Romans 10:21

_ _ But to — rather, “with regard to”

_ _ Israel he saith, All day — “All the day”

_ _ long I have stretched out my hands — “did I stretch forth”

_ _ my hands — the attitude of gracious entreaty.

_ _ unto a disobedient and gainsaying people — These words, which immediately follow the announcement just quoted of the calling of the Gentiles, were enough to forewarn the Jews both of God’s purpose to eject them from their privileges, in favor of the Gentiles, and of the cause of it on their own part.

_ _ Note,

_ _ (1) Mere sincerity, and even earnestness in religion — though it may be some ground of hope for a merciful recovery from error — is no excuse, and will not compensate, for the deliberate rejection of saving truth, when in the providence of God presented for acceptance (Romans 10:1-3; and see on Romans 9:33, Note 7).

_ _ (2) The true cause of such rejection of saving truth, by the otherwise sincere, is the prepossession of the mind by some false notions of its own. So long as the Jews “sought to set up their own righteousness,” it was in the nature of things impossible that they should “submit themselves to the righteousness of God”; the one of these two methods of acceptance being in the teeth of the other (Romans 10:3).

_ _ (3) The essential terms of salvation have in every age been the same: “Whosoever will” is invited to “take of the water of life freely,” Revelation 22:17 (Romans 10:13).

_ _ (4) How will the remembrance of the simplicity, reasonableness, and absolute freeness of God’s plan of salvation overwhelm those that perish from under the sound of it (Romans 10:4-13). (5) How piercingly and perpetually should that question — “HOW SHALL THEY HEAR WITHOUT A PREACHER?” — sound in the ears of all churches, as but the apostolic echo of their Lord’s parting injunction, “PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE” (Mark 16:15), and how far below the proper standard of love, zeal, and self-sacrifice must the churches as yet be, when with so plenteous a harvest the laborers are yet so few (Matthew 9:37, Matthew 9:38), and that cry from the lips of pardoned, gifted, consecrated men — “Here am I, send me” (Isaiah 6:8), is not heard everywhere (Romans 10:14, Romans 10:15)!

_ _ (6) The blessing of a covenant relation to God is the irrevocable privilege of no people and no Church; it can be preserved only by fidelity, on our part, to the covenant itself (Romans 10:19).

_ _ (7) God is often found by those who apparently are the farthest from Him, while He remains undiscovered by those who think themselves the nearest (Romans 10:20, Romans 10:21).

_ _ (8) God’s dealings even with reprobate sinners are full of tenderness and compassion; all the day long extending the arms of His mercy even to the disobedient and gainsaying. This will be felt and acknowledged at last by all who perish, to the glory of God’s forbearance and to their own confusion (Romans 10:21).