How Should We Think About Israel?
by James Lincoln on August 27, 2006
Several of you have asked me what I thought Romans 9-11 had to say about the modern state of Israel. To answer this I'll have to approach the passage in a thematic way but I think it's worth our time to consider that question. Next Sunday we'll come back and explore worship song of verses 33-36.
From Despair to Praise First, I want to say something about the structure of Romans 9-11. Here, Paul adopted a pattern seen in the psalms. Occasionally the psalmist begins with some sort of despair or trouble and then after filling his mind and heart with the beauties and realities about God, his soul is lifted up from lament and filled with praise (cf. Ps. 40 and 51). Paul began this piece on Israel in chapter nine with an agonizing lament over Israel's rejection of God's Son and her Messiah. He ends with an irrepressible and uncontainable praise and adoration for God. It's the longest doxology in any of Paul's letters. What realities about God produced such a change? What bedrock truth about God brought about the change of heart and mind? There are many. I'll pick out some of the most obvious ones.
1. That God would make a way to save sinners by His gracious choice even when they have not honored Him or given thanks to Him made God worthy of praise (11:6 & 9:11-16). The fact that God would hunt Paul himself down while on his way to persecute the church, welcome him and save him never ceased to amaze Paul. It's one reason why he was so drawn to Sarah who named her son of promise Isaac which means "laughter". It was just as laughable that Paul would be welcomed by God and called righteous as it was for barren and doubting Sarah to have a baby in her nineties. The same is true for you and me. When he considered God's gracious and sovereign choice to call him, stop him on that road to Damascus, and welcome one who hated Jesus...such grace transformed his despair into praise. 2. Also that fact that God would save sinners by faith and not by merit, race or advantage lifted his spirit (10:10-11;1-10; 9:30-33). Paul wrote (10:12) "whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. Whoever confesses with his mouth and believes in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead will be saved. As we will see later this morning. God said, "There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile for the same Lord is Lord of all abounding in riches for those who call on Him." That wideness in God's mercy and grace was staggering to Paul in its wonder. And it lifted his heart to consider.
3. When Paul thought about God's faithfulness to His promise (9:6-8 & 11:26-27) that He would remove ungodliness for Jacob and take away her sins it gave him absoluteconfidence that no matter how feeble and small his successes were nor how big his failures might be, God would never fail to do this. His promise is anchored in His commitment to His name and reputation. Samuel said that the Lord would not reject his people because of His name sake. God is too committed to the spread of His reputation as a merciful God to fail at this.
4. When Paul considered God's sovereign purposes and plans, that His purposes cannot be thwarted and that His plans are all being worked out in some mysterious way even through men who do evil things it turned his despairing heart into praise. He says, "Look, if Israel's unbelief and rejection resulted in our salvation what will her acceptance result in?" God takes that which men mean for evil and He purposed it for good. The world around him may appear to be a chaotic mess and it may appear that evil has the upper hand that in reality it doesn't. God takes the same event i.e. the crucifixion) and in His good and sovereign purposes He makes it the greatest blessing of the history of the world. That reality lifted up Paul's spirit in praise.
5. One more: When Paul thinks about the wonder and beauty of God's reconciling plan to make one people for Himself from among Jew and Gentile to bear a witness to His reconciling power to the whole world his spirit couldn't stay fast bound in despair. His despair was transformed to joy, praise, adoration and worship.
O.K. What do you think about that transforms your despair? What is it that leads you to worship like that of vv.32-36? We'll look at that doxology next Sunday Lord willing.
Now in light of what Paul has said in Rom. 11 what can we say about the modern state of Israel today?
1. Israel, chosen by the irrevocable gifts and callings of God (29), and as an ethnic people who have endured generation after generation remain God's chosen people as a witness to His mercy and righteousness.
"From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; 29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience," Rom 11:28-30
In verse 2. Paul continues to call Israel "His People". God has attached His name so tightly and permanently to Israel that He will not reject her completely nor permanently. That is the major point of vv.1-27. God is so committed to spreading the glory of His mercy and grace that He will not reject Israel completely nor forever. He chose Israel out of all the nations to be the people through whom He would make covenant promises and bear witness to the world of how God is and how He is with people. That goal doesn't change even in Israel's unbelief.
Now this doesn't mean that all of ethnic Israel will be saved. I think it's obvious that not every Jew who ever lived will be saved. Any analogy of Scripture will reveal this. When Paul says, "all Israel will be saved." we should read this through all that Paul has written up to this point. In v. 17 he writes that Gentile believers have been grafted into the root (Christ) and grafted into the olive tree (the commonwealth of Israel). In 2:29 he writes, "But he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the heart," Therefore I take him to mean that all who by faith in Christ have become true sons of Abraham or true Israel meaning both believing Jews and believing Gentiles. All who are truly of Israel by faith in Christ will be saved. So, Paul has redefined Israel or rather defined Israel after God's definition of true Israel. True Israel is anyone who through faith in God's Son Jesus Christ has been grafted into the commonwealth of Israel and become a true child and heir of Abraham. And these are the only ones who can lay any claim to the promises of Abraham as his true children and heirs. Therefore...
