The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 341

Vere. 11-32.-Israel'sfuture. In the section now before 11B we find the apostle passing from the judicio.l blindness which had come upon hie countrymen to its provi- dential purpose. For God co.n make the wrath of man to praiee him, and the remainder of that wrath he co.n restrain (Pe. lxxvi. 10). Hence the blind cour30 pursued by the Jews is ma.de the opportunity for the Gentiles. Paul, when the Jews would not reC€iv~ the gospel, turned to the Gentiles, and had his success as apostle to the heathen. But the Gentiles, in their tum, are to contemplate the restoration of the Jews to Go<l' 3 favour, and to work for it. Israel is to be yet gathered into God, and when this desir- able consummation comes, it will be as life unto the rest of the world. The future of Israel is what the apostle consequently in this paragraph discusses. 1 And- I. THE FALL OF lsRAEL OPENED UP A WAY FOR THE SALVATION OF THE GE-STILES. (Vers. 11, 12.) There is a strange unity in the human organism, so that when one part suffers another part is saved. How often, by applying a blister to an external part, the inflammation of an internal part is relieved! We have the same law of vicarious suffering obtaining in the human race. It is an organic whole on a vastly larger scale. And so we find one race suffering for the benefit of the others. Take the case of France, for example, and do we not see in it a nation which has been suffering from governmental experiments since before the Revolntion, and becoming thereby a beacon and a blessing to the other nations of the earth? In the very same way, the Jewish nation, through rejecting Jesus, led to the evangelization of the Gentiles; and, as the "tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast," the children of Israel have been among the most precious proofs of the Divinity of our Scriptures. Their fall has thas been the riches of the world; the diminishing of them has been the riches of the Gentiles. The sad fate which made exiles and aliens of Israel has led to the acceptance and_sonship of the Gentiles. Moreover, the apostle argues that the fulness of the Jews, when this comes round, will be the condition of still more abundant blessing to the Gentile nations. A suffering nation leads to the blessing of other nations ; when the suffering shall cease, still more abundant bles.5i.ng shall be the result. I!. THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES HOLDS BEFORE TH.Ell THE HOPE OF STILL ll0B.lii ABUNDANT BLESSING WHEN THE JEWS A.RE GATHERED IN. (Vers. 13-15.) as & skilful apostle, he wants to play the one against the other. He would stir up the Jews to jealousy by showing them how much the gospel has benefited the Gentiles; in this way he would try to save some of them. On the other hand, he would hold before the Gentiles the hope of far greater blessing when the Jews would be gathered in, and so set the Gentiles upon the enterprise of saving the Jews. Israel will thus be a stimulus to missionary enterprise. A great revival of spiritual life is to be Mpect~ through the ingo.thering of the Jews. So great will it be as to be properly compared to B resurrection, "life from the dead;" consequently the Gentiles, as o. matter of spirituol profit, should seek the salvation of Israel. In this way Paul promoteg the amity of the nations. He shows that in mutual good will is to be found their vary highest good. III. FnoM THE HOLINESS OF THE JEWISH FIRSTFRUITS, AND OF THE JEWISB. BOOT, THE APOSTLE FURTHER ARGUES TO THE HOLINESS OF THK LUJl[p A...."m THl!: BRAN0HEB, (Ver. 16.) Now, the apostle here speaks of the benefit and blessing which the Jewish stock had olrendy been to the world. Some take the reference in the first- fruits and root to be to the fathers referred to in ver. 28; the idea being that Abraham, lsMo, and Ja.cob were" holy," thnt is, sot apart, and so are their descendants to b.!. Others take it RB referring to tho eleot Jews, suoh IIS Paul and the eleven, who, ~ing saved, l'8ndored hopoful the salvation of tl1eir fellows. But we think the firstfruits aud root oan onlr apply fully to him who was the real Firstfruits and "the Root out of the dry grounl.' The apostlo's argument in this ea.so would be this: If Jesus, the seed. of Abrahnm and real root of the true Isrnl'litish race, has been such a prtt-eruiuont blessin•• to the rsoo, how muoh may wo expect when the Jewish lump and the Jowish bmnch~ 1 Of. Luthnrdt'B • Die Lelutt von den lebten Dillgen,' ea. 106-12S.  THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS, [oH. n.1-88,'