Posted on 03/15/2015 6:32:11 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.(Romans 11:15-22)
Remember that the reason for Romans, chapter 9-11 is to explain why the Gentiles were pouring into the newly born Christian church, while the Jews were only coming in small amounts. Wasn’t this a Jewish religion, featuring Jewish prophets and Jewish apostles, and wasn’t it the gospel of a Jewish Messiah?
The church in Rome underwent four phases; first of all dating from Pentecost, it was predominantly Jewish. Secondly, as the light of Revelation increased, Gentiles began to be evangelized and saved into the early church. The third phase commenced when Claudius threw the Jews out of Rome, (Acts 18:2) and the church became almost entirely Gentile. The last phase of the church commenced after Nero called the Jews to come back into Rome, and the Messianic remnant returned to join an almost entirely gentile church.
Huge numbers of Gentiles had swelled the ranks of the church, and the Jewish remnant was only a minority. Some kind of replacement theology became the explanation for this, which Romans 9-11 attempts to refute.
The future of the church was gentile, with a remnant of Jews, elected of God. The born again gentiles would be tempted to draw the wrong conclusions, comparing themselves in their current state of grace, with the Jewish nation, currently estranged from God.
What Paul warned of was forgetting that our original lump of sourdough is entirely Jewish. All true religion is in unbroken continuity with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Everything ‘Christian’ comes out of that “Lump”. What the Lump of the church was originally is what the true church is. It is not physical affinity with Abraham and the fathers, but inward spiritual affinity with them that counts.
The second allegory is that of the root and the branches. Israel is like an ancient, cultivated olive tree, whose branches had become unproductive and had to be cut off. The tree has not been uprooted, only the branches were cut off.Those branches were not thrown away, they were placed on the ground beneath the tree, and have been dormant now for two thousand years.
The gentile church are wild olive branches which were cut off of their own useless, wild, sour, bitter fruit producing trees and grafted into the older, cultivated stock. Thus the branches are now nourished on the rich, fruitful heritage of Jewish prophets, apostles, teachings and worship, and above all, are grafted into the life of the Jewish Messiah.
Christians who despise Jews, or who theologically relegate them to the dustbin of salvation history, are doing the very thing Paul warned us not to do. They wrongly “boast against the branches” laying on the ground underneath the tree. We gentiles were allowed to live and thrive in the Jewish tree, the stock of Israel, the roots of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob, and the God of Israel.
Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.(Ephesians 2:11-13)
Even now the Presbyterian church USA has been rewriting the scriptures, in conjunction with Palestinian Christians , stripping the Bible of all favorable references to Jews! Many Calvinists and especially the hyper Calvinists see no significance in the miracle of May 1948, because their theological system tells them God is through with the Jews! This in spite of prophecies proclaiming it as a sign of the latter times.
The Roman Catholic church is currently telling Israel to vacate the land of Israel, since it is ‘Arab land’.
This false belief in and commitment to replacement theology literally blinds Christians of all denominations to the program of God, especially to eschatology.
The true church began as a Jewish religion, and it’s consumption in history will be the restoration of the ‘cut off” branches of the Jewish people returning to God in the Messiah.
It was unbelief that cut off the Jewish branches. Should we imagine that God will deal with the Gentile church in a different fashion? Already many expressions of the church are as devoid of God as the temple was when the Shekinah left it in the days of Ezekiel. When does a church stop being a church? When God himself forsakes it.
Is the Homosexual ordinating church still a church? Are people not literally worse off for associating with it? Is the compromising “Chrislam” church still a church? It was when Israel began to accommodate Pagan spirituality that God cut her off, are we going to be any different? What about the church whose Bishops deny the resurrection?
What do we make of churches which promote the liberal agenda, such as abortion on demand? Are they any different from the Moloch accommodating King Manasseh? Will not the same Gd judge us every bit as harshly as He judged Israel? Are we better than they, or more deserving?
Paul warned us, that rather than indulge in replacement theology, and despise our estranged Jewish forbearers, we should fear God. We must remember that we stand by faith in the grace of God, and there is nothing special about us. The jews are the ‘natural branches, not we. God didn’t spare them, he cut them off after long forbearance, for unbelief. Can the church somehow be expert from the same fate, when she indulges in the same idolatry and unbelief?
