CHAPTER 9
Paul has shown in chapters 1-8 how the outworking of divine purpose now proceeds at a heavenly rather than at a natural level. The gospel shows the difference between the flesh and the Spirit, the old creation and the new. God is now working in the world to raise men out of it spiritually, to live in the life of Christ under the influence of the Spirit in the heavenly places while still living in the flesh in the world. In chapters 9-11 Paul speaks of his brethren according to the flesh. His gospel reveals how God first dealt with man in the flesh, interpreting history from God’s viewpoint. Again, that which was spiritual was the ultimate reality lying behind that which was natural. From God’s first intervention in Abraham’s experience to its culmination in the formation of the nation, His dealings with men are only comprehensible when the existence of the spiritual is seen behind that which is outward. The old creation is purposeless in itself but God called and used men as vessels of His power in it as He saw fit. Divine purpose according to election, the calling out of a people, was in mind in His activity in the natural realm.
Verse 1 “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.”
Paul speaks from the thoughts and feelings of his heart, from the christian position into which he had perfectly entered. Now he could understand what was truly involved in Israel’s nationhood. The truth in Christ and a good conscience in the Holy Spirit summarises the christian position and the spiritual state which results from it. Truth concerns divine revelation, that which is of the God of full revelation in the world in the present. The conscience is the spiritual ability of the new nature in us, itself a product of truth. The two eternally purposeful things of God in the world now are the Word of God and the new nature which can comprehend it. Paul now acted as possessing the knowledge of revealed truth by the power of the Holy Spirit in him. This activity took the form of words, that which Paul sets out in these chapters. The New Testament is in fact the key which interprets the Old. Paul had acquired the fulness of the knowledge of good and evil. Consequently he could put the true interpretation upon the Old Testament, rather than a spiritually defective natural interpretation as hitherto. His conscience bore witness in the Holy Spirit of the reality of that which he had received in departing from naturalistic Judaism and embracing spiritual Christianity.
Verse 2 “That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.”
He first bore witness, by his spiritual enlightenment, that he had great grief and uninterrupted pain in his heart. Though he was filled with all knowledge of God’s will and was full of peace, knowing how eternal blessedness was being secured by God, he had these other emotions also. The knowledge which he had received imposed a great spiritual burden upon him. Great grief lies upon the heart of the spiritual man while he sees humanity still suffering and living in spiritual ignorance despite the coming of the gospel. Paul’s gospel has not as yet produced the full and final effects in the world for which God has given it. Thus unceasing pain remains in the heart of those who come to realise how God is working and will work in the gospel for the sake of eternal purpose. Divine purpose is not yet fully realised on earth, even though God has given to man the means by which he can complete the work still remaining. Such sorrow will only be turned into complete joy when God’s kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
Verse 3 “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
Israel is crucial to the realisation of divine purpose. Such purpose demands that the remnant be saved and then that the whole nation be saved. Paul therefore went on wishing that he himself might be accursed from the Christ for his brethren. Though he was himself in Christ and the Holy Spirit was in him, Paul was wishing that he might give this up if thereby his Jewish kinsmen might realise the truth. This corresponds to the case of Moses when the nation in the wilderness rebelled in their spiritual ignorance. The spiritual man knows that the nation, and not merely the individual, is all-important to God for the coming of blessing to men. Paul so realised the blessedness of his new spiritual position that he wished to change places with his brethren spiritually. They remained accursed despite the finished work of Christ and the giving of the Holy Spirit.
Two things are involved, therefore, in the present work of the gospel. God is introducing man into the highest spiritual realm, that which the Christ occupies at the right hand of God. By the gospel, God will also enlighten Israel concerning the past and how the promises can be fulfilled. It is abundantly clear that Paul has in mind the fleshly nation of Israel. This aspect of the gospel is concerned with the Jew and not the Gentile. The power of the gospel has yet to enlighten the Jew as to eternal realities. It is not a question of converting the Jews to Christianity. That had already been accomplished, even in Rome. The gospel shall yet perfect the Jew spiritually. This was the great task which Paul viewed as remaining to be accomplished. The only way which Paul saw of assuaging the sorrow of his heart was to see the Jews in Christ nationally.
Verse 4 “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.”
Paul then declares the reason why the Jewish nation is of eternal significance. He shows what really constitutes their nationhood and characterised it Godwardly. These privileges ought to have prepared them to accept the virtue of the work of God in Christ and in the giving of the Spirit.
They are the Israelites, the prince with God. The name which God had conferred upon those who were to be the people who served His purpose on earth was invested in them nationally. In giving them this name, God had committed Himself to the completing of the work through them by which His reign of blessing will be established amongst the other nations.
Whose is the sonship? Sonship declares their ideal relationship toward God. “Out of Egypt have I called my son”. These two characteristics and privileges declare the position which God had called them to hold in the world. They were a nation for God and were so for the ultimate blessing of all. Divine sonship on earth remains theirs, however far short of the spiritual ideal they have come. The church will be the heavenly brethren of the Christ. Israel will be, by the gospel, His fellow sons on earth. Our sonship is in the heavens. Theirs is on earth. Sonship in both cases is, however, spiritual and not natural.
Theirs is the glory. The Shekinah, the presence of God on earth, is theirs. It was with them when they were His people in reality on earth. The privilege and the glorious ideal still remains. Israel shall yet be, by the gospel, a people who contain the presence of the God of self-revelation on earth. Then they shall know God fully.
