Romans 9:1-5 - The place of Israel: not rejected, not forgotten

We now come to three chapters in the Bible that anyone who wants to know and understand about Israel's place in God's plan must read. And any idea that is contrary to what is contained within these chapters is deeply flawed. Moreover, we should not read these chapters as a sort of appendix to the main argument or presentation that Paul is making, but as a key part of it. We tend to think always in terms of "how do I get saved", whereas Paul is thinking in terms of "how has God saved us" or "how does God's plan of salvation workout and what should our response to it be". Because we are fallen creatures we have a terrible tendency to always become self-centred, whereas we need to be God centred. Everything begins with God, and more particularly with Christ.

I am going to make another of my "forget the chapter numbers" statements. What has Paul just said in the previous chapter? And remember that he was not starting a new chapter here, they did not exist when Paul wrote it! "Nothing can separate us from the love of God". What then about Israel? Has their crucifying of Christ  separated them from the love of God? What about all the opposition that Paul faced from the Jews, did he now consider them to be his enemies?

The answer to both these questions is a resounding no. Paul would have sacrificed his own salvation for the sake of Israel. He longed for them to know Christ. Now consider all that they had done to Paul, and Paul's reaction shows us what it means to love our enemies.

Paul then gives a list of "their is". Note the tense, is, not was. Israel is still part of the grand plan. Adoption is theirs. They have still been adopted. They saw the divine glory, both in terms of splendour at various points in history, and in the working out of God's plans. The covenants were given to the, the Law was given to them. The heroes like Abraham and David and Moses were theirs, people who are still heroes in the New Testament. Most of all the human ancestry of Jesus is traced to them. Humanly speaking Jesus is a Jew.  He then closes this section with the word Amen, let it be so.

Israel is still part of God's plan, and in the next three chapters we will learn how this works out.