Saturday, December 22nd

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is  Hebrews 7-10

Today's scripture focus is Romans 15:7-12

⁷ Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. ⁸ For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs ⁹ so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy, as it is written:

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
    I will sing hymns to your name.”

¹⁰ Again, it says,

“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”

¹¹ And again,

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
    and sing praises to him, all you peoples.”

¹² And again, Isaiah says,

“The Root of Jesse will spring up,
    one who will arise to rule over the nations;
the Gentiles will hope in him.”

First, MacArthur's one sentence summary of this passage....

The call of this passage is a call for rejoicing that God in His saving plan has brought all of us together, Jew and Gentile, weak and strong, and made us one body in Christ.

Paul has already discussed all the things we should not do, in order to have unity in the church - do not cause each other to stumble, do not grieve each other, do not devastate each other, do not judge each other.  And now Paul tells us what to do - and that is to rejoice in our unity, to purposefully develop an attitude of joy and praise.

For the most part, the strong believers at the time would have been Gentiles.  They wouldn't have much of an issue with freedom because they weren't the ones steeped in tradition and ceremony and ritual the way the Jews were.  Yes, there would have been a few Jews who would've become strong believers and who would've understood their freedom from the ceremonial law, and there may have been a few Gentiles that were hung up on these issues because of their former pagan religion, but for the most part the Jews were the weaker believers.

But for the most part, and you see this in this passage, it is a Gentile equals strong issue, and a Jew equals weak issue in the church in Rome. And the conflict came because the liberated Gentiles were wanting to exercise all of their freedoms and the Jews were wanting to confine everybody to Old Testament ceremony.

Now the strong were right, they did have those freedoms. The weak were wrong but Paul calls for loving understanding until the weak can be brought to the place where they have the faith to believe they're free as the others do. No conflict should exist between the two, but rather Jew and Gentile, weak and strong, as I said, mostly identifying the Jew and Gentile conflict were to be mutually rejoicing over each other and patiently, lovingly bringing each other along in unity.

We are to receive each other intimately, in love, despite our differences.

Christ accepted us as vile, lost sinners.  Why?  Because He knew that our redemption would glorify God.  Just as Christ receives us to glorify God, so we should receive each other to glorify God. 

God didn't expect us to clean up our act first before coming to Him.  He accepted us as vile and lost sinners.  That is exactly what the gospel message is.  How dare we expect more than God? How dare we act as though our standards are superior to God's?  That's utter blasphemy!

Christ didn't receive us reluctantly or grudgingly, but joyfully and eagerly!  We should do the same.

Christ receives everyone who comes to Him - there is no impartiality.  He accepts the poor and rich, the weak and strong, Jew and Gentile, man and woman.  We should do the same.  No favouritism, no class system, no impartiality.  

everything that is done....ultimately resolves itself in God's glory. His sovereign electing grace, His predestination, His will, His grace, His shed blood, His saving work is all for His glory. So, Christ received sinners gladly in spite of their sin, in spite of their imperfections.

He receives them impartially and receives them for the highest reason. Now that's our model. Our model then for receiving one another is to do it gladly, is to do it in spite of their imperfections, is to do it without impartiality and to do it so that God can be glorified in the unity of His church. 

Paul then illustrates the point that Jew & Gentile are one in Christ by quoting four OT prophecies that show Gentile salvation, in order to soften Jewish prejudice towards Gentile believers.  After all - if the OT prophecies that Gentiles would be saved, they would have no reason for discord and should, in fact, rejoice over the fulfillment of OT prophecy.  Paul has already talked about that himself in the book of Romans, but now he goes back to the OT to prove his point.

⁸ For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs

Jesus came as a Jew to the Jews to fulfill OT prophecy and promises made to the patriarchs, thereby confirming the truth of God's Word.  God promised a deliver through the Abrahamic covenant through the line of David and Jesus fulfilled that promised and proved God to be true.  Jesus came to prove God true.  So, when the Jews praise God they praise Him because Christ came and proved God to be a keeper of promises.

⁹ so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy

Certainly the Jews are thankful for mercy and certainly the Gentiles are thankful for truth. But the emphasis here is that Christ came to show to the Jews the truth of God and He came to show to the Gentiles the mercy of God.

That was the emphasis. He was a minister of the circumcision to show them the truth of God and to show the Gentiles the mercy of God. And so, a saved Jew will primarily praise God for His truth, He made a promise and He kept it. And the saved Gentile primarily praises God for His mercy, for He gives mercy to a non- deserving, a no-people, a people outside the covenant, outside the promise, outside the fathers, outside the line of Messiah.

And so, you take the saved Jew praising God for His truth, the saved Gentile praising God for His mercy and you blend them together with one mind and one voice and they both glorify God.

The emphasis may differ. Covenant promise is important to Israel. Mercy to a non-covenant people is important to the Gentiles. But both glorify God, both rejoice that they are included in the plan of God.

as it is written:

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
    I will sing hymns to your name.”

Here Paul quotes both Psalm 18:49 and 2 Samuel 22:50.  King David is praising God among the Gentiles - alluding to their salvation.

¹⁰ Again, it says,

“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”

That's from Deuteronomy 32:43 - all the way back to Moses.  The Gentiles are rejoicing along with the Jews.

¹¹ And again,

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
    and sing praises to him, all you peoples.”

That's from Psalm 1:17 and here the Gentiles are praising God alone.

¹² And again, Isaiah says,

“The Root of Jesse will spring up,
    one who will arise to rule over the nations;
the Gentiles will hope in him.”

And lastly, Isaiah 11:1&10.  Isaiah proclaimed that the Messiah would come from the line of Jesse and He would rule over the nation - not just with an iron fist.  No, the Gentiles would put their hope in Him. That's salvation.  Salvation for the Gentiles. 

All along the OT has proclaimed salvation to the Gentiles.  So there should be no division between Jew and Gentile.  Indeed, the Jew ought to embrace the Gentile.  We all ought to love one another. 

The Gentiles, you see, can have no grudge against the Jews because through the Jews the salvation came to them. The Jews can have no grudge against the Gentiles because their very purpose for existence was to reach the Gentiles. So Jew and Gentile are consummately blended together.

That's unity.  We need to rejoice in each other, rejoice in our fellow believers, no matter how different they are, rejoice in our unity.

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 15:13

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Hebrews 11-13