Welcome! Today's post is Part 4 in a series on the Book of Romans. Feel free to search my site for the previous three lessons, if you'd like to catch up. Or start right here - I'm happy to have you here!
Today's Scripture passage is Romans 9: 25 - 29 ...
25 As He says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” 26 and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’” 27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. 28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.” 29 It is just as Isaiah said previously: “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”
What stands out for me in these verses is the fact that the inclusion of the Gentiles in the plan of salvation was not a "Plan B" for Father God - it was His plan from the very beginning, and it is clearly stated throughout the Old Testament.
The majority of the Jews had missed it, mostly because they chose not to see it, preferring instead to hold onto their mistaken sense of superiority! The Jewish leaders mistook being God's "chosen people" (i.e.chosen to serve as an example of a people whom God loves) with being "the only people God would choose".
And sadly, Paul says in Romans 9, many of those Jews who had come to salvation through faith in Christ, were continuing to perpetuate this false understanding.
Secondly, although the words "mercy" and "grace" don't appear in today's verses, they are everywhere! For without those two attributes of God, none of us would be saved, whether Jew or Gentile.
In the HelloMornings devotional, Ali Shaw defines mercy as "... not allowing a person to suffer from what they may deserve in a given situation", and grace as "... unearned, free, forgiving goodness or favour".
And thank God for both! For I know in my sinful-self, I deserved eternal punishment, and I could never earn or deserve my way out of it!
Thank You, Lord, that You give mercy in the place of what we deserve.
Photo credit: Wham3622