Romans Chapter 9
God’s Choice of Israel
1-2 Truth is, in Christ I have constant sorrow in my heart. I’m not lying; my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit: 3 I’d be willing to be cut off from the ChristMessiah for my fellow Jews, my physical relatives, 4 Israelites, who have the adoption as children, the honor, the covenants, the Law, the divine service and worship, the promises. 5 They’re the ones that descended from the ancestors, and from them physically came the ChristMessiah, who’s over all, God blessed forever! Amen!
Rom 9:1-5
6 It’s not that God’s message has failed. Not all of Israel’s descendants are “Israel.” 7 Not all of Abraham’s descendants are “children”: “Your lineage will be counted through Isaac” [Gen 21:12]. 8 That means it’s not physical children that are God’s children, but promised children that God counts as descendants. 9 The promise was, “At that time I’ll come, and Sarah will have a son” [Gen 18:10, 14]. 10 That’s not all. Rebekah conceived from our ancestor Isaac. 11-12 Before she had the twins or they had done anything good or bad, God told her, “The older will serve the younger” [Gen 25:23]. That pictures how God’s purpose would come from his choosing, not their doing—a purpose that came from the One who called. 13 As the scripture says,
“I loved Jacob more than Esau” [Mal 1:2-3].
14 We aren’t going to say God’s unjust, are we? Goodness, no! 15 He told Moses,
“I’ll decide who to give grace
and who to show mercy” [Ex 33:19].
16 So things don’t happen because somebody wants them to or because somebody’s controlling things, but because God’s showing mercy. 17 The scripture tells Pharaoh, “I raised you up specifically to show my power in connection with you and to make myself known in the whole world” [Ex 9:16]. 18 So he has mercy on whoever he wants to and makes stubborn whoever he wants to.
Rom 9:6-18
God’s Displeasure and Mercy
19 Will you say to me then, “Why does he find fault? Who’s resisting his will?” 20 Mere mortal, who are you to get smart with God? What’s formed doesn’t say to the one who formed it, “Why’d you make me like this?” 21 Doesn’t a potter have the right from the same lump to make a container for elegant purposes or menial ones? 22 So what if God, wanting to demonstrate his displeasure and make his power known, puts up with containers fit for destruction 23 so he can make known his abundant honor on containers he shows mercy to—containers he prepared ahead of time for honor? 24 We’re those containers that have been prepared for honor, that he called from Jews and Gentiles. 25 As he says in Hosea,
“I’ll call them my people that weren’t my people;
I’ll call them friends that weren’t friends [Hos 2:23].
26 Where it was said, ‘You’re not my people,’
they’ll be called ‘children of the living God’” [Hos 1:10].
27 Isaiah cried out in regard to Israel,
“Though the number of Israelites is like sand by the sea,
only a remnant will be saved.
28 The LORD will thoroughly and quickly
carry out his word in the world” [Is 10:22-23; Hos 1:10].
29 As Isaiah said before,
“If the LORD hadn’t left us a seed,
we’d be like Sodom and Gomorrah” [Is 1:9]
Rom 9:19-29
Righteousness by Law vs. Trust
30 What are we going to say then? We’re going to say that Gentiles received righteousness who didn’t pursue it, a righteousness that comes from trust. 31 But Israel pursued a righteousness that comes from law and didn’t attain it. 32 Why? Because they didn’t pursue it by trust, but by what they did themselves. They stumbled over the stone that “trips” people up. 33 Like the scripture says,
“I’m laying a stone in Zion that people trip over,
a rock that causes them problems.
Whoever trusts him won’t be disappointed” [Is 28:16].
Rom 9:30-33