Who Failed?

Romans 9:1-13
Bob Bonner
July 9, 1995

Several years ago, when we lived in New Jersey, there was a family in our church who had five sons. Mom and Dad are two of the most gently, soft spoken, loving Christian parents I have ever known. I had two of their kids in my high school youth group and as a result, got to know the family very well. All, that is, except one of their five sons who was older than the two in my youth group. Of all the five sons, four of them had committed their lives to Jesus Christ, and from what I could tell, were living for the Lord. The fifth son, although a hard working and more moral than most of the world, had turned his back on Christ. Here was a young man who had all the advantages of being raised in a Christian home, knowing the truth about God and has seen Jesus live His life out through his folks, but had failed to seek after Jesus Christ. Why? It was confusing for the parents because there was no traumatic event that caused his turning away. He loved and respected his parents, but for some unknown reason, this young man walked away from the truth about Jesus that he had heard and seen modeled all of his life. Why?

This is too often a common scenario A child grows up in a Christian home, attends church with the family for years, is a part of the youth group, has memorized verses in Sunday School only to leave the church and turn away from God before the child has reached the age of 21. Why? Why is it that so many who have sat under the truth of God’s word for years, many who have had the advantages of being raised in a Christian home turn their backs on God? How does this happen? Who is at fault? Is it the churches fault? God’s fault? Or, the fault or the individual? Furthermore, what does this say about our God and His faithfulness to godly parents to allow people who have been exposed to the truth, to reject the truth and henceforth, spend eternity separated from the living God?

Let’s begin today at Romans 9. In this chapter, the Apostle Paul gives us an explanation of why some people who have all the advantages of knowing the truth, still turn their backs on it. In turn, we will also learn something of the character of our God. But before we dive back into our study of Romans, let’s take a minute to get the bigger picture and see what we have covered so far and to look at where we are going in the next three chapters.

PROBLEM Man’s Sin SOLUTION God’s Justification QUESTION What about Israel? DAMNATION            1      3:20 SALVATION            3:21    8:39 ISRAEL’S PAST ELECTION        9 ISRAEL’S PRESENT REJECTION        10 ISRAEL’S FUTURE RESTORATION        11

In the first three chapters (see above), Paul brought to our attention that mankind indeed has a very serious problem, that being the problem of our sin. Because of man’s sin, or our rebellion against God and our living as though He doesn’t exist, because of our ignoring Him, we have been separated from God and are headed toward a permanent eternal separation from God, called “damnation” if something isn’t done about man’s sin.

Paul showed us logically and quite clearly in these first three chapters that there is nothing that we can do on our own to earn God’s approval and regain His acceptance. We are unholy and He is perfectly holy. Some of us may be better people morally in comparison to one another, but compared to a holy God, none of us can live up to His holy personality. And hence, being holy, He can’t be joined with or in a partnership or fellowship with that which is unholy, because it would in turn make Him unholy. So, man is lost and separated from God. Although we may know that God exists, these three chapters have shown us that we have no hope of on our own getting reconnected with God or of being found or saving ourselves. Through several logical arguments, Paul shows us that there is nothing we can do to earn God’s acceptance or make Him obligated to take us back. That is the problem explained by Paul through the middle of chapter 3. 

Then, beginning with 3:21, Paul explains God’s solution to mankind’s problem. From chapters 3-8, God says that individuals can go from being damned to being saved by putting their complete trust and confidence in the finished work of the savior, Jesus Christ. When one does that, one is justified by faith, in Jesus Christ. We are made righteous by God imputing to us Jesus Christ’s righteousness to our very selves. And when we look to Jesus Christ, and take Him as our personal savior and Lord, then we are saved once and for all and nothing can separate us from the love of God. Our ultimate problem of being separated from God is solved. And that’s how chapter 8 ends, if you remember.

Now beginning with chapters 9-11, Paul answers the question that is on most of his Jewish readers’ minds and that is, “What happens to Israel, God’s chosen people? Where do they now fit, if they fit at all in the future scheme of things? If all of Israel doesn’t fit in the future scheme of things, does that mean that God has broken His promises to Israel and is not to be trusted?

