At this point we enter into what many have considered to be a new section of Romans. A parenthesis if you will. A break from the rest of the letter. Up until this point we have been looking at the revelation of the righteousness of God and promoting justification by faith. We are taught that we are sinners, that we are saved by faith through Jesus Christ, and as the justified we are placed in Christ. With the previous chapters teaching on sin, salvation, and sanctification, chapters 9-11 shift the focus of Romans. It is often thought that chapters 9-11 were simply an addition to the epistle. While it is clear upon examination that chapter 8 could immediately precede chapter 12 seamlessly, the Apostle chooses to provide a brief section showing the righteousness of God. Paul chooses to place a section in between the revelation and application of the righteousness of God which points out that it is not God who has rejected his people, but his people, Israel, who has rejected the Messiah. In doing so, Paul is going to provide some clarification on what he has said in the first 8 chapters of this epistle before continuing forward.
I tended to get in trouble a lot when I was a little kid. Almost everyday that my mom or dad would pick me up from daycare one of the workers there would have to walk out to the car with me to inform my parents as to what crime I had committed during that particular day. I was awful. I can remember one of my grandmother’s friends reading my name in the paper and asking my grandmother if I was one of hers. Her response was, “Yeah, that’s the bad one.” The point being that I disobeyed a lot of rules, disappointed my parent on a regular basis and gave them every reason to be unhappy with me. What did my parents do because of this, they loved me. In spite of what I had done my parents never stopped loving me. As we will see in our text today Paul followed God’s example and never stopped loving others. This will unfold itself in what I see as 2 sections in our text. Paul’s love for his people in verses 1-3 and God’s love for His people in verses 4-5.
First, Paul’s love for his people. As we come to our text today we are moving from an emotional high where Paul declares that nothing can separate the love of God in Jesus Christ from a believer in chapter 8 to a somber note in chapter 9. It is as if the Apostle Paul all of sudden slams on the breaks and instantly changes his mood. He writes, “I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit”. These words are Paul’s way of telling his audience of the truth of what he about to say. He calls Christ, his Lord and Savior as a witness to the truth that he is speaking. “I am not lying” once more is getting at the truth with which Paul is speaking. Paul is even calling his own conscience as a witness in the Holy Spirit. It is not his actual conscience that he is saying is so great, but the obedience that it exhibits through the work of the Holy Spirit that is to serve as such a credible witness for what Paul is about to say. Think about it this way, when a witness is called to give any kind of forensic testimony in a court of law the witness is first asked to provide an account of why their opinion and statements should be taken seriously. Here, the Apostle Paul is saying that he is speaking the truth and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit can attest to this fact.
Paul gives us the reason why he was so insistent on his word being true when he say, “that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.” What has happened in the heart of Paul that he has gone from such joy to speaking with great sorrow and anguish? The answer is that Paul has turned his attention to the members of his own race, his own people, the Jews. He is grieving because they have rejected God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Paul’s statements about the truth are needed because what he is saying here is something that will not settle well with the Jews. In the previous chapters the divine truths told by Paul are thrilling to those who believe, yet they are devastating to those who do not believe. In Paul’s day this would have been his fellow Jews, but this is not the extent of the devastation. Anyone who does not profess their faith in Jesus Christ stands utterly in ruins at the words of the Apostle.
