Letter to the Romans -- Chapter 9
After concluding the first 8 chapters of his letter to the Romans Paul makes a very distinct change and break in his discussion. His general dissertation on the law and gospel in Jesus Christ, as the Scriptures proclaim it, is complete and he moves on to much tougher and more difficult issues. These issues of the providence and sovereignty of God and His predestination and election must be looked at in the light of the law and gospel that was proclaimed by Paul before this. It is only thru Jesus Christ, who suffered, died, and rose again for our sakes, that we can begin to grasp what Paul endeavors to teach us here and to find the comfort that is intended here for the mature in faith. In the end we must always remember to stay focused on the grace that has been given us in the manger, cross, and empty tomb as we delve into these revealed mysteries of God’s will. To understand these hard mysteries to come we must be rooted in Jesus Christ and how God and His will is truly only seen in Him. Without Jesus Christ as the center of election, predestination, and sovereignty we will only create a false god of our reason and rationalizing. Therefore Paul prefaces what he is saying by reassuring us that he is speaking and writing under the inspiration and carrying along of the Holy Spirit: “I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 9:1). What Paul is telling us and teaching is nothing but God’s Word. It is in fact not Paul who is the teacher, but it is the only true teacher of the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Spirit Himself.
Paul begins: “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen” (Romans 9:2-5). In the midst of this lament over some of the people of Israel being lost and having rejected Christ, Paul raises the unspoken question that our sinful nature comes back to time and time again: Why have some men been lost in the face of God’s grace? Has God and His mercy failed? Have His promises failed? Is His Word unfaithful? Paul answers without hesitation these questions raised by our sinful reasoning: “It is not as though God's word had failed” (Romans 9:6). Our reasoning however is still not satisfied, so on we go raising more questions: If God’s Word has not failed, is the reason that some are lost and some are saved because some men have a better will and have made a smarter “decision”? Is each individual man really the one who “controls” his destiny and determines his “fate”? Is God Himself powerless to save those He chooses and desires? Is it possible that God only desires some men to be saved and He chooses some as opposed to others?
In response to and in the face of these hard questions Paul starts his teaching: “Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. For this was how the promise was stated: ‘At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son’” (Romans 9:6-9). Here Paul once again reiterates what he taught earlier in his letter, that the true people of Israel are Abraham’s descendants by faith, it is thru the promise of God that men are regarded as his offspring and not by natural “man-determined” means. Because it is the promise that determines the true people of Israel we also see that it is therefore the Word of God that makes men the true children of God. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). No choice, will, or desire of man makes us the people of Israel, but God’s will alone as revealed in His Word, in Jesus Christ incarnate, crucified, and risen.
Paul continues: “Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’” (Romans 9:10-13). By pointing to the story of Jacob and Esau, Paul once and for all squashes the possibility that man is in “control” of his destiny. Paul specifically states that before the twins were born and even before they were able to do anything “good or bad” God had determined their paths in life. The key comforting words of Paul here are “not by works but by Him who calls,” because in them we find that God’s election is not one of anger or wrath, but is a gracious call apart from what our wretched works truly deserve. God does this so that His purpose in election might stand in opposition to the sinful will of us depraved men who do nothing but reject and hate Him. “In his heart a man plans his course, but Yahweh determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). “Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is Yahweh's purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21). “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16).
After proclaiming this sovereign election of God Paul anticipates the questions that arise in the face of this hard truth. Our sinful reason immediately desires to raise its perverted sense of justice and accuse God of being unjust or “playing favorites” in His choice of election: “What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion’” (Romans 9:14-15). Paul responds by implicitly pointing back to what he taught us in the first few chapters. The key to seeing the election of God for the gracious and merciful call that it is, is our proper understanding of sin. If we do not understand the magnitude of our sin and the harsh demands of the law that stand against us men who are “by nature objects of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3), then we will never see election as a gracious comfort of God. The prerequisite for understanding that God has mercy on whom He will have mercy, is that we see that no man deserves the mercy of God and that we all deserve His punishment and wrath. “Yahweh is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies” (Isaiah 34:2). His election is purely merciful as He has chosen to be compassionate to men who have done nothing but reject and despise Him. “Their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath” (Psalm 78:37-38).
