Romans 9:1-23

Summary
Here we read how Paul the Apostle sincerely expressed grief over his own people Israel for not assuming their rightful place as God’s people. who according the history owns adoption into sonship, The Covenant, received the law and the promises, to whom also belong the Patriarchs and through whom the Messiah manifested in the flesh. Paul went on to explain that not all who are biological offspring of Abraham are children of God but those who are the Children of promise according to God’s ultimate choice, just exactly how he chose Jacob over Esau so that His purpose can be fulfilled. This he did not because He is unjust but that everything will line up with His purpose. It is not therefore based on human desire or effort, rather every action and decision is based on His supreme sovereignty and to display His power over the objects of his wrath and His glory over the objects of his mercy .

Life Application
It is clear from this scripture that even though physically we don’t belong to the earthly Israel and are not biological offspring of Abraham, we are indeed spiritual offspring of Abraham and children of God according to the promise. We who were once regarded as gentiles have been grafted into the lineage of God and have been adopted as Sons. Hallelujah! We are legitimate children of God and therefore can lay claim to the promise of God to Israel by faith in Christ Jesus. That the real Israelites rejected the promise of faith paved way for us to be adopted and we became partakers of the commonwealth of Israel. If you are born again, you are a child of Abraham by faith, you are the real Israelite and you belong to God.

Personal Declaration
I have been adopted into sonship, I am a child of promise, I belong to God and I have full right to all the benefits accruable to my new status in Christ Jesus. Halleluiah!

Reading – Romans 9:1-23

Paul’s Anguish Over Israel

9 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, ⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised!^[a] Amen.

God’s Sovereign Choice

⁶ It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. ⁷ Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^{[b] 8} In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. ⁹ For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”^[c]

¹⁰ Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. ¹¹ 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.”^{[d] 13} Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”^[e]

¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
    and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”^[f]

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ¹⁷ For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”^{[g] 18} Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

¹⁹ One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” ²⁰ 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?’”^{[h] 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?

²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? ²³ What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—

Footnotes:

1. Romans 9:5 Or Messiah, who is over all. God be forever praised! Or Messiah. God who is over all be forever praised!
2. Romans 9:7 Gen. 21:12
3. Romans 9:9 Gen. 18:10,14
4. Romans 9:12 Gen. 25:23
5. Romans 9:13 Mal. 1:2,3
6. Romans 9:15 Exodus 33:19
7. Romans 9:17 Exodus 9:16
8. Romans 9:20 Isaiah 29:16; 45:9