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Your Day in Romans - 15:8-13

Started by Al Moak, January 01, 2005, 08:04:29 PM

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Al Moak

The Twentieth Sermon
Romans 15:8-13
The Administrator Of Good News


In verse 8 of chapter 15 Paul said, "Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a Servant to the circumcision for the truth ('faithfulness') of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy." This verse is pointing out a conclusion to which we would never come by means of our own intelligence: it's telling us that the entire old-covenant administration was an administration, a ministry, of our Lord Jesus Christ to the circumcision (Israel).  From this we can and should conclude, though, that He was not only the Mediator between God and men in the New-Testament era, but that He was that Mediator throughout the history of Judaism from Abraham until His own birth at Bethlehem!

How could that be?  How could He have been the Mediator before His birth? The answer requires us to believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was the eternal Son at God's right hand and that He has from all eternity been the Agent and Administrator of God's dealings with men – the Mediator between God and men. We should conclude that it was, in fact, He Who called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees and that it was He Who called him out of Egypt.  It was He Who called him to rescue Lot.  It was He Who made the promises concerning a child to be born to Abraham and Sarah and Who brought about the birth of Isaac, Jacob, and his twelve sons.  It was, in fact, He Who sustained them through the 430-year sojourn in Egypt.  It was, in fact, He Who mediated all the history of the Old Testament. It was He Who, through all the ages, was arranging His own future appearance as the Babe of Bethlehem in the fullness of times (Gal. 4:4).  He is, in fact, the Lord and Mediator of all history!

These facts concerning our Lord aren't mere intellectual toys!  They're important to us today.  They're important because most of us are Gentiles.  In our natural circumstance we're just exactly what Paul said the Ephesian Gentiles were – "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world."

In summary, our Lord Jesus Christ, as Mediator, ministered to the circumcision (Israel) throughout the Old-Testament period.  He arranged history so as to fulfill the promises made to the fathers.  But He then arranged His own coming into this world to usher in the New-Testament era as well.  And when He came to Bethlehem, He was the Savior in Whom the Gentiles also were to hope.  His Old-Covenant administration, therefore, resulted in the salvation of Gentiles as well as Jews. It resulted in OUR salvation!

The important thing to remember is that all mankind from Adam onward has been in rebellion against God.  But God in His mercy made a covenant of Grace, a covenant of redemption through a Messiah.  He raised up Abraham as Messiah's forefather, and through him He raised up Israel as His special people. He gave them a special land in which their Messiah might eventually be born, and He gave them laws and rituals, each and every one of which were intended to teach them about the Messiah Who was coming - so that many of them might also believe and be saved.

But it was always God's purpose, not only to save many Jewish people, but to save many Gentiles as well. In fact Isaiah tells us that one of God's purposes for Israel was to "raise up a light to the Gentiles" (Is. 42:1-7).  That's just saying that one of Israel's purposes, in God's mercy, was to display God's holiness and righteousness in salvation so that Gentiles too might have opportunity to know about Him and about salvation from the universal curse. 

So a main purpose for Israel was to be the vessel through which salvation would come - according to the covenant promises of God.  He tells Abram about it In Genesis 12:1-3, where He says, "Now the Lord had said to Abram: 'Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.  I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'" 

That command/promise to Abram is nothing less than the announcement of a reversal of the curse and its replacement with blessing! That reversal was to come through Abram's descendant - through the Savior, the Messiah (anointed one, Christ) of God.

Remembering as we must that from Adam's time all mankind naturally continued in their rebellion against God, we shouldn't be surprised that the reversal of the curse - salvation - could only be for those who end their rebellion and submit to God and His Messiah.  Messiah was to become their King, and they were to become His kingdom.  Prior to our Lord's appearance at Bethlehem the kingdom could only be identified with Israel. David and his sons were, in fact, kings in Messiah's Name.

But moving along, we read concerning David in 2 Sam. 7:12-16, "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.  He shall build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.  I will be his Father, and he shall by My son.  If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.  But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.  And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you.  Your throne shall be established forever."  David's kingdom, through David's greater Descendant, the Messiah Himself - was to be an eternal kingdom.

So, summing up, there was the promise of a Savior made to Abraham, the development of that promise when it was repeated to David, and then, finally, there was David's greater Son, the Messiah Himself.  Isaiah said, "There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch (capital "B") shall grow out of His roots.  The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord."  The Jesse of this verse was David's father, so this prediction concerned Messiah's eternal kingdom through David's Progeny.  In fact, this same passage in Isaiah is the one from which Paul quotes here in Romans when he says, "There shall be a root of Jesse; and He Who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, and in Him the Gentiles shall hope."  That's nothing less than the messianic promise!  It concerns you and I.

One further conclusion: Israel was our Lord's steward of the Covenant – through all our Savior's administrations.  The Jews have therefore been stewards of our own covenant salvation, and we owe them a great debt.  Speaking of it, Paul said, "For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution to the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.  It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things."

The point Paul is making, is that Jew and Gentile believers are one covenant nation, one true Israel. In verse 10 he quotes from Deuteronomy when he says, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!" 

So we've seen that the mediation of our Lord in Old-Covenant times resulted in our own hope in Messiah, our own entrance into the covenant made with Israel and made new in Christ! We may - and should - therefore rejoice.  How?  We can do it by being students of the Old Covenant and by thanking Him at every opportunity for making us members of His covenant nation.

Secondly, Paul says in vs. 11, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles!  Laud Him all you peoples!"  It's certainly our duty and great privilege to praise him for His love to us through the Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ!

So we Gentiles owe a great debt to God's stewards of the Old Covenant.  That just means that we should love Jewish people and thank our Lord for them.  It's no wonder to me that Paul and the other apostles, whenever they came to a new city, always ministered first to the Jews.  It was a fitting way to love them.

Here in Romans Paul has been dealing with one of the most important aspects of church life in Rome – or anywhere else: he's been dealing with love one to another.  In Chapter 13, in fact, he pointed out that such love was the fulfillment of the entire law.

One category of that mutual love is the focus of Chapter 14.  He pointed out that such love shouldn't be diminished because of "doubtful things" – relatively unimportant practices that some find necessary and others don't.  His conclusion in 15:7 was that we ought to "receive one another (regardless of those minor issues, just as Christ also received us - to the glory of God."

Paul is dealing with one more aspect of mutual love when he writes about the relationship of Jew and Gentile.  He's been dealing with it throughout the letter, probably because there were both Jews and Gentiles in the church at Rome.  His remarks here, therefore, are just a summary and conclusion to that continuing subject.  Brothers and sisters – we should LOVE one another!


Chris & Margit Saunders