This chapter opens in some degree a new train of thought and argumentation. Its main design probably was to meet objections which would be alleged against the positions advanced and defended in the previous parts of the Epistle. In the previous chapters, Paul had defended the position that the barri... [ Continue Reading ]
I SAY THE TRUTH - In what I am about to affirm respecting my attachment to the nation and people. IN CHRIST - Most interpreters regard this as a form of an oath, as equivalent to calling Christ to witness. It is certainly to be regarded, in its obvious sense, as an appeal to Christ as the searcher o... [ Continue Reading ]
GREAT HEAVINESS - Great grief. CONTINUAL SORROW - The word rendered “continual” here must be taken in a popular sense. Not that he was literally all the time pressed down with this sorrow, but that whenever he thought on this subject, he had great grief; as we say of a painful subject, it is a sour... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I COULD WISH ... - This passage has been greatly controverted. Some have proposed to translate it, “I did wish,” as referring to a former state, when he renounced Christ, and sought to advance the interests of the nation by opposing and defying him. But to this interpretation there are insuperab... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO ARE ISRAELITES - Descended from Israel, or Jacob; honored by having such an ancestor, and by bearing a name so distinguished as that of his descendants. It was formerly the honorable appellation of the people of God. TO WHOM PERTAINETH - To whom it belongs. It was their elevated external privil... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOSE ARE THE FATHERS - Who have been honored with so illustrious an ancestry. Who are descended from Abraham, Isaac, etc. On this they highly valued themselves, and in a certain sense not unjustly; compare Matthew 3:9. OF WHOM - Of whose nation. This is placed as the crowning and most exalted priv... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT AS THOUGH ... - Not as though the promise of God had entirely failed. Though I grieve thus Romans 9:2, though I am deeply apprehensive for the nation, yet I do not affirm that all the nation is to be destroyed. The promise of God will not entirely fail. NOT ALL ISRAEL - Not all the descendants... [ Continue Reading ]
ARE THEY ALL CHILDREN - Adopted into the true family of God. Many of the descendants of Abraham were rejected. BUT IN ISAAC - This was the promise; Genesis 21:12. SHALL THY SEED ... - Thy true people. This implied a selection, or choice; and therefore the doctrine of election was illustrated in th... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WHICH ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE FLESH - The natural descendants. THESE ARE NOT THE CHILDREN OF GOD - Are not of necessity the adopted children of God; or are not so in virtue of their descent merely. This was in opposition to one of the most settled and deeply cherished opinions of the Jews. The... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THIS IS THE WORD OF PROMISE - This is the promise made to Abraham. The design of the apostle, in introducing this, is doubtless to show to whom the promise appertained; and by specifying this, he shows that it had not reference to Ishmael, but to Isaac. AT THIS TIME - Greek, According to this t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND NOT ONLY THIS - Not only is the principle of making a distinction among the natural descendants of Abraham thus settled by the promise, but it is still further seen and illustrated in the birth of the two sons of Isaac. He had shown that the principle of thus making a distinction among the poste... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE CHILDREN BEING NOT YET BORN - It was not, therefore, by any works of theirs. It was not because they had formed a character and manifested qualities which made this distinction proper. It was laid back of any such character, and therefore had its foundation in the purpose or plan of God. NE... [ Continue Reading ]
IT WAS SAID UNTO HER - By Yahweh; see Genesis 25:23. THE ELDER - The oldest son, which was Esau. By the law of primogeniture among the Hebrews, he would have been entitled to special honors and privileges. But it was said that in his case this custom should be reversed, and that he should take the... [ Continue Reading ]
AS IT IS WRITTEN - Malachi 1:2. That is, the distribution of favors is on the principle advanced by the prophet, and is in accordance with the declaration that God had in fact loved the one and hated the other. JACOB - This refers, doubtless, to the posterity of Jacob. HAVE I LOVED - I have shown... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN? - What conclusion shall we draw from these acknowledged facts, and from these positive declarations of Scripture. IS THERE UNRIGHTEOUSNESS WITH GOD? - Does God do injustice or wrong? This charge has often been brought against the doctrine here advanced. But this charge the a... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE SAITH TO MOSES - Exodus 33:19. I WILL HAVE MERCY - This is said by God when he declared expressly that he would make all his goodness pass before Moses Exodus 33:19, and when, therefore, it was regarded, not as a proof of stern and inexorable justice, but as “the very proof of his benevolence... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THEN - It follows as a consequence from this statement of God to Moses. Or it is a doctrine established by that statement. NOT OF HIM THAT WILLETH - This does not mean that he that becomes a Christian, and is saved, does not choose eternal life; or is not made willing; or that he is compelled to... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE SCRIPTURE SAITH - Exodus 9:16. That is, God saith to Pharaoh in the Scriptures; Galatians 3:8, Galatians 3:22. This passage is designed to illustrate the doctrine that God shows mercy according to his sovereign pleasure by a reference to one of the most extraordinary cases of hardness of hea... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE HATH HE MERCY ... - This is a conclusion stated by the apostle as the result of all the argument. WHOM HE WILL HE HARDENETH - This is not stated in what the Scripture said to Pharaoh, but is a conclusion to which the apostle had arrived, in view of the case of Pharaoh. The word “hardeneth”... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU WILT SAY THEN UNTO ME - The apostle here refers to an objection that might be made to his argument. If the position which he had been endeavoring to establish were true; if God had a purpose in all his dealings with people; if all the revolutions among people happened according to his decree, s... [ Continue Reading ]
NAY BUT, O MAN ... - To this objection the apostle replies in two ways; first, by asserting the sovereignty of God, and affirming that he had a right to do it Romans 9:20; and secondly, by showing that he did it according to the principles of justice and mercy, or that it was involved of necessity i... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH NOT THE POTTER ... - This same sovereign right of God the apostle proceeds to urge from another illustration, and another passage from the Old Testament; Isaiah 64:8, “But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” This passage... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT IF GOD ... - If God does what the apostle supposes, what then? Is it not right? This is the second point in the answer to the objection in Romans 9:19. The answer has respect to the “two classes” of people which actually exist on the earth - the righteous and the wicked. And the question is, wh... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN US ... - See Romans 1:16; Romans 2:10; Romans 3:29. To prove that the Gentiles might be called as well as the Jews, was a leading design of the Epistle. US - Christians, selected from both Jews and Gentiles. This proves that he did not refer to nations primarily, but to individuals chosen out... [ Continue Reading ]
AS HE SAITH ALSO - The doctrine which he had established, he proceeds now to confirm by quotations from the writings of Jews, that he might remove every objection. The doctrine was, * That God intended to call his people from the Gentiles as well as the Jews. (2)That he was bound by no promise an... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS - It shall happen, or take place. This is a continuation of the quotation from the prophet Hosea Hosea 1:10, designed to confirm the doctrine which he was establishing. Both these quotations have the same design, and are introduced for the same end. In Hosea they did not re... [ Continue Reading ]
ESAIAS - The Greek way of writing the word “Isaiah.” CRIETH - Isaiah 10:22. Exclaims, or speaks aloud or openly: compare John 1:15. Isaiah brings forth the doctrine fully, and without any concealment or disguise. This doctrine related to the rejection of the Jews; a far more difficult point to esta... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AS ESAIAS SAID - Isaiah 1:9. BEFORE - The apostle had just cited one prediction from the tenth chapter of Isaiah. He now says that Isaiah had affirmed the same thing in a previous part of his prophecy. EXCEPT THE LORD OF SABAOTH - In Isaiah, the Lord of Hosts. The word “Sabaoth” is the Hebrew... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN? - What conclusion shall we draw from the previous train of remarks? To what results have we come by the passages adduced from the Old Testament? This question is asked preparatory to his summing up the argument; and he had so stated the argument that the conclusion which he w... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT ISRAEL - The Jews. The apostle does not mean to affirm that none of the Jews had obtained mercy, but that “as a people,” or acting according to the prevalent principles of the nation to work out their own righteousness, they had not obtained it. WHICH FOLLOWED AFTER THE LAW OF RIGHTEOUSNESS - Th... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE? - Why? The apostle proceeds to state the reason why so uniform and remarkable a result happened. “They sought it not by faith, etc.” They depended on their own righteousness, and not on the mercy of God to be obtained by faith. BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW - By complying with all the demands... [ Continue Reading ]
AS IT IS WRITTEN - see Isaiah 8:14; Isaiah 28:16. The quotation here is made up of both these passages, and contains the substance of both; compare also Psa 118:22; 1 Peter 2:6. BEHOLD I LAY IN SION - Mount Sion was the hill or eminence in Jerusalem, over-against Mount Moriah, on which the temple wa... [ Continue Reading ]