Romans 9:9

This verse is simply intended to justify the expression: children of the promise, Romans 9:8. When the apostle says: a word of promise, he means: a word which had the free character of a promise, and which did not in the least imply the recognition of a right. The quotation is a combination of Romans 9:10; Romans 9:14 of Genesis 18. according to the LXX. The term: at this time, signifies: “Next year, at the moment when this same time (this same epoch) will return.”

But could Isaac and his race, though proceeding from Abraham, and that through the intervention of a divine factor, be regarded without any other condition as real children of God? Evidently not; for if the faith of Abraham himself ceased to belong to them, they became again a purely carnal seed. It must then be foreseen that the same law of exclusion which had been applied to Ishmael, in favor of Isaac, would anew assert its right even within the posterity of the latter. This is what came about immediately, as is seen in the second example quoted by the apostle, that of Esau and Jacob.