"I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Romans 9 v1-3
Jesus discouraged His followers from making vows and taking oaths in the normal things of life, but when He and his apostles were dealing with serious matters they reverted to oath taking as Paul does here. This matter is so important to Him, he brings the Holy Spirit within His conscience as a witness to what he was saying. The situation was that the Jews considered Paul to be a traitor, an apostate, a subvertor of the Jewish faith. They opposed him wherever he went, they contradicted him, they followed him across Asia and Europe, they appeared at tribunals and trials in testimony against him, they persecuted him, they even stoned him, he was public enemy number one. In true Christian spirit Paul did not return their vitriol but instead he loved them even though they had become his enemies. He makes a fourfold assertion "I say the truth in Christ": "I lie not": "My conscience in the Holy Spirit bearing me witness": "I have continual sorrow and heaviness in my heart." This was Paul's attitude to his nation. Now we have to stop here and take this in, because this may be one of the most important factors in world evangelism even today, and a feature which is clearly lacking amongst us, especially in our prayers and in our preaching.
Paul was not merely referring here to his near kinsmen, but to the nation at large. He has clearly expounded in chapters 1-8 that the entire world, including his own kinsmen, is doomed apart from Christ. This is possibly the one thing missing in our Christianity today. It was the hallmark of all the prophets and leaders of the past that they truly wept for the things of God and for the people. In all our service do we mourn for the lack of response in the hearts of our people? Jesus said "blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." Matthew 5 v4 Is it true that this dimension of spiritual life is missing today? Do we pray until the tears flow, do we preach with a heart of compassion for the unsaved? Scriptures abound with examples where this approach was the only really successful one. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. he that goeth forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaths with him." Psalm 126v5-6 Where are the prayers today that lead to weeping for the awful eternity that awaits the unsaved? Where is the preaching that moves audiences to tears when the issues of eternity are unfolded? Where is the compassion in our hearts when we speak privately to individuals who without Christ are lost? The prophet Jeremiah had this very spirit "O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep night and day for the slain of the daughter of my people!" Jeremiah 9v1 This is a test of our love for our fellow man. We can help them along the way in this world but if we fail to present them with the awesome truth of what awaits them our love for them surely must be held in question.
To all of this Paul adds an astonishing statement, which is hard to take in, were it not for the fact that Moses before him expressed the very same thing. He said "I could wish myself to be accursed from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Do I care for my people to that extent; that I would trade my eternal future for their salvation if it were possible to do so. Moses said exactly the same thing in Exodus 32v32 "Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin-:and if not, blot me I pray Thee out of Thy book which Thou hast written." Here again Moses offered to trade his own soul for the soul of his people. These two examples of these giants of spiritual life come to us through the mists of time to challenge the lethargy of our love for our fellow man and bring before us the burning reality of what it means to truly love another human being to the extent of my own eternal loss. In these days of self seeking and self preservation this may seem far fetched but for the men who demonstrated this example it was real. In the things of God we need to recover the fervent love demanded by the New Testament and demanded by the God who loved us to the extent of the cross.
Paul now goes on in verses 4&5 to remind his nation of the privileges God granted them as He chose them to be a people for Himself and this will be our next study.
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