Why Did Israel Miss The Bus?
Philip P. Eapen
Romans chapters 9 and 10. That’s the text for today’s sermon.
“The Glorious Restoration of Israel to Obedience” — that’s the title I have chosen for today’s sermon. Chapters 9, 10, and 11 go together. God willing, we shall look into Romans 11 next Sunday.
In the next 45 minutes to an hour, it is not possible for us to go through every line of these two chapters. I would like to present just the main points. My intention is to draw out lessons from these main points.
Before we get into the text of Romans 9 and 10, I think it is best for us to do a quick overview of the epistle. We have been studying Romans for the past two to three months. There may be some here who are joining us this Sunday for the first time. This overview will also help us tie all these sermons together.
Paul wrote this epistle while he was in Corinth, towards the end of his third missionary journey. He was already thinking about his next missionary journey.
We notice that Paul had a burning desire to preach the gospel. This was driven by his understanding that he was a debtor to both Jews and Gentiles, to the educated and the uneducated Barbarians. He was not ashamed of the Gospel because it was the power of God unto salvation for all who believed—the Jews and the Gentiles.
Paul had preached the Gospel in almost every known place in Asia and Greece. He wanted to preach the Gospel in new mission fields—in Rome and beyond, all the way to Spain. He did not wish to preach Christ where He was already known. He did not wish to build on someone else’s foundation. So, through this letter, Paul invited himself to Rome!
There was a problem, though. He needed the support of the Roman church for his next major missionary outreach. Majority of the Christians in Rome were from a Jewish background. Like other Jewish Christians, they refused to accept Gentile Christians as God’s people unless they converted to Judaism.
We know that this problem was widespread in the first-century Church. The apostles considered this as a threat to the Gospel. This is the sociological context of the epistle.
We cannot understand Romans if we ignore this sociological context of the first-century church.
Most Christians like to treat Romans like a “textbook” of the Gospel that was written for the whole world. Romans is not a grand textbook that explains the Gospel in a vacuum.
Romans was written to a particular church that faced a particular problem. It was written to a certain group of “Jewish” Christians to convince them that God does not differentiate between Jews and Gentiles.
I would summarize this epistle like this: In Romans Paul defends his undying desire to preach the Good News of Messiah (King) Jesus to both Jews and Gentiles in new mission fields of Rome and Spain.
Christians in Rome already knew the Gospel. They knew that Jesus was the King of kings. But they needed to hear the Gospel afresh — in a way that highlighted the equality of Jews and Gentiles before God. That’s why Paul wrote this epistle.
Was Paul able to convince these “Jewish” Christians that they should welcome him to Rome? Did he succeed in winning their support for his Spanish mission?
By the way he argued his case in this epistle, we can assume that Paul succeeded in his objectives.
I shall quickly take you through a series of verses that illustrate Paul’s main purpose in this epistle. You will see that Paul uses certain phrases throughout the letter—phrases like “Jews and Gentiles,” “the Jew first, and also the Greek.
1. First, in his introduction, Paul says that God had called him to lead Gentiles to the obedience of faith.
“We have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name. You [Jews] also are among them …” (1:5-6)
2. Next, in chapters 1, 2, and 3, Paul explained to his readers that both Jews and Gentiles were equally “lost sinners.”
There will be affliction and distress on everyone who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek. (2:9)
There will be glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first and also the Greek. (2:10)
For there is no partiality with God. (2:11)
We have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin (3:9)
For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (3:22-23)
3. Thirdly, Paul explained to his readers that God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ was for both Jews and Gentiles. The Jews were only a small but essential part of what God was doing to save the world through Christ.
The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation … to the Jew first and also to the Greek (1:16 )
Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles too? Yes, of the Gentiles too! (3:29)
God will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. (3:30)
Abraham is the father of all those who believe … but were never circumcised. And he is also the father of the circumcised, … who walk in the footsteps of the faith (4:11-12,16)
He has called [us], not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles (9:24)
there is righteousness for everyone who believes (10.4)
Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. (10:11)
For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who richly blesses all who call on him. (10:12)
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (10:14)
This is how Paul succeeded in explaining that the Gospel is for both Jews and Gentiles. Both groups are justified through faith in Christ. Both Jews and Gentiles are integrated together in Christ as God’s People.
