Read Romans 9:1-18. “Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden” (Romans 9:18). At the beginning of Romans 9, Paul begins to reflect on the fact that his kinsmen, the Jews, are rejecting their Messiah. As he considers the judgment they will face, he cries out in anguish, “I would do anything for them to come to know Jesus. I would even give up my own salvation!” In Romans 9:6-13, Paul makes it clear that though many of the Israelites had rejected Jesus, God’s sovereign will never fails. “It is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring,” Paul explains (v. 8), meaning those who have faith in God and His Messiah are the true people of God—the true Israel. Likewise, today God’s salvation is promised not to those who simply attend church, […]