Bible Commentaries
Romans 9

Verses 1-3

Paul’s great desire (Romans 9:1-3)

Romans 9:1. I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my con­science bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit.

He calls on God to be his witness for the bur­dens of his heart.

You detect a note of heaviness, a note of sadness and sorrow as he writes. The Jews were accusing him of setting aside all God’s gracious promises to Israel, and they were very bitter about it. One can’t read, for example, Acts 21:1-40 and on without realizing their hatred for Paul. In fact, in his missionaryjourneys, practically 90 percent of the opposition and the persecution came from Jews. They knew that their ministry, their calling, was to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles; but they didn’t do it. They gloried in their separation and believed everyone who was not a Jew was a Gentile under the curse of God.

You have that in Jonah who epitomizes the atti­tude of the nation. And so they are accusing Paul of setting aside God’s gracious promises to Israel.

“Is God setting aside the Jew to take up the Gentiles?” they ask. “If so, what about His cove­nants? What is the use of being a Jew if the Gen­tiles can be saved without us?”

Paul’s argument is a matter of God’s sover­eignty—His election of Israel in times past when the Gentiles were set aside. Now God has set Israel aside so He can reach the Gentiles. The Jews had said of Jesus, “We will not have this Man to reign over us.”

And, when Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” they said, “We have no king but Cae­sar.” They repudiated the Messiah, the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now God has flung the door wide open to the Gentiles; and, for both Jew and Gentile, His appeal asks each to come one by one.

Do you know, I have met Christians—and I’m sorry to say this—who claim that we must not pray for the unsaved, that nowhere in the New Testament are we urged by the Spirit of God to pray for the unsaved.

Now, that’s not true. In 1 Timothy 2:1-4 we are exhorted to pray for all men, all in authority, for God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And you remember the great burden of Christ’s heart in Matthew 23:37, when He said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children to­gether, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”

The Jews were religious. They were moral. They searched the Scriptures; but they were not saved. And their unbelief greatly distressed the Apostle Paul. He must prove his love for Israel.

Therefore, he stands before God with his heart laid bare. “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit.”

When a person calls God to be his witness, he better be speaking the truth. Don’t you think so? You have that in the first chapter when he was writing to these Christians in Rome whom he had never seen. He said words to the effect that “God is my witness that I want to come to you, but I have been prevented thus far. I want to come and have fruit among you. I want to come to edify you. I want to come to build you up in the faith. And God is my witness. That’s the great yearning of my heart.”

My friend, how much of a burden do you have for the unsaved people around you? How much of a burden do I have?

You know, we pray for our missionaries; we pray for our pastor; we pray for church members; we pray for the Christians we know; we pray for those who are sick; but how much time do we spend in the presence of God pleading for lost men and women? How much compassion, how much ten­derness, how much of the grace of God has really, really gotten hold of your heart and mine? What do you know or I know of what Paul is talking about here?

He says, “I have continual sorrow. I have un­ceasing pain in my heart. I could verily wish my­self to be accursed from Christ for my brethren’s sake that they might be saved.”

Oh, friend, I trust that the Lord will give us something of the compassion and tenderness of Christ and a heart that yearns for the salvation of men and women.

Will you please notice Paul’s agony of soul in Romans 9:2-3?

Romans 9:2. That I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.

Romans 9:3. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen accord­ing to the flesh.parHe just said in chapter 8 that nothing can sepa­rate us from the love of God. Yet, he says here, I have come to the place where I would be willing to be separated from Him if by so doing, my brethren, my kinsmen might be saved.

Can you say that? Can I say that? Do the souls of others mean enough to us that we are willing to suffer? Do we have continual sorrow, unceasing pain?

Isn’t it strange that in the experience of one man there could be these two extremes? In chapter 8, he is full of ecstasy and wonder and glory and praise as he sees the matchless grace of God through Christ for him. Now we find him full of continual sorrow and unceasing pain.

I met a man in Dallas, Texas, some years ago by the name of Dr. Truitt. He was pastor of the First Baptist Church of that city. In fact, I think he had one of the largest Southern Baptist churches in the world. His Sunday School then ran between 4 and 5 thousand. But he was never known to smile.

Why? people wondered. Wasn’t he happy in the Lord?

Yes, he was. But in his first years in Dallas, he had gone out with the chief of police on a hunting expedition somewhere in Texas.

As he climbed through a fence, his gun caught and went off. He shot and killed not himself, but his friend. From that day until Dr. Truitt went to be with the Lord, he had one great passion. “The Lord has preserved me for one thing,” he would say, “to reach people for Christ.”

He had continual sorrow, not only because he had shot his friend but because of the multitude of men and women outside of Christ. It affected his whole life. Here in the Apostle Paul, you have the same thing. “I have great sorrow; I have unceasing grief.”

May I say, here we have a revelation of the compassion of Christ revealed in a man. Here we have the heart of God manifest in Paul.

You know, the Lord Jesus, because of His love for you and me, became an accursed thing. As Galatians 3:13 says, “Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree.” Jesus became an accursed thing just because He loves you and me. Paul was willing to go to any length for his brethren, his kinsmen af­ter the flesh.

Were you ever in the presence of a heart-broken mother, agonizing on her knees in the presence of God, pleading for the salvation of her daughter who has gone astray? My friend, I’m telling you, it will pull the heart out of you. This is what I’m talk­ing about. Here in Paul is a heart experiencing the very thing that caused the Lord Jesus to go to the cross.

