Week 6 - Friday

God Keeps His Promises

What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, "That Thou mightest be justifed in Thy words," and mightest prevail when Thou art judged." (Romans 3:3-4)

Abraham is the father of the nation of Israel. All Jews are descended from Abraham, through his son Isaac. The Jews incorrectly assumed, that because they were descendants of Abraham, they were assured of going to heaven. When Paul came along, teaching that they had no guarantee of being saved, the Jews accused him of attacking God's people. A second thing they accused Paul of doing, was teaching against the promises of God. God had made a promise to Abraham, that his descendants would have a special relationship with God that would last forever (Gen. 17:7). This promise was repeated again, through the prophet Moses (Deut. 7:6), as well as numerous other times in the Old Testament Scriptures. Because Paul preached that all Jews would not be saved, the Jews accused him of saying that God does not keep His promises. Paul, once again anticipates the objection of his readers and asks the question he knows they must be thinking. What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? Paul confronts this objecton by answering, "May it never be!", which is translated from the Greek me genoito. It is the strongest Greek negative expression and usually meant "impossible". It isn't possible that God would fail to keep even one of his promises. God is not like a man. Every man is a liar. Of course some people lie more than others, but no person is completely honest all the time. God is though. Because He is perfectly holy and completely truthful, all of His words are true and every promise He has ever made He will keep.

The Bible says, that in order to be saved from our sins, we must receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Most Jewish people do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior. The Jews are still waiting for God to send them a Savior. What about the Jews who don't believe then? If they are not saved, because of their unbelief, doesn't that mean God didn't keep His promise? Absolutely not. God's promise to save the Jews does not apply to each individual Jew, but to the nation as a whole. As far as the nation of Israel is concerned, God's promise to save them still stands. When the Jews rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior and crucified Him, that didn't even nullify God's promise to save them. God knew they would do that, before He created the world. The day will come when God will save the nation of Israel. The Bible says that one day the Jews will mourn, as they realize they killed their Savior, and that they will call upon Christ to return. When that happens, Jesus will come and redeem them. No person is ever saved because of their nationality or by belonging to any religious organization. Each person must turn from their sin and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. God never said that He would save every physical descendant of Abraham. God's promise was to save everyone who came to Him in faith, just like Abraham did. The true descendants of Abraham are not his physical descendants. The true descendants of Abraham are all who follow his example of faith, whether they are Jews or not.

Readings for today: Isa. 44:1, 21; Rom. 11:1-2, 25-27, 29; Zech. 12:9-10; Rom. 9:6-8; Gal. 3:28-29