Introduction

(Read) As I mentioned two weeks ago, this chapter is a hotbed for theological debate. That’s because Paul addresses 3 hotly debated issues—the debates between Calvinism and Arminianism, between dispensationalism and covenant theology, and over how to resolve the problem of evil.

Today’s passage dips its toes in the debate over Israel’s relationship to the church, but it dives headfirst into the debate over God’s sovereignty in salvation. It really challenges how we naturally imagine God and ourselves. It’s complicated and controversial.

This sort of debate energizes some Christians. They love to solve complicated issues, and they love the back and forth of debate. If that’s you, I hope you enjoy the conversation, but don’t love controversy to the neglect of your soul. Make sure that all your thinking ends in worship, not in self-glory.

But maybe you don’t enjoy the debate at all. You’d rather skip to loving God and doing his will. Be careful that you value everything God says in his Word. If a concept matters enough for God to include it in Scripture, it should matter to you. You can ignore speculation, but don’t ever grow impatient with wrestling through Scripture.

That’s what we want to do today, and hopefully, it will end in worship and in a better perspective on myself and on the world around me. So, let’s dive into our text. Notice that the whole passage is built on a very important and practical question in the first line. The problem Paul addresses in our text is, “Has God’s promise failed?”

I.  The Problem: Has God’s promise failed (v. 6a)?

Paul answers with an emphatic, “no.” God’s word has not failed. Now, for conservative Christians like us, that’s an obvious point. Of course, God’s word can’t fail. But it wasn’t so obvious in Paul’s world or to Roman church.

Remember that Paul and the Romans lived at the crossroads of redemptive history. Jesus died and rose again just 25-30 years prior. And based on Jesus’ command, the gospel was going to the nations, and it was filling up with Gentiles. All the while, the Jews’ influence and presence slowly faded. Sadly, most Israelites rejected their Messiah and did so vehemently.

It was shocking to Jews and Gentiles alike because God had blessed Israel with tremendous privileges and promises. Notice the list in vv. 4–5. God gave Israel so much. However, vv. 1–3 lament the fact that most of them rejected their Messiah. Those promises had not secured their salvation.

God had said, “You will be my people, and I will be your God,” but that didn’t seem to be happening. It looked like God’s promise had failed.

Therefore, the purpose of our text, and, frankly, the purpose of chapters 9–11, is to prove and explain the assertion of v. 6a, “The word of God (meaning God’s promises to Israel) has not failed.”

We may not be Jews, but God’s faithfulness also matters to us. How could we ever trust a God who breaks his promises? Imagine what a promise-breaking God would mean for how I read the Bible, how I face life’s challenges, and how I prepare for eternity. It undercuts everything. God’s faithfulness is foundational to our faith. Paul must reply. His first answer is…

II.  First Answer: God never saved all Israel (vv. 6b–7a).

We talked about this way back in chapter 2. You get a gold star if you remember this, but I said that most Jews assumed their physical ancestry all but guaranteed their salvation.

The Apocryphal book Wisdom of Solomon states, “For even if we sin we are yours, knowing your power; but we will not sin, because we know that we are accounted as yours.” So, Paul’s Jewish contemporaries assumed they were safe with God simply because of their Jewishness.

But if this is what God had promised, then did the sparse Jewish contingency in the church indicate that God’s promise had failed? Or was Paul confused, and was his gospel a counterfeit?

Paul responds that the problem was not with God or with his gospel; instead, the problem was with the Jewish assumption that simply being a descendant of Abraham all but guaranteed salvation.

He says in v. 6b, “For they…” That sounds confusing, but Paul is distinguishing a broader group known as Israel from a special subsection of true Israelites. Verse 7a is a little clearer, “Nor are they…” In other words, being a physical descendant of Abraham doesn’t automatically make you one of his “children,” meaning a recipient of the promise.

Again, the Jews believed the opposite. They believed that descending from Abraham all but guaranteed your salvation unless you did something really bad. But Paul says, “No, God never guaranteed the salvation of all Abraham’s descendants. All his physical descendants are not his spiritual children.

Only some of them are the “true Israel.” Paul already made this point in 2:28–29. So, yes, any circumcised Jew was a member of the covenant people of God, but salvation was never by physical ancestry or by a physical act like circumcision. Instead, salvation demands heart circumcision, meaning you must be born again. And we have always been born again by faith in the gospel.

So, Paul’s point in our text is that the true children of Abraham were always a subset of his physical descendants. Salvation has always been by faith. So, the true Israel has always been those who believed. And now, following the coming of Messiah, the true Israel are those Jews who believe on Christ and receive him as their Messiah.

Yes, they are members of the church, but they still maintain their identity as Israel. Paul says in Galatians 6:16, “And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.” “The Israel of God” is that Jewish remnant.

They haven’t just been rolled into the church. The church hasn’t simply replaced Israel. Rather, a major theme of Romans 9–11 is God’s continued faithfulness to the Jewish remnant. Verses 4–5 say that God’s promises still belong to the Jews, and chapter 11 says God will one day bring revival to the Jews and fulfill all his promises to them.