The covenant remains theirs, despite the fact that they refused the gospel and its initial presentation and that it has gone forth to effect an eternal work amongst the nations. By the covenants, God entered into a fixed relationship toward them. Thus He bound Himself to them. The effectiveness of the bond was and is, however, conditional. It is dependent upon their obedience to it for it to be functional. The lawgiving, rather than the law itself, still appertains to their nationhood. God counted them worthy of the glory by entrusting to them His holy oracles and statutes. The giving of the law to Israel is a divine means for an eternal end. This shall yet be realised by the gospel. God’s Word will accomplish that whereunto He has sent it, Isa.55:11.
The service, or worship, of the God of the Old Testament yet belongs to them. By the gospel they shall yet come to worship God in spirit and in truth. Then they shall see the spiritual realities set forth in the types and shadows of the ordinances of their divine service. It was their official national honour to serve God in holy things, that they might respond to His ways with them according to divinely appointed priests and Levites etc. They were called and gifted nationally to be Jehovah’s servant, that He might be worshipped and known in truth in creation.
Theirs are the promises. God has promised both to bless them and to bless all the nations in them. The promises of God stand sure because God is a faithful God. He has acquired in the gospel the means by which the given promises will be fulfilled.
Verse 5 “Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.”
The fathers, the patriarchs, are theirs. It is not merely that the fathers were theirs. This still remains a spiritual fact. They were men selected from all other men. They responded aright to receive both the birthright and the blessing. That which was of the fathers remains for their enjoyment. These men responded aright to God and thereby received spiritual realities which still exist, despite their failure concerning the gospel. As sons, the Jewish nation bears the spiritual dignity and responsibility placed upon the fathers in the world. The fathers demonstrated by their lives and work the possibilities which the God of revelation had opened up to humanity.
Finally, and greatest of all, the Christ is theirs according to flesh. Their having the Messiah is the epitome of all blessing. He is its repository. The Jewish race is all that God revealed it to be, according to the ideal and in spiritual potential, because the coming of the Messiah was to set God’s seal upon it. All the promises were to be realised and the nation made perfect for God through Christ. Paul, however, qualifies his description of the way in which the Christ is said to be theirs. He belongs to the Jewish nation according to flesh in His life in flesh in the world. His coming to them in flesh represented their highest privilege and was the time of their greatest opportunity. Again, this shows the two different ways in which the nation might have regarded their nationhood and its blessings. There is the fleshly and the spiritual, the natural and the eternal.
In the previous part of his epistle Paul had shown that the true christian relationship toward God and its blessedness is solely according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. That this was in fact characteristic of Israel’s position in true reality Paul proceeds to show in chapters 9-11. First, however, he declares this truth as it is to be seen in the person of the Christ. He was the Jewish Christ in flesh when He lived in human life in the world. Paul’s gospel, however, reveals Him to be much more than that. He is over all, God blessed forever. The Deity of the coming Christ was revealed in the O.T. It was not, however, appreciated by the nation that the Messiah was Jehovah Himself. This appreciation came only by the Father’s revelation and not by fleshly appreciation of the letter. This is demonstrated by Peter at Caesarea Phillipi. “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but the Father”. The Christ can be appreciated according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. The Jews looked for and so could only have appreciated the Christ at a natural level. This failure by Israel to appreciate the O.T. Scriptures and the embodiment of eternal truth in the form of a Christ come in flesh, nullified all the other blessings. They failed to fulfil their true nationhood when presented with their God in fleshly form.
Verse 6 “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.”
It is not as though the Word of God has failed. The failure lay in Israel’s interpretation of it. Paul is about to show that the true interpretation of the Word of God is spiritual and not natural. There was no failure on the part of God, who had given His word to Israel that His eternal purpose might thereby be accomplished. The fleshly nation failed, despite the adequacy of God’s arrangements whereby He gave them the O.T. Scriptures within the system of Judaism. In their hands Judaism had been spiritually debased. It was merely a fleshly religion. The patriarchs were viewed as being naturally great. Sonship was fleshly, etc.
Though Israel had failed as to the Word of God, God’s purpose in giving it to them was not thwarted. The death of Christ in the flesh and the subsequent giving of the Holy Spirit emanated from their fleshly failure. Thereby the gospel has resulted and it has enlightened those of Israel who embraced it. Paul is about to prove this by the way in which he proceeds to interpret the significance of the life of the patriarchs and of the ministry of the prophets. A naturally-minded Jew would object to Paul’s gospel because of the fixed Jewish belief that they were the seed of the promise and that God had chosen them to effect His purpose by their obedience to the law. Paul had himself admitted that his brethren according to the flesh were Israelites and had the sonship, glory, covenants, etc. Now, however, Paul appears to contradict himself by revealing that not all are Israel which are of Israel. He is about to define, by reference to the O.T. what is truly involved in their nationhood Godwardly. There are two races. First, there are those who are described as being ‘of Israel’. Secondly, there is Israel. That which has resulted from the divine intervention by which the name of Israel was conferred, is not wholly of such a God. Israel, prince of God, is a spiritual reality and not a natural entity.
Verse 7 “Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called.”
