Romans 9:1-33
Good morning! Today we are going to turn a corner in our
series on the book of Romans. This book
is really a letter. Obviously, Paul is
writing to Romans. In particular, he is
writing to the church in Rome. In the
letter, we see that this church is composed of a mix of Jewish and Gentile
believers with the Gentiles in the majority.
(Romans1:13) The theme of this letter is Romans 1:16-17.
For I am not ashamed of
the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone
who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is
revealed--a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is
written: “The righteous will live by faith.” – Romans 1:16-17
Salvation is for everyone who believes
first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. And through the first 8 chapters of Romans,
Paul has convinced us about everyone’s need of salvation. And, he has shown us clearly God’s glorious
provision of Jesus Christ His Son as our Savior.
Now in chapter 9, we are going to switch
gears from the great heights of Romans 8 where we saw there is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus and nothing can separate those who believe
from the love of Christ to the problem of the rejection of Israel.
What does it mean that Israel in large
part missed their Messiah? What does
this say about God? What does it mean
for Israel? What about our present
position in God?
In chapters 9-11, the letter
incorporates explanations of how Israel, the Jewish people, have a place in God’s
sovereign redemptive plan. God is not through with Israel. Simply put, chapter 9 looks at Israel in the
past, chapter 10 looks at Israel in the present, and chapter 11 looks to Israel
in the future.
Let’s pray and ask God to speak to us
through His Word …
Father God, we need wisdom in all
things. Help us to understand what You
would like us to understand in Romans 9.
Teach us we pray in Jesus’ Name.
Amen.
Let’s begin with Romans 9:1-6:
I speak the truth in Christ--I am not lying,
my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit-- I have great sorrow and unceasing
anguish in my heart. For I could wish
that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people,
those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship;
theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple
worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced
the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from
Israel are Israel. – Romans 9:1-6
From the perspective of the gospel, the
Jews were often Paul’s enemies. They
harassed him, persecuted him, stoned him, and yet he loved them
passionately. What an example of love.
Moses too told God that he wished for
God to forgive the Israelites and asked to have his own name blotted out from
God’s book. Jesus was cursed that
we might go free.
“Christ redeemed us from
the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone
who is hung on a tree.’ ” – Galatians 3:13
The spiritual heritage of Israel makes
their unbelief even more poignant, shocking, and challenging. Sonship ties to Exodus 4:22 where God calls
the nation of Israel His “son.” The
glory is demonstrated in the physical presence of God as in the Tabernacle and later
the Temple. God made multiple covenants
with Israel through Abraham, Moses, David, the nation. God had given them the Law through
Moses. They had the temple worship. And, they had the promises through the
prophets. They had Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. And, Jesus was a Jew.
They as a people are truly unique. And yet, as Romans 3:23 explains, “All have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Maybe you’ve heard this saying before. “God doesn’t have any grandchildren.” We all have to come to him as individuals and
believe.
Nor because they are his
descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is
through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." In other words, it is
not the children by physical descent who are God's children, but it is the
children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. – Romans 9:7-8
What we see is an Israel as children of
the promise who hold to faith in God, and an Israel of natural descent that does
not hold to faith.
John the Baptist was clear on this
point, too. God can raise up new children
unto Abraham. John said, “And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have
Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up
children for Abraham.” (Matthew 3:9) John
went on to preach repentance to the Jewish people.
For this was how the
promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will
have a son." – Romans 9:9
Normally, we think of two of Abraham’s
sons though in fact he had more. You can
check the beginning of Genesis 25 if that’s interesting to you. Isaac, the son of Sarah, was the heir of
God’s covenant of salvation, and Ishmael was not. Isaac then stands for the children of the
promise while Ishmael stands for the children of the flesh.
Not only that, but
Rebekah's children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. Yet,
before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad--in order that
God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by Him who calls--she
was told, "The older will serve the younger." Just as it is written:
"Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
– Romans 9:10-13
It’s almost as if Paul has raised the
intensity here. In the first case, we
could see that Isaac was born as the result of the promise to Abraham and
Sarah. Now, we have twins, children of
the same mother and father.
In essence, God has made a choice. In fact, in this context, the expression
“Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,” could be translated, “Jacob, I chose or
accepted. Esau, I rejected.” God didn’t choose because of what they had
done or would do.