In these next three chapters, Paul addresses respectively, the three following points. First, in chapter 9 Paul speaks to Israel’s past national election by God to be the chosen people of God; then, in chapter 10, their present rejection by God and finally, in chapter 11, Israel’s future restoration by God. But the overriding and very important theme that is hammered home again and again throughout these three chapters is the fact of God’s sovereignty. God can sovereignly choose to save whomever He wishes. Sovereignty means that basically God is the absolute ruler over all of creation and He answers to nobody. He doesn’t have to explain Himself or His actions to anyone. He alone is God.

Now, that could frighten a person, to know that a being could hold that much authority and power over us if we hadn’t already learned that this same being is absolutely loving as well. Furthermore, we will see today, that God is not just sovereign, but he is sovereignly faithful or trustworthy. He fulfills His promises.

Chapter 9, which is where we wish to begin today, raises some of the toughest questions ever faced by human beings as we contemplate the actions and workings of God. It raises issues that we can talk about, but quite frankly, we will never fully understand. Our minds are too finite to understand some of the things contained in these chapters. The more we try to figure these concepts out, the more our minds are stretched, almost to the point of breaking. Every bitter accusation that we, God’s creation, have ever been brought up against our Creator is faced squarely in this 9^th chapter of Romans.

As we are about to look at chapter 9, I am reminded of the weather we had here in Oregon during the Boatnik weekend and then just a few days later. During Boatnik weekend, we had hot sunny days that gave us the freedom to shed some clothes, wear shorts and T-shirts. Then suddenly, without warning, we woke up the next day and it was like stepping back into a cold freezer again. The change is weather was dramatic. Similarly, we sense a sudden change in tone between the end of chapter 8 and the beginning of chapter 9. Chapter 8 ends sunshine and an ecstatic declaration of God’s love for the believer, but chapter 9 begins with a sense of gloom on Paul’s part, as he begins to speak of those family members of Jews who have turned their backs on their messiah and walked away from God, so to speak.

Paul is about to tell the sad and sobering story of the history of the nation of Israel. Here was a nation who thought of itself as having the inside track with God. They were God’s chosen people. Yet, as we will see, they end up a nation who is far, far away from God.

Paul begins this chapter, with the first five verses sharing his heartfelt concerns for his people, the nation of Israel. Notice the personal anguish in his words as we read them. Paul writes,

“I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the {temple} service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”

I am sure that many of the Jews of Paul’s day, he sounded like an enemy when he spoke about Jesus and that the traditions of the Jews no longer needing to be carried out, because Jesus fulfilled the all. Many of his fellow Hews hated Paul for preaching Christ and wanted him dead. And yet, the remarkable thing was Paul’s overwhelming love for those who were his enemies, as expressed in his wish that he could take the place of his Jewish brethren who will be damned for rejecting their messiah Jesus. These verses express a very real deep hurt on Paul’s part. He is shedding crocodile tears.

This is no phony protest, like so many people of today who say, “I’m only telling you this because I love you,” and then proceed to cut you to pieces. “No,” Paul says, “my conscience supports me in this, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish about having to tell you the truth.”

By the way, this is a great example for us if we want to learn how to approach someone you want to help meet Jesus Christ and who is not too eager to receive or hear what you have to say. You never come on with accusations or with bitter words of condemnations or with a sense of superiority concerning the issues that separate you. You come to them lovingly, willing to give up your life for them. You honor them, not put them down. You “preach Jesus Christ as Lord, and yourselves as bond servants”.

As I reflect upon Paul’s heart here, he reminds me of the Savior as He looked over Jerusalem and wept for the people who were about to crucify Him. Paul’s example here forces me to stop and ask myself and you, do we really ever weep for the lost for those who don’t know Jesus as their personal savior, who stand condemned to spend eternity apart from God? Have you ever lost any sleep over the reality that certain friends, acquaintances or family members don’t know Jesus and are headed to a Godless eternity? Do you ever weep for those who do you wrong, who hurt you, who live immorally and steal from you, knowing that they don’t realize where they are headed? Did you ever sit down in a busy mall or a place of crowded people and wonder how many of them know the Lord, knowing that if polls are correct, probably 90% don’t and therefore are facing an eternal damnation because they continue to ignore or rebel against God, Paul and Jesus grieved. This prospect made them weep. It changed their priorities and the focus as to what is important here on earth.

