Introduction

In order to understand Scripture rightly, we have to understand the flow of redemptive history. God’s revelation to us is progressive, and it unfolds over centuries. If we treat the Bible as the book that fell from the sky, we are going to have a terrible time comprehending it rightly. The works of God’s judgments and deliverances are sequential.

The Text

“As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved . . .” (Rom. 9:25-29).

Summary of the Text

In this short passage, we have four quotations, two from Hosea and two from Isaiah. This is a good place to let the apostle instruct us on what the two prophets were talking about. We have just learned in the previous verse that the vessels of mercy included the Gentiles (v. 24). Paul then confirms this by saying that Hosea predicted it by saying that God will take those who were not His people and make them His people (v. 25; Hos. 2:23). He follows it up with another citation. Those who were called not the people of God would be accepted as children (v. 26; Hos. 1:10). Isaiah cries out concerning Israel—even though the children of Israel were as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant would be saved (vv. 27-28; Is. 10:22-23). Isaiah had made the previous point that unless God saved a remnant, the Jews would have been wiped out just like Sodom and Gomorrah had been (v. 29; Is. 1:9).

Summary of the Citations

If you read carefully through the first two chapters of Hosea, this is what you will find. God takes Israel as a bride, and just as Hosea found Gomer unfaithful, so God found Israel unfaithful. Because of this, God put Israel away entirely (Hos. 1:6), but will have limited mercy on Judah (Hos. 1:7). Then those who were put away for their apostasy (and called “not God’s people) will again be called God’s people. This is the doctrine of the remnant followed by the full restoration. Paul also quotes Hosea on this restoration in a way that includes the Gentiles in it (Hos. 2:23). The restoration of Israel (utterly put away) means that other nations can come to the Lord also. Note the phrase comparing Israel to the sands of the sea (Hos. 1:10).

Isaiah uses the same expression—the sand of the sea—and says that even though Israel be of that great number, a remnant shall return to the Lord (Is. 10:22). The Lord will make short work of it in a decisive judgment (Is. 10:23). Paul is not dragging the Gentiles into this without warrant because just a few verses later, Isaiah himself includes the Gentiles (Is. 11:9-10). This is not conjecture, because Paul himself quotes this verse later in Romans while justifying the mission to the Gentiles (Rom. 15:12). In short, Paul is not prooftexting here—he is appealing to a sustained vision from the Old Testament. And then of course we see what a great mercy that gift of a remnant was (Is. 1:9).

Redemptive Timeline

Put all this together, and what do we have? The nation of Israel was called out from the nations to become and be a light for the nations. Though they grew and flourished numerically (sand of the sea), they consistently went astray, again and again, as anyone who has read their Old Testament knows. We have a history of cyclic apostasies and restorations. This typological pattern climaxed when the Messiah came. The vast majority of Israel fell away, and God spared a remnant. That remnant was to be used in such a way that the Gentiles would come to the Messiah, and then all Israel would eventually return, resulting in a huge blessing for the entire world (Rom. 11:15).

Remember Your Place In the Story

Now take what this means at the simplest level. It means that the ratio of saved to lost varies widely based on what moment in redemptive history we are dealing with. We cannot take particular passages like “many are saved but few are chosen,” universalize them for all time, and make them a permanent fixture. It is not playing fast and loose with the text to contextualize it.

Narrow the Way

For example, if you were to say to someone that you believed that the vast majority of the human race will be saved (as you should believe), the first thing you will hear is that the Bible says that the way is narrow, and only a few find it (Matt. 7:13-14). But remember the remnant. What are the remnant? The few who find it. What else are they? They are first century Jews. Consider it this way—with comments interspersed.

“Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate [through which the remnant enters]: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able [the majority of unbelieving Israel falls away]. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets [the streets of first century Israel, remember]. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out [the kingdom is taken from the Jews and given to those who will bear the fruit of it (Matt 21:43)]. 29And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God [the Gentiles will flood in and sit down with the patriarchs and with the remnant]. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last” (Luke 13:23-30).

Introduction

It may not be immediately obvious, but it appears as though the apostle Paul painted himself into a corner. He began to wax a little too eloquent at the end of chapter 8, showing how absolutely nothing can separate the elect of God from the love of Christ. Who can lay a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. But the problem is that Israel was the elect nation of God, and the Jews had spent a great deal of time and energy chasing Paul around the Mediterranean, trying to kill him. What about that? Maybe something can separate us from the love of God? Couldn’t it be whatever it was that separated the unbelieving Jews? No, Paul replies.