You know, sometimes we sing a chorus (I rarely ever sing it; in fact, I don’t sing it), “Give me Cal­vary love.” I often wonder what we know about Calvary love. Here is a sample of it right here.

Paul is willing to become an accursed thing. He is in continual sorrow, in unceasing pain, bro­ken-hearted before God, suffering in the very depth of his soul that his brethren might be saved.

You know, you find passages like this in the Old Testament. Do you remember in Exodus 32:9-13, when Moses pleaded with God on behalf of the Jews who were worshiping the molten calf? God said, “Let me alone, that My anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”

And Moses said in effect, “You can’t do that. Remember Your Name and remember Your Word. If You blot Israel out, You can’t keep Your prom­ises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And what will the Egyptians say as to the kind of God that Israel has? that He took them out in the wilder­ness to kill them?”

Then, as you go to the end of the chapter (verse 32), Moses pleads, “But now, if Thou wilt, forgive their sin—.”

There is a little dash there as if Moses were go­ing to make a promise to God. But then he changed it and said, “If not, please blot me out from Thy book which Thou hast written!” He made himself one with the people.

Psalms 106:1-48, Psalms 106:23, says that if Moses, His chosen one, hadn’t stood in the breach, God would have blotted the nation out that day.

Take Isaiah 59:1-21, verses 15 and 16, the last ap­peal of God for Israel through Isaiah. What did he say essentially? “Justice is fallen in the streets, the righteous man is a prey, and God was astonished.” If I remember correctly, this is the only place in the whole Bible where God was ever astonished.

What do you think He was astonished about? That there was no prophet?

No.

That there was no leader?

No.

No teacher?

No.

What made Him astonished?

He was astonished that there was no man to intercede. There was no man to plead for His people before God.

Do you remember that, l00 years afterward, Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, stood before God. He was a broken-hearted man, and he was pleading for Israel.

But God said, “Jeremiah, I’m not going to listen to you.”

Three times, God said to him, “Don’t you pray for this people. I won’t listen to you.”

Did that stop Jeremiah?

No, sir.

In Jeremiah 5:1, God said, “If you can find one righteous man in the city, I will save the city for the one man.” That shows you how far down in corruption and idolatry and rejection of God the Jews had gone. Did that deter Jeremiah?

Oh, listen to him. Let me put it in my words: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. Is there no balm in Gilead? Doesn’t anybody care about my people? I’m in mourning. Is there no doctor? Is there no physician to heal the hurt of the daughter of my people? Oh, that my head were waters, that my eyes were a foun­tain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.”

Their crime? “They are not valiant for the truth and they proceed from evil to evil and they do not know Me, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 8:20-22; Jeremiah 9:1-5).

Isaiah in chapter 28:18 said (let me paraphrase), “They made a league with death, with hell you are in agreement; and when the overflowing scourge shall pass over, it shall not come nigh thee be­cause we have made lies our refuge and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.”

It was for this kind of people that Jeremiah was broken-hearted.

“Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears” (Jeremiah 9:1).

You take the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 22, verse 30, the end of that chapter. The priests have be­come corrupt. The princes are trafficking in souls. The people are in corruption. And God says, “I searched for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”

I want to say this very, very solemnly. If God were looking for men today who will get down be­fore Him in intercession and travail for lost men and women, I wonder how many He would find.

Would he find you?

“I looked for a man to intercede and found none.” And God was astonished that there was no intercessor.

Paul says, “I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites” (Romans 9:2-4 a).

I wonder, my Christian friend, have you ever touched the heart of God?

Has the compassion of the Son of God ever gripped your soul?

Did you ever come into the presence of God and pray, not for yourself, not for things, not even for experiences, but come into the presence of God and mean business and plead with God for lost men and women for whom Christ died?

You remember the prophet said, “As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons” (Isaiah 66:8). I know he is talking about Israel there. But if truth be welded in our own hearts, when the believer in Christ travails for the lost, then we will see God move. It is impossible for a believer to come into the presence of God and plead with Him for lost men and women without having the privilege of seeing lost souls saved.

Witnessing and intercession are partners; they are coupled together. The more we plead with men for God, the more you are going to plead with God for men. And vice versa. That’s the heart of Paul.

He informs his Jewish brethren that he has no bitterness in his heart although they have persecuted him, although they have stoned him. He has been in prison because of them; nevertheless, he still loves them. And what he writes is because of his love for them. Oh, that God might put upon your heart and my heart a real burden, a compas­sion, a tenderness of yearning over lost men and women that they might be saved.

This thing doesn’t come on you spasmodically. It doesn’t come on overnight or for a few minutes. This is a thing that grows on your heart. I’m sure that the Apostle Paul spent many, many hours on his knees before God praying for Israel.

Now we are coming to a very important passage, and it may be a little difficult because Paul is deal­ing with the sovereignty of God; and he is going to prove the fact that, whatever God does, He is righteous in doing it.

We are seeing today in the world a revival of what is known as covenant theology. Basically, it is that the church of God started with Abraham, that God is through with Israel as a nation and that these wonderful promises to the nation of Is­rael are now given to the church, making us the spiritual Israel. And they come to this passage to support their position.

But may I suggest that Paul is not dealing with the church here.

