The Apostle Paul, writing the Epistle to the Romans under inspiration, constantly quotes from and alludes to Isaiah’s prophecy. The writer has not completed this study himself, but is at the moment aware of 23 separate occasions where Romans quotes Isaiah, and of a further 11 occasions when direct allusion is made to Isaiah. Clearly this is an indication that there are deliberate consistent thematic links between Isaiah and Romans.
Of the 23 quotations, 14 of them occur between Romans 9:20 and 11:34, so it is in this section of the epistle that the thematic linkage is focused. Hopefully what follows will demonstrate the principle that in order to grasp fully the import of Paul’s inspired reasoning in Romans we must keep going back to Isaiah, and examine not only the quotations that are made but also the context of those quotations as well. Failure to do so means that we would miss some crucial steps in the reasoning in Romans, and also that we would miss the true emphasis and reinforcement which is given by the Spirit to certain points. For ease of reference, the links in this section of Romans can be set out as follows: Romans quotes Isaiah
| Romans | Isaiah |
| 9:20 | 29:16 and 45:9 |
| 9:27 | 10:22 |
| 9:28 | 28:22 |
| 9:29 | 1:9 |
| 9:29 | 3:19 |
| 9:33 | 28:16 and 8:14 |
| 10:11 | 28:16 |
| 10:15 | 52:7 |
| 10:16 | 53:1 |
| 10:20 | 65:1 |
| 10:21 | 65:2 |
| 11:8 | 6:10 and 29:10 |
| 11:26 | 59:20-21 |
| 11:34 | 40:13 |
Election and remnant
We shall see at the conclusion that the overriding themes of these links concern the doctrine of the election by God of the true Israel of faith, and that, despite the rejection for a time of Israel after the flesh for lack of faith, a remnant of Jewry will ultimately be saved. It is well to bear in mind these twin themes of ‘election’ and ‘remnant’ as we proceed.
Prior to Romans 9:20 the last main argument has demonstrated that the children of promise, based on faith in the promises, are the true seed. The immediate context has also just established the doctrine of election: “Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth” (Rom. 9:18). To human reasoning this might seem arbitrary; “but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus?” (Rom. 9:20).
Here the reference to two separate passages in Isaiah puts two different emphases on the reasoning in Romans. In Isaiah 45 God speaks of Cyrus as His “anointed” (v. 1) whom He would call by his name (v. 3), and of whom God says,
“I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known Me” (v. 4); and He also speaks of Israel after the flesh as “Israel Mine elect”.
So both Cyrus and natural Israel were elected by God to fulfil His purpose, though both were largely ignorant of the fact (through lack of faith). Thus the point is made that, though faithless, Israel were still God’s elect. With that as a foundation for what follows, the reference to almost identical words in Isaiah 29 nevertheless shows from the context that a different point is here being stated. Though they were God’s elect, yet, for a time at least, Israel as a nation would lose the privileges of election due to their apostasy:
“Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me. . . therefore. . . I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people . . . your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay” (Isa. 29:13-16). And then comes the quotation in Romans: “shall the work say of Him that made it, He made me not?” (v. 16).
Of course not; and so Israel had no just complaint against God for His punishment of them.
The next quotation from Isaiah by Paul is as it were the next stage in the argument Israel will be punished, but
“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved” (Rom. 9:27).
In other words, Israel will certainly be punished, but a remnant will be saved. The words of Isaiah are:
“though Thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return” (10:22).
The context concerns the Assyrian invasion in Hezekiah’s reign, and the “return” would therefore refer largely to the northern ten tribes that Assyria took into exile. However, the comfort in the words of Isaiah was aimed at the whole nation, for Israel and Jacob “shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth” (v. 20). So a remnant would escape, but on the basis of truth and trust in God. When this point is connected with the quotations in Romans it meshes in beautifully with one of the main themes of the epistle, that salvation is on the basis of faith.
