Romans Chapter 9

God Will Judge Everyone With Perfect Fairness

 

How often in life have you said, “that is not fair!” You have probably heard your kids say it many times, often possibly to you, as they protest being asked to do some chore or not to do something they think their friends are allowed to do. Remember when you as a child or your children always counted out every piece of candy to make sure all shares were equal? That extreme concern for fairness does not just live with us and our children. We find it in the Jewish people of Paul’s day as well.

So Paul takes three chapters here in the middle of the book of Romans to not only declare God’s fairness, but to clarify to His beloved Jewish nation the ways that God has always been ultimately fair with them. Paul further assures them God will always be fair to them. But you and I could shudder at the thought of God’s fairness; we much more want to hear about His mercy and grace. Paul will also speak of that in these chapters.

As we open our study of chapter nine, let us just briefly review the author’s background. Paul had been a zealous Jew, one who practiced the dictates of the Law of God with such enthusiasm that he took great delight in persecuting these new followers of Jesus Christ. Paul, before his conversion, believed in his heart that Christians were idolaters and if allowed to go unchecked, would lead many Jews astray, causing them to believe in something that was not true. But on his way to the city of Damascus where he had been authorized to arrest and even murder these troublemakers, Jesus appeared to Paul in a blinding light and immediately converted him to faith in Christianity. After a period of training at the feet of Jesus Himself, Paul became the main spokesman for the rapidly spreading Christian faith.

Even after his conversion Paul maintained his close ties to the Jewish community whom he loved very much. He wanted more than anything for them to see the truth in the message of Jesus and that Jesus was the Messiah that had been so long promised to the Jewish people. The book of Romans is a letter Paul wrote to the Jews living in Rome, hoping to give them a better understanding of the truth of the message of Christ. Hopefully this background will help you better understand the initial verses of Romans 9.

It seems strange that Paul would interrupt his discussion here of salvation and devote a long section of three chapters, chapters nine through eleven, to the nation of Israel. Why he did not move from the doctrinal teaching of Romans 8 to the practical duties given in Romans 12–15? A careful study of Romans 9–11 reveals that this section is not an interruption at all. It is a necessary part of Paul’s argument for justification by faith.

To begin with, Paul was considered a traitor by the Jewish people. He ministered to Gentiles and he taught that no one could be saved by keeping the Law of Moses because no one was capable of keeping every single aspect of the Law through their own will power. He had preached in many Jewish synagogues and caused trouble, and no doubt many of the Jewish Christians in Rome, who had accepted Jesus as the Messiah, had heard of Paul’s questionable reputation. In these chapters, Paul shows his love for the Jews, the people of Israel, and his desire for their welfare.

You will remember that Paul taught in Romans 8 that those who believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and died for their sins are secure in their salvation and that God’s promise of such security would never be taken away as we read in Romans 8:1-8.

We are going to briefly review these verses in Romans 8:1-8 because they are so important to remember as we get into Romans 9.

Romans 8:1-8 NLT:
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Anyone who believes that Jesus Christ died for their sins will never be condemned by God because through their faith and God’s mercy, God has forgiven their sin: past, present, and future, and will always see them as pure and as sinless as Christ. They are guaranteed a place in Heaven and that promise will never be withdrawn, it is cast in stone.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

The moment a person believes in the work of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God comes to live inside of them. The Holy Spirit is the force that leads a person to accept Christ, gives them a new life, and therefore frees them from the necessity of keeping all of God’s law on their own.

3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

The Law that God gave to Moses, basically the Ten Commandments, did not have the capability to keep people from sinning. Sin is a natural characteristic of all people who are in the flesh, that is who have not accepted Jesus as their Savior. “Flesh” designates people who are still in their sin nature as unbelievers, who desire only the material pleasures of this world. They think life is all about them. The Spirit, or the Holy Spirit, is the force that can help us overcome our corrupt sinful nature. The Spirit is God at work in us and through us. The Spirit produces life in us, a life of abundance as compared to a life of despair. The Spirit provides energy and power for us to live the Christian life, to live according to the will of God, and become more like Christ with each passing day.

4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

If a person is not a believer in Christ they are in the flesh, and such people think only of the things this material world can provide them. But those who have believed in Christ possess the Holy Spirit who will lead them and give them the strength to shape their behavior to conform to the will of God.

