God and the Nations

The Gospel and the Jews

Romans 9-11

Last time we considered how God began to include Gentiles in His Kingdom. The early Christians were Jews and were cultivated by centuries of teaching under the Law of Moses which forbade them from mingling with the nations. God had to show Peter and the rest of the Church that the Gentiles had been declared “clean” and could be fully received into the fellowship of the Church. The first Gentile convert was a Roman centurion named Cornelius, along with other members of his household. The Gospel would now begin to go out to all the nations and all believers in Christ, both Jews and Gentiles, would be incorporated into one Body. The book of Acts records the conversion of Saul of Tarsus who became the Apostle to the Gentiles and took the name of Paul. Through Paul’s journeys and preaching many more Gentiles became Christians.

But as more Gentiles were converted we also notice that most of the Jews remained unbelieving and became more and more hostile to Christianity and especially to the efforts of Paul among the Gentiles. It seems strange that most of the converts were coming from the Gentiles, not from the Jews, even though the first Christians were Jews and Jesus was the Christ that God sent to Israel in fulfillment of the Scriptures and the promises that He made to them. This phenomenon persisted and is still true today.

What we have to understand today is that the unbelief of the Jews was, and still is, a significant problem and a terrible tragedy. It should always cause sorrow in our hearts to see people, any people, persisting in unbelief and rejecting God. But this is especially grievous when it is the Jewish people.

The Gospel is for them first because the Gospel is the fulfillment and the goal of everything that God had previously revealed to them. Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism, not the antithesis of Judaism. Jews who reject the Gospel are rejecting their own religion, not some foreign idolatry. The Jews are in the perfect position to receive the Gospel and have already been cultured by the Law and the rest of the Old Testament dispensation. So why did most of them not receive the Gospel of Christ?

It is the Apostle Paul himself who explains why the Jews did not immediately embrace the Gospel in large numbers, while the Gentiles seem to rush into the open door of the Kingdom of God. Romans 9-11 is Paul’s profound analysis of this situation and argument for why this is actually part of God’s overarching plan of salvation.

It is important to see that Romans 9-11 is a necessary part of Paul’s letter to the Romans because of his thesis in 1.16-17. The Gospel is FIRST FOR THE JEW and then for the Gentile. Well, if the Gospel is for the Jews first of all, they being the chosen people of God, then why have the chosen people not chosen to believe the Gospel? What has gone wrong? It looks like the Gospel is a huge failure if the people to whom it was first offered, who had been cultured to receive it, did not in fact embrace it in large numbers.

These chapters in Romans have caused much debate in Christian circles. The controversy has been what some have called Replacement Theology. This is the teaching that God has rejected the Jewish people completely and replaced them with the Church. One of the unfortunate parallels to this doctrine has been a disturbing history of antisemitism in the Church. Jews have been looked upon as inherently wicked and as enemies of the Faith.

Misunderstandings about the place of the Jews in God’s purpose still abound and that is why Romans 9-11 is a much-needed portion of Scripture today. Paul speaks directly to Gentiles in these verses also, and warns them against becoming proud and looking down on the Jews. The Gentile Church has not heeded Paul’s warnings. Most Gentile Christians today fail to appreciate how merciful God has been in grafting them into the Jewish Family Tree.

There are three large components to Paul’s argument concerning the Jews in Romans 9-11. These components are actually rhetorical questions that Paul is asking and then offering a series of interrelated answers with logical arguments to defend those answers:

I.                    Why did the Jews fall?

II.                 Have the Jews been rejected?

III.              Will the Jews be restored?

I. The first question we will consider is: why did the Jews fall?

Why is it that most of the Jews did not believe the Gospel and still don’t believe it?

The Jews rejected the Gospel because they were busy trying to establish their own righteousness through the Law. Something that most of the Jews failed to understand was that they did not become the people of God through keeping the Law, but through the election of grace. God had chosen them purely by grace and for no other reason. It all began with Abraham and God’s unilateral promise and covenant with this one man. All of that was before the Law was given. The Jews were already chosen before they received the Law. Their covenant with God at Sinai was based on them keeping the Law. But the covenant to Abraham preceded the covenant at Sinai and was not based on Law but on grace. The whole doctrine of election is based primarily on how God has dealt with the nation of Israel. There would have been no Israel if it were not for God’s choice of them. But the doctrine of grace and election is repugnant to a legalist who thinks he can climb up to God on His own.

