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 believers were living examples of how God had kept His promise to their ancestor Abraham, as Paul mentions in verse 6. All the apostles and thousands of other 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 begins by reminding 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 well within His rights 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, how could any of us 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 really none of our business. Our job is simply to be grateful for God’s grace, and prayerfully to 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 (ESV)

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.