Session 37 – Romans; Romans 9:1-5: Mark Lanier, 08/16/26

ROM 037_Romans P37_PODCAST_Lanier_081626
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[00:00:00] Well, I do wanna take more than just a passing moment to say thank you. Uh, some of the folks that t- taught here in my stead, uh, are always gracious to teach. Of course, Pastor Brent, I think he taught three week lesson in one week, uh, last Sunday, and I'm deeply grateful to him. Uh, of course, uh, uh, uh, David Fleming and Scott Reiling, uh, as well, people...

And David Capes, people who frequently fill in for me. But it was new for us to have Todd Still, who's the y- v- worked here way back in the day, and now is the Dean of Truett Seminary at Baylor, and just a real Lord High Muckety-Muck, who drove in from Baylor just to, uh, from, from Waco just to teach this class, and I'm deeply grateful.

I'm also grateful to Alec. Uh, Alec is, [00:01:00] uh, um, the teaching pastor-type fellow at S- at St. Martin's Episcopal, and, uh, he's a strong Bible-believing guy, and, uh, uh, he has me come speak to their men's group, uh, frequently. And I said, uh, "You've got to return the favor and let people find out that some Episcopalians spend time in the Bible."

And, uh, he was gracious to do that. I enjoyed. And of course, Chris, that y'all had, uh, is a professor at Truett, who is, uh, always gets, like, professor of the year. So we tried hard to mix up the, the normal and the new for you guys, and I'm deeply grateful. But boy, it feels good to be back. And yes, we are back into Romans.

Now, here's the thing. If there's any way possible, and please understand we're halfway through the book, and we are on lesson 36 in Romans. But what I'm gonna try and do is cover these next three chapters in about seven lessons. I wanna try [00:02:00] to figure out how to get through enough of Romans so that when we go back into the, the new center, or maybe if failing that January, we start a new series.

So I, I'm not sure that I can get that done because I love every vowel in Romans. I mean, it's not just every word. I like the vowels. Um, I like the consonants. And so, uh, it's a struggle for me to teach it quickly. But, um, by the grace of God, we'll figure out how we can get through it. Now, having said that, let's begin with Romans nine, ten, and eleven.

Now, I will tell you this as an interesting side note. Uh, I have a lot of friends, by the grace of God, who are really top-notch scholars. And one of them, who's been in our class multiple times, is N.T., or Tom, Wright. Now, Tom has written extensively on Paul. He's [00:03:00] probably, uh, the, the living, leading scholar i- on Paul among the evangelical or Bible-focused churches today, and he's very particular in how he reads it, and there are people who don't read it the way he does, and there are people who do.

Um, uh, I'm in the middle. There, uh, most of it I read very much and, uh, like Tom does. Uh, a few parts, uh, I, I do not, and I've tried really hard to agree with him, and I just can't get there yet. He keeps assuring me that it takes whilst for puppy dogs to open their eyes, and, uh, given time I'll, I'll grow into it.

Um, but when he found out, we were emailing, when he found out I was teaching Romans 9, 10, and 11, he said, "Oh, I wish you'd given me two or three days of your time so I could get your head straight on this before you do it." And he said, "Please, at least promise me you will go back and reread [00:04:00] this 100-and-some-odd pages out of his big treatise on, uh, Paul and the faithfulness of God."

And I said, "Well, I'll certainly go back and, and reread it," and, and I have multiple times, uh, as I prepared to get back and to teach Romans 9, 10, and 11. But Tom approaches this in a different way than I do, um, and, and I... By that I just mean this When Tom's written on this, most of the time, he's written on this in, in the works that I've read of his, he's written on this from a thematic, follow the train of thought type way.

And so, for example, he sees Romans 9, 10, and 11 as this great, um, composition of, of artistic beauty, a, a chiasm w- that we'll talk about at, at a later date. Um, and, and he may be right on that. Uh, uh, I certainly don't fuss it. I like some of his conclusions on that. And-- But, but he looks at things [00:05:00] following the thread.

