A few years ago, God started to open up to me the mystery of what is to happen in the End Times. This was what I wrote about 4 years ago. My view has changed and adapted slightly since then, and I wouldn't word things the same way as I had before, but it is an interesting read anyway:
The
Lord has been revealing to me different things about Israel and the Church. I’m
sure by now that you have noticed the way that I speak about these things is
very unique. I do know of others who see the same way, but most people have
never heard of them. The way that I view both the Church’s role in the earth
and Israel’s role in the earth are the exact same way that I view Christ’s role
on the earth.
When
Christ came to die, it was to be a propitiation for the entire world. He is the
sacrifice of atonement, in which even the Gentiles have salvation. The Church
is His Body. They should be fulfilling the same role that He had 2000 years
ago. Israel is still God’s chosen nation, and there are many prophecies that
have yet to be fulfilled concerning them, not the least of which is that “they
shall bless all the nations of the earth.”
I
believe that there is going to be a cosmic drama to be played out, very
possibly in our very generation. When you start to see and understand the immensity
of this drama, you start to stagger under the revelation. How did we miss this?
How is it that so many believers don’t know of the role of Israel in the last
days? And how is it that the majority of the Church doesn’t know its own role
in the last days?
When
you start to see the vastitude of this, you start to realize that we have been
play-acting. The majority of the Church is out of the will of God. We have been
the new Israel, and not in the good way, writ large. We have taken upon
ourselves our own ideologies and interpretations of the Scriptures. We’ve given
ourselves a comfortable Gospel that requires nothing. And all of this is in the
exact proportion to how little we consider Israel. This is all in the exact
degree to how much or how little we truly care and understand about the
promises to them.
We
see time and again in the Prophets that Israel is the key to the redemption and
the blessing of all the nations, and in turn is the key to the glory of God.
Look at Isaiah 66. God says that He will cleanse them in a day. In a day! He will put a new heart within them, and they will
stagger the nations, because their transformation to redemption will be so
absolute and so utter that in a day the nation of Israel will be born. Our
ideologies of salvation being a process and it takes time to be holy are false.
I’ve seen it with my own eyes that after 48 hours a man would stop his
drinking, smoking, cursing, fooling with women, and grab hold of his Bible and
read almost non-stop all the days of the week. And God says, “I’ll do better
than that; I’ll redeem all of Israel, all of the Jews, to the same extent in a
day.”
Guess
whom the key to that transformed Israel is. It is we. The Church, which is
mostly Gentile, is the very instrument that God will use to redeem Israel, and
Israel is the key for the nations in God’s cosmic redemption. I am getting
ahead of myself.
Paul
told us that he would have that we are not ignorant of this mystery, lest we be
wise in our own conceit. We have been ignorant. What has happened? We’ve become
wise in our own conceit; exactly like he told us would happen. We have come to
a place where people think that we, as the Church, are the new Israel. We are
the new vehicle that will be employed to bring God’s glory to the nations. We
think that we are the spiritual Israel. God has not birthed these thoughts. He
still remembers His prophesies.
My
question, even before we begin to really dive into the depths, is whether or
not you are willing to suffer for Israel’s sake. If the nations shall rage
against Israel, as it has been written that they will, and if we are to oppose
our own nationality for the sake of Israel, then we must also suffer with them.
Are we willing? Or is there some secret spot in our hearts that would say,
“They don’t deserve it. They abandoned God”? Is there some sort of Anglo-Saxon
or anti-Semitic root within us that would cause for us to oppose Israel with
the nations, because they crucified the Lord Jesus?
It
is interesting how this will reveal our secret hearts. God will elect whom He
will elect. He is not democratic. This is a theocracy. He will have mercy upon
whom He will have mercy, and judgment upon whom He will have judgment. Esau He
has hated, but Jacob He has loved, and who will tell Him He’s wrong?
If
you are willing to hear me out, then I hope that God would bless you. Paul
said, “I would have it that you are not ignorant of this mystery.” In Romans
9-11, you have Paul making statements directed at Israel. The commentaries are
full of insight for Romans 1-8, and Romans 12-16. Yet, Romans 9-11 have very
few insights and words. They are often misinterpreted and misquoted. Why? It is
not that this is a mystery in the sense that it is something mystical or
majestic, but instead that it is hidden. And God has not desired to reveal it.
It is His prerogative. But the time is come that He has spoken into the hearts
of some to speak forth this understanding. Please be patient, and read with
open hearts, because I fear how this might be taken if it is placed through our
spiritual filters and theological biases.
One
of the passages of Scripture that show Jesus’ ministry to mankind is Isaiah 53.
I want to use this to show His ministry, the Church’s ministry, and also
Israel’s ministry. The Lord willing, I hope to relate a lot of Scriptures to
this.
“Who
has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He
grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He
had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that
we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and
familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was
despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and
carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and
afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his
wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has
turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on his the iniquity of us all. He
was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a
lamb to the laughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did
not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can
speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for
the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grace with
the wicked, and with the rich in his death, through he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and
cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he
will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will
prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of
life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among
the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out
his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors, for he bore the
sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Jesus
our Lord
It
is a strange thing to me to consider Jesus in context to this chapter. He is,
in Himself, the very prophetic display of Israel’s sifting through the nations,
and the Church’s response. It is a strange thing to me that those people who should
have understood and seen the Lord upon that cross were the very ones who were
employing His death. What a remark this is to us, who think ourselves to
understand grace and mercy, that we might be the ones who employ and justify
ourselves in the persecution of world Jewry.
This
synonym, or real life display, is what we should expect to see in Israel. It is
something that will shock us. We all have our hidden agendas, and truth be
told, we seem to have a false piety that would expose that we believe we
deserve the mercy we’ve been shown. Those who love God for His mercy and grace
will be the same who cannot extend mercy to the Jews in plight.
Who
has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? It
is a strange thought when you consider the message of the apostles. A.W. Tozer
writes in his book Paths to Power (pg 7), “To carry on the work of a man
who was known to have died – to have died as criminals die – and more than that
to persuade others that this man had risen from the dead and that He was the
Son of God and Savior.”
How
ridiculous it must have sounded (and still sounds) to hear 120 people bursting
forth crying out in all sorts of languages about Jesus who is the Messiah, and
how He rose from the grave and commands everyone everywhere to repent. Who
could believe such a message? Who would even be able to fathom such a thing? It
is insulting to the intellect and exhaustive to human wisdom.
Then,
to go even further and say that we also must be born again would be something
to mock. Who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been
revealed? The question seems to answer itself: not many. How fraudulent and a
disgrace it is to those of this world, especially those who are heavily
influencing and influenced by the world system and wisdom.
In
Jesus Christ, we have the full revelation of the person of God, and in Jesus
Christ, we see the full revelation of human hatred of that God. It is a
requirement of God that we would understand that those who crucified the Lord
Jesus are one and the same with ourselves. The principalities and powers are
the ones who have set up the world system, and it is by their doing that the
Lord was martyred. Though it is true to say that it was God the Father’s will
for Jesus to die upon the cross, it is not fair to then discount our own sinful
nature and our own inward hatred of God and the things of God.
We
must acknowledge the same sin in ourselves as what was displayed by the Jews
and the Romans. We must take upon our own shoulders the guilt and blame of
killing the Lord because He has revealed to us our secret hearts and shown us
the ways of God. There is a unique parallel between our hearts and the hearts
of those who lived 2000 years ago, because the condition of man is still the
same. We have not evolved into some sort of better man, but instead have only
continued to prove our depravity.
“He
grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.” The
Land had been bare of any kind of prophetic voice for 400 years before John the
Baptist came. Jesus was soon to follow the ministry of John the Baptist, and
the ground was still dry. The religious society was as hard and fallowed as
ever. Yet, out of this ground was to come a break in the ground and a small sprout
of life. That life would then be a tender shoot, or a full bloom, that would
bring forth a plentiful and beautiful field. From where did the water come?
From where did the seed come?
The
seed itself is Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter whether we take this verse to
mean that there was no prophetic voice for 400 years, or if we look into the
history of Israel to find that the ground has always been dry. From Egypt,
Israel has never truly accepted the Lord their God. Though there have been
times of repentance, it has not been but a short period of time and the
repentance seems to fade. This seed is God Himself, because “the gifts and
callings of God are irrevocable.”
God
Himself had made a promise to Israel, and it was God Himself who would bring
forth that seed to be the Messiah. God will hold to His word. Even when He
changes His mind, He still holds to His word, and in fact does something
different at the same time as fulfilling the old word that has been changed,
and thus brings even greater glory to His name. God doesn’t give up. He doesn’t
change His mind. His gifts and callings, which He promised to Israel, in this
case of the Messiah, are irrevocable.
“He
had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that
we should desire him.” When Saul became king, he was picked out of the crowd
for being the tallest man. He was the easiest to spot, and towered over all
others. Jesus was not so. He was the average-Joe, so to speak. People even
mocked and giggled when hearing of Him by asking, “Can anything good come out
of Galilee?” What was it that drew you to Him? Was it His great reputation, or
was it the Father’s sovereignty? Nowhere in the ministry of Jesus did He use
any tactic or method to draw men to Himself, but the Father, and the revelation
that comes from the Father of who Jesus is, gave all.
This
is especially important to understand for us who are called to be light unto
the world. We do not draw men to Jesus. The Father that is in Heaven draws
them. There is also no way in human possibility to fancy Jesus up so that
people would be attracted to Him. If we are fancying Him up, most likely, we
are preaching another Jesus, another Gospel. God is who He is. He draws men
because He is God, not because He has something that men want.
