The Gifts to the Patriarchs of Old Rom 9:1-5 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law [nomos or Torah], the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. “Grace does not run in the blood; nor are saving benefits always found with outward church privileges.” (Matthew Henry) “The promises to the patriarchs never, from the first, implied the inheritance of them by all the physical descendants of those patriarchs; even in Israel there is a recognized distinction between being of the race of Israel and being the true Israel of God...” (Pulpit Commentary) “The holy apostle, having placed the church on a hill in the preceding chapter, turns his weeping eyes towards his kinsmen after the flesh, who were enraged against him, because he had denied them (the possibility of) salvation by the works of the law, and had defended the gentiles as co-equal heirs of new- covenant blessings. On their behalf he prays, and in the fullness of his heart, that they might be saved, knowing that they might yet be grafted into the olive tree…. Like Moses, who prayed that his name might be blotted out, if Israel were destroyed, he (Paul) was willing to bear the execration of the church, and to be accounted a vagabond on the earth, if his sufferings might but effectuate their conversion.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) Paul regarded the unregenerate Jews of his own day as unsaved but nonetheless “as children of the fathers, the holy patriarchs, the most noble and distinguished of the human race, the morning stars of the ancient day.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) Of the Patriarchs—their fathers, it was said: “Romans 9:4. Who are Israelites, and to whom belong by birth the eight subsequent prerogatives. (1) Adoption. Thou shalt say to Pharaoh, Israel is ‘my son,’ even my ‘firstborn.’ Exodus 4:22. Ye are ‘the children’ of the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 14:1. — (2) The glory. I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the cherubim. Exodus 24:16; Exodus 25:22. — (3) The covenants, often renewed and enlarged, for the new covenant was implied and included in the old. — (4) The giving of the law in its moral glory, and ceremonial grandeur. What nation had God so nigh to them, and statutes so holy? Here the regal power and independence of the Israelites were comprised. — (5) The service of God. λατρεια, cultus; all the worship of the tabernacle and the temple, equally binding on prophets, priests and people. — (6) The promises, of the Messiah and his kingdom. The effusion of the Holy Spirit, Joel 2:28; the conversion of the gentiles, the blessing both of the old and the new covenant. Leviticus 26. Deuteronomy 28. Jeremiah 31 :2 Peter 1:4. These were given that we might be made partakers of the divine nature. — (7) Whose are the fathers. Here is the nobility of the Jews, descended from illustrious men, whose Seed was heir of the world. — (8) The eighth and last blessing is the lineal descent of Christ, in the line of Abraham and of David. Romans 9:5. Christ — who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. Christ, the Angel of the covenant, the Word and Wisdom of God, in the bosom of the Father before the world was, presided over the human race from the beginning. He was with Adam in paradise, with Noah in the ark, with the patriarchs in their pilgrimage, with Moses at the bush. He gave the Hebrews the law, and the λατρεια, or worship, and the promises. So the Christian fathers have taught by common consent. He dwelt enthroned in the sanctuary, and finally was made flesh, and dwelt among us. St. Paul enumerates these privileges, of which Christ is the consummation, that the Jews might be converted to the Lord. In all the gospels and epistles this foundation is laid, the Rock of Ages…” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 01:42:16 +0000
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