I would love to read out aloud chapters nine and ten of Romans. But these chapters are like highly pressurized containers. Paul has included a lot of information here. But that is not the problem. The problem is that he did not include a lot of crucial information in here. Even we behave like that. When we are in a hurry, we don’t mention the “obvious.” I don’t know whether Paul was in a hurry. But Paul was clearly distressed and sad when he dictated these chapters. Paul left out a lot of things that should have been “obvious” to his Jewish readers.
Today, when we read these chapters, we need to supply all that missing information to make the text meaningful. Unless we fill in all the missing details, we will not understand these chapters.
After having read and understood the message of chapters 9 and 10, I paraphrased these chapters for us. I shall now read it out.
(While listening to this paraphrase, please bear in mind that the way Paul uses the words “righteousness” and “justification” cannot be rendered into English without loss of meaning in translation. “God’s righteousness” often refers to God’s faithfulness to His covenant. “Righteousness” imputed to us is best understood as an admission into a covenant relationship with God and into full membership of God’s household.)
Believe me. I am so sad that my beloved people, the Israelites, are lost and accursed. They are cut off from their Messiah. I love my people so much that I don’t mind trading places with them. Imagine! My folks had all the exclusive privileges and the insider information that they needed to believe that Ye’shua was the Messiah. They were given the Torah (the Law) through divine revelation. God entered into a covenant with them, giving them valuable promises. They had the privilege of worshipping the true God, beholding His glory, in His holy temple. Still, they did not believe Ye’shua was the Messiah. Why?
Didn’t God promise to bless Abraham’s descedants? Don’t tell me God’s promises to Abraham were hollow or that God failed to keep His word. Far from it, God’s promises were accurate. God said, “Through Isaac will your descendants be counted”. Abraham had many sons. But God, being God, had the right to bless just one son out of many. No one can question His choice.
There’s a catch here, though. Isaac was not born in the natural course of events. He was a special “promised child”. Even if Isaac would be blessed, not all of his descendants would qualify as “children of promise.” Isaac’s natural descendants are natural descendants. Only the “children of promise” would be counted as Abraham’s heirs. That explains why most of Isaac’s descendants did not make it to God’s list of Heroes of Faith. [Refer to my earlier letter to the Galatian Church in which I argued that only one person – the promised “Seed” – was worthy of inheriting God’s promises to Abraham. That “Seed” was none other than Ye’shua. Ye’shua inherited the promises from Abraham. If any Israelite wishes to inherit Patriarch Abraham’s blessings, he must attach himself to Ye’shua.]
Israel’s unbelief or their destruction should not surprise us. Prophet Isaiah had predicted it. In fact, considering how the vast majority of ethnic Israelites got “lost” or destroyed, we ought to be grateful that a tiny fraction even survived. If God had not spared that tiny remnant, Israel would have been driven into extinction like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Similarly, we should not be surprised that God welcomed Gentiles to be His own people. Through prophet Hosea, God had said, “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ‘My beloved.’” (2:23). “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” (1:10)
Gentiles did not seek a covenant relationship (“righteousness”) with God. But they obtained it through faith. There is no other way to enter into a covenant relationship with God. Israelites disregarded this simple fact even though their own ancestor Abraham was welcomed to this covenant relationship (“justified”) through faith. They assumed that they were in a covenant relationship with God because they possessed the Torah (Law). Was their confidence in the Torah of any use? No, because they had excluded faith from the equation.
Membership in the covenant community is obtained only through faith. Obedience to the Law was supposed to be a response to God’s grace received through faith. Unaware of this basic truth, the Jews became zealous for God. They were ignorant of God’s covenant faithfulness (righteousness). Instead of accepting what God was offering them, Israel tried to establish their own norms and rules regarding who all could become God’s people.
