It’s been a while, but I want to pick back up with our walk through Romans.  Romans 9-11 answer the question, “can we trust God”.  God made many promises to Israel through the prophets in the Old Testament, and now it would seem that God was not fulfilling those promises – that God was turning His back on Israel.  Paul is going to answer that charge by first rightly defining “Israel” and also laying out some pretty hard hitting doctrine on God’s sovereignty in salvation and all things in the process.  All we have in this life is our hope in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Can we trust God.  Is he faithful?  Hopefully Romans 9-11 will be challenging, but not a burden, as we remember that our Lord IS faithful, He never changes, never falters, and will surely bring to pass all that He has promised.

Romans 9:1-13 – “I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For 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.  They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.  To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.  But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This 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. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”  And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though 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— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”  As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” (Bolded by me for emphasis)

The metanarrative of the Bible is God’s glory manifested through the redemption of a people unto Himself.  God chose a people, Israel, in the Old Testament to be the object of His plan for redemption.  What Paul is expressing here, is that there is an inner and an outer Israel, but from the beginning, God’s chosen people have always been the inner Israel.  Outer Israel is the physical nation of Israel, the physical descendents of Abraham, but inner Israel has always been those who believed God and their faith has been counted to them as righteousness.  There are countless examples in the Old Testament about how the physical nation of Israel rejected God, but there was always a remnant within, the True Israel (inner Israel) that never lost faith in God.  Here are two examples to illustrate this from the Old Testament (there are many, many more):

Numbers 21:4-9 – “From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”  Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.  And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.  And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”  So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”  Many people of the nation of Israel (outer Israel) died in their unbelief at this time, yet God kept a people of faith for Himself among those with Moses (inner Israel).

So Paul answers the question as to God’s faithfulness to Israel by explaining that Israel is not the physical nation of Israel by itself, but the remnant of Israel that believes.  This remnant would include those in the physical nation of Israel, and all other nations whose faith rested in Jesus.  This does not mean that God is done with the physical nation of Israel – we’re going to see that more in Romans 11, but it does mean that His promises are to the children of faith, the children of promise according to God.  Paul is going to expand on this more in the upcoming verses.  What is key to understand here is that God’s choosing is not restrained by anything.  God does not save “the good people” and damn “the bad people”.  Paul makes that clear with the example of Jacob and Esau, say that before they had been born and before they had done anything wrong, God determined to love Jacob and hate Esau.  To explain what is meant by love and hate here, you must understand the value and worth of the mercy and salvation of God.  Esau provided for the family, whereas Jacob steals his brother’s birthright (a greater inheritance) and tricks his dying father, Isaac into giving him the blessing meant for Esau.  Certainly God should love Esau more than Jacob, right?  Both Jacob and Esau were sinners.  We know from Romans 1-8 that all have fallen short of the glory of God and deserve the judgment of God.  Jacob was chosen by God for mercy, however.    The mercy and salvation of God is so infinitely valuable, that to compare the mercy and salvation of God to the lack of the mercy and salvation of God, is to rightly say that God loved Jacob and hated Esau.  Over time you see the fruit of the salvation of Jacob by his pursuing God, whereas Esau rejects God.      

I’m not going to dance around this doctrine to appeal to the masses, I will say this clearly, because scripture makes it clear – Salvation is of the Lord, from beginning to the end.  The heart cry of a Christian is not to make much of their effort, but of the love and mercy of God extended to them.  We’ve walked through clearly in Romans 1-2 man’s guilt before God because He chooses sin instead of worshipping the Lord, we’ve seen in Romans 3, that no one is righteous, that no one seeks for God, we’ve seen in Romans 4-5 that all of us sinned in Adam, are born into the same sin, and have no hope in ourselves because we are sinners by both action and in our nature (the inclination of our heart and mind is always sin apart from God).  Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is Truth and good news indeed, because only when we are truly hopeless can we find hope in Jesus.  Only if we have NO hope in ourselves can we stop trying to pursue salvation through good works and truly find peace in the words of Jesus, “It is finished”.  We bring nothing to the table of salvation.  God ordained from before the world began those whom He chose unto salvation. (Eph 1:11-14)  We don’t like hearing that, we like to say that we choose God – it seems like we have to have some part of the equation in order for God’s choosing us to be “right”.  Brothers and sisters, if God required us to come to him, we would never come.  Let us boast therefore, in our hopelessness and the love and mercy of God.  Let us boast that if we have believed God, He is faithful to fulfill His promises.  He is faithful to complete the good work that He began in us. Philippians 1:6 – “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”  I do not know why God chooses some and not others, that knowledge is hidden in the mind of God, but I know that He is good.  I also know that the call of Jesus is real, anyone who would repent and believe in Jesus alone for salvation will be saved.  It is the glory of God that even the person bringing the gospel to one to be saved is ordained by God.  It is the glory of God that He works in the heart of the person hearing the gospel to believe.  It is the glory of God that He is faithful to fulfill His promise to us through Jesus.

I’ve dug into some of the doctrine that God has for us in Romans 9, and more is to come.  I have spoken this Truth of God’s word here in Romans 9 before to some Christians, who respond by saying – “That’s not my God – that’s not the God I worship”.  Now in my younger years, I would usually respond in a short way by saying, “well then you’re not worshipping the God of the Bible, so you better think about that”.  Inevitably those disagreements escalated and were not helpful.  My age has tempered my response somewhat, because I want to edify and unite rather than hammer away at professing believers (except where a false gospel is preached).  So my encouragement to those that will be offended by this message and the messages to come in Romans 9-11 is this – let God’s Word persuade you and the Holy Spirit convict you.  Don’t believe me, but don’t believe yourself either – believe God from His Word.  I’ve been convinced by scripture over time that man makes choices, but those choices are guided by God.  God ordains everything… everything for His purpose for His glory.  At some point you have to really let go of your own understanding, and take God at His Word.  Instead of saying, well this doesn’t make sense to me – or this isn’t what I want it to be, so I’m not going to believe it, instead go to God with, well, I don’t understand this completely, but it’s clear in your Word, so help me find greater joy in you because of this Truth.  The decrease of self, the increase of God is joy for those whose treasure is Jesus.  For those who would forsake the world to gain Jesus, this doctrine will be peace and joy.

Grace and Peace,

Adam