Episode Transcript
[00:00:18] I'm wondering if anyone has ever heard of a concept called path dependence. Path P, A, T, H. Path dependence. Anyone heard of that?
[00:00:28] I had not heard of it until recently, at least under that name. But the idea that will be quite familiar to you. Path dependence. It's actually a term defined or described by a scholar named John McWhorter. It's the idea that once a path is chosen in history, the momentum of that choice often carries forward and influences the future in very predictable or even rigid ways.
[00:00:59] Unchangeable interpretations. Interpretations are not isolated. They are layered on the previous thoughts and the debates and the conclusions from these previous centuries of reflection. Now, one example of this is the computer keyboard. You familiar with the term qwerty, right? Q, W, E, R, T, Y. That's the way your keyboard's laid out. Qwerty arranging in that line. That arrangement goes back to the days of typewriters. And by arranging the keyboard that way, it prevented jams that caused fewer jams when typing. Okay, so that's why they arrange it. Also with that alignment, you could look at your keyboard. Later, the salespeople who were selling typewriters could type the word typewriter on one line. They didn't have to move their hands.
[00:01:55] Do we still have jams when we're using our keyboards today? No, we don't. They're digital computer keyboards. We don't need this anymore. However, to change the entire layout of a keyboard would cause. You'd need to be retrained. It would cause difficulty. So we don't do it. Qwerty. There are much more efficient ways to lay out a keyboard, I promise you. But path dependence leads us in this way. There are many, many, many indicate illustrations of path dependence.
[00:02:29] The metric system versus the imperial system. I'm going to tell you it's much easier. But we would never change that, will we? We operate on the imperial system. Path dependence. The Electoral College. This was a big debate of late. The Electoral College. There are probably some better ways to do things, but we're never going to change that. The distance between railroad ties on a.
[00:02:55] This is so interesting.
[00:02:57] The standard width between train tracks in the United States is four feet eight and a half inches, I think. I'm pretty sure that is a specification that dates back to British railway systems, which. And this cannot be verified. It may be just an urban legend, but it is proposed that the British laid out that distance based on Roman ruts in the road.
[00:03:29] That measurement became the standard in American railways, even though it wasn't necessarily optimal width. And changing it now can you imagine going? Of course not. It would be prohibitive. We would never do that. But how interesting to consider that the infrastructure might exist because of the choices that started with early road dimensions in Rome. Rome, path dependence.
[00:03:57] Now what a segue, right? For our Romans road study. I couldn't have come down easier for me. So why do we bring this up? Well, just to say Rome is pretty influential.
[00:04:14] It always has been in the book of Romans. In terms of Christian theology, that's about as influential as it gets. And guess what?
[00:04:24] It is also subject to a massive amount of path dependence, the book of Romans.
[00:04:35] And it helps us to see the ways that the early church fathers, like Augustine, later like Calvin, like Luther, that they approached Romans. It wasn't really just about what they saw in the text, obviously it was things that had been how earlier interpretations had paved the way. Certain ideas then became natural and inevitable and unchangeable.
[00:05:00] Right.
[00:05:03] They were influenced. And that can create all kinds of what we could call interpretive inertia.
[00:05:11] Going in a direction too difficult to change, not going to change it.
[00:05:18] But what if the initial path is wrong?
[00:05:24] And so as we approach one of, if not the most important sections of Romans, which is chapters 9 through 11, understanding this historical momentum, this allows us to approach it with some fresh eyes and ask these questions. What might we find if, as we have been doing, we read Paul's words without assuming that those traditional paths are the right paths?
[00:05:49] Just because you've been told something doesn't mean it's right.
[00:05:56] And I know that's like heresy to suggest it. Much of Judaism is built on great tradition, but Judaism makes a fantastic amount of way to consider other interpretations. That's a difference.
[00:06:13] Or will we find that ideas and decisions and interpretations, that they actually create a self reinforcing trajectory?
[00:06:23] All that to say we're back.
