WWUTT 1291 Not All Who Are Descended from Israel Belong to Israel (Romans 9:1-8)

It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. If you have faith in Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring. When we understand the text.

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Romans 9 and the Lament Over Israel

Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. We continue our study in Romans. Does everybody know where we are in Romans right now? That's right. Chapter nine. And as I did with chapter eight, I'm going to begin by reading the whole thing.

The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome. I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, 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.

They are Israelites and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.

Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

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. For this is what the promise said, about this time next year I will return and Sarah shall have a son.

And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 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 him who calls, she was told, the older will serve the younger.

As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. 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.

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? 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? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

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, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory?

Even us, whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. 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.

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. 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.

For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. And as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.

What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith. But that Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law.

Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone. 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.

That is Romans nine. And even as I was reading that whole thing, you probably were hearing parts of it going, wow, I didn't remember that was in Romans nine. I feel that way almost every time I read it and I've read it dozens of times.

Paul’s Grief for Israel and God’s Covenant Faithfulness

So we come back now to the start of Romans nine and we have to keep in mind this is coming right off. This is coming right off of Romans eight. These things are important to keep in context. It's not like we've ended one subject or topic and now we're beginning another one.

It's still the same thought. The chapters and verses were added later to help us in our referencing these books and studying it and things of that kind. But Paul didn't include the chapters. He didn't include these breaks.

Sometimes the chapters are put in a right place. Sometimes they're not. I think that it's divided up in Romans pretty well. But here in chapter nine, even though we've moved into a new chapter, we're still continuing the same thought that Paul had just finished up in chapter eight.

So he says here, and it really does feel like he shifts gears. He says, I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart 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.

They are Israelites and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises to them belong the patriarchs. And from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God overall, blessed forever.

Amen. This is totally unlike what we were just reading in Romans eight, at least at first glance, because we finished Romans eight by understanding. I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

So we have that beautiful chapter on assurance of salvation, that if we are in Christ, nothing is going to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. And we go from that into chapter nine with Paul mourning over the fact that the Israelites, the nation of Israel, has rejected the Christ.

They crucified the Christ. So did the Gentiles, of course. You had Romans, you had Jews gathered together in the same place to crucify the son of God. This is part of the prayer to the sovereign Lord that the apostles pray in Acts chapter four.

You have gathered in this very place Pontius Pilate and Herod along with the Jews and the Gentiles to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. The death of the son of God, his crucifixion as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

This was all according to the sovereign plan of God. So the Gentiles certainly crucified the Christ as well as the Jews. This was a cooperative effort of Jews and Gentiles and by God's plan that this would take place, not to take away the guilt of those who had done this.

They were going to be held accountable if they did not repent and put their faith in Christ. They still would stand before God as guilty, even though this was according to God's sovereign plan, as we see here in Romans, who were you, oh man, to answer back to God.

So nobody would be able to stand before God and say, hey, it was your plan. And I just did what your plan predestined to take place. Nobody's going to be able to point the finger back at God in that way.

So you had Jews and Gentiles, both responsible, both held accountable for crucifying the son of God, but especially on the Jews, they had no excuse. We would expect this kind of behavior from the Gentiles.

Of course, they're going to crucify the son of God. They don't know who he is. They don't have the prophets. God has not revealed himself in his law. And so they've been living in lawlessness. They're going to behave like lawless people.

The Israelites, though, had the law. God had revealed himself through the prophets, and yet they did not listen. And they put Jesus to death. So how much greater the offense upon the Jews than upon the Gentiles?

The Gentiles are still at fault. Still great is their sin. But the Jews had the oracles of God, and yet they did not listen. They did not obey God. This is what has grieved Paul's heart. But here's the conundrum now, okay?

Because God has shown his love to the Jews. He's rescued them out of slavery. He's given them a promised land. They worshiped idols, and so he exiled them into captivity. He, faithful to his promises, released them and led them back to the promised land.

They rebuilt the temple. They have an even bigger temple now at this time, at the time that Paul is writing this letter, at the time of Christ, than they had even when Solomon was king. It's even bigger than it was before.

Herod's temple was a massive construction. God also, in his faithfulness to the Jews, has brought the Messiah through the line of David. The Messiah has come. So we see these continual displays, demonstrations of God's faithfulness to his covenant, his promises to Abraham and to his offspring, the love of God poured out for them, and yet what has happened to them?

They are not under the love of God. They are under his wrath, because they have crucified the Son of God, and they have continually gone astray, as they are even now. And Paul recognizes that. He acknowledges that.

I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, 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. I would go to hell for them if it meant their salvation.

That's essentially what Paul is saying here. He knows that he can't do that, but he's showing the extreme lengths that he would be willing to go to for the salvation of the Jews, to whom God had given the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law, the worship, and the promises, the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, the Messiah had come, the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.

Amen. These are all of the things that belong to these people whom God had called out from all other nations to be his people. So given that that's the case, that God has done this for the Jews, they're clearly not in God's love right now.

We're looking at them. The gospel now has come to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles are being called the people of God. What's up with the Jews who crucified the Son of God and continually reject his gospel?

Does that mean then, going back to Romans 8, that we can be separated from the love of God in Christ our Lord? Because God's love had been with his people, but now it's not. His mercy and his grace is clearly not on them now.

