The Rejection Of Their Messiah By The Majority Of Israel Has Not Brought The Word Of God To Nought For It Has Always Been The Case That Not All Of Supposed Israel Are Truly Israel, But Only Those Who Are Chosen In Line With The Purposes Of God (9:6-13).
Paul now deals with the charge that his teaching, in which he has rejected the idea that the Jews who cling to the Law are in process of salvation (e.g. Romans 2:1 to Romans 3:20), and in which he has opened to Gentiles a way back to God through a means other than submission to the Law (the whole of 1-8), would mean that the word of God had come to nought in that Israel had not fulfilled its purpose. One such purpose, for example, was that the word of God was given to Israel so that it might be a teacher of the nations concerning Him (Isaiah 2:2-4; Isaiah 49:1-6). They would have claimed that that assurance was not given in order that it might be sidelined. (Paul, of course, could have pointed out that that very prophecy was in fact being fulfilled, for it was being fulfilled in himself and in the original Jewish church). Indeed some Jews would have gone further for many believed that all who were circumcised Israelites were the elect of God and would thereby, unless they apostasised, obtain eternal life. The cases of the earnest Pharisee (Luke 10:25) and rich young ruler (Luke 18:18) do, however demonstrate, that this view was not widely accepted in Jesus' days, at least among the more earnest, for in their case they wanted to be sure how they could obtain eternal life. Thus the danger was that Paul's arguments might have been seen by some as suggesting:
1) That Israel were not God's chosen people, or that if they were, in some way God's word had failed. His reply to this is that Scripture reveals that only a portion of Israel, the truly godly, are God's chosen people as far as salvation is concerned (Romans 9:6-29).
2) That salvation was not to be obtained by uniting with Israel as ‘the people of God'. Paul's reply to that will be that the Gentiles were in fact saved by uniting with the true people of God (the Jews who followed their Messiah) as they were united with Christ (Romans 11:17-28; Ephesians 2:11-22).
3) That all of God's efforts with regard to Israel had been in vain. Paul's reply is to indicate that God's efforts were not in vain, for it was from Israel that the Messiah came (Romans 9:5), and that in fact the foundation on which the church was built consisted of the Jewish Apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20-22) and the remnant of Israel (Romans 11:17-28).
And the argument would then continue by suggesting that if Israel was rejected in this way, what does it say about God and His word and His faithfulness?
Paul's answer with regard to election is simple. A look back at Israel's history will reveal that God has always been selective as to whom He allocates His blessing, and that He has always chosen those who would come within His blessing from among the many. It has never been the case that all have been blessed. God has always worked through an elect. That is why even at this very time it is only some Jews who have been called out along with some Gentiles (Romans 9:24). In other words he is saying that within the physical nation of Israel there was a spiritual Israel who are in God's eyes the true Israel, the Israel from among Israel.
His analysis is pungent and powerful. The fact that of all the sons of Abraham Isaac alone was the one through whom his seed would be called (Romans 9:7) demonstrated that not all sons of Abraham were of the ‘called'. Furthermore the fact that not all the seed of Isaac (who was the chosen one) benefited by that call, but only Jacob, demonstrated that God's call was of a proportion of the promised seed and not of the whole. Enough is thus said to demonstrate that even the seed of the elect of God were not necessarily elect.