Romans 9:1-16
In the third chapter of John’s Gospel we hear our Lord say these familiar words:
“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
I want you to remember these words throughout our sermon today for they are the very heart of salvation. They tell us that the love of God embraces ALL people—but these words also remind us that it is only those who believe in Jesus who will be saved.
In our epistle lesson last week we heard how the love of God for the world has come to us personally and individually so that we can be saved: that God has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be his own dear children—that he has drawn out a plan for our lives so that we could hear the Good News of Jesus, come to him in faith, and persevere in faith until the day we stand in his presence forever.
An important part of that plan of salvation that God has been patiently working out in history (so that we here today can be saved) involved the Jews—God’s ancient people. Two thirds of the Bible is their story written in the pages of the Old Testament.
God chose the Jews and set them apart as his own beloved people so that the worship and knowledge of the one true God and the promise of his Messiah would go forth into the world to all people--and God wants his ancient people to be saved as well. At the very beginning of this letter to the Romans Paul says:
I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jews FIRST and also to the Greek.
There again you see that salvation is ONLY for those who believe—whether Jew or Gentile. And that brings us to our text today.
During our Lord’s earthly ministry, many of his own people rejected him. It was the same in Paul’s day and it is the same in our day. And that lack of faith among the Jews was a special concern for Jesus and the apostles. Jesus made their salvation his first priority. But after his last visit to the temple before his death, he looked back at city of Jerusalem and said: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I longed to gather you to myself as a hen gathers her chicks—but you were not willing. The apostles sought out the Jews first in their apostolic ministry and even Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, always sought out the Jews first in each city he visited.
Sadly, in large measure, the Jews rejected their Messiah and were not converted to Christianity. In this, they are representative of humanity. Even today, the vast, vast majority of the world’s people are not Christians. And so what is our attitude to be towards the lost—both Jew and Gentile? Paul writes:
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
Three different times in three different ways Paul says: What I am about to tell you is the truth: that if there was some way that I could save my own kinsmen by being damned to hell for eternity—I would do it. Now that is a remarkable statement!
I cannot imagine another person as grateful for their own personal salvation as was the Apostle Paul—in letter after letter he praises God for his mercy and love towards him. But he was willing to sacrifice it all if it would do any good for his fellow Jews. Of course, he knew that his sacrifice wouldn’t accomplish this—but that is what he was willing to do. It came from a deep love and concern for the salvation of others.
We must not let this moment pass without asking ourselves: do I have the same love and concern for the salvation of others? All around us are people who God loves—people for whom Christ shed his life’s blood—who will die and go to hell because they do not know and believe in Jesus. Do we care? Are we concerned? God is!
We exist at this moment as believing children of God so that his love would be made known through our words and through our witness and through our work.
It is not enough for us to be grateful for our own salvation if that gratitude does not extend to making sure that those around us are also going to heaven—for this love for the lost comes from the very heart of God and is shown in salvation history—especially in the life of his ancient people, the Jews. Paul writes:
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
God chose the Jews to be his people—to make known the knowledge and worship of the true God and the promise of the Messiah to the whole world. He made a covenant with Abraham to bless the world through the Messiah and he renewed that covenant with the patriarchs who followed. God showed his holiness and glory at Mt. Sinai. He spoke through the prophets who revealed more and more about what kind of person the Savior would be and what his salvation would look like and accomplish in our lives. And finally God’s own Son took on the human flesh of his Jewish mother in the person of Jesus-- who accomplished our salvation by his death and resurrection.
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. These words --and the person who spoke these words do not exist in a vacuum—they are the culmination and pinnacle of thousands of years of salvation history told in the life of God’s ancient people the Jews who were chosen by God and gifted by God for one saving purpose: that through faith in Jesus Christ salvation could be found—both for Jews and Gentiles—but only through faith in Jesus.
It was for this saving purpose that the Jews were chosen by God as a nation—and yet the tragedy is that so many missed out on salvation because they did not believe in Jesus. There is no other way or word to describe that situation than: heartbreaking. And so what went wrong? Had God’s plans and purposes failed the very people that he chose to reveal his plans and purposes to the world? NO! Paul writes:
It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel…
Let’s go back to that person and promise we heard from at the beginning of the sermon: God so loved the world... Jesus spoke those words to Nicodemus—a religious teacher of the Jews—who came to Jesus at night, asking questions about the way of salvation and Jesus told him: You must be born again! Those words were not just spoken to Nicodemus—they were spoken to the Jewish people and the Gentile nations and to you and me: You must be born again!
