Since we’ve come to the end of another major section in Paul’s Letter to the Romans, it’s time for another targum, a loose explanatory paraphrase of the text:
[9.1-5] I’m telling you the truth from my deepest Christian heart, and the Holy Spirit and conscience will both attest to this: My heart is broken and I’m in a lot of pain over what’s happened with my own people. If someone offered me a deal: I be cut off from Christ forever but my own people be saved, I’d take that deal in a heartbeat. They are Israel and everything we’ve been talking about here — the adoption, the covenants, the glory, the law, the ritual, the promises, the patriarchs, and even the Messiah himself (God be blessed for ever!) — is all theirs by right.
[9.6-18] I want to make it clear to you that none of this means that God’s message has failed. It’s been true throughout history that not all of Israel’s children are “Israel.” That is to say, there’s always been a gap between the Israel-as-nation and Israel-as-God’s-chosen. Remember, not even all of Abraham’s children were chosen to carry God’s promises, but Isaac alone. For, in the fullness of God’s timing, the child of promise was to be born of Sarah. And something similar happened with Isaac and Rebecca’s children: even though they were of the same mother and same father, before they had been born (so we see that God’s choice has nothing to do with ‘works’ but only with grace), Rebecca was told that “The elder will serve the younger.” As it was later written about this:
I loved Jacob,
but hated Esau.
Does this choosing mean that God is unjust? Not at all. As God said to Moses:
I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
So, human will or effort has nothing to do with this; it’s all about God’s mercy. For an extreme case, think of Pharaoh, to whom God said: “I have raised you up for this very purpose: to demonstrate my power through you so that the whole earth may see what I have done and know my name.” So you see that God has mercy on whomever God chooses, and hardens the heart of whomever God chooses — and even this is about mercy.
[9.19-24] You may ask then “Why does God still find fault then? Who can resist God’s will?” But I’d ask you a similar question: Who are you, o human, to argue with God? Will the clay say to the potter, “Why have you made me like this?” Or doesn’t the potter get to decide what he makes of it, whether for sacred use or everyday or even wicked use? I mean, God puts up with so much from his creations who deserve nothing but wrath, and exercises so much patience with them! What if all this restraint is for the ultimate goal of pouring out God’s glorious riches about those who receive mercy, who have been prepared to be part of God’s glorious destiny, including all of us whom God has called, not just from the Jews but from non-Jews too?
[9.25-33] For God can make and unmake peoples at will, as God said through the prophet Hosea:
Those who were not my my people I will call “My People”
and her who was not loved I will call “Beloved.”
“And where I once said to them, “You are not my people,”
there they will be called “Children of the living God.”
And as Isaiah cried out concerning Israel:“Though the number of Israel’s children was like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will be saved, for the LORD will execute his sentence on earth quickly and decisively.” And as he foretold:
If the LORD of Hosts had not left us descendants,
We would have fared like Sodom
and be turned into Gomorrah.
What are we to say then? Gentiles have reached a goal they weren’t trying to attain, being made right with God through faith, but Israel hasn’t reached their goal of obedience to the Law of Moses even though they’ve been striving for it. Why not? Because they were striving with the wrong attitude, thinking being right with God is a matter of earning it rather than of faith — simply being in relationship with God. In this way, the definition of ‘good faith’ has tripped them up. As it is written:
See, I am laying a stone in Zion that will trip people up,
a rock that will make them stumble,
But whoever trusts in him will not be put to shame.
[10.1-4] My beloved siblings in Christ, my heart’s desire and prayer to God is for them to be saved. Now it’s absolutely true that they have a genuine zeal for God, but it’s pointed in the wrong direction. Not understanding how being right with God works, they’ve tried to make it happen on their own terms, and in the process not accepted it on God’s terms. For Jesus the Messiah is the goal and fulfillment of the Law and therefore the end of its jurisdiction, so that all those who faithfully live in relationship with God may be made right with God.
[10.5-13] About the kind of justice the Law makes, Moses said: “Do these things and live by them.” But the justice faith creates says, “Don’t concern yourself about who will ascend into heaven” (for that is to pull Christ down) “or who will descend into the abyss” (for that is to undo Christ’s death). What does it say instead?
The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart.
This ‘word’ is the gospel of faith that we proclaim. Why? Because if you confess from your lips “Jesus is Lord” and trust in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For faith is a matter of the heart, which makes us right with God, and confession is a matter of public speech, which leads to salvation. As the Scripture says. “No one who is faithful to him will be put to shame.” Notice that there is no distinction here between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, and is generous to all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
[10.14-21] But how can they call on one in whom they don’t have faith? And how can they have faith in one about whom they’ve never heard? And how can they hear without someone to proclaim him? And how can anyone proclaim him if they have not been sent? As the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” But not all who have heard the good news have obeyed it. Isaiah’s complaint “Lord, who has believed our message?” remains relevant today. But faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through our message that is nothing other than Christ.
