Our Advantage is a Personal Relationship with Jesus

This is a brief synopsis or detour from Paul's opening letter. Paul feels the need to defend God’s righteousness and His judgment. Paul starts the letter with a rhetorical question, what advantage has the Jew? If you look over time you can see that Israel has had little advantage according to the worlds view. As a matter of fact, Israel has been on the opposite side of the spectrum when it comes to being treated justly. If not for God’s protection and covenant with Israel, this land would have never been repopulated with God’s chosen people. God’s blessings to entrust His oracles to the Jewish state has been made long before Israel became a state.

The covenant God made with Israel is to always protect them. To always provide for them. To be the shining light that illuminates the land as a reminder of the promise that God has made. Now with God’s promise comes a commitment on the part of the Israelite's to follow God and keep His commandments. Because we can fast forward from the first century until today, we see the behavior of the Israelite's. This behavior is a forcing function that God uses to show that He is righteous, His word is true and His judgment is fair.

We see that Israel has been conquered on many occasions, their people have been slaughtered over time. The people have been exiled, they have been treated poorly even in today’s standards where the people of Israel are becoming more of a threat to Satan and his followers. It is not popular to be an Israelite in today’s environment. The globalist want to destroy the land, the people that were chosen by God for the simple reason that they are chosen by God to be God’s people.

If not for God’s grace and mercy, and His covenant He made with Israel, Israel would have been invaded many times over, decimated and ultimately destroyed. It is not that people and countries have not tried, they did and failed. The bible teaches us that when we bless Israel, God will bless us and when we curse Israel we will be cursed. This behavior towards Israel is extended to all those who choose to treat or mistreat Israel.

We cannot control God! Not one bit as evidenced throughout time. When He wants to shows us His glory He will do so in the most regal of ways. God is glorified through our existence and He will be glorified when we are in heaven. Jesus also shares in that glorification because Father and Son deserve to be glorified by us. God spoke into man and He continues to speak into us daily. If we have the patience and the will to listen He will speak to us.

It is through our sinful behavior that God’s faithfulness and righteousness will shine through with the intensity of a thousand suns. It comes through in our answered prayers, it comes through in our protections against the wiles of the enemy. It comes through when we give God glory for what He is doing in our lives.

We cannot fool God with our erratic or hypocritical behavior. God sees and knows all things so there is nothing that will escape the eyes of God. If we know that when we speak to God He hears us then the words we speak should always be used to glorify His name, to edify those around us and to lift up those who have ears to hear His words.

The opponents to Paul and their view of his teachings are likened to teaching cheap grace. That God receives more glory when Christians sin or do evil and then are forgiven. Paul does not teach cheap grace because he knows very well what God’s grace costs. Jesus paid the ultimate price with His life.

The message becomes a message of the righteousness and faithfulness of God. All we need to understand is that God will judge the world. He will judge the world according to His righteousness. He will judge the world based on His faithfulness. It is only through these two elements that we know that we are being judged appropriately and justly. We rely on the promise that God gives to each one of us that when we develop a strong relationship with Him through His son Jesus Christ, judgment will be more than fair according to our relationship we have with the Triune God. Not one will escape the judgment of Christ nor will we escape God’s final judgment. If you are a sinner you will be judged. If you are a true believer you will be judged. The difference is which judgment seat you will be sitting on. In these times we can no longer take a chance of waiting to develop a strong personal relationship with God through Jesus. Time is short and time is now. We need to take full advantage of God’s grace and mercy before it becomes too late.

My prayer is that we would recognize that you are in control of every circumstance Lord. I pray that we all recognize that judgment will come upon this world and if we do not try to develop a strong personal relationship with you our hope will disappear. I pray that we stay strong in our faith and that we will continue to lean on you for the rest of our days for strength, hope, love and grace. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we pray this in Jesus Mighty Name Amen! Amen!