Romans 9

1. I SAY the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy 2 Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish 3 that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 4 who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and 5 the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and 6 of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. 7 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, 8 which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: 9 but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, 10 these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the 11 seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. 12 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 13 (for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose 14 of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) it was 15 said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but 16 Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God 17 forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will 18 have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willet, 19 nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the Scripture saith unto 20 Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in 21 thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he 22 mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will be hardeneth. Thou wilt say then 23 unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, 24 who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, 25 Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump 26 to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 27 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much 28 longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the 29 riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even 30 us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith also 31 in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was 32 not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are 33 not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. Esaias also crieth 34 concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a 35 remnant shall be saved: for he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: 36 because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And as Esaias said before, Ex- 37 cept the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like 38 unto Gomorra.

WHEN once we understand that the Jews are the types of mankind; when each one of us shall consider what has been done to the Jewish people as if it had been done to himself; when we shall be able to see ourselves in the person of Israel, delivered from Egypt with a strong hand, crossing the Red Sea, miracu- lously fed in the desert, introduced by force of arm into Canaan, alternately rebellious and penitent, hum- bled and elevated, at war with the inflexibility of a perfect law and at the same time the object of ineffa- ble solicitude, it will no longer be possible for us to believe that this people has existed in vain, or that we owe nothing to this people, or that we could have dispensed with it. And then collecting in our mind all these truths at once, each saying to himself: The history of this people is my history, the history of this people is the history of God; this people carried in its bosom, as a mother does, that other chosen and blessed people whom Jesus Christ on coming into the world found ready to receive him; the Jewish peo- ple foretold the great truths which prepare for receiving gospel truth; the Jewish people was the first and necessary propagation of the gospel; the Jewish people at the commencement of Christianity could alone bear witness to Jesus Christ; the Jewish people choosing or rejecting him, is the immortal witness of the Saviour; a Christian after having considered all these things will have no repugnance to repeat, Salvation, my own salvation, is of the Jews! A. V.

1-3. In the close of the eighth chapter of Romans theology reaches its culmination. That is a height where all that the mind can know of God and his ways is seen in the longest perspective and most celestial clearness. But there is flowing in the heart of the apostle a current of sympathy with men, which overbears in another moment all the tide of rapturous anticipation which the view of God’s purposes had kindled. “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart—for my brethren.” Certainly that is the spirit which all who have the responsibilities of public service for Christ should seek. It is said that Augustine had for his symbol a burning heart. If to a burning there could be appropriately added a suggestion of a bleeding heart, we should have the comprehensive Christian symbol. A measure of the seraphic glow of the eighth chapter of Romans is permitted to us, if our minds are lifted to that; but should not our cry be, that we may never be without the concern, without something of the pang of love for our brother-men, which we see in the ninth chapter? Karr.

3. “I could have wished.” J. B. L.—I could wish, if such a thing were possible, to be separated from Christ and bear the curse, in order thereby to rescue my nation. That was out of the question, for only Christ could undertake to bear penal sufferings in the room of others. It displays, however, the magnitude of his love. (Ex. 32: 32, Moses felt the same.) He would willingly have endured anything, however terrible, in order to save them. Barth.—Paul saw a cloud filled with wrath—a black cloud of vindicatory justice affecting the eternal interests of his countrymen—ready to burst upon their heads; he saw many of them sealed up under the terrible judgment of judicial blindness, and this it was which racked his heart with agony, and drew forth his thrilling expressions of sympathy and grief. He envied not the Gentiles; on the contrary, he makes their calling and conversion matters of solemn doxology and thanksgiving to God; but he did lament, deeply and sorely lament, that so many of his countrymen were cut off from the hopes of eternal life. J. H. T.

