What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
30. What shall we say then? ] Same word as Rom 9:14; where see note.
followed not after ] To them no Revelation had pointed out “righteousness” as a goal of efforts.
righteousness ] i.e., practically, Justification, which is the admission to Salvation.
have attained ] Lit. and better, did attain; at their conversion; on hearing and receiving the Gospel, previously unsought and unimagined.
even ] Lit. but; and so perhaps better: q. d., “but this righteousness was that which results from faith;” in contrast to the Jewish unbeliever’s ideal, given in Rom 10:3. The E. V., however, is equally true to the Greek idiom.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 was about to draw was inevitable.
The Gentiles – That many of the Gentiles; or that the way was open for them, and many of them had actually embraced the righteousness of faith. This Epistle was written as late as the year 57 (see Introduction), and at that time multitudes of pagans had embraced the Christian religion.
Which followed not after righteousness – The apostle does not mean that none of the pagans had any solicitude about right and wrong, or that there were no anxious inquiries among them; but he intends particularly to place them in contrast with the Jew. They had not made it their main object to justify themselves; they were not filled with prejudice and pride as the Jews were, who supposed that they had complied with the Law, and who felt no need of any other justification; they were sinners, and they felt it, and had no such mighty obstacle in a system of self-righteousness to overcome as the Jew had. Still it was true that they were excessively wicked, and that the prevailing characteristic among them was that they did not follow after righteousness; see Rom. 1. The word followed here often denotes to pursue with intense energy, as a hunter pursues his game, or a man pursues a flying enemy. The Jews had sought righteousness in that way; the Gentiles had not. The word righteousness here means the same as justification. The Gentiles, which sought not justification, have obtained justification.
Have attained to righteousness – Have become justified. This was a matter of fact; and this was what the prophet had predicted. The apostle does not say that the sins of the Gentiles, or their indifference to the subject, was any reason why God justified them, or that people would be as safe in sin as in attempting to seek for salvation. He establishes the doctrine, indeed, that God is a sovereign; but still it is implied that the gospel did not have the special obstacle to contend with among the Gentiles that it had among the Jews. There was less pride, obstinacy, self-confidence; and people were more easily brought to see that they were sinners, and to feel their need of a Saviour. Though God dispenses his favors as a sovereign, and though all are opposed by nature to the gospel, yet it is always true that the gospel finds more obstacles among some people than among others. This was a most cutting and humbling doctrine to the pride of a Jew; and it is no wonder, therefore, that the apostle guarded it as he did.
Which is of faith – Justification by faith in Christ; see the note at Rom 1:17.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 9:30-33
The Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness but Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained.
The gospel for the Gentiles
I. They needed it.
1. Were without righteousness.
2. Without the knowledge of it.
3. Without the desire for it.
II. It is adapted to their case. It reveals–
1. The righteousness of God.
2. Without works.
3. By faith.
4. In Christ.
III. It has been attained by many.
1. As the free gift of God.
2. As the source of unspeakable happiness.
3. May be attained by all. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The righteousness of the gospel
I. It is designed for sinners,
II. Offered to faith.
III. Impossible by works.
IV. Because the self-righteous stumble at the Cross.
V. But the sinner is saved by faith. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The folly of rejecting the gospel
Now you may reject the gospel if you please, but wherein will your condition be improved? If on a ship where some pestilence is raging, the crew and the passengers throw the doctor and the medicine chest overboard, and keep the pestilence with them, how much better are they off? Many there are who are bent on casting Christianity overboard, on getting rid of the Church and priest and theology, and who are bent on keeping their sin and all its multitudinous train of mischief and evils. If men had become pure of heart, then there might be some reason in dispensing with these superflous ministrations; but, thus far, scepticism and the rejection of Christianity is only to make darkness darker and sickness more fatal and distress more painful. (H. W. Beecher.)
Christ rejected by Jews and accepted by Gentiles
I. The fact here stated was–
1. Plain and undeniable.
2. A verification of prophecy.
II. The instruction to be gathered from it.
1. That however earnest we may be after salvation, we shall never attain it if we seek it in a self-righteous way.
2. That however regardless we have been about salvation hitherto, we shall attain to it the instant we believe in Christ.
3. That however calumniated this way of salvation is, the very calumnies that are raised against it attest its truth. (C. Simeon, M.A.)
S.S.: or the sinner saved
Paul had two facts before him; the first was, that wherever he went preaching Christ certain Gentiles believed the doctrine, receiving at once forgiveness of sin and a change of heart; and although he had usually commenced his ministry in the synagogues, yet the Jews had almost everywhere rejected the Messiah, and at the same time missed the righteousness which they conceived they had obtained. Note–
I. A wonder of grace.
1. Certain men had attained to righteousness. Now that alone is a great wonder, for we are all sinners both by nature and by practice.
2. The wonder grows when we consider that these persons had attained to righteousness under great disadvantages; for they were Gentiles, considered by the Jews to be offcasts and outcasts given up to idolatry or to atheism and lusts. There are virtues for which the heathen had no name; and they practised vices for which, thank God, you have no name. They were ignorant withal of the requirements of the law, the light of which alone shone upon the seed of Israel. The strange thing is that such originally were those men who attained unto righteousness. Having no righteousness of their own, and being convinced that they needed one, they fled at once to the righteousness which God has prepared for all who believe in Christ. Are there not persons here whose condition is somewhat similar? You are not religious; but why should not you also attain to righteousness by faith? Wonders of grace are things which God delights in; why should He not work such wonders in you?
3. The marvel of grace was all the greater because, They followed not after righteousness. Some of them were thoughtful, just, and generous towards men, but righteousness towards God was not a matter after which they laboured. Gold or glory, power or pleasure, were the objects for which they ran. Yet when the gospel burst in upon the midnight of their souls they received its light with joy. They had not sought the Shepherd, but He had sought them, and, laying them on His shoulders, He brought them to His fold. They were like that Indian who, passing up the mountain-side pursuing game, grasped a shrub to prevent his slipping, and as its roots gave way they uncovered masses of silver. These Gentiles discovered in Christ the righteousness which they needed, but which they had never dreamed of finding.
4. These unlikely persons did really believe, and so attain to righteousness. They did not want hammering at so long as some of you do. At the first summons many of them surrendered. They rose at a bound from depths of sin to heights of righteousness. The apostle asks us, What shall we say then?
(1) Herein is seen the Sovereign appointment of the Lord. He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, He will fulfil His promise to His Son, Behold, Thou shalt call a nation that Thou knowest not, etc.
(2) This also is according to Divine prophecy. I will call them My people, which were not My people, etc.
3. This is, in fact, the gospel of the grace of God. That God smiles upon worthy people and rewards their goodness is not the gospel. The gospel is that God hath mercy upon the guilty and undeserving.
II. A marvel of folly: Israel, etc. These people–
1. Were very advantageously placed. They were of the chosen race, born within the visible Church, and circumcised, and brought up to know the law of Moses, and yet they had never attained to righteousness. There are those present who were nursed in the lap of piety; they have scarcely been a single Sabbath absent from the Lords house. Now that they have reached riper years they are still hovering around the gates of mercy, but they have not entered upon the way of life. I tremble for you who are so good and yet are not regenerate.
2. Were earnest and zealous in following after the law of righteousness. Alas! many who have never forgotten a single outward rite are nevertheless quite dead as to spiritual things. Nobody could put a finger upon an open fault in you, and yet you, at least, have a shrewd suspicion that all is not right between you and God. It is concerning such as you that Paul had great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart. You may be earnestly seeking righteousness in the wrong way, and this is a terrible thing.
3. Made a mistake at the very beginning. Israel did not follow after righteousness, but after the law of righteousness. They missed the spirit and followed after the mere letter of the law. They looked at Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, etc.; but to love God with all their heart was not thought of. They thought of what a man does, but they forgot the importance of what a man is. Escape from this error; be not so eager for the shell as to lose the kernel, so zealous for the form of godliness as to deny the power thereof!
4. Went upon a wrong principle–viz., that of works. This principle is wrong for–
(1) It exalts man.
(2) It ignores the great fact that you have sinned already. Are you going to be saved by your works? What about the past? If I am going to pay my way for the future, this will not discharge my old debts.
(3) It makes nothing of God. It shuts out both His justice and His mercy.
(4) It is impossible to you. You cannot perfectly keep the law of God, for you are sold under sin. Who can get clean water from a polluted spring? There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. But suppose you could outwardly keep the law of God out of a sense of obligation to do so, yet the work is not done unless you yourself are made right with God. Your heart must love God as well as your hands serve Him.
5. Fully developed their unrighteousness when they stumbled at Christ. Jesus Christ came among them, and became to them a rock of offence. They seemed to stand upright until then; but when He came among them, down they went into actual rebellion against the Lord and His Anointed. Yes, your moralists are the great enemies of the Cross. They do not want an atonement; they can hardly endure the doctrine. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Divine method of salvation
I. Its apparent contradictions (Rom 9:30-31).
1. According to human judgment those who most earnestly seek after righteousness should be the first to attain it.
2. But the Gentiles who sought it not have obtained the righteousness of faith.
3. While the Jews who followed after the law of righteousness utterly failed.
II. Its secret harmonies (Rom 9:32-33).
1. The righteousness is only by faith.
2. The Jews, who sought it by works, took offence at the Cross.
3. But the Gentile, conscious of his demerit, believed and was saved. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The reasonableness of Gods working
The question hitherto has been–How can God set aside an elect people? And the answer–God chooses whom He will for the carrying on His saving work. But now a reason is adduced. For although God does what He will, we may be sure He never wills what is not right. And here the great reason for the rejection of Israel and the choice of the Gentiles is this, that the former have failed to apprehend the nature of salvation, whereas the latter have received the proffered gift. Needs it any arguing that they are better fitted to work for God than the others?
I. The gentiles.
1. Their previous history, from a religious point of view, is that they followed not after righteousness, i.e., they sought not justification with God. For a subjective righteousness they did seek–witness Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and poets and historians who sought to set forth the principles of right. But as to an objective righteousness, a being right with God, this was not in all their thoughts. They regarded God as not much troubling Himself with human conduct, and sin itself as rather a defect than guilt.
2. Yet they attained to righteousness. The dormant conscience awoke; the weakness of their ethical systems was revealed; the guilt of sin and the love of God was set forth in the Cross, and being stricken to the heart, and crying What must I do to be saved? they were eager to respond to the command Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, etc.; and accepting salvation they attained to righteousness.
II. Jews.
1. Their history is stated by way of contrast. The wording is most accurate. They followed a law which was designed by God to teach them sin, and lead them to look to His free grace in Christ for pardon; but it was not this end of the law which they followed, but the law itself. They made an end of the means, and thus subverted its design; for instead of learning from the law their sin, they sought by a supposed fulfilment of its precepts to make themselves just before God. So instead of learning to be poor in spirit they learned an arrogant self-complacency; instead of coming to Gods grace for pardon, they thanked God they were not as other men, and stood self-justified.
2. What was the result? They did not arrive at that law not at its true purport, its ultimate design. So the real law of justification, salvation through faith, was hidden from their eyes. To them the Rock of Ages was a stone of stumbling, etc. Learn, then, from the history of the past that there is only shame for us if we seek to make ourselves just before God. By accepting freely the grace that is freely given, we shall not be put to shame. (T. F. Lockyer, B.A.)
Seeking after righteousness
They also gave to the world, by their ancient economy, a religion whose genius was the development of mankind. In other words, they gave to the world an ethical religion, as distinguished from a worshipping and superstitious religion. Although the Jew made manifest every office of devotion and reverence, and although you might select from the Jewish writers saints as eminent in observances as any others, yet the distinctive peculiarity of religion among the Israelites was that it had a practical drift as regards the conduct of men. It did not expend itself in lyrics and prayers of worship. It descended to the character of men, and sought first, and above all other faiths of that age, to develop manhood. For the whole flow of that word righteousness in the Old Testament is the equivalent of our word manhood in modern phrase, and seeking after righteousness was the distinctive peculiarity of the Hebrew religion. It bred a race of men who put into the building of themselves the attributes of truth, of justice, of humanity, of morality, of gentleness, and of humility. It reared men who had no equals, and with whom there was nothing that could compare in their own time. The Greeks built better temples than the Hebrews; but though the Hebrew hand never carved a marble, it did better–it carved men. Such was the very drift of their religion. And the apostle, having received the culture of Greece at the feet of his great teacher, and knowing what it meant, declared that his brethren sought after righteousness, but that they did not well understand what were the instruments by which the higher development of manhood was to be attained. They sought to develop righteousness by institutions; but Paul says that no race of people ever did or ever will, merely by institutions, develop the highest form of character. That must be done by following a living example under a heroic inspiration. (H. W. Beecher.)
No righteousness by the law
I. Mans need of righteousness.
II. His unavailing efforts after it. Example of the Jew.
III. The cause of his failure. He seeks it not by faith, but by works, consequently stumbles at Christ. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The unsuccessful seeker
I. What he seeks.
II. How he seeks it.
III. The disappointing result.
IV. Because he stumbles at Christ. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith.
This verse plainly teaches that the reason why one man is unsaved while others are saved is not in God, but in himself. So always (Rom 10:3; Rom 11:22 f; Mat 23:37). This by no means contradicts verse18, but looks at the same subject from another point. The reason why any one criminal is put to death is, if justice be done, entirely in himself. But the question whether any criminals are to be put to death rests entirely with the legislature. Those who oppose capital punishment may leave out of sight the conduct of the criminal, and speak only of what it is expedient for the government to do. And the moralist may leave out of sight the expediency of capital punishment, and speak only of the consequences of sin. Or again, the motion of the withered leaves of autumn is due entirely to the wind. They do not in the least degree even co-operate to produce their own motion. But the stones on the wayside remain unmoved. The difference arises, not from a difference of the influence brought to bear on them, but simply from this, that while the leaves yield to, the stones resist, the influence which both alike experience. So with us. That believers are justified at all springs entirely from the undeserved mercy of God, and every step towards salvation is entirely Gods work in them. But the reason why when some are justified others are not, is that they put themselves by unbelief outside the number of those whom God has determined to save. When Paul replied to the objection that the gospel is inconsistent with the justice of God, he said that salvation is not a manner of justice at all, and that God bestows it on whom He will. But when explaining why the Jews have not obtained salvation, he says that the reason is in themselves. Observe also that their position is attributed not to their sin, but to their unbelief. (Prof. Beet.)
Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence.–It seems strange that Jesus the Saviour of men should be set before us in this way; but the great object is to cause us to consider what our own attitude is toward Christ. Am I clinging to Him as my Rock of Safety, or am I being repelled from Him as from a rock of offence? Jesus Himself alluded to the same idea (Mat 21:42-44).
I. There are some things in Christs life and work at which men stumble.
1. The way He came into the world (Mat 12:54-57). The people stumbled at the difficulty of His lowly parentage. Yet why? for it was all predicted, and ought rather to confirm faith.
2. The surroundings of His daily life. It was with the poor that He chiefly mingled. Here, however, is a proof that Christ was Divine. God is no respecter of persons. Had Christ been a mere man with an ambition to found a kingdom, He would have sought very different society. The persons He chose for His ambassadors were themselves a proof that their religion was Divine. Without rank or riches or worldly influence, and only by the power of their words, they founded a religion which will one day conquer the world.
3. His death. This was to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. And now men, while willing to regard Christ as the greatest of teachers and sublimest of examples, stumble at His atonement. Yet it is this only that gives meaning to the Old Testament, and without it Christs own teaching is inexplicable, and to stumble at it is to find a difficulty in the most convincing proof of Gods love. Instead of stumbling at it they should find it as Paul did the power of God.
II. There are some things in themselves which cause men to stumble at Christ. Christ is a stumbling stone–
1. To human pride. If we are to be saved by Jesus we must as guilty sinners lay aside all trust in our own merits. Gods way of salvation is too simple. If He would bid us do or suffer some great thing we would gladly do it. But is not this again unreasonable? If I will not take Gods way of getting to heaven, how can I expect to get there by any other?
