Intro
Today we gonna go over Romans 9. And with this chapter we start exploring a new theme. Few Sundays ago we discussed what is the role of THE Law in the context of the New Testament. And today we will start looking at another, pretty important question. What is the role of Israel in God’s plan in the era of the New Testament. Out today’s passage is a part of a bigger picture. Chapters 9, 10 and 11 are all talk about it. So, there is something for us to learn. With that said prepare your heart, because God will speak to you tonight. And let’s start reading:
Romans 9:1-5
¹ I am speaking the truth in Christ — I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit —²that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.³For 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.⁴They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.⁵To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Paul prepares his audience
Chapter 9 starts with Paul poring out his heart. Sharing the pain that he caries inside. Pain that he cannot cease. Because he knows there is nothing he can do about it. This section of the letter mainly addressed to the Jewish part of the congregation. But it is also very important for non Jews to hear.
Paul loved his people. Despite that it was the Jews who most of the time caused troubles for Paul. It was them who would plought against him. It was them who resisted Him most of the time in his work of preaching the Gospel. Despite that Paul was called to be an apostle for Gentiles, He was still very passionate about his own people. Which was the reason for his pain.
Question
But what is Paul grieving about? It seem like the rest of the chapter contains an answer to unspoken question. When you start reading verse 6 you feel like something missing in between 5 and 6.
In case you have same kind of filling, let me try to help you to fill in that gap. Before we will read further, let me ask you a question. Did you ever considered how many Jews actually follow Jesus? I didn’t until this week. Until I started my preparations and got to verse 6.
Then I realize that the question Paul answering and the reason of his grief is that most of the Jews reject the Messiah. They don’t believe the good news of Jesus Christ! They have all the advantages:
Romans 9:4,5
⁴They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.⁵To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
I didn’t do a proper research, but even quick overview is quite shocking. My first findings was that only 0.4% Jews consider themselves followers of Christ. It is extremely small number. Later I searched some more and if we look globally it is a bit better. It will be more like 2.5%. But still it’s shockingly small number. And almost all this people, entire 2.5% live outside Israel.
It is very, very surprising, because we are not talking about some people group who never heard the Gospel. You know, some distant, hard to reach tribe in Amazon jungle. No, we talking about God’s special people. People to whom Jesus witnessed himself! People who have all those advantages listed above.
With this statics in mind, the question arises “WHY? Is the word or God has failed?”. Because, you know, it is the most logical explanation. Or at least that’s the first thing that comes to mind. What does the bible says?
Romans 9:6-13
⁶But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,⁷and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”⁸This 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.⁹For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”¹⁰And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,¹¹though 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 —¹²she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”¹³As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Election
Addressing the Jewish part of the church Paul uses a lot of references to an Old Testament! Doing my preparation I could really relate to the believers of non Jews who listened to Paul’s letter. I had to go and look up this stories to get the context and so on, it is not something that is always at the top of your head. But anyway, there is few important things going on. Let’s brake some of them down.
Not all who was born Jew is chosen by God
First and the most radical claim that Paul makes is that not all who was born Jew should be considered children of God. It was very controversial statement. Because it went against traditional views. All Jews were considered God’s people “by default” traditionally.
Same goes for us in Christian world. And Georgia is a great but not unique example of this. People consider themselves Christians, because their parents were christian, and grand parents were christian, therefore they also christian.
Or like children of christian parents. Often we just assume that they get saved “automatically”. Just because they were born in the christian family. Of course we don’t say that out loud, but if we will be honest, that’s how we often think. But, bible never teaches that. So, in our time we have similar problem:
Not everyone who is called a Christian is truly a follower of Christ.
[EXAMPLES?]
Paul uses 2 stories from old testament as an example. Story of Abraham and story of Isaac.
And in both stories man would have more that one child. And God would chose only one of them for his divine purpose. Both of Ishmael and Isaac was legit sons of Abraham, but only Isaac was the child of the promise. Received by faith. And became the hair of God’s covenant of salvation.
And between sons of Isaac. God chose Jacob to be hair of his covenant. And it was not because of what they did. But it was God’s sovereign choice. And his choices are not arbitrary. He have plan in mind even if we don’t understand why. His choice always the best one.
It’s not about individuals
Please, note that in both of the stories we are NOT really talking about individuals and their personal destiny. But, we are talking about nations that descended from them. And also at this point we not talking about their salvation in any capacity. We talk about God’s choices of people for the fulfillment of His plan.
Hated
Verse 13 ends saying that god “hated” Esau. I wanted to mention that if you look at the life of Esau, you will see that he was a blessed man. In this context the word “hated”, not used the way we use it today. It means “loved less” or most likely it refers to the fact that Esau was not chosen to inherit God’s covenant.
Severing choice
Bible clearly show that you can not inherit “salvation”, the right to be called children of God, just by being born Jew or by being born into the Christian family for that matter.
Also you can’t earn it by work.
Leaving no chance to those who believed that being a Jew == to being saved.
Same goes for Christians. Calling yourself christian does not == to being saved. It is not something you can inherit. It is not something you can born into. It is a choice you need to make.
And in our group we have quite a few children who grow up in church or in christian family. I want you guys to think about it for a moment. Do YOU ever made YOUR choice to follow Jesus? Do you every repented before Him, from the depth of your heart? I don’t need an answer, I think it’s important for you to know the answer. And if your answer is NO. May it is time to do something about it. Maybe it is time to make YOUR OWN choice?
Maybe you didn’t grew up in the Christian home. You going to church for whatever reason, you don’t do anything that bad. But you never really repented before God. Them it’s a good time to consider to commit your life to Christ.
