ACC ~ Romans 9 v22 - 33

OVERVIEW:

God’s patient calling was to Gentiles as well as to Jews, as the Old Testament prophesied. It was never intended that all the Jews would be saved, since even Isaiah had predicted that only a remnant would be left. It is futile to pursue after righteousness by works. The Jews tried it and failed, whereas the Gentiles were saved in spite of themselves. It is a matter of faith. Those who have faith will be saved; those who lack it will be rejected, however hard they may try. The stumbling stone on which the Jews tripped up was Christ. They were so busy pursuing their own righteousness that they failed to notice God’s provision for them.

9:22 | God’s Patient Endurance

DESIRING TO SHOW HIS WRATH. ORIGEN: I am astonished when I examine the Holy Spirit’s purpose in the Scriptures. For he says that the wrath of God, which is foreign to his nature, will be made known to men … but that his goodness and mercy, which are proper to his nature, will be concealed and hidden. … Why should God reveal his wrath to men and conceal his mercy? No doubt it is because God knows that the human race is weak and prone to fall through negligence, and that it is therefore better for them to be under the fear of wrath than to relax in the hope of God’s mercy and forgiveness. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

GOD ENDURED WITH MUCH PATIENCE. AMBROSIASTER: This means that unbelievers are made ready for punishment by the will and long-suffering of God, which is his patience. For although he has waited a long time for them, they have not repented. He has waited a long time so that they should be without excuse, for God knew all along that they would not believe. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

SELF-CHOSEN VESSELS OF WRATH. CHRYSOSTOM: Why are some people vessels of wrath and others vessels of mercy? It is by their own free choice. God, being very good, shows the same kindness to both. For it was not only to those who were saved that God showed kindness but to Pharaoh also, as far as he deserved. For both Pharaoh and God’s people had the advantage of God’s patience. And if Pharaoh was not saved it was because of his own will, since God had done as much for him as he had done for those who were saved. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

AUGUSTINE: Paul has sufficiently demonstrated that the hardness of heart which came to Pharaoh came as the just deserts of his earlier unbelief. Yet God patiently endured his unbelief until the time came for him to mete out his punishment. God did this in order to correct those whom he had decided to set free from error and to lead them by calling them back to reverence and godliness, offering his aid to their prayers and sighings. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 63.

MADE FOR DESTRUCTION. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: God desires a response, because his patience and goodness makes those who have their own will live either as vessels of wrath or as vessels of mercy. Here the apostle deprives them of any reason to start sinning. Despite God’s patience they have not been converted to the right way. They are being prepared for destruction because it is always unjust to endure sinners and allow the evil things which they do to go unpunished. Therefore, just as punishment is being prepared for sinners, so eternal glory is being prepared for those who fear God. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

THEY PREPARED THEMSELVES FOR DESTRUCTION. PELAGIUS: God put up with Pharaoh for a long time while Pharaoh blasphemed and oppressed his people with hard labor and even had ordered that innocent little children be put to death. By filling up the quota of their sins, people like Pharaoh become vessels worthy of wrath, and by their own doing they prepare themselves for destruction. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

ALL ARE TESTED TO BE FINALLY SHOWN FOR WHAT THEY ARE. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: What Paul is saying is this: God has made this present life one of struggles and not of reward, and he agrees that wicked men and good ones alike will be tested in both good and bad things in order to have an exact touchstone for the predestination of each person. In this way those who are good will follow the path of virtue and will cling to it through all the changes of life, neither boasting in the good times nor being unable to bear reverses. Wicked people, on the other hand, will in all circumstances be shown to be lovers of evil, ignorant of the reason for their good fortune when they enjoy it and exaggerating the wretchedness of their condition when they suffer grief. God gives each of these what they deserve in the next life. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

WHETHER GOD LITERALLY HAS THE PASSION OF WRATH. OECUMENIUS: Of course God is not subject to the passion of wrath. It is when he does what we do when we are angry that he calls it “wrath,” so that we will understand what he means. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

9:23 | The Riches of God’s Glory

TO MAKE KNOWN THE RICHES OF HIS GLORY. ORIGEN: The riches of God are made known when his mercy is shown toward those who are rejected by men and who are downtrodden, who put their hope not in their own riches or in their own strength but in the Lord. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

