Or, Paul’s Belief in God’s Sovereign Election
Scripture: Romans 9:6-13
Date: January 22, 2023
Speaker: Sean Higgins
The thing that distinguishes the true God from every other wannabe-god is that the true God declares what is going to happen (Isaiah 46:10); He tells the end from the beginning. He predestines. In His omniscience He does more than consider all the possibilities or make great calculations based on likelihoods, He “does all that He pleases” (Psalm 115:3) and accomplishes all His purpose.
When He gives His Word it’s such a deep ocean that our hope ships will never run aground. His arm is never too short to accomplish His end (Isaiah 59:1), He “works all things according to the counsel of His will…to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:11-12).
The word that summarizes this perhaps better than any other is election. To elect means to choose, to choose one over another, one instead of another, this and this and not that. “God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass” (Westminster Confession, 3.1). He elects it all.
Such ultimate prerogative is what men wish they had, it is the hubris gas that drives the car of humanism. Sovereignty means deciding that is determinative. We think we can decide. Abraham Kuyper called these the only two real alternatives in viewing how the world works: either God decides or man decides.
Romans 9:6-13 asserts the electing purposes of God to such an extent that Paul raises the objection about God’s righteousness. How can God find fault with anyone if they are only doing whatever God elected them to do (9:14-23)? But that is the second question about God’s righteousness. The first question about God’s righteousness has to do with the fact of God’s election of Israel. The Lord made covenants with Israel, and it appears that His Word may not be reliable. In Romans 9:1-5 Paul has heartache that his kinsmen, the Jews, who had been given such exclusive privileges as a people, had for the most part rejected the Messiah. That calls God’s covenants into question.
In Romans 9:6-13 Paul begins the explanation of his covenant confidence. God’s covenant-promises to Israel are completely reliable, but that requires understanding that God’s election purposes have distinguished/elected between individuals within the nation, until a time when all the individuals will be included. “All Israel will be saved” in accordance with the covenant as Paul asserts in chapter 11. For now he’s answering the possible charge that God’s Word can’t be trusted. If He changes His mind, or is unable to fulfill what He said, then our hope is gutted.
The rest of the paragraph demonstrates this truth: But it is not as though the word of God has failed.
The word of God isn’t just all Scripture, it is especially summarizes “the covenants” and “the promises” as referred to in verse 4. Those covenants were given to “the patriarchs” mentioned in verse 5, and the covenants were especially focused on the Messiah. Paul’s burden in the previous paragraph is that all the covenant-promises to the patriarchs about the Christ seemed to point to the whole nation being saved, yet many of his Jewish brothers were “accursed and cut off from Christ” (verse 3). Doesn’t that call God’s faithfulness into question?
No. The word of God has not failed. This word (ἐκπέπτωκεν) has the idea of “to drift or be blown off course and run aground, to become inadequate for some function” (BAGD). Paul is about to show in verses 6b-13 the first explanation about how this hasn’t happened, and chapters 10-11 give a second explanation about how it hasn’t happened. Election in Israel’s history included only some, and election of all in Israel will be the end of history.
God makes distinctions, and we see it in His election promise through Isaac and His election purpose through Jacob.
The first explanation about God’s covenant faithfulness is that God makes internal distinctions within the external category. This can be seen three different ways.
Paul introduced this reality in Romans 2:28-29 - “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a mater of the heart, by the Spirit.” Yet he immediately asserts that there is still advantage in being a Jew, “much in every way” (3:1-2).
Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. Two things about this. One, this only makes sense if we recognized that they do indeed belong in one way, but not in another way. The “Israelites” as identified in verse 4 are Israel, but there is a subset of individuals who had the corporate privileges and who believed.
Two, this isn’t about any who are not descended from Israel belonging to Israel. This isn’t yet the grafting in of Gentiles but the sifting out of Jews.
Not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” Again, Ishmael was a child of Abraham. Even more, God promised to bless Ishmael and make many nations from him. But Ishmael was not the son elected by God to receive God’s covenant. Abraham argued with God about it, but God elected to work supernaturally to bring it about.
