Life Project Blog

What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, as it is written:

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that could not see
and ears that could not hear,
to this very day.”

And David says:

“May their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever.”

Romans 11:7-10

My oh my, isn’t this an interesting little bit of text! Yes, it is Paul’s contention that God has hardened those within Israel who have rejected faith in Christ. Before we start pulling our hair out, I’ll let you in on what comes later in this chapter: First, God did not cause them to reject grace; the hardening was after they had made their choice. Second, the hardening was neither final nor irreversible, and third, the hardening would paradoxically lead not only to the saving of many Gentiles, but to many of those who had been hardened.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the verses. The thing Israel had sought was righteousness before God by their work of following the Law. As we have already seen, this was futility itself, for righteousness before God comes from believing God, not from our own work. Notice the word “elect” in verse 7; this may confuse many because of our earlier discussions, so it is important for you to know that the Greek word for “the elect” (eklektos) is NOT present in this sentence. The word used here is ekloge which refers to a “choice election”. What seems to be taking shape here is that there are those who have chosen to receive grace, and the others who did not, a theme that carries forward through the rest of this chapter.

Next, Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 29:4 and Isaiah 29:10 in verse 7, and from Psalm 69:22-23 in verses 9-10 to support his contention that God has hardened those who have rejected His message of grace. For our purposes here, I would remind you that this is a supporting point for a larger assertion on Paul’s part; this is not the end of the story. There is a context and a background and we mustn’t forget them.

Remember that Paul has already told us that God called Abraham’s descendants (Israel) to a purpose; they would serve God’s purpose by being the people from whom Messiah would come, and they would provide a core group of believers who would begin the process of spreading the Good News of salvation throughout the world; this was a calling to service. Messiah has already come by the time Paul wrote this passage, there was in existence that core group of Jews who had decided to believe God’s message and follow Jesus Christ; Paul was one of them, as was Peter and many others. At the same time, many other Jews had determined not to believe God’s salvation message; they had rejected Jesus and by doing so, they rejected the One who had sent Him. This was by their own choosing.

Yet God was still working His purpose through them, even though they had rejected His message, for Israel had been called to God’s service and He was still using them for His service, even though they didn’t yet realize it. In order for God to use the “others” it was necessary for them to be hardened.

How this is to be accomplished is what Paul will explain when we get together next time.

I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”?  And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”  So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

Romans 11:1-6

As chapter 11 begins, Paul moves into his next supporting point in this main section comprised of chapters 9-11. Our working theory for this section is that he is trying to prove that God has been faithful in all of His dealings with Israel, which is an issue because Israel has for the most part, rejected Christ bringing condemnation upon itself. In these verses, Paul seeks to document the obvious fact that a remnant of the Jews of his time have received the message of Christ and thus have received the grace that seems to have eluded the majority of their brethren.

The existence of this remnant is obvious for Paul himself is part of it, and is thus living proof of its existence. The question comes down to this: Did God reject Israel? Paul’s answer is a resounding “no”. Sadly, Israel has rejected God.

Paul’s wording in verse 2a begs a question; here is what Paul said: God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. The question is: Did God foreknow only some of Israel, or did God foreknow all of Israel? I realize that there are at least two main teachings on this question, but I would suggest that Paul is making the point that all of Israel were chosen and foreknown by God, but when the time came, some chose to accept God’s grace and the majority chose to reject it and turn away from God, a view that is consistent with what Paul has been teaching all along in this section.

