feeling. Secondly (vers. 6 ff.), he appeals to the great
redemptive act of God. God had gone out of His way to make a great
sacrifice in order to reconcile us when we were enemies, and therefore
may be trusted to carry out the preliminary reconciliation into full
spiritual deliverance or salvation by Christ's life. The greater
effort carries with it the less.

[1] Isa. xxviii. 16: 'He that believeth shall not be put to shame'
(Greek version).

[2] Gal. v. 4.

[3] Cf. also p. 310.

[4] verses 2, 3, 11.

[5] The tense is an aorist, 'the Holy Ghost which was given' at a
definite past moment; not as in the unrevised Bible 'is given.'

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DIVISION III. Sec. 2. CHAPTER V. 12-21.

_The Second Adam._

St. Paul had spoken, at the end of the passage we have just been
reading, of our being 'saved by (or 'in') Christ's life.' And this
brings him to what is truly the central point of his theology--the life
in Christ by the Spirit: the thought that the glorified Man, with all
the power of the divine life at work in Him, though He is hidden from
sight, is still perpetuating His life by His