Romans: Theology for Everybody (6-11)Намуна

In Romans 11, the picture of our faith is like that of a tree that was planted with God’s promise to Abraham, rooted in the patriarchs, grew forth as the nation of Israel, and brought us the Scriptures and Jesus Christ. The analogy is that non-Jewish Gentiles were grafted into this giant towering tree of Jewish faith, and that the Gentiles quickly became a giant and fruitful branch. 

In the early church, the majority of Christian believers were Jewish. By the end of the first century, things changed as the majority of Christian believers were Gentile. 

This explains why books of the New Testament were written as the Gentile Christians had a lot of questions about such things as sexual morality (1-2 Corinthians) and circumcision (Galatians) among other issues. These were settled issues among Jewish believers, but the new Gentiles brought a lot of new questions. 

What Paul wrote has only become more pronounced. Today, the total number of Jewish people living in the nation of Israel is somewhere around 7 million. In comparison, there are a few billion people alive on the earth who profess to be Christians. 

Curiously, today the nation of Israel has one of the highest percentages of atheists in the world. Despite the great history of faith that Gentiles around the world appreciate because of God’s work for, in, and through the Jewish people, the majority in Israel are atheists.

Gentile believers should be grateful to Jewish believers who carried forth faith in Jesus Christ through the Scriptures and not arrogantly believe that we are now privileged and beyond being a branch that is cut off. Historically, this arrogance and presumption is exactly what some Jewish people did and why they were branches cut off and tossed into the proverbial fire. 

Paul ends this section with a note of hope that although the Jews had largely stumbled over the gospel of Jesus, they have not fallen so as to be without hope. As they see the power and kindness of God demonstrated in believing Gentiles, Paul hopes that Israel will grow desirous to return to their Messiah and be a blessing to all the nations. Furthermore, Paul is Jewish and given the mission of being the apostle to the Gentiles and it is his heart’s desire that there will be a large-scale conversion of Jews to Jesus, and that the Gentile believers would even be a part of that evangelistic ministry. 

Reflection:

1. Jewish belief started with Abraham. Who do you look back to as the first link in the chain of faith in your family heritage? What can you be doing to encourage the next generation to love and serve Jesus? 

2. Paul was given a burden by God for Gentiles. Who has God given you a burden to minister to? 

3. Paul speaks of a group of people we should all be thankful for because of their contribution to our faith heritage. Who would fall into this category for you personally (e.g. godly grandparents or parents)?