Grace Community Church of Ramona Podcast

Needless to say, devout Christians sometimes have very different convictions. Conflicting convictions threatened the unity of the church in Rome to whom the Apostle Paul wrote the letter of Romans. Romans 14:1–15:13 is Paul’s plea for mutual acceptance and unity. Before reading the passage, let’s consider the historical situation.

Conflicting convictions threatened the unity of the church in Rome to whom the Apostle Paul wrote the letter of Romans. Romans 14:1–15:13 is Paul’s plea for mutual acceptance and unity.

We owe love to Christians and non-Christians alike. But this runs completely counter to what the world tells us. The world tells us the only people we are obligated to love are members of our family and even that is negotiable. The world also tells us to only love those who love us. Our flesh, when we were in Adam, told us to love ourselves. But God says we owe love to others. Who are we going to believe? Who are we going to follow?

Paul has just come out of a section describing some powerful ways that the body of Christ can show love in the world, and how we should be relating both to our brothers and sisters, as well as our enemies! He is going to pick back up with the topic of love in 13:8, but in 13:1-7 he launches into a very succinct argument about how believers should relate to the governing authorities.

Paul has been writing about the importance of understanding that our identity is bound up in the church family, with God given gifts that we are to use properly within that family. He then makes a sharp transition to love. This is the exact same thing Paul does in 1 Corinthians 12-13. It would seem that in all the talk about unity, the body of Christ, gifts and service, that Paul wants to make sure that believers don’t lose the most important and foundational aspect of this new, spiritual family; Love.

For the last 11 chapters Paul has explained very deep and profound theological truths about humanity, sin, God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Justification, Sanctification and so much more! In chapter 12, Paul takes a new direction with his teaching. He transitions from what we should believe to how we should behave. Though they are different in their thrust, the behavior Paul is going to be prescribing for believers is inseparable from the foundation build in the previous 11 chapters.

Romans 10 concludes by teaching that God is taking the Gospel directly to the Gentiles because of Israel’s stubborn unbelief. Naturally, some conclude that God is done with Israel. Paul opens Romans 11 with an emphatic declaration that God has not rejected Israel.

Israel remains hardened in her rejection of Jesus. God has promised that one day all Israel will be saved. But over the last two thousand years, the vast majority of Jews have rejected Jesus and will remain separated from God for eternity. In every generation a few Jews have believed, but even when the entire nation is saved, it will be but a remnant.

In our study of God’s Word we encounter truths that seem to contradict one another. We call these antinomies. An antinomy is two things that are both true, but they appear to contradict each other. The most common antinomy is the Trinity. The Bible reveals that God is one. The Bible reveals that God is three. All attempts to illustrate or explain the Trinity fall apart because the Trinity is incomprehensible to the human mind.

This morning we'll look at the big picture of what God is doing today with the nation of Israel. Then, in the next couple weeks we’ll look at the details of God’s plan for Israel. Romans 9-11 deals with God's relationship with the nation of Israel. God made four unconditional covenants with Israel promising her the Land (Gen. 12:7; 15:17-20; Deut. 29:1-30:10), the Seed (Gen. 3:15; 17:1-21; 2 Sam. 7:9-17) and the Blessing (Gen. 12:1-3; Jer. 31:31-37; Ezek. 36).