Is Israel's Unbelief Inconsistent with God's Plan? Part 1
Romans 9:6‑13
Now tonight I want to get us into Romans chapter 9. And my intention tonight is to just kind of move along in this chapter as far as we can. I'm not in any big hurry because I want to help you to understand the chapter. I don't want to leave anything out, have anything short‑circuited so that we can understand this argument of Paul here, this presentation. It's not an easy chapter to understand. Even when you understand it it's not easy to believe it because there are some things that are said here, some affirmations about the sovereignty of God that leave us with very profound questions. But we must dig into the chapter, we must understand it because God has revealed it to us for His own glory.
Now we are very much aware as we were in Israel the last couple of weeks that it is a land of contrast, a land of wide contrast. It's a land of great biblical history and yet it's a land of great immediate modern contemporary life. It's a land where once people were totally committed to God and now they seem rather indifferent to that whole thing. There are many contrasts, but some things are the same. And I regret to say that it is today the same as it was in the time of our Lord in the sense that they reject Him now as they rejected Him then.
Some believe and affirm to me that the only Messiah that will ever come is the state of Israel itself. The very secular, those who believe that, and they affirm that the state of Israel is in fact the Messiah. On the flight home I read a book that was given to me by one of the guides that was with us and that book affirms that Israel is the Messiah. The book tries to say that Christians have their Messiah and that's Jesus Christ and that's fine for them. And if they want to believe that that's the plan of God and it's all right and that's the way God intended it, but don't try to push your view onto the Jew, don't send any missionaries, don't try to give them the gospel of the new covenant. They understand who their Messiah is and their Messiah is none other than the nation itself.
And he drew a very interesting parallel. He said, first of all, the Messiah was born of sovereignty by God, by God's promise and we think that's Christ...he said that's really the nation Israel. The Messiah was protected in Egypt...we think that's Christ taken into Egypt to escape Herod, that's really Israel taken into Egypt in captivity to preserve it as a nation during famine and other difficult times. The Messiah is despised and rejected and hated, we think that's Christ but they say that's the nation Israel. The Messiah was killed by the Romans, we say that's Christ, they say that's the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The Messiah will rise again on the third day, we say that's Christ, they say that's the nation Israel after 2,000 years of captivity or 2,000 years of trial, 2,000 years of non‑ existence as a nation, it is now in the third millennia since that time going to rise to the fullness of a power in the world and so forth and so forth. And many of them see their Messiah in the nation Israel. And so they still reject Jesus Christ as they did when He was on the earth.
Now others of them are waiting for the Messiah. They really believe there is coming a Messiah. They believe the eastern gate which is now sealed was sealed by the Turks will split wide open at the coming of the Messiah and He will again enter the city of Jerusalem to take His throne to reign and rule forever and ever. Only that's not going to be the Second Coming of Messiah, for them it's going to be the first coming because He's not been here yet.
Now it's interesting to see these two dominant views. One is the secular view that Israel really is the Messiah, the nation itself, there's no actual Messiah. And then the other view that there will be coming a Messiah. Both of them reject the fact that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. And this is a shocking kind of rejection because the land is literally filled with the revelation of God regarding His Messiah, Jesus Christ. It's impossible to escape the fact that that land was traversed and criss‑crossed by the prophets who gave very clear instruction and clear word and clear message about the coming of the Messiah, that that land also was criss‑crossed by the Lord Jesus Himself with His disciples in a ministry of teaching and healing, a ministry that could never be denied, a ministry that touched that nation from top to bottom. And the events of His life are marked down for all the world to know through history. And yet with all of the biblical data, with all of the history that fills that land, there still is an open rejection of Jesus Christ. This nation was uniquely chosen by God to be blessed and to be the source of a blessing for the whole world. But because they've rejected their Messiah they have not been blessed and they have not been a source of blessing to the world.