“He
was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with
suffering.” We know that it says in John 1, “He went to that which was His own,
and His own received Him not.” He was a man who was bent on doing the will of
the Father, no matter what the price was. To live was to suffer. He must have
been torn through and through with sufferings when looking upon the people and
seeing them as “sheep without a shepherd.” He must have been stricken to the
heart most severely when He would beg and plead with the Pharisees, but they
only got worse in their sins.
We
also know from John 1 that Jesus has been with the Father from the very
beginning. We can see in Genesis one that “the Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
In these two verses we have the trinity. We have God, the Spirit, and the Light
that “is the light of all men.”
If
Jesus was with God in the beginning, then we can deduce that He has always been
acquainted with sorrows. Jesus has always had to suffer, because He longs to be
with His creation, and His creation has been in a state of rebellion since the
fall. One of the characteristics of God is, in fact, that He desires to suffer with His people. Yes He suffered for them, but He also
suffers with and because of them.
Like
one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
What agony must the Lord have faced every time He spoke and people would then
turn away? How grieved must He have been when He asked his 12 disciples, “Do
you want to leave too,” John 6:67? How few there were who actually esteemed
him. The majority of Israel did not even consider Him as a possibility to be
their Messiah, and they still do not consider Him.
This
goes in with the last statement about being a man of sorrows. I have to think
that Gethsemane was a time where Jesus asked, “Take this cup from me,” because
He was looking at the reaction of the people. He could see that they didn’t
understand. They didn’t want Him. They didn’t desire for God to save them. They
were, and still are, their own messiahs. Jesus would have went forward asking
if there was another way, but the Father had destined it to be the only way.
“Surely
He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him
stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted.” From the time Jesus started
His ministry to the time He died upon that tree, and even all through the book
of Acts, the majority of the Jewish society scoffed at Him and considered Him
“stricken.” They figured God was cursing him when He died upon the cross. Why
else would God allow such a righteous man to die?
They
are blind to the reality. This is why the statements were made at the cross
that if Jesus were who He says He is, then lets see Him bring Himself down from
the cross. We can see in this ultimate drama the heart of God in Christ who
would hold nothing against His people by praying, “Father forgive them; for
they know not what they do.” The heart of man is also exposed, especially in
the Jews who deny depravity or wickedness or sin in them, by their fierce anger
and hatred for the Son of God. They didn’t just have a little bitterness
because He called them out on their sins. They despised Him. They absolutely loathed, hated, gruesomely
demoralized, viciously abominated and execrated Him.
“But
He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the
punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are
healed.” I listened to a message by Paul Washer titled He Drank Your Hell.
I think the title alone is enough to settle upon. He took upon Himself all of
our sin, all of our transgression, all of our iniquity, and all of our
condemnation.
“We
all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and
the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” What is interesting is that
the only apostle that saw Jesus die was John, the brother of James. Every one
else had run away. Even when Jesus had died, Mary, Martha, Mary the mother of
Jesus, and John all went away.
None
of them had stayed with Him in heart. All
had turned away. The evidence that they turned away in their hearts, even upon
watching His death, was that no one believed He had risen from the dead. He was
abandoned.
“He
was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did
not open His mouth.” Isn’t it an amazing statement to consider that Jesus never
once complained? He never grumbled. He took on this torture with joy. He knew
what it entailed, and He did not shrink from it. Because of His submission even
unto death, He was granted to be called the Lamb who is worthy to open to seals
in Revelation 5. He was the Lamb that was silent, so now He is the Lamb of all
authority.
It
says something about the nature of God. He was silent. Really consider this
verse. When men are falsely accused, they blurt out their innocence. Paul and
Silas experienced this. When they were imprisoned, it was a false accusation,
and a false incarceration. Yet, they didn’t speak up. They were silent. They
rejoiced in God within the jail. What is it about silence that is such an
articulation of otherworldliness? What does silence in the midst of adversity
speak that is so shocking?
We
have the very wisdom of God being displayed. This is something that is too holy
to ignore. It is too sacred to pass over. This question of why was He silent
and what does it mean is a burning bush for us. The wisdom of this world must
defend self. Yet, the wisdom and character of God lets God defend. It doesn’t
trust in self. As it is written, “Cursed be the man who trusts in man.”
God
Himself will be our deliverer, or we won’t have a deliverer. It is that simple.
This is the wisdom that Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego held to. God will
deliver us, but even if He doesn’t, we still won’t bow the knee. We won’t
worship your system. We won’t be bought over with your wisdom. We won’t indulge
ourselves with your values. Our trust is in the Lord, and He is our High Tower.
Even if He doesn’t deliver us and we die at the hands of the wicked, we know
our eternal destiny. We know in whom we have believed, and He is able to save
to the uttermost.
When
we are not silent in our extremedies, or maybe a better way to put it is if we
are complaining or defending self, then we are not truly trusting in the Lord.
All of our acknowledgment of His Lordship is in vain. We might have the right
words and the correct doctrines, but without the actuality in our personal
lives, we are bankrupt and our so-called spirituality is null and void.
“By
oppression and judgment He was taken away. And who can speak of His
descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living, for the
transgression of my people he was stricken.” It is interesting that one of the
things that is pointed out is the oppression and judgment. This is actually
something that symbolizes the principalities and powers of darkness. They’re
whole system is governed on threat, intimidation, and scare tactics. The fact
that Jesus was taken away by these very things displays to us that those who
slew Jesus were indeed the spiritual forces at work in the world, not Jews.
He
was a eunuch for God, for “who can speak of His descendants?” He spoke once on
how some people are born eunuchs and others are eunuchs by choice. He was one
by choice. It helped Him to better serve His Father. He was undefiled by idols
for His Bride. This is the definition of being a eunich: a virgin in spirit.
The
ideology of being a eunuch for God doesn’t mean that we don’t marry. It is a
spiritual thing. Some people are born eunuchs; some are eunuchs by choice. God
is coming back for a pure and spotless Bride. Have we been tainted by idols?
Have we given ourselves over to doctrines without applying them into our own
personal lives? Have we been more prone to enjoying a nice service with a few
songs and a prayer and a sermon than to enjoying the Holy Spirit in silence?
This concept of being a spiritual eunuch is not something that is favorably
taught or learned today.
It
speaks of a suffering for the glory of God, and that suffering is, by nature,
painful. We must undergo disconnect of some sort. We’ll be mocked and
humiliated. We’ll be scorned. Those who don’t understand will constantly be
pleading with us to go back to church, join our small group, bow to our system,
take hold of the traditions of men again, eat with us though our hearts are not
with you, lets have a laugh about it. In a sense, we are suffering for the
glory of God so that we might not be impure before Him. In another sense, we
are suffering for the sake of those immediately around us so that they have an
alternative lifestyle presented before them. Though there is much ridicule, it
is the very heart of God that we suffer for the sake of others, as Christ did.
“He
was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though He
had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.” I find it most
interesting that Isaiah prophesies that His grave would be a rich man’s tomb.
He was put in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb (Mark 15:43). Joseph of Arimathea was
a “prominent member of the Council.” He was a rich man. He died the death of
murderers and thieves, and was buried in a rich man’s tomb, just like Isaiah
prophesied hundreds of years before.
“Yet
it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the
Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His
days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand.” Notice that Jesus
obeyed God’s will, even in becoming sin for our sakes. Was Jesus sinful? Did He
somehow become the object of sin itself? No. It was imputed to Him the same way
that the goat in the Old Testament would have sin imputed to it and then sent
away into the wilderness to die.
Jesus
was, in the exact same way as that goat, led outside the city, the sins were
imputed to Him, the Father, for the sins of the people, crushed him, and
therefore He was made the guilt offering. Jesus was the fulfillment of even our
offerings before the Lord.
“After
the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by
His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, and He will bear their
iniquities.” The point of the beginning of this verse? Jesus was raised from
the grave. He saw the light of life and was satisfied. The resurrection has
come. There is now freedom from death, sin, judgment, and self. By being raised
from the dead, Jesus has broken the chains that bind us. We are invited to
participate in that death burial and resurrection for our own freedom. This is
how He justifies many.
“Therefore
I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with
the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with
the transgressors, for He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors.” Isn’t it interesting how the chapter ends with “therefore,” he
is pronounced as ruler? “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in
vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together
against the Lord and against His Anointed One… The One in heaven laughs; the
Lord scoffs at them… I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill… You are my
son; today I have become your Father,” Psalm 2:1-7.
Jesus
is pronounce King and supreme Ruler to rule and reign and judge with
righteousness all of the nations and kingdoms of the earth. He is also given
all authority, even above the angels, to judge them, and the gods of this earth
who are the principalities and powers of darkness. The reign of Satan is over. It isn’t coming to an end; it has already ended.
The only thing that the enemy can do now is to deceive His people.
The
Church
The
rulers of this age (i.e. the kingdom of darkness) should be in fear and dread
of every member of the Body of Christ. We tear down strongholds, build up
cities, come against demonic forces, and push back the kingdom of darkness. The
sad reality is that this is not true about us. For the most part, we have not
been pushing back the kingdom of darkness, but have instead been tolerant and
acceptant of it.
We
can see in Isaiah 53 our role on the earth, both to this world and to the
fallen angels. God has placed the responsibility of being a light to the world,
and therefore to the principalities and powers of darkness. “Who has believed
our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” This very first
verse is a key place to begin. It is upon the Church that God has made known
the mysteries of Christ. Who can believe our message? Who can understand our message? The fact that God would even ask this
question would beg the answer: not many.
