Romans 9

Read the context of Romans 8 (the great 8)

And now Paul feels a need to defend the gospel that he is preaching

Remember Paul is a Hebrew of the Hebrews and not just because of his
mother and father but his training was under Gamaliel and he was as
Jewish as one could get. (Acts 22:3) - Born a Jew, raised in a Greek city, a
Roman citizen and a Pharisee, (Philippians 3:5-6)

So Paul is now going to address the objection that he continues to hear

from his Jewish contingency over and over again. After he goes through
the great promises of Romans 8 and the fact that Jesus will never leave or
forsake you.

There is a basic argument that the apostle Paul is presenting in the first
13 verses of Romans. Here is the apostle Paul's argument -the word of
God stands because in God's sovereign grace He has chosen to elect
some and not others.

The Jews that are listening say, ok Paul all that sounds great as you teach
these wonderful and great truths about Jesus but there is one problem
Paul, the people of God don't believe it.

The vast majority of the Jewish people think you are off your rocker, one
fry short of a happy meal.

Hey Paul if we are the people of the covenant and come from the seed of
Abraham and we built the very temple of God then why is it Paul that
most of us don't believe your message and even more bizarre how come
the Gentiles who aren't his people, how come they are come to Christ in
large numbers.

Paul how can you be correct in your teaching when we can see such a
huge contradiction between us who are the people of God and we don't
believe and the Gentiles who are not people of God and many of them are
believing.

The key argument Paul is developing in Romans 9:1-13

In the first 5 verses Paul says that most of the Jews are accursed and cut
off from God. And the objectors to that kind of teaching said "then Paul if
the Jews who are chosen and have the covenant are cut off from God then
it can only mean that the word of God has failed." And Paul in my loose
paraphrase says "no you are wrong, the Jews are cut off from God and the
word of God stands and now I am going to prove it to you. Now if you are
a Gentile this is a potential crisis because if God's promise and word does
not hold true to the Jews then what chance do the Gentiles have that
God's word will hold true for them.

Paul is saying oh yes I recognize that the Jewish people have been given
advantages unlike any people in all the world.

The key to understanding Romans 9 is in verse 6. And there have been

theologians, pastors and teachers over the course of church history that
have tried to get around this chapter in the following way. By saying this
has nothing to do with salvation and only has to do with nations. This is
saying God can do with one nation as He pleases and with another nation
as He pleases.

That entire argument will collapse if you read carefully verses 6 and 7
from Romans 9.

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. This is the objection
that Paul is dealing with because the Jews are saying if the Jews aren't
believing then the word Paul is preaching has failed.

And now Paul goes on to qualify the statement by saying:

For the true Israel (believers in Christ) are not those who are ethic Israel
(those who are descendants of Abraham).

What is Paul saying in these verses?

He is telling them that you need to look at how God dealt with His own
people in the Old Testament.
There were in the OT the general people of God. How many times did
they apostate? How many times did they turn to idols?
How many times did the prophets say to them you are a stiff necked
people?

In Ezekiel 37we have the illustration of the valley of dry bones. Then a
wind blows and the bones come to life. And in the same section we read
that He takes a heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh.
(Ezekiel 36)
This is only what God can do.

And what you see throughout the OT is a remnant of God.

The Jewish people have been given everything as a nation regarding God
but unless God shows up and changes the heart then they simply will not
ever be able to walk in righteousness.
Don't you remember the prophet Elijah being all sad and downcast and
God saying to him that I have kept a remnant of believers for Myself. He
says 7000 who have not bowed a knee to Baal. (1 Kings 19:18)

Paul is going to explain how the Jews have confused "ethnic" Israel with
the faith of those who are known as the "true" Israel. And God has always
done this through the doctrine of election and now Paul is going to
demonstrate how God did it in the OT.

In Romans 9:8 Paul teaches that it is not being an ethnic Jew that
guarantees your salvation but rather that comes from God's promise.
The fact that you are an ethnic descendent from Abraham does not mean
that you are a participant in the kingdom of God (believer in Christ). But
the only way to be a participant is to be a receiver of the promise and that
is by faith.

God says to Abraham (Genesis 18) that in about a year I will come back
and Sarah your barren wife is going to have the child that I have promised
to you.

In verse 11 the point is:

before the twins were even born,
before these two individuals had done anything either good or bad

The way some in the church have tried to get around this teaching is to
say that God stands in eternity past looking through the corridors of time
and He sees who is going to be good (those who choose to believe in
Him) and those who will be bad (those who are going to reject Him).
And then He chooses upon what He sees that we are going to do.

But Paul is trying to show us that is NOT how God chooses. But in fact
God chooses man NOT on the basis of anything in the man but on the
basis of God's grace.

