Romans 9:1-8 - Children of the Promise (Erik Veerman)

Some of you will remember… When we launched 4 years ago, we began with a short sermon series on Romans chapter 8. The reason was… we were in the middle of COVID and we needed Romans 8 encouragement. It gave us some foundational perspectives and hope. It gave us great assurance. It speaks of the impact of sin not just on humanity but on creation itself. And it reminds believers in Christ that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

That was four years ago. And in between our regular sermon series, we’ve been going back to different chapters in the book of Romans.

So, for the next 7 weeks, we’ll be working through Romans chapters 9-11.

This morning, our sermon text is Romans 9:1-8 – actually, I’ll read verse 9 as well.

You can find that on page 1123 in the pew Bible.

Reading of Romans 9:1-9

Prayer

Almost every news broadcast today touches upon the war in Israel and Gaza. And it weighs on our hearts. Every day it seems that more people die. Just when it appears there may be some semblance of peace, there’s another setback. Iran sends a barrage of missiles at Israel. Hezbollah attacks towns on Israel’s northern border. An errant bomb kills aid workers in Gaza. Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields.

Until the October 7 invasion of Israel, there had been relative peace going back to the mid-1990s. Occasional skirmishes lasted only a few days. Today, there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight

And we are saddened at the loss of life. We grieve the Israelis murdered in their hometowns. We grieve the Palestinians in Gaza caught in the crossfire. And we are angry at the hate filled and bloodthirsty regimes and groups. Thinking back on our Proverbs study, the description of wickedness defines some of them like Hezbollah and Hamas. The Lebanese and Palestinians and Israelis are often their victims. And they have a goal to wipe Israel off the map.

Let me add another layer of complexity. This spring, protests arose on several college campuses across the United States. Many of the protestors were supporting Hamas and were against Israel. It’s been reported that antisemitism has been on the rise in the US. That is deeply concerning. Besides the fact that any and all racism is sin, we’ve seen the tragic effects of antisemitism in the past – persecution and genocide.

With all of that in mind, how are we, as Christians, to respond? And related to that, how should we understand Israel and the Jewish people in relationship to God’s redemptive plan in history?

Let me acknowledge, some of you are really nervous right now. You’re either nervous wondering if I’m wading into politics… or you are nervous about how I will talk about Israel.

Let me slightly relieve some of those concerns.

·      First, Romans 9-11 speaks about Israel. In fact, the apostle Paul directs us how to think about Israel and how to understand Israel within God’s plan of redemption. If there is any text in all of the New Testament which helps us with these questions, these three chapters do.

·      Second, when we get to chapter 11, some of what Paul writes does have implications for end-times theology. However, these chapters are not about the end times, so we won’t be getting too much into that sticky subject.

·      And the last thing to relieve some of your concerns… like any passage in the Bible, we’ll begin with the text and its context and draw conclusions from that perspective. I’ll be very careful not to impose current politics or geopolitical events into the text. Rather, we’ll seek to do the opposite – understand what the Scriptures mean to the original audience, and then second, how they apply today.

In fact, let’s start there. Let me remind you of Paul’s occasion for writing. He wrote this letter to the church in Rome. Unlike the other churches that Paul wrote to, Paul did not plant the church in Rome. He had actually never been to Rome, at least after his conversion. Yet, Paul knew many of the Christians in Rome. In chapter 16, he greets many of them. That list includes Priscilla and Aquilla whom he met in Corinth. It includes other Jews who professed faith in Christ, including some of his relatives. The list includes many Greek and Roman names, some names typically given to nobility. You see, the church in Rome represented a cross-section of the culture – Jews and Greeks and Romans. But they all shared one thing in common – they believed in Jesus as their Savior and as the promised Christ.

And it’s important for me to point out one more thing. The New Testament was not yet available. But they did have a couple of things. They had the Old Testament translated into the common language of the time, Greek. They had people who were discipled by the apostles – Priscilla and Aquilla are examples of that. They likely had others who knew the promises of Christ or, perhaps, who had even met Jesus.

And you ask, what were they being taught? Well, they were being taught about God, his law, and his promises. The church in Rome was learning about Jesus – who he was as God and as the promised Messiah. They were learning how he fulfilled the prophecies, and what Jesus had done to accomplish salvation.

So, even though the majority of the church in Rome were not Jewish, yet they were learning about God’s work in history, through Israel, to bring salvation to the world. That is why the first 8 chapters give a thorough explanation of sin, of God’s law, of Christ’s righteousness, of God’s promise to Abraham, and how all of those things relate to believing Jews and Gentiles. That is a big emphasis in the opening chapters.

Romans 1 verse 16 is a key verse in the whole book. “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.” In fact, multiple times in the opening chapters he speaks of the Jew and the Gentile or Greek. What he is saying is that salvation is offered to all people - Jews and Gentiles. The word Gentiles is a catch phrase for anyone who was not Jewish. So, Salvation in Christ is offered to all people.

