“Jesus: A Powerful Problem” – Romans 9:30-33

Sunday, August 28^th, 2011

Romans 9:30-33

“Jesus: A Powerful Problem” 

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Bible Memory Verse for the Week: Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. — 1 Cor 1:22-24

 

Background Information:

• In this section Paul deviates a bit from his main argument.  He will continue to outline his understanding of God’s election of Israeland its consequences for the present in chapter 11.  But before he does so, he pauses to analyze in more detail the somewhat unexpected turn that salvation history has taken.  Most Jews, the ones to whom the promises were made, have rejected their Messiah and the salvation he offers; many Gentiles, by contrast, are streaming into God’s new covenant people.  Why has this happened?  Because, Paul claims, Israelstubbornly refused to recognize God’s offer of righteousness in Christ, the climax of salvation history.  (ClintonE. Arnold, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, Vol. 3, 61)
• “Pursue” is from diōkō, which means to run swiftly after something, and was therefore frequently used of hunting.  It was also used metaphorically of earnestly seeking a desired goal or objective.  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 50)
• The noun próskamma is derived from proskóptō (“strike against,” “stumble against”; cf. Heb. Negep < nāgap) and, like skándalon, can denote a “cause of ruin” in the sense of an obstacle to faith or a temptation to sin.  Sometimes próskamma and skándalon are used together as synonyms.  Rom 9:33 and 1 Pt 2:8, quoting loosely from Is 8:14, refer to Christ Himself as a líthos proskómmatos (RSV “rock that will make them fall”) to the unbelieving Jews.  (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, 641-42)
• See “stumble” = gk. proskopto = Strong’s # 4350 =  Something that causes one to stumble or fall.  The concept of a stumbling block was especially appropriate to a rocky land like Palestine.  . . . But generally the term is used figuratively of anything that causes someone to fall into unbelief or immorality.  (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, 641)
• Jews’ issue was how could one who was under the curse of God be the Messiah who would deliverIsrael?
• (v. 33) “makes them fall” or “offense” elsewhere in the NT.  Gk. skandalon = “trap”.  Strongs #4625 = The stick on a animal trap that bait is attached to which trips the trap to snare the animal.  The σkάvϭaλov is an obstacle in coming to faith and a cause of going astray in it.  (TDNT: Vol VII, pgs. 339-358 [345])
• The stronger reference to a stumbling block in the NT is built on the figure of a trap that is baited for the unsuspecting prey.  This term is used in connection with the failure of Israelto recognize her suffering Messiah (Rom 11:9; 1 Cor 1:23; Gal 5:11).  In this case the cross is not viewed as a trap.  Rather the preconceived ideas of Israelregarding the person and work of Messiah were the cause of their downfall, since these ideas excluded the possibility of His suffering.  (Merrill C. Tenney, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 5, 528)
• When the Christians began to search the OT for forecasts of Christ they came across these references to this wonderful stone; and they identified Jesus with it.  Their warrant was that the gospel story shows Jesus himself making that identification and taking the verse in Ps 118:22 and applying it to himself (Mt 21:42).  The Christians thought of the stone which was the sure foundation, the stone which was the corner stone binding the whole building together, the stone which had been rejected and had then become the chief of all the stones, as pictures of Christ himself.

The actual quotation which Paul uses here is a combination of Is 8:14 and 28:16.  The Christians, including Paul, took it to mean this–God had intended his Son to be the foundation of every man’s life, but when he came the Jews rejected him, and because they rejected him that gift of God which had been meant for their salvation became the reason for their condemnation.  This picture of the stone fascinated the Christians.  We get it again and again in the NT (Acts 4:11; Eph 2:20; 1 Pt 2:4-6).  (William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series: Romans, 135)

• Though the words “What then shall we say?” are the same as those in verse 14, their import is not the same.  In verse 14 Paul was anticipating an objection, which he then obliterates.  Here, in 9:30, 31, he states the conclusion to which he has arrived on the basis of his previous reasoning.  (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans, 333)
• We have here a combination of two passages from Isaiah, cited somewhat freely from the Lxx (Is 28:16; 8:14-15). The same two passages are used in approximately the same way in 1 Pt 2:6, 8, but are quoted there more accurately.  (Abingdon Press, The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX, 552)
• He realized that his teaching was creating a paradox, especially for his Jewish audience.  How could it be that the acknowledged experts in righteousness would find their way to God barred, while those who were ignorant of righteousness were welcomed by God as long-lost children?  Paul here contrasts the way of faith with the way of the law.  Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not attain it–while the Gentiles, not seeking righteousness by the law, found it by faith in Christ.  (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Romans, 191)

 

The questions to be answered are . . . How in the world could the Apostle Paul ever refer to Jesus as a “Stumbling Stone” and “A Rock that makes men fall”?

