https://youtu.be/sRSm3pqETb8
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans we are in Rom 9:4; where Paul is describing the greatness of the heritage of the Jews " who are Israelites to whom belongs the adoption as adult sons and the glory..."
The Shekinah glory is described in several passages in scripture. A word referring to glory that was used in 1Sam 4:21-22; was Ichabod. "And she called the boy Ichabod, (Ichabod means "no glory"). It is saying, "The glory has departed from Israel." This is a reference to the Shekinah glory "because the ark of the covenant had been removed."
This means that the boy was named for a historical event. When the ark was removed from the holy of holies in the tabernacle the glory of the personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, was gone.
The presence of the Lord Jesus Christ between the cherubs on top of the ark was the Shekinah glory. This glory was a part of the heritage of Israel and this same Jesus, the God of Israel, came back as the glory of Israel in another form as expressed in John 1:14; "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us."
This means that the Shekinah glory that dwelt between the cherubs came into a human body, so that we now have the God-Man or the hypostatic union.
"And we saw his glory." The word "dwelt" plus the word glory refers to the Shekinah glory. This is John's message to the Jews. The Shekinah glory became true humanity " ... the glory as of the uniquely born one from the father full of grace and truth."
The Jews had the Shekinah glory in the past because of their faith in God as he was revealed to them and they cannot have it in the future without believing in the current revelation of God that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 9:4; "and the covenants" " kai ho diathekai." This is the predicate nominative plural from the noun diathehke (covenant), referring to the unconditional covenants to Israel through Abraham in contrast to the conditional covenant called the Law through Moses.
The only Jews to whom these promises apply are spiritual rather than the natural or genetic descendents of Abraham because they only apply to Jews who receive the imputation of God's judicial righteousness, as Abraham did.
So "ho diatheke" (the covenant) is a promise that God made to Abraham. This refers to the heritage of Israel. Like all of the covenants as a part of the divine decree it is irrevocable. Abraham and his spiritual descendants are beneficiaries of the promise without any merit.
God promised certain things unconditionally to Abraham and his descendents. But not his physical descendents, only his spiritual descendents because "All Israel is not Israel." We see these promises starting in Gen 12:1-3;
Abraham received promises. Then for the rest of his life the promises were added together and described as the Abrahamic covenant, it is a summary of everything that God promised to Abraham and his spiritual descendants.
This is referring primarily to the Abrahamic covenant, though others are included as well. The Abrahamic covenant was the beginning of the Jews and the beginning of God's promises to Israel as a nation. The entire issue in these covenants is that God is faithful because God always keeps His word.
Gen 12:1; emphasizes the isolation and separation that is necessary for the development of the new race. Verse 2 describes the great nation. This does not refer to the descendents of Ishmael or the five sons of Keturah.
The great nation is the nation Israel, called the Jews, and also called the Hebrews after Abram crossed over the river into the promised land. This great nation is elected but not adopted until the second advent, because while Israel has been great in he past it is nothing compared to what it will be during the Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Israel is and will continue be the channel for God's blessing to the entire world. In the Millennium Israel is the greater nation and in eternity after the Millennium is the greatest nation.
The only people who can be citizens of that nation are racial or physical Jews who are qualified by having God's imputed judicial righteousness and eternal life by believing in Jesus Christ.
Gen 12:3; describes anti-Semitism as one of the most evil things in human history because it comes directly from satan the devil's opposition to God.
Gen 13:14-16; describes the Palestinian covenant. Verse 15 - "and to your descendants," not the Jewish race, not to the physical descendents but to the spiritual descendents, those Jews who are born again. Genesis 15:18-21; "to your descendents," refers to Jews who are born again.
This covenant was confirmed to Isaac in Genesis 26:3,4. The Abrahamic covenant was confirmed again to Moses, Exodus 6:2-8.
Rom 9:4; "kai ho nomothesia" (and the giving of the Law) "kai ho lateria" (and the rituals) "kai ho epangelia" (and the promises).
There was no nation Israel until Moses. They were in their infancy with no army or establishment law to protect them so God would take care of them until they became a nation. The Jews did not function as a nation under the laws of divine establishment until after the Exodus.
Paul is discussing the heritage of Israel because many things from the Old Testament have direct application to the Church because we also have many amazing advantages for our spiritual growth.
So a study of Romans 9 can be understood in two ways. The obvious one is that it is in God's Word of Truth, but secondly, the content specifically describes the Jews and Israel as the first client nation to God.
As a gentile client nation to God client nation USA is never going to be very far removed from Israel because while Israel is still set aside under the fifth cycle of discipline at this time we must always remember that God has in effect, passed on to us the role of client nation to God.
Therefore, if we are smart we can benefit from understanding the failures of Israel. We can see that the Jews at Paul's time did not remember their heritage because they failed to see it in the context of God's Word of Truth and instead they saw it in terms of human history that results in having human viewpoint regarding God's blessings instead of having the divine viewpoint.
Every gentile client nation to date has failed for this same reason and client nation USA is presently in the process of failing because of human viewpoint regarding the source of blessings to client nation USA.
Expanded Translation Rom 9:4; hostis" (who)"eimi" (are)" Israelites" (Israelites) "hos" (to whom) "ho huiothesia" (belong the adoption as adult sons) 'kai ho doca" (and the glory) "kai ho nomothesia" (and the giving of the Law) "kai ho lateria" (and the temple service) "kai ho epangelia" (and the promises).
