¶ Children of Abraham Concept
Mario is the real Mario right .
And Wario is the , the , the poor manufacturing , the fake that has all the outward characteristics but his core essence actually isn't .
Mario , Not Mario , right . All right , welcome back to the move where we are vibing with the book 10 minutes at a time .
Today we're going through Romans , chapter 9 , verse is 6 to 13 . And I'm excited to do this . We were trying a little bit beforehand , and these are passages that I haven't spent a lot of time in before . So if you're like me , here's the thing Read it , you should totally go read this one . Go check it out . Right down a few notes .
You got some questions , let us know below .
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But it is not as though the Word of God has failed .
The reason why we would think the Word of God has failed is because the very people who are given the Word of God are now outside the camp . That's right , they're no longer the absolute children of God , but they are , in a certain respect , the rejected adoptees .
Yeah , because they haven't received the Messiah . Because , like we noticed , to the Greeks or to the Gentiles they say what are you telling us ? That a man rose from the dead Right ? They scoff at that Right . And then the Jews . And it's the Jews who actually received all the oracles .
They received the Covenants to them was the promise the Jews were paying attention the thing that they find absurd that God himself would be in a body of a man that would be crucified and killed and shamed and ridiculed .
If they had paid attention to read the text , they would have been able to say oh no , we should have expected that , yeah , but they didn't right , for they rejected him and that's why they actually put him on a tree , because they did not believe him to be who he claimed to be . But Paul is saying listen , I'm speaking the truth in Christ here .
Verse one , verse six it's not as though the Word of God failed . And then this line for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel . What ?
Yeah , this is an interesting idea here that the children of whoever that person may be , whoever the parent , is might not actually , in spirit , be the children of that said person .
And not only in spirit , because I think when you and I say in spirit , we mean something along the lines of insentimentality , Correct , and in honoring the virtues and like the ethos of the family right .
That's why we have black cheese . It's important to get this in the spirit , because this is language that we're seeing all throughout the Romans .
So you're drawing a distinction .
What's a better way to describe this ?
No , I think this is the best way to describe this . I think that here look , can I get theologically nerdy for a quick second .
Go for it . You want to borrow my glasses ?
I was thinking that I was like I should put on his glasses . That's so funny . I was actually thinking that . So this is a point of ontology .
OK , right , this is a point of the study of being , the study of being versus epistemology , versus how you come to know that something is study of knowledge , right .
So that ontology is this question of what is the .
Thing . No what is , what is not even think right .
Is , or even like what is the is of is right . But so this question of ontology , saying that just because you descended from Abraham in the flesh doesn't mean you are at the core of it , yeah , I think , is you are is . You are not children of the promise and . And this is you know .
Furthermore , this is later on and in other passages it is to the children of the promise that all of these things actually belong to . It is not the children of the flesh . So there's an ontological difference . There is a difference of being , and what Paul has already argued is that the difference of being Goes through one man . His name is Jesus .
Yeah , he came in the flesh but is resurrected in spirit . You see the ontological difference right there flesh , spirit . In like manner , you and I have the Privilege to participate in the death of flesh . The ontology of death and resurrect by faith with him in the reality of spirit .
And how do you and I know that we are ontologically different , that we are Intrinsically different when we have this spirit ?
we got the spirit , for if that didn't make sense to those of you listening , which I'm sure that there are a handful of those , is it too dissimilar like the TV show where there's the parents and the kitchen and the kid does something stupid , comes home with the Grade , you know , the report card . That's less than what it should have been in the and the .
The mom says that's not my child , that's your child .
I Think that's a clever way of putting it . I'd have to if I had to reduce it to something . It's something like the difference between Mario and Wario .
Okay , right , you know , mario is the real Mario , right and Wario is the , the poor Manufacturing , the fake that has all the outward characteristics but his core essence actually isn't .
Mario , not Mario Right , and we're referring to , let literally , mario from Nintendo .
That's not a spiritual Mario and Wario , so so in the sense that you might be a descendant of Christ in the sense that you go up in a Christian home , yeah , but you might not actually be a Christian or a follower or an actual child of Christ in the sense that you have fully given your life over and Fully committed .
