‘I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh,'
He commences by making clear that what he has to say is as one who himself is ‘in Christ' (‘in Messiah'), and as one who as regards the flesh is of Israelite descent (my brothers, kinsmen). They must not therefore see him as being ‘anti-Jewish', for he is himself a Christian Jew. Indeed he brings out that it is his Holy Spirit enlightened conscience that testifies to the fact that he has a deep concern for his fellow-Israelites, a concern which causes him great anguish. He makes very clear that their parlous position does indeed cause him such pain and great anguish of heart, that if it were possible for him thereby to bring them to the truth and into a right relationship with the Messiah, he would be prepared himself to be ‘anathema from the Messiah (the Christ)' for their sake. He thus does not want to be identified with those who treat the Jews lightly. As no other charge is brought against the Jews the inference must be that they in contrast are ‘accursed from the Christ' (compare Galatians 3:10-11), something which if it were possible he would gladly take on himself for their sakes. If he had not seen their state as hopeless he would certainly not have wished himself accursed from Christ, even theoretically, and the only reason why he could have done so is because he saw himself as taking their place. He was willing in theory to do what his Master had done (Galatians 3:10-13), if it would have persuaded them
We should note immediately the emphasis here on Jesus as the Messiah. Paul himself is ‘in Christ (in Messiah)' (Romans 9:1). He sees the Jews as ‘accursed from the Messiah (the Christ)', something which he would gladly take on himself (Romans 9:3). And he sees the final privilege of the Jews as being that it was from them that the Messiah came (Romans 9:5). Thus at the very commencement of his argument relationship to the Messiah, who is mentioned three times, is seen to be as of great importance, something which he will bring out in Romans 9:30 to Romans 10:17, where belief in the Messiah is confirmed to be the only basis of true righteousness (as previously emphasised in Romans 3:24 to Romans 4:25). This is the positive side of what he is saying.
‘Anathema from the Messiah'. Anathema basically means accursed. Thus Paul is here speaking of being excluded from the benefits brought by the Messiah as a consequence of being accursed. The implication from the words ‘ that I myself might be accursed from the Messiah' is that there were others who were ‘accursed from the Messiah', whose place he was prepared to take, in other words those of whom he speaks (he had already described the unbelieving Jews as accursed in Galatians 3:10-11). But we should note that in his own case what he has in mind is not a genuine desire for his ‘wish' to be accursed from Christ to be fulfilled, but a theoretical position which he speaks of, knowing at the same time that it could not in fact occur. It is thus, in his case, bringing out the deep passion in his heart, rather than reflecting a genuine wish. Being anathema from the Messiah was, of course, the position that the unbelieving Jews were themselves in. They were accursed because they failed to fulfil the Law completely (Galatians 3:10) and they were to be seen as excluded from the benefits of the Messiah because of their unwillingness to have faith in Him. As a consequence they were under the wrath of God. Thus such was his love and concern for them that he was explaining that he would gladly have been prepared to swap places with them if only that might have made them willing to believe. By this he no doubt saw himself as following, albeit theoretically, in the steps of Jesus Who did Himself become accursed in order to deliver those who were accursed (Galatians 3:10-13).
‘My brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.' Paul often refers to his fellow-Christians as ‘brothers'. Thus here he differentiates his relationship with his fellow-Jews as brothers by describing it as ‘according to the flesh'. By this he is pointing out that he is not referring to spiritual brothers, but to those who are humanly speaking his kinsmen. In other words as an Israelite himself he sees himself as related to the Israelites (compare 2 Corinthians 11:22), and wants them to know that he has not overlooked the fact. We must beware, however, of reading into his use of the term ‘brothers' any grand theological ideas. He is simply indicating a fleshly relationship of which he was deeply aware. Compare his words in Acts 22:1; Acts 22:5. Indeed Acts 22:5 clearly suggests that ‘the brothers' was a regular way of describing the leaders, or all the members, of the synagogues. It has no implications salvation-wise.