Romans 9:4-5

‘Who are Israelites; whose is the adoption as sons, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom is the Messiah (the Christ) as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.'

Paul now emphasises the huge benefits that had been the privilege of the Jews (compare Romans 2:17). Firstly that they were ‘Israelites'. Thus they belonged to the nation chosen and redeemed by God (Exodus 20:2) to whom God had revealed Himself in history. And furthermore God had given them many advantages of which he will now describe a few.

What follows his statement that they are Israelites now divides up into three sections by the use of ‘whose' referring back to ‘who are Israelites'. Thus:

1) Whose is the adoption as a son, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service, and the promises.

2) Whose are the fathers (the Patriarchs).

3) Of whom is the Messiah concerning the flesh.

The first lists all the privileges of being Israelites which were given at the beginning when Israel were first redeemed from Egypt, although later also supplemented; the second looks back to the source from whom the Israelites came, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel, descent from whom was seen by Israelites as of great importance; the third concentrates on their having among them the Messiah Who is over all, the great Hope of Israel, Whose coming from among them was seen as of equal, if not more, importance, than all the others (the order would appear to be from the least to the greatest). Paul has already made clear that the Messiah has come, in Christ (Romans 9:1). Now he declares that He had come from among the Jews. It is significant that Paul does not say, ‘whose is the Messiah', paralleling the other two phrases, for as a result of their having mainly rejected Him Paul could not see Him as belonging to them. Nevertheless His coming from among them is seen as of great significance, as indeed is the fact that  He has come. And it leaves them without excuse, because the reason that they rejected Him was because He did not offer them what they wanted.

This list is especially significant because in what follows Paul will look in depth at the second and third statements. Does their leaning on the fathers necessarily mean that all Israel will be saved? This is answered as a ‘no' in Romans 9:6. What would be required for them in order to be reconciled to their Messiah? This is answered in Romans 9:30 to Romans 10:21 in terms of responding in faith to Him as the Messiah.

‘Who are Israelites.' This links the Jews squarely with the Israelites whose history is made plain in the Old Testament. It was because they were ‘Israelites' that the other privileges applied to them. It was a term which gave the Jews great pride. It indicated that they belonged to the people whom God had redeemed from Egypt and to whom He had given His covenant. And they (falsely) saw it as indicating that they were descended from Abraham and Jacob. But that was a myth perpetuated by their history. Even from the beginning large numbers of Israelites had had no direct connection with Abraham (and Jacob) by descent. They had been descended from servants in the ‘households' of the Patriarchs (Abraham could call on 318 fighting men ‘born in his house' - Genesis 14:14, and the Patriarchs went down to Egypt with their ‘households' - Exodus 1:1. Thus many of the earliest Israelites were born from these household servants.). And after the Exodus the ‘mixed multitude' (Exodus 12:38), which consisted of other races, probably including Egyptians, had been incorporated into Israel at Sinai, as had other groups like the Kenites (Judges 1:16), whilst even later there were those who voluntarily entered the covenant by submission to God (Exodus 12:48; Deuteronomy 23:1). All became absorbed as ‘sons of Abraham'. Thus Israel was a conglomerate nation.

Their ‘descent' from the Patriarchs was therefore by adoption. In fact in the days of Jesus those who could prove direct descent from Abraham were relatively few (Jesus' father was one because he was a son of David), and those who could so prove their descent, often tended to see themselves as unique and to despise other Jews, intermarrying among themselves in order to preserve their purity. Thus even the Jews acknowledged that few Jews could be shown to be genuinely descended from Abraham. Nevertheless the Jews happily accepted their position as those who had been adopted by Abraham so that they could call God their Father, a privilege which was not permitted to late proselytes (which was a little hypocritical because large numbers of Jews could have traced their descent to Gentiles incorporated among the Jews). What they also tended to overlook when they claimed to be Israelites was that the majority of Israelites in the past had been unfaithful to the covenant and had regularly been brought under the judgment of God, and had therefore been cast off in God's eyes, even though they themselves had not seen it in that way. To be an Israelite was thus not a guarantee of acceptance by God.

Part of the reason for Paul's distress would also appear to have been that it must have appeared to onlookers, from their rejection of their Messiah by the majority of the Jews, that the promises of God were not being fulfilled in their case, (they were being fulfilled with regard to the elect), for he lists all the privileges that the Jews should have been enjoying but were now missing out on as a result of their rejection of the Messiah:

· They were Israelites, the people with whom God had established His covenant.

