https://youtu.be/XipoaSWKWmk
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans last time we completed our Expanded Translation of Rom 9:3; "For I could wish that I myself would be accursed [cherem], from the Christ for the sake of my brethren (racial Jews), my fellow countrymen (citizens of Israel) according to genetics (from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob)."
We see here that the more Paul was separated from Israel through his perception of doctrine and his spiritual advance the more sensitive he became to the tragedy of His people. You cannot advance spiritually without becoming sensitive to the disasters of life and the people who live it.
For the Jews to have such an incredible spiritual heritage and miss out on salvation was almost more than Paul could bear.
Both the formation of the Jewish race and the origin of the Jewish nation of Israel emphasize the unique God of Israel who is Jesus Christ.
Therefore to be a Jew and not to believe in Jesus Christ as the God of Israel was overwhelming to Paul who sees the Jews as being so close and yet so far. In the very sacrifices that they offered they had the answer in their hands, but they failed to see that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and that He would eventually free them.
Paul's burden existed in proportion to the number of Jews who had rejected Christ as savior, the number of contemporary Jews who in self-determination had said no to the Gospel.
As an unbeliever Paul as Saul of Tarsus had tried to destroy Christianity. But now Paul the believer sees Christianity as the natural, logical result that is the perpetuation of the spiritual heritage of Israel.
He also sees Christianity as the logical result of the purpose of Messiah's first advent to take away the sins of the world.
That God also wanted to call out a royal family of both Jew and Gentile is apparent to Paul. The royal family is comprised of genetic Jews and genetic Gentiles who have become a new spiritual species by faith in Christ Jesus.
While the Gentiles did not have any background or the frame of reference for the Church Age, every Jew by spiritual heritage and by their own dispensation of Israel had the background.
Therefore Paul has the expectation and the desire for them to link their spiritual heritage with the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The relationship between Israel's spiritual heritage and the doctrine of the Church Age is obvious to Paul but not to them so he desires the impossible.
Rom 9:4; begins with the relative pronoun 'hostis" (who) that refers to category of people. It is different from the ordinary relative pronoun because it is categorical instead of generic. It refers to a specific category in the human race in this case only to the Jews who comprise the nation of Israel.
When the indefinite relative pronoun is used for a specific category, it refers to believers and unbelievers, race and nation so it refers to the Jews, to their background, their heritage, and their national origin.
With this is the present active indicative of the verb "eimi" (are) so we have "who are" in the historical present tense that views a past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: the Jews who comprise Israel produce the action.
This is the declarative indicative for historical reality. Next is the predicate nominative plural from "Israelites" (Israelites) to describe the descendants of Jacob in contrast to those of Esau because Esau is a racial Gentile and Jacob is a racial Jew.
They are twins but they are two different races because of God's creation of the new racial species from the believers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So the word is used for the Jews as the covenant people who became the first client nation to God known as Israel.
Technically, the word "Israelites" refers to the Jews that descended from Jacob's 12 sons from their Exodus from Egypt to the death of Solomon so "Israelites" refers to the entire client nation from the Exodus till the kingdom was divided into the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom.
Jacob's name was changed to Israel that means "prince of God." The first client nation in history was given a title of honor to indicate that it had an honor code. Its honor code was comprised of the laws of divine establishment that both believer and unbeliever were expected to obey.
The honor code also went into the spiritual realm that only the believing Jew could actually understand. Paul transliterated the word letter for letter into the Greek as Israelites to describe the Jews as both a race and a client nation of God under the title Israel so we have "Who are Israelites."
When you start with a spiritual heritage you have to start with salvation because spiritual heritage always starts at the point of regeneration. It also refers the to the advance to spiritual maturity rather than reversionism.
Paul is not distinguishing between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom but to the entire Jewish race wherever it is found. Paul is referring to the Jew as a sacred league of thirteen tribes (Joseph had the double portion comprised of Ephraim and Manasseh).
Israel was the first client nation to God. It was called a priest nation because every believer in the nation and every citizen was regarded as a priest to God. A client nation is a national entity operating under the divine institution of nationalism that is responsible for the custodianship of Bible doctrine, as it exists in any specific period of history.
The first client nation had the five books of Moses, the Torah, and that is the basis of the spiritual heritage of the first client nation. The five books of Moses explain everything that is necessary for the function of a client nation.
A client nation is not only a nation that has the laws of divine establishment on the temporal side, but also on the spiritual side it has the freedom and prosperity that the laws of divine establishment provide for the opportunity for spiritual growth, evangelism and for missionary activity.
In our dispensation, while the Jews are scattered under the fifth cycle of discipline we must be a haven for the Jews that means that there can be no anti-Semitism in a thriving gentile client nation. The word "client" isn't used until the times of the Gentiles.
Instead the word "priest" is used Exodus 19:6. That is in contrast to the fact that they had the Levitical priesthood. The entire nation was considered a priest nation but God exchanged their firstborn for the tribe of Levi so their spiritual function was under a specialized priesthood, the Levitical priesthood. Num 3:12-13;
In Hosea 4:6; we see what happened to Israel as a client nation clearly presented as the fall of the client nation. The success was spiritual; the failure was spiritual because of their lack of doctrinal knowledge. This is what is happening in gentile client nation USA at this time.
