Hello Downey.
We know that only Jacob was chosen, it is impossible that anyone else
could be chosen. The Old Testament is all about a single lineage that
commenced with Issac. Issac was chosen and so was Jacob, there cannot
be any other chosen individual, that would utterly shred the Old Testament.
If you would be so kind, could you tell me what this chapter nine is about.
What is Paul discussing in the opening paragraphs?
What is Paul saying in the closing paragraph?
Well, Paul opens the chapter expressing his grief that the jews are not believing the gospel.
And of course wishes and prays their eyes would be opened, perfectly acceptable to pray God to be merciful and save someone.
But Paul goes on acknowledging a scriptural truth first spoken by God in the OT. That of the promised son to Abraham.
Abraham could not naturally bear a child, it took a miracle of God to produce Isaac. And Isaac is called a child of the promise. What God is saying is Abraham would be the father of many nations, Abraham's children who would be counted, (accepted into the beloved) by God as the seed, must also be miraculous by their birth, that means they must ALL of them be also children of the promise as Isaac was. Paul mentions this to the Galatians (gentiles) , that we the believers are as Isaac was, children of the promise,
Galatians 4:28
Now we, brethren, as Isaac
was, are children of
promise.
To be a child of the promise, Paul says they must be born of the Spirit, not according to the flesh. So then they must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Galatians 4
23 But he
who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, 24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— 25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— 26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27 For it is written:
“Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband.”
28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac
was, are children of promise. 29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him
who was born according to the Spirit, even so
it is now. 30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.”31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
I just introduced Galatians because it does help to understand this idea, AND it shows Gentiles and Jews both can be children of the promise.
Romans 9
6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they
are not all Israel who
are of Israel,
7 nor
are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.”
8 That is, those who
are the children of the flesh, these
are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
9 For this
is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”
Only those born according to the Spirit are the children of God, This all agrees with Christ saying you must be born again.
Romans 9
22
What if God, wanting to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
Some from both Jew and Gentile are included, according to His eternal purposes, according to the council of His own will, HE makes that choice.
24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Here are those called from among the gentiles, v25 - v26
25 As He says also in Hosea:
“I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.”
26 “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘You
are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
Here is Israel, only the remnant, who are of the elect will obtain salvation. v27- v29
The Lord left a seed, a small number of them are believers in Christ.
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.
28 For He will finish the work and cut
it short in righteousness,
Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”
29 And as Isaiah said before:
“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”
God will justify people by faith, the righteous shall live by their faith. This is an OT truth. Abraham was justified by his faith and Habakkuk
says
Habakkuk 2:4
“Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall
live by his
faith.
From both Jews and Gentile the righteous shall live by faith and not by works of the LAW.
The question is where does faith come? I hold to it being a gift, part of our being born again, a child of the promise, every good and perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation due to change.
Present Condition of Israel
30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.
32 Why? Because
they did not
seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 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.”
