What Is God's Relationship With Israel? (Part 1)

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A few summers back I watched people climb the Gordale Scar.[1] It’s a rock face that rises some 300 feet above the Yorkshire Dales. In fact, climbers from all over the world were there hanging at various points on the cliff.  

Imagine you’re up there on the rock face. And you’re stuck. You can’t find your next handhold. And you’re running low on calories and, worse, daylight. You need somebody to rescue you. And that’s when you feel the thud of a heavy rope fall on your shoulder. And you hear a voice from above say, “Hold on. I’ve got you!” So, you carefully tie the rope around your waist, making the best harness you can. And just before you push away from the rock wall and put your weight on the rope, that same voice from above says, “Just to be clear, the last time I tried this, the rope broke!” Would you do it? Would you trust the rope?

 That’s the question at the heart of Romans 9–11. 

After all, Romans 1–8 is full of promises God makes to Christians. Just before Romans 9:1, we read this one: “[T]hose whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:29–30).[2]

Now, it’s not a rope. But we do call it the “golden chain.” And it’s just one of dozens of promises that God gives us who know and love his son the Lord Jesus. (For a list, See Table 2: Promises in Romans 1–8 below.) And that promise—Romans 8:29–30—is just one of dozens of promises that Israel’s unbelief calls into question. God made dozens and dozens of promises to his people Israel. He promised to send his messiah to save them, to redeem them out of exile, and to bring them home at last. But instead of embracing the messiah when he came, Israel rejected him. In fact, their leaders killed him. “He came to his own and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11).

If we are going to believe all the promises God gives us, then we’ve got to say something about all the promises God gave to them. Why should we trust the “golden chain,” if it broke the last time any weight was put on it? Romans 9–11 is in our Bibles to wrestle with the apparent contradiction between Israel’s unfaithfulness and God’s faithfulness. It’s in our Bibles to help us wrestle with whether the God of the gospel can be trusted. Or, as Paul puts it in the thesis of Romans 9–11—Romans 9–11 is in our Bibles to answer this question: “Has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel?” (Romans 9:6a NLT)[3]

It’s a problem that’s evident even in the typography of our Bibles. It explains why these chapters look the way they do. Romans 9, 10, and 11 are full of indented quotations. And each indented quote is a quote from the Old Testament, a quote of something God said to Israel. There are 30 total. Paul quotes from the OT in Romans 9–11, in fact, more—in a higher concentration—than he does anywhere else in his letters. He quotes from at least 12 different Old Testament books and from all three parts of the Hebrew Bible: the law, the prophets, and the writing. (For a list, see Table 3: Paul’s OT Quotations in Romans 9–11 below.).

Paul’s argument is full of God’s past promises because Paul must show that Israel’s present unbelief does not contradict those promises. He needs to show us that Israel’s unfaithfulness doesn’t contradict God’s faithfulness. We need to see that the golden chain—and every other promise found in Romans 1–8—will hold. Romans 9–11 is in our Bibles, in other words, to answer the question, “Can we trust God?” And in these chapters, Paul gives two answers to that question. 

Table 1: The Argument of Romans 9–11

Answer #1: God never promised to save every Israelite in the messianic era.

First, to the question of whether Israel’s unfaithfulness contradicts God’s faithfulness, Paul says, No. After all, God never promised to save every Israelite in the messianic era. That is, when God finally sent Israel’s redeemer, God never promised he’d redeem every single member of Abraham’s family. We find Paul’s first answer in Romans 9–10. In fact, Paul states it right away. Right after asking whether Israel’s unfaithfulness contradicts God’s faithfulness, Paul says, “For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel” (Romans 9:6b).

Only if God promised to save every Israelite in the messianic era—only if he promised that all who are descended from Israel will belong to Israel—has God’s word, God’s promise, failed. Paul, in other words, is reminding us that if we’re going to hold God to his word, we’d better make sure we’ve understood what he said.

Paul says this and then gives us two reasons why God never promised to save every Israelite. If God had made that promise, then he couldn’t highlight his freedom (Romans 9) or our freedom (Romans 10).

