Israel's Rejection Not Final

Concerning the gospel they [the Jews] are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! (Romans 11:28-33).

Read Romans 11:1-33 here.

No one was ever saved by virtue of their physical, genetic connection to Abraham. God has always considered those to be children of Abraham – Israel, God’s chosen people – who were Abraham’s children by faith. Jesus makes this case to the Pharisees in chapter eight of St. John’s Gospel.[1] Jesus says that the Pharisees, because of their unbelief, are not children of Abraham, but of the devil, because Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.[2] God cultivated the nation of Israel to bring forth Jesus, the Seed. He is truly Abraham’s offspring, the promised Seed, true Israel.[3] And we know that Scripture has confined all, Jew and Gentile, under sin, that the promise of redemption might be given to all who believe.[4] It is therefore also accurate to say, as St. Paul does, that God has committed them all (the Jews) to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.[5] This does not guarantee that all Jews, because they are Jewish, will either come to faith in Christ, or be saved according to some other plan apart from Christ. As St. Paul says elsewhere, the veil of Moses remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament among the Jews, because the veil is taken away in Christ.[6]

St. Paul quotes the prophet Jeremiah prophesying about the nation of Israel and their spiritual adultery, to show that not all of Israel according to the flesh (indeed, rather only a small portion of it) would come to faith in Christ and be saved. St. Paul compares the situation to that of Elijah hiding in the cave afraid for his life. Elijah laments to God that the whole of Israel has turned against God and was seeking to kill him. But God tells Elijah that God had reserved to Himself a remnant, 7,000 men who had not bowed the knee to Baal.[7] God will save the Jews, as He saved St. Paul, as He saved all of faithful Israel, as he saves Jew and Gentile today – through faith in the promised Seed, Christ.

St. Paul likens the falling away of his fellow Israelites in the flesh to branches being broken off an olive tree. Dead branches were broken off, and wild olive branches were grafted in. It is no accident that St. Paul writes this way. God called Israel, “Green Olive Tree, Lovely and of Good Fruit”.[8] But, because they broke the covenant by worshipping false gods, God, through the prophet Jeremiah, proclaimed the following: With the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire on it, And its branches are broken.[9] But Jesus, the Seed of Abraham, the Righteous Branch, is Israel reduced to one. He did all the things Israel could not do. He kept the Law perfectly. He died as the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world.[10] He rose from the dead. Christ conquered sin, death, and the devil; He gives us the gifts of forgiveness and eternal life that He won for us, by His grace, through faith in Him.

Jesus describes Himself as the True Vine, and He calls those who believe in Him branches: I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.[11] We are connected to Christ, the True Vine, to His death and resurrection, through baptism.[12] We are nourished through the life-giving sap of Word and Sacrament. We are fed by Christ’s true body and blood given us to eat and to drink in the Sacrament of the Altar, the Lord’s Supper. We are fed when we do not despise preaching and God’s Word, but rather hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it. And, as we are nourished by the True Vine, we branches bear much fruit. Cutting ourselves off from these things is to cut one’s self off from the True Vine. A severed branch remains green and supple for a short time after it is cut, but is soon dry and dead. Such is the risk we run when we neglect the assembling of ourselves together.[13]

All Israel will indeed be saved. True Israel, those connected to the True Vine, do not reject the call of repentance, and the gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life which God gives us in Christ, through faith in Him. They, who sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake to everlasting life on the Last Day.[14] This is the will of the Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and be raised up at the last day.[15]

---

[1] John 8:37-40

[2] Galatians 3:6

[3] Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:16

[4] Galatians 3:22

[5] Romans 11:32

[6] 2 Corinthinas 3:16

[7] 1 Kings 19:18; Romans 11:4

[8] Jeremiah 11:16

[9] Ibid.

[10] 1 John 4:10

[11] John 15:5-6

[12] Romans 6:3-5

[13] Hebrews 10:25

[14] Daniel 12:1-3;

[15] John 6:39-40

Life and Judgment Are Through the Son

Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me (John 5:25-30).

When Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, the Jewish leaders were provoked to commit murder when Jesus defended His Sabbath-day healings by invoking God the Father: My Father has been working until now, and I have been working. This only made them angrier at Jesus than they had already been because of His alleged Sabbath-breaking. Jesus called YAHWEH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, His Father. Jesus was claiming to be God, just like YAHWEH. The Jews understood what Jesus was saying here, even if we don’t. That’s why they sought all the more to kill Him. Sometimes liberal theologians, who do not respect the authority of Scripture, teach that Jesus never claimed to be God. A common argument is that the concept of Jesus’ divinity developed over time; the Gospels were written many, many years after Jesus’ death, so there was plenty of time for a god-myth to develop around Jesus. Christendom understands the truth. The Gospels were written early; there are many logical and rational reasons to accept them as authentic and trustworthy. Much ink has been spilled to demonstrate this point. We don’t believe the things contained in Holy Scripture, however, because of good scholarship about it’s origins. We believe Holy Scripture because it is God’s Word, and the Holy Spirit has granted us repentance and faith, working through it.[1]

Evidence for the reliability of Scripture is good to know and present. We Christians are called to give a reason for our hope, with meekness and fear.[2] We must remember, however, that no one can be reasoned into the faith by an apologetic argument. Faith is a gift of God. And, while we give our reasons with meekness and fear, we are to confidently proclaim the Gospel: that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.[3] The Gospel is less a persuasive speech to be logically presented than it is a royal proclamation to be boldly declared. The Jews saw Jesus’ miracles. They heard His word. They rejected Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.[4] Just as everlasting life is God’s gift to those who hear Jesus’ word, and believe in Him who sent Jesus, those who reject Him will receive judgment and condemnation. The spiritually dead hear the voice of Jesus through water and the word and are made spiritually alive.[5] Their sins are washed away, and they are buried with Christ by baptism into His death; they will also participate in His resurrection, and be raised to eternal life, physically.[6] Those who reject Christ are already spiritually dead. They will be raised to everlasting death and condemnation.

I cannot, by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. The Holy Spirit must call me by the Gospel. The Holy Spirit must, through the means of the Gospel, God’s Word, gather, enlighten, and sanctify. The Holy Spirit, by the proclamation of the Gospel, builds the Christian Church as He sees fit. It is the Holy Spirit who, by His working through Water and Word, causes us to confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.[7]

---

[1] Romans 10:17; Ephesians 2:8; 2 Timothy 2:25

[2] 1 Peter 3:15

[3] 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

[4] John 1:11

[5] Ephesians 5:25-28

[6] Acts 22:16; Romans 6:3-5; 1 Corinthians 15:35-54

[7] 1 Corinthians 12:3; Philippians 2:11

Losing Faith and Falling Away

This is kind of an addendum to “Three Examples of How Lutherans Deny Justification by Faith Alone: A Response, Part Two of Two.” Here are a couple other verses I thought were good examples of how 1) conversion is entirely God’s work, 2) faith comes to us a gift from God through the Word, and 3) that faith can be lost by a person’s rejection. - THL

The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter [whether it was necessary for Gentile believers to keep the Law of Moses]. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will” (Acts 15:6-11).

What do we learn from Peter’s address to the council? First, faith is created by means of the Gospel (v. 7). Second, the Holy Spirit is, “given by God,” working when and where He will, not according to the will of man (v. 8). Third, Peter says that God cleansed the hearts of the Gentile believers by faith, showing that faith is a gift from God (v. 9), rather than through works of the law (or by any other work, including “deciding” to believe by reason), which is impossible to achieve (v. 10). Fourth, this faith is given out of his unmerited good disposition toward those on whom he bestows this gift – i.e. out of his grace – and everyone who is saved, is being saved this way (v. 11). Whew!

And you [the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae], who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister (Colossians 1:21-23).

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Paul is writing to believers at Colossae. He tells these people, whom he counts as believers, that they have been reconciled in Christ’s body of flesh by his death, “…if indeed [they] continue in the faith…” He continues on, warning them not to shift from the hope of the gospel of which he was a minister, because if they shift from that hope, if they do not remain stable and steadfast in that hope, they will no longer be reconciled. They will go back to being alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. They will no longer be able to be presented as holy and blameless and above reproach before Christ because they will have no faith. They will have fallen away. Faith in Christ must continue, just as it began – by hearing the Gospel[1].

[1] Engelbrecht, Rev. Edward A., ed. The Lutheran Study Bible. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009.