BAPTISTWAY PRESS Adult Online Bible Commentary By Dr. Jim Denison, Pastor, Park Cities Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas Studies in Romans: What God Is Up To Lesson Ten What About the Jewish People? Focal Text Romans 9:1-7; 10:1-13; 11:1-2a, 25-32 Background Romans 9 11 Main Idea God continues to offer salvation to all people, Jews as well as Gentiles. Question to Explore What is God s approach to the Jewish people now? Quick Read Jesus died for all and offers salvation to all who will trust in him. Commentary No issue is more divisive in theology today than the question of Israel. Are the Jewish people still the chosen people of God? Should we see the 1948 creation of the State of Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy? What should our position be with regard to the Palestinian question and the larger conflict in the Middle East? How do these vexing issues affect our approach to the rest of Scripture? Remember that one of Paul s main objectives in writing Romans was to argue for the unity of God s people on earth. He has already demonstrated that God loves the Gentiles as much as he loves the Jews, so that those who grew up outside the revelation and law of God can still find access to him through Christ. Now he speaks to the other side of the issue: God still loves the Jews as much as he loves the Gentiles. Although many have Page 1 of 9 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations in Adult Online Bible Commentary are from The Holy Bible, New International Version (North American Edition), copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
rejected Christ as his Messiah, he has not rejected them as part of his people on earth. He still loves them and wants us to love them. We ll explore this difficult and controversial subject as objectively as possible and then find life lessons that help us find security in our own salvation and standing before the God of the universe today. Who and what is Israel? Let s begin with a very brief survey of Jewish history and then interpret Paul s statements about Israel in their historical context. The people called Israel began with Abraham s call from Ur of the Chaldees (about 2000 B.C.). God promised the man who would be the father of the Jewish people, I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:2-3). Through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, Abraham s seed would soon become a nation. That grandson s encounter with the Lord would change his name and character from Jacob (schemer) to Israel, meaning one who wrestles with God (Gen. 32:22-32). Jacob s twelve sons in turn would found the twelve tribes of Israel. The family moved to Egypt to escape famine, spending the next four centuries in slavery to their Egyptian masters. Under Moses, they were liberated by the Exodus and traveled to the edge of their Promised Land. Joshua led them to conquer much of Canaan and make it their homeland (about 1200-1020 B.C.). The nation lived as a loose confederation of twelve autonomous tribes, led periodically by judges until Saul became their first king. David succeeded Saul in leading the unified kingdom, which reached its greatest economic and military status under his son Solomon (about 961-922 B.C.), who constructed the first temple. Solomon s son Rehoboam proved so divisive a leader that the ten northern tribes refused to recognize or follow him, creating their own nation of Israel. The two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin followed Rehoboam and his successors, constituting the nation of Judah. In 722 B.C., Assyria captured and assimilated the northern tribes of Israel (sometimes referred to as the ten lost tribes of Israel ). Babylon conquered Judah in 587/586 B.C., enslaving her people for seventy years until Cyrus and the Persians liberated them. They returned to their homeland and rebuilt their temple (inaugurating the Second Temple period ). The Old Testament closes with the Jews back in their land, worshiping God within their reconstructed nation and temple under Persian domination. The Greeks would eventually overthrow the Persians and control Israel. The Jewish people, led by the Maccabees, Page 2 of 9
would rebel against Greek authority and establish their independence (166-63 B.C.). But in 63 B.C., the Romans ended Jewish autonomy and subjugated the nation to their rule. By the time of Jesus and Paul, Israel occupied less than half its land under Solomon. Repeated rebellions against Rome led the Empire to destroy Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70. The Romans renamed the land Palestine (after the Philistines) and scattered the Jewish people. So they remained for some twenty centuries. After World War I, Britain was given control of the region, an arrangement confirmed by the League of Nations in 1920. This mandate affirmed the British effort to create a national home for the Jews in Palestine. Jewish settlers began migrating to the area in ever-greater numbers, buying land and building homes. As tensions in the area mounted, the British relinquished their mandate over the region after World War II and placed the Palestinian situation in the hands of the newly-formed United Nations. The result was the 1947 Partition Plan that divided the nation along demographic lines (Arab territory where Arabs lived, Jewish land where Jews lived). But the Arabs opposed this proposal, for they were unwilling to consider Jewish independence in the region. Immediately thereafter, the British troops in the region began to evacuate. The Jewish population in Jerusalem (about 100,000 in number) found itself under siege. Water supplies were cut, food was rationed, and the people were