Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 9:25-10:4

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. 
• Chapter 9 continues on the point of election, which, if you think about it, Paul has been discussing since Romans 1:1 when he said he was “set apart”. Paul continues to hammer the point that it is God’s free will, not ours, that matters most. It’s good to keep in mind the complexity of God, as he is not just electing, but he is doing a bunch of things simultaneously and eternally. He is electing, foreknowing, predestining, calling, justifying, glorifying, answering prayer, “giving them over to a debased mind” (Romans 1:28-32) while also being kind as a means to lead people to repentance (Romans 2:4), showing mercy to some and hardening others (9:18). It’s like God is working on an eternal and therefore infinite scale, but also an instantaneous and therefore infinitesimal scale. Pastor John Macarthur, described this as a parallelism, God’s sovereign election running alongside the “whoever believes in Him will have eternal life” of John 3:16. It is Euler’s “every instant,” of God initiating, so the saved are always indebted to Him. And it’s also Paul’s “unceasing anguish” for the lost in 9:2, something we should ask God to give us, too. And something that clearly shows that God predestines us to a team, His team, and we are working with Him to save sinners. He’s just team captain and MVP. He gets all the glory!
• Also remember that Paul references almost 50 OT verses in Chapter 9 alone. He is retelling Israel’s story in many places to serve as a reminder of God’s sovereign will over nations, but also individuals like Pharoah, Moses, Jacob and Esau, etc. Some want to say election is only about nations, or only individuals, but this is another both/and. 

Intro

• Key words: righteousness, God/Lord (6), my people, Israel, stumble (3),
  • These verses remind me of the Hawaii state motto, that the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness. Israel fell because they pursued their own righteousness. Hawaii-and all nations-will suffer the same fate without repentance and belief in Christ alone for salvation. Israel was an example for us.
  • There’s also an interesting connection here in 1 Cor. 10 about idolatry. Basically, ANY pursuit of self-righteousness is idolatry. Flee from it. 
• Sproul has a great review of Romans at the beginning of his chapter covering these verses. Here is a brief summary, which you can compare to our review above:
  • Ch 1 introduces theme of justification, that the righteous shall live by faith (v. 17), followed by wrath of God.
  • Ch. 3 spells out the degree of our corruption, then lays out benefits of justification, sanctification, and adoption.
    • Saved by faith not works, v. 3:20-4:6
  • Ch. 4 (a mix of our summary and Sproul’s) 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. 8 Paul sets forth the order of salvation, which began in eternity in God’s decree to elect some, not all. 
  • Ch. 9 reveals more on election, and how Jacob was loved in a way that Esau was not.
• Verse 25
  • My people. God decides who His people are, we don’t decide that for Him.
  • Sproul writes that God loves us because of Christ’s righteousness, not because we are so great. “To be loved by God is a privilege, not a birthright.” That is one reason Paul is referencing Hosea.
  • Paul references the book of Hosea, a crazy story about Hosea marrying a prostitute, Gomer, who is adulterous, names one kid “No Mercy”(Lo-ruhama) and another “Not My People”(Lo-Ammi), and another Jezreel(God sows). Israel was behaving like a prostitute, “selling themselves off for another,” in other words. Hosea was to marry a prostitute to symbolize this, and name his kids in a way that revealed God’s wrath. But then later, in Hosea 2:23, God changes to say he will reject Israel and call Lo ammi, Ammi now, to represent the Gentiles,
  • Sproul: election is “in Christ”, that is what the doctrine of election is pointing to, not some random I’ll pick this one and not that one idea.
    • One thing is for certain in all of this: the Father’s love for His Son. Sproul says this is the only reason he can think of that God saves anyone instead of making all of us like Sodom and Gomorrah(9:27). After all, none are righteous (Romans 3:10, etc.). Wrath is what humans deserve. Extinction from the moment Adam and Eve disobeyed is what we deserve. But that’s not how God operates obviously, since there are billions of humans on Earth today.
• Verses 26-27
  • Gentiles are not by nature sons of the living God, we are adopted into the family. One thing to notice in Romans is Paul often repeats what he has said before, just in a different way. He has said we are adopted as sons in Romans 8 already.
  • The idea of election is also present here, again, in describing how only a “remnant” will be saved, which is the same thing that happened during the Flood (8 rescued), or Sodom (Lot’s family), etc. Here, Paul references Isaiah 10:22-23 and Hosea 1:10. The remnant described here is Israel, the Jewish people, descendants of Abraham.  
