10:1-4.
The apostle has summarily enunciated the real solution of the enigma
in Romans 9:30-33. The proud claim of the people to uphold their own
righteousness caused them to stumble at the true righteousness, that
of faith, which God offered them in the person of the Messiah. Chap.
10 develops and... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Brethren, my heart's good pleasure and the prayer I address to
God for them are for their salvation.For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge._ ”
The emotion with which the apostle's heart is filled betrays itself in
the _asyndeton_ between Romans 9:33 a... [ Continue Reading ]
In this verse Paul justifies his so lively interest in the lot of the
Jews, expressed in Romans 10:1. What has not been done, what has not
been suffered, by those Jews devoted to the cause of God, under
successive Gentile powers? Notwithstanding the most frightful
persecutions, have they not succeed... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For they not knowing God's righteousness, and seeking to
establish their own righteousness_, _have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness to every one that believeth._ ”
These verses are meant to explain the terrible misundersta... [ Continue Reading ]
It is on this point, indeed, that their view and that of God have come
into collision. The Messiah brought a free righteousness offered to
faith; His coming consequently put an end to man's attempt to
establish his own righteousness on the observance of the law; thus,
then, fell the whole legal econ... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law thus:
The man who hath done [the law], shall live by it._ ”
In this translation we have followed, for the first of the three
variants indicated in the note, the reading of the T. R., which is
supported not only by the Byz. documents, but... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise,
Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to
bring Christ down. Or, who shall descend into the deep? that is, to
bring up Christ again from the dead._ ”
Few passages have been so variously understood as this. And... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy
heart. Now, that is the word of faith which we preach._ ”
In the passage quoted, Moses said: “Believe on him who is revealed
to thee in the law. With Him in the heart and on the lips thou shalt
understand it, and thou shalt certain... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Seeing that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation._
”
The two terms: _confessing w... [ Continue Reading ]
The idea of _salvation_ is analyzed; it embraces the two facts: _being
justified_ and _being saved_ (in the full sense of the word). The
former is especially connected with the act of _faith_, the latter
with that of _profession._ Paul, in expressing himself thus, is not
swayed, as De Wette believes... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be
confounded._ ”
That is to say, it suffices to believe in Him who has fulfilled all,
to be saved exactly as if one had fulfilled all himself. Here again
the apostle quotes according to the LXX. (see on Romans 9:33). The
most miserabl... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for
there is one and, the same Lord for all, rich unto all that call upon
Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved._ ”
Salvation being _free_, there is no longer any restriction to its
application: it is nece... [ Continue Reading ]
Paul has justified the matter of his preaching, salvation by grace; he
now justifies its _extension._ Not that, as Baur, Holsten, etc.,
think, he wishes thereby to remove the scruples of the Judeo-Christian
conscience against his apostleship among the Gentiles; but as the
context says clearly enough... [ Continue Reading ]
Joel (Joe 2:32) had already announced this new fact: that salvation
would depend only on the believing invocation of the name of Jehovah
in His final Messianic manifestation. Legal rights had vanished from
before his eyes; there remained the adoration of Jehovah in His
supreme revelation. Paul appli... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how
shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach_,
_except they be sent, as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of
them that publish peace_, _w... [ Continue Reading ]
No preaching without sending. Paul is not thinking here of some human
association sending out missionaries. The term
ἀποσταλῶσιν, _be sent_, evidently alludes to the
_apostleship_ properly so called, the normal mission established by
the Lord Himself by the sending of the apostles. This mission incl... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But they have not all obeyed the gospel; for Esaias saith, Lord,
who hath believed our message_ (prédication)? _So then faith cometh
of hearing, and hearing by the word of God._ ”
The word ἀλλά, _but_, contrasts strongly what has been produced
(by the fact of Jewish unbelief) with with what shoul... [ Continue Reading ]
There was no logical necessity obliging the apostle to return to the
two ideas contained in this verse, and already expressed in Romans
10:14. But he takes them up again in passing, as confirmed by the
words of Isaiah just quoted, and to give occasion more clearly to the
objection about to follow in... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But I say, Have they not heard? Yea, much more, their sound went
into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world._ ”
It is not God who has failed in His part. No; they who have not
believed (the majority of Israel) cannot excuse themselves by saying
that the mission, which is an es... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But I say, Did not Israel know?First Moses saith, I will provoke
you to jealousy by a people who are not a people, by a foolish nation
I will anger you._ ” Μὴ οὐκ : “It is not the case, however,
is it, that Israel did not know?” _Know_ what, then? Crities answer
the question differently. Some, fr... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that
sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
But to Israel he saith, All the day long I have stretched forth my
hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people._ ”
᾿Αποτολμᾷ : “he declares without mincing matters... [ Continue Reading ]
What leads up to this verse is the lively feeling of the contrast
between the conduct of Israel and that of the Gentiles. It sums up the
idea of the whole chapter: the obstinate resistance of Israel to the
ways of God. The Lord is represented, Isaiah 65:2, under the figure of
a father who, from morn... [ Continue Reading ]