The People of God

Our theme for 2020 has been “Seeing Spiritually.”

About two months ago we began a study in Romans 1-8 entitled “What does it mean to believe?”

"What does it mean to believe?" Faith is a dynamic living relationship with the God of the Universe that surpasses anything that we can think, know or do in our own strength.

The point of this five-week series was to help you think less about trying to think the right things, do the right things and be the right person, but to simply let God transform you by His Spirit at work in you.

We are not trying to get people to join our club.

This is not a game to see how many people we can get to say a prayer.

We are not interested in shallow conversions, but true Christ-followers.

The goal is not to get people to agree with us, but to have a supernatural encounter with the living Christ.

That encounter changes you so that you begin to become like Christ.

You no longer belong to yourself; you belong to Christ!

Your old life is dead and you are raised anew in Christ!

In fact, you now walk by the Spirit and live out your life in Christ.

So the question changes from--What does it mean to believe? to-- What does it mean to belong?

Who am I? And what am I now part of?

Where do I fit in this great plan that is so much bigger than me?

What is God doing? And what is He wanting to do through me?

We are the “People of God.”

While this exact phrase is not in our text, the concept is all throughout scripture and is exactly what Paul seems to have in mind.

However, he has to redefine it for his readers now that the Gentiles are also believing and belonging in Christ.

We are going to look as some phrases that are in the text and how they take on a different meaning in light of Jesus the Messiah and the mystery of God’s plan which is revealed in Christ.

Children of the Promise

God’s promise is to Israel.

Romans 9:1–5 ESV

1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 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. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

When God wanted to reveal Himself to the world, He chose a people through which to be revealed.

Leslie Newbigin- When God is revealing Himself to the world, He must choose a language and a culture through which to communicate. He chose Israel as His vehicle of communication.

Newbigin was a missionary and as a missionary he knew that you have to communicate through language and culture.

Some of the early settlers to the Americas are said to have stood on the shored of the New World and read a declaration to the natives that they were to repent or be killed, which of course they did not understand.

God knew that He would need to become one of us if we were to become like Him.

But where would He start? He had to chose a people through which to reach the world.

God made a promise all the way back at the fall.

Genesis 3:15 ESV

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

God would certainly keep that promise, but when and through whom?

Much of the old Testament is concerned with following the path that this promise would take to the “seed” who would finally fulfill God’s promise.

The promise is not passed on to everyone.

Romans 9:6–8 ESV

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

It was necessary for God to chose a line through which the Messiah would come and then through him to then reconcile the world.

Not everyone could be in that line.

God had to make some choices, just as we all need to make choices about serving God.

God chose Abraham because Abraham was willing.

From Abraham, He chose Isaac because he was special (miracle baby).

From Isaac he chose Jacob (Israel). Nobody knows why except God!

Jacob was a supplanter and a deceiver, but God saw something in Jacob that He wanted to redeem.

At this point we can already see some application for our lives.

If we want to be the people of God we need to be willing and obedient like Abraham.

If we want to be the people of God we need to recognize, like Isaac, that our very existence is a miracle.

If we want to be the people of God, like Jacob, then we need to recognize that before we chose God, He chose us - who knows why?

Let’s read further to find out why.

God chooses according to what He knows.

Romans 9:9–13 ESV

9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

God knows the end from the beginning.

When we read about God’s election, it is not as if God is just making random decisions about who He likes and who He doesn’t; though it may seem that way to us.

Esau probably seemed like the most likely choice because he was strong and a natural leader, but God chose Jacob.

Aaron would have seemed like a good choice to lead God’s people out of Egypt because he was the first-born and articulate, even Moses thought so. But God chose Moses.

Saul was Israel’s first king because they wanted a king like everyone else. And God gave them a king who they could look up to, literally, he was taller than everyone else.

But it was David, the shepherd boy. who took down the giant who made Saul look small.

And it was through David that He would establish an everlasting kingdom.

