Romans 9: God’s Plan of Election and Your Response

Introduction

Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God. At the end of Romans 8, you almost want to applaud. Then, from the first verses of chapter 9, Paul speaks of great sorrow and unceasing pain in his heart. Yoshihiro Maruyama, pastor at Yonezawa Kojo Church in Japan, continues his series in Romans 9 here with a message titled “God’s Plan of Election.”

The starting question is simple and painful: Israel is the people chosen by God, and yet the great majority of Jews do not believe in Jesus. Has the word of God failed? Paul answers: no. Behind this reality lies a choice of God that does not depend on what people do.

The pastor does not stop at doctrine. He tells how God chose him, back when he was a student who drank almost every night. And he ends with a question that concerns you: how do you live when you know you have been chosen?

Outline of the Message

1. Paul’s Sorrow and the Questions He Sees Coming

Romans 8:38-39 ends in jubilation: neither height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God shown in Christ Jesus. “Amen,” and you almost want to applaud.
At the start of chapter 9, Paul speaks of great sorrow and unceasing pain (Romans 9:1-2). Our emotions change quickly too: one single event, and joy tips over into “this is impossible.”
Paul was a man of strong emotions, but his sorrow has a reason. He cannot close his eyes to a reality: the Gentiles are being saved in great numbers, while most of the Jews, who had received worship, the law and so many privileges, remain opposed to the gospel.
Three thousand people were indeed saved in a single day (Acts 2:41), and others after another preaching by Peter. But everywhere Paul goes, he runs into the old Jewish guard.
The pastor uses an image: parents whose child is preparing for the high school entrance exam. They install air conditioning in the child’s room, buy an iPhone so the child can listen to music and relax, then an air purifier. And the grades keep falling. In the end they say, “All of that was for nothing.” This is the question Paul hears coming about Israel.
Romans 9 reads like a series of questions and answers. Paul anticipates the objections and answers them one by one. Once you have understood this pattern, says the pastor, the chapter becomes much clearer.
First objection, in verse 6: has the word of God come to nothing? Has it lost its power?
Second objection, in verse 14: is there unrighteousness with God? In other words, his way of choosing would be wrong.
Third objection, further on in the chapter: why does God still find fault, since no one can resist his will? The pastor illustrates it with a manzai comedy sketch in which the audience members are pointed at one by one, skipping one. “Saved, saved, skip, saved.” And the one who was skipped wonders, “What about me? Am I not saved?”
This Sunday, the message sticks to the first question, the one in verse 6. The pastor wants to find in it clues to God’s grace for our own salvation.

2. Israel According to the People and Israel According to the Spirit

In the Bible, the “flesh” does not mean the meat you eat. It is what belongs to the world, as opposed to what is holy.
“They are not all Israel that are of Israel,” and not all of Abraham’s descendants are his children (Romans 9:6-7). The descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob make up Israel as a people. But not all the Jews had faith.
The pastor connects this to his own church. At the first service, there are mostly Christians. At the second service, when Pastor Tanaka preaches, you find all kinds of people: longtime Christians, “baby Christians” who are just starting to walk, believers from other religions, people who came for a company training. He himself came one day as a non-believer, out of curiosity, thinking he could retell what he heard to impress the girls at the next student party.
In the history of Israel, it is the same. At the exodus from Egypt with Moses, some perished. In the time of the kings, many turned to Baal and other idols.
In every era, there has been a “remnant,” a small number of true believers. The clearest example is the exile in Babylon: seventy years, one or two generations. When God allowed the return, only a minority went back, while the others had built their lives there.
What separates spiritual Israel from the rest is having believed and having acted by faith.

3. The Son of the Flesh and the Son of the Promise

God had promised Abraham descendants, but the years went by without a child. Abraham and Sarah then reasoned in a very human way: if the child is of Abraham’s blood, that will be enough. Abraham had Ishmael with Hagar, the Egyptian servant. He is the son of the flesh.
God, for his part, worked a miracle: Isaac was born when Abraham was a hundred years old and Sarah ninety. “At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son” (Romans 9:9).
Between Ishmael and Isaac, God chooses Isaac. You might think it is logical, since Isaac is the son of the lawful wife. The pastor insists: the Bible says that is not the reason. God chooses.

4. Jacob and Esau: Chosen Before Doing Good or Evil

Isaac marries Rebekah, who gives birth to twins. Esau is the elder, Jacob the younger. Usually, the elder is chosen. God chooses Jacob, and does so before birth: “Two nations are in your womb, [...] The elder will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23).
Esau was not set aside because he behaved badly. The pastor recalls the well-known story: coming home hungry from the hunt, he trades his birthright for a meal of lentil stew prepared by his brother (Genesis 25:29-34). You might think: God knew he was careless, so he preferred the careful younger brother. “That is not it.”
Jacob was no better. He was cunning, and far from always acting rightly before God.
So why Jacob? “There is nothing to be done about it: God chose.” There is a reason here that we cannot measure. You are not chosen because you do good, nor set aside because you do evil. You are not chosen because you are intelligent.
“Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” (Romans 9:13) does not mean that God detested Esau. It is a Jewish expression, very literary and deliberately exaggerated, which means that Esau was set aside.
God chooses “not of works, but of him who calls” (Romans 9:11). He chose Israel from among the nations, Isaac rather than Ishmael, Jacob rather than Esau. Not because they had done well, but by his sovereignty.