Paul first shows the nature of the seed as demonstrated in Abraham and Isaac. Then in Sarah and Rebecca is shown their selection or separation. In Jacob and Esau election is set forth. In Moses and Pharaoh their development as a nation and its true significance is seen. Finally in Christ is seen their eternal significance and ultimate destiny as the children of the living God. In God’s unfolding of their history there is set forth a progressive development of God’s purposeful ways on earth, culminating in the coming of Christ and His entry into the heavens. Concomitantly, the setting aside of the flesh is also to be seen for the realisation of the purpose for which God has intervened. He communicated with the various parties presented, so that His Word gradually came to be completed. Purposefulness is not by the fleshly name (Israel signifies the setting aside of the natural strength of Jacob), nor by fleshly descent (as with Abraham’s offspring), nor by fleshly activity (Sarah), nor by natural greatness (Rebecca), nor by fleshly character (Jacob and Esau), nor by fleshly power (Pharaoh).
That the Word of God cannot fail is the second fact upon which rests Paul’s defence of his gospel as being of divine origin and effectiveness. The first is the Deity of the Christ. That the term Israel is not synonymous with the nation can be shown from the Word of God and particularly with the spiritual insight which the acceptance of Paul’s gospel gives. Just as Christ was both of the seed of David according to the flesh and according to the Spirit of holiness, so also there is an Israel which is according to flesh and a seed according to promise.
This dichotomy existed from the beginning of their history. By that which God caused to happen, and recorded in Scripture, in Abraham’s experience, a definition of children and non-children is given. Abraham produced seed which were not children by divine definition. They were so in natural but not in spiritual reality. Seed and children have resulted. The children are comprised of the seed who were called by God. “In Isaac shall thy seed be called”. It is not merely the literal name of Israel which is involved. Divine calling came in Isaac before the name Israel was given. The calling of God has to do with the realising of the promises given. The seed are called by God to become children so that they might become the means of blessing in creation. This purposefulness to God is not by fleshly descent from Abraham for it was in Isaac, to the exclusion of Ishmael, that the natural seed arose. The seed of the flesh exists to be blessed ultimately rather than to become the means of present blessing.
Verse 8 “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.”
The children of the flesh are not children of the God who appeared to Abraham. Abraham begot that which God had not begotten for His purpose. That which is merely of the flesh and not of God at all, has resulted from Abraham’s existence and activity. This is according to the outworking of divine purpose. It is thus of supreme importance to Israel to understand that which God had said concerning the events which took place. Divine childhood is defined by God, not produced by the flesh. Fleshly life now lives along with divine life in man. This is the significant factor. God had by His intervention produced children. These developed along with that which developed naturally. So there is a double seed still existing in Israel’s nationhood.
The children of the promise are counted for the seed. God has done the counting and it is of utmost importance for the nation to reckon the situation in which they are found, as God has done. It is not the child Isaac but the children of the promise who are still counted for the seed. God gave the promise concerning blessing and this produced children for God and His purpose. It is the Word of God which begets in the seed the sort of life and nationhood which is alone significant.
Verse 9 “For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.”
Paul then shows what the word of the promise really is. There was first the seed of the promise and then came the word of the promise which characterised and governed this seed. The word of the promise came concerning the woman and the divine seed which she was to produce. God revealed that He would come at a certain time in order to produce that by which the promise would be fulfilled. Until then, Abraham lacked the divine means by which the blessing should be secured. God revealed that He Himself would then come to perform the work by which the promise would be made sure. The seed of the flesh had already come. ‘First comes the natural and afterward that which is spiritual’. In Paul’s day, Israel was also to appreciate that if they failed to realise the significance of the Word of God, and hence of God’s ways of achieving His purpose, they were merely of the flesh. In that event God had not come to them in effective spiritual experience. These things were a parable of the time now present. The Word of God remains the means by which the promise is to be fulfilled.
It was at the coming of God to fulfil His Word that Sarah would have a son. It was not an accident of birth which brought Sarah a son. It is the Word of God and not the flesh which produces sons for divine purpose. The Lord Jesus declared that God could raise sons to Abraham of the stones. It posed no difficulty for God to produce Jews. The difficulty lies in the Word of God producing the desired spiritual effects in Israel. As to Sarah, God came according to the promise which was then fulfilled. God held Himself responsible for the fulfilment.
Verse 10 “And not only this; but when Rebecca also have conceived by one, even by our father Isaac.”
The case of Rebecca is also of great spiritual significance. Sarah could produce no son. Rebecca produced twins so that God’s sovereignty according to His Word might be manifested. The name of Israel was secondary, being given after the promise. Between these two things, two significant events happened to the line of promise. Abraham had two sons and Isaac had two. Thus, being the children of promise was not just a matter of fleshly descent. Further, the two wives were associated by God with the transmission of the line. More was involved than its legality. God spoke concerning the woman who had become the means by which He was securing His purpose in creation. In Rebecca’s case divine communication came after she had conceived. That is, God declared that He would intervene in this event which had already taken place. She had already conceived by one whom Paul describes as our father Isaac. The divine birthright was his and he had acted so as to transmit it. Here Paul speaks as a descendent of Isaac. Salvation is of the Jews.
Verse 11 “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.”
In Rebecca’s case, God Himself selected the son of promise before the birth. Their “being not yet born” shows that God was not dependent on fleshly power and that He was in control of that which had already happened to Rebecca – the formation of twins. That neither had done any good or evil shows that the conduct of the flesh in the matter of natural good and evil is not involved in the fulfilment of the promises. Human endeavour and merit is again shown to be set aside. God was to fulfil the promise through His own power, through the woman. He also made Himself answerable to resolve the issues of good and evil which arose. Everything depends upon God’s ability and not upon the response of the flesh.