 

Answer:  Because Paul knew the power of perverse, preconceived notions and/or of natural conclusions as to the nature of the Gospel.   When we listen to any other message about how to be saved other than the Gospel as revealed and anchored in Christ, we allow ourselves to be deceived and misled so that when we come in contact with the real Gospel, it appears false.  So when we listen to any other gospel, it is possible for us to see the real Gospel and the real Jesus as a “Stumbling Stone” and/or“a Rock that makes men fall”.

 

The Word for the Day is . . . interference

Interfere:

 

• To strike one foot again the opposite foot or ankle in walking or running.
• To come in collision or be in opposition
• To meddle in the affairs of others
• To act so as to augment, diminish or otherwise affect one another

 

Interference:

• The act or process of interfering
• Light wave interference
• The legal blocking of an opponent in football or the illegal blocking of an opponent in baseball
• Confusion of radio waves

 

Jesus remains as either a “Stumbling Stone,” or a “Stepping Stone.”  People are either offended by Him or saved by Him.   (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 259)

 

What does Romans 9:30-33 have to tell us about the Gospel of Jesus?:

I.  God looks for faith “in Christ” and trusting in His righteousness, that is what produces the righteousness God accepts.   Not an obedience that produces righteousness.  (See: Rom 9:30-31; 3:21-28; Gal 3:10; 5:6)

 

9:31-33  Sometimes we are like these people, trying to get right with God by keeping his laws.  We may think that attending church, doing church work, giving offerings, and being nice will be enough.  After all, we’ve played by the rules, haven’t we?  But Paul’s words sting–this approach never succeeds.  Paul explains that God’s plan is not for those who try to earn his favor by being good.  It is for those who realize that they can never be good enough and so much depends on Christ.  We can be saved only by putting our faith in what Jesus Christ has done.  If we do that, we will never be “put to shame” or be disappointed.

9:32 The Jews had a worthy goal–to honor God.  But they tried to achieve it the wrong way–by rigid and painstaking obedience to the law.  Thus some of them became more dedicated to the law than to God.  They thought that if they kept the law, God would have to accept them as his people.  But God cannot be controlled.  The Jews did not see that their Scriptures, the OT, taught salvation by faith, and not by human effort (see Gn 15:6).  (Tyndale House Publishers, Life Application Study Bible, 2045)

 

If God has determined that righteousness shall belong to those who believe, and only to them, then in the nature of the case Israel cannot be participant in that righteousness, since she seeks to win it by way of the law.  If God has promised to give His gift in the east, and they push westward with might and main, all their striving only carries further and further away from righteousness.  So Israel’s rejection is her own fault.  (Anders Nygren, Commentary on Romans, 377)

 

We need to decide what kind of righteousness we are seeking, whether we are depending on good works and character, or trusting Christ alone for salvation.  (Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Right, 109)

 

In this paragraph Paul uses a critical feature of the gospel–the indispensability of faith in attaining a right relationship with God (cf. 3:27-4:25 especially)–to explain the current state of affairs in salvation history.  (Douglas J. Moo, The New International Commentary on the NT: Romans, 620)

 

The first and probably primary reason why Paul condemns Israel’s pursuit of “the law of righteousness” becomes clear when we take into account the Christological emphasis of vv. 32b-33: Israel’s failure came because she “stumbled over” Christ, refusing to put faith in him.  Here Paul suggests that it was not only the manner ofIsrael’s pursuit of “the law of righteousness” that was misguided; her very choice of a goal was wrong also: “[The Jews] not only deceive themselves as to the goal, but on the pathway on which they set out they come to a fall.” Israel has chosen to keep her focus on the law, seeking to find righteousness through it, when Christ, the culmination of that law and the only source of righteousness, has already come (see 10:4).  For it is only in Christ that the demand of the law is fully met; and only, therefore, by accepting him in faith that a person can find the righteousness that the law promises (Rom 3:31; 8;4).

