The opening paragraph of Romans 9 lists the extraordinary privileges and advantages of the Jews, God’s ancient people. In the words of Paul, they have been given “the adoption as sons…the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship… the promises [and]…the patriarchs.” But to this extraordinary list of privileges Paul now adds the greatest privilege of all, namely, that they are those through whom the Redeemer of the human race has come. “…from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.”

This is a very striking statement. For Paul is not only saying that the Messiah was born of Israel, that is, that He was a Jew. He is also saying that this Jewish Messiah, born of Israel according to the flesh, is, in fact, God. And he is saying it in a stark language. If we substitute the name Jesus for Christ, which we can do, since Paul is obviously writing about Jesus, we have the statement: “Jesus, who is God over all, forever praised!” Or, to simplify it even further, “Jesus…is God over all.” The sentence means that Jesus is Himself the only and most high God.

Yet this is not all the passage teaches. It actually contains four very important teachings, including Jesus’ deity. (1) The humanity of Jesus. The first heresy in church history was the denial of the true humanity of Christ. It was called docetism, from the Greek word dokeo, which means “to seem.” It taught that Jesus only “seemed” to be a man. There is none of this in the New Testament. For here in Romans 9:5, as in other passages, the biblical writers are united in their insistence that Jesus was a true human being, a descendant of Abraham according to the flesh. This has a number of important implications, for it means that God not only fully understands but has also Himself likewise experienced all that we experience as human beings. The doctrine of Christ’s humanity is of great importance for us if we are to live a victorious Christian life.

(2) The deity of Jesus. As I said, the earliest heresy in the history of the church was the denial of Christ’s humanity. But today the case is the exact opposite. Few would deny His humanity since to our way of thinking Jesus was obviously a man, even an exemplary man. Instead there are strong, numerous, and popular attempts to deny His deity. Countless numbers of our contemporaries regard Jesus as having been nothing but a man. Far more is lost with this denial than in denying Christ’s humanity. What is lost is the value of His atonement for sin, for no mere man, however good, would be able to pay the infinite price required for our redemption. The combination of Christ’s humanity and deity, and the reason for it, makes Calvary the very center of the Christian faith. It is the reason the Son of God came to earth. There is no gospel without it.

(3) The supremacy of Jesus. But Jesus didn’t only die, humbling Himself for our salvation. He also rose again and has now ascended to heaven, where He is honored as God, having being given the name that is above every name (Phil. 2:8-11). If Jesus Christ is Lord, as these passages say He is, the supremacy of Christ described in Romans 9:5 (“who is God over all”) includes His rule over us, who are His people, and we are not His people if we fail to submit to that rule. There is a great deal of bad thinking and even error in this area at this present time. It has become customary in some places to think of Christianity as a two-stage commitment. In the first stage we come to Jesus as Savior, simply believing on Him as the one who died for sin. In the second we come to Him as Lord, thereby becoming serious about our Christianity and about being Christ’s disciples. But nothing like this is found in the New Testament. On the contrary, to become a Christian is to become a disciple and vise versa. Submitting to Christ’s lordship is the very essence of true faith, or Christianity.

(4) The rightness of praising Jesus. The fourth doctrine taught in Romans 9:5 is the rightness of praising Jesus, for the text reads, “Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!” It raises two questions: “Do we praise Him?” and “Do we praise Him as we should?” The answer to the second question is obviously no, for no mere human or earthly words can be adequate for praising Christ properly. Yet we should do it, knowing that it will be our privilege, joy, and glory to praise Jesus Christ in heaven forever. The angels are doing it (Rev. 5:12). According to Revelation, one day we are going to join with them (Rev. 5:13). So let’s do it now! Let us praise our Savior, who is God over all, as best we know how – live for Him until He comes again.

