Aug
25
Written by:
Bob Flynn
8/25/2009 6:48 AM
By declaring his sorrow for the unbelieving Jews, who excluded themselves from all the blessings he had enumerated, he shows that what he was now about to speak, he did not speak from any prejudice to them. (John Wesley)
In election, God exercises His sovereign will to accomplish His perfect plan. Keep in mind that the election discussed in Romans 9–11 is national and not individual. To apply all the truths of these chapters to the salvation or security of the individual believer is to miss their message completely. In fact, Paul carefully points out that he is discussing the Jews and Gentiles as peoples, not individual sinners. (Wiersbe, W. W. (1997, c1992). Wiersbe's expository outlines on the New Testament (391). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.)
that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. (Romans 9:2 NASB)
That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. (Romans 9:2 KJV)
I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. (Romans 9:2 NET.)
My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief (Romans 9:2 NLT)
Have you ever felt a hurt in your heart for the lost? Have you experienced a grief that presses against your soul because those whom you love are held captive in darkness? This is the pain to which Paul now refers. He has a continuous sorrow because his native Israel is held captive by their unbelief. He is experiencing a small portion of the grief that the Holy Spirit has born throughout the centuries as Israel (like us) has strayed time and again from light to darkness and now cannot see the "light of the world!"
This is the thing he appeals to Christ for the truth of, and calls in his conscience and the Holy Ghost to bear witness to. These two words, "heaviness" and "sorrow", the one signifies grief, which had brought on heaviness on his spirits; and the other such pain as a woman in travail feels: and the trouble of his mind expressed by both, is described by its quantity, "great", it was not a little, but much; by its quality it was internal, it was in his "heart", it did not lie merely in outward show, in a few words or tears, but was in his heart, it was a heart sorrow; and by its duration, "continual", it was not a sudden emotion or passion, but what had been long in him, and had deeply affected and greatly depressed him: and what was the reason of all this? it is not expressed, but may pretty easily be understood; it was because of the obstinacy of his countrymen the Jews, the hardness of their hearts, and their willful rejection of the Messiah; their trusting to their own righteousness, to the neglect and contempt of the righteousness of Christ, which he knew must unavoidably issue in their eternal destruction; also what greatly affected his mind was the utter rejection of them, as the people of God, and the judicial blindness, and hardness of heart, he full well knew was coming upon them, and which he was about to break unto them. (Dr. John Gill)
Rom 10:1 Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. (NLT)
Copyright ©2009 Robert Flynn