In Romans 11, Paul is bringing a long and painful argument to its climax. If Jesus truly is Israel’s Messiah, then why did so many of Israel reject Him? Why did the covenant people seem so resistant to their own King?

Here’s Paul’s answer: “I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite…” (Romans 11:1).

Paul points to himself as evidence. He sees his own conversion, his own apostleship, his own salvation as proof that God has not abandoned His covenant promises. Paul was not an outsider to Israel. He was a son of Abraham. A Benjaminite. A Pharisee. A persecutor of the church. Yet Christ laid hold of him on the Damascus road. And now Paul understands himself as a living exhibit of God’s faithfulness.

You should as well.

Every Christian is a small apocalypse of grace. Every believer is evidence that God still calls sinners out of darkness into His marvelous light. Every confession that “Jesus is Lord” is proof that the promises of God are still alive in the world, and that God is keeping a promise He made to Abraham so many years ago.

Your faith is not merely the story of your spiritual decision making. It is part of the much larger story of God keeping covenant across generations. The fact that you believe at all is astonishing.

Think of all the moments that led here. The prayers of parents or grandparents. The providential friendships. The strange timing of grace. The patience of God when you wandered. The thousand mercies you did not even recognize while they were happening.

And here you are. Still confessing Christ, still gathered among His people and clinging to His promises.

Maranatha,

Jordy