For I say that Jesus Christ became a minister of [the] circumcision for [the] truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers;
Here Paul explains what Christ did when He came, and whom He came to serve. The verse holds two things together that are easy to separate: God keeping His word to one nation, and God opening His mercy to all the others. (The writers below use older translations. Where the ESV says "a servant to the circumcised," they say "a minister of the circumcision.")
The phrase marks out the people Christ served on earth. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant, so the title ties His ministry to that nation.
Jesus Christ is called a "minister of the circumcision." The clear meaning is that His ministry was connected with the people in the covenant of circumcision — the circumcision made by hands.
His coming matched what the prophets had said. And the nation He came to turned Him away.
As I understand it, "a minister of the circumcision" means this: He was the One who came to make good to the Jew the promises God made to the fathers. He also came according to prophecy, and in fulfilment of prophecy. How was He received? We are told, "He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him" (John 1:11). They did not want Him and would not have Him.
Christ served for a reason: God's own truthfulness. God had made promises to Israel, and the coming of Jesus proved He keeps them.
For the Jew, the sending of Jesus was the proof and witness of God's faithfulness. In the person of His Son, God made good the promises given to the fathers.
The verse says Christ confirmed the promises. It does not say He delivered them all.
He did come as the Servant of all God's purposes for His ancient people. So the promises made long ago to the fathers stand confirmed, though they have not all been fulfilled yet.
Confirming those promises took more than His coming. It took His death.
So He could bless righteously, according to promise. "Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers" — and He did it in full effect, only through death and resurrection.
Israel had promises to claim. The Gentiles — the nations outside Israel — had none.
The Gentiles could not thank God for His promises, but they can thank Him for His mercy. As Gentiles we had not a single promise, but we have mercy and all is through Christ.
Having no promise might look like the poorer position. One writer says the opposite.
The mercy shown to the Gentiles might seem lower than the promises made to the Jews. Deep down it is better still, because this mercy is pure grace — the free and sovereign grace of God in action.
The title is not only a job description. It says who stooped to take it.
His love for sinful Israel never gave up, never wavered, never grew tired! See where it carried Him! "He became a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers." For their sake, the One who controls creation was found serving among them as a Man.
The verse ties Christ's service on earth to Israel. Some use this to argue that the four Gospels belong to a closed chapter and say nothing to us. The passage itself answers them.
Yet look carefully at the very passage where these words stand. It seems to overturn this whole theory and prove it completely groundless. When the apostle is stressing true Christian behaviour, he points the saints back to the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus when He was here on earth. ... He was in reality a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God — not, notice, to fulfil the promises made to the fathers at His first coming, but to confirm them. He did this by His teaching and His example.
- Servant — Christ took a servant's place among Israel. The One who controls creation served among them as a Man.
- Truth — His coming put God's own truthfulness on display. God backed His word to the fathers by sending His Son.
- Confirmed — He secured the promises in Himself and made them good through death and resurrection. Not all of them have been fulfilled yet.
- Mercy — the nations had no promise to claim. What reaches them is pure grace, and they can thank God for it.
- Example — the apostle points believers back to how Christ lived and served on earth. That is still the pattern for Christian behaviour today.
and that the nations should glorify God for mercy; according as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among [the] nations, and will sing to thy name.
This verse gives the second half of why Christ came. Israel had promises to confirm; the nations had none, so mercy is their only ground before God.
The verse turns on a contrast. God gave Israel promises. He gave the other nations none, so a different word fits them: mercy.
God made a nation's promises to that nation only, and Christ came to make good to Israel all that God had promised... So the apostle can add in the next verse, "and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy" (v. 9). The Gentiles could not thank God for His promises, but they can thank Him for His mercy. As Gentiles we had not a single promise, but we have mercy and all is through Christ.
That difference is not just about two groups long ago. It sets the ground on which anyone comes in today.
Israel took up the promises on the ground of law and human responsibility, and lost them completely. Then Christ came, and in Him all the promises of God are yes and amen. He came to establish the promises, as Heir of them all, to the people to whose fathers they had been made... He was rejected, and instead of becoming the "Crown of glory… unto the residue of his people" (Isa. 28:5), the Heir of glory goes on high, and the poor Gentile believer, who had no promises, comes in on the footing of pure mercy, not promise.
Having no promise sounds like the weaker place to stand. Commentators say the opposite: mercy is the better portion, because it is pure gift.
The mercy shown to the Gentiles might seem less than the promises given to the Jews. Deep down it is better still. This mercy is pure grace — the working of God's free and sovereign grace. God had made no promises to the Gentiles. So for them it was not a question of truth but of grace, if God chose, as He did, to pour out mercy on them through Jesus.
Mercy can feel less safe than a promise. That feeling only shows how little we know God.
To some, mercy may seem vague and unsafe compared with promise. That is only because God is so little known. In fact His grace flows without limit, now that the people who had the promises rejected the only One in whom those promises can be made good. God's mercy has no limit, and on our side there is no question of claim, fitness, or deserving.
The Gospels show a woman taking this very ground. She knew she had no claim on Israel's blessing, and she asked for mercy anyway.
"Quite so," she replied, "but dogs get crumbs from their masters' tables." She meant: "I know I have no claim to the blessing that belongs to Israel. But my daughter and I are needy. I make a claim on Your mercy" (See Matt. 12:21 and Rom. 15:9). The Lord could not refuse such an appeal, and He rewarded her great faith by healing her daughter.
The words "as it is written" matter. God's plan to bless the nations was not a late addition, and Paul proves it from every part of the Old Testament.
The Jews divided the Old Testament into three parts (Luke 24:44): the law (Deut. 32:43), the prophets (Isa. 11:10), and the Psalms (Ps. 18:49; 117:1). Each of them, and all of them together, attest God's purpose to bless Gentiles, and to have worshippers from among them without their being merged into Israel. Since that is so, the one group had to bear patiently with the other.
So both sides had a place in God's purpose, and each was to make room for the other.
The "I" who praises God among the nations here is Christ Himself.
His confessing among them shows that He has taken up their cause, and that He has them with Himself in the perfection of a finished redemption. But He also sings among them to God the Father. He has gone beyond the narrow limits of Israel. No longer held back, Christ reaches the height of His joy, and with gladness of heart He sings among the people He loves for ever.
- Promise — Israel alone held God's promises, and Christ came to make them good.
- Mercy — those outside had no promise at all. Mercy is the only ground they can stand on.
- Better — mercy is not the lesser portion. It is free and sovereign grace: no limit in God, and no claim in us.
- Written — this was not an afterthought. The law, the Psalms and the prophets all said the nations would praise God.
- Song — Christ Himself leads the praise. He confesses and sings to God's name among the very people He has taken up.