• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
 73
The Claim
:
“Dispensationalism teaches that God has
TWO separate people; Jews and Gentiles, but the Bible teaches that we are ALL one people, therefore Dispensationalism is WRONG
!” 
 
his false claim is probably one of the more interesting, and it isuncanny how often people misinterpret and therefore
misre- present 
the entire Olive Tree scenario, found in Romans 9
–
11.This is such an important concept that many books have been writtenon whether or not Israel has a future. In fact, since it would be verydifficult to deal with this subject fully here, we are writing a separatebook which will cover only Romans 9
–
11. This will provide us withmuch more space to properly deal with the logistics of this subject.For our purposes here though, we will do our best to present in just afew pages what we believe Paul is teaching concerning Israel.
T
 Ye Olde Olive Tree
Chapter 12
 
 74
By Faith Alone
 After spending the first part of Romans explaining the truth about faith and how only faith pleases God, he then moves on to a detaileddiscussion of why all people
–
both Jews and Gentiles
–
are equallycondemned because all are unrighteous. From here, Paul explains
that God’s wrath is coming upon the unrighteous in
the form of judg-ment, and why His judgment is just.Paul then goes into an explanation of faith; what it is, how it worksand why God is pleased by the exercise of it. He also makes it clearthat since salvation has nothing to do with works, but faith only (from
man’s position), there is absolutely no reason to boast about anything,
as if we somehow managed to make ourselves good enough for God toaccept. This is not the case at all, and Paul hammers this home to thechurch in Rome.To prove that faith is the operative mechanism that God approves(and not works), Paul starts with Abraham, who was found faithfuleven
before
he was circumcised. It was to Abraham that the originalcovenant promises were made regarding how God would not onlybless Abraham, but his direct descendents, as well as all the families of the earth.
Helplessly Dead
 When we arrive at chapter five, Paul discusses our helplessness andhow Jesus came to save us even when we could do nothing for our-selves. We were helpless because we were dead in our sins. The sinthat Adam committed created a tendency to rebel against God andcommit acts of lawlessness. This sin nature was passed down fromAdam to all people and God is righty justified by allowing this to occursince all have sinned in Adam. Since this places all humanity in theposition of being alive to sin and dead to God, it required Jesus to offerHimself as the perfect atonement in order that we might 
–
throughfaith in Him
–
die to our tendency to sin and become alive to God.
 
 75
It is because of this faith that God has granted us salvation that wasmade possible by
Christ’s work on Calvary’s cross
. In Him, we havebeen freed from the law that was incapable of saving anyone. The lawdid two things; 1) pointed out the sin, and 2) provided opportunity
to
sin. But in Christ, we do not have to follow the dictates of our sinfulna
ture, but can, by His strength, move away from sin by saying “no” to
temptation.
Romans 8: No Longer Condemned
 In Chapter eight, Paul continues with the this line of reasoning, show-ing convincingly that 
because
we are in Christ, we are no longer con-
demned at all. Christ’s righteousness has been given to us throughfaith. God, in seeing us, sees God the Son’s righteousness. As we move
through the chapter, we learn from Paul that there is nothing in thislife that has the ability to separate us from the love of Christ. We, asHis children, are blessed beyond measure in Jesus Christ, our Lord.It is almost as though the first eight chapters build up this tremendouscrescendo, climaxing in chapter nine. It is her
e that Paul’s anguish is
seen in the fact that while his love for his own Jewish people goesdeep, he realizes that most will not receive what God freely offers.This brings his heart to the breaking point and he himself wishes, if it were possible (but it is not), that he could be accursed if that meant salvation for his brethren.
Romans 9: Reasons for Israel
’
s Rejection
 
So in chapter nine, Paul’s thoughts
turn to Israel. He understands that they, as a nation, have rejected Christ. He understands that 
because
of that, judgment will come (which occurred in A.D. 70 through the Ro-man armies which destroyed Jerusalem and the Sanctuary).
But Paul begins to explain God’s purposes in Israel’s rejection. He iscareful to state clearly that God’s Word has
not 
failed (cf. 9:6). Thiscould never happen. It is
unthinkable
to Paul. He then reiterates theAbrahamic Covenant by first noting that even though the nation of 
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...