  • Regarding election, Jesus says “the gate is narrow” (Matt. 7:13-14).
    • Jesus then goes on to give even more warnings in v. 15-27 regarding people who honor Him with their lips but then don’t do anything.
    • Church membership doesn’t save you, but it doesn’t not matter either. It’s a commitment to a God-glorifying lifestyle and to build each other up, to prioritize a group of people.
      • Augustine-the invisible church is almost entirely inside the visible church. 
      • Sproul-the church is where the means of grace are most heavily concentrated. Where else can we go to consistently hear an exposition of the Word of God? Not in the halls of Congress, not from a military leader, not from the manager of the chips and crackers aisle at Wal Mart.
      • In other words, this “remnant” described here is mostly inside the church, which is also why Satan works hard to deceive churches into following unbiblical ideas. In spite of all the error, the church is where you will find most of those who will go through the “narrow gate” Jesus describes.
• Verse 28
  • Schriener notes that the word For that starts Verse 28 suggests it functions as a ground for the preceding verse about a remnant being saved. One interpretation may be that it is emphasizing salvation. Salvation of a remnant. This is what Augustine believed.
  • Another interpretation is of course the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70, which was swift, or fully and without delay. Early church fathers who believed this included Origen, Tertullian, Justin Martyr and others.
• Verse 29
  • Connects verse 28 to what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. If God had not left a remnant, the Jews would be gone. Amazing that God left these examples from history in the BIble. It shows His mercy most of all. A James 2:13 “mercy triumphs over judgment.”
• Verse 30
  • Paul asks a rhetorical question, a What shall we say, then? He answers immediately that the Gentiles attained a righteousness that is by faith. They did not know about Scriptures, nor did they spend hours daily studying them(which of course is not a bad thing once you’re saved). Their righteousness is by faith. God found them (and us). We might “feel our way to God,” like it says in Acts 17, but that is only because he has put situations in our lives that initiate that feeling.
• Verse 31
  • Israel (save a remnant) was into law-keeping, not believing God like Abraham, Noah, etc. did. Jesus was right in front of their face, yet they missed it. John 1:11 laments that His own, the Jews, did not receive Him.
  • Jesus has ALWAYS been in front of Israel’s face, read I Cor 10:1-4 or 5, which talks about Christ as the rock of Horeb where water flowed out (reference to Exodus 17). And it was after this that they built the golden calf idol. In Exodus 17, Israel was behaving like what Paul described in Romans 1.
• Verses 32-33
  • The cornerstone of His kingdom became a stumbling stone. “Israel tripped over grace,” Sproul wrote.
  • Isaiah prophesied about this; Paul is quoting Isaiah 8:14, and 28. 
  • Sproul writes that grace is a hard thing for us to imagine. He says 80% of Christian church members believe they can get to heaven through their good works. That’s interesting, and it kinda helps make sense of Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc., who create all kinds of unnecessary works, with the secret handshakes and video-game-level style levels of heaven they have created. 
  • I think some of the “by no means” that Paul mentions in Romans have to do with this attitude about grace. Imagine being in charge of Jewish law-keeping, or dedicating most of your life to law-keeping, only to find out that repentance and belief are what really mattered? If you truly believed, you would be okay with this, but if instead you ultimately believed in yourself, then pride would get in the way. You would be more concerned with losing power than with truth.  It’s like if you owned a video tape rental store today, trying to stay relevant in a world that has a new system for renting movies now. You just can’t let go that the old system is gone now and nobody wants it.
  • Imagine Hewahewa, Liholiho, Kaahumanu and Keopuolani, the Hawaiian leaders responsible for ending the kapu system and its worship of false gods. Some probably ended it for self-righteous reasons, but when you read history it sounds like all but Liholiho truly repented and believed in where real righteousness comes from.
    • “Do this, and live” is the call of all false religions, including false versions of Christianity, which we can make ourselves. An assurance in yourself. “Repent and believe in the gospel” is the call of Jesus, that there is nothing I can possibly do to save myself. “Deny yourself, take up your cross daily(die to yourself) and follow me” is Christ’s call (Luke 9:23). Everything in Romans and elsewhere points to life through grace, not works.
  • And whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.
    • And, this is not “I believe”, “I put my trust in Him”, “I asked Jesus into my heart”, etc. It’s more like “I believe because He made me believe.” That is grace, He made us believe. Wes King’s song, I Believe, makes this point well. 
• Chapter 10, Verses 1-2
  • Regarding the Jews, Paul’s desire and prayer was for salvation.
