Romans 9:1-5 comments: Paul mourns for his people that are lost

 

Romans 9:1 ¶  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.

 

Paul is mourning for the disaster that unbelief has brought upon his Jewish brethren. We cannot take his wish to be condemned in their place as a real prayer as our culture uses such literary devices when saying we wish we could be dead in someone’s place or suffer in someone’s place when we clearly cannot. The point is that Paul is not so alienated from his physical heritage that he dismisses them any more than God does.

 

For Paul is about to show us that God is not done with the group of people that He first called out for Himself although even though they were called many did not respond or obey.

 

We have a similar sentiment from Moses.

 

Exodus 32:32  Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin — ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.

 

There have been many Christian groups in history, church organizations that condemned the Jews, some even calling them “Christ-killers” and other anti-Semitic ravings. We must remember that the Jews were special to God and that He is not done with them yet. That will be confirmed. Be careful how you treat the Jew in word or deed. I’m not saying they don’t have to be saved like Christians do or that they aren’t filled with the same sin nature we are. I’m saying to be careful in what you say or do with the Jew.

 

I don’t understand why chapter 9 is one of the darlings of Calvinism. For one thing how could Paul, to what purpose, wish himself accursed for his people if it is true that his people were not elected to salvation by an eternal decree of God and Paul was. That would make his argument not just emotional and compassionate but stupid and a little blasphemous.