Romans 9

1 – 3

Oh my Jewish brothers! How I wish for you to come to Christ! God knows that I am not lying this when I say this! My heart is heavy in me every day and night because of you. I would be willing to go to hell if that would save you.

Some Jews could have said that Paul was angry because he was no longer welcomed by them. Paul wants them to know how much he loves them.

Forgive their sin and if not, please blot me out of Your book which You have written! Exodus 32:32

4. God has given you so much, but you still will not listen to Him. He took you as His own chosen people and led you with a bright cloud of glory, and He told you how much He wanted to bless you. He gave you His rules for daily living, so that you would know what He wanted you to do. He gave you the temple, and He gave you strong promises.

What could be better than waking up in the morning and seeing God's pillar of fire to lead you and protect you and show you what to do today? Who would not want that?

5. Your fathers were great men of God, and Jesus was also a Jew, and He now rules over all things and is God blessed forever!

The Jews took God's blessings as if they deserve them.

6. Has God not been able to do what He promised for Israel. No! Because not everyone who is born in a Jewish family truly shows what a Jew is.

God gave Jacob a new name called him Israel. Israel means "ruled by God." We can see that not everyone in the nation of Israel will say that he is ruled by God. Genesis 32:28

7. Just because you came from Abraham does not make you one of Abraham's spiritual children because if you read the Book of Genesis it says that the promise were only for Isaac, even though Abraham had other children.

God did not see Ishmael as a spiritual son.

Take now your son, your only son Isaac. Genesis 22:2, Genesis 21:12

8. This means that not all of Abraham's children are children of God, but only those who believe the promises that He gave to Abraham.

There are some who teach that we do not have a free will but we are all robots. God did not plan to only save certain people and destroy others. We need to see that God's plan is to save all who believe His promises and He does not save those who tried to come to Him some other way.

9 – 13

For God promised Abraham and said, "Next year I will give you and Sarah a son." And years later, when Isaac was grown up and married, (and Rebecca was about to have twins) before the children were even born or had done anything good or bad. God was had His plan ready. It was not something planned because of what the children did, but because of what God wanted. God told her that Esau, who was born first, would be a servant to Jacob. As it says in Malachi, “I blessed Jacob but not Esau."        

God's plan was that those who believed His promises would become a nation of believers. This means that those who did not believe His promises would not be part of that nation. Genesis 18:10, Genesis 25:23, Malachi 1:2

14. Does this mean that God is not fair? Never!

If God's plan was only about justice, then He would have to destroy the whole world.

15. God said to Moses, “If I want to have mercy on someone. I will have mercy on anyone when I want to."

It is not amazing that God planned to destroy those who were against Him. What is amazing is that He has not destroyed all of us but has had mercy. Exodus 33:19

16. And so God's blessings are not given just because someone decides he wants them or works hard to get them. They are given, because God has mercy on whoever He wants to.

Nobody can judge God for blessing those who believed His promises. There was no other nation that believed His promises even though other nations had heard of Him.

17 – 18

Pharoah, the king of Egypt, was an example of this. God gave him the kingdom of Egypt because He planned to show his power and so that all the world would hear about His name. God has mercy when He wants to and He can make someone's heart become hard if they will not listen to Him.

Pharoah hardened his own heart ten times before God finally said, “If that is what you want, then you can have it and stay this way.” Exodus 9:16

God did not harden Pharaoh's heart so that he would go to hell, but so that he would get what he wanted by not letting the people go.

Teachers who try to use this verse to say that God hardens certain people's hearts so that they have no choice but to go to hell –need to read carefully that God is not talking here about being saved.

Stretching a Bible verse to make it say what you want it to say is called proof–texting.

19. Someone will say, “Why does God blame them for not listening? They are doing what He made them to do.”

There are some teachers to say that God made men sin so that He could forgive them later. The whole reason for this chapter is to show how men are responsible for the decisions they make but God's plan will go on no matter what men do.

20. Who are you to judge God? Should the thing say to the One who made it, "Why did you make me this way?"

We are not in a position to accuse God of doing wrong. In the book of Micah God says, “Let us go to court and you tell Me what I have done to make you act this way against Me. I have only done good to you.” Micah 6:1–3

Adam said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Genesis 3:12, Isaiah 29:16

21. When a man makes a jar out of clay can he decide to make one jar beautiful for holding flowers and another jar to use for something else?

Anyone who says that God created certain people only so that He could send them to hell is accusing God of being evil. This is exactly what the devil said in the garden when he suggested that God has an evil purpose for doing the things that He does. Before you buy into the theology of Hyper– Calvinism be careful that you are not accusing God of sin! Jeremiah 18:1 – 6

22. What if God wanted to show His anger against those who were against Him after He had been patient?

Instead of thanking God for his patience men will say, "Well, if God does not like the way I am living, why does He not wipe me out?”

23 – 24

And He did this so that He could show the riches of His glory and have mercy on us so that everyone can see how great His glory is. He showed this glory to both Jews and Gentiles.

There have been some who have changed the words of the Bible to say that only certain people were planned to be saved. Peter says the opposite.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should turn to Him. 2 Peter 3:9

25 – 26

Remember what Hosea says, “God will find other children who are not from His Jewish family and He will love them even though no one had ever loved them before. It used to be said, 'You are not My people' bu they will be called the sons of the living God.”

God had been saying many times in the Old Testament that He will find other people who will believe His promises. Hosea 2:23

27. Isaiah said that even though there were millions of Jews only a small number
would be saved. For the Lord will bring His judgment on the earth and cut them off. Isaiah also says, “Except for God's mercy all the Jews would be destroyed just like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Paul is saying that there were a small amount of people saved when the Babylonians conquered Israel. In the same way, there will be some of Jews who will believe the Gospel and be saved. Isaiah 10:22, Isaiah 10:23, Isaiah 1:9


30. What shall we say about these things? Here is what we can say –that God has given the Gentiles the offer to be forgiven by faith, even though they were not really seeking for God.

The Gentiles do not have the promises that were given to Israel, but when they believe the Gospel they are given the same promises.

31. But the Jews who were trying so hard to be right with God, by keeping His laws, were never able to do it.

We see that the Jews were trying to be right with God in their own way, but the Gentiles became right with God by faith.

32 – 33

Why not? Because they are trying to be saved by keeping the law or being good instead of trusting God. They stumbled over God's cornerstone, which is Jesus.

God warned them about this in the Book of Isaiah when He said, “I have put a rock in the path of the Jews, and many will stumble over Him, but those who believe in Him will never be disappointed.

The Jews twisted the Old Testament to say that the Messiah would come to get rid of the Romans and be a political leader. They could not believe in a Messiah who died on a cross. Isaiah 28:16, 1 Corinthians 2:8

The main idea of this chapter is that people are not rejected by God because He planned ahead of time to reject them. He rejects those who try to come to Him in their own way and have not accepted the Gospel.