God Chose to Have a People
"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..." (Romans 11:1-2a).
God chose to have a People before time began. He decided in advance that He would have a People, and He would teach them His ways. He would lead them to build a temple and an ark and He would give them animal sacrifice, the Law of Moses and the whole Levitical system. These were written down for our learning--they were done in advance for us, "on whom the apex or the fulfillment of the ages has come," Paul said (1 Cor. 10). In His mind and His heart He saw the whole picture from beginning to end before there even was any picture! While the Spirit was still hovering over the chaos of the earth, God Himself foresaw the whole picture of how humanity would play itself out. He chose to have His "people, Israel" that would be the foreshadowing of the Life that would be in His Son, Jesus!
True Israel is born of the PROMISE! (Rom.9:6-8). It is by the GIFT OF GOD by Faith in Christ Jesus, our Messiah. The PROMISE of a nation of "the FAITH of Abraham," "as numerous as the sands on the seashore!" It is NOT genetically one's "first birth" (whether "Jew or Greek, slave or free")--but genetically our "SECOND BIRTH" that makes us Israel, in the sense God speaks of here:
"It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, 'It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.' In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring" (Rom.9:6-8).
There IS no other "Israel" that will be just fine in God's Sight simply because of a plot of ground they live on, or who they postulate they may have as an ancestor. ONLY those who genuinely give their lives to their crucified and risen Messiah, Yesu, Prince of Peace, Fullness of Deity dwelling in bodily form, who "came to His own, and His own received Him not" ...only THOSE will be grafted in, and considered the Israel of God. "...not all who descended from Israel... are Israel" (Rom.9:6).
"What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all!" "We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin" (Romans 3:9). Do you have that phrase in your vocabulary? "NOT AT ALL." Are you any better than anybody else? Not at all. If you don't have that phrase in your vocabulary, you don't understand the Good News. Are we any better? Not at all. So, you're a Jew? Well, you had the law, but you never kept it in your heart. You were powerless to keep it. So, you're a Gentile? God made His will known to you too, even without the law. Jew and Gentile alike, you are both under sin. God’s leveled the playing field here, boys! You are all the same. Apart from Jesus, you are all the same.
"And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised" (Romans 4:12). To follow in the footsteps of our father Abraham is to believe on the One whom the Father has sent! He's the only hope for deliverance from the penalty of sin and our only hope for freedom from the power of sin. You must grasp that! You have to grab greedily onto that fact if you're ever going to understand God's forgiveness, and learn to "love much, because you've been forgiven much." If you're ever going to find Resurrection Power, you must understand the rotting death that's in your heart. You have to understand the utter wickedness of carnal power--the power of the mind, the power of persuasive ability, the power of hard work and willpower, the power of genius, and the power of charm and good looks. None of that junk will ever justify us before God or bring us to a place of bearing fruit to the Father's glory. Do you believe that? You've got to believe it. If you want to find the same freeing power and life and justification of our father Abraham, then you have to walk in the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham. Only then will we become friends of God.
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