Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter
11 as we continue our study through Paul’s letter to the
church in
In this section Paul is speaking of Israel’s rejection of the Messiah, of Jesus not being final, that they will come to saving faith and it will be the Gentiles that will bring them to the faith as they see God working in them and that jealousy will soften their heart and draw them back. The thing we need to remember is that we need to be careful that we don’t elevate ourselves above the Jews, for we are sinners just as they are. In regards to this, R. Kent Hughes wrote:
There is no doubt that the Jews are a unique people. They can trace their lineage back thousands of years to one man, Abraham. It was into the Jewish tribe of Judah that the Son of God was born. God was a Jew . . . Also, the Jews have proven to be second to none in battle. The battle cry “After thee, O Benjamin” has often brought unflinching resolve, and Masada was an illustration of that commitment. In addition, the intellectual contributions of the Jews to Western thought are incalculable.
Despite all this, Jews are subject to divided sympathies throughout the world, whether in Hong Kong, Mexico City, or Chicago. Sometimes even whole societies have fallen into anti-Semitism, as we know all to well, though generally those having a living faith in Christ have been friends to the Jews. . . .
. . . As one Jew put it to a Christian:
How odd of God
To choose the Jew,
But not so odd
As those who choose
The Jewish God
And hate the Jew.
- R. Kent Hughes, Romans, pp. 191, 193
It is hard for me to imagine any Christian, any church hating the Jewish people, to think that God has replaced the Jews with the Church and now the blessings that God had for Israel are only for the Church, but the Jews still get the cursing. That is very convenient. But as we have seen over the last few weeks, God is not done with the Jews, He has called them and He will work through them as a nation once again! Now, in these verses we read this morning, let’s break them down because Paul is going to show us what God is doing and then next week we will look at how Paul does not want us to be ignorant on this subject, that all Israel will be saved!
Has Israel stumbled so far that they have fallen out of the grace of God? Not at all! And please understand that Paul is not denying that they have fallen, they have. But in that salvation has come to the Gentiles and this is not excluding the Jewish people, it is not that they have fallen and can’t get up! You see, as salvation has come to the Gentiles God will use that to cause Israel to be jealous as they see God blessing the Gentiles with the hope that Israel would turn back to God.
When I was in High School I ran Cross Country and the top seven runners on our team would get these awesome sweats and track outfits while the rest received these baggy and ugly things. What that did for me was it made me jealous, I wanted to wear those outfits and thus, I worked hard, and I finally worked my way to the point where I was in the top seven, a varsity runner and I had one of those awesome track outfits. Now the difference here is you don’t have to work to receive salvation, just receive it by faith. God is not done with Israel but through the salvation of the Gentiles He is provoking them to jealousy so they might return back to Him and be saved!
Of this verse, Morris makes this interesting point: “It is a matter for profound regret that just as Israel refused to accept this salvation when it was offered to them, so the Gentiles have all too often refused to make Israel envious. Instead of showing to God’s ancient people the attractiveness of the Christian way Christians have characteristically treated the Jews with hatred, prejudice, persecution, malice, and all uncharitableness. Christians should not take this passage calmly.” What a powerful point he makes and may we take it to heart. You see, we should make people jealous of what we have in Jesus, not just Jews, so that they would desire to have what we have!
Please do not come to the conclusion that it is because of the Jews rejecting Jesus as their Messiah that the Gentiles were saved or that God’s plan failed and He had to come up with a new one and save the Gentiles. As we have seen over the past few weeks, God intended to save Gentiles through the witness of the Jewish people and they failed to be a witness. Thus, when they rejected Jesus it just gave more of an opportunity for Gentiles to get saved and God has blessed the Gentiles but He has not forsaken the Jews! In other words, Israel’s loss has been the Gentiles gain!
Now if the world has been blessed by Israel’s fall, how much more will the world be blessed by their “fullness” or restoration back to God through Jesus Christ! Don’t miss that point in verse 12! You see, when Israel as a nation turns back to the Lord at the close of the Tribulation Period, it will be Israel who will be the channel of blessings to other nations because they will be the light and they will be the ones who God is working through. And I believe that this future blessing will be seen in the Kingdom Age! That tells me the Church is not here at this point and I believe the Church is removed before the Tribulation Period even begins because God does not deal with the Church and Israel at the same time. We will deal more with this issue down the road.