The Text

“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 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. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel” (Rom. 9:1-6)

Summary of the Text

Paul begins with a solemn oath. He is telling the truth in Christ, and not lying (v. 1). His conscience is also testifying (in the Holy Spirit) that he is speaking the truth (v. 1). The thing he testifies to is the fact that he is constantly burdened with sorrow (v. 2). And it is a great heaviness and a continual sorrow. He wishes that it were somehow possible for him to be accursed and separated from Christ for the sake of his kinsman, whom he calls his brethren (v. 3). More specifically, he is referencing the Israelites (v. 4). These Israelites have many privileges indeed —they have the adoption (v. 4), the (Shekinah) glory (v. 4), the covenants (v. 4), the giving of the law (v. 4), the service or worship of God (v. 4), the promises (v. 4), the fathers (v. 5), and the fact that they were the people from whom Christ came in the flesh (v. 5). This Christ is over all things, and blessed God forever (v. 5). But don’t draw the wrong conclusion from this. The conclusion that must not be drawn is that the word of God was ineffectual (v. 6). And he gives the solution in brief summary, a solution to be developed at length in the following argument. Not all those who are of Israel are Israel. There is a two-tiered membership in Israel, just as there is a two-tiered membership in the new Israel.

The Love of Paul

We see here in Paul the heart of a true pastor. It is ironic that Paul is accused of being an enemy of the Torah, because he here shows himself to be animated by the same spirit as animated Moses. “Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin–; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written” (Ex. 32:32). Paul wanted to be lost if that would save the Israelites, and Moses wanted to be lost along with the Israelites if God would not forgive them. The same spirit is very clearly there.

There are two instructive things here. The first is that Paul knew for a fact that what he wanted was impossible. He has just finished teaching us that it was impossible. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ—not even our desire for those who are outside to come in. And second, it is crucial for us to see that Paul is no fatalist, surrendering limply to the decrees of God. He knows that God is sovereign, and he does not rail against that sovereignty. But he also knows that he loves his kinsmen. Belief in the sovereignty of God does not turn us into blocks of wood or stone.

A Second Pass on the Argument

Earlier in Romans, Paul had outlined the great blessings that the Jews had (Rom. 3:1-2). He is doing it again here, and to much the same effect. . . .

What value is there in being a Jew? Much in every way. All the things that Paul recites here are in the same vein as his earlier rehearsal of this reality. God values the objective gifts that He gives to His people, even if individuals within that people do not believe. These are true gifts, and the world is blessed through them—adoption, glory, covenants, the law, ministry, promises, and the fathers.

Objective and Subjective Grace

We learn from Paul not to set the gifts of God at odds with one another. They occupy different places—why should they be at odds? Objective grace and subjective reception of grace are both from God, and they each depend on one another. Possession of objective grace is not grounds for rejecting the need for subjective grace. Possession of subjective grace is not grounds for rejecting the need for objective grace. Are you saved? Praise and thank God for it, but you still need the church, the sacraments, the ministry, the covenant, the preaching of the Word. Are you a church member, the fifteenth in a line of Christians going way back? Well and good, but you still must be born again.

Israel and New Israel

It is not possible to read the Old Testament without coming to the conclusion that there were Jews and then there were faithful Jews. There were the people who were kept by the covenant, and then there was group within that first group who kept the covenant they were kept by. Paul divides them in this way—he says there is one group that is of Israel, and another group that is Israel. Hearkening back to his earlier statement of this, a true Jew is one who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit.

Now there are many differences between the administration of God’s grace in the Old Testament and New, and this is not one of them. It is astounding how many interpreters of Scripture can read the plain statements of the apostles in a way that is 180 degrees out from what it actually says. We must be emphasized because if we don’t get it, we are going to be absolutely lost in chapters 9 through 11. We tend to draw contrasts between the old Israel and the new Israel at just the point where the apostles draw parallels. Consider the warnings of 1 Cor. 10: 6, 11-12, and Hebrews 3:7-14ff.

And so we take the lesson. Not all who are of the Church are the Church—even though they are.