Romans Chapters IX-XI

Introduction
Chapters 9-11Paul is struggling with the issue of the chosen people, Israel having rejected the Messiah. He is also answering concerns that perhaps God failed in saving His people. As Gentiles were being added to the church, accusations against the Christians were being made that God did not fulfill His promise. (Orthodox Study Bible)

God has remained faithful in the following ways:

  • Through Paul (R 9:1-3)
  • Through Providence (R 9:4-5)
  • Through the Patriarchs (R 9:6-13
  • Through the Prophets (R 9:14-29)

Origen: Israel has a wide meaning. The true Israel are those who see God and see the promises of God fulfilled in Christ. The number doesn’t matter. Salvation is people believing in God.

I.  Paul’s concern for his fellow countrymen has caused him great pain.
a.)  odunh = an intensified pain and suffering in his soul

9:1  I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2  that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

3  For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen by race. 4  They are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; 5  to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. God who is over all be blessed for ever. Amen.

Cut off from Christ?
"What are you saying Paul? Do you really want to be cut off from Christ, your beloved one. . .No, Paul replies, do not worry! On the contrary, I have made my love for Him more intense still" (+Chrysostom).

Sonship of Israel (Duet. 32:8-9)

II.  Israel is two-fold - spiritual & physical
a.)  Who is a true child of Abraham?

  • Not the biological off-spring
  • The Children of the promise are the faithful believers are the true children of God.

b.) God foreknows the end of each of us.

6  But it is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7  and not all are children of Abraham because they are his descendants; but "Through Isaac shall your descendants be named." 8  This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants. 9  For this is what the promise said, "About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son." 10  And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11  though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call,  12  she was told, "The elder will serve the younger." 13  As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

14  What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 15  For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 16  So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy.

III. The basis of salvation is God’s mercy and compassion

17  For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." 18  So then he has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills.

IV. Obedience in Christ
19  You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" 20  But who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me thus?" 21  Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use?

"Paul says this in order not to do away with free will but rather to show to what extent we ought to obey God. We should be as little inclined to call God to account as a piece of clay is. We ought to abstain not only from complaining or questioning but from even speaking or thinking about it at all, and instead we should become like that lifeless matter which follows the potters hands and lets itself be shaped in whatever way the potter wills." (+Chrysostom)

22  What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath (Unbelieving Jews) made for destruction, 23  in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, (Believing Jews and Gentiles)  which he has prepared beforehand for glory, 24  even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

V.  Old Testament Prophets foresaw God’s sovereignty and salvation

a.)  He makes the Gentile his people and sons (v 25-26)
b.)  He saves only a small portion - the remnant (v. 27-28)
c.)  He does not destroy the unbelieving Jews because of the faithful remnant (v.29)

"Why are some people vessels of wrath and others vessels of mercy? It is by their own free choice. " (+Chrysostom)

25  As indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'my beloved.'" 26  "And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'" 27  And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved; 28  for the Lord will execute his sentence upon the earth with rigor and dispatch." 29  And as Isaiah predicted, "If the Lord of hosts had not left us children, we would have fared like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah."

VI. By Faith we are saved in Christ
30  What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; 31  but that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based on law did not succeed in fulfilling that law. 32  Why? Because they did not pursue it through faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33  as it is written, "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall; and he who believes in him will not be put to shame."

Chapter 10

Introduction:
Paul goes back in history. Isaiah had the problem, Mosses. People have been disobedient from all time to God. Paul himself has not been rejected, thus, God has not rejected the Israelites.

I. Israel seeks to establish their own righteousness
10:1  Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2  I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. 3  For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

  • Israel’s rejection of the Gospel is willful and self-imposed (Orthodox Study Bible)

"If someone has a love for God but does not know that love must be patient, kind, not envious, not acting wrongly, not puffed up, not ambitious, not seeking its own and so on; if he does not have these things in his love but only loves God in his emotions, then it may be rightly said of him that he has a love for God but not according to knowledge." (Origen)

Ignorance is not an excuse:
"Once again ignorance would seem to be an excuse for pardoning them. But it turns out to lead only to a stronger accusation. . . It was from small-mindedness and a desire for power that they erred rather than from ignorance&ldots;" (+Chrysostom)

4  For Christ is the end of the law, that every one who has faith may be justified.

  • Christ puts an end to the law as a way for people to try to gain righteousness without Him&ldots;Everyone who believes in Christ participates in His incomparable righteousness. (Orthodox Study Bible)

II. The Way of the Law and the Way of Faith
5  Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the law shall live by it. 6  But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, "Who will ascend into heaven?" (that is, to bring Christ down) 7  or "Who will descend into the abyss?" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8  But what does it say? The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach); 9  because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.10  For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved. 11  The scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame." 12  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him. 13  For, "every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved."

  • Faith does not doubt (v.6 &7)
  • Faith is not a distant accomplishment but is near. (v.8)
  • Faith transforms the whole person - the soul (heart v.8-9) working with the body (mouth) makes it real (v. 8-10)
  • True faith is accessible to all equally as the Old Testament Prophets taught.

III. Israel rejects, Gentiles Receive the Gospel (v.14-21)
14  But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? 15  And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!" 16  But they have not all obeyed the gospel; for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" 17  So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ. 18  But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for "Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." 19  Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry." 20  Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me." 21  But of Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people."

In other words:
"We the heralds and preachers of Christ, would not be able to preach, nor would we have any power to proclaim, if he who sent us were not also present with us. So if you do not want to listen to us when we preach, that is your problem, if hearing you do not believe, and not believing, you do not call upon him, and not calling on him, you are not saved." (Origen)

Chapter 11

Introduction:
Jewish unbelief raises the question whether God cast away His own people. The answer is no. Paul is proof that not all Israelite were cast off. The prophets foretold that a faithful remnant would except the Messiah. (Orthodox Study Bible)

I. God Elects a Remnant of Israel
11:1  I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2  God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3  "Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have demolished thy altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life."

  • God has not rejected his people because Paul was one of them

4  But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5  So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6  But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. 7  What then? Israel failed to obtain what it sought. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8  as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear, down to this very day." 9  And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a pitfall and a retribution for them; 10  let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs for ever."

11  So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12  Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! 13  Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14  in order to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15  For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

16  If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17  But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree, 18  do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. 19  You will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." 20  That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. 21  For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22  Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off.

Origen: the olive tree
"The olive tree is indicative of the dynamic Salvation History. Trees are not born, they grow. The tree also serves as a warning to the Gentiles not to become too puffed up."

"...we should not boast against the olive tree whose branches have been broken off but rather fear. For if the natural branches have been broken off, how much more, we who have been grafted on the wild olive should fear, lest we become like them." (+Jerome)

23  And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24  For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree. 25  Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, 26  and so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob"; 27  "and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins." 28  As regards the gospel they are enemies of God, for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29  For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. 30  Just as you were once disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31  so they have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may receive mercy. 32  For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all. 33  O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34  "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" 35  "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?"36  For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him