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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
R O M A N S.
CHAP. IX.
The apostle, having plainly asserted and largely proved that
justification and salvation are to had by faith only, and not by the
works of the law, by Christ and not by Moses, comes in this and the
following chapters to anticipate an objection which might be made
against this. If this be so, then what becomes of the Jews, of them all
as a complex body, especially those of them that do not embrace Christ,
nor believe the gospel? By this rule they must needs come short of
happiness; and then what becomes of the promise made to the fathers,
which entailed salvation upon the Jews? Is not that promise nullified
and made of none effect? Which is not a thing to be imagined concerning
any word of God. That doctrine therefore, might they say, is not to be
embraced, from which flows such a consequence as this. That the
consequence of the rejection of the unbelieving Jews follows from
Paul’s doctrine he grants, but endeavours to soften and mollify,
But that from this it follows that the word of God takes no effect he
denies
(ver. 6),
and proves the denial in the rest of the chapter, which serves likewise
to illustrate the great doctrine of predestination, which he had spoken
of
as the first wheel which in the business of salvation sets all the
other wheels a-going.
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1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also
bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my
brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and
the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the
service of God, and the promises;
5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh
Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
We have here the apostle’s solemn profession of a great concern for the
nation and people of the Jews–that he was heartily troubled that so
many of them were enemies to the gospel, and out of the way of
salvation. For this he had great heaviness and continual sorrow.
Such a profession as this was requisite to take off the odium which
otherwise he might have contracted by asserting and proving their
rejection. It is wisdom as much as may be to mollify those truths which
sound harshly and seem unpleasant: dip the nail in oil, it will drive
the better. The Jews had a particular pique at Paul above any of the
apostles, as appears by the history of the Acts, and therefore were the
more apt to take things amiss of him, to prevent which he introduces
his discourse with this tender and affectionate profession, that they
might not think he triumphed or insulted over the rejected Jews or was
pleased with the calamities that were coming upon them. Thus Jeremiah
appeals to God concerning the Jews of his day, whose ruin was hastening
on
Neither have I desired the woeful day, thou knowest. Nay, Paul
was so far from desiring it that he most pathetically deprecates it.
And lest this should be thought only a copy of his countenance, to
flatter and please them,
I. He asserts it with a solemn protestation
(v. 1):
I say the truth in Christ, “I speak it as a Christian, one of
God’s people, children that will not lie, as one that knows not how to
give flattering title.” Or, “I appeal to Christ, who searches the
heart, concerning it.” He appeals likewise to his own conscience, which
was instead of a thousand witnesses. That which he was going to assert
was not only a great and weighty thing (such solemn protestations are
not to be thrown away upon trifles), but it was likewise a secret; it
was concerning a sorrow in his heart to which none was a capable
competent witness but God and his own conscience.–That I have great
heaviness,
v. 2.
He does not say for what; the very mention of it was unpleasant and
invidious; but it is plain that he means for the rejection of the
Jews.
II. He backs it with a very serious imprecation, which he was ready to
make, out of love to the Jews. I could wish; he does not say, I
do wish, for it was no proper means appointed for such an end; but, if
it were, I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my
brethren–a very high pang of zeal and affection for his countrymen.
He would be willing to undergo the greatest misery to do them good.
Love is apt to be thus bold, and venturous, and self-denying. Because
the glory of God’s grace in the salvation of many is to be preferred
before the welfare and happiness of a single person, Paul, if they were
put in competition, would be content to forego all his own happiness to
purchase theirs.
1. He would be content to be cut off from the land of the living, in
the most shameful and ignominious manner, as an anathema, or a devoted
person. They thirsted for his blood, persecuted him as the most
obnoxious person in the world, the curse and plague of his generation,
“Now,” says Paul, “I am willing to bear all this, and a great deal
more, for your good. Abuse me as much as you will, count and call me at
your pleasure; your unbelief and rejection create in my heart a
heaviness so much greater than all these troubles can that I could look
upon them not only as tolerable, but as desirable, rather than this
rejection.”
2. He would be content to be excommunicated from the society of the
faithful, to be separated from the church, and from the communion of
saints, as a heathen man and a publican, if that would do them any
good. He could wish himself no more remembered among the saints, his
name blotted out of the church-records; though he had been so great a
planter of churches, and the spiritual father of so many thousands, yet
he would be content to be disowned by the church, cut off from all
communion with it, and have his name buried in oblivion or reproach,
for the good of the Jews. It may be, some of the Jews had a prejudice
against Christianity for Paul’s sake; such a spleen they had at him
that they hated the religion he was of: “If this stumble you,” says
Paul, “I could wish I might be cast out, not embraced as a Christian,
so you might but be taken in.” Thus Moses
in a like holy passion of concern, Blot me, I pray thee, out of the
book which thou hast written.
