Main news for 8 July 2022

King James Version (en)

Romans, Chapter 11, verses 20-21

¹⁸ The Gentiles may not insult upon them

²⁰Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:

²¹For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

NOTES

The path Israel, God's chosen people, walks is difficult. Often this path is "against the goads" (to quote the Lord's words to Paul himself), a path of resistance to God's will. The apostle has already said much about this in his letter, and his pain for his kinsmen according to the flesh, for his brothers and sisters, is very great. And yet, speaking about the reasons that led to Israel's falling away from God, Paul persistently reminds us: yes, they fell away, but God did not take His election from them; God calls them, and Christ died for them as well. More than that, it is very important for the apostle to convey to the Roman community, and through it to all other Christians converted from paganism, an essential warning: one must remember the fate of those who fell away from God and draw the proper conclusions from it. And the chief thing from which he wants to protect the newborn Church is the disease of boasting.

Our personal encounter with the Lord is always an immense gift. At first we walk around stunned by grace unexpectedly received. I think we all remember the happiness of realizing divine love and forgiveness, on the one hand, and the undeservedness of this gift, our unworthiness, on the other. Yet human beings are made in such a way that they easily and gladly remember the first, and just as easily forget the second. And when we look at our brothers and sisters who for one reason or another turn away from God and fall away from the Church, we want to say to ourselves: well, that will not happen to me; it cannot happen.

And here it is, the message to us from the apostle Paul: "They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be proud, but fear." Do not look at your brother's path; "before his own Lord he stands or falls" (Rom. 14:4). He has his own relationship with God, and the Creator's design for each of us is completely unique. Look at yourself, watch yourself, and fear falling away from the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Reflecting on the historical fate of his people, Paul does not separate them from the...

Reflecting on the historical fate of his people, Paul does not separate them from the Kingdom to which he bears witness. He does not doubt that the fate of the Jewish people precisely as the people of God is by no means over, that the Jews stumbled on the way into the Kingdom not in order to fall and never rise again (v. 11). The history of the Kingdom is paradoxical: former Gentiles go there ahead of those whom the Savior Himself called first, and the Jews' unwillingness to be first on this path only heats up the enthusiasm of those who are going. But the apostle is sure that at the end of time, when the Kingdom is revealed in all its fullness, his tribesmen will enter it, so that neither the fullness of the Kingdom nor the resurrection itself will be possible without their participation (vv. 12-15).

Paul understands that the people of God, conceived by God even before He created the world, were conceived by God as a people sanctified by His presence, "holy," and this holiness was not the people's privilege, but part of God's plan for the salvation of the world and humanity. That is why it is not determined solely by the historical fate of the Jewish people, within whom God always finds the remnant that corresponds to His plan for what His people should be. In the apostle's expression, the people's "holy root" has not gone anywhere simply because it cannot disappear. Its disappearance would mean the failure of God's whole plan of salvation, and that is impossible by definition.

And if so, then the branches too are made holy by the holy root (v. 16). Paul, as we can see, remains faithful to the prophetic tradition where the attitude toward Gentiles is concerned. The ancient prophets said more than once that in the messianic Kingdom, the remnant of God's people would meet Gentiles who sought the true God and finally found Him. But the apostle understands that God's priorities have remained the same: His people remain His people, and the salvation of former Gentiles is possible only if they acknowledge the fact obvious to Paul, that there is and can be no other people of God besides the one whose history begins with the call of Abraham. To illustrate this position clearly, the apostle uses the image of grafting and cultivating a wild olive tree, something that would be completely impossible if, first, there did not exist a "good" olive tree, a cultivated variety, and if, second, no gardener were found who was able and willing to perform such an operation (vv. 17-24).

As we can see, for Paul the history of the people of God is one single spiritual process, in which the fate of the Jewish people, the ministry of the remnant, and the history of the Kingdom become one whole.

No one knows the Father. But the Lord reveals His Father to us...

FAQ

Why did the people of Israel leave their homeland, and can this be regarded as a punishment for this nation, sent by God because they did not accept His Son and the New Covenant?

You are almost right, with the exception of the word "punishment." It does not reflect the essence of the matter, and indeed the Lord, through the prophets, rejects such a way of reasoning...

You are almost right, with the exception of the word "punishment." It does not reflect the essence of the matter, and indeed the Lord, through the prophets, rejects such a way of reasoning. The Gospels quite definitively link the destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent wave of the dispersion with the rejection of Christ. However, this was not a purposeful retribution for what the Jews had done; rather, I would call it the result of rejecting the Lord Jesus. It is highly significant that the Lord Himself speaks of this with tears, thereby setting an example for all His disciples for all time. The Jews themselves (non-Christians) of the second half of the 1st century AD associated the destruction of Jerusalem with the murder of James the Just, the brother of the Lord, the first bishop of Jerusalem.

The entire history of biblical faith (both Old Testament and New Testament) testifies that the betrayal of Christ's love and the substitution of faith with lesser things always leads people to disaster. So it was in the days of the fall of Samaria and the first destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar; so it was in the 1st century AD; and so it has been in the history of the Church. The issue, in fact, is not about punishment... Simply put, if we are not with God, we are defenseless against the evil that reigns in this world, and we ourselves only multiply it. However, two important points must be noted. On the one hand, the Bible tells us that the Lord judges each person individually, and not entire groups and nations. On the other hand, His relationship with the chosen people, judging by the words of the Apostle Paul, remains special, comparable (though not identical) only to the relationship between God and the Church. As far as the Apostle Paul can be understood, in his view the conversion of Israel will be the final, culminating moment of Salvation History, and through this the chosen people continue to serve God and other people.

Finally, the traditional notion that the Jews did not accept Christ is highly biased. After all, the Most Holy Virgin and Joseph the Betrothed, John the Baptist and all the apostles, and the majority of the early Christians were Jews. A portion of the Jews accepted Christ, and a portion did not; but was this not the case with everyone else as well? And to accept the New Covenant "collectively," as a nation, is fundamentally impossible; the Lord establishes it with each person individually.

If the way to God is through Christ, what will happen to Israel?

Unlike the Old Covenant, the New Covenant is made with each person individually, regardless of a person's origin...

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