Walking in Faith

¹¹ I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. ¹² Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! ¹³ But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, ¹⁴ if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? ¹⁶ If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too.

Paul was appealing to the Jews jealous nature and pointing out that God provided salvation to the Gentiles because the Jews were not obedient and did not follow the Lord in all that they did. This would offend and challenge many Jews. Paul wanted to challenge them and he wanted to reach them. He wanted every Jew to realize that God, in His holiness, wanted them to be saved through the Savior. However, God was not going to bring them to salvation just because they were His “chosen people” under this new covenant.

This is where my head starts spinning and I am challenged in my knowledge. God made a covenant with Abraham and then with Moses regarding the Jewish nation — they were to be His chosen people and He would care and tend to them. Because of their disobedience and neglect, He sent Jesus into the world (God made flesh, don’t forget!) in order to pay for the sins of everyone. Now, if the Jews were the chosen people, why would He do this? Because God loves everyone and wants for every soul reachable to have a chance to enter into the kingdom of Heaven, right? The Jews were the chosen nation, though. Why would God go to all of that trouble from the beginning only to open it to everyone after His son came?

The glory of God is my only answer to this. Everything God does brings glory to His name. God chose Israel because that was the lineage that would eventually bring Jesus into the world. That was the nation that He promised He would bless (to Abraham). To provide eternal salvation only to the chosen people certainly gives God glory — He is just, right and fair. He keeps His promises. He is immutable. I could go on. However, if God extends His mercy and His grace to every nation — to every soul that calls on the name of Jesus Christ as their savior. How glorifying to God! How glorifying to the King that sent His only son into the world as flesh in order to pay for the sins of mankind. Certainly God could have brought Jesus into this world to die for the nation of Israel — for their sins and their transgressions. But He didn’t. He let Jesus’s blood pay for all of the saved.