3. Nay, some think that the expression goes further, and that he could
be content to be cut off from all his share of happiness in Christ, if
that might be a means of their salvation. It is a common charity that
begins at home; this is something higher, and more noble and
generous.
III. He gives us the reason of this affection and concern.
1. Because of their relation to them: My brethren, my kinsmen,
according to the flesh. Though they were very bitter against him
upon all occasions, and gave him the most unnatural and barbarous
usage, yet thus respectfully does he speak of them. It shows him to be
a man of a forgiving spirit. Not that I had aught to accuse my
nation of,
Acts xxviii. 19.
My kinsmen. Paul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. We ought to be in
a special manner concerned for the spiritual good of our relations, our
brethren and kinsmen. To them we lie under special engagements, and we
have more opportunity of doing good to them; and concerning them, and
our usefulness to them, we must in a special manner give account.
2. Especially because of their relation to God
(v. 4, 5):
Who are Israelites, the seed of Abraham, God’s friend, and of
Jacob his chosen, taken into the covenant of peculiarity, dignified and
distinguished by visible church-privileges, many of which are here
mentioned:–
(1.) The adoption; not that which is saving, and which entitled
to eternal happiness, but that which was external and typical, and
entitled them to the land of Canaan. Israel is my son,
Exod. iv. 22.
(2.) And the glory; the ark with the mercy-seat, over which God
dwelt between the cherubim–this was the glory of Israel,
The many symbols and tokens of the divine presence and guidance, the
cloud, the Shechinah, the distinguishing favours conferred upon
them–these were the glory.
(3.) And the covenants–the covenant made with Abraham, and
often renewed with his seed upon divers occasions. There was a covenant
at Sinai
(Exod. xxiv.),
in the plains of Moab
(Deut. xxix.),
at Shechem
(Josh. xxiv.),
and often afterwards; and still these pertained to Israel. Or, the
covenant of peculiarity, and in that, as in the type, the covenant of
grace.
(4.) And the giving of the law. It was to them that the
ceremonial and judicial law were given, and the moral law in writing
pertained to them. It is a great privilege to have the law of God among
us, and it is to be accounted so,
This was the grandeur of Israel,
(5.) And the service of God. They had the ordinances of God’s
worship among them–the temple, the altars, the priests, the
sacrifices, the feasts, and the institutions relating to them. They
were in this respect greatly honoured, that, while other nations were
worshipping and serving stocks, and stones, and devils, and they knew
not what other idols of their own invention, the Israelites were
serving the true God in the way of his own appointment.
(6.) And the promises–particular promises added to the general
covenant, promises relating to the Messiah and the gospel state.
Observe, The promises accompany the giving of the law, and the service
of God; for the comfort of the promises is to be had in obedience to
that law and attendance upon that service.
(7.) Whose are the fathers
(v. 5),
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, those men of renown, that stood so high in
the favour of God. The Jews stand in relation to them, are their
children, and proud enough they are of it: We have Abraham to our
father. It was for the father’s sake that they were taken into
covenant,
(8.) But the greatest honour of all was that of them as concerning
the flesh (that is, as to his human nature) Christ came; for
he took on him the seed of Abraham,
As to his divine nature, he is the Lord from heaven; but, as to his
human nature, he is of the seed of Abraham. This was the great
privilege of the Jews, that Christ was of kin to them. Mentioning
Christ, he interposes a very great word concerning him, that he is
over all, God blessed for ever. Lest the Jews should think
meanly of him, because he was of their alliance, he here speaks thus
honourably concerning him: and it is a very full proof of the Godhead
of Christ; he is not only over all, as Mediator, but he is God blessed
for ever. Therefore, how much sorer punishment were they worthy of that
rejected him! It was likewise the honour of the Jews, and one reason
why Paul had a kindness for them, that, seeing God blessed for ever
would be a man, he would be a Jew; and, considering the posture and
character of that people at that time, it may well be looked upon as a
part of his humiliation.
| The Divine Sovereignty. | A. D. 58. |
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6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For
they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all
children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these
are not the children of God: but the children of the promise
are counted for the seed.
9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come,
and Sara shall have a son.