Verses 3-4 remind us of the story of Elijah from 1Kings 19. In those days, Israel had also turned away from God, had killed His prophets and were coming for Elijah, but then as in Paul’s time, there was a remnant of people who remained faithful to God. In verse 5, Paul says: So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. Personally, I prefer the rendering of the NASB: In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but the reason I prefer the NASB for this verse is that they translated all of the Greek words, while the NIV left one out. The word they left out is ginomai meaning “came into being”. It may seem like a very small matter, but I think it makes “God’s glorious choice” much easier to follow, for we are once again facing the question of whether God selected some for grace and rejected others. You might recall that in earlier sections we discovered that God called all of Israel (descendants of Abraham) to serve His purpose. We also saw that all of Israel has served God’s purpose, even though within Israel some people followed God and many others did not both in Paul’s day, and all through Israel’s history. Paul’s point in these verses is entirely in harmony with previous sections of Romans: God knew in advance that some Israelites would choose to follow Jesus and that others would reject Jesus. He knew that in Paul’s day, there would be a remnant of Israelites remaining faithful, while most went their own way, in other words, and there was nothing new in this situation. God had never excluded anyone from following Him, and He wasn’t excluding anyone now; quite the opposite in fact.

Finally, verse 6: And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace. Once more, Paul points out the contrast between the two camps within Israel, those who follow God by faith and those who follow by Law. Those who follow God by faith have believed His message of grace and have been saved. Those who believe in Law and their own works have not believed God’s message of grace and have rejected it and God as well.

Romans 10:14-21

Paul has made it abundantly clear up to this point that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We are still in his fourth main point that is dealing with his assertion that God has always been faithful in His dealings with Israel, but Israel has for the most part, not accepted God’s grace through Christ. In these verses, Paul makes his case that they have no excuse for their failure to believe.

10:14-15 make the point that in order for someone to respond in faith, they must first hear the message about Jesus Christ. Verses 16-18 make the point that Israel has in fact heard the message of Jesus Christ, and has not accepted it.

Now it gets really interesting because Paul is going to tell us why they would not believe:

Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,

“I will make you envious by those who are not a nation;
I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.” (10:19)

He begins by quoting from Deut. 32: the Gentiles have heard and believed the message: Horror! Apparently there were many among the Jews of those days who were not going to do anything Gentiles were doing; their prejudice was getting in the way.

And Isaiah boldly says,

“I was found by those who did not seek me;
I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.” (10:20)

Isaiah 62 brings the point home; the Jews didn’t want grace, so God went to the Gentiles: an insult to their pride.

But concerning Israel he says,

“All day long I have held out my hands
to a disobedient and obstinate people.” (10:21)

Isaiah again; it would seem that the rejection of grace was nothing new for Israel, for they had been all too eager to turn their backs on God throughout their history God had stretched out His hand to them time and time again with the same result. You might recall that God was stretching out His hands when He sent Isaiah to warn them centuries before, at the time these verses were first written down. Did they receive Isaiah’s message?

No they didn’t; if memory serves, didn’t they saw him in half to silence the message God was sending?

God has always been faithful to Israel; He was never the problem, for it was always the people who were the problem.

Before were let ourselves feel superior to anyone, let’s stop and remind ourselves that we Christians have not always been the shining beacons of godly love that we are supposed to be. I might just add that our stubbornness and disobedience has been just as inexcusable (probably more so in fact) than that of the Jews. Rather than smirking, maybe we should also take these warnings to heart lest we put the Gospel to shame in the eyes of those around us.

When we get back together, we will see what Paul has to say about the salvation of the true Israel.

Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

Romans 10:4

This verse follows from the prior section; many, if not most scholars will place it in that section as a conclusion, and they wouldn’t be wrong to do so. However it also marks a topical change, for what follows in 10:5-13 are verses that support the assertion of this verse, so I see it as a beginning and not a concluding point. The larger view of the passage indicates that Paul is building his supporting points into a larger conclusion, which is very persuasive argumentation.

In support of Paul’s statement in verse 4, he offers verses 5-13:

Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,  for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Essentially, this paragraph presents a contrast between law/works righteousness and believe/faith righteousness to support the assertion that righteousness is by believe/faith. To put it another way, Paul is making the case that we come to righteousness by trusting in Jesus and not by trusting ourselves. Verse 5 illustrates the utter futility of finding righteousness through law, for living by law can only bring about condemnation. Verses 6-7 make an illusion to Deuteronomy 30:12-13 where Moses was telling the people that the Law was not something they couldn’t grasp or that was so far off they couldn’t understand it; all they needed to do was obey it. Paul makes a similar point about grace, only Paul isn’t talking so much about the knowledge of grace as he is about the possession of it. It is as though he was telling his readers, “look gang, this isn’t difficult, you have this grace right there with you, just grab onto it!”

