For whom is Romans 8 not so good news? We know that the letter to the church in Rome is an amazing exposition of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ on behalf of a world that has “fallen short” of God’s just expectations, and the eighth chapter of this letter is like a grand crescendo to the life-giving message of the Gospel. The words of Paul explode off the page . . .
“Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus . . .”
“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you.”
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.”
“We know that all things work for the good of those who love: those who are called according to His purpose.”
“Who can separate us from the love of Christ?”
But how does this message sound to a person married to a person who is not “in Christ Jesus”? How does this message sound to a parent of a child in whom the Spirit of God is not living? How does it sound to a person whose sister does not love God?
The message of life for believers in Romans 8 is just as much a message of death and condemnation for those who do not believe. It is tragic to know that my neighbor is going to face the condemnation of a holy God if he remains outside of the redemption of Christ. The parent of the rebellious child should be horrified at the message of the Gospel. The spouse of the unbeliever should lose sleep over the words of Jesus.
And this is where Paul lands as he rolls into Romans 9 . . .
Paul has unsaved people in his life and for these people Paul claims to have “intense sorrow and continual anguish”. These are really raw emotions he is describing in this phrase. The Greek words for the first phrase, “intense sorrow,” are “megalas lupeo”. You can see the word “mega” in the first word which clearly implies the size, or scope, of Paul’s sorrow, but the key to understanding Paul’s emotion is found in the word “lupeo” which is translated as “sorrow”. John used the word “lupeo” four times in his telling of the events of the Last Supper. Jesus was departing from them and they were filled with sorrow (“lupeo”). This was not a sharp pain of mourning, it was the dull ache of sadness. It was chronic. And for Paul, the dull ache of the sorrow of the message of Romans 8 for the unbeliever was “megalas” . . . almost too great for words.
The second phrase describing Paul’s emotional state was “continual anguish”. The Greek phrase is “adialeipo odune”. While the phrase “megalas lupeo” describe the emotion, this second phrase defined the chronic nature of this emotion. This phrase can be translated as “ceaseless” or “unending” . . . it is just something that will not go away . . . will not subside. It is a wound that time simply will not heal.
So who is the object of this emotion? For whom could Paul have such ceaseless, piercing sorrow? Is a family member? A friend?
Paul continues his thought in Romans 9 . . .
“For I could almost wish to be cursed and cut off from the Messiah for the benefit of my brothers, my own flesh and blood.” (Romans 9:3)
Paul is not speaking of an individual. Paul is sorrowful for the nation of Israel. Paul had been one of these guys who had rejected Christ. He knew the heart of God’s chosen people. He knew that the vast majority of his fellow Israelites rejected the message of Jesus, and for him, Romans 8 was a source of great sorrow for his people.
Now, our modern translations have taken some liberties with the text of Romans 8:3, so let us reduce the passage down to its Greek core. The initial phrase is simply, “euchomai gar anathema eimi autos” . . . literally, “I have been wishing for a curse to be myself”. If we clean that us we get the phrase, “For I have been wishing myself to be a curse.”
The key to grasping the action of Paul is to get our heads around the Greek word “euchomai”. It could be defined as a desire or a longing for a certain outcome, but it seems to be a word used to describe an outcome that is completely outside of our capacity to make it happen. Luke used this word when he spoke of a group of sailors caught in a violent storm. He wrote of the sailors, “ . . . and (they) prayed for daylight to come.” On another occasion, Luke recounts the story of Paul as he appeared before Governor Festus and King Agrippa. As Paul spoke the message of the Gospel, King Agrippa mocked Paul by asking him if he thought he could convince him to believe in Jesus to which Paul responded, “I wish before God that . . . you might become as I am.”
The fascinating, and instructive, part of this particular verb and its usage is that the common word for prayer in the New Testament is the word “proseuchomai” which literally means that we take all those desires and we place them “pros” (or before) God and allow Him to work on them.
We must also understand that Paul uses an imperfect verb tense for the word “euchomai” which tells us that Paul is unable, or unwilling, to place this action exclusively in the past, present, or future. Paul just knows that he has been, is, and will likely continue to wish for his people. This verb tense further accentuates the “continual” nature of Paul’s emotional state.
