Revolutionary Christmas pt 8

As promised, I want to look at Israel and the Church. Let me first go to Romans 11:11-27:

I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.”

This is kind of a long passage to try and digest the whole thing. Lets take a few key points and try to go from there. We see in verses 11-15 that Paul reiterates what I went through last time: if the people that God has chosen brought about salvation to the Gentiles by being uprooted from God, then how much more will their re-grafting be? It will mean life from the dead. God has not forgotten His people Israel and plans to use them as the salvific agent to the nations.

Second point that is made is that we are grafted into their root. We are not some sort of new thing that God is doing. We are a continuation of the story. We are not the new Israel; we are reborn into Israel. In Genesis 9 we see a very peculiar story. Noah gets drunk and his son Ham walks in on him naked. The two sons Shem and Japheth then walk into the tent backwards to cover their father with a sheet. When Noah finds out, he blesses his two sons and curses the other.

Noah makes the statement, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant.” So Canaan (Ham’s son) is to be servant to Japheth, who is then supposed to be servant to Shem. Shem is the patriarch of Abraham. Abraham is the father of Israel. What Paul is expressing in these verses about how we were wild branches that have been grafted in is that we were from Japheth or Canaan, and we therefore are to enter the tent of Shem.

The history of Israel is not a framework in which to hang pictures of the New Testament (Gentile) Church. It says in Ephesians 3:21 “To God be glory in the Church forever and ever.” We need to let go our ideas of God’s glory in the Church at the expense of Israel. I’m planning on getting into Ephesians where we can tackle that statement better. Paul is not saying that Israel is out, and so God gets glory only through us. 

We can read later in Romans 11 that we are to drive the Jew to jealousy. This was a quotation from Deuteronomy. Moses said, “I will call a people who are not my people.” That wasn’t to abolish Israel; it was to drive them to jealousy so they would repent and come back to their God. In Genesis 9:24, we see Noah claim the elder shall serve the younger. Japheth shall enter the tents of Shem and dwell there. 

Japheth is the father of the Gentiles. He is the father of the Western World. Ham is the father of the Middle Eastern World and Africa. It is assumed that the oriental regions come from the Sinites (Canaan’s children). All of these are to dwell in the tents of Shem and to serve his children. Shem is to give rule to Japheth; not Japheth to modify Shem. “You do not support the root; the root supports you.” God and His word tell one story and many parts - not two parts and many stories.

So lets turn to Ephesians. In the second chapter (verse 11), we start with: “

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands — that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

Well if this is really talking about how we are now grafted into Israel’s root, and how we are not to remain as we have always been, and how we are to now be brought into the tent of Shem, then we have some severe misconceptions about the faith. It has always been taught to me that these verses talk about how I was once and sinner and now I’m saved. That is it. But it does seem like Paul is trying to convey that we are not just sinners saved by grace, but we have no right to be part of this at all except for the grace of God.

The promises were to Israel. Yet, here I am as a Gentile enjoying the very promises given to that people. It is by grace I have been saved, yes. However there is more going on here. We are brought into their history. We are grafted into their root. We are no longer “uncircumcised” nor are they “circumcised.” Circumcision is no longer the issue. It is a circumcision of heart, not of flesh. 

We are no longer Japheth and they are no longer Israel. We have been brought together - Jew and Gentile, Israel and Greek - under the same Head. We as the Church cannot be complete without Israel, and they cannot be complete without us. There is no separation between the two. We have become one.

Look at Ephesians 5. Paul brings up the point of marriage. But what is his point? Though there is good Scripture here for our marriages, Paul’s main point is that we are married to Christ. If the Body of Christ consists of Israel and the Church, and not just one or the other, then we too have been married. Israel and the Church have become one. 

I tend to use a word to describe this: hebraic. We are not Christian and we are not Zionist or the “New Israel.” We are Hebraic because our root goes all the way back before Abraham. It goes before Shem. It goes before the flood. Our patriarchs are anyone who it was said of them that they were a son of God (yes, even Adam). We are of the line of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. Because we are of this line of people who follow God and believe God at His word, we are children of God. This is the whole point of the book of Romans.

