Everything began with Abraham. The vocation of Abraham is the biblical foundation for Israel's key role in the divine plan of salvation. Genesis 12:1–3 refers to the call of Abraham and to God's promise to him as a permanent covenant for all his offspring.
The Lord said to Abram, "... and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, andin you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
With this promise, God determined that all the great blessings of humanity would be, from that moment on, connected to Israel. This includes all salvation, healing, restoration of nations, and the repair of Creation following the sinful history of exploitation. It is God's plan that the Hebrew Nation would become the "mediator of salvation" for all other peoples on earth. God later confirmed this to all the Israelites through the covenant at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:5–6).
Did Israel fulfill its calling? The Scriptures show that, time after time, century after century, the people of the promise were not faithful. Israel's history is one of idolatry, murder and adultery, oppression of the poor, violation of the Law and mockery of the covenant in every possible way. Rather than being a holy people, set aside for their priestly vocation, mediating between God and the nations, they desired to be like the other nations. Unwilling to accept the dignity of the covenant, they refused to be different. When Israel demanded that Samuel, the prophet, give them a king, like the other nations, it was just another indication that Israel did not grasp the uniqueness of its calling but rather wanted to exchange its birthright for material blessings and self-determination.
But God has bound Himself to His everlasting promise with Israel, so that they would be a universal source of blessing. He tried everything to bring Israel back to their ultimate purpose. He sent the prophets; He exercised varying degrees of discipline; and He urged them generation after generation to follow Him. Even the punishment of the exile only partially led to a measure of repentance and ingathering. Even after the captivity, only a small remnant of the faithful in the Land was willing to turn with all their heart to God, the God of the covenant. Surrounded by ignorance, this remnant did the only possible thing: they cried out for the coming of the Messiah to change the hardening of hearts.
However, when the Messiah Yeshua of Nazareth finally came, he did not come the way they expected. Jesus did not assume a political role. He did not solve all of the nation's problems by overthrowing the Romans and leading Israel to its former glory. No! Yeshua came to free His disciples from the tyranny of legalism and help them fulfill the deepest meaning of Torah, at least in their own lives. Instead of political revolution, He came to bring freedom to their hearts. Because He did not fulfill their political, religious, and eschatological expectations, most of the Jews rejected Him, saying that He could not be the Messiah sent by God, and so they crucified Him.
Jesus understood His messianic ministry as the fulfillment of Israel's role as a people. In Him, in His life and in His cross, everything that Israel was destined to accomplish corporately became reality—a form of "sacramental" reality. Initially sent only "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24), Jesus sought to help them return to their role as a priestly nation on behalf of the others, according to God's promise to Abraham. In the end, Jesus fulfilled Israel's corporate mission as the suffering servant (Isaiah 53) exercising in His body the "priestly sacrifice" on behalf of all Israel.
The Jewish Remnant
Only a small group of saints remained after the resurrection – the apostles, Jesus' relatives, and a few disciples. This remnant understood that the Messiah, rejected, crucified, and resurrected, was the One bringing salvation to Israel and to the world. They understood that it would be their priestly role as a remnant, as the "believing Israel," to become messengers of this salvation. As the "New Israel," they were called to fulfill – on behalf of the nations – what Israel as a whole had failed to do.
Nevertheless, at first, they did not fully grasp how this worldwide vocation should be exercised. In the beginning, they preached the Gospel only to the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea. Then, they began to leave Jerusalem for Samaria, and eventually ventured further to other nations, going from one synagogue to the next. They preached to the Jews that the Messiah had come—not as expected, yet still as the fulfillment of key promises. However, most Jews did not want to hear their message. With some exceptions, in most synagogues, only a small number were willing to believe.
According to Paul's words, that salvation was "to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Rom 1:16), some of the apostles began to recognize that the Messiah's atonement was not meant solely for the Jewish people. They had seen Gentiles thirsting for God even more than many Jews. These Gentiles yearned for the freedom that they heard the Jewish Messiah had brought to His people, and responded more readily to Jesus' message. So, guided by the Holy Spirit, the apostles concluded that this message was not only for the Jews, but also to all among the nations who seek God with a passionate heart. The healing that Jesus provided on the cross for Israel was meant for the Gentiles as well. (Rom 1:16)
Others among the apostles did not agree. It could not be, they thought, that they, as Jews, had to share their Messiah with the other nations. They insisted – Israel is a set-apart people, a priestly nation, the only one that has access to God, to His Messiah, and to His redemption. This access, they believed, was reserved for those born into the Sinai covenant, and for those from the nations who freely joined Israel as proselytes. For those proselytes, it meant becoming a Jew by fully living under the Law and its commandments. This faction of elders and apostles did not want to have anything to do with the Gentiles saved by Yeshua unless those Gentiles became Jewish proselytes first.
