The Serious Problem of Jewish Unbelief (Rom 9.1-5) WestminsterReformedChurch.org Pastor Ostella October 1, 2017 I am speaking the truth in Christ-- I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit-- 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. Introduction What might we expect after Romans 8 after such a section on God's determined saving love and the deep rock of assurance that it gives us? The Lord assures us that we are loved with electing love, and that we are secure in union with Christ in His efficacious death and resurrection. So, we might naturally expect an extended application to be next. If Paul went from Romans 8.39 to 12:1, we would probably think: "how predictable, that seems so fitting, yes, its time to discuss our service to God; this is very reasonable." But Paul does not do the predictable. He does not follow 8.39 with exhortations regarding our reasonable service. Instead, he takes up the problem of Israel's unbelief and wrestles with it for three chapters, in 9-11. Is this some kind of unnecessary interruption in the flow of thought? Is it merely an unnecessary and perhaps aggravating detour on our journey toward practical application (that we may seek impetuously)? No, not at all, because these intervening chapters discuss something that has been lingering in the background up to this point in the book. It is the problem of the Jews who have been indicted along with the Gentiles (1.18-3.20). Although the gospel is to the Jew first and also to the Greek (1.16), both groups stand condemned before God and in need of God s provision of justification. They have this need equally because eternal life and eternal wrath pertain to them both on the same terms (2.9-10): There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. He continues in 3.9 to affirm that both Jews and Greeks are under sin, and (in 3.28-29) to make it clear that the provision of justification by faith apart from works of the law applies to both equally: in justification, He is the God of Jews and of Gentiles also. Clearly, justification is by faith, not by heritage nor by righteous conduct. 1 Given the place of the Jew first, then the problem of the Jews before God is most acute and set out in bold relief by the fact that they do not believe in Jesus Messiah, the Son of God and incarnate Son of David. Thus, Paul tackles this problem in chapters 9-11, opening the door to this discussion in 9.1-5. The doxology at the end of Romans 9.5 and the use of the contrasting connective (but) at the beginning of 9.6 solidify the conclusion that 9.1-5 can be (should be) treated on its own as an introduction to chapters 9-11, which begin with lament (9.1-5) and end with doxology (11.33-36). Thus, today, we take up the opening lament (without forgetting either the lofty assurances of chapter 8 or the doxology of chapter 11). A lament expresses feelings of heaviness and difficulty. So this lament leads to my title: "The Serious Problem of Jewish Unbelief." This seriousness is indicated by Paul's reaction and Israel's privilege. Obedience of faith is obedience that flows from faith, from repentant-faith. Thus, the good works we do are 1 imperfect, repentant, and real works of love by the law. A merit idea is not here and goes against the texts on justification apart from the law (3.28-29). For clarification, it is not that their works will be justified (shown to be meritorious) but that the people who do repentant good works will be justified (these are the good, good works in Jesus' teaching, Mat 5.13-16). Ultimately, our works must be judged to be good or evil by God in His holy purpose of redemption, which accounts for the reality of good actions in His eyes despite our sins. It is a joy to ponder the fact that though the best works from the hard heart are unacceptable to God, frail works (imperfect works) from the repentant heart are accepted as good by the Lord.