2. To human sins. Many would like to get to heaven, but do not like to give up their sins. But how unreasonable.
3. To human selfishness. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (C. H. Irwin, M.A.)
Christ a stumbling stone and rock of collision
1. These are astounding words. Who is the speaker? Not Paul, for he quotes Isaiah: not Isaiah, for in both passages (Isa 28:16; Isa 8:11; Isa 8:13-16) he ascribes them to Jehovah–one therefore who has a right to speak great and terrible things. What, or rather who, is referred to? It is none else than Jehovah Jesus.
2. When He, then, is represented under the alternative figure of a refuge and a stone of stumbling it is implied that men need a refuge. Why? Because men are everywhere pursued–pursued by penal evils, and that because they are themselves pursuing after evils of another kind. They love the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life, and are keenly pursuing them. One man is making life subordinate to the ignoble pursuit of sensual indulgence, others to fame and power, myriads more to wealth. But the earth on which men live belongs to God, and He has therefore a right to rule in it and over it, and having this right and being holy His malediction is lying on every form of sinful gratification. Hence every nation is pursued by a host of evils, and is time after time driven to Divine means to stave them off for a season. In vain.
3. But, what, then, is to become of each mortal man, of nations, of the great world? Let us hear the voice of God. Behold I lay, etc. Every mans refuge is in Jehovah Jesus. There is none other name, etc. Never till the world takes refuge on or in Him will it be happy, and as the world is but a world full of individuals, never will individual men be happy until they flee to Him.
4. But why, then, is He called a stumbling stone and a rock of collision? Is a stumbling stone a refuge? Is a rock of collision an asylum? Undoubtedly. It is just according as Christ is made use of as that He will be found to be one or the other. That which is our greatest boon when rightly used may become our utter ruin when abused. Fire and water are among our greatest blessings, but if a man will leap into a blazing furnace, or into a seething flood it will be his destruction. Look how steam engines have multiplied the comforts of life! But if a man will rush into machinery in full motion, all the worlds comforts will in one moment cease to be comforts available to him. The same principle holds good in the relation of Jehovah Jesus to men. If they use Him aright He will prove a sanctuary, but if they insist on going on as if He were not in existence at all then He will be a rock of dreadful collision, and they will rush upon Him and be broken and ruined. The Divine idea is this: if men will have none of Jesus, and run on in their way without deigning to look so low as to see Jesus, the interests they pursue must come into terrific collision with the interests He pursues; and whensoever the collision comes, they and they only, will suffer. They will be like fugitives from a flood, who dash with all their highest pressure of force full on, upon a jagged rock. The rock will remain uninjured; but they will fall and be broken, and the flood will overtake and overwhelm them. But there is the sweet addition to the potentous threatening Whosoever believeth on Him, the Rock of Ages, shall not be ashamed. His security is certain. The rain may descend, etc., but his hopes will not fail because they are founded upon the Rock. (J. Morison, D.D.)
Un-believers stumbling; believers rejoicing
Our apostle was inspired, and yet he was moved to quote the Old Testament, and thus he sets us an example of searching the Scriptures. The passage is composed of two Scriptures woven into one. A part is found in Isa 28:16; of which the apostle gives us rather the sense than the words, and another part in Isa 8:14. In the latter of these passages we have a striking proof of Christs divinity. Observe verse 13, Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself and He shall be for a sanctuary to believers; but a stone of stumbling, etc. Isaiah utters a prophecy of the Lord of Hosts, Paul quotes it in reference to the Lord Jesus, plainly intending us to infer that Christ is no other than Jehovah. In his quotation from the former the apostle has omitted the words for a foundation, and has inserted the words of the other passage, a stumbling stone, a rock of offence, But the original prophecy serves to show that Gods real object in laying Christ in Zion was not that men might stumble at Him, but that He might be a foundation for their hopes; but the result has been that to one set of men Christ has become a sanctuary and a stone of dependence; and to others a stumbling stone. Note–
I. That many stumbling at Christ.
1. No sooner did He commence His ministry than men began to stumble at Him. Is not this the carpenters son? was the question of those who looked for worldly pomp. His father and His mother, we know, was the whispered objection of His own townsmen. In His own country the greatest of all prophets had no honour. The Pharisee stumbled at Him, because He did not wash His hands before He ate, nor make broad His phylactery. He healed the sick upon the Sabbath; He had no respect for traditions, and befriended publicans and sinners. The Sadducee, on the other hand, detested Jesus, because His teaching had in it very much of the supernatural element. All His life long, in the high courts of Herod or of Pilate, or in the lowest rank of the mob of Judaea, Christ was despised and rejected of men. But the Jew was not alone in his offence at the Cross. The polished Greeks, when they heard Paul preach, they saw nothing flattering to their philosophy, and therefore they openly mocked. In every age Christ has been rejected by the very men whom He came to bless. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
2. However, we have very little to do with these past ages. There are amongst us some who stumble at Christ because of–
(1) His holiness. He is too strict for them. Christ offends men because His gospel is intolerant of sin.
(2) His plan of salvation by faith. They say, What, are our good works to go for nothing? This is too humbling.
(3) The doctrine He preaches, more especially the doctrines of grace. If we preach virtue some will say, I enjoyed that discourse; but if we preach Christ, and begin to talk about the deep doctrines which lie underneath the gospel, straightway they are angry. Ah! Christ will not shape His doctrine to suit thy carnal taste.
(4) His people and their inconsistencies. As though it is an excuse for going to hell because others do not walk straight to heaven. What if David falls and is restored, is this any reason why thou shouldst fall and never be restored? The shipwrecks of others should only make thee sail more carefully.
(5) The real objection, however, is Christ Himself. You will not have this man to reign over you. If thou hast no objection to Christ, accept Him.
3. Now let me reason with those who have made Christ a stumbling stone.
(1) Hast thou ever considered how much thou insultest God the Father by rejecting Christ? Would it not bring the blood into thy face if thou shouldst give thine only son to fight for thy country, and they to whom he was given should despise thee and thy gift?
(2) What a proof is here of thy sinfulness, and how readily wilt thou be condemned at the last when this sin is written on thy forehead. There will be no reason to bring up any other sins against thee. Thou hast objected to Gods dear Son, why need we any other witness?
(3) How will this increase thy misery? Dost thou think God will be tender over thee when thou hast not been tender with His Son? How can you escape if you neglect so great salvation? You have broken down the only bridge which could have led you into safety.
II. Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. Notice–
1. When those who trust Christ might be ashamed of having trusted Him.
(1) Well might they be ashamed if Christ should ever leave them.
(2) If Christ should fail them either as to providence or grace in times of trial and temptation.
(3) If Christs promises were not fulfilled.
(4) If when he came to die he should find no support. But have ye ever heard of a Christian who was ashamed in his dying hour?
2. Why they might be ashamed if such things were to come.
(1) We have ventured our all upon Christ. The world says you should never put all your eggs in one basket, and the world is quite right in human things. But here are we, we are depending everything upon one man. If He can fail us, we are of all men most miserable.
(2) We have given up this life for the next. The worlds proverb is, A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, but we, on the other hand, have said that the bird in the hand is nothing at all, that the bird in the bush is everything. Now, if things should turn out wrong, and we have believed in vain, then we shall be ashamed of our hope, but not till then, and that shall be never.
(3) We began boasting before we had ended the battle. You have boasted in Christ; you have said that He is a sure foundation, but if He should fail you, why then you would be in the position of a man who boasted before the time. But we shall never be ashamed.
(4) We have actually divided the spoil; and oh! if the battle should be lost, then we should be ashamed. The French once, before the battle began, commenced selling the English captives, but then, fortunately, they never gained the victory. But you and I have already entered into our rest; and if it should be a delusion we should be ashamed, but not till then.
(5) Men are ashamed when they have made a bad speculation, because they have induced others to enter into it. You and I have been inducing others to embark in this great venture. Oh, sweet assurance, we have not preached cunningly devised fables, and shall never be ashamed.
3. Who are they who shall never be ashamed? Whosoever believeth–that is, any man who ever lived, or ever shall live, who believes in Christ, shall never be ashamed. Whether he has been a gross sinner or a moralist; whether he be a prince or a beggar, it matters not.
4. The text means more than it says, viz., the believers shall be glorified and full of honour. If thou trustest Christ to-day, it will bring shame from men, it will ensure trials, but it will also ensure honour in the eight of Gods holy angels and glory at the last in the sight of the assembled universe. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A common stumbling block
A preacher of the gospel had gone down into a coal mine during the noon hour to tell the miners of that grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. After telling them the simple story of Gods love to lost sinners–mans state and Gods remedy, a full and free salvation offered, the time came for the men to resume work, and the preacher came back to the shaft to ascend to the world again. Meeting the foreman, he asked him what he thought of Gods way of salvation. The man replied, Oh, it is too cheap: I cannot believe in such a religion as that! Without an immediate answer to his remark, the preacher asked: How do you get out of this place? Simply by getting into the cage, was the reply. And does it take long to get to the top? Oh, no; only a few seconds! Well, that certainly is very easy and simple. But do you not need to help raise yourself? said the preacher. Of course not! replied the miner. As I have said, you have nothing to do but get into the cage. But what about the people who sunk the shaft, and perfected all this arrangement? Was there much labour or expense about it? Indeed, yes; that was a laborious and expensive work. The shaft is eighteen hundred feet deep, and it was sunk at great cost to the proprietor; but it is our only way out, and without it we should never be able to get to the surface. Just so. And when Gods Word tells you that whosoever believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life, you at once say, Too cheap!–Too cheap! forgetting that Gods work to bring you and others out of the pit of destruction and death was accomplished at a vast cost, the price being the death of His own Son. Men talk about the help of Christ in their salvation–that if they do their part, Christ will do His, forgetting, or not seeing, that the Lord Jesus Christ by Himself purged our sins, and that our part is but to accept what has been done.
A reliable salvation
My friends, I do not want to make an experiment about my own soul. I cannot afford to do it. I have but one soul to be saved or lost, and if you can show to me that this gospel of Jesus Christ is an experiment, I want nothing to do with it. I do not want to go on a trial trip. Some years ago, in the Canadas, there was a bridge built over an awful chasm. Far down beneath the waters rushed very violently. After this costly and beautiful bridge was done, the day for opening it came. Thousands of people assembled. Flags were flying, guns were sounding. There was a large coach drawn by six horses, a coach loaded with passengers, and at just the advertised moment, the architect of the bridge, to show that the structure was what it pretended to be, mounted the box of this coach, took the reins in his hands, and started, amid the huzzas of thousands and thousands of people. He drove on until he came to the centre of the bridge, when the timbers cracked, and all went down–some dashed against the abutments, some whelmed in the stream. You tell me that there is a bridge built for my soul over sin, and death, and hell, and you ask me to go on it, and ask me to take all these people on it. No; unless I am sure it is a safe bridge, But this is no experiment. We are not the first to go over it. Scores, and hundreds, and thousands have gone over it. A great multitude that no man can number, have gone over it. That bridge is buttressed at one end with the Rock of Ages, and at the other with the throne of the Lord God Almighty, and I am not afraid to trust it. Wilt you go with me to-day? Venture on Him. Venture wholly. No experiment about it. If it had been an unsafe salvation, your fathers and mothers would long ago have found it out. Oh, what a glorious salvation from sin, and death, and hell! Peter preached it at the Pentecost, and there went up the shout of three thousand delivered captives. Paul preached it in official circles, and the knees of Felix knocked together. Robert McCheyne preached it in Dundee until all Scotland was in a blaze. Richard Baxter preached it until Lord Jeffries trembled on the judicial bench, and James II turned pale on his iniquitous throne, and hundreds of souls started from Kidderminster for the saints everlasting rest. It has dried up rivers of tears. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 30. What shall we say then?] What is the final conclusion to be drawn from all these prophecies, facts, and reasonings? This: That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness, c. This, with the succeeding verses, together with what belongs to the same subject in the beginning of the following chapter, I have explained at large in the notes on Ro 1:17, to which I must refer the reader and shall content myself in this place with Dr. Taylor’s general paraphrase. We may suppose the apostle to express himself to the following effect. Thus I have vindicated the rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles, with regard to the Divine veracity and justice. Now let us turn our thoughts to the true reason and state of the affair considered in itself. And, in the first place, what just notion ought we to have of the calling of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews? I answer: The true notion of the calling or inviting of the Gentiles is this: whereas they had no apprehension of being reinstated in the privileges of God’s peculiar kingdom, and consequently used no endeavours to obtain that blessing, yet, notwithstanding, they have attained to justification, to the remission of sins, and the privileges of God’s people: not on account of their prior worthiness and obedience, but purely by the grace and mercy of God, received by faith on their part. And so, by embracing the scheme of life published by the Gospel, they are adopted into the family and Church of God. Thus the Gentiles are called or invited.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This is the conclusion of the apostles discourse about the election of some and the rejection of others; as also about the calling of the Gentiles and the casting off the Jews.
Which followed not after righteousness; that never minded or regarded it; instead of following after it, they fled from it. They were full of all unrighteousness, Rom 1:18, to the end; Eph 2:2, 3.
The righteousness which is of faith; viz. gospel righteousness, or the righteousness of Christ, which is received by true faith.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30, 31. What shall we saythen?“What now is the result of the whole?” Theresult is thisvery different from what one would have expected.
That the Gentiles, whichfollowed not after righteousness, have attained“attained”
to righteousness, even therighteousness of faithAs we have seen that “therighteousness of faith” is the righteousness which justifies(see on Ro 3:22, &c.), thisverse must mean that “the Gentiles, who while strangers toChrist were quite indifferent about acceptance with God, havingembraced the Gospel as soon as it was preached to them, experiencedthe blessedness of a justified state.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 an instance of his grace and goodness, that he calls and saves some, when they were all so wicked, that he might in justice have destroyed every individual of them? or what is further to be said, concerning both Jews and Gentiles? or what can be objected to what may be further observed concerning them? as
that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness; the very same persons among them, who are, called by grace, and are vessels of mercy, before their calling were without a righteousness, stout hearted, and far from one; being without Christ, and destitute of his Spirit; they were ignorant of righteousness, of the righteousness of God, and of his law, and consequently of what true righteousness is; they were unconcerned about it, and did not labour after it, as the Jews did. They did not pursue and improve the light of nature, about God and things of a moral kind, as they might have done; but held the light and truth they had in unrighteousness, and indeed were filled with nothing else: and yet these persons
have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. The righteousness they attained unto, was not a righteousness of their own, not the righteousness of works, or a righteousness by the deeds of the law, to which the righteousness which is of faith is always opposed; nor faith itself, which is distinguished from it; but the righteousness of Christ, so called, not because that faith is the cause or condition of it, but because the discovery of it is made to faith; that receives it, lays hold on it, and exercises itself on it; by it the soul renounces its own righteousness, looks to, and depends on Christ’s, and rejoices in it. These Gentiles being called by grace, “attained”, “comprehended”, or “apprehended” this righteousness; not by the light of nature, which makes no discovery, nor gives the least hint of it; but by the light of faith they apprehended it, as revealed in the Gospel; which faith they had not of themselves, but of God; so that the whole of this account is a wonderful instance of the grace of God, and abundantly confirms the observation made before by the apostle, that “it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy”, Ro 9:16; since these persons had nothing in them, disposing and qualifying them for a justifying righteousness, and yet attained one; and the grace appears to be the more distinguishing, by what follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Reception of the Gentiles and Rejection of the Jews. | A. D. 58. |
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. 31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; 33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
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?
I. Concerning the Gentiles observe, 1. How they had been alienated from righteousness: the followed not after it; they knew not their guilt and misery, and therefore were not at all solicitous to procure a remedy. In their conversion preventing grace was greatly magnified: God was found of those that sought him not, Isa. lxv. 1. There was nothing in them to dispose them for such a favour more than what free grace wrought in them. Thus doth God delight to dispense grace in a way of sovereignty and absolute dominion. 2. How they attained to righteousness, notwithstanding: By faith; not by being proselyted to the Jewish religion, and submitting to the ceremonial law, but by embracing Christ, and believing in Christ, and submitting to the gospel. They attained to that by the short cut of believing sincerely in Christ for which the Jews had been long in vain beating about the bush.
