Beyond Understanding

Series on Romans

XIV Election and the Plan

D All Israel Included

Text: 11:11-36

Introduction

This is a difficult passage although I do not suppose that Paul intended it to be. The primary agent creating this difficulty is the extremely widespread conviction that God’s primary interest in the Bible is in Israel and that the Gentiles are more or less along for the ride. We have tried to dispel that view in our earlier studies by showing that it was God’s intention to be the God of all nations and peoples from the beginning, a fact of which God frequently reminds Israel throughout the prophets and the Psalms. Israel didn’t get the message and neither have many Christians. The source of this confusion is the vigorous promotion and propagation of an interpretation of Scripture called dispensationalism. This method compels the interpreter to believe that all the Old Testament promises to physical Israel must be physically fulfilled. In other words, the promise of the land of Canaan to the patriarchs cannot be fulfilled by a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, even though Hebrews says Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. You see the problem. If you have been conditioned to believe that the physical descendants of Abraham still have a claim on God’s physical promises then it will strongly influence the way you read Romans 11. If, on the other hand, your understanding of prophecy and its fulfillment does not require a role for Israel in the future, then you will read the words with a different meaning, and significance. I daresay that a careful exegesis of this passage supports the thesis that it’s over for Israel as a nation, but the language is such that those enamored of a future for the physical descendants of Abraham as a nation can find support here.

I Danger

The Apostle first addresses the many Gentiles in the Church at Rome. This Church had many Jews as as well as Gentiles, but it would have been easy for the Gentiles to think that preaching the gospel to the Jews was a lost cause. This was the danger. Had not God rejected them? Didn’t Jesus predict that their temple would be destroyed? In chapters 1-3 the Apostle made clear that both Jew and Gentile were on the same footing before God and both desperately needed salvation by grace. Here he continues the same thought by pointing out that the issue has never been whether you are a Jew or Gentile. The issue has always been God’s sovereign electing love. This is the basis of his reminding the Gentiles not to be proud and boastful. It is no secret that the early church was plagued by Judaizers who existed by virtue of the fact that the Jews were not able to make a clean and total break from their OT roots. The major conflict in the first century church was over the Jewish versus the Gentile versions of the gospel. Here, in verses 11-24 Paul is laying down the philosophical foundation for total cooperation, love and brotherhood between the Jewish and Gentile converts. Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! There is nothing radically new in this passage. Jew and Gentile are on the same footing before God. Both are totally lost in sin and both are able to be saved only by the grace of God received through faith. This means that both are equally liable to fall through pride. Both can and should trace their heritage back to Abraham and both must imitate Abraham’s justifying faith. This encouragement to unity is the same as that urged in Hebrews 10:23-25. The author had led us to understand that there is one house of God for Jews and Gentile, and one Savior for both, and one Most Holy Place that is open to both through the blood of Jesus, and so he says, Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

II Division

Now we also learn from the first section of this text that God’s forsaking of Israel was due to their unbelief and that unbelief provided the historical opportunity for the opening of God’s mercy to the whole world, or all the nations of Gentiles. The Apostle continues that thought in verses 25-32, I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. Again, Paul is emphasizing the equality of Jew and Gentile before God as one writer points out, “Again we see the same profit brought to the Gentiles through the stubbornness of the Jews and the expected blessings to the Jews through the blessings brought to the Gentiles.” But, then he points out that We must be careful before running to the view which sees a revival of the Jews before Christ returns. This blessing might also be understood in the partial hardening rather than the total rejection we would expect to see under God’s judgment. Even during judgment God has preserved a remnant and the remnant He will be sure to save so that at the end all of Israel will be saved.” We need to keep in view the contrast of verse 12 of our text, But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! Here Paul contrasts the loss (of privilege and position) with the fulness. If the loss is partial then why not the fullness? Much misinterpretation of this passage stems from the insistence that the choosing of Israel meant the choosing of every individual Israelite. It did not mean that in the past and it does not mean that in the present or the future. The fullness of Israel is now what it always has been the salvation of each elect or chosen Israelite, and this is the same as the full number of the Gentiles mentioned in verse 25. The burden of Paul’s argument here is not that all Jews will be saved in the future, but rather that the grace of God is extended equitably to both Jew and Gentile under the gospel.

III Doxology

Paul closes with a doxology. He praises God for his sovereign mercy and grace in verses 33-36, Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. This is a remarkable conclusion to a section that began with a lament over Israel’s loss in 9:2-4, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. At the beginning of Paul’s discussion of Israel in chapters 9-11 he informs us that the true Israel is not the natural but the spiritual, the children of promise and he goes on to remind us of God’s sovereign choice of Jacob over Esau before their birth, and then in chapter 10:16 he says, But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” God’s sovereign plan has been at the heart of everything Paul has taught us about Israel in chapters 9-11. These chapters are explaining the historical outworking of what Paul taught in the preceding eighth chapter in verses 28-30, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. Thus Paul must conclude with a paean of praise to the sovereign almighty God of whom we read in Daniel 4:35, All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?” No matter how much people complain about the injustice and the lack of fairness of God’s government, that will not change the fact that His judgments are unsearchable and wise and only fools challenge them.