Or, maybe you know somewhat of the anguish I feel when I am with my Dad, a man I love, but who is far away from Christ and the things of God. I may be enjoying myself with him outwardly and am at peace with my Dad, but there is this constant sense of anguish beneath the surface no matter how much fun we are having together. We may be laughing about something stupid we did on a past hunting trip, and then for a split second, my joy is interrupted by the thought that this man, whom I dearly love, were to die right now, I would never see him again because he continues to refuse Jesus Christ. And knowing that reality, a deep knot forms in my soul, it brings me pain and anguish. This is reality. This is serious stuff. This is no religious mumbo jumbo. This is the truth, and it hurts to think about it.

Someone wrote, “I don’t think there is anything more devastating and more deeply felt than the love and concern of someone who sees another drifting into hurt, destruction, danger, despair, and perhaps even death, and who feels helpless to do anything about it.” [RCS,p. 11] And I agree.

Even though, I must admit that at first, when a non-Christian hurts me or someone else I love, I don’t immediately weep for their lost state. But somewhere along the line, reality sets in, and I begin to realize that this person is facing eternity alone, especially without God. And in the face of that reality, my personal hurt over being temporally wronged disappears in the truth and the hurt of the reality of what this individual will face, should they not meet Jesus grips my heart. Then I forgive them and begin to pray for their salvation. How does their temporal wronging me compare to their lost soul? How about you?

As we think about Paul’s dealing with God’s rejection of the Jews I want to make a couple of important observations from those first five verses. First notice the verbs in those verses. They are all in the present tense which tells us that the nation of Israel, even today, is still God’s chosen instrument, His chosen people. Even though God may have put them up on the shelf, so to speak, He is not done with them. He is still using them and working through them to accomplish His will.

However, the reason for the anguish Paul feels is made clear in verses 4-5. In these verses Paul recognizes eight advantages that the Jews had, but as a nation they failed to take advantage of them. First, they were adopted as sons of God. They were the chosen people of God. When you read through Genesis, God makes it very clear that he separated this nation, beginning with Abraham from the rest of the nations to be His people, His instrument to reach the rest of the world. Even today, they are different than any other nation of the world.

Secondly, to the Jews He gave them His divine glory. And by that He is referring to that bright Shekinah glory that filled the temple and the bright cloud that Israel followed through the wilderness. Israel knew, because of this glory, that God had recognized His ties with them.

Third are covenants that God made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David. These remarkable agreements committed God to do things for that nation of Israel which he has never committed to do for any other nation. Furthermore, God has never broken any of these agreements with Israel.

Fourth, the Jews had the advantage of the written Laws of God. This was their dearest and greatest treasure of all and still is, God’s very personal words of communication to His chosen people.

Fifth, Paul reminds them of the privilege of their temple worship. God actually manifested himself in the tabernacle or temple. Through a precisely spelled out form of worship, God pointed the nation of Israel in the pathway to atonement through the prefigured and the only perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Sixth, the Jews had the promises of God—Promises such as that they would be the lead nation of the world. From the Jews would come the universal reign of the King, Jesus, the Messiah. Through the Jews’ capital city, Jerusalem, would be the center of the earth. Governments of the earth will one day flow through this city.

The seventh in Paul’s list is the mention of the Jewish patriarchs, those household names to the Jews. Their famous leaders such as Abraham, Moses, David and others. We might think that people like Washington and Lincoln were special and that we were really blessed to have them as leaders, but they are not nearly as widely known throughout the world as Abraham, Moses and David are today. Furthermore, God calls Himself by their name, saying to Moses in Exodus 3:6, that “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

The final and probably greatest advantage that the Jew ever had was the fact that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, came through the human ancestry of the Jews. But notice that Paul does not say that Christ belonged to Israel, but rather that he came from Israel. Jesus belongs to the world because, as the apostle adds, “He is God over all, to be praised forever!” One writer states, “This is one of the clearest and most definite statements of the deity of Jesus that comes from the apostle’s pen.” [RCS p 15]

And yet with all of these fantastic advantages, like kids raised in a Christian home to hear the truth about Jesus Christ, the Jew’s of Paul’s day had rejected God and were violently anti-Christian. They couldn’t stand the idea that Jesus was their Messiah.

