THE next three chapters (9, 10, 11) form a kind of appendix to what has preceded. The doctrine of free salvation to all through faith on the ground of grace would seem to conflict with the special promises made to Israel.
On the ground of law the Jew was excluded from all blessing, for he had broken it. But not only did the Jews boast in the possession of the law; to them also belonged the promises made to the fathers, unconditional promises; and the rebellious heart of man might reason, that if the gospel let in the Gentile to blessing, then, “the word of God hath taken none effect” (ch. 9:6).
First the apostle earnestly defends himself against any possible charge of slighting his own “kinsmen according to the flesh.” He loved them with an overflowing heart. It is evident from a careful study of the chapter before us (ch. 9) that the apostle had in mind the solemn incident in Israel’s history recorded in Exodus 33, 34. The people had turned their backs upon Jehovah and were bowing down before the golden calf. “Let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them,” said the Lord, “and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation.” But such was Moses’ care for the honor of Jehovah, whose people they were, spite of all their stiffneckedness; such, too, was his love for that people, that he pleads on their behalf, and even asks that himself might be blotted out of Jehovah’s book rather than that the people should be destroyed. Well, says Paul, such, too, is the love that I bear you, that I had wished myself accursed in your stead; will any, then, accuse me of lack of love, or indifference to your welfare?
But further, no charge can be brought against the Word of God, “for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel” (vs. 6). In other words, the blessing comes not merely on the ground of natural descent, but upon that of God’s sovereign and electing grace, and if on this ground it may reach to the Gentile as well as to the Jew. This is the great subject of the chapter now before us. There is such a thing as election, whatever man in his pride and rebellion of heart may say. And the Jew was forced to admit it. Nay, he could not gainsay it, for the history of his nation proved it.
Promises had been made to Abraham, unconditional promises, apart altogether from any question of law, but because they are the seed of Abraham does not necessarily make them children of the promise (vs. 7). For had not Abraham two sons, Ishmael as well as Isaac. Is Ishmael to be admitted into the blessing as well as Isaac? Oh no, cries the Jew, for “in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” It is not enough to be of the seed of Abraham then; “they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God.” No, with one consent the Jew would exclaim, the seed of the bondwoman, Hagar, must be shut out; “Sarah shall have a son,” Isaac is the vessel of promise.
But “not only this” (ver. 10), for the Jew might still have reasoned that the child of a slave could have no pretension to attain to the promises; the matter is narrowed down still further. Rebecca had two sons, and both were of the same father, Isaac. Shall Esau be admitted as well as Jacob? No, again cries the Jew, the Edomites have no claim to the blessings of the promise. It is from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that all our blessing comes, and it is in that line alone that it descends. True, reasons the Spirit through the apostle, “the purpose of God according to election” must stand. Moreover, it is not by any means on the ground of works, but solely “of Him that calleth,” for before either Jacob or Esau were born, hence before they had done either “good or evil,” God had said, “The elder (Esau) shall serve the younger (Jacob).” This was said before their birth; but not till hundreds of years after their death, and after their lives had proved what their characters were, did God say, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Mal. 1:2, 32I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, 3And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. (Malachi 1:2‑3)).
Again, the flesh would raise its voice in rebellion against God, for the carnal mind is always enmity against Him. “Is there unrighteousness with God?” (vs. 14). God forbid, says the apostle, and proceeds to demonstrate the folly of the charge from undeniable facts in the history of the Jewish people. When the people had made the golden calf, they cut themselves off from all claim to blessing by reason of their sin. God, had He acted in righteousness, would have cut all off except Moses and Joshua. But on the intercession of Moses, God declares that He will act in mercy; righteousness would have cut them all off, sovereign mercy alone will bless any. “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy” (vs. 15). Blessing comes, not on the ground of man’s will or activity in works, but it is “of God that showeth mercy” (vs. 16). So the lost sinner must accept salvation on the ground of God’s mercy, and not on the ground of his own merit of whatever sort. This humbles man’s pride to the dust, but there only can God meet the sinner. On the other hand, the case of Pharaoh proved God’s power to harden if He saw fit so to do. It must be carefully noted that nowhere in Scripture is there any such thought as election to perdition. God did not will that Pharaoh should be a sinner, and should perish; He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance; but then man must repent or be lost, and here comes in the truth that man is responsible, at the same time that God is sovereign.
