Xchange - Discussion Notes

Romans Study 7
Who is Israel?

Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry in order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead! If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches are also holy.

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, and you – a wild olive shoot, were grafted into their place to share the rich root of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. You will say ‘branches were broken of so that I might be grafted in’. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you! note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness towards you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And even those of Israel, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.

How odd of God,
To choose the Jews.

But odder still, are those who choose
A Jewish God, but spurn the Jews

Jews had been expelled from Rome for several years, and had recently been allowed to return. On doing so, they would have found the church being run by Gentiles, with little grounding in the ‘Jewishness’ of God’s plan of salvation for the whole world. This had always be a plan to keep God’s promise to Abraham. Through the descendants of Abraham, the world would be saved.

Romans 9-11 is a reminder to Gentiles that salvation comes from the Jews, and to the Jews, that Gentiles are ‘grafted in’ to become descendants of Abraham – by virtue not of their bloodline but of their faith. Whilst in the modern world this is extremely controversial, it is important to remember that Paul is not writing a theological paper or a newspaper article. He is writing a letter to address the real issues faced by real people in a real church.

Throughout Christian history, anti-Semitism (persecution against a specific race) and anti-Judaism (against a specific religion), have often found their origins in interpreting this passage. If there is a temptation to pride (on the part of the Jews) there is the temptation to inverted pride, even more insidious, (on the part of the Gentiles). If the Gentiles regard Jewish people as being branches broken off, then Paul’s reminder is that – as newly grafted in branches – they too might equally find themselves broken off. So Paul reminds his readers that both groups have a part to play in the salvation of the world.

The metaphor he uses is of a branch being grafted onto a tree. The usual practice would not be to graft a wild olive branch to a cultivated tree, but vice versa. But Paul realises that what is happening in putting the world to rights, is hardly conventional anyway: The Gentiles are the wild olive branch, being rooted in the story of what God has always been doing with Israel, brought into the purposes of God for the whole creation.

So Paul invites the Roman Christians, Jews and Gentiles, to see their part in the story of what God is doing in the world, and to be a part of that story. Whether we are descendants of Abraham, or only of Adam, Christians are all called to live out the story of how God is bringing the entire created order to healing and wholeness. So Paul does not see two parallel tracks running through history – Jewish and Christian. Nor is a new purpose meant to replace the old. Rather, it is one story that is being told.

Discussion Questions:

1: In what ways might persecuted minorities today come to an inverted pride? What happens if, as in the history of Christianity, that persecuted group finds itself in power? Have you ever been part of a marginalised, unfavoured or persecuted group? How does it affect you, and what are your natural reactions to those responsible? What might Paul say to you?

2: ‘The Church is not the New Israel, it is the True Israel’. Do you agree?

3: What might Paul say about the founding of the Modern state of Israel?

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