The Symbiotic Relationship of The Jews & The Gentiles

by Jake Gardner

[Sym·bi·ot·ic — Denoting a mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups.]

Being that the selfsame prophecies established to power the coming conversion, and subsequent restoration of the Jews, are the present fuel propelling the conversion of the Gentiles in this present dispensation (now 2k years in the works), it is plain to see that the Lord has bound the Jew and Gentile by an indissoluble tie in a staggering, divinely-inspired symbiotic relationship! [See, "The Holy Complexity"]... So then, the Gentiles are converted, due only to what the Lord had prophetically promised to work for the Jews (and God is justified in the application of these seemingly exclusive prophesies to carnal Jews, by converting the Gentiles into spiritual Jews… see, Rom. 2:25-29). [See, "The Flow of Redemption"]... From the opposite direction, therefore, it could otherwise be understood that the Jews (who are made spiritual Uncircumcision through their unbelief) will therefore be brought to conversion, regathering, and restoration through nothing less than the culminating fruition of the Gentile’s (who are become spiritual Circumcision through conversion) great — Ruhamah — mercy in the end of the world! According as it was prophesied, and originally, and exclusively intended, that the carnal Jews finalizing experience of sovereign mercy, would be to the breathtaking ingathering of the Gentiles,  which prophesies have now laid hold upon the spiritual seed of Israel — the Gentiles!  

Or, otherwise said, they are made by the handiwork of an omniscient God to redemptively cooperate in the salvation one of another; so that, to the exclusion of one, the other is brought into covenant, that when they are cast away, the other would be made partaker of their same covenant, and as the exquisite experience of their mercy crescendos, then, again, the first is thereby redeemed, even unto the greatest display of mercy to those originally excluded!

O may our hearts stand in awe at the ineffable wisdom of His eternal counsels!

Thus the Gentile Church Age — as related to “Israel after the flesh” (I Cor. 10:18; Gal. 4:23,29) — is the worst of times, and shall yet be the greatest of times! It is easy enough to understand how that this Gentile Church Age is the worst of times (as pertaining to Israel), for it is made possible only by their general fall (Rom. 11:12), blindness (Rom. 11:25), and the breaking off of their branches to make room for Gentiles (Rom. 11:16-21); and, therein do we become this great spiritual WILDERNESS unto the Jews. But this shall be, truly, the greatest of times, for as Paul said, “Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy” (Rom. 11:11). That is to say, the “riches of the world” (Rom. 11:12) being brought to Christ — and, much more, the final display of mercy to them — is the greatest means of mercy that the Lord will ever display to the Jews, as the Grand Finale of all Redemptive History as we have known it!

This orchestration of sovereign mercy is the great object in the eyes of Paul, as he is clearly seeking to definitively establish the parameters of the present-tense situation in which Gentile redemption has been set in the book of Romans as in none other of his epistles. And in no other portion of the book is this relationship so illustriously put forth, as in the 9th — 11th chapters of the epistle. What we must come to understand, is the undergirding of Paul’s arguments, for if we know not what is substantiating his claims, and what is establishing the moral fortitude thereof, then we will never come to deeply appreciate, and be forever impacted by the profound relevancy of Paul’s gospel. In this epistle, as in none other of his writings will we find the forcibleness of divine argumentation put on display for us to behold. This is a wonder, for are we to suppose that every answer, alone, is inspired, and that when Paul breaks into a pivotal, vitally-placed rhetorical question, then the inspiration suddenly comes to an end?… God forbid! But, rather, we are instructed by faith that the inspiration here continues, and that thus there is some great argument that God wants to set forth before the consciences of His saints, forever memorializing the fallacies of the carnal mind, and the irrefutable wisdom of God!