Then Nicodemus asked Jesus: how can a grown man enter into his mother’s womb a second time and be born again. You see, Nicodemus, couldn’t conceive of a birth other than a physical birth. But that’s not what Jesus was talking about—he was talking about a spiritual rebirth. Even though Nicodemus was a religious leader among the Jews --and even though Paul’s Jewish heritage was spotless—merely being born a Jew was not enough for salvation. And it never had been. Paul writes:
Not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Jesus told the Jews of his day that if they were really Abraham’s children they would share the faith of their father and believe in him like Abraham had. Paul told the Jews at Rome that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness—that Abraham is the father of all who believe—but only those who believe.
When God chose Abraham he promised him that through his Offspring, all of the world would be blessed—that is, through his family line, the Messiah would come who would earn salvation for the world—and Abraham believed God’s promise.
Then, when he remained childless over the years, he tried to work out God’s promised salvation for himself---producing a child with his wife’s servant, Hagar. But that was not God’s plan. God himself would provide the child of promise.
Many, many years passed and Abraham and Sarah became old people and remained childless. But God had not forgotten his promise and when Abraham was 100 years old--when there could be no doubt but that it was God’s work—a child was born.
The point that Paul is making with this illustration from Abraham’s life is this: simply being born does not makes us children of God—not even being born to those who ARE God’s people—be they ancient Jews or modern Lutherans. As Paul says: It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God but the children of the promise who are counted as his offspring. It is being born again through faith in the promises of God that makes us his children --which God has purposed and planned to do for us from eternity, electing us unto salvation so that there can be no doubt that our salvation---from beginning to end—is his work alone. Paul writes:
When Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Paul gives another example from the history of God’s ancient people of how the salvation God provides is a pure gift—completely his own doing from beginning to end—totally removed from any work of man.
Isaac, the promised son of Abraham, married Rebekah who became pregnant with twins. Before the twins were born, before they had done anything or said anything to distinguish one from the other—God chose the child who was born second (Jacob) rather than the first (Esau) to be the one through whom the Messiah would come.
That choice is the sense in which we understand the words: Jacob I love, but Esau I hated. It is the same figure of speech that Jesus used to distinguish the love that we have for our family and the love that we are to have for God—a love that is so great and profound that all other loves look like hate in comparison. Esau was not cut off from salvation by virtue of God’s choice of Jacob—he was simply not the one--elected by God-- through whom the Messiah would come.
Paul’s point with both illustrations is this: It was God’s saving purpose and plan that was being worked out in history and what really mattered was not mankind’s efforts to bring about salvation (like Abraham)-- and not what man thought about how God ought to work to bring about salvation (preferring the firstborn over the second)—but what mattered was God’s saving purpose and plan which would reach its fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth—a man of the Jewish nation—who lived and died for all people.
God says concerning his ancient people the Jews: What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Jesus said of his own people the Jews: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I longed to gather you to myself! The apostle Paul said of his own kinsmen the Jews: I wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren. God’s choice of Israel—the gifts he gave to them—the love of Jesus for them—the apostolic mission directed to them—it all testified to God’s loving purpose and plan to save the world—a plan that lovingly included the Jews in a mighty way-- despite the fact that relatively few of them ever came to faith in Jesus. It’s in the context of that great love that God has for his ancient people that Paul writes:
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it ( that is: salvation) depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
Please, please listen and understand to what I am about to say: the story that we have heard today IS NOT the story of the bad, unbelieving Jews—it is the story of fallen humanity of which they are representative—a fallen humanity that lacks the will and the strength to make a way to God on their own.
But even more importantly, it is also the story of the mercy of God—who from the very beginning had a plan to save the world—a plan that he worked out in time in the lives of real people—so that WE could return to him through faith in Jesus.
Is it somehow unjust that his plan to save the world necessitated specific choices? Of course not! The gifts that he gave to the Jews—culminating in the gift of his own Son--were given in mercy and love for the sake of the world’s salvation—both Jews and Gentile—and the mercy of God is the only place for our salvation to rest—for that is what we can see and know (beyond any shadow of a doubt) in Christ.
God’s mercy is also the place for the mission of the church to begin. Our message as the people of God is that in the LORD we have a merciful God who loves the world and has given his Son so that whoever believes in him (be they Jew or Gentile) will be saved. Amen.
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