Romans 9:28 then tackles the reverse of the same point: that the unfaithful will perish. God “will finish the work. . . in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth” (which is a quotation from Isaiah 28:22:
“I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth”).
Interestingly there is an almost identical phrase at the end of Isaiah 10:22, the last-quoted passage: “the consumption decreed shall overflow with (in, AV mg.) righteousness”. The “consumption” is the righteous judgement of God on those other than the remnant by faith. Just who the subjects of judgement are, and why they are judged, is explained in the context of Isaiah 28:
“they . . . have erred through wine . . . the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink” (v. 7).
Further, they were bored with the Scriptures: “the Word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little”; not that they might gradually learn and obey the Word, as this verse is so often quoted to mean, but
“that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken” (v. 13).
Such is not the attitude of the faithful:
“he that believeth (on the foundation stone laid in Zion) shall not make haste” (v. 16).
Still consistent with the twin themes of election by faith and the remnant, the next quotation again takes us back to the remnant theme:
“Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha” (Rom. 9:29).
Once more the context of this prophecy about the remnant concerns the Assyrian invasion of Hezekiah’s day. Isaiah foretold that Zion would be
“left as a cottage in a vineyard . . . as a besieged city” (1:8),
and went on to declare that the nation would have been destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrha,
“Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant” (1:9).
Notice the neat, ironic contrast between Yahweh of hosts and a very small remnant. But if only a small remnant of Israel was left, from whence were the hosts to come? The Spirit through Paul gives the answer by putting “seed” in Romans for Isaiah’s “remnant”. The hosts, or multitudinous seed, were to be developed from all nations on the basis of faith in the seed of the woman (cp. Gen. 3:15; 13:15,16; 12:3, and Gal. 3:6-9,16). Thus Isaiah appealed to the people:
“Wash you, make you clean . . . learn to do well. . . let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”(1:16-18). But this offer was conditional: “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land” (1:19).
This brings us back to the obedience of faith which Israel neglected, seeking instead for salvation through works. That was not God’s way, and so Israel was rejected and “the Gentiles . . . attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith” (Rom. 9:30).
By this intermingling of quotation and context, therefore, the Apostle Paul, under inspiration, is simultaneously pleading with his Jewish brethren to repent, comforting the remnant, and exhorting those Gentile believers who are “of faith”.
Indeed, the comfort to the remnant is nicely highlighted by the occurrence in Isaiah 13:19 of a very similar phrase to that in 1:9 quoted by Paul. But here, the application is different:
“Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah”.
For Babylon there was no remnant; whereas for Israel there was comfort, in that a remnant was to be saved, though on the basis of faith. As the ‘remnant’ theme is thus developed through Romans, it comes eventually to refer to all who are of faith, Jew and Gentile, ourselves included, and not merely a remnant of natural Israel.
A Stumbling stone
In verses 30-32 of Romans 9 the point is then made that Gentile believers have attained to righteousness by faith, whereas the Jews, in trying to achieve righteousness by works, have stumbled at a stumbling stone,
“as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” (Rom. 9:33).
This is a composite quotation of Isaiah 8:14 and 28:16, but it is convenient to look first at Isaiah 8. Again the context there concerns the Assyrian invasion which was to
“fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel” (Isa. 8:8).
In fear the people of Israel and Judah would seek “A confederacy” (v. 12) with surrounding nations, forecast Isaiah, whereas the prophet was to instruct them that instead they should trust in
“the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread” (v. 13)
—an ironic contrast with the fear and dread with which Judah regarded the power of Assyria. The prophet then identifies the Lord of hosts with the stumbling stone:
“He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (v. 14).
Before commenting in detail on this verse it is worth tracing the allusion to the stumbling stone back to the historical record of Ahaz’s reign, in which Isaiah was actually prophesying (see 7:1 and 8:6). 2 Kings records how Ahaz visited Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria. While there he saw an altar which he admired, and he ordered that one like it be made for the temple at Jerusalem (see 2 Kgs. 16:1016).
