PAUL IS CONCERNED FOR ISRAEL BECAUSE IN SPITE OF THEIR MANY ADVANTAGES A LARGE PROPORTION OF THEM HAVE REJECTED THE MESSIAH WHO HAS COME FROM AMONG THEM (9:1-5). We find in Paul's introductory comments some heart-rending words (Romans 9:1), as Paul demonstrates his love and concern for his fellow Is... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MESSSIAH HAS COME AND IS FOR ALL. GOD HAS NOT FAILED IN HIS PROMISES TO THE TRUE ISRAEL. SALVATION FOR ALL IS THROUGH FAITH IN THE MESSIAH (9:1-11:36) Paul now expands on Chapter s 1-8, in which he has demonstrated that all, both Jews and Gentiles, have sinned, and that all must therefore find s... [ Continue Reading ]
‘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 c... [ Continue Reading ]
‘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 e... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But it is not as though the word of God has come to nought. For they are not all Israel, who are of Israel,' Paul is here concerned to demonstrate that the word of God has not come to nought in the failure of Israel to be what they should be, and it is on the basis that God never intended His word... [ Continue Reading ]
THE REJECTION OF THEIR MESSIAH BY THE MAJORITY OF ISRAEL HAS NOT BROUGHT THE WORD OF GOD TO NOUGHT FOR IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE CASE THAT NOT ALL OF SUPPOSED ISRAEL ARE TRULY ISRAEL, BUT ONLY THOSE WHO ARE CHOSEN IN LINE WITH THE PURPOSES OF GOD (9:6-13). Paul now deals with the charge that his teachi... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT ALL ISRAEL ARE THE TRUE ISRAEL. THE TRUE ISRAEL ARE A REMNANT OF ISRAEL CHOSEN BY GOD, TOGETHER WITH SOME BELIEVING GENTILES. FOR GOD HAS A RIGHT TO DO WHAT HE WILL (9:6-29). Paul now begins to establish from the Scriptures what God's method of working is, and what the true situation of the Jews... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Nor, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children, but, “In Isaac shall your seed be called”.' Furthermore, Paul declares that not all of Abraham's seed were to be seen as his children as far as the promises were concerned, but only those who were children of the promise. ‘In Isaac will... [ Continue Reading ]
‘That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. For this is a word of promise, “According to this season will I come, and Sarah will have a son”. For the conclusion to be reached from the facts of Scripture is that it is... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And not only so; but Rebecca also having conceived by one, even by our father Isaac. For the children being not yet born, nor having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, it was said to her, “The elder will serve th... [ Continue Reading ]
‘What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not.' Paul first raises the question that might be asked, ‘does this not mean that God is behaving unfairly?' Paul's reply is strong, ‘Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not.' God cannot in these cases be accused of unr... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SCRIPTURE DEMONSTRATES THAT GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER ALL THINGS AND HAS MERCY ON WHOM HE WILLS (9:14-18). Paul recognises that what he has just demonstrated about God's elective mercy might raise the protest, ‘but surely that means that God is being unfair'. So he immediately deals with that charg... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion”.' Paul illustrates his point from Scripture. God had said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Exodus 33:19). Thu... [ Continue Reading ]
‘So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.' ‘It' clearly refers to the previous verse, speaking of God's showing of mercy, whilst the present tense of the verbs suggests that here Paul is enunciating a general principle. He is thus saying that in consequence... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose (for unto this thing) did I raise you up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth”.' This overall sovereignty of God can be seen as illustrated from the life of Pharaoh, where God says t... [ Continue Reading ]
‘So then he has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will be hardens.' Paul assumes that his readers will connect Pharaoh's being raised up to glorify God with his hardening of heart, a condition expressed a number of times in Exodus (e.g. Exodus 7:3; Exodus 9:12; Exodus 14:4; Exodus 14:17). He thus c... [ Continue Reading ]
‘You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?” ' He opens with a theoretical argument, although no doubt one he had heard many times, that of someone who says, “(If God hardens whom He will) why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?” The idea... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD HAS THE SOVEREIGN RIGHT TO DO WHAT HE CHOOSES, AND TO SAVE WHOM HE WILL (9:19-29). Paul does not hide from the consequences of what he has been saying. He rather defends it by appealing to God's absolute right over human beings, and then to Scripture. He sees the doctrine of God's sovereignty a... [ Continue Reading ]
‘No but, O man, who are you who replies against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why did you make me thus?” ' Paul's response to the questions is illuminating, both in what he does not say and what he does say. He does not attempt to marshal arguments which he could have used ha... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Or has the potter not a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel to honour, and another to dishonour?' He now illustrates his position in terms of a potter who has a lump of clay and can use it both to make an ‘honourable' vessel and to make a ‘dishonourable' one. Which he... [ Continue Reading ]
‘What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,' Paul then directly applies his illustration of the Potter to God Himself. The idea of likening God to a Potter comes directly from the Old Testament Scriptu... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand to glory, even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?' Having purposed that certain vessels would be made in such a way that they were fitted for destruction,... [ Continue Reading ]
‘As he says also in Hosea (Greek - Osee), “I will call that my people, who were not my people, and her beloved, who was not beloved”.' Paul then cites Hosea in order to demonstrate that it has always been God's intention that some who were ‘not My people' should become ‘My people'. That some who we... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And it shall be, that in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” there will they be called “sons of the living God”.' He then further cites Hosea 1:10 which asserts that those who were ‘not My people' would at some stage become ‘sons of the living God'. If we see Paul as refer... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved, for the Lord will execute his word on the earth, finishing it and cutting it short.” ' He then cites from Isaiah 10:22 a (supplemented by Hosea 1:10) a verse... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And, as Isaiah has said before, “Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had become as Sodom, and had been made like to Gomorrah”.' This picture is then seen as confirmed by Isaiah 1:9, where, apart from ‘a seed' left to them by God (the seed of Abraham mentioned in Romans 9:7? The holy s... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ETERNAL DESTINY OF ALL PEOPLE, BOTH JEW AND GENTILE, IS BASED ON BELIEF IN GOD'S MESSIAH, JESUS CHRIST. (9:30-10:21). There is now a vast change in Paul's argument, for it will be noted that from Romans 9:30 to Romans 10:17 Paul lays huge emphasis on faith and on believing in Jesus Christ, this... [ Continue Reading ]
‘What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith, but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at the law.' ‘What shall we say then?' is a typical Pauline introduction to the ne... [ Continue Reading ]
ISRAEL HAS STUMBLED AND HURT ITSELF BECAUSE IT HAS NOT BELIEVED IN ITS MESSIAH AND SUBMITTED TO THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD OBTAINABLE THROUGH FAITH IN HIM (9:30-33). Paul emphasises that the believing Gentiles, by responding to the Messiah, have attained to the righteousness which is of faith, the rig... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For what reason? Because (they sought) not by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling, even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, and he who believes on him will not be put to shame.” And why did they fail to ‘arrive at... [ Continue Reading ]