2/20/21 Noah (see HERE)
Skeptics may think the Bible is too difficult to interpret,
but the more one actually reads and follows it, the more understandable it
becomes. A marketplace conversation with
a Jewish man, Noah, got me thinking about one difficult passage that is only
now starting to make sense to me. It is
an incredible statement made by another Jew – the Apostle Paul – about the fact
that his own people had not embraced Jesus as their Messiah:
Paul wrote “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my
heart. 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, 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. Theirs are the patriarchs, and
from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all,
forever praised! Amen.” (Romans 9)
What I have found so incomprehensible about this statement
is that it seems as if Paul would be willing to give up even his own salvation
for the sake of his fellow Jews!
Now I feel much the same sense of anguish and sorrow for all
lost people – both Jew and Gentile – that Paul felt. But I’d be lying if I said I’d be willing to
give up my own salvation for them.
In fact, I’d also be lying if I said that it is this sense
of sorrow and anguish that drives me to regularly “put myself out there” and
risk ridicule and worse for the salvation of others. “Saving people” really isn’t my motivation at
all, because that’s something only God can do.
How do I know? Paul himself wrote
the rest of Romans 9 about that very fact – that it is God’s sovereign choice
upon whom he will show compassion and mercy and whom He will not. Vs. 18 reads: “God has mercy on whom he wants
to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.”
Why then, would I go out to initiate Gospel conversations if
it doesn’t make a difference in God’s sovereign plan of election? Because God’s glory through our obedience is
also a part of His sovereign plan. We
obey Jesus’ command to proclaim the Gospel because He is worthy and we want Him
to be glorified. Paul gave a clue about
that very motivation toward the end of his description of the advantages the
Jews had as God’s chosen people: “…and from them is traced the human ancestry
of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.”
Paul glorifies God in that statement, and then in the rest
of Romans 9 explains the wisdom of God’s plan of salvation not necessarily for
the physical descendants of Abraham (“the people of Israel”) but for all who
believe in Jesus, whom he calls the “children of the promise”. Paul affirms in this chapter that he really
couldn’t give up his salvation, that it is not something we humans can give or
take. It is entirely in God’s hands. This leads me to believe that Paul merely
made this statement for emphasis as to how serious the matter of salvation is,
and how much sorrow and anguish he felt that so many Jews had abandoned the
very gift that God brought through them to the world in the first place.
So where does that leave me, a Gentile Christian, after
talking with Noah, an unbelieving Jew?
Well, it was a very short conversation, made even shorter because his
wife was waiting for him and I wanted to respect their time. But in that short dialog I found out that not
only has Noah rejected Jesus as the Messiah, he also rejects belief in God’s
existence altogether. He talked much of
trying to do good in this life, but rejects the idea of any kind of existence
in a life to come. Toward the end I
tried to respectfully ask what the difference would be between himself and an
atheist, and he wisely said that he tries to avoid labels or categorizing
people’s beliefs.
But there is a difference between a Jew who rejects belief
in God, and an atheist who did not grow up in a Jewish home, and Paul described
it well when he talked about all the advantages Jews have had in the above
passage. Neither the atheist nor the
unbelieving Jew believe in God but the difference would be that the atheist may
not necessarily have been given every advantage to believe like the unbelieving
Jewish man had.
I left the conversation feeling like I had at least given
Noah a friendly reminder of the advantages he’s had growing up Jewish. I hope I gave a nudge in the direction of
faith that glorifies God and could even be used by God in His sovereign plan
for Noah. Maybe Paul’s incredible
statement of willingness to give up even his own salvation helped me to see the
importance of eternity and inspired me to reach out with the Gospel with at
least some of the urgency as Paul had.
And maybe, just maybe, I’m beginning to understand yet another difficult
passage of the Bible.
Thanks, Noah, for allowing me to record our
conversation. It can be seen on my
YouTube channel.
https://youtu.be/sAU_3N4HnzY
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