He is talking about those in the nation of Israel. For example, in the gospel through John, chapter 8, reading from about John 8:37-44, our Lord is dealing with the leaders of Israel. And they said, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Fa­ther, even God.” They were challenging him con­cerning his deity.

He had said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” He called Himself the light of the world. Not to follow Him meant to walk in darkness. He has just declared that he whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

They have said to Him, “We know who your father is. We know who your mother is. We know the whole business. We were not born of fornication. God is—our—father.” They were sniping at His birth, that no one knew who His father was, and His claim that God was His Father.

His answer was, “If God were your father, you would love Me. . . . You are of your father, the devil.” They were also boasting of their natural de­scent. That’s what Paul is taking up here. Being in the natural descent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob doesn’t make you a child of promise.

But the promises of God are going to be accom­plished, and the purpose of God is going to be ac­complished in those who are the spiritual seed of Abraham in Israel.

God has never promised the church that we shall govern the world, whether you like it or not.

God said to Moses that the nation Israel would be the head of the nations—not the tail—and that through Israel the nations of the earth are going to know God. The Gentile nations are going to come into blessing through Israel. The time is going to come when ten men out of every nation under heaven will lay hold of the skirt of a Jew and say to him, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you” (Zechariah 8:23).

Or take Isaiah, chapter 2:3-4, that says that out of Zion (Jerusalem) shall go forth the law; and the nations shall be taught the word of God. And He, the Saviour, shall arbitrate between the nations to learn war no more.

“And Paul,” the Jews charge, “you are coming along and saying that the Gentiles can be blessed now? The Gentiles can become children of God now by simple faith and not by natural descent? They can be saved and become the children of God? You are denying all the Old Testament. You are defiling the prophets. You are an apostate.”

You see their ground for this?

So Paul answers that. He declares that God chose Israel for a purpose.

May I say here, he is not dealing with the sover­eignty of God as to whether He has chosen some to be saved and some to go to hell. You do not find that in your Bible. Don’t read what isn’t there. He is dealing here entirely with the question of privi­lege. God in sovereignty chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants for a place of privi­lege. Read verses 4 and 5 to see Israel’s place of blessing.

Verses 1-33

GOD IS RIGHTEOUS IN ELECTING GRACE
(Romans 9:1-33)

Was God righteous in choosing Israel to be His witness to the nations? Was God righteous in giv­ing His truth to Israel, making it the depository of the Word of God? Why, of course. There is nothing wrong with that. God had a right to do that if He wanted to. He had a right to say through what people His Son should come into the human race. That doesn’t mean He was despising all the other families. He chose the Jews to be His witnesses, and they failed the job.

Please don’t raise the question of personal salva­tion here. He is talking about choosing a people for a place of privilege. He is talking about nations, not individuals.

So let me repeat, in chapter 9 you have God righteous in choosing Israel to be the nation that would be the depository of the Word of God, the one through whom Messiah should come and through whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed.

In chapter 10, you have God righteous in disci­plining Israel. He pushed the race to one side and began dealing with personal salvation. When you come to chapter 11, you have God righteous in re­storing the nation Israel to its place of privilege in the fulfillment of prophecy.

Paul is not talking about the church. He is deal­ing entirely with the nation Israel in chapter 9. In chapter 10, he opens the door for the individual Jew to accept the Saviour.

In chapter 11, God will restore the nation again to the place of privilege. As the 46th Psalm says, the Jews are going to be God’s witnesses, exalting Him among the nations.

I have been saying these things because I want you to know that all the promises of God for Israel will be fulfilled. But there are those who believe that God is through with the nation Israel and that all the blessings that He promised in the Old Tes­tament to Israel are going to be given to the church.

May I say very bluntly, the church is not Israel and Israel is not the church. They are two entirely different companies of people.

If you want to know God’s purpose for the church, you have to go to Ephesians and Philippi­ans and Colossians. The argument in Romans 9:1-33; Romans 10:1-21; Romans 11:1-36 is dealing with what God is doing with the na­tion Israel. For nearly 2000 years, the Jews have been a scattered people. They have been the butt of abuse and scorn and ridicule and persecution and martyrdom. In December 1947, they again be­came a nation; but they are still the object of per­secution and trouble.

Why has God permitted this if they are God’s people? And why has the Gospel gone out to the Gentiles? Why did God push the Jewish people to one side and scatter them and then pick up the Gentiles and form a new thing called “the church”? The much misunderstood answer is in these three chapters. And, while I speak to that point, may I suggest this, too?

One of the tragedies through the centuries has been that the church of Christ has taken the promises of God to the nation Israel and tried to apply them to itself. God has not given the church any worldly ambition or any earthly inheritance. Our Lord said in John 16:33, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have over­come the world.”

The promises of God to the church are entirely different from the promises of God to the nation of Israel. Unless we see that, we are going to be caught in the vortex of taking the promises of God to the nation of Israel and trying to work them through the church with the result we are neither fish nor fowl. We have ruined the heavenly prom­ises for us and destroyed the earthly promises for Israel.

When God deals with the nation Israel, He deals with the nations of the earth. Today, He is not dealing with the nations. Today, He is dealing with individuals. He is gathering out a people for His name, made up of Jews and Gentiles.

It doesn’t make any difference who you are, what your color is, what your tongue is. God is dealing today with individuals, not nations.

And, when God begins to deal with the nations, He is going to deal in righteousness. He is going to deal in judgment. In fact, I would say, if I may quote from Isaiah 26:9, the nations of the earth will never know righteousness except through the judgment of God. “When the earth experiences thy judgments, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.”

And, remember, God is always righteous in eve­rything He does. So you have His past dealings with Israel in Romans 9:1-33 in electing them to a place of privilege.

Paul is not writing as one who hates Israel but as one who loves His people. He writes with a heavy heart.

It is easy for us to stand to one side and see what the Apostle experienced and to have none of it in our own hearts. And yet, I must say this, if you glory in the truth of the first eight chapters of Romans, if you revel in the purpose of God in chapter 8, if it doesn’t produce in your heart and my heart a real burden for those who are on the outside of the truth of God, then we have missed out entirely. The truth of chapter 8 has never gripped our heart.

The more we see of the glories we have in Christ and of our position in Him, the more there should be a greater yearning in our souls for men and women who are outside of Christ. If the one is real in our hearts, the other will be the evidence of it. If there is no evidence of love for souls, then we have got to question the reality of our faith. Reality always expresses itself in behalf of somebody else. Now the first three verses show:

Verses 4-5

Israel’s place of blessing (Romans 9:4-5)

Romans 9:4. Who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,

Romans 9:5. Whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ ac­cording to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

This was their privilege.

They had the covenants.

They had the prophecies.

They had the Word of God. Through them Christ would come, and they were privileged to be God’s witnesses to the nations of the earth.

Jonah was one of God’s men, and he ran away from the presence of God. He ran away from the responsibility like Israel did. He was told to go to Ninevah and preach to the people a message of judgment that would bring them to their knees in repentance.

And Jonah said, “I won’t do it.”

That’s exactly what Israel should have done— preach to the nations a message of judgment. But it, too, didn’t do it. But it was chosen for this pur­pose. See Deuteronomy 7:6-8, “I didn’t choose you because you were many. You were the fewest of people. I chose you because I love you. I have given to you a place of privilege, a place of blessing.”

Verses 6-13

Paul now deals with:

The question of privilege (Romans 9:6-13)

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;

Romans 9:7. Neither are they all children (Abraham had eight sons al­together) because they are Abraham’s descendants, but “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.”

Romans 9:8. 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.

What was Abraham when God called him? An idolater. Isaiah 51:1-2 says, “Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain; when he was one I called him, then I blessed him and multiplied him.”

Acts 7:2-3 says, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Depart from your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you. ’”

Why did God choose Abraham? He had the right to do that. Abraham was righteous. There was no other righteous person on the face of the earth. The whole earth was given over to sin and debauchery. God had scattered the people across the face of the earth (Genesis 10:1-32; Genesis 11:1-32) for their rebellion. And God in sovereign grace and mercy chose Abraham.

God would have been righteous, perfectly right­eous, if He had left Abraham in his sin and idola­try. Didn’t He have the right in His sovereign grace to pick him up and say, “I am going to bless you”?

Was God unrighteous in doing that? Of course not.

And the Jews said “Amen” to that.

Was God righteous in choosing Isaac instead of Ishmael?

The Jews said “Amen” to that, of course.

God was not unrighteous in letting Ishmael go. He blessed Ishmael. But in sovereign mercy, He picked up Isaac. That is what you have here.

Romans 9:9. For this is a word of promise: “AT THIS TIME I WILL COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON.”

Romans 9:10. And not only this, but there was Rebecca also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac;

Romans 9:11. For though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose ac­cording to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls,

Romans 9:12. It was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.”

You find that story in Genesis 25:1-34. But please mark something.

Before the children were born, it wasn’t a question of whether they were good or whether they were bad. It was not a question of being reli­gious or irreligious. God in His infinite grace and mercy said, “The older will serve the younger.”

Does that mean that God was unrighteous con­cerning Esau?

No. God wanted a people who would become His messengers. He wanted a people to whom He could give His Word, the revelation of Himself. He wanted a people through whom Messiah would come. He wanted a people. He had the right to choose.

He didn’t choose Ishmael, nor did He choose Esau.

You could have said, “Well, He didn’t choose Ishmael because Sarah wasn’t his mother. Abra­ham was his father, but Hagar was his mother. So God couldn’t take him because he was a child of the flesh.” But what about Jacob and Esau who both had the same father, the same mother and the same grandfather? God was not unrighteous in choosing Jacob instead of Esau.

Romans 9:13. Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.”

Esau was a secular man. Hebrews 12:16 calls him “godless.” That doesn’t mean he was a cursing man. Anything outside of the temple was called “godless.” He had no time for God. He didn’t care about the sacrifices. He didn’t care about worship. In fact, he didn’t care about being the priest in the family. He sold his birthright for a mere mess of pottage. In other words, Esau had no heart for God.

Even though he was tricky and everything else, Jacob wanted the birthright. He had a heart for the things of God. And God told Rebecca that the older will serve the younger.

There was nothing wrong with that. And ap­proximately 1500 years later in narrating the his­tory of the Edomites and the history of Israel, God said in Malachi 1:2-3, “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How hast Thou loved us?”

“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desola­tion, and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.”

Someone said to Mr. Spurgeon one day, “Do you think God was righteous in hating Esau?”

