What are the eight privileges listed in Romans 9:4?
Scripture lists eight privileges pertaining to Israel in Romans 9:4-5: adoption, glory, covenants, giving of the law, service (the tabernacle/temple operation), promises, the fathers, and Christ coming in the flesh. These are the distinct privileges Paul names for his kinsmen.
Les teaches that Romans 9:4 speaks of the kinsmen according to the flesh, the Israelites. He numerizes the privileges: adoption; glory; covenants; giving of the law; service or the operation of the tabernacle and temple; promises; the fathers; and Christ coming concerning the flesh. He explains that adoption from the Greek means to be placed as a full son—a positional word rather than a legal term—and that the nation of Israel has been positioned as such.
Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;