Romans 9:28Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

In the Hebrew original, however, it is destruction. The Lord, intending to carry out His sentence concerning the destruction of the land of Judea, hastens this deed.

Thus now, in the rejection of Israel, only the strict sentence of God concerning it is being fulfilled. If He had not left a seed (σπέρμα), all present Israel would have perished for the Kingdom of God through its unbelief.

That is, He made the Apostles and certain Christians from among the Jews like an embryo, the firstfruits of the future conversion of all Israel to the faith.

Likewise, can anyone complain when the all-knowing and just God manifests some men as "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction," such as the rejected Jews?

Over others He manifests the riches of His glory, as over "vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory" (Rom 9:22-23). The Apostle adds that this means us, the chosen.

He says of us, "whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles," in accordance with the prophecies of Hosea and Isaiah (Rom 9:24-29).

Yet for this reason the "remnant" among them was all the more worthy. For its sake the others were endured, although, according to Josephus, they were very unworthy of this because of their corruption.

Thus the addition to the "remnant" that was to be accomplished through the calling of the Gentiles became a kind of new ground for the rejection of the Hebrews.

Without them there was found that great "seed," like the sand of the sea, concerning which the promise had been given to Abraham.

Therefore the Apostle's main thought, for which he cites prophetic predictions about the salvation of the believing remnant and the calling of the Gentiles, aims to show something with still greater force.

God's promise cannot be considered unfulfilled merely because some Jews were not vouchsafed the spiritual blessings indicated in the promise to their fathers.

Those blessings were inherited in Christ by believing Jews and by Gentiles who turned to the Lord. According to Blessed Theodoret, "The Apostle brought forward these testimonies to make known that the God of all foresaw from the beginning both those who would approach faith and those sick with unbelief.

Since the Jews, unreasonable and blinded, said that few of them accepted the preaching, while all the rest fled from it as deception, he showed that this had been foretold of old.

Not all would obtain salvation, but only those adorned with faith." The indication of faith is seen in Isaiah's prophetic word: "a shortened word."

"The prophet called faith a shortened word. What the law taught by many commandments and could not grant as perfect salvation, the confession of Christ accomplished. Faith provided this.

Faith is shortened and has no need of lengthy circuits. It is judged by the disposition of the soul and preached by the tongue." "As Saint John Chrysostom says, it contains salvation in few words.

For the Apostle says, 'If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved' (Rom 10:9)."

Why many Jews did not have saving faith, and were therefore rejected, the Apostle explains further on (Rom 9:30-10:21).

The holy prophet Haggai explains Saint Isaiah. He says more definitely what this consummating and final thing is, which Isaiah had foretold hundreds of years earlier.

It is this: all nations, not excluding the Jews, would be shaken by the coming of Christ the Lord and by the apostolic preaching. The chosen from them, not all but the remnant, would come into the Holy Church in the Lord.

This began in the second temple of Jerusalem. It was to constitute that temple’s glory, foretold by Saint Haggai.

What the prophet Haggai called the shaking of the nations “yet once more,” Isaiah designates by the “shortened word.” “Shortened,” συντετμημένον, comes from τέμνω, “to cut.”

In our ordinary speech, when someone says a last decisive word, we say, “He cut it off.” He has said the final word, and there is nothing more to seek from him.

The prophetic saying, “a shortened word,” gives the same thought. It means a final, decisive, last word, after which no other is to be expected.

By the expression “word,” one must understand not only a word, but also a deed, a decisive decree, and its fulfillment. It is God’s final institution upon the earth, or, as the Prophet says, in the whole universe.

This can refer to nothing other than the coming of Christ the Savior and the establishment of faith in Him upon the earth. There was a word, or divine arrangement, concerning salvation before the Law.

There was a second after it, in the Law and the Prophets. The final word concerning this, the final arrangement and institution, the Prophet foretells, would be given in the Only-begotten Son of God.

After this no other word is to be expected. This last word, says the Prophet, the Lord will not merely speak, but will make. And it has been made.

Everything has been fulfilled and established, and so it will remain until the end of the age. Such is the meaning of the words, “the Lord will make a shortened word upon the earth.”

But what thought lies in the preceding words, “for He is completing and cutting short the word in righteousness”? The same thought is present here.

The expression is incomplete. It lacks its governing verb. One must supply it with “is.” We then receive: the Lord is completing and cutting short His word. He is completing and cutting short.

He will not forever introduce new institutions and arrangements. He has a final word and deed, which at last He will make.

The word “in righteousness” means not in figures and shadows, but in the very substance of the matter. What connection do these words have with the preceding statement, “the remnant shall be saved”?

In them one may see an indication of the time when this will be fulfilled. The remnant shall be saved in present reality and substance.

When will this be? When the Lord, who will not keep multiplying words with you, finally makes the shortened word upon the earth.

Our commentators understand the shortened word as the ordering of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. They understand it as shortened not because it is final, but because in its essence it is brief, in contrast to the complex Law.

But this does not contradict what has been said. It only points to another aspect of the same decisive word and deed of God.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Prophet called faith the shortened word. For what the Law taught by many commandments, while it could not provide perfect salvation, the confession of Christ achieved. Faith provided it. Faith is shortened and has no need of long circuits. It is judged by the disposition of the soul and is preached by the tongue.”

Chrysostom says: “This, namely, ‘the Lord will make a shortened word,’ means that there is no need to go far, to labor, and to weary oneself with works of the Law. On the contrary, salvation will be accomplished in a very brief way. For such is faith. In few words it contains salvation. ‘If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus,’ says the Apostle, ‘and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved’ (cf. Rom 10:9). Do you now understand what it means that ‘the Lord will make a shortened word upon the earth’? The wondrous thing is that this brief word provided not only salvation, but also righteousness.”