Have you ever been wrongly accused of something? How did you feel about those who were accusing you? Whatever you’ve been through, it probably doesn’t compare to the story of David McCallum, who was wrongfully convicted of kidnapping and murdering 20-year-old Nathan Blenner when he was 16. After being arrested in 1985 along with Willie Stuckey, the two teenagers confessed to the crimes, but McCallum claimed in a documentary called David & Me that the police pressured him to confess and implicate Stuckey after telling him that Stuckey had done the same to him.
In 2014, McCallum and Stuckey were both exonerated after new DNA tests and fingerprint analysis from the stolen car used in the abduction and murder matched other people. Sadly, Stuckey died in prison in 2001, but McCallum returned to the real world after 28 years in prison.
I wonder how David McCallum felt towards the guys who pressured him into confessing after 28 years in prison?
Pastor Matt led us through the end of chapter 8 last week. Chapter 8 ended like this:
Rom 8:38-39 (CSB)—For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul describes this enduring love that God has for us. Can you say this about any other love in your life? There is no love in the universe like the love that God has for you. Once you have given your life to Christ, absolutely nothing can separate you from His love.
Now, he says, beginning in chapter 9:
Rom 9:1-5 (CSB)—I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience testifies to me through the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises. The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.
Paul says, “I would go to Hell if it meant that my fellow Jews would come to know Christ. If they would come to know God’s enduring love for them.” I would literally give up heaven for them, he says.
This is how Paul feels about the people who have been trying to imprison, stone, and execute Him. Despite that fact, He says, I would give up everything I have gained in Christ if my fellow Jews would come to know Christ.
Paul isn’t referring to someone who talked badly about him on social media or doesn’t agree with him on some political issue; these are people who wanted Paul dead.
For example, Paul is in Jerusalem when the Jews conspire to kill him by stirring up trouble and then blaming Paul. While he is in the temple, he is seized and hauled into the street and beaten to the point he has to be carried away by Roman soldiers.
Acts 23:12 (CSB)—When it was morning, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.
Instead of hating them for what they did to him, Paul says I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart because the people who want me dead don’t know the enduring love of God through Christ.
In Ex 32, after Moses led Israel out of Egypt, they stopped at Mt. Siani, and Moses went up on the mountain and received the 10 Commandments from God. When He came down from the mountain carrying the commandments, he saw Israel dancing naked around a golden calf. What was his reaction? He was so mad he threw the tablets he carried to the ground. But then he said something similar to Paul’s words:
Ex 32:32 (CSB)—Now if you would only forgive their sin. But if not, please erase me from the book you have written.
How could Moses have that kind of love when, earlier in the chapter, the Lord said, “These are a stiffnecked people you’re leading, Moses. Let Me wipe them out and make from you a new nation.”
What would cause Moses to have this kind of love for his people?
If you stop and think about it, both Moses’ and Paul’s words are pretty amazing.
In Philippians 1:20-24 Paul said to the church, “I’m craving heaven, but for your sakes, I need to stick around here on earth.”
Not only is it amazing that he would say this to the church, but this statement in Rom 9 is even more powerful when he says about the very ones who were out to get him, “I would go to hell for you if it were possible.”
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How did Paul develop this kind of love for people?
Or, maybe the bigger question is:
How can we develop this kind of love for people?
Let’s be honest: loving people today can be challenging. How can we overcome bitterness, disappointment, anger, and hostility toward people who come against us, disappoint us, or hurt us?
Before Moses came down the mountain and found his people dancing naked around the golden calf, Moses had spent 40 days alone with God. If Moses had not spent that time with the Lord, would he have had the heart he did? I wonder if he would have been willing to be blotted from God’s book had he not spent that time alone with God.
Here’s what I see: Paul and Moses walked intimately with God, and the result of that intimacy with God was this crazy commitment to seeing other people experience God like they had experienced Him—even the people who frustrated them or wanted them dead.
Love for people is the result of being in God’s presence.
Have you ever had an experience that you wanted to share with someone? Maybe you went on a trip, and when you came back, you talked about it to your friends or family and told them, “You have to go to this place. You need to see it for yourself.”
In the same way, when you experience the goodness of God, the peace of God, and the hope of God, you want others to experience it. You begin to say, “I want you to experience what I’ve experienced. You need to see it for yourself.”
Paul frequently talked about his encounter with the living Christ. He knew what Christ had saved him from and what Christ was saving him for.
He says this to Pastor Timothy:
1 Tim 1:12-14 (CSB)—I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry—even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
When we spend time with God, reading His Word, talking with Him, and listening to Him, He reminds us of what He has saved us from and what He has saved us for. We are confronted with the fact that so many people around us need to hear the message of God’s grace, mercy, and love through Christ. They are people who are like we were, headed for an eternity separated from God.
