We
Are All Abraham's Children
Romans
9
In
today's study we will be tackling Romans chapter nine. This chapter
is a little bit more lengthy than some, and so I will break it up
into several parts for the sake of practicality and brevity. As we
begin today, Paul is still elaborating on what we now know as the end
of chapter eight. “We are more than conquerers through Him who
loved us”, wrote Paul at the close of last week's study. Today we
will continue to examine these Scriptures verse by verse in order to
better our understanding (mine included, since I learn something new
every time I write another one of these). So let's get started at
verse one, shall we?
“I
speak the truth in Christ – I am not lying, my conscience confirms
it in the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish
in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off
from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the
people of Israel. Theirs is the adoptions as sons; theirs is the
divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the Law, the temple
worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is
traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever
praised! Amen. It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all
who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because of his
descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary: 'it is
through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.' In other words,
it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the
children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. For
this was how the promise was stated:'at the appointed time I will
return, and Sarah will have a son'. Not only that, but Rebecca's
children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before
the twins were born or had done anything good or bad – in order
that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him
who calls – she was told, 'The older will serve the younger'. Just
as it is written: 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated'.” (Romans 9,
verses 1-13, NIV)
We've
all had those moments when we knew in our heart of hearts – still
others have expressed it to me as “a feeling in their guts” –
when we knew when something was either right or wrong, on target or a
complete miss, or of simply finding oneself in a situation where they
felt leery of the circumstances or the people in them for one reason
or another. The feeling of something that is too good to be true is
one such example. That is exactly what the apostle Paul meant when he
wrote, “I
speak the truth in Christ – I am not lying, my conscience confirms
it in the Holy Spirit... ”.
It is interesting to note here that Paul's conscience had a direct
connection to the Holy Spirit. They were interconnected in such a way
that the presence of one element depended on the presence of the
other. This is a goal that is worthy of attaining for the sake of our
relationship with the Lord, that of unity of mind and Spirit. The
more interdependent they are within ourselves, the closer our walk
with Christ becomes. Paul then goes on to lament his own people, the
Hebrews of their day, for what they were missing out on as a result
of their continued unbelief that Jesus was the promised Messiah and
the Son of God. “For
I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for
the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel.
Theirs is the adoptions as sons; theirs is the divine glory, the
covenants, the receiving of the Law, the temple worship and the
promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the
human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!
Amen.”
Paul was reciting a litany of his own faith as he wrote these words
nearly 2,000 years ago. All he has written here is a summary of only
a fraction of a part of the Law of Moses as it is documented from the
books of Exodus through Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. The Jews of
Paul's day had Jesus crucified by the Romans. Instead of greeting him
as their Savior and “Rabboni”,
they had him executed.
“It
is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended
from Israel are Israel. Nor because of his descendants are they all
Abraham's children. On the contrary:... 'it is through Isaac that
your offspring will be reckoned.' In other words, it is not the
natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of
the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.”
When Paul wrote that “not all who are descended from Israel are
Israel”, he was referring to Jacob and Esau, the sons of Isaac.
Although they were twin brothers, Jacob became one of the patriarchs
of Israel while Esau became the patriarch of the Philistines. (For
more details on this topic you may refer to the book of Genesis
starting around chapter 25.) Paul then expounds on the fact that it
is not those who are Jewish by birth who are God's children, but that
it is all people – the entire world or body of believers – who
have become Jewish by adoption with Jesus Christ as the head of our
households. Only those who worship Jesus in Spirit and in truth will
be adopted into the family of God, and all others will be rejected by
God because of impure hearts and their clandestine motives. Having
said that, let's move on to verse 14.
“What
then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses,
'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I have compassion.' It does not, therefore, depend on man's
desire or effort, but God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharoah:
'I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power
in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth'.
Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he
hardens those whom he wants to harden.' One of you will say to me:
'Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?' But who
are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him
who formed it, 'why did you make me like this'? Does not the potter
have the rights to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for
noble purposes and some for common use? What if God, choosing to show
his wrath and make his power known, – bore with great patience the
objects of his wrath prepared for destruction? What if he did this to
make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom
he prepared in advance for glory – even us, whom he also called,
not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?” (Romans 9
verses 14-24, NIV)
“'I
will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I have compassion.' (Exodus 33:19)
God chooses those that he sets aside for honor and praise, but he
also chooses those who stand against God, because to stand against
God means to rely on our human pride and only what matters to us and
refuse to submit to God's will as the objects of his wrath. “It
does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but God's
mercy.” What
doesn't? Our selfish desires, our ulterior motives, and all our
little schemes and manipulations. We can obtain neither eternal
salvation nor the forgiveness of sins by our works, our words or our
deeds, whether they are good or bad. Recognition of God's grace and
of the shed blood of Jesus Christ are what saves us. Refusal to
believe these established facts are what condemns us. Then why, Paul
wrote, does God still blame people when they sin, and why does the
guilt remain? And yet who are we to talk back to God, when we want to
know why he has made us as he has? People who make this mistake, and
it can be a serious one, are forgetting who is God and who isn't.
