whose [are] the fathers; and of whom, as according to flesh, [is] the Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Read Full Chapter →Commentary for this Verse
Paul is listing the gifts God gave Israel, and the list ends with the greatest of them: the Messiah came from their line. The verse then lifts that Messiah above the nation He came from and calls Him God over all.
Love that counts every blessing
Some had doubted Paul's love for his nation. His list of their privileges answers them.
William KellyPeople 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.
"According to the flesh"
The phrase points to a real birth into a real family line.
C. StanleyThe 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 patriarchs come just before the Messiah in Paul's list. Israel's claim on Him is real, but it has a limit.
Numerical Bible Notes"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.
A statement of deity that cannot be redirected
Writing to someone who denied that Scripture ever calls Christ God, one commentator singled out this verse above others he could have used.
J. N. DarbyHow 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.
Why some editors repunctuated the verse
The Greek has no punctuation, so it has been proposed that the last clause is a separate burst of praise to God rather than a description of Christ. One writer weighed that proposal against the oldest evidence.
William KellyIt 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.
He also argued that the sentence itself settles the matter. Its two halves answer one another.
William KellyTheir 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.
The glory they refused
The crowning item on Paul's list was the one his nation refused.
William KellyIn 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.
The closing "Amen"
Paul ends the sentence not with an argument but with a seal.
An Outline of Sound WordsWe 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.
Summary
- Love lists. Some doubted Paul's love for his nation. He answers by naming their privileges more fully than anyone before him. Love makes the most of what belongs to the one it loves.
- Lineage. "According to the flesh" means a real birth in a real family. The eternal God took flesh, born of Mary, of the royal line of that nation.
- Limit. The same phrase draws the boundary. Israel's claim reaches only as far as His flesh. He is much more than Man, and no nation holds an exclusive title to Him.
- Lordship. "God over all, blessed forever" stands as the opposite pole to His descent from the fathers. The oldest versions and the earliest writers applied the words to Christ, and the balance of the sentence points the same way.
- Last word. The nation stumbled over the very glory that crowned their list. Paul could add nothing further, so he sealed the list with worship.