#DailyDevotion Jesus Of Nazareth Hope Of The Nations

Romans 15:7-13

⁷Then, as Christ has welcomed you, welcome one another in order to glorify God. ⁸I tell you Christ became a servant to the Jews to do what God promised the fathers — showing that He tells the truth — ⁹and to have the other nations praise God for His mercy, as it is written: For this I will praise You among the nations and sing to honor Your name. ¹⁰And again: Be happy, you other nations, with His own people! ¹¹And again: All you nations, praise the Lord, and all the people should praise Him. ¹²Again, Isaiah says: Jesse will have the Descendant Who will rise to rule the nations, and He will be the Hope of the nations. ¹³The God of hope fill you with perfect happiness and peace as you believe, to make you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul is speaking to the church at Rome here. While there were certainly Jews in this congregation, there were also plenty of Gentiles it seems. The Gentiles were once not God’s people without mercy. Now they have been welcomed by Christ and have become God’s people and have received mercy. It is with this understanding Paul then says, “welcome one another in order to glorify God.” I think we sometimes may fall into one of two errors these days because we forget this. The first error is we Gentiles are not actually God’s people but the Jews still are. We are somehow distinct and second class to the Jews, who don’t even believe in their own Messiah. I tell you the truth, only those Jews who have put their trust in Christ Jesus are God’s people and we who also have put our faith in Jesus Christ are equal citizens, made children of Abraham with them. We are all one Israel. The other error we may fall into is thinking we are somehow better than the Jews who don’t believe in Jesus the Messiah. We are certainly better off as when we fall asleep, we will be with the LORD Jesus Christ in his love and if they continue in unbelief will be suffering in the eternal flames with the rest of the unbelievers. But they are still natural branches and we have been grafted in by grace.

As Church, the Israel of God by grace we should always be welcoming one another and all people in order to glorify God. We all have been called to praise God for his mercy in making us one with his people Israel. Paul then quotes several scripture passages namely, Ps. 18:49, Ps. 117:1, Isaiah 11:10 and I wasn’t sure about another one but most likely from the Psalms. While the LORD did not fully reveal the nations inclusion into Israel until Christ came, or at least, it does not seem they understood this, throughout the Old Testament, by the power of the Holy Spirit we can see the LORD’s plan to bring the nations under one head, Jesus and have them be one with Israel.

So Jesus is the hope of the nations. He is that seed of the woman who has overcome the evil one. He is the promised seed of Abraham in whom all nations are blessed. He is the promised seed of David who is the root of Jesse, his father. Jesus of Nazareth is our one true ruler in whom we look for salvation from sin, death and the power of the devil. For this we give him thank and praise and magnify his name to whomever will listen to us. The God of hope, i.e. the God of Jesus, the Father, fills us with his perfect peace and happiness (joy). Only in Jesus do we find such complete happiness and peace. It is found no where else.

Heavenly Father, give us such faith in Jesus that we may give you all praise and glory and be filled with perfect joy and peace all our days. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.