What does Romans 9:1 mean?
Paul turns suddenly from the previous topic and begins to focus on the people of Israel. He has just finished making the case that because of Jesus' death and resurrection, all who come to God by faith in Christ will be loved by God forever. In fact, nothing in all of creation will be able to separate anyone who is in Christ from God's love (Romans 8:38–39).Perhaps that led Paul to think of his own people Israel. Some Jewish people had come to faith in Christ, but the vast majority had rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Paul shows here how deeply that breaks his heart in this and the following verse.
He starts out by insisting passionately that he sincerely means what he is about to say. Perhaps he was concerned that some readers would not believe him. After all, wasn't he in grave conflict with the Jewish religious leaders? Hadn't they tried to kill him? They had done just that repeatedly to try to stop Paul from preaching the good news about Jesus. Still, Paul declares that his conscience vouches for him in the Holy Spirit that what he is about to say in the following verse is true. He is heartbroken for his Jewish brothers and sisters.
