Romans 9:10-33 “Trusting”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁰And not only [this], but also Rebecca, having intercourse out of one [man], Isaac our father, ¹¹[the twins] not yet being born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might remain^{, 12}not out of works but out of the One calling, it was said to her that the older would serve the younger, ¹³just as it is written, “Jacob have I loved, but Esay have I hated.” ¹⁴Therefore, what will we say? [Is there] not unrighteousness from God? May it never be! ¹⁵For it is being said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” ¹⁶Therefore it is not of the one desiring, neither the one running, but of God being merciful. ¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh that, “I raised you up into this same [reason], in order that I might display in you My power, and in order that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸Therefore, whom He desires, [He gives] mercy, but whom He desires, He hardens. ¹⁹Therefore, you (s.) will say to me, “Why is He yet finding fault? For who has resisted His purpose?” ²⁰O man, on the contrary, who are you [to be] answering back to God? Will the formed thing not say to the One who formed [it], “Why did You make me like [this]?” ²¹Does not the potter have the authority to make out of the same lump of clay, on the one hand, a vessel into honor and, on the other hand, one into dishonor? ²²But if God, desiring to display the wrath and to make known His power, endured with much patience vessels of [His] wrath, ones having been fitted into destruction, ²³and, in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of [His] mercy He had appointed into glory, ²⁴even us, whom He called not only out of Jews but also out of Gentiles? ²⁵As He also says in Hosea, “The [ones] My people [who are] not my people and one loved [who is] not loved, ²⁶and it will be [that], in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called sons of the living God,” ²⁷but Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel should be as the sand of the sea, [only] a remnant will be saved, ²⁸for the Lord will do upon the earth a thing exceeding swiftly in righteousness, that [the] thing might be executed swiftly, ²⁹and just as Isaiah said before, “If the Lord of Sabaoth had not left to us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and made like Gomorrah. ³⁰What therefore will we say? That Gentiles, ones not pursuing righteousness, have obtained righteousness that is a righteousness which [is] out of faith, ³¹but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, has not attained into law. ³²Because why? Because [they pursued it] not out of faith but as out of works of law. They stumbled against the stone of stumbling. ³³Just as it is written, “Behold, I am placing a stone of stumbling and a rock of impediment and all ones believing in Him will not be ashamed.

Oh, my. I have spent several weeks working my way from verse 10 to the end of the chapter. As I studied, it seemed to me that what Paul is saying is so profound, it needs to be understood in its totality, not just as individual statements, verses, and phrases. That is why I studied and recorded above my “fairly literal” translation all the way to the end.

As I would try to record what I’ve learned and what I want to be sure I remember, I am frankly in a bit of a quandary. Like many others have done, I could track along verse by verse and offer my own observations. However, I’m back to feeling the passage is so deep, it can only even remotely be understood in its entirety. Out of all the chapters and books of the Bible, I would suggest that Romans 9 is probably the place where we humans are allowed to peer the furthest and the deepest into the eternal counsels of the infinite God.

That said, there is, of course, no possible way for us to truly understand. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor My ways your ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways above your ways and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8,9). As I asserted earlier, we need to remember we are talking about God. And in this particular passage we are delving deeply (for us) into His incomprehensible Divine thoughts.

What we find written here is that which the Lord is allowing us to hear. It is written down for us. We should study it. We should try to understand as much as we can. I’m glad I’ve been allowed the chance to delve into it as far as I humanly know how. However, in my head, I’m hearing an old pop song, “Knock, knock, knocking on heaven’s door…” I feel keenly aware that my mind is on the very far tattered edge of what I can or could possibly understand of the mind of God or His mysterious, eternal, infinite ways.

That said, having studied, having made every effort to understand, when we’re done, we need to simply say, “Here is what He says. As much as I can understand, I accept, but what I don’t understand, I simply choose to believe and trust my God’s wisdom. Having done all that, I then must just lay it aside and get on with my life.

All of that explains my quandary. I don’t know how much to even try to say. Volumes and volumes have been written down through the years and personally I find it all pretty much a cacophony. I’m not inclined to add to that noxious stew. On the other hand, I do want to record some thoughts, if for no other reason than to remember later what (little) my feeble brain thinks it observed.

