Plymothian

 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel,until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶ And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

²⁸ As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. ²⁹ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. ³⁰ For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, ³¹ so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.³² For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Dispensational Realities

Dispensationalism is in some ways out of vogue and in other ways it is in.  It is out of vogue with many scholars who think of it as childish or superficial.  Some say that it is the invention of J. N. Darby who passed it on to Scofield who passed it on to North America.  Critics say that it is a relatively modern invention that has been imposed on the biblical text to organise it in ways that simply do not hold up under scrutiny.  However, others say that Dispensationalism is a fancy word given to the reality of the text.  Dispensational eschatology has been dramatized in the Left Behind series.

God has moved in different ways at different times.  He has not saved people by faith in one age and by works in another.  However, the mechanism of the way faith has worked has been different.  These different movements of God are called dispensations by some.  Some list the dispensations at 7, others list them at 3.  Dispensationalism need not be seen as a rigid imposition on the text, but it can be seen as a natural conclusion from the text.

For example, in the passage above we read that Israel has been hardened for a time.  This shows the sovereign will of God at work in the national consciousness of Israel.  It allows for the idea that those saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ are grafted in to the inheritance of Israel.  However, not all the promises made to Israel are then passed on to Christian believers.  The offer of salvation is. Relationship with God is.  Although in some sense there is spiritual continuity from the salvation God brought to Israel before Christ, as a nation the hardening is until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  After the harvest among the Gentiles has been completed, the hardness of heart among the Jewish people will be lifted.  “All Israel”  being saved is complex.  Those among the Gentiles who are saved will have been grafted in as spiritual inheritors of many of the blessings promised to Father Abraham.  However, “All Israel” in this context also means the earthly nation.  National Israel is the clearest interpretation of Jacob (Israel) who at some future time has its ungodliness banished by the return of Messiah to Jerusalem.  National Israel is rejected in some way, during this present age, for the sake of the elect in Christ.  However, in a historical and national sense, because of their forefathers, God is not done with Israel.  God has called Israel as a nation and that calling is irrevocable.  This passage clearly teaches against replacement theology which states that National Israel is completely cut off and replaced by the church which is Spiritual Israel.  There was an age of Gentile disobedience and reconciliation through Christ.  Paul’s perspective is that it is now Israel’s time to go through a period of alienation – however, in the future they will be reconciled.  If all people groups did not experience a history of disobedience, all people groups would not really experience mercy on a national scale.

For Americans it is sometimes hard to compute national covenants and national responsibility.  America is fiercely individualistic.  However, Romans is less individualistic than our culture has us believe.  Of course each individual is saved by confession and belief (Romans 10:9).  However, God has a history of working with nations.  He worked through Babylon, he humiliated all Egypt, and he is the same God today who set Israel apart as his chosen people.  The magnitude of God’s working defies our small-minded individualism.  We will marvel one day at how Israel is restored to the land and reconciled to their God.  If the word dispensational is a stumbling block to accepting this plain meaning of the text – just call it biblical.

Prayer

Dear Father, we pray for the land.  We pray for the people.  May Israel be provoked to jealousy by the relationship that Christians have with their Father.  May they turn back to you through faith in Christ in this present age.  In the age to come may the nation be a light to all people showing your faithfulness to a people who have forever been your people.

Questions

1. What has come upon Israel?
2. What does the text mean by Israel?
3. How do you think Paul is describing the future of national Israel?
4. Why has replacement theology taken such a hold in some circles?
5. What do you think of what is commonly called ‘dispensationalism’?

So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. ¹² Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

¹³ Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry ¹⁴ in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? ¹⁶ If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷ But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, ¹⁸ do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. ¹⁹ Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” ²⁰ That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. ²² Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you,provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.²³ And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. ²⁴ For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree. 

Note the Kindness and the Severity of God

Those who do not exercise faith are cut off.  Those who do exercise faith are grafted in.  The kindness and severity of God are two sides of the same coin in some regards.  He is harsh to be kind.  It is by cutting us back that God grows us more.  It is in the face of disappointment that new opportunities arise.

It may be disappointing to think that those of us who are not Jewish do not have the ability to become so.  However, through Christ we gain the inheritance that that the Jewish people were promised in terms of reconciliation with God.

Prayer

May we be grateful that we are not cut off, but that we are grafted into a plant that is strong because through our reconciliation we receive the life of Christ.

