“A Healthy Jealousy”
Romans 11:11-14
Last week we looked at Romans 11:9-10, which is Paul quoting from Psalm 69: “And David says, "LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE AND A TRAP, AND A STUMBLING BLOCK AND A RETRIBUTION TO THEM. 10 "LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED TO SEE NOT, AND BEND THEIR BACKS FOREVER ."
This is the condition which God placed upon the majority of national Israel, even today: Blind eyes and bent backs, but it is also the sinful condition of EVERY HEART that refuses to accept God’s free gift of righteousness in Christ’s work: A hard and disobedient heart toward God cause us to be bent under the weight of carrying our own sin and its consequences. We need the enlightenment of His Holy Spirit to see the magnitude of His grace in Christ, to commit to following and obeying Him, and to lighten and REMOVE the burden of our sin (not just a load of wood or bricks like in these illustrations).
So Paul asks the question in Romans 11:11: “I say then, they (Israel) did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.”
Paul asks: Lord, will national Israel be forever out of your redemptive love and Grace? That would be Impossible since God made promises to national Israel that He will keep. National Israel’s rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah, is reversible. I am NOT saying that PERSONAL REJECTION is reversible: Jesus taught the principle which is found in Hebrews 9:27, which says: “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” If you die, having rejected Jesus’ Lordship, that cannot be reversed, but God promises a time in the future when there will be a revival in national Israel.
A Divine Purpose behind Israel’s Disobedience
But Paul sees God’s Divine Pattern and Purpose behind Israel’s Disobedience. THIS was Israel’s sin: They Rejected faith in Jesus alone as the payment for sin. Most of Israel committed this serious SIN by rejecting God’s provision of forgiveness by FAITH through the Lord Jesus ALONE as the Messiah and as THE substitutionary atonement for their sin. JESUS’ WORK COMES and accomplishes what no human being can do: He lived a perfect life and died as a complete payment for the sins of anyone who believes on Him ALONE as their Savior from God’s wrath against sin.
As a result of Israel’s sin, salvation has come to the Gentiles. God’s concentration had been upon Israel for thousands of years. By them He brought His Law, His Messiah, and the Knowledge of Himself, but God did not EXCLUDE Gentiles. He had placed Israel in the center of Gentile nations to be a light to those outside of God’s covenant with Abraham. (Isaiah 56: 6-7 gives a good example of non-Jews, “foreigners) coming to God.)
IN OUR TEXT, God is keeping His promise from Deuteronomy 32:21, which we looked at in a previous study “They have made Me jealous with what is not God; They have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.”
Now God intentionally brings His Gospel message to the “foreigners”, to a “foolish nation”, to the despised Gentiles, with the hope of making Israel jealous. Rom. 11:11b: Salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them (Israel) jealous.” So one of the ways that the Gentiles are going to serve God and His Purposes is by making Israel envious and turn them to salvation in Christ.
When you hear the words “jealous” “jealousy” or “envious”, you might think of the 10th commandment which stated that, “You shall not covet.” To “covet” means simply “to desire”: There is nothing inherently wrong with “desire” that is God-centered and God-glorifying. It’s when you “desire” or “earnestly seek” things that do not belong to you or to desire things that God doesn’t want you to have, THEN your desires become sin.
The root word for “jealousy” in our passage, (verses 11 and 14), IN A SINFUL SENSE it means “to burn with zeal, to be heated or to boil with envy, hatred, anger,” Now, in a GOOD and GODLY sense, it means “to be zealous in the pursuit of good.”
THE MAIN ISSUE with unbelievers is not that they break the 10th commandment: That they covet or are jealous of other people’s property. A sinner’s MAIN problem is breaking the FIRST COMMANDMENT: “You shall have no other gods before me.” The problem with unsaved humanity is that they don’t love and “earnestly desire” the Lord God with all their HEART, SOUL, MIND, and STRENGTH. That was Israel’s problem too. THE NUMBER ONE SIN is an ABSENCE and total inability of sinners to BE ZEALOUS for God. God is a jealous God, in that, HE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY RIVALRY. God will not accept DIVIDED DEVOTION. He will not accept a divided heart toward Him: That’s makes God BOIL with a pure and holy envy!