[00:06:28] Romans 9:11, a section of the letter which I believe that Paul has been working up to since the beginning, that everything up to this point has been in some way for what Paul is about to share now. That actually puts me in the minority of many biblical thinkers. Do you know why to suggest that Romans 9:11 is like the climax? It's a huge moment of Romans. There are many traditional interpretations. Before we go deep into these specific chapters today, I want to just give you an overview of these important chapters. We need to cover this for the massively important section that it is. And of course you might understand that I'm going to be leading us down a different path than the last 2000 years of path Dependence have led us. But what puts me in the minority right off the top is that for many, many interpreters of Rome, of Romans, by the time Paul gets to Romans 9, he sort of lost his way, they say he's sort of gone off on a tangent.
[00:07:41] In other words, chapters one through eight of Romans. That's what it's really all about.
[00:07:50] That's what it's really all about. And this common perspective from Augustine, from Calvin, from Luther, echoed in modern evangelical thought. Paul's primary purpose in Romans is laid out in chapters one through eight. And what is that primary purpose? Individual salvation.
[00:08:09] That's the doctrinal thesis that Paul has laid down in chapters one through eight. And that's what really matters. And all of a sudden he has like a really emotional moment about the Jewish people. And he has these couple of chapters where he's wandering off on a tangent, but then he brings it back in chapter 12 and he starts telling people how to live. Right?
[00:08:34] That his tangent. It's an aside, they suggest, where he's dealing with his personal anguish. I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart, he says, for I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren. I want you to notice something. He doesn't tell us why he feels that way. Have you ever noticed that?
[00:08:58] But I bet you have an idea why you think he feels that way, don't you?
[00:09:04] You do.
[00:09:06] I'm not going to say it right now because I'm going to talk about it later. But he never actually says clearly why he feels that sense of anguish.
[00:09:18] Anyway, this theological detour, as some suggest, is where Paul puts his main argument on pause to discuss his ethnic kin. He's sort of sidestepping. Okay, but so much so that Even though it's 9 through 11, is to these scholars and these interpreters and these teachers, it's interesting, it's important, but it's secondary. It's a parenthetical section that doesn't fit into the main argument. About what? What's Paul's supposed doctrinal thesis about individual salvation, Chapters one through eight. That's what it's all about. But is that really what's happening here?
[00:10:07] I've argued through this series that it isn't Paul's doctrinal treatise on individual salvation anywhere, actually, that this actually has very little to do with the individual and much more to do with what rather than individual salvation, the salvation of the world is what Paul has some pointing to. It's a letter written to Gentiles, about Gentiles living in a Gentile land, a gentile space in the world in a particular time where Gentiles dominated even Israel.
[00:10:50] And dealing particularly with that point on how Gentiles have now been included in the incredible and amazing story of God. That's what we've been been talking about up to this point, how they become children of Abraham without converting to Judaism, just how important the nations are to the fulfillment of God's plan, how that is all a confirmation of his righteousness, that if the nations didn't have a way in, then God's not honest.
[00:11:19] That's all the things that Paul has been saying and that all of this promises made to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations through Yeshua, all of that is what Paul has been talking about. So much so actually up to this point, so much emphasis on Gentiles, that it's possible that the Gentiles could be thinking, wow, Paul is really, really spending a lot of time talking to us.
[00:11:48] And he was.
[00:11:53] He hasn't said much about the Jews.
[00:11:56] As a matter of fact, he sort of minimized the importance of doing Jewish things. As a matter of fact, he's told us we shouldn't entertain the idea of becoming Jews. He even told us what it's like when we get preoccupied with Torah over Yeshua. These are all the things Paul has said. And they could have been thinking, Paul's GENTILE AUDIENCE hmm, is it possible that God is done with the Jews?
[00:12:28] Is that a possibility? Has Paul now become one of us?
[00:12:34] He's using words like we and us and brothers.
[00:12:41] Is Paul, is Shaul really now Paul the Gentile?
