Stott Reading Romans with John Stott

8 Weeks for Individuals or Groups
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8308-9333-1
Verlag: IVP Bible Studies
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 2, 137 Seiten

Reihe: Reading the Bible with John Stott Series

Paul's letter to the Romans has for two thousand years been a touchstone for all who want to understand the power of the gospel and the righteousness of God revealed from heaven. The truth in Romans transforms our thinking and convicts our hearts as we discover the power of the gospel for every area of our life and our world.In this volume, the second half of John Stott's The Message of Romans is offered in brief readings suitable for daily use which take us passage by passage through the Scripture text. Including ten weekly studies for individuals or groups, this book covering Romans 9-16 allows readers to enjoy the riches of Stott's writings in a new, easy-to-use format. The remainder of Romans is presented in the companion to this volume.John Stott was one of the most beloved and masterful Bible teachers of the last fifty years. His books have sold in the millions. Christians on every continent have heard and read his instructive and inspiring expositions of Scripture. The books in the Reading the Bible with John Stott series offer the essential message of Stott's teaching, largely drawn from his Bible Speaks Today volumes, and present it in a format suitable for daily reading. Questions at the end of each section make these books even more useful for individuals or groups.

John R. W. Stott (1921-2011) has been known worldwide as a preacher, evangelist and communicator of Scripture. For many years he served as rector of All Souls Church in London, where he carried out an effective urban pastoral ministry. A leader among evangelicals in Britain, the United States and around the world, Stott was a principal framer of the landmark Lausanne Covenant (1974). Stott's many books, including Basic Christianity and The Cross of Christ, have sold millions of copies. In the Bible Speaks Today series, for which he served as New Testament editor, he wrote eight volumes, including The Message of Acts and The Message of Ephesians.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stott, John

Leseproben

1

Romans 9

Understanding God’s Purposes

A Threefold Affirmation

Romans 9:1-5

1I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit—2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Chapters 9, 10 and 11 each begin with an expression of Paul’s profound concern for the people of Israel. Here Paul offers a strong threefold affirmation, intended to put his sincerity beyond question and to persuade his readers to believe him.

First, “I speak the truth in Christ.” Paul is conscious of his relationship to Christ and of Christ’s presence with him as he writes. Second, as a negative counterpart, “I am not lying” or even exaggerating. Third, “my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit.” Paul knows that the human conscience is fallible and culturally conditioned, but he claims that his is illumined by the Spirit of truth himself.

What is this truth that Paul asserts with such force? It concerns his continuing love for his people Israel who have rejected Christ. He goes on to call them “my people, those of my own race.” Membership in the Christian community does not cancel our natural ties of family and nationality.

Paul boldly states that he could wish that for Israel’s sake he himself were “cursed [anathema] and cut off from Christ.” Paul is not literally expressing this wish, since he has already stated his conviction that nothing could ever separate him from God’s love in Christ (Romans 8:35-39). He means that he could entertain such a wish, if it could possibly be granted.

The apostle’s anguish over unbelieving Israel is the more poignant because of its unique privileges. Some of these he has mentioned earlier. Now he gives a fuller inventory. One would think that Israel, favored with all these blessings, prepared and educated for centuries for the arrival of its Messiah, would recognize and welcome him when he came. How can one reconcile Israel’s privileges with its prejudices? How can one explain Israel’s hardening against the gospel? This is the mystery that Paul will next address.

God’s Word Has Not Failed

Romans 9:6-13

6It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 8In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. 9For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

10Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. 11Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

At first sight it would appear that God’s promise to Israel had failed. God had promised to bless them, but they had forfeited his blessing through unbelief. Israel’s failure was its own failure, however; it was not due to the failure of God’s word. There have always been two Israels, those physically descended from Israel (Jacob) on the one hand, and his spiritual progeny on the other. God’s promise was addressed to the latter, who had received it. The apostle has already made this distinction between those who were Jews outwardly, whose circumcision was in the body, and those who were Jews inwardly, who had received a circumcision of the heart by the Spirit.

Paul now refers to two well-known Old Testament situations in order to illustrate and prove his point. The first concerns Abraham’s family. Just as not all who are descended from Israel are Israel, so not all who are descended from Abraham are “Abraham’s children,” his true offspring. Who can be designated “Abraham’s offspring”? It is not “the children by physical descent” but “the children of the promise,” who were born as a result of God’s promise.

Paul turns to Isaac and his two sons, Jacob and Esau, for his second illustration. He shows that just as God chose Isaac, not Ishmael, to be the recipient of his promise, so he chose Jacob, not Esau. In this case it was even clearer that God’s decision had nothing to do with any eligibility in the boys themselves, for there was nothing to distinguish them from one another. Isaac and Ishmael had different mothers, but Jacob and Esau had the same mother; in fact they were twins. Yet “before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad,” God had made his decision and revealed it to their mother.

The rejected brothers, Ishmael and Esau, were both circumcised, and therefore in some sense they too were members of God’s covenant and were both promised lesser blessings. Nevertheless, both stories illustrate the same key truth of “God’s purpose in election.” God’s promise did not fail, but it was fulfilled only in the Israel within Israel.

Many mysteries surround the doctrine of election, but it is an indispensable foundation of Christian worship, in time and eternity. God’s redeemed people will spend eternity worshiping him, humbling themselves before him in grateful adoration, ascribing their salvation to him and to the Lamb, and acknowledging that he alone is worthy to receive all praise, honor and glory. Why? Because our salvation is due entirely to his grace, will, initiative, wisdom and power.

The Mercy of God

Romans 9:14-18

14What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,

and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

16It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “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.” 18Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

Granted that God’s promise has not failed, but has been fulfilled in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and in their spiritual lineage, is not God’s purpose in election intrinsically unjust? Is choosing some for salvation and passing by others a breach of elementary justice? Paul’s immediate retort is “Not at all!”

Paul’s way of defending God’s justice is to proclaim his mercy. It sounds like a complete non sequitur, but it is not. It simply indicates that the question itself is misconceived, because the basis on which God deals savingly with sinners is not justice but mercy. For salvation does not depend on “human desire or effort,” that is, on anything we want or strive for, “but on God’s mercy.”

Paul sees the divine words to Moses and to Pharaoh, both recorded in Exodus, as complementary. “God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy” (the message to Moses), “and he hardens whom he wants to harden” (the message to Pharaoh). The Exodus account makes it plain that Pharaoh hardened his heart against God and refused to humble himself. God’s hardening of him was a judicial act, abandoning him to his own stubbornness.

So God is not unjust. As Paul demonstrated in the early chapters of his letter, all human beings are sinful and guilty in God’s sight, so that nobody deserves to be saved. If God hardens some, he is not being unjust, for that is what their sin deserves. If, on the other hand, he has compassion on some, he is not being unjust, for he is dealing with them in mercy.

The wonder is not that some are saved and others not, but that anybody is saved at all. For we deserve nothing at God’s hand but judgment. If we receive what we deserve (judgment), or if we receive what we do not deserve (mercy), in neither case is God unjust. Therefore if anybody is lost, the blame is theirs, but if anybody is saved, the credit is God’s. This paradox contains a mystery our present knowledge cannot solve, but it is consistent with Scripture, history and experience.

God’s Great Patience

Romans 9:19-24

19One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

22What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—24even us, whom he also called, not only from...