Romans 9:1-13

During one of our trips to Eastern Market, I was talking to a vendor and she asked me if I was interested in any peaches. I asked her if she had any that were crunchy, because I only like crunchy peaches. She told me that I wanted crunchy peaches I would have to go buy somebody else unripened fruit. In fact, most fruit that I enjoy eating has be crunchy. It’s what I prefer and that is what I choose to eat. Once a piece of fruit is soft and squishy, I am no longer interested in eating it. The only exception is a banana.

I make decisions about fruit. I elect to eat certain fruit and elect to not eat certain fruit.

When we get to verse 11, we’re going to see a phrase “in order that God’s purpose of election might continue.”

There are lots of ideas circulating around Christian circles about election. We want to be careful about defining God’s abilities through human comprehension. God is sovereign. God is creator of all things. God is planner of all things. God is provider of all things. God is sustainer of all things.

I am none of those things. I made a pot of coffee this morning. I didn’t grow the beans. I didn’t roast the beans. I didn’t even the grind the beans. I opened a pouch, poured the grounds in a filter and hit the start button.

As a very basic understanding of election, I want us to see the Lord makes decisions and I don’t get to tell him what decision he has the ability to make past, present, or future. At a complex level, there are parts of election we will not understand on this side of heaven. I think it’s important that we acknowledge that.

Main idea: The Lord makes decisions about people and people make decisions about the Lord.

God made a decision about a specific group of people. Some of that group absorbed a religious background, but rejected Jesus Christ.

Romans 9:1–5 ESV

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Last week, we read the final verses in chapter 8, nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” At the beginning of chapter 9, Paul pours out his heart for his native Jewish brothers and sisters. Paul said, I am speaking the truth in Christ. My conscience bears the witness of the Holy Spirit. My heart is broken for you, native Jews.

Paul’s heart had been cultivated by the Lord and that alone allowed him to speak these words to the Jewish community. He spoke from his union with Christ. He sought the mind of Christ in all matters, especially when addressing other people. We can trust Paul’s conscience because he was completely surrendered to the Lord and his conscience was seared by the Holy Spirit.

In 1st Timothy 4, Paul told Timothy that our consciences can be seared by deception and therefore an unreliable guide for truth - apart from surrendering our conscience to the Holy Spirit.

This posture of surrender is the posture that Paul writes Romans 9-11.

Paul told them that he was filled sorrow because of their spiritual condition. He had grieved on their behalf and he would take their place, if it were possible.

Where was their place? Verse 3 tells us they were accursed and cut off from Christ. Which means they were separated from Christ and devoted to destruction.

That isn’t where Israel began…

In Genesis 12:2, the Lord called Abram. “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”

In Genesis 15, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham.

In Genesis 26:3, the Lord made a promise to Isaac. “Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands.”

In Genesis 28:13-14, the Lord make a promise to Jacob. “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

Let’s go to Exodus 29:45–46. “I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.”

Fast forward to Deuteronomy 14:2 and another promise. “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the people who are on the face of the earth.”

God didn’t just decide one thing, one time. He reinforced that decision to generation after generation.

Look at verse 4. They’re Israelites. They have the adoption. They have seen the glory. They remember the covenants. They have been given the Torah. They remember the six hour worship services in Nehemiah. They love the Jerusalem and the temple. They boast about their family heritage; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. The Messiah was born from their ethnicity. The God of all creation decided to wear the skin of their heritage.

Those are the people that Paul said were separated from Christ and devoted to destruction.

There is a warning for each of us. It is possible for people to have a spiritual heritage or a religious background and be far from Jesus. It is possible to participate in everything that a church offers and not have a heart that is being cultivated by the Lord. It is possible to participate in a Christian community or culture and not seek the mind of Christ. It is possible to have once believed you were the Lord’s treasured possession, but currently lack a posture of surrender.

There is also an encouragement for each of us. Grieving for the lost changes our perspective in life. Agonizing in prayer for those who know the truth but reject Jesus cultivates our hearts and deepens our union with Christ. Allowing our heart to break over those that need Jesus in our own families helps us to seek the mind of Christ and his wisdom and grace. Some of you know that.

God makes decisions according to his purposes and not based on human worthiness.

Romans 9:6–13 ESV

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Verses 6-7 have a significant shift in the language. I want to throw out a few things for you to think about during the week and I’m going to come back to them next week. As Christians, we believe that Israel is God’s chosen nation. What Israel are we talking about? Are we talking about the original 12 tribes and the original allotment of the Promise Land? Are we talking about the 10 tribes that made up the nation of Israel in the Old Testament after King Solomon? Are we talking about the tribe of Judah? Are we talking about Jerusalem? Are we talking about an ethnic group of people that are far removed from the Palestine region? How we answer that question has implications to what we believe about Romans 9-11 and how we read/understand our Bible.

Romans 9:6–7 “For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring”

Galatians 6:16 “And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.”

Galatians 3:7 “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.”

Galatians 3:29 “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”