Or, Living to Make the Jews Jealous
Scripture: Romans 11:11-15
Date: July 21, 2013
Speaker: Jonathan Sarr
Here at Trinity we sometimes refer to ourselves as “happy Dispensationalists.” Some people think that’s an oxymoron, sort of like saying, “gregarious hermit,” or “active slothfulness.” “Happy” and “Dispensational” are not words that are commonly used in the same sentence. Why is this?
Well, Dispensationalism is the teaching that God relates to men in different ways under different Dispensations, or windows of time. And it’s not hard to understand, really. God clearly dealt with Adam and Eve differently after the fall than He did before, and those two time frames represent separate dispensations. But important to Dispensational thinking is the distinction between the Church and Israel. This contrasts with Covenant Theology, which maintains there is one people of God, and the Old Testament promises to Israel have their fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and that there remain no unfulfilled promises to national or ethnic Israel.
But Dispensationalists rightly observe that many of God’s promises to the Jews remain unfulfilled. Though it’s not God’s fault, even if it is by His design. God promised to bless the nations through Abraham, and He has.
If Israel were to have obeyed God’s commands and had been faithful to Him, they would have brought the gospel to the nations. But they did not obey, they were not faithful, and now God is chastening His people, having rejected them temporarily, as we’ll see this morning. And Paul teaches that through the trespass of the Jews, salvation has come to us. But whereas previously the Jews were to be a light to the nations, it’s as though we Gentiles are now a light to the Jews.
So what difference does it make? Well, Dispensationalists are by nature premillennial. That is to say, we believe that Jesus’ Second Coming will happen before His millennial kingdom; His second coming will be pre-millennial. That necessarily means in a very real sense, the worst is still ahead. Christians don’t need to fear the future, to be sure, because we know the end of the story, but many Dispensationalist don’t act like this.
We Dispensationalists have led the charge in alarmist rapture fiction, prophecy conferences that invoke fear and the clearing of grocery store shelves of bottled water and canned goods from fear of imminent suffering and persecution. I don’t wish to downplay the reality of the Tribulation - though I believe Christ will rapture His Church before it begins - but I do think we’ve replaced what ought to be exuberant joy over grace in Christ and a desire to win the nations with a prepare-for-the-worst mentality and doom-and-gloom conversation.
But as we study the words and example of the Apostle Paul this morning, I’d like to make the case that we should all be “happy Dispensationalists.” Because I believe Paul speaks clearly of ethnic Israel as a distinct group with a promising future, and he also joyfully and actively evangelizes Gentiles in obedience to Jesus Christ.
Dispensationalism rightly applied ought to be marked by joy-filled optimism and a winsome lifestyle because the Gospel, the Church, and even Gentile Christians will be instruments that God will use to draw Israel back to Himself and to usher in the millennial kingdom here on earth. So, let’s get into it by reading our passage for this morning.
READ ROMANS 11:11-15
I believe that Paul’s thoughts in this passage can be placed under three headings. I’ve sorted them as follows:
Let’s look first at God’s Purpose in Israel’s Sin.
So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.
Some may regard my name for this point as blasphemous. To suggest that God has a purpose for sin is dangerously close to stripping man of responsibility. But Paul and other writers of Scripture don’t seem to mind this tension. So what is Paul saying?
The nation of Israel stumbled over Christ, the Cornerstone, but just as we see with toddling children, stumbling and falling down are two different things. Though stumbling usually leads to a fall, it doesn’t always. In the case of Israel, their stumbling has not led to a final and ultimate fall, and Paul emphatically denies their fall. “By no means!” says Paul (v. 11).
“Rather,” says Paul, “through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous” (v. 11).
Some suggest that the trespass Paul mentions refers to Israel’s general OT disobedience. It seems as though Israel as a nation was under constant chastisement in the OT as they would disobey God’s commands or follow after other gods altogether. This is inescapable. Then - just as now - God corrected his people as a loving Father. He does so with us, mercifully allowing us to suffer the natural consequence of sin.
But we can be more specific than this: It was by Israel’s rejection of Jesus and the Gospel that salvation has come to the Gentiles.
We see in the verses and chapters preceding this passage that God hardened the hearts of the Jews so that they could not believe. And why would He do this? Well, we know that as a result of this hardening, the Jews rejected and killed Jesus Christ. And what happened at the cross? Full atonement for the sins of the elect and redemption of elect Israel and the Gentiles alike.
