When I first became convinced that Jewish outreach was to be a priority, I made a point of meeting some Jewish people at a Christians United for Israel dinner here in Israel. I met a relatively young Jewish medical doctor there and then a week or so later, boldly called him up at his practice to see if I could schedule a time to come and pray with him. Of course, his receptionist had no idea what to do with that kind of request, and the doctor apparently was standing next to her as she took the call. And he, with surprising good cheer, scheduled me for an appointment early one afternoon on a Monday in June.
So, I showed up at his clinic wondering how our discussion might go only to find that it wouldn’t. As I stood at the counter and told the receptionist I had an appointment with Dr. so and so, she looked very puzzled. The Dr. wasn’t in. In fact, the Doctor hadn’t been in for several days and wouldn’t be in for several more. He had taken the entire week off for the celebration of the Jewish holiday Shavuot, which celebrates the giving of the Law to Israel. And it suddenly began to dawn on me that I had had my first experience of the difficulties involved with Jewish evangelism. Often, you will not be welcomed, and in fact, if there’s opportunity, you may well be abused. This doctor had chosen to make clear his attitude toward “Christian missionaries” by deceiving me and wasting my time in coming for an appointment that didn’t exist, I’m sure, just to teach me a lesson. I found it odd that here was a devout Jew celebrating the giving of the Law who had no qualms about breaking the Law—lying, and not loving his neighbor as himself—in order to punish any Christian who might even think about bringing the Good News to him.
So, it was on to my next appointment—lunch at a diner owned by another Jewish person I had met at the conference. This one went much better. A good relationship developed and lasted for about a year—I even got him and his wife and kids to show up at church one Sunday. But it ended suddenly when he abruptly told me in a text simply to leave him alone.
And, so it goes for those who venture into Jewish evangelism. No, not all end this way, But it’s a tough ministry. A tough ministry because you’re dealing with the very hardened hearts of Jewish people predicted by their own Scriptures thousands of years ago and quoted in Romans 10 and 11 as we have seen last week and this. My experience was mild compared to the Apostle Paul’s, who, even as a Jew himself, admitted as much when he wrote the church at Thessalonica, Greece in the first century—I Thessalonians 2:14-17: “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, 15 who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and ]drove us out. ]They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, 16 hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them ]to the utmost.”
Now it’s a dangerous thing to generalize about any group of people. And Paul’s experience with Jewish people and the Gospel might cause us to be prejudiced against them. And, of course, it raises the whole question about how we should relate to Jewish people, especially in light of their aversion to the Gospel. We continue to address this subject as Paul does in Romans 11 this week. And what we’re going to learn is that it is extremely important not to return their hostility, or to persecute them as they might persecute us. Rather, he tells us to be humble and to fear, because God can be gracious or severe to Jew or Gentile—based on our humble faith in Him, or the lack thereof.
Now I want to take a moment to remind you of God’s promise to Abraham’s descendants as we found it last week in Genesis 12:3. This is what makes this topic very relevant to all of us. When God called Abraham He gave Him this promise: “And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who [a]curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
This tells us that our/your blessing to some degree depends on your relationship to Jewish people—If you bless them, you will be blessed, but if you curse them, you will be cursed. And it also tells us that all of us who have come to salvation through faith in Jesus have already been blessed because of the Jews. We are among all the families, or nations, or Gentiles of the earth who have been blessed through Abraham’s seed, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, our Savior.
So, while it might be easy to return evil for evil to Jewish people who so vehemently reject the Gospel, it’s not wise to do so. We’ve been blessed already by them and will be blessed in accord with our willingness to still be a blessing to them, because these promises to Abraham have never been rescinded.
In Romans 10-11 Paul has not only admitted that the Jews have largely rejected the Gospel, but that they are fully responsible for their rejection of the Gospel, for no good reason. And that their rejection of the Gospel had been predicted in their own Holy Scriptures. He admits that their hearts are hardened against the Gospel, so he asks this question in verse 11: “I say then, they (Israel) did not stumble so as to fall, did they?
And the admission here is made that Israel has stumbled in it’s relationship to God as a nation, because of their rejection of their own Messiah Jesus. But there’s a substantial difference between merely stumbling (temporarily) and falling completely, so as not to get up again. And that’s the question he is really asking here. Is this rejection of God and the Gospel final and total? And his answer is emphatic. Absolutely not. “May it never be!” as you see it in verse 11. Once again. we have a repudiation of replacement theology—the idea that Israel has stumbled so as to fall and that Israel is no longer a part of God’s program or His kingdom because of their unbelief, but rather that the church of Jesus Christ has replaced Israel in God’s program and kingdom and will be the lone recipients of the promises that were made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants. Paul in verse 11 emphatically denies this notion, once again, as he did in verse one of this chapter. God’s Word is saying that God is not done with the Jews. And Paul begins to explain that the stumbling is temporary. More than that, that Israel’s temporary stumbling has resulted in the salvation of the Gentiles. In other words, in some respects, at least for you and I, God has used their rebellion and unbelief as an opportunity to save us who are not physical descendants of Abraham.
Verse 11, second half, “But by their transgression salvation has some to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.”
In other words, God is still concerned for the Jews. God’s original plan as seen from Genesis 12:3 was to save all men, Jews and Gentiles alike. As I Timothy 2:5 tells us, God desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. And at first, He used the Jews as a means to make his message and take his message of salvation through Jesus to the world, to all mankind. Now the roles are reversed. Since the Jews as a nation have largely rejected Jesus as their Messiah, the Gospel has then gone to the Gentiles, as God had always planned it would. But the effect of the Gentiles coming to faith in Jesus was also intended to make the Jews jealous, and to motivate them to come to faith in Jesus. In other words, the Jews upon seeing Gentiles coming to faith in the living God would say, “Hey, that God belongs to us! We want a relationship with Him, too! Who are you to have a relationship with our God and leave us out?!” And hopefully, they would then come to faith in Jesus. So, we have this turnaround here. The Jews were used to bring Gentiles to salvation, and now the Gentiles, by merely coming to faith in Jesus in droves, as they did in the first century, were in this odd way, being used to bring some Jews to faith because they were jealous.
Paul goes on to say that really this is only the beginning. He hints in verse 12 that eventually a great number of Jews will come to faith—in fact as we will see, the nation as a whole will some day come to faith in Christ. And he speaks about this in verse 12: “Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be? In other words, if their rejection of Christ was a good thing for the Gentiles even now, how much more will that be true when they finally are fulfilled—when the promises made about them in the latter days are fulfilled and they come to Christ. It will be good not only for the Jews, but all the more for the Gentiles. And, indeed this is exactly what the Book of Revelation predicts—that after the rapture of the church, in the Tribulation, 144,000 Jews will take the Gospel successfully to the world and many will be saved.
Now Paul in verse 13 makes it clear he’s speaking to the Gentiles, who were the largest part of the church in Rome. “Now I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” Paul is here explaining part of his motive in preaching the Gospel especially to the Gentiles. In part, it was to win Jews to Christ, by making them jealous. And he speaks of what a wondrous time it will be when the Jewish people, as a whole, as a nation, come to faith in Christ. It will be so wonderful it will be as though they had come back from the dead—a reflection on an astounding blessing that is yet to come.
Then he makes a statement that’s a little hard to understand in verse 16. “If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also and if the root is holy, the branches are too.” Most commentators believe he is speaking of the first piece of dough, as in a tithe of dough, as a reference to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the Jews who were saved before Christ came. And he’s saying that those who will be saved under the New Covenant in the latter days will be holy also, set apart for God, just like their forefathers.
So, it can be said with regard to the hardness of the Jews against the Gospel in our day and age, that God has even worked for our good through this, because the Gospel has come to the Gentiles as a result of the Jews rejecting it.
