Romans 9 Israel's Rejection of Christ.

 

Romans 9 – Israel’s Rejection of Christ.

The first truth we need to recognize here is that God controls the universe, and He rules the affairs of men. His authority and power are absolute. His saving work of both the Jews and the Gentiles must be seen in this truth. In this chapter Paul rejoices for the believers but more so grieves for the unbelievers. Paul points out how special the Israelites were which made it even more grievous to him that they rejected Christ as their Messiah. He states that they are God’s chosen people. They were adopted in a special way to be called His own. God shown Himself to them in the tabernacle. He renewed His covenants with them repeatedly They were given the law by Moses. They were made to do service to God in the temple and in worship. They were promised the Messiah. They could claim heritage to their patriarch fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The most supreme honor that the Jews had was that Jesus was the Messiah and He was a Jew.

Through this God never deals with man in an arbitrary fashion. He is always Just. God is the Creator, Sustainer and ruler of all things and all men, so that He has the right to deal with man according to His will. Paul reminds them what God said to Moses. “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” Exodus 33:19. God dealt with the children of Israel in mercy. He cannot be accused of injustice. All that God did with the Israelites must be interpreted and evaluated in the light of God’s sovereignty and righteousness. His sovereignty is never condemning men who ought to be saved, but rather it resulted in the salvation of men who deserved to be lost. Paul says this to both the Jews and the Gentiles. God’s Sovereignty is absolute, but man’s will is free. We cannot harmonize God’s Sovereignty with man’s freedom, but we can accept them if we want to understand God’s purpose and God’s activity in history.

 

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