Sermon Tone Analysis

Wenstrom Bible Ministries

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Thursday May 20, 2010

www.wenstrom.org

Romans: Romans 15:10-Paul Cites Deuteronomy 32:43 To Support His Conviction That The Father’s Redemptive Purpose Through His Son Includes The Jews And The Gentiles

Lesson # 506

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 15:7.

This evening we will note Romans 15:10 and in this passage the apostle cites Deuteronomy 32:43 to support his affirmation in Romans 15:8-9a that God’s redemptive purpose through His Son not only includes the Jews but also the Gentiles.

Romans 15:7, “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”

Romans 15:8, “For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers.”

Romans 15:9, “And for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, ‘Therefore I will give praise to You among the Gentiles, and I will sing to Your name.’”

Romans 15:10, “Again he says, ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.’”

Romans 15:11, “And again, ‘Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise Him.’”

Romans 15:12, “Again Isaiah says, ‘There shall come the root of Jesse, and He who arises to rule over the Gentiles, in Him shall the Gentiles hope.’”

Let’s look at verse 10 again.

Romans 15:10, “Again he says, ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.’”

“Again” is the adverb palin (πάλιν) (pah-lean), which marks the quotation from Deuteronomy 32:43 that is related to the previous Scripture quotation in Romans 15:9b from Psalm 18:49 in that it further supports Paul’s affirmation in Romans 15:8-9a.

“He says” is the third person singular present active indicative form of the verb lego (λέγω) (leh-go), which refers to the “content” of what the Lord communicated through Moses in Deuteronomy 32:43 and is quoted by Paul in Romans 15:10.

The third person singular form of the verb means “it” referring to the Old Testament Scriptures rather than “he” referring to David since David is not speaking in this quotation since it is a quotation from Moses in Deuteronomy 32:43.

Also further indicating that the third person singular form refers to the Old Testament is the perfect middle indicative form of the verb grapho in Romans 15:9b.

Paul is quoting exacting from the third line of the Septuagint translation of Deuteronomy 32:43: εὐφράνθητε, ἔθνη, μετὰ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ, which is quoting the first line in the Hebrew text.

This text is similar to the Septuagint translation of Psalm 17:50 (18:49 in the English Bible) in that it calls for God’s people to rejoice over His acts in subduing nations and His enemies.

This line from Deuteronomy 32:43 is taken from a song Moses’ wrote shortly before his death.

In the passage, God was giving him prophetically a new understanding of His judgments as well as His blessings.

In this song, Moses was giving a prophetic recitation of the history of the nation of Israel until the coming of the millennial kingdom.

He was calling on Gentile nations to rejoice with the Jews as they learned of God’s power and glory.

This will be fulfilled during the millennial reign of Christ when both regenerate Gentiles and Jews will rejoice over the fact that they have been saved through power of the Spirit who appropriated for them the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection the moment they were declared justified through faith in Christ.

Paul quotes the passage because he is not concerned about the cause of Moses calling the nations to rejoice with him and Israel but rather the call for the Gentiles to rejoice with Israel.

This would emphasize with his readers who were composed of both regenerate Jews and Gentiles that they must maintain their unity with each other and welcome each other into fellowship with one another since God is calling Gentiles to rejoice with the Jews.

It would emphasize with his readers that they are to rejoice with each other since both have been declared justified through faith in Christ and have received eternal life and are now members of one another.

Romans 15:10, “Again he says, ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.’”

“Rejoice” is the second person plural aorist passive imperative form of the verb euphraino (εὐφραίνω) (ef-fray-no), which means “to rejoice.”

The second person plural form refers to each and every regenerate Gentile.

The aorist imperative form of the verb is a “constative aorist imperative” indicating that Paul’s readers who were born-again Gentiles were “to make it their top priority” to rejoice with born-again Jews “and do it now!”

It expresses urgency indicating to Paul’s readers that God does not want division between the weak and strong, between Jew and Gentile but that they are to join together to worship God for their so great salvation since both were saved through faith alone in Christ alone.

The passive voice is a “divine passive.”

The passive voice means that the subject receives the action of the verb from either an expressed or unexpressed agency.

The subject of this command is born-again Gentiles.

The unexpressed agency is God’s grace policy as indicated by Paul’s statement in Romans 15:8-9a that Christ serves the Jews because of the Father’s faithfulness in order to fulfill the covenant promises to the patriarchs so that the Gentiles glorify the Father because of His grace.

Therefore, the regenerate Gentiles were to make it their top priority to rejoice because they are the beneficiaries of God’s grace policy.

“O Gentiles” is the vocative neuter plural form of the noun ethnos (ἒθνος) (eff-noce), which refers to all those individuals who are “not” of Jewish racial descent and thus “not” members of the covenant people of God, Israel.

“With His people” is composed of the preposition meta (μετά) (meh-tah), “with” and the articular genitive masculine singular form of the noun laos (λαός) (lah-oce), “people” and genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός) (owf-toce), “His.”

The noun laos is a reference to the nation of Israel and functions as the object of the preposition meta, “with,” which functions itself as a marker of association indicating that the Holy Spirit through Deuteronomy 32:43 is commanding Gentile believers to rejoice “together with” or “in association with” Jewish believers.

To summarize, the apostle Paul in Romans 15:10 quotes exactly from the third line in the Septuagint translation of Deuteronomy 32:43 to support his affirmation in Romans 15:8-9a that God’s redemptive purpose through His Son not only includes the Jews but also Gentiles.