threatened with massacre. The larger Jewish population (about 650,000 in number) was at risk. David Ben Gurion, chairman of the National Council, led the Council to proclaim the birth of a new Jewish nation in the land of Israel. By declaration, on May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was born. The Jewish War of Independence soon conquered the land, except for the Gaza Strip (along the Mediterranean coast in the southwestern part of the region) and the West Bank (west of the Jordan River, encompassing the ancient lands of Samaria and Jericho). In the 1956 Sinai campaign, Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, later withdrawing from the Sinai. In response to Arab plans to destroy the Israeli nation, the 1967 campaign resulted in Jewish control of the West Bank and the Golan Heights (to the northeast of Israel, bordering Syria). During the 1973 conflict, Israel annexed the Golan Heights as part of the nation. The 1979 Camp David accords brought peace between Israel and Egypt, in exchange for Israel s return of the Sinai to Egypt. In 1994, Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel defining the international border between the two countries. Syria has made negotiations dependent on the return of the Golan Heights, a demand Israel has refused to meet. Page 3 of 9
Meanwhile, the Palestinians and Israelis have coexisted in the land under a variety of agreements. On September 9, 1993, Yasser Arafat, then chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, recognized Israel s right to exist. Later that year, the two nations signed a Declaration of Principles which led to Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the Jericho area. In 1997, Palestinian autonomy was expanded to most of the West Bank. The area enjoyed relative peace until an Intifada (Arabic for uprising) began in September 2000. A peace accord signed in 2005 brought about a lessening of tensions in the region. Are the Jews still God s chosen people? (9:1-7) So, are the Jewish people still God s chosen people? Is God still working his redemptive purpose in the world primarily through the racial and religious descendants of Abraham? Within this question is a more specific issue: Is the 1948 creation of the State of Israel the fulfillment of prophecy? Is Israel today to be equated with the biblical Israel? Ways to view Israel today Interpreters fall into two main groups in approaching our questions. Replacement theologians believe that biblical Israel is fulfilled in the church of Jesus Christ. They point to Paul s assertion that it is not the natural children who are God s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham s offspring (Romans 9:8). The Apostle seemed even clearer on the subject when he told the Galatians, You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:26-29). Most interpreters hold variations on the theme that Christians are the new Israel, the chosen people of God today. The Lord chose biblical Israel as the channel of his blessing to all the nations (Gen. 12:3) culminating in the coming of Messiah. Now that Jesus has fulfilled his redemptive purpose, the Jewish nation is no longer the specially chosen people of God. The Lord loves them, just as he loves all people (John 3:16), but their specific purpose in redemptive history is now complete. The other main approach to the issue argues that every promise not yet fulfilled to the nation of Israel must one day be fulfilled literally. Dispensationalists are the primary advocates for this position. They typically believe that Israel and the church must be kept separate in our theology and that the national re-creation of the State of Israel in 1948 fulfilled the prophetic promises of God. In this view, the racial and religious descendants of Abraham are and must always be the chosen people of God. Page 4 of 9
How does God view the Jews? It is possible to use Romans to support either of the positions just described. As we have seen, Romans 9:8 seems clearly to state that God s chosen people are the spiritual descendants of Abraham through Christ, not necessarily Abraham s biological children. But the Apostle later states that all Israel will be saved (Rom. 11:26). How are we to understand this apparent tension or paradox? Paul begins with the facts. One: the Jewish people need Jesus. Paul grieved: I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart (Rom. 9:2) because of the spiritual condition of his people. Unceasing anguish translates the Greek words for consuming or unrelenting grief. His pain for his Jewish people was so great that he could wish himself cursed if only they could be saved (9:3). Cursed translates anathema, the strongest word of condemnation in the Bible. Paul used it to describe a person who rejects Jesus as Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3) or proclaims a heretical gospel (Gal. 1:8-9). Said another way, Paul was willing to go to hell if only his people could go to heaven. The tragedy is that the Jews were the first to be adopted as God s children (Rom. 9:4a), as evidenced by God s testimony that Israel is my firstborn son (Exodus 4:22) and he is their father (Jeremiah 31:9). They experienced his shekinah glory (Rom. 9:4) in the wilderness (Exodus 16:7), at the tabernacle (Leviticus 9:6), and in the temple (2 Chronicles 7:1). They received the covenants (Rom. 9:4), as we ll see in a moment, the law, the temple worship and the promises of God (9:4) regarding their role and their coming Messiah. The patriarchs came from their nation, as did the Messiah (9:5). But none of these attainments are enough to grant or earn salvation. We are saved not by works but by grace, a gift we must open