. If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. Romans 10:9-10
Have you ever looked at something and couldn’t identify what it was because it wasn’t the whole picture? Then when you were able to step back and refocus you could see what you were looking at better?
This is what Paul is doing here in Romans chapters 9 through 11. Today though read Chapter 9: 1-33. He is making the big picture more clearer to us. Let’s reread verses 1-5.
Paul states that God chose them as adopted children. He revealed glory to them. He made covenants with them. God gave them the law. God has given the privilege of worship and receiving promises. Paul also went on to say that the patriarchs and Christ were also Jews. God’s blessings were on them.
Read verses 6-29. What stood out to you from this passage of scripture? What was the discourse Paul is making? Paul’s point is God does not call people based on our family relations. Gentiles are also included because God says they will be. God’s purposes will prevail, and we can either fight against them or choose to trust Him when we don’t understand our circumstances or the Scripture we encounter. If you are like me, you have more questions then answers. This is okay, as long as we don’t overstep God’s sovereignty.
The “children of promise” are the spiritual offspring of Abraham, including all true believers. It is not by being natural children, born in the line of Abraham and Isaac, that the Jews can be saved and considered God’s children and children of the promise. Instead, it is by believing in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Abraham believed this promise. As Paul has already explained in chapter 4, it was Abraham’s faith—his belief in God’s promise—that justified him before God. Abraham is a helpful model of faith in two ways: (1) he believed the specific promise that God gave to him and his descendants (Genesis 12:1–7); (2) more significant, he trusted in the God who keeps promises. Between Abraham and God, there was an agreement, but there was also a personal relationship.
The election is like receiving an invitation to a banquet that we know will be wonderful. But the invitation comes unearned. No friendship or effort has created an expectation that we ought to be on the invitation list. The choice to invite is purely the host. After all, it is his banquet. The invitation comes with the traditional R.S.V.P. God’s gracious invitation does request our response and attendance.
Paul answers the concern voiced in verse 6 and shows that God’s Word has not failed. The Jews have simply misunderstood it. They missed the truth that God’s election never has anything to do with works of the law, rituals, even family or community ties. They misunderstood their own election as God’s people. They settled on enjoying the benefits of God’s promises, rather than fulfilling their role as ambassadors for sharing God’s promises with the world. While we enjoy the gracious benefits of our salvation, we must not ignore the others whom God wants to reach through us.
If God gave anyone exactly what they deserved the results would be disastrous! Both Isaac and Jacob were scoundrels. God demonstrated unexpected grace when he chose these men in spite of their weaknesses and failures. That same grace is available to us in God’s offer of salvation. If we were to receive what we deserve, we would have no hope. We should come to God for mercy, not for justice.
God is absolutely sovereign. He had explained to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion (see Exodus 33:19). We might still be tempted to say, “Doesn’t that seem a bit unfair?” But by asking such a question we are claiming a higher understanding of fairness than God himself. We must remember that God has no obligation to show mercy or compassion to any of us—not one of us deserves his slightest concern. For God to even choose anyone is evidence of his great mercy. These words of God reveal that he does show mercy and compassion, but they are by his sovereign choice.
We tend to read God’s statement to Moses (which was a response to Moses’ request to see God’s glory) as if it were an expression of God’s withholding mercy rather than a statement of his merciful generosity. In the context of this statement in Exodus, God was not justifying himself, but saying in effect, “I will have mercy on people you would not expect, and I will have compassion in ways that will surprise you, especially when I am compassionate with you!” No one can know the heart of a person in the way that God knows. No individual, court of law, or group can perfectly assess the righteousness of a person. So we must leave to God his way of choosing and judging.
Jesus is a stumbling block to Jews and to all who would rather have the satisfaction of gaining God’s acceptance on their own than admit their inability and then submit to God’s grace. When we are presented with Christ, we have only two possible responses, to reject or accept. Any form of rejection will result in our stumbling over him, resulting in judgment. But trusting submission to him will gain for us what we could never hope to gain by ourselves—a righteous standing with God. Isaiah showed the way by personally applying the phrase he used above, “I will put my trust in him” (Isaiah 8:17). Are you stumbled or humbled by Jesus?
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for your word. Thank you for your sovereignty. We might not understand everything, however, we can trust you and know your great love for your creation.
In Jesus Name
Amen
