Evangelical Heaviness – Romans 9:1-3

 The discipline of a child is a tremendous responsibility, not to be taken either lightly or angrily. Certainly that child needs to know that there are limits to what he should do. He needs to understand that doing some things are harmful to himself and to others. Then there are other things which are simply wrong whether they are hurtful or not. (One of the failures of modern morality is drawing a line after hurtful and before wrong.) There are occasions, perhaps lots of occasions, when that child needs to be disciplined and punished. He needs to have his finger snapped, or his bottom spanked, or something along that line. And yet, at the same time, that child needs to know that he is still greatly loved and appreciated. He needs to know that he is being punished, not because he is hated or rejected, but because of what he has done. And when possible, perhaps an expression of love ought to be made before the punishment starts. After nearly 60 years of observation, I am still convinced that children will not grow up to be responsible adults unless they are firmly taught what is right and wrong when they are young.

In a similar way, Paul knows that he is about to write some things which are going to be terribly offensive. He is going to spend more time discussing election and predestination, which are offensive in themselves. But this is not so much his concern as what he must say about the nation of Israel. And so he prefaces his rebuke with an heartfelt expression of his love and concern for those people. Then just as a parent might, at the beginning of the next chapter, he interrupts this “spanking” by reasserting his love and concern for their eternal well-being. “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” The purpose of Paul’s rebuke is to bring his countrymen to the truth and to repentance before God.

The first thing that Paul does is to declare his sincerity.This is a troublesome point with me, because it is something about which I am “just a little” guilty. Do people know when you are teasing or being facetious? Are you very good with playful, tongue-in-cheek humor? I suppose that the better we are at it, the better we become at hiding our facetiousness. The man who laughs at his own jokes, especially before he finishes them, isn’t the best comedian. The man who can say something comical, funny or droll without slowing down can be a lot of fun. But here is a potential problem – if he does it too much, or too well, he may lose the opportunity to be understood when he is really serious. Do you have to stop and tell people, “I say the truth in Christ,” before they know you are telling the truth? If this is a problem, then we need to fix it.

But of course, we live in a dishonest society, where deception and lies are a way of life. The man who constantly lies, is going to expect people to lie to him, whether they are honest people or not. The man who often cheats others, is going to expect people to cheat him. I hope that you expect people to tell you the truth, because it says something about your heart. Nevertheless, this is a dishonest world in which we live. It’s a sad case, but when we are in a stressful situation we can expect even more falsehoods and lies. For example in a courtroom where people’s lives, fortunes and futures are at stake, perjury is common. Lies fester in courthouses in the same way that staff infections fester in hospitals.

But what can we do when we are addressing people who are liars or who expect everyone to tell lies? We are sometimes obligated declare our truthfulness and sincerity, even though we’d prefer not to have to. Here Paul makes an oath – he swears to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It’s not that there are occasions when he doesn’t tell the truth, but because of the nature of the jury, and because of the nature of this truth, he feels that some aren’t going to believe him.

Should we put our hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth, when asked to do so in a court of law? I’ve mentioned this before, but we have it brought to our attention once again. I would prefer to follow the instructions of the Lord Jesus as repeated by James – “But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.” And yet, we see here that Paul makes a public oath to tell the truth. If a judge required me to put my hand on the Bible and promise to testify to the truth – I would. But I have in public court told a judge that as a Christian I always tell the truth, and that I will continue to do so even in his courtroom. Truth is a rather precise thing. It is a reference to facts, actualities and realities – it is an inherent part of the nature of our God. Truth should be as much a part of the Christian as it is of God.Once we are perceived to be liars, we may never be able to extricate ourselves from that web again.

Part of Paul’s oath was that he spoke the truth “in Christ.”While it may be true of everyone, it is even more true of the child of God that…“In Christ we live and move and have our being.”Christ Jesus is the great Witness and Judge of all our testimony and deeds.Even though it is true of everyone, the Christian must remember that he shall give an account of every idle word he speaks, every testimony he gives and every statement of doctrine that he shares.It is all said and done under the watchful eye of our Saviour.

And under this bright blue sky Paul opens his heart. “I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.”Generally speaking, the conscience makes a very, very poor guide, despite the common misconception. Consciences can be hardened until they are useless. They can be seared with a hot iron (I Timothy 4:2) until they cannot speak – welded shut, so to speak. Like a cog with the gears all worn off, the conscience often can’t turn hearts and minds properly. But, when someone is born again by the grace of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, though His ministry, that conscience can turned into a very effective instrument. That isn’t to say that Christians can’t silence their consciences as effectively as the wicked. But when they are maturing in the Lord, growing in their conformity to the image of Christ, and submissive to the Spirit, what their conscience says is important to them. And Paul repeated that his conscience, while not his guide, was his witness. Even for the Christian, the conscience should not be our guide – that is the job of the Lord.

Paul’s notarized testimony was that His heart yearned for the deliverance of his nation. He knew from experience that Israel was a nation in rebellion. It’s citizens gave the appearance of holiness, but it was nothing but empty religion. They gave the appearance of loving Jehovah, but it was a false Jehovah. And while making a profession of love, actually their hearts were chasing after other gods. Paul makes this declaration because in a few more sentences it will sound to them as though he hates everything about them.

