Romans Chapter 9 cont'd
They are the Israelites- God's historic "chosen people"; who were entrusted with the message of salvation, the manifest presence of God, the divine covenantal agreements, the written law, the awesome prophetic promises of God and with being God's true priests in the earth. The great spiritual patriarchs are their ancestors and, in his humanity, Jesus the Messiah (who is also fully divine), came from their lineage. He has authority over all things. He really does!
Comments:
So...we need to connect the dots between chapter 3 and chapter 9 in order to regain Paul's train of thought. Many of Paul's first century Jewish kinsmen were of the persuasion that if the message he was preaching were true, then God was, at best, unfaithful to his covenant with Abraham...and, at worst, an outright deceiver. However, Paul (and Jesus himself) challenged the traditional presuppositions beneath the popular theological paradigms of understanding the applications of God's covenantal promises to Israel and revealed (unveiled) their true essence and administration...things that had been shrouded in divine mystery throughout the centuries until the appointed time...the time of Christ's appearing. So...a refresher from two earlier blogs:
From The Romance of Romans-part 9:
Now I know that you're tempted to think: "If what he's saying is
true, then there has been no meaning to all it has cost the Jews for
being God's 'chosen people'. What's the advantage of being a Jew in
the first place?" Actually, there are many privileges- especially
that God gave them the stewardship over his message to humanity
through the prophetic scriptures. So if some Jews have been
unfaithful to their divine calling, does this negate the faithfulness
of God himself? No way! God is, and will always be, true even if all
people were to contradict him. The scripture says of him, "You are
always right in all that you say and you always prove your critics
wrong."
Comments:
In my view, this first question is the most profound and fundamental
one of them all. Yet, it is one whose profundity can easily escape
us. Let me put it in other words...If a law-keeping and God-honoring
Jewish person is not right with God and...in the larger context...if
the Jewish people are not "saved" or "safe" by being associated with
their historic/national/ethnic faith community and its beliefs,
rituals and customs...then God has lied because he has broken his part
of the ancient bargain he made with Abraham, Moses, David and the
like...since he absolutely promised that he would "save" their
children/followers throughout the generations to come. So...God is
not "righteous" if what Paul says is true.
I believe how Paul addresses this question is the main theme of the book of
Romans as it posits a new and different paradigm of how to understand and interpret the metanarrative...the overarching story...of the Bible from Genesis forward. This new and authoritative framework for understanding the "kingdom of God" and the OT prophecies was initiated by Jesus in the Gospels. And...it was the primary reason, humanly speaking, why Jesus and Paul both were executed. As followers of Jesus in our day, we need to let this sobering philosophical/doctrinal foundation of the first part of Romans sink in to our hearts and minds. It's truly radical and upsets the status quo of our spiritually complacent cultures--religious and otherwise.
And then also..."Comments" from The Romance of Romans-Part 12:
And...far from being "anti-Jewish"...for people of every race and nation
to be invited to "receive" Jesus as the promised Messiah...the
Father's free gift to all humanity...is the fulfillment of what the
Hebrew prophets heard from God, anticipated and foretold. God's
promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and a
blessing to every family on the earth finds its consummation in all
that Jesus was and is about...God isn't only the God of the Jews, but
also of the gentiles. And if he is the same and only true God for all,
then he must save all by the same means- believing. So do we nullify
the value of the Mosaic law because of this? No way! In fact, its very focus
is confirmed.
No comments:
Post a Comment