CRITICAL NOTES
Romans 9:1. I speak in Christ the truth.—Not to be rendered, “I speak the truth in Christ.” The apostle, not as a man merely, but as a member of Christ, in His name, as His apostle.
Romans 9:2.—λύπη, ὀδύνη, sorrow and pang.
Romans 9:3.—St. Paul considers personal happiness subordinate to the general salvation.
Romans 9:4.—The glory, the Shekinah; the covenants frequently repeated; the service of the tabernacle and temple; the true worship of God.
Romans 9:5.—“In this passage five distinct assertions concerning our Lord, His incarnation, His existence from everlasting, His supremacy, His divinity” (Dr. Wordsworth). “Although εὐλογημένος is used by Christ, εὐλογητός never is. Had Paul wished to teach in this verse that Christ is God, he might have done so, and put his meaning beyond doubt, by writing ὅς ἐστιν, as in Romans 1:25. Consequently the word ὤν lends no support to the former exposition” (Dr. Beet).
Romans 9:6.—ἐκπέπτωκεν, has been void, as כָפַל (Joshua 21).
Romans 9:7.—κληθήσεται, be named, and obtain celebrity.
Romans 9:8.—τέκνα τ. ἐπαγγελίας, for τέκνα ἐπαγγέλμενα, those to whom pertained the felicity promised to Abraham. Heirship of God’s blessings derived from the realisation of special promises.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Romans 9:1-8
St. Paul’s intensity.—St. Paul was a thorough man, and did not believe in half measures. His spirit was always raised to a high degree. If he was opposed to Christianity, he showed himself an opponent to be dreaded. He was an intense persecutor. If he was in favour of Christianity, he showed himself an ardent admirer. The Christian religion has produced no more fervent and devoted adherent. Paul’s spirit manifests itself in this opening passage.
I. The intensity of his defence.—He declares his truthfulness as one who speaks from the Christ standpoint. The truth in Christ should be the preacher’s aim—the truth from Christ, the truth as Christ’s ambassador, the truth as from one who is united to the Spirit of truth. Let us get into the light of Christ, and then we shall be delivered from all falsehood, and conscience will bear a true witness. A Christ-enlightened conscience is the only reliable witness. The witness of conscience must coincide with the witness of the Holy Ghost.
II. The intensity of his love.—Such was his love that his soul endured the mourning of sorrow and the harrowings of a great pang. His love had the bitter as well as the sweet aspect. All true love has its intense anguish. Jesus loved and Jesus wept; Jesus loved and Jesus sighed. Paul loved, and in consequence had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart. Love glides on the pleasant stream. The sun shines overhead; the banks are gay with flowers; sweet fragrances delight the senses; pleasant songs gladden the heart. But love is not always a smooth passage. The wail of distress harrows the soul; storms have to be encountered. Love’s earthly portion is often great heaviness and continual sorrow in the heart.
III. The intensity of his patriotism.—He loved his country and his kinsmen according to the flesh. Such was his patriotism that he could wish himself “accursed from Christ.” Whatever this may mean, it shows Paul’s intensity. He was willing for any sacrifice. He would fall, if by his fall his kinsmen could rise. Too many of our so-called patriots sell their patriotism at a good price. They rise by means of swelling words. They profess self-sacrifice, and live in luxury; the country is impoverished, and they are enriched. What Paul was in words he was in deeds. Self-sacrifice was his creed and his practice. He laboured for the universal good, and earthly emolument was not his reward. He was not one of your good men who manage to make “the best of both worlds.” If he were not accursed from Christ, he was accursed from earth royalties. Patriotism is inspired by a sense of the country’s greatness and glory. Paul had an exalted view of the privileges with which the Israelites were favoured. They were the adopted children of God. The Shekinah shed a heaven light on their pathway; the covenants sustained a connection with heaven; the service of God exalted; the promises cheered; the moral code placed them in the forefront of nations, and is to-day the backbone of highest forms of civilisation. All these glories culminated in the glory of giving to the world the divine-human Man, the representative of manhood; the one entire and perfect chrysolite. Well indeed might Paul love that nation from which as concerning the flesh Christ came.
