Chapter 9                    

Romans: -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9- -10- -11- -12- -13- -14- -15- -16- 
  9:1 I speak the truth inside of Christ. I am not lying, my consciousness bears witness together with me inside of Spirit Devoted, 2 that my grief is great with unceasing sorrow in my heart. 3 I could indeed wish myself to be a curse, separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my relatives according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the setting forth as sons, and the glory and the covenants, to whom was given the law, the service, and the promises, 5 to whom belong the fathers and out from whom is Christ according to the flesh, God being over all, blessed into the ages. Let it be so; it is so.

6 It is not as though the word of God has failed, however; indeed, not all who are out of Israel are Israel, 7 nor because they are the [natural] sperm of Abraham are all children; rather, “Inside of Isaac your sperm will be called forth” (Genesis 21:12). • 8 That is, the children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are accounted to be the sperm [of Abraham]. 9 For the word of promise is this: “At the set time I will come, and Sarah will have a son (Genesis 18:10). 10 More than that, Rebecca also, out from one intercourse with Isaac our father, 11 [her twin boys] before they were born or had done anything good or bad, that according to election [out from speaking], the prothesis and purpose of God might continue, not out of works, but out from the One calling, 12 it was said to her, “The greater [older] will serve the lesser [younger]” (Genesis 25:23). 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” (Malachi 1:2-3).

14 What then will we say? Is there injustice in the presence of God? It cannot be! 15 Indeed to Moses He says, “I will show mercy to whomever I want to show mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I want to have compassion” (Exodus 33:19). • 16 So then, it is not of the one who chooses nor of the one who runs, but of God who is continuously and actively showing mercy. 17 Indeed, the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very reason I have raised you up, so that I might prove My power in you, and so that My name should be published abroad in all the earth” (Exodus 9:16). 18 So then, to whomever He wants, He shows mercy, and whomever He wants, He makes inflexible.

19 You will say to me, then, “Why then, does He still find fault? Indeed, what is the point of even resisting Him?” 20 But rather, O man, who are you to give answer against God? Will the thing formed say to the one who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to use the same lump to make one vessel for honor and value and another for a dishonorable use? • 22 More than that, what if God, wanting to show His set opposition and to make known His power, then bore in much patience the vessels of opposition designed for ruin and loss, 23 so that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared out from Himself into glory? 24 That is, those whom He has called, not only we who are Judeans, but also those out from the other ethnic families?

• 25 As He says also in Hosea, “I will call those who are not My people to be ‘My people,’ and she who has not been loved I will call ‘The one who has been loved,’” 26 And, “It will be that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God’” (Hosea 2:23 & 1:10). 27 Isaiah also cries for the sake of Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only the remnant [those left behind, those remaining] will be saved. 28 For this word of bringing all things to completion the Lord will perform upon the earth (Isaiah 10:22-23). 29 And as Isaiah also foretold, “If the Lord of the Hosts had not left us an offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and like Gomorrah we would have been compared” (Isaiah 1:9 & 13:19).

30 What then shall we say? That the ethnic peoples who had not pursued just innocence and approval, have seized hold of just approval, indeed, the just innocence that is out from faith. 31 Israel, however, by pursuing the law of just approval, did not arrive into that law. 32 Why? Because by seeking just approval out of works and not out from faith, • they stumbled over the stone of stumbling. 33 As it is written, “Behold I set forth in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. The one believing upon Him will never be put to shame” (Isaiah 8:14 & 28:16).
 		  
 
Gospel Comments Notes
• Ruling Verse 1: The Ruling Verse of the Bible includes “those who are called” and “many brethren.” Because it is evident that some are called and some are not, the question of – Who? – is paramount. Who – are those called is the issue Paul is addressing. God told Abraham that he would be the father of many “Gentiles.” Hosea said that many non-Judeans are called. The distinction is NOT ethnicity, but something else.

• Ruling Verse 9: God places His glory upon vessels of mercy for the sake of all. But to set creation free is to take possession of the inheritance. The issue is the inheritance. Jesus is a stumbling stone because He saves those who are despised.