Today, as I write, it feels like spring has arrived: a clear blue sky and bright sunshine. But out of the sun, there’s a cold wind. It’s still only March.

At the end of Romans 8, there is glorious sunshine as Paul reflects that nothing can separate him from God’s love. But suddenly, at the beginning of chapter 9, the sun goes in and a cold wind blows as Paul turns his mind, and ours, to Israel’s rejection of Jesus, the Messiah. The wind cuts like a knife and he is devastated. Nothing can separate him from the love of God, but he’d be willing to put that to the test, if only his own people would come to believe in Jesus (v 3). Such passion! When did I last feel anything approaching that about family and friends who do not believe? 

What makes it worse is that Israel’s unbelief seems so illogical. They have been given so much: they are adopted, they belong, they will inherit, and Christ is theirs – God’s indescribable gift (2 Corinthians 9:15). Why turn away? The hint of an answer comes in verse 5. Christ is for the Jews, but he is also ‘God over all.’

‘Facing a task unfinished / that drives us to our knees, / a need that, undiminished, / rebukes our slothful ease’.¹ 

To some people theology can seem arid and dry, but to Paul the things he was writing to the church in Rome were anything but. They were life and death issues.² So, when he thought about his own people, the Jews, his emotions kicked in. He couldn’t have expressed his feelings more strongly: ‘great sorrow and unceasing anguish’ (v 2). His willingness – if only it were possible – to pay the price for his fellow Jews to come to Christ (v 3) is massively challenging. How serious are we about the spiritual need of those around us?

Paul is raising a huge question here: can we trust God’s promises? Well, the answer is obvious, isn’t it? We all know the right answer – of course we can trust them! The previous chapter ended on a triumphantly confident note.³ There is a lingering problem for Paul, however: the seeming unwillingness of most of his fellow Jews of the time to follow Christ.⁴ God had made great promises to his people and Paul spelled them out (vs 4,5), but if these were unfulfilled, how can we be sure that the promises to us of chapter 8 will be kept?

The response of Paul’s fellow Jews mystifies him. Despite being God’s adopted children, having the covenant promises and the Law – and thus knowing God’s will, sharing the Messiah’s genealogy and so on – they are still rejecting Jesus. Everything he mentions in verses 4 and 5 he has already mentioned in chapters 1–8. But then I think about myself. What about all the advantages I have received in Christ? Do I live faithfully or is my behaviour inconsistent? The behaviour of the Jews is a challenge to me personally as well as a conundrum. 

Think of members of your family and friends who are not following Christ. How do you feel about them? Pray that they will come to know him. 

¹ Frank Houghton, 1930  ² Eg Rom 6:23  ³ Rom 8:31–39  ⁴ Rom 10:1