Romans 9

On Our Knees for the Lost

Have you ever felt anguish? It’s not a word that comes up in natural conversation. So, exactly what is anguish? The definition is a grief or sorrow that is literally physically painful. In this chapter, Paul is describing his anguish as he sees the rejection of Christ by his fellow Jews. The Greek word Paul uses for anguish is lupe, which is a physical or emotional pain that brings you down – takes you to your knees. As I read chapter 9, I began to think of people I know who have rejected Christ. Am I in anguish for them? Do I long for their acceptance of the Messiah? Does that longing take me to my knees? The next three chapters shows us Paul going to his knees before God on behalf of the Jewish people. He will discuss the nation of Israel and their place in the story of grace, so, as we read through these chapters, perhaps we too will gain that same heart for others.

Vs 1-5 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience is testifying to me with the Holy Spirit— that I have intense sorrow and continual anguish in my heart. For I could almost wish to be cursed and cut off from the Messiah for the benefit of my brothers, my own flesh and blood. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises. The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Messiah, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.

As I said, Paul is in anguish over his people’s lack of understanding. They have it all – the temple with God’s Shekinah glory abiding there, the covenants given to Abraham, Issac and Jacob, the law given by God Himself, and the promises and prophets. The Messiah has come from among them – the root of Jesse and descendant of David. They also have the festivals that foretell and point to the Messiah and the temple that is a shadow of God’s temple and throne in heaven. So why is it that many missed what was right in front of them? I think it is the same reason that many of us miss what is right in front of us. It is our expectation of what it will be. The expectation was a King of kings, as in the days of David and Solomon – an ascension to the throne. They were looking for someone who would lead them back to their glory days before Rome, Babylon and Assyria. They sought a man who would restore the rightful place of Israel once again. They were not looking for a suffering servant born in an obscure stable and raised in Nazareth. They wanted a warrior, not a shepherd and suffering servant who would die on a cross. So what went wrong? How did they miss what the prophets like Isaiah and Hosea said? Paul answers this question next.

Vs 6-13 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac. That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring. For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son. And not only that, but also Rebekah received a promise when she became pregnant by one man, our ancestor Isaac. For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand— not from works but from the One who calls—she was told: The older will serve the younger. As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.

First, Paul answers the question that came to their mind first – Did God’s Word fail? Paul says no, it did not. Just because God’s Word is not accepted, doesn’t mean it is less true or powerful. Paul also reminds us that not all of Abraham’s children were children of the promise. All were blessed, but not under the covenant. Only Isaac received the promise, and then, only Jacob received the promise after that. On a little side trip, I want to point out a pattern here. We are not sure of Abraham, but we know Isaac was not his first born – Ishmael was. Then Jacob was not the first born of Isaac – that would be Esau. And as we walk through the linage of Jesus we find it was Judah – the forth born – and Perez – a son through Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law by the way, and on and on till we get to David. In his case, he is the last born of Jesse, then Solomon, David’s son conceived by less than honorable means. Jesus’ linage is certainly The Redeemer through the redeemed! When we look at how things worked culturally in those days, this is quite astounding. The norm is the first born inherits and receives the blessings and promises. But God doesn’t do things in usual fashion. Instead, He does the unexpected. Isaiah 55:8-9 says it this way, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” God just doesn’t do things the way we do it. He does it the way it needs to be done. Sometimes, this means God will lead us on a path we don’t understand, but it will be for our good. He Paul continues with his explanation:

Vs. 14-26 What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! For He tells Moses: I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. For the Scripture tells Pharaoh: I raised you up for this reason so that I may display My power in you and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth. So then, He shows mercy to those He wants to, and He hardens those He wants to harden. You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?” But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? And what if God, desiring to display His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath ready for destruction? And what if He did this to make known the riches of His glory on objects of mercy that He prepared beforehand for glory— on us, the ones He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As He also says in Hosea: I will call Not My People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved. And it will be in the place where they were told, you are not My people, there they will be called sons of the living God.

Again, God does not do things our way. He doesn’t follow our “rules” of culture. In fact, the whole of Leviticus was to place the people of Israel outside of the cultural norm. They were set apart, following a different path than those around them. God does what He chooses, because what He chooses will ultimately end in His glory and our good. Jesus makes this clear in the Parable of Vineyard Workers in Matthew 20:1-15: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the workers on one denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine in the morning, he saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. To those men he said, ‘You also go to my vineyard, and I’ll give you whatever is right.’ So off they went…. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman, ‘Call the workers and give them their pay, starting with the last and ending with the first.’ “When those who were hired about five came, they each received one denarius. So when the first ones came, they assumed they would get more, but they also received a denarius each. When they received it, they began to complain to the landowner… “He replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I’m doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me on a denarius? Take what’s yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my business?” This is a wonderful example of how God works. In his grace and mercy, we each receive the same gift. It doesn’t matter who you are, or when you came to Christ, the gift of salvation is still the same. This isn’t how the world works, but it’s how God works. He says, “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my business?” Jesus reminds us, God has a right to show mercy where He wants to show mercy and wrath where He needs to show His wrath. It is, and always will be, about the glory of God. What is going to bring Him the most glory. This is not a selfish glory. It is God’s glory, which always has the ultimate good in mind. His glory will always be what is best for His children. It will always be something that brings His creation to Himself.