This is what God said when He chose David:

1 Samuel 16:7 ESV

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

So when it comes to the people of God, just know that God delights to take the most unlikely people and to show His glory through them. Because when you belong to God, He wants to show up and show off by doing through you what you could never do in yourself.

Vessels of Mercy

Mercy is an expression of God’s character.

Romans 9:14–18 ESV

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

When we think about the people of God - God choosing a people through which He would reveal Himself to the world - it raises some objections from those who might think themselves to be excluded.

What about me? Am I not special? Do I not deserve to be chosen by God?

First of all, it was always God’s intention to reach the world through His people, that is to offer salvation to everyone, everywhere but He needed to start somewhere.

But the very objection shows that the people who object to God’s choosing don’t understand God, much less represent Him.

The truth is that none of us deserve God’s mercy - that’s why it’s called mercy.

As long as we persist in thinking that we can twist God’s arm, make God do what we want Him to do, or manipulate God into bending to our will, He cannot use us.

It’s a paradox - if I am ever going to accurately represent God to the world, I need to first admit that He is God and I am not .

It’s when I give up trying to be God, that He can work in me and move through me.

It’s called mercy. God accepts you, not on the basis of who you are but on the basis of who He is.

Mercy is a demonstration of God’s patience.

Romans 9:19–22 ESV

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,

More objections…If it’s all about God and His will for me, then why am I still held responsible for my choices?

This is just another attempt at manipulation.

Another way of saying this is, “if God knows that some people are going to reject Him why does He even make them?”

Why does God give us a choice at all knowing that some of us will fail?

The question presupposes that God is like us.

Just because God is all powerful and all knowing does that mean God is all controlling?

If we can’t resist the urge to control, how can God?

We need to realize that this urge to control is part of our fallen nature - it is not of God.

It is driven by insecurity and impulse.

God is patient and along with that - God is not insecure.

Have you ever seen someone make pottery?

You make the pot, sometimes starting over and over again until you get it just right.

Then you paint the pot or decorate it and add detail.

Finally you put the glaze on the pot.

And then the pot goes into the kiln at 1800-2000 degrees.

Anyone who works with clay knows that some pots will shatter under the intense heat.

There is no way to know whether or which pots will shatter until they go into the kiln.

The shattering comes from impurities in the clay which are not normally visible or detectable until they face the kiln.

The potter puts the same time and care into each pot not knowing if it will survive the kiln.

In fact most potters will make extra pots to account for those that will be lost in the firing process.

You may say, “surely God knows which people will finish well and which ones won’t.”

By saying that you admit that God is completely justified in His choosing even though it may seem unfair to us.

But there’s also another way of looking at it: that, for the most part, God chooses not to intervene, but patiently shows mercy to each one of us, knowing that some will not choose Him; He honors that choice.

Why would God do that?

Mercy is ultimately God’s love.

Romans 9:23–26 ESV

23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ” 26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

God loves the world.

He is willing to face the rejection of some, knowing that there will be a remnant of people who will receive His love.

Here’s the surprise: Some of those who receive God’s love will be the most unlikely candidates.

You would think that all the people whom God has chosen would choose Him and that those He has not chosen (at least in the first round) would reject Him? Not so.

The Church in Rome is made of of both Jews and Gentiles.

The Jews were kicked out of Rome for a while and then began to find their way back.

In the mean time the church had become mostly Gentiles.

So now you have a church that is historically Jewish but predominately Gentile.

How are they going to do church? Does everyone have to become a Jew first? Not according to the Jerusalem council!

That raises the question of what it means to belong to Christ.

If the Jews are God’s people, are they all God’s people? Does God have other people?

According to the Prophet Hosea He does.

Remember Hosea? He married a prostitute because God told Him to.

Hosea learned something about love and mercy.

He learned that you can love someone even if they don’t love you back.

He learned that you can have mercy on someone even if they are unfaithful, even if you both love them and hate them at the same time.