The accomplishment of divine purpose, not the morality of the vessels, is what is of ultimate importance. These events happened as they happened, in order that the purpose of God according to election might abide. Something of eternal significance was taking place on earth by the call of God. The purpose of God in having the seed of promise is to save and bless all the nations with eternal blessedness. Election has to do with the formation of a people in whom that blessing will come. “In thy seed shall all the nations be blessed”. The purpose for which God so acted does not abide by the works of the fleshly vessels. It is of God, who has become a God who calls new things and a new order into being on earth. Election has to do with the establishing of divine purpose on earth, not with sending some to heaven and some to hell.
Verse 12 “It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.”
In order that the purpose for which God had brought about this conflict in Rebecca’s womb might be known, to us as well as the patriarchs, God spoke to Rebecca. She symbolises the true Israel with whom God was dealing in eternal purposefulness. As such she received Holy Oracles. The spiritually significant characteristics of Jacob and Esau’s existence were revealed through her, and through the prophet Malachi.
The greater was to be slave to the lesser. Now the response to divine intervention and revelation is being raised. Hence the son is brought forward, for the man symbolises responsibility. The truth of God as it then existed in the world was associated with the birthright. Esau was the greater by nature. The birthright was his by natural right as the firstborn. Yet it was God’s declared intention to reverse this order (the divine principle of the second man). This was revealed to Rebecca and not to Isaac.
However, she misunderstood the situation, believing the blessing to be more important than the birthright. The greater was to be a slave to the lesser by divine definition. That which was of lesser worldly importance was to receive the crucial birthright. Position in the new divine order was to be determined by the Word of God, given as prophecy. In Jacob God declared that what was significant for His purpose would be deposited in the lesser. This new order is the kingdom of God. Except a man be born again, that is, receive the true birthright, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
By God’s dealings, Jacob became the greater spiritually. He lived to serve the ultimate and eternal welfare of the seed which was merely of the flesh. The spiritual man lives to perform the spiritual work by which eternal blessing will be introduced into creation.
Verse 13 “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
This is the next significant truth. It was not a question of naturally good and evil deeds, as has already been revealed. The love of God is the power by which God is effecting His purpose in the present time. Divine love acted toward the spiritual man, despite his being the lesser naturally. Jacob had a proper appreciation of spiritual values and of God’s revealed Word. The hatred of God is the power by which He rejects and overcomes spiritual ignorance, that which opposes the purpose of His calling. Esau valued the birthright so little that he gave it up for a meal. He appreciated God so little that he believed He would allow one who had the birthright to perish by natural forces. Jacob appreciated the true importance of the birthright and obtained it when the opportunity was afforded. This is the character that God loves and to which He will respond. When God sees a true, spiritual response in the heart of the seed then He involves them in His eternal work. God enters into a true relationship with man when he takes up the purposeful gift which God has given, the birthright. Thereby comes the blessing.
Thus the spiritual principle is unveiled, that all relationship with God and the enjoyment of His blessing depends upon the seed having a true appreciation of that which is of God, rather than of that which is of nature. In the case of Israel finally, it was the coming of Christ according to the flesh but in the true birthright. The nation acted like Esau and sold the birthright to the true Israel, who accepted the gospel of the kingdom of God. They were forfeiting the birthright they might have received by their failure to appreciate the Christ as God had declared him to be, the Son of God in power.
Verse 14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.”
The rejection of the Christ by the Esau-like nation does not mean that the eternal purpose of God has been frustrated. This has become the means by which God is fulfilling His eternal purpose in conferring the despised birthright upon those who had no natural right to it. The gospel resulting from the fleshly Israel’s failure to live according to their true nationhood is the means by which a true Jacob is being formed in the land of the promise. This is a spiritual, not a natural realm. Such have become the beloved of God and the fleshly nation is now hated. Everything depends on Israel’s appreciation of Christ and their response to the gospel. This ends Paul’s treatise on the nature of the seed of the promise. He now sets forth the spiritual facts of the nation of Israel from its inception to its prophesied rejection, and the salvation of a remnant which forms the true Israel.
The question now raised is whether there is unrighteousness with God, that is, in the ways by which He is now outworking divine purpose. Up till now the question of good and evil had not been raised. Everything had depended upon the unconditional promise to Abraham that God would Himself bless him and make his seed the means of blessing. God had to deal with the secondary fact of sin being in the world and in the seed of the promise. Otherwise there would have been unrighteousness in Him. God appeared to have done a volte-face in ceasing to deal with the fleshly nation, if Paul’s gospel were true.
Verse 15-17
Paul here reveals the righteousness of God in accomplishing His purpose. He acts in character, according to His own nature, without compromise. First God spoke to Moses and then to Pharaoh. To Moses He revealed how He acted for ultimate good. He did so out of His mercy and compassion. The will and activity of man had no part to play in this. To Pharaoh He revealed how He was about to act against evil. He would openly exercise His power to remove that which stood between Him and the realising of His eternal purpose in creation. Again it is the will of God alone which is in exercise. The good which He is to establish is eternal, as is the power by which He will accomplish it.
At the beginning of the chapter Paul spoke of relationships with God after the flesh and after the Spirit. Then he spoke of natural and spiritual blessings, then of the children of the flesh and of the promise. Paul now speaks of the two different realms in which God acts, providence and promise, or the old creation and the new. Moses illustrates man at his most blessed in the sphere of promise. He was a man to whom God acted in manifestation of His own mercy and compassion. Pharaoh represents man at his greatest and most responsible in the government of the old creation. God’s will is supreme in both spheres. Then Paul proceeds to show that God’s dealings with men can only be understood when His eternal purpose is known.
