Bible Study Romans 9 (2)

Paul’s Anguish Over Israel

The New American Commentary: Romans 1. The Justice of Rejection (9:1–29)

Chapters 9–11 discuss the subject of God’s righteousness in view of his apparent rejection of the Jewish nation.1

Romans 9:1–5 NIV

1 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 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, 4 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. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Question: Let’s break each verse down

Vs.3 - Is Paul taking his people over himself, why?

Vs.4 - Word-for-word what is Paul saying?

Vs.5 - Is he trying to lessen the blow of non-belief

The New American Commentary: Romans 1. The Justice of Rejection (9:1–29)

In fact, he could almost wish himself cursed by God and cut off from Christ if that would in some way benefit his kinsmen by race.3 Paul was not speaking of excommunication from the church but of final and fatal separation from Christ in the age to come.4 That, of course, would not be possible, but as Kuss comments, “One cannot measure the speech of the heart with the rules of logic.”5

As Israelites, Paul’s ethnic forbearers had a heritage rich with spiritual blessings (v. 4). Paul listed seven historic prerogatives that God had given to Israel.6 The privileges of sonship belonged to them. God commanded Moses to tell Pharaoh that Israel was his “firstborn son” (Exod 4:22; cf. Hos 11:1). The splendor of the divine presence (the “shekinah of God”) accompanied them throughout their desert journeys (Exod 13:21; 16:7, 10). God had established covenants with them (Gen 15:18; Exod 19:5) and given them the law (Ps 147:19).7 The regulations for worship in the temple had been entrusted to them (Heb 9:1). Their sacred literature was rich with the promises of God (e.g., Gen 12:7; Isa 9:6–7).8 They were descendants of the great patriarchs whose moral authority and influence provided leadership for the Jewish tribes before they became a nation (Rom 9:5). And what’s more, it is from them that the human ancestry of Christ is traced (1:3).

Romans 9:6–9 NIV

6 It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 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.” 8 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. 9 For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

Question V.6 - Explain, what is real Israel to Paul, what was it then and what is it now?

Question V.7-8 - “children of the promise”

Romans 9:10–13 NIV

10 Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

The New American Commentary: Romans 1. The Justice of Rejection (9:1–29)

As God chose Isaac rather than Ishmael, so also does he now choose to bless those who by placing their faith in Christ become the true children of Abraham.

Spiritual kinship, not ethnic origin, determined who was a true Israelite.

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The New American Commentary: Romans 1. The Justice of Rejection (9:1–29)

This should not be interpreted to mean that God actually hated Esau. The strong contrast is a Semitic idiom that heightens the comparison by stating it in absolute terms.17

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.

Question: How do we reconcile this in today’s world?

Romans 9:14–18 NIV

14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 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.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

Exodus 33:19 NIV

19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

Exodus 9:16 NIV

16 But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

Exodus 9:17 NIV

17 You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go.

Question: That seems punitive, unfair, out of character?

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Question: That seems punitive, unfair, out of character?

Question: That seems punitive, unfair, out of character?

Question: V.17 God uses pharoah like a puppet…are we all just puppets?

Question: Are we all just puppets

The New American Commentary: Romans 1. The Justice of Rejection (9:1–29)

The sovereignty of God does not set aside human responsibility

The New American Commentary: Romans 1. The Justice of Rejection (9:1–29)

Verse 18 summarizes the argument. It provides the principle of divine action on which the preceding events were based. God shows mercy as he chooses, and he hardens people’s hearts as he chooses. He is sovereign in all that he does. Although the text says repeatedly, however, that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, it also stresses that Pharaoh hardened himself (cf. Exod 7:13–14, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 34–35). Morris notes that “neither here nor anywhere else is God said to harden anyone who had not first hardened himself.”24

The New American Commentary: Romans 1. The Justice of Rejection (9:1–29)

For the Christian, however, it is important to build one’s theology not on personal perceptions of what ought to be but upon the biblical revelation of the character and purpose of God.

The New American Commentary: Romans 1. The Justice of Rejection (9:1–29)

To fault God for showing mercy to some while hardening others is to require that he conform to our fallible and arbitrary concept of justice.

Romans 9:19–21 NIV

19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 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?’ ” 21 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?

Question: Can we ask God such questions (v.20)

The New American Commentary: Romans 1. The Justice of Rejection (9:1–29)

God has not turned his back on the nation Israel; he has simply clarified what it means to be a true child of Abraham.

The New American Commentary: Romans 1. The Justice of Rejection (9:1–29)

Human logic cannot harmonize divine sovereignty and human freedom, but both are clearly taught in Scripture. Neither should be adjusted to fit the parameters of the other. They form an antinomy that by definition eludes our best attempts at explanation.

Romans 9:22–24 NIV

22 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? 23 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— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

Question: Would God say, “Just kidding.”

Question: Why should God have any patience with us?

Question: What is so amazing about gentiles being included?

Romans 9:10–13 NIV

10 Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

romans 9.

Romans 9:25–29 NIV

25 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,” 26 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.’ ” 27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. 28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.” 29 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.”

Hosea 2:23 NIV

23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”

1 Peter 2:10 NIV

10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Question: After centuries of casting out the gentiles…now all of a sudden we are all in? Or were we always in?

V.27+

Question: Is that correct…only a remnant of Jews will be saved? what about them all as children of Abraham?

V.28. Who and why is God punishing?

V.29 Explain?

Israel’s Rejection Culpable

Romans 9:30–33 NIV

30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 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.”

Question: V.30 Is this true?

Question: V.31-22 Can they ever reach their goal of attaining righteousness?

V.33 -

Isaiah 28:16 NIV

16 So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.

Isaiah 8:14 NIV

14 He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.

The New American Commentary: Romans 1. The Justice of Rejection (9:1–29)

This accords with the testimony of Scripture, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” (Mal 1:2–3). This should not be interpreted to mean that God actually hated Esau. The strong contrast is a Semitic idiom that heightens the comparison by stating it in absolute terms.17

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.

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