Read: Romans 9:1-9 - STEP Bible, Bible Gateway
It is only faith that matters now. That’s the assertion that St Paul’s letter to the Romans has running all the way through it. But here, as he opens the second half of his letter with an extended discussion of God’s action in history among his chosen people Israel, he goes a step further. Here, he effectively insists that, in truth, it has only ever been faith that really matters.
It was perfectly possible, Paul says, for members of the people of Israel not to be ‘true’ Israelites – not to be people who really belonged to God. Those ‘false’ Israelites went through the outward actions of belonging and behaving, but since they did not have faith in God, they never really belonged (or behaved) either. It was nothing more than outward show for them; they were never really his.
Paul’s proof-text for the idea that not all in Abraham’s bloodline are ‘true’ Israelites is God’s word to Abraham, in Genesis chapter 21, that even though Abraham has two sons (Ishmael and Isaac), it will only be through the latter that God’s chosen people will be descended. Since that is the case, Paul says, it is obviously not bloodline that matters for determining who belongs to the family of God. What matters is rather what sort of relationship one has with God.
To many Jewish readers of Paul’s letter, that assertion was profoundly bewildering. But it must give us pause, too. Because if what matters is not what we do outwardly or who we are but rather what sort of relationship with God we have, then our relationship with God is really the most important thing in our lives. We do well in Lent to take stock of the quality of our relationship with God, and to seek to patch it up where necessary.
These devotions were originally written for the parish of All Saints, Ascot and we are grateful for permission to republish them on Fulcrum.
Patrick is curate of All Saints’, Ascot in Berkshire. A musicologist by training, he is married to Lydia, a university lecturer, and dad to Madeleine. He writes (sporadically) at benedixisti.wordpress.com and tweets (even more sporadically) as @patrickgilday.