I
know that I am repeating myself here. I said the same thing about Christ. I
want to ask the question, which I’ve already answered, of what the Gospel
really is. What does it mean to evangelize? My belief falls around that
evangelism itself is living out a lifestyle that is counter to what this world
presents. We should be living as though we are in heaven. The government of God
should govern our actions and our lives, and therefore we ought to be
displaying before all men a lifestyle that is completely opposite of what they
experience and know.
Our
daily lives should be the revealing of the arm of the Lord. Our witnessing,
when in words, should be a direct reflection of who we are. It is in that
reflection that we have authority and power. Because the Gospel we preach is
not in word only, but in demonstration and in power of the Holy Spirit, our
testimony demands the attention of our hearers.
I
would like now to establish the question of who our hearers are. Romans 1:16
tells us that the Gospel should go, “to the Jew first, and then also to the Greek.”
Why do we need to go to the Jew first? The ministry of Paul certainly portrays
this belief. Yet, why would God have us to go to the Jews before the other
Gentiles?
The
Jew is the ultimate challenge for the Christian. The truth of the matter is
that if you don’t go to the Jew first, you don’t go to him at all. We know that
it says in Romans 11:28 that the Jews are the enemies of the Gospel for our
sakes. What does that mean?
Deuteronomy
32:7-9 says, “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations.
Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.
When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated
the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of
the children of Israel. For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot
of his inheritance.”
What
does this mean? Notice in verse 8 that God says, “when I separated the sons of
Adam, I set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of
Israel.” Paul speaks on this, briefly, in Acts 17:26-27. “God has made of one
blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has
determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation
(their nation’s boundary lines), that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps
they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He is not far from every one o
us.”
What
I’m trying to set up before you is something that is foreign to our modern
teaching and understanding entirely. I believe that God says His people Israel
are the epicenter of the world. The nations, and all the population of the
world, are in direct proportion to Israel’s population and dispersion. They
were called to be a nation of priests to all nations. Remember that “the gifts
and callings of God are irrevocable,” Romans 11:29. God has called His people
to a certain destiny, and they will
fulfill it, or God is not God.
Who
do we witness to? “…to the Jew first,
and then to the Greek.” Why would God set it up this way? As I began to say
earlier, the Jew is the ultimate challenge for the Christian. Why and how is
the Jew so challenging that it is an ultimate requirement? To be very blunt,
the Jew is at the forefront of the whole world system and the wisdom of that
world. Who else, but the Jews, have given us men such as Sigmund Freud, Karl
Marx, Albert Einstein, Steven Spielberg, most of the banking presidents and
lead CEO’s of major businesses throughout the world, weapons specialists and
military tactic geniuses, corporate industry of modern times, and much, much
more?
When
we witness to the Jew, we don’t merely bring a small thing. These are the men
and women who have designed our modern times. To bring the Gospel to the modern
Jew is to bring a world-view that is totally opposite and threatening of their
mode of being, as well as all that they hold dear to and stand for. By God
sending us to the Jew first, He is sending us to Pharaoh. He is sending us to
the center of all filth and perversity in this world. He is sending us to the
very kingdom of darkness.
And
how will you witness to them? Will you go and give them the 4 Spiritual Laws or
5 Things God Wants You to Know? Will you present to them clichés such as John
3:16 and God loves you and are you a believer? Will you ask them if they have
repented? Are you going to give them some sort of quick truism that sounded
good to you, but has barely any kind of weight or substance to it? Let me see
you go to the highly intellectual men and women of this day and age and tell
them 4 Spiritual Laws.
Paul
warns us that they are an enemy for our sakes, and yet also told us to go to
them first. Even if we didn’t have the history of 2000 years worth of burning
down their synagogues and force conversion and slaughtering and genocide, they
would still be the enemies of the Gospel for our sakes. They are the supreme
humanists. There is good in men, and if you come to a Jew who has never even
raised his voice at his wife to tell him that he needs to repent and believe in
this name that has only been a stumbling block for his people, he will utterly
tear you apart until you have nothing but a whimper left to blurb out in
defense.
God
also says, through Paul, that “all Israel shall be saved.” How shall they be
saved if we can’t witness to them? I guess they’ll have to see in us something
that is worth noting. We are going to need to be a tender shoot out of dry
ground. We are going to need to be the light to the world. We are going to need
to reflect the character of Jesus Christ and God the Father. We are going to
need to be able to reach out to them, when no one else in this world will reach
out to them.
Anti-Semitism
is on the rise. You can especially look at the Middle East. That which God has
predestined to fulfill prophecy is what is most vile and hated. The Jews are
despised, and even Jerusalem is chosen as the epicenter of disdain. The Middle
East has chosen such hatred for the Jew and for Jerusalem that I have to wonder
if it is God’s doing. If not, then I wonder if there is something in man that
would intuit that Israel is everything to God. If you can destroy Israel, then
you can destroy the plans of God.
“He
grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.”
Without the Church of Jesus Christ upon the earth, there will be no message
from heaven. In today’s world, even with the Church there is no word from
heaven. We live in the days that Amos spoke of, “The days are coming when I
will send a famine through the land – not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.”
We
hear all sorts of words. We hear words from Scripture, words about God, words
about us, words about marriage, words about raising kids, words about sin,
words about deliverance, words about spiritual gifts, but where are the words of
God? The entire world is waiting for us to
hear what the voice of Heaven is beckoning. They are dry and very hard. It
takes a word from God Himself, not merely the Word of God (i.e. the Bible).
Only He can break up the fallowed ground.
A
word must come forth from the Church, which this word will be a representation
of the Church itself that was born out of the Spirit. To grow up before Him
like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground, is to present to Israel
and the principalities and powers of darkness the authority and very word and
Spirit of the Lord.
What
would this be composed of? What is the word of God? What is it that we need to
speak? I cannot tell you. There isn’t a formula. There isn’t a method. If you
are looking for storing up words and formulas and methods, then you will fall
infinitely short. God must give you the word in the moment.
I
can tell you, however, that the word will be a complete representation of who
you are. The word will be of mercy, love, kindness, gentleness, patience,
humility, joy, peace, faith, and self-control. How can you extend these things
if you yourself do not have it? The Jew will press and push your buttons to
truly test whether you have these fruits, or if it is all a forgery. Either you
will be directed and guided by the Holy Spirit entirely, or you won’t have
anything to speak or display.
It
is in this giving of us to Israel, when they don’t deserve it, that will be the
total and utter display of the manifold wisdom of God. I’m sure most of you
have passed over Ephesians 3 time and again, as I have, without ever even
realizing what it says. We are to “make all men see what is the fellowship of
the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created
all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now, unto the principalities and
powers in heavenly places, might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of
God,” Ephesians 3:8-9.
What
a massive statement! The fact that this is a mystery doesn’t mean that it is
mysterious or mystical or anything. It is hidden. God Himself must reveal this
mystery, or it won’t be seen. Paul tells us in Romans 11:25 that he “would have
us that we are not ignorant of this mystery, lest we become wise in our own
conceit.” We have been ignorant. We have become wise. Once again, I’m repeating
myself, but you can bear to hear it again. From whom have you heard these
things? And how could you possibly understand at first glance? The magnanimity
of these statements needs to be drawn out, and entire seminars can be produced
from each paragraph of this writing.
“He
had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that
we should desire him.” Tell me, when has Israel ever been attracted to the
Church? At what time have we even attracted the world? There are various times
throughout history that revivals broke out, and many people of the world
flocked to see what God was doing. But for the most part, we have completely
matched this.
Sometimes
that is to our glory, and other times that is to our shame. When we are living
a life that demands repentance from those who see us, their denial is our
glory. What I mean to say is that the people of the world should see God in us,
and because they hated Him, they hate us. Usually people see judgment,
hypocrisy, condemnation, and wickedness when they look upon us.
It
is natural for people to look at us and not be attracted to our congregations.
What is not natural is for people to hate us because of how ungodly we are.
Jesus told us that if they hated Him, they would hate us. For the sake of
tolerance, we have embraced the world around us, and we have done away with
godly living, so that now people might find us a bit more “attractive.” It is
happening nationwide, and it is interdenominational.
One
of the main scandals of the Gospel is that men are drawn to the Church, but it
is completely counter their nature. God draws men to Himself, though men want
nothing to do with God. When men come, when they repent, it is not because of
how attractive we are, nor is it how attractive God is, but it is completely
from the grace and mercy of God that they come. When He is beckoning them, they
see His beauty, and are drawn. When He is not beckoning, they renounce and
scorn. God desires it to be so.
“He
was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him
not.” For the exact same reasons Christ suffered this, we should be. We present
the Gospel to our friends and families, only to be turned away. Especially for
our Jewish brothers and sisters, it is most difficult to witness to those
immediately around us.
I
said of Israel that there is something in man that they would intuit that God
is with Israel, and if you get rid of Israel, then you foil the plans of God.
The hatred of Jews stems from an ultimate hatred of God. In the same way, the
hatred of Christians stems from a hatred of God. The men of this world are
adamant because they want to be gods unto themselves. Everything we stand for,
even by claiming Christianity without walking it out, is a direct offense to
the system of this world.
The
principalities and powers of darkness have so dominated this world that the men
of it intuit very easily that we are the enemy. We are despised and rejected
because we bare witness to something that they hate. We are a people of sorrows
because we can see the truth, and our friends and families deny our very lives
in order to hide themselves from the truth. How can we not be broken? How can we not agonize?
“Surely
he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him
stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted.” Here we have the main heart of
my message for the Church. What does it mean that we, as the Church, have taken
up their infirmities? This is yet a future event. I believe it signifies that
we will take upon ourselves the infirmities of Israel.
