Trinity Evangel Church

Hermeneutics is the technical name for the science of interpretation. It involves the principles for reading and the methods one practices for understanding what a text means. It comes from the Greek word hermeneuo (ἑρμηνεύω), “I explain” or “help someone understand” (a cognate form of which is found in Luke 24:27 when “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself”). Hermeneutics are guiding principles. We have hermeneutics when we read emoji-ridden texts on our phones from our friends, and we have hermeneutics when we read the Word of God.

I’ve been thinking for a number of months that it could be beneficial to have a four or six or something week class on hermeneutics. I do try to model in public how to read and understand Scripture, especially in the sermons that work through a book of the Bible verse by verse. I attempt to show my work, to show how I come to my conclusions by making observations and asking questions trying to get at the meaning of passage. We want to know what God wants us to know in His revelation, and that includes trying to figure out what the original author intended his original audience to understand.

The order is important; reading and interpreting the text lead to conclusions which can be labeled. We aim not to start with a theological system that expects, or explains away, certain interpretations. That’s a hermeneutical distinction; first, read the text in context. The verses make the difference; what does the Word say?

So: Paul’s revelation of God’s purpose in election and reprobation belongs in context. Remember how short the step would be from Romans 8:39 right into Romans 12:1. What’s the purpose of all these paragraphs in between? The purpose is to answer why so many Jews in the nation of Israel rejected Jesus as the Christ. God promised salvation to Israel, God promised a Messiah who would save Israel, and yet when the Messiah came to Israel most rejected Him. “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).

Romans 9 begins with this question, and Romans 11 finishes the answer. God has made some fantastic sounding promises in the gospel (contained in the first eight chapters of the epistle), promises of being saved by faith alone, promises of having Christ’s righteousness credited to us who believe. That’s a good word, that’s evangel. But what about the promises God made to Israel? What about their salvation? If God has changed His mind about His covenant-promises to them, how can we be sure He won’t change His promise to share covenant blessings with us?

In answering these questions Paul begins with an explanation that God never elected each and every individual Israelite to believe, only some, “only a remnant” as we saw last time in verse 27. The rejection of Christ by many in Israel was part of God’s plan. The plan included including many Gentiles (and we’ll see in Romans 11 that including the Gentiles would be a part toward re-including the Jews). Paul has drilled in on the sovereignty of God in all this, and in Romans 9:30 he continues to make clear how the rejection worked. God purposed it, and here’s how it looked on the ground.

What’s really interesting is that, as part of God’s plan, men misunderstood and misused and misapplied the good things God gave them. It’s ironic, it’s a warning, and it’s damning. Their hermeneutics of faith were bad, and they were judged by God for their passionate ignorance of the Word they should have understood.

Two paragraphs that finish with the same focus, making the same point.

There are two interactive questions in this paragraph, a What in verses 30-31 and the Why in verses 32-33.

We’ve seen Paul move his argument forward with What shall we say, then? a number of times already in Romans. He had just written that God graciously called Gentiles to be vessels of mercy, which was unexpected by many Jews, and God only called a minimum number of Jews to be vessels of mercy, also unexpected. Here is a summary about what the vessels of wrath did instead.

That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. (Romans 9:30–31 ESV)

As has been the issue from the start of the letter, men lack righteousness. Righteousness is “the quality of being morally right,” so being good, doing justice. Righteousness is meeting the standard, especially we’d think in terms of meeting the legal standards. This is how so many of the Jews thought. They pursued a law, the law defined what was right and they pursued righteousness by pursuing that law.

But there were a couple problems, one on the surface and the other perhaps more subtle but the actual issue. They did not succeed in reaching that law because they did not obey it perfectly, and no partial righteousness satisfies God’s requirement; it’s all or nothing (see James 2:10). And yet the underlying problem is that they did not read the law and interpret that the law was pointing them to depend on someone else.

Gentiles, the kind of people who in the minds of the Jews were unrighteous by nature, attained…a righteousness that is by faith.

The second question and answer is Why? the Jews didn’t attain.

Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written,

Faith is how the Gentiles got righteousness, but Israel did not pursue [righteousness] by faith, but as if it were based on works. They thought being right was by doing right, but they didn’t understand that the real right was trusting someone other than themselves. The rightest right was looking to the Christ through the law and the prophets.

It wasn’t necessarily that they came out of the gates hating Christ, it’s that Christ required them to look away from themselves.

In Romans 9:33 Paul mashes up Isaiah 28:16 and Isaiah 8:14, and the same idea is found in Psalm 118:22. It’s a rough quote, but the key is that saving righteousness, faith, and the Cornerstone go together. Self-righteousness and works go with the stumbling stone, the stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense. In this context the stone doesn’t offend their unrighteousness. The stone offends their glory. They didn’t want to be vessels of mercy, they wanted to be vessels who fit themselves for riches. So they stumbled, stumbled, stumbled.

If they would have read/interpreted the law rightly they would have pursued righteousness by faith. By presenting their works, their works bring them shame. There is no shame for the believer.

There’s good reason to start a new paragraph, and actually, there’s good reason to start a new chapter, even though Paul’s original letter had no typographical break. Starting where it does gives a nice parallel to the openings of all three chapters, Romans 9, 10, and 11. But after a personal remark, it’s more of the same problem as the previous paragraph.

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. (Romans 10:1 ESV)

This brothers must be those in the church, and the them are the “my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (9:3). At the beginning of chapter 9 he wished he could be accursed instead of them, here he just states his hope positively. Desire may be an appropriate translation, but the Greek word (εὐδοκία) seems more along the line of “good will” or “good pleasure,” as in, he has a favorable disposition to them; Paul’s not mad at them. And he makes prayer for their salvation.

Here is responsibility on the other side of salvation for the unsaved. Paul knew that God’s purpose of election will stand, and he knew what only a remnant of his kinsmen were elected, but he didn’t know which ones were remnant and/or how big the remnant would be. So he prayed for God to save all of them. Don’t despair about whether or not God has elected the unbelievers you care about, pray to God for them.

The next three verses make three sequential arguments, “for,” “for,” “for.”

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (Romans 10:2 ESV)

Isn’t this saying that they really wanted to be right? Paul himself knew all about this kind of zeal (see Galatians 1:14). Before he transitioned to Christianity, he was killing, in the name of the Lord, those who believed in Christ. He was committed, passionate, and not just in his head. Many Jews had a zeal for God. Their zeal wasn’t a Romans 1 zeal for sensual pleasures and greed and idols and lack of restraint.

But their depth of sincerity damned them because it was wrong. Just because you “mean” something a lot doesn’t make it right. Their zeal was intense but ignorant, their fervor was false.

For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. (Romans 10:3 ESV)

This is what I was saying before. Try to see righteousness at two levels of right. The first level is being in the right place, the second level is having gotten there the right way. The law identified the right place, but they missed that the law pointed them to God’s righteousness, not their own. They wanted right the wrong way, which made the whole thing wrong. If they had gotten what they wanted they would have destroyed what they (said they) wanted.

They were ignorant of the things in the center of the page, so to speak, not the small print endnotes.

Seeking to establish their own, perhaps is better than sinning up a storm? But not submitting to where God says to be is still unrighteous, and so is not submitting to how He says to get there. The Jews took the good directions and tried to make the trip on their own.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4 ESV)

The law really pointed them to Christ. Christ is the end of the law, and this is the telos (τέλος), the consummation. He fulfilled it perfectly unlike us, but He is the direction the law pointed to.

How could they stumble over God’s law? How could they be ignorant of God’s righteousness? How could they so zealously do both? They failed to interpret the Scriptures.

There is application for us. Sincerity saves no one. Meaning well by itself means nothing. They had faith, but in the wrong thing: themselves. They searched the Scriptures for eternal life and missed that the Scriptures point to Jesus (John 5:39). Their zeal damned them. Hell is full of righteous ignorance and zeal.

They should have known from Abraham that God counts faith as righteousness (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3). The law and the prophets (and apostles) point to Christ. Look to Him! Such looking in faith is the rightest right, it is salvation for all who believe.

