REVIEW
Having shown that the whole world is guilty before God (1:18
– 3:20), Paul proceeds to show how people in general are made right (justified)
with God. He shows us that all are saved in one way only: through faith in
God’s way of salvation – believing in the Lord Jesus Christ (3:21ff).
But what about OT believers? Paul uses an example in Romans
4: How was Abraham saved (justified)? Answer: “Abraham believed God (i.e.
all that God is and does) and it was counted to Him as righteousness “[1]
(Rom.4:3 à Gen 15:6). Abraham’s faith in God is key! Faith in God, according to Romans
5 produces peace with God through faith in the Lord Jesus. Through our union with Christ, we experience
freedom from sin (Romans 6), whilst Romans 7 points to the
reality of our internal struggle between the desire to do good and the
persistent pull of sin. But Jesus is a real Saviour from sin (7:25) and
therefore a Christian should expect real help in their struggles against sin.
This is followed by Romans 8 the
great chapter on Christian assurance. The climax is found in 8:31-39: nothing
in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
ROMANS 9
9:1-5: Paul in Soul Agony - the plight of his countrymen – the Jews.
Paul declares as if under oath: “I am speaking the truth in Christ – I am not lying; my
conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit – that I have great sorrow and
unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and
cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the
flesh. They are Israelites…”
Paul has spent a lot of time explaining why we need the gospel. He could move on from there to the practical application (i.e. How then shall we live?) which we shall find in Romans 12 and following. But he doesn’t go there yet!
He must
first unburden his heart concerning an important matter: His own people – the
Jews.
A brief reminder of who Paul was
Paul (Saul see Acts 13:9) described himself as "of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin" (Phil. 3:5). Benjamin was the only son of Jacob born in the Promised Land. The tribe of Benjamin produced Israel’s first king (Saul). So Paul came from a distinguished line. He was born and raised in the Diaspora in Tarsus in the Roman province of Cilicia (modern Turkey) and thus he was also a Roman citizen (Acts 22:25-29). Raised in a foreign culture he never forgot that he was a Jew. He was also raised in the theological framework of the Pharisees. In fact, he was trained by the respected Gamaliel, a Pharisaic doctor of the Jewish law (Acts 22:3). He became a convert to Christ in Acts 9. He became the great apostle to the gentile people, but he never forgot that he was a Jew and he never forgot his own people.
This brings us to the point. Paul was concerned about an issue which had confused many people in Paul’s day – namely the rejection of Israel by God, and the salvation of the gentiles.
- How was it possible that God could forsake His covenant people?
- Did God not make definite promises to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation?
- Had God not favoured Israel above all the other nations (Deut. 14:1,2)?
- Had He not given them that which is listed here in 9:4 - the law, the covenants, the promises, the patriarchs, the temple … and above all, did He not send the Christ (promised Messiah), the Son of God to be born of Jewish descent?
- In the light of such an awesome heritage what could be the explanation for God’s rejection of Israel at this time?
- Why would He include and favour the gentiles at this time?
A brief Outline of Romans 9-11
(i) 9:1-29: Paul shows that the rejection of the Jews was not a failure of God’s promise to save His people. The problem lies in the interpretation of what constitutes Abraham’s offspring and who the true Israel is. The key verses in this regard in 9:26-28
(ii) 9:30-10:21: Here Paul shows the reason why most of national Israel has rejected her God, and why many of the gentiles have received Christ the Jewish Messiah. Christ became a stumbling block for the Jews, whilst many gentiles believed in Him and were saved. The Jews, though zealous, were using the law as a standard of righteousness which did not match the righteousness that God requires for salvation. They were looking to the law and not to the gospel (Christ) for salvation. Now remember also that Paul has previously reminded us in Rom.2:28,29 that there is no actual advantage in being a Jew although he admits that the Jews do have an advantage, because this was the nation that God first revealed Himself to (3:2). But apart from that fact, Jews are no better off than all the rest of the sinners of this world (3:9,10). “There is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (3:22,23). Spiritual privileges do not guarantee salvation or favour. This is all very important background to our understanding of Ch’s 9-11.
(iii) 11:1-36 Here Paul explains that Israel’s rejection is not total. Some Jews were being saved. Thank God that Jews in our own day are still coming to their Messiah- not in great numbers, but they are coming. We thank God for the work of the Grace and Truth congregation in Israel[2], a vibrant Reformed Baptist congregation. We have every reason to hope, expect, pray and labour to the end that many Jews will yet come to Christ before His coming.
Back to 9:1-5
With that in mind we see Paul displaying his heart for his
own people. And we want to learn from him.
