The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-18, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 46."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2000 by John MacArthur, All Rights Reserved.

Question

Paul said that the Gentile Church was grafted into the tree to make the Jews jealous.  How do you know a jealous Jew from an antagonistic Jew?

Answer

An antagonistic Jew has a resentful attitude toward the gospel.  A jealous Jew has a longing for what he doesn't have and he sees belongs to somebody else.  And the purposes of God in making Israel jealous was not to excite their antagonism but to excite their longing.  If a person is jealous it can be resentment in one sense, but it can also be born out of the fact that somebody has what you really want, and I think that is the essence of a kind of jealously that God would desire to produce in the heart of a Jew, that a Jew would see the profound blessing of God, the blessing of Messiah on the life of a Gentile and say, "How is that the Gentiles can have that?  How is it that the Church can have that?--that forgiveness of sin; that hope of eternal life; that working of God--and I don't have that!--therefore exciting the longing and the desire rather than inciting some kind of bitter antagonism toward it. 

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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