Have you ever missed an amazing opportunity? History is full of missed opportunities. MySpace had the opportunity to buy a startup called TheFaceBook.com for 75 million but decided at the last minute to pass. Blockbuster had the opportunity to buy a fledgling company that was struggling to stay afloat for 50 million… but decided Netflix was a bad gamble. In 1999 George Bell had the chance to buy Google for 1 million, but wouldn’t pay more than $750,000. (source: http://veryshorthistory.com/170/historys-top-ten-missed-opportunities/). Life is full of missed opportunities… in business, in sports, in politics. Maybe your life is filled with regret because of a missed opportunity. Decades later people say, “I should’ve done this, I shouldn’t have done that…”
Today I want to talk about one of the greatest missed opportunities in history… In Romans 9, the Apostle Paul sets the backdrop. Ethnic nation of Israel had been elected by God from among the nations to bring salvation to every nation on earth. Talk about an exciting startup! Who wouldn’t want to be part of that venture?
Israel’s formation at a nation races back to Genesis 12:1-3. “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing… and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
For Abram to become a great nation, God promised him a son. Romans 9:9 says, “For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.” The problem is that Abraham was “faced with the fact that his body was about a hundred years old and Sarah’s womb was also dead” (Romans 4:19). Feeling the pressure, Sarah presented an Egyptian slave named Hagar to Abram, and encouraged him to build a family through her! As you can imagine, their relationship was a hot mess, filled with jealousy and bitterness, fraught with insecurity and distrust.
But God was patient. He had elected Abraham to be the father of many nations. Time and again, God reiterated his promise that Sarah would give birth to a son.
In time Abraham and Sarah gave birth to Isaac. God’s promise to bless all nations would now extend through Abraham’s son Isaac. Isaac’s wife was Rebekah, and she became pregnant with twins. In Romans 9:11-13 Paul tells us how, “before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—[Rebekah] was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
This phrase “Jacob I’ve loved/Esau I’ve hated” has nothing to do with salvation. It is a Hebrew idiom that simply means God was electing Jacob’s descendants (not Esau’s) to bring forth the Christ through whom every person on earth would be blessed. This election was not so much about them, as it was about God keeping his promise!
As the nation grew, ethnic Israel found themselves held captive, slaves in Egypt, under the oppressive rule of Pharaoh. Moses understood that despite their circumstances, ethnic Israel was still elected to bring forth the Christ. What Pharaoh didn’t understand, was that “neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation” would be able to frustrate God’s sovereign purpose.
God tells Moses (Romans 9:15), “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” In other words, God was saying, “Moses, my favor is upon my elect son, Israel. I am with you.” But regarding Pharaoh God said (Romans 9:17), “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. . . God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.” In other words, “Pharaoh, whether you are for me or against me, I’ll still advance my glorious purposes through you! I’ll do whatever I will”
Ironically, it wasn’t just Pharaoh who resisted God. The Ethnic nation of Israel (the children of Abraham) also resisted God. They despised God’s law, put God’s prophets to death, and worshipped idols. In Romans 9, Paul is demonstrating that whether the elect people of God (Israel) were cooperating or not, whether they were faithful or not, God was not in any way deterred from bringing forth this promised child. Whether through Israel, or in spite of ethnic Israel, Jesus was coming!
In Romans 9:19-24, Paul illustrates how it’s God’s prerogative, it’s his right, to bring about his eternal purposes regardless of anyone’s cooperation. In Romans 9:21 Paul asks the question, “Does not the potter [God] have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?” If God wants to use Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Esau, Moses, Pharaoh, Israel… he’s the potter and they’re the clay. There isn’t anything they or anyone can say about it.
This metaphor of the Potter and Clay comes out of Jeremiah 18. The Lord tells Jeremiah to go down to the potter’s house and receive a message. When Jeremiah visits the potter’s house, he sees him working at the wheel. “But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”
Earlier in Jeremiah, God declared his intentions for Israel. “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you not to harm, to give you hope and a future.” But here God is warning Israel that he will do whatever he wills. “If despite my plan, if you still want to do evil… I can pluck you up, break you down, destroy you, shape disaster against you, devise a plan against you. Or, if you turn from evil, I will relent… I can work for the good of those who love me and are called according to my purpose…”
Ethnic Israel had been elected for service to God. But just because they were elected to bring forth the Messiah, didn’t mean they were entitled to salvation. Just as it was God’s prerogative to use them however he saw fit for his set purpose. . . it was their prerogative whether they would walk in the faith of Abraham, repenting, returning, obeying God. It was their prerogative whether in addition to being elected to bring forth the Messiah, they would believe in Jesus and be saved in his name.
