Dm – Lifting Up Yeshua 15: 7-13

Lifting Up Yeshua
15: 7-13

Lifting up Yeshua DIG: Why does Paul address the Jews first here (Romans 1:61c)? The Gentiles were always a part of God’s plan. How do the quotes from verses 9-12 prove that point? Why is there no basis for Jewish and Gentile believers to be at odds with each other?

REFLECT: What have you done in the past six months that has led to peace and mutual understanding among the people where you worship? How many Jewish friends do you have? In what examples can you think of to show how you have grown spiritually in the past year?

It is your duty to learn how to love as God does, because God is love, and it honors Him.

Paul is not asking the believers in Rome to give anything more than what they themselves have received. They were recipients of Messiah’s unconditional love. Paul told them to show the same love to their fellow believers. So, welcome each other, both strong and weak believers, both Jews and Gentiles, just as the Messiah has welcomed you into God’s glory (15:7). He hoped that the message he had delivered would enable both the strong and weak believers to put aside their differences so they could follow the example set by Yeshua.

It is good for us to reflect on all that we have received from Messiah. We mocked Messiah with our sins, and He accepted us. With our sins we slapped Messiah in the face, and He turned to us His other cheek. Finally, our sins nailed Messiah to the cross, and what did He do in response? He asked God the Father to forgive us because we didn’t know what we were doing. Filled with such an abundance of love and forgiveness, do we have any excuse for failing to show love and forgiveness to those around us?³⁸⁴

We bring ADONAI glory by becoming more like Yeshua. Once we are born into God’s family, He wants us to grow into spiritual maturity. What does that look like? Spiritual maturity is becoming more like Yeshua in the way we think, feel, and act. The more you develop Messiah-like character, the more you will bring glory to YHVH. The Bible says: As the Spirit of the LORD works within us, we become more and more like Him and reflect His glory even more (Second Corinthians 3:18 NLT). God gave you a new life and a new nature when you accepted Yeshua as your Lord and Savior. Now, for the rest of your life on earth, God wants to continue the process of changing your character.³⁸⁵

Love and forgiveness is the means by which we were brought into one Body of Messiah. In verse 8 Paul emphasizes the Jews, and covers the period of the Gospels and Acts Chapters 1-7. Messiah’s ministry, with few exceptions, was limited to the Jews (Matthew 10:5-6, 15:24). For I say that the Messiah became a servant of the Jewish people (Genesis 12:3a). It is not true that Yeshua is the Christian Messiah, while the Jews wait for someone else. He is the Messiah of the Jews. If He is not the Jewish Messiah, the Christians have no Messiah. Paul focuses on two reasons for Yeshua becoming a servant of the Jewish people. First, in order to show God’s truthfulness and to show God’s mercy. As we have seen previously, both are certain (to see link click Cm – The Certainty of Redemption). Though one might question this because not all Jews have followed Yeshua, YHVH will make good His promises to the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (11:28-29), and He will do this through His Servant of the Jewish people, Yeshua Messiah (15:8).³⁸⁶

And in verse 9 Paul emphasizes the Gentiles because that was the bottom line of the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 12:3b), in order to show His mercy by causing the Gentiles to glorify God – as it is written in all four of the major sections of the Tanakh: From the Former Prophets (Second Samuel 22:50); from Moshe’s Torah (Deuteronomy 22:43); from the Writings (Psalm 117:1); and from the Latter Prophets (Isaiah 11:10).

A progression of thought can be traced through these four quotations. In the first, David praised God, “Because of this I will acknowledge you among the Gentiles and sing praise to your name” (Romans 15:9; Second Samuel 22:50; Psalm 18:49). In the second, Moshe encouraged the Gentiles to rejoice with His people (Romans 15:10; Deuteronomy 32:43). In the third the psalmist commanded the Gentiles to “Praise ADONAI, all Gentiles! Let all peoples praise him” (Romans 15:11; Psalm 117:1). And in the fourth, Isaiah predicted that the Gentiles would live under the rule of the root of Jesse (the Messiah) and they will put their hope in Him (Romans 15:12; Isaiah 11:10).³⁸⁷

Dear Loving Heavenly Father, Praise You for Your great love which planned from the beginning to include Gentiles along with Your first born, the Jews (Exodus 4:22), into Your new Body. For He is our shalom, the One who made the two into one. . . He did this in order to create within Himself one new man from the two groups, making shalom,  and to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross . . . for through Him we both have access to the Father by the same Ruach.  So, then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household . . . (Ephesians 2:14a, 15b-17a, 18-19).

