Paul began by tracing God's dealings with Israel in the past.
"No conjunction or particle connects the two chapters, and the tone shifts dramatically from celebration (8:31-39) to lamentation (9:1-3)."290
9:1 The apostle opened his discussion of God's relations with Israel very personally by sharing his heart for his own people. Some might have thought that Paul hated the Jews since he had departed from Judaism and now preached a Law-free gospel. Therefore he took pains to affirm his love for his fellow Jews. He claimed two witnesses that he was telling the truth when he professed love for the Jews. These witnesses were his own position in Christ who is the truth and his clear conscience that the Holy Spirit had sensitized.
9:2 Paul's sorrow and grief over Israel's condition contrast with his joy and exultation over his own condition (8:38-39).
9:3 "I could wish"introduces a wish that God would not possibly grant (8:35). Nevertheless it was a sincere wish. Paul had given up many other things for the salvation of others (Phil. 3:8). Moses voiced a similar self-sacrificing wish for the Israelites' salvation (Exod. 32:30-35). Paul's brethren here were not his spiritual but his racial brothers and sisters. Even though he was "the apostle to the Gentiles"he still took pleasure in being a Jew.
9:4 Paul shared much in common with his blood brothers. "Israelites"connotes the chosen people of God whereas "Jews"simply distinguishes them from Gentiles. Here the apostle pointed out further advantages of the Jews (cf. 3:2). He named eight of their special blessings in verses 4 and 5.
God graciously had adopted Israel as He had Christians (cf. 8:15; Exod. 4:22; Deut. 14:1-12). The Israelites had the glory of God's presence among them as Christians have the glory of God within us through His indwelling Spirit (Exod. 40:34; 1 Kings 8:11). God took the initiative in reaching out to Israel with covenants that bound Him and the nation together (i.e., the Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and New Covenants). He has reached out to us with the gospel and the New Covenant with the same result. The "giving"(NASB; not "receiving,"NIV) of the Mosaic Law was a great privilege that corresponds to the teaching of Christ. The Jewish sacrificial system enabled Israel to have fellowship with God now available through the high priestly work of Christ. The promises revealed to the patriarchs guaranteed God's action for them just as God's promises to Christians guarantee His action for us (8:31).
"He also gave them His Law to govern their political, social, and religious life, and to guarantee His blessing if they obeyed."291
9:5 The patriarchs were the fathers to whom God gave the promises before Israel was a nation. In this respect they correspond to the apostles in the church.
"The meaning and extent of these promises are the linchpin in Paul's interpretation of salvation history; see 9:6b-13; 11:15; and especially 11:28, which forms with this verse an inclusio' surrounding Paul's discussion in these chapters."292
The Messiah came from Israel, though He was not exclusively theirs since He is the sovereign eternally blessed God (John 1:1). Here Paul called Jesus "God"(cf. Titus 2:13; 2 Pet. 1:2).
Paul did not explicitly compare Israel's blessings and ours, which comparisons I have pointed out above. His point was simply that God had blessed Israel greatly. Obviously even though God had blessed the Israelites greatly their blessings did not exceed those of Christians today. The writer of the Book of Hebrews argued that God's blessings of Christians under the New Covenant surpass His blessings of Israelites under the Old (Mosaic) Covenant.
Paul's train of thought unfolds as follows in these verses. Because God's election of Israel did not depend on natural descent (vv. 6-10) or human merit (vv. 11-14), Israel's disobedience cannot nullify God's sovereign purpose for the nation.
9:6 The word of God that was in Paul's mind was evidently God's revelation of His plans for Israel in the Old Testament. God revealed that He had chosen Israel to be a kingdom of priests (Exod. 19:5-6). The Israelites were to function as priests in the world by bringing the nations to God (cf. Isa. 42:6). They were to do this by demonstrating through their life in the Holy Land how glorious it can be to live under the government of God. Israel had failed to carry out God's purpose for her thus far and consequently had suffered His discipline. It looked as though the word that God had spoken concerning Israel's purpose had failed. The Greek word translated "failed"(ekpeptoken) means "gone off its course"as a ship. Paul proceeded to show that God would accomplish His purpose for Israel in the rest of chapters 9-11.
