Romans 9 Mysteries Explored

What's fair for one, must be fair for all!

 

What if a billionaire walked through your neighborhood some warm, sunny day and you saw him knocking at some houses, not all of them, leaving something and then getting in his car and driving  away? Later you find out he had given the houses he stopped at money-large gifts-1k, 5k, 250k...

Would you say he was being unfair? Does he have the right to do whatever he wants to do with his money?

In today’s culture, where Grammy Awards are accused of not being given fairly, government is judged for not responding rapidly enough to hurricane victims, there’s the attitude that says, I may have made a bad choice, but you are to blame for taking advantage of me, cops are guilty of being unfair when it comes to the color of skin, I wonder if most people wouldn’t answer yes, he is being unfair.

I am not trying to make  judgment on what is true injustice in any of these types of situations, but current events can color our vision and ability to see God’s system of mercy , justice and his sovereignty. If society believes that we have to watch out for our own backs and fight for our rights because we trust no one, why would we trust a sovereign God to do right by us?

What about Romans 9?

In studying Romans 9, Paul addresses a question in verse six. If all Jews aren’t included in salvation then has God’s word from all history failed? We need to know. If it has failed, how do we know all of Romans 1-8 can be trusted to be true for us?

Paul takes us back to the promise to Abraham and what God really said. The promise was not to all of Abraham’s descendants, just because they could trace their bloodline to him, but to those God had called to be included in the promise. John Piper talks about how the basis of blessing is not to be found in physical relationship to a forefather, but by spiritual relationship to God by faith. Grace does not run in the blood…

Individuals matter! 
 

Paul goes on to list some of those in the lineage of promise-Isaac, not Ishmael, and in case you think it was because Ishmael was born from a slave women,  he chose Jacob, not Esau-twins so there is no mistake they were both from Issac’s wife, and they were chosen before they were born.  Paul is establishing God’s sovereignty in the choosing-not because Isaac and Jacob were better men-Scripture tells us their flaws-, but God was setting up a lineage for Jesus and a people to show himself to and to teach them his ways. Who begats who matters! Jesus, as human man, needed a lineage to be born through. 

Culture matters!

 God creates a nation who worship Him and show him to be like no other god.  This people would carry his laws, his presence, and his governing.  His promised son would be born among them.

As I recalled those whom God called to carry out his purposes and to show his mercy to, I was overwhelmed with awe at his patience and love. How mercifully and sovereignly he worked out his plan with the individuals he chose. All of them were imperfect; yet God kept working with them.  Jacob steals his blessing. Moses protests that God has the wrong guy when God calls him from the burning bush. David commits adultery, then covers it up with murder, yet God calls him a man after his own heart. Rahab and Ruth, both from foreign nations, are included in Jesus’ geneology. 

When the Jewish nation was integrated into a foreign culture in the exile, he was still choosing individuals to show mercy to and to fulfill his purposes- Daniel, Mordecai who raised Esther, who God used to miraculously save his people, and Nehemiah and Ezra to help restore the temple and God’s laws. Each of the prophets were chosen for a specific time and purpose. Eventually, God chooses Zechariah and Elizabeth and Mary and Joseph to be his son's family.

I could go on,  right down to you and me and how he called and predestined us to be in his plan. The Jewish people are excluded because they wouldn't accept Christ as the Messiah, but that does not make the promise invalid.

 God's ways are not our ways

Paul next addresses the fairness in God’s choices. In John 6:37 Jesus says that all who come to him, he will never drive away. 2 Peter 3:9 says God is patient, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Isaiah 55 tells us God's ways and thoughts are higher than ours.  I saw something in the Isaiah verses that I hadn’t thought of before. God is declaring his so-much-greater thoughts and ways after he invites the wicked and unrighteous to turn to him and repent so he can have mercy on them and freely pardon them. What man would think like that?  

 He compares his word to the rain and snow that come down to give life---causing budding, flourishing, yielding seed for bread. He’s reminding us of His greatness, not in the context of judgment and condemnation, (your thoughts are so puny compared to mine) but to show his wisdom and goodness in  caring for those he created. The evidence that God is completely just and fair seems overwhelming to me. It’s not about who isn't included, but that he included any of us!  Why me?

We who are Christ followers are in the promise.  We’ve received the blessing of Abraham through faith, so we can be a blessing. As we see the futility of the shortsightedness and blindness of the culture around us, let it motivate us to long for and pray for Jesus’ compassion that looked on the crowd as sheep without a shepherd. And then offer ourselves in total surrender and with deep gratitude, to fulfill whatever in the world God chose you and me for! 

So that billionaire- was he being unfair? 

Read Matt 20:1-16 to see God’s system of justice and sovereignty in action. An interesting parallel to to this study.

 

Some of these thoughts were processed from these websites: bible.org, enduring word.com and desiringgod.com.