Romans 9.5b-Paul Ascribes Deity To Jesus Christ
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday February 26, 2009
Romans: Romans 9:5b-Paul Ascribes Deity To Jesus Christ
Lesson # 298
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 9:1.
Last Thursday 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.
This evening we will complete Romans 9:5 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.”
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.
“The fathers” 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.
“The Christ” refers to Jesus Christ, 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.
“According to the flesh” refers to the human genealogical or biological or racial descent of Jesus Christ.
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.”
Next, we come to a translational difficulty, which is not text-critical in nature but rather is a problem of punctuation and has been hotly debated by scholars.
We must remember that the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament rarely contain punctuation marks and those that do appear tend to be sporadic and irregular.
The issue boils down to whether or not Paul is saying that Christ is God or moving on to a doxology to the Father.
Some contend that a comma should come after “flesh” or some state that there should be a full stop.
The former would ascribe deity to Christ whereas the latter results in a doxology to the Father.
The first position is favored grammatically, however recently some have accepted the second position on the basis that nowhere else in his writings does Paul explicitly state that Christ is God.
In his study of this problem, B.M. Metzger presents eight different options for the punctuation of the last part of Romans 9:5 (“The Punctuation of Romans 9:5,” in Christ and Spirit in the New Testament: In Honour of Charles Francis Digby Moule [ed. Lindars and S. Smalley; Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1973], pages 99-100).
Regardless of the number of possibilities suggested by Metzger, they can be reduced.
Moo presents two possibilities, he writes, “A comma could be placed after ‘flesh,’ meaning that the words following the comma would modify ‘Messiah.’ The words following ‘Messiah’ can then be punctuated in two different ways: (1) ‘…from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen’ (NRSV; cf. also KJV; JB; NASB). (b) ‘…from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen’ (NIV). (2) The second general approach to the punctuation of these words places a period after ‘Messiah’ and takes what follows as an independent ascription of praise to God. Again, two possible translations result, depending on the punctuation adopted within the clause. (a) ‘…of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. God who is over all be blessed for ever. Amen’ (RSV; cf. also NEB; TEV). (b) ‘…from them, in natural descent, sprang the Messiah. May God, supreme over all, be blessed forever! Amen.’ (NEB; cf. also TEV).” (The Epistle to the Romans, page 335; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, U.K.).
Fee presents three possibilities: (1) “The Messiah as to his earthly life, who is God over all, blessed forever”; (2) “The Messiah as to his earthly life, who is over all things. May God be blessed forever”; (3) “The Messiah as to his earthly life. May God who is over all things be blessed forever.” (Fee, Gordon D., Pauline Christology: An Exegetical Theological Study; page 273; Hendrickson Publishers, 2007)
The NET Bible presents three as well: (1) “The Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever”; (2) “The Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever!” (3) “The Messiah who is over all. God be blessed forever!”
The first option presented by Fee, Moo and the NET Bible has great Christological implications because Paul would be calling Jesus “God,” thus, Romans 9:5 becomes one of the most important proof texts for the deity of Christ.
Fee does not favor the first option stating, “It would seem strikingly strange for Paul, as a climax to this list of Jewish privileges in a very Jewish context, to bless the Messiah as God when a doxology to God for all these privileges seems to be much more fitting.” Fee, Gordon D., Pauline Christology: An Exegetical Theological Study; page 275; Hendrickson Publishers, 2007)
However, as Fee fails to take in account, Paul in Romans 9:1-5 is expressing his great anguish and unceasing grief over unregenerate Israel, thus a doxology at this point would be totally and completely out of place.
Rather, it makes more sense that Paul is ascribing deity to Jesus, thus making Israel’s rejection of Him as Messiah more serious, thus, by ascribing deity to Jesus Christ would bring Paul’s lament in Romans 9:1-5 over unregenerate Israel to a crescendo.
The reader could then well understand why Paul had such deep anguish and unceasing grief for the nation when they have rejected God Himself in the flesh!
As Morris writes, “Why should Paul bless God that Christ was born a Jew in a passage where he is expressing his grief over the Jewish rejection of Jesus?” (Leon Morris, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, The Epistle to the Romans, page 350; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, U.K., 1996)
Those who adhere to the second position that Paul is presenting a doxology to the Father and reject the first position that he is ascribing to deity to Jesus Christ contend amazingly that Paul in his writings never explicitly writes that Jesus is God.
However, he most certainly does in Titus 2:13!
Moo points out that most of the church fathers interpret theos as ascribing deity to Jesus Christ and that ancient translations almost all take God as a designation of Christ (Moo, page 567 citing Metzger, pages 100-101)
There are also several stylistic reasons why we should reject the second position of a doxology to the Father and accept the view that Paul is ascribing deity to Christ.
First of all, the articular participle form of the verb eimi, “the one who is” are naturally taken as a relative clause modifying a word or words it stands in apposition to.
Secondly, Paul’s doxologies are always tied to the preceding context and never independent, which would be the case if we adopt the second position that Paul is breaking off his discussion about the Messiah to transition to a doxology to the Father.
To have a doxology to the Father at this point in the verse requires an abrupt change of subject.
Thirdly, the word in the Greek text favors the interpretation that Paul is ascribing to deity to Christ rather than presenting a doxology to the Father.
To translate the passage as “God who is over all” or “May God be blessed forever” is to do violence to the word order.
Furthermore, in the Greek New Testament Paul’s doxologies always begin with “blessed” in the first position, however, in Romans 9:5 we have “blessed” following “God,” which as Moo correctly states “suggests that the blessing must be tied to the previous context. (Moo, page 567)
Lastly, the prepositional phrase “according to the flesh” is a qualifying phrase and implies an antithesis.
Paul usually supplies the antithesis rather than allowing the reader to assume it (Moo, page 567).
As Morris states “It would be very unexpected to have this as all that is said of Christ” (Morris, page 350).
Finally, it is significant that in Romans 1:25 the expression eulogetos eis tous aionas amen, “blessed forever. Amen” is ascribed to Jesus Christ as the Creator.
Therefore, based upon this evidence, Paul is clearly ascribing deity to Jesus Christ in Romans 9:5 rather abruptly changing over to a doxology to the Father.
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.”
“God” is the nominative masculine singular form of the noun theos (qeov$) (theh-os), which is ascribing deity to Jesus Christ.
The word functions as a “predicate nominative” meaning that it is making an assertion about the articular substantive participle ho on, “the one who, as an eternal spiritual truth” that is appositive to the proper name Christos, “Christ.”
Therefore, Paul is making the assertion that Jesus Christ is God.
“Over all” is composed of the on epi (e)piv), “over” and the genitive neuter plural form of the adjective pas (pa$), “all.”
The adjective pas is used in a distributive sense referring to the totality of animate (living) and inanimate (non-living) objects that are contained in the first, second and third heavens and the earth.
The preposition epi is employed with the genitive form of the adjective pas as a marker of the individuals over which someone exercises a control or authority.
Therefore, the word marks every aspect of creation and every living creature as being under the authority or dominion of Jesus Christ (See Colossians 1:16-17).
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.”
“Blessed” is the nominative masculine singular form of the adjective eulogetos (eu)loghtov$) (yoo-log-ay-tos), which means, “worthy of praise and glorification.”
The word refers to the fact that Jesus Christ is worthy of praise and glorification.
Since the Lord Jesus Christ is God and supreme ruler over each and every animate, i.e. living creature, and inanimate object in the heavens and on the earth, He alone is worthy to be praised and glorified and worshipped and served.
“Forever” is composed of the preposition eis (ei)$) and the articular accusative masculine plural form of the noun aion (ai)wvn), which means, “eternal.”
The noun aion is used with the preposition eis to express the concept of eternity and appears regularly in doxologies and offerings of praise in the Greek New Testament as it does here in Romans 9:5 and 1:25.
The preposition eis is used in a temporal sense as a marker of an extent of time and is used with the accusative form of aion and together they literally mean, “throughout the ages.”
“Amen” emphasizes the certainty that the God-Man Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ will be worshipped, glorified and praised throughout all of eternity.
Psalm 41:13, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.”
1 Timothy 1:17, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”
