God’s Promises Fulfilled, God’s Way – Romans 9:6–13

PRAY

Romans 9:6–13 ESV

⁶ But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, ⁷ and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” ⁸ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. ⁹ For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” ¹⁰ And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, ¹¹ though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— ¹² she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” ¹³ As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

The theme of this text is that God surely fulfills his promises, but he does it his way, according to his grace and mercy. Therefore, God’s higher ways are often different from what we might expect in our human limitation, where his higher ways press the boundaries of our understanding, and even of our acceptance. But that is why we must come to know God as he is so that we will trust him, and so that we will accurately view ourselves in humility.

So here’s how I’ve summarized the key takeaway for us:

Humbly trust God’s higher ways of fulfilling his promises.

We should assess God’s higher ways of fulfilling his saving promises with humble and grateful adoration. That’s why we earlier read from the doxology that Paul places at the end or Romans 11. His response to explaining these things is humble and grateful adoration.

That doxology should serve as a reminder to us that we ought to respond to God revealing himself in his word with humility and with trust.

If you were to meet some of the stars of this year’s march madness tournament, the appropriate response would not be to tell them what a good player you are, but to praise them for their God-given talent, skill, tenacity, and teamwork. If you were privileged to meet the men who came up with the theory or who actually invented the ability to use voice over electrical wires or to communicate over airwaves, you wouldn’t tell them what a good job you do talking on the phone and listening to the radio. You would offer respect and appreciation to them for their work.

As we seek to submit to the Bible’s teaching on God’s glory and character and ways of working within history, particularly with regard to man, our right response is humble worship.

Let me also now preview how we uniquely see in this text the higher ways of God at work, according to his mercy and grace, to which we respond with humble worship. I’ve broken it down into three main points, and then we’ll conclude with two practical applications we should learn when handling difficult theological concepts and disputed texts which inform our worship of our triune God.

Humbly trust that God never fails to fulfill his promises, his way. (verse 6a)

Humbly trust that God’s promise fulfillment is by his grace, not because of our race. (verses 6b-9)

Humbly trust that God’s promise fulfillment is by his mercy, not by merit of our works. (verses 10-13)

And then two points of practical application will be: When considering God’s higher ways…

Handle difficult interpretations with humble intellectual integrity.

Humbly honor one another with preference and deference. [Never fear, friends, I will define my choice of those two words when we come to it.]

The first and most fundamental point for Paul’s argument, as well as for our application, is to…

Humbly trust that God never fails to fulfill his promises, his way. (verse 6a)

As we said last week, the statement of verse 6a forms the foundational theme of these three chapters. “It is not as though the word of God has failed.” (or fallen off, or fallen from) God has not made promises that have fallen and will now be unfulfilled.

When things don’t go the way we expect or desire, when things don’t happen the way we would have planned them, when things don’t happen in the timing that we hope for, we can trust and should trust that the word of God has not failed. - Not even our disillusionment can derail the fulfillment of God’s promise. Like it was in this present situation with Paul’s pain over the unbelief of his kinsmen, even our disillusionment cannot derail the fulfillment of God’s promise.

God always fulfills his promises, but he does it according to his higher ways. The more we learn to see and accept the pattern of God’s way of doing things, and the more we humbly accept the limitations of our understanding and power, the greater will be our peace and joy in trusting God. So a declaration such as this—that God’s word never fails —is not just central to this section of chapters alone, but is essential to rightly understanding God’s revelation and to the faithful worship of God.

But in this specific place where we are in Paul’s letter, this foundational statement is also transitional from the previous five verses where Paul bared his heart and openly expressed his emotional distress that the majority of his fellow Israelites are not responding rightly to the gospel and receiving salvation through the Messiah.

The tension Paul seeks to resolve is the apparent conflict between God’s saving promises to Israel, and Israel’s present predicament of rejecting the gospel, which is God’s saving promises accomplished in the Lord Jesus. “But it is not as though the word of God has failed.” God’s promise of salvation to Israel has not failed. In spite of Israel’s present predicament, God’s promises are proceeding according to his plan.

