“Note then the kindness and the severity of God.” (Romans 11:22, ESV)

Not long ago, my friend Matt and I were on Oregon State’s campus talking to people about Jesus. A Jewish rabbi approached us and asked, “Are you Jewish?” When we said we were not, he explained he was passing out materials for celebrating Passover and then started to move on.

When Matt asked what he thought of Jesus, he quickly declined to answer. I couldn’t help thinking, But Jesus is the One Passover is ultimately about.

“For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians 5:7, ESV)

Sadly, throughout the years of engaging with Jewish people, whom I love with the love of Jesus the Messiah, I have had very little fruit in even discussing Jesus. His very Name seems to be a conversation killer.

“To the Jew First”

Nevertheless, I remain convinced that I must tell Jewish people about Jesus. I’m not going to accept our culture’s “everyone gets to choose their own brand of spirituality” mantra. For many people, choosing your spirituality is like choosing your own flavor of ice cream. Just go with whatever floats your boat. But spiritual truth is like gravity; you can deny it has any bearing on you, but you do so at your own peril. We don’t get to decide what God is like; rather, we discover what God is like.

Our culture may say I’m being disrespectful and intolerant of my Jewish neighbor by telling him about Jesus. But, at the core of my being, I believe that every person on the planet, irrespective of their ethnic and religious background, needs to hear the gospel.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16, ESV)

Americans love to say things like, “My God would never send anyone to hell.” Or even, “My God is tolerant of all faiths and lifestyles.” They have a lot to say about their God. But that’s the problem. Such people have violated the first three commandments and set up a false version of God in place of the real God.

Instead, people need to hear what the true and living God of the Bible has to say about this:

“It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27, ESV)

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36, ESV)

The truly loving thing is to tell my Jewish neighbor that Jesus fulfilled the Hebrew Scripture that spoke of a Messiah (Psalm 22; Isaiah 53; Zechariah 9:9; 12:10), He fulfilled the Temple sacrifices of the Torah, and He is going to return one day soon to judge and to save.

God’s Plan for Israel in Romans 11

I’m also motivated by passages like Romans 11 to keep sharing the good news of the Messiah. Now, fair warning. Romans 11 is a bit dense for those who are new to the Bible. And even learned scholars continue to wrestle through all its implications. Nevertheless, I think it’s a passage worth a careful reading as we think about God’s plan for Jewish people as a whole.

In the eleventh chapter of Romans, the Apostle Paul is warning Gentile believers to not presume on God’s gracious character. Throughout this monumental letter, Paul has been carefully explaining the gospel of God’s grace—telling sinners how they can be reconciled to a holy God. He has emphasized both God’s righteous character and His extraordinary mercy. But in Romans 11, he discusses the problem of Jewish people rejecting Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. In other words, if Jesus is the Heaven-sent Jewish Messiah, why do so many Jews reject Him? He asks the rhetorical question: “Has God rejected his people? By no means!” (Romans 11:1).

Paul uses the illustration of an olive tree to say that the Jewish people who rejected Jesus’ right to rule over them are like the “natural branches” that were “broken off because of their unbelief” (Romans 11:20). Gentile believers were like wild olive shoots that were grafted in to the tree in place of the branches that were removed.

“But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.” (Romans 11:17-18, ESV)

So, Israel’s rejection of her Messiah is what led to the gospel going out to the nations? In God’s providence, yes, that’s what happened (see Romans 11:19-20). However, Gentile believers must not grow complacent and presume on God’s grace, thinking they now have the right to the root (Jesus) and Jewish people do not.

“But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.” (Romans 11:20-21, NIV)

Natural Branches and Wild Branches

Here’s the point. Many Jewish people rejected Jesus and had confidence in their Jewishness that God would spare them from judgment. John the Baptist directly confronted this mindset (Matthew 3:9-10). However, in the same way, God now gives Gentiles a severe warning. We ought not to presume that because we grew up in church, got baptized, and listened to Audio Adrenaline growing up that we too will be spared from judgment.