So literally, “through [the Jews’] trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles.
And the pattern repeats itself. In Acts, when apostles would go to new towns and cities to share the gospel, they would go first to the synagogues, taking the message first to those would would have an awareness of God’s law and the prophesies of a coming Messiah. Afterward they would take the message to the Gentiles. Eventually at one point in Antioch, Paul stared down contrary and unbelieving Jews by saying,
“It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,
“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 13:46-47, ESV)
But we must note here that it’s always been God’s intention to redeem a people for Himself from every tribe and tongue and nation; it’s never been the plan to only redeem Israel. We see this frequently in the Old Testament.
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
If Israel were to have been obedient in the OT, they would have brought the gospel to the world. But God ordained their disobedience as the means by which Christ would go to the cross, and for now, Israel remains in a stumbling state. They are under the chastisement of God. And this too is a means by which God can effect greater salvation, for both Jews and Gentiles.
So God’s purpose in Israel’s sin is to shower Gentiles with His love, mercy, kindness and blessings in measures that should have gone first to the Jews. Now -as a people - we Gentiles are first recipients of the blessings of a salvation that Jews don’t have.
And the design of God is that the Jews would be jealous of Gentiles’ receiving salvation blessings that should have gone to them, and they may be made jealous. I’ll return to this uncomfortable them of jealousy when we get to 11:13-14, because we’re made nervous by this sort of conversation.
But we see that God’s purpose for Israel’s sin is to bring salvation to the Gentiles and then to the Jews!
So, are the Gentiles then just a pawn in this process? Are we an instrument that God is using to reach His real people and nothing more? Absolutely not. God has a plan to bless the nations, and Paul talks about that in verses 12 and 15. This is our next point.
12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! …
15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
I’ve put these two verses together because of their parallel nature and because they really fall under the same heading. In both cases, Paul speaks from the lesser to the greater. It’s as if he says to us Gentiles, “If you thought you had it good now, just wait until the Jews are saved!”
Paul repeats that the trespass and failure of the Jews means riches for the world. God used their sin as the instrument by which He would extend greater grace and salvation to the Gentiles. But He’s not done yet. Though God is blessing the Gentiles now, and though we enjoy fellowship with Him by the Spirit though the grace of Christ, this is not the end. The blessings we enjoy now ought to make the Jews jealous and cause them to praise God and embrace Christ.
This is the plan that God has put in motion to bless the nations and, in turn, to draw His people Israel back to Himself. But what can we anticipate when that happens? To what is Paul actually referring that’s so great?
Well, God has determined a number of elect Jews who will be saved before He returns. Presumably most of those will be saved during the Tribulation, but evangelistic efforts help us to get to that number that God has predetermined.
But what happens then? When the last Jew that God has saved is brought into the kingdom? Jesus will come again!
The second coming of Jesus Christ signifies the culmination of human history. History (up to this point) points us in that direction, and when Christ comes again, the Church Age will be complete as will our task of serving as lights to the Jews. The full inclusion of the Jews will be complete, as well, and we will reign with Christ as His bride for a thousand years on the earth, which is only the start of eternity. But even THAT’s not all.
What is the particular blessing that Gentile Christians will enjoy once the Jews are redeemed? Look again at v. 15: “…What will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” When the Jews are brought in, we will enjoy “life from the dead,” which I believe to be bodily resurrection. That will also be a time when, on the earth, we will enjoy a part in what Revelation calls “the first resurrection” of Revelation 20, namely, the bodily resurrection of the righteous to life rather than to judgment. Hence the term, “life from the dead.” When the fullness of the Jews are saved, we will have resurrection bodies, being with Christ and enjoying sweet fellowship with Jewish and Gentile Christians. That is something worth looking forward to.
So it would seem that every Gentile ought to eagerly anticipate the salvation of the Jews. We should want to see them come to faith in Christ, but we should also know that with every Gentile soul that comes to faith in Christ there is possibly, hopefully, a Jew who is made jealous at the thought of Gentiles partaking of certain promises of God before Israel. It should come as little surprise that Paul had a strategy to reach the Jews, which takes us to our third and final point.
13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.
Paul takes a moment to address the Gentiles particularly in v. 13. He is an apostle to the Gentiles, and exults in his particular vocation. This is what he has been a called.
