All humanity is hopelessly trapped in sin and needs to be rescued, this rescue is not going to happen by people trying to obey the laws of the Torah, rather, God’s righteous character has move him to rescue the world through Jesus’ death and resurrection, so that he could create a faith-based multi-ethnic family of Abraham as his people. Paul’s exploration of justification by faith, that when people trust Jesus’ death and resurrection was for them, they’re given a new status, right with God, they’re placed in a new family, the covenant people of Abraham and they’re given a new future, the hope of a transformed life. This reality should reshape every part of our existence, because being in this family means, being a part of a new humanity that God is creating through Jesus and the Spirit. The biblical story about Adam, and Adam, like all humanity after him has chosen sin and selfishness and so everyone faces God’s judgment, because we become slaves to sins influence, resulting in death. Paul contrast Adam with Jesus, who he says is the new Adam, a human who lived in faithful obedience to God, shown through his act of sacrificial love and now, Jesus offers his life as a gift to others, so that they can be justified before God. Jesus stands as the head of a new humanity that is being transformed by this gift.
Paul reminds these Christians in Rome, that choosing to follow Jesus means, leaving their old Adam-like humanity and entering into the new Jesus-like humanity, their old humanity died with Jesus and their new humanity was raised with him from the dead, so when a person trust in Jesus, their life becomes joined to his life, what’s true of him, is now true of them. It’s when people accept their identity as Jesus-like humans, that they are liberated to become the wholehearted humans who can truly love God and their neighbor. Now, if creating this new humanity was always God’s purpose, what then was the point of God giving Israel the law, what was the purpose of all those commands? Paul says that the commands of the Torah were good, they showed God’s will for how Israel was to live, but the story line of the Torah, Israel broke all those commands. The more laws Israel received, the more they replayed the sin of Adam and rebelled. So even when God gave his people specific moral rules to obey, that did not fix the problem of the sinful human heart and so paradoxically, these rules made Israel even more guilty. But that paradox is the point, God’s goal was to make it crystal clear, that it’s evil that’s hijack the human heart and that the Torah, good as it is, could not do a thing about it.
The solution has arrived in Jesus and the Spirit. The commands of the Torah acted like a magnifying glass, it focused the problem of the human condition into one place, on the people of Israel. But now, Israel’s representative, Jesus Christ, has paid for and dealt with all of that sin through his death and his resurrection. Now, Jesus has released his Spirit into his new family, to transform their hearts, so that they can truly fulfill the call of all the Torah’s commands, to love God and neighbor. God’s renewal of human beings is the first step of his larger mission to rescue and renew all of creation, making it a place where his love gets the final word.
If all of this was God’s purpose, what is the current status then of Paul’s fellow Israelites, who don’t acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and how does this story fulfill God’s promises to them? Paul begins with his own anguish over fellow Israelites who don’t think Jesus is their Messiah and it leads him to reflect on Israel in the past from the Old Testament story. He reminds us that simply being an ethnic Israelite, a physical descendant of Abraham, never made one automatically a faithful member of the covenant family. Paul shows us how God has always selected a subset from Abraham’s family to carry on the line of promise, in this point, is that now that line of promise is carried on by those who follow Jesus. Paul reminds us that for a long time, people inside and outside Abraham’s family have rejected God’s will. He reminds us of the story of Israel making the golden calf and of Pharaohs rebellion, showing us how God was able to orchestrate events, so that people’s rejection of him, actually accomplished his redemptive purposes.
Paul turns his focus to Israel in the present, the reason many Israelites reject Jesus, is because they’re basing their covenant relationship with God on their performance of the commands in the Torah, sadly they don’t recognize what God has done through Jesus, to create a new covenant family on the basis of faith. So Paul asks, what is Israel’s future, has God written off his people? No. There are tons of Jewish people, including himself, who do recognize Jesus as their Messiah, but there are also a lot who don’t. God has been able to use their rejection for his own purposes, it’s caused the gospel to spread even quicker and farther into the gentile world, making the family of Abraham even larger and more multi-ethnic. Paul describes God’s covenant family as a big olive tree and the rejecters of Jesus have been broken off and these gentiles are like wild branches that have been grafted into the family tree, but one day, Jesus will be acknowledged by his own people. Paul doesn’t offer any details about how, he simply trust God’s character and promise, that he won’t give up on his covenant people.
