Did God reject all of Israel?
“Whoever, then, acknowledges me before people, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before the people, I will deny him also before my Father in heaven.” Mathew 10: 32 – 33, NET. Therefore, the Jews who accept Jesus Christ and acknowledge him before the people are God’s children. Accordingly, God rejects only those who deny Jesus Christ, whether a Jew or a Gentile. God gave the Jews everything they needed to know about the Messiah. They did not lack anything. God told them that the Messiah would be the Savior of the world. God also told them that he would call other nations his people. “As he also says in Hosea: I will call those who were not my people, My people, and I will call her who was unloved, My beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. Romans 9:25 – 26, NET. The Jewish leaders knew this passage. However, they ignored it in their self-deceived pride.
Many Jews accepted Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah and joined the Way, the Christian Community. However, they had difficulty reconciling their faith in Jesus with the traditions associated with the Shadow, the Temple, and its priesthood. They had difficulty accepting that the Temple, with its law and priesthood, was no longer a guiding principle. The Jews could not accept unconditionally that the earthly Temple system, the shadow, was superseded by the universal principle of selfless love, as demonstrated by the Messiah, Jesus Christ. They insisted that the Temple, with its rituals, must be accepted by all Gentile believers. The Jews insisted that the Gentile believers conform to the law of Moses and the Temple to demonstrate their faith in Jesus Christ.
Accordingly, some Gentile believers promoted a theory that God had rejected the Jewish Nation. They based their claim on Jewish leaders’ rejection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Apostle Paul aimed to ensure that both the Jews and the Gentiles had a correct understanding concerning the ongoing debate. The rejection of Jesus Christ by the Jewish leaders does not imply that the whole of the Jewish Nation is without hope. Paul assures his Jewish brothers that God did not abandon his covenant with Abraham.
Continued in the next blog.
