Why do some people end up coming to Christ, while others remain separate from Him? We all know families in which, even though they shared a similar upbringing, one child becomes a Christian and another refuses the claims of Christ on his life. Why does this happen?

This is the question Paul was wrestling with. In his time, many of the Jews, his own countrymen, had responded to the gospel by believing that Jesus was in fact the Messiah they had been promised. These Jewish people were living examples of how God had kept His promise to their ancestor Abraham, as Paul mentions in verse 6. All the disciples, and thousands of Jewish people in Jerusalem and Judea had become Christians – in fact, Acts chapter 5 records that the multitude of believers became so great that the religious leaders threw all the apostles in jail.

So, why didn’t those religious leaders also follow Christ? If so many of the Jews believed in Jesus, why did others continue to reject Him? If God had made covenant promises to Abraham, why didn’t all his descendants receive the blessings of the covenant, blessings which are only realized in Jesus the Messiah?

Well, Paul doesn’t really answer this question. Instead, he reminds us that throughout the history of God’s people, some of them had received the promise of God and some didn’t. After all, Abraham had two sons – Ishmael and Isaac, but only Isaac received the covenant blessing, thus becoming the ancestor of Jesus. And again, Isaac had twin sons, but Jacob was chosen to become the ancestor of Jesus, not Esau.

And as verse 11 makes clear, Isaac and Jacob received the promise, not because of anything they had done, but simply because of God’s choice. God freely chose to have mercy on them, to show compassion to them. And by His free grace, God continues to draw sinners to Himself, showing mercy to us simply because of His love.

How should we Christians respond to this sobering truth? Well, as verse 14 says, we have no room to challenge God’s justice – for the fact is that no one deserves to be saved. God would have been perfectly just to condemn us all, so those who have come to Christ should be filled with gratitude for God’s amazing grace. And of course this means we have no room for pride – if God is the One Who has taken the initiative in our salvation, what room do any of us have to think we deserve the credit for it?

But we should also share the sorrow for the lost that Paul expresses in verses 1-3. It was this grief, this longing for others to be saved that drove Paul to travel from town to town, pleading with his Jewish kinsmen to accept Jesus as their Messiah. And even when his own people threatened him and stoned him and left him for dead, he kept going into their synagogues, presenting the claims of Christ to them. In short, knowing that God is sovereign over human salvation spurred Paul on to greater missionary efforts.

The bottom line is that we don’t know who will be saved and who won’t, and that’s none of our business. Our job is simply to be grateful for God’s grace, and prayerfully preach that grace to everyone. So, let’s scatter the seed of God’s word, and leave it to God to make it grow.

Romans 9:1-18 (NASB)

I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,
5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;
7 neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.”
8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
9 For this is a word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”
10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac;
11 for though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls,
12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”
13 Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!
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 does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.”
18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.