So, Paul wants to be very clear that God is faithful! The problem was not that God’s promise had failed; the problem was that that the Jews misunderstood the promise.

We do that too. When life gets hard, we accuse God of breaking his promise because he didn’t answer our prayers the way we thought he should or because we have suffered in ways that we don’t think we deserve. We assume that God clearly must have missed something because I deserve better, and God promised me something better.

But before you go there, always make sure you rightly understood God’s promise. If you think God has failed, I guarantee you have misunderstood what he said; it is never that God has truly failed. So, Paul’s first answer is that God never saved all Israel. His second answer is…

III.  Second Answer: God’s promise has always taken priority over physical ancestry (v. 8).

There’s not a big difference between this answer and the first one. Once again, Paul says that physical descent has never guaranteed God’s blessing. Rather, God’s purpose and promise has always determined who receives God’s blessing.

Therefore, the true heirs of Abraham are those Israelites whom God has drawn to himself in genuine faith and repentance. So, once again, God never promised to save every Jew. Salvation has always been by faith based on the purpose of God.

But what’s that have to do with us? I doubt anyone in this room is banking on making it to heaven someday because Abraham is your father. But many people today have a similar false sense of security. If you ask if they are going to heaven, they will reply, “Of course, I come from a Christian family.” “I am a baptized member of a Christian denomination.” “I’m an American patriot. I believe in God. Of course, I’m a Christian.”

But God says that your family history and even your religious identity does not make you his child. Instead, you must believe the gospel. You must be born again. So, please make sure that your confidence for eternity is truly anchored in Christ. Receive him as your Lord and Savior.

So, Paul has answered the accusation that his gospel makes God unfaithful to his promise. God never said he would save every Jew. The true heirs of the promise have always been a small subset who genuinely reflect the faith of Abraham. In the rest of the passage, he proves this with two biblical examples.

IV.  First Proof: God chose Isaac exclusively (vv. 7–9).

Why bring this up? Remember that the Jews believed that being an ancestor of Abraham all but guarantees the promise. So, Paul goes all the way back to Genesis to offer a simple proof that this is not so.

We talked about Isaac’s story last Sunday. In particular, after waiting for years for Sarah to bear a son, Abraham and Sarah finally despaired, and Sarah suggested that Abraham marry her handmaid Hagar and have a child by her. It worked, and Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. Abraham thought he had his heir.

But notice what God said in Genesis 17:15–21. What’s fascinating is that Abraham pleaded with God to make Ishmael his heir. He was tired of waiting and trusting. If Sarah were there, I bet she would have kicked him in the shin. But we can relate to Abraham’s struggle. He was willing to sacrifice God’s best for what was easy. He needed to trust that God’s will was best and continue to wait.

In response, God promised to greatly bless Ishmael, however, Ishmael’s descendants would not be the heirs of the promise. No, the heir of the promise would come through Sarah. Isaac’s descendants would receive the promise. And vv. 7, 9 of our text both quote statements from God to that effect. God’s promise was exclusively to Isaac’s descendants; it did not extend to every physical descendant of Abraham.

In fact, if Paul really wanted to press the point, he could have noted that after Sarah died, Abraham married another wife, Keturah, who bore him 6 more sons. He gave them generous gifts, like he did for Ishmael, but they also were not heirs of the promise. That only belonged to Isaac.

So, does being Abraham’s descendant automatically make you an heir of the promise? Obviously not because Abraham had 7 other sons whose descendants never had any connection to the Abrahamic Covenant and the salvation God provided through it.

But someone might object, “Fair enough. But there are some obvious reasons why God rejected Ishmael. He was only born because Abraham abandoned God’s design for marriage. As well, Hagar was an Egyptian. And God never said to do this; they took matters into their own hands. So, sure, Ishmael didn’t receive the promise, but he wasn’t a legitimate heir.” Paul thought you might ask. Therefore, he follows with a second proof which answers these challenges.

V.  Second Proof: God chose Jacob over Esau (vv. 10–13).

The story behind these verses is found in Genesis 25:19–26. In God’s providence Isaac’s wife Rebekah struggled with infertility, like Sarah before her. But 20 years after their marriage, Rebekah finally became pregnant. Not only that, God gave her twins.

He also gave Rebekah a very important revelation about his purpose for the boys. They would not both be heirs of the promise. Only one would be the heir. And surprisingly, God chose the younger brother Jacob instead of the firstborn, Esau. Returning to our text, this story proves Paul’s point that God’s promise and purpose have always determined who is saved, not natural rights for 4 reasons. First…

Jacob’s mother did not secure the promise. Again, you could make the argument that Sarah secured the promise for Isaac by her superiority over Hagar. But v. 10 highlights the fact Jacob and Esau were conceived at the same time by the same mother and father.

