Romans 2:17-28, 3:1-8, 9:1-8, 2 Timothy 2:11-13
I'm going to try something a little dangerous. The thing that I am trying to do here is to get us to experience a circumstance that we may be unfamiliar with. Read the following paragraphs out loud and check how you feel as you read it. If you are not a Protestant Evangelical, then substitute the italicized words with Catholic or any other Christian denomination.
Now you, if you call yourself an Evangelical; if you rely on evangelical principles and boast in God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by those evangelical principles; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in Evangelicalism the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you raise up idols of materialism? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the non-believers because of you.”
Evangelicalism has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been called an Evangelical. So then, if those who are not called Evangelicals keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were Evangelicals? The one who is not an Evangelical physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and Evangelical principles, are a lawbreaker.
A person is not an Evangelical who is one only outwardly, nor is being an Evangelical merely outward and physical. No, a person is an Evangelical who is one inwardly; and practices Evangelicalism of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.
How do you feel, being an Evangelical, about the approach of these paragraphs? How did you respond when you read it? Did you think of counter arguments? The thing that was done here was transpose the idea of being an Evangelical with that of being a Jew—not a true correlation, but closer to our own experience in these days when Evangelicalism is being used for unbiblical, political and powerful ends rather than the spreading of the Gospel and living as Jesus did in the world. It is also becoming anathema to some non-Evangelicals who are using their platforms to tear down Christianity by any means. It may be dangerous to play with Scripture like this, but it is important to try to plant our feet into the shoes of the socio-religious and cultural persons to whom Paul was writing to in Rome many centuries ago. This transposed passage is from Romans 2:17-29, the precursor to our passages of Scripture under study in this lesson. The Faith Connections: Bible Study Guide states the purpose of our study. "To help people live in the awareness that God’s purposes do not fail despite human rejection of, and resistance to, His will."
As we have been reading through the letter to the Romans, we have just come off of the glorious Romans 8 "more than conquerors" passage that has equipped and encouraged Christians for many centuries. Remembering that the church in Rome was made up of converted Jews and many Gentiles, Paul has spent significant amounts of his argument demonstrating the truly Christian embrace of the Gentiles as well as the Jews. Then in Chapter 9 he turns to the Jews with what appears to be all torches blazing! George Lyons makes an important point in this regard: "Paul did not intend his exposé of Jewish sinfulness in Romans 2:17–29 to imply that Jews had no advantage over Gentiles. They obviously enjoyed priority in God’s salvation plan (“to the Jew first,” 1:16; 2:10). However, their sinful unbelief put them also first in line as deserving recipients of God’s wrath (2:9)."
The blanket use of "the Jews" and "Israel" is fascinating in Paul's writings. And for those of us living in a non-Roman, first-century Christian world, it is important to understand why he uses these terms. Joseph Coleson has done an excellent summation of this matter.
In Romans 9-11, Paul used the name “Israel” in two senses. This is clear from Paul’s statement, “For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel” (9:6). Our “Who?” question regards the first sense. “Historic Israel” was comprised of the tribes descended from Jacob’s (Israel’s) 12 sons. By the first century AD, many still called themselves “Israel/Israelite,” though outsiders called them “Jews.” To be “Israelite” in the first century meant worshiping only one God, the God of Israel. This historic Israel is the people Paul meant when he spoke of Israel’s “election.”
. .. For Paul’s argument in Romans 9, Israel’s election, then, meant God’s choice of Israel as the people through whom salvation would come to all the earth.
This helps us to understand further when Paul starts using the terms "some Jews" as in 3:3 where Paul draws distinctions between blankets of "the Christians and the Jews" and the Christian Jews and Gentiles with Spirit-circumcised hearts in Rome. This same careful distinction must be made to avoid implicit bias and prejudicial statements like "those people" and a blanket of "Evangelicals"—both of which can be used to cast judgment on entire people groups and avoids the reality of God's justified wrath being poured out on individual sinners.
Critical to the next passage in Romans 9 is Chapter 3:1-8, which reminds us that that is where Paul started lighting the torches! Let's read this section now.
What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.
What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”
But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” Why not say—as some slanderously claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just!
There are advantages to being a Jew. They have been given the trusteeship of God's words! What a privilege. What a responsibility. There are more advantages in Chapter 9, but we will review that later.
Paul takes us into one of the most heretical, slanderous and disturbing of arguments - Humanism! The broad definition of humanism is an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Rather than divine! Human vs. God. Our righteousness vs. God's righteousness. Our minds vs. God's mind. Our faithfulness vs. God's faithfulness! Oh, did not Paul understand his cultures! In a Roman world where the emperor and hedonism were divine and in a Jewish world where legalism replaced relationship with God, God was still faithful to his promises and his word. A. Berkeley Mickelson wrote: "God's punishment of sin exhibits his faithfulness to his righteous character…These two false arguments are based on the idea that the Lord needs sin in order to demonstration that he is God. He needs nothing of the kind. Since he is God, he will in the presence of sin show himself to be what he is. But how much more glorious to see what and who he is in the sphere of eternal fellowship with him than in banishment from his presence, with all the consequences thereof."
Now to Chapter 9:1-4a. In this great chapter we see the aching heart of Paul for his religious and racial family. I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 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, the people of Israel. He wants to make sure that his first-century readers are aware that he is not engaging in hyperbole or rhetorical tricks. His heart burns for them in love and compassion. Oh, how he longs for them to be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, to understand that it is in Christ that the faithful promises of God are fulfilled—despite their sin! He is even willing and wishing that he could take their sin on himself—but declares that that is not necessary because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the Messiah. If only they would accept this by faith, then God's faithfulness would meet them far more than halfway.
In the latter part of verse 4 and through verse 5, Paul begins to describe the abundant and wonderful gifts that God had given to Israel by simply choosing them over any other people group. God could have chosen a person like Abraham from Africa, China, North America, Australia, Greenland . . . anywhere. But he chose Abraham the Semite. And from that choice came these blessings for the Israelites:
- Adoption as full family members
- Divine glory experienced in their midst
- Covenants that create, confirm and maintain God's relationship with them
- Laws that keep community and provide safety and security
- Worship guidelines and practices designed to keep them ever God-ward
- Promises to launch them forward, keep them steady and give them hope
- Patriarchs who lived out this relationship to show that that relationship is possible
- An ancestry that climaxes in the true Messiah!
What gifts and graces they have been given! And some of them throw that all away! But this is also available for those who are not of Israel. Here we need to learn from Joseph Coleson's essay on Israel's election.
Israel’s election was and is for God’s purposes of redemption and restoration for all peoples—indeed for the earth itself—and not exclusively for Israel’s individual or national salvation.
Yet if Israel’s election is “irrevocable” (11:29), how can—how will—ethnic Israel, which largely has rejected Him, come to faith in Jesus as the promised Messiah?
We should note that a significant portion of the Jewish people of the first century did come to believe in Jesus. A distinct body of Jewish believers continued in the Holy Land at least into the sixth century. Even today, many Jewish people have come to faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Still, for a number of reasons, we must understand “all Israel will be saved” in a corporate sense; it does not necessarily include every Jewish individual. If it did, then by the same interpretive rule, verse 32 would prophesy the salvation of every individual who has ever lived. (Much as God, and we, may desire both outcomes, this passage does not teach that.)
For the same reasons, neither may we read “all Israel will be saved” (11:26) as the prophecy of a mass conversion of all (or nearly all) Jewish people at the end of this age. That outcome would not account for the millions of Jewish people who have died since the first century without seeing that Jesus was and is the promised Messiah.
So the “How?” remains a mystery. Paul certainly seems to teach there will come a time when “all [of the ‘old’] Israel” will be hardened no longer, and will realize that Jesus is the Messiah. This would mean that, as a people, they no longer will think one has to stop being Jewish to believe in Jesus. How will that happen? When will that happen? Paul simply does not tell us.
What remains is that God is faithful to his word—his love, grace, forgiveness and relationship are available to all! William Greathouse wrote powerfully: "But Israel is not a term like Greece or Rome; Israel is not created by blood and soil, but by the promise of God. God is free to declare who Israel is, and they are not all Israel which are of Israel."
In 9:6 Paul seems to stand and shout, "God is faithful!" And then he starts to burn away any sort of humanism or legalism. He crushes the idea that God will save the non-believing Jews simply because of who they are ethnically or religiously. In fact, he seems to go back to all of the blessings that had been given to the Israelites and reframes them to include any believer anywhere.
- Adoption as full family members – all of us who believe!
- Divine glory experienced in their midst – in the person of Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit
- Covenants that create, confirm and maintain God's relationship with them – the New Covenant of Jesus Christ now established.
- Laws that keep community and provide safety and security – the law of Love that is over all other laws.
- Worship guidelines and practices designed to keep them ever God-ward – the gathering of believers anywhere and at any time.
- Promises to launch them forward, keep them steady and give them hope – more than conquerors through Christ Jesus!
- Patriarchs who lived out this relationship to show that that relationship is possible – for anyone who believes on Jesus Christ and is then grafted in (Chapter 11).
- An ancestry that climaxes in the true Messiah!
Word and promise belong to God and demonstrate his great faithfulness to everyone who takes his word and promise by faith alone. The Faith Connections: Bible Study Guide gave those of us believe by faith in Jesus Christ an heart-warming reality: "Our great heritage of the faith is also a blessing showing God’s faithfulness to us. The stories of the Old and New Testaments, the great saints and leaders of church history, the existence and translations of the Bible, ministries like Sunday School, youth and childrens’ ministries, the heritage of revivals, camps, and camp meetings, and the gift of Christ and the Holy Spirit are part of our heritage. They show that God has been faithful in blessing us through the past centuries. . . Paul appeals to Israel’s founding story to argue that God’s faithfulness to Israel never kept God from being gracious to other peoples."
Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him,
we will also live with him;
if we endure,
we will also reign with him.
If we disown him,
he will also disown us;
if we are faithless,
he remains faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.
~2 Timothy 2:11-13
"God has given His word; and whatever men may or may not do, He will keep His word."
~William Greathouse
"God’s free gift/offer of redemption, implemented through Israel’s election, has no limits and will have no end."
~Joseph Coleson
M.R. Hyde Copyright 2021
Bibliography
Spring 2021, April 25 Adult Bible Study Leader Guide, The Foundry Press, Kansas City, MO.
Illustrated Bible Life, Spring 2021, The Foundry Press, Kansas City, MO.
Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 1990, p. 1190.
Beacon Bible Commentary: Romans, I and II Corinthians, Beacon Hill Press, Kansas City, MO, 1968, p. 201.
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