It is this point that the remaining verses elaborate upon; grace is right there, take hold of it; that’s all you need to be saved. You may recall that we have discussed the fact that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, and that Paul has made the point that the righteousness that brings salvation to humanity is the righteousness that comes from believing God; this he is again pounding home.

This is troubling for many people, both then and now because it’s too easy; surely salvation must be hard to get: Surely this text must have a hidden agenda!

There is no hidden agenda in the text, for as is usually the case Scripture isn’t that complicated- until we decide to complicate it. Grace is not hard to obtain, for God does not want anyone to perish, but to have eternal life, and so He did the work for us through Jesus Christ, so that all we need to do is to make a decision to believe God and profess our faith.

What is so hard about that?

We have arrived at Paul’s next supporting point in this main section that deals with God’s faithfulness with Israel. Last time, we were left with the question of whether or not God was the cause of Israel’s unbelief, in this supporting point that extends from 9:30-10:21, Paul answers that question; Israel has made a choice.

This section has three supporting arguments, the first of which is our subject now, and is found in 9:30-10:3. The supporting argument is that there is a difference between personal righteousness and the righteousness of God.

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

Romans 9:30-33

You would think that this should end any debate, but among Christians today, the debate rages on. The Law cannot lead a person to righteousness, and it is the very purpose of the Law that we reach this conclusion. Laws, rules and violations, as well as traditions and ceremonies are often near and dear to us, for they form something we can all get our arms around; they are in a sense, tangible things. It is easy to comprehend a rule book, and it is comforting to see someone else break a rule and point fingers at them and take attention away from ourselves. Faith, on the other hand, is intangible and often uncomfortable, for it requires that we really believe that what we believe is really real, even if we don’t always feel like it; it is counter-intuitive.

Being righteous because of merely following the rules is quite different than obtaining righteousness by believing God as Abraham did. The Gentiles who were saved, as well as the Jews who were saved, were saved because they believed the Gospel even though they had not kept all of the Law, all of the time. Those whose faith was in their ability to keep the Law and follow the customs and traditions of their people could never accomplish their goal of righteousness in God’s sight.

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

Romans 10:1-3

Does it strike anyone as odd that Israel, because of their zeal for God and His Law failed to obtain His righteousness? If we are inclined to legal thinking, we might assume that this happened because they broke a rule or two, but I suspect there is another reason. Yes, God gave them the Law, but the Law was never His purpose, it was a step in achieving His purpose, but it was never the purpose itself. When God created Adam, did He give Adam the Law?

No, He did not.

God created humanity for relationship and purpose, not for keeping a bunch of rules, traditions and ceremonies. God wanted His people to love Him and to trust Him, which means believing Him; Israel chose its own way, the way of earning righteousness by following the Law by their own strength, rather than by believing God and seeking relationship with Him, for they did not realize the difference between personal righteousness and the righteousness of God. I daresay that quite a few Christians are confounded by the same thing today.

One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

Romans 9:19-21

It is important that we not forget the passage just before this, the one we covered last time; God can choose who will serve His purpose. This falls within a larger context of the paradox of Israel that Paul made clear in 9:1-5. Although Israel has had so many blessings from God, they for the most part, have rejected Him by refusing to follow His Son. While keeping these things in mind, also recall that even though most Jews rejected Jesus, there was a number who have followed Him, and who have been persecuted for doing so.

This section is Paul’s third supporting point in his larger discussion concerning the distinction between ethnic Israel and spiritual Israel. Here Paul’s mention of God’s faithfulness with Israel is in answer to the question he posed in verse 19: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?”

