Epistle to the Romans
Bishop Alexander (Mileant).
Translated by Seraphim Larin/ Dr. Steven Bushnell
The call to Israel (9:1-11:36).
The Apostle Paul deeply loved his people, and his soul ached because many of his countrymen opposed the sermons of the Gospels. Here, the Apostle witnessed the tragic contradiction between what should have been according to the promises of the prophets and what was transpiring in reality. In preparing the Jews for the coming of the Messiah, God bestowed upon them the honour of being the first citizens of His Kingdom and preachers of the true faith among other people. In reality the Apostle was becoming more convinced daily that his countrymen were acting not like God's chosen people but more like His opponents (theomachists). On the other hand, the heathen that up to that point in time were distanced from everything spiritual were now very receptive to the New Testament.
The Apostle Paul agonized over the question of whether it is possible that God summoned the Jewish people and promised them such great mercies needlessly. The saint found the answer in that there are two categories of Israelites: ethnic Israelites and Israelites in spirit. Everyone that accepts the New Testament — Jews as well as heathen — become real Israelites and children of Abraham. Faith is the specific catalyst that brings people of various nationalities together — unifying them into one chosen people called Israel. Jewish non-believers, by their very nature are completely alien to Abraham and to the Lord God Himself. Notwithstanding the fact that the majority had become obdurate, the Apostle noticed that within the Jewish people there still exists a living part that is capable of turning to Christ. This will occur at the end of our time.
In the next three chapters of his Epistle to the Romans (9-11), the Apostle deliberates in detail over this vexatious question. This part of the epistle presents itself as a complete and independent analysis of God's providence in people's destinies. The Apostle emphasizes his conclusions by many references to the Holy Gospel, especially to the Prophet Isaiah.
God's Providence in the fate of nations (9:1-33).
Saint Paul laments for his people whom he tried to convert to Christ over so many years:
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen (9:1-5).
How can one understand that a people, selected by God and who were to receive so many blessings, turned away from Him? The Apostle searches for answers in the Bible and comes to a conclusion that God's selection is based on spiritual qualities rather than physical ones. He writes:
[They are perishing.] But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, 'In Isaac your seed shall be called' (Genesis 21:12). That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise: 'At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son' (Genesis 18:10). And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, 'The older shall serve the younger' (Genesis 25:23). As it is written, 'Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated' (9:6-13; Malachi 1:2).
The key thought here is that God selects a person for his inner and not outer qualities. In emphasizing this point, the Apostle cites an example in Abraham, who apart from Isaac had other children — among them being Ishmael, son of the servant Hagar. The Apostle points out that God's blessing by-passed all the other children of Abraham and was transferred to only one of them — Isaac. Similarly in the next generation, from all the children of Isaac God blessed only his youngest — Jacob — rejecting the eldest — Esau — who had primacy by law.
The Apostle brings forth "negative" selections where God utilises the callousness of famous people so as to reveal His omnipotence for the spiritual benefit of others. Thus, during the days of Moses, God permitted the proud Pharaoh to oppose His directive to free the Jewish people from bondage. As a result of this resistance, God punished Egypt with terrible disasters, revealing His superiority over the heathen gods, who were incapable of protecting the Egyptians. The purpose of all these miraculous events, described in the Book of Exodus (chs. 7-14), was to convince the Jews as well as the Egyptians and the rest of the people that there was only one true and omnipotent God, Creator of heaven and earth. God could have defeated Pharaoh and his associates in an instant, thereby liberating the Israelites. But He chose a slower path so as to bring people a bigger spiritual benefit. In the language of the Holy Scripture, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh — as though purposely making him stubborn and cruel, although in fact, God just allowed Pharaoh to oppose His will. However, the ancient prophets did not differentiate between an independently active and a sanctioned will: to sanction — is the same as to do it yourself. The Apostle Paul adheres to this terminology:
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion' (Exodus 33:19). So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth' (Exodus 9:16). Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens (9:14-18).
God, being Sovereign King of the universe, decides Himself whom to pardon and whom to punish. Just as His right hand holds the destiny of every human being, so does it hold that of whole nations, and He does not have to give account of His actions before anyone. Nevertheless, being supremely just, God sends to everyone precisely that which he deserves. The Apostle explains it this way:
You will say to me then, Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will? But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'Why have you made me like this?' Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honour and another for dishonour? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As He says also in Hosea: 'I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved' (Hosea 2:23). And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'you are not my people, There they shall be called sons of the living God' (Hosea 1:10). Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: 'Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth' (Isaiah 10:22-23). And as Isaiah said before: 'Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah' (9:19-29; Isaiah 1:9).
On the one hand, these quotations foretell the conversion of the heathen to the faith, and on the other, the rejection of the Jewish people because of its unfaith. From this, it can be concluded that God's promise is subject to the future behaviour of the person. Those Jews that have believed will receive that which was promised, and those who have refused to believe will be rejected. At the same time God preserves the "remnants" or the minority of the Jews, who have not lost the ability to believe. Indeed, throughout the whole period of Christianity, individual Jews converted to it and joined the Church — despite the opposition from their relatives and friends.
In the eleventh chapter of his epistle, the Apostle foretells of massive numbers of Jews converting to Christianity before the end of the world.
The Apostle sees that the reason for Jewish callousness lies in their insistence that righteousness comes through customs, and their unwillingness to submit to righteousness that comes from faith in Jesus Christ:
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offence, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame' (9:30-33; Isaiah 28:16).
According to God's plan, believers from all nations had to merge into one spiritual family — the Messiah's Kingdom. The prophets likened this Kingdom to a magnificent dwelling, towering on top of Zion (Zion was the hilltop on which the temple of Jerusalem and the king's palace were located), while the Messiah — being founder of the Kingdom of Heaven — was likened to a cornerstone. In emphasising the meaning of faith, the Apostle cites one of these prophesies: "He that believeth shall not make haste" (Isaiah 28:16). The 118th Psalm speaks of this miraculous Cornerstone-Christ: "The Stone which the builders rejected Has become the Chief Cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing; It is marvellous in our eyes." The meaning here is that despite the fact that the spiritual and political leaders of the Jews did not take a meaningful, active part in establishing the Kingdom of Heaven and then rejected its founder, God still made Him the Cornerstone.
Further on, the Apostle shifts towards analysing the spiritual crisis confronting the Jewish people.
Israel's calamity — its unbelief (10:1-21).
The aim of the law of Moses was to prepare the Jewish people to receive the Messiah. The concept of customs, holidays, and church services was to serve as an outer shell for a better preservation and assimilation of the spiritual substance of the law. But the Jews were so engrossed in these outer formalities that they lost their sensitivity for the spiritual, so that when the Messiah eventually arrived, they did not recognise Him as the promised Saviour. While Christ was summoning them to faith and moral renovation, they were insisting on the strict observance of all the established traditions. The Apostle articulates this:
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (10:1-4).
For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, 'The man who does those things shall live by them' (Leviticus 18:5). But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into Heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, 'Who will descend into the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' (that is, the word of faith which we preach) (Deuteronomy 30:12-14): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, 'Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame' (Isaiah 28:16). For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For 'whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved' (10:5-13; Joel 2:32).
The teachings of Christ to the Jews seemed new and strange. Besides that, it must have been very close and familiar to their souls because it emanated from God, Who created the soul in His image and likeness. Words brought from Deuteronomy — "Do not speak in your heart" — speak of the regeneration of spiritual feelings. A person genuinely yearning for righteousness cannot be satisfied with just the outer customs: he craves for a living communion with God. In principle, a person of any nationality is capable of believing in God and loving Him because in the Messiah's Kingdom, all types of racial, social, cultural, and other differences lose their meaning as all the faithful merge into one people of God — a new Israel. It is this new Israel to which all the prophets' promises refer.
In order to believe in the teachings of Christ, it is essential to hear them, and in order to hear them, it is essential to have preachers. The Apostle brings quotations from the Bible that foretell of a universal evangelical sermon. The Jews are guilty before God not because they did not hear of Christ but because they refused to believe and therefore fell away from faith. Meanwhile, the heathen, who were free of any prejudices regarding the customs of the law, proved to be more receptive to Christianity.
How then shall they call on Him in Whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!' (Isaiah 52:7). But they have not all obeyed the Gospel. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed our report?' (Isaiah 53:1). So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (10:14-17).But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: 'Their sound has gone out to all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world.' But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: 'I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.' But Isaiah is very bold and says: 'I was found by those that did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me' (Isaiah 65:1). But to Israel He says: 'All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people' (10:18-21; Isaiah 65:2).
All these quotations from Scripture confirm Saint Paul's conclusions that the Jews themselves are to blame for falling away from God.
Future conversion of Israel (11:1-36).
Like an eagle soaring in the sky, the Apostle observes with his prophetic eye the future of humanity. He sees that along the historical path of the Jewish people, there will be a sharp turn toward belief in Christ.
