Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 23

January 23;   Romans 11:11;   23/260(II);   ‘Saving Jealousy’

Romans 11:11 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

Israel and their religious leadership stumbled over Jesus Christ as the Messiah.  Stumbled does not mean to fall down and never recover.  Stumbled here means to trip up or err.  Improper jealousy of Jesus’ popularity and their pride in exerting all of their effort to keep the Law that they were never intended to keep, is what caused them to stumble.  The verse is teaching that just because this is what happened, does not mean that these religious Jews, cannot change their opinion of Jesus and receive salvation the way the Lord intended them and everyone else to.  God is love and His love is the same for everyone, everywhere.  Much to the shock of the religious Jews, the Lord opened the door for Gentiles to become Born Again.  The Jew hated the Gentiles and would literally thank the Lord in their prayers that they were not born a Gentile.  As Peter and Paul had great success in leading the Gentiles to Jesus, through simple faith in Jesus’ finished work, the Lord would use this to provoke the Jews to ‘saving jealousy.’  Religion is very often a tool of the devil to hinder sincere people from abandoning their religious beliefs and turning to salvation through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf.  When you are sharing the Lord with a religious person, get them to agree with you on the beliefs they have that are in line with scripture.  Introduce the truths of God’s Word, helping them to see that what they Bible teaches about salvation and what they believe are very similar.   The Lord loves the Jews. Romans 11 teaches that they will one day turn to Jesus.  Please pray for their salvation