INTRODUCTION TO ROMANS 9 The apostle having discoursed of justification and sanctification, and of the privileges of justified and sanctified ones, proceeds to treat of predestination, the source and spring of all the blessings of grace; and to observe how this distinguishing act of God's sovereign... [ Continue Reading ]
I SAY THE TRUTH IN CHRIST, I LIE NOT,.... The apostle being about to discourse concerning predestination, which he had mentioned in the preceding chapter, and to open the springs and causes of it, and also concerning the induration and rejection of the Jewish nation; he thought it necessary to prefa... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT I HAVE GREAT HEAVINESS AND CONTINUAL SORROW IN MY HEART. This is the thing he appeals to Christ for the truth of, and calls in his conscience and the Holy Ghost to bear witness to. These two words, "heaviness" and "sorrow", the one signifies grief, which had brought on heaviness on his spirits;... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I COULD WISH THAT MYSELF WERE ACCURSED FROM CHRIST,.... Some consider this as the reason of the apostle's great heaviness, and continual sorrow of heart, because he had made such a wish as this, and read the words, "for I have wished", or "did wish"; that is, in my unregenerate state, whilst I w... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO ARE ISRAELITES,.... Which were their national name, as descended from Jacob, whose name was Israel; and it was accounted a very honourable one; see Philippians 3:5; and the very name they bore gave the apostle some concern that they should be cut off; and then he proceeds to enumerate the severa... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSE ARE THE FATHERS,.... Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for, according to the a Jewish writers, "they call none in Israel אבות, "fathers", but three, and they are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and they call none "mothers" but four, and they are, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah:'' their descent from th... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT AS THOUGH THE WORD OF GOD HATH TAKEN NONE EFFECT,.... Or "it is not possible indeed that the word of God should fall"; see 1 Samuel 3:10; This the apostle says, partly to relieve his own mind pressed with sorrow, and partly to obviate an objection some might make, or prevent any mistake any migh... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER BECAUSE THEY ARE THE SEED OF ABRAHAM,.... The Jews highly valued themselves, upon being the natural seed of Abraham; and fancied, upon this account, that they were children, which the apostle here denies: neither ARE THEY ALL CHILDREN; as in the former verse, he explains in what sense they... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT IS, THEY WHICH ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE FLESH,.... This is an explanation of the foregoing verse, and shows, that by "the seed of" Abraham are meant, the natural seed of Abraham, who are born after the flesh, or descend from him by carnal generation: THESE ARE NOT THE CHILDREN OF GOD; that is,... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THIS IS THE WORD OF PROMISE,.... The following passage is the Scripture, which contains the promise concerning the birth of Isaac; which was the produce, not of nature, but of divine grace and power; and was typical of the regeneration of God's elect, who "as Isaac was, are the children of promi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND NOT ONLY THIS,.... This instance of Ishmael and Isaac, is not the only one, proving that Abraham's natural seed, the children of the flesh, are not all children, the children of God: BUT WHEN REBECCA ALSO HAD CONCEIVED BY ONE, EVEN BY OUR FATHER ISAAC, "it was said unto her", Romans 9:12, being... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR [THE CHILDREN] BEING NOT YET BORN, So says h the Chaldee paraphrast, "the prophet said unto them, was it not said of Jacob, עד דלא אתיליד, "when he was not yet born", that he should be greater than his brother?'' the Syriac version supplies, "his children", that is, Isaac's; and the Arabic ve... [ Continue Reading ]
IT WAS SAID UNTO HER,.... To Rebecca, Genesis 25:23, THE ELDER SHALL SERVE THE YOUNGER, or "the greater shall serve the lesser", an Hebrew way of speaking; so Japheth is called הגדול, "the great", or, as we render it, "the elder", Genesis 10:21; and the evil imagination is said i to be גדול, "great... [ Continue Reading ]
AS IT IS WRITTEN,.... In Malachi 1:2; JACOB HAVE I LOVED, BUT ESAU HAVE I HATED. These words are explanative of the former; they are of like import, and the one interpret the other; and show, that the former are to be understood in a spiritual, and not in a temporal sense, and of the persons, and n... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN?.... A form of expression the apostle frequently uses, when he is about to introduce an objection, as is what follows: IS THERE UNRIGHTEOUSNESS WITH GOD? This is not an objection of his own, but of an adversary, which he takes up and returns an answer to; and which itself gre... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE SAITH TO MOSES,.... That is, God said to Moses. The apostle goes on to answer to the above objections, by producing some testimonies out of the writings of Moses, in favour of both branches of predestination; showing, that the doctrine he had advanced, was no other than what God himself had d... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THEN IT IS NOT OF HIM THAT WILLETH,.... This is not a consequence drawn by an adversary, showing that if this be the case, it signifies nothing for men to will or do, they may even sit still and do nothing, but depend on the mercy of God; but this is a conclusion of the apostle's from the above c... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE SCRIPTURE SAITH UNTO PHARAOH,.... אמר קרא, "The Scripture saith", is a Talmudic l way of speaking, used when any point is proved from Scripture; and is of the same signification with אמר רחמנא, "the merciful God says"; and so the sense of it here is, God said to Pharaoh; the testimony here... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE HATH HE MERCY ON WHOM HE WILL,.... These are the express words of the former testimony: it follows, AND WHOM HE WILL HE HARDENETH; which is the just and natural consequence of what is contained in the latter; for if God could, or he did, without any injustice, raise up Pharaoh, and harden... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU WILT SAY THEN UNTO ME,.... That is, thou wilt object to me; for this is another objection of the adversary, against the doctrine the apostle was advancing: and it is an objection of a mere natural man, of one given up to a reprobate mind, of an insolent hardened sinner; it discovers the enmity... [ Continue Reading ]
NAY, BUT O MAN, WHO ART THOU THAT REPLIEST AGAINST GOD?.... Or "answerest again to God": some have been so weak and wicked as to suggest, that the apostle met with an objection he could not answer, or give a fair solution of, and therefore takes the method he does: but when the several things return... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH NOT THE POTTER POWER OVER THE CLAY,.... By the power the potter has over the clay, to shape it in what form he pleases, and out of it to make what vessels he pleases, and for what purposes he thinks fit, which will be most to his own advantage, the apostle expresses the sovereign and unlimited... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT IF GOD, WILLING TO SHOW HIS WRATH,.... The apostle proceeds to clear God from any charge of cruelty and unmercifulness, by observing his conduct in time, both towards those he passes by, and towards those he chooses; for in this and the following verse, nothing is said relating to any act of Go... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THAT HE MIGHT MAKE KNOWN THE RICHES OF HIS GLORY,.... That is, his glorious riches, the perfections of his nature, his love, grace, and mercy, his wisdom, power, faithfulness, justice, and holiness; all which are most evidently displayed in the salvation of his people, here called VESSELS OF ME... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN US WHOM HE HATH CALLED,.... From election the apostle proceeds to calling, the fruit and evidence of it, taking the same method he did in Romans 8:30, with a view to treat of the call of the Gentiles, of which he afterwards gives proof from prophecy; whence it appears to be according to divine... [ Continue Reading ]
AS HE ALSO SAITH IN OSEE,.... Hosea 2:23, so "Hosea" is called "Osee", as here, in the Septuagint in Ne 10:23. That is, as God says in the prophecy of Hosea, which was given by divine inspiration; and speaks of the calling of the Gentiles, as the spiritual Israel, after God had wrote a "lo-ammi", Ho... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS THAT IN THE PLACE,.... This is another citation out of Hosea, and is to be seen in Hosea 1:10, and the meaning is, that in those countries, as here in Great Britain, in the very selfsame place, or spot of ground, WHERE IT WAS SAID UNTO THEM, YE ARE NOT MY PEOPLE; where wer... [ Continue Reading ]
ESAIAS CRIETH CONCERNING ISRAEL,.... The apostle having produced proper testimonies in proof of the calling of the Gentiles, proceeds to mention others; showing, that some few of the Jews also were to be called, according to prophecy, founded upon divine predestination; which, though they are full p... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE WILL FINISH THE WORK,.... This passage has some difficulty in it: some, instead of "work", read "account", and suppose it is an allusion to the balancing of accounts, when the remainder is cut off, which commonly is but little; and so regards the small number of the Jews that shall be called... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AS ESAIAS SAID BEFORE,.... In the beginning of his prophecy, in Isaiah 1:9. EXCEPT THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT US A SEED; the title and character the great God goes by here, is "Lord of sabaoth", that is, "of hosts", or "armies"; the Septuagint often leave the word untranslated, as here and el... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN?.... To God's calling of a large number of the Gentiles, and only a very few of the Jews, according to his eternal purposes and decrees; what can be objected to it? is he chargeable with any unrighteousness? must it not be referred to his sovereign will and pleasure? is it not... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT ISRAEL, WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER THE LAW OF RIGHTEOUSNESS,.... The Israelites, the far greater part of the Jews, who were not called by the grace of God, were all very zealous of the law, called "the law of righteousness"; because the matter of it was righteous, it was so in its own nature; and beca... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE? BECAUSE THEY SOUGHT IT NOT BY FAITH,.... The question is asked, why they did not attain to that, which with so much diligence they pressed after? the answer is, because, as they did not seek for righteousness in a right place, or object, they sought for it in the law, and the works of it,... [ Continue Reading ]
AS IT IS WRITTEN,.... In Isaiah 8:14; for the beginning and end of this citation are out of the latter, and the middle of it out of the former. This is an instance of מדלג, "skipping", from place to place, concerning which the rules with the Jews were s, that the reader "might skip from text to tex... [ Continue Reading ]