Dr. J. Vernon McGee :: Dispensational, Chapters 9—11

Dispensational

Now the Jew will step up and say (and would have in Paul’s day), “But, Paul, we have the Old Testament, and in the Old Testament we know that God had a plan and a purpose for our nation. Has this wonderful plan of salvation nullified God’s plan for our nation?” Paul says, “No.”

God’s Past Dealings with Israel

First of all, Paul lets us know here in chapter 9 who these people are:

Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises. (Romans 9:4)

He speaks of God’s past dealings with Israel, and he identifies them. They are not Anglo-Saxon nor any so-called lost tribe. They happen to be Jews, my friend, and you cannot in any way disturb or destroy that. I think that the silliest thing of all the silly things taught by the cults is British Israelism. I’ve just never quite understood how people could go into that sort of thing unless it’s prompted by egotism, of wanting to feel that they are the chosen people.

Well, it is true that if we have been saved, we are chosen in Christ; we are elect in Christ today, but not because of some natural heritage that we might have. Paul is speaking about Israelites, and he identifies them as such. They were the race that Christ came from, if you please. He was an Israelite. They were the ones to whom God gave a religion.

God’s Present Purpose with Israel

Now God has a purpose for the nation of Israel. What is His present plan, right today, for that nation? Listen to Paul:

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. (Romans 10:1)

They, today, are as lost as any Gentile is lost because they cannot be saved by religion. Religion won’t save anybody. Even with a God-given religion, they are as far from God as anyone is. They need to be saved as Paul says, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” Just as Gentiles are saved, Jews are saved also. May I say to you, God is saving them today. God’s present plan is that they be saved and brought into the body of believers, the church (see Ephesians 2:11-22).

God’s Future Purpose with Israel

But wait a minute. Does that destroy God’s plan for the future? No. After God gets through with His plan for the church, Paul says,

I say, then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew.... (Romans 11:1, 2)

Paul makes it quite evident here that as soon as God consummates His plan for the church, of calling out of both Jew and Gentile a people to His name and takes the church out of the earth, He will return again to the nation Israel and begin to deal with them.

That, my friend, is the dispensational section.