Paul understands God’s desire for all nations to come to Him has always been in the forefront. It is throughout scripture. Paul quotes one here from Hosea 2:23 – I will call Not My People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved. This is the mercy God has shown to all mankind. He has called both Gentiles and Jew alike His children. Each worker will get the same pay. Mercy is for everyone. The same thing goes for wrath. If someone wants to go their own way, then God will allow their hearts to harden. He will let them receive the wrath they choose through their disobedience and unbelief. The Jews in Paul’s day refusal to open their eyes to the truth led to a stubborn denial. I know someone like this, and you probably do too. He was wrong about something, but he dug in and refused to admit it. Several of us called him out, but his pride wouldn’t let him admit it. There came a point where we just had to say, fine, be wrong. Even after he dealt with the consequences, he still blamed it on something else. That same pride in Pharaoh led to the downfall of his people and the death of his son. He was given chance after chance, but God knew his heart wasn’t going to budge. It also led to the people of Israel leaving Egypt for the Promised Land. We see their stubborn hearts led to 40 years of wandering before another generation was able to walk into the Promised Land. Beware of stubborn pride. It only leads to the hardness of the heart, and can bring lasting consequences. But God’s grace continues to reach down even further and there is always hope. Isaiah 1:9 speaks of it:

Vs 27-33 But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: Though the number of Israel’s sons is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved; for the Lord will execute His sentence completely and decisively on the earth. And just as Isaiah predicted: If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah. What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. But Israel, pursuing the law for righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written: Look! I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over, yet the one who believes on Him will not be put to shame.

There will always be a remnant. Yes, the people who left Egypt did not receive the promise, but their offspring did. Unlike Sodom and Gomorrah, who were totally wiped out, there were offspring who received the promise. And there will be a remnant who will receive the promise of God amongst the Jews once again. Paul, as he has done in other letters, calls out those Jews who hung onto the law as their salvation. Throughout chapters 1-8, he explains in detail, we are saved by grace not works. Our salvation is because God has done it for us – we cannot do it ourselves. We can follow the law all we want, but we will fail because we are incapable of perfection. This is why God gave His people the law in the first place: to show them what holiness looked like and help them understand they could never attain it. Then, in His mercy, He gave them an entire sacrificial system so they could receive His grace. They decided to focus on attainment rather than grace. Before we get all high and mighty, remember we do the same thing. It’s the old pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps attitude. It’s the child in us saying “I can do it”. It’s our pride that won’t allow grace to intercede for us.

Paul also shows the church at Rome that those Jews who stubbornly follow the law and refuse to see God’s gift of grace have allowed their hearts to be hardened. Jesus has become a stumbling stone for them. They dug in their heels, and refused to see what’s right in front of them: the festivals, the sacrificial system, the set up of the temple, and on and on – all a foreshadowing of the coming Messiah. All these things are a dim reflection of the hope that was to come, and did come, through Christ. This is why the veil was torn – the mercy seat of God has been revealed in Christ. This is why the temple was destroyed – what was once a shadow is now in living color through Christ. It is there for all to see, yet there were, and are, those who stubbornly and pridefully refuse to see it. This is why Paul is lupe, anguished. He had been one of them. He, more than anyone, understood their blindness because he had been blind as well. Now his eyes are open and his greatest desire was to see his fellow Jews come to the same understanding.

This is also an explanation as to why the Gentiles, who did not pursue the law, had an understanding the Jews did not. Because they did not have the law in the first place, it was easier for them to see grace. They did not have the temple or the prophets, so, when they heard the truth, there wasn’t anything to stumbling over. What’s real amazing is, the very thing that should have been a stepping stone to salvation for the Jews, actually became a stumbling block instead. It goes to show, sometimes too much knowledge can be the very thing that blinds us to the truth. We think we know it all, but this is the very thing that closes us off to seeing something that leads us to real truth. It’s like the friend I mentioned who refused to see it any other way but the way he knew it. The truth was right in front of him, but he insisted it was wrong. This is the reason Proverbs 16:18 warns us, “pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.” And this is why Paul is anguished. He so wants his fellow Jews to know and understand what he, and the many Gentile churches he has started, have come to know.

As I close this study, I have to ask myself, and you: do we share that same anguish over the lost of this world? Over the past few weeks my pastor has been preaching on the 7 deadly sins. Yesterday, the sin was slothfulness. We often think of slothfulness as laziness, and to a certain extent it is, but, it goes deeper than that. Slothfulness is really about apathy – not caring. It is a deadly sin because we stop caring about the things that are at the very heart of God. We stop caring about the lost. We become complaisant in our thinking and stop even speaking truth to those around us. We might even be a bit like the first workers in the vineyard, thinking we deserve more than others because of our “understanding” of God’s Word. What we really need is a little more “lupe”, anguish for the lost. Anguish that brings us to our knees for a world dying in sin. My prayer is God would create in me an anguished heart for the lost. Right now, it’s the Easter season. It’s a time when we celebrate God’s ultimate gift of hope and salvation. May it be our prayer that God would continue to open the eyes of the blind, open the ears of the deaf and open the minds of those who lack understanding – that they would come to know the grace of a loving Father. That, instead of hearts hardened to the gospel, they would be softened by the Holy Spirit and open to hearing the truth.