Romans 9:1-13

God Is For You

Without warning, the Apostle Paul moves from celebration of God's inseparable love to lamentation over Israel's unbelief.

Romans 9-11 serves as Paul's vindication of God's faithfulness to Israel.

In Rom. 8:31-39, Paul describes the love of God for His people as being unconquerable by anything in creation.

"Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

But if God is faithful to the end and nothing can separate us from His love toward us, then several questions arise within the context of Israel:

1.  God made promises to Israel, to be their God and they His people.

Deut 7:6 "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth."

2.  It seems all of God's promises previously made to Israel have NOW taken an unexpected turn.  The majority of Israel has rejected the promised Messiah and therefore their place in the Kingdom of God, but the Gentiles who were not God's people, have embraced the Messiah and now become recipients of all of the promises that were originally made to Israel.  They now have become the "new Israel."

3.  Do the promises of God to Israel now mean nothing?  Has God revoked the covenantal blessings and gone back on His word to Israel?  And if so, how can Christians today trust that God will be faithful to fulfill His promises to them?  Is God faithful?  Can He be trusted in light of Israel?

Paul begins his answer to the question of God's faithfulness:

1. by distinguishing between two Israel's.  There is national, ethnic Israel that descended, for the most part, biologically from Abraham.  Then there is true, spiritual Israel. 

2.  Paul's point is that membership in national Israel is based simply on birthright, but membership in God's true, spiritual Israel is based solely upon God gracious and sovereign electing choice.  Membership in national Israel does not guarantee membership in spiritual Israel. 

3.  And this was true in the Old Covenant as well as in the New Covenant.  Membership in God's true covenant people is not based on birthright, in either the Old Covenant or in the New Covenant, but solely on God's free and sovereign choice. 

God has never based membership into true, spiritual Israel solely upon birthright.  Paul will quote extensively from the Old Testament to prove that membership into true Israel has always been based solely upon God's electing choice, not man's physical descent or even his willing decision.

1-5 -- The Privileges of National Israel

Paul is the "Apostle to the Gentiles" and throughout many of his epistles he has had to confront both Jews and Judaizers.  In many places he has stressed the fact that Gentile Christians are free from the law of Moses and come to Christ solely through faith alone. 

He also argues (Rom. 2) that Jews are not guaranteed salvation simply through the Mosaic Covenant and physical descent from Abraham.

Because of these emphases, Paul has become known as being "anti-Jewish".

He now takes these first 3 verses to prove that he would even give his own life (eternal damnation) for the sake of National Israel (vv. 1-3) -- He loves his brethren in the flesh.  (cf. Moses after the Golden Calf incident -- Ex. 32:30-32).

Even though he is the "Apostle to the Gentiles", he is still a Jew.

The Divine Privileges -- (4-5)

Israelites -- God's covenant people

a.  adoption -- God's sond.  giving of the law -- Sinai

b.  glory -- God's Presence    e.  service/worship -- sacrificial system

c.  covenants-- OT  f.  promises -- Abraham, Moses, etc.

1.  Descent from the fathers of the Israel

2.  Messiah descends from Israel -- eternal God in human flesh

They have been given many advantages that were withheld from the majority of mankind.  But yet, they respond in unbelief.

6 -- The Word of God Has Not Failed

God has given to Israel all of these privileges -- has He now reneged on His promises and simply replaced Israel with the Gentiles?  And if so, can Gentile Christians trust that God will not replace them as well?

Does the OT teach that belonging to physical, national Israel guarantee membership into God's true, spiritual Israel?  Does physical, biological descent guarantee eternal salvation?

In order to answer this questioning of God's faithfulness to Israel, Paul must first ask:  "Who is true Israel?"  -- This distinction was true in the OT as well.

a.  National Israel -- broader, ethnic Israel membership based on birthright; physical descent

b.  Spiritual Israel -- Who?  Romans 2:28-29 -- True Jew -- inward circumcision of the heart

(cf. Col. 3:11; Gal. 3:28-29; 6:16; Eph. 2:11-22; Phil. 2:3)

God has now taken the elect of Israel and the elect of the Gentiles to make one chosen people -- Spiritual Israel. -- Birthright is not a guarantee for salvation.

7-9 -- God Chose Isaac and Rejected Ishmael

From within National Israel God specifically made sovereign choices of who would be eternally saved and therefore members of Spiritual Israel.

If birthright is not a guarantee of salvation, then what is?

Jews looked to their descent from Abraham (Father of the Faith) as the source of spiritual benefits.  Because they were the children or seed of Abraham, then they were promised all of the blessings which were promised to Abraham.

Paul's answer is simply:  NOT all of Abraham's children are the Children of God. -- To be a child of Abraham in the physical sense does not guarantee being a child of Abraham in the spiritual sense. -- Salvation is NOT a Jewish birthright.

God makes His covenant promises with Abraham -- Sarah is barren, so Hagar is chosen to bare a son for Abraham -- Ishmael.  But God never intended on fulfilling His promise this way.  Ishmael -- the product of natural generation -- was not the promised son.  Instead, God would sovereignly and supernaturally bring forth the promise child from Sarah's barren womb.  The promise child would come from God's sovereign work, not man's.

However, once Abraham saw Ishmael, Abraham was sure that this was the promised child.  Sarah wanted to throw out Ishmael and Hagar from the house and the land, but Abraham would not do it.  God comes to Abraham and tells him to cast them out, because the promised seed will come through God's chosen child -- Isaac -- and NOT Abraham's firstborn, Ishmael.

What counts for salvation is not physical descent from Abraham, but God's sovereign grace.  Not the "children of the flesh" but the "children of the promise" are the children of God.  God ALONE determines who are His children.

10-13 -- God Chose Jacob and Rejected Esau

Isaac finds a wife -- Rebecca -- She, like Sarah, was barren and her barrenness would be overcome only by God's intervention.  She conceives two boys.  From the same mother, before they were ever born, God determines their destinies.

Again, God takes children of physical descent -- even the same mother -- and chooses one and rejects the other.  Physical descent is not the basis for salvation.

Paul wants to stress that the twins shared the same mother, the same father, and conceived at the same time and therefore neither of the twins had a higher claim to the divine promise as a birthright than the other.

In order to stress that God's election of Jacob and rejection of Esau was based on nothing in them, Paul makes three statements about the boys:

(a.)  not yet being born;  (b.)  not having done any good or evil; and (c.)  not of works but of Him who calls.

Paul's point is that God chose one and rejected the other.  God predetermined the destinies of Jacob and Esau before they were born and based solely upon His own purpose, not on anything in the boys.

Nothing in the boys could have been the basis for God's choice -- if God's plan depended upon the works of sinful human beings, the God's "word" would have failed a long time ago.  God's Word and promises is based solely upon His sovereign plan which is worked out in history by which He alone brings to pass all that He has preordained.

God's choice alone is the basis for whether or not someone is a child of God. 

Therefore, God's Word has not failed.  All who have been elected are being saved.  Physical descent from Abraham is no guarantee that an Israelite will be saved.  God's election of His true people is based on His own sovereign purpose not upon anything in man.  Therefore, God will choose whom He chooses, and He will reject whom He rejects.  He loves Jacob, but hates Esau, not because of anything they have done, but solely that the purpose of God according to election  might stand.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

Amen!  +SDG+