Romans 14

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Romans 14:1

God Is for You!

Romans 8:31. You have just read a powerful final note. Paul reached it because he was so impressed by everything God had done. He has explained all of this in the previous chapters. If you let this speak to you, you can only come to the same exclamation: “What then shall we say to these things?” God Himself is for us. Maybe you have doubted this. You knew the Lord Jesus died for your sins and that God couldn’t punish you anymore. In itself, this was a great relief. Despite this, you were still somewhat afraid of God, the stern Judge Who was against you. But now you have seen the opposite is true.

Romans 8:32. God has made everything right by giving His Son so you could be saved. There was no clearer way for Him to prove His love for you. And even this is not all. With His Son, God will “freely give us all things”. You will share with the Lord Jesus everything God has given Him as the wages of His work. Now this is something!

Romans 8:33. Is anyone left, man or angel, who wants to lift an accusing finger against you? God defends your cause. You are someone He has elected to have with Him. He is the One Who justifies. He acquits you because He sees you in Christ.

Romans 8:34. Hence, no one can condemn you because Christ has died for your sins. And “yes, rather”, or more than that, He has been raised for your justification. Christ is in heaven now, and God has given Him the place of honor, at His right hand. Christ has gained the victory and has received the reward that belongs to Him.

But this doesn’t mean He is there doing nothing. He is committed to those who are His and are still here on earth, by praying for them. He speaks continually with God about you because He knows from His own experience how difficult it is to live in a world where God and His Word are not respected. Everything you experience He knows from experience, apart from sin. He can sympathize with you because He has not forgotten what He endured while He was living here.

Romans 8:35-37. No matter how much you suffer, nothing can separate you “from the love of Christ”. His love goes out to you more and more when you are oppressed or persecuted because you follow Him and do His will. His love enables you to go straight through all dangers and conquer them. You belong to those who “overwhelmingly conquer”. You are a conqueror who gives all honor to Him who loves you.

Romans 8:38-39. So, with the fullest certainty you can say that nothing can separate you “from the love of God”. “Death” cannot separate you from the love of God. If you died you would go immediately to the Lord Jesus in Whom God’s love has come to you. “Life” cannot separate you from the love of God. All the problems, troubles and cares you experience in your life give God occasion to make you experience His love. Neither are “angels” able to separate you from the love of God. The devil is a powerful prince of the angels who rebelled against God and dragged other angels with him in that rebellion. They are always trying to create a separation between you and the love of God, but they are conquered enemies. They have been defeated by the Lord Jesus and they are subject to Him.

The same is true for the “principalities” or governments. They can make life difficult by proclaiming laws that believers cannot keep because those laws hinder them in serving God. Neither can all sorts of “things present” or “things to come” separate you from the love of God. You may hear of catastrophes in nature or of threatening wars. It shouldn’t make you worry. God’s love will stay with you. “Powers” may make you think of spiritual powers that in a shrewd way try to undermine your faith so you start to doubt the truth. God’s love is always greater.

Don’t be fooled by “height”, the achievements of man who in his arrogance tries to climb higher and higher in many fields. God’s love towers far above all that. Christ Jesus our Lord is ascended above all the heavens (Ephesians 4:10). There, as Conqueror, He has taken His place at God’s right hand.

Can “depth”, a deep fall, separate you from the love of God? However deep you have fallen, even there, God’s love is present. The love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord, descended to you when you were a miserable fallen creature. He descended even deeper than that into judgment for your sins. These struck Christ in full wrath and laid Him in the dust of death. God did this to lift you up and bring you to His heart.

There is not “any other created thing” that has the ability to separate you from the love of God for poor, lost sinners that has become visible in a surpassing way in Christ Jesus.

Take your time now to thank and praise God and the Lord Jesus. They are worthy of it because everything has come from Them.

Now read Romans 8:31-39 again.

Reflection: Sing a song of victory to God’s glory!

Romans 14:2

God Is for You!

There is not “any other created thing” that has the ability to separate you from the love of God for poor, lost sinners that has become visible in a surpassing way in Christ Jesus.

Take your time now to thank and praise God and the Lord Jesus. They are worthy of it because everything has come from Them.

Now read Romans 8:31-39 again.

Reflection: Sing a song of victory to God’s glory!

Romans 14:3

God Is for You!