When made he ordered that this be substituted for the brazen altar, which itself was to be removed to the north side of the house of God. Now the brazen altar was set before the holy place, facing the worshipper as he entered the temple (compare Ex. 40:6 concerning the layout in the tabernacle). This position was to indicate that man could only approach to God acceptably by means of sacrifice. In replacing the brazen altar Ahaz not only denied this principle, but he placed in the way of the worshipper (as an obstacle, in effect) a pagan altar. Thus this substitute altar acted as a stumblingblock in front of the place where Yahweh’s glory dwelt.
Isaiah’s reference to the “stone of stumbling” thus picks up these evil deeds of Ahaz in a section of his prophecy (chapters 7 and 8) which is devoted to rebuking Ahaz. Notice carefully though the intense irony in the prophet’s inspired words. It was not the altar that was to be a stone of stumbling, but Yahweh of hosts:
“He shall be . . . for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel” (Isa. 8:14).
This highlights the real situation. Israel had not so much stumbled over a pagan altar; rather they had stumbled and tripped and fallen over the worship of the true God, preferring instead to worship a pagan idol. Thus the Lord of hosts was Him over Whom they stumbled. And this is precisely the point of the quotation in Romans 9:33: to show the Jews that they had stumbled over Christ, the true brazen altar upon which was made the ultimate sacrifice of all that pertains to the flesh.
The stumbling stone had in fact been laid by God:
“I lay in Sion a stumbling stone” (Rom. 9:33).
God was not being obstructive, but rather the sending of Christ to the Jews was a test of their faith as to whether they would accept him or not. Nationally speaking, they rejected the Christ But in contrast, says the Spirit through Paul: ” whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed”. These were the Gentiles who had” attained to the law of righteousness” (Rom. 9:31) by faith in Christ. This very same point is also emphasised by the quotation from Isaiah 8:14, for “He shall be for a sanctuary” to those who “bind up the testimony” and are “My disciples” (Isa. 8:16). The lesson is thus being forced home in Romans that the remnant to be saved are not Jews per se, but a remnant by faith; and that the Jews had failed in God’s eyes because they had rejected God’s own Son, their Messiah.
We noted earlier that Romans 9:33 is a composite quotation of two passages from Isaiah.
“Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” is quoted from Isaiah 28:16 (“he that believeth shall not make haste”).
There the stone is presented, not as a “stumbling stone”, but as a tried, precious, sure foundation and cornerstone. Implicit in the composite quotation in Romans therefore is the comment, only gleaned by reference back to Isaiah, that the Jews should be building faith upon the stone laid in Sion, rather than tripping over it.
Preaching the Word of faith
Interestingly, the next quotation from Isaiah, in Romans 10:11, is a repeat quotation of the same phrase from Isaiah 28. It seems as though the intervening verses in Romans (10:1-10) are in parenthesis, and the quotation is repeated by way of emphasis, and to pick up the thread of the argument. The parenthetical verses elaborate upon the Jewish folly of reliance on the works of the law to attain to righteousness. They also indicate in more detail the object of the faith that God requires, that is, faith in Christ, who is revealed in the Word that the apostles preached (“the word of faith, which we preach”, 10:8). Verbal confession of belief in Christ, and a sincere belief in the heart that God raised him from the dead, will lead to salvation, so that
“Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” (10:11).
It is this matter of preaching that Paul has now introduced which provides the reason for his next inspired quotation from Isaiah. Salvation is open to all, Jew and Gentile, runs the argument, on the basis of belief:
“whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13, quoted from Joel 2:32).
But men cannot call on God unless they have heard about Him, and this hearing comes through the preaching of the Word. “
And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Rom. 10:15).
When the context of this quotation (from Isa. 52:7) is examined it is remarkable how beautifully it meshes in with the quotations from Isaiah already used in Romans.