I. Paul's reaction is stated in 9.1-3 We can isolate at least three nuances in these verses: sober expression, deep emotion, and intense devotion. A. First, consider the soberness of expression He says in 9.1: I speak the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. This is the immediate transition from the explosive implications of the sovereign, electing, saving love of God in Christ that ends Romans 8. We have come down from the mount where we scaled the heights with a spring of triumph in our every blessed step. Now our attention shifts to broader issues as Paul widens the perspective to ponder a difficulty. He is earnest. He uses repetition that expands as he moves from positive to negative language: I speak truth-not lies. Then he grounds his speaking in two witnesses: the testimony of his conscience and the witness of the Holy Spirit who enflames his conscience. Paul certifies that he speaks the truth by directing his readers to union with Christ: I speak the truth in Christ. The truth of what he is about to say accords with, is confirmed by, and is the outworking of the work of Christ in me, he says, and the work of His Spirit in me that flows from my union with Him in His death and resurrection. I speak from the fruit of my call to know Him and my calling to be His servant. Thus, I speak in the name of Christ and on His authority as His apostle. So, whatever else we may say, we have to say this: Paul's reaction to Israel's condition shows the seriousness of the problem. This sets a sober tone for all that follows regarding the unstated but obvious unbelief of my brothers my kinsmen (v. 3). No matter how hard it is for me to say; no matter how hard it is for you to hear, the testimony I am about to give is the truth in Christ by the Holy Spirit. B. Now consider the depth of Paul's emotion From deep within his being, in the depths of his heart, Paul has sorrow and anguish (9.2): I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. He cannot look at Israel in earnest reflection without being stirred deep within himself. There is a combination here of passion and reflection. When Paul's thoughts go to Israel and her unbelief, they become engulfed by a sea of emotions. He cannot just think about his people and about the sorrow in his heart; it is too great for that. He cannot simply say that he has trouble of soul. He must express the anguish of his heart. And this anguish is not static; indeed, it affects his every moment of reflection on Israel's lost condition, whenever his thoughts go down that road. It weighs upon his mind: it's great, it's heavy, it's continuous and unceasing. When Paul's thoughts turn to his kinsmen, sorrow and grief abound. They take his thoughts captive and they carry him away in an overwhelming flood. We have to conclude that her plight (the plight of Israel) is serious indeed! C. The third nuance in Paul's reaction is the intensity of his devotion When we read 9.3 carefully, we have to stop and wonder how any Christian could ever talk like this: For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. We need perspective on this language, which we get by considering two things. On one hand, it is impossible for Paul or any Christian to be separated from Christ forever. All is worked for the believer's good; nothing can sever His love for us all and thus prevent our safe arrival in heaven. That is the thrust of the fact that if God s own Son was delivered up to the cross for you, then you will certainly inherit all things (8.32). If Christ died for Paul and for us, then neither Paul nor any of us can be permanently severed from Christ. On the other hand, therefore, a second consideration is that eternal separation from Christ is not what Paul wishes here. In 9.1, Paul certifies that he speaks the truth by directing his readers to the outworking of union with Christ in his calling to speak the truth in His name as His commissioned and empowered apostle. Notably, his call to be an apostle included suffering. Immediately after his!2
!3 conversion, the Lord said of Paul (Acts 9.15-16): he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. Referring to His appointment as God s chosen instrument, Paul calls himself a slave with full meaning (Rom 1.1): Paul, a servant [slave] of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. With this call ringing in his ears to carry the name of Christ to Gentiles and the children of Israel, Paul serves His Lord whatever the cost in suffering. With great love, He thus images the Savior in his willingness to suffer even the punishment of others to free them from their sins. He says, if it were possible for me to suffer in the place of the people of Israel to save them by being accursed (knowing full well that it is not possible), I would gladly make the sacrifice. By these words, Paul expresses his loving commitment to Christ, to the gospel, and to his Israelite kinfolk. To be clear: this would not mean eternal separation from Christ; but like Christ s own suffering, and as the apostle of suffering, it would mean enduring the intensity of eternal punishment in a temporary way during the course of his ministry of gospel preaching. Paul is willing to be a substitutionary sacrifice in his suffering for the salvation of his kinsmen, if that were possible. That imitation of Christ is of course not possible so the sentiment is that he is willing to endure the "pangs of perdition" and thus "any degree and amount of pain positively inflicted, if thereby his brethren could be brought to believe in Christ" (Shedd, Romans, 275). Jesus was forsaken but not to the extent that God ceased being His God (as He said, my God, my God). He was devoted to death for the sins of others as their substitute. He was separated from God in a relative and partial way, but not absolutely. He was not separated from God eternally. 2 Therefore, when Paul could wish that he were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of [and in the place of] my kinsmen, he does not mean that if it were possible to thereby save them, he would be willing to endure the punishment of their sins forever. What he is saying is that his love for his fellow Israelites is so intense that, if he could, he would undergo the intensity of the greatest suffering conceivable in self-sacrifice to save them. Therefore, this intense devotion of Paul to save Israel by such radical suffering reveals the profound seriousness of the Jewish problem. Israel is running headlong toward the pangs of perdition in separation from Christ eternally! In summary, the degree of Israel's problem, its seriousness, is indicated by Paul's reaction: by his sober expressions (truth not lies in conscience and by the Holy Spirit) by the depth of his affected emotions (great sorrow, continuous anguish), and by the intensity of his devotion and love for his kinfolk that verges on the impossible thought of his own suffering in substitutionary sacrifice to save them. This is a serious problem that affects the Christian heart deeply. It is a lament not unlike the lament of Christ over Israel that is about to suffer severe judgment in her unbelief: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! (Mat 23.37-39). But she will not suffer without hope because the prophet she now rejects will be raised from the dead and of whom it will be said, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (Mat 23.39). This naturally leads to reflection on Israel s privilege. Jesus was forsaken but not to the extent that God ceased being His God (as He said, my God, my God). He was 2 devoted to death for the sins of others as their substitute. He was separated from God "only relatively, and partially"... He was "not absolutely separated, and eternally cast away from God His desertion by the Father was only temporary; and though while it lasted it was a total eclipse of the Father's face, and an hour of inconceivable and infinite agony, yet it was not accompanied, as in the instance of the damned, with the consciousness of personal worthlessness and guilt, and the sense of God's abhorrence and hatred of workers of iniquity (Ps 5.5). Even in the hour when Christ was submitting to the stroke of justice from his Father's hand (Zech 13.7), in accordance with the covenant and understanding between the two divine persons, he knew that he was still and ever the Father's dear son, well-beloved, and only-begotten. When, therefore, St. Paul could wish that he were accursed from Christ, he does not mean that he would be willing, if thereby he could save others from sin and hell, to live himself forever in sin and hell, in rebellion against God. His willingness is like that of his Redeemer: a willingness to endure suffering, but not to commit sin, or to be personally sinful (Shedd, Romans, 276).