II. Concerning the Jews observe, 1. How they missed their end: they followed after the law of righteousness (v. 31)– they talked much of justification and holiness, seemed very ambitious of being the people of God and the favourites of heaven, but they did not attain to it, that is, the greatest part of them did not; as many as stuck to their old Jewish principles and ceremonies, and pursued a happiness in those observances, embracing the shadows now that the substance was come, these fell short of acceptance with God, were not owned as his people, nor went to their house justified. 2. How they mistook their way, which was the cause of their missing the end, Rom 9:32; Rom 9:33. They sought, but not in the right way, not in the humbling way, not in the instituted appointed way. Not by faith, not by embracing the Christian religion, and depending upon the merit of Christ, and submitting to the terms of the gospel, which were the very life and end of the law. But they sought by the works of the law; as if they were to expect justification by their observance of the precepts and ceremonies of the law of Moses. This was the stumbling-stone at which they stumbled. They could not get over this corrupt principle which they had espoused, That the law was given them for no end but that merely by their observance of it, and obedience to it, they might be justified before God: and so they could by no means be reconciled to the doctrine of Christ, which brought them off from that to expect justification through the merit and satisfaction of another. Christ himself is to some a stone of stumbling, for which he quotes Isa 8:14; Isa 28:16. It is sad that Christ should be set for the fall of any, and yet it is so (Luke ii. 34), that ever poison should be sucked out of the balm of Gilead, that the foundation-stone should be to any a stone of stumbling, and the rock of salvation a rock of offence; so he is to multitudes; so he was to the unbelieving Jews, who rejected him, because he put an end to the ceremonial law. But still there is a remnant that do believe on him; and they shall not be ashamed, that is, their hopes and expectations of justification by him shall not be disappointed, as theirs are who expect it by the law. So that, upon the whole, the unbelieving Jews have no reason to quarrel with God for rejecting them; they had a fair offer of righteousness, and life, and salvation, made to them upon gospel terms, which they did not like, and would not come up to; and therefore, if they perish, they may thank themselves–their blood is upon their own heads.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Attained (). Second aorist active indicative of , old verb, to grasp, to seize, to overtake (carrying out the figure in (to pursue). It was a curious paradox.
Which is of faith ( ). As Paul has repeatedly shown, the only way to get the God-kind of righteousness.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Attained [] . See on perceived, Act 4:13, and taketh, Mr 9:18; Joh 1:5. Compare attained (efqasen, ver. 31). Rev., arrive at. See on Mt 12:28. The meaning is substantially the same, only the imagery in the two words differs; the former being that of laying hold of a prize, and the latter of arriving at a goal. The latter is appropriate to following after, and is carried out in stumbling (ver. 32).
Even [] or and that. Subjoining something distinct and different from what precedes, though not sharply opposed to it. Attained righteousness, that is not that arising from these works, but from faith.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “What shall we say then?” (ti oun eroumen) “What therefore shall we say?” What argument have we to make as a case for the Gentiles, from whom God called a people for his sake, Act 15:14; Mat 4:13-20; Rom 1:14-16; It is our duty and privilege to preach this salvation as Paul did, Act 26:15-20.
2) “That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness,” (hoti ethne ta me diokonta dikaiosunen) “that nation’s not pursing righteousness;” that is law-righteousness by standard of the Mosaic law. The Gentiles were not even claimants to be observing, seeking law-standards of righteousness, Rom 2:14-15.
3) “Have attained to righteousness,” (katelahen dikaiosunen) “Apprehended or have received righteousness,” They did it by faith in Jesus Christ a) Cornelius’ household, Act 10:43; b) Lydia’s household, Act 16:30-34; c) and the Ethiopian Eunuch, Act 8:36-37; Rom 1:15-16.
4) “Even the righteousness which is of faith,” (dikaiosunen de ten ek pisteos) “But a righteousness that is out of or originating out of faith;” The Gentiles received salvation and imputed righteousness from God, just as Abraham had done, as a father-example before them in Ur of The Chaldees, Gen 15:6; Gal 3:8-9; Rom 4:4-6; Rom 4:16; Rom 10:1-4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
30. What then, etc. That he might cut off from the Jews every occasion of murmuring against God, he now begins to show those causes, which may be comprehended by human minds, why the Jewish nation had been rejected. But they do what is absurd and invert all order, who strive to assign and set up causes above the secret predestination of God, which he has previously taught us is to be counted as the first cause. But as this is superior to all other causes, so the corruption and wickedness of the ungodly afford a reason and an occasion for the judgments of God: and as he was engaged on a difficult point, he introduced a question, and, as though he were in doubt, asked what might be said on the subject.
That the Gentiles who did not pursue, etc. Nothing appeared more unreasonable, or less befitting, than that the Gentiles, who, having no concern for righteousness, rolled themselves in the lasciviousness of their flesh, should be called to partake of salvation, and to obtain righteousness; and that, on the other hand, the Jews, who assiduously laboured in the works of the law, should be excluded from the reward of righteousness. Paul brings forward this, which was so singular a paradox, in such a manner, that by adding a reason he softens whatever asperity there might be in it; for he says, that the righteousness which the Gentiles attained was by faith; and that it hence depends on the Lord’s mercy, and not on man’s own worthiness; and that a zeal for the law, by which the Jews were actuated, was absurd; for they sought to be justified by works, and thus laboured for what no man could attain to; and still further, they stumbled at Christ, through whom alone a way is open to the attainment of righteousness.
But in the first clause it was the Apostle’s object to exalt the grace of God alone, that no other reason might be sought for in the calling of the Gentiles but this, — that he deigned to embrace them when unworthy of his favor.
He speaks expressly of righteousness, without which there can be no salvation: but by saying that the righteousness of the Gentiles proceeded from faith, he intimates, that it was based on a gratuitous reconciliation; for if any one imagines that they, were justified, because they had by faith obtained the Spirit of regeneration, he departs far from the meaning of Paul; it would not indeed have been true, that they had attained what they sought not, except God had freely embraced them while they were straying and wandering, and had offered them righteousness, for which, being unknown, they could have had no desire. It must also be observed, that the Gentiles could not have obtained righteousness by faith, except God had anticipated their faith by his grace; for they followed it when they first by faith aspired to righteousness; and so faith itself is a portion of his favor.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom. 9:31.. ., and not . , because Israel and not the Gentiles had in the economy of mercy a law which taught what was right; law not making righteous, but declaring what is right.
Rom. 9:32. indicates the supposition that their works were good works.
Rom. 9:33.The Jews say, The Son of David, i.e., the Messias, cometh not till the two houses of the fathers of Israel shall be taken awayto wit, the Head of the captivity of Babylon, and the Prince who is in Israel, as it is said, He shall be a stone of stumbling and a rock of ruin to the two houses of Israel, and many of them shall stumble and fall and be broken. And the Chaldee Paraphrast upon the place says thus, And if they will not obey or receive [Him], My word shall be to them for scandal and ruin to the princes of the two houses of Israel (Dr. Whitby).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Rom. 9:30-33
Unexpected results.One of the errors of Judaism was exclusiveness. There was no salvation outside the Judaic system. All Gentiles were excluded. And here St. Paul not only corrects the mistake, but shows that even the Jews themselves might be excluded from divine righteousness while following their own system. Let us avoid contracted views; let not our religion warp our understanding. We may vaunt our privileges, and self-confidence may prove our destruction.
I. Opposite pursuits.The Gentiles as a whole were not ethical. They did not eagerly pursue after righteousness. Israel had a glorious ethical system, and in their own way the Israelites followed after the law of righteousness. The latter had a lofty aim, while the former was not stirred by the ennobling ideal. Lofty aims must surely be good. It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Surely it is better to aim high and lose than never to rise above the common level. The shooter is wrong, not because he aimed high, but because he refused to be guided, and thus missed the mark. The man who seeks goodly pearls is following after the law of righteousness, is seeking for the true good, is yearning for soul rest. He is earnest, humble, and sincere, and finds the Pearl of great price. The seeker and the non-seeker obtain blessings in the sovereignty of divine administrations. The one gets the Pearl of great price, and the other finds the treasure hid in the field. The non-seeker is not to be applauded for his moral indolence. The seeker is not to be condemned for his moral diligence.
II. Unexpected results.The Gentile finds that which he is not seeking. The Israelite misses that which he is pursuing. How true this often is to the ways of life! Results are contrary to our expectations. Like causes do not produce like effects. We follow after fame and reach wealth. We pursue pleasure and attain misery. Results are disappointing. Our purposes are broken off. Our projected castles reach no completion. Some men work hard and fail, while others without any stretching forth of effort grasp the prizes. The Gentiles and the Jews are found in all spheres and in all kingdoms.
III. The satisfactory explanation.Israel failed. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith; they did not move according to the divine plan. We cannot pretend to give satisfactory explanations of all the unexpected results of time. Perhaps if we were endowed with far-reaching vision and a more acute understanding many a lifes inexplicables would disappear. Certain it must be that the life which is projected and prosecuted according to the divine plan cannot be a failure. We work from low results, and the end is disappointing. Moving according to the divine idea, we should reap divine fruition. Surely this must be so in the moral sphere. That blessing which the Gentile obtained is possible to the Jew. He that believeth shall be saved. The he is not specific, but generic. Only he that believeth. Whosoever will come may come. The divine thirst will not be assuaged until it finds the living water.
IV. The undesigned hindrance.The Stone laid by God in Zion becomes a stumbling-stone and rock of offence. This is not the divine design. This Stone was chosen by God out of the eternal quarry as being most fitted for the erection of a spiritual temple. The Stone was selected by infinite wisdom, prepared by divine power, and was the expression of eternal love; and though the Stone was rejected by the foolish builders, the scribes and priests of this world, it was accepted by God, crowned with glory and honour. And God never placed this Stone in Zion to be a stumbling-block to any. Men stumble because blindness hath happened unto them in part; men stumble because human pride sets itself against divine love and wisdom. Humility would save from many a fall. He that is down need fear no fall. He that is little in his own eyes will see the greatness and preciousness of this Stone, and by its greatness will become spiritually great and noble and glorious. There is a blessed life-communicating quality in this Stone, so that those who are joined to it by faith become possessors of eternal life. By faith in this beloved Stone those not beloved become by divine grace the beloved children of God.
V. The projected effect.Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed, shall not make haste, shall move through life with peaceful calmness, shall face death with undaunted courage, and stand unabashed in the ineffable splendours of the eternal light. They that follow after the law of righteousness in their own strength have reason to be ashamed as they see the immense distance between the endeavour and the achievement, between the mental would and the evil result. They that follow after the law of righteousness by faith in the righteous Mediator have no reason to be ashamed, for He strengthens the mental would and leads to moral accomplishment. Through Christ, when I would do good, the power to accomplish is present with me: that power comes from the strength-giving Saviour. Ashamed of my fruitless efforts, I may well be ashamed of the weakness of my faith, the dulness of my hope, and the coldness of my love. Ashamed of my connection with the Noblest of mortals and the Highest of immortals I shall surely never be. Can it be for one moment entertained that we should be ashamed of Him who has created in time the noblest heroes of the human race? Science has its votaries, philosophy its devoted adherents, literature its admirers, history grows eloquent about the pomp and circumstance of man; but rightly considered, it is highest glory to follow in the sublime train of Him who shall gather to Himself the selected spirits of all worlds. Immortal honours are the portion of the victorious Mediator, and those honours are shared by His followers.
Rom. 9:33. Divine appointment, human disappointment, human satisfaction.Many are the disappointments of life. Happy is the old age which can look back upon life without feeling that it is full of sorrowful memories. We may have to look back upon disappointments, but we shall not be filled with sorrow if we can feel that we have done our best, and that they have come upon us in spite of our best endeavours. But is such a retrospect possible? The wise and calm reflection of age will point us to many ways where we have gone wrong. The visions of youth have gone down into blackness. We have had noble aspirations, but ignoble performances. The stones of safety have been turned into stones of stumbling; rocks of beauty, glistening in the sunlight, have become rocks of offence. Blessed is the man who with divine light and leading has built upon the Rock of eternal beauty. Let us consider and endeavour to appreciate the wisdom of the divine appointment, and then we shall not be disappointed.
I. The divine appointmentBehold, I lay in Zion. The beholds of God are emphatic. They invite our attention to the consideration of the divine proceedings. The beholds of God are written in hieroglyphics on nature. There is the inaugurating voice directing attention to some great event or catastrophe about to follow. God writes a preface to all His greatest works. Noahs ark is Gods behold, telling of the coming calamity; the intense calm of nature is a behold, speaking to us of the coming storm. The beholds of God are written in type and in figure and in plain speech in His moral dispensations. The Levitical dispensation is a sublime behold, drawing attention to the brighter dispensation beyond; the prophetical dispensation is a clearer behold, declaring the coming Messiah, sometimes in plainest terms. Thus it is in the passages from which St. Paul quotes in this wondrous text: Behold, says God, I lay in Zion a stone. Let the universe consider; let angels and men ponder; and the wisest will declare that the divine appointment is in every way excellent. This stone-laying:
1. Is good, for it is the work of a wise God. Our true conception of a God carries with it and implies the conception of a Being who is all-wise. We see wisdom in nature in many of her departments. What appears to us unwisdom may on further knowledge turn out to be highest wisdom. What we know not now we may know hereafter. And we are always met by the fact that a disturbing element has been introduced into nature. After all drawbacks there is sufficient in the world to convince the candid mind that a wise God has arranged this lower universe. If there be wisdom in the material much more is there in the moral realm. The God of wisdom laid the precious Stone in Zion. Can it be for one moment supposed that God waited for thousands of years before commencing this spiritual building, and then laid a stone which the least competent of builders would reject?
2. Safe, for it is the work of a God of power. The powerful will not dishonour himself by putting up that which is weak and insecure, if his ability and his resources are equal. The all-powerful God would not lay a stone in Zion which would crumble beneath the superincumbent edifice. So far the Stone has done no dishonour to the divine selection. It stands to-day. Time has gnawed no erasure on its beautiful surface. Living stones in vast numbers have been piled on this precious Corner-stone, and it upholds and gives life and firmness to all.
3. Beneficial, for it is the work of a God of love. God laid the Stone for the promotion of human well-being. In answer to the promptings of His infinite love and wondrous pity He laid this Stone, and it could not be, thus other than to serve a beneficial purpose. He laid it, not to be a stone of stumbling, but a stone of spiritual elevation, by and on which men might rise to the light and glory of the divine goodness. This Stone has been a beneficial rock to multitudes. It was laid in the dry and arid Zion, and transformed it at once into the sunny Zion which has warmed and cheered many hearts, which has lighted the otherwise dark pathway of many mortals. The wonder is how some of the stones were quarried and brought to their places which formed part of the temple. A greater wonder appears as we look at this spiritual Stone which is at once the foundation-stone and corner-stone of Gods Church-temple.
4. Available, for it is the work of a God of mercy. We must not localise Gods moral doings. In these days we visit Palestine as if Gods manifestations were only for one little tract of land. Gods Palestine is everywhere. He may work in one corner of the earth, but His glory fills the wide sphere. He laid the Stone in Zion; it is a movable stone, an omnipresent stone. Wherever there are living, believing stones of humanity, there God has laid His living Stone, to be to them a source of life and power. The Rock of shelter is in every land for all races. Let us seek to move with open eyes and receptive hearts.
