Romans 9:3–5

The assertion of God's sovereignty does not affect the apostle's love to Israel... This is the force of verse 3. Instead of despising his brothers — a charge the Jews were always bringing against him — the real impulse of his heart had led him to express a feeling that could never be carried out, though he spoke it in earnest. It was not cool reflection, for the thing was impossible. It was the earnestness of his soul in love to them. And it proved that Paul loved them quite as much as Moses ever loved them. He was willing, as far as affection went, to be like Christ, a curse for his brothers, his kinsmen according to the flesh.

The English versions, Authorised and Revised alike, put it a little more strongly than the original warrants. The Greek says only, "I was wishing, or praying." It was doubtless only an impossible wish of love, such as Moses had felt and expressed before. Paul was the last man to wish himself "accursed from Christ" on purpose. He knew and valued what it is to be "in Christ" more than anyone. So he must have had the sharpest sense of the infinite misery of losing Christ — if that were possible. Indeed it could not be. No one the Father has given Him can be taken out of the Saviour's gracious hand.

It was a wish that had passed through his soul. He does not mean the days when he was a Pharisee. His zeal then was great, but his love as a Christian and an apostle was far deeper, and wholly unselfish. Before his eyes were opened there was no question of such a feeling for them, since he had no true sense of their danger any more than of his own. On the other hand, he does not state it as the settled wish of his present mind. It was a passionate, self-sacrificing desire that had been in his heart. It was impossible, no doubt. Yet it showed the strength of his burning love for Israel, and his sense of their extreme danger and utter ruin.

I take the clause, "I could wish myself accursed from Christ," to be a parenthesis... It was in the past... He was then with them in their rejection of Christ.

He had so completely made himself one with the people — the source of all strength in intercession when the Spirit of God produces it — that if they were unforgiven he wanted to perish with them. It was the overflow of his intense love for guilty Israel, as in the not dissimilar case of the apostle Paul... God did not grant His servant's request. Moses had no finished atonement to stand on, and nothing with which to make atonement — the only basis on which a holy God could justly forgive His people.

The self-sacrificing prayer of Moses in Exodus 32:32, and the passing wish of Paul in Romans 9:3, were doubtless acceptable to God; but no self-sacrifice by a preacher can ever save a sinner.

Is it not remarkable that Scripture tells us of his "great sorrow and unceasing pain" right after the great outburst that closes the eighth chapter?... Paul had just been saying that nothing could separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. At once he speaks of wishing to be not merely separated but accursed from Christ! Even so, do not our hearts understand it?... It is worth remembering, too, that the apostle's anguish was wholly unselfish, which is more than we can always say of ours.

The love of his heart is a blessed example for us. We too should long from the heart for these ancient people of God. It is true he had wished what was impossible... but burning love does not stop to reason first. Later, godly wisdom corrected the wish, though it did not cool his love for them. His sorrow never stopped.

People who hate others take every chance to belittle them. They deny that the ones they hate have any favours from God that are specially their own. Love makes the most of what belongs to the one it loves. Judged by that test, the love of the apostle is beyond doubt. He sets out the marks of God's goodness to Israel as no one had ever done before.

The eternal God had become incarnate, taking flesh from that nation. All this is fully allowed. He who is over all, God blessed for ever — as to the flesh, the body, He was born of Mary, of the royal line of that nation.

"The fathers" are the well-known figures of Old Testament history. Christ too, as concerning the flesh, belongs to Israel; that is, He came from them. Israel could have, in this sense, no exclusive title to Him, and in fact not even a special title. He is, of course, much more than Man — One over all, "God blessed for ever." … The words as we have them in our version perfectly express the original. They state in the strongest way that Christ is God in the highest sense, the God who is over all.

How you can say the Scriptures do not say He is God, I do not understand: they do so over and over again, directly and indirectly, in equivalent terms. … This last one, however (Rom. 9:5), is as plain a testimony as could well be imagined, and the language is such that it is impossible to apply it to anyone but Christ.

It is easy to say that the proposed rendering ("he who is over all, God be blessed for ever. Amen.") is at least as good as the one in the Authorised Version. But I am convinced that the claim is rash and groundless. … The most ancient versions of East and West — the Syriac, the Itala, the Vulgate, and others — leave no doubt as to how the words were then understood and applied. So do the early Greek and Latin writers.

Their highest mercy naturally forms the climax, though sadly they despised it. That mercy is the Messiah. He came from their fathers according to the flesh, but in reality He is Emmanuel, God over all, blessed for ever. His being God over all is the opposite pole to His springing from the fathers according to the flesh.

In their blind unbelief they stumbled at the stumbling-stone. That stone was the infinite grace of His humiliation, and His obedience to death, the death of the cross. It shut out from the eyes of their heart the height of His glory, which reached far beyond the glory of the Messiah.

We can understand something of what Paul felt when he added the Amen here. Nothing could be added to this. No nation could receive a greater privilege or honour than to be linked, according to the flesh, with Him who is God over all, blessed for ever.