Letter to the Romans

Godly Jealousy.

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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. 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! Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. – Romans 11:11-16 ESV

At one time, the Jewish people had been the apple of God’s eye, His chosen possession and the sole recipients of His favor. He even sovereignly ordained for His Son and their Messiah to be born as one of them, a descendant of Abraham and David. But when Jesus came, His own rejected Him. “He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:11-12 NLT). As Paul has already illustrated with his own life, there had been a small remnant of Jews who had accepted Jesus as their Messiah and Savior. But the vast majority of Jews had chosen to reject Him, refusing to acknowledge Him as having been sent by God and unwilling to admit their need for a Savior to rescue them from their sins.

We see this scenario illustrated by Jesus Himself in His parable about the two sons. In Luke 15, Jesus told the story of a rich man who had two sons. One day, the younger of the two brothers came to his father and demanded his inheritance. Graciously, his father gave the son what he asked for and, immediately, the younger son “packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living” (Luke 15:13 NLT). In time, he found himself living in abject poverty, attempting to make ends meet with his job feeding pigs. But ultimately, the young man came to his senses and recognized the gravity of what he had done. “…he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant”’” (Luke 15:17-19 NLT). Upon his return home, he received an unexpected welcome. His father ran to him with open arms, embraced him and welcomed back with joy. His return was met with joy, love and forgiveness from his father. The father responded, “We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found’” (Luke 15:23-24 NLT).  There was no anger. No recriminations. No retribution.

But the reception he received from his brother was quite different. He responded in jealousy and anger. He refused to join in the festivities, and when his father begged him to come and celebrate alongside them, the older son angrily responded, “All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!” (Luke 15:29-30 NLT). His response revealed his self-righteous attitude and his jealousy at seeing his rebellious younger brother treated with forgiveness and mercy. His father assured him, “Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!” (Luke 15:31-32 NLT).

In Jesus’ story, we do not see what happens to the older brother. We know he represents the Jewish people who were determined to place their hope in their own self-righteousness. They saw themselves as sinless and therefore, in no need of a Savior. The only response the older brother had was jealousy and indignation. The same kind of response Paul refers to in his letter to the Romans. In this case, Paul is saying that the rejection of Jesus by the Jews was necessary for God to take the gospel to the Gentiles. “They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves” (Romans 11:11 NLT). For generations, the Jews had lived with the idea that they were God’s chosen people, blessed because they were descendants of Abraham. They belonged to God and He belonged to them. They viewed themselves as privileged and protected because of their unique relationship with God. But when Jesus came, He called them to repent. Repent of what? That word in the Greek is metanoeō and it means “to change one’s mind.” Jesus was demanding that they change their minds regarding God and how they viewed Him. They had long lost their fear of God and an awe for His holiness. Jesus was also calling them to change their minds about their view of sin and their own self-righteousness. They saw themselves as in no need of a Savior because they thought they were perfectly right with God just like they were. Jesus said of them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor–sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” (Mark 2:17 NLT).

So when the “healthy” Jews rejected Jesus, crucifying Him on the cross, God sent His message of redemption to the Gentiles. And, as Paul has shared, some Jews embraced the good news of Jesus Christ as well. But the real objective behind God’s embracing of repentant Gentiles was to bring His people to the point of  jealousy – godly jealousy. Even Paul said that in his ministry to the Gentiles, he had an ulterior motive – “in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them” (Romans 11:14 ESV). Paul will go on in this chapter to explain how the God-produced jealousy among His chosen people will  turn out in the end. As usual, God has a plan. He has a purpose behind all that He does. His efforts are never in vain. Which led Paul to say, “ Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!” (Romans 11:33 NLT).

A Spirit of Stupor.

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What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”

And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them;  let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.” – Romans 11:7-10 ESV

Blind eyes and deaf ears. According to Paul, that was the current status of the majority of Jews – “down to this very day.” They were unable to see Jesus for who He really way – their long-awaited Messiah. They were incapable of hearing and comprehending the message of the gospel. As Paul had already stated, “They have stumbled over the stumbling stone” (Romans 9:32 ESV). Rather than having seen Jesus, the Son of God, as their Messiah and Savior, they rejected Him. He had not met their preconceptions regarding the coming Messiah. He hadn’t look like what they were expecting. He hadn’t done the things they were hoping the Messiah would do. They had been expecting a conquering king, not a suffering servant. They had been intrigued by the miracles of Jesus, but His message of repentance left them disappointed and disillusioned.

