Romans 11.30-Gentile Christians Who Were Once Not Believing In God Have Now Obtained Grace Because Of Israel's Unbelief
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday September 1, 2009
Romans: Romans 11:30-Gentile Christians Who Were Once Not Believing In God Have Now Obtained Grace Because Of Israel’s Unbelief
Lesson # 386
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 11:28.
This evening we will study Romans 11:30 in which Paul teaches his Gentile Christian readers in Rome that they who were once unbelieving in God have now been obtained grace because of Israel’s unbelief.
Tomorrow we will note Romans 11:31 and in this passage the apostle instructs his Gentile Christian readers in Rome that because they as Gentiles obtained mercy through faith in Christ, Israel as a nation who has been unbelieving will obtained grace as well through faith in Christ.
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.”
Romans 11:29, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
Romans 11:30-31, “For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy.”
Romans 11:30-31 form a comparative clause that provides an explanation of Paul’s statement in Romans 11:29, which explains the paradox or antinomy presented in Romans 11:28.
“Just as” is the adverb of manner hosper (w%sper) (hoce-per), which is used to introduce the protasis of a comparison meaning that to which the main idea is being compared.
The protasis appears in Romans 11:30: “For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience.”
The apodasis appears in Romans 11:31: “So these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy.”
Hosper is employed with the adverb of manner houtos, “so” that appears in Romans 11:31 in order to form a comparative clause.
This clause is comparing God’s gracious dealings with the formerly disobedient Gentiles and His gracious dealings with the presently disobedient Jews.
It compares God extending grace to the formerly disobedient Gentiles because of Israel’s disobedience and saving them through faith in Christ with God extending grace to the presently disobedient Jews because of the mercy exercised towards the Gentiles and saving them through faith in Christ as well.
“You” is the nominative second person plural personal pronoun humeis (u(mei$) (hoo-mice), which refers to Paul’s Gentile Christian readers but with emphasis upon their race as Gentiles in a corporate sense in contrast to the Jews.
The word emphasizes a comparative contrast between the former disobedience of the Gentile race with their present obedience to the gospel.
It speaks of the Gentiles, as a corporate unit, who in contrast to the Jews, have typically responded in faith to the gospel.
“Once” is the indefinite temporal particle pote (povte) (pot-eh), which means “formerly” since it is used of an indefinite time in the past experience of the Gentiles when they as a corporate unit were characteristically disobedient to the gospel.
This particle speaks of a period of time in the dispensations prior to the church age when typically the Gentiles as a corporate unit did not exercise faith in the gospel.
The church age dispensation began on the day of Pentecost in approximately June of 30 A.D. as recorded in Acts 2 and will end at the rapture of the church, which is imminent (1 Thess. 4:13-18; cf. 2 Pet. 3:10).
By typically I mean that the majority of Gentiles throughout the dispensations prior to the church age rejected the Lord with of course some exceptions such as the people of Nineveh responding to Jonah’s message or Rahab the harlot.
“Were disobedient” is the second person plural aorist active indicative form of the verb apeitheo (a)peiqevw) (ap-i-theh-o), which is used to describe the former corporate unbelief of the Gentile race in contrast to their present faith in the gospel as a corporate unit.
Romans 11:30-31, “For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy.”
“But” is the “adversative” use of the conjunction de (deV) (deh), which introduces a statement that presents a contrast with Paul’s previous statement that the Gentiles typically speaking did not exercise faith in God in the dispensations prior to the church age.
Paul doesn’t use the strong adversative conjunction alla since he is only attempting to contrast the typical negative response of the Gentiles prior to the church age with their typical response presently during the church age.
“Now” is the adverb of time nun (nun) (noon), which is employed with the aorist tense of the verb eleeo in order to emphasize the present state of the Gentiles as a corporate unit during the church age experiencing the grace of God as a result of the past action of the Father declaring them justified through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
“Have been shown mercy” is the second person plural aorist passive indicative form of the verb eleeo (e)leevw) (el-eh-eh-o), which means, “to obtain grace” and refers to God’s grace being appropriated by those Gentile sinners who exercised faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
It is used with God the Father as the subject and Gentile Christians as its object since only those who trust in Jesus Christ as Savior appropriate God’s grace.
This grace is in the form of the forgiveness of sins and being entered into an eternal relationship and fellowship with God.
The word does not mean “to be merciful” since the verb oikteiro that appears in Romans 9:15 means just that since it translates the Hebrew verb racham (sh^r*), which appears in Exodus 33:19 and means “to be merciful.”
Romans 9:14-15, “Therefore, what is the conclusion that we are forced to? There is, as an eternal spiritual truth no unrighteousness with respect to the judgment of God (the Father), is there? Absolutely not! Because, He says to Moses, ‘I will be gracious to whomever I choose to be gracious to and in addition I will be merciful to whomever I choose to be merciful to.’”
Romans 11:30, “For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience.”
“Because of their disobedience” indicates that the Gentile Christians obtained grace through faith in Christ on the basis of or because the majority of Jews in Israel did not exercise faith in Jesus Christ.
This echoes what Paul taught in Romans 11:11.
Romans 11:11, “Therefore, I ask, did they stumble so as to fall down in complete in ruin? Absolutely not! On the contrary because of their transgression salvation is experienced by the Gentiles in order to provoke them to jealousy.”
The statement “On the contrary because of their transgression salvation is experienced by the Gentiles in order to provoke them to jealousy” stands in direct contrast with the idea that Israel stumbled by rejecting Christ so as to fall in complete ruin as a nation.
It indicates that salvation is experienced by the Gentiles “because of” Israel’s transgression in rejecting Christ in order to provoke Israel to jealousy.
So from our study of Romans 11:30 we can see that this passage along with Romans 11:31 explains how the irrevocable invitation to privilege that God extended to the nation of Israel is manifested.
It is manifested by God extending grace to Israel and saving them when the majority of Jews in Israel will no longer be disobedient to the gospel but will instead exercise faith in Christ at His Second Advent.
Romans 11:30 teaches that the Gentiles who were once unbelieving in God have now been obtained grace because of Israel’s unbelief.
Tomorrow we will note Romans 11:31 and in this passage the apostle instructs his Gentile Christian readers in Rome that because they as Gentiles obtained grace through faith in Christ, Israel as a nation who has been unbelieving will obtained grace as well through faith in Christ.