Comparatively recently, we saw the partial fall one of those isms - Communism - which had seemed so permanently entrenched in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Communism was believed and propagated with great zeal, but something was seriously wrong - a discrepancy between the theory and the reality. Even Communist China has been making some adjustments in recent times.
In Romans, Paul has been writing about the Gospel, the good news about how people are made right with God. He has stated that all people, whether Jew or Gentile, are made right with God on the same basis - the death of Christ for us on the cross and our faith response to this act of God. The rules in the Old Testament Law, he concludes, are important, but, taken seriously, they show us up as sinners. They can only deal with the problem of sin by condemning us, not by restoring us to God.
In chapter 8, Paul affirmed that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" - no condemnation because Jesus has died our death, taken our punishment, fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law. That chapter finished with Paul's conviction that there is nothing in all creation that will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So we have these twin blessings: forgiveness for all our sins - no condemnation - and a restored relationship - nothing can separate us from God's love.
In chapters 9 to 11, Paul digresses. He will pick us his main theme again in chapter 12. But for the moment he expresses his heavy burden for his fellow-Jews. What about the Jews?
The chosen people through whom God was revealing himself to the human race have rejected and crucified the Messiah whom God has sent. True, there have been thousands of them who have become believers, but officially the Jewish leadership has been firmly against the Christian faith. The greatest opposition to the Christian message has come from Jews. Again and again, it is Jews who have instituted persecution against Christians.
The situation still continues today. There are Christian Jews. There are "Messianic" synagogues - a few. But in general, when a Jew chooses to become a Christian, the family holds a funeral ceremony.
What about the Jewish faith, now that the Messiah has come? What becomes of a religion of promise when the fulfilment is rejected?
Paul says, "my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes" (Rom. 10.1-4).
They have a zeal not based on knowledge. Zeal is enthusiastic devotion to a cause, ideal or goal. When Jesus cleared the Temple of all the profiteering that was going on, his disciples remembered the words of Psalm 69.9 - "zeal for your house consumes me" (Jn 2.17). It's not that zeal is wrong in itself - in fact, we could do with a lot more of it! When Paul was describing his Jewish credentials, he wrote, "as for zeal, persecuting the church" (Phil. 3.6a). Paul was certainly a "zealous" person, both before and after his conversion!
Perhaps Paul was remembering himself and his Jewish colleagues when he wrote, "they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge." Paul has just said that the Jews have not attained "the righteousness that is by faith" - "because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the 'stumbling stone' " (Rom. 9.32; cf. 1 Peter 2.4-8). Because Jesus Christ didn't match their expectations, they rejected him instead of believing in him. They had received much clear revelation of the nature and purposes of God, and were quite passionate about it. By rejecting Jesus, they were missing the whole point - their zeal wasn't based on full, complete knowledge of God's self-revelation.
The Jewish religion had sacrifices without the final perfect sacrifice of Christ himself. By the time Paul wrote to the Romans, of course, the Temple had been destroyed and the sacrificial system had come to an end. To this day, Judaism has had to centre its life on the synagogue. But there are orthodox Jews dissatisfied and unfulfilled. In contrast to the majority of Jews, they would like to have the Temple rebuilt - an action that would have serious consequences. They have zeal without knowledge.
So the Jewish religion has to keep a set of rules and observances - but without the indwelling Spirit. They make an effort at uprightness that cannot make them right with God.
But if, for the present, Jewish arrogance and stubbornness has rejected the grace of God, that does not justify Gentile arrogance and stubbornness!
Paul writes, "Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!" (Rom. 11.11-12).
Paul, a Jew, was an apostle to the Gentiles. But we have already noted in 1.16 that, wherever he went, he offered the gospel to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The purpose of God all along (though formerly a "secret") included non-Jews in the offer of God's grace, as Paul made clear in Ephesians 2.14-18. From the standpoint of the early church, however, it was the widespread Jewish resistance to the gospel that helped to open Christians to the breadth of God's love and grace.
When Paul went as a prisoner to Rome, he called the Jewish leaders together. "From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets" (Acts 28.23b). He received a mixed response and finally said to them, "Therefore I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!" (v. 28)
Now in Romans 11 Paul warns his Gentile readers, "If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, 'Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.' Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either" (vv. 17-21).
In other words, all must come before God on the basis of his grace. Don't make the mistake of thinking that God has a preference for you because you are a non-Jew, or because you are marginalised in some way… God welcomes you because of his grace - his grace which you receive by faith. Paul looks forward to a time when the people who received the divine promises will come to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and believe in him as their Saviour and Lord, a time when "all Israel will be saved" (v. 26a).
In 2002 we watch the news and look at the modern state of Israel and the present conflict in that land. We wonder whether Paul's prayer for his fellow-Jews will ever be fulfilled. There are some Christians so convinced that the modern return to Israel is God's fulfilment of prophecy that they believe it is wrong to criticise Israeli policies and action. Others suggest that Christians are the true Israel, that Palestine is no longer the "holy land" and that Jews have no special right to the land.
Both views miss the point of God's dealing with Jews - and with us! Do we know God's way of being put right? There is only one way of being right with God - whether Jew or Gentile - and that is by receiving and depending on what he has done in Jesus Christ. That should lead us to marvel at the grace of God and to long for others to put their trust in Jesus too.
But there is another question: Are we enthusiastic? Because we have seen too many recent examples of extremist religious zeal, we are tempted to lapse into a tame faith that is personal and private. On the first Christian Pentecost, the disciples, full of the Holy Spirit, couldn't keep the message to themselves. Of course, zeal and sincerity are not the test - most zealots are sincere in their convictions. But those who have received God's truth in Jesus Christ should confidently and positively express their faith.
All of us are called to faith in Jesus and his redemptive work. We have been given the Holy Spirit so that we can translate this into action.
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