[00:12:49] And if that sounds funny to you, it's exactly what 2000 years of history has said.
[00:12:57] Exactly what has been said, going back to our introductory teachings in Paul, I mean, on Paul, where I mentioned that's widespread belief, you've heard it all your life, probably that Shaul encountered a conversion on the road to Damascus, became Paul the Christian.
[00:13:18] It's quite conceivable to imagine that the Gentiles might have imagined, after all that has happened, something really important that we talk about a lot today. And you know what that is? That Israel had been replaced.
[00:13:31] It is quite conceivable Israel had been replaced. Even that Paul himself might be suggesting that they had been replaced, that the Jewish people are replaced by a new Gentile people of God. And listen, maybe they might be thinking, maybe it's not just that we should separate from Jewish things, we should separate from the Jewish people too.
[00:14:02] Right. If we're not going to do their things, then let's not hang out with them.
[00:14:07] Who, as we know, the Jewish people were incredibly influential part of this early Jesus movement. But this is. Listen to me, this is really important. This is a critical exigency that Paul is addressing right now in Romans 9:11. Critical exigency. Do you remember that term? I gave it to you way back.
[00:14:32] An urgent need, a pressing issue that demands immediate attention. In academic, literary terms, it can also mean, like, this is the driving question, this is the need. This is what's behind an entire work, the critical exigency. And I'm suggesting to you that Romans 9:11 expresses Paul's understanding of the critical exigency that was occurring in Rome among the Romans who had become followers of Yeshua, who are thinking and saying, jews are out, we're in.
[00:15:17] There's a second little, like, secondary problem to this that's important. For any Gentiles that were really thinking this through, wouldn't you be thinking, hey, wait a minute. Now, this Bible that Paul's peddling here is telling us that these were God's people, these Jews.
[00:15:42] Now it seems that they're out of the story.
[00:15:47] Is that a trustworthy God who can take one out and put another one in, even though he probably. Wait a minute. Hey, wait a minute. If we're only here because they're out, what's to stop him from taking us out and putting someone else in?
[00:16:06] If one election can be taken away, what's to prevent another one from happening? Now, listen, understanding that in the Ethne and the nations in their former pantheon of gods, that was not out of the question at all. You make the gods mad, you're done. You don't give the right sacrifices, you're done. You don't get anything. You're out. So it's not unbelievable that it is a concern that Paul may have sensed some insecurity among the Gentiles about their place in God's economy.
[00:16:48] That is not in any way his primary point.
[00:16:52] But it's possible Paul has already gone to great lengths to show them how included they are. So he might be just showing how faithful this God is. Because this is a question. Has the Word of God failed?
[00:17:10] Is this God trustworthy? Paul, is your God to be trusted? Can he just arbitrarily change his mind? A sensitive Roman Gentile might ask. Now that question, has the Word of God failed? That might sound familiar to you. Do you know where you've heard that before?
[00:17:28] You've heard it in Romans 9, when Paul is about to say it, the word of God has not failed, he says. It's to these questions that Paul will respond in the next three climactic chapters. Number one, has the word of God failed? Two, has God rejected his people? These are the questions. This is what's happening. And rather than a tangent, as has been supposed, it is a, if not the focal point of Paul's letter that may sound absolutely outrageous. So I'll say it again. This is potentially, this is definitely a, if not the central focus of Paul's letter to the Romans.
[00:18:21] And Paul's intention, his meaning, is still being discussed today and actually confused today by Gentiles, yes, by many, many, many, many, many teachers in the churches, but also by messianic Jews who teaching something different, who have come to some at least confusing, if not totally misguided conclusions about what Paul is saying to who and why. And the conclusions that many theologians and pastors draw and then teach and then propagate the things that they teach, listen to me, are the very things that Paul wrote these chapters to counteract.
[00:19:13] It's unbelievable, actually.