II. The human disappointment.Strange that a divine appointment should prove a human disappointment! Perhaps not so strange, if we remember that the human is ever fighting against the divine. The failure of the divine appointment is not in God, but in man. Is it not so that some of the best works, even those originated by human wisdom, have been to many as stones of stumbling and rocks of offence? Not only great moral but great material reformations have been opposed. Every great invention, every great improvement, has had to fight its way against the opposition of the foolish and the wicked. We are told that Christ would have done well enough if it had not been for a Paul. He has made dark that which was light, rendered difficult that which was plain. A nice and easy religion is that of the four gospels; but a repulsive and difficult religion is that of Paul. But if Paul were removed as a stone of stumbling, the next step would be to remove the Christ Himself as a stone of stumbling. We may rest assured that those who stumble at Paul would and do stumble at the Christ. Perhaps some want a Paul removed so that they may have a Christ and a religion after their own fashion. Christ was a stone of stumbling before Paul spoke or wrote a word, and Christ would still be a stone of stumbling if Paul and his epistles could be consigned to forgetfulness. Human sin, pride, and selfishness are always disappointed when they come face to face with that which seeks their overthrow. The modern notion is that we are all to be Christs, but we are a long way from the ideal. The Christlike men, the Christs of humanity, have been as stones of stumbling and rocks of offence to their fellows. A Christ of love and gentleness would be received in modern society; but how about a Christ who uses language not allowed in drawing-rooms, and calls men hypocrites and whited sepulchres? What about a Christ whose purity and unselfishness flash scorn upon our impurities, our meannesses, our hollowness, and our intense selfishness? Christ was a stone of stumbling to the Jews. They did their best to crush and destroy. If Christ were to revisit this sphere with only the origin and the credentials with which He appeared in Palestine, what would be His reception in our Christian countries? Would this Galilean Peasant be received in the palaces of peers? Would this unlettered Nazarene be allowed to preach in university pulpits? Would this Man of plain speech be allowed to shock the ears of fashionable congregations? If they will not hear sermons about Him, would they be more willing to hear Him preach when He would tell them to sell all that they had and give to the poor? A stone of stumbling and a rock of offence is the divine Stone; but, thank God, not to all, not by any means all.
III. Human satisfaction.Whosoever believeth in Him shall not be ashamed, shall not be disappointed, shall not hurry away in terror and confusion, but shall realise peace, joy, and solid satisfaction. Believers should not be disappointed; for:
1. The entrance of Christ brings infinite content to the soul of men. A foundation-stone must not only rest in its place, but afford a resting-place to the stones it supports. Christ the foundation-stone affords a sweet resting-place to the lively stones of redeemed humanity. He imparts gracious content. The soul full of Christ is full of divine peace and repose. The soul cannot rest sweetly on any other stone. Discontent, restlessness, pervade the nature so long as Christ is absent. The soul was made for spiritual bread, and cannot be satisfied with the husks of time. We must feed on the Bread of life sent down from heaven.
2. Union with Christ gives proper proportion to life. Due proportion in an edifice cannot be secured if the foundation-stones and corner-stones be unfit and inadequate. How disproportionate are our lives! What a confused and disordered mass is the result of the life-building of a vast majority! If we would build aright, if we would construct so that part may answer to part in symmetrical order, then we must build on Christ, and in Christ, and up to Christ. A life well rounded and complete is the Christ-life. No true Christian has been disappointed when he has reached lifes close. Untold satisfaction will take possession of his nature when he is raised to be a monumental and ornamental pillar in the upper temple of our God.
3. Union with Christ gives strength to life. This Stone is a living stone. It has communicating properties. It is itself eternally and divinely strong, and imparts strength to all who are joined to it by faith. It is divinely adhesive, and makes fast to itself all believers, and sends its strength through all the lively stones of the spiritual edifice. Strong men are Christlike menthe most Christlike and the most giantlike. Even granite shall crumble and waste away; Christ-united stones will never be dissolved.
4. Union with Christ gives beauty and grace to life. Grace and beauty to a building are not possible if the foundation, corner, and top-stones be inadequate and incomplete. Every stone in a building seems to catch the grace and beauty of the whole structure. Every stone in Gods spiritual temple catches and shares the grace and beauty of Him who was and is altogether lovely, the very ideal of moral beauty, of spiritual loveliness. What grace and beauty are there in stones rolling in the gutter! And oh, how many are as stones rolling in the gutter! They are bespattered with the mire of low purposes, selfish and sensual aims and desires. There is grace and beauty in the stones cut, carried, and polished by the divine Artificer. These are monumental stonesmonumental of divine grace and love, polished after the similitude of a palace.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom. 9:29-33
Why the Jew failed.As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence; and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. By the word translated stumbling-stone is meant any obstacle put in a persons way, so as to make him stumble or fall, or anything that prevents him from accomplishing his design. In quoting the prophets metaphorical language, to show why the Jews failed to attain to the true principle of justification, the apostle brings together parts of two different prophecies, both relating, however, to the same subject, and concurring to make up the view of it which he presents. The first part is taken from Isa. 8:14, where the Lord is said to be for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both houses of Israel. There can be no doubt that this prediction refers to the Messiah, and that it foretells the offence which the Jews would take at Him. He was not that great temporal deliverer to whom they fondly looked forward, and therefore they refused to believe on Him. The second part of the quotation is taken from Isa. 28:16, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste; or, as the apostle quotes it, shall not be ashamed. There can be as little doubt that this is said in allusion to the Messiah; and it shows that none who believe on Him shall have reason to be ashamed of their faith, or have their hopes disappointed. The import of the general conclusion contained in the four last verses may be thus shortly stated: The Gentiles, notwithstanding their ignorance and wickedness, have had the offer of salvation made to them, and many of them have believed in Christ, been admitted into the Christian Church, and obtained the righteousness grounded in faith. But the great body of the Jews, although they enjoy a law which is of divine authority, have not attained a true righteousness, because, trusting that they would be justified by obedience to their law, they refused, as their own prophets had foretold that they would do, to believe in the Messiah, were therefore rejected from being the Church and people of God, and destitute of that only true righteousness which has its foundation in faith, and which will be followed with salvation. This passage suggests the following important remark: The reason why the Jews failed to obtain true righteousness was their seeking it on the principle of establishing a claim to divine favour by their legal obedience. But the apostle has already proved that it is utterly impracticable to establish any claim of this kind, seeing it is wholly impossible to give that unerring obedience to the divine law which it would require. It ought, then, to be steadily kept in mind, that it is not by works of righteousness which we have done that we become entitled to salvation; but that we must be saved by the mercy of God, extended through the Saviour, to those who possess the righteousness of faith. Faith in Christ, therefore, and reliance on Him for salvation, should lead the Christian to a uniform endeavour to obey the divine law; that thus possessing the righteousness which is of faith, he may be saved through the redemption that is in Christ.Ritchie.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 9
Rom. 9:33. The folly of rejecting the gospel.Now you may reject the gospel if you please; but wherein will your condition be improved? If on a ship where some pestilence is raging, the crew and the passengers throw the doctor and the medicine-chest overboard, and keep the pestilence with them, how much better are they off? Many there are who are bent on casting Christianity overboard, on getting rid of the Church and the priest and theology, and who art bent on keeping their sin and all its multitudinous train of mischiefs and evils. If men had become pure of heart, then there might be some reason in dispensing with superfluous ministrations; but, thus far, scepticism and the rejection of Christianity are only to make darkness darker, and sickness more fatal, and distress more painful.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Text
Rom. 9:30-33. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith: Rom. 9:31 but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Rom. 9:32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling; Rom. 9:33 even as it is written,
Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence:
And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame.
REALIZING ROMANS, Rom. 9:30-33
438.
Notice please that Rom. 9:30-33 are a conclusion to the section. The conclusion is easily understood. Reasoning from the conclusion, who would you say was responsible for the rejection of Israel?
439.
Define the word righteousness as here used.
440.
It is possible to seek to be righteous by works today? How?
441.
Why was Jesus such a stone of stumbling to the Jews?
248.
What are the two great facts to be established by the ninth chapter? What do Rom. 9:27-29 develop?
249.
What two thoughts had been presented to the Jew that must surely convince him that God was just in rejecting Israel?
Paraphrase
Rom. 9:30-33. What then do we infer from these prophecies? Why this: That the Gentiles, who being ignorant of the righteousness necessary to salvation, did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness by embracing the gospel: not that righteousness which consists in a perfect obedience to law, but a righteousness of faith.
Rom. 9:31 But the Jews, who endeavored to obtain righteousness by obedience to the law, have not obtained righteousness by obedience to law.
Rom. 9:32 For what reason have they not obtained it? Because not by obedience to the law of faith, but verily by obedience to the law of Moses they pursued it; for they stumbled at the stumbling-stone, and fell: they refused to believe on a crucified Messiah, and were broken.
Rom. 9:33 This happened according to what was foretold, Behold I place in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence: Yet whosoever believeth on this crucified Christ, as a sure foundation of the temple of God, and rests his hope of righteousness on that foundation, shall not make haste out of the presence either of men or of God, as ashamed of believing on him.
Summary
The Gentiles, for some reason, were not seeking justification, yet they found it. Why? Because with glad hearts they received Christ in whom alone it is found. But Israel was seeking justification, and yet they did not find it. Why? Because they sought it not by belief in Christ, but by works of law, a way in which it can never be found.
Comment
3.
Conclusion as to Why God Rejected Israel. Rom. 9:30-33
The inspired author has now shown that God, in rejecting the Jews and receiving the Gentiles, has not been unjust, but has acted on principles which the Jews themselves approved. Their prophets had spoken of this time; hence it should not surprise them. We find in the three closing verses of chapter nine the conclusion of the topic of the chapter. The conclusion is stated in a rather paradoxical form. Paul says in substance: It is strange, isnt it, that the Gentiles who were not looking or searching for justification, found it, and you Jews who were diligently seeking for a means of justification failed in your search? Why was this so? It was simply because the Gentiles attained a righteousness of justification by faith, or through Christ; on the other hand, you Jewish brethren were seeking to be justified by works, the works of the law. As to what was included in the faith of the Gentiles, enough has already been said to let us know that it was inclusive of obedience to the gospel. In further description of the tragic state of Israel, we can say that they fulfilled the very words of the prophet (Isa. 28:16) and stumbled at the stone of stumbling. They were bound and determined to find justification through the lawany other method would be haughtily rejected. Hence when Christ came and offered in fulfillment of Gods plan, justification through his blood, they accomplished to the letter the words of Isaiah: Behold I lay in Zion (amidst Israel) a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence; and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. Rom. 9:30-33
250.
Show in your own words the touching and tragic picture of Israels rejection as presented in Rom. 9:30-33.
Rethinking in Outline Form
Objection Stated: God is arbitrary and unrighteous. Rom. 9:14 a.
Objection Answered; Rom. 9:14 b Rom. 9:18.
a.
God forbid! The case of Moses indicates that Gods choices are not influenced by man. Rom. 9:14 b, Rom. 9:15.
b.
Mans willingness, or lack of it, have no influence on the mercy of God. Rom. 9:16.
c.
The example of Pharaoh; he was raised up to show Gods power. Rom. 9:17-18.
Objection Stated: If God acts as he does in the cases of Moses and Pharaoh how can man be responsible? Rom. 9:19. Objection Answered: Rom. 9:20-29.
a.
You are the clay and have no right to question. Rom. 9:20.
b.
God, the potter, decides, not the clay. Rom. 9:21.
c.
God is very merciful when dealing with the sinfulness of men. Rom. 9:22.
d.
The purpose of his mercy is to give man an opportunity to decide which he will be, a vessel of mercy or of wrath. Rom. 9:23-24.
e.
Hosea and Isaiah both support the answer of Paul. Rom. 9:25-29.
3.
Conclusion as to why God rejected Israel. Rom. 9:30-33.
The Jews failed to find righteousness because they looked in the wrong place. The Gentiles who were not looking for it found it. Rom. 9:30-33.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(30) Which followed not after righteousness.Not having a special revelation, and being inattentive to the law of conscience.
Attained to righteousness.By accepting the offer of Christianity, and especially the Christian doctrine of justification by faith.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(30-33) The Apostle has finished with his vindication of the rejection of Israel, and finished also with the course of argument which seemed to bear a strong character of determinism. He now takes up a point of view which is the direct opposite of this, and in explaining the causes which led to the rejection of Israel, those which he puts forward are all such as depend for their validity on the freedom of the will. It is needless to say that this is abundantly recognised in other parts of St. Pauls writings, especially in the earnest practical exhortations which he addresses to his readers. This, then, must be taken to qualify the argument that has preceded. The freedom of the will and the absolute sovereignty of God are two propositions which, though apparently contradictory, are both really true at one and the same time. When stated singly, each is apt to appear one-sided. They are reconciled, as it were, beneath the surface, in some way inscrutable to us. Both rest on evidence that in itself is incontrovertible.
The great reason for the rejection of Israel and for the admission of the Gentiles is that the Gentiles did, and that they did not, base their attempts at righteousness upon faith. Righteousness is the middle term which leads to salvation. The Gentiles, without seeking, found; the Jews, seeking in a wrong way, failed to find it.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. So that the faith condition reverts back through the whole chapter, and underlies God’s whole system of election and rejection, whether of Jew or of Gentile , Rom 9:30-33 .
Paul explicitly furnishes now the KEY, the secret of the Divine preference of a special Israel in Israel, (6-13,) of a mercy to Moses and a hardening upon Pharaoh, (14-23,) and, by special inference, of the prophesied reservation of a gracious remnant of fallen Judaism over the main mass, (24-29.) The key runs its solution through both columns of character given at our introduction to notes on 6-13. The entire secret is the faith-condition. The Gentiles attained to righteousness BY FAITH, Rom 9:30. But Israel hath not attained it, because they sought it not by faith, but, as it were, by the works of the law. (Rom 9:31-32.) It is by ignoring this, the apostle’s own solution of the whole chapter, that the predestinarian interpretation maintains itself.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
30. What say then A reiteration of the first query of Rom 9:14, introducing the final answer to the query of that verse.
Followed not after A metaphor taken, not as Lange suggests, from a race, but rather from a hunt. The Gentiles did not even pursue the game, and yet attained it; the Jews pursued, but, wilfully and wickedly, in the wrong direction, and lost it. Yet, in a sense, the individual Gentiles who attained did seek by faith, though historically the mass of Gentiles had not sought.
Faith By this very false pursuit and failure of the Jews the faith was brought before the acceptance of the Gentiles, who heretofore had followed not after righteousness. Thereby they became the elect Israel and the vessels of mercy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith, but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at the law.’
‘What shall we say then?’ is a typical Pauline introduction to the next phase in his argument (Rom 4:1; Rom 6:1; Rom 7:7), although at the same time certainly also connecting up with the previous discussion. It summarises the situation from a new point of view. For here there is certainly a movement from the idea of God’s election, where all was of God’s decree, to that of man’s faith and belief, where man is responsible for his actions and attitudes. Prior to this all had been due to the sovereignty of God. God had been active in choosing out a remnant for Himself (Rom 8:29-30). Now, suddenly, emphasis is laid on man’s faith or unbelief as a deciding factor (constantly throughout Rom 9:30 to Rom 10:17), and it is faith or unbelief in the Messiah. Here is the human side of why the majority of Israel has been rejected. It was because they had rejected their Messiah. In contrast believing Gentiles, conjoined with the believing remnant of Israel, have been accepted because they have believed in Him.
So Paul is here dealing with what was a sticking point for Jews, that so many Gentiles were being saved, and on so simple a basis. They had been willing to accept that Gentiles could become a part of Israel, by being circumcised, after having gone through a process of instruction and Law keeping. What they could not stomach was this new mass movement in which Gentiles were being immediately included among the elect as a result of believing in Christ, without being circumcised and without being instructed in the Law. Paul, therefore, now explains the basis of it. Why are so many Gentiles being saved even though they had not followed the path of righteousness? (That is, they had not been Law-keeping Jews, nor had they submitted themselves to a probationary period under the Law). It is because they have ‘attained to righteousness’, the righteousness of God, the righteousness which is the consequence of faith and is given freely to those who believe in Jesus Christ. And as the whole of Romans 1-8 has demonstrated, this righteousness is based on the Messiah Jesus, and on what He has done for them (Rom 1:3-4; Rom 3:21-28; Rom 4:24-25; Rom 5:1-21; Rom 6:1-11; Rom 6:23; Rom 7:4; Rom 7:25; Rom 8:1-4; Rom 8:9-11; Rom 8:17; Rom 8:32-39). As Rom 9:32-33 emphasise, it was Israel’s failure to believe in Him that was the reason for their downfall. ‘The righteousness of faith’ is thus that righteousness which is received as a gift in consequence of the righteousness provided by the Messiah, and it is received through faith (Rom 3:21-26; Rom 4:24-25; Rom 5:15-21; Rom 8:1-4).
