Verse 19
19. In Christ By indwelling and identification; so that what Christ does, as reconciler, God does through him. The reconciliation implies previous opposition on both sides. By it men who “were enemies” (Romans 5:10) have their enmity removed; and by it God, whose “wrath is revealed from heaven,” (Romans 1:18,) is enabled to cease imputing “their trespasses unto them.” Man’s enmity is the hostility of the criminal to righteousness; God’s enmity is the severity of righteousness against the unrighteous. Note on Romans 1:18. The enmity of wrong towards right is terrible; but the enmity of right towards wrong is infinitely more terrible, for it has Omnipotence as its supporter and executioner. The death of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, the symbol and substitute for its executive infliction, is the token of God’s readiness to pardon; our consent to be reconciled to God, 2 Corinthians 5:20, and to receive not the grace of God in vain, are the condition of the appropriation of the power of that death in our individual behalf.
Imputing… unto them Charging to men’s account and holding them liable for trespasses.
Word The divine proposal from God to man of reconciliation.
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