1 I say what is true in Christ, and not what is false, my mind giving witness with me in the Holy Spirit,
2 That I am full of sorrow and pain without end.
3 For I have a desire to take on myself the curse for my brothers, my family in the flesh:
4 Who are Israelites: who have the place of sons, and the glory, and the agreements with God, and the giving of the law, and the worship, and the hope offered by God:
5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom came Christ in the flesh, who is over all, God, to whom be blessing for ever. So be it.
6 But it is not as if the word of God was without effect. For they are not all Israel, who are of Israel:
7 And they are not all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, In Isaac will your seed be named.
8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh, but the children of God's undertaking, who are named as the seed.
9 For this is the word of God's undertaking, At this time will I come, and Sarah will have a son.
10 And not only so, but Rebecca being about to have a child by our father Isaac--
11 Before the children had come into existence, or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose and his selection might be effected, not by works, but by him whose purpose it is,
12 It was said to her, The older will be the servant of the younger.
13 Even as it is said, I had love for Jacob, but for Esau I had hate.
14 What may we say then? is God not upright? let it not be said.
15 For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and pity on whom I will have pity.
16 So then, it is not by the desire or by the attempt of man, but by the mercy of God.
17 For the holy Writings say to Pharaoh, For this same purpose did I put you on high, so that I might make my power seen in you, and that there might be knowledge of my name through all the earth.
18 So then, at his pleasure he has mercy on a man, and at his pleasure he makes the heart hard.
19 But you will say to me, Why does he still make us responsible? who is able to go against his purpose?
20 But, O man, who are you, to make answer against God? May the thing which is made say to him who made it, Why did you make me so?
21 Or has not the potter the right to make out of one part of his earth a vessel for honour, and out of another a vessel for shame?
22 What if God, desiring to let his wrath and his power be seen, for a long time put up with the vessels of wrath which were ready for destruction:
23 And to make clear the wealth of his glory to vessels of mercy, which he had before made ready for glory,
24 Even us, who were marked out by him, not only from the Jews, but from the Gentiles?
25 As he says in Hosea, They will be named my people who were not my people, and she will be loved who was not loved.
26 And in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be named the sons of the living God.
27 And Isaiah says about Israel, Even if the number of the children of Israel is as the sand of the sea, only a small part will get salvation:
28 For the Lord will give effect to his word on the earth, putting an end to it and cutting it short.
29 And, as Isaiah had said before, If the Lord of armies had not given us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.
30 What then may we say? That the nations who did not go after righteousness have got righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith:
31 But Israel, going after a law of righteousness, did not get it.
32 Why? Because they were not searching for it by faith, but by works. They came up against the stone which was in the way;
33 As it is said, See, I am putting in Zion a stone causing a fall, and a rock in the way: but he who has faith in him will not be put to shame.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Romans 9
Commentary on Romans 9 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 9
The apostle, having plainly asserted and largely proved that justification and salvation are to had by faith only, and not by the works of the law, by Christ and not by Moses, comes in this and the following chapters to anticipate an objection which might be made against this. If this be so, then what becomes of the Jews, of them all as a complex body, especially those of them that do not embrace Christ, nor believe the gospel? By this rule they must needs come short of happiness; and then what becomes of the promise made to the fathers, which entailed salvation upon the Jews? Is not that promise nullified and made of none effect? Which is not a thing to be imagined concerning any word of God. That doctrine therefore, might they say, is not to be embraced, from which flows such a consequence as this. That the consequence of the rejection of the unbelieving Jews follows from Paul's doctrine he grants, but endeavours to soften and mollify (v. 1-5). But that from this it follows that the word of God takes no effect he denies (v. 6), and proves the denial in the rest of the chapter, which serves likewise to illustrate the great doctrine of predestination, which he had spoken of (ch. 8:28) as the first wheel which in the business of salvation sets all the other wheels a-going.