In contrast with the believing Gentiles, who had attained to righteousness through accepting the free gift of Christ’s righteousness, were unbelieving Israel, who while ‘following after a law of righteousness’ did not arrive at it. (Or ‘who pursuing after the Law of righteousness did not overtake it’, metaphors possibly taken from the race track). We might have expected Paul to say ‘following after righteousness’ or ‘following after the righteousness of the Law’ (Rom 10:5) in contrast with what he had said of the Gentiles. But instead he speaks of ‘following after the Law of righteousness’. This was an important emphasis. For by stressing ‘the Law of righteousness’ he was bringing out what they really did seek. He was emphasising that what they sought was not true righteousness but a synthetic kind of righteousness which was comprised of obedience to the Law in accordance with their own interpretation of it. They were ‘following the Law’, and in practise the idea of ‘real righteousness’ was secondary. It passed them by (see Mat 23:23; Mat 9:13; Mat 12:7; Mar 12:33). What they were more concerned with was ‘observing the Law’. For they had convinced themselves that by doing this they would please God, and observe the covenant. They saw it as their side of the bargain with God. To them the be all and end all had become ‘following the Law’ as interpreted by the Rabbis so as, in their eyes, to observe the covenant. But the problem with this was that they had by this observed the letter of the Law rather than the spirit of the Law. Indeed they had put their whole effort into observing it without any real concern as to whether they were truly being righteous, and thereby many had convinced themselves that they were righteous, when all they were was self-righteous (see Luk 18:11-12). For as Jesus had said, ‘you tithe mint, and anise, and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the Law, judgment and mercy and faith’ (Mat 23:23). So Paul is saying that on the whole they had no conception of true righteousness.
And the consequence of this was that they had not ‘arrived at the Law’. They had not attained to it. They had failed to fulfil it. Indeed they had fallen far short of it. They had not even come close to achieving it. And this was because they had failed to observe its spirit, to love God wholly from the heart and to love all men as themselves (both their neighbour and the stranger who lived amongst them – Lev 19:18; Lev 19:34). All the Law could do, therefore, was condemn them, as Paul had made clear in Rom 2:1 to Rom 3:20. So ‘not arriving at the Law’ indicates their falling short of it, and it brings out that what they really feared was not ‘falling short of righteousness’, but ‘falling short of the Law’ which they had turned into a list of rules. They had done what it is so easy to do, they had replaced the spirit with the letter.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Israel Has Stumbled And Hurt Itself Because It Has Not Believed In Its Messiah And Submitted To The Righteousness Of God Obtainable Through Faith In Him (9:30-33).
Paul emphasises that the believing Gentiles, by responding to the Messiah, have attained to the righteousness which is of faith, the righteousness which was God’s gift to them through Christ (Rom 3:24-28; Rom 5:15-19). They had discovered that ‘he who believes on Him will not be put to shame’ (Rom 9:33), that is, will have nothing to be ashamed of in the eyes of God the Judge when he comes before Him for judgment. In contrast unbelieving ‘Israel’, by rejecting their Messiah, and seeking righteousness by works, have stumbled and fallen on the Messianic stumblingstone (Rom 9:32).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Eternal Destiny Of All People, Both Jew And Gentile, Is Based On Belief In God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ. (9:30-10:21).
There is now a vast change in Paul’s argument, for it will be noted that from Rom 9:30 to Rom 10:17 Paul lays huge emphasis on faith and on believing in Jesus Christ, this in contrast with Rom 9:6-29 where they are not mentioned. Faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah undergirds this whole passage. The Greek words for faith and/or believing occur in almost every verse, with those verses which do not contain the words being in specific contrast with a verse that does. And the faith that is in mind is faith in the Messiah. Furthermore even in Rom 10:17 –21 , which contain citations from the Old Testament Scriptures, faith and unbelief, although only mentioned once, underlie all that is said. Faith and belief are thus the keynote of this passage, and it is faith in Jesus as Messiah and LORD. Here then Paul is explaining how the Jews on the whole came short. It was because they did not respond in faith to their Messiah, Whose coming was the greatest of all the privileges that God had given them (Rom 9:4-5).
(In Rom 9:1-29 Israel came short because of God’s elective purposes, the message being that God had always purposed that only a remnant would be saved. Here they come short because of unbelief in that they have failed to believe in the Messiah. We thus have human responsibility going hand in hand with God’s sovereignty).
A second emphasis in this passage, although subordinate to the first, is on ‘righteousness’, which occurs at least ten times (although in clusters), all of which are in Rom 9:30 to Rom 10:10. Paul is here seeking to bring out the difference between righteousness attained by works, which is the righteousness of men, and righteousness resulting from faith in the Messiah, a central feature of Rom 3:19 to Rom 4:25, which is the righteousness of God. Note the contrasts:
1) The Gentiles who did not follow after righteousness (the righteousness of the Law) attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith (acceptability in God’s eyes through the righteousness of Christ (Rom 5:17-18) received by faith (Rom 3:22), which resulted in practical righteousness), whilst Israel who followed after the Law of righteousness, did not arrive at the Law because they sought it by works and not by faith, failing to believe in the Messiah (Rom 9:30-33). Here receiving the righteousness of God by faith in the Messiah is contrasted with following the Law and seeking to achieve it (or with pursuing the Law and failing to overtake it, a metaphor from the race track).
2) Israel were ignorant of God’s righteousness, and sought to establish their own, thus not subjecting themselves to the righteousness of God, which is found in Christ. Thus as Christ (the Messiah) is the end of the Law for righteousness (the righteousness of God) to everyone who believes (Rom 10:3-4), their failure was in not believing, and as a result failing to receive the benefit from what He had accomplished. Here an emphasis is laid on the ignorance of the Jews as to what true righteousness was, with the consequence that they failed to recognise the need for the righteousness of God, thereby failing to recognise that their Messiah had come as the final fulfilment of that Law.
3) Moses wrote that the man who does the righteousness out of the Law will live thereby, but the righteousness out of faith says if you believe in your heart that Jesus is LORD and that God has raised Him from the dead you will be saved, for with the heart man believes unto righteousness (Rom 10:5-10). Here the vain attempt to seek ‘life’ by the Law, is contrasted with the sure way of receiving ‘life’ and salvation through the acceptance of Jesus as LORD.
Thus we may see the whole passage as having as its central theme, faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Messiah, (Rom 9:33; Rom 10:4; Rom 10:9-11; Rom 10:13; Rom 10:17) a faith which responds to Him and which results in reception of the righteousness of God, this being in contrast with Israel’s unbelief and refusal to respond to God’s way of righteousness. It is those who call on the Name of the LORD who will be saved (Rom 10:13), that is, those who believe on ‘Jesus as LORD’ (Rom 10:9).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The conclusion:
v. 30. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
v. 31. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
v. 32. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the Law. For they stumbled at the stumbling-stone;
v. 33. as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offense; and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. The apostle had shown that God was building His Church by calling His own from among the Gentiles and from a small remnant of Israel, the great majority of the Jewish people, the nation as such, being rejected. What conclusion is to be drawn from these facts, which agreed exactly with the prophecies? Paul brings the answer in the form of a paradox, in which the words sound like a contradiction: The Gentiles, which have not followed after righteousness, obtained righteousness, but the righteousness of faith. The Gentiles made no attempt to become perfect by the keeping of the Law, they did not concern themselves about the righteousness of life as required by God’s holy Law. But in the Word of the Gospel the righteousness was placed before them, not that they were made holy and perfect, but that they were given righteousness by faith. God wrought faith in their hearts through the Gospel, and through this faith they seized righteousness; God declared them to be righteous, He looked upon them as though they were perfectly pure and righteous. And this fact the apostle mentions for the sake of emphasizing the condition of the Jews. But Israel, following after, earnestly seeking, the law of righteousness, did not attain to that law. The Jews had the Mosaic Law, and they believed that they could fulfill this Law perfectly and thus obtain the righteousness which would make them acceptable before God through their works. But all these efforts proved futile; Israel did not come up to the demands of the Law, it could not come up to the requirements which it sought. An external veneer of right living the Jews managed to acquire, but the true spiritual fulfillment of the Law they did not attain. Since, however, perfect righteousness is a condition of salvation, the rejection of the Jews, wrath and condemnation, followed as a matter of course.
And the connection is brought out in the last verses. Why did Israel never attain to that point that it was in perfect agreement with the Law? Why did the Jews fail to secure righteousness? Because they sought after it not by faith, but, as people will commonly say, as though they could obtain it, by works of the Law. The Law being inadequate for the needs of the sinners, God had proposed a method of justification which alone was suitable for sinners. But of this they were willfully ignorant; they rejected the perfect righteousness prepared for them; they refused to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And thus they stumbled over the stone of offense, the Messiah Himself; as had been predicted, they took offense at the plan of salvation revealed in Jesus Christ and made possible by His vicarious sacrifice. They stumbled over Him and thereby came to grief. And thus the prophecy of Isa 28:16; Isa 8:13-15, was fulfilled, as its content is briefly given by Paul: Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and he that believes on Him shall not be put to shame. The precious stone which the Lord laid as a foundation and corner-stone in His spiritual temple is Jesus, the only Source of salvation. But Israel has repudiated the redemption of this Messiah, and therefore He has become to the disobedient, unbelieving people a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. That is God’s judgment upon the willful despisers of His grace and method of salvation: they take offense at Christ and the Gospel and thus are finally brought to a point where they can no longer accept the redemption and are given up to condemnation and destruction. Note: He that rejects the plan and method of salvation proposed by God, and tries to obtain righteousness by his own works and fulfillment of the Law, will find himself in the position of the unbelieving Jews and will share their condemnation.
Summary
The apostle shows that the promise of God to the patriarchs had not been without effect, but had found its application in the spiritual children of Abraham; that God indeed has sovereign power to show mercy and to harden, but that he actually has shown great patience toward the disobedient people, and has gathered His Church out of Gentiles and Jews, the nation as such being rejected on account of its repudiation of the Messiah.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Rom 9:30-31. The Gentiles, which followed not, &c. Righteousness or justification, is to be understood here, as ch. Rom 4:3; Rom 4:5. Gen 15:6. It is the justification by faith, to which the Apostle from the beginning of the Epistle has been arguing and proving that the believing Gentiles have a right, and which they have attained; but which the unbelieving Jews have not attained, because they sought it not by faith, but by the works of the law, Rom 9:32. Therefore what is meant by attaining to this justification, will be clearly understood, if we consider that the Apostle is here giving the reason why the Jews were cast off from being God’s people, and the Gentiles admitted to that privilege. See Locke and Whitby.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 9:30-31 . From the preceding prophecies, Rom 9:25 ff. (not with particular regard to Rom 9:16 , as de Wette), Paul now, in order to prepare the transition to the ; . . ., Rom 9:32 , draws the historical result , and that in the form of question and answer: “What shall we say then? (we shall say) that Gentiles, they who strove not after righteousness, have obtained righteousness, but righteousness which proceeds from faith; while Israel, on the contrary, in spite of its endeavour after the law which justifies, has not attained to this law.” Others take to be a question , namely either: “What are we to say to the fact, that Gentiles, etc.?” So, following Theodore of Mopsuestia and others, Heumann, Flatt, Olshausen, also Morus, who takes as because . Or: “What are we therefore to say? Are we to say that Gentiles, etc.?” So Reiche, who is then compelled to consider , . as an answer inserted as in a dialogue, and to see in Rom 9:32 the “removal of the ground of the objection by a disclosure of the cause of the phenomenon, which has now no longer anything surprising in it.” But Reiche’s view is to be rejected, partly on the ground that the insertion of a supposed answer, . . ., is a makeshift and unexampled in Paul’s writings; partly because , even with the exclusion of . . . ., contains complete Pauline truth , and consequently does not at all resemble a problematic inquiry, such as Paul elsewhere introduces by , and then refutes as erroneous (see Rom 4:1 ). This, too, in opposition to Th. Schott, who, taking ; as a single independent question (What shall we now say to the fact, that Gentiles, etc.), then finds the answer in , but afterwards, no less strangely than groundlessly, proposes to connect immediately, no punctuation being previously inserted, with the proposition . . . Finally, it is decisive against Heumann and others, that the answer of Rom 9:32 , . . ., does not concern the Gentiles at all (see Rom 9:30 ).
] Gentiles (comp. Rom 2:14 ), not the Gentiles as a collective body. On the part of Gentiles righteousness was obtained, etc.
.] They, whose endeavour (for they had not a revelation, nor did they observe the moral law) was not directed towards becoming righteous , they obtained righteousness, but and hereby this paradox of sacred history is solved that which proceeds from faith . In the first two instances . is used without any special definition from the Christian point of view; the latter only comes to be introduced with the third .
] comp. Rom 3:22 ; Phi 2:8 .
On the figurative , borrowed from the running for the prize in the racecourse, as also on the correlate , comp. Phi 3:12-14 ; 1Co 9:24 ; 1Ti 6:11-12 ; Sir 11:10 ; Sir 27:8 ; on , Plato, Rep . p. 545 A. Observe the threefold , as in Rom 9:31 the repetition of . The whole passage is framed for pointed effect: “Vehementer auditorem commovet ejusdem redintegratio verbi quasi aliquod telum saepius perveniat in eandem partem corporis.” Auct. ad Herenn . iv. 28.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Rom 9:30-33 . The blame of their exclusion rests upon the Jews themselves, because they strove after righteousness not by faith, but by works; they took offence at Christ . Observe how Paul here “with the fewest words touches the deepest foundation of the matter” (Ewald).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1887
CHRIST REJECTED BY THE JEWS, AND BELIEVED ON BY THE GENTILES
Rom 9:30-33. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
A VERY great proportion of the controversies which exist in the Christian world, arise from an overstraining of just principles, and carrying them to an undue extent. Many are not contented with maintaining what God has plainly declared; but they will found on his declarations every thing that appears to be deducible from them. But, however legitimate any deduction may appear to us, we should make a great difference between it and the word on which it is founded; more especially if there be in the Holy Scriptures other passages directly opposed to our deductions. We should remember, that our finite faculties are incapable of comprehending all that the infinitely wise God has seen fit to reveal: and therefore, when we advance even an hairs breadth beyond what God has expressly authorized, we should proceed with the utmost caution and diffidence. A rash and presumptuous mind will, without hesitation, build the doctrine of reprobation upon the declarations of St. Paul in this chapter. But St. Paul forbare to press his principles so far, because, however such an inference might appear just in the eyes of fallible man, it would have been in direct opposition to other declarations of Almighty God. His moderation is beautifully exhibited in this chapter. In order to silence the blasphemous cavils of an objector, he had been constrained to occupy high ground, and to assert Gods sovereign right to dispose of all his creatures, even as the potter has power over the clay, which he has prepared for his own use. But when he comes to sum up his argument, he does not refer the rejection of the Jews to the mere sovereign will of God, but to their own obstinate pride and unbelief: thereby shewing us, that, whilst we properly refer all good to God, we must trace all evil to ourselves: if we are saved, it is God who saves us, from first to last; but, if we perish, we perish through our own fault alone.
For the further elucidation of our text, we shall consider,
I.
The fact here stated
It was a plain and undeniable fact, that the Gentiles had embraced the Gospel, and the Jews had rejected it
[The Gentiles, till they heard the Gospel, were in a most deplorable state of wickedness [Note: See Romans 1. throughout.]: nor did they, at least with very few exceptions, at all think of seeking after God. Having but little sense of their guilt, and no idea whatever of any way in which their guilt might be removed, they concerned not themselves about a future state. The sentiment of the great mass among them was, Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die. But, on the first proclamation of the Gospel to them, they received it gladly, and experienced, throughout all the Roman empire, its saving benefits. Thus was fulfilled in them that prophecy, I am sought of them that asked not for me: I am found of them that sought me not [Note: Isa 65:1.].
