17 Romans 9:19-33
For the Audio Version on SoundCloud, click here - Romans 9:19-33
Romans 9:19-21
19 You
will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted
His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to
reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it,
“Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not
the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one
vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
Paul
then foresees a couple of questions his readers will have in mind. Firstly, “Why does God find fault with people who
don’t believe in Him, if He’s the one making the choices of people?” The
second question is “If God is making the
choices, then who can resist His will?” These questions, if put together,
could read like this. If we are not resisting His will and He is making the
choices of people, why does God still find fault with us for not believing in
Him?
Paul
then goes on to answer these questions with two questions, asking his readers.
“Who are you to question God’s ways?” The second question he asks is connected
with pottery, and it goes like this. “Can an item made by the potter, question
the potter why it was made the way it was?” The second question he asks is, “Does not the potter have the freedom to
make what he wills with the same lump of clay – one vessel for honourable use
and one for not so honourable use?” It seems like Paul is saying that God
can do what He wants with whomever He wants and none of us has the right to
question God’s ways of working. But before we make conclusions about God making
choices without our wills being involved, let’s read on to see what Paul has to
say.
Romans
9:22-24
22 What if
God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known,
endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for
destruction, 23 and that He might make
known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He
had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us
whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Paul
goes on to ask one more rather long question that seems to also contain an
answer to the questions. This pertains to God’s choice of people. Here’s his
question modified. “What if God wanted to
pour out His wrath and make His power known to those who rebelled against Him (and
headed for destruction), after being patient with them for a long time, (in the
hope that they would repent)?”
In
the same breath he asks, “What if God also wants to reveal the immense riches
of His glory (heaven) to those He willing to show His mercy to (because they responded
to His invitation, and accept the gift of Salvation through His Son Jesus
Christ). God has already decided that we who have responded to His call to
believe in His Son Jesus, will enter His glory, whether we be Jews or Gentiles.
Romans
9:25-29
25 As
He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And
her beloved, who was not beloved.” 26 “And it shall
come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not
My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.” 27 Isaiah
also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel
be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. 28 For
He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because
the Lord will make a
short work upon the earth.” 29 And as Isaiah said
before: “Unless the Lord of
Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, And we would have
been made like Gomorrah.”
Paul
then begins to quote from several Old Testament scriptures where God had
foretold that the Gentiles (non-Jews) too would be saved. He begins with Hosea 2:23, where God said that He
would call people who were not His people, His own people, and He will call ‘beloved,’ those who were not loved by
Him. Paul is making it clear that God did have a plan to save the Gentiles and
that this wasn’t an after-thought. He began the process by first beginning with
the Jews, but He didn’t intend to stop with them, (though they didn’t seem to
be aware of his all-inclusive plan for all of mankind). God had already planned
that he would adopt the Gentiles too into His family so they too could be
called God’s people.
Until
Jesus came, only the Jews enjoyed the title, ‘the people of God,’ or
‘God’s chosen people.’ Not only would the Gentiles be called, ‘God’s people,’ but they would also be
called ‘beloved,’ meaning that God
would love them just like He loved the Jews.
Paul
then quotes Hosea 1:10, where God
said through Hosea, that the day will come when those (referring to the Gentiles)
who were not considered God’s people will be called by amore intimate term, ‘sons of the living God,’ That refers to
those of us who are not Jews by birth, but Gentiles – we are now both the
people of God and the sons of the living God. What an amazing privilege we
have, and how grateful we must be to the Lord for His all-inclusive plan that
had us in mind right from the beginning.
Paul
then quotes from Isaiah 10:22-23,
where Isaiah prophesied that though the number of the children of Israel would
be as the sand of the sea (just as God promised Abraham), the fact is that only
a few (remnant) would be saved. Once again he seems to be alluding to the fact
that not all those who are descendants of Abraham are really the children of
God, because of their lack of faith, and on account of their reliance on the
works of the law to save them. He says that only a few will be saved because of
their faith in God’s promise, and work on the cross.
Isaiah
goes on to say that God will finish the work, (the work of Salvation through
the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus) and bring an end to it with the
result being God’s free gift of righteousness. He refers to this work of Christ
on the earth as a short work by God Himself. Jesus’ life on earth as a human
was a rather short one, when seen in the perspective of the time humans have
inhabited the earth. In that short span of time, God accomplished His work of
Salvation through Jesus, that’s why Jesus could say in John 19:30, “It is finished.”
Isaiah
goes on to say that if God, whom he refers to as ‘the Lord of Sabaoth’ (the Lord of hosts – angelic hosts in heaven)
did not protect a small number of the people of Israel (a remnant), they would
have been wiped off the face of the earth, just like the people of Sodom and
Gomorrah were. Not one person remained, apart from Lot and his 2 daughters, and
they too, were not really originally from Sodom or Gomorrah – they had merely
settled there after Lot split from his uncle Abraham.
Romans
9:30-33
30 What
shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but
Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the
law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they
did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the
works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As
it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
Comments
Post a Comment