THROUGHOUT this ninth chapter of Romans Paul has being arguing that God is completely sovereign in the dispensing of salvation, and that in his sovereignty he is manifesting his glory. Paul has said in v.22 that God bore with sinners, who are already objects of wrath by birth and life, to manifest the glory of his wrath in executing on them the destruction they deserve, indeed which all human beings deserve in themselves. We are all sinners deserving the wrath of God, and although God gives all opportunity to repent over a very long time we do not repent. Paul has also declared that God by sovereign choice, in order to make known the riches of his glory to the objects of his mercy, has chosen some to receive his mercy; and Paul has shown that God has every right to do this. He has shown also that unless God had sovereignly decided to show mercy to some, none would be saved. In fact Paul has made clear that there is nothing in the mind and heart of human beings that has any desire to respond to God's offer of mercy and salvation in Christ, and that those who do respond, do so because God has chosen them for this blessing.

Paul has also argued that the Jews were mistaken in thinking that God's election was simply a matter of choosing the Jewish nation, and rejecting the rest of humanity. Paul has shown that God's sovereign choice has included both Jews and Gentiles, and that it is only a remnant in each that are saved. The Jews were elected by God as a nation for the purpose of providing the Saviour who was born a Jew, but that this is as far as it went. With regard to salvation only a remnant out of the nation had been chosen for salvation, and God had also chosen a remnant out of the Gentiles.

The arguement is complete by verse 29. There is nothing more really to say. Paul has made his point. However in these concluding verses of chapter 9 Paul looks at the whole matter from the stand point of experience in this world and in the lives of people in this world.

As we look on the whole matter of salvation we observe what Paul tells us here in the three verses before us. We see that the Gentiles, whom the Jews despised and said had no part in God's favour, though they were outside, and did not observe the law, and did not seek righteousness so that they might be right with God, they have obtained righteousness which brings them into a relationship with God and into the favour of God. On the other hand the Jews, as a whole and as a nation, even though they pursued righteousness by observing the law of God given through Moses, have not attained to righteousness which brought them into the favour of God, and thus are outside the favour of God.

Paul goes on to declare the difference between both. The Gentiles received this perfect righteousness that caused them to know God's favour because they received it by faith. Paul speaks of this righteousness in verse 30 as the righteousness that is by faith, and by this he means the righteousness that is received by faith. On the other hand the Jews missed the attaining of righteousness that brought them into the favour of God because they pursued it by works and not by faith. They pursued righteousness by their own efforts in order to bring them into God's favour, and not by faith, and so failed to be reconciled to God.

Now there are two main things here for us to consider. The first is the way of salvation as it is expressed here. The second is a difficulty. Paul seems to make salvation, in the end, to depend on human action and choice. The choice and action being the action of faith and believing. This seems to make faith a work which we perform, and so this would appear to contradict all the teaching of God's sovereignty in salvation which has gone before.

1. THE WAY OF SALVATION.

The Gentiles obtained righteousness by faith. The Jews did not attain to righteousness because they sought it through their own efforts. This is the statement in the verses before us briefly put concerning how salvation is obtained or missed.

The first thing that needs to be said is that righteousness is essential to salvation. God requires perfect righteousness in a person before that person can be accepted by him, and enjoy fellowship with him. Only one who is completely righteous as God is righteous can be in fellowship with God, and enjoy life and live in the presence of God.

Deep down in our consciousness we all know this, so if there is any sense of God in a person, and a consciousness that we have obligation to God to do what God wants, we have the understanding that we must be righteous. Natural humanity falls short here in not appreciating what true righteousness is, and what God really requires, nonetheless a person seeking to know God knows that righteousness is required by God, and the natural way to obtain it is by seeking to be good.

Paul's statement in the verses before us is that the Jews did not obtain righteousness that met with the approval of God, and by this we see that the righteousness which Paul is speaking of is a righteousness that meets the requirements of God, and is a righteousness that is equivalent in quality and excellence with the character of God. In other words Paul is speaking of a perfect righteousness.