There is one last thought as we return to the paragraph in Romans from which our text is taken (Rom. 9:1-5). We have seen that Paul is expressing sorrow over the fact that the ancient nation of Israel had as a whole rejected Jesus and that, in that context, the ascription of deity to Jesus is appropriate as conveying the full tragedy of the Jews’ rejection. It’s bad enough that the nation should have missed the full value of the other privileges listed: the adoption, the divine glory, the covenants, the law, the temple worship, the promises, and the patriarchs. But it’s a tragedy beyond description that they should have rejected Jesus as the Messiah whom God had promised. Yet we also need to say more. However tragic the Jews’ rejection of Jesus may have been (and is), the rejection of Jesus by others, both Jews and Gentiles, is equally tragic today, perhaps even more so, since the gospel has been so widely proclaimed and been so amply defended in the many centuries of subsequent church history.

It would be especially tragic is you yourself should reject Him, either forcefully (“I will not have this man to rule over me”) or by neglect (“Speak to me about it again, some other time”). If you are doing either of those two things, how can we who know Jesus have anything other than “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in our hearts for you? To reject our words is nothing, but to reject Him is a loss of cosmic proportions. So we say, “Do not reject Him. Believe on Him. God is making His appeal through us as we say with Paul, “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20) and remind you that “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (v. 21). That is the gospel. Do not allow the opportunity to respond to that wonderful message pass you by.

Romans 9:5 Reflection Questions:

What is the cause of Paul’s emotions in verses 1-5?

Why is Paul so upset about the Jews’ lack of response to the gospel?

Paul seems to be searching for possible explanations for this troubling problem. What are some of the solutions he explores?

It is difficult for any of to receive a hard truth, however necessary it may be to hear it. But there is always a much better chance of hearing it if it is told to us in love. At the end of chapter eight, Paul was riding an emotional high as he declared that there is nothing in all creation that can separate a believer from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  But suddenly we come to chapter 9, and we find Paul exclaiming in a very different mood (vv. 1-2). What has happened? The answer is that he is now suddenly thinking of the members of his own race, the Jewish people, and he is grieving because for the most part they have rejected the gospel of God’s grace in Christ that he has been expounding. Paul is in such anguish for them that he could wish – these are his very words – “that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel” (vv. 3-4a).

This would be an unacceptable and nearly incomprehensible claim to most Jews who might hear him, for in their sight Paul was the worst of all possible enemies. He was a Jew himself, first of all. But he had become a believer in the one they would have called “that blaspheming imposter,” and now he was going about trying to convert both Gentiles and Jews to this religion. From their perspective, Paul was not only dreadfully wrong; he was also a traitor, a man who was trying to destroy the Judaism he had once affirmed.

Paul wasn’t doing this of course, at least not according to his understanding of the prophets. He was proclaiming Jesus as Israel’s true Messiah. But he was aware of the hostility that existed, which is why he is so anxious to declare his love for his people in this chapter. But notice: The truly remarkable thing is not that the Jews hated Paul, which was natural. The remarkable thing was Paul’s overwhelming love for those who were his enemies. Nowhere in his writings or anywhere else is there ever found (or is there ever imputed to his) the shadow of personal offense, matching retaliation, or lingering bitterness against the Jews for the abuses they gave him. Not once. Nowhere!

On the contrary, Paul’s spirit was the spirit of his Master, who wept over the city of Jerusalem even though He knew He was about to be crucified by the nation’s hostile leaders (see Luke 19:41-44). It was the tragic contrast between the Jews” fierce unbelief and the joys of the gospel that brought tears to the eyes of both Jesus of Nazareth and the apostle Paul. But we have not fully sounded the depths of Paul’s great love and sorrow for his people even yet. He says that he could wish himself “cut off from Christ” for the sake of his Jewish brothers. The text actually says that Paul would be willing to be “accursed from Christ” (that is, “damned”) for the sake of the Jewish people.

