Paul’s Instruction to the Gentile Church for the Conversion of the Jews

Often in church we hear the prayer for the work among the Jews and the conversion of the Jews. The nation of Israel is a privileged nation. The Messiah came from them as we read in Hebrews 2:16, “For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.” The human nature of Christ was of Jewish descent, but the Jews’ unbelief that He was the Messiah you can clearly read in the Bible. They have rejected Him, but the Bible is clear that it is not a complete rejection. The apostle says that the Lord will not reject but remember His covenant; He will be their God, and they shall be His people. To think that God has rejected His people Israel, the Apostle Paul clearly refutes by stating in Romans 11:11, “God forbid.”

Are we to pray for their conversion? Perhaps, we secretly harbor resistance to it. The reasoning of this is because we often hear, “The last turn will be for the Jews and then the end shall be there.” If we pray for the conversion of the Jews, are we then not asking the Lord to leave us? How can I pray for this in truth if I am yet unconverted? Yet, the Bible is clear—it will not be the end of the Church; it will be a new era in the Church. Paul clearly describes this in Romans 11:12, “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.” Did you hear that? If the conversion of the Jews takes place, that will be something that will also influence the entire Church. Also, we read in Romans 11:15, “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” Our marginal notes describe this to be a major thing. The Jews will be converted by multitudes, but it will influence the whole Church. Paul is not writing this to have the Gentile Romans pray for the Jews conversion so that it would be the end of the power of the gospel among them—rather he spurs them on to pray for the Jews for the benefit of the whole Church. Paul, the apostle of the heathens, was laboring under the heathens to have an expectation of remarkable things for the whole Church when the Lord will fulfill that He has not rejected Israel but that Israel shall be saved. He also labors in Romans 11 that the Gentiles “be not high minded, but fear.” The Gentiles are the wild branches but the Jews the natural branches. The natural branches were broken off because of unbelief, and according to God’s sovereign counsel, the wild branches were engrafted to bear fruit from the root and fatness of the olive tree by faith. By faith the Gentile Church may stand, but be careful, “For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.” Do not stand above the Jews. Their unbelief became your time of salvation. Therefore, the apostle is also clear that “my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved”—that the wild and cut off branches may together be engrafted as a whole Church to be “partakers of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” Some will read further and say that Romans 11:25 states the reason for their secret resistance to pray for the Jewish conversion—“Until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” How must we understand this? Is it then true that Gentiles will be first converted and then the Jews? Well, the fullness here clearly points to a period of time. The fulness of the Gentiles will go before the conversion of the Jews. Do not think that after the conversion of the Jews the Gentiles will receive another fullness, a fullness meaning where the gospel will be preached over the entire world again. Rather, the end of time will be upon the world, but there will also be a Church! The Church will rejoice in the fulfillment of God’s Word. The fulfillment will also bear fruit among the Gentile Church. Brakel writes: “When God will fill this blind nation with His Spirit and grace, resulting in the acknowledging and receiving of the Messiah (David, their King), then a wondrous love, joy, and holiness in believing will manifest itself in them. It will be a more eminent time than the age of the apostles. The church of the Gentiles will be so quickened and revived by the conversion of Israel that her former state will appear to be such as the difference between a dead and a living person. The unconverted will be converted in great numbers and the converted will become partakers of a wondrous increase in the measure of grace. Oh, what a glorious time this will be! Who will be then alive?”

The Lord Jesus has said of the end times, “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” Is that not something that the church of today should worry about— the wild branches that are grafted in? Do they have faith in the promise of the fulfillment of the Jews, and how the conversion of the Jews will lead to fruits among the Gentile Church? Is there then not a duty for the “wild branches” toward the “natural branches”? The Bible book of Revelation is clear that the end times will be times of great tribulation. However, before those times of great tribulation come, the Lord will give a revival among the Gentile Church by fulfilling the promise of the conversion of the Jews, who according as the apostle says, “touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.” The days of the great tribulation will be shortened for the elect’s sake. The Lord will preserve and knows how to preserve His Church during the greatest tribulation on earth.

The revival will not be by careless Gentiles, who have left the truth. It will be a revival among the Gentile Church who now mourn over their unholiness, their low state, those who must experience their powerless condition to convert themselves, let alone one Jew! Are there readers who are amazed that they still are a “church”? Are you also longing for the fruit of a great or greater boldness in faith? Knowing very well that faith is and remains a gift of the work of the Holy Spirit, the Lord knows how to revive His Church. The revival will be by fulfilling the promise of the conversion of the Jews. There is expectation for the Church in the end times! The Lord is surely not yet finished with gathering His Church. Truly with our forefather Brakel, “Who will be then alive?” Is this not a matter worth praying for?

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