He magnifies his ministry, making it bigger and more emphatic. The opposite of this would be perhaps to downplay it, diminish it, or hide it. Instead, Paul proclaims again his apostleship to the Gentiles. But he most certainly loves his fellow Jews. He reiterates this is chapters 9, 10, and 11:
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
But he also realizes that God has a plan for the Jews, and it involves their now coming to faith in Christ by the testimony of Gentiles! So the application there is clear: Go save the Gentiles in order to save the Jews! Now, of all people, Paul recognized that it was God who saves, but He certainly uses means to those ends, and that’s where Paul saw himself: the means by which many Gentiles and - by extension, Jews - would come to faith in Christ.
Does this mean that he loves his fellow Jews more than Gentiles? Maybe; they’re his people. But it doesn’t matter, because what’s clear is that he does not play favorites.
There is no holding back in Paul’s impassioned please with the Corinthian Christians, his deep, thankful pastoral love for the Thessalonians, and so on. This shepherding doesn’t have any asterisks beside it because they’re “just” Gentiles. He loves them like God loves them: deeply and truly. He also knows that although the salvation of the Gentiles comes before the salvation of the Jews in God’s redemptive plan, that does not diminish it’s significance or God’s glory in it.
One last word about jealousy.
We’ve thrown the word “jealous” around quite a bit, now, because Paul uses it twice in this passage, but even he borrows the term from Moses. (Cf. 10:19). But some of us balk at the use of the word “jealous,” even Paul’s use of it. But that’s because we’re most used to sinning in our jealousy. But whether jealousy is good or bad is determined by the variables: who’s jealous of whom, and what are they coveting or trying to guard? God refers to Himself as jealous in Exodus 20 and 34, and in both contexts He’s insisting that His people worship no other gods. God is jealous for His own glory and He should be. Husbands ought to be jealous for their wives’ purity and attention, and so on.
In this context, Paul is hoping to make the Jews jealous of the Gentiles, but what does this mean?
God’s promised blessings of joy, prosperity and fellowship came first to the Jews. And God promised that the nations would be blessed through His people Israel. Christians enjoy many blessings in our salvation: fellowship with God, forgiveness of sin, eternal security, freedom from guilt or a sense of God’s Displeasure, etc.
And all of these things could have come first to an obedient people Israel. But this wasn’t the ultimate plan. They were disobedient and failed to recognize the Messiah when He came. Rather, they killed Him, and now many blessings are ours instead…though not exclusively. Our lives ought to then showcase the mercy, grace and love of God and the presence and work of the Spirit among us. Paul figured that if we did that, by God’s grace, Jews would take notice and turn their hearts to God.
But is the jealousy of the Jews what ultimately motivates us or is it a byproduct of salvation coming to the Gentiles? Well, that’s like saying should we be driven by God’s glory or by our pleasure, knowing full well that God’s greatest glory comes from our greatest pleasure, namely our delight in Him. So which is our goal? Pleasure or God’s glory? It’s both.
Similarly, we don’t want to cause the Jews to sin in their jealousy, but rather the opposite: to have their sin removed! So we pursue their jealousy as we lead robust, worship-drenched Christian lives. We pursue their jealousy as we labor to see more and more of God’s grace poured out among Gentiles! We recognize though, that every Jewish heart that turns to Christ brings us closer to Christ’s righteous rule on earth.
And if we are living as we should, God’s mercy demonstrated toward Gentile sinners should be something that the Jews can’t ignore.
This is God’s design: harden Israel, save the nations, make Israel jealous so they’ll incline their hearts to Him, draw the full number of Jews to Himself, then Christ will come again and reign on the earth for a thousand years. That is the process. That is the plan.
So I would add that God does not love individual Jews more than He loves individual Gentiles since we have been given the righteousness of Christ and have been adopted as sons. YET! He does love the Jewish nation particularly, or specially. Any parent can understand what it’s like to love a child distinctly without loving her more that her siblings.
So to bring our discussion full circle, what does this have to do with “happy Dispensationalism.” Happy Dispensationalists affirm that while we are all God’s people, the Church is distinct from Israel (with some obvious overlap in between; Paul and Peter and modern Jewish Christians are all a part of the Church), and still has promises that await her in time. But that’s not all.
Happy Dispensationalists can be excited about involvement everywhere Christ is Lord, because we know that God will use US to bring Gentiles to faith in Christ, and for that salvation to make jealous His people Israel.
Our lives ought to showcase grace, mercy, lovingkindness and joy so that the Gentiles and Jews alike should want what we have.