“What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?”
— Rom. 9:14

Moreover, these questions, some of which seem to us to be inconceivable, unthinkable, or, at least, unspeakable, which well-meaning Christians nowadays would seek to self-righteously alienate themselves from, as if never a thought would come into their mind… And thereby do offer to themselves the proof of how far they are from ascertaining the truth at hand, for that the ready conclusion of many, stated by God omniscient, is far above out of their sight!… And would to God it were so in very deed! But the alarming reality is that they have never come quite close enough to the truth, so as to feel how razor sharp it is — discernible only by the living presence of God with a man — and how vulnerable one would be left, and utterly defenseless one is to error and heresy, if the Spirit of God does not well-balance the truth of all the scriptures in the mind and heart! (Remember, for instance, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” Rom. 6:1, etc.) Do we truly hear, perceive, and believe what is written, as it is written?…

This is a proper trembling of soul when one choice vessel begins to approach the tremendous shoreline of His eternal counsel.

As referenced above in Romans 9:14, the crucial question was posed before the consciences of the saints, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?” THE JUSTICE OF GOD IN THE REDEMPTION OF MAN (JEW & GENTILE) is a vital point that Paul is seeking to establish from literally the very opening of his mouth in the doctrine of this book of The Romans, as it is written,

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16,17).

This text is exceedingly broad, but the emphasis that I desire, particularly, to extract is this: there is something of God’s justice in the present manifestation of man’s redemption (as declared in “the gospel of Christ”, Rom. 1:16), which, according to what has been revealed through the Law and the Prophets, seems to be unequal, or, that there is “unrighteousness with God” (Rom. 9:14), according to the crucial question before referenced, at the opening of Paul’s most clear treatise upon this point from the 9th — 11th chapters. There is to be a necessary searching of the scriptures, which one who is conscientiously observing what is being presented will be compelled unto with jealous care that the integrity of the righteous Lord’s righteousness is not trespassed!

What I am speaking of is nothing less than a prophetic burden and anguish in the soul to understand the wisdom and righteousness of God’s judgments, which oft times overcame the loyal soul’s of the prophets, and prostrated them in God’s presence, and posted them upon their watch-towers to behold, and see what the Lord would say unto them, and what they would answer when reproved of Him (Hab. 2:1).

What could seem so unrighteous about God’s dispensation of sovereign mercy, you ask? Well, if you consider that THE FLOW OF REDEMPTION which Paul purposefully set forth in the very first word of the doctrine: “To the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16); and if you are considering the profound depth of what is being declared in that statement, namely, that the Jews are first in the order of redemption, and afterwards the Gentiles; and, furthermore, the Gentiles conversion THROUGH the mercy of the Jews, and not at the expense thereof! If you are remembering, the present Gentile Church Age is due to a repentance in the heart of God, made known through the rejection of His people in the 1st century; so the Lord devised means whereby his banished (Gentiles) be not expelled from before Him (II Sam. 14:14) — and in so doing, the Lord must needs cause His word to flourish in unforeseen courses, to the fulfilling of all of His holy, and unstoppable intentions, to the grand fulfillment of all of His word! And in this process an interpretation and vindication was found necessary for the apostle Paul to furnish for the Church in Christ. How that the Lord is just and right in this display of sovereign mercy: in the breaching of the Jews, and the present ingathering of the Gentiles otherwise than was originally and ultimately intended!

[Remember, "The Holy Complexity"]

Furthermore, it is a true statement that the vocabulary and framework of the present-tense situation of this dispensation was forged in the fires of God’s wrath towards His rebellious people — whether directly or indirectly. Directly, when the prophesies being drawn upon for the framework and vocabulary of the present Gentile Church Age are from "the strange work" prophesied of by the prophets of old, which prophecies literally foretold Babylon of old, and to come, but now appear to be spiritually foretelling the mystery of The Gentile Church Age. And, indirectly, when Israel is bypassed in application, as concerning the prophesies of the Messiah's restoration of his chosen people, and the application instead made to The Gentile Church Age!

Much more to be declared, dear reader... we will continue this discourse upon THE JUSTICE OF GOD IN THE REDEMPTION OF MAN (JEW & GENTILE) next...

[For a more comprehensive defense, see, "Warranting NT Explanation"]