Romans Lesson 18

Introduction

A very pleasant good day to you and welcome to Let the Bible Speak. I’d like to encourage you to get your New Testaments and be opening with me to the Romans, the ninth chapter, where we’re going to continue our verse-by-verse study of this grand book. In our last study, we talked about the first 18 verses of Romans chapter 9, and in which we we saw that the line of reasoning for the book of Romans actually takes a turn at this point. And if you were reading through Romans, then I encourage you to read Romans chapters 9, 10, and 11 together, because the three chapters really go together as a unit where the apostle is showing his own personal concern for the Israelites or for Jews, and even answers some of their questions that they might legitimately raise.

Through the first eight chapters, the apostle has illustrated the fact that the gospel is God’s means of salvation. It’s God’s power in the salvation, Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. And that God is no longer a respecter of persons. That is, at one time the Jews were God’s chosen people. But now the means of salvation is really for all. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ, though it’s preached first to the Jew, it’s also for the Greek or for the Gentile. But now the Jew might raise the question: well, aren’t we God’s favored people? Through Abraham, born in the flesh, don’t we deserve the rights and the privileges that we’ve enjoyed through the years? Is God unfair to the Jew? The apostle answers those kind of questions in these three chapters.

And really, in the process, his main argument seems to be that God has the sovereign right to choose the means of salvation. God has chosen through Christ to be the means of salvation. By grace, he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him might have life everlasting. But the Jew might say, Well, wait a minute, what about the law of Moses? And earlier, particularly in chapter 4, he made the point that the law was a law that demanded perfect works. It demanded perfect law keeping, to violate the law at any point, made man a sinner. And the law really had no provision to take away sins. But in contrast to the law, there is a system of salvation by grace. That through Jesus Christ a ransom is paid for the sins of mankind.

And so there’s a contrast between a system of salvation by works versus a system of salvation by grace. But now, when the Jew would say, wait a minute, does that make God unfair? He is illustrated in these few verses. No, God has the right to choose. He doesn’t have a debt to the Jews that just because they’re born in the flesh, they have a right to be saved. By what means do they earn or deserve salvation just because they’re born a Jew? And in fact, he made the point in the few verses, just 14 through 18, how that God hardens whom he will and has mercy on whom he will. In other words, by his own divine will, he sets forth the means of salvation. And man, while man may elect or choose to either reject it or to obey it, God responds in kind to man’s own choice.

1. God Has the Right to Choose the Means

My point with that is that God doesn’t elect or choose specific individuals to be saved, and they alone are saved. That’s the doctrine of Calvinism taught today. What God has elected is the means of salvation. But as he holds out the will of salvation through Jesus Christ, manself must choose whether to accept the Christ, believing in him, or reject the Christ by unbelief and thereby to be lost. Now let’s read Romans chapter 9, beginning in verse 19, and we’re going to read through verse 24. As we go through the end of the chapter, you’ll see how he explains that because of unbelief is the reason and the only reason that Jews are really fallen from the grace of God. Verse 19. Thou will say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault?

Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing form say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, the four prepared unto glory. Even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Well, in this passage he is answering or raising some rhetorical questions. In effect, I believe what the apostle is saying, this is God’s business as to the choosing the way of salvation.

Who is man to challenge God’s right to do that? Who is man? You know, while there are those who may say, Oh, well, God has elected certain specific individuals. Really, if anything, this answers that very argument. If God sought after the Jews are Israelites, and God wanted them to be saved, then why are they cut off? I mean, could they resist? And in fact, when he says in verse 18 or verse 19, why did he yet find fault? Who has resisted his will? It says, though to say, nobody could resist God’s will. If God chose the Jews to be saved, then they’ll be saved. God couldn’t, they couldn’t resist the will of God. But his point here is that God, like the potter, with power over the clay, has the right to form whatever means of salvation that he wishes to form.

