Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Wherefore? - Why? The apostle proceeds to state the reason why so uniform and remarkable a result happened. "They sought it not by faith, etc." They depended on their own righteousness, and not on the mercy of God to be obtained by faith.
By the works of the law - By complying with all the demands of the Law so that they might merit salvation. Their attempted obedience included their prayers, fastings, sacrifices, etc., as well as compliance with the demands of the moral law. It may be asked here, perhaps, how the Jews could know any better than this? how should they know anything about justification by faith? To this I answer:
(1) That the doctrine was stated in the Old Testament; see Habakkuk 2:4; compare Romans 1:17; Psalms 32:1-11; Psalms 130:1-8; Psalms 14:1-7; compare Rom. 3; Job 9:2.
(2) The sacrifices had reference to a future state of things, and were doubt less so understood; see the Epistle to the Hebrews.
(3) The "principle" of justification, and of living by faith, had been fully brought out in the lives and experience of the saints of old; see Rom. 4 and Heb. 11.
They stumbled - They fell; or failed; or "this was the cause why they" did not obtain it.
At that stumbling-stone - To wit, at what he specifies in the following verse. "A stumbling-stone" is a stone or impediment in the path over which people may fall. Here it means "that obstacle which prevented their attaining the righteousness of faith; and which was the occasion of their fall, rejection, and ruin." That was the rejection and the crucifixion of their own Messiah; their unwillingness to be saved by him; their contempt of him and his message. For this God withheld from them the blessings of justification, and was about to cast them off as a people. This also the apostle proceeds to Proverbs was foretold by the prophets.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Romans 9:32:
Ezekiel 34:11
Luke 2:34
Romans 1:17
Romans 3:28
Hebrews 2:13
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