God's standard - perfect justice and righteousness; John 15:16.

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Title: God's standard - perfect justice and righteousness; John 15:16.

 

ROM 9:30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by [from the source of] faith;

 

 “What shall we say then?” Greek idiom = “Therefore, to what conclusion are we forced?”

 

After all that has been presented beautifully by Paul through the inspiration of the HS - to what conclusion are we forced?

 

Certain Gentiles by passed self-righteousness and attained imputed divine righteousness by faith in Christ.

 

ROM 9:31 but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.

 

A portion of Israel pursued righteousness by means of the Law, which is impossible, and only amounts to self-righteousness.

 

Legalistic Israel who thought that salvation and righteousness was in the Mosaic Law as was as their racial heritage missed it completely, while some Gentiles thought the Mosaic Law too difficult, passed by it, and attained divine righteousness in the only way it can be attained, by faith in Christ.

 

The very heritage of Israel is the perfect righteousness of God offered as a potential. The potential is based on faith and not the Law.

 

But when that offer is rejected, by Jew or Gentile, arrogance always takes the rejecter on some kind of an ego trip and he goes for another righteousness with which he expects to get to heaven - his own self-righteousness.

 

Therefore, since he has gone in that direction he has moved away from his heritage. Then along comes the Gentile who does not have his background, the law and the prophets, and therefore he by believing in Christ receives what the Jew bypassed in arrogance. He takes it; the Jew leaves it, and therefore he establishes the principle of judgment by reversionism. Having only self-righteousness there is terrible judgment in time but greater judgment in the lake of fire forever. Having believed in Christ there is eternity spent with God and the potential for great blessing in time and eternity.

 

So does the Law become a stumbling block? It is not. The Law is perfect, but mankind is not, being from the same lump of fallen natures. The Law revealed the perfect character of God in the face of the imperfect status of mankind thus increasing sin and revealing the need for a Savior, which was proclaimed in codex 2 of the Law. The Law was to lead one to Christ, but certain Jews in arrogance sought righteousness in keeping the Law.

 

The same danger exists for the believer. If he rejects doctrine then he will seek to establish his own righteousness and he will stumble.

 

However, ROM 9:30-33 addresses the unbeliever.

 

ROM 9:32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,

 

The stumbling stone - the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Paul quotes a portion of ISA 8:14:

 ISA 8:14

"Then He [Lord of Hosts] shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

 

[slide - map] analogy to our enemies

 

The very Deliverer becomes a stone to stub the foot on, to stumble over, and a snare and a trap. Ahaz the king of Judah made a treaty with Assyria for protection after he was told by Isaiah that the Lord would deliver Judah. Isaiah even told Ahaz to ask for a sign from Jehovah and Ahaz refused in false humility. He didn’t want to trust in the God of Israel, for it turns out that he trusted in mediums and necromancers, which instructed him to make an alliance with an evil empire, Assyria, and this is where he placed his trust.  

 

The Lord is a sanctuary to those who trust Him and a stumbling block to those who don’t since to not trust Him is to trust in something else, and nothing else can deliver.

 

And if I may extend an application to us as believers:

Israel is a picture of the believer’s soul. All of us will trip over the stumbling block if we reject doctrine. Doctrine and the FHS are God’s deliverance to the believer.

 

ROM 9:33 just as it is written,

"Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,

And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed."

 

And here Paul quotes a portion of ISA 28:16:

 ISA 28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord God,

"Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone,

A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed.

He who believes in it will not be disturbed.

 

ISA 28:17 "And I will make justice the measuring line,

And righteousness the level;

Then hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies,

And the waters shall overflow the secret place.

 

The measuring line and level speak of God’s standard, which is the cross of Christ, where divine righteousness and justice was reconciled to the world.

 

Human good will not reach this line. Following the Mosaic Law will not reach this line. Any system of good works, or morality, or sincerity will not reach this line. The unbeliever with his book of human good will be judged against this line and he will be found wanting and far short.

 

Only faith, non-meritorious faith in Christ, can reach this standard. “He who believes will not be disturbed.”

 

In both prophecies (Isa 8 and Isa 28) we have the promise of the Messiah. The promise is that the Deliverer is coming and He will be firmly placed [at the right hand of God and on the throne of David], all that is needed is faith in Him and what should be despised are deals, agreements, or treaties with the cosmic system and the great demon army that controls the cosmos, which are the Lord’s natural enemies.

 

That those treaties are a lie is evidenced by the fact that both the northern and southern kingdoms are wiped out. There will always be a remnant but there is no kingdom. Judah profited nothing but destruction from her decision to make an alliance with Assyria.

 

Therefore, to sum up, Romans 9 in its call to unbelieving Israel, its examples, its quotations, its protasis and apotosis reasoning, and its beautiful picture of the potter and the clay.

 

Rom 9 all points to the freedom principles of faith in Christ to meet the standard of positional righteousness and faith in the Word of God to meet the standard of experiential righteousness.

 

Christ is always the standard and so all human power is rejected.

 

Freedom can only exist on a faith based understanding of divine revelation. Man looking to find security from himself only leads to a slavery that is worse than was before.

 

It all points to faith in the living word for salvation and faith in the written word after salvation. The very word faith is meaning a self-determined decision from the free will of the creature.

 

The Sovereignty of God and the free will of man co-exist in human history. A vessel of mercy containing a soul of honor is a free will lining up with the +S of God and brings Him maximum glory.

 

This simplicity is vehemently attacked in the world, not only today, but it has been since the beginning of the Church almost 2000 years ago.

 

There is no need to get shocked when doctrine gets attacked. Nor is there any reason to get angry or bitter against the one who is promoting the false doctrine. We should hate the false doctrine, which originates from the KOD, and not the deceived human messengers. We do not struggle against flesh and blood. Maintain your peace and happiness while you give a reason for the hope that is within you.

 

John 15:16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.

 

God has omniscience: God knows all the knowable and the probable, past, present, and future, and He expresses His knowledge in the divine decree.

 

With omniscience God was powerful to decree human history.

 

The decree of God is His eternal (always existed), holy (perfect integrity), wise (the application of omniscience to creation), and sovereign purpose, comprehending simultaneously all things that ever were or will be in their causes, conditions (status), successions (interaction with others that leads to certain decisions), relations, and determining their certain futurition.

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