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Romans 11:1-32
As always, I hope you have your copy of God’s Word and let me invite you to turn with me to Romans 11.
From 1740 to 1786, a man by the name of Frederick the Great ruled the Kingdom of Prussia (the territory of modern-day northern Germany and Poland). During his reign, he came under the influence of the French philosopher Voltaire, and thus became skeptical of Christianity and of the reliability of the Bible. The story is told that he asked one of his ministers to give him one word as proof of the inspiration of the Bible. His words supposedly went something like this:
“If your Bible is really true, it ought to be capable of very easy proof. So often, when I’ve asked for proof of the inspiration of the Bible, I’ve been given some large tome that I have neither the time nor the desire to read. If your Bible is really from God, then you should be able to demonstrate the fact simply. Give me proof for the inspiration of the Bible in a single word.”
I don’t know about you, but that’s a pretty profound challenge. Wouldn’t you agree? What would you have said? Love? Sin? Grace? Guilt? Conscience? Perhaps you’re thinking that the best one-word defense is a theological word: Justification, Sanctification, Atonement, Propitiation, or maybe Salvation. Well, as the story goes, the priest resorted to what was plain and obvious – something that all the world could see.
“Your Majesty, indeed, it’s possible for me to give you the answer that your request. I can give you the proof in a single word,” the priest replied.
Amazed, the king asked, “What’s this magic word that carries such a weight of proof?”
The priest’s answer was simply, “Israel.”
Frederick the Great is said to have responded only with silence. Maybe, like Frederick the Great, you’re sitting there this morning scratching your head in silence too. But might I remind you, the detailed records that we have of this nation are beyond that of any other. We know when the nation was founded, why, and by whom. We have a detailed written account of her ancient and modern history, and specific accounts of things experienced by her people during this time. Her homeland is the same as it’s been for thousands of years. Her language is still intact. Her religion, while practiced faithfully today by only a small minority, is unchanged in its tenets as laid out for us in the Old Testament.
Those facts alone are remarkable, and might lead some to think that she’s experienced smooth sailing over the centuries. But, of course, nothing could be further from the truth – and therein lies the brilliance of the priest’s one-word response to Frederick the Great.
I don’t have the time to give you a full recounting of Israel’s past, nor do I need to (since most of you know it). But let me offer a very quick lightening round of facts to set the stage:
2,100 B.C. Abram heeds God’s call to move from Ur of the Chaldees to a place called Canaan; thus, starting this magnificent nation.
1,876 B.C. Abraham’s descendants leave Canaan for Egypt to escape a famine, and are then enslaved for nearly 400 years.
1,446 B.C. God redeems His people from slavery and establishes them as a nation set apart until Him at Mount Sinai.
722 B.C. The ten northern tribes of Israel are taken captive by the Assyrians.
586 B.C. The capitol of the nation, Jerusalem, is destroyed by the Babylonians, and the two southern tribes of Israel are carried into captivity.
432 B.C. Groups of exiles, under the leadership of Ezra-Nehemiah, return to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding when the Persians take over.
70 A.D. Jerusalem is destroyed by the Roman general and eventual emperor, Titus.
70-1940 A.D. The nation is scattered throughout the world, and Jerusalem and is the scene of the Crusades and scores of other military conflicts between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
1940 A.D. The Holocaust in Nazi Germany (and other atrocities in Eastern Europe and Russia) results in the death of millions of Jews.
1948 A.D. The Zionist movement receives permission from the United Nations to reestablish Israel as a nation.
2020 A.D. Millions of Jews from all over the world have returned (and are still returning) to their ancient homeland. And the nation is functioning once again as a major player in world affairs, some 4,000 years after her founding.
Israel could’ve vanished from the world’s stage many times over in the course of her history. The fact that she hasn’t is what caused Frederick the Great’s priest to claim “Israel” as his one-word answer for the Bible’s truthfulness and reliability. So, what does all of this have to do with Romans 11? Well, I’m glad you asked, because Paul says that’s exactly the same question that the Jews of his day were prepared to ask him.
Remember, Paul has taken a little detour while writing his letter to the church in Rome (a Jewish/Gentile congregation), and he’s intent on showing his own kinsmen – the Jews – that God’s plan of salvation has always worked by grace through faith. Salvation is not a matter of birth: being born to the right parents. It’s not even a matter of ethics: doing more “good” things than “bad” things. Salvation has always operated off of God’s grace. AND, moreover (fellow Jew, fellow Gentile, fellow attender at Mountain Hill) that offer of salvation by grace through faith is still on the table. God, by way of the Holy Spirit, still calls people – both Jew and Gentile – to repent and believe:
…if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (NIV).
