A Theological Reflection on the Eschatological Nature of Salvation Related to Paul's Statement in Rom. 11:26 - Essay Example

THE ESCHATOLOGICAL NATURE OF SALVATION AND JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ACCORDING TO ROMANS 11:26. All Israel shall be saved is a Biblical affirmation of the success of God’s plan of salvation for his chosen people, Israel (Romans 11:26). Salvation is rooted in no other Person but in that of Christ Jesus. By understanding the previous sections of the theme text and a study of the systems of grafting, circumcision, Jesus and his roles, one grasps the concept of the eschatological nature of salvation.

Jesus became sin for man but remained untarnished by sin itself. Comprehending Jesus enigmatic twoness merged into one-his divinity and humanity, one also gains more insight into the spiritual significance of oneness experienced through grafting, the man-wife relationship and the sanctuary. These oneness symbols ultimately point to the merger between Christ Jesus and his Church, Israel. The first old covenant-promise was given to and through Abraham in which God would reveal his glory to the world.

Because of the introduction of a new covenant, that Israel has obtained through Jesus, “mediator of the new covenant” (Hebrews 12:24), it prefigures the new dispensation of Israel in which Israel is more widely defined as those in Christ Jesus, the seed of Abraham. Likening Israel to an olive vine (Romans 11:17-25), Paul uses the horticultural practice of grafting and implements it as imagery, explaining the incorporation of Gentile believers into the body of Christ. One plant is called to the root stock and the other, the scion or branches.

Believers are compared to the branches of the vine which depend on the root, Jesus Christ, for sustenance and survival. In grafting, through careful selection, one plant is grafted into another so that two plants grow and become one. Also, when pruning vines, gardeners would pare off the dead and dying branches to enable the healthier branches to grow. Paul declares that some of the house of Israel has been severed from the root, which represents Jesus Christ. Even Jesus portrays this phenomenon in John 15:1-6 when the husbandman or the Father, both cuts off and joins the branches into Jesus, the root/vine.

This graphic illustration points to the rejection of literal Israel of Jesus Christ the Savior and the eventual fusion of Gentiles into Israel. Jesus, in his customary way of utilizing agricultural parables admonishes Israel to “bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance and begin not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father…God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Luke 3:8). Literal Israel boasted itself in its heritage as descendants of Abraham and so believed that all born of Abraham are saved.

They could not see that the Seed of Abraham was before them inviting them to be grafted into his body through acceptance of him and his message. In another instance, when Jesus is in a bitter contest with the Pharisees, they assert that Abraham is their father. And because Abraham is their father genetically, they are the blessed and chosen children of God (John 8:39-56). However, Jesus testified the truth to them, declaring that they were children of the devil, although they were biologically the offspring of Abraham (John 8:44).

The disparity here is that even those belonging to the house of Israel were not Israel. Paul maintains the view as well that “they are not all Israel, which are of Israel; Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children” (Romans 9:6). So the apostle knows that the qualification to be of Israel and of the heritage of Abraham is not physical. The wall of partition between Jew and Gentile is done away, therefore there is neither Jew nor Greek (Ephesians 2:14; Galatians 4).

God sees no distinction between Jews or those of literal Israel and the Gentiles who were pagans and without the knowledge of God. When dealing with the prejudiced Jews, even the apostle Peter, God ratifies that what He “hath cleansed, that call not thou common” (Acts 10:15; Acts 11:9). Again the Jews believed that since they were children of Abraham, they had been cleaned by virtue of Abraham’s blood, but God decrees that those who are cleansed are those washed by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7; Revelation 1:5).

The Christian Jews, still clinging to Judaism, continued the valueless round of ritual that God instituted of old, in particular, circumcision. God told Abraham that both he and his seed had to undergo circumcision, as evidence that they belonged to Israel. Any man uncircumcised was excommunicated and “cut off” (Genesis 17:14). However when the gospel spread to the Gentiles and they believed, some disputed that to be accepted into spiritual Israel, circumcision was still a standard by which membership would be determined.

Among them stands Paul who valiantly fights for the inclusion of the Gentiles into the spiritual society of Israel. Repeatedly Paul references the spiritual circumcision based on the revelation of the Holy Spirit that one who is of Israel is not one who can retrace his legacy to faithful Abraham, however, the true Jew is now a spiritual one – not an outward Jew confirmed by the rite of circumcision – but one who is circumcise inwardly by heart and in the Spirit (Romans 2:28,29). Paul continues to delve into another brand of circumcision-a spiritual one in which is not humanly executed.

