Romans 11:27-32 "The Glory of Irrevocable Grace"

Introduction:

God’s primary objective is to manifest His glory through the exaltation of His eternal Son. And one of the ways He does this is through bringing His plan of redemption to pass in the world.

All of us who are saved in Christ have been saved by Him and for Him. We have been redeemed by Christ for God and His glory.

Throughout time there were certain things that had to come to pass to bring this to fruition. The death, burial and resurrection of Christ was paramount to this in bringing it to pass.

But there is a history to redemption with many mysterious elements that Scripture tells us of. The apostle Paul speaks of one such mystery in our text this morning. Look at your text to this revealed mystery in verses 25-27:

I. The Revealed Mystery (25-27).

He is explaining this as to not leave Gentiles to believe that they believe the gospel because they are wiser than unbelieving Jews. There is no superior wisdom when it comes to fallen man in their depravity.

The revealed mystery is that the hardening of the Jews was partial and temporary.

We know it was partial because there have always been from the time of Christ Jews who believed in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of God. As a matter of fact the earliest Christians in history were Jewish (25a).

We know it was temporary because we are told in Scripture that there is a time referred to as the “fullness of the Gentiles” that will eventually come in (25b).

The fullness of the Gentiles could be referring to a time in which the Lord Jesus spoke of in Luke 21:24 -“They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

Luke 21:24 is set in the context of Luke’s account of Jesus teaching His disciple on the Last Days. Much of this we saw from Matthew 24 some time ago. This context is sets the time of the Gentiles in the time following the destruction of the temple.

The Gentiles will trample on the city until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

This view tends to emphasize the political aspect of Israel as a physical Nation. It seems to me that Paul in Romans 11 is emphasizing the spiritual aspect of Israel and their salvation.

This political aspect in Luke 21 and Matthew 24 seems parallel to the spiritual dynamic of Israel, which Paul is talking about here in Romans 11:25, where Jewish people are coming to Christ in increasing numbers in the last days.

So when Paul says, in verse 26: “And in this all Israel will be saved,” who is he specifically speaking of?

From an overarching theological perspective I would think he is speaking about all the elect from the Nations, both Jew and Gentile.

But in the immediate context I don’t think he is talking about the Gentiles. It seems he is speaking of those elect Jews who will come to faith in Christ once the partial hardening is lifted in the last days.

This is a spiritual dynamic not a political one. That is how both Jew and Gentile are seen as the true descendants of Abraham. Remember Romans 2:29 --“But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.”

And you can also see Galatians 3:29 --“And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

This spiritual identity was prophesied about in Isaiah 59:20-21 as Paul refers to in verses 26-27. This was the plan of God all along. Because God’s plan of redemption was always a plan that would in the end reveal His mercy to the all the Nations of the world. Look at back at our text to verses 28-32:

II. The Revealed Mercy (28-32).

Paul is saying that they are currently enemies of the gospel for the sake of the Gentiles but God has not washed His hands of the Jewish people.

The promises of the Abrahamic covenant did include the physical descendants of Abraham. But the Abrahamic covenant included all the Nations of the world as well.

But the means by which the covenant blessings of the Abrahamic covenant were bestowed in the end was the same for both.

And it was not their ethnic identity. Could you imagine that Gentiles would go around saying we are saved because we are Gentiles. No and neither would it make sense to be Jewish and go around saying you are saved because you are Jewish.

But for the sake of the promises to the Jewish forefathers God has always had a remnant of elect from among Jewish people. And they will come because the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

This is hard for us because we think in our minds that there must be a much more expedient method where God could expedite the salvation of the lost. But God does it this way to highlight the glory of His mercy.

Gentiles who were once disobedient have now recieved mercy from God due to the disobedience of the Jews (30).

And now Jews due to their disobedience they may now receive mercy themselves from God (31).

God is the one who brought this all to pass. He “consigned” all to disobedience, both Jews and Gentiles. So that in the end He may have mercy on all, both Jew and Gentile.

That word “consigned” in the ESV means to “catch by enclosing” or to “close up together” (BAGD).

It reminds me of working cows with my Dad in Tennessee. We would round them up and move the cattle into smaller and smaller areas that were fenced in until they would all be in the working pen.

From the working pen we would move them through the shoot and give them whatever they needed. We “consigned” them to the working pen.

God consigned all of the people groups of the world of both Jew and Gentile into disobedience to extend His mercy to them all.

The problem is that those who are self-righteous in the pride of their performance and perception of their moral goodness have no use for the mercy of God.

Charles Spurgeon said: “The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.”

It is one of the chief characteristics of our fallen nature that the gospel is confronting in us again and again. God’s grace, God’s love and God’s mercy is relentless in confronting the pride in our hearts and sanctifying it out of us.

O.T. Israel illustrate the heart issue for us when they built the golden calf. Ed Welch explains this in his book: “When People are Big and God Is Small” (pg. 45).

The problem is that in our nature we prefer to be righteous in our own eyes than to be righteous in the eyes of God. We would deny we are like this when it comes to our justification like good reformed protestants. But in our sanctification we struggle because self-righteousness gives us a false sense of empowerment in our relationships with others.

The world promotes this but the gospel doesn’t because the gospel is calling us to serve Christ by serving others. The gospel calls us to remove the plank from our own eye before we focus in on the spec in the eye of others.

And the gospel calls us to a life of glorifying God through Christ in full reliance on Him instead of self validation and a perception of self empowerment.

Conclusion

Christian how many times has God brought you to the end of yourself? And when He did this to you how many times did His mercy meet you there and the reality of His love and grace bring you to a closer walk with Him in your journey of sanctification.

Who is it that continues to cultivate humility in you by His loving kindness towards you.

Who is it that is ready once again to meet you to forgive you and restore you again today? It is God in and through Christ. Confess and receive!

Unbeliever regardless of whether you know it or not God has consigned you to disobedience that He may hold out mercy to you today.

Do not harden your heart towards Him. Believe the gospel and be saved. Lets pray!