Then, what about our attitude toward the Jewish person, or Jews in general? The obstinacy of the Jews against the Gospel has made some Christians mad, even anti-Semitic. It did so for such a great man as Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, who wrote a booklet entitled The Jews and Their Lies and advocated burning down synagogues, razing Jewish homes and burning Jewish literature, among other things. Is this a proper response? Well, it seems that whereas Luther passed Romans 1 with flying colors, he failed miserably in his understanding and application of Romans 11. Because verse 17-24 will tells us this—with respect to the Jews, be humble an fear—self-righteous arrogance toward Jews, instead of humble faith can result in our fall as well. Self-righteousness had characterized the Jews toward the Gentiles and they fell. If we adopt the same attitude toward them in their unbelief, well, pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Paul then uses an illustration from agriculture-the grafting of a branch from a wild olive tree representing the Gentiles, into a cultivated olive tree, representing the Jews. The cultivated olive tree is the family and descendants of Abraham, cultivated for salvation, bearing the fruit of the Word of God and the Messiah. The wild olive tree branches, having been grafted in, receive their spiritual nourishment from the root and trunk of the cultivated olive tree.
Second half of verse 16: “And if the root is holy, the branches are too. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became a partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches, but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.” In other words, salvation is from the Jews. Who are we Gentiles to become arrogant about being saved when our salvation really comes through the Jews, the Word of God belonging to the Jews and produced by the Jews and of course, salvation coming through the Jewish Messiah, Jesus. Everything we have in Christ has come because of the Jews. How can we be arrogant against them?
Verse 18 again, “But if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.” Jewish spiritual roots are what give us eternal life.
Verse 19: “’You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’ Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear, for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either.” Watch out, the same calamity that befell Israel for their spiritual pride and unbelief could befall you. And you don’t stand in Christ because you are any better than the Jews. You are sinners just like they are. It is only because of your faith, not because of your righteousness, that you have a right relationship with God anyway!
And then a startling observation in verse 22: “Behold, then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in his kindness,; otherwise you too will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”
So, God is incredibly kind to those who remain in the faith, and incredibly severe to those who don’t. And we all know what He’s talking about here—eternal judgment and hell. Don’t take your right-standing with God for granted, continue in humble faith and fear, because without faith, all that’s left is the very severity that the Jews face.
And then he notes that it would be much more natural for the Jews to be grafted in—they are, after all, the natural branches that originally belonged to the cultivated olive tree. Verse 24: “For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will those who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?
So, having read and understood this, I don’t know how any born again Christian can get excitd about antisemitism or persecution of the Jews. You do that, and don’t recognize that it’s only by God’s mercy that you stand, and not any good thing within you, you’re in trouble. Behold, the mercy and the severity of God. You don’t want to get on the wrong side of that!
So what about Israel’s future? What about this idea that there might be a future revival among the Jews. Well, it’s a fact. In fact, the truth is, that no God’s mercy to the Gentiles will be used to facility great mercy for Israel. Turnabout is fair play, right?
Verse 25: “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery.” (Now a mystery is something that can only be known by revelation from God, and often is something that had not up until this time been revealed.) “So that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the ?Gentiles has come in.
This is what’s going on right now—not only in the first century, but in, the 20th century. The partial hardening has to do with the number of Jews who come to faith in Jesus. A large number of them are hardened against the Gospel. A small percentage come to faith in Christ. David Brickner, president of Jews for Jesus, reports that less than ½ of 1 percent of Jews in Israel believe Jesus is their Messiah. (And that, in fact, is a great advance from 50 years go when their may have been only one Messianic family in all of Israel.)