Paul continues on by proclaiming in very clear language that the election and compassion of God depends not on man’s choosing or works, but solely on God’s mercy. “It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy” (Romans 9:16). It does not matter how much we desire, will, or choose, or even how much we work, strive, or give effort, it will all amount to nothing apart from God’s merciful and gracious choosing. “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). If we do not understand our impotence in the midst of our slavery and sinfulness then we will never understand this and we will falsely think that predestination and God’s election are the most “unfair” things in the world. This however is only the reaction of evil and wretched men who somehow think we are “entitled” to God’s favor and “deserve” His blessing. It is for this reason that God has given us His law, which reveals our utter sinfulness for what it is, so that we will finally see the true comfort that is derived and found in God’s choosing and election. Predestination is so comforting because in its promise we never have any reason to doubt our election and choosing by God Himself. Instead of doubt we will daily see that in the manger, cross, and empty tomb of Jesus Christ we (you and me specifically!) have already been called and chosen and that thru God’s grace given there we are surely and most certainly the elect of God on whom He has undeservedly chosen to have mercy. “God has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:9-10).
As he continues his teaching on the providence, election, and predestination of God, Paul once again uses an illustration from the Scriptures to hammer home his point: “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: ‘I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden” (Romans 9:17-18). Here we see that Pharaoh was raised up by God and hardened by God in order to fulfill God’s divine purposes and to proclaim God’s name thru all the earth. In the mystery of God’s providence He can give whoever He desires over to their already sinfully hardened hearts and if He so desires He can also compassionately have mercy on whomever He chooses. Our sinful flesh however absolutely despises the idea that God could harden the heart of Pharaoh and attempts to play the despicable “blame game” with God, accusing Him of unfairness and injustice: “One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?’ But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? ‘Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” (Romans 9:19-21). In the face of these questions Paul reminds us who is God and who is the creature, showing us that we are nothing but clay in the Potter’s hands. It is absolutely ridiculous for us to question the purposes and ways of God since He is the Creator and Master of all things. In our sinful arrogance, that we have lived in since the fall of Adam and Eve, we somehow think that we have the freedom that belongs only to God and believe that we do have or should have some sort of “say” in how things are. We, the powerless clay, in our pride somehow think that God is supposed to follow our will and our ways, as we elevate ourselves to the level of “god” in thinking that we should somehow be “running the show.” “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He did not make me’? Can the pot say of the potter, ‘He knows nothing’?” (Isaiah 29:16). If God is truly our Creator then it is absolutely absurd that we should question His ways; do the creations of our hands have the right and ability to question us? Does the technology of our hands talk back to us and complain that we do not know what we are doing? So then who are we to question God? “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?...Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?” (Isaiah 45:9, 11). Do we dare quarrel with our Maker and doubt His wisdom to carry out what is best? Even if we wanted to argue with Him, how, in our ignorance, do we even have the knowledge or wisdom to know where to begin? “Though one wished to dispute with him, he could not answer him one time out of a thousand. His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?...If he snatches away, who can stop him? Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’…How then can I dispute with him? How can I find words to argue with him?” (Job 9:3-4, 12, 14). God Himself declares that we are the clay in His hands and are in no position to talk back to Him and question His ways and decisions. “‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?’ declares Yahweh. ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel’” (Jeremiah 18:6).