The Jews, on the other hand, many of them at least, had a considerable desire after a righteousness that should justify them before God: and they actually sought after such a righteousness, by conforming to the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law. But through their undue attachment to that law, which was now fulfilled and abrogated in Christ Jesus, they set themselves against the Gospel, and thereby cut themselves off from all participation of its benefits. The offer of salvation, through the merits of another, was a stumbling-block to them: they thought, that if they observed the duties of the moral law, and compensated for their defects by a strict attention to the ceremonial law, all would be well: and being persuaded of this, they would not hear of a salvation, which dispensed with the observances on which they placed so great a dependence. It was to this alone, and not to any secret and irresistible decrees of God, that they were thus left to perish. Thus it was that the Gentiles embraced the Gospel, and were saved by it; whilst the Jews, with all their superior advantages, rejected it, and perished.]
But this fact only verified what had been long since predicted by the prophets
[Christ had been represented as a foundation-stone, on which whosoever should build should live for ever [Note: Isa 28:16.]. On the other hand, he had been represented as a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, over which many would fall to their heavier condemnation [Note: Isa 8:14-15.]. Thus the very Scriptures that announced his advent, declared that he should be set for the fall, as well as for the rising again, of many in Israel [Note: Luk 2:34.]. This, if viewed abstractedly, was a very improbable event: for, however he might be disregarded by the Gentiles, the probability was, that the Jews, of whose nation he was, who expected his advent, and, from their own prophecies, might have learned his character; who actually saw all his miracles, and heard all his discourses; who, moreover, were assured on the most infallible testimony respecting his resurrection from the dead; who saw also the very same miracles wrought by his followers as had before been wrought by himself; I say, the probability was, that the Jews would have immediately become his most devoted followers. But the conduct of this infatuated people was altogether contrary to all such expectations; and they fulfilled the prophecies which they did not understand.]
Such was the fact stated by St. Paul. Let us now attend to,
II.
The instruction to be gathered from it
Surely, in this fact, we may see the following truths:
1.
That how earnest soever we may be after salvation, we never shall attain it, if we seek it in a self-righteous way
[Some of the Jews, we know, were very earnest in their endeavours to fulfil their law. Pauls description of himself in his unconverted state, abundantly proves this [Note: Php 3:5-6.]. So at this time many are very studious to approve themselves to God, according to the light that is in them: but they know not in what way to come to him. They do not see the nature and extent of the moral law; which, having been once violated, can never justify an immortal soul [Note: Gal 3:10.]. They do not see that there is a new and living way opened for them into the holy of holies by the sacrifice of the Son of God [Note: Heb 10:19-20.]. They know not what our blessed Lord has so plainly told them, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me [Note: Joh 14:6.]. But we must declare to all such persons, that they are fatally deluded: their zeal is not according to knowledge: whilst they go about to establish a righteousness of their own, and refuse to submit to the righteousness provided for them by God, they cut themselves off from all the blessings of the Gospel [Note: Rom 10:2-4.]. Nor is it only by an avowed reliance on their works alone that they bring this evil on themselves: they do it with equal certainty by blending their own works in any measure, or in any degree, with the merits of Christ [Note: Gal 5:2; Gal 5:4. with Rom 11:6.] Know then, all of you, that, if ever you would be partakers of Christ and of his salvation, you must seek to be found in Christ, not relying in any respect on your own righteousness, but trusting altogether in his alone [Note: Php 3:9.] If you would gain the prize, you must not only strive, but strive lawfully, according to the rules that have been prescribed [Note: 2Ti 2:5.].]
2.
That how regardless soever we have been about salvation hitherto, we shall attain to it the very instant we believe in Christ
[The Gentiles at large give us a very just, but awful, picture of mans depravity: yet, when they were altogether dead, God passed by them, and bade them live [Note: Eze 16:6. with Eph 2:4-5.]. Thus, if his voice in the Gospel reach our ears, and enter into our hearts, we also shall live before him. There was no interval between the obedience of Zaccheus to the Saviours call, and the coming of salvation to his house. The converts on the day of Pentecost were justified, the very instant they believed; and in like manner shall all who believe be justified from all things. The most perfect representation of this truth may be found in the ordinance of the brazen serpent which shadowed it forth. There was but one way of cure for all that were dying of their wounds; and that was, a sight of the brazen serpent. On the other hand, there was no interval between their use of that remedy, and their experience of the cure. Thus, then, the Lord Jesus Christ says to us, Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth: and, if we will in a full reliance on his word direct our eyes unto him, we shall never be ashamed of our hope ]
3.
That how calumniated soever this way of salvation is, the very calumnies that are raised against it, attest its truth
[We must not be understood to say, that the mere circumstance of any plan of salvation giving offence proves that plan to be true and scriptural: for even the Gospel itself may be so crudely and injudiciously stated, as to give just offence; but this we say, that any plan of salvation which gives no offence to self-righteous men, is certainly not of God. Objections without number were made against St. Pauls statements. When he said that salvation was altogether of grace, his enemies replied, that in that case God must be partial and unjust. When he said it was by faith, then they replied, that he dispensed with good works. The same objections even to this hour are universally brought against the same statements: and we may be infallibly sure, that, if no objections of the same kind be urged against us, we do not state the Gospel as Paul did: we are accommodating ourselves to the pride and prejudice of an ignorant world, instead of preaching the Gospel as freely and as fully as we ought. Let none then be discouraged when they hear the Gospel evil spoken of; neither let them wonder if it be to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness, as in the days of old. It is so, and it must be so, as long as man shall continue unhumbled before God: and if you find it so amongst the circle in which you move, know that, as far as that circumstance goes, it is no proof whatever that what you hear is erroneous, but a strong presumptive evidence, that the word you hear is the very truth of God, the same glorious salvation which Paul preached. Only be truly willing to have God exalted, and your own souls humbled in the dust before him, and then you will find, that the Gospel offers you precisely such a remedy as you want, and that it is the power of God unto salvation to all them that believe.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
Ver. 30. Which is of faith ] Faith wraps itself in the righteousness of Christ, and so justifieth us.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
30 33 .] The Apostle takes up again the fact of Israel’s failure, and shews how their own pursuit of righteousness never attained to righteousness, being hindered by their self-righteousness and rejection of Christ . These verses do not contain, as Chrys., c [91] , Theophyl., the this is simply in the creative right of God, as declared Rom 9:18 ; but they are a comment on Rom 9:16 , that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth : the same similitude of running being here resumed, and it being shewn that, so far from man’s running having decided the matter, the Jews who pressed forward to the goal attained not, whereas the Gentiles, who never ran , have attained. If this is lost sight of, the connexion of the whole is much impaired, and from doctrinal prejudice, a wholly wrong turn given to the Apostle’s line of reasoning, who resolves the awful fact of Israel’s exclusion not into any causes arising from man, but into the supreme will of God, which will is here again distinctly asserted in the citation from Isaiah (see below).
[91] cumenius of Tricca in Thrace, Cent y . XI.?
What then shall we say ? This question, when followed by a question , implies of course a rejection of the thought thus suggested but when, as here, by an assertion , introduces a further unfolding of the argument from what has preceded. I cannot agree with Flatt, Olsh., al., that . . . is to be regarded as a question: for, as Rckert has observed, (1) Paul could not put interrogatively, as a supposition in answer to , a sentiment not intimated in nor following from the foregoing; (2) there would be no answer to the question thus asked, but the , Rom 9:32 , would ask another question, proceeding on the assumption of that which had been before by implication negatived; and (3) the answer, . . . Rom 9:32 , would touch only the case of the Jews, and not that of the Gentiles, also involved, on this supposition, in the question. That the Gentiles (not, as Meyer and Fritz., ‘some Gentiles’), which pursue not after (see especially reff. Phil.) righteousness (not justification , which is merely ‘the being accounted righteous,’ ‘the way in which righteous ness is ascribed:’ not this, but righteousness itself , is the aim and end of the race) attained to (the whole transaction being regarded as a historical fact) righteousness, even ( brings in something new, different from the foregoing, but not strongly opposed to it, see Winer, edn. 6. 53. 7. b : the opposition here, though fine and delicate, is remarkable: righteousness not however that arising from their own works, but the righteousness, &c.) the righteousness which is of faith:
Rom 9:30 to Rom 10:21 . We come now to the second main division of that part of the epistle in which Paul discusses the problem raised by the relation of the Jews to the Gospel. He has shown in chap. Rom 9:6-29 that they have no claim as of right to salvation: their whole history, as recorded and interpreted in the Scriptures, exhibited God acting on quite a different principle; he now proceeds to show more definitely that it was owing to their own guilt that they were rejected. They followed, and persisted in following, a path on which salvation was not to be found; and they were inexcusable in doing so, inasmuch as God had made His way of salvation plain and accessible to all.
Rom 9:30 f. ; usually, as in Rom 9:14 , this question is followed by another, but here by an assertion. The conclusion of the foregoing discussion is not that God has been faithless or unjust, but this paradoxical position: Gentiles ( , not ) that did not follow after righteousness attained righteousness, the righteousness which comes of faith; while Israel, which followed after a law of righteousness, did not attain that law. and are correlative terms: see Wetstein. The repetition of is striking: it is the one fundamental conception on which Paul’s gospel rests; the questions at issue between him and the Jews were questions as to what it was, and how it was to be attained. is not an unfair description of the pagan races as contrasted with the Jews; how to be right with God was not their main interest. for the form of the explanatory clause with cf. Rom 3:22 , 1Co 2:6 . It is not surprising that a righteousness of this sort should be found even by those who are not in quest of it; its nature is that it is brought and offered to men, and faith is simply the act of appropriating it. . . .: this is the astonishing thing which does need explanation. . The idea is not that Israel was in quest of a law of righteousness, in the sense of a rule by the observance of which righteousness would be attained: every Israelite believed himself to be, and already was, in possession of such a law. It must rather be that Israel aimed incessantly at bringing its conduct up to the standard of a law in which righteousness was certainly held out, but was never able to achieve its purpose. The , the unattained goal of Israel’s efforts, is of course the Mosaic law; but it is referred to, not definitely, but in its characteristic qualities, as law, and as exhibiting and enjoining (not bestowing) righteousness. : did not attain to, arrive at, that law it remained out of their reach. Legal religion proved a failure.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rom 9:30-33
30What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; 31but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33just as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
Rom 9:30-31 This is the surprising conclusion of God’s electing purpose. Rom 9:30-33 are a summary of Romans 9 and an introduction to Romans 10. Believing Gentiles are made right with God, but not all Jews (cf. Rom 9:6)!
God deals with all mankind in a covenantal way. God always takes the initiative and sets the conditions. Individuals must respond by repentance and faith, obedience, and perseverance. Are humans saved
1. by God’s sovereignty
2. by God’s mercy through faith in the Messiah’s finished work
3. by an act of personal faith?
For “pursue” see note at Rom 14:19.
Rom 9:30 “Righteousness” For this word group see Special Topic at Rom 1:17. The noun is used three times in Rom 9:30 and once in Rom 9:31. The “righteousness” of faith is contrasted with the “righteousness” of the law. Again the contrast between the old covenant and the new covenant. The problems with the old covenant open the door of the gospel for the whole world in Romans 11.
Rom 9:32 “by works” The Textus Receptus added “of the law.” This was an addition by a later copyist. Paul did often use this phrase “works of the law” (cf. Rom 3:20; Rom 3:28; Gal 2:16; Gal 3:2; Gal 3:5; Gal 3:10). However, the ancient Greek manuscripts P46, *, A, B, F, and G omit the term in this verse. The UBS4 rates the shorter text “B” (almost certain).
The key to God’s righteousness is not human performance but the character and gift of God through Christ. Righteousness is an impossible attainment by fallen mankind, but it is a freely offered gift through faith in Christ (cf. Rom 3:21-31). However, it must be received (cf. Rom 9:33; Joh 1:12; Joh 3:16; Rom 4:1 ff; Rom 10:9-13; Eph 2:8-9). This is the truth that sincere, religious, moral Jews (and all legalists) miss!
George Eldon Ladd in his book A Theology of the New Testament, makes a good point:
“Paul’s teaching about the Law is often approached from the perspective of the historical experience either of Paul himself as a Jewish rabbi, or of a typical first-century Jew under the Law. However, Paul’s thought must be seen neither as a confession of his spiritual autobiography, nor as a description of the legalistic character of first-century Pharisaism, but as a theological interpretation by a Christian thinker of two ways of righteousness: legalism and faith” (p. 495).
Rom 9:33 This is taken from Isa 28:16 combined with Rom 8:14.
“Behold I lay in Zion a stone,” Isa 28:16 a
“of stumbling and a rock of offense,” Rom 8:14 b
“and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed,” Isa 28:16 b
By combining these verses in this way (rabbinical technique) he changes the meaning of Isa 28:16 from positive to negative. Paul manipulates the OT for his own purposes.
1. He chooses which translation (LXX, MT, or his own)
2. He changes the references (from exile to Gentiles)
3. He combines texts
4. He changes titles and pronouns, which apply YHWH to Jesus
“he who believes in Him will not be disappointed” This is from Isa 28:16 b. It is also quoted in Rom 10:11 and is similar to Joe 2:32, quoted in Rom 10:13. The key to salvation is both (1) the object (the cornerstone) and (2) the individual’s personal reception (faith in Him). See Special Topic: Believe at Rom 4:5.
“a stone” This was originally a title for God (cf. Psa 18:1-2; Psa 18:31; Psa 18:46; Deu 32:18; 1Sa 2:2; Psa 28:1; Psa 31:3; Psa 42:9; Psa 71:3; Psa 78:35), but it came to be a Messianic title (cf. Gen 49:24; Psa 118:22; Isa 8:14; Isa 28:16; Dan 2:34-35; Dan 2:44-45; Mat 21:42-44). The key element of God’s covenant promise (the Messiah) was misunderstood and rejected (cf. 1Co 1:23). The Jews misunderstood not only the Messiah’s purpose, but the basic requirements of God’s covenant. Christ became for the Jews a cause to stumble (cf. Isa 8:14; Luk 2:34), but for the believers, both Jew and Gentile, He became the foundation stone (cf. Isa 28:16; 1Pe 2:6-10).
SPECIAL TOPIC: CORNERSTONE
have attained to = obtained. Greek. katalambano. See Joh 12:35.
faith. App-150. That is, on faith-principle, as in Rom 1:17.
30-33.] The Apostle takes up again the fact of Israels failure, and shews how their own pursuit of righteousness never attained to righteousness, being hindered by their self-righteousness and rejection of Christ. These verses do not contain, as Chrys., c[91], Theophyl., the -this is simply in the creative right of God, as declared Rom 9:18;-but they are a comment on Rom 9:16, that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth: the same similitude of running being here resumed, and it being shewn that, so far from mans running having decided the matter, the Jews who pressed forward to the goal attained not, whereas the Gentiles, who never ran, have attained. If this is lost sight of, the connexion of the whole is much impaired, and from doctrinal prejudice, a wholly wrong turn given to the Apostles line of reasoning,-who resolves the awful fact of Israels exclusion not into any causes arising from man, but into the supreme will of God,-which will is here again distinctly asserted in the citation from Isaiah (see below).
[91] cumenius of Tricca in Thrace, Centy. XI.?
What then shall we say? This question, when followed by a question, implies of course a rejection of the thought thus suggested-but when, as here, by an assertion, introduces a further unfolding of the argument from what has preceded. I cannot agree with Flatt, Olsh., al., that … is to be regarded as a question: for, as Rckert has observed, (1) Paul could not put interrogatively, as a supposition in answer to , a sentiment not intimated in nor following from the foregoing; (2) there would be no answer to the question thus asked, but the , Rom 9:32, would ask another question, proceeding on the assumption of that which had been before by implication negatived; and (3) the answer, … Rom 9:32, would touch only the case of the Jews, and not that of the Gentiles, also involved, on this supposition, in the question. That the Gentiles (not, as Meyer and Fritz., some Gentiles), which pursue not after (see especially reff. Phil.) righteousness (not justification, which is merely the being accounted righteous, the way in which righteous ness is ascribed: not this, but righteousness itself, is the aim and end of the race) attained to (the whole transaction being regarded as a historical fact) righteousness, even ( brings in something new, different from the foregoing, but not strongly opposed to it, see Winer, edn. 6. 53. 7. b:-the opposition here, though fine and delicate, is remarkable: righteousness-not however that arising from their own works, but the righteousness, &c.) the righteousness which is of faith:
Rom 9:30. , what) He returns from the digression, which he had commenced at the middle of Rom 9:24, and takes in summarily the whole subject, Rom 9:30-32. There is a mitigation of the severity of the discussion continued from Rom 9:6 to Rom 9:23; but it will only be comprehended by him, who is acquainted with the way of faith. In short, by this tone of feeling the foregoing remarks are judged of.-) have attained [Luk 13:29; Luk 13:24.]-, by faith), Rom 9:33, at its close.