4,5. Judaism is the parent of Christianity. The new system sprang up on the soil of the old, and could spring up nowhere else. There were “the oracles of God”; there were the Messianic promises, and the aspirations kindled by them, in a form that made it possible for the Messiah to arise, with a full consciousness of his calling, and to be recognized by others. The peculiarity lies in the organic relation of the parts of the earlier Revelation to each other, and the collective relation of the whole of them to the gospel. Hence, the earliest adherents of the Christian faith by whom it was first propagated in the world, its authoritative expounders for all time, were of Jewish extraction. The privilege conferred on the Jews, in the special training to which they were subjected, might, if abused, place them at a disadvantage as to receiving the good news, even in comparison with the nations which had been suffered “to walk in their own ways.” “It might be,” says Dr. Arnold, “that they were tempted by their very distinctness to despise other nations; still they did God’s work—still they preserved unhurt the seed of eternal life, and were the ministers of blessing to all other nations, even though themselves failed to enjoy it.” G. P. F.—This people, to whom were intrusted the oracles of God, carries in its mind, solemnizes in its rites, reflects in its manners, the elementary ideas on which the gospel is founded; alone among the nations it believes, seriously and effectually believes, that God is, and that he is the rewarder of them that seek him. These truths, which are the patrimony of this people, it has in its different dispersions carried with it over the world. It has sown them in the land of the heathen. Despised as it was, it has succeeded in accustoming the nations to the idea, the unheard-of idea, of one living and holy God. This was essentially to prepare them for Jesus Christ. And when Christianity, after having collected in Judea all that belonged to it, makes ready to conquer Europe, beginning with the ancient kingdom of that Alexander who conquered Asia, it finds over the whole Roman world advanced posts, citadels, intrenched camps in those portions of Israel, in those Jewish colonies which Divine Providence had scattered up and down upon the earth, and which uniformly became the first Christian Churches. A. V.

5. Who is over all, God blessed for ever.** What is that subtle approach of doctrine injurious to Christ which these words of Paul do not bar out? He called him Christ, to show that he had really become man; he called him “of the Jews after the flesh,” to show that his existence does not merely date from his incarnation; he called him “who is” that he might proclaim as in thunder his existence without a beginning; he called him “over all,” to proclaim him the Master of creation; he called him God, that we might not be deceived by looking to his sufferings and his outward form, and deny his imperishable nature; he called him “blessed,” that we might adore him as the Almighty, and not injuriously regard him as a fellow-servant; he called him “unto the ages,” that he might show that he who formed them by a word is in them endlessly proclaimed as God. Proclus.

7,8. The Old Testament is the first chapter of the history of man and the history of God. The experience of the Jews is our experience. It is for us that we see this people alternately gathered together and forsaken, scourged and blest. Not that they are not loved for themselves, and for the fathers’ sakes, as Paul says; but in the marvelous guidance of this people God was preparing an immortal lesson for the whole human race. Not only the doctrine preached to the Jewish people, but more especially their history constitutes the treasure of all ages and nations; because as history, it not only teaches, it establishes what God is and what man is, to what extent God’s authority is absolute and his law sacred; and, in fine, it establishes the active, determinate, and paternal manner in which God constantly interposes in human affairs. A. V.

13-17. As all that we are comes from Him, so we belong to him without exception or reserve. The senses of our bodies, the powers of our souls, the successive ages of life, thought, feeling, resolve, all are His. He is absolute master of our health, of our fortune, of our very life, and against him we have neither plea nor remedy. Nay, we are bound by the terms of existence to accept with submission all of his appointments. Paul’s illustration of the cases of Pharaoh and Esau, as viewed apart from their responsibility, is strictly in point. God’s claims, which begin in time, continue in eternity; the grave does not touch them. Escape him: we can not. We must live under a dispensation of his love or a dispensation of his justice. We can nowhere be independent of him. We may now and here choose between a free and joyous service and a punishment which is as certain and as enduring as the being which he has given us. H. P. L.

15. The Israelites, immediately after the giving of the law, had committed idolatry or exposed themselves to punishment. Moses besought their forgiveness. In answer to his prayer, the words quoted here were used. The whole nation deserved punishment. God was determined to inflict it on some and to show mercy to others; and his declaration is, that the reason why any are pardoned, and why these are pardoned, was to be found in his sovereign grace. There was no unrighteousness here. God gave to some what none deserved, and he inflicted on none anything but what all had deserved, and he did this according to the counsel of his own will. J. B.—If God is a sovereign, he is not an arbitrary despot; if he has his purposes in respect to all things—and unquestionably he has—they are formed in view of all-sufficient reasons every way worthy of himself, as a God infinite in his wisdom and his love. He may bless a man who does not deserve his blessing, but he can not punish a man who does not deserve punishment. The sovereign grace of God! What being in the universe does it injure, or what obstacles can it interpose between any man and eternal life? E. M.

