Boldly and searchingly personal as the preceding words had been, the final turn of Christ's answer must have had a still sharper and more distasteful edge. He had struck a blow at Jewish trust in outward connection with Messiah as ensuring participation in His kingdom. He now says that the Gentiles shall fill the vacant places. Many Jews will be unable to enter, for all their seeking, but still there will be many saved; for troops of hated Gentiles shall come from every corner of the earth, and the sight of them sitting beside the fathers of the nation, while Israel after the flesh is shut out, will move the excluded to weeping--the token of sorrow, which yet has in it no softening nor en-trance-securing effect, because it passes into gnashing of teeth,' the sign of anger. Such sorrow worketh death.
Such fierce hatred, joined with stiff-necked obstinacy, has characterised the Jew ever since Jerusalem fell. If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.' Israel was first, and has become last. The same causes which sent it from the van to the rear have worked like effects in Christendom,' as witness Asia Minor and the mosques into which Christian churches have been turned.
These causes will produce like effects wherever they become dominant. Any church and any individual Christian who trusts in outward connection with Christ, and works iniquity, will sooner or later fall into the rear, and if repentance and faith do not lead it or him through the strait gate, will be among those last' who are so far behind that they are shut out altogether. Let us be not high-minded, but fear.'