Earlier links have contained, as we have noted, both implicit and explicit exhortations to Israel after the flesh for their waywardness and lack of faith. Isaiah 52 opens with very positive exhortation:
“Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion . . . Shake thyself from the dust . . . loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion” (vv. 1,2).
The prophet then harks back to the Assyrian invasion he had prophesied earlier in chapter 8, as already considered: “the Assyrian oppressed (My people) without cause” (52:4; that is, without human cause; Divine punishment was God’s cause). Such oppression resulted in the blasphemy of God’s name, but
“My people shall know My name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am He that doth speak: behold, it is I” (v. 6).
It would seem that this verse was fulfilled, initially at least, in the mission of the Word made flesh, speaking as his Father taught him, and revealing the Divine name and glory, so that Israel should “know” that name, full of grace and truth. And it is of his, Messiah’s, mission that the next verse (that quoted in Romans 10:15) speaks. Notice,however, that Isaiah has the singular pronoun: “How beautiful. . . are the feet of him. . . “.
Thus Christ accomplished his mission, and preached the Word, which is the gospel, and revealed God’s name. So, in making the quotation in Romans the Spirit through Paul says, in effect, that Christ has revealed the Father’s name in word and deed; that those who call upon this revealed name can be saved (hence the quotation from Joel); that the way to call upon that name acceptably is to hear and believe that which is preached concerning Christ; and now, most importantly, that the apostles were the ones whom God had “sent”, endowed with His authority, to preach the same name, Word and gospel. Thus, the Spirit through Paul speaks of “the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace”. These are the apostles, sent to preach with the same Divine authority that Christ himself had. Therefore they should be heard.
But though Jesus came unto his own, the lost sheep of the house of Israel, they received him not, nor the apostles that came after. Thus Romans continues:
“they (Israel) have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?” (10:16).
Notice the words “our report”. This seems to refer to the teaching of Christ and the apostles. By introducing this phrase (quoted from Isa. 53:1) at this point in Romans Paul is reminding his readers that the outworking of the rejection of Christ was the slain lamb, as recorded in the rest of Isaiah 53. In that the apostles’ preaching was also rejected, and in that they were persecuted for the sake of the gospel, they were associated with the sufferings and sacrifice of Christ (see 1 Cor. 4:913).
Noting the context of this quotation from Isaiah 53 enables us to point up the real force of, “they have not all obeyed the gospel”. What they actually did was to crucify Christ and persecute the apostles. This means that Romans 10:16 is a very harsh rebuke indeed of the Jews, for it silently makes them the guilty perpetrators of the crucifixion.
Viewed against this background it is now interesting to note an additional sense in verse 17 to that which is often observed. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. It is not merely ( if we may so speak) the written Word which brings faith, but the inspired record of the life of the Word of God, the Word made flesh. It is that which is the key motivating force in the formation of faith; not just a verbal statement of assent and belief in Christ which may mean nothing to the one who makes it, but an understanding of Christ’s word and mission as portrayed in the whole of Scripture, and a humble determination to imitate him, whatever the cost. Seen in this light, and remembering that “the just shall live by faith”, it may well be that Romans 10:17 is an inspired comment on the words near the close of Isaiah 53:
“by his knowledge (i.e. knowledge of him—Christ) shall My righteous servant justify many” (v. 11).
Israel rejects Christ
Romans 10 then concludes with two more quotations from Isaiah which reinforce the rebuke of Israel. This is done by reminding the nation that although Christ came to them, although apostolic preaching was directed to Israel, although “the ends of the world” (Rom. 10:18), the Jewish world, had heard the preaching, yet “I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me” (Rom. 10:20, quoted from Isa. 65:1). Election was on the basis of faith in the Word and gospel preached and heard. On this basis a Gentile remnant was now elect, to “provoke . . . to jealousy” stiff-necked Israel. This was shown in that “to Israel (God) saith, All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people” (Rom. 10:21, quoted from Isa. 65:2).