16. Many ask questions about election and other doctrines, which do not yet come within their horizon, and therefore can not be explained to them (to a certain extent, true of us all). The ninth chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, as Luther said, is the ninth. Learn first the eight chapters which precede it. A. S.—The Bible teaches that man is a free agent, under personal responsibility; that salvation is provided for all, and freely offered to all; that God desires that all men should repent and be saved; that he uses his word, his providence, and his Spirit to bring them to repentance; that he continues his calls to men who resist his grace, though, as in the case of Pharaoh, his very long-suffering may but harden the sinner’s impenitence. It is no positive act of God that hardens him, no divine decree that hinders his salvation, but the sinner’s own refusal to submit his will in faith to the righteousness of God. In this respect, the stubborn impenitence of Pharaoh, alike unto divine mercies and judgments, is but the type of the heart of man. Again and again we are told that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. J. P. T.—Conversion and salvation must, in the very nature of the things, be wrought and effected either by ourselves alone, or by ourselves and God together, or solely by God himself. The last hypothesis is built on the strongest evidence of reason, Scripture, and experience. It most effectually hides pride from man, and sets the crown of undivided praise upon the head—or, rather, casts it at the feet—of that glorious Triune God “who worketh all in all.” But this is a crown which no sinners ever yet cast before the throne of God who were not first led into the transporting views of his gracious decree to save freely, and of his own will, the people of his eternal love. Zanchius.

The great question for me, as one for whom Christ died and to whom the offer of eternal life is made, a being responsible to God and to my own soul for every decision I form and every choice I make in reference to my everlasting interests, is, Am I willing to embrace the offer of eternal life which is placed before me? If I am not, it is not God’s purpose, but my own election in opposition to the will and commandment of God, which destroys me body and soul for ever. This is the thought to be distinctly apprehended, and which should be thrown with all its fearful and crushing weight upon the conscience of every man who has not accepted of Jesus Christ. E. M.—In the 16th verse, the showing of his mercy signifies the preventing grace of God in conversion; for in the 18th verse it is said, God shows mercy “to whom he will, and whom he will be hardens.” Where it is evident that showing mercy is opposed not to condemning but to hardening; and consequently the intent of the words

19-24. The force of the objection (v. 19) seems to be: “Since God can refuse mercy and inflict punishment on whom he chooses to do so, why does he not will to have mercy on all, so as to make them obedient, and thus put finding of fault out of the case? None can resist his will.” The objection is answered in two ways: first, by showing the absurdity and wickedness of man’s finding fault with what God does or says (vs. 20, 21), and then by showing that the dispensations objected to were perfectly consistent with divine justice and benignity (vs. 22-24). J. B.—The objection is founded on ignorance or misapprehension of the relation between God and his sinful creatures: supposing that he is under obligation to extend his grace to all, whereas he is under obligation to none. It is to be borne in mind that Paul does not here speak of God’s right over his creatures as creatures, but as sinful creatures; as he himself clearly intimates in the next verses. It is the cavil of a sinful creature against his Creator that he is answering, and he does so by showing that God is under no obligation to give his grace to any, but is as sovereign as in fashioning the clay.

22. His wrath and his power.** The two objects which Paul here specifies as designed to be answered by the punishment of the wicked are the manifestation of the wrath of God and the exhibition of his power. The word wrath is used here, as in chapter 1: 18, for the divine displeasure against sin, the calm and holy disapprobation of evil, joined with the determination to punish those who commit it. Though the inherent ill desert of sin must ever be regarded as the primary ground of the infliction of punishment—a ground which would remain in full force were no beneficial results anticipated from the misery of the wicked—yet God has so ordered his government that the evils which sinners incur shall result in the manifestation of his character, and the consequent promotion of the holiness and happiness of his intelligent creatures throughout eternity. C. H.

All the godly have this to consider: that they were strangers and enemies to God; and let each of them think, Whence was it that I, a lump of the same polluted clay with those that perish, should be taken and purified and molded by the Lord’s own hand for a vessel of glory? Nothing but free grace makes the difference; and where can there be love and praises and service found to answer this? All is to be ascribed to the mercy, gifts, and calling of Christ. L.

