Romans 9:14-29

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: Romans (Acts)

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Rusty's Notes

Last week we talked about God’s love, God’s sovereignty and even God’s foreknowledge.
This is how it works.

• I am elected.
• Luke Dunnuck is not elected.
• Jim David is one of the chosen.
• Wanda Pontious is not one of the chosen.
• Michelle is predestined.
• I am not predestined.

 

• I am elected to have only one son.
• Luke Dunnuck is not elected to have only one son.
• Jim David is one of the chosen to be on the setup/tear down team.
• Wanda Pontious is not one of the chosen to be on the setup/tear down team.
• Michelle is predestined to do my laundry this week.
• I am not predestined to do my laundry this week.

 

• God did not choose (elect) Israel for the purpose of securing the salvation of any Jew.
• He chose (elected) Israel as His wife to bring the Messiah into the world so she, in turn, could take the news of His coming to the Gentiles—an opportunity she has thus far basically neglected.
• Israel has received an abundance of blessings from her Husband, but her rebellion has caused countless Jews to die void of salvation.
• God bestows salvation to Israelites in the same way He bestows salvation to Gentiles— through making them part of His family once they repent and exercise faith while depraved (a truth Paul’s Jewish opponents vehemently opposed). [1]

 
Romans 9:14-33
GOD’S SELECTION IS JUST
14 What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not!

• Paul is answering the questions of his critics.
• The theology of the unbelieving Jews contained two lethal flaws:
• (1) They viewed themselves as having been chosen to salvation prior to physical birth—that their eternal destiny was secured by a choice Jehovah made before they were born.
• (2) They considered the works of the Law as eventually validating their righteous standing before God.
• In their minds, once the Law was obeyed according to Jehovah’s standard, they would be ushered into heaven—their righteous behavior and acceptance into heaven confirming God’s previous choice of them to salvation.
• The Law, however, requires perfection (Matthew 5:48; James 2:10).
• Therefore, Paul taught that no person can achieve access into God’s presence through the deeds of the Law (Romans 3:20; 5:20).[2]

15 For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

• Their perception of Paul’s teaching is that God elected and predestined Jacob (the individual) to salvation over Esau (the individual), granting neither party a choice in the matter.
• Genesis 25:23 refutes such thinking, for it confirms that Paul addresses “nations” rather than individuals in Romans 9:10-13.[3]
• Genesis 25:23 - And the Lord said to her:

Two nations are in your womb; two peoples will come from you and be separated. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.[4]

• We tend to put the discussion of salvation to be focused on ourselves rather than the provider of salvation.
• Who is saved and who is not saved?
• When God is focusing on the lineage of the Messiah to come.
• God chose the Messiah (Jesus) to come through the Jews and not the Gentiles.
• This verse is not about salvation but whether or not God was going to choose to live among the Jews who were disobedient in creating the fatted calf.
• Yet, some theologians want to make it about salvation.

16 So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth.

• God had “mercy” upon the nation of Israel when Moses unwisely requested that He (God) dwell in the midst of the people.
• God displayed great “mercy” in resisting, for had He entered the camp in the manner that Moses desired the nation would have been consumed (Exodus 33:5).
• Instead, God’s glory entered the camp on Moses’ face and the nation was preserved. [5]

18 So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

• When God hardened Pharaoh’s heart to further His purposes for Israel and Egypt, to manifest His power more fully, and specifically to complete His judgment upon the gods of Egypt, He was, in fact, only helping Pharaoh to do what that tyrant wanted to do.
• When He sent Moses to Egypt, God declared, “I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go…” (Exodus 3:19).
• This was Pharaoh’s disposition before a word was said about God’s hardening of his heart.[6]
• Chazaq - Hoz-ock - (ḥāzaq) be(come) strong, strengthen, prevail, harden, be courageous, be sore (meaning be severe).
• “Hardens” points to God providing Pharaoh the strength to stand (while Pharaoh exercised his own free will) as He (God) brought destruction upon Egypt.
• It does not point to God giving Pharaoh over to his sin, nor to God creating fresh evil in Pharaoh’s heart.[7]
• The Scriptures clearly teach that God does not tempt nor cause anyone to sin: 
• …for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. (James 1:13)

19 You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does he still find fault? For who resists his will?”

• Answering more questions from his critics.

