Romans 8:37 (NASB), “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
• As Christians we find ourselves in a spiritual battle with the seen/unseen world, working to separate us from the love of God in Christ. But, thank God, we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us!
This powerful benediction leads to the main question today in Romans 9 -- “What should we think about Israel?”
• Why is Israel separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus?
• Why don’t the Jewish people believe Jesus is their Messiah?
• John 1:11, “He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him.”
• The Jewish question is so complex it takes 3 chapters to answer it.
• Romans 9 is about Israel’s past.
• Romans 10 - Israel’s present.
• Romans 11 - Israel’s future.
One commentator said Romans 9-11 is like riding a bicycle. We must keep moving or we will lose our balance and come to false conclusions.
• Romans 9-11 is filled with dozens of OT references – from Genesis to Malachi. Understanding how Paul uses these references is key.
• In this section, we will see God is much bigger/wiser/more merciful than we could ever imagine.
Romans 9:1 (NASB) I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my countrymen, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and daughters, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the temple service, and the promises; 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
• Paul’s heart is broken with unceasing grief for Israel.
• Israel has largely rejected Jesus, their Messiah.
• That means they are cursed, meaning separated from God.
• Paul wishes he was cursed instead of them!
Israel has missed Christ, their Messiah AND Israel has missed its calling.
• The whole reason God chose Israel, in the first place, was to be the nation that would usher in the Messiah, and bless the whole world.
• Israel had this privilege, but they missed their Prince.
• V5, tells us about the identity of Christ. Christ is fully human (according to the flesh). Christ is fully Sovereign (over all). Christ is fully God. The punctuation gets confusing in V5. It says Christ is “God over all, blessed forever!”
• Christ is God’s King come to God’s world. Fully human. Fully divine. Fully Sovereign.
• But Israel missed their Messiah.
Three Errors about Israel
1. God has rejected Israel.
• No, He has not.
• Part of ethnic Israel was rejected for a time, but there is a future for Israel, as Romans 11 will make clear.
2. God has replaced Israel with the church.
• This idea that the church is the new Israel is called, “replacement theology” or “supersessionism.”
• No. God has a well-scripted program for Jews and Gentiles, for national Israel and the Church.
3. God does not require Israel to believe in Jesus.
• There is a teaching today that says that Christians are not to convert Jewish people to Christianity. It’s pointless.
• But this goes against everything we have been taught in Romans.
• Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
• Jewish people, like all people, are lost without Christ.
Romans 9 is peppered with questions (10 in all). But four questions can summarize the chapter:
1. Has God’s Word failed Israel?
Romans 9:6, “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants... 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.”
• This question is more about God, than about Israel.
• No. God’s Word has not failed.
• It has always been the case, that some of Israel believed God’s Word, and some did not.
• There has always been two Israel’s: Ethnic Israel (all children in flesh) and spiritual Israel (some children of promise/faith).
Example: Abraham and Isaac’s sons:
• Isaac was chosen, not Ishmael. (Ishmael became the founder of Arab nations).
• Jacob was chosen not Esau (Esau was the founder of the Edomites)
• Four sons in the flesh. Two sons carried the promise forward.
• V13 says, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
What’s this all about?
• That’s a quote from Malachi, about the Edomites attacking Israel and God defeating them.
• Esau and Jacob were twins. When the twins were still in Rebekah’s womb they were fighting. Rebecca asks the LORD, what’s going on? God said in Gen. 25, “Two nations are in your womb, two peoples ... the older will serve the younger.”
• Jacob was favored/elected to lead the nation of Israel.
• Esau was not favored/or hated and he would lead the nation of Edom.
• God’s word does not fail. Israel survives. Edom does not.
• When Romans 9 teaches about election, it teaches about nations chosen, not individuals chosen to go to heaven or hell.
• In this case, Esau will serve Jacob. Edom will serve Israel.
2. Is God unfair to Israel?
Romans 9:14, “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? Far from it! 15 For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOMEVER I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL SHOW COMPASSION TO WHOMEVER I SHOW COMPASSION.” 16 So then, it does not depend on the person who wants it nor the one who runs, but on God who has mercy.”
• Is it unfair that God did not treat all of Israel the same?
• Why did God choose some and not others?
• V15 is a quote from Exodus 33.
Israel was at Mt. Sinai. Moses was up on the mountain receiving the 10 commandments. The people made an idol, a golden calf. God, in His justice, was about to destroy them. Meses pleads with God, and God shows mercy on them, and leads them to the Promised land.
• That’s when God passes by Moses in all his glory and says, ‘“I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOMEVER I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL SHOW COMPASSION TO WHOMEVER I SHOW COMPASSION.”
• God is not unfair/unjust to Israel or anyone.
• By the mercy of God, a remnant of Israel was saved, and we are saved by God’s mercy too!
3. Why blame Israel for God’s choices?
Romans 9:19, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, you foolish person, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does the potter not have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one object for honorable use, and another for common use?”
• The question is this, “If God chooses everything, then why hold people responsible?”
• The question assumes that people have no freedom to choose.
• “Why did you make me like this?”
• The question is foolish.
• God is the potter/the master designer.
• Israel is the clay/material God will use for his purpose.
In Jer. 18, we find out that the clay can actually correct its ways, if it submits to the potter’s loving hands.
• Eph. 2, makes quite evident, we all start out as a vessel of wrath and later become a child of God by grace through faith.
• What God makes of us on His potter’s wheel, isn’t a once and done project.
• God has chosen us for His service. We have a choice to join Him in doing His will.
4. What really Happened to Israel?
Romans 9:30, What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, but the righteousness that is by faith; 31 however, Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though they could by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 just as it is written: “BEHOLD, I AM LAYING IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND THE ONE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE PUT TO SHAME.”
• What really happened to Israel?
• The Answer? Israel stumbled over the ROCK, which is Christ.
• Israel did not have faith, like their father Abraham, and like the Gentiles have.
• Israel pursued salvation by works, but no one is saved by works.
• It’s odd to think that Israel was chosen by God, to bring the Messiah to the world, but they missed the Chosen One.
• It’s even odder to think, that God knew this all along.
• As we will see later in chapter 11, Israel was destined to stumble in faith so that the Gentiles would rise in faith.
• John Lennox, “The Old Testament forewarned that a time would come when Israel would oppose the message of salvation, and Paul lived in such a time. Yet God had promised to leave them a remnant, of which Paul was a member.”
• There is a narrative that Romans 9 is all about God’s Sovereign choice.
• But, look here at the end of Romans 9 where Israel is held responsible to believe.
• We are also responsible to believe in Jesus.
CONCLUSION
• ROMANS 9:33, “THE ONE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE PUT TO SHAME.”
• If you have stumbled over Christ, that doesn’t have to be the end of your story either.
