I think the answer to that is we need to understand these next three chapters to trust the character of God and what it means when he makes a covenant. Is it really permanent as Paul says in the last few verses of Chapter 8 or is it conditional on how we respond? Is there something more than experience in our faith?

Martyn Lloyd-­Jones writes that there are two dangers in our teaching. First, the danger of too little content. We have reduced the Gospel to a series of stories and common sense illustrations that make life better. “We are living in a time of trouble; many people are unhappy and face great problems. Some people cannot sleep; some are worried about money; others are anxious about their health and are afraid that they cannot get any help the world is full of problems. And such people go to a Christian service and are told, “Come to Jesus and you will get all that you require.’ And they require so much, so they come, hoping they will get what they want. Now if you merely say to those people, “Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,’ I say you are misleading them…It is our business to make quite certain that they know what they are believing…They must not merely believe the story of Jesus, but must know its significance…You see, if there is not a full content to our faith, if we do not know why and what we believe, then we have nothing against which to test these false teachings that are round and about us at the present time…We are not to be like children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Children are ignorant, they do not know the content; and that is why they can be misled, and carried away. The answer is to know the content of what you believe.”

A recent article reviewing a study of hundreds of congregations in America concluded that what we want most is informality now. “This change to the American church is part of a “decades­long trend in American religion away from an emphasis on belief and doctrine and toward an emphasis on experience, emotion, and the search for a least-­common-denominator kind of worship in a time of ever less theological content,” wrote the authors. In the last 17 years this increase in informality also includes saying “amen” spontaneously in the worship service is up by 6 percent, hearing testimony from members is up 7 percent, and jumping or shouting is up 8 percent. Applause is up 10 percent, while raising hands and using drums are both up 14 percent. And the use of projection equipment is up by 23 percent. People increasingly want an informal and engaging worship experience but without the burden of doctrine.

But there is a second danger and that is putting too much content into faith. Teachers and preachers have made certain doctrines essential to faith and loaded the simple confession of faith with all sorts of baggage and additional beliefs. Must one be premillennial to be a Christian? Must one believe in election to be a full believer? Must one practice full immersion to be faithful? Our theological traditions and differences have made it almost impossible for us to trust the simplicity of the Gospel. “So, all that you must read into Romans 10:9 is that which is essential to salvation: no more. This is the primitive evangelistic message which we must give to men and women in order that they may be saved. We must give it in all its fullness, but we must not add to it, otherwise we are going beyond our text. The principle, therefore, is this: a full and deep understanding of the whole of doctrine, thank God, is not essential to salvation… We ought to have it…that we may grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord, but at the moment of belief and of salvation we do not need to know it all.”

In a sense, you could say that all of Romans prior to this has been in anticipating these next three chapters. Look at how we ended last week. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

But, what is the next thing in the same breath he says? “I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel.” In other words, even as he speaks of the impossibility of being separated from the love of Christ there is a great sadness and concern for his own people Israel. In fact, you could even say that his concern for Israel weighs heavier on him than his concern for the Gentiles. We’ll look at that in a few minutes.

Rick Warren’s book, “The Purpose Driven Life” begins with the phrase, “It’s not about you” and that is exactly the way to start our glimpse at these chapters. Without that in the back of our minds we will never understand what Paul is saying here. These chapters are about God’s eternal purposes that includes us but is larger than us. We are on the bus but we are not driving. I’m not even sure we are in the front seats. For Paul, the issue is the fate of Israel and the foundation of these three chapters is God’s relationship with Israel ­the family and descendants of Abraham. Where does Israel fit in God’s plan of redemption for the world?

It probably would help if we understand Paul uses the word “Israel” in three different ways in these chapters.

First, Israel is the race to which he belongs. They are his kinsmen and his people. They are also at present the enemies of the Church for the sake of the Gentiles.

Second, Israel is a term used for those who now follow by faith and not by the Law. They are both Gentile and Jew. They are the true children of Abraham and the offspring of Isaac. For believing Jews they are a remnant. For Gentiles, they are those who have been grafted on to the root of Israel. As he says “For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel” so there is a much broader implication here for what he means by Israel.

Finally, Israel is a term he uses to describe the nation of Israel in Chapter 11. They are the Jewish children of the covenant and are loved on account of the patriarchs. God has hardened the hearts of these Israelites for a time and for a purpose but they are not lost completely. They have stumbled and fallen but they are not irretrievably lost. They have mistaken the pursuit of rightness for the gift of righteousness but they are not cast out for eternity. We’ll see how Paul works this out later.

