Romans Series # 46 July 10, 2002
Title: A Biblical Understanding of God’s Plan for Israel Part 2
Website: www.newlifeinchrist.info
Email: pastorsarver@yahoo.com
Introduction: Welcome to New Life in Christ. We are currently in Chapter 11 of Romans as we continue with message #46 of our verse-by-verse study of the Book of Romans.
Read Romans 11:16-32
Opening Prayer
Tonight will continue a study we began last week on "A Biblical Understanding of God’s Plan for Israel." Last week, I shared how the Apostle Paul was making two main points. First, God has not completely rejected the nation of Israel. Second, God has not permanently rejected the nation of Israel. I also shared on the practical implications of these truths. These two spiritual truths affect our theology, our trust in God’s word, and our attitude toward the Jewish people, among other things. For more information on these things, please get the tape covering verses 1-15.
Tonight, as we look at verses 16-32, I believe I could once again summarize Paul’s message in these verses in to two main points. I believe the main messages that Paul is communicating are:
1. God has the power to successfully restore Israel.
2. God has plans to successfully restore Israel.
When I use the word "restore", I am referring to the physical descendant of Abraham, the Jews, being restored to the position and calling they have from God. To use an illustration I used last week, they will be placed back into the starting line-up. God has the power and a plan to see that this takes place.
Illustration: I want you to imagine the following situation. Let’s suppose there’s a man named Mr. Johnson who is the most eligible bachelor in the world. He is wealthy, powerful, handsome, and kind. Now let’s suppose he meets a girl named Sally. Sally is not a glamorous movie star or a super-model by any means. In fact she is not particularly attractive at all. Neither is she talented, popular or successful and yet for some reason this bachelor begins to date her and eventually marries her. Now after only a short time, Sally begins to be unfaithful to her husband, not just once but many times, but each time she is forgiven and the marriage continues. This goes on for many years and still Sally continues to be unfaithful to her husband so he finally divorces her and as a result she loses the status and privileges that went along with being married to Mr. Johnson. Now suppose that Mr. Johnson meets another woman whose name is Julie and marries her. She now has the status, position, and privileges that Sally once had. Julie might think that she was chosen and that Sally was rejected because she is prettier, better, or more compatible. As a result she might become proud, boastful, overconfident, and antagonistic towards Julie, believing that Julie is out of the picture permanently.
This story illustrates the relationship between the Gentiles in the church and the Jewish people. The Jewish people were once like Sally, having a special privileged relationship with God but because of unbelief they lost their status and privileges. The Gentile Christians are like Julie. They now have the status and privileges that Israel lost but they must not become proud, overconfident, or antagonistic toward the Jewish people.
Paul uses these first few verses to tell the Gentiles in the church why they should not look down or be hostile to the Jewish people. The Gentiles need to understand that they did not earn or deserve the status they have. The Gentiles were not chosen because they were more righteous or more compatible that Israel was. In fact one reason they were chosen was to make Israel jealous (vs. 11, 13). They must be careful about their attitude toward the Jewish people because they too could lose their special status and because God’s special relationship with Israel will be restored!
1. God has the power to successfully restore Israel.
Now let’s look at this passage verse by verse in which Paul emphasizes these points.
Read Romans 11:16
Here Paul uses imagery that is unfamiliar to many people today, so let me briefly explain. In Old Testament times, the Israelites would take the first of the harvested grain and make dough with it. From the batch of dough they would take a small portion and offered it up to God as a symbolic gesture that all the wheat had come from him and that all the wheat was to be used for his purposes, the whole dough was considered holy. In a similar sense we give 10 percent of our income to the church, but acknowledge that it all belongs to God. "Holy" in this context does not refer to moral uprightness but to being set apart as special to God.
Paul’s point is that because the first Jewish people, i.e. the patriarchs, were holy and set apart to God as special so all the Jewish people are holy and considered set apart to God for his special purposes. In other words, God is not through with the Jew. God has not broken his covenant and rejected the Jewish people altogether, he is only broken off some branches that were not producing fruit.
Read Romans 11:17-18
Here God’s special people, those who have received that special status and privileges are compared corporately to an olive tree while the individuals are compared to the separate branches of the olive tree. In New Testament times a farmer who had an olive tree that was not producing fruit would break off some of the unproductive branches and graft in new ones to stimulate productiveness. That is what has happened figuratively speaking with the Jewish and Gentile peoples. The individual Jewish people who did not accept Jesus were broken off, i.e. they lost their special spiritual position and privileges, which is just what Jesus said would happen in Matthew 21:43. The non-Jewish believers are compared to "wild olive shoots." They have not replaced Israel but instead have been grafted in to the tree to be beneficiaries of her spiritual heritage and covenant which Paul calls her "nurturing sap." The Gentiles must remember their position is not one of superiority over the Jewish people but rather that the "root (Jewish founders) support you." Rather than be proud and boastful of our status, we need to recognize the special place the Jews still having God’s plan.
Paul is using these spiritual truths to prevent the prejudice, scorn, and anti-Semitic attitudes that have existed in the church and Gentile world for centuries. Such attitudes are not consistent with the truth and the commands of Scripture.
