Romans 9 Bible Study

The Word of God Does Not Fail – Romans 9

Gospel in a Sentence: “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”(Romans 10:9).

Big Picture: God is faithful to his word in having mercy on whomever he wills.

Goal: That we honor God for being true to his word in having mercy on whom he wills.

Key Ideas
1) Paul desired fellow-Jews to be saved, since God had set them apart with his word.
2) People are recipients of God’s promise by election, not ethnicity.
3) God is righteous in electing people from every nation for his glory.
4) The result of God’s electing grace is justification through faith for people in every nation.

Key Terms
Nothing new this week.

Key Observations
This section will prove emotionally and intellectually challenging for many people. It challenges the very core of what people normally believe about their rights before God, and it even challenges how highly we think of the nature of mankind – and of God.

It’s worth remembering why this passage is here. Paul has just finished, in Romans 8:18-39, telling us that we should trust that God is working out everything for our good, and will bring us into his kingdom without fail. Inevitably, one will doubt God’s promises; and one may be brought to doubt his promises if he looks at the history of Israel – and the fact that many Jews are not saved.

This section is written to support our faith in God, teaching us that salvation is not by ethnicity, but by the electing grace of God. God has always been true to his word, and his word does not fail, but does exactly what he desires it to do. Therefore, we can trust it, and we should glorify him for glorifying himself in having mercy on whom he wills.

I must admit at the outset here, that I am taking a ‘Calvinistic’ or ‘monergistic’ reading of this text. It’s impossible to go through this text and get at the heart of it without ‘taking sides.’ If you would like a more in depth look at the monergistic interpretation of these verses, check Doug Moo’s commentary on Romans (creatively titled “Romans”). If you would like to read a scholarly reading of the text from an Arminian/synergistic point of view, check out Grant Osborne’s “Romans.” I would encourage you at the outset to avoid exploring the interpretations of these texts through internet sources, most of which are unscholarly, unreliable, and full of straw men and emotionalism.

9:1-3 Paul seems to break his flow of thought here to say something personal. He goes to great lengths in v. 1 to let us know that he’s telling the truth. In v. 2 he tells us about the massive pain he’s experiencing. In v. 3, he tells us why his pain is so great – those closest to him, the Jewish people, are by in large under the curse of God, and Paul wishes he could substitute himself for them. We’re not supposed to ask, as a result of this statement, if we would go to hell in the place of others. Paul wants us to know here how much he loves the Jewish people, because of what he’s about to say about God’s plan for them, which includes the hardening and perishing of a great number of them.
4-5 Paul here explains further reasons for his pain over the exclusion of so many Jews from the grace of God; namely, that they were recipients of the Old Testament Scriptures, Old Testament worship, and the Messiah himself in person, and were set apart by God to receive his promises if they would keep his covenant.
6 In contrast with the blessings Israel received, however, Paul asserts that God’s word has not failed. The reason? Not all Israel is Israel. In other words, not all of the ethnic Jews belong to the Israel who was to receive God’s covenant blessings. We’ve already seen this concept in 4:9-17.
7 Not all ethnic Jews are Abraham’s children, that is, receiving the blessings of God’s covenant with Abraham. To support this point, Paul refers back to Genesis 21:12. Though Abraham had other physical offspring, God would only establish his covenant with Isaac. In like manner, inheriting Abraham’s blessings is not by physical descent. For the full story, see Genesis 16-17.
8-9 Verse 8 interprets verse 7. Children of the ‘flesh’ – or children in the way of thinking in the old world (by physical descent) are not necessarily considered true offspring. It is the children of promise that are. In other words, God chooses people to receive his promises just as he did with Isaac before he was born in Genesis 18:10, 14.
10 ‘And’ indicates that Paul’s going to give another piece of evidence for what he’s teaching. He begins the argument by saying that Rebekah conceived children by one man, which is significant, because that one man was a child of promise. One would naturally think that all his children would be as well. For the background of Isaac and Rebecca, see Genesis 24. For the narrative about their children, see Genesis 25:19-26.
11-12 However, because God desired to uphold his purpose of election, not based on any goodness or badness of the children but based on God’s ability to call whom he desires, he told Rebekah that the younger child, Jacob, would receive God’s covenant blessings. (Genesis 25:23).
13 Paul cites Malachi 1:2-3 to support his point. The reference here is to the fact that God chose Israel (Jacob’s descendants) before they’d done anything good or bad and rejected Edom (Esau’s descendants) in the same fashion. Now, both Israel and Edom were in rebellion against God. However, God gives promises to rebellious Israel for their repentance and salvation; yet, grants no such opportunity to the Edomites. This ‘state of affairs’ was determined by God before Jacob and Esau were born.