2. The Potter and the Clay in Jeremiah 18

Now man in turn must respond, either to elect God’s way or himself to choose it, or else to reject it. This point about the potter and the power over clay was really first used by Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 18, and I think it really helps us to understand even the argument here in Romans 9, where in Jeremiah, he was talking even to the to the children of Israel, or particularly to Judah back in his day, and he was saying in this grand book why it is that they would be going into captivity. In fact, Jeremiah or God through this prophet had forecasts that he would raise up the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar to lead them into captivity. Really the temple was destroyed. They were taken away from Jerusalem, the holy city.

Why? Because of their own unbelief. It wasn’t that God really wanted Israel to turn to idolatry. It wasn’t that God wanted his chosen people to turn away from him, but by reason of the fact that they had chosen that way, God was going to punish them. And so he said, even as the potter having power over the clay, so it is when the lump becomes marred, or when the clay becomes marred, he has a sovereign right to reshape it and to redo it. And that’s really what he did with it with Israel. And in Jeremiah chapter 18, listen to what he says in verses 6 through 10. When he says, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter, say the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in mine hand, O house of Israel.

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it? If that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I would repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. You see, there the thought is that according to their response to God, he would respond to them. Jeremiah 18 and verse 9. And in what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it? If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. In other words, God said, Whatsoever way man responds, I’ll either bless them or I’ll punish them.

Depends upon man’s choice, though, as to what God does. Now listen, why did the Jew why did why was Judah destroyed as a people and carried into captivity? Listen to Jeremiah 18, verses 11 and 12. When he says, Now therefore go to speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus said the Lord, Behold, I frame evil against you and devise a device against you. Return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. And they said, There is no hope. We will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. Does that sound like God, like a man with puppets and holding the strings, force them to do evil?

Did God choose them to go into captivity because he was his sovereign control and whatever will be will be? Well, that’s certainly not the reading in Jeremiah 18. And that’s not the reading in Romans chapter 9. It isn’t that God chooses certain specific individuals and they alone are saved, and no matter what they may wish, they’re going to be lost or saved depending on God’s choice. What is being argued in Romans chapter 9 is that God wants all to be saved, but he has the right to choose the means. Man doesn’t have the right to come along and say, Lord, you’ve got to do it this way. Or Lord, as the Jew might be saying, you’ve chosen another way than the law of Moses, and that’s not right.

3. Vessels of Wrath and Vessels of Mercy

Who are you to reply to God? Who are you to challenge God’s choice in the matter? Oh, it’s true, there are some who’ve hardened their hearts against God, but they’ve chosen that way. God has held out his will. God has held out an opportunity to be saved. God does not force man’s choice. But God uses it to his own purpose. That’s the real point. In fact, you may read here where he says in verse 22, what if God willing to show his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long suffering? The vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. Pharaoh is an illustration of this very point, and really this is how the whole context goes together from our earlier study. Pharaoh hardened his heart.

He became a vessel of wrath. But God showed his long suffering. How many times did he hold out an opportunity for Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go? Ten plagues, in fact, God brought upon eat upon Egypt. And it was only after the tenth plague, where the firstborn was taken, his life was taken, that finally Pharaoh allowed them to go. Even then later changed his mind and came chasing after them. But but nevertheless, God showed a nature of long suffering. God, though, could foreknow what Pharaoh would do. When the Bible speaks about the foreknowledge of God, it must not be confused as though God is making men act the way they act. Prophecy, in fact, was God’s ability to know in advance what would come to pass.

He has the wisdom to know in advance. I sometimes say to parents, if you were to put on the table turnip greens on one side and ice cream on the other side, and you tell your child, take your pick, which one do you want to eat? I think every parent kind of laughs and say, Oh, well, I know they go after the ice cream rather than turnip greens. Why? Well, you don’t have the knowledge, foreknowledge like God has.

Really knows in advance the nature of his child and what he’ll probably choose. You don’t make the child choose ice cream, but you can know in advance what they would pick. God doesn’t make us choose to reject him or to accept him. But he can foreknow which one we’ll do. And then, like Pharaoh, if we choose to resist and reject God’s will, then God can use that to his glory. What did he do with Pharaoh but manifest his power even through the plagues? He demonstrated to the Egyptians and really to all the world that it was God’s outstretched arm. It was God’s strong right hand that led the children of Israel out of bondage. Did Pharaoh become a vessel of wrath? Absolutely. And ungodly men become vessels of wrath.

