Romans part IX
Romans • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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So far in our study of Romans we have talked about how sin has left us dead and in need of a savior. We talked about how our salvation is not by works of the law but by grace through faith in Christ alone. We talked about holiness and Paul’s desire to live a godly life and the challenges he faced in that process of sanctification and we talked about the hope of glory and the powerful love of Christ that holds us fast.
Today and over the next couple weeks Paul is going to take us on a little bit of a history lesson through the Old Testament. The focus is Israel’s history and the part they play in the New Testament story. Paul loves his people and in this new context and covenant where salvation is offered to all people from all nations Israel in some ways has been a fierce opponent to the Gospel message. All nations are being brought in and grafted into the family tree of Abraham and for many that should not be so. They saw a doing away of the law and an expansion of the faith as contrary to what they knew and so they rejected Jesus and rejected the message of Jesus.
I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience testifies to me through the Holy Spirit—that 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 benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises. The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.
I think there is something beautiful in what Paul is saying here. Inside him there is this great burden for his people and a great burden for their salvation. Following Jesus and trusting Jesus as our comfort and joy and hope doesn’t mean that His Holy Spirit won’t lead us to grief and sorrow. Grief and sorrow are not sinful feelings in fact Jesus was described as a man of sorrows and acquainted with our grief. There is hope and life and joy in Christ. Putting our faith in Jesus changes our lives forever. We can never be separated from God’s love and it is God’s love that works all things for our good. Even still there are times in our walk with Christ where the Holy Spirit leads us into feelings of grief and sorrow. There are times when we experience loss and pain and that’s okay. Paul says that his conscience testifies with the Holy Spirit in these feelings of unceasing grief and sorrow in his heart and he explains the cause. The cause of this grief is that his people are separated from Christ. They have all the blessings of the faith, they have been called as sons and daughters of Abraham according to the flesh, they were given the law and covenants, they have the temple, they have all these amazing stories of God’s faithfulness, but when it comes down to what matters most, when it comes to Jesus, Israel missed the point. All these blessings they had were given to point Israel to Jesus. He goes through that whole list of things and it is through those things that Christ came. Israel’s rejection of Jesus moves Paul to grief. He loves his people so much that he says he would even give up his own salvation if it meant that Israel would come to believe in Jesus. Paul’s passion causes us to reflect on how we see the world around us.
Do we love lost people the way Paul does?
Does it grieve us that there are people who don’t have a relationship with Jesus?
Who are the people that God is calling you to serve and love?
Now it is not as though the word of God has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Neither is it the case that all of Abraham’s children are his descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac. That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring.
It isn’t God’s fault that people reject Jesus. God chose Israel to reveal His plan of redemption but throughout every generation in Israel there have been those who rejected the Way. God didn’t choose every son of Abraham to be the child of promise. God chose to use Isaac’s line and not Ishmael’s. If you remember all the way back in Genesis. God told really old Abraham that he would have a son with his really old wife Sarah. God took His time keeping His promise which made Abraham and Sarah restless. Sarah decided that Abraham should have a son with her servant Hagar. Abraham does and Ishmael is the first born son to Abraham. The problem is that isn’t what God told them to do and it isn’t what He promised. Every human life is precious and Ishmael’s birth wasn’t an accident but God wanted to work a miracle through Abraham and Sarah and would later do that through the birth of Isaac. Paul says it isn’t enough to be a physical son of Abraham because even from the beginning of the promise that wasn’t the case. The children of promise are considered to be the offspring of Abraham.
For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son. And not only that, but Rebekah conceived children through one man, our father Isaac. For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand—not from works but from the one who calls—she was told, The older will serve the younger. As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.
This isn’t just the case for Isaac but for his sons as well. Esau was the older twin but Jacob was the one that the line would continue through. Jacob’s name gets changed to Israel and through his line we get the twelve tribes of Israel. This election of Israel wasn’t done off of merit or works because it was done before any of them were born. God chose before the world began, in His wisdom, to use Israel as a vessel for the story of redemption. Why? Because God, in His wisdom chose to do so. Was it because Israel was inherently better or more deserving? Was it because God loved them more? No. Does God show favoritism? Does He not love all people?
What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
God does what He wants because He is God. He is just and good and wise. Even if we don’t understand why He does what He does it doesn’t change His character or His nature.
