Today we have come to the end of chapter 11 and also the end of the whole section of Rom 9-11 addressing the issue of the Jewish unbelief.
• Today’s passage is a continuation of last week’s section covered by Michael.
• Let’s recap Paul’s sequence of thought before we read the text.
(1) Israel’s rejection of the Gospel
(2) Move of the Gospel to the Gentiles, because of the Jews’ unbelief
(3) Salvation of the Gentiles, making Israel envious
(4) Final restoration of Israel in the end times
God did not forget Israel, although her rejection has led to the Gospel being preached among the Gentiles. God reached out to the Jews first.
• This has been the pattern we see in the book of Acts, in Paul’s missionary journeys.
• He would always enter the synagogue and preach to the Jews first.
Let me quote you a few incidents. On his first missionary journey, in Pisidian Antioch:
• Acts 13:46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.”
• Acts 14:1 Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.
• Second journey in Corinth. Acts 18:6 And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
• In Ephesus. Acts 19:8-10 8And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 10This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
GOD HAS BEEN GRACIOUS TO THE JEWS. But with their rejection, the Gospel went to the Gentiles, which is also God’s will.
• Has God rejected His people? That was Paul’s first question in 11:1. No!
• The Gospel was preached to them first, and a remnant will believe.
• Last week in 11:11 Paul issued a second question: “So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? [Did they fall beyond recovery?] By no means!”
THE SALVATION OF THE GENTILES will make Israel envious and can save some. Paul said it twice in v.11 and 14.
• Israel would see the blessings of God’s salvation, which was originally meant for her, now being showered upon the Gentiles.
• That would make them jealous. That would cause them to rethink their actions.
• Paul says, as an apostle to the Gentiles, “I magnify my ministry 14in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.” (11:13b-14)
So we see this movement in God’s work of salvation:
(1) Israel’s unbelief leading to the Gentiles hearing the Gospel and coming to faith;
(2) the Gentiles’ salvation becoming a draw for the Jewish people to re-examine their stand. It arouses them to envy and hopefully causes them to return.
(3) what we will be covering today, Paul tells of a mystery that God has revealed – the restoration of Israel at the end.
Romans 11:25-32
25Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob;
27and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
28As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. 32For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
Israel’s failure is not going to be TOTAL or FINAL. Not total because there is a remnant that believes. Not final because God will yet show mercy again to Israel.
Paul has been telling the Gentile believers not to be arrogant or proud about their salvation.
• He said it twice: 11:18 “Do not be arrogant toward the branches” – referring to the unbelieving Jews being cut off.
• NIV puts it “do not consider yourself to be superior…” NLT “you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root.”
• 11:21 “Do not become proud, but fear” – fear God, because He can also cut you off for unbelief.
Some of them might be thinking they are special and more superior compared to the Jews; they were accepted while the Jews discarded.
• Lest they be ‘wise in their own sight’, Paul adds on, telling them the mystery that God has revealed regarding Israel - God has not abandoned Israel!
• He did not reject them nor did they not fall beyond recovery. The hardening that has taken place is only partial hardening.
• It is temporary because their Deliverer will appear again and when that happens, “all Israel will be saved”.
• This hardening is but partial and temporary; it’s not total nor final. God will save Israel once again.
THERE IS NO ROOM FOR PRIDE
• Our salvation is entirely a work of God. We are saved by His grace, and if it is by grace and not merit, then we have nothing to boast.
• We are not better than anyone. We are not holier than others. We have been shown mercy (11:31).
• The moment we feel that we are “better” than others, we have nullified grace.
Israel remains close to God’s heart. They are still God’s beloved.
• For the sake of the patriarchs (11:28) - the promises that God made with them – God will restore Israel yet again.
• God will not back down from the covenant He made with Israel. He is faithful and will stay true to His promises.
• Paul says, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (11:29)
• How can God reject Israel when she has been chosen by grace and not merit? God will surely keep His covenant with Israel.
So how long will this hardening be? It will go on for some time UNTIL… 11:25 “…until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”
• This is in sync with what the Lord says in Matt 24:14 regarding the End: “14And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
• While Israel remains hardened, the Gospel will be preached throughout the world, and more and more Gentiles will hear and respond.