There is not “any other created thing” that has the ability to separate you from the love of God for poor, lost sinners that has become visible in a surpassing way in Christ Jesus.

Take your time now to thank and praise God and the Lord Jesus. They are worthy of it because everything has come from Them.

Now read Romans 8:31-39 again.

Reflection: Sing a song of victory to God’s glory!

Romans 14:4

God Is for You!

There is not “any other created thing” that has the ability to separate you from the love of God for poor, lost sinners that has become visible in a surpassing way in Christ Jesus.

Take your time now to thank and praise God and the Lord Jesus. They are worthy of it because everything has come from Them.

Now read Romans 8:31-39 again.

Reflection: Sing a song of victory to God’s glory!

Romans 14:5

God Is for You!

There is not “any other created thing” that has the ability to separate you from the love of God for poor, lost sinners that has become visible in a surpassing way in Christ Jesus.

Take your time now to thank and praise God and the Lord Jesus. They are worthy of it because everything has come from Them.

Now read Romans 8:31-39 again.

Reflection: Sing a song of victory to God’s glory!

Romans 14:6

God Is for You!

There is not “any other created thing” that has the ability to separate you from the love of God for poor, lost sinners that has become visible in a surpassing way in Christ Jesus.

Take your time now to thank and praise God and the Lord Jesus. They are worthy of it because everything has come from Them.

Now read Romans 8:31-39 again.

Reflection: Sing a song of victory to God’s glory!

Romans 14:7

God Is for You!

There is not “any other created thing” that has the ability to separate you from the love of God for poor, lost sinners that has become visible in a surpassing way in Christ Jesus.

Take your time now to thank and praise God and the Lord Jesus. They are worthy of it because everything has come from Them.

Now read Romans 8:31-39 again.

Reflection: Sing a song of victory to God’s glory!

Romans 14:8

God Is for You!

There is not “any other created thing” that has the ability to separate you from the love of God for poor, lost sinners that has become visible in a surpassing way in Christ Jesus.

Take your time now to thank and praise God and the Lord Jesus. They are worthy of it because everything has come from Them.

Now read Romans 8:31-39 again.

Reflection: Sing a song of victory to God’s glory!

Romans 14:10

Paul’s Love for Israel and Israel’s Privileges

Romans 9 begins a new subject. This new subject is about Israel. God made all kinds of promises to Israel. Now, after all the things you have discovered in this letter, it looks like these promises could never be fulfilled. You have seen how, to God, there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles. They are all equally guilty before God. Their only way to salvation is faith in Christ. But then there is an unavoidable question. What about all the promises God made to Israel? Will they come to pass? Does Israel still have a special place in God’s thoughts?

Perhaps you still don’t know much about the prophecies concerning Israel in the Old Testament. If so, then Romans 9-11 is a wonderful section to help you. In these three chapters Paul treats Israel’s past, present and future. Romans 9 covers the past, Romans 10 the present and Romans 11 the future. If you are aware of the current events in and around Israel, you will realize the present significance of these chapters for our time. The contents of these chapters are happening before your eyes, as it were. But let’s first have a closer look at the first five verses of Romans 9.

Romans 9:1. What stands out is the tender love Paul has for his people. So it is completely out of place to claim, as some do, that the people of Israel no longer mattered to Paul. It was his heart’s desire for them to become partakers of the righteousness of God. The plain language of Rom 9:1 clearly shows his attitude toward Israel.

Romans 9:2. Here you get a look into his heart’s feelings. With these words, his feelings are expressed because he had a great love for this people even while the people continued to reject Christ.

Romans 9:3. In this verse he had wished to be separated from Christ by a curse if that would lead to Israel’s salvation. This is an example of the Divine love he had in his heart for these people. Moses said something similar in demonstrating his love for his people (Exodus 32:32). But both Paul and Moses were in themselves sinful and for this reason God could never fulfill their wishes. However, we learn from these men of God that their burning love for the people of God was not a matter of words alone. They would sacrifice themselves for them.

Romans 9:4-5. Paul was linked to this people with natural ties; after the flesh, physically, they were his brothers. He calls them Israelites, the name God gave to Jacob in Genesis 32 (Genesis 32:28). Paul then summarized a list of eight privileges God gave to them.