They failed to understand that the Torah was meant to lead them to the Messiah. The Messiah did not belong to the Jews alone. Both Jews and Gentiles who come to the Messiah are welcome into the fold of God’s covenant people. At the right time, When God sent Ye’shua to Israelites, they were offended by His openness to the Gentiles. It was as if they “tripped” on a stone. The Jews stumbled on a very important “Stone” that God had laid in Zion. (Isaiah 28:16; 8:14)
Let me now remind you what the Law says about Israel’s restoration from exile. Towards the end of his career, Moses encouraged Israealites to obey the Law.
“So you must keep my statutes and my regulations; anyone who does so will live by keeping them. I am YHWH.” (Leviticus 18:5)
Moses also spoke about the blessings that would come upon Israel if they obeyed the Law. He also listed out the curses that would land on them if they disobeyed the Law (Deut 28 and 29). He predicted that Israel would indeed suffer exile due to their disobedience.
But Moses gave hope to Israel. If Israel were to go into exile, he said, they could still repent and turn to God (Deut 30:2-3). Moses said that God would cleanse the hearts of repentant Israelites so that they could love God with all their heart and could once again obey His commandments (Deut 30:6,8).
Would such wholehearted obedience be an impossible task? Let’s see what Moses says,
“This commandment I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it too remote. It is not in heaven, as though one must say, ‘Who will go up to heaven to get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ And it is not across the sea, as though one must say, ‘Who will cross over to the other side of the sea and get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ “For the thing is very near you—it is in your mouth and in your mind so that you can do it.” (Deut 30:11-14)
This latter passage is about a golden age that Moses envisioned. There is no need to go in search of the commandment, whether in the heavens above or in the lands beyond the sea. The commandment will find you. When it does, Israel’s exile will come to an end.
I want to tell you that this golden age of repentance and obedience to God’s Law has arrived. This “commandment” that Moses talks about is “in your mouth” and “in your mind” so that “you can do it.” We have had enough of our Jewish brethren speculating as to what these mean.
This “commandment” is about Ye’shua whom I proclaim! You do not have to ascend to heaven to bring him down. He had already come. You do not have to go “into the depths” to raise him from the dead. He has already risen. So, what about the commandment being “in your mind” and “in your mouth”? Well, you must believe “in your mind” – that God raised Ye’shua the Messiah from the dead – and you must confess “with your mouth” – that God indeed made Ye’shua the Messiah (King/Lord) over all – before you go about obeying the Law. If you embrace this Ye’shua, God will mark you out in the present as the people who will be saved in the future. Because the way to covenant membership is by believing with the heart, and the way to salvation is by professing with the mouth. Did not Isaiah say, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame”? (28:16) Prophet Joel too said that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (2:32)
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich towards all who call upon him. ‘All who call upon the name of the Lord’, you see, ‘will be saved.’
So how are they to call on someone when they haven’t believed in him? And how are they to believe if they don’t hear? And how will they hear without someone announcing it to them? And how will people make that announcement unless they are sent? As Isaiah exclaimed, ‘How delightful it is to see the feet of a messenger who announces peace,a messenger who brings good news!’ (52:7)
But sadly, Israel’s case is different. It is not that they did not get to hear the good news. They refused to obey the message. God said, “All day long I held out my hands to this disobedient and stubborn people!” (Isaiah 65:2)
God, then, made Himself available to those who did not ask for Him. “I appeared to those who did not look for me. I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ to a nation that did not invoke my name.” (Isaiah 65:2) “They have made me jealous with false gods, enraging me with their worthless gods; so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, with a nation slow to learn I will enrage them.” (Deut 32:21)
There are a few prominent themes in this passage.
