Mercy from God not according to our terms

Romans9.15 For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." 16 So then [it] [is] not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

In Romans 9, the Apostle is concerned about the salvation of his “countrymen according to the flesh” (vs. 3).  Paul does not used the word “salvation,” in the beginning part of the chapter, but salvation is in view when he talks about who are the children of God and that those who attain to righteousness do so by faith.  Paul does say at the beginning of chapter 10 that his “heart’s desire and prayer for Israel is that they may be saved.”

But several things said in chapter 9, such as God showing mercy and compassion according to His choice and not by the one’s will or desire or strenuous effort, has emboldened the view that the reason some are saved and some are lost is because it is by God’s choice alone, apart from any response of a person.  If there is a criteria in God’s choice, only He knows, being a mystery-assuming it’s not just an arbitrary choice like some Divine flipping of the coin…heads you’re saved and tails you stay lost.

The understanding of the chapters of Romans 9 through 11, I believe must take into account that the Nation of Israel is in view as to what is going on with her.  Paul says some things that are difficult to sort out.  What He says concerns Israel as a people.  God has chosen Israel for a purpose as a people of God, but to be part of that people is through a particular promise and faith.   That particular people at present has been removed and replaced by a new and different people for a time—that includes Jews who are believers along with Gentiles.  God was working in a way to save Jews now to be a part of the present people of God (Paul spoke of provoking them to jealousy through the salvation of Gentiles), but He is also enduring with and using non-believing Jews and Gentiles, especially in the last days, to bring about the salvation of Israel—not just of individuals, because that can happen now, but the nation as a nation.   But this future salvation will be a nation, as the people of God.  It will not be every individual Jew—as Paul said: “they are not all Israel who are of Israel.”  It will be the Nation as a people, but only according to God’s criterial, not according to theirs or man’s criteria or desire and will.  God’s criteria is according to promise and faith.  If “they do not continue in unbelief … God is able to graft them in AGAIN” (Romans 11.23).  The word “again” just adds support that its talking nationally and not individually.

The criteria of God as to whom He shows mercy does not have to be understood as some mystery or an arbitrary choice.  It is clear in Romans 9 through 11 that the issue is faith.   The problem with Israel was their unbelief.  They had zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for they were ignorant of God’s righteousness.  That righteousness was the righteousness that God gives by faith in Christ, being justification.  Israel was broken off and replaced as a people of God with a new people of God, primarily made up of Gentiles.  But the day is coming when the nation will be restored as a people, but only through faith in Christ.  “…blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  26  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:  "The Deliverer will come out of Zion,  And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;  27  For this [is] My covenant with them,  When I take away their sins.”  Romans 11.25-27