Romans 9 - Why Does God Choose Some and Not Others?

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Paul’s Anguish Over Israel

Paul explains the anguish he is experiencing knowing that his fellow Jewish brothers and sisters have rejected Christ. You see his heart as a pastor with the depth of sorrow he expresses for them. He still holds out hope that they will realize that they were the recipients of the promises through patriarchs, Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. God had made his covenant with them to bless all nations through them. God raised up Moses to reveal His Law to them, realizing that the Law could only be fufillied with the Messiah, born of King David's lineage. 

God’s Sovereign Choice

As Paul seeks to make sense out of the fact that those who are not Jewish, the Gentiles, accepted Christ but most of the Jews did not. He points out that it is not that God's promise has failed, but his people failed to believe in the promise. Even within the genealogy of the Jews, in God's sovereign choice he chose some over others. For instance Jacob was chosen over Esau. Issac over Ishmael. This was not by anything they did not do as he says, 

Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Some might think it doesn't seem fair that God chooses some and not others. But Paul concludes that God has the right to do whatever he wants. He can have compassion on some and not others. Now we know God's overall character is compassionate, as we see in so many instances with the Jewish people where he is slow to anger and aboundingin steadfast love. So it is not like God is arbitrary or capriocus in carrying out his sovereign will. 

Then, he imagines an argument that someone might make by saying that if God had already decided whom he would choose and not choose, then they really never had a chance in the first place. Paul gives a pretty abrupt answer to this. 

But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

Paul reasons that even as God prepared objects of wrath, He does so ultimately to show his mercy and grace. Without judgment there can be no mercy. Without the Law there can be no Grace. This also explains why God's mercy was given to the Gentiles, as well as the Jews. 

As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”

Like Paul, many of the prophets mourned over the fate of Israel. But, Isaiah also prophesied about a remnant that would be saved. 

"Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved."

Israel’s Unbelief

Tbough Paul begins the chapter by expressing his unceasing anguish for his fellow Israelites, he also then logically works through chapter theologically to point out how God's purposes still were sovereignly accomplished. 

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone

Though Israel had been given the Law, they saw it as the way they could become right with God. The mistook the Law for the promises of God, which were fulfilled in Christ. The Gentiles obtained God's blessing by trusting in Christ by faith. The Jews rejected Christ, which caused them to miss out on the righteousness that could only be obtained by faith. 

The stumbling block was Jesus. He is the cornerstone in which the whole building is built. The Law and the Prophets all hang in the balance and are connected inexorably to Jesus. 

In so doing they fulfilled what the prophet Isiash said in Isaiah 29 and 45, 

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

Where are you putting your faith? Are you putting it in your ability to keep the law? Or, doing enough things to earn God's love? Or, are you putting your faith in Jesus, who accomplished everything the Law could not accomplish for you! It is a free gift. You didn't earn it, but God loved you so much He wanted to have a right relationship with you.  It is only by faith that you can accept Jesus as Your Savior and be forgiven of your sins. This is only way to have to have a right relationship with God and it is by faith. The Law is about punishment. Grace and mercy are about love.