Grafted in Christ
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Why Did The Jews Fail to Reach God?
Why Did The Jews Fail to Reach God?
Vs 11: Were the Jews doomed all along? Absolutely not!
The majourity of Jewish people stumbled and continue to stumble over the rock that is Christ.
What was the purpose of this in God’s plan? We already know that God has not failed to save Israel and give her his promises. As we saw last time, a remnant of Jewish people, Paul included, have been saved. Therefore, it cannot be said that God failed to keep his promise to Israel, even if the majourity of Jewish people fell away.
What becomes of the Jewish majority? Did they fall away never to be recovered again? Paul’s answer is no. Even though most Jews have rejected God, this is by no means the end of God’s design to save them.
God’s turning his salvation efforts to the Gentiles does not mean the Gospel will stop being preached to Jews, or that Jews are no longer in God’s saving plan. Rather, God has used the opportunity, in his providence, to bring the Gentiles to himself.
This is no after thought. The Gospel was always meant to go to the nations. Even in God’s original promise to Abraham, it is clear that through Israel God’s purpose was to bring the nations to himself. Gen 12:3
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Since this was the case, we would expect that when the Messiah came, Israel would be united and blessed in God’s covenant and then spread the Kingdom of Christ to the world. But in reality, the Jews largely rejected their Messiah. Two problems arise from this. If Israel is uncooperative and even hostile to God’s plan, how will they be saved? And if they are not saved, how will the “families of the earth” be “blessed”?
Paul unveils for us an answer that we never could have expected. While we might expect the rejection of the Messiah to have a negative consequence for the evangelization of the gentiles, it has quite the opposite effect. The rejection of the Jews actually leads the disciples, specifically Paul but also Peter, to bring the good news of Christ to the Gentiles, resulting in an Israel that is more gentile than Jew. The problem of Israel’s rejection has become the solution to the Gentiles who, rather than receiving the Gospel from the Jews as a whole, receive it in fulfillment of a prophecy found in Deut 32:21
They have made me jealous with what is no god;
they have provoked me to anger with their idols.
So I will make them jealous with those who are no people;
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
Paul himself experienced this in his normal ministry, where he would usually begin by preaching in the synagogues and, when rejected by the majourity of the Jews though some would believe, he would begin to preach to the rest of the inhabitants of that city. This is why Paul says in Rom 1:16
Romans 1:16 (ESV)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
God provoking Israel to jealousy is not done out of spite, but rather out of love in an ironic way. Just as Israel provoked God to jealousy with this idolatry and unbelief, God will save them by provoking them to jealousy in saving the gentiles and grafting them into the people of God.
A Warning to Gentiles
A Warning to Gentiles
Douglas Moo writes:
The New Bible Commentary 11:11–32 Israel’s Future: Salvation
The church to which the Gentile Christians in Rome belong is nothing less than the continuation of the one people of God from the OT.
Conclusion
Conclusion