Romans 9

What’s happening

"I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying," Paul says, his conscience bearing witness in the Holy Spirit, that he has great sorrow and unceasing grief in his heart: "For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to the flesh, who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen." But it isn't that the word of God has failed. "For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel. Neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children. But, 'In Isaac will your seed be called.' That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs." He recalls Isaac and Rebecca's twins: before they were born or had done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to election might stand, not of works but of him who calls, it was said, "The elder will serve the younger," as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy." For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. "You will say then to me, 'Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?' But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' Or hasn't the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?" What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; and her 'beloved,' who was not beloved. It will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'children of the living God.'" Isaiah cries concerning Israel, "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved," and, "Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become as Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah." "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn't follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness. Why? Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone; even as it is written, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.'"

Who’s in this chapter

Talk it through

1. Paul says he could wish himself accursed for his own people. What does that tell you about how he held the questions of this chapter?
2. "Not all who are of Israel are Israel." How does Paul define who belongs to the promise?
3. Paul uses the potter and the clay. What does he seem to be defending, and what is he not saying?
4. Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness got it, and Israel which pursued it did not. How does that reversal work?