There's a difference between those .
Yeah , so you were selected to Be the sort of people that lived in the fullness of Mario , yes , and , and those people who live in that full expression and live in the spirit of that thing are , in fact , the true children .
Yeah , yeah and if you don't have the spirit , the rest of y'all are still Wario's . Yeah , there you go . So that then he's saying that listen , verse eight on over seven , not all our children of Abraham , because they are his offspring , this thing of flesh , but through Isaac shall your offspring be named , so that Paul's already setting it up .
Listen , abraham had Two prominent children in his story , right , he has Ishmael with Hagar and he has Isaac with Sarah . So what is Paul saying ? It is only through one of those children that the promise and spirit is actually named , even though the other one is his child in the flesh .
Yeah so that the flesh doesn't actually count for anything when it comes to the promise .
Yeah , he goes on to explain that more In verse 11 . Though they were not yet born , they'd not have done anything good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue , not because of works , but because of him who calls .
So when I hear these kinds of passages the idea that God has chosen certain people versus not choosing other people my immediate response and that's even like presently- yeah , it's one of fear .
Yeah , and I think this is a very true theological reality . Given some of All right , that's just a theological thing . That's out there . There are those who believe that God has chosen a group of group of people to be saved , and then Anybody who he hasn't chosen . The rest of that , you know .
The rest of the world is like it's gonna be hot for you , sorry , right .
All right and and to hear this language , that God can do that seemingly arbitrarily . It causes fear , and you mean that ? Well , which one am ?
I and , and I think that that's a sad , sad sort of conclusion to a Convoluted and often confusing theological conversation .
So to put that plainly , you and I don't view God in that way .
No , and particularly after doing the move
¶ Paul's Message in Romans
. More so , I'm completely affirmed in what I suspected before right , which is that the book itself , the book of Romans , isn't concerned primarily with the theological categories of who's saved and who's not who's that like this , when we do it in in the theological sense , and what I mean by that is questions of unconditional . What am I thinking here ?
Total depravity or unconditional election , a limited atonement or irresistible grace ? If some of y'all might know what I'm referring to .
Five point Calvinism or things like Armenianism with like well , it's conditional election because of the power of the will right and the philosophical nuancing of these things and those are good conversations to have , but that's not Paul's point , that's not his point here .
It seems to be the history of the people of Israel and how they're living up to the historical trajectory that they were given all the way back in Abraham , not because of who he was in the flesh , but because he believed the promise . So Paul's just saying listen , do y'all believe the promise or not ?
because that's the gateway into spiritual adoption and if you believe the promise , that is the evidence that you've been adopted adopt evidence that God has predestined you or selected you exactly and the thing is that not everybody was .
Genesis 12 , god literally chose one man . His name was Abraham , but through that one man he was gonna bless the whole world . So for us on the other side of Abraham and for us on the other side of Christ , we all have the opportunity to be sons and daughters through spirit . If we believe .
Yes , we don't have to fear the language here that Paul's using , because the language he's using is not about you and I and our conditional or unconditional election .
The language that Paul is using here is a language that , listen , something has come through spirit , yeah , and if you believe in what has come through spirit , what was foreseen in spirit is yours you know , and I think about this is that you know , every time that we take a passage and then we simply apply it to us , we've probably missed the boat .
Scripture is not primarily about you and I , yes . Scriptures primarily about the father , yeah , and so it's through that lens we need to look at it .
It's not that , oh , I've been selected , or you have not been selected or whatever the case it's , it's revealing God , yeah , yeah , and Paul has this great historical argument that he's making all the way back from Romans , chapter 1 , and I think that as we follow the historical argument that he's making , the real realities that he's alluding to all of a sudden
have part of the pun here .
But that flesh to them , right where he's saying that listen , if you believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh and you see that through the vindication of spirit , he is who God says he is , you and I are participants in that reality if we receive the truth , historically through the story of Israel and in reality through the resurrection of Jesus Christ or to
use the language here , your children , your children , your children .
There you go ten minutes , you know tomorrow .