I’m
not a believer in the pre-tribulation rapture. I have this opinion because of
what the prophets have to say. If you will look upon Ezekiel 20:33-35, “As I
live, says the Lord, surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm,
and with fury poured out, will I rule over you; and I will bring you out from
the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries in which you are
scattered with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with fury
poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there
I will plead with you face to face.”
Amos
9:9 says, “For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all
nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve,”
emphasis mine. Ezekiel 37:11 states, “Son of man, these bones are the whole
house of Israel. They say our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are
cut off. Therefore prophesy and say to them: this is what the Sovereign Lord
says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up out from
them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will
know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I
will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own
land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken and I have done it.”
This
last bit from Ezekiel 37 has not happened. The Israelites don’t know the Lord
their God. It insists that there will be another expulsion from the land, which
Ezekiel 22:17-22 also supports. The valley of dry bones is the whole house of
Israel. Who is the son of man? The son of man is the Church. It is by their
prophesying and their ushering the word of the Lord forth that will raise the
House of Israel back to a final restoration. We will be the instrument of God
to raise Israel from it’s grave.
How
does this happen? They, in the tribulation, will be expelled from the land,
cast out into the nations, flee to the wilderness places, and find themselves
in hiding. If the Church is raptured, they will have no hope. The end time fury
upon the chosen people of God by the principalities and powers of the air will
wipe out even 2/3 of the Jewish people according to Zechariah.
It
will be the Church that takes the Jewish people in, cares for them, gives them
sanctuary in the wilderness, and through them, the Lord will plead with His
people face to face. We will suffer with
the Jewish people so that in the carrying of their sorrows, we might take up
their infirmities.
You
can turn to Psalm 102 and see the same thing. I believe this is a prophetic
Psalm about a future judgment upon Israel. You can read in verse 3, “For my
days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned like an hearth. My heart
is smitten, and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread. By
reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones adhere to my skin. I am like a
pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am like
a sparrow alone upon the housetop. Mine enemies reproach me all the day, and
they that are mad against me are sworn against me. For I have eaten ashes like
bread, and mingled my drink with weeping, because of your (God’s) indignation
and wrath; for you have lifted me up, and cast me down.”
This
could easily be a scene from the Nazi Holocaust. “My days are like a shadow
that declines, and I am withered like grass.” Isn’t it interesting that such
language is being used as to describe something similar to Dachau or Auschwitz?
I might be playing with the text, but if you continue onward, you find that the
Psalmist declares that the Lord will arise, have mercy upon His people, and the
nations will fear the name of the Lord.
It
is in the redemption of Israel that all nations shall be blessed. What argument
can they present that would allow them to continue in their sins? Could you
imagine a nation of Pauls going to Iraq and telling the Islamic people, “I know
that we used to testify that a good Iraqi is a dead Iraqi, but we have been
reborn.” Could you imagine the response to the call to put away Islam, put away
Hinduism, put away Bhuddism? How do you argue? When the people of Israel have
been completely reborn in a day, how do you say that it doesn’t matter? It is
in that day that all the nations shall fear.
But
what is the agent for Israel’s redemption? In verse 14 of Psalm 102, we read
that God’s servants take pleasure in her (Israel’s) stones and favor the dust
thereof. Who are the servants? Who else could it be but the Church? Because we
extend mercy, they will be redeemed. Because we take note of her and suffer
with her, she will be born again, and born again in a day.
This
is actually the set time to favor Zion. We read in the next verse (verse 15)
that this is so. We know that the Church is Zion, and it is actually when the
servants of God favor Israel that it is the set time to favor the Church. Once
again, who are the servants? It can’t be Israel. From the immediate context of
the Psalm, Israel is undergoing chastisement and judgment from God. They are
the objects of wrath. Therefore, there must be an outside servant of God,
namely the Church.
“But
he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the
punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are
healed.” Unless we are willing to suffer with them and show them love by
speaking the words of God to them as the
Spirit gives utterance, the Jewish people have no hope. We are to be recognized
with them in their persecutions. We are to care for them and show them love
that goes beyond human capabilities, even to the point of gladly supplying
their needs when all they will do is complain.
The
Church in her state right now is not ready for this. She cannot be to Israel
what she must because she is not even to herself what she must be. Community is
not an option. It is only in that kind of setting that we will have ourselves
hammered out and beaten thin. No other solution is available.
The
very suffering for the sake of Israel will be their peace and healing. We will
die for their sakes. We will suffer for their sakes. By our crushing, they will
be delivered. We have not shown them this kind of love, which only God can
give. Because we have not shown them love, they have not been driven to
jealousy. It will be in the end times, and through an end time Church, that God
will employ a speaking to His people that will constitute them to either accept
Him as their God, or reject them, and thus be destroyed by the sword.
Read
Romans 11:11. “Through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, to
provoke them to jealousy.” This is something that has been provided by God. It
is a way to escape our pride. Our salvation is for something greater than
ourselves. Though the mercy we have received is a wonderful thing, God has
designed it that we would not be stuck in our pride, but would see that our
salvation goes beyond us. It is to drive the Jew to jealousy. What kind of a
testimony do we need to bring that would provoke them to jealousy?
Look
a little further down in your Bible to Romans 11:25. What is this fullness of
the Gentiles? I believe it is maturity. It constitutes a coming of age throughout
the entire Church. Israel is waiting, though they don’t know it, for our
maturity to be made full. When we reach that point of maturity that we can
display the Kingdom of God to Israel, then the end will come.
In
fact, read the next verse. “There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and
shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” Is it possible that this deliverer,
and possibly Zion itself, is the Church? I believe it is this display of the
Gospel through the entire Body, as well as through the sent vessels to preach
to Israel that will drive the Jew to jealousy.
If
we are to try and “win them” on human terms, we will always fall short. The Jew
is the supreme example of human ingenuity. The very thing that will drive them
to jealousy is what we, as Christians, should hold to as the dearest doctrine
of the faith: resurrection. When they see us Gentiles displaying to them the
resurrection that was promised to them,
they will be jealous. In seeing the very face of God in our faces, it will be
the ultimate display of their God to them, and it is this display that all of
Heaven, Israel, and Creation waits.
“We
all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and
the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as
a sheep is before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” It
will be in the very display of our Christ-likeness that the Jewish people will
come to God. It is also in that very acceptance of suffering that the
principalities and powers will have no dominion or authority. How can they temp
or threaten us? We care not even for our own lives! In this one article, we
will be the deliverers of the Jewish people, and also the conquerors of Satan
by the grace and glory of God in us. It will be Christ in us, the hope of glory.
“By
oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his
descendants? He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression
of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with
the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in
his mouth.” Are you willing to suffer this? Is it even an option?
It
is one thing to say that you would be willing, if the Lord called you of
course, to go to the mission field. What about suffering for as long as it
takes under the judgment and hatred of the Jewish people until they are brought
into a place of repentance and brokenness before God? Would you be okay with
that? Because that is precisely what the Lord is calling His Church to be.
We
are not to be murmuring, complaining, retaliating, oppressing, or judging any
one. Out of love we should bless those who persecute us. We should pray for
those who harm us. We should act in love toward those who despise us. We aren’t
to “tolerate” them; we are to love them.
And you cannot love them if you do not like them. In disliking them you open the door to
arguments, pride, disdain, bitterness, contrition, and the list goes on.
Romans
10:14 says, “How, then, shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? And
how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher?” From this one verse, we can deduce that it is more
than a proclamation that needs to go forth. They need to hear more than words.
If
all we are to do is proclaim something, there will be no life from the dead.
Our preaching needs to be something apostolic. It is an event that creates
faith. By our very words and testimony, the power of God is displayed in full
view, and therefore, it is a word that even imparts faith. Because it is in
demonstration and in power of the Spirit, the Jews must listen. They must
respond.
Our
very words will be such a critical thing. When they are words from Heaven, of
God, they will impart faith to the hearer, and that faith will be what saves
them. How can they call upon the one whom they have not heard? They haven’t
heard of this Christ. They might have heard of an almost infinite other
Christs, but they haven’t heard of their Messiah. And how can they hear unless
someone preaches? But how can that one preach unless he is sent? If he is sent forth, as Moses was sent forth, it is
in the complete fullness of God, and therefore with the manifest wisdom of God.
That is to say, in the manifest character of God.
This
is what will free them. The bonds of Satan cannot hold them any longer when the
wisdom of God is displayed. The wisdom of God is inseparable from the character
of God. To show one is to show the other. From that display, darkness must
flee, and freedom is pronounced over the hearer. But who is sufficient for
these things?
Now
you can understand why Paul cries out, “Who is sufficient for these things?”
You, of all people, are going to be the chosen vessel that God uses to witness
to Israel? You are the one who is spiritual enough to tear down strongholds and
impart faith by your very speaking? You are the one who can prophesy to these
dry bones? Now you see why Ezekiel even had to say, “You know Lord.” To
prophesy to these bones that they would rise from the dead was beyond his
faith.
Nevertheless,
all Israel shall be saved. It is because of this depth of insight that Paul
would start in chapter 9 of Romans with, “I could wish myself accursed for my
brethren in the flesh’ sake,” and end with joyful and highest praise. Can you
understand why Paul shouts, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding
out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Or
who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of
him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever”?
“Yet
it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the
Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his
days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.” What could be the offspring
of the Church? It is the redemption of Israel. Through our going down, we are
brought up to a place to rule and reign in heavenly places with Christ. In our
bearing our cross, we are raised again to new life, for God will “prolong our
days.”
“Therefore
I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with
the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with
the transgressors. He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors.” This, to me, speaks of some will rule over 5 cities, and some
will rule over 10. It is the Church going into the entire world from Zion
during the Millennial Kingdom. Because we poured ourselves out, God establishes
us up.
