The Romance of Romans-Part 70

Romans Chapter 11 cont'd

Then have the Jews spiritually stumbled never to rise again? No way! In fact, through their fall, a door of salvation has opened wide for the Gentiles in order to strategically provoke the Jews to jealousy. And if through their failure and loss of spiritual status, the nations of the world have been so richly blessed, what will their restoration bring to the earth?
Now I address you Gentiles, given the fact that I, as a Jew, have been specifically called to be a divine messenger to the Gentiles and therefore have special insight into this issue. I long that my work among the Gentiles might stir some of my Jewish people to a jealousy that will set them up to be saved. For if their temporary rejection has led to the reconciling of the other nations to God, their future return to God will invoke nothing less than resurrection power!

Comments:

A main point that Paul makes in Romans 11...that the Jews (generally speaking) as a people group did not receive Jesus as Messiah...and that this choice opened the doors spiritually for the gentile world to accept him and be grafted into the ancient Abrahamic covenant...only makes sense if we capture the intrigue and drama of the meta-narrative of "God's Big God-Story" that Paul has been rehearsing.

The Father originally intended for the entire Jewish nation to serve the others nations as a "kingdom of priests" and extend the gracious blessing of Abraham to the world. Yet, they institutionalized, formalized and nationalized their corporate life thereby effectively reducing and enculturating the kingdom of God in such a way that it walled off the gentile nations from coming to the living God. So, for instance, God, in response, chose only one tribe of their twelve to then embody the priesthood. He didn't ultimately put his hope on the "seeds" of Abraham to fulfill the promise, but rather progressively focused in on the "seed" of Abraham...the promised Messiah...the Faithful Israelite who was to come.

God placed his salvific stock in a second Adam, a covenant mediator greater than the angels, a prophet greater than Moses, a general greater than Joshua, a king greater than his father David and a priest greater than Aaron/Levi. His dealings with Israel would center on preparing a cultural/historic/national "womb" from which the Messiah would come forth and provide a prophetic backdrop that would provide the nations with a convincing "reason to believe" when his Day would come. God would incarnate his very Word, who co-created with him the heavens and the earth, into human flesh in order to win the day for broken and wayward humanity. The Author himself became the Lead Character of the salvation story. There was and is no other human being worthy to take the book of human history and destiny and open it's seals.

However, Paul is quick to also remind us that the story is not over yet and that powerful divine promise yet hovers over the heads of the Jewish people. There is another thrilling twist in the plot of the grace of God at work among the nations before the end of the end times. The Jewish nation...ethnically speaking...will be substantially and mysteriously stirred to a spiritually jealousy through the compelling witness of both their separated brothers and the gentiles who have become united in truly following Messiah Jesus. A remnant of ethnic Jews (that will embody the fulfillment of the divine promise to Abraham) will come to faith in God's chosen Messiah...Jesus of Nazareth...and be grafted in again to the rich and eternal covenant of God's grace. (The fact that they are still a people group at all, after having no homeland for so many centuries, is already a powerful divine sign and wonder in the earth.)

Those of us to have come to faith in Christ should take courage and heart from the fact that in our generation, more Jews have come to Jesus...along with the millions of Asians, Africans, Indians, Arabs and many indigenous people groups of the earth who have also come to him (despite the rise of post-Christian culture in the West)...than at any other time in history. The harvest fields are ripe and Christ Jesus will receive the reward of his suffering and see the ramifications of his resurrection. The Father will himself see to this (Ps 2; Ps 110).