Romans 11:1-10 Chosen By Grace
When a relationship breaks up, we have questions. Questions like: What’s the problem? Who caused it? How did it happen?
• These are the questions Paul has been addressing in Rom 9-11 regarding Israel’s relationship with God, their unbelief and rejection of the Messiah.
• Did God choose Israel wrongly? Has God’s plan failed with Israel’s unbelief? Will God reject Israel for their failure? Who is at fault here?
Paul assures his readers, both the Jewish and Gentile audiences – that God’s salvation plan for a lost world remains intact. And God is not finished with His chosen people yet.
• He has not gone back on His promise to Israel. He has extended mercy and will continue to extend mercy to them.
• God has been sovereignly at work to save the elect – the remnant of Israel and the believing Gentiles. All who put their trust in Jesus, the Son of God will be saved.
Let continue from where we left off last week. We are reading Romans 11:1-10 today.
Romans 11:1-6
1I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3“Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” [1 Kings 19:10] 4But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” [1 Kings 19:18] 5So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
Has God rejected Israel for their failure to trust Him? The answer is emphatically NO! God did not reject His people.
• Look at the line before - 10:21 “But concerning Israel He says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people”, a quote from Isaiah 65:2.
• God’s hands have been outstretched! Towards? A disobedient and obstinate people.
• The Lord said it Himself – they were disobedient and stubborn, but despite that, His hands were held out towards them.
• Get the picture right. Who is being rejected here? Israel? No, God! Israel has been rejecting God, not the other way around!
We can speak from experience here – it is not God rejecting us but we are rejecting God. We dump God, we have chosen to walk our own ways, we do not want Him.
• If we are quick to question God and ask why are some people not elected, with a slant towards blaming Him… Then we are truly mistaken.
• That’s not the biblical and correct picture of God. He is not the deserter; we are. He is not the unfaithful one, we are. We rejected God.
Israel has not been rejected. God is NOT done with Israel yet.
• He will save a remnant in Israel (we read that and we are going to read it again here), and…
• He will yet save Israel again in the END TIMES, in the future, which we are going to read about at end of Romans 11 in 2 weeks.
Paul gave 3 examples. Example #1 himself. “Look at me, I am saved!”
• 11:1b “…For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.”
• Those who knew his past would understand better. He was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an enemy of God, and the Lord saved him!
• It’s interesting to see how Jesus confronted him: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 22:7). Paul asked, “Who are you?” And the Lord replied, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.” Jesus rubbed it in and said it twice.
God did not reject the persecutor. He called him and chose him to be saved.
• 11:2 “2God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.” He planned to save us.
• We have already established this earlier – our salvation is not an afterthought, not random, not by chance, and not accidental.
• God has a purpose in election. And it has nothing to do with us. It is not because of our good works or behaviours. Surely not our righteousness.
Example #2 – Elijah’s experience.
11:2 “…Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3“Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” [1 Kings 19:10] 4But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” [1 Kings 19:18]
After his victory over the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, Elijah fled from Queen Jezebel who wanted to take his life. In his darkest moment, he felt all alone.
• The Lord said, “I have kept for myself 7000 believers who still worship me and not Baal.” The Lord brought him back to reality.
• It wasn’t all gloom and doom; there was a remnant.
WHO DID THIS? God did it. “I have kept for myself…”
• It was God and no one else who preserved 7000 faithful worshippers even in the darkest of times in Israel history.
• Appearances are deceiving. We walk by faith and not by sight.
God preserved a remnant in Elijah’s time, and in fact, through the history of Israel, even so during their captivity and eventual return to Jerusalem.
• God kept a remnant then and He will preserve a remnant NOW, Paul says.
That’s example #3 – the remnant.
• 11:5 “So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.”
• Despite the prevalent unbelief, God will preserve a remnant today, and it will be accomplished by His grace.
Nothing new here. We are saved by His grace. And “if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.” (11:6)
• The sovereign God will accomplish His purpose in the election (9:11) and the salvation plan for the world, entirely on His own.
It’s entirely God and nothing of man. Remember earlier Paul talks about God’s sovereign choice of Jacob.
• Rom 9:10-13 “And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—12she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
• God’s loving purpose cannot be defeated by people’s hard hearts.
The important thing here is not about the numbers – what the size of the remnant, how many Israelites will be saved, what about the Gentile believers…
• The stress here is GRACE, the grace of God! It will be accomplished by the sovereign grace of God. It will surely happen and no human works involved.
• Israel contributed nothing to it, whether they had responded positively or negatively.
Salvation is entirely a work of God’s grace. God’s salvation plan cannot be thwarted by Israel’s unbelief.
• The Lord said, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
• That’s our faith! Those whom the Lord calls can never be lost.
“WHAT THEN?” Paul says in v.7 and gives us the conclusion of the matter in vv. 7-10.
Romans 11:7-10
7What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8as it is written,
“God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” [Isa 29:10, Deut 29:4]
9And David says,
“Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.” [Psalm 69:22-23]
The conclusion is, Israel failed to get what they were seeking – salvation by works.
• While the elect, those who believed Christ, got it – salvation by faith. They were justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
• They were hardened; that’s the real cause. They were hardened by their unbelief.
