Romans 9: God's mercy to the Jews and Gentiles. Today, when many Christians think of chapter 9 of Romans, they link it to Calvinism and the doctrine of predestination. Actually, centuries before Calvin, Augustine largely based his doctrine of predestination on this chapter. Before Augustine, the Gnostics used this chapter to argue that God has arbitrarily predestined all humans to either eternal damnation or eternal life.
To be sure, when a person casually reads chapter 9 and ignores the rest of the Bible, he can easily misunderstand Paul to this end. Thankfully, the early Church did not fall into that trap. They realized that they could not read this chapter in a vacuum. That is, they could not interpret a single passage of Scripture in such a way that it would contradict the rest of the entire Bible. They recognize chapter 9 as being one of those parts of Paul's writings that Peter described as hard to understand.
One reason the early Christians did not fall into the error of Calvin, Augustine, and the Gnostics is that they were carefully following Paul's flow of thought from the first chapter of Romans through this chapter. They recognize that in this chapter, Paul is primarily developing point 5 of his great argument. God has not been unfair to the Jews in bestowing grace and salvation on the Gentiles. By the time Paul wrote Romans, Gentiles comprised most of the Church.
Many Jews felt this reversal of fortune was incredibly unfair to them. So Paul explains at length in this chapter that God has not only dealt fairly with the Jews. He has dealt with them very mercifully. God is now extending similar mercy to the Gentiles. God can extend mercy to whomever He wants. If God decides to extend mercy to the Gentiles before they have produced any godly works, He has that right. After all, God chose the Jews before they had exhibited any godly works either.
As Paul explains, God had told Rebekah that two nations were in her womb, and he chose, as his people, the nation that would descend from Jacob. This was before Jacob had done any righteous works, and it was certainly before Jacob's descendants had done any such works. Despite its misuse over the centuries, the early Christians recognize that Paul's primary point in this chapter is about two people groups: the Jews and the Gentiles. Paul is not primarily discussing individual free will or individual predestination.
Nevertheless, some of the principles from this chapter can be applied to individual salvation. So we will be looking at what the early Christians have to say about this secondary application. However, we must be exceedingly careful when we apply these principles to individuals. Any application of these tenets to individuals must harmonize with the rest of Scripture. Otherwise, we will fall into the same error as the Gnostics, the heretics whom the apostle John labeled as the Antichrist.
Nevertheless, before Paul discusses these subjects, he goes back and further develops his fourth key point. Point 4: There is no partiality with God. Jews and Gentiles stand as equals before Him. Believing Jews and believing Gentiles together make up the new Israel of God. In developing this point, Paul explains in this chapter why an ethnic descendant of Jacob is not automatically part of the Israel of God. Romans chapter 9 verses 1 through 3. Paul expresses his love for his Jewish brethren.
Verse 1 and 2," I speak the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience also bears witness to me in the Holy Spirit that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart." As in many of the previous chapters, Paul will shortly be saying things to his fellow Jews that will not be easy for them to accept. So at the outset, he reassures them of His love and devotion to them.
He emphasizes that He has great sorrow and heaviness of heart over the fact that so many of His Jewish brothers have rejected Christ and missed out on God's offer of salvation. Even the Holy Spirit bears witness to Paul's sorrow. Theodoret writes," Because he is about to reprove the unbelief of the Jews, Paul first expresses his love for them." He declares that what he is about to say is free from all falsehood. It is dignified with perfect truth.
Verse 3," For I could wish that I myself were anathematized from Christ for my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." If this statement of Paul puzzles Christians today, it was just as puzzling to Christians in the early centuries. That is because Paul's words can be understood in many ways. So we will look at the various ways the early Christians interpreted this passage, I could wish.
Here, Paul uses the verb" euchomai," which can mean either" wish" or" pray." Paul uses the word in the imperfect tense, and he may be using either the middle or the passive voice. So this word can be translated," I could wish," or it can be translated," I once wished," that I myself were anathematized from Christ. What does the Greek verb anathema mean? Our English Bibles usually translated as" accursed," which is one of its meanings. However, anathema also has the sense of being separated or cut off from someone.
When a person was anathematized by the Church, they were removed from fellowship. Yet they were not normally cursed by the congregation. Accordingly, the early Christian writers felt that Paul would never have said that he wanted to be accursed from Christ, unless it was something he had wished before he was a Christian. With all these variables in mind, here are some of the different interpretations the early Christians gave to this passage.
Origen interprets Paul to be saying that at one time, Paul had made a prayer to God similar to that of Moses. When Israel had sinned in the wilderness, Moses prayed that God would forgive them. Or if not, please blot me out of your book, which you have written. Exodus chapter 32 verses 31 through 32. Although Moses' words showed his great love for his fellow Israelites, God turned down his request, saying," Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book." Exodus chapter 32:33.