1. Paul’s sorrow and anguish concerning Israel
2. Reasons for
Israel’s failure to respond to the Jesus the Messiah
3. The
introduction of the Gospel as the fulfillment of Israel’s Golden Age
of Restoration
At the beginning of chapter 9, we notice that Paul was overcome with grief. He says, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.” He was sad when he thought about fellow Israelites. He calls them, “my people, my fellow countrymen, who are Israelites.”
Why was Paul sad?
On the one hand, Paul says that the Israelites had all the blessings one could ask for as a nation:
And yet, on the other hand, the Israelites were cut off from their Messiah. They were accursed on account of that. They were lost in sin and destined for destruction. That’s why Paul says,
Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of my fellow Israelites is for their salvation. (10:1)
Why would Paul pray for the salvation of Israelites if they were not already lost? Any Israelite without a vital relationship with Jesus Christ is a lost sinner.
The nation of Israel, after having rejected her Messiah, is bereft of all her titles and privileges. She is no more God’s people. She is as good as any other Gentile nation.
The Lord Jesus had warned the Jews,
I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. (Matt 21:43)
Of course, Jesus fulfilled that warning. That’s why the apostle John wrote like this in his Gospel,
He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him.
He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him.
But to all who have received him – those who believe in his name – he has given the right to become God’s children.
When those who were God’s own people rejected Jesus, they lost their right to be called God’s children. That right went to the minority who received Jesus.
John also wrote in his epistle, “He who does not have the Son does not have the Father.” The Jews cannot have a relationship with Father God after having rejected the Son. “He who does not have the Son does not have the Father.”
Even while Paul was overcome with sorrow at the plight of his people, he had a few questions that demanded answers.
Paul comes up with a few answers in Romans 9 and 10.
In Romans 10:4, Paul says,
“For Christ is the end of the law, with the result that there is righteousness for everyone who believes.”
Paul is not saying that Christ has put an end to the Law. In English, the word “end” means purpose. It faithfully reflects the meaning of the Greek work τελος. The purpose of the Law was to bring Israel to the point where they would have faith in Jesus Christ.
Why, then, did they not believe that Jesus was the Messiah?
Paul says in Romans 10:3:
“… ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”
After reading this, we may think that Judaism was a legalistic religion. It sounds like the Jews were using the Law as a “ladder of good works” to reach the high plane of righteousness.
The truth is that Judaism was never a legalistic religion. They were not given the Law so that they could obey it and find their way to heaven.
The Jews were already in a relationship in a covenant relationship with God. Abraham entered into a covenant relationship with God on the basis of his faith. In other words, Abraham was justified by faith.
In the same way, the nation of Israel was saved from Egypt by God’s grace. They did not do anything to merit that rescue. They were saved by the “blood of the Lamb.” The Passover was an act of faith. Setting out into the desert after Moses was an act of faith.
After they were brought out of Egypt, they were given the Law. The Law was not given to get them into a relationship with God. It was given so that they should remain in their relationship with God. Obedience to the Law was their grateful response to the God’s grace towards them. This is what is known as the “obedience of faith.”
The Jews forgot that they were freely granted a covenant relationship (“righteousness”) in God’s mercy. They thought, “We are God’s people because we follow the Law and the Jewish religion.” They used the Law as a badge or proof of covenant membership. In fact, the opposite was true. They were given the Law because they were God’s people. Not the other way round.
On top of that, the Jews failed to understand that anyone who believes in God and in Jesus Christ could be admitted into God’s covenant family. In fact, faith is the only criterion for entry into God’s family. That’s how the Gentiles who believed in Jesus were given full membership in God’s household as His children. By failing to understand the primacy of faith, they got shut out of God’s family.
The Jews stumbled on “the Stone” that God laid in their path – because of their rebellious attitude.
