From the Comments: The Connection of the Church with Israel, Part 1 (Romans 11)

Reader Ted Bigelow, aka Simple Elder, asked me a series of questions in the comments regarding the relationship of the current church with Israel. The same issue has come up in earlier comments from other readers, from several different directions.

And so I figure it’s time to address what is actually a very controversial question — and we’ll see that the New Testament addresses the question from different angles with differing metaphors.

Therefore, we cannot simply pick a verse that seems to support our preferred view and declare victory! As is so often the case, we have to take into account the totality of the evidence — and only then can we take a position.

Romans 11

We should start in Romans, because this is one of the major themes of the book. And I could start in chapter 1 and show how Paul explains the interrelationship of Israel and the church throughout the the book. Fortunately, however, Paul gives us a very nice summary in chapter 11.

(Note — Not really wanting to wander off into predestination here.)

(Rom 11:1-5 ESV) I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.  2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?  3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”  4 But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”  5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.

As Paul announced at the beginning of chapter 9, he is distressed that most Jews have rejected the gospel of Jesus, and he knows this will lead to their damnation. Does this mean that God has rejected the Jews?

Well, no. First, God made a covenant with Abraham, and he will certainly keep his end of the covenant. Second, because of this covenant, God has preserved among Israel a “remnant” (11:5) who have faith in Jesus and so will be saved.

(Rom 11:13-15 ESV) 13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry  14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.  15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

Paul hopes that, the Jews seeing the Gentiles enter the Kingdom, will become aroused to jealousy (v. 14, an allusion to Deut 32:21) and so also enter in. After all, allowing the Gentiles in is “the reconciliation of the world,” and if the Jews were to enter as well, that would “life from the dead.” That is, God certainly is not rejecting the Jews for any reason other than their lack of faith.

(Rom 11:16-18 ESV)  16 If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.  17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree,  18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.

Paul then famously compares the entry of the Gentiles into the Kingdom to be grafted onto the root of an olive tree. And if the root is holy, so are the branches — those Jews who remain because of faith and those Gentiles who are added because of faith.

Paul is clear that the Kingdom does not begin with the Gentiles because “it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.”

(Rom 11:19-21 ESV)  19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”  20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.  21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

The Jews that rejected Jesus — who lack faith — were broken off. The Gentiles with faith were grafted in. Thus, faith is the test, not nationality. Moreover, if God would break off the unbelieving Jews, he will also break of Gentiles who lose their faith.

It’s a challenging chapter, and I’ve not covered it all, but clearly Paul sees entry into the Kingdom as being about faith in Jesus, and that Jews and Gentiles enter on the same terms. However, the gospel is first for the Jews, because they are the people of covenant  — hence, Jesus went to the Jews and the apostles preached initially to the Jews.

Notice, finally, that Paul sees the root into which the Gentiles were grafted as holy and as of continuing necessity. The root is not pulled up and replaced with a new Gentile olive tree. Rather, the Gentiles are grafted into the root, so that they will mature into fruitful branches nourished by the ancient root.

The root

The root is, of course, Abraham and his descendants, Israel pre-Pentecost. It was with Israel that God had been in covenant, having made covenant with Abraham, Israel, and David. This root now supports the church, although it’s become a predominantly Gentile church.

How is this true? Well, we are, of course, blessed not only with the Old Testament scriptures but we are now beneficiaries of the promises God made to his people. God told Abraham he would bless the nations, and now we benefit from that promise. God promised to credit faith as righteousness, and we Gentiles benefit from that promise, too. God promised to send his Kingdom and to establish the reign of his Messiah on earth, and that one benefits the Gentiles, too.

There is an ugly, anti-Semitic streak in much of our theology regarding the Jews, inherited from a European church that often truly hated the Jews. We have to be careful not to let this teaching blind us to what the scriptures say.

In Romans 4, Paul explains how the covenant with Abraham defines the gospel.

(Rom 4:1-8 ESV) What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?  2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.  3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”  4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.  5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,  6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:  7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;  8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Paul points out that God promised both Abraham and David salvation by faith rather than works.

(Rom 4:9-12 ESV)  9 Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.  10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.  11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,  12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

This blessing — faith credited as righteousness — was given to Abraham before he was circumcised and therefore does not require circumcision (or any other work of the Law, all of which came later).

(Rom 4:16-18 ESV) 16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring– not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,  17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”– in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.  18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”

Therefore, faith in Jesus, credited as righteousness, is not just for Jews but for “the nations” as well.

Galatians 3

Paul explains the importance of Abraham’s faith for Gentiles from a different angle in Galatians —

(Gal 3:8-9 ESV)  8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”  9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

The Gentiles are saved by faith because Abraham’s faith was counted as righteousness and this promise applied to all the nations that would be blessed through him. We are saved by God’s covenant with Abraham.

(Gal 3:13-14 ESV)  13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” — 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

But that’s not the end of it. The salvation of the Gentiles leads to “the promised Spirit through faith.” We Gentiles receive the Spirit by faith — but not just the Spirit, the promised Spirit.

You see, the prophets long ago promised that God would pour out his Spirit on the Kingdom. The promise was made to Israel, but the Gentiles are grafted into the promise through Jesus.

(Gal 3:28-29 ESV)  28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Thus, in the end, national and other distinctions disappear because all come to God with the same faith. And that faith allows God to graft us in so that we become “Abraham’s offspring” and so heirs of the Kingdom “according to promise.” The prophecies about the coming Kingdom of God therefore apply to the Gentiles, too.

There’s an ugly tendency to speak ill of Israel and assume that God has entirely rejected Israel, replacing Israel with faithful Gentiles, but Paul’s point is not that the Jews have been rejected or replaced but that “there is neither Jew nor Greek,” because all with faith are saved.

[to be continued]