Uh, I tend to try to follow the thread, but I tend to teach and preach breaking it apart word by word. And so you don't wanna lose the thread as you break it apart word by word. Context dictates the meaning of so many of those words. But I still approach it as, let's start with this verse, and let's be the listeners that Paul had in that first audience, and let's try and understand how we might have heard it and what it might have said if it had been read in our presence and we were fluent in our Greek.

And so that's where I am. Now, as we get to this section today, and we'll look at the first five verses of Romans chapter nine, God willing, uh, I, I am, uh, struck by part of my profession [00:06:00] As a trial lawyer, every witness who takes the stand takes an oath. They swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help them God or to the best of their ability if they don't wanna swear to God or whatever it may be.

But that oath is taken And yet, with every witness, the jury has to assess just how much are they telling the truth. You know, if you put a truth meter up there, it might read low, it might meter up-- read moderate, and it might be high. But you always... I'm looking at Mike Moriarty. He's practiced law longer than I have.

You always wonder, how honest is this witness? Well, Paul is not on the witness stand, but he starts this [00:07:00] section out with an oath, and he's got this idea of what a witness might say. You get a witness in the courtroom. The witness in the courtroom can say, "I'm telling the truth. I'm not lying. Ask my conscience."

No By the way

I, I, I am always a little bit perturbed when I talk to someone and they use these types of phrases with me. "Well, to tell you the truth, I blah, blah, blah." I'm thinking, "Well, wait a minute. How many times have you been lying?" I mean, if this is one you're preempting by telling me, "Well, I wanna tell you, uh, I'll tell you the truth."

I'm thinking, "Well, should I be shocked?" I mean have, uh... Okay, let's roll it out there. Well, that's what Paul sorta does in this passage, but he does it for a [00:08:00] good reason. And so what I'd like to do is look at Romans 9, 10, and 11, but w- I haven't been teaching Romans to you, so we gotta get warmed up, okay? We gotta talk about what's already happened in the book.

Paul's writing to the church at Rome. He hadn't been there yet, but he knew a lot of the people there, and he certainly knew what was going on, and he sends his letter out to them. And this letter is not just what we would call an occasional letter. He didn't just write it to address a problem. He put a lot of thought and work into this letter.

This letter is written like a, a piece of, of ancient rhetoric. It's got form, it's got clarity, it's got structure, and it's got language [00:09:00] that shows it's not just some flow of consciousness writing. It's a very deliberate and careful writing. And it has in the very beginning, Romans 1 Chapter... or Romans 1:16-17, what ancient

rhetoricians would call a partitio. It is, uh, a kind of a, uh, an, a, a, an overarching statement for what he's gonna be writing about. It is technically, uh, if you wanna follow what Cicero or Cicero would have said, "The matters which we intend to discuss are briefly set forth in a methodical way." The right partitio has brevity, completeness, and is concise.

And that's what Paul does at the beginning of this incredible writing we call Romans. [00:10:00] And his precise summation of what his letter is about- Is in these two verses. I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. That word Gospel for Paul is a buzzword. It's a buzzword about his teaching of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Paul says, "I'm not ashamed." Some Jews were shamed by the idea that the Messiah would hang on a cross, because Deuteronomy said anybody that hangs on a cross is cursed So, so Paul says, "I'm not ashamed because it is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ that's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes."

It came chronologically to the Jew [00:11:00] first, but it's also come to the Greek. Because in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, in the gospel, God's righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just like it's written. The righteous will live by faith. So that's the way Paul starts out as his picture of this letter, and the rest of the letter unfolds this in incredible, uh, uh, vibrant color.

Now, he starts out by saying basically, "The world's in a really sorry state." The Gentiles, they didn't acknowledge God as God, and as a result, he's turned them over and, and, and, and they have become the pagans that they are [00:12:00] And he says in, and God's wrath is gonna come against that ungodliness. God's wrath comes against unrighteousness.

But it's not just the Gentile, because the Jews also don't do right before God. And God's principles of judgment are to, oh yeah, you do right and you get, you, you get, uh, the reward, but you do wrong and you get the wrath. And we've all done wrong. Everybody has sinned. Everybody has. There's nobody who does a good deed, not even one.

And so God's righteous judgment falls on everybody, Gentile and Jew alike. You think you're standing before God because of your righteousness? You got no hope. You think you are united with God and living a righteous life on your own? You're deluded. You [00:13:00] have no righteousness to bring God In the words of Isaiah, "Your best deeds are polluted garments."