Having great patience and concern, Paul continues on and asks a couple questions of his own towards those of us who would dare question God and His ways: “What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:22-24). Paul once again points out that our failure to see sin for what it truly is, has blinded us to the astounding graciousness and mercy of God. Do we, who have rejected and despised God and have turned ourselves into His objects of wrath, dare complain and moan about Him showing compassion to us? By questioning God we are in reality complaining about Him having mercy on us; how absurd! We must see that we deserve His punishment and wrath, and only then will we finally understand that God’s ways are truly merciful and compassionate beyond compare. God has decided to undeservedly turn His enemies (you and me!) into His children thru the grace of the work of Jesus Christ. He has borne our rebellion, hatred, idolatry, unbelief, and doubting so that He can save us from ourselves. And yet in the face of this do we dare question Him and call Him “unfair”? What ungrateful wretches we are. “As he says in Hosea: ‘I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,’ and, ‘It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God’” (Romans 9:25-26). Paul here quotes the prophet Hosea, in order to show that God has chosen those who were not His children and who were not His loved ones, and has graciously turned them into His children and loved ones. “Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.’ It is just as Isaiah said previously: ‘Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah’” (Romans 9:27-29). By quoting the prophet Isaiah, Paul speaks of how only the remnant will be saved and how if God had not stepped in Himself then we would have all perished like Sodom and Gomorrah before the fire of His wrath. “He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him” (Isaiah 59:16). Because we were helpless to save ourselves, God Himself stepped in and did it all Himself.
Paul continues: “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it” (Romans 9:30-31). Paul speaks here of the counter-intuitive nature of the gospel and how those who pursued righteousness have not attained it, while those who did not pursue righteousness at all have indeed attained it. But why didn’t those who pursue it attain it? “Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the ‘stumbling stone.’ As it is written: ‘See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame’” (Romans 9:32-33). Paul answers our question of “why?” by pointing to Jesus Christ and the righteousness that comes thru Him; the righteousness that comes not by working, striving, choosing, or earning, but that comes thru simple faith in the fact that God graciously justifies us wicked men who deserve nothing but punishment and eternal damnation. Christ is the stumbling stone upon which all who try to be self-righteous stumble and fall. He breaks all of us of our delusions of “goodness” and shows us that the only way any of us can be saved is thru a total work of grace and mercy on His part. If we arrogantly think that we can attain righteousness for ourselves then we too will continue to stumble over the manger, the cross, and the empty tomb, and we will fail to receive what God has freely given us. “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:27-30). Because of God’s unfathomable ways and His great providence we are in Christ Jesus and have been rescued from the wrath of God that stood against us apart from Jesus Christ. We are nothing but clay in the hands of God and because of His great mercy in Jesus Christ we faithfully and thankfully pray: “O Yahweh, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, O Yahweh; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people” (Isaiah 64:8-9).
Paul begins: “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen” (Romans 9:2-5). In the midst of this lament over some of the people of Israel being lost and having rejected Christ, Paul raises the unspoken question that our sinful nature comes back to time and time again: Why have some men been lost in the face of God’s grace? Has God and His mercy failed? Have His promises failed? Is His Word unfaithful? Paul answers without hesitation these questions raised by our sinful reasoning: “It is not as though God's word had failed” (Romans 9:6). Our reasoning however is still not satisfied, so on we go raising more questions: If God’s Word has not failed, is the reason that some are lost and some are saved because some men have a better will and have made a smarter “decision”? Is each individual man really the one who “controls” his destiny and determines his “fate”? Is God Himself powerless to save those He chooses and desires? Is it possible that God only desires some men to be saved and He chooses some as opposed to others?
In response to and in the face of these hard questions Paul starts his teaching: “Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. For this was how the promise was stated: ‘At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son’” (Romans 9:6-9). Here Paul once again reiterates what he taught earlier in his letter, that the true people of Israel are Abraham’s descendants by faith, it is thru the promise of God that men are regarded as his offspring and not by natural “man-determined” means. Because it is the promise that determines the true people of Israel we also see that it is therefore the Word of God that makes men the true children of God. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). No choice, will, or desire of man makes us the people of Israel, but God’s will alone as revealed in His Word, in Jesus Christ incarnate, crucified, and risen.
