In the Book of Romans, Chapter Two, the Jewish Apostle Paul rails against the sinful nature of man, then specifically calls out his Jewish brethren for their high-handed religious attitude. He is harsh in his criticism, chastising them for basically giving lip service to the law while flaunting their position in it before the Gentiles.
Perhaps in a coup de grace, in verse 24 he quotes Isaiah 52:5, "For 'the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,' as it is written." That's an awfully strong accusation.
It is somewhat curious that Paul is addressing the Jewish population of Rome since His opening salutation in Chapter One is generally agreed to be to the Gentile believers there. Yet in 2:17 he writes, "Indeed you are called a Jew," indicating his intended audience was both Jewish and Gentile believers. Further curiosity involves how there were Gentile believers in Rome since Paul had not yet been there to evangelize them. While there doesn't seem to be any conclusive evidence, one popular theory involves the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem at Shavuot (Pentecost).
Roman Jews were among those present there (Acts 2:10). It is quite possible they brought the Gospel back to their city, spreading the message of Messiah Yeshua to both their fellow Jews, as well as Gentiles. That would help explain how the Epistle addresses both groups. It might also explain part of Paul's reference in the phrase, "For the Jew first, and also for the Gentile." He actually uses that basic wording a total of three times in the Book, 1:16, 2:9 & 10. Simply put, it is chronologically correct. Jesus came as a Jew, to the Jews. All the Apostles, including Paul, and almost all the early disciples were Jewish. They got the message first.
But there seems to be a weightier implication about expectations for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Although Paul equates the positive and negative outcomes of faith, or lack of it, for both Jews and Gentiles, saying in 2:11, " For there is no partiality with God," there's more to his comparison.
Romans 3:1 & 2 shows the depth of the responsibility of Jewish people. "What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God." In other words, the Lord had a purpose in giving His Word to His chosen people.
Consider this in light of the role of a teacher. Some of the students will understand the subject matter, and some won't. Some will excel above and beyond the status of the teacher, some will not. Regardless, the onus is on the instructor to purvey the truth accurately.
Clearly, the Jews of the first century were the disseminators of the truth of Jesus as God's Messiah, His only Son. But the ways of the world and the influences of biblical ignorance, among other things, has drastically changed that reality. But it hasn't changed the original assignment. The benefit of that assignment is not to the glory of the Jewish people, but for the glory of the Kingdom of God. There are many who believe the great revival we all seek will significantly involve, or even be led by, Messianic Jews; that there will be revival among the unsaved Jews first, and then also among the unsaved Gentiles.
As Paul writes later in Romans 11:11 & 12 about his Jewish brethren, “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!”
There can be no scriptural doubt about God’s view of all believers in Jesus, both Jew and Gentile, as equal. Nevertheless, God’s faithfulness to His covenant promises to Israel are evident. Throughout history, attempts to annihilate the Jewish people - the pograms of Eastern Europe, the Holocaust, Anti-Semitism, modern day terrorism, even the plot of the evil Haman in the days of Esther - while tragically horrendous, have all ultimately failed.
When Yeshua said in Matthew 23:39, “For I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,’” He was speaking to the Jewish people in Jerusalem. Jewish believers will welcome Him back at His second coming.
What advantage has the Jew? Much in every way!
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Writing his Epistle to the Romans, the Jewish Apostle Paul clarified an issue critical to the body of believers in that day, one that still is to this day. In Chapter 3, verse 29, “Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.”
The particular significance here revolves around the word “also.”
There was great controversy in the years after Messiah’s resurrection concerning the inclusion of Gentiles in the faith of Yeshua HaMashiach. After all, the title Gentiles (sometimes translated nations) effectively meant heathen - those who were not of Israel and thus worshiped foreign gods. The Jewish people looked down on Gentiles as spiritual low-life.
Indeed, the Tanakh supported that view in quite a number of passages (although there were also positive citations that were seen as carrying less weight), referring to them as defiled (unclean). There was a warning in Deuteronomy 7:3 not to intermarry with them, and Gentiles were forbidden from entering the inner court of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Jewish people called them dogs, an aspersion even Jesus used in Matthew 15:26.
So it is easy to see how the religious and cultural view of Gentiles fostered an attitude which precluded them from the body of faith in the Jewish Messiah. It was something like, Yeshua is for Jews only. How ironic that that attitude would be flipped to He is not for Jews. In fact, it is clear Paul himself perceived faith in Yeshua as being 100 % Jewish. As he wrote in Romans 1:16, the power of God’s salvation was, “for the Jew first.” But then he added that powerful word, “and also for the Gentile.”
Understanding the fervency of the religious leaders of that time, primarily the Pharisees and the Sadducees, brings perspective to the seriousness of the Gentile issue. The average person in Israel was the equivalent of an Orthodox Jew. Even Peter, who of course was a commoner with no special training or status, proclaimed in Acts 10:14 that he kept strict kosher.
However the religious hierarchy of the Sadducees, who controlled the Holy Temple and the priesthood, and the Pharisees, whose base involved the synagogues, were zealots. The nature of their constant challenges to the ministry of Jesus makes that clearly evident. They held a tight grip of influence over the nation.
An example of this influence is evident in Acts 11:3. Messianic leaders in Jerusalem were furious with Peter for going into a Roman soldiers residence. Even Paul (pre Damascus Road) was one who shared their over-the-top religious passion. Again, how perfectly ironic that God called him, anti-Yeshua and no friend of the Gentiles, to be the one who spearheaded the presentation of Jesus to the pagan world.
So while the coming of the Messiah was anticipated and debated, the messianic concept was always seen as a “Jewish only” reality. Thus, when Paul wrote about the mystery (he actually referred to a few different issues as a mystery) in Ephesians 3:5, he said “Which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:”
And what was that mystery? He explained his shocking revelation in the next verse, “That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Messiah through the gospel.”
In Ephesians 2, Paul used the Holy Temple to drive home this new point of view. First, in verse 11 he reiterated the heathen nature of the Gentiles as, “without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Then, he declared the blood of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, had made it spiritually possible for those on the outside (Gentiles) to be welcomed inside where only the Jews were allowed.
Alluding further to the Temple in verse 14, he said, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.” That middle wall kept the Gentiles from entering the inner court; and the “both” who had been made one were the Jews and the Gentiles. In verse 16, Paul wrote that Yeshua had “Reconciled them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” Enmity means hostility.
Now here’s another amazing part. Shavuot (Pentecost), was a time when Leviticus 23:17 commanded that there be, “ two wave loaves . . .baked with leaven.”
However, Leviticus 2:11 specified, “No grain offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven. Shavuot was the only exception to this commandment.”
We believe the two loaves baked with leaven, a symbol of sin, represented the sinful Jews and the sinful Gentiles, and were to be waved together before the altar of God, thereby demonstrating the unity of the two groups in the body of believers. It has been God’s intended purpose all along.