Epistle to the Romans
Chapter 09 – Jew and Gentile
The next three chapters are concerned with God’s purpose with respect to the Jews and the Gentiles. Each has a different experience in faith but both carry a purpose in God’s plan.
Romans 9:1-5 Paul’s Loyalty
Paul was often involved in controversy but we should expect it from a man who so devotedly served two opposing sides of faith. His early devotion indicated a hatred of Christians. His later writings indicate he despised the heritage of Israel. It is not that simple. He acknowledged a debt to his heritage which formed the channel by which God’s merciful purpose entered his life. Yet, he broke with Judaism to acknowledge Christ’s teaching. He still identified himself as part of the Jewish race and regretted his brethren’s repudiation of the Messiah. The wording is difficult is verses three and four, but he is saying he wishes he could cut himself off from Christ if it would help his brethren. He would give up his life in Christ for his brethren. The Israelites were God’s chosen people. To them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the law, the worship and the promise. They had the patriarchs and according to the flesh, they had the Christ.
Romans 9:6-13 Jewish Apostasy
God is absolutely sovereign and free to choose whom he will as the recipients of his favor. We sometimes think He created a perfectly designed world and has given up control of it. History indicates that God is not as predictable as we would like to think. The pious Jew would take for granted the belief that God controls the world he has made. Theoretically, modern Christians would admit it too; but we are constantly tempted to regard natural law, not as the method by which God works, but as a practical substitute for God. We do not understand all the aspects of natural law. When we replace God with natural law we introduce chance into our history in place of God’s design.
There are three important consequences of our being a creation of a sovereign God. We must recognize God as the creative source of our life. We are dependent beings and should be grateful for God’s grace. We must learn to humbly cooperate with God’s approach instead of remodeling the world around us. The Jews took pride in their being chosen to receive God’s favor and to bear witness to his truth. They believed they were chosen because they were the best instrument by which to accomplish God’s goals. They believed in the inevitable, almost mechanical transmission of divine favor. All that was required to receive God’s promise was to be born of a Jew. After all they had Abraham for their father. However, we must remember, God chose Isaac, not Ishmael. The next generation, He chose Jacob, not Esau. We lack the capacity to discern the reasons which govern God’s choices. We believe we are all equally deserving in God’s eyes. We also know that we have different endowments. We must recognize the resources of the world are inequitably distributed. We may wish to change the situation and work to do so. On the other hand, we must recognize that nothing is automatic with God.
Romans 9:14-24 God’s Choice
The Scriptures show God’s choice operates freely and is never bound. The doctrine of election refers to responsibility rather than privilege. If election is to responsibility, a disregard of the necessary moral requirements must mean the loss of the treasured inheritance. Paul admits that only a remnant of the sons of Israel will be saved. The mark of the remnant is its faithfulness to those requirements which other Israelites, trusting in their exclusive privileges, have ignored. Again, the external controls of the law and the external control of physical descent have no bearing on God’s choices. There is nothing we can do to deserve election. It is due solely to the free choice of God. But we must remember that what cannot be won by merit can be forfeited by negligence. We are indeed free to choose to be responsible to the moral requirements or we can choose to ignore them. We cannot earn a privilege that will disallow this requirement for responsibility. We are either responsible or we are not. We are either saved or we are not.
Paul describes the true Israel as a small minority. Many may belong to the organization by observing its external considerations. That does not make one a real Israelite. It makes them only a nominal Israelite. Many people belong to an organization without ever understanding its essential genius. They share in the organized life but know nothing of the true spirit. They may even accept the responsibilities of religious office, yet lack the qualifications which would allow them to discharge its duties. Even if the qualifications were present to allow them to discharge the administrative duties, without the Call of the spirit, they will be unable to exercise the pastoral duties. The Call is what allows us to belong to the company of the elect. Still, we are faced with the fact of moral responsibility. What we cannot win by our efforts, we can lose by our negligence.
Being part of the elect is not to be confused with predestination. Predestination is a great doctrine to debate if it is treated as an abstract philosophical problem. These debates seldom lead to profitable deductions. In Paul’s mind it is not a philosophical question at all. It is a real religious issue. First and foremost is God’s supremacy. To suggest that man can determine his own destiny either by merit or demerit is to question God’s supremacy. The Pharisees thought it pleased God to mix up the decrees of Fate and man’s will so that man can act virtuously or viciously. This affirms two facts, God’s supremacy and man’s responsibility. There can be no decision on a philosophical level. The deeply religious man is persuaded that God’s supremacy is unchallenged and that his own moral responsibility is unquestioned.
The first point for Paul is that the creature cannot question the creator and demand to know why he was made a particular way. The second point is that the creator can make many different vessels out of the same materials. These different vessels can serve many different purposes. In God’s providence, all are necessary, and each has its appointed place. If one vessel does not meet the necessary ends, another can take its place. God’s purpose is unchanging with respect to its ends but there is flexibility and freedom with respect to the means by which the ends are accomplished. The third point is that the creator has certain inalienable rights to decide what vessels suit his purpose and to change them if He chooses. He can also destroy a vessel that fails to meet His expectations.
Romans 9:25-33 Mercy and Judgment
Mercy and judgment are often treated as abstractions. Paul sees these two essential qualities in the midst of a historical process. The discipline of events often tells us what they mean. Deliverance from Egypt was the supreme example of what the divine mercy can do for a nation. The Psalms are full of the active benevolence of God. In like manner, apostasy brought misfortune down upon the chosen people to teach them that judgment was not an abstract postulate but a stern and inescapable moral reality. Judgment, when divorced from mercy, degenerates into an unlovely harshness, while mercy by itself is easily corrupted into supine complacence. God has vessels of wrath made for destruction with the objective of making known his glory through the vessels of mercy.
Righteousness can stand for two different things. Righteousness which is based on law stands for a certain pattern of behavior. Righteousness through faith stands for a certain relationship with God. Thus the Gentiles who have not pursued righteousness based on the law can still attain righteousness through faith. But the Jews who have pursued righteousness exclusively through the law will find their efforts ineffective. There is an inevitable sequence in religious self-reliance which leads from trust in our own achievements through pride in our powers to blindness to all other values. We wantonly persist in our errors and repulse even the divine mercy which would help is. This level of arrogance puts itself beyond the reach even of God’s power. The Jews failed to grasp the greater truth because they clung so desperately to the partial one. It was not carelessness but a myopic view that caused their error. The Jews pursued works with a dedication that obscured their vision. They had been warned and should have been willing to receive the Messiah. Their pride in their approach blinded them to the possibility of the Messiah coming in any fashion other than the one they envisioned.
How can we be sure we are not making the same mistake? Is it wrong to hold our beliefs above the call for unity? Are we the faithful remnant or the myopic believer?