In this life, Esau was in reality a
blessed man. But God rejected Esau with
respect to the covenant, but not in regard to this life or the next. This phrase “Jacob, I loved. Esau, I hated” comes from Malachi which was
recorded a couple of thousand years after their lives on earth.
I’ve seen this attributed to more than
one source, but it is a good perspective to have on this situation with Jacob
and Esau. Someone comes to a wise
teacher or preacher and says, “I cannot understand why God would say that He
hated Esau.” The teacher then replies,
“That is not my difficulty. My trouble
is to understand how God could love Jacob.”
Both Esau and Jacob had some major character problems. They both did bad things. They were both a kind of scoundrel. At the end (or maybe better to say at the
beginning), God chose Jacob.
What then shall we say? Is
God unjust? Not at all! – Romans 9:14
One danger is to consider the choices of
God to be arbitrary, to think that God chooses in an “eeny-meeny-miny-moe” way. “We may not be able to understand God’s
reasons for choosing, but God’s choices are not capricious or fickle or
random. He has a plan and a reason.
Our flesh, our human nature, rebels
against the sovereignty of God. If
anything is left to God to make the choice, people tend to conclude that there
is injustice. “We cannot avoid the
doctrine of election (predestination), nor can we reconcile God’s sovereign
election with man’s free will. Both are
true.” Spurgeon said God’s Word is yes
and yes. God has sovereign choice and
people have free will to choose at the same time. I don’t think we can understand, but
Scripture says both are true.
For He says to Moses,
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or
effort, but on God's mercy. – Romans 9:15-16
I think it is important to be aware of
the context of these verses from the Old Testament. There’s a lot going on but we don’t have time
to go too deep. In this case, Moses
asked God to show him His glory. God
told Moses that He would, but it wasn’t because of something Moses had done or
who Moses was. We can’t make demands of
God. We can make requests, and God in
his kindness and mercy responds by giving us our request in some cases and in
other cases He does not give us what we request but that too is out of His love
and kindness even though we may not see it right away or even for a long time
or not even in this life.
Paul denies injustice by appealing to
God’s sovereign right to choose. God has
the right to dispense mercy as He chooses.
God’s choice is not controlled in any way by people, but we will see
later that there is a basis for rejection.
If you remember the parable of the
landowner from Matthew (20:1-16). He
came out in the morning and hired people to work a fair wage. Then, throughout the day, he kept coming and
hiring people even until the end of the day.
The people who were hired first got paid last. When they saw the people who worked the least
got paid a full day’s wage, they thought they would get more. Instead, they were given the agreed sum.
The lesson from this parable is that God
is never less than fair with anyone, but He fully reserves the right to be more
than fair with individuals as He chooses.
That’s what mercy is. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. The music group Newsboys recorded a song
titled “Real Good Thing” way back in 1994.
The chorus goes, “When we don’t get what we deserve, that’s a real good
thing.” A few of the verses say, “All
our good deeds don’t mean squat.” and “Great idea, the only catch is, you don’t
get saved on merit badges.” and “Guilt is better, grace is sweet.”
In the end, God’s mercy is not given to
us because of what we wish to do (our human desire), or because of what we
actually do (our human effort), but simply out of His desire to show mercy.
For Scripture says to
Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My
power in you and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Therefore
God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to
harden.
– Romans 9:17-18
The Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus is
a negative example. God can reveal his
glory in showing mercy. He can also
reveal it in man’s hardness of heart.
You can study it out in Exodus. Pharaoh hardens his heart several times
without mention of God hardening his heart.
I remember it being an even split, maybe 5 and 5. Toward the end of chapter 9, we’ll see that
unbelief is the reason for rejection (or hardening).
We should be careful not to interpret verse
18 to mean that God is arbitrary in His mercy.
In my daily devotional yesterday, I read Ezekiel 9:4. There it explains that the Israelites who
were grieved by the sin around them were shown mercy.
God did harden Pharaoh. In that case, it
appears that he did it to take the situation with Israel to the extreme. Through it, God was able to display His power
and glorify His Name.
