Sunday School | Doctrine of the Church - The Relationship Between the Church and Israel

Alright. This is part, I don't know, three or four of our series on ecclesiology. Ecclesiology is the doctrine of the church. And what we've been doing for weeks and weeks is talking about every subset of Christian theology, and we're nearing the end of our road here. Ecclesiology is the doctrine of the church—who are the gathered people of God?

I told you something last week that turns out to be a lie. I said today we would talk about how God empowers the church to fulfill its mission. But then I realized we did that when we talked about the Spirit and when we did our series on pneumatology. So we're not doing that. If you came in thinking, if you read Romans 12 and First Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 and First Peter 4 as I assigned you, and you're expecting to talk about the spiritual gifts, I'm just not doing any of that, because we did it already.

But I do want you to know that if you go to chsroanoke.com and go to teaching, there's an incredible resource there. It's called the Sermon Catalog. Once you go to chsroanoke.com, go to teaching, and choose the Sermon Catalog, you see everything we have ever said here. It's all organized—you can search it for anything, you can find any class you've missed, the audio, the video, the transcript. You can AI quiz it on anything. It's insane. So there's all kinds of good stuff in there. And if you're wanting the spiritual gift stuff, everything we've already done is there.

The Relationship Between the Church and Israel

Today though, we're gonna move on to the next part of this question: What is the church? And I want to explore with you guys something that has become a strangely hot topic here for reasons I don't entirely understand. That is: What is the relationship between the church and Israel?

The true answer to this question has been true for all of time. But in the last couple of years, due to some kind of political concerns, it has become more of a relevant question. There are a handful of characters who have a lot to say about America's relationship to Israel, and related to that, what is the church's relationship to Israel? I hear this stuff all the time, and I just think there's a lot of nonsense that gets spouted. So I wanted to give you a biblical view on the relationship between the church and Israel.

I'm just curious as we start: What do you think is the relationship between the church and Israel? And if you're not sure how to even answer that question, I can give you some multiple choice options. But right out of the gate, does anybody have any assumptions that you're willing to throw out there, at least as a starting point?

[Audience member comments about true Israel versus the nation of Israel]

Well, okay. That's giving me a good distinction. Don't get ahead of me, because I'm gonna unpack this. But as you think about all this, what do you think? Bob is drawing a distinction, and I'll make that clear in a little bit too.

[Audience member asks about current nation of Israel versus biblical Israel]

Okay, great. So this is one of the key questions. Bob is drawing a distinction between what he's calling national Israel and true Israel. I'll unpack that language. You're drawing a distinction between the current nation state of Israel and, you know, the kingdom that David led, right?

So let's just say today, right now, what is the relationship? What is God's orientation to the thing that Benjamin Netanyahu leads? We could look at it that way. But sometimes, that same conversation, people are really talking about Jews that live in New York. Right? So it's a complicated thing. But again, the floor is open. Starting point—how you understand the church and any of the different ways we can describe Israel. How about that? Have you been taught this at all?

Let me give you some options then.

[Audience member Dan responds]

My understanding, which could be quite wrong, is that we, the church, are grafted into the root of historic Israel, the people of God. They are the foundation. We're grafted in and we're not the original roots. We're not the original thing. We are built upon the call that God has placed on Israel historically.

Okay. Dan is giving a great answer. There's a little more we're gonna want to unpack from that, but that is a fantastic answer. Nothing you said is false. Good job, Dan.

So Dan is observing that the church is grafted into the root of Israel. We are not the original, but we have in some sense become a branch of a root. And that's really Romans 11—that's really the heart where that gets expressed.

So we'll have to take a look at that this morning. That's great, Scott. Judaism is pretty diverse. It's not just the nation state of Israel. So you have to unpack all of that to understand how different Judaism is now versus what it was.

So is someone today whose family is Jewish, their grandparents were in the Holocaust, how does that person today relate to the community that Moses led in the wilderness, or the people that David wrote Psalms with in 1,000 BC? These can all be kind of tricky questions.

Let me ask you this. How many of you would subscribe to the idea, or at least you're sympathetic to the idea, that whatever promises God made to Israel in the Old Testament, the church has now replaced Israel? That whatever there was made to Israel, that's great, but guess what, buddy? There's a new game in town, and it's called the church. The church has replaced Israel. Does that feel on point? We don't like this. Nobody's down with replacement framing.

