The Book Of ROMANS.....A Systematic Teaching

Romans 9:24............
"Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?"

We have universally earned God's wrath with our sinfulness (Romans 3:10; 3:23). If He chooses to show mercy, it is not unfair of Him to grant that grace only to some of us. Nobody deserves it; not one person has the right to say, "you ought to have been merciful to me, too."

The previous verse described those to whom God will make known the riches of His glory—in Christ—as "vessels of mercy" which He has prepared beforehand for glory. Now Paul begins to bring his point home and to return to the subject with which he began this chapter.

He writes that these vessels of mercy are "us."

In this context, that means all those God has called out, in Christ, from both the Jewish people and from the Gentiles.

What does it mean that we are "called out?" It means we're one of these whom God prepared for mercy. It means our national identities are not the most important thing God considers about us. When we are saved, regardless of our heritage, we become God's people, as Paul will write in the following verse.
 
Major said:
Romans 9:18.............
"Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth."

The point is.........Nobody "deserves" mercy, so there is nothing unjust or inappropriate about God's choice.
That applies as much to moments when God pointedly withholds mercy as it does to those times when He grants it.

In fact, in the previous verse, Paul cited the example of God's words to Pharaoh before delivering one of the plagues on Egypt. Through Moses, God told Pharaoh that God had raised him up to show His own power over Egypt and to make His own name proclaimed in the earth. In other words, God raised Pharaoh up in order to rain down plagues upon Egypt for the sake of His own glory.

Paul states again that God will have mercy on anyone He wants to. Now, though, Paul adds a new statement: God will harden whomever He wishes to, as well.

This, too, is a reference to Pharaoh. This ruler had made a clear choice to reject God's will. Exodus 10:1 quotes God telling Moses that He had hardened Pharaoh's heart to keep Pharaoh from letting the Israelites go. This was so God could continue showing Himself through the signs of the plagues. God does the same thing to Pharaoh's heart at least four more times after this.

Pharaoh, then, is the one God held responsible for saying no to Moses' request from God to let the Israelites go. In particular, his refusal of the initial request set up the rest of Egypt's troubles. After that, God clearly intervened to make Pharaoh continue in his hard-heartedness towards Israel.

Dr. J Vernon Magee in his Commentary explains that God did not “harden Pharaoh’s heart” so much as “allow Pharaoh’s heart to be hardened”. This was achieved allowing Pharaoh to (incorrectly) perceive limits to God’s power in bringing the plagues.

Paul is insisting that God has every right to do this because He is God. He owes no one anything. The fact that He gives mercy to some of us—any of us—is a gift, not an obligation (Romans 4:2–5; 11:6). He is God.

Nobody "deserves" mercy, so there is nothing unjust or inappropriate about God's choice. That applies as much to moments when God pointedly withholds mercy as it does to those times when He grants it.
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Here is the first encounter with Pharaoh:
Exodus 5:
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.' "
2 And Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go."
3 So they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword."
4 Then the king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor."
5 And Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!"
6 So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying,
7 "You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.
8 And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'
9 Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words."
The words in bold gives us the first time I know of that a government assumes it has the authority to decide what is truth and what is "fake news". Pharaoh shows his heart here in this passage, and God knew his heart as well, knowing all the attributes that are against God and His nature. When we see the Bible listing these attributes as abominations towards God, whether in Proverbs, in Paul's writings or scattered throughout the Bible, Pharaoh seems to have more than his share. So, we see God is not unfair with Pharaoh as He is putting pressure on Pharaoh and hardens his already hardened heart in the rest of the account involving Pharaoh. So God can righteously say, "I know who you are and have raised you up to show My power in you and My name shall be declared to all the earth because of your actions."
God already knew Pharaoh's heart and Esau's heart, since he made them. They had plenty of chances to cry out to God and realize their depravity. God uses these depraved souls to further His plans for humanity. His plans have so many layers and complexities that it is ridiculous for us to question God or accuse Him of unfairness. Esau showed his priorities when he sold his birthright for some food. Some people just won't accept God's gift of mercy.
 