The fact is that no human being, by their own effort, can work a righteousness that is equivalent to the righteousness which is in God, and which God requires. The folly of the religious, and this includes the Jews of New Testament times, is that they do not appreciate the nature of the pure righteousness of God, and so feel that a human being by personal effort can attain a righteousness that is acceptable to God. Even if a person could live a completely righteous life as Christ lived, the fact is that the commencement of such pure living is after a life of committing sins, and whatever is worked in the future can't eradicate the lack of righteousness in the past. However the action of the Jews illustrates that people still believe that the way of righteousness is by personal effort. So much of the visible church teaches this. It is the great error of the Roman Catholic church that they teach that each person has to win their own salvation by their good works and holy living. But the RC church still has to admit that this is an impossible task, and it is for this reason that church has invented Purgatory, which it says is a place each person has to go to to be purged of their sins over a period of time in order to make them fit for heaven. The fact is that, like the Jews, Roman Catholics and all like them who seek to win acceptance with God and access to heaven at last by their goodness, never attain a righteousness that is acceptable to God, and so never obtain a place in heaven.

Righteousness is essential if we are to be accepted by God, but it must be a righteousness that is perfect, with no sin or failure to blemish its perfection. The Gospel is that we can receive such a righteousness as a gift from God through our Lord Jesus Christ. As our representative before God, Jesus lived the righteous life God demands in our place, and then as a sinless sacrifice accepted the blame for all our sins, suffered the eternal death we deserve, went to hell, and rose again when he had completed the atonement of our sins. As our head and and representative, as the second Adam to stand in the place of and for his people, Jesus worked the righteousness of God for his people. Salvation, eternal life and a place in heaven, is offered to all who will receive it as a gift. It is sought by those who have realised that they are lost and hopelessly condemned and have nothing to offer for the atonement of their sins, and throw themselves on the mercy of God. To these God offers in Christ this perfect righteousness which covers all our sins, and cancels them out completely, and we are accepted by God into his love and family, and are given new birth into eternal life. This righteousness is received as a gift by all who believe the offer is there and is real, and receive it from Jesus. This is the righteousness by faith, and it is a righteousness that cancels all our sins, and reconciles us to God. This is the way of salvation.

2. THE DIFFICULTY.

It appears to some that this way of salvation contradicts the whole of what Paul has been saying in Romans 9 about the sovereignty of God - that God bestows salvation in a totally sovereign way, to whom he will, and human beings have no part in their salvation. It appears that instead of works of personal effort to be holy being the means of salvation, it is the work of faith which is the means of salvation. It seems that Paul is saying that faith is something we do to obtain salvation.

For those who wish to have this difficulty fully dealt with I would point them to the exposition of Romans 9 written, or rather transcribed from his preaching, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. The book is entitled God's Sovereign Purpose. He deals with this whole difficulty in chapters 22 to 23 of this book. However briefly let me seek to point the way of understanding this dilemma.

It is plain from the whole of Scripture that faith, and particularly faith in Jesus as Saviour, is the means God has given us by which we receive salvation. However the fact is that no true believer is a person that is one of superior wisdom to others to be able to see the way of faith, and therefore are able to believe and so win salvation. Nor are they people who are more successful in believing and so able to believe in order to be saved. Such a conception of faith would make it a work which we do, and would therefore exclude all those who were not so fortunate to be as wise and able to believe as they.

What the bible makes plain is that faith is a gift of God, and it is a gift by which God enables people to appreciate and receive his gift of salvation in Christ. The Gospel is 'whosoever believes in Jesus has eternal life', but such believing is impossible but by the sovereign gift of God. People can't appreciate Christ to believe on him unless they are given the appreciation as a gift from God. People see no need of Christ and his death unless they are given conviction of their sins, and a sense of their lost condition destined for hell. So Christ and his death is meaningless. Then even if people understand the theology and doctrine taught in the bible concerning Christ dying in our place, and suffering in his death the punishment we all deserve, they see it as folly. Paul talks of this in the opening chapters of 1 Corinthians.

The fact is that those who do believe unto salvation are only enabled to do so by the sovereign grace of God, who in his sovereign choice shows them their sin and need, gives them a sense of their condition of being under the wrath of God against their sin, and causes them to seek for mercy. It is God alone, by his Spirit who then opens their understanding to the gift of God in Christ, and enables them to receive this gift by faith.