The invalidity of the sanctuary offerings and services further emphasizes that once a believer is in Jesus Christ “neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6). When literal Israel would spurn God’s principles and mercy, God even stressed the real significance of circumcision by the directive the “circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked” (Deuteronomy 10:16). In other words, obedience to God is the real circumcision.

Owing to the rending of the veil which separated the holy from the most holy, Jesus nullify the sanctuary ceremonies and rituals since he fulfilled the law as the lamb that was slain (Matthew 5:17; John 1:29, 36). Also the torn veil underlines the fact that no more was the sanctuary-Church going to be divided – one as holy and the other most holy. Instead, Israel is one building fitly framed with Jesus Christ as the Foundation and Founder (Ephesians 2:20-22). The criterion to be grafted into the stock of Abraham is based on the justification by faith principle.

The new Israelite has to believe in Jesus, just as Abraham believe God and (the act of faith) was counted as righteousness (John 3:16; Galatians 3:6, 7). Jesus is the source of mankind’s justification. Owing to man’s being “justified by faith, (he has) peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). It is through faith in the power of Jesus Christ to save and faith in Jesus’ righteousness imputed to mankind that men and women of the house of Israel are justified. Justification depends wholly on Christ’s merit: his perfect life, his perfect character and his perfect sacrifice.

Israel received justification not by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even the one who believes in Jesus Christ. He is justified by the faith of Christ” (Habbakuk 2:4; Galatians 2:16). Justification by faith means that all believers in Jesus Christ are in God’s eyes legally saved, pardoned, justified and from God's perspective they are not lost. They are integrated into the body of Christ in which there is no division or classes (Galatians 3:38; Colossians 3:11).

The Bible makes clear that everyone who is born into this world of sin is in need of the Savior." This fallacious reasoning according to Angel Manuel Rodriguez changes the whole plan of salvation. Instead of the faith/belief requirement, man has to only be born into the world to be saved. This posture directly contradicts biblical scripture which decrees that “whosoever believeth shall have everlasting life” (John 3:16) and that justification is derived from faith (Habbakuk 2:4). Following the body metaphor in the Bible, the house of Israel is often compared to a woman, joined to Christ the Husband is an established truth.

The Bible expresses the most sacred and inviolable oneness in the conjugal relationship. God, willing to make an earthly pattern of a divine truth, invested relationships between husbands and wives with transcendent meaning. Through the interpretation of the relationship between husbands and wives as exemplifying the actual unity between Christ and his Church, Israel, God underscores that the community of Israel is a community of one (Romans 7:4; Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:12). As marriage is the basic, indivisible unit of social order, union with Christ is extremely critical to maintaining spiritual order and oneness (Gen.

2:24; Ephesians ). Emphasizing the unity and bond of the married couple, Christ that “they twain shall be one flesh: so than they are no more twain, but one flesh” (Mark 10:8). Furthermore, in tandem with the theme of marital unity, the Apostle Paul states that husband and wife “shall be one flesh” (Ephesians 5:31). The inextricable bond that unifies man and woman in the conjugal relationship draws them together in such a way that both parties are fused as one - not only in body but also in mind and spirit.

Even so Israel which is one, is joined to Christ another one to produce one (Ephesians 5:22-32). In sum, the confines of justification remain pertinent to believers in the faith of Jesus Christ, the new Israel, so that although Jesus Christ came to the Earth as universal Savior and source of justification, the power is applied only when spiritual Jews take hold of Jesus’ free gift by faith. In Christ Jesus, circumcision is invalid and nothing but only adherence to the will of God matters (1Corinthians 7:19).

Characterizing spiritual Israel, John the Revelator announces a commandment-keeping people of God who are justified by faith in Jesus (Revelation 14:12). Indeed when Jesus returns the second time, Israel will occupy the New Jerusalem. This time, those who both trusted in God who descended literally and spiritually from Abraham, the new Jews, occupy the New Jerusalem. Describing the New Jerusalem constructed for the new Israel, John saw that on all the 12 gates are the names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel (Revelation 21:12).

BIBLIOGRAPHY Holy Bible, Reference King James Version, 2004.