Beginning in verse 13 Paul is addressing the Gentiles, and this covers Romans 11:13-24. You see, God’s purpose is not to destroy Israel, but to bring them back to Him and that is what He will do! And even Paul, who recognized that his primary ministry was to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, wanted to provoke his people, the Jews to jealousy so that they may come to Jesus, so they may desire to have what the Gentiles have, Jesus!
Now the tragedy in all of this is that we have failed many times to do this. Look back over Church history and look at the persecution we have brought upon the Jewish people and others. And as the Jews look at us they are afraid, they are angry because we see them as the ones who killed Jesus. And instead of making them jealous to have what we have, they are pushed away. And folk’s, the reality is that we all nailed Jesus to the cross because we are all sinners and it was our sin that nailed Him to the tree. Yes, it was His love for us that kept Him there, but it was our sin that placed Him there in the first place. And yet many so-called Christians have the audacity to blame the Jews for this. May our love for not only the Jewish people, but all people be so great that it draws people to Jesus, especially the Jews!
Paul is saying that because of Israel’s falling away the door to the Gentiles being saved has been opened and one day that the Jews will come to Jesus and it will be like life from the dead for them as it is for us! In their case it is their nation that was dead to God and has been reborn through Christ! Let me show you that this is going to take place. In Isaiah 26:16-19 we are told, “Your dead shall live; Together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; For your dew is like the dew of herbs, And the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter your chambers, And shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, Until the indignation is past. For behold, the Lord comes out of His place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; The earth will also disclose her blood, And will no more cover her slain.”
What in the world is Isaiah talking about? What does he mean when he talks about these dead bodies living, rising up? What is he talking about in regards to hiding themselves until this judgment day is past as the Lord is coming out of His place to punish the earth dwellers?
This is fascinating to me because I see this as what Paul is speaking of here in Romans. Now keep in mind that Paul is speaking of the Jewish people and that they will come back to life. And here in Isaiah I see this as resurrection life that we as Gentiles have and one day the Jewish people, as a nation will have. You see, there are Jews that have come to Christ today, but the nation has not, but it will take place. In the oldest book in the Bible, written around 2000 B.C., notice what Job tells us, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” Job 19:25-27.
Job believed in resurrection life and even though his body will go back to the dust of the earth, he will see God, in his flesh or resurrection body. Thus, Job is speaking of the first resurrection which began with Christ, with His death and resurrection and continues on through the Church Age, the Tribulation Period, and all the way through the Millennial Kingdom when the righteous will be made to stand before God in their new bodies and the unrighteous will be judged and punished in the Lake of Fire!
And here in Isaiah I believe this is what he is speaking of. Yes, there is the resurrection of those who have died in Christ but for those Jewish people that are alive during the Tribulation Period, they are told to hide themselves until the indignation is past. I believe they will do this at the 3½ period of the seven-year Tribulation Period when the Antichrist goes into the rebuilt temple and the Jews will flee to the mountains, to the rock city of Petra where God will protect them for those last 3½ years! It is during this Tribulation Period that God will pour out His wrath upon a Christ rejecting world or as Isaiah tells us that He will punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, for their rejection of Jesus. It doesn’t say, “iniquities” but is singular and the only sin that sends a person to Hell is their rejection of Jesus. All the sins that people do will determine their degree of punishment in the Lake of Fire!
And it is after this that God will establish His Kingdom on this earth, after the Jews return to Him and petition Him to return! The Jews who are spiritually dead right now as a nation, will turn to Jesus and it will be life from the dead as Paul has said, just like it is for every Gentile that comes to Jesus!
Paul just got done looking at Israel’s future. That Israel will turn to the Lord, that they will be alive again. Now Paul is going to look back and see Israel’s spiritual heritage and he will do so be giving us two illustrations to prove that God is not done with His people the Jews. The idea is that God has chosen the Jews to be His special people from the beginning and He is not going to just cast them off. He will fulfill what He has started!
Paul starts out by speaking of part of the dough that was offered up to God as a firstfruit and because part of this dough was given to God, it was symbolically all His. In Numbers 15:17-21 we see this played out and I think this is what Paul had in mind here. We are told, “Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “When you come into the land to which I bring you, then it will be, when you eat of the bread of the land, that you shall offer up a heave offering to the Lord. You shall offer up a cake of the first of your ground meal as a heave offering; as a heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall you offer it up. Of the first of your ground meal you shall give to the Lord a heave offering throughout your generations.”’”