Heb 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
Heb 8:8 Because finding fault with them, He says: "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—
Heb 8:9 NOT ACCORDING TO THE COVENANT THAT I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS IN THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; BECAUSE THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DISREGARDED THEM, SAYS THE LORD.
Heb 8:10 FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS IN THEIR MIND AND WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.
Those who claim that Christianity is and should be a gentile church are not, as you point out, recognizing that they have been grafted into the tree of Israel only through the grace of God and the shed blood of Christ.
When Christ died on the Cross, He was the New covenant with believers. Only believers. Those who do not believe in Christ ,as the Son of God , go straight to the grave and oblivion. The only way to eternal life is stated in John 3:16. The “chosen people” are believers in Christ as the Son of God.The old testament is completely dead.The Bible I read is New Testament only. Those that rejected Christ are to be buried and forgotten. They do not get an eternal existence. NOT AT ALL!!
There are actually quite a few of us that understand what was written ;-)
I could probably do a web search to verify that but that just seems like so much research.
If I wanted to do research I would've gone to school.
Read Jeremiah, the New Testament is made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah...we gentiles are merely grafted in. BTW isn’t Romans 9-11 part of the New Testament?Also all people get an eternal existence(Being made in the Image of God), those who reject Jesus exist forever in Hell and those who accept the gift go God receive eternal Life.
>>The Bible I read is New Testament only.<<
Seems the apostles extensively used the TaNaKh (OT) to point to Jesus as Messiah.
Jesus even pointed to the OT:
Luke 24:
25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Paul Johnson speculats that more Jews came into the Church than we has thought. Fact is that the Jews in the West owed less to the Jews of Mesopotamia than this win the Levant and Anatolia. In Alexandria, Rome, Gaul and Spain the doctrine of the Pharisees was less well know,and Hebrew less spoken, and so more open to the Gospel.
Fact is we have only a very limited idea of how Christianity spread during the first generation.
Luke’s story of the walk to Emmaus is indicative of that.
That is probably true, the diaspora paved the way for the spread of the gospel among Jews and then gentiles. However what Paul taught in Romans 9-11 is absolutely true and necessary. The majority of Israel did not believe, and that required the explanation and the caution-
Once again by God’s Grace a great sermon/post.
Thank you.
The Jess who fled the wars against the Romans and who’s this avoided the enslavement that came to (a million) ended up in places like Alexandria and Toledo as well as in Mesopotamia. Furthermore, the Jews, unlike Christians, had legal status among the Romans. I don’t think we gained such status until the time of Constantine. After which, it seems, many ‘Jewish”people became Christians for the same reason that pagans became Christian: out of conviction and out of expedience. Same thing happened in Spain in the 15th Century. I think in both instances, “old Christians” resented the Jewish converts, and when the Jews used their talents to prosper, this led to suspicion and even persecution. The Jews were expelled from Spain and the Inquisition devoted itself to ferreting out “secret Jews,” as they later would “secret Muslims”. Ironically, a large number of Spaniards have Jewish blood, and the Inquisition sees to have got rich by issuing statements of “purity.”to well-to-do families. St. Teresa had Jewish ancestors, which is one reason why she was brought to the attention of the Inquisition. One of the great tragedies of history is the way that Jews and Christians have been at each others’ throats since the beginning.
Another thing that's often overlooked is the series of Jewish revolutions against Rome in the 1st and 2nd centuries. Jews became outcasts because of their insubordination. It became dangerous to appear that you were doing anything "Jewish". Though it's pretty clear that all early Christian observed the holy days of Leviticus 23 (including the weekly sabbath) and the food laws it soon became undesirable to do these thing while under the eyes of Rome. As a result many in Rome decided to adapt acceptable days...those that were currently being celebrated by pagans in Rome.
People forget about the Jewish uprising during Trajan’s time. Becauswe it involved the Jews of the diaspora, who were quite numerous, it forced the Emperor partially to withdraw from Mesopotamia before he could consolidate his victory. Timing is everything. If a similar uprising had occurred during the Palestinian uprising, Jews were so numerous that with the aid of the Persians, such as they were in the ‘60s. they might have succeeded in making the whole Levant inhospitable to the Romans. People forget that from the Maccabees onward, the Jews had shown what formidable fighters they were.
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