Listen to the next few verses:
Romans 11:12: “Now if their transgression (Israel’s sin) is riches for the world (namely salvation in Christ.) and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! (How blest they will finally be when they come to the riches that are in CHRIST’S Righteousness ALONE, instead of their own filthy unrighteousness and intentions.)
13 But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. (Paul, though he is a Jew, is not speaking to the Jews.) Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, (I want to expand and celebrate my calling to SERVE (diakoneo) others in the name of Jesus,) 14 if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.”
Now you might have been breathing a sigh of relief, saying to yourself: “Well, I guess that leaves me “off the hook”; I don’t have any Jewish friends or acquaintances.” That may be true, but you certainly have “fellow countrymen”, who have not ACCEPTED CHRIST ALONE as their payment for sin, and so they are still “stumbling” over Jesus. The “TABLE” of Jesus (which we looked at last week) is still a snare for them because their ears are still deaf and their eyes are still blind to Jesus as Savior and Lord.
God’s Divine Pattern and Purpose for Believers
In those same verses God is revealing His Divine Pattern and Purpose for Believers, God is saying: I want Believers to cause unbelievers to be Jealous of their Faith in the Lord Jesus, and turn to Me. Believers have to be zealous for ME ALONE.
(One of the biggest detriments that unbelievers might have in coming to Christ is US. What do we HAVE as believers, that would cause unbelievers to be envious of us? What do we have, that would make them jealous? We have a whole list from scripture, but does it show on the outside of our lives?
Let’s get practical for a few minutes. We, as believers and followers of Jesus, have been saved by God’s Grace in Jesus Christ from the most horrendous crime in the universe, namely, sin against the All Powerful, Creative, Holy God of the Universe. Sin is high treason against ALMIGHTY God. In Christ, you have been granted eternal forgiveness and security because Jesus shed His blood for your sins. God’s SALVATION to Us IS the REASON for us to be zealous FOR God, to earnestly desire to be obedient to share His Gospel “Good News”. How can we do that? (Now these are some very practical things.)
1. The first thing is to BE A FRIEND to someone who needs God’s Saving Love. That is what Jesus did. If you are serious about following Christ, follow Jesus’ example: He didn’t only sit back and wait for people in need to come to Him, He sought others who needed to be loved with God’s Love. If all your friends are Christians, find someone who needs the love of God which He has demonstrated to you by our Lord Jesus. Ask God to show you someone that He wants you to befriend…and then work on that relationship to show God’s love.
2. If you really want to be used by God, Be Willing to Go outside your comfort zone with God’s Love. Do you think that it was uncomfortable for Paul, a Jew of all Jews, to go to the Gentiles, to the “unclean dog’s” and swine of the earth? How comfortable was it for Jesus to leave His perfectly pristine Holy Heaven and LIVE and DIE FOR sinners? He did so BECAUSE He LOVED us, and we’re called to love those whom no one else loves, and who need God’s love.
The Love of God consumed Paul to such an extent, that he couldn’t stop preaching to the Jews, even though His calling was to the Gentiles. In Acts, upon his arrival at each new town, he just couldn’t resist going to each synagogue in order to preach the Gospel. The Jewish people were “jealous” but not in a good sense: They were jealous to the point of “boiling over” to such an extent that Paul received persecution from them, but that didn’t stop him.
In a real way, God was demonstrating Isaiah 55:11: “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I DESIRE AND ACHIEVE THE PURPOSE for which I sent it.” God promised that Israel would have “a spirit of stupor and bent backs” except for a remnant, until the future…but that did not stop Paul nor does it stop us from preaching the Gospel to those outside of our comfort zone…because WE DON’T know who will respond. LISTEN.
