Romans 11:36

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

For of him, [ ex (G1537) autou (G846)] - as their Eternal Source, as 1 Corinthians 8:6, and (though of a more limited sphere) 1 Corinthians 11:12,

And through him, [ di' (G1223) autou (G846)] - as the sole Efficient Agent in the production and conservation of them. [On this application of dia (G1223) with the genitive to the primary agent of anything, see Winer, 8. 47. i; and Fritzsche, on Romans 1:5, p. 15.]

And to him, [ eis (G1519) auton (G846)] - as their Last End,

Are all things - the manifestation of the glory of His own perfections being the ultimate, because the highest possible, design of all His procedure from first to last:

To whom ('to Him') be glory forever. Amen.

In this three-fold view of God many of the fathers saw a covert reference to the three Persons of the Godhead (and they are followed by Estius, Olshausen, and Tholuck); but here, at least, that cannot be admitted, as 'to Him' can have no reference to any known property or work of the Spirit. Thus grandly, and with a brevity and rhythm worthy of the sublimity of the thoughts, does the apostle sum up, not only this profound and comprehensive chapter, but the whole doctrinal portion of this Epistle.

Remarks:

(1) It is an unspeakable consolation to know that in times of deepest religious declension and most extensive defection from the truth the lamp of God has never been permitted to go out, and that a faithful remnant has ever existed-a remnant larger than their own drooping spirits could easily believe.

(2) The preservation of this remnant, even as their separation at the first, is all of mere grace.

(3) When individuals and communities, after many fruitless warnings, are abandoned of God, they go from bad to worse (Romans 11:7).

(4) God has so ordered His dealings with the great divisions of mankind, "that no flesh should glory in his presence." Gentile and Jew have each in turn been "shut up to unbelief," that each in turn may experience the "mercy" which saves the chief of sinners.

(5) As we are "justified by faith " so are we "kept by the power of God through faith" faith alone unto (5) As we are "justified by faith," so are we "kept by the power of God through faith" - faith alone-unto salvation (Romans 11:20).

(6) God's covenant with Abraham and his natural seed is a perpetual covenant, in equal force under the Gospel as before it. Therefore it is that the Jews as a nation still survive, in spite of all the laws which, in similar circumstances, have either extinguished, or destroyed the identity of, other nations. And therefore it is that the Jews as a nation will yet be restored to the family of God, through the subjection of their proud hearts to Him whom they have pierced. And as believing Gentiles will be honoured to be the instruments of this stupendous change, so shall the vast Gentile world reap such benefit from it that it shall be like the communication of life to them from the dead.

(7) Thus has the Christian Church the highest motive to the establishment and vigorous prosecution of Missions to the Jews: God having not only promised that there shall be a remnant of them gathered in every age, but pledged Himself to the final ingathering of the whole nation, assigned the honour of that ingathering to the Gentile Church, and assured them that the event, when it does arrive, shall have a life-giving effect upon the whole world.

(8) Those who think that in all the evangelical prophecies of the Old Testament the terms "Jacob," "Israel," etc., are to be understood solely of the Christian Church, would appear to read the Old Testament differently from the apostle, who, from the use of those very terms in Old Testament prophecy, draws arguments to prove that God has mercy in store for the natural Israel.

(9) Mere intellectual investigations into divine truth in general, and the sense of the living oracles in particular, as they have a hardening effect, so they are a great contrast to the spirit of our apostle, whose lengthened sketch of God's majestic procedure toward men in Christ Jesus ends here in a burst of admiration, which loses itself in the still loftier frame of adoration.