Do we see the principle of election in God choosing Jacob over Esau? The
point here that nothing that Jacob did was the reason that he was chosen
by God.

Think about Jacob's life. He is a person who tricked his brother out of his
birth right, had a problem with lying and being a deceiver.

And so the text reads that God called Jacob because of His own electing
purpose. Then Paul goes on to explain something that was counter
intuitive to the OT. The younger served the older because the first born
got the double portion of the inheritance and the privilege of being
oldest.

However now God is showing a complete reverse of this by having Esau

the older be the servant of Jacob the younger.

God intended for the promise to go through Jacob and not Esau even
before Esau sold his own birthright. And if God wants to do it that way
He can because that is what it means to be God.

Then we read the hard words "Jacob I love and Esau I hated"

And we want to scream out that this is not fair or just. But grace and
mercy are not categories of justice. Grace and mercy transcend
categories of justice.

What should capture your attention in verse 13 is not that God hated Esau
but that God could ever love someone like Jacob.

We are talking about the thrice holy God as described by Isaiah. Who
could wipe out mankind with his wrath and justice and no one would be
able to say a word.

Today we are so infected with a man centered theology that says in

essence that God is lucky to have us.

If you are experiencing the grace of God in your life it is because before
you were born God set His love upon you. How many times did God have
to say to Israel I didn't choose you because you were large, and smart and
powerful but I chose you because I loved you.

That why Paul is reminding them that the word of God has not failed
because he says your OT has always emphasized how God acts in
election.
1. God always acts according to His grace
2. God always choses not according to works but the purpose He is
working out in this world

And now Paul knows that the objections are getting ready to come. So
look at verses 14 and 19.
When you have fellow Christians that argue against this doctrine then you
see that they are just like those who are arguing against the apostle Paul.

If you are having the same objections that Paul is arguing against it may
be an indicator that you are on the wrong side of the argument.
Romans 9:14
Just when you have Paul declare the election of one over another then you
hear the objection "that isn't fair." Everyone deserves the same chance?
Really…why?
Why does a convicted criminal need to get a chance?

That kind of thinking calls into question the right of God to say that all
have sinned and deserve death.

That calls into question the flood where God destroyed all but Noah and
his family.

Think about the 3 possible choices concerning eternity:

1. God can save no one and that would be His justice
2. God can save everyone and that would be His grace
3. God can save some and that is both His grace and justice being
displayed
In which of those choices do we most see His attributes in full
- God's justice
- God's wrath against sin
- God's mercy
- God's love
- God's grace

If God were to save everyone then we would not see His justice
If God were to condemn everyone then we would not see His grace

So if God saves underserving sinners then we can see both.

Then the answer to verse 14:

I will mercy whom I will mercy and I will compassion whom I compassion

And this is a cross reference from Exodus 33:18 which is God telling
Moses that He can demonstrate His glory without limitations. In other
words no thing or no man can put any restriction on God and the way
God chooses to do something.

My old way of thinking:

God is as sovereign in my life as I allow Him to be
That may play well in many churches and in the mind of Christians but
that is totally against what the Scriptures say.

And if you want the proper interpretation to verse 15 all you need do is
read the very next verse. Paul gives you what he means by what he just
wrote.

Verse 16: literal rendering

So, it is not of the one willing, or of the one striving or running, BUT
(contrast)
the mercying God.

The central assertion of man centered religions is simply this:

Man's will is not enslaved by or to sin.
What holds together the religions of man are those that teach the
autonomy of the human will

The NT talks about the inability of man and the slavery of man to sin and
yet we take Biblical revelation and reverse it.

Illustration:
When you look closely at the lives of two men:
One is a believer
One is an unbeliever

If you examine them as to why one believes and the other doesn't then
you are looking in the wrong place.

Verse 17:
What does this mean? Well, Pharaoh died in the Red Sea as God poured
the waters over him and his army.

Illustration:
Sovereignty of God examples:
Pharaoh and his army chasing after Moses and the people even after all
the plagues and they had gone.

The people of Egypt showing favor toward the Israelites to let them be
plundered.

How can you explain that from a logical perspective?

Think about Pharaoh for a minute. Even before Moses shows up before
Pharaoh God tells Moses that He was going to harden his heart. And if
you look back at each event regarding the plagues you can see that if
Pharaoh had any common sense he would have told the people of Israel
to leave.
But God was hardening the heart (sovereignty) and Pharaoh was
hardening his heart (human responsibility) so that God's greater purpose
could be seen and known. And that greater purpose was to demonstrate
through the death of Pharaoh and his army the demonstration of God's
glory.

Think if you had been Pharaoh. There have been 10 significant plagues
and it ends with the death of my own first born. I am not going to pursue
these people because I can see that I can't win.

Did you know that each one of the plagues was purposeful to
demonstrate God's power over that particular Egyptian god?

