We were in New York on holidays a couple of years ago and we stayed in the apartment of a Jewish woman. It was Jewish New Year the weekend we were there so she invited us to come to their passover meal to share it with them. Well, that night was one of the highlights of our trip as we took part in a celebration that Jews have been observing for nearly 4000 years. There’s such a wealth, such a richness of culture, and such a strength and resilience, among the Jewish people that you have to admire it. As a race they’ve suffered serious persecution numbers of times through history. They’ve been hated, killed, downtrodden, yet they continue on. There’s something about their cultural identity that can’t be defeated. So why is that? Why has the Jewish race survived when so many other ancient races from the same part of the world have disappeared or been absorbed by another race? Well, we’d want to say, I think, that much of the reason for their survival as a race has to do with the fact that God chose them as his special people. He called out Abraham to form a nation for himself, a nation who would serve as the prototype, if you like, for a new people who were devoted to God and to each other.
Yet, as Christians, we look back on the history of the Jewish people since the time of Christ and we see that they appear to have abandoned God’s plan as we understand it to have been revealed through his word, the Bible. And we ask, what’s happened to God’s call of Abraham? Did he not really mean it when he said that his promise was to Abraham’s descendants? Or has he now rejected the physical descendants in favour of those who are descendants by faith?
Of course this may not be a pressing issue for you unless you have friends who are Jews, but it was for Paul. He not only had friends who were Jews, he had family who were as well. He himself was a Jew. But the question for him was more than just a question about his friends. No it was much deeper than that. It was a question about whether God’s promises could be trusted. If God had rejected the Jews, did that mean that his promise had failed? And if that promise had failed then what of other promises he’d made? What about his promise to be with us always, to the end of the age? What about his promise to answer our prayers when we ask in faith, in his name? What about his promise to return, to take us to be with him forever?
You see this question, has God rejected the Jews, was a question that went to the heart of the trustworthiness of God. Can God be trusted to keep his promises? So Paul wrestles with this issue of the place of the Jews in God’s plan. What does it mean that they appear to have been rejected for their disobedience? Well, what we’ll discover as we go through this passage is that he takes a number of approaches to the answer those questions.
1 God hasn’t rejected Israel completely
The first thing he points out is that God hasn’t rejected Israel completely. In fact the core of the church at this time, particularly the apostles, are Jews. There are still a remnant of the nation who have remained faithful to God. And he points out that this has always been the case. Whenever Israel has fallen away, there have been those who remained faithful, a remnant who continued to obey God despite the evils their brothers and sisters took part in. And so it is now. There remains a remnant, chosen by grace.
But notice that grace is still the key. They’re chosen not because they remain faithful to the Jewish laws or religious system, but because God chooses to save them. They’re saved because they’ve responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
2 Their stumbling is not the end.
He asks, "Have they stumbled so as to fall?" That is, fall beyond recovery. The answer is "No." Of course not. He’s already pointed out in the first few chapters that everyone is under the righteous condemnation of God. Everyone has stumbled but God’s grace is sufficient for the greatest sinner. So even Jews who have rejected Christ are still in a position to receive the grace of God. Now, of course, Paul is talking here from experience. He was one who had not only rejected Christ, but had set out to do his best to wipe out his followers. Do you remember what he’d been doing when he was converted on the road to Damascus by an encounter with the risen Christ? He’d been on his way to arrest the followers of Christ and throw them into prison. No-one worked harder to oppose the spread of the gospel than Paul. Yet he as a Jew received mercy when he encountered the grace of God.
In fact, he says, if you think about it, what could be more natural than for a Jew to become a Christian. He uses the picture of an olive tree, a common image, in fact, for the nation of Israel. He says, imagine you have a cultivated olive tree, that has some of it’s branches cut out, so some wild branches can be grafted in. As long as the root of the tree is sound, the branches will begin to receive the nourishment of the sap coming from that root stock and will grow and flourish. That’s a picture, he says, of what’s happened to us Gentiles. We don’t belong in the Olive tree, in the nation of Israel, but we’ve been grafted in. The root stock is the promise of God to Abraham that he’d bless all nations through his descendant, that is, through Jesus Christ. And we’ve been grafted into the people of God, the spiritual nation of Israel, by the grace of God, through the proclamation of the gospel. So if we Gentiles, who have no call on the promises of God, can receive mercy, how much more fitting how natural would it be, if those who are physically descended from Abraham also received that same mercy? If the natural branches were taken up again by the orchardist and grafted back into their own tree?
3 Their rejection is part of God’s plan to save them
Thirdly, not only is their rejection not the end, it’s actually part of God’s plan to save them. I guess we’ve all seen reverse psychology being exercised by parents. You may have done it yourself. There are times when it’s impossible to convince a child that they should do what it is you want them to do. But if you suggest that you’re going to give their brother or sister the honour of doing it, it’s amazing how often they’ll decide that that’s just what they want to do. In fact they’ll even fight over who’s going to do it. Well, that’s the sort of idea that Paul suggests in v11. He says God has brought salvation to the Gentiles in order to make Israel jealous. Not that jealousy is an end in itself. But that if they’re jealous of the Gentiles, then they may be willing to listen to the gospel and turn back to God, to accept the mercy he offers freely, independent of the law.