I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, 'Lord, they have killed Your Prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life' (3 [1] Kings 19:10)? But what does the Divine response say to him? 'I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed their knee to Baal' (3 [1] Kings 19:18). Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work (11:1-7).
What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Just as it is written: 'God has given them the spirit of stupor, eyes that they should see And ears that they should not hear, to this very day' (Isaiah 29:10). And David says: 'Let their table become a snare and a trap, A stumbling block and a recompense to them, Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, And bow down their back always' (11:7-10; Psalms 69:22-24).
The Jews' stubborn unbelief prompted the Apostle to turn to the heathen with his sermons. However, there is a live branch of faith — not visible to the physical eye — that has been preserved among the Jewish people, which with time will bring forth fresh growth. The Apostle gives a reminder that similar spiritual obscurity occurred during the times of the Prophet Elijah, some 700 years B.C., when the vast majority of Israelites succumbed to the temptation of worshipping heathen gods that were popular at that time. The profane Jezebel, wife of Israel's king Ahab, began to persecute the faithful of the true God and exterminate His prophets. In saving his life, the Prophet Elijah hid in an impenetrable wilderness. In a most depressed state, he complains to God about his people. It seems to him that everything is finished and that from that point on, Israel will be ruled by the false Sidonite god Baal. But God consoles him and reveals to him that within the Israelite people, He has reserved "seven thousand men who have not kneeled to Baal." The Apostle foresees that just as in the past history of Israel, there were periods of spiritual decline and then rebirth of faith, the Jewish people will turn to God in the future.
I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches of the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness (11:11-12).
The opposition of the Jews to Christianity led the Apostles and the following missionaries to direct all their exhortational energies toward converting the heathen to Christ. These sermons had an enormous success among them, and the heathen turned Christian entered the ranks of the new Israel. Utilising picturesque speech, the Apostle likens God's people, the real Israel, to the noble olive tree that over many centuries had brought God bountiful harvests. Initially, this good tree was made up exclusively of righteous people of the Old Testament, descendants of Abraham, while the heathen nations remained unproductive — like a wild olive tree. Now, having believed in Christ, many branches of the wild tree are "grafted" on to the existing "noble olive tree," while the unbelieving Jews were as though dried up and fallen away from their own tree.
At the same time, the converts should not boast before the unbelieving Jews, because their fall is not total. Beside that, no one is insured against disbelief or sin.
For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an Apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For if the first-fruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches (11:13-16).
And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, 'Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.' Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either (11:17-21).
Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? (11:22-24).
The Apostle foretells that the time will come when many Jews will turn to Christ and then, being enlivened, God will once again graft them back to the olive tree to which their righteous ancestors belonged. To emphasise this, he quotes the Prophet Isaiah's prophecy. Unfortunately, the circumstances themselves and the details of prevailing historical changes remain unclear to us. In all probability, this conversion to Christ will occur not long before His Second Coming. Then, the converted Jews will replace those that have withdrawn from Christ. The Apostle foresees in his Epistle to the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 2:3) the falling away of various peoples from Christianity.
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins' (Isaiah 59:20-21, 27:9). Concerning the Gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience that He might have mercy on all (11:25-32).
The words "all Israel will be saved" refer to the true sons of Abraham — those Jews who have inherited Abraham's high spiritual qualities. The words "The Deliverer will come out of Zion" — or "to Zion," according to the Jewish text — are unclear. Some assume that the word "Deliverer" is supposedly the Prophet Elijah, who has to come before the Second Coming of Christ and "restore all things" (Matthew 17:11).
In these designated world events — the falling away of Israel and the conversion to faith of the heathen peoples and then the return to faith of the Jews — the Apostle sees God's great wisdom, where through incomprehensible destinies, He leads all those that are capable of being saved, toward salvation. "With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him?" (Isaiah 40:14). "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen" (11:36).
Note 4. Israel's problem is a problem of spiritually gifted people. Endowments and talents are spiritual strengths that require proper direction. After all, a powerful automobile without a steering wheel is a dangerous thing. When a person directs his inner energy toward God, he is capable of producing much good and of elevating himself to a high spiritual level. However, when he does the opposite by turning away from God, he falls under the influence of the fallen angel that is much stronger than him. Being himself a former highly talented angel, the Devil plunged into the abyss of evil because he wanted to be greater than God. From the moment of his fall, he has directed all his powers toward leading others astray in his theomachistic battle against God. And he seduces others with the same element under which he fell — pride. He knows that more-talented people would have more reasons to succumb to his temptations.
