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Christianity is Jewish. And yet, most Christians are not Jews and have not been for nearly two thousand years. So, how did a first-century offshoot of Judaism become home to billions of Gentiles? Romans 9-11 is Paul’s answer to this question. Here’s an outline of his answer so far: 

• Jews are God’s Chosen People, and his supreme gift to them and the entire world is Jesus Christ (Romans 9.1-5).
• Unfortunately, the vast majority of Jews in Jesus’ day rejected him. This rejection does not signal a failure in God’s plan, however, for God’s plan was always based on grace, not race (verses 6-13).
• God uses human beings to accomplish his plan, through both positive “mercy” and negative “hardening” (verses 14-18).
• While we do not fully understand the justice of how God uses us  to accomplish his plan, we have no right to question it (verses 19-21).

That’s Paul’s argument so far. Today, I want to consider how Romans 9.22-29 continues the argument. Paul begins by asking two questions:  

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?  

These questions are rhetorical. Paul believes that they express how God has in fact acted. He has delayed judgment on “the objects of his wrath” in order to extend salvation to “the objects of his mercy.” In the specific context of Romans 9-11, that means he has delayed judgment against unbelieving Israel in order to offer Gentiles grace. 

Paul proves this through a succession of prophetic proof texts: 

As he says in Hosea [2.23]:  

“I will call them ‘my people’
who are not my people;
and I will call her ‘my loved one’
who is not my loved one,” 

and [in Hosea 1.10],  

“It will happen that in the very place
where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
they will be called 'sons of the living God.’”  

Isaiah [10.22-23] cries out concerning Israel: 

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth
with speed and finality.” 

It is just as Isaiah [1.9] said previously:  

“Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.” 

So, to return to my opening question: How did a first-century offshoot of Judaism become home to billions of Gentiles? Because God providentially turned the unbelief of Jews in Jesus’ day to the benefit of Gentiles, such as you and me. According to the Bible, God’s plan was to bless his Chosen People and through them the entire world (Genesis 12.1-3). And that is what is in fact now happening. Even so, God is not yet done with his Chosen People. He still desires to save them. 

More on that tomorrow.