Andy, something about that? Something there. PJ? But we were grafting it. Grafting. So this is more like the Dan—Okay. So not quite replaced, but there's some grafting. We'll unpack that. That's great.

How about this? God has two people. There are two people that he loves. He loves Israel. He's made everlasting promises to Israel, and he loves his church. And there are really two peoples of God, and he loves us both. Does that feel better? Gary thinks that's better. Dan hates it. Massey? We didn't hear a dilemma as to whether there's the permanent covenant with Israel or that you just said, we, the church, are the new Israel. That's the dilemma. Yeah.

So are we the new Israel? Have we—because that feels more replace-y. Right? You feel this—this is where it gets a little bit tricky. Yeah. There's two different covenants. Okay, two covenants. Okay, what are the two covenants? There's the covenant or the covenant people of Israel, and there's the church, which is the new covenant. Yeah, you know, that actually raises in my mind—I had not thought about doing a section in our doctrine class on covenants, but that would actually maybe be a good idea. Because there's actually many covenants. And we generally name them: there's the Adamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Davidic covenant. There's what Jesus famously calls the new covenant. That might be a little bit much to untangle at the moment, but it touches this. It's reasonable to bring that up in this conversation, but I'm not going to chase that rabbit this morning.

Okay, Joe? Tim Mackie in study on Ephesians addressed this the way the wording is in Ephesians. He addresses you and y'all in regard to you being the Israelites that have come into Christ and then y'all being the Gentiles. And I've always heard that there's terms like the Jewish church and the Christian church. Okay. So that's great, Joe. Tim Mackie is half of the Bible Project, Tim and John. Tim is kind of the theology guy, and John is the art guy, and their work tends to be highly, highly reliable. They do fantastic work. And therefore, it's not surprising that if Tim Mackie is trying to explain this using Ephesians, I think Ephesians is the most important book if we're going to understand the relationship between the church and Israel. So we'll get to Ephesians in a minute.

Diagramming National Israel vs. True Israel

Okay, let me draw you a picture, and it's going to be lame, but just deal with it because it's all I have to offer you. Are we on? Let's see. No pen. Nope. Is it working out? Okay. Great. All right.

So this here—we're going to use some of the language that Bob used. If this here—yeah, it's good. This is national Israel. Okay? I want you to think, these are blood descendants of Abraham. These are people who are children, the grandchildren, the great great grandchildren of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. These are the people, okay? That's national Israel. If you go back to maybe Deuteronomy or Numbers, the wilderness, that's national Israel.

And at the time, there was also a different group of people that we could call true Israel. And what I want you to see in true Israel here is there are a bunch of people out here in the boonies that are not followers of Yahweh. Their hearts are not his. They are blood descendants of Abraham. They are in the wilderness. They were slaves in Egypt, but their bodies fell in the wilderness, and they never really worshipped him. This is Achan's rebellion, right? This is all the bodies that fell in the wilderness, right?

Then you've got out here—oh no, stop. I meant that to be yellow. Oh, stop. Okay. So this is all the phonies. This one right here, who's that? That's Rahab. Okay? That's not a descendant of Abraham, and yet a true follower of Yahweh. Right? So Rahab had no claim to this, and yet she was included in the people of God.

You know the Rahab story, right? She puts the scarlet thread on the window and all that kind of stuff. And then you've got here in the middle—the intersection between national Israel and true Israel. That's David, that's Moses, that's Hezekiah, that's faithful Jews. You've always had from the very beginning these blood descendants of Abraham, and then these are the ones that don't really care, and these are the ones who do, and then you get these random Gentiles that get invited to the party.

What ends up happening over time though is that the circles change. So here is national Israel, and when Jesus shows up, he has come unmistakably for the Jews. Over and over, this is very clear. Everywhere Paul goes, the first thing he does is go to the synagogues. He's preaching to the Jews because Jesus is of the Jews. But to the shock and wonder of all, a whole bunch of people who have no right to any of this start coming to the party.

So what you see is this: you still have that, but now you've got true Israel, and true Israel ends up with lots and lots and lots of Gentiles, while increasing numbers of Jews reject the Gospel. And now we've got Gentile, Gentile, Gentile, Gentile. And this group that is true Israel is also known as the church. The church is true Israel. And I'll show you that biblically in a minute.