So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth. So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
God chose to use Egypt as an example of His power. He would destroy Egypt with a series of plagues and make Egypt an example to the nations of what happens when you oppose God’s people. Why does God show favor to Israel and not Egypt? What is favor? God destroyed Egypt but He also allowed Egypt to have years of prosperity and power which they used to enslave Israel and murder innocent children born to the house of Israel. Is God unjust in dealing out wrath against Egypt? No. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart in the same way the Gospel message hardens the hearts of people who love darkness. Is God unjust in creating people who will reject Him? No. If God were unjust in creating people that would sin and reject Him He would have never have been able to create humanity because we all sin and we all fall short of the glory of God. God’s sovereignty points us to Jesus. The fact that Jesus intervenes in the human experience and the fact that He works to establish Israel and the law and the prophets points to the incarnation of Jesus. The life death and resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate example of mercy. He did not stay far off but He stepped down into our mess and made the way for our redemption through the blood of His son.
God’s mercy isn’t based off of human effort He gives it freely, but His wrath is given deservedly. We all deserve God’s wrath. But if God can just give out mercy why don’t all people follow Jesus? Why aren’t all people saved? We aren’t all saved because our sin is a rejection of God. He created us perfect and without sin but we, His creation rejected His design and rejected His will for our lives. We live in willful rebellion against God. We are all objects of God’s wrath prepared for destruction, but God deals patiently with us, not delaying in His promise, but is longsuffering with us not wanting anyone do die without a relationship with Him. His will for our life is that we repent and follow Him. But in His sovereignty He has given us free will. He chooses to give us choice and we use that choice to reject His will. The wages of sin is death. The greatest mystery is if that is the consequence of our sin why does God wait in dealing out justice. Because He is merciful.
You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does he still find fault? For who resists his will?” On the contrary, who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? And what if God, wanting to display his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath prepared for destruction? And what if he did this to make known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory—on us, the ones he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
Everything God does points to His glory. From showing Israel mercy to destroying Egypt God uses wrath and justice and mercy and grace to point us to Himself. Through Israel He gave the promise of redemption that would be for all people. Israel was His chosen people, the ones that were to demonstrate to the nations the holiness and righteousness of God so that through Jesus the promise could be fulfilled and God’s holiness and righteousness could be given freely to all who believe by faith regardless of bloodline.
This hope of the Gospel was preserved through Israel despite Israel’s rebellion.
As it also says in Hosea, I will call Not my People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved. And it will be in the place where they were told, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved; since the Lord will execute his sentence completely and decisively on the earth. And just as Isaiah predicted: If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.
In Hosea He says to those who were not God’s people He has now made a way for them to be called His people. To the unloved they can now be called loved. To the ones who were told they were not God’s people they can now be called sons of the living God.
Who do you think of when you hear “not God’s people” and “unloved” These are the people Jesus died for. These are the people who need to hear the Gospel. This is who we were before someone told us about Jesus.
Israel’s rejection of the Gospel was prophesied in Isaiah. Even though they are large in number only a remnant will endure. Only a small portion will be faithful. This would take place physically in Israel’s history with the Babylonian captivity. Only a remnant would survive the brutality of the Babylonian invasion. But spiritually by the time Jesus came there were few Israelites willing to follow Him. At the time of His ascension Jesus only had 120 followers. He appeared before 500 people after the resurrection but only 120 followed Him. If it were left to human effort the Gospel would have been snuffed out years ago. The people of Israel would have been conquered like every other nation and we would have heard nothing about them.
“Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen; My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased; I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles. “He will not quarrel, nor cry out; Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. “A battered reed He will not break off, And a smoldering wick He will not put out, Until He leads justice to victory. “And in His name the Gentiles will hope.”
God did not abandon humanity but patiently, in His mercy, endured His people so that Jesus could deal in justice and victory, not against humans broken by sin and death, but justice and victory over sin and death themselves. It is in the name of Jesus we find our hope. This is the stumbling block not just for Israel but for many people. Forgiveness and redemption is offered freely. It isn’t earned by works it is a free gift recieved by faith. The gentiles recieved this gift without ever obeying a letter of the Old Testament law, and for the Israelites who put all their hope and identity in the law missed out on the grace of Jesus found only by faith.
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
Talk about growing up in church and being a pastors kid
Talk about finding identity in how you behaved
Two identities
feeling self righteous and feeling worthless
God didn’t want worthless sacrifice he wanted my heart
David and Saul
New life by grace
freedom to fail and hope for holiness