https://youtu.be/mwrTEtXNTOk
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans last time we finished our expanded translation of Rom 9:1; "I am communicating doctrinal truth (positive affirmation), I am not lying (negative affirmation), my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit."
We noted that God's promises to Israel or the unconditional covenants will be fulfilled by the election of grace, except for the Church Age where believing Jews merge with believing Gentiles to form God's new spiritual species that comprises God's royal family forever.
Self-determination is the great issue in this parenthesis (Romans 9-11) because the unbelieving Jews reject God's grace way of salvation and faith-righteousness that is God's imputed judicial righteousness, and attempt to substitute their own human self righteousness for God's righteousness for salvation.
They are in effect trying to reinvent the wheel and it disturbs Paul that the most of the Jews of his own generation (and many generations since) have tried to reinvent the wheel.
The wheel in this analogy is God's plan for salvation that runs on the axle of God's imputed perfect judicial righteousness. Nothing in the God's plan runs on human righteousness or human ability or human works.
The fact that some Jews have rejected God's plan does not imply that God will cast off or abandon His people. As a Jew, a citizen of Israel, and a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ in the next verse Paul will express his burden of sorrow for those Jews who have excluded themselves by not appropriating eternal salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Rom 9:2; starts with the expression of Paul's emotional concern with the phrase translated " that I have great sorrow" in the NASB."
The conjunction "hoti" (that) is used after the statement of an oath to describe what he is concerned about that is a continuation of the sentence he started in the previous verse.
The verb is the present active indicative "eimi" (is). The present tense is a present of duration that describes what began in the past and continues into the present.
The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb as his concern for Israel. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of his concern that is a concern without fear or panic.
Paul is a man of honor, a man with maximum doctrine resident in his soul, so he can clearly and lucidly see that the fall of Israel is inevitable. He can understand that Israel is about to be destroyed under the fifth cycle of discipline. Then we have the dative singular of possession from the personal pronoun "ego" (to me)" that forms a part of a Greek idiom.
There is no exact equivalent for this idiom in the English so while it is literally translated in the English, as "there is to me great sorrow," using the idiom we would say, "I have a great sorrow."
Next we have the predicate nominative feminine singular from the adjective "megas" (great or large) and the noun "lupe" (sorrow) "great sorrow."
The absence of the definite article " ho" before "megas" indicates that this is anarthrous so he is describing the highest quality of sorrow, a sorrow that is legitimate and honorable.
It is honorable to have this kind of concern when he recognizes that God is about to destroy his nation under the fifth cycle of discipline.
The concern is not crushing him personally because he has doctrine so he has flexibility and he continues to carry on and to fulfill his responsibilities even though he has this great sorrow.
No believer who lives in a client nation to God can watch the trends that will lead to its disintegration without having a sorrowful burden about it. The royal family honor code demands patriotism so for citizens of a client nation who have been born in that client nation under God, patriotism is normal.
Next is the connective use of the conjunction "kai" (and), indicating that this is intensified at this moment but it does not destroy his personal happiness, his personal relationship with the Lord because He is still occupied with Christ.
"Unceasing" translated from the nominative singular from the adjective "adialeiptos" (unceasing, constant, something you live with but something that does not change your happiness).
"Grief" is translated from "odune" (pain) so we have "I have constant pain" that is the pain of mental anguish.
"In my heart" refers to the pain that he has in his soul. This is the locative of sphere from "ho" (in) and " kardia" (heart, the right lobe of the soul), plus the possessive genitive singular from the personal pronoun "ego"(my).
Expanded Translation Rom 9:2; "That I have a great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart."
We see in this verse that Paul states the fact of his great concern without revealing its source that will be described in the next four verses. In the next three verses Paul will specify Israel as the subject of his grief and that is the source of the pain in the right lobe of his soul.
Paul has to carry this burden alone but even though he hurts he goes it alone because he can handle it with the doctrine in his soul This is similar to how Jesus felt when he wept over Jerusalem years earlier as described in Luke 19:41-44.
While these same Jews were unrelenting in their maligning and persecuting of Paul he was unrelenting in his concern and burden for them.