It is at this point, that Paul gets into the heart of this chapter and begins by raising the following question: “Since Israel has proved to be faithless, does this mean that God will also be faithless and not fulfill His promises to save Israel?” All of which leads to the ultimate question of, how is it that any of us, Jew or non-Jew is ever saved?

Now I must warn you that before we go any further in the study of this chapter that you are going to have difficulty with these next verses. Isaiah, the prophet, once said something that really applies to us here, as we look at these verses. God said to Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways, … for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Whatever else those words might mean, they certainly imply that there are times when God is going to act in ways that we don’t understand, ways that seem to us absolutely unfair or contrary to the way that God should act. In these next verses, Paul is going to introduce some principles by which God carries out His work of salvation and His purpose toward the entire human race. In doing so Paul will use the nation of Israel as an example.

Let’s look at verse 6, “But it is not as though the word of God has failed.” That term “failed” in the original, pictures a ship going off its course. In other words, in answer to the readers question of “Has God’s plan for mankind run amuck?” Paul says, “No, it hasn’t.” The fact that Israel has acted unfaithfully doesn’t mean that God’s purposes have been nullified or failed or that He won’t keep His promises. God is not only the sovereign boss over all creation, but He is faithful. He never breaks His promise.

Then Paul continues by introducing us to our principle concerning salvation. It is a principle that clears up a mistaken assumption on the part of the Jews and on the part of many religious or quasi “Christian” people today. Paul states, “For they are not all Israel who are {descended} from Israel; neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants,”. Salvation is not based on natural descent or national privileges. One’s spiritual heritage or family background is not the basis for being saved. If a person was born and raised in a Jewish home, you may be a part of the chosen race, but you also may not be saved. You may have been born and raised in a Christian home or a Christian nation, but that is not the grounds for one’s salvation. Salvation is not something one inherits from one’s parents. God may grant great opportunities and special privileges to people, but that is no guarantee that God will save a certain people.

Paul continues on in verse 7 to illustrate this point through the use of an Old Testament example involving Abraham and His two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. He says, “…but [or on the contrary] through Isaac, your descendants will be named.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh [children born through physical childbirth] who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is a word of promise, “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”

If you remember the story, Abraham was promised a son, through whom God would build a chosen nation. Abraham and Sarah got impatient when no child was born and when Sarah was past child bearing years, so they took it upon themselves to do something that was part of the custom of the day, and that was for Abraham to have a child with a slave and give the birth right to the slave. In other words, they both stopped believing that God meant what He said, and that he would give them a child as He promised, so they thought they would help Him get His job done their way.

Bad move. You never try to do something the way everybody else says something should be done in the world, when God has given specific instructions as to how He wants something done. As a result, Abraham and Sarah had Ishmael, a physical child, by their own means, through Hagar, Abraham’s slave. But this was not the child of promise. God meant what he said when he promised them a child and waited to bring about a miracle, to cause Sarah to have a child when she was past child bearing years, to prove to them that they were His special chosen people. Hence not all of Abraham’s children will be recognized, buy only those of the promise.

Paul realizes that at this point, some of his detractors will argue that God chose Isaac because he was the son of Abraham’s full wife, Sarah, rather than Ishmael, so Paul points to another example to drive home his point, that salvation is ultimately based on one thing and one thing alone. This time his Old Testament example is that of Jacob and Esau, twin brothers born to Isaac. Paul says in verses 10-12, “And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything food or bad, in order that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger. Just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’”

Once again, both boys have the same father, but in addition, they also have the same mother. And yet, God chooses only one child to be saved and not the other. It has nothing to do with heritage. It has everything to do with God’s sovereign choice. But this second illustration adds one more twist. God chose Jacob over Esau before Esau was ever born. Therefore, God’s choice to save Jacob was not based upon Jacob’s good works or his human merit. If the truth were to be known, of the two twins, Esau was the better overall person, morally speaking. Jacob by nature was a thief, a con-artist, a not to be trusted individual. 

So when God chooses to save someone, it is never upon the basis of how good we live this life. It based on something totally different. His salvation is based solely upon His promise.

