Romans Lesson 26: Israel, The Chosen People :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: July 7, 2020 by RR7

Chapter 9:1-5

“¹ I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, ² that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, ⁴ who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; ⁵ of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.”

Paul, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is about to make a sharp turn in this book of Romans. He has been dealing with salvation, our security and all of the glorious benefits we have in Christ. He has warned the carnal Christian, and he has warned those that reject the free offering of salvation in Jesus. If you were to jump ahead to chapter 12, “I beseech you therefore…,” it would be a logical jump from the end of chapter 8. We have the security in Jesus that we need to grow, and there I beseech you; but in chapter 9, Paul makes a sharp turn to talk about the nation of Israel. He spends 3 chapters laying out the case that God is not done with Israel as yet. It is as if Paul were writing along about the great salvation we Gentiles have in Jesus and suddenly he was reminded that salvation is for the Jews as well.

There have been of late, and I am sure it is no new doctrine, that God has replaced the Jews with the NT Church, He is done with Israel, that dispensation is over, and there is no more of God’s work to be done in, with and through them. Paul makes the case in the next three chapters that nothing could be further from the truth. The Apostle John in the book of the Revelation makes the case that God is not done with Israel yet; rather, there is simply a gap of time that God has set aside for the Gentile church to grow and thrive, and that time will come to an end and He will deal with Israel, the nation, once again.

Take a look at this very book of Romans and its layout. There are 8 chapters dealing the salvation we have in Jesus, then a break about Israel, then Paul picks up telling us how to live out the salvation we have (chapter 12-16). In these first 5 verses, Paul gives us a few reasons why God cannot be done with Israel as yet:

Israel; still in God’s plan: verses 1-5

All that we have in the Bible is directly from Israel. The law, the prophets and the fathers of the faith like Abraham are all Jews. There is no Christianity without the Jews. Our Saviour is a Jewish Savior, a Jewish Carpenter and a Jewish King. He is our Jewish High Priest after the order of Melchizedek who was the High Priest of Salem, later to be called Jerusalem. All of the writers in the Bible are Jewish, the book covers Jewish traditions and history, the Bible tells the story of the Jewish forefathers and their families, and of course, the very story is centered in Israel. The vast majority of the geography in the Bible is Jewish.

Jesus is a Jew. Not was a Jew, but is a Jew. Once he was born and took on the human form, He still has that form. When we see Him, we will see the same Jesus that encouraged Thomas to touch Him. We will see that same Jesus that ate breakfast in John 21 with his disciples. We will see the same Jesus that spoke to the two on the road to Emmaus. Jesus is a Jew, an Israelite, and He is the biggest and most important fact to remember that God cannot be done with Israel. In fact, Jesus will rule the world from Jerusalem, David’s throne in Israel. Israel will be the center of commerce and worship in the coming new kingdom. In Isaiah 66:22-23 we find these words,

“For as the new heavens and the new earth

Which I will make shall remain before Me,’ says the Lord,

‘So shall your descendants and your name remain.

And it shall come to pass

That from one New Moon to another,

And from one Sabbath to another,

All flesh shall come to worship before Me,’ says the Lord.”

This passage in Isaiah 66 is about the Millennial Kingdom. Jesus is in Jerusalem, called Zion, and we are told that the people of the world, ‘all flesh,’ will come to worship the Lord. They will do this in Zion; Israel. This is obviously not happening now, and it has not happened before. This is a future action, and so we can see that Israel will play a central part in the end and into the new age to come. In Isaiah 2:3-4 we have this promise to the world’s people at the time of Jesus’ earthly Kingdom,

“And many peoples will come and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.’ For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Then He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor train anymore for war.”

Notice that the word of the Lord will come from Jerusalem and law will go forth from Zion, Israel; and people will go to the Lord at the house of Jacob, Israel, and there He will solve their issues and bring global peace. Israel is at the center of the end times. It has to be; Jesus is coming back as a Jewish King to fulfill the promise made to Judah in Genesis 49:9-10,

“Judah is a young lion—my son, you return from the prey. Like a lion he crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his.”