God Hates?

It can be really easy to get hung up on the idea that God hated Esau. We must avoid three errors in thinking about the hatred of God:

Error 1: that God’s hatred is like human hatred. It is not. When God hates a person, it is based not on passionate response, but on his righteous judgment for his glory. Though Esau had not yet done anything good or bad, he was himself already considered guilty (Rom. 5:12-14) and incapable of pleasing God (Rom. 8:7-8).

Error 2: that God’s hatred is so unlike human hatred that it’s not hatred. It is hatred. God uses this word here for a reason. Our emotional responses were created by God to ‘image’ (Gen. 1:26-28) his own affections. God does not merely hate sin, he hates sinners, that is, everyone who has not trusted in Christ (e.g. Psa. 5:5). For each person who has trusted Christ, Christ himself has absorbed all of the hatred of the Father towards everyone who would trust Christ in his crucifixion.

Error 3: that God’s hatred excludes God’s love. This is not something a human mind could conceive: but God both hates and loves the wicked. Remember Romans 2:4 – God, in patience and kindness, gives the wicked time to repent. God’s love is holy love and his hatred is holy hatred. He is unlike us. It would be wise of us to see these truths and cry out, with Paul, “Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom. 11:33)

People are probably going to get hung up on this in your study. Here are some things you can do to get the discussion back on track:

1) Verse 13 is given to support a claim that Paul’s already made. What is that claim, made in vv. 10-12?
2) It may be a good idea to have your group refer to Malachi 1 to see what it says for themselves. It must be noted, though, that this choice of God was made without reference to any ‘goodness’ or badness that Jacob or Esau might produce.
2) You could just explain those three errors and move on.

14 What will a person’s natural response to the teaching of election be? This is unjust! Is it? Paul curses the idea.
15 This verse is very difficult. As a matter of fact, John Piper’s The Justification of God is a thesis just based on the word ‘for’ at the beginning of this verse.

‘For’ indicates that Paul is about to give us the reason that it’s not unjust for God to elect some to salvation and exclude some from salvation without reference to their ‘goodness’ or badness. To show that God is indeed acting righteously/justly, he cites Exodus 33:19. What does this have to do with God being just, though? In brief, in Exodus 33:18, Moses asks God to show him his glory. God says his ‘name,’ which is synonymous with his character or glory (Exodus 33:19). So God revealed his glory to Moses in his ‘name’, which is, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

In other words, Paul is arguing that righteousness is determined by what gives glory to God. Because it glorifies God to elect some to salvation and leave the rest in their sin, it is righteous for him to do so. This excludes the idea that God is unjust in electing some to salvation and passing over the rest. Therefore, God is just in choosing some to salvation and some for death.

Or to put it yet another way:
1) It glorifies God to elect some to salvation and to leave others in their sins.
2) Righteousness/justice is determined by what glorifies God.
Conclusion: the activity of God in election is righteous.

This may seem unfair. Paul will address the objection that election is unfair beginning in verse 19.
16 ‘So then’ indicates that Paul gives a preliminary conclusion to his argument here. That conclusion – election is not based on human desire or work, but on the God of mercy alone.
17 ‘For’ indicates that Paul is giving further ground for his argument for God’s justice. God’s word, recorded in Exodus 9:16, said to Pharaoh that God raised him up for a reason – to display his power and glory in him to the whole earth. We see this theme again – God acts righteously because righteousness is defined by what glorifies him. For the whole narrative of Israel’s redemption out of Egypt, see Exodus 3- 12:42

