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 ]