But wait, didn’t I just say these people have heard the message? Indeed they have. For:
Their voice has gone out to all the earth
and their words to tends of the world
But did they not understand the message? Here’s what I think is happening: As Moses said: “I will use those who are not a nation to make you jealous; I will provoke you with a foolish nation.” Then Isaiah was so bold as to say:
I have been found by those who did not seek me;
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.
But of Israel he says: “All day long I have held out my heads to a disobedient and contrary people.”
In other words, God has allowed the message to thrive among Gentiles to provoke Israel, who is off doing their own thing, to jealousy, to remind them about what it’s really been all about all along.
[11.1-6] So if Israel has rejected the way of justice on God’s terms, does that mean God has rejected them in turn? Absolutely not. I am myself evidence of this, a proud Israelite, descended from Abraham and belonging to the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected the people God knew and chose in Abraham to be the bearers of the divine promise to the world. What we’re seeing here is really nothing new. Back in the day, Elijah complained that the people had killed the LORD’s prophets and destroyed his altars, leaving him alone and hunted. But God allayed his fears, saying “I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed to the god Ba’al.” So too is there a chosen remnant today, by God’s grace. (But again: if it’s by grace, it is not on the basis of ‘works’; otherwise it would not be about grace!)
[11.7-12] What then? Again, Israel has not achieved the goal it was pursuing. The chosen remnant has, but the rest were made callous. Again this is nothing new. In Moses day, it was said:
God gave them a sluggish spirit,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear.
We might say, echoing Isaiah’s words centuries later, the same is true “Down to this very day.”
And in David’s time, his enemies were so great that he prayed:
Let their table become their snare and trap,
a stumbling block and retribution for them;
let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and bend their backs forever.
But, if Israel has stumbled, have they fallen down to the extent that they can never catch up? Again I say, absolutely not! I think there’s a greater mystery at play here. For it is through Israel’s stumble that salvation has come to the Gentiles ahead of schedule, so as to make Israel jealous. Now, if their stumbling has enriched the world this much — if their loss has led to such gain for Gentiles — how much more will their full embrace entail!
[11.13-24] Now I want to talk plainly to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am an apostle to non-Jews, I celebrate this service not just for your sake, but in the full hope that it will save some of my own people too. Again, if their rejection of the gospel means reconciliation for the whole world, what will their acceptance mean! Nothing other than the resurrection of the dead! After all, if the part of the dough that is offered in sacrifice as the first fruits is considered holy, then the whole batch is sanctified; and if the root is healthy, so too will the branches be healthy.
If it happens that some of the branches have been broken off, and you — a wild olive shoot — were grafted among the others to share the rich roots of the olive tree, you have no cause to boast over the other branches. If you’re tempted to do so, remember: you don’t support the root; the root supports you! You may say, “Branches were broken off so I could be grafted in.” Fair enough. They were broken off because they were not faithful, but you were grafted in because you were faithful. This shouldn’t be cause for arrogance but for awe and humility. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will God spare you. There is kindness at work here, but also severity: severity for those who have fallen away, but kindness for you — so long as you continue in this kindness; otherwise you too will experience that severity. (Remember: “For the judgment you give will be the judgment you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get” (Matthew 7.2).)
And then those of Israel, if they return to good faith, will be grafted back in. If you have been cut off from a wild olive tree and grafted — contrary to nature — onto a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these natural branches be grafted back into their own tree!
[11.25-36] This is indeed a great divine Mystery, brothers and sisters, and I want you to understand it so you don’t claim to be wise than you are: Israel has been hardened until the fullness of non-Israel has come in. In this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:
The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
he will banish godlessness from Jacob.
This is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.
Now when it comes to the gospel they are currently hostile for your sake, but when it comes to God’s election, they remain beloved for the sake of their ancestors, for God does not regret either gifts or the calling. Just as you were once disobedient to God, but have received mercy because of their disobedience, so are they now disobedient so that they may return through the same mercy you were shown. For in God’s mysterious ways, God has trapped everyone in disobedience at some point, so that God might show mercy to everyone.
O how deep are the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are God’s judgments and inscrutable God’s ways!
For who has known the LORD’s mind?
Or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given a gift to him
so as to receive a gift in return?
For all things come from God and through God and for God. To God be the glory for ever. Amen.
Matthew Root 