Romans - Lesson 47

A. Let’s Not Forget Our Jewish Roots: 

In addition to the good points you all have made, to me there is also a point I might want to make to these largely Gentile congregations that most of us are preaching to - don’t forget your Jewish roots. You have been grafted into a tree and as Paul emphasizes here in the illustration in verses 17 and following, the only benefit spiritually that you are enjoying is because of the roots of that tree in very Jewish soil, God’s promises to the patriarchs and so on. And just move from that to talk about how often do you read your Old Testament and how much do you know about that stuff back there before Matthew? A lot of churches which I attend, two thirds of the Bible is Old Testament and three quarters of the preaching is on the New Testament. We all know there can be reasons for that sometimes, but I think there can be a tendency for Gentile congregations to forget entirely the Jewish roots of who we are spiritually. 

In preaching this text, it is going to be a challenge to figure out how many options do I give them, like in verse 26? How much detail do I go into? How do I do that knowing there are two or three good options that faithful interpreters of Scripture, from different famous key theologians in the history of the church have differed in how to take that verse? Granted the amount of time I have in a message, how much time do I spend looking at the three options? For me, that would be a challenge to figure out how to do that. 

The other matter that I would find to be something to question is to what degree in a sermon on this passage do I need to get into the broader implications of the present state of Israel? As a political issue this is an issue that divides Christians in terms of what we expect God to be doing in and for the State of Israel as a nation? Can I preach this passage without leaving a lot of questions in the minds of my people if I don’t say something about that? I would find that to be a challenge because if you say something briefly, you are probably going to raise more questions than you can answer, but to do it adequately, you would need to spend a certain amount of time on it. That might be a place where I would say, I know a lot of you have questions about how this cashes out in terms of the current situation of Israel and the Palestinians, the political issues – come back on Wednesday night and we’ll talk about that. Do that in a different setting perhaps because that would really take quite a bit of time to do adequately.

Student:  
I wonder too if we were looking forward to 15:27, if you were blessed by their spiritual things, you are obligated. I wonder if that is contributing to his future argument in addition to chapters 14 and 15?

Dr. Moo:  
It is interesting to see how all these parts of Romans start to make sense together. We talked about how Paul has in view this collection for the saints in Jerusalem, that is part of the context in which he is writing Romans. It is something on his mind; what does that involve? It involves Gentiles and Jews; it involves Gentiles giving to Jews and Paul says there it is because Jews have given to you spiritually. Paul has built this point here in Romans 11 already. So yes, there is a relationship there. 

What does this mean for our Gentile congregation? There are certain groups, Jewish Messianic groups especially that say that every church as a valid biblical church needs to make Jewish evangelism a priority. Paul says that it is to the Jew first and then to the Greek. A church that is not recognizing its obligations in terms of the Jewish part of the world is failing in its mandate to preach the Gospel as Paul wants it to be preached. I don’t agree with that personally as I think that is an over-reading of what Paul intends there. But it does raise for some people those kinds of issues.

Student:  
Just out of curiosity. I had an experience where we had a Jewish woman who came to the church who was a Christian, who hung out both at the synagogue and at our church. We just let her kind of float. I couldn’t understand why she wanted to do that, but then I did understand it because of the cultural situation. She was trying to make a point that she thought that they were still blessed by the covenant, that she was fortunate to know the Christ. It was kind of strange. 

Dr. Moo:  
You certainly get that variety of Jewish Christian. Reflecting on the situation of Paul in his day, there is evidence on the one hand that Paul kept going back to the synagogue in trying to preach Christ there. I think that is the key point that some of the Jewish Christian folks that I know kind of miss. Paul wanted to remain a Jew, but his passion for Christ, his understanding that God was doing the decisive thing in Christ made it imperative for him to talk about Jews within the Jewish context, and not just to be comfortable and blend in with the Jewish crowd. 

I think Paul’s pattern is one that I like to think is the pattern that is sort of mandated. Yes, we have to recognize that the New Testament says that people can remain in their Judaism in a certain sense, but only in a certain sense. Jesus and the implications of Jesus have to be fit into that. That is what practically makes it very difficult for Christians who are sincere about their faith, living it out and proclaiming it to others makes it very difficult to maintain any significant presence within the synagogue. Just as it was difficult for Paul as he kept getting thrown out.

