When we began this brief examination of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, I mentioned it was made up mostly of Gentiles, but that there was also a small group of Jewish believers there. It is to this group that Paul devotes chapters 9 through 11, and this is the third of the four major themes in this letter, namely, the place of Israel in God’s plan.
We’ll start with Romans 9:4-5, where Paul lists seven advantages of being a Jew. “They’re Israelites, God adopted them as sons, they experienced His glorious presence, He made special covenant agreements with them, He gave them the Law, the temple service and the promises. From them came the patriarchs, and from them you can see the lineage of the Christ, Who is God, exalted above all and blessed forever! Amen.”
Now, we don’t have to look at these in great detail, a short explanation will do. God adopted Israel (Exodus 4:22) and chose them to be the recipients of all that follows: the Lord showed them His glorious presence in the desert (Exodus 16:7, 10); He entered into special covenant agreements with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and others; He gave them the Law that revealed the future coming of Christ; He gave them the temple service, so they could worship Christ; He gave them the patriarchs as examples of men who served God and were blessed for their obedience and faithfulness, and from whom the human ancestry of the Christ can be traced.
In other words, God revealed Himself and His plan of redemption to Israel in a way that was totally unique, when compared to any other nation. And for this reason Paul points out in the verses that follow (as he does in other places and in other letters) that not all Jews are really Jews, making the distinction between those who are Jews only by birth and those who are Jews according to promise (that is, those who believed in what He did and what He promised).
Paul has already mentioned the difference between a natural born Jew and a spiritual Jew earlier in Romans 2:28-29, “Because he is not a genuine Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something purely physical. A man is a Jew only if he is one inwardly and true circumcision is a heart matter, it’s spiritual, not physical. His praise is not from men, it’s from God.” This is a recurring theme with Paul in many of his letters.
Now, if you remember in the last lesson, I included a small section illustrating the fact that in God’s plan of redemption He does everything that is necessary to fulfill that plan, not depending on man for any part of it. This is certainly true of the place of Israel in God’s plan – He chose them, He sustains them over time (in spite of their rebellion and disobedience), then He fulfills every promise to them (both in time and in eternity).
God’s faithfulness and Israel’s place in His eternal plan is illustrated in Paul’s comments found in Romans 9:25-29. “It’s as He said in Hosea, I will call them My people, who did not act like My people; I will call her My beloved, who was not lovable (Hosea 2:23). And, it will come to pass that in the places where it was said, you are not really God’s people, they will be called the sons of the living God (Hosea 1:10). And Isaiah calls out concerning Israel, though the number of Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will survive His judgment. For the Lord will execute His judgment completely and without delay (Isaiah 10:22-23). And just as Isaiah predicted, unless the Lord of hosts had left us a small remnant (from which we could propagate descendants), we would have been completely destroyed like Sodom and Gommorah (Isaiah 1:9).”
The undeniable fact that Israel has a special place in God’s plan for the ages is illustrated over and over again in that history up to this point in time and promised for what is yet future. The times of their disobedience and God’s punishment of them is well documented. That Israel is His people, that He has loved them in spite of themselves, that He has preserved them so He can keep His promises to them is obvious from this one thing – there has always been a remnant of them survive His judgments so they can live on as a nation.
Make no mistake, God has placed Himself under the obligation to preserve Israel and completely fulfill the covenants He made with them, not only the promise of an eternal nation with an eternal king, but an eternal land for that nation. And in the midst of all the anti-Semitism that exists (and is ever increasing) in the world, the time will come in their final and eternal restoration when they will be called “the sons of the living God”. And this will be an eternal testimony to the goodness and grace of God and brings clarity to Isaiah 1:9 (quoted above), when he says, “Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a small remnant (from which we could propagate descendants), we would have been completely destroyed like Sodom and Gommorah.”
I can’t skip over Romans 10:1-3 without making a few comments and an application. “Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. While it’s obvious they have a certain enthusiasm for God, it lacks real truth. Since, in their ignorance, they do not understand the righteousness that comes from God, they seek to establish a righteousness of their own making; so they fail to submit to God’s righteousness.”
In the above translation you see the word “enthusiasm” where “zeal” is found in most translations. This is from zelos, from which we get our English word, zeal, which means earnest enthusiasm or passion. And, it’s clear from both the Old and New Testaments that the Jews were passionate about their religion. But Paul says here that this passion lacked real truth (“knowledge” in most, from epignosis, full, accurate and complete knowledge). And, since they did not understand the truth about a righteousness that only comes from God, they established a religious system designed to produce a self-righteousness based on outward forms.
I’ve often made the argument that present-day Christianity with all its different groups is, in many ways, nothing more than an extension of the distorted Judaism that existed in Jesus’ day and that Paul describes here. That Judaism was a conglomeration of the Law that was given to Moses and a multitude of man-made rules, rituals and traditional observances accepted and added over time. By the same token, Christianity is a conglomeration of what the New Testament teaches (at least the parts they like) and more man-made rules, rituals and traditional observances added over time.
And the important thing to understand in this is the fact that those things were specifically adopted to distort the truth of what God had revealed. Did the Law reveal Christ? Did the Law provide a means to worship Christ? Did the Law teach the means by which the believer could access the righteousness that God offered? Yes, to all these and more! Does the New Testament provide a complete understanding of the New Covenant for believers today? Of course it does!
So you might be thinking, OK, I see what you’re saying about Judaism; but what does that have to do with Christianity? Read the New Testament and find the scriptures that give instructions for the formation of any denomination, religious institution or group that exists today. I can’t find them anywhere. Explain to me how there can be so many different denominations and religious groups out there, with different doctrinal positions, traditions, rituals and ever-changing rules of morality, and yet, they all claim to be what God intended. They cannot be.
Now I’ve gone to preaching, as they say. So, I’ll just make the application and you can decide for yourself. It is my sincere belief that all the different groups you see today exist for the same reason deceptive Judaism existed – to distort real truth. Denominational, institutional religion today for the most part (I know, there may be rare exceptions) is based on member participation in whatever beliefs and practices the group might hold, and the degree to which members participate is the degree to which they are considered righteous (in good standing) by the group. This is not God’s righteousness; it is religious, self-righteousness.
The reality is that men have always wanted to craft a god of their own making and in their self-deception they cling to a distorted concept of God and truth that their fleshly human nature can more easily deal with. Why did men come up with the concept of idolatry, ascribing to inanimate objects the characteristics of God? It’s really very simple, they did it so they would not have to be accountable to a holy and righteous God. Why do denominations today still practice traditional rituals, many of which predate even the Old Testament Law? The degree to which they focus on the past is the degree to which they can ignore a present reality in Christ. Why do these groups have different sets of rules governing behavior and morality they expect their members to follow? Does this not invalidate the real ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of each individual believer? I could go on, but you get the idea.