So why do I say Romans 9 is about the greatest missed opportunity in all history? It’s because in Romans 9, the Apostle Paul laments how the ethnic nation of Israel, though privileged, and elected to be used of God from among all the nation… ethnic Israel, because of their own hardness, stubbornness, unbelief, and rebellion… was missing out on the opportunity of their own salvation!
Listen to what Paul says in Romans 9:1-5…the greatest missed opportunity of all, “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.”
Do you remember what Paul said about salvation back in Romans 1:16-17, “The gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last…”
The ethnic nation of Israel had waited centuries for the promised Messiah, the Christ, the “righteousness of God” to be revealed. In regard to salvation, they should have been the very first in line! But despite the spectacle of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection… not all of ethnic Israel believed on Jesus. Many were rejecting Christ!
Do you realize that right before Jesus was crucified, he stood on a hill overlooking Jerusalem and wept? In Luke 19:42 Jesus cries, “If you [Jerusalem], even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.” It’s not the only time Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Earlier in Luke 13:34-35 Jesus wept saying, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
Look carefully at Luke 13:35. It doesn’t say that God wasn’t willing to save Israel. It says ethnic Israel (Jerusalem) wasn’t willing to be gathered up by God. The one central fact of all history is that God’s always desired salvation for Israel… He’s always longed to gather up his people, even from the furthest horizon.
Do you remember Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:8-9? “Oh great and awesome God… Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 9 but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’”
God longed not just to use ethnic Israel for his set purpose, but to gather them to himself for salvation, but it wasn’t God… is was they, who were unwilling!
I’m sorry that some of you come from a church tradition where you’ve been taught differently. I’m sorry that the web, and bookstores, and Christian conferences are filled with teachers who deny the plain truth of 1 Timothy 2:4, that “God our Savior… wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” But the truth stands. The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, to everyone our Lord calls. Romans 10:13 says unequivocally that God is willing to save everyone who calls upon the name of Jesus.
In Romans 9:1-5 Paul is more than sorry… he is distressed that this great ethnic nation of Israel, given its rich history, given its election to advance the eternal purpose of God… given all her anticipation and hope in the coming Messiah… wasn’t willing to be gathered to God, to hear the gospel, and repent and believe, and be saved!
Sometimes despite all our privileges, we miss opportunities. The ethnic nation of Israel we’re God’s “chosen” people. They were “foreknown” … “elect” for service to God ... “called” out of darkness … “predestined” for glory. Yet they rejected God’s purpose. They persisted in unbelief.
Some of you have been taught a radically different perspective on Romans 9. You’ve been taught that God picks winners and losers. That God arbitrarily, in the secret counsel of his will, chooses who will be saved and who will be condemned. If that is really true, then why did Jesus repeatedly weep over the city of Jerusalem, lamenting how Israel wasn’t willing to repent and believe?
Romans 8:30 says “… those God predestined, he also called, and those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” If God’s already decided and settled the matter of our salvation, then what was Paul agonizing about in Romans 9? If Jerusalem, or Israel, and everyone’s salvation or condemnation is already settled why lose any sleep about it? They only answer is that our salvation isn’t a settled matter. So long as we have the opportunity to repent and believe, there is still hope!
The greatest missed opportunity in all history… God willed that ethnic Israel be adopted to sonship, to become heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ… and not just Israel, but now also Gentiles! But as Jesus lamented, “you were not willing.”
If Israel had this extraordinary opportunity to be heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ, what happened? Did God’s word fail the ethnic Israelites? Not at all. In Romans 9:30-33 Paul explains exactly what happened to Israel! “30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not?”
Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
Paul does not say they missed out because God made some sovereign choice for them to miss out. No, what Paul says is that they didn’t attain their goal, and they didn’t attain their goal because they didn’t pursue God by faith, they didn’t believe in Jesus. They stumbled over the very one God sent to save them!
Paul wasn’t at peace at the thought so many were rejecting Christ. In fact, he got on his knees and prayed earnestly for the salvation of his ethnic brethren, his fellow Israelites. Now if Paul believe God had chosen them for damnation… if Paul didn’t believe they could still repent and believe and be saved… why would he go through the charade of praying otherwise?
Yet in Romans 10:1-4 Paul says, “Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own and they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes!”
Do you hear that? Christ is the culmination of all history, that everyone who believes on Jesus might be saved! Romans 1:17, “the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes! Romans 10:13, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
We see how history judges the likes of MySpace, Blockbuster, and George Bell. How will history judge us? We see how Jesus, and the apostle Paul agonized over the salvation of their fellow Israelite's. Do we agonize? Do we pray? Do we care whether people repent and believe in this glorious gospel? In the average church it takes 100 believers, a whole year, just to reach one person with the gospel. Come on!
We have the opportunity to believe… but open your eyes and look at the harvest fields, that are ripe with opportunity to help others repent and believe… Don’t you think all of us ought to be able to reach at least one other person?