--- title: "Israel In the Past" description: "A look at the tension between heritage and faith, explaining why God's choice is based on mercy rather than human effort or history." image: "" book: "Romans" bookId: "ROM" testament: "new" startChapter: 9 startVerse: 1 endChapter: 9 endVerse: 33 coversChapters: [9] aiTitle: "The Great Shift: Understanding Why Some Are In and Others Are Out" aiDescription: "A look at the tension between heritage and faith, explaining why God's choice is based on mercy rather than human effort or history." hasAiStory: true location: "Zion" persons: ["Abraham","Esau","Gentiles","God","Hosea","Isaac","Isaiah","Jacob","Jesus","Moses","Pharaoh","Rebecca","Sarah"] hashtags: ["covenant","faith","judgment","mercy","righteousness"] genre: "epistle" readingTime: 4 type: "adaptive" slug: "ROM/israel-in-the-past" canonicalId: "ROM.9.1-9.33" chronologicalOrder: 1667 relatedSlugs: ["1PE/the-living-stone-and-chosen-people","ROM/israel-in-the-future","EXO/gods-presence-and-the-israelites","ISA/woe-to-ephraim","PRO/the-reply-of-the-tongue-is-from-the-lord","HOS/adulterous-wife-and-faithful-husband","EXO/the-seventh-plague-hail","MAL/the-lords-love-for-israel","ROM/unrighteous-israel","ISA/the-destruction-of-the-assyrian-empire","EPH/alive-with-christ","ISA/prayer-for-mercy","GEN/the-three-visitors","HEB/follow-great-models-of-faith","GAL/sons-through-faith-in-christ","JHN/the-beginning-the-witness-of-john","GEN/isaac","ROM/the-faith-of-abraham","2TI/instructions-for-timothy","PSA/psalm-25-to-you-i-lift-up-my-soul","1JN/the-second-test-of-fellowship","2TI/pauls-greeting-to-timothy-faithfulness-under-persecution","EPH/pauls-greeting-to-the-ephesians-spiritual-blessings","2TH/the-day-of-the-lord","GEN/the-covenant-of-circumcision","JOL/a-future-day-of-the-lord","MIC/third-cycle-of-judgment-and-restoration","EPH/one-in-christ-christ-our-cornerstone","EXO/moses-returns-to-egypt","TIT/heirs-of-grace-avoid-divisions-final-remarks-and-greetings","PHP/following-jesus-example","PHP/warnings-against-false-examples","PSA/psalm-118-the-lord-is-on-my-side","MAT/the-chief-priests-and-elders-question","1CO/call-for-unity-in-the-church","2CH/jehoshaphats-reforms","GAL/final-warnings-and-blessings","JUD/a-greeting-from-jude-gods-judgment-on-the-ungodly","1TH/pauls-ministry","MAT/the-lord-of-the-sabbath","PSA/psalm-145-i-will-exalt-you-my-god-and-king","DAN/nebuchadnezzars-pride","JHN/the-feast-of-dedication-hanukkah","JOS/joshua-takes-the-whole-land","2PE/deliverance-from-false-prophets","2PE/peters-final-challenge","COL/the-supremacy-of-the-son","JER/parables-of-persecution"] prevSlug: "ROM/walking-by-the-spirit" nextSlug: "ROM/israel-in-the-present" --- I have to be honest with you—I am carrying a heavy burden today. I feel a deep, constant ache in my heart for my own people, the people of Israel. I love them so much that I would almost be willing to face separation from [Christ](/persons/jesus) if it meant they could find their way home. It is easy to get confused and think [God](/persons/god) has abandoned His plans, but that is not the case. Being born into the right family or checking off the right boxes doesn't automatically make someone one of God's children. It has always been about His promise, not just our biology. Think about [Isaac](/persons/isaac) and [Jacob](/persons/jacob); before they were even born or had done a single thing, God made it clear that His plan was about His own calling, not about our human resume. Now, some people are pushing back, asking, 'If God is in control of everything, how can He blame us when we fail?' But let's be real—who are we to talk back to the Creator? A piece of clay doesn't get to tell the potter why it was shaped a certain way. God is the one holding the clay, and He has every right to use it however He sees fit to show both His patience and His immense glory. This is the part that is changing the game: God is opening the doors to people who were never considered 'His people' before. He is calling the [Gentiles](/persons/gentiles) into the family, showing mercy to everyone, not just those who thought they had a monopoly on it. The irony is that many people spent their whole lives trying to earn their standing with God by following a strict set of rules. They were so focused on their own effort that they tripped over the very thing they were looking for. Meanwhile, those who didn't even know the rules are finding peace because they simply trusted in God. The secret isn't in your track record; it is in your faith. ### Paul’s Concern for the Jews I speak the truth in [Christ](/persons/jesus); I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit. I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is [God](/persons/god) over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen. ### God’s Sovereign Choice It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are [Abraham](/persons/abraham)’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through [Isaac](/persons/isaac) your offspring will be reckoned.” So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring. For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and [Sarah](/persons/sarah) will have a son.” Not only that, but [Rebecca](/persons/rebecca)’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac. Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” So it is written: “[Jacob](/persons/jacob) I loved, but [Esau](/persons/esau) I hated.” What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! For He says to [Moses](/persons/moses):“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to [Pharaoh](/persons/pharaoh): “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden. One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?” Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use? What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory— including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the [Gentiles](/persons/gentiles)? As He says in [Hosea](/persons/hosea):“I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people,and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,” and,“It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,‘You are not My people,’they will be called‘sons of the living God.’” [Isaiah](/persons/isaiah) cries out concerning Israel:“Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea,only the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earththoroughly and decisively.” It is just as Isaiah foretold:“Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants,we would have become like Sodom,we would have resembled Gomorrah.” ### Israel’s Unbelief What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written:“See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumblingand a rock of offense;and the one who believes in Himwill never be put to shame.”

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