The Dynamics of Spiritual Hardening

Introduction

Last week we considered Paul’s three proofs concerning the remnant of Israel. First, we observed that Paul’s own life experience proves the reality of the remnant. Second, we saw that Elijah’s experience was typical of Paul’s, demonstrating from the Old Testament the reality of the remnant. Finally, we observed that for Paul, the doctrine of the remnant is grounded in the existence and attributes of God Himself.

We noted that while rejection is real and has actually occured in space-time history, God’s rejection of Israel is not eternal, absolute, or final, but that out of that rejection a remnant will always be saved. This is the pattern of Paul’s experience, this is the pattern of history, and this is the pattern of God Himself, and we see this borne out before our very eyes.

Paul now continues his argument and adds some additional distinctions as he continues to explain the notion of the remnant of Israel.

First we want to consider the remnant as an outworking of divine grace.

God’s Grace to the Remnant

Last week we affirmed that the remnant comes into existence and is preserved in the midst of the judgment and rejection of God according to His gracious choice. This dovetails with verse 2 which tells us that God also foreknew them.

So again for Paul, the doctrines of grace are front and center in his argument for the existence of a Jewish remnant.

He reinforces that in verse 6, by making a crystal clear statement on the mutual exclusivity of works and grace. You can’t get any more clear than Paul does here: if you do any work, it’s no longer a gift, it’s wages. Paul has already mentioned this in Romans 4:4-5

Romans 4:4–5 LSB

Now to the one who works, his wage is not counted according to grace, but according to what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes upon Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

Works, therefore, exclude and nullify the gracious gift of God. And if salvation is only by grace, then works effectively nullify salvation. I don’t know about you, but for me that’s comforting. It’s a relief to know that my good works, which are actually, in an objective sense, still bad works, aren’t contributing to my salvation. An equal comfort comes in the fact that they also are not detracting from it.

Works are nothing for Paul. He’s said it before and he says it again now.

But this time around, Paul is intent upon demonstrating this mutual exclusivity of works and grace specifically in the context of the remnant of Israel.

What he’s saying, therefore, is that the remnant first, comes into existence and second, has that existence preserved by God Himself. This is a holy and holistic, majestic and monergistic work of divine providence and power, grace and glory.

This is the same way that all people are saved back in chapter 9, but now Paul applies that same logic to Israel.

Paul is therefore intent on ensuring that his readers understand that just as Gentiles are saved by grace through faith according to the electing love of God, so also Israelites are save by grace through faith according to the electing love of God.

I find it so compelling that Paul writes this. I am confident that the Spirit, working in Paul to write these words, anticipated some of the slightly-off-base movements and brands of teaching that would come into the church, even 2000 years down the line.

There are strains of teaching, some remarkably close to our own circles, that postulate that Israel is elect or chosen or saved simply by virtue of the fact that they are Israel. This is a popular view today, and has been espoused by those who wave the flag of Zionism, dispensationalism, and other fringe, “Johnny-come-lately” brands of theology and Biblical interpretation that simply didn’t exist for much of the history of the church. This is likely because they’re fairly far away from the actual teaching of Scripture.

However, the idea of the “universal election of Israel,” or teaching that all Jews are elect, or are part of God’s chosen, invisible covenant people, is simply unsupported by Scripture, and more than that, it would seem that Paul outright attacks it here. Paul has made it clear up to this point that just because you have Abraham’s seed in you does not mean that you are automatically saved. You can go all the way back to chapter 4 to discover that. Even just since chapter 9 Paul has been very clear on the causes and means of salvation, and those causes and means have nothing to do with the blood running in your veins. Ishmael had Abraham’s blood in his veins but was not the chosen son. Jacob and Esau were twins. They shared as much as two people could from a natural perspective and yet Jacob was chosen and Esau was not. Paul’s assertion is therefore supported by historical realities: Abraham’s natural seed was irrelevant to the sovereign saving decree of God.

So Paul is clear here that Israel specifically is saved by grace and grace alone, and that saving grace produces out of Israel this foreknown, graciously chosen remnant.

Again, as we look to build a bridge to our own lives, I sound the call to pray for Israel. Pray that God would save His remnant from the Jewish people. He has purposed to do it, therefore, with confidence in His promise we must pray for them.

Israel: Chosen and Hardened

Verse 7 brings us to a very important distinction that Paul makes, and we need to pay close attention here because this is how the rest of the chapter makes sense. If you miss the nuance of verse 7, you miss the point of the entire chapter.

What is Paul’s distinction? He distinguishes between Israel in general, and the chosen specifically. How does he do this? By making this contrast centering on the idea of obtaining salvation.

Paul says that Israel has not obtained it, but the chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened. In other words, not all ethnic Israel will be saved. Only that remnant, foreknown and chosen by God in his grace and love, will obtain salvation.

