Romans 9:27

Romans 9:27

Romans 9:27 says, "Isaiah also cried concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved." What happened to the nation of Israel is typical of what usually happens in all the world, to all peoples and all nations. Only a remnant would be saved. Jesus said, "Narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it; but broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat." It’s almost hard to believe that this is what happens. There are after all, so many benefits to following the Lord that you would think that most people would want to be saved. You would think that most people would earnestly desire to be saved, and you would expect that most people would seek the forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Jesus, knowing what is the ultimate and horrible alternative. But that’s not what happens. It doesn’t have to happen, but most humans turn away from God and go their own way.

In spite of the benefits of turning to God, most people turn from God and go their own way because of human pride and self-reliance, because of stubbornness and resistance to God’s leading, and because of a hardness of heart towards the things of God. The day will come when every human will wish that they had gone with God. If the scales were removed from their eyes and they could see the spiritual realities, they would run to Him before it was too late.

Humans have failed in regards to the salvation of their own souls, but God has not failed. He has done something that no human could do: He has performed the work of salvation. Rom. 9:28 says, "For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth." The work of the Lord is the work of salvation. Jesus spoke of His own coming into the world, and He said, "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." God’s work is when He finds and saves a lost soul. This work will end one day. Once everyone has heard and once everyone has had a chance to be saved, it will be over.

Human beings are involved in many different works, but the primary work of God in regards to humans is the salvation of lost souls. God has been saving souls since the time of Jesus for almost 2,000 years. To a human this may seem like a long time, but to God it has been a very short time. Peter said that to God 1,000 years are as a day, and a day as a thousand years. The end will not come until God has saved every soul that He can save. When the end does come, even if it’s a thousand years or more from now, we will look at things the way that God looks at them and we will say that it was a very short work that the Lord made upon the earth.

The reason that God will make a short work upon the earth is given in Rom. 9:28 where it says that; "he will cut it short in righteousness". God is holy and righteous, and it’s the will of God that the world be clean and pure and honest and decent. One day the patience of God will end in regards to the great wickedness of humans on the earth. The day will come when God will put an end to all sin and evil. The righteous God will do it, because He is righteous.

In Rom. 9:29 Paul again quotes the book of Isaiah, which was written over 500 years before Jesus Christ. It says, "And as Isaiah said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha." The end will come, and all that will be saved will be a remnant, a seed. More could be saved and more should be saved, but they will not. In talking about the end that will come and the few that will be saved, Paul refers to Sodom and Gomorrha. These were two cities that were destroyed by God because of their great immorality. When Jude spoke of the end that would come, He also mentioned Sodom and Gomorrha. Jude 7 says, "Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." The divine principle of cause and effect is very clear: widespread sexual perversion in a society will result in widespread destruction for that society. It has always happened that way with the human race. It happened in Sodom and Gomorrha, it happened in the Roman Empire, and widespread sexual depravity will be one of the characteristics of society just before the return of Christ. It’s no wonder that the future coming of Christ is described as the time of the wrath of God.

But for now, we live in the time of the grace of God, when the righteousness of God is given as a free gift through faith in Jesus Christ. Rom. 9:30 says, "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith."

There are two ways to seek the righteousness of God. One way succeeds, and one does not succeed. If you seek the righteousness of God through your own works or through your own efforts, you will fail. But if you seek the righteousness of God through faith, you will succeed. Rom. 4:3 says that "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." If you look up to God and say, "I believe you," then He will credit to your account His righteousness.

One of the failures of the nation of Israel was that they did not seek righteousness through faith, but they sought it through the law, and therefore, they did not achieve it, because the Bible says that; "by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." Rom. 9:31-32 says, "But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone."

Not only did the Jews fail to find faith, but they also stumbled at the stumbling stone. Paul quotes the Psalms and he quotes Isaiah, and he speaks of a stumbling stone. He said in Rom. 9:33, "As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed." A rock is symbolic of strength and of indestructibility. Jesus is the rock. A rock is symbolic of an immovable foundation. Jesus is the rock. One time a Jewish fisherman by the name of Peter said to Jesus, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And Jesus replied to Peter about his confession of faith and said: "Upon this Rock will I build my church." Jesus is the rock.

Jews and Gentiles are now equal. Many Jews have stumbled on the rock, which is Jesus; and so have many Gentiles. It’s not enough to believe in God, you must also believe in His Son whom He has sent. It’s not enough to be religious: you can be religious but lost. You must also have a relationship with God through Jesus His Son.

Over and over in the Word of God, we see that God views the human race as being divided into two groups. The two groups are those who are the true believers, and those who are not the true believers. The two groups are those who have been saved, and those who are not saved (but who hopefully will be one day). Here at the end of Romans Chapter 9 the human race is again pictured as being divided into two distinct groups of people: those who believe and accept Jesus as their Savior, and those who have stumbled at that concept and who do not. There is one sure way of determining which group someone is in. The last part of the last verse of Romans Chapter 9 says, "And whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed."