In that day God was intervening in the world to bring the seed of promise, the nation of His purpose, into a realm in which He could fully bless them. A great obstacle existed in the old creation which would have prevented this. This was the sin which had involved humanity in the power of evil. This power acted in Pharaoh. God had therefore to resolve the conflict between good and evil. This demands the exercise of two of God’s attributes, mercy in compassion and power in wrath.
The way in which God acts to secure His designs is illustrated in Moses and Pharaoh to show that there is no unrighteousness in God. Without divine intervention, all men would have ended up fitting themselves for wrath. God acts, however, to fit some to be vessels for glory. Thereby He is perfecting a people for the mediation of eternal blessings in creation.
Verse 15 “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.”
God spoke to Moses. God has determined to realise divine purpose by becoming a God who reveals His Person and work to men. Apart from revelation all would have been lost, for humanity is governed by forces of evil in whose powers he is helpless. Now, however, eternal power came to him from God assuming this form. The Word of God is eternal and, in its coming to man, that which is uncreated and supernatural has come into the world.
“I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy”. God continues to be what He is, the unchanging One. He is acting accordingly toward men involved in sin and evil and hence in need of His mercy. His mercy is not drawn forth by good or virtue in its objects in the world. God reveals that He will have mercy. He has committed Himself to this, to blessing man who is unworthy of it due to his spiritual failure. The mercy is divine mercy and not merely ridding man of natural guilt. His pledge of future mercy is present mercy. This rests upon His faithfulness to the promise given to Moses concerning Israel. God will in the future have mercy upon this people in that He may fulfil to them the ultimate eternal good which He had promised in Abraham and his seed, despite the present failings of the nation. He declares that He was having mercy upon them at that time in order to begin their history as the nation of His purpose. Eternal power in divine mercy laid hold upon a nation in helpless bondage in the world.
God also declares that He will have compassion on whom He is having compassion. The compassions of God are heavenly and eternal rather than earthly and natural. The power of divine love to effect God’s purpose had descended upon them to begin in them a work which would continue in them until the purpose for which God had formed a seed would be completed. They had been made a nation in Egypt for God. Yet they had not power to bring themselves into the land. They could not come by their own power into a spiritual state in which they could be profitable to divine purpose. Hence the compassion of God. This did not given them worldly power to free themselves from Egypt. Divine mercy and compassion upon Israel took the form of Moses and the Word of God which he brought. To this God could in perfect righteousness respond so as to bless them, but not for any merit in the nation, even though it was the seed of promise. God was thus righteous in His dealings with them and was not in any way compromising with sin in the nation.
Verse 16 “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.”
In this verse Paul sets forth the righteous basis upon which God acted toward Israel for His purpose. The power for this does not come from the will of man. The issues involved in Israel’s nationhood are eternal. The flesh cannot will to do the will of God. Thus God is not appealing to a will which is spiritually defective. The ways by which God is achieving His declared objectives are such as to set aside fleshly wisdom and power. God cannot be accused, therefore, of acting unrighteously for the sake of acquiring that which He has willed in Himself. The natural man received not the things of the Spirit of God. The true seed was not born of the will of man but of the Word of God. God has divine mercy and compassion on the spiritual seed but thereby does not favour what they are in the flesh in the present world.
God did not increase the natural might of the chosen seed to enable it to pursue the path of His will in a fleshly way. Otherwise He would have been acting in partiality and unrighteousness. It is not of him that runneth. Man’s fleshly exertions do not further divine purpose. Thus everything is made dependent upon God, the God who has become the God who acted in mercy.
Verse 17 “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.”
God also communicated with Pharaoh by means of Holy Oracles. The Scriptures spoke to him, rather than merely of him. God’s intervention to fulfil the promise was in a world in which man was involved in sin. God had, however, formed the nations of earth and given them authority to rule at a natural level. Further, He had formed them with the express intention of blessing them. He could not, however, do so directly without resolving the problem of their sin and involvement in evil. Otherwise He would have been acting unrighteously.
The Word of God, given through Moses, was also addressed to Pharaoh. God was intervening openly at the natural level in which Pharaoh legitimately ruled. “Even for this purpose have I raised thee up”. He was raised up by God to the throne of Egypt, rather than being raised up as a man on earth. God’s eternal purpose, the government of the nations, was also involved in that providential act. The ultimate rule of God in universal blessing will be the reign of revealed eternal truth, known and obeyed universally. This was and is Israel’s business. Until such a time as the kingdom of God in its ultimate form is established universally, God raises up the Pharaohs and the Caesars of this present age.
God declared to Pharaoh that He had raised him up to show His power in him, etc. The Scriptures might (and may still in our day) have been interpreted in two ways:
a. as a warning not to resist the God of Moses, who was claiming Israel for His special spiritual purposes. If Pharaoh used his divinely given position to exercise his power against this Word of God, then God would openly display His exceeding power on earth, or
b. if Pharaoh were to accept the authority of Scripture aright, then God’s name might have thereby been declared throughout all the earth. Opportunity was given to Pharaoh by the Scripture to use his position in the world in favour of ultimate good. Or he could use it to become more involved in spiritual evil by acting contrarily to God’s revealed purpose. Pharaoh was afforded access to the Word of God by which divine purpose shall be realised. This still remains true in that the nations of the earth now have at their disposal the completed Word of God. This imposes a new, spiritual, responsibility upon them. Pharaoh might have acted so as to enthrone the God of Scripture or to enthrone himself by his natural power, believing it to be purposeful in itself.