6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Now Paul knows that someone among the Jews is going to ask, “Well, then, what about the Jews? They were chosen by God, and yet now you tell us they are set aside and God is building His church with people who are not Jews, and if the Jews want to be saved they too have to accept this Jesus. Did God therefore lie to Israel?” So we see here that among the Jews hearing Paul’s message, the very character of God was at stake. If God was not faithful to the Jews, how can people be certain that He will be faithful to the Church?

We will find, as we go through Romans 9, that Paul has a tremendous love for his people, the Jews. We will also find that he is trying to help them understand how God is dealing with the total nation of Israel, not just with individual Jews. When we come to some of the hard to grasp sections, we must keep this in mind. This chapter talks more about the nation’s relationship to God than the individual’s relationship. Individual relationships with God will be discussed more when we get to chapter 10.

The emphasis in Romans 9 is on Israel’s past election, in Romans 10 on Israel’s present rejection, and in Romans 11 on Israel’s future restoration.

He specifically names four qualities of God: His faithfulness in Romans 9:1–13, His righteousness in Romans 9:14–18, justice in Romans 9:19–29, and grace in Romans 9:30–33. You will note that these divisions correspond with Paul’s three questions: “Is God unfair?” in Romans 9:14, “Why does God blame people for not listening? Haven’t they simply done what he made them do?” in Romans 9:19, and “What shall we say then about all these things?” in Romans 9:30. 
Let us begin by looking at God’s Faithfulness in Rom. 9:1–13 NLT, where Paul writes:

1 With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.

4 They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises.
5 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite  (Jew) as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
6 Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!
7 Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too.
8 This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.
9 For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
10 This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.
11 But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes);
12 he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”
13 In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”
It is quite a transition to see how Paul moved from the joy of Romans 8 into the sorrow and burden of Romans 9. When he looked at Christ, Paul rejoiced; but when he looked at the lost people of Israel, he wept. Like Moses (Exodus 32:30–35), Paul was willing to be cursed and separated from Christ if it would mean the salvation of the people of  Israel whom he loved so much. What a man this Paul was. He was willing to substitute himself and go to Hell if it would mean that the lost people of Israel would accept Christ and thus receive salvation and eternal life in Heaven.

Paul focuses here on God’s election of Israel to be God’s people. The first thing Paul deals with in Romans 9:4, 5 is the blessing that is Israel’s because they were selected by God. Israel was adopted by God as His own people as we see in Exodus 4:22

22 Then you will tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son.

We will see as we go along in the rest of our study of Romans that Israel never did that. They used their special privilege instead to make themselves a unique nation and did not want the rest of the world to share in their special privileged status. So in effect their attitude was, “We want it all and we don’t want anyone else to share in it.” This was not God’s original intention, and He was very disappointed and angry with the people of Israel who felt this way.

God gave Israel His covenants (promises), the first to Abraham, and then additional covenants to Moses and to David. He also gave them His Law to govern their political, social, and religious life, and to guarantee His blessing if they obeyed. He gave them “the service of God,” referring to the ministry in the tabernacle and the temple. He gave them the promises and the patriarchs or “the fathers” (in many Bible translations) of Romans 9:5. The purpose of all of this blessing was that Jesus Christ, through Israel, might come into the world. (Note that Romans 9:5 affirms that Jesus Christ is God). All of these blessings were given freely to Israel and to no other nation.

But in spite of these blessings, Israel failed. When the Messiah appeared, Israel rejected Him and crucified Him. No one knew this better than Paul, because in his early days he had persecuted the Church of Christ. Does Israel’s failure mean that God’s promises are no longer believable? The answer is, No. God is faithful no matter what people of this world may do with His Word. In Romans 9:6-8, Paul explains that God did not guarantee salvation to the Jews just because He chose them to be His people:

6 Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to the Jews? No, for not everyone born into a Jewish family is truly a Jew!
7 Just the fact that they are descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too.
8 This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. It is the children of the promise who are considered to be Abraham’s children.   (NLT)

In many churches today it is believed that if people who claim to be followers of Jesus have their children baptized or confirmed, those children will automatically have salvation. Many of those same people believe that if they belong to a certain church and attend almost every week, and go through all the rituals dictated by the church, that will provide them salvation and eternal life. They are badly mistaken because there is not a shred of truth in any of these claims by the church.

