Romans 9:1-5 (NIV)
I speak the truth in Christ–I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit–I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
Though Paul is and has been more than a conqueror through all that he has gone through (Romans 8:37-39), his heart is heavy because Jesus had been so broadly rejected by his own people, the Jews. Paul understood them; after all, he himself had rejected Jesus and had demonstrated unbridled rage and hostility toward His followers for years.
But now that he had surrendered his life to Jesus, now that he had tasted the freedom of true forgiveness, true righteousness, and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, he wanted the rest of the Jewish people to experience all that for themselves. Everywhere that Paul went, he first shared the gospel with any Jews in the area. The typical pattern was that several would repent and turn to Jesus, which sparked jealously in the hearts of the leaders, who then closed their hearts to Jesus and their synagogues to Paul and the other Christians.
Paul didn’t understand their persistent resistance and hard heartedness. After all, he frequently shared his own story of resistance, surrender and transformation with these people, and pleaded with them to repent and to receive what was really their own birthright, since they belonged to God’s chosen people, who had received the law and the other Scriptures to prepare their hearts for the Messiah, Jesus.
But all too often, they rejected the good news, which broke Paul’s heart over and over. Paul’s anguish over this is evident. He states very clearly that he would even be willing to give up his own salvation if that would make a way for the Jewish people to come in. But, of course, he knew that that is not the way that it works. Jesus is the one who paid the price for the salvation of others, and no sacrifice by any other person, which sacrifice would, of course, be tainted by sin, could pay the price for even a single other person to be saved.
To the end of his life, though Paul had been made the apostle to the gentiles, he never stopped evangelizing the Jews as well, never gave up on them, never quit praying for their salvation. He loved them as his own people, but he also loved them with God’s love as well, a love which moved him to powerful passion and extraordinary measures to “by all possible means save some.” (Romans 11:14, 1 Corinthians 9:22)
Father, it is clear that Paul’s passion came not just from wanting the Jewish people to have the blessings of salvation, but from wanting them to avoid the eternal condemnation that comes with rejecting Jesus. The thought of his fellow Jews suffering eternally in hell broke his heart and fired his enthusiasm from sharing the life-giving gospel with them. Lord, fill my heart with that same love, that same compassion for my own fellow countrymen and women, and with that same enthusiasm for saving those of them who are lost. Amen.