Romans chapter 9 verses 6 through 9. The children of the flesh versus the children of promise. Verse 6: It is not as though the Word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel. Paul has just mentioned the covenants and promises made to Israel. Yet Israel had rejected their promised Messiah, the Son of God.
As a result, Jesus had told the Jews," I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and will be given to a nation producing its fruit." The Jews might therefore ask," Does this mean that the Word of God has taken no effect? Have the promises to Israel fallen empty?" Not at all. For as Paul explains," They are not all Israel who are of Israel. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel." What does Paul mean by that statement?
He is simply repeating in different words what he had already declared back in chapter 2." He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart." Origen writes that a true Israelite is not one who can only trace his fleshly ancestry back to Abraham. For it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God.
Rather, it is the person who descends from Abraham according to the promise of faith. This is the one who will obtain God's promises. For there are many who belong to the race of Israel, but not all, are deemed Israel. In this verse," of Israel" refers to someone who is an ethnic descendant of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. As Paul said earlier, and as he will be explaining in more detail, the true Israel, the Israel of God, is comprised of both believing Jews and believing Gentiles.
Just because someone is a fleshly descendant of Abraham and Jacob does not mean that he or she is automatically part of the Israel of God. All the promises are still in effect for those Jews who are part of the Israel of God. Theodoret writes," They are not all Israel who are of Israel, because God does not seek the relationship of nature, but of righteousness," Romans 9:7." Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children.
Rather, in Isaac, your seed shall be called." Just because someone is a fleshly descendant of Abraham does not mean that he is one of the promised children of Abraham. In stating this, Paul is not saying anything new. John the Baptist had told the Jews," Do not think to yourselves, we have Abraham for our Father, for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." When John spoke those words, they were a prophecy. Yet by Paul's day, that prophecy had become a reality.
To help his Jewish readers understand this truth, Paul reasons with them concerning the first generation of Abraham's natural children. Abraham's oldest son was Ishmael. Isaac was his second oldest. Then after Sarah's death, Abraham married Keturah, and he begot six sons by her. So in all, Abraham had eight sons. Yet the promised heirship came through only one of those eight sons, Isaac. In Isaac, your seed shall be called. Here Paul is quoting from Genesis 21:12.
He brings this up to demonstrate that just because someone is a fleshly descendant of Abraham, it does not entitle him to any special blessings. Abraham had eight sons, but seven of those sons did not inherit the special promise. They are not considered part of Abraham's true seed. So Paul is telling the Jews," Yes, you are the fleshly descendants of Abraham." But so are many other ethnic groups, like the Ishmaelites and the Edomites.
Yet those other ethnic groups are not considered Abraham's seed, even though they are his fleshly descendants. Likewise, you Jews are not automatically Abraham's seed, just because you are his fleshly descendants. And Ambrosiaster comments," What God promised has come about. It was not the fleshly descendants of Abraham who would be called his seed. Instead, it was those persons who had the same kind of faith as Abraham, the faith by which Isaac was begotten. This same kind of faith reemerged in the time of Christ.
For with the coming of Christ, the seed of Abraham was no longer limited to a single nation. Instead, it was open to all mankind. Christians now possess the type of faith about God and Christ that Abraham possessed concerning the birth of Isaac. They believe Christ is the Son of God who was born to restore salvation to mankind. The people worthy of being called Israelites are those who have seen God and believed. Romans chapter 9 verses 8 and 9.
That is," Those who are the children of the flesh, they are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise, at this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son." Paul points to the obvious conclusion of his argument. It is not the children of the flesh who are designated as the children of God. Otherwise, the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of the sons of Keturah would also automatically be considered as children of God.
Paul says the blessing only goes to the children of promise. What does Paul mean by that? In the case of Abraham's eight children, only one son was the child of promise. Isaac, what promise? It was the promise made to Abraham that Sarah would have a son, Genesis chapter 18: 10. This was no ordinary promise for Sarah was long past the age of childbearing. So Isaac's conception was a miraculous conception. Abraham's other sons were all the children of ordinary conceptions. No promises were connected to their births.
Through this argument, Paul is contrasting the unbelieving Jews with the believing Gentiles. The unbelieving Jews are simply children of the flesh. They are fleshly descendants of Abraham, but nothing more. The Ishmaelites and other fleshly descendants of Abraham, such as the Edomites and Midianites, could make the same boast of being Abraham's fleshly descendants. Genetic descent means nothing. What matters is belonging to the children of promise.
The promise that pertains to mankind today is the original promise God made to Abraham. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you. Genesis chapter 12:3. This promised blessing comes only through Christ. So today, only those who follow Christ are the children of promise. They constitute the true seed of Abraham.
Justin Martyr, a believing Gentile, writes," For the true spiritual Israel and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham are those of us who have been led to God through this crucified Christ. For Abraham was approved in uncircumcision, and God blessed him on account of his faith. Furthermore, he was called the Father of many nations.