Rom 9:30
Rom 9:30
What shall we say then?-[What conclusion shall we draw from the prophecies of Hosea and Isaiah, and from the previous train of remarks thereon? To what conclusion have we come concerning the Israelites and Gentiles?]
That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;-The Gentiles, who formerly refused to follow God and to seek the righteousness required in the law of Moses, have now attained to that righteousness through faith in Christ Jesus. This brings out the reason why the Jews have rejected the gospel and the Gentiles have accepted it. The Jews sought righteousness by an outward observance without purification of their hearts by faith ; the Gentiles sought it by faith, which purifies the heart and works by love.
righteousness
(See Scofield “Rom 10:10”).
shall: Rom 9:14, Rom 3:5
the Gentiles: Rom 1:18-32, Rom 4:11, Rom 10:20, Isa 65:1, Isa 65:2, 1Co 6:9-11, Eph 2:12, Eph 4:17-19, 1Pe 4:3
followed: Rom 9:31, Pro 15:9, Pro 21:21, Isa 51:1, 1Ti 6:11
even the righteousness: Rom 1:17, Rom 3:22, Rom 4:9, Rom 4:11, Rom 4:13, Rom 4:22, Rom 5:1, Rom 10:10, Gal 3:8, Gal 5:5, Phi 3:9, Heb 11:7
Reciprocal: Psa 98:2 – righteousness Isa 28:20 – the bed Eze 3:6 – of a strange speech and of an hard language Mic 5:7 – tarrieth Mat 5:20 – exceed Mat 19:30 – General Mat 20:12 – borne Mat 20:16 – the last Mat 21:31 – the publicans Mar 10:31 – General Mar 12:9 – and will Joh 6:29 – This Act 11:18 – hath Act 18:6 – from Rom 10:3 – God’s righteousness 1Co 14:1 – Follow Gal 2:17 – while Gal 3:12 – the law Gal 4:21 – ye that Col 3:11 – there Tit 3:5 – by works
FAITH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
The righteousness which is of faith.
Rom 9:30
There are two aspects of this righteousness which is of faith needful for us to keep clearly in view. One is the aspect of righteousness as a relationship or standing before God; the other is the aspect of this same righteousness as so much life and power.
I. St. Paul uses the expression, Being justified by faith we have peace with Godthis is the righteousness which is of faith as a relationship. Responding to the call of Jesus; believing in Jesus; surrendering ourselves to Jesus; embracing and appropriating as our very own the representative work of Jesus, we thus obtain a new standing before God. We become, in the fullest sense, sharers of the new humanity of the Incarnation. We pass out of the sphere of the penal liabilities of our kinsmanship with the first Adam, who was of the earth earthy, and we enter into the sphere of the privileges of our kinsmanship with the second Adam, which is the Lord from Heaven. In other words, instead of being in the category of the condemned, we are, by virtue of our faith, in the category of the justified. We have done what our Lord calls the work of God, which is, to believe in Him Whom God hath sent. And because we have done this work of God, therefore we are not as we formerly were to God, we are not dead to God. We are alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the righteousness which is of faith as regards its bearing upon our standing before God.
II. Now a word on the subject of the righteousness which is of faith being so much life and grace.There are some Christians who have been satisfied with regarding the righteousness which is of faith as being a matter of relationship or standing before God only. And the result has often been a low attainment of personal holiness. But the righteousness which is of faith is something more than a justified and accepted state before God. It is something beyond forgiveness. It is also sanctification. It is a continual growth in Christ-likeness. It is a living oneness with Him out of Whom our righteousness comes. For we are not only told that the Christian is to believe in Christ; we are also told that the Christian is to feed on Christ. And to feed on Christ, whether in the Divine Sacrament of His flesh and bloodwhether in the exercise of prayer to Himor whether in the assimilation of Him through the medium of His written word, necessarily means to become like Christ in our measure and in proportion to the reality of our communion with Him. And let us remember this, that it is the result of our feeding upon Christ our Righteousness, which the world sees, and which impresses the world most. The world is not much impressed by the justification side of our righteousness. That is a matter it is often disposed to be incredulous about. But when it sees the sanctification side of our righteousness, when it discovers that the righteousness which is of faith makes us more honest, more pure, more self-denying, more spiritual, more jealous for truth, more charitable, more patient, more kind, then the world is impressed and acknowledges there is something in Christianity after all.
Rev. Canon Henry Lewis.
Illustration
Let us make no mistake as to what righteousness in the New Testament sense really is. I say this because one result of our modern culture has been the creation of striking but defective ideas of what constitutes righteousness. Thus, e.g., it has been said with all the grace of language and force of expression which characterise the modern apostles of morality touched with religion that righteousness is right performance on all mens great lines of endeavour; that righteousness is to reverently obey the eternal power moving us to fulfil the true law of our being; that righteousness is to so live as to be worthy of that high and true ideal of man and of mans life, which shall be at last victorious. There is a nobility of feeling, there is a grandeur of ideal in all these definitions of righteousness, which have great charm for many earnest and thoughtful mindsbut minds which insist on putting themselves outside the circle of the Christian creeds. It was my lot to meet a representative of this class the other day in the person of one of our South London manufacturers. In the course of our conversation I found that the righteousness which he was pursuing was that of right performance on all mens great lines of endeavour. And as far as earnestnessreverence for goodand a life shaped on convictions were concerned, he was all that one could wish. But he had abandoned all the great foundations of the Christian faith. Christ to him was an eminently good and wise man, but nothing further. The Bible was a book with no more authority than other great religious books. And sin was a balance on the wrong side, to be made up by persistent efforts to accumulate credit on the right side. Over his writing-table was a beautiful picture of the Madonna and the Divine Child, and the sight of the sweet Babe, he said, was a constant reminder to him of the duty of cultivating the child spiritthe child characterthe child openness to good.
-31
Romans 9:30-31. Followed not after righteousness. The Gentiles were not under the law of Moses and did not profess to follow the life of righteousness. The Gentiles were not under the law of Moses and did not profess to follow the life of righteousness that it prescribed. Yet when the righteousness set forth by faith (the Gospel) was offered to them, they were more ready to accept it than was Israel. (Chapter 8:4 and Act 13:42 Act 13:46.)
Rom 9:30. What shall we say then? Precisely as in Rom 9:14, where, however, it introduces an objection. But when followed by an assertion, it further unfolds an argument from what precedes. Here it introduces a summing up of the historical result from the foregoing prophecies(Meyer), yet with a view to present a new phase of the subject. What he would say is that Gentiles, etc.
Gentiles. The article is wanting; what is affirmed is true of Gentiles, but not of the Gentiles as a whole.
Who were not following after righteousness. Pursuing, as in running for a prize. This prize which the Gentiles did not pursue was righteousness. While this word does not mean justification, we need not give it here a purely ethical sense. For some of the Gentiles had a high ethical ideal which they pursued. But they did not follow this ethical aim with the thought of attaining a verdict of righteousness before God. Conformity to His law was not their ideal of virtue, nor was His judgment the ultimate ground of acceptance. Thus much we may understand, both from Pauls previous discussions, and from what follows.
Attained to righteousness. The verb is used of laying hold of the prize in the Grecian games. Here the technical Christian sense of righteousness, righteousness from God (chap. Rom 1:17), seems necessary.
Even the righteousness which is of faith. The peculiar form of the original suggests that this is the true righteousness.
As if the apostle had said, “Lord, what shall we say to this great mystery of grace, the calling of the Gentile world, and the cutting off and casting away most of the present Jewish nation? That the Gentiles who lived in ignorance and blindness, in sin and unrighteousness, should attain to righteousness by faith in Christ; and that the Israelites, who had God’s own righteous law amongst them, and trusted to be justified by the observation of it, yet should not attain to that rightness which God accepteth. And wherefore have they not attained it? but because they sought not justification by that faith which God prescribeth for that end, namely, faith in the Mediator; but thought it must be attained by the works of the law, keeping all the ceremonial precepts, by which no flesh can be justified: and the reason why they sought it not by faith was this, They stumbled at the stumbling stone; that is, at the Lord Jesus Christ, taking offence at his poverty and mean condition in the world, and at the spirituality of his kingdom.”
Learn hence, That the great humiliation of Christ in the days of his flesh, did prove a snare and occasion to many persons to despise and reject him, to stumble at him, and fall foul upon him. But in what respects is Christ called a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence?
Answer Negatively; not because he was by God designed, either intentionally or accidentally, to be such. All stumbling and offence-taking at Christ are accidental, proceeding from the depravity of man, not from the design of God. Much less were the Jews fore-appointed and ordained by God to stumble at his Son; for God appoints no man to do that which he prohibits all men from doing.
And as no man is necessitated by the decree of God, so neither is he constrained or necessitated by Satan, by his corruption, or any other instrument, to stumble or take offence at Christ; for actions necessitated upon men are neither demeritorious nor punishable. But positively Christ is called a stone of stumbling because men, willingly ignorant and wilfully perverse, do take offence at him.
Though God never designed or desired any man’s stumbling at Christ, yet he knew and foresaw that many, very many, would stumble at him: and accordingly expressed him by a prophetical character answering the event, and predicting that which in time came to pass: Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-block.
Rom 9:30-33. What shall we say then What is to be concluded from all that has been said, but this, that the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness Who a while ago had no knowledge of, no care or thought about it; have attained to righteousness Or justification; even the righteousness which is of faith Which is by faith in Christ and in his gospel, Php 3:9. This is the first conclusion we may draw from the preceding observations. The second is, that Israel, (the Jews,) which followed after the law of righteousness The law which, duly used, would have led them to faith, and thereby to righteousness; hath not attained to the law of righteousness To that righteousness, or justification, which is one great end of the law. Or, as Estius and Beza think, the law of righteousness is put for the righteousness of the law; as Heb 7:16, the law of a carnal commandment, signifies the carnal commandment of the law. According to this interpretation, the apostles meaning is, Israel, who pursued the righteousness of the law, have not attained it. Wherefore? Is it because God eternally decreed they should not? No: there is nothing like this to be met with in the apostles reasoning; but, agreeably to his argument, he gives us this grand reason for it: because they sought it not by faith, whereby alone it could be attained; but, as it were In effect, if not professedly; by the works of the law The works required by it, which they were not able perfectly to perform. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone Which lay in their way. This is an allusion to one who, running in a race, stumbles on a stone in his way, and, falling, loses the race. As it is written Foretold by their own prophet; Behold, I lay in Sion I exhibit in my church what, though in truth the only sure foundation of religion and happiness, yet will be, in fact, a stumbling-stone, and a rock of offence An occasion of ruin to many through their obstinate unbelief. And whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed Or, as the original expression may be more literally translated, No one who believeth on him shall be ashamed. The reader will observe two passages of Isaiah are here joined in one quotation, because they relate to the same subject; namely, Isa 28:16; Isa 8:14. See note on 1Pe 2:8. Accordingly, those in Israel who expected the Messiah to be a great temporal prince, stumbled at Jesus on account of the poverty, meanness, and state of suffering in which he appeared among them. Hence they fell short of righteousness and salvation, and lost all their privileges as the people of God.
Vv. 30, 31. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have obtained righteousness, but the righteousness which is of faith; and that Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
The question: What shall we say then? has in the present case peculiar gravity: The explanation of the fact not being found by saying, God has annulled His word; what, then, is the solution of the enigma? Thus, after setting aside the false solution, Paul invites his reader to seek with him the true one; and this solution he expresses in Rom 9:31 in a declaration of painful solemnity, after prefacing it in Rom 9:30 with a saying relating to the lot of the Gentiles. While the latter have obtained what they sought not, the Jews have missed what they sought; the most poignant irony in the whole of history. Some expositors have thought that the proposition which follows the question, What shall we say then? was not the answer to the question, but a second question explanatory of the first. We must then prolong the interrogation to the end of Rom 9:31. But what do we find there? Instead of an answer, a new question, , wherefore? This construction is clearly impossible. It is the same with the attempt of Schott, who makes a single question of the whole sentence from the to (the second): What shall we say then of the fact that the Gentiles have obtained…? and who finds the answer to this question in the last words of the verse: but the righteousness of faith!
The solution given by the apostle may be thus expressed: That, whereas the Gentiles have obtained…, Israel, on the contrary, has failed… , without article: Gentiles, beings having this characteristic. The subjective negative might be rendered: without their seeking., without article, a righteousness. It is a mistake to give to this word here, as Meyer does, the moral sense of holiness; for it could not be said of the Greeks that they did not often aspire after a high morality. What they never sought was righteousness, in the religious sense of the word, justification. The idea which they formed of sin as a simple error. and of the Deity as not looking very narrowly at human actions, did not lead them to the pursuit of righteousness in this sense. And yet they obtained it, precisely because they were exempt from the false pretensions which barred access to it in the case of the Jews. They were like the man of whom Jesus speaks, who, crossing a field, discovers a treasure in it which he was not seeking, and without hesitating makes sure of its possession. The verb , literally, put the hand on, suits this mode of acquisition. It must, however, be further explained how the matter could transpire in this way; hence the last words: but the righteousness which is of faith. The , but, is explicative (as in Rom 3:22): but the righteousness thus obtained could, of course, only be a righteousness of faith.
What shall we say then? [“Shall we raise objection, as at verse 14, or shall we at last rest in a correct conclusion? Let us, from the Scriptures and facts adduced, reach a sound conclusion.” Paul’s conclusion, briefly stated, is this: God’s sovereign will has elected that men shall be saved by belief in his Son. The Gentiles (apparently least apt and prepared) have, as a class, yielded to God’s will, and are being saved. The Jews (apparently most apt and prepared) have, as a class, resisted God’s will, and are being lost.] That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith [The righteousness which the apostle has in mind is that which leads to justification before God. Righteousness is the means, justification the end, so that the word as here used includes the idea of justification. Now, the Gentiles were not without desire for moral righteousness. The Greeks entertained lofty ideals of it, and the Romans, following the legalistic bent of their nature, plodded after it in their systems of law and government; but as Gentiles they had no knowledge of a God calling them to strict account in a final judgment, and demanding full justification. Hence they were not seeking it. But when the revelation of God and his demand for justification, and his graciously provided means for obtaining it, all burst upon their spiritual vision, they at once accepted the revelation in its entirety; being conscious that they had no righteousness of their own; being, indeed, filled with its opposite (Rom 1:18; Eph 2:2-3). “Faith,” the leading and initiatory part of the conditions of justification, is, by a form of synecdoche, employed to designate the whole of the conditions, so Bloomfield justly observes: “Faith in Christ implies a full acceptance of his gospel, and an obedience to all its requisitions, whether of belief or practice”]:
30. Then what shall we say? That the Gentile does not following after righteousness received righteousness, and the righteousness which is from faith, i. e., the true and genuine righteousness, which always saves.
Rom 9:30 to Rom 10:4. Paul has discussed the Jewish situation as from Gods side; he proceeds to point out, from mans side, the Cause of Israels Stumbling. This chs. 35 have prepared us to understand.
Rom 9:30-32 a. The paradox is that Gentiles, who were out of the way of righteousness, have obtained it; while Israel, intent upon a law of righteousness, missed the mark, because it rejected the way of faith (which Gentiles took), preferring that of works. In other words (Rom 10:3), Israel wanted to set up its own righteousness (cf. Php 3:6; Php 3:9) and did not recognise nor submit to Gods righteousness.
