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God’s Selection of Israel
With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.
With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.
Paul's Concern for the Jews
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief
That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!
God's Sovereign Choice
Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.
That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.
And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes;
(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not!
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”
The Calling of the Gentiles
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.
What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.
And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.
Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,
“Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,
only a remnant will be saved.
“Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,
only a remnant will be saved.
Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
Israel’s Unbelief
What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place.
Israel's Unbelief
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.
But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.