ROMANS: Grafted (part two)

In our last discussion, Paul had turned his attention to the Gentiles and invited them to consider and not lose sight of the mystery of their inclusion. He painted the picture of a cultivated olive tree, pruned by the Gardener who also grafted in branches that didn’t belong — branches from a wild olive tree! These branches represented the Gentiles who had been included in the covenant community of God’s family. Paul had asked his Gentile readers to keep themselves from arrogance, thinking that the story was all about them and forgetting that it was they who had been scandalously included on the basis of faith.

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!

Paul asks the Gentiles to keep in mind the kindness and sternness of God. The kindness of God is seen in His radical inclusion and faithful mercy shown to all people, and He wishes to hold a stern standard to His own people, a kingdom of priests, who represent Him to the world around them. Having already warned them that they too would face the same dangers of the pruning process, he now reminds them again. But this time, Paul couples it with a positive observation: If God would not hesitate to prune the grafted branches as well as the natural, it only stands to reason that this same God would love to graft the natural branches back in. Realizing that this metaphor breaks down (what kinds of branches bear fruit after being chopped off?!), Paul insists that their repentance is still a good possibility.

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:

“The deliverer will come from Zion;    he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.And this is my covenant with them    when I take away their sins.”

Again, Paul calls this inclusion of the Gentiles a “mystery.” For the Jewish people, this idea is a scandal; it is hard to accept and even Paul says he doesn’t understand it in its fullness. But Paul reiterates: he wants to make this known so the Gentiles won’t become conceited. This struggle and stumbling on Israel’s part has taken place so they (the Gentiles) could be adopted into the family of God.

And again, in some of the older translations we have an issue that has led to much confusion and the horrible spread of “replacement theology.” Replacement Theology espouses the idea that God abandoned Israel as the chosen people of covenant and began working with the “Church” in the New Testament. It encourages the idea that God started a “new thing” and now all people are invited into that new thing.

Please note, this is clearly not what Paul is arguing. Paul did not say God planted a new tree. Paul said God pruned the original, cultivated tree, is constantly tending it and giving it life, and decided to graft into that same original tree some wild olive tree branches. Paul states this more than once so the Gentiles would understand this clearly and not become conceited or arrogant. Replacement Theology is the fulfillment of that conceited arrogance Paul warned against.

In some older translations, it read: “until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved.” This rendering is not only inaccurate to the Greek, but it reads incorrectly in the English, giving the impression there is a ‘new Israel’ being saved through the Gentiles. As the translation we saw earlier renders appropriately, the passage should read “in this way (or in this manner) all Israel will be saved,” preserving a reading that maintains God’s original story, original plan, original people, and original promises — let alone Paul’s clear argument.

The inclusion of the Gentiles is intended to provoke God’s people to repentance, remembering their story and mission in the world. In this manner, all of God’s people will find salvation.

And if there were any doubt about the above argument, they should be put to rest after a reading of Paul’s next statement.

As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Indeed this God is out to redeem all nations. His promises, His gifts, and His call are irrevocable, and He has incredible ways of using our brokenness and mistakes to help bring redemption to others — if we will only be humble enough to remember where we come from. I find Paul’s doxology at the end of chapter eleven to be a fitting conclusion to our discussion today:

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: Grafted (part one)

We left off as Paul was concluding his warning to his Jewish audience about the ways they had missed God’s mission in the past. Paul has already mentioned that this certainly does not mean the Israelites were cast off or forsaken by God; he now takes the time to say it again:

Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!

Paul expresses great optimism in the people of God and their ability to learn from the path God has them on to correct their trajectory. Only this God who is in the business of redeeming broken things could take their mistakes and turn them into glory. Paul points out that God used their stumbling to bring the Gentiles into the family. If this is true, how much more could — no, not “could,” Paul says “will” — their repentance bring? When the people of God see His goodness and His plan and decide to partner with what God’s doing in the world, just imagine all the things that could be accomplished with that group of people!