And we see this also as the priests offered a sheaf to the Lord as a token that the entire harvest was his in the Feast of Firstfuits. In Leviticus 23:9-14 we are told, “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.”’”
The point that Paul is making and what these offerings are showing us is that when God accepts the part He sanctifies the whole. Folk’s, I believe Paul’s point here is that the founder of the nation, Abraham was accepted by God because of his faith and not his works and thus, God will accept the rest of the lump you might say, the nation of Israel. It was not because of Abraham’s righteousness but his faith and that is important for us to understand and I will deal with this in a minute. First let’s look at this next illustration that Paul gives to us, this branch, which Paul will expound on more, but let’s see what his point is.
If the root, which I believe is speaking of Abraham and the other patriarchs, is holy, then the branches, their descendants, are holy too. You see, these men, Abraham and the other patriarchs were divinely called and set apart before the foundation of the world and God’s work with those branches will not be complete until they bear the spiritual fruit He intends to produce in and through them. When is that going to happen? Not until the end of the age when they actually become the holy people they were destined to be!
Now Romans 11:16 drives this point home for us that Paul is speaking of Abraham and his faith as The Amplified Bible tells us, “Now if the first handful of dough offered as the firstfruits [Abraham and the patriarchs] is consecrated (holy), so is the whole mass [the nation of Israel]; and if the root [Abraham] is consecrated (holy), so are the branches. [Num 15:19-21.]”
So if this is speaking of Abraham, and I believe it is, how then was Abraham justified? Obviously an important question and for the Jews they would say that Abraham was justified by the Law through works even though the Law was not even given yet. They believed he still kept it and that is what justified him. But was it really works that justified Abraham before God?
Not at all, for Paul told us back in Romans 4:1-5, “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.”
So just as Abraham was saved by grace through faith, so too will his descendants, and thus, at the end of the Tribulation Period we will see Jews, as a nation, call upon Jesus. They will be saved as they place their faith in Jesus because there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood and Jesus shed His blood to take away our sins and that is the only way our sins will be taken away. The Law has no power to do that, all the Law could do is show us where we stand and before a holy and righteous God, we are filthy apart from Christ!
Paul is expounding on this idea of Israel being the olive tree and we see that played out in the Scriptures. In Jeremiah 11:16-17 we are told, “The Lord called your name, Green Olive Tree, Lovely and of Good Fruit. With the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire on it, And its branches are broken. For the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced doom against you for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke Me to anger in offering incense to Baal.” Obviously God is pronouncing judgment upon Israel, specifically the Southern Kingdom of Judah for their worship of Baal, but notice what He calls them, a “Green Olive Tree.” That is what Paul is picking up on here in Romans 11.
And Paul takes what was a common practice of grafting olive trees and they still do that today. You see, olive trees can live for hundreds of years, in fact, on the Mount of Olives there are olive trees still standing that many believe were around during the time of Jesus. The problem is that when these trees got old many times they would not produce like they once did. So they would take a young olive branch and graft it into the older tree to help stimulate it to produce more olives!
Here’s the thing. Normally they would take a branch of an olive tree and graft it into a wild olive tree, but that is not what Paul is saying here. He is saying that God took these wild olive branches and grafted them into the cultivated, and as he says in Romans 11:24, and this is from The Amplified Bible, “For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and against nature grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much easier will it be to graft these natural [branches] back on [the original parent stock of] their own olive tree.” You see, what Paul is speaking of goes against nature. It is not that it can’t be done, but it is not what is normally done, this would not be the common practice!
And this is Paul’s point. The natural olive tree speaks of Israel and some of their branches were cut off. Why were some of their branches cut off? Because of their unbelief in the Messiah they have been cut off. There is a portion of Israel, a portion of the 12 tribes of Israel, a large portion who do not believe and they have been cut off. But notice that Paul says that only some of these branches were cut off and that tells me that God has a remnant of believing Jews, those who have received Jesus as their Lord and Savior! In fact, Paul himself was an example that not all the branches were cut off!
