Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 9:1-13

Read here: Romans 9

Review

• Calvin on the theme of Romans: “Man’s only righteousness is the mercy of God in Christ, when it is offered by the Gospel and received by faith.” Romans 1:17 and elsewhere.
• IMPORTANT: Paul wrote the letter to the saints (1:7), and the letter is about the gospel, which is a reminder we need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily. 
• Luther: Simul iustus et peccator = At the same time, righteous and a sinner! Romans 3:23-25
• In Ch. 1-3 Paul shows us our unrighteousness, and God’s wrath against that, and then switches to Christ’s righteousness as our covering, the propitiation of our sins (Romans 3:25) as the final sacrifice for sin, fulfilling the promise to Abraham, who had faith before any works
• Faith being “counted” or “credited to our account” as righteousness is mentioned 11 times in Chapter 4! If “none are righteous” as Paul wrote in Romans 3:10, then this saving faith must be a gift from God.
• Ch. 5, We now have peace with God, access to God, and hope, because of what Christ did for us while we were weak(v. 6), sinners (v. 8), and enemies (v. 10). Christ did this “at the right time,” (v. 6), connecting Christ’s work on the cross and God’s plan of redemption to real history (not just a myth or legend).
• Atonement(5:6-11): Jesus satisfying God’s wrath for us through His sacrificial death on the cross.
• Ch. 5 and 6 describe federalism, this idea of one man making a difference, for righteousness (Jesus) or wickedness (Adam). 
• Ch 6 ended with lots of words pointing to the new road we are now on with Christ, the sanctification road.
  • Service is the key word, “slaves” used 8 times
  • “Present yourselves”(5), “Leads to”(5)
• Sproul: “our regeneration, our rebirth was the work of one Person, God. It was not a joint venture; but from the moment we take our first breath of regenerated spiritual life, it  becomes a joint effort.” the work of one Person is what salvation is about. The joint venture is what sanctification is about. Ch.6 ends and we continue into Ch.7 describing what this “sanctification road” looks like to walk down. We were on the sin road that leads to death, but now we are on the grace road that leads to eternal life.
• Chapter 8 is describing the assurance we have as Christians in salvation. Deus pro nobis – God for us. It is a reminder of God’s sovereignty over our salvation, and God’s infinite wisdom, in the creation, fall, redemption plan he has for not just us, but the whole world. Ultimately, God, not us, foreknows, predestines, calls, justifies and glorifies. There are many verses (Romans 2:4, John 3:16, etc) that point to God’s patience with everyone, His love for everyone, that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9), so I believe there is some free will in there somewhere, perhaps an ability to answer the call, or not. But, even if we answer the call, it is God who initiated. Even if we are crying out for God, “feeling our way to Him” like Acts 17:27 says, we are only doing this because He has already called. We are MORE THAN CONQUERORS, not on our own of course, but “through Him who loved us” from before time began. 

Intro

• Key words: nor/or (15), God/He (7), Jesus/him/Son (5), shall (4), love (3), separate (2)
  • Lots of contrast in these verses, highlights God’s eternal nature and sovereignty over everything. 
• About Ch. 9, Sproul says most people end their study of Romans here, because the doctrine of election is just too intense, that God’s grace and mercy and sovereignty are just too much here. Here are three things people do to get around the topic of election:
  • 1) They ignore or avoid it.
  • 2) They say God is not talking about individuals but about the election of nations to a particular historic destiny, specifically Israel as distinguished from other nations like America, Greece, etc. So, the grace Paul speaks of here is not the promise of saving grace through faith alone, but the promise of earthly benefits, such as the inheritance of a piece of real estate, which is the cause of much war and death.  
  • 3) They create a flawed version of foreknowledge, that God chooses those He knows will say yes to Christ, and rejects those He knows will reject Him. I think there could be some truth in that as long as we keep in mind that God initiates and brings people to the point of saying yes to Christ. Otherwise it tends to be man-centered and works-based.
• Another amazing thing to notice about Chapter 9 is Paul references almost 50 Old Testament passages! His knowledge of Scripture is incredible and humbling.
