Romans 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son… I. ITS GROUND IS THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF ENTIRE CONSECRATION TO THE SERVICE OF THAT GOD WHOM HE HAD FOUND IN THE REVELATION OF HIS SON. 1. These are the two thoughts which are stamped on the whole of this introduction, and which everywhere else are prominent. (1) Before he knew Christ his God was always the object of his fear and devotion. But how different was that God and his knowledge of Him — without his love in Christ, and His Triune essence. The service he offered was sincere, but ignorant and bigoted, a service which rejected Christ and persecuted His saints. But now in Christ all this had undergone a change. It had pleased God to reveal His Son in Him, and the Son had revealed the Father, and both revelations had been made perfect in the gift of the Holy Ghost. God in Christ became the Alpha and Omega of Divine things to Him. (2) To that God whom the gospel revealed the apostle gave the service of his renewed spirit. Not merely in the sphere of his intellect, because that was convinced, nor in the sphere of the emotions, because they had been stirred, but in the very inmost self of his self he had given his life to the God of the gospel. 2. Let the richest treasure of your experience be "God is my Witness." Paul had no grace that we may not claim. But the real secret which enables us to dare this Omniscient scrutiny is the habitual revelation of the Fatherly love of God in Christ which enables us to say, "My God." "If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity!" carried to an extreme would take away all confidence. "God is my witness," but He is "my God" in Christ. II. ITS SPECIAL EMPHASIS RESTS UPON THE WORDS ''IN MY SPIRIT." 1. The terms are liturgical, for Paul never forgot the ancient temple. The soul is regenerate because inhabited by God. Where He dwells must be a temple; and all glorious things spoken about the ancient dwelling place of Jehovah may be transferred to the spirit of the believer. But He is Priest as well as Temple. "Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts." The great concern of our life must be to preserve our spirit inviolate for the sacred Indweller. The apostle lived in his body as in a temple: "an earthly house" which should be dissolved, but then built again. He lived in his spirit, however, as in a temple which should never be dissolved; and he lived in hope that both should be reunited and glorified as the eternal dwelling place of God in Christ. 2. This service that he offered in his spirit was the service of God in the gospel of His Son. (1) He served God for himself. In a certain sense he was a solitary worshipper, presenting in secret his whole devotion before it was translated to the outer sanctuary and the visible life. Habituate yourself to an interior life, hid with Christ in God. (2) With this, however, we must connect his supplications for others. In the temple of his spirit he offered a systematic, persevering intercession with thanksgiving for the Churches of Christ. It was a house of prayer for all nations. 3. Cultivate this habit of prayer for yourself, your own communion, Christendom and the world in general; cultivate also the habit of mixing mutual prayer with all your engagements. 4. Remember that God alone is the witness of your fidelity, but men will be the witnesses of its results. (W. B. Pope, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; |
    |