by Audrey Bauman

Before I post Romans 9, I want to prepare you for what’s coming next.  Romans is an important book of the Bible to read and understand because it’s kind of like the PhD thesis of Christianity.  It explains what the Christian faith is all about and also goes into detail about how to apply it to our lives in practical ways.  

The first 8 chapters describe how to have a right relationship with God. We are not perfect and there is no way we can live up to God’s standards through our own effort.   (Romans 3: 23 – “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.  NASB)  Then Paul explains what faith is about; our new life comes from faith in Christ’s death to take our punishment and His resurrection to show that God accepted that punishment.  (Romans 5: 1 and 2 – “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God”.  NASB)    Then we have all those wonderful verses in chapter 8 that talk about the Holy Spirit living in us, praying for us, and helping us grow more like Jesus.  That chapter also assures us that we are children of God and that nothing can separate us from God’s love.  (Romans 8: 16 – “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.    – as well as – Romans 8: 39 and 39 – “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”    NASB)

Beginning at chapter 12, Paul discusses the practical application of our faith in many areas of our lives, and when we get to those chapters we will have lots to think about.  But the three chapters in between (9 – 11) are more directed toward Israel.  I think we should read them to understand God’s plan for Jewish people and Christians, but those chapters are kind of tough reading.  However, I think we can manage to plough through them so we can say we have actually read this book from beginning to end.

I think the main things you should keep in mind as you read them over the next three days is that Paul is reminding the Jews that their human birth and genealogy does not mean they have an absolute ‘in’ with God.  God had a sovereign plan right from the beginning that would include all people.   The Jewish nation will always have a special place in God’s heart, and He will keep His promises to them, but right now God’s plan involves faith in Jesus, the Messiah.  The fact that the Jews rejected  Jesus and won’t accept by faith God’s provision for them, means that they are temporarily set aside as God’s ambassadors on earth and the church is now the way of God spreading His good news of reconciliation and relationship with Him.

As you read chapter 9, remember that Paul is talking to the Jews and reminding them that God is in control and always has been.  He gives examples of God’s sovereign will in the Old Testament, and then concludes with a reminder that people who accept God by faith in Jesus are the ‘righteous ones’.   It’s not just those who are Jewish by natural birth.

The verses that speak to me the most in this chapter are the opening verses where Paul agonizes over the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish people.  Some had accepted Him like Paul, but the majority did not.  The last verses also jumped out at me.  Those verses talk about the Gentile people accepting Jesus, and Paul refers to the Old Testament prophecies that this would happen. Paul can’t understand why the Jews would prefer to concentrate on how righteous they think they are, while they are actually missing the true way to relationship with God.

So here we go:

Romans 9  NLT

With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. 2 My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief 3 for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. 4 They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. 5 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

6 Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! 7 Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too. 8 This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. 9 For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

10 This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. 11 But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; 12 he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” 13 In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

14 Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! 15 For God said to Moses,

“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,
     and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”

16 So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.

17 For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” 18 So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

19 Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

20 No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? 22 In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. 23 He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. 24 And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

25 Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea,

“Those who were not my people,
     I will now call my people.
 And I will love those
     whom I did not love before.”

26 And,

“Then, at the place where they were told,
     ‘You are not my people,’
 there they will be called
     ‘children of the living God.’”

27 And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,

“Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,
     only a remnant will be saved.
28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth
     quickly and with finality.”

29 And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:

“If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
     had not spared a few of our children,
 we would have been wiped out like Sodom,
     destroyed like Gomorrah.”

Israel’s Unbelief

30 What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. 31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. 33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,

“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,
     a rock that makes them fall.
 But anyone who trusts in him
     will never be disgraced.”

Our song for today is Holy Roar by Chris Tomlin.