Paul turns to much more practical, everyday Christian life issues beginning in chapter 12.

• In 12:1–15:13 then we have Paul dealing with a series of issues about what it means to live out the gospel in everyday life.
• The good news of Jesus Christ talks more broadly about how, through Christ, God is reestablishing His reign over His rebellious creation.
• Then in 14:1–15:13 we find Paul centering on one particular issue that apparently was a real problem in the Roman church.
• This division, these arguments between what he calls the “strong” and the “weak.”[1]

 
A LIVING SACRIFICE
Romans 12:1-2
1 Therefore,

• “Therefore,” reminding us that what Paul is now about to say depends on everything he has been doing to this point in Romans.
• Everything we have been talking about since January 24th (26 weeks).
• In grace, as Paul has taught, he has enabled us to become righteous persons, right before God.
• In light of that and all of the mercy of God, then we are to respond.[2]
• But what has Paul ben having to deal with?
• If he spends the next 3.5 chapters on Christian ethics… there is a reason for it!
• I’m pretty sure it may have looked a little like this…

 
The Honest Preacher Video
 
brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God,

• “mercies” – Paul has spent the last 3 chapters explaining this mercy of God.
• If God has mercy on us… why can’t we have mercy on others?
• We don’t always have to be right.
• And when we are right… just leave it alone.
• “told you so”
• Just give a little room to be wrong to others sometimes, because you are going to need it as well.
• And if you don’t agree with that… then you are wrong!

I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God;

• Wait… what? That is what the animals are for!
• No… Christ changed all that.
• You are the Temple now.
• The Holy of Holies is where the Spirit once dwelled.
• Jesus died on the cross, rose again and made you holy now for a reason.
• The Holy Spirit lives in you now.
• “Body” is a word that Paul likes to use to talk about human beings in terms of their concrete interaction with the realities of this life.
• He’s addressing us as human beings generally, but as human beings who are embodied—that is, human beings who do have an existence here in this world, and people who therefore have abilities to live a certain way in the world where God has placed us.[3]

this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.[4]

• The secret to being not conformed is to be transformed—to be changed from within in our very basic ways of thinking.[5]
• Paul says it’s by engaging in this process—offering ourselves as living sacrifices, not being conformed but being transformed—it’s by doing all of those things that we will be able to test, approve, and actually carry out the will of God.
• We Christians are always wondering, “What is God’s will for me?”[6]
• The odds are, you are not going to discover God’s will for your life through your emotions and feelings.
• The most important things in our lives (the values we live by) have been revealed to us by God.
• And it’s by engaging in this process of transforming ourselves, allowing God’s Spirit to pattern our ways of thinking, that we will be able to do God’s will, to put it into practice, to be people who daily walk in the way God has laid down for us.[7]

 

• Worship that comes from beings who have been given by God the capacity to understand Him and His purposes.
• Paul here is talking about our very lives—day in, day out—as ways of worshiping God.
• The worship of God in everyday life is what Paul is calling upon us as His people to be engaged in here, worship that honors God in the decisions we make day in, day out—worship of God as we do our jobs, as we engage in conversations with neighbors, as we enjoy ourselves in various entertainment contexts.[8]

 
Renewing of the Mind

• When Paul talks about our being transformed, he says it’s to take place by the “renewing of the mind.”
• The same phrase … one Paul uses also in Eph 4, and I think it kind of gets at the heart of what we might call “Paul’s view of Christian ethics.”
• How is it that Christians are to live in ways that please God? All of us struggle with that.
• All of us struggle with the fact that we know what God wants us to do at times, but don’t always feel like we want to do it, or [we’re] frustrated sometimes even in carrying it out.
• This idea of the renewing of the mind I think should be central in the way we think about living as Christians.
• In Paul’s way of looking at things that we don’t make the commandments too centrally important for us.
• We are deeply and appropriately concerned that Christians live out their faith in the specifics of life.
• And we’re often surprised/not surprised to find Christians aren’t doing that, ourselves included.
• And one, in a sense, easy answer to that problem is to order people what they’re to do, to give them the impression that they need to live by a series of do’s and don’ts.
• However, I think the essence of new covenant ethic is rather an internal transformation of the person.

