S3E5: What About Israel?
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable
(Romans 11:29).
Listen as Ed Underwood teaches on the book of Romans for our third season.
In our modern minds, chapters 9-11 may seem like a sudden history lesson, interesting to some but irrelevant to the discussion. “Israel, who cares?” Understanding the great and glorious themes of salvation and appreciating more than ever the mercies extended to us through grace (chapters 1-8), we could quickly move straight to the practical application of those themes to our lives in chapters 12-16.
Not Paul. Guided by the Holy Spirit Himself, the apostle to the Gentiles digresses into a discussion of his people, the Jews, who had, for the most part, failed to accept the salvation offered in the Gospel, even though they were God’s chosen race and it was presented to the Jew first (1:16-17).
To his readers in Rome, this was a problem. The original believers in Rome were all Jews, but by this time, they were becoming outnumbered by Gentiles. There must have been tension. Perhaps a tendency by some Greeks and Romans to marginalize their Jewish brethren as somehow inferior and a prideful reaction from the Jews to defect to the synagogue. More importantly, the many references to the Hebrew Scriptures in chapters 1-8 raised questions in the back of his readers’ minds: If God is so righteous, how could He give Israel so many privileges—especially unconditional promises? And then, if God is so faithful, how could He reject His chosen people—especially in light of His unconditional promises?
These issues could surface doubts in every believer’s mind. “If God rejected Israel, will He reject me when I fail?” “I’m depending on the Gospel’s power to deliver me from this sinful life. But, if God’s people could not live righteously before Him, do I have any hope?”
When we ask these questions we need a history lesson on the mercies of God. The Greek word for mercy occurs seven times in these three chapters but only twice in the rest of the letter! To assure us that God is faithful to His promises while remaining righteous, Paul begins with the particular problem of the Jewish resistance to the Gospel and ends with an unfolding of the divine purpose in history, which, in some ways, goes beyond any comparable passage in the whole Bible. The lesson is profoundly simple:
Israel’s past, present, and future prove that God is a Faithful Promisekeeper!
Questions or comments about the episode? Email us here. We’d love to hear from you!
See the chart and download the notes below for further study.