IV. The intensity of his perception.—Long before our day Paul knew that things are not what they seem. He distinguished between the semblance and the reality; between the being and the not-being; between the phantasm of a man and the glorious reality of a man; between an Israelite who might be known by the cast of his physical features or by the cunning of his mercantile transactions, and the Israelite who might be known by the glory of his moral manhood and by showing himself the honourable and grand heir of all the ages. The children of the promise are counted for the seed—children fashioned according to the divine ideal. The children of the flesh are not the children of God. The children of the promise are the children of the Promise-giver. The children of the Spirit are the offspring of the eternal Spirit. They rise above all materialism; they move in highest realms. Are we children of the promise? Are we living the higher life? Are we seeking and serving Christ-like aims and purposes?
Romans 9:1-3. Christian zeal.—One thing he would not part with, the love of Christ. That love he would have with him wherever he was, wherever God might place him. Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? That he could not lose, for none can lose it who part not willingly from it. But the presence of Christ, the blissful glory of His countenance, the joy of being with his Master, the entrancing, transporting vision of Him who had called him while he was persecuting Him—this, the very bliss of eternity, the blessed-making sight of God, St. Paul was ready to forgo, if so be his Redeemer might be the more glorified and the souls of his kinsmen after the flesh. They, to whom the promises appertained, might be saved and joined to the heavenly choirs who adore the Master whom he loved. St. Paul would not be separated from the love of Christ; but he could endure to think of being separated, in place, in sight, in joy, from Christ Himself. “I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ.” He willed, like the thing devoted, separated to God, and sacrificed to Him, to be cut off from all besides; yet not from God, but from the presence of God. He who had been the “off-scouring of the world” could have borne to forfeit the very sight of God, if so be God Himself might thereby be the more glorified and souls might be won to Him and live to Him eternally. Such was an apostle’s fervour, such an apostle’s love. Great must be the preciousness of zeal for souls, that God put into his soul such a thought as this, that he could bear even to be separated from the sight of Him whom His soul loved, if so be greater glory might so be gained to Him and there were more to love Him. Precious indeed in the sight of the Lord is true zeal for souls—precious indeed, because there is nothing in the whole world so precious as the soul of man redeemed by the blood of Christ. Not the whole world, sun, moon, and countless hosts of heaven, would be as the very dust in the balance weighed with one soul for which Christ died. Great and divine you would think the office to uphold in being and direct in their courses all those heavenly lights which brighten our day and make our night serene and calm. When Joshua bid the sun and the moon stand still, it is said, “There was no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man.” Great was it when, at the prayers of Elijah and Elisha, St. Peter or St. Paul, death gave back its slain—when, at apostles’ prayers, the blind saw, or the deaf heard, or the lame walked. But greater far is it when one human soul is won out of the jaws of Satan to adore its Redeemer forever.… It is the greatest work in which God employs man; for it is the greatest work of God Himself. It is the end for which God the Father made all besides; for which God the Son became man; for which God the Holy Ghost pleads with, calls, sanctifies, indwells man, and unites him unto God. The salvation of man is the combined work of the holy Trinity. They together ordained it; they in union brought it about; and in this their work they join in with themselves the work of man. But, then, zeal which would be heard must be self-denying. “Charity begins at home.” Wouldst thou have true zeal, be zealous with thyself. First have pity on thine own soul, and then have zeal for the souls of others. And so it is a blessing to thee to be asked to aid in any act of spiritual mercy. It is a twofold blessing to thee, in that it is an offering to Him, the good Father, thy blessed Maker, thy tender Redeemer, and He will repay thee; it is a means of denying thyself, putting restraint upon thyself, giving up to God some self-indulgence which the rather hindered thee in taking up thy cross and following Christ. It is to exchange a weight which clogs thee for wings which shall bear thee towards thy God.—Pusey, D. D.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Romans 9:1-8
