You’ve hung in there and now we’re finishing off our 4-part series, Understanding “to the Jew First.” If you’ve just stumbled upon it, here are the first three parts:
Today, we close out the series by considering what this all means to us today.
We have established that Gentiles are neither inferior nor superior to Jews, and that “to the Jew first” indicates first in prominence. God has a special calling upon the Jews, though it doesn’t make them better or worse than Gentiles. That calling is to be the vehicle of world redemption. For starters, they gave us Jesus the Messiah.
Meanwhile, God gave a special calling to Gentile believers also, and it is no more clearly stated than in Matthew 28:19-20:
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.
To think that the promises of God to the Jewish people now belong to the church is sinful thinking. God has not changed His mind about His people. In fact, the Gospel belongs to the Jewish people just as much as it ever did, and the Great Commission given to us (as stated above) is to go to the Jewish people as well! How else will they be provoked to jealousy? We have a duty to perform!
One final thing before we close out this series. Romans 11 clearly teaches that we Gentiles are equally included with Jews in the inheritance of God. Ephesians 2:11-13 lays out our inheritance:
11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh….12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Oh, what a glorious inheritance we have because salvation was “to the Jew first!” When the Gospel is shared back to the Jewish people, they don’t leave the faith of their father Abraham. We simply offer them an invitation to come back home!
Looking for the Blessed Hope 