10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by
one, even by our father Isaac;
11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done
any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
The apostle, having made his way to that which he had to say,
concerning the rejection of the body of his countrymen, with a
protestation of his own affection for them and a concession of their
undoubted privileges, comes in these verses, and the following part of
the chapter, to prove that the rejection of the Jews, by the
establishment of the gospel dispensation, did not at all invalidate the
word of God’s promise to the patriarchs: Not as though the word of
God hath taken no effect
(v. 6),
which, considering the present state of the Jews, which created to Paul
so much heaviness and continual sorrow
(v. 2),
might be suspected. We are not to ascribe inefficacy to any word of
God: nothing that he has spoken does or can fall to the ground; see
The promises and threatenings shall have their accomplishment; and, one
way or other, he will magnify the law and make it honourable. This is
to be understood especially of the promise of God, which by subsequent
providences may be to a wavering faith very doubtful; but it is not, it
cannot be, made of no effect; at the end it will speak and not lie.
Now the difficulty is to reconcile the rejection of the unbelieving
Jews with the word of God’s promise, and the external tokens of the
divine favour, which had been conferred upon them. This he does in four
ways:–
1. By explaining the true meaning and intention of the promise,
2. By asserting and proving the absolute sovereignty of God, in
disposing of the children of men,
3. By showing how this rejection of the Jews, and the taking in of the
Gentiles, were foretold in the Old Testament,
4. By fixing the true reason of the Jews’ rejection,
to the end.
In this paragraph the apostle explains the true meaning and intention
of the promise. When we mistake the word, and misunderstand the
promise, no marvel if we are ready to quarrel with God about the
accomplishment; and therefore the sense of this must first be duly
stated. Now he here makes it out that, when God said he would be a
God to Abraham, and to his seed (which was the famous promise made
unto the fathers), he did not mean it of all his seed according to the
flesh, as if it were a necessary concomitant of the blood of Abraham;
but that he intended it with a limitation only to such and such. And as
from the beginning it was appropriated to Isaac and not to Ishmael, to
Jacob and not to Esau, and yet for all this the word of God was not
made of no effect; so now the same promise is appropriated to believing
Jews that embrace Christ and Christianity, and, though it throws off
multitudes that refuse Christ, yet the promise is not therefore
defeated and invalidated, any more than it was by the typical rejection
of Ishmael and Esau.
I. He lays down this proposition–that they are not all Israel who
are of Israel
(v. 6),
neither because they are, &c.,
v. 7.
Many that descended from the loins of Abraham and Jacob, and were of
that people who were surnamed by the name of Israel, yet were very far
from being Israelites indeed, interested in the saving benefits of the
new covenant. They are not all really Israel that are so in name and
profession. It does not follow that, because they are the seed of
Abraham, therefore they must needs be the children of God, though they
themselves fancied so, boasted much of, and built much upon, their
relation to Abraham,
Matt. iii. 9; John viii. 38, 39.
But it does not follow. Grace does not run in the blood; nor are
saving benefits inseparably annexed to external church privileges,
though it is common for people thus to stretch the meaning of God’s
promise, to bolster themselves up in a vain hope.
II. He proves this by instances; and therein shows not only that some
of Abraham’s seed were chosen, and others not, but that God therein
wrought according to the counsel of his own will; and not with regard
to that law of commandments to which the present unbelieving Jews were
so strangely wedded.
1. He specifies the case of Isaac and Ishmael, both of them the seed of
Abraham; and yet Isaac only taken into covenant with God, and Ishmael
rejected and cast out. For this he quotes
In Isaac shall thy seed be called, which comes in there as a
reason why Abraham must be willing to cast out the bond-woman and her
son, because the covenant was to be established with Isaac,
And yet the word which God had spoken, that he would be a God to
Abraham and to his seed, did not therefore fall to the ground; for the
blessings wrapt up in that great word, being communicated by God as a
benefactor, he was free to determine on what head they should rest, and
accordingly entailed them upon Isaac, and rejected Ishmael. This he
explains further
(v. 8, 9),
and shows what God intended to teach us by this dispensation.
(1.) That the children of the flesh, as such, by virtue of their
relation to Abraham according to the flesh, are not therefore the
children of God, for then Ishmael had put in a good claim. This remark
comes home to the unbelieving Jews, who boasted of their relation to
Abraham according to the flesh, and looked for justification in a
fleshly way, by those carnal ordinances which Christ had abolished.
They had confidence in the flesh, and looked for justification in a
fleshly way, by those carnal ordinances which Christ had abolished.
They had confidence in the flesh,
Ishmael was a child of the flesh, conceived by Hagar, who was young and
fresh, and likely enough to have children. There was nothing
extraordinary or supernatural in his conception, as there was in
Isaac’s; he was born after the flesh
(Gal. iv. 29),
representing those that expect justification and salvation by their own
strength and righteousness.
