9 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in 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 brothers, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; 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 Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
Paul's just finished describing for us, in detail, our security in Christ. A natural objection that could come up (and I'm sure did over and over in his ministry) is this - how can God promise you, the church, security when God broke His promises to Israel? If He set Israel aside, how do you know He won't do the same to you? If God didn't keep His eternal promises to Israel, how can you trust Him to keep His eternal promises to you?
Huge question that needs to be dealt with, and Paul does so in Chapters 9-11. MacArthur summarizes...
In chapters 9, 10 and 11 Paul's objective is to deal with these issues. He shows, for example, why the Jews who are God's people and to whom the gospel did come first and who truly were and are the children of Abraham nevertheless have rejected. He shows why. And he states that their rejection is only partial and only temporary and that it was always in the plan of God to be partial and temporary. He also makes it abundantly clear that God will fulfill ultimately all the promises to Israel. Therefore God can be trusted to keep His word to the church because He will keep His word to His people Israel.
The majority of the Jews hated Paul. Hated him. In fact, in Acts 20 Paul is staying in the house Gaius (also known as Titus Justus) as the Jews lay in wait for him, plotting his death. And this is when he writes Romans. Smack in the middle of the Jewish persecution that followed Paul throughout his entire ministry. They hated him because they considered him a traitor and because they hated Christ. And this was a pretty big reason that God sent Paul to preach to the Gentiles instead of the Jews.
But no matter the persecution, no matter their hatred of him, Paul still loved the Jews.
In fact, this passage says that he loved them so much that if it were possible, he would be condemned in their place if that's what it took for them to be saved. And that's the reason he speaks the truth to them, he loves them and desperately wants them to be saved. And he calls Christ and the Holy Spirit to bear witness to that truth - that he is not bitter towards his people but sorrowful. He loves his persecutors, just like Stephen did, just like Jesus did. Paul had a heart that was broken for those who rejected the truth, and that's why he was so zealous, that they might be saved.
He loved them because they were his people, his kinsmen. And he loved them because they were God's special people - and he loved those whom God loved. And he confirms the privilege of the Jew again in this passage.
The Israelites are God's chosen people, singled out, out of every other nation on the face of the earth.
And they have been adopted by God as a nation, privileged to be under His care, protection and blessing, that they may reveal to the rest of the world who He is and transfer their blessings to the rest of the nations of the world in order to demonstrated the kind of God He was.
They were also blessed with the Shekinah glory of God - the very presence of God dwelt among them.
And then He gave them the covenants - God promised them a nation through Abraham. God promised them blessing through Moses. God promised them eternal glory through David. I mean, they were the recipients of the covenants. They were the nation to be blessed. They were the nation to be a blessing. They were the nation given the moral, social, ritual, ceremonial law of God that they might enter into intimacy with Him. And they were the nation promised an eternal Kingdom. No other nation was given that unique covenant. Other nations would enter into it through them. But it was given to them. And even a new covenant was given to them. Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 26, God promised a new covenant that would come. That He would take away their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh, that He would sprinkle clean water upon them and make them clean...a new covenant. He would write His law in their hearts. And no feature of Israel's history marked their uniqueness as much as the covenants
They were also given the Mosaic law. He gave them His law that they might enter into blessing, the blessing of obedience. And then He gave them the services, the ceremonies, the sacrifices, the priests that they might enter into communion with Him on an intimate level so that they might come into His presence and fully experience His goodness.
They also received the promises - the Messianic promises, the promise of salvation through Christ.
They were given special men (the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and other distinguished leaders of Jewish history) to pass on righteousness from one generation to the next, and ultimately, out of whom came Christ in the flesh.
And then Paul again emphatically states the Christ is God over all, praise His name!
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 9:6-9
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