The Salvation of Jews and Gentiles
RO145-02

God's Bible

God's Promises to the Jewish People

The Jewish People

For example, in Romans 3:10-11, we've already learned: "As it is written, 'There is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understand. There is none that seek after God." Every person born into the human race is so blind that he does not think that he needs God. He really is not interested. He does not really seek after God.

In certain Corinthians 4:3-4, this is reinforced. But if our gospel be hidden, it is hidden to them that are lost, in whom the god of this age (Satan) has blinded the minds of them who don't believe, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." So, the Jewish people, like all of us, come into the human race with a sin nature which causes us to be spiritually dead, and thus blind to all spiritual appeals. And thus we have a resistance to the gospel. But because the Jews took upon them the blood of Jesus Christ, there was a judicial blindness imposed upon them in addition.

2 Corinthians 3:14-15 indicate that to us. Paul says, "But their minds (of the Jewish people) were blinded. For until this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away with in Christ." As they read the Old Testament Scriptures, they cannot see the truth about Jesus Christ. Now that is a terrible thing – that you cannot pick up the Bible, and read about Jesus Christ, and understand it, and grasp the truth. Paul says that because they took upon them the innocent blood of Jesus Christ, they not only have the natural blindness of the sin nature, but they have a special blindness on their minds such that even when they read the Old Testament, and they read these dramatic passages that so explicitly describe the coming of the Messiah Savior, and so exactly were applied and were fulfilled by Jesus Christ, they can't see it.

The Jews have not been Permanently Cast Away by God

In Romans 11:11, Paul firmly denied the claim that amillennialists today – that God has permanently cast away the Jewish people as a nation. Paul proceeds to explain what God is doing, then, to build the church, the body of believers, from gentiles and from Jews. When the church, the body of Christ, is completed, God will take it to heaven. And then He turn back to fulfilling His promises to the Jewish nation. Paul knows that God has not replaced Israel with the church in His plan, because the unconditional promises of the Abrahamic Covenant have not been fulfilled. Those promises, and the associated covenants which we have looked at in detail, belong only to the Jewish people. God is, in fact, bringing good out of Israel's rejection of Jesus Christ. He's using it to fulfill his total plan for mankind.

The Jews' Great Transgression

The Gentiles

At the very time that the apostle Paul was writing the book of Romans, he himself had already, on two occasions, turned away from preaching the gospel to the unreceptive Jews, and had returned to preach it to the receptive gentiles. In Acts 13:14, we have this demonstrated in an extensive passage – Acts 13:14-48. You nay read that at your leisure. But it, in detail, describes one of the occasions when Paul is standing before a group of people. He is seeking to explain to them the whole gospel message. He's speaking to them as Jews, describing their history, and the sequence of events that brought about the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross.

Please notice Act 13:42: "And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue (and all this discussions taking place in the synagogue), the gentile besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews, and the religious proselytes (those who were gentiles, who had come in and become Jews) followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. Well, now the next Saturday (the next Sabbath) came almost the whole city together to hear the Word of God. But now, when the Jews saw the multitude, they will fill with envy, and they spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradictory and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold, and said it was necessary that the Word of God should first haven been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the gentiles. For so has the Lord commanded us saying, 'I have set you to be a light of the nations, that you should be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the Word of the Lord, and as many aw were ordained to eternal life believed."

In Acts 18:1-11 (and you may read that at your leisure), you find that the same thing happened again. Here, in the city of Corinth, he goes to the Jews. He says, I have the message. I have the information. They turned their back on it. And Paul says, "Fine, you've had your opportunity. I'm turning to the gentiles. I will not continue ministering to people who will not listen." What a wonderful principle for Christians to learn: "I will not continue ministering to people who don't want to be ministered to; who will not respond to the Word of God; and, who do not give a flibbertigibbet for what God has to say."