Be zealous, not to establish that you are right, but to serve the Lord (Romans 12:11). Be zealous, not mindlessly, but in the knowledge of what is good (1 Peter 3:13). The Lord is purifying you as a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works (Titus 2:14). Don’t grow weary, grow in grace.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18, ESV)

Hermeneutics is the technical name for the science of interpretation. It involves the principles for reading and the methods one practices for understanding what a text means. It comes from the Greek word *hermeneuo* (ἑρμηνεύω), “I explain” or “help someone understand” (a cognate form of which is found in Luke 24:27 when “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus *interpreted* to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself”). Hermeneutics are guiding principles. We have hermeneutics when we read emoji-ridden texts on our phones from our friends, and we have hermeneutics when we read the Word of God.

I’ve been thinking for a number of months that it could be beneficial to have a four or six or something week class on hermeneutics. I do try to model in public how to read and understand Scripture, especially in the sermons that work through a book of the Bible verse by verse. I attempt to show my work, to show how I come to my conclusions by making observations and asking questions trying to get at the meaning of passage. We want to know what God wants us to know in His revelation, and that includes trying to figure out what the original author intended his original audience to understand.

The order is important; reading and interpreting the text lead to conclusions which can be labeled. We aim not to start with a theological system that expects, or explains away, certain interpretations. That’s a hermeneutical distinction; first, read the text in context. The verses make the difference; what does the Word say?

So: Paul’s revelation of God’s purpose in election and reprobation belongs in *context*. Remember how short the step would be from Romans 8:39 right into Romans 12:1. What’s the purpose of all these paragraphs in between? The purpose is to answer why so many Jews in the nation of Israel rejected Jesus as the Christ. God promised salvation to Israel, God promised a Messiah who would save Israel, and yet when the Messiah came to Israel most rejected Him. “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).

Romans 9 begins with this question, and Romans 11 finishes the answer. God has made some fantastic sounding promises in the gospel (contained in the first eight chapters of the epistle), promises of being saved by faith alone, promises of having Christ’s righteousness credited to us who believe. That’s a good word, that’s *evangel*. But what about the promises God made to Israel? What about their salvation? If God has changed His mind about His covenant-promises to them, how can we be sure He won’t change His promise to share covenant blessings with us?

In answering these questions Paul begins with an explanation that God never elected each and every individual Israelite to believe, only some, “only a remnant” as we saw last time in verse 27. The rejection of Christ by many in Israel was *part of God’s plan*. The plan included including many Gentiles (and we’ll see in Romans 11 that including the Gentiles would be a part toward re-including the Jews). Paul has drilled in on the sovereignty of God in all this, and in Romans 9:30 he continues to make clear *how* the rejection worked. God purposed it, and here’s how it looked on the ground.

What’s really interesting is that, as part of God’s plan, men misunderstood and misused and misapplied the good things God gave them. It’s ironic, it’s a warning, and it’s damning. Their hermeneutics of faith were bad, and they were *judged* by God for their passionate ignorance of the Word they should have understood.

Two paragraphs that finish with the same focus, making the same point.

# Stumbling over God’s Law (9:30-33)

There are two interactive questions in this paragraph, a What in verses 30-31 and the Why in verses 32-33.

We’ve seen Paul move his argument forward with **What shall we say, then?** a number of times already in Romans. He had just written that God graciously called Gentiles to be vessels of mercy, which was unexpected by many Jews, and God only called a minimum number of Jews to be vessels of mercy, also unexpected. Here is a summary about *what* the vessels of wrath did instead.

> That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. (Romans 9:30–31 ESV)

As has been the issue from the start of the letter, men lack righteousness. Righteousness is “the quality of being morally right,” so being good, doing justice. Righteousness is meeting the standard, especially we’d think in terms of meeting the legal standards. This is how so many of the Jews thought. They **pursued a law**, the law defined what was right and they pursued righteousness by pursuing that law.

But there were a couple problems, one on the surface and the other perhaps more subtle but the actual issue. They **did not succeed in reaching that law** because they did not obey it perfectly, and no partial righteousness satisfies God’s requirement; it’s all or nothing (see James 2:10). And yet the underlying problem is that they did not read the law and interpret that the law was pointing them to depend on someone else.

Gentiles, the kind of people who in the minds of the Jews were unrighteous by nature, **attained…a righteousness that is by faith**.

The second question and answer is **Why?** the Jews didn’t attain.

> Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written,

> “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling,

> and a rock of offense;

> and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

> (Romans 9:32–33 ESV)

Faith is how the Gentiles got righteousness, but Israel **did not pursue [righteousness] by faith, but as if it were based on works.** They thought being right was by doing right, but they didn’t understand that the *real* right was trusting someone other than themselves. The *rightest* right was looking to the Christ through the law and the prophets.

It wasn’t necessarily that they came out of the gates hating Christ, it’s that Christ required them to look away from themselves.

In Romans 9:33 Paul mashes up Isaiah 28:16 and Isaiah 8:14, and the same idea is found in Psalm 118:22. It’s a rough quote, but the key is that saving righteousness, faith, and the Cornerstone go together. Self-righteousness and works go with **the stumbling stone**, the **stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense**. In this context the stone doesn’t offend their *unrighteousness*. The stone offends their *glory*. They didn’t want to be vessels of mercy, they wanted to be vessels who fit themselves for riches. So they stumbled, stumbled, stumbled.

If they would have read/interpreted the law rightly they would have pursued righteousness by faith. By presenting their works, their works bring them shame. There is no **shame** for the believer.

# Ignorant of God’s Righteousness (10:1-4)

There’s good reason to start a new paragraph, and actually, there’s good reason to start a new chapter, even though Paul’s original letter had no typographical break. Starting where it does gives a nice parallel to the openings of all three chapters, Romans 9, 10, and 11. But after a personal remark, it’s more of the same problem as the previous paragraph.

> Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. (Romans 10:1 ESV)

This **brothers** must be those in the church, and the **them** are the “my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (9:3). At the beginning of chapter 9 he wished he could be accursed instead of them, here he just states his hope positively. **Desire** may be an appropriate translation, but the Greek word (εὐδοκία) seems more along the line of “good will” or “good pleasure,” as in, he has a favorable disposition to them; Paul’s not mad at them. And he makes **prayer** for their salvation.

Here is responsibility on the other side of salvation for the unsaved. Paul knew that God’s purpose of election will stand, and he knew what only a remnant of his kinsmen were elected, but he didn’t know which ones were remnant and/or how big the remnant would be. So he prayed for God to save *all* of them. Don’t despair about whether or not God has elected the unbelievers you care about, pray to God for them.

The next three verses make three sequential arguments, “for,” “for,” “for.”

> For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (Romans 10:2 ESV)

Isn’t this saying that they really wanted to be right? Paul himself knew all about this kind of zeal (see Galatians 1:14). Before he transitioned to Christianity, he was killing, in the name of the Lord, those who believed in Christ. He was committed, passionate, and not just in his head. Many Jews had **a zeal for God**. Their zeal wasn’t a Romans 1 zeal for sensual pleasures and greed and idols and lack of restraint.

But their depth of sincerity *damned* them because it was wrong. Just because you “mean” something a lot doesn’t make it right. Their zeal was intense but ignorant, their fervor was false.

> For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. (Romans 10:3 ESV)

This is what I was saying before. Try to see righteousness at two levels of right. The first level is being in the right place, the second level is having gotten there the right way. The law identified the right place, but they missed that the law pointed them to God’s righteousness, not their own. They wanted right the wrong way, which made the whole thing wrong. If they had gotten what they wanted they would have destroyed what they (said they) wanted.

They were ignorant of the things in the center of the page, so to speak, not the small print endnotes.

**Seeking to establish their own**, perhaps is better than sinning up a storm? But not submitting to where God says to be is still unrighteous, and so is not submitting to how He says to get there. The Jews took the good directions and tried to make the trip on their own.

> For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4 ESV)

The law really pointed them to Christ. Christ is **the end of the law**, and this is the *telos* (τέλος), the consummation. He fulfilled it perfectly unlike us, but He is the direction the law pointed to.

# Conclusion

How could they stumble over God’s law? How could they be ignorant of God’s righteousness? How could they so zealously do both? They failed to interpret the Scriptures.