You can never be good enough to merit or earn God's favor and salvation. And that would be a bleak picture if Romans ended in chapter three, verse 20 But verse 21 has this great word, but, and we see in 3:21 and following that God has a righteousness that's through faith in Christ, apart from what you're trying to do on your own.

And then Paul says, "This isn't some new thing." It's not like God's driving down the road and does a sharp turn [00:14:00] that was totally unexpected

Remember part of Paul's issue, and, and Tom does a good job with this But part of Paul's issue, Paul was not, um, an ignorant, unknowing fella who just happened to bump into Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul had been soloed out as a star pupi- pupil of Gamaliel, who was the top rabbi in his day. We've got a good indication from rabbinic sources that Gamaliel, Gamaliel would only take one student at a time, and Paul becomes the anointed one.

Paul becomes the chief prosecutor for the Sanhedrin, the ruling council. Paul knows his law. [00:15:00] I would go further and say because Paul lives in a province of-- that's governed by Rome, he knows his Roman law quite well, too. He's a Roman citizen. A citizen... Roman citizen, don't think of it like an American citizen.

Think of it like a citizen of the city of Rome. He could vote in a Rome election. He's also a citizen of Tarsus, a city in Turkey that is not average. It's exceptional. So Paul knows, and he's got all of this breadth of exposure, but Paul is well-heeled and well-informed of the Old Testament scriptures in Hebrew and Greek

He has no trouble quoting them without googling it first He doesn't need to call or email someone and say, "Where is that [00:16:00] passage that says dot, dot, dot?"

And Paul, like many others, especially in that age, were expecting the Messiah to come

Jesus comes. Other fake messiahs came, but the people were expecting the Messiah, and that's why Paul was so perplexed and why he had no trouble trying to stamp out Christianity, because Jesus could not have been the real Messiah. The real Messiah is not gonna be hung on a tree like a criminal, like, uh, someone who's accursed.

The real Messiah isn't gonna be just stamped out and killed as He's trying to come into His glory. The real Messiah is not gonna leave Israel abandoned and the Jews abandoned to [00:17:00] the power of Rome. So Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus. He is revealed, Jesus is revealed as the Lord, and Paul has gotta spend some time struggling, saying, "Well, this just turned my theology upside down."

Amen. "This is not at all what I thought this was about." This is, this is, uh, more than a game changer

And so Paul is acutely aware of having to figure out how to work through those issues personally, but that makes him sensitive to others in his audience in similar shoes. So as he writes Romans and he says, "God has a righteousness apart from the law," there are people who are Jewish followers who are saying, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

W- w- we are, [00:18:00] we are a law people. The righteousness of God is revealed through the law, and it's our responsibility to try to keep the law. What, what, what, what is this? There's a, a righteousness, whatever that might mean, that's apart from the law, that's found through faith in Christ." So Paul quickly says, "Let me give you an example."

And his example is not the thief on the cross. His example is not himself. His example are not the apostles. Paul goes all the way back to Abraham and says, "Hey, this is in our Torah. This is in Genesis." Yeah. Faith and trust in God is the way Abraham was justified by God. That's the way Abraham was counted righteous by God.

And if we [00:19:00] understand that, it's something Paul says that should bring us peace with God. We've now escaped his wrath by the cross of Christ, by the gospel Now, you might be saying, "What does this mean to me?" And this is where we get into chapter six of Romans. Paul asks that natural question. You know, some people might be thinking, "Should I sin so grace can abound?"

The poet Auden, remember his Christmas, uh, little play where, uh, it's, it's the idea of, hey, God's into the forgiving business, I'm into the sinning business. We make a good team. I'll sin a bunch, He forgives a bunch. Woo. Hand in glove. No. Paul says, "What then? Shall we [00:20:00] sin so grace may abound?" And the answer in the Greek is meganoito, meganoito.

I found the best translation for it. It's in a video. Sound. Do... Oh, I don't have sound. We didn't turn on sound. Oh, no. How are you gonna hear the translation? Okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna, we're gonna make sounds

You're about to get the best translation of, you're about to get the best translation of meganoito you can Not if you're a stepfather. Not in my house. No,

no, no. Not today.

This is Get Happy. Yeah, Johnny. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more [00:21:00] Me ganó el show. Not today. Not in my house. No, no, no. Mutombo

So Paul has this big section, Romans 6, 7, and 8, about why. Why we shouldn't be living in sin, why we shouldn't sin, our victory over sin. And he comes into chapter 8 with, "There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ has set me free from the law of sin and dying."

And he's walking through this, and he ends it with that majestic chain we looked at before I broke for the summer of, "Who shall separate us from the love that Christ has for us? Will tribulation, will distress, will persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword? [00:22:00] As it's written, 'For your sake we're being killed all day long.'

We're to be regard- or we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." And he says, "No. In all these things we're more than conquerors through him who loved us." Amen. And he ends it with, "I'm sure" ... Now look at this carefully, 'cause this is our immediate context for where we're going. "I'm sure neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from God's love that's in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Amen. Whoo. Amen. Thank you, Lord. And then that chunk of shall we sin so grace may [00:23:00] abound is done, and we get a brand new chunk that's Romans 9, 10, and 11

Now, Romans nine, 10, and 11, many scholars accord as the three hardest chapters in the Bible to understand I was accused by more than one person of timing the teaching of this class so that I could get out without teaching Romans nine, 10, and 11

Some scholars believe that Romans 9, 10, and 11 is almost even an afterthought because you can end chapter 8 and start chapter 12, and Romans reads really good I don't think that's right. I think Romans 9, 10, and 11 belong exactly where they are and are [00:24:00] absolutely critical to the flow of thought. Greg Stay commented, he said, "I, I like the way it reads to me like somebody's making an objection in the courtroom to Paul's argument."

Think about it this way. Paul has just said nothing can separate us from the love of God. That those whom He foreknew, He predestined. He glorified

Do you ever do that trust thing? The trust fall? You know, where you, you fall back and you trust someone to catch you? Found a couple of examples of it on the internet, because it's important here. If God's word to Israel failed- Are you sure

you trust me? Duh, you're my dad. All right, let's do this. Three, two, one[00:25:00]

Oh, you did it. Yay. I always get you, girl. Yeah, you

always do. Let's go. Higher. Hey. Higher. Hey. Pretty good. Y'all have seen those, right? I got another one here. I'm gonna count down three, two, one. Three, two, one. When I get to one, I want you to fall, I'm gonna catch you, but keep your eyes closed, okay? Arms out. Arms out. Close your eyes. Are you ready? Here we go.

Three, two, one. Go.

Mm-hmm. Now, why do I play those? Because if God's word to Israel failed, why should we trust him now? Paul can say, "Oh, [00:26:00] nothing can ever separate us from the love of God," but is some of his audience is sitting there saying, "Objection, Your Honor. What about Israel? You made all those grand promises to Israel.

They're not following the Messiah in totality." That is why this section is so important. The integrity of God is at stake. And it's something Paul examined himself. And it's not something he's just musing on. It's not something he's just sitting there toying with. He's not writing stream of consciousness.

Say, "Yes, but the Holy Spirit's w-", that's okay. The Holy Spirit's working with Paul. The Holy Spirit is certainly inspiring the scripture, but it's not like it's moving the pen with Paul [00:27:00] mindless. It's working with and through Paul. That's what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do in John 14, 15, and 16. "I'll send the Holy Spirit.

He will work in you, with you. He'll remind you. He will..." So this is Paul working through some things he's been thinking about for over a decade. So what we're gonna do today with these first five verses is put them under a microscope for three different things. We're gonna look at the grief, Paul's heart breaking like a prophet.

Then we're gonna look at the gifts that were given to Israel, the treasures that are still in their hands. And the third microscope will look at the glory and the doxology that tells us who Jesus is. So let's start with the grief, a heart that breaks like the prophets. Here's where it [00:28:00] begins. Romans 9:1, "I'm speaking the truth in Christ.

I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit." And he's-- I'm, I'm-- Put me under oath. I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. This is Paul saying I don't want there to be any doubt about this whatsoever. Some people accused Paul of just catering to the Gentiles, turning his back on his Jewish heritage, becoming, uh, almost an anti-Jew.