Rom 9:32 b, Rom 9:33. They stumbled at the old stumbling-block marked in Isa 8:14; Isa 28:16the demand for trust in God as the basis of salvation.
Rom 10:1 f. So Pauls good-will and prayers (cf. Rom 9:16), and Israels unquestioned zeal for God, are unavailing. Their zeal lacks knowledgethough the Jew prides himself on this (Rom 2:18 f.)!
Rom 10:3. This ignorance is bound up with self-conceit and insubordination (cf. Rom 2:4; also Joh 8:19; Joh 8:55, etc.).On the righteousness of God, see Rom 1:17*, Rom 3:22; Rom 3:26*.
Rom 10:4. The Jews deem the Mosaic system eternal; they fail to discern the end of the law (cf. 2Co 3:13-16, Heb 7:18 f., etc.) in Christ, who, revealing Gods righteousness, imparts righteousness to every believer.end: i.e. terminus and goal; see Gal 2:19; Gal 3:24, Mat 5:17, Luk 16:16.
Verse 30
Righteousness; justification.
SECTION 32 THROUGH UNBELIEF, THE JEWS HAVE FAILED TO OBTAIN RIGHTEOUSNESS
CH. 9:30-33
What then shall we say? That Gentiles, the men not pursuing righteousness, have laid hold of righteousness, the righteousness which is from faith. But Israel, while pursuing a law of righteousness, to such law has not attained. Why? Because they sought it not from faith but from works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling; according as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of a snare: and he that believes on Him will not be put to shame.
Rom 9:30. Righteousness from faith: recalling Rom 1:17; Rom 3:21-22; Rom 3:27-30, which contain the main thesis of the epistle. Since the quotations do not mention either righteousness or faith, Pauls inference must be drawn from this main thesis. It marks the conclusion of his argument, which is designed to remove objections to this thesis on the ground of the present condition of the Jews.
Gentiles: not the Gentiles: for only a part of them believed.
Pursue: as in a race: cp. Rom 14:19; Php 3:12; Php 3:14; 1Ti 6:11; 2Ti 2:22, etc.
Laid-hold-of: as does a racer: 1Co 9:24; Php 3:12-13.
Righteousness: as in Rom 1:17 : the state of him who has the approval of the great Judge. The Gospel proclaims the favour of God to all who believe. Many Gentiles who formerly lived in sin have believed; and, if the Gospel be true, are now accounted righteous by God. They have obtained the righteousness which is from faith.
Rom 9:31. The contrasted lot of Israel, i.e. of the mass of the Jews in contrast to the believing Gentiles.
A law of righteousness: a standard of conduct, from which they seek the favour of God. This ideal standard some Jews set before themselves; and strove by morality, austerity, or ritual, to attain or come up to it, i.e. to realise it in themselves and thus attain righteousness. But in this effort they failed. Their failure illustrates Rom 9:16 : cp. Mat 21:31.
Rom 9:32. Reason why the Jews have not obtained righteousness, viz. because they sought it not in Gods way from faith, i.e. on the condition of faith, but in a way of their own, as though it might be derived from works.
They stumbled etc.: comment on their failure.
Stumbling: same word in Rom 14:13; Rom 14:20; 1Co 8:9; and 1Pe 2:6, referring, as here, to Christ.
Stone of stumbling: one against which men strike their foot. The Jews rejected the Gospel because Christ was not what they expected. He thus became a stone against which the men of Israel, as they ran after righteousness, stumbled. Cp. 1Co 1:23; Mat 13:57.
Rom 9:33. According as etc.: that Christ is a stone of stumbling, agrees with prophecy.
Snare: skandalon, the Greek original of our word scandal: so Rom 11:9; Rom 14:13; Rom 16:17; 1Co 1:23, etc. Cognate verb in Rom 14:21, in some copies; 1Co 8:13 twice, etc. It denotes a trap in which anyone is caught.
Rock of a snare: one on which when men step they fall and are entrapped. See under same word in Rom 11:9. Paul weaves together Isa 8:14; Isa 28:16. The one reads, He shall be for a sanctuary; and for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of falling, to the two houses of Israel; for a snare and for a trap to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Something to be said or done by God will be an occasion of deception and destruction to the Jews. Such were the lowly appearance of Christ and the simplicity of the Gospel. These were a stone against which most of the Jews struck their foot, and a rock on which they slipped and fell: Mat 11:6. Isa 28:16 is, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a stone of proof, the precious corner-stone of a laid foundation. He that believes will not make haste. In days to come, God will lay in Zion, the seat of the kingdom of David, the foundation-stone of a temple or palace.
It will be the corner-stone of a firmly-laid foundation, a stone tested and valuable. He that builds on it by faith will not be put to the hurry of flight.
Believes: in Hebrew, to make firm or sure: he that makes himself firm by resting on the firm foundation-stone.
Not put to shame: as he would be if, in spite of his trust in Christ, he perished. Same word and sense in Rom 5:5.
The apparent carelessness of this quotation does not lessen its value to men familiar with the Old Testament. The quoted passages prove clearly that the foretold salvation is for those who believe; and that it is consistent with the character of God to do that which to some men will become an occasion of falling. In Rom 9:24-29, we saw that the reception of the Gentiles and the limitation of salvation to a part of the Jews are in harmony with prophecy. We now see that faith as the condition of salvation, and the unfortunate effect of the Gospel on some of the Jews, are also in harmony with it.
A comparison of Rom 9:25-33 with 1Pe 2:6-10 suggests that these O.T. quotations were often used by the early Christian teachers.
Rom 9:32 implies that the reason why one man is unsaved while others are saved is not in God but in himself. So in Rom 10:3; Rom 11:22-23; Mat 23:37. This by no means contradicts Rom 9:18, but looks at the same subject from another point. The reason why any one criminal is put to death is, if justice be done, entirely in himself. But the question whether any criminals are to be put to death rests entirely with the legislature. Those who oppose capital punishment may leave out of sight the conduct of the criminal, and speak only of what it is expedient for the government to do. And the moralist may leave out of sight the expediency of capital punishment, and speak only of the consequences of sin. Or again, the motion of the withered leaves of autumn is due altogether to the wind. They do not in the least degree even co-operate to produce their own motion. But the stones on the wayside remain unmoved. The difference arises, not from a difference in the influences brought to bear on the stones and the leaves, but simply from this, that while the leaves yield to, the stones resist, the influences which both alike experience. So with us. That believers are justified at all, springs entirely from the undeserved mercy of God: and every step towards salvation is entirely Gods work in them. But the reason why, when some are justified, others are not, is that they put themselves by unbelief outside the number of those whom God has determined to save. When Paul replied to the objection that the Gospel is inconsistent with the justice of God, he said that salvation is not a matter of justice, and that God bestows it on whom He will. But when explaining why the Jews have not obtained salvation, he says that the reason is in themselves. Notice also that their position is here attributed, not to their sin, but to their unbelief.
Rom 9:30-33 help us to understand CHAPTER 9, of which it is a summing up. Paul does not introduce his new matter by laying down, as in Rom 1:16; Rom 3:21-22; Rom 6:3-4; Rom 8:3-4, a foundation-stone of explicit doctrinal statement. Therefore, only from the argument can we learn the exact purpose of the chapter. Pauls aim, as I understand it, is to defend the Gospel expounded in Romans 1-8. against Jewish objections, and especially against the great objection that if the Gospel be true the mass of the Jewish nation are outside the blessings promised to their fathers, or in other words to defend the Gospel in view of the fact that many Jews have rejected and many Gentiles have accepted it. In Rom 9:1-5, Paul expresses his sorrow for this fact. But, in Rom 9:6-13, he shows that, painful as it is to himself, it is not inconsistent with the promises of God; nor
(Rom 9:14-18) with the declared principles of His government. The reply to Objection 1 is put in a form which provokes Objection 2: the reply to this last suggests Objection 3, viz. that such principles of government destroy human accountability. This objection, Rom 9:19-23 meet. Paul then states in Rom 9:24, from the point of view of the Gospel call, what he afterwards, in Rom 9:30-31, states from the point of view of actual results. In Rom 9:25-29, the statement of Rom 9:24 is shown to be in harmony with O.T. prophecy. This is followed in Rom 9:30-31 by a plain assertion of the fact which in Rom 9:1-5 caused Paul so much sorrow and which throughout Romans 9, he has been harmonizing with the character of God. This fact is in Rom 9:32 traced to its cause; and even this cause is in Rom 9:33 found to be in harmony with the Old Testament. Thus the whole chapter is a proof that the Gospel expounded in this epistle is in harmony with the earlier revelation.
ELECTION, PREDESTINATION: associated in Eph 1:4-5. In Rom 8:33; Rom 9:11; Rom 11:5; Rom 11:7; Rom 11:28, we find the words elect, ELECTION; and in 1Co 1:27-28; Eph 1:4; Jas 2:5; Mar 13:20; Luk 6:13; Luk 9:35; Luk 10:42; Luk 14:7; Joh 6:70; Act 1:24; Act 15:22, we have the cognate verb choose, chosen. They denote a mental act by which we take for ourselves a smaller out of a larger number of objects. Choice implies freedom in him who makes it, but is generally determined by the difference between the objects chosen and rejected.
A divine election is prominent in Deu 7:6-7; Psa 33:12; Isa 41:8-9; Isa 43:20; Isa 44:1; Isa 65:9; Isa 65:22. Out of all nations, God chose Israel to be specially His own. From this divine choice resulted all the religious advantages of the Jews. Hence the nation could never forget that it was the chosen people of God. Since the foretold glory was destined only for the faithful ones in Israel, the word was sometimes used specially for them: so Isa 65:9; Isa 65:15; Isa 65:22, a stepping-stone to its N.T. use. We have a connecting link, amid O.T. phraseology, in 1Pe 2:9 : a chosen race: so Rom 1:1. Our Lord, in Mat 22:14; Mat 24:22; Mat 24:31; Luk 18:7, and Paul in Rom 8:33; Col 3:12; 2Ti 2:10; Tit 1:1, speak of believers as elect: so Rev 17:14. In Rom 11:5; Eph 1:4; 2Th 2:13, Paul says that his readers were chosen by God, before the world was, for a salvation to be realised in holiness and faith; and that Gods choice arose, not from their works, but altogether from Gods favour.
The N.T. doctrine of election may be thus stated: From eternity, moved only by pity for our lost state and not at all by any foreseen good in us, and as irresponsible sovereign of the world, God resolved to save, not all men promiscuously, but only those who should believe the Gospel. This doctrine is a restatement of the fundamental doctrine of salvation through faith, from the point of view of the eternal forethought of God. Whatever God does in time, He purposed from eternity: and, whatever He does, He does unmoved by any good external to Himself. For apart from Him no good exists. God proclaimed that He will save all who believe the good news, and destroy those who reject it. We infer then that from eternity He resolved so to do. He saw man in sin and misery, and resolved to save. He was moved to save, by His love to the entire race: Joh 3:16-17; 1Ti 2:4; Tit 2:11. To reconcile the salvation of sinners with divine justice, God gave His Son to die: Rom 3:25-26. He chose the Gospel to be the instrument, and faith the condition, of salvation to each individual: Rom 1:16-17; Rom 3:22; Rom 3:28; Rom 3:30. He exerts on all men influences leading towards repentance, influences without which none can come to Christ: Rom 2:4; Joh 6:44. God thought fit, in infinite wisdom and universal love, to permit men either to yield to, or resist, these influences; and made the effect of the Gospel contingent on mans surrender to them. From the beginning, He foresaw who would believe and how many would continue in faith. But He was moved to save, not by their foreseen faith and perseverance, but only by His love and by mans misery and helplessness. Our faith is Gods work in us and gift to us: and the good works which follow faith are not its necessary result, but are attached to it by the grace of God and wrought in us by the Holy Spirit. Our faith and good works, so far from being the motive, are results, of Gods eternal purpose.
This doctrine, thus stated, contains all that Paul says about election. The resolution to save, not all men indiscriminately, but only believers, is a purpose according to election. For, by fixing, of His own free-will, and without reference to mans conduct, the condition of salvation, He chose the objects of salvation. We thus owe His favour to-day entirely to the sovereign election of God.
Closely related to this doctrine of Election, is Pauls teaching about PREDESTINATION, already in some measure expounded under Rom 8:29-30. It is the eternal purpose in which before the world was God marked out the path along which, and the goal towards which, He would lead His chosen ones, viz. to adoption into His family and to likeness to the glory of His Firstborn. It is a logical development of Doctrine 3, viz. that we are to be dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus, just as Election is a development of Doctrine 1, Justification through Faith, each of these fundamental doctrines being viewed in the light of the eternal forethought of God.
Like election, predestination is simply a purpose; and by no means implies its inevitable accomplishment. Hence in Rom 11:21-22 Paul solemnly warns his readers that, unless they continue in faith, they will, although predestined to glory, be cut off and perish.
This chapter has frequently been appealed to in support of Calvins teaching that God brings to bear, in pursuance of an eternal purpose, upon some of those who hear the Gospel and not on others, influences which necessarily and always lead to repentance, faith, justification, and eternal life; and that the reason why these influences, without which none can be saved, are not exerted on some men while they are on others is entirely in God and not at all in man. See my New Life in Christ pp. 270-276. And it must be admitted that some serious objections brought against this teaching of Calvin are in Romans 9, brought against the teaching of Paul. But very different doctrines may lie open to the same objection. And Pauls replies, which are irresistible against those who object to the doctrine of Justification through Faith, are powerless to meet the same objections when brought against the teaching of Calvin. It is true that, if Calvins teaching were that of Paul, a Jew might object that it was inconsistent with the promise of God: and, if so, the objection would, I admit, be fairly met in Rom 9:6-13. Again, on the ground of justice, objection has frequently been made to Calvins teaching. But was anyone who brought this objection ever convinced, by reading Rom 9:14-18, that this teaching is in harmony with Gods justice? Certainly the story of Pharaoh does nothing whatever to harmonize it with the character of God. But we have seen how decisively the case of Pharaoh overturns objections to the teaching of Rom 3:22; Rom 9:31 based on the justice of God. To the teaching of Calvin we might fairly bring the objection in Rom 9:19. But how irrelevant would then be Pauls answer! We should reply back that it was not our fault that we were born in sin; and that being born in sin we could not, apart from justifying grace, avoid resisting God. Therefore God would have no more reason to find fault with us than with a lion tearing its prey. The mention of the potters clay puts to silence the man who objects to Rom 3:22; Rom 9:31 : but, as a defence of Calvins scheme, it provokes bitterest reply. We cannot accept doctrines never explicitly asserted in the Bible simply because objections now brought against them were also brought against other teaching of Paul. See further in my New Life in Christ pp. 263-277.
9:30 {27} What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed {e} not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
(27) The declaration and manifestation of our election is our calling apprehended by faith, as it came to pass in the Gentiles.
(e) So then, the Gentiles had no works to prepare and procure God’s mercy before hand: and that the Gentiles attained to that which they did not seek, the mercy of God is to be thanked for it: and in that the Jews did not attain that which they sought after, they can only thank themselves, because they did not seek for it in the proper way.
5. God’s mercy toward the Gentiles 9:30-33
This short pericope concludes Paul’s argument concerning Israel’s past election and begins the train of thought that he continued in chapter 10. The use of "righteousness" ten times in Rom 9:30 to Rom 10:21 illustrates the unity of this section and identifies a major theme in it.
Paul’s question, that often marks a new argument in Romans, introduced his concluding summary that he couched in terminology suggestive of a foot race. Israel struggled hard to obtain the prize of righteousness, the righteousness God requires for acceptance by Him, but crossed the finish line behind Gentiles who were not running that hard. Israel as a whole hoped to gain righteousness by doing good works, but believing Gentiles obtained the prize by believing the gospel. Again, the contrast between law and faith recurs.
"Hardly a passage in the New Testament is stronger than this one in its exposure of the futility of works as a means of justification." [Note: Harrison, p. 109.]
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)