Verse 18 “Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.”
The conclusion to be drawn from the record of God’s ways with the nation of Israel and with Pharaoh is that God is righteous in having mercy and in hardening. The former has to do with His power to establish ultimate good, the latter with His effective power to overcome spiritual evil in its present workings. For man to receive the Word of God as such and to respond to it spiritually is the means of his obtaining present mercy from God. To resist His revealed will and misunderstand the Scriptures produces hardening. Mercy is wholly of God and from God. Hardening comes initially from man’s spiritual failure. Hardening does not mean that God forces certain people into a course of resistance to His will. Man is hardened in an evil course already determined by himself. Despite, and even because of, God’s activity in patience and longsuffering in creation to ensure the ultimate destiny of creation, the evil hearts of the nations are hardened in their spiritual resistance. The mercy shown to the true Israel does not break down the power of the spirit of evil which now acts in the world. The wisdom of God is folly to man and His power is weakness to them in their spiritual ignorance. This is the situation in which God intervened to secure His eternal purpose. The present hardening of man’s heart is a token of his spiritual failure but is according to the will of God. God has acted in giving His Word to man to secure the means of ultimate blessing in those who obtain mercy. Meanwhile, the nations live on in spiritual vanity despite this.
Verse 19 “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will?”
Paul then deals with an objection that might be raised to this doctrine of the irresistability of God’s will now governing creation. Paul addresses the objectors as “thou” in contrast to “we” in verse 14. Here it is an objection of unbelief. If God’s will determines everything, why does He charge men with failure when the issues are outside their control? When men resist, the will of God is still being performed. By His will they are hardened. Does God use men and then accuse them of failure? Paul deals with the question of spiritual rather than moral responsibility in the face of the sovereignty of God. Paul’s answer to this accusation of perversity shows that there is no unrighteousness in God. He expands the subject even further, even as a result of this spiritual ignorance which poses the question. Man has now a bilateral place and function in creation as a result of the giving of the Word of God. It is, according to Paul’s gospel, impossible for man now to resist the fulfilment of God’s will, whether he acts for ultimate good or in the power of fully developed spiritual error.
Verse 20 “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?”
In verses 20-22 Paul presents man as a creature of the Creator-God, formed out of the ground as vessels of clay. In that natural order God sets them as He pleases, to perform a special function according to His choice and designs. At that level man is like any other physical creature in living-soul-life, set within creation and unable by his powers to rise above that which is natural. This is because the power of spiritual evil is, according to God’s will, still superior to man’s. In the realm of creation and providence man can reply or respond to God resistantly, questioning His wisdom in allowing or causing creation to get into its present futile state. Such a man replies against God. Belief in God in present experience should cause him to accept that things are as they are by the intent of a God who can do exactly what He chooses to do. The spiritually rebellious act from a wrong conception of God. They regard Him as being a victim of circumstances as they are themselves.
Paul describes man in nature, in its present disorder, as a being formed by God. He is God’s natural handiwork, living in a creation intentionally subjected to vanity in the present. Such a man has become such a failure Godwardly and so wise in his own conceits, that he attributes folly and weakness to God because of the character of His work in the old creation. “Why didst Thou make me thus?” Such a man cannot understand why a God who could supposedly perform exactly what He desired, made man naturally weak in the face of his intractable problems. He is obsessed with what he is rather than with the purpose which God shall achieve by doing what He has done. He asks the wrong questions, seeing he regards the issues in which he is involved from his own point of view. He has not a divine regard for truth, being obsessed with his own will.
Verse 21 “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?”
To illustrate the way in which God acts in the sphere of creation to bring about conditions which are favourable for His eternal purpose, Paul uses the figure of the potter. The clay is man as formed from the dust of the ground and set into creation to fulfil a natural function. Men are born essentially unequal in this realm, with regard to natural gifts and talents. In nature it is not apparent why God has acted in such apparent unrighteousness. God does not appear to be a just God in the world in its present state. His justification for so acting only becomes apparent in His words, particularly in the gospel. Here Paul sets forth the authority of the potter. God has the whole situation under His control even if it would appear that He shows favouritism to some men in the present time.
God makes the same lump of common human nature, one vessel to honour and one to dishonour. Again Paul presents the natural work of God in a figure, as it appears to men on earth. The vessel of honour is the naturally great, highly talented man of earth. In fact it is the intellectual, powerful and cultured who are more readily governed by sin and the spirit of evil. God had the new creation and its spiritual state in His mind when He created the old. Natural purposefulness does not now appear in the old so that when the work of the God of revelation is completed an eternal order shall be established. Yet it is necessary for the establishment of present rule in creation that God should form vessels of honour in it.
Verse 22 “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.”
God is minded to show wrath and make His power known. Paul now sets forth the work of God in the world to effect His ultimate designs. The will of God is to show and make known in creation the power which justifies Him in all His deeds. The wrath is the power which has accumulated in God because of evil and its anti-purposeful activity in the world. The spirit of evil has acted in the vessel of honour, causing men to be governed by spiritual pride, as in Pharaoh. Here the plural is used to show that Pharaoh’s exemplified principles act in other men also. The wrath of God was shown, in illustration, in Egypt, after Pharaoh acted in spiritual pride – in a Satan-like way – contrary to the Spirit of revealed truth. This, however, afforded God the opportunity of introducing to earth His wrath, by which spiritual evil is overcome. In Egypt God brought about conditions in which He would act to overthrow evil in creation when evil in its power and wisdom had come to govern vessels of honour. There God made known His eternal power to effect His purpose and promises. It acted upon Israel, who had become slaves in the world’s system. As a result God acquired a people for His purpose, to whom He gave the Scriptures.
