Romans 9:19-33
Reading Scripture to Understand God’s Ways
In Rm 9-11 Paul moves from grief to perception and hope to praise through scripture. He develops key points of Rm 1-8: “Righteousness”: both God’s righteousness in faithfully being true to his promises and the way he draws humans into a righteous standing with him through Jesus. “Faith”: both God’s faithfulness embodied in Jesus’ life, crucifixion, and resurrection and our faith/trust in what Jesus has done.
But Paul is painfully aware that many of his fellow Jews do not trust that God was at work in Jesus. Rather Torah/Law is God’s final revelation defining an ethnic people marked by circumcision, purity laws, temple, and Torah. The Messiah must fit and confirm these.