Who Is A Jew?
The raging controversy of “Who is a Jew?” has been a
hot-button issue among “the Seed of Abraham” for more than two thousand years. Modern Israel, with its Zionist principle of
‘the right to return,’ offers to any Jewish person in the world the privilege
to live in Israel and creates the heated debate, “Who is a Jew?”
Romans 9:6
declare that not all who are
descended from Israel are Israel.
When Christ was born in Bethlehem, the nations of
Israel as a whole was going about its business with little true faith. It was
only a few, like Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zacharias, “who looked for
redemption in Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).
When Jesus began His public ministry and saw
Nathaniel for the first time, He said, “Here is a true Israelite…” (John 1:47 NIV). This
is exactly the distinction Paul is making in this chapter.
Paul’s prime example of a true Israelite was
Abraham.
Abraham was not
saved by circumcision, because he was declared to be righteous before God in
Genesis 15:6, which was years before his circumcision.
Abraham was not
saved by keeping the Law, because the Law was not given until the time of
Moses, which was 400 years after Abraham’s time.
How did Abraham become a “true Israelite?”
It was by faith, not works, as indicated
in Genesis 15:6.
Abram believed the
Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.
Gen 15:6 NIV
In Romans 9:6 Paul is saying there’s a difference between
all those who claim to be “Abraham’s descendants” and those who constitute
Israel as “the people of God.”
Paul demonstrates, first, that Israel is a matter
of election rather than birth (vv. 6-13). Not all those called “children of
Abraham” (natural descendants) are actually his “seed” as demonstrated in
Genesis 21:12, which states:
And God said unto
Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of
thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice;
for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
KJV
Remember that Abraham had two sons: first, was
Ishmael, born to the Egyptian maid Hagar (see Genesis 16). Paul says, Ishmael,
though a physical descendant of Abraham, was not of the “Seed” (sperma, Gk.) that
produced Isaac, ‘the spiritual child.’
Isaac was born by a supernatural act of
God, since both Abraham and Sarah were well past the age of childbirth.
In Romans 9:8, Paul shifts from “children of the
flesh” to “children of God.” The shift is subtle but very significant.
Because Abraham’s spiritual “Seed” comes through
God’s Promise and Power, the Jewish people are not simply Abraham’s seed, but
quite literally God’s children.