Saturday Romans 9:6-13

Paul continues to explain the condition of the Jews.

Click here for an online Bible. Romans 9:6-13

Paul says that God did not fail the Jews. He makes an interesting statement, “Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.” He is making the distinction between biology and spiritual. Everyone who is a physical descendant of the Jews is not a spiritual child of God. He has explained in previous chapters that adoption by God comes from faith.

Paul then begins a discussion of a topic that has been a stumbling block for many ever since Paul said this. The topic is election. Some use the term predestination. Paul begins his discussion of election by going back to Abraham.

God called Abraham to follow Him. He promised to Abraham that He would give Abraham many descendants and that those descendants would be the people of God. God promised that the descendants would be through Abraham’s wife Sarah. Abraham actually had two sons. He had Ishmael by Hagar and Isaac by Sarah. God chose Isaac as the one to carry the promise, not Ishmael. Isaac had twin sons by his wife Rebekah, Esau and Jacob. God had told Rebekah before the boys were born that the older would serve the younger. God chose Jacob, the younger, to carry the promise of God’s people.

Paul quotes Malachi 1:1-2 about loving Jacob and hating Esau. We often get upset over the use of the word “hate.” This is a poetic comparison. Remember Jesus told the crowd following Him that they had to hate their parents in order to follow Him. He was making a poetic comparison. He was not saying to literally hate your parents. He was saying that your devotion to Him should be extreme.

God chose Jacob not Esau. This chose was based on anything the twins had done. It was based on God. It was God’s choice. Paul explains in Romans 9:11 that this choice was to show God’s purpose in election.

Paul will continue with his discussion on election, so we will continue tomorrow. But the issue is: Did God chose us or did we chose God? Another way of labeling the argument is Man’s freewill versus God’s sovereignty.

This is a topic that has tension in it. You have to get comfortable with the tension. The Bible clearly teaches election. God chose who would be saved. Yet the Bible also clearly teaches man’s free will. We freely chose to accept or reject Christ. There is a real offer of salvation to all. The key to becoming comfortable with the tension is humility before God.

I have to honestly ask, “Am I willing to accept God’s word, even if I can not understand part of it?”