Think with me for just a second. Paul, even though he was a Jew, was treated anything but nicely by the members of the Jewish faith. In the eyes of the Jews Paul was the worst of all possible enemies. He was a Jew who had become a believer in Jesus, the one they called “that blaspheming imposter,” as the Son of God. And now Paul was going around trying to convert both Gentiles and Jews to follow Jesus, to convert to Christianity. From the Jews point of view, Paul was not only wrong in his beliefs and a traitor, but he was seeking to destroy Judaism as a whole. Of course, we know that Paul wasn’t specifically trying to destroy Judaism, but he was simply proclaiming Jesus as Israel’s true Messiah. It would be foolish to think that Paul was unaware of this animosity that the Jews held towards him, and that is what makes his profession in v.2 that much more amazing. You see, the Jews harassed Paul, tried any way possible to hinder him and his ministry, and sought to defeat both him and the gospel that he promoted so boldly. Throughout Paul’s travels he had considerable success in gathering large groups of Gentiles to his message and establishing numerous churches. The Jews of the local areas would stir up mobs wherever Paul was and quite often would drive him from his current city. Often times, once they had successfully driven Paul from the city they would send their own teachers to undermine the message that Paul had just delivered. And there were still many of the Jews who simply thought that they should just kill Paul and be done with worrying about him. With feelings and actions like this even the most righteous and godly of persons would excuse Paul from thinking or saying a bad thing or two against the Jews, but that isn’t the case. Paul overwhelmingly loved the Jews. No where in Paul’s writings do we find any personal offense, retaliation, or resentment towards the Jews. In 2 Corinthians he speaks of how he has been beaten by and fears his own countrymen, but never any cross words on Paul’s behalf. Does this remind you of something else found in the gospel accounts? How about Jesus’ weeping over Jerusalem even though he knew that he was about to be crucified by her leaders. You see, Paul’s spirit was the spirit of his Master. The love that Paul displayed for those who wanted to harm him is the same love that he shared for his closest friends. It is the love that we ought always show to others.
If we think that the sorrow expressed by Paul thus far shows how deep his love runs for his people then we are wrong. Continuing through our text we find, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own people of Israel”. Now, we know from Paul’s previous words in chapter 8 that he cannot be separated from Christ but he is saying if he could he would gladly do so. He would become accursed from Christ if his condemnation could achieve the salvation of the people that he so dearly loved and who hated him so passionately. Paul would willingly place himself under the very curse of God and be delivered to total destruction if by doing so his people would know Christ.
Let me ask you a series of question in relation to our own lives that is similar to that of Paul’s in this situation:
Do you anguish over others? In other words, do you feel pain for those who do not know Jesus Christ and who are perishing without him? I don’t think that many of us feel this pain. It might be that we don’t think that they are really going to perish or perhaps we don’t really believe the gospel as we ought to. But I think that there is a much more fundamental reason, we just aren’t very much like Jesus, we don’t spend much time with him and we don’t think about spiritual or religious matter too often.
Ok another question: Do you anguish over those closest to you (family, friends, etc.)? Do we feel sorrow for a husband with an unsaved wife, a child with a parent who doesn’t believe in Christ, or a friend who stays silent about the gospel when there is ample time to speak. I am blessed that the Lord has granted me with a wife and family who all profess their faith in Jesus Christ. But I still ache when I think of the number of friends that I have that I have stayed silent when I should have spoken. Even though my life doesn’t have too many years on it yet, the number of times that I can think of when I said nothing when given the perfect opportunity to present the gospel is too numerous for me to even begin to count.
So as we have thought about those that we either don’t know or those that we know on a close personal level, what about those that we don’t like so much. Do we anguish over our enemies? Do we anguish over terrorists who seek to kill us for our beliefs? Many times we don’t but we ought to. If Paul can love those who sought to kill him, then there is no reason why we should not at least strive for the same thing. Do you anguish for sinners? Do you feel pain for all the murderers, rapists, thieves, and other criminals? I am as guilty as, if not more so, than anyone else in this room of not feeling sorrow for those in these categories. As the father of a 15 month old little girl I can’t think of how to love a rapist or a child molester. But you see, all people are in need of the gospel, not just those who we care about or who are enough like us but all humanity. That is something that each and every one of us is in need of improving. We need to pray that the Holy Spirit will work in our heart to make us more like Paul and even more so like Jesus and help us to love those who we so naturally want to hate.
There is no doubt that as we have looked at the first 3 verses of the 9th chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Romans that Paul loved the Jews. Paul doesn’t just love them because they are his countrymen, but because they are God’s chosen people who are denying Him. Paul loved whoever God loves, and because God loves Israel uniquely, Paul loved Israel uniquely. So let’s look now at God’s great love for His people. Verses 4 and 5 read, “They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.” Paul is giving us a list of all the ways in which God showed His favor towards His chosen people Israel since the beginning.
First off Paul states that they are Israelites, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is a privilege in and of itself. Then Paul mentions Israel’s adoption. This adoption is not the New Testament notion of a believer’s new status before God as a result of redemption and new birth. This adoption refers to God selection of Israel as his chosen nation in which he would bring salvation to the world. Next Paul mention’s the glory of God that was given to Israel. God’s glory is so brilliant that human eyes are not permitted to behold it, yet God allowed His glory to dwell in the midst of His people Israel. Of this John Murray wrote, “This glory was the sign of God’s presence with Israel and certified to Israel that God dwelt among them and met with them.” So to possess the glory of God is something that ought not be overlooked here in this passage as we look at this list of the blessings of Israel.