How long will this be the case? This will continue to be the case until the “fullness of the Gentiles comes in.” Fulness here likely speaks of the full number of Gentiles who will come to faith in Jesus. At a certain point, a full measure of Gentiles will have come to faith in God’s estimation and that will be the sign that the time has come for the Jews to come to faith. When will this take place? My best bet is that it takes place at the rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ. If you read Revelation carefully, it appears that in the Tribulation the church is no longer present and Israel has again taken center stage. It’s at this point that the 144,000 Jewish witnesses are active around the world in testifying to Jesus, and just before Jesus comes, Israel, as a nation, finally recognizes it’s error, confesses it’s sins of having crucified it’s own Messiah, and prays the prayer of repentance, which I believe is what the prophecy of Isaiah 53 is all about, and repents and comes to faith in Jesus. And if you remember what Jesus had to say in Matthew 23 just before His crucifixion,He told the Jews that their house was left to them desolate as a consequence of their rejection of Him and that they would not see Him again until they, as a nation, would say about Him, and to Him, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” In other words, Jesus will not return again until there is a national repentance of the Jews with regard to their rejection of Jesus and they welcome Him as their Messiah. This is outlined in Zechariah 12-14 and Revelation 19.
And then Paul makes what at first glance is a puzzling statement in verse 26: “And so all Israel will be saved.”
It causes us all to stop and wonder, could he really be saying that every individual Jew who has ever lived would be saved? Of course, that is not possible, because he would then be contradicting his own statements and quotations of the prophets about the eternal condemnation coming upon unbelievers in Israel earlier in Romans 9-11. No, clearly, he is not now talking about every individual Jew, but He is talking about national Israel--Israel as a whole. Even as not every Gentile is saved during the times of the Gentiles, neither will every individual Jew be saved in the end, but what has not yet happened in the last 2,000 years, the nation of Israel as a whole, will repent and come to faith in Jesus as Messiah. Then and only then will He return to be received by them, and to save them from Armageddon.
And so all Israel will be saved, just as it is written. Now Paul quotes Isaiah 59:20-21 which tells us a deliverer, clearly the Messiah, Jesus, would come and remove all ungodliness from Jacob. Now Jacob, of course, is simply another name for Israel. And this passage is predicting that the deliverer would come from Zion and literally remove all ungodliness from Jacob. And God calls this His covenant with Israel—“This is my covenant—my holy promise which cannot be broken—when I take away their sins.” It’s gonna happen!
In verse 18 Paul begins to address two opposing and all but contradictory truths.. First, right now, the Jews are our enemies in relationship to the Gospel. They oppose us and resist us—their choice, not ours. But despite their opposition, they still remain beloved of God. Why? Because of the Fathers—the patriarch—because God made promises and covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Why in the world is the Gospel still to be preached to the Jew first, when the Jews are still so obstinate? Do they deserve it? Seemingly not. But God is devoted to His promises; God is devoted to fulfilling His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who in the end were so devoted to Him. He is forever a faithful God, and so despite how obstinate the Jews are, the Jews are still the apple of His eye. Verse 18: “From the standpoint of the Gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers—the forefathers of the Jews who received the promies are in view here.
Again, why? Verse 29: “For the gifts and calling (choices, election) of God are irrevocable.” God makes a covenant, whether it be the Abrahamic Covenant or the New Covenant, then it is absolutely irrevocable. God cannot lie. He can absolutely be relied on to fulfill His Word.
And then we have the matter of the once disobedient Gentiles who are now obedient seeking the obedience of the Jews—our proper mode. Verse 30: “For just as you were once disobedient to God but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient that because of the mercy shown to you, they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.”
Som all are saved the same way, not by their righteousness, but by the mercy of God.
Therefore we must appreciate that God’s mercy to us will ultimately result in mercy to Israel. Israel having taken part in Gentile salvation, and now Gentiles being used to bring about Jewish salvation. And it all comes only by the mercy of God—Gentile and Jewish sinners being saved the same way.
Having now concluded the greatest explanation of the mercy and grace of God found anywhere in the Bible, at the end of Romans 11, Paul now pauses to worship and praise God for his great plan of salvation.
“Oh, the depth of the riches [a]both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! 34 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? 35 Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen:
Point: We can’t take credit for anything. God gets credit and glory for everything. Thank God for His mercy and grace shown to us!
So how do we relate to the Jews—with the same humble mercy and grace God has treated us with—recognizing they have played a role in our blessing and salvation, and now we get to return the favor. Amen? Amen!
