[Machine transcription]
Grant now that the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts are pleasing
in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer, Amen.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, first of all, I would like to bring greetings and
God’s blessings from the India Evangelical Lutheran Church in India, which was the first
overseas mission field of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod since 1895.
In bringing the Gospel to India, you saints are the roots, and after 132 years, that’s
our church is established here, you see the fruit which is preaching the word to you.
So this morning we are going to take in the whole chapter of Romans 9, instead of just the first
few opening verses read earlier. This is about Israel, not really the Israel which is more of a
20th century
invention
Paul is talking about Israel as the blood descendants of
Abraham the descendants of that group of people
Excuse me
Who came out of slavery in Egypt whom God himself made into people?
Through water and wilderness to whom God made covenant promises gave the Torah
swore an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom he sent the prophets, and
from whom, in the fullness of time, came Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Abraham,
son of David, son of Israel.” Here Paul is speaking of God’s chosen people, His
treasured position. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, here I would like to mention Luther’s
meaning of Apostle’s Creed, second article, in which Luther says, Jesus has redeemed me
by his holy precious blood, the reason why he has redeemed me that I may be his
own. I am here as your own brother from the other side of the earth. So today
Today, Jesus has chosen all the people as his treasured position.
In our text, Paul is deeply in sorrow and even wishes he could be cut off from Christ
were that possible for the sake of his fellow Israelites.
Here Paul is deeply anguished, but what went wrong?
Why did Israel, through whom Christ came, reject Christ?
Why didn’t Israel believe?
Why, given their special status as God’s priestly people, with all the covenants, promises,
worship, legislation, prophets, why did Israel not believe, follow and support Jesus, the
true Son of Israel?
It’s a tough question and important for all of us this morning.
Most of us know someone who is Jewish, whose ancestry goes back to Israel and the patriarchs.
It’s not as though the word of God failed, not all who are descended from Israel or Israelites.
Abraham had two sons Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael was Abraham’s son with his wife’s
servant, of course with her permission, a kind of a surrogate mother arrangement
because Abraham and Sarah did not believe God’s promise that Abraham would
be the father of nations. So they took matters into their own hands, as we often do when
God doesn’t work on our timetable, and they arranged to help God along a bit by having
a son with Hagar, Sarah’s servant. That didn’t work out so well. Ishmael is the son of the
law, the firstborn by law, but denied the inheritance because he is not convinced of
faith but of Abraham’s words.
But Isaac, Abraham’s son, with his wife Sarah, is the son of promise.
He was conceived by the word of God, conceived in faith, not words.
And even though Ishmael is the firstborn son and entitled to be here, he isn’t.
The secondborn Isaac is the son of the promise, descended from Abraham, doesn’t automatically
put you in God’s Israel.
It is by faith, not by words, trust in the promise, not taking matters into your own
or being born in the right family. In that sense, not all Israel is Israel.
It depends on faith. Again, consider Rebekah’s twins, Jacob and Esau. Esau was
the firstborn as Jacob came out second, grabbing the yield of his brother.
You might say Jacob made a career of grabbing his brother’s heel to the point of tricking
Father Isaac into blessing him as the firstborn.
But even before the twins were born, while Rebekah was wondering about all the kicking
in honor of whom God told her that the older would serve the younger, before either of
the boys could prove themselves or do anything right or wrong, God chose the second born
over the first born to carry the promise of the seed of salvation.
salvation. It takes two points to make a line.
Two examples
make a theme. The second serves the first.
Gospel over law,
grace over words.
Jacob, I loved.
Esau, I hated, God says.
That doesn’t mean Jacob goes to heaven and Esau goes to hell by the
arbitrary sovereignty of God.
This isn’t about their election,
but God’s selection of who will carry
the promised seed of salvation forward.
God’s choice is Jacob.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
I would say our choice would have been Esau,
The man’s man, a hunter, a strong will, body, and appetites.
He’s the kind of a man who would work salvation our way.
But Jacob, the heel-grabbing mama’s boy, who preferred the kitchen to outdoors,
and duped his near-blind father into blessing him
by dressing to smell and feel like Esau?
I didn’t think so.
And you don’t either.
But God does.
That’s what counts.
Or look at Moses, Pharaoh was one better than the other.
Moses had blood on his hands.
He was hiding in the countryside,
tending his father-in-law’s flocks
when God tracked him down.
and Moses didn’t even want the job, he would have been happy running sheep in
the wilderness instead of a whole nation. If you looked at Resumes, Pharaoh had
better skills to run a nation, but Moses was the man for God’s nation. God does
what he wants, like a potter who makes fine vases, cups, and flower pots.
Everyone has a place and purpose as God molds history like Master Potter.
He has Moses, and the Pharaoh, and Jacob, and then Isa, and Ishmael, and then Isaac.
He has believing Israel and unbelieving Israel, and all are like clay in the master craftsman’s
hands.
God has a plan and purpose.
He knows what he’s doing.
He makes examples of wrath and examples of mercy.
He shows the world the futility of yearning his favor by words.
He even made a nation and gave them more words than they could count, but they didn’t do.
In all of this, God showed the world that a religion based on good behavior and commandment
keeping is destined to fail, dead on arrival, literally dead in trespasses and sins.
So what’s God up to?
Salvation. Salvation in His Son Jesus. That’s what God wants, that all be saved and come
to the knowledge of the truth. He is willing to take people who are not His people, the
Gentiles, you and me in that, and make them His own people. He is willing to take those
who were not loved, who were loveless, his enemies, and call them,
My Beloved.
No, God is not crazy.
He is merciful and gracious for Jesus’ sake.
His mercy and grace simply don’t follow rules, whether the rules of the firstborn,
our rules of fairness or any other rules, and that’s the point of it all.
Salvation is by grace a gift undeserved, unearned, granted for the sake of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
God has been at this since the fall, teaching the world that it can’t dig itself out of
the hole it has fallen into, but God himself will dive into that hole himself and raise
it all in his own resurrection.
Essentially, God made an object lesson out of Israel and said, here is how it works.
Trust me, my promises, and you are in.
try to do yourself and you will fail every time. The point of God having an
Israel is the same as the point of God sending his own son. He reduces Israel to
a remnant, a tiny bunch of faithful believers who trust in God’s promise
and not in themselves. And in the end, God reduced Israel to the smallest of
remnants, one man on a cross, one perfect Jew who kept the law, the Torah, as no one,
no other could, his only begotten son.
Everything of Israel is only focused on Jesus.
He goes through the water and the wilderness, is God’s beloved son and servant as Israel
as Israel was God’s son and servant.
He wrestles with God, which is what Israel means, one who wrestles with God, as Father
Jacob wrestled with God.
He goes to his exile and returns, his death and resurrection, out of this one man, Israel
comes the salvation for the world.
Paul concludes Romans chapter 9 verses 30 to 33 by saying this, what shall we say then?
The Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it.
That is righteousness, that is by faith.
But the Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching
that law.
Why?
Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on words.
they have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written,
Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.
Did the word of God fail because many of the Israelites didn’t believe?
Paul’s answer, no.
In fact, it succeeded beyond expectations.
From one man, Abraham, came a nation, Israel.
From a nation, Israel, came one man, capital M, the Christ.
from one man named Jesus, the Christ came to this world.
