God Has Established A True Israel Based On The Remnant Who Have Responded To The Messiah, With The False Israel Being At Least Temporarily Cast Off, To Be Restored If They Turn To The Messiah And Rejoin The True Israel (11:11-32).
We now commence with a new subsection, commencing as so often in Romans with a question, although one that continues the theme of Romans 11:8-10. In it we have the clearest evidence of the fact that the ‘true church', consisting of all true believers, is the continuation of Israel. It is not that the church has replaced Israel. Rather it IS the continuation of the Israel that was validated by God at Sinai, in the same way as a branch grafted into an olive tree becomes the olive tree. It is now unbelieving Jews who are not a part of Israel. The Gentile believers are incorporated into the true Israel, into that Israel which has believed in the Messiah, on the same basis as they have always been, by submission in faith to the (new) covenant (compare Exodus 12:48). So what man sees as Israel is no longer so in God's eyes. True Israel is composed of all true believers in the Messiah. (See excursus at the end of the chapter).
As a consequence of the predominance of Gentiles in the church (which was inevitable once the Gospel was proclaimed to the Gentiles, simply on the grounds of statistics), and of the antagonism of those who ‘say they are Jews and are not' (Revelation 2:9), this truth has in the main been lost sight of, except by some scholars, but the reason why all the Old Testament promises belong to the church is not by transfer, but is precisely because the church is the continuation of the true Israel, based on the true vine (John 15:1-6). It is not a matter of replacement, but of continuation. It is not that the church is ‘spiritual Israel' or has ‘replaced Israel', with Israel continuing in existence separately. It is that in God's eyes the church is the genuine continuation of the pre-Christian Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Jews, who had been very much of a part of the ‘old Israel', were now the foundational material of the ‘new Israel'. The remnant were the true Israel (Romans 9:27). The remainder had been cast out of Israel. So all the promises now belong to the new congregation (church) which is composed of both Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles, who together form the true Israel.
We must not overlook what the huge importance of the coming of the Messiah has been. The whole of Israel's thinking had been focused on His coming (compare John 1:1-18). Thus when He came the existence of Israel was dependent on their response to Him. His coming had been a main purpose for God's choice of them. It was from the womb of Israel that He came (Romans 9:5). Thus His coming separated off the unbelievers in Israel from the true Israel (Matthew 21:43), and it was the true Israel which in God's eyes were Israel, His ‘new nation'. And that was revealed by Jesus as those who were fruitful branches of the true vine, with the false branches being cut off (John 15:1-6), or, as Paul would have said, of the olive tree (Romans 11:16-24; Paul had to alter the illustration to an olive tree because no one grafted branches into a vine, and both were seen in the Scriptures as pictures of Israel).
In the days following Jesus' death and resurrection the true Israel was revealed, and it was revealed on the basis of response to the Messiah. In God's eyes it was not the Christian Jews, the believers, who were cut off from Israel. It was the unbelievers, even though they were in the majority. It was these who were cut off from the true Israel, founded on Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:18), as Paul will shortly make clear. And God's true Israel has continued on through the centuries in the form of the church, which IS the continuation of the true Israel. The early church never ceased thinking of themselves as Israel, and God never ceased looking on them as Israel. It is unbelieving Israel that has been rejected. It is no longer Israel in God's eyes even though it might be so in its own eyes. Compare Acts 4:25-28 where it is made clear that the majority of the people of Israel were now aligned with the nations in antagonism towards God's Messiah. So while God may still look on the unbelievers with favour because of His love for the Patriarchs (Romans 11:28, but depending on how we interpret it)), He nevertheless does not look on them as consisting of the true Israel. They can only become a part of the true Israel by responding to Jesus Messiah.
Paul does, however, emphasise that God has not finally closed the door on Jews, only on their mind set. Their position was not totally lost. If they would but come to Christ then they too could become a part of the true Israel, God's elect, and could bring into it all the riches of their culture. But their fall had been necessary in order that salvation might come to the Gentiles, for their way of thinking would never have allowed the kind of outreach achieved by the church of Christ. And it is unquestionable that that fall (partly through the persecution that it produced) resulted in the riches of Christ going out into the world (Acts 8:1; Acts 8:4; Acts 11:19-26; Acts 13:45-46; Acts 13:50-51; Acts 14:19-25). Thus their loss contributed to the riches of the Gentiles in that many of the Gentiles came to believe and enjoy the full riches of Christ (2 Corinthians 8:9; Ephesians 1:7; Ephesians 1:18; Ephesians 2:7; Ephesians 3:8; Colossians 1:27; Colossians 2:2). However, God's hope was that when the unbelievers saw the new spiritual freedom in the church, and recognised the glorious liberty of the new children of God and the greatness of their blessings, they would become jealous, and would determine to have them for themselves by responding to Christ. For if only they were willing to submit to Christ their contribution could be so great.