The Tipping Point 1/5/2025

Paul explains and defends the gospel in the first eight chapters of Romans. He admittedly expresses that a person can only become righteous by faith. No one has ever been good enough to make it to heaven any other way. We can’t do enough works to get us there, say enough prayers, or even read the bible to heaven. In chapters nine through eleven, Paul focuses on another prevalent spiritual problem he is greatly concerned about. The problem was that many Gentiles were turning to Jesus, but Jews were becoming hard soil. They were uninterested in the gospel message and many despised it and those who followed Jesus.

For Paul, this was a very heartbreaking situation. Families were divided over faith. There was no one better than Paul to address this crisis of faith, as he was once a persecutor of the Church. Paul had been both the persecutor and the persecuted, and both of these roles brought deep sorrow and trauma for Paul. The tipping point of trauma and grief can lead to resentment and bitterness, or we can allow it to aid in fulfilling the Great Commission.