God’s Freedom & Romans 9

If God had promised to save every Israelite during the messianic era then his salvation plan would have foregrounded—prioritized or highlighted—race more than grace. Human criteria and human initiative would have taken center stage in God’s story rather than God’s free and amazing grace. Had God promised to save every descendant of Abraham, then who your daddy was and how many children he decided to have would have been more important considerations for who “Israel” was than who God is and who he decided “Israel” was. It would have prioritized…

·      “children of the flesh” over “children of the promise” (Romans 9:8).

·      “works” over “him who calls” (Romans 9:11).

·      “[H]uman will or exertion” over “God” and his “mercy” (Romans 9:16).

·      The pot over the “potter” (Romans 9:21)

 Or, as he summarizes all this later. It would have prioritized 

·      “works” over “grace” (Romans 11:6).

From the very beginning of Israel, from the very beginning of Abraham’s family tree,[4] God’s saving plan had always prioritized divine initiative over human initiative. From the very beginning, not every child of Abraham was included in Israel but only those sons and daughters freely chosen by God himself. 

In fact, the very first true son of Abraham—the Father of Israel—was not the son of a surrogate chosen by humans but the son of an old woman chosen by God. It was Isaac not Ishmael. Same for the second. The second true son of Israel was not the firstborn son, chosen according to human custom and expectation, but the second born son chosen by God. It was Jacob not Esau. This is what Paul argues in Romans 9:7–13. 

Again, God never promised to save every single Israelite because, from the beginning, he chose to build Israel by highlighting grace over race, divine initiative over human initiative.

It's at this point that Paul goes on to say something utterly sobering. In Romans 9:14–23, Paul says that it is only against the backdrop of Ishmael and Esau that God’s free grace to Isaac and Jacob can be truly seen. All of Abraham’s family—every single child in Abraham’s family tree—is a sinner facing God’s judgment (see, esp., Rom 2–3). 

That’s why Paul tells us that God’s salvation plan doesn’t simply highlight God’s grace but a very specific kind of grace: mercy. Isaac and Jacob don’t just get what they don’t deserve (i.e., grace). They also don’t get what they do deserve. They get mercy. And the true nature of that mercy—its true splendor—can be seen only if God doesn’t give it to every member of Abraham’s family. 

Mercy’s true nature can only be seen if God gives it to Isaac and Jacob and doesn’t give it to Ishmael and Esau. This is what Paul says in Romans 9:22–23. In God’s saving plan, he  “has endured with much patience vessels of wrath…in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy.”  

Had God chosen to save every Israelite in the messianic era, then he couldn’t display the true, dazzling riches of his freely-given mercy. Yes, of course, God’s mercy to every Israelite would have sparkled against the backdrop of Gentile unbelief and judgment. But only by differentiating between Abraham’s sons would God’s mercy sparkle as God intended, only then would God’s mercy be truly seen for what it is. Wrath against Gentiles puts God’s mercy to Isaac in relief. But wrath against Ishmael puts God’s mercy to Isaac in bold relief.

It also puts God’s mercy to Gentiles in bold relief. This is how Paul concludes in Romans 9:24–29. Only if God left some of Abraham’s children in their sins would God’s mercy to Gentiles really stand out. It’s one thing to save Gentiles after saving every Israelite in the messianic era.[5]

It’s quite another to save Gentiles after saving only Isaac and Jacob. Or, to use Paul’s words in Romans 9:27–29, it’s quite another to save Gentiles after saving only a remnant within Israel.

Our Freedom & Romans 10

In Romans 10,[6] Paul then gives one more reason why God never promised to save every Israelite in the messianic era. He did it to highlight our freedom. Had God promised to save every Israelite in the messianic era then his salvation would have prioritized family right more than freely-exercised faith. Thus, Paul argues...

·      Romans 9:30: “[R]ighteousness… is by faith.”

·      Romans 9:33: “[W]hoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 

·      Romans 10:4: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” 

·      Romans 10:6: “[T]he righteousness based on faith.” 

·      Romans 10:9: “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 

·      Romans 10:10: “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

·      Romans 10:11: “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 

·      Romans 10:12: “[T]he same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him [i.e., in faith].” 

