The Rejection of the Jews and the Inclusion of the Gentiles as God’s people: Will the Promises of Romans 8 Stand? How do you answer the question of the Jews?
Romans 9-11
Charles
e. Whisnant, Pastor/Teacher, Student of the Word
Rivers
of Joy Baptist Church, Minford, Ohio
February
10. 2013
It’s my hope by the time we get
through Romans chapter nine that it will
end your love affair with human autonomy and the ultimate self-determination of
your free will. I pray that your
worldview will simply not be able to stand against the scriptures, especially
Romans 9. And I pray that Romans 9 will be the beginning of a lifelong passion to see
and savor the supremacy of God in absolutely everything.
But what I am learning is this; even in this week of study Romans nine. What I felt this week was what John Piper said he experienced:
“I
began to see a God so majestic and so free and so absolutely sovereign that my
analysis merged into worship and the Lord said in effect, “I will not simply be
analyzed, I will be adored. I will not simply be pondered, I will be
proclaimed. My sovereignty is not simply
to be scrutinized, it is to be heralded. It is not grist for the mill of
controversy; it is gospel for sinners who know that their only hope is the
sovereign triumph of God’s grace over their rebellious will.”
Jonathan Edwards’ Testimony to God’s
Absolute Sovereignty:
What the main purpose
of Romans 9 is not about:
Now with that said, I might have given the
impression
that Romans 9 is a treatise on the sovereignty of God. It is not. In reality
the truth is Romans nine is an explanation for why the word of God has not
failed even though God’s chosen people, Israel, as a whole, are not turning to
Christ and being saved. The sovereignty
of God’s grace is brought in as the final ground of God’s faithfulness in spite
of Israel’s failure, and therefore as the deepest foundation for the precious
promises of Romans 9. For if God is not
faithful to His word, we can’t count on Romans 8 either.
Now
what is this chapter dealing with: Of
course there are several opinions about what Romans 9 is dealing with: I will
give six opinions:
WHAT IS THE VIEW I TAKE FROM ROMANS 9-11
Paul takes up the matter at the
beginning of chapter one and goes on dealing with it in the other two chapters.
Jones believes that Paul takes up where he left off in chapter eight. What Paul has been dealing with is the
doctrine of final perseverance of the believer.
Then in 8:31-39 our security is based upon the immutability of God’s
counsel, the guarantee that anything God has purposed must of necessity be
carried out.
Then we come to Romans 9. What about the whole case of the Jews, Paul?
If you say that God starts a thing he always completes’ it, you say that when
something is the purpose of God nothing can frustrated it. But if your
preaching of the Christian gospel, as you call it, then God’s purpose has gone very seriously
astray, because the fact is that the vast majority of the Jews are not
Christians, they are not in what you call the kingdom of God, which consists
chiefly of Gentile believers. So, then, where is the purpose of God? Where is
the immutability of His counsel? That was the objection.
WILL
THE PROMISE OF ROMANS 8 STAND? IS THE ISSUE IN ROMANS 9.
Will
God stand by His commitments, sealed with the blood of His Son? Will He work all things together for our
good? Will the predestined be called and
the called by justified and the justified be glorified? Will He give us all things with Him? Will nothing separate us from the love
of God? Is really now no condemnation,
and will there be none tomorrow? Piper.
Here
is what Romans 9 does. It shows that the word of God’s covenant with Israel has
not failed, because it is grounded in God’s sovereign, electing mercy. Therefore the promises to the true Israel and
the promises of Romans 8 will stand.
That is the gospel of Romans 9.
The promises purchased by the blood and death of Christ will be
performed by the sovereign power of God.
In
9:1-29, he shows that Jewish rejection was not a failure
of God’s promise to Abraham to save his seed, for the promises was meant only
for Abraham’s “spiritual” descendants whom God had “chosen” unto
salvation. These elect Jews, (who, in
Paul’s day were but a small portion of Israel) along with elect Gentiles, were
being called by God and saved as he had promised they would be and just as the
prophets had foretold. It would come to pass.
In
9:30-10:21, Paul shows that the immediate cause of the
rejection of Israel and of the salvation of the Gentiles was the different
manner in which the two groups were resounding to the Gospel: the Jews were
stumbling at Christ whereas the Gentiles were believing in Him.
The Jews had misunderstood and were
misusing the Law. Instead of seeing
their own sinfulness by contrasting their conducted with the Law’s holy
requirements and turning to God for mercy and pardon, they were trying to
establish a righteousness of their own by keeping its commands.
They were looking to the Law, and
not to the Gospel, for salvation and thus were perishing!
In
11:36, Paul explains that Israel’s rejection is neither
total (some Jews were being saved) nor final (the time will come when God will
show mercy to the nation at large and so all Israel will be saved.)
1A The ultimate or eternal reason for the
rejection of the greater part of Israel and the calling of the Gentiles to
salvation is God’s sovereign election: 9:1-29
2A The immediate cause of Israel’s rejection
and of the Gentiles’ salvation was the different manner in which they were
responding to the gospel. 9:30-10:21