As we saw in Romans 2:25–29, there is a difference between those that are the physical ancestors of Abraham and those who are the spiritual children of Abraham. Abraham actually had two sons, Ishmael, an illegitimate son of Hagar who was his wife’s maidservant, and Isaac, who was born to Abraham‘s wife, Sarah. Since Ishmael was the firstborn, according to Jewish custom, he should have been chosen, but it was Isaac that God chose. When Isaac and his wife, Rebecca, had twin sons, Esau and Jacob, as the firstborn, Esau should have been chosen, but it was Jacob that God chose. And Esau and Jacob had the same father and mother, unlike Ishmael and Isaac who had the same father but different mothers.

Isaac and Ishmael each became the fathers of great nations. Isaac is the father of the Jewish peoples and Ishmael is the father of the Arab peoples. We can see today the different routes and different beliefs these two peoples have taken. The Israelites still worship, though incompletely, the God of Abraham. Many Jewish people have received Christ as Savior and consider themselves “completed Jews.” By that they mean they are descendants of Abraham who have embraced the Messiah and become followers of Jesus. But the descendants of Ishmael have replaced Jehovah God with Allah in their thinking, and they make Mohammed their favored prophet. As such Muslims have rejected Christ and chosen to follow a different way. So you can understand why Paul in verses 7 and 8 says, “Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God.”

 
God chose Jacob over Esau before either of them were born. The two boys had done neither good nor evil before they were born, so God’s choice was not based on their character or conduct. Romans 9:13:

13 Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Again we see that two different nations are involved here. Esau chose to marry Canaanite and Ishmaelite women. So you see he joined himself to the descendants of Ishmael. Esau also founded the country of Edom, which was often a thorn in the side of Israel. Kings Saul and David both fought against the Edomites. Eventually Edom was taken over by Babylon and then it became a province of the Persian Empire called Idumea. Antipater, the father of Herod the Great, came from Idumea. We are all reminded of Herod the Great for he was the one who had all the boy babies in Bethlehem killed in an attempt to get rid of the Christ Child. So you can see that Esau and his descendants went far away from the God of Israel. God with His divine foreknowledge could look down through the centuries and know the choices Esau and his descendants would make. Hopefully, that gives you some additional understanding of what is meant in these difficult verses. Also you see that God is talking more about nations than about individuals in this passage.

Paul went back into sacred history and showed that, first of all, God’s promises never included all physical descendants of Abraham. God’s promises were for those who trusted and had faith in Him. Ishmael, though a child of Abraham, was not included in the covenant promises; only Isaac (Genesis 21:12). Later Jacob and Esau were born as twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca. But God’s purpose included one, and excluded the other. Before the boys were even born (and thus before they could have done either good or bad, so that their actions were no basis for God’s choice), God announced that one was chosen and the other rejected as a participant in the covenant line.

Note here that “hated,” which is actually used in many translations of Romans 9:13, is used in a way that the language of our modern world could not interpret properly. I believe John Stott has found the best interpretation for this verse that fits the character of the God of the Bible the best. The word “hate” in this verse is actually a Hebrew idiom, that is the grammatical form peculiar to a certain language. God did not hate Esau as we would define the word, but rather he selected Jacob over Esau for this particular job.[fn]

 

SALVATION IS FOR EVERYONE

Was it right for God to choose Jacob over Esau? Before answering that, let us keep in mind the kind of God we believe in. God is sovereign; He works for our good in everything; He is trustworthy; He will save all who believe in Him. When we understand these qualities of God, we know His choices are for good even if we do not understand all His reasons. Besides, if we honestly wanted what was completely just and right, we would have to admit we deserve condemnation for our sins. Is it fair for God to punish Christ in our place for our sins so that we might be saved? Would you think it fair if you were sentenced to death because of a crime committed by someone you did not even know? Most people would say that it is not fair. But would you think of asking God to take back His offer of salvation because you do not deserve it? I doubt it because that would mean you would end up in Hell.