One of you will say to me:
"Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist His
will?" But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? "Shall
what is formed say to the one who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'
"Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay
some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? What if God,
although choosing to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great
patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction? What if He did
this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom He
prepared in advance for glory-- even us, whom He also called, not only from the
Jews but also from the Gentiles? – Romans 9:19-24
Do we then think that if God makes
choices that people then are relieved of responsibility?
If God says He chooses and we are
also responsible, that is difficult for us to understand, but it does not mean
that it is invalid. “Human reasoning is
not the answer to the problem. The
answer is found only in the mystery and majesty of God’s sovereignty.” (McGee)
I don’t mean to imply that God is never
to be questioned. It’s just that we
should have an attitude of respect and honor toward God as our creator. We should not behave in a God-defying way, nor
to in essence make God answerable to us. His ways are above our ways, not beneath our
ways. (Isaiah 55:9)
The emphasis in these verses is really
on mercy, and not wrath. I think when we
see the word wrath it just kind of blots everything else. But look again, God shows patience, great
patience, even to the objects of wrath. If
you remember back to Romans 2:4, God’s kindness leads us toward
repentance. Ezekiel 18 also talks about
a wicked person who turns away from their wickedness. They will be delivered. Their former wickedness is not held against
them.
In Hebrews 2:5-9, we see that when
humankind was created, God crowned us with glory and honor. This is the condition that God intended for
us. The glory and honor was lost in
Genesis 3 at the fall of Adam and Eve. But,
we will experience this glory again through Christ.
As He says in Hosea:
"I will call them 'My people' who are not My people; and I will call her 'My
loved one' who is not My loved one," and, "In the very place where it
was said to them, 'You are not My people,' there they will be called 'children
of the living God.' "Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the
number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be
saved. For the Lord will carry out His sentence on earth with speed and
finality." It is just as Isaiah said previously: "Unless the Lord
Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would
have been like Gomorrah."
– Romans 9:25-29
God worked the Gentiles into the family
of God through the disbelief and disobedience of Israel. Of the Israelites, only a remnant will be
saved. This may be difficult to accept,
but it is the revealed truth of God.
Let’s continue on because we will see the justification in the next
verses.
What then shall we say?
That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness
that is by faith; but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of
righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it
not by faith but as if it were by works. Romans 9:30-32
The problem behind and real cause of
Israel’s rejection was that she failed to believe. Hebrews 3:19 says it exactly, “We see that
they were not able to enter [into God’s rest], because of their unbelief.”
Jesus confirmed in John 6:37 that “All
those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never
drive away.” Anyone who comes to Jesus
then will never be driven away. J.
Vernon McGee said it this way, “If you want to be saved, then you are one of
the elect. If you don’t want to be
saved, then you are not.”
They stumbled over the
stumbling stone. As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes
people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in Him
will never be put to shame." – Romans
9:32-33
Jesus is that stumbling stone. I Corinthians 1:22-24 says, “Jews demand
signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling
block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
And so, Israel is responsible or
accountable for their present condition. God has not contradicted what He
previously said, which emphasized God’s sovereign plan. Human responsibility and God’s sovereign
choice are both in effect.
I think I have mentioned this thought
before which has been attributed to Charles Spurgeon. If you can envision a door which leads to
eternal life in Christ. On the outside,
it says, “Whosoever will may come.” Then,
after you go through the door, it will say, “Chosen in Christ before the
foundation of the world.” It is a mystery,
but Scripture says both things. And we
know, Scripture cannot be broken, altered or set aside. (John 10:35)
Let the one who is thirsty
come; and let the one who wishes, take the free gift of the water of life. – Revelation 22:17
For He chose us in Him
before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. – Ephesians
1:4
So, I think our response to Romans 9 should
be one of humility and thanksgiving. God
has done great things for us. God’s
kindness is available to all who want to know Him. We should extend His invitation to others
because we have been made a part of His family.
Some will not choose Him, but we don’t know who those are. Therefore, we should be eager as God is, “not
wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9)
Let’s pray.
Father God, thank You for choosing
us. Thank You for the opportunity to
believe in You and be saved. We cannot
fathom all Your ways. Your ways are
above us. You will do all things in
justice and better still in grace and mercy.
You are good. In all things, we
worship You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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