(2.) That the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
Those that have the honour and happiness of being counted for the seed
have it not for the sake of any merit or desert of their own, but
purely by virtue of the promise, in which God hath obliged himself of
his own good pleasure to grant the promised favour. Isaac was a child
of promise; this his proves,
v. 9,
quoted from
He was a child promised (so were many others), and he was also
conceived and born by force and virtue of the promise, and so a proper
type and figure of those who are now counted for the seed, even true
believers, who are born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God–of the incorruptible seed, even the word of
promise, by virtue of the special promise of a new heart: see
It was through faith that Isaac was conceived,
Thus were the great mysteries of salvation taught under the Old
Testament, not in express words, but by significant types and
dispensations of providence, which to them then were not so clear as
they are to us now, when the veil is taken away, and the types are
expounded by the antitypes.
2. The case of Jacob and Esau
(v. 10-13),
which is much stronger, to show that the carnal seed of Abraham were
not, as such, interested in the promise, but only such of them as God
in sovereignty had appointed. There was a previous difference between
Ishmael and Isaac, before Ishmael was cast out: Ishmael was the son of
the bond-woman, born long before Isaac, was of a fierce and rugged
disposition, and had mocked or persecuted Isaac, to all which it might
be supposed God had regard when he appointed Abraham to cast him out.
But, in the case of Jacob and Esau, it was neither so nor so, they were
both the sons of Isaac by one mother; they were conceived hex
henos—by one conception; hex henos
koitou, so some copies read it. The difference was made
between them by the divine counsel before they were born, or had done
any good or evil. Both lay struggling alike in their mother’s womb,
when it was said, The elder shall serve the younger, without
respect to good or bad works done or foreseen, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand–that this great truth may be
established, that God chooses some and refuses others as a free agent,
by his own absolute and sovereign will, dispensing his favours or
withholding them as he pleases. This difference that was put between
Jacob and Esau he further illustrates by a quotation from
where it is said, not of Jacob and Esau the person, but the Edomites
and Israelites their posterity, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I
hated. The people of Israel were taken into the covenant of
peculiarity, had the land of Canaan given them, were blessed with the
more signal appearances of God for them in special protections,
supplies, and deliverances, while the Edomites were rejected, had no
temple, altar, priests, nor prophets–no such particular care taken of
them nor kindness shown to them. Such a difference did God put between
those two nations, that both descended from the loins of Abraham and
Isaac, as at first there was a difference put between Jacob and Esau,
the distinguishing heads of those two nations. So that all this
choosing and refusing was typical, and intended to shadow forth some
other election and rejection.
(1.) Some understand it of the election and rejection of conditions or
qualifications. As God chose Isaac and Jacob, and rejected Ishmael and
Esau, so he might and did choose faith to be the condition of salvation
and reject the works of the law. Thus Arminius understands it, De
rejectis et assumptis talibus, certa qualitate notatis–Concerning such
as are rejected and such as are chosen, being distinguished by
appropriate qualities; so John Goodwin. But this very much strains
the scripture; for the apostle speaks all along of persons, he has
mercy on whom (he does not say on what kind of people) he will have
mercy, besides that against this sense those two objections
do not at all arise, and his answer to them concerning God’s absolute
sovereignty over the children of men is not at all pertinent if no more
be meant than his appointing the conditions of salvation.
(2.) Others understand it of the election and rejection of particular
person–some loved, and others hated, from eternity. But the apostle
speaks of Jacob and Esau, not in their own persons, but as
ancestors–Jacob the people, and Esau the people; nor does God condemn
any, or decree so to do, merely because he will do it, without any
reason taken from their own deserts.
(3.) Others therefore understand it of the election and rejection of
people considered complexly. His design is to justify God, and his
mercy and truth, in calling the Gentiles, and taking them into the
church, and into covenant with himself, while he suffered the obstinate
part of the Jews to persist in unbelief, and so to un-church
themselves–thus hiding from their eyes the things that belonged to
their peace. The apostle’s reasoning for the explication and proof of
this is, however, very applicable to, and, no doubt (as is usual in
scripture) was intended for the clearing of the methods of God’s grace
towards particular person, for the communication of saving benefits
bears some analogy to the communication of church-privileges. The
choosing of Jacob the younger, and preferring him before Esau the elder
(so crossing hands), were to intimate that the Jews, though the natural
seed of Abraham, and the first-born of the church, should be laid
aside; and the Gentiles, who were as the younger brother, should be
taken in in their stead, and have the birthright and blessing. The
Jews, considered as a body politic, a nation and people, knit together
by the bond and cement of the ceremonial law, the temple and
priesthood, the centre of their unity, had for many ages been the
darlings and favourites of heaven, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation,
dignified and distinguished by God’s miraculous appearances among them
and for them. Now that the gospel was preached, and Christian churches
were planted, this national body was thereby abandoned, their
church-polity dissolved; and Christian churches (and in process of time
Christian nations), embodied in like manner, become their successors in
the divine favour, and those special privileges and protections which
were the products of that favour. To clear up the justice of God in
this great dispensation is the scope of the apostle here.
