Or, Paul’s Burden for His Jewish Brothers
Scripture: Romans 9:1-5
Date: January 15, 2023
Speaker: Sean Higgins
“All Israel will be saved.” There will be a time in the future—it has not happened yet—when an entire generation of Jews will repent from their sins and believe in Jesus as the Messiah. The Christ, the King of the Jews, will reign on His throne in Jerusalem over the nation of Israel, and He will be worshiped and obeyed as the King of kings, King over all the earth. That is God’s covenant promise to ethnic Israel.
Again, “all Israel will be saved,” which is a quote from God’s Word (Romans 11:26; Isaiah 59:20-21). God’s Word makes no sense if this “Israel” is equal to the Gentiles in the Church. And what’s worse, God’s Word cannot be trusted if this “Israel” doesn’t mean those who are ethnically, nationally recognized as Jews.
The whole reason for Romans chapters 9-11 is Paul’s explanation, not just of God’s sovereign plan, but of the righteousness and reliability of God’s revealed promises. God’s Word never fails. There have been some amazing promises in Romans 1-8 so far, including being counted righteous by God through believing in the work of Jesus. God not only promises to justify those who believe, He promises to deliver them from the control of sin and conform them to the glorious image of His Son. He also promises that He will bring our glorification to finish, and that absolutely nothing in all the universe can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.
If you know this epistle, you know that it would be easy, in some ways better, if chapters 9-11 weren’t inserted. Imagine going from the end of chapter 8, the climax of the doctrines of salvation, right into the practical applications in chapter 12.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37–39 ESV) I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1 ESV)
That’ll preach. (For that matter, the doxology in Romans 11:33-36 would fit after 8:38, too.) So why Romans 9 at all? What is the reason for it in Paul’s argument? And why so long? These are three chapters, not three sentences. This is (arguably) the largest sustained section in the entire letter. It is also a return to things previously raised.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16 ESV)
And at the end of chapter 2 into chapter 3, Paul qualifies the advantages of the Jews, especially regarding circumcision and possessing God’s Law, and then he asks, “Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?” (Romans 3:3). The problem wasn’t how to get Jews and Gentiles to play nicely in the church. But why is God’s faithfulness even a question?
There wouldn’t be a question 1) if God hadn’t made covenant-promises to save the Israelites, or 2) if “Israel” meant anyone who believed and became part of the chosen people. This is the problem Romans 9-11 raises and resolves. The question is whether God’s Word is reliable. The answer is YES, and the evidence for the YES is that His covenant-promises to Israel haven’t been completed yet, not that His promises should be reinterpreted (as fulfilled in some other way). God promised a new covenant in which all Israel will be saved (Jeremiah 31:31-34), and the fulfillment of that either makes your faith in His Word compelling or a crapshoot.
We are entering a categorical section of Scripture. It speaks to Ecclesiology (Church); Eschatology (Kingdom), Soteriology (Election), and Doxology (Worship). It speaks to world history, church history, Jew and Gentile, and the intentional ministry of jealousability (11:11, 14). It deals with the last phrase of the thesis of Romans (1:16), the “Jew first” and what that means. It shows Paul’s constant and most critical burden, another way he described his calling (in 11:13-14). These are vital truths that make us Calvinists (sovereign mercy, 9:18), Kuyperian (riches for the world, 11:12), Dispensationalists (Israel’s full inclusion, 11:12). What’s more, they make for humble worship in light of God’s sovereign plan to glorify Himself on earth (11:33-36). Amen!
For all that, I’ve got a book called Romans 9: The Most Neglected Chapter in the Bible by W. E. Best. And also, the truths here weren’t the first thing Paul wrote to the Romans. It is foundation, but you could come in the door of the house without realizing what you’re standing on. We almost always do that; we learn later more of the layers. We know truly, we come to know more fully. The gospel is good news, these show it even gooder.
Today we open the door. Verses 1-5 do not explicitly state the question or the problem, they imply the problem as they set up how Paul feels about the problem. The actual question comes in verse 6, though even there Paul denies the negative answer. He makes the assertion that “it is not as though the word of God has failed.” The gospel promises depend on the faithfulness of God’s Word.
