My Lord And My God

Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Nine
“MY LORD AND MY GOD”

Scripture Reading: verses 3-9

MY BRETHREN, MY KINSMEN ACCORDING TO THE FLESH: 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; WHOSE ARE THE FATHERS, AND OF WHOM AS CONCERNING THE FLESH CHRIST CAME, WHO IS OVER ALL, GOD BLESSED FOR EVER. AMEN. NOT AS THOUGH THE WORD OF GOD HATH TAKEN NONE EFFECT. FOR THEY ARE NOT ALL ISRAEL, WHICH ARE OF ISRAEL: NEITHER, BECAUSE THEY ARE THE SEED OF ABRAHAM, ARE THEY ALL CHILDREN: BUT, IN ISAAC SHALL THY SEED BE CALLED. THAT IS, THEY WHICH ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE FLESH, THESE ARE NOT THE CHILDREN OF GOD: BUT THE CHILDREN OF THE PROMISE ARE COUNTED FOR THE SEED. FOR THIS IS THE WORD OF PROMISE, AT THIS TIME WILL I COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON.

In Romans 2 and 3, Paul dealt somewhat conclusively with the question of Jewish guilt, and he spoke there in almost the same terms as here concerning the heritage of his brethren after the flesh. In those chapters he dealt with the truth more from an administrative point of view, indicating their guilt because they had refused God’s guidance given to them in the law of Moses. In this passage, it goes much deeper and Paul outlines their varied spiritual advantages and how ineffective these spiritual advantages were, apart from God’s dealings with their individual hearts. A new question is now raised; not that which was previously before us concerning what advantage the Jew had as a result of having the law. Here it has to do with birthright – what advantage he had because of spranging from Abraham. In chapters 2 and 3 it is administration; here it is inheritance or promise.

Therefore, in verse 3 Paul calls them his kinsmen after the flesh, reminding us of his filial relationship with those who called themselves Israelites. It was not that they were simply together under the administration of God’s goodness, but they were related to one another by birthright. Now the new question before the court is this, “How does the Jew stand nationally by right of birth?” That is the reason why Paul reaches all the way back to Abraham, bringing in the family tree; step by step he outlines the inherited blessings of Israel. First, they are Israelites and the name Israel means “a prince with God.” Their name reminds us that this people have the distinct advantage over all other nations because they are given a princely place of recognition before the Almighty. They are nationally what Christians are spiritually. Nationally, they are set among princes. That was Israel’s national position by right of birth – not by right of attainment or special administration.¹

Paul goes on to say, “to whom pertaineth the adoption.” They had been brought into family relationship with the Lord, who had said to them, “I will be a Father to you and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters.” Their national position was not simply one of administration under the government of God, but it was one of adoption under His love. Paul then says, “And the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.” These are the blessings that had come to them by right of birth – the special favors of God, even as a father might give special guidance to his own children in order that they might become great and enjoy fulness of life. Then in verse 5, Paul makes a master stroke of genealogy on behalf of his kinsmen after the flesh, tracing their blessings back to the fathers. The fathers are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In other words, these Jewish brethren could not compliment themselves on attaining of any of these things because it all came to them through the fathers. And here is Paul’s final master stroke: on this same line of filial blessing, he indicates that the Lord Jesus came. He says, “And of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen."

“Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in flesh.” However, in that great mystery the Lord Jesus Christ was born a babe in Bethlehem. Matthew and Luke go into great detail as to how the Lord came according to flesh. In Matthew, His genealogy is traced back to Abraham; in Luke’s gospel, He is traced back through Abraham to Adam. Our adorable Savior is an intricate subject which should be approached with the greatest of reverence. There is one line upon which He came according to flesh; there is another line upon which He is known in resurrection, no longer on the line of flesh.

In 2 Corinthians 5 this subject is taken up in great detail: “For if we had known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.” The portion of signal favor concerning the Jewish people is that the Lord Jesus was born in their midst. Their own prophet Isaiah said, “unto us” – that is, unto Israel – “a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder.” In Micah 5 we have the same thought stated in a different way:

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

The same truth is presented in the New Testament, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” The words, “His people,” refer to Israel because they were the Lord’s people at the time the Lord Jesus was born. He is spoken of as “the glory of thy people Israel” as well as “a light to lighten the Gentiles.”

