IX. There is a distinct break in the Epistle at this point. The subject of the preceding Chapter s, the development of the gospel scheme, has been worked up to a climax. We might imagine that at the end of chapter 8 the Epistle was laid aside, and the Apostle now begins upon a new topic, in the disc... [ Continue Reading ]
I SAY THE TRUTH IN CHRIST. — The meaning of this expression seems to be, “From the bottom of my soul, in the most sacred part of my being, as a Christian man united to Christ, I make this solemn asseveration.” MY CONSCIENCE. — Here, as in Romans 2:15, very much in the modern sense of the word, the... [ Continue Reading ]
(1-5) My heart bleeds for Israel, my country, that highly-privileged people. I could fain have changed places with them, and been myself cut off from Christ, if only they might have been saved.... [ Continue Reading ]
I COULD WISH ... — Rather, _I could have wished._ The wish, of course, related to what was really impossible. Still it is a nobly generous impulse, at which some weak minds have been shocked, and out of which others have made sentimental capital. Let us leave it as it is. ACCURSED FROM CHRIST. — Se... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ADOPTION. — They are the theocratic people, the people whom God had, as it were, adopted to Himself, and taken into the special filial relation. (Comp. Hosea 11:1, “I called my son out of Egypt;” Exodus 4:22, “Israel is my son, even my firstborn;” _et al._) THE GLORY. — The Shechinah, or visible... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FATHERS. — The patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. WHO IS OVER ALL, GOD BLESSED FOR EVER. — These words are a well-known subject for controversy. Trinitarian and English interpreters, as a rule, take them with the punctuation of the Authorised version, as referring to Christ. Socinian interp... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT AS THOUGH. — The scholar will observe that there appears to be here a mixture of two constructions, “the case is not such that,” and “I do not mean to say that,” “I do not intend to say that the case is such as that.” TAKEN NONE EFFECT. — “Fallen through,” or “failed of its accomplishment.” OF... [ Continue Reading ]
(6-13) Now follows a vindication of the dealings of God in rejecting Israel. And this is divided into three parts. Part 1 extends to the end of Romans 9:13, and the object of it is to clear the way by defining the true limits of the promise. It was not really to _all_ Israel that the promise was giv... [ Continue Reading ]
Neither are all the bodily descendants of Abraham also his spiritual descendants. It was expressly stated from the first that the promise was confined to a particular branch of his posterity. The posterity of Abraham, strictly so called, was to be that derived through Isaac. This is very nearly the... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WHICH ARE THE CHILDREN. — The Apostle explains this restriction in a spiritual sense. Mere natural descent gives no claim to membership in the theocracy. OF THE PROMISE — _i.e.,_ not merely “promised children,” but “children born through the miraculous agency of the promise;” the promise is re... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS IS THE WORD OF PROMISE. — Rather, _this saying is of promise._ The children of promise, I say, for the saying, “At this time will I come,” &c., is a matter of promise; it implied a divine and miraculous intervention, and did not come in the ordinary course of nature. AT THIS TIME — _i.e.,_ at... [ Continue Reading ]
Nor was the restriction and special selection confined to the case of Abraham alone. It also appeared when Rebecca bore sons to Isaac. It was indeed _pure_ selection. The children themselves had done nothing to make a preference be given to one over the other. There was no merit in the case. The obj... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ELDER SHALL SERVE THE YOUNGER. — The margin gives as an alternative rendering, “the greater shall serve the lesser.” The quotation is taken from the LXX., in which there is the same ambiguity. This ambiguity also appears to exist in the Hebrew, where it is a disputed question whether the words... [ Continue Reading ]
IS THERE UNRIGHTEOUSNESS? — Again, as in Romans 3:5, the Apostle anticipates a possible objection. Does not this apparently arbitrary choice of one and rejection of another imply injustice in Him who exercises it? The thought is not to be entertained.... [ Continue Reading ]
(14-18) These verses contain the second part of the vindication. This power of choosing one and refusing another has always been reserved to Himself by God; as is seen by the examples of Moses and Pharaoh.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE SAITH TO MOSES. — In the most characteristic period of the Old Testament the divine favour was promised in this way to Moses and denied to Pharaoh. The original of the first quotation has reference to the special revelation vouchsafed to Moses on Sinai, “I will show grace to whom I will show... [ Continue Reading ]
OF HIM THAT RUNNETH. — A metaphor taken from the foot-races as St. Paul may very possibly have seen them practised at Corinth. (Comp. Romans 9:16; Galatians 2:2; Galatians 5:7; Philippians 2:16.) The meaning is that the prize does not depend on human will or human effort, but on the grace of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
The converse proposition is also true, that God also uses the wickedness of men as a means of exhibiting His power and justice. RAISED THEE UP. — Brought into the world and on to the scene of history. SHOW MY POWER. — By the plagues of Egypt and by the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host in the Red... [ Continue Reading ]
