For the benefit of our visitors for our dedications of Judah and Elodie, we have been since the summer been preaching through Romans – and so we have reached Romans 10. We will focus on Romans 9 and 10.
Why does Paul focus on the Jews and on Israel in this part of Romans.
As we said, when we read the book as a whole, we notice how often Paul in various places will point to Gentiles and Jews. This pointing at Jew and Gentile is something he does not do in most of his letters.
Also when you read the last chapters you notice the two chapters devoted to being a church community. A key reason why he has written the letter is due to division among Jews and Gentiles in this church. Paul is building unity. The depth he is working out makes us realise the issues that significant, and need some quite serious work.
To simply write ‘love one another’ – will not be enough here…
So Romans 9-11 fits into his seeking to build or maintain or restore unity in the church…
He is applying the gospel to church life. The gospel is not something that saves only. The gospel continually shapes day by day life.
Romans 9
Paul’s heart
2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. Romans 9:2
We will return to this, but as we encounter Paul’s moving words, he shares his heart for his people, and indirectly he is inviting the listeners to consider how do you feel towards the Jews – both those inside the church but also the wider community in the city.
But it is not only anguish he is sharing but his own struggles. He asks himself – perhaps giving voice to the questions in the church community – how could the people of Israel with their eight unique privileges – he lists them – have rejected their own Messiah (4–5).
Paul knows many Jews have received Jesus as King and how the church at the start was fully Jewish but he knows many, the majority it seems have not turned to Christ. That is the impression we are given as we read through Acts.
Did God’s word fail? V6.
It is a natural question – God’s word through Paul and others. Some had responded but not all; not all had responded but some did. The gospel is the power of salvation – Romans 1. Where is that power?
No it has not failed, he says.
He then says something strange at first glance.
‘’For not all who are descended from Israel, are Israel.’’
What can he mean?
he is not talking about a political nation, for at that point Israel is not a nation – in the past yes, but at that point, under Roman Empire, there was no independent nation of Israel as we have today. He is regularly talking about the Jews as a people.
‘But not all Israel is not Israel’. What Paul – as a Jew is doing – is sharing a message that sadly he knows has been repeated down through the history of Israel. As you read the Tanakh – the Hebrew Bible,
in Torah you see the law and the call to trust and obey – to know his word and to walk in his ways. Yet we see again and again some who are faithful and trusting and those who do not.
In the Histories and Prophets. For example you read of Kings who did evil in God’s sight and those who obeyed the law of God. Jewish Kings. Yet for every David or Hezekiah, you have an Ahab, or Jeroboam. Again you see two groups in Israel – the ones who trust and obey – and those who do not. Jeremiah speaks to this constantly – come the living water, do not dig your own cisterns etc – the call to return to the Lord God – to be the Israel God desired, his royal priesthood, to be a holy nation.
The Psalms and Proverbs especially call on the people to make a choice. Psalm 1 begins – blessed is the one who does not walk in the ways of the wicked, but his delight is in the law.
So what Paul is saying, he is not creating something new or offensive, he is actually here, recalling the truth down through the ages of Israel, there have been two communities – one responding to God’s call, placing their trust in him and giving their obedience; and sadly a second community, who have not, they have resisted or even rejected what God has called, commanded or expected. So for Paul what has happened with Jesus – the Messiah – is again an example of this tragedy…
V11 onwards. Mercy, Just and Hardening
He discusses Isaac and then Jacob and Esau. What these examples help say that God’s purpose will stand – that God’s purposes ultimately do not depend on the ones he calls, but on Him – who calls. He is working his purpose out…
In the remaining verses of the chapter – as time is short and we need to move into Romans 10,
Paul shares the important word of mercy and he shares the question – is God unjust in how he works.
‘’Just’’ suggests there is a right way to act.
And yet mercy says – we get what we do not deserve.
He mentions the word ‘’harden’’.
This is not God hardening people against him. The example is given of Pharoah. In Exodus, it is Pharoah who is described as hardening his heart, 7 times, before Exodus talks of God hardening him. God gave him over to his own stubbornness. We heard this same point made in Romans 1 – how God gave humanity over to its sinfulness, as it turned to worship other gods…
Romans has been showing that none of us deserve to receive God’s mercy, or anything from him.
So it is wrong place to start by saying – God is unjust…
Paul is saying – who are we to say that God is unjust, when we in fact we do not deserve mercy – but we wonderfully receive it. So if all of us deserve to face God’s punishment – we all deserve to be left to our own stubbornness and desire to be separate from God, that is not unjust – it is just that we would be left to his punishment.
But we receive mercy instead… the wonderful message that Paul has been sharing through the chapters of Romans. We are – the ones receiving the letter – are objects of mercy.
