Romans 16

Romans 16:1

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? The passages quoted from the prophets show that the Gentiles also were to have the opportunity of salvation. Hence the duty of preaching to them is now shown. They could not “call upon the Lord” without faith. See Romans 10:13. But there could be no faith in the Lord unless they had heard of him, since knowledge is an element of faith. But they could not hear the gospel story until it was preached to them. Hence, preaching to the Gentiles was essential to carry out the purposes of God.

Romans 16:2

And how shall they preach, except they be sent? Those must go out to them who have knowledge of the gospel. Hence it was needful that the apostles and evangelists be “sent”. Hence Christ said, “Go into all the world and preach to every creature” (Mr 16:15 Matthew 28:19). Thus Paul shows the duty was laid upon him to preach to Greek as well as Jew. As it is written. See Isaiah 52:7. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel, etc. This message was to the Gentiles blessed tidings, and the passage quoted from Isaiah shows, under a figure, how those would rejoice who believed the glad news. See Acts 13:38.

Romans 16:3

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. All had not yet heard it, and hence could not obey it. To those who receive the gospel, it is glad tidings. These fulfill the prediction of the prophets. But many are in unbelief, and hence do not obey the gospel. (Note that the gospel is to be obeyed.) This need not surprise us, for Isaiah predicted this also, when he said, Lord, who hath believed our report? See Isaiah 53:1.

Romans 16:4

So then faith [cometh] by hearing. Hence the need of preaching. If God by a miracle wrought faith in the heart, he could dispense with the preacher. But the divine arrangement is that it should result from hearing the word of God preached. For an example of the gospel plan, see Acts 18:8.

Romans 16:5

Have they not heard? Who are alluded to? Both Jews and Gentiles. The objector might say, Well, if faith comes by hearing, so few have heard that we are not responsible for our unbelief. Nay, says the apostle, the opportunity to hear has been very widely extended. In the language of the Psalmist Psalms 19:4, Their sound went into all the earth. The sound of the preachers of the gospel. And their words unto the ends of the world. When the vast multitude converted on Pentecost were scattered to their homes, they carried the gospel into all parts of the civilized world. Paul was now writing to the church in Rome, where no apostle had ever been.

Romans 16:6

Did not Israel know? Why, the Jew is supposed to object, if the Gospel has been extended so widely, is the greater portion of Israel in ignorance that the Gentiles were to be saved? Paul replies that Israel should have known: First, Moses saith. (1) Moses foretells the call of another people to the favor of God (Deuteronomy 32:21); Esaias . . . saith. (2) Isaiah still more plainly predicts the salvation of the Gentiles in Isaiah 65:1, and (3) he predicts the falling away of Israel in Isaiah 65:2.

Romans 16:8

But to Israel he saith. Quoted from Isaiah 65:2. All day long I have stretched forth my hands. It presents the figure of a parent, with hands extended, appealing to a wayward child. That child was the Jewish nation. It was cast off because it “would” be cast off. It refused to listen to appeals. See Matthew 23:37. The apostle is far from ascribing the rejection of Israel to a divine decree, but he assigns the cause to Israel itself. Just so the Savior says in the passage just referred to, “How often ‘would I’ have gathered, . . . but ‘ye would not’”. The divine wish was that Israel should be saved, but Israel stubbornly refused.

Romans 16:10

The Two Olive Trees SUMMARY OF ROMANS 11: A Part of Israel Saved. The Rest Blinded by Their Hardness of Heart. The Salvation of the Gentiles Through the Fall of Israel. The Figure of the Two Olive Trees. The Jewish Branches Broken Off. The Gentile Branches Grafted in. Yet Israel Shall Be Saved. God’s Unsearchable Judgments. Hath God cast away his people? In chapter 10 Paul has shown that the Gentiles were to come into God’s favor, and the Jews, the chosen people, to be rejected. He now asks whether the Jews were finally cast off. He shows that the rejection was not total, but partial, many Jews being saved; and secondly, that it was not eternal, but finally all Israel would come to Christ. I also am an Israelite. Hence all Israel is not cast off, since he, an Israelite, is an apostle of Christ. He shows that he is of approved Jewish descent.

Romans 16:11

God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Israel was the people foreknown, “the chosen people”. In Romans 11:1, “his people” refers to the nation; here it must mean the same, not individuals. The nation foreknown and chosen is not totally and eternally cast off. This is what Paul means, and what he devotes the rest of the chapter to proving. He first shows that a portion of Israel is saved. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? The passage referred to is found in 1 Kings 19:10. How he maketh intercession to God against Israel. Elijah, a fugitive for his life, in his appeal to God, assumes that all Israel had fallen into the idol worship of Ahab and Jezebel. But there were true worshipers left, although the nation seemed to have fallen away. In what seemed a general apostasy, there were seven thousand left (1 Kings 19:18). So, argues the apostle, there are faithful ones left now in Israel.

Romans 16:12

They have killed thy prophets. See 1 Kings 19:10-18.

Romans 16:13

Have not bowed the knee to Baal. See 1 Kings 19:18. Baal was the principal deity of the Phoenicians, and represented the sun. Jezebel, the queen of Ahab, was a Phoenician, and sought to supplant the worship of Jehovah with the worship of Baal. Though it seemed as though she had succeeded, still there were those left who had not bowed the knee to the false God.