Guess who we are? Yes, we are the wild branches, those that were unfruitful in holiness and yet God has taken these wild branches and has grafted them into the cultivated olive tree or into Israel. Not that we have replaced Israel, but that we are now partakers of the blessings of God, as we have become spiritual descendants of Abraham, the father of the faithful! Folk’s, you can’t imagine how blessed we are as we have been grafted into the covenant of salvation that God made with Abraham and now He has given to us, those who believe in the God of Abraham! Now also keep in mind that unbelieving Gentiles will but cut off just as easily as unbelieving Jews because salvation is by faith and not by works!
And Paul speaks of this change in our lives in II Corinthians 5:17 as he tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” The Amplified Bible puts this verse like this, “Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!” You see, we have taken on a new nature, the nature of God that was given to Israel and now has been assimilated into the lives of the Gentiles, into you and me!
Now it is very easy to boast about what we have and then look down upon the Jews for what they don’t have, what they have given away you might say. And as you begin to think that way it is just a short step to self-righteousness and you will begin to judge everyone else as you sit upon your throne. That is a very dangerous place to be because the fall is very great!
Please understand that the Gentiles, you and me are not the source of the blessing anymore than believing Jews. God is the source of the blessings and we, as well as the believing Jews, are just the channels from which God’s blessings can flow through and touch the lives of others. God blesses us because we are the spiritual descendants of Abraham and we have been grafted into the covenant of salvation that God made with Abraham, as I have said.
Paul, in Galatians 3:5-9 makes that very point as he wrote, “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? — just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”
And Paul continues on in Galatians 3:13-14 by saying, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
Now, in seeing that, how can we as Gentiles be so arrogant, so prideful, towards those Jews who have been cut off in unbelief? We do not support the root, Paul tells us, but it is the root that is supporting us and it is the covenant that God has made to both believing Jews and Gentiles that receive the blessings! Those promises of God where given through the Jewish people, may we not forget that. And what is tragic is that many Christians come against Jewish people, but many even come against believing Jews, they are shunned by Gentile Christians and folks, that should not be, it should never happen! And Paul is going to continue on with this thought of the branches in the next few verses so let’s read on.
The Gentiles were developing the mentality of the Jews in regards to this self-righteous attitude. The Jews believed that every Jew would be snatched from the fires of Hell because they were a child of Abraham, even if they were wicked! On the other hand, every Gentile, no matter how good they were, would go to Hell because the only reason they were created was to fuel the fires of Hell. The only way a Gentile could escape that was by becoming a Jew.
But Paul said in Romans 9:6 “For they are not all Israel who are of Israel.” In other words, just because you are a descendant of Abraham does not mean you are saved, you must believe by faith in Jesus and then you are of Israel, governed by God! You see, we stand by faith; it is not that we are so special. Israel was cut off because of unbelief, and that too can happen to us, to Gentiles if we turn from the Lord and we know that during the Last Days the apostasy or falling away will come, where Gentiles will turn away from the Lord, and we can see that happening in churches across America!
Now in reading this you might come to the conclusion that God is just waiting for a Jew or Gentile to cross that line and bam! They are cut out of the olive tree. Paul did say, “For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity . . .” Romans 11:21-22a. It does seem that God is just ready to toast anyone who rejects Him!
I don’t believe that is the case. God is merciful, He is longsuffering, He is patient and His desire is that all would be grafted in, both Jew and Gentile. I truly believe that God is waiting for us to turn to Him so that He can graft us in and not the other way around. Again, notice what Paul says in verse 22, he speaks of the goodness of God and then says, “ . . . but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.” The Amplified Bible puts it like this, “ . . . but God's gracious kindness to you — provided you continue in His grace and abide in His kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off (pruned away).”
Now some read this and say, “If you don’t continue on, if you turn from Him you will be cut off, you can lose your salvation.” I disagree. Paul is saying that if you are in His grace you are saved and if you are not in His grace you are not saved. If you have received His free gift you are saved and if you have not you are not saved. In other words, if you want to reject God, He will give you what you desire, but He is patient, He is longsuffering and He desires you to receive Him but He won’t force you! And if you do reject Him the punishment is severe, it is eternal separation from Him in the Lake of Fire!
People today do not like to speak of these two sides of God, but the Scriptures speak of them and so must we or we are not giving the whole picture and we can deceive people. You see, if we only speak of the love of God, that may give people a false assurance that God is love and thus, there is no judgment from God for He is love. That is not true. That is only one side of God or one picture of Him.
