Undeserved & Unfathomable Grace

6/23/25 Bible Thought (Romans 9)

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After expounding the marvelous grace of God across many pages, Paul shifts his focus slightly in Romans 9-11 to addressing Israel and his longing for their salvation (Rom. 9:1-5).

For as the apostle John recounted,

“He [Jesus] came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (Jn. 1:11).

While there were certainly exceptions, a great number of Israelites failed to see that Jesus was in fact their heaven-sent Messiah that had come to save them.

Yet, this unbelief didn’t render the plans of God void. In fact, it’s not entirely shocking that some would deny the Messiah. As the apostle would conclude,

“But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel” (Rom. 9:6).

Truly, God had chosen Israel. They were the object of His love for no merit of their own:

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ⁷ It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deut. 7:6-8).

Yet, Paul’s argument in Romans 9 that begins so clearly in verse six is that it took more than genetics to be part of the people of God.

It wasn’t just hitting the DNA lottery. For the promise was made to Isaac and not to Ishmael. Likewise, the promise was continued through Jacob, and not Esau (Rom. 9:12). Before Jacob or Esau were ever born, God had set apart Jacob as the line of promise, rather than Esau, because that’s what He sovereignly chose to do.

Yet, while God set this up as He did, it does not entail that only Israelites would be saved. Nor does it ensure that all Israelites would be saved. They still had to respond to God with faith (see Rom. 2:28-29).

Because of this, those who believed from outside Israel could be a part of the covenant people of God.

A perfect example of this is Rahab, who through faith was spared during the Jericho siege (see Heb. 11:31). Likewise, the Scripture later records how Ruth, a Moabitess (Ruth 1:4) becomes the great-grandmother of King David and an ancestor of the Messiah (Ruth. 4:21-22).

Paul’s goal in Romans 9 is to showcase God’s corporate election of Israel, and at the same time point out that individual Israelites had to respond to God.

In essence, God has chosen a people, but He has likewise chosen to save those that believe and make them the objects of His special love and grace.

Now, various theological camps see this slightly differently.

In essence, the question boils down to, “Do we believe because we are chosen?” or “Are we chosen because we believe?” The theological antimony of divine sovereignty and human responsibility has been one of the greatest fascinations to me over the years. It’s one of those things that, while I still love to study the idea, I realize I have to accept by faith. Human beings are responsible creatures and have free agency, and yet God is altogether sovereign over everything that happens. These things aren’t mutually exclusive even if we can’t always understand how they balance out.

The Scripture, in many places, outlines both of these doctrines in the same passage.

Famous examples include Joseph being sold by His brothers according to God’s purpose (Gen. 50:20) and even the crucifixion of Christ which was according to God’s definite plan and foreknowledge that was likewise executed by guilty men (Acts 2:23).

Norman Geisler states in conclusion on the matter,

“God knowingly decided and decidedly knew from all eternity who would believe and be saved and who would not. And, ‘in accordance with’ this foreknowledge, He chose to save those who would believe.”[1]

How exactly all of that works is beyond me and is bound up in the mind of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God who is beyond my ability to fully comprehend and that is okay.

So, while I still have questions and one day I’ll hope to have answers, at the present I simply have to marvel at the fact that God saved me.

While many of those who were born into the line of promise missed the promise, it opened the door to the Gentiles (Rom. 11:11). With this, God has opened my eyes that were blinded (2 Cor. 4:4). He took me out of the domain of darkness and brought me into the Kingdom of His Beloved Son (Col. 1:13) and I magnify His grace.

While I was still a sinner, Christ died for me (Rom. 5:8) and I might not be able to plumb the depths of the interworking of all of God’s attributes and magnificence, and that’s okay.

If I am saved by grace through faith, then certainly I’ll continue to live by faith even when I don’t have all the answers.

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[1] Norman L. Geisler, Chosen But Free (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2010), 150