Against Anti-semitism

Introduction

Since the beginning of our study in the book of Romans, I have made the point that the main issue Paul is trying to address in the book of Romans is disharmony between the Jewish and the Gentile parts of the church of Rome. The church of Rome most likely started from Jewish converts at the day of Pentecost who went back to their home and started a church, but since that time, Jews had been expelled from Rome and were just now being allowed back into the city. During that time the ethnic makeup of the church of Rome had changed. What was once a primarily Jewish church became a primarily Gentile church. As history progressed, most of Christianity followed the same trend.

Pretty early on in the church’s history, Christianity began to take an anti-Jewish stance and the doctrine of supersessionism or replacement theology began to be taught in the churches. This is the doctrine that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s plan. We see evidence of the anti-Jewish mindset scattered throughout history:

Chrysostom who lived during the late 300’s AD described Jews as Christ-killers and their synagogues as dens of demons and brothels.

b. The Fourth Lateran Council during the time of the crusades demanded that Jews where distinct clothing from the Christians to prevent inter breeding with them.

c. I have mentioned in the past Martin Luther’s calls to burn synagogues, confiscate their lands and expel them. Luther’s comments were later used by Nazi Germany as justification for their actions.

These views did not represent all of Christianity but they reveal that this issue is important to the Church. But what we see in our text is that the seeds of antisemitism were already sprouting even in Paul’s day.

There are two ways I could approach this paragraph this morning: I could go through the theology of the Olive Tree which I introduced in the into to chapter 11 or I can focus on what Paul wanted us to focus on. I am going to focus on Paul’s main point while weaving in the teaching of the Olive tree. I want you to read the following verses and tell me what commands do you see:

Boast Not - The first command we are given in this passage is not to boast- BDAG defines this word as meaning to boast at the expense of another or to boast because of power over someone. The Greek grammar of this passage literally says Stop boasting- this was already a problem in the church of Rome. Let’s pause and ask who is doing the boasting and who are they boasting against? Back in vs 13, Paul shifted his conversation to the Gentiles showing us that this command is given to the Gentiles. Now who are the branches? In vs 16, Paul introduces a metaphor that is used throughout the bible. He refers to an olive Tree which represents the people of God. The root is Abraham and the patriarchs while the branches of that tree were the Jewish people. So what we see here is the Gentiles boasting against the Jews. Now what was their boast? Our boast is found in vs 19 which says that they were broken off so that we could be put in their place. Paul agrees in vs 20, but the boast has misunderstood what God is doing.

To the Gentile mind, God removed the Gentiles to put something better in its place. It’s like when you have had a pair of shoes for years and the soles are falling off. You go and buy an nice brand new pair of shoes to replace the old worn out broken ones. This is what the Gentiles thought was the reason God had taken some of the branches out and put the Gentile believers in.

Be not highminded- The second command is to not be proud. Going back to the previous illustration, the Gentiles were proud of their new exalted state. They thought they must be something if God was replacing the Jews with them.

fear- Paul is saying your status as Gentiles grafted into the olive tree is not as secure as you think it is. I’ll come back to the meaning here later on. But rather than pride there is to be a healthy respect and fear of God. There is a fourth command in this passage, but if you notice it is in italics. The actual verb that goes with that statement is fear so that it literally would read fear lest he also spare not you.

If you boil all those commands down to their single purpose, you will see that Paul is correcting antisemitism in the church of Rome. The oxford dictionary defines antisemitism as hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people. I believe that we are seeing the seeds of antisemitism already in the Roman church. The Gentiles were verbally demeaning the Jewish people, they were elevated in their pride against them and felt secure in their position as God’s favored people. The rest of the paragraph when fleshed out gives us Six reasons to reject Antisemitism in the church.

If the roots be holy, the branches are holy

Romans 11:16–17 “For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;”

firstfruits be holy, the lump is holy- As I mentioned before, the root and the firstfruits refer to Abraham and the Patriarchs. The word holy refers to being set apart. It speaks of a special relationship between God and the firstfruits. Paul’s argument is pretty simple at this point: If Abraham was special and set apart to God so are the branches, the Jewish people. If God had cast off the people of Israel, right after the captivity would have been the time to do it, but God didn’t do it even then. In fact, he says in Jeremiah 2:2–3 “Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord.” God is affirming the sweetness, specialness of his relationship with Israel in the beginning and because of that memory, He will avenge those who have persecuted them.

if some of the branches be broken off- Paul goes back to his first argument that not all of Israel has been broken off. God didn’t reject the entire people wholesale.

a wild olive tree- refers to the Gentile people. We are a non- domesticated olive tree. We are like the coyote while they are like the show dogs. grafted in- Commentators have debated this analogy because it is argued that you never grafted in a wild branch into a good tree, but historical evidence has come out that, this in fact did happen when the good tree was sickly. The wild olive branch could be grafted in to revitalize the olive tree and cause it to bear more fruit.

partakers- is a key word here. Literally it means co-sharer. That implies that we don’t replace them but we share with them in the root and the fatness. By being grafted in we have been connected to Abraham as children of faith and we receive the fatness or the benefits of being Abraham’s children by faith. The fatness refers to the fertility or the life giving nourishment of the tree.

You benefit from the blessings that began with them

Romans 11:18 “Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.”

Paul makes a point that we benefit from the root not the other way around. Everything that we enjoy as believers is because of and can be traced back to the root. Everything we enjoy as a believer is because we are in Christ, the Jewish Messiah. Paul argues in Galatians 3:16 “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” that the Abrahamic promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and then in Galatians 3:29 “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” that we are heirs of the promise because we are in Christ.

