{"id":1883,"date":"2010-07-21T21:57:02","date_gmt":"2010-07-22T02:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1883"},"modified":"2010-07-21T21:57:02","modified_gmt":"2010-07-22T02:57:02","slug":"romans-91-oath-of-certainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-91-oath-of-certainty\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 9:1 – Oath of Certainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Romans 9:1 <\/strong>– Oath of Certainty<\/span><\/h2>\n

I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Paul\u2019s concern for the welfare of the unsaved Jews is demonstrated by his passionate proclamation.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The Greek word translated \u201ctruth<\/span>\u201d is al\u0113theia<\/em><\/span>, which is composed of a<\/em><\/span>, meaning \u201cnot\u201d and a form of lanthan\u014d<\/em><\/span>, meaning \u201cto be hidden or to be unaware of.\u201d Hence, this word refers to something that is not hidden but out in the open and subject to public scrutiny.<\/p>\n

\u201cLying<\/span>\u201d is from a form of pseud\u014d<\/em><\/span>, which means \u201cto lie or to speak falsely or deceitfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word \u201cconscience<\/span>\u201d is from the noun form of suneid\u014d<\/em><\/span>, which means \u201cto be one’s own witness, one’s own conscience coming forward as witness.\u201d This word denotes a conscience that bears witness to the morality of one’s own conduct.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Paul was accused by his own countrymen (the Jews) of being a turncoat and of rejecting all they stood for as the chosen people of God in favor of this \u201cnew religion.\u201d In fact, his fellow Jews were openly desirous of having Paul killed as we see from the book of Acts:<\/p>\n

And Festus said: “King Agrippa and all the men who are here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole assembly of the Jews petitioned me, both at Jerusalem and here, crying out that he was not fit to live any longer.<\/span> (Acts 25:24<\/strong><\/span>)<\/p>\n

In reality Paul had not turned from the Jews. In fact, he was greatly troubled that so many of his countrymen not only denied the true Messiah, but were openly hostile toward the gospel. He opens this chapter declaring that he is deeply committed to his countrymen and, in fact, would rather that all of them be saved. But he will demonstrate later in this ninth chapter that election has been part of God\u2019s dealing with mankind throughout history, including the offspring of the patriarchs, and he will cite several examples.<\/p>\n

He starts out this verse with a declaration of an oath, \u201cI tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying,\u201d yet he does not swear by heaven, or the temple, or any other thing. In fact in Matthew 5:34-36<\/strong><\/span> Christ told us not to swear by these things. Instead, he declares this oath in the presence of Christ himself. We so easily pass by this term, Christ, but the Jews of Paul\u2019s day understood that he was referring to the Messiah, the Anointed One for whom the Jews were eagerly waiting.<\/p>\n

So we see that Paul is invoking the witness of the highest authority possible regarding what he is about to say. He follows this up with the witness of his own conscience in the presence of the Holy Spirit as well. This is an urgent plea to his countrymen to understand that what he is about to say is true and straight from the innermost part of Paul\u2019s being.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

When challenged by others regarding the truthfulness of what we have said, we are prone to say, \u201cI swear it\u2019s true.\u201d This is an oath declaring the absolute certainty of what we have said. That is just how passionate Paul was about the eternal welfare of his fellow Jews who have rejected the gospel message.<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 –<\/p>\n

If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, send an e-mail to:\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 9:1 – Oath of Certainty I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, Truth to Learn Paul\u2019s concern for the welfare of the unsaved Jews is demonstrated by his passionate proclamation. Behind the Words The Greek word translated \u201ctruth\u201d is al\u0113theia, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1052,87,512,1053,1054,1056,236],"class_list":["post-1883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aletheia","tag-christ","tag-conscience","tag-lying","tag-pseudo","tag-suneido","tag-truth"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-un","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}