Opening prayer: Father God again we bow in thy presence to ask forgiveness for our shortcomings. We counter our faith with our own choices instead of seeking your will for our lives. We do the things we know that we should not do and leave undone those things we should do and for this we need your forgiveness. We are ever thankful that you have given us a savior, one who knows and does your will, and who intercedes for us with pleadings too deep for our own understanding. Guide us now as we study these words of your servant Paul, and impart to us those matters that you would have us learn from this study. Be with those of our group who cannot be with us tonight, and share our blessing with them. Amen
Israel's Unbelief, Romans Chapter 9:19-26:
Rom 9:19 One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?" 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'"21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath--prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory--
24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he says in Hosea: "I will call them 'my people' who are not my people; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one," 26 and, "In the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'children of the living God.'"
Discussion
Paul here reminds us that God is the Creator. Paul is taking issue with people who do not want to obey God. They try to find an excuse to oppose God’s authority. He is not talking about people who are sincere, who are seeking God's truth.(Micah 4: 1-2). Paul tells us that as the potter has the right to make different kinds of pottery. So God the Creator, has the right to deal with people as he chooses. God does not have to explain his actions, His decisions are always right. His judgments are perfect. And God is very patient with all people, even with defiant Israel.
God will not abandon His Chosen people. God created them, worked with and through them in all of his dealings with mankind. God has the right to show his anger and his power. But He has delayed the time for judgment. He has given them more opportunity to repent. Because they do wicked things, they are preparing themselves for punishment. But God is preparing for glory the people who have received his mercy. These people will see God’s glory. And they will share it themselves. Paul includes himself with the Jews to whom God has shown mercy. But Paul then says that Gentiles have become God’s children too.
In other words, if through the Jews unbelief and separation from God's purpose, a pronounced and dynamic door was opened to the Gentile world (Ephesians 1:3-6), how much more will Israel's recovery be as an outbreak of global revival and a sweep of great blessing?
Q.1 What does the falling away of Israel tell us about ourselves?
Q.2 How did the gentiles become aware of Gods election ?
Q.3 God made man for fellowship and glory, so that both might enjoy the relationship forever. Is it man then who chooses to oppose God's plan, or God who purposes man for destruction?
Q.4 Explain how it is, that man can choose to do otherwise?
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Israel's fate, Romans Chapter 9:27-33:
Rom 9:27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. 28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality."29 It is just as Isaiah said previously: "Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah."30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith. 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame."
Discussion
Israel had tried to pursue righteousness through abiding by the law, ignoring the Messiah. The Gentiles, realizing that they were hopeless sinners accepted Jesus' offer of salvation. God gave Christ to be the foundation Stone but by Israel’s rejecting Him, He became their stumbling stone. Many today still believe they are righteous enough in their own goodness to attain God’s approval, (1Corinthians 1:22). It is ultimately those who realize they are bankrupt in their sin, who are willing to confess their sin and repent of it, and accept the promise of salvation that God has offered through Jesus Christ as our savior, who will enjoy eternity in the presence of God, and not those who earned their salvation by their good works. If that were God's way of salvation, would it not make God's promise of salvation through His Son Jesus, a false promise? God would not do such a thing.
This is the time we're living in. And in that environment, we're called to a particular charge. Go into the world and make disciples of all nations. And there are still those who choose to go their own way. Again, consider Jezebel and Pharaoh, and David, whose choices still served god's purpose in their life. God allows us to go our own way. But in the end God will have it His own way to be sure. Of the three mentioned, only David confessed his sin and repented.
God has done this so that he can show the greatness of his glory. He has prepared other people to receive this glory. But he did not just call Jews to be his people. He called people from all the nations. We too are the people whom he has called. That is why God says in the Book of Hosea,‘These people were not mine. But I will call them, so that they will become my people. Nobody loved her. But I will love her. I told them, “You are not my people. But, in the same place, I shall call them “Children of the God who always lives”. (Romans 11:1-6)
Q.1 What is inferred in the first three verses of the above scripture?
Q.2 What is the difference in the faith of the Jews compared to the gentiles, in Jesus' day?
Q.3 Why do some people (religions) object to Jesus as our savior?
Q.4 What has faith to do with my salvation when it is my work that make me a good person?
Q.5 Is it my decision then that either saves or condemns me?
Closing Prayer. Father God, we thank you for the gift of Your Son Jesus, the Strong Deliverer of our salvation. We pray that we might learn more of how we are to respond to Your leading us as we continue to study Your Holy Word. We pray now for Your comfort and healing to be upon those who are suffering from health or other issues in this life___________We pray that Your peace and swift healing will comfort them in their time of trial. This we pray in the name of Jesus AMEN.
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Scripture readings
Micah 4: 1-2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”
Ephesians 1:3-6 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
1Corinthians 1:22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
Romans 11:1-6 I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah--how he appealed to God against Israel. 3 "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"?
4 And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
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Meditation
God chooses us for His glory and not on account of any good in us. John Calvin comments that God’s glory is revealed in destroying the reprobate, because the only thing that separates the elect from the reprobate is that the elect “are delivered by the Lord from the same gulf of destruction [as the reprobate] … by no merit of their own, but through his gratuitous kindness.” Let God’s elect—those who persevere in faith—remember this and learn humility.
Jesus is the only way to heaven. He said in John, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" ( John 14:6 ). Jesus is the precious cornerstone that Isaiah prophesied about, "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed" ( Isaiah 28:16 ). He is the rock of our salvation and the basis of our entire foundation. Those who have looked to him have found security and eternal life in Him. However to those who reject him, he is a stumbling stone in the way. They approach God with their works hoping to find justification, but run into this precious stone and trip and fall. Isaiah said, "and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare" ( Isaiah 8:14 ). Meaning that they are so self absorbed in their own virtue that they never noticed God's salvation right in front of them providing the way. He is placed directly in our paths. To those who rely on themselves they find him in the way. To those who trust Him they find he is the way.
Knowing all of this, it makes sense that Paul declares that Israel as a whole did not obtain the righteousness they sought. The reason is that they relied upon their merit and not upon God's grace. Isaiah said, "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD : Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many" ( Isaiah 51:1-2 ). They were always suppose to look to God for their salvation. Through faith they were always suppose to be part of the promise spoken to Abraham. They were fashioned and created as God's people on the earth and he wanted them to be dependant upon him. However because of the law they started looking and trusting in themselves instead of God's grace and mercy and missed Jesus along the way.
This has huge implications for us today. We too are called to belong to the promised of grace. However, many rely on themselves and what they do to find salvation instead of trusting Jesus to save them. Many go to church and go through motions in order to prove their goodness before God and satisfy His requirements. Many look to themselves and their own self righteousness thinking that they are good enough. However we will never be good enough on our own. It is only by grace that we are saved and this is through faith in Jesus and this is a gift from God ( Ephesians 2:8-9 ).
Just as we cannot work our way to heaven on our own merit, we cannot work our way through the Christians life. We may start out by trusting in Jesus as their savior only to put that aside to live a life of works. However this will not cut it either. The Christian life is based upon a heart change through the grace offered in Jesus. Everything else branches out from that. Whatever we do must be rooted and cultivated in love as our motivation and not what we can do for God. When we trust in Jesus as our savior and live out of that gift of grace, we will never be disappointed because our lives are built upon that precious cornerstone and sure foundation.
Through faith in Jesus, you also are counted among this rich heritage. May you live your life by trusting, relying and depending upon Christ for everything. When you do you will find exceeding joy and expression in His grace for evermore, amen!
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