First to the Jew, then to the Gentile
Some thoughts on Romans 9 to 11
These three chapters give a clear explanation from St Paul of the fact that we as Gentiles (non-Jews) are like wild olive shoots, grafted into the natural tree which is Abraham’s descendants, that is the Jewish race. Indeed those closest to God in the blood line are Fulfilled or Mesianic Jews; those people who were born Jews but who have since accepted Jesus as their personal Saviour.
Does this actually matter to us as Gentile Christians?
In terms of our eternal salvation, not at all. Paul is at great pains to stress in Galatians 3 that there is no distinction between Jew and Greek (Gentile), male and female, slave and free, but that all are one in Christ.
So what are these chapters of Romans really saying?
At the start of Chapter 9 Paul makes it clear that he suffers anguish because his own people have rejected Jesus; remember that Paul was a devout Jew and a Pharisee, and the fact that his fellow Jews had rejected Jesus would have hurt him badly.
To consider for a moment some pointers in Jewish history; for example in Malachi 1:2-3 we read that God loved Jacob (renamed Israel by God and so the forefather of the Jewish race) but hated Esau (Jacob’s brother, also known as Edom and the forefather of the Arab peoples). Of course in this context, “hated” is a relative term and simply means “loved less”.
It is really from this time that we see Israel as the Chosen People of God. Abraham and his offspring through Jacob were always intended to be God’s Messengers, His Vessels, who were to carry the message of salvation to the rest of the world. God created them as a nation with special blessings, and the Old Testament follows their successes and failures, their joys and sorrows, as they try to find their way to God.
Sadly this was largely through a legalistic route and not through a spiritual one; over time the Rabbis developed the Mitzvot (the Rabbinic Law) consisting of 613 rules which everyone had to follow.
Obviously in practice nobody succeeds, and each New Year (Rosh Hashannah) there are ten Days of Repentance, leading up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is the holiest day of the Jewish Year. It is still important today for any devout Jew to take an active part in these rituals.
But as Christians we do not follow this legal code or its associated rituals; however Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 that He came not to abolish the law but to fulfil it. How can this work in practice?
I should like to leave that question aside while we look briefly at the way our Christian Faith operates.
Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth “at just the right time” (Romans 5:6) was so that He could minister to us for a brief 3-year period to “show us the Father” (John 14:8-9) and then go to the Cross to die once for all for our sins – this was not a sacrifice that had to be repeated every year but was a one-off for all the human race and for all time. He then ascended to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit to be with us as our Guide and Counsellor to be with each of us throughout our lives.
Does this full and perfect sacrifice of Jesus then not obviate the need for the Jewish rituals and replace the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew and the Christian Bible, The Law) and the Mitzvot? In what sense are they “fulfilled”?
What Jesus is saying in Matthew 5:17 is that He is bringing the Law to its original purpose, by means of His own life and teaching, and in particular by His Death and Resurrection, showing what God had intended from the beginning.
So let us return to our original question above, starting from the Jewish perspective.
Romans 9:7-8 says, “‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring”. The children of the promise are regarded as descendants of Abraham by faith in Jesus Christ. We also see in Genesis 25:23 that “The older [Esau] will serve the younger [Jacob]”.
Election is by God’s Sovereign choice, however hard this may seem to us with our sense of fairness, but we have always to remember that God knows the end from the beginning, He knows what choices we will make before we are even born, and at times we can begin to understand, with the benefit of hindsight, why He would have made some specific choice even though it may have seemed unfair to us at the time. I cannot understand why God should favour the Jews above every other race, but that is His business and not mine – God is Sovereign and He knows what He is doing.
In Romans 9:30-33 we see God choosing those who have come to Him by faith (Gentile Christians) above Abraham’s natural descendants (Jews) “Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works” (verse 32), reflecting Paul’s anguish at the beginning of the chapter.
At the start of Chapter 10 Paul says how he longs for his people to come to faith in Jesus. He goes on to say in Verse 9 that “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Again we see Paul urging his people to accept Jesus. Verse 10 says “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel 2:32) – Jew or Gentile, saying that the door is very much open for Jews to come to the Lord through the Cross.
Te rest of Chapter 10 addresses the need for people to go and preach the Gospel to the Jews. Paul is the Apostle to the Gentiles, but he still has a real heart for the Jews to be included in the call since they are God’s chosen race but they are missing out on what God has for them; he backs up his call by quoting from Moses and Isaiah.
In Chapter 11 Paul reaffirms his arguments that the Israelites (Jews) are God’s people, chosen by grace (11:5-6). He quotes the passage in 1 Kings 19 that there is a remnant of 7,000[1] whom God has reserved for Himself and will protect and strengthen. Paul quotes his own credentials as a true Israelite, making the point that the remnant is chosen by grace, the significance being that works (i.e. obedience to the Law) has no effect. He then goes on to say that because the Jews are missing what God has for them, the Gentiles are being “grafted in” to make Israel envious. Note that the main thrust of his argument (in the next verse) is still the hope that the Jews will come into the fold (Verse 14). The emphasis is always on the Jews being the natural inheritors of the Kingdom, and the Gentiles (grafted in branches) being included by grace. He even talks of repentant Jews being grafted back into their natural situation (Verses 23-24).
This is actually a very interesting piece of reasoning; Paul’s point is that the Gentiles have only been allowed to join in because of the Jews’ sin, but that when “the full number of the Gentiles has come in”[2] then the hearts of the Jews will be softened so that they too will come into God’s glory (Romans 11:22-32).
There is a caveat: Romans 2:5-11 points out that the Jews cannot automatically assume that they will inherit the Kingdom as a birth right; rather their stubbornness will lead to God’s wrath. Verses 9-10 make this clear: “There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honour and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” Great privilege brings with it great responsibility, a moral perspective which is as true of each of us today.
I can only finish with the great Doxology at the end of Chapter 11:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom andknowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counsellor?
Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Peter Sebborn
Christian.Footsoldier@gmail.com
March 2025
[1] This is a symbolic number, which is the sign of perfection or wholeness. Here it represents a small but significant number who remained loyal to God.
[2] There a potential discussion here about what is meant by the “full number” of the Gentiles but I am not entering into that here.