Now I am speaking to you Gentiles, Paul continued. Seeing that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I could provoke my people to jealousy (παραζηλώσω, a form of παραζηλόω)[1] and save some of them.[2] Here Paul referred back to the Lord’s prophesy through Moses, I will make you jealous (παραζηλώσω, a form of παραζηλόω) by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger.[3]
The complete verse reads, They have made me jealous (Septuagint: παρεζήλωσάν, another form of παραζηλόω) with false gods, enraging me with their worthless gods; so I will make them jealous (Septuagint: παραζηλώσω, a form of παραζηλόω) with a people they do not recognize, with a nation slow to learn I will enrage them.[4] And so I have the karmic reason: Israel made God jealous with false gods, so He made them jealous with senseless, slow to learn or foolish people. But Paul alluded to a grace reason as well: I ask then, [Israel] did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression [e.g., making God jealous with false gods] salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous (παραζηλῶσαι, another form of παραζηλόω).[5] And so Paul hoped to provoke [his] people to jealousy (παραζηλώσω, a form of παραζηλόω) and save some of them.
For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, Paul continued, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?[6] Then he said something odd: If the first portion of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy…[7] The phrase the first portion of the dough offered is one word in Greek, ἀπαρχὴ,[8] firstfruits. At first I thought Paul was referencing the firstfruits offering from the law.
You must offer up a cake of the first (rêʼshı̂yth)[9] of your finely ground flour as a raised offering; as you offer the raised offering of the threshing floor, so you must offer it up. You must give to the Lord some of the first (rêʼshı̂yth) of your finely ground flour as a raised offering in your future generations.[10] But the firstfruits belonged to the priests and their immediate families: All the best of the olive oil and all the best of the wine and of the wheat, the first fruits (rêʼshı̂yth) of these things that they give to the Lord, I have given to you. And whatever first ripe fruit in their land they bring to the Lord will be yours; everyone who is ceremonially clean in your household may eat of it.[11]
So if the whole batch became holy because of the offering of the firstfruits, the people would have starved, because the whole batch would have belonged to the priests and their immediate families. Paul used the word ἀπαρχὴ in another context in 1 Corinthians. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits (ἀπαρχὴ)[12] of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits (ἀπαρχὴ); then when Christ comes, those who belong to him.[13]
So I think Christ was the fristfruits (ἀπαρχὴ) Paul wrote about, and making the whole batch… holy was not something true of, or done by, the law. It is accomplished through Christ. Later in Romans Paul wrote that the people of Israel are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers.[14] I don’t think he meant that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were of such special merit that their merit would be extended to their descendants. I think he referenced the promises the Lord Jesus made to them, about their descendents, as Yahweh. As Paul wrote earlier, Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: “so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged.”[15]
And Paul continued, if the root is holy, so too are the branches.[16] Here again the Lord Jesus is the root: At that time a root from Jesse will stand like a signal flag for the nations. Nations will look to him for guidance, and his residence will be majestic. At that time the sovereign master will again lift his hand to reclaim the remnant of his people…[17] The Lord Jesus is holy and all who spring forth from him are holy, too.
Then Paul began to describe the attitude Gentile believers should have toward the people of Israel. Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and participated in the richness of the olive root, do not boast over the branches.[18] “I am part of a senseless nation grafted in to make Israel jealous!” is not much to brag about anyway. But if you boast, Paul continued, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. Then you will say, “The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.”[19] Here is a good place to review why the branches were broken off (Jeremiah 11:15-17 NET).
The Lord says to the people of Judah, “What right do you have to be in my temple, my beloved people? Many of you have done wicked things. Can your acts of treachery be so easily canceled by sacred offerings that you take joy in doing evil even while you make them? I, the Lord, once called you a thriving olive tree, one that produced beautiful fruit. But I will set you on fire, fire that will blaze with a mighty roar. Then all your branches will be good for nothing. For though I, the Lord who rules over all, planted you in the land, I now decree that disaster will come on you because the nations of Israel and Judah have done evil and have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal.”
Granted! Paul continued. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear (φοβοῦ, a form of φοβέω)![20] This word φοβοῦ in this form occurs most often in the New Testament as the divine greeting to the fearful flesh of Adam: Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ)![21] Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ), Zechariah…[22] Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ), Mary…[23] Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ)…”[24] Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ), little flock…[25] Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ), people of Zion…[26] The Lord said to Paul by a vision in the night, “Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ)…”[27] Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ), Paul![28] Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ) of the things you are about to suffer.[29] But Paul used it twice in Romans to say, But if you do wrong, be in fear (φοβοῦ)…[30] For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you.[31]
I must be an adulteress[32] at heart. I can’t count how many times I came to this place in Paul’s letter to the Romans, ignored everything I had heard thus far, and ran back to the law. It was like an all-consuming lust that blinded me and made me deaf to everything Paul had said about the law: For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous.[33]
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (which is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed – namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe.[34]
For we consider that a person is declared righteous by faith apart from the works of the law.[35] Do we then nullify the law through faith? Absolutely not! Instead we uphold the law.[36] For the law brings wrath…[37] Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase…[38] For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not![39]
Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage. So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress. So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.[40]
Despite all this when Paul said, Do not be arrogant, but fear (φοβοῦ), I fled in terror from Jesus my Savior back to the law. A Baal worshiper may have thought that he was worshipping the true God. I’m sure I did at the time. A Baal worshiper may have thought that he had found a better god. But I was worshiping myself and my own ability to keep the law, even after years of practical experience and empirical proofs that I could not keep it. Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ); just believe.[41] Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ); just believe…[42]
Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God, Paul continued, harshness toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And even they – if they do not continue in their unbelief – will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?[43]
[3] Romans 10:19 (NET) Table
[4] Deuteronomy 32:21 (NET) Table
[35] Romans 3:28 (NET) Table
[41] Mark 5:36 (NET)
[42] Luke 8:50 (NET)