How awesome that You love those who love You, calling them Your children (John 1:12) and they are Your holy temple! In Him, you also are being built together into God’s dwelling place in the Ruach (Ephesians 2:22). What a joy that You accept Gentiles, not as foreigners a far off, but now in Messiah Yeshua, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah (Ephesians 2:13). Amazing that you give Gentiles access to same Ruach and that You call them fellow citizens along with Jews who love and follow Yeshua as Lord; for through Him we both have access to the Father by the same Ruach.  So, then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household (Ephesians 2:18-19). You are such a wonderful Father! We love you always! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen

The TaNaKh never presents the Gentiles as joint heirs together with Isra’el (Ephesians 3:6), but declares that they will be grafted in. The “partners” of the B’rit Chadashah are, in biblical terms, YHVH and Isra’el. Although not a formal partner of the New Covenant, the Gentiles in the Church “participate” when they make the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, Lord of their lives (Ephesians 1:13-14). They also “participate” as a recipient of the promised Covenant blessings for Gentiles who have come through the Seed of Abraham, Yeshua Messiah. Therefore, “participation” would be a better term to use (see the commentary on Jeremiah Eo – The Days are Coming, declares the LORD, When I Will Make a New Covenant with the People of Isra’el: The Church’s Relationship to the B’rit Chadashah).

Keep in mind that the Gentile church was in its early stages. It began at Syrian Antioch (see the commentary on Acts Bj – The Church in Syrian Antioch) in 42 AD, and Paul’s letter to the Romans was written only about fifteen years later. A great deal of teaching and dialogue needed to take place so that both Jews and Gentiles would appreciate what ADONAI had accomplished with the breaking down of the middle wall of separation (see the commentary on Acts Cn – Paul’s Advice from Jacob and the Elders at Jerusalem). When Messiah came, two very different worlds were brought together. It is not surprising that the bulk of Paul’s letter to Rome was an effort to iron out the wrinkles of a union that, before Messiah, neither group ever dreamed was possible.

Paul’s call to be an apostle to the Gentiles (11:13b) involved giving the Gentiles a solid theological foundation. If we think of the early church as a ship floating aimlessly on the waters of ignorance and youth, Paul’s ministry was to steer the vessel of ignorance on a straight course to knowledge about ADONAI and ADONAI’s relationship with them.³⁸⁸

Therefore, in light of the magnificent, gracious, and sovereign plan of ADONAI – disclosed in part in His ancient revelation to Isra’el – Jews can have no grudge against Gentiles, because their calling, and their very purpose for existing, was to reach Gentiles for the glory of YHVH. And the Gentiles can have no grudge against Jews, because it was through the Jews that Ha’Shem brought them to salvation.

Paul closes this passage with a beautiful benediction of intercession for all the people of God, not mentioning Jew or Gentile, but addressing the entire, unified Body of Messiah. May God, the source of hope, fill you completely with joy and shalom as you continue trusting, so that by the power of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh you may overflow with hope (15:13). It expresses Paul’s deep desire for all believers to have total spiritual satisfaction in the Lord, lifting up Yeshua. It is essentially the same benediction with which Paul blessed the church at Philippi: Then God’s shalom, passing all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with the Messiah Yeshua (Philippians 4:7). It is a prayer for satisfied souls in Messiah to know and experience the peace, the hope, the love, the victory, the joy, and the power of the indwelling Ruach Ha’Kodesh, who makes them one in Yeshua Messiah their Lord and Savior.³⁸⁹