We continue on to see that Israel was privileged to have been given the covenants of God. There is nothing more characteristic of God’s special relationship with the people than covenants. Now I don’t want to get into a covenant theology lecture here but a covenant as it is meant here is referring to an agreement between God and His people Israel. Paul is referring specifically to the covenants established with Abraham, Moses, and David. It would even be through Israel that God’s supreme covenant of redemption through His Son would come to be.
Then Paul states about the giving of the law to the Israelites. Moses and the rest of Israel were given the Law of God at Mount Sinai in Exodus 20. Even though Paul’s teachings were that salvation was by grace through the atoning work of Christ and not law-keeping he doesn’t discount the value of the law. In fact, he counted the receiving of the law as another privilege in the list that Israel has enjoyed. This was an advantage that no nation had until the Christian era when the gospel of God’s grace in Christ was taken to everyone by the apostles and early missionaries.
Paul then goes on to comment on the worship that Israel has been given. This is a reference to the temple worship, the ceremonial system that God revealed through Moses of sacrifices, offering, and cleansings administered by the priests and the Levites. Ultimately the temple all sacrifices and temple worship were brought to completion and fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Israel was also given the promises of God. The Old Testament is filled with many promises, but “the promises” here is referring to the promises of redemption to be fulfilled by the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The very one that the Jews didn’t welcome when he finally came. Paul also reminds his readers that it was from Israel that God raised up the fathers, beginning with the first great patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was through those men that the foundations of all the blessings were laid.
The final privilege of Israel listed here by Paul is the human ancestry of Jesus. Everything Paul has said up to this point would have been agreed to by his Jewish opponents. They understood that they had distinct spiritual advantages over other nations. This last item is where the disagreement comes between Paul and his fellow countrymen. The Jews have no desire to recognize Jesus as their Messiah, but Paul cannot leave this fact out. You may be asking why Paul would include such a lengthy list or even more puzzling, why did I feel the need to go through every item on the list. The answer comes to us in the form of progression. You see, each privilege on this list leads to the one following it and ultimately leads to Christ. The flow of God’s actions reaches back to the patriarchs where it began and moves forward to the coming of Jesus in whom it culminates.
Israel lacked nothing in terms of spiritual blessings and advantages, yet the nation wasn’t saved. Sure, there were individual Jews like Paul who had professed Christ as their Savior. But despise all of these advantages Israel as a nation was a nation eternally doomed, this is why Paul expresses such great sorrow for his countrymen. Despite the adoption, the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship, the promises and patriarchs, no one, not a nation or an individual, is saved or can be saved apart from Jesus Christ. Paul knew this as well as anyone else. Having been a Hebrew of Hebrews, he knew that his only hope of salvation was through Jesus Christ.
But it is important for us to understand that this isn’t just a message for the nation of Israel in Paul’s day. Think about those of use who have been brought up in or spent some time in the Christian church and have benefited from its advantages. This passage is speaking to those people just as it speaks to Israel. Spiritual advantages will not save you, you must be born again. Just because someone may have been privileged to have Christian parents, like the Jews with their patriarchs, doesn’t mean they are saved. The faith of your parents, your family, your friends will not save you. You must believe yourself. You must follow Jesus Christ yourself.
Some think that a deep knowledge of God will save them. Their education has given them all of the sound theology, right doctrine, and correct answers to important questions. The truth is that no one has ever been saved by head knowledge alone. Satan knows more theology than any of us could ever hope to learn in a lifetime. He has had thousands of years to learn it, but he is not saved.
Perhaps you rely on your church membership for your salvation. Being a member of a biblically sound, believing church is a great advantage, but so was Israel’s adoption as a nation, possession of the law, temple worship, and the promises of God. But membership in a church doesn’t save anyone any more than being a Jew has saved anyone. Many people who are sitting in churches today are Christians in name only. There is nothing in their lives to give any indication that they have been touched by Jesus Christ or been drawn to Him. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment