Romans 15.8-Christ Is Serving The Circumcision Because Of The Father's Faithfulness In Order To Fulfill The Promises To The Patriarchs
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday May 16, 2010
Romans: Romans 15:8-Christ Is Serving The Circumcision Because Of The Father’s Faithfulness In Order To Fulfill The Promises To The Patriarchs
Lesson # 503
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 15:7.
This morning we will begin a study of Romans 15:8-9, which teaches that Christ is serving the circumcision, i.e. the Jews because of the Father’s faithfulness in order to fulfill the promises to the patriarchs of Israel so that the Gentiles glorify the Father because of His grace.
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.’”
In Romans 15:8-9, Paul is attempting to maintain an argument, which he introduced in Romans 1:16 and elaborates on throughout the entire epistle.
The argument expressed in Romans 1:16 and developed throughout the rest of the epistle is that the Gentiles are included in the plan of salvation along with the Jews but that the Jews have the salvation-historical priority since salvation comes to the Gentiles through Christ fulfilling the covenant promises to Israel’s patriarchs.
Therefore, in Romans 15:8-9a, Paul maintains the integrity of this argument by using parallel statements to describe in what way the Jews and Gentiles benefited from Christ fulfilling the Father’s plan of salvation.
In relation to the Jews, Christ became a human being and died and rose again because God the Father is faithful to His promises to Israel’s patriarchs thus the first purpose for His coming is to fulfill these covenant promises to the patriarchs.
In relation to the Gentiles, Christ became a human being and died and rose again that the Gentiles would glorify the Father because of His mercy.
Therefore, in Romans 15:8-9a, Paul is implicitly reminding the weak who were primarily Jewish that God has accepted into His family the strong who were primarily Gentile.
He is also reminding the strong who were primarily Gentile that their salvation rests upon the covenant promises that God made to the patriarchs of the Jews, thus, Paul is echoing his teaching in Romans 11.
In Romans 15:8, “for” is the “causal” use of the conjunction gar (γάρ) (gar), which introduces two statements that appear in Romans 15:8-9a and present two reasons why Christ welcomed into fellowship with Himself both the weak and the strong.
Christ welcomed the weak, who were primarily Jewish, into fellowship with Himself because of the Father’s faithfulness in order to fulfill the covenant promises to the patriarchs of Israel.
He welcomed the strong, who were primarily Gentile, into fellowship with Himself in order that they would glorify the Father because of His mercy.
“I say” is the first person singular present active indicative form of the verb lego (λέγω) (leh-go), which does not mean “I say” but rather “I affirm.”
The verb “affirm” means to state positively usually in anticipation of denial or objection and implies conviction based upon evidence.
Here in Romans 15:8-12, Paul is affirming his conviction that he has defended throughout the epistle that God’s eternal purpose was to bless the Gentiles with eternal salvation along with the Jews who trusted in His Son Jesus Christ as Savior in fulfillment of the promises made to the patriarchs in the Abrahamic covenant.
This conviction is based upon evidence from the Old Testament thus Paul cites Psalm 18:49 in Romans 15:9 and Deuteronomy 32:43 in Romans 15:10 and Psalm 117:1 in Romans 15:11 and Isaiah 11:10 in Romans 15:12.
Further indicating that lego in Romans 15:8 means “I affirm” rather than the weaker “I say” is that Paul could have proved his point without using the verb and also the word is in the emphatic position in the sentence.
“Has become” is the perfect passive infinitive form of the verb ginomai (γίνομαι) (yee-no-meh), which denotes that the Lord Jesus Christ who is the eternal Son of God possesses the characteristic of being a servant to the Jews, which He acquired at His incarnation when He became a human being permanently in Bethlehem.
The intensive perfect of the verb emphasizes the present state of servanthood to the Jews that the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ entered into by becoming a human being permanently two thousand years ago in Bethlehem.
“A servant” is accusative masculine singular form of the noun diakonos (διάκονος) (thee-ak-owe-noce), which is used of the Lord Jesus Christ and describes Him as a “servant” which He manifested by fulfilling the Messianic promises and the promises made by God to the patriarchs of Israel and by redeeming Israel from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13; 4:4b-5a).
“To the circumcision” is the genitive feminine singular form of the noun peritome (περιτομή) (peree-toe-me), which is a designation for those members of the human race who are descendants racially of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and thus, denotes nationality distinguishing the Jew from the Gentile (Romans 3:30; 4:9, 12; Acts 10:45; Galatians 2:1-12; Ephesians 2:11-12; Colossians 4:10-11; Titus 1:10-11) .
“On behalf of the truth of God” is composed of the preposition huper (ὑπέρ) (ee-perr), “on behalf of” and the genitive feminine singular form of the noun aletheia (ἀλήθεια) (ah-lee-thee-ah), “the truth” and the genitive masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός) (thay-oce), “of God.”
The noun aletheia refers to God’s faithfulness to the promises contained in the four unconditional covenants to Israel, which is indicated by the purpose clause that follows it “to confirm the promises given to the fathers.”
Faithfulness is one of the attributes of God as related to moral beings (Deut. 7:9; 1 Cor. 1:9; 10:13; 1 Thess. 5:23; 2 Thess. 3:3; 1 John 1:9).
The preposition huper functions as a marker of cause or reason indicating that Christ is serving the circumcision, i.e. the Jews “because of” the faithfulness that originates in the character and nature of the Father.
The noun theos refers to the Father since Christ fulfilled the Father’s plan to provide salvation for both Jew and Gentile and fulfilled the promises to the patriarchs of Israel and so that the Gentiles would glorify the Father for His mercy.
“To confirm the promises given to the fathers” is composed of the preposition eis (εἰς) (eece), “to” and the accusative neuter singular form of the definite article ho (ὁ() (owe), and aorist active infinitive form of the verb bebaioo (βεβαιόω) (veh-vay-owe), “to confirm.”
The verb bebaioo means “to fulfill” since it is used in relation to the promises that God made to the patriarchs of Israel (See 2 Corinthians 1:18-22) and functions as an “infinitive of purpose” indicating that the purpose for which the Lord Jesus serves Israel was to fulfill the Father’s promises He gave to the patriarchs.
“The promises given to the fathers” is composed of the articular accusative feminine plural form of the noun epangelia (ἐπαγγελία) (ep-ahn-gah-lee-ah), “the promises” and the genitive masculine plural form of the noun pater (πατήρ) (pah-tear-deh), “to the fathers.”
The noun epangelia refers to the promises contained in the four unconditional covenants that God established with the nation of Israel, which includes Messianic promises.
The noun pater 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.
So to summarize in Romans 15:8, Paul teaches that Christ became a servant to the Jew because of God’s faithfulness to fulfill the Father’s promises to the patriarchs of Israel.