Archive for February 8th, 2011
Wilson:
Tim. But when the Apostle says, “Christ died for us while we were yet sinners: has his death brought this life to pass, that we are now not sinners?
Sil. After we believe that Christ died for us, and are regenerate by his Spirit, we have sin still, but we are not any longer to be called sinners; because that now our sins by forgiveness is blotted out, and that which remains still in our nature reigns not, and the denomination of a person or thing, is ever from that, which is more excellent and worthy. But here the Apostle means by sinners, such as be under the guilt and dominion of sin, as all are before faith.
Tim. What could God see in us then to move him to love us?
Sil. First, he saw in his own creation, which he loved with a general love, as he does all the works of his hands. Secondly, he say in us much misery through sin, and this made him love us with a pitiful love. Thirdly, he loved his elect being yet sinners, in that he purposed in himself to call and justify them in due time. And now lastly, having grafted his elect in his Son by faith, and justifies them, he loves them actually, having set his own image in them.
Tim. You hold that there are several degrees of God’s love, even towards his elect?
Sil. There be so, for he cannot love his elect with that degree and kind of love when they are sinners, as he does after they are now in his Son justified and sanctified: for now sin which bred hatred and enmity, is defaced and case out by remission; and holiness which God loves, imprinted in them, and brought in by renovation.
Thomas Wilson, A Commentary on the Most Divine Epistle of St. Paul To the Romans, 3rd ed., (London: Printed by E. Cotes in Aldersgate-Steet, 1653), 144. [Some spelling modernized; italics original; square bracketed inserts original; and underlining mine.]