Is the Gospel Plan B?

In a recent blog entry I talked about the way the book of Chronicles addresses the question of God’s continuing purposes for Israel. Was the exile the final chapter, the end of the story, or is there more to come? You could ask the same question about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the subsequent spread of the gospel to the nations. Where does that leave Israel now? Was Israel plan A that failed, and Jesus is now plan B? Has the (largely)  Gentile church replaced Israel in the plan of God?

Paul addresses this question in chapters 9 – 11 of Romans, and the answer is ‘no’. God’s promises to Abraham hold good. His relationship with Israel continues. Gentile Christians are not replacing Israel as the people of God. Instead, they are being added to Israel as the people of God. They are, in the picture he uses, (wild) olive branches being grafted onto an existing (cultivated) tree. This means that the Old Testament is not the tale of a failed Plan A, with the New Testament as a successful Plan B. It’s all the same plan, being carried out in different phases.

So, what of the descendants of Abraham who don’t turn to Christ? Well, Paul, seems to be saying, they don’t belong to true Israel, because true Israel is defined by faith. But that isn’t the end of the story. Though the majority of his Jewish contemporaries rejected Jesus as their Messiah, Paul doesn’t lose hope for his people. They may be branches that have been pruned off for now, but God is still able to graft them in again, he says.  And in chapter 11 he suggests that the conversion of the Gentiles will one day result in the conversion of his fellow-Jews. They are still ‘loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable’ (11:28b-29 NIV). What does this mean for the future? Well, that’s the big question. A wide-scale conversion of Jewish people to Christianity in these end times? That’s certainly how some people interpret these verses in chapter 11. What do you think?