…to the Jew first and also to the Greek
It’s amazing to think that the Gospel of salvation is available to us! Who is worthy of the Gospel? Who deserves the kind of power that God disbursed through the Gospel to save, heal, and set free?
Paul honors the Jewish people by sharing the Gospel with them first. When Paul went into a new town, he shared the Good News at the Synagogue before he shared it anywhere else.* This was more than a polite gesture, or a strategy for exposure.* Paul aligned himself with the Divine position that God placed the people of Israel in.*
God chose Israel. He worked through Israel as seen through the writings of the Old Testament.* He worked through them in the preparation of the coming Messiah.* With this in mind, Paul makes the Jewish people the first to hear the message.
As we saw in the Gospel of Matthew, both the Pharisees of the time and the disciples misunderstood Jesus’s purposes and ways as the Messiah. Many of them completely missed it in the moment. How easy would it have been for God to turn His back on those who did not understand? How easy to say, “no, you had your chance?”
On the other hand, how easy would it have been for God to say, “no, sorry Gentiles (aka the rest of the world). This Savior I sent is only for my people, Israel?” Before Christ, the rest of the world was not chosen to be the people of God.
Paul honors the people of God by understanding their priority in the heart of God, but he quickly points out that the Good News unto salvation is for everyone.
None of us deserve the power of the Gospel. None of us deserve the Savior, Jesus Christ. Sent as a lamb into this world as a sacrifice for us, Yeshua the Messiah miraculously lived a life without blemish, died the death that the sin of this world deserved, and came back to life by the explosive power of the Holy Spirit. In this, Jesus did not just make a way for us to know God, He inaugurated the reestablishment of His Kingdom here on this earth. And we all get to be a part of it… if we believe.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to remember how precious is the gift of salvation. Perhaps God wants you to play a part in prioritizing the people of Israel in finding the Messiah. Maybe God wants you to reawaken the gravitas of your own gratitude for the salvation that we could never earn.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a water break… we all get thirsty.
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*Osborne, G. R. (2004). Romans (pp. 41). InterVarsity Press; Morris, L. (1988). The Epistle to the Romans (pp. 68-69). W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press; Kruse, C. G. (2012). Paul’s Letter to the Romans (D. A. Carson, Ed.; pp. 68–69). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos; Moo, D. J. (2000). Romans (pp. 50–52). Zondervan Publishing House; Moo, D. J. (2000). Romans (p. 51). Zondervan Publishing House.