Romans Chapter 9 Vs. 1

 

God's Sovereign Choice

I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, Rom 9:1

say the truth... Paul, in Rom. 1-8, proves that God’s grace extends to both Jews and Gentiles who believe. In Rom. 9-11 he deals with the Jews and shows why they were rejected and cut off by God and why and how the Gentiles were called and elected to partake of gospel benefits.

We will see in the beginning of this chapter a sorrowful Paul. As we have said before in these lessons, Paul was a Pharisee and he never would quite give up on his Jewish brothers. He went to great lengths to try to reach them over and over. His greatest opposition came from his own people. In many cases, Paul practiced the old Jewish law to try to win them to Christ, but even this failed and Paul went away sorrowful.

Your “conscience” and “In the Holy Spirit” is speaking of only when the Spirit controls the conscience, can it be trusted, but it remains imperfect and its warnings must always be evaluated against the Word of God.

God’s Righteousness Revealed in Sovereign Choice

Since God is the self-existent Being who is the Creator of everything that exists outside Himself, He is sovereign and can therefore use and dispose of His Creation as He wishes. This sovereignty reveals not only His personal righteousness but also His provided righteousness.

God’s sovereign choice enunciated

Paul here discussed God’s sovereign choice because of a practical problem. The Jews gloried in the fact that as Israelites they were God’s Chosen People (Deut. 7:6; cf. Rom. 2:17-20; 3:1-2). But now in God’s program of salvation in the church, Jewish involvement was decreasing while Gentile participation was becoming dominant. Had God, then, abandoned the Jewish people? This is ultimately explained by God’s sovereign choice, a principle which has always been in operation even within the Chosen People of Israel and between Israel and other nations. Now this principle operates in God’s purposes for Israel and the church and in His dealings with Jews and Gentiles within the church.

Israel’s Privileges

By repetition in positive and negative terms (internally attested by the witness of his own conscience [cf. see Rom. 2:15] in the presence of the Holy Spirit).