• When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, the End will come.
We can trust God’s sovereign plan:
• Israel’s failure and unbelief will not derail God’s plan.
• We can be assured today that the works of men are powerless before the will of God.
• God can take Israel’s failure and yet fulfil His purposes through it.
• All that has happened has already been weaved into God’s sovereign plan long ago.
• When this present time has run its course and the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, God will turn His attention to Israel again.
Paul quotes from Isaiah 59:20-21 to prove that point:
“The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob (Israel), and this will be My covenant with them when I take away their sin.”
• In Isaiah’s context, it refers to the first coming of the Messiah.
• Paul applies it also to the future when the Deliverer returns to judge the world.
At that time, Paul says, “all Israel will be saved.” The nation as a whole will recognise Christ for who He is and believe Him.
• To what extent will this “all Israel” be? Everyone or the majority of Israel as a whole? We do not know.
• What we do know is that it cannot mean that they are automatically be saved regardless, because Paul has already established that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ. That’s the only way.
• It will still be on this basis that the nation of Israel will be saved, probably not every single Jew, just like not all natural descendants of Abraham will be saved (Rom 9) but a great mass of them will come to faith in Christ.
Zech 12:10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”
• On that day, when the Deliverer appears, Israel as a whole will repent and return to Christ.
Paul mentioned this outcome 4 times in chapter 11:
(1) 11:12 “Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!”
(2) 11:15 “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?”
[It’s like Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones coming back to life in Ezekiel 37.]
(3) 11:23-24 “And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.”
Don’t think this is impossible or very difficult, Paul was telling the Gentile believers.
• The restoration of Israel will be much easier than your salvation.
• Grafting the natural branches back into their own olive tree will be easier than having to graft wild shoots into the cultivated olive tree that they don’t belong.
(4) 11:30-31 30For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.
• The Jewish disobedience led to the Gentiles receiving mercy; now the Gentiles are receiving mercy, and when the full number of them are saved, Israel will be shown mercy – the same mercy that you have been experiencing – and be saved.
In stating these words, Paul shot down human pride from either side.
• The Jews who boast over the Gentiles were humbled by the fact that their disobedience has led to the salvation of the Gentiles.
• The Gentiles who were proud of their salvation were told that the mercy they received will be shown also to Israel at the end.
• Both the Jews and Gentiles are undeserving recipients of God’s mercy. They have nothing to boast about.
Rom 11:32 “…that He may have mercy on all.”
GOD IS A MERCIFUL GOD. We see His unfailing mercy.
• His mercy endures forever, the psalmist says it repeatedly in Psalm 136 - 26 times in 26 verses.
• He is “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” (Psalm 86:15)
It is interesting to note that when we come to see the throne of God (picture of power and judgment), we are also reminded of His mercy.
• Heb 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
• In the Exodus, the Jews approached God’s presence in the Tabernacle, where He dwell above the Ark of the Covenant, upon the mercy seat. (Exo 25:17)
• When John saw the throne in heaven – Rev 4:2-3 “2At once I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne standing in heaven, with someone seated on it 3…and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.”
• Which is a symbol of God’s mercy, the promise He made not to judge the world with a flood.
As undeserving recipients of God’s mercy, let us extend the same to others.
• Jesus says, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36)
• Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
LET ME CONCLUDE
Having laid out the great plan of God for our salvation, Paul cannot help but close with a doxology – words of praise to God.
• I believe the worship is not just a response to Rom 9-11 but more so Rom 1-11, from the beginning.
• We cannot help but worship Him for so great a salvation that He has provided.
• Who could have thought of it! What more can we say but praise Him!
Rom 11:33-36
33Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?”
35“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
36For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.
PRAYER:
Amen, Lord, Amen! We praise you for Who you are. Thank you, for being merciful and kind, gracious and compassionate.
As undeserving recipients of Your great favour, help us Lord be the same today, to extend mercy and help to all who are in need of it. Let your love be seen in us.
In Jesus’ Name, AMEN.
You can hear and view the sermon with slides at KTCC English Service Playlist:
https://tinyurl.com/KTCC-EnglishService