Romans 16:14

Even so . . . there is a remnant. As in the times of Ahab, there is “a remnant”, a portion of Israel left, which is faithful. According to the election of grace. Godet says: ``The ideas contained in these words is this: In virtue of the election of Israel as the salvation people, God has not left them in our days without a faithful remnant any more than he did the in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes at the period when a far grosser heathenism prevailed.’’ The idea is that Israel was the elected (chosen people), and out of it God had always preserved a remnant by his grace. The election of individuals is not referred to, but the election of a remnant to represent the race.

Romans 16:15

If by grace, then [is it] no more of works. The salvation of the gospel is by grace. that is, it is the gift which springs from the love of God. If that be true, it is not to be earned by the works of the Jewish law. Paul is very emphatic is showing that the Jewish Christians were saved, not because they deserved it on account of keeping the law blameless, but because they accepted the offered mercy of God.

Romans 16:16

What then? What is the inference from the fact that the greater part of Israel has fallen away? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for. It is that Israel has not obtained what it hoped and sought for, justification by the law, and is under condemnation, but the election hath obtained it. “The election” means “the elect”, and this term is applied to all believers. Here it is limited to that portion of the elect people, Israel, which had accepted Christ, and hence were an elect remnant. That “election” does not mean a decree that an individual shall be eternally saved is shown by 2 Peter 1:10. If an individual was elected before time began to eternal salvation by a divine decree, no act of his could render his election surer. The scriptural election is one that requires diligence on our part, and effort to keep from falling. The rest were blinded. Israel had eyes and saw not. See Isaiah 6:9 and see PNT Matthew 13:14. The Savior says they were blinded because they closed their eyes. It was their own act.

Romans 16:17

As it is written. See Isaiah 29:10. Goth hath given them the spirit of slumber. The deep sleep spoken of by the prophet was sent because Israel abused its opportunities. They who love darkness will finally be left in darkness.

Romans 16:18

And David saith. See Psalms 69:22,23. Let their table be made a snare, etc. This prediction is applied to the enemies of Christ. Its meaning is that their enmity shall react upon and injure themselves. Even their table shall become a place of danger.

Romans 16:19

Let their eyes be darkened. See Psalms 69:23. Darkness shall come upon them because they love darkness rather than light. Bow down their back. This implies a condition of bondage on account of their sins.

Romans 16:20

Have they stumbled that they should fall? Shall we conclude that Israel has fallen forever? The apostle now proceeds to the second branch of his argument, and shows that God, for wise reasons, has cast off Israel for a time, but that finally the nation will be converted. Through their fall salvation [is come] to the Gentiles. Christ said, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). He referred to the cross. Rejected by the Jewish nation, and sent to the cross, he became the Savior of all mankind, Gentiles as well as Jews. So, too, the rejection of the gospel by the Jews, accelerated the preaching among the Gentiles. See Acts 8:4; 13:46. So, too, when the Jews crucified Christ, “the handwriting of ordinances was nailed to the cross” (Colossians 2:14), the “partition wall” (Ephesians 2:14) between Jews and Gentiles was broken down. So the result of the Jews hardening themselves and rejecting Christ was, under the providence of God, that the Gentiles should be saved. To provoke them to jealousy. The elder brother, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, was filled with jealousy when he saw the younger son accepted by the father (Lu 15:28).

Romans 16:21

If the fall of them [be] the riches of the world. In contributing to the conversion of the Gentiles their fall has been “riches”. How much more their fulness? In the remaining part of the chapter the apostle shows the grand results which will follow the final conversion of the Jewish nation as a body.

Romans 16:22

I speak to you Gentiles. As an apostle to the Gentiles he reminded them of what they owed to the falling away of the Jews. Magnify mine office. Was active in his office seeking to convert as many Gentiles as possible, hoping thus “to provoke to emulation” his Jewish brethren (Romans 11:14).

Romans 16:24

For if the casting away of them [be] the reconciling of the world. See PNT Romans 11:11. Their unbelief caused the preaching of the gospel of reconciliation to the Gentiles. But life from the dead. The apostle, under this strong expression, describes a wonderful resurrection of spiritual life which will follow the national conversion of Israel.

Romans 16:25

For if the firstfruit [be] holy. See Numbers 15:18-21. Some explain the first fruits by Abraham and the patriarchs. It probably refers, rather, to the Jewish Christians, “the election by grace” (Romans 11:5). If a portion of the nation has been saved, it is an assurance that the whole nation can be saved. And if the root [be] holy. The root may refer to Abraham. The figure is that of a tree, with the patriarchs for the root. “Holy” is used in the sense of acceptable to God, a common sense in the Scriptures. In Romans 11:17 the figure of the root, the stalk and the tree, is expanded.

Romans 16:26

And if some of the branches be broken off. To understand Romans 11:17-24, we must have a clear idea of what is meant by the olive tree. That it means the chosen family of Abraham, not his children merely of the flesh, but his believing children, the heirs of the promise, is clear. The Jewish nation inherited the temporal promises as Abraham’s children; we become heirs of the promise when we become his children by faith. See Galatians 3:28,29. The Jews, the natural branches of this olive tree, “were broken off” by unbelief. The root is Abraham. Thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in. When the Jews, the natural branches, were broken off by their unbelief, the Gentile Christians, not natural branches, not of the seed of Abraham, but wild olive, “were grafted in”; that is, were adopted into God’s family, and became Abraham’s children. With them partakest of the root. With Jewish Christians, these Gentile Christians became partakers of all the blessings belonging to Abraham’s seed.

Romans 16:27

Boast not against the branches. There is too much of this in the prejudice against the Jewish race. Thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. The riches of graces of the Gentile Christian are due to the fact that he is “grafted in” upon the Abrahamic stock, and becomes his child by faith.