So, again, Paul says, "It was right that you Jews, who had first access to eternal life should be given information. Now I'm checking out. This was kind of an amusing situation, because of all things, Crispus, who was the chief ruler of the synagogue, believes Paul's message. He goes with Christianity. And then to pour salt in the wound, these guys move next door, to the synagogue, for a year-and-a-half, to be teaching the Word of God here. And here they, saying, "We're only next door, folks. When you get your head screwed on straight; you get your brains together; and you get the insight to realize that what we have told you is compatible to Old Testament Scripture, and it is confirmed by the Word of God, all you have to do is get up and walk out of the synagogue, and come next door – walk out of this dark place, and come into the light place next door, where the Word of God is being proclaimed."

So, this business of being a gentile, and finding that salvation was being extended to you, was a euphoric experience. You and I take that in stride, because most people who are in the church body today are gentiles. We don't think anything of it. But I must remind you that, before the church-age, a gentile could only be saved – a gentile could only approach God, if he first became a Jew. He first had to enter Judaism as a proselyte. Then he could come to God. As a gentile, he was an outside dog, and everybody knew it, and everybody despised him, and the only way you could find yourself under God's blessing was to come in through the system of Judaism (through the system of the Mosaic Law.

This wall which separated Jews and gentiles is referred to in Ephesians 2:11, where Paul says, "Wherefore, remember: you, being in times past gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcised by that which is the circumcision in the flesh made by hands." Paul says, "Now you Christian gentiles, remember that in the past, you were called, contemptuously, 'the uncircumcised' by the Jews who had circumcision. But this was circumcision not of the heart, but of one made in the human flesh by human hands – that at that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant." Now you know what the covenant means, don't you? This passage should be significant. You should understand how all gentiles were aliens from the covenants of God: the Abrahamic Covenant; the further reinforcing, explanatory – the Palestinian Covenant; the Davidic Covenant; and, the New Covenant: "Having no hope, and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off, are made near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, Who has made both one" He has made one body out of Jew and gentile: "And has broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh (though His death, that is) the enmity; even the Law of commandment contained in ordinances, to make in Himself of the two (of Jew and gentile) one new man, so bringing both to peace."

What is that new man? It is the body of Christ, the church: "And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity, the antagonism, thereby, that was between them. And came and preached peace to you who were far off, and to them that were near. For through Him, we both (Jew and gentile) have access by one Holy Spirit unto the Father."

So, the apostle Paul, here in writing to the Ephesians, reminded these people that it was not always their opportunity to be to just walk up, and to come to God, and to enjoy Him. And this is the problem that we face in our society today: people who have access to the Word of God, as Americans do, do not care about it. They do not realize that, as gentiles, they have a unique position of privilege now that was once exclusively possessed by the Jews. Now the doors into God's presence are wide open. And who cares? Who cares? Only those, as you perhaps noticed, as we read earlier: those who came, and listened to Paul were those whom God had chosen, and called into that eternal life – we Christians, who have the full counsel of the knowledge of God. Who cares? Who cares to come and sit, under an academic situation such as we have here, to be instructed in the Word of God. A few people. Most of the rest of them are out there having their ears tickled by oratory; listening to a gospel message that they don't need to hear again; and, being entertained by humorous stories, or something that causes you to weep, and have good emotional jag. And then you leave, and say that you've worshiped God, and you have grown spiritually. Instead, you have taken another step downward, and become a more obscene example of a Christian.

I see them all around me. I have to deal with people in various agencies of this ministry. And they move in and out of our orbit of influence. And I've seen the obscenity that is represented by those who call upon the name of Christ, but they look like the world; they smell like the world; they talk like the world; and, they are a sorry lot. What they need to understand is that the hand of God the Holy Spirit is the gentle hand. He pushes only gently in the right direction. But if you elbow Him out of the way, He will step back. And we have Christians who have stepped back from that gentle hand, and they are wasting their lives, and they are going to be in that category of those who will be shedding tears in heaven as they stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, and they weep over the life they have lost.

It is a great privilege to be an object of God's information and care. It was a privilege that people in ancient times, who came into contact with Israel, envied. And those to whom gave the perception to understand, among the gentiles, reached out, and grabbed hold of the Jewish way of life to get to the salvation and to the God that they sought.