And then eventually, as the story plays out, the strangeness of that, the shock of that, the wonder that not only are lots and lots of Gentiles coming to follow the Jewish Messiah, but lots and lots of Jewish people are rejecting the Jewish Messiah—that tension, the joy on the Gentile side and the deep discouragement on the Jewish side, is what animates the book of Romans. The entire book of Romans is about this question, especially the last half. In Romans 9, in Romans 10, in Romans 11, Paul's angst just bubbles over. He's like, what is the deal with all of the Jews not coming?

The Book of Acts

If you read the book of Acts, you've probably heard it taught in many different ways. One of the primary reasons that Luke wrote the book of Acts is to explain how in thirty years, we went from 12 Jewish disciples and maybe two Gentile converts to thousands and thousands of Gentile converts. Thousands and thousands of Gentile converts, and frankly, not that many Jews.

The book of Acts is chasing that everywhere Paul goes. There's a riot and there's a revival. Sometimes the Gentiles are rioting. Usually, it's the Jews. Sometimes the Jews are taking part in the revival. Usually, it's the Gentiles.

And the very last paragraph of the book of Acts is really a summary. If you look, you can tell Luke's purpose by the way he ends his book. It is written to explain why it is that over a thirty-year span of time, this Jewish thing has become overwhelmingly majority Gentile.

The Future of Israel and the Church

So today, we're at a place where this is national Israel and this is true Israel. And we have gone way outside—way, way, way outside—way majority, overwhelming majority Gentile, but still some few Jews.

And what the New Testament promises is that in the final analysis, the picture's going to look like this: National Israel, the circle's moving back. It will come back and pick up a slew of Jews. And this is the final state of the thing. That is the Biblical storyline of how this actually works.

We have not replaced them. There are not two people of God. There is always one true people of God. We will call it true Israel. But the composition of it used to be entirely Jewish, scarcely any Gentiles. Over time it has gone to pick up more and more and more Gentiles. And the time is coming where there will be a resurgence of faith among the blood descendants of Abraham.

Ephesians 2:11-19

Now, that's the story. Let me try to show it to you in the text. Go to Ephesians. We're going to try to show you how this works out in Ephesians 2. We're talking to a church filled with Gentiles. Ephesus is not a Jewish town, it is a Greek town. And listen to what he says:

Remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth, and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision that done in the body by the hands of men. — Ephesians 2:11

That is to say, the Gentile Christians are getting shade from the Jews: "You uncircumcised."

You're non-Jews, you're not real, you probably don't belong here, and I don't know who invited you in the first place. He says, remember that once upon a time, you were—listen to this list—five things. You were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope, and without God in the world.

Five things that used to be true of the Gentile Christians. You didn't have Jesus, you weren't part of Israel—that should be curious to you—you were foreigners to the covenants of the promise. Again, you had no claim to the things that belonged to Israel. You're without hope, without God in the world.

But look at verse 13. All five of those things are going to get reversed.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made the two one. — Ephesians 2:13-14

What are the two? Jew and Gentile. This is not like humans and God. This is Jew and Gentile. He has made the two. There was the Jewish people, there was the Gentile people, he's unifying them. This is such extraordinary language. What he was doing on the cross was not merely vertical reconciliation, but it was horizontal reconciliation. He was making a way for a bunch of Brits who had no claim to what Moses had done for his people to become partakers of it. For like, people from the Sudan, who have no right to any of this, would be brought in.

So he says:

He himself is our peace, who has made the two one, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them, Jew and Gentile, to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. — Ephesians 2:14-16

He came and preached peace to you who are far away, that is Gentiles, and peace to those who are near, that is the Jew. For through him we both, Jew and Gentile, have access to the Father by one Spirit.

And in case that's not clear enough, he continues to talk to the Gentile Christians in Ephesus. Listen to this language, because this harkens back to that list of five things.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household. — Ephesians 2:19

This is what Dan was saying in the beginning of our time. You are Israel. You've not replaced it, you have joined it. That is the nature of the Gospel—he is inviting all of us, Gentiles from South America, from Australia, from Iceland, as far as you can get from Israel, who have not a drop of Abrahamic blood in your body. You are citizens of that nation. You yourselves are no longer foreigners and aliens. You are fellow citizens with God's people. You are members of God's household.

