Scripture referenced 13 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Genesis 6-9 used as an example of chiastic construction in the flood narrative, tracing the structure from Noah's introduction through God remembering Noah and back
6:1 When men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
6:2 God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives.
6:3 Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.”
6:4 The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children with them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
6:5 Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.
6:6 Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
6:7 Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I have made them.”
6:8 But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes.
6:9 This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
6:10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
6:11 The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
6:12 God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
6:13 God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.
6:14 Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.
6:15 This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
6:16 You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.
6:17 I, even I, do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.
6:18 But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
6:19 Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
6:20 Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive.
6:21 Take with you some of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them.”
6:22 Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.
7:1 Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.
7:2 You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female.
7:3 Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth.
7:4 In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.”
7:5 Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.
7:6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth.
7:7 Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters.
7:8 Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground
7:9 went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah.
7:10 After the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth.
7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the sky’s windows opened.
7:12 It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.
7:13 In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the sons of Noah—and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship—
7:14 they, and every animal after its kind, all the livestock after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.
7:15 Pairs from all flesh with the breath of life in them went into the ship to Noah.
7:16 Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; then Yahweh shut him in.
7:17 The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth.
7:18 The waters rose, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters.
7:19 The waters rose very high on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered.
7:20 The waters rose fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered.
7:21 All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
7:22 All on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.
7:23 Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship.
7:24 The waters flooded the earth one hundred fifty days.
8:1 God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.
8:2 The deep’s fountains and the sky’s windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained.
8:3 The waters continually receded from the earth. After the end of one hundred fifty days the…
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Keep this verse
Romans 8:28
all things working together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose, described as last week's message
28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
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Romans 8:38-39
nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, heights nor depths nor death nor life
38 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from God’s love, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Romans 9:1-5
the A section preached: Paul's great sorrow and unceasing grief for Israel, wishing himself accursed for their sake, listing Israel's privileges including the patriarchs and Christ according to the flesh
1 I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit,
2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;
5 of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
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Romans 9:6-29
identified as the B section, noted but not preached
6 But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel.
7 Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring, are they all children. But, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac.”
8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs.
9 For this is a word of promise, “At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.”
10 Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac.
11 For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,
12 it was said to her, “The elder will serve the younger.”
13 Even as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!
15 For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
18 So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.
19 You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?”
20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”
21 Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?
22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,
24 us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
25 As he says also in Hosea, “I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people; and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.”
26 “It will be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ There they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”
27 Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;
28 for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.”
29 As Isaiah has said before, “Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.”
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Romans 9:30-10:21
identified as the C section, noted but not preached
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;
31 but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness.
32 Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone;
33 even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved.
2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.”
6 But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down);
7 or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)”
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart”; that is, the word of faith, which we preach:
9 that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him.
13 For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher?
15 And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”
16 But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”
17 So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, didn’t they hear? Yes, most certainly, “Their sound went out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
19 But I ask, didn’t Israel know? First Moses says, “I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, with a nation void of understanding I will make you angry.”
20 Isaiah is very bold, and says, “I was found by those who didn’t seek me. I was revealed to those who didn’t ask for me.”
21 But as to Israel he says, “All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
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Romans 10:11
whoever believes in him will not be disappointed
11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”
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Romans 10:13
whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved, cited as the central point of the chiastic structure
13 For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
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Romans 11:1
God has not rejected his people, has he? May it never be
1 I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
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Romans 11:33-36
the closing A section: depth of riches of wisdom and knowledge of God, unsearchable judgments, from him and through him and to him are all things, to him be glory forever
33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?”
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.
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John 14:6
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through him
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
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1 Corinthians 11:23-26
words of institution quoted during communion: this is my body, this is the new covenant in my blood, proclaim the Lord's death until he comes
23 For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread.
24 When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.”
25 In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
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Romans 6
referenced as the passage where Paul says when Christ died you died with him
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
3 Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;
9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!
10 For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!
16 Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.
18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.
20 For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Jonathan opened by introducing an unusual sermon structure: he would preach only the "A section" of what he believes is a chiastic construction running through Romans 9 through 11, with the goal of drawing the congregation into reading all three chapters on their own before the following weeks.
What was said
He started by explaining chiastic construction, a literary device common in Hebrew and Greek writing where a passage moves through a sequence of ideas and then mirrors them in reverse order, with the central point carrying the greatest weight. He used the flood narrative in Genesis as an example, showing how the text descends to the pivot point "God remembered Noah" and then mirrors back out. The point was that in Romans 9 through 11, the central claim lands at the middle of chapter 10: whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
With that frame in place, he turned to the A section, Romans 9:1 through 5. Paul opens with an almost startling declaration of empathy: he has great sorrow and unceasing grief for his fellow Israelites, and he says he could wish himself accursed and cut off from Christ if it would bring them to salvation. Pastor Jonathan was careful to note the Greek makes clear Paul is not saying he wants to be damned. He is expressing the strongest possible desire, knowing it is contrary to reality, because he is already secure in Christ.
He connected that empathy to a pastoral burden he recognized in himself and others: knowing the gospel works, and watching people reject it or settle for a churchgoing substitute that never becomes personal trust in grace. He pressed on both ditches, legalism and license, saying that anyone trusting in anything other than the blood of Christ is missing it, no matter how conservative or progressive their religious background.
The sermon then jumped to the A section on the other end, Romans 11:33 through 36, where Paul lands after his long theological argument in the B and C sections. All good theology, he said, should lead to doxology. The depth of God's wisdom, the unsearchable nature of His judgments, the fact that no one has been His counselor and no one has given to Him first so that He owes a repayment, all of it drives toward the conclusion: from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things, and to Him be glory forever.
He was honest that the middle section, covering God's sovereign dealings with Israel and the Gentiles, is where readers get nervous or angry, and he named the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility directly. He did not resolve it in this sermon. His ask was that the congregation read Romans 9 through 11 in full during the week, grapple with it, and come back ready to work through the B and C sections together over the following weeks.
The service closed with the Lord's Table, which he tied directly to the sermon's theme. The table, he said, is open to all who have called on the name of the Lord, regardless of denominational background. The bread and cup are the ground where every person in the room, from Free Methodist to Dutch Reformed, from lifelong churchgoer to brand-new believer, stands on the same footing: not what any of them have done, but what Christ has done.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Paul says he could wish himself accursed and cut off from Christ if it would mean salvation for his fellow Israelites. What does that kind of burden for other people look like in your own life, and do you feel it?
- Pastor Nathan described two ditches: the legalistic ditch and the license ditch, and said people in either one can miss the gospel. Which ditch do you think is harder for people raised in church to recognize they are in, and why?
and 3 more questions in the guide
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