Ruth

However, Ruth is very knowledgeable young woman – a good looking girl. She gets her special perfume, Midnight in Moab, and Boaz is very impressed as soon as she meets him. Well, this lady – all of these things happen to her subsequently, and the greatest of all was that she came into the line of the Savior. She was one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ – this Moabite gentile. How could she not only come into salvation, in touch with the real God, and even be a channel of the Savior of the world? A gentle – no way. The only way that she could do it was coming into the Jewish system. So, that's what she did. She said, "I'm going back with you, Naomi. I'm not going to stay here in this pagan land. I'm going to go back because I am interested in finding eternal life.

Notice the progression in Ruth 1:6. Here is the story: "Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab. For she had heard, in the country of Moab, how the Lord had visited His people in giving them food. Wherefore, she went forth, out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her. And they went on their way to return unto the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, 'Go return each to your mother's house; the Lord deal with you kindly, as you have dealt with the dead and with me; the Lord grant you that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband.' Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept. And they said unto her, 'Surely we will return with you unto your people.' And Naomi said, 'Turn again, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters. Go your way. For I'm too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope; if I should a husband also tonight, and should also bear sons, would you tarry for them till they were grown? Would you refrain from marrying? No, my daughters. For it grieves me much for your sake that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me.' And they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-law-law. She decided to stay, but Ruth clung to her."

Then notice: "And she (Naomi) said, 'Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back unto her people, and unto her god. Return unto your sister-in-law.'" Naomi says, 'Orpah has gone back to her people (the Moabites), and she has gone back to their god. Why don't you go back, Ruth? That where you're from. There is where your roots are. Why don't you just return?" And here's the punch line. Verse 16: "And Ruth said, 'Intreat me now to leave you, or to turn away from following after you. For where you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. You people shall be my people: and your God, my God.'"

Now as we teach this story in Sunday school, we often just convey to our children that this is a very devoted, dedicated daughter-in-law, who is going to stay with this elderly woman now, whose sons are dead, and who needs her care. No, it's much more than that. It was the fact that Ruth says, "I don't want the gods of Moab anymore, but I'm a gentile. I cannot get to the true God, but I have learned from you that I can do it through your system, and through the Mosaic system. Through your system of Judaism, there is a path by which I can approach the true God. So, I'm going to go back, and your God is going to be my God." She had to change her nationality from Moabite to Jewish, in order for her to reach the true God of salvation. What was the objective of Ruth's staying with Naomi?

Naaman

Naaman's first response to this was resistance. He was offended. In the land of Syria, they had some beautiful, clear, delightful rivers. The Jordan wasn't all that hot. And he said, "Why should I go and put myself in that hogwash river there, when I have beautiful rivers back in Syria?" And he was so mad about it, he turned around and headed for home. But he had a servant who was smart. The servant said, "Master, let me just speak to you. If the prophet had asked you to do something very hard, you would have done it. He has told you to do a very simple, easy thing. Why not do it? What do you have to lose?"

So, Naaman turns around, and dips in the Jordan River seven times. And he comes up, the Bible says, looking like a baby – all pink and fatty. You know how babies are fatty. They have little fatty things all over them. And here is this leprosy gone. What a relief! This man cannot believe it. This is not a wimp. This guy is a chief officer in the Syrian army. The Syrian army was a powerful combat unit. And here is this man who had known how to exercise real power – the power of life and death. But here was a power that he could not control. Here was something you could not solve. He was on a death row, literally. If that leprosy wasn't stopped, there's no place he was going to go, but ultimately, and very soon, to his death.

So, when he is healed, he tries to give rewards, and so on, but Elisha says, "No, I'm not taking any pay for doing God's work." And Elisha's servant gets greedy. So, he runs down the road and lies to Naaman, and said that Elisha sent him to take some rewards, after all. And when Elisha finds out, he says, "Well, Here's what your greed is going to get you. You were so absorbed with the money that you could not keep your eyes on the joys of ministry. I'm going to give you the disease. You can have Naaman's leprosy, and see what your money will do for you now."