by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). The Jews who rejected Jesus as their Messiah have not caused God s purpose or plan to fail. It was never the case that biology guaranteed salvation. As Romans 9:8 states, It is not the natural children who are God s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham s offspring. In the same way, only those who have responded to God s grace are his spiritual children today. God elected to use Jacob s line and not Esau s (9:13), out of his divine mercy toward Jacob (9:18). Through Isaac and Jacob, God has brought the Messiah for all people (9:25-26). Tragically, most of the Jews have refused this righteousness that comes by faith (9:30-33). How can it be that part of the Jewish nation is no longer God s chosen people? Because God s spiritual relationship with Israel was always conditional, based on their response and obedience to his word and will. A brief survey of his covenants with humanity illustrates this fact: Page 5 of 9
The Noahic covenant (Gen. 9:8-17) was God s unconditional promise never to destroy all earthly life through natural catastrophe The first Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 15.9-21) was God s unconditional divine promise to give the land to establish the nation The second Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 17) was God s conditional pledge to be the God of Abraham s descendants, dependent on their obedience to his word and will The Sinaitic covenant (Exod. 19 24) was God s conditional pledge to be Israel s God, based on her response to his laws and will The Phinehas covenant (Numbers 25:10-13) was God s unconditional promise to provide through Phinehas a spiritual priesthood for God s people The Davidic covenant (2 Samuel 7:5-16) was God s unconditional promise to provide his people a ruler through the line of David; this promise was fulfilled in the coming of Messiah The new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34) was God s unconditional promise to bring God s people to himself on the basis of his grace. As you can see, God unconditionally promised Israel her land, unless her subsequent disobedience disqualified her as his chosen people. Too, God based his ongoing blessing of her people on her obedience to his revelation and will. Those Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah forfeited their place within the chosen people of God. Can Israel still come to God through Christ? (10:1-13) So Jews, like the rest of humanity, need to trust in Jesus to go to heaven. But the fact that they are spiritually lost does not mean that they are without hope. To the contrary, Paul wrote, my heart s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved (Rom. 10:1). He would not pray for something God could not do. The Jews are no further from God s grace than the Gentiles, for Christ died for us all (5:8). Paul wrote that the Jews spiritual problem was not a lack of passion for God but a lack of knowledge of his word and ways (10:2). They sought to establish their own righteousness rather than submitting to the righteousness that comes from God by his grace (10:3). By contrast, Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes (10:4). End here can mean termination, but it more likely should be translated fulfillment. Christ did not abolish the law as though it were a bad thing; Christ fulfilled its purpose of showing our need for grace. This is an epochal claim for the Apostle to make. If he is right, every Jew who rejects Jesus in favor of legalistic righteousness is wrong. How can Paul be so sure? Because Moses, the man used by God to give the law, would agree: Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: The man who does these things will live by them (10:5, quoting Leviticus 18:5). In other words, a person must live perfectly by the law to Page 6 of 9
be saved by it. And such sinlessness is obviously impossible for fallen humans (see Psalm 14:1, there is no one who does good ). By contrast, the true righteousness that is by faith (Rom. 10:6a) does not try to find God through human effort. It does not attempt to climb into heaven as though to bring the Messiah down (10:6b) or descend into the deep (a reference to the grave) to bring him up (10:7), for such achievements are obviously impossible for humans (see Deuteronomy 30:11-14). The only work required by God is our response to the gospel (Rom. 10:8) made by commitment to Christ as Lord: if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved (10:9). Jesus is Lord was the earliest Christian confession. It was recited at baptisms and written on the walls of Christian homes and meeting places. Its Greek words, Iesou Kuriou, were doubly significant in Paul s day. Kuriou ( Lord ) is the word used in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) to translate Yahweh, the holy personal name of God. It is found more than 6,000 times in the Greek Old Testament, so that using it to identify Jesus was a clear statement of his divinity. Additionally, the Roman oath of loyalty to the Empire was the statement, Caesar Kuriou, meaning Caesar is Lord. For Christians to substitute Jesus for Caesar in the statement was to defy Rome and make Jesus the Lord of every dimension of life. This was a commitment for which many early Christians died. True confession is both internal and external: we believe in the heart and are thus justified by God, but with the mouth we tell the world of our faith (Rom. 10:10). As important as this confession of faith is, the assurance of our salvation does not rest with our commitment to God but with God s commitment to us: Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame (10:11, quoting Isaiah 28:16). We do