PREPARED BEFOREHAND FOR GLORY. AMBROSIASTER: It is God’s patience and long-suffering that, just as he prepares the wicked for destruction, so also he prepares the good for their reward. For the good are those who have the hope of faith. God preserves everyone knowing what the destiny of each will be. Therefore, it is a sign of his patience that those who have been rescued from evil or who persevere in good works he prepares for glory. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: The Jews reproached the Gentiles because the latter were saved by grace, and they thought that by making this accusation they would bring shame on them. But Paul sets this insinuation aside, because if this brought glory to God, how much more would it bring glory to those through whom God was glorified? HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

GOOD IN BENEFITS, JUST IN PUNISHMENT. AUGUSTINE: In giving to some what they did not deserve God obviously wanted his grace to be gratuitous and therefore genuinely grace, and in not giving it to all he showed what all deserved. He is good in the benefit given to certain people and just in the punishment of others but good in all things, for it is good when that which is deserved is given, and just in all things, as it is just when that which is not merited is given without injury to anyone. GIFT OF PERSEVERANCE 12.28.

CAESARIUS OF ARLES: We who were vessels of wrath through our first birth have deserved to become vessels of mercy through the second one. The first birth brought us forth unto death, but the second one recalled us to life. All of us were temples of the devil before baptism, but after baptism we were made ready to become temples of Christ. SERMON 229.

9:24 | Jews and Gentiles Called by God

THOSE WHOM HE HAS CALLED. AMBROSIASTER: God has called those whom he has prepared for glory, who he knew would persevere in faith, whether they are near at hand or far away. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE POTTER’S ONE LUMP. AUGUSTINE: God did not call all the Jews but only some of them. Nor did he call all the Gentiles but only some of them. From Adam has sprung one mass of sinners and godless men, in which both Jews and Gentiles belong to one lump, apart from the grace of God. If the potter out of one lump of clay makes one vessel for honor and another for dishonor, it is clear that God has made of the Jews some vessels for honor and others for dishonor, and similarly of the Gentiles. TO SIMPLICIAN ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS 1.2.19.

PELAGIUS: Since even then some of the Egyptians left with the children of Israel … so too now God has called not only Jews but also Gentiles to faith. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

9:25 | Now Called and Loved

THE CALLING OF THE GENTILES. AMBROSIASTER: It is clear that this was said about the Gentiles, who once were not God’s people, but afterward, to the chagrin of the Jews, received mercy and are called God’s people. Once they were not loved, but when the Jews fell away they were adopted as children and are now loved, so that where once they were not called God’s people, now they are called children of the living God. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: Hosea obviously was speaking about the Gentiles here. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

AUGUSTINE: The gist of the entire argument leads to this conclusion. Paul taught that we do good by the mercy of God and that the Jews who had received the gospel should not glory in their works, thinking that they had deserved this and not wanting it to be given to the Gentiles. In Paul’s mind, the Jews should cease from such pride and understand that if we are called to faith not through our own works but by the mercy of God and if it is given to those who believe to do good, then they should not begrudge the Gentiles this mercy as if it had been given to the Jews on the ground of prior merit, which is nothing. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 64.

NOT BELOVED. THEODORET OF CYR: This passage originally applied to Jews, not to Gentiles. … It meant that God’s people would lose their status and be called “Not my people” and “Not beloved.” But then God promised that the re-jected Jews would be called back again. Thus from having been God’s people and then rejected they would return. … The Gentiles, on the other hand, would become God’s people for the first time, having never been his people before. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

9:26 | Sons of the Living God

THEY WILL BE CALLED SONS. CHRYSOSTOM: Even if this was said about those Jews who believed and not about the Gentiles, the argument still stands. For if those who had received so many benefits and then had become hard-hearted and estranged and had lost their identity as a people were turned around, … what is there to prevent those who were originally aliens from being called and counted worthy of the same blessings if only they obey? HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

[PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Paul is referring to the Gentiles who would believe in Christ. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

PELAGIUS: Those who think that this is not Paul talking but the Jews interpret it to mean: “God saved as many as he wished, so that he chose even Gentile idolaters who had never served God, and called few from Israel, as Isaiah testifies.” PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