Inclusion – Gentiles and Jews -v25-29
Towards the end of Romans 9, he mentions the promises in Hosea. God includes the Gentiles. They had been ‘separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus’, Paul continues, ‘you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ … Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household.’ Words from Ephesians 2.
It is possible that some Gentiles may have thought – they were better than the Jews – because they had responded to Jesus. This may have been a problem, for in Romans 11 we will see words about not boasting and about being arrogant.
Paul says – the mercy of their inclusion is a marvelous reversal of fortunes by God’s mercy. The outsiders have been welcomed inside, the aliens have become citizens, and the strangers are now beloved members of the family. That was true then and is true now.
God includes us Gentiles; it did not begin with us, it began with the Jews and we have been included in.
Paul returns again to Isaiah – there is around 30 quotes from Isaiah in these three chapters – and there we hear the words of a remnant, remnant meaning a believing community within the wider community.
So why is there a remnant.
Romans 9:30 begins a new argument which rolls into Romans 10.
He explores how the Jews and Gentiles pursued righteousness.
How was righteousness obtained. Paul says for the Jews – in general – sought it by works, by human effort, by religion. While the Gentiles received it by faith. The remnant is connected to faith. Faith is a key theme in Romans 10.
Romans 10 – Paul’s heart again
He has made those comments about works and about faith.
Then he returns to sharing his heart about his people, the Jews.
He is sharing his heart for the Jews and he is, indirectly asking those listening, what is your heart to the Jews and how does it show itself. He shared his sorrow and anguish. His heart is not hard, his heart is compassionate. And this turns into prayer – Romans 10 – ‘’my hearts desire and prayer to God is for the Israelites is that they may be saved.’’ His compassions and anguish he turns into prayer…
He says ‘’the Jews did not know the righteousness that comes from God’’.
Paul says the Jews sought to establish their own righteousness, and they did not submit to God’s righteousness (3). Paul at the end of Romans 9 and here at the start of Romans 10, has contrasted faith and works, and about submitting to God’s righteousness and seeking to establish our own righteousness. And because of these errors, he is praying for the Jews.
What is righteousness by faith
Now he explains the righteousness of faith. What does it practically look like? This is something he has not explored yet in the letter.
‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart’,
V10. Paul quotes Deuteronomy. Moses in those words, said he placed before them the choice of life and death. And it was close to them so they could choose. Again here for Paul, it is close, the choice of life, of righteousness in God’s eyes.
Confess and Believe
Paul summarizes the gospel in these terms: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ (the earliest and simplest of all Christian creeds), and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (9).
Thus heart and mouth, inward belief and outward confession, belong essentially together.
Someone said: ‘Confession without faith would be vain …
But likewise faith without confession would be shown to be fake.’
‘’For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.’’
Verses 11–13.
Christ is not only easily accessible, but equally accessible to all,
to anyone (11) and to everyone (13),
since there is no difference (12),
no favouritism, whether Jew or Gentile.
Again Paul draws back to the need, to what unites. All who seek him will not be put to shame. That for Jew and Gentile, Christ is the same saving Lord of all. This calling on the Lord is what we pray for and hope for, for our children who have been dedicated, in fact for all – every person, every people who are not saved…
Gospel goes out and yet… v14-end
There is a need for evangelism. The word needs to go out, so that all can hear and are able to respond to that word that is now near. Yet now Paul returns to the question of why have so many not responded.
He asks questions. Did they not hear? He quotes from psalm 19 – drawing a parallel that as the glory of God has gone into the world through creation, the gospel has gone out – yes they have heard.
Did they not understand.
He says that they did understand.
Paul’s conclusion, is that they are being stubborn…
Isaiah 65 he quotes. ‘’I was found by those who did not seek me. I revealed myself to those ho did not ask for me.’’
This is striking isn’t it. Jesus called on us to ASK, SEEK FIND. Yet here God reverses things. They did not ask, did not seek, did not knock Paul is saying, yet God allowed himself to be found…
V21 But concerning Israel, ‘’all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.’’ Again if people are saying in Rome, God has lost interest in the Jews or given up. Paul quotes – Isaiah 65 again. He does not allow himself simply to be found. He actively holds out his hands to them. He offers a hug, a kiss. Like a parent to a child. God offering welcome, arms opened wide – like the image of the Prodigal Son – and God has kept on doing that, desiring they to return.
But they remain stubborn.
Conclusion
Romans 9 points to God’s workings. Romans 10 points to human responsibility.
However Romans 10 is not the end of the matter, for we have Romans 11 to come – a chapter where Paul will continue to consider the present but then look to the future …
Shall we pray…