Romans chapter 1 and verse 18, and also chapter 2, verses 4 through 6, speak about the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness in men. God has wrath against evil. But in contrast, there are believers who have the mercy of God. As verse 23 says, He might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us whom he hath called. Not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Men are called by the gospel. 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 14. And so he’s saying, even of these people at Rome, the Christians to whom this letter is written, even us, he would say, those who have been called by the gospel, not only Jews, but also Gentiles, those who have obeyed the gospel by belief, what do they become?

Vessels of mercy. God has elected a plan by which to present forgiveness for all men. And those who respond in faith become vessels of mercy. God has the right to choose how to bestow mercy on whom he will. Acts chapter 10, when the Apostle Peter preached to Cornelius in his house, the first Gentile converts. He said of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but an heir in every nation. He that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. That was true then, and is true even today.

4. Only a Remnant Shall Be Saved

It isn’t because God is unfair, it is because they chose not to believe. You stay with us, we’ll be back in just one moment. Why has God rejected the Jews? Is he unfair in doing so? These questions really are raised in Romans chapter 9 and 10 and 11, and the apostle really is showing that God has not been unfair or unrighteous in dealing with the Jews. In fact, as we read now in Romans chapter 9, verses 25 through 29, you see that he begins to quote some of their own prophets. He quotes from Hosea, first of all, and then from Isaiah. And he shows that even long ago God had promised that Gentiles would also be accepted, those who were not God’s people. And he also said that only a remnant, that is a small part or a part of Israel would be saved.

You read with me, Romans 9, beginning in verse 25. As he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God. Isaiah also crieth concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved, for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because of short work will the Lord make upon the earth. Now, he quoting from Hosea, first of all, in verse 25, it’s quoted from Hosea chapter 2 and in verse 23.

And then verse 26 is quoted from Hosea chapter 1 and verse 10. What it really says is the scriptures foretold. Long before, this prophet of God had spoken how that Israel, at that time that he spoke, and really spoken to them specifically, that they, though they were not God’s people, there would come a time when they would be God’s people. They were not his people, because of the fact that at the time Hosea was speaking to them, the Assyrians had taken captive that northern ten tribes called Israel, and many of them had become amalgamated into the family of the Assyrians. That is, they became mixed blood. So they were not regarded as God’s people, and yet did he still love them? Well, yes, he still loved them, and in fact, as in chapter 1, Hosea, his wife, had a child and named Eloami, Hosea chapter 1 and verse 9, which literally meant not my own.

Which was as though to say Hosea had a son by a wife that really it was not his son, because she was immoral, and perhaps she’d had this son by someone else than even by Hosea. But it was given to him to illustrate God’s dealings with his own.

And yet he still loved them. They had become amalgamated with the with the Assyrians, and thereby stood just like the Gentiles, who were not God’s people. Both were unbelievers. But the prophecy, as applied here by the apostle, is that those who were not my people shall be my people. In other words, there’s going to come a time when God is going to open the way of becoming a member of his family again. It would be through Christ Jesus. Well, if that’s what’s going to occur in the future, what about those who were born Israelites? You remember in our earlier study in Romans 9 and verse 6, where he said, They are not all Israel, which are of Israel. As though to say the time has come where just because they’re born in the flesh doesn’t mean they’re really God’s children any longer.

It isn’t because one’s born in the flesh he’s God’s child, but rather because one believes in the Christ. Now, when that time came, many who were born in the flesh rejected the Christ. Only a remnant accepted the Christ. And so really, again, from the prophet, he quotes this. Where in Isaiah chapter 10 and verses 22 and 23, where Isaiah said, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of a sea, a remnant shall be saved. Now, remnants, not the whole. If you are a seamstress, you know a remnant of cloth is just a piece or a part of the whole. And so here he says, only a small part or a part of Israel shall be saved. And then in chapter 1 of Isaiah verse 9, where he says, Except the Lord of Sabbath had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom and been like unto Gomorrah.