Student:  
Passages like this though make me read literature differently; for instance, the Merchant of Venice and the attack on Shylock. You’re appalled by that, and yet, in the group I was discussing this with (it’s a philosopher’s group that meets occasionally), virtually 75% of them thought Shylock deserved death. It was amazing the anti-Semitism that was inherent, that nobody would fess up to it. Here I was defending Shylock vociferously and I got no sympathy. It is a shame in our culture. I would have a tendency to preach that, too, how anti-Semitic or at least how people overlook it, or don’t seem to care about it, no sympathy for the Jews, what they have gone through, who they are. It hurts me. That’s one thing that will get my dander up fast., disrespect to the Jews. 

B. It isn’t Anti-Semitic to Preach Christ to the Jews: 

I mentioned the anti-Semitism charge early on. The way that has been construed in a lot of the current political and some theological circles is that if you do not grant full authenticity to the Jewish faith, you are anti-Semitic. If you say to a Jew, you cannot be saved within your Judaism, Jesus is the only way, that is anti-Semitic. Tom Wright has a great response to that where he says that attitude of not confronting Jews with Jesus is the most anti-Semitic thing that you can do. You are out there proclaiming to all other groups in the world that you need to believe in Jesus to be saved and you are not going to do that to the Jews? You’re going to leave them in their sin? That is a fundamentally anti-Semitic thing. 

We have to try to find ways in which to emphasize our claim about exclusivity of Christ without allowing that to lapse into some of the unfortunate ways that can be taken by people. And we need to be careful also in trying to avoid anti-Semitism to be so favorable toward the current nation of Israel that we fail to love the Palestinians, brothers and sisters who are Arab who struggle in various ways. Obviously, this is not an easy situation. There is need for Christians to steer a very careful course there. 

Student:  
In preaching it, you wonder how far you go in preaching. In categories in terms of groups. There is a rejection here on the part of chosen. At the same time, is grace grace? How far in preaching do you take it? Say, for a homosexual, have they stumbled too far? Is grace grace? Even in preaching that you wonder how far you can go with that, making it relevant? 

Dr. Moo:  
For me, there is, as John puts it, a sin unto death; as Jesus puts it, the blasphemy against the Spirit that can’t be forgiven. Somehow there is this category; Hebrews 6 seems to talk about something like this. There is this category of an open-eyed blatant rejection of Christ that perhaps a person can’t come back from. But our ability to identify that for others when have they committed that sin, I think is very hard. 

C. God’s Powerful Grace Can Reach Anybody: 

So, while I want to keep that in my theological lexicon, it seems to me that the focus of the New Testament is to say God’s powerful grace can reach anybody. So, when Paul is talking about this hardening that has come to the Jews and how that is in a sense not permanent. God is still working to reverse that. Perhaps, the branches that are broken off can be grafted back in again. This is the place I want to focus; to tell people whatever sin they are involved in; they are not too far that God can’t get to them by His grace and bring them into His kingdom. 

Student:  
I think chapter 1 was in my mind – He gave them over. Since it is in the whole overall context of Romans, somebody might put that at a group – that God gave them over.

Dr. Moo:  
But did He give them over permanently? That’s where I think I would draw the line. Human beings choose sin and God in a sense, in His purposes, says, alright you have chosen it, I’m going to let you go that way. But that doesn’t mean that He is pushing them in that direction and sort of closing the door behind them. I don’t think that is what that text is saying. I think it is saying yes, that God is in a sense pushing them in that direction, and maybe one of His purposes in doing that is to say, you’ve chosen that sin and I’m going to put you into that sin and I hope it gets really bad because that is maybe what is going to wake you up ultimately as you see what the consequences are for what you have chosen for yourself. 

Student:  
I have seen this also - how pleased God must be when He finds somebody like Abraham who really believes Him, and forgets about his empirical knowledge and all the rest of it, and just puts his faith, his life into His hands. God must be pleased with that. 

Dr. Moo:  
Oh, yes. Romans 4 Abraham in hope believed against hope. I love that almost paradox. Against hope all the evidence of the world was against him, but in hope in the God who promised things to him, he still believed. That exactly captures in a sense the posture of faith that clings to the promise of God, whatever the evidence around us might be.