Jesus Is the Bridge Ministries

1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.
10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

As much as we may want to, we can't trade in our salvation so that someone else might be saved. Just as the children of Israel had to make their own choices in their relationship with God, so do we all. We can witness to someone, and pray for them, and plead with them in tears to accept Christ, but the decision is still theirs. No matter how great is the Christian heritage of a family, each generation has to make its own decisions. It is certainly true that being raised in a Christian home, and being surrounded by Christians during our childhood, makes the choice to follow Christ easier, but our background does not guarantee our decision. The people of Israel in the wilderness were witness to perhaps the greatest succession of miracles in human history before the coming of Christ, yet most of them rejected God. Christ himself performed mighty miracles among the Jews, and manifested the Father's love in a multitude of ways, yet his own people rejected and murdered him.

God is not fickle or arbitrary in the choices he makes, and has made, concerning who he blesses and who he curses. As a matter of fact, he doesn't make the choice at all; we do. Cain chose to reject a worthy sacrifice to God in favor of his own pride and jealousy of his brother, while Esau despised the blessing due him while seeking to satisfy his own physical lusts. The Jews, the remnant of Israel, chose to reject their promised Messiah because he didn't fulfill their notions of what he should be. The same choice, to accept God's offer of salvation in Jesus Christ, or to reject him, faces us all.

14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Here is another of the many analogies that Paul used to try to convey the truths of our relationship with God. Not just the epistles, but all of scripture is full of such images. Jesus often taught through parables, using familiar items and images of everyday life to convey great spiritual truths. An empty vessel, or container, serves no purpose; it was designed to store or carry objects or liquids that can't be readily conveyed otherwise. The same vessel could hold human wastes or grain, mud or wine. Some containers are flawed from the beginning; they have cracks or defects that make them unsuitable for anything, or for certain kinds of content, like liquids. All of us, at the beginning, are flawed by sin, and not suitable to contain anything holy. It is only when God creates us as new vessels, remolding the clay, that we are suitable for his uses.

We are, Paul says, vessels of mercy. Mercy is the quality of kindness, of reaching out to others in their need even when they don't want our help. God in his mercy does not overlook sin, but he forgives it because of his great love for us. When we act in mercy, we not only choose to forgive the offense of others against us, but against the righteousness of God. Just as Christ died for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8), so we should extend God's love and mercy to the unloving and the unmerciful. If they choose to reject God's gift, then they are slated for destruction, just as we are bound for glory. It is not God who condemns men to Hell; those who reject him are condemned already (John 3:18).

25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

The remnant of Israel, the Jews who accepted Christ, were the seed for the church, the new people of God. Without the seed, there would have been no harvest. That is not to say that the harvest of souls in God's kingdom will not include any of his chosen people, for even now many Jews serve him, and in the end those who are left will return to him. For now, though, we are the heirs of the promises God made to Israel, the Gentiles who once were on the outside looking in. As discussed in the next chapter, that gives us no irrevocable privileges; apostate Christians, like apostate Jews, will still endure God's wrath. Many churches now, and some entire denominations, are walking the same paths that lead to Israel's downfall.

There is no other way to the Father except by faith in Jesus Christ, yet present day churches hold out a multitude of alternatives. Like the Jews, some of them, like cults, offer a salvation based on keeping a set of rules or rituals, like baptism. Others insist that the Bible is culturally irrelevant, and that we should adopt a theology more in keeping with modern expectations and beliefs. Whatever the scheme, if it is based on anything other than faith in Christ, through his shed blood, it is heresy, and apostasy. To those who refuse to accept that basic truth, Christ does indeed become a stumbling block.