Romans 15:8-12 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Now To show more fully what I mean in saying Christ received us, I observe, that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision Or vouchsafed to be a servant of the Jews, in preaching the gospel among them; for the truth of God To demonstrate his faithfulness in fulfilling the promises made unto the fathers Of sending them the Messiah; and therefore, 1st, The believing Jews, though weak, ought not to be despised by the believing Gentiles, though stronger. And, 2d, It is no objection to Christ's receiving the Gentiles, that he never preached to them, for he became a minister of the circumcision, not only in order to the salvation of the Jews, but also that, by converting them, and sending them to preach to the Gentiles, he might accomplish the promises made to the fathers concerning the blessing of all nations. And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, as it is written, Psalms 18:49; where the Gentiles and Jews are spoken of as joining in the worship of the true God, the God of Israel. To explain this more fully, “Jesus Christ was born a Jew, and exercised his ministry among the Jews, in order that the truth of God's promises to the fathers, concerning the blessing of the nations in Abraham's seed, might be confirmed by the conversion of the Jews and Gentiles. For as the Jews were the only people on earth who worshipped the true God, and had his revelations in their hands, it was absolutely necessary that the gospel, in which all the former revelations terminated, should be first preached to them; that a sufficient number of them receiving it, might preach it to the Gentiles, as the fulfilment of the former revelations, of which their nation were the keepers. The gospel being thus offered to the Gentiles, as the word of the same God who anciently spoke to the fathers of the Jewish nation by the prophets; that circumstance, with the miracles which accompanied the first preaching of it, so powerfully demonstrated it to be from God, that multitudes of the Gentiles, receiving it, turned from idols to worship the living and true God; whereby the truth of God's promise to the fathers, concerning the blessing of the nations in Christ, was illustriously confirmed, and the Gentiles had an opportunity of glorifying God for his mercy in their conversion.” It may be proper to observe further here, that “conversion to the true God being the mercy, or blessing, which God promised to bestow on the Gentiles, it is particularly mentioned here, not only to make the Gentiles sensible that they ought not to despise the Jews, through whom they had received so great a blessing, but also to persuade the Jews to acknowledge the Gentiles as the people of God, equally with themselves.” Macknight. And again Moses saith, (Deuteronomy 32:43,) Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people Implying that the time would come when the Gentiles should become the people of God as well as the Jews, and should join with them in the worship of God, and rejoice in a sense of his goodness to them. And again, (Psalms 117:1,) Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, for the mercy vouchsafed to you; therefore they shall know God, and obtain mercy; and Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse See note on Isaiah 11:10. The apostle here follows the translation of the LXX., because, though it differs in expression from the Hebrew, it represents the prophet's meaning with sufficient exactness to prove the point for which he quotes it, which was to show that the Gentiles should become the people of God by believing, and confiding in the Messiah, and therefore should be united in the same church with the believing Jews. And the apostle's design in this part of his epistle being to persuade the Jewish and Gentile converts to a cordial union in the public worship of God, it was of great importance to show the Jews that this coalition was foretold in their own Scriptures; for which purpose the apostle, with great propriety, quotes the various passages here adduced.