As we move forward, we have to address a frustrating opinion. There are some who will say that the Old Testament gives one way to salvation through the Law, and the New Testament provides a second (and ongoing) way to salvation through Jesus. This is absolutely wrong. God from before creation always provided Jesus for salvation. And it can be confusing to think that even though Jesus’ crucifixion was at one point, it was the salvation of all men, even those in the Old Testament. And in the same way that we trust the salvation of Jesus two-thousand years in the future, there were those who trust in the salvations of a yet-to-come savior two-thousand years before Jesus. It is through that faith that salvation is made available.
In another way, there is a wrong interpretation where all people are predetermined to either salvation or condemnation. That before we were even born, we were determined how we spend eternity. But this extreme position is taking an idea from too far. What God has done is determined a way to salvation from the beginning of time. God is also working in certain, temporary moments to harden hearts for the benefit of His glory to others, but that is only temporary and not an eternal determination.
What God did to Pharoah was not change him, but to bring to the surface what was already in his heart. So why would God not doing this with each of us? Why would God make me this way? But as the Creator, he can see such a big picture that it would blow our minds. Think of those critical moments generations ago where a different decision in a single instance could eliminate the extended family you know. We look at our lives, and we ask, “Are you working God? I am not sure I like how you are working on things.” But Paul asks us if we think we know better than the potter? God could have responded to us as people not worth instead of showing great patience and love.
So instead of responding from the place of wrath, God responds with great mercy. He prepared generations ago this choice of ours. His patience is so vast that he has waited from before time. And from Hosea, God calls people who are not His own back to him. And we are, you are, children of God. And it isn’t about being an Israelite. Isaiah tells us that there are only some in the nation of Israel that will not choose salvation.
So this whole point of this is to understand is that it doesn’t matter where you come from. But you have to accept Jesus as Messiah. It doesn’t matter how good you are because that doesn’t get you to being a child of God. And Jesus wasn’t the messiah because we said so, but it was the Father who said so.
What are you going to do with Jesus? What are you going to do with the author of our salvation? Will you trust God’s will?
9:1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” (ESV)
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— (ESV)
24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.” (ESV)