For those that reject this free gift of God there is the judgment of God upon them, the judgment of God for rejecting Jesus Christ! We have talked about this but again, it is important for us to understand that God’s punishment for the unrepentant sinner, those who have rejected Jesus is severe!
Do you see what God is saying here? He is saying that He is not done with His people, the Jews. God can graft them in again and He will graft them in again. You see, God took the wild olive branches, the Gentiles and grafted them into the natural olive tree or the cultivated olive tree or into Israel with the root being Abraham, the father of faith. And if God can do that, He can surely graft back in that which was natural to the olive tree, the natural branches or the nation of Israel!
Now, when God cut off some of Israel and grafted in the church, it was made up of both Jews and Gentiles, that is, believing Jews and Gentiles. Gentiles were not saved by becoming Jewish proselytes, not by keeping the Law of Moses but by them coming to the faith of Abraham, to the God of Abraham! Thus, God will not cast Israel way permanently, He will deal with them again and we will look at that closely next time.
Let me give you a few examples to show you that God spoke of this restoration of His people back in the Old Testament Scriptures. In Zechariah 12:10 we are told, “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” I am sorry but you can’t read that and come to the conclusion that this is speaking of the Church! It is the Lord who is pouring out grace upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Jewish people and that has not happened yet.
The reason I can say that is because they have not looked upon Him whom they have pierced, Jesus Christ. Thus, this is future, it is a time when the nation of Israel will turn to Jesus and receive Him as their Lord and Savior! In Jeremiah 31:31-34, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah — not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
What is this new covenant that is spoken of? It is the covenant of grace, of the shed blood of Christ cleansing both Jew and Gentile of their sins. The old covenant could never take away a person’s sins, it could only cover them for a time, until they sinned again and it never dealt with the inherited sin that we are born with from Adam since we are descendants of Adam! The Jews will know the Lord, they will come to Jesus and because of that their sins will be taken away, He will remember them no more!
We will deal more with this issue of Israel and the last days next time but for now, let me close with this summation of these verses we have read this morning. Warren Wiersbe wrote:
Applying this to the history of Israel, we understand Paul’s argument. God accepted the founder of the nation, Abraham, and in so doing set apart his descendants as well. God also accepted the other patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob, in spite of their sins or failings. This means that God must accept the “rest of the lump” – the nation of Israel.
. . . Many of the Jewish people did not believe. Paul pictured them as branches broken off the tree. But he saw an amazing thing taking place: other branches were grafted into the tree to share in the life of the tree. These branches were the Gentiles. . . .
. . . Paul warned the Gentiles that they were obligated to Israel, and therefore they dared not boast of their new spiritual position (Rom. 11:18-21). The Gentiles entered into God’s plan because of faith, and not because of anything good they had done. . . .
No matter how far Israel may stray from the truth of God, the roots are still good. God is still the “God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” . . . He will keep His promises to these patriarchs. This means that the olive tree will flourish again!
- Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary Volume 1, p. 552
Folk’s, God saves both Jews and Gentiles by the blood of Christ applied to their lives, period. Remember what we are told in Isaiah 59:1-2, “Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” That is the problem for us all, but in regards to the Jews, unless they come to Jesus, the Lord can’t save.
But, as we have seen, they will come one day and receive Jesus as Isaiah 59:20-21 tells us, “‘The Redeemer will come to Zion, And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,’ Says the Lord. ‘As for Me,’ says the Lord, ‘this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,’ says the Lord, ‘from this time and forevermore.’”
The Living Translation puts it like this, “‘The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem to buy back those in Israel who have turned from their sins,’ says the Lord. ‘And this is my covenant with them,’ says the Lord. ‘My Spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I have given you. They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children's children forever. I, the Lord, have spoken!’”
Here’s the thing. How did the Lord buy back or purchase the sins of Israel? The same way He did it for us, by His shed blood. Thus, that tells me that the Jews will turn to Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and yes, one day, at the end of the Tribulation Period Israel will be saved or as Paul tells us, “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.’” Romans 11:25-27. That day folks is fast approaching but until that time, may we share our faith and see not only Gentiles come into the kingdom of God, but also Jews, God’s people!