Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon – Romans 9:1-5 – What About the Jews?
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches
July 31, 2011
Last week we read these words in Romans chapter 8:
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor 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.
Nothing can separate us from God's love is an important principle to remember. God is faithful and will never leave us. God will never forget the promises he has made to us. We have been and will continue to be richly blessed by God. But what about the Jews? Has something separated Jews from their God? Was the Jews' God unfaithful? Did their God leave them? Did God forget all the promises that he made to them? Has God stopped blessing the Jewish people? Will God punish the Jewish people in hell for eternity for their believe that Jesus was not the Messiah, the Christ?
The answer of the church for centuries has been a resounding “Yes!”. We have blamed the Jews for their refusal to believe in Jesus. Because of their unbelief God has ripped up the ancient covenants and promises and started over with the church. God has removed their blessings and given them to us. God will punish them for eternity while we will enjoy the blessings heaven.
This way of thinking has led Christians to force Jews out of their communities, imprison them and even kill them. For the church's historic antisemitism we must confess what we have done and repent. With this in mind we will be looking at Romans 9-11 over the next few weeks. These are some of the texts that Christians have used to condemn the Jews. Let's look at them in a new way. But first let's pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Today, 500,000 Jews live in France. A recent poll indicated that about a quarter wish to leave because of rising antisemitism. 82% say that antisemitism is a major problem in France. 78% say that it is getting worse. 38% say that they have been targets of antisemitic attacks. And 58% say they know someone who has been attacked. (www.jewishfederations.org)
Antisemitism has always been around and continues today. Even Christians are part of the problem. This is true even though we worship the same God and share the Hebrew scriptures, our Old Testament. The Apostle Paul was himself a Jew and suffered the antisemitism of the Roman Empire.
Paul's ministry was to both Jews and non-Jews, Gentiles. With the Gentiles he was hugely successful in bringing them to Christ. But the Jews, his own people, were resistant. Paul agonized over all of this and wrote these words.
Romans 9:1-9 NIV Romans 9:1 I speak the truth in Christ-- I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit-- 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
Paul is agonizing over a difficult problem. His own people, the children of Israel, have mostly ignored the good news of Jesus Christ and failed to recognize him as their messiah, the Christ. Paul doesn't understand this at all. God grace for who believe is such a good thing everyone should accept it, especially the people of God. The fact that so many have rejected Christ is a source of great agony and disappointment for Paul.
What Paul could have done was to condemn the Jews for what they had failed to do. This is the common reaction: to blame Jews for believing in Jesus Christ and placing the blame of their eternal damnation squarely on their shoulders. But this is not what Paul told the church of Rome. Paul saw the relationship between the Jews and their God very differently.
What Paul goes on to say is the God has made repeated promises to Israel. Remember the promise God made to Abram, that his descendants would number more than all the stars in heaven. And when the children of Israel were in Egypt, God promised them freedom and land. God promised that David's heir would always sit on the throne. And God promised a messiah; a promise fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
God showed his faithfulness to these promises even when the children of Israel turned their back on God. Remember how God freed them from slavery in Egypt and guided them for forty years in the wilderness. Remember how God raised up judges to protect them from their enemies. Remember how God used the Persian King Cyrus to return the children of Israel to their homeland after being exiled in Babylon. Remember how God sent Jesus as their Messiah. God is truly faithful to his people.
But if we now believe that God has ripped up the covenants he made with the children of Israel, what does that tell us about God? Is God really faithful if he turns his back on his own people? If the Jews were plan A and were supplanted by the Church, plan B, can we still say we worship a faithful God? And if God was unfaithful to his chosen people, what makes us think that God will be faithful to us? Will the Church, plan B, be replaced by something else, plan C, and our salvation lost? Paul says a resounding “No!” to all of this because God is faithful. God has always been faithful. God will always remain faithful both to us and to the children of Israel.
And this leads Paul to say something crucially important about God. God is always free to act anyway God chooses, and so God will freely choose to whom he will extend his mercy. This is the theological doctrine of election. Our salvation depends not on what we do, but on the choices God makes to save us.
God has chosen the children of Israel as his people. God has promised to bless them richly. And he has! Paul says. “4b and to them (the Children of Israel) belong the adoption (as the people of God), the glory (of God's presence among them), the covenants (and promises he has given them throughout history), the giving of the law (which has blessed them with good lives), the worship (where his presence is felt and sins forgiven) … 5 to them belong the patriarchs (Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, (Jesus Christ).”
So God is faithful. He has richly blessed the Children of Israel, and will continue to do so. So why do they not believe in Jesus? Paul says 32 “Because they did not strive for it (belief in Jesus) on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works.” The Children of Israel in the first century were more concerned about the form of their religion than about their faith. Temple worship, sacrifice, and holiness were emphasized over faith. And without faith they were unable to believe in Jesus. Gentiles, on the other hand, had no concern for these things and were therefore more likely to develop the faith they needed to believe in Jesus.
This comes to us as both good news and a warning. The good news is that just as God remains faithful to the Jews fulfilling the promises he made to them, so to will God remain faithful to us. Remember that nothing can separate us from the love of God. But the warning is that if we are too focused on worship or buildings or mission or youth programs we may forget to develop our faith, our belief in Jesus Christ.
So what should we do about the Jews? Like Paul, we must continue to tell them the good new that in fulfillment of their scriptures Jesus has come as their Messiah ushering in the Kingdom of God. Like Paul, we must pray for the Jews that they will come to belief and find salvation. But we must also recognize the Jews as the children of God and as the inheritors of God's promises. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment