CHOSEN BY GRACE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“I ask then: Did God reject His people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: ‘Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me’? And what was God’s answer to him? ‘I have reserved for Myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.”

Romans 11:1-6

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

At the end of Romans, chapter 10, we saw Paul discuss the stubborn rejection of Jesus by the Jews, a rejection that had cost and was still costing them salvation. Through their unwillingness to believe that Jesus was the foretold Messiah, the One God had sent from Heaven to earth to save all people, Jew or Gentile, the Israelites were exchanging eternal life for eternal damnation.

As Paul wrote these words in his letter to Rome, there may have been questions enter the minds of his Jewish readers, questions like, “Is God rejecting me? Didn’t I gain His favor through following the rituals of the Law?”

Because Paul knew the ending of chapter 10 would rock the Jews at their core, he wanted to follow up and let them know that the matter of rejection was not on God’s side. God was always ready to receive anyone who would choose to accept Jesus as Savior. No, the rejection was always on the side of the person making the crucial choice to either receive Jesus as Savior or refuse Him. Salvation hung in the balance of that decision.

Indeed, Paul was a Jew but now a Christian, having embraced the new covenant God had made with all people. He received the promise of everlasting life by way of grace and grace alone. No works were required. This same grace was available to any other Jew who would follow Paul’s lead and willingly opt to accept God’s gift of salvation simply by believing in His Son.

God hadn’t rejected the people of Israel, His people. He loved them as much as He loved the whole world and its population. It’s just that salvation wasn’t exclusive to them and no longer was works needed to gain everlasting life. All one had to do was accept Jesus by faith. It was true in Paul’s day and it remains true today.

So in regard to the Jews, there would always be a remnant. For while there were many Jews who rejected Jesus, some believed as Paul did. And today, as has been since the days of Paul, Jewish believers have placed their faith in Jesus as the saving Messiah of the world, a Savior sent by the God they love and serve, a Savior they see as coming to them by grace, not by works.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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