The First Council of Jerusalem
In the New Testament, we find many passages referring to this debate among the Jewish disciples of Jesus (Acts 15:1–35; Phil 3:1–4; Gal. 2:11–21). This conflict nearly divided the new People of God. Paul's letter to the Galatians (Gal 2:11–21) records a strong disagreement between Peter and Paul over this issue. To resolve the differences, the apostles eventually decided to hold a conference, later called by historians, the "Council of Jerusalem." At this council, an important decision had to be made regarding the fundamental conflict about the nature of the People of God.
There were two main parties with opposing positions at this Council. The "Jerusalem Party", or the "Party of the Torah," led by James, the "brother" of Jesus, argued that no one could follow the Jewish Messiah without first becoming a Jew.
In contrast, the "Mission-Party" led by Paul and Barnabas, was convinced that when the Holy Spirit touched the heart of Gentiles, they were free to join the people of Israel without becoming Jews first. God had already sealed them with the power of the Spirit and the dignity of partaking in the promises of the sons and daughters of Israel. For Paul and Barnabas, it was clear: Gentiles who freely decided to follow the Jewish Messiah were not required to become Jews first, to be circumcised, or to obey the Jewish Laws.
After many arguments at the Council, interestingly, it was James, the leader of the "Jerusalem Party," who presented the solution. Though initially in favor of applying the Jewish Law to all, he changed his position, becoming convinced that it would not be according to the will of God to place an excessive burden on the Gentiles. For him, it became clear that it was not right to require Gentiles to keep the whole Law, when the Holy Spirit intended believers from the nations to live without that burden. James understood that it would be these Gentiles, closely connected to Israel yet free from the cultural and religious weight of the full Jewish law, who would ultimately carry the good news into the cultures of the nations, even to the far ends of the earth. He submitted a proposal, which was accepted by the other apostles, whereby Gentiles were only required to follow a few rules—those necessary to preserve "table fellowship" between Gentile believers and their Jewish brethren. James' proposal included four criteria to be followed by Gentile Christians: "To abstain from the contamination of idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what is strangled, and from blood." (Acts 15:20). Without fulfilling these four requirements, Jews and Gentile believers could not be part of the same congregation, or, among other things, share in the Lord's Supper together.
With the end of the First Council of Jerusalem, a new chapter began for the people of God. From that day on, the Body of Messiah consisted of two components—one people, two distinct expressions. There was the Messianic-Jewish component, which in the New Testament is called "the Ecclesia of the Circumcision" (Eph 2:11); and there was the Gentile component, which included non-Jewish believers from the nations. The Messianic component continued to live a fully Jewish lifestyle. The Gentile component was free to express the Gospel according to the particular style of living of their respective nations, as long as this lifestyle was compatible with the Gospel of Jesus. There were Jewish and Gentile congregations, and many mixed congregations. Even though there were two different components, it was still one united people.
To gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between these two parts of the Body of Christ, we need to reflect on Rom 9-11. Interestingly, these three chapters are little known by the majority of Christians. Seldom is a sermon preached on this subject. What a pity! Not to understand these chapters and the theology behind them means Gentile Christians miss an important truth: The only way for the Gentiles to fully participate in God's redemptive plan is to be in harmony with the believing part of Israel.
Speaking about full participation, I am not referring to individual salvation. The Word remains valid: "Whoever believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth, will find righteousness and receive salvation" (Rom 10:10). This is without question. I'm speaking about the ability of Gentile believers to play a role in corporate salvation. The entrance of the Gentiles into salvation history was possible because they were spiritually inserted into the House of Israel (Eph. 2:11-16). Salvation history, in all its dimensions, unfolds only as believing Jews and Gentiles maintain an ongoing collaboration for the sake of the Kingdom. The outcome of salvation history, as prophetically described in the First Testament and in many passages of the New Testament—including the Book of Revelation—shows that we will not see full salvation without the participation of believing Israel. Here again we see it: the Jews are the bridge connecting the Gentiles to God (e.g. Rev 4:4; 14:1-5; 21:9-14; see also: CCC § 674).
Understanding the Mystery of the Olive Tree
To demonstrate this life-giving connection between Gentile believers and Israel, Paul uses the analogy of the olive tree (Rom 11:13-24).
The roots and trunk of the olive tree symbolize the patriarchs, the covenants, the Torah, the promises, and even the Messiah Yeshua himself (Rom 9:4-5). Into this Nation of Israel, at its best, the Gentiles have been grafted in as "wild" olive branches (Rom 11:13-24).
