Romans 9:1-29--God's Sovereign Choice

Romans 9:1-29
English Standard Version

God's Sovereign Choice
9 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit--2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls-- 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 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 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-- 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
    and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
    there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,

​“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
    we would have been like Sodom
    and become like Gomorrah.”

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God is in control!  That is the theme of this passage, and it is His sovereign choice in who is He chooses by Election.  Paul, like Moses, wishes that he could be accursed so that all of the sons of Israel (according to the flesh) could be saved, as these are Paul's kinsmen.  We probably also have similar longings for our families and those we are close to, but Paul feels a special connection to these people as God has called them out from among the nations to be holy unto Him and participate in His covenant--not simply a covenant of Law, but of Grace.

Even though Israel has largely turned their backs on God, God and His Word did not fail.  Jesus Christ came as was prophesied and did everything His Father commanded and everything that was foretold in the Scriptures.  He completed His mission.  God has been faithful to keep His covenants to Abraham and Sarah, and in so doing God, by Election chose Isaac to be the one through whom the covenant would be fulfilled--not Ishmael.  God again chose Jacob, not Esau and God chose the people of Israel from among the nations saying, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy."  No one should despise God's Election because none of us deserve His grace and mercy.  God would be just to punish all of us according to our works.  That would be both fair and just, but God is rich in both grace and mercy and wants to be known as Redeemer and Savior, not just as the Judge.  So then He predestined Christ to die in our place so that we could know of His great love, His grace and His mercy and so that His great name would be praised among the peoples.

He is the Potter and we are the clay.  The clay does not tell the potter what it should be formed into or resist the hands of the Potter, and if it could, the Potter would cast it aside and use a new lump of clay that was soft and would be molded into what He was making it into.  So then even if God did make vessels of wrath to bring about more glory to Himself (this is a hypothetical statement), He would still be good and just in doing so.  We cannot bring any objection against the Lord or His Anointed.  He has taken those were His enemies and brought them near not only by reconciliation, but by adoption to make them part of His family.  This is something none of us deserved, and now, even the Gentile believers who are in Christ are part of the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant that the people of God that would be the true descendants of Abraham would be as uncountable as the number of grains of sand or the number of stars in the heavens.  This is all by the power and the will of the Lord God Almighty who is able to change the heart of man and make all things new.  If God had not intervened, we would have all had the same end as Sodom and Gomorrah--a preview of the fiery judgment of hell that is reserved for those who live in rebellion against God.  Praise the Lord that He intervened for at lease some of us.