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The Distinction between the True and the False Israel. 9:1-13
The rejection of the Jews a matter of sorrow:
v. 1. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
v. 2. that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
v. 3. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
v. 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;
v. 5. whose are the fathers, and of whom, as Concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is Over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
The apostle has closed the first part of his letter the positive exposition of his Gospel. He now opens up an entirely new section, devoting himself to some practical problems which are connected with the teaching of the Gospel of salvation through Christ Jesus. The truth I speak in Christ, I lie not. It is a most solemn and emphatic protestation in a matter which is very near to his heart. He is speaking the truth in Him whose rule and government he has accepted in all conditions of life, thus putting into practice his communion with Christ: not merely as an honest man, but as a Christian and as a servant of Jesus Christ he says the truth, he gives proof of the faith of his heart. And to emphasize the truth of his statement still more he affirms that his conscience bears witness with his words in the Holy Ghost. Paul is fully conscious and certain of the fact that his conscience is not in error in this case, that the Holy Spirit Himself is his guide in this matter, and that the testimony of his conscience is thus altogether reliable. The content of his solemn assertion is, first of all: Great heaviness I have and continual sorrow in my heart. He is bearing a heavy load of sorrow and pain, which causes his heart great distress. He could hardly find words strong enough to convey his feeling. For he was anything but an indifferent spectator of the sorrows, temporal and spiritual, which were about to come upon his countrymen. He now employs the very strongest terms to express his boundless love for his Jewish brethren: I could wish that I myself might be a curse away from Christ for my brethren, instead of my brethren, my relatives according to the flesh. To this extreme Paul would be ready to go, if it were in accordance with the will of God, if the matter were allowable, possible, proper. His own soul's salvation Paul is willing to place into jeopardy, to give in exchange for the curse and doom of destruction which is threatening the Jews; his kinsmen according to the flesh. Paul here, like Moses before him. Exo_32:32, is ready to place his soul as a ransom for the souls of his people, thus exhibiting an almost unbelievable power, depth, and ardor of love, far surpassing ordinary sympathy. The innermost recesses of his being were shaken by his loving affection for the people of his own race.
Paul now enumerates some of the advantages of his people which enable us to appreciate the ardor of his love for them and the depth of his grief on account of their exclusion from salvation in Christ: Being such persons as are Israelites, distinguished and honored by the name given to the patriarch Jacob by the Angel of the Lord, Gen_32:20, of which they were very proud. Theirs was the sonship: they were chosen by God to be His people in a peculiar sense, Hos_11:1; Exo_4:22-23; Exo_19:5, "selected to be the recipients of peculiar blessings, and to stand in a peculiar relation to God. " To them belonged the glory of the Lord, that singular manifestation of the presence of God according to which God lived in the midst of His people with His merciful presence, Exo_40:34; Exo_29:43; Lev_16:2; 1Ki_8:11. They had the covenants, or testaments. God had repeatedly made a formal covenant with the patriarchs, giving them the express assurance that He would be their God and the God of their seed after them. Their privilege had been the giving of the Law, the solemn and impressive declaration of the divine will from Mount Sinai, this being a distinction of which the Jews were inordinately proud. Theirs had also been the service, the whole ritual, the beautiful and impressive form of worship in use in the Tabernacle and in the Temple. To them belonged the promises of the Messiah and His redemption; they had been received in their midst by their own prophets. To the Jewish people belonged also the fathers, the progenitors of the Messiah, from whom Jesus, in being born of the Virgin Mary herself truly a Jewess, took His human nature. This was truly the greatest privilege and distinction of all, as St. Paul brings out in his doxology: Who is over all God, blessed into eternity Amen. Jesus Christ, true man, born as a member of the Jewish race: is at the same time God over all, true God from eternity, with His almighty power extending over all the world, over all creatures. And as such the honor given to God is due to Him, blessing and glory into eternity, forever and ever. To this declaration we say Amen, for it is true. Note that the deity of Christ is here most emphatically affirmed and brought out, just as in the entire Gospel of John and in other passages of Scriptures, Php_2:6; Col_2:9 : Eph_5:5; 2Th_1:12 : Tit_2:13. Mark also that the great privileges and advantages which St. Paul here enumerates, offer a sufficient explanation for the fervency of his love. He was anything but an enemy of his people: his solicitude was prompted by the most sincere affection.