9:27 | A Remnant Will Be Saved

ISAIAH CRIES OUT. AMBROSIASTER: Paul says this because Isaiah was crying out for those who would believe in Christ. It is these who are the true Israel. … The others have gone away from the law because they have not believed in him whom the law promised would alone be sufficient for salvation. Therefore they became apostate, because by not accepting Christ they became lawbreakers. Therefore, of that great number only those who God foreknew would believe have been saved. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: Not content with Hosea, Paul quotes Isaiah as well. … He does not say that all are to be saved either, but only those who are worthy. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

OTHER SHEEP NOT OF THIS FOLD. AUGUSTINE: This shows that the Lord is the cornerstone, uniting both walls in himself. Hosea’s testimony is spoken of the Gentiles, but the Lord unites both Jews and Gentiles, according to what he said in the gospel about the latter: “I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.” AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 65.

ONLY A REMNANT SAVED. AUGUSTINE: If by remnant . . .we are to understand not election of the justified to eternal life but election of those who are to be justified, that kind of election is truly hidden and cannot be known by us, who must regard all men as parts of a single lump of clay. If some claim to be able to know it, I must confess my own weakness in this matter. TO SIMPLICIAN ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS 1.2.22.

PELAGIUS: Here Isaiah showed that only a few Jews would believe. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

9:28 | The Lord Will Execute His Sentence

DONE IN CHRIST. AMBROSIASTER: This has been done in Christ, who said: “Moses wrote about me.” COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

WITH DISPATCH. CHRYSOSTOM: What this means is that salvation will come quickly, and it depends on very few words. There is no need to make a big palaver of it or get involved with the vexation of the works of the law. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

PELAGIUS: The historical sense is that, just as I shorten and finish off a sentence, so God will accomplish this with all speed. But in prophecy, the shortened sentence is understood to mean the New Testament, because everything is briefly summarized in it. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

9:29 | A Seed

ABRAHAM’S SEED. ORIGEN: What children are these that the Lord has left? No doubt this means what the apostle expounds elsewhere, when he says that it was said to Abraham: “I shall give this land to you and to your seed.” He did not say “to your seeds,” as if to many, but to your seed, as if to one, and that one is Christ.

Nor was it an accident that Isaiah called the remnant a seed. It was so called because it was meant to be sown in the earth and bear much fruit. In this way he teaches that Christ must also be sown, that is, buried in the earth, from which he would rise and bear fruit in the whole multitude of the church. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

AMBROSIASTER: This seed, which alone remains reserved for the conversion of the human race is Christ and his teaching, as he himself said: “The seed is the Word of God.” Therefore what was long ago promised to us who have been delivered from the burden of the law remains for our redemption, so that by receiving the forgiveness of sins we might not be punished by the law and perish as Sodom did. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

AS ISAIAH PREDICTED. CHRYSOSTOM: This prophecy was actually fulfilled in the captivity, when most of the people were taken away and perished, with only a few being saved. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

PELAGIUS: Predicted is a good choice of words, because the same thing as he mentioned [in verses 27-28] was written even earlier. God did not allow a few righteous people to perish along with a host of the ungodly. Or this text may mean that this would have happened had Christ, Abraham’s offspring, not been sent to set the people free. The interpretation of the objectors, however, is that it would have happened, unless God had wished to call at least a few from among the Jews. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

OECUMENIUS: This may also be said of Christ, which is how Cyril of Alexandria interpreted it. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

9:30 | Attaining Righteousness Through Faith

RIGHTEOUSNESS IMPLANTED IN THE GENTILES WHO DID NOT PURSUE IT. ORIGEN: It is one thing to pursue righteousness and another to have it implanted within. A person who tries by much teaching and reading to obtain something is said to pursue it. … In this sense, the Gentiles, who did not have the tables of the law or the written Word, cannot be said to have pursued righteousness. Nevertheless, they had it in them because the natural law had taught it to them. Therefore, they were close to that righteousness which is of faith, that is, to Christ. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

AMBROSIASTER: God is the true and lasting righteousness, if he is acknowledged. For what is more righteous that to know God the Father, from whom all things come, and Christ his Son, through whom all things come? Therefore the first part of righteousness is to acknowledge the Creator, and the next part is to keep what he commands. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: Paul means that the Gentiles did not go to particular trouble to acquire righteousness, in the way that the Jews did. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