 

• First of all, that this is a constant process.
• Paul does not say, “Be transformed by your mind already fully renewed.”
• He says, “Be transformed by a continuing renewing of the mind”—in other words, a process that we’ll be engaged in from the moment of conversion to the moment of death.
• My personal mind is being renewed as well.
• I still struggle with fleshly thoughts.
• I still seek wisdom from Godly people.
• But it is this inner transformation that God is working by His Spirit that is the key to leading a faithful life in glory to God.

 

• The Corinthians seem to be people who are so excited about the Spirit working in them.
• They claim to have special wisdom and insight, and yet Paul again and again has to tell them, “No, at this point if you think you are being guided by the Spirit, you are wrong. You are breaking a commandment of God relevant to your situation.”

 

• It is not that we don’t need law in some form anymore. We do.
• In my view God has given us law and specific commandments in the NT Scriptures to give us an indication of right and wrong, but these should never be a replacement of the more fundamental, internal work of God’s Spirit as it transforms our hearts and minds and leads us to become people who think rightly about the world in light of the values of the kingdom of God.[9]

 
Let me try to bring this home for you…

• The Chosen…
• Matthew 4:23-25 - Now Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 Then the news about him spread throughout Syria. So they brought to him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And he healed them. 25 Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.[10]
• Jesus is dealing with people in the midst of their crisis.
• In the show, Mary (Jesus’ mother) and other women disciples are a part of Jesus’ disciples.
• The brand new disciples are exhausted and sitting around the fire.
• This is the writer/producer’s vision of what it looked like…

 
The Chosen Video
 

• Now… in the midst of my current week…
• Where our families are dealing directly with COVID
• We’ve had a Leavener death
• We are walking with people who are losing their jobs because of their addictions
• We are dealing with families being broken over divorce.
• We are consoling a community that has lost 3 teenage girls to a drunk driver.
• We are ministering to a family who lost their child just 10 months ago.
• We are consoling parents and students who going away to college… some many hours away.
• We are trying to figure out how to minister to a lady coming home from rehab and still has a long road ahead of her.
• We are ministering to a Pinheads employee who is disable for a season.
• Just to name a few… in the midst of our own personal chaos.
• We are not looking for sympathy… this is our calling.

 

• But at the same time… these are the conversations I am hearing sitting around the camp fire…

 

•  Masks – “Opinions are good… take a stand”
•  Vaccine – “were they vaccinated?”
•  School Curriculum
•  School Boards
•  Library Books
•  Politics
•  Prophecy/End times
•  Afghanistan
•  Racism/ Reverse Racism
•  Gender Equality
•  Gender Identity Issues
•  Sexual Identity Issues
• Social network posts where you air out your personal issues and throw the name of Jesus in there to make it look like it is God approved.

 
I get it… real day topics… this is the world we are swimming in right now.
 
I care… but I don’t care!

• I have enough chaos in my own life, that I don’t need to focus on the fallen world.
• My focus is going to be on Jesus.

 

• I will hang out with people who pursue Jesus.
• I’m not interested in the sideshow.
• “But you need to be a light in the world and taka a stand on these issues!”
• No! I don’t! I am a light in this world because the Spirit is living inside of me and directing my paths.
• The Spirit is constantly renewing my mind to the things that are important to Him… Which become important to me!

 

• I don’t have time for the foolishness of this world!
• I want to sit around the camp fire and talk about the things Jesus did today.
• We were meant to have an abundant life in the midst of the chaos.

 
Paul writes…
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.[11]

[1] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[2] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[3] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[4] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ro 12:1–2). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[6] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[7] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[8] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[9] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[10] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Mt 4:23–25). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[11] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ro 12:1–2). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Some have concluded from this that Paul’s Christian audience in Rome was made up entirely of Gentiles.

• I think it’s more likely, however, that the congregations Paul’s addressing in Rome were a mixed group between Gentiles and Jews.
• And so what he’s signaling here to this mixed audience is, “Now the argument of my making at this point in Rom 11 is particularly directed to you Gentile Christians in Rome.”[1]

 
Romans 11:12-16
12 Now if their transgression brings riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness bring!