The Jerusalem Council and the Gentile Question

And that was so shocking. If you've read—do you guys know what happened at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15? Is this a familiar event to you? What was that whole thing about? Circumcision.

Which is to say, when we talk about circumcision, what we're really saying is it's about uncircumcision. All of these Gentiles are coming to the party. What do we do about it? Can a Gentile become a Christian? Maybe, but probably they should become a Jew first. We're gonna make them get circumcised, so at least we can pretend they're Jews, and then once they're good Mosaic circumcised Jews, then we'll let them into the inner circle of our thing. And the Jerusalem Council says, no deal.

Peter has this whole engagement with Cornelius, and he has this dream about eating lizards, and all this craziness ensues. And the word comes down to the shock of all: we are gonna let the dogs into the party, and they will be here with us. We are the dogs. We have no right to this. The whole thing is for us.

And not only do we have to deal with the shock that we get to come in, but we also deal with the absolute terror that the Jews don't want to stay in—that so many of the Jews don't stay in.

Paul's Experience in Corinth

So let me show you this in Acts. Riots and revivals are everywhere. Maybe the pinnacle of it is in Acts 16. Paul goes to Corinth. Do you remember the dread moment in Acts 18 concerning the Jews? Is this familiar?

When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads, I am innocent." — Acts 18:5-6

Everywhere Paul goes, he preaches the Gospel. His passion is to reach the Jewish people. And everywhere he goes there is opposition.

From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. He's saying, "I'm tired of this. I'm so weary of the Jews rejecting their own Messiah, and so no more. From henceforth, I am going to be exclusively an ambassador to the Gentiles."

That resolve lasts one verse. In verse seven, he leaves there and goes to the house of a man named Titius Justice, a worshipper of God. His house is next door to the synagogue. That's the extent of Paul's exclusive ministry to the Gentiles.

In verse eight, Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue—and presumably a Jew—believed in the Lord together with his entire household. Paul continues to reach out to the Jews. He never stops. He's frustrated, he's aggravated, but he never stops. But no matter where he goes, some Jewish people believe. Overwhelmingly, his success is among the Gentiles.

Which is why at the very end of the book—if you go to Acts 28—you get a sense of Paul's deep frustration. He's finally made it to Rome to testify. It's been a long, arduous journey. And when he gets there, who does he look for in Rome? Jews. Jews, because this is who he loves.

In verse 17, look at this:

After three days, he called together the local leaders of the Jews. And when they had gathered, he said to them, "Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. When they examined me, they wished to set me at liberty because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. But because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, though they had no charge to bring against my nation. For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain." — Acts 28:17-20

The hope of Israel being the Messiah. The Jewish Messiah has finally come. And they're like, "Dude, we haven't heard anything about this." In verse 21:

"So they're a fresh blank slate. None of the brothers has reported anything. We want to hear where your views are. For with regard to this sect, that is Christianity, we know that it is spoken against everywhere." — Acts 28:21-22

In verse 23:

When they appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodgings in greater numbers, and from morning till evening he expounded to them. — Acts 28:23

Can you imagine? He's in Rome—the most important city in the world—and he's got the Jewish community gathered. They've heard rumors, but they're coming with an open mind. He has an all-day opportunity. You've got to think how much he is longing: maybe this is it. This is the moment. This is where finally the Jewish community in Rome will see that it's him and they'll believe, and now it's going to happen.

He spends all day long expounding, testifying to the Kingdom of God. In verse 24:

Some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement. — Acts 28:24-25

Listen to this:

"The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet, 'Go to this people and say, You will indeed hear, but never understand. You will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull and with their ears they can barely hear and their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them.'" — Acts 28:25-27

And this is the verdict. Acts 28:28:

"Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen." — Acts 28:28

And that is it, right there.

The Gentiles as Partakers of Israel's Promise

From this point on, that circle of true Israel has moved further and further and further, and grown greater and greater and greater among the Gentile community. We have been invited into Israel. We are partakers of the feast laid out for the children of Abraham. God has invited more and more unreasonably unqualified, unreasonably disinterested, unreasonably undeserving people to come partake of what promises he made to Israel. He has been grafting in foreigners that we might become citizens.

