CRITICAL NOTES
Romans 9:25.—Refers not only to the gathering again of the Israelites rejected in the carrying away by Shalmaneser, but also of the Gentiles rejected at the building of Babel; remnants elected from both.
Romans 9:27.—Only few out of the ten tribes returned to Judæa; few left by Sennacherib; few brought to Christ.
Romans 9:28.—Alford seems to include both promise and threatening in λόγος, and makes the object of the citation a confirmation of “the certainty of the salvation of the remnant of Israel, seeing that now, as then, He, with whom a thousand years are as a day, will swiftly accomplish His prophetic word in righteousness.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Romans 9:25-29
The not-beloved become beloved.—The late Mr. Spurgeon, in his sermon on “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,” says: “This text means just what it says; it does not mean nations, but it means the persons mentioned. Jacob—that is, the man whose name was Jacob—Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Take care how any of you meddle with God’s word. I have heard of folks altering passages they did not like. Our only power with the word of God is simply to let it stand as it is, and to endeavour by God’s grace to accommodate ourselves to that.” He will not even allow us to translate “Esau have I hated” by “the meaningless words ‘I love less.’ ” Fortunately we do not want. But if we are to follow the great preacher’s literalism, shall we find the doctrine of eternal predestination and election before time in the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth verses? He says in another place, “I may be as sure of my election as if I could climb to heaven and turn over the red roll and read my name in letters of gold. The Lord has given thee a test which never did fail yet, and never will.” How about those once not beloved? Are the names of the not beloved written in the red roll? He says that between calling and election there is an indissoluble union. Here God calls a people which were once not His people; therefore God elects those who were once not elected. As we understand the doctrine of election carried out to its extreme lengths, the elected always are and have been God’s people, and the effectual calling is only giving outward expression to the divine purpose. So again the non-elect are elected—the not-people of God become His children. Our conclusion is that repellent dogmatism on abstruse subjects is to be avoided. Positive assertions cannot bury difficulties. The reason of man cannot be stifled by swelling words. Humility is a becoming attitude in the presence of the sublimest topics that can engage human attention. We learn from the passage under discussion:—
I. Divine grace.—Whatever may be our views of predestination and election, we must hold fast to the doctrine of divine grace. If the gospel be a remedial scheme for the benefit of universal man, then we must not hamper that scheme by narrow views. Let us believe in the largeness and freeness of the divine mind; let God’s call move through the earth, giving forth its sweet measures as fully as God’s myriad songsters. God makes into His people those who were once not His people. He called the Gentiles; He called the British peoples. Let us adore God’s matchless grace. God calls, and all who hear and obey may become the children of the living God, the beloved of the eternal Love.
II. God’s righteousness.—Wonderful is the pleading of Jeremiah. “Righteous art Thou, O Lord, when I plead with Thee; yet let me talk with Thee of Thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously.” The prophet rises above seeming anomalies in the divine proceedings, and declares, “Righteous art Thou, O Lord.” Whatever may appear contradictory, yet let us rest assured that God’s finished work, that God’s completed plan, will vindicate the eternal righteousness. Righteous is the Lord, though He call that beloved which was not beloved, and though only a remnant of the elect nation be saved.
III. God’s provision.—A remnant is saved. A germinating force is provided. A remnant was saved from the deluged world; a remnant was saved from the destroyed cities. God has His remnants through all time, and these become the seed forces of great harvests. In darkest periods God has His sons of light. God’s germinating forces are good and true men. They are productive. They die; but the wheat dies, and over its tomb waves the golden harvest.
The remnant.—R.V., “It is the remnant that shall be saved.”