• Whose transgression?
• Israel for not believing Jesus is the Messiah
• Brings riches for the world
• Salvation has come to the world… the Gentiles.
• This is Paul’s experience throughout Acts.
• He came to each city/region and preached to the Jews first in the synagogue.
• He got rejected by the majority and then would go teach the Gentiles.
• This was repeated everywhere Paul went.
• How much more will their fullness bring
• All of Israel will eventually believe.

13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Insofar as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if I might somehow make my own people, jealous and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection brings reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

• Paul repeats what he said before.
• The Jews rejected Jesus and the Gentiles believed.
• Their acceptance mean but life from the dead.
• All of Israel will eventually believe.

16 Now if the firstfruits are holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. [2]
 
Romans 11:17-36
17 Now if some of the branches were broken off (Jews – rooted in the soil of God’s promises to the Patriarchs), and you (Gentiles – apart from the promises), though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and have come to share in the rich root of the cultivated olive tree, 18 do not boast that you are better than those branches. But if you do boast—you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you.

• It is not so much an attitude of “I am wonderful” of which Paul is complaining as “I am more wonderful than you.”[3]

19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 True enough; they were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but beware, 21 because if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 22 Therefore, consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness toward you—if you remain in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

• “you too will be cut off”
• Paul never was talking about an individual
• He was always speaking in reference to a generation of Jews or Gentiles.
• Your kindness or lack of, could impact generations to come.

23 And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these—the natural branches—be grafted into their own olive tree?

• Grafted in is something that is unnatural
• Slide of Olive Tree

25 I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

• The hardening of the heart is something Paul has already talked about in the previous chapters.

26 And in this way (not “then”) all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

• There are, essentially, six interpretations of the expression ‘all Israel’ in Paul’s statement that ‘all Israel will be saved’:
• (i) all Israelites from every age;
• (ii) all the elect of Israel of all time;
• (iii) all Israelites alive at the end of the age;
• (iv) Israel as a whole alive at the end of the age, but not including every individual Israelite;
• (v) a large number of Israelites at the end of the age;
• (vi) Israel redefined to include all Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus Christ.[4]
• Is Paul here talking about one step in the process when Jews are included again in the kingdom?
• Or is “all Israel will be saved” a way of summarizing the entire process from beginning to end?[5]
• The phrase occurs almost sixty times there, and very rarely does “all Israel” mean every single Israelite who was, let’s say, alive at that time.
• “All Israel” is a phrase that almost always has a kind of representative significance.
• It talks about a significant or representative number of Jews, but not every single Jew.
• This language is similar to the way we use such language in our day.
• One might say, for instance, “The whole city was talking about the books available to the students,” when in fact we mean, “Well, a significant number of people in the city,” maybe not even a majority of the people in the city.
• Many of the people in the city may not even have heard about the issue, but we use the language of the “whole city” or “all Israel” in this kind of representative sense.[6]

The Deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27 And this will be my covenant with them (Isaiah 59:20-21 - “The Redeemer will come to Zion,
and to those in Jacob who turn from transgression.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children’s children, from now on and forever,” says the Lord. [7])

• The “deliverer” or “redeemer” will come to Zion in Isaiah’s prophecy (to the Jews).
• But Paul quotes it as the “deliverer” or “redeemer” will come from Zion. (from the Gentiles who reach more regions.

when I take away their sins. (Jeremiah 31:31-34 - 31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”,—the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin. [8])

• Some theologians believe in bi-covenantalism.
• Gentiles are saved by faith in Jesus
• Jews will be saved by the promises made in the Torah.
• I don’t believe Paul has declared that at all.
• He has clearly said that both Jews and Gentiles must come by faith in Jesus to be saved.
• Here Paul is talking about the issue of salvation, spiritual matters, and I think that Paul always views salvation as taking place in Christ and in terms of the Christian church.
• So this salvation of “all Israel” in the last days, it seems to me, will be taking place by their faith in Christ as God graciously works among them and will integrate them into the single people of God, the church of the new covenant era.[9]

28 Regarding the gospel, they are enemies for your advantage, but regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs, 29 since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable. 30 As you once disobeyed God but now have received mercy through their disobedience, 31 so they too have now disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they also may now receive mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may have mercy on all.

