Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) — A Reader’s Guide

The Witness of the Resurrection

Maclaren opens his treatment of Romans by insisting that Paul’s writings are “the transcript of his life’s experience.” He grounds the epistle’s authority in the apostle’s encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus road, an event that “revolutionised his life.” This biographical framing recurs throughout the volume: Maclaren reads Paul’s arguments as emerging from personal transformation, not detached reasoning. The resurrection is presented as the key that unlocks both Paul’s theology and his ethical demands. Maclaren returns to this image in later sections, linking it to the believer’s own experience of new life.

Brother Quartus and the Unity of the Church

In his exposition of Romans 16, Maclaren lingers on the figure of Quartus, whom Paul calls “a brother.” Maclaren uses this minor character to illustrate the radical social unity that the gospel produced: “the Church did not talk much about the brotherhood of man, or the unity of the race; but simply ignored all distinctions.” He points to the actual gathering of “the slave and his master, the Roman and his subject, fair-haired Goths and swarthy Arabians” as evidence of a new force in history. The name “brother,” Maclaren argues, rests on the shared life derived from one Father, a truth that the early Christians embodied before they theorized it.

Distance and Proximity in Christian Affection

Maclaren draws a practical lesson from Quartus’s greeting: Christian love must not be reserved for distant believers. He observes that “distance lends enchantment to the view,” and that it is easier to love an unseen brother than one who sits on the same bench. The Corinthian church, known for its factions, provides the backdrop. Maclaren speculates that Quartus may have been one of the wranglers who found it easier to love the Roman Christians than his own neighbors. The exhortation is pointed: “Do not let your Christian love go wandering away abroad only, but keep some for home consumption.”

The Structure of Paul’s Argument in Romans

Maclaren’s method reveals a keen eye for Paul’s rhetorical architecture. He notes how the apostle moves from universal sin (Romans 3) to justification by faith (Romans 5), then to sanctification (Romans 6-8), and finally to practical ethics (Romans 12-16). The expositions mirror this progression, with early sections focused on doctrinal foundations and later ones on concrete behaviors. Maclaren highlights Paul’s use of triplets—lists of three graces or duties—as a structural device. He also draws attention to recurring contrasts: law versus grace, flesh versus spirit, death versus life. These patterns, he suggests, are not merely stylistic but reflect the apostle’s theological vision.

Maclaren’s expositions reward readers who attend to his handling of small details—a single verse, a name, a metaphor. He does not offer a systematic commentary but a series of discrete meditations, each with its own point of entry. The volume is best approached as a collection of sermons to be read individually, allowing Maclaren’s voice to illuminate particular passages. His emphasis on the experiential basis of Paul’s theology and the social reality of early Christian community gives the expositions a concrete, pastoral quality that distinguishes them from more abstract treatments.

That rainy afternoon, Maclaren’s steady voice on Paul’s “debt” to all people lingered longer than the sermon itself—that quiet insistence that obligation flows outward, never inward. Later, almost by accident, I reached for Religion and Theology: A Sermon for the Times Preached in the Parish Church of Crathie, fifth September and in the College Church, St Andrews — Story, Setting & Ideas, and found the same weather, same weight, different voice.