Israel’s Role In The Divine Plan
BEYOND THE BASICS | Jeremy Diestelkamp | Toronto, Ontario
In today’s religious world, there are plenty of teachings surrounding the nation of Israel that simply are not found in scripture. Some teach that Jews today cannot be saved, contradicting what Paul said in Romans 11:1, while others teach that one day, all Jews will be saved, which is not only a misunderstanding of Romans 11:26, but also a contradiction of how one obtains faith according to Romans 10:17. Some teach that the Jews played the only role in the crucifixion of Christ (discounting the role of the Romans), while others teach that the Jews played no role in the crucifixion by casting aspersions on the accounts given to us in the Gospels.But perhaps the most famous unscriptural teaching today about the nation of Israel concerns the second coming of Jesus, for there are many who believe that when Jesus returns, he will set up an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem, rule the entire world from there, making Israel the world capital of the Kingdom of God. The reason that none of these teachings are correct is not because people don’t go to scripture to try and prove their point, but because people are either misusing, mischaracterizing or misinterpreting scripture due their fundamental misunderstanding of Israel’s role in the divine plan of God to save mankind from sin. With that in mind, let’s now examine the scriptures closely in order for us to know what the truth of God’s Word reveals about the nation of Israel, both in the past, and in the future.
The first question we need to answer is why was there a need in the divine plan to select any nation, Israel or otherwise? The answer of course is because mankind sinned, and so, if God wanted to save mankind and still be true to Himself (and His justice), the shed blood of a sinless man needed to be offered (Hebrews 10:10). And since all men and women have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), that required God Himself (Jesus) to come to this earth, take on our flesh by being born of a woman, live that sinless life so that he could die on the cross and shed that blood as the payment for sin (Hebrews 2:14-18). By necessity then, God needed to make a choice as to which nation would be the one through whom the Messiah would come. And when God made that choice, he chose the seed of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3).
Ultimately though, God’s choice of Abraham as the one through whom the Messiah would come, didn’t rest on this knowledge about Abraham’s heart and character, for the world at that time had to have had other people who would have done the same thing when presented with God’s call. Melchizedek would be one that comes to mind. Rather, God’s choice of Abraham rested on God’s choice alone (Romans 9:11). In other words, God selected Abraham because God selected Abraham. And while that might sound confusing, it is imperative that we understand this because plenty of false doctrine is rooted in a misunderstanding of the purpose and result of God’s selection here. Contrary to what many believe, Abraham was not saved because he was called in Genesis 12. And neither was Israel. Every person who has ever been saved has been saved the same way: by God’s grace received through obedient faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). That was true for Abraham (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:1-4). And it was true for Israel (Romans 9:30-33). The selection of Abraham therefore was simply the means by which God continued his plan to bring the Messiah into the world to save mankind from sin (which he would accomplish through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David and finally Mary).
If God’s selection of Abraham didn’t automatically confer salvation on Abraham or his descendants though, the third question we must ask is: did it confer any advantage on Abraham’s family? And to that, the scriptures are quite clear that the answer is: yes. In Romans 3, Paul writes: “1 What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? 2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. 3 For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.” (Romans 3:1-4). The advantage to being a Jew was that God had given the Jews a law to follow, one that would have revealed to them their sin, and thus pointed them to their need of a Savior (Romans 7:7-25). God had given them the prophecies about the Messiah so that they could be on the lookout for the one who fulfilled those prophecies. Now this doesn’t mean that every Jew in the Mosaic time was saved, for we know those with a lack of faith weren’t, but having the Old Testament should have resulted in an easy transition for the Jew from Moses to Christ, because Moses spoke of Christ (Deuteronomy 18:15-22). Thus, the selection of Abraham, conferred on them this advantage.