We made the point in our study of Romans chapter eight that we do not accept the interpretation of the doctrine of predestination to mean that God  arbitrarily chose those who are to be saved and those who are to be condemned. We do not believe that God sat down before the world was even formed and made out a list with two main headings: one for those who were to be saved and the other for those who were to be condemned. We believe that we documented that belief with sound scriptural references. But that is not to say that God will not choose some people for a specific purpose in order to display His glory for the good of all mankind, whether it be to lead people along the path of God or others who defy God in an attempt to prove He does not exist. We may not understand God’s reasons for doing so, but knowing the nature of God we can trust His judgment to be right on target.

If God chose Jacob over Esau, God had a good reason. Does it mean that God predetermined Esau to go to Hell before he was even born? Does this mean that God predestined who will be saved? Does it then also mean that He predestined who will go to Hell? In other words, before God created the first man and the first woman, did He determine who would go to Heaven and who would go to Hell? In a limited number of cases that could certainly be possible. God has the right to do so if it suits His will. But for the most part, we think not. God is the perfect judge. Who is to say that in the end, Esau and those like him, did not turn to God before they died, and despite their disobedience throughout their life were saved because of that eleventh hour faith? We have recited this verse many times but it is worth looking at again as we discuss this topic, 2 Peter 3:9 NLT:

So to those who ask, “Is God fair?” We answer, “Yes, he is perfectly fair.” He is fair in how He deals with nations. He is fair in how He handles history. He is fair when it comes to judging you and me for our sins. He is gracious and merciful to all who accept His wonderful gift of grace and mercy. He will not judge us according to our sins as we deserve, if we believe. When we believe in and accept for ourselves Jesus’ great sacrifice on the cross, He extends to us salvation and freedom from the punishment our sins require. If we refuse to accept that wonderful gift, then God’s fairness will prevail and we will be required to accept the punishment for our own sins.

So the choice is up to you. It is up to you as an individual whether you choose to accept God’s grace and mercy or whether you will insist He be “fair” with you. The bottom line is that it is up to the individual as to whether they will choose to accept the truth of God and Jesus, or reject it. In other words, anyone who has heard the Gospel message is responsible for where they will spend eternity, and there are only two alternatives.

Now we may overlap a bit in this next section on what we have already discussed, but we consider it essential to look at this subject in just a little more detail.

Another general fact clearly revealed in Scripture (Romans 2:6-10) is that men and women are to be judged according to their works, and according to the light which they have  enjoyed, which means the truth to which they have been exposed. Those who willfully sin after having a knowledge of God’s will, shall be judged without mercy; and those who sinned without having such knowledge, without having heard the Gospel message of Jesus, shall be judged less severely (Matthew11:20–24).

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, held that God reaches out to every person offering them a personal relationship with Him, and insuring each person an opportunity to respond. I believe Wesley is right on target based on the overall nature of God we find throughout the Bible.

It is important that we remember that Romans 9:13 appears in the middle of Paul’s letter to the Romans, a letter that clearly details how both Jewish and Gentile believers are equal before God. It did not matter to God whether a person was a Jew or something else other than a Jew. The main requirement for acceptance by God was faith and trust in Him.

Paul, in the first section of the book of Romans, argued that Jews are just as lost as Gentiles, there is no difference between the two. Having the Law is not what brings the blessing of God, but rather living the Law. And you cannot live the Law without the saving power of Jesus Christ. Paul’s main points are that both Jews and Gentiles needed Jesus’ sacrificial death and that if a person, whether Jew or Gentile, is committed to Jesus, he or she has all of God’s salvation because of the work of Jesus on the cross. The Holy Spirit, whom every believer receives as a gift resulting from their faith in Christ, is the solution to human sin. Although we have to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, He is the one who makes us children of God.

We believe Romans 8:28 shows us that those “who love God” are those who are the “called.” Let us look at this verse again to confirm this:

28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

If we were to translate this verse literally from the original Greek it would read:

And we know with an absolute knowledge that for those who are loving God, all things are working together resulting in good, for those who are called ones according to His purpose.

It is not just the Jewish people who are called, but everyone who hears and responds to the Gospel message. Those who hear the message, believe, and accept it are those who are “called.” It is part of God’s grand plan to redeem human beings from sin, to spread the Gospel throughout the earth and to bring His redemption to those human beings who turn to Him.

