Read Romans Chapters 9-11
I once team-taught with a guy who was more literalist than I about Biblical interpretation. But when he was teaching from a letter of Paul and ran across passages such as these three chapters, he would say, “Take out your big black magic markers and blot all this out.”
Of course, we cannot do this. But the argument in these three chapters following faith and grace becomes obtuse. Laying out example after example, Paul seems to get himself into one of those logical binds that happens to him.
These chapters do not seem to follow the spiritual formation progression from before and then after. He returns to a theme that bothers him greatly—how Jewish people have shunned the teaching and experience of Jesus.
Paul argues in Chapter 9 that even though the Jews trace their chosen status by God through Abraham by direct ancestry, “It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all those descended from Israel are Israelites, and not all of Abraham’s children are his descendants, but “it is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.” 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 descendants.”
Paul then proceeds to feed future generations of theologians with his attempts to explain how even though he wishes his Jewish people would accept the resurrection of Jesus and entry into God’s grace that they have ignored it. So, the “chosen” people did not become the new “chosen” people. Now people who think for a living can begin arguing what Paul meant by all these words of chosen and foreknew. I will leave that for those thinkers. It matters not for my life. I only try to follow Jesus.
Here is one example of how Paul tries logic for an illogical problem. “What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith, but Israel, who did strive for the law of righteousness, did not attain that law. Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, ‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall, and whoever trusts in him will not be put to shame.’ ”
He’s trying to figure out why the promised Messiah, savior of Israel, has not been accepted by those Israelites who pray every day for the coming of the Messiah.
“I want you to understand this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not claim to be wiser than you are: a hardening has come upon part of Israel until the full number of the gentiles has come in.”
He also worries that the gentiles will think themselves better than the Jews. It’s a complicated problem that I think he fails to resolve.
What does this mean for us? Almost everyone reading my words has no part or knowledge of this Jew versus Gentile thing. But…we do have divisions where one group may think itself superior. We do need to reconcile differences. We do need to remember Paul’s core teaching—faith. That teaching runs through this entire difficult passage. He can’t understand why some people who should have faith don’t, and why some people you would never think of having faith do.
We can’t understand that either.
But we can reconcile under faith. And, we can try to lead others into faith by how we live.
Gary Mintchell
Faith Venture 