We
were faithful in a little, so God puts us over much. Because we didn’t despise
the least of these His brethren, He
grants us to rule and reign forever.
By our surrender of ourselves we are granted authority in ourselves. It is His authority, but it is our
authority. In the same way that anyone who had the signet ring of the king had
the authority of the king, we have our own authorities through Him. If the King
establishes a noble, then those under the noble will have to submit to his
authority. Likewise, we will either be granted with an eternal reward of ruling
and reigning, or we will lose our rewards, but keep our souls.
It
is this very thing, the fullness of the Gentiles, which will constitute our
ruling and reigning. Let us consider again Ephesians 3. It is from this display
of the wisdom of God to the principalities and powers of the air that Paul
continues and says, “that He would grant you according to the riches of His
glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth, and
length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes all
knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.”
I
must wonder if the comprehension of God is directly linked to this one thing:
displaying the manifest wisdom of God. I wonder if God has so chosen to give us
revelation according to our willingness to obey Him. This would seem to be
plausible. If that is the case, then those who will be granted to rule and
reign, for they will have to teach, are those who are brought into a depth of
maturity.
Everything
seems to line up with this one truth: neither Israel nor the Church can see the
glory of God independent of the other. They are both subject to each other.
Without Israel, and the test that it gives, the Church will never have the
motive to grow up. She will never have the desire to reach a place of maturity
in God. And likewise, the Jew will never have the motive to give up their
humanism without the Church. It is by our display, even as Gentiles, which will
drive them to surrendering before God.
Israel
– the Blessing to the Nations
When
most Christians think about Israel, they think of a desert. They think of an
old people who are forsaken of God. To most, Israel is completely absent from
their daily thinking, and most of their theology. Anyone who wants to be
seriously listened to will have some sort of something to say about Israel, but
it is almost always the cheapest of human compassion and sentiment because,
“They are still His chosen nation.” There are various places in Scripture that
would tell us this, but what idea I get from the Bible about Israel is that it
will take a lot more than sentimentality and human love to “win” them to
Christ.
“As
far as the Gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account,” Romans 11:25. What was the Holy Spirit, through
Paul, saying? He was telling us, and still is telling us, that Israel is the
antidote to the Church for lethargy. When the Church is lethargic, lazy,
slothful, full of envy, worldy and carnal, sexually immoral, full hatred and
greed, and being lovers of self more than lovers of God, then you can almost
guarantee they have ignored Israel. They are the enemies of the Gospel for
our sakes. It is in the Jewish people that
God has perfectly worked out the plan to keep us in spiritual shape.
“Who
has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
How many people in the Christian faith know this? Who do you hear teach and
preach of a future restoration of Israel by God using the Church as a focal
point? Who do you hear teach and preach about Israel at all? Have you ever
heard a message from Romans 11? There is much there that needs to be
understood.
In
our ignorance, and much to our shame, we have neglected Israel, and therefore
neglected God’s plan. We’ve been more focused on our communities and cities
than the Jewish people, and the reason is because we simply did not know any
better. I am not going to condemn or blame any person or group. This is
something that has been lost to our faith, and therefore needs to be restored.
I
will admit, however, that Paul was extremely correct in saying that when we
neglect so great a mystery, we will become wise in our own conceit. We have
ignorantly gone through the nations believing that we are the salvation of
them. Our opinion is that the Church is the instrument that God will use to
redeem the nations. This cannot be further from the truth. It is, and always
has been, God’s plan and purpose for Israel to be the redeeming agent for the
nations. The mostly Gentile Church may indeed facilitate a gathering from all
nations to create a people of God, but the actual task of transforming and
redeeming the nations is for Israel (note Isaiah 2:3-5; Genesis 12:2-3).
“He
grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He
had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that
we should desire him.” As far as the lackluster-ness of Israel, at what point
in their history have they ever been the apple of the eyes of the nations?
Israel has always had a bloody history. There have always been wars and rumors
of wars. For almost 3000 years they were in exile with only a few times that
they had come back to the land. The Israelites have been hated and despised by
all nations for the very reason that the principalities and powers mark every
Christian.
It
is necessary to note that the principalities and powers are predicated upon
certain wisdom, and God has another (Ephesians 3:10). A synonym for wisdom in
this case would be value system. For us, as the Church, to display the value
system of God, we oppose the principalities and powers of the air. Israel, by
their very history, is a threat to the principalities and powers. This isn’t
some sort of Jewish mysticism. There are true demonic forces at work that
despise the people of God, even when the people of God are not following God.
It is what they inherently are, and what they have been promised and called to
be.
“He
was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with
suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we
esteemed him not.” To destroy Israel would be to foil every plan of God made
from the beginning. The demonic powers know this very well. They know the
promises that have been given to Israel: “God’s word shall go forth out of
Zion,” “nations and tongues with gather to Israel to see His glory,” “they
shall declare His glory among the nations,” “violence shall no more be heard in
the land,” “the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto
Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head,” “I will also give you for
a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation unto the ends of the
earth,” and all of these verses are only from Isaiah!
Is
it any wonder they would be opposed? The problem isn’t that Israel is not this;
the problem is that God is God. If God is indeed God, then He will need to
fulfill each and every promise He has made to Israel. If He cannot redeem them,
what kind of a God is He? If He cannot save them from their destruction, what
kind of a God is He? If He cannot even fulfill His own word and promise, then
He is no God at all.
When
dealing with the promises to Israel, we are dealing with the very glory of God.
It is only from a Church that has been so liberated and freed from their own
human conceptions that can truly be to Israel the redeeming agent that it needs
to be. When the rest of the world despises and rejects Israel, we must
acknowledge and love them. We will bear our crosses, possibly even to our
deaths, by suffering with Israel. Most likely, our suffering will be at the
hands of the Jews. The very people who we love and serve will be the instrument
of wrath and execution, just as it was with Jesus.
To
tap into this kind of reality, and to genuinely live by it, is not only life
from the dead, but a manifestation of the wisdom of God. It displays the very character
of God. How can the demonic forces say any longer, “Jesus we know, and Paul we
know, but who are you?” By acknowledging Israel, and by bearing their suffering
with them, when there is no immediate blessing to you, you bear witness and
usher forth another wisdom. It is by that very action of suffering for the
betterment of another, and most likely to your own degradation and
belittlement, that will inevitably usher forth the glory of God and the
manifest wisdom of God (which is His glory and character).
“Surely
he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him
stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our
transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought
us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Once again in Romans
11, it says “Because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles
to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world,
and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will
their fullness bring! For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the
world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Israel has
experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come
in. And so all Israel shall be saved,” Romans 11:11-26.
How
great and glorious these words are. “What will their acceptance be but life
from the dead?” This life from the dead is not their own. Nor is it the life to
the Gentile Church. It is a life to the nations. It is in this that they will
fulfill their destiny. Against such testimony, there will be nothing but
judgment. In fact, remember that in Revelation 12, the dragon, which is Satan,
pursues the woman, who is Israel. Then, in chapter 13, which I suspect chapters
12 and 13 are almost simultaneous with one another, there is the beast that
rises up from the sea. This beast is “given power to make war with the saints,
and overcome them.”
You
ask, “What does that mean?” It means exactly as it says. There will be a day
that Satan Himself will be able to overcome the saints of God. It will be in
our desperate condition and ultimate suffering as to be overcome by Satan that
we should overcome him. That is to say,
by being overcome by Satan, Christ made a full display and mockery of Satan.
For, if the principalities and powers had known the end result, they would not
have crucified the Lord. It was by the humbling of Him to be overcome by Satan
that Christ had the ultimate victory. In the same way, by our humility to be
overcome by Satan, we will have the ultimate victory.
This
is the end time prophecy given by the very mouth of Jesus to John. God has told
us through the prophets, as well as in our New Testaments, that He will sift
Israel through all nations. It will be in this sifting that 2/3 of Israel will
be slain. They will flee to the wilderness places, and there God will plead
with them face-to-face through the Church. While this is taking place, the
Church will also experience an end time rage from the powers of darkness, and
they will overcome the saints. It will be by our submission to the overcoming
of the evil one that will loose the scales from the eyes of the Jewish people,
and they will cry out to the Lord God of their forefathers. They will see in
that moment the God whom they have despised and rejected and hardened their
necks to ever since they left Egypt. God will redeem all of Israel in a day. It
will be with such groanings and cryings that each household will need to be
separated, and even husband and wife will need to be apart, for the shame and
humiliation that will be placed upon them will cause for such deep repentance
and uncontrollable shakings and weepings that the Jewish people will come back
to God in the land and be ashamed of himself. At that time, the nations will
look and say, “Behold, isn’t this that was a wasteland and desolate place? It
is now as the Garden of Eden!” Israel will then be a light to the nations, that
they may be God’s salvation unto the ends of the earth.
Yet,
how can this happen if we are unwilling to reach out in compassion? To what end
will become Israel if the Church is unwilling to be God’s salvation to the
Jews? If we refuse to be overcome by Satan, then we will of necessity lose our
own salvations. The test of true faith and apostolic conversion is the test
that Jesus told us would be employed: mainly, did you love the least of these His
brethren? If we refuse to be to Israel what
He requires, then He will refuse to be to us what we require. If we will not be
the tool of salvation for Israel, then Christ will deny us salvation before His
Father. This was the difference between the sheep and goats. The sheep would do
all that God has spoken and follow Him wherever He may go. The goats still hold
to the value system of the world, and are therefore denying the very power of
God though they claim the doctrines of the faith.