And Paul wants them to hear from him unequivocally that he's going to tell them what is three times, triply affirmed, three witnesses, if you will, to the [00:29:00] fact that what he's saying is genuine and authentic. You can look at other passages where Paul uses language like this in your notes. You can write them down, look at them later.

1 Corinthians 1:23, Galatians 1:20, 2 Corinthians 11:21, 1 Timothy 2:7. But Paul is talking here, "I'm speaking the truth in Christ." I'm, there's, there's not lying. Now, why again, why is he this affirming? Well, it's not just the reputation to the Gentiles and Jews that he's got, and whether or not he's anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic or anti-anything, anti-law, antinomian.

Um, it's not just that. There's also kind of a whiplash between what we're about to read and what he had just said in Romans eight, thirty-nine, that [00:30:00] there's nothing in all of creation that will separate us from the love of God in Christ And you could almost get a whiplash because arguably he's gonna be saying something that seems to indicate differently.

And so he wants to start out... Now, if we go back to the passage itself, let me put it back up here, 'cause here's another thing. If you were reading this in the Greek, alēthēan legō en Christō He says the, that first word is truth. I'm speaking in Christ. That's your word order in Greek. Greek always has, almost always has, these little connecting words and particle words.

As a language that was sung, it kept it melodic. If you leave them out, it's jarring. It's attention-getting. It's called asyndeton [00:31:00] in Greek grammar. That's what you have here. Paul doesn't have his little connecting words, and it signifies in some ways this is a new chunk of material, but it, it's not so much that as much as it is, it's Paul's way, in my opinion, it's Paul's way of driving the attention to what he's saying.

He's saying, "Focus on this." I'm not making this colorful. I'm not ma- I am stripping this of adornment. I'm being blunt, to the point. Skip the introduction, go straight to the point. I'm speaking the truth here I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. And he continues, "That I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart."[00:32:00]

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ For the sake of my brothers. Now, this is the whiplash part of it. He just said, "Nothing can separate us from the love of God." Isn't that the greatest thing in the world? And then he says, "I could wish myself I were cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh."

So he wants you to have no doubt in your mind that what he's about to say is dead on My son-in-law, JT, when you're talking to him, one of the things he says a lot of times if we-- he agrees with you, instead of just saying, um, "Hey, I agree," or, "Yeah, that's, that's right," or, uh, "Amen," he says, "100% 100%. I love that.

And Becky starts asking me [00:33:00] things, and I've started saying to her, "97%."

82%.

She, she, she made breakfast for me this morning, 100%.

Paul's saying 100%. I have great sorrow. Uh, lupe in the Greek is the sorrow. Megale is great. But lupe is a deep pain. It's a grief. It's a sorrow. By the way, this is not where lupe tortilla-

Don't go there and say, "I'm gonna have some of that deep, painful, grief-causing enchiladas." [00:34:00] It's also not where lupus gets its name from. That gets its name from the Latin word for wolf. Yeah, the things you learn in class. I have lupe megalae.

I have this deep pain, this grief, this sorrow. You wanna see where the word's used? Let me throw you a couple. Look at John 16:21 and 22. This gives you an idea of how this word gets used. John 16:21 and 22

Let's see. John 16:21-22. "When a woman is giving birth, she has lupe, great pain, because her hour has come. [00:35:00] But when she's delivered, she no longer remembers the anguish for the joy, for joy that a human being has been born in the world." So also Jesus says, "You will have lupe now." But you'll have joy in the morning.

I mean, that is deep pain

Paul says, "I have great sorrow." Oh, the Philippians reference is the one where, uh, uh, uh, they sent, uh, was it Epaphroditus to him, and he was almost sick unto death, and, and Paul's glad that he didn't die because that just would've caused lupe. This is a deep, serious pain, and it's an unceasing anguish. The, the, it, this, this isn't some wave of feeling.

This is a permanent ache of the heart This is unceasing. [00:36:00] That's like pray without ceasing. It's unceasing in my heart. This is deep within Paul Paul wants you to know in all seriousness, with all gravity, 100%, he sincerely is grieving and hurting over this because he could wish that he himself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of his brothers, his kinsmen according to the flesh.

