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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
9:1-11:36 God's Righteousness to Israel and to the Gentiles. Paul has made it clear that God's saving promises have been fulfilled for the Gentiles. Indeed, the church of Jesus Christ now enjoys the spiritual blessings promised to Israel: the gift of the Spirit (8:9); adoption as God's children (8:14-17); future glory (8:17, 30); election (8:33); and the promise of never being severed from God's love (8:35-39). Paul now asks in chs. 9-11 whether the promises God made to ethnic Israel will be fulfilled. If his promises to the Jews remain unfulfilled, how can Gentile Christians be sure that he will fulfill the great promises that conclude ch. 8? Paul answers that God is faithful to his saving promises to Israel (9:6) and that he will ultimately save his people (11:26).
9:1-29 God's Saving Promises to Israel. God's saving promises to Israel are irrevocable since they depend upon his word of promise and his electing grace.
9:1-3 Paul suffers from great anguish because his Jewish kinsmen are unsaved (see also 10:1). Indeed, if it were possible, Paul might almost choose to be accursed (to suffer God's punishment in hell) so that his fellow Jews would be saved (cf. Moses in Ex. 32:30-32). But he knows this would achieve nothing, for none but Christ could be any person's substitute to bear God's wrath.
9:4 In vv. 4-5 the great privileges of Israel are listed. The six blessings here can be divided into two parallel lists of three:
The Israelites became God's adopted people when God saved them from Egypt. Glory here probably refers to the glory of God in the tabernacle and temple. Israel received the covenants in which the Lord promised to save them. God gave his people his law at Mount Sinai, prescribed their worship in the Mosaic law, and gave them his saving promises.
9:5 The patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) also come from Israel. Most important, Jesus the Christ is also from the Jewish people, and he is not merely a human being but is also fully God. Therefore, the fact that so many Jews have rejected Christ brings acute pain to Paul (v. 2).
9:6-7 Even though many Jews have failed to believe, God's promise to them has not failed, for there was never a promise that every Jewish person would be saved. It was never the case that all the physical children of Abraham were truly part of the people of God, for Gen. 21:12 teaches that the line of promise is traced through Isaac, not Ishmael.
9:8 The words children of God show that Paul is thinking of salvation (see 8:16), and hence he is not thinking merely of physical blessings given to Israel.
9:9-10 The promise (Gen. 18:10, 14) was not given to Hagar (Genesis 16) but was specifically given to Sarah and her offspring. The birth of Esau and Jacob is further evidence that God did not promise that every person of Jewish descent would be saved, for they had the same father and mother and were even twins, and yet God chose Jacob and not Esau.
9:11 God did not choose Jacob on the basis of anything in Jacob or Esau's life but to achieve the fulfillment of God's purpose of election. Christians can be assured, therefore, that God's promise will be fulfilled because it depends solely upon his will. The contrast between works and calling shows that salvation is in view, not merely the historical destiny of Israel as a nation. For the OT background on "election," see Gen. 18:10; Ex. 33:19; Mal. 1:2. See also Eph. 1:3-6.
9:12 The promise given to Rebekah (Gen. 25:23) was that God had chosen the younger Jacob over the older Esau. One of the themes in Romans 9-11 is that God works in surprising ways, so that no one can ever presume upon his grace.
9:13 The citation of Mal. 1:2-3 also shows that God set his saving love on Jacob and rejected (hated) Esau. "Hated" is startling, but as a sinner Esau did not deserve to be chosen by God, who remains just in not choosing everyone. The salvation of anyone at all comes only from God's mercy.
9:14-15 Since God chose Jacob instead of Esau before they were born, without regard to how good or bad either of them would be, the question naturally arises: Is God just in choosing one over the other? God is just because no one deserves to be saved (cf. 3:23), and the salvation of anyone at all is due to God's mercy alone, as the citation of Ex. 33:19 affirms.
9:16 Salvation, then, is not ultimately based on human free will or effort but depends entirely on God's merciful will.
9:17 For this very purpose. Paul quotes Ex. 9:16 to show that God is sovereign over evil as well. Even the wrath of man praises God (Ps. 76:10), for God installed Pharaoh as ruler and hardened his heart so that his own saving power and glorious name would be spread throughout the whole world.
9:19 who can resist his will? If salvation ultimately depends upon God, and he has mercy and hardens whomever he pleases, then how can he find anyone guilty? How can he charge anyone with guilt since his will is irresistible?
9:20-21 Some of Paul's readers might expect him to appeal to human free will to resolve the problem posed in v. 19. Instead, he insists that finite human beings may not rebelliously question God's ways, that God as a potter (cf. Jer. 18:1-6) has the right to do what he wishes with his creation. The honorable and dishonorable vessels in this context represent those who are saved and unsaved. Paul affirms that humans are guilty for their sin, and he offers no philosophical resolution as to how this fits with divine sovereignty. He does insist that God ordains all that happens (cf. Eph. 1:11), even though God himself does not sin and is not morally responsible for sin.
9:22-23 God created a world in which both his wrath and his mercy would be displayed. Indeed, his mercy shines against the backdrop of his just wrath, showing thereby that the salvation of any person is due to the marvelous grace and love of God. If this is difficult to understand, it is because people mistakenly think God owes them salvation!
9:24 In his grace and mercy God has called people to himself from both the Jews and the Gentiles.
9:25-26 Paul quotes Hos. 2:23 and 1:10 to illustrate the stunning grace of God--that those who are not my people . . . will be called "sons of the living God." In calling the Gentiles to salvation, God calls a sinful people to himself, just as in saving Israel he showed mercy to the undeserving. No one can presume on God's grace. In calling anyone to salvation, he shows undeserved mercy to those who were not his people.
9:27-29 The fact that only some of Israel would be saved was prophesied in Isa. 10:22-23. Most of Israel was judged, and only a remnant experienced salvation. Indeed, as Isa. 1:9 says, Israel deserved to be wiped out like Sodom and Gomorrah, but God had mercy and spared some.
