Author ROBERT GOVETT
Publisher CONLEY AND SCHOETTLE
Robert Govett was born in the earlier part of the nineteenth century and pursued a ministry, first in the Anglican Church and then subsequently in a Non-denominational church in Norwich, England. He was highly regarded by Spurgeon and many others of his time. A man marked by an intense desire to scour the scriptures he wrote copiously and a number of his books are still in print. It seems that he was willing to lay aside previously held beliefs if his further study led him to see things differently. He represents the doctrinal position that interprets the Book of the Revelation literally and believes that the gift of eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus cannot be lost but the reward of enjoying the millennial kingdom can be forfeited through sin. Obviously he believed and taught the idea of a literal period of a thousand years when those who overcame sin would rule with Christ.
This particular book is his commentary on Romans chapters six, seven and eight. He wrote it in by way of confronting the views of sanctification being promulgated by the holiness teachers of the late nineteenth century such as Pearsall Smith and Hannah Whittall Smith and the teachings popularized by J.N.Darby. His arguments are well reasoned and he does stick closely to that section of Romans he is seeking to exposit. So much he writes is circumscribed by his insistence that eternal salvation cannot be lost but the reward of life in the Millennium can be. Those considering the doctrine of sanctification will be forced to think seriously if they read this book. They may not agree with it and will find that it continues in the tradition of what some call the ‘dual nature’ theory but with modifications.
He still does not magnify union with Christ as being the great key to living free from sin but does show that there is no room for spiritual arrogance as manifested in subtle ways by some perfectionist teachers. There are few books being written in these days as regards the subject of sanctification. Holiness of life and the place of sin in the believer are subjects that can concentrate much on the individual instead of on the corporate ‘body of Christ’ and deliverance from the ‘body of sin’.
This book falls into that interpretation that does not think corporately but concentrates on the individual and majors on the forensic aspects of salvation. In these latter days more commentaries are departing from that traditional position and emphasizing the corporate and these leave the kind of commentating Govett has so helpfully engaged in a little in the shade.