Second, as we have seen, Paul’s point is not simply that Israelwas pursuing the law; she was pursuing the law in terms of its promise of righteousness.  Yet Paul has been at pains earlier in the letter to demonstrate that the law’s promise of righteousness (2:13) could never be activated in practice (3:20) because of human sin (3:9).  Surely, although Paul does not here make it explicit, we must fill out Paul’s logic with this earlier clear and sustained argument.  Israel has failed to achieve a law that could confer righteousness because she could not produce those works that would be necessary to meet the law’s demands and so secure the righteousness it promises.  (Douglas J. Moo, The New International Commentary on the NT: Romans, 626-7)

 

Experience has apparently left us face to face with an inexplicable paradox.  That it is baffling at first sight Paul admits:  What shall we say, then?  It might seem that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, whereas Israelwho pursued…righteousness has missed it altogether.  There is, however, an explanation; and it lifts the whole problem out of the realm where it is a source of religious perplexity into a region where it gives moral significance to all our endeavors.  The key to this transformation is the word righteousness.  It is clearly central to this passage, but only because it is central both to Paul’s faith and the point at which he took issue most sharply with the Jews.  The nature of his controversy with those with whom he shares the heritage of Israelis underlined by the different meanings which “righteousness” can bear.  It may stand either for a certain pattern of behavior or for a certain kind of relationship with God.  The Jews were apt to use it in the former sense; Paul insists that it must be used in the latter.  Righteousness is not the kind of life we succeed in living, but the status which God is able to confer on such as are willing humbly to receive it as his gift.  Righteousness through faith consequently stands in sharp contrast to the righteousness which is based on law.  (Abingdon Press, The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX, 550-1)

 

As he said, the Jew spent his life searching for a law, obedience to which would put him right with God, and he never found it because there was no such law to be found.  The Gentile had never engaged upon this search; but when he suddenly was confronted with the incredible love of God in Jesus Christ, he simply cast himself upon that love in total trust.  It was as if the Gentile saw the Cross and said, “If God loves me like that I can trust him with my life and with my soul.”

The Jew sought to put God in his debt; the Gentile was content to be in God’s debt.  The Jew believed he could win salvation by doing things for God; the Gentile was lost in amazement at what God had done for him.  The Jew sought to find the way to God by works; the Gentile came by the way of trust.  (William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series: Romans, 134)

 

It is satanic delusion for any Jew or Gentile to think he can become righteous by some HUMAN means.   (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 259)

 

Instead of admitting that they could not keep God’s law and pursuing righteousness by faith in God, the Jews kept trying to pursue righteousness by their works.  They had a worthy goal–to “obtain” God’s righteousness.  But they tried to achieve it the wrong way–by rigid and painstaking obedience to the law.  Thus some of them became more dedicated to the law than to God.  They thought that if they kept the law, God would have to accept them as his people.  But God cannot be obligated by us.  The Jews did not see that their Scriptures, the OT, taught salvation by faith and not by human effort–the point Paul made in the first part of this letter.  (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: Romans, 191)

 

God’s righteousness cannot be achieved by man’s works, because they are always sin-tainted and fall short of God’s perfect and holy standard.  By his own effort, no person can arrive at that law.  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 50)

 

II.  It is easy to stumble over Jesus because He is not what we expect  (See: Rom 9:32-33; Ps 118:22; Is 8:14-15; Jer 18:15; Hos 14:9; Mt 16:21-23; 1 Cor 1:23)

 

The Greek term skandalizo means “to cause to stumble or fall.”  A messiah who came with healing and reconciliation rather than with conquest over the Romans was a major obstacle to Jewish belief.  Paul says elsewhere that a crucified Messiah is a “stumbling block” (skandalon) to Jews (1 Cor 1:23).  See Is 8:14 for the OT background to this image.  (Clinton E. Arnold,Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, Vol. 1, p. 387)

 

Christ is the stumbling stone.  This is an astonishing figure of speech until we look at it closely.  Then we realize how God presents Christ to us, and how that presentation offends everything that is in the natural heart.  Men are willing to accept a Jesus of their own description, but they refuse the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible.  (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Covenants, 57)

 