Now this brings up a very interesting question that Jews are even asking today. And this question was brought to me through this one particular guide. And they are asking this basic question: how can the gospel, the new covenant, the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, how can that really be God's message if the Jews never believed it and still don't believe it and the Jews are God's people? That's the question. I mean, how could God give a message that His own people would reject? To put it another way, if the leading Jews of the time of Christ didn't believe He was the Messiah, if for the most part the Jewish people didn't believe He was the Messiah, if Jews dominantly throughout all of history don't believe He's the Messiah and if Jews today don't believe He's the Messiah and Jews are the chosen people of God who have the revelation of God, then He couldn't be the Messiah. You understand? That's really the query that they struggle with.
The conclusion is then that Christianity is just another religion. It is, in fact, if imposed on Judaism a blasphemous heresy. They want to cultivate, at least some of them do, a dialogue with Christianity because they want to accept Christianity insofar as Christians can be of assistance to them in the advance of their particular goals. They like premillennial Christians because we tend to be pro‑Israel. They like evangelical Bible‑believing Christians because we are pro‑ Israel. But they see us as a means to an end, for the most part, to assist them and help them in the objectives of their new identity while not accepting our Christ, our Messiah. And the bottom line struggle in their minds is that Jesus can't be the Messiah or the religious leaders of His time never would have rejected Him. The people never would have rejected Him. The Jews throughout history wouldn't reject Him. And people today wouldn't reject Him because after all, the Jews are God's chosen people to whom He's given His revelation. And if they are in fact that they would have known their Messiah when He got here. So if they didn't recognize Jesus as the Messiah, then He isn't the Messiah.
Now that isn't anything new today, that's exactly the way they felt in Paul's day, nothing's changed. It's really remarkable...nothing's changed. That was their question in Paul's day...how can you say that the new covenant gospel of faith in Jesus Christ sets aside the old covenant, that this Jesus is the Messiah in whom we are to place our faith for salvation when none of the leaders of Israel believe that? Could God be sending a message that His own people wouldn't accept? Could God be giving a gospel that His own leaders would deny and consider to be a heresy and a blasphemy? And they did indeed, you know, feel it to be that because that's why Paul was commissioned to stamp out Christianity. No, they say, it's impossible. And further they would add this, the character of the new covenant is directed seemingly to the Gentiles and that even makes it more unacceptable that God should turn His back on Israel to call out a Gentile church? Impossible. That God should reject His covenant people? That God should set aside His promise to them, that God should say to the Jew who was identified as a chosen race, "You are no longer My people, I'm now calling a Gentile church." It's impossible for them to accept that rationally, humanly. And so that's really their dilemma.
And as I said, I read this book which attempts to explain all of that and they want to allow us to have our Messiah but not have us to force ours on them. Their content to see it the way they see it because if they have to agree that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is the Savior and the way to salvation, then they've got to admit that their whole nation missed it and they can't acknowledge that. It just seem too impossible...it just couldn't be. And then they've got also to acknowledge that God has for the time anyway set aside Israel as the nation of blessing and called out a Gentile church, and that for them is equally impossible for them to believe.
And so they're going to have that objection not only today but they had it in Paul's day and he faces it in chapter 9. And beginning with verse 6 and really running to the end of the chapter, and we're going to take a few weeks to get through this, it will probably take us January because we have music and other things coming up this month. But I want to take my time allowing this to unfold because it's so very very important a subject. In this chapter from verse 6 to 33, Paul gives four reasons why Israel's unbelief doesn't violate God's character. You see, the Jew is going to say, "Boy, if God sets aside His people and if God sends a Messiah that no Jews believe in, then God's word doesn't mean anything and God's character is changed and His promises have changed and His covenants have changed and everything is overturned and we can't accept that." And so Paul says in chapter 6 (I think he means 9) four things really, the unbelief of Israel is not inconsistent with God's promise, the unbelief of Israel is not inconsistent with God's person, the unbelief of Israel is not inconsistent with God's prophets and the unbelief of Israel is not inconsistent with God's prerequisite. And what he is saying there is this, because Israel doesn't believe doesn't mean God has violated His promise, verses 6 to 13, doesn't mean God has violated His person integrity, verses 14 to 24, doesn't mean God has violated His prophets word, verses 25 to 29 and certainly doesn't mean God has violated His prerequisite, verse 30 to 33.