“The adoption as sons.” God had adopted these people as a son. There is an adage that says, that ‘a good son is like his father’. God wanted these people to be like Him. This would have been joy to His heart.
“The glory.” God’s glory dwelled in the pillar of cloud with His people. With it, He protected them and led them through the wilderness.
“The covenants.” Here I will only mention two of them. God’s covenant with Abraham implied that God obligated Himself to bless Abraham. This was a covenant without conditions on Abraham’s side. You can read about this covenant in Genesis 15 (Genesis 15:4-6). Then there is God’s covenant with the people of Israel made at Mount Sinai. With this covenant, the people obligated themselves to meet certain conditions. If they obeyed, they would reap God’s blessing. You can read about this covenant in Deuteronomy 27-28.
“The giving of the Law.” With this, God gave righteous laws to the people to make their life as comfortable as possible.
“The [temple] service.” God gave instructions for a whole worship service to let them know which sacrifices He wanted to receive and on which occasion He wanted to receive them.
“The promises.” God made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob about the blessings He was going to give them.
“The fathers.” In the first place, these are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom God made Himself known in a special and personal way. In addition you may think of great men like Moses, David, etc.
“The Christ.” This is the absolute pinnacle in this list of privileges. The Lord Jesus was born of this people. But to guard His honor Paul adds: “Who is over all, God.” This is an important witness concerning the Manhood and Deity of the Lord Jesus. Both of these were perfectly and completely present in His Person. In the end, He is the center of everything, forever. He is “blessed forever”.

Now read Romans 9:1-5 again.

Reflection: Is there anyone you know who you would give everything if he or she would thereby be saved? Something to pray about once more!

Romans 14:11

Paul’s Love for Israel and Israel’s Privileges

Romans 9:2. Here you get a look into his heart’s feelings. With these words, his feelings are expressed because he had a great love for this people even while the people continued to reject Christ.

“The adoption as sons.” God had adopted these people as a son. There is an adage that says, that ‘a good son is like his father’. God wanted these people to be like Him. This would have been joy to His heart.
“The glory.” God’s glory dwelled in the pillar of cloud with His people. With it, He protected them and led them through the wilderness.
“The covenants.” Here I will only mention two of them. God’s covenant with Abraham implied that God obligated Himself to bless Abraham. This was a covenant without conditions on Abraham’s side. You can read about this covenant in Genesis 15 (Genesis 15:4-6). Then there is God’s covenant with the people of Israel made at Mount Sinai. With this covenant, the people obligated themselves to meet certain conditions. If they obeyed, they would reap God’s blessing. You can read about this covenant in Deuteronomy 27-28.
“The giving of the Law.” With this, God gave righteous laws to the people to make their life as comfortable as possible.
“The [temple] service.” God gave instructions for a whole worship service to let them know which sacrifices He wanted to receive and on which occasion He wanted to receive them.
“The promises.” God made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob about the blessings He was going to give them.
“The fathers.” In the first place, these are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom God made Himself known in a special and personal way. In addition you may think of great men like Moses, David, etc.
“The Christ.” This is the absolute pinnacle in this list of privileges. The Lord Jesus was born of this people. But to guard His honor Paul adds: “Who is over all, God.” This is an important witness concerning the Manhood and Deity of the Lord Jesus. Both of these were perfectly and completely present in His Person. In the end, He is the center of everything, forever. He is “blessed forever”.

Now read Romans 9:1-5 again.

Reflection: Is there anyone you know who you would give everything if he or she would thereby be saved? Something to pray about once more!

Romans 14:12

Paul’s Love for Israel and Israel’s Privileges

Romans 9:2. Here you get a look into his heart’s feelings. With these words, his feelings are expressed because he had a great love for this people even while the people continued to reject Christ.

