Privilege And Desperation

My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.   Romans 9:2-3

Why does the apostle Paul have great sorrow and unceasing anguish over his own people? Because it’s possible to be in a position of great privilege and yet miss out on the greatest thing God wants to give you. “My heart would break,” Paul was saying, “if my own people, with all their rich heritage of God’s blessing, missed the greatest blessing of God, which is in Jesus.”

The apostle Paul spoke from experience, having thrown everything he had into the pursuit of an exemplary life. He had a great education and would have held a distinguished teaching position and earned a high salary. But when Christ intercepted his life, all that he had going for him seemed to fade in importance compared with “the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:8).

Paul discovered that privilege doesn’t save anybody, so he longed for his own people, who’d been richly blessed by God, to know Jesus. I’m not Jewish, but I feel the high privilege of having a stable home, a good education, and open doors of opportunity. Perhaps you feel the same. Remember, privileged people need Jesus too.

Paul also wrote about the desperate spiritual condition of the Gentiles: “You Gentiles used to be outsiders. . . . You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope” (Ephesians 2:11-12). That’s about as far from God as you can get!

This desperate position was illustrated in the way the Temple was set up. There were distinct areas marked off for different classes of people. The most distant area from the Most Holy Place—where God’s presence was made known—was on the outside perimeter and was called the court of the Gentiles.

The Good News is that Jesus has broken down every wall that separates you from God, so even if you are far from God today, even if you are in the most desperate situation, you can come to him.

For further reading, see Romans 9