Romans 11:15
"For if the casting away of them (the Hebrews, the Nation of Israel as branches striped from the tree) be the reconciling of the world, (the whole world) what shall the receiving of them (the Nation of Israel) be, but life from the dead?
" Of course we saw that in Ezekiel 37 and 38 how that the valley of
dry bones was shaking and finally came together, and finally the flesh
came on and the skin restored, and finally one day in the future the
nation is going to experience restored life, spiritual Life. Well what is it but divine Life from
the dead. Now we'd be remiss if we did not point out that this is also a
metaphor or has a double meaning because all who place their individual
trust in the working of God through Christ Jesus experience this divine
New Life from the dead, now. Now verse 16.
Romans 11:16-17
"For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. (but Israel didn't appreciate that position, so God broke them off in the next verse) 17. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them (the Gentiles), and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree (which was Abraham); " Now
what's the analogy? When Israel as a nation rejected everything, God
turned to the Gentiles through the Apostle Paul and began to call out
the Body of Christ what made it possible? He removed the nation of
Israel from feeding on the root and the fatness of their father Abraham,
who has He now put in their place? The Gentiles. So here we are, the
whole Gentile world now in this place of privilege, this place of
blessing that the Hebrews had enjoyed all through the Old Testament.
This one thing did they do Deuteronomy chapter 31 and the Lord is
talking to Moses here telling him what Israel will do and what He'll do
because of their action, beginning in verse 16:
Deuteronomy 31:16-18
"The LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers;
and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the
strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will
forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. 17 Then
my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake
them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and
many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in
that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among
us? 18 And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils
which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other
gods." Now we could do a word search for "forsook" and
find where Israel did just that many times through her history but we
believe that which we've shared above says enough as its in simple
language.
Now we've also got to be careful. Just
because the nation of Israel was resting on the root and fatness of
Abraham, the man of faith, did that automatically make every Hebrew a
believer? No way! Most of them weren't. It's the same way with the
Gentiles. Here we are as Gentiles and the nations of the world. Everyone
is in the place of privilege, and blessing and an opportunity to hear
the true Gospel of Grace and be saved. That doesn't mean that every
Gentile or Hebrew is going to be saved by no means. But what does it
mean? That every Gentile and Hebrew has an opportunity. Every Gentile
and Hebrew is going to be held responsible when they come to that Great
White Throne Judgment of the lost. For Christ said, “Let it be upon them according to their faith.” (Matthew 8:13, 9:22, 29)
They're
not going to be able to say, "Well I never had a chance." God's going
to say, "Oh yes you did. You rested on the root and fatness of Abraham.
You had just as much opportunity as the Covenant people Israel did of
the past, but you didn't take advantage of it, you refused it. Just as
they did." You know we've been stressing that when Christ died, how many
sins of the world did He take care of? All of them!
Every human being that has ever lived has already been declared
reconciled so far as God is concerned. They've been pardoned so far as
God is concerned, but until we appropriate it with the kind of faith
that Abraham had which was a relatively simple trusting faith, then it's
all for nothing. You know this is what we're always stressing. God
doesn't look for someone who knows the Bible from cover to cover before
he can be saved. God isn't looking for some primary example of Holy
living before he can save, but what did Romans 4 say?
Romans 4:5
"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him (Christ Jesus) that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness (the obedience of Abraham)." Now
that's where God works. Many people have the idea, "If I can just clean
up my act, I'll be saved." NO. The ungodly person has to stay right
where he's at because that's where God's going to reach him and save
him.
We were looking at the fact that
Abraham was justified by faith + nothing. We can't emphasize that
enough, although we should be known for that by now. Our salvation rests
on nothing that we can do in the flesh, it is all resting on the
finished work of the Cross through His death, burial, and resurrection,
and now we appropriate our being known by God as IN Him in His likeness
in that death by faith. Then after we have received salvation (the
second blessing), then yes we move into an area of service but NOT until
approved by God and what ever He puts on it. But not for salvation. Now in verse 7 Paul continues on with Abraham as his theme.
Galatians 3:7
"Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, (in other words those of us who have entered into a salvation experience through the veil of flesh and blood by faith only) the same are the children (or the true sons) of Abraham." Now
we've got to stop here for a while. How many people have come up to us
and said, "Well we've always been told that when we became a Christian
we became a Jew." Or "I've received salvation therefore all God's
promises of blessings are mine." We always tell them, we don't know who
told you that but they are way out in left field, because a Hebrew is a
Hebrew by virtue of, first and foremost, his birth rite, his genetics,
his blood line, and then the keeping of the Law. From which they've been
released by the cross and blood of Christ Jesus. But a Gentile is a
Gentile of the Gentiles, and if you've had salvation then you are simply
a New Creation IN Christ and NO longer a “sinner saved by Grace”, (for
to claim that after redemption is to say that your not redeemed) and not
a Hebrew. Then they point to this verse we have just read. "But the Bible says, we are children of Abraham."
Well we've got to realize what the Bible is saying, and not take it out
of context. What the Bible is really saying here in verse 7.
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