If Paul made a similar entreaty on behalf of Israel that he be anathematized for their sake, then God rejected Paul's prayer, just as He rejected that of Moses.
Chrysostom interprets anathema to mean" separated." He understands Paul to be saying," If it were possible for me to be separated from the company of Christ and to be made an alien, I would accept it, so long as my master were not to be blasphemed." However, Chrysostom explains," Paul is not talking about being separated from Christ's love." That would be far from him. Rather, Paul means he would be willing to be separated from all the enjoyment and glory of Christ's fellowship.
Even this he would be doing out of love. Ambrosiaster understands Paul to be expressing an impossible hypothetical. He writes," Paul says, I could wish, not I do wish." For he realized that it could never happen, that so outstanding a member with no previous wrongdoing would be severed from the body of Christ. To express it in English, Paul is saying," I could almost wish." He does not wish to be separated or accursed from Christ, but he loves his fellow Jews so much that he could almost wish it.
Constantius understands Paul to be referring to a time before he was a believer when he was still persecuting the Church. At that time, Paul so hated Christ that he prayed to be accursed from Christ for the sake of his Jewish brothers. Constantius writes," Paul is not now choosing to be accursed and cut off from Christ." Rather, he wanted that during the time when he persecuted Christ and His Church. Whatever the meaning, Paul is saying these words to demonstrate to the Jews how much he loves them.
Romans chapter 9 verses 4 and 5. Privileges of the Israelites, verse 4," Who are Israelites to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the ministry of God, and the promises." Once again, Paul lifts up the Jews, pointing out all the advantages God had given them in the past, the adoption. This does not refer to the Christian adoption that occurs when we are born again.
Rather, Paul is referring to the one given in the days of Moses when God declared," Israel is my son, my firstborn, the glory." This refers to the miracles and grandeur revealed in Egypt at Sinai, and at many other times in Israel's history, the covenants. Paul uses covenants in the plural because he speaks not only of the Mosaic covenant, but of various other covenants affecting the Jews, such as the one he made with David concerning the everlasting kingship.
Paul is also referring to the New Covenant, for this was first offered to the House of Israel, the giving of the Law. This set the Israelites apart from all other nations of mankind. The ministry of God refers to the Aaronic priesthood and to the priestly ministry and worship of the Levites, and the promises. God made numerous promises to the Israelites, both earthly and messianic. So God had been extremely generous to the Jews, yet they thrust those blessings away.
Accordingly, they had no cause to resent the blessings which God was now extending to the Gentiles. Romans chapter 9 verse 5," To whom belong the fathers, and from whom Christ came, according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever, amen, to whom belonged the fathers, and from whom Christ came." Although Paul has shown that Abraham is a father to both the Jews and the Gentiles, many of the other patriarchs and father figures of old belong primarily or exclusively to the Jews.
Some examples are Jacob, Moses, Samuel, David, and Ezra. Much more importantly, Jesus Himself was a Jew in His fleshly nature. So the Jewish Christians can certainly appreciate their wonderful heritage. Who is God over all? Blessed forever. Although Paul mentions the divinity of Jesus in many of his letters, in this verse Paul directly refers to Jesus as God. Although Jesus belonged to the Jewish race as to His flesh, as to His divinity, He is God over all, that is, over both Jews and Gentiles.
In this reference to Jesus as God, Paul is in no way minimizing the headship of the Father or stating that Jesus is one and the same person as the Father. Instead, Paul is giving a clear testimony of the divinity of Christ, who is of the same nature as the Father.
Tertullian writes," I shall follow the usage of the apostle, so that if the Father and the Son are both spoken of, at the same time, I shall call the Father God and Jesus Christ, Lord." However, when Christ alone is being mentioned, then I can rightly call him God. For the same apostle says," Of whom is Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever." Now, I consider the sun and its ray to be two different things, but I do not thereby make two suns.
The sun and its ray are two forms of one undivided nature, just as are God in His Word, the Father and the Son. In his historic work on the Trinity, Novatian writes," Having been instructed in all the proofs and conditions of Christ's divinity, the Apostle Thomas says in reply to Christ," My Lord and my God," John 20:29.
In addition, the apostle Paul says," Whose are the fathers, and of whom Christ came according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever." In agreement with Novatian, Origen explains," Therefore, whom Paul, previously by the Spirit, called the Son of God, here he pronounces to be God over all, blessed forever." And Ambrosiaster adds," As there is no mention of the Father's name in this verse, and Paul is talking about Christ, it cannot be disputed that here Christ is called God."