"Stumbling Over and Gathered Into" | Romans 9:30-33

Paul began the chapter by relaying the history of the rejection of the Messiah by the Israelites, those whom Paul called his brethren and countrymen according to the flesh. This "countryman" term is used to describe Paul's connection as an ethnic Jew though Paul was an ethnic Jew and a countryman in the flesh, now through the unfolding of the plan and purposes of God concerning redemptive history, it has become clear that his brotherhood and the nation to which he belongs that is supreme is that of the household of God, bound by Christ and the Holy Spirit, such that even at the time of Paul's writing, he could rightly say that the Gentiles, who the Ministry of Jesus Christ had brought in, are also his countryman, by a different qualification, not by flesh, but by the Spirit.

In this chapter, Paul harkens back to the beginning (9:1-13) by outlining the nature of the Jews' rejection, how they lost their heart for the kingdom, and the King himself. In contrast, the Gentiles, who were not pursuing the kingdom, attained the very thing that the nation of Israel lost. What was happening over time was connected to God's eternal plan and directed according to the purposes of God - to reveal His power, glory, and patience through the display of His wrath and grace. At the end of Romans 9, Paul outlines the present condition at the time of Paul's writing and what led to the stumbling of ethnic Israel over the Rock, who is Christ Jesus.

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