Jesus is the fulfillment of this promise. Right now, there is no King in Israel, no scepter and no one sitting on David’s throne. That promise is yet to be fulfilled. God cannot leave promises unfulfilled; He must meet every promise He has ever made. If HE can cheat Judah and David, He can cheat us. If His promises are not sure for all of us, they are not sure for any of us. In 2 Corinthians 1:20, Paul assures us that God’s promises, once promised are as good as done,

“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”

Israel: Don’t forget where you came from, verses 1-5

One of the most important things for us to recall is the summary that Paul, really the Holy Spirit makes here in these first 5 verses. While it is true that Paul is writing – and yes, he is a Jew – yes, he does love his nation Israel and he would gladly give up his salvation so they, the Jews, could have their eyes opened like his were; never forget that Paul was writing at the behest of the Holy Spirit. God is the one who wrote these words with Paul’s muscles and pen. God is telling us that He is not done with Israel. He has a plan for her, a plan to redeem her, at least a remnant and to restore her to her glory for His glory.

In Ezekiel 16:1-14 we see God describing his relationship with Israel – how he found her abandoned and He washed her and He took her as His wife; He made a covenant with her and clothed her and loved her, yes, and even as she went astray and was an unfaithful wife. God then called a prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute; and even as his wife was cheating on him with men, he, as a picture of God with Israel, redeemed her, and she was no longer the prostitute. This is the promise of God to the nation. For a time, about 2,000 years, Israel will be put aside, shelved so to speak, and one day God will come for her. The people He loves and cherishes and to whom He has made eternal promises that cannot be broken.

Folks, we are saved by a Jewish Gospel, saved by a Jewish Saviour, who shed perfect Jewish blood on a cross in Israel on a hill just outside of Jerusalem to fulfill the requirements of the Jewish Law found in Exodus 20 – Leviticus 27. Jesus’ sacrifice tore the veil of the Jewish temple and satisfied the wrath of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Jewish forefathers. We study a Bible where 41 books are deliberately centered on the history and person of Israel, from Genesis 12 to the end of the Gospel of John. We have one book, The Revelation that, once we get past chapter 4, only talks about Israel. The Temple mount, the two witnesses who are Jews, the 144,000 Jewish men who evangelize the world looking for Jews to be saved, and on and on we can go.

People who remove Israel from the future plans of God and replace it with the NT Church have to do a lot of creative reading and have to do a lot of flat- out lying.

I don’t know if God let Paul know that his people, the very people he was lamenting over, would be rejecting Jesus come 2,000 years later; and if history is right, Paul died in the mid 60’s AD before the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Roman military in 70 AD. God spared him this grief. But one day, his longing and his love for his people will be fulfilled when the heavens split open and the Messiah, followed by the armies of Heaven, split open the sky (Revelation 19:11) and rescue Israel. Their eyes will be opened and their hearts softened by 7 brutal years of persecution at the hands of a ruthless dictator named the Man of Sin. The Jews rejected Jesus at the crucifixion; but one day soon, they will receive Him and He them, and the world will never be the same again for eternity.

Don’t be like the Jews; open your eyes and open your hearts to the King of kings, the Lord of lords and the only Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. We find our security in the following verses, 1 John 5:12-13. Are you secure in Jesus?

“Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Study Through Romans: Lesson 25 :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: June 30, 2020 by RR7

Chapter 8:31-39

Oh, Victory in Jesus!

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ ³⁷ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.“

We live in turbulent times. There is a lot of unrest in the world around, and there is a lot of death. Just this week I was on my way to work, and just before I got to work, I saw the remains of an investigation involving the death of a cyclist just around the block from my dealership. It reminded me of how fragile life is. Most likely, that person did not leave home thinking that today would be their last day. They had plans, maybe a family, a job expecting them to show up, a Facebook page waiting to be updated, and on and on we can go. But that day, that Tuesday morning was that day, the day that they died and then had to face the judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

My wife and I put close to 100,000 km per year, about 60,000 miles for my US readers, on the road. We drive in all manner of weather and conditions. We have driven when we are tired and sick; we have driven in the middle of the night; often we have driven 24 hrs. with just washroom and fuel stops. God has been gracious to us and has watched over us all these years. The Word of God is the only sure footing we have in this life. In it are the promises that grant us security in the insecurity of this world. It is the true foundation that cannot be moved.

We celebrated Father’s Day last Sunday, and I enjoyed it. I had dinner the night before at my daughter’s home. On Sunday I got a couple of nice gifts and enjoyed some Chinese food. I got a card from my son; we have had a tumultuous relationship for the past 2-3 years, one filled with arguments, lots of tears, broken hearts and, at times, long periods of silence. He has been asked to leave our home at times and has been back just 6 months. He gave me a card thanking me for being his dad and letting me know that he is still working on making better decisions. It surprised me and brought me great joy.