25-29. The marked difference between the language used in reference to those whom God treats kindly and those whom he treats severely deserves notice. With regard to the fitting of the vessels of wrath for destruction: they are fitted—how and by whom it is not said, but God did not fit them for the destruction to which he doomed them as fitted for it. In the other case it is divine agency altogether, in fitting them for glory, and bestowing it on them. God dealt with unbelieving Jews as he did with Pharaoh, whom they resembled in their obstinacy. He bore with them long; he offered them mercy, which they contemptuously rejected. When they had fitted themselves for destruction, they were destroyed. On the other hand, God bestows salvation on a portion of men called from the great body of Jews and Gentiles, and fitted by his grace for the enjoyment of it, by being made in faith thankfully to accept it. In withholding saving blessings from certain of the Jews, he does them no wrong; and in inflicting on them severe judgments, he only at last inflicts punishment which had long been incurred. J. B.

30. WHAT shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, 31 have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the 33 law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

1. Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own 4 righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ 5 is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by 6 them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) 7 or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, 9 the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be 10 saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confes- 11 sion is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall 12 not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same 13 Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

CHRIST is something and does something to every one of us. He is either the rock on which I build, poor, weak, sinful creature as I am, getting security and sanctity and strength from him, I being a living stone, built upon “the living stone,” and partaking of the vitality of the foundation; or else he is the other thing, “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to them which stumble at the word.” So the gospel of Christ exercises a permanent effect upon us. It is presented to each of us here individually, in the definite form of an actual offer of salvation for each, and of an actual demand of trust from each. The words pass into our souls, and thenceforward it can never be the same as if they had not been there. The gospel once heard is henceforward a perpetual element in the whole condition, character, and destiny of the hearer. A. M.

Christ is present to his followers as he is not and can not be to the world; present as an all-permeating Spirit; present as the all-quickening Life; consciously, socially present; so that no explorations of science or debates of reason are wanted to find him, no going over the sea to bring him back, or up into heaven to bring him down; because he is already present, always present, in the mouth and in the heart. In this manner he will be revealed in all men, waits to be revealed in all, if only they will suffer it. The word for every loving, trusting heart is, “I will be manifest in you. Lo, I will be with you always.” H. B.—This is the way to lessen our distance from God and heaven, by bringing Christ continually to us on earth: the sky is closed, and shows no sign; all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world; evil abounds, and, therefore, the faith of many waxes cold; but Christ was and is among us—Christ crucified and Christ risen—to make us feel that we may live with God daily upon earth, and, doing so, shall live with him for an eternal life in a country that can not pass away. T. A.

33. Christ comes offered to us all in good faith on the part of God as a foundation upon which we may build. And then comes in that strange mystery, that a man, consciously free, turns away from the offered mercy, and makes him that was intended to be the basis of his life, the foundation of his hope, the rock on which, steadfast and serene, he should build up a temple-home for his soul to dwell in—makes him a stumbling-stone against which, by rejection and unbelief, he breaks himself! A. M.

2. Zeal is an element that will combine with any active principle in man; will give its strength and inspiration in any pursuit or interest under the sun; will profane itself to the lowest, will be the glory of the highest, like fire that will smolder in garbage and will lighten in the heavens. A fatal ignorance in zeal the apostle here speaks of, namely, men’s zealously maintaining the sufficiency of a righteousness of their own which God will not accept. A true and divinely enforced knowledge would reveal to them the awful holiness, justice, and law of God—would reveal themselves to them—and then their zeal would go another way. J. F.—The zeal which is acceptable is that which aims at the glory of God and which is founded on true benevolence to men, and which does not aim to establish a system of self-righteousness, as did the Jew, or to build up our own sect, as many others do. A. B.

