Romans 10

Romans 10:1

And as before, ch. ix. 1, so now again, I must confess to you, (my brethren, the Christian Jews,) that whatever the Jews believe of me, as though I were their enemy, there is none more passionately and tenderly affected to them than I am. From this it is, and nothing else, that I do so heartily desire and pray to God for all that people, that they may timely believe and turn unto Christ, that so they may be delivered at this time and escape, (and not be involved in the fatal destruction that attends that people,) and withal be saved eternally by so doing.

[a] saved] According to the notion of σώζεσθαι, to be saved or delivered, (note [b] on Luke xiii. 23.) σωτηρία may here most probably signify the Jews converting to the faith of Christ, escaping out of that deluge of unbelief and obduration which had overwhelmed that people; for so it seems to be interpreted, ver. 3, by the contrary of not submitting to the righteousness of Christ. So ch. xi. 11, ἡ σωτηρία τοῖς ἔθνεσι, salvation to the Gentiles, is the Gentiles coming in and believing on Christ, as σώζειν, ver. 14. So κατεργάζεσθαι σωτηρίαν, Phil. ii. 12, is to complete or perfect their Christian course, in resolving and acting accordingly, (proportionably to God’s giving them to will and to do, ver. 13.) So Rom. i. 16, where the gospel is said to be the power of God unto salvation, to Jew and Gentile, and that proved by that saying of Habakkuk, the just shall live by faith, that is, return from captivity, and live peaceably, and that as an emblem of his returning from sin and living an holy life, it will be most reasonable so to interpret salvation, as may best agree with that notion of life, that is, for repentance and reformation. So perhaps μετάνοια εἰς σωτηρίαν, 2 Cor. vii. 10, will denote such a repentance or change that proceeds to escaping out of and forsaking the sins of the former life. So 2 Peter iii. 15, where he bids them count that the longanimity of God is σωτηρία, salvation, that is, that God’s deferring the punishment of the Jews so long after the crucifying of Christ was on purpose that by the preaching of the apostles over all the cities of Jewry, they might yet timely return, and repent, and believe on him, and so escape in that great approaching destruction; yet this still not excluding but including also the reward of our faith, the eternal bliss in heaven. Of another acception of σωτηρία, see note [c] on ch. xiii.

Romans 10:2

For I must testify this of them, that they are, very many of them, great zealots for their law, as that which is commanded them by God, and so in their way zealous to have God obeyed; but for want of true knowledge, which the gospel offers them, and they will not receive, they are mistaken in their zeal, are not such zealots as they ought to be.

Romans 10:3

For they being not satisfied in the truth of what we teach them, particularly of God’s way of justifying men under the gospel, and desiring and intending to be justified by the law, their external legal observances, they will not part with them, and thereupon have refused that evangelical way of justification, which is so much better than that.

Romans 10:4

For Christ hath consummated and reformed the law of Moses, requiring internal instead of external obediences, and hath set up a new way of justification, which belongeth to all those that believe and obey him, though they do not perform the law.

Romans 10:5

For, Lev. xviii. 5, the way of being justified under the law is set down by Moses to be a task of strict performances required of us, that he that will be justified by that must never offend against any part of it; for upon those terms only justification is promised there; and he that offends once is guilty of all (that is, hath lost all pretence of justification by that); and this every man doth; and so this is not so excellent and happy a course, that ye should be so fond of it; and withal it consisteth of a great burden of ceremonies and external performances, all required to justify a Jew, before the coming of Christ; and Christ, that requires the substantial duties required by those shadows, hath done you no injury to free you from them.

[b] doeth these things] These things signify the several branches of the Judaical law, which being required by Moses under severe penalties of excision to those that contemned or despised them, and all the promises of long life in Canaan depending on the observance of them, and the law affording no place of repentance or pardon for any presumptuous sin committed against that law, it is from thence consequent, that he that lives not in all those commands to do them could not have life by them, even that temporal life, or whatever else were typically contained or included in that: and accordingly St. Paul concludes, Gal. iii. 10, that there was no life to be had by the law, and

HAMMOND ANNOTT. VOL. II.

Romans 10:6

[c] bring Christ down] The two phrases here used of going up to heaven, or descending into the deep or abyss, are certainly proverbial phrases, to signify the doing or attempting to do some hard impossible thing; and consequently to say in the heart, Who shall do this? is to be prescribed some hard impossible task, that neither by ourselves nor by any body else we know how to set about, as they that are at their wits’ end (know not which way to turn themselves) are wont to cry out, or say within themselves, Who shall do it for them. These phrases had been of old used by Moses in this sense, Deut. xxx. 11, For this commandment which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may see it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, &c. Which words being used by Moses to express the easiness and readiness of the way which the Jews had to know their duty and to perform it, are here by the apostle accommodated to express the easiness of the gospel condition above that of the Mosaical law. The righteousness which is of faith saith thus, that is, this is the style or language of the evangelical law, the law of faith, ver. 8, Say not in thy heart, that is, the Christian hath no need to say or think within himself, Who shall go up to heaven? that is, that he hath any weighty, impossible condition required of him. This part of the words of Moses the apostle, as in a parenthesis, applies to one of the most difficult things on which our salvation depends, viz. Christ’s coming down from heaven to earth. This indeed, if it were required of us to contribute any thing toward it, would be a weighty task for us; but when Christ hath himself done it for us without any contribution of ours, this is an evidence of the easiness of the Christian’s task.