Let's not go there, people. Remember to keep your eyes on the prize!
What
if he did this to make the riches of his glory known... – even us,
whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the
Gentiles?”
God has shed his grace upon us through Jesus his only Son so that the
riches of his glory could be made known. The glory of the Son, in
turn, is then made known through us, his adopted children. And now
let's conclude this study of Romans chapter nine, starting at verse
25.
“As
he says in Hosea, 'I will call them 'my people' who are not my
people; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one',
and, 'it will happen in the very place where it was said to them,
'you are not my people', they will be called 'Sons of the Living
God'. Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: 'Though the number of the
Israelites will be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be
saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed
and finality'. It is just as Isaiah said previously, 'unless the Lord
Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we
would have been like Gomorrah'. What shall we say, then? That the
Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a
righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of
righteousness, has not attained it. And why not? Because they pursued
it not by faith but as it were by works. They stumbled over the
stumbling stone, as it is written: 'See, I lay in Zion a stone that
causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one
who trusts in him will never be put to shame'.” (Romans 9, verses
25-33, NIV)
Paul
quotes the book of Hosea chapter 2 and verse 23 to finish making his
point to the Roman congregation. “'I
will call them 'my people' who are not my people; and I will call her
'my loved one' who is not my loved one', and, 'it will happen in the
very place where it was said to them, 'you are not my people', they
will be called 'Sons of the Living God.”
What was Paul talking about? He was referring to Israel's status as
God's chosen people based on the promise God made to Abraham (see the
book of Genesis chapter 15), which was that Abraham would be the
“father of many nations” and that his descendants would be as
numerous as the stars in the clear night sky. Paul refers to this in
the next sentence when he wrote, “Though
the number of the Israelites will be like the sand by the sea, only
the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence
on earth with speed and finality.”
The unvarnished truth here is that not everyone is going to heaven
when they die. In fact, there are many out there today who simply
aren't going to make it into New Jerusalem. A disturbing proportion
of them will be what the Bible calls “lukewarm Christians” in the
book of Revelation. It is there that it is written about the church
at Laodicea, “I wish that you were either hot or cold. But since
you are neither, I will spew you out of my mouth”. That judgment
refers to the end times church, which is the present day since the
second coming of our Lord is getting close. And if only a remnant of
Israel, who are God's chosen people, will be saved, now many fewer
who comprise all the remaining nations excluding Israel will be
saved? The answer is, not as many as we have been led to believe by
organized religion, who seem to think that only those who belong to
their denominations will be saved. It is those people who are going
to be in for a really rude awakening.
“...
the
Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a
righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of
righteousness, has not attained it. And why not?Because they pursued
it not by faith but as it were by works.”
Right here is where Paul finishes making his point, which is that
Jews and all other nations have now all become one in the eyes of
God. The non-Jews have righteousness, which means to be found without
fault but in that case according to their faith, while the Jews who
do not believe in Jesus (and there is a growing number who do
believe) have lost out because they thought they could be made
righteous by their works, which was a reference to the Law of Moses
in the Old Testament, when in fact that's not how things work in
God's kingdom. Nobody, whether Jewish or not, can get to heaven and
achieve eternal life based only on their good deeds. That is because
no matter how many good deeds any one of us performs, we all still
have that sinful nature that dates all the way back to Adam and Eve.
There is no way we can shake this off of us on our own. Only by
placing our unconditional faith in Jesus Christ can eternal salvation
be attained and our sinful natures overcome.
“ They
stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written: 'See, I lay in
Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them
fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame'”.
The “stumbling stone” Paul is referring to is none other than
Christ Jesus himself. If we trust only in our works or our related
sacrifices such as tithing 10% of our income like certain churches
teach, that will not get us to heaven in and of itself. But if we
humble ourselves before Christ by surrendering control of our lives
and placing our complete trust in him, then and only then can we
become Jewish adoptees in the family of God. When we trust in God, we
can never be put to shame so long as we work diligently at this
continuously. So here is something we have found that will improve
our relationship with our Savior while bringing us ever closer to him
all the while. Let's begin to put this into practice today, and soon
you will see just how remarkably effective in your walk with the Lord
this is.
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