“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.” (Romans 11:11) “You must not restrict the sense of jealousy to a grudge, as if Israel would envy the nations because grace was offered to them. The sense is, it would cause Israel to long for the salvation that was offered to the nations.” (G. de Koning)
“Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!” (Romans 11:12) Thus Jesus showed Himself unto some of the Jewish remnant after the crucifixion. And He told Peter thrice to feed His Sheep with the spiritual bread. There were others. —> “After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:6) But still the conversion of the apostles and Stephen and others gives us a firm foundation “built on the the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” (Ephesians 2:20)
“For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:13-16) It is said that their acceptance will be life from the dead. "The recovery of the Jews from the apostasy will be as a resurrection. It is a very palpable violation of rational exegesis, by Alford and others, to make the apostle say that the reconversion of the Jews would be [by] an actual bodily resurrection. Their conversion must really be the reversal of their apostasy. As the former was a fall of their souls from grace by unbelief, so the latter must be a recovery of their souls to grace by faith. Nor is there any proof from Scripture that the conversion of the Jews will be forthwith followed by the resurrection.” (Daniel Whedon) “He refers to the recovery of the nations from the death of sin which shall take place when [individual] Jews shall be converted to the Christian faith.” (Albert Barnes) There will be no second chances after the first death appointed for all.
"In the past, Israel failed to give a testimony of the only true God, and even today they don’t do so. At the present time, this testimony should be given by Christians. But is Christianity doing a better job? The portion from Romans 11:16 onwards... teaches you to understand something of God’s dealing with Christianity. Both from Israel and from Christianity, God expected a testimony to be given of Him in this world.” (G. de Koning)
“For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy.” (Romans 11:16a)— “There seems no doubt that ‘the firstfruit’… of verse 16 have reference to Abraham, the father of all Israel, the first man publicly selected to be blessed of God and made a blessing to others (Genesis 12:2).” (L. M. Grant) But more significantly it refers to Christ in whom he believed- the first fruits from the dead. And the lump refers to all from every age who are Christ's at His Second Coming and will be raised by Him. (1 Cor 15:23)
The law or torah of firstfruits is given in Deuteronomy 26:1-4: “When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.’ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God."
Firstfruits was a sheaf of the annual harvest in the land of Israel. It was waived on the third day after Passover. It was waived at the third hour of daylight which could have been when Jesus was presented alive in heaven and the sacrifice of His perfect life was presented before the throne of God to be accepted on our behalf. We are the lump. If Christ is holy; we who believe are holy. This was symbolized by bread also. At Passover there is the LORD’s feast of unleavened bread to ensure that we understand no sin will be in heaven. We will be presented alive on the day that Jesus comes to get His church. However, in the feast of Pentecost, the Israelites were commanded to make two loafs of bread, perhaps representing the remnant of the nation of Israel as well as other nations. In contrast, these are to be “baked with leaven.” Holiness is only by sanctification through God's Word and Spirit. It will be consummated at Jesus’ return to Zion!
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