This does not come as a surprise. God has said, “Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble and a rock that will make them fall, yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.” (Isaiah 28:16; 8:14)
This prophecy in Isaiah comes as a judgment. God was angry with rebellious Israel. That’s why he spoke about laying a stone that will cause people to stumble. God is not being wicked here. “Even when God does something good, even when he provides for his people, those who are bent on rebellion will find it a trap.”2
Look at what happened on Day 1 of Jesus’ public ministry in Nazareth. He went into the synagogue and read out a passage from Isaiah. “The Spirit of YHWH is upon me became He has anointed me to bring the Good News to the poor…” Jesus then claimed that that Messianic prophecy was fulfilled in their hearing. Then he dropped a bombshell. He told them that God had always been equally concerned about the Gentiles as He was, about the Jews. The Jews were mad with rage. They took Him to a nearby cliff to throw him down!
That was the beginning of their stumbling. In everything that Jesus said, they found fault with Him. Jesus said, “Love your enemies. If anyone forces you to carry his baggage for a mile, carry it for two miles. Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.” The Jews responded, “How can you ask Jews to love the Romans? Why should we carry a Roman soldier’s luggage for two miles when he makes us carry it for one mile? You don’t care about our Sabbaths. Don’t you know that our ancestors went into exile because they did not keep the Sabbath? You are an anti-national. You donʼt care about Israel’s national interests. You donʼt support our struggle for independence against the Romans.”
The Jews stumbled on other little things related to Jesus. They refused to believe in Jesusʼ words or His actions. They had been in the habit of rejecting God and His messengers. That’s why God said, “All day long I held out my hands to this disobedient and stubborn people!” (Rom 10:21) They kept on stumbling until they finally thought, “It’s either Him or us. If we let Him continue, our nation wonʼt survive. The Romans will come and destroy our temple.” So, they decided to crucify Him.
What Paul is telling his readers is that God’s plan of salvation does not get thwarted by the rebellion of the Jews. The rebellion was expected. God had anticipated their rebellion and stumbling. And yet, God said, “the one who believes in the Messiah will not be put to shame.”
Why did the Israelites fail? Why did they miss the bus? The answer is clear. They refused to believe God or His Messiah even after they were given several opportunities to repent.
Israel’s failure to believe in Jesus is quite depressing. Even as Paul gave vent to his sorrow and anguish, he came up with something marvelous.
It was as if Paul struck gold in the Torah. Paul found a way to explain the Gospel to the Jews in a completely new way. Paul describes that in Romans 10. Please turn to Romans 10:5ff.
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is by the law: “The one who does these things will live by them.” 6 But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 or “Who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we preach), 9 because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation.
Most Christians who read this passage do not understand the head or tail of what Paul is saying here. The only thing we seem to understand is that verses 9 and 10 look like some kind of a “formula” that will get us “saved.” On the basis of this formula, about a century ago, someone came up with the “Sinner’s Prayer.” These verses are also used widely as prooftexts to say, “This is how you get saved.”
In order to understand what Paul is saying there, we need to examine Deuteronomy, chapters 28, 29, and 30.
Towards the end of Moses’ career as Israel’s leader, he led Israel in a covenant ceremony to re-confirm their covenant with God. He spoke at length to the nation of Israel.
In Deuteronomy 28, he encouraged Israel to obey God. The first 14 verses describe the Covenant blessings reserved for those who obey God’s commandments. From the 15th verse to the end of the chapter, we read about the Covenant Curses.
Moses knew that Israel would eventually become unfaithful to God. He warned them that God would send the worst of the covenant curses upon them: the exile.
So, in Deuteronomy 30, Moses said,
“When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses I have set before you, you will reflect upon them in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you.
We know what happened to Israel. In 722 BC, the northern kingdom was exiled to the land of Assyria. They are the lost ten tribes of Israel.
A century later, the southern kingdom Judah faced the threat of exile. In three waves, Judah was attacked and shunted out to Babylon. Both Israel and Judah became a byword among the nations.
But Moses had given hope to the Israelites. Verse 2 says,
“Then if you and your descendants turn to the Lord your God and obey him with your whole mind and being just as I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will reverse your captivity and have pity on you.”
v6 “The Lord your God will also cleanse your heart, and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love him with all your mind and being and so that you may live.”
