Romans 9:1-8 "The Power of Promise"pt.1

Introduction:

Today there are two basic camps inside evangelicalism in regards to the identity of Israel.

Some hold that Israel is basically referring to those who are ethnically Jewish. They can trace their lineage all the way back to the twelve tribes of Jacob. And from there they can easily connect to Abraham as their ethnic father.

Those who hold to this view believe there is a distinction between Israel and the Church. And they believe that the promises made to Abraham are primarily fulfilled in Israel as an ethnic nation.

Others argue that Israel is primarily a spiritual identity. This is where even Gentiles are identified with Christ as the basis of their spiritual identity. And through Christ the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant are secured for them as spiritual Israel.

Those who hold this view believe the Church as spiritual Israel supersedes Israel as a nation.

Hopefully our text this morning will help instruct us as to the identity of Israel but that is not the reason for this text primarily being here in the Book of Romans.

This text is here because of the way God’s sovereignty is tied to His covenant promise being fulfilled in regards to both the Gentile and the Jew. Paul is explaining that truth in light of his own ethnic identity as a Christian Apostle as well as a Jewish man in the first century.

As we see here in Romans 9 he has a profound understanding of Israel’s heritage regarding the promise of God. Look back to your text at verses 1-5:

I. The Heritage of the Promise (1-5).

The Love for Ethnic Israel (1-3).

Notice first that he has a deep love for ethnic Israel which he refers to as his, “kinsmen according to the flesh.” Make a mental note of that distinction.

The Apostle Paul was a Jew himself and he loved his fellow Jews so much that he was in anguish for them regarding their salvation. Paul desired his people to be saved.

He desired this so much that he would have been willing to be condemned as cut off from Christ if he thought it could help his fellow Jewish brothers to come to Christ.

He actually doesn’t disregard them when it comes to their ethnicity but in verse 4-5 declares their legacy as a people singled out by God.

The Legacy of Ethnic Israel (4-5).

To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises (4).

When he refers to these things I think he is speaking of that OT context in how God established His plan of redemption in the OT Scriptures.

And God did that in the ethnic context of the Jewish people through the patriarch, Abraham and his descendants (5).

This is why he says in verse 5, “to them belong the patriarchs.” And as he points out that from the ethnic line of Abraham through the patriarchs comes the Christ, who is God over all.

What we see here in these 5 verses is that God has worked through the Jewish people to bring about His redemptive purposes to the whole world as He has worked across ethnic lines.

In this sense Christianity is truly a Jewish religion. Jesus and His disciple were Jewish, and all of them descended from Abraham. I don’t know how you could get more Jewish from that when it comes to ethnic origins of the Christian religion.

I remember one Jewish man I was witnessing to from the OT using Isaiah 53. And he argued that if Christianity was true it would destroy his heritage.

Of course he was surprised when I said back to him emphatically that this Christianity is your heritage.

The origins of Christianity being rooted in Judaism from the OT is no secret. But when those covenant promises are being applied that is were things expand across ethnic lines. Look back at your text to verses 6-8:

II. The Application of the Promise (6-8).

There is an important Principle of Biblical Fulfillment that must be understood when we are dealing with covenant promise application (6-7).

And that is simply the principle of divine intent when the promise was given and divine understanding of what constitutes fulfillment.

The word of God gives us insight into this and the word of God is incapable of failure. Paul alludes to this in the first line of verse 6. The word didn’t fail because the covenant promises were never primarily about ethnicity when it came to their fulfillment.

How do we know? Because “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.

What does Paul mean by this? Obviously he is not talking about ethnic decent being the chief identifier as being true Israel and a child of Abraham.

The true child of Abraham and true Israel descend through Isaac. And this reference to Isaac at the end of verse 7 has quotations around it in the ESV. This is because it is a citation from Genesis 21:12 --But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”

You see Abraham already had a son through Sarah’s servant girl Hagar. That son was named Ishmael and he was born due to Abraham and Sarah trying to initiate the fulfillment of the promise themselves through ordinary sexual means.

Sarah was barren. She was unable to conceive and she had never given birth in all her 90 years and it was laughable to think that it would happen now.

But the dead womb was made alive and Abraham and Sarah conceived a son and they named him Isaac. It came to pass according to the power of the promise.

There was a supernatural element initiated by God in connection to His promise that caused a 90 year old barren woman to conceive and give birth. It was the power of promise that brought it to pass and it serves as the basis of the principle of covenant identity back in Romans 9:8.

The Principle of Covenant Identity refers to the nature of one’s identity. An identity according to the flesh is ethnic identity and it means nothing (8).

This corresponds to Ishmael and he is not the covenant child. He is a child according to the flesh. That which is initiated by man attempting to take the power of promise out of the hands of God and initiate covenant fulfillment by their own hands. It doesn’t work that way.

Early on in my Christianity I thought that evangelism was primarily between me and the person I was preaching to coming to an understanding between ourselves on purely a human level.

You can see some immediate results in such situations but real conversions are not initiated by men they are initiated by God in accordance with divine grace.

Christian if this kind of thinking is informing our evangelism then we will focus in on wining arguments as the emphasis instead of gospel proclamation and reliance on God to work His transforming power in those we preach to.

Scripture tells us that the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing but to those who are being saved it is the power of God for salvation (I Cor. 1:18).

This is why Preachers who faithfully preach the gospel could never offend someone out of heaven. They are already hell bound before the Preacher opens his mouth and the only message that will open their eyes to the reality of salvation is the gospel.

Children of the Promise are the true offspring of Abraham. And before you say will it is referring to those Jews descending from Abraham through Isaac in the ethnic sense; No, it is not the case because those are the ones that Paul is grieving over back up in verse 1-5.

The crux of the matter is not the ethnic identity of a person but whether or not a supernatural transforming miracle of God has occured, not in the deadness of a barren woman’s womb, but in the deadness of a depraved heart of a sinful man or woman.

This is why Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3: “You must be born again.”

You say but my parents were Christians and I was raised in Church, You must be born again.

But Pastor Brett I was baptized as an infant and I took my first communion after my confirmation, that's all well and good but You must be born again.

But I am a good person and I keep the law perfectly, stop bearing false witness! You must be born again.

Conclusion:

Cry out to God in His mercy to transform you that you may believe the gospel for your salvation.

Jesus Christ died in the place of sinners. He paid the penalty that we deserved for our sin. Trust in Him by faith alone.

Christian the truth of the power of God’s promise is the very reason that we can expect that God is at work sanctifying us. It can be painful but it should affirm the reality of His love for us again and again and again.

His grace is sufficient for you, confess your sin and rest in Him. Lets Pray!