Question: What does the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants mean in Romans 9:4? H. M.
Answer: Romans 9 begins with the deep concern of the Apostle Paul for the nation of Israel, his kinsmen according to the flesh. He loved them so much that the wish had come into his mind, that to save them he was willing to be accursed from Christ. This was love as great as Moses’ love for them (Exodus 32:31, 32).
In verses 4, 5, he tells how privileged of God they were. They were Israelites, adopted by Jehovah as a nation. The glory was a symbol of Jehovah’s presence dwelling among them (Exodus 40:34-38). The covenants were theirs conditional (Ex. 19:5), and unconditional (Exodus 6:3-5). The law was given to them from Mt. Sinai (Exodus, Chapters 19 to 24). The service (or worship) in the tabernacle and temple belonged to them by priests arid Levites. They are the fathers who received the promises (Rom. 15:8). Their conditional covenant was broken, and the blessing is lost to them at present. The unconditional promises are yet to be fulfilled by the sovereign, electing grace of God, and that is how we Gentiles also are saved. Chapters 9, 10 and 11 treat of this line of truth, explaining how God can save the Gentiles, and also reestablish Israel as a nation.
Question: What does the parable of the unjust steward teach us? (Luke 16:1-12). W. D. W.
Answer: Israel particularly, and man generally, is looked at in this chapter as an unfaithful steward who must give an account of his stewardship. The elder son (Chap. 15) said, “Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment,” but Romans 3:9, 19, 23, prove that all are guilty before God. It is a good thing when the soul takes its true place, and, says, “I have sinned.” Real wisdom asks the question: “What am I to do?” The gospel replies, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Wisdom’s children justify God and condemn themselves, and this makes them think of the future, and to use the present things in view of the future. This is the true wisdom, and the children of God should practice it. In this we should take a lesson from this unjust, but wise steward, who used the goods of his master which were in his hand to make a home for himself in the future. Our home is prepared by divine love, and our title as in Christ is a perfect one to it. But we are stewards still, and we are to look upon what the Lord has put in our hands as a means of blessing for the future, and now.
For the future, because what we do for the Lord will bring its reward from Him. For the present, if we use what we have as stewards for the Lord, it proves a blessing to our souls in the fuller enjoyment of our spiritual blessings. But if the things of this world possess our hearts, they hinder us from enjoying our possessions in Christ (1 Tim. 6:17-19).
The mammon of unrighteousness can be used in such a way that we shall be richer spiritually. It is laying up in store a good foundation against the time to come—a profitable investment for the believer’s capital (Prov. 1.9:17). We need wisdom from the Lord for this also, and it matters not how little or how much we have, if the child of God lets his mind dwell upon, and get engrossed with this unrighteous mammon, who will commit to his trust the true riches? He is only a steward, and if he is unfaithful to his stewardship, who shall give him that which is his own? The believer’s “own” are the blessings he has in Christ.
Question: Revelation 20:13, 14 is not clear to me. C. E. W.
Answer: Death is here represented as holding the bodies; and hell (which is hades, that is, the state of the soul apart from the body) holds the soul. Here they are reunited, and judged every man according to their works. Death and hades are no longer needed; they are personified as the enemies of God and man, and as such, in the vision, are east into the lake of fire. This is the second death; death to man is never the cessation of existence. The second death is eternal torment in separation from God. Gehenna, translated hell in the following verses, represents the lake of fire (Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark, 9:43, 45, 47; Luke, 12:5; Jas., 3:6). Hades, meaning the unseen, is the state of the soul absent from the body, is translated hell in Matthew 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31; Revelation 1:18; 6:8; 20:13, 14.