God endured in much patience vessels of wrath. He exercised His longsuffering patience while such conditions prevailed amongst the nations in the time of spiritual ignorance. This also declares the righteousness of God’s activities. He remained so intent upon achieving His declared purpose that He endured this state of affairs which He might easily have ended by means of open judgment. If He had done so it would have been an admission that He had made a mistake in creating and that the powers which act in the world had got out of hand. God’s righteous activity will however ensure that the purpose for which He endured such a state of affairs will be realised.
It is not God who fitted men to be vessels of wrath unto destruction by the display of His eternal power. The vessels made unto honour who resist God’s revealed will in spiritual pride fit themselves as vessels of wrath. They become vessels of spiritual evil in the conflict between good and evil instead of devoting themselves to natural honour. God’s governmental wrath descended upon such a vessel in Egypt. Paul’s gospel unveils the true spiritual significance of the O.T. and also gives the eternal explanation of the necessity of evil and present imperfection in nature.
Verse 23 “And that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory.”
Paul now sets forth the positive effects produced by God’s righteousness in mercy. Israel was a slave nation before God acted upon it. Man as a natural vessel has not the capacity to hold the riches of the glory of God. God acted as He did to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels fitted by His mercy to contain such knowledge. This sets forth the spiritual ideal involved in Israel’s nationhood. The nation was acted upon by the power of God to effect His purpose. It brought them out of natural dishonour and made them a vessel of eternal significance and honour. Israel became the repository of revealed truth on earth. The riches of the glory of God is the wealth of revealed truth. For His own glory, God has become the God of self-revelation on earth. He is glorified as such by a people whom He makes capable of regarding His glory, of comprehending eternal truth. Instead of having to do with natural things in the course of their life and work for God’s service, they were prepared by God to engage with His glory.
Verse 24 “Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.”
Paul now declares that the fulness of the realm of glory was to be entered by those who were made the people of God by the gospel, both Jew and Gentile. The honour conferred upon Israel in receiving the O.T. Scriptures leads on to the present glory now revealed. The vessels of mercy were afore prepared in the eternal purpose of God. He has called us unto glory to contain the fulness of divine knowledge. This would have been a natural impossibility.
The call of God contains His power to produce the end products He requires. This call has now not only reached the Jew in his previous spiritual failure under the law but Gentiles also. He is calling of the Jew and of the Gentile. The call of God in the gospel is forming a new people for God comprised of both Jew and Gentile. God has used this as the means by which He has caused His Word to be completed, of which this epistle forms a part.
Verses 25/26 “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.”
This conclusion which Paul has reached confirms that which the prophets foretold. He reveals that the gospel produced the effects spoken of by the prophets. In fact, by the N.T. a true interpretation can be put upon the O.T. The significance of that which God said in Hosea is now made clear as a result of this new work, completed on earth by God amongst the Jew and Gentile. That Gentiles would become the people of God’s calling and purpose on the same footing as the Jews was revealed beforehand.
The Jews imagined that the Gentiles would be blessed through them. Paul shows, however, that the O.T. prophesied that a remnant of Jews would be blessed along with Gentiles, consequent to the rejection of the nation as such by God for unbelief. The ways of God with Israel were to prepare it to receive the fuller glory associated with the gospel. It failed spiritually ever after, being made a vessel of dishonour. Thereby it made itself a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction.
Hosea “says”, Isaiah “cries”, “said before” and “it is written”. The prophet “said” in that he revealed the truth. He “cries” in warning, he foretells disastrous earthly judgment. “It is written” in that it is assuredly determined in the outworkings of God’s eternal purpose. This is all written by Paul to show that the rejection of the gospel by the Jewish nation was foreknown by God and taken into His reckoning in the outworking of His purpose. His intentions were not thereby frustrated, for He acted in such a spiritual state of affairs to form a new, more glorious people. The conclusion to be drawn from the prophecy is that there is a people according to the flesh and according to the Spirit, the sons of the living God. In the place where the people formerly called of God met their open rejection by God, a new and beloved people would be formed.
Verses 27/29 “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 Esais said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma and been made like unto Gomorrha.”
That which would befall Israel would not be what they naturally expected. Their naturalistic interpretation of the Word of God was spiritually false. At the time concerning which Isaiah prophesied, there would be a naturally great nation of Israel on earth. The promise given to Abraham would be literally fulfilled in that the sons of Israel would be as the sand of the sea. (The stars of the heaven are not mentioned, for that symbolises the heavenly ideal). In that time, God prophesied that He would complete a work, or finalise a matter, cutting it short in righteousness in their midst on earth. By this work there would be both destruction and salvation. The naturally great nation, at the peak of their worldly importance and influence amongst the nations, would be cut off as a vessel for the display of righteous judgment in open wrath.
Yet God would also perform a work by which the means of fulfilment of the promises would be perfected by Him. By His work the remnant would be saved. Even in judgment He was securing the means of blessing, as was the case in Egypt, God’s dealing with the nation of Israel would not be in vain, despite their destruction. The nation was in fact put to the test spiritually, not only by the Christ in the flesh but more particularly by the coming of the gospel resulting from His death, resurrection and ascension. The ejection of the nation from the land did not take place until A.D.70 after the christian system had been effectively established in the Roman empire.
