In last week's breakfast we saw Paul connecting the Gentiles who were far away from the knowledge of a righteous God to the Jews who were near to a holy God because of the law. Through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, both Gentile and Jew are to be one in God’s dwelling place. Jesus prayed for this unity. He prayed that through the apostles’ message of the Good News that all people, everywhere, would become one with him as He is one with the Father. My prayer is not for the disciples alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23) Because of the work of the cross, the Jew and the Gentile became one with Christ. They died with him and were raised with him to everlasting life. This everlasting life came to them as unmerited favor, for they, both Jew and Gentile, were bound by the devil, caught in slavery to his will. The Bible says clearly that no one is good, no one truly seeks God’s will, so grace had to rescue all of mankind from eternal death. No person on earth was perfect as God is perfect. Jesus said, “Be ye perfect.” Since all were IN SIN, all needed a Savior. The rightness with God had to come apart from the law, for the law only condemns since no one can please God through his or her words or actions. Sin is a permanent despoiler without the Creator’s intervention. We see humanity destroyed in Noah’s time because of the aggressiveness and violence of sin. But God had an intervention plan. He approached Abraham, chosen out of all people, and gave him a promise that he would be the father of many nations. He told Abraham that his people would inherit a land for all of eternity. These promises were believed by Abraham. He believed in God’s goodness and kindness towards him. He accepted this undeserved kindness and believed God would fulfill his words to him. As the Bible says, Abraham’s position of being righteous before God was not because of his good works or his special attributes: it came because he believed in the goodness of God towards him. He placed his faith in God’s words and not in his own reality, for he and Sarah could not have a child, for both of them were too old to birth a child. As with the Jew and Gentile Christian, salvation comes from the goodness of God and not from works. The Creator hung Jesus Christ from the cross, his goodness revealed to the world. Anyone who believes in this act of grace towards mankind will be saved. As with Abraham, salvation comes through faith in God’s words, his actions, and not in man’s words or actions. As Paul writes to the Romans, And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved. (Romans 11:6) Paul says that God has made believers citizens of the heavenly realm because of God’s grace towards them. Just as He chose Abraham to life eternal, they now have life eternal, no longer foreigners and strangers to the mercy and grace of God. They are now full members in the Temple of God. You too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
As Paul preached, the plan of redemption is for all people everywhere. The law, works, special intentions will never succeed in bringing people to a righteous God. The goodness of God does not come from the goodness of men. Salvation is the work of God and not of men. He alone is perfect, eternal, and faith alone in his eternal perfection is salvation for all men, Jew and Gentile. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. (Romans 3:28-31) The Jew and the Gentile uphold the law when they trust in the only One who completely satisfies the law's requirement on a person’s life. Righteousness comes from God, not from man and his efforts. Perfection is God’s character, not man’s nature. When Abraham received the promise that he would inherit the land of Canaan, he was in a deep sleep, a troubled sleep because God was talking to him about what would happen to his descendants. He tells Abraham that his descendants from his loins will be slaves in a foreign country for 400 years, but then He will rescue them and give them Canaan to dwell within forever. As Abraham is sleeping, God confirms by himself the covenant between him and Abraham. Normally in a covenant between two people, both people have to affirm the covenant, but in this situation we see God’s affirming both sides of this covenant. Abraham’s commitment to the covenant is not there. Canaan is given to Abraham’s descendants based solely on God’s goodness. We, who have an eternal Canaan waiting for us receive it freely, for it is God’s work, not ours. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” (Genesis 15:18-21) He drives away our enemies and gives us his eternal dwelling place. This promise of an never-ending home with God comes solely through the cross. Sacrifices had to be made for the covenant between God and Abraham. Abraham was a sinful man, so the death of animals and birds was a requirement for a relationship with God. A penalty had to be paid for sin before a permanent covenant could be made with God. A heifer, a goat and a ram, along with a dove and a young pigeon were Abraham’s offering as a means to satisfy God’s requirement on his life. But the fulfillment of the covenant was God’s work, not man’s work. Jesus died on the cross because it was God’s desire to redeem mankind from sin. When the Israelites were going into Canaan, God reminded them that Canaan was given to them as a gift, not because of their righteousness, for they were a rebellious, stubborn people, who did not deserve this good land of milk and honey. But God gave it them because of his goodness and faithfulness to Abraham’s trust in him. We who are outside of the perfection of God receive heaven not because of our goodness our righteousness, but wholly because of God’s love towards us. Jesus died for us while we were yet enemies to him. We enter heaven only because of the work of God, not ours. Jesus said, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. (John 12:32-33) God’s gift to us of eternal life and of the heavenly Canaan comes to us through the cross of Jesus Christ, freely given to us by the Father God.
Jews and Gentiles are one because of the cross. The enmity between them has been torn down. Now Paul sees the unbelieving Jews as an enemy to the cross and its reconciliation message for all people. But Paul knows that this enmity is in the plan of God. When the Jews come back to God, they will come back to him not by their own efforts or their works to fulfill the law, but only through the undeserved grace of God. The Gentiles were strong enemies to God’s light, his rule and authority. But God came to save Jew and Gentile through the cross, giving them grace rather than their deserved judgment. God now has the unbelieving Jews as his enemy, rejecting his gift of life through the cross. Paul says something very hard for us to understand. As far as the gospel is concerned, they (the Jews) are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. (Romans 11:28-32) The light of the world, through Jesus on the cross, came to the Gentile to retrieve him from darkness, but this same light has been exposed to the Jews: the cross and not the law. Through the cross, they too, the Jews, can be made right with God through faith in the work of Jesus on the cross. But because of their disobedience, they cannot see the light, but they will someday. And when they do see the light, they will know it is the hand of God for their redemption. In spite of the Jewish disobedience to God’s plan, they will receive undeserved grace. Both the Jew and the Gentile will know emphatically that their salvation came out of God’s plan of grace and not out of their efforts to please God. Abraham’s faith was based on the fact that he believed in God’s goodness towards him, not earned by him or deserved. God chose Abraham to reveal himself. Now through Jesus Christ, God has revealed himself to the world. All that is needed is to accept this gracious gift of eternal life. As Jews and Gentiles alike we are under the authority of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He was lifted up so we might have eternal life. However, we are to die to this finite world and its desires. Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. (John 12:23-26) To know God in his fulness and his purpose for our lives, we must allow him to have full control over our lives. If we are to be an image of God, we no longer carry on with the identity of Jew or Gentile. We are now ONE WITH HIM. We are to be in his harvest field, not in preserving our lives for our own pleasures and wants. As Christians we are all joined together for his purposes in our lives. As members of the Temple of God our lives should exemplfy God to humanity. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. (Romans 12:10-14) Abraham believed in God’s goodness to him. He believed God chose him for better purposes than just to live in a childless marriage. We too should believe we are more than just isolated entities, living out our lives in a selfish manner. We should want to glorify God by producing many seeds for the kingdom of heaven, people who are no longer foreigners and strangers to a mighty, loving, holy Creator. Walk in confidence of your position in Christ as a dwelling in which Christ lives where you glorify God.
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