So keeping the Law could not have been the basis for God’s election of them. They could not claim to be the people of God because they had kept the Law. God had graciously chosen them out of all other nations, based on God’s commitment to their ancestor Abraham, and they had no other claim on God outside of His mercy toward them. They did not choose God. God chose them. And God has a right to choose whom He will because no one deserves anything from God, not even the Jews. That is the doctrine of election and it applies to Gentiles also. No person can earn the right to belong to God and there is no religion that can obligate God to do anything for anyone. Belonging to God depends on grace and God’s choice or calling, not on our will or our works. The Jews had forgotten this lesson and had tried to use the Law as a ladder to climb up to heaven.

The Jews had been given the Law by God Himself at Mount Sinai. And God had made a special covenant with Israel, in addition to what God had already promised Abraham. The Law was the Word of God and was a revelation of God’s own holiness. But the Jews missed the purpose of the Law. The Law was not given so that the Jews could become righteous and establish themselves as God’s people. God had already accepted Abraham apart from the Law.

A right relationship with God could not come through keeping the Law but had to come another way, which was already demonstrated by Abraham himself. Of course there was nothing wrong with the Law and God meant for them to keep it and He punished them when they did not obey it.

And they had not been able to keep it. The whole point of the Law was to show them that they could not be righteous that way but needed something in addition to the Law. The Law was preparing them for something else, but they missed the whole point of the Law.

Actually, the Jews had a long history of rejecting the Word of God that came to them, including the Law itself. Unlike the Gentiles, the Jews had received a direct word from God. But the one quality that had justified their Father Abraham was missing from most of the Jewish people throughout their history, and that quality was faith. Israel fell because of their unbelief. When the Christ finally came, they simply persisted in this characteristic unbelief. They stumbled over the Stumbling Stone, as the Scriptures predicted they would do. In some sense the Jews had already heard the Gospel, even before Christ came, and they had already rejected it repeatedly throughout their history. The Gospel had been preached to them prophetically, beginning with the very promise God made to Abraham. But they did not believe it.

It is by faith that we become the true children of Abraham. And without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11.6). Gentiles became spiritual children of Abraham through believing the Gospel, but they can fall also through the same kind of unbelief. If we stand by faith then no one, Jew or Gentile, can boast in his ethnic heritage or in his works. We are justified by faith, just like Father Abraham.

II. The second question we must answer is: have the Jews been rejected by God?

Surprisingly there are many Christians who believe that this is exactly what transpired. There is this teaching that says the Jews were God’s people until Christ came and then they were cut off and replaced by the Church. At the very best this view is a gross oversimplification. But this view may also betray a serious misunderstanding of the Scriptures and of the Gospel as well.

The confusion has probably been a misunderstanding of the difference between the covenants. The Apostles, especially Paul, were very clear that the Old Covenant of Law that came through Moses is no longer in force as a covenant between God and people. This is the message of Hebrews and is also dramatically pictured by the Gospel writers in the tearing of the veil in the Temple when Christ died. No one comes to God through Moses anymore, including the Jews themselves. Christ is the fulfillment of the Law and therefore is also the end of the Law, just as the rising of the sun in the morning makes the lesser lights of the night fade away. The Shadow gives way to the Reality that has now appeared. There is now a New Covenant, which was promised to the Jews through the prophets (See Jeremiah 31.31-34). Actually, the New Covenant is just the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. The Law was added to the original covenant because of sin (Gal. 3.19) until Christ came into the world at the proper time. So the Law is no longer in force as a covenant. But the Abrahamic covenant IS still in force and has been fulfilled in Christ and the Gospel.

When Christ came He came to the Jews. And there were some who believed in Him and then more who believed the preaching of the Gospel through the Apostles. The first Christians were Jews so it should be obvious that God did not reject the Jews. If God had simply cut them off, then why would the Gospel be for them first? If the replacement doctrine is true, then surely the Gospel would have simply gone to the Gentiles and passed by the Jews entirely. But Jesus preached almost exclusively to the Jews. The Gospel began to be preached in Jerusalem before going out to the rest of the world. This was not just happenstance, but was the very will of God.

