Romans 9 - Introduction

SECOND PART. SUPPLEMENTARY. CHAPS. 9-11. THE REJECTION OF THE JEWS.

IN stating the theme which he proposed to discuss (Romans 1:16-17), the apostle had introduced an element of an historical nature which he could not fail to develop at some point or other of his treatise. It was this: “to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” In what relation did salvation, as set forth in his Gospel, stand to those two great sections of the human race looked at from the standpoint of its religious development? And particularly, how did it happen that the Jewish people, to whom salvation was destined in the first place, showed themselves the most rebellious to this final revelation of divine mercy? Did not the fact give rise to a grave objection to the truth of the gospel itself, and to the Messiahship ascribed to person of Jesus by the new faith? A Jew might reason thus: Either the gospel is true and Jesus really the Messiah but in this case the divine promises formerly made to this Jewish people who reject the Messiah and His salvation are nullified; or Israel is and remains forever, as should be the case in virtue of its election, the people of God, and in this case the gospel must be false and Jesus an impostor. Thus the dilemma seemed to be: Either to affirm God's faithfulness to His own election and deny the gospel, or to affirm the gospel, but give the lie to the divine election and faithfulness.

The apostle must have found this problem in his way every time he bore testimony to the gospel of Christ; and his demonstration of salvation by faith without the law would have contained a grave omission, if it had not presented a solution suitable to the nature of God of the greatest enigma in history: the rejection of the elect people.

Generally when a new doctrine presents itself, after demonstrating its intrinsic truth, it has a double task to discharge to mankind whom it professes to save (1) to prove that it is capable of realizing what ought to be, moral good; this Paul has done by showing, chaps. 6-8, that the doctrine of justification by faith (expounded chaps. 1-5) was capable of producing holiness; (2) to demonstrate that it can account satisfactorily for what has been, for history; this the apostle proceeds to do, chaps. 9-11.

The domain upon which the apostle here enters is one of the most difficult and profound which can be presented to the mind of man. It is that of theodicy, or the justification of the divine government in the course of human affairs. But he does not enter on it as a philosopher, and in its totality; he treats it in relation to a special point, the problem of the lot of Israel, and he does so as a part of his apostolic task.

There are two ways in which mistakes have been committed in expounding the thought of Paul in this passage. Some have taken it as a dogmatic and general statement of the doctrine of election, as an element of Christian teaching. This view finds its refutation in the entire course of this great exposition, in which the apostle constantly reverts to the people of Israel, the antecedents of their history (Romans 9:6 et seq.), the prophecies concerning them (Romans 9:27-29 and Romans 10:19-21), and their present and future destiny (see the whole of chap. 11, and particularly the conclusion, Romans 11:25-31). It is therefore a problem of history and not of doctrine, strictly speaking, which he proposes to treat. Calvin himself is perfectly aware of this. Here is the dilemma which, according to him, St. Paul resolved in these Chapter s: “Either God is unfaithful to His promises (in regard to the Jews), or Jesus whom Paul preaches is not the Lord's Christ particularly promised to that people.”

The other erroneous point of view in regard to these Chapter s is to take them as intended to reconcile the Judeo-Christian majority of the church of Rome to the apostle's mission to the Gentiles (Baur, Mangold, Holsten, Lipsius, with various shades). Weizsäcker, in his excellent work on the primitive Roman church, asks with reason why, if the apostle was addressing Judeo-Christians, he should designate the Jews, Romans 9:3, “as his brethren,” and not rather “as our brethren;” and how it is that in Romans 11:1 he alleges as a proof of the fact that all Israel is not rejected, only his own conversion and not that of his readers. He likewise demonstrates beyond dispute, in our opinion, that in the passage, Romans 11:13, the words: “I speak unto you, Gentiles,” are necessarily addressed to the whole church, not merely to a portion of the Christians of Rome (see on this passage). If it is so, it is impossible to hold that, addressing himself to former Gentiles, Paul should think himself obliged to demonstrate in three long Chapter s the legitimacy of his mission among the Gentiles. No; it is not his mission, and still less his person, which Paul means to defend when he traces this vast scheme of the ways of God; it is God Himself and His work in mankind by the gospel. He labors to dissipate the shadow which might be thrown on the character of God or the truth of the gospel by the unbelief of the elect people. The Tübingen school commits the same mistake in regard to this part of our Epistle as in regard to the Book of the Acts. This latter writing it views in general as the product of an ecclesiastical piece of management, intended to accredit Paul's person and ministry among Christians of Jewish origin, while it is meant to demonstrate by a simple statement of facts the painstaking and faithful manner in which God has proceeded toward His ancient people in the foundation of the church. Comp. besides, that remarkable passage in the Gospel of John, John 12:37-43, in which this apostle takes a general survey of the fact of Jewish unbelief, immediately after describing its development, and seeks to fathom its causes. This, indeed, was one of the most important questions at the period of the foundation of the church. In this question there was concentrated the subject of the connection between the two revelations.

How, at a given point in time, can God reject those whom He has elected? Is the fact possible? The apostle resolves this problem by putting himself successively at three points of view 1. That of God's absolute liberty in regard to every alleged acquired right, upon Him, on man's part; this is the subject of chap. Romans 9:2. That of the legitimacy of the use which God has made of His liberty in the case in question; such is the subject of chap. 10, where Paul shows that Israel by their want of understanding drew upon themselves the lot which has overtaken them. 3. That of the utility of this so unexpected measure; this forms the subject of chap. 11, where the beneficent consequences of Israel's rejection down to their glori ous final result are unfolded.

This passage does not contain a complete philosophy of history; but it is the finest specimen, and, so to speak, the masterpiece of this science.