Romans 9:25...........
"As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved."
********************THE CHOICE OF GENTILES IN THE SCRIPTURAL PROPHECIES************************************************

"OSEE" Is the Greek name of the prophet "Hosea".

These passages from Hosea 2:23 and 1:10 show the mercy of God. God told the prophet Hosea to name one of his children Lo-Ammi, meaning “Not My People.” Yet God also promised that this judgment would not last forever. One day Israel will be restored and once again be called sons of the living God.

Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul applies Hosea's text to Gentiles, as well as Jews. Peter appears to have more loosely done a similar thing in 1 Peter 2:10.

In Paul's context, to those who were once not God's people and were not "beloved" by Him, He has now declared to be His people. He calls them "beloved." In this way, God has exercised His right to show mercy on whom He will show mercy, including the Gentiles.
 
Romans 9:26..........
"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 is the 2nd prophecy from Hosea 1:10 and refers to Gentiles anyplace on the earth who turn to Christ now and in the future.

As James puts it in Acts 15:17.........
"That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things."

And so God reached into Europe. He did not send the gospel into Europe because the people there were better than other places.

It should be noted that God exercises His privilege as Creator by showing mercy to all who come to Him through faith in Christ.
Israel's pride might have insisted that only they—the original "chosen people"—could legitimately be redeemed by God. Paul argues the opposite; that nobody anywhere deserves mercy (Romans 3:10; 3:23) and that a sovereign Creator has the right to use His creations as He sees fit (Romans 9:20–21).

Paul shows that this includes God's right to save those "called out" from the Gentiles, as well as from the Jewish people. Israel had always been known as God's people. Now Gentiles, too, through faith in Christ, will be called the sons of the living God (Romans 8:16–17).
 
Romans 9:27...........
"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".
"ESAIAS" = Isaiah.

God's choice in how, when, or if that happens for any particular person is a decision He can make according to His own sovereign purposes (Romans 9:20–21).

In the previous verse, Paul used Hosea's words to describe how some Gentiles have now been called by God and included as His beloved children. Now Paul quotes from Isaiah 10:22–23, regarding the Jewish people.

First, God has kept His promise to Abraham. The sons of Israel have become as the sands of the sea (Genesis 22:17). That promise did not obligate God, however, to eternally save every son and daughter of Israel. In fact, Isaiah writes that only a remnant will be saved.

This and the following verses bring us back around to where Paul began this chapter. God does and will continue to keep His promises to His chosen nation Israel. However, He will not show the same mercy to every descendant of Abraham, as many of the Jews assumed. They must come to Him through faith in Christ to be saved from the penalty of their sin, and a remnant of Israelites will do just that.
 
Romans 9:28.........
"For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth."

Here instead of "work", the better word is account".

Think of this as it is an allusion to the balancing of accounts, when the remainder is cut off, which commonly is but little; and so regards the small number of the Jews that shall be called and saved, as before.

Paul is showing that even in the Old Testament era, God was clear that only a remnant of the Israelites would be saved, not the entire offspring of that nation. In verse 24, Paul wrote that God has called out His people from both the Jews and the Gentiles. He has called them to faith in Christ and to receive His mercy.

Why do we need mercy from God that is only available in Christ? That is answered here in the quote from Isaiah: .......
judgment is coming. The Lord will carry out his sentence on the earth for the sins of humanity. It will come quickly and without delay, in terms of God's timing. In other words, when the moment for judgment comes, God will not hesitate.

This is a startling thing to some who have grown up Jewish and under the law. As Paul showed in Romans chapter 2, many Jews of his era believed they would not face God's judgment simply because they were born Jewish. Paul, though, makes clear that all who are not in Christ—including those who have not been called out from among the Jewish nation to be a remnant of the Jewish people—will receive God's wrathful justice.
 
