THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL

Read Romans 11.

God is not through with the Jew. If I cannot trust His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, then I cannot trust His covenant with me. Yet, I am reminded, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (v.29).  The failings of men, cannot bring the failing of God. “And so all Israel will be saved...” (v.26a).

This doesn’t mean, of course, that someone is saved eternally by a matter of their DNA. Only through faith in Christ can anyone be saved.  Those who died in faith under the Old Covenant trusted in a Savior to come.  Their sin debt, as ours, was paid for on Calvary. We now look back on that as the basis of our salvation.  Jesus was, is, and will ever be the only Way to the Father. The future salvation of the Jews will be as they come to faith in Jesus, “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins” (v.26b-27).

Jesus came to be the Savior of the world, and the Messiah of Israel.  They rejected their King and demanded He be crowned with thorns.  Since then, “blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (v.25b). A remnant of Jews have been saved down through the centuries, and we have Messianic congregations in our area today for example.  But, not many, for their is “blindness in part.”  The great harvest of those who are spiritually, as well as genetically, Israel awaits Christ’s second coming.

In the present, the church is predominately Gentile.  God is dealing with all men and women—including Jews—by the Gospel proclaimed by the church.  None are, or can be saved otherwise. Therefore we must witness to our neighbors, Jew and Gentile.  When, the church age is over, however, and “the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (v.25b), then a great harvest of Israel will be gathered.  God is not through with the Jew.