“Accursed from Christ.”—The word translated “accursed,” which in the marginal reading is rendered “separated,” sometimes means also “cut off” or “destroyed.” Now, if we take it in this sense, the difficulty will be in a great measure removed; for the words will mean merely that the apostle was willing to be cut off, or to suffer death, if by that means he could save his countrymen from the calamities impending over them. But the expression “separated from Christ” is unfavourable to this view of the meaning; for these words usually imply “separated from the favour of Christ,” and consequently from the hope of salvation through Him. This difficulty, however, is at least diminished when it is borne in mind that Paul often denominates the Christian Church “the body of Christ,” and that sometimes the phrase “to be in Christ” seems to mean nothing more than being “a member of the Church of Christ.” Now, if we take the words rendered “accursed from Christ,” or rather “separated from Him,” to mean “separated from the Church of Christ,” or “cut off by a violent death from the communion of the Church,” we shall have a meaning suitable to the circumstances. For the Jews were not cut off from being the Church of God, and destined to be destroyed; and it was not unnatural for the apostle to say that he would willingly submit to this fate in their stead if that could save them. This interpretation is the more probable, that the word translated “accursed,” or “separated,” is the common Scripture term for denoting “excommunicated,” or “cut off,” from the communion of the visible Church. “If any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema” (the word here employed)—cut off from the privileges of a Christian and the communion of the Church. It is true that cutting off from communion of the Church was, according to the opinion of the time, equivalent to cutting off from the hope of salvation. But this opinion rested on no authority; and consequently St. Paul, in saying that he was willing to submit to this fate in place of his countrymen, does not mean that he was willing to submit to eternal condemnation for them—a wish which it seems hardly possible for him to have expressed.—Ritchie.
Not one must perish.—Tholuck reminds us that Paul’s eye falls on the mighty company of the subjects of the Old Testament theocracy, which, offering as a whole a hostile resistance to the Christian scheme of salvation, seems on that ground to deserve total rejection. Paul’s conversion to Christianity did not rob him of love for his own nation. Cast out, despised of them, he does not give them up. He still hopes for their salvation.
I. The apostle shows his wariness. In full keeping with Christ’s warning, “Be wise as serpents,” etc. He has to win a prejudiced people. Hence he identifies himself with them; and it is as brother pleading with brother, a case of winning to Christ “making a difference.”
II. Paul is moved to godly sorrow at others’ danger.—As though “Woe is me if,” etc. He follows out Christ’s injunction, “Bless them that curse you.” Shows how the forgiving spirit of Christianity works in Christ’s true followers.
III. While pleading, Paul does not spare where blame is demanded.—He shows the Jews that if they are not received by God they have themselves to blame. Salvation is for every one. No exclusiveness, no favouritism, no respect of persons, in the scheme of redemption. To Jews, and all others, if they are lost, pride and wilfulness, and not God’s exclusion, are their ruin. It is not God who shuts the door against us.
IV. A true child of God is willing to be a cross-bearer for the sake of those in peril.—“I could wish myself accursed.” Here is Christ mirrored in His follower. Christ willing to spend and be spent, even treading the sad way of sacrifice, that men might be saved. Paul a worthy follower, imitating Christ in this full surrender of self; ready for the great extremity, if by so doing he could save some; This is true surrender of self for the good of others. This is true self-sacrifice; and self-sacrifice is a principle pre-eminently Christian.
V. A noble ancestry does not save us from sin’s penalties.—
1. The Jews were naturally proud of their descent—a chosen people, a royal priesthood. But this ancestry brought its dangers. It fostered pride, self-confidence, blinded the sense of any need of reformation or penitence. Yet our blessings are not founded on our merits, but on the free grace of God. It was so with the Jews; it is so with everyone.
2. Our privileges render the guilt of rejection and forgetfulness the more manifest. Jews were of one blood with Christ; yet they set Him at defiance, denounced Him, rejected Him. Thus they rejected Him who is blessed for ever, “God over all.” Little do we know, sometimes, the extremity to which our pride takes us, the terrible guilt we incur.
VI. Does not this strong feeling on Paul’s part suggest God’s tenderness to the sinner?—Saving the vilest. Paul so knew his Lord that he knew there was pardon wherever there was penitence. The old gospel story was in his mind; and he was constrained to tell it, to plead with them as one who must give account. Mercy is offered even to those who challenge Heaven to bruise and crush them. Shall we not come to Christ for mercy?—Albert Lee.