He said, “My problem isn’t that. My problem is how in the world God could love Jacob.”

The history of Esau confirms God’s choice.

In Esau and his descendants, we have abso­lutely no trace of a desire for God. We never read of them praying. We never read of their having a prophet or having promises. Esau was a man of the world. Esau was a man of the flesh. Esau had absolutely no desire for God and no thought of God. He didn’t want God. He despised the things of God.

He said to Jacob in Genesis 25:30, “Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished.”

Jacob said, “I’ll give it to you on one condition. Sell me your birthright. Give me your birthright. You are the senior, the older of us two. Give me your birthright.”

“Of what good is a birthright to me if I die? Give me the pottage.”

He despised his birthright. Why? The birthright not only had to do with inheritance, it had to do with relationship to God. It involved the family priesthood and, say what you will about Jacob—a mama’s boy until he was about 70 years of age, hanging around the tent with nothing in his life that would appeal to anybody—but right down in his heart he had gotten hold of something.

No doubt he had seen it in Isaac and Abraham, for he knew both of them.

Abraham had something that Jacob yearned for, something beyond the flesh. He yearned for spiri­tual things.

Esau bartered spiritual advantage for fleshly gratification.

Jacob was willing to do anything to get that spiritual advantage of being the priest in the fam­ily and being the one to whom the promises of God would be given.

God did not say before they were born, “Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated.” Before they were born, he said, “The elder shall serve the younger.” And God was perfectly righteous in choosing Jacob instead of Esau to be the one through whom His Son should come.

And the Jews said “Amen” to that.

Verses 14-18

Is God righteous? (Romans 9:14-18)

Romans 9:14. What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!

Let me just stop right here. God is never, never unrighteous. You and I may not under­stand all that He says. But He is never unrighte­ous. Otherwise, He wouldn’t be God. Jacob was just as bad as Esau. It was their heart attitude to­ward God that was different.

Is God righteous in choosing Isaac instead of Ishmael?

Yes.

Is God righteous in choosing Jacob instead of Esau?

Yes.

Then isn’t God righteous in putting the Jew to one side and picking up the Gentile? That’s what Paul is after.

God has put Israel to one side because of her unbelief, because of her disobedience; and God is pushing her to one side for the purpose of bringing in the Gentiles that they might come into relation­ship with Him.

Romans 9:15. For he says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.”

Romans 9:16. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

Now, this question, “Is there unrighteousness with God?” is answered in Romans 9:15-19. And here Paul uses the example of Israel and the Egyp­tians. To the people of Israel, God manifests His mercy; and to the people of Egypt, His wrath. Now, to know something of His dealings with Egypt, you have to read Exodus, chapters 5 through 12; and to understand His dealings with Israel, you have to read Exodus, chapters 30 through 33, where you have this question of God’s wanting to blot out Is­rael because of its idolatry and corruption.

Now Paul begins moving away from the question of natural descent as regards Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He wants to prove that it is by the mercy of God in His sovereign power that Israel has come down through the centuries under the blessing of God. He had had infinite mercy on the people. If they had gotten their just desserts, they would have been obliterated. They had forfeited every right to God’s blessing.

Forgive me for repeating much of this, but I do it to emphasize to your hearts the plan and pur­pose of God for His chosen people.

Israel had come out of Egypt under the power of God. The people had crossed the Red Sea and come into the wilderness. God fed them, watered them, clothed them and took care of them so that their shoes didn’t wear out, their clothes didn’t wear out and their feet didn’t swell. He protected them from the terrors of the night by the pillar of fire. He protected them from the heat of the day by the cloud.

He revealed Himself unto them as Jehovah Raffa, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” A whole race, possibly three million people, were shut up entirely to God. They had no drug stores, no doc­tors, nothing but God. And He is doing a new thing. He wants to dwell in the midst of His people. He wants to teach them how to live so they can glorify Him. He calls Moses up into the mountain and keeps him there 40 days and 40 nights.

While Moses was up there, the people became tired of having no leader. They said to Aaron, “Make us gods. As for this fellow Moses, we do not know what has become of him.”

So, you remember, Aaron asked for all the gold and silver they had brought out of Egypt and he threw it in the fire. According to his own words, out walked a golden calf.

And Aaron said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”

“And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play” (Exodus 32:4; Exodus 32:6).

These people were as corrupt as the Egyp­tians. I’m sure that the Israelites were in idolatry when they were living in Goshen. Otherwise how would they know how to make a molten calf and go about worshiping it?

And God said to Moses, “Get thee down, for thy people have corrupted themselves.”

Then He made this amazing statement, “Let me alone, that My anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them (they are not fit to live); and I will make of you a great nation” (Exodus 32:10).

And, as Psalms 106:23 says, “Had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him, to turn away His wrath from destroying them,” they would have been utterly destroyed.

God would have been righteous if he had just blotted out the entire race. But Moses interceded. He stood in the breach three times in the book of Exodus and pleaded for Israel.

And God said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. . . . So then it does not de­pend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Romans 9:15-16). There was no will, there was no work in Israel ex­cept corruption; but God in sovereign grace dis­played his mercy and delivered the people.

May I be a little personal? Are you saved? Is it because you willed it? Is it because you worked it? No, it is because God showed mercy on you. Ephe­sians 2:4-5 says, “God, being rich in mercy, be­cause of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions....”