Romans 9:29..........
"And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha."
Again Paul quotes the Old Test. here it is again from Isaiah 1:9.

With Israel, though, the Lord of hosts has always spared some from the next generation to carry on as Israel, no matter how severe God's judgment became.

Paul is making the significant claim that God will continue to spare a remnant, now by calling some of the Jewish people out from among the rest through faith in Christ.

It is a fitting climax to the question of the sovereignty of God in that the elect nation would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah in depravity and rebellion to God is He had not intervened in His sovereign mercy and recovered a remnant.

This my friends is a clear indictment of Pharisaism and proud church membership we see today!
 
Romans 9:30-31.......
"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."

By all appearances the Gentiles found righteousness even though it did not seem that they really looked for it.

"But Israel... has not attained to the law of righteousness"
By all appearances Israel seemed to work for the righteousness of God with everything it had, but did not find it.

What was the difference?

Why did the unlikely Gentiles find righteousness, when the likely Jews did not? Because the Gentiles pursued the righteousness of faith, and the Jews pursued the law of righteousness. The Gentiles who were saved came to God through faith, receiving His righteousness. The Jews who seem to be cast off from God tried to justify themselves before God by performing works according to the law of righteousness.

In other words, Israel pursuing after a Law which should give righteousness did not arrive at such a Law. WHY????

Because they were trying to PRODUCE WORK of righteousness on their own through the Mosiac system!

Did you know that the Religious of today are the most difficult to reach with the gospel???? You se, they think that they know enough to be saved! They think that they are good enough to be saved!

Folks, listen.......YOU will never reconcile the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man!

If you want to be saved, you are the elect! If you don't, then you not! That in a nutshell is the doctrine of election!
 
Romans 9 32-33..........
"Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
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.”

We might expect Paul to answer the question “Why?”

Again, from God’s perspective, and to simply throw the matter back on God’s sovereign choice. Instead, he places the responsibility with Israel: Because they did not seek it by faith... they stumbled at that stumbling stone.

Paul has already shown in Romans that the only possible way to be saved is through faith, not the works of the law; and that this salvation comes only through the work of a crucified Savior — which was a stumbling block to Israel .

"For they stumbled at that stumbling stone".
Paul shows that Israel is responsible for their present condition. Has he contradicted everything he has previously said, which emphasized God’s sovereign plan? Of course not, he simply presents the problem from the other side of the coin — the side of human responsibility, instead of the side of God’s sovereign choice.
 
Romans 10:1............
*********************************************Chapter 10*********************************************
PRESENT STATE OF ISREAL
PRESENT STANDING OF STATE OF ISRAEL
PRESENT SALVATION FOR BOTH THE JEW AND THE GENTILE

PRESENT STATE OF ISRAEL
Verse 1........
"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved."
Paul is speaking of the Israelites. In addition to a Christian and a Roman citizen, Paul is also Jewish. He writes that his heart's desire and his prayer is that the Jewish people may be saved.

Some Jews have come to faith in Christ through the preaching of Paul and the other apostles. Yet the nation as a whole has rejected the Messiah, including the Jewish religious leadership. Sadly, this is still the case in the modern era. Further, the Jewish people of Paul's day not only rejected Christ, they tried to silence Paul and others who preached about Him. That doesn't change Paul's desire to see those same people come to Christ, however.

Israel, with all that they possessed were not saved!

May I say here that IMHO, only 25% of church members are actually saved. They are members of a religious club, but real born again is different.

Israel was religious, but not saved! They had religion but not righteousness.
 
Romans 10:2.........
"For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge."
There are some churches that are as busy as termites.

On Monday night they play basketball.
On Tuesday night they have crafts and lunch with a Bible study.
On Wednesday it is volley ball and prayer meeting.
On Thursday it is softball.
On Friday it is the Old Peoples lunch and Bible study.
Sunday is church day and evening service.

That is zeal and I am not condemning any of it. But all of that is simply religion! Busy doing something all the time.

