Romans 15

1 We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. 3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”^[a] 4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. 5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us,^[b] to the glory of God. 8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, 9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written:
“ For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles,
And sing to Your name.”^[c]

10 And again he says:
“ Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!”^[d]

11 And again:
“ Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles!
Laud Him, all you peoples!”^[e]

12 And again, Isaiah says:
“ There shall be a root of Jesse;
And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles,
In Him the Gentiles shall hope.”^[f]
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

“Paul addresses Jewish and Gentile Christians on their cultural differences regarding foods and festivals. Both are exhorted to mutual acceptance, just as both are accepted by Christ for the glory of God.  The OT had foreseen the unity of faith and joy of believing Jews and Gentiles joined in Christ for the glory of God.”

14 Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.^[g] 15 Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, 16 that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. 18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient— 19 in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. 20 And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation, 21 but as it is written:

“ To whom He was not announced, they shall see;
And those who have not heard shall understand.”^[h]

“Minister is literally “liturgist” (Gr. leitourgos); ministering is doing the work of a priest. offering is the word that came to be used for the bread of the Eucharist (Gr. prosphora). Sanctified by the Holy Spirit is the action called for in the epiclesis, the invocation for the sending down of the Holy Spirit upon the eucharistic gifts of bread and wine.” – from the Orthodox Study Bible.

Whoever thought the early Christians didn’t have liturgy were wrong.

22 For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you. 23 But now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you, 24 whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you.^[i] For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while. 25 But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. 26 For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. 27 It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. 28 Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. 29 But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel^[j] of Christ.
30 Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, 31 that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you. 33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

How different is Paul’s language than what I hear spoken in mainstream Christianity.  That a service will be acceptable to the saints! that we pray together, delievered from unbelief!  Let us have our refreshment in the Church.

Romans 11

1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, 3 “LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”?^[a] 4 But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”^[b] 5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.^[c] But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. 8 Just as it is written:
“ God has given them a spirit of stupor,
Eyes that they should not see
And ears that they should not hear,
To this very day.”^[d]
9 And David says:
“ Let their table become a snare and a trap,
A stumbling block and a recompense to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see,
And bow down their back always.”^[e]

God’s grace saves the willing, not the unwilling: those who will receive grace by faith and obey God. Israel is not willing, for she seeks righteousness on her own terms: through the works of the law, not through the grace of Christ. She stubbornly and freely hardens herself in unrepentance. God does not cast the people away; they remove themselves. God has given them a spirit of stupor. – from the Orthodox Study Bible

11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. 12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!
13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. 15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

Has Israel stumbled that it should fall permanently? Since the people have fallen away because of Christ, are they beyond salvation? No, for through Israel’s failure to believe, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Further, through the Gentiles’ faith, Israel’s opportunity for salvation is renewed. God’s presence among the Gentiles provokes the Jews to jealousy and anger that they might believe and experience the fullness of grace. As their being cast away is caused by their own unbelief, their return through faith would be so glorious, it would be as life from the dead, the final resurrection itself.

16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness,^[f] if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved,^[g] as it is written:
“ The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”^[h]
28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, 31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. 32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
34 “ For who has known the mind of the LORD?
Or who has become His counselor?”^[i]
35 “ Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”^[j]
36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Verse 22 is very scary, but very good motivation to continue in the grace of God.  I need to continue in repentance every day to continue living off the root of the olive tree.  God’s holiness makes me holy because he has grafted me into his family. It’s wonderful to know that even if a branch is cut off, God is able to graft it back in again.  By the way… old olive tree = Jews, branches grafted in = Gentiles, new cultivated tree = Church.

Romans 10: part 2

14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: 
      “ How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,^[h]
      Who bring glad tidings of good things!”^[i]

 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “LORD, who has believed our report?”^[j] 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: 
      “ Their sound has gone out to all the earth,
      And their words to the ends of the world.”^[k]
19 But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: 
      “ I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation,
      I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.”^[l]
20 But Isaiah is very bold and says:
      “ I was found by those who did not seek Me;
      I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”^[m]
21 But to Israel he says:
      “ All day long I have stretched out My hands
       To a disobedient and contrary people.”^[n]

Paul has left the Jews with no excuse for rejecting the Gospel. Paul insists God fulfilled His part completely. The Jews had extraordinary opportunities to come to faith. For God sent His message through preachers and throughout all creation. Israel did indeed hear, but did not believe. Therefore, God turned to the Gentiles, who heard and believed. The Jews of Jesus’ time demanded a sign, yet they always had a higher sign than miracles; they had God’s own words, and prophecy, the conversion of the Gentiles. Jealousy is a powerful motivator. To see those deemed far inferior to you, whom you detest, adopted and inheriting your promises and dreams should arouse great indignation.

Romans 9: part 2

14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”^[f] 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”^[g] 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As He says also in Hosea:

“ I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.”^[h]
26 “ And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘ You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”^[i]

27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:^[j]

“ Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.
28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.”^[k]

29 And as Isaiah said before:

“ Unless the LORD of Sabaoth^[l]had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”^[m]

I was reading a note on these verses, and was surprised to find something I had never thought of before.  The vessels of mercy are the believing Jews and Gentiles, and the vessels of wrath are the unbelieving Jews.  Now that I think about it, that makes a whole lot more sense than thinking that each individual person is elected to go to heaven or hell (vessels of mercy and wrath respectively).

30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.^[n] 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.^[o] For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:

“ Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”^[p]

“The first answer to the paradox of Jewish unbelief is from God’s standpoint: His sovereign will. The second answer to the paradox is from humanity’s standpoint: faith. For “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith”, equally for Jews and Gentiles. The Gentiles, who had been unconcerned about righteousness, now attain it by their faith in Christ. God mercifully overlooks their former unrighteousness practiced in ignorance. By contrast the Jews fail to attain even the righteousness of the law, for they do not pursue the law by faith but by works. Seeing only the letter of the law, not its spirit, they miss Christ in the law and try to keep the commandments apart from Him. They substitute what was “shadow” for substance. Jesus Christ becomes their stumbling block.”