Paul mentioned in verse12 that Israel’s “transgression (Israel’s sin of rejecting Christ) is RICHES FOR THE WORLD (namely, salvation outside of Israel) and their failure is riches for the Gentiles.” You and I have received the riches of Christ; we DIDN’T EARN forgiveness or grace, but Grace was gifted and entrusted to us, but that GIFT is not meant to be hoarded. (Remember Jesus’ parable of the “Talents”?) We are to be faithful in preaching and reaching: Faithfulness to God means that believers will be fruitful to God with what He has given them.
3. Practice the Liberality of God’s Love at home.(OIKOS model) When I say “practice”, I mean that it should be your custom to demonstrate God’s love. It should be your “way of Life.” TALK about God’s Love with those you know and care about. PRAY and PRAISE God for His Love. Focus on His Love and Grace at home because it will make it easier to do so when you’re “AWAY FROM HOME.”
By “at home” I don’t just mean in your physical house! Make it your custom to show God’s love right HERE among God’s people, in your neighborhoods, your sphere of influence, with your friends and family. In our study this week in Matthew 8, we saw that the Jesus would not allow the demoniac to come with Him and His disciples, but Jesus told him to “go home and report how God has had mercy on you.” (That is the “oikos” model of evangelism.)
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul explains the diversity and unity in the Body of Christ, and that we have received gifts to be used in this body, and then he tells us of a more “excellent way” in chapter 13. Which way is that? TO LOVE as God loves; then in chapter 14 he says: “Pursue LOVE.” Make it your earnest endeavor, “to be “boiling over” with practicing God’s Love.
4. THAT Love of God given to us causes us to Serve others with that same Love. In verse 13, where Paul says: “Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry.” Now Paul is not exalting or glorifying himself; we know that couldn’t be true because that would be sin. The word for “magnify” is the word that is used in Matthew 5:16 (and translated “glory”, as it usually is): "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and GLORIFY (magnify) your Father who is in heaven.” With the ministry that God has given to him as a messenger to the unsaved world, Paul is bringing glory to the only one that deserves GLORY: To God in Christ.
Out of the 63 times this word is used in the New Testament, 60 times it refers specifically to the honor which God the Father or to Jesus the Son deserve. One time it is used to refer to the Body of Christ. It is used In Revelation 18:7 to describe the eternal punishment that belongs to “Babylon” (satan and all his followers) for self-glorification, which is the absence of God-glory. (One of the principles of interpretation that I use in coming to a correct understanding of Scripture is that if my understanding brings more glory to God, it is correct; if it brings glory to man, it has to be incorrect. VERY IMPORTANT.)
The word for ministry (we have looked at before) means “ministering or service of those who execute the commands of others.” Paul glorifies His Father in Heaven and the Lord Jesus by obeying His command to minister and serve others with God’s Love, WITH ZEAL.
Titus 2: 13 instructs us to be “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the GLORY of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
God has saved us from Sin and its consequences so that we would delight in serving Him and others in such a way, that the Jewish nation, as well as unbelievers, would earnestly desire to be loved by God. May your zeal and love for Our God and the Lord Jesus Christ cause a healthy jealousy, which would turn heads and hearts, not to you, but to a Gracious God.
OUTLINE:
I. God’s Divine Pattern and Purpose behind Israel’s Disobedience.
1. Israel’s SIN: Rejecting faith in Jesus alone as the payment for sin.
2. SALVATION has come to the Gentiles (to the rest of the World).
3. Gentiles are going to serve God by making Israel envious.
II. God’s Divine Pattern and Purpose for Believers: Believers will cause unbelievers to be Jealous of our Faith.
1. BE A FRIEND to someone who needs God’s Saving Love.
2. Go outside your comfort zone with God’s Love.
3. Practice God’s Love at home. (OIKOS)
4. Serve others with God’s Love.
God’s Love in Romans:
Our enormous SIN, God’s miraculous SALVATION, Our Response of SERVICE
"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Mahatma Gandhi