When did He start to love us?

When we were dead in sins.

When did He manifest His love?

When we were dead in sins.

When did He manifest His mercy?

When we were dead in sins.

Titus 3:5 tells us, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy.” God was righteous in manifesting mercy to Israel. The very righteous­ness of God demands judgment upon sin; but His mercy endures forever and is available for every heart.

Now then, the next question. Was God right­eous in His dealings with Pharaoh?

Romans 9:17. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.”

Romans 9:18. So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

“There you are now, Mr. Mitchell,” you say. “Don’t you see that God has already purposed to judge some people and to damn others?”

It doesn’t say that. You can’t interpret these verses without reading your history. You must go back to Exodus 5:1-23 through 12. Is God unrighteous if He does not show mercy to somebody who is ar­rogant and who defies Him? That’s what we have here. Look at Pharaoh.

It says here that God hardened his heart. What do I mean by that? He made his heart heavy. He made his heart strong.

You see, in Exodus 5:1-23, Moses came to Pharaoh at the instigation of God, Who had told him, “You go and stand before Pharaoh, and I’m going to be with you. And you tell Pharaoh, ‘Let My people go that they may serve Me in the wilderness. I want them to go three days journey and serve Me there.’”

Pharaoh was the head of a great empire, possi­bly at that time the greatest empire in the world. He was being worshiped as God, as the represen­tative of the gods.

“I know not Jehovah,” he said. “Why should I obey his voice? Shall I, the mighty Pharaoh, the favorite of the gods, bow down and obey the god of slaves? If your God Jehovah is what you think He is, why are you slaves? Are not the gods of Egypt greater than your Jehovah? Our gods have made me a god. So shall I, the Pharaoh, the mighty Pharaoh, worshiped by my people, bow down to the God of slaves? I should say not!”

“All right, Pharaoh,” God responds, “I’m going to prove to you that I am the only living God.”

And what do we have? The judgments of God fall upon Egypt.

After each plague, God strengthened the heart of Pharaoh, hardened it, if you please. He made it strong in his opposition to God. Why? Until every god in Egypt had been broken down. God proved that He was sovereign. In Exodus 12:12, God says, “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judg­ments—I am the LORD.”

Dear old Nebuchadnezzar had to learn in Daniel 4:35 that God rules in the heavens and none can say to Him, “What hast Thou done?” Pharaoh had to learn the same thing.

Was God unrighteous in showing mercy to Is­rael? It is not of him who wills. It is not of him who works. It is of God who shows mercy.

Was God righteous in revealing His power and His might and His sovereignty to Pharaoh? Per­fectly righteous. I repeat the statement that when a heart is arrogant and rebellious against God, He permits that heart to go its own way; and that way eventually leads to utter destruction.

If God had not manifested sovereign mercy and love and grace, no one would have been saved.

God would be righteous in damning the whole human race because of our sin and rebellion. And, if in God’s wonderful way He has brought you into a relationship with His blessed Son, the Lord Je­sus Christ, as your Saviour and Lord, then you ought to get down and thank God for His mercy.

As Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 1:29, “that no man should boast before God,” no one will be able glorify himself in His presence. We have be­come children of promise. We have become the sons of God only because of divine grace and di­vine mercy and divine love.

Oh, how we ought to thank God! How we ought to worship Him! How we ought to sing “How Great Thou Art!” How we ought to sing “A Mighty Saviour Is Our God!”

I find it interesting that, when Israel went through the wilderness and came to Jericho, they met a woman by the name of Rahab.

She and all the people of her city already knew; they had already heard of the power and majesty of Jehovah, the God of Israel. His power was known throughout the earth because of what had happened to Israel in Egypt. So you find that Israel became the object of His mercy. Not because the people deserved it. They didn’t deserve anything. But God had the right. He was sovereign. He was righteous in showing them mercy.

On the other hand, God was still righteous in not showing mercy to the Egyptians when they de­fied Him in their arrogance.

Today, I see all around me the arrogance of the human heart. It has no time nor room nor thought for God.

“We don’t need to give ourselves over to God,” people say. “We are sufficient unto ourselves. We don’t need a Saviour.”

But I tell you, my friend, that “the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

There is a time coming when the day of grace will end and men will perish. I can’t guarantee when that day may come. It may be today.

It may be tomorrow.

I don’t know.

All I know is that God wants men everywhere to repent, to turn around from the way they are going and to take His way, which is the way of life and the way of salvation and the way of redemption. God is longsuffering. He has mercy for all.

But if a person deliberately of his own volition turns against God, opposes God, refuses to believe in God, spurns His message of salvation, then God just takes His hands off and the man is left to himself on a path that leads to destruction.

You can’t blame God for this. And this raises the question in verse 19, as an objection now comes into the chapter regarding God’s sovereignty.

Verses 14-33

GOD IS SOVEREIGN IN BESTOWING MERCY

(Romans 9:14-33)

Verses 19-21

Man’s objection to God’s sovereignty (Romans 9:19-21)

Romans 9:19. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”

Romans 9:20. On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?

This “Why did you make me like this?” is not the cry of a heart that wants the truth. This is not the cry of a heart that is yearning for God. This is an arrogant heart. This is a heart that puts itself in judgment upon God. This is the attitude some have when they say, “Well, God has chosen some to be saved, and He has elected some to be damned. What can I do about it?”