· They had been adopted by God as ‘His son' (Exodus 4:22) and could thus be seen as His children and as His sons and daughters (Deuteronomy 14:1; Isaiah 43:6; Hosea 11:1).

· They had experienced ‘the glory', the manifestation of the glory of God, when God had descended on the Tabernacle and the Temple (Exo 40:34; 1 Kings 8:10 ff.), a glory which they still believed was among them, concealed in the Holiest Place of All in the Temple. Thus they considered that they had to a certain degree had God dwelling among them.

· They had been invited to partake in the covenants that God had made through the ages from the beginning, including those given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and at Sinai, all of which were recorded in the Scriptures.

· They had received the Law at Sinai, a revelation of the mind of God (see Romans 2:17), and an indicator of their special position as God's people.

· ‘And the service.' On their behalf God had established a priesthood to serve Him, and a sacrificial system, through which all Israel benefited.

· They had through their forefathers received ‘the promises' given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the promises concerning the Messiah.

· They looked back to the Patriarchs as their fathers.

· And above all, as far as His humanity was concerned, they had produced the Messiah, the One Who is overall, God, blessed for ever.

Thus their privileges were great. But in spite of them they were still in unbelief, as Paul had made clear in Romans 2:1 to Romans 3:10, and were therefore still under the judgment of God.

The adoption by God of Israel as ‘His son' (Exodus 4:22) must not be seen as comparable with the adoption through the Spirit of true believers as sons of God (Romans 8:15). Firstly because Israel's sonship was primarily a ‘corporate sonship' (‘Israel is My son, My firstborn'). Secondly because the Old Testament makes quite clear that large numbers of the Israelites had not lived up to this sonship. It is true that they had been put in a position of special privilege, but it was equally true that on the whole they had forfeited that privilege by their behaviour. That was what the teaching of the prophets was all about. It was only the comparatively few who had truly become children of God (as Paul will soon make plain). We may certainly see the term ‘son' as indicating that God had not totally finished with Israel, He would still show them favour as a nation (Romans 11:28), but as Paul will shortly indicate, it would only be a remnant who would be saved, a remnant who responded to the Messiah. God's adoption of Israel was no indicator that Israelites would automatically be saved. It was rather a privilege which had given them a greater opportunity than most to find the truth, a privilege that most of them had failed to take advantage of. They were like the son who said to his father ‘I will go, sir', but who did not do so (Matthew 21:30).

‘And of whom is the Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.' And their greatest privilege was that coming from Israel as far as the flesh was concerned was ‘the Christ (Messiah)'. ‘As concerning the flesh' may simply signify that while His humanity owed its origin to Israel, His spirit and influence were more exerted elsewhere so that He is not to be seen as an Israelite figure but a world figure. But it is far more likely that ‘concerning the flesh' indicates that, while humanly speaking He came from Israel, He Himself in His essential being came from another source, a spiritual source, that is, from Heaven, which would agree with Romans 1:3. This can be seen as confirmed by the statement that He is ‘over all'. So a contrasting description is found by recognising that what Paul is saying is that while in the flesh the Christ is a Jew, in His true being He is ‘God over all, blessed for ever'. This can again be paralleled with what was said in Romans 1:3, of the One Who was ‘of the seed of David according to the flesh' but was then declared to be in Himself the Son of God with power. If this be so then we have here a clear statement of Christ's Godhood, parallel to that in Titus 2:13. See also Philippians 2:9, and compare 2 Peter 1:1 which is the same construction as 2 Peter 1:11 and therefore refers to Jesus as ‘our God and Saviour'. But it should be noticed that Paul's constant reference to Jesus as ‘the LORD' in parallel with speaking of God, equally demonstrates His Godhood. Thus Paul had no doubt about his own position. Not that our belief that Jesus is God requires these statements. He Himself made it quite clear in John 5:17 and John 14:7.

In further support of this interpretation of the latter part of Romans 9:5 is the phrase ‘the One Who is' which would naturally be seen as modifying something previously said, thus indicating that what follows is not just a doxology. Furthermore the placing of ‘God' before ‘blessed' would have been almost unique in Jewish doxologies (they said ‘blessed be God'), something of which Paul would have been well aware, it must therefore be seen as deliberately intended so as to connect blessed with the previous context and to prevent this being seen as simply an appended doxology. This being so Paul is here making clear that Jesus the Messiah is not only of Jewish descent, but is also God over all, to be blessed for ever.