Some of you know Andrew Palau. He is the son of the late Luis Palau and the evangelist for the Luis Palau Association. Andrew travels worldwide, including places like Pakistan and China, to share the gospel. They see millions of people make decisions to follow Christ every year. He keeps a grueling travel schedule, all so that as many as possible will come to know Christ.
As I have gotten to know Andrew, one of the most striking things about him is his genuine love for people. You experience it when you talk with him. You see it when he speaks with other people, and you see it in his commitment to share the gospel.
I asked him how that love for people came to him. He said that when he accepted Christ at 27, he realized that, up to that point, he had only been living his life for himself. He was, in his words, a selfish, self-centered guy. When God opened his eyes to that fact, he saw the meaninglessness of that life and how the goodness of God gave him hope and purpose. Now, he simply wants to share that same hope and purpose with a hopeless and lost world.
He said Prov 24:11-12 was an eye-opener for him.
Prov 24:11-12 (CSB)—Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter. If you say, “But we didn’t know about this,” won’t he who weighs hearts consider it? Won’t he who protects your life know? Won’t he repay a person according to his work?
When we spend time with God, He softens our hearts and gives us a love for people.
Let’s be honest. Typically, our natural response to our enemies is wanting to see them suffer. This is the way of the world. Our culture celebrates people getting what we think they deserve. If someone treats you poorly or says something bad about you, but then something terrible happens to them, we think, “That’s what you get—that’s karma, baby.”
But, when we spend time with God, we recognize that not only did we not get the punishment that we deserve (this is God’s mercy), but we have received the blessing of the goodness of God, something we surely don’t deserve. When we recognize that, our thoughts about what people deserve or don’t deserve begin to change.
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If we skip to Rom 10:1, Paul gives us another insight into his love for people.
Rom 10:1 (CSB)—Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation.
Secondly, Paul shows us,
Love for people is the result of prayer.
Paul’s prayer for the Jews produced the kind of love that Jesus talks about in Matt 5.
Matt 5:43-45 (CSB)—“You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
It is tough to hate your enemies and those who persecute you when you are praying for them. When you are praying for their salvation, and when you are praying that they experience the blessings of God, we are reflecting God’s heart.
It is easy to forget that God loves both the evil person and the good person. God loves both the righteous person and the unrighteous person.
We are not good, and then God loves us. We are good because God is at work in us. We are not righteous, and then God loves us. We are righteous because God is at work in us. He loved us before we were good, and He loved us before we were righteous. Our goodness and righteousness are a result of His presence in us.
So, we need to pray for those who have yet to experience the goodness and righteousness of Christ.
I heard a story about a man who opened a door for a lady in New York City. She stopped, turned to him, and said, “You don’t have to open the door for me just because I’m a lady.” He looked at her and said, “I’m not opening the door for you because you’re a lady. I’m opening the door because I’m a gentleman.”
When I pray for people, especially those who bug me, I realize my praying will not only affect them, but it will affect my own attitude, my tendency toward cynicism, my critical spirit, and my bitterness. In other words, prayer will change me.
So why should you pray for the person who’s bugging you, who’s letting you down or trying to do you in? Because it will make you a better person. It will keep you soft and tender. It will make you a loving man, a loving woman. That’s why Jesus said, “Don’t preach at, argue with, or analyze your enemies. Just pray and bless them.”
If we take Jesus seriously and pray for our enemies and those who persecute us, we will find prayer changing us in the process and giving us love for those same people.
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I want you to know that the rest of this section of scripture, Rom 9:6-29, is a bit complicated and hard to understand.
(That’s why one of these will help you—a CSB Study Bible. We have been giving these out at our information booth in the lobby. If you want one for yourself but have not gotten one because they are out, leave your name, and I will order more.)
Because we don’t have several Sundays to go through these verses, I will “big picture” the end of this section for you.
Paul essentially asks a rhetorical question: why has God has not led all Jews to a saving knowledge of Christ? And his answer, very simply, is God is sovereign. God knows what He is doing. God has a purpose in all of this.
Some folks have a problem with Paul’s point. But remember how we started this conversation today. Paul declares the enduring love of God for us and how nothing can separate us from that love.
Does God have a plan I don’t always understand? Yes. Can I trust Him because He is good? Also, yes.
Our part, our responsibility in all of this, is to become more like Jesus. How do we do that? By spending time in God’s presence and praying for people, especially the people that really bug you. Because if we don’t have love, the Apostle Paul says in 1 Cor 13, then we don’t have anything.
So, let’s pursue developing our love for people.
Who comes to mind that you need to learn to love? Take a moment this morning and pray for their salvation and the blessing of God in their lives.
Chris Hankel 
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