“The adoption as sons.” God had adopted these people as a son. There is an adage that says, that ‘a good son is like his father’. God wanted these people to be like Him. This would have been joy to His heart.
“The glory.” God’s glory dwelled in the pillar of cloud with His people. With it, He protected them and led them through the wilderness.
“The covenants.” Here I will only mention two of them. God’s covenant with Abraham implied that God obligated Himself to bless Abraham. This was a covenant without conditions on Abraham’s side. You can read about this covenant in Genesis 15 (Genesis 15:4-6). Then there is God’s covenant with the people of Israel made at Mount Sinai. With this covenant, the people obligated themselves to meet certain conditions. If they obeyed, they would reap God’s blessing. You can read about this covenant in Deuteronomy 27-28.
“The giving of the Law.” With this, God gave righteous laws to the people to make their life as comfortable as possible.
“The [temple] service.” God gave instructions for a whole worship service to let them know which sacrifices He wanted to receive and on which occasion He wanted to receive them.
“The promises.” God made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob about the blessings He was going to give them.
“The fathers.” In the first place, these are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom God made Himself known in a special and personal way. In addition you may think of great men like Moses, David, etc.
“The Christ.” This is the absolute pinnacle in this list of privileges. The Lord Jesus was born of this people. But to guard His honor Paul adds: “Who is over all, God.” This is an important witness concerning the Manhood and Deity of the Lord Jesus. Both of these were perfectly and completely present in His Person. In the end, He is the center of everything, forever. He is “blessed forever”.

Now read Romans 9:1-5 again.

Reflection: Is there anyone you know who you would give everything if he or she would thereby be saved? Something to pray about once more!

Romans 14:13

Paul’s Love for Israel and Israel’s Privileges

Romans 9:2. Here you get a look into his heart’s feelings. With these words, his feelings are expressed because he had a great love for this people even while the people continued to reject Christ.

“The adoption as sons.” God had adopted these people as a son. There is an adage that says, that ‘a good son is like his father’. God wanted these people to be like Him. This would have been joy to His heart.
“The glory.” God’s glory dwelled in the pillar of cloud with His people. With it, He protected them and led them through the wilderness.
“The covenants.” Here I will only mention two of them. God’s covenant with Abraham implied that God obligated Himself to bless Abraham. This was a covenant without conditions on Abraham’s side. You can read about this covenant in Genesis 15 (Genesis 15:4-6). Then there is God’s covenant with the people of Israel made at Mount Sinai. With this covenant, the people obligated themselves to meet certain conditions. If they obeyed, they would reap God’s blessing. You can read about this covenant in Deuteronomy 27-28.
“The giving of the Law.” With this, God gave righteous laws to the people to make their life as comfortable as possible.
“The [temple] service.” God gave instructions for a whole worship service to let them know which sacrifices He wanted to receive and on which occasion He wanted to receive them.
“The promises.” God made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob about the blessings He was going to give them.
“The fathers.” In the first place, these are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom God made Himself known in a special and personal way. In addition you may think of great men like Moses, David, etc.
“The Christ.” This is the absolute pinnacle in this list of privileges. The Lord Jesus was born of this people. But to guard His honor Paul adds: “Who is over all, God.” This is an important witness concerning the Manhood and Deity of the Lord Jesus. Both of these were perfectly and completely present in His Person. In the end, He is the center of everything, forever. He is “blessed forever”.

Now read Romans 9:1-5 again.

Reflection: Is there anyone you know who you would give everything if he or she would thereby be saved? Something to pray about once more!

Romans 14:14

Paul’s Love for Israel and Israel’s Privileges

Romans 9:2. Here you get a look into his heart’s feelings. With these words, his feelings are expressed because he had a great love for this people even while the people continued to reject Christ.

“The adoption as sons.” God had adopted these people as a son. There is an adage that says, that ‘a good son is like his father’. God wanted these people to be like Him. This would have been joy to His heart.
“The glory.” God’s glory dwelled in the pillar of cloud with His people. With it, He protected them and led them through the wilderness.
“The covenants.” Here I will only mention two of them. God’s covenant with Abraham implied that God obligated Himself to bless Abraham. This was a covenant without conditions on Abraham’s side. You can read about this covenant in Genesis 15 (Genesis 15:4-6). Then there is God’s covenant with the people of Israel made at Mount Sinai. With this covenant, the people obligated themselves to meet certain conditions. If they obeyed, they would reap God’s blessing. You can read about this covenant in Deuteronomy 27-28.
“The giving of the Law.” With this, God gave righteous laws to the people to make their life as comfortable as possible.
“The [temple] service.” God gave instructions for a whole worship service to let them know which sacrifices He wanted to receive and on which occasion He wanted to receive them.
“The promises.” God made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob about the blessings He was going to give them.
“The fathers.” In the first place, these are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom God made Himself known in a special and personal way. In addition you may think of great men like Moses, David, etc.
“The Christ.” This is the absolute pinnacle in this list of privileges. The Lord Jesus was born of this people. But to guard His honor Paul adds: “Who is over all, God.” This is an important witness concerning the Manhood and Deity of the Lord Jesus. Both of these were perfectly and completely present in His Person. In the end, He is the center of everything, forever. He is “blessed forever”.