This chapter that we are considering in Romans is so powerful that it is one of those chapters that one can read over and over and not get tired of. It completes the journey that we take from Salvation on and gives us a very in-depth understanding of the Christian life. Let us do a quick review;

No Condemnation, verse 1

Those who are in Christ Jesus are no longer condemned before God. While God does love all mankind and, in his Holy love, has provided a way for us to be saved (John 3:16), He also reminds us that those who are not in Jesus are under the wrath of God (John 3:36);

“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

So, we have two classes of people on earth – just two; no more – those who are in Jesus and are no longer under condemnation, and those who are not in Jesus and are under the wrath of God. It is that simple; we like to complicate things. God makes things really simple for us. We that are in Jesus should not fear the wrath of God. God, we are told in Hebrews, deals with us as children, and He lovingly chastens us (Hebrews 12:6-11);

“‘For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.’ If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

To chasten is to discipline and to instruct in righteous behavior. God deals with us as children. We all understand children; we have all been children or have children, and we understand the relationship that is there; it is permanent. Once you have a child, there is nothing that child can do to stop being your child. You may disown him or her, but that does not change the fact that they are your children. Being born into a family is a permanent situation. As God has allowed mankind to discover the science of life, we have come to understand DNA, and that we can trace one’s ancestry back for generations with DNA; you are family to people you did not even know and vice-versa because of blood. In the spiritual world, we are washed in the blood of Jesus and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and we are children of God, and no longer under the condemnation of the 2nd Death (Revelation 20: 11-15).

We are told that God works on us to help us learn to live by the Spirit and not to the flesh. He chastens us and trains us to give ourselves to Him (verses 9-17). And then last week we talked about our sonship in Jesus and the special relationship we have in Him with God the Father (verses 18-30). This is the journey that the Christian’s life takes.

Salvation (many want us to believe that sonship is seen by rampant prosperity, health and favor), rather, is seen by chastening and correction. Then, as we mature in Jesus, we begin to have this sweet relationship with God the Father. We see it in our human lives. A child is born into the family, and they grow up; and over the years there is chastening – some little, like being denied a privilege; some harsher by a spanking – and then, maybe as they get older, the loss of freedoms. There may be a lot of hard moments, fights, raised voices, tears and long periods of silence; but as children mature, the vast majority enter into this loving relationship with their parents. There is less conflict and more harmony and more joy. Parents and their children can be friends, they can laugh at things that went on, forgive, forget and love.

Eternal Confidence verses 31-39

We, you and I, who are saved and washed in the blood of Jesus, are no longer under the wrath of God. On the contrary, we are now targeted by the devil. We have bullseyes on our backs and fronts, so to speak. At times it may feel that we are abandoned; we are not. It may feel that we are under the wrath of God; in Jesus, we are not. It may feel as if we are not safe in His hands; we are. Paul comes to the conclusion that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. You did nothing to earn it, and you can do nothing to keep it; it is a gift. A child does not earn our love, even as human parents. If we sinful people understand that power of love for a child, then imagine the powerful love of our Holy Heavenly Father.

The goal, of course, is that of friendship, for us to move beyond being mere children of God; that is done in a one-time act of instant salvation at the time of belief. And, to become the friends of God. In John 15:14-15 we see these words,

“You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father, I have made known to you.”

In Genesis 18: 17-19, God revealed what He was about to do in Sodom to Abraham because they were friends. There are parts of the Bible you will only understand as a friend of God. God will only reveal them to His friends. There were saved persons in Jesus’ day that did not get the same revelations and personal teaching that the apostles did. He showed them things that only they knew, and only they understood; and only they could understand. Friendship opens doors that other relationships can’t, even the relationship of being a parent. Thus, we have two secure relationships in Jesus: We are children of God, saved and secure forever. And, we have friendship with God, one that is intimate and personal.

Nothing can separate us from God; neither external nor internal forces can separate from God. In His love, according to 1 Corinthians 13:6, God does not keep a record of our sins and failures; they are cast into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19) and are covered by the blood and in His love (Proverbs 10:12). Not even our sins as saved persons can separate us from God; they were and are covered by Jesus’ blood. We will be chastened lovingly, but never condemned. We are secured in Jesus, secured by Jesus, secured with Jesus; and in John 10: 28-30, Jesus puts the cherry on the cake with these powerful words,

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Are you secure in Jesus? Are you under the wrath of God? Are you a child of God? And, if you are a child, are you learning to be His friend? Do you have eternal life in Jesus?