• God’s purpose is to let salvation come to Gentiles, in turn provoking Israel to repentance (11:11).
• That way, representatives from all peoples, Jewish and Gentile, could have the opportunity for salvation (11:30–33).[10]

 
A HYMN OF PRAISE (doxology)
33 Oh, the depth of the riches
and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments
and untraceable his ways!
34 For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
35 And who has ever given to God,
that he should be repaid? (Isaiah 40:13-14)
36 For from him and through him
and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever. Amen.[11]

• He has shown that God treats Jews and Gentiles alike in the matters of sin and judgment (1:18–3:20), and that he offers salvation freely to them both and without reference to the law.

God does this on the basis of what he did for them through Jesus Christ, whom he set forward as the atoning sacrifice for their sins, thus showing not only his great love for humanity but also his justice in justifying sinners who put their faith in his Son (3:21–5:21).[12]

[1] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ro 11:12–16). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Morris, L. (1988). The Epistle to the Romans (p. 414). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.
[4] Kruse, C. G. (2012). Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (D. A. Carson, Ed.) (p. 448). Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England; Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos.
[5] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[6] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[7] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Is 59:20–21). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[8] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Je 31:31–34). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[9] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[10] Keener, C. S. (2009). Romans (p. 132). Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
[11] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ro 11:17–36). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[12] Kruse, C. G. (2012). Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (D. A. Carson, Ed.) (pp. 456–457). Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England; Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos.

In chapters 9 and 10 Paul looked more at the negative; that is Israel itself is responsible for her state, failing to respond to the grace of God and to recognize Christ as the culmination of God’s plan in the history of salvation.[1]
 
ISRAEL’S REJECTION NOT TOTAL
Romans 11:1-10
1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Absolutely not!

• The suggestion is unthinkable.
• To some it may seem the logical result of what Paul has been saying, but to the apostle it is an utter impossibility.
• God is thoroughly reliable, and it is impossible to think of him first choosing and then rejecting a people.[2]

For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

• Paul is playing for the Gentiles but he is actually a Jew.
• Ian Kinsler, a major league baseball player, born in Tuscan, AZ
• His family heritage is Jewish
• He played baseball for Israel team in the Olympics
• 8 NBA players were on France’s basketball team.
• Paul is reminding both the Christian Gentiles and Christian Jews that he is a Jew.

2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

• The verb has the sense of God entering into relationship with people ahead of time.[3]

Or don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to take my life! (1 Kings 19:10, 14) 4 But what was God’s answer to him? I have left seven thousand for myself who have not bowed down to Baal. (1 Kings 19:18)

• These are men who made a choice to follow the God of Abraham.

5 In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace.

• At both times the nation as a whole was not obedient to God, but in both also a minority did obey.
• And in both the minority was a standing witness to the truth that God has not cast away his people.[4]

6 Now if by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace.

• The divider here is whether one is determining that belief is a “work”.
• If belief is a work, then God alone chooses who receives grace.
• If belief is not a work, then grace is purely a way that has been made for salvation.

7 What then? Israel did not find what it was looking for, but the elect did find it. The rest were hardened, 8 as it is written,
God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that cannot see
and ears that cannot hear,
to this day. (Deuteronomy 29:4, Isaiah 29:10. Matthew 12-13)
9 And David says,
Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a pitfall and a retribution to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and their backs be bent continually. (Psalm 69:22-23)

• What Paul wants to say here is very simple, “Don’t forget, you Roman Christians, that God is continuing to choose Jews to belong to His people.”
• In other words, there are quite a few Jewish Christians in Paul’s day.
• Paul himself is one of them, of course.[5]

 
ISRAEL’S REJECTION NOT FINAL
11 I ask, then, have they stumbled so as to fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.

• God’s purpose is to let salvation come to Gentiles, in turn provoking Israel to repentance.
• That way, representatives from all peoples, Jewish and Gentile, could have the opportunity for salvation.[6]

12 Now if their transgression brings riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness bring!
13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Insofar as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if I might somehow make my own people, jealous and save some of them.

• Don’t become so arrogant as to believe that God has rejected the Jews and turned only to the Gentiles.
• How does that attitude help reach Paul’s own people?
• Have respect for the Jews.
• Don’t despise their customs.

15 For if their rejection brings reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

• Paul’s statement here compares to what Jesus did.
• Jesus’ death brought salvation to the world, but even greater was Jesus’ resurrection from the dead because He brought life to believers.

16 Now if the firstfruits are holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.[7]

• In reference to the patriarchs of faith (Abraham).
• All those who believe in the coming Messiah and Jesus would be considered the whole batch or the branches.
• The remnant of Jews and believing Gentiles. (grace)

Not those who have made the Law their point of salvation. (works).

[1] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[2] Morris, L. (1988). The Epistle to the Romans (p. 398). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.
[3] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[4] Morris, L. (1988). The Epistle to the Romans (p. 401). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.
[5] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[6] Keener, C. S. (2009). Romans (p. 132). Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
[7] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ro 11:1–16). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Last week we ended with Romans 10:13 - For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.[1]

• Joel 2:32 - Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, for there will be an escape for those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, as the Lord promised, among the survivors the Lord calls.[2]

 
ISRAEL’S REJECTION OF THE MESSAGE
Romans 10:14-21
14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?
15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

• Isaiah 52:7-13 - How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace, who brings news of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” 8 The voices of your watchmen—they lift up their voices, shouting for joy together; for every eye will see when the Lord returns to Zion. 9 Be joyful, rejoice together, you ruins of Jerusalem! For the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The Lord has displayed his holy arm in the sight of all the nations; all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. 11 Leave, leave, go out from there! Do not touch anything unclean; go out from her, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. 12 For you will not leave in a hurry, and you will not have to take flight; because the Lord is going before you, and the God of Israel is your rear guard.
  
  THE SERVANT’S SUFFERING AND EXALTATION
• See, my servant, will be successful; he will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted. 14 Just as many were appalled at you—his appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man, and his form did not resemble a human being--15 so he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of him, for they will see what had not been told them, and they will understand what they had not heard.[3]

 

• Isaiah 53 - Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. 4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth. 8 He was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and who considered his fate? For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully. 10 Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished. 11 After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.[4]

 
16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? (Isaiah 53:1)

• His point seems to be that using the OT to show that Israel has had opportunity to respond.
• People have been sent proclaiming the good news.
• They have had the opportunity to see what God’s plan was, as they read the OT itself.
• So they are rightly faulted for their failure to understand and respond appropriately.[5]

17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ., 18 But I ask, “Did they not hear?” Yes, they did:

• Paul begins to quote OT passages and not using them in their previous context but using them in current context.
• We do that all the time with movie quotes:
• “Go ahead make my day.”
• “There’s no crying in baseball.”
• “There’s no place like home.”
• “May the force be with you.”
• “You can’t handle the truth.”
• “You had me at hello.”
• “I’ll be back”
• “Show me the money.”
• “Freedom”

Their voice has gone out to the whole earth,
and their words to the ends of the world. (Psalm 19:4)
19 But I ask, “Did Israel not understand?” First, Moses said,
I will make you jealous
of those who are not a nation;
I will make you angry by a nation
that lacks understanding. (Deuteronomy 32:21)

• If Gentiles, who were darkened theologically, could understand the gospel, Jews could certainly have understood it.
• Israel is responsible for their unbelief because they had received enough understanding of the way of salvation.
• Their own scriptures should have enabled them to see God at work in the gospel.
• It was to Israel’s shame that they didn’t believe, whereas Gentiles did believe.[6]

20 And Isaiah says boldly,
I was found
by those who were not looking for me;
I revealed myself
to those who were not asking for me. (Isaiah 65:1)
21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.[7] (Isaiah 65:2)

• Paul is in effect saying, “Just as knowledge of God has gone out among all the world (because of the way God created the world), so now through the preachers of the gospel is a particular message of Jesus Christ going out, a message that can’t be ignored, and a message that makes everyone—Jews included—responsible for their response to it.”[8]
• At the end of my notes every week, I have this statement:
• “Understanding the Spirits role, how would you communicate this message if your eighteen-year-old son had made up his mind to walk away from everything you have taught him, morally ethically and theologically, unless he had a compelling reason not to?”

How would you communicate this message?

[1] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ro 10:13). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Joe 2:32). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Is 52:7–15). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[4] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Is 53). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[6] Abernathy, D. (2009). An Exegetical Summary of Romans 9–16 (p. 113). Dallas, TX: SIL International.
[7] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ro 10:14–21). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[8] Moo, D. J. (2014). NT331 Book Study: Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.