“We
all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and
the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and
afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers in silent, so he did not open his
mouth.” This crushing, oppression, and affliction are both divine judgment, and
also divine redemption. It is by God pursuing them in fury poured out that they
will be saved.
“For
thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘Break up your fallow
ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take
away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of
the evil of your doings,’” Jeremiah 4:3-4. “Behold, I will fill all the
inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit upon David’s throne, and the
priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with
drunkenness. And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the
sons together, says the Lord; I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but
destroy them,” Jeremiah 13:13-14.
“I
will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries to which I have driven
them out, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful
and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them; and
they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, says
the Lord. Behold the days come, says the Lord, that I will raise unto David a
righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute justice
and righteousness in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel
shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called: THE LORD
OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,” Jeremiah 23:1-6.
This
is talking of a time where Israel has been brought back into the Land; they
know the Lord their God, and the Messiah (Jesus) shall rule and reign over
them. He shall be their righteous King. He shall take that seat upon which God
promised David that his seed shall rein forever. “They shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall
return unto me with their whole heart,” Jeremiah 24:7.
Can
you see how the Old Testament is full of this? I haven’t even gotten into the
“minor” prophets. It is sad when the Church can read the Old Testament and
think that when it says God, it really only means Jesus, and when it says
Israel, it really means the Church. Both are mentioned in the Old Testament,
and these are promises that God made to Israel.
“By
oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his
descendants? He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression
of my people he was stricken.” I see this verse as being more literal than
metaphoric. It is because of the sins of Israel that Israel will be taken away
in judgment. They will be cut off from the land of the living, from merchandise
and homes, from the world and society, from entertainment and luxury, from
comfort, and from family.
The
Nazi Holocaust is a slight representation of what we can expect as a yet future
event. The end time ferocity against Israel will constitute an epic drama in
which all the nations of the earth will be involved. Israel doesn’t stand a
chance, except that God Himself shall be their deliverer.
“He
was assigned a grave with the wicked, and the rich in his death, though he had
done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.” This is another statement
of how the nations and people of the world will lash out with a fury and hatred
that cannot be categorized, and seemingly for no reason. If you have the
chance, I would advise that you pick up a book that would allow you to study
the Rape of Nanking. During WW2, the Japanese invaded China. When they had
gotten to the capitol city, Nanking, they utterly destroyed it. Some of the acts
that were done to the Chinese people were barbaric. Some of the less gruesome
acts were taking the men out to the river and using them as bayonet practice,
raping women to death, nailing women to walls and cutting their breasts off,
and hanging men in the streets by their tongues.
This
horrendous slaughter only lasted a couple weeks. If my memory serves me
correctly, more people died in 12 days by the Japanese soldiers than Japanese
citizens died during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This beastly
outrage is only a sign of what is capable when men are taken captive by the
fury of the principalities and powers. If the “gods” of this age could cause
such horrendous scenes to take place over mere national pride, what then is
possible during the end time onslaught against God and His people (both Jew and
Gentile)?
Yet,
I do believe that this is God’s final chastisement for the sin of His people.
They aren’t without blame. In fact, the Jews that were treated the worst during
the Nazi time were the orthodox. Is it possible that the Jews have held to
their false system and their god in which they’ve made unto themselves that
Jehovah has poured out wrath and fury against them? If this is the case, then
so it shall be in the end. God Himself shall be the cause and the constituting
agent. It shall be the wrath of God against His people for their sins and for
their rebellion that will annihilate this people.
Let
us not forget that when we read of God’s speaking to Babylon, He holds it
against them for mistreating His people. Though they were the agent of
judgment, God still expected Babylon to not overdo it. So it will be in the
end. Whether we are speaking of nations or the prinicipalities and powers, God
will hold a standard. If we mistreat the Jews, or execute something rash, or
only enjoy being the instrument of God’s judgment too much, then we will find
ourselves being judged by God for our wickedness.
“Yet
it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the
Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his
days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of
his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge of
my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.” The
end of this tribulation will be the mark of the beginning of the Millennial
Kingdom, and it will be during that time
that Israel will bless all the nations of the earth. The word will go forth
from Zion, and all the nations will come to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices. Any
nation that does not come to Jerusalem will be cut off from the land, and in
the final judgment, the dark ruler of the age will be damned, and all the
nations will stand on trial to be asked this one thing: did you care for the
least of these my brethren?
“Therefore
I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with
the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with
the transgressors. He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors.” This does not describe Israel at this moment. It must be future. Israel in her present condition is just
as avid and hateful against other people and nationalities as all other
nations. It will be when they are brought low that they will have the cry of
the poor blind beggar, “Son of David, have mercy upon me.” In receiving their
sight again (Luke 18), they will
be able to show mercy. They will be able to extend grace. They will be able to
extend love.
In
that condition after being humbled and delivered, Israel will be established as
the Nation of nations. It will be exulted and promoted. God has made this a
promise, not only here, but also in other places. Therefore, let it be so as He
has spoken.
Conclusion:
Agony and Ecstasy of Paul in Romans
Look
through the entire book of Romans. From the very beginning all through to the
very end Paul is speaking about Judaism. I had been taught differently, and
when I first started to see what I’m describing in this chapter I resisted it.
I didn’t want to hear about mercy being extended to those who don’t deserve it.
I didn’t want to hear about the Jew being the one to be the deliverer to the
nations. I was too jealous for the Church. I was too jealous for my own glory.
I
say this to say that Paul is not speaking out of his Jewish heritage. Paul’s
view isn’t some sort of Jewish Zionism. Paul had an apostolic way of viewing
that has been lost to us in the modern day Church. I, as a Gentile, have been
brought to this understanding by the grace and mercy of God. Though I opposed
it at the first, I now embrace it because for the Jew to receive mercy at our
persecution will mean that we, even us Gentiles and non-Jews, will receive a
higher degree of glory. We will be exalted to a higher place than we would ever
have received independent of the Jew.
“Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel
of God (which He had promised before by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures),”
Romans 1:1-2. We can’t even get beyond the first two verses before needing to
stop and consider what Paul is saying. It is no wonder that people like myself
would continually miss this understanding and not have the knowledge of God’s
redeeming purposes for Israel. I can’t even read correctly.
What
is the gospel of God that the prophets spoke of? First, we know that they spoke
against all humanity, for “there is no one righteous, no not even one.” They
spoke about the condition of man and the anatomy of sin, for “the heart is
deceitfully wicked, who can know it?” They spoke about a coming Messiah who
would be the seed of David. They spoke of this Messiah as one who would even
bring salvation to the Gentiles. They spoke of an end-time wrath of God that
would be poured out upon the Jews, and except God had prepared a people to
deliver Israel, all Israel would have died. They spoke of Israel being
redeemed. All Israel is to know the Lord their God. They spoke of Israel
judging the nations. It will be according to the testimony of Israel to the
nations that will determine that nations destiny, for “any nation that does not
come to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices will be cut off from the land of the
living.” Finally, they spoke on God Himself being with and in His people, both
Jew and Gentile, and the throne of David being established and occupied by
Messiah forever.
With
this being within the first two verses, it is already setting the scene for the
rest of the book of Romans. Paul continues with, “…concerning His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and
declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead; by whom we have received grace and
apostleship, for obedience to the faith among the nations, for His name.”
Jump
down to verse 16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew first, and
then to the Greek.” Once again, Paul brings the perspective back to Judaism. My
question at first was whether this verse really meant to the Jew first, and
then to the Greek, or if it only meant that God reached out to the Jew first,
and now He is reaching out to the Greek. I was taught the latter. Yet, it seems
as though the entire ministry of Paul revolved around the former. Even though
he was the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul preached in the synagogues first.
Look
into Romans 2:28-29, “For he is not a Jew who is on outwardly; neither is that
circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one
inwardly; and circumcision in that of the heart, in the Spirit and not in the
letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” Here Paul establishes true
Judaism and false Judaism. We have been called into the true, and even as Gentiles,
God has made us Jewish. The next 6 chapters are establishing true and false
Judaism.
The
whole of Romans 3 can be summed up in the single verse, “Therefore, we conclude
that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the Law,” Romans 3:28.
We have such marvelous statements throughout Romans 3 that really show forth
that salvation is by grace, not of works, lest any man should boast. If the Law
could bring salvation, then Jesus died in vain. And if we could achieve
righteousness by our good works, then the resurrection from the dead is made
void. But God, who is rich in mercy and the justifier of the wicked, has made a
way that all men stand damned before Him unless that work of grace, which is of
God, works in them to save them.
So
then, is salvation only to the Jews? God forbid. Salvation is to both Jew and
Gentile by the same means. All have sinned, and all fall short of the glory of
God, and all are saved by the same means, mainly the calling upon the name of
the Lord. We are justified by faith, and it is the same kind of faith that
Abraham exercised.
“Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness,” Romans 4:3; Genesis
15:6. What is this belief? What is this kind of faith? Remember that Abraham
left kindred and home. He forsook all riches to go as a nomad to the land that
God would show him. This faith in God was something that went beyond statement.
Our faith in Jesus Christ must do likewise to the point where we can claim the
same faith of leaving family, kindred, tribe, people, home, riches, etcetera.
Are we pilgrims and strangers? Are we looking unto a place where God will show
us? Are we nomads and vagabonds in this world looking forward to that place
that God will take us where the land is flowing with milk and honey? That is faith. That is believing in God. Unless we move away from the things of this world, and move forward to following Christ to that place where He will show
us, we are ipso facto not in the faith.
“If
they who are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of
no effect,” Romans 4:14. “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Romans 5:1. Once again, this is Paul
establishing the false Judaism and true Judaism. The false follows the letter
of the law. Salvation is null and void of faith.