9:32 The “stumbling stone” was Jesus.  The Jews did not believe in him, because he didn’t meet their expectations for the Messiah.  Some people still stumble over Christ because salvation by faith doesn’t make sense to them.  They would rather try to earn their way to God, or else they expect God simply to overlook their sins.  Others stumble over Christ because his values are the opposite of the world’s.  He asks for humility, and many are unwilling to humble themselves before him.  He requires obedience, and many refuse to put their wills at his disposal.  (Tyndale House Publishers, Life Application Study Bible, 2045)

 

Paul began this chapter with the paradox ofIsrael’s privilege and prejudice (1-5).  How can her unbelief be explained?

It is not because God is unfaithful to his promises, for he has kept his word in relation to theIsraelwithinIsrael(6-13).

It is not because God is unjust in his ‘purpose according to election,’ for neither his having mercy on some nor his hardening of others is incompatible with his justice (14-18).

It is not because God is unfair to blameIsraelor hold human beings accountable, for we should not answer him back, and in any case he has acted according to his own character and according to OT prophecy (19-29).

It is rather becauseIsraelis proud, pursuing righteousness in the wrong way, by works instead of faith, and so has stumbled over the stumbling-block of the cross (30-33).

Thus this chapter about Israel’s unbelief begins with God’s purpose of election (6-29) and concludes by attributing Israel’s fall to her own pride (30-33).  (John Stott, Romans, God’s Good News for the World, 277)

 

John had partial views of the Christ–he thought of Him only as the Avenger of sin, the Maker of revolution, the dread Judge of all.  There was apparently no room in his conception for the gentler, sweeter, tenderer aspect of his Master’s nature.  And for want of a clearer understanding of what God by the mouth of his holy prophets had spoken since the world began, he fell into this Slough of Despond.  (Dr. F. B. Meyer, John the Baptist, p. 40)

 

CONCLUSION/APPLICATION:

What significance does this text have for me?:

A.  Jesus’ claim of being God can either run interference for us or against us (see: Mt 21:42-44; John 8; 1 Cor 1:23)

 

Then the Jews stumbled, likewise, at His claims for Himself.  He kept on saying that He had come from God.  He claimed equality with God.  He claimed to speak with authority.  He said, “Ye have heard it said…but I say unto you.”  And this was something that infuriated the Pharisees.  He was arrogating unto Himself, as they thought, this authoritative teaching.  On what grounds?–and especially these statements which He made with regard to His relationship to God the Father.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 305)

 

B.  Jesus’ humility and His exposing of our pride can either run interference for us or against us. (Mt 11:29; 18:4; Lk 14:11; 1 Cor 1:18-2:16; 2 Cor 11:30; 12:5-9; Phil 2:1-11; Jas 4:6, 10; 1 Pt 5:6)

 

It is not necessary to give up anything in the world in order to accept another Jesus of human imagination; it is necessary to become spiritually bankrupt before we can come to the Christ of the Bible.  (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Covenants, 57)

 

The Jews thought that the Gentiles had to come up to Israel’s level to be saved; when actually the Jews had to go down to the level of the Gentiles to be saved.  “For there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:22-23).  Instead of permitting their religious privileges (Rom 9:1-5) to lead them to Christ, they used these privileges as a substitute for Christ.  (Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Right, 108)

 

Christ came to his own people as a rock and a Saviour.  Instead of standing on the rock and seeking shelter in the rock, they tripped over the rock, and it became a stumbling-stone to them.  With the appearance of Jesus it was clear that there was only one way to get to heaven, namely, by exercising faith in Christ alone.  That’s what his contemporaries could not handle, because he was saying to them, ‘Your works are not pure enough to merit entry into the kingdomof God.’  This infuriated them because the doctrine of justification by faith alone is a violent assault upon human pride.  Instead of allowing Jesus to lift them up, they tripped over him.  (RC Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, 177)

 

His very person has been a stumbling-stone.  It was to the Jews.  The very way in which He came was an offence to them–the character of His birth.  They were waiting and looking for the Messiah but they did not expect the Messiah to be born in a stable, in abject poverty, in a lowly humble condition.  They were offended at that; they stumbled at it from the very beginning.  They had notions of grandeur and of glory.  That was their whole picture of the coming Messiah.  He was to be a great king, a great military and political personage, and He was going to come with great magnificence–the very antithesis of what actually happened.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 304)

