Theology for Everybody: RomansSample

(Continued from Day 233)

Marriage is for one man and one woman. They will bring forth children and stay faithful to one another as they raise those children. When we operate within God’s designed decree, there is blessing for generations. Our culture begins to collapse when we walk away from God’s rules. As a result, there are broken families, broken marriages, broken homes, and broken legacies. We think that the government can take God’s place and fix the problems that we’ve made. But eventually, the government runs out of other people’s money, and the problem continues.

If we removed the Jewish people, every single aspect of life, from our economics, to marriage, to the rule of law, to science and experimentation, would be forever altered. Things would be quite different, but nothing would be much better. If you removed and eradicated the influence of God through the Jewish people, then you would remove Abraham and the entire Old Testament. You would remove everything pointing to the coming of Jesus Christ. You would remove Jesus coming into human history as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy. You would then lose Christianity and the Church, which is the biggest multicultural, multilingual movement of any kind in the history of the world.

The early Christians were largely Jewish and saw Jesus as the fulfillment of Judaism. Paul himself was Jewish, and the first believers in Jesus were considered a sect of Judaism. Acts 2:46 says they worshipped in the Temple courts every day. These people still saw themselves as Jewish, both ethnically and spiritually. By the end of the first century, there were some Jews who really loved Jesus. There were also many of them who hated and despised Jesus; they held no regard for Him whatsoever. The question is, God has loved your people for a long time, so why don’t you love Him? Your people were waiting for Jesus. He finally showed up, but many of you don’t seem to care. The Old Testament is written in Hebrew, and you’re the Hebrew people. Why are you not excited that your people were chosen to be the blessing of the nations of the earth through Jesus? It’s strange, isn’t it? So much of what we believe is built on the foundation of Jewish belief, yet many Jewish people don’t love Jesus.

Today’s Reflection

What aspects of Christian ethics do many people have without the corresponding convictions or belief in Jesus Christ?