Seventy years after they were sent to Babylon, God opened a way for them to return to the land of Palestine. They returned under the leadership of Ezra, Zerubbabel, and later, under Nehemiah. It was a long drawn process. Not every Jew returned. Many settled in Babylon or Persia.
This is what is important. The Jews who returned from Babylon did not have independence. They did not have exclusive control over their land. They had to share the land with other peoples. Some of them were enemies.
After the Babylonian and Persian empire gave way, other kings ruled over Palestine. Out of the 400 odd years between the return of the Jews from Babylon and the birth of Christ, the Jews had a limited autonomy just for a few decades. That was under the Hasmonean dynasty.
Did their exile end after their return to Palestine? No. They continued to remain in exile in their land. During the time of Jesus and the apostles, the Jews suffered Roman occupation.
Why were the Jews subjected to continued exile? Israel’s exile was a manifestation of their spiritual problem of sin. As long as the curse of the Law was on them, their exile would continue—whether in a foreign land or in their own country.
There is no military solution to Israel’s problem of sin and exile. There is no diplomatic or political solution to Israel’s problem of sin and exile.
There was only one way to escape the curse of the Law. The Jews had to get their sins forgiven. They needed someone who would lift their curse from their heads.
There was one Man who became a curse for the whole world. He was hung on a tree—a Roman cross. The death of Jesus Christ offered a permanent solution for Israel’s problems of sin, curse, and the exile.
When the Jews rejected Jesus and His offer, Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. And now, look, your house is abandoned and desolate.”
What Jesus said after he entered Jerusalem was very disturbing. He predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and her Temple!
In the Old Testament, whenever God predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, He also promised her restoration. But, sadly, after Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, there was NO word from God, from Jesus, or from the apostles regarding the restoration of Jerusalem or its Temple. Jesus’ prediction was final. There is no one who can overrule Jesus’ prediction.
Around 15 years after Paul wrote Romans, Jerusalem was sacked by the Romans. But Jesus wanted us to know whose hand was behind that destruction. It was the Lord Jesus’ hand. That’s why Jesus cleaned the Temple. The cleansing of the temple was an enacted parable—a parable that Jesus acted out. It was His way of announcing divine judgment on a rebellious Jewish nation. They had rejected the only way that God had kept for them to escape their problem of sin, curse, and exile. Now that they rejected Jesus, God’s judgment was on its way.
Paul knew very well what kind of a fate awaited the Jewish nation. That was why he was in anguish. But in Deuteronomy 30, Paul found a new hope for the Jews.
Moses had given hope to those in exile. If Israel were to go into exile, he said, they could still repent and turn to God (Deut 30:2-3). Moses said that God would cleanse the hearts of repentant Israelites so that they could love God with all their heart and could once again obey His commandments (Deut 30:6,8).
Would such wholehearted obedience be an impossible task? Moses says,
“This commandment I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it too remote. It is not in heaven, as though one must say, ‘Who will go up to heaven to get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ And it is not across the sea, as though one must say, ‘Who will cross over to the other side of the sea and get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ “For the thing is very near you—it is in your mouth and in your mind so that you can do it.” (Deut 30:11-14)
This latter passage is about a golden age that Moses envisioned. There is no need to go in search of the commandment, whether in the heavens above or in the lands beyond the sea. The commandment will find you. When it does, Israel’s exile will come to an end.
This golden age of repentance and obedience to God’s Law has arrived in Jesus Christ. Jesus was the “commandment” that Moses talked about as being “in your mouth” and “in your mind” so that “you can do it.”
The apostle Paul wanted the Jews to know that this golden age of repentance and obedience to God’s Law has arrived in Jesus Christ. Jesus was the “commandment” that Moses talked about as being “in your mouth” and “in your mind” so that “you can do it.”