What was the last thing that God did in this part of the story?
- The death of all the first borns
- What was established from this? Answer - Passover
This was to become the greatest word picture in the OT that would point
the people of God toward the cross.

(Side note)
Rahab declares that they heard of the God by the demonstration of HIs
power:
Josh. 2:8 ¶ Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof,
Josh. 2:9 and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the
land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the
inhabitants of the land have melted away before you.
Josh. 2:10 “For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the
Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the
two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og,
whom you utterly destroyed.
Josh. 2:11 “When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained
in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God
in heaven above and on earth beneath.

God organizes within His sovereign plan a hardening of Pharaoh's heart

and then finally brings judgment and execution on him at the Red Sea.

And someone cries out that it is not fair!

If God strikes Pharaoh dead as He did Herod in Acts 17 no one would say
anything because Pharaoh is a sinner.

God destroys Pharaoh for the purpose of His glory!

So check your head and your heart right now even as this text is being
unfolded and revealed.
We push back so hard because we say God does not have the right to do
this. We are so filled with our man centered thinking that we can not
accept the plain teaching of God's own word. Or we don't teach these
texts in the church because they have been seen to be divisive and
controversial.

God has the absolute sovereign right to do over His creation anything
that He pleases. Isn't that what it means for God to be sovereign?
Then why are we always coming along to try and condition that
sovereignty in order to make it more appealing to us.

For example: God is as sovereign as man allows Him to be.

Verses 16 and 18 provide the commentary for verses 15 and 17

In verse 18 it says:
As a restatement and reemphasis He mercies whom He wills and He
hardens whom He wills

And here we go in verse 19 with the next big objection that always come
about in some way, shape or form when God's sovereignty in election is
taught.

If God is sovereign in election to the point you are teaching then since no
man can resist His will that means we are all puppets on a string.

Genesis 20 in which God keeps Abimelech from sinning.

Unfortunately for many today in the church they haven't read nor studied
from the OT and therefore the very foundation of election is not present
in their theology.

God takes kings that He sends against Israel by the principle of hardening
their hearts in order that they could be destroyed.

Read Psalm 33 - God's purpose is never frustrated

The conclusion of verse 19 to many today are where we are facing a great
mystery.

But yet again if we will simply follow the flow of the argument from the
apostle Paul we can learn much.

Verse 20
Look at the point he is making in verse 20.
What is Paul's answer to the election of God? (context)
It is not one that we like.
O little thing that exists as long as a vapor, who is finite and knows so
little that is going on the counsel of God

God does judge and find fault in Pharaoh just like He did Joseph's older
brothers.
What they did in deceiving their father and to their brother was heartless,
cruel and evil.

But after daddy dies the brothers come before Joseph. And the only
conclusion that the brothers can come up with as to why Joseph has not
buried them in the sands of Egypt is because daddy was still alive. But
now that he is dead, now Joseph is going to exact proper revenge for
what they did to him.

Genesis 50:20 - the response of Joseph says "you indeed meant this for
evil but God meant it for good."

Isaiah 10:12-15 - The people of Assyria are destroying the people of God
and then God punishes them because of their attitude of the heart.
They did it for evil and yet God does it for good.

Acts 4:23 - Acts 4:27 “For truly in this city there were gathered together
against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and
Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
Acts 4:28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to
occur.

Everyone of these people had different motivations from a heart that was
evil when it came to sending Jesus to the cross.
And if you struggle and don't understand the why then all you need to is
look at God's theme throughout the entire Bible and it will give you the
answer.

God does it this way because it glorifies the greatness of His name!

The cross of Christ is primarily about the glory of God.

Verse 20 (continued)
The apostle Paul explains what he means as he talks about man talking
back to God.
Pots, Pans and Dishes do not say to the one who makes them "why did
you make me like this?"

The potter has the supreme right to form that pot, or that dish, or that
pan in anyway that he wants and this is the place that man screams NO-
NO-NO!!!

Verse 21 - Illustration: the potter takes a lump of clay and forms a waste
can or a bed pan. And then from another lump of clay he forms a vase.

Verse 22 - Paul continues to explain and show us that God is giving to us

all His attributes not just part of them. And if you want to keep this in
context what vessel did he just tell us about that he used to demonstrate
His wrath. The answer is Pharaoh.

If you look at the cross and all you see is the love of God then you are not
seeing all of the cross.

This text does not talk about the love of God but rather the wrath of God.

For many years Pharaoh walked in his idolatry and hate for God. And God
endured that for a greater purpose.

Verse 23 - vessels of mercy for His glory

God is making known the entirety of His nature through His wrath on
vessels of destruction and through His mercy on vessels of mercy.

The greatest pride destroying realization we can grasp from Scripture is

that we will stand before God based on His grace.