So, that was a side issue, but Naaman himself said, "I want more than physical healing. I want eternal life. I want to go to your God. Your God is the true God. How can I get to Him? I can't. I'm a gentile. There's a wall standing and dividing me from Him. I have no access to Him. I can only go through your system of religion. I will become a Jew, and I will worship this God.' But Naaman, of course, had to go back to Syria. He had to go back to the duties that held him, or his life would have been threatened. But Naaman, indeed, became a Jewish proselyte. But when he got back to Damascus, he wanted to worship this God. But the way you worship God – the ultimate worship of God for a Jew was in the land of Palestine.

So, Naaman orders them to load two mules with as much dirt as those mules could carry. And he hauls that back to Damascus. 1 Kings 5:17: "And Naaman said, 'Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to your servant two mules burdened of earth? For your servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord'" And when Naaman got back to Syria (to Damascus), he set up a place where he spread out this dirt. And here was little piece of God's Promised Land. Here was a little piece of the holy land of Israel. And Naaman had now become a proselyte to Judaism (to the true God). He still had, the Bible tells us, to go and do all the ceremonies in the pagan god's temple, because he was an officer of the king. And he did those rituals because, he said, "Those are dumb idols. It doesn't mean a thing. I'm performing my civic responsibilities." For whatever reason, Naaman was not led by God to say, like Daniel did: "I won't do it. I won't participate." Naaman did. But when Naaman worshiped the true God, he went to this little lot of dirt that he had set up. And there is where he set up his altar, and there is where he performed his sacrifices, and there is where he worshiped God. He was a gentile who had become a Jew, so that he could get to the real God.

Esther

Well, of course, the Persians were elated over this opportunity. It was the rule, in the Persian Empire, that once the king issued a decree, it could not be rescinded. The law of the Medes and Persians was irrevocable. Here is something that the king doesn't know though. His wife, his favorite, his delightful Queen Esther, has never told him that she is a Jewess. He has just signed a decree that is her death warrant as well.

So, Esther threw a series of banquets, and revealed to the king that she is a Jewess. And thus she is included in her husband's death edict. The king is enraged over this. The result, without giving you all the details, is that he orders Haman to be hanged on the very gallows that Haman was building to hang Esther's uncle, Mordecai.

So, the king is led to issue another decree. And that was authorizing all the Jews in his kingdom to defend themselves against anybody who would attack them. And, in fact, to confiscate the property of anybody who attacked them. Another decree was issued to turn the table. It so happened that Haman, in deciding when to set the date for killing the Jews, did it by what was called a "pur," which was a lot: like throwing the dice; or picking a straw; or, something like that, by lot. And it so happened that he picked a date that was really one year later. Three months had gone by. The Jews still had nine months to get ready. It is from the world "pur," the casting of lots, that (you may remember) the Jews celebrate this feast to this day. They call it "the Feast of Purim," after this casting of the lots.

However, what happened was that on the day that it arrived, any Persian, who was so foolish as to attack a Jew, found himself done in because the Jews had prepared. They had the weapons. They had the supplies that they needed. They had the organization. And the result was that anybody who dared to attack the Jew found himself destroyed. The result was that there were thousands of gentile Persians who tried. It was something like 75,000 of them got killed that day by the Jews. It took two days to clean up the capital city itself in Persia. Esther went to the king and said, "We haven't quite cleaned out all the pockets of attackers. We need another day." The king said, "Take your time." And he gave another day, and they cleaned out those who were antisemitic.

Well, for the Persian gentiles who did not want to attack the Jews, but who observed what was happening – the enormous protection of these people everywhere, they were impressed. The God of heaven got their attention. And the Bible tells us that the result of this event was that many of these gentiles left their pagan gods in the Persian Empire, and they turn to the true God.

Esther 8:17: "And in every province, and in every city, wherever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness of peace, and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. So, that out of this event, many of the gentiles of Persia became proselytes of Judaism. So, they could receive salvation and have eternal life with God.

