"The Glory of Inclusion" pt.2 Romans 11:13-16

Introduction

Paul has been making a contrast between the Gentiles and the Jews in an attempt to make clear the distinct nature of the gospel of God’s grace.

At issue is the imputed righteousness of Christ by faith versus the idea of one being righteous by obedience to the Mosaic Law code.

In the end this was a key difference between Christianity and Judaism. Paul understood the Jewish mindset very well.

He knew what drove them in their motivation. He was at one time driven by the same thing. And therefore, he ministered the gospel in a provoking manner. Look back at the provocation in verse 13-14:

I. The Provocation (13-14).

He say he magnifies his ministry to the Gentiles in order to make his fellow Jews jealous.

He is not talking about other Jewish believers in Christ but he is speaking of those ethnic Jews who still practice their Judaism.

We know this because he desire that his ministerial actions to Gentiles would result in some of them coming to salvation.

Jewish people are not saved by their ethnicity, nor are they saved by their obedience to the Mosaic law code.

Because if they were there would be no reason for them to be jealous because of Paul’s ministerial practice to the Gentiles.

The Jews considered themselves to be God’s chosen people. And they were when it came to the establishment of covenants in the patriarchal system. They were chosen to relay God’s written word. And they were chosen to be the ethnic lineage of the Messiah.

Most of them rejected Jesus as the Messiah and therefore they also rejected the fulfillment of God’s covenant plans and the means by which God intended to bestow His covenant blessings.

The whole of their heritage hinged on the messianic fulfillment of Jesus Christ alone and everything that He would accomplish in God’s plan of redemption.

As we have learned over the last several weeks from the Old Testament that Israel embraced the Caananite gods and God judged them for it.

They rejected Him and He rejected them as a people while preserving a remnant for Himself.

There is no reason for them to be jealous if their ethnicity and law observance is what connects them to God’s covenant fulfillment.

They would only be jealous if the gospel is the means of God’s covenant fulfillment and the Gentiles that at being saved by it are now the covenant beneficiaries of the blessings promised to Abraham.

By provoking them to jealousy by preaching covenant blessing to Gentiles through Jesus Christ alone would make the jealous to the point that they would abandon their pursuit of self-righteousness for the righteousness of God in Christ.

Ironically, recently I was preaching to a Gentile who had the same problem. He was confident of his good works being enough to save him.

He had his own law code that he had lived most of his life by and he imagined that he had done enough to tilt the scales in his favor before God.

Such a view is not limited to Judaism. There is that Norman Rockwell painting where the merchant and the customer are weighing out the product and both have their finger on the balance scale pushing it in the direction to benefit themselves.

A sinful human being tilting the scale in his favor is not hard to do when weighing out a few apples. But when the infinite mountain of the righteousness of God is on one side and it is time for us to be weighed in the balance it will take more than the works of your hands to tilt it in your favor. Regardless whether you are Jew or Gentile.

But God did not abandon all of us in that helpless state as Gentiles and as we will see He didn’t abandon all the Jews in that helpless state. We profited from what He did. Look back at verses 15-16:

II. The Profit (15-16).

The rejection of ethnic Israel as a people group meant the reconciliation of the Gentiles. World here is not talking about every single person but from all people groups of the world.

This was the profitable benefit for the Gentiles because God turned His focus towards the Gentiles for their salvation. So God’s rejection of ethnic Israel brought about the reconciliation of the Gentiles.

This prompts Paul then to ask a rhetorical question: If their rejection brought about the benefit of the reconciliation of the Gentiles, “what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?”

So Paul perceives there is even a greater benefit for Gentiles if the Jews are included, namely, “life from the dead.”

Now what does he mean when he says life from the dead? Verse 16 helps us understand what Paul is driving at. He uses dough offered as a first fruit offering of the harvest to the Lord from Numbers 15:20-21.

And he refers to an olive tree using its roots and branches. I believe he has an olive tree in mind due to what he says in the next section beginning in verse 17.

The olive tree with its roots is the O.T. patriarchal system that God established with Abraham and that has been fulfilled in Christ.

I believe that “life from the dead” is referring to Jews being made alive in Christ that will bring about the fulfillment and culmination of Spiritual Israel in the final days.

An increase in Jewish conversions are a marker of our future and eternal redemption.

Why does this profit us Christian? because the full number of the elect must come in in order for us to eventually be with Christ.

Do we want to see Jewish people saved? Of course we do! We want them saved because Christ is glorified in their salvation. And we want them saved because those who are elect in Christ must come to faith before Christ return.

I have a friend who used to come to New Jersey and go into the exclusive Jewish communities and hand out New Testaments in Hebrew. This man loved the Jewish people and he would travel to Jewish neighborhoods and preach to them.

He would tell me of Rabbi’s that he would encounter who believed in Jesus as Messiah but they were closet Christians in Jewish communities.

One conservative Jewish man that I was conversing with about Messianic Jews told me that a Messianic Jew was “someone who thinks they are Jewish but they are really not.”

I would say, no, a Messianic Jew is a Jew who knows exactly what it means to be Jewish. Because a Jewish person can’t know what it means to be Jewish until Christ opens up their hearts.

2 Corinthians 3:15-16: “15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.”

Christian Jewish people are not the only ones with blind hearts. Gentiles are blinded by their own self righteousness too driven by their pride in their good works.

You remember Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

The reason boasting is driven by a works salvation is because earning our salvation by our performance cultivates an infatuation with our sinful pride in our hearts and it comes out of our mouths in the form of boasting.

The gospel of grace continually reminds us that our only hope of salvation will only and ever be full reliance on Christ alone. That is the pride crushing and humility building reality of the Christian.

Conclusion:

Christian if you are in God’s covenant tree you are secure in Christ and because of Christ. It is in that covenant relationship that we come to him today and confess our sin and rest in Him. You are loved by your God and He has provided for you abundantly in Christ.

Unbeliever maybe today is the day of you coming into God’s covenant tree. Believe the gospel! Let’s Pray!