·      Romans 10:13: “[E]veryone who calls on the name of the Lord [in faith] will be saved.”

Salvation, Paul insists, is by faith. But the people of Israel “have not all obeyed [or “accepted,” NIV[7]] the gospel” (Romans 10:16). Instead, Paul says in Romans 9:30–10:4, Israel pursued God’s righteousness “as if it were based on works” (Romans 9:32). Israel “did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Romans 10:3). And, to add to the surprise, Gentiles who “did not pursue righteousness…attained it…by faith” (Romans 9:30).

Paul’s point in Romans 10 is pretty simple, even if its relationship with Romans 9 makes our heads hurt! God never promised to save every Israelite in the messianic era in order to highlight his freedom—Romans 9—but also to highlight our freedom—Romans 10. God planned salvation this way to foreground and display and prioritize human responsibility. Thus, Paul concludes this part of his argument in 10:14–21 reminding us that, while Israel heard the good news of messianic salvation, they nevertheless refused to believe. They remained “disobedient and contrary [or “obstinate,” NIV]” (10:21; cf. Rom 9:31–33).

And, once again, Paul reminds us that in a surprising twist Gentiles—those not in the Abraham’s family tree and from another tree (see Romans 11:16–24)—believed. “Those who are not a nation [i.e., Gentiles]” (Romans 10:19, citing Deuteronomy 32:21)—“found” the Lord Jesus, even though they were not “seek[ing]” him (Romans 10:20, citing Isaiah 65:1; cf. Romans 9:30) 

Has God’s word to Israel failed? Does Israel’s unfaithfulness contradict God’s faithfulness? In Romans 9–10, Paul says, No! In fact, if we think it does, then we’ve misunderstood what God promised. We’ve read our Bibles too carelessly. God never promised to save every Israelite in the messianic era. If he had, he couldn’t highlight his freedom or ours.

Still, hasn’t God promised Israel more? Surely the situation in Paul’s day—the one that caused Paul’s “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” (Romans 9:2) and motivated his urgent “prayer” (Romans 10:1) and missionary activity (Romans 11:13–14)—is in some way out of step with what God had promised. Are we wrong to read the Old Testament and assume that when God promised to restore Israel from exile he meant something more than what Paul was experiencing. What Paul is here lamenting? To put a razor-sharp point on it, surely Paul’s defense of God’s character couldn’t end with Romans 10, with a small remnant of Jewish Christians in an increasingly Gentile-dominated messianic community. That doesn’t sound like sand-on-the-seashore or a starry-starry night! Didn’t God’s word demand something more for Israel? 

To answer that question, we turn to Romans 11 and to the second answer Paul gives to the question raised by Israel’s unbelief.

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This is an interview from the Orthodoxy podcast in which Andy Schmitt talks to Dr. Jared Compton about the very topics written about in this essay. Please listen to and share this interview with someone who may be interested.

[1]This is a lightly edited transcript of a talk I gave on Romans 9–11 at The North Church (Mounds View, MN; see here). The essay deliberately retains some of the repetition and direct address characteristic of such talks.

[2]Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[3]Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

[4]See, e.g., the “tree”-language in Rom 11:16–24.

[5]In Romans 9:25–26 Paul sees Gentile salvation anticipated in the Old Testament. But instead of citing one of the many clear anticipations of this in the Old Testament—as he does in Romans 4 (Gen 17:5) and Romans 15 (2 Samuel 22:50; Psalm 18:49; Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalm 117:1; Isaiah 11:10)—Paul cites from an OT prophecy anticipating the salvation of Israel’s northern tribes (see Hosea 1:10 and 2:23). Paul does this for two reasons. (1) God’s promise to save Israel’s northern tribes is God’s promise to save Gentiles. After all, that’s what it means when Hosea describes the exiled tribes as “not my people” and “not my loved one” (9:25 NIV). (2) As we shall see below, God intends to use Gentile salvation to provoke Israel’s salvation. Paul, therefore, chooses a provocative hermeneutical method—applying a passage about Israel’s salvation to Gentiles—to match the role of Gentile salvation in God’s story. 

[6]Technically, the last four verse in Romans 9 and all of Romans 10.

[7] Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.