Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Vol 2 (Paul's Epistle to the Romans: A Commentary by Tim Hegg)

Volume two includes my notes and commentary on chapters nine through sixteen of Paul€s Epistle to the Romans. Here initially we meet with the burning question of the rejection of Yeshua as Messiah by the nation of Israel. Nothing, in my opinion, is more central to the issue of biblical theology than the salvation of Israel. Indeed, at its core, the whole doctrine of salvation as laid out in the Scriptures is bound up with God€s promise of salvation to Israel. To neglect the latter is to negate the former. Or to put it another way: everyone whom God has chosen to receive eternal salvation in His Son, Yeshua, has a vital connection to the final and ultimate salvation of God€s chosen nation, Israel. For Paul, salvation in and through Yeshua the Messiah cannot be divorced from God€s ultimate plan to save Israel on a national scale. This is clear from the consistent way in which Paul views the salvation of the Gentiles as bound up with the promise made to Abraham. Since the Gospel can be summarized in the promise that all the families of the earth would be blessed in Abraham€s Seed (Gal 3:8), and since Paul has gone to great lengths to show that Abraham is the father of all who believe (Rom 4), it follows that, for Paul, and thus for us, the locus of God€s salvific work is the covenant people of Israel. For Pauline theology, chapters nine, ten, and eleven of Romans are key for understanding this core issue.