2. The modern state of Israel may not claim any divine right to the promises of Abraham...the land or any other promises.
Why not? Because only believers in God's Son Jesus Christ are true sons of Abraham. Israel forfeited that claim when she rejected her Messiah when she rejected Jesus. Jesus said that the kingdom of God would be taken away from Israel and given to another nation who will bear its fruits.
In 9:6: Paul says, "For they are not all of Israel who are descended from Israel neither are they children because they are Abraham's offspring." Can you imagine the reaction Paul got when he preached about who can claim to be a true Jew in the synagogues? Well, he was kicked out, stoned and run out of town. Later a number of Jews made vows not to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. So by the Biblical definition of who may claim to be a Jew the modern state of Israel has no divine claim to the land or any of the promises of Abraham. Her rejection of God's Son and her Messiah forfeits that right.
3. Only believers in Christ are true descendents and heirs of Abraham including the promise of land.
Who then can claim to be a true descendant of Abraham? "If you are in Christ you are Abraham's offspring and his heir." Gal.3:29
"Those who worship and gory in Jesus Christ are the true Circumcision." Phil.3:3
"We put no confidence in the flesh (DNA, pedigree, ethnicity none!) Jewish ethnicity gives no one a claim to the promises given to Abraham. "But he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the heart." Rom. 2:29 ( cf. Deut 30:6 & Jer. 4:4).
Peter writes, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood a holy nation a people belonging to God...for you once were not a people but now you are the people of God..." So, who can lay claim to be Abraham's descendents and his heirs? Certainly it's not the modern state of Israel. Instead, it's those who put their faith in Jesus Christ and have been folded into the covenant promises God made to Abraham. So Israel may not claim a present divine right to the land.
However, we should seek a peaceful settlement not based on present divine right but on international principles of justice and mercy and wisdom. We shouldn't give Israel blanket approval for anything Israel does. We should approve or denounce according to Biblical standards of justice and mercy. We shouldn't support Israel nor her neighbors when they acts with injustice and lacks mercy.
Now, having said that Israel still has human rights among nations even when she forfeits her present divine right to the Land. Arab states, Hezbollah or any other state has no right to abuse Israel and treat her with injustice. But her present unbelief in God's son and her Messiah -as a nation- forfeits any claim she may have to a divine right to the land. If anyone has a right to the land it would be anyone who follows Christ.
But beloved...we're not interested in a strip of land in the Middle East. Paul says in 1Cor. 3:21-23, "All things are yours, the world, life, death, the present the future, are yours and you are in Christ who is in God." The easiest way for me to see this is that we will inherit the world. Jewish and Gentile Christians will not fight over the real estate of the Promised Land because the entire new heavens and earth will be ours. Now, all of this doesn't mean that God won't give Israel the land. He is gracious and merciful. It just means that Israel has no divine right to claim is as her inheritance.
Lastly, this inheritance of Abraham will happen at the second coming of Christ when Jesus establishes His kingdom, not before and until then Christians must not take up arms to claim our inheritance; but rather lay down our lives to share inheritance with as many as we can.
"Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." John 18:36
Christians don't take up arms to advance the kingdom of Christ. It won't come about through military action. We proclaim His authority and grace and we wait for our King from heaven who will deliver us by His mighty power. In that great day Jew and Gentile who have treasured Christ will receive what was promised.
Eternal peace between Jew and Gentile is through faith in Christ Jesus. It's the only way to lasting peace. The same is true for peace in a marriage, among neighbors, family members as well as among nations. By God's grace the older and younger brother in the story of the prodigal son can live in peace forever.
So, now is the time of the Lord's favor. Today is the day of salvation. Today God opens His arms wide to receive sinners by grace through faith forever to Himself. Today the beauty of His grace comes to everyone like an invitation to a great banquet hosted by God. Today the beauty of His forgiveness and the beauty of the gospel goes out to all the earth. Believe and be forgiven. Believe and be transformed by God's grace. Believe and become a true child of Abraham and be folded into the Israel of God. Believe and learn to treasure and prize in your heart that which is most valuable and worthy: the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son..the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Believe and rest in the beauty of His grace, sovereign good purposes for you and this world. Believe and bow down and worship at His feet. He is worthy of all these things and more. His plans for Israel are not yet done and as v. 26 says,
"The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob." "And this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins." Rom 11:26-27 NAS