 |
| A CRUSHING BLOW TO PAUL |
| Does God break his promises? |
| I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 9:2 |
| Does anything bring more pain to a new Christian than family rejection? A teenager converts to Christianity. Her parents overreact, assuming their daughter has fallen for some weird cult. They slap away all her attempts to present the appealing facts of the gospel. What is good news for her is seen as bad news by the family. Some new Christians can melt down the walls of suspicion and hostiltiy. But others are treated like diseased persons by other family members and forced to live in a state of emotional quarantine. Anyone who has lived through such an experience can understand the agonizing dilemma Paul faced. Members of his own race, the Jews, were rejecting the gospel he had committed his life to. Can God Be Trusted? Rejection by the Jews was a crushing blow to Paul, and he interrupted his letter to the Romans to consider the dilemma. These three chapters (9-11) contain some of his strongest words ever, including an offer to forfeit his own relationship with Christ for the sake of his race (9:3). The issues discussed here apply to non-Jews as well, for they raise basic questions about God. Had he given up on the Jewish people, ignoring the promises he made to them in Old Testament times? If so, couldn't he also break promises made to us today? For Paul, a Jew who called himself an apostle to the Gentiles, no other issue was so important to resolve. He couldn't rest until he linked the brilliant theology set forth in Romans to God's past, present, and future activity among the Jews. |