What do you mean by that? Well, had there not been salvation through Christ, then really you would say all of Israel would have been lost. But only through Jesus Christ can even the remnant be saved. By faith in him is the ransom for sins made possible. Christ died in our place. You see, those who do not accept the Christ have no ransom for sin. The Jews who clung to the law of Moses were clinging to a law that demanded perfect works, and no man could keep the law perfectly or without fault. And because he sinned, he needed forgiveness. The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 1 through 4. It needed the blood of Jesus the Christ. But the Jews who rejected him found themselves lost in sin.

Find it interesting here where the apostle quotes from Isaiah, even their own prophet whom they accepted, to say only a remnant of Jews shall be saved. It’s a pretty popular doctrine today to hear some who believe what we call premillennialism, who talk about a future thousand year reign of Christ on the earth, who often will say, Well, all Israel shall be saved. They quote from Romans chapter 11 and verses 25 and 26 and 7 through there. And they quote a verse and really lift it out of its context. Because they make out as though there will come a time when every Jew is going to be saved. How would the apostle in such a short space contradict himself? Here in Romans chapter 9, quoting from the prophet says, only a remnant shall be saved.

Is Romans 11 turning right around and saying, oh no, there’s going to be all Israel saved? Well, actually, we’ll reserve some of the answers for that until we study Romans chapter 11, but just in advance, I will show to you that if you look at Romans 11, 23, he says, if they abide not in unbelief. In other words, the soul means in like manner. The Gentiles became children of God by faith. And so, in like manner, Jews can become children of God by faith. If they abide not in unbelief, they shall be saved. How many have done that? Only a remnant. Now, really, the thought in Romans chapter 9 is what divine law forces God to save every Jew? What divine law? What is it about God’s scheme of redemption that forces him to save all Jews?

5. Because They Sought It Not by Faith

The answer really is there is none. There is no law of God. There is no one that he has a debt to save, except those on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he’s chosen the plan to be through Jesus Christ. God chose the plan, not the man. Man has to then make the choice of whether to believe or not to believe. And to illustrate the point, let’s read Romans chapter 9, verses 32-33. When he says, What shall we say then? That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.

What is he really saying here? Well, you look at the difference between the Gentiles and the Jews. Why have Gentiles been accepted? Even though in the past they didn’t really follow after righteousness. You remember back in Romans chapter 1, we showed how that the apostle talked about the Gentiles as not retaining God in their knowledge. But now that Christ has preached, they’ve accepted him. And they’ve accepted him by faith. And so they have attained unto the righteousness of faith. James chapter 2, verses 14 through 26 describes how you and I can be accepted by faith. But it’s a faith that obeys. What does the prophet of a man say he hath faith and hath not works or obedience? And James 2 and verse 17, even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

The Gentiles obeyed the gospel. They believed in the Christ and followed his will. They’ve been accepted. Why have the Jews been rejected? Because of their unbelief. Just in contrast, Gentiles who have accepted the gospel, obeyed the gospel, and works the righteousness of God. In contrast, Jews said, we don’t believe in the Christ. We’re not going to obey. And in the process of that, they not only have rejected the Christ as the Son of God, they’ve rejected God, and in effect, rejected the law of Moses, which was intended to lead them to Jesus Christ. Except ye believe that I am He, Jesus said, ye shall die in your sins. John 8 24. As we continue in our next study in Romans chapter 10, we’re going to see even further how it is that God’s plan of salvation is unto everyone who calleth upon the name of the Lord.

Conclusion

Even as Joel had so prophesied. That’s for both Jews as well as Gentile. But it’s a salvation by means of belief in the Christ, who is given by the grace of God. And we can be saved by grace through faith. Have you obeyed the gospel? Don’t be as a Jew who rejects, but be as the Gentile who believes and obeys. Until our next study, we bid the grace and peace of the Lord be with you.