Tag: The Gospel

Digging in Deeper: Romans 11:25-29

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“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. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’ Regarding the gospel, they are enemies for your advantage, but regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs, since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

With Paul’s help, we have established that the designation “Israel” does not mean what it has traditionally been understood to mean. It was never intended to refer only to a genetic tribe of people. It was always intended to refer to those people who by faith lived in pursuit of a covenantal relationship with God. The confusion here comes from the fact that one of the major covenants God made was with a genetic tribe that was made up of the descendants of the men to whom God gave the name Israel. Yet not every member of that tribe abided by the covenant such that not all of Israel was God’s Israel. Still, though, God put that tribe through a lot in using them to reveal Himself to the world. Does He have any plans for those who rejected Him? Paul seems to think so. Let’s explore this next part of chapter 11 as we draw near the end of this section of the letter.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 10:9

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“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

No, you’re not seeing double. It’s been a few weeks now, but we did indeed talk about Romans 10:9 recently, and we are going to do it again today. But as I thought about a verse that speaks right to the heart of something that happened this past week, there’s really not another that gets as close as this verse does. A public figure this week expressed his hope of salvation. That doesn’t happen very often generally. It especially doesn’t happen very often with a public figure of this nature. And because the media tends to react (some might say, “overreact”) to just about everything this particular public figure says, the whole country was talking about salvation for a couple of days this week. President Trump started it. Let’s add our thoughts on the matter today.

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Morning Musing: Romans 10:11-13

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“For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame,’ since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek,  because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Who can be saved? Yesterday we joined Paul in a conversation about how salvation happens. But who is it for? It’s not at all uncommon for someone under conviction from the Holy Spirit to declare something like, “There’s no way God could accept me.” It’s also not nearly as uncommon as it should be for folks from a tribe with a strong Christian tradition to look at folks from another tribe—especially an enemy tribe—and declare something like, “Salvation is surely not for them.” Paul disagrees. Let’s talk about just who salvation in Christ is for.

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Morning Musing: Proverbs 22:6

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“Start a youth out on his way; even when he grows old he will not depart from it.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

For a nation that is supposedly reeling from superhero fatigue, filmmakers don’t seem to be getting the message. This summer we have been treated to a number of big budget action movies, several of which have fallen in the superhero genre. And they’ve mostly done well. Thunderbolts* (which I haven’t seen yet) was a moderate success, especially as compared with more recent Marvel releases. Fantastic Four (which I also haven’t yet seen) scored Marvel’s biggest box office opening weekend of the year and seems to have been a hit with both audiences and critics – a rare treat for any superhero movie. But of all the summer box office hits this year, only one of them really hit the mark of super. Let’s talk about Superman.

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Morning Musing: Romans 10:5-8a

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“…since Moses writes about the righteousness that is from the law: ‘The one who does these things will live by them.’ But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will go up to heaven?”’ that is, to bring Christ down or, ‘Who will go down into the abyss?’ that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. On the contrary, what does it say? ‘The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.’” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In Christ, God did something totally new. At the same time, He was continuing something very old. He was completing an old covenant and creating a new one. The goal of both covenants was the same: our living in a right relationship with Him. The path these two covenants took to get there, however, was not. Paul offers a little study in contrasts here. Let’s talk about the differences and explore how Paul makes this distinction.

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