Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
The Apostle Paul seeks to enlighten the believers in Rome and all Christians concerning the predicament of the Jewish people. Though they have rejected their Messiah and crucified Him, this has not nullified God’s promise to Israel as His chosen nation and His representative to the world. There is yet a remnant in Israel that are His true children.
Matthew 27:27-44 (KJV)
27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.
28 And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.
29 And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
Trusting in God’s Mercy (Psalm 13)
In Psalm 13, the psalmist felt that he had been forgotten by His God.
Psalm 13:1-2 “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?”
The fears and doubts in the psalmist’s heart were articulated in his prayer in the opening verses to his LORD.
The heaviness of the Apostle Paul’s heart for the Jewish people, his kinsmen, is likened to Nehemiah’s grief (Neh. 1) when he saw the desolation that had befallen the returnees in Jerusalem after 70 years of Babylonian captivity. The walls of Jerusalem were broken. It is likened to the burden in Daniel’s heart when he sought the Lord in prayer and fasting to know the future for His people in the 69th year of their captivity (Daniel 9-12) in Babylon.
This new section is focused upon the Jewish people. The Apostle Paul explains his burden for the salvation of his people, the Jews. He explains why the Jews seemed to have been set aside by God and yet they are not. God is not finished with the Jews yet. He has a great spiritual burden for the salvation of the Jews. They were his kinsmen. Whichever city he was sent to preach the gospel, he would reach out to the Jews first.
The Apostle Paul testifies he is convinced that Christ’s love for him triumphs overall. There is nothing that stands in-between that relationship. Jesus was born into human history more than 2000 years ago, lived a perfect life, died on the cross as man’s substitute to reconcile man with the living and true God. Jesus rose from the dead the third day victorious over sin and death. Jesus gives to every man who would believe in Him eternal life. We, by faith, appropriated this salvation. It is the ultimate blessing of His love!
There is nothing that shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the conviction borne out of a clear understanding concerning the unfailing power and desire of God to protect His people under His care. The Apostle Paul speaks of Jesus Christ’s continual intercession for His people at the right hand of the Father in heaven. He speaks of the indwelling Holy Spirit that prays and enables the believer to have the strength to do God’s will for his life. He tells us that we are a privileged people chosen by the Father called out from sin unto holiness, purchased by the Son for an intimate fellowship with God and a protected people sealed by the Holy Spirit –destined for heaven!
2 Kings 4:8-17 (KJV) 8 And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. 9 And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. 10 Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.
Every trial and tribulation in the believer’s life will serve to build him up to have a closer walk with God. Christ’s love will be experienced in those anguishing moments of trial.
The Christian living in an unchristian world upholding an eternal value system according to God’s Laws will often find himself being persecuted because he tries to live righteously as a just man before God and man! If Jesus, the perfect Man, the living and true God had to suffer such persecution and humiliation by wicked men who reject God, realize as Jesus said, “You are sent as sheep among wolves.” The believer must be prepared to endure hardship because he loves God and want to live a Christ honouring life before God and man. Quoting Psalm 44:22, the Apostle Paul described the believer’s identification with Christ as a cause for a troublous life.