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Tzedakah Moment Romans 9:1-5 Part Eleven
Tzedakah Moment Romans 9:1-5 Part Eleven
| Romans 9 Part Eleven |
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The Spiritual Legacy of Being the Chosen People Includes the Messianic Promisewho (are) the forefathers and from whom (is) Christ according to the flesh, who (is) over all God blessed for eternity, amen. The final verse in this passage appears on the surface to a straightforward declaration of Jesus’ humanity and his physical lineage/connection to the Jewish people. However, and as will be discussed in the following section, the verse also contains a potential Pauline declaration that Jesus is not only the Messiah but also that He is God. The first matter of this verse for discussion is perhaps the least complicated – Jesus was born as a Jewish man1 and ministered to the Jewish people.2 The argument for this fact is based on the words of Paul himself, “who are the forefathers” referring to the Patriarchs3 and “according to the flesh” which refers to physical hereditary of Jesus (see Matthew 1).4 The second issue in this verse is far more complicated and depends primarily upon whether a translator places a comma or inserts a period after “according to the flesh.” This punctuation choice will determine whether one believes that Paul is making a statement regarding the Trinity, or has simply stopped his declaration of love for the Jewish people and their legacy as Israelites to begin a short praise (doxology) to God. The argument cannot be solved by going to the original manuscripts because for the most part they were “destitute of any sort of punctuation.”5 To determine what the historical perspective on the issue has to say, one would have to go to the early Church Fathers. William Sanday lists Tertullian, Cyprian, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, and Origen as advocates regarding a proclamation of Jesus’ deity; however, Cyril of Alexandria and Diodorus believed it was a doxology of praise to God.6 Since the historical and translation evidence does not provide a clear cut answer to the issue of whether Paul was making a statement concerning the deity of Christ in verse five,7 one is required to examine two points that Paul is trying to make in the passage as a whole. The first point is just who is Christ and the second is why would a relationship with Jesus as Messiah cause Paul to be willing to sacrifice all for those, the Jewish people, who did not believe in Jesus. To answer both questions takes one sentence – Jesus is both the Messiah and God himself who came to take away the sins of the world and Paul’s recognition of this act of love was so profound as to transform his life forever, even to the point of self-sacrifice. 1Cranfield, 464; and Piper, 43. 2MacArthur, 15; and Longenecker, 105 3MacArthur, 15. 4Ibid. 5Bruce M. Metzger, “The Punctuation of Rom. 9:5,” in Christ and the Spirit in the New Testament, ed. Barnabas Lindars and Stephen S. Smalley (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1973), 97; and Sanday, 233. 6 Sanday, 234; and Liddon, 151. 7One aspect of the argument is the Pauline use of doxologies. A full analysis of this issue will not be addressed; however, the majority argument is that Paul’s doxologies still refer to the antecedent to whom was being previously addressed (i.e., the Christ). Therefore if this is a doxology, the addressee is Jesus of Nazareth. See, Cranfield, 467; Schreiner, Romans, 488; and Sanday, 234. However, a large number of modern commentators prefer to view it as a self-contained praise of and recognition that Jesus is indeed God. See, Metzger, 112; Sanday, 238; Das, 84; Calvin, 342-343; Raymond Brown, 22; Schreiner, 487-89; Schlatter, 202-203; Hendriksen, 315; and Gaebelein, 103. |
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