Now that really is remarkable! “Cut off from Christ”? From the very man who has reveled far beyond any of the other New Testament writers on the glories of being “in Christ” or being “joined to Him”? “Accursed”? From the very teacher who has so passionately affirmed that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Paul knows he cannot actually be separated from Christ. That is what the previous chapter has proclaimed so forcefully. Paul’s words in chapter 9 are only hypothetical. But they are genuine nevertheless. For he is saying that, if it were possible, he could wish himself accursed from Christ if only his condemnation could achieve the salvation of the people he so fervently loved.

Paul could not be a substitute for his people. He could not die for them because he was a sinner. But there was One who could. Thus, “when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). This was the only adequate substitute for sinners, the Son of God Himself. And Jesus’ future, yet foreseen death was the reason God did not destroy the people in Moses’ day (Exodus 32) and why He does not destroy people who believe on Jesus Christ today. Paul knew this, which is why he speaks hypothetically and not exactly as Mosses did, though he echoes his words. He knew that Jesus died to receive the full outpouring of God’s wrath against sin so that those who come to God through faith in Him might not experience God’s wrath but rather grace. He knew it was the only way God saves anyone.

The spirit that was in Jesus, Paul, and Moses should be in each of us – if we would be soul-winners. No one can die for another person’s salvation. Jesus is the only one who could, and He did. But we can love as He loved, and we can point others to Him.

Paul was a great preacher of election. He will preach it again even in these verses. But his knowledge of the need for the electing grace of God in salvation did not prohibit him from sorrowing over those who were lost. I commend the heart of the great apostle to you. Let the sins of others grieve you. Let the fate that hangs over them be often on your mind. For, if it is, you will work for their salvation in exactly the same proportion, and you will speak often of Jesus who actually was accursed for those who should afterward believe on Him.

Romans 9:1-4 Reflection Questions:

Do you anguish over others? Do you anguish over those closest to you, the members of your own family?

Do you anguish over those who are your enemies?  Do you anguish over those who are great sinners?

Do you anguish over those who have great privileges?

What can be learned from Paul’s attitude in verses 1-5 about how we’re to respond to the Jewish people today?

In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of Romans, we are dealing with a Christian philosophy of history. It’s a philosophy that we can ask as a question: “What in the world is God doing?” Or, “What is God doing in world history?” Or even: “What is He doing with me? Where have I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going when I die?” There has never been a more important moment in which to ask these questions, because in our day people have lost, not only the Christian answers to them but even the hope of finding them. The classic carnival man’s cry as the moving wheel of fortune turns: “Round and round and round she goes and where she stops nobody knows.”

This however, is not the Christian view, nor is it the teaching of Romans. The Christian view is not negative, because it sees God at the beginning of history (taking charge of it), the cross of Jesus Christ at the center of history (giving it meaning), and the return of Christ at the end of history (bringing it to a triumphant conclusion). For the Christian, time and history are pregnant with eternal meaning. In one sense that is the theme of the next great section of Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapters 9 through 11. But these chapters are not introduced into a vacuum. They are linked to what has already been written.

Thus far, Paul has discoursed largely on the justification and sanctification of believers. In following through on these themes, Paul introduces some of the most profound and mind-stretching material to be found anywhere in the Bible. We will see, as we study these chapters: (1) the historical advantages of Judaism; (2) the importance and biblical proof of election; (3) the doctrine of reprobation; (4) the justice of God in saving some and passing by others; (5) the glory of God displayed in His judgments; (6) the reason for Jewish failure to believe on Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah; (7) the place and power of gospel preaching in God’s plan; (8) the importance of Christian missions; (9) what God is doing in the present age, and why; (10) the eventual salvation of the Jews as a nation; and (11) the great and indescribable knowledge and wisdom of God that guides it all. All those themes will occupy us in due course.