Now what Paul is doing here is saving the character of God, if you will, from being condemned. He's holding up the integrity of God here. Because Israel does not believe doesn't mean God has cancelled His promises. You see, that's where the Jew is. He's saying, "Look, if you tell me this is true then I'm going to look at God and say, `God, You didn't keep Your promise. You didn't keep Your covenant. You changed Your Word and You violated everything we know to be true about You. What Your prophet said isn't true and all the rules of the game have been altered.'" And the Jew would say that is to blaspheme God for God keeps His promise, God never changes His person, God's prophets' word will come to pass and God's prerequisites are still the same. And so they're saying, "Look, we can't accept Christianity without overthrowing everything we know to be true about God and that's blasphemy...that's blasphemy."
And so, they're facing this dilemma. Has God cancelled His promises? Has God all of a sudden become unjust and unrighteous and untrustworthy? Were the words of the prophets wrong?
Now in order to get a good look at what Paul is saying we want to just take these in units so let's look tonight at verses 6 to 13. This is unit number one in this sort of four‑part dealing with the problem. And here the Holy Spirit answers any accusation that might be leveled at God saying that if Israel rejected and was out of the covenant then God's word would be broken, His promises useless, His character untrustworthy because He changed His mind, He'd overturned everything He said. And Israel would have been able to say God is not a covenant keeping God, you can't trust Him.
Now is it important for Paul to deal with this here? Of course it is. And I told you that some weeks ago that he's been presenting justification by grace through faith. He's been presenting the means of salvation and having presented that he stops and he answers the question about where does the Jew fit in because he knows that any reader who's reading and knows about the history of Israel is going to say, "Well, you keep telling me to come to God through Christ, you tell me that Christ will save me and Christ will take away my sin and Christ will give me His Holy Spirit and Christ will give me eternal life and Christ will take me all the way to glory and He'll never let go of me and He'll love me forever and so forth. You tell me all of that but I'm going to ask you a question. If I can trust Jesus Christ with my life how come He didn't keep His Word to the Jews?" You understand? That's the question that could come up. And so he wants to answer that and in chapter 9, 10 and 11 he develops this whole theology of how the Jew fits in to God's redemptive plan.
Now the first issue that I want you to see in verses 6 to 13 is that the unbelief of Israel is not inconsistent with God's promises...it is not inconsistent with God's promise that Israel did not believe in the Messiah. Most Jews believe and believed then that all Israel is saved by birth. You're born into the covenant because of Jewishness. You're born as Abraham's seed so you're automatically a part of the Kingdom, that's common Jewish belief. Thus a national rejection of the gospel made no sense to them and disqualified the gospel from being true in their minds. So Paul wants to help us to understand how the gospel can be true and at the same time be rejected by the people of the covenant. And that's what he's going to tell us as we come into chapter 9.
Now remember verses 1 to 5, I just want to touch base with those. Paul sort of sets up the chapter by telling us how much he cares for Israel. He says in verse 2 he has heaviness of heart, sorrow, he can wish himself accursed from Christ for the sake of his kinsmen, the Jews. And he says in verses 4 and 5, they have received the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, that is the liturgical liturgy, the ceremonial sacrificial service, the promises, the fathers and even Christ came through them and to them.
In other words, with all that privilege how sad, he says, how sad that they have not believed. How sad that they are lost and that's why he could wish himself accursed for the sake of them being saved. And what he is saying in verses 1 to 5 and he says it by implication rather than directly is that Israel's no longer a blessed nation, Israel's no longer in a sense the apple of God's eye at this point, they're no longer the one on whom God pours out the benedictions of His great mercy and grace. And Paul is grieved about that. Oh he doesn't come out and just blurt out and say, "You're all cursed," he sort of lets his emotions leak out a little bit and he implies that they are no longer the blessed nation that they once were. And because of this the question comes: has God's plan changed? I mean, does God say He's going to do something, change His mind in mid stream? But, you see, if you thought that then you'd reject the gospel because you'd have the same fear that He would reject you sooner or later and change His mind and that leaves you in a very insecure position. So Paul must answer the issue.