“Therefore,
as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by
the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of
life,” Romans 5:18. “Therefore, we are buried with Him by baptism into death,
that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in
the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His
resurrection,” Romans 6:4-5. Here is the true Judaism of God. When I spoke
earlier of the Hebraic faith, this is it. Paul establishes to us true and false
religion. False Judaism follows the letter of the Law, and likewise false Christianity.
True Judaism, which is the ultimate intent of God, is this resurrection life.
The ultimate goal of God is to have a corporate Body that can display this
resurrection to the world and to the principalities and powers of the air.
Now,
Romans 7 must be viewed in context of Romans 6 and 8. Paul makes statements
like, “For he that is dead is freed from sin. Let not sin reign in your mortal
body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Neither yield your members as
instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as
those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God.”
Then,
we reach Romans 7, and Paul starts backpedaling. “For the good that I would, I
do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do,” Romans 7:19. What happened?
Continue reading. The last verse of the chapter is, “I thank God through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. So, then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but
with the flesh, the law of sin. There is, therefore, now no condemnation to
them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.”
The
whole point of Romans 7 is the same as what the apostle John says in 1 John
2:1-2, “My little children, these things I write to you, that you would not sin.
But if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our
sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
I
emphasized the word if. The whole point is not that when you sin, like so many misquote, but if you sin, then you repent. If you sin, have faith
that God has made a way for there to be reconciliation and redemption. If you
sin, know that it is not you, but your sinful nature. You are no longer
governed by the flesh, but now by the Spirit. This is the whole point. It is
possible to live completely free from sin. However, God has made a way through
His Son that you would be forgiven now and forever.
This
is the true Judaism: resurrection. But what does that really mean? For us who
have been fed that all we need to do is have a bit more morale, this is a
foreign concept. It would seem as though God has been showing me time and again
that we teach that there is no hope. You can never escape your sin; you’ll
never be holy as God is holy. You’ll never be completely righteous. You’ll
never be completely blameless. You’ll never be completely free from sin.
If
this is true, then Jesus died in vain. He was raised from the dead to no avail.
He ascended to the right hand of the Father without receiving His full reward
(the salvation of His people, Jew and Gentile). For us to believe that God
cannot save to the uttermost, our belief is detrimental to salvation entirely.
How can we be saved if it is not utter? How can we call it redemption if it is
not an entire work? How can we call it a complete work if the whole point is
that it is impossible to be saved?
I’ve
already spoken on this, but it is so crucial to the faith. If there is no
resurrection from the dead, and therefore no more sin within our bodies, our
testimony is null and void. We cannot claim this true Judaism. We cannot claim
Christianity. The whole point is that it is either every aspect of your life
has been buried with Christ, and raised by the glory of the Father, or you
haven’t died nor been raised at all. Resurrection is something that is so dire
and so ultimate that to it cannot be truly understood.
It
isn’t something that we can study out. Unless the Holy Spirit reveals, it will
forever be a theory or doctrine, but will never be an actuality in our lives.
As long as we cannot apprehend the depths of God in resurrection and His glory
to raise us, even us, from the dead, we will never be able to perceive nor
apprehend the depths of God and the riches of God in all other areas of
religion. Our ideologies of the demonic forces will be something of
superstition and “knowing they’re there,” but never really being able to
wrestle or understand what their purpose is. We will be able to understand that
God has made us a light to the world, but we will never be able to comprehend
what exactly that constitutes. We will be able to read our Bibles, talk about
the Scripture, fellowship together, delight in the things of God, and even have
some measure of strength in the Lord, but we will never come to fullness. We
will have a form of godliness, but deny the very power thereof, simply because
we can’t understand the ultimate and total requirement of God for salvation.
It
isn’t until we really wrestle with this concept that our Christian lives will
take on a new life. If we are willing to go with the flow, stop asking
questions, accept that this is the way its always been, deny our gifts and
callings for the sake of “unity,” not make a nuisance of ourselves by speaking
the truth in love, and abandoning the biblical concept of salvation and
deliverance, then we will always be groping for something more, and never being
able to find it. It all revolved around this: being to Israel what we are
called to be, which is a resurrected people. We need to display the true
Judaism of God to the Jews. Nothing else drives them to jealousy.
Because
we have missed it in this area, we will miss it in every other area. The main
question that seems to be asked to me is, “How is that possible? When does man
stop being man?” Oh ye of little faith! It is because you can’t believe that it is possible that you will
never be saved! It is because you
don’t believe that God is God and can move in this kind of powerful way that
you will never see the true and deepest revelation of God, and therefore of
yourself. It is because you place
too much a gaze upon man that you will never find deliverance to the uttermost,
nor salvation in the innermost parts. Ye of little faith; you thought that this
was something that would take place in heaven. God invites you to repent and
believe now. When is man no
longer man? He is no longer man when it is the Holy Spirit.
From
this revelation, Paul ends this glorious statement on resurrection by saying,
“I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor
any other creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. I say the truth in Christ; I lie not; my conscience
also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great heaviness and
continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from
Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
Can
you see how strange this is? Paul goes from one extreme to the other. He states
that nothing can separate you from the love of Christ, and then in the same
breath tells us that he wishes himself accursed for his brethren’s sake. It has
always been taught to me that these two chapters are separate. Paul ends Romans
8, and then starts a new topic. Romans 9 is something that is supposed to be
viewed in light of Romans 9. There is no connection between Romans 8 and 9.
Nothing
could be further from the truth! Because of this revelation of resurrection,
and because we know that Christ came to give this gift while we were still yet
sinners, it is blatantly obvious that nothing could separate us from the love
of Christ. This, in turn, immediately turns our hearts to His chosen people
Israel. What about them? If so great a salvation is come to the Gentiles, what
about His people? This is the apostolic perception. It is because of his
apostleship that Paul is wishing himself accursed, not because of his Judaism.
He
is asking the right questions. When one statement is made, it leads to this,
then an answer is found, and we must ask then something else. Because the
prophets presented the gospel of God, we need to examine what they taught. If
that is what they taught, then why is Judaism so opposite of what they preach?
If the Jewish people are living a false Judaism, then what is the true? If the
true is resurrection and it is come to the Gentiles, then what about Israel?
What hope do they have?
And
here we find the meat and potatoes of Paul’s message to the Romans. I have been
quoting from Romans 11 the most up until this small exposition, but now I hope
you can see why. The entire book of Romans is saturated and enriched with the
Jew. This is the point of the entire epistle.
I
want to give a brief overview of these next 3 chapters, and then we’ll dive
into them more thoroughly. Paul starts with this morbid plea for his brethren’s
sake, and ends in Romans 11 with a joyful exclamation that goes beyond our
categories of worship. Such joyful praise has not been uttered in such a
profound way in all other places in Scripture. Paul “out-praises” David, if I
can use such terminology. Within these three chapters, Paul concludes the true
and false Judaisms, shows forth the hidden heart of most Gentiles by pointing
the finger and saying, “Why do you care that they are going to be brought back
in mercy?”, speaks on apostolic preaching, a brief and profound explanation of
our grafting into the House of Israel, and the final salvation and restoration
of Israel to bring about the redemption of the nations and usher forth the end
of the age.
How
do we even begin? It is almost necessary to sit back and prepare our minds to
hear such a glorious statement that is hidden within these verses. Paul starts
by explaining his agony. It is Israel, “to whom pertains the adoption, and the
glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God,
and the promises; whose fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came,
who is over all.”
This
is review, but it bears repeating. God has given these promises and gifts and
callings and glory to the Jews. We as Gentiles, though it is God’s delight,
were not the original beneficiaries.
“Not
as though the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who
are of Israel. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all
children, but, ‘In Isaac shall God’s seed be called.’ That is, they who are the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of
the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise, ‘At this
time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.’ And not only this, but when
Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father, Isaac (for the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls), it
was said to her, ‘The elder shall serve the younger.’ As it is written, ‘Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated.’”
This
is our conclusion to the true and false Judaisms. Because it is not of the
flesh, but of the promise, those who act like Abraham are those who are Jewish.
Those who believe in God, even Christ, are those who are of the true Judaism of
God. This is why Paul goes on in asking, “Is there unrighteousness with God?”
Romans 9:14. Those who are Jacob are even being cast out for the sake of those
who might be of Esau. Those who are of Abraham’s seed, but do not share in
Abraham’s belief in God, are cast out of the House of Israel, and now salvation
has come to the Gentiles. We who are non-Jews can claim Judaism, because it is
of the promise, not of the heritage.
Is
God unrighteous? Did He create a flawed system that those who are called to
experience this salvation are now those who will be damned? God forbid! “For He
said to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and compassion on
whom I will have compassion.’”
The
elder shall serve the younger. It was stated in the beginning, and so it shall
be at the end. Even when that younger is undeserving, and completely insultive,
the elder (us Gentiles) shall serve the younger.
Who
are you that would complain against God? Are His ways not perfect? Is He not
love? What is it to you if He would so desire to create an entire people to be
damned so that the rest of the world might experience salvation? But praise
God, for He has made a way of salvation for His people. “Blindness in part is
happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all
Israel shall be saved,” Romans 11:25-26.
“The
Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness,
even the righteousness which is of faith; but Israel, who followed after the
law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why?
Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.
For, they stumbled at the stumbling stone,” Romans 9:30-32.