not hold onto God; God holds onto us (see John 10:28). Because this way of salvation is open to all, there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for Jesus is Lord of all who call on him (Rom. 10:12). Further, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (10:13). The name of the Lord signifies his person, presence, and purpose. To call on his name is to trust in him personally. Every person who does this, whether a Jew or a Gentile, will be saved by God s grace. So, is it too late for Israel to come to God through Christ? Absolutely not. Is it too late for your friends, family members, and neighbors? Absolutely not. As long as there is another day, there is another opportunity to experience the transforming love of our Father and Maker. But we must tell what we know (Rom. 10:14-15) so that the lost might hear and believe (10:16-17). Even though they may reject the message (10:18-21), we must never stop sharing it. Page 7 of 9
It is never too late to trust in God s grace and always too soon to give up on it. What unbelieving friend is your evangelistic responsibility today? Does God still want to show mercy to his people? (11:1-2, 25-32) Paul was writing to Gentiles tempted by evangelistic anti-semitism but also to Jews confused by the Christian message of unconditional grace. So Paul closed this section of Romans with an appeal based on personal identification. Did God reject the Jews? By no means! (Rom. 11:1, using the strongest expression of denial). Paul was proof: he was an Israelite descended from Abraham and from the royal tribe of Benjamin (the tribe of the first Jewish king). Even when the Jews rejected God, God did not reject them (11:2a). It has ever been so. When Elijah thought he was the last of God s prophets, he learned that 7,000 more served the Lord (11:4; see 1 Kings 19). In the same way, there is still a Jewish remnant chosen by grace (Rom. 11:5). The Jewish rejection of the gospel gave the Gentiles their opportunity to respond to the word of God (11:6-16). Now the Gentiles should be grateful for this privilege rather than rejecting the people God used to give it to them (11:17-24). Gentiles are like branches grafted onto the cultivated tree of faith that has stood from Abraham to the present. Normally a farmer would graft a branch from a cultivated olive tree into a wild tree, hoping to stimulate the production of olives. None would ever graft a wild branch onto a cultivated tree. But this is precisely what God has done by grace. Paul did not want his Gentile readers to be ignorant of this mystery of God s plan now revealed, or to be conceited over their present standing with the Lord (11:25a). Why? Because Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in (11:25b). This statement is one of the most controversial and debated passages in all of Scripture. Calvinistic interpreters believe the Jews experienced a hardening by God s predestined decision to exclude them from the elect. Others believe their hardening came as a result of their own rejection of the gospel, or as God s response to their rejection of the Messiah, or as God s response to their legalistic refusal of grace. This hardening will last only until the full number of the Gentiles has come in (11:25b). What does Paul mean? Dispensationalists believe Paul refers to the end of what they refer to as the Gentile era of the church, to be completed with the rapture of Christians and the return of the Jewish system and nation. My approach, though, would be to translate Paul s phrase as the total number of elect Gentiles or all the Gentiles who are going to turn to Christ. Page 8 of 9
Then all Israel will be saved (11:26a). Some believe by all Israel Paul referred to the physical descendants of Abraham, but then it would be unnecessary for Christians to evangelize Jews or for Paul to be in anguish for his people s salvation (see 10:1). A second option is to see all Israel as the spiritual Israel, those who would accept Jesus as their Messiah. Perhaps the best approach is to translate the clause, in this way all Israel will be saved, meaning that every Jew who comes to God in Christ will be saved. However we view these difficult statements, their practical import is clear: God still loves the Jewish people. They are the descendants of the patriarchs (11:28), part of God s irrevocable call and gifts (11:29) to those who respond to him. Both Jews and Gentiles were disobedient to God; both are saved only by God s mercy (11:30-31). None are saved by works; all can be saved by the mercy of our loving Father (11:32). Conclusion: How should we see the Jews today? Romans 9 11 will continue to be a debated section of God s word, but its practical conclusion is clear: God loves us all and offers his mercy to all who will accept it. How do these facts relate to you and your class this week? One: every person you know needs to know Jesus. None are outside God s grace or the reach of God s mercy. Jesus died for all and wants to bring all to heaven with his Father (see 2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4). Two: every person you know needs to know Jesus through you. Your life is the Bible your friends will read; your witness is their sermon; your passion and compassion is God s gift to them. Just as the Jews were chosen for the purpose of bringing the Messiah to the world, so you have been chosen to continue the work of showing Jesus to those for whom he died. A church billboard displayed the words, If you don t feel close to God, guess who moved. It wasn t God, in relation to the Jews of antiquity or the Jews and Gentiles of today. But the good news is that the Lord of the universe is as close as your next prayer. Page 9 of 9