But why is Paul making the point about the Jew and the Gentile? Well, it’s because he wants the church in Rome to be unified in the Gospel. He wants them to understand how the people of Israel relate to this salvation and how the Gentiles relate to salvation. Hint – the same way.

But there are some huge questions to be addressed.

What about the natural descendants of Israel who do not believe? Does that mean God’s promises failed? I mean, God gave all these promises to Israel, but they still did not believe! In fact, an overwhelming majority of Jewish people in Paul’s day did not believe in Jesus as the promised Messiah… AND an overwhelming majority of Jewish people today do not believe in him.

What are we to make of that? And how should we relate to and consider those of Jewish descent?

Well, Romans 9-11 gives us clear answers and directs us how to relate.

And Paul doesn’t waste any time. No, he gets right to the point. He begins by modelling for us, how you and I should relate to Israel.

We’re going to look at these opening verses in two sections. First, verses 1-5 – Having a heart for unbelieving Israel. And second, verses 6-8 – Realizing that true Israel represents children of the promise not the flesh. That’s where we are headed.

A heart for unbelieving Israel

One thing that is important to know, the apostle Paul was Jewish. As he puts it in his letter to the Philippian church, he was “of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee… as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” In other words, if anyone could claim a status as a true Israelite, Paul could. But when he came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, he realized that his Jewish credentials could not save him. They never could. No, rather, he learned that salvation comes through faith in Christ, alone, for both the Jew and the Gentile.

And he desperately wanted his fellow Jews to believe.

We see that in the opening five verses of chapter 9. Paul is pouring out his heart. He yearns for his fellow Israelites, who do not believe. He longs that they come to believe in the promised Savior. And look at the statement he makes in verses 3, “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.” He was saying that if there was a way to offer his life and be cut off from Christ in exchange for his fellow Jews to believe in Christ, he would do it. He had unceasing anguish for them, it says.

Now, to be sure, Paul knows that he could never actually be cut off. After all, he just said in chapter 8 that nothing shall separate those who are in Christ Jesus, “neither death nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor anything else in all creation shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” Again, Paul knows it’s not possible, but yet he wishes that it would be so. That is how passionately he desires Israel to be saved.

As a side note – isn’t this a picture of the Gospel? Paul was willing to give his life in place of his fellow unbelieving Israelites. He was willing to receive the judgment of God so that they would not receive it. Paul could not literally do that, but that is how much he desired they be saved. One commentator said this of Paul’s heart: It’s “a spark from the fire of Christ’s substitutionary love.” Paul was willing to give his life like just like Jesus gave his.

Beloved, we should have the same heart as Paul for our unbelieving Jewish neighbors and friends. To be sure, most of us, maybe all of us, are not Jewish like the apostle Paul. However, that shouldn’t matter. Our hearts should long for unbelieving Jews to be saved… really, our hearts should long for any unbeliever to come to know the grace and mercy of Christ. I don’t want to limit the application here to just Israel.

We should desire any unbelieving people to come to faith. Going back to the Middle East, we should desire that more Palestinians come to faith… that more Syrians and Iranians would come to faith in Christ. And by the way, the church is growing among those people groups in amazing ways. I read an article the other day how the church in Iran is exploding in growth.

And here’s a challenging one – we should desire to see the Gospel penetrate the hearts of Hamas and Hezbollah – especially those involved in the ongoing wickedness and evil.

May the Lord bring peace in the Middle East, not through war, but through Christ. Amen to that?

And of course, there’s another application here: we should have hearts that yearn for our unbelieving family and friends. May the Lord use us to share the love of God in Christ and may the power of the Gospel turn their hearts to him.

Let me ask: Do you struggle to have a heart like Paul? One thing you can do is remind yourself of God’s grace in your life. You know, remind yourself of how he brought you from death and judgment to life and peace... Next week, we’ll be talking through God’s sovereignty in salvation. The middle of Romans 9 gives us hard truths but when we realize God’s undeserved love for us in Christ, there’s nothing else we can do but fall on our knees in worship and share that love with others.

Let’s go back to Israel. Paul is emphasizing Israel in these verses. And look how he puts it in verse 4: “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.”

You see, through Abraham and his descendants (in other words, through Israel), God revealed himself. He gave them his Covenant promises. God gave them his law and he gave them worship – which here is referring to the sacrificial system. He revealed himself through the tabernacle and the temple – “his glory,” as verse 4 puts it. Each step of the way, God revealed to them more and more who he is and his promised redemption.

So much of the New Testament refers back to all these things … the law, the covenant promises, the prophecies, the patterns, the sacrifices. I heard a sermon the other day and the pastor said that the New Testament is like a sponge – it has its own structure and substance, but when you squeeze it, the Old Testament comes out.

It’s so true. The New Testament reveals how Christ fulfilled each of these aspects of God’s revelation to Israel. The covenant promises are fulfilled in him. The Exodus and the Passover and the Temple and the sacrifices find their true meaning in Jesus’ death and resurrection. The law itself reveals the need for Christ and his righteousness. The prophets, like Isaiah and Ezekiel, prophesied about the coming Messiah – and the New Testament testifies that those prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus’ nature, his life, his death, and his resurrection. King David and others were shadows of the King to come – the eternal king.

