Romans 9

The section of Paul's book-length essay known as Chapter 9 of Romans has been subject to a great deal of misinterpretation arising from two errors. The first is reading into the text and the second is failing to interpret in context (i.e. the entire essay) while overlooking important statements of principle.

Reading into the text has the fancy name of eisegesis, defined by Merriam-Webster as interpreting a text by imposing on it one's own ideas. It is the opposite of exegesis, which denotes the practice of reading a text on its own terms and allowing it to challenge the reader. A typical case of eisegesis is that of people who see the Bible story as a series of different plans God had for saving people. The first was Eden, but the humans disobeyed. The second was up to the great flood, the one Noah built the ark for. The next was Israel, followed by the coming of Jesus and the establishment of the Christian church. These people look to a future plan in which Israel is restored and Jesus reigns for 1000 years. Then there will be a great battle after which the elect (there is a certain amount of predestination built in to this way of interpreting the Bible) are taken into the Eternal New Jerusalem. Each one of these plans (and mind you, we are at Plan F by this time) is called a dispensation of grace, a different way of saving people. It depicts God as failing in his first intents and shuffling the cards each time things just do not work out. My description of the dispensationalist interpretation is not meant to be critical of people who hold this view, but rather to point out that it imposes a system onto the biblical texts rather than let the Bible speak on its own.

Let us try out an exegetical approach instead: What does Chapter 9 have to say. What is the context? At the beginning of the essay Paul establishes that all of us have sinned and that God makes no distinction between Jews and Gentiles. In Chapter 15 he insists that God has commissioned him to take the good news of Jesus to the non-Jews, the Gentiles, the peoples (ethnoi in Greek). If God sent Paul to the non-Jewish people and if God holds all people with the same regard, and if Paul makes a big deal of the fact that Abraham was put right with God through trust (faith), then Paul cannot be saying in Chapter 9 that merely being a good Jew will turn out to be enough in the end.

What Paul does say in Chapter 9 is that he recognizes his Jewishness and that he feels sorrow for his own people. After all, the salvation history up to the time of Jesus was first and foremost a Jewish story. They were given the adoption (as children of God), the glory (a vision of God's presence), the covenants, the law, the (temple) worship, and the promises (v. 4). God's word and purpose did not fail, but rather the problem was that not all Israelites truly belong to Israel (v. 6). Paul sees the church as the New Israel. Jeremiah foresaw that God would make a new pact, one written on people's hearts rather than on stone and parchment (32:40). Jesus said his death (and resurrection) established a new pact (Luke 22:20).

In the remainder of Chapter 9 Paul insists on God's sovereign right to have mercy on who he will have mercy, to put all humans on an equal footing, to use Israel's disobedience to allow multiple millions of Gentiles to come to faith. The discussion of Chapter 9 really ends in 10:4: "Christ is the fulfillment of the law to make righteous all those who believe." It could not be clearer. He will go on to cover the matter of how Israel will fit in God's future purposes in Chapters 10 and 11. Keep in mind where Paul ends up in this part of the essay: "I do not wish you to be ignorant, my brothers and sisters, of this mystery, so that you will not think too highly of your own wisdom: the hardening of a portion of Israel has come about until the fullness of the Gentiles enters (the kingdom of God) and that is how all Israel shall be saved (11: 25). This is the new pact, all who put their full trust in Jesus, whether Gentile or Jew, will be made right with God.