They love God and seek to honor Him and obey Him. The Jewish people of Paul's day were especially passionate in their worship of God. Paul himself demonstrated that kind of fervor—in a tragic way—before his conversion to Christianity, as a persecutor of the church (Philippians 3:4–7).

Paul is saddened, though, that Israel's zeal is not driven by a true understanding of who God is or what He wants from them. Paul knows from experience the traditions the Jewish religious leaders have and their exhaustive knowledge of the Scriptures. To know all of that, however, and to not know Christ is to know far too little.

My point is......is all that for Christ?
 
Romans 10:3..........
"For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."

As I just said, I admire spiritual passion, but I sometimes wonder that their enthusiasm is not driven by accurate knowledge about what is most important to God: faith in Christ.

The longer I live, the more it seems to me that there is a growing spiritual chasm in Christianity. I hear and read of some of the most awful false teachings that now are coming from men. The only word I can think of to explain it is Ignorance!

Paul calls them ignorant of the righteousness of God and I agree with Paul! He may mean that they do not understand that God requires absolutely perfect righteousness in order for anyone to be received by Him on their own merits. They do not understand that no human being is able to achieve that level of righteousness . Or, it may be that Paul means they are ignorant that God offers His righteousness to all who come to Him through faith in Christ. In either case, the Israelites were missing the key to being accepted by God and saved from His wrath.

Their lack of understanding of how God's righteousness worked caused them to try to set up their own standard of what it means to be righteous in God's eyes. Paul describes this as a prideful attempt to decide what God should be satisfied with instead of submitting to His declaration of what it means to be righteous before Him.
 
Romans 10:4.............
"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."

The law ends for the believer in the sense that our obedience to the law is no longer the basis for our relationship with God. The law has not come to an end in the sense of no longer reflecting God’s standard or no longer showing us our need for a Savior.

Charles Spurgeon said............
“Christ did not come to make the law milder, or to render it possible for our cracked and battered obedience to be accepted as a sort of compromise. The law is not compelled to lower its terms, as though it had originally asked too much; it is holy and just and good, and ought not to be altered in one jot or tittle, nor can it be. Our Lord gives the law all it requires, not a part, for that would be an admission that it might justly have been content with less at first.”

Nobody can keep the law. He wrote in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of God's glory, even those who try to follow the law.

The law was not meant to stand on its own forever. It always pointed forward to Jesus Christ. As Paul puts it, Christ was always intended to be "the end of the law." He kept it perfectly and fulfilled its righteous requirements once and for all.

Now Christ's righteousness is available to everyone who believes in Him. This is an idea explored in greater detail in the book of Hebrews. There, the writer—possibly Paul himself—explains exactly how God had always intended to bring a new covenant. That covenant was established by Christ, and in Christ, and was meant to end man's dependence on rituals and animal sacrifices (Hebrews 8).
 
************************************PRESENT STANDING OF ISRAEL***************************************************************

Romans 10:5............
"For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them."
Here Paul refers to a teaching from Moses, found in Leviticus 18:1–5. This describes a path to righteousness for those who keep the law, who live by the commandments of the law.

Since NO-ONE can keep all of the Law, nobody can be made righteous by keeping the law. Everybody breaks the law. Everybody sins!!!

James put it very simply in 2:10.......
"For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it".

crossnote just approached this topic in his question on another thread, and this is why God promised, even before Christ, to establish a new covenant to resolve those flaws in Jeremiah 31:31–34.

Granted that you could attain a righteousness in the Law, it would be your OWN righteousness, not God's!
 
Major said:
He may mean that they do not understand that God requires absolutely perfect righteousness in order for anyone to be received by Him on their own merits.
Click to expand...
In a football analogy, only One has ran the ball 100 yards for a touchdown, the rest of us, even with our 'best righteousness' are fumbling with the ball back in our own end zone.
 
Romans 10:6.............
"But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)".