II. Now consider Israel's privilege in 9.4-5 The privileges of this nation among all the nations of the earth accents the seriousness of the problem of her condition in unbelief (9.4-5): Paul s kinsmen are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. We have a list of privilege upon privilege to help Gentile readers at Rome understand a unique people in the history of God s redemptive purpose for the fallen human family. 1) Israel Her very name, Israel, means one who strives with God. This recalls the account of Jacob wrestling with God for the blessing of forgiveness and the reception of mercy. The renaming from Jacob to Israel identifies this nation as a people who seek God and are determined to receive His mercy. Yet here they are rejecting the promises to Jacob fulfilled in his greater son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The privilege accents the peril. 2) Adoption as sons This is reference to a special relationship between God and the descendants of Abraham through Jacob. Though in the time of anticipation, under a tutor-the OT ceremonial law, under age as it were, and living in the shadows of things to come, nevertheless, these descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were called the children of God. It can be said of the Israelites of Paul's day that "theirs is" the adoption; they are covenant children of God in the present even though they rebel against the privilege of having God as their heavenly Father. 3) Glory Glory, cited next, is the manifestation of God presence, the sign that He is among and with His people. Glorious manifestations of God's presence were very dramatic and visible in order to confirm His mercies and set them out in bold relief for the children of Israel. But they reject His mercies! They cover His glory with thick clouds of unbelief so that the glory is departed in stages from the most holy place to the pinnacle of the temple, from the temple to the edges of the holy city, from Judea, from Samaria, from the people, and from the land of their inheritance. They turn away from glorious manifestations of God who is ever with them. 4) Covenants Through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David, God established and reiterated His covenant relationship in stages of saving revelation. Yet they continue as covenant breakers and reject covenant fulfillment that has come in Christ. 5) Law The giving of the law is a privilege, a blessing, a guide and a delight-made void by their tradition. 6) The temple service Again and again in provisions for temple worship, testimony was given regarding man's sinfulness and the need of a sacrifice; particularly, of the need of the sacrifice of Christ promised in the ceremonial law. They had worship ceremonies in their hands and under their care. But they throw Christ away like a stone rejected by builders. 7) Promises Along with and through the covenants, Israel was given many promises that focussed on the hope of restoration from the effects of the fall. They answer His promise-giving with their promise-breaking. 8) Fathers The advances made in God's gracious dealing with the fallen human race were marked in Israel's ancestry. The fathers of the nation are tokens of God's saving grace to their truly underserving children.!4
!5 9) But most of all-from whom is Christ according to the flesh From the patriarchs is traced the human ancestry of Christ. What a privilege! This is remarkable because from the patriarchs (9.5), from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. Israel as a nation, en mass, has sinned against all of these privileges. She has thus intensified her guilt beyond measure by rejecting the Messiah who is God incarnate. She has proportionally stored up in abundance her own eternal misery. This heightens the problem all the more and increases Paul's grief and sorrow all the more, so much so that it carries him away in fiery bursts of loving concern. Applications This is a powerful text and challenging to apply because it puts an example before us of love that seems impossible to imitate, namely, the willingness to suffer the intensity of eternal punishment if by that we would save others. Luther says that those who try to avoid Paul s teaching do not know what it means to love. Nonetheless, there are things that work against direct application to us. Paul is an apostle who images Christ by divine calling. Although he is an apostle to the Gentiles mainly, as Peter is an apostle to the Jews mainly, his passionate focus here is on Israel, his kinsmen with a long and special redemptive history. In other words, this is not telling us about Paul s regular ministry to all men everywhere that serves as a specific model of Christian ministry in the present time of national universalism. This love was placed on his heart to accent the love of God in Christ for Israel, the love that by contrast did the impossible when Christ suffered the intensity of eternal punishment to