I. The doctrine of the remnant.—
1. Teaching of Old Testament prophecy. The text is quoted from Isaiah 10:22. Words there are, “A remnant of them shall return”—i.e., from the captivity, and thus be saved from ruin and extinction, which awaited the majority. Referring to that remnant (Romans 6:13), he speaks of it as a “holy seed.” In his eye small minority were a “holy seed,” but great majority unsound, and therefore doomed. “Drunkards and blind,” as he calls them—i.e., dissolute and foolish—constituting this majority, must perish; but its perishing = necessary step towards happier future. Foresees that remnant is not only to return and so be saved itself, but it is to be also a mighty power for the saving of others. A Prince of the house of David is to be born, who is to bring wondrous influences to bear upon the bad majority, and at length to reign over a state renewed, preserved, and enlarged, a great and glorious kingdom. No need to enter into question as to how soon prophet expected reign of Prince to begin. Enough to know such a Prince at length did come, and that His object was to found a kingdom not of this world. He came and accomplished His work. His followers at first a mere remnant—twelve apostles, one hundred and twenty disciples at Jerusalem—but its mission = through that Prince to save the world. Communities wherein no good remnant left; hopelessly doomed (Isaiah 1:9; cp. Romans 9:29).
2. Teaching of the text. At Pentecost strangers from Rome at Jerusalem. Perhaps, too, some of those libertini (freedmen) who heard St. Stephen may have been Romans. In any case St. Paul here addresses a Church which had been founded at Rome, chiefly Jewish, but also partly Gentile = small minority among vast population. They right; rulers of this world and vast majority of people all wrong. They = “holy seed,” which was to grow and wax strong; leaven, which was to extend itself till the whole was leavened. How this was done subsequent history of Christianity shows.
3. General statement. History, both sacred and secular, exhibits frequent periods where the corruption of human nature becomes painfully apparent in general depravity and vice. But God’s Spirit has never entirely forsaken the world. Except in cases where utter ruin has resulted, a reaction has in the course of time set in, and this has always begun not with the many but the few. Often when the majority have run headlong into sin and ruin, a minority have been saved—e.g., Flood, call of Abraham, Caleb and Joshua, etc. “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Majority very apt to be wrong on vital questions. May be sometimes right, but as a rule lack principle and persistence. Today good impulses prevail, but gone to-morrow. [Contrast Sunday cry of “Hosanna” with Friday cry of “Crucify Him”; vacillation of crowds in every age; popularity of Savonarola with Florentines all gone in an hour, and the once powerful and attractive preacher publicly executed; instability of popular feeling in Reformation times and since.]
II. What saves the remnant?—Answer of:
1. Isaiah and prophets: “To order one’s conversation aright,” to “cease to do evil,” to “learn to do well,” to “delight in the law of the Lord,” to “make one’s study in it all the day long.”
2. Our blessed Lord: to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” to “become as little children,” to “do the will of our Father in heaven.”
3. St. Paul: to “have faith in Christ, the embodiment of righteousness” (Romans 9:30-32), and thus to have the heart and mind set upon those objects, aims, and actions of which righteousness is composed (Philippians 4:8).
III. Consolation for the saved remnant.—
1. Holding fast to that whereby the remnant is saved, there arises in the soul a peace which nothing else can give (Psalms 119:165). God’s laws of righteousness are eternal and unchangeable. We know what they are. The majority may seek to evade them; but the godly minority have the consolation of knowing that the eternal One is not only wise and good, but also powerful to “defend the right.” This thought has nerved on the saints and heroes who have often shone as lights in a corrupt age.
2. Their influence must sooner or later be felt. “Ye are the salt of the earth.” Their example and efforts have a tendency to purify. There is consolation in the thought of this.
IV. Warning from the doctrine of the remnant.—Not to be led astray by an evil majority (Exodus 23:2). An evil majority, headed by self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, lured Jerusalem to its overthrow. Massillon, preaching before the court of France in the days of Louis XIV., spoke of the last judgment—the great testing-time when the saved remnant shall be finally severed from all others besides—in terms so awfully vivid that when the climax of his discourse was reached the whole of that brilliant assemblage rose to their feet as one man, conscience-stricken, cut to the heart. But there was no real reformation. The fashion of the time was too strong. The righteous minority in France was too small, too weak, to save the nation from the crack of doom which burst in the Revolution nearly a century later. Beware of the authority which in these days it is too much the fashion to attach to mere majorities (Matthew 7:13-14).—G. E. P. Reade.
