Romans 9

==Romans 9:1==
1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 
What Paul is about to write of next is heartfelt and true. He calls upon his conscience to witness before the Holy Spirit of the truth of what he is saying. So what he is going to write next is very personal, very powerful. 
Moreso, however, this is the truth in Christ, meaning that it pertains to his overall message and is part of the teachings of Jesus that the Apostles were to deliver to mankind through the inspired word. 
==Romans 9:2-3==
2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 
His comment then draws attention to physical Israel and the sorrow he bears for them. In fact, he is so internally devastated by the foolishness of his kinsmen that he would go so far as to bear separation from Christ in their place if such a thing were possible.
It is not. 
==Romans 9:4-5==
4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Paul describes his frustration. Salvation (the adoption) came through them. The promises were given to them. The law of Moses was given to them. All things that pointed to the salvation of mankind after the Fall were to come through the Jews, and through them the climax of God's plan of salvation, Jesus Christ, came.
Yet they blew it. They did not get it. Instead of heeding all that God had given them through Moses and the prophets and recognizing the Messiah, they crucified Him. 
==Romans 9:6==
6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 
This begins a long series of premises that Paul lays out to show the ultimate distinction between spiritual Israel (the church) and physical Israel. Again Paul points out that God's promise was not made ineffectual because of the stupidity of the Jews. He lays out the primary premise by writing that not all those who are physically descended from Israel (the man Jacob) are Israel (the church). 
==Romans 9:7-9==
7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. 
The first secondary premise that supports the primary is that not all the physical seed of Abraham were the children of promise, only those who descended from Isaac. Like in chapter 4 where he speaks of what it really meant to be a child of Abraham, it is those who are Abraham's children according to God's plan, not the mere fact of physical decent.
The primary premise is thus supported in that those who God deems children of Abraham, not by physical decent, but by faith are the true Israel. 
==Romans 9:10-13==
10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
The second secondary premise that supports the primary is seen in the example given in the very next generation. When Rebecca is pregnant with the twins, before they had done anything of moral consequence, God spoke concerning the election of Jacob to bear the inherited promise. Thus, God shows in type once again that it is not the natural system (older rules, younger serves) that determines reality, but God's Will. In Jacob and Esau we see physical Israel vs. the church (spiritual Israel). The older serves the younger. A word about hereditary sin and the age of accountability. Note that the children had done nothing good or evil showing that there is some age at which a human can be without moral capacity. Given that later humans are declared to have moral capacity in that they can sin and be held accountable for it, the implication is that there is a point in a human's life where they transition from unaccountable to accountable. Using Ezekiel 18 and this verse we know that sin is not hereditary. 
It is in this verse that the age of accountability is most powerfully demonstrated. A word, then, about predestination. Many will come here to show the predestination of individuals and then declare that God predestines individuals to be saved or lost. It is true that individuals are predestined to certain paths that God lays out for them. Isaac was predestined before he was born. Jacob. Others. Ultimately Christ was predestined to endure all that He endured. Yet none of these is predestination to salvation. The leap required to jump from fulfilling specific purposes to create types to teach mankind to predestination of individuals to salvation is not a logical one. Why does God predestinating Esau to serve Jacob (which wasn't even literal since it was the Edomites serving Israel that was meant anyway) demand the conclusion "therefore individuals are predestined to salvation"? 
==Romans 9:14-16==
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. 
Paul addresses the conclusion from his primary premise, that it is not through the natural decent that God works, but by His Will that He determines what should be. The conclusion that some might erroneously draw is that God is therefore unjust because He overturns the natural order. Paul addresses the conclusion before it can be drawn. God is Creator and Judge. It is His Creation and He is just to do with it as He wills according to His divine nature. If a person sins, they deserve death. If God chooses to take their life, then it is His purview to do so. Yet if God chooses to be longsuffering and allow opportunity for repentance, that is also God's choice. It is not up to human will or action, but God's purpose.
God's longsuffering always has purpose. The longsuffering with regard to physical Israel was to bring about Christ and His church. Once that purpose was fulfilled, God's longsuffering ended and Israel's judgment came. 