Moses wrote about a righteousness based on keeping the law (Leviticus 18:1–5). That's what Paul wrote in the previous verse. The problem with trying to achieve that righteousness is that nobody can keep the law. As fallible people, we're bound to sin and fall short of God's standard of perfection.

Paul explains this righteousness as if it were speaking in some way. It is offering a warning to Israel, and Paul quotes from Israel's own Scriptures to make the point.

Paul talks about ascending up to heaven to bring down this righteousness or going down to hell and bring it up.

First, Paul quotes the opening words of Deuteronomy 9:4–6: "Do not say in your heart." Though he doesn't quote the rest of the passage, Paul's Jewish readers would likely have understood the context. God was repeatedly telling Israel not to deceive themselves: they were not taking possession of the promised land because of their own righteousness. God called them a stubborn people. Instead, they would succeed in taking the land because it served God's purpose of judging the wicked nations of the region.
Paul's message to the Israel of his day is clear. They were seeking to achieve a righteousness of their own, which is a futile attempt for sinful human beings. That's the wrong attitude, and the wrong way to approach our relationship to God.

Next, Paul begins to quote from Deuteronomy 30:12. He applies what God says to Israel, about receiving and obeying His commands, to their need now to put their faith in Christ. In Deuteronomy 30:11–14, God said the command He had given to Israel was not—is not—too hard for them. They should not ask "who will ascend into heaven" to find out this information. They already have the command in their mouths and hearts (Deuteronomy 30:14).

Now Paul applies this idea to Christ. Israel should not think that faith in Christ is too hard for them. They ought not expect some new person to go to heaven to find the Messiah. Paul writes in his context that this would be a futile attempt to bring Christ down when He has already come down and walked among them (Romans 10:8).
 
Romans 10:7............
"Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

Israel, in Paul's context, should not look for someone to ascend into heaven to bring the Messiah down or, now, to descend into the abyss to bring the Messiah up, as if from the dead. Christ has already come to them in the form of Jesus and walked among them. He descended to the earth, died on the cross, descended into the abyss, and then ascended back to earth before ascending to heaven.

In other words, Christ has already been near to Paul's Jewish readers. They should not continue looking for the Messiah to come down or come up. Instead, they should understand that He has been near them and that the Word of God, and faith, is right in front of them ready to be believed. This "word of faith" is a reference to the gospel: the message of God's intended plan for our salvation.
 
Romans 10:8..........
"But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;"
IT is available right where you are sitting right now!

A lot of people think that they have to go to alter or some sort of meeting to be saved. Not so!

Salvation is available to all who ask for it no matter who you are or where you are.

The Israel of his day should also not keep looking for the Messiah or expecting knowledge of Christ to suddenly come down or come up to them. The Messiah has already come in the person and body of Jesus. He has already been near to them.

Faith in Christ is still right next to the people of Israel, ready to be believed in their hearts and spoken with their mouths. They don't have to wait. They can believe right now and be declared righteous by God, given credit for Jesus' righteous life and forgiven for their sin by the payment of Jesus' death on the cross.
 
Romans 10:9.............
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
No one has to make a public profession of faith. That is not what is saying at all.

Paul writes here that instead of seeking to become righteous by following the law, the Jews should confess with their mouths that Jesus is Lord. He is the Messiah. Also, they should believe in their hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead. If they do those things, they will be saved, Paul writes. That is what Paul is saying.

We should not necessarily take these two conditions as Paul's final statement on the plan of salvation or how to become a Christian.

He has been clear that faith in Christ, including Christ's place on the cross as our substitute in the payment of our sin, is the key to being declared righteous by God. These two conditions—
1. belief in Christ's resurrection from the dead and a
2. verbal confession of His place as Lord of all—appear to serve as evidence that our faith is in Christ.

Anyone who trusts in Christ for his or her salvation is sure to agree that Christ is Lord and that He was raised from the dead. That person will be saved, Paul writes.
 
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