These chapters 9-11 which deal with the people of Israel are obviously the beginning of a new section. They ap­pear as a break in the story. We would expect chapter 12 to follow chapter 8. One writer states; ‘Romans chapters 9-11 are as full of problems, as a hedgehog is full of prickles. Many have given it up as a bad job, leaving Romans as a book with eight chapters of ‘gospel’ at the beginning; and four of ‘application’ at the end; and three of ‘puzzle’ in the middle.’ Is this fair? Are these three chapters a mere puzzle with no connection to what goes before or what comes after? The puzzle is solved when we remember the theme of the letter as stated in chapter 1:16-17; ‘the gos­pel is the power of God for the sal­vation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gen­tile. For in the gospel a righteous­ness from God is revealed, a right­eousness that is by faith’. Right­eousness is the key word. Let’s see then how this section fits into the out­line of the letter.

• Chapters 1:18-3: 20 — Righteous­ness is rejected by the sinner.
   
• Chapters 3:21-8: 39 — Righteous­ness is revealed and realised in the gospel.
   
• Chapters 9-11 — Righteousness is required but refused by Israel.
   
• Chapters 12-16 — Righteousness is to be reflected in everyday life. The Apostle deals with the subject of the gospel and the Jewish people be­cause of his own pastoral concern. The gospel was for them first but they seem to have rejected it. Has God cast them off? Is God finished with the Jews? Has God let them down? For some this subject is a complete yawn. For others however the very mention of Israel; 1948; and the Mid­dle East gets their prophetic juices flowing. This for them is the most im­portant and fascinating subject in the whole Bible. So what should our atti­tude be toward Israel and the Jews? Let us learn from the concern of the patriotic and passionate Paul — the authentic reformed pastor.

1. Paul’s Anguish and Sorrow (1-5)⤒🔗

From celebration to lamentation. Such describes the abrupt change of tone from the end of chapter 8 to the beginning of this chapter. What ac­counts for such a sudden change? Just like his Saviour who wept over the city of Jerusalem, Paul is filled with intense anguish and sorrow as he thinks over the lostness of his own people. He explains, ‘I have unceas­ing sorrow, grief, pain and agony for the sake of my brothers’ (2). He expresses a willingness to be cursed if it could achieve their salvation i.e. he would gladly go to hell if they could go to heaven (3). It’s hypothetical of course — but it expresses nonetheless the sincerity and the compassion of this soft hearted man. The reformed pastor is a man with a heart of com­passion for the lost.

Israel’s response was a great anom­aly. They of all people should have been queuing to get into the kingdom. No other race of people had such advantages and privileges as the Jewish people. Paul mentions eight: Israel had been adopted as God’s son; they had seen evidence of God’s glory among them; God had made covenants with them; they had the Scriptures in their own language; they had been instructed in Biblical wor­ship; they had received promises; they had a galaxy of godly ancestors; and Jesus himself was a Jew! (4-5). These privileges were great; they were to be used and valued; they pre­pared the way for and pointed to the Saviour; but they didn’t save. Israel was like an estranged son who had been left a great legacy by his father but he refused anything to do with it. Israel’s rejection of the Messiah was a national tragedy. It was a scandal. Though an apostle to the Gentiles Paul was always a Jew. Seeing his fellowmen reject the Saviour caused him heartbreak. He was a grieving man.

Paul was no cold analytical theolo­gian or philosopher, but a man with a heart for the Lord and a heart for the lost. We need people and preachers with hearts like that! We need people with hard heads and soft hearts. R.Haldane has stated; ‘He, who has no sorrow for the perishing state of sinners, and especially for his kindred, is not a Christian. No man can be a Christian who is unconcerned for the salvation of others’. Some of us have a son or a daughter, a brother or sister, a husband or wife, a friend, or a neighbour who has turned their back on the Lord. Perhaps you know something of the grief that Paul describes? Many of us have a continual sorrow in our hearts. Jonathan Edwards writes, ‘It is now our duty to love all men, even wicked men; we know not but that God loves them. However wicked any man is, yet we know not but that he is one whom God loved from eternity; we know not but that Christ loved him with a dying love, had his name written upon his heart before the world was, and had respect to him when he endured those bitter agonies on the cross. We know not but that he is to be our companion in glory to all eternity.’ (Vol. 2, pp 208).

A congregation had dismissed its pastor (it was not Presbyterian!). When asked why the reply was, ‘He kept telling us we were going to hell if we did not repent’. They had since obtained a new pastor. ‘What does your new Pastor say?’ ... ‘He also says that we are going to hell if we do not repent.’ So what’s the differ­ence? The reply came: ‘When our first Pastor said we were going to hell he sounded like he was glad. But when our new Pastor says it, he sounds like it is breaking his heart.’ He may not have been a Presbyterian — but he spoke as a Reformed Presbyterian pastor should.

2. God has not Failed (6-13)←⤒🔗

How do we explain Israel’s failure to repent and believe and be saved? Could the fault lie with God? He af­ter all made promises to Israel which appear to have failed. If they have failed this could have very se­rious repercussions for all of us. If God let the Jews down how can we Gentiles trust Him not to let us down? If God has reneged on Israel He perhaps could do the same to us?

Paul’s answer is clear. ‘It is not as though God’s word has failed’ (6). God has kept His promises. That’s a relief! We need to understand that His promise of salvation was never a blanket promise. We need to distin­guish between genetic Israel and the genuine Israel; between ethnic Israel and spiritual Israel. There is the physical Israel and the spiri­tual Israel. Like in a football game. Not everybody present is a footballer or an athlete. There are also specta­tors, stewards, stall holders, police­men, photographers, reporters, and others. Just as in any large congre­gation of church members there will many names on the roll — but not every name is necessarily in the Lamb’s book of life.