In verses 20-21, Paul indicates that even asking such a question isn’t entirely proper, for not only does God have every right to choose who will serve His purpose and how they will serve it; it is not for humans to question how God goes about His business.  In the verses that follow, Paul develops a fascinating idea:

What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

Romans 9:22-24

Paul uses an interesting persuasive technique here, for he carries on as though he were debating someone. He posed their question in verse 19, and answered a part of it in 20-21, telling them they have no business questioning God, and then shoots back his counter in verses 22-24 in the form of questions. Since a person wondering or questioning along the lines of verse 19 would have to be Jewish, the counter-questions would cut deeply, for they would also know enough about the history of Israel to know that Paul was unmistakably describing Israel as the ones who deserved God’s wrath and who were shown God’s mercy. They would also easily recognize that Paul was referring to those Jews and Gentiles who had received God’s mercy through Christ, and that God had a purpose in setting things up the way He did. He drives his point home with four quotes, two each from Hosea and Isaiah:

As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”

and,

“In the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

Romans 9:25-26

The Hosea quotes support Paul’s assertion relating to the Gentiles; the Isaiah quotes relate to the Jews:

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”

It is just as Isaiah said previously:

“Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.”

Romans 9:27-29

The Isaiah quotes tell the story, only a remnant of Israel will be saved by faith in Christ, and sadly the vast majority would reject Him. Yet God’s purpose was served and the Law had done its work as intended, for without it, Israel would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah, and for all of its faults, Israel was never like that.

God established ethnic Israel for His purpose of paving the way for His Son to redeem all Mankind and to prepare a core group of people who would respond to the Gospel of Christ with faith. The Law made plain their need of a Savior, the experience of the Nation made clear their need of a Savior, and the Prophets foretold of a Savior who was to come, and many responded when He came. Yet the majority of the people saw the Law as merely an outward work, and they gloried in their outward righteousness, but in the end, they chose the work of the Law over the Truth of God’s redemption, for they placed a higher priority on their own accomplishments than they did on the promises of God.

So we are left with one final question: Did God foreordain that most of the people would be lost; did He cause them to be lost; was it God’s sovereign will that caused them to reject their Savior?

If you aren’t clear on that question, then you will want to keep reading, for it is the subject of the next main section of Romans. By the way, remember our working theory about this section? It was God is faithful in His dealings with Israel.

I would suggest that this is precisely the point that Paul has addressed in 9:6-29.

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”  Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

Romans 9:14-18

I know a lot of people who would cringe at these verses; I know others who will be jumping in to attempt to make a clarification before they have finished reading: “What Paul really meant to say was…”

I hope that you will do neither!

Let’s pause to recall where this passage falls in the text. Paul is discussing God’s faithfulness in His dealings with the Jews. His first task was to point out the problem posed by Israel; the paradox (9:1-5). We are in his second point about God’s faithfulness. The first supporting point that we discussed last time, was that God has been faithful in dealing with the Jews from the very beginning, and now in this second supporting point, Paul is simply pointing out that God has the right to choose who will serve His purpose, and as such this should be obvious to anyone, but Paul covers it so that nobody can question it. The narrative on this whole matter will continue into a third point after this passage; it does not stand all alone, so relax… God is not unjust.

BUT, we must also keep in mind that mercy and justice are not the same thing.

The example used here is that of Pharaoh who was used by God to glorify Himself and accomplish His purpose, and He did so without the consent of Pharaoh who was used unwittingly. Even though Pharaoh was not a God-follower, even though Pharaoh was in opposition to God and His people, God used him. In this sense, Pharaoh was God’s chosen instrument, God’s “elect”. Was Pharaoh saved by God?

No: He was used by God.

God foreknew that Pharaoh would not respond to Him in obedience, that he would not bow down to God in worship or reverence, and so God chose to use Pharaoh to display His awesome power to the world, so God hardened Pharaoh’s heart further than it already was, thus being “elect” is not always the same thing as being redeemed.

Paul will fully develop this idea when we continue next time in 9:19-29.