And now Paul needs to explain just how God is being faithful to his word, keeping his promise of salvation. Paul accomplishes this with two successive examples from the patriarchs, where God surprisingly carries forward his purposes and makes his choices based upon his grace not merely our race, and by his mercy not our human merit. 

From Paul’s first example we should…

Humbly trust that God fulfills his saving promise by grace, not race. (verses 6b-9)

The second part of verse 6 is worded this way in the Greek: “for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.” That’s probably the most clear and direct way to translate it into English: “for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.”

As we keep reading we realize he means that not all ethnic Israel are really Israel in the sense of being those who are the children of God, the true children of promise. Verse 8 explains this and helps us understand what he’s doing in verses 7 and 9.

Paul makes his point by going back before Israel was even technically Israel, before God called Jacob Israel ,and before God flourished an abundant nation from his twelve sons. First, God surprisingly narrowed down the promise he made to Abraham so that it did not continue through or even include the older son, Ishmael, but the promise carried on only in Isaac and his offspring.

Romans 9:7–9 ESV

⁷ and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” ⁸This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. ⁹ For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”

So from Abraham forward the promise continued not through Ishmael but only through Isaac, the particular son of God’s promise to Sarah and Abraham, which God himself miraculously fulfilled through an elderly, barren Sarah. Paul explains in verse 8 that there’s a spiritual point he’s making about the inclusion of Sarah’s son and not Hagar’s son. Both Isaac and Ishmael are obviously children of Abraham’s flesh, but God chose one by grace—not by race—to be the child of promise.

Even from within Abraham’s descendents, the children of promise, the children of God are his by grace, not race. And that’s why, further down the line in history, “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.” Again, I argue that we should know from evidence in the text and all over the context that Paul is making a spiritual point. Paul demonstrates that God’s saving promise has continued, and that God has saved some from within Israel, proving that God’s word has not failed to Israel or regarding Israel.

1. As we previously indicated, salvation is the point of the context immediately before this. There Paul expresses distress due to the majority of his fellow Israelites rejecting Jesus, and his desperate desire is that they should be saved. (see also Rom 10:1) It is this saving context by which we make sense of what Paul is saying by using these present proofs.
2. In these two examples Paul gives, some of the terminology is almost invariably salvific language for the Apostle Paul, such as “named or called,” “children of God,” and “election purpose.” Again, Paul tends to use these almost exclusively in talking about God’s saving purpose, about those who truly belong to God.
3. Third, it’s all over the context that follows. Verse 24 describes how from among both Jews and Gentiles God has called some for salvation—vessels of mercy, prepared beforehand for glory. Then v. 27 Paul quotes Isaiah that is was within God’s plan for a only a remnant of Israel to be saved. From 9:30 through chapter 10, the section is all about salvation (righteousness from God) that is by faith alone and not by our achieved righteousness, for Israel or anyone. And then 11:11 “through [Israel’s] trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles.”

So Paul is narrowing down who are the true recipients of the saving promise, even from among Israel, from among Abraham’s descendants. And the readers are meant to relate this to the present situation with his fellow Israelites.

We realize then that Paul is saying that not all ethnic Israel is spiritual Israel, those receiving the promises. But that raises disagreement among Christian scholars over who this “spiritual Israel” represents.

The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible has a simple graphic to show the subtle distinction between two ways of interpreting the two Israel’s in Romans 9:6. This same nuanced distinction applies similarly to Rom 11:26 (“and in this way all Israel will be saved”).