Summary conclusion from the above. HE HARDENETH. — The doctrine of the divine sovereignty is here expressed in its most trenchant and logical form. In Exodus 8:32; Exodus 9:34; Exodus 13:15, &c., the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is attributed to his own act. That act may, however, be regarded as a... [ Continue Reading ]
(19-21) These verses contain the third part of the vindication, which is based upon a possible extension of the objection. Not only might it seem as if this absolute choice and rejection was unjust in itself, but also unjust in its consequences. How can a man be blamed or punished, when his actions... [ Continue Reading ]
NAY BUT, O MAN. — The answer is not so much a solution of the intellectual difficulty, as an appeal to the religious sense to prevent it from being raised. That His dealings should be questioned at all is a breach of the reverence due to God.... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH NOT THE POTTER ...? — In strict logic, this verse would supply a confirmation, rather than a refutation, of the original objection. If man is merely as clay in the hands of the potter, it would not be un-reasonable to say, “Why doth He yet find fault?” No one would think of blaming a piece of e... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT IF ... — The sentence in the original is incomplete. In its full form it would run, “If God willing to show His wrath”... (what can man reply?) This latter clause is dropped or lost in the course of the argument. The best and simplest expedient to supply its place is that adopted in the Authori... [ Continue Reading ]
(22-29) These verses supply the concluding section of the vindication. All this scheme of God’s dealings, apparently so severe, is really most merciful. To those who really deserved His wrath, He showed longsuffering. While for us who now believe, Gentiles as well as Jews, He had mercy and glory in... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN US. — So far the form of the sentence had been abstract — “vessels of wrath,” “vessels of glory.” Now the Apostle explains who are meant by these abstract terms. The “vessels of glory” are those who were intended to accept the Christian teaching, whether Jews or Gentiles. The “vessels of wrath”... [ Continue Reading ]
AS HE SAITH ALSO IN OSEE. — The original of the prophecy in Hosea relates to the pardon and reconciliation promised to the apostate and idolatrous people of the northern kingdom. It is here typically and prophetically applied to the Gentiles. Those who had ceased to belong to the chosen people, and... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS. — This, too, was originally spoken of the restoration of the northern exiles to the land of Palestine. As applied to the conversion of the Gentiles, it would mean that the lands which had previously been heathen should become Christian. There is some doubt whether the Hebr... [ Continue Reading ]
CRIETH. — With reference to the impassioned utterance of the prophet. A REMNANT. — Rather, _the remnant,_ with an emphasis upon the word. “The remnant, and only the remnant.” SHALL BE SAVED. — In the original, _shall return_ — _i.e.,_ as it is explained in the previous verse, “return to God.” St.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE WILL FINISH. — Literally, according to the correct reading, _For a sentence, accomplishing and abridging it, will the Lord execute upon the earth;_ in other words, “A short and summary sentence will the Lord execute upon the earth.” The severity of the sentence is a proof that only a remnant... [ Continue Reading ]
SAID BEFORE — _i.e.,_ in an earlier part of his book. The Book of Isaiah was at this time collected in the form in which we have it. In Acts 13:33, we find an express reference to the present numbering of the Psalms — “It is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH FOLLOWED NOT AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS. — Not having a special revelation, and being inattentive to the law of conscience. ATTAINED TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. — By accepting the offer of Christianity, and especially the Christian doctrine of justification by faith.... [ Continue Reading ]
(30-33) The Apostle has finished with his vindication of the rejection of Israel, and finished also with the course of argument which seemed to bear a strong character of determinism. He now takes up a point of view which is the direct opposite of this, and in explaining the _causes_ which led to th... [ Continue Reading ]
Israel, on the other hand, though ostensibly pursuing a law the object of which was righteousness, did not reach such a law. They tried to keep the Law, but failed to keep it, and to bring themselves under its protection. The second “righteousness” is omitted in the best MSS.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THEY STUMBLED. — “For,” in this clause, should be omitted, and the two clauses thrown together, the words “of the law” also going out — Because (seeking righteousness), not of faith, but as if of works, they stumbled, &c. THAT STUMBLINGSTONE. — Christ. When Christianity, with the justification... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I LAY IN SION. — A free combination of Isaiah 28:16 — “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone;... he that believeth shall not make haste” — and Isaiah 8:14, “And He shall be... for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel.” In the first of these pas... [ Continue Reading ]