"And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompence unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. I say then, 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. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?"
In today's lesson, Paul explains the importance of the Jews as their existence would benefit the whole world because through them the possibility of salvation would come to everyone.
It was not that the nation of Israel was "chosen" to rise above all other peoples to be eternally honored, they were "chosen" only to be the vessel by which salvation would come and after that was achieved their purpose, as a particular people, ended.
Israel was preordained to fail under the law so as to demonstrate the inability of mankind, through his/her/ own actions, to redeem him/herself to God. Through and because of that failure, and because of the faith of those who truly believed in God, Jesus was sent as a propitiation for all sin, the sins of the Jews included.
In the opening verse of today's quote, Paul again makes it clear that salvation comes wholly by faith, saying that the "works" we do, or don't do here on earth, have nothing to do with it.
As these lessons progress the new law of faith will be more and more established.~
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