Those Jews who believed the Gospel were the Israel within Israel, or the Remnant, which God has always reserved and chosen for Himself. This Israel within Israel has always existed. Jews who believe the Gospel are the true Israel within Israel. The true children of Abraham are those who share his faith, not all of the natural children.

No Jew is accepted by God just for being a natural descendant of Abraham. Being accepted by God depends on election, not ethnic origin or even religious observance. Just consider Ishmael and Esau as examples of the doctrine of election. Both men were natural children of Abraham, but it was Isaac and then Jacob who were chosen by God according to the election of grace. Election is really just an extension and application of the doctrine of grace. The only way anyone has a relationship with God is through His choice to be gracious, not because of any human merit or action.

What about those Jews who did not believe? Paul gives an answer that is not usually palatable to modern ears: they were hardened. Modern people raise a chorus of objections at this point saying that God hardening someone’s heart is unfair and violates their free-will.

What we must remember is that if God were simply being fair then no one would be saved at all! And we must also remember that ALL the Jews heard the Word of God. All of the promises were theirs to begin with and God kept nothing from them. No one can charge God with being unfair or not giving the people a chance to hear and believe. There was no attempt to hide anything or make it impossible for the people. God has been fair and more than fair.

But everything really depends on God being merciful. God is free to be merciful to whomever He will and to harden whomever He will. God is the Potter and we are the clay.

There was a believing Remnant of Jews to whom God was merciful and the rest who were unbelieving were hardened. And many of the Jews remain hardened to this day.

Paul challenges us significantly in this passage concerning our attitude toward God. Is it right for us to talk back to God and to question God’s decisions when we are so dependent on His mercy? One of the characteristics of fallen man is pride and the ability that we have to challenge God and His goodness or even to charge Him with wrongdoing.

But that partial hardening of the Jews does not mean they have been completely rejected. Just think of them as something like a family tree. Was the tree uprooted and replaced? God forbid! Some branches were removed because of unbelief, yes, but the root remains in the ground and will always be there. That root is the original promise God made to Abram that was fulfilled in Christ and the Gospel.

Now that Abrahamic Covenant was unilateral: God was going to do it Himself. And so in some sense it does not matter how many Jews disbelieve because the Promise God made still stands and has been made good through Christ.

If God could graft in wild, Gentile branches into the Tree then it is really not difficult to put the natural, Jewish branches back into their own tree! And everything is ready and waiting for them to be put back into the family tree. God continues to stand with His hands held out to the Jewish people, in spite of all their rebelliousness and disobedience to Him. If they would but turn to Him, He would save them.

III. Finally, we come to this last question: will the Jews be restored?

Now that very question has some presuppositions behind it which should be mentioned explicitly: First, by asking if the Jews can be restored it is presupposed that they are in fact separated from God by their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. The Jews are not accepted by God just by being Jewish.

Secondly, it is presupposed that the Jews still do have a certain communal identity. There are still Jews who are distinctly Jews and can be identified as such. The Jews have not simply been assimilated or amalgamated so as to cease to be a distinct People or community.

Thirdly, we are presupposing that God has not completely rejected them and that they can be restored, as established in the previous point. In other words, the question now is not CAN they be restored, we have already answered that affirmatively, but WILL they in fact be restored?

Let us step back for a moment and take a view of Romans 9-11 from a higher perspective, as we are seeing the whole plan of God laid out before us. The Gospel went to the Jews first, as it should have been. Most of them rejected it.

This rejection of the Gospel by the Jews opened the door for the inclusion of the Gentiles. The Jews were then hardened and the Gentiles began coming into the Kingdom. (So in some sense even the rejection of the Gospel by the Jews caused something good to happen.)

If the Jewish rejection of the Gospel brought the Gentiles into the Kingdom, what might happen if the Jews themselves turned to faith in Christ? Paul contemplates this possibility. If the Jews were converted it would mean the injection of new life into the whole Christian enterprise. After seeing them reject the Gospel, and then become hardened while the Gentiles came in, what if God then brought the Jews to a point of repentance and faith in Christ? If it were going to happen it would have to be from God. The salvation of the Jews depends on God and His mercy.

God can restore them, if He will. Is there hope that He will do so? Paul affirms, citing promises given in the Scriptures, that the Jews will not always be disbelieving and rejecting their Messiah.