Putting the concepts presented of verse 4 together:
God is holy. This means that God has integrity. Holiness that is comprised of God's righteousness and His justice is God's integrity.
God did not attain His Holiness or integrity from some sort of achievement. God has integrity but it was not attained, it wasn't developed because God's integrity is eternal, absolute, infinite and it has always been a part of His perfect essence.
God's integrity is not simply the absence of evil, it is the sum total of His perfection. That means that God's integrity or the holiness is neither maintained nor attained, it is part of God's immutable, eternal essence.
God's essence cannot be better or worse for God is eternal, immutable, and unalterable as an absolute being who is eternally consistent. God's holiness or integrity is composed of His perfect righteousness and justice.
God's righteousness is perfect, therefore not only does God's righteousness reject sin, human good and evil but it also provides varying systems of condemnation in administering punishment for sin, human good and evil.
The principle whereby creatures observe God's justice is that God's righteousness demands perfect righteousness, and what God's righteousness God demands God's justice executes.
God's righteousness can only demand perfect righteousness; God's justice can only demand perfect justice.
Therefore the spiritual heritage of Israel in the past dispensation was designed for their justification through faith in Christ, not for their arrogance, their self-righteousness, and their rejection of the God of Israel.
All believers, Jew or gentile with arrogance plus self-righteousness reject God's plan of grace. Human self-righteousness is actually an arrogant rationalization that is based on the irrationality of comparing one's strength with another's weakness.
Righteousness cannot be built or constructed on unrighteousness. Therefore justification can only be built on God's imputed judicial righteousness.
Everything that God does to bless us is inevitably built on the foundation of His imputed judicial righteousness and not on any system of self-righteousness that we develop. That means that self-righteous do gooders compete with God in blasphemous arrogance with their human good works.
God's grace provides all that God's integrity demands for the human race through Jesus Christ, the God of Israel. Jesus Christ is the basis for the spiritual heritage of Israel and, it is also the basis for the spiritual heritage of the Church as God's royal family.
The verse also describes God's integrity and the Shekinah glory. Jesus Christ, the God of Israel became humanity as the son of David for the express purpose of fulfilling the Levitical offerings and atoning for all personal sins on the cross.
The ritual shadows of the Old Testament were all fulfilled in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. "The Word became flesh and dwelled among us" is telling us that the Shekinah glory became flesh.
Jesus Christ, the God of Israel became true humanity so that the Shekinah glory would not only be apparent and seen by the Jews, for acceptance or rejection, but so that the Shekinah glory could actually do what the Shekinah glory had been doing since Israel became a client nation to God.
God's justice judged our sins that had to be imputed to Jesus Christ on the cross so that God's justice could impute His own judicial righteousness to anyone who would believe in Jesus Christ to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.
Why the Jew first? Because the one who hung upon the cross was the son of David who was the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant so He was a Jew. He was also the Shekinah glory that was now manifested in a human body.
The Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union is the visible Shekinah glory. The Jew is first because the prince ruler of the Church is a Jew. Paul, the greatest theologian the Church has ever seen is also a Jew.
The writers of the New Testament were Jews. The heritage of the Jews is given to the Church to create motivation and momentum in our advance to maturity. So it is and always will be the Jew first.
At the cross God condemned our sins in Jesus Christ so that He could commend doctrinal truth in the soul, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.
Psa 85:10; "Grace and truth have met together; righteousness and reconciliation have kissed each other." When the Gospel is presented, God's unfailing love that is expressed through His grace and doctrinal truth meet.
There is nothing man can do to destroy or compromise God's integrity. Man's self-righteousness does not glorify God, but God's imputed judicial righteousness justifies man at salvation.
God's integrity gains nothing from man's righteousness, but man gains everything from God's integrity when God imputes His very own judicial righteousness to man at the moment of salvation.
The pattern for this and the heritage of Israel began in Genesis 15:6. The Jewish race was not founded upon Abraham's physical human genetics but rather his spiritual life.
God does not gain from man, man gains from God. The very birth of the Jewish race explains that principle. The origin of the Jewish race was a spiritual factor.
There is no point in angelic or human history where God's integrity is compromised or advanced by self-righteousness. God's righteousness is not established by man, but man's integrity is established by God. Therefore we need God's help. God doesn't need any help.
That means that God's judicial righteousness that is imputed at salvation is not only the key to divine blessing but it is also the basis for the honor code of God's royal family. From this the principle that only God's integrity advances God's glory in both angelic and human history emerges.
Under divine provision man can glorify God but man cannot advance God's glory. God's glory pre-existed the angels and man.
The unbelieving Jew distorted the law that is the spiritual and the establishment heritage of Israel. No one was ever saved by keeping the law. It delineated principles of establishment and freedom, it portrayed the person of Christ, but it was not an instrument of salvation.
Put another way, the law is incapable of making the Jew righteous in the context of God's integrity. The law demands a capability of perfection and an absolute standard that is beyond man's ability.
Therefore the law cannot produce righteousness in the Jew and it cannot produce anything equivalent to God's perfect and eternal righteousness.
The law can only condemn the Jew and demonstrate his inadequacy and inability to save himself. The law is an instrument of condemnation; the only instrument of salvation is the substitutionary judgment of Jesus Christ on the cross that was followed by Jesus' resurrection. John 11:25-26;