- 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? Why?
- Paul shares his heartfelt love for his people (Israel)
- Paul starts out by looking at Israel historically
- Adoption (they are children of God)
- The glory (shekinah glory in the temple)
- The covenants (multiple unconditional)
- The giving of the law (one conditional covenant)
- The worship (the real purpose of man)
- The promises (multiple promises in the books of history and the prophets)
- What is the first main point of Paul's?
- First point is that God's election of Israel did not depend on natural descent
- For us it means: you cannot be born a Christian
- 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 (context is 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
- Also, to take advantage of the promise, you had to exercise faith--like Abraham did
- What is Paul's second point?
- Secondly, election is not based on desire or works or efforts (before they were born) or status (position of birth)
- 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 (Exo 33:19). 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 (Exo 9:16). 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.
- (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(vs 20-21)
- 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 (vs 22)
- Note that this section is theoretical, i.e., "what if" (vs. 22) and not necessarily prescriptive
- Third. The riches of God are shown to the objects of his mercy (vs 23)
- One is prepared for destruction (but shown patience)
- One is prepared for glory (and 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 (exercising faith), 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
- (verses 30-33) 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 (ESV) I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience
bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing
anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut
off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the
flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the
covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them
belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the
Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
6 But
it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended
from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because
they are his offspring, but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be
named." 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the
children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9
For this is what the promise said: "About this time next year I will
return and Sarah shall have a son."
Rom
9:10-18 (ESV) And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by
one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done
nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might
continue, not because of works but because of his call— 12 she was told,
"The older will serve the younger." 13 As it is written, "Jacob
I loved, but Esau I hated."
14
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 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 So then it depends not on
human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says
to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might
show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the
earth." 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens
whomever he wills.
Rom
9:19-33 (ESV) You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For
who can resist his will?" 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to
God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like
this?" 21 Has the potter no right
over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and
another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and
to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath
prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory
for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us
whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As
indeed he says in Hosea,
"Those who were not my people I will
call 'my people,'
and
her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.'"
26 "And in the very place where it was
said to them, 'You are not my people,'
there
they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"
27 And
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the sons of
Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for
the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without
delay." 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
"If
the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and
become like Gomorrah."
30
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have
attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who
pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching
that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were
based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is
written,
"Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of
stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put
to shame."
No comments:
Post a Comment