The restoration of Israel as a priest nation is given in Isaiah 49:5-8. This will occur at Jesus' second advent at the start of the Millennial reign of our Lord and go on into eternity.
Isaiah 61:5-7; explains that in the future we are going right back to that same client nation under the principle that God is faithful because what God starts God finishes. God started with Israel as the client nation and He is going to finish with Israel as the client nation forever.
Rom 9:4; "to whom belongs the adoption" the plural genitive of reference from the relative pronoun "hos" (to whom). That the Israelites are the antecedent and adoption is another factor in their incredible spiritual heritage.
We have the predicate nominative from "huiothesia" (to place as an adult son) with the article "ho" (the). We have seen this word previously. It is translated here "adoption" but it has nothing to do with the current custom where a couple that does not have children adopts children.
This was a Roman custom where an adult was recognized as an heir as an adult that was the practice of the Romans. "Huiothesia" is a compound word made from two Greek words: "huios_= an adult son; thesia = the verb to place to place as an adult son.
This was a Roman custom where at the time of adulthood a natural child or other person was officially recognized as the heir as an adult and to legally officially declare him as such under Roman law.
God's promises are all related to eternity so in order to be qualified to receive God's eternal heritage "the adoption" has to occur that correlated to the opposite side of the coin of election.
Therefore by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, they are elected and they are simultaneously adopted so they will be participants in God's heritage for Israel forever. This is why all true Jews are also believers in Jesus Christ.
"And the glory" the connective conjunction "kai" (and) sets up a list. "Kai" (and) can be translated with other words if it is ascensive it is translated "even," if it is adjunctive is translated "also," and if it is intensive it is translated "in fact."
Then we have the singular predicate nominative from "doca " (glory) with the article 'ho" (the). No form of human glory is involved here. The simplest explanation for " the doca" is the Hebrew word "Shekinah" that means residence.
As a noun the word is not found in scripture but the verb "shakan" (to dwell) is found in scripture. The noun is Shekinah that describes the glory that Paul is expressing here because this glory is the glory of Jewish spiritual heritage.
God resided between the cherubs. So Shekinah glory describes the presence of the second person of the Trinity, the God of Israel, between the cherubs. This is found in Exodus 25:22 cf. Leviticus 16:2.
The Shekinah glory is also connected with the second advent of Christ in Isaiah 60:2 "For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and heavy darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you."
This is the darkness that will cover the entire earth immediately prior to the second advent of Jesus Christ. At the Second Advent: "every eye shall see him" because the entire earth is enveloped is in a supernatural darkness.
So the glory mentioned here is this same glory from the personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. No nation has ever had a greater heritage than the personal presence as the Shekinah glory of the Lord Jesus Christ between the cherubs over the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
This is also related to the Second Advent where the adoption occurs. Only believers can be adopted and at the Second Advent only believers of Israel will be there to see it. In Heb 9:5; we have the cherubs on each side of the mercy seat mentioned in connection with "doca" (glory).
The cherubs represent the highest form of angelic creation and glory refers to the personal presence of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The very presence of God overshadows the mercy seat.
The glory therefore refers to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ as the God of Israel. There is also a reference to this in James 2:1; where the Lord Jesus Christ is described as the glory.
Only the elect are adopted and only the adopted are elect. To be a Jew and to have the physical heritage of the genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and a citizen of Israel and not to be elected, and not to be adopted, and not to be foreordained, and not to be foreknown is the burden that Paul carried. He was the only one who understood it so he was the only one who could carry it.
The Shekinah glory doesn't refer to the entire essence of God but it refers to and emphasizes specifically God's attributes of righteousness and justice that combine in old English to be called God's holiness and in modern English God's integrity.
The failure of some Jews to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and relate their physical birth to their adoption in the new birth does not take away from God's integrity or the magnificent spiritual heritage of believing Jews.
The heritage is still there and it will be there in every generation, and it will be open to every Jew who believes in Jesus Christ with the exception of the Church Age where the Church is elected as God's royal family.
Israel was a client nation to God, the agent for missionary activity abroad and Bible teaching at home as God's first client nation. In arrogance racial Jews have emphasized their physical heritage to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their physical relationship to these noble men instead of their spiritual relationship with them
They emphasize physical birth and they have distorted the doctrines that are in the unconditional covenants, they distorted and misunderstood the promises regarding Israel's glorious future.
As a result they were unable to recognize that the one thing that made Israel great was not the physical relationship, not the racial relationship, but Jesus Christ the spiritual seed of Abraham.
In order to understand it Paul uses the concept of Roman adoption where a natural son of a Roman who was treated almost like a slave in the home until such time as he reached maturity the father would take the son aside in the presence of his entire family and friends and pronounce him as an adopted son.
All believers Jew or Gentile by faith in Christ Jesus are adopted sons. Eph 1:5;