The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 326

~('{'S. nnd quotff freel~·. perhaps from obtained meroy through their unbelief (or, m,•morv. The m&in oita\ion is from 11!&. ditobedienoe): even ao have the■e aho now fu. 20: 21. mth Rn Addition from Isa. xYii. not believed (or, obeyed), that through your 9. the LXX. being followed. The <'imtfons meroy (i.e. the mercy shown to you) they are relemnt. being specimens of mRny othel"ll al10 may obtain meroy. The position of Yva. that might have been adduoed, predicting after ..,; {J,...,.,P'I' h,fo h!U! led oommente.tore, \he final psrdon 11.nd restitution of the house anoient and modem, to connect .,.ii> ilµ,.,.JP'I' of Israel itself, notwithstanding judgments, lAfo witll the preceding -l,,r,l811uuv, and to \hl'C'ugh the Redeemer who WBB to oome. try to hit upon a meaning in this oonnection. But the eeD.88 of the passage, as well as the What follows, \o ver. SS, is in the wny of parallelism of the preceding clause, favours eummnry and furtlier comment. the conneotion of the Authorized Version, 88 given above. (For a similnr position of Vers. 28, 29.-AII touching the gospel in- tva, cf. 2 Cor. xii. 7.) deed (with regard to a.ooept.ance of the gospel Ver. 32.-l!'or God he.th oonoluded them now) they are enemies for your sakes (for all in (lit.erally, shut them all up into) un- their having beoome God's enemies by re- belief (or, disobedience), that he might have jecting a.nd opposing it has been the ocOB• meroy upon them all. Cllrysostom and other sion of your having been now oalled in): Greek Fathers understood uuvE1<Ae1u• to but u touohing the eleotion (God's original mean only decl,ared them t-0 be unbelieving choice of Israel to be his people. 'EocAo')'11 (or, disobedient), or convicted them of being here cannot well have a concrete sense, as in eo. Thus Chrysostom, 'l'ou.-fr.-w, f/A•'Y~'"• ver. 7), they are beloved for the father&' &,II•~•" a:ret8ov.,.,-as. So, it may be said, &&lees. For the gifts (xa.pluµ.,m,, meaning must the verb be understood where St. Paul " ~ gifts," or " gifts of grace; " the word elsewhere uses it with e. similar reference used to denote the speaial gifts of the Holy in Gal iii. 22, 11 -ypa.,p¾, being there the Ghost showered after Pentecost in the apos- nominative to the verb. But 6 0,b, being tolic Church; but expressing generally, as the nominative here, the more obvious mean- here, whatever God, of his own good will. ing seems to be that the shutting up was grants freely) and the muling of God arewith- God's doing. Some, understanding it so, om repat&1lee ( u. nmepent.ed ofhy him and would soften the expression by explaining irrel'ocable; et :Sn.mb. m.ii. 19, 20; also that God allowed them to become so shut 1 Sam. u·. 29). Thisdenia.l of anthropopathy up. To uvvel<AEl<TE VO'l'TEOV B.-, 'l'OOS /30UA'1• in God is aaeerted as a geul:l'&l truth, to flMru a.rn8e,v dlMTel' a.rE18e,v (Diodorus), he applied to his calling of "the fathers," But we need not shrink from the plain iL the patriarohs, and their seed after them, meaning of the expression, viz. that it was to be his people. It is true that, as is shown God's own a.et. He ill not thus represented in eh. i'"., there is a spiritual seed of Abra- as plunging men into inevitable infidelity, ham, not necessarily of the house of Israel, having given them no choice. All in the to whom the promise1 in their ultimate ca.se of the hardening spoken of above, his scope were to be fnlfilled ; but the apostle dealings a.re judicial; the state into which regardB it as impossible that the promises they a.re now by him shut up has not been made prima.rily to the chosen people them- undeserved. And, further, hie ultimate selves Ehould be revoked or fail of eventue.l purpose is here distinctly declared to be fnlfilment to the:n. one of mercy. The way in which the Vt:rE.. 30, 31.-:Far BI ye in times put apostle rege.rdB such present judicial dee.ling believed not God ( eo, except that the e.oriet as conduci'l"e to final mercy appears to be ;,1,miH1utcTE ie trawdat.ed "have not believed," such e.s this. It is the doctrine of the whole in tht: Anti.orizcd Vennou ; but with an Epistle tllat salvation ill to be attained by e.lterns.tivt: in the margin of "obeyed" for man's renouncing his own imagined right- " believi,d." Thb wbsta.ntive a:..-u8da, eousness, a.ad submitting himself to the which foll(i,Wfi twice, should be tran.slat.ed righteousness of God. It conduces to this "diBobedience" rather than "unbelief," if end that his a:..-e,8.ta. should have its course +,..-,iflf,ua.n ie translated •• disobeyed." Pro- and consequences; so that, consoience being perly e.nd usually i,.,m8,fa. conveys e. different at length awakened, he may long for de- 1 liverance from his hopeless state, and appre- idea from a.1nu-r"'-, denoting "disobedience" or "contlllll8Cy," and not merely want of ciaw the olfered salvation (see oh. vii.). fs.ith. But it e.ppean to be 10metimee neoo Bo tho Gentile world was Ion~ shut up in in tt..e 11eI111e of u...-u,.-la. For instance, in its seU-induced, but also j11d1cial, a:1mlM11 .Johll iii 36, 1, a:..-..e,;11 .-,; .,,,; ia oppoted to (eh. i. 18, ,eq.); tlll.lt, "the wrath of God" .,-r,, -r,rrn6011.-, Ei, .-011 111611. MOtJt modem being at length revealed to it from heaven, comaent&tora, with reuon. underate.nd "d,is- the " righteowmesa of God " might also be ul,edience" here. The difference does not revealed to it 11,ll(l lo.id hold of. In like ~ llledriftof the 11.l'guwent), but DOYUVI manner God <lee.b now with the Juw11, who ott, n.1-36.] 'l'llE EPIS'rtE OF PA.UL TO TBE ROMANS.