". . . Romans 9-11 contains 11 occurrences of the term Israel,' and in every case it refers to ethnic, or national, Israel. Never does the term include Gentiles within its meaning. The NT use of the term is identical with the Pauline sense in this section."293
"Premillennialists deny that the NT authors spiritualize, or reinterpret, OT texts. That is really the focus, it seems to me. Does the NT, for example, apply OT promises made to ethnic believing Israel to the NT church (cf. Acts 15:13-18; Gal. 6:16)?"294
Even though all the descendants of Israel (Jacob) constitute the nation of Israel as Scripture speaks of Israel, God spoke of Israel in a more restricted sense as well. Paul had previously pointed out this distinction between the outward Jew and the inward Jew (2:28-29).295
9:7 Even though God promised to bless Abraham's descendants it was only one branch of his family that He singled out for special blessing. God's special elective purpose applied only to Isaac and his line of descendants.
9:8 It was not all the natural children of Abraham that God had in mind when He spoke of blessing Abraham's seed uniquely. It was only the children born supernaturally in fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham about seed that He was speaking, namely Isaac's descendants.
"What counts is grace, not race."296
9:9 God did not choose to bless Isaac after his birth only because he was Abraham's son. Rather He promised Abraham before Isaac's birth that He would provide and bless a son for the patriarch supernaturally. His unusual birth confirmed God's choice of Isaac, as the channel of special blessing, to his parents.
9:10-12 God's special election of one portion of Abraham's descendants for special blessing is further evident in His choice of Jacob rather than Esau. Someone might say that Isaac was obviously the natural son through whom blessing would come since he was the first son born to Abraham and Sarah. That was not true of Jacob. Furthermore Esau and Jacob both had the same mother as well as father, so that was not a factor as an objector might claim it was in Isaac and Ishmael's case. Jacob and Esau might have shared the firstborn privilege since they were twins. One conception produced both of them. However, God chose Jacob even though Rebekah bore Esau before Jacob. As in the case of Isaac, God made a choice between them before their birth. Their birth was also supernatural since their mother was barren. God chose Jacob before he had done any deeds or manifested a character worthy of God's special blessing. The fact that Jacob became a less admirable person in some respects than Esau shows that God's choice was not due to Jacob but to Himself.
"Surely, if Paul had assumed that faith was the basis for God's election, he would have pointed this out when he raised the question in v. 14 about the fairness of God's election. All he would have needed to say at that point was of course God is not unjust in choosing Jacob and rejecting Esau, for his choosing took into account the faith of one and the unbelief of the other.'"297
9:13 By quoting Malachi 1:2-3 Paul raised his discussion from the level of personal election to national election. Malachi was speaking of nations, as the context of this Malachi quotation shows. Paul's point was that God does not wait until He sees how individuals or nations develop and what choices they make before He elects them. God chose Jacob and the nation of Israel for reasons that lay within Himself, not because they merited election (cf. Deut 7:6-8). This is a powerful refutation of the idea that election results from prior knowledge, that God chooses a person for salvation having foreseen that he or she will believe the gospel.
"The connection of this quotation with v. 12 suggests that God's love is the same as his election: God chose Jacob to inherit the blessings promised first to Abraham. . . . If God's love of Jacob consists in his choosing Jacob to be the seed' who would inherit the blessings promised to Abraham, then God's hatred of Esau is best understood to refer to God's decision not to bestow this privilege on Esau. It might best be translated reject.' "Love' and hate' are not here, then, emotions that God feels but actions that he carries out."298
"As to Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,' a woman once said to Mr. Spurgeon, I cannot understand why God should say that He hated Esau.' That,' Spurgeon replied, is not my difficulty, madam. My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob!"299
"The strong contrast is a Semitic idiom that heightens the comparison by stating it in absolute terms."300
In verses 6-13 Paul established that Israel was the object of God's choice for special blessing because of His own gracious will. He did not choose Israel because of the Israelites' natural descent from Abraham or because of their superior qualities.
