How Should Gentile Christians Respond to Unbelieving Jews?

Antisemitism is on the rise across the world, including in America. The trends are truly startling. Recent prominent news stories reflect a much more pervasive problem: individual incidents of antisemitism are way up. An issue that historically was relegated to the fringes of one side of the political aisle is increasingly jumping over to extreme versions of the other. Radical leftists and the alt-right are both falling into old racial stereotypes and conspiracies that lead to hate and violence against Jewish people.

Much of this is being driven by theology. Whatever else you might say about it, dispensationalism is a very pro-Jewish theology. As dispensationalism has fallen out in the seminaries, it has increasingly fallen out among people in the pew. This doesn’t mean that if someone stops being dispensationalist, they will definitely become antisemitic. Nor is it to say that someone who holds to dispensational theology could never be antisemitic. But generally speaking dispensationalism and antisemitism are like oil and water—you can try to mix them but it doesn’t really stick. If people move away from dispensationalism en masse, the result will be openings for some really ugly ideas and some really ugly behavior. This alone isn’t a reason to embrace dispensationalism, but the reality is that people are moving away from a system that insulates against antisemitism.

All of this is to say that culturally and theologically a lot is shifting right now, and sadly the Jewish people are taking the brunt of it. Which raises the question, “How should Gentile Christians respond to unbelieving Jews?” Indeed, how should those who have accepted the Jewish Messiah interact with Jewish people who continue to reject Him? If only the Bible gave us this answer…

Fortunately, the Bible does. There are three clear truths from Romans 11 that, taken together, show us how we as Gentile Christians should treat Jewish people today, especially those who don’t know Christ. Looking at these three truths, it’s important to keep in mind that this chapter contains both a warning and a mission for Gentile Christians. The mission is to make Israel jealous through the relationship with God we now enjoy in Jesus. The warning is that Gentile Christians should not become arrogant and think themselves superior to or better than the Jewish people who have yet to accept Christ. I’m not sure the church is doing amazingly well on either of these points right now, which means we should probably drill down on what God is saying in this passage.

 

Truth #1: God Is Not Done with Israel

First, God makes it very clear in Romans 11 that God is not done with Israel. Obviously, this is troubling for certain theological systems. Some of them ask you to trust them and not your own eyes. They claim that passages which clearly appear to be saying one thing are actually saying something very different. They claim that the NT sees God as done with Israel and the church as the new Israel, so that when the Bible says things like “All Israel will be saved,” He really means “all the church will be saved.”

How clear is Romans 11 that God is not done with Israel? Well, the first verse reads “I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Absolutely not!” That would seem to say “no.” Now, someone might argue that Paul goes on to argue that what he means by this is that there is a remnant of Jews who have accepted Christ. This is, in fact, a part of his argument. In fact, he holds himself as an example of God’s faithful remnant. As Paul points out, this is how God often works, and he gives the example of Elijah and the faithful remnant to make his point.

But that’s not all. The discussion of the remnant ends at verse 9 and then in Romans 11:11 Paul essentially asks his opening question again, but this time he answers with a different focus: “I ask, then, have they stumbled so as to fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.” In other words, this is part of a plan that God has that will end with the full acceptance of Israel. Again, verse 26 says that the result of this plan is that “All Israel will be saved.” Now, I’ve seen people try to argue their way out of this very obvious simple phrase. They try to make the word “Israel” here, which has meant Israel all throughout Romans 9-11 and has been the main focus of Paul, to suddenly mean something other than Israel. In fairness, some people whose system is complicated by a future for ethnic Israel will cave under the exegetical pressure and admit that yes, there is some kind of a future for ethnic Israel.

I think the (uninspired) headings in the CSB translation really sum up the logic of this chapter well: Israel’s rejection not total (11:1-10) and Israel’s rejection not final (11:11-32). God has some Jewish people who follow Him today, and God has a plan for the Jewish nation as a whole. So in all the confusing dialogue in the culture about Israel and secular democracies and atheism, remember that God is not done with this people group yet. He still has a plan. And that plan is good news for you…

 

Truth #2: When Israel Accepts the Messiah, They Will Usher in the Kingdom

There are a few verses in Romans 11 that are challenging on a quick reading. I’m thinking specifically of verses 12 and 15:

“Now if their transgression brings riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness bring!” (v 12)

“For if their rejection brings reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” (v 15)

What is going on here? Well, Paul has already taught that through Israel’s rejection, the gospel has gone out to the Gentiles, the nations. That’s me, and that is also probably most of the people reading this (although hopefully not all!). Now, one might think that it was fortunate for us that Israel rejected the gospel. We might also think that it is to our advantage that they keep rejecting the gospel. After all, what would become of us if Israel decided they would accept their Messiah?

Paul answers that question for us. When Israel accepts God’s blessing, that will be the key that unlocks the floodgates of God’s blessing. It will usher in heaven on earth, literally. The logic goes something like this: if something bad led to something good, how much more will something good lead to something even better? Their rejection of Christ led to the world being reconciled to God. Their acceptance of Him will lead to a resurrection and a kingdom.

God’s plan for humanity was always to send His blessing through Israel. It’s as if Israel’s rejection plugged up the channel, so the blessing poured out and spilled out to the nations. But if Israel accepts, it doesn’t remove the blessing but rather opens the floodgates so it can flow freely to the world.

 

Truth #3: God Intends to Bring the Jewish People through the Gentiles

How does God intend to break through to His people, then? Through the Gentiles. By working through the Gentiles and showing His mercy to the Gentiles, God was seeking to make Israel jealous. God wants to use the nations to show Israel what they are missing, so that they realize that Jesus is who He says He is and they embrace Him as Messiah.

This is why Paul could have a passionate love for his people and also be the apostle to the Gentiles. That might sound like a conflict of interest of sorts, but it wasn’t. Paul wanted to see his people, his nation come to faith in Christ. If that happened, it would be blessings for the nations that he worked with. But his work with the Gentiles didn’t prevent him from helping his fellow countrymen. On the contrary, as he worked with the Gentiles, Paul knew Gentile acceptance of Christ would be used by God to provoke hardened Israel to jealousy and bring them to saving faith.

There’s a beautiful symmetry Paul observes at the end of this passage. At the end of time Jews and Gentiles from all across the world will stand together in the kingdom of God. The Gentiles will be there because of the Jews, for the Messiah came through the Jews and for the Jews. The Jews will stand there because they were provoked to jealousy through the Gentiles’ faith in their Messiah. All will have rebelled against God, and all will be shown mercy (11:32). And then Jew and Gentile will praise God together. I love the way Zechariah 14:9 describes this: “And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.” The mighty declaration that God is one will be recited by Jew and Gentile together, and God will be the King of the earth.

 

So what does that mean for a nation tipping towards more and more antisemitism? It means Christians need to know Romans 11 a lot better. It means that when we pass someone on the street with a yarmulke on or who eats Kosher, we shouldn’t look down in arrogant pride. We shouldn’t think ourselves better, because that person represents God’s channel of blessing to the world. We have a mission, to bring as many Jewish people to faith in Christ by showing the wonders of salvation. You can’t really do that if you burn down synagogues or promote unfounded conspiracy theories. So how should Christian Gentiles respond to unbelieving Jews? With humility, realizing that we aren’t any better. With hope, because one day they will return to Christ. And with love, because God still loves Israel, and we should, too.

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Ben Hicks is the Associate Pastor at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis. This article originally appeared on his Substack.

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Photo by Daniel Balaure on Unsplash