Romans 9 explained: Has God's Promise to Israel Failed?

Paul's grief for his people (vv. 1-5)

Paul, himself Jewish, says he would accept being cursed and cut off from Christ if it would help his fellow Jews, much as Moses offered in Exodus 32:32, and he lists God's gifts to Israel. The oldest Greek has no punctuation, so translations differ on verse 5: most read it as calling the Messiah God, while some end the sentence earlier and treat the last words as a separate praise of God.

God's word has not failed (vv. 6-13)

Paul argues that the promise never passed simply by birth: it went to Isaac rather than his half-brother Ishmael, and to Jacob, whom God chose over his twin Esau before either was born. 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated' quotes Malachi 1:2-3, which speaks of the nations that came from them, Israel and Edom, and many scholars think 'hated' is a Hebrew way of saying 'not chosen', though readers differ on how strong it is.

Is God unfair? (vv. 14-18)

Paul answers with God's words to Moses in Exodus 33:19, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy', meaning mercy is a free gift and not something earned. He adds the hard claim that God raised up Pharaoh and hardened his heart to show his power, though Exodus itself says both that God hardened Pharaoh and that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

The potter and the clay (vv. 19-24)

When someone asks how God can still blame anyone, Paul gives no explanation and instead uses a picture from Isaiah and Jeremiah: a potter shaping different pots from one lump of clay. Some read verses 22-23 as God deciding in advance who is saved and who is destroyed, while others point to the 'what if', the stress on God's patience, the wording that leaves open who readied some for destruction, and the ending, where God calls Jews and non-Jews alike (v. 24).

Echoes from the prophets (vv. 25-29)

Hosea first spoke these words about Israel's northern tribes being taken back after God had disowned them, and Paul applies them to non-Jews being welcomed as God's people. From Isaiah he takes the idea of a remnant, a small group that survives, to say that God has always kept a people for himself even when most did not respond.

Faith and the stone (vv. 30-33)

Paul's surprising conclusion is that non-Jews found a right standing with God by trusting him, while many in Israel pursued it through the law by works rather than by faith (v. 32). Scholars debate whether he means trying to earn God's favor or treating the practices that marked out Jews, like circumcision and food laws, as the boundary of God's people, and the stone blends two lines from Isaiah (8:14 and 28:16) about a rock some trip over and others rely on, which Christians read as pointing to Jesus.

Key verse: Romans 9:6

Where Christians differ

Reformed (Calvinist) Christians often read this chapter as teaching that God chooses particular individuals for salvation before birth. Catholic tradition, following Augustine and Aquinas, also speaks of God choosing people for glory, but firmly denies that God chooses anyone for damnation. Many others, including Orthodox and Methodist readers, many modern Catholic interpreters and a good number of modern scholars, stress God's foreknowledge and human freedom. They read the chapter as about God choosing peoples and roles in history, such as Israel and now non-Jews too, without fixing any one person's final fate.

Something to think about

When some people receive good things they did nothing to earn and others do not, what makes that seem fair or unfair to you?