To read the passage click HERE.
Romans 9-11 are easy to skip over when reading Romans – or at least easy to breeze through without thinking through. The reason for this is because they pose questions for most believers – especially believers who do not want to take the time to think through theologically. Questions about election. Questions about the role of Israel in God’s purposes. Questions about evangelism and the responsibility that believer’s have. As I pondered this section I spent some time thinking about verse 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.”
Children of the promise – that is who we are. I love God’s promises. And there are some great ones throughout the Scriptures. It was Adoniram Judson, one of America’s first missionaries, who once said, “The future is as bright as the promises of God.” But sometimes God’s promises don’t seem so bright. Take for instance verse 15: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” What if God chose not to have mercy on me? How would I feel about that? What if (according to verses 20-22) God made me for “dishonorable use”? Or that I was created as a “vessel of wrath prepared for destruction”? My future would not be so bright after all.
That’s why I don’t think you can read chapter 9 without reading chapter 10. Because in chapter 10 you get, as Paul Harvey used to say, “the rest of the story.” Here are a few chapter 10 promises to balance out what God says in chapter 9…
v.9 – “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.”
v. 13 – “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
I love being a child of the promise. And I love Romans chapter 9. I’m just exceptionally glad that Paul also wrote chapter 10. and indeed, my future IS as bright as the promises of God.
Next Week’s Passage: Romans 10:1-13
Memory Verses: Romans 8:1-23