Romans 9:1-5, Jesus Christ the Jewish Seed
Romans 9:1-5 (KJV) 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.
The heaviness of the Apostle Paul’s heart for the Jewish people, his kinsmen, is likened to Nehemiah’s grief (Neh. 1) when he saw the desolation that had befallen the returnees in Jerusalem after 70 years of Babylonian captivity. The walls of Jerusalem broken. It is likened to the burden in Daniel’s heart when he sought the Lord in prayer and fasting to know the future for His people in the 69th year of their captivity (Daniel 9-12) in Babylon.
To Israel is given the privilege to be God’s chosen nation as a testimony to the nations of the world of the living and true God. God’s glory was with them when He fulfilled the promises (covenants) to the first Hebrew, Abraham, that they will inherit the Promised Land. Israel was a people when they came out of Egypt, and God gave them a constitution (the giving of the law) at Mount Sinai with the institution of worship in the service of God and finally possessing the land of Canaan. They became a full-fledged nation under God. Israel was the nation by which the Messiah of the world would come. In the fullness of time, Jesus was born, conceived of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Mary of Nazareth. Jesus is God. He is the fullness and exact representation of God.
The Lord Jesus, the resurrected Christ, who met Saul of Tarsus on the road with a bright light. Saul is converted, and he became the Apostle Paul, servant of God to the Gentiles. And the gospel went forth to the heart of the Roman Empire in Rome with the conversions of many Romans. Until now, the Apostle Paul explained the nature of man’s fall, the doctrine of God’s grace of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and the sanctification that comes through God’s power working in their lives. He felt it necessary to help the Gentile Christians see the larger picture of God’s plan of salvation that began with the Jews. They were the recipients of God’s blessing through the Jewish people, in particular, through her foremost Son, Jesus Christ. God’s plan of salvation includes the Jews although they have rejected their Messiah.
Dear brethren, do not forget to pray for the Jewish people. The prophetic clock of the last days is tight closely to Israel. Amen.