Romans 9:25-33. Paul elects the non-elect.—“As He saith also in Osee,” etc. This avowedly difficult passage deals with the doctrine of election, suggested by the question of the calling of the Gentiles. Paul here sets forth the groundwork of chaps, 9 to 11. He points out that the Israelites who were lost were ruined by pride, refusing to comply with the divine purposes. Some have built on this section of the epistle the doctrine of election, which Wesley thus expresses: “By virtue of an eternal, unchangeable, irresistible decree of God, one part of mankind is infallibly saved, and the rest infallibly damned, it being impossible that any of the former should be damned, or that any of the latter should be saved.” What is Paul’s attitude towards this? The whole chapter deals fully with the question.
1. Paul notes the unhappy fact that the Jews were rejected by God.
2. This he remarks in order to show that neither ancestry nor a man’s works will form any claim to justification.
3. He seeks to show that God has a free hand, is not bound down by any restriction at all. He has absolute right to do as He pleases, and name His own conditions for salvation. Hence He may reject the Jews who do not comply, and accept the Gentiles who do.
4. Paul, by his concluding statements, throws open salvation to all who are willing to accept Christ, even those whom the Jews thought were non-elect. The text suggests that Paul practically elects the non-elect.
I. Paul here teaches that salvation is for all who believe in Christ.—
1. Here he is in harmony with Peter, his contemporary. Peter (Acts 3:25-26) declared the blessing of redemption to be first promised to the Jews. But the very word “first” implied that it was to be sent to the Gentiles also. Paul agrees in Galatians 3:8.
2. He is in harmony with the psalmists, who teach that grace is not exclusive (Psalms 72:17; Psalms 102:15; Psalms 102:22; Psalms 117:1).
3. He is in harmony with the prophets, who recognise the breadth and length, the height and depth, of the divine redemption (Isaiah 45:22-23; also our text, Romans 9:25). Is not this pointing to the salvation of the human race? The minor prophets teach the same (Joel 2:28-31; Joel 3:12-21; Habakkuk 2:13-14; Zephaniah 2:11; Zephaniah 3:8-9; Malachi 1:11; Malachi 3:1-3; Malachi 4:1-3).
4. Paul is in harmony here with his other epistles, where he develops the doctrine of salvation for all who believe with great force (e.g., Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:20). Is not this an election of the non-elect?
II. The once-indifferent may embrace salvation.— Romans 9:30. The Jews were first called; the Gentiles appeared to be excluded. The Jews exhibited this thought by their utmost scorn for Gentiles. But now, if willing to come, if accepting the conditions of salvation, they may be saved. Once they were outside the pale, because they followed not after righteousness, had no knowledge of it, no care nor thought about it. When they heard the gospel, they embraced it. Then its blessings were theirs. The moment of acceptance was the moment when the barriers of exclusion were broken down. It is so now. We are “non-elect” so long as we reject the gospel, and no longer.
III. There are no vested interests in the matter of salvation.—We may be Jews, having Abraham for our father; but that will not open the kingdom of heaven to us. Israel, the chosen people, not saved from disaster: only a remnant saved. We may say we are among the “elect”: that, if we do not live aright, will not save us. The question of elect or non-elect does not free us from active living faith in Christ. We must believe in Christ and live like Him.
IV. Outward observance of God’s laws will not secure our election.—Israel followed after the law, observed it to the letter, but had none of the spirit of righteousness. Jews harboured hate, secretly served other gods, etc.; and God rejected them, even while their altar fires were burning and their feasts were religiously observed. Why rejected? Because they sought not their salvation by faith, but by works. There was no inward righteousness. It was all outward show. “Not every one that saith,” etc. It is a case of the last being first and the first last. Any who may have the form of righteousness may miss its blessings, if they have not the power of godliness. At the last there will be a sifting; the unworthy will be set aside. In this sense “a remnant” only will be saved—only those who have loved righteousness and accepted Christ as their Saviour.
