Bible Commentaries

F. ELECTION (Cch. 8, 9–11)

It is almost needless to say that the Election spoken of in ch. 8 &c. is variously explained. A large and important school of Theology (the Arminian) interprets it as a personal election, but contingent upon foreseen faith and perseverance. Another school[58] interprets it as an election not personal at all, but (so to speak) social; an election, like the election of the Jewish Nation, not to life eternal but to a vantage-ground for attaining it.

[58] Or, more properly, other schools, with important differences among themselves in other respects.

Without forgetting for a moment the awful mysteries of the subject, we yet feel that both these theories, with all (and it is very much) that can be said for them, do not fit the language of ch. 8. and of St Paul’s (not to quote St John’s) general teaching. “Not according to our works” is surely the tone of this chapter and of the whole previous epistle, and of the next three chapters. And it seems to us impossible, on any other theory than that of a Personal Election to Life, antecedent to “our works” and mercifully prevailing in its purpose, quite naturally to explain the tone of rapturous joy which marks the closing passages of the chapter.

In the Seventeenth English Article, a masterpiece of careful expression, this result of the humble belief in an Election personal and effectual (but, observe, taking effect through moral means,) is strongly stated:—“The godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort, to godly persons, &c.”

See the whole Article; and especially the closing paragraph, in which the word “generally” is technical, and means “with regard to the genus;”—i.e. probably, mankind. The Article warns us to begin with faith in the promises to man as man, not with the question of personal election.

G. PREDESTINATION (Ch. 9)

See note on chap. Romans 8:30, on the original word.

On this great mystery, brought up with such stern force in ch. 9, we quote a few sentences from one who certainly spoke from no cold or unsympathetic heart—Martin Luther. His Prœfatio in Ep, ad Romanos (translated into Latin from Luther’s German by his friend Justus Jonas) is indeed, as Tholuck describes it, “admirable, and breathing the very spirit of St Paul.” There is a very noble contemporary English paraphrase of it, by Tyndale, from which we take the following passage (Tyndale’s Doctrinal Treatises, Parker Soc. Edition, p. 505):—

“In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters he (Paul) treateth of God’s predestination, whence it springeth altogether whether we shall believe or not believe … By which predestination our justifying and salvation are clean taken out of our hands, and put in the hands of God only. For we are so weak and so uncertain, that, if it stood in us, there would of a truth be no man saved; the devil, no doubt, would deceive us. But now is God sure, that His predestination cannot deceive Him, neither can any man withstand or let Him; and therefore have we hope and trust against sin.

“But here must a mark be set to those unquiet, busy, and high-climbing spirits which begin first from an high (sic) to search the bottomless secrets of God’s predestination, whether they be predestinate or not. These must needs either cast themselves down headlong into desperation, or else commit themselves to free chance, careless. But follow thou the order of this Epistle, and noosel thyself[59] with Christ, and learn to understand what the Law and the Gospel mean, and the office of both the two; that thou mayest in the one know thyself, and how thou hast of thyself no strength but to sin, and in the other the grace of Christ; and then see thou fight against sin and the flesh, as the seven first chapters teach thee. After that, when thou art come to the eighth chapter, and art under the cross and suffering of tribulation, the necessity[60] of predestination will wax sweet, and thou shalt well feel how precious a thing it is. For except thou have borne the cross of adversity and temptation, and hast felt thyself brought into the very brim of desperation, yea, and unto hell-gates, thou canst never meddle with the sentence of predestination without thine own harm, and without secret wrath and grudging inwardly against God; for otherwise it shall not be possible for thee to think that God is righteous and just … Take heed therefore unto thyself, that thou drink not wine, while thou art yet but a suckling. For … in Christ there is a certain childhood, in which a man must be content with milk for a season, until he wax strong and grow up unto a perfect man in Christ, and be able to eat of more strong meat.”

[59] I.e. find shelter, as a child with a nurse. This striking clause is not in the Latin of the Præfatio.

[60] Necessitas, fixed certainty.

And to the last, surely, the dark problems that gather round the central and insoluble mystery of Sin will be safely approached only with the remembrance that “the Judge of all the earth” will “do right;” that He is the Eternal, and that His “ways” must therefore be “past finding out;” and that He “so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son.”

