Romans Chapter 11:1-10
1I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: 3"Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"? 4And what was God’s answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
7What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened,
8as it is written:
"God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes so that they could not see
and ears so that they could not hear,
to this very day."
9And David says:
"May their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
10May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever."
So the question is asked, did God’s plan fail for the Jew? Did God reject the Jewish people?
This discussion began back in chapter 8 with a similar question for Christians, that is, how can we as Christians believe in eternal security. If God has in some way rejected chosen Israel then maybe He will reject us.
Paul’s response to this (Romans 9:6) was that God’s plan for Israel did not fail “6It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.”
Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
True Israel are those who like Abraham had faith in God and what God told him, no matter what that was. Abraham was saved by his faith not in the hope of fulfillment of the Law.
To prove his point of the question “did Gods plan fail for Israel”. Paul unfolds seven points found in chapters 9-11.
1)God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because all whom God has elected to salvation are or will be saved (Rom. 9:6-24). That is what it comes down to. God never promised the Jews that if they would be a member of some club called Judaism that He would give them all salvation. God never promised us that if we became a member of some club called Christianity that we would be saved. It has never been about being a part of anything. It has never been about us doing anything. It has been about God out of His kindness, His love and His grace will save some when not one deserved it.
2)God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because God had previously revealed that not all Israel would be saved and that some Gentiles would be (Rom. 9:25-29). Now if God had promised that all Jews would be saved and then failed to save some of them, indeed God’s word would have failed. But this is not the case, in fact God had foretold that many Jews would not believe and would be scattered and that, some Gentiles would be gathered in faith in Christ.
3)God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because the failure of the Jews to believe was their own fault, not God’s (Rom. 9:30-10:21). The majority of Jews felt that they could accomplish salvation on there own. They felt that their works would pay for their salvation. The fact is God never told them that. God told them to have faith and believe. From the beginning of Judaism starting with Abraham that was the way it was accomplished, but the Jews kind of pushed that aside, they didn’t want to see it even though it was right in front of their faces.
4)God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because some Jews (Paul himself being one) have believed and have been saved (Rom. 11:1). God did not reject the Jew as a whole; in fact He did save some. He saved the true Israel, those who had faith. Those who didn’t have faith were not truly Israel.
5)God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because it has always been the case that even in the worst of times a remnant has been saved (Rom. 11:2-10). Even in the time of Elijah when the Jew was in one of its darkest periods, we see by Gods own count, seven thousand Jews that had stayed faithful to Him.
6)God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because The salvation of the Gentiles, which is now occurring, is meant to arouse Israel to envy and thus be the means of saving some of them (Rom. 11:11-24). God is God, He can choose who He wants to save and choose who He wants not to save, that is why He is God. Paul here is saying in these verses that we as Christians are helping to make Israel see the path a little clearer. We hopefully will get Israel back on the right path.
7)God’s historical purpose toward the Jewish nation has not failed, because in the end all Israel will be saved, that is all who are truly Israel, and thus God will fulfill His promise to them (Rom. 11-25-32). Just like us as Christians all those who say they are Christians does not make them true Christians, so it is with Israel. God knows whose faith is real and whose is not.
Leon Morris – Paul has made it clear that God is working out a great purpose and has insisted on divine predestination and election; the will of God is done. He has also insisted that human responsibility is real and important, and he has made it plain that this must be borne in mind when considering the fact that Israel has not entered the blessing as Gentiles believers have. What then does it matter to belong to the chosen people? At first sight, it may seem, not very much, for Gentiles may be saved as well as Jews. But it is far from Paul’s thought that being a Jew matters little. He goes on to show that, while in the providence of God, Israel’s sin and unbelief have been used to open up the way for the Gentiles, now the conversion of Gentiles will lead to the conversion of Jews. The Jews still have a place in God’s plan.
Gods plan for all His people is still in the works, it is still being revealed to us every day. We are responsible for helping the Jew come to faith in Christ. It is because of them that God made it possible for us to come to salvation so we must in return do our part for Israel. It is all a part of Gods big plan. God is not done with Israel yet. Christians & Jews are tied together.
Romans 11:5-6 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
Grace - Is that God knowing that not one of us unworthy sinners had the ability or the true desire to come to faith and salvation on our own, knowing this, God decided out of His love for us to save some of us anyway even though none deserved it.
This word grace is used in the New Testament 128 times! You think God thinks we can be thick headed at times? He doesn’t think He knows. 128 times he feels the need to tell us about grace. You think this means a lot to Him. He wants to make sure that we fully and completely understand grace.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. Expound
It appears to me that God wants it to be very clear about the Grace He gives us.
Grace should give us a fantastic picture on the emphasis that nothing we do, not one tiny thing, has anything to do with our salvation.
Since we started studying Romans, at times I feel like a scratched record, and that I am stuck on the same spot. God tells us in almost every chapter that it was not us but Him; it was not us but Him; it was not us but Him. Sometimes I think that one of you is going to come up here and knock me in the head and say stop repeating yourself. But it is not me but God through Paul’s words that repeat. The truth through verse by verse teaching hits us right in the face. We can’t avoid it. God convicts us of these facts time after time.
If God feels this is important enough to say 128 times, then God knows best and I am going to preach it 128 times.
I pray God has been driving this point into your hearts and in to your minds week after week. This is a very important fact to God, and He wants to make sure we understand it. We can not take the credit for anything that had to do with our salvation.
I know at times it makes us feel good to think that it must have been us even in some little way. But in doing this we take the glory away from God and we diminish in at least part the work of Jesus.
Jesus came because we could not do it ourselves and God sent Him to get the job done for us.
The truth direct from God.
We must take joy in the fact that we, undeserving sinners, were thought of highly enough by God to sacrifice His only Son for our imperfections. We must humble ourselves in our inability to come to Him, we must rejoice in this, and by doing this we will insure that all the glory is in the right place at that is with God.