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14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?
God forbid.
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same
purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in
thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the
earth.
18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and
whom he will he hardeneth.
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For
who hath resisted his will?
20 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 me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to
make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his
power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath
fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the
vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also
of the Gentiles?
The apostle, having asserted the true meaning of the promise, comes
here to maintain and prove the absolute sovereignty of God, in
disposing of the children of men, with reference to their eternal
state. And herein God is to be considered, not as a rector and
governor, distributing rewards and punishments according to his
revealed laws and covenants, but as an owner and benefactor, giving to
the children of men such grace and favour as he has determined in and
by his secret and eternal will and counsel: both the favour of visible
church-membership and privileges, which is given to some people and
denied to others, and the favour of effectual grace, which is given to
some particular persons and denied to others.
Now this part of his discourse is in answer to two objections.
I. It might be objected, Is there unrighteousness with God? If
God, in dealing with the children of men, do thus, in an arbitrary
manner, choose some and refuse others, may it not be suspected that
there is unrighteousness with him? This the apostle startles at the
thought of: God forbid! Far be it from us to think such a thing;
shall not the judge of all the earth do right?
Gen. xviii. 25; ch. iii. 5, 6.
He denies the consequences, and proves the denial.
1. In respect of those to whom he shows mercy,
He quotes that scripture to show God’s sovereignty in dispensing his
favours
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. All God’s reasons
of mercy are taken from within himself. All the children of men being
plunged alike into a state of sin and misery, equally under guilt and
wrath, God, in a way of sovereignty, picks out some from this fallen
apostatized race, to be vessels of grace and glory. He dispenses his
gifts to whom he will, without giving us any reason: according to his
own good pleasure he pitches upon some to be monuments of mercy and
grace, preventing grace, effectual grace, while he passes by others.
The expression is very emphatic, and the repetition makes it more so:
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. It imports a
perfect absoluteness in God’s will; he will do what he will, and giveth
not account of any of his matters, nor is it fit he should. As these
great words, I am that I am
do abundantly express the absolute independency of his being, so these
words, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, do as fully
express the absolute prerogative and sovereignty of his will. To
vindicate the righteousness of God, in showing mercy to whom he will,
the apostle appeals to that which God himself had spoken, wherein he
claims this sovereign power and liberty. God is a competent judge, even
in his own case. Whatsoever God does, or is resolved to do, is both by
the one and the other proved to be just. Eleeso on han
heleo—I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. When
I begin, I will make an end. Therefore God’s mercy endures for ever,
because the reason of it is fetched from within himself; therefore his
gifts and callings are without repentance. Hence he infers
(v. 16),
It is not of him that willeth. Whatever good comes from God to
man, the glory of it is not to be ascribed to the most generous desire,
nor to the most industrious endeavour, of man, but only and purely to
the free grace and mercy of God. In Jacob’s case it was not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth; it was not the earnest will
and desire of Rebecca that Jacob might have the blessing; it was not
Jacob’s haste to get it (for he was compelled to run for it) that
procured him the blessing, but only the mercy and grace of God. Wherein
the holy happy people of God differ from other people, it is God and
his grace that make them differ. Applying this general rule to the
particular case that Paul has before him, the reason why the unworthy,
undeserving, ill-deserving Gentiles are called, and grafted into the
church, while the greatest part of the Jews are left to perish in
unbelief, is not because those Gentiles were better deserving or better
disposed for such a favour, but because of God’s free grace that made
that difference. The Gentiles did neither will it, nor run for it, for
they sat in darkness,
Matt. iv. 16.
In darkness, therefore not willing what they knew not; sitting
in darkness, a contented posture, therefore not running to meet it, but
anticipated with these invaluable blessings of goodness. Such is the
method of God’s grace towards all that partake of it, for he is found
of those that sought him not
(Isa. lxv. 1);
in this preventing, effectual, distinguishing grace, he acts as a
benefactor, whose grace is his own. Our eye therefore must not be evil
because his is good; but, of all the grace that we or others have, he
must have the glory: Not unto us,
Ps. cxv. 1.
