Matthew Henry

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

“Understand it, First, Of that spirit of bondage which the Old-Testament church was under, by reason of the darkness and terror of that dispensation. The veil signified bondage, 2 Cor. iii.”

And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.

“In earthly inheritances this rule does not hold, only the first-born are heirs; but the church is a church of first-born, for they are all heirs. Heaven is an inheritance that all the saints are heirs to.”

I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us.

“They cannot merit that glory; and, if suffering for Christ will not merit, much less will doing. They should not at all deter and frighten us from the diligent and earnest pursuit of that glory.”

The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God.

“As the saints are suffering for it, so they are waiting for it. Heaven is therefore sure; for God by his Spirit would not raise and encourage those hopes only to defeat and disappoint them.”

For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope

“When man sinned, the ground was cursed for man's sake, and with it all the creatures (especially of this lower world, where our acquaintance lies) became subject to that curse, became mutable and mortal.”

that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

“And this not willingly, not of their own choice. All the creatures desire their own perfection and consummation; when they are made instruments of sin it is not willingly.”

Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

“It is our having received the first-fruits of the Spirit, which both quickens our desires and encourages our hopes, and both ways raises our expectations. The first-fruits did both sanctify and ensure the lump. Grace is the first-fruits of glory, it is glory begun.”

For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see?

“It is acknowledged that one of the principal graces of a Christian is hope ( 1 Cor. xiii. 13 ), which necessarily implies a good thing to come, which is the object of that hope. Faith respects the promise, hope the thing promised.”

But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently.

“25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. In these words the apostle describes a fourth illustrious branch of the happiness of believers, namely, a title to the future glory.”

I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

“He would be willing to undergo the greatest misery to do them good. Love is apt to be thus bold, and venturous, and self-denying.”

the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.

“Israel is my son, Exod. iv. (2.) And the glory; the ark with the mercy-seat, over which God dwelt between the cherubim--this was the glory of Israel, 1 Sam. iv.”

Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen.

“Mentioning Christ, he interposes a very great word concerning him, that he is over all, God blessed for ever.”

It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.

“The promises and threatenings shall have their accomplishment; and, one way or other, he will magnify the law and make it honourable.”

Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

“Grace does not run in the blood; nor are saving benefits inseparably annexed to external church privileges, though it is common for people thus to stretch the meaning of God's promise, to bolster themselves up in a vain hope.”

So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

“There was nothing extraordinary or supernatural in his conception, as there was in Isaac's; he was born after the flesh ( Gal. iv. 29 ), representing those that expect justification and salvation by their own strength and righteousness. (2.)”

For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

“It was through faith that Isaac was conceived, Heb. xi. Thus were the great mysteries of salvation taught under the Old Testament, not in express words, but by significant types and dispensations of providence, which to them then were not so clear as they are…”

Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac.

“As God chose Isaac and Jacob, and rejected Ishmael and Esau, so he might and did choose faith to be the condition of salvation and reject the works of the law.”

So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

“Such is the method of God's grace towards all that partake of it, for he is found of those that sought him not ( Isa. lxv. 1 ); in this preventing, effectual, distinguishing grace, he acts as a benefactor, whose grace is his own.”

Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.

“Had he mercy on the Gentiles? It was because he would have mercy on them. It was because it was his own pleasure to deny them softening grace, and to give them up to their chosen affected unbelief.”

One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?”

“Had the apostle been arguing only for God's sovereignty in appointing and ordering the terms and conditions of acceptance and salvation, there had not been the least colour for this objection; for he might well find fault if people refused to come up to the…”

But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”

“God is our master, and we are his servants; and it does not become servants to answer again, Tit. ii. By resolving all into the divine sovereignty.”

Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?

“The potter, out of the same lump, may make either a fashionable vessel, and a vessel fit for creditable and honourable uses, or a contemptible vessel, and a vessel in which is no pleasure; and herein he acts arbitrarily, as he might have chosen whether…”

What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction?

“The spring of all the joy and glory of heaven is that mercy of God which endures for ever. Vessels of honour must to eternity own themselves vessels of mercy.”

What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—

“God makes known his glory, this goodness of his, in the preservation and supply of all the creatures: the earth is full of his goodness, and the year crowned with it; but when he would demonstrate the riches of his goodness, unsearchable riches, he does…”

As He says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people, and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,”

“Former badness is no bar to God's present grace and mercy.-- And her beloved which was not beloved. Those whom God calls his people he calls beloved: he loves those that are his own.”