Rom 9:1-5
We have here the apostle's solemn profession of a great concern for the nation and people of the Jews-that he was heartily troubled that so many of them were enemies to the gospel, and out of the way of salvation. For this he had great heaviness and continual sorrow. Such a profession as this was requisite to take off the odium which otherwise he might have contracted by asserting and proving their rejection. It is wisdom as much as may be to mollify those truths which sound harshly and seem unpleasant: dip the nail in oil, it will drive the better. The Jews had a particular pique at Paul above any of the apostles, as appears by the history of the Acts, and therefore were the more apt to take things amiss of him, to prevent which he introduces his discourse with this tender and affectionate profession, that they might not think he triumphed or insulted over the rejected Jews or was pleased with the calamities that were coming upon them. Thus Jeremiah appeals to God concerning the Jews of his day, whose ruin was hastening on (Jer. 17:16), Neither have I desired the woeful day, thou knowest. Nay, Paul was so far from desiring it that he most pathetically deprecates it. And lest this should be thought only a copy of his countenance, to flatter and please them,
Rom 9:6-13
The apostle, having made his way to that which he had to say, concerning the rejection of the body of his countrymen, with a protestation of his own affection for them and a concession of their undoubted privileges, comes in these verses, and the following part of the chapter, to prove that the rejection of the Jews, by the establishment of the gospel dispensation, did not at all invalidate the word of God's promise to the patriarchs: Not as though the word of God hath taken no effect (v. 6), which, considering the present state of the Jews, which created to Paul so much heaviness and continual sorrow (v. 2), might be suspected. We are not to ascribe inefficacy to any word of God: nothing that he has spoken does or can fall to the ground; see Isa. 55:10, 11. The promises and threatenings shall have their accomplishment; and, one way or other, he will magnify the law and make it honourable. This is to be understood especially of the promise of God, which by subsequent providences may be to a wavering faith very doubtful; but it is not, it cannot be, made of no effect; at the end it will speak and not lie.
Now the difficulty is to reconcile the rejection of the unbelieving Jews with the word of God's promise, and the external tokens of the divine favour, which had been conferred upon them. This he does in four ways:-
In this paragraph the apostle explains the true meaning and intention of the promise. When we mistake the word, and misunderstand the promise, no marvel if we are ready to quarrel with God about the accomplishment; and therefore the sense of this must first be duly stated. Now he here makes it out that, when God said he would be a God to Abraham, and to his seed (which was the famous promise made unto the fathers), he did not mean it of all his seed according to the flesh, as if it were a necessary concomitant of the blood of Abraham; but that he intended it with a limitation only to such and such. And as from the beginning it was appropriated to Isaac and not to Ishmael, to Jacob and not to Esau, and yet for all this the word of God was not made of no effect; so now the same promise is appropriated to believing Jews that embrace Christ and Christianity, and, though it throws off multitudes that refuse Christ, yet the promise is not therefore defeated and invalidated, any more than it was by the typical rejection of Ishmael and Esau.
Rom 9:14-24
The apostle, having asserted the true meaning of the promise, comes here to maintain and prove the absolute sovereignty of God, in disposing of the children of men, with reference to their eternal state. And herein God is to be considered, not as a rector and governor, distributing rewards and punishments according to his revealed laws and covenants, but as an owner and benefactor, giving to the children of men such grace and favour as he has determined in and by his secret and eternal will and counsel: both the favour of visible church-membership and privileges, which is given to some people and denied to others, and the favour of effectual grace, which is given to some particular persons and denied to others.
Now this part of his discourse is in answer to two objections.
Rom 9:25-29
Having explained the promise, and proved the divine sovereignty, the apostle here shows how the rejection of the Jews, and the taking in of the Gentiles, were foretold in the Old Testament, and therefore must needs be very well consistent with the promise made to the fathers under the Old Testament. It tends very much to the clearing of a truth to observe how the scripture is fulfilled in it. The Jews would, no doubt, willingly refer it to the Old Testament, the scriptures of which were committed to them. Now he shows how this, which was so uneasy to them, was there spoken of.
Rom 9:30-33
The apostle comes here at last to fix the true reason of the reception of the Gentiles, and the rejection of the Jews. There was a difference in the way of their seeking, and therefore there was that different success, though still it was the free grace of God that made them differ. He concludes like an orator, What shall we say then? What is the conclusion of the whole dispute?