Who is Israel today and what is our purpose?
In recent weeks the reaction of Israel to the invasion by Hamas troops from Palestine and the killing of 1,500 Jews has caused much debate. Is it right for the Israelis to react in such a violent way against Hamas with the widespread destruction of Gaza and the killing of so many people?ß Are Israel still God’s people?
The gift of righteousness
In Paul’s letter to the Romans he reminds them that Gentile Christians have been grafted into the people of God and that those born as Jews will be excluded if they reject the fulfilment of god’s plan,, God’s Son the Lord Jesus, who is the only hope of the world. Paul argues that physical circumcision, the formal sign of belonging to God’s people, saves nobody:
“A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a Jew is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.” Romans 2:28-29
Paul follows this statement by asking a pertinent question:
“What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?
He answers this in a very positive manner
Much in every way! They have been entrusted with the very words of God.” Romans 3:1-2
To know the gospel message and have the opportunity to respond to its message is an immense advantage, but without the response that God requires Jews gain nothing.
Paul goes on to emphasise that there is no-one, Jew or Gentile, who is naturally right with God. Quoting Psalm 14 he writes,
“There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless.” Romans 3:10-12
“There is no difference (between Jew and Gentile), for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
Paul dies not leave his readers in this helpless state as there is one hope, the gift of the status of righteousness that the Old Testament also speaks of:
“But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus christ to all who believe.. . .” Romans 3:21-22
All people are sinful in God’s eyes, but Paul then returns to remind his readers that there is good news:
“ . . . and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:24
This free gift of the status of righteousness is what the book of Romans is all about. Early in the book he explains the meaning of Habakuk 2:4
“For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written ‘the righteous will live by faith’ Romans 1:17
Who are God’s people?
This raises the question, ‘Who then are God’s people?’ They are the people who have a personal relationship with God in that they honour him and live as he directs; such people are given the status of being righteous. This is illustrated from the Old Testament story of Abraham, who was saved, not because of how he lived but because God chose him to have a special relationship with God and he followed what god told him.
Paul knew that the Scriptures are the Word of God to all people:and all must learn the lessons it contains:
“What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’” Romans 4:3
This is further explained,
“However to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited a righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.’” Romans 4:5-8
This is the Christian message,
“We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.” Romans 4:9
A person has to be very dim to miss this central point, salvation can only come as a gift. Abraham is the model of all of God’s people:
“He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed – the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” Romans 4:17
We cannot become righteous by the good way we live, God’s righteousness is infinitely greater than any standard we can achieve and to live in his family we have to be deemed by God as being as righteous as Jesus; this standing can only be found as a gift. John put this very succinctly:
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:12-13
Paul again emphasises this in his letter to the Romans:
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
The obedience of the righteous
Paul now emphasises that those who have been given the status of being righteous have an obligation to live as God has directed us. A commitment to obey the Lord Jesus is major evidence that we are truly God’s people.
“In the same way, count yourseleves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.” Romans 5:11-12
God’s ‘Chosen People’, the descendants of Abraham are those who have a personal relationship with God and his Son, the Lord Jesus, just as Abraham had and this will be demonstrated in the way we live.
“ Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death or to obedience which leads to righteousness.” Romans 3:16
There are only two eternal destinations, death, an eternal separation from God or living in the poresence of God and his righteousness. Obedience to what God has disclosed to us in Scripture is a major evidence that we have been ‘born again’.
“But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness..” Romans 5:17-18
The confidence of the righteous
Paul now moves on to the confidence thos who have accpeted the Lord Jesus as their Lord and Saviour should understand. This is the message of Romans 8 which begins:
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
The proof that we have been saved will be that we are becoming like the Lord Jesus, His Spirit is obviously in us. The gift of righteousness will always change us into obeying the Lord and so becoming more like him.
“And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness” Romans 8:15
Life will not be easy when we become followers of Jesus, our prize will be in eternity.
“I consider our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. Romans 8:18
God has called a group of people to be his Chosen People. The whole of the Old Testament looks forwards to the coming of God’s Messiah who will call people from every nation to follow him. He says thaqt he loves and cares for his people and in eternity we will experience this love in a new way.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. But there is God for new he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brothers.” Romans 8:28-29
Just as God chose the descendants of Abraham to be his chosen people, now God has extended his kingom so people from every nation can belong to him. Essentially, to be a memebr of God’s people must be because he first put it in our hearts to want to be with him.
“And there is he predestined, he also called; there is he called, he also justified; there is he justified, he also glorified.” Romans 8:30
What a priviledge it is to be chosen to be one of God’s people. Paul reminds us of the secuirty those who remain in christ have:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor Demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, now the height no depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
Who are God’s Chosen People?
