NOTES for Rom 9:1-18

Beginning with chapter nine, the apostle Paul writes about something that has always been a matter of dispute among Christians. What is to be done about Israel? What happened to the promise? Why did Israel not recognize Christ? Who is better and more important: the converted Gentiles or the Jews who rejected the Messiah? Who is without sin? How should those who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior regard Israel and the Jews? The apostle to the Gentiles will address all these questions one after another.

In today’s passage, two things call for particular attention. First, the promise given to Abraham is eternal and unbreakable. Nothing can make God unfaithful to His word. What was said once will endure for eternity, however much those to whom the promise was given, or those to whom it does not apply, may wish to cancel its force and forget it.

Second, Paul’s attitude toward his fellow countrymen draws our attention. Who among us is ready to say, “I could wish that I myself were cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kindred according to the flesh”? Is it within human power to consent to such a thing for the sake of those with whom one is connected only by the flesh—not even relatives, but merely a history, a land, and a tradition with which one is no longer united by faith? Apparently this longing to share the light of the Resurrection with those who seem to mean almost nothing to you is the principal mark of true apostleship.