==Romans 9:17-18==
17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 
Paul gives another example of this point. God raised up Pharaoh for the purpose of showing His power (by first smiting Egypt with the plagues and then destroying their army in the Red Sea, then second setting them up as an example to Israel who would later be spiritually called Egypt and face God's wrath).
Pharaoh and the Egyptians were idol worshipers and deserved death. God gave them 10 chances! to listen and acknowledge Jehovah as the supreme God. God hardened Pharaoh's heart, not by some miraculous tweaking of his mind, but because God knew Pharaoh's own heart, his wickedness, and prodded him there through the words He gave Moses to speak. In doing so, His ultimate purpose was accomplished. 
==Romans 9:19==
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 
Another objection is headed off here. Someone might ask why God can impute responsibility to an individual since none could resist the will of God. Remember, Paul is speaking of his sorrow for his people. How could God condemn Israel when He fashioned them for a specific purpose knowing that they would be destroyed after that purpose was fulfilled? 
==Romans 9:20-22==
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 
Paul responds that Israel has no place to condemn God as they are likened unto a thing made attempting to judge the maker. Just as some clay is made into beautiful pots for display to the world, others are made into chamber pots. Each has their function. Israel was given chance after chance after chance when all they deserved was destruction for their constant rebellion against God. God uses them as the final example of the fulfillment of His promises by allowing Israel, the older child, to fulfill its purpose then destroying them. One of the failings of millennialism is that it cannot grant that many of the OT prophecies are fulfilled according to that doctrine. So many prophecies are yet future in their fulfillment according to millennialism that God is framed as impotent, even to the point of saying that Jesus failed in the first century! Perhaps I shall go through one day and list the prophecies yet unfulfilled according to millennialism (if someone has not already done so). The list will be a long one. 
==Romans 9:23-26==
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Christians, the church, the younger. 24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? Again, Paul is stating that the church, those called out of the Jews but the Gentiles, is the vessel fashioned for glory. 25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. 26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. 
Hosea (1:10-11) prophesied of the coming of the church and their being recognized as spiritual Israel, the children of God. 
==Romans 9:27-28==
27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: 28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. 
Another reference to physical Israel to the concept of "the earth" is given here. Paul quotes Isaiah 10:22 and writes that though physical Israel would be large in number, only a small portion would actually be saved at the time God's final judgment against Paul's people came, the short work upon the earth. 
==Romans 9:29==
29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. 
Paul quotes Isaiah again (1:9) comparing physical Israel to Sodom and Gomorrah. When the final destruction of the Jews (which is what Isaiah is all about ultimately) came, a few had obeyed the gospel and were added to the church. If not, the Jewish people would have faced complete annihilation as Sodom and Gomorrah did. 
==Romans 9:30-31==
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. 31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 
Paul brings this back to his initial comments in the first few chapters. The Gentiles, who were not under the Law of Moses, have attained righteousness, attained status as the children of God by the same kind of faith Abraham had. Yet physical Israel, who had the Law of Moses, didn't get their purpose, could not be justified by the Law of Moses (because the Law of Moses could not justify), and so are lost to sin and face destruction as God's longsuffering comes to a close. 
==Romans 9:32-33==
32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; 33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 
Why could physical Israel not attain to righteousness? Because they thought they could work their way into Heaven under their own power rather than through obedient faith to God. They did not have the same kind of faith as Abraham. Instead, they trusted in themselves, their inherent Jew-ness, to save them. Paul will continue this thought in the first few verses of chapter 10.
Ultimately, the Jews lack of faith was demonstrated in Christ, who was the stumbling stone, the rock of offense. The Jews, ever fascinated with their physical heritage, sought after a physical king (just like they did with Saul before David). So when Jesus showed up and claimed Messiah-ship, they killed Him for simply not being what they expected. They willed, they ran, but it was not according to God's purpose. The Jews were destroyed for their inability to believe in and conform to Christ (Romans 6). 
In Truth and Love.Category:Apocalyptic
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