 

As we read the Gospels we find that His entire lack of training was a stumbling-stone and a rock of offence to the Pharisees and to all the religious leaders.  “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?”  “Who is this fellow?  Who is this man setting himself up as a teacher, what does he know?”  They stumbled at that–His appearance, His whole upbringing and His manner of teaching.  He did not belong to the elite–the Pharisees or the Sadducees.  As far as the Greeks were concerned also, He was not a philosopher; He had not been to the schools and the porches and the academies; and this has still continued throughout the centuries to be one of the grounds why people stumble at Him and take offence at Him.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 304)

 

C.  The Gospel of grace and not works can either run interference for us or against us(see: Rom 4:2; 1 Cor 1:29-31; Eph 2:8-9; 4:7; Jas 4:16)

 

Be it noted that God’s sovereignty shows itself above all in the fact that He will give.  But therefore that which He gives has to be accepted as a gift of His mercy.  He never permits man to come presenting claims; that conflicts with His divine majesty.  Only in faith can His gift be received.  (Anders Nygren, Commentary on Romans, 377)

 

The implication is that Israelpursued the law rather than righteousness.  Works create a barrier and distance between humanity and God, whereas faith, which casts one solely on God’s mercy, draws God near and cries, “‘Abba, Father’” (8:15).  Works of law were not worthless (7:12), nor was Israel wrong to pursue them (both Jews and Christians should, 3:31), but the pursuit of morality and the gift of righteousness are two separate matters, and this Israel confused.  The law is righteous (7:12), but it cannot give life (Gal 3:21).  (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 246)

 

Confident that by works of righteousness it could establish and justify its existence before God, Israelwas no longer open to what God alone could give.  This resulted in pride, or as Paul would say, “boasting.”  Faith, on the other hand, means coming before God with empty hands and admitting that our works, however good they are, are not good enough.  Faith looks only to God’s mercy and forgiveness for having “left undone those things which we ought to have done; [and having] done those things which we ought not have done” (Book of Common Prayer).  That the Gentiles could do, and their faith became their  righteousness.  Faith directs one’s attention to God and others and frees one from preoccupation with self and the merit of works.  (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 246-7)

 

Gentiles who had no prior knowledge of the Scriptures, became righteous through no effort of their own.  They took God at His Word and that was all that was necessary.  The Jews, on the other hand, who were very interested in righteousness, sought to make THEMSELVES righteous by keeping the Law.  They tragically misinterpreted the OT Scriptures and launched into a “do-it-yourself” program of making themselves righteous by living up to the letter of the Law.  Instead of realizing that the Law was given to show them how BAD they were, they tried to USE it as a ladder to heaven.  They didn’t want mercy, they wanted to make it on their own.  So when God offered them mercy through faith in Christ, they weren’t interested.   (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 258)

 

The greatest obstacle to salvation is self-righteousness.  The person who thinks he is already righteous and pleases God will see no need for salvation.  As noted above, because most Jews thought they had satisfied God by their Jewishness or their works righteousness, they felt no need for the gospel of grace through faith.  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 50)

 

The only thing that any person, Jew or Gentile, can do to be saved is to believe that he can do nothing to merit salvation and to cast himself at God’s feet for His mercy for the sake of Christ.  Jews were incensed at the gospel of grace made effective by faith because it nullified all the good works by which they thought they could please God.  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 50-51)

 

I was involved in Evangelism Explosion years ago in Cincinnati.  I trained over two hundred people, and we went out twice a week to evangelize.  We asked, “Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for sure that when you die you will go to heaven?”  We asked thousands that question, and the overwhelming majority answered that they were not sure.  They did not think anyone could be sure, and they were suspicious of those who were sure.  That first diagnostic question opened discussion for the second question.  “If you were to die tonight and stand before God, and God were to say to you, ‘Why should I allow you into my heaven?’ what would you say?”  Ninety percent of people gave what we called a “works righteousness” answer:  “I tried to live a good life,” or “I went to church,” or “I gave my money to a good cause.”  Only one in ten said, “there is no reason why God should let me into heaven, except that he promised if I put my trust in his Son that he would bring me into his family.  That is my only hope in life and death–not my own righteousness but his.”  (RC Sproul, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary: Romans, 345)

