Having extolled the wonders of God's love for those who have been called to faith in Jesus in chapter 8, the Apostle Paul begins a 3 chapter exploration of those close to his heart who have not believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: His own people.
What kept the first century Israelites from accepting Jesus as the Messiah?
It wasn't a lack of preparation, Paul runs through that extensive list. And it wasn't a failure on God's part to fulfill his Word, as Jesus was the ultimate fulfillment of prophecy after prophecy. So what happened?
In this introductory message we see that far from being a unique generation, the one that rejected Jesus is symptomatic of not only the Israelites as a whole throughout their history, but importantly, of humanity as a whole too. The reaction to Jesus would have been similar in any nation in any generation.
What do we do? Love those who have not yet believed, witness to them, and keep praying for them.
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