<p>9:11 <em>For the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him that calls- </em>As noted on :10, Paul is defining the 'seed' as being not according to fleshly descent for both Esau and Jacob were from the same father and mother, but according to calling and predestination independent of the works they did. For the Genesis record frames Jacob as being inferior to Esau in his works. This historical interlude about Israel in Romans 9-11 is in exemplification of the theology outlined in chapters 1-8. There we have read that works do not save a person; it is by God's grace. And the obvious exemplification of grace is in the very existence of concepts like predestination and calling (Rom. 8:30). Struggle with these concepts as we may, the simple point is that salvation is not by works nor intellectual ability or good fortune to correctly understand the text of Scripture. This is what predestination implies. One is called and the other isn't, even when the works of one Jacob are not much to boast of, and the one who is not called Esau comes over in the record as a far nicer, more forgiving kind of guy than the one who was called.</p>