 

The trouble with Israelwas that these people proceeded from the false presupposition that by trying very, very hard they would be able, some day, to observe God’s entire law, so that they would be able to shout, “Success!  We made it!”  Paul preaches an entirely different gospel.  See Rom 3:27, 28; Gal 1:8, 9; 3:10; 5:6.  The law, with its uncompromising demand of perfect love and obedience, should have driven each Israelite to God with the fervent prayer, “Oh, God, be thou merciful to me, the sinner.”  Instead, Israeltook for granted that men would be able, by their own power, and on the basis of their own resources, to fulfill the law’s demands.  (William Hendriksen,New Testament Commentary: Romans, 334)

 

Paul now goes to the very root ofIsrael’s failure to attain to righteousness.  They stumbled over–or against–the Stumbling block.  They failed to recognize Christ as their Savior: Of course, as long asIsraelrelied on works it could not embrace Christ.  It was either the one or the other.  It could not be both.

For Jews Christ was a stumbling block (1 Cor 1:23).  To be sure, for many a Gentile too he was foolishness.  But on the whole Jews were far more adamant in their belief that they had found the solution of the problem of achieving the status of righteousness in God’s sight.  And their failure humbly to flee to Christ and to embrace him by faith proved their undoing, spelled their doom.  (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans, 334)

 

D.  The cross and the blood of the atonement can either run interference for us or against us (see: 1 Cor 1:23; Gal 5:11; 6:14)  

 

At no point was Christ more of a stumbling block than at the cross.  (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 247)

 

And why do people stumble over the cross?  Because it undermines our self-righteousness.  For ‘if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.’ (Gal 2:21).  That is, if we could gain a righteous standing before God by our own obedience to his law, the cross would be superfluous.  If we could save ourselves, why should Christ have bothered to die?  His death would have been redundant.  The fact that Christ died for our sins is proof positive that we cannot save ourselves.  But to make this humiliating confession is an intolerable offence to our pride.  So instead of humbling ourselves, we ‘stumble over the stumbling-stone.’  (John Stott, Romans, God’s Good News for the World, 277)

 

The thing that finally offended them and caused them to stumble was His death upon the cross.  There He is–arrested, apparently unable to defend Himself; condemned by the court.  He does not seem to say a word, but lets them do what they like with Him.  He who claimed to be the Messiah, who could heal the sick, make the lame walk, give sight to the blind, raise the dead, calm the raging of the sea…“thou who savest others,” they say to Him as He is on the cross, “come down, save thyself.  If Thou be the Christ of God, come down.”  Ridiculous–this display of weakness; utter failure and shame.  To them this was enough to prove how ridiculous His claims were–that He was the Son of God, that He was the Saviour!  “Hail, thou Son of God,” they said, with their sarcasm and scorn and derision.  They put a crown of thorns upon His head, and they mocked at Him and they jeered at Him.  Oh, His death was a terrible source of stumbling and rock of offence!  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 305)

 

That is what finally causes them to stumble.  That is the rock of offence–that He is the atonement; that He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world; that He is the offering to which all the types have pointed forward, the great; the glorious antitype itself!  It was the teaching and the message of the cross that caused them to stumble above all.  And it still does.  That is why the blood of Christ is ridiculed in the Christian church today.  People hate it and they are repeating what was done by the Jews.

In other words, the ultimate cause of the stumbling and of the rock of offence is that by all His teaching; and supremely by His death upon the cross, He exposes all man’s self-confidence, pride and self-righteousness.  The cross tells me that nothing that I can ever do will ever put me right with God, and that all my belief in myself and in my good works, in my righteousness, in my good deeds, in my beautiful thoughts, is “filthy rags,” dung and refuse.  That is the whole trouble with them, says Paul: “They being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom 10:3).  Man, and the Jew in particular, is out to establish his own righteousness, but Christ in all His person and in all His works says, It cannot be done.  I have come because it cannot be done.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 306-07)

 

E.  The love of Jesus can either run interference for us or against us (see: 1 Jn 2:10)

 

F.  The doctrine of election and God’s choosing to be merciful can either run interference for us or against us  (See: Jn 14:6; Acts 4:11-12; 1 Cor 3:11-12)

 