Romans 10:8

But thus the evangelical justification is described: That which is required of us toward it is within the reach of any ordinary understanding to conceive, being proclaimed by us to all that will believe, and within the compass of a Christian to perform, through Christ that strengthens him; a sort of precepts so agreeable to human nature, and so familiar to our knowledge, that thou mayest, without much pains, learn them thyself, and teach them others, and (for thy practice) with pleasure and felicity perform them; which character cannot so fitly belong to any thing as to the way of faith and new obedience set down in the gospel, which we now preach unto you, in opposition to that other of legal performances, which had so much of unprofitable weight, and even impossibility in it.

[d] The word is nigh thee] The word ἑγγύς, nigh, is best to be understood by the opposition of it to hidden and far off, Deut. iii. 11; where the Hebrew for hidden is by the Septuagint rendered ὑπέρογκος, overweighty and heavy, and in other places ἀδύνατον, impossible. So Gen. xviii. 14. (and from thence transcribed, Luke i. 37.) οὐκ ἀδυνατήσει πᾶν ῥῆμα, no word or thing shall be impossible, this word is used in the original. This is there further expressed by those proverbial speeches of being in heaven or (beyond or) in the bottom of the sea, and being fetched from thence, all noting some special difficulty or impossibility above our knowledge, far off, removed out of our reach; and so the ἑγγύς, nigh, must be feasible and easy to be known first, and then to be practised in thy mouth and in thy heart, (the Septuagint adds, καὶ ἐν χερσί σου, and in thine hands,) that thou mayest do it.

Romans 10:9

And this but of two parts as it were, one for thy mouth, the other for thy heart, ver. 8; for thy mouth, that if in spite of all persecution and danger that shall attend the profession of the Christian faith, thou shalt yet venture all, and make profession of it; and in thine heart, as the principle of Christian practice, believe the resurrection of Christ, and conform thy practice to that belief, in forsaking of sin, and arising to new life, in imitation of Christ’s rising from the grave; thou shalt escape this huge judg-

Romans 10:10

For the justifying faith is only that practical of the heart which must have confession of the mouth go along with it, and that shall give you your part in that great delivery, (see ver. 13,) and in that eternal rest hereafter.

Romans 10:11

For to that is applicable that of Isa. xxviii. 16, made use of here, ch. ix. 33, and 1 Pet. ii., that whosoever believeth on him shall be certainly owned and saved by him: see note [m] ch. ix.

Romans 10:12

And in this, it is not being circumcised, or of the stock of Abraham, that will do any man any good, or the wanting of it that will hurt any; there is no difference of Jew or Greek, so that one should be more acceptable to God than the other; for he is the common Lord and Father of both, abundantly merciful unto all, both Jew and Gentile, that give up their names unto Christ sincerely, live obediently and faithfully in his family.

Romans 10:13

For to these times peculiarly belongs that promise in Joel ii. 32, (see Acts ii. 21,) that when the great calamity befalls the Jewish nation, and all other confidences fail, and prove treacherous, they that should constantly confess, pray, and adhere to Christ, should be delivered from it: and this as a pledge of eternal deliverance or salvation.

14, 15. But here the Christian Jew objects against St. Paul, in the name of the unbelievers, that be the condition of evangelical justification never so easy, (but the acknowledging of Christ, giving up their names to him;) yet how is that believing possible for those that hear not of him, which it is clear they cannot do except they be preached to? and when the apostles have left the Jews and gone to the Gentiles, and yet there is no preaching to be had but by them, either personally, or by some sent by them, how now shall the Jews do? how is it possible for them to believe? or well done of the apostles thus to leave them?

Romans 10:16

This objection may easily be answered: that if all to whom the gospel hath been preached had received and obeyed it, there would have been no place for this objection of the Jews; for the gospel hath been preached through all the cities of Jewry

³ he is the same Lord of all, rich, αὐτὸν Κύριον πάντων, πλουτῶν.