Mercy comes from a heart that loves, not just because someone loves you back.

For that reason Hosea concluded, that God would restore His people who had rejected Him.

Paul takes it a step further to say that the same applies to the gentiles.

Those who were not God’s people would become God’s people.

Qualified (made righteous) by Faith

So the People of God are the the people that God has chosen to reveal Himself to and through them, to reveal Himself to the world.

They are not necessarily the people that think they are chosen by God.

Not if being chosen by God means that you act like you are God.

But the people who humbly receive His mercy that God chooses to use as He is able to work through them.

So that includes both Jews and Gentiles; a radical idea in Paul’s day which may be hard for us to truly appreciate.

What qualifies a person as belonging to the People of God?

Paul is going to use the word “righteous” a lot in this next section of scripture.

We talked in the first series about righteous meaning to be “in right-standing with God”.

But since we don’t use the word much outside of church and for this context, I’m going to use the word “qualified” in its place.

Trying harder does not make you qualified.

Romans 9:30–33 ESV

30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

The Gospel is not a Gospel of trying harder.

God is not impressed by perfectionism; He wants relationship and obedience.

In Elijah House we talk about Performance Orientation as being a sin, but its hard to recognize as a sin because people will commend you for it.

Remember, with God it’s all about the heart.

Don’t you hate it when you do everything right, but someone else takes the prize?

That’s how the Jews in Rome must have felt.

They kept the Torah and the 613 laws of Judaism.

They were the ones persecuted and kicked out of Rome.

Now they come back and bacon-eating, Sabbath-breaking Gentiles are running around with “I love Jeshua” T-shirts.

The Jews must have thought, “what do you know?” You don’t even say Yeshua right! He’s Jewish and you’re not!

Oops! They fell over the stumbling stone.

What you thought was so important was not the point.

Go back and review Romans 2-3. The Law was to teach us about holiness and sin. It was never to become and end in itself.

What’s more is that we are no longer exhibiting the character of God, whose desire from the beginning, was to reconcile the world to Himself.

What qualifies us to be the people of God? Surely we need to at least resemble God!

Self-righteousness is not righteousness at all.

Romans 10:1–4 ESV

1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Trying harder gets us further from the truth because it is self-effort.

It’s all about me trying to be God instead of getting out of the way and letting God be God through me.

The thing that you should have learned about righteousness from the Law is that you can’t do it! It’s impossible on your own.

The more you focus on trying to do what is right, the more you become aware of your inadequacy.

That should drive you to focusing instead on Jesus.

Live by the Spirit and the flesh will… well… who cares about the flesh, just live by the Spirit!

It is God that qualifies you. You can’t qualify yourself.

Self-righteousness is like a Chinese finger trap- that harder you pull, the tighter it gets.

The only way out is to let go- and let God!

You are qualified by the work of Jesus Christ.

Romans 10:9–13 ESV

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

What is the work of Jesus Christ?

It was His obedience that makes you worthy.

His death and resurrection that transforms your sinful nature.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He didn’t just die for your sins; He died to give you a new nature.

That selfish sinful nature that wants to play God, control others and do things “my way” died with Jesus on the cross.

Our new nature in Christ is one of humility, obedience and submission to the will of God.

You didn’t just invite Jesus into your life, you belong to Him!

Belonging means it’s not about you anymore.

You are part of the People of God.

You have a purpose to reveal God to a world who doesn’t know Him.

You can’t do this in yourself, but just let God do it in you and through you.

God loves you and He wants to love the world through you.

You’ll know what it means to belong when people see God through you.

Questions for Reflection:

Do you belong to God? Are you His child? Do you see yourself as part of His people; a child of promise? How does God’s choosing you influence your choices?

Are you a vessel of God’s mercy? How has God saved you, redeemed you and delivered you? How can you be a vessel of His mercy to others?

What qualifies you to call yourself a Christian? Is is what you have done or what God has done for you? How does that change the way you walk out your life in Christ?