3-5. The cause of this rejection of the Jews was that they persisted in a false idea of righteousness, as consisting in outward works and rites, and refused the true righteousness manifested to them in Christ, who was the end of the law. The Jew considers righteousness as the outward obedience to certain enactments; the Christian considers righteousness as proceeding from the inward faith of the heart. Whoever has this faith, whether Jew or Gentile, shall be admitted into God’s favor. C.—

Establish their own righteousness. Thou art industrious from motives of ambition; thou art faithful in thy calling from motives of pride; thou art patient and lowly from the desire of fame; thou avoidest great sins because thou fearest shame and disgrace, and in order that thou mayest yield thyself unhindered to hidden sin; thou concealest from the world thy anger and bad temper, in order to be praised by the world as gentle. Thou givest to the poor that they may praise thee. All thy patience and humility, all thy gentleness and benevolence, all thy faithfulness and industry, give cords and bonds to thy ambition and pride, that they may bind thee more tightly than they could do otherwise. Thou layest aside sins and boastest of the strength of thy virtue. Seest thou not that all thy self-made piety condemns thee? Seest thou not that it is only with sins that thou, a sinner, releasest thyself from sins? A. C.—Is it no unrighteousness that thy whole life should be nothing else but a contradiction to the very design of Christ’s dying, a perpetual hostility, a very tilting at his Cross? Is there no unrighteousness in thy obstinate infidelity that denies belief to his glorious truths, acceptance of his gracious offers, subjection to his holy laws? Is it righteous to live as no way under law to Christ? to persist in actual rebellion against his just government, which he died and revived and rose again to establish over the living and the dead? In a word, is it righteous to tread under foot the Son of God, to vilify his blood, and despise his Spirit? Is this the righteousness that thou talkest of? Are these thy qualifications for the everlasting blessedness? Howe.

If thou go to Christ with thy own righteousness he will not have thee; for he will have none but lost things, for he came to seek and save that which was lost. As long as thou lookest but to the righteousness of the law, the spirit of Jesus leaves thee, till thou acknowledge Christ for the Saviour of the lost, the justifier of the ungodly, the gracer of the unworthy, and the healer of the sick. Hence it is that Christ leaves sin in his own to humble them; for if they had righteousness of their own they would misken him and his righteousness. And because they will not quit their own righteousness, he gives them an assay of themselves; and when after a proof of their own naughtiness they will not yet submit to him, then he sends crosses, sicknesses, troubles of all sorts, that they may be forced to despair in themselves and come in to Christ’s hospitial, there to lie till they be cured of all their sinful maladies.

4. Christ the end of the law.** First take us to Christ, renouncing our own righteousness; then draw strength from him, and in his strength bring forth good fruits, and so be renewed; come and get righteousness from Christ; then crave new strength from him (for thou hast none of thy own) to be holy. Upon this order stands the matter betwixt God and his children: that, not finding their own righteousness, they take Christ’s, and take new strength from his resurrection, sufferings, and death, and so get power to slay sin. From once they come to Christ, then holiness begins at the heart’s roots, by the new power given by Christ. That self-righteousness they would be at holds aye a man proud, but this righteousness God would have them to embrace holds them humble. D. D.—That believeth. A believer is to do nothing for justification, only believe and be saved; though the law be a rule for every one that believes to walk by, it is not for justification. Always put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without, and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within. Bun.

6,7. The Christian religion does not require us to perform an impossible work, like going up to the throne of God and bringing the Mediator down. It does not require us to go into the abyss, the grave, the regions of departed souls, and perform a work like raising a man from the dead. It demands a task that lies within the proper exercise of human power: an act of simple confidence in Jesus Christ, and a suitable acknowledgment of him before the world at large. A. B.

9. Believe in thine heart.** It is the grand distinction of Christianity that it makes its appeal to faith, and upon that, as a fundamental condition, rests the promise of salvation. It is called (here and elsewhere) the word of faith, the disciples are distinguished as believers, and Christ is published as the Saviour of them that believe. What is wanted is a faith that goes beyond the mere evidence of propositions about Christ, viz., the faith of a transaction; and this faith is Christian faith. It is the act of trust by which one being, a sinner, commits himself to another being, a Saviour. It is not mind dealing with notions or notional truths. But it is being trusting itself to being, and so becoming other and different, by a relation wholly transactional. We commit ourselves to the Lord Jesus by an act of total and eternal trust, which is our faith. The matters included in this act are the surrender of our mere self-care, the ceasing to live from our own point of separated will, a complete admission of the mind of Christ, a consenting, practically, to be modulated by his motives and aims, and to live, as it

were, infolded in his spirit. It is committing one’s character wholly to the living character of Jesus, so that every willing and working and sentiment shall be pliant to his superior mind and spirit. H. B.