ROMANS 11: 11-22 The Problems of Jealousy and Presumption
11 “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.
12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!
13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.
15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.’
20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.
21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.” (NKJV)
Introduction
Suppose three apostles, John, Peter and Paul, had lived in Old Testament times. What do you suppose they would have said if they had been asked, as good Presbyterians, to form a committee and to summarise the gospel?
They may have come up with something like this:
“God so loved the Jews that He gave them an everlasting covenant to believe the Messiah, live by faith in Him and His Word, and to pass this message on to the Gentiles.” (They could call it Leviticus 27:35)
We touched on it last time: "jealousy and presumption."
In this passage, the Jews are being challenged by the Apostle Paul to avoid failure to enter into God’s Kingdom and he calls them to trust in Jesus Christ.
By this they have been provoked to jealousy and say: “How dare these Gentiles go into the kingdom before us for whom it has rightly been created?”
(Mt 21:28 "But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ’Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’
21:29 He answered and said, ’I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went.
21:30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ’I go, sir,’ but he did not go.
21:31 ‘Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said to Him, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.
21:32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.’ ”)
OK some relief…(if you have not heard or understood what I have already said please listen to this part.)
Jesus’ parables speak strongly about this jealousy for rightness or justice that the Jews had.
Take the one about the landowner-employer of Matthew 20, whose workers complained that they worked all day but got the same pay as those who came late and only worked part of the day.
This is a powerful parable of the kingdom and who belongs to it and why and how to enter the kingdom of God.
We read about this in Matthew 20: 1-16.
1. Those who arrived early for work agree what their pay, their reward, was to be: 1 denarius = one day’s wages for a manual labourer.
2. Those who arrived at 9am were promised a correct payment: “whatever is right…” (4.) No exact amount is mentioned. So the second group had no guarantee apart from the employer’s word, which they gladly accepted so the responsibility is partly theirs since they willingly bought into it.
3. At noon and at 3pm, two more groups come and the employer does the same thing with these ones who were available to work. He offered them the same deal as the second, 9am, group.
4. At about 5pm he offered work to some who had waited all day to be offered something to do, and they were offered the same as the previous three groups. (i.e. the 9am, noon and 3pm people).
5. The men who were engaged last were paid first. Oh, oh! What is more, and this is what really upset the early arrivals, THEY GOT A FULL DAYS WAGES…
WHAT? “Patently unfair!!!” No, it was grace. They received favour that was not and could not be bought with their work.
“It’s not fair!” Which is fairer, to be treated better than you deserve or to be all treated exactly according to your moral worthiness? You are morally pure, right?
“We want equality!” Well if you want to be equal in every respect do you want the same lives these poor people have? Do you want to live in their villages and carry water?
“We want justice!” Then, says Jesus, by whose standard of justice. You are asking for God’s judgement.
“We want a level playing field!!!” Heaven has not arrived yet. If it were to come today, would you be ready? For in that day God will judge every life on a level playing field.
Jesus ends his parable by teaching this: verse 16:
Mt 20:16 “So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”
The Jews were first, as Paul says at the beginning of Ch. 9 describing them as those, 4-5 “who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.”
The Jews were first but many of them became last.
But there is no level playing field. That is not how life really is!
Life is not a level playing field. Life does not owe you a job paid at the same rate as everybody else! You have to earn it.
By the way, such a standard of payment is communism where the rocket scientist is paid the same as the street cleaner.
How many people get paid far more than you do and yet you have trained hard, worked hard and sacrificed in your life during all this time while you worked at what you do?
Well, look at entertainers! Do they get paid too much?
Many would say so.
Look at the issue of health. Where is there more difference between people but in regard to health?
Should all be free from illness? It would be nice to think so.
Is it true that all people should have the same healthcare?
That is not true in the real world.
There are many reasons, which no one in the world can change for why I may die of cancer, for example.
Is that fair?
Rev. Norman Sheat said to me days before his death as he was very ill and also well aware of the issues. So he said:
“No, it’s not fair. Life is not fair…so get on with it!”
Alan, one of my elders at Wyndham, dying of bone cancer, said to me, said to us all actually. “Some say why me?” And he said, “Why not me?”
Homespun philosophy or truth?
I do not believe in equality of income for everyone, but I do believe in equality of opportunity for everyone.