We must remember that Paul has been pointing out the futility of pursuing a right relationship with God through an attempt to keep the law. Paul has said that the Jewish people had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. In other words, they wanted to do the right thing, but they were going about it in the wrong way, in ignorance. “For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Romans 10:3 ESV). They had refused to place their faith in Jesus, God’s chosen means for providing righteousness for all men, including the Jews. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4 ESV). With the coming of Christ, the misconception that men could be made right with God through human effort was put to an end. And there had been some Jews who had heard this message of salvation through Christ and had accepted it. Which is why Paul states, “The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened” (Romans 11:7 ESV). There was a believing remnant among the Jews who had embraced the gospel message and Paul was among them. But there were many who were hardened. Paul used the Greek word pōroō to refer to the condition of the majority of the Jews in his day. That word means “to grow hard, callous, become dull, lose the power of understanding” (Outline of Biblical Usage). While many had heard the message of the gospel, only a relative handful had believed. The rest had made a conscious decision to reject it and were left in a state of spiritual stupor “which renders their souls torpid so insensible that they are not affected at all by the offer made them of salvation through the Messiah” (Outline of Biblical Usage).

Paul was very familiar with this condition, because he ran into it virtually every place he went on his missionary journeys. One of his first objectives upon arriving in a new town was to make his way to the local synagogue, where he would share the gospel with his fellow Jews. “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.  And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ’” (Acts 17:1-3 ESV). But the reception Paul usually received was less-than-welcoming. “But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.  And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, ‘These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,  and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus’” (Acts 17:5-7 ESV). While Paul was ministering in Lystra, a group of Jews arrived and “They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town” (Acts 14:19-20 NLT). Paul was well-acquainted with the hardened condition of the Jewish hearts to whom he attempted to share the gospel. He had experienced first-hand just how hardened and opposed to the message of salvation they could be.

And this condition was not new for the Jews. There had been many times in their history where their hearts had been hardened. God had offered them messages of repentance before and watched as they rejected His messengers and their message. The prophets of God had repeatedly called the people of God to repentance, offering them salvation if only they would return to Him. But they had refused. They had turned down God’s offer of restoration and redemption. And they had continued to do so all the way up to the days of Jesus. It was He who said to the religious leaders, “you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead and finish what your ancestors started. Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell? Therefore, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers of religious law. But you will kill some by crucifixion, and you will flog others with whips in your synagogues, chasing them from city to city” (Matthew 23:31-34 NLT). Jesus went on to say, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. And now, look, your house is abandoned and desolate. For I tell you this, you will never see me again until you say, ‘Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Matthew 23:37-39 NLT).

Paul, like Jesus, had a heart for the people of Israel. He wanted to see them saved. He longed to see them repent and return to the Lord. But he knew that there was going to be a period of time when their hearts were hardened and many, if not most, would reject God’s offer of salvation. But he didn’t stop sharing. He didn’t refrain from telling every Jew he met the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul had no idea just how big or small God’s believing remnant was. He refused to worry about that. Instead, he continued to faithfully proclaim the gospel, boldly, unapologetically, and fearlessly. He knew that the Jews could only be awakened from their spiritual stupor by the Spirit of God. He simply shared and left the rest up to God.

God’s Amazing Grace.

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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. 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? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. – Romans 11:1-6 ESV

Is God done with Israel? Has their rejection of His Son as their Messiah put them on His permanent “naughty” list and denied them of any opportunity to be restored to a right relationship with Him? Paul would say confidently and emphatically, “No!” And he used himself as living proof. If God was done with Israel, Paul would never have come to know Christ as His Savior. And Paul goes on to argue that he and the other believing Jews in his audience were not the last of their kind. He used the story of the prophet, Elijah to drive home his point. Elijah had defeated the prophets of Baal and, as a result, come under the wrath of the wicked queen, Jezebel. She put a bounty on his head and Elijah was forced to run for his life. When God confronted Elijah and asked him what he was doing, Elijah responded: “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10 ESV). Two times in the narrative, Elijah and God had this conversation. Then God informed him, “Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18 ESV). In other words, God knew something Elijah didn’t know. He was not the last man standing. He was not alone. There were others who, like Elijah, had refused to abandon God.  

