Romans 9

19. Thou shalt say then unto me, Why--"Why then" is the true reading.
doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted--"Who resisteth"
his will?--that is, "This doctrine is incompatible with human responsibility"; If God chooses and rejects, pardons and punishes, whom He pleases, why are those blamed who, if rejected by Him, cannot help sinning and perishing? This objection shows quite as conclusively as the former the real nature of the doctrine objected to--that it is Election and Non-election to eternal salvation prior to any difference of personal character; this is the only doctrine that could suggest the objection here stated, and to this doctrine the objection is plausible. What now is the apostle's answer? It is twofold. First: "It is irreverence and presumption in the creature to arraign the Creator."

20, 21. Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made--"didst thou make"
me thus?--( Isaiah 45:9 ).

21. Hath not the potter power over the clay; of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another to dishonour?--"The objection is founded on ignorance or misapprehension of the relation between God and His sinful creatures; supposing that He is under obligation to extend His grace to all, whereas He is under obligation to none. All are sinners, and have forfeited every claim to His mercy; it is therefore perfectly competent to God to spare one and not another, to make one vessel to honor and another to dishonor. But it is to be borne in mind that Paul does not here speak of God's right over His creatures as creatures, but as sinful creatures: as he himself clearly intimates in the next verses. It is the cavil of a sinful creature against his Creator that he is answering, and be does so by showing that God is under no obligation to give His grace to any, but is as sovereign as in fashioning the clay" [HODGE]. But, Second: "There is nothing unjust in such sovereignty."

22, 23. What if God, willing to show--"designing to manifest"
his wrath--His holy displeasure against sin.
and to make his power--to punish it
known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath--that is, "destined to wrath"; just as "vessels of mercy," in Romans 9:23 , mean "vessels destined to mercy"; compare Ephesians 2:3 , "children of wrath."
fitted for destruction--It is well remarked by STUART that the "difficulties which such statements involve are not to be got rid of by softening the language of one text, while so many others meet us which are of the same tenor; and even if we give up the Bible itself, so long as we acknowledge an omnipotent and omniscient God we cannot abate in the least degree from any of the difficulties which such texts make." Be it observed, however, that if God, as the apostle teaches, expressly "designed to manifest His wrath, and to make His power (in the way of wrath) known," it could only be by punishing some, while He pardons others; and if the choice between the two classes was not to be founded, as our apostle also teaches, on their own doings but on God's good pleasure, the decision behooved ultimately to rest with God. Yet, even in the necessary punishment of the wicked, as HODGE observes, so far from proceeding with undue severity, the apostle would have it remarked that God "endures with much long-suffering" those objects of His righteous displeasure.

23. And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy--that "glorious exuberance of Divine mercy" which "was manifested in choosing and eternally arranging for the salvation of sinners."

24. even us, whom he hath called, &c.--rather, "Whom he hath also called, even us," &c. in not only "afore preparing," but in due time effectually "calling us."
not of the Jews, &c.--better, "not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles." Here for the first title in this chapter the calling of the Gentiles is introduced; all before having respect, not to the substitution of the called Gentiles for the rejected Jews, but to the choice of one portion and the rejection of another of the same Israel. Had Israel's rejection been total, God's promise to Abraham would not have been fulfilled by the substitution of the Gentiles in their room; but Israel's rejection being only partial, the preservation of a "remnant," in which the promise was made good, was but "according to the election of grace." And now, for the first time, the apostle tells us that along with this elect remnant of Israel, it is God's purpose to "take out of the Gentiles a people for His name" ( Acts 28:14 ); and that subject, thus introduced, is now continued to the end of the eleventh chapter.

25. As he saith also in Osee--"Hosea."
I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved--quoted, though not quite to the letter, from Hosea 2:23 , a passage relating immediately, not to the heathen, but to the kingdom of the ten tribes; but since they had sunk to the level of the heathen, who were "not God's people," and in that sense "not beloved," the apostle legitimately applies it to the heathen, as "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise" (so 1 Peter 2:10 ).

26. And--another quotation from Hosea 1:10 .
it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children--"called sons"
of the living God--The expression, "in the place where . . . there," seems designed only to give greater emphasis to the gracious change here announced, from divine exclusion to divine admission to the privileges of the people of God.

27-29. Esaias also crieth--"But Isaiah crieth"--an expression denoting a solemn testimony openly borne ( John 1:15 , John 7:28 John 7:37 , 12:44 , Acts 23:6 , 24:21 ).
concerning Israel, Though the number of the children--"sons"
of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a--"the"
remnant--that is, the elect remnant only shall be saved.