Earlier in the service, Ed read the road to Emmaus account. Wouldn’t it have been amazing to be there… to hear Jesus himself testify to how he fulfilled all these things. Maybe those guys were in Rome? Probably not, but they went somewhere testifying to all this.

And notice what he included in the list in verse 5… that Christ himself, who is God over all, he says, came in the flesh as a Jew. God sent the savior of the word through the people of Israel.

You see, all of it is there for the people of Israel to see and know and believe. Paul longed for his fellow Israelites to believe. It was all before them. They didn’t have to learn about all those things, they already knew them. Rather, they needed to see and believe in Jesus as the one who fulfilled it all.

So, similar to Paul, we need to long that all unbelieving Jewish people would believe. That includes, of course, many who are residents of Israel today – both secular Jews and orthodox Jews. We do that by praying. We do that by making known to our Jewish friends and neighbors and co-workers how all these things that Paul lists out are fulfilled in Christ. Friends, this is the opposite of antisemitism. We are here today as gentile believers (or a majority of us) because of how God revealed himself through Israel to bless the world. May our hearts long, as Paul longed, to see them believe.

2. Realizing that true Israel are children of the promise.

Which brings us to an important question. If most of Israel did not and does not believe, does that mean that God’s promises didn’t come true? Does it mean that God’s Word failed? It’s a very legitimate question. After all, God revealed himself in all those ways, yet, so many did not believe.

And this is where we will turn to verses 6-8. Because Paul gives us an answer. He says, “it is not as though the Word of God has failed.” And then he gives the reason. He says, “For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.”

Wait, what!? “Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel”

If you are into logic or philosophy, that statement will come across as contradictory. You may be thinking, “the law of non-contradiction says that something can not be both true and not true at the same time.” So, we have an apparent contradiction. But let me point out… the law of non-contradiction includes not just at the same time but also in the same sense.

And that is why this is not contradictory. He is referring to Israel in two different senses. #1 physical Israel and #2 spiritual Israel – or Israel according to the promise. In fact, in verses 6, 7, and 8, he describes the distinction in three different ways.

·      We already considered verse 6. Not all the physical descendants of Israel are Israel.

·      In verse 7, he puts it this way – “not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.” That’s interesting. We’ll come back to the Isaac reference in a minute. Essentially, just because you are Jewish, he’s saying, does not mean that you are part of the promise.

·      And in verse 8 he explains, “it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”

Again, what he’s saying is that there are two categories. Physical Israel are the Jewish people physically descended – in other words, they have Jewish DNA. And second, spiritual Israel are the spiritual descendants of Abraham – children of the promise. By the way, what we will learn later in chapter 9 is that the spiritual descendants also include us - gentile believers. In other words, the people of God throughout history include the people in the Old Testament who believed in the promise as well as believers in Christ in the New. Stay tuned in a couple of weeks for that.

But let’s go back to Isaac. The second half of verse 7 quotes from Genesis 21 that Abraham’s son Isaac was his true offspring.

Here’s what happened. Abraham was married to Sarah. God had promised that Abrham’s descendants would be like the sand on the seashore. But there was a problem! Abraham and Sarah they didn’t have any children. So, what did they do? They took matters into their own hands. Abraham had a son with his maidservant, Hagar – that son was Ishmael. Ishmael was definitely a descendant of Abraham, however he was not the promised descendant.

No, God had other plans.

He promised them that Sarah herself would have a child. But here’s the thing. She was 90 years old at the time. That is hard to imagine. She was way passed child-bearing age. Sarah herself laughed when she heard the promise. But God said, “is anything too hard for the Lord?” The answer is…? And he did it. The Lord fulfilled his promise. Sarah gave birth to Isaac when she was 90 and Abraham was 100. I’m tired just even thinking of that. Sleepless nights, a crying baby, dirty diapers at 90 and 100.

But the Lord did it. God then revealed that his covenant promise would be fulfilled through Isaac, not Ishmael.

Do you see what Paul is saying? The distinction between the natural descendants and the descendants of the promise is not new. The word of God had not failed!

Even despite many natural descendants not believing in Christ, God’s promises were coming true. After all, Paul himself and other Israelites did believe in the promise fulfilled in Jesus. And more would and will come to believe.

Conclusion

Now, there are many more questions to ask and answer. Why did they not believe? How is it that the Gentiles are part of the promise? Is there hope for unbelieving Israel in the future? If so, in what ways? Those are some of the questions that Paul will address.

But he begins where he needed to begin and where we need to begin. A heart for the lost, including and especially the people group through whom God promised and brought salvation.  As 2 Corinthians 1 says, “All the promises of God find their yes and Amen in Jesus.”

May the Lord turn more and more physical descendants of Abraham into children of the promise. May they see and believe and know Christ, “who is,” as Romans says, “God over all.”

And may the Lord give us hearts for all people… and eyes to see how all the promises of old are fulfilled in Christ.