In verse 3 Paul utters something which might be quite confusing. “I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” I have noticed that some good commentaries take exception with my long-held understanding of this verse. A quick reading suggests that Paul almost wished that he could be a castaway, if he knew that this would mean the salvation of his Jewish brethren. The word “accursed” is the Greek “anathema,” and it is extremely strong. “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.” Galatians 1 – “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” In these three verses, it appears to me that to be “anathema” means to be condemned and forever cast away from Christ and His grace.

The argument that some people have against this interpretation is that it’s pointless and, thus, superficial. Knowing that it is impossible for God to cast aside His love for any of his children, it is argued that Paul couldn’t, or at least shouldn’t, be making that statement. This is contrary to what the Apostle has just been telling us. To get around this problem, those commentaries get quite creative, while still maintaining their logic. The word “anathema” is used in the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament to translate the confusing words “accursed thing.” For example, when Joshua was instructing Israel about what to do with Jericho he said: “And the city shall be ACCURSED, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the ACCURSED THING, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the ACCURSED THING, and make the camp of Israel a CURSE, and trouble it.” Our definition of “accursed” probably explains what Joshua was saying. But that Hebrew word is also translated “devoted to God.” Leviticus 27 – “Notwithstanding no DEVOTED THING, that a man shall devote unto the LORD of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every DEVOTED THING is most holy unto the LORD. None DEVOTED, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death.” The point that these Bible experts want to make is that Paul was saying he wished that he could be totally devoted and sacrificed to God in order that Israel might be saved. He doesn’t want to be exchanged and condemned in order to see his country-men saved. But he was willing to be martyred and sacrificed to God for their sakes. While that makes good sense to me, it appears to go contrary to our King James translation. So I’m going to stick to my first impression emphasizing, that Paul seems to say, “for I could wish” – if it were at all possible, to become cursed – I would if it would mean the salvation of Israel.

And that is my next point.Paul’s heart yearned for the deliverance of Israel from her blindness and sin – her salvation. Of course, they were Paul’s fellow citizens. He might have been thinking of neighbors and children that he grew up with in Tarsus. He, no doubt, was considering some of the young men who went to seminary with him and sat beside him at the feet of their teacher Gamaliel. He might have recalled some beautiful young girl with whom he was once in love. There were well-meaning, but foolish politicians whom Paul yearned to see come to Christ Jesus. They were all “brethren” – distant brothers of his.

But remember that they were also enemies of Christ and of Paul. These are the same people who will try their very best, despite the Roman army, to murder Paul. They will soon try to tear him limb from limb on their own sacred temple grounds. They will plot, and like the liars all sinners are, ask that Paul be exposed so that they might murder him. In fact some of them use the same word that Paul used here. “And they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great “anathema“, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul.” Paul is willing to trade places with those Jewish suicide-bombers in order to see them saved.

And they are the same people who cried out “crucify him, crucify this man who claims to be our Christ.” Some of them were in the mob that came to arrest Him in the garden of Gethsemane. Their leaders condemned Him after a completely bogus trial. They laughed and mocked when the Lord Jesus was stripped naked and nailed to the cross. These are the people for whom Paul is willing to exchange his eternal soul. Amazing!

And why would he do this?One of the first reasons has to be that Paul was once one of those very enemy. His voice may have been among the hundreds of others calling for the crucifixion of Christ. He may, or may not, have been in that mob that dragged Jesus out of the Garden, and we know for a fact that he was in the mob that dragged away Stephen to be stoned. He was a confused, mis-guided, blinded, self-willed rebel like all the rest. He said to Timothy, I “was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: BUT I obtained mercy.”

He said, “I have been blessed with the mercy of God.” There was the pacemaker which made his heart beat more quickly when he thought about Israel. He had been one just like them, but God had been gracious toward him, without any logical reason for it. Only the sovereign love of the Lord had changed Paul from a murderer to an evangelist. He had been changed; in fact he was a new man in Christ – and his citizenship was in Heaven. This was what was needed by those former fellow-citizens of Jerusalem and Hell. How could he keep silent as to their great and eternal needs?

And this is the point of the message this morning.If you are a child of God today, it is not because you deserve to be. You were no better than your childhood neighbor, or your teacher, or Barak Obama. You didn’t deserve to be saved, and you haven’t done a single thing since your conversion to justify God’s decision to save you. If you are a child of God, it is because the Lord has been inexplicably gracious towards you. And as Paul said in chapter one, that makes you a kind of debtor to those whom the Lord has not saved.

Do you say that you despise the Democrats for putting a child-killer on the ballot for President? Yes, but they didn’t directly crucify your Saviour. Is your neighbor an Indian, or a Muslim, or a Jew while you were raised Anglican or Catholic? Does that make you a better person than your neighbor? Oh but he’s from California; smokes cigars; beats his wife; raises pit-bull terriers, and his skin is yellow. Give me some substantial reason for you to want that man to spend eternity in Hell. You can’t do it, because you deserve the Lake of Fire as much as he does.

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” Perhaps you don’t share Paul’s burden, because you don’t have the same share in God’s saving grace. Perhaps you need to kneel before the cross of Christ and repent of your sins as Paul had to do. Are you absolutely sure that you are a Child of God?