Being a believer in Jesus Christ who was also an Israelite Paul understands the source of the failure of client nation Israel. He also understands the solution to the problem and he knows that the solution is still available but its citizens will not take advantage of it.
At this time we will are facing this same problem in the USA.
Understanding the issue and having the burden of it intensifies his concern for them but does not erase his integrity so he doesn't change. He doesn't go on a crusade or become a public nuisance to make and issue of it he just carries on with doctrine and maintains his integrity.
Even though Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles he never abandons his concern for the Jews and his desire for their salvation.
Rom 9:3; starts to explain Paul's burden. It begins with the explanatory use of the particle "gar "(For)." With it is the imperfect middle indicative of the verb "euchomai" (to wish or to pray for). Here it means to wish so we have "for I could wish."
The imperfect tense expresses a wish or desire that cannot happen because of an intervening obstacle. The imperfect tense expresses a thought that is unattainable. It means if effect, I would like to pray for it but I cannot so I can only wish for the impossible.
Paul is stating that he recognizes that God's omniscience knew all of the facts before they occurred. All of these were placed the divine decree and then printed out in terms of the believer as election, foreknowledge, and predestination and in terms of the unbeliever in concepts of judgment and condemnation.
God knew in eternity past the free will decision that everyone would make about believing in Jesus Christ. The imperfect tense describes Paul as recognizing that he is in a hopeless situation as far as Israel is concerned.
He is aware of the consequences of negative volition toward the gospel and that his own people have negative volition toward God's Word of Truth. He understands thoroughly and completely their problem, their difficulty so he is burdened for them because he knows that they are destroying themselves.
About 20 years after Paul was writing the letter of Romans Jerusalem would be destroyed. His burden was that he could see this coming. The reciprocal middle voice is accompanied by the pronoun "ego" (I or me" and the intensive pronoun "autos" (myself) that with emphasis is translated "I myself."
So we have "I could wish that I myself." The indicative mood is a potential indicative of impulse. This is followed by the present active infinitive of the verb "eimi" (to be) in the tendential present tense that is used to describe an action that is desired but is not actually happening.
The active voice tells us that Paul would like to produce the action of the verb. The infinitive is the infinitive that describes what he could wish would happen.
Next we have the predicate nominative singular from "anathema" (cursed) that is used in the Septuagint for a the Hebrew noun "cherem."
When cherem was translated from the Hebrew to the Greek in the Septuagint "anathema" was used so it means the object of a curse. Then the prepositional phrase "apo" (separated from) then the proper noun "Christos" (Christ) so we have "separated from Christ."
Because Paul is a believer in Jesus this is impossible because it is impossible for any believer, now matter how apostate or how evil, to be separated from Christ. There is nothing the believer can do to separate himself from the Lord Jesus Christ after the believer is in union with Christ so it is impossible for Paul to be cursed and separated from Christ.
This is an illustration of the fact that there are certain things that a believer can wish for that cannot be changed because for it to happen would contradict God's integrity.
Nothing can remove the believer's salvation or his relationship with Christ because nothing can change God's mind.
This is why a believer must understand God's Word to pray effectively so you don't waste your time praying for an impossible objective.
As Saul of Tarsus, an unbeliever, Paul trued to keep the Jews away from Christ but now as the apostle Paul, a believer; he is burdened by the Jews failure to come to Christ.
These two opposite positions demonstrate Paul's great love for the Jews. As an unbeliever he had a great misguided love for Israel and as a believer doctrinal truth intensified his love for Israel.
In his burden for Israel Paul went as far as he could go to demonstrate his love and his concern for the Jews. He has even expressed an unattainable wish, an impossible desire to be cursed so that his brethren the Jews will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the pain of his soul Paul could wish for no more than this. It is a perfect expression of pain in the soul.
The obstacle to fulfilling the wish or prayer is the fact of Paul's eternal salvation that cannot be canceled but it expresses his burden even though it cannot happen.
Under the principle of individual free will and self-determination there is nothing Paul can do to save the Jews. They must change their own mind about Jesus.
Under the principle of free will and the principle of self-determination, every individual must make that decision for himself. He has to decide for himself whether he will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or not.
In the angelic conflict God makes free will and volitional self-determination the only issue.