Blinded by the conceit of self-righteousness, they missed the purpose of the Law.  It never occurred to them that they needed God’s mercy.  To admit such a need would put them on the same level as the hated Gentiles.  That notion was utterly repulsive to the Jews.  So when their Messiah arrived in the world offering forgiveness of sins through faith in Him, they didn’t want it.  Since they saw no need for anyone to GIVE them righteousness, they refused His offer.   (C. S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, 259)

 

The position, says Paul, by which we are confronted is that the Gentiles who did not seek after righteousness are in the church, they are saved; but the Jews who did seek after righteousness are outside.  Here is the same gospel preached to the Jew and to the Gentile; the Jews reject it, the Gentiles receive it.  The only conclusion that you can draw, if you say that it is a man himself who decides it, is that the Gentiles were better people than the Jews and that they had greater spiritual understanding.  It involves you, of necessity, in that position.

And yet when you remember what we are told about these Gentiles, for instance in Ephesians 4 and other places, the thing becomes plainly ridiculous.  And in any case we are told about them that they were ‘dead in trespasses and sins’, and that that was their state and condition.  You see, if you say that it is people’s belief and reception that saves them, then you automatically have to say that the Gentiles had a greater understanding–the Jews refuse this, the Gentiles receive it.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 288-89)

 

If the trouble with the Jews was their knowledge of the law, while the Gentiles, who had not got that, were of virgin mind and soil, so that when they heard the gospel they believed it – if that is so, then the conclusion to draw from this is that it is a bad thing to teach children the Bible.  It is a bad thing to bring them up in a religious manner; it is a bad thing to give people religious or moral teaching or anything that encourages them to seek after God and after righteousness.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 290)

 

What any man who is a true Christian says, therefore, is this: “There but for the grace of God go I!  I am what I am by the grace of God!  I am a Christian not because I have believed, not because I have got some understanding that the other person has not got.  No, I am a Christian; I am what I am, because God in His inscrutable purpose has ordained that I should have eternal life.  And there is no other reason.”  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 295)

 

It is not that your wisdom is a disadvantage but it does mean that you must realize that your wisdom is just nothing when it tries to pit itself against the mind and the wisdom of God.  And it is in order to humble us that God has chosen those who are the foolish rather than the wise, and the weak rather than the strong. He has done it to let us all see together that we can do nothing, that ‘no flesh should glory in his presence.’  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 296)

 

G.  The exclusivity of Jesus can either run interference for us or against us   (John 14:6; Acts 4:11-12; 1 Cor 3:11-12)

 

Israelfailed in righteousness because it refused to recognize the meaning and goal of the law, which is Jesus Christ.  (James R. Edwards, New International Biblical Commentary: Romans, 247)

 

But how they stumble at Christ, who trust in their works, it is not difficult to understand; for except we own ourselves to be sinners, void and destitute of any righteousness of our own, we obscure the dignity of Christ, which consists in this, that to us all he is light, life, resurrection, righteousness, and healing.  But how is he all these things, except that he illuminates the blind, restores the lost, quickens the dead, raises up those who are reduced to nothing, cleanses those who are full of filth, cures and heals those infected with diseases?  Nay, when we claim for ourselves any righteousness, we in a manner contend with the power of Christ; for his office is no less to beat down all the pride of the flesh, than to relieve and comfort those who labor and are wearied under their burden.  (John Calvin, Commentary upon The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 2,  379-80)

 

It means that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, His life, His teaching, but especially His death upon the cross and His resurrection and ascension, are the foundation, the only foundation, whereon a man can be right with God, and righteous in His sight.  This is the message of the Christian proclamation, that “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  Or what our Lord Himself had said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life:  no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”  The only foundation!  Jesus Christ–in all the glory and the wonder of His person, and in all the glory and the wonder of His work–He is the stone, the foundation stone, the only one.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 303)

 

Here then is the Apostle’s first great fundamental statement.  Our relationship to God, he says, is determined solely and exclusively by our attitude to the Lord Jesus Christ and to what He has done.  The Jews are lost, they are outside, they are reprobate.  Why?  Because they stumbled at Him.  The Gentiles are in.  Why?  Because they believed in Him.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones,Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 303-04)

 