[00:19:19] And that's a point. Paul is speaking to his audience. The chapters are conclusions. The chapters and the conclusions, they're important. And it's radically important to understand what Paul is saying and what he is not saying. So continuing in this intro to these chapters, and yes, we're back into the, like, the real meat stuff. All that stuff about you need to be the best version of yourself. I still mean it, but you better tune into what's coming here because it's big and complicated.
[00:19:55] I want to contrast today what I can only describe as what is and what is not. In other words, misinterpretations, mistranslations, misunderstandings of Paul's personality, his Persona, his purpose, his practice have all led to these grave errors in interpretation. And his purpose in these chapters has surely been misrepresented. So I'm taking the remainder of our time today in this teaching to point out some ideas that traditional interpretations have passed down through what path dependence. Too difficult to think about changing these things and oh my gosh, you might actually disrupt my theological foundation.
[00:20:34] That would be dangerous. That would be like changing my QWERTY keyboard, Bruh.
[00:20:42] These are things that Romans 9:11 is not, though many, many even in this room have been told that it is.
[00:20:51] And contrast those things for me today with all we know about Paul, his Jewishness, his theology, his mission, his purpose, to show you what Romans 9:11 is.
[00:21:04] And if we're willing to look beyond what has been assumed and pass down as the interpretation. So listen real quick, Romans 9 I tell the truth in Messiah. I do not lie. My conscience assuring me in the Ruach hakodesh. This is obviously from a Jewish from the tlv.
[00:21:24] My conscience assuring me in the Ruach hakodesh that my sorrow is great and the anguish in my heart unending. For I would pray that I myself were cursed, banished from Messiah for the sake of my people, my own flesh and blood who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Torah and the temple service and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs. And from them, according to the flesh, the Messiah who is overall God blessed forever. Amen.
[00:21:54] But it is not as though the word of God has failed.
[00:21:58] That's Romans 9:1:6. That is one of the questions that I told you Paul has set out to answer here for his Roman audience. Has the word of God failed? Failed because my Jewish brothers are not with me and you are Gentiles. Does that mean the word of God has failed?
[00:22:19] He continues, but it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are Israel, nor are they all children because they are Abraham's seed. Rather, your seed shall be called through Isaac. And he's about to go into a big section about how God works. But the point all Israel are not Israel. Okay, you ever walked through a minefield?
[00:22:51] Today is actually not the day when I'm going to emphasize all that needs to be said about that because we're doing an overview. Do that next week. But from that phrase from that section, the traditional interpretation says this Israel has lost their way.
[00:23:14] But fear not, Israel is not Israel anymore.
[00:23:22] You Roman Gentiles are Israel.
[00:23:30] That's in a nutshell what that has been taken to mean. That is to say Jewish identity has been transferred away from the Jewish people to in Christ Gentiles who now become what is known as spiritual Israel.
[00:23:51] All those blessings I just told you about, verses four through five, adoption, glory, covenants, giving of the Torah more. No, those are yours now. Roman Gentiles, those have passed on to you traditional interpretation and the case is then made that with all that follows through the descendants of Abraham not being of the promise, this is to show that Israel has been replaced by their lack of faith in Christ. Out traditional interpretation, all Israel is not Israel anymore.
[00:24:30] Putting it plainly, God's promises and recipients have changed. The conclusion is those who believe in Jesus have become the true Israel. Ever heard that before?
[00:24:45] Of course you have. This is the path.
[00:24:51] Now reply to perspective or traditional perspective 1. Let me point out something very important here. Just in the Greek, all that belongs to Israel, all of those blessings that he enumerated there, that's all in the present tense. Okay? All in the present tense. The glory, the covenants, all of this present tense belongs to Israel.
[00:25:20] And yet I was preparing this message and I love to watch the YouTube videos. I love Pastor so and so's simple Explanation of Romans 9:11. His interpretation. Look at this. Can you look at this? Would you just take a look at it? These Jews had.
[00:25:41] Had all of these blessings and couldn't see it.