NOTE: I hate the translation of “inclusion” here. The NIV84 used to translate it “fullness,” as does the KJV. The translation of “inclusion” only heightens the misconceptions of replacement theology, since the “they” in the passage is clearly the Jews. The Jews aren’t being “included” in anything; it’s their story to begin with. It is the Gentiles who are being included and that very inclusion is what drives the writing of Romans. But indeed, that’s where the passage heads next.

Paul now shifts his attention to the Gentiles and is kind enough to let all of his readers know:

I am talking to you Gentiles. In as much as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

Paul says a large part of his ministry is done in the hope that his own brethren would see the story of God correctly and join him in blessing all nations. Paul isn’t just in this for the Gentiles — he’s in it for his own Jewish family, as well. He wants all people to understand the story of God and His plan to restore all of humanity. The phrase “arouse my own people to envy” in the Greek definitely carries the idea of provocation. It is Paul’s desire to prod and provoke his fellow Jews to do the right thing in the way they interact with the Gentiles in their world.

Paul also reminds his readers that God’s story is a Jewish story. If God has chosen to work through the Jewish people, then this Jewish story must be the right one and it must be enough. If this story is based on the right ideas — if the lump of dough is holy and if the root of the story is holy — then the rest of the story is going to share in that goodness.

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 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.

Paul tells his Gentile readers to make sure they check their arrogance at the door, because a proper understanding of the story they are part of will lead them to speechless humility. Paul points out that if Israel was a cultivated olive tree (a common image in the Scriptures for Israel), then the Gentiles were a wild, uncultivated olive tree. To the ancient world of the Middle East, the contrast would be a stunning one. A cultivated olive tree is a beautiful sight to behold; with light green leaves and big beautiful olives, the cultivated olive tree is incredibly pleasing to the eye. The olive tree gone wild, on the other hand, is stunted in its growth, producing pitiful leaves and virtually no fruit. It is not very attractive to look at and useless for production.

Wild olive branch on left; cultivated on right

Yet Paul says the story of God works in such a way that when the people of God stumbled, He pruned His cultivated olive tree, chopping off some of the branches that didn’t bear any fruit and preparing it for new growth. God then took wild olive tree branches and grafted them into His cultivated tree. Now, I’m no botanist, but I did have one tell me once that such an idea would be craziness. The wild olive tree branches would have a negative effect on the purity of the cultivated olive tree once the grafting process was complete. As wild branches drew off of the nourishing sap of the main tree, the rest of the trees’ productivity would be drawn back.

And yet, Paul says this is what God does. 

God’s gospel is foolishness. God’s love is scandalous. God’s forgiveness is complete.

As this lesson gets longer and longer, I can see that we’ll need to break it into two parts. So this is a good place to stop. We have much to consider. Most of my readers will be Gentiles and Paul gives them all a lot to ponder about the story of God and how He’s been at work. God has been at work for thousands of years trying to bless all nations. Way back in the beginnings of Genesis, God selected a partner and built a nation He desired to put at the “crossroads of the earth” and help Him restore the world — a kingdom of priests who would show the world what God is like.

But God’s people (Jew and Gentile alike) have often lost the plot of the story. We forget the scandalous nature of the God we claim to serve and worship and we begin to serve self. Throughout this story, God has always corrected, sometimes gently and sometimes with great discipline. God has pruned his tree when necessary and invited His children to new levels of fruitfulness.

And somewhere along the way, the Great Gardener decided in His infinite wisdom that it was time to graft into this cultivated tree some of those wild olive branches He loves so much. He decided it was time to display the beauty of inclusion in this tree that is His people. God’s tree has become His masterpiece.

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.

ROMANS: Always a Remnant

We left the last conversation making a simple observation: sometimes we find it incredibly difficult to spread the same open-handed generosity and inclusion that was extended to us. Often without a conscious effort, we hoard all of the grace for ourselves and miss out on the primary mission of God in the world. This is where Paul continues the conversation for his Jewish audience.

But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. But I ask: Did they not hear?