That is not what you have in the Bible. Turn to Romans 2:1-29; Romans 3:1-31 for a minute. You remember that God has made all men of one lump. Romans 3:23, says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All are of the same lump, Jew or Gentile. And He has mercy upon all.

But now look at Romans 2:3-5, “And do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judg­ment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judg­ment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to re­pentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

God is righteous in manifesting mercy to this group who ought to be judged.

Is He unrighteous because He lets another go on in unrighteousness?

Let me repeat that. Is God unrighteous because He finds some people to whom He wants to mani­fest mercy—like Israel—and in infinite mercy He saves them from judgment? According to their just desserts, they ought to be obliterated. But in His mercy, He says, “I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

So He manifests mercy. He is righteous in doing that. But is He unrighteous because He doesn’t show mercy—or at least doesn’t manifest mercy— to the Egyptians, who spurn Him, who reject Him, who don’t want Him, who defy Him?

This is the heart of the man in Romans 9:19-20. This is the cry of the man who sits in judgment upon God. This is an arrogant heart. This is an unbelieving heart. This is a sinful heart. He is put­ting the blame on God for his own sin. He is put­ting the blame on God for his own unrighteous­ness, for his own arrogance.

I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 2:14, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

Man’s heart is alienated from God by his wicked works. And when a man says in his arrogance “Why have You made me thus?” he sits in judg­ment upon God. This is the revelation of a heart that does not want God, of a heart that is not thinking of God.

“Well,” you say, “if I’m elected to be saved, I’ll be saved. And, if I’m not elected to be saved, then I’m going to be lost. And I can’t do anything about it.”

Friend, I say it again. He is not talking about that.

He just declared He has a right to show mercy where He wants to show mercy. Neither Israel nor Egypt had any right to His mercy. Both nations were in idolatry and corruption. And God in pure sovereign mercy, because of His promises to their fathers, manifested mercy to the people He chose, but not because they were better or more choice than the Egyptians.

Then what about the Egyptians? Well, if God didn’t show mercy, He is still righteous. They were arrogant. They didn’t want to obey God. They didn’t want God. They repudiated God. So God was not unrighteous by not manifesting mercy.

Listen, friend, election is God’s business. It’s your business and my business to accept the pro­vision that He has made. God has given you and me the capacity to do something about the provi­sion He has made for our salvation. If you are go­ing to bring it into the field of salvation, here it is.

Once more, it is true that election is God’s busi­ness. Isaiah 14:24 says, “As I have intended so it has happened; and just as I have planned so it will stand.”

Take Isaiah 46:9-10, and you have the same thing. In Daniel 4:25; Daniel 4:35, “the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind” and He raises up kings and puts down kings. He moves according to His will and no man can say to him, “What hast Thou done?”

Romans 9:21. Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use?

Hasn’t God the right to do what He pleases? Will He not always do the right thing?

Now it’s true that some have more privileges than others. But the more privilege you have, the greater is your responsibility. No man can say to God, “You didn’t give me a chance.”

God offers His mercy to all. The question is, “Do you want God?” The question is, “Do you want to know God?” The question is, “If you knew that what God had promised was what He was offering you, would you accept it?”

For more than 1900 years, He has been offering His mercy and His grace to men. He is offering that to mankind today. God is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” Now God may take one man and make him a vessel of honor. He may take another man and make him a vessel of dishonor. Each one has a different place of usefulness in the house. But His mercy is for all.

Is God unrighteous by giving one man a gift to do something and not giving the other man the same gift? No, of course not. God is absolutely righteous in everything He does, and His mercy is for all.

Now we are getting to the next point.

Verses 22-29

The purpose of God’s sovereignty (Romans 9:22-29)

Romans 9:22. What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

Romans 9:23. And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,

Romans 9:24. Even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

God is calling men today, whether Jew or Gen­tile, who will accept His mercy.

If a man accepts the mercy of God, God is cer­tainly righteous in bestowing that mercy. And if a man rejects His mercy, then God is righteous in not giving him mercy and in casting him out into utter darkness.

Indeed, I would say this, that having spurned the mercy of God, unregenerate man will be glad to get out of the presence of God. He will prefer hell to heaven with its holiness. Now you think that through.

People say to me, “Why, Mr. Mitchell, God won’t send anybody to hell.”

I say where can man go, once he’s spurned God? He certainly would not be comfortable in the presence of God or in the presence of the holy an­gels. He doesn’t even like the people of God here on earth, so how is he going to stand us in heaven when we are just like God’s Son? You see, it just doesn’t add up.

Look at 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8. The Lord is going to come “in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction.”

Look at 2 Thessalonians 2:12, “That they all may be judged who did not believe the truth.” This doesn’t say a word so much about their actions, except this amazing fact that they have rejected the provision God has made for men to be deliv­ered from sin and from death and from the powers of darkness.

So the judgment of God is going to fall upon men because they do not know God. They didn’t want to know Him; and they did not believe the Gospel. They didn’t want to believe it, and they didn’t love the truth. They spurned the truth. When God manifests His power, His might and His sover­eignty in their judgment, He manifests the same in mercy to those of us who have received the Sav­iour.