That’s significant because unlike Isaac, it means that Jacob didn’t have any ancestral advantage over Esau. The Jews thought that their heritage demanded God’s blessing, but God’s choice of Jacob and rejection of Esau demonstrates that God is not obligated to save anyone based on their heritage. God rejected Esau even though he was a rightful heir of Abraham. The 2^nd reason is…

Jacob’s birth order did not secure the promise. Verse 12 highlights this fact (read). It’s important for us to recognize that being the firstborn was a much bigger deal in the ancient world than it is in ours. I’ve been reading through Chronicles this month, and the thought has occurred to me a couple time, “Why did some of these godly kings make an evil son their heir? They probably had other options. Couldn’t Solomon or Hezekiah pick a better one?” They didn’t because being the firstborn was huge deal.

Therefore, God’s choice of Jacob over Esau was a huge surprise. We can’t know God’s entire reasoning, but he clearly wanted to emphasize that my purpose and my plan rules over everything else. It was grace that made Jacob the heir, not any sort of natural right. We’ll say a lot more about that later.

But someone might reply, “Yeah, but the reason God chose Jacob was because he foreknew that Jacob would be a godlier man and a more worthy heir.” That’s how a lot of people understand election. God chooses who will be saved based on how he knows they will respond to the gospel. But Paul rejects the notion that this kind of foreknowledge factored into God’s choice. The 3^rd reason is…

Jacob’s character did not secure the promise (v. 11). God is very clear that this choice had nothing to do with any inherent difference between Jacob and Esau. God didn’t choose Jacob because he would be a godlier man or because Esau would be ungodly. Genesis bears this out. Yes, the Bible is critical of Esau for selling his birthright and for marrying a Hittite woman. He also wanted to kill Jacob after he stole the blessing.

But Jacob stole the blessing. He turns out to be a terrible husband and father. He plays favorites with his wives and with his kids. If you made a movie about Jacob’s family, it wouldn’t be G-rated. We skip over a lot of it with our kids because several parts of it are very disturbing. No, a major emphasis in the story of all the patriarchs is that they were broken people and that the continuation of the promise was not due to their worthiness. So, if Jacob was not worthy, then why did God choose him? The fourth reason Jacob’s story proves Paul’s point is that…

God’s purpose determined the promise. Paul makes that abundantly clear in v. 11b. God chose Jacob solely based on his purpose and his choice, and he did not include Esau in the promise for the same reason. God could have include both of them in the promise, but he didn’t. Rather, based solely on God’s own will, v. 13 says God “loved” Jacob and “hated” Esau.

Now, the word “hate” kind of shocks our system because the only hate that we know is fallen, sinful hate. God cannot sin, so this is not the same thing. Rather, love ultimately means choose in context; therefore, hate means reject, in the most basic sense. God was kind to Esau in many ways. And frankly, I don’t think we can even conclude from this verse that Esau is in hell. He may be in heaven. But in terms of the promise, God rejected him and his descendants. Only Jacob’s descendants became God’s chosen people.

It seems that God did it this way to make a very important point at the outset of Israel’s history. God did not chose Israel based on anything worthy in them. Instead, his election was pure, unadulterated sovereign grace.

Now, frankly, no one can deny that and take the text seriously. But the debate gets hot when we ask how all of this applies to us. Is Paul saying that our election is the same, or his he only speaking of Israel’s corporate election? Those who believe that our election is based on God’s knowledge of our choice have to argue that Paul is only speaking to Israel’s corporate election.

But the problem with that idea is that Paul’s purpose in context is to explain why some Jews were being saved and others were not, why, “They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” Paul’s answer is because God’s purpose determines which individuals will be saved, not something in them. As well, the remainder of the chapter clearly transitions to God’s sovereignty over individual choice (vv. 15–18).

Yes, I still must choose to believe the gospel because chapter 4 says that justification is applied by faith. But chapter 9 adds that the ultimate reason why I made that choice as a 6-year-old boy was not because I was so spiritual or smart. I made that choice because God chose me first in eternity past. Then in time, he sovereignly drew me to himself. Therefore, he gets all the glory, not me.

Some of you are saying, “Preach it, Pastor.” Some of you may not be happy with me. Others may have lots of questions. So, I want to emphasize that the position I just articulated has never been a defining issue for our church. You don’t have to agree with me to be welcome here. At the same time, the text raised the issue, so I have to say what I believe the text says.

And if you have questions, please stick with me because chapters 9–11 will probably answer most if not all of them. God and Paul know what you’re thinking. And always feel free to ask. I’d love to have a conversation with you about these things.

But for now, we don’t have time to answer every objection or make every clarification. Instead, we need to pull all of this together into a take-home-truth that you can use this week. So, my summary of the message of this text for us is this, God is faithful; therefore, trust him to fulfill every redemptive promise.

God never breaks a promise. He never fails. You can trust every promise of his Word. He will never leave you. He will never forget you. He will always do what is good. And God is especially faithful to every promise of redemption.

Maybe you sinned against God this week, and you aren’t sure if he will forgive. Trust that God will always forgive every sin of his children if you are truly repentant. Maybe you are in the throes of a terrible battle with temptation. Maybe you are facing a trial so large that you aren’t sure your faith can remain. Trust the Lord that he will never give you more than you can bear, and he will always give more than enough grace to endure. And we all go through times where heaven seems a long ways off and where evil seems to be winning. Christ’s kingdom is coming, and his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And nothing will “separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” for all eternity.