This prophesied matter would be brought to an end, God cutting it short in righteousness. This would be the securing of the divine means to the purposed end, not the consummation of divine purpose on earth. God would fulfil the promise but limit its application at that time to those who would believe and be constituted the remnant. It was a shortened work which Jehovah would make on earth in fulfilment of specific prophecies, rather than the total fulfilment of all things.
The saving mercy of God was declared by Isaiah to be the only means whereby a seed of promise would be left on earth. Jehovah was then acting as the Lord of hosts openly on earth. This presents the God of redemptive revelation acting with the spiritual forces at the disposal of His throne. He left a seed of the true Israel after He had passed His judgment upon the Israel which had failed spiritually in the land. Otherwise, the nation would have been utterly a vessel of wrath, as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Verse 30 “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.”
Paul then summarises the position which has now been reached in the outworking of divine purpose. Gentiles who did not follow after righteousness have attained to it. They had neither privilege nor merit before God when the call of the gospel came. In creation, they did not pursue righteousness before God as the rule by which their lives would be governed. This was the attainable spiritual ideal for the nations in creation. All the nations were found in spiritual failure in this. They were in spiritual dishonour when the gospel came to them to form from them a vessel unto honour.
Now those of the nations who have responded to the call of God have thereby attained to faith-righteousness. By the effectiveness of His gospel, God has produced faith in them. This is the power to receive the virtue of divine work and thereby to understand His Person and work. They are constituted a people for God by being in possession of His life through His work alone.
Verse 31 “But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.”
Israel pursued a law of righteousness as their way of responding to God and His previous work in the economy of law. The Jewish nation was originally the chosen vessel of divine purpose on earth. They had all the privileges listed, to enable them to be so effectively. Their failure lay in the way in which they understood the nature of these gifts and of the calling of God. They followed after a law of righteousness in that they lived in the power of the flesh in a literal interpretation of the law. As with the Gentiles, their failure was spiritual rather than natural. They failed in the things of the Spirit by applying them to fleshly life in the present world. This naturalistic ideal which they pursued was a corruption of the truth. Their failure was greater than that of the nations and they were judged accordingly.
Israel has not attained unto a law of righteousness. This is the conclusion of Paul’s gospel, of the N.T. Scriptures. In naturalistic Judaism and Zionism, the spiritual ideal set forth in the N.T. cannot be attained. Such a system fitted them as vessels unto destruction. What had been true of Pharaoh on the throne, and the slaves in bondage, was now true in reverse as to Israel and the seed of faith-righteousness. Pharaoh was raised up by God that he might bear revealed truth and respond aright to it. So Israel ought to have been prepared by the O.T. Scriptures in the economy of law to receive the fulness of the truth revealed through the gospel.
Verse 32 “Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone.”
Why did that which was of God become a hindrance to them? The answer is the same as that which brought about Pharaoh’s judgment. They did not respond to it by faith. They responded in the power of ordinary human nature. They adapted the law to the things of the world and to natural issues in worldly wisdom according to outward appearances of good. Such a misuse of eternal truth is due to spiritual pride which desires to glorify the nation in a way which can be seen and honoured by men. They sought to attain to a worldly ideal based on fleshly works. It was human endeavour and not divine work which built up the great nation that fell under divine judgment.
They had stumbled at the Stumblingstone. This was the ultimate result of such a spiritually evil response to God. They were, at this time when God brought the matter to an end, put to the test by the gospel. They were found walking by sight and not by faith when God openly intervened in their midst to perform a work which would ensure the realisation of His purpose. They stumbled at the Stumblingstone which God deliberately and purposefully put in the path they were pursuing under the influence of evil.
Verse 33 “As it is written, Behold I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence, and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.”
Again the prophet Isaiah had revealed that this would befall them. Those quotations by Paul are from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the O.T. Paul is thus showing that the Hebrew tongue is by itself not of definitive importance to divine purpose. God revealed what His Word would be. It was not merely to judge the spiritual failure of Israel. He laid in Zion a Stumblingstone. The work of God was done in Zion. It is of definitive importance to know what Zion really is. To the Jewish mind Zion is the earthly city of Jerusalem. In fact it is truly a spiritual realm. Zion is the highest place that God opens up to His people by His work. There they have the highest privileges and responsibilities. In this case, Zion is the right hand of God, the heavenly place in which God has seated a glorified Messiah. He has been raised up by God above the realm in which Israel lives and acts in the land. He has been laid there as the foundation of God’s new building. As such He is a Stumblingstone to Israel. The true seed by which the new creation will be populated has been set beyond the Jerusalem which is from beneath. Israel in its conduct cannot comprehend this. A glorified Christ and a world-centred Israel are incompatible. It is not only the life and death of Christ in the flesh which brings forth the spiritual deficiencies of Israel. More particularly the gospel, which results on earth from the completed work of God, has put them to the test and caused them to stumble. The Christ in His new form and heavenly place is a Rock of offence to the naturalistic Israel. In Zion Christ is both a Stone and a Rock. Such a Christ is the Headstone of the new creation. His positioning there as a Man in glory is the Rock upon which all falls that opposes the outworking of divine purpose. A crucified and glorified Christ is an offence to Israel, seeing they followed after earthly glory and were unappreciative of heavenly glory.
But whosoever believes in such a Christ will not be put to shame. The offence associated with believing in Him is more than offset by the glories of His Person. As we are concerned with Him and His work in our true response to divine work, we shall grow in grace and the knowledge of God. Thereby we are fitted for divine purpose and are not put to shame, even by continuing natural weakness in the present world.