Now, lest apprehension of our adorable Lord should cease there, and we should think of Him only on the line of flesh as a great leader among the Jews, the apostle Paul adds, “Who is over all, God blessed forever.” As considered in footnote 2 below, this verse should read “Who is God over all, blessed for ever.” The One who was born in Bethle-hem is called “Immanuel, God with us.” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory.” By birthright the Jewish nation shares association according to flesh with the Lord Jesus Christ. But, like us, they have a great responsibility to recognize in Him not only the Messiah, but as Thomas, in John 20, “My Lord and my God.”

Footnotes:
¹ Paul mentioned such things to show his appreciation for the position that Israel had enjoyed in God’s plan of redemption. Paul loved Israel, and the fact that he became a Christian had not diminished this love nor his appreciation for the part Israel had had in bearing witness to God’s will on earth. “Israelites” ... is an extension of the word “Israel,” which means “prince of God,” or “one who contends with God,” the same being the name given to Jacob by an angel of heaven at Peniel (Gen. 32:28-30). This God-given name implied more than membership in the covenant race, imputing to them status as God’s children (Ex. 4:22; Deut. 14:1; Jer. 31:9); but compared to that of Christians, the sonship of Israel was of an inferior kind although sufficiently significant to stand as a type of the latter. “Israelites,” as Paul used it here, included by implication the other privileges enumerated. “The adoption” ... refers to the sonship of Israel. In a real and paternal manner, God made the Israelites His children and looked after them, despite their sins and rebellions, until the purpose of bringing in the Messiah was realized. “The glory” ... might not refer to any specific thing, such as the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, or the halo that glowed upon the face of Moses, but would seem to signify the prosperity and progress of Israel through the long centuries of their enjoyment of the providential care and blessing of the Almighty. “And the covenants” ... using the plural is similar to Paul’s usage in Ephesians 2:12 and takes into account the many covenants that God made with Israel, especially including the one called in Hebrews “the covenant” (Heb. 9:1), or “the first covenant.” “And the giving of the law” ... brings into view the exceedingly impressive events at Sinai when the decalogue was given. A reading of the Biblical account of the wonders connected with the giving of the law of Moses will convince anyone that the events enacted there were as spectacular and impressive as any ever seen on earth. “And the service of God” ... refers to the entire liturgical and sacerdotal system of the Hebrews, especially the great religious ceremonials connected with occasions such as the Day of Atonement, the Passover, etc. “And the promises” ... referring to that great body of testimony looking to the advent of the Christ, and the hope of universal redemption in Him. These great promises, sometimes called merely “the promise,” were repeated, emphasized, and typified by numerous devices in the Mosaic system. Through: (1) the prophetic Word; (2) the lives of typical people; (3) the typical meaning of the ceremonies and sacrifices, and (4) architecture, furniture, the plan, and the arrangement of the tabernacle, and temple, etc. In all these things there was only one purpose – foretelling the Christ and making certain of His identification when He should come. Significantly, all these were of Israel; and, for the great apostle who believed so intensely in Jesus Christ, the glory of the Lord as it had been prophetically witnessed in Israel intensified his love and appreciation for the great people through whom the witness had come.
² One cannot but be ashamed of such a rendition of this verse, in which the translators stooped to the device of making the name of the ineffable God a common adverb, as when one might say, “This is a God beautiful day! ... God blessed for ever”! In his book, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, p. 341, F. Godet translated this verse thus: “Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is God over all, blessed for ever. Amen.” There is no doubt that Godet has the true meaning of this verse. The objections that people have to this rendition stem not from critical reasons, nor from gradations in the meaning of Greek words, but from theological reasons on the part of some who are reluctant to admit identification of Jesus Christ with deity, notwithstanding the fact that Christ is called “God” no less than ten times in the Greek New Testament, the other nine passages where this is done being John 1:1; 20:28; Acts 20:28; Hebrews 1:8; Philippians 2:8; Colossians 2:9; Titus 2:13; 2 Peter 1:1; and 1 John 5:20. Objectors to the obvious