"Does this mean that Paul is playing Christianity off against Judaism or the gospel against the Old Testament? By no means!" - Richard Hays
When we read about God's wrath and judgment in the first few chapters of the book of Romans, we need to keep in mind the continuous story that Paul is developing which is not about condemning Israel or the world but about the coming promise of deliverance and restoration one sees later in the book through Christ. When Paul gets to his parable of the potters wheel that echoes Jer.18 in Romans 9:20-21, this parable is often misread about concerns of election and destruction. But this parable is really about the Potter's power is creative, not destructive. The vessels may fall but the Potter reshapes it. There is judgment but it leads to mercy!
Paul quotes Hosea 2:25 in Romans 9:25-26. Hosea's prophecy is about restoration of wayward Israel. Despite Israel's harlotry, Paul rereads the Hosea prophecy that God will also embrace Gentiles as God will embrace Israel. In Romans 9:27a, "But Isaiah cries out for the sake of Israel." He ends this verse by saying "the sons of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, a remnant will be saved." Many English Bibles add in "only" which is not in the text at all which actually changes this texts meaning. The only gives it a negative connotation "only a remnant." But it makes more sense contextually and from the original Isaiah context to read this text positively as a positive word of hope rather than a negative word of condemnation. Can the translators just leave the text alone rather than trying to help it out?
(excepts and ideas from Richard Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul)
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