So is everything that Paul just said in Romans. Say you've got a Gentile that's hearing this being proclaimed in the church in Rome. Somebody who is not descended from Jews, has heard Jewish history, has heard the Septuagint, the Old Testament in Greek, taught there in this church in Rome.

So he's heard about the promises given to the Jews, but he's looking at the Jews and he's seeing God's favor is not with them. God's favor has now come upon the Gentiles, and we're being saved by the hearing of the gospel while Jews are continuing to reject it, and they're even putting the apostles to death.

They're persecuting the apostles, those who had come from Christ, who came from the Jews. So what's up with this? Like you're telling me that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, but I'm seeing all this history regarding the Hebrews in the Old Testament, and I'm looking at them now, and I'm seeing that they're not in the love of God.

So you've got a Gentile that's looking at this going, are you sure about that? Right? That would be the argument that may follow this thing that Paul has just laid out here in Romans chapter 8. But what about the Jews?

If nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, why are the Jews in the condition that they're in right now? And so Paul acknowledges that. But he's heartbroken over the Jews, the direction that the Jews have gone, and laying out everything that God had promised to them, had given to them, and yet they did not believe.

Not All Israel Is Israel

So Paul says this, anticipating that argument or that kind of head-scratching moment, the person who's sitting there scratching their head. He says in verse 6 in response, but it is not as though the word of God has failed.

For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. Hmm. That's a theological concept that I haven't really thought of. You know, the Gentile might be saying there in church as he hears that being read, okay, because I'm looking at the Hebrews.

They're not believing. They're clearly not under the grace of God. They're not walking under his grace. God had called them to himself. They're not following after him, so maybe the love of God does not endure to the end for them.

Maybe there is something that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And so Paul says, I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart for the direction that these Jews have gone.

They should know better, but they do not believe. And as Paul is going to get to later on here in Romans nine explaining all of this, God has compassion on whom he has compassion and he has mercy on whom he has mercy.

Why is it that there are these Jews who do not believe because God has not shown them compassion? He has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills. Now, this is not just speaking about Jews, though, because the example that Paul uses is Pharaoh, who was a Gentile.

So God has mercy on the Jews on whom he will have mercy, and he has mercy on Gentiles on whom he will have mercy. Regarding the Jews in particular, it is not as though the word of God has failed, though it was to them the word of God had come.

Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. OK, let's let's rightly divide the word of truth here.

So not all who belong to Israel, not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. So just because a person is born a Jew, that's their ethnicity. It's in their DNA. That does not mean that they are among the people of God.

Remember what we read back in Romans chapter two. No one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter.

His praise is not from man, but from God. OK, you remember reading that. So the circumcision that we're talking about receiving is not a matter of the law, but it is a matter of the spirit. The apostle Paul says this in Philippians three to look out for the dogs.

Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. So my salvation is not because I am descended from Jews.

My salvation is because I worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus. That's how I know I belong to the people of God, not because of the people that I am descended from, but because or let me put it this way, not because of the people that I am born into, but because of the people that I am born again into.

That is how I know that I am among the people of God by faith, not by my ethnicity. So not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. That's the direct way that we understand that. The indirect way that we understand this is that there are others who are Israelites who were not born within that ethnicity.

Again, going back to Romans chapter two, where it says that being a Jew is not a matter of something outward and physical. Being a Jew is something inward and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter.

So you too can be understood as a Jew or an Israelite among the people of God by the spirit, not by the law, not by the letter, not by your DNA. And this is consistent throughout the New Testament that we read this.

In Galatians chapter three, the apostle Paul said this, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. Galatians 3, 7, it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying in you shall all the nations be blessed.

So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith at the end of the chapter, Galatians 3, 29. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

So once again, we come back to Romans 9, 6, it is not as though the word of God has failed for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. That's verse six, then seven and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named a reference, of course, to Genesis 21, 12, verse eight.

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. You are the children of God, whether you are a Jew by your heritage or a Gentile by your heritage, you are the people of God by faith in Jesus Christ.

This is how a person is saved and no other way. And by the way, Christ is the fulfillment of the of the child of promise. Isaac was the child of promise, not Ishmael. So it was through the line of Isaac that the Messiah would come.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the child of promise. So it is through faith in this child of promise, Jesus Christ, that you have been named the people of God by his mercy and his grace, not not by our works, but by the work of God and his alone.

Consider this in John chapter one, beginning in verse eleven. He came to his own. Jesus came to his own and his own people did not receive him, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name.

He gave the right to become children of God who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And these are the ones who will never be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

And that's where we'll pause for now and pick up our study in Romans chapter nine tomorrow. Heavenly Father, thank you once again for your continued goodness that you demonstrate to us through your scriptures.

We were lost. We were wandering about in darkness. We were, as the rest of this world, doomed to destruction. But you, by your grace and your mercy, gave your son for us and then sent somebody to us to preach the good news of the gospel of your son, that we would turn from our sin and believe in Jesus and so be saved.

And by this faith that we have in Christ, we have been adopted into the family of God and our sons and daughters, heirs according to promise. May we walk in confidence of these promises today that we have according to your word.

And we pray this in Jesus name, amen.

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Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.