Why don’t they get it? Maybe you have family members or close friends who don’t believe in Jesus. You’ve tried and tried to explain the gospel to them, but they’re just not interested – they just don’t want to hear it. Why can’t they see what you see?

This was Paul’s experience, for the Jewish people of His time were His kinsmen, people he knew and loved. Again and again, he went into their synagogues and told them what the Old Testament said about Jesus. But no matter how carefully he explained the real meaning of the Scriptures to them, many of them refused to listen. Even though Jesus really was their Messiah, they didn’t want Him.

So, how was Paul to understand the promises that God had made to Abraham, promises to be the God of Abraham’s descendants? Well, in the first place, Paul remembered that this wasn’t the first time in the history of God’s people that many of them had turned away from God. In the days of Elijah, regardless of the amazing miracles he had done, and regardless of the truth of his preaching, many people preferred to worship Baal rather than to worship God. Elijah became so discouraged about it that he wanted to die.

But God reminded Elijah that no matter how many of God’s people turned away from Him, there were others that remained faithful (v. 4). That was certainly true in Paul’s time. After all, Paul himself was Jewish, as were all the twelve apostles. The Book of Acts says that thousands, multitudes of the Jewish people of his time had become followers of Christ. So God was in fact keeping His covenant promise to Abraham. God had not rejected His Old Testament people out of hand (v. 2).

But Paul also understood that those who had come to believe in Christ had done so because of God’s grace (v. 6). It was God Who had opened their eyes to see Jesus. It was God Who had opened their ears to believe the words of the gospel that they had heard. God had saved Paul and Paul was confident that God would save others in the same way.

And God is still the One Who comes to sinners like us and our loved ones, drawing us to Himself and making us His own. So don’t give up on those who don’t yet trust in Christ. Keep praying for them and keep pointing to Jesus, just as Paul did. After all, God used Paul to save many of his kinsmen. So, maybe He’ll use your words and prayers in a similar way, in His time.

Romans 11:1-24 (NASB)

I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
3 “Lord, they have killed Thy prophets, they have torn down Thine altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.”
4 But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
5 In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.
6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.
7 What then? That which Israel is seeking for, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened;
8 just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, Eyes to see not and ears to hear not, Down to this very day.”
9 And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, And a stumbling block and a retribution to them.
10 “Let their eyes be darkened to see not, And bend their backs forever.”
11 I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.
12 Now if their transgression be riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!
13 But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14 if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.
15 For if their rejection be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
16 And if the first piece of dough be holy, the lump is also; and if the root be holy, the branches are too.
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree,
18 do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”
20 Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear;
21 for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you.
22 Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.
23 And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more shall these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?