A Brethren IN CHRIST
Take a few minutes to read my study of Romans 11; it will help you to undersand who and what Israel is in the time of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. Much of the church today is under the delusion that God is operating with two covenants (ie. the Church and Israel) when in fact if you read Hebrews 8 you will see that it is not the case.
This false understanding of scripture has crept into the church through the theology of modern dispensationalism and has leavened most of the evangelical community.
Romans 11
PAUL asks,
VERSE ONE: I say then, has God rejected His people? God forbid! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
Paul, in the chapters previous has told his readers that Israel has "stumbled at the stumbling stone" and haven't attained to God's righteousness. He has quoted from Isaiah how Israel would would fail to respond and others would take up their place.
Now Paul is clarifying something, POINTING TO HIMSELF, not to some future restoration of literal Israel in 2000 years, he is asking a question that is on the minds of many of his contemporaries. The question is: "Are all Jews now lost?" Paul, refers to himself, and says, "That would mean I am lost, for I am a Jew, from the tribe of Benjamin. If all Jews are now lost, that would mean I am lost too and there is no hope for any of us."
BUT HAS GOD CAST OFF HIS PEOPLE? Absolutely not!
God did not cast them off, they chose not to accept HIM!
But God still has "a remnant".
Now the question is, who are His people? Earlier Paul had quoted from Isaiah: "I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved, and it sall come to pass, that in the place where it was said to the, You are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God. (Romans 9:25)
He had declared that "they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." He then says it's NOT THE CHILDREN BY THE FLESH, but the children of "promise" the children of "Isaac". (9:6-8)
So the question is a serious question-- WHO ARE GOD'S people? Is Israel cast off? Who are the true Israel?
Remember, the original "Israel" (Jacob) was actually a child of Isaac, but Paul just said not all that are of "Israel" (Jacob) are ISRAEL--so it's not even all the descendants of Isaac. So this means something more than "literal"-- it means "those who believe in the PROMISE" are the true Israel--and that promise is CHRIST.
VERSE 2: God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.
What is Paul referring to here?
Who are the people whom He foreknew.
Just go back a couple chapters--
Romans 8.28
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
Obviously God's elect-- the ones he FOREKNEW, are those who responded to CHRIST. These will not be rejected, indeed Paul goes on in that chapter to say NOTHING can separate them from the love of God.
Back to Romans 11
VERSE 2b: Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the Elijah section--how he pleads with God against Israel?
VERSE 3: Lord, they have killed Your prophets, torn down Your altars; and I am the only one left, and they are trying to take my life!
VERSE 4: But what was God's reply to him? I have left 7,000 men for Myself who have not bowed down to Baal.
VERSE 5: In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace.
VERSE 6: Now if by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace.
VERSE 7: What then? Israel (as a nation) has not obtained that which he seeks for: BUT the election HAS obtained it
Who is the "election" of verse 11:28 which PAUL calls the BELOVED? This is a KEY issue to understand in this passage. We must understand WHO does PAUL say is part of the election?
See the verses above--Romans 11:5 and 7.
(Like in Elijah's time God had his 5000) So too, at the present time there is a remnant elected by grace...
What then? What Israel (as a nation) sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elected did.
Is this election all of "natural Israel"? No-- it is the branches remaining on the "tree of Israel" after the "unbelieving branches" are cut off, as we will see as we continue this discussion.
The true TREE OF ISRAEL is comprised of THE ELECTION OF GRACE!!
Paul is DEFINING THE TRUE ISRAEL--
He is leading the people's minds AWAY from the concept of "natural Israel" and building the concept of "spiritual Israel" and how it comes together.
(Whereas modern dispensationalists attempt to start with the concept of "spiritual Israel" and lead back into "national Israel" but we see that is BACKWARDS to what Paul is doing.)
VERSE 7: What then? Israel did not find what it was looking for, but the elect did find it. The rest were hardened,
VERSE 8: as it is written: God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear, to this day.
Now the question arises: WHAT CAUSES THE HARDENING.
Do you believe that God deliberately closed the minds of the Jewish nation so they would not receive their Messiah? Was this God's plan to allow the gospel to go to the Gentiles?
NOW I do not believe that-- (though Calvinistic thought may say so) I don't believe God deliberately made it so that the Jews could not believe any more than I believe God sends "strong delusions that they should believe a lie (2 Thess. 2:11)
What God does is show HIS TRUTH in a compelling way, but when God shows TRUTH-- people react, they either accept it or they go to GREAT LENGTHS to oppose it. Thus one can say that God "did it" but it was THEIR CHOICE and THEIR REACTION.
God didn't "shut down" the minds of the Israelites-- they shut their own minds down in opposition to compelling revelation of God through Christ.
VERSE 9: And David says: Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them.
VERSE 10: Let their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent continually.
In rejecting the light they walked into darkness.
The "table" refers to their "feasts". The ceremonies or "feasts" that should have pointed them to Christ, became a snare to them-- a trap. For they depended on "THE TEMPLE" and felt their security in "THE TEMPLE" rituals and refused to see what those ceremonies were all about. So they PUT UP THEIR BACKS and rejected the true lamb of God.
The Lord Jesus was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy. Its imposing services were of divine appointment. They were designed to teach the people that at the time appointed the Messiah would come to whom those ceremonies pointed. But the Jews had exalted the forms and ceremonies and had lost sight of their meaning. The traditions, maxims, and rules of so called "scholars" hid from them the lessons which God intended to convey. These maxims and traditions became an obstacle to their understanding and practice of true religion. And when the Reality came, in the person of Christ, they did not recognize in Him the fulfillment of all their types, the substance of all their shadows. They rejected the antitype, and clung to their types and useless ceremonies. They trusted to the sacrifices and ordinances themselves, instead of looking for salvation to Him to whom they pointed.
So, the greater part of Israel (literal Israel) had fallen away. This falling away was not confined to the days when Christ lived among them. The heathen ideas had long previously crept in and corrupted their connection with the true God. As Jesus said to the Jews:
John 8.42 "If God were your Father, you would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
It is that Israel (literal Israel as a nation) which has not obtained what is hoped and sought for, justification, (salvation) which they were seeking to obtain by the law, (their ceremonies) and is now under condemnation.
But the elect (those who received Christ) did find it-- they partook of the LIGHT and were not darkened!
John 1.9-12
That (Jesus the Word) was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
continued....
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