Romans 11:25-36

25-27 28-36

25-27

25

When I read the first part of verse 25 I am reminded of Proverbs 26:4 “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.” Paul warns us about thinking incorrectly about our gift that God has given us in cutting off the natural branches of the olive tree so that we the Gentiles could be grafted in. Israel is not totally or completely forsaken and this is a partial hardening of their hearts is only until all of the elect Gentiles have been redeemed.

26

When the fullness of the Gentile elect have been saved God will turn back to his chosen race and all of Israel will be saved. That is all the elect of Israel in the end times. There will be elect from the Jews during this Church age as Paul is a prime example but the fullness of the covenant will be fulfilled at the end.

27

The quote in verses 26 and the first part of 27 is from Isaiah 59:20–21 ““And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord. “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” The second part of the quote in verse 27 is from Isaiah 27:9 “Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,” This is repeated in several other places in Psalms and Isaiah, Psalm 14:7 “Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.” Psalm 53:6 “Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.” and Isaiah 46:13 “I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay; I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory.”” Jesus’ second coming and millennial reign will be associated with Mt. Zion, Psalm 110:2 “The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies!” Revelation 14:1 “Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.” God will keep his promises and covenants.

28-36

28

The Jews that have rejected Jesus and have had their hearts hardened are like the rest of the world in regard to the gospel, they are at war with God and thus God’s saints, they are our enemies spiritually but they will always be God’s chosen people because of the covenants made with their forefathers, Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. And there will be are are elect from them.

29

Verse 29 is a short verse is a wonderful reminder of our security of salvation, along with Romans 8:38–39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” To be called, or foreknown, or chosen, or elected is a gift from God. There is nothing that we could ever do to pay our insurmountable debt to God, even pay it enough for our account to be zero and no longer negative, let alone be credited with the righteousness of Jesus and to be called sons and daughters of God. This is a gift, a free gift that God gives as He chooses, and once he has chosen, which was done before the creation, before Genesis 1:1, this gift is irrevocable, it can not be given back, it can not be lost, no one can take it away from us, and God will not change his mind because God is always good and just and what he says will be done, will be done, including our redemption and salvation.

30-31

It was God’s will and his sovereign plan to choose a people to bless and bring about the first coming of Jesus. It is also His sovereign will to harden the hearts of his chosen people and make them jealous by adopting saints from the Gentiles until the end when He will bring the fullness of Israel back to him. Any chosen to be redeemed is a mercy and grace from God, we are all sinners and deserve death as our just and due punishment.

32

Because of the fall, all are consigned to disobedience, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. None are righteous, no not even one, Jew and Gentile alike. Our natural and default state is to be at enmity with God, to be at war with God, to hate him and battle against Him and revel in our sins. It would be just of God to require the due punishment each and every time we sin immediately, but God shows everyone a portion of his grace and mercy every time we sin and don’t immediately die.

33

Paul gets overwhelmed and breaks into praise of our merciful sovereign God, marveling at the eternal wisdom and knowledge of God, and the depth, the capacity and goodness of the gifts from God, and there are no small gifts from God to a people that in their default state are God haters and in willful and total rebellion against him. We are not able to understand God’s master plan for His creation, it is inscrutable and unsearchable to our feeble self centered minds to comprehend, but we are in awe of it and know that God is good all of the time.

34-35

Verse 34 is quoted from Isaiah 40:13 “Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel?” and 35 is from Job 41:11 “Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.” Both of these passages are from lengthy sections of praising and telling of God’s greatness.

36

God created all things from nothing but his power, all things are from him, He sustains all things as he holds the very atoms together with his eternal and continuing power, all things are through him, and everything that God has done and created are for his purpose and for his glory, to him are all things. All glory belongs to God, anything we have done, anything good in the eyes of God, are because it is done for the glory of God and not for our glory amen indeed.

The next several chapters start the application of what we are to do now that we are called and saved, redeemed saints of God.