So, the question that we see then as we look at chapter 9 verses 6 and following is what about Israel and how could they reject and God's promises still be valid? And so he says from 6 to 13, the unbelief of Israel is not inconsistent with God's promise. Look at verse 6. "Not as though the Word of God has taken no effect." Stop there.
To paraphrase that, "I say nothing which implies that the Word of God is failed, or literally has fallen. When I say Israel has been set aside and Israel is no longer blessed and that nation to whom God gave the covenants and the promises and all the law and the ceremonies and everything, that nation has been set aside, when I say that that is not to say that the Word of God has failed...that is not to say that God's promises have been violated or broken or cancelled." The Old Testament affirms that God can't do that, Jeremiah 32:42, "Thus says the Lord, Just as I brought all this great disaster on this people, so I am going to bring on them all the good that I'm promising them."
In other words, God said, "Because I bring disaster doesn't mean I ultimately won't bring good." And in Isaiah 55 God said, "Whatever word proceeds out of My mouth will never return...what?...void but always accomplish the purpose to which I send it, or always succeed in fulfilling its objective." So what Paul wants to say here is that Israel's rejection somehow some way is still consistent with God's promise, still consistent with God's faithfulness, still consistent with God's covenant. And what appears as a breech of promise is only an apparent breech, not a real one.
Now the Word of God, notice it there, verse 6, the Word of God, that refers not so much to the Old Testament as a whole but to the covenants and promises of verse 4. When God gave covenants and promises to His people Israel to save them, to give them a Kingdom, to give them glory, to bless them, to give them a King, and so forth, He meant what He said. These have not been cancelled. They haven't been cancelled. Beloved, you must understand that. That's why the nation Israel still exists. That's why it's still there. Of all of the people of that part of the world who existed when Israel existed, there are none left but the Israelites. And God has preserved them because He has yet to fulfill those promises and yet to fulfill those covenants. And their unbelief in no way violates those.
Well how do you explain it then? The end of verse 6, "For they are not all Israel who are of Israel." That's a very important statement. For they are not Israel who are of Israel. What does he mean by that? He means that God never promises unconditionally to each offspring of Abraham covenant blessing just because he is an offspring of Abraham. Did you get that? You see, the Jew believes that because he is fleshly descending from Abraham he therefore is included in the covenant...because he is a Jew by birth he is therefore a child of promise. He is therefore redeemed, if you want to put it in our parlance. He is therefore saved. He is therefore going to go to heaven. But God never intended that all Israel would be redeemed Israel...for they are not all the true Israel who are of the fleshly Israel.
Listen to it this way. The real Israel is contained within the natural Israel. To put it another way, spiritual Israel is contained within physical Israel. And though the nation, now listen very careful distinction, though the nation was chosen as a nation to be a vehicle to transmit the scriptures, to be a vehicle to propagate the message of monotheism, one God, though the nation was chosen to be a witness nation, the choosing of the nation as an entity does not mean that every individual within that nation was also chosen to salvation. So the fact that Israel does not believe, that many individuals don't believe doesn't cancel the promises because God never intended in His sovereignty that every Jew would believe but that within the physical Israel there would be a believing remnant. The nation was elected to privilege but only individuals are elected to salvation. The real Israel is the Israel of faith and throughout all of the history of Israel there have been faithless Jews. It isn't anything just common to the time of Christ.
In fact, if you go to chapter 11 you will find that in verse 4 during the time of Elijah, go way back, in the time of Elijah, verse 4, God says, "I have reserved to Myself 7,000 men who've not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." But what about the multiplied tens of thousands of others? They had bowed the knee to Baal, they had entered into paganism. Even in Elijah's time all Israel was not true Israel. You understand the point? Very important. The nation was chosen to privilege but individuals are chosen to salvation.
To put it another way we need to look at Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 4...Hebrews 11:4 the great chapter on faith. And it says in verse 4, "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous." Humph, righteousness didn't come because he was born of Adam. Righteousness didn't come because he offered a sacrifice. Righteousness came because he offered an excellent sacrifice that was born of his righteousness...very important. In other words, there's a difference between religion and righteousness. The true Israel is the Israel of righteousness, the Israel of faith. Look at John 1 and meet such a person. John 1:47, Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to Him and said of him, Behold a real Israelite, alethos, genuine." Behold a genuine Israelite. How so? "In whom is no evil, no deceit, no facade." This Nathaniel was not only an outward Jew, he was an inward one, you see. That's the issue.