2. In respect of those who perish,
God’s sovereignty, manifested in the ruin of sinners, is here
discovered in the instance of Pharaoh; it is quoted from
Observe,
(1.) What God did with Pharaoh. He raised him up, brought him into the
world, made him famous, gave him the kingdom and power,–set him up as a
beacon upon a hill, as the mark of all his plagues (compare
hardened his heart, as he had said he would
(Exod. iv. 21):
I will harden his heart, that is, withdraw softening grace,
leave him to himself, let Satan loose against him, and lay hardening
providences before him. Or, by raising him up may be meant the
intermission of the plagues which gave Pharaoh respite, and the
reprieve of Pharaoh in those plagues. In the Hebrew, I have made
thee stand, continued thee yet in the land of the living. Thus doth
God raise up sinners, make them for himself, even for the day of evil
(Prov. xvi. 4),
raise them up in outward prosperity, external privileges
(Matt. xi. 23),
sparing mercies.
(2.) What he designed in it: That I might show my power in thee.
God would, by all this, serve the honour of his name, and manifest his
power in baffling the pride and insolence of that great and daring
tyrant, who bade defiance to Heaven itself, and trampled upon all that
was just and sacred. If Pharaoh had not been so high and might, so bold
and hardy, the power of God had not been so illustrious in the ruining
of him; but the taking off of the spirit of such a prince, who hectored
at that rate, did indeed proclaim God glorious in holiness, fearful in
praises, doing wonders,
This is Pharaoh, and all his multitude.
(3.) His conclusion concerning both these we have,
He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he
hardeneth. The various dealings of God, by which he makes some to
differ from others, must be resolved into his absolute sovereignty. He
is debtor to no man, his grace is his own, and he may give it or
withhold it as it pleaseth him; we have none of us deserved it, nay, we
have all justly forfeited it a thousand times, so that herein the work
of our salvation is admirably well ordered that those who are saved
must thank God only, and those who perish must thank themselves only,
We are bound, as God hath bound us, to do our utmost for the salvation
of all we have to do with; but God is bound no further than he has been
pleased to bind himself by his own covenant and promise, which is his
revealed will; and that is that he will receive, and not cast out,
those that come to Christ; but the drawing of souls in order to that
coming is a preventing distinguishing favour to whom he will. Had he
mercy on the Gentiles? It was because he would have mercy on them. Were
the Jews hardened? It was because it was his own pleasure to deny them
softening grace, and to give them up to their chosen affected unbelief.
Even so, Father, because it seemed good unto thee. That
scripture excellently explains this,
and, as this, shows the sovereign will of God in giving or withholding
both the means of grace and the effectual blessing upon those
means.
II. It might be objected, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath
resisted his will?
v. 19.
Had the apostle been arguing only for God’s sovereignty in appointing
and ordering the terms and conditions of acceptance and salvation,
there had not been the least colour for this objection; for he might
well find fault if people refused to come up to the terms on which such
a salvation is offered; the salvation being so great, the terms could
not be hard. But there might be colour for the objection against his
arguing for the sovereignty of God in giving and withholding
differencing and preventing grace; and the objection is commonly and
readily advanced against the doctrine of distinguishing grace. If God,
while he gives effectual grace to some, denies it to others, why doth
he find fault with those to whom he denies it? If he hath rejected the
Jews, and hid from their eyes the things that belong to their peace,
why doth he find fault with them for their blindness? If it be his
pleasure to discard them as not a people, and not obtaining mercy,
their knocking off themselves was no resistance of his will. This
objection he answers at large,
1. By reproving the objector
(v. 20):
Nay but, O man. This is not an objection fit to be made by the
creature against his Creator, by man against God. The truth, as it is
in Jesus, is that which abases man as nothing, less than nothing, and
advances God as sovereign Lord of all. Observe how contemptibly he
speaks of man, when he comes to argue with God his Maker: “Who art
thou, thou that art so foolish, so feeble, so short-sighted, so
incompetent a judge of the divine counsels? Art thou able to fathom
such a depth, dispute such a case, to trace that way of God which is in
the sea, his path in the great waters?” That repliest against
God. It becomes us to submit to him, not to reply against him; to
lie down under his hand, not to fly in his face, nor to charge him with
folly. Ho antapokrinomenos—That answerest again.
God is our master, and we are his servants; and it does not become
servants to answer again,
2. By resolving all into the divine sovereignty. We are the thing
formed, and he is the former; and it does not become us to challenge or
arraign his wisdom in ordering and disposing of us into this or that
shape of figure. The rude and unformed mass of matter hath no right to
this or that form, but is shaped at the pleasure of him that formeth
it. God’s sovereignty over us is fitly illustrated by the power that
the potter hath over the clay; compare
where, by a like comparison, God asserts his dominion over the nation
of the Jews, when he was about to magnify his justice in their
destruction by Nebuchadnezzar.