The question of fairness arises whenever someone makes a choice to favor one person over another. Paul dealt with the justice of God in doing what He did in this pericope.
"These verses are a detour from the main road of Paul's argument. Paul takes this detour because he knows that his insistence on God's initiative in determining who should be saved and who rejected (see vv. 10-13 especially) will meet with questions and even objections. Appropriately, therefore, Paul reverts to the diatribe style, with its question-and-answer format and references to a dialogue partner, that he has utilized earlier in the letter (see 2:1-3:8; 3:27-31; 6-7)."301
9:14 The apostle first flatly denied the charge that God is unjust. God cannot be unjust because He is God.
9:15 Then he proceeded to refute the charge. When the whole nation of Israel rebelled against God by worshipping the golden calf (Exod. 33), God took the lives of only 3,000 of the rebels. He could have justly slain the whole nation. His mercy caused Him to do something that appeared to be unjust. Likewise in His dealings with Jacob and Esau God blessed Esau greatly as a descendant of Abraham as He did all of Abraham's descendants. Nevertheless He chose to bestow special grace on Jacob.
"The graceof God has been spoken of in this Epistle often before; but not until these chapters is mercynamed; and until mercy is understood, grace cannot be fully appreciated."302
9:16 It is not man's desire or effort that causes God to be merciful but His own sovereign choice. God is under no obligation to show mercy or to extend grace to anyone. If we insist on receiving just treatment from God, what we will get is condemnation (3:23).
9:17 God said He raised Pharaoh up. God had mercifully spared Pharaoh up to the moment when He said these words to him, through six plagues and in spite of his consistent opposition to God. God did not mean that He had created Pharaoh and allowed him to sit on Egypt's throne, though He had done that too. This is clear from Exodus 9:16, which Paul quoted. The NASB translation makes this clear by translating Exodus 9:16, ". . . for this cause I have allowed you to remain."Pharaoh deserved death for his opposition and insolence. However, God would not take his life in the remaining plagues so his continuing opposition and God's victory over him would result in greater glory for God (cf. Josh. 9:9; Ps. 76:10).
Here is another example similar to the one in verse 15 of God not giving people what they deserve but extending mercy to them instead.
9:18 This statement summarizes Paul's point. In chapter 1 the apostle had spoken about the way God gives people over to their own evil desires as a form of punishment for their sins. This is how God hardens people's hearts. In Pharaoh's case we see this working out clearly. God was not unjust because He allowed the hardening process to continue. His justice demanded punishment.
"Neither here nor anywhere else is God said to harden anyone who had not first hardened himself."303
". . . we say boldly, that a believer's heart is not fully yielded to God until it accepts without question, and without demanding softening, this eighteenth verse."304
"God's hardening, then, is an action that renders a person insensitive to God and his word and that, if not reversed, culminates in eternal damnation."305
"God's hardening does not, then, causespiritual insensitivity to the things of God; it maintains people in the state of sin that already characterizes them."306
Paul did not mention the fact that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, which Moses stated in Exodus. Paul's point was simply that God can freely and justly extend mercy or not extend mercy to those who deserve His judgment.
Next Paul dealt with a question that rises out of what he had just argued for, namely God's freedom to extend mercy to whom He will. Is it not logical that if God is going to show mercy to whom He will in spite of human actions and merit that human actions really provide no basis for His judging us? Is not the basis of judgment really God's will rather than human actions?
9:19 Paul posed the question in this verse and then answered it in the verses that follow.
9:20 In the first place it is presumptuous for human beings as the objects of divine judgment to sit in judgment on their Judge. Judging is God's prerogative, not ours. Creatures have no right to complain about their Creator's behavior.
