Servant to Jews

Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy.... (Romans 15:7-9)

What does this thing called “acceptance” really look like? What does it involve? It seems to be so important according to the surrounding passages that I think it is essential that I don't just pass over this concept without really understanding it and even more importantly absorbing it at the heart level.

I believe that these verses are a major clue in understanding what it means to accept others the way God want me to accept them. It might be much easier to pretend to accept people by putting on a polite demeanor, talking nice to them and stressing that we must all have unity in the church. But I strongly suspect that God is not interested in that kind of unity. Everything I have learned thus far in my intense study of the book of Romans points to a radical transformation of the heart and how it relates both to God and to those around me. If acceptance is not something that happens from the deepest levels of a changed heart then it is not the kind of acceptance that God is talking about here.

Verse seven says that Christ accepted us. I think it is safe to say that Paul might be referring here to himself as a Jew or possibly the us might mean Paul and all the other believers who were accepted previously to those he was writing to. But it could equally be true that Paul is referring to all believers collectively or in another respect all of humanity that has been redeemed by the demonstration of God's plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. At any rate, Paul is pointing me to Jesus' example as the first illustration to look at to understand what accepting others should look and feel like if it is to be the real deal.

Using Jesus as my example and mentor of what it means to accept others effectively and genuinely is really the only safe course to follow so as not to become sidetracked or blinded by all the inferior imitations and counterfeits of the enemy. There are many ideas and activities promoted as being acceptance and many denominations profess to be very accepting until the truth is exposed by comparing their methods or spirit with the example of Jesus. I must be very careful not to be deceived by powerful results and exciting feelings as the ends that justify means that are not in alignment with the ways and spirit of the servant God who came to earth to show me real acceptance.

I feel like there is a great deal in these verses that is still eluding me or waiting to be uncovered. But what I sense is that I am beginning to see here that Jesus clearly relates to people from very different backgrounds and with radically different assumptions about God somewhat differently. Paul says here that the way Jesus related to the religious-heavy Jews, what he refers to as the circumcision which was their favorite point of discrimination, was different than the way he related to Gentiles who were not obsessed with what consumed the Jew's attention.

Jesus' focus while appealing to the hearts of Jewish people, those who had taken religion to unhealthy extremes, was to first of all approach them with the attitude and posture of a servant. Now this was certainly not the way that necessarily would appeal to proud people who had more faith in their religion than they actually had in God even though they would disagree with that assertion. This is why some of the prophecies about Jesus predicted that His activities and presence would expose the hearts of many. But at the same time, the presence of real Truth and the demonstration of the real character and disposition of God in their midst would cause the hearts and minds of those who were still honest enough to sit up and take notice and be convicted of the truth.

What was emphasized by the Jewish religion was what was termed “the Law and the Prophets”. This is reference to what we know today as the Old Testament. The “Law” was the writings of Moses that laid out all the rules and prescriptions that defined the Jews and largely formed their identity in distinction from all other peoples on earth. The “Prophets” is what the rest of the Old Testament consists of which not only contains prophecies about the future at various points in time but also the stories and other writings that gave the Jews their sense of identity and rooted them in history. The Law and the Prophets in the mind of a Jew was the reason for their existence and was more important than life itself to many of them. It was what they lived and died for, very much like much of the nationalistic emotions and beliefs that we see in various cultures today.

Over the centuries the Jews had become so engrossed in focusing their sense of identity on their history and the prophecies given to them by God about their potential future if they would be faithful to Him, that a great deal of prejudice and bigotry had taken over their thinking and beliefs. Tradition became such a prominent part of their thinking and living that it more and more obscured their ability to discern the real reasons God had related to their ancestors and the real purpose for giving them the Law and the prophecies.

So when God showed up among them in the form of Jesus to reveal the true reason for everything that had happened in their history, very few Jews were ready to see the linkage between the God that had spoken to them in all sorts of ways throughout their history and the man who claimed to be God who was walking around relating to them in the present while Jesus was with them on earth. Prejudice and tradition had so blinded their minds and hardened their hearts that most of them were unwilling to believe the love that Jesus demonstrated in their midst. They instead demanded that God could not possibly be as nice and kind and forgiving as this apparent weakling who refused to participate in any way with their bigotry.

But for those who were receptive to the gentle promptings of the Holy Spirit in their hearts and were hungry to see and experience the real truth about God; those who were dissatisfied with the externalism of religion and were hungry for a real spiritual connection with the real God – these were the Jews who were able to respond to the drawing power of Jesus to point their attention to the intimate connection between the real truth about God in the Old Testament period and the demonstration of God in the life of this humble peasant from Galilee.

Those who were honest enough to ask questions, when asking questions was strongly discouraged by those in religious power – those who dared to allow their minds to question the assertions and assumptions of their leaders and listen to the sound of a different drummer, those were the ones who were susceptible to being drawn into true repentance by the sudden revelation of the true nature of God in the kind, humble ways of Jesus. Contrary to the teachings popular both in those days and in ours, it is not fear and terrors of hell or dread about events in the last days of earth's history that lead one to real repentance; it is the kindness of God that leads a heart to melt in response to the affections of God shown to them in spite of their sins.

This concept is just as foreign to us today as it was in the days of Jesus. There are very few who really believe that it is the kindness of God that effects real transformation and repentance in our lives and not manipulations by fear. But as these passages are revealing to me, accepting others in love and compassion is the only really effective way to move toward true unity of the kind we are designed to enjoy.

Paul says that Jesus became a servant to the Jews to confirm the promises given to their fathers. Unfortunately most Jews even yet today are blinded by their prejudice and pride and stubbornness from seeing the fulfillment of the promises in the Old Testament in the life of Jesus. But nevertheless it is a clear truth that can be discerned by those who are willing to see reality from heaven's viewpoint. But while it is easy for most of us to cast a critical eye on the Jews for rejecting Jesus as the fulfillment of all the promises given to their ancestors, we equally fail to discern our own traditions and preconceptions that blind us just as effectively to the real truths about God's character and ways.

Blindness of heart and mind are by nature very difficult to discern because of the intense deceptive nature of that blindness. How do you know if you can't see something if you have never seen it and don't even know for sure it can be seen? It is so easy to see how others might be deceived, to point out other's faults and blind spots. But when it comes to our own the pride and selfishness and stubbornness of our own sinful hearts usually prevent us from accepting the truth about God just as effectively as it does for the Jews. This exposes the enormous level of hypocrisy in Christianity today that decries the stubbornness of the Jews. Most Christians are no different in their level of clinging to tradition that displaces the real truth about God as are the Jews. We are just as much in desperate need of seeing the real truth about God as demonstrated in the life and attitudes of Jesus as are the Jews.

But for the honest in heart, whether Jews or non-Jews, the Holy Spirit will guide and impress and reveal the beautiful congruency and perfect harmony between the promises and prophecies found in the Old Testament Scriptures and the much clearer revelation of God as exposed in the life and teachings and example of Jesus, His Son. When anyone is willing to suspend their assumptions and lay aside their preconceptions of tradition, when they are ready to not blindly accept what preachers and teachers tell them but begin to pray and study and search for real truth with all their heart for themselves, then they will begin to discover and experience the mind of God and will begin to feel the heat of the passion that always glows from His heart.

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