That I could wish. It's in the imperfect in the Greek, which is a verb tense. What it, what it, it means is this, the Greek grammarians could call it a desiderative imperfect. That's just really gonna be, uh, the captivating lunch topic for many of you today, I have no doubt. But what it means is, is it's something that can't [00:37:00] happen

But he could almost wish that it could. You could translate it, "I could almost wish." He knows it can't happen. He's not saying it can happen. He's saying, "I could almost wish" That I myself were accursed from Christ. In other words, Paul's not here negotiating a contract with God. What Paul's doing is measuring his love for his kinsmen.

That's what this statement is. This statement's not, "God, take me instead of him." No. That, that won't happen. That can't happen. Paul's not saying, "I'm negotiating this with the Lord." Paul's saying, "This is the measurement of my heart. This is how much I care. I could wish that I myself were accursed, anathema."

Anathema is, um, a, [00:38:00] a Greek word that's used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for a Hebrew word herem, which means that which has been devoted to God for destruction. It's what happened at Jericho. Something that's devoted to God for destruction. I could wish, could almost wish that I myself were devoted to God for destruction Cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers This, this I, I could be Karam Just like you see in the Old Testament Now, Paul's language here really closely parallels what the ancient prophets in the Old Testament did when they performed a lament

Prophetic laments are, the biggest [00:39:00] example we have is Lamentations, but you get a lot of them. Let me show you, uh... How am I doing time-wise? Yeah, we're doing all right, sorta. Jeremiah 8:18 through 9:1. This will give you a good idea of a lament. Um, Jeremiah is the lamenter behind Lamentations, but you get a lot of his lamentating in his book we call Jeremiah.

So Jeremiah 8:18. Oops, I've got to do that myself. Let's see, 8:18

Uh, here it is

Okay, I'm clearly out of practice. Sorry. My joy is gone. Grief is upon me. My heart is sick. Hark, the cry of my poor people far and wide in the land. Is the Lord not in Zion? [00:40:00] Is the king not in her? Who says, "Why have they provoked me to anger with their images and foreign idols?" The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we're not saved.

For the hurt of my poor people I'm hurt. I mourn, dismay's taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why has the health of my poor people not been restored? Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, so I could weep day and night for the slain of my poor people.

This is a lament

Micah. Micah has a good lament Hold on, hold on, hold on. Micah, Micah, Micah, Micah, Micah. You're in front of that, before Nahum. Micah [00:41:00] 7:1-7. Look at this. Lament Woe is me. Oy, oy. I have become like one who after the summer fruit has been gathered, after the vintage has been gleaned, finds no cluster to eat.

There's no first ripe fig for which I hunger. The faithful have disappeared from the land. There's no one left who's upright. Everybody lies in wait for blood. They hunt each other with nets. Their hands are skilled at evil. The official and the judge want a bribe. The powerful dictate what they want and pervert justice.

The best of them's like a thorny bush, the most upright of them a thorny hedge. And then in verse 18, he says the promise at the end of this, "But who's a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression of the remnant of your possession? God doesn't retain [00:42:00] his anger forever; he delights in showing clemency.

He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot, cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Show faithfulness to Jacob, unswerving loyalty to Abraham as he had sworn in days of old." Amen. See, there's, there's prophetic lament over what's happening to the people of Israel, but there's also a hope.

The most famous book of lamenting is Lamentations, but what's it say right smack dab in the middle? "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They're new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will rejoice in him."

Lament for the people, lament for those hurting But know that there's hope for what's coming. Now, we gotta hold onto that because that's gonna-- that's a [00:43:00] thread that goes all the way through Romans 9, 10, and 11. Paul's lament here is setting up everything that follows, and that's the grief, the heart that breaks like the prophets.

Now let's quickly look at the gifts, the treasures that are still in Israel's hands. Paul continues, "They are Israelites." Interesting he doesn't say Jews. He uses the word here not for the political entity of the day. He uses the word for the historical people. They are Israelites. They are, present tense, Israelites That present tense is important.