The first image shows the possible interpretation that the first Israel is physical Israel, and the second is a spiritual Israel referring to the church or at least to all the people God, including the new covenant church. One could also interpret “the Israel of God” in Gal 6:16 this same way. Support for this idea in the present context would come from a verse like v. 24 (“even us whom he has called, Jews and Gentiles”). To be fair to this view, Paul does deliberately apply what was promised to Israel as spiritual benefits applied to the church (and thereby to new covenant believers individually). I readily concede this, but I say that Paul can absolutely do that, even as the Bible does everywhere, without actually conflating the church with ethnic Israel.

The second option, and the one I think is more consistent with both the details here and the whole of Rom 9-11, is that Paul is references some from within physical Israel whom God has graciously preserved as true, spiritual Israel, which is equal to the saved remnant. This would mean both the saved remnant from within Israel throughout the old covenant, as well as the remnant of the saved even now, in Paul’s day and in ours.

What this view has going for it is the ability to maintain consistency between these two verses (9:6 & 11:26) and all the other numerous references to Israel in the context, where we all seem to agree that Paul clearly speaks of ethnic Israelites. It also explains the clarity of the expressions of a remnant within Israel being saved, like v. 27, and the entire discussion in the early part of chapter 11. Again, this view absolutely leaves open for Paul to metaphorically—to spiritually—apply to all believers promises which were made to Israel in the old covenant, which I think it is obvious Paul is in fact doing even here as well. (That makes sense of v. 24.)

A small irony here is that the disagreement on this front has more to do with how this intersects with other factors of our systematic theology, and less to do with Paul’s point in this text specifically.

I believe that the two groups having this discussion agree on what Paul emphasizes here: we can humbly trust that God fulfills his saving promise by grace, not race.

I’m arguing that Paul’s point for the reader is intended to be that God has and continues to carry forward his saving promise by his gracious choosing, not by being physical descendants of Abraham. And this is the same way God’s saves, and it is why to this day not all who are descended from Israel are Israel—not all are children of the saving promise, true children of God. 

And now Paul’s second example in Rom 9:10-13 makes a similar point, that we should…

Humbly trust that God fulfills his saving promise by mercy, not merit. (verses 10-13)

In case any reader should suggest that Paul’s first illustration falls flat because Ishmael and Isaac had different mothers, he follows up with a second illustration about Isaac’s sons, Esau and Jacob.

Romans 9:10–13 ESV

¹⁰ And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, ¹¹ though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— ¹² she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” ¹³ As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Here Paul narrows elect individuals and groups still further, and not because of any personal merit, but due simply to God’s mercy. (I use the term mercy because it is Paul’s particular emphasis immediately after this. It is like the other side of the coin with grace (God’s free favor), but mercy emphasizes God’s freedom to be lenient on some to not bring judgment upon us, which we all deserve.)

Like the previous section, Paul interrupts the historical flow of his argument in v. 11 to kind of exclaim the point he’s making before even getting it all out! For simple clarity, let’s follow what Paul says are the historical facts first.

In verse 10 Paul emphasizes that in the next generation, the two boys were twins born from a single act of conception. (I won’t elaborate, but there are details in the text to indicate the event of conception.) Before the boys were born, verse 12 says God revealed to Sarah that the older would serve the younger. We are meant to realize that by the normal way of things, Esau was born first and should have been the inheritor of family blessings as firstborn.

But Paul explains in v. 11 that God freely chose to do things his way, which had nothing to do with how deserving either of them was. They weren’t born yet when God made this decision and declaration, hadn’t done anything right or wrong. It was not because of any works on their part but because of God who calls.

Allow me to also tell you up front here what I believe about God’s calling and election in terms of his saving promise. I concede that some will interpret this section in terms of God’s calling someone only for a particular purpose, which God does at times. Consider making Saul the first king in Israel. Others think that this calling is only of a group and not the individuals, such as God choosing Israel out from all the people’s of the earth for this unique blessing. (This God obviously did.) But as Paul indicates here, we are talking about more than that, because some within Israel are not true spiritual Israel. Paul is speaking of a spiritual calling and election.

