God Has Not Rejected Israel
Romans 11:1-29 “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. (2) God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. … (25) For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. (26) And so, all Israel will be saved … (28) concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. (29) For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
After our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, things changed once again. This time the change did not occur in the natural however, but rather in the spirit. After Jesus was raised from the dead, the Jewish nation did not cease to exist as a nation. They continued to exist, even after seventy AD when the second temple was destroyed and the Jewish people were scattered throughout all the earth. God created the Jewish nation for His own purposes. Not all of God’s purposes regarding that nation have been fulfilled yet, for the Jewish nation features in God’s plans for mankind right up until the end of the age. And so the Jewish nation which was born at the time of Abraham will continue to exist until the end of the age. Consequently, just as the Jewish nation has not ceased to exist before God, neither have the gentiles ceased to exist as a separate people group. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us clearly that God’s purposes for the Jewish people remains intact, and cannot be changed.
Hebrews 11:39-40 “And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, (40) God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.”
So what change has taken place since our Lord was manifested in the earth? The change that has taken place since Jesus was raised from the dead is in the sons of the kingdom. Because whereas before Jesus was manifested in the earth, all believers, both Jew and gentile alike, had the promise of inheriting the righteousness of God and eternal life, but now as the above quoted passage of scripture declares, that promise has been realized. For from the moment they are born-again, all believers in Christ receive eternal life and are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. In other words it is no longer a promise but rather a reality.
Galatians 4:4-7 “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, (5) to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (6) And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" (7) Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
Before Jesus Christ was manifested in the earth, believers were not classified as sons of God. The reason for that is because they couldn’t be born-again. Only those who are born of God, i.e. born-again, are His sons. The conditions that must be met in order for one to be born-again, is that one must believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead, and one must confess Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9-10). Saints in the Old Testament, Jew and gentile alike, could not meet those conditions, for Jesus had not yet come. And so when they died they were carried to Paradise to wait for the promise of the righteousness of God to be made manifest. The saints from the Old Testament met the conditions required for salvation for the very first time after Jesus was raised from the dead, for Jesus went to them in Abraham’s bosom and preached the gospel to them and they were all born-again (1 Peter 3:19). Jesus then ascended into heaven and led the Old Testament saints into heaven with Him (Ephesians 4:8). And so as the above quoted passage of scripture declares, from the time that Jesus was manifested in the earth until now, all believers, Jew and gentile alike can now meet the conditions required for salvation, and so they are all born-again as sons of God the moment they are saved.
1 Corinthians 10:32 “Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God.”
The sons of God are also called the church of God. After Jesus was raised from the dead the church of God was born. And so the three people groups that existed in the earth before Jesus Christ was manifested in the earth, i.e. believers, Jews and gentiles; are the same three people groups that still exist in the earth since Jesus was manifested. The main change that has taken place is that all believers, Jew and gentile alike, are now called the church of God. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit lists the three people groups in the earth today.
Michael E.B. Maher
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