20 On the contrary, who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” 21 Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? 22 And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory--24 on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

• A God who must cause all things to accomplish His goal (through removing man’s free will) is inferior to a God Who fulfills His purpose while granting man the freedom of choice.
• If a Jew chooses (while depraved) to repent and believe, God makes him a vessel “of mercy.”
• If a Jew chooses blatant rebellion, he remains one of the “vessels of wrath.”
• In no way has God predetermined a single Jew’s destiny from eternity past.
• Yet, the “vessels of wrath” within physical Israel (each possessing a free will) are used of God to bring about His desired end as they prepare themselves “for destruction” (v.22).
• We can conclude, therefore, that God’s ultimate purpose for the world cannot be altered by the free will of man.
• Yet, God’s “purpose” for man can be “rejected” by man (Luke 7:30).
• Losing sight of this truth makes Romans 9 extremely contradictory, reducing God’s sovereignty in the process.
• Paul’s Jewish critic misrepresented Paul’s teaching because it refuted the critic’s belief that God elected Israel to salvation—that Jews are saved due to a choice God made prior to their being born.
• However, the theme of Romans 9 is that Israel was not chosen to be saved but was chosen to bear the Messiah and take the good news of His coming to the Gentiles—a calling she has only partially fulfilled.
• He taught that God was greatly using the Jewish nation to accomplish His strategy without predetermining the salvation of a single person who made up the nation.[8]

25 As it also says in Hosea,
I will call Not my People, My People,
and she who is Unloved, Beloved.
26 And it will be in the place where they were told,
you are not my people,
there they will be called sons of the living God.

• Hosea ministered to the northern kingdom of Israel who had rejected God.
• An event which occurred in 722 BC when Assyria took the northern kingdom into captivity (read Jeremiah 3:6-8 and 2Kings 17:6).  [9]
• Isaiah ministered to the southern kingdom who continued to believe in God and the Messiah to come.
• Later, the southern kingdom would become disobedient and exiled by the Babylonians in 586 BC.
• This would be during Jeremiah’s ministry.

27 But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,
Though the number of Israelites
is like the sand of the sea,
only the remnant will be saved;
28 since the Lord will execute his sentence
completely and decisively on the earth.
29 And just as Isaiah predicted:
If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have become like Sodom,
and we would have been made like Gomorrah.[10]

• Paul quotes Isa 1:9 in recognition of God’s grace.
• Israel’s idolatry required judgment, but God did not annihilate them as He did Sodom and Gomorrah[11]
• Some believe that a remnant of Jews were saved in God’s judgment of the Jews in the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.
• Some believe that a remnant of Jews will be saved after the tribulation in future.
• But the fact remains that at some point, be it a Jew or a Gentile, there comes a time when your free will comes into play and you are able to choose or reject God.
• As for us today, our salvation comes from believing that Jesus is the Son of God; the Messiah that was anticipated since Genesis 3:15.
• We have to see the bigger picture and how we are a part of God’s purpose and plan.

We can get caught up in the facts of the plan and totally forget the overall purpose is that God provided a way for us to be forever included in fellowship with Him, His Son, Jesus and the Spirit.

[1] Bob Warren. (n.d.). Romans 9.
[2] Bob Warren. (n.d.). Romans 9.
[3] Bob Warren. (n.d.). Romans 9.
[4] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ge 25:23). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Bob Warren. (n.d.). Romans 9.
[6] Dave Hunt, in What Love is This?, page 333
[7] Bob Warren. (n.d.). Romans 9.
[8] Bob Warren. (n.d.). Romans 9.
[9] Bob Warren. (n.d.). Romans 9.
[10] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ro 9:14–29). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[11] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Ro 9:29). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.