That is why Paul wrote, This “commandment” is about Jesus whom I proclaim! You do not have to ascend to heaven to bring him down. He had already come. You do not have to go “into the depths” to raise him from the dead. He has already risen. So, what about the commandment being “in your mind” and “in your mouth”? Well, you must believe “in your mind” – that God raised Ye’shua the Messiah from the dead – and you must confess “with your mouth” – that God indeed made Ye’shua the Messiah (King/Lord) over all – before you go about obeying the Law.
If you embrace this Ye’shua, God will mark you out in the present as the people who will be saved in the future. Because the way to covenant membership is by believing with the heart, and the way to salvation is by professing with the mouth.
Did not Isaiah say, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame”? (28:16) Prophet Joel too said that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (2:32)
For centuries, the Jewish people have been waiting for their golden age of restoration. They can find it only in Jesus, said Paul. But if they were to continue rejecting Jesus, there was no other solution or salvation available to the Jews.
There are a few things we can learn from Paul’s example. Paul was concerned about the salvation of his own relatives, his own countrymen. As Christians, if we are not sad when we think of our loved ones, the people of our community or tribe, or the people in our country who are heading to eternal destruction, there’s something wrong with us. Paul loved his people. Paul knew they were heading to eternal destruction. He prayed for their salvation. He shared the Gospel with them in a way that they understood.
Let me take this a little further. As Christians, if we don’t believe that Jews without Jesus are heading to hell’s destruction, there’s something wrong with us. Jesus knew it. The apostles knew it. Why is it that we refuse to see the writing on the wall?
There are so many Bible-believing Christians who don’t share Paul’s sorrow and anguish concerning the Jews. They believe that God has two sets of people—the Church and the nation of Israel. They believe that the unbelieving nation of Israel has nothing to worry about. They think Israel will be saved because they are Abraham’s descendants.
These are evangelical Christians who preach the Gospel of Grace to Gentiles and the Gospel of Genes & Genetics to the Jews! When they see a Jew, they don’t see a mission field. Instead, they say, “You are Abraham’s descendant. No harm will come to you even if you don’t believe in Jesus.”
How can they forget what John the baptist said to the unrepentant Jews:
… and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!
There is absolutely no point saying, “We are Abraham’s descendants.” We have already seen how Romans makes it very clear. There is only one Way to salvation: Jesus Christ. Everything depends on our response to the Lord Jesus.
If the apostle Paul were alive today, he would be very upset with today’s evangelicals who celebrate the Jews and their military exploits. He would have written an epistle to them. He would have asked them,
“Don’t you see that my people, the Israelites, are lost in sin without Christ? Why don’t you share the gospel with them instead of sending billions of dollars to Jerusalem in military aid?
I did not pray that the Jews would become independent in their homeland. I did not raise funds for the Jews to fight the Romans. I did not smuggle Jews back to their homeland. All I did was PREACH the GOSPEL! I was convinced that what the Jews needed most not political independence from Rome. What they needed most was the Gospel. If the Jews don’t need the Gospel, why do you think I suffered at their hands trying to win them to Christ?
At the heart of their problems is the curse brought about by their disobedience to the Law. The greatest manifestation of that curse is EXILE. They can be in exile in a foreign country or in their own country. As long as they remain under the curse of the Law, their exile will continue. There is no political or military solution to their exile of the Jews. The moment they come to Christ, their exile will come to an end.
Their Father Abraham did not look forward to an earthly piece of land. He looked forward to an eternal, heavenly city designed and built by God.
Some of us may be shell-shocked after hearing this. May this open a new door in our minds to understand God’s Word. Biblical, Christ-centered Gospel must reign supreme in our minds. The Gospel is about the new Messiah (King) Jesus. The New Covenant and the Church that He gave rise to is what the world needs today.
Philip Eapen, an environmental scientist by training, devoted his life to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ ever since he realized that the world needs Jesus Christ more than anyone or anything else. Apart from sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, Philip teaches Christians in order to equip them for service. He is supported by donations from readers. Philip is married to Dr. Jessimol and they are blessed with three sons and a daughter.
Date: October 7, 2023
