Romans 9:1

People's Bible Notes for Romans 9:1

Ro 9:1 The Rejection of the Jews SUMMARY OF ROMANS 9: Paul's Deep Sympathy for His Nation. God's Promise to the Jewish Race Not Void. The Argument That It Is Not. The Promise Is Not to See According to the Flesh, but a. Spiritual Seed. God Has a Right to Choose What Race He Will. As the Potter Has the Right to Choose What Race He Will. As the Potter Has the Right to Shape His Clay, So God Can Exalt or Reject a Race. The Acceptance of the Gentiles and the Rejection of the Jews. Foretold. A Remnant of Israel Saved. To understand the reasoning of this chapter, the reader must keep in mind the aim of the apostle. He had in the beginning of this letter shown that the gospel was God's power of salvation "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Ro 1:16,17). But the Jews as a nation had rejected Christ, and God had rejected them. They were soon to be destroyed as a people and their land taken away. But the Jew fell back on the promises made to Abraham. Has God broken his promises? If Christ was the true Messiah, and the Jewish nation rejected, he held that the promise was made void. To answer their objection Paul shows (1) that the promise was not to all the fleshly seed of Abraham, but to the seed according to the promise; and (2) that God, in his sovereignty, has the right to choose a race or to pass it by at his will. The subject of individual and personal election is not in the mind of the apostle, but of the election of the Jews to be the chosen people, their rejection afterwards, and the choice of the Gentiles. Isaac, Esau and Jacob are the representatives of races. I say the truth in Christ. This affirmation is made so solemn because the Jews charged Paul with having forsaken his race. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. He speaks as in the presence of Christ, with a conscience enlightened by the Holy Spirit.