Questions

1. Who is grafted in?
2. How is God both kind and severe?
3. Have you experienced God’s kindness and severity recently?

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. ² God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? ³ “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” ⁴ But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵ So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. ⁶ But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

⁷ What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, ⁸ as it is written,

⁹ And David says,

The last question is answered quite extensively by Messianic Jews.  This category of believer is not a new distinction.  Paul, the author of the passage above, had to make sense of being both Jewish and a follower of Christ.  In fact, most of the earliest church were Jewish and followers of Jesus.  Paul, in Romans, seems to be showing an honour and continuity to the Jewish experience not a clean break.  Jesus is a Jewish saviour, not a saviour without national identity.

Prayer

Father, after this reading of Romans I long to have more Jewish friends.  I want to learn from them the riches of their traditions, and I also want to share the joy of following their Messiah.

Questions

1. What has God not done?
2. What words continue the sub-topic of election?
3. How do you think election is talking about individuals and people-groups in this passage?
4. Do you think that God chooses people before time?
5. How would you support your opinion on #4?

¹⁴ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” ¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” ¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

¹⁸ But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for

¹⁹ But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,

²⁰ Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,

²¹ But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

Paul Appeals for Missionaries

This passage is a very rich passage.  It is frequently quoted.  “And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”  Paul is appealing for apostles or missionaries to go and preach the word of God.  There is good news.  God is making himself available to both Jews and Gentiles through the work of Jesus.  This is not an additional relationship to the ones we already have, but it is a relationship which is the foundation of existence.

Another famous quotation from the passage is that ” … faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”  No-one believes in God if they do not hear the message.  No matter what your views on predestination are, there are no excuses for keeping quiet about the faith.  The word of Christ dwells richly in us and it should come through in our actions and our words.

In summary, Paul want people to support apostles and missionaries who will go into the world and communicate the good news about Jesus.  Jewish people have a history of God speaking to them and through them.  In Paul’s day the offer of relationship with God was being extended to Gentiles too.  We should see ourselves as apostles or missionaries sent by God with the gospel of Jesus.  If we saw this aspect of our identity more clearly the culture would see that there is something different about us.

Prayer

No matter how I am wired, I was created to be a missionary.  I am sent into the world to communicate truth, love, justice, and grace.  Let me embody your values and put myself on the line for you.

Questions

1. How does Paul build his argument in 14 and 15?
2. What is Paul’s main point?
3. How does Paul’s context of talking about Jews and Gentiles inform this passage?
4. To whom are you sent?
5. How do you embody the word of Christ?

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they maybe 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.

⁵ For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. ⁶ But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷ “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸ But what does it say?“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 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.”

Ignorant of the Righteousness of God

I do like to try and get it right.  I like to try and be the one who succeeds at the task, completes the assignment first, or who just gets the job done.  This surprises some people because I like to enjoy the process as well.  However, being able to perform assigned tasks gives us a false sense of worth.  My identity should not be formed around actions but around faith.  Paul argues this strongly with his fellow Jews.

The Jews had received a code of behaviour from God.  If they believed in God and carried out his commands all would be well in this life and the next.  Paul cuts through this hard work with a different idea of righteousness.  Righteousness is not something that we construct with good behaviour, it is something that we receive complete from God.  We confess with our mouth the mastery of Jesus and believe that the tomb is empty.  The center of our being starts oriented toward God and this shows in what we do and say.  So, we don’t behave our way to a transformed life, we receive a new heart which produces a transformed life.

There are not categories of first and second class citizens based on behaviour there are only those who are saved or unsaved because they have called on the name of the Lord.  The Jewish people were ignorant of the righteousness that God gives as a gift.  They knew all about the righteous works of the law, but they could not work their way to God’s perfect standards.  Neither can we.  I can not impress God through my hard work.  God wins me by his own gift.

Prayer

Father, I am grateful for all that you have done.  I know that I sometimes strive to show my worth or to attain righteousness.  However, you have gifted to me the very thing I work for.  I am okay.  I am eternally accepted and secure.  From that position of security I want to live out a free life of love, power, and praise.

Questions

1. What is Paul’s prayer?
2. Who is he talking about?
3. How are people saved?
4. Are you saved?  How do you know?
5. How can you challenge those around you who seem to burn themselves out working for God?

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,

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, 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,

²⁷ And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, ²⁸ for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”²⁹ And as Isaiah predicted,

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.”

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.

