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Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
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The apostle Paul makes clear what God meant as he wrote just before this that not all of the Jews were children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but that through Isaac shall your offspring be called. {Rom.9:7} Just calling yourself a Jew, or for that matter calling yourself a Christian, does not make it true!

A number of years ago my wife Alice and I were staying with a lovely older Jewish couple in Netanya, Israel. Neither the man nor his wife were believers in Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ. He was however more knowledgeable about the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, than ninety percent of all the Christians I know!

As he and I spent a weekend sitting at his dining room table discussing the Scriptures, the Word of God, he mentioned that the Jews, Christians and Muslims all came from the same father. I said that is not actually literally true. Jews and Christians indeed can call themselves descendants of Abraham, while Ishmael, father of the Muslims was born to Abram! It is clearly written in the Word. Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. {Gen.16:15}

It would be thirteen years later when Abram was ninety-nine years old that God would change his name to Abraham and his wife Sarai to Sarah! That is when the Lord told Abram that Sarah, at ninety years of age, would give birth to their son and kings of peoples shall come from her as God would establish His covenant with Isaac. {Gen.17:16,21} The Lord would then make it clear to Abraham, and to all who hear and know His voice, that Isaac was his only son! {Gen.22:2}

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. {Jn.8:31} And as the Lord said through Paul to all the believers in Corinth (and to us today) come out from the midst of unbelievers and be separate and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty. {2Cor.6:14-18} However, he also told others that if they did not receive His Word and do His Word then they are sons of their father the devil, and their will is to do their father’s desires! {Jn.8:44}

The point of all this is that when Paul made the statement that is our opening verse for today, he was speaking of those Jews, Israelites, his brothers and kinsmen who were only so in the flesh and not in the spirit. He went so far as to say that he could wish he could pay the price for their salvation! {Rom.9:3} But of course he would have certainly known that he could not, for no man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of his soul is costly. {Ps.49:7-8}

If you want to know exactly how costly our salvation is, turn your eyes upon Jesus who went to the cross to die and pay the price for our salvation! And He did that for us while we were yet sinners, enemies of God!

Jesus said:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:43-45)

GOD’S WONDERFUL GRACE AND MERCY