When God’s Promises Feel Broken: Wrestling with Romans 9
What’s Romans 9 about?
Paul tackles one of the hardest questions in Scripture: If God chose Israel, why don’t most Jewish people believe in Jesus? His answer dives deep into divine sovereignty, election, and what it means to be part of God’s people—territory that’s both theologically rich and emotionally charged.
The Full Context
Picture Paul sitting in Corinth around 57 AD, dictating what would become his theological masterpiece to the Romans. But as he reaches chapter 9, his heart is heavy. He’s been preaching to Gentiles with incredible success, yet his own people—the Jews—largely reject the gospel. This isn’t just a theological problem for Paul; it’s deeply personal. These are his kinsmen (syngeneis in Greek), his family.
The question burning in Paul’s mind (and likely in his readers’ minds too) is this: Has God’s word failed? If the promises were given to Israel, but Israel doesn’t believe, what does that say about God’s faithfulness? Paul’s about to unpack one of the most challenging doctrines in all of Scripture—divine election and sovereignty. This passage sits at the heart of Romans 9-11, often called Paul’s “treatise on Israel,” where he’ll ultimately show that God hasn’t abandoned his people but is working out his plan in ways that might surprise us.
What the Ancient Words Tell Us
When Paul opens with “I am telling the truth in Christ” (Romans 9:1), he’s using the strongest possible oath in his vocabulary. The Greek construction here is intense—aletheian lego en Christo—literally “truth I speak in Christ.” This isn’t casual conversation; Paul’s about to say something that might sound harsh, and he wants his readers to know it’s breaking his heart.
Grammar Geeks
The phrase “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in Romans 9:2 uses two different Greek words that paint a vivid picture. Lype (sorrow) is the same word used for Jesus’ grief in Gethsemane, while odyne (anguish) appears nowhere else in Paul’s letters—it’s the kind of pain that keeps you awake at night.
The word anathema in Romans 9:3 is shocking. Paul says he could wish himself “accursed” for his brothers’ sake. This isn’t just being cut off from blessing—it’s being devoted to destruction, the same word used for things so unholy they had to be completely destroyed. Moses made a similar plea in Exodus 32:32, but Paul takes it even further.
What Would the Original Audience Have Heard?
Roman Christians would have been puzzled by what they saw happening with Israel. Here was a people with every conceivable advantage—they had the huiothesia (adoption as sons), the doxa (glory/shekinah presence), the diatheke (covenants), and the nomothesia (giving of the law). Yet most were rejecting their own Messiah.
Did You Know?
When Paul lists Israel’s privileges in Romans 9:4-5, he’s essentially recounting their entire salvation history. The “adoption as sons” refers to God calling Israel “my son” in Exodus 4:22. The “glory” is the shekinah that filled the tabernacle. Each item on this list would have stirred deep emotions in any Jewish listener.
But then Paul drops a bombshell in Romans 9:6: “Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.” The Greek here literally says “not all those out of Israel, these are Israel.” Paul’s making a distinction between ethnic Israel and true Israel that would have been revolutionary to his first-century audience.
Wrestling with the Text
Here’s where Romans 9 gets really challenging. Paul uses the examples of Isaac and Ishmael, then Jacob and Esau, to show that God’s choice has never been based on human effort or ethnic descent. The phrase “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” (Romans 9:13) makes modern readers uncomfortable—and it should.
But wait… why would Paul bring up Pharaoh here? In Romans 9:17, he quotes Exodus 9:16, where God says he raised up Pharaoh “to show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” The Greek word exegeira (raised up) can mean both “brought to power” and “raised from the dead”—either way, it’s God’s sovereign action.
Wait, That’s Strange…
The pottery metaphor Paul uses in Romans 9:20-21 isn’t original to him. It echoes Isaiah 29:16 and Jeremiah 18:6, but Paul uses it to make a point about God’s absolute sovereignty that would have made both Jewish and Gentile readers squirm. The clay doesn’t get to question the potter’s choices.
The hardest part might be Romans 9:22-23, where Paul speaks of “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” and “vessels of mercy prepared beforehand for glory.” The passive voice here is crucial—Paul doesn’t say God actively prepared the vessels of wrath, but he does say he prepared the vessels of mercy.
How This Changes Everything
Paul’s conclusion in Romans 9:30-33 turns everything upside down. The Gentiles, who weren’t pursuing righteousness, obtained it by faith. Israel, who was pursuing righteousness through law, missed it because they sought it through works rather than faith. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone”—Christ himself.
“God’s ways are so much higher than our ways that sometimes what looks like failure is actually the setup for an even greater display of his glory.”
This isn’t the end of Israel’s story, though. Paul makes it clear that God’s rejection isn’t final (we’ll see this developed in Romans 11). But for now, he’s establishing that God’s purposes have always included both mercy and judgment, both election and rejection, both Jews and Gentiles.
The practical implication? If you’re a believer, your salvation isn’t based on your ethnic background, your good works, or your religious pedigree. It’s based entirely on God’s mercy. And if God can show mercy to unlikely Gentiles, he can certainly show mercy to his chosen people Israel—in his time and in his way.
Key Takeaway
God’s sovereignty doesn’t eliminate human responsibility, but it does eliminate human boasting. Your salvation story isn’t ultimately about your choice, your faith, or your goodness—it’s about God’s mercy reaching down to people who had no claim on it.
Further Reading
Internal Links:
External Scholarly Resources:
- The Epistle to the Romans by Douglas Moo
- Romans by John Stott
- Paul and Palestinian Judaism by E.P. Sanders
- The New Perspective on Paul by James D.G. Dunn
Tags
Romans 9:1, Romans 9:6, Romans 9:13, Romans 9:17, Romans 9:22, Romans 9:30, Election, Divine Sovereignty, Israel, Covenant, Faith, Works, Mercy, Judgment, Salvation