H. REPROBATION (Ch. 9)

In the last note but one on Romans 9:22 we have alluded to the tenet that the lost are personally and positively fore-doomed to ruin. To this tenet Calvin was led, not by a passionless rigidity, from which his deep and sensitive temperament, and truly ample mind, were far removed; but by the conviction that it was inexorably demanded by Scripture and reason. But St Augustine, the great patristic teacher of Predestination, carefully avoided such a tenet; teaching that, however little we can fathom the mystery, man’s sin, running its proper course, is the only cause of man’s ruin; while yet special grace is the only cause of his salvation.

Ch. Romans 10:1-21. Israel has rejected a salvation whose universal intention, and yet partial acceptance, was foretold by the law and the prophets

1. my heart’s desire] Fully in the Gr., the preference indeed of my heart. The “indeed” suggests a “but” to follow. This does not occur, but is implied: St Paul’s choice and prayer contrast with the present state of Israel.—The word rendered “desire” is elsewhere in N. T. almost always used of the “good pleasure” of God. It thus means here not a longing but a choice, deliberate and decided; St Paul, as far as in him lies, decides for Israel’s good; a decision coming out in prayer to the Giver.

for Israel] MSS., &c., give simply for them as the better reading. The reference of the pronoun is obvious.

that they might be saved] Lit., simply, unto salvation. His choice, and consequent petition, take that direction.

2. For] The connexion is, that they seem to be, but are not, in the way to salvation; and that this stirs up his affectionate and anxious longing that they may find it.

record] witness; as one who so intimately knows them and their state of conscience and will.

zeal of God] So lit. The genitive implies that the zeal is in close connexion with, and directed towards, Him. So “faith of God” (Gr. of Mark 11:22). Jewish jealousy for the Law, Temple, Scriptures, &c.—eagerness to proselytize—hatred of Christian renegades—is all implied here; all being connected, rightly or mistakenly, with the true God, and intended, more or less, to “do Him service.”—Observe that St Paul gives them full credit for sincerity, and yet does not look on their sincerity as a ground of safety. His true generosity had in it no false “liberalism.” The Jews (like himself of old, 1 Timothy 1:13,) acted “ignorantly in unbelief;” but their “ignorance,” in face of offered knowledge, was their crime; and so their misguided zeal was indirectly sinful.

knowledge] Lit. full knowledge. (German, Erkenntniss.) Same word as Romans 1:28, Romans 3:20. The word is appropriate, for it was just the full knowledge of the true God as God in Christ which they lacked. Their knowledge of God impelled them to persecuting zeal exactly because it was not full knowledge. (See Acts 13:27.) So it is with all persecution in the name of the true God.

3. being ignorant of] not knowing: the verb refers back to the “knowledge” just before mentioned.

God’s righteousness] His acceptance of the sinner as righteous, for Christ’s sake. See on Romans 1:17.

going about] seeking.

to establish] Same word as Hebrews 10:9. They sought to make it good enough to stand (in the judgment). On Jewish theories of merit, see Appendix A.

have not submitted themselves] Lit., and better, did not submit; perhaps with reference to the definite ideal occasion of the first appearance of the Gospel amongst them.—The Gr. verb is passive in form, but may bear a middle meaning; and so probably here, as in E. V.—For an illustration of this “submission” see 1 Peter 1:2, where the election of the Father and the holy influences of the Spirit lead to “obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” Acceptance of the one “hope set before us,” that of the Cross, is an act of submission as well as of trust. Human pride and human reason both, in different ways, have to bow before the Crucified.

