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by Bill Seng

“The Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.” ~Romans 9:30

Toward the end of Romans chapter 9, a statement of contrast is presented. The Israelites had been given a covenant by God and were selected as his chosen people. The Gentiles lived in a pagan world of wickedness and were excluded from the promises of God. But because the Israelites rejected Jesus as their Messiah, God presented the new promise he made with Israel to the Gentile world as well. In essence, he removed his focus from Israel and turned his sight to the rest of the world. What gives?

God did not favor Israel because of their righteousness nor because they had anything that set it apart before they received God's promise. In fact, in a manner of speaking, the whole world pursues God in one way or another. This might at first seem like heresy, but according to Acts 17:27 says that God placed people throughout the world so that they might seek and even find him. So people do seek God in a general sense, but they do it in a manner that is like groping in the dark. They are pursuing something greater than themselves that will bring meaning to their lives.

Without the clarity provided by God's disclosure of himself, nobody can pursue God for who he really is. The pursuit of God becomes highly philosophical. One might say that God is a ball of fire while another says he is a cream puff. Who is correct? There is no way to know without God revealing himself. The search for God becomes nothing more than a pursuit of satisfaction. Everyone wants a god to bend to his or her own will. This is very clear when the various manmade gods are recognized: fertility gods, love gods, crop gods, and even wine gods. Worship of these types of gods is perverse but satisfying to we who want to bend to our wicked natures.

It is only by grace that anyone is enabled to seek the true God. It is only through a relationship with God, therefore, that anyone can pursue Him for who he really is. The Israelites entered into a relationship with God through the law that God gave to them. The Gentiles, on the other hand, came to know of God's Law through a relationship with the Apostles and through Jesus Christ. The problem was that the Israelites began to do with God's law what the rest of the world had done with their phony religions: they believed that it was their ability to follow the law that granted them God's favor. But God did not want a bunch of people who followed a cold and hollow religion. He wanted people who would follow his ways with their whole hearts through faith.

They forgot that they had nothing inside of their own goodness that God desired. To God, the goodness of the Israelites was nothing more than filthy rags. God revealed himself through Jesus and it was faith in him that he desired. The Israelites chose to trust in their own goodness, while the Gentiles received the news of the Son of God with great joy. They were ready because they wanted to fill that void but were too ignorant to find out how, just like us.

We all want to be significant. Without God's truth nobody can please God. Jesus is the stamp of approval that separates the children of God from the children of the world. That is why I think it can be said that we all seek God, but that no one seeks God. Have you accepted God's truth?

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