At times attempts to describe a certain
kind of beauty are irreverent, so desperately missing the mark. Whether it be a scene from nature, the
heavens, the interaction of human beings, there are times when words absolutely
fail. Such is the case of the agony of
the Apostle Paul in company with Barnabas, when he said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you (the
Jews) first; but since you reject it, and
judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set
you to be a light to the Gentiles. That
you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth’” (Acts 13:46 &
47). How painful, how absolutely and
utterly painful this must have been for Paul.
What brought Paul and Barnabas to this position? Here’s Paul’s explanation, “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 that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Romans
10:3, 4).
Yes, the Jews have failed, but not ultimately so. Paul puts it this 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” (Romans
11:1). Paul, in effect is saying,
“Because some of we Jews have believed on Jesus as the Messiah, proves that
many more can be and will.” This same
principle can be applied to the Church with all its problems; many regard Jesus
as Savior and Lord and walk in obedience to His Word, thus giving a certain
sense of legitimacy to the whole of the Church.
God did not arbitrarily turn away from the Jews, He turned
in response to their hardness of heart.
They rejected their Messiah. What
more could the Father do? He will do
more, much more to draw them to Himself again.
A significant part of this is for the Church to rise up and become a
glorious Church—provoking the Jews to jealousy.
That is, by seeing the glory of God upon the Church (demonstrating the
power of God) and realizing historically that glory should be theirs, their
leadership at a point yet future will say, “Blessed
is He who comes in the name of the Lord”.
Resurrection power will begin to flow. Many Jews will be saved, getting the whole
package, meaning the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and come into unity with
believers in the Church, paving the way for some mighty powerful things to
happen.
Presently the Church needs to magnify its Kingdom of God
ministry in the same way Paul did, “I
magnify my ministry (publish it abroad by every means possible) in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own
people to envy and save some of them” (Romans 11:4).
Ultimately Israel will be saved, but you might be surprised
to realize the part God is giving you to play in this whole process.
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