So what exactly does Paul wish?
Paul’s own words indicate that he wishes he could be “a curse”. The Greek word Paul uses in this case is “anathema” and it is a word that Paul has placed on a group of Jews in an earlier letter. In the letter to the Galatian churches, Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia to warn them of the Jewish zealots who were teaching the Gentile converts to Christianity that they had to follow Jewish Law to be a Christian. In the letter, Paul wrote, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we preached to you, a curse be on him.” And now Paul declares that his wish has been to be that curse for his kinsmen . . .
“ . . . to be cursed and cut off from the Messiah for the benefit of my brothers.”
Paul is wishing for a trade. Paul is offering to be removed, or taken away, from the grace of the Messiah on behalf of his brothers. The problem with his wish, which may explain the “continual” nature of his wish, is what Paul has just stated in the previous chapter . . .
“For I am persuaded that . . . (nothing) will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
So what kind of person would wish this? Who would wish to become a curse so that another could be blessed?
In the Old Testament, we read that Judah offered to trade places with his brother Benjamin who was under a sentence of death for stealing the cup of Joseph, but that was simply trading his mortal life for his brother, not his eternal condition.
On another occasion, however, we see the wish Paul was making placed on the lips of Moses. Moses begged of God . . .
“Now if You would only forgive their sin. But if not, please erase me from the book You have written.” (Exodus 33:19)
Why would Moses make this offer? What had the Israelites done to merit this offer from Moses, their leader? What would compel Moses to be so generous and so sacrificial?
Ironically, they had done nothing but complain and murmur against Moses since the day they left Egypt and yet he still made this offer. So what was the occasion of this offer? Moses had been up on the mountain with God for 40 days when God told Moses to go back to the camp of the Israelites because they had constructed a “golden calf” and were worshiping it. And yet, in this moment of profound rebellion, Moses wished to be a curse for the benefit of his brothers.
I imagine it was the same with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as Jesus prayed “Not My will but Yours be done . . ..” Only this time God allowed His perfect Son to literally become that “anathema” so that we could be reconciled to Him.
So who are these people for whose benefit Paul is offering himself? Let us look quickly at what these people had done to Paul over the years . . .
In Pisidian Antioch . . . “But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to oppose what Paul was saying by insulting him.”
In Iconium . . . “But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against the brothers.”
In Lystra . . . “Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and when they had won over the crowds and stoned Paul, they dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead.”
In Thessalonica . . . “But the Jews became jealous, and they brought together some scoundrels from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city.”
In Beroea . . . “But when the Jews from Thessalonica found out that God’s message had been proclaimed by Paul at Berea, they came there too, agitating and disturbing the crowds.”
In Corinth . . . “While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack against Paul and brought him to the judge’s bench.”
In Ephesus . . . “But when some (in the synagogue) became hardened and would not believe, slandering the Way in front of the crowd, he withdrew from them . . .”
In Corinth on another visit . . . “When he was about to set sail for Syria, a plot was devised against him by the Jews, so a decision was made to go back through Macedonia.”
It is in this moment, after all this has taken place, after all the abuse that Paul has received from the Jews—abuse he records in a letter to the church in Corinth just months earlier—that Paul pours out his heart on behalf of his kinsmen. What Paul does not know is that when he arrives in Jerusalem (his destination as defined in this letter to the Roman church) his kinsmen are going to arrest him and place him before the Roman magistrates. He is going to be shipped from one governor to another all the way to Rome . . . and he will never taste freedom again.
What had this Gospel done to this man? Remember, Paul was just a human like you and like me. What effect did this message of God becoming flesh and dying as a sacrificial atonement for his sins done to him? Who offers eternal cursing in exchange for the eternal blessing of an enemy?
While I may make that trade for family or friends, I must acknowledge that that love is merely an intense form of human love. To love an enemy with that kind of love comes only from a heart that has truly experienced the profound love of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Who is that enemy for you?
Recognize how much work the Gospel has left to achieve in you . . .