John chapter 8, same concept, verse 39, but here Jesus is confronted by the religious leaders and their hope, of course, is in their Abrahamic descent. They believe they're part of the Kingdom because they were born of the seed of Abraham. They say in verse 33, "We are Abraham's seed," that's their claim to fame. In verse 39 they answered and said, "Abraham is our father...that makes us invincible. Jesus said to them, If you were Abraham's children you would do the works of Abraham." Now what does he mean by that? Well they were Abraham's children physically but he says if you were really Abraham's children spiritually you would do the things that he did. And what did he do? He did righteous things. So the fleshly Israel, the nation of privilege is not necessarily the same as the redeemed Israel, the nation of righteousness, the individuals who obey God.
Look at Galatians chapter 3 for another scripture that will help us understand this. Chapter 3 verse 6, "Even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they who are of faith the same are the children of Abraham." Verse 9, "So then they who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." That's the point. And so when we go back to Romans chapter 9 we really are hearing an echo of what he said in Romans chapter 2 verses 28 and 29, for he is not a Jew is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God.
So, what are...what our answer is initially in understanding this question from Paul is that to begin with we want to know a very basic fact, that not all Israel is really Israel. Or not all Jews are really saved. But the ones who have faith in God as God has prescribed it in the Word, they are the true Israel. So that helps us. Because, you see, if we believed like the Jews believe that the whole nation is saved, then we would have a problem understanding how they could reject the true Word of God, right? But if we realize that there are only select ones in the nation who are saved then we could understand the rest could reject the truth and it could still be the truth. The reason why the rejection of the Jews involved no failure on the part of the divine promise is that the promise was never addressed merely to the natural descendants of Abraham. The true Jew and the blessed Jew is the believing Jew, and it's always been that way. When a Jew received Jesus Christ as Savior and Messiah, all the promises are fulfilled, all the promises are fulfilled. When a Jew comes to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then that Jew enters into covenant blessing, the fulfillment of the promises. That's the promise of God.
In Galatians 3:29 it says, "If you are Christ's then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. If you are Christ's then you're really Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." Will God keep His promise with Israel? You better believe He will. But His promise to Israel is not just to fleshly Israel, not at all, His promise to Israel has always been to spiritual Israel. And the fact that the whole nation rejects doesn't mean that He's changed His promise...no, no. Why there are a lot of times in its history when the nation on the widest margin rejected and it was only a remnant that believed. And God kept His covenant promise with the ones who believed...as He always will and always has.
In chapter 9 again would you look at verse 29? And as Isaiah said before, "Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, a remnant, we would have been a Sodom, we would have been made like Gamorrah." I mean, Israel as a nation would have been wiped out just like the rest except that God preserved a righteous seed.
So, the doctrine of the remnant is very important for a contemporary Jew to understand as it was for a Jew in Paul's day, that the national unbelief and rejection of Israel doesn't mean God's promises are not true, doesn't mean His covenants aren't being kept, it simply points out the thing that they should have known throughout all their history that for the most of the history of Israel the major portion of the nation rejected the truth of God and it was always a remnant that believed it. And there was, by the way, in the time of Christ a redeemed remnant of Jews.
So, the Word of God has not been violated at all, not at all. Now in verse 7 Paul supports this in a most fascinating way by carrying us all the way back to Abraham. "Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called."
Now take the first half of this verse, very interesting. He says neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. Now he distinguishes between the seed of Abraham and children. Children here refers to those who enter into salvation, those who enter into covenant blessing, those who enter into the promise, life eternal. He says just because you are the seed of Abraham...that's a phrase that has to do with racial identity, just because you're Jewish, just because you descend from Abraham doesn't mean you are a child of salvation, doesn't mean you're a child of blessing, doesn't mean you're a child of promise, doesn't mean you are a child of God. No.
And he wants us to see why. Here is his illustrat