Paul therefore reinforces the point he has been making for three chapters, and really the point that became the ground and foundation for his entire ministry: salvation is by grace for everyone. There are not two salvations or two ways to be saved. Every person who would be saved, must be saved by faith in Christ. Nothing more, nothing less.

To further cement the matter, Paul distinguishes between two groups within ethnic Israel: the chosen and the hardened. We discussed the concept of the chosen versus the hardened at length in chapter 9, so I will summarize here:

Hardened is the natural state for all people, and here for Paul it is the natural state for Israel. God in His grace chooses some to obtain salvation, and the rest are hardened by being left to their own devices and by being given over to their lusts and desires. We saw this logic applies to the whole world in chapter 1 and again in chapter 9 and now it is applied specifically to Israel.

Paul is continuing to impress upon us the reality that Israel is held to the same standards as everyone else.

As I reflect on these words I am reminded again of the immutability of God. Francis Turretin says that

Institutes of Elenctic Theology Eleventh Question: The Immutability of God

Immutability is an incommunicable attribute of God by which is denied of him not only all change, but also all possibility of change, as much with respect to existence as to will.

God does not change His course, change His tune, or change His mind. Stephen Charnock says that immutability is a glory belonging to all the attributes of God, and certainly we see Paul here putting this truth on full display, for God’s electing foreknowledge and saving grace are immutable, regardless of time, ethnic background, or social status. God’s purposes will stand, and in that truth we find immense hope.

Joel Beeke says:

Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 1: Revelation and God God’s Unchangeable Will

Therefore, Christians possess a hope that is “an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast,” for God has revealed “the immutability of his counsel” (Heb. 6:17, 19). His promises will never expire, for his plan will never change. He demonstrated his absolute commitment to keeping his word by the extraordinary act of swearing an oath, so that “by two immutable things [i.e., God’s promise and oath], in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation” (v. 18). God swore “by himself,” grounding the immutability of his promise upon his very nature (v. 13; cf. Gen. 22:16). Thomas Boston said, “Though he alters his dispensations, yet not his nature; but, by one pure and constant act of his will and power, effects what changes he pleases. He is the same in all his perfections, constant in his intentions, steady in his purpose, unchangeably fixed and persevering in all his decrees and resolutions.” This means we can trust his word in all the vicissitudes of providence. Over the entire Bible flies this banner: “These words are true and faithful” (Rev. 21:5). The eternal, immutable God has spoken them, and he is “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end” (v. 6).

As we reflect on the unchanging reality of God’s saving purposes and will, we can therefore have great cause for hope and confidence in this world, because His immutable will and changeless character as concerns the means and methods of salvation, also apply to every other aspect of God’s character and will. To put it simply, God is who He is, and cannot be any other, and He does what He does, and cannot do any other.

To put it simply, what God promises, God fulfills. This is why Paul can declare that every promise of God is yes and amen in Christ Jesus.

So, as Paul reflects on the division of Israel, between the chosen and the hardened, he opens the Old Testament to help us ground these realities in the whole counsel of God.

The Hardening of the Spiritual Senses

Paul, as he has been known to do, gives his readers and us a kind of piecemeal quotation from the Old Testament, referencing multiple passages and themes in one quote.

He specifically places his explanation of hardening within the context of the senses. Seeing, hearing, and understanding are all in view here for Paul in a spiritual sense.

Verse 8 deals with a theme that runs throughout the Old Testament and indeed throughout the Bible: the theme of spiritual blindness and deafness.

Sight that Saves

From the earliest portions of God’s Word, the notion of sight is intimately associated with the grace of God in salvation. We saw back in chapter 9 that Paul understands Moses’ request in Exodus 33 to see God as a request upon His mercy and compassion. Equally then, for God to grant sight of Himself and His glory and His light and His truth is in and of itself an act of mercy and grace.

This concept, known theologically as the Beatific Vision, or blessed sight of God, has been put forth by theologians over the centuries as the ultimate end of the Christian life. Our end goal is to behold God face to face. Just as it was Moses’ desire, indeed it is the desire of all who love God: to see Him as He is. And this is not just the desire of Moses or even of believers today. This was the desire of Jesus Himself as He prayed to His father in John 17:24

John 17:24 LSB

“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

As Steven Curtis Chapman would say, the desire of every Christian ought to be to wake up and see the glory.

It’s important, however, to make some distinctions here. When Paul quotes these Old Testament authors and says that Israel does not have eyes to see, he is speaking of what Paul calls in Ephesians 1:18 the eyes of the heart. Seeing with spiritual eyes precedes seeing with natural eyes, but the two go together. You cannot have the one without the other.