This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. The “flesh” could be natural descent, but based on the explanation in verse 9, the flesh here is through man’s efforts. Ishmael was a child of the flesh when Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abraham. Abraham didn’t have an heir of his own, but then this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” This is the supernatural promise, found in Genesis 18:10, with an emphatic, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” in 18:14.
So both Ishmael and Isaac were children of Abraham in one way, but God worked a miracle in the 100 year-old dad and 90 year-old mom to provide the children of the promise. The distinction is divine.
The second case example is even more decisive. Both of these boys not only had the same father (like Ishmael and Isaac), they had the same mother. As R. C. Sproul once said, they were “wombates.” If someone had pointed to the natural distinction between a son of Hagar and a son of miracle, they had no similar argument here.
And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, … she was told, “The older will serve the younger,” This is more than out of the ordinary regarding firstborn rights.
Thus far recorded history. But verse 11 provides the how it happened and verse 13 provides the why it happened.
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— It was God’s choice, and it was not because He saw who would choose Him so He chose them back. The “corridors of time” or “God is outside of time” arguments say the opposite of this verse. Election was not by parentage, not by character (good or bad), not by conduct (works).
Not only does Paul say that the reason wasn’t in them, he gives two parallel phrases about the reason being in God: God’s purpose of election and because of him who calls.
Verse 13, while maybe not describing motivation in the same way that humans choose, does describe God’s clear distinguishing. As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. This is from Malachi 1:2-3, and in context, speaks about Jacob and Esau as individuals but also in the peoples that came from them, the Israelites and Edomites. Some interpreters conclude that Romans 9 isn’t about election of individuals to salvation at all, but about God’s election of Israel in history.
God did elect Israel as a whole (see as examples Deuteronomy 7:7-8; Psalm 33:12), but this didn’t need explanation, it was acknowledged (verses 4-5), and it was that very fact that presents the problem. The question isn’t whether the nation had privileges, that is agreed upon. The covenant questions are about why there are individuals within the elect nation that rejected Christ.
Loved is not mere acceptance or promotion but salvation, and hated, while not vindictive, is more than not accepting. Esau was not just “loved less,” he was rejected. This pattern of election was visible in Paul’s own day among his brothers.
What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, (Romans 11:7 ESV)
Yet his covenant confidence is that for a time, the individuals are some not others, and that at the end of time, it will be all the individuals.
As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. (Romans 11:28 ESV)
God did not promise that each individual Israelite who ever lived in history would be saved. But He did promise that at a certain point in history He would save each individual Israelite living at that time.
So, Physical descent from Abraham is not enough, but it is not useless either. There is Israel by flesh and by promise. There are children by descent and by election. For now, among the entire race there is only an elect remnant. There are chosen persons among the chosen people. But one day, the circles will overlap completely.
All Israel will be all Israel and all Israel will be saved. So the word of God has not failed.
”In chapter 9 it is sufficient to demonstrate that Israel’s unbelief and rejection were not total; there was a remnant. In chapter 11:11–32 Paul discloses what at 11:25 he calls “this mystery” that the rejection of Israel is not final.” —John Murray
And this is all what provides foundation for our hope in the promise of the gospel. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” (Romans 8:33)
Perhaps these truths are confusing, or seem irrelevant, or are even disagreeable. Remember that we are in chapter 9, so these are not the first things Paul says about the gospel. However you define God’s election, and whatever you think about your election status, the main question is: have you believed in Christ? There is forgiveness from sin and deliverance from death in Him alone. “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Before there is confidence in His Word, you must receive His Word. Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.
Christians, you don’t know when you will see each other again. Lord willing, some of you will see some others later this evening for fellowship, others next Lord’s Day for worship, some maybe again in the summer for celebration, and then some, you do not know if or when. As the Lord has given You eternal comfort by His Word, so share that comfort today with your brothers.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17, ESV)