Romans 9:25-10:4

Romans 9:25-10:4 (WEB) As he says also in Hosea, “I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people; and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.” “It will be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ There they will be called ‘children of the living God.’” Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved; for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.” As Isaiah has said before, “Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.” What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone; even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.” Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

🔑 Key Points

1. The theme from chapter 1 is still the theme: the righteousness of God

Sproul pauses to recapitulate. Romans 1:17 announced the epistle's central theme — not God's own inherent righteousness, but the righteousness God makes available by faith. That word in the Greek is dikaiosynē, sometimes rendered 'righteousness,' sometimes 'justification,' because being justified in God's sight is inseparably tied to His righteousness given to us by faith. Everything in chapter 9 — even the hardest parts about election — serves that theme.

2. To be loved by God is a privilege, not a birthright

Paul reaches back to Hosea, where God required the prophet to marry an adulterous woman and named her child Lo-Ammi — 'Not my people.' God declared judgment on apostate Israel: 'You are no longer My people. But I will call those who are not My people My people.' Sproul presses the application hard: our culture endlessly repeats the myth that God loves everyone equally and that being loved by God is no big thing. But there is nothing in us that is lovely in His sight, no birthright or entitlement to His affection. To be adopted into the family of God means to receive an affection we have no claim upon.

3. We are loved because the Father loves the Son

Why would God bother to redeem anybody? Sproul's answer: the Father will not allow the Son to see the travail of His soul and not be satisfied. Throughout John's Gospel, believers are spoken of as the gift the Father gives to the Son. It is because of the Father's love for Christ that He gives Christ a people as His legacy — and by God's mercy we are included in that. Election must always be understood as being 'in Christ.'

4. Only a remnant is saved — and church membership is no guarantee

Isaiah cries that though Israel's number be as the sand of the sea, 'the remnant will be saved.' God had promised Abraham descendants like the stars and the sand — countless — yet out of that vast multitude only a remnant is actually saved. Sproul notes Israel's own history: redeemed from Egypt, called a holy nation, led forty years through the wilderness — and yet the vast majority never entered the promised land. Jesus warned that wide is the gate that leads to destruction and many go in by it. The warning applies to the visible church as well. Being a member of the church is not enough; as Paul said of the Jew, a Jew is a Jew not outwardly but inwardly — you must have a circumcision of the heart.

5. Zeal for God is not the same as knowledge of God

Paul's burden for Israel opens chapter 10: 'my heart's desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.' Sproul's point is uncomfortable but clear: sincere religious zeal can be genuinely zealous and genuinely wrong. Israel was ignorant of God's righteousness and sought to establish their own — and so did not submit to the righteousness God provides. 'For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.' The law's purpose was never to be a ladder of self-righteousness; it was to drive us to Christ.

💬 Discussion Questions

Sproul says being loved by God is a privilege, not a birthright — nothing in us made Him desire us. Does your day-to-day sense of God's love rest on that grace, or somewhere does it still assume you've earned it?
Paul says Israel had 'a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.' Where can sincere zeal go wrong in your own life, and how does the law drive you to Christ rather than to self-reliance?
A remnant is saved out of the vast multitude. How does that sober teaching about the visible church shape how you think about your own assurance — and about the people you love who sit in church but may not be in Him?

📖 The Passage