Romans 9:1-33 Senior Pastor Alex Kennedy Chapters 9 is a “hard left turn” from Paul celebrating the security of the love of Christ in chapter 8, to thinking of his own Jewish people. Paul is grieving that his “kinsmen” do not know Christ, and he is offering to be “cut-off from Christ for the sake of my…kinsmen according to the flesh” (like Moses did in Ex 32). Remember, the Jewish people are the chosen nation to show the covenant between God and man to the world through the person of Jesus. So what happened? Question 1: Have His promises failed? (If He failed the Jews, then how can we be sure He won’t fail us?) Answer: True membership in God’s chosen people is based on faith, not physical ancestry. He gives an example of Abraham and his descendants. To be a physical descendant of Abraham is not enough. God only has children…not grandchildren. (Romans 4:4). Abraham and Sarah are told they will have a son. Remember, Abraham and Sarah were old, and they “helped” God by producing an heir, Ishmael, through Gomer. God doesn’t need us to intercede in His plan. Isaac is the son of promise. The second example Paul uses is Isaac and Rebekah and their twins, Jacob and Esau.(v10-13). Rebekah was told that “the older will serve the younger” (Gen 25:23). Malachi 1:2-3 is what Paul references in verse 13 when he says, “As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'” This reference of hated is a Hebrew idiom for preference, like when Jesus says to “hate your father and mother (Luke 14:26). Again, God is sovereign and has a plan. Question 2: Is God unjust? (v14) Did God somehow do something wrong by only showing mercy to Jacob and not to Esau? Answer: Mercy is receiving something that you don’t deserve. If you deserved it, it would not be “mercy”; instead it would be justice. So, if God doesn’t owe anyone mercy, we can’t say it is unfair for Him not to show it to someone. Paul uses the example of Ex 7:3-4 where God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. We read this as if it is God’s “fault”. We must read the whole story because we see that Pharaoh hardened his own heart first. This is the intersection of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. They are woven together. His sovereignty doesn’t excuse our responsibility, and we cannot isolate one from the other. We can’t fully explain both but we can accept both. God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was a “giving him over” to his own stubbornness. When God hardens someone, He doesn’t create the hardness; He allows the person to go his or her own way. John Stott said, “It”s true that if anyone is saved, the credit is God’s alone, but if anyone is lost, the blame is all theirs!” Question 3: Why does God blame us (v19)? In other words, if God makes the choices, how can He hold man responsible? Answer: In verses 20-21, Paul is basically saying, “this is not a question the created gets to ask the Creator.” The second answer is found in verses 23-24, where Paul flips the conversation by asking the reader to ask “what is God, who is sovereign, up to?” instead of questioning Him in His authority. God’s two actions, summed up in verse 18 as ‘showing mercy’ and ‘hardening’, have now been traced back to His character… It is because He is who He is that He does what He does. In election God comes in, softens our hearts and makes us “good”. In hardening, God simply passes over and lets people have the way they have chosen. We see in verse 24 that God was merciful in allowing Israel to reject Him because Israel’s rejection of the Messiah allowed Gentiles to find Him. Question 4: So why did Israel reject Him (v30)? Answer: The simple answer is that they rejected Him because they wouldn’t humble themselves and believe the gospel (v31-32). They “stumbled over the stumbling stone” because they didn’t believe Jesus conformed to the Jew’s expectations. Many Jews in Jesus’ day expected a political rescuer. When Jesus Christ came as a humble servant who would suffer and die, He didn’t match their expectations — so instead of believing, they rejected Him. The Bible holds both of these truths together: The complete sovereignty of God over all history. (v6-29) The complete responsibility of every human being for his or her behavior. (30-33) “What will amaze us as we look backwards from eternity is not the severity of God’s justice but the greatness of His mercy.” -Oswald Chambers Questions to Consider: How should we respond when we don’t fully understand God’s ways? Why is Jesus called a “stumbling stone”? Why do people stumble over Jesus? (think about self-righteousness and humility.) How can we make sure we are trusting in Christ and not in ourselves? Knowing that “God gives us what we choose”, pray for a soft heart to choose Him today. Confess that Jesus Christ is not a stumbling stone, but the cornerstone that we want to build our lives on.