Romans 9:19-33

 Romans 9:19-33

How to avoid two-tiered Christianity? That was a very real challenge for the early church. Having grown out of the soil and seed of Judaism, the early church faced the very real danger of becoming a faith with a lower class and an upper class, gentile and Jewish believers, respectively. Ultimately such a view would undermine and destroy salvation by faith in Christ. We will do well to recall and be warned by the arrogance that could be found among some Jewish people. One prayer offered by Jewish men said, “I thank you, God, I was not born a woman, a gentile, or a dog.” One myth that circulated among the Jews of the ancient world was that an angel would be stationed at the gates of hell that would pull all Jews condemned to hell out of the procession of the damned. Stop and consider the arrogance of such a thought. Salvation in this view is not based on faith, or even works, but on family heritage. This myth literally challenges the wisdom, righteousness, and authority of God. Another myth said at the gate of hell there was an angel who would reverse the circumcision of all Jews who were to be damned. Thus making them non-Jews so that no Jew would be in hell.

Worse than works salvation is the salvation based on race. In contrast to the salvific work of family, Paul proposed that Israel, the Jewish nation and its national heritage, was not “the ends” but “the means” or a tool to bring the Messiah into the world. With Paul, it is always and only about Christ. This, by the way, is a view that we ought to adopt. Israel was so arrogant and self-conceited that they would never accept the Messiah God did send until or unless the Gentiles were made recipients of God‘s grace by faith. It is God’s agenda to save all people; to reach the Gentiles, he would use the family of Abraham. In their special role, they would become arrogant and then hardhearted. So in order to reach the Jews, God would use rejecting them, till in humility caused by stumbling over Jesus, some would return to him. Two points need to be remembered. First is the poison of arrogance, which is not a malady of Jews only. Second, the story is not about Jew or Gentile; it’s about Christ.

“Lord, help my life to be only and always about Jesus. AMEN”