So, Paul has made it clear that God’s plan of salvation has always worked this way: by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and it’s still working like this – all day long, God is holding out His hands with this offer of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus. And the very same question you just asked about the history of Israel – “what does Israel’s past have to do with God’s plan of salvation?” – is the very same question that the Jews ask Paul in Romans 11. “So, then, if salvation is by grace through faith, then what about God’s promise(s) to us?” Look at verse 1 and following:
I 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. God 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? “Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have demolished Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace (ESV).
God Has Always Preserved His Elect In Israel
Has God rejected His people? Has God forgotten about Israel? Has God been unfaithful to the Jews? Paul says, “By no means!” The Greek is me genoito. It’s a phrase that every seminary Greek student loves to see because it can be translated in so many different ways: “Certainly not!” “By no means!” “Never!” “Absolutely not!” “May it never be!”. In fact, Paul uses this phrase 14 times in his various epistles, and 10 of those, are in Romans. Why is this important?
Because Paul wants the Jew to know that God has not forgotten him. Paul wants us to know that God has not cast aside His people.
Paul doesn’t use this reference from Jeremiah, but I want you to hear how God promises to preserve His chosen people: “This is what the Lord says, He who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar – the Lord Almighty is His name: ‘Only if these decrees vanish from My sight,’ declares the Lord, ‘will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me.’ This is what the Lord says: ‘Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,’ declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 31:35-37)
The only time that God will no longer remember Israel is when heaven and earth cease to exist. And since there’s going to be a new heaven and a new earth, one day, God’s commitment to Israel will endure forever. And Paul uses himself as exhibit A, “Look at me! Do I look cast off to you?”
Just a little reminder about who Paul was. You couldn’t get any more Jewish than Paul. He was a descendant of Abraham (check 1). He was of the tribe of Benjamin (extra credit) – Benjamin was the only one of Jacob’s 12 sons that was born in the Promised Land; rabbinic legend said that the tribe of Benjamin was the first to cross the Red Sea coming out of Egypt; Benjamin produced Israel’s first king (King Saul) and perhaps her greatest prophet, Jeremiah. According to his own admission (in Philippians 3), he was a Pharisee of Pharisees (check 2). And because of Paul’s background as a persecutor of the church, he would surely have been one of the first to go had God cast off Israel. Yet, in God’s sovereign providence, Paul was called out to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Paul says, “Hey, you want proof that God hasn’t rejected Israel, just consider me.”
And if that’s not good enough for you, then just consider the story of Elijah, the Old Testament prophet. He’s slugging it out against wicked King Ahab, Queen Jezebel and the false prophets of Baal up on top of Mount Carmel. You remember the challenge. Whose God is really God? Well, let’s make an altar and sacrifice some animals and just see whose God responds and consumes the sacrifice. The prophets of Baal spend half the day trying to get their god to respond, but he never does. Then Elijah adds insult to injury and douses the altar with water and God consumes the sacrifice with fire and dries up all the water. And do you remember what happens immediately after that? Elijah flees 18 miles to Mount Horeb and hides in a cave fearing for his life.
Dude, just got done rocking out in front of the false prophets. God’s ready to defend His name, His honor, His glory and righteousness and Elijah gets scared and starts pouting, “Wha, wha, wha, they want to kill me too.” And God reminds Elijah that He’s reserved 7,000 men who haven’t bowed the knee to Baal. Notice verse 5, Paul says, “So too at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.”
Paul says, (to his Jewish kinsmen) “God hasn’t forgotten you, He hasn’t cast you off; you can still be accepted by God through faith.” If you’re not a believer this morning, if you haven’t confessed your sin and cast your trust upon the completed work of Jesus Christ, then today is the day. Accept the free gift of God’s grace in Christ Jesus, and find yourself among the elect of Israel. If you are a Christian today, there’s good news in here for you too. Time and time again, in the Old Testament, Israel failed to remain faithful to God – yet He never disowned them. God will not go back on His promises to His people because His promises are unfailing.
God Has Delivered His Gospel To Gentiles
Look at verses 11-12, “So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 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!”
