Chapter 33

God Is Not Finished With Israel!

Romans 11:16-36

 

Romans 11 is not an easy chapter to understand.  But neither is it impossible.  The verses that form our text for today demand our full attention.  Let's roll up our sleeves and wade in!  The Lord has a great deal to teach us through this passage.

 

Romans 11 gives us an explanation of God's dealings with Jews and Gentiles.  It is important that you remember that the Apostle is not thinking of individuals here but of entire ethnic groups.  Paul wants us to understand that while the Jews are in a present state of rejection, God is not finished with Israel.  What we Gentiles now enjoy was once available to the Jews.  Because of their rejection, God turned His attention away from the Jew and toward the Gentile.  But in the future, God is going to concentrate on Israel again.  The Jew is now being disciplined, but only temporarily.  The Gentile is now enjoying the opportunity for salvation, but that is not a reason for pride or smugness.

 

 

A Word Picture, vv. 15-17

 

Paul uses two word pictures to make his point.  The first one relates to baking.  Verse 16  For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy.  Numbers 15:19-21 commanded that "Of the first of your dough ye shall give unto the LORD an ... offering."  The same thing was true of the firstfruits of one's field.  It was a way of recognizing that the entire provision came from the Lord. 

 

The second analogy relates to gardening and horticulture and this is where the apostle lingers.  "And if the root be holy, so are the branches."  These two analogies are about the nation of Israel.  Just as the firstfruits symbolized the entire provision, just as the root is related to the branches, God's past promises to Israel are connected to the future.  When God accepts the part, He sanctifies the whole.  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the firstfruits, the root.  Israel is the lump, the branches.  God is not finished with Israel.  The firstfruit is a promise of things to come.  The root is an indication of future branches and fruit.

 

But some of the branches were broken off, v. 17a.  Some of the Jewish descendents of Abraham have been pruned away because of their unbelief in Messiah.  And in there place, non-Jews have been grafted into the Abrahamic tree, v. 17b.  And because of this graft, Gentiles reap great spiritual blessings.

 

Grafts are an amazing thing to me.  Back in the spring, Carla and I went looking for some landscaping ideas for our place.  We saw some amazing looking trees - topiaries.  The landscape dude said that these were grafts of three kinds of plants - root systems from one, tree stems (trunks) from another and leaf formations from still a third.  The result was amazing and beautiful.  And that's what we are  - a graft.

 

 

A Word Of Warning, vv. 18-24

 

Verses 18-24 are a warning directed toward Gentile Christians. 

 

Don't Overestimate Yourself.  Being alongside Jewish believers in terms of our spiritual position is no reason for arrogance.  After all, the branches don't support the roots - it's the opposite - the roots support the branches, v. 18.  We Gentile Christians are obliged to the Jews.  We should never consider ourselves better than the Jews.  Someone might say, "Those branches were broken off so that I could be graft in" (v. 19).  O.K.  But it's not them versus you.  It's unbelief vs. faith.  The Jewish branches were broken off because of unbelief.  The Gentiles were graft in because of faith, v.  20.  Not a reason for arrogance but rather for humble reverence.  After all, (v. 21) if God was willing to break off the natural branches, would He hesitate to break of the engrafted ones?

 

Don't Underestimate God.  There is something that you need to understand about God and His character.  It is at the same time, both good and severe, v. 22.  God is not just a cosmic killjoy who looks down from heaven and says, "There's one having fun; I'd better send some trial into his life."  Nor is God the cosmic Santa Claus, a soft and sentimental God who only loves everyone and would never send a sinner to hell.  God is both good and severe at the same time.  In His goodness, He is gracious and merciful, generous and kind, patient and longsuffering.  But God is also severe.  He is holy and just and altogether righteous, so holy that He cannot overlook sin and rejection.  He must, by His very nature, punish evil and unbelief.  And according to Paul, God's dealings with Jews and Gentiles reveal both aspects of God's character.  At the present, Israel is experiencing the severity of God and the Gentiles are experiencing the goodness of God.  But that goodness is based on the faith, vv. 22b-24.  The very opposite of what is happening now could possibly take place, if Israel would believe and the Gentiles would reject. 

 

A Word Of Prophecy, vv. 25-29

 

Israel’s full and final recovery has surely been implied in the preceding verses, but lest there be any doubt that God is going to restore Israel.  The final recovery of Israel is clearly established in verses 25-32.

 

The failure of the nation Israel at present is only partial, for there is a faithful remnant of Jewish saints.  But more than this, the failure of Israel is only temporary, for when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in God will once again cause His wayward nation to return to Him. He will remove their sins and will restore then to privileges and blessing (verses 26, 27).

 

The Gentiles are having their day of salvation and blessing due to Israel’s unbelief. But the day of the Gentile will come to an end and Israel’s day is soon coming. The fullness of the Gentiles refers to that time when the day of the Gentiles ends and the restoration of Israel begins.

 

When Paul writes in verse 26 that “all Israel will be saved,” he does not mean that every individual Israelite will be saved, but that the nation in general will turn to God in faith and obedience.  Although the Jews are at present the "enemies of the gospel,"  they are also "the beloved for the fathers sake."  Israel’s national future is  based upon God’s faithfulness to His covenants made with their forefathers. “the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance” (v. 29).  Here is the key to Israel’s future; it is God’s faithfulness to His word.

 

 

A Word Of Praise, vv. 30-36

 

Through this entire section of scripture, Paul has been emphasizing one thing - that salvation is by grace through faith. 

 

Gentile are saved, not because they are better than Jews, but because they have received God's mercy, v. 30.  Israel is going to be saved, not because they become good but because they also receive God's mercy, v. 31.  There is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile.  Both are unbelievers.  Both are saved only by the grace and mercy of God, v. 32.

 

To which Paul simply bursts forth in praise to God, vv. 33-36.  Having contemplated God's great plan of salvation for Jews and Gentiles, all Paul could do was sing a hymn of praise.  As someone said, "Theology becomes doxology."  Only a God as wise as our God can make the fall of Israel turn into the salvation for the world.  His plans will not be thwarted, nor His purposes lack fulfillment.  No human being can fully know the mind of the Lord.  The more we study His ways, the more we offer Him praise.