Week 6 - Romans 9:1-24
Romans 9:1-24
1 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised. Amen.
6 It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 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.” 8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. 9 For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”
10 Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.17 For 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.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?23 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— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
As we begin Romans 9, Paul is attempting to do two things: (1) affirm that God did choose the Jews and equip them to be his people for the world, and (2) affirm that Jesus was and is Israel’s messiah. Paul is sad, even distraught, because he sees many of his fellow Jews rejecting Jesus as the promised Messiah. He emphasizes that the Jews are the people of the Messiah, but they are that “according to the flesh.” The Messiah really does belong to them, but only in the “fleshly” sense; and he also belongs to the whole world as its rightful Lord.
Paul takes his readers back through the ancient stories of the patriarchs and the promises God made to them to reveal a greater purpose to them. God seems to have decided to have chosen a particular family to work with through history but also chose people within that family itself as He saw fit. The point of the grander story seems to be that God’s purpose was to act within history to deal with the problem of evil, but this could only be done by employing a people who were themselves part of the problem, until the time was set for God’s own son to emerge from their midst and, all alone, to take their destiny upon himself.
Paul is determined to help the Jewish people see that they had an increased responsibility to honor God and carry forward his purposes due to their lineage rather than an automatic vested superiority. He uses the analogy of the potter and the clay to help them realize how God has been attempting to gently mold his people and work with and through them, but they failed to respond. Much was expected of those to whom much was given. In fact, God designed His people to be vessels of mercy that would be used to bless and benefit all people. Paul finishes this portion of scripture by showing that God was now going to use both Jews and Gentiles to accomplish this great mission of pouring out His grace and glory on His image bearers as they work with him to restore all things to the way God intended and created them.
Questions
What expectations do you believe God has for those who choose to serve and follow Him?
Are the expectations you listed based on following a set of rules or derived out of a relationship with Father God?
Ask God how He wants to use you to be a blessing to other people today. Listen. Then do it. ☺