• Verses 1-2
  • Woah, we went from “more than conquerors” to sorrow and unceasing anguish! Here, Paul describes his burden for the lost, something all true Christians should have. God didn’t save us for our glory, He saved us for His glory, he saved us to be “doulos”, slaves to Christ. Remember Ch. 6? “Slaves” was used 8 times. Paul’s laser focus in the last 8 chapters has been to help believers know the gospel so that they can go share the gospel. Over and over he shows how real life, really living, is not about us, it’s about Him and about others. Knowing of this incredible hope we have in Christ, which Paul describes in Chapter 8, should naturally result in a burden for the lost, for those who don’t share the same hope.
  • Jesus was also considered a “man of sorrows.” In Matthew 23:37, He wishes He could gather all of Jerusalem to Him, but they were not willing. And right there is the free will that is also just as real and true as God’s election and foreknowledge! Paul, and Jesus, would not have this burden for the lost, if election meant people were “God’s puppets.” God DOES choose, He DOES elect, but there is also an amazing and mysterious both/and here as well, of both God’s sovereign will always and forever above our own wills.
    • Pastor John Macarthur described these two things as parallels. Maybe simultaneous is another word that could describe them, like what Euler said, “It is God therefore, who places men, every instant, in circumstances the most favorable, and from which, they may derive motives the most powerful, to produce their conversion; so that men are always indebted to God, for the means which promote their salvation.”

• Verses 3-4
  • Paul continues his powerful lament for his fellow Jews (remember, Paul was Jewish), that they would repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15). Think about his attitude, willing to give up his own salvation for others if he could. Obviously, he doesn’t think this is going to happen, he knows it is Jesus who saves not Him, and in a few verses Paul reminds us that it is His will, not our will, that has the power.
  • Accursed = anathema, which means “let him be damned,” the same thing Paul writes to the Galatians in 1:8-9, for any who teach a false gospel, “let him be damned,” or accursed, he writes.
    • Paul is saying he wishes to face eternal damnation if this would save others. Do we love anyone that much? Do we have even a hint of that kind of burden for the lost? I have room for growth here, what about you? 
    • In Galatians 1:8-9, Paul is saying there “damnation for you for destroying the gospel.” Is this the kind of passion we have for false teaching, like that of the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witness? What about Jewish unbelievers, Paul’s kinsmen he is describing here (Remember, Paul was Jewish)? Have you ever thought to share the gospel with them? What things are we doing that destroy the gospel witness? 
• Verses 4-5
  • All these things came out of Israel: the adoption as sons (Exodus 4:22), the glory (Exodus 40:34), covenants(Genesis 17:2, Deut. 29:14), the law (Deut 4:14, Psalm 147:19), the worship (Hebrews 9:1), the promises (Eph. 2:12, John 4:22), the patriarchs(Romans 11:28), and the genealogy of Jesus himself, who is God over all (Eph. 4:6).
  • One response to these verses should be GRATITUDE to the faithful Jews through history. What an incredible relationship with God, to be entrusted with these things AND for a remnant of believers to preserve His word and keep his covenant until Jesus fulfilled the law. 
  • Another response should be like Paul’s grief for the unfaithful Jews through history. As with almost everything God does, there is more than one thing going on. There is His sovereignty and ultimate authority, but also man’s will. There is God always initiating the relationship, man responding. There is foreknowledge and predestination in this, but it is not robotic and forced, otherwise it wouldn’t be a relationship but a dictatorship. There is faithful AND unfaithful, righteous and wicked, etc. 
  • Sproul mentions some try to twist the end of verse 5 to say Jesus was “blessed by God” to have His position, but what it is saying is Jesus is God. The ESV says the Christ, who is God over all. Doesn’t get much more clear than that! And, verse 5 says blessed forever. Eternally blessed. Not like there was a time when Jesus was not blessed and then God blessed him.
    • Verse 5 ends with “Amen,” which the Jews would know as the word used to affirm the truth of a statement. The word “amen” comes from “emut”, which means “truth.” Jesus is God, and that’s the truth. 
• Verses 6-7
  • What Paul is about to remind us of is who the “true Israel” is. Yes, there is the genetic group of people, the Israelites, which are the Jews that Paul describes as his kinsmen in verse 3. AND yes, the true Israel are the faithful. The believers. There is a really important distinction here, between Israelites, who are the Jews, and Israel, who are the faithful.