[00:25:47] Couldn't see it. They had them all.
[00:25:52] No, sir.
[00:25:53] Not had, present tense. Paul writes, have these blessings.
[00:26:04] There is no indication whatsoever that those blessings have transferred or been relocated.
[00:26:13] And to suggest, though, listen to this. I just want you to think through this, to suggest that God can or has arbitrarily removed his blessing where he had previously promised it.
[00:26:27] What does that make God?
[00:26:30] Now listen, we go into. And I'll talk a little bit about it next week. We go into this discussion about Abraham's seed. His descendants are not necessarily promised seed, promised these words back and forth. But I want to explain something to you. Yes, Isaac is this child of promise.
[00:26:51] And Jacob and Esau, there's a distinction there. But that happened before God had given it. He didn't give it to them and then take it back. That's something very different. When he says, no, Isaac's going to be the child of promise. No, Jacob's going to be the child of promise. That's very different than Jacob. You're the child of promise. Boom. No, not anymore. Come in here, Joe.
[00:27:24] That's a different thing.
[00:27:29] Now I asked, maybe the Romans were thinking this. If he could replace them, he could replace us. But again, to understand the reason behind this traditional replacement theology that Israel becomes now the church or Christ followers, this traditional, there's a workaround that has been created and it's to avoid the problem of what I just said, of making God look like a liar. Okay, here it is.
[00:27:59] How can we fix this? How? How? Going back millennia, how can we fix this? Paul wrote these words. How do we make it not look like it really says what it says? How do we do this? Here we go. Let's do this. If we change the definition of Israel to include non Jews, that is the church, though the church didn't exist in that period, we can make God still look faithful. It's just that the promises have transferred. It's still Israel, but it's the new Israel. And here's the wording. It's the true Israel. Have you ever heard that?
[00:28:38] Paul's defining the true Israel.
[00:28:43] Ooh.
[00:28:46] With no real indication that anything has changed. That can't be.
[00:28:56] But as we continue to read through Romans, we are confronted with some tremendously difficult considerations regarding that idea. I am moving through this relatively quickly. But tremendously difficult considerations regarding that idea of replacement theology, mainly 1129 for the gifts and calling of God are what?
[00:29:26] Or revocable, whatever Your pronunciation choice may be irrevocable.
[00:29:33] Do you know what irrevocable means?
[00:29:37] I'm glad you do.
[00:29:39] I'm going to tell you. He uses that term on purpose to emphasize the permanence of God's gifts and calling. These aspects of God's plan. They are unchangeable. They are steadfast. It underscores God's promises. They're reliable. They're enduring without any possibility of change or reversal. Listen carefully. Even in light of Israel's disobedience.
[00:30:05] That's a heretical slam. I know, but listen to me.
[00:30:10] Nothing changes regarding these promises even in light of Israel's disobedience.
[00:30:20] Irrevocable.
[00:30:22] It's a big word. A lot of syllables. Know what it means when it comes to Romans? Romans 11:1. Then I say, Then Paul speaking. I say, then God has not rejected his people, has he? What do you think? He responds, Someone has taught you well, Meganoito. May it never be. May it never be. God has rejected his people. Meganoito. To write them out of the story for their unbelief. That would certainly be a rejection, Right?
[00:31:05] I'll come back to that. If all Israel are not Israel, but if that is to mean that the definition of God's chosen nation of Israel has changed, then what is Paul's point in listing all these benefits in the present tense? What's the point? It's completely contrary. And those things belong exclusively to ethnic Israel.
[00:31:27] Exclusively. There were no Romans at Mount Sinai were the giving of the Torah. Yeshua was not descended from Claudius and Romana.
[00:31:40] These are exclusively present tense Jewish promises.
[00:31:48] To list these, only then to say God, the God of the universe, the faithful God. To say, but not anymore. Ha Ha ha.
[00:31:57] Gotcha. Jews 11, 11, 11. I say then they did not stumble so as to fall, did they?