Paul continues: “Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’” (Romans 9:10-13). By pointing to the story of Jacob and Esau, Paul once and for all squashes the possibility that man is in “control” of his destiny. Paul specifically states that before the twins were born and even before they were able to do anything “good or bad” God had determined their paths in life. The key comforting words of Paul here are “not by works but by Him who calls,” because in them we find that God’s election is not one of anger or wrath, but is a gracious call apart from what our wretched works truly deserve. God does this so that His purpose in election might stand in opposition to the sinful will of us depraved men who do nothing but reject and hate Him. “In his heart a man plans his course, but Yahweh determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). “Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is Yahweh's purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21). “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16).
After proclaiming this sovereign election of God Paul anticipates the questions that arise in the face of this hard truth. Our sinful reason immediately desires to raise its perverted sense of justice and accuse God of being unjust or “playing favorites” in His choice of election: “What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion’” (Romans 9:14-15). Paul responds by implicitly pointing back to what he taught us in the first few chapters. The key to seeing the election of God for the gracious and merciful call that it is, is our proper understanding of sin. If we do not understand the magnitude of our sin and the harsh demands of the law that stand against us men who are “by nature objects of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3), then we will never see election as a gracious comfort of God. The prerequisite for understanding that God has mercy on whom He will have mercy, is that we see that no man deserves the mercy of God and that we all deserve His punishment and wrath. “Yahweh is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies” (Isaiah 34:2). His election is purely merciful as He has chosen to be compassionate to men who have done nothing but reject and despise Him. “Their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath” (Psalm 78:37-38).
Paul continues on by proclaiming in very clear language that the election and compassion of God depends not on man’s choosing or works, but solely on God’s mercy. “It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy” (Romans 9:16). It does not matter how much we desire, will, or choose, or even how much we work, strive, or give effort, it will all amount to nothing apart from God’s merciful and gracious choosing. “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). If we do not understand our impotence in the midst of our slavery and sinfulness then we will never understand this and we will falsely think that predestination and God’s election are the most “unfair” things in the world. This however is only the reaction of evil and wretched men who somehow think we are “entitled” to God’s favor and “deserve” His blessing. It is for this reason that God has given us His law, which reveals our utter sinfulness for what it is, so that we will finally see the true comfort that is derived and found in God’s choosing and election. Predestination is so comforting because in its promise we never have any reason to doubt our election and choosing by God Himself. Instead of doubt we will daily see that in the manger, cross, and empty tomb of Jesus Christ we (you and me specifically!) have already been called and chosen and that thru God’s grace given there we are surely and most certainly the elect of God on whom He has undeservedly chosen to have mercy. “God has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:9-10).
As he continues his teaching on the providence, election, and predestination of God, Paul once again uses an illustration from the Scriptures to hammer home his point: “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: ‘I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden” (Romans 9:17-18). Here we see that Pharaoh was raised up by God and hardened by God in order to fulfill God’s divine purposes and to proclaim God’s name thru all the earth. In the mystery of God’s providence He can give whoever He desires over to their already sinfully hardened hearts and if He so desires He can also compassionately have mercy on whomever He chooses. Our sinful flesh however absolutely despises the idea that God could harden the heart of Pharaoh and attempts to play the despicable “blame game” with God, accusing Him of unfairness and injustice: “One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?’ But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? ‘Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” (Romans 9:19-21). In the face of these questions Paul reminds us who is God and who is the creature, showing us that we are nothing but clay in the Potter’s hands. It is absolutely ridiculous for us to question the purposes and ways of God since He is the Creator and Master of all things. In our sinful arrogance, that we have lived in since the fall of Adam and Eve, we somehow think that we have the freedom that belongs only to God and believe that we do have or should have some sort of “say” in how things are. We, the powerless clay, in our pride somehow think that God is supposed to follow our will and our ways, as we elevate ourselves to the level of “god” in thinking that we should somehow be “running the show.” “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He did not make me’? Can the pot say of the potter, ‘He knows nothing’?” (Isaiah 29:16). If God is truly our Creator then it is absolutely absurd that we should question His ways; do the creations of our hands have the right and ability to question us? Does the technology of our hands talk back to us and complain that we do not know what we are doing? So then who are we to question God? “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?...Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?” (Isaiah 45:9, 11). Do we dare quarrel with our Maker and doubt His wisdom to carry out what is best? Even if we wanted to argue with Him, how, in our ignorance, do we even have the knowledge or wisdom to know where to begin? “Though one wished to dispute with him, he could not answer him one time out of a thousand. His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?...If he snatches away, who can stop him? Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’…How then can I dispute with him? How can I find words to argue with him?” (Job 9:3-4, 12, 14). God Himself declares that we are the clay in His hands and are in no position to talk back to Him and question His ways and decisions. “‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?’ declares Yahweh. ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel’” (Jeremiah 18:6).
