Accursed from Christ: “That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” Romans 9:2-3. This chapter opens with a statement that has puzzled many: “I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ.” It is often understood as Paul expressing such an intense love for his brethren that he would be willing, if it were possible, to be separated from Christ for their sake. That thought has been admired and repeated as a kind of supreme spiritual zeal. And yet, it is not without difficulty. It seems to stand at odds with what Paul has just affirmed in the strongest possible terms, that no separation from Christ can ever take place. Romans 8:35, 38-39. So before settling on that common explanation, it is worth asking whether these words are pointing us in a different direction altogether.
When we consider the broader testimony of Scripture, the difficulty becomes clearer. To be “accursed from Christ” is not a small thing, it is to be cut off from all hope, all life, and all salvation. II Thessalonians 1:9. And yet, everything Paul has written, both before and after, centers in Christ as the believer’s only righteousness and standing before God. It seems unlikely that he would, even in thought, place himself outside of that very union he has just affirmed to be unbreakable.
One possible way to understand Paul’s words is to see them, not as expressing a present desire, but as reflecting something he himself had once known. The language allows for this. Rather than pointing to a current wish, it can be understood as reaching back. Paul had been one who rejected Christ, who counted Him as accursed, and who, in his zeal, stood in open opposition to the very One he now preached. I Timothy 1:13. In that light, he is not stepping outside of the gospel he has just declared, he is standing firmly within it, while grieving over those who remain where he once stood.
Paul’s sorrow, then, is not the language of imagined sacrifice, but of remembered reality. He knew what it was to stand apart from Christ, and it is from that knowledge that his grief flows. He does not place himself outside of Christ, even in thought, but magnifies Him as the only hope, for himself, and for those he longs after. And in this, the focus is not on what man might give up, but on what Christ alone has accomplished, and how great the loss is to remain without Him.
There is also something else to consider. The Lord Himself teaches us to “love thy neighbour as thyself.” Matthew 22:39 – not above ourselves, but as ourselves. To desire eternal separation from Christ, (even for the sake of another,) would go beyond that, placing the creature above the Creator. And how could such a desire ever arise from true love to Christ? Especially when Paul has just declared, with such confidence, that nothing can separate from that love. It would be strange indeed for him to affirm that truth so strongly, and then immediately speak as though such a separation could even be desired.
So in the end, the focus is not on a man willing to be separated from Christ, but on Christ Himself as the only hope for sinners. Paul had been without Him, and knew the weight of it, and apart from grace, we would remain there still. And so the passage leaves us, not admiring human devotion, but resting where all hope has always been – in Christ alone. MPJ