Their faith in Jesus, Jews and Gentiles are now together Abraham’s family, that new humanity that’s being transformed by God’s Spirit, this is how God’s fulfilling his ancient promises. Therefore, the only reasonable response is for these Jews and non-jewish Christians to be unified as the church. Paul shows that this unity will come from a commitment to love and forgive each other. Love will look like everybody using their diverse gifts and talents to serve one another in the church and will also mean humility and forgiveness, when these different ethnic groups and cultures come together in Jesus, conflict is inevitable, and it can only be overcome through the hard word of forgiveness and reconciliation. This is how they will show the greatest of Christian virtues, love, which fulfills there Torah’s greatest commands, to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Paul focuses specifically on the issues that are creating ethnic divisions in the church, disputes about the Jewish food laws and the Sabbath, these practices don’t define who’s in or out of Jesus’ family and people differ over these culturally important, but non-essential issues, they need to learn how to respect each other’s differences, it’s in this way that love will heal and unify Jesus’ family.
Paul reminds these Christians in Rome, that choosing to follow Jesus means, leaving their old Adam-like humanity and entering into the new Jesus-like humanity, their old humanity died with Jesus and their new humanity was raised with him from the dead, so when a person trust in Jesus, their life becomes joined to his life, what’s true of him, is now true of them. It’s when people accept their identity as Jesus-like humans, that they are liberated to become the wholehearted humans who can truly love God and their neighbor. Now, if creating this new humanity was always God’s purpose, what then was the point of God giving Israel the law, what was the purpose of all those commands? Paul says that the commands of the Torah were good, they showed God’s will for how Israel was to live, but the story line of the Torah, Israel broke all those commands. The more laws Israel received, the more they replayed the sin of Adam and rebelled. So even when God gave his people specific moral rules to obey, that did not fix the problem of the sinful human heart and so paradoxically, these rules made Israel even more guilty. But that paradox is the point, God’s goal was to make it crystal clear, that it’s evil that’s hijack the human heart and that the Torah, good as it is, could not do a thing about it.
The solution has arrived in Jesus and the Spirit. The commands of the Torah acted like a magnifying glass, it focused the problem of the human condition into one place, on the people of Israel. But now, Israel’s representative, Jesus Christ, has paid for and dealt with all of that sin through his death and his resurrection. Now, Jesus has released his Spirit into his new family, to transform their hearts, so that they can truly fulfill the call of all the Torah’s commands, to love God and neighbor. God’s renewal of human beings is the first step of his larger mission to rescue and renew all of creation, making it a place where his love gets the final word.
If all of this was God’s purpose, what is the current status then of Paul’s fellow Israelites, who don’t acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and how does this story fulfill God’s promises to them? Paul begins with his own anguish over fellow Israelites who don’t think Jesus is their Messiah and it leads him to reflect on Israel in the past from the Old Testament story. He reminds us that simply being an ethnic Israelite, a physical descendant of Abraham, never made one automatically a faithful member of the covenant family. Paul shows us how God has always selected a subset from Abraham’s family to carry on the line of promise, in this point, is that now that line of promise is carried on by those who follow Jesus. Paul reminds us that for a long time, people inside and outside Abraham’s family have rejected God’s will. He reminds us of the story of Israel making the golden calf and of Pharaohs rebellion, showing us how God was able to orchestrate events, so that people’s rejection of him, actually accomplished his redemptive purposes.
Paul turns his focus to Israel in the present, the reason many Israelites reject Jesus, is because they’re basing their covenant relationship with God on their performance of the commands in the Torah, sadly they don’t recognize what God has done through Jesus, to create a new covenant family on the basis of faith. So Paul asks, what is Israel’s future, has God written off his people? No. There are tons of Jewish people, including himself, who do recognize Jesus as their Messiah, but there are also a lot who don’t. God has been able to use their rejection for his own purposes, it’s caused the gospel to spread even quicker and farther into the gentile world, making the family of Abraham even larger and more multi-ethnic. Paul describes God’s covenant family as a big olive tree and the rejecters of Jesus have been broken off and these gentiles are like wild branches that have been grafted into the family tree, but one day, Jesus will be acknowledged by his own people. Paul doesn’t offer any details about how, he simply trust God’s character and promise, that he won’t give up on his covenant people.
Their faith in Jesus, Jews and Gentiles are now together Abraham’s family, that new humanity that’s being transformed by God’s Spirit, this is how God’s fulfilling his ancient promises. Therefore, the only reasonable response is for these Jews and non-jewish Christians to be unified as the church. Paul shows that this unity will come from a commitment to love and forgive each other. Love will look like everybody using their diverse gifts and talents to serve one another in the church and will also mean humility and forgiveness, when these different ethnic groups and cultures come together in Jesus, conflict is inevitable, and it can only be overcome through the hard word of forgiveness and reconciliation. This is how they will show the greatest of Christian virtues, love, which fulfills there Torah’s greatest commands, to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Paul focuses specifically on the issues that are creating ethnic divisions in the church, disputes about the Jewish food laws and the Sabbath, these practices don’t define who’s in or out of Jesus’ family and people differ over these culturally important, but non-essential issues, they need to learn how to respect each other’s differences, it’s in this way that love will heal and unify Jesus’ family.