Having great patience and concern, Paul continues on and asks a couple questions of his own towards those of us who would dare question God and His ways: “What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:22-24). Paul once again points out that our failure to see sin for what it truly is, has blinded us to the astounding graciousness and mercy of God. Do we, who have rejected and despised God and have turned ourselves into His objects of wrath, dare complain and moan about Him showing compassion to us? By questioning God we are in reality complaining about Him having mercy on us; how absurd! We must see that we deserve His punishment and wrath, and only then will we finally understand that God’s ways are truly merciful and compassionate beyond compare. God has decided to undeservedly turn His enemies (you and me!) into His children thru the grace of the work of Jesus Christ. He has borne our rebellion, hatred, idolatry, unbelief, and doubting so that He can save us from ourselves. And yet in the face of this do we dare question Him and call Him “unfair”? What ungrateful wretches we are. “As he says in Hosea: ‘I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,’ and, ‘It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God’” (Romans 9:25-26). Paul here quotes the prophet Hosea, in order to show that God has chosen those who were not His children and who were not His loved ones, and has graciously turned them into His children and loved ones. “Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.’ It is just as Isaiah said previously: ‘Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah’” (Romans 9:27-29). By quoting the prophet Isaiah, Paul speaks of how only the remnant will be saved and how if God had not stepped in Himself then we would have all perished like Sodom and Gomorrah before the fire of His wrath. “He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him” (Isaiah 59:16). Because we were helpless to save ourselves, God Himself stepped in and did it all Himself.
Paul continues: “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it” (Romans 9:30-31). Paul speaks here of the counter-intuitive nature of the gospel and how those who pursued righteousness have not attained it, while those who did not pursue righteousness at all have indeed attained it. But why didn’t those who pursue it attain it? “Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the ‘stumbling stone.’ As it is written: ‘See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame’” (Romans 9:32-33). Paul answers our question of “why?” by pointing to Jesus Christ and the righteousness that comes thru Him; the righteousness that comes not by working, striving, choosing, or earning, but that comes thru simple faith in the fact that God graciously justifies us wicked men who deserve nothing but punishment and eternal damnation. Christ is the stumbling stone upon which all who try to be self-righteous stumble and fall. He breaks all of us of our delusions of “goodness” and shows us that the only way any of us can be saved is thru a total work of grace and mercy on His part. If we arrogantly think that we can attain righteousness for ourselves then we too will continue to stumble over the manger, the cross, and the empty tomb, and we will fail to receive what God has freely given us. “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:27-30). Because of God’s unfathomable ways and His great providence we are in Christ Jesus and have been rescued from the wrath of God that stood against us apart from Jesus Christ. We are nothing but clay in the hands of God and because of His great mercy in Jesus Christ we faithfully and thankfully pray: “O Yahweh, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, O Yahweh; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people” (Isaiah 64:8-9).