5. God Chose a Drunk Student

“Why am I standing here, speaking in front of you?” The pastor calls himself a vessel of little worth, and he feels it every day.
A student at the engineering school of Yamagata University, he lived far from any church, among science, math and experiments. Almost every night, he drank cheap alcohol with his friends. He also tutored a child.
One evening, the night before a tutoring session, the drunken conversation turns around a question: does life need a religion? Everyone says yes. A friend announces that he is choosing Buddhism, simply because his address, in Akita Prefecture, contains the word “Bonten,” a word linked to Buddhism from India. The future pastor answers: “If you take Buddhism, I’ll take Christianity.”
The next day, the child he was tutoring, who attended Sunday school at Kojo Church, tells him about the last service in the old chapel, built by Pastor Tanaka’s father, before a new building was constructed. Those who came would receive a cross carved from the wood of the chapel’s pillar. “Do you want to come get a cross?”
Still a little under the effect of the previous night’s alcohol, he remembers his own words and answers: “I’m coming.” The child is stunned. “God chose the midnight drunk.”
That day, Pastor Tanaka’s preaching touches him. He had thought that truth was something you choose for yourself. He discovers that there is a world beyond. He comes back, is baptized a few years later, then devotes himself to ministry.
Later, he thanks Pastor Tanaka: “It was your third point that brought me to believe.” Pastor Tanaka is left speechless: he had forgotten his own sermon. But the one who was saved by a sermon does not forget a single word of it.
“God chooses each one of us regardless of our deeds. Even a drunk student.”

6. The Potter and the Clay: God’s Sovereignty

“House of Israel, can’t I do with you as this potter? [...] Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel” (Jeremiah 18:6).
The potter spins his wheel. The vessel takes shape, then he crushes it and starts again, until he is satisfied, and only then does he put it in the kiln. God is the potter, we are the clay. He is the one who decides what vessel each of us will become.
If you try to understand why me and not the other person, you get lost. That is God’s sovereignty. The “why” will be the subject of the next message, in November. For today, one thing is certain: you are not chosen for having met conditions, through accumulated effort.

7. Living as the Chosen: Three Attitudes

The pastor begins by being frank: “Look at me, I had nothing to be chosen for.” On the first Sunday after his consecration, he still had long hair. No one at Kojo Church asked him to cut it. He was received just as he was.
Receive God’s guidance. Stay attentive to God’s grace and blessing. When you worry about the future, for example about dementia, you make human plans by accumulation. But God’s grace always goes with us. We tend to see only what did not work. By practicing looking, you end up seeing why a certain direction was there. Out of ten signs, you saw none, then you finally see one.
Respond responsibly. God’s guidance does not relieve you of choosing. You have to choose, even down to what you will eat at lunch, asking yourself what God expects. Sometimes you are wrong, sometimes it works. Following God’s will does not mean taking the easy road. Facing a dead end, you can turn back, turn right, or start over from the starting line. If you stubbornly push on, you leave the road; by following the direction, you are gradually transformed.
Have a sense of mission. Ask yourself what you are being kept alive for. “When you live for someone, life burns to the very end.” Trials become easier to bear. When everything succeeds, you do not get puffed up; when nothing works, you tell yourself that God has a plan, and you can let go. Whoever grips too tightly gets shaken in every direction.
“We had no qualification to be chosen, and we are chosen and kept alive.” Grace and blessing go with us. By responding to it, even a little, you see the next step appear. The pastor invites his church to live the week with eyes wide open to God’s guidance.

Key Takeaways

The fact that many do not believe does not mean that the word of God has failed: they are not all Israel that are of Israel.
God chose Isaac rather than Ishmael, and Jacob rather than Esau before they were born, not of works.
God is the potter, we are the clay. Looking for why one and not the other is beyond us: that is his sovereignty.
God chooses people who have nothing to be chosen for, like a drunk student who came to get a wooden cross.
Knowing you are chosen leads you to receive God’s guidance, to make your choices responsibly and to live for a mission.

Personal Application

Are you still counting on your efforts or your qualities to feel accepted by God?
When you look back on your past week, do you mostly see what failed, or can you spot a sign of God’s grace?
What decision do you have to make right now, asking yourself what God expects of you rather than waiting for him to choose in your place?
Who are you living for today? What would change if you lived for someone other than yourself?
What are you gripping so tightly that it shakes you, and could you place it in God’s hands?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Paul mean by “they are not all Israel that are of Israel”?

Yoshihiro Maruyama distinguishes Israel according to the people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, from spiritual Israel, those who believed and acted by faith. In every era, there has been a remnant, a small number of true believers. The fact that many Jews do not believe therefore does not mean that the word of God has come to nothing.

Why does God say “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated”?

According to the preacher, this is not about detesting Esau. It is a Jewish expression, very literary and exaggerated, which means that Esau was set aside. God chose Jacob before he was born, before he had done either good or evil, not of works.

How do you live when you know you are chosen by God?

Yoshihiro Maruyama proposes three attitudes: receiving God’s guidance by staying attentive to his grace and blessing, responding responsibly by making your own choices under God’s eyes, and living with a sense of mission, by asking yourself what you are being kept alive for.