4. For Christ, &c.] The connexion is that the conduct of the Jews was a total mistake of their own Revelation; for He whom they rejected was no accidental or alien intruder, but “the End of the Law.”—The ver. may be closely, and better, rendered; For the end of the Law is—Christ, unto righteousness, to everyone that believeth; the whole idea conveyed by the words from “Christ” to “believeth” being the “end of the Law.”

the end of the law] Cp. for the phrase 1 Peter 1:9, “the end of your faith;” i.e. what your faith leads up to. So here Christ our Justification was what the Law (the preceptive Revelation by Moses) led up to, both prophetically by its types and predictions, and preparatively by its sin-discovering and inexorable demands. (See for the latter respect, ch. 7.) The words are capable of the sense “the close of the Law,” i.e. “He who brings it to an end.” But this is not the aspect of the matter in this context, nor in the Epistle as a whole.

for righteousness] unto righteousness; in order to be “The Lord our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6). See on Romans 1:17; &c.

5. For] The connexion is that the Law led up to Christ both by prescribing a condemnatory standard as its own, and by mysteriously suggesting the nearness and freeness of the Gospel.

describeth] Lit. writeth.

That the man, &c.] Leviticus 18:5. Cp. Deuteronomy 27:26; Jeremiah 11:1-10; and, as a commentary, Galatians 3:10-13, and the rest of that chapter.

6. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh] The “righteousness of faith” is here equivalent to “the righteousness of God.” Song of Solomon 4:11; Song of Solomon 4:13.—Here, by a striking personification, not unlike that of the Divine Wisdom in the Proverbs, Justification is said to speak, in the words of Deuteronomy. In St Paul’s view “the Word of God” indeed “liveth,” with a life which gives an almost personality to its doctrines.—Perhaps he avoids the phrase “Moses speaketh” because the terms of the legal covenant have just been quoted as uttered by him (Romans 10:5).

Say not in thine heart] The original of the quotations here is Deuteronomy 30:12-14. The form of the quotation is free; but nevertheless St Paul really employs the passage as a proof, and does not merely adapt it to his purpose. For the very point of his argument just here is that, in and by the Law, Christ is suggested and announced; and if he merely adapted Mosaic words to express his own thought, this point would be missed. Alford has some admirable remarks on the passage: he argues that the practical import of the passage in Deuteronomy is that the Law, as the Revelation of God’s will, is not an unintelligible mystery to man, but a thing that can be known and loved; but that, if so, then à fortiori this is true “of Him who is the end of the law, and of the commandment to believe in Him, which (1 John 3:23) is now God’s commandment.”—St Paul assumes that the O. T. is fall of Christ (Messiah;) and so it is no wonder to him to see in this Mosaic passage a divinely-designed suggestion of His exaltation, humiliation, and gospel, under words having another immediate reference.

in thine heart] Words not in Heb. or LXX., but meaning what the Heb. (“that thou shouldest say”) means; the “speaking” of thought.

Who shall ascend, &c.] This and the next question come of anxiety and perplexity: q. d., “In order to be saved, have I to bring the necessary Manifestation of God’s will from Heaven or Hades? Have I to procure Incarnation and Resurrection?” “No; all is now done; the Person and the Work are complete, and ready. As at Sinai, so in the Gospel, God has done His part unasked; and now thy part is to accept and own His Son as thy Justification.”

that is, &c.] The Apostle, guided by the Holy Ghost, explains the innermost intention of the Holy Ghost as He spoke by Moses. What was the meaning of Moses, consciously to himself, is only part of the question.

to bring Christ down] In His Incarnation.

7. Who shall descend, &c.] The Heb. has “Who shall go over (or on) the sea?”; the LXX., “to the other side of the sea?” St Paul takes the sea, as surely Moses took it, to be the antithesis of “heaven”—the “great deep;” and thus the idea is of exploring depth rather than breadth. The Jerusalem Targum on Deuteronomy has a remarkable paraphrase: “Neither is the law beyond the great sea, that thou shouldest say, O that we had one like Jonah the prophet, to descend into the depths of the sea, and bring it to us!” (Etheridge’s Translation.) To Moses, sky and sea were suggestive of heights and depths of supernatural mystery. St Paul finds in this use of them the latent truth of the special Height of Christ’s pre-existent majesty and the special Depth of His entrance at death into the world of souls; and so sees here an inspired declaration that this His Descent and Ascent were so “finished” as to make the means of salvation a prepared and present reality to the believing soul, which is asked (thanks to Divine mercy) not to elaborate, but to accept, the “righteousness of God” in the Incarnate and Risen Christ.