Several things are interesting here. First, Pharaoh was a Gentile. Paul is widening his argument here from merely talking about Jews. Second, if God had a purpose in raising Pharaoh up, there was not a real possibility of anything else happening except what God had purposed to happen. He would certainly be glorified by Pharaoh’s rebellious actions.
18 Paul draws the same conclusion again (‘so then’) from this passage that he drew from the last. Mercy is based on God’s choice, not a person’s. It may be that people get hung up on the language of ‘hardening’ here. God had purposed to harden Pharaoh’s heart before any of what happened in Exodus 4 and following. However, we must remember that God hardened an already hard heart. Remember that without the regenerating activity of the Holy Spirit, no one is able to please God. One is either of the flesh or of the Spirit (Romans 8:1-17). And so, since Pharaoh was already of the flesh, God hardened Pharaoh further then he had been before, much like his general wrath against humanity in Romans 1:18-32.
19 Normally, people will respond to this teaching by stating that God can’t then judge us for being sinners if he’s determined everything beforehand. This, indeed, is the argument of Paul’s imaginary debate opponent in verse 19.
20-21 Paul’s first line of argument against this idea is to strip us of our perceived rights. We, like Job (Job 38:1-3), have no right to challenge God, our Creator, who owns us. He is the only one with ‘rights’ in this whole scenario. See Isaiah 29:16 and 45:9 for the Old Testament citation in these verses.
22 Though Paul states what is to follow as a question, he means for it to be taken as the reality. He wouldn’t respond to an objector’s objection with a mere possibility of the way things are! Furthermore, he supports the truths of vv. 22-24 with Scripture, in vv. 25-29.

Briefly, God has glorified himself by demonstrating his wrath and power in enduring people that he created for the purpose of receiving wrath.

Many sloppy internet sources will try to claim that this verse says that the people in question prepared themselves for destruction. However, this claim is both grammatically and contextually invalid. God prepared them for destruction for his glory.
23 God prepared objects of wrath for destruction with a purpose (‘in order to’): to make known the riches of his glory for the objects he created to receive mercy and glory.
24 Paul firms up the idea here that he is not just talking about Jews anymore – but all who are called, and therefore justified, just as their spiritual father Abraham was. Israel is not Israel by ethnicity, but by election.
25-29 ‘As’ at the beginning of this section indicates that Paul is arguing for election/calling being applied to Jews and Gentiles alike. To do so, he cites Hosea 2:23, Hosea 1:10, and Isaiah 1:9; and he alludes to Isaiah 10:22-23. In sum, these verses teach us that God had purposed a remnant of Israel to be saved, not the whole of Israel. He also promised that he would bring those outside of his covenant with Israel into covenant relationship with him. They would become part of a new, spiritual-not-ethnic, Israel.

Though Hosea 1 and 2, cited in Romans 9:25-29, were about Israelites, they were covenant-breaking Israelites, and therefore no different than Gentiles under God’s wrath. What Paul does here is to expand on God’s promise – not only will law-breaking Israelites be saved; but so also will law-breaking Gentiles, who are really no different from law- breaking Israelites. A new Israel of both Jews and Gentiles would be formed. King David, who ruled the ancient nation of Israel and brought in peace and prosperity, was promised that there would eternally be an heir to his throne (See 2 Samuel 7). Those Jews before Christ who were faithful to God put their trust in this promise. The common theme within this new Israel – composed of both Jews and Gentiles – was that they would have a common King in David’s line, namely, Christ. Gentiles would be included in the covenant promise of God by association with the King.

It may seem here like Paul is stretching these verses in Hosea to mean more than they meant. This is not so. Clearly in Hosea 1, there is a distinction between the Israel of promise (1:10) and the Israel of the curse (1:2-9). Gentiles had always been included in God’s covenant with Israel, and ethnic Jews had always been excluded from God’s covenant ever since the beginning of Israel (Genesis 17:12-14, and remember Romans 4). We’ll see this in further detail in Romans 11; but this whole theme (of Gentiles being included into Israel) began in Romans 1:3-4 – though Christ was born in the flesh world as an heir to David’s throne, he has inaugurated a Kingdom of the Spirit in which he is King over all for the obedience of all the nations for the sake of his glory. Israel has expanded his borders.

Inclusion in the external Old Covenant people of God was by circumcision and the Ceremonial Law (though its blessings were still only granted through faith!) Inclusion in the New Covenant Israel of God is through faith in Christ, who is himself Israel (see Galatians 3:15- 29).

