Romans 11.28b-From The Standpoint Of The God Electing Them In A National Sense, Israel Is Beloved Because Of His Promises To The Patriarchs
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday August 27, 2009
Romans: Romans 11:28b-From The Standpoint Of God’s Electing Them In A National Sense, Israel Is Beloved Because Of His Promises To The Patriarchs
Lesson # 384
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 11:28.
This evening we will complete our study Romans 11:28 in which the apostle Paul summarizes God’s dealings with the nation of Israel and the Gentiles.
Last evening we noted the first part of the verse where Paul teaches that from the standpoint of the gospel, the nation of Israel corporately is God’s enemy for the sake of evangelizing the Gentiles.
This evening we will note the second half of the verse in which the apostle teaches that from the standpoint of God electing them in a national sense, the nation of Israel is the object of God’s love because of the unconditional promises to the patriarchs.
Romans 11:28, “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.”
Paul employs the figure of “asyndeton” in Romans 11:28 by not using a connective between the previous statement in Romans 11:27 and the one to follow in Romans 11:28.
He does this in order to emphasize the implication of his statement in Romans 11:28 that God has by no means rejected Israel forever but rather God has a plan for the future of the nation.
This implication provides support for Paul’s statements in Romans 11:25-27.
Romans 11:25-27, “In fact, I by no means want each and every one of you spiritual brothers and sisters to be ignorant of this mystery in order that you will not be arrogant concerning yourselves, namely that a partial hardness is taking place in Israel until and during which time the full number of Gentiles has come into existence. And then, in the following way, all Israel will be delivered just as it stands written for all of eternity, ‘The Deliverer will arrive out from Zion. He will remove totally and completely the godless ones from Jacob.’ Furthermore, this is, as an eternal spiritual truth, the covenant established by Me for their benefit when I act on My promise and remove their sins.”
Romans 11:28 is a correlative clause contrasting the nation of Israel’s relationship to God from two different perspectives.
The first perspective is their present relationship to the gospel in which they are presently enemies of God, which has led to the evangelization and subsequent salvation of innumerable Gentiles
The second is their past relationship with God in the sense of His electing them in a national sense and are the objects of God’s unconditional love for the sake of His promises to the patriarchs.
The latter provides irrefutable evidence that God has by no means rejected the nation of Israel forever for the sake of His unconditional promises to the patriarchs of Israel, which guarantee a future for the nation.
It presents further evidence and support that in the future there will be a national regeneration and restoration of the nation of Israel.
Therefore, this correlative clause teaches that on one hand with respect to the gospel, Israel corporately is God’s enemy for the sake of evangelizing the Gentiles.
While on the other hand, they were elected in a national sense making them the objects of God’s unconditional love for the sake of the unconditional promises God made to the patriarchs of the nation with the obvious implication that God has not rejected Israel forever but rather that she has a future in the plan of God.
Romans 11:28, “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.”
“From the standpoint of God’s choice” is composed of the preposition kata (katav) (kat-ah), “from the standpoint” and the articular accusative feminine singular form of the noun ekloge (e)klogvh) (ek-log-ay), “God’s choice.”
In Romans 11:28, the noun ekloge does not refer to the election of individual Jews who trust in Christ as Savior but rather it refers to the “national” election of the nation of Israel.
This is indicated in that in Romans 11:26-27, Paul quotes Old Testament Scripture to support his assertion that there will be national regeneration and restoration of the nation of Israel at Christ’s Second Advent.
This “national” election is referred to in Romans 9:4 with the term huiothesia, “adoption as sons.”
Romans 9:3-4, “In fact, I could almost wish that I myself could be accursed, totally and completely separated from Christ as a substitute for my brothers, specifically, my fellow countrymen with respect to racial descent who indeed by virtue of their unique, privileged character are, as an eternal spiritual truth, Israelites. To them belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the service and the promises.”
The term “adoption” refers to the Old Testament teaching concerning the nation of Israel that they were “God’s son” in a “national” sense meaning that God had set apart Israel from all the nations of the earth for blessing and service.
God chose Israel in a national sense in that He will have His Son rule in and through Israel during His millennial reign.
Exodus 4:22-23, “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, ‘Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me'; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.’”
Deuteronomy 14:1-2, “You are the sons of the LORD your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave your forehead for the sake of the dead. For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
Jeremiah 31:9, “With weeping they will come, and by supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters, on a straight path in which they will not stumble; For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”
Romans 11:28, “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.”
“Beloved” is the nominative masculine plural form of the adjective agapetos (a)gaphtov$) (ag-ap-ay-tos), which means “divinely loved” describing the fact that from the perspective of God electing the nation of Israel in a national sense they are the object of the triune God’s love.
“For the sake of the fathers” is composed of the preposition dia (diaV) (dee-ah), “for the sake of” and the articular accusative masculine plural form of the noun pater (pathVr), “the fathers.”
The noun pater refers to God’s faithfulness to the promises that He made to the patriarchs and does not simply refer to the patriarchs themselves who had no merit with God but were declared justified by Him when they made the non-meritorious decision to have faith in His Son.
Therefore, Paul is saying with this word that from the perspective of God electing them in a national sense, the nation of Israel is the object of God’s love because of His faithfulness to the promises that He made to the patriarchs.
Or we could say that from the perspective of God electing them in a national sense, the nation of Israel is the object of God’s love because of the unconditional promises He made to the patriarchs.
Corrected translation of Romans 11:28: “On the one hand, from the perspective of the gospel, they are, as an eternal spiritual truth, enemies on behalf of all of you while on the other hand from the perspective of their election, they are, as an eternal spiritual truth, divinely loved because of the promises to the fathers.”
Therefore, as we can see from our study of Romans 11:28, this passage is a correlative clause.
The declarative statement in this correlative clause teaches that the Gentiles benefited from the fact that the nation of Israel at the present time is God’s enemy.
However, the adversative clause teaches that from the standpoint of God electing them as a nation, Israel is the object of God’s love because of His unconditional promises He made to the patriarchs.