Exposition by Max A Forsythe
Christ Covenant Reformed (PCA)
When
we left Paul last week, he was distraught over the refusal of the Jewish church
to accept the Lord’s own Messiah.
In writing these thoughts to the Roman church, Paul is preparing the
gentiles to understand that the rejection of those who were considered the
Lord’s people does not disprove the Lordship of Christ or the failure of
God’s power.
Think of it this way.
As the worldly pagans look at Christ’s church in our time, they could
list much evidence that the church in general is a miserable failure.
Whole denominations have fallen into culture traps and have become, like
the Old Testament church eventually became, nothing much more than mere man-made
religions.
Does
this failure of the church indicate the failure of God’s revelation or of
Christ’s Lordship?
Not in the least, Paul would argue today -- as he did in the first
century.
“It
is not as though God’s word had failed,”
he assures us.
In fact, as his argument unfolds to prove the Divine wisdom, he shows us
that not all who are born in the church are of the church.
I remember when I was in Seminary that there were several candidates for
the ministry who were third or fourth generation preacher’s sons.
In fact, at one time in the old United Presbyterian Church of North
America, ministers gloried in the generations of the covenantal promise, and
those who did not have a kilted Kirk in their history somewhere were questioned
more seriously!
Very
many of our major denominations until this century were almost as strongly
ethnically based as was the Old Covenant Community.
And just as the Jewish community turned too closely in on itself, so
eventually did the New Covenant Communities, in most cases.
So we should learn in our time what Paul learned so painfully.
“It
is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of
the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.”
It
works this way.
Have you ever noticed that garden and flower seed is sometimes marked
with a germination estimate?
By “germination,”
the biologists mean how many of the seeds will probably sprout and grow.
Very often, to save a little money, we plant leftover seed from the
previous year. Just to make certain we get a flower or tomato in each plastic
cell of a flat, we will plant anywhere from three to five seeds in each.
Still, that is sometimes not enough, and we have to carefully transplant
a seedling from a cell where more than one seed grew.
Now
let us be careful here, with both our genealogy and our biology.
There is nothing within the seed of the church that guarantees the
promise.
As Paul points out, Abraham had to wait many decades until his child of
the promise was finally born.
And it is through that child, Isaac, that the churches of both covenants
are traced.
Only those descendants in which the spiritual promise is effected are
considered the children of the promise.
Paul’s clarification of the patriarchal experience proves several other
points in this regard, as well.
In Abraham’s case, it did not matter who the mother was.
One son was elected, the other was not.
In Isaac’s case, it did not matter who the father was.
One twin son was elected, the other was not.
In Jacob’s and Esau’s case, it did not matter how their initial
character developed under the guidance of their parents.
Before they were even born, Rebecca was told something about their
future.
We
can see demonstrated here in this passage that it is not because of works, nor
of natural descent, that the children of the promise are called.
In fact, in verse eleven we read the basis of our beloved Reformed faith,
“in order
that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who
calls.”
Only through his calling are any of us saved.
In such a teaching, Paul clarifies for all time the experience of all of
the human race who have been born again:
“Jacob
I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Now
there is the hardest, but also the simplest, theme in all of Scripture.
Hodge and
Murray disagree on the exact literary aspects of God’s righteous
hatred, so my
job of interpretation is made more difficult than I had hoped.
In
over seven pages of closely argued polemic, Murray urges us to understand
that the hatred involved in this passage does not just mean “loved
less,” or “treated
with less favor.”
There is, however, here in this biblical theme, a holy indignation
without malice, malignancy, vindictiveness, rancor or bitterness.
It is an attitude of positive disfavor, actuated not by any character
differences in the two children, but solely by the sovereign will of God.
So, shall we learn this lesson about the children of the promise?
It is the essential lesson of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Paul, and all the rest, are saved
solely by grace.
It doesn’t matter if we are Polish, Scot, Irish, Italian, African, Swedish, Jewish or whatever. God chooses. It also doesn’t matter if our pre-salvation character is lovable, honorable or obedient. God chooses. Isn’t it amazing that the God of heaven would consider us out of the common crowd, like he did Jacob, who in his own way was just as unlovable as we once were? "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound!" Like Jacob, we have been loved and called into Christ’s everlasting Kingdom. Praise the Lord.
Resources Used: The Holy Bible, New International Version
Places Preached:Hodge, Charles. Romans. Mackenzie, R. Calvin's New Testament Commentaries: Romans. Murray, John. New International Commentary: Epistle to Romans.
Christ Covenant REFORMED (Presbyterian Church in America) Post Office Box 13926 - Columbus, OH 43213-7926
Rom09b.htm 04 November 95
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