Paul does not wish to be damned.—Paul does not teach that we should be willing to be damned for the glory of God.
1. His very language implies that such a wish would be improper. For in the ardour of his disinterested affection he does not himself entertain or express the wish, but merely says, in effect, that were it proper or possible, he would be willing to perish for the sake of his brethren.
2. If it is wrong to do evil that good may come, how can it be right to wish to be evil that good may come?
3. There seems to be a contradiction involved in the very terms of the wish. Can any one love God so much as to wish to hate Him? Can he be so good as to desire to be bad? We must be willing to give up houses and lands, parents and brethren, and our life also, for Christ and His kingdom; but we are never required to give up holiness for His sake, for this would be a contradiction.—Hodge.
“I wished myself accursed.”—The more I consider the passage, I am the more satisfied that the first part of the third verse should be rendered in the past time and thrown into a parenthesis—“For I myself wished to be accursed from Christ.” The considerations in support of this rendering are strong:—
(1) It is literal. The other is not. I wished, not I could wish, is the simple and direct rendering of the verb. To make it conditional it should be in another tense or have a particle of conditionality prefixed to it. If instances to the contrary, they are exceptions to the rule.
(2) The sense is complete without the parenthesis.
(3) It gives a natural connection to the second verse, which otherwise it wants.
(4) The emphatic expression I myself is in this way most naturally explained. It evidently has the sense of, I myself as well as they—I too, like them, wished to be accursed from Christ. Our translators have shown that this emphatic expression does not naturally suit the ordinary interpretation, by omitting it—“I myself could wish “would not be natural; and they have therefore separated the myself from the I.
(5) It affords an interesting and beautiful sense. It assigns the reason of his “great heaviness and sorrow of heart.” The reason lies in the recollection of what he himself had been. He too had rejected Jesus, and thought he should do many things against His name.—Dr. Wardlaw.
“Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came.”—The Christ, according to the prophecies that went before, was to be the seed of Abraham and of David. It was pre-eminently in this sense that “salvation was of the Jews.” They gave birth to the Saviour. In this, God put the very highest honour upon the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by bringing from among them the human nature of IMMANUEL. The “horn of salvation for Jews and Gentiles was raised up in the house of God’s servant David.” The expression “as concerning the flesh,” or “as far as respects the flesh,” or “as to His human nature,” is a phrase which prepares us to expect something more. It is a phrase which most assuredly we should never think of using respecting any mere man. It instantly suggests the question, What was He else?—what was He not according to the flesh? There is an obviously designed antithesis, the taking away of which divests the words of all their force and meaning, and converts them into a useless and unnatural pleonasm, which adds weakness instead of strength and propriety to the expression and the sentiment. The antithesis is fully brought out by what follows: “Who is over all, God blessed for ever.” We need not wonder that the adversaries of our blessed Lord’s divinity have been sadly put to it with this most simple and explicit declaration of that all important and essential article of gospel truth. The most commonly approved gloss is that which converts the last clause of the verse into a doxology—either making the stop in the enumeration at the word “came,” or at the word “all.” In the former case the doxology is, “God who is over all be blessed for ever! “in the latter simply, “God be blessed for ever!”—Dr. Wardlaw.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 9
Romans 9:3. Ambrose and Nazianzen.—Out of the greatest zeal to God and love to his countrymen, the apostle wisheth himself anathema—that is, not to be separated from the Spirit and grace of Christ (for so he should have sinned), but from the comforts of Christ, the happiness that comes in by Christ, as one well interpreteth it. Charitas exuberans optatetiam impossibilia, saith Luther—his over-abounding charity wisheth impossibilities; but his wish was voluntas conditionata, saith one. His love to the Church was like the ivy, which, if it cleave to a stone or an old wall, will rather die than forsake it. Somewhat like to this holy wish was that of Ambrose, that the fire of contentions kindled in the Churches might (if it were the will of God) be quenched with his blood. And that of Nazianzen, that (Jonah-like) he might be cast into the sea, so by it all might be calm in the public.—Trapp.