The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 342

get consecrnted to God as he has been I In this way the apostle follows up hie i;:u~estoo hope, enlarges it, and makes it the fountain of enterprise, ,vith e. view to t-hc- <X1 nversion 0f the Jewish race. Wo should not forget that the moat influential and life-gi:ring individual who ever lived in this world was a Jew; and, while wo can never ex:pect any of his countrymen t-0 come up to his standard of blessing, we may and _ought t-0 expect that the conversion of Christ's race to God must be of pre-eminent l'{'n,oe to all the other nations of the e.•uth. And as a matter of fact, Jews like ~eander, who have got converted and consecrated, have become mighty blessings to their fellow-men. And so we hope great things from the first fruits and the root. IT. THE Al'OSTLE WAR?-"S THE GE?-"TILES THAT THEIR ENGRAFrING INTO TIIE OLIVl!I TREE OF~Cmus-r!u."lTY CARRIES WITH IT SERIOUS RESPONSIBILITIES. (Vers. 17-24.) The Jews who have rejected Christ are branches broken off the real Root. In their plaoe the Gentiles have been engrafted, so that the "eternal sap" proceeding from Christ the Root, and which should otherwise have sustained these Jews, passes over to the Gentiles. But now a fact about the olive tree i3 utilized by the apostle. Van Lennep tells us, in his work on the Holy Land, that "the olive tree grows to so great an age that the old wild root sometimes conquers the better graft, so that the fruit deteriorates, and the tree must needs be grafted anew" (p, 125). It is this fa.et which the apostle makes the ground of his warning. If the Gentiles, forgetting that it was solely through God's grace they had been grafted in, got infected with Jewish pride and self-righteousness, so that their fruit-bearing deteriorated, there would be nothing for it bot through a new engrafting of the better Jewish stock to restore the olive tree to fruitfulness. God's severity to the broken-off Jewish branches should make the Gentiles very humble and very earnest, lest it come round upon themselves. They should continue in the enjoyment of God's goodness by exercising humble faith and ardent effort.. H they will not discharge their responsibilities, they may expect like- wise tD be broken off. Unfaithful nations have been cut off-the candlesticks and Churches have been removed. V. l.s:e.A.EL's PilTIAL BLTh"DNESS IS PEBIIIITTED UNTIL THE FULNESS OJ!' THE GEKTILES IS OOHE IN. (Ver. 25.) To prevent the Gentiles being wise in their own conceit.&, the apostle explains the mystery that Israel's blindness has been permitted that the fulness of the Gentiles should be gathered in. The Gentiles have now their chance supplied. Their ingathering into Christ's kingdom is God's great present pur- pose. lli.ssions to the heathen, the continuance of Paul's work, are to be prosecuted in the hope of abundant ingathering. The privileges of the gospel are thus laid at the door of the heathen. In this way the great pioneer missionary, St. Paul, would foster the twofold missionary enterprise ; he woulcl have the most earnest effort put forth that the heathen nations should be gathered in ; he would also have the saved Gentiles to 6ct:k still greater blessing through the ingathering of the Jew. VL lsBAEL .AB A. l!i'ATIOli IS TO BE SAVED AS THE CROWNING A.OT OJ!' Goo's MEROY. (Vers. 26-32.) Whei.. it is said," All Israel shall be saved," it cannot mean that every individual Jew is to come right at last. Paul's doctrine is not "That not one life shall be destroyed, Or cut as rubbish to the void, When God bath made the pile complet.e;" but evidently that Israel in its national capacity shall yet be gathered home to God. 1 & touching the election, the JewiBh nation or race is beloved for the fathers' sakes. Ar.d God's gifts and callings are without repentance. Consequently, we ought to enter- tain the hope that the Jewish nation shall yet be restored to God's favour and be saved. And thie is v., be done through the mercy extended to the Jews by the tiaved Gentiles. In other words, the Jewish problem is ro be solved. by a mission to them from the Gentiles.1 In this way God haB overruled the unbelief of Jews to the conversion of tl:.r: Gentiles, an:! the conven1ion of the Gentiles is next to be utilized for tho ingathering of the JewL When the fulnesa of the Gentiles is followed by the conversion of the Jewiah people, we may expect that UDprecedcnted spiritual lifo and power and energy ahal..l then be experienced over universal Christendom. May the conBummation BQ deairable be hastened 1-R. lL E. • a. Go4ef• '1-- .J31bliq--.' ~ 11. p. 10/1, ott. n.1-86.j THE EPISTLE OJl' PAUL TO THE ROMANS. 841