Paul in Romans 9 was speaking of his countrymen said that he wishes he was accursed from Christ instead of them. It was Paul who was referring to the Israelite’s when he was talking about his countrymen who were cut off from God.
When Paul was talking about his countrymen, he understood their despotic estate. He knew that they were cut off from the grace of God. The whole culture could have forgotten and none would have known any of the better. But Paul wanting to explain the difference, said that they were rejected because “they sought not the things of God by faith of believing the invisible. Israel, instead of seeking the things of faith in the invisible sought them as it were by physical findings. These were called “stiff- necked always rejecting the Holy Spirit” because they refused to transform in their understanding from the carnal to spiritual realities.
Paul understood that it was only the remnant that was saved.
To correctly understand this term remnant, we must associated it with modern terms. A good comparative would be as if a large building project of a multi floored high-rise. To have the whole place carpeted and then to have the project manager show up and say, that’s the wrong carpet, that’s the wrong product. We need to rip it out and start over. To have the worker say “isn’t any of it good”? And the project managers reply he would say “yes, the end runs and scraps outside the building that were thrown away”. That is how much of Israel on earth in the flesh was savable. This is what remnant means.
We see a picture of this in that day where those went out from the city and we’re off the building project., being the remnant and those who are rejected from that Israel. These rejects went to John the Baptist in the wilderness to be baptized by the river Jordan to find the truth. They were the remnant that was saved and not Jerusalem. They are the same ones who saw Christ approach Jerusalem as a peasant on a donkey and called Him “Hosanna (meaning; Lord save now) blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”. And He did.These were the remnants off site of the building project called Israel. That’s it. That is all that were saved. Even as the Jews in the city said then “this is not our king! Crucify Him”. And they did. The deal was final. The rejection was mutual. Even as Christ had said “oh Jerusalem how I weep for you and would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks but you are not willing, now this destruction is upon you”. And they were destroyed. They thought the gathering was an end time thing, and that they had “the kingdom of God”. They were standing in it and we’re wondering why he wasn’t coming down to reign as king.Hmm! Sounds like a typical mindset today.They confused the temporary things and sought not the Eternal as many do in our day as well. Many expect the same thing and reject Him who has entered not a city made by man, but eternal in the Heavens. Even as Christ responded at His trial in that Israel saying “my Kingdom is not from here”. So say we the remnant of today. Christ is the chief cornerstone those builders rejected then and today. And the elect “are living stones, assembled a habitation of God in the Spirit”. Nothing physical here.
So in clarifying who it was that Paul had wept for, and who it was that Paul identified with, it was not the tribe of Judah. Paul had strict conflict with the Jews. And they sought to kill him at every corner and chased him down and pursued him and smeared his name constantly. Paul’s reference to the thorn in his flesh could have very likely have been the Jews constant harassment. And that is a thorn in the flesh of many today which is why they need to understand “that which is flesh is flesh and that which is spirit is spirit” and quit trying to commingle the two.God is not a physical entity.
Paul said in his Romans 9 thru 11 discourse about Israel his countrymen that “those of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but those accounted of the promise. These are the children of God. For the Lord said “at the appointed time I will come and Sarah will bring forth a son” showing this is something God did, and not something Abram and Sarah did in the bedroom.
Flat-out, the modern-day Israel is not part of God’s Israel. And modern day Israel is again not the right building project. It is the dillusion with all lying signs and wonders if possible to deceive the elect.” (2 Thessalonians)
So we said before and we say again that Paul wishes he was a curse for his countrymen according to the flesh, indicating that his Countryman according to the flesh we’re just that. They were cursed. And why were they cursed? Because the things that they were supposed to seek by faith, by understanding God’s things in The Invisible, they were happy to have them assimilated with their hands and with their eyes and with their flesh. These are not the tools for our transformation. They are obstacles to your flesh. You have to let the physical go. Even as it says in Hebrews “as l;ong as the first temple stood, the way into the Holiest was not available. So too of the Kingdom. You cannot have the physical mimick and the real one “eternal in the heavens at the same time. God will not allow you to have both.
Paul goes on to differentiate the elect in the picture of Jacob and Esau. It was not Esau that was the heir of promise but Jacob saying “the older Shall Serve the younger”. And that is what the old Covenant does. It serves the New Covenant children of God. All of its artifacts all of its buildings and feast serve us the elect born according to the promise by way of similes and parables only. Kind of like the game charades. Sounds like and looks like but not like. Paul appropriately defines the first Covenant Israelite’s as Esau and those born according to the flesh. And if God would have saved that picture in that type of message, then Paul could not have used this analogy. But it is the old Covenant that is expired that only serves the New Covenant in contrasts. The Old Covenant was rejected. That even as Esau sold his Birthright and his true Heritage for a bowl of pottage, so too the Israelite’s of old sold out giving up the things in heaven as being unattainable. They settled for the silly stupid buildings feasts and sacrifices every Sabbath day of their life. That was their pottage and the forfeiture of the things of God. “for seeing with their eyes they see not, and hearing with their ears they hear not, it is with the heart one must see and hear to understand the things of God”.
This is the same condition many have today because “Israel who is of the flesh, these are not the children of God” anymore today than those of the time of Christ. (Romans 9.8)
Pall then goes on to quote Isaiah saying ““Unless the Lord ofSabaoth had left us a seed, (or remnant)
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah”. The thing is, Gomorrah is the very term John in the Book of Revelation used in speaking of Israel of old calling it “the place that is spiritually Sodom and Egypt where our Lord was slain”. That was their spiritual condition. Even as the men in Sodom called to Lot saying of the 2 men, “Bring them out that we may know them”. That is like saying “when I see Jesus I will believe, then I will know”. But then it will be too late, for faith will expire. It is now only “from faith to faith”. There will be no other public offering into the Kingdom to supersede our access by faith. It is the Gospel that is “the power of God unto salvation”, meaning all the way to a full saving”.
This is why “Today is the day of salvation”.
This is also why “The Kingdom of God is at hand”. It is on the tip of your tongue. For with the heart one believes, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
