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Good morning friends,
I wonder who those dear people are whom you care deeply about, but who are far from God?
The more you love these dear people, do you find your heart tearing that they don’t care about a relationship with Jesus, and if nothing changes, their eternal destiny will be far from Him?
Today we are in Romans 9 and Paul begins this chapter in that very same pain, which he had, for his fellow Jews. Paul grieves that most of the Jews, like he had been, wanted to be good Jews, but had little interest in Jesus. Do you see in verse 3, he even says he would be willing to be cut off from Christ, if somehow that would bring his Jewish friends to Jesus?
So my friends, let’s start there today.
Who are the people you love… your family, your close friends, whom you know are not living life with the Holy Spirit of God in them, and they have no assurance that if they die today, they will be in heaven with Jesus? How much does that bother you? What are you doing about it? Are you interceding with God for them? Are you seeking to love and serve them in a way that they may be drawn to Jesus? Or, is it possible you are getting resentful that they just don’t seem to ‘get it’?
What happens when we see people the way Jesus sees them? Do you remember how Jesus described what He saw: “When Jesus saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matt. 9:36)
I was struck the other day by news reports of the grand opening of the first Chic Filet restaurant in Toronto, Canada. Two groups of people were present on the street that morning. Customers lined up to get a Chic Filet chicken sandwich and waffle fries, served by helpful, well trained staff, in a clean, new restaurant. And right beside them, protesters, lots of them.
They were not protesting the food quality, the prices, the menu, the decor, or the service of Chic Filet employees. They were protesting the VALUES espoused by the founder and leadership of Chic Filet. Values like being closed on Sunday so their employees can have a day of Sabbath with their families and worship rather than work.
Values expressed by Mr. Cathay in interviews, regarding things having nothing to do with Chicken sandwiches… but things important to God. Things like homosexuality, or same gender marriage, or gender confusion or rejecting God’s Word or rejecting the authority of God over humanity.
So as you and I watch the news each evening, or sit in restaurants, or walk through a Walmart, what attitudes rise up in our hearts, as we look at people? What will it take for us to see people as Jesus sees them?
As we read Romans 9 we can see Paul is really worked up about this. He celebrates that Jews are the people greatly favored by God: “…theirs is 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 overall, forever praised…” (9:4,5) But Paul was so deeply troubled that then, as now, with most Jews, their identity as Jews with all those privileges, was enough for them. They had no interest in or desire for a relationship with Jesus. And, most Jews then tended to look down on everyone else as ‘second class’ people.
Notice please this one statement in vs. 8 “…it is not the natural children who are God’s children…” Have you heard people say… “we are all God’s children. God loves everyone. Everybody is going to heaven.”
You’ll see in this chapter 9 Paul is explaining Abraham had many descendants but not all were the chosen, privileged people of God’s promise. You see God had promised a miracle nation, from a son who would be born of Abraham & Sarah in their old age. (Gen. 15) Isaac was that son born, born many years later, when Abraham was 100 and Sarah 90! But you recall Abraham, growing impatient, tried to help God with this promise.
Abraham had a son with his wife’s Egyptian servant Hagar (Gen. 16). That son was Ishmael. And from Ishmael come a huge number of descendants, the Arab peoples. They are all descendants of Abraham, just as legitimately as Isaac’s descendants, the Jews…, descend from Abraham. But the difference, of course, is their mother!
Ishmael was born of normal human effort, Abraham and an Egyptian servant girl. But Isaac was a miracle child, born to Abraham and his wife Sarah, (Gen. 21) a woman who’d never had a child, well beyond childbearing age, but the woman God specifically had identified would be the mother of this miracle nation of people.
That’s why Paul wrote: “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” (9:16) Forgiveness of our sin by Holy God, is His mercy extended to us, because Jesus paid the full death price for our sin on the cross. Our ‘redemption’ from our sin condemnation is a miracle of God, not due to any effort of ours. Do you remember Jesus also reconciles us back to God, from our distant separation, due to our sin rebellion, we can’t earn or work our way to God.
And then God adopts us into His family, and we are legitimately His children. We can’t pay for that adoption or earn it. God does it all out of His great love, but ONLY after Justice has been served. Our sin prevents all those wonderful actions of God that change our lives, and Jesus’ death and resurrection pay the full price and earn it all for us.
None of this is because we have done anything to deserve it, or have been born into a particular family, or have paid an amount of money. It’s all God’s merciful work IN us because of Jesus’ completed work FOR us. And we only do one thing…we admit our sinfulness, turn from our self-reliance and turn to Jesus, trusting God to save us because of Jesus’ full payment of our debt.
May I suggest that today we link Romans 9 & 10 together. They really were one continuing thought when Paul originally wrote it. Look at 9:30-33 and take note how Paul contrasts the Jews, trying to earn God’s favor through their efforts, and the Gentiles who receive God’s favor because of their faith in Jesus. “…the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it… by faith; but Israel, who pursue a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but… by works. They stumbled over the ‘Stumbling Stone’…”
I capitalized the words Stumbling Stone because those two words refer to Jesus Christ. Paul was quoting, from the prophet Isaiah, when he explains that many Jews stumble over the person and identity and work of Jesus, refusing to believe He is their long awaited Jewish Messiah; refusing to believe His death on the cross is their atonement sacrifice; and refusing to believe the truth of His resurrection. Thus they ‘stumble’, and fall short of God’s provided salvation, available to them. Of course, that’s not exclusively a Jewish problem, it applies to millions of non-Jews too. But as you see in 10:1, Paul’s “…heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they might be saved.”
You’ll notice those famous and wonderful words of Paul in 10:9-15, which are central to the Gospel Paul was preaching throughout the Roman Empire, and has been proclaimed in every corner of the world since. “That if you (anyone) confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is my Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe (saving faith) and are justified, and with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
Do you see the combination of heart belief and declaring with conviction, the truth of what you believe, about Jesus?
Then finally do you see the great promise of God that His salvation offer is for anyone? “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’.” (10:12,13) That’s called ‘unlimited atonement’…the grace of God available to any person, anywhere, any time, who is legitimately repentant and trusts in Jesus.
Now, here’s the call from God, to you and me, as we go back to the beginning of today and think of those we know who don’t know Jesus. Paul writes in 10:14,15: “How then can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone telling them? And how can they tell (the good news of Jesus) unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news” (Is. 52:7)
Yes it’s true this is often used to send out missionaries… but may I close today by giving you great news? Jesus, in His outrageous love for our world, invites any person whom He has redeemed by His blood; any person whom He has reconciled back to God our Father; any person whom the Father has forgiven of their sin and justified and adopted as His sons or daughters… any and all of us… God sends to all those we know, who don’t know Him! We are sent as God’s ambassadors “…as though God were making His appeal through us.” (2 Cor. 5:20) That my dear friends, is our great calling from God, our greatest privilege, our commission for this day and everyday the rest of our lives! And that is the power and the privilege of Romans 9 &10 for you and me… and all God’s family all around the world… today.
Oh thank you Jesus. . .
Click to read today’s chapter: Romans 9; Romans 10. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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