Now we have reached a point where we need to clearly understand something. The book of Romans is a letter Paul wrote to whom? Was he writing to everyone who lived in Rome? No, he was writing to the church in Rome. He was writing to the Christians who belonged to the church in Rome, the majority of whom were converted Jews, Jews who had come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah and Savior who they were so long promised throughout the Old Testament. Many of them were suffering severe persecution at the hands of the Roman government. You have probably heard some of the horror stories about early Christians being fed to the lions in the Roman Coliseum for the entertainment of the crowds. Many of these Jews were questioning the goodness of God under such circumstances and Paul wanted to reassure them that God would provide for their eternal salvation even under such difficult circumstances.

Paul is in the middle of a section where he has been talking about the sufferings of the Christian life. Now he is telling them the purpose of their sufferings. However unpleasant they may be, these sufferings do not mean that God has forgotten them. “On the contrary,” Paul says, “when you were called through the Gospel message which you heard, it was part of a plan of God. That plan was not to leave you as you were.”

Paul says, “Part of that, of course, is suffering, but the other part is glory. So when the plan is complete you will stand before God fully justified and gloried, in the very image of his Son.” That is why in Romans 8:31–39 we get the exclamations of praise to God. Christians have not fallen out of His hand; even when they do not see Him, He is right there with them helping them toward His glorious purpose for them.

So what is God saying about predestination? All those who love God are predestined. God has a previously thought-out plan for them. And that plan is to make them like Jesus. In this security every lover of God can rest, even if their present life seems full of pain and chaos.

This whole question of how the sovereignty of God, as expressed through the concept of predestination, balances with the concept of human beings having free will and the ability to choose what they will do about their eternal destiny is one that in reality is quite beyond our human, finite minds to comprehend. And I, personally, can rejoice in that. It means that our great and wonderful Lord God, the Maker of Heaven and hearth, Jehovah, has a mind that is far more complex and thorough than mine is. He is bigger and greater and smarter than I am! What a relief! I do not have to understand every detail of what He says in His Word. In fact, I cannot understand everything. And that is Okay.

You may have heard of Soren Kierkegaard. He was a philosopher, but more than that he was a theologian who was very instrumental in reforming the Danish church, which at the time was very cold and the pastors’ sermons were nothing but showy speeches. If Scripture did not fit their ideas, they discarded it.  According to Ron Walters, a former pastor who is now a vice-president of Salem Communications:

“[Kierkegaard’s] fight to personalize the faith served as a blowtorch to the icy Church of Denmark.

His theological trump-card was faith. He reasoned that Christianity, by necessity, was completely irrational. “No one can be born again by objective examination.” Rather, a “leap of faith” is what propels us into God’s family.

God’s methods, as well as His trademark, have always been fueled by logical impossibilities. He eternally lives out of the box“.

John Stott quotes Charles Simeon of Cambridge, who was equally committed to both the doctrine of election or predestination and to the doctrine of free choice, as using this analogy to defend his stance:

“As wheels in a complicated machine may move in opposite directions and yet [serve] a common end, so may truths apparently opposite be perfectly reconcilable with each other, and equally [serve] the purposes of God in the accomplishment of man’s salvation.”

God Himself puts it this way in Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT:

8"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD.
9"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Because God is God and because His mind is so much greater and wiser than ours, there are some things about God and His plan that we just have to accept on faith. Some way, somehow God in His great wisdom has perfectly worked out predestination and His desire to have all people come into His kingdom in such a way that allows for the total free will of man, yet is all part of God’s plan. In Heaven, we may come to understand just how He balanced it and how it all worked together. While we are here on earth we have to trust His love, trust His wisdom, and believe that He truly has a marvelous plan that we cannot even conceive of.

Now let us go on to Romans 9:14-18 NLT:

14 What can we say? Was God being unfair? Of course not!
15 For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”
16 So receiving God’s promise is not up to us. We cannot get it by choosing it or working hard for it. God will show mercy to anyone he chooses.
17 For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you, and so that my fame might spread throughout the earth.”
18 So you see, God shows mercy to some just because he wants to, and he chooses to make some people refuse to listen.

These verses repeat in a little different way most of what we have already discussed. They do begin an explanation, however, that continues throughout the rest of the chapter emphasizing God’s mercy and grace, and how He has opened the door to His kingdom to all people everywhere who believe and trust in what He says. Part of believing and trusting God means getting clear the relationship between the Creator and the thing created. God is the Creator and human beings are the thing created.