HAMMOND, VOL. II. F

Romans 10:18

[e] their sound] This place is cited out of the Psalmist, psalm xix. 4, but so as it lies in the Greek translation, not as in the original; for instead of their voice here, it is rendered out of the Hebrew their line, or rule, or direction, for so the word קוֹם there signifies. The Psalmist there speaks of the heavens, ver. 1, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handywork, and so on, ver. 2, 3; and then, ver. 4, Their line is gone out through the land, and their words unto the end of the world, that is, in a poetical style, (wherein the Psalms are written,) though the heavens stand in one place, keeping one constant motion, equidistant from the earth, yet the commands and words thereof are heard everywhere, that is, their virtue and efficacy are understood and admired by all. Here the Septuagint seem to have read לֻלְם, their voice, for קוֹם, their line, and so render it ὁ φθόγγος αὐτῶν, nothing different from the meaning of it, as appears by the τὰ ῥήματα αὐτῶν, their words, that immediately follow; for by that it is plain that קוֹם signifies commands, (as it were,) or rule, or

γ 2

Romans 10:19

On the other side, can the Jews be ignorant, that upon their provoking God, God will cast them off, and prefer even the heathen before them? It is impossible they should be ignorant, if Moses or the prophets’ writings be heeded by them; for of them first Moses saith, Deut. xxxii. 21, by way of prediction of these (as story of those) times, They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God, angered and provoked me by preferring idols before me, and I will make them jealous with a no-nation, give the Philistine victory over them then, and now take the Gentiles, and prefer them before them, and make them angry (as now they are) to see them taken in their stead, more favoured by God than they.

Romans 10:20

Then by Isaiah, lxv. 1, who saith in plain words, that the heathen world, that was far from thinking of such a dignity, should have the gospel preached to them, and receive it.

[f] asked not after me] That ἐπερωτῶσι must here be rendered inquiring of, not after, making God the terminus, or person to whom the address is made, and not the matter of their question, whom they asked, not concerning whom, appeareth, first, by the nature of the word, which literally denotes it; and, secondly, by the use of it in all other places; as Matt. xii. 10, ἐπηρώτησαν αὐτὸν, they asked him, saying, Is it lawful, &c.; and ch. xvi. 1, ἐπηρώτησαν αὐτὸν σημεῖον, they asked him a sign; and Mark xi. 29, ἐπερωτήσω ὑμᾶς, I will ask you a question; and ἐπερωτηθεὶς, being asked, Luke xvii. 20; and John xviii. 21, Τί μὲ ἐπερωτᾷς; ἐπηρώτησον τοὺς ἀκούοντας, Why askest thou me? ask them that heard: and also, thirdly, by the Hebrew, which from Isaiah lxv. 1. is rendered by it; for that is נדרשתי, from דרש, quæsivit, consulvit, as when one consulteth the oracle, asks counsel of God. Agreeable to which is that of Hesychius, ἐρωτησόμεθα, πνθόμεθα, rendering it by that word which is ordinarily used for consulting the oracle, and from which Apollo, that gave the oracles, is called Pytho. For so the place belonged in that prophet to those that were delivered out of Antiochus’s hands, at a time when they despaired, and hoped not for such a mercy; and that despairing, or not hoping of theirs, is there expressed by not

Romans 10:21

Whereas, ver. 2, he saith to the Jews, that though he shall most diligently have called and sent apostles unto them, never giving over, till their measure of iniquities being filled up their destruction was now at the door, as a night at the end of a long day, yet they will continue refractory, and not believe the

⁴ Faith indeed, “Apa ἡ νίστιν. not of me. ⁵ voice is gone out into all the land. ⁶ inquired

Romans 10:25

For I shall declare this mystery to you, this great secret of God’s providence, (which may keep the Gentiles from being proud, vv. 18. 20,) viz., that a great part of the people of the Jews are now at this present become blind, and that that is made use of by God, that, by occasion of that, the gospel may (by departing a while from them) be preached to and received by the generality of the Gentiles, and they compacted into Christian churches, (and this in very mercy to those Jews, that they by seeing the Gentiles believe might at length be provoked to do so too, by way of emulation, vv. 11. 31.)

Romans 10:26

And so all the true children of Abraham, Jews and heathens both, but particularly the remnant of the Jews, shall come in and repent, and believe in Christ: and this agreeably to that prophecy, Isaiah lix. 20: There shall come to Sion a redeemer—some powerful means shall be used to bring the Jews to repentance and reformation of their impieties—or a deliverer to them that turn from iniquities in Jacob, who shall rescue all the penitent believing Jews from the approaching evils.

Romans 10:27

And so by this means God’s covenant shall be made good to them, in bringing them to reformation and amendment, and then accepting and pardoning as many as shall come in after all this.

Romans 10:28

It is true indeed, and observable to you Gentiles, that in respect of the present preaching of the gospel, they are now laid aside as persons utterly rejected, on purpose that ye may receive the benefit of

¹⁵ obduration is in part befallen, πώραις ἀπὸ μέρους γέγονεν. ¹⁶ so long till the fulness of the Gentiles do come in, ἄχρις οὗ εἰσέλθῃ. ¹⁷ escape, σωθήσεται. ¹⁸ And, Kal.