There is no conjunction, no grammatical connection. This has led some to think the three chapters were a separate sermon inserted. But as I’ve already said, there’s so many details connecting the flow of the whole epistle. The first word in Greek is truth, which sets the tone for this testimony.
In three phrases he makes an assertion, a denial, and puts forward the closest witness he can. I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. Rather than “protesting too much,” he’s setting up how big the burden really is. It’s big. He also refers to Christ and the Holy Spirit, not as fellow-witnesses, but as divine Persons who direct his witness.
Here is the thing he’s getting off his chest: that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. His pain is big and constant. The sorrow is a grief, a “heaviness” (KJV), and the anguish is a “misery, distress.” These are μεγάλη, large or even intense, and they are nonstop, endless. He took these with him everywhere.
What is the cause of the burden? He still hasn’t stated it.
Here he begins an explanation with For, and the sentence continues through verse 5.
This wish assumes that something isn’t right, and Paul appears to want to trade places. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
The problem is that the Jews were under judgment for rejecting Christ. They were ἀνάθεμα, dedicated to destruction, cursed, and “separated” (NASB) from the Messiah.
He would go to the utmost end to fix this; he would be separated from Christ, he would go to hell, if that would get them to be saved.
Of course when this letter was read to the Romans, it would have been half a hot press minute since they heard Paul say that nothing “in all creation, will able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
The brothers here are not his fellow-Christians (fellow-Christians weren’t cut off from Christ) but his kinsmen, these are family, these are fellow-citizens, same nationality. They are the sorts of people you have reunions with, that you go into war with, that you share a culture with. That is is according to the flesh brings it down to shared ethnicity, biology, blood-level.
These Israelites were chosen by God to receive blessings that no other nation on earth had, blessings which uniquely identified them.
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 9:4–5 ESV)
Israelites are Hebrews, are Jews. God Himself renamed Jacob as Israel (Genesis 32:28), from whom the 12 Tribes came. The Greek text is a run-on with no commas but articles for every particular: the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises. And yet the climax doesn’t come until verse 5.
“the plural as denoting the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants. No feature of Israel’s history marked their uniqueness as the recipients of redemptive revelation more than these covenants.” (—John Murray)
Sure seems like the New Covenant should also be included (see Romans 11:26-27, which quotes the “covenant” referred to in Isaiah 59:20-21, plus Jeremiah 31:31-40 along with Ezekiel 36:22-38). But all of these particular blessings could be summarized as the “word” (verse 6) and the “purpose of election” (verse 11) that the covenants and promises include, especially in the Messiah. These are for the “Israelites.”
Christ was an Israelite according to the flesh, from the tribe of Judah, through David (Romans 1:3). Christ was also a divine Israelite, the One who is God over all. This isn’t Christ and God, this is Christ who is God. Christ is the blessed unto the ages.
Paul’s burden is seeing the tragedy of his Jewish brothers’ lack of belief in light of their unique privileges. At the time only some believed (11:5, 14), just a remnant for now. They expected more. They expected ALL. They expected it because God said it. Why hasn’t God fulfilled His covenant promises to Israel?
No need to be afraid of this. It is all about Christ (see verses 1, 3, 5)! Because of Christ, who is God over all, all Israel will be saved. It is the pre-story of the gospel, it is the defense of gospel hope in God’s Word. It explains why some (even many) reject Christ, it explains that grace overcomes rejection. It is the build up for what is probably the greatest benediction in Scripture, and the slingshot into the most basic of all our salvation: our bodies as living sacrifices based on the mercies of God.
God does not change His mind or His purpose or His covenant promises any more than the sun and moon will forbear to shine (Jeremiah 31:35; Psalm 72:7). That’ll preach!
The gospel is the power of God to salvation, to the Jew first and to you (Romans 1:16). You have been born again, not by perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God (1 Peter 1:23). The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever (Isaiah 40:8). Believe in His Word, live in righteousness from faith to faith.
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:25–27, ESV)