[00:32:08] Thank you, Meganoito. They have not stumbled so as to fall.
[00:32:18] Paul's point. From Romans 9 on to 11, God is not done with Israel. God is not done with Israel. His word has not failed and it has not changed. And he didn't change the program and he didn't change his mind.
[00:32:34] But by their wrongdoing, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make them jealous. Now if their wrongdoing proves to be riches for the world and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfill fulfillment be? Okay, I realize something. I'm behind on my notes. Listen, here we go.
[00:32:53] That argument, yeah, fine, it means Israel. It really means Israel. Fine, I get it. But that's only a remnant. That only means a little remnant of Israel. That only means the Israels who believe in Jesus. That's all it means.
[00:33:17] Paul does speak of a remnant in chapter 9 and again in chapter 11, he speaks of a remnant. Do you know what a remnant is?
[00:33:26] A remnant is a good thing. A remnant is a sign of a hopeful future, optimism. A remnant is all. Throughout the Old Testament we find that some represent the whole. And there's something really great. The traditional argument says, well, Paul's saying only a few Jews will be saved compared to tons of Gentiles. And that really puts that not all Israel thing in nine, six in full light. It still doesn't actually mean Israel, it means a small tiny percentage of them.
[00:34:05] But with what we know about Paul's attitude toward Jews, Judaism, God, it actually we see something else. The remnant, the seed quotations in nine in light of that Old Testament remnant, that is a sign of hope that Paul is raising. When he talks about a remnant, it points to this future act of deliverance. Scholar commentary on 9 11. Mark Reasoner. He's a Christian guy. It's wonderful. He says, I think it's best of you. The remnant language in 9, 27 and 29, you can read it 11, 1, 5 as Paul's hope filled evaluations of what he encounters as he travels around the world. Evaluations that point toward a future restoration of all Israel. All Israel. Paul, Paul's letter, it demonstrates an implicit conviction that God's mercy, his plan, it still extends to all Israel, the remnant. Thus, as we shall see, all Israel needs to be properly understood because we're going to encounter a much more difficult all Israel in chapter 11. You know the verse all Israel shall be saved.
[00:35:27] One last consideration is that in similar fashion other chapters in Romans, in similar fashion to other chapters in the book of Romans, here Paul sets out this is a proposition to criticize Jews.
[00:35:44] Chapter 9 and 10 are mostly to talk about their misguided zeal, their stupidity in thinking that following the Torah could ever result in, like, a good life. For their pride, for their Jewish pride, for elevating themselves, their chosenness, their misdirected zeal, all that. We'll talk about Chapter 10 and the goal of the Torah and Yeshua as the end of the Torah and all this. But he does all that, these traditional interpreters point out, so that he can then tell the Gentiles, but you're doing it all right.
[00:36:22] They are doing all these stupid, bad things, but thank goodness you're doing it all right.
[00:36:29] High five, Claudius.
[00:36:33] Sorry, Is that what Paul's saying? He is indeed talking to Gentiles. Did you know that? He says that specifically in Romans? He says, but I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. That's what he says in Romans. So who's he talking to?
[00:36:53] I expect a better answer than that. That is the easiest. Who's he talking to?
[00:36:58] Gentiles. Who's he been talking to? The entire book.
[00:37:02] Gentiles. Nothing's changed. He's still talking to them. He's still writing to the Gentiles. And in these three chapters, Jewish pride, legalistic superiority. That is not in Paul's frame. That doesn't have anything to do with it. He's not talking about Jews and their allegiance to Torah or even how they failed at the Torah. The message we find in these chapters is still a Gentile message.
[00:37:29] It is still a Gentile message. Traditional interpretations take it to be that the promises of God no longer apply to Israel because they had not believed. Therefore, the previous transfer, the spiritual Israel, the true Israel, which is the Church, that familiar road that goes way back to the Church fathers. It's the basis, this is the basis of replacement theology, and that is the assumption of how it is. What we find when we look at Romans 9:11, as written by the Paul we know is that that's not how it is to those Romans. It may seem like that, but here's what Paul is going to tell you over the next three chapters. And it's really important. It's very simple.