John Owen distinguishes between natural eyes and spiritual eyes using Paul’s terminology from 1 Corinthians: spiritual eyes are the eyes of faith, and natural eyes are the eyes of sight. He says this:

Works of John Owen: Volume 1 Chapter 12: Differences between Our Beholding the Glory of Christ by Faith in This World and by Sight in Heaven—The First of Them Explained

Those are the two spiritual powers of our souls;—by the one whereof we are made partakers of grace, holiness, and obedience in this life; and by the other, of eternal blessedness and glory.

In other words, faith is how we apprehend the glory of Christ now, and sight is how we will apprehend His glory in eternity.

So Paul speaks of Israel as not having the eyes of their heart, their spiritual eyes, the eyes of faith, opened to the glory of Christ in His humiliation at His first coming.

Again therefore we see the tragic reality of Israel’s existence: a spiritually blind, deaf, senseless, existence which comes about as a result of their hardening.

Having looked briefly at the doctrine of sight, let’s look now to Paul’s Old Testament synthesis of the blindness of Israel.

This theme begins Biblically in Deuteronomy 29, when God through Moses renews His covenant with Israel.

Deuteronomy 29:1–4 LSB

These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to cut with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had cut with them at Horeb. And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders. “Yet to this day Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.

Moses here foreshadows the same realities that would grip Paul 1500 years later. Israel was witness to the majestic power and divine splendor of Yahweh as He delivered them from Egypt and sustained them through the wilderness. Yet despite being witness to these wonders, they did not see with the eyes of faith. For Paul, this reality was even more stark and grim. The nation of Israel in Paul’s day had witness Christ Himself with their own eyes, not merely signs pointing to him, and they still did not see with the eyes of faith.

Where things get interesting in the chronological flow of the Old Testament after Moses is with, per usual, Isaiah. Isaiah 6 is one of the most well-known and vivid passages in all of the Old Testament. It begins with this resonant historical timestamp: in the year that King Uzziah died. The death of King Uzziah is juxtaposed poetically against the life of Yahweh who is seated not on the throne of Israel but on the throne of the universe. Isaiah receives a vision of the glory of the throne room of heaven, which causes him to first repent and then volunteer to go as the mouthpiece of the thrice-holy God to the people of Israel.

God commissions him as such, and gives him a message for the people:

Isaiah 6:8–13 LSB

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not know.’ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.” Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He said, “Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people, And the land is devastated to desolation, And Yahweh has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. “Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, And it will again be subject to burning, Like a terebinth or like an oak Whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump.”

God’s message for Israel through Isaiah is that they will continue in spiritual blindness, and this is by God’s own hand. To use Paul’s terminology, they are blind because they have been hardened, rather than chosen. Yet this hardening is not absolute, eternal, or terminal, as we saw last week, because Isaiah is prompted to ask the Lord “How long?” Isaiah thus understands with his prophetic forbears that the anger of the Lord will not last forever. He will relent and once again call back His elect. The devastation will be severe according to verses 11-12. Yet verse 13 contains the same promise that Paul clings so tightly to in 11:1-5: God will save a remnant. A tenth portion will remain, just as the stumps of trees remain after a fire. In this holy stump is contained the promise of the remnant, which is more fully fleshed out for Isaiah in Isaiah 11:1-5

Isaiah 11:1–5 LSB

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and might, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh. And He will delight in the fear of Yahweh, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor render a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with uprightness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will put the wicked to death. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist.

Isaiah understood therefore that for Israel’s blindness to be removed, judgment had to come first and decimate those who were hardened. Only then could the stump of Israel, the root of Jesse spring forth and yield the branches of the remnant which would bear fruit for God’s glory.

We know of course that Jesus declared himself to be this seed of the stump, the remnant from the root. He is the one in whom Israel was to abide, and therefore bear fruit. He was the one who would remove their blindness and make them see.

Jeremiah and Ezekiel deal at points in their prophecies with the perpetual blindness of Israel as well.

Paul therefore does not speak alone. Moses and the prophets bear witness that Israel has largely, though not absolutely, been hardened. They remain blind. Paul’s hope and prayer must also be ours: that Israel’s blindness would be removed.

Hearing that Heals

Saving sight throughout Scriptures is associated with what I would call healing hearing. I won’t spend as much time here because we discussed at length a few weeks ago the idea of hearing and understanding.

I will just direct us back to Romans 10:14-19

Romans 10:14–19 LSB

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO PROCLAIM GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!” However, they did not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, have they never heard? On the contrary, they have; “THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD.” But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says, “I WILL MAKE YOU JEALOUS BY THAT WHICH IS NOT A NATION, BY A NATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WILL I ANGER YOU.”

Israel’s eyes must be opened. Their ears must be made attentive. Only when these two conditions are present can the chosen remnant of Israel believe the gospel.