Paul is trying to help the Jews (and Gentiles) understand that because the Jews refused to have faith, because they hardened their hearts God’s grace was extended to the rest of the world. Now, I’ll grant to you, this is a strange way to make an argument, but Paul is trying to help the Jews see their failure is not final. While Israel was being hard-headed about accepting Jesus (“He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” John 1:11), there were plenty of others (Gentiles) that were ready to receive this Good News and enter into a faithful and trusting relationship with God. And it serves Paul in two ways: 1.) by reinforcing his message that salvation comes by grace – the Gentiles wouldn’t have received grace had it not been for Israel’s rejection, and 2.) he hopes this will make Israel jealous.
Now the idea of jealousy, here, isn’t the jilted high school lover scenario that we’re familiar with. The primary difference between God’s jealousy for Israel and the modern version of jealousy lies in the beneficiary. In our modern version, the jealous person wants someone back for his/her own benefit. In God’s case, He wants Israel back for Israel’s sake. God is self-sufficient. He doesn’t need anything or anybody to make Him more “godly.” On the other hand, you and I have needs that can only be met in Him and that’s why God is jealous for Israel (and you).
But this also causes a potential problem with the Gentiles and that problem is arrogance or pride. So, in verses 13-24 Paul reminds the Gentiles – the people that he’s been sent to be a missionary to – that they don’t need to hear his message and get puffed up. Yes, it’s true, if the Jews had not rejected Jesus, then they wouldn’t have received the gospel they way they did. But look at the middle of verse 20-21, “…but you stand fast through faith. So, do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you.”
So, what’s the point? God’s divine guidance and care is unfathomable. He used Israel’s rejection, Israel’s sin to bring the Gentiles into the family of faith (the spiritual Israel). God’s providence is profound. And yet, His plan is unfinished. God is definitely not finished with His chosen people. And neither is He finished with you, if you are His child.
God Will Deliver The Gospel To Israel Again
The question Paul’s audience wanted to know – and frankly a question that many of today’s Christians want to know – is “When?” When is God going to restore Israel? And the answer is found in the last portion of verse 25, “…until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” When that happens. When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then Israel will have its heart softened and its eyes opened and all Israel will be saved (vs. 26).
But that raises another question. How are we to understand the phrase “all Israel?” It’s true, Paul sometimes uses the title Israel to refer to spiritual Israel or the church. He did that back in Romans 9 when he said that not all Israel is Israel. But that’s not what is meant here. The Church has not taken over Israel’s position. At the same, however, “all Israel” doesn’t mean every ethnic Jew. If there’s one point that Paul’s made over and over it’s that you can’t be saved simply by being born into the family. Again, how many times has Paul argued that you can’t rely upon your heritage with Abraham. Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus. So “all Israel” doesn’t mean every single ethnic Jew either. So, what does it mean? Well, I think what Paul has in mind here is Israel as a collective whole. Let me see if I can illustrate this.
I might lean over to James after we sing a congregational song and say something like this, “Did you hear all of those voices singing in harmony?” Now, let me ask you, did I mean that every single individual was singing the right part? No, surely not. Some of you wouldn’t know the harmony if it slapped you in the face. I even know a few folks that don’t sing at all. So, clearly, I didn’t mean “all without exception.” What I meant was “all without distinction.” We sometimes put it this way, “On the whole…” I think that’s what Paul is saying here. Collectively, Israel will one day respond positively in faith through their Messiah, Jesus Christ, and be saved.
God has a plan for His chosen people (Israel) and the Gentiles. So, Paul concludes, and we will also, with a little comment concerning God’s mercy. Look at verse 32, “For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.” Your Bible might have that translated as God “consigning” all to disobedience or God “binding everyone over” to disobedience. The Greek word is sugkleió. It literally means to shut someone up or enclose them. God has locked the sinner up in the prison of his own sin, barred the door, and refused any way out except by His own mercy. It’s a reference back to Romans 1 where Paul says God gave mankind up to the effect of their own sin.
It’s worth noting, however, that mercy is mentioned four times in this section: mercy for the Gentiles (v. 30), mercy for the Jews (v. 31), and mercy for the whole world (v. 32). We talk a lot more about God’s grace, than we do His mercy. But mercy is simply God not giving us the judgment we deserve.
One of the great hymns of the Church is a song called At Calvary by William Newell. The refrain contains these words, “Mercy there was great and grace was free. Pardon there was multiplied to me. There my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary.” One day Israel will find the great mercy of God. I pray that you’ve found it. If not, may today be the day.