In Romans 9-11 Paul took the opportunity to address the thorny question of the Jews and their rejection of the gospel.
• He expresses his heart for the Jewish people. He hopes they will understand the salvation of God and be saved, and yet knowing that many would reject the Messiah.
This does not mean that God’s promise to Israel has failed. No, not at all.
• Paul explained that it was God’s choice for His salvation to be brought through the descendants of Isaac and not Ishmael, through Jacob and not Esau.
• In order words, a remnant would believe Christ and be saved.
• Not all children of Abraham will be the children of the promise (through Isaac) and not all Isaac’s descendants will be Jacob’s children, the recipients of God’s mercy.
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.”
• God would have mercy to whom He would decide to show mercy.
• That’s the doctrine of election. That’s predestination, which is something difficult for many to accept.
• On the surface, it seems to be unfair and unjust, and it robs us of our autonomy.
• Paul seeks to address this in the next section.
Let’s read - Romans 9:19-24
19You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?” 20But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory — 24even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
What Paul said earlier will bring up this objection: “Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?”
• If it is all a matter of God’s election – choosing Isaac and rejecting Ishmael, choosing Jacob and rejecting Esau - then how can God find fault with me? I can’t even go against God’s choice? Is it fair of God to hold us accountable?
• These questions sound logical but they are the wrong questions to ask.
• They stamped from a distorted view of God and His nature, which Paul seeks to clarify.
UNDERSTANDING THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
He made THREE points. One, WHO God is.
• He set their perspective right by issuing three questions:
20But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
Paul did not give a direct answer but the questions suffice. We know the answer.
• Paul sets the “accuser” in his place. He represents the many unbelieving Jews questioning the ways of God.
• They are unlikely sincere seekers trying to understand God because Paul says, “Who are you to answer back to God?” which is more like talk back (NIV), reply against (KJV), argue with God (NLT)
• They were charging God for His arbitrary decisions and for doing what He likes without fairness.
Paul puts him in his place: “Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?”
• It is inappropriate and improper, for a created being to call the Creator to account.
• He needs to get back to his place and know where he stands before a sovereign God. That’s the right place to start.
We may have questions for God but the right approach and posture is one of humility and a desire to seek understanding with a view to submitting to Him.
• We are a man and He is God. We are a creature and He is the Creator. He is the Potter and we are the clay.
• The truth is, even if God reveals it all, we would not understand fully with our finite minds and limited knowledge.
• The Lord has said, “8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa 55:8-9)
• God has complete authority and freedom to do what He wants. He is in a completely different league.
Reminds me of the words of C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:
“When you argue against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.”
• The wisdom, logic or insight that we have in understanding something – that many people take pride of – even that comes from Him.
• A tiny disconnect up here in our brain and we will be gone. If dementia sets in, we forget everything. Nothing to boast.
The prophet Isaiah exalts the God of Israel beautifully in Isaiah 40.
• Let me quote a few lines – Isaiah 40:13-14 (NIV) “13Who has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed Him as His counsellor? 14Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the right way? Who was it that taught Him knowledge or showed Him the path of understanding?”
• Isaiah 40:25-26 25”To whom will you compare Me? Or who is My equal?” says the Holy One. 26Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”
So God is God, the sovereign Creator and He has the right to do with His creation whatever He chooses. That’s Paul’s first point.
UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF GOD
• Paul’s second point has to do with the CHARACTER of God.
Paul continues with another question (vv.22-24), addressing God’s nature.
22What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory — 24even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
The first 3 questions get us to recognise God as God. This question gets us to understand His character. Did God do anything that is unfair or unjust?
• Again Paul did not state his point here but it was clearly implied by the question.
• When God made the choice of Isaac over Ishmael or Jacob over Esau, He was showing mercy and compassion! He was acting in sync with His nature.
• Although He has the right to show His wrath against sinners, He “endured with much patience” the vessels of wrath, sinners fitted for judgment. God is good!
If sinners deserve immediate termination, then the delay is His mercy.
• The fact that sinners are still living today proves that God has not exercised justice. He will but He has not, because He ‘endures with much patience’.
• Verse 23 explains that the purpose in so doing was to “make known the riches of His glory” for vessels of mercy, those who are saved.
• While God shows His great patience towards sinners, we see the glory of His mercy and compassion among those who were saved.
In what way can we fault God? He has been patient with sinners and we are recipients of His mercy and grace.
• “I will have mercy… I will have compassion…” God is merciful and compassionate. He has been acting according to His nature.
