Thoughts From Romans 9 - Part 5

  What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall,
    and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame."

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3 Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Romans 9:30-10:4

          Almost all of my Upward Basketball devotions deal with this theme; you can't get to Heaven by your good deeds. Christ's righteousness is given to us when we receive it by faith. This is not just where the Jews stumble but every religion in the world other than Christianity stumble over this. When I say Christianity, I mean true Christianity. Many "sects" of Christianity stumble over this, too. Catholics believe you have to take the seven sacraments to achieve Heaven. Church of Christ believes you have to be baptized. Mormons believe to get to Celestial Heaven you must obey temple ordinances. Jehovah Witnesses believe you must live according to the teachings put out by the Watchtower Society.

        In medicine we use diagnostic questions. Just this week we did a c-section on a patient who post-operatively dropped her blood count and was extremely distended. We had to determine if it was just gas with blood loss during the surgery or if it was her abdomen filling up with blood from an uncontrolled bleeder which would necessitate going back in. I asked her if she had right shoulder pain and she said, "No". This is a diagnostic question looking for blood under the diaphragm. In Christianity we have a diagnostic question, also. it is, "When you stand before the Lord someday and He asks you, 'Why should I let you into Heaven?', how would you answer?" If their answer has anything to do with being a good person, it indicates that they are trusting in their own righteousness.

        One of my favorite devotions I do is pouring water into a cup and I ask them if they would drink it. Everyone replies yes. Then I bring in a urine in a specimen cup (actually I use Mountain Dew) and use a medicine dropper and put one drop in the water and then ask if they would drink it. Everyone replies, no. Then I add sugar or crystal light or anything to make it more palatable and they still say no. The point is, that urine, even just one drop, defiles the water and makes it unfit for drinking. You get the meaning, I'm sure. Sin, even one sin, defiles us and we are unfit to enter God's presence. No amount of good deeds can help, the sin must be removed. Jesus took the sin upon Himself on the cross and by faith refills our cup with His clean water. This is salvation.

       This salvation seems too simple and that's why people stumble over it. Intuitively we think that to get anything of value, it must be earned. Salvation can't be, it's a free gift. Humble yourself, receive it, and just be people of eternal gratitude.

Thoughts From Romans 9 - Part 4

 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
    and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” and,

      “In the very place where it was said to them

       ‘You are not my people,’

         there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel 

       “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,

        only the remnant will be saved 

           For the Lord will carry out

          his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”

29 It is just as Isaiah said previously:

“Unless the Lord Almighty
    had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
    we would have been like Gomorrah.”

 Romans 9:22-29

       When I was in a reformed church, the Westminster Confession was required reading if you were to become an elder or deacon. I remember one part of it that comes specifically from this passage and it has to deal with double predestination. That's a doctrine where God prepares in advance one group of people(the objects of mercy) who will be saved and the other approximately 90-95% of the population (the objects of wrath) to be damned, and if you think that is unfair, see the preceding verses like who are you to question God; He can do whatever He wants to do. Just be eternally grateful He picked you to be in the 5-10%. Although I see how they make their case and yes, if it is true, He can do whatever He wants, it seems to go against so many other sentinel doctrines in the Bible and the character of God that I have to think there is another meaning to this passage.

         What I think Paul is saying here goes along with what Peter was saying when he says that the reason God is "slow" to judge the Earth and "slow" to return again. Peter says that He tarries because when He comes back the time for salvation is over and He doesn't want people to go to Hell. I think Paul would add to that, the people who have chosen not to follow Jesus and the resultant carnage of their lives resulting from that decision, should help encourage people to choose Christ. Just look at the messed up lives of people in Hollywood as examples. They have chosen fame over Christ and their private lives have been decimated.

        Paul will relate this to Jews and Gentiles. The Jews have rejected Christ and the fact that God is now "loving on" the Gentiles is going to provoke jealousy, conviction, and eventually mass repentance. The "objects of wrath prepared for destruction" are those people who reject Christ. He could take them out to immediate judgement but rather He lets them live among us century after century as warning signs not to follow down their path.

            It seems Gen Z has a common desire and that is to be an "influencer". What a great word! Most are part of the "objects of wrath" trying to influence you that their way is desirable. Look deeper into their lives. There is nothing desirable in rejecting Christ. Let them influence you not to follow them. Open your eyes!

Thoughts From Romans 9 - Part 3

 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
    and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

 Romans 9:14-21

          Have you ever heard someone being accused of "having a God complex"? I googled the term and here's what a found;

  "A god complex is a pattern in which an individual believes they have great power, ability, infallibility, influence, and are superior to others."

    In Virginia Giuffre's memoir on Jeffrey Epstein's use of her as a sex slave, she recounts that Prince Andrew, who recently lost his duke status for this, treated his time with her like he deserved this because of his status. Doctor's, because they often hold people's very lives in the balances, are sometimes accused of this. This weekend's "No Kings" rally which had over 7 million attend, could have been appropriately renamed "No Gods" as he made mocking memes of dumping excrement on them from a fighter jet which he flew wearing a crown.

        While he abhor human beings considering themselves superior to other people in essence, does the world treat God with disdain as if He had a God complex? The answer is "yes", and Paul addresses it here in Romans 9. In its very definition, a God complex implies that God is superior to humans in His essence. He has great power, ability, infallibility, influence, and is superior to others. He is "other" than us and He can do as He pleases because He is God. Paul's analogy is, He is a potter and we are a lump of clay.

       From the very beginning, mankind blamed God for his sin and the consequences. Adam said, "The woman You gave me", to Gideon explaining to the angel why he was hiding in a winepress threshing wheat and saying it was God's fault, to Cain blaming God for rejecting his sacrifice, to King Asa's anger against God's rebuke and refusing to seek His help for his disease of the feet from which he succumbed, the Bible is full of examples.

     Today, God is blamed for "making me a homosexual", to the cause of natural disasters, to putting certain regimes in power, to child abductions, genocides - you name it. He is even blamed for putting a tree in the garden knowing we would mess up. "It's all His fault", people say. There is a disdain for God and mankind blames their sinfulness on Him.

       God is a good God who has nothing but Love for mankind in His core. That's why He made us and put us in a perfect existence with a free will but all the negatives we see in the world come from our desire to be God. Yet our essence is wet mud, and He is the potter and we have forgotten that. Let's humbly submit to the One who holds our lives, eternity, the whole universe in His hands. Will He not do what is right?

      

Thoughts From Romans 9 - Part 2

  It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. 9 For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”10 Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

                 There has been a lot of sin uncovered in the church as of late. Pastors in Texas with child porn on their computers to a local pastor who just committed suicide. I attend a church that I would call a Bible believing, Evangelical, Mission focused Christian Church. It is solid. Does that mean since it's a Christian church everyone is a Christian? I wish that were true but it's not. Who isn't a Christian? I don't know, but God knows. How? Well, he's omniscient so there's that but also, He knows the heart, He sees behind closed doors, and He sees the future play out before it happens because He is outside of time. Therefore, let's say there is a pedophile working with the youth and no one knows. God knows and when they stand before Him some day, they will justly receive His wrath.

           We on the other hand are like the parable of the wheat and tares. The devil has sown fakes among us, and we can't tell who they are. Some people may be misbehaving and we go "Aha!" but God says, no they're just baby Christians. Both Peter and Judas denied Christ, yet one was the pillar of the church, and one lives in infamy. The parable goes on to say, let both coexist and then there will be a separation by the One who knows the difference at the Great White Throne Judgement.

        Paul in Romans 9 likewise says just because God chose a people group, Israel, not everyone that was part of "Israel" was truly "Israel". Jesus said He came for "the lost sheep of Israel." What's that mean? It means that even though He chose a group to reveal Himself to and through whom to reveal Himself to the world, many were not His. They were living lives of unbelief even though they were celebrating the feasts and holy days, they were sacrificing animals, observing dietary laws and even wearing Yamakas (I made that up) yet they were not "saved" in the Old Testament way which was still with a surrendered heart of faith.

        Jacob and Esau, twins growing up in a Godly family which was given the promises of God, even talked with God, and would someday bring the Messiah into the world through their family tree, would separate as one who valued this and one who despised this. You couldn't tell until it happened, but God knew before they were even born. He saw the future even though Isaac favored Esau over Jacob. He couldn't see it, but God could.

       So what's the point? Examine your own heart not others. Fan the flame of belief and faith in the body and never waver. Don't fear judgement because we as believers will be going to a rewards ceremony not a courthouse.

        

Thoughts From Romans 9 - Part 1

 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.  Rom. 9:1-5

             Whenever I think about the reason that God chose a people, the Jews, to be His chosen people, I come up with three. First it was to bring the Messiah to Earth to save whoever believes and receives him. God needed a lineage to do that through, and He chose the Jews as seen in verse 5. He makes it clear that there wasn't anything special about them, they were just picked for His divine purposes. You might say, "Ha, see that, He picks and chooses whoever He wants which proves predestination." There are going to be a lot of predestination arguments coming up in this passage, but all I would say is this illustrates corporate election here because He picks a group, not individuals.

        Second, He picks a people to bring us His word through. We see the careful recordings by Moses, Joshua, Ezra and others, saved with great care mentioned throughout the Old Testament. Paul talks about the covenants, law, and promises given to them in verse 4. To those who might downgrade the importance of the Old Testament to today's believers, Paul doesn't at all in Chapter 9.

          Lastly, God chose a group to reveal his glory, power, and majesty to the world through. Rahab in Jericho discusses how non-Jews saw Jehovah and their fear of Him. The Gibeonites tricked Joshua into a treaty because they knew that Jehovah was God. Also, we see Pharoah later in Chapter 9 was the example of when you stand in defiance of the God of Israel.

          Unfortunately, most Jews now have rejected His Son and in turn rejected Him and Paul realizing this pleads with them to repent. He says he would even trade his place in the kingdom for a national acceptance of the Messiah. I wouldn't even joke about my soul's salvation but that's how passionate he was for them. How passionate are you for the lost?

           

Thoughts From Romans 8 - Part 7

   What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

                    I was just listening to a news podcast, and they said that 47% of Gen Z are getting a prenuptial agreement drawn up before marriage, a record high. I think prenuptial agreements are wrong in the fact that you should, and I did, go into marriage with a divorce is not an option mentality. If you build an escape clause into it, it shows that no matter how committed you say you are to that person, there is always the exit strategy in place.

           Marriage is a picture of salvation in the Bible. We believers are called the bride of Christ and He is coming back for His bride. Jesus said that no one can snatch us out of His hand. Once we are married to Him, there is no divorce. Paul says in Romans 8 that He will never lose His love for us. You hear people say things like "we fell out of love" or "we no longer love each other". That is something you will never hear Jesus say. There is nothing that could make Him love us less.

        When I "asked Jesus into my heart", there was no pre-nup. There was no exit strategy, there was no safety net, there was no "Plan B'. I jumped in headfirst and He did, too. As John Daly once said in regard to his alcoholism, "Quitters are losers and I'm no loser." I'm not a quitter and neither is He and our marriage keeps getting better and stronger with that level of commitment. Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ!

Thoughts From Romans 8 - Part 6

29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 

      When I think of predestination, I align with "corporate election" as described by the website "gotquestions" below

         " Corporate election is the idea that, when God elected or predestined people to be saved, He did not pick out individual people; rather, God chose Christ. Since Christ is the chosen one, all who come to Christ in faith are part of the chosen group. This view is sometimes called 'class election' or expressed as God’s predestinating 'the way of salvation.' In other words, 'God chose the plan, not the man.' He chose the corporate entity in which salvation can take place (“in Christ”), but He did not choose the individuals who would be saved. A person only becomes part of the elect when he or she exercises faith in Christ. People are 'chosen' when they choose to join the group that God had chosen.

Corporate election is sometimes illustrated in this fashion: a university’s dean of students determines, prior to the start of the semester, that the Alpha Epsilon Mu sorority will be invited to a special dinner with the university president. All the co-eds in AEM can rightly say, 'We were chosen to attend the dinner'—even those who only joined the sorority a week previous to the event. The dean did not choose the co-eds individually, but corporately; however, each of them can claim to have been chosen, by virtue of her membership in the sorority."

      However, even if it is individual election, which seems wrong to me, God can do whatever He wants to do because He is God and I trust Him. But when we speak of predestination, we always think in terms of God picking people to save or go to Heaven. Do we ever think of it as picking people to be conformed to the image of Jesus? God chose us so we can look like Jesus! How are we doing at that? When people look at me, what do they see?

      I've said it before, I'll say it again; predestination is one of those doctrines that is hard to understand, and I don't understand everything in the Bible. But it's not what I don't understand about the Bible that concerns me, it's what I do understand. I may not understand election, but I do understand being conformed to the image of Christ and it bothers me that I'm not.

         They say older couples start looking more and more like each other after they've been married a number of years. I've been married to Jesus for 65 years now. I hope I'm looking like Him more every year!

Thoughts From Romans 8 - Part 5

 whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose. Rom.8:22-28

    A whole lot of groaning going on, here. Creation is groaning because it’s shifting, shaking, cracking,eroding, and kudzu and poison oak is overtaking it. Since we are animating creation in this way, we can also imagine it’s mind saying,” hang in there; it will soon be over and we will be back to our pre-sin, garden of Eden form.”

    Also, we who are believers groan because the suffering we are going through, we know intuitively that we aren’t meant for this but if we can just hang in there it will all be better like it was in the garden of Eden before sin. It’s interesting the reference to childbirth and labor because we know before sin that this process was done without suffering.

    Lastly the Spirit is said to be groaning prayers on our behalf to the Father. Why groans and what kind of prayers. The Spirit must be groaning in the same way Jesus groaned coming down from the mountain of transfiguration where he met with the Father, Moses, and Elijahand then experienced the total lack of faith of his followers. He groaned, “How long shall I stay here and put up with you?” The Spirit is inhabiting sinful bodies who are praying for earthly things and He must be groaning,”What you just prayed for isn’t going to work out for your good. Father, here is what they really need.” Imagine if God had given you everything you asked for, how messed up you would be, The Spirit knows what you need and intercedes accordingly.

     I groan a lot at the age of 70 but unfortunately my Godly groaning is far surpassed by my aches and pains groaning. May I long much for for a new heavenly body and to be free from this cursed world.

Thoughts From Romans 8 - Part 4

  For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Rom.8:19-22

         Imagine being a Dodgers or Yankees or Alabama football fan. You would be use to winning. Being a Badger and Brewer fan, I can only dream of a championship. My contention is that when and if it happens, the joyous celebration that will be had by the fans will make the celebrations had in LA, NY, and Tuscaloosa look like Lutheran confirmation parties. We have a hope far more intense than any hope ever experienced by perennial winners because ours is based on suffering.

       I recently listened to an open air question and answer period where skeptics asked Christian panelists questions. One of the questions intrigued me and wasn’t answered well at all. Whereas the usual question is if God is all powerful and loving, why do people suffer, this person went beyond this and asked, “ If God is all knowing and all powerful, he would have known people would disobey Him so why didn’t He create a fallen world that didn’t include suffering of the innocent?” This question doesn’t impugn God’s omnipotence like the first one but rather questions His goodness. I wonder if the answer has to do with hope. If we didn’t have suffering, would we even hope for Heaven? Phillip Yancy in his book the Problem of Pain wrote that pain is a megaphone screaming that there is a better place coming. The earth is not our final destination.

         Cancer, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, birth defects, miscarriages all point to the fact that something is really broken down here. As we groan, let’s not lose hope but rather let it supercharge our hope for a new heaven and a new earth.

Thoughts From Romans 8 - Part 3

  Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.    Rom. 8:17-18

          Statistics are coming out that over 7000 Christians have been killed by fundamental Muslims in Nigeria the first 8 months of this year. Charlie Kirk was recently killed for his Christian views on morality. Paul says in these verses in Romans that as children of God, we are heirs. We like to think of all the good things we will get as heirs. When my Dad died, I got some silver and gold that he had saved up worth $8000 and his fishing tackle box which I use to this day. I also got a broken riding mower, 2 broken chain saws, a 22 rifle (I don't hunt), and a stamp collection. Have you ever tried to cash out a stamp collection? No one wants them! It's a thing of the past.

           What Paul is saying is that along with the good things we get as heirs, we are going to get bad things, too. The world will hate us because it hated him. We inherit the opposition of Satan because he is opposed to Jesus. We are going to suffer because Jesus suffered and unfortunately that is part of our inheritance. But the good thing is that compared to what we are going to get when the suffering is over, it's well worth it.

            When I was in medical school an offer came that anyone who wanted to donate bone marrow would get paid $50. That was an incredible amount of money to me back in 1977. What I didn't realize was the amount of pain I would endure for that $50. However, when it was all over and I was holding that check, it was well worth it. Compare that to the glory of Heaven waiting for us and my illustration pales in comparison. We are big Survivor fans, it is now season 49, and there is never a shortage of people who will endure bugs, snakes, sharks, starvation, dehydration, extreme heat and cold, typhoons, constipation and pooping in the ocean, no showers or hygiene for 30 days for the chance to win $1,000,000 (1 in 18) but more than likely more than their expected 15 seconds of fame. Temporary suffering is well worth it to them.

        Medical missions are getting harder and harder for me at 70. The travel, the heat, the mental stress and physical stress of seeing 60-100 patients a day takes its toll. I look for reasons, frankly to not go. But then I'm reminded of the fruit that's borne and I rethink suffering. 

         Is temporary suffering something that you are willing to endure for the glory to be revealed? If not, you and I aren't focused on the prize, or we are seriously underestimating the value of that prize. It's going to be well worth it so don't shy away from suffering.