There is application for us. Sincerity saves no one. Meaning well by itself means nothing. They had faith, but in the wrong thing: themselves. They searched the Scriptures for eternal life and missed that the Scriptures point to Jesus (John 5:39). Their zeal damned them. Hell is full of righteous ignorance and zeal.

They should have known from Abraham that God counts faith as righteousness (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3). The law and the prophets (and apostles) point to Christ. Look to Him! Such looking in faith is the *rightest right*, it is salvation for all who believe.

----------

## Charge

Be zealous, not to establish that you are right, but to serve the Lord (Romans 12:11). Be zealous, not mindlessly, but in the knowledge of what is good (1 Peter 3:13). The Lord is purifying you as a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works (Titus 2:14). Don’t grow weary, grow in grace.

## Benediction:

> But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18, ESV)

In order of testimonies:

The Lord works in merciful ways. God’s ultimate purpose is to share the riches of His glory with vessels of mercy He has prepared for glory (Romans 9:23). I started by saying the Lord works in merciful ways, when most would expect the phrase to be “the Lord works in mysterious ways.” That’s a sticky idea, even if the sentence isn’t in Scripture. The phrase was sown in a 1773 hymn written by William Cowper with the first line, “God moves in a mysterious way.” Christians — and non-Christians — have been saying it since.

It does seem to summarize what the prophet Isaiah wrote (and Paul quotes another word from Isaiah in the paragraph we’re considering today):

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

We usually take this as a statement about God’s omniscience, or even His providence. He has access to more information than we do and He employs more advanced tactics to accomplish His purposes. There’s no question that He is infinitely wise; He lacks no data or perspective. He is infinitely deliberate; He gets straight lines from crooked sticks. But in context, Isaiah praises God’s mysterious ways for being merciful ways.

Isaiah 55 opens with the grand invitation for the thirsty to come and have water, wine, and milk. The hungry are called to have real bread, good and rich food. Through the son of David there would be life and security. And then Isaiah exhorts: “Seek the LORD while He may be found; … let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return…to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7). Verse 8 begins with “for,” verse 8 is the explanation for compassion and forgiveness: the Lord works in merciful ways that are higher.

Romans 9 (and really the point of chapters 9-11 taken together) is a New Testament explanation of the Lord’s merciful electing purposes — not our thoughts, and merciful glory-sharing — not our ways.

All the primary pokey points are at the Jews. The religious elite told the Great I Am Himself that Abraham was their father, so they presumed that they were good (John 8:39). Jesus told them that they had a different father, and that they shared his will to murder and lie (John 8:44). Paul is addressing the same problem group in Romans 9. The Israelites had the law and the covenants and the patriarchs; why were so many of Paul’s ethnic brothers still cut off from Christ?

The Lord works in merciful ways that are not man’s ways. God’s purpose of election stands as He shows mercy on whom He shows mercy. God’s calling is what matters, not man’s condition or man’s conduct. Isaac was chosen for mercy, as was Jacob, as are all vessels of mercy. And having received mercy, we have not received the right to say who else gets mercy. That can look mysterious to us.

In Romans 9:24-29 Paul shines light from two angles on an obvious mystery—even if it’s really mystery that was hidden in plain prophetic sight. Paul returns from the truth about God’s eternal purpose (Romans 9:21-23) to the application in God’s mercy to the nations and to the nation of Israel in history. Surprise (sort of)! Many non-Jews get mercy! And surprise (sort of)! It’s a mercy any Jews get mercy!

Neither of these should have been a surprise; both parts were revealed in the prophets and Paul quotes four OT passages in this paragraph. Prophets prophesied about mercy, but it was still a rude awakening. This wasn’t just Paul’s perspective, it was God’s Word.

Verse 24 connects the called to the elect vessels of mercy, but sets it up that mercy is for more.

even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? (Romans 9:24 ESV)

The called are those “those who are called according to His purpose…predestined, called, justified, glorified” (see more in Romans 8:28-30). What’s important is the “not only, but also.” Vessels of mercy are also ἐξ ἐθνῶν (compared to Ἕλληνι, the Greek in 1:16), from the nations.

Paul quotes the “prostitute prophet,” Hosea, who was called by the Lord to take a wife of whoredom (Hosea 1:2) as an object lesson to Israel who had forsaken the Lord as a spiritual adulteress. Romans 9:25-26 seem to be applied to the Gentiles, even though the original context of the quotes in Hosea refer to the ten tribes Israel. Since verse 24 ends with the “also from the Gentiles” and since verse 27 implies a contrast: “but Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,” Hosea’s prophecy applies to the “not My people” peoples.

As indeed he says in Hosea,

Verse 25 is a rough quote of Hosea 2:23 (which is also quoted in 1 Peter 2:10). There are depictive names of Hosea’s kids, and the ESV puts the Hebrew names in the footnotes: after a son named Jezreel, Hosea and Homer had a daughter named Lo-ruhama meaning “No Mercy” (Hosea 1:6) and then another son named Lo-ammi meaning “Not My People” (Hosea 1:8). The tribes of Israel had committed spiritual adultery, and so were being treated as if they were divorced. But the Lord covenanted that He would save them. The covenant (Hosea 2:18) in context belongs to Israel, and Paul sees in the Lord’s treatment of Israel an opening to the Gentiles.

Romans 9:26 quotes Hosea 1:10, and same idea.

Why does Paul apply prophetic words to Israel to those who were not Israel? First, on the surface, for those who didn’t know the original context in Hosea, the words work. Mercy is for many strangers, mercy is extended among the nations. Second, to the Jews who knew the context, it would be a rude awakening. Promises of mercy to them were being applied to philistines, enemies, the undesirables. The words confront religious presumption. Third, to the Gentiles who knew the context, it would be a rude awakening. Who among them wanted to be like the Jews? In practice the words offend cultural sensibilities.

The Gentiles were “having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). But those “who were once far off” have been given a new identity as sons of the living God. They are no longer strangers and aliens (Ephesians 2:19). This is the Lord’s doing and it is merciful in our eyes.

Paul turns to a major prophet, Isaiah, who cries out concerning Israel. As has been an issue, many Jews prided themselves in being sons of Abraham. They took their covenant status for granted. If they had listened to their own prophets they might have been more careful.

“Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”

Verses 27-28 quote Isaiah 10:22-23, a context prophesying God’s anger against Israel through Assyria; the Assyrians would be God’s tool of judgment to desolate Israel, a thorough yet not quite complete punishment. They key word is remnant. The remnant are the minority, the small group within the greater number, and the remnant among the Jews is important until partway through Romans 11 when God’s mercy is extended to more than a remnant. The remnant are the elect individuals within the elect nation, the sons who are sons in more than biological ways.

Only a remnant will be saved. Isaac and Jacob were early entries in this remnant. The rest will know judgment. The Lord’s sentence is His verdict, and He will execute it fully and without delay.

The second quote in verse 29 is from Isaiah 1:9. It’s quite a shock to the system to say that Israel deserved destruction like Sodom and Gomorrah, a stereotype of both reprobate behavior and total obliteration. The Jews would have thought that sort of judgment was for others, for the Really Bad™️, not for them. But the offspring are the remnant, and apart from mercy, the Lord of hosts would have have left even a small set of the saved.

Many Gentiles have received mercy, and continue to through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many Israelites did not, and many Jews continue to reject Jesus as the Messiah. It’s not about turning Gentiles into Israelites (Gentiles aren’t saved to be “true” or “spiritual” Israel; the application of promises of mercy is extended but the distinction is not removed). Both need the gospel of mercy. The goal of God’s mercy is global. “All the ends of the earth…all the families of the nations shall worship before You. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and He rules over the nations” (Psalm 22:27-28).

Read/heard from an angle of entitlement, it was rude (1) for Paul to apply promises given to Israel to Gentiles, (2) for Paul to act like Gentiles would be interested in promises given to Israel anyway, and (3) still further for Paul to remind Israel that a remnant was better than she deserved.