I’m going to say it very bluntly that there is not one of us who is worthy of being saved in our­selves. There is no reason at all why God should save any one of us. The reason is in Himself: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only be­gotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

God is gathering out from among men those who will accept His mercy, those who appreciate His longsuffering, those who accept the Saviour and come under blessing. So the purpose of His sovereignty is to make His power known to those who are lost and to make His mercy known to those who will accept it.

“Can we find fault with God if He shows mercy to the Gentiles?” Paul asks. “If He does so apart from Israel?”

You know, this was one of the hardest things for the early church to accept. There were Jewish Christians there in Acts 15:1-41 who wanted the Gen­tiles to be saved but wanted them to come to Christ through Judaism. No, the sinner himself must come immediately to the Saviour and accept His mercy. If he really wants the mercy of God, it is there for him.

Now, from verse 25 to the end of the chapter, it is very, very simple. You have the manifestation of God’s sovereignty, and Paul uses Old Testament scriptures.

Romans 9:25. As He says also in Hosea, “I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, ‘MY PEOPLE,’ AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, ‘BELOVED.’”

Romans 9:26. “AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’ THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD.”

Of course, Hosea is talking about Gentiles coming in. Israel had forfeited every right to be the people of God. And now the Gentiles, by accepting the Saviour, are called the people of God.

Romans 9:27. And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE AS THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED;

Romans 9:28. FOR THE LORD WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD UPON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY.”

Romans 9:29. And just as Isaiah foretold, “EXCEPT THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY, WE WOULD HAVE BECOME AS SODOM, AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH.”

And here you have the testimony of Isaiah. Is­rael never did stand before God on the ground of merit, but always on the ground of mercy. And, even though the nation is like the sand of the sea­shore and is living in disobedience and unbelief, yet a remnant shall be saved.

How? Always on the ground of grace, on the ground of mercy.

And, you know, when I read Romans 9:29, “Except the Lord had left to us a posterity, we would have become as Sodom and would have resembled Go­morrah,” I can’t help but think of Revelation 11:8 where you have the two witnesses lying dead in the streets of the great city, Jerusalem; and that city is called, “Sodom.”

Think of it. It’s called, “Sodom!” And to be sure that you knew what he was talking about, he said, “Where also their Lord was crucified.”

Israel as a nation in the last days will be so cor­rupt it’s going to be just like Sodom. And even though the nation is corrupt and God is going to purge out two-thirds of its people including every rebel, God still has a remnant. God still has a remnant! But if God hadn’t manifested His mercy, there wouldn’t be one left.

And note, as we finish, that God will always an­swer to faith, as we see in verses 30 to 33, for Paul now passes from the sovereignty of God to the re­sponsibility of man. He has been dealing with God’s sovereignty in choosing Israel instead of Egypt, in choosing Gentiles instead of Jews.

Verses 30-33

God will always answer to faith

(Romans 9:30-33)

Now Paul begins to make it personal.

Romans 9:30. What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the right­eousness which is by faith;

Romans 9:31. But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not ar­rive at that law.

Romans 9:32. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over THE STUMBLING STONE,

Romans 9:33. ust as it is written, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

We pass from the sovereignty of God to the responsibility of man.

Can I put it very simply? What the Jew rejected by his works, the Gentile received by faith. The Gentiles didn’t follow after righteousness. They were afar off. They were under the curse. They went their own way. As Romans 1:1-32 says, they were given up to sin, given up to uncleanness, given up to vile affections, given up to a reprobate mind. But God followed them with the gospel of His righteousness. And that’s what Paul has been preaching. And they re­ceived the righteousness which is by faith.

Now the Jews rejected this. What they tried to get by their own works, they missed. They boasted of the law of righteousness but didn’t follow it. Hence, having more light than the Gentiles, the Jews were in a worse plight. And they stumbled at the “Rock of Offence.” Why? Because they were looking for a glorified, reigning Messiah, not for a suffering, crucified Lord. They were looking for one who would free them materially and nationally from their enemies. They were not looking for one who had come to save them from their sins.

For, you remember, the very first promise in the New Testament is in Matthew 1:21, “You shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.” It was not “save His people from their enemies.” He will deliver them from their enemies when He returns the next time. He came first as a Saviour from sin, and they stum­bled at that stumbling block and rock of offence.

Again, what the Jews missed by their works, the Gentiles received by faith. “If righteousness comes through the Law (Galatians 2:21), then Christ died needlessly.” But we in this century, we who attend churches and call ourselves Christians, need to be sure that we have received the righteousness that comes by faith, not by our works.

From Genesis to Revelation, no one is ever saved and fitted for the presence of God on any other ground but the ground of grace, received by faith. When the poor man on the street who is a sinner, who has no righteousness of his own, ac­cepts the Saviour by simple faith, God puts His own righteousness to his account.

So I repeat it, what the religious man misses by his works, the sinner receives by faith in Christ.

Father, may we who are Christians, we who have accepted the Saviour, realize that Thou hast not only chosen us unto salvation but to be a channel of ex­pression, to be a testimony to our neighbors and our friends of Thy grace. Oh, that they too may know about the Saviour who redeems and saves with an everlasting and perfect salvation.

Forgive us for our indifference to others. Forgive us for being indifferent to Thee, dear Father; and may our hearts be stirred first of all with thanksgiving and worship because You have had mercy on us.

And then bring others to the same Saviour, the same Lord, that they too may experience the mercy of God, the love of God and the grace of God in Christ Jesus.