Paul agrees, this message is often difficult to extend to others, and he points out that not all of the Israelites throughout their history wanted to accept the good news of God’s great restoration project. Quoting Isaiah, Paul reasons that maybe these Israelites didn’t know the message — maybe they hadn’t heard or been taught. But Paul say this isn’t the case:

Of course they did:

“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,    their words to the ends of the world.”

By quoting Psalm 19, Paul does something that’s incredibly consistent with his ongoing argument. The Psalm speaks of the heavens giving voice to the goodness and greatness of God; this message from creation itself goes out “into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” Paul has been arguing that Gentiles have all the ability to know God and believe in His promises, even without extensive education in Torah or the Word of God. They are able to hear the “Word of God” quite clearly. If this is true, and if Gentiles are able to worship Adonai by simply observing creation around them, then the people of God will certainly be without excuse. It will be their own religiosity that gets in the way. (To be sure, I hope everyone realizes these principles do apply to all religious people today. I hope my readers understand I’m not trying to “pick on” the Jewish people. Instead, we should be able to learn from these timeless truths in our own experience.)

Paul then proceeds to quote more passages from the Old Testament — Deuteronomy 32 and Isaiah 65:

Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,

“I will make you envious by those who are not a nation;    I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”

And Isaiah boldly says,

“I was found by those who did not seek me;    I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”

But concerning Israel he says,

“All day long I have held out my hands    to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

If you do the work to look back at the context of those quotations, you’ll understand why Paul is using them in his argument. Both passages will speak of Israel’s disobedience and refusal to partner with God in the work He’s doing in the world. In Isaiah 65, the prophet proclaims nations that weren’t even looking for God found Him, but His own people have been obstinate and stiff-necked. The quotations leave the Jewish reader with a question: Will we repeat their mistakes?

Truly, for all of us who would claim to be followers of Jesus, the question extends itself to us, as well.

In light of all this, it’s truly amazing God doesn’t abandon and reject His stubborn people (all of us, not just Jews)! But no, His grace rings true for all — even the stiff-necked.

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. 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: “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

Paul makes it clear that God is not rejecting His people, but neither is Paul rejecting his own brethren and heritage. He has not abandoned his Jewish identity in the least, but understands he is a true Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin. He also says God is always saving a remnant of people who are willing to partner with Him to carry out His purposes. Paul reminds us of Elijah and his self-righteous perspective at Horeb, how he was able to think he was the only one who loved God. But God reminded Elijah that He was at work in ways Elijah could never understand. The same was true for those believers in Rome.

The same is true for us today.

What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, as it is written:

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,    eyes that could not see    and ears that could not hear,to this very day.”

And David says:

“May their table become a snare and a trap,    a stumbling block and a retribution for them.May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,    and their backs be bent forever.”

We could take quite some time to unpack these quotations. The more I study Paul, the more amazed I become at his use of the Text and his ability to teach rabbinically. His quotation and teaching mechanics are fantastic (and this would be expected from a student of Gamaliel). Paul quotes what seems to be Deuteronomy 29; although it is not a clean quotation, there is some discussion about whether Paul is employing another gezerah shavah and combining this Deuteronomy quotation with another quote from Isaiah 29. This would make all kinds of sense considering the context of the two passages.

But let’s stick with the Deuteronomy 29 portion and note the context of the quotation. Deuteronomy is the record of the renewal of the covenant, and the passage quoted is the section where they are remembering they are the ones who have seen the miraculous deeds of the LORD in Egypt. It is their story to tell and who would understand the redemption of God better than those who were redeemed from Egypt? A fitting quotation, to say the least.

This is then combined with a quote from Psalm 69:22–23, a Psalm where David has said earlier, “May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me.”

May that be the prayer of each of us who calls ourself a child of God and a follower of Jesus. May we constantly remind ourselves of God’s incredible grace and His pursuit of all nations and all peoples. May we keep this mission of God in the forefront of our minds so we might be appropriate ambassadors to His work.

And may those who choose to hope in the LORD not be disgraced because of us; instead, may they find the acceptance, love, and belonging God longs to give all people — the same acceptance we have experienced. May we be counted amongst the remnant God is using to put the world back together.