“Brethren,
my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For
I bear them witness that they have zeal for God, but not according to
knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to
establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God,” Romans 10:1-4. Paul is making the statement that anyone who has spoken
to a Jew knows. They don’t believe in sin. Sure, there are others who are
wicked, but they are a self-righteous people. The Jew is of perfect morale. In
fact, they have such an evolved state of humanity, that when God speaks to the
Jew, the Jew has to correct God. That is why Moses told God not to kill the
people Israel. Moses, as a Jew, knew better than God.
If
we present to them the gospel of God by quoting their own Scriptures and
saying, “All our righteous deeds are filthy rags before God,” they will claim
we are misinterpreting the Scripture. Human depravity is a “Christian
doctrine.” Absolute corruption through and through is a Gentile belief. The Jew
has a higher understanding than us non-Jews. And thus, they are ignorant of
God’s righteousness and hold to their own righteousness.
“But
what does it say? The word is near you, even in your moth, and in your heart;
that is, the word of faith, which we preach: that if you shall confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him
from the death, then you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the
Scripture says, ‘Whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed.’ For there is
no difference between Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich
unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved,” Romans 10:8-13.
This
interprets itself. I want to stress that these verses are to the Jew. Yet, Paul
says, “There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.” Why? God is not
only God over Israel, but over the whole world. All is under His Lordship, and therefore,
there are neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female in Christ. He is the one
Head. It is His Body. Thus, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
“How,
then, shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach except they are sent? But they have not all
obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah said, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So,
then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” Romans 10:14-17.
This
is an apostolic preaching. It is more than a mere speaking a word. It is more
than a simple opening of a Bible. This is a sent word, which means a given
word. The very word that is spoken or preached is straight from the mouth of
God. It isn’t that God has been speaking to my heart, so this is what I’ll
speak. It is that God Himself speaks through a man, and every word, every
sentence, every paragraph is established by God. That kind of word is what this world longs for. Amos 8:11
tells us of a time when there will be a famine of the very words of God. They
were in this time when Jesus came. We are in this time now.
What
is it about this word that is different than any other kind of word? “So, then,
faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” According to this
verse, if I understand it correctly, faith is actually produced in the hearer.
It isn’t that the hearer has to decide whether they believe or not, but that
faith is imparted by the word. Why? The very word itself will be a cross
experience. The man speaking will need to obey the Lord and place himself with
his chin out, and nothing to stand on. Unless God be the one to hold that man
or woman speaking, there will be nothing but humiliation and mocking to be the
end result. Because the person speaking is bearing a cross, the speaking
transmits the very life of God. It is a representation of the death, burial,
and resurrection in the very speaking. To witness that kind of a speaking is to
witness an event that produces faith in the hearer.
The
entire chapter of Romans 11 is now about to be stated: “But I say, did not
Israel know? First Moses said, ‘I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are
no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you,’ Deuteronomy 32:21. But
Isaiah is very bold, and said, ‘I was found by them that sought me not; I was
made manifest unto them that asked not after me,’ Isaiah 65:1; Isaiah 42:6-7.
But to Israel he said, ‘All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a
disobedient and contrary people,’ Isaiah 65:2.”
Let
us go through the 11th chapter. God has reserved some of Israel by
election (Romans 11:4; 7). “Have they stumbled that they should fall? God
forbid; but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, to
provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them were the riches of the world,
and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their
fullness? For if the casting aside of them be the reconciling of the world,
what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? For I would not,
brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your
own conceit: that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of
the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved,” Romans 11:11-12;
15; 25-26.
“As
concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes; but as touching the
election, they are believed for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and callings
of God are irrevocable. For as you in times past have not believed God, yet
have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, even so have they also now not
believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God has
concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all,” Romans
11:28-32.
Did
you get it? Did you see it? Through Christ’s death, salvation has come to the
world. Through our death, salvation shall come to the Jews (Romans 11:30-31).
Through their death, God will have mercy upon all. That means all the nations, peoples, kindred, tongues,
tribes, and nomads. Everyone will have the
choice to receive mercy, or parish. It will not be forced, as our salvation was
not forced. Yet, it will be the supreme act of either forsaking God, or
repentance unto salvation.
Is
it any wonder why Paul ends this statement with, “Oh the depth of the riches
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God”? And then, Romans 12 starts with,
“Therefore, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” The rest of the
book of Romans is the result of this mystery. If this is truth, then how shall
we act? What are the practical implications? Paul gives a thorough and ultimate
display of true and false Judaism, the mystery of Israel and the Church, and
how then we shall live in light of this mystery. No stone is left unturned.
Because of the calling of God, lay down your life. Give yourself to His
purposes. Accept this teaching, which is profitable to your salvation.
The
first part of Romans 12 talks about being sober in our thoughts considering
ourselves. Why? Because there is so much at stake, we need to consider
ourselves only of one body. We aren’t individuals anymore. We bring something
to the table that some one else might not bring. And this is the spiritual
gift: the people. What one might have, another lacks. What gift God might have
placed in one, it will edify all. When we are living the life that God has
given us, and when we stop our super-Christian mentality of “these are apostles
and prophets,” then we will see the glory of God in His Church. His spiritual
gifts that He gives are the people who have these different callings and
giftings by the Holy Spirit. Each person is precious.
This
is why we are to act accordingly. The rest of Romans 12 is an obvious display
of how we ought to live and act and conduct ourselves, both is spirit and in
truth. These statements by Paul aren’t really profound, nor do they need to be
examined one by one. They just are, simply because that’s what the Holy Spirit
in us desires for us to be.
When
we enter into chapter 13, however, we see something that isn’t so obvious. Most
people read this text as simply meaning that we are to obey the laws and government
and our bosses. God has given authority to certain men over us, and we need to
respect that authority. This is true, but it still misses the fullness of what
God, through Paul, is trying to say.
“Let
every soul be subject to the higher powers.” As it says in the NIV, “Let
everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority
except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been
established by God.” A brief history lesson in ancient Roman custom and law and
we learn that the Jews had authority. So did the rich. There were certain
social authorities established by the Roman government. These authorities bowed
the knee to the great authority, which is to say Ceasar, but these smaller
authorities are not exempt.
While
I read this first part of Romans 13, I can’t help but think about these Gentile
believers who are now going to the synagogues with the Jewish believers. They
are now gathering amongst the Jews, and indeed being baptized, or Mikveh, in
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Mikveh was a practice by the
Jews to make clean by the washing of water. This is where our idea of baptism
comes from, and this is why Jesus tells us to be baptized and believe (Paul
speaks of it also in Romans 6).
So,
then, what if Paul really is telling these first century believers who gather
at the synagogues to submit to the Jewish authority? Why would that be such a
spot of irritation? We, who have been freed from the law, and who are raised
from this dead thing, are now supposed to submit to it? We have to condescend
to their level? Who do you think you are? Why should I have to submit to the
Jewish authority? They don’t even know Christ!
Yet,
this exposes the very reason why we need to submit: first of all, for our
sakes, and second of all for their sakes. There is something deep within our
souls that seems to utterly reject this. We don’t want to. And any excuse that
we can conjure up as to why we shouldn’t have to submit to the authority of the
synagogue and the Jewish rabbis and hierarchy is good enough. Yet, this still
begs the question of what this looks like. We know that the works of the law
are dead, so then where do we find life in them?
This
is where we are brought to Christ. He fulfilled the Law. He lived by it, and
did not break even one jot or tittle of it. He followed even the punctuation
marks. He shows us the completion of it. He shows us what was intended from the
start, and in that, we see the way to live. We don’t break these laws, and we follow
the 613 laws set out in the Torah the same way that Christ did. It will upset
men and women. It will cause for chafing, but it is the true representation of
Christ.
This
is why we submit. There is something deep within us that needs to be purged out.
There is something deep within the Jew that needs to be exposed. By our very
nature and acts, they will be jealous. This is what will bring them to Christ:
their jealousy of our understanding as well as our ability to walk out the Law
in completion.
The
rest of chapter 13 is an outworking of this. We love one another with a genuine
love. We put on Christ as a outer garment, and we live in that reality. We live
as though we really believe that Jesus will return soon. We live as though we
really believe that there will be a judgment and that Christ really will come
like a thief in the night.
Chapter
14 is more outworking of the beginning of chapter 13. Paul not only speaks of
the Jew who has not yet believed, but also to the Christian brother or sister
who is weak in faith. What is it to you if certain foods be clean or uncean? If
it is unclean to one, it is unclean to you. Do not eat or drink anything
unclean in their presence. This shouldn’t be difficult, and yet we seem to have
this mindset of being better than the other. Because we know that all things
have been made clean, now we’re at a higher spirituality than those who worry
about clean and unclean.
This
should not be so. We should eat and drink to the glory of God. In all things,
whether eating or drinking, whether breathing or naturally living, whether
giving or receiving, whether living or dying, we should do all to the glory of
God. This means, in love, we eat, drink, and be merry with the saints. We are
respectful to those around us, whether saved or unsaved. Whether Jewish
unbeliever, who is ignorant of the Gospel, or fellow coheir of salvation who
knows God, we do all things in love for them, and therefore in love for God.
“Whatever is not of faith is sin,” Romans 14:23, and, “We who are strong ought
to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves,” Romans
15:1.
Now
lets backtrack just a little. When we are to submit to authorities, this isn’t
only the Jewish authority. I’m sure that all of us know this. Yet, let me put
it in writing so that people might not think that I’m just trying to be
fanciful with my writings. Thinkin about submission to authority as submission
to the Jew is a whole new thought. That is why I spend so much time and energy
on it. Yet, let us not neglect so great a command as submitting to those who
are over us, whether government, or teacher, or boss, or manager, or law, or
parent, or master. God, who works with the free will of men to display His
absolute sovereignty, establishes all.
