Romans 9.5a-The Israelites Received The Privileges Of The Patriarchs And The Messiah
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday February 24, 2009
Romans: Romans 9:5a-The Israelites Received The Privileges Of The Patriarchs And The Messiah
Lesson # 297
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 9:1.
Last Thursday evening we began a study of Romans 9:4-5 where Paul lists eight privileges that were given to the nation of Israel by God and in this passage, he ascribes deity to Jesus Christ.
As we noted we will study this passage in five classes due to the amount of content that appears in it.
Last Thursday we noted that in Romans 9:4a Paul identifies himself and his fellow Jewish countrymen as Israelites.
This past Sunday, we studied the first of three privileges given to the Israelites that appear in Romans 9:4b.
Yesterday we noted Romans 9:4c, which presents the four, fifth and sixth privileges given to Israel by God.
This evening we will study Romans 9:5 where Paul presents the final two privileges and then tomorrow we will complete this verse by noting that Paul ascribes deity to Jesus Christ.
Let’s read the first paragraph in the chapter and then concentrate on verse 4-5 for the rest of the evening.
Romans 9:1-5, “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”
Let’s now concentrate on verses 4 and 5.
Romans 9:4-5, “Who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”
The eight privileges listed by Paul in Romans 9:4-5 are as follows: (1) “To whom belongs the adoptions as sons” (2) “The glory” (3) “The covenants” (4) “The giving of the Law” (5) “The temple service” (6) “The promises” (7) “The fathers” (8) “From whom is the Christ according to the flesh”.
The term “Israelites” serves to identify who are Paul’s fellow countrymen with respect to Israel and as a heading for the list of eight privileges that identify Paul and his fellow countrymen.
The title, “Israelite” speaks of the fact that the Jew is a member of a theocracy and is the heir of the promises given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whose name was later changed by the Lord to “Israel.”
The expression “adoption as sons” refers to the Old Testament teaching concerning the nation of Israel that they were “God’s son” in a “national” sense meaning that God had set apart Israel from all the nations of the earth for blessing and service.
“The glory” refers to the visible manifestation of God’s presence that appeared to the nation of Israel throughout her history.
“The covenants” refers to the five covenants given to Israel, four were unconditional and one conditional.
“The giving of the Law” refers to the nation of Israel receiving the Law from God through Moses on Mount Sinai.
“The temple service” refers to the service connected with the tabernacle and temple worship.
“The promises” refers to the promises contained in the five covenants that God established with the nation of Israel.
Romans 9:4-5, “Who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”
“The fathers” is the articular nominative plural form of the noun pater (pathVr), which refers to the patriarchs or progenitors of the nation of Israel, namely, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whose name was changed later by the Lord to Israel.
This is an important privilege because the promises contained in the covenants were given to these men.
“From whom” is composed of the preposition ek (e)k), “from” and the genitive masculine plural form of the relative pronoun hos (o^$) (hos), “whom.”
The relative pronoun hos agrees in gender (masculine) and number (plural) with its antecedent, which is the nominative masculine plural form of the adjective Israelites, “Israelites.”
Therefore, the relative pronoun hos refers to Paul’s fellow countrymen with respect to racial descent, the Israelites.
The preposition ek functions as a marker of “source” and the relative pronoun hos as a “genitive of source” indicating that the Messiah “originated from” the Israelites with respect to His human nature.
“The Christ” is the articular nominative masculine singular form of the proper name Christos (xristov$), which is a technical word designating the humanity of our Lord as the promised Savior for all mankind who is unique as the incarnate Son of God and totally and completely guided and empowered by the Spirit as the Servant of the Father.
The proper name Christos in classical Greek identifies that which has been thus smeared or anointed.
In the Greek New Testament, it is used only as a noun, either as an appellative (“the Anointed One, the Christ”) or a personal name (“Jesus Christ” or “Christ”).
Because its Aramaic equivalent (meshicha) it corresponds to the Hebrew mashiach and denotes someone who has been ceremonially anointed for an office.
In the Old Testament, three office bearers are expressly described as mashiach i.e. as anointed with oil: (1) Prophet (2) High priest (3) King.
Therefore, the noun Christos signifies the three-fold offices held by our Lord: (1) Prophet (2) Priest (3) King.
The anointing of oil on the individual assigned by God to one of these offices signified that he was empowered by the Holy Spirit.
In the Old Testament, oil signified the presence and power of God the Holy Spirit, thus the Messiah or Christ was One Who was totally and completely guided and empowered by God the Holy Spirit.
The Messiah is characterized by permanent possession of the Spirit, which enables or empowers Him as the Messianic Ruler to reign with integrity and wisdom.
The word denotes the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth, thus He is the Deliverer of the human race in three areas through His death, resurrection, ascension and session: (1) Satan (2) Cosmic System (3) Old Sin Nature.
The Lord’s Messiahship has a four-fold significance: (1) Separation unto God. (2) Authorization from God. (3) Divine enablement. (4) The coming Deliverer.
Christos signifies that Jesus of Nazareth served God the Father exclusively and this was manifested by His execution of the Father’s salvation plan which was accomplished by His voluntary substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the Cross.
The word signifies that Jesus of Nazareth has been given authority by God the Father to forgive sins, give eternal life, and authority over all creation and every creature as a result of His execution of the Father’s salvation plan.
It denotes that Jesus of Nazareth was perpetually guided and empowered by God the Holy Spirit during His First Advent.
Lastly, Christos signifies that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised deliverer of the human race from the bondage of Satan, his cosmic system and the old Adamic sin nature.
Romans 9:4-5, “Who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”
“According to the flesh” is composed of the accusative neuter singular form of the definite article ho (o() (ho), which is followed by the preposition kata (katav) (kat-ah), “according to” and the accusative feminine singular form of the noun sarx (savrc) (sarx), “flesh.”
The preposition kata denotes the biological relationship between Jesus Christ and the Israelites.
The noun sarx refers to the human genealogical or biological or racial descent of Jesus Christ.
This last prepositional phrase emphasizes the distinction between the unregenerate Israelites in the sense that they have not come into a relationship with God through faith in the Messiah.
Just as Paul qualifies his own relationship to the Jewish people so in the same way he qualifies the descent of the Messiah from the Israelites.