6But [it is] not being that the Word of God has failed, for not all those out of Israel [are] Israel, 7because neither are the seed of Abraham all children, but “your seed will be called in Isaac.” 8That is, the children of the flesh, those [are] not children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned into seed, 9for this [is] the word of promise, “I will come according to the set time, and a son will be [born] to Sarah.”
These verses have always perplexed me a bit, but I feel like now, having studied them a while, the knot unraveled a bit, so I want to try to record what I think I’m seeing. First of all, it does make sense that Paul has to address this question, “Has the Word of God failed?” Of course, the question itself is totally ludicrous, as, once again, we’re dealing with God here. He is infinitely perfect. It is a logical impossibility that ever in any way He could “fail.” However, the crescendo of Romans 8 (“Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!”) was so loud and triumphant, it does beg the question, “What about Israel?”
At the time Paul is writing, the appearance would have been that the Church was exploding in growth but that, apparently, the Jewish people, the nation of Israel, and all that was associated with them had been set aside. Back to vv. 4,5, they had been chosen by God and given “great and precious” promises, however, now they are set aside. Especially with their crucifixion of the Messiah, the Lord has apparently rejected them and turned to the Gentiles. Jesus Himself had even said to them, “Look, your house is left to you desolate!” (Matt. 23:38).
That all would make perfect sense to us, but, if we were really thinking, we’d go back to Romans 8, see that too was for us “very great and precious” promises, and then ask the question, “If Israel’s sins could cause the Lord to set aside those promises, what about us?”
I want to inject here, this question, in and of itself, is to this very day alive and well. “What about my sins?” People wonder, “It is great that Jesus died for me and promises me salvation, but what about my sins?” They can read Romans 8 with its glorious promises, then say, “But what about my sins? Surely I can mess up so badly the Lord will simply give up on me?” I would add that it feels like that should be true pretty much all day every day. In other words, it is hard to believe He isn’t fed up with me. After some forty years of knowing Him, I’m still keenly aware how much I do not deserve His love. If anything, that feeling only gets worse as the years go by (and I only add to my failures). In fact, there is a huge fraction of professing Christians today who’ve actually enshrined the idea that you can lose your salvation. They follow all this exact same line of thinking, then conclude that somehow, in some way, salvation has to be conditional.
I could quote very clear Scriptures to refute that idea (including Romans 8!), but my lay answer to all of that is this: If Jesus didn’t save me from me, then He didn’t save me at all. This whole discussion highlights exactly why salvation must be eternal. It has to be secure in Jesus or, I’m sorry, but it would be worthless. If there is any way I could mess it up and get God to give up on me, then there is no hope. My sins – that is exactly the problem! That is precisely why I needed Jesus to start with. “You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”
Again, if Jesus didn’t save me from me, then I’m doomed. I am my own worst enemy. As the song says, “All my hope is in Jesus.” Just like the Jews, people want to somehow “establish their own righteousness” (10:3). The book of Romans has already long since established the absolute absurdity of such a proposition. It is Christ’s righteousness we need. The Jews thought they could do it (“All that the Lord commands us, we will do!”), but they, just like us, failed miserably. What they needed to realize, just like us, was that they cannot. They needed a Savior and they needed a Savior who is bigger than their sins.
So, what about Israel? For Paul, this is no small issue. He’s about to devote three chapters of the book of Romans to answering that very question. To understand the Lord’s relationship with Israel will mean for you and me to better understand our own salvation, although I would caution again we need to remember we’re dealing with God.
What does Paul establish here? “Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel…in other words, it is not the natural children…but it is the children of promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.” In our world, we would quickly observe, not everyone who says they’re a Christian is a Christian. Not every person in our church is really born again. That, I would suggest is obvious to us all. We just need to realize it applies to the Jewish people as well. As discussed earlier, they were adopted by God as a people group, as a nation, to be His chosen, specially favored people. Yet, individually speaking, each one of them may or may not have had a personal relationship with God. The ones who really truly are, in God’s eyes, considered to be the offspring of Abraham are the children “of promise.”
That is where you and I sneak in, because we too can enter into this world of God’s promises. Back to chapter 4, that was Paul’s entire point. Faith is the key. Believing God’s promises is the key that opens the door to a real relationship with Him – and that relationship is entirely personal for every single individual. Specifically to a Jewish audience, Jesus said, “…Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt. 7:14).
No, God has not failed. His promise stands to them and to us, “Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” but that promise is only good for those who, by faith, have accepted God’s promise of salvation in Christ, who have entered into that personal relationship with Him. Israel’s example ought to first of all move us Gentiles to each ask ourselves whether we have in fact entered into that relationship of Promise. It wasn’t enough to be born a Jew, but neither is it enough for us to be born into Christian families or be members of Christian churches. I may in fact be a part of the “right” group, but that only makes me more accountable to answer the question, “What about me?”
What about me? For myself, even the answer to that question is still Jesus. “What about me?” Yes, what about me? As the old song said, “All that I want, all that I need, yea all that I plead is Jesus.”
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