Grief for My People

The first five verses of Romans 9 actually serve as an introduction to the chapters of 9 through 11. The reason Paul spends his time here in the middle of Romans is that his explanation in defense of the Good News has left one group of his first century readers with a whole lot of questions and maybe just more than a little bit of anger. If God saves based on faith alone in Christ alone where does that leave the fastidious, tradition entrenched, law loving, Jew? And perhaps you’ll recall, as we’ve read this past year, that a reoccurring theme in Paul’s letter has been the Gentile and the Jew. The Gospel and Judaism. And that means that a frequent motif in Romans has been for Paul to anticipate questions from his Jewish critics and as he anticipates them to frame them up first and then to answer them. Therefore Paul is going to continue that Q&A style as he addresses the problem of Israel’s current rejection of the Gospel but God’s promised future restoration through Jesus Christ. Let’s look this morning in Romans chapter 9 as Paul turns abruptly from celebration to sadness as he considers Israel’s rejection of her Messiah.