And of course, their rejection of Jesus is part of God’s plan because it’s directly responsible for Jesus’ death and resurrection, which, ironically, is the very means by which God’s mercy comes to Gentile and Jew alike.
So the Jews have been cut out of the tree to allow the Gentiles to be grafted in, but imagine what it would mean if they were brought back into the Olive tree. You see if something as bad as their disobedience has meant that salvation has come to the Gentiles, that the riches of God’s grace is poured out on all nations, what would it mean if they were to return to God, to accept his offer of salvation and be accepted back into his presence again? Well, Paul suggests, it would mean the culmination of God’s plan. Everything would be complete. The promise to Abraham would have come full circle. All that would be left then would be the resurrection from the dead.
So his conclusion is this: "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." There will come a time when the Jews will turn back to God. This won’t come about, by the way, by the nation of Israel being reinstated. We’re not still waiting for the deliverer to come from Zion as some Christians would tell you. No, the deliverer has come already. He’s already banished ungodliness and taken away their sins. Jesus is the deliverer spoken about here. All that we’re waiting for now is for the Jews to turn back to God for mercy on the same basis that we’ve received mercy; that is on the basis of Jesus’ death on the cross.
So what are the implications for us? Well, let me suggest that there are a number of possible implications that we could draw from this passage.
A. Be careful to remain faithful
There’s a solemn warning in this passage that if the people of Israel could be cut off from their own olive tree, it’s just as possible for us to be cut off if we fail to remain faithful. So don’t be arrogant or proud. Rather be afraid, he says. We’re still frail creatures who need to remain firmly attached to the tree if we’re to continue to thrive. And that means remembering that the reason we’re part of the people of God is purely by the grace of God. It’s nothing to do with our own worthiness. It’s nothing to do with how good or nice we are or how well we obey God compared to someone else. It’s to do purely with the kindness of God towards us, provided we continue in that kindness.
B. Even the best religious system in the world won’t help
If you think about it, the Jews had everything going for them didn’t they? They had the word of God. They had prophets, priests, kings, given to them by God to help them remain faithful to him. They had the law. They had a sacrificial system. And none of it helped. And it still won’t help. Even if the temple were rebuilt and sacrifices were made like they were in Old Testament times. It still wouldn’t be enough. The Jewish people will be saved only by coming to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Only by receiving mercy in the same way that we’ve received mercy.
And the same goes for any other religious system that people come up with. You know, people are searching high and low for a religious system that satisfies their need for God. The researchers suggest that there’s probably as great a spiritual hunger today as there’s ever been. But unless people come to Jesus Christ in their search for God, their search is futile. Why? Because God has revealed himself to us through his word, through his prophets, and especially through his Son, Jesus Christ. And what he’s revealed is that there’s only one solution to the dilemma of fallen humanity. That solution is the salvation offered to us through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Whether a person is a Jew or a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Muslim or a new age convert doesn’t matter. If they want to be right with God, if they want to enjoy his presence, his glory, then they need to come to him through faith in his Son. Which brings us to the final implication.
C. We need to proclaim the gospel if people are to be saved
In fact Paul says this in the previous chapter when he talks about the grounds on which Jews can be saved. Turn back to 10:9-15 if you will. He says ’here is the only ground on which we can be saved’. That is "if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Now that might be an encouraging thing for some of you. If you’ve been struggling with how you might know if you’re saved, here’s a fairly simple test. Can you confess Jesus to be the Lord, the Son of God? Do you believe that God raised him from the dead? If you can say yes to those 2 questions then, he says, you will be saved.
But it’s also a statement that has a profound implication for us. That is, that if we want people to be saved, if we’re wondering how a Jew, for example, might be saved, or one of our new age friends for that matter, then there’s only one way it’ll happen. It’ll only happen if they call on the name of the Lord, if they come to Jesus as the Son of God asking for the salvation he offers.
But look at v14, because that immediately raises this set of questions: "How are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?" There’s an urgency about Paul’s questions here that we need to hear. Those people who haven’t believed in Jesus yet are lost. They face an eternity of separation from God. They’re urgently in need of this simple message. Jesus is the Lord, the ruler of the universe. He died and has risen again to bring new life to all who’ll believe in him. But they’re never going to believe that unless we tell them.
Now I’ve said before that you don’t need to be a Billy Graham to tell someone about Jesus Christ. The beauty of the New Testament account of Jesus is that it’s all in narrative form. It’s a whole string of stories, true stories, but stories nevertheless. So anyone can tell the stories of Jesus’ life. Why not learn some of the stories of Jesus life, or some of the parables, off by heart, so when the opportunity arises you can tell your friends the sorts of things Jesus did or said that touch on their situations. Or if even that’s too hard, then you could introduce them to another Christian friend who might be more confident in talking about their faith, or bring them to church or to a small group where they can be introduced to the Christian faith in the context of a small group of friends.
Whatever approach we take, we mustn’t just ignore the plight of those who are without Christ. They’re lost unless they come to Jesus Christ. On the other hand if they were to discover Christ they would be brought into his people to enjoy him forever. This is the marvellous thing about the gospel: God has done everything necessary for us to share his glory. All we have to do is accept the gift he offers us. And this is something that God purposed and put into action from the beginning of creation. That’s why Paul ends this section of the letter with this great song of praise to God: "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34"For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" 35"Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?" 36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen."
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