Now, I am very aware that at this point many will already be thinking or saying, “But that’s not fair. It’s wrong for God to save one and choose not to save another. To be fair, God has to give everyone a chance. It’s wrong for God to hate one and to love another.” If you are struggling with that, I understand your struggle. But the more I understand who God is, and the more I understand myself and the sin that dwells in me, my struggle is not with “Why doesn’t God give everyone a chance?” Rather my struggle is “why does God choose to save even me? He has no obligation, even as a loving God to ever save me.” My struggle is not with the fact that God rejected Esau or hated Esau, my struggle is with how it is that God could ever love or accept Jacob!

Now when you see the word “hated”, be careful not to read into that word the emotion that we read into our English word “hate”. By “hate”, God is not saying that He disliked Esau or would have nothing to do with Esau or that He treated Esau with contempt. That is not what this term means in the original. 

In Luke 14:26, Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers, and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” Clearly Jesus is not saying that we are to treat our mother and father with contempt. God clearly, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, says that we are to love, honor and obey our parents. What Jesus means here is that Jesus is to have preeminence over all other persons or things in our lives.

God did not hate Esau in our absolute English sense. If fact, God even blessed Esau, He made Esau a great nation as well. He gave Esau promises that God fulfilled to the letter. What these verses imply is that God set His whole heart on Jacob, to save him and all who follow in the footsteps of his kind of faith.

You see the bottom line that Paul is trying to show us is that God is Sovereign. He chooses whom He chooses without any obligation to answer to anybody as to why He chooses whom He does. Furthermore, if He chooses to save someone or makes a promise to someone, He is always faithful to fulfill His promise. But as it concerns salvation, and truly becoming a child of God, it has nothing to do with our being raised in a Christian home or how good we live or how religious we are. But it has everything to do with God choosing or electing us for salvation. We have, as we will see next week, a responsibility to respond to God’s call. We are not puppets. But the fact that we are saved begins and ends with God’s sovereign choice.

And even if a child’s parents have had some Christian upbringing, but the parents have rejected Christ, does not mean that God will give up on the grandchildren or that they don’t have a chance to be saved. God is faithful to continue to reach out to others, even if we His people are not. That’s the whole point about Paul’s discussion of the Jews. Even though the Jews turned their backs upon their messiah, God was faithful to still reach out to other Jews and now even non-Jews such as yourselves.

Equally important is it for us to recognize the fact that as we look into a family’s history of success in this world, it does not necessarily indicate how terrific we personally are doing spiritually or as parents. My parents did not do anything to lead me to committing my life to Christ. They can’t take credit for that. On the other hand, there are parents who handled the spiritual upbringing of their children well, and were faithful in instructing their children in the things of God, and He has blessed their efforts and the lives of their children.

But there are no guarantees that if your child reads the bible every night, or memorizes verses or attends church or goes to a Christian school or is surrounded by Christian friends that he/she will commit their life to Christ. The fact that I am a Christian, a pastor, and a parent committed to teaching my children about the things of God and living by example before them the best way I know how, is no guarantee that they would get saved. I recognize and fully admit that I have made too many mistakes and wrong choices as a parent. But out of His mercy, God has worked through my mistakes to save my kids.

I can point to several examples of Godly parents from the scriptures who did everything right and yet their kids turned their backs on God. We have responsibilities before God to instruct our children in the things of God, for which we will be held accountable. But it is equally true that our children have choices they need to make as well. And somewhere I there figures God’s ultimate calling of a person to Himself.

So what’s the bottom line? We can’t fully understand why God chooses whom He does or how it is that some choose Christ and some reject Christ. But, if you do know that you are saved, knowing that you are truly saved should produce gratitude and humility on your part, not presumption or arrogance. For you did nothing to earn salvation; it is a gift from God.

Should you know as committed Christian parents, that your children are saved, should also produce humility and gratitude to God that your children are saved, not a fat head that you are God’s expert on child rearing and you did everything right and therefore you can look down your nose at other parents who have wayward children and may not be as spiritual as you.

We have responsibilities as parents and sometimes we fail and some fault rests as our feet. But I submit to you, humbly that whatever my children turn out to be, regardless of my best efforts as a parent, does not guarantee their salvation or their becoming a positive influence in their world for Jesus Christ.

We have stressed and seen just one of the major ingredients behind a person’s salvation, and that is God’s sovereign calling of a person to Himself based in his promise found in scripture, that any who seek Him will find Him.

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GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY