Romans - Part 5: ELECTIONSample

What? Is this fair?

The Old Testament traces the story of God’s relationship with humanity, particularly with the people of Israel. The Israelites, God’s people, pursued His law to attain righteousness; and they were very good at it. And now we learn that the “Outsiders/Gentiles” who did not work for righteousness get righteousness!

How is this fair?

By faith in Jesus! Jesus changes everything. In Gen 3:15 we have the first mention of the gospel “protoevangelium!” Jesus is our righteousness! He is in the very beginning of the Old Testament and seen throughout it!

Long before Jesus’s coming, Isaiah predicted that Israel would reject her Messiah. He would be “a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over” (Isaiah 8:14). In Psalms 118:22 Jesus is “the stone which the builders rejected.” Israel’s unbelief is perfectly consistent with Scripture. Soon, Paul tells us “A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Rom 9:25). Both Jews and Gentiles are in God’s plan by HIS righteousness!

So is it law? Or is it gospel? Jesus changes everything! It is the LAW and GOSPEL for Jews and Gentiles! Horatius Bonar in 1861 reminds us in the words to this hymn:

1. Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
   Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
   Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
   Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.
2. Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
   Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
   Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to thee,
   Can rid me of this dark unrest, and set my spirit free.
3. Thy grace alone, O God, to me, can pardon speak;
   Thy power alone, O Son of God, can this sore bondage break.
   No other work, save thine, no other blood will do;
   No strength, save that which is divine, can bear me safely through.
4. I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
   And with unfaltering lip and heart, I call this Savior mine.
   His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in his tomb
   Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.
5. I praise the God of grace; I trust his truth and might;
   He calls me his, I call him mine, my God, my joy, my light.
   ‘Tis he who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
   I love because he loveth me, I live because he lives.

-Wendy Vander Dussen