This tree does not flow the other way around. We are supported by the tree and without it we would not have life.

In a sense, Paul is pointing out the debt of gratitude that we have to the Jewish people. It is through them that we even have salvation and if some of them had to be cut off so we could be grafted in; how much greater is that debt. Its kinda like a business owner who has spent the last 50 years building his company from the ground up. When it comes time for him to retire and his son takes over the family business, do you think it would be logical for the son to say, Look at this company that I have built? No he inherited everything from his father. At this point, he has done nothing to build that company. He stands on the back of the previous generation.

Nothing we have is because of our goodness. It is all grace from God.

You only stand in the tree because of faith

Romans 11:19–20 “Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:”

We need to go back and ask why were they removed and why were we grafted in? The unsaved Jews were removed from the olive tree because of unbelief. When their Messiah came to them, they did not believe. They would not believe. But even more importantly, we stand or have a firm footing in the olive tree because of faith.

It doesn’t say we stand because of our good looks. Some of us would be utterly condemned on that basis. Need I remind you that the Romans thought unibrows were beautiful at this time.

It doesn’t say we stand because of the influence we have in the world. From a logistical standpoint, it makes sense to save the Roman believers. They are the world power; but that was not God’s reason.

It doesn’t say we stand because of our religious piety. The Romans were pagans. Sometimes devout pagans, but pagans nonetheless.

Think about any good thing that you think you bring to the table for Christ. What do you have to offer Him? According to the text, your position in Christ has nothing to do with whatever that thing might be. It is merely on the basis of faith or trust in Jesus Christ. Its not even trust in yourself. You have to trust someone else because you are utterly powerless to save yourself. What pride is there in that. There is no pride left at the foot of the cross.

You might be removed from the tree as well

Romans 11:21 “For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.”

This verse is important to interpret correctly. This is why I stress so much that Romans 9-11 is not primarily about individual election but corporate election of the people of God. Who are the natural branches again? The Jewish people. Let me ask you another question that is equally important, who is the thee, the you in this verse? The answer to this question determines your theology. If you, is you individually, then this verse teaches that you can lose your salvation. But we know from other scriptures that this is not the case.

John 10:27–29 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”

1 Peter 1:5 “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”

The you here is referring collectively to the Gentiles. God is not under any obligation to continue to offer salvation to the Gentiles people if they en masse choose not to believe. In fact vs 25 when it uses the phrase until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in refers to a time when God is done working with the Gentile people. Just because we have been blessed to see so many Gentiles come to faith now doesn’t mean that will always be the case. Our blessing as a people now is no guarantee of future blessing.

We read stories like Left Behind and think about all these Gentile people getting saved after the tribulation. What if that isn’t how it happens? What if for the most part the only people getting saved are Jewish because God has removed the vail from their eyes.

It is all about God’s character

Romans 11:22 “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”

The way God has done this cutting off unbelieving Israel and grafting in believing Gentiles is not about us; it has always been about God and his character. There are many attributes of God that we would generally hold as opposites and yet they are perfectly united in God. We are given two here:

Severity- the word’s mean what they mean here. God’s act toward Israel seems rough, harsh, even severe. But notice who received the severity? It came on those who fell. Those who stumbled over Jesus. They wouldn’t receive their Messiah. This is important because God’s justice is not arbitrary. His judgment is always just.

Goodness- His goodness comes on us it is implied from the previous verses because of faith. Our trust in Him puts us in a place to experience His goodness.

otherwise- this is a repeat in different words of the previous warning. You Gentiles could also be cut off.

They can still be grafted back in

Romans 11:23–24 “And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?”

Paul’s final argument is that there is still hope for the Jews. Salvation is not beyond their reach. After all, Paul a Jew was saved. This picture again remind us that the election of Romans 9-11 is not one of eternal damnation or individual salvation predetermined from the foundation of the earth because it can be reversed. If they choose not to remain in unbelief, they can be grafted back in.

In vs 24 Paul argues that if God could graft you who are wild by nature and a different kind of olive tree; how much easier would it be to just graft back in the branches that he cut out of the original tree. We are contrary to nature- we aren’t Jews and we don’t become Jews by being grafted into the tree. Paul is again arguing from a lesser to a greater.

If God can graft you in, a misshaped, untrained, foreign olive branch into the tree; how much more could he take the natural, proper branches and graft them back in.

Conclusion

In a culture that on both the right and the left is becoming more and more antisemitic, as a church, we should remind ourselves of the arguments Paul has presented here for why we should not elevate ourselves over them, look down on and besmirch the Jewish people.

Those reasons in simple English are:

They are still special to God

You benefit from what God started with them

You are only here because of God’s grace

God could stop working with the Gentiles too

God’s character is what caused Him to act this way,

There is still hope for the Jewish people

This message is more a challenge to renew your mind about this issue. With culture rapidly changing on all sides against the Jewish people, it is important for us to remember the role they play in God’s redemptive plan. The danger of ignoring a message like this is that we end up where Nazi Germany ended up. We tend to think Germany was all a bunch of atheists at the time, but there were a ton of Christians in the country. Some who even fought for the third reich. How did they get there? Their minds were not being informed by scripture; rather they jumped on the bandwagon of Germany first. They used slogans like Deutschland den Deutschen” – literally: “Germany for the Germans” which led to the “Jewish poison must be eradicated.” Germany was overrun by theological liberalism at the time which undermined the literal meaning of scripture. The average German while professing to be Christian did not possess a solid understanding of the bible. A biblically grounded mind set is the only way to prevent such a slide into antisemitism.