meaning here allege that Paul nowhere else makes such a statement of Christ’s deity. C. K. Barrett (A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, p. 179), for example, wrote: “Nowhere else in any epistle does Paul call Christ God.” Barrett’s view is almost incredible when it is considered that no less than three of the passages cited above were written by Paul; and if, as we think probable, Paul authored Hebrews, then four places are found in Paul’s writings in which deity is unequivocally ascribed to the Lord Jesus – this passage (Rom. 9:5) making five. Space forbids any lengthy analysis of the objections people make to the rendition in the English Revised Version (1885; where the true meaning is clear enough, despite the ridiculous punctuation), where the words “over all” are unequivocally applied to Christ, thus affirming His Godhead, and permitting the truth to glow even through the punctuation. The English Revised Version (1885) translators made only one concession to the objectors (that being the punctuation), but even that was too much to concede. Godet's rendition above may be viewed with certainty as the correct one. “Whose are the fathers” ... no people ever had more distinguished ancestors than the Jewish patriarchs. Such men as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were so noble, and so excessively beyond other men in character and integrity, that God Himself deigned to identify Himself as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 4:5). Abraham, especially, stands upon the horizon of pre-Christian history like a great monolith casting its shadow over centuries and millenniums of history. Three great religions, like streams coursing down from some mighty mountain and finding their issuance in various oceans, descend from Abraham; Muslims, Jews and Christians all alike hailing Abraham as their father. Paul truly appreciated the heritage that was his and Israel’s in such distinguished progenitors of their magnificent race. “Of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh” ... from the first verse of the New Testament we learn that the Savior of all the world was a descendant (in the fleshly sense) from Abraham. That it was a signal honor for any race to be commissioned as the flesh-bearer for the Messiah, is evident from the exclamation in Hebrews: “For verily not of angels doth he [God] take hold, but he taketh hold of the seed of Abraham (Heb. 2:16, alternate rendition). “Christ who is over all” ... independently of the punctuation already discussed, and the attempt to pass the name of God off as an adverb, this expression thunders the message of the deity of Christ. The greatest of the Greek scholars are dogmatic and positive about the meaning here. With reference to the words “over all,” Charles Hodge (Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, p. 300) wrote: “There is but one interpretation of this passage which can, with the least regard to the rules of construction, be maintained. The words ‘over all’ mean ‘over all things,’ not ‘over all persons,’ being neuter, and not masculine (as in Acts 10:36 and 1 Cor. 15:28). It is supremacy over the universe that is here expressed .... Paul evidently declares that Christ, who, he had just said was, as to his human nature, or as a man, descended from Israelites, is, in another respect the supreme God, or God over all, and blessed for ever.” “Amen” ... a word hardly noticed by commentators; but the impression prevails that this word was intended to affirm Paul’s dogmatic reference to the deity of Christ. If Paul did not mean to ascribe deity to Jesus Christ, why this “Amen”? Would the mild statement that Christ was God blessed (!) have called forth a word like this? Read again the glorious final paragraph of the eighth chapter, and consider that not even that called for Paul’s solemn “Amen;” therefore, this word proves that the world-shaking truth had just been uttered; and that truth could not possibly have been anything other than a statement of the deity of Christ. For those interested in an extensive study of this verse as a witness of Christ’s deity, John Murray’s Appendix A of Volume II, New International Commentary on the New Testament, is a lengthy treatise in which every critical aspect of the problem is examined exhaustively and the conclusion maintained that here indeed is a statement that Christ is God. Aside from the plain texts of the New Testament which affirm Christ’s deity, the implication of it is in every line of the New Testament. For example, who but God could say (in reference to Himself), “But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25:31,32). “And every one that hath left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundred fold, and shall inherit eternal life” (Matt. 19:29). It is no exaggeration to say that hundreds of New Testament passages carry the mandatory meaning that Christ is God come in the flesh. Amen!