And Paul’s conclusion was, “So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace” (Romans 11:5 ESV). While the majority of Israel had rejected Jesus as their Messiah, there were some who had chosen to not only recognize Him, but accept Him as their Savior. And Paul couldn’t help but reemphasize that their salvation was the result of grace, not works. The very existence of this faithful remnant in Paul’s day was proof that God had not abandoned His people. He was not done with them yet. And Paul will go on in this chapter to explain what God has planned for His people in the future. Chapters 9-11 go hand in hand. In chapter nine, Paul revealed God’s past grace in dealing with Israel by His sovereign selection of them as His people. In chapter ten, Paul dealt with the present reality of Israel’s refusal to respond to God’s provision of grace as revealed through His Son’s death. And finally, in chapter eleven, Paul outlined God’s future plans for Israel.

The picture Paul paints is one of God’s grace. While the people of Israel never deserved God’s favor, He showered them with it nonetheless. Over the centuries, they proved to be unfaithful and disobedient time and time again, but God never fully abandoned them. Even after sending them into exile for their rebellion, He graciously and mercifully restored them to the land. He kept a remnant alive and placed them back in Jerusalem so that He might one day fulfill His promise to bring forth a descendant of David and place Him on the throne of Israel. There are future plans concerning Israel that have yet to be fulfilled. At the present time, they are experiencing a temporary state of rejection or by God. But as Paul will explain later in this same chapter, that will one day change. Their rejection of Christ as their Messiah opened up the door for the gospel to be shared with non-Jews, “those who are not a nation” (Romans 10:19 ESV). God made the good news regarding salvation in Jesus available to “those who did not seek me” (Romans 10:20 ESV).

And those of us who have discovered the grace of God made possible through the death of Christ have much to be grateful for. We were totally undeserving of God’s favor, and yet He provided a way for us to be made right with Him. Paul emphasized this incredible reality to the believers in Ephesus when he wrote, “Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called ‘uncircumcised heathens’ by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:11-13 NLT).

Paul told the believers in the city of Colossae, “you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault” (Colossians 1:21-22 NLT). As Gentiles or non-Jews, we have much to be grateful for. And we must never forget that if God had not chosen Abraham and given him Isaac as his son, if He had not chosen Jacob over Esau, if He had not chosen David over Saul, and if He had not chosen to send His Son through the nation of Israel – we would not be here. God is good and God is gracious. He is sovereign over all. He knows what He is doing and He is not yet done with Israel. Their rejection of Him has not caused Him to reject them, because He is faithful, loving and true. He will accomplish all that He has promised for them. In His time and according to His plan.

Despised and Rejected.

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But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” – Romans 10:19-21 ESV

So did the Jews never hear to good news regarding Jesus Christ? Was their failure to accept Him as Messiah because they had not heard? Paul would answer those questions with a resounding and confident, “No!” The Jews were without excuse. Quoting from Psalm 19, he holds them accountable to the same standard he established in the opening chapter of his letter. The psalmist wrote,“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Psalm 19:1-4 ESV). Nature itself declares God’s glory. “For what can be known about God is plain to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world…so they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20 ESV). Israel was doubly guilty, because they had God’s general revelation of Himself in nature AND they had the privilege of His special revelation, spoken through His prophets and declaring the coming of the Messiah. But when Jesus came, they rejected Him.

So, if they had heard about the coming Messiah through the prophets, was their rejection of Him as case of misunderstanding? Again, Paul is emphatic in his answer. He declares that they fully understood and he uses the Old Testament Scriptures to prove it. Quoting from the book of Deuteronomy, Paul writes, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” The context in the book of Deuteronomy is that God had become fed up with Israel’s repeated unfaithfulness. He said, “They have made me jealous with that is no god, they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation” (Deuteronomy 32:21 ESV). Paul takes this Old Testament prophetic passage and applies it the current circumstances of his day. Centuries after Moses wrote the words found in Deuteronomy, the people of Israel were still worshiping false gods. Their view of God was skewed and based on their own faulty perceptions. They put more faith in their own abilities to keep the law than they did in God’s ability to save them. They rejected Jesus as Savior because they didn’t think they needed one. They worshiped the law more than they did the law-Giver. They worshiped the temple more than the One who supposedly occupied it. So Paul says, God took the good news regarding His Son to another nation. He made it available to the Gentiles. God opened the doors to a people who at one time were not a people.

“for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. ‘Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy’” (1 Peter 2:9-10 NLT).

