Study Guide: God Has Not Rejected Israel
Quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB); please check each one in your own Bible.
The Big Idea
The big idea: Paul asks the question himself — “did God reject his people?” (Romans 11:1) — and answers it in the strongest words his language holds: “May it never be!” (Romans 11:1). God has not rejected Israel and has not replaced her with the church; Gentile believers are grafted into Israel's own olive tree and share her hope, and Israel as a people will yet turn to Jesus, at a time the Father has set.
Read Aloud
I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God didn’t reject his people, whom he foreknew.
— Romans 11:1–2
For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.” Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
— Romans 11:25–29
Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority.
— Acts 1:6–7
Where We Stand
Scripture says
- “God didn’t reject his people, whom he foreknew.” (Romans 11:2)
- “For Yahweh won’t reject his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.” (Psalm 94:14)
- “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29)
- Concerning the election, Israel is beloved for the fathers' sake (Romans 11:28).
- A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:25–26).
- Gentile believers, a wild olive, were grafted in among the branches and share the root of the olive tree (Romans 11:17–18).
- Natural branches, if they don't continue in their unbelief, will be grafted into their own olive tree (Romans 11:23–24).
- The risen Jesus corrected the timing of the kingdom restored to Israel, not the hope of it: times and seasons are the Father's (Acts 1:6–7).
- Israel's offspring will cease from being a nation before God only if the ordinances of the sun, the moon, and the stars depart from before him (Jeremiah 31:35–36).
- The new covenant is made with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah (Jeremiah 31:31; Hebrews 8:8).
We conclude
- Our conclusion: God has not replaced Israel; Gentile believers share Israel's hope without replacing her, and there is one people of God in one olive tree (Romans 11:17–24, 29).
- Our conclusion: Matthew 21:43 was spoken to the chief priests and Pharisees about their stewardship, as they themselves perceived (Matthew 21:45); it removes the stewards, not the people's calling.
- Our conclusion: Israel as a people will turn to Jesus in faith, at a time the Father has set; her turning is to him, by faith, as the nations' is — there is no way of salvation beside him (Romans 11:23, 25–26; Acts 1:7).
The Hard Questions
- Doesn't Jesus say Jerusalem's house is left to her desolate (Matthew 23:38)? See The strongest objection under God Did Not Reject His People.
- Doesn't Paul say that not all Israel are Israel (Romans 9:6–8)? See The strongest objection under Grafted In Among Them.
- Isn't the church named God's Israel (Galatians 6:16)? See A second objection under Grafted In Among Them.
- Wasn't the kingdom taken away from Israel and given to another nation (Matthew 21:43)? See The Vineyard Given to Other Farmers.
- Are Israel's titles handed to the church instead (1 Peter 2:9)? See A second objection under The Vineyard Given to Other Farmers.
- Doesn't Hebrews say the first covenant is obsolete (Hebrews 8:13)? See The strongest objection under The Kingdom Restored to Israel — in the Father's Time.
- Doesn't Paul put the present Jerusalem in bondage, and call the Jerusalem above the mother of us all (Galatians 4:24–26)? See A second objection under The Kingdom Restored to Israel — in the Father's Time.
- How is the teaching stated by those who hold it, and what do we share with them? See The Teaching We Differ From.
- Does salvation depend on settling these questions? See Whether salvation depends on these questions under Questions Answered.
Discussion Questions
- What question does Paul ask at Romans 11:1, and how does he answer it — in what words? (See God Did Not Reject His People.)
- In the account Paul retells, what does God's answer to Elijah — seven thousand who had not bowed the knee — show about the claim that God had cast Israel off? (See God Did Not Reject His People.)
- What does the word “until” (Matthew 23:39) leave open, and why does it matter? (See The strongest objection under God Did Not Reject His People.)
- Into whose olive tree are Gentile believers grafted, and what are they warned not to do toward the broken branches? (See Grafted In Among Them.)
- To whom was “God’s Kingdom will be taken away from you” (Matthew 21:43) spoken, and how does Matthew himself tell us? (See The Vineyard Given to Other Farmers.)
- In Acts 1:6–7, what does the risen Jesus correct, and what does he leave standing? (See The Kingdom Restored to Israel — in the Father's Time.)
Hope
The hope of this article is not a smaller church but a fuller world: the root that supports us still stands, the God who grafted wild branches in can graft natural ones in again, and the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). “Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved.” (Romans 10:1).
For the Leader
Allow about 35 minutes for one session. Read Romans 11:1–2 and 25–29 first, then Acts 1:6–7. Invite everyone to open and check each verse in their own Bible.
© 2026 Elvis Lucas, Open the Text. Original: https://openthetext.com/series/test-the-teaching/07-god-has-not-rejected-israel-study-guide/
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