Today in Romans chapter 9, the Apostle Paul answers this question. After I was born again — 14 years ago — and started studying the Bible in a different light (with the Holy Spirit as a guide), in one of my groups, we asked, “Why don’t most Jews believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah?” I couldn’t get it. We talked about it and we couldn’t figure it out.
Last year, I attended the funeral of a colleague who happened to be Reformed Jewish. After the ceremony — which included the reading of several familiar Psalms — that question was hanging heavy in my heart.
About the same time, I had my DNA test done through Ancestry.com and I found out that I have 1% Sephardic Jewish DNA! I have the same DNA as Abraham and Jesus! Even before I was born again! I started seeing Jews and Israelites very differently. They were my kin. Literally. Trying to understand why the Jews didn’t recognize Jesus as their Messiah, the Spirit finally led me to the right New Testament scriptures that answered my question. It was an ah-ha moment for me.
Romans 9
With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too. This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”
Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! For God said to Moses,
“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,
and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” [Exodus 33:19]So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.
Romans 9:1-16
Why is that when we pray for 2 people to be healed, God heals one of them and the other person dies?
Well, that’s where the 2 verses I just read come in. It’s God’s choice who dies and who survives. Paul continues…
For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” [Exodus 9:16] So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.
Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”
No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.
Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea,
“Those who were not my people,
I will now call my people.
And I will love those
whom I did not love before.” [Hosea 2:23]And,
“Then, at the place where they were told,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called
‘children of the living God.’”[Hosea 1:10.]And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,
“Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,
only a remnant will be saved.
For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth
quickly and with finality.” [Isaiah 10:22-23]And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:
“If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
had not spared a few of our children,
we would have been wiped out like Sodom,
destroyed like Gomorrah.” [Isaiah 1:9]
Israel’s Unbelief
What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,
Romans 9:17-33
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced.” [Isaiah 8:14; 28:16
Do You Trust God?
Or are you trusting in a man-made law? Take a close look at the Catholic Church and what they teach. Is it ALL Biblical? How do they explain it? Study it for yourself. I pray that God will soften your heart to recognize the truth. That you see the “great rock” in your path. Trust in God.
Our Thoughts are Nothing like God’s Thoughts…
Last night, my personal reading through the Book of Isaiah brought me to Chapter 55 and these verses…
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.“The rain and snow come down from the heavens
Isaiah 55:8-11
and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
producing seed for the farmer
and bread for the hungry.
It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
That is why I am doing this blog and my podcast. First because I know that God spared me for a purpose…
—to show you my power and to spread my fame throughout the earth.
Exodus 9:16
Second because of Isaiah 55:11…
It is the same with my word.
Isaiah 55:11
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
Soli Deo Gloria — to God Alone be the Glory!
My Testimony…
- From Catholic to Prodigal: Surviving College
- From Prodigal to Progressive: Surviving Hurricanes
- From Progressive to Born Again Christian: Surviving Unemployment
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