"Curse Me; Save Them!" (Romans 9:1-5)

“Curse Me; Save Them!” (Romans 9:1–5)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday AM, May 27, 2018

Romans 9:1–5 (NIV)
9 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit—² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, ⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised!  Amen.

1. Paul has a personal concern for the Israelite people.

a. Paul’s personal concern is accompanied by intense emotion.
b. Paul’s personal concern is accompanied by a willingness to engage the greatest sacrifice.
c. Paul’s personal concern is rooted in his kinship with the Jewish people.

2. Paul has a historical concern for the Israelite people.

a. The Jewish people have a long history of relationship with the one true God.
b. The Jewish people have been the beneficiaries of God’s unconditional grace and blessings.

i. The adoption to sonship
ii. The divine glory
iii. The covenants
iv. The receiving of the Law
v. The temple worship
vi. The promises
vii. The patriarchs
viii. The genealogical lineage of the Messiah

3. Paul has a theological concern for the Israelite people.

a. These blessings were a gift of God’s sovereign grace, has he abandoned his grace toward Israel?
b. Can God renege on his electing grace, his covenantal oath, or his promises?
c. What are the advantages of having these privileges if they can still ultimately be lost?
d. Paul’s theological concern is also Christological: this Messiah, Jesus, who can trace his ancestry through the Jewish people, is also himself God.

4. Paul has a soteriological concern for the Israelite people.

a. Paul’s overriding concern throughout Romans 9–11 is salvation, specifically, the salvation of the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham.
b. Paul was willing to be cursed for his own people that they might be saved, but…
c. There is one who has already been cursed for the salvation of God’s people…

i. Isaac could not be sacrificed for Abraham.
ii. Moses could not sacrifice himself for the Jewish people.
iii. Paul could not sacrifice himself for the Jewish people.
iv. There is only one sacrifice for the Jewish people and for all the peoples of the world: Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, the Son of God.

Main Idea: Paul’s intense concern for the salvation of the Israelite people is rooted in his love for them and in his desire for the magnification of the glory of God. Those concerns are exactly what should motivate us to have intense concern for the salvation of the lost: our love for them as human beings, as our own people, our own family, our friends, but even more importantly the magnification of the glory of God.