". . . men are not lost because they are hardened; they are hardened because they are lost; they are lost because they are sinners."307
9:21 The illustration in this verse clarifies the inappropriateness of this critical attitude. Clearly Israel is in view as the vessel in the illustration (cf. Isa. 29:16; Jer. 18:6). Israel had no right to criticize God for shaping her for a particular purpose of His own choosing. Really Israel had nothing to complain about since God had formed her for an honorable use. Obviously the same is true of individuals.
"Neither Moses, nor Pharaoh, nor anyone else, could choose his parents, his genetic structure, or his time and place of birth. We have to believe that these matters are in the hands of God."308
9:22 People prepare themselves for destruction by pursuing sin (ch. 1). Pharaoh was such a vessel of wrath. However, Paul had in mind those in Israel who had opposed the gospel in his day. God was patient and merciful with them allowing them time to change their minds (repent) and believe (cf. 2:3-4; Acts 2:38; 3:19-20; 2 Pet. 3:9).
9:23-24 Those who believe the gospel are those in whom God will display the riches of His glory, not His wrath.
"Paul teaches that God has brought upon certain people whom he chooses on the basis of nothing but his own will a condition of spiritual stupor, a condition that leads to eternal condemnation."309
These vessels include both Jews and Gentiles (cf. 1:16; 2:10-11; 3:22).
9:25-26 The inclusion of Gentiles in this group is in harmony with Old Testament prophecy. Hosea 2:23 and 1:10 in their contexts refer to a reversal of Israel's status. Some interpreters say that this is a direct fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.310Others claim that this was an initial partial fulfillment that does not eliminate a future complete fulfillment.311A better explanation, I think, is that Paul saw an analogy between God's present calling of Gentiles and His future calling of Israel.312Gentiles were not a distinct people as were the Jews but constituted the mass of humanity. Nevertheless by God's grace believing Gentiles became members of the new people of God, the church.
9:27-28 Israel's election as a nation did not preclude God's judgment of the unbelievers in it. His mercy and faithfulness are observable in His sparing a remnant. Isaiah 10:22-23 anticipated the depletion of Israel through Sennacherib's invasion. That was God's instrument of judgment. When Paul wrote, the believing remnant of Israel was within the church as it is today.
9:29 If God had not tempered His judgment with mercy He would have destroyed Israel as completely as He had Sodom and Gomorrah. The remnant of believers among the mass of racial Jews is proof of God's mercy to the children of Israel.
This short pericope concludes Paul's argument concerning Israel's past election and begins the train of thought that he continued in chapter 10. The use of "righteousness"ten times in 9:30-10:21 illustrates the unity of this section and identifies a major theme in it.
9:30-31 Paul's question, that often marks a new argument in Romans, introduced his concluding summary that he couched in terminology suggestive of a foot race. Israel struggled hard to obtain the prize of justification but crossed the finish line behind Gentiles who were not running that hard. Israel as a whole hoped to gain justification by doing good works, but believing Gentiles obtained the prize by believing the gospel.
"Hardly a passage in the New Testament is stronger than this one in its exposure of the futility of works as a means of justification."313
9:32-23 Israel as a whole, excluding the believing remnant, failed to gain a righteous standing before God because she tried to win it with works. A stone on the race track over which she stumbled impeded her progress. Intent on winning in her own effort Israel failed to recognize the Stone prophesied in Scripture who was to provide salvation for her.
The quotation is from Isaiah 8:14 and 28:16 (cf. 1 Pet. 2:6-8). God intended the Messiah to be the provider of salvation. However the Jews did not allow Him to fulfill this function for them. Consequently this Stone became a stumbling block for them (cf. 1 Cor. 1:23).
Israel's rejection of Jesus Christ did not make God unfaithful or unrighteous in His dealings with the nation. What it did do was make it possible for Gentiles to surpass the Jews as the main recipients of salvation.