And while you thinking about it we will move on.
Romans 9:14-18
¹⁴What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!¹⁵For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”¹⁶So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”¹⁸So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
Injustice
Paul foresees potential reaction of his readers. “It is unfair”, “God is unfair”. “It is unfair that not all Israelites are chosen by God. Maybe it is unfair that now salvation is available for everyone who believes. After all for thousands of years they’ve been God’s special people. Following His law and so on and so forth.”
Again Paul goes back to Old Testament to state that it not injustice, but actually it is act of mercy. The story that Paul reminds us, is the story when Jews made a golden calf and started to worship him while Moses was on the mountain with God. And God wanted to destroy all of the Jews. They broke the covenant and by justice, they deserved destruction. But in the end God decides to forgive some of them.
They deserved to be destroyed. But God forgave some. Because that what pleased to Him. Not because he had too. Not because He owed them forgiveness. No. God doesn’t owe anything to anyone.
God is always fair with people. But he reserved the right to be merciful.
Mercy is when you get more then fair.
Mercy is not opposite of justice. Mercy goes above and beyond justice. And God have the right to be merciful to individuals as he pleased.
Application
We should not forget that God doesn’t owe us anything. He doesn’t owe us kindness, he doesn’t owe us blessings, he doesn’t own us healing. It is by His sovereign choice he decides to have mercy on some. Don’t forget that God is not only loving Father, He is still sovereign and almighty. Do not act like as if God owes you stuff just because you follow Him. That’s how some Christians behave, but it is not the way to go.
Hardening
Here comes the challenging part of today chapter. It’s easier for us to accept God’s divine and sovereign right to show mercy on whomever he wills. But not so much with hardening of hearts. When we read verse 18:
Romans 9:18
¹⁸So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
It just sounds wrong. Sounds unfair. It brings up uneasy questions. Does God interferes my free will? Based on this verse, some people come to conclusion that there is no such thing as a free will. It is all about God’s desire. And will of the man plays no role what so ever. We also tend to take this verse and immediately apply it to the matter of salvation. And then we come to conclusions that our logic suggests.
If that’s your case. I want you to step back. And at least consider another perspective.
Examples of Old Testament
If we would take a look on the examples that are in the bible. And there aren’t too many. We would see some things. Paul refers to the most well known story with a Pharaoh. When Israelites were slaves in Egypt and Pharaoh didn’t let them go. We all know the story. When God hardens the heart of Pharaoh. And then sends the plagues. Until Pharaoh let Israelites go.
We will leave the actual story aside. But if you imagine that Pharaoh was just a great guy, salt of the earth, top shelf, Grade-A human. Who would let Israelites go on problem. As soon as they ask. Then you making a mistake.
He and His Father was the reason Jews started to cry out to God in the first place. Because their life in Egypt became unbearable. Bible tell us that Pharaoh hardened his heart several times. He did his part of hardening too. It was not purely the influence of the divine. I like the way David Guzik puts it:
“In hardening the heart of Pharaoh, God simply allowed Pharaoh’s heart to pursue its natural inclination.”
There is few other mentions in the Old Testament. And none of them. Including the story with Pharaoh are connected to once salvation. In every occasion it is about God “steering the sheep”, so to speak. Fulfilling His plan of delivering salvation to people. And to the best of my knowledge God influenced kings or overlords, “Man in power” in order to direct Israelites. It was never about regular people lives and decisions. Never the matter of salvation.
NT Examples
There is however mention of hardening of heart in the New Testament too. And all of them refer to the same thing. It’s not even a surprise because prophet Isaiah spoke about it well before it actually happen. And that is hardening of the hearts of Jews towards the Gospel.
And if you look into it. You will see that it is divine justice. It is the result of hundreds of years of rebel against God. Ignoring Gods word. Persecuting God’s prophets. Generations of being stiffed necks. God warned Israelites about it, again and again. But they woun’t change. They did their share of hundreds hardening of their hearts for several hundreds of years. And then, same way as in the story of Pharaoh, God gave them in, or allowed their heart to pursue natural inclination.
So, even when we read those few mentions of hardening of the heart. It is never arbitrary. Never random. Never for no reason. And I will risk to says that except for one mention of divine punishment over the entire nation, It is not about the matter of salvation.
God doesn’t stop people form being saved, arbitrary. He want’s everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth.
Application
So, if Today you are in the situation when your loved ones, your close ones, people dear to your heart are not with the Lord. Or maybe they stepping away from faith. Don’t give up. Don’t think in categories like “maybe God hardens their heart or they are not divinely elected”. No. God want all people to be saved. Don’t give up. Don’t loose hope.
Romans 9:30-33
³⁰What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith;³¹but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.³²Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,³³as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Conclusion
The bottom line for today and the answer to the original question “Is the word of God failed?” is No.
Hebrews 4:12
¹²For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The word of God is actually work very well. God does not stop people from receiving salvation. But His divine, sovereign choice He made salvation available to anyone who have faith. And the problem with Israel is that they did not purse it by faith, but as if it were based on works. As the verse 32 points out. So it is not the problem of the word of God. But of people’s stubbornness.
And even in their case, God didn’t give up on Israel. We will talk about it following Sundays. But God keep being merciful. He not gonna give up on me and you! Even when we stubborn.
He is always fair to people. Not only that, but He also shows his mercy as He pleased. I don’t know about you but I’m grateful for God’s mercy. And that today I can come to Him and call Him “Father”. That I don’t have to “earn” this right. That all I need is to have faith and love Him.