This is what they are right now. And there's a hook on that that you gotta hang onto, because on that hook, you'll find a lot of things coming back in the next three chapters as Paul sets this up. M- [00:44:00] m- Tom Wright does a good job of showing how Paul really in chapter nine tells the story of Israel, which I think is another legitimate reason to say he's using the term Israelites, not Jews The Jews don't come about till later They're the descendants of Judah The Israelites is the national progeny of pro-progeny of offspring of Abraham If you chart through some of Abraham's offspring.

They are Israelites. And then Paul gives us these: To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. Now, you might think, "Wow, that's pretty good," but this shows you how Paul's not just writing this spur of the moment. This is a carefully articulated, written section of [00:45:00] a carefully articulated, written book.

Yeah. So what you've got here are six different gifts, but they're all written in a manner that's very parallel. To them belong the adoption. Now, you don't have to read Greek to be able to look and see things. That thing that looks like an N where they were, you know, asleep at the end and let it go on down past the page, that's actually a long E, an eta in, in Greek, but it's just part of the word the.

The adoption

The glory and the adoption, you'll find it, by the way, in the Old Testament, Israel is the adopted child of God. The glory of God was revealed to Israel. The covenants were made with [00:46:00] Israel. The law was given to Israel The worship of the temple was given to Israel, and latreia there is emphasizing the service part of the worship, the priests and all that they did.

That was particular in given to Israel and the promises that were made. And if you look at these, you can see how they parallel each other. The adoption, he uiosthesia, parallels to the giving of the law, he nomosthesia. See? Same thesia at the end, same beginning. The glory, he doxa. The worship, he latreia.

They fit. And then you have plurals at the end, so instead of, instead of the he, you've got hoi, [00:47:00] hoi diathekai and hoi epangeloi

They, they, Paul's not tossing off of a list. He's composing a beautiful symphony By the way, you gotta admire this, okay? Look at what I did

Tell me AI doesn't work. All right. And then Paul says, "To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race according to the flesh is the Christ, who's God over all, blessed forever. Amen." To them, th- th- these, these are two crowning moments here. To them belong the patriarchs And that's the Micah passage that we just read We ended it.

You'll show faithfulness to [00:48:00] Jacob. These are the patriarchs. Unswerving loyalty to Abraham as you swore to our ancestors from the days of old. They get that. That's some-- That's a gift of the Jews. And from their race according to the flesh is the Messiah Go back to Genesis 22:18, which Paul does in Galatians 3, and says when all the world, the nations are gonna be blessed through the seed of Abraham.

It's talking about Christ. Paul is taking this and moving from the possessions that the Jews have had and the Israelites have had all the way over to the purpose. And that naturally should raise some questions for people who didn't have a summer break. Why? Because Paul has said on adoption in [00:49:00] just the previous chapter, you've received the spirit of adoption as sons.

You say, "Yeah, but that said adoption as sons." So does this. They just didn't translate it that way. It's the same word, uiothesia, uiothes, son And the reason it's sons instead of sons and daughters is because sons had legal rights daughters didn't have in adoption. And yeah. But look at that. That's something every Christian has

Now, those whom he justified, he glorified

The covenants? If we, we don't get the Old Testament covenant in Jesus. We have a new covenant written on the hearts. The giving of the law? [00:50:00] Um, no. We don't, uh, we didn't, we're, we're not at Sinai. We're not getting the law. The service of worship? We're not priests serving in the temple. But the promises?

Those whom he called, he foreknew, he predestined, he conformed, he justified, he'll glorify. We got the promises. Which ought to raise some questions for us. If the Jews had, the Israelites had those things, and they are rejecting the Messiah Can something separate us? Nothing. Paul said nothing. But we gotta, we gotta dig into this.

But we can't do it this week

Because we're gonna finish this little section with verse [00:51:00] 5B, 5B, the last part of verse 5 Paul says, "To them belong the patriarchs, and from, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ." And it's like Paul can't even say the word Christ here without breaking into a doxology Who is God over all, blessed forever.

Amen. Now, some people in historical religious Christian studies have wanted to say that, uh, the idea of Jesus being God didn't happen until much later. Those people, I would suggest, aren't careful students of the word. But they would take a passage like this and they would say, "Well, this doesn't technically say Christ is God over all.