I do not believe that you can expect everyone to be free from all illness, but that we should try to provide the means for the best possible outcome for them.
Now with God; will you treat Him as a human being?
Do you have a “worker-employer relationship” with Him?
Can He not say: “Hey, you agreed to work for one day’s wages. For one day’s work, you get one day’s wages.”
THERE IS NOTHING UNJUST OR UNFAIR IN THAT. Probably you did not read the employment agreement: Read your Bible. The Bible states that life is not fair, for sin has entered the world and made it polluted, unfair, dirty, unjust, rebellious against God, murderers and thieves abound etc. etc. In fact if we got what we are owed we would be the most miserable of creatures.
Jesus’ words not mine!
Mark 7:18 “Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him,
7:19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?’
7:20 And He said, ‘What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.
7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
7:22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.
7:23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.’ ”
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The Bible teaches that we are needy and as Jesus says “defiled.” “All our righteousness is like filthy rags.” Isa 65: 5b “for we have sinned - In these ways we continue; and we need to be saved. 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
We need to humble ourselves before God, to read God’s Word, listen to Him and obey Him, and to work hard at what He calls us to do.
This is implied in Jesus’ teaching of the two greatest commandments: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ’your neighbor as yourself.’ ” (Lk 10:27)
That we are to treat Him first with respect and love our neighbours as ourselves.
From that humble perspective we will be able to see what Jesus means when He says:
Matthew 20:15 ’Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’
20:16 So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.’ ”
This teaching of Jesus really got up the Jews noses.
The Origin of Modern Human Rights
Many people do not really want to belong to such a kingdom because they have believed the lie that human values and thinking will always determine what is humanly just and fair. You could say the origin of human rights was at the tower of Babel, but I believe it began in the garden where everything was perfect: Eden.
Hence people hold on to so called “human rights” as the primary value for reaching justice and for running today’s world.
But has this anything to do with the Jews?
Oh yes, because Paul says in this Romans passage that they cry foul, get upset and jealous when they see Gentiles going into the kingdom before them.
Jews demand their rights.
They claim to have a right to the things of heaven, to God’s kingdom of heaven. After all are they not God’s chosen people and have they not lived good lives?
But Paul denies them this as he said at the beginning:
Romans 2:11 “For there is no partiality with God. 12 For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law…”
He reminds the Romans that if the non Jews come in by faith and are blessed with eternal salvation through Christ, that God is perfectly justified in doing so even if it provokes the Jews to jealousy!
At least that is the method Paul is working with in order to provoke them to want what they haven’t got.
13 “For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.”
Rom 11:14 “Perhaps I can make the people of my own race jealous, and so be able to save some of them.” (GNB)
So Paul is consistent here, as he had stated in Ch 9:1, how he was so desperate to see all of his own people, the Jews, to be saved, and Ch 10:1: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”
Paul sees that while he is desperate on their behalf, he will have to see his people, the Jews, desperate also; in fit of jealousy even, before the last of them will come to Jesus Christ in faith.
Rights have nothing to do with it: one and all must come through faith in Jesus Christ.
Presumption
At the same time, the Jews are not to be looked down on as somehow inferior to us Gentiles, because it is by God’s grace that anyone can come to Him through faith in Christ and no one should presume to be above anyone else.
As an example of what Paul means he says: 15 “For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.”
Paul’s teaching is based on the Covenant God made with Israel at the beginning. (See verse 26 which we will come to another occasion)
“The most decisive thing about this New Covenant is that Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, died for sinners so that both Jews and Gentiles who trust him would become the heirs of the Old Testament promises. Jesus taught this when he said, “I tell you, many will come from east and west [meaning Gentiles] and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:11-12). In other words, Gentiles who believe in Jesus the Messiah are included in the blessing of Abraham. And Jews who don’t believe in Jesus are excluded from the blessings of Abraham.” John PIPER
In my Yahoo email dated 7 OCT 2009)
Do you sometimes think you may be missing out on God’s salvation?
What is your attitude to God about that?
Do you feel jealous at how others seem to know God and you are not sure if you do or not?
Or do you take the more common position:
I am glad I am not like those sinners who do not go to church and do things for God…who don’t behave the way I think they should!
Either way, as a jealous person or a self-righteous one, you need to ask God to help you repent and believe the gospel and surrender yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