But mercy is often a reversal of expectations. You can’t tell by looking at the outside. God works in mysterious ways, not necessarily that they are hidden but that we are constantly calculating by other standards. We keep thinking we know the measurement of mercy. But Christ, whose merciful ways are higher than our ways, came to call tax collectors and sinners, gang members and Democrats, the broken among the tribes, the broken among the transgender, even people like us. God works in marvelously and mysteriously merciful ways.

You are called to faith, called to freedom, called to be saints, called to fellowship, called to eternal glory. That’s why those with Lamb, who is the Lord of lords and King of kings, are the “called and chosen and faithful” (Revelation 17:14). Look to Him, live as His people.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:10–11, ESV)

The Lord works in merciful ways. God’s ultimate purpose is to share the riches of His glory with vessels of mercy He has prepared for glory (Romans 9:23). I started by saying the Lord works in *merciful* ways, when most would expect the phrase to be “the Lord works in *mysterious* ways.” That’s a sticky idea, even if the sentence isn’t in Scripture. The phrase was sown in a [1773 hymn written by William Cowper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Moves_in_a_Mysterious_Way) with the first line, “God moves in a mysterious way.” Christians — and non-Christians — have been saying it since.

It does seem to summarize what the prophet Isaiah wrote (and Paul quotes another word from Isaiah in the paragraph we’re considering today):

> For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

> neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

> For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

> so are my ways higher than your ways

> and my thoughts than your thoughts.

> (Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV)

We usually take this as a statement about God’s omniscience, or even His providence. He has access to more information than we do and He employs more advanced tactics to accomplish His purposes. There’s no question that He is infinitely wise; He lacks no data or perspective. He is infinitely deliberate; He gets straight lines from crooked sticks. But in context, Isaiah praises God’s *mysterious* ways for being *merciful* ways.

Isaiah 55 opens with the grand invitation for the thirsty to come and have water, wine, and milk. The hungry are called to have real bread, good and rich food. Through the son of David there would be life and security. And then Isaiah exhorts: “Seek the LORD while He may be found; … let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return…to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7). Verse 8 begins with “for,” verse 8 is the explanation for compassion and forgiveness: the Lord works in merciful ways that are *higher*.

Romans 9 (and really the point of chapters 9-11 taken together) is a New Testament explanation of the Lord’s merciful electing purposes — *not our thoughts*, and merciful glory-sharing — *not our ways*.

All the primary pokey points are at the Jews. The religious elite told the Great I Am Himself that Abraham was their father, so they presumed that they were good (John 8:39). Jesus told them that they had a different father, and that they shared his will to murder and lie (John 8:44). Paul is addressing the same problem group in Romans 9. The Israelites had the law and the covenants and the patriarchs; why were so many of Paul’s ethnic brothers still cut off from Christ?

The Lord works in merciful ways that are not man’s ways. God’s purpose of election stands as He shows mercy on whom He shows mercy. God’s calling is what matters, not man’s condition or man’s conduct. Isaac was chosen for mercy, as was Jacob, as are all vessels of mercy. And having received mercy, we have not received the right to say who else gets mercy. That can look mysterious to us.

In Romans 9:24-29 Paul shines light from two angles on an obvious mystery—even if it’s really mystery that was hidden in plain prophetic sight. Paul returns from the truth about God’s eternal purpose (Romans 9:21-23) to the application in God’s mercy to the nations and to the nation of Israel in history. *Surprise* (sort of)! Many non-Jews get mercy! And *surprise* (sort of)! It’s a mercy any Jews get mercy!

Neither of these should have been a surprise; both parts were revealed in the prophets and Paul quotes four OT passages in this paragraph. Prophets prophesied about mercy, but it was still a rude awakening. This wasn’t just Paul’s perspective, it was God’s Word.

Verse 24 connects the **called** to the elect vessels of mercy, but sets it up that mercy is for more.

> even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? (Romans 9:24 ESV)

The **called** are those “those who are called according to His purpose…predestined, called, justified, glorified” (see more in Romans 8:28-30). What’s important is the “not only, but also.” Vessels of mercy are also ἐξ ἐθνῶν (compared to Ἕλληνι, the Greek in 1:16), from the nations.

# Mercy Extended to Strangers (verses 25-26)

Paul quotes the “prostitute prophet,” Hosea, who was called by the Lord to take a wife of whoredom (Hosea 1:2) as an object lesson to Israel who had forsaken the Lord as a spiritual adulteress. Romans 9:25-26 seem to be applied to the Gentiles, even though the original context of the quotes in Hosea refer to the ten tribes Israel. Since verse 24 ends with the “also from the Gentiles” and since verse 27 implies a contrast: “but Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,” Hosea’s prophecy applies to the “not My people” peoples.

> As indeed he says in Hosea,

> “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’

> and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’

> “And in the very place where it was said to them,

> ‘You are not my people,’

> there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

> (Romans 9:25–26 ESV)

Verse 25 is a rough quote of Hosea 2:23 (which is also quoted in 1 Peter 2:10). There are depictive names of Hosea’s kids, and the ESV puts the Hebrew names in the footnotes: after a son named Jezreel, Hosea and Homer had a daughter named *Lo-ruhama* meaning “No Mercy” (Hosea 1:6) and then another son named *Lo-ammi* meaning “Not My People” (Hosea 1:8). The tribes of Israel had committed spiritual adultery, and so were being treated as if they were divorced. But the Lord covenanted that He would save them. The covenant (Hosea 2:18) in context belongs to Israel, and Paul sees in the Lord’s treatment of Israel an opening to the Gentiles.

Romans 9:26 quotes Hosea 1:10, and same idea.

Why does Paul apply prophetic words to Israel to those who were not Israel? First, on the surface, for those who didn’t know the original context in Hosea, the words *work*. Mercy is for many strangers, mercy is extended among the nations. Second, to the Jews who knew the context, it would be a rude awakening. Promises of mercy to them were being applied to philistines, enemies, the undesirables. The words *confront* religious presumption. Third, to the Gentiles who knew the context, it would be a rude awakening. Who among them wanted to be like the Jews? In practice the words *offend* cultural sensibilities.

The Gentiles were “having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). But those “who were once far off” have been given a new identity as **sons of the living God**. They are no longer strangers and aliens (Ephesians 2:19). This is the Lord’s doing and it is merciful in our eyes.

# Mercy Limited to a Remnant (verses 27-29)

Paul turns to a major prophet, Isaiah, who **cries out concerning Israel**. As has been an issue, many Jews prided themselves in being sons of Abraham. They took their covenant status for granted. If they had listened to their own prophets they might have been more careful.

> “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”

> And as Isaiah predicted,

> “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,

> we would have been like Sodom

> and become like Gomorrah.”

> (Romans 9:27–29 ESV)

Verses 27-28 quote Isaiah 10:22-23, a context prophesying God’s anger against Israel through Assyria; the Assyrians would be God’s tool of judgment to desolate Israel, a thorough yet not quite complete punishment. They key word is **remnant**. The remnant are the minority, the small group within the greater number, and the remnant among the Jews is important until partway through Romans 11 when God’s mercy is extended to more than a remnant. The remnant are the elect individuals within the elect nation, the sons who are sons in more than biological ways.

Only a remnant **will be saved**. Isaac and Jacob were early entries in this remnant. The rest will know judgment. The Lord’s **sentence** is His verdict, and He will execute it **fully and without delay**.

The second quote in verse 29 is from Isaiah 1:9. It’s quite a shock to the system to say that Israel deserved destruction like Sodom and Gomorrah, a stereotype of both reprobate behavior and total obliteration. The Jews would have thought that sort of judgment was for *others*, for the Really Bad™️, not for them. But the **offspring** are the remnant, and apart from mercy, the **Lord of hosts** would have have left even a small set of the saved.

# Conclusion

Many Gentiles have received mercy, and continue to through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many Israelites did *not*, and many Jews continue to reject Jesus as the Messiah. It’s not about turning Gentiles into Israelites (Gentiles aren’t saved to be “true” or “spiritual” Israel; the application of promises of mercy is extended but the distinction is not removed). *Both* need the gospel of mercy. The goal of God’s mercy is global. “All the ends of the earth…all the families of the nations shall worship before You. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and He rules over the nations” (Psalm 22:27-28).