    • Paul has been showing us this since at least Chapter 4, where Abraham believed God, before circumcision, before the Law, to show that he was saved by faith, not by works.
  • Paul was just lamenting the Jews who rejected Jesus, and is saying here that “even though many Jews have rejected Jesus and are headed to Hell, remember, that’s not the true Israel. The true Israel are the believers, both Jew and Gentile.”
    • When Paul writes in verse 6 that Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, he is using “Israel” to mean two different things here.
      • descended from Israel are the Israelites of verse 4, the Jewish people.
      • belong to Israel are the believers, the faithful.
  • Throughout Romans, Paul is teaching that this is not about nationality. It’s not about genetics. It’s about faithfulness.
    • Augustine described a “visible church” and an “invisible church.” The visible church is the group of people that come to church on any given Sunday. It would be great if they were 100% believers, but this is probably not the case. The “invisible church” is the faithful, the ones who God knows are saved. There are for sure things we can know about who is and isn’t saved, which was basically the point of Chapter 8. But it is ultimately up to God. 
    • Sproul writes that “Just because somebody is an ethnic Jew, a member of the commonwealth of Israel, does not mean that he is saved.” That is what the Pharisees believed (John 8:39). 
    • The Greek also affirms Paul is speaking of two types of “Israel” here:
      • οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραήλ(hoi ex Israēl): It means “those from” or “out of” Israel. The Jewish people, the genetic descendants of Jacob.
      • οὗτοι Ἰσραήλ(houtoi Israēl): It means “these Israel,” or “these in the truest sense.” Spiritual Israel, in other words, in contrast to genetic Israel, descendants of Jacob.
      • I keep describing the believers, the belong to Israel of verse 6 as “true Israel,” because that’s what the Greek translates as, “are truly Israel.” I don’t know why the ESV doesn’t include “truly,” but you can read verse 6 as meaning “Not all who are descended from Israel are truly Israel.”
• Verses 8-13
  • While verse 6 has a lot of interpretive difficulties.THESE are the verses that many ignore, the 3 points we described earlier. But they are really just a continuation of the end of Chapter 8, and really a continuation all the way back to Romans 2:29, that a true Jew, a true believer in other words, is one inwardly, not outwardly. A true believer is a work of the Spirit, not of the human will. And we can even connect this back to verse 1:1, where Paul says he was “called,” and then to all those who are “called” in verse 1:7.
  • Paul is really saying nothing different here in verses 8-13 than he has been saying the whole time! And he is consistent with Christ’s own words, like in John 8:36 that “those who the Son sets free” are free indeed. Or John 6:37-40 and “All that the Father gives me will come to me.” So why the controversy?
    • I think some of it is forgetfulness. Today we like to memorize one verse here and there, not whole passages, or whole books. Remember what Luther said to do, memorize ALL of Romans! I think what we are reading now is a reminder of why Luther encouraged that.
      • And look at how Paul is really good at remembering. Forgetfulness is one of my strong suits haha, but not Paul! Pulling from almost 50 Old Testament passages here in Chapter 9 alone. It makes sense that the more you have memorized, the more capable you will be at making proper connections between books, chapters, and verses.
    • Some of the controversy can also be that we really feel like we need to have some say in this, otherwise we get into the “dictatorship, God made robots” mindset. God obviously didn’t make robots, but in verse 13 he also clearly chose Jacob over Esau, and He did it to show His election is real.
      • Sproul argues that these verses clearly mark false the “prescient view” of predestination, that God knows who will say yes and who will say no, but that everyone has freedom to choose this. I don’t know, I think there could still be some truth to this, that this is part of the beautiful mystery of our relationship with Christ, of the give and take in that. In Chapter 10:13, we will see Paul ALSO saying that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And that seems to contradict the Jacob/Esau story, but it doesn’t. I think this is another great both/and of God that we are seeing. Of God initiating and us responding. Of Euler’s “every instant” putting us in situations that allow us to respond to the gospel, or not. 