In sum, the way that Paul quotes these verses from Hosea shows that Gentiles are being included as recipients of promises given to Israel by means of election. This is because God has chosen that we be united to Christ, who is the only truly obedient Jew.
30-31 ‘What shall we say, then?’ indicates that Paul is about to draw a conclusion from the reality of God’s electing grace. That conclusion is this: Gentiles, outside of God’s covenant, not pursuing God, who never pursued a righteous status before God, have now received it because God, in grace, chose and called them. This righteous status has been received by faith!

It is vital that you understand this. People are not justified without faith. The result of election is righteousness through faith. The Gospel must be preached for the elect to have faith, and thus, the righteousness of Christ.

However, Israel did not get a righteous status. They did not attain the goal of the Law.

32-33 These verses answer why the nation of Israel did not, as a whole, receive a righteous status before God. They thought the goal of the Law was to attain a righteous status based on righteous works. They failed to see that the goal of the Law was Christ himself and his righteousness counted to everyone who would believe in him.

Sample Discussion Guide:
-Last time, we looked at truths that we need to remember in order to suffer like Christ suffered. What are some of those truths? (You can look back at ch. 8 if you need to!)
-In the midst of pain, though, it can be hard to remember and believe these truths. What are some of the doubts that might pop into someone’s head when they’re suffering?
-To Paul, and to anyone in the first century, it may have looked like God wasn’t being faithful to the nation of Israel. So why would he be faithful to Christians? In Romans 9, Paul answers that God is faithful to his word in having mercy on whomever he wills.
-Let’s pray and take a look at the text. Pray.
-Have someone read vv. 1-5.
-What’s the feel that you get from this passage? Do you have any questions about it?
-Why do you think Paul’s in such agony over the fact that many Israelites are under God’s wrath?
-We should feel a similar agony over people that are outside of Christ. Why do you think we don’t? What can we do to practice compassion on people who don’t have Christ?
-Have someone read vv. 6-13. How do you feel after reading this? Any questions?
-Can someone explain for us the story of Abraham and Sarah? How about the story of Isaac and Rebekah and the birth of their children?
-The main point here is that God’s word doesn’t fail. How do what happened with Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Rebekah prove that?
-What are some situations in which someone might be tempted to disbelieve or distrust God’s promises?
-What do you think we can do to get our minds and hearts back on track?
-What do these verses teach us about God? How does this affect your view of him or feelings towards him?
-Have someone read vv. 14-18.
-The idea that God chooses people without reference to any good or bad they might do sounds like God is being unjust. In these verses, Paul argues against that.
-Any questions you have about these verses? The reality here is that you may not have all the answers to peoples’ questions. That’s okay. Be honest, teach the text, and say from the text what you know to be true.
-What sort of picture of God is painted by these verses?
-What does it look like God ultimately cares about?
-Given that God is not required to give mercy to anyone, how does this make you feel about his mercy if you have received it?
-Have someone read vv. 19-29.
-Paul just argued that election is based on God’s will for God’s glory. Our natural response to that will be to say that God’s unfair in judging people for their sin. Look at v. 19. That’s exactly what Paul’s debate opponent says.
-What kind of picture of God do these verses paint?
-How does this portrayal of God make you feel about the fact that God has had mercy on you if you have believed in Christ?
-How does Paul answer the objection that God is unjust here?
-What does Paul teach about God here? About you?
-Have someone read vv. 30-33.
-Look at v. 30. ‘What shall we say, then’ is Paul’s way of concluding this section. What is the result of God’s choosing in these verses?
-What is the relationship between election and justification, according to these verses? See also Romans 8:30. One becomes a recipient of God’s promises by being chosen by him. God calls and gives the gift of faith (Philippians 1:29) to each person he has chosen. To each of these, he then credits Christ’s righteousness. In sum, God’s choosing/election leads to God’s call, God’s call leads to faith, faith receives the righteousness of Christ as a gift, and on the basis of that righteousness God justifies the elect.
-How would you summarize what you’ve learned about God and about people in this chapter?
-Given those things, how does having received the righteousness of Christ through faith make you feel?
-How does it change how you worship? How does it change how you pray?
-Let’s worship God in prayer. Pray as a group.