Romans 9. Who is Blessed?

Yesterday I was walking my dog and got into conversation with a lady I had met previously and had given her the article, ‘Mistakes, Minor, Major and Catastrophic’ that can be found on this website (www.bvpalmer.com).  After chatting about the article for a while I asked her whether she was a Christian or wasn’t sure. She replied in a way so many do today:

“I was brought up as a Christian but I’m not involved in a church now – but I do try to be kind and thoughtful to others.”

What a great opening this was to explain to her what the Bible teaches, that no-one can get right with God by what we do.  To be accepted by God , to be deemed righteous, can only be the result of a gift from God, but he has said how this wonderful status can be given – this is only to those who turn back to God and agree to live on his terms.  This was how people were saved in Old Testament times.  This is how we can be saved today though we know much more about how God saved us by entering this world as Jesus and becoming the final sacrifice for our sin himself.

This morning I was reading the Bible story of how Jacob dressed in Esau’s clothes in order to be blessed by his father, Isaac.  Esau was distraught when he discovered how Jacob had cheated and lied to receive Isaac’s blessing:

“‘He has deceived me these two times: he took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!’  Then he asked, ‘Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”

Isaac answered, ‘I have made him Lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine.  So what can I possibly do for you my son?” Genesis 27:36-37

The lesson is clear – such a blessing is irrevocable!

Today the concept of being blessed has been trivialised.  Someone sneezes and the response is ‘Bless you!’  Your team scores a goal or wins a match and people think, ‘We were blessed!’ or in other words a blessing is a transient fortune.

God’s blessing is a serious commitment.  It confers a permanent status on the person who is blessed.  We cannot earn this blessing by the way we live.  The thief who died alongside Jesus was told that he would be with Jesus in paradise.  This was the gift of God, he had no time to achieve a righteousness by the way he lived!  We may be despicable selfish people, like Jacob, and yet be blessed by God.  Jacob only experienced this relationship many years later when he wrestled with God – and surrendered! The surprising doctrine is that the status of being righteous is a gift given to few, it can never be earned through good living.  There is, however, always a purpose behind God blessing the few – it is that those who are blessed by him have been chosen to live for God’s glory.

There can be two children in a family, one may be blessed but not the other, in other words one may want to be God’s person and one not.  That decision reflects whether they have been blessed by God.

Paul explains this when he discusses the issue of the twins, Jacob and Esau:

“Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad – in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls – she (Rebecca) was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’  Just as it is written, ‘Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.’” Romans 9:11-13

To many modern minds this seems unfair but even people in Paul’s day thought this was asking, ‘Is God unfair?’  Paul continued,

“What shall we say? Is God unjust?  Not at all!  For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” Romans 9:14-15

What is the purpose of God’s blessing?

The purpose of any activity of God is ultimately that God and his Son will be honoured.  Paul reminds his readers of this.  Moses was told to explain this to the Pharaoh of Egypt before he freed the Israelites from slavery:

“I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Romans 9:17 and Exodus 9:16

Who is righteous?

It is a tragedy that many in churches today seem to think that the gospel is primarily for their benefit.  I was invited to give a series of mid-week evening talks on the Christian Basics in a well attended Roman Catholic church.  About thirty people came to the first evening.  At the end a very pleasant Irish lady came up to thank me.  I felt chuffed.  She then added,

“I don’t know why everybody isn’t a Christian,” and I heartedly agreed with her.

She then added something that showed how little she really understood,

“ . . .after all, all God wants is one hour a week!”

Job was a moral, upright man but he was also self-centred.  Reading Job’s speech in Job 16:4-22 reveals this.  He talks about himself all the time.  ‘I’ and ‘me’ come 47 times in these few verses.  Job knew however that he was a sinner.  Yet he is also called righteous.  This is strange.  How can a sinful person be righteous when righteousness is a quality that only God has?

“There is no-one righteous, not even one . . .” Romans 3:10

“. . . for all have sinned and fall short of the  glory of God.” Romans 3:23

The Bible teaches in both the Old and New Testament that we can only be righteous if God declares us right. This gift is given and we are therefore given the status of being right in God's sight when we commit ourselves to Jesus, the Son of God, who came to this earth as a man to save people for himself.

Job was not righteous because he was an upright, moral man with integrity.  He was only considered righteous because he had turned to God in repentance and had trusted him for forgiveness and had therefore been given the status of being ‘a righteous one’.  There has never  been any other way to be considered ‘righteous’.  Job clearly believed in personal salvation and said,

“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I and not another.  How my heart yearns within me.” Job 19:25-27

It was only because of the grace of God that Abram, later to be called Abraham, the Father of God’s people, was made righteous – it was a gift of God:

“Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:6

Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson who executed Zimri and his Midianite wife (Numbers 25) and so averted a plague was granted the status of being righteous,

“But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked.  This was credited to him as righteousness . . .” Psalm 106:30-31

This gift of being made righteous, of being blessed by God, is given to all who bend their knee, figuratively, before Jesus and so allow him to be their Lord and Redeemer or Saviour.  As John says,

“Yet to all who received him (Jesus), to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12

What greater blessing can there be that to be adopted into God’s family and kingdom?  Jesus put this same truth another way,

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24

A student was talking to the Australian Christian teacher, John Chapman.  The student did not like the doctrine that God had to call people and bless them if they are to be saved.  He thought everything depended on him.

“I could commit my life to Christ if I wanted to,” the student arrogantly exclaimed.

“No you can’t,” replied Chappo.

“Yes, of course I can.” the student responded.

“Go on then, do it, turn to God now.”

The student hesitated and then said,

“No, I don’t want to!!!!”

That student hadn’t received the call of God so he couldn’t make that decision to ask Jesus to be his Redeemer and Lord.

The same is true for all of us.  If you can turn to God then you know that he has called you to be his representative in the way you live and in the way you speak about him.

BVP