Introduction to Romans 9-11: Get Ready for Some Fireworks…Even Some Dispensationalism and Predestination! (Part 15)

Romans 1-8 is perhaps the most clearly delineated presentation of the Gospel in the entire New Testament. Hopefully, my mini-commentary on Romans 1-8 has been helpful. News flash, though—we’re only half way through Romans!

We now come to the major next section of the letter: Romans 9-11. In my view, it is one of the most misunderstood sections in the entire New Testament. Now, the thing to realize is that your interpretation of Romans 9-11 is going to be directly dependent on how you understand Romans 1-8:

1. If you think that Romans 1-8 was Paul giving the answer to the question, “How do people get saved?” then you’re going to find Romans 9-11 to be a bit jarring and troubling: “What then is God going to do with ethnic Israel? If Christians are saved through faith in Christ, how do the Jews get saved? When’s that going to happen?”
2. But if you think that Romans 1-8 was Paul answering the question, “What constitutes the people of God?” then Romans 9-11 seems a logical next question: “If the people of God are those share the faith of Abraham in Christ, then what is God doing with Israel? After all, most Jews have rejected Jesus! What’s going on?”

Do you see the difference? You should, because it’s huge. If you don’t yet, don’t worry…I’ll try to explain it in due time.

The Main Issues of Romans
Before we go on, though, it is probably best to highlight the FOUR ISSUES addressed in Romans.

1. First, there is the issue regarding the gift of righteousness itself: “What does the righteousness of God really mean?” Paul’s answer is that it is from God, based on faith in Christ, for the Jew first, and the Gentile alike, without distinction. Paul emphasizes this has always been the case. Abraham as the prime example (Ch. 1-4).
2. The second issue revolves around the question, “What happens to righteousness (in terms of behavior) if you say Torah observance is brought to an end?” Remember, Jews saw Torah observance as the thing that marked them out as special, as God’s righteous people; and then Paul came around and said, “You know that Torah observance stuff? It doesn’t make you righteous. You’re just as unrighteous as Gentiles! Righteousness comes through faith in Christ, therefore Torah observance is irrelevant.” The Jews’ response was, “Well, if you say Torah observance is irrelevant, then how can you tell who is righteous and who is not?” Paul’s answer is simple: take away that “fence” of the Torah and replace it with the Holy Spirit in the hearts of God’s children, and then you’ll get real righteousness. The fact is, as long as you have that “fence” set up, even though you may seem righteous, you really aren’t (Ch. 5-8). Someone might never commit murder or commit adultery—but not doing those things (i.e. obeying those rules) doesn’t make that person righteous.
3. The third issue of Romans is found here in Romans 9-11, where Paul is about to address something he hinted at earlier in the letter: “What’s going on with God? In light of Israel’s obvious unfaithfulness, where is God’s faithfulness in all of this?”
4. The fourth issue of Romans will be picked up in Romans 12-15. In those chapters, we will see that Paul paints a picture of what the “righteousness of the Holy Spirit” looks like, and how it is different from mere Torah observance. If you want to know what this “new Holy Spirit righteousness” looks like, look at Romans 12-15. For now, though, our concern is Romans 9-11.

The Problem with Dispensationalism (I’m Looking at You, C.I. Scofield, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye!)
Unfortunately, for the past two centuries, the prevailing theological view in American Protestantism has been something called “dispensationalism.” It assumes that there are essentially two peoples of God (Jews and Christians) and two plans of salvation (faith/grace for Christians, and Torah for the Jews). Therefore, when dispensationalists come to Romans 9-11, they read it as if Paul was putting a little “side note” in his letter to talk about how God was going to save ethnic Israel too. One of the main features of dispensationalism is the idea that the modern state of Israel is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, and that one day a third temple will be built in Jerusalem, so that the Jews could once again perform the Levitical sacrifices, just like they did in the Old Testament—and that will be how they get saved: by obeying the Old Testament sacrificial laws. After all, that’s how God saves the Jews.

To the point, that view is completely antithetical to everything in the New Testament and the proclamation of the Gospel itself. The prophecies dispensationalists often claim refer to the re-establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948 are really prophecies about God bringing the Jews in exile back out of exile—that happened way back in the 6^th century BC. And, as should be clear in Romans 1-8, but Paul was not a dispensationalist. He does not view Christian salvation as “plan two” of God’s salvation. He sees Christian salvation as the fruition of what God had been doing all along. There is one plan of salvation, and that applies to both Jews and Gentiles.

In any case, Romans 9-11 is mapped out in the following manner:

1. (9:1-5): Paul laments over the fact that his fellow Jews have rejected the Messiah
2. (9:6-29): There’s the question of if God is faithful to His word
3. (9:30-10:21): There is insistence that Israel is responsible for missing out on God’s salvation
4. (11:1-32): There’s the question, “Has God really rejected ethnic Israel?”
5. (11:33-36): Paul then praises God for his salvation

Paul’s Lament (9:1-5)
Paul begins with a lament in 9:1-5 over his “kindred according to the flesh”—ethnic Israel, his fellow Jews who have rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Paul’s sorrow is compounded by the fact that he knows how much ethnic Israel has been given by God Himself. In fact, he rattles off eight things:

1. They were “adopted” by God Himself to be His people
2. They beheld His Glory
3. They had the covenants
4. They were given the Torah
5. They had the Temple worship
6. They were the beneficiaries of God’s promises
7. Their ancestors were the Patriarchs
8. God worked through them to bring the Messiah

Given all that, the obvious question is this: “How could Israel then miss it when their Messiah came? What happened? If God gave Israel all that stuff, and if they were His people, then if they have rejected Christ, doesn’t that mean that God’s Word has failed? How could He let any of his people fall away?”