When the Jews do turn to Christ it will be by the sovereign grace of God, not because of any human activity or some kind of special evangelistic campaign. The conversion of the Gentiles, beginning with Cornelius, was Divinely orchestrated, though God used human instruments, and without a doubt the turning of the Jews will be the same kind of story.

All the glory will go to God for His amazing grace and mercy.

The natural question is: when will God turn the Jews to Christ? Paul says when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in then the Jews will be brought in. Now many centuries have passed since Paul wrote those words. But God is notoriously ambivalent about our conception of time. Some things about the future have been revealed and some things remain ambiguous.

Before Jesus went back into heaven the disciples had to ask him: “Are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?” Jesus could have immediately replied: “that is never going to happen because Israel has been written off.” But Jesus did not say that. Jesus simply said “it is not for you to know the times or seasons the Father has fixed by His own authority.” It is a good word for us today and a warning for anyone who indulges in predictions about the future.

What is certain is that God is not finished with the Jews. Anyone who says that God is done with the Jews needs to read, or reread, Romans 9-11!

At some point in the future the Jews will come to Christ. And they will come to Christ in large numbers. Paul is not speaking about a trickle of Jewish converts over centuries of time, but of a Jewish revival the likes of which the world has never seen. And there is no doubt that this Jewish revival will change the face of Christianity and probably spark a new surge of preaching and evangelism among the nations, just like the book of Acts.

So Paul asserts with perfect confidence in God that “all Israel shall be saved.” Just as the full number of Gentiles will be saved, the full number of Jews will also be brought in.

Of course, both Jews and Gentile will be saved the same way: through faith in Christ.

We do not have the details of how or when these events will transpire. But we expect it to happen because of the promises that God has made to the Jewish people. God cannot lie! God did promise Abraham that his descendants would be like the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore!

So here is the essence of Paul’s argument in Romans 9-11:

Why did the Jews fall? They had been busy seeking to establish their own righteousness through the Law but they did not really believe the word that God had sent them. They fell through unbelief.

Have they been rejected? While it is certain that the Old Covenant is no longer in force, this does not mean that Jewish people have been written off by God. There has always been a believing remnant of Jews. But most of the Jews did not believe and have been hardened in their hearts. But even then they have no all been rejected because the promise God made to Abraham was made unilaterally and that Root, if you will, still remains in the ground being fulfilled in the Gospel of Christ. Jews can be restored just as easily as natural branches might be reintroduced into the tree from which they sprouted in the first place. God has not completely rejected the Jews or replaced them with the Gentile Church. We who are Gentiles have not replaced them, we have been grafted into their Family Tree, the root of which is God’s promise to Abraham that has been fulfilled in Christ and the Gospel. And there is absolutely no place in the Church for any feelings of superiority or hatred toward Jews. Remember that “as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28-29).

But WILL the Jews be restored? Paul envisions a time when the Jews will be brought to faith in Christ, though we do not know when or exactly how this will happen. When it does happen it will inject new life into Christianity. God is not done with the Jews. But their salvation, just like the salvation of the Gentiles, is based entirely on the mercy of God and not on any human desire or action. In the end, the full number of Jews will be brought in and “all Israel shall be saved”.

For those of us who are Gentiles, this whole discussion might seem like a conversation we are overhearing but that is not really about us or meant for us. But actually, what Paul is saying about the Jews and their salvation closely concerns the salvation of the Gentiles. Gentiles must remember that being saved through Christ means in some way becoming a part of the Jewish family tree. We were grafted in and we get to share in all of the blessing that were originally promised to Abraham and his family. By the grace of God, through faith, we who are Gentiles by birth are no longer outsiders but can also become children of Abraham. It is a wonderful blessing to be adopted into God’s family and Gentiles should be greatly humbled by the mercy of God. There is no place for boasting in God’s family because everyone is there because of God’s mercy, not because of works that we have done to earn our place there. Gentiles should learn many lessons for the history of the Jewish people, particularly the dangers of unbelief and disobedience to the word of God. Remember that if God did not spare the Jews when they were unfaithful, there is no possibility of Gentile unfaithfulness being excused. Both Jews and Gentiles should remember that no one is saved because of merit but only because of mercy.

In the end we must fall on our knees and say “salvation belongs to God!”