ROMANS: Beautiful Feet

This message from Paul about a Potter and His clay is tough to wrestle with when you find yourself sitting on “the inside” of the conversation. But Paul also wants to be crystal clear that this is not some wholesale rejection of God’s partners who struggle with the purposes and intentions of God — far from it. Paul longs for God’s people to fully understand what God has been up to from the beginning.

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For 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 of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

Paul says the Jewish people have an incredible zeal for God and a tenacious commitment to follow after Him. It is actually this zeal that has the tendency to provide distraction, for while they attempt to follow God so passionately, they can find themselves trying to establish a righteousness of their own — something Paul spoke about in the opening chapters of Romans. Paul reminds the readers that Jesus is the culmination of the law — he is the very fulfillment of the law, and he shows us that this righteousness from God is for anyone who is willing to have faith.

Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

People who live by the Law (please note, not “under the law”) find life when they walk in obedience to God’s commands. (The exact same point was made by Paul in Galatians, as you might remember.) However, Paul uses Deuteronomy to remind them not to be deceived into thinking that righteousness is this complicated thing that must be parsed and explained and assisted. No, it is something we have on our lips and written in our hearts.

But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Paul says this message is already in our mouths and hearts. Paul then rips off a first-century imperial propaganda slogan to express the message of the gospel. Rome had a saying for whenever Caesar was about to go on one of his bread and circus stunts. “Bread and circus” was a public relations effort by the Empire to build allegiance to Caesar and his throne. Caesar would go throughout the empire and with great public pomp (aka circus) and would give away bread and blessing to the people of Rome. The saying would be circulated throughout the empire: “If you proclaim with your mouth that Caesar is Lord, you will be saved.” The message was clear: If you give your allegiance to Rome, you will benefit from Caesar’s kingdom; if you do not… well, all bets are off.

Paul says we have a message we proclaim about God’s Kingdom. If we declare with our mouth that “Jesus is Lord!” and believe in our heart the truth and promises of resurrection, then we will be saved. Paul says this message is not complicated, but something we understand. Paul then makes a distinction between the heart and the mouth. While the mouth is obviously about proclamation, the “heart,” in a Jewish sense, is about our will and obedience. Paul says this message is about the union of our statements and behavior.

As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Still working off of the remez mentioned previously, Paul says this same belief/faith/trust is available for any person — Jew or Gentile. If they have this authentic belief, they will respond with their own professions and obedience. Their salvation will not be denied them.

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!”

However, how will they ever make sense of this faith unless those who are rich in faith are sent to tell them? Paul calls on his Jewish brethren to take ownership of the story to which they are ambassadors. He calls them to take hold of God’s amazing grace and glorious plan and become heralds of this good news to the Gentiles — to go and invite them in! And just for some Textual icing on the cake, Paul then quotes Isaiah 52, a passage which speaks about Israel learning her lesson in captivity and hearing about the goodness and greatness of their God. (It’s incredibly fitting!) The Isaiah passage ends with a description of “all the nations” seeing the salvation of God and His plan being laid bare to the “ends of the earth.” Brilliant!

The takeaway is that it is crucial for God’s people to accept the story God wants to tell and not the version of the story they hope He tells. It is important that we understand God is not simply working with a chosen and redeemed group of people so they would be “more right” than everybody else. No, instead, God has put this awareness in the hearts of all of mankind and it is His people’s privilege, honor, and calling to go and spread the word — to make His mercy known to the very ends of the earth!

But sometimes it is hard to go and spread the Good News that we long to keep for ourselves.

ROMANS: A Potter and His Clay (part two)

In the first part of our conversation, I stated that I believe we miss the entire point of Paul’s larger argument in this section of Romans because we immediately get hung up on theological projections that weren’t within the original conversation (e.g., God’s sovereignty/election, etc.). Paul’s larger conversation is about God’s willingness to show mercy. He is trying to speak to his Jewish listeners and tell them God has always been in the business of showering mercy and grace on people who don’t belong. The word of God has not failed them; rather, it has born witness to this truth throughout the ages.