(1.) He gives us the comparison,
The potter, out of the same lump, may make either a fashionable vessel,
and a vessel fit for creditable and honourable uses, or a contemptible
vessel, and a vessel in which is no pleasure; and herein he acts
arbitrarily, as he might have chosen whether he would make any vessel
of it at all, or whether he would leave it in the hole of the pit, out
of which it was dug.
(2.) The application of the comparison,
Two sorts of vessels God forms out of the great lump of fallen
mankind:–
[1.] Vessels of wrath–vessels filled with wrath, as a vessel of
wine is a vessel filled with wine; full of the fury of the Lord,
Isa. li. 20.
In these God is willing to show his wrath, that is, his punishing
justice, and his enmity to sin. This must be shown to all the world,
God will make it appear that he hates sin. He will likewise make his
power known, to dynaton autou. It is a power of strength
and energy, an inflicting power, which works and effects the
destruction of those that perish; it is a destruction that proceeds
from the glory of his power,
2 Thess. i. 9.
The eternal damnation of sinners will be an abundant demonstration of
the power of God; for he will act in it himself immediately, his wrath
preying as it were upon guilty consciences, and his arm stretched out
totally to destroy their well-being, and yet at the same instant
wonderfully to preserve the being of the creature. In order to this,
God endured them with much long-suffering–exercised a great
deal of patience towards them, let them alone to fill up the measure of
sin, to grow till they were ripe for ruin, and so they became fitted
for destruction, fitted by their own sin and self-hardening. The
reigning corruptions and wickedness of the soul are its preparedness
and disposedness for hell: a soul is hereby made combustible matter,
fit for the flames of hell. When Christ said to the Jews
Fill you up then the measure of your father, that upon you may come
all the righteous blood
(v. 35),
he did, as it were, endure them with much long-suffering, that they
might, by their own obstinacy and wilfulness in sin, fit themselves for
destruction.
[2.] Vessels of mercy–filled with mercy. The happiness bestowed
upon the saved remnant is the fruit, not of their merit, but of God’s
mercy. The spring of all the joy and glory of heaven is that mercy of
God which endures for ever. Vessels of honour must to eternity own
themselves vessels of mercy. Observe, First, What he designs in
them: To make known the riches of his glory, that is, of his
goodness; for God’s goodness is his greatest glory, especially when it
is communicated with the greatest sovereignty. I beseech thee show
me thy glory, says Moses,
I will make all my goodness to pass before thee, says God
(v. 19),
and that given out freely: I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious. God makes known his glory, this goodness of his, in the
preservation and supply of all the creatures: the earth is full of his
goodness, and the year crowned with it; but when he would demonstrate
the riches of his goodness, unsearchable riches, he does it in the
salvation of the saints, that will be to eternity glorious monuments of
divine grace. Secondly, What he does for them he does before
prepare them to glory. Sanctification is the preparation of the
soul for glory, making it meet to partake of the inheritance of the
saints in light. This is God’s work. We can destroy ourselves fast
enough, but we cannot save ourselves. Sinners fit themselves for hell,
but it is God that prepares saints for heaven; and all those that God
designs for heaven hereafter he prepares and fits for heaven now: he
works them to the self-same thing,
And would you know who these vessels of mercy are? Those whom he
hath called
(v. 24);
for whom he did predestinate those he also called with an effectual
call: and these not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles; for, the
partition-wall being taken down, the world was laid in common, and not
(as it had been) God’s favour appropriated to the Jews, and they put a
degree nearer his acceptance than the rest of the world. They now stood
upon the same level with the Gentiles; and the question is not now
whether of the seed of Abraham or no, that is neither here nor there,
but whether or no called according to his purpose.
| Conversion of the Gentiles. | A. D. 58. |
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25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which
were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
26 And 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 of the living God.
27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of
the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall
be saved:
28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in
righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the
earth.
29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had
left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto
Gomorrha.
Having explained the promise, and proved the divine sovereignty, the
apostle here shows how the rejection of the Jews, and the taking in of
the Gentiles, were foretold in the Old Testament, and therefore must
needs be very well consistent with the promise made to the fathers
under the Old Testament. It tends very much to the clearing of a truth
to observe how the scripture is fulfilled in it. The Jews would, no
doubt, willingly refer it to the Old Testament, the scriptures of which
were committed to them. Now he shows how this, which was so uneasy to
them, was there spoken of.
