The Book of Romans ~ Lesson Nineteen

"Gentle Rain"

Romans 9:1-9 (NLT) With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
   Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too. This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

You would think Paul would hate his fellow Jews after the way they treated him. They had him falsely accused, stoned, flogged, and thrown in jail. Yet Paul never stopped being a Jew and never stopped loving them. He said, "I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them." He knew that they were the chosen ones who received God's Law, saw and experienced His miracles, worshiped at His temple and whose line the Messiah would come through.

Just because the Jews, or some of them, rejected God's Son, doesn't mean that God's promises to the Israelites is rescinded. God's promises never fail and always hold true. Whatever God does is eternal, pure and true. He is holy. His ways are holy.

There are those who are from the lineage of Abraham that are not Israelites. Those of the line of Ishmael, Abraham's son from Sarah's slave girl, are not chosen even though they have the blood of Abraham. It is those who come from the line of Isaac that are chosen. These are "children of the promise." Even then, the promise only holds true to those who honor God.

Psalm 15 (NLT) Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends. Those who despise flagrant sinners, and honor the faithful followers of the Lord, and keep their promises even when it hurts. Those who lend money without charging interest, and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever.

Those of us who were not born of the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have been given the opportunity to have a relationship with Jesus. Since the Jews have not all responded to Jesus as Messiah, the way has been open to the Gentiles. This does not mean, however, the Jews are forgotten by God. Remember, God's promises never fail. What He promised to them still holds true.

Like the Jews who have been given the promises of God and have rejected them, we too, even though we belong to a church, may not be a part of God's promise of eternal life through Christ. Church attendance doesn't achieve salvation for us. Only belief in Christ and total surrender to Him alone is the way to salvation.

Colossians 1:19-20 (CEV) God himself was pleased to live fully in his Son. And God was pleased
for him to make peace by sacrificing his blood on the cross, so that all beings in heaven and on earth would be brought back to God.

God made a way for all people to be brought back to Him. He chose this for all mankind. However, there are those who reject Him. I don't understand this, but God knows those who will reject Him. It's one of those things that my mind can't comprehend. I do know this: God has made a way to Him where there was seemingly no way to Him. It is through His Son that we all have the choice to come to Him through Jesus the Messiah. Jesus is the Way, the only way to God.

Deuteronomy 32:3-4 (Message) Listen, Heavens, I have something to tell you. Attention, Earth, I've got a mouth full of words. My teaching, let it fall like a gentle rain,  my words arrive like morning dew, like a sprinkling rain on new grass, like spring showers on the garden. For it's God's Name I'm preaching— respond to the greatness of our God! The Rock: His works are perfect, and the way he works is fair and just; A God you can depend upon, no exceptions, a straight-arrow God. 


His words, like gentle rain, fall on us. If we are hardened like packed clay, then His words will run off of us and His life-giving nourishment fails to penetrate our souls. If we are seeking a relationship with God through His Son Jesus, then we drink in His promises and grow in our relationship with Him. It is my prayer that our hearts become softer and softer and drink in His truth. I pray for those whose hearts are hard that the Holy Spirit will soften them so they can accept His Rain.


God is victorious always. There is no use looking somewhere else for salvation. He presents it only through Jesus. During this Christmas season may our hearts receive the ultimate gift found only in His Son ~ Jesus.


Luke 1:23 (NLT) “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”


God is with us in the form of Jesus. He alone can make us right with God. Let this gentle, but powerful truth rain down on your heart, softening it to be open to His salvation.