In Chapter 10 Paul writes, “Brothers, 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 that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.” In other words, it is not heinous sins that separates them from God. Just the opposite. It is their vain attempts to be righteous on their own. It is not their perversion ­ as it was with the Gentiles ­ but their pride that separates them from God.

And his desire is that all the Israelites will be saved ­ not just a remnant. He doesn’t say, “Just save 20% of my family” does he? His desire is that all of Israel will be saved.

And, just as important, he is not thinking about individual redemption but the restoration of Israel for its original purpose so that the people will be called back and restored to their role as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. In the same way, Paul was not just interested in individual salvation among the Gentiles, was he? He spends more time talking about the Church, the Body and the Bride of Christ than he does about individual salvation. For Paul, it is about the corporate nature of both Israel and the Church.

And how will they be restored to their original purpose? Not by being right but by being reconciled. Not by rules but by a relationship. Not by trying but by trust. They will be restored in the same way as the Gentiles ­ by calling on the name of the Lord. And that, of course, is the stumbling block. As we said weeks ago, they have substituted the way of Moses for the way of Abraham. They have become blinded by their own belief in their exceptionalism. What was meant as a guide has become an idol.

But, even though most of the earliest church was Jewish, it soon became predominantly Gentile and that weighed heavily on Paul. Why would God call Israel his people and then abandon them? I am sure there were many Gentiles who saw the Church as the new Israel and there was no sense in spending time on the Jews. They had been by­passed. The mantle had been given to the Gentiles and the unbelieving Jews were no longer relevant. Yes, there is presently a remnant of Jewish believers, but that is not God’s promise to Abraham, is it? “I will make a covenant with some of your descendants but not many.” No, the covenant is with the whole of Israel.

But, here is where we see the genius of Paul’s mind and his role as a prophet. God is not finished with his people. While they are in a captivity of sorts and have been hardened and blinded for a time they are not cast out. There is a reason God has blinded and hardened them. How can that be? He has hardened them for the benefit of the Gentiles but not permanently. Because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles so that they may be grafted on to the original root. The Gentiles have not replaced the root. The great irony is the Jews have become a light to the nations even as they are in darkness themselves.

Because of this, I have come to believe that Paul’s primary mission was always to save and restore his own people. In spite of his history of rejection with them and his vows to go only to the Gentiles he returns time and again to the synagogue only to be despised and ridiculed. But there comes a time in Corinth when he says, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

But, I don’t think it was that simple. If it was, we would never read of his anguish and great sorrow in these chapters. I don’t think he abandoned them. Instead, I think he was given a brilliant strategy over time. He concentrated on the Gentiles to make the Jews envious. Look at 11:13­-14: “I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.” It would be envy that would cause the Jews to listen and believe.

There is more to it. Not only would he make much of his ministry to create envy on the part of the Jews but when the “fullness of the Gentiles” was accomplished then the time of hardening and blindness would be over. In a sense, the focus on the Gentiles was a means to an end for him. The more Gentiles he could bring in then the closer we would be to the salvation of Israel. The Gentile Church was not the new Israel. Only the Israel of the Jews could be that. Only together could they be the Church under the headship of Christ.

In other words, he does not focus on what he cares about most but on what will make the most difference to the salvation of the nation of Israel ­ his kinsmen and his people. In a real sense, Paul was a missionary to the Gentiles in order to bring about the salvation of the Jews. All of Israel will be saved. God will not revoke his promise made to the patriarchs.

Martyn Lloyd-­Jones writes, “It means the bulk of the Jews, the Jews as a whole. It does not mean every single Jew at any given point, or every pure­blooded Jew. But it does mean that those who have Jewish ancestors and those who cling persistently to the Jews’ religion will, as a whole, have their eyes opened. The hardness will be removed and they will believe and enter the Christian church…It means that the Jews who still separate themselves and worship after the tradition of the fathers and reject the gospel will, as a whole, become believers and will come in; and its effect upon the whole church will be comparable to ‘life from the dead’!

And so ALL of Israel, not just the remnant of a few and not just the Gentiles who by faith have become part of the inheritance of the promise made to Abraham but all of God’s chosen, special, holy, peculiar people will be saved and restored to their original purpose and given a new heart because they are still beloved for the sake of God’s irrevocable promise to their fathers. What God has promised to the fathers is going to be fulfilled, is going to be carried out. All Israel will be saved. God’s promise to Abraham is secure and Paul’s mission will be accomplished.

It’s not about us, is it? It is about Israel. It is about the covenant. It is about a promise made to Abraham and while we play a part in this drama the central plot is God’s chosen and peculiar people.