Not everyone who calls themselves Israel is Israel. Jesus made the same statement in a different way. In John 8, He is talking to the Jews. They claim, “Our father is Abraham.” If your father was Abraham you would act like Abraham. We are a people who have been brought into this root of people who act like Abraham. Abraham acted like his fathers. His fathers acted like their fathers. It all goes back to being a son of God. But those who act in wickedness make it clear who their father is. Their father is the wicked one himself: satan.

This is the whole point of Ephesians. If you read it, I don’t see how you can get anything else from it. We were once sons of our father satan, but have been brought by the Spirit into a new relationship: being children of God. The children of God are not just Israel, but anyone who obeys the teaching of God. Jesus has broken down the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile - that enmity that keeps us at each other’s throats - so that we can now be One Body in Christ our Head. 

Lets keep going through Ephesians. We reach chapter 3: 

"For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.”

What is the mystery? It is that we too have been given the grace of redemption through Christ. The Jews that that we were outcasts. They thought that even those in Samaria (who were also their brothers from different tribes) were outside the grace of God and could not be children. If even the brothers of Judah were thought to be outside the saving grace of God, then how much more we who were not even Israel? 

This is the whole point. By our unity, and by the truth of our proclamation of that unity, we are waring with satan. It isn’t about how much we can pray and what words we use and how riled up we get. The question comes down to one thing: are you one as Jesus prayed we would be with one another? If we aren’t even one with each other (Baptists vs Pentecostals vs Nazarenes vs Catholics etc), then we certainly cannot say that we are one with Israel. If we lack this understanding and the truth is that we are far divided, then we have no spiritual authority. The devil laughs and mocks, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?”

So what was Paul saying in Ephesians 3:21? To God be glory in the Church. Why? God only gets glory from our unity. If we can understand this truth and lay hold of it, we will be changed forever. It isn’t easy. Lets remember what we read in Romans 11: they are the enemies of the Gospel for our sakes. They have every right to be upset and gnash their teeth at us. Our Gospel sounds utterly stupid. 

A man was born to a woman out of wedlock, and he claimed to be the son of God. He riled up crowds and wouldn’t obey the Law and prophets. He broke the Sabbath regularly, and taught that the religious authorities were evil. He opposed the state. In the end, he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and crucified outside the city with the thieves. 

Whether we want to admit it or not, this is exactly what our Gospel sounds like to people. Though we know the truth, they are blind. Though we know reality, they are deaf to it. They are the enemies for our sakes. For 2000 years they have been saying that Jesus was a bastard son. Mary broke her courtship with Joseph and Jesus is the proof. For 2000 years they have written it down and taught their children that Jesus and His movement has persecuted them. We, as Christians, are the enemy.

And we supposed to be one with them? I tell you that if you cannot love them, even in their unsaved condition, then you cannot love anyone. If you cannot find it in your heart to extend mercy to them (simply because God has said they are His chosen people), then you do not care about the glory of God and you have no mercy to extend. This is the ultimate challenge. Even Martin Luther failed it. If such a man as Martin Luther could say, “All the Jews should be put into a synagogue and burned alive,” then how would you respond to their opposition? 

It takes more than just wishful thinking. It takes the very heart of God. This is why “to God be glory in the Church forever.” It takes God to do such a thing. Let me remind you that this is Paul writing. This is the same man who was persecuted and executed by the Jewish authorities multiple times. That says a lot.

So let me end on this note. We are one with Israel in Christ. There is no separation between us. We are now grafted into their root. Therefore, it isn’t Israel and the Church. It is only the Body of Christ. It is only Israel. It is only the Church. It is only that Hebraic root. 

Lets continue with the revolutionary Christmas next time by looking again at the eternal perspective. In this, I want to try and look at some more eschatology and hopefully the Millennial Kingdom and Heaven.