What Advantage Then Hath the Jew? Part 2

G. Paul had a great desire for the salvation of Israel. ROM 10:1. 1. He knew he couldn’t alter the elective purpose of God to only deem the children of the promise as the seed of Abraham. ROM 9:1-29 c/w JUDE 1:7. 2. He rather earnestly desired the conversion of the elect among Israel to the knowledge of salvation through the righteousness of One: Jesus Christ. ROM 10:2-4; 5:17-19. 3. There remained an elect remnant “Israel of God” (GAL 6:16) that needed that salvation of knowledge and faith as much as any elect among the Gentiles. 2TI 2:10. 4. Paul emphasized that God had not cast away His foreknown in Israel. ROM 11:1-5. 5. Paul and other apostles spent considerable energy to encourage believing Jews that God had not dismissed the Jew outrightly. ROM 11:23-29; 2PE 3:9. 6. But there was a “sea change” in the divine program that the elect Jew could see happening before his eyes: what about all those years of devotion to Moses, the Law and circumcision? Where was the favor of God towards Israel in the midst of all this?

H. Jesus Christ addressed the Jews about concerns of profit and advantage. 1. The parable of the vineyard laborers taught against griping to God about a seeming lack of equity in view of equal reward despite longer labors. MAT 20:1-16. 2. He taught them to think of themselves as unworthy and unprofitable servants for doing what God expected of them. LUK 17:7-10. 3. He taught His disciple against jockeying for position in His kingdom. LUK 22:24-27. 4. He reproved Peter for concerns about equity in labors. JOH 21:20-22.

I. James exhorted Jewish saints to remember Job who, in frustration, griped about there being no profit in obeying God. JAM 5:11 c/w JOB 34:7-9; 35:2-3.

J. Paul warned Hebrew Christians against the quitter, Esau. HEB 12:15-16 c/w GEN 25:32.

K. There was/is great profit and advantage to the Jewish believer. 1. It was Jewish disciples who first saw the promises’ fruition. MAT 13:16-17. 2. Messiah was a Davidic Jew sent to the circumcision. ROM 15:8. 3. Salvation is of the Jews. JOH 4:22. 4. Jewish saints were the first to experience resurrection from the grave, the hope of Israel. MAT 27:52-53 c/w ACT 24:14-15. 5. The resurrected Jesus appeared unto Jews who interacted with Him. 1CO 15:5-8; LUK 24:39 c/w 1JO 1:1. 6. The new order of the kingdom (gospel church) was built upon Jews. EPH 2:20. 7. The gospel was first to the Jew. LUK 24:47; ACT 3:25-26; ROM 1:16. 8. They were the first to receive the Spirit. ACT 2:1-5. 9. They had 2000 years of history and prophecy to boost them into Christ. If anyone should have been able to tie the pieces together, it was them. 10. They were the natural olive tree into which Gentile believers were grafted. ROM 11:16-17 c/w EPH 2:12. a. God is able to graft them back into their own tree again if they believe. ROM 11:21-24. b. This was not said of the Gentile church. The loss of kingdom identity should not be sneezed at. 11. Israel and even the world is ruled by Jews who declared Christ. MAT 19:28. a. The apostles’ testimony is the standard of truth. 1JO 4:6. b. The apostles’ testimony turned the world upside down and cannot be eradicated. ACT 17:6; MAT 24:35. c. A Jewish apostle’s gospel will judge the secrets of men. ROM 2:16. d. The Gentiles are actually under Jewish rule! e. Satan’s power is overcome by a Jewish king and Jewish instruction! f. This is a pretty big award to a nation that made much of world dominion. 12. There was/is great profit and advantage to the Jew, to the circumcision, through Jesus Christ. a. The key is looking for the right kind of profit or advantage. b. It is the honour that comes from God that matters. JOH 5:44.

L. There is an analogy fitting to the Christian who has been made a priest to God through Christ. 1PE 2:5. 1. God forbid that a believer with a lively hope of resurrection unto eternal life (and the gospel which proclaims the same) should adopt the attitude of the priests in MAL 3:14. 2. God forbid that we should think our spiritual inheritance to be guaranteed in spite of unbelief and sin. EPH 5:1-5. 3. God forbid that we should conclude God is not dealing fairly or squarely with us if He doesn’t give us what we want when we want it and on our terms when we ought to be thankful that it is as well with us as it is: we aren’t appointed to eternal wrath. 1TH 1:10. 4. God forbid that we should trivialize the fact that virtue is its own reward since doing what is right pleases God. LUK 17:10 c/w PSA 40:8.