What is the Clearest Gospel of All? Romans 11

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Chapter 11
A Faithful Minority of the Jews Saved
1 Does this mean that God has disowned all Jews? Of course not! Take me for example — am I not a Jew, a literal descendant of Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin? 2 No, God has not by any means disowned all Jews. Certainly not those whom He knew beforehand would accept Christ. Do you remember how Elijah complained to God? 3 “Lord, the whole Jewish nation has forsaken You, killed Your prophets, destroyed Your altars and only I am left faithful to You; and now they are trying to kill me, too.” 4 How did God reply? “No, Elijah, therc are some seven thousand men with their families of whom you are unaware, who have not yielded to pagan Baal worship.”

5 Likewise, at the present time, there are honest-in-heart Jews who have remained faithful to the truth and have accepted Christ as their personal Saviour. 6 These faithful ones [meaning, a remnant] realize their salvation is not the result of their own good deeds or obedicnce to law but God’s unmerited favor bestowed on all mankind in Christ. For if we are saved by our own works it can no longer be salvation by grace.

7 What are we to conclude then, that the majority of the Jews have failed to recognize that God’s promise of salvation has already been fulfilled in Christ’s holy history and only a minority have realized this? This unfortunately is the truth. 8 Just as the Old Testament said about the ancient Jews: “God has allowed them to go their own way so that they are totally insensible to His ways” [Isaiah 29.10; Deuteronomy 29:4]. So likewise, this is exactly how it is with the present Jews. 9 This is how David put it in his Psalm: “Their many material blessings have caused their own spiritual downfall and ruin. 10 They have allowed falsehood to blind them from seeing the truth and now they have become a guilt-ridden people” [Psalm 69.22-23].

Unbelief of Jews Brought Salvation to Gentiles
11 The big question then, is: Does the failure of the Jews mean an utter disaster for God’s plan of redemption? Of course not! On the contrary, God has turned it into a blessing for the Gentiles. Due to the fact that the Jews refuse to acknowledge that God’s plan of salvation includes the Gentile world, their rejection of Christ has made it possible for the gospel to be taken to the rest of humanity. This, in turn, has made the Jews realize what they have missed. 12 And if their failure has resulted in such a tremendous blessing to you Gentiles, can you imagine how much greater and more wonderful it will be if this, in turn, would cause the Jews to turn back to God in repentance and accept His supreme gift, Jesus Christ?

13 While it is true that God has appointed me to be a missionary to the Gentile world, at the same time I want to make the most of my ministry and try and win back to God my fellow Jews, 14 hoping through jealousy, to cause some of the Jews, at least, to return back to God and be saved. 15 For if the rejection of the Jews has resulted in the salvation of the rest of mankind, what a glorious thing it would be if the same blessing was experienced by the Jewish people too. Would it not be like they were brought to life from the dead? 16 After all, if the true Israel that God established through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is still holy, surely the natural Jews who repent through faith in Christ will also be made holy, just as the good roots of a tree share their goodness to the branches.

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