bcbsr Posted October 28, 2020 Group: Senior Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 415 Topics Per Day: 0.12 Content Count: 606 Content Per Day: 0.18 Reputation: 353 Days Won: 0 Joined: 12/23/2014 Status: Offline Share Posted October 28, 2020 Chosen According to Faith Rom 9:30-33 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." This is what this chapter is really all about. It's not about fatalism. It's not about the righteous being a nebuluous, vague category of people. But rather that righteousness is obtained by faith and not by works of the law, not by conformity to regulations. It's saying that God's choice is not based upon one's ethnic background nor conformity to law, but rather everyone who believes in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, is reckoned among the righteous. Faith is the essential element often left out of discussions of the meaning of Romans 9. Yet we find the subject of faith abundantly covered in chapter 10 which is what this chapter has been leading up to. Thus earlier in Romans 9 he's simply stating the fact that God has the right to be gracious to whom he will. But he leads up to the fact that the category of people God has chosen to be gracious to are those who put their faith in Christ. This is a stumbling block for the proud, as typified by Jewish unbelievers. For God has so orchestrated the gospel as to dissuade the proud from accepting it. Jesus came as a humble, poor man from an area despised by the proud provincial Jews. That was a stumbling block. His message was one humiliating the religious elite. That was a stumbling block to the proud Jewish religious elite, one which got him killed. His message was that of salvation by faith apart from works. That was stumbling block to those self-reliant Jews who reckoned themselves good enough to be saved on their own merits. And such a gospel was offered equally to Gentiles, which again was a stumbling block for Jews who in their pride were prejudice against non-Jews. Consequently in preaching the gospel, don't cater to people's pride. Seems God wants the proud to be "turned off" to the message. He wants the message so construed that they stumble over their own pride. For unless one humbly receives the message, they're not coming through the door, they're coming through the window. "Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message— which is also what they were destined for." 1Peter 2:7-8 The Berean Christian Bible Study Resources Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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