[00:38:26] Audience listeners in Rome, how it seems is not how it is.
[00:38:35] What you think you're seeing, what you think you believe and the wrong conclusions you've drawn about the Jewish people. What you think is not how it is, that's what he's doing.
[00:38:52] And we will see that Paul's argument is not that the Jews are out of Israel or the people of God or the Covenant, and that the only way that they need to get back into the tree on the same term as non Jews. We've got to spend some serious time looking at olive trees, analogies, metaphors and horticulture. We've got to do that because that's a big part. That's the main crux of his argument. We'll see. Paul is telling the nations, they, the Jews, they're suffering a state of dis. Discipline because they're not persuaded to herald the news of Messiah. That's part of their calling. They have to do that. And they're not doing it. Paul and his community, his brothers, his guys, they're doing it. And they represent a part of Israel, a remnant that is actually an indication of what's to come.
[00:39:52] Things are not how they seem and no conclusive judgments should be made. Claudius and Romana on what you think you see. And the heavy conclusion of Chapter 11, which we will get there, is not about Gentiles being saved, is it?
[00:40:12] What is the conclusion of Chapter 11 about? Not the doxology, but the real hard part.
[00:40:21] Gentiles do not be arrogant or what will happen.
[00:40:30] We'll talk about that when we get there. But listen, to presume, to know. For a Gentile to presume an heir of superiority is what eleven says. To presume that error. That's a dangerous place to be, said Paul, to the wild branch.
[00:40:48] Now, wouldn't it have been amazing if this perspective had transferred and laid the path that came to today versus the other path, the path of replacement theology, the path of changing, the path of putting words in Paul's mouth, the path of creating something that he never intended? Wouldn't that have been amazing? But it didn't happen, and that's okay. Paul will conclude his instruction on how Jews and Gentiles must get along until the great and glorious appearing of Messiah. Chapter 12. That comes after what? Chapter 11. After this little section concludes, Paul then goes on to say, all right, take everything I told you. And this is how it works. Jews and Gentiles in a community, this is how it works.
[00:41:43] All this is groundwork.
[00:41:46] You need to. He says chapter 12 opens up after all this one through 11. Chapter 12 opens up with this word therefore.
[00:41:56] Therefore.
[00:41:58] It's an important word.
[00:42:02] Traditional interpretations, they tell us that anything, anything resembling Israel being written out of the story, any interpretation you've heard that says that is wrong. I'm telling you it's wrong. Believe me, it's wrong.
[00:42:17] I've cracked the door today, though.
[00:42:22] It took me a little while to crack the door, but it's now cracked on what's going on in Romans 9:11 I know I haven't given you any real specifics. We'll get to that. We have much work to do, There are difficulties to unravel and ultimately to conclude this section of Romans 9:11 with an important discussion of an underlying question in many people's minds but what about the Jewish people? What about the Jewish people and Messiah? What about it? You haven't talked about it at all. Why do Jews need Jesus? What's going on? Okay, we'll talk about that. But I needed to get you started by considering what I can only call a disconnected, path dependent way in which Romans 9:11 has been read and to prepare you already to get your hearts and your minds open to some new, exciting, logical, spiritual, I believe truly biblical ways of reading the book and understanding it. And it's imperative that Messianic Jewish communities hear this, understand it, apply it, teach it. It's imperative.
[00:43:30] So stick with me. We're about to bring out see those bulldozers and stuff out in the front yard out there? We're about to bring out the heavy machinery for the repaving Shabbat Shalom. Let's stand up. Please Visit our website shalommacon.org to learn more about us. Join our live Services, Access other teachings, Sign up for our newsletter, join our private network that will connect you with our greater community from around the world or contribute to the work of Shalom Macon. Thank you for watching and we look forward to connecting with.