All of this leaves us with one final question: with Christ having come, and died on the cross for our sins, does God have any future role for Israel in His divine plan? To many, the answer is yes, and the reason is because they believe that God’s divine plan is to set up an earthly kingdom when Christ comes again, with passages like Romans 11:11-36 being used to support that argument. However, believing in an earthly kingdom like this would contradict what Jesus told Pilate in John 18:36 about his kingdom not being of this earth. It would contradict what Peter and Paul both said about Christ’s return being one of final judgment, where the righteous would receive Heaven, where the wicked would receive Hell, and where this world would be burned up (I Thessalonians 4:13-18, II Thessalonians 1:7-10, II Peter 3:10-13). And in context, it would contradict what Paul meant from Romans 11.
When studying scriptures, we must remember that every verse, every sentence, every word has a context, and so to rip a passage out of its context, oftentimes strips it of the meaning that the author intended when he wrote those words. Romans 11 is a summation of an argument that really began all the way back in chapter 1 centering around how God saved mankind. The Jews thought God saved mankind through the Law of Moses, a teaching that was never true, even before Christ. Mankind has always been saved by grace through obedient faith, with Abraham being a testament to the Jews of this truth due to the fact that Abraham lived before the Law of Moses. After the death of Jesus on the cross, having faith in God meant believing in Jesus as the Son of God and obeying Him through repenting of your sins and being baptized for the remission of your sins (Romans 6:1-4, Romans 10:9-17). The Law of Moses in essence died when Jesus shed his blood on Calvary (Romans 7:1-25), freeing the Jew to become married to Christ, and allowing the Gentile not to have to adhere to the Law of Moses in order to be saved.
That God saved man this way became a stumbling block to many of the Jews, but that wasn’t God’s fault, it was the Jew’s fault for misunderstanding the promise made to Abraham in which it would be through Abraham’s seed (Christ), not seeds (the Jews) that the whole world would be blessed (Galatians 3:16). God wasn’t going to change his plan of saving people in Christ simply because many of the Jews rejected Christ. Instead, he would allow them to blind themselves and trip over the cross of Christ to their own detriment (Romans 11:7-8), choosing to save all, both Jews and Gentiles, who truly come to saving faith in Christ (Romans 11:1-6). That is the message of the cultivated olive tree that Paul gives to us in Romans 11:16-24. The root of the olive tree is not the Jews, it is faith in God (Christ). Those faithful Jews under the Old Law were the original branches, while the Gentiles who had gone off into idolatry were part of a wild olive tree and as such, not part of the original olive tree. Any Jew who was unfaithful (at any point in history), would be cut off from the tree, while any Gentile who was faithful, would be grafted in. If a branch was cut off, could it be grafted in again? Yes, for God is able to do so, if that branch will come to faith in Christ (Romans 11:23-24). And if a branch that had been grafted in does not continue in faith, would they remain? No, because if God didn’t accept the original branches that didn’t remain faithful, why would the grafted branches believe He would accept them in the same condition (Romans 11:21-22)?
The truth of Romans 11:1-25 presents a question: what does Romans 11:26 mean when it says: “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;”? In context, it simply means what the entirety of Romans 11 has been saying all along: to be God’s covenant people, you had to be a part of the cultivated olive tree, and if you were a part of the cultivated olive tree, you would be saved. Thus, in verse 26, when Paul speaks of all Israel being saved and the deliverer out of Zion turning away ungodliness from Jacob, he is saying that all Israel who will be saved, will be saved by that deliverer that would come out of Zion: the man Jesus Christ. All Israel that would be saved would be a part of the cultivated olive tree, not having been cut off in unbelief. It’s not that every physical Israelite would be saved: it is that all Israel that would be saved: would be saved by faith, which after the cross, meant faith in Christ. Nothing more and nothing less.
In conclusion then, Israel’s role in the divine plan was simply to be God’s vehicle through whom He would send the Messiah, Jesus, to save all mankind from sin. With that role being accomplished, there is no further special role for Israel in God’s divine plan. However, let’s not think that God’s divine plan is finished, for salvation in Christ through faith is the ultimate role that God wants each and every one of us (whether we’re Jews or Gentiles) to be a part of so that we can obtain eternal life (II Peter 3:9). God doesn’t force this upon any of us though, for he gives us the power to choose for ourselves whether or not to obey Him in faith. But it is God’s desire that we choose to obey Him. The question is: will we?
July 2024 | GROW magazine
