A short time after this letter to Jewish Christians in Rome was published, Rome destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and killed over a million Jewish people. As a discrete political entity, the Kingdom of Israel ceased to exist. All that remained was a cultural identity, a very dilute ethnic identity, and a dead religion. Our writer shows clearly there was no need to mourn the loss, for the one thing worth having had already been offered by Jesus -- an eternal identity as Child of God. Nothing else matters. After the Resurrection, God's plans for earthly Israel ended once and for all. His Son had completed the failed mission of Israel, had become Israel, and the only meaning in God's eyes to the name "Israel" was to be found in Christ. There was nothing left to which these Christians could return. The final chapter rehearses certain pragmatic examples of what it meant to be "Israel" in Christ.
Brotherly love was a quintessential Hebrew faith commitment to each other. While loving sinners might be quite difficult at times, there was no excuse for not loving a fellow servant of Christ. Prodding his Jewish readers, the writer reminds them of Abraham, whom they claimed as their father. That man offered proper Semitic hospitality to visitors, who turned out later to be angels. You never know whom some stranger may turn out to be, but if there is reason to claim them as a fellow Christian, that's all you need to know. Indeed, that bond is stronger than any other on this earth. If your brother is in prison, it matters not why he's there; he remains your brother, an object of sacrificial support. We are all in prison on this earth, longing for the release to our heavenly life. Yet, this love must remain fully virtuous, not as pigs sharing a good wallow in moral sewage. Christ's love is pure love.
We love the King and His Kingdom. We do not love things of this earth. Material gain is not your god. Our Father provides what we need, and what He provides is all we need. If other people take your stuff, take your peace and comfort in the flesh -- even if they take your life -- they can't really do anything to change your standing before God. Is there anything else that matters? And if you can tolerate unjust government by sinners, can you not peacefully serve under Christian leaders who actually love you? Nobody said they were perfect, so love them and support them. If you have any objections, express them in love. These people seek the same thing you do: manifesting the unchanging Christ in a world of chaos. That chaos has no place in the fellowship of believers.
You are foreign to Judaism, and its ways are foreign to Christ. Stop carping over kosher laws as if they mattered to God. Your eternal soul is built up by grace, not by observing dietary restrictions which are merely a matter of the flesh. The priests in Jerusalem, with all their grave ritual fastidiousness, are unfit to partake of our spiritual food in Heaven. Have you ever noticed the most sacred offerings were burned outside the camp? That only their blood was brought into the Tabernacle? Jesus was the most sacred offering of all, and He was sacrificed outside the City of Jerusalem, as if He were somehow unfit to die inside the walls. God's own Son offered Himself as the ultimate sacrifice Moses could ever demand, yet died outside the Law. We must leave the Law to come to Him. If we do not take up His shame and bear it in this life we now have left, we cannot stand before God Almighty. Whatever other Jews do to you is nothing compared to what they did to God's own Son, so you can surely afford to bear a little of their contempt.
The Eternal City of God does not stand anywhere on this earth. If all your hope stands with that pile of rocks in Palestine, you have no hope. The only offering God accepts now must come through Christ. It begins with your bold praising of Him, singing hymns to His Name. You give your stuff to Him by sharing willingly with fellow believers in need. You obey God's Law by yielding to the leaders in your Christian fellowship. These people aren't leading you astray when they teach leaving Moses, but are shepherding your souls into the Heaven. By giving them grief, you only harm yourselves.
The writer ends with a few personal notes. He misses them, and longs to be back in their company. In his benediction, he uses terms which reminds them one last time the Kingdom of Christ is far, far above anything symbolizing it in Moses. The way to the God of Israel is through Christ alone, and it is His standard of conduct which fulfills God's commands. That conduct includes letting preachers and teachers remind them of these things, because letters such as this can hardly fulfill their spiritual needs.
The writer notes Timothy has been released from custody, presumably related to whatever happened to Paul. The writer is waiting for Timothy to join him so they can travel together to Rome and fellowship once again with the readers. Until then, let the leaders on hand have the same respect as they hold for the writer. The residents from Rome there, wherever the writer sits, send their greetings, too. If there is anything we all need, it's grace.
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Ed Hurst
06 May 2008
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