And quoting the words of God found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, Paul writes, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name” (Isaiah 65:1 NLT). God had warned Israel that this day was coming. Their stubbornness and rebellion were going to one day result in their rejection by God and His blessing of the Gentiles. In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul emphasizes how foolish all this appeared. God was taking His message of salvation to a people who had no relationship with Him. “Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important” (1 Corinthians 1:26-28 NLT).

The rejection of Jesus by His own people did not surprise God. It did not catch Him off guard. This had been His plan from the very beginning. It was in fulfillment of His promise to Abraham, that through him and his “offspring” all the nations of the earth would be blessed. It was through Christ, the descendant of Abraham, that God had chosen to bless the nations of the world by offering salvation from sin and death – “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14 ESV).

As a result, the Church represents a new nation and a new people, made up of individuals from all walks of life and every conceivable ethnic background. As Paul told the believers in Galatia:

For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. – Galatians 3:26-29 NLT

Paul wraps up this chapter with another quote from the book of Isaiah. “All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes” (Isaiah 65:2 NLT). The rejection of Jesus by His own people was part of God’s divine plan. But as Paul will clarify in the very next chapter, God is not done with Israel. He has not abandoned them. He has not given up on them. He will faithfully fulfill His promises to them.

Beautiful Feet.

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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? 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!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. – Romans 10:14-17 ESV

Paul has just finished saying, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame” (Romans 10:11 ESV), and “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13 ESV). Once again, Paul used the Old Testament Scriptures, quoting from Isaiah 28:16 and Joel 2:32 to prove his point. Belief in God will lead one to call out to God in times of need or trouble. His emphasis has been on the Jewish people. He has expressed his heart’s desire that they be saved, even suggesting that he would be willing to suffer eternal damnation if it meant that the Jews would come to faith. But Paul knew they would have to experience salvation the same way as everyone else. They would have to call on the name of the Lord.

But at this point in his letter, Paul turned his attention to the believers in his audience, asking them, “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? ” (Romans 10:15 NLT). Yes, the Jews had a responsibility to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior, just like everyone else. But Paul was adamant that the believers in Rome had an even weightier responsibility to tell them about Christ. After His death and resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples and commanded them, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you” (Matthew 28:19-20 NLT). He also told them, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you” (John 20:21 NLT). And that great commission didn’t just apply to the eleven men who Jesus left behind. It has been the marching orders for every follower or disciple of Jesus Christ from that point until today.

Once again, Paul quotes from the Old Testament Scriptures, using the words found in Isaiah 52:7: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!” These original words were given to the people of Judah to announce that God was going to restore them from captivity in Babylon and return them to Jerusalem. Paul uses these words of comfort and joy to express what it is like when someone hears the good news of Jesus Christ for the first time, telling them that they can be restored to a right relationship with God, even though they are undeserving of His amazing grace. When someone shares the gospel with an unbeliever, faithfully obeying Christ’s command to tell, they are bringing news of peace and salvation.

But Paul breaks the sad news that not everyone who hears will listen. Even when Isaiah told the people of Judah that God was going to set them free from captivity in the land of Babylon, not everyone listened. Not everyone believed. God had told them, “Get out! Get out and leave your captivity, where everything you touch is unclean. Get out of there and purify yourselves” (Isaiah 52:11 NLT). Yet the prophet would, “Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?” (Isaiah 53:1 NLT). Many of the Jews living in Babylon would refuse to return to the land of promise. Rather than believe God and make the long, arduous journey back to Judah, they would choose to remain in captivity. And Paul stated that, in his day, not everyone who heard the gospel ended up receiving it. Both Jews and Gentiles rejected the good news regarding Jesus Christ. They refused to accept the message of salvation through faith in Christ alone. For Paul it always came back to faith. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17 ESV). We have a responsibility to tell. But each and every person who hears must express faith in what they have heard. We have a responsibility to communicate the gospel with unbelievers, but it is NOT our responsibility to convert them. They must confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9). Then and only then will they experience salvation.

Ultimately, it is God who calls, justifies and glorifies (Romans 8:30). Salvation does not depend on human will or effort, but on God, who has mercy (Romans 9:16). And God said, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Romans 9:15 ESV). Conversion is never the result of coercion. We will never debate someone into a saving relationship with Christ. Our responsibility is to share. We must learn to leave the results up to God. Paul provides us with an interesting and important analogy in his letter to the Corinthians believers.

After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. – 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 NLT

Some of us plant. Others water. But God alone causes the growth. We simply work for Him and get to watch the amazing fruit of His harvest.