This inclusion of the Gentiles into the fullness of God’s story and family is far from unfair; it is the very nature of who God is and always has been!

So we pick up where we left off:

One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 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?’ ”

When we read this passage in its previous light, we hear it talking about blame and our election or salvation. But I think the context of this conversation shows us that Paul’s imaginary rebuttal is asking a far deeper question. This Jewish audience is going to respond to God’s sovereign show of mercy to the Gentiles with this (reworded) rebuttal: “Then why does God ask us to follow Him and partner with Him and then hold us accountable to our actions … if He’s just going to throw open the floodgates of acceptance anyway? If God is going to pursue all men and all nations, then He’s ultimately going to have His way and our part in this story means nothing!”

But Paul tells this projected audience to remember their place. He is the Potter, and they are His clay. He knows why He makes vessels. He knows how He intends to use them and how He will accomplish His purposes with each vessel He creates.

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?

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?

Paul reminds the reader that God has the right to use the same lump of clay to make vessels He will use as fine china, but also other vessels to store last night’s leftovers. He’s the Potter and He understands His own intentions.

Then Paul makes a startling statement I believe we have a tendency to misread because of the theology we project onto our interpretations. Paul says, “What if…? What if God chose to make some vessels that were prepared for destruction?” What if God chose to make vessels out of the clay, and we are sure they will be doomed to the garbage heap? Cracked and beaten up. Good for nothing. Worthless. What if God did this on purpose? These vessels Paul refers to are obviously a reference to the pagan Gentiles (“vessels prepared for destruction”).

But Paul says God wanted to “show his wrath and make his power known” and so He created those vessels and then “bore with great patience” those vessels prepared for destruction.

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—even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

What if God did all of this on purpose in order to show us His glory and His mercy? What if God did all of this to show us (Jews and people on the “inside”), the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory — what if He did all of this to show us His incredible plan and the riches of His glory, to shower mercy and acceptance onto those “objects prepared for destruction”?

Scandalous.

Paul then quotes two major prophets who are announcing Israel’s failure to live according to God’s plan. Paul reminds them that they too have experienced what it means to be “objects prepared for destruction.” And they too know what it means to have God bear with great patience and shower His mercy on them. The story of Hosea is not a pretty one and the woes of Isaiah did not bear great tidings.

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,”

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.’ ”

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,    only the remnant will be saved.For the Lord will carry out    his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”

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.”

Paul will then begin to shift gears by pointing out this is the same trajectory the nations have been on with God. Those Gentile believers who worship in Rome have the same faith and have experienced the same acceptance of the same “good news” from God.

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 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.”

Paul closes with an unbelievably brilliant gezerah shevah where he ties two different passages from Isaiah (8:14 and 28:16) using the theme of “stone” to do so. By creating this Isaiah quotation, Paul sets up the condemnation of Isaiah 8 — which says God has placed a stone that the people of Jerusalem will stumble over as a trap and snare — and he combines it with a prophecy that says those who trust in that stone will be saved. By making this “stone” Jesus, Paul is issuing an invitation to his Jewish audience not to be tripped up by this hard teaching of inclusion for the Gentiles, but to trust in Jesus. At the same time, Paul is alluding to the fact that these Gentiles are already trusting in Jesus and finding freedom and salvation. It’s a stunning textual move by Paul.

Indeed this will be a hard truth. For most of my readers, this is good news for them as Gentiles! And yet, for those Gentiles who call themselves believers and have found themselves in the community of faith for some time, there is a real opportunity for us to open our ears and consider whether we have swapped out some of the labels and the details for others things in our day and age.

Is God still the Potter? Does God still get to choose who He wants to shower mercy on? Even today, is the point we ought to be making to people not about a morality code, but about the person of Jesus? Are we really inviting people to put their trust in Him and find a justification by faith alone? Or do we too struggle with the “stone of stumbling” — the scandalous grace of Jesus? Do we too seek to make people pursue a righteousness that comes from behavior, rather than a righteousness that comes from God?