Read/heard from an angle of entitlement, it was rude (1) for Paul to apply promises given to Israel to Gentiles, (2) for Paul to act like Gentiles would be interested in promises given to Israel anyway, and (3) still further for Paul to remind Israel that a remnant was better than she deserved.

But mercy is often a reversal of expectations. You can’t tell by looking at the outside. God works in mysterious ways, not necessarily that they are hidden but that we are constantly calculating by other standards. We keep thinking we know the measurement of mercy. But Christ, whose merciful ways are higher than our ways, came to call tax collectors and sinners, gang members and Democrats, the broken among the tribes, the broken among the transgender, even people like *us*. God works in marvelously and mysteriously merciful ways.

----------

## Charge

You are called to faith, called to freedom, called to be saints, called to fellowship, called to eternal glory. That’s why those with Lamb, who is the Lord of lords and King of kings, are the “called and chosen and faithful” (Revelation 17:14). Look to Him, live as His people.

## Benediction:

> And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:10–11, ESV)

One of my favorite books, probably the book that I’ve highlighted more per page than any other, is The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Capon. It’s ostensibly a cookbook, but he gets a running start toward the recipe section by providing some reasons for rejoicing in all the things God has given us to cook, eat, taste, enjoy. Near the end of the first chapter Capon wrote this:

“In a real world, nothing is infinitely bad. Even the devil, insofar as he exists, is good. What he does wrong with his existence is all small compared with what God does right about him.” (Location 130)

It doesn’t mean that the devil is a good being, or acts good; of course the devil doesn’t. But God’s purpose for the devil must be toward good. It’s a provocative statement, but is it a true statement?

Solomon wrote,

The LORD has made everything for its purpose,

And isn’t this sort of sovereignty necessary for Romans 8:28 to be any good? “All things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” Solomon said “everything,” Paul said “all things.” Capon, while not inspired, brought the application all the way to the devil himself. God has purpose and it is good.

There are thematic reasons to recognize verse 23 as the end of the paragraph beginning in Romans 9:19. The ESV ends the question at verse 24, but modern Greek texts put a question mark at the end of verse 23; that seems appropriate for the subject shift from a general principle about God’s sovereignty back to the particular application about so many Israelites being cut off from Christ. Romans 9:22-23 provide perhaps the most simple, most deep, most eternal end of God’s sovereignty in His creation of the cosmos and His ruling of history. This is the end for which He made the devil, Pharaoh, Judas, Hitler, and Fauci. Here is the reason for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the explanation for evil in a world governed by a sovereign and good God (theodicy), the telos of all things, including a vindication for reprobation.

We’ve spent a good amount of time showing that the question about God’s fault finding (verse 19) could have been answered by saying that men are at fault. Paul, though, is raising the problem of men, such as Pharaoh, who do God’s will and are hardened for it. Paul hits a barrage of rhetorical questions back over the net, and the first one is stated in such way, and even riffs off Job in a way, showing that accusing God is not a good place to be (verse 20). Especially as a pot, God has ultimate/absolute/supreme power over us as our Potter. He has the “right” and authority to pinch off pieces of clay to make whatever He wants. He makes “out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use” (verse 21).

The last rhetorical question in verses 22-23 is a two-step revelation of God’s purposes using two types of pots, with a subordinate purpose on its way toward showing the Potter’s ultimate purpose.

The Potter is showing off His work, His work shows off His character. You may remember when we began to look at verses 14-18 that we appraised that God is great and greatly to be praised, that all His attributes belong with His name that is above all names, and that each of His attributes are infinitely excellent. He is, for example, the epitome and embodiment of love, not just the etymology/source for love. We proclaim His excellencies (1 Peter 2:9) because He has shown them to us excellently.

God’s “eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world” (Romans 1:20). But driving spinning planets around in their elliptical plane and directing shooting stars through space is not the pinnacle of His power. And His creation of time and markers of time does more than let men measure their days in the world.

What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,

The what if isn’t a hypothetical; it’s not maybe God did or maybe God didn’t. The what if is a category buster for pots. “What did you think, O pot, that you had a better idea for how God should be or show Himself off? What do you have to say about it?“

God’s righteousness is His commitment to show off His excellencies. There is no greater truth or reality to know than God Himself. When we have Him we have good (Psalm 16:2). This includes seeing His wrath, His indignation. God’s wrath is infinitely excellent wrath, and He desires to show it off. How would He do it?

Likewise He desires to make known His power. “God is exalted in His power” (Job 36:22). His power created and upholds the universe, and His power raises up rebels in the story. “The Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you’” (Romans 9:17). Verse 22 reiterates this purpose.

God desired to demonstrate His great wrath and power, as well as His patient endurance. Do you know God is called “the God of endurance” by Paul in Romans 15:5? Endurance, long-suffering, patience is one of God’s greatest characteristics. It is one of His tools; He’s so patient with sinners that such kindness on His part should lead to repentance (Romans 2:4). “Count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote” (2 Peter 3:15). He wants us to know and praise His patience, He wants us to share His endurance.

How does He develop endurance in His people? Through suffering (Romans 5:3-4; James 1:2-3).

the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (James 1:3-4 KJV)

Perfection is patience. God’s patience is perfect. How could God show off perfect patience? We think our 2020 was bad, God knows all the truth of how bad it is and works good from it. It takes every wicked conspiracy from all the vessels of wrath throughout time for God to make known His excellent endurance.

So vessels of wrath prepared for destruction are good in so far as they demonstrate God’s excellencies of wrath, power, and patience.; God has prepared or “fitted” some; they are “being prepared” (passive voice). 1 Peter 2:8 “they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.” God is showing off His glorious wrath and making known His great power, through perfectly patient endurance.

What if God’s purpose ended there? We would still be pots in no position to question the Potter’s power. But for as praiseworthy as His wrath and endurance of rebels is while they store up the full measure of wrath, that praise is not the highest end. Vessels of wrath make vessels of mercy even more a demonstration of His glory. Desiring to show His wrath is a subordinate end, with His ultimate end in verse 23.

in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory?

That God reprobates some to judgment makes His election of some to salvation even more humbling. The contrast is not capricious, it is gracious. God is who He is, God is glorious above all, and in His glory He has purposed to share the riches of His glory. Nothing can separate the vessels of mercy from the love of God for His own glory to be shared with us in Christ. We are prepared beforehand for glory. “He chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him…according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:4-6).

Do you believe in the Beloved? Then you are beloved vessel of mercy. And the Father of glory has given you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened to know the hope He has called you to and the riches of His glorious inheritance (Ephesians 1:17-18). You know more than Job, and most of the men in the Bible, about God’s purpose.

The devil, in so far as he exists, makes God’s mercy to Christians more gloriously known. The wicked for the day of trouble, in so far as they are made by the Lord for His purpose, make God’s mercy to Christians more gloriously known. Hell, in so far as it exists as a place of conscious and eternal torment on vessels of wrath, makes God’s mercy more gloriously known to you who cling to Christ and are delivered from death and promised an eternal inheritance in God’s presence.

These verses are not only for scholars, and their consequences are anything but superficial. Vessels of wrath cause real destruction on their way to destruction. Vessels of wrath sometimes threaten and slander and kill vessels of mercy, treating them as sheep to be slaughtered (Romans 8:36). Suffering and damage and hurt are real. Endurance is not an afternoon at the beach without a sun umbrella. Yet these truths are to inform our feelings in the fear of the Lord and faith in Him. God is not uncomfortable or apologetic about His purpose, and it is good for us to know His purpose.

When we are in these discussions about the existence of evil and God’s sovereignty, we can always turn to the cross. There we see love and mercy meet, yes. But there we also see sovereignty and sin meet; “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23; see also 4:27-28). At the cross we see God Himself, embodied in the Person of the Son, enduring evil that He Himself ordained. When it comes to evil and vessels of wrath, God has skin in the game. Leviathan may be a plaything for God (Job 41:1, 5), but the cross was no game. It was full of His patience, His providence, His power, and His purpose to make known the riches of His glory for His people.

If the Potter purposes to show off His patience with vessels of wrath, don’t freak out; here is a call for the patient endurance of the saints. Since the Potter purposes to share the riches of His glory with you vessels of mercy, then tell someone about His excellent mercies and show kindness and mercy to one another.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5–6, ESV)

The last time I talked about parenting my title was “Raising Parents.” We’re raising kids, yes, but we don’t want them to stay kids. We can, or should, see far enough ahead to realize that how we train them today will affect how they train their kids some future day. It’s still by God’s grace; thank God He fixes many of our failures. And yet we also know that God’s grace can work through our good works. We want our kids to grow up and be fruitful, joyful, #blessed.

Toward that end we parents talk up the glories of parenting and we try to live the way God says to. If we get to see our children’s children, and if we get to hear our children talking to and playing with their children, we’d want to see our grandkids being loved in truth. So we love our kids in truth. That’s not less than an example, but it’s also an investment that matures. If we sow hypocrisy, then we’ll reap generational hypocrisy. But if we demonstrate the good of parental responsibility, it won’t be a surprise that our kids want to have kids. We are raising parents, and we’re leaving an inheritance of prizing parenting.

My emphasis for today is that *we are raising Christians*. It depends who you hang out with, but there are more Christian parents who are waiting to see if they have Christian kids than raising kids to be Christian, as if it were a spiritual lottery. Maybe the difference sounds subtle, but I hope to show that the mindset matters. How you view your kids has a lot to do with what they grow up to be.

We want them to be Christians in a family of Christians who are part of a church of Christians. A Christian is an individual believer, who has personally repented from his sin, who learns the ways of obedience as a disciple of Christ, and who worships and serves as part of the Body of Christ, expressed in the assembly of a local church. A Christian loves God and fears the Lord and walks in the Spirit for sake of fruit. A group of Christians living together have a kind of *culture*, a way that they do things, a shared vocabulary, a common set of values.

Toward that end we Christians talk up the glories of Christ and we seek to live according to all that He’s commanded (Matthew 28:20). Part of what it means to be a disciple is to *make disciples*; there should be no fruitless/barren disciples. Each Christian is gifted by God in different ways to serve the body, and every different part is necessary. But giftedness relates to the analogy of being a church member, not to whether or not you are a disciple-maker. Disciples reproduce. Disciples who don’t reproduce are *disobedient*. You ought not be a single-generation disciple of Christ. Speaking figuratively, you ought to see your *spiritual* children’s children. We are raising Christians, and we’re leaving an inheritance of prizing Christ.

This is all the life of **faith**. Salvation is for all who believe (Romans 1:16). We live from faith to faith. “The righteous shall live by faith,” from justification through sanctification. We are born again in faith, we are guarded by faith (1 Peter 1:5), and “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

What I’m about to say is fundamental, vital, urgent, consequential, pressing, high-priority, essential, of upmost importance, and so kind of a big deal. Believe in your heart that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead and you will be saved (Romans 10:9). Believe in your heart that God will work through you as you raise your kids to believe in Jesus Christ. Have faith in God to be a Christian, have faith in God that He will bless you to raise blessed Christians.

Some parents might object, “But they’re not Christians!” It depends on what age your kids are, but think with me about what “ideal” looks like for our children’s children. If your kids are still really young, this message should be like a softball right across the plate. If your kids are older, or even grown up, fine, but think about what we want our church *culture* to be. This is just as much about for all our children’s children.

What does *damage* is when mom starts getting more and more anxious about her kids’ salvation, and/or when dad buries his apathetic head in the sand. Maybe even worse is when both parents go all major prophet toward the Assyrians about it. “Woe to you, little pagans, who call evil good and refuse to eat your vegetables. How long until you clean your room, and your hearts?!” And professing Christian parents can raise pagans. Parents who think about their kids as enemies often find that they’ve raised enemies.

I got a timely email just two days ago from a friend. He wrote,

> “My wife and I are two (sometimes seemingly lonely) kuyperian dispensationalists…. We're surrounded by many baptists we love, but sometimes they're a little too **glum**. Particularly when it comes to how we raise our children.

> Something I can't seem to wrap my head around is the promise of the Spirit given to our children. It's a generational promise of God to Israel, and since we're grafted in, to us too. Right? (*Right?* is my question to you). This is something I've been wrestling in prayer with God about. I want to raise my children as *part of God's family* - not as "little sinners" who can only obey truly if they're saved.

> Do you have any idea what I'm talking about? No, I'm not convinced of the presby baby baptisms. Yes, I'm convinced I want to raise my children as those receiving God's promise. I don't want to teach them all that He has commanded while always sowing doubt in their hearts and minds.”

How should you view your kids? At birth? While little? When should your kids be baptized? What does their baptism mean? How do you treat them after baptism? How can you, as a good man, leave an *inheritance of faith* to your children’s children?

# Baby Baptism Is Not the Cure for Raising Christians

This is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and have had multiple conversations about in recent years. It does not require baptizing infants (or having a “dry baptism” public parent dedications) to believe that God is gracious and to make disciples of your kids, to raise them as Christians. The proof is in the Presbyterians, or rather, the negative proof is there. Some of my favorite people, the people who I depend on most for edification and sharpening, are Presbyterians who don’t seem very self-aware of their own history. The Cross-Politic guys are a good example (they have some helpful things to say, and many of you listen to them), they’ve basically turned baby baptism into a brand. They talk like baptizing your babies is the answer without acknowledging the generations of the baptized-as-babies that have gone after all kinds of false gospels and woke versions of Jesus; Presbyterianism has a lot to learn from, but it doesn’t guarantee anything. There are by God’s grace a remnant of Presbies making great parents, not necessarily because of their Presbyterian theology but because of their faith.

It doesn’t take too long to look back in history or look around in our generation to see that baptizing a baby “into the covenant” doesn’t guarantee generations of faithful Christians. There is often high presumption that comes (which, ironically fits with many who maintain a kind of Jewish-replacement theology) from being “in the covenant” (while many of them aren’t sure which covenant that is anyway). Their kid is baptized, done deal.

Many Baptists have a *worse* approach. Typical Baptist parents, apart from a remnant, often refuse to accept an immature profession of faith and question seeds of faith any time they sense sin in their kid. They withhold the spiritual food until their kid can prove that he can live without food; they treat their kids like the dogs who only get the crumbs that fall off the table (Matthew 15:27).

Baptism isn’t really my primary subject, but it applies to the subject of how parents think about their kids. Some baptize too early, and tend to leave an inheritance of presumption. Some hold baptism off too long, and tend to leave an inheritance of doubt. The problem is the same: a lack of faith and discipleship to faith. They are not raising Christians. One isn’t worried about the “raising” part, they think they already have a Christian. The other thinks that there’s nothing they can do to “raise” a Christian.

# Covenant Language Is Not the Cure for Raising Christians

While they sometimes go together, the talk of our kids being “in the covenant” has some of the same problems as infant baptism. Covenant language sounds great, regularly to those who grew up in Baptist circles where kids were seen more as on the outside than inside. I’m not picking on anyone, I’m interested in understanding the best way to leave an inheritance for my grandkids. The trouble with using covenant language about our kids is multi-headed. It starts with, which covenant?

One option is the "covenant of grace," which in Reformed theology is an extra-biblical name for "all of the saved of all time" (Pascal Denault, _The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology_, Loc. 704). In much capital "R" Reformed theology the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants are seen as different administrations of this one covenant of grace. The Jews were born into those covenants though non-ethnic peoples could convert (to Judaism).

In order to say that kids of Christian parents are *born* into the covenant of grace, one must make a distinction between being in the covenant "naturally" (by birth) and "spiritually" (by belief). Covenantalists typically don’t think their infant is a believer (though this is common among Lutherans), but has obligations to believe because of being in the covenant. Put another way, to use this language we would need to make a distinction between the administration of the covenant (which Presbyterians initiate at infant baptism) and the substance of the covenant (which is salvation accomplished by Christ for all the elect, and which becomes visible when the elect are regenerated and profess faith).

But this changes the definition of "covenant of grace" if you can be “in the covenant” it but not actually be saved.

Birth guarantees nothing, which ironically is the part of the Jewish problem with the other covenants, Isaac and Ishmael were both sons of Abraham; Jacob and Esau were both sons of Isaac (Romans 9).