This is not the first time Paul uses the word “harden”. He said it in 9:18 “So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.”
• Paul said it openly and a matter-of-factly. He did not even mince his words. This is the truth. It is God’s sovereign act of judgment.
That “God hardens people” is very hard for many to accept.
• We tend to read it negatively, that God is arbitrary and unfair; He just does things randomly, out of personal whim and fancy.
• We covered this issue briefly in Romans 9, when we talked about God’s sovereignty.
• We have to remember God always acts in ways consistent with His character. He is righteous and just, compassionate and merciful, and perfect in all His ways.
Paul elaborates God’s hardening here with 3 OT texts, as it is written he said.
• The first line was a combination of Isaiah 29:10 and Deut 29:4.
[Isaiah 29:10 “For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep (slumber KJV), and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).” Deut 29:4 “But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.”]
The context in Deut 29 is helpful. Moses was renewing the covenant and addressing the Israelites’ rebellion.
• Deut 29:2-4 “2And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 3the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.”
• They were seeing and yet not seeing. They were seeing physically but not perceiving the saving acts of God; not seeing it spiritually. They were spiritually blind and deaf.
• That was not caused by God, who has been showing them mighty acts of salvation.
Paul then quoted from Psalm 69, which was David’s prayer to God to vindicate him and punish his enemies. The line was for his enemies.
• Paul applied it to Israel for their rejection of Christ, for becoming enemies of God.
• “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.” [Psalm 69:22-23]
The table probably refers to the place where they are blessed with God’s provision and nourishment but now it has become a snare and trap.
• The good things of life, given by God, have become obstacles to their faith.
• The Law and the gift of the Messiah, has become a stumbling block and retribution! Their trust in the Law and rejection of Christ will condemn them.
• Again the description, their eyes are darkened and they cannot see.
• They bend their backs probably a picture of carrying the weight of working for their own salvation.
The contexts help us understand. They were ignoring what God has done and rejecting what God has given them. Their stubborn unbelief blinded them.
• God hardens them because they rejected Him. It’s the consequence of the hardening of their hearts towards God.
• Those who failed God DID NOT do so because they had been hardened. They were hardened because they had failed God.
Look at the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart in the ten plagues that God sent in Exodus:
1. BLOOD - Exo 7:22 “So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened and would not listen…”
2. FROGS - Exo 8:15 “But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen…”
3. GNATS - Exo 8:19 “But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.”
4. FLIES - Exo 8:32 “But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.”
5. LIVESTOCK DIED - Exo 9:7 “…But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.”
6. BOILS - Exo 9:12 “But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had spoken to Moses.”
7. HAIL - Exo 9:34 “But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.”
8. LOCUST - Exo 10:20 “But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.”
9. DARKNESS - Exo 10:27 “But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.”
10. DEATH - Exo 11:10 “Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.”
Pharaoh was given many opportunities to acknowledge God but he refused.
• He finally gave in and let Israel go but only for a moment. He sent his army after them.
• Exo 14:8 “And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.”
Notice this, God was said to have hardened Pharoah’s heart only because Pharoah had first hardened his heart.
• While it was said that God hardens him, and even said that He will do it, it was also true that Pharaoh has chosen, repeatedly, to harden his own heart.
• God's hardening follows what Pharaoh himself did. God’s action is never arbitrary.
• God used Pharaoh to accomplish His purposes, but the monarch was not a mere puppet. He did what he willed to do.
Neither here nor anywhere else in the Bible is God said to harden anyone who had not first hardened himself.
• God’s hardening always presupposes sin and is part of His judgment against sin.
• God does not harden anyone to lead them to sin.
• James 1:13-14 “13Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.”
• God cannot be the cause of evil, sin or even unbelief. We sin because we have chosen to, all by ourselves, on our own.
• Nowhere in the Bible do we see God hardening someone who does not go astray first.
We are chosen by God’s grace. God's action is never arbitrary. He is perfectly good.
• He acts with compassion and mercy to draw us back to Himself.
• With outstretched arms, all day long, the Lord says (10:21), even to people who are disobedient and obstinate.
Look at God’s patience with Pharaoh, 10 plagues, giving him 10 chances to submit.
• Would we have given this monarch these many chances?
God is good, all the time. All the time, even when we do not understand Him, God is good. This is our faith.
• It is not a slogan. It is what we believe with all our hearts.
• Do not turn from Him. Do not stray from Him. Do not doubt Him.
• Stay close and trust Him, worship Him and follow Him with all your heart.
Dear friends, His door is always open to welcome you back. Look at the saving works of God and believe Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.
• Don’t trust in your good works. Don’t resist the truth of God’s Word. Jesus Christ is our only way of salvation and our only hope.
• God loves you. Don’t keep Him waiting. The Bible says those who trust in Him will never be put to shame.
PRAYER:
Dear Lord, may we all come back to you and recognise you for who you are, our God and Saviour. Grant us all the faith to trust you and submit to you.
Thank you Lord for all that you have done and is still doing in our lives today.
Thank you for Your Word today. In Jesus’ Name, AMEN.
You can hear the sermon with slides at https://tinyurl.com/KTCC-EnglishService.