The Word of Faith.

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For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 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); 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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 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. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” – Romans 10:5-13 ESV

In addressing the issue of justification before God, or the idea of trying to be made right with God, Paul continued to contrast righteousness based on works and righteousness based on faith. Because he was addressing some in the church in Rome who were believers, but also Jews, he used many Old Testament references in this section. He was attempting to use the Hebrew Scriptures to prove his point. In verse 5, he makes a clear reference to the book of Leviticus, where we have recorded these words spoken by Moses for God: “I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 18:2-5 ESV). In his letter to the Galatian church, Paul clarified the meaning behind this passage when he wrote, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’ Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ But the law is not of faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them’” (Galatians 3:10-12 ESV).

When God spoke of living by them (the laws), He was not simply talking about life, but about right standing before God, or righteousness. Keeping the law fully and completely was required if anyone wanted to be justified, or viewed as sinless before God. But God made is perfectly clear that if anyone wanted to be justified before Him according to the Law, they were going to have to keep every last one of the requirements of the Law. And Paul confirmed this by warning that failure to comply with all of the Law brought with it a curse. He quoted from another Old Testament passage. “Cursed is anyone who does not affirm and obey the terms of these instructions” (Deuteronomy 27:26 NLT). But Paul also provide the good news regarding this curse. “But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing” (Galatians 3:13 NLT). Attempting to earn your way into God’s good graces through stringent keeping of His Law was a dead-end street. It led nowhere. But God sent His Son to pay for man’s sins with His death on the cross.

Paul’s point in all of this was to stress that man’s salvation was to be based on faith in Christ, not on self-effort. It is not what man does that saves him, but belief in what Christ has done on his behalf. And for Paul, that belief was as simple as the following statement: “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” (Romans 10:9 ESV). There was nothing more required from men to be saved. Again, using Old Testament Scriptures to prove his point, Paul quotes and paraphrases Deuteronomy 30:11-14. “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth). And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).” In other words, nobody has to go up to heaven and ask Christ to come. He already had. And nobody had to try and bring the crucified Christ back to life. He was already risen and sitting at the right hand of the Father. No human effort was necessary for salvation. Simply belief. “For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved” (Romans 10:10 NLT).

And Paul stresses that these believing faith is open to all. “Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Romans 10:12-13 NLT). To call on the name of the Lord is to place your hope in someone other than yourself. It is to recognize that your name, your character, is not enough to save you. Calling on the name of the Lord is an act of submission and dependence. It is an admission of need and a cry of help. We cannot save ourselves. It is interesting to note that in Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the newly built temple, he said, “If your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn to you and acknowledge your name and pray to you here in this Temple,  then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and return them to this land you gave their ancestors” (1 Kings 8:33-34 NLT). There is the idea of repentance, a turning away from their sin and a returning to the Lord. Acknowledging His name was the same as acknowledging His holiness and righteousness. It was to admit His power, and His power alone, to save. It is our word of faith, our confession of Jesus Christ as our Savior that brings about our justification, our right standing before God. When we turn from trusting in ourselves and place all our hope in Him, we are rescued and redeemed by God.

 

 

Self-Made Righteousness.

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Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. – Romans 10:1-4 ESV

Paul had a deep love for his Hebrew brothers and sisters. He longed for them to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus as their Messiah, just as he had. He prayed for them regularly and shared with them the good news of Jesus Christ at every opportunity – sometimes subjecting himself to their wrath for doing so. Paul knew they had a zeal for the things of God, but were operating out of ignorance. They were still functioning under the well-intended, but misguided idea that they could somehow be justified or made right with God through keeping His law. As Paul wrote, being ignorant of God’s “brand” of righteousness, made available through faith in Christ alone, they sought to establish their own. And Paul knew exactly what it was they were doing from personal experience.

In his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul shared his personal testimony. At one time, he too had been a well-intentioned zealot for God.

I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. – Philippians 3:5-6 NLT

There had been a point in Paul’s life when he believed that his righteousness before God was based on his own human effort. Even his persecution of Christians was done out of his deep desire to please God. He had seen followers of Christ as a threat to Judaism and did everything in his power to eliminate them, chasing them down and throwing them in prison. He was a fervent law-keeper and God-pleaser. But he operated out of ignorance. It was after he came to know Christ that his eyes were opened, both literally and spiritually, to the kind of righteousness God was looking for, a righteousness provided by Christ’s death and not through man’s self-effort. Which is what led Paul to write:

I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! – Philippians 3:7-11 NLT

The key to the change in Paul’s perspective is found in his statement: “I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.” That has been the thesis of Paul’s letter to the believers in Rome. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:16-17 ESV).

Paul wants his fellow Jews to learn what he learned, that the death of Jesus brought an end to the law. There are two basic reasons that God gave the Mosaic law. The first was to make known the righteous standards and holy character of God. It was to provide the people of Israel with an objective, non-debatable code of conduct that would be acceptable to a holy God. As a result, the people were to realize that their best efforts would never measure up to God’s perfect standard. “Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins” (Galatians 3:19 NLT). God had never expected or intended anyone to be made righteous through keeping the law.

The second purpose for the law was to provide the people of Israel with a standard for living that would set them apart from the rest of nations around them. It contained moral, religious, and civil codes that reflected the wisdom of God and would bless their lives if and when they obeyed them. Moses told the people of Israel, “Look, I now teach you these decrees and regulations just as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy. Obey them completely, and you will display your wisdom and intelligence among the surrounding nations. When they hear all these decrees, they will exclaim, ‘How wise and prudent are the people of this great nation!’ For what great nation has a god as near to them as the Lord our God is near to us whenever we call on him? And what great nation has decrees and regulations as righteous and fair as this body of instructions that I am giving you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:5-8 NLT).

But when Christ came, He did what no other man had ever done, He kept God’s law perfectly and completely. It was His perfect obedience that made Him the unblemished and acceptable sacrifice. But with His death, the role of the law changed dramatically. Paul told the Galatian believers, “Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian” (Galatians 3:23-25 NLT).

The kind of righteousness that justifies and makes one right with God is based on faith in Christ as Savior. It has nothing to do with self-effort. It is a gift – totally unearned and undeserved. It is based on God’s mercy, not our merit. It was provided for us by Christ. Like Abraham, all we bring to the table is our belief. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:3 ESV). When we believe in Christ as God’s sole source of man’s salvation, that belief results in our righteousness and a right relationship with God.

 

A Rock of Offense.

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What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,  as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”  – Romans 9:30-33 ESV

Righteousness is by faith. That has been and continues to be the crux of Paul’s argument in these verses. Paul’s Jewish brothers and sisters were having a difficult time letting go of their strong belief that getting right with God was based on their Hebrew ancestry and their ability to keep the Law, given to them by God through Moses. But Paul presents a completely different set of facts. The reality is that the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness have actually received it, by faith. They did not know the Mosaic law and wasted no time trying to keep it. And yet they had been made right with God by placing their faith in His Son as their sin substitute. In contrast, the Jews, who were busy seeking righteousness through keeping the law, never attained that righteousness. Why? Because they could not live up to God’s exacting standards. He never expected them to. The law was given to reveal their sin and expose their helplessness. It had been intended to wake them up to their need for a Savior, a Messiah. They could not make themselves right with God, so He sent someone who could do it for them. But they had to believe. They had to repent from their current way of thinking. They had been placing their faith all along in themselves. When Jesus came onto the scene, He told them to repent, to turn away from their false views of sin, God and salvation, and accept Him as their Savior. And as Paul says, “they stumbled over the stumbling stone.”

Paul is quoting from Isaiah, chapter eight, where God is warning the people of the northern kingdom of Israel of the coming invasion of the Assyrians. The people of Israel had been unfaithful to God. They worshiped their own, man-made idols and had established their own temple. God was fed up and was bringing punishment on them in the form of the Assyrian army. But Isaiah warned them, “The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does” (Isaiah 8:11 NLT). He tells them to stop fearing the Assyrians and to start fearing God, to show Him the reverence and respect He deserves. “Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble. He will keep you safe” (Isaiah 8:13-14a NLT). They needed to see God as their salvation, not themselves. Not some foreign ally. But Isaiah went on to give them the bad news, “to Israel and Judah he will be a stone that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall” (Isaiah 8:14b NLT).

Years later, God would tell the people of Judah, as they scoffed at the idea of their coming destruction. “We have struck a bargain to cheat death and have made a deal to dodge the grave. The coming destruction can never touch us, for we have built a strong refuge made of lies and deception” (Isaiah 28:15 NLT). They were putting their faith and hope in something other than God. But He would warn them:

Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on.” – Isaiah 28:17 NLT

Like their ancestors before them, the Jews of Paul’s day were stumbling over the stumbling stone. Rather than seeing Jesus as a precious cornerstone, they were seeing Him as a rock of offense. They just could not accept the fact that righteousness was  based on faith, not works. They could not bring themselves to believe that faith in Jesus was God’s intended path to righteousness. And as a result, what the psalmist predicted became a reality. “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see” (Psalm 118:22-23 NLT). Outside the city walls of Jerusalem, the Son of God would be put to death in order to pay for the sins of men. He would become the sacrifice to satisfy the just demands of a holy God. And whoever believed in Him would not be put to shame. It is that promise that caused Paul’s Jewish brothers and sisters to stumble. And it still presents a problem for people today, both Jews and Gentiles. The whole idea of man’s sin and his need of a Savior comes across as ridiculous to the vast majority of those who hear it. It seems far-fetched. It sounds too good to be true. Which is why it requires faith. We must believe that it is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see. Sure, it makes no sense to us. It seems illogical and unreasonable. Over the centuries, the message of salvation through faith in Christ has caused so many to stumble. But there have been millions upon millions who have placed their faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ and enjoyed salvation from sin and death and a restored relationship with the God of the universe.

A Remnant.

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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,  for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”  And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.” – Romans 9:27-29 ESV

All mankind is deserving of God’s righteous judgment. From His holy perspective, “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10 ESV). All are guilty of rebellion against Him and of breaking His holy commands. At no point in the history of mankind has there lived a man or woman who deserved God’s mercy or grace. No one has ever been able to live up to His righteous standards or fulfill His laws perfectly and completely. Abraham was not even a worshiper of God when he was called by God. Noah, while a good man who knew and worshiped God, was far from sinless. And yet God chose to spare him. Moses was a murderer, but God, in His sovereign will, chose Moses to deliver His people from captivity. And the very people Moses was chosen to set free from their captivity had long ago abandoned the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and were guilty of worshiping the gods of Egypt. But God chose to deliver them anyway. All throughout the history of the nation of Israel, we see God choosing to bless some and reject others. He rejected Saul as king of Israel because of his disobedience. He chose David and anointed him to be Saul’s replacement. David, while a man after God’s own heart, was far from perfect. He would end up allowing his passions to lead him to commit adultery, resulting in an illegitimate pregnancy and his attempt to cover it up resulting in the murder of the woman’s husband. But God graciously forgave David and continued to bless his reign.

The nation of Israel would prove to be unfaithful to God over and over again. Their disobedience and that of their king, Solomon, the son of David, would result in the split of the kingdom. Their continued rebellion would force God to send the northern nation of Israel into captivity at the hands of the Assyrians. Years later, the southern nation of Judah would suffer the same fate at the hands of the Babylonians. God had warned both nations to return to Him. He had sent His prophets to call the people back to Him or face His righteous wrath. They refused and God, in His justice, punished them for their rebellion. And yet, in spite of their sin, God chose to spare a remnant. While the entire nation of Israel had been God’s chosen people, they ended up split in two. The northern tribes would be exiled and never return to the land. The southern tribes would only see a small portion of their descendants return to Judah and Jerusalem. The prophet Isaiah predicted what would happen.

In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth. – Isaiah 10:20-23 ESV

God had fulfilled His promise to Abraham and had made his descendants as numerous as the sand of the sea. But only a remnant would return. Not all of them would enjoy God’s grace and mercy. The Greek word Paul used is hypoleimma and it means “a remainder, a few.” The Hebrew word used by Isaiah is shĕ’ar and it means “residue, remainder.” Out of all the nation of Israel, only a handful were allowed to return to the land and enjoy God’s restoration of them as His people. Quoting from Isaiah, Paul writes, “If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of our children, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah” (Romans 9:29 NLT).

So what is Paul’s point in all of this? That unless God chooses to show mercy on some, none will ever experience it. All of Israel deserved to experience God’s full wrath and destructive powers, just as much as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had. The people of Israel were no less guilty of sin and worthy of God’s wrath than the pagan and immoral people of those two wicked cities. This all goes back to Paul’s attempt to explain that no one, including God’s chosen people, the Jews, was worthy of receiving God’s mercy. God calls and men must respond. When God got ready to send the people of Israel back to Jerusalem from their captivity in Babylon, not everybody chose to return. Many had become comfortable in their new surroundings. They had acclimated themselves to living in Babylon. Only a relative handful returned.

Not all men will be saved. Not everyone will respond to God’s gracious offer of salvation made possible through faith in His Son. Compared to the mass of mankind who have ever lived, the number of those who place their faith in Christ will be a remnant, a few. And none of us who enjoy a right relationship with God because of our faith in Christ can ever brag about our position or boast in our righteous standing. Paul told the believers in Ephesus, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT). He said the same thing to Timothy. “For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:9 NLT).

God saved us. We didn’t save ourselves. He chose us. We didn’t choose Him. According to Romans 8:30, He called us, He justified us, and one day He is going to glorify us. We are part of God’s remnant, the redeemed. We didn’t do anything to deserve His grace and mercy. We can’t brag about our position as His children. He adopted us. He made us His sons and daughters. He has declared us His heirs. All as a result of His grace and mercy made possible through the priceless gift of His Son.

Vessels of Mercy.

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You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 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?” 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? 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, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” – Romans 9:18-26 ESV

In this section of chapter nine, Paul continues to defend God’s sovereign prerogative to show mercy based on His will, not on any merits or worthiness of men. The fact is, all men are under God’s divine wrath and subject to His holy judgment, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV) and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23 NLT). All mankind is deserving of God’s righteous judgment of death. And yet, Paul has reminded us, God has shown mercy to some. Again, not because they deserved it, but simply because God, in His mercy and grace decided to do so. And Paul knew that this merciful and gracious action of God would be misconstrued and misunderstood by some as unjust and unfair. Paul was fully aware of those within his audience who would question why God could be so hard on those whom He had not chosen to show His mercy. Paul knew how their minds worked, because he had probably struggled with the same questions at one time in his life. He had more than likely pondered the question of how anyone could find fault with Esau, if God chose Jacob over Esau based on nothing more than His own will. But at this point in his life and in his relationship with God, Paul knew better than to question the sovereign will of God, which is why he warned his readers, “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?’” (Romans 9:20 ESV). Paul was using the Old Testament Scriptures to argue his point. He quoted from the prophet Isaiah. “What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’” (Isaiah 45:9 NLT).

This is all about the sovereign will of God. In our world, we have made man the center of our universe. Everything revolves around us. We see ourselves as the pinnacle of creation and focus all our attention on our ability to accomplish great good, while always recognizing our capacity to commit all kinds of evil. We live in a merit-based society where the good we do gets rewarded, while the bad we do gets punished. And we expect God to judge us in the same way. But Paul’s whole point thus far in his letter has been to stress that salvation is based on faith alone. His thesis statement for his letter is found in the opening chapter. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:16-17 ESV).

From God’s divine perspective, all men are guilty and stand before Him worthy of His judgment and wrath. And yet, God chooses to show mercy on some. And while we may see that as somehow unfair, Paul would have us consider, “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?” Can God, the creator, not do what He wants to do? Is He not free to show mercy on whomever He wants to show mercy? What Paul is doing is inviting you and me to see things from a different perspective. He is asking us to remove man from the center of our universe and put God there in his place. The fact is, all mankind is deserving of God’s judgment. Even Israel, God’s chosen nation, could not live in obedience to His law or remain faithful to Him. And while God would have been fully just in destroying them for their rebellion and unfaithfulness, He showed them mercy instead. He could have exhibited His wrath and revealed His power in destructive judgment, but instead He showed patience – time and time again. He “endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy” (Romans 9:22-23 ESV). God had a plan. He had made a promise to Abraham that He was going to keep. He was sending His Son as the Messiah of the Jews and the Savior of the Gentiles. God was going to show mercy, allowing some to come to a saving knowledge of His Son, not based on their own righteousness or human merit, but on their faith in His mercy as expressed in His Son’s sacrificial death on the cross.

God sent His Son to the Jews first, but most of them refused Him. And yet, there were those among the Jews who did believe. And there were Gentiles who placed their faith in Christ as their Savior. God showed His mercy on some, even though all deserved His wrath. He chose to forgive some. All in fulfillment of the prophecy found in the book of Hosea: “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people.’” Our problem is that we get hung up on God’s wrath and miss the unbelievable nature of His mercy. The fact that God shows mercy to anyone should amaze and astound us. None of us are deserving of it. When we come to fully comprehend our guiltiness and the fact that we deserved God’s wrath, and yet were shown His mercy, we can better appreciate the magnitude of the gift we have received.