We might also be tempted to say that our kids are born into New Covenant. Many Reformed theologians, when they do give attention to the New Covenant (first named in Jeremiah 31:31-37, see also Ezekiel 36:22-38), understand the New Covenant simply as the summary of the others, as a new administration but not different in substance (Denault, Loc. 2229). But beyond the explicit reference to “the house of Israel and the house of Judah” there are at least two problems. First, the revelation of the New Covenant clarifies that the Lord saw it not as the summary of the others but as something *different* from the others.

> Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, **not like the covenant** that I made with their fathers…my covenant that they broke…. (Jeremiah 31:31–32 ESV)

Second, the great difference is that New Covenant promised/guaranteed new/spiritual/believing hearts, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). Or as stated in Ezekiel:

> I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:26–27 ESV)

The Lord effects effectually, and it will not be broken. If the New Covenant has a distinction between administration and substance than it is *no different from the others*, covenants that included salvation blessings only for some. There were elect within the covenant nation (Romans 9:6), but there cannot be non-elect within the New Covenant. The glory of the New Covenant is that no one “walks away” from the New Covenant.

> Henry Lawrence wrote, "Now we pretending to be Abraham’s children by faith, not by carnal generation, cannot pretend to ordinances by carnal generation as the others did.” The paedobaptists did not purport to be in the covenant of grace as the natural descendants of Abraham, but as his spiritual descendants; however they practiced a spiritual ordinance (baptism) on the basis of natural generation. (Denault, Loc. 1423)

To use the word *covenant* as a reference to external and temporary privileges for our kids is to gut the word of its power and what’s worse, it denies the actual New Covenant terms. That does not mean that there are no external and temporary privileges for our kids. It means they are *providential* blessings, for which we are accountable to God, but not the same as being being guaranteed salvation blessings.

You don’t need covenant language to believe that God will help you to raise Christians. And again, the covenants given by God were an advantage to the Jews, and yet we know it didn’t guarantee that every one of their kids would believe. The Jewish “covenantalists” presumed on the sign of circumcision and tried to establish righteousness apart from faith in Jesus (Romans 9:31).

We are sons of Abraham by faith, but not even all Abraham’s sons were in the covenant? We and our kids benefit from the Noaic covenant, because we’ll never see a global flood again, but that’s not the same as faith. The Davidic covenant is about a Messiah ruling from Jerusalem. And again the New Covenant affects faith, it doesn’t obligate faith.

It is ironic, especially for those with covenantal leanings, for them to depend on the *covenant*, when *that is what messed up the Jews*.

# An Inheritance of Anxiety Is Not Better

If there is a kind of over-presumption by some, there is also a catastrophic and treasonous over-scrupulous, burdensome-pessimism by others. We want to be precise with our language, but we should also have high standards for our attitude. Too many professing Christian parents are the “glum.”

There are multiple ways to raise kids to doubt. The most obvious way is to disciple them in doubt. “They’re too young.” “They don’t know everything about what they’re saying.” “They keep sinning, struggling with the same sins over and over.” And a lot of us have been *discipled* to question our salvation in exactly the same way. For as much as I love the Puritans, they were preaching to a culture of presumers, most of whom had been baptized as babies, and trying to get men and women to actually examine their souls. The Puritan preachers took sin seriously, and that is good. But not all of them *discipled* how to believe, to then water faith and weed and water some more.

Other parents say things like, “I don’t want my kids to have my faith. I want it to be their own.” And we are living in a culture where our kids really took that to heart; they are spending the inheritance we gave them. They don’t have our faith, and they’ve made self-discovery and self-affirmation/self-transformation and unbelief their fown.

We’re trying to give our kids a culture, of feasting and gratitude, of worship and Kuyerian-sized interests in all the things Jesus is interested in. But that’s all in faith.

We confess our sins as Christians. We understand baptism as obedience not by the parents but by the one professing faith, and we understand that baptism as a weapon in the battle against sin (Romans 6:2-5). Why withhold it until they prove their sanctification?

I came across [this statement of the Capital Hill Baptist Church elders about the baptism of children](https://www.capitolhillbaptist.org/ministries/children/baptism-of-children/) again recently.

> We believe that the normal age of baptism should be when the credibility of one’s conversion becomes naturally evident to the church community. This would normally be when the child has matured, and is beginning to live more self-consciously as an individual, making their own choices, having left the God-given, intended child-like dependence on their parents for the God-given, intended mature wisdom which marks one who has felt the tug of the world, the flesh and the devil, but has decided, despite these allurements, to follow Christ.

Is really this the path of wisdom? Does this promote a culture of faith?

Yes, some seed falls on bad soil (Matthew 13). But, parents, this illustration is different for you. *Keep tending the soil.* It’s not one seed sowing and done. And it’s not baptism as end, but as beginning of their life of discipleship, and you are making disciples.

We will leave an inheritance of anxiety to our children’s children, or an inheritance of fearing the Lord (Proverbs 14:26, Psalm 103:17). We ought to be investing today in an inheritance of faith. Faith is a gift of God, faith is powerful, faith is fruitful. Faith begets faith.

# What Instead?

The Bible does not start the call to faith with a call to examine one’s covenantal responsibilities, among Gentiles or even among Jews. “Brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said, to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” (Acts 2:38 ESV) The call is to Christ.

And Peter continued: “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:39 ESV) This promise is the gospel of Jesus Christ, *for all who believe*.

That said, there is something special about Christian homes. When Paul wrote 1 Corinthians many marriages were *newly* unequally yoked, meaning that they got married when both were pagans and then one got saved. He gave instructions for spouses living with an unbeliever, whether as a husband or as a wife.

> For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. (1 Corinthians 7:14 ESV)

The phrase “made holy” doesn’t mean that you only need one parent with faith in the house and everyone is guaranteed to go to heaven; kids don’t get to ride on mom or dad’s ticket, so to speak. But it does mean that there are practical *and spiritual privileges*. Paul summarizes it as a kind of holiness, a setting that is not common but set apart. These relationships have someone with light living in the home.

In addition, there is an imperative for Christian homes.

> Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4 ESV)

ἐν παιδείᾳ, training or even *culture* of the Lord. One way to provoke them is to barrage them with doubt. Instead parents, and fathers in particular, are commanded to bring kids up to know and believe and love and obey the Lord.

> as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:14–15 ESV)

The Word should dwell in you and in your home. The Word is living and abiding and causes people, and young people, to be born again (1 Peter 1:23). How kind that you don’t need blessed feet to cross the mountains to bring good news (Isaiah 52:7, Romans 10:15). There you are! You have it! Share it! Show it!

> Train up a child in the way he should go;

> even when he is old he will not depart from it.

> (Proverbs 22:6 ESV)

The way of righteousness, yes, but in the fear of the Lord. The way of wisdom, yes, in faith.

> In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence,

> and his children will have a refuge.

> (Proverbs 14:26 ESV)

# Conclusion

We are saved by faith alone, thank the Lord. This is good news when you realize how many ways you've been a ridiculous parent. Have faith that Jesus forgives and cleanses, and have faith that He will continue to transform you, your parenting, and generations.

So in summary, what is the spiritual status of our kids? I am trying to work toward clarity, not being combative. While this presents a tension (for a time), it prevents other inventions and confusions. We serve our kids, and one another, better by building a culture of faith (paideia of the Lord) than by telling them they are in the covenant by birth. (Note: We could say that by birth our kids live in a *covenant household*, as fruit of the marriage covenant between the husband and wife. We could also say they live in a *covenant community*, being brought up among Christians who receive many of the fruits of the New Covenant. I would still want to make a distinction about whether they are “in the covenant” prior to faith.) Here’s a first-pass toward answering the question about how Christian parents should think about their kids in order to raise Christians.

Kids born to (one or more) Christian parents are holy, which includes spiritual blessings of protection/refuge and opportunity. Kids are to be discipled **in faith to faith**, then affirmed by the church as members upon their public profession of faith in baptism and received into communion with the assembly.

Prior to their profession of faith they have temporal and spiritual blessings/privileges, and so therefore they also have greater accountability. They not only have no excuse before God as their Creator but also no excuse for repenting from their sin/rebellion and confessing **faith** in Jesus Christ as Lord.

