Bridging the Gap
As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved,’ I will call ‘beloved.’ And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they shall be called children of the living God.”
–Romans 9:25-26
The book of Romans is Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, a church that was divided between Jews and Gentles. Both groups had come to know and chose to follow in the life and teachings of Jesus that they heard about and came to believe in through the testimony of the apostles. Though they shared the same core belief that Jesus, the Hebrew Messiah, is the risen Lord, their cultural differences caused them to experience only partial unity, which is no unity at all.
This partial unity or division existed from the very first time that they were all baptized in the name of the Messiah, but at that time the Jews in Rome were the dominant group in the church, so their cultural beliefs and their interpretation of the teachings of Christ had become the church’s normative doctrine. They often forced Gentiles to submit to their traditions, like circumcision, to be a part of the newly planted church in Rome.
But when the Jews were pushed out of Rome for political reasons by the Roman government, the Gentiles had the church there to themselves and no longer submitted to Jewish cultural norms. I’d imagine that there were some adjustments to their “Book of Discipline” at the time. But when the Jews were finally allowed to come back to their homes in Rome they found the church out of order, and began to do what they thought was cleaning up the mess that the Gentiles made.
The basis for the Jews supremacy over the church is that Jesus was of Hebrew descent just as they were, so their interpretations of his teachings were grounded in their Hebrew traditions. They assumed that Christ came to make Gentiles convert to Judaism in the manner of following Christ by being obedient to the Laws of Yahweh given to their ancestor Moses.
Paul’s goal in his letter to this divided church in Rome was to help them to realize that Jews were actually blocking the Gentiles from the promises that God had chosen to give them all. The Jews struggled to understand this truth because they considered themselves God’s only children for whom Christ was sent. This grieved Paul, so he was driven to paint a clear picture for them–to help them understand that it was God’s plan from the very beginning to send Christ to die for the sins of both Jews and Gentiles, so that those who believed in him could all become children of God.
In short, the Jews saw Jesus as a wall to confirm that they alone were God’s children, while Paul explained that Jesus was actually a door to let both Jews and Gentiles (all guilty of sin) into God’s family; not according to a bloodline connection to the Hebrew race but according to a spiritual connection to God.
So Paul speaks to the Jews in their own language by referencing the Hebrew Scriptures, and this devotional highlights one scripture he referred to; the prophecy according to the prophet Hosea (Hosea 1:21-23). With this he reminds the Jews of something they had forgotten, that God had long planned to reclaim all nations. And by all nations, Paul explains that this includes the Jews and Gentiles. But does this mean that Jews were sinners too?
Yes, many of those Jews who were forcing the Gentiles to submit to their customs were not submitting to their own rules either, but they had become comfortable in their physical connection to their ancestors. The Jews banked their elite status in the church solely on their race, their flesh, their Hebrew heritage; they believed that they were blessed because of their association, not because of the sacrifice that God made in Christ.
The Jews were not completely wrong in their understanding because just as Abraham had one son born of the flesh and the other born through God’s spirit, and just as Issac had twin boys of whom one was blessed and the other cursed; they accepted their traditional belief that God had blessed them alone. But they forgot that not all Israelites were truly Israeltes and that some of their ancestors were actually condemned by God. Yet these Jews in the church in Rome treated the Gentiles like they were Ishmael (Abraham’s son born of the flesh) and like Esau (Isacc’s son who was cursed); the people born outside of the blessings of God.
I’ve heard it said before that, “God has no grandchildren, only children.” This means that through Christ you can’t count on the salvation of your ancestors to justify you, nor will the sins of your ancestors condemn you, you must come to an acceptance or denial of God’s will in Christ for yourself. In addition, no one has the right to block another from inheriting God’s promises on the bases of their physical connection to Jesus, because we all stand in need of the Holy Spirit to cleanse our souls despite our clean appearance or righteous heritage.
Christ did not come to change the Hebraic laws, Christ came to fulfill them, and who are we to question God’s divine plan? Who are we to stand at the door and tell outsiders that they are not worthy of the blessings that God has for them? For to whom God once said, “You are not my people,” God now says, “You are the children of the living God.”
Through Christ Ishmael and Esau receive the same blessing and promise that their brothers Issac and Jacob did. And although perfect agreement is almost impossible to come to, through Christ there is no such thing as partial unity. There may be cultural, physical, and hereditary differences among us, but we are one in the Spirit, we are one in one God, and we all have the potential to be blessed equally.
Heavenly Father, the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, the God of Abraham, Ishmael and Esau,
We give you thanks for sending Christ to close the gap that you created. We still see this gap in society, in our homes, and in our diverse faith communities. Help us to not be satisfied with partial unity, but to seek genuine fellowship even with those who understand things differently than we do. In times like these we have come to realize how much we truly need each other, so we ask that you remove the walls that separate us. We accept your Son as the bridge that we cannot afford to burn, help us to come to truly know him and the promises that you fulfilled through him. Remove greed, pride, and insecurities from our heart, and help us to be gracious with one another just as you have been toward us. In Jesus Name, Amen!