V. If any are lost, the fault is theirs.—They can never plead the existence of a hard-and-fast law that dooms some and delivers others. The lost are not so lost because of any decree of God. It is because they reject Christ and His offers of mercy. Therefore the need that preachers should still continue to plead with men, as those for whom they must give account. And therefore, also, the need and happy opportunity for the worst to come and plead forgiveness from the Saviour of men.—Albert Lee.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Romans 9:24-29
Paul’s design.—In the twenty-fourth verse the apostle explains whom he means by “the vessels of mercy”: “Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.” “To call,” as the word is used in Scripture, sometimes refers to the offer of salvation made by the preaching of the gospel, and sometimes to this offer rendered effectual by the co-operation of the Holy Spirit and embraced by those to whom it is proposed. Sometimes also, as in the next verse, it denotes to denominate in a particular manner—“I will call them My people”; and in this sense it often means to make them what they are called—“I will call them My people” being precisely equivalent to “I will make them My people.” Here the word is used in the last of these senses, and means “whom He hath called or constituted His people”—even us believers in Christ, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, whom God hath called to the obedience of the gospel, and thus constituted His Church and people. This application of the word, which is fixed by the following quotation, is a further proof that the preparation “for glory,” mentioned in the preceding verse, does not mean eternal glory, but merely the glorious distinction of being the Church and people of God. He goes on to show that the calling of the Gentiles, and the continuing of only a small portion of the Jews in the number of the people of God, need not appear incredible, seeing it might be clearly inferred from the Old Testament Scriptures (Romans 9:25), “As He saith also in Osee, I will call them My people which were not My people, and her beloved which was not beloved.” The quotation is taken from Hosea 2:23; but the apostle has inverted the order of the two clauses and slightly changed the language, though without altering the meaning. It has been thought that this prophacy relates primarily to the Israelites, and only in a secondary sense to the calling of the Gentiles. But the words are certainly most appropriate when applied to the Gentiles. “I will call them My people—that is, I will make them My people—which were not My people, and I will render her beloved which was not beloved,” are phrases which describe correctly receiving into the number of the people of God those who did not formerly belong to it. They do not so well describe restoring to the number of God’s people those who had belonged to it formerly. And as the apostle quotes the prophecy as descriptive of the calling of the Gentiles, we are authorised to hold this to be its proper application. To these prophecies, relating to the extension of the privilege of the people of God to the Gentiles, there is added another relating to the Israelites (Romans 9:26): “And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, there shall they be called the children of the living God.” This prediction relates to the displeasure of God with His people on account of their sins, and His refusing to acknowledge them as His people—a refusal, however, which would be only temporal, for they would in due time be constituted “the children of the living God.” By joining these two quotations together, the apostle confirms the doctrine which he has been inculcating, that the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, were to have the offer of the gospel made to them, and to be admitted without distinction to share in the privileges of the people of God. But though the offer of salvation through Christ was to be given to Jews and Gentiles without distinction, it had been foretold that only a small number of the Jews would accept the offered mercy (Romans 9:27): “Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.” The quotation is from Isaiah 10:22, where the prophet alludes to the consequences of the destruction brought upon the ten tribes by the Assyrians. He “crieth concerning Israel,” said the apostle—that is, he openly and authoritatively declares—that though their number before their dispersion be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant—or, as it is in the original, the remnant—shall be saved from the general calamity, or return from their dispersion. This prediction is quoted as an illustration of the divine procedure in the present circumstances of the Jewish nation. For as the ten tribes were at that time scattered among the heathen, and ceased to be the people of God on account of their sins, a very small portion of them only escaping this calamity, so in the present times the great body of the nation would suffer a similar fate on account of the heinous guilt which they had contracted, the small number which believed in Christ only being continued a part of the Church and people of God.—Ritchie.