6 comments:
Not sure if this is totally relevant to this chapter, but I have trouble understanding free will.
That is VERY relevant to the chapter. The very point of Paul in this chapter (and the next two) is to destroy any false notion that we as slaves to sin have some so-called "free will."
What exactly is your question about "free will"?
Do we have free will? What is free will? Basically, I have never understood the idea at all.
"Do we have free will?"
As sinners, absolutely, positively not. To say we have "free will" means that we have the power to keep the law of God perfectly and to be good and perfect as God Himself.
"What is free will?"
"Free will" is a myth that Satan has convinced the world it has, a myth which makes us believe we are capable of offering something acceptable to God and capable of choosing to be good. "Free will" believes that it has the power and ability to choose to be on God's side, the ability to find "good" and carry it out in an acceptable way before God.
Therefore many will ask? Well don't I have the ability to choose my path in life? Well yes, within the powers of reason. That means that within the world around us we are able to freely make decisions like "pizza or tacos for lunch" and whether to "wear blue or green" and things of that such. This however does not mean that our will is "free." For our will to be "free" would mean that whatever we will, desire, and want we would be capable of doing. Be like God? Sure, if my will was indeed "free" I would be capable of such a thing. It is therefore the sinful, fallen man who thinks he is free. Remember John 8 where the Jews thought they were "free" and didn't need to be set free by Christ when in reality they were dead slaves?
Therefore sin blinds us making us think we are "free" when Christ tells us that we are "slaves to sin." Because we are bound in our sin we are incapable of doing true good at all and are incapable of doing anything acceptable before God. To think we are "free" is to be bound and blinded in sin. To realize our captivity and slavery is to have our eyes opened by God's law. To have freedom in Jesus Christ is to be free from OURSELVES, free from our own will and bound to God's will!
Therefore, what we should never want is "free will", what we should desire is "God's will"! To truly be a follower of Christ we should always desire God's will, Christ's will, and never to have our own will. Our own will is by very definition AGAINST God's will if it is indeed "free"; therefore to want to be "free" means to be free FROM God! That is the very sin of the Garden of Eden! Free will would by VERY definition reject God's will and selfishly desire its own desires. Notice that Jesus Christ never touted having a "free will" of His own. He repeatedly prays for God's will, and God's will alone. He says that He did not come to do His own business, but is here to do the Father's will. He bonded Himself to God's will and refused to try and be "free" or apart from that will.
So "free will" is a dangerous lie, heresy, and teaching of Satan. Don't let anyone ever try to convince you that you have "free will", for to do so is to give in to the blindness of our sinful nature. We are not free, we are dead and enslaved in our sin apart from Christ, enslaved in an inwardly turned love and will that only lives and looks at "me." Therefore in Jesus Christ we are to daily die to our will and to our selfish love, forsaking all our desires and will for that of God's will. In order to be truly FREE we must be bound to God in Jesus Christ.
Does that help explain at all?
What about those who do not believe in Christ? Is that a choice? Are they using their "free will"?
Yes, they are using a "free will" in the sense that a will that tries to be "free" sins against God with every single thing it does. In reality however they are just remaining in the sinful willing of their fallen and broken hearts.
By nature we are ALL unbelievers and slaves to our selfish wills and therefore we will all willfully reject God and Jesus Christ. This means that "no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3). It takes the Holy Spirit bursting into our life and breaking us out of our sinful bonds for us to believe in Jesus Christ. Every unbeliever is willfully rejecting God in their selfish will which is trying to be free from God, but every believer has without their own choice, abilities, or merits had their eyes opened and wills transformed in order to cling to Christ.
To believe in Christ is 100% the work of God. To reject Christ is 100% the work of our fallen, sinful, selfish wills. We are Christians because God chose us in His grace, not because we chose Him. "You did not choose me, but I chose you" (John 15:16).
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