Romans 9:1-29 (Wednesday Evening Bible Study)

Romans 9:1-29

• If  my parents, grandparents and great grand parents were Christians, does that make me a Christian?
• Does declaring, “I am a Christian!” make me a Christian?
  • No…I would have to have faith in Christ and meet all the other conditions to be in a saved relationship with Christ.
• Last week we did an overview of Romans 9-11, where we talked about Paul longing for the Jews to come to know Christ and that since they rejected Christ, it left a way open for the Gentiles to come into a relationship with God
• Tonight, we’re starting with Romans 9:1-5 where Paul expresses his sorrow over his fellows Jews rejection of the Messiah Jesus. Paul then lists all of the privileges the Jews have enjoyed.  It certainly makes it look like God had chosen the people of Israel. But some might accuse God of being unjust and unfair in His dealing with Israel. So we will see Paul give three reasons why God is not dealing with them unjustly.
• Romans 9:1-5
• I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience testifies to me through the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises. 5 The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.
  • You can hear Paul’s anguish in the fact that the Jews, his people, and rejected the Messiah
  • What were the privileges that Paul says the Jews had? Why should they have recognized and accepted the Messiah?
    • They were the children of God
    • They had the glory of God in their presence
    • They had the covenants from God
    • They had the law
      • God’s expectations were spelled out in specifics to them
    • They had the worship of the Temple
    • They had the promises of God
    • They had the ancestors of their people
    • The Messiah was a physical descendant of their people
• Romans 9:6-9
• 6 Now it is not as though the word of God has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Neither is it the case that all of Abraham’s children are his descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac. 8 That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring. 9 For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.
  • Were all of the children of Abraham to become Israel?
    • No Remember Ishmael the Lord told Abraham to send him and his mother away. 
  • What was the Son Isaac considered to be?
    • The Child of promise 
  • After Sarah died Abraham married Keturah and had many other children were they considered children of promise?
    • No 
• Romans 9:10-13
• 10 And not only that, but Rebekah conceived children through one man, our father Isaac. 11 For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand— 12 not from works but from the one who calls—she was told, The older will serve the younger. 13 As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.
  • Who is Rebekah?
    • Isaac’s wife  Who did she  give birth to?  Twin boys Esau and Jacob…what did God choose to do? To work  thru  Jacob’s line  rather than Esau’s
  • What was the purpose of God choosing Isaac and Jacob?
    • God chose them for service to His purpose which was to build a nation of people who would know the one true God and thru their line this nation God would send His Son and make redemption open to all.
  • Did God working his purpose through these men depend on their personal goodness & character?
    • God used people in spite of themselves often to accomplish His purpose.  God was doing the work not so much them.  Just because He chooses to work thru them does not mean they have salvation.  That will be up them if they have faith in God.  God chose the Israelite people for service never promises all would have personal salvation.
      • So Paul responds to the statement  he begins with; It is not as though God’s word had failed…it has not failed even if  many of Israel reject Jesus. Has Jesus come thru the line of Israel and God’s promise had been fulfilled? God’s word and plan has been fulfilled. God sent the Messiah thru the line of Israel.
  • One way to look at this is this way
    • Paul is saying there are two Israels  what is the difference between them?
    • Those of physical descent  and those of the promise or Spiritual descent
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• Romans 9:14-18
• 14 What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! 15 For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth. 18 So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
  • Does God have free will?
    • That is what scripture indicates, So He can have mercy on who He wants to have mercy…Does man have a say so in this? NO!
  • Can God use whoever He chooses for His purposes?
    • Even the unbeliever like Pharaoh? 
• Romans 9:19-21
• 19 You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does he still find fault? For who resists his will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” 21 Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?
  • Do we have the right to complain to God about using us or not using us for a particular purpose?
    • Are we competent to criticize the Creator. Paul has in mind here the Jew complaining to God but God makes those choices we do not choose who He uses and how
  • Is God being unjust in His dealing with us who He created?
• Romans 9:22-29
• 22 And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory— 24 on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As it also says in Hosea, I will call Not My People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved. 26 And it will be in the place where they were told, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. 27 But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved; 28 since the Lord will execute his sentence completely and decisively on the earth. 29 And just as Isaiah predicted: If the Lord of Armies had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.
  • Can you think of an example where God bore with patience the objects of His wrath?
    • Pharaoh and the Egyptians he waited 400 years and 10 plagues
    • Even the wrath God showed to Israel in the past
  • Who are some of the objects of God’s mercy that Paul has in mind here?
    • Gentiles; that would be us… 
  • Why did God do what He did thru Israel?
    • To bring the redemption to all people
  • What did God leave of Israel? See verse 27; only the remnant
  • Picture what Paul is saying like this…
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  • Some may think God is being unjust in how He treated the Jews rather it may be better to consider God’s motive for His actions, which is His mercy to in making salvation possible for all.
• TAKE AWAY
  • Paul has shown that God’s dealings with Israel in the past have been just in the promises He made with Abraham and the covenants with  Israel
  • Do we thank God for working His purpose to make salvation a possibility to us?
  • Is God going to save anyone just based on who their physical ancestors were?
  • Is anyone saved unconditionally?
    • We are loved unconditionally but there are several condition to being saved and staying saved.
  • This whole section Paul is showing that God has not treated the Jew unjustly it was God’s choice to use them to make it possible to bring His Son.  They were chosen for service… salvation was up to the individual and their faith.  God is not picking individuals for heaven or hell.  Those that place their faith and keep their trust in Jesus Christ are part of the new Israel, the true sons of Abraham.