What if God is showering His grace on all of “those people” in our lives, just to remind us of what He’s up to? Forgiveness. Mercy. Acceptance.

A Potter is making His vessels.

ROMANS: A Potter and His Clay (part one)

It is very important that we cover the conversation about predestination before moving on because the entire topic seems to cloud our ability to read Romans 9–11 in context. Once we begin the Calvinism/Arminianism debate, we completely lose sight of the purpose of the letter to the Romans and what Paul has been talking about since the beginning of the letter!

Let us remind ourselves, Paul has been building a very reasoned, logical, systematic case for the acceptance of a “blended family” of God. This family is struggling to figure out the place of new Gentile converts, mature Gentile believers, and the Jewish presence which serves as the root of this community. Paul has argued that we are all a part of this family because of this faith that saves us. It is by the exact same faith that every single member of God’s family is justified and declared righteous before him. It is this justification which sets us free and does not allow condemnation to reign in any form in our hearts.

But this is a hard truth for Paul’s main Jewish audience (remember, Paul has already made multiple comments about his audience being people who are trained in the Law, as well as another comment coming up in chapter 11). This idea of the Gentiles being included and swept up by this scandalous grace would be a hard truth to swallow — not impossible, but difficult. To this audience, Paul continues:

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. 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.

Paul’s heart is full of love and breaks over his Jewish brethren who struggle to accept this gospel as they try to lead this new church. (Please, let us remind ourselves not to beat up  “those silly Jews” and to identify with the fact that those of us who are “well-seasoned believers” in the church fit in this same seat and struggle with the same things.) He breaks into a poetic benediction about the blessing of being God’s b’hor and the special calling they’ve had for centuries. It is their story to live and to tell! It’s their family, their adoption, their covenants, their law, their Text, their lineage, and their Messiah whom we speak of now!

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and 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.” And not only so, but also 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.”

I like the translation of the ESV here: “But it is not as though the word of God has failed…”  On the heels of this benediction, Paul says this is what the story of God has always been about. Going to the very beginning of the patriarchs and the founding of this family, Paul points out that God has always chosen to work through promise to bring the unlikely and the outsider in. Not only does He work through the b’hor, but He also works through the barren and the second-born as well.

Paul’s heart breaks for his people and he rejoices in their story — their story! But it is their story that is meant to point to the very struggle they are having.

It is usually at this point where everyone begins to lose their minds as Bible interpreters. Being all worked up about predestination, we immediately begin focusing our attention on God’s rejection, rather than the point of Paul’s (what I believe is obvious) argument! While we tend to focus on “Esau I hated,” what we lose in the theological jostling is the fact that Paul is talking about whom God accepts, not whom God rejects!

This entire argument is about Paul pleading with his Jewish brethren to accept the truth that God wants to show kindness to their Gentile counterparts. This passage isn’t being quoted because of Esau; it’s being quoted because of God’s choosing to validate his promises and work through Jacob. It is not about God’s rejection, but God’s compassion. This should be abundantly clear from the next paragraph:

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.”

Paul asks the Jewish audience if this inclusion of the Gentiles is unfair. By no means! For God gets to show kindness to anyone He desires. Notice that the quotation says nothing about rejection, only acceptance, mercy, and compassion. It is God’s prerogative to decide who gets to receive His kindness.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

Again, we are usually so quick to run to God’s rejection, God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, that we miss the greater point of Paul’s argument. Paul has just finished saying exactly what he said earlier in the letter. Man is not dependent on his own efforts to find God’s mercy and grace. This justification and acceptance comes from faith and is a reality because of the mercy of God.

If one remembers, they might think back to our conversation about God hardening Pharaoh’s heart and how it showed God’s relentless pursuit of those who might reject him. This passage isn’t speaking about God deciding who gets in and who is left out! This passage is pleading with all the folks who think they are “IN” to consider the kindness, the mercy, the reckless pursuit of a God who desires to bless all nations!

But this conversation isn’t over yet.