Read Romans 11:19-22
Rather than being arrogant, the corporate Gentile church should be humble because we recognize that we’re not receiving our spiritual privileges because we’re better than the Jewish people but rather we "stand by faith." The Gentile church could lose its privileged position if they have the same spiritual pride and unbelief as Israel did. There is no reason to think that God will treat the Gentiles any differently than he did the Jewish people. "If God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either."
We should look at the history of Israel and learn a lesson. God was stern with those who in spiritual pride and unbelief rejected grace but he’s been very kind to those that received his grace by faith and he will continue to be so "provided that you continue in his kindness - otherwise you also will be cut off." Rather than be prideful, which was the error of the Israelites, we need to be humble and recognize that it is only by grace that we have anything good from God.
Having dealt with this important side issue, Paul now gets to the first of the two main points I shared in the beginning of this message.
1. God has the power to successfully restore Israel.
Read Romans 11:23-24
If you use a computer and have the Windows operating system, you probably have received a message that says something like this: "This program has committed a fatal error and will be shut down." That message means there is no hope of recovery. The program or the computer must start over. Some people were thinking that this is what had happened with the Jewish people. They believed that they had committed a fatal error in rejecting Jesus and were therefore beyond recovery or restoration.
Paul wants to correct this mistaken belief by pointing out that God has the power to restore Israel. Paul continues to use the analogy of an olive tree to do this. If God can graft a "wild olive branch" (Gentiles) into a cultivated olive tree, which was the normally done successfully, this certainly God can graft "natural branches" (Israel) back into the olive tree even more readily. The natural branches, the Jewish people will more quickly and more effectively take to their position as God’s chosen and called people than the Gentiles did. To use another analogy, if a football coach can take an average high school quarterback and quickly turn him into a Super Bowl winner, then certainly that same coach can do even more with a quarterback of pro-level skills.
1. God has the power to successfully restore Israel.
The situation for Israel’s restoration does not look very good right now. The vast majority of Jews have no interest in Jesus and are often hostile to the spreading of the Gospel message to Jews. For example, a theme park in Orlando known as the "Holy Land Experience" has come under attack by Jewish organizations for sharing the Good News with the Jews. Such evangelism is often considered anti-Semitic by many Jews. Right now it does not look like there is any chance of a great spiritual awakening in Israel, but don’t let that affect your thinking because. . .
1. God has the power to successfully restore Israel.
2. God has plans to successfully restore Israel.
Paul discusses this plan and the next few verses along with reasons we can be sure of its success.
Read Romans 11:25-28
Paul now reveals a spiritual "mystery." A mystery in the New Testament refers to spiritual truths that were previously unknown until they were revealed by God. In this case the mystery that people did not understand was that God had a plan to restore Israel after the Gentiles had come into the kingdom. The mystery that many in the church were ignorant of was that God was not through with the Jew. The Jewish people have been "hardened in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in." In other words, as soon as God is through dealing with the non-Jews, he will take away the hardness of the Jewish people’s hearts and as a result "all Israel will be saved" The word "all" in this verse probably does not refer to every Jewish person, but refers rather to the vast majority of the Jewish people.
How will the Jewish people be saved? They will not be saved any differently than people are saved today. The sentences in verse 26 are Old Testament references to the ministry of Jesus Christ, which means that the Jewish people will be saved by entering the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. In other words, they will be saved by grace through faith in the Messiah Jesus, just as Gentiles are today.
2. God has plans to successfully restore Israel.
Because this is true, we need to recognize as verse 28 says the Jewish people are enemies in one respect because they oppose the Gospel, but at the same time they are "loved on account of the patriarchs " In other words they are treated as loved ones and not enemies because of God’s covenant promises with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why can we be sure of Israel’s future restoration? Paul answers that question in the next few verses.
Read Romans 11:29-32
We can be sure of Israel’s future restoration because it does not depend on their work but on God’s faithfulness and mercy. First of all, God has given Israel a special calling and special promises and he is not unfaithful to his word. As verse 29 says, "God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable." Yes the Jewish people are currently very rebellious and disobedient but we should not let Israel’s current disobedience convince us that they cannot be restored. As verses 30, 31 state "We two were at one time disobedient" but God showed us mercy and brought us into a special relationship with him, so we can expect him to do same with Israel, in his mercy.
Verse 32 does not support universal salvation; it only states that God has allowed all men (Jews and Gentiles) to be disobedient so that each will recognize the need for mercy that God is willing to have on them all, i.e. both Jews and Gentiles. Both groups of people are treated the same.
Let’s review the four points we’ve covered in the last two weeks concerning a biblical understanding of God’s plan for Israel.
1. God has not completely rejected the people of Israel.
2. God has not permanently rejected the people of Israel.
3. God has the power to successfully restore Israel.
4. God has plans to successfully restore Israel.
Conclusion:
Read Romans 11:33-36
Paul concludes this section of the Book of Romans by giving glory to God. He does this because God in his wisdom has brought about the salvation of both the Jews and the Gentiles in a way that no man could ever have understood, expected, or earned. Everything begins with God, take place via his plans, and for his purposes, therefore "To him be the glory forever! Amen."