When Jesus was on the earth in many ways He was not a part of organized human society. He was not a part of the organized religion: He was neither a Pharisee nor a priest. He was treated as an outcast by them. They did not understand how He could openly criticize their failures, nor could they accept the way that He was a friend of sinners. Criminals are looked down upon in any society, and Jesus was arrested and given the ultimate punishment by the Roman legal system: He was condemned to death, and He was given the shameful death of the cross. It was a death reserved for criminals and outcasts. The same thing would happen to Jesus if He were on the earth today.

There is, and there always will be a certain stigma attached to anyone who names the name of Jesus. But those who are true believers are not ashamed because we know what Jesus has done for us and what He will do. We are glad that He is a friend of sinners, because if He were not we would still be dead in our sins.

Paul said in Rom. 10:1, "Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved." In Romans Chapter 9 Paul had given many reasons for the failure of the Jewish people and the Jewish religion: their lack of faith, their sinfulness, their legalism, and their rejection of Jesus the Messiah. But in spite of all the ways that they failed, Paul ends with a positive attitude towards them. He speaks of his own prayers for them, and his love and concern for them. Anti-Semitism should never be a part of the Christian’s world-view. A Christian should never view anyone or any group in a negative way. Christians are all a bunch of sinners saved by grace. Those who oppose us, actually oppose themselves. No matter what an unbeliever has done, and no matter what is their current attitude towards the Lord: remember such were some of you. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. We should always attempt to have the same attitude that Paul had toward Jews or any other group or any other race. We should ask God to help us be able to truthfully say, "my heart’s desire and prayer to God for this group is that they might be saved." That’s the example that Jesus also gave us. Remember that when He was hanging on the cross, He said, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

In Rom. 10:2 Paul said, "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." Paul mentions another failure of the Jews. This failure is very common among those who are involved in organized religion around the world. They had a zeal of God, but not after knowledge. Zeal is a good thing. No one can serve God effectively unless they have zeal. Someone who has zeal will have a fervent spirit and a burning desire. Your religion will be dead indeed if you do not have such a desire. But there is one thing that is worse than having no zeal: and that is to have zeal without knowledge.

If someone has zeal without knowledge, not only will their efforts be in vain, but their resources will easily be used to further the causes of false religion. Someone who has a zeal to serve God, but without knowledge is in danger of being used by some human religious leader in an endeavor that does not honor God and does not fulfill the will of God. Remember that most organized religions in the world are false religions, and most of those religious organizations are supported by people who have a zeal to serve, but who just do not have the knowledge. Many of the excesses done by religions throughout the centuries of human history are because of the many people who had a zeal to serve God, but without knowledge.

When people have a change in their life that finds them initially turning to serve God, they can easily have a zeal without knowledge. Such people need to make it a priority in their lives to increase their knowledge about God, before they commit their lives or their resources in the wrong direction.

If you lack knowledge about the things of God and if you are going to try and fill the gap to increase your knowledge, it’s best to start with the most important thing first. The most important thing to know is how to obtain righteousness. Without righteousness you will not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven, and you will be doomed for eternity. When you stand before a holy God to be judged by Him, it will be very important that you have righteousness. Therefore, it is very important that you know how to obtain righteousness. Some of the things that God will say when He will judge the human race are given in the book of Revelation. Rev. 22:11 quotes God as saying in that day, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: but he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still."

The Jews did not know how to obtain righteousness. Most of the religions today do not know how to obtain righteousness. Rom. 10:3-4 says, "For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes."

The Jews tried to establish their own righteousness. They failed. There is a common theme to all false religion: it’s always based upon the efforts and requirements for humans to establish their own righteousness. If you want to know the righteousness of God, you must give up trying to establish your own righteousness, and you must come to Jesus. In Jesus you will find the righteousness of God. There is a certain irony in this great truth. Those who go about to establish their own righteousness never find the righteousness of God; but many of those who never tried to establish their own righteousness do find the righteousness of God in Jesus.

Notice that Rom. 10:4 says that Jesus is the end of the law for those that believe. True Christianity is not based upon humans keeping a list of do’s and don’ts. Those who believe in Jesus have been freed from the law.

Jesus told a story of two men. One was a religious man, a Pharisee, who thought that he could obtain his own righteousness. The other man, was a Publican (a tax collector for the Romans who was despised in Jewish society). The religious Pharisee prayed out of the spirit of self-righteousness and said, "God, I thank you that I am not as other men: extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector." But the Publican smote upon his breast and said, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Jesus said that it was not the religious Pharisee who was justified, but it was the Publican who went to his home a righteous man. In the 2,000 years that have passed since Jesus told this story, the spiritual principle has remained the same. Those who go about to establish their own righteousness will not find the righteousness of God. But those who admit their own sinfulness and who look to Jesus and say, "Be merciful to me a sinner," will find that Jesus will become their Messiah and their Savior.

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