Paul watched it happen, and it tore him up. He's happy for us to come, but he wishes that his own people would also believe.

But then he turns to us, and he says, "Hang on, stop it." Because I know what you're like. There is a chance that you are going to get arrogant. That you will say, "Well yeah, dummies, could have been yours, but now it's mine. Could have been yours, but we have replaced you. You don't get it anymore, because now it's been given to us, suckers."

Paul says, "Don't do it. Do not grow arrogant, all you Gentiles. It is a mercy that you've been invited to the party, but it is still our root. Okay?"

So go to Romans, and this is a long argument here.

But let me just show you. We'll go to Romans 9:1. When I say this is the energy that drives the book of Romans, it is. I like to think of Romans as a very logical book, as a very didactic book, as a legal case, and it is that. But it is carried along by deep emotion.

Romans 9:1—

I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving, the law, the worship, the promise. To them belong the patriarchs. And from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all. Blessed forever. Amen. — Romans 9:4-5

Chapter 10 begins in the same way:

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved, for I can testify about them that they're zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge, since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own. They did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law, so there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. — Romans 10:1-4

Chapter 11 begins in the same way:

I ask then, did God reject his people? By no means. I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people whom he foreknew. — Romans 11:1-2

Don't you know what the scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel? "Lord, they've killed your prophets, torn down your altars, I'm the only one left." What was God's answer? "I've reserved myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal." — Romans 11:2-4

This is very important.

So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. — Romans 11:5

He's saying it looks like God has rejected them, but he has not. I am evidence. I am a faithful Messiah-believing Israelite, and I'm not the only one. Although I've got to be honest with this—sometimes it feels like it.

Now, having said that, he's taken us up to his present moment. But he continues to explain how the story is going to end. Truthfully for Paul, he wishes this would come sooner than it has come. But watch what he says. He's working this all through:

What do we make of this? What Israel sought earnestly to obtain, it didn't. But the elect did, and the others were hardened. — Romans 11:7

What he's saying is, within Israel, there was true Israel within national Israel. And all of true Israel believed. But some of them didn't. Some of their hearts are hard.

But he says, is this how it's going to end? Go down to verse 11:

Did Israel fall, did they stumble so far as to fall beyond recovery? — Romans 11:11

Meaning, is it over for the descendants of Abraham? Are we done with them? Is this thing just going to be a Gentile concern forever? And his answer is, no, it will not be.

Now listen to his reasoning here:

Not at all. Rather, because of their transgression, that is the Jews, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. — Romans 11:11

Okay. Remember Jesus tells a story that somebody throws a party, and nobody wants to come to the party, and so then you've got to go out and get all the cripples, and lame, and all the losers over here, and you bring them into the party. We're the losers, make no mistake. We are the losers. The party was not for us, but the people for whom the party was set didn't want to come. So it's like, just get all the riffraff and bring them in. Right? We are the riffraff, and the purpose of bringing in the riffraff is to make the people for whom the party was set jealous, that they will say, "Well, they're eating all our food. They're getting all the presents. They're eating all my cake." To which God would say, "Yeah, would you like some? Because this was for you."

Right? So here's how it goes:

If Jews' transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentile, how much greater riches will their fullness bring? I'm talking to you Gentiles. In as much as I am apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry to here. I'm going to convert as many Gentiles as I possibly can, but why? Watch why. So in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? — Romans 11:12-15

Now, hear this. What does he mean? What he's saying is, when the Jews rejected the gospel, it meant the door was wide open to all the Greeks. Right?

Then he says, what would it be if that's what happened, and it is—what will it mean when the Jews finally realize, when they look on him whom they have pierced and mourn as one grieves for an only child? When that finally happens, what will that portend? Do you know what Paul's answer to that is? What happens when the Jews finally believe? He'll come back. This is it. Catherine said he'll come back.

When Paul says, if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, the conversion of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? That is the final resurrection of all things. What he's saying is at the end of the game, before Jesus comes back, there will finally be an ingathering of blood descendants of Abraham who will recognize and believe in the Messiah.

Look at what he says here. This is really the language that DFP was using.