Technically, it says, uh, the one [00:52:00] being, uh, over all, God, uh, blessed unto the end of ages." Amen. Let me do it this way. Let's throw it over here. Literally, each of those words could be read as the one who is, and it's actually, um, uh, on here as a, as a participle. It's the participle of the verb to be, so you could say being, but, uh, it's not like a, a being, an entity.

So I didn't do that. It kind of messes it up. But the one who is Christ, the one who is over all God blessed unto the end of the ages or into eternity. Amen There are three parts to this blessing, this doxology, which is a [00:53:00] divine number. Doxologies are often in threes. This is not written as if it's God.

You can ask the question, which translators have to answer, is this saying God is over all? Should this be read to say the one who's over all is God, and God should be blessed into the eternity, amen? No, I don't think so. Now, I do have to warn you, if you're reading an old Revised Standard Version or a New English Bible, they will write it as if that's God

But writing it as if it's Jesus, you're gonna get that in the English Standard Version, in the New American Standard Version, in the NIV. You're gonna get it in the Christian Standard Bible. You'll even get it in the New Revised Standard that-- your Baylor Bible that you've got. You'll see it says[00:54:00]

According to the flesh comes the Messiah, Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen

Is it God or Jesus? Let me tell you why to translate it that way. First of all, just this, these are freebies. We don't have a lot of time left. You can ignore this part. Points for home are coming right after it. Ho on, that, that start, the one who is. When Paul uses that, it always seems to attach to the preceding noun.

You see that in 2 Corinthians 11:31 is a good example. It's the previous noun. You don't put that, uh, uh, and then put the noun after it. So this is the one who is over all is talking about Christ. Christ is the one who's over all. Christ is the one who's God blessed into the eternity. [00:55:00] And then also the whole idea of the word blessed, um, eulogatos is, uh, uh...

It, it, it tends to come first. Uh, it, it, it's blessed are pa, pa, pa, pa, pa. It's not coming first here. It doesn't say, "Blessed is God." It says, "God, Jesus, the one who is, over all, God blessed..." If this is saying, "Bless God, blessed, bless God eternally," God would come after it in natural word order. So this is according to the flesh, he's Christ.

But then you've got this opposite end of it, you know? According to the flesh, he's Christ. But the whole balance of it is, but he's also God over all That's the natural reply to... He's, look, he's, he's according to the flesh, he's from Jew- [00:56:00] but he's not just for the Jews. He's God over all. He's blessed forever.

And that's this prophetic lament and this expectation of hope that we're talking about. This is something where Paul's not lying. He genuinely cares. Here are your points for home. Number one: We all know people who need to know the Lord. I think it's appropriate we carry the ache. Lupe. I have great sorrow.

I have unceasing anguish in my heart. We carry the ache. We can lament We can grieve, we can pray, and we can trust, and we can have hope because God is at work. Point for home number two: Guard the privilege you have of knowing Christ. Guard the privilege from [00:57:00] presumption, and that to them belong what to us belong.

Well, I loved Pastor Jared's sermon this morning. Don't presume Pray. Don't be indifferent, pray. Don't be too busy, pray. Don't, don't let privilege become presumption. Point for home three: bless God in grief, not just afterwards He's blessing God in the midst of the great sorrow. He's not waiting until it's over to bless God.

Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. Amen. Amen? All right, here's your lunch topic if you want one. Think about the person you ache for. When you pray for them, do you end up in [00:58:00] worry or worship? Let me bless you in the name of Jesus, and class, uh, uh, will resume next week, God willing. Lord, in the name of Jesus, who is blessed forever, amen.

Amen. We lift up to you those that need you, those we ache for Lord, we confess our tendency to take the many gifts you've given us and to presume upon your mercy and presume upon your kindness and lose that focused diligence that we need to have to bring all things to bear for your kingdom. Thank you for the honor of being here to teach.

I-- It is my prayer, Father, that you will be behind all the preparation, that you will be behind all of the work to make this class something that your Spirit is able to use to convict people of sin, righteousness, and judgment. [00:59:00] We want to be your people one hundred percent. In the name of Jesus, amen.