Life from the Dead
As we continue we begin to see a disparity between man’s religious agendas and Yahveh’s building program for a temple composed of Jewish and Gentile “living stones” (1Peter 2:5). Through a study of Romans 11, the flint knife of circumcision will continue to cut away the foreskin of man’s doctrines, which has covered our hearts and dulled our understanding of Yahveh’s sovereign will for a holy remnant.
The apostle Paul, a Jew of Jews, was sent to the Gentiles to bring them the Messiah of Israel and all of His promised blessings. Paul knew well that ignorance, pride, and jealousy of the Jews were common attitudes among the Gentile people. He perceived the potential for age-old anti-Jewish attitudes to grow back like an unholy foreskin over the newly circumcised hearts of these first Gentile converts. Paul’s powerful admonitions to the Gentiles in Ephesians 2-3 and Romans 9-11 were written to destroy latent anti-Jewish attitudes. Unfortunately, these are the very Scriptures the Adversary has attempted to eradicate from Christian theology. The church’s ignorance of these scriptural safeguards has allowed the perpetuation of many distorted doctrines and unbiblical attitudes toward Israel.
Yahveh has always used remembrance as a divine method of ensuring His people’s obedience. In Ephesians 2-3 and Romans 11, He reminds the messianic Gentiles of their humble origins as aliens from His eternal promises. These fundamental truths were intended to provide a safeguard against Gentile hostility, arrogance, and indifference toward the Jews. Unfortunately, lack of understanding of these truths became the downfall of many professing believers throughout the Gentile Christian era.
Paul prefaces this vital message to the Gentiles by bearing his heart regarding His Jewish brethren. He tells the Romans: "I am telling the truth in Messiah … my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Messiah for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises …" (Romans 9:1-4)
Paul continues, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to Yahveh for them [the Israelites] is for their salvation” (Romans 10:1). Paul wanted the Gentiles to share with him the deep love of Messiah; he was emphasizing that through the Jews all the nations of the earth have been mightily blessed. Love and appreciation for the Jewish people were pulsating through his heart, a love so deep that if it were possible, he would have forfeited his own salvation in order to save some of his Israelite brethren. Following this passionate expression of his feelings for Israel, Paul addresses a question that had arisen in the minds of the new Gentile believers. Was the Almighty finished with the people of Israel because they rejected their Messiah? “I say then, Yahveh has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! [Yahveh forbid!] For I too am an Israelite … Yahveh has not rejected His people …” (Romans 11:1-2).
As a Hebrew scholar, Paul was familiar with the words of the ancient prophets, who continually emphasized the Almighty’s unchangeable love and eternal plan for His firstborn people. Jeremiah had written concerning Yahveh’s love for Israel: “Thus says Yahveh, ‘If the heavens above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel For all that they have done,’ declares Yahveh” (Jeremiah 31:37). Paul also knew that in the book of Isaiah, Yahveh asked: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you [Israel]. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me” (Isaiah 49:15-16). As the light of the prophets’ words pierces the darkness of man’s traditions, let us continue in Romans: “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them [Israel] jealous” (Romans 11:11).
It is interesting to note that this Scripture, if taught at all, is usually conveyed only in part. Satan’s strategies have succeeded in obscuring the most vital phrase of this sentence. Perhaps this phrase sounds familiar to you: “Rather, [because] of their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles.” This portion of Scripture, taken out of context, leads to a deceptive theology that fosters ignorance and pride toward the Jewish people. The truth is this: corporate Israel was blinded and rejected their Messiah in order that the Gentiles would have the opportunity to receive salvation. Why? So that the Gentiles could replace Israel in Yahveh’s heart and eternal plan? No! Yahveh forbid! Rather, the redeemed Gentiles received with their salvation a divine mandate to be the vehicle by which the Jews would be lovingly and mercifully drawn to their Messiah, Yahshua. "Now if their transgression [in rejecting Messiah] be riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" (Romans 11:12-15)
As much as the great apostle loved all people, his primary hope in ministering to the Gentiles was that the Gospel would flow through their humble hearts as a river of life, drawing the Israelites to their Messiah. He understood the mystery and master plan of Yahveh’s infinite mercy. This master plan in no way implies that the salvation of the Gentiles is any less important to the Almighty than the redemption of His first-born Jewish people. The Jews’ rejection of Yahshua was the catalyst for the prophesied “early rains,” the outpouring of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of Truth, which brought the great harvest of Gentiles into His kingdom. Greater yet, the Jews’ acceptance of Messiah will be as the outpouring of the “latter rains” — (see Deuteronomy 11:14; Jeremiah 5:24; Joel 2:23)—which will be such a powerful release of His blessings and salvation that Paul called it “life from the dead” (Romans 11:15) … REVIVAL!