But, as we begin, it is important to see the overall outline of these chapters as they apply to the central question Paul is raising, namely: Has God’s saving purpose toward the Jewish nation failed? It is the question he raises implicitly in verse 6. Paul’s answer is a firm “No,” for the following seven reasons: (1) God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because all whom God has elected to salvation are or will be saved (Rom. 9:6-24). (2) God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because God had previously revealed that not all Israel would be saved and that some Gentiles would be (Rom. 9:25-29). (3) God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because the failure of the Jews to believe was their own fault, not God’s (Rom. 9:30-10:21). (4) God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because some Jews (Paul himself was an example) have believed and have been saved (Rom. 11:1). (5) God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because it has always been the case that not all Jews but only a remnant has been saved (Rom. 11:2-10). (6) God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because the salvation of the Gentiles, which is now occurring, is meant to arouse Israel to envy and thus be the means of saving some of them (Rom. 11:11-24). (7) Finally, God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because in the end all Israel will be saved, and thus God will fulfill His promises to Israel nationally (Rom. 11:25-32).

We are going to be studying all these points in detail as we move through these great but sadly neglected chapters of Romans. Yet even here it is possible to see something of the vast scope of Paul’s plan. The apostle is showing what God is doing in the flow of human history from the very earliest moments in which He began to save our fallen race, through the period in which He began to work in a special way through the nation of Israel, to the coming of the Messiah, the rejection of Jesus for the most part by His own people, the offer of the gospel to the Gentiles, and the eventual conversion of the masses of Israel so that the two great religious portions of the human race may be saved and joined together as one people in Him. And in all this, Paul is providing what theologians call theodicy, a justification of the ways of God to human beings. In other words, he is not only showing what God is doing but also that He is right in so operating.

The question before us as we begin this section is: “How do we fit in?” What is God doing in your life? If you are a Christian, He is forming Jesus Christ in you so that at the end of time there will be a vast host of believers who will stand before Him as sisters and brothers of His beloved Son. Our problem is that we forget that this is what God is doing. Or we don’t think about this enough for it to matter. Instead, we are caught up in our own little plans, most of which have nothing to do with this purpose and will prove meaningless in the end. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you must know that you are here to be like Christ and to strive to win others to Christ so that they as well as yourself might have a share in this great blessing. What is God doing in history? That is what He is doing. That is a true understanding of historical events.

Romans 9-11 Reflection Questions:

Before you became a Christian, where did you look for meaning and purpose in life?

What kept you from turning to Christ sooner?

Think of something you have made with your hands (a work of art, a meal, a piece of furniture, etc.). What was your purpose in making it? How did you feel about it once it was done?

There are times in every Christian’s life when what is called for is a clear and ringing testimony, and there are times when what is most needed is a careful and persuasive argument supporting Christian truth. Overall, both are essential, for a personal testimony is no adequate substitute for an argument, when that is needed, and vise versa. In today’s wishy-washy, subjective Christian climate we need arguments especially. But, and this is the point I am making, we need personal testimonies, too.

I say this because of the final verses of chapter 8. Paul has been offering arguments for why we who believe in Christ can consider ourselves eternally secure. In fact, he seems to have brought out every possible argument he can think of in verses 28-37. They are basic to Christianity itself. But there is also a time for testimony and that is why, in verses 38 and 39, he once again writes in the first person. What a glorious testimony! There is no false optimism here, for what Paul says is based upon the sound arguments of the preceding verses. In this testimony Paul faces all possible “separators” of Christians from the love of God in Christ he can think of and then dismisses each one.

For most people today as also in the past, the most fearful of all adversaries is death – and rightly so. Apart from what we are told about death and the afterlife in Scripture, death is an unknown, except that it ends our existence here and is inescapable. Moreover, death is the greatest of all separators. Obviously it separates us from life itself. But it also separates the soul and the spirit from the body, and separates both from God if the individual is not saved. But for the believer in Christ this is not the final word. Death does separate us from things of the world, including people. But it can never separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. How do we know this? We know because Christ has conquered death. He triumphed over it. As a matter of fact, death, far from separating believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus, actually ushers them into an even closer relationship with Him.