ALTERNATIVE READINGS ACCORDING TO VOICE. PELAGIUS: If this is spoken in the person of the apostle, Paul here once again imagines that the Jews might say: “If it is not true, as we say, that it does not depend on the one who wills or on the one who runs, why have the Gentiles found righteousness, which they never sought before, while Israel could not find it, although they have always sought it?” But if the whole of the above thought belongs to the objectors, the apostle is here replying and summarizing the issue by saying: “What shall I say to these objections which are presented to us except that the Gentiles believed as soon as they were called and that the Jews refused to believe?” Righteousness is by faith, and the Jews refused to believe. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

9:31 | Israel Did Not Fulfill the Law

PURSUIT LACKING FULFILLMENT. ORIGEN: Israel pursued the law of righteousness according to the letter but did not fulfill the law. What law? No doubt the law of the Spirit. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

FAITH FULFILLS THE LAW. AMBROSIASTER: Faith is the fulfilling of the law. It is because the Gentiles have faith that they appear to fulfill the whole law. But the Jews, who out of envy did not believe in the Savior, because they claimed the righteousness which is commanded in the law, i.e., the sabbath, circumcision, etc., did not come to the law. In other words, they did not fulfill the law, and those who do not fulfill the law are guilty of it. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

PELAGIUS: Paul explains once again why the Jews did not find righteousness. Having wrongly gloried in their works they refused to believe and rejected grace on the ground that they were righteous already. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

9:32 | Stumbling Over the Law of Faith

BASED ON WORKS. ORIGEN: The apostle would never say that they did not fulfill the law which they pursued, which they had and held in their hands. Rather he is explaining why Israel was unable to fulfill the law. It was because they relied on works, not on faith. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

AMBROSIASTER: The Jews rejected faith, which as I have said is the fulfillment of the law, and instead claimed that they were justified by works, that is, by the sabbath, the new moons, circumcision and so on. They forgot that Scripture says that “the just shall live by faith.” COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

[PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Paul says this because the Jewish people, thinking that they could be justified by the works of the law, were unable to come to the law of righteousness, that is to say, to faith in Christ. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

THE STUMBLING STONE. PELAGIUS: The man who sees a stone does not stumble, but the blind man dashes himself against it. This is what happened to the Jews, who were blinded by their hatred and crucified Christ because they did not recognize him. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: It is impossible to be justified by the works of the law because it would be necessary to keep the whole law, which is not possible. But anyone who sins (which is inevitable) lies under the judgment of the law. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: Paul calls the Lord Christ a stumbling stone because those who did not accept the new covenant in him stumbled over him and by their unbelief fell from the grace of justification which was given to men through him. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

9:33 | A Stumbling Stone

PREDICTION OF THE PASSION. TERTULLIAN: It was fitting that the mystery of the passion should be set forth in predictions, for the more incredible it was, the more likely it was to have been a stumbling stone if it had been openly predicted. AN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 10.

THE STONE THE BUILDERS REJECTED. AMBROSIASTER: There are many passages of Scripture where Christ is portrayed as a rock or a stone. The prophet Daniel calls him a stone which detaches itself without hands from the mountain, hitting and threatening all the kingdoms and filling the whole earth. This clearly refers to Christ. And in the law the rock from which the waters flowed is called Christ, as the apostle Paul himself testifies. And the apostle Peter says to the Jews: “This is the stone which the builders rejected.”

The Jews did not want to compare Christ’s words with his deeds lest perhaps they might recognize that it was not absurd for him to say that he had come down from heaven. … This was the rock of offense as far as the Jews were concerned. The rock was undoubtedly the human flesh of the Savior. It detached itself without hands, because it was made of a virgin by the Holy Spirit without the participation of a male. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: This is said not of the Jews only but of the entire human race. … The wonder is that the prophet speaks not only of those who will believe but also of those who will not believe. For to stumble is to disbelieve. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 16.

THE ROCK OF OFFENSE. PELAGIUS: It was foretold that Christ would be the stumbling stone and the rock of offense precisely because many take offense at his birth and death. … Nobody who believes, not just the Jew, will be put to shame by former sins. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

PAYING ATTENTION TO THE PROPHETS. THEODORET OF CYR: People stumble when they stop paying attention to where they are going and look elsewhere. This is what happened to the Jews. Because they were so busy adding extras to the law, they failed to notice the stone which the prophets predicted. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.