To confirm his point Paul provides two examples from biblical his­tory. First, God made a promise to Abraham that nations would be blessed through his descendants. Abraham had two sons — Ishmael and Isaac (7-9). Ishmael was the son of Hagar. Isaac was the son of Sarah. But the promise of blessing was to be through Isaac; the son born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age. ‘In other words it is not the natural children who are God’s children but it is the children of the promise’ (8). Not all Abraham’s children are the children of God. The true spiritual Israel are not those with Abraham’s blood in their veins — but are those who have Abraham’s faith in their hearts. Has God failed? No. God has kept His promise.

The second example is Jacob and Esau (10-13). They were twins who shared the same parents, the same home and had the same training and upbringing. Yet one was chosen and the other passed over. Was one bet­ter than the other? Had one led a better life? Had one better genes? Was one more deserving? No. God made a choice to save one and pass the other by even before they were born (11).

Has God failed Israel? No! The promise was never to everyone. God has always been making dis­tinctions based upon His sovereign choice in election. He is a promise keeper. However when election (and predestination) are introduced it raises some obvious questions!

3. God is Fair (14-18)←⤒🔗

Is it fair of God to choose some and not others? Was it fair of God to choose Jacob and not Esau? Why should God not choose everybody? Is He guilty of favouritism? Why has He apparently closed the door on the Jews and welcomed Gentiles? Is He like John West? ‘It’s the fish that John West rejects that makes John West the best!’ Does God choose the best and throw away the rest? No — not at all! He should have thrown all of us away! If God was fair and just no one would be saved. ‘There is none good — no not one!’ R.C. Sproul remarks, ‘Why would God ever be under obligation to give us anything after we have fallen, having committed cosmic treason, resulting in the desires of our hearts being only wicked con­tinuously? It is absolutely essen­tial that we understand this. God Almighty owes nothing to us. We have no claim upon Him’. God owes us nothing. He has no obliga­tion toward us. He was absolutely fair to Pharaoh who got what he deserved (17).

Why are we not all in hell as we de­serve? Paul quotes Exodus 33:19, ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have com­passion on whom I will have com­passion.’ After Israel’s appalling be­haviour of worshipping the golden calf — they deserved to be punished. They deserved the same fate as Pharaoh. But God showed mercy and compassion because He is free to do so. Mercy is when God with­holds what we deserve. Grace is when God gives what we don’t de­serve. The only reason why anyone is saved is not because of perform­ance or pedigree but because of God’s mercy.

Someone (reportedly) came to Spurgeon on one occasion. I have a problem (he said) with the text — ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’ ‘How could God possibly hate Esau’? Spurgeon replied, ‘I too have a problem with that text. How could God possibly love Jacob?’

4. God is Free (19-29)←⤒🔗

There are many things we can’t fathom. The doctrine of God’s election and predestination is surely one of these things. Its part of His secret counsel (Deut. 29:29). Someone has said, try and explain this doctrine of election and you may lose your mind; but try to explain it away and you will lose your soul. The doctrine must not be used mischievously to take cheap shots at God. He cannot be blamed for Israel’s unbelief or for our sinfulness. We can’t get away by saying — ‘well I’m just the way God made me — warts and all!’ God is not the author of sin. He didn’t make us originally with any warts. The doctrine does not allow us to ‘pass the buck’. It doesn’t negate our responsibility. ‘The things that are revealed are for us.’ The Bible makes it pretty plain what God requires of all of us – Israel included. After Peter preached at Pentecost the people asked, ‘what shall we do?’ Peter didn’t say, ‘get your doctrine of election sorted out!’ He said, ‘Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.’ (Acts 2:37-38).

Paul replies to the mystery critics’ trick question by introducing the powerful illustration of the potter and the clay (19-21). Does not the potter have the power and the right to do with the clay exactly what He wants? (21)! Of course he does. God is like the potter. He is free to do as He pleases. We know how­ever that anything He does is good. There are things that God cannot do. He cannot lie. He can­not sin. He cannot deny Himself. He therefore cannot do anything which is bad. When we don’t un­derstand His ways — we should remember we are the clay. His ways are past finding out — but all His ways are just and good and right. We should never ‘talk back’ to God.

As the potter God can even use His wrath to make known the wealth of His glory: ‘desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, (God) 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’ (22-23). James Boice remarks, ‘if you are rebelling, you are glorifying Him even now, because even now His patience is displayed in you by His enduring your sin for a time, rather than sending you to hell immedi­ately, which you deserve.’ He is a longsuffering and merciful God seek­ing the repentance of sinners.

God is free to do His will in the way He pleases. Despite Israel’s rejection of the Messiah His plan is not frus­trated. The purpose of the string of Old Testament quotations is to demonstrate that what has been happen­ing in the church has always been part of God’s plan (24-29).

Conclusion←⤒🔗

Humanly speaking the apostle could have become demoral­ised at the lack of gospel response from his Jewish counterparts and resigned the apostleship! There are today many examples of lesser men dropping out of the ministry because of discouragement at the lack of response to the gospel message. Paul, the reformed pastor, clearly shows that we should not be indifferent to gospel indifference (1-5). He informs us how we can continue confidently even when we grieve inside and when the ground is hard. We know that God’s word is still true; we know that God’s promises are reli­able; we know that God has a cho­sen people; we know there would be no conversions if there is no election; we know that God owes us nothing and He is free to do whatsoever He wills; and we know that whatever He does is ultimately for His glory. We know that the gos­pel is still the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. We know that this is the means whereby He calls His elect. Such convictions reinforce the reformed pastor.