save others, to save Israel according to His word of promise. In this introduction (9.1-5), Paul reveals the serious problem of Israel s unbelief by his reaction and by the nation s privilege that in turn directs our thoughts to what we might call the real problem, which is to explain the covenant love of God. That is precisely what Paul does in chapters 9-11 of Romans. Before we go there, let s pause here and try to make some application, even with the distance that exists between Paul and us. 1) First, a finger is placed here on a deep tension within the Christian heart. As you contemplate your own security and personal well-being for all time and eternity in Christ, you go with Paul in Romans 1-8 and climb the mountain peaks overlooking the promised land. There you rejoice knowing that if God loves you then it is impossible that you be condemned, and He does love you having showed you in the death of Christ (Rom 5.8: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us)! His death is efficacious: no one for whom He died will fail to inherit all things (8.32). So it is impossible for anything to ever separate you from the love of Christ (8.33-39). But you must come down from the mountains, and when you do, you become acutely aware of the lost condition of Paul's family members and no doubt your lost family members as well. This is a serious problem beyond compare. It can have more weight than any other; it is profound beyond words. The state of those in unbelief is worse than any cancer. At stake is much more than the life of the body. At stake is the life as a whole, body and soul, before God's eternal judgment. Unbelieving Jew and unbelieving Gentile alike travel the broad road that leads to destruction. The closer the relation the more acute the concern. It is serious, weighty, and it verges on the impossible wish that you suffer on their behalf-that they be saved. This is not a decision you make; it is not a duty you undertake. You and I do not have the place in redemptive history that Paul had. Nevertheless, his words affect the hearts of those who read and understand. By the work of the Spirit, the reflective Christian is conscious of the realities before which he stands and before which all people stand-before God and the judgment to come. The Christian has the love of God poured out in his heart by the Spirit and he longs for the blessing of others in their
!6 desperate need. So, deep down you and I must see all men as created in God's image, fallen from His image, and thus in radical need of restoration in God's image. This occurs when, in love, we look away from ourselves, see others around us in such a way that we actually notice them, and are affected by their need. 2) Second, we are thus pointed to our dependence on the work of the Holy Spirit. He must work in us strengthening, teaching, impelling, reminding, unsettling and leading us on the pathway to glory. We must depend on His work in the lives of those for whom we are deeply concerned (both Jew and Gentile; family, friend, neighbor). We must not panic in our relationship to them as we view them standing on the edge of eternal destruction. Instead, with depending and prayerful hearts, we must commit them to God and love them in word and deed. We are to love them with wisdom, patience, and a willingness to, in Paul s words to Timothy, endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory (2 Tim 2.10). 3 3) We are pointed in context to the balm for these wounds to the heart. There is a history here from the patriarchs to the present, a history in which God has a saving purpose that will not fail in accomplishment regarding each little lamb that was given to Christ before the foundation of the world. Salvation has come in Christ who is of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob according to the flesh. Israel is lost in unbelief but Christ has come from Israel. Therefore, we have the balm for the wounds of our hearts in knowing that Paul, the apostle of Christ and His gospel, laments over his lost kinsmen. It is a balm of healing that gives rest of soul because it embodies the lament of Jesus over Jerusalem and the nations. And Jesus is God, He is over all, and He is to be praised forever because He has come to save sinners and save them He will. Amen! Truly! May we fall down before the majesty of God who expresses His desire for the salvation of Israel and the nations in the laments of the prophets, of Jesus, and of Paul; may the Holy Spirit apply the balm of Gilead, the balm of the gospel of God in Christ to our hearts that we may love others deeply and find our rest in the rejected stone that God has made the head of the corner for the salvation of the world; to the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now in His church and forevermore, amen! This anticipates what Paul has to say in 9.6 to 11.36 because each chapter of his explanation puts God s electing 3 love into historical-redemptive perspective.