Among the biblical false prophets, far from many were charlatans. On the contrary, among them were quite a few highly gifted people that went along the false path. For example, the Prophet Balaam was tempted into extracting material gain from his gift of prophesy (Numbers ch. 22-24). Similarly, Judas Iscariot did not become one of the twelve Apostles by chance. Together with the other Apostles, he performed miracles and drove out evil spirits, but later — at some moment of his Apostolic activity — he fell away from the living faith, and his soul was taken over by the Devil.
A similar tragedy of spiritual distortion occurred with the Russian people, called not without good reason "wearers of God's truth." During the Revolution, having grown indifferent to its faith, the people began to destroy and ruin — with some kind of despairing callousness — everything that they had held sacred at one time. Their natural spirituality turned into anti-spirituality, humility into pride and compassion into hatred. This is how the Devil repaid the Russian people for all the defeats he had suffered from the Russian Saints. In this scheme of things, one can understand the tragedy of the chosen Israelite people. Having fallen away from the living faith, it came under the influence of the prince of darkness and became an opponent to God's will. It is the same with any clergyman that does not serve God with all his heart, because he is in danger of falling to the Devil's deceit, or in the Church's language — self-exaltation. False prophets, false bishops — these are spiritually gifted people that are heading in the wrong direction and are therefore dangerous — and, the more talented, the more dangerous they are.
The falling away of Israel is a tragedy for the whole of humanity and not only for one people. At the same time we should rejoice, because this is not the last word in their history and their conversion to Christ has seemingly begun.
Note 5. We are living in the designated time when the process of the Apostle Paul's prophecy regarding the conversion of the Jews to Christ is coming to fruition. The impetus to this movement was given by a Jewish lawyer — Joseph Rabbinovich — in the middle of the nineteenth century. Having visited the Holy Land with the aim of assisting Jews in resettling to the land of their fathers, he began — with the aid of the books of the New Testament — to locate historical sites of ancient Israel. This study of the Gospel and the Apostle's epistles, gradually brought him to the belief that Jesus Christ was indeed the Messiah, as promised by the prophets — Who was not recognised by his ancestors. Returning to Bessarabia (modern Moldavia), he began by word and print to preach Christ to his compatriots. His efforts were crowned with success, and after a number of years, an organisation of Messianic Jews was established in Bessarabia, which spread its influence from Austria-Hungary to Siberia. Notwithstanding an active opposition by non-Christian Jews, by the end of the nineteenth century, the number of baptized Jews began to steadily increase in Eastern and Central Europe.
It was in 1866 that a Jewish Christian association of Great Britain emerged — nearly the same time as the Zionist movement. An American Jewish Christian association began in 1915 and an international Jewish Christian association, in 1925. Approximately at this time several Jewish Christian congregations sprang up in Europe and the United States — and the first Messianic synagogue in Bessarabia. At the end of the 1970's, the number of Jewish Christian congregations in North America reached thirty. By the mid '80s, this figure had risen to 100. In the beginning of the '90s, they had grown to more than 150. Slowly but surely, Jewish Christian congregations are beginning to appear in various parts of the world.
While some Jewish congregations sprang up as the result of missionary efforts by Christian parishes of Protestant denominations, the majority came into being by independent endeavours of devout Jews studying the Bible. Although it has been observed that the portrayal and practice of the beliefs among Jewish congregations are diverse, they do all come together in the belief that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the promised Messiah; they all believe in the Holy Trinity, acknowledge that the Bible is God-inspired, confess to the Mystery of Baptism and believe in the life hereafter.
Currently, throughout the world, there are nearly 200 Messianic Jewish congregations — Christian Jews that observe their national customs. In telephone books, their communities appear under the rubric — Jewish Messianic. The following are Jewish Christian societies that are in existence: Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, the Fellowship of Jewish Congregations, International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues, Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, Jews for Jesus, The Chosen People, American Board of Mission to the Jews, and others. In confessing to the cardinal Christian dogmas, members of these congregations strive to preserve their national identity and continue to observe ancient Jewish holidays and customs, like the Sabbath (Saturday), circumcision, Pascha (Passover), and others.
Supplementary data on the Messianic movement can be found in the books Return of the Remnant by Michael Schiffman and Elliot Klayman, Lederer Publications, Baltimore, Maryland, 1992, and Messianic Jews by John Fieldsend, Marc Olive Press, Monarch Publications, 1993. Some Messianic congregations are active in publishing journals and books, in which they convincingly prove — on the basis of the Old Testament prophesies — to their fellow Jews that the Lord Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah. This type of literature can be received, for example, from the publisher Jews for Jesus, 60 Haight St., San Francisco, CA 94102, tel. (415) 864-2600.