Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Grafted Into the House of Israel

How much time do you spend thinking about the implications of the doctrines you hold to?  Chances are, not that much time.  And when you do think of them, you probably just go with whatever your favorite minister says the implications are, without actually thinking about them for yourself.  Today, we will discuss the implications of the doctrine of being grafted in.  First off, have you ever thought about what we are grafted into?  If you read the linked passage carefully, we have been grafted into the House of Israel.  But what are the implications of that?  Let's read the passage carefully and find out.

11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. 12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!

13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. 15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? [Romans 11:11-15; NKJV]

23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? [Romans 11:23-24; NKJV]

Paul, talking to the Gentiles, says that they were grafted out of a while olive tree (which represents the Gentiles) and into a cultivated olive tree (representing the house of Israel).  And that some of the natural branches (the physical descendants of Israel) were grafted out of their own olive tree, yet can be grafted back into it.  This cultivated olive tree is said contrary to the nature of Gentiles, but we were still grafted into it.

Why were the natural branches grafted out in the first place?  Rebellion against God and the rejection of his Law.  But those who did not rebel, but believed, were not grafted out.  The Gentiles are grafted in through the same belief as the descendants of Israel.  But if we are grafted into the house of Israel, then we are grafted into the same covenant as Israel.  And if we are grafted into the house if Israel, and God's covenant with Israel, then aren't we expected to follow the same rules as the descendants of Israel?  That is, the Law of God?  Some may object and say "but we are under the New Covenant".  To that I say, read Jeremiah 31:31-34.

31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." [Jeremiah 31:31-34; NKJV]

Like I said, we are grafted into God's covenant with Israel.  And when I said, "we are grafted into God's covenant with Israel", I was talking about the New Covenant, prophesied through the prophet Jeremiah, and fulfilled by Yeshua of Nazareth.  Under this New Covenant, God himself will write his Law on our hearts.  There is only one Law of God, which is the Torah (Torah literally means "instruction"), the first 5 books of the Bible:  Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  That is what is written on our hearts, and we obey it by nature!

Another thing that Paul mentions in several places, is our adoption into the house of Israel.  For example, Romans 8:12-17 specifically mentions that we are adopted as the "sons of God" or "children of God".  And in Romans 9:1-5, this adoption is into the house of Israel.  And if we are adopted into the house of Israel, then we are expected to follow the same rules as those who were born into said house.  Also, consider this:  Is the one who is adopted required to know the rules of the house before being adopted?  Or are they first adopted, and later taught the rules?  They are adopted first, then taught the rules.  So it is with those grafted into the house of Israel.

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