This Week’s Chapters: Romans 8 – 12
Pastor Claire Morton
Romans is a book written to Gentiles – this may come as no surprise but we need to understand the significance of this.
For the first 10 years the church was completely Jewish, then came Paul commissioned directly by God to take the gospel to the Gentiles.
Romans 9 explains how we (the Gentiles) relate to Israel. Verse 17 says “... you, like a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root”.
What is the nourishing sap? This is all the promises given to Israel, all the inheritance, all the freedom.
Becoming a Christian means that we are grafted in to Israel. Israel is not just the promised land but it is about the purposes of God.
You and I are grafted in to the purposes and plans of God. That’s why we inherit the promises given to Abraham.
Our support comes from the roots. John refers to Jesus as being the vine and we are the branches but what are the roots of that vine. For that we have to look in the Old Testament and see the plans of God unfold from the promise to Abraham, to Moses the liberator of God’s people from the land of bondage – a pre-runner to the new covenant. Then to David, making way for a king, a Messiah coming to establish His kingdom and then to the prophets who told of a Servant who would come and die for us.
Then comes Jesus, the vine. He came from the roots to fulfil the words spoken over Israel. You and I are now the fruit of that vine, the fruit of obedience by one man.
Paul was telling the Romans that God had this set up from the beginning, the Gentiles were in His plan, that they mattered to God but also not to become conceited and to think they were better than the Jews. Chapter 11v 28-29 tells us that the Jews are “loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable”.
Do you know that you have been grafted into God’s purposes and plans? You are not an extra, an add-on, but you are a full inheritor of His purposes and plans.
Breathing Daily with God is an opportunity for the Pastors to share their thoughts on the chapters we have been reading in our daily bible reading plan.Email this to a friend | Add A Comment | Bookmark | Subscribe
1 Comments So Far
- Karen S Excellent word Pastor Claire. Praise God that we have been grafted into God's purposes and plans and are inheritors of those plans & purposes. I remember a Pastor once saying to me when I didn't think I was doing much for the Lord, 'think of yourself as a cog in the wheel of industry, without that little cog God couldn't complete his purposes and plans.' I never forget that. C'mon peeps lets show how much we appreciate our Pastors by leaving encouraging words and thanks when they post Building Daily words.
posted July 04, 2009 at 10:42 PM
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