• He could have judged sinners immediately and that would be just, yet in Israel’s experience and ours today, we know, God has given us time.
• He has given us time to repent and time to change.
• Someone who appears evil to us may in fact be a “vessel of mercy” yet to be transformed. Look at Paul’s life. To Stephen, he was a murderer. Given the time and divine opportunity, he became a servant of God.
UNDERSTANDING THE WILL OF GOD
Paul adds one more point — He says God has prepared the vessels of mercy beforehand for glory, “24even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles.” (9:24)
• The recipients of God’s mercy will not just be the remnant of Israel. God’s choice includes the Gentiles. We have been grafted in, Paul says later in 11:17.
• And that is not an afterthought but God’s purpose in election! (9:11)
This is God’s will. It has been God’s purpose all along. Paul went on to quote from the OT to prove his point, from HOSEA and ISAIAH. God said it.
Rom 9:25-26
25As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” [Hosea 2:23] 26“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” [Hosea 1:10]
Hosea was called to live out God’s message of judgment against the unfaithful Northern Kingdom of Israel when he married a prostitute Gomer.
• His second daughter was named Lo-Ruhamah (Hosea 1:6) meaning ‘No Mercy/Love’ and his third son was named Lo-Ammi (1:9), meaning ‘Not My People’.
• Yet the message of Hosea was that God will in time show mercy and restore His people, which came true after decades of captivity.
Paul then turns his attention to Isaiah - Rom 9:27-29
27And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28for the Lord will carry out His sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” [Isaiah 10:22-23] 29And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.” [Isaiah 1:9]
Isaiah was speaking to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, at one time under siege by the Assyrians.
• The Lord assured them that He would preserve them, which He did.
• If God had not shown mercy, they would have been wiped off like Sodom and Gomorrah, but indeed the Lord kept a remnant.
In both instances, God acted sovereignly and showed mercy. He fulfilled His unconditional promise to Abraham and David.
• The ones who were ‘not beloved’ became ‘beloved’, who were not His people becoming ‘sons of the living God’.
• Whoever puts their trust in Him will be saved.
Paul extended the application of these Old Testament prophecies. He saw the redemption of Gentiles as a deeper fulfilment of these prophecies.
Rom 9:30-33
30What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence;
and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.” [Isaiah 28:16, 8:14]
The Gentiles, who did not know righteousness, heard the Gospel and believed. They were justified by faith.
• The Israelites pursued the Law hoping to gain righteousness through it but failed to “reach the requirements of the Law”.
• Why? Because it is impossible to attain righteousness through the Law. They have to “pursue it by faith, not by works.”
The unbelieving Jews stumbled over the stumbling stone, the sacrifice of the Messiah on the cross for their salvation.
• Paul wrote earlier in 1 Cor 1:22-23 “22For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles...”
• The crucified Christ was a stumbling block to the Jews because they were bent on gaining righteousness through the Law. The cross nullified all that.
• The cross was an offence for the self-righteous Jews but the truth is, whoever believes in Jesus will not be put to shame. They will be saved.
Let me summarise Paul’s thrust in Romans 9:
• God has not been unfaithful to His promise to Israel. He has kept His Word to the children of the promise (spiritual Israel), not all the descendants of Abraham (physical Israel).
• God has not been unjust in His election because He has shown great patience to the sinners and great mercy to the believers.
• God is the sovereign Creator who makes His choice, not arbitrarily, but in harmony with His nature, which is good, righteous and just.
• God’s purpose in election includes the remnant of Israel and the believing Gentiles, both being recipients of His mercy because of their faith in Christ.
If the Jews find themselves not among the remnant, it is not the failure of God.
• It is rather because they have chosen to pursue righteousness by works, which is self-righteousness.
• They stumbled over the “stumbling block” themselves. Their fall has to do with their pride, not God’s election.
They are responsible for their choice. Paul will expound on this in the next chapter.
• For us today, we trust in the sovereignty of God, His nature and His will in our salvation.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your divine election and our salvation today. Thank you for your great patience and mercy. Thank You for providing a way for sinners to be reconciled back to You. We treasure what you have given us in Christ.
Help us honour You Lord and live to glorify Your Name. May the message of the Gospel be heard through us and be seen in us, among our family and friends. Help them all know You, Jesus, as the way, the truth and the life.
Help the church to stay faithful and continue to shine the light of Christ today.
This we pray in Jesus’ Name, AMEN.
[You can view the audio sermon with slides at https://tinyurl.com/KTCC-EnglishService.]