Why? Because it is only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, His substitutionary death for our sins and resurrection from the grave, that we are saved. If we have not surrendered our lives to Jesus, it doesn’t matter what our “Christian” background is—we “too will be cut off” (Romans 11:22).

“Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.” (Romans 11:22, ESV)

John Stott writes, “Not that those who truly belong to Him will ever be rejected, but that continuance or perseverance is the hallmark of God’s authentic children.”

Faith in Jesus makes all the difference, because that is how we are united to Christ and get to wear His righteousness before a holy God on the Day of Judgment. To “continue in his kindness” is to demonstrate that our faith is genuinely in Jesus, because genuine faith continues to the end.

“For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” (Hebrews 3:14, ESV)

Thus, we should have a holy fear of the Lord and be staggered by the sheer grace of God to save us by hanging Jesus on the cross we deserved.

See, without this warning, we’d miss out on an important aspect of God’s character, that He is holy, just, and righteous. We should revere Him and have an awe for who He is. The warnings in Scripture help us to not lose sight of this.

Warnings are given by God to shake us out of our spiritual slumber that proudly thinks we are better off than others because we were raised in the “right” church or family. Warnings like this also remind us what is at stake for everyone who dies apart from Jesus.

We Gentiles are the wild branches. We aren’t the natural heirs of the promise, but we’ve been adopted into God’s family through faith in Jesus. I don’t believe that the church has replaced Israel in God’s plan, but that we have been grafted into the root of Israel. No promise of God has been abrogated; instead, our understanding of the original promise to Abraham and his offspring has been expanded (Genesis 12:1-3; Romans 4:13-18). But Paul warns us Gentiles not to be arrogant, because we are nourished by the Jewish root (Jesus).

“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved.” (Romans 11:25-26, ESV)

This gives me great hope! Even though it looks today like Israel will go on rejecting her Messiah, God says that this is only a temporary situation. The hardening is “partial” not total, and it will only be “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” In other words, as more and more Gentiles turn to the Jewish Messiah, eventually it will reach a tipping point. At that providential moment in history, there will be a sudden and powerful inflowing of Jews into the kingdom of God.

“All Israel Will Be Saved”

Paul says, “All Israel will be saved.” This cannot mean all of “spiritual Israel” or the elect remnant of Israel will be saved; otherwise, the statement would be redundant. Paul has to be speaking of ethnic Jewish people, and his statement probably carries even more force in light of the fact that Israel has been a sovereign nation since May 14, 1948. In other words, God is not done with Jewish people. In His sovereign plan, Israel—as a nation—will one day repent and trust in Jesus as their Messiah and God.

Does this mean that every Jewish person alive at that point will be saved? F. F. Bruce explains: “’All Israel’ is a recurring expression in Jewish literature, where it need not mean ‘every Jew without a single exception’ but ‘Israel as a whole.’”[1]

That makes good sense, because even today while there is a “partial hardening” on the Jewish people, there are still a great many Jews who love and worship Jesus.

Okay, so what’s the big takeaway from all this? Be not discouraged as you encounter Jews who reject the gospel today. Yes, it is sad when any person (Jew or Gentile) rejects the offer of eternal life. Paul said he was willing to go to hell for the sake of his fellow Jews (Romans 9:3)! His heart’s desire and prayer was that his countrymen would see their need for the righteousness of Jesus (Romans 10:1-4).

But God has a purpose and a plan, and we can always trust what God is doing in the world today; He told us it would happen this way. For myself, I’m committed to continually honoring Jewish people as those whom God has used mightily throughout history. We must roundly condemn all forms of anti-Semitism, including weaponizing the Bible as a tool of denigration. We must thank God for how He has blessed Abraham’s descendants and, in turn, allowed us who love and follow Jesus to be grafted on to the Abrahamic olive tree. The Bible I read every day is very Jewish!

And I’m also committed to sharing the good news of Jesus the Messiah with every Jewish person I meet.

“But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5, ESV)

I pray this encourages you to be bold in the gospel. If you have any thoughts or questions about this, I would love to hear from you!

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[1] Romans, 209.