We should understand by this time that God is good, just, merciful, loving, gracious, and all powerful. He really does not need any of our input in order to make the right decisions, and by the simple fact that He made us, He has every right to do with us what His holy and perfect nature leads Him to do. And who is capable of determining how God would judge  a person’s eternity? After all, we have just learned beyond any doubt that God is perfectly just. I have no doubt there would be different judgments for me depending on whether or not God made me to be evil or I chose to be evil on my own.

But based on what was said in verses 14 through 18, there will be those who pose the question that comes in verse 19, Romans 9:19 NLT:

19 Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not listening? Haven’t they simply done what he made them do?”

If salvation is due entirely to God’s will, which it is according to verses 15 and 18, and we cannot resist His will, as none of us would be able to do, then why does God still hold us responsible for our decisions? Paul’s first response to this question comes in verses 20 and 21, Romans 9:20,21 (NAS):

20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?
21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

Paul asks here if we have truly understood what kind of a relationship exists between us and God. Just as the potter has the right to shape his clay into vessels for different purposes, so does God have the right to deal with fallen humanity according to His purposes. It is not suggested in these verses that God has created sinful human beings in order to punish them, but rather He has the right to deal with sinful human beings according to His perfect standards, either to pardon or to punish them. Paul continues this line of reasoning in Romans 9:22,23:

22 God has every right to exercise his judgment and his power, but he also has the right to be very patient with those who are the objects of his judgment and are fit only for destruction.
23 He also has the right to pour out the riches of his glory upon those he prepared to be the objects of his mercy.

God’s patience in judging people will keep the door of opportunity open longer for them to be saved. After all, He gives us all of our lives to make a decision to accept His gift of forgiveness, mercy, and salvation. Even if people do it with the last breath they take in this life, they will receive God’s gift of salvation and eternal life. And in verse 24 Paul tells us that now through the work of Jesus, everyone is included in this promise, all people everywhere. Paul continues by explaining in verses 25-29, that although He first chose Israel as His people to carry the message to all the peoples of the world, Israel failed to be obedient to God’s commission and now He has intervened to make it clear that salvation is available to all mankind who are willing to accept His plan for salvation. Further it is made clear in these verses that only those in the nation of Israel who accept that plan will be saved and that God knows only a small number of them will do so.

Romans 9:25-29 NLT:
25 Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.”
26 And, “Once they were told, ‘You are not my people.’ But now he will say, ‘You are children of the living God.’ ”
27 Concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out, “Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand on the seashore, only a small number will be saved.
28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality.”
29 And Isaiah said in another place, “If the Lord Almighty had not spared a few of us, we would have been wiped out as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Then in verses 30:33 Paul writes:

30 Well then, what shall we say about these things? Just this: The Gentiles have been made right with God by faith, even though they were not seeking him.
31 But the Jews, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.
32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law and being good instead of by depending on faith. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.
33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that causes people to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed.”

Paul, in conclusion asks, “Based on all I have said, what conclusion can be drawn?” To describe unbelievers (Gentiles) as not seeking God is a colossal understatement. Most unbelievers are self-centered, going their own way, lovers of themselves, of money and pleasure, rather than lovers of God and of goodness. Nevertheless, because of God’s grace and mercy, they were given what they did not seek. When they heard the Gospel of salvation by faith, the Holy Spirit worked so powerfully in them that many of them accepted the message brought by Jesus. But the great majority of the people of Israel who maintained they could achieve goodness on their own, rejected Jesus’ message. They did not obtain salvation because they were pursuing an impossible goal. The bottom line here is that those who believe they can obtain salvation on their own will never have it. Those who did not pursue it, but realized they could not obtain it on their own were given it by faith alone.

Why do people stumble over a stone? Why do people stumble over the need to believe in the work of Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation? Because it undermines our self-righteousness. To make this humiliating confession is an intolerable offense to our pride. So instead of humbling ourselves we stumble over the stumbling stone. The point here is that God has laid down a solid foundation for us, a rock or a stone, which is Jesus Christ. So everybody has to decide how to relate to this rock which God has laid down. There are only two possibilities. One is to put our trust in Him, to take Him as the foundation for our lives and build on Him. The other is to allow our pride to say, “I don’t need His help,” and thereby stumble and fall into eternal separation from God in what the Bible calls Hell.

Isaiah

John

Romans

1 Peter


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