28. For he will finish the work, and cut--"is finishing the reckoning, and cutting it"
it short in righteousness; because a short work--"reckoning"
will the Lord make upon the earth--( Isaiah 10:22 Isaiah 10:23 ), as in the Septuagint. The sense given to these words by the apostle may seem to differ from that intended by the prophet. But the sameness of sentiment in both places will at once appear, if we understand those words of the prophet, "the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness," to mean that while a remnant of Israel should be graciously spared to return from captivity, "the decreed consumption" of the impenitent majority should be "replete with righteousness," or illustriously display God's righteous vengeance against sin. The "short reckoning" seems to mean the speedy completing of His word, both in cutting off the one portion and saving the other.

29. And as Esaias said--"hath said"
before--that is, probably in an earlier part of his book, namely, Isaiah 1:9 .
Except the Lord of Sabaoth--that is, "The Lord of Hosts": the word is Hebrew, but occurs so in the Epistle of James ( James 5:4 ), and has thence become naturalized in our Christian phraseology.
had left us a seed--meaning a "remnant"; small at first, but in due time to be a seed of plenty (compare Psalms 22:30 Psalms 22:31 , Isaiah 6:12 Isaiah 6:13 ).
we had been--"become"
as Sodom, &c.--But for this precious seed, the chosen people would have resembled the cities of the plain, both in degeneracy of character and in merited doom.

30, 31. What shall we say then?--"What now is the result of the whole?" The result is this--very different from what one would have expected.
That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained--"attained"
to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith--As we have seen that "the righteousness of faith" is the righteousness which justifies this verse must mean that "the Gentiles, who while strangers to Christ were quite indifferent about acceptance with God, having embraced the Gospel as soon as it was preached to them, experienced the blessedness of a justified state."

31. But Israel, which followed--"following"
after the law of righteousness, hath not attained--"attained not"
unto the law of righteousness--The word "law" is used here, we think, in the same sense as in Romans 7:23 , to denote "a principle of action"; that is, "Israel, though sincerely and steadily aiming at acceptance with God, nevertheless missed it."

32, 33. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were--rather simply, "as"
by the works of the law--as if it were thus attainable, which justification is not: Since, therefore, it is attainable only by faith, they missed it.
for--it is doubtful if this particle was originally in the text.
they stumbled at that stumbling-stone--better, "against the stone of stumbling," meaning Christ. But in this they only did.

33. As it is written--( Isaiah 8:14 , 28:16 ).
Behold, &c.--Two Messianic predictions are here combined, as is not unusual in quotations from the Old Testament. Thus combined, the prediction brings together both the classes of whom the apostle is treating: those to whom Messiah should be only a stone of stumbling, and those who were to regard Him as the Cornerstone of all their hopes. Thus expounded, this chapter presents no serious difficulties, none which do not arise out of the subject itself, whose depths are unfathomable; whereas on every other view of it the difficulty of giving it any consistent and worthy interpretation is in our judgment insuperable.

Note, (1) To speak and act "in Christ," with a conscience not only illuminated, but under the present operation of the Holy Ghost, is not peculiar to the supernaturally inspired, but is the privilege, and ought to be the aim, of every believer ( Romans 9:1 ). (2) Grace does not destroy, but only intensify and elevate, the feelings of nature; and Christians should study to show this ( Romans 9:2 Romans 9:3 ). (3) To belong to the visible Church of God, and enjoy its high and holy distinctions, is of the sovereign mercy of God, and should be regarded with devout thankfulness ( Romans 9:4 Romans 9:5 ). (4) Yet the most sacred external distinctions and privileges will avail nothing to salvation without the heart's submission to the righteousness of God ( Romans 9:31-33 ). (5) What manner of persons ought "God's elect" to be--in humility, when they remember that He hath saved them and called them, not according to their works, but according to His own purpose and grace, given them in Christ Jesus before the world began ( 2 Timothy 1:9 ); in thankfulness, for "Who maketh thee to differ, and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?" ( 1 Corinthians 4:7 ); in godly jealousy over themselves; remembering that "God is not mocked," but "whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap" ( Galatians 6:7 ); in diligence "to make our calling and election sure" ( 2 Peter 1:10 ); and yet in calm confidence that "whom God predestinates, and calls, and justifies, them (in due time) He also glorifies" ( Romans 8:30 ). (6) On all subjects which from their very nature lie beyond human comprehension, it will be our wisdom to set down what God says in His word, and has actually done in His procedure towards men, as indisputable, even though it contradict the results at which in the best exercise of our limited judgment we may have arrived ( Romans 9:14-23 ). (7) Sincerity in religion, or a general desire to be saved, with assiduous efforts to do right, will prove fatal as a ground of confidence before God, if unaccompanied by implicit submission to His revealed method of salvation ( Romans 9:31-33 ). (8) In the rejection of the great mass of the chosen people, and the inbringing of multitudes of estranged Gentiles, God would have men to see a law of His procedure, which the judgment of the great day will more vividly reveal that "the last shall be first and the first last" ( Matthew 20:16 ).