WHY ROMANS CHAPTERS 9 AND 10?

Paul has just spent 8 chapters outlining the most beautiful message to fall upon human ears. Sinners, all sinners, can have all their sins washed away by trusting themselves to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. For the Gentiles and those who knew themselves to be moral wrecks this message was a most comforting song of forgiveness. But to many Jews Paul’s message of grace was not a sweet song but borderline blasphemy. If salvation came by faith in the Messiah, then what about all the Jews who were members in good standing of the Abrahamic Covenant?

Pause for a second. You remember that covenant? God chose Abraham to be the father of a new nation. God made a covenant with the patriarch and to seal it He had all of Abraham’s males circumcised. And of course, any circumcised member of Abraham’s family was now party to the covenant and therefore safe in his relationship with God. Right?

Not according to Paul.

Paul begins the ninth chapter of Romans actually weeping over the state of the Jews. This is shocking news. The Jews thought they possessed a free ticket to enter the covenant of God. They had all the spiritual advantages. They were charter members of salvation. They often said, “We are Abraham’s seed and are not in bondage to any man!’ But now comes this renegade Pharisee who is worrying about the state of their souls. His heart’s desire for them is that they be saved. Saved? How could he say such a thing? Of course we’re saved… we’re Jews!

So the battle lines were drawn. The issue was now clarified. Were Jews saved by covenant or by faith in Jesus Christ as Paul was suggesting? Both sides had their texts. This became the hot button topic of the day. Paul writes Romans chapters 9 and 10 to answer that question.

Paul’s answer is brilliant. He refuses to pit the covenant against salvation by faith. How could he? Both were from God. Rather he says that those who are truly in the covenant are those who have faith in the Messiah. But this raises a question: what about Jews who are circumcised and are obedient to Moses yet don’t believe? Paul, aren’t they in the covenant by virtue of their bloodline?

Well . . . no.

Paul’s argument is brilliant. He basically says that the Jews had a misunderstanding of what constituted a real Jew. Not all ethnic Israelites, he says, are part of the true Israel (vs. 6). A Jew, to be a true son of Abraham, must have the faith of Abraham. Paul had made this point back in chapter 4. Abraham was justified because he “believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness” (Gen 15:6). A true Israelite was one who had true faith. The logical conclusion of this was that not every circumcised Jew was a true Jew. Paul will spend the next verses in Romans 9 showing that both Ishmael and Esau, both circumcised Jews, were not members of God’s covenant.

So is Paul saying that faith is the determining factor as to whether one is or is not a member of the covenant? Well, yes and no. Faith is the visible manifestation that a man is part of the covenant but not the effectual cause of covenant membership. Remember neither Jacob nor Esau exercised faith when their status was declared by God. They were still in the womb. Neither was able to believe anything. Yet God placed Jacob in the Covenant and left Esau outside. So, says Paul, the determining factor of whether or not someone is in the covenant is the very will of God. To prove this Paul quotes Exodus. God will have mercy on whomever He will have mercy. God has compassion on whomever He has compassion. God is the sole Determiner of who is part of the covenant and who is not. Paul calls it election.

But Paul must stop and make something perfectly clear. Belief in the gospel must be an absolute necessity for anyone to be justified. Yes, says Paul, is it absolutely necessary. Faith is the outward sign that someone has been chosen by God; in other words, any elect person will display saving faith. Jesus once said you could not see the wind but you can certainly know it’s there. You can feel it. So too you can see the effects of election. Election cannot be seen but it always shows itself by what it produces, faith.

The implications of this are worked out in chapter 10 of Romans. If God chooses who will have faith then let us simply sit back and let God do the work. No, no, says Paul. He takes his readers back to chapter 1 of this very letter. He had begun this letter by saying that the gospel message was the very “power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (1:16). In order for someone to believe they must believe the gospel. Paul has come full circle. He has brought the gospel back to the place of centrality. The gospel must be preached because the gospel is the instrument whereby people believe, which demonstrates their election by God.

This is all bad news to Jews who are resting on their ethnicity. It is also bad news for nice people today who rest on their good works or membership in a certain community thinking they are guaranteed a place in glory. Romans 9 takes salvation out of the hands of man. Romans 10 puts the process squarely back into man’s hands. God chooses and man preaches. Neither can be omitted. What a beautiful plan this is! And guess what? Chapter 11 says God is not done with the Jews after all. All they must do is believe the gospel and they are saved. And when they do, they are true sons of Israel.

“So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (Gal 3:9). Amen.