So when we speak about God’s saving promise, about salvation, I believe it is a false dichotomy to try to limit it to any one of those things. Instead, it is all three. God’s election of salvation is of individuals, also of the group, and it is for the purpose of being his particular people who advance his kingdom. My illustration would be like God’s basketball team. God chooses individuals on it, and this is God’s chosen team, and this team is for his purpose. God of course has freedom to also assign particular roles within the team. And the kicker is, God didn’t choose these members based on their merit, but by his grace and mercy to make them like Jesus, to make us what we need to be.

God chose to call Jacob over Esau, but not because either of them deserved for God to do so. In fact, we see later in life that by our own biblical standards the slippery and deceitful Jacob would seem less deserving. Jacob would learn hard lessons when he was the one being duped by Laban. (Wait, which girl did I just marry after seven years of working for you?) And Jacob would learn the hard way about submitting to God, carrying a limp for life as a reminder of such a lesson.

Yes, Esau proved undeserving too. Neither could have merited God’s free mercy. God said the older would serve the younger, choosing Jacob, in order that his plan of election might continue. Election is a word that means his selection, his choice. And God’s purpose is his plan, what he sets forth. God chose an undeserving Jacob over an undeserving Esau, not because of anything in their merit, but to continue his own merciful plan of election.

And Paul teaches that this election of Jacob for covenant love has consequences for entire groups of people. Paul likely indicates this in v. 13, in a quote from Malachi, that this electing of Jacob over Esau had consequences for not just the two individual sons but for entire people groups: Israel and Edom.

So the point of “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” is not about God’s emotions, but that God selected Jacob for covenant love, but rejected Esau. In the context of the quote from Malachi, this has direct consequences for God remaining faithful to Jacob’s descendants, Israel, in spite of their sin. But for Esau’s descendants, Edom, they receive judgment for their idolatry.

Again, neither individuals nor groups are deserving. It is a matter of God electing persons for covenant love, and remaining faithful to his promises, his way.

This serves Paul’s purpose because, on the one hand, being Israelites isn’t enough. Only grace through faith will save. On the other hand, the present rejection of Israel doesn’t stop the plan of God because by his grace he has saved a remnant, his true children, carrying forward his saving promise throughout generations of undeserving people. They were always, and we are, chosen by his mercy, not individual merit—not by our works.

After emphasizing God’s sovereign mercy further this chapter, from 9:30 into chapter 10 he will again highlight faith alone instead of counting on works to be righteous. Paul continues to emphasize both the truth of God’s free and complete sovereignty, together with God’s own expectation of holding us accountable, responsible, to respond in faith. [More on those things in the next couple of weeks.]

Conclusion: Again, what we aim to do from this section of Paul’s teaching is to… Humbly trust God’s higher ways of fulfilling his promises. We should assess God’s higher ways of fulfilling his promises with humble and grateful adoration.

And let that same humble adoration for God carry into a humility regarding your limitations and regarding your treatment of one another.

Two points of practical application: When considering God’s higher ways…

Handle difficult interpretations with humble intellectual integrity.

We really should be fair to one another that more than one view is at least possible in interpreting aspects of texts like these if one consistently follows a certain train of thought. And we should admit that the value we place on the distinction largely has to do with a broader system of thinking about ecclesiology and eschatology (the church and end times), and how far right and left we are of center when balancing continuity and discontinuity between the old and new covenants.

Humbly honor one another with preference and deference.

To prefer is to actively elevate others above ourselves. In this case it is to assume the best about their intellect and motive, unless there is abundant evidence to the contrary. To defer to others is to treat them with respect and courteousness, even a respectful submission or yielding to the judgment of others.

Romans 12:10 ESV

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Philippians 2:3–4 ESV

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Ephesians 5:21 NIV

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

1 Peter 5:5 ESV

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Again, besides these implications for how we treat one another, let us all be certain that we are humbly trusting in the only God, who fulfills his saving promise according to his grace and mercy, not based on our race or merit of any kind.

PRAY

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