As with all Christians, their **faith** is what identifies them as participants in the New Covenant and that identity is renewed at the Lord’s Table (not baptism, per Luke 22:20). Their **faith** only needs to be as big as a mustard seed.

Living faith is *rare*, Matthew 17:20, and we want rare heirs of faith. Faith moves mountains *and generations*.

One of my favorite books, probably the book that I’ve highlighted more per page than any other, is _The Supper of the Lamb_ by Robert Capon. It’s ostensibly a cookbook, but he gets a running start toward the recipe section by providing some reasons for rejoicing in all the things God has given us to cook, eat, taste, enjoy. Near the end of the first chapter Capon wrote this:

> “In a real world, nothing is infinitely bad. Even the devil, insofar as he exists, is good. What he does wrong with his existence is all small compared with what God does right about him.” (Location 130)

It doesn’t mean that the devil is a good being, or acts good; of course the devil doesn’t. But God’s purpose for the devil *must be toward good*. It’s a provocative statement, but is it a *true* statement?

Solomon wrote,

> The LORD has made everything for its purpose,

> even the wicked for the day of trouble.

> (Proverbs 16:4 ESV)

And isn’t this sort of sovereignty necessary for Romans 8:28 to be any good? “All things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” Solomon said “everything,” Paul said “all things.” Capon, while not inspired, brought the application all the way to the devil himself. God has *purpose* and it is *good*.

There are thematic reasons to recognize verse 23 as the end of the paragraph beginning in Romans 9:19. The ESV ends the question at verse 24, but modern Greek texts put a question mark at the end of verse 23; that seems appropriate for the subject shift from a general principle about God’s sovereignty back to the particular application about so many Israelites being cut off from Christ. Romans 9:22-23 provide perhaps the most simple, most deep, most eternal end of God’s sovereignty in His creation of the cosmos and His ruling of history. This is the end for which He made the devil, Pharaoh, Judas, Hitler, and Fauci. Here is the reason for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the explanation for evil in a world governed by a sovereign and good God (theodicy), the telos of all things, including a vindication for reprobation.

We’ve spent a good amount of time showing that the question about God’s fault finding (verse 19) could have been answered by saying that men are at fault. Paul, though, is raising the problem of men, such as Pharaoh, who do *God’s will* and are hardened for it. Paul hits a barrage of rhetorical questions back over the net, and the first one is stated in such way, and even riffs off Job in a way, showing that accusing God is not a good place to be (verse 20). Especially as a pot, God has ultimate/absolute/supreme power over us as our Potter. He has the “right” and authority to pinch off pieces of clay to make whatever He wants. He makes “out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use” (verse 21).

The last rhetorical question in verses 22-23 is a two-step revelation of God’s purposes using two types of pots, with a subordinate purpose on its way toward showing the Potter’s ultimate purpose.

# Demonstrating God’s Glorious Wrath (verse 22)

The Potter is showing off His work, His work shows off His character. You may remember when we began to look at verses 14-18 that we appraised that God is great and greatly to be praised, that all His attributes belong with His name that is above all names, and that each of His attributes are infinitely excellent. He is, for example, the epitome and embodiment of love, not just the etymology/source for love. We proclaim His excellencies (1 Peter 2:9) because He has shown them to us excellently.

God’s “eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world” (Romans 1:20). But driving spinning planets around in their elliptical plane and directing shooting stars through space is not the pinnacle of His power. And His creation of time and markers of time does more than let men measure their days in the world.

> **What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,**

The **what if** isn’t a hypothetical; it’s not maybe God did or maybe God didn’t. The **what if** is a category buster for pots. “What did you think, O pot, that you had a better idea for how God should be or show Himself off? What do you have to say about it?“

God’s righteousness is His commitment to show off His excellencies. There is no greater truth or reality to know than God Himself. When we have Him we have *good* (Psalm 16:2). This includes seeing **His wrath**, His indignation. God’s wrath is infinitely excellent wrath, and He desires to show it off. How would He do it?

Likewise He desires **to make known His power**. “God is exalted in His power” (Job 36:22). His power created and upholds the universe, and *His power raises up rebels* in the story. “The Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you’” (Romans 9:17). Verse 22 reiterates this purpose.

God desired to demonstrate His great wrath and power, as well as His patient endurance. Do you know God is called “the God of endurance” by Paul in Romans 15:5? Endurance, long-suffering, patience is one of God’s greatest characteristics. It is one of His *tools*; He’s so patient with sinners that such kindness on His part should lead to repentance (Romans 2:4). “Count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote” (2 Peter 3:15). He wants us to *know* and praise His patience, He wants us to *share* His endurance.

How does He develop endurance in His people? Through suffering (Romans 5:3-4; James 1:2-3).

> the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (James 1:3-4 KJV)

Perfection is patience. God’s patience is perfect. How could God show off perfect patience? We think our 2020 was bad, God knows all the truth of how bad it is *and works good* from it. It takes every wicked conspiracy from all the vessels of wrath throughout time for God to make known His excellent endurance.

So **vessels of wrath prepared for destruction** are good in so far as they demonstrate God’s excellencies of wrath, power, and patience.; God has **prepared** or “fitted” some; they are “being prepared” (passive voice). 1 Peter 2:8 “they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.” God is showing off His glorious wrath and making known His great power, through perfectly patient endurance.

# Demonstrating God’s Glorious Mercy (verse 23)

What if God’s purpose ended there? We would still be pots in no position to question the Potter’s power. But for as praiseworthy as His wrath and endurance of rebels is while they store up the full measure of wrath, that praise is not the highest end. Vessels of wrath make vessels of mercy even more a demonstration of His glory. Desiring to show His wrath is a subordinate end, with His ultimate end in verse 23.

> **in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory?**

That God reprobates some to judgment makes His election of some to salvation even more humbling. The contrast is not capricious, it is gracious. God is who He is, God is glorious above all, and in His glory He has purposed to share **the riches of His glory**. Nothing can separate the vessels of mercy from the love of God for His own glory to be shared with us in Christ. We are **prepared beforehand for glory**. “He chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him…according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:4-6).

Do you believe in the Beloved? Then you are beloved vessel of mercy. And the Father of glory has given you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened to know the hope He has called you to and the riches of His glorious inheritance (Ephesians 1:17-18). You know more than Job, and most of the men in the Bible, about God’s purpose.

The devil, in so far as he exists, makes God’s mercy to Christians more gloriously known. The wicked for the day of trouble, in so far as they are made by the Lord for His purpose, make God’s mercy to Christians more gloriously known. Hell, in so far as it exists as a place of conscious and eternal torment on vessels of wrath, makes God’s mercy more gloriously known to you who cling to Christ and are delivered from death and promised an eternal inheritance in God’s presence.

# Conclusion

These verses are not only for scholars, and their consequences are anything but superficial. Vessels of wrath cause real destruction on their way to destruction. Vessels of wrath sometimes threaten and slander and *kill* vessels of mercy, treating them as sheep to be slaughtered (Romans 8:36). Suffering and damage and hurt are real. Endurance is not an afternoon at the beach without a sun umbrella. Yet these truths are to inform our feelings in the fear of the Lord and faith in Him. God is not uncomfortable or apologetic about His purpose, and it is good for us to know His purpose.

When we are in these discussions about the existence of evil and God’s sovereignty, we can always turn to the cross. There we see love and mercy meet, yes. But there we also see sovereignty and sin meet; “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23; see also 4:27-28). At the cross we see God Himself, embodied in the Person of the Son, enduring evil that He Himself ordained. When it comes to evil and vessels of wrath, God has skin in the game. Leviathan may be a plaything for God (Job 41:1, 5), but the cross was no game. It was full of His patience, His providence, His power, and His purpose to make known the riches of His glory for His people.

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## Charge

If the Potter purposes to show off His patience with vessels of wrath, don’t freak out; here is a call for the patient endurance of the saints. Since the Potter purposes to share the riches of His glory with you vessels of mercy, then tell someone about His excellent mercies and show kindness and mercy to one another.

## Benediction:

> May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5–6, ESV)