Here is a man who deeply loves his own people. He sees their
plight. He understand their privileges and he desperately longs for their
salvation. And so he wrestles in his heart before God, and he will help us to
work through some profound theological issues in the process.
As we begin to work through Romans 9 we will have to deal with a range of significant questions.
- We will learn something about developing a real heart for lost people (9:1-5).
- We will work through issues such as, "Can God’s covenant promises fail?” (9:6-8).
- A major matter we need to settle in our minds is this: “Is God unfair by choosing some and by bypassing others in salvation?” (9:9ff).
Paul asserts that God is utterly able to keep His people.
- But what about Israel, the Jews as a whole?
- Howcome the nation to which God has shown so much favour has gone so horribly astray?
- Why have they, by and large, not embraced Jesus the Jewish Messiah?
In fact, hasn’t this been a longstanding problem regarding national
Israel? The OT prophets had a similar
problem in this regard. God promised Abraham to be the God of his descendants forever!
However, many of Abraham’s offspring became faithless. What offspring is he
referring to? God promised Abraham that
He would settle his descendants in a promised land – Canaan, forever, but the
truth is that Israel could never really keep their country’s boundaries due to
compromise.
And what about David? God promised David that he would never fail to have one of His offspring reign on His throne forever (e.g. Psalm 132:11,12.) But then came the big split between Northern and Southern kingdom following Solomon’s death, and then the eventual collapse and exile of both kingdom.
Have God’s promises failed?
You hear prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and some of the minor prophets like Habakkuk complaining, "How can God punish us by using our enemies?”
Have God’s promises failed?
The answer is this: “No, God’s promises
have not failed. They are all answered in Jesus Christ the Messiah; and the
question of the promised land is all settled in looking
for that better country and city that
has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”(Hebr.11:10). This is the ultimate homeland for every true believer.
That being said, this doesn’t lessen Paul’s agony as He thinks of His own people. May this burden be multiplied to us. Paul says,
“I am
speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in
the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For
I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake
of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. (9:1-3)
O the love Paul has for his people. He is so much for them,
that he somehow wished that he could take their place as the accursed of God - for
this is what they are without Christ – ACCURSED! He wished that they might occupy his place in
Christ and he theirs!
Paul of course knows that this is hypothetical. He knows that this cannot happen. He cannot take their place, but it does show the intensity of his love for His own people – a people with unsurpassed favour from God. Again, I refer you to a list of eight remarkable privileges the Israelites were granted in 9:4-5:
- Adoption: Chosen as God's special children.
- Glory: Experiencing the visible presence of God (the Shekinah).
- The covenants: The binding promises God made to their ancestors.
- The Law: Receiving God's righteous standard at Sinai.
- The Worship: The sacrificial system designed to approach God.
- The Promises: Prophecies pointing to the Messiah.
- The Patriarchs: Descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- The Messiah: Jesus Christ, who came from their physical lineage.
…but they are lost because they have failed to embrace
the Messiah whom God has sent as the ONLY means of salvation. And because of THAT Paul's heart is in agony.
Oh, for a heart like Paul. How did he get that heart?
He certainly had
received apostolic giftings and privileges, along with much suffering. But in all this Paul
has experienced so much love and grace and mercy from God, that it has become a
part of his being. That is the wonderful
thing about growing in grace. And the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ overflows
in him, in particular for his people. And so he loves them, and he prays for
them, so much that we find him repeating this desire in Romans 10:1 “Brothers, my heart’s
desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.”
Where do we begin to have such a heart?
- We must go to God and ask Him to increase and deepen our desire for the salvation of our countrymen.
- We must deepen that desire as we learn this from the Bible, as we learn from Jesus Himself, and as we learn from the apostle Paul, who himself followed Christ.
APPLICATION
- Pray for South Africa; pray for your own people groups.
- South Africa has had a strong Christian heritage, but one is afraid that we have lost our first love. We pride ourselves in Christian things and culture, but our love for God Himself is dim.
- We need to develop a heart for those thousands and thousands of professing Christians who warm the benches of our churches, but who have no living and real attachment to Christ; they are convinced but not converted. Don’t lose your heart for the nominal Christian. I have often thought that the church must get saved first! The central warning of this passage is that spiritual privilege does not guarantee salvation. A life can be filled with every religious, cultural, and moral advantage, but if it lacks personal faith in Jesus Christ, it ultimately misses the mark. The tragedy of Israel serves as an enduring reminder that heritage and outward participation cannot replace the inward reality of knowing the Messiah.
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