Yet, in Paul’s day, the remnant are few and far between. He affirms that some are chosen, but many are hardened, and many of them do not have eyes to see or ears to hear.

Sensitive Spiritual Senses

For Paul, all of this is wrapped up in his first line of the quotation, which comes from Isaiah 29. Israel was given a spirit of stupor. To put it in the modern English vernacular, God made them stupid. He made them senseless. He rendered their spiritual senses of hearing and sight utterly useless.

In the context of Isaiah 29, this spirit of stupor is poured out as a response to Israel’s rote, heartless worship. They are a people who worships God with their lips but not with their hearts.

This is hardening. This is being given over. When you love the creature rather than the creator and you refuse to worship God in Spirit and in truth, He hardens people. He gives them over to their lusts and sensualities. He gives them a spirit of stupor.

This is terrifying. And according to Paul, this is also the plight of many in Israel, even in his day. And our day it is no different. Israel remains largely blind and deaf to the truth of the gospel.

The Reason for Hardening

Paul concludes this section by making a subtle yet profound inference as to why Israel has been hardened. What was the immediate cause of their hardening? We understand the ultimate cause as God’s sovereign purpose and decree, but the immediate cause is contained right here in verses 9-10. It might not be initially obvious, but once we look at Psalm 69 it will become apparent.

Psalm 69 LSB

For the choir director. According to Shoshannim. Of David. Save me, O God, For the waters have threatened my life. I have sunk in deep clay, and there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me. I am weary with my calling out; my throat is parched; My eyes fail while I wait for my God. Those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head; Those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies; What I did not steal, I then have to restore. O God, it is You who knows my folly, And all my guilt is not hidden from You. May those who hope for You not be ashamed through me, O Lord Yahweh of hosts; May those who seek You not be dishonored through me, O God of Israel, Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; Dishonor has covered my face. I have become estranged from my brothers And a foreigner to my mother’s sons. For zeal for Your house has consumed me, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. When I wept in my soul with fasting, It became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. Those who dwell at the gate moan about me, And I am the drunkards’ songs. But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Yahweh, at an acceptable time; O God, in the abundance of Your lovingkindness, Answer me with the truth of Your salvation. Deliver me from the mire and do not let me sink; May I be delivered from my foes and from the deep waters. May the flood of water not overflow me Nor the deep swallow me up, Nor the pit shut its mouth on me. Answer me, O Yahweh, for Your lovingkindness is good; According to the abundance of Your compassion, turn to me, And do not hide Your face from Your slave, For I am in distress; answer me quickly. Oh draw near to my soul and redeem it; Ransom me because of my enemies! You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor; All my adversaries are before You. Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick. And I hoped for sympathy, but there was none, And for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. May their table before them become a snare; And when they are in peace, may it become a trap. May their eyes darken so that they cannot see, And make their loins quake continually. Pour out Your indignation on them, And may Your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be desolate; May none dwell in their tents. For they have persecuted him whom You Yourself have struck down, And they recount the pain of those whom You have wounded. Add iniquity to their iniquity, And may they not come into Your righteousness. May they be blotted out of the book of life And may they not be recorded with the righteous. But I am afflicted and in pain; May Your salvation, O God, set me securely on high. I will praise the name of God with song And magnify Him with thanksgiving. And this will please Yahweh better than an ox Or a young bull with horns and hoofs. The humble see it and are glad; You who seek God, let your heart revive. For Yahweh hears the needy And does not despise His who are prisoners. Let heaven and earth praise Him, The seas and everything that moves in them. For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, That they may dwell there and possess it. The seed of His slaves will inherit it, And those who love His name will dwell in it.

Israel was hardened because of their treatment of the Messiah. David and His Son therefore pray an imprecatory prayer against them, that they would receive their due for their destruction of God’s Anointed One.

The plight of Israel comes as a result of their murder of the Messiah. Paul makes that clear with his use of this quote from David here. Paul understands that what David prayed for has come to pass.

Yet David also understood that those of Israel who bind themselves to the murdered Messiah will share in His inheritance. God will once again build up His people and give them a dwelling place. We know this to be the temple of Christ’s body, the church, and we understand that our inheritance of the land is actually our inheritance of the whole earth, according to Matthew 5:5.

David’s hope and Paul’s hope and our hope is that one day, ethnic Israel will look on Him whom they pierced and mourn Him as an only Son and praise Him and magnify Him and love His name.

We trust that even in the midst of hardening and judgment and destruction, rightly deserved, that God will preserve for Himself a remnant of ethnic Israel and continue to call them to Himself.

By way of reminder, we will not be meeting at 9am next Sunday on Christmas Day, but we will be back together on New Year’s Day the following week with a special, and I trust helpful lesson on New Year’s Commitments. I hope to see you with us then.