If some of the branches have been broken off, Jews that were cut off the tree, they were part of the tree, they're cut off by unbelief. Kind of like in John 15, right? They don't believe. They died in the wilderness. They are the faithless Jews who don't follow Yahweh, and so they're broken off. And then you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others, and now you share in the nourishing sap from the olive root.

This is exactly what has happened. You are drawing life from the Jewish Messiah, from the Jewish nation, from the Jewish laws. Every good thing in your life comes from Israel. And if that's the case, hey, hey, hey—not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: you don't support the root, but the root supports you.

You will then say, well the branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.

And Paul's like, yeah, granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. We are called—we who were not invited to the party initially have been invited to the party. And if you think that makes you better, then you have fallen into works righteousness, and you don't ever want to be there. We have a salvation that is by faith, from first to last. And faith leaves no room for arrogance, for cockiness, for condescension. Be humble. Everything is a gift. That's what he's saying.

And then, as he continues on, look at this:

If they do not persist in unbelief, that is the Jews, then they will be grafted back into their own tree, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

You see, Paul is anticipating the day is coming when all of the cut-off Jews—there will be a new revival among the Jewish people. This is why there are organizations like Jews for Jesus who feel like the best way we can usher in the return of Christ and bring the culmination of all things is to do evangelism among the Jews, that this might be brought to pass. Right?

Look at what he says:

I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited. Israel has experienced a hardening. But he says they've experienced a hardening in part—it's not complete, it's not forever. They've experienced their hardening in part, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

And when he's all done dealing with the outsiders, when we have brought all the unworthies into the party that we can possibly bring, then look at this:

All Israel will be saved. Then, heartening part, until the full number of Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion—that's Jesus, he's already come, but he will do something else. He will turn godlessness away from Jacob. This is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.

He is saying that God has made a promise not only to come from Israel, Abraham's Israel, but to come for Israel. And he is tolerant, and he is patient, and he is allowing rebellion for centuries. But he will not allow it forever. And someday, there will be a revival among the blood descendants of Abraham. Whether they live in that little strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River under a government, or if they're living in Russia, or Germany, or New York City, I don't think is particularly relevant here. But there will be descendants of Abraham that will come to know the Messiah.

And so Paul continues, and he says this in verse 28:

As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account.

Right? There's enormous opposition that the church has to deal with from unbelieving Jews. I mean, Paul knows this better than anybody, right?

They're the ones that are stoning him. But as far as election is concerned, they're loved on account of the patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God made a promise to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to save their kids, and he will. And he says:

For God's gift and his call are irrevocable.

The promise he made is a promise he will keep. Just as you, Gentiles, were at one time disobedient to God, and you receive mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient, in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. See, God is so merciful to you that eventually they're gonna get jealous. And once they're jealous enough, they're gonna be like, alright, alright, alright, alright, we will take them too. So it swings, and it's gonna swing back.

And then verse 32 is one of the most important things Paul says in his whole book:

For God has bound all men over to disobedience, Jews and Gentiles, so that he may have mercy on them all.

Paul, who has been in emotional turmoil over this, will respond with his doxology:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge 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 counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.

The Relationship Between the Church and Israel

This is the relationship between the church and Israel. We have joined them. There's one people. God is making one new man out of the two. We should not ever think ourselves superior to Israel. We have not replaced Israel, but nor are we parallel to it. There are not two people. There is one people of God, true Israel, comprised of both descendants of Abraham and Gentiles. Right now, there's way more Gentiles than there are Jews. But the day is coming when the full number of Gentiles are brought in, there will be a revival of the Jews. And when that happens, the end is near. That's the final stage of God's purposes, to spread his redemption across the earth.

I'm not all that concerned about what is happening in geopolitical Israel. I'm deeply interested in what's happening among the blood descendants of Abraham. I do think it makes sense for the United States to have a partner, a democratic partner in the Middle East. That makes sense. That's good politics to do that, especially among a group of people that desperately want to kill us. But I do think that God will be drawing out of that nation people who will walk with him. But it is not the case that there are two peoples. God loves the church, and God loves Israel. God loves true Israel, which is his church. He calls us the Israel of God. That is what you are, Gentile. And we should pray that God will continue his great work to draw from both Gentiles, but eventually from the Jews. People that will see him, worship him, walk with him, love him. And when that starts to happen in larger numbers, we are in the final minutes of the game.