Greetings to all present and online, in America and abroad! Today we continue our study in Romans, as we examine God’s intension for the People of Israel, or the Jews. Just what was God up to when he separated Israel from the Gentiles? What was His plan? As we continue in the masterful letter by St. Paul in the second chapter, let us research this fascinating topic with our teacher as it pertains to understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Pastor Landis Fisher has titled this message: “Israel; Chosen For a Purpose “
Old Testament Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 4:30 – 39 (KJV)
Deu 4:30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; Deu 4:31 (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them. Deu 4:32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Deu 4:33 Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Deu 4:34 Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? Deu 4:35 Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him. Deu 4:36 Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he showed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. Deu 4:37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt; Deu 4:38 To drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day. Deu 4:39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
New Testament Scripture Reading: Romans 2:29 – 3:9 (KJV)
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. Rom 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Rom 3:2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Rom 3:3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. Rom 3:5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) Rom 3:6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? Rom 3:7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? Rom 3:8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
Rom 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin
Transforming Power Statements:
#1) Since Paul has closed up every possible loop-hole that people might have sought in order to be deemed righteous by any other standard; and has proven that no man, neither Jew nor Gentile can be justified in the sight of God by their own works, he now begins to answer the obvious objection of just why then did God separate Israel to Himself? What was God’s intention in this calling out of these people?
#2) The Jews were the vehicle through which God chose to transmit His Word to the human family and to set up His standard of righteousness which was symbolized in the Temple Worship and sacrificial system, which were foreshadows of Messiah who also came through the fleshly lineage of the Jews.
3) Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the purpose for which Israel was called and is to be preached in all the world as the final message of hope from the Most High, Almighty God to all men as the only way of to attain the perfect righteous standard that God requires for the salvation of any sinner.