Now read Romans 9:1-5 again.

Reflection: Is there anyone you know who you would give everything if he or she would thereby be saved? Something to pray about once more!

Romans 14:15

God’s Election of Israel

Romans 9:6. God wanted to bless His people Israel. This blessing could only come if the people accepted the Lord Jesus. There is not a single blessing for anyone that God can give apart from the Lord Jesus. If God blesses, it is always in connection with Him. Since God’s people have rejected the Lord Jesus, God puts the blessing within the reach of the heathen as well. Currently there is no longer a difference between Jews and Gentiles. Does this mean that the words God spoke about His people, Israel, will never be fulfilled? Paul says God’s Word has not failed. God will prove to be true in what He said.

But God would not give His blessings to those who have turned their back on Him. This is what Paul means in the second part of Rom 9:6. Someone may call himself an Israelite because he belongs to them by birth, but this is not sufficient. Something more is needed. It also must be a matter of the heart. For the majority of the Israelites, to belong to the people was merely an outward matter or name. This, Paul says, is not Israel, even if someone is born an Israelite.

Romans 9:7-9. In Romans 9:7 the same is repeated in connection with the patriarch Abraham. Not every descendant of Abraham is called a child of Abraham. If this were the case, Ishmael should have been seen as such and he too should have a part in the blessing, but God had determined that the blessing would come through Isaac. Ishmael is the son after the flesh. This son was begotten of Abraham by Hagar, the maidservant of Sarah. At that moment, Abraham wasn’t trusting God because God had promised to give him a son who would be born of Sarah. In God’s time Isaac, the son of promise, was born of Sarah. So, as to the blessing God wants to give, there must always be a connection to Abraham through Isaac because “the children of the promise are regarded as descendants”.

Romans 9:10-12. Next comes an example of God’s election that’s even clearer. With Abraham, Ishmael was born of another woman. This not the case with Isaac. Isaac had two sons by the same wife, Rebekah. While these two sons, Jacob and Esau, were still in the womb, God had already determined their relationship: “The older will serve the younger.”

At that time, nothing was known of how they would behave toward one another. When God spoke of this, they had done neither good nor evil. So apart from their behavior and apart from their works, God had determined the election of Jacob, the younger one. He elected Jacob to receive the blessing. Jacob ranked above Esau. God appointed it before the birth of these two boys.

Romans 9:13. With this, nothing has been said of Esau’s disadvantage. This is something that you must understand as well, for you will likely come into contact with people who want you to believe that God has appointed people to be lost forever. In the latter part of Romans 9, you will discover that such is not the case, but these people offer Romans 9:13 as proof. They say the text says: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Sure, this is what the text says, but something comes before this: “As it is written.” Where is it written? At the end of the Old Testament in the book of Malachi. At the end of a long history in which the descendants of Jacob and Esau had every opportunity to prove themselves.

The true descendants of Jacob have over the course of time shown their weakness, but at the same time shown their desire for God’s blessing. In the same way, this could be found in Jacob’s life. And this is why God says: “Jacob I loved.” Esau’s descendants have over the course of time shown they were not interested in God’s blessing. In Hebrews 12 you can read about Esau as a profane person who sold his birthright for a meal (Hebrews 12:16-17). He was rejected because there was no repentance in him. You can find these traits in his posterity. This is why God says: “Esau I hated.”

God wants to show in these verses that, at the origin of the people of Israel, He acted according to His own election. His blessing flows toward certain people, not because they deserve it, but because He has elected them for it. It all stems from “Him who calls” (Romans 9:11). It is important to see that in the past, God acted in this way.

At present, God acts in the same way. If God works according to His own election, He is not restricted to Israel, but He can extend His election to the heathen. You are living proof of this. Although you probably don’t belong to His earthly people, you will admit you don’t deserve God’s blessing. But God has elected you to be blessed. More will follow on this subject.

Now read Romans 9:6-13 again.