The Christ Church Wednesday Bible Study Group is now in a detailed study of Paul's epistle to the church in Rome. These are the notes for Session 12.
Paul’s primary purpose in writing Romans was to teach the great truths of the gospel of grace to believers who had never received apostolic instruction. Unlike with some of Paul’s other epistles, his purpose for writing Romans was not to correct detestable theology or rebuke ungodly living. The Roman church was doctrinally sound, but, like all churches, it was in need of the rich doctrinal and practical instruction this letter provides.
Romans 9–11 is one of the most fascinating passages in the New Testament, filled with essential and very practical doctrine and focused on Israel, God’s chosen people. With profound wisdom and holy reason, Paul demonstrates that our sovereign God will be faithful to keep all His promises and that Israel still has a future in the purposes of God.
This Jewish apostle to the Gentiles, however, wanted to clarify some truths regarding Israel and her people as well as contradict some prevailing false-hoods over which many Christians (especially Jewish believers) were stumbling. Specifically Paul wanted to address the question of whether, in light of Christ’s offer of salvation to all Gentiles, the Jews had been forsaken by God as a people. Did they still have a unique place or purpose in God’s plan of redemption?
Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles. So he explains how God’s plan for the Jews agreed with his plan for the Gentiles too.
Click below to read my notes.
Romans 9:22-23 NLT 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. 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.
Verses 22-23 God has the right to show his anger and his power. But he has been very patient with the people who oppose him. He has delayed the time for judgement. He has given them more opportunity to repent.
II Peter 3:8-9 NKJV But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
But God is preparing for glory for the people who have received his mercy. These people will see God’s glory. And they will share it themselves. We read about that week before last.
Romans 8:17-18 NKJV and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Romans 8:17-18 NLT And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.
Verses 24-26 Paul includes himself with the Jews to whom God has shown mercy. But Paul then says that Gentiles have become God’s children too.
Romans 9:24-26 NKJV even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved.” “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
Paul uses words from the prophet Hosea. You remember our study of Hosea.
Hosea 1:3-9 NKJV So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to him: “Call his name Jezreel, For in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It shall come to pass in that day That I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.” And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him: “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, But I will utterly take them away. Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, Will save them by the Lord their God, And will not save them by bow, Nor by sword or battle, By horses or horsemen.” Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then God said: “Call his name Lo-Ammi, For you are not My people, And I will not be your God.
He named the second child Lo-ruhamah. This name For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, But I will utterly take them away. Hosea named the third child Lo-ammi, which means ‘not my people’.
These children were signs that Israel had not been loyal to God. But in the future, God would be able to call Israel ‘my people’. And at that time, God would show real love to them.
Hosea 2:23 NKJV Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”
Hosea was speaking about Israel in his time. Paul saw Hosea’s words as a prophecy. The Gentiles would also be people whom God loved. And Paul could see that this was starting to happen by means of his own work among the Gentiles.
Romans 9:27-29 NKJV Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.” And as Isaiah said before: “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
Verses 27-29 God has promised many wonderful things to the Jews. And he will do the things that he has promised to do.
Isaiah 10:20-23 NKJV And it shall come to pass in that day That the remnant of Israel, And such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, Will never again depend on him who defeated them, But will depend on the Lord , the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, To the Mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, A remnant of them will return; The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord God of hosts Will make a determined end In the midst of all the land.
Verses 27-28 Isaiah wrote at the time when an army from Assyria was attacking Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel. God had promised to Abraham that his descendants would be very many. Nobody would be able to count them, like the sand by the sea, but because of their sin, God was using Assyria to punish the people in Israel. So only a few of them would remain
Verse 29 When God destroyed the wicked cities called Sodom and Gomorrah, their punishment was total. Nothing remained in those places. Everybody from those cities died (except for Lot and his two daughters). So the people from Sodom and Gomorrah had no descendants. Their punishment was sudden and final.
But God did not deal with the Israelites in the same manner. Their evil deeds had become very severe at the time of Isaiah. And Isaiah warned them that they would suffer a terrible punishment. But God still had a plan for the Israelites. So the punishment would not be total or final. He would allow them to have descendants.
Isaiah 1:9 NKJV Unless the Lord of hosts Had left to us a very small remnant, We would have become like Sodom, We would have been made like Gomorrah.
Isaiah gave his son the name, Shear-jashub.
Isaiah 7:3 NKJV Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field,
This name means ‘those who remain will return.’ The name was a sign to the king and to the people. If they trusted God, some Jews would remain free to return to their country.
For Paul, Isaiah’s words were a prophecy that many Jews would not trust God. Only a few would accept his son and avoid judgement. These few would ‘return’ to God to obey him. And by them, God would carry out his promise to save the Jews.
Romans 9:30-33 NKJV What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
Verses 30-31 Paul contrasts Jews and Gentiles. Gentiles had not been looking for a way to have a right relationship with God. But when they discovered the gospel, they accepted it by faith. But most Jews thought that they could earn their way to heaven by obeying the law. So they tried to obey the law. They thought that God would accept them because of their good deeds. But because they could never be perfect, they could never receive a right relationship with God. They ought to have accepted the gospel by faith, as the Gentiles were doing. The gospel is for everyone, both Jews and Gentiles. Nobody can earn salvation by means of their own efforts.
Verses 32-33 Most Jews did not accept God’s offer to forgive them, although Christ died for them. Paul says that the message about the cross was like a stone.
I Corinthians 1:25 NKJVBecause the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
A large stone can be useful. It can become a strong base for a building. But that stone is not useful to a person who does not recognise its value. That stone may cause trouble. Someone may trip over it. And so the person who believes the message about the cross benefits from that message. But the same message causes trouble for the person who refuses to believe it.
Paul combines two prophecies in Isaiah.
He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Isaiah 8:14 NKJV
Isaiah 8:14 describes God as a rock that could provide Israel with a place of safety. But if they refuse his offer of security, they will suffer. They will be like someone who falls over a rock.
Isaiah 28:16 speaks about a stone that is the most important stone in the building. It is the corner stone that joins two walls together.
Isaiah 28:16 NKJV Therefore thus says the Lord God : “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily.
Psalm 118:22 speaks about a stone. The builders thought that it had no value. But it became the most important stone in the building.
Psalms 118:22 NKJV The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
Jesus used these words about himself in the parable of the wicked vinedressers Matthew 21:33-42
Matthew 21:42-44 NKJV Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord ’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’ ? “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”
Peter combined the words from Isaiah with Psalm 118:22 when he wrote about Christ and his church.
I Peter 2:4-8 NKJV Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
Christ will never disappoint those who trust in him. Another translation of Isaiah 28:16 is: ‘Those who trust in God will not be in a hurry.’ They will not rush about in fear when other people are afraid. Instead, they will trust that God will carry out his plans.
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