The reinforcement of the rebuke of Israel is only fully seen when the context of Isaiah 65:2 is examined. The first 7 verses elaborate the sin of Israel, and then verses 8 and 9 prophesy of Christ and the new covenant (“the new wine . . . in the cluster”), a “seed out of Jacob” to be “an inheritor of My mountains”. Then follows the significant statement: “and Mine elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there” (v. 9). The “elect” and the “servants” are the remnant by faith, including Gentile believers, the “nation that was not called by My name” of verse 1.
Thus Israel’s own prophet, Isaiah, confirms in these words quoted in Romans that the elect are no longer Abraham’s fleshly descendants, but the children of faith. Whilst not a direct quotation, it is almost certain that Paul then alludes to the “elect” of Isaiah 65 when, in Romans 11, he refers to “a remnant according to the election of grace”, and “the election hath obtained it, and the rest (Israel) were blinded” (vv. 5,7).
The substance of faith
This is the climax of the rebuke of Israel. From this point on, three more quotations from Isaiah are made in this section of Romans, and the comfort of the Lord is gradually extended to Abraham’s race, but in a way which only becomes fully evident when the Isaiah contexts are carefully examined. Firstly, commenting on the election of grace which Israel had not obtained, the Spirit through Paul again quotes from Isaiah:
“God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear” (Rom. 11:8, quoted from Isa. 6:10 and 29:10).
It is true that these were words of condemnation upon the Jews, and were so used by Christ (Mt. 13:14-16) and by Paul (Acts 28:25-28), but they also contain a message of hope.
The original context in Isaiah 6 concerned the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions. “How long, inquired the prophet, would the people be given over by God to such a reprobate mind?” Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land” (vv. 11,12). Paul might have asked the same question, and the same answer would have been given, relating this time to the consequences of the events of A.D. 70.
Yet in that destruction there was to be hope:
“But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof’ (v. 13).
As a leafless tree, Israel might appear dead, yet there was life within, if only among a minority of the nation. And notice how this life was to be preserved, as if in the invisible, microscopic, genetic “substance” of a man. This substance was to be the “holy seed”. So it will be through Christ, though long rejected by Israel, that the nation will be brought back to spiritual life. The Isaiah 29 context also gives the same hope: “they shall sanctify My name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine” (vv. 23,24).
“And so all Israel ( i.e. of faith, whether born as Jew or Gentile) shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Rom. 11:26,27, quoted from Isa. 59:20,21).
Here the comfort to the nation is quite positive. Ultimately they will be saved. But it is interesting to notice how the Spirit amends the passage from Isaiah so that it acts as a commentary on the latter-day fulfilment of Isaiah’s words. Isaiah has “the Redeemer shall come to Zion”, not “out of Sion” as in Romans. Likewise Isaiah has him coming to “them that turn from transgression in Jacob”, whereas in Romans he actually “turn( s) away ungodliness from Jacob”.
At his first coming he came as a lamb to the slaughter to Jerusalem, calling those few who would repent. At his second appearing to Israel he will come from Jerusalem with the Christ body, the glorified saints, to purge the nation from their iniquity so that “My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth. . . from henceforth and for ever” (59:21). Then, truly, “the glory of the Lord (will be) risen upon thee” (60:1).
At this point, then, Paul has concluded his treatment of the themes of election and grace and the remnant, showing that ultimately the remnant is “all Israel”. “God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all” (Rom. 11:32). How fitting, then, that his treatment of these subjects, so beautifully and intricately interweaved with Isaiah’s message, should conclude with a quotation from Isaiah, extolling the greatness and wisdom of Yahweh for His wondrous way of salvation!—
“Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?” (Rom. 11:34,35).
We can simply rejoice that we have been called by God’s grace to be a part of that faithful elect remnant who ultimately shall
“renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa. 40:31).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One