The second possible separator that Paul mentions is “life,” this may seem strange until we remember that life sometimes seems even more cruel than death. Life brings separations, just as death does. The political aftermaths of wars sometimes separate members of families from one another. Sometimes poverty forces people to move away from loved ones if they have to leave their homes to find jobs. And consider sickness or the encroaching limitations of old age. In these things we experience separation from the simple pleasures the world once offered us. But there is no separation from God’s love.

When Paul mentions “angels” and “demons” as his next pair of possible separators, he is not thinking so much in rationally exclusive terms as he is simply sweeping over all creation to deny that anything or anyone anywhere could ever succeed in destroying our eternal security in Christ. In the first pair of possible separators Paul has looked at our most immediate experiences: life and death. In the second he looks to the realm of spirit beings and declares that not one of them, whatever that being may be like can separate us from the love of God in Christ.

Having addressed the experiences of life and death and expanded his circle of possible separators to include angelic forces, both good and evil, Paul now thinks in terms of time, arguing that neither present things nor future things can separate us from God’s love in Christ. Time is powerless against believers. Paul is saying that the hard things that are pressing in on us at this very moment and any things to come in the future cannot separate us from Christ. Jesus is equal to them.

It’s hard to know what Paul is thinking of when he speaks of “powers,” particularly since he adds it as a freestanding term, without linking it to a matching word, as he has done with the other possible separators thus far. The word in Greek can refer to miraculous signs or miracles, though here it would seem to mean heavenly or spiritual forces. The only problem is that we find it hard to think of spiritual powers that are not already included in the phrase “neither angels nor demons.” Paul might be meaning it in a summary fashion that there are no powers anywhere that can divide us from Christ.

In the fourth (and last) of his matched pairs, Paul turns from human experience, spiritual powers, and time and considers space, saying that “neither height nor depth” will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. This means that the love of God is everywhere, and may be an expression of the thought found in the well-known verses Psalm 139:7-10. On the other hand it may be significant that the Greek words translated “height” and “depth” were used in the ancient world in astrology to describe a point directly overhead, above the horizon, and a point directly downward, below the horizon. These points were used in forecasting horoscopes. If this is correct, the teaching is that even so-called astrological powers cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

After the sweeping terms of the first part of these verses the closing single item is “nor anything else in all creation. It’s as if Paul has run out of words in his verbal search for possible “separators” and ends up saying, “nor anything else, anything else at all.” What does “anything else in all creation” include? The answer is that it includes everything that exists except God, since God has created all these other things. Thus, if God is for us and if God controls everything else, since He has made it, then absolutely nothing anywhere will be able to separate us from His love for us in Christ Jesus.

This is Paul’s personal testimony which is based on the soundest evidence, evidence that had persuaded Paul, and should persuade us also. Paul’s conviction is not based on the intensity of his feelings or a belief that harsh circumstances of life are bound to improve or that any of these separating factors will somehow be dissolved or go away. Rather it is based on the greatness of God’s love for us in Christ, and that awesome love has been made known in that God sent His Son to die in our place. There is nothing in all the universe greater or more steadfast than that love. Therefore, nothing in all the universe can separate us from it.

I don’t know of anything greater than that. And I don’t know of any better way of ending our studies of Romans 8 than to say again that this is Paul’s testimony, born out of his own careful study of the Scriptures and his own personal experience of the love and grace of God. So I ask you: is this your testimony? Have you been persuaded of these truths, as Paul was? Can you say, “I no longer have any doubts. I know that salvation is entirely of God and that He will keep me safe until the very end”? If you are not certain of these truths, it is because you are still looking at yourself. You are thinking of your own feeble powers and not of God and His omnipotence.

Romans 8:38-39 Reflection Questions:

Can anything you are facing personally today (pandemic, unable to worship together) keep you from the love of God in Christ Jesus? How are you showing this love to the world today?

What reasons does Paul give for rejoicing and triumphing over suffering in Romans 8:31-39?

What specific evidence of God’s love do you have in your life?