It is ever the Holy Spirit’s work to turn our eyes away from self: to Jesus: but Satan’s work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ.  He insinuates, “Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you have not the joy of his children; you have such a wavering hold of Jesus.”   All theses are thoughts about self, and we shall never find comfort or assurance by looking within.  But, the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self:  he tells us that we are nothing, but that “Christ is all in all.” remember, therefore, it is not your hold of Christ that saves you—it is Christ; it is not your joy in Christ that saves you—it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that be the instrument—it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to your hand with which you art grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to your hope, but to Jesus, the source of your hope; look not to your faith, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.  We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul.  If we would at once overcome Satan and have peace with God, it must be by “Looking unto Jesus.”  Keep your eye simply on him; let his death, his sufferings, his merits, his glories, his intercession, be fresh upon your mind; when you wake in the morning look to him; when you lie down at night look to him.  Do not let your hopes or fears come between you and Jesus; follow hard after him, and he will never fail you.  —C. H. Spurgeon (Alister Begg, Pathway to Freedom; 228-229) (red bold emphasis Pastor Keith)

 

Worship point:  If you begin to realize just how screwed up your natural way of thinking really is, and how patient, gracious, forgiving, merciful and loving God has been to put up with your screwed up thinking for so long until God revealed to you the truth about yourself, our world and about God; then you will truly worship as you experience God’s incredible loving kindness towards you.

 

Spiritual Challenge:  Jesus is either a rock upon which one can anchor his life and ultimately enjoy the shalom of God or Jesus is a rock who will cause you to stumble and fall and your life will be one headed towards misery and destruction.  The quality of your choice will be in proportion to your willingness to submit to the revealed truth of God.

 

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a Great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’  That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God:  or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit on Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to.”   (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 55-56)

 

Those are some of the reasons, then, why the Lord Jesus Christ is a stumbling-stone and a rock of offence to many.  He hits them at their most sensitive point–pride:  pride of intellect, pride of morality, pride of good works, pride of achievement, pride of understanding.  It does not matter what your pride is, any pride at all or any confidence or reliance upon anything you are or anything you can do, or anything you can ever make yourself, is damned and condemned once and for ever by the death upon the cross.  And every natural man hates it, he abominates it, he stumbles at it, it is an offence to him.  He wants to glory in himself, and the cross proclaims, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,” and in Him alone.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 307)

 

Nothing matters but this.  The one and only question is, What think ye of Christ?  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 319)

 

It is not your sin that will keep you out of heaven . . .  It is your thinking that you are righteous . . . That you don’t need Jesus.

 

Jesus + nothing!

 

 

 

“We innoculate the world with a mild form of Christianity so that it will be immune to the real thing.  (William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens, 90)

 

Paul closes this chapter with a quotation from Is 28:16, “But he who puts his trust in him will not be put to shame.”  The apostle, as is clear, has not forgotten his theme.  Cf. Rom 1:16, 17; 3:21-24, 28-30; 4:3-8, 22-24; 5:1, 2, 9, 18, 19; 8:1 (verses 30-33).  (William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Romans, 338)

 

Scriptures to consider: (Mt 7:24-25; 21:42-44; Mk 12:10; Lk 20:17)

 

Quotes to Note:

God’s demand for faith on the part of men is in no way inconsistent with His sovereignty.  By His own sovereign decree, His gracious offer of salvation becomes effective only when it is willingly received by faith.  In regard to salvation, the other side of divine sovereignty is human responsibility.  From the human standpoint there is a tension, even a seeming contradiction, between those two realities.  By human reasoning, they seem mutually exclusive.  But both of them are clearly taught in God’s Word, and when one is emphasized to the exclusion of the other, the gospel is invariably perverted.  By His own determination, God will not save a person who does not believe in His Son, and a person cannot save himself simply by the act of his own will, no matter how sincere and heartfelt.  In God’s sovereign order, both His gracious provision and the exercise of man’s will are required for salvation.  Like many other revelations in Scripture, those two truths cannot be fully harmonized by reason, only accepted by faith.  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16, 49)

 

So then this is Paul’s statement with regard to these Gentiles.  They had been quite unconcerned, not interested; they were ‘aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world’ (Eph 2:12), never giving a thought to these things at all, just living that sinful, evil, vile life.  And yet, when they heard the presentation and the preaching of this way of salvation in Christ Jesus, they ‘eagerly embraced’ it.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 9, 276)