So, today, all this has been changed. It is now our great privilege (and this is what Paul pointing out in Romans 11) to have access to God for eternal life. How did this happen? How did this dramatic change come about? Gentiles no longer have to become Jews in order to be saved. At the death of Jesus Christ, this was clearly indicated, because the veil in the temple (as you remember), which covered the holy of holies – that sacred place in which the high priest only went once a year on the great day of atonement – that veil was torn from top to bottom, and the whole sacred place was exposed for anybody to go into. The torn veil signified to the world that God was through with the Mosaic system; with its rituals; with its sacrifices; and, with its special priesthood as the way to get into heaven. You didn't have to go through the priest any more. You didn't have to bring the animal sacrifices. You didn't have to perform the rituals in order to maintain your position of acceptability to God. Now you were free to go to Him directly. None of those Old Testament things provided for your salvation, of course. But they were the ground by which you had access to the God who could give you salvation.

Please notice Galatians 2:15-16: "We were Jews by nature, and not sinners of the gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by faith of Jesus Christ – even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law. For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified." The torn veil said that the system of Judaism is no longer the access way to God.

Galatians 3:13-14: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us. For it is written: "Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.'" The cross is called "a tree:" "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Do you remember that one of the blessings promised to Abraham was that he would bless the whole world? It was salvation which was to act as the blessing. We gentiles now have it.

So, gentiles now could approach directly through Jesus Christ, Whose body, in fact, symbolized the torn veil in the temple. As the body of Jesus Christ was broken in sacrifice, so the veil was torn. We go through that sacrificed body.

Therefore, we read in John 10:9: Jesus said, "I am the door. By Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." Buddha is not the door/ Mohamed is not the door. None of the great religious leaders of the world are the door. Even Joseph Smith of the Mormons is not the door. Jesus said that He is the door.

John 14:6: "Jesus said unto him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by Me." He is the only access point. And for us gentiles, that's all we need.

1 Timothy 2:5: "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men: the Man, Christ Jesus." There is nobody now standing between the gentile and the living God.

Hebrews 10:19-22: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus; by a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us, through the veil (that is to say 'His flesh'), and having a high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." All of the ceremonial things that the Jews used to do with the sprinkling of water, and so on – all of that has been done for us now in reality.

The direct access today of gentiles into God's holy of hollies, however, does not nullify the promises of the Abrahamic covenant leading to the Jewish people. And Paul is not implying that the Jews are out, and the gentile Christians are in. He is simply making it clear that what he has said in verse 11: "But rather through their fall (through their serious transgression of rejecting and killing Christ, salvation has come to the gentiles – to the gentiles, who at one time, themselves, could not approach God, except through the Jewish system.

The Woman at the Well

Naaman had to take some soil back so he could worship God on the sacred soil of Palestine. Jesus said, "The time is coming when none of that is going to count. You will no longer go through this system.

Well, the Jews you exercised their religion to reject Jesus Christ. But God, Paul says, used their decision to provide salvation for the gentile world. There is a doctrinal principle. Sooner or later, we foul up our lives. We make terrible decisions, and they have long-range consequences. And it is necessary for us to realize that our God is a God who brings good out of evil; and, that, when people decide that they have stepped out of line, and they make their confession to Him, He turns the evil back to good. Sometimes you do not entirely escape the consequences (the evidences) of the evil that you did. That stays on. The people who are dying of AIDS, who have turned, in salvation, to Jesus Christ, have tears in their eyes over the consequences of their evil. They rejoice in their eternal life. They are going to heaven. But the consequences of what they did, is going to take them out to their very death. But, in their case, their tragedy has been turned to blessing.

So, the Jews, who did a very grave thing in killing Jesus Christ, and in taking their Messiah and throwing Him out as a piece of garbage – they have come under, indeed, the discipline of Gog. But out of that very discipline, and out of the very act that they perform, of sending that Christ to the cross, there has come the basis for all of us gentiles. Thank God that you're no longer on the outside. The first great thing, Paul says, that was the result of the transgression of the Jews in how they treated Christ, was salvation directly accessible to every gentile. There is a second result, and we shall look at that next time.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1988

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