I. By the prophet Hosea, who speaks of the taking in of a great many of
the Gentiles,
The Gentiles had not been the people of God, not owning him, nor being
owned by him in that relation: “But,” says he, “I will call them my
people, make them such and own them as such, notwithstanding all
their unworthiness.” A blessed change! Former badness is no bar to
God’s present grace and mercy.–And her beloved which was not
beloved. Those whom God calls his people he calls beloved: he loves
those that are his own. And lest it might be supposed that they should
become God’s people only by being proselyted to the Jewish religion,
and made members of that nation, he adds, from
In the place where it was said, &c., there shall they be
called. They need not be embodied with the Jews, nor go up to
Jerusalem to worship; but, wherever they are scattered over the face of
the earth, there will God own them. Observe the great dignity and
honour of the saints, that they are called the children of the living
God; and his calling them so makes them so. Behold, what manner of
love! This honour have all his saints.
II. By the prophet Isaiah, who speaks of the casting off of many of the
Jews, in two places.
1. One is
which speaks of the saving of a remnant, that is, but a remnant, which,
though in the prophecy it seems to refer to the preservation of a
remnant from the destruction and desolation that were coming upon them
by Sennacherib and his army, yet is to be understood as looking
further, and sufficiently proves that it is no strange thing for God to
abandon to ruin a great many of the seed of Abraham, and yet maintain
his word of promise to Abraham in full force and virtue. This is
intimated in the supposition that the number of children of Israel was
as the sand of the sea, which was part of the promise made to Abraham,
And yet only a remnant shall be saved; for many are called, but few are
chosen. In this salvation of the remnant we are told
(v. 28)
from the prophet,
(1.) That he will complete the work: He will finish the work.
When God begins he will make an end, whether in ways of judgment or of
mercy. The rejection of the unbelieving Jews god would finish in their
utter ruin by the Romans, who soon after this quite took away their
place and nation. The assuming of Christian churches into the divine
favour, and the spreading of the gospel in other nations, was a work
which God would likewise finish, and be known by his name
JEHOVAH. As for God, his work is perfect. Margin,
He will finish the account. God, in his eternal counsels, has
taken an account of the children of men, allotted them to such or such
a condition, to such a share of privileges; and, as they come into
being, his dealings with them are pursuant to these counsels: and he
will finish the account, complete the mystical body, call in as many as
belong to the election of grace, and then the account will be finished.
(2.) That he will contract it; not only finish it, but finish it
quickly. Under the Old Testament he seemed to tarry, and to make a
longer and more tedious work of it. The wheels moved but slowly towards
the extent of the church; but now he will cut it short, and make
a short work upon the earth. Gentile converts were now flying as a
cloud. But he will cut it short in righteousness, both in wisdom
and in justice. Men, when they cut short, do amiss; they do indeed
despatch causes; but, when God cuts short, it is always in
righteousness. So the fathers generally apply it. Some understand it of
the evangelical law and covenant, which Christ has introduced and
established in the world: he has in that finished the work, put an end
to the types and ceremonies of the Old Testament. Christ said, It is
finished, and then the veil was rent, echoing as it were to the
word that Christ said upon the cross. And he will cut it short. The
work (it is logos—the word, the law) was
under the Old Testament very long; a long train of institutions,
ceremonies, conditions: but now it is cut short. Our duty is now, under
the gospel, summed up in much less room than it was under the law; the
covenant was abridged and contracted; religion is brought into a less
compass. And it is in righteousness, in favour to us, in justice to his
own design and counsel. With us contractions are apt to darken
things:–
| ——–Brevis esse laboro,
Obscurus fio——– I strive to be concise, but prove obscure. |
but it is not so in this case. Though it be cut short, it is clear and
plain; and, because short, the more easy.
2. Another is quoted from
where the prophet is showing how in a time of general calamity and
destruction God would preserve a seed. This is to the same purport
with the former; and the scope of it is to show that it was no strange
thing for God to leave the greatest part of the people of the Jews to
ruin, and to reserve to himself only a small remnant: so he had done
formerly, as appears by their own prophets; and they must not wonder if
he did so now. Observe,
(1.) What God is. He is the Lord of sabaoth, that is, the Lord
of hosts–a Hebrew word retained in the Greek, as
All the host of heaven and earth are at his beck and disposal. When God
secures a seed to himself out of a degenerate apostate world, he acts
as Lord of sabaoth. It is an act of almighty power and infinite
sovereignty.
(2.) What his people are; they are a seed, a small number. The
corn reserved for next year’s seedings is but little, compared with
that which is spent and eaten. But they are a useful number–the seed,
the substance, of the next generation,
It is so far from being an impeachment of the justice and righteousness
of God that so many perish and are destroyed, that it is a wonder of
divine power and mercy that all are not destroyed, that there are any
saved; for even those that are left to be a seed, if God had dealt with
them according to their sins, had perished with the rest. This is the
great truth which this scripture teacheth us.
| Reception of the Gentiles and Rejection of the Jews. | A. D. 58. |
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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,
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
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.
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