In our last lesson we looked at the mercy of the gospel. God’s mercy generates two outcomes: either people will respond to his mercy and be saved or people will reject his mercy and remain lost. God’s patient mercy brought about Pharaoh’s hardening of his heart. Further, God’s patient mercy toward Israel only brought about a further rejection of God. Before we look into the next paragraph in Romans, I want us to think about why it is so important for us to look at the example of Israel. Twice in Romans the apostle Paul has marked off all of the blessings and privileges that Israel experienced (cf. Romans 3:1-4; 9:4-5). In 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 he also lists off some of those blessings. But then Paul says these words: “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (1 Corinthians 10:5). A few verses later Paul will say, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11). These things are recorded for us so that we will learn from their example and not fail like they did. In Romans 9 we saw that it was not that God’s mercy or promises had failed. God was not the problem. God did what he said. God patiently offered mercy to Israel. So the word of God did not fail. So what happened so that the Jews are excluded and Gentiles have come into the kingdom of God? In Romans 9:30-10:4 the apostle Paul is going to explain what happened to Israel. In particular, he is going to help us understand why they failed so that we will not fail like they did…
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