Romans 9

Rejection, Justice, Purpose

Text: Romans 9

Introduction

This chapter is Paul picking back up answering the question raised in chapter 3, “Is there any real advantage in being a Jew?” Paul has spent most of his time unpacking how the Jew’s had to be one “inwardly.” Simply living with confidence in national identity and following God’s written law would never be enough to receive favor from God.

It is here in this chapter where Paul gives a full answer to the earlier question. Chapters 9-11 discuss how God is righteous in view of his rejection of the Jewish nation.

Verses 1-5

WOW, you can’t help but be moved by Paul’s deep concern for his fellow Jewish kinsmen!

Paul was speaking of the removal of himself from Christ is the coming age!

What Paul expresses here gives strong validation to his integrity as an Apostle to the Gentiles!

Q — How many of you think that Paul would have loved to expressed a different reality regarding his brethren?

What he was about to say was nothing less than the absolute truth.

“in Christ”

John 14:6 “6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

“through the Holy Spirit” — The Spirit gave him assurance that he was speaking the truth.

The Believer always has the privilege of their conscience being informed by God’s Spirit.

Paul reaffirmed how the Jewish people had a rich heritage of spiritual blessings from God:

Sonship belonged to them (members of the Covenant People of God)

Moses told Pharaoh that Israel was God’s “firstborn son.”

God divine presence with them in the desert.

God made covenants with them.

God had given them His law.

Regulations for worship were given to them.

Sacred literature was entrusted to them.

Descendants of the great patriarchs.

They would provide the human ancestry of Christ Himself.

Israel had not believed the very message they were chosen to deliver to the world.

While God has faithfully blessed the nation of Israel, not everyone within the Jewish lineage was chosen to bring His Word.

While some were chosen to bring His Word, other would be blinded in order to fulfill His redemptive promise. 9-11 will bring clarity to this seemingly unfair dichotomy.

A Defense Of God’s Sovereign Election (6-33)

Sovereign = Nothing is out of God’s control; we plan, but God determines our final plans.

This does not have to carry a reformed definition.

God does not cause everything! It would be hard to explain away God being the author of evil if one believed otherwise.

Election (choosing) = God performs this for a purpose. Ask the question, “Chosen for what purpose?”

Verses 6-8

The Old Testament foretells a temporary rejection of Israel to allow the message of grace to come to the Gentiles.

Isaiah 53:3 “3 He is despised and rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: And we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Psalm 22:7–8 “7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.”

Psalm 69:9 “9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; And the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.”

The main point of chapter 3 is essential to understanding his argument in chapter 9.

Can the unbelief of Israel cause God to break His covenant with Abraham? NO!

God remains faithful to His covenantal promise regardless the response from them.

Paul had made it quite clear that he did not believe that the Jews who failed to believe in Jesus as the Messiah were saved. F. Leroy Forlines, Romans, ed. Robert E. Picirilli, First Edition., The Randall House Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Randall House Publications, 1987), 256.

(7-8) Paul is showing that while God had not abandoned his purpose in electing the nation of Israel, there was a CLEAR DISTINCTION between the descendants of Abraham and God’s children of promise.

What is the difference?

God had stayed true to blessing the nation of Israel.

However, not everyone who belonged to National Israel belonged to Israel the people of God.

Romans 2:28–29 “28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”

Galatians 6:14–16 “14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. 16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”

God had never turned His back on the nation of Israel. However God is completely justified in not saving unbelieving Jews.

You should note there are two uses of the word Israel:

First — All descendants from Abraham through Jacob.

Second — An Israel within Israel who will actually inherit the promise

The Covenant promise is made to all of the descendants of Abraham. But it is made on the condition of faith. It is no violation of the Covenant promise made to the seed of Abraham if unbelievers do not inherit the promise. Abraham “believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). F. Leroy Forlines, Romans, ed. Robert E. Picirilli, First Edition., The Randall House Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Randall House Publications, 1987), 257.

Genesis 12:2–3 “2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Verses 9-13

The freedom of the Potter in Jeremiah 18 is God expressing his sovereignty over the nations, not individuals for eternal salvation/damnation.

Isaac was the legitimate son of Abraham.

Jacob and Esau were both sons of Isaac and Rebekah — Genesis 25:23 “23 And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, And two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; And the one people shall be stronger than the other people; And the elder shall serve the younger.”

Election mentioned in verse 11 is seen here in the assigning of priority of the twins.

Quote from Malachi 1:2–3 “2 I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: Yet I loved Jacob, 3 And I hated Esau, And laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.”

“Hated” should not be viewed as God actually hating Esau individually, but in the context of calling a people to bring about a lineage for the coming of Christ, God chose Jacob over Esau.

“Hated” is a semitic idiom.

Luke 14:25–27 “25 And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”

Paul was not building a case for salvation that in no way involves the consent of the individual. Nor was he teaching double predestination. Rather he was arguing that the exclusion of so many Jews from the family of God did not constitute a failure on God’s part to maintain his covenant relationship with Israel. He had not broken his promise to the descendants of Abraham. Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 199.

Verses 14-18