The promise came through the seed of Abraham; it has to be by faith in Jesus Christ!
Romans 9:1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
Paul is bearing his heart and is about to share his love for Jewish people who still had not come to accept Jesus as their Messiah. The measure of what weighed his heart down tells us a story of what his pursuit and desires were. Likewise, our heart is a reflection of our pursuits.
Romans 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
Paul had allowed his heartbeat to be defined by the Spirit of God Himself. There is no hint of self centeredness in Paul. The will of God was in the driver’s seat of Paul’s life. The Jews had so many advantages being the nation who had relationship with the one true God, the God of promise, who brought Jesus the only begotten Son. Yet they rejected the true Messiah and missed their day of visitation; Paul said if himself being cut off from God would bring their salvation he would do it.
Romans 9:6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In Isaac your seed shall be called."
The promise came through the seed of Abraham, but indeed more specifically in Isaac your seed shall be called. It is time for the true children of God to awaken to the God given destiny and calling of God.
Romans 9:8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise: "At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son."
God’s plan was worked the children of the promise are counted as the seed! This only excites those who have the revelation that they are the children of promise! That indeed is what all of Romans 8 was trying to accomplish.
Romans 9:10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac 11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger."
Some get caught up in a misunderstanding of predestination and election. Understanding the building blocks of Romans is very important so you are not lost in false doctrine. Remember Romans 8 declares predestination is according to foreknowledge.
1 Peter 1:2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
Elect according to foreknowledge! God did not say this one is going to hell and this one will be saved. It is not God’s will that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. So see the next verses with God’s foreknowledge in view.
Romans 9:13 As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." 14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion."
God is truly a whosoever God; it is His true desire for all to know Him. Why did God hate Esau. Remember God called us to hate father, sister, and love God first. In this same way God used a vessel of disobedience to show the depth of mercy towards the object of His love.
Romans 9:16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth."
Pharaoh hardened his heart and God helped Pharaoh along in that hardening.
Romans 9:18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"
Remember the question of Romans 6? Shall we go on in sin that grace may abound? Like God helping along the hardening of Pharaoh's heart; yet God had sent the man of God Moses to warn Pharaoh.
Romans 9:21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
If the clay marred and resist the work of the potter’s desires, the potter may well reshape the lump of clay to become a lesser vessel. God is God, and will always be God.
Romans 9:24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? 25 As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved." 26 "And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' There they shall be called sons of the living God."
Paul is getting ready to make his point and so many miss it. Hear carefully! “I will call them my people, who were not My people, And her beloved who was not beloved.” Who are these ones? And God’s declaration is “There they shall be called sons of the living God.” Remember the Spirit of adoption? Remember the Holy Spirit’s intercession and the Son’s intercession, along with the Father freely giving us all things?
Romans 9:27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. 28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth." 29 And as Isaiah said before: "Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah."
God has not forgotten the children of Israel! He indeed will do work in them. It will be a finished work and a short work. God has not separated from them forever. However …
Romans 9:30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."
Who are those who have the Spirit? Those who have come to the righteousness of faith. God has always responded to men of faith. Now God has built an entire covenant based upon righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ! The stumbling stone has been revealed; yes He is still a rock of offense to those who want to come outside God prescribed order of victory. Whoever believes on Jesus will not be put to shame!
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