  • As I write this in early 2026, many, including me, believe Israel the nation has gone too far in their response to the horrific October 2023 attack by Hamas. Israel’s response is looking more and more like genocide, not defense. And then solid Christian believers scratch their heads, wondering why people in the Middle East “hate the Jews.”
  • A lot of solid Christian believers ignore the fact that the modern Jewish religion is a cult. They are following traditions of men, not following God and Jesus. Many Christians don’t mention or consider this, out of fear of being labeled an “anti-Semite,” or Jew-hater. Forgetting that Jesus himself called them a “synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 3:9). The same believers also often forget that Paul himself was a Jew.
  • Instead of Paul’s heart, modern Christianity’s desire and prayer is distracted to things not focused on the salvation of Jews. Israel the nation is full of secular and racist people, ungodly in every way. Many are very anti-Christian. Our desire and prayer for them should most definitely be for their salvation. For missions. Perhaps you or your church should send a mission to Israel, or prayerfully consider a mission to a local Jewish community?
  • Today, like in Paul’s day, there are those who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Jews still fall into this category today, but today it is also who Paul also warned about in other books, false teachers and their false gospels.
    • Mormons talk about God, but they are really making themselves gods.
    • Many so-called Christian churches are waving the rainbow flag in a similar way to German churches waving the Nazi flag, or preaching a prosperity gospel, or other false gospels.
    • Our heart’s desire and prayer should also be for these false churches and synagogues. And we should pray humbly, because we for sure have some incorrect teaching in our own church, because a church is made of people and people are sinners and are limited in knowledge. This is also why it is best to go to a church that does expository preaching, because the goal there is to read God’s word, emphasizing that over man’s needs and thoughts and desires. 
  • Sproul wrote that the Pharisees were consecrated to the pursuit of righteousness, but when true righteousness came into their midst to redeem them, they killed Him.  
  • For many, religion>relationship. For the saved I think that is part of sanctification, getting this right and seeing that relationship>religion. Over and over we see this, even in our own lives. We have to “take up our cross daily.”
  • Regarding these verses, Sproul writes that church membership matters, but we need to do that in a Christ-focused way. Are we doing it to glorify ourselves, to get some benefit, or to simply do it because He says? A simple trust in him? Sing songs because the Bible says to, do communion because He asked us to remember His death on the cross in this way, not for us to be proud that we did it, but for Him to be glorified. 
• Verse 3
  • Seeking to establish their own righteousness, that is the goal of all false religions, from the former Hawaiian kapu system, to the Mormons, Islam, the unfaithful Jews, etc. When Paul says they were being ignorant, he describes what he meant here, that they were ignorant of the righteousness of God.
  • “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.” Hawaii’s state motto. But whose righteousness, ours or His? If ours, things might not end so well. If His, it actually makes more sense, given that most Hawaiians were Christians in 1843 when Kamehameha III said this. It’s also worth noting that in 1843, Hawaii was in the middle of one of the greatest revivals the world has ever seen. 
  • All that we do should be to glorify and magnify Him, to show how our self-righteousness will always fail, but His righteousness will always succeed, always cover.
• Verse 4
  • Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
  • The whole purpose of Jewish law was to point people to Christ, to show them that they could not achieve this law on their own. To, ultimately, trust God for salvation, not their own works. To pursue good works, not because we think that will save us, but because we trust God to save us, and we respond to His love by submitting to His law. If we can’t submit to His law, we don’t really believe Him. And if you don’t really believe Him, then you’re probably not saved.
  • Paul has already described how the first Adam failed and brought on the curse of sin and death, it’s penalty (Romans 6:23, wages of sin is death). But Christ is the ONLY one who kept the law, all of it, defeating sin and its penalty, death, imputing His righteousness to us as a free gift, a covering for our sins. 
  • The law is meant to show us our sin and make us ashamed (Romans 6:21), to make us aware of our need for a Savior. We need to read the law and not fall back into shame and guilt, but be amazed at what Christ has done for us. That we are adopted as His children now. 
  • Sproul makes a great conclusion to this passage, writing that we SHOULD have a “heart on fire with zeal.” Zeal for God is not always bad. Remember, the problem Paul was addressing was the Jew’s zeal was not according to knowledge. It was zeal that was not informed by His word. Sproul writes: “The fire in our hearts is not simply heat but also light, which comes from God’s word.”
    • The Mormons talk about a “burning in the bosom,” heat without light, in other words. They, and others, have God’s word, but ignore it, are blinded by their pursuit of self-righteousness, deceived by Satan, etc.
• Up next: Romans 10:5-15