Readings for today: Romans 9-12
So many people read these passages from Romans and think about the people God is seemingly excluding. They question the justice of God’s election. How could God elect some to glory and not others? How could He treat some people with honor and some with dishonor? How could God love some - like Jacob - and hate others - like Esau? How could God play favorites with humanity? While these questions are real and honest and authentic, they miss the point Paul is trying to make.
First and foremost, we have to hear Paul’s heart. “You need to know that I carry with me at all times a huge sorrow. It’s an enormous pain deep within me, and I’m never free of it. I’m not exaggerating—Christ and the Holy Spirit are my witnesses. It’s the Israelites. . . If there were any way I could be cursed by the Messiah so they could be blessed by him, I’d do it in a minute. They’re my family. I grew up with them. They had everything going for them—family, glory, covenants, revelation, worship, promises, to say nothing of being the race that produced the Messiah, the Christ, who is God over everything, always.” (Romans 9:1-5 MSG) Paul cannot fathom why so many of his fellow Jews refuse to believe. He cannot understand why they can’t see what he sees. How did they miss their Messiah? Their entire way of life was supposed to prepare them for when He appeared and yet when He appeared, they killed Him rather than worshipped Him. And even now, after Jesus has been raised from the dead in power and glory, they still will not accept the good news of the gospel. It cuts him like a knife. He’d rather the Lord curse him if it would help save them.
Second, we need to hear Paul’s argument. We need to take his line of thinking seriously. Paul’s newfound faith in Jesus Christ is not a departure from his Judaism but rather the fulfillment of it. In true rabbinic style, Paul engages in midrash. Midrash is oral tradition that engages and exegetes the Scriptural text and seeks to apply it within a particular cultural context. Paul is clear. The Word of God has not failed. In fact, the opposite is true. Abraham’s family was built on a promise not genetics. It was defined by “Isaac” and not “Ishmael.” His descendants become his children by faith and not by the flesh. The same was true for Jacob and Esau, God making it clear His purposes are not random but intentional. Now some may complain this makes God unfair but they don’t see the bigger picture of what God is doing. They don’t see the grander plan God has in store. They are missing the forest for the trees. God’s goal, according to the prophet Hosea, has always been to take nobodies and make them somebodies. To take the unloved and call them beloved. This is why so many Gentiles are coming to faith! Though they didn’t seek God, He sought them. Though they didn’t know God, He knew them. Though they didn’t love God, He loved them. And it’s not like God somehow forgot Israel along the way. Not at all! Day after day, Paul says at the end of Romans 10, God opened His arms to His people only to have them reject Him over and over again. Still that didn’t stop God!
Paul’s final point is perhaps His most important. God is so good and so glorious that He will use even the resistance of His people for His salvific purposes. God will make sure their hardness of heart is temporary. He will use their hardness of heart to open a door to the Gentiles. The goal here is to fill the house of God with all whom He loves. Jew and Gentile. Slave and free. Male and female. All will become one in Christ Jesus and “Israel” will finally be complete. Paul is so blown away by this reality that he breaks out in praise. “Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out. Is there anyone around who can explain God? Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do? Anyone who has done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice? Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise!” (Romans 11:33-36 MSG)
Readings for tomorrow: Romans 13-16