ROMANS UNWRAPPED 155

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!   How unsearchable are His judgements and His ways past finding out!...... for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen."   Romans 11v 33-36

Such is the summing up of Romans chapters 9 - 11, known as the great theodicy.   This simply means the vindication of all that God has done and how He has done it.   In chapters 1 - 8 Paul has outlined the truth of the gospel in the clearest of terms, but now he proceeds to answer difficult questions and to explain the ways of God for all the doubters.   Not only does God provide for us a wonderful salvation but He explains how He has done it, and the principles which He applies.

At the heart of this portion of the letter is the prayer of intercession by Abraham in Genesis 18v25, "shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"   Paul begins this section in deep perplexity.   There is no conjunction or participle connecting chapter 8v31-39 with chapter 9v1-3.   The verses flow on: the argument continues, thus telling us that the subject matter of Romans 9 - 11 are very much part of the teaching of the gospel; it is not a parenthesis or afterthought.   He moves immediately from CELEBRATION  to LAMENTATION.   He is perplexed because his kinsfolk, who were chosen by God to bring the truth of God to the world, seem to have missed out on the greatest work that God has ever done.   So in these chapters Paul is discussing the position of ISRAEL in relation to the gospel.

• Chapter   9 he deals with Israel's past and their divine election.
• Chapter 10 he deals with Israel's present and their rejection of Christ as Messiah.
• Chapter 11 he deals with Israel's future and their ultimate restoration by the grace of God.

In these chapters Paul follows a similar pattern to chapters 1 - 8.   There, he began in the depths of human corruption and ends in the heights of glory by the grace of God to man.   Here in chapters 9 - 11 he begins in the depths of sorrow for his unbelieving people and ends with the heights of praise for the wisdom of God that will finally bring them through.   He begins chapter 9 with an expression of great sorrow and he ends chapter 11 with an expression of great praise to God.  

Here in chapter 9 are what we might call the principles of divine sovereignty.

• VERSES 1 - 5   -     GOD CHOSE TO BLESS ISRAEL OUT OF ALL THE NATIONS IN THE WORLD.
• VERSES 6 - 10   -   GOD'S ELECTION DID NOT ARISE OUT OF ISRAEL'S  HERITAGE BUT OUT OF HIS OWN DIVINE PURPOSE.
• VERSES 11 - 13   -   GOD'S ELECTION DID NOT ARISE OUT OF ISRAEL'S BEHAVIOUR.
• VERSES 14 - 16   -   GOD'S ELECTION WAS BASED ALONE ON HIS DIVINE MERCY.
• VERSES 17 - 18   -   IN THE EXECUTION OF HIS PURPOSE GOD USES WHATEVER AGENCY HE DEEMS NECESSARY FOR THE ULTIMATE GOOD.
• VERSES 19 - 24   -   GOD IS GOD AND HAS A RIGHT TO DO AS HE WILL WITH HIS CREATION.
• VERSES 25 - 29   -   GOD IS NO RESPECTOR OF PERSONS AND ALWAYS INTENDED TO BLESS ALL NATIONS.
• VERSES 30 - 33   -   ISRAEL STUMBLED AT THIS POINT AND THE GENTILES WERE BROUGHT IN ON THE BASIS OF FAITH IN GOD WHICH IS THE ONLY BASIS ON WHICH HUMAN BEINGS ARE BLESSED.  

The subject is immense and we will deal with each in turn.   The real problem was that Israel had taken God's choice of them as a right instead of a privilege.   Every Jew was reared to believe that they were a special people and that somehow God had gone against His word.   The reality was that this was huge misunderstanding on the part of Israel, as to what God had promised.   They were not a special people because of anything they were, or anything they had done, but only by what God had done for them.  

In short we shall see in this chapter that GRACE not RACE is the key.