The big issue of the whole chapter, of course, is answering this question, “What about Israel?” “Has the word of God failed?”  The question itself is ludicrous, but there it is, enshrined in the Sacred Text, so obviously it needs to be addressed. I suppose even the Jewish response yet today still begs this question. To a large extent, that is exactly what they would say. Too many of them “have no use for God,” because they think He has failed them. They think their “faith,” their Scriptures have failed them. I suppose it is one of those great mercies of God that He will even allow the question to be asked and then to seriously address it. “Has the Word of God failed?”

I suppose that is all why we even have this chapter. In order to answer this question, our merciful God is drawing back the curtain of His heart and allowing us to peer into the incomprehensible depths of His eternal plans and ways. His answer comes down to two truths: He is absolutely sovereign and our responsibility is to believe.

The absolute sovereignty is particularly the part of this chapter that sends the “scholars” howling into warfare. Go back and read it yourself. What does it say? It says the Lord chose Jacob over Esau even before they were born (v.11). It even quotes Malachi saying, “Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated” (v.13). It says “God has mercy on whom He has mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden” (v.18). It asks the question, “Cannot God, the Potter, choose to make some vessels for honor and some for dishonor?” (vv. 21-24). All of this, according to the text before us is an expression of “God’s purpose in election” (v.11).

Read it yourself. Is that not exactly what it says? I tore it apart even in the original Greek. Yes, it says what it says. Does it offend you? I have to admit, my first response is to want to recoil from such seemingly harsh truth, but, once again, it says what it says. If we don’t like it, we can write volumes upon volumes of commentaries explaining away that which is objectionable to us. Many have. The problem is, in my opinion, when it’s all said and done, there lies the text. It still says what it says.

And how does the text itself address those objections? “Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” (v.20). “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” (v.21). I would suggest, if we don’t “like” what it’s saying, the proper response is not that we should print volumes upon volumes of hermeneutical gymnastics, but rather, like Job, that we should “clap our hand over our mouth, and repent in dust and ashes.” No. We insignificant blades of grass have no business thinking we can “darken counsel without knowledge.” It says what it says whether we like it or not, and our only appropriate response is humble submission and belief.

That brings me to the second thing we find in this chapter – our responsibility to believe. In God’s great, eternal, sovereign plan, our part is faith. Right out of the blocks, I want to acknowledge that, once again, I don’t understand. Paul spends the first 29 verses basically asserting that God is absolutely sovereign and choses whom He will save. That, I guess, explains in part why most Jews don’t believe and only a few do. That’s God’s choice. However, then in v.30, it turns to this explanation that the Gentiles have obtained righteousness because they pursued it by faith, while Israel has not, precisely because they pursued it by Law. So now, it would seem, God saves those who respond to Him in faith.

So is salvation a matter of God’s sovereign choosing or people’s decision of faith? I believe we just have to say yes. They’re both true. I don’t understand that. I don’t understand logically how we get from vv. 1-29 (God’s absolute sovereignty) to vv. 30-33 (man’s responsibility). However, that is clearly what the text says.

It says what it says. I can understand God’s absolute sovereignty and simply believe and humbly accept what the text says. I can understand that we are responsible to have faith. I just don’t understand how they can both be true at the same time. And that is precisely where I have to rush ahead and say with Paul, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out? …To Him be the glory forever and ever!” (11:33-36).

No, the Word of God has not failed. Even for the descendants of Abraham, the Lord is working out His great, eternal, sovereign plans, and He has placed them (and us) in a world where, on our part, it is faith that determines our salvation.

I feel I’ve written too much myself. I feel everything I’ve just said shouldn’t have needed to be said at all. However, there it is. If I’m going to say anything at all, I think it’s all that needs to said.

Read it. Believe it. Praise our incomprehensible God and get on with life. For myself, I would far rather live under a God whose ways I can’t always understand, than to wander alone through this maze we call life. May He today help me to live well this life He’s given me and to simply trust He’s wisely in charge!