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for the preceding clause, a servant of Jesus Christ , is now more particularly explained. It is the duty of an apostle , and of a called apostle , to write also to the Romans. [The whole world is cer- tainly under obligation to such a servant as this. — V. g.] The other apostles, indeed, had been trained by long intercourse with Jesus, and at first had been called to be followers and disciples, and had been afterwards advanced to the apostleship. Paul, who had been formerly a persecutor, by a call became suddenly [without the preparatory stage of discipleship] an apostle. So the Jews were saints [set apart to the Lord] in consequence of the promise ; the Greeks became saints , merely from their being called , ver. 6, etc. There was therefore a special resemblance and connection between one called to be an apostle , and those whom he addressed, called to be saints. Paul applies both to himself and to the Corinthians a similar title (1 Cor. i. 1, 2) ; and that similarity in the designation of both reminds us of the i-roru'rwovi/, pattern , or living exhibition [of Christ’s grace in Paul himself, as a sample of what others, who should believe, might expect], which is spoken of in 1 Tim. i. 16. While Christ is calling a man, He makes him what He calls him to be, — comp. ch. iv. 17 ; and that, too, quickly, Acts ix. 3-15. — apuparp'evos, separated ) The root, or origin of the term Pharisee, was the same as that of this word ; but, in this passage Paul intimates, that he was separated by God not only from men, from the Jews, and from the disciples, but also from teachers. There was a separation in one sense before (Gal. i. 15), and another after his call (Acts xiii. 2) ; and he refers to this very separation in the passage before us. — sis tvayysXiov, to the Gospel) The conjugate verb follows ver. 2, <7rpoz'7rrty>ye1\aro, He had promised before. The promise was the Gospel proclaimed [announced beforehand], the Gospel is the promise fulfilled, Acts xiii. 32. God promised the Gospel , that is, He comprehended it in the promise. The promise was not merely a promise of the Gospel, but was the Gospel itself.1
2. rtO, which). The copiousness of Paul’s style shows itself in the very inscriptions : and we must, therefore, watchfully observe the thread of the parentheses. [God. promised that He would not only display His grace in the Son , but also that He
i.e., in germ. — Ed.
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