- Introduction 1:1-17 (includes purpose, 8-15; and theme, 16-17)
- The Need for God's Righteousness 1:18-3:20
- The Imputation of God's Righteousness 3:21-5:21
- The impartation of God's righteousness 6:1-8:39
- The believer's relationship to sin 6:1-23
- The believer's relationship to the law 7:1-25
- The believer's relationship to God 8:1-39
- The vindication of God's righteousness 9:1-11:36
- Israel's past election 9:1-33
- God's blessings on Israel 9:1-5
- God's election of Israel 9:6-13
- God's freedom to elect 9:14-18
- God's mercy toward Israel 9:19-29
- God's mercy toward the Gentiles 9:30-33
- How does Paul start this section?
- Paul shares his heartfelt love for his people
- Paul starts out by looking at Israel historically
- They are blessed
- There were the recipients of God's manifold grace
- What is the first main point of Paul's?
- First point is that God's election of Israel did not depend on natural descent
- Not all Israel are Israel has two views
- Replacement theology frequently use this verse for support that the church replaces Israel. But that would fail to make sense in terms of the timeframe of the paragraph (past history)
- Dispensationalists would see the verse as describing the difference between an outward Jew and an inward Jew (Rom 2:28-29), or saved and unsaved Jews
- What is Paul's second point?
- Secondly, election is not based on desire or works or efforts
- While Isaac is Abrahams's natural son through Sarah (Ishmael was not), Esau would be the firstborn ahead of Jacob
- By choosing Jacob ahead of Esau, the only argument is that God chose
- Translated love and hate is not meant to be an emotional attachment but a strong contrast stated in absolute terms. It might be better to say that God rejected Esau
- Also, the quote of Jacob and Esau is technically referring to nations and not to individuals (Mal 1:2)
- Even though the statement is not an emotional statement about individuals, the following quote bye Newell is well said: "As to 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,' a woman once said to Mr. Spurgeon, 'I cannot understand why God should say that He hated Esau.' 'That,' Spurgeon replied, 'is not my difficulty, madam. My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob!"
- Even if the discussion is on nations, the question of fairness remains. Paul replies clearly using his question-and-answer format
- First (vs. 14). God is not unjust -- God is just
- Second (vs. 15). The quote from Moses is right after the Golden Calf incident. In that case the entire nation rebelled against God, but only 3000 died
- Third (vs. 16). We really can't insist on God mercy. Technically our only argument is to insist on God's condemnation (wages of sin is death)
- Fourth (vs. 17). God says he raised Pharaoh up. This verse is given in the middle of the plagues. This is after Pharaoh has defied God through six plagues. Also, Pharaoh is the one who hardens his heart first (Ex 7:13,14). Technically, God showed mercy on Pharaoh for six plagues longer than he should have showed mercy.
- Summary:
- (Constable, 2010) In chapter 1 the apostle had spoken about the way God gives people over to their own evil desires as a form of punishment for their sins. This is how God hardens people's hearts. In Pharaoh's case we see this working out clearly. God was not unjust because He allowed the hardening process to continue. His justice demanded punishment. Similarly, a person may chose to drink poison or
- (Leon Morris) "Neither here nor anywhere else is God said to harden anyone who had not first hardened himself."
- (Moo) "God's hardening, then, is an action that renders a person insensitive to God and his word and that, if not reversed, culminates in eternal damnation."
- (Moo) "God's hardening does not, then, cause spiritual insensitivity to the things of God; it maintains people in the state of sin that already characterizes them."
- Paul responds to the question: If God is sovereign, why are we blamed, for who can resist his will?
- First. As created beings we have no right to sit in judgment upon our Judge
- Men are not lost because they are hardened; they are hardened because they are lost; they are lost because they are sinners (Newell)
- Actually, Israel is an example of a pot made for noble purposes and use. Israel is the one who has failed to follow through on its design
- Second. Why would God bear with patent the objects of his wrath? He bears with them because they are the ones who choose to oppose. One could argue that God's patience with those who oppose him is so that they might repent
- Note that this section is theoretical, i.e., "what if" and not necessarily descriptive
- Third. The riches of God are show to the objects of his mercy
- One is prepared for destruction (but shown patience)
- One is prepared for glory (but shown great mercy)
- The question becomes, does "prepared" really mean predestined or foreknown
- Note the use of the "what if." It makes an argument but does not necessarily make a theological truth
- What is the result of all this?
- God's specially elected people, those who did not believe, were judged
- The mass of humanity, not specially elected but believing, are called the sons of the living God
- God could have (and should have) judge Israel for her sin (like Sodom and Gomorrah), but he has and continues to show mercy
- Note the individual words that indicate responsibility or action:
- … did not pursue … obtained … pursued … not attained … stumbled …
- Key: … the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame
- So both sovereignty and free will exist side by side
- This passage clearly shows the futility of obtaining justification by the law
- Justification is obtained by faith (the natural response to God's mercy)
Constable's Outline
on Romans
Romans 8 ends
telling us that nothing can separate us from God's love. But if that is so, how has Israel fallen
from God's love?
Rom
9:1-9 (NIV) I speak the truth in Christ — I am not lying, my conscience
confirms it in the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in
my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ
for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel.
Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the
receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the
patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God
over all, forever praised! Amen.
6 It
is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from
Israel are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all
Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your
offspring will be reckoned." 8 In
other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is
the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. 9 For
this was how the promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will
return, and Sarah will have a son."
Rom
9:10-18 (NIV) Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same
father, our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done
anything good or bad — in order that God's purpose in election might stand: 12
not by works but by him who calls — she was told, "The older will serve
the younger." 13 Just as it is
written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
14
What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,
"I
will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I
will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
16 It
does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. 17
For the 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." 18
Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he
wants to harden.
Rom
9:19-29 (NIV) One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame
us? For who resists his will?" 20 But who are you, O man, to talk back to
God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me
like this?'" 21 Does not the
potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for
noble purposes and some for common use?
22
What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with
great patience the objects of his wrath — prepared for destruction? 23 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— 24 even us, whom he also called, not
only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 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,"
26
and,
"It
will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
'You
are not my people,'
they
will be called 'sons of the living God.'"
27
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
"Though
the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only
the remnant will be saved.
28 For
the Lord will carry out
his
sentence on earth with speed and finality."
29 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."
Rom
9:30-33 (NIV) What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue
righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but
Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 32 Why not?
Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled
over the "stumbling stone." 33 As it is written:
"See,
I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble
and a
rock that makes them fall,
and
the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
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