Now the ex-Pharisee, Paul, makes a major statement, he longs that his fellow Jews can come to see that in Jesus Christ, the Messaih, their faith is fulfilled and their symbolic animal sacrifices have been completed by the death of their Messiah to pay for their sin. He says of the people of Israel,
“Theirs is is the adoption as sons; theirs is the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God overall, for ever praised! Amen.” Romans 9:4-5
What prividges the Jews have, all that God was going to do through His Messaiah is foretold in the the Old Testament, it the Jewsish symbolism of their services and feasts. Does the rejection of their Messiah by many Jews invalidate the Jewsish Scriptures. Certainly not!
“It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. No because they are his descendants are they all Abrahams children.” Romans 9:6
Paul summarises this situation:
“What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, or righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attended. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling-stone”. Romans 9:30-32
The ‘stumbling-stone’ is their Messiah, the Lord Jesus.
Today there are religious people who still think that, because of their relatively good lives and even their religious affiliation, they will be acceptable to God. How we live can neevr satisfy God. The apostle Paul longed that his fellow Jews could understand this:
“Brothers, my hearts desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.
But I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to Gods righteousness. Christ is the end of the law, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” Romans 10:1-4
Anyone can be put right with God if their faith, their dependance, is of God’s Messiah. This must be an open allegiance:
“But if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame’. Four there is no difference between Jew and Gentile - the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who: him, for, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
This is the message that the church is committed to pass on to all people, Jew and Gentile alike. Our message is primarily social or political, it is about the salvation of those who commit themselves to Jesus Chtist.
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15
The greatest need of memebers of apostolic churches is to return to the apostles’ message and then to teach this widely to all people of the world. Service of the Lord Jesus is the way to peace.
Has God rejected the Jews then?
Paul returns to this theme with chracteristic clarity:
“I ask then, has God rejected his people? By no means.” Romans 11:1
Paul gives himself as an example of a disobedient Jew who found forgiveness in Christ. The message of the Old Testament is that God will always keep a remnant who remain faithful to himself:
“So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace it is no longer by works; if it were grace would no longer be grace. What the? What isael sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened . . .”” Romans 11:5-7
The tree of God’s people has many branches but some are broken off because they refused to believe and follow God’s revealed way. Their place has been taken by believing Gentiles:
“If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot have been grafted in among the others and share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches.” Romans 11:17-18
There is no place for smugness
There are some who say that once a person has made a commitment to Christ they are saved for eternity. Paul rejects such naivity. Our salvation depends on us being in Christ, outside of him there is no salvation:
“You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! Romans 11:19-24
God’s covenants still stand
There are so many promises in the Old Testament that god will always remain faithful to his promises to his Chiosen people, the Jews. Even if many turn away from him and his ways he will always keep a remnant for himself to achieve his ends. The saviour of the world will come from his people.. the message of the Old Testament is summarised:
“The delverer will come from Zion: he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” Roamns 11:26-27
Some Christians had come to see the Jews as their enemies but Paul wants us to undertsand that his word is utterly reliable:
“As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call is irrevocable.” Romans 11:28-29
Paul is so thrilled by this love of god for people that he bursts out in praise:
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” Romans 11:33-36
The obligations fo the righteous
The final four chapters of the book of Roans conatin practical directions about how Christians should live as we, like the Jews have been chosen by God for a purpose. We should be wholeheartedly committed to living for the glory and reputation of our Lord:
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2
All the apostles similarly urged Christians to be single-minded in our commitment to living for the reputation of the Lord Jesus. John wrote:
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2:15-17
James wrote bluntly, affirming the validity of Scripture, urging people to be single-minded,
“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:4-8
Paul finishes his book, just as he started it, with a reminder of how a holy people are characterised The book starts:
“Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” Romans 1:5-6
The book ends:
“ Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith - to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.” Romans 16:25-27
Recently I have been asking many Christians, ‘Why did you become a Christian’? Nearly all answer with the reasons they became Christians, such as ‘My parents were’, ‘I felt a need for forgiveness’, ‘the evidence about Jesus is overwhelming’, ‘I needed a purpose in life that was true’ and the like.
However the question ‘Why?’ has another meaning, ‘What is the pupose?” the Bible puts much more emphasis on this meaning. Christians have been chosen by God to believe in the Lord Jesus so that we may live for his glory,
“ . . .so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith - to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ!” Roamns 16:26-27
All Christians should ask ourselves whether we are being effective in fulfilling this purpose we have been chosen for!
BVP Novemeber 2023