According to this analogy, our full life in God—our life as part of the People of God—requires that we are correctly connected to the Jewish tree and its roots. We, the Gentile believers, are branches of this Olive Tree of Israel, grafted in by the blood of the Jewish Messiah.
- The blood of the Messiah has made us spiritual members of the "Commonwealth of Israel." We are joined to the Jewish people in a spiritual sense. As Gentiles, we should live in deep unity with Israel, without necessarily copying Jewish religious and cultural practices. This means incorporation on a spiritual level.
- According to Paul, many Jews at the present time are dead parts of the tree—broken-off branches—which may be grafted in again later (Rom 11:17, 23).
- The Gentiles can only be part of God's People and have a place in salvation history because they are linked to Israel through the Jewish part of the Church (Rom 11:18). The full measure and fruitfulness of the Gentiles' participation in God's plan for salvation depends on their right connection to their Jewish roots.
- The realization of this link between the Gentile believers and Israel functions well only when today's Messianic Jewish movement acts as a bridge between the Gentile Church and the Jewish people, just as it was with the Messianic Jewish remnant of Israel in the days of the Apostles.
All Gentile believers are, in a spiritual sense, joined to the Jewish people, although they are not Jews. The Apostle Paul opposed the view that the Gentiles should become Jews. Gentiles should live as Gentiles, not under the entire Jewish Law, except those relevant parts of the Torah that Jesus teaches to his disciples in the Gospel. The "Sermon on the Mount" (Mat 5:1–7:29) and the other teachings of Jesus are nothing less than Jesus' radical actualization and interpretation of the five books of Moses. Wearing a yarmulke (kippah), following Jewish customs, or imposing Jewish culture on Gentiles is not what God intended. As Gentiles, we should not take from the Jews what is particularly theirs. We should not become like them, but we should relate to them in harmony, and be united with them by living a life in the "spirit of the Torah".
This relationship between Gentile believers and all Israel is made possible and activated through the Messianic Jews, the believing remnant from Israel (Rom 11: 5, 6). As Jewish believers, they remain part of all Israel. At the same time, as disciples of Yeshua, they are also part of the Body of Christ. In their double "nature"—in this bilateral identity—they serve as the link between Israel and the Church. Without the Messianic Jewish part, the Gentile parts of the Church are, in a sense, "amputated" and do not have the full access to the sap of the olive tree.
If there is no Messianic Jewish part of the Church, the spiritual health of Gentile believers is limited; the Gentile part of the Church is not connected to its Jewish roots in a "living" form. Through the Messianic Jewish apostolic generation of the Early Church, the Gentiles were grafted into the olive tree. By this, they became "relational" heirs to the blessings promised to Abraham (Rom 9:4-5; Gal 3:6-14). Through the Messianic Jews of our day, we must be reconnected with this heritage in an actual way. That is why Paul warns the Gentiles: "Do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you" (Rom 11:18).
Gentiles Depend on Israel – Israel Depends on the Gentiles
Even if we deny this fact, or even if we have not yet realized it in our Christian life, we Gentiles are dependent on Israel. Throughout the history of salvation, Israel has played—and always will play—a central role. This truth finds its culmination in Jesus Himself. As the Son of God, He was manifested in life as a Jew; born a Jew, from a Jewish mother; living as a Jew in the midst of Israel; dying as the King of the Jews; resurrected as a Jew, and seated at the right hand of the Father as a Jew.
This "Jewish paradigm" continued with the generation of the first disciples. It was no accident that most of the disciples in the Early Church were Jews. With the first congregations in Jerusalem and Judea, God revealed how He intended Israel to bless the world in a new and deeper way. Believing the Gospel of the resurrected Messiah, the apostles first trained a Jewish remnant to preach the Jewish Gospel to the Gentiles of the nations.
For the fulfillment of salvation history, the Gentiles needed the Messianic Jews to become heirs of the Jewish Gospel. But without the witness of Gentile believers, the Jewish Gospel would never have reached the ends of the Earth. Without the Gentiles, the Messianic Jews would never fulfill their calling to inculturate the Jewish Gospel into the lifestyle of the nations. That is why, according to Ephesians 2:11-22, Jesus broke down the wall of separation between Jewish and Gentile believers, so that they could work together, hand in hand. The blood of Christ brought near all who were far off. He made out of the two, one Church. He reconciled the two peoples into one Body (v. 14). By this, God potentially healed torn-apart humanity, forming "One New Man." That is why God never intended to divide the Jewish part of the Church from its Gentile part. For Him, there is only one Church, composed of both peoples.
