Subject: God who is over all be "Blessed Forever" Amen.
This article is going to be a bit long. I put this into 12 sequential points for easier reading. So take your time to slowly read this one through.
In our last article, we looked at the first occurrence where Paul uses "Blessed Forever" in Romans.
Today, we will look at the second occurrence – Romans 9:4-5.
"They are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. God who is over all be blessed forever. Amen."
1. This doxology in Romans 9:5 is found in the middle of Paul's lament and anguish for his kinsmen.
"They are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. God who is over all be blessed forever. Amen."
1. This doxology in Romans 9:5 is found in the middle of Paul's lament and anguish for his kinsmen.
He is expressing his heart's desire for his people to come to saving faith in Christ, yet they refused to do so inspite of all that God has blessed them with. As Paul lists out the privileges in Rom 9:4-5, out came his outburst of praise to God who is blessed forever for making all these promises possible.
2. The above text (Rom 9:4-5) is taken from the Revised Standard Version.
I chose this version because this translation is more clear and accurate.
3. I am also including a picture of the Greek manuscript Codex Sinaiticus from AD 350 on Rom 9:5 so that you can see why there is a lot of confusion regarding the understanding of this text.
4. As you can see from the ancient manuscript, there is no punctuation marks in Romans 9:5.
So the phrase that is in question is towards the end of Romans 9:5 – ὁ Χριστὸς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸς εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας.
5. If you put a comma between "κατὰ σάρκα" and "ὁ ὢν", the translation will be:
"Christ according to the flesh who is over all, God blessed forever.
Christ and God here are in the same sentence.
6. If you put a period between "κατὰ σάρκα" and "ὁ ὢν", the translation will be:
Christ according to the flesh. God who is over all be blessed forever.
Christ and God here are separated to two different sentences.
7. Many people are confused about Romans 9:5, because a superficial reading of using the comma version gives the impression that Christ who is God be blessed forever.
8. Paul never equates Χριστὸς (Christ) with θεὸς (God).
9. In this series of 22 articles on "Blessing God's Name Forever", we have already seen the explicit truth that "blessed be" is always used with reference to Yahweh God in OT and NT. Yahweh God is always our sole object of praise and blessed forever, not Jesus.
10. We have also seen that Paul emphasizes that it is God who is 'blessed forever' in 2 other places in his writings: Rom 1:25 and 2 Cor 11:31.
11. In Romans 9:5, Yahweh God is again the object of praise. Jesus Christ is the cause of the praise but not the object. We must not mix the two together.
12. In the context of Romans 9, Paul is expressing his anguish that his fellow kinsmen do not even realize the great privileges the Israelites have from God. They have the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, the promises, the fathers and even Christ coming from among them — Wow… all these cause Paul to praise Yahweh God forevermore for the privileges given to the covenant people. It is Yahweh God who makes all this possible in Christ.
Yahweh God, who is over all, be blessed forever. Amen!
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