Love and Hate in the Bible

In the West in the 21st century, we tend to take our definitions of love and impose them on the Bible.  Most commonly love, for us, is a positive rush of emotion.  We rarely find the motivation to say that we love someone when we don’t feel positive about them.  The word hate is used by us for negative, vindictive emotion.  We want to get even with people and so we have bitter feelings.  Sometimes our hate has the flavour of contempt.  We think that we are justified in our hate-fueled fury.

Although the Bible allows the connection of passion and emotion with the words ‘love’ and ‘hate’, it is not always how the words are used.  In Luke 14, Jesus says that people should hate their family.  It doesn’t sound too Christ-like, does it.  However, he is really talking about focus.  Strength of focus is often described as love or hate.  When one is focused on Jesus one moves toward him with only secondary focus on family and friends.  The difference between the focus is so intense it can be described as love and hate.  We love Jesus and ‘hate’ everyone else.  However, those living around us will be living in the wake of our pursuit of God.  The wake of love for Jesus washes love over them which is greater than the love they would have if they tried to generate it for themselves.

In the passage above God’s love is not a rush of emotion, it is a choice ‘for’ someone.  God’s hate is a sovereign choice against someone or something.  God has chosen Israel and now God chooses us.  Have you responded to God’s sovereign choice?

Prayer

You love and you hate, but not like us.  May we live in the focus of your love and spread it to those around us.  May we ‘forget’ ourselves, our family, and our friends as we live for you and therefore serve them more fully.

Questions

1. Which patriarchs does Paul mention?
2. How are the patriarchs connected with Israel?
3. What is Paul teaching about Israel?
4. Does God love and hate people today in the same way that he did in the Old Testament?
5. How do you love and hate people?

It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. ⁷ Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” ⁸ In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. ⁹ For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

Children of Promise

It would seem that if the Christian gospel is true that Jewish people would be an honoured group within Christianity.  They would lead the way in communicating salvation history, representing God in public life, and preaching the gospel to those who are not followers of Jesus.  However, that is clearly not the case.  Although a group of Jewish people would call themselves followers of Jesus (we call them Messianic Jews), most Jewish people would not consider themselves Jesus’ disciples.

So did God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah fail?  God promised to make them a great nation.  On one level, the Israeli nation is a great nation, but spiritually the family of Abraham is greater.  Through Jesus’ death and resurrection Christians become part of spiritual Israel.  We inherit many of the blessings and the promises that God made to that nation.  Of course, not all Israel’s promises are ours.  There is great debate about the distinction between promises made to the nation of Israel and those who are spiritually grafted into the nation.

We can celebrate, though, that what was once an exclusive club is now open to all.  Jesus, as king, has the authority to welcome everyone into his kingdom whom he chooses.

Prayer

Thank you Jesus that you opened a door to an identity from which I was barred.  You have redefined me because you have the authority.  Now I inherit much of what was promised to the Jewish people.

Questions

1. What has God’s word not done?
2. Why might people be concerned?
3. What kind of children are truly Abraham’s offspring?
4. How connected do you feel with the heritage of Israel?
5. How should Christians identify with, or distance themselves from, modern Israel?

I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, ⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all,forever praised! Amen.

Israel Has So Much

Paul is sincere that his membership in the Jewish people-group means the world to him.  He has an affinity with the nation of Israel which runs so deep that he claims the Holy Spirit as a witness to the fact that he would die for them.

What is so special about being Jewish?  They were the first people to be taken under God’s wing as children of God.  God has shown his glory through them throughout history.  God made agreements with the people of Israel which we call covenants.  The covenants are codified in the laws that Israel received.  The laws show the perfection of God and let people know how he is best served.  The sacred space of the temple was a blessing from God, along with its associated rites of worship.

The patriarchs are Jewish – the foundation of all true faith, historically, is Jewish.  There is much to be celebrated about being Jewish, and all this is affirmed by me, and I am a Gentile.  I feel no anger, jealousy or resentment toward the people of Israel because God has loved them first.  I feel a respect for them because of this.  However, the promises that God has made to Israel are fulfilled in Christ in many ways.  I have inherited the blessings of many of the promises.  However, in my understanding, Israel still has a privileged position with God.  He is not done with them yet, and the whole world will be blessed through Israel.

Prayer

Dear God, bless your people Israel.  Let them see the full nature of their calling.  May they read and understand Paul, one of their own, and may they join the ranks of the Messianic Jewish community who have the best of both worlds.

Questions

1. Who does Paul call upon to witness his sincerity?
2. What does he want his Jewish readers to know?
3. Why do his Jewish readers need to know these things?
4. How do you approach Jewish people?
5. How can Paul be an example of how to treat Jewish people?