      • Note that Paul writes clearly that their election was not based on what they would do (they had done nothing either good or bad), but on what God would do.
      • This is at the heart of grace, a free gift dependent not on us, but God. 
      • But, again, I think the main thing in all this “election talk” is God’s sovereignty, His leading. Look at John 6:37-40 again. Yes, it says all the Father gives me, but Jesus also says in v 37 “AND whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” I think what both Jesus and Paul are saying is that God initiates the relationship.
      • Sproul makes a very good point that these verses have A LOT to say about free will. He writes: “But it is not our free will, it is God’s. It is the free will of the Creator, the Redeemer, who, in His sovereign grace, pours His mercy out upon those He chooses.”
        • I think this is an amazing, and overlooked thought. We are so caught up in wanting something for ourselves, worried about our sovereignty, and our free will, that we miss what really matters, which is God’s free will! God’s free will is what really matters, not ours, and that is what we have a problem with, because that is part of our sin nature. Look, all the way back to Adam, how did Satan tempt him and Eve? With the false opportunity to be like God (Genesis 3:5). 
    • Note also that it was Jewish custom that the oldest child received the family inheritance, which is why it is a big deal that God chose the second child out, Jacob, instead of Esau. 
    • Here are some thoughts on the love/hate of God here. Sproul wrote an entire book on this, haha! What God is showing here is a contrast, not a love/hate like we might think of it, so we need to be careful about interjecting our feelings into it. Beware of “getting triggered” here, haha. Maybe liken this to your two favorite foods, or your “best friend.” Do you hate and despise the second-favorite food, or your second-best friend?
      • Jesus used a contrast like this in Luke 14:26, when he said to hate your parents and even yourself. He was saying to put Him as your number one love. 
      • Conclusion: stop being triggered by this love/hate stuff, gosh!
    • Paul is going to dive even deeper into election as we continue in Chapter 9, so we are not done with the topic.
      • Note that God’s triune nature is on display for us in this whole “election thing.” The Father gives those to the Son. The Son imputes his righteousness on us. The Holy Spirit now in us to help us in our weakness. Abraham believing God before being circumcised, before the law was given, so that grace would be shown to be by faith, not by works. A faith that only happened because the Holy Spirit was leading, already at work in Abraham, and you, and me. Salvation is a beautiful and mysterious thing, and that should bring us to great humility, not pride.
      • God’s sovereignty, His free will, is NOT determinism, a view that there is no free will, ever. If determinism were true, then there wouldn’t be verses like the one from Exodus we referenced recently, where God gave instructions on making a perfume, but also clearly allowed free will in how the ingredients were mixed together (Exodus 30:35).
      • Remember our discussions about calculus, about infinitesimally small change, a change so small that it is simultaneously zero and not zero? How can THIS possibly give the most accurate answer to all sorts of real, physical events? How can this idea of being something and nothing at the same time even work at all? I don’t understand it, but I know it works. 
      • Likewise, how can predestination, foreknowledge, election work together with human free will? How can God’s free will and human free will coexist, doesn’t it have to be one or the other? I don’t think determinism is the best way to describe God’s free will, but for the sake of argument, if that is the case, then I would agree with philosophers that say determinism and human free will are compatible. Just like the Trinity is compatible. Just like light is photons and also waves. Just like electric current creates an electric field and a magnetic field perpendicular to it, just like sunlight is one color and also an infinite number of colors, etc. And, just like God gives a recipe, and also gives humans free will on how the ingredients are mixed together.
        • We actually discussed this some back in Romans 7:14-25. Jonathan Edwards wrote extensively on human free will. We sin because WE want to, not because God made us do it, or what is usually said, “the devil made me do it.” This is also what Paul is saying when he asks things like “should we keep on sinning so grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1). In other words, if the world is 100% deterministic, my sin should be connected to God’s grace like gravity or something. If I jump, I will return to earth. If I sin, God’s grace will return to me. “This is not how grace works!” is Paul’s answer in 6:2. I think Paul is saying determinism is not the answer, and 100% human free will is not the answer either. As we have discussed before, Adam had complete free will. But now, unless Jesus saves us, our free will ultimately sends us to Hell.
• Up next, Romans 9:14-20