Pharaoh was a sinner already, and had defied the God of Israel. “Who is the Lord,” he had said, “that I should obey Him?” Well, says God, you shall know, and all the earth shall learn through you what My power is, and how vain and useless it is to fight against God. Pharaoh was obliged to bow, and so must every man either in grace or judgment.
“Why doth He yet find fault then?” (vs. 19), cries stubborn and willful man. And who are you to reply against God? Has not God more power than man? Cannot the potter do what he pleases with the clay? Mark, it is not said that God ever makes a vessel to dishonor; but the right and power of God to do what He pleases is here stated, and this is a truth that man must bow to. Sin need never keep any out of heaven, no matter how great the sin may be, for the blood of Jesus can cleanse from all sin, but man’s will of rebellion against God will infallibly do so unless he yields before the judgment day. “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” (John 5:4040And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. (John 5:40)), said the Lord Jesus to the self-righteous Jews.
What is here taught us is this—all through sin are lost; both Israel and Pharaoh had terribly sinned; righteousness would have cut all off without exception; but God in His sovereignty has mercy on some, and others He hardens, not to make them sinners, for that they were before, but to demonstrate before the eyes of all the folly of resisting His will.
Observe, too, the patience of God, His long-suffering; He does not cut off these “vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,” without giving them ample opportunity for repentance; He endures them with much long-suffering. It is not said that He fitted them to destruction; their own sin and unrepentant hostility against God did this; but in the end He must make His power known. On the other hand, there are vessels of mercy, and upon these He will make known the riches of His glory. How did they become such? By their own goodness or will? No, but through sovereign mercy, and according to purposes of grace which were before the foundation of the world. God Himself had before prepared them unto glory.
Having thus clearly demonstrated the truth of God’s sovereign mercy in election, the apostle applies it to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. If sovereign mercy was needed by the Jew, it is available also for the Gentile; “even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles” (vs. 24). And this is borne witness to by the prophet Hosea. Doubtless the prophecy will be fulfilled in a coming day for Israel, but the Spirit of God here applies it to the present time in connection with those who believe the gospel, whether Jews or Gentiles. It would appear that verse 25 has reference to the Jewish believers of this present dispensation, for so Peter uses it in his epistle (1 Peter 2:1010Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:10)), where he is dealing with Jews; but vs. 26 takes in believers from amongst the Gentiles, who, having no claim by nature or any other way to be the people of God, through grace are “called the children of the living God.” A similar application of Old Testament prophecy is found in Galatians 4:26-3126But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. 28Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. 29But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. 30Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. 31So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. (Galatians 4:26‑31). The present is the time of Israel’s desolation, and yet she has now many more children than during the period in which she was recognized by Jehovah; for such is God’s grace to us, that the rejection of Israel for a season has opened the flood-gates of His mercy to the Gentiles, and “now we, brethren, after the pattern of Isaac, are the children of the promise” (Gal. 4:2828Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. (Galatians 4:28)). This application to the present time of prophecies which will yet be fulfilled literally is of the deepest interest.
Having shown from Hosea that the admission of Gentiles into blessing had been foretold, the apostle next proves from Isaiah that not all Israel but only a remnant therefrom would be saved (vers. 27-29). And he concludes by showing that the reason of the rejection of Israel nationally was twofold; first, their vain effort at attaining righteousness through a broken law; and secondly, their rejection of Christ— “they stumbled at that stumbling stone.” But the Gentiles, equally sinners with the Jews, and all unworthy as they were, had attained to righteousness, not a human and legal righteousness, but one which was divine, “even the righteousness which was of faith.”
Thus is proved the very doctrine with which the epistle opens: “Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (ch. 4:16).