Is God Faithful?
Paul begins to answer that very question in 9:6-29. And, O how he starts off his explanation! One thing is for sure, Paul doesn’t mince his words: God’s Word hasn’t failed because ethnic Israel isn’t the same as True Israel! THAT’S RIGHT! Paul has just said that being Jewish doesn’t make you part of the people of God! How can Paul say this? The Jews are God’s people, right?

WRONG!

In order to prove his point, Paul goes back to Abraham once again, and says in 9:7-9 that just being Abraham’s offspring doesn’t make one a child of the promise. And you know what? Paul is right! In Genesis 18:10, 14, and 21:12, we find that Abraham had two sons: Isaac and Ishmael. Both came from Abraham, but only Isaac, the child miraculously conceived, was the child of promise. It was no miracle that Ishmael was born to Hagar—she was able to conceive (unlike Sarah). In that sense, Ishmael was literally a “child of the flesh,” but he wasn’t the child of promise. This means, as Paul says, that “children of the flesh aren’t the same as children of God.” The same holds true with the birth of Jacob and Esau. Paul points out in 9:10-13 that not only were both sons of the same father and mother, they were , in fact, twins! Nevertheless, God chose Jacob and not Esau. As Paul says, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau,” and “The greater will serve the younger.”

Time Out! Time to Talk About Predestination!
At this point, it becomes necessary to briefly talk about the issue of predestination. The predestination argument usually goes something like this: “God chooses who gets saved and goes to heaven, and God chooses who gets condemned and goes to hell.” The full-fledged argument is probably a bit more complicated than that, but that’s what it is in a nutshell. Here in 9:10-13, therefore, it is argued, “You see? God chose Jacob before he was even born, and God didn’t choose Esau! Boom! Predestination! How can you disagree?”

Well…let me have a shot at it.

To a point, that argument is true: God did choose Jacob and not Esau. Such election was by God and was entirely God’s choice; it was not based on any kind of works anyone could do. But the question those who argue for predestination based on these verses fail to ask is, “What did God choose Jacob for?” Is Paul saying that God chose Jacob to “be saved and go to heaven”? Is Paul saying that God just decided beforehand that Esau was destined for hell? The answer is an emphatic “No!” There is nothing in the text that suggests that.

Paul’s point was that Jacob was chosen to be the child of promise. In other words, God chose to work through Jacob to bring about His promises that He made to Abraham. It was through Jacob and his family line that God would eventually bring about the Messiah and His promise of salvation and blessing to all nations. Simply put, Paul is not talking about “eternal destinies” here. He isn’t commenting on the final destination of these people. He is commenting on the way God has chosen to use them in this world. He’s talking about how God chooses the people through whom He works: God chose to fulfill His promises through Jacob, not Esau. Maybe Ishmael and Esau are in hell; maybe they aren’t—but Paul isn’t commenting on that. And so, Paul’s point is simply that bloodlines were never the determining factor in who the children of promise were. It always rested on the will of God.

Back to the Point at Hand: God Seems Unfair!
Given what Paul has just said, Paul assumes in 9:14-18 what the next objection by his fellow Jews would be: “This seems unfair! This would make God unjust!” Paul answers this objection by first quoting Exodus 33:19, where God essentially says to Moses, “I’ll show mercy to whomever I choose!” and then quoting Exodus 9:16, where God says that He rose Pharaoh up just so He could display his power through Pharaoh, and so that His Name could be announced throughout the world.

Basically, Paul is saying, “Hey, Pharaoh was one bad dude! Yet God was able to use Pharaoh’s badness to still bring about His purposes!” Hypothetically speaking, if Pharaoh repented later in his life, and asked God for forgiveness, is Paul stating that God would say, “Sorry, I’ve predestined you for hell!”? And if the Hebrews turned away from God later on (which they did!), is Paul stating that God would say, “Oh well, you’re all going to heaven, even though you never obey me!”? Of course not. And so, when Paul states, “God can have compassion on whomever he wants, and he can harden whomever he wants,” he simply means this: God can chose to use anybody—whether they’re good or bad—to bring about the fulfillment of His covenant promises.

Paul is basically saying this: God certainly does choose/elect certain people through whom He will bring about his offer of salvation to the world, but that doesn’t mean that God elects who gets saved or not.  God elected, had mercy on, and put up with the sinful Hebrews so that in time His plan and offer of salvation could be made to the entire world. On the other hand, God also chooses to harden certain people to help bring about his plan as well. Pharaoh was an evil guy, so God chose to harden him in order for the Hebrews to go free. Everyone is sinful, yet God chooses to use everyone in different ways in order to bring about His salvation. Therefore, God’s “election” involves how he uses each person in this world, not who gets saved or not. If God uses an evil person to somehow further his offer of salvation, that doesn’t excuse the evil that person does. In Paul’s case, Paul is saying that God can use even ethnic Israel’s disobedience and rejection of Christ to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.

In the next post, we’ll go on to Romans 10.