Are the Jews God’s Chosen People? - Romans 11:1-32

Copyright July 21, 22024 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

There is a debate going on in the church today over the role of Israel. Have the promises to Israel throughout the Bible been transferred to the church, or does God still have a place and a plan for the nation of Israel? At a time when conflict is raging in the Middle East and protests against Israel are taking place on college campuses and city streets, this is a question that takes on a new relevance to the child of God. Some of these questions are addressed in Romans 11. We are going to “fly over” this chapter today.

Let’s get our context. The big question Paul has been addressing in Romans 9-11 is, “How can I trust the promises of God for the future for me since it appears his promises to Israel were not able to be fulfilled?” Paul’s argument since chapter 9 has been that God HAS been faithful to His promises to Israel, but you need to understand how.

Back in chapter 9 we read these words,

6 Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! 7 Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too. 8 This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.

Paul’s argument is the promise God made was not to all of Israel but only to those who followed the faith of Abraham. The promise is traced through Isaac and then Jacob and on down the line. The distinction Paul is making is not much different than what we would make today when we say not all of the Jews are actually Jewish. That sounds like a nonsense statement but there are some who are Jewish in nationality who do not embrace the Jewish faith. There are even some who are of the Jewish faith today who are not actually Jewish in nationality. They have converted from non-Jewish backgrounds.

This is something we need to keep in mind whenever we are interpreting prophecies or promises about Israel. That word “Israel” is used in two different ways so we need to think carefully before drawing conclusions that may very well be wrong.

The Christian faith is similar, not everyone who goes to church, or calls themselves a believer, is actually a believer. The genuine Christian is the person who has turned to Christ as their only Savior from sin and have trusted Him as the Lord of their life. In the same way, not every American is a Christian . . . or, for that matter, not every Christian is a Republican.

The Idea of a Remnant

Paul begins Romans 11 with a simple question: “Has God rejected his own people?” Paul answers with an obvious negative. “Hey! I’m a Jew!” He says. He could go on to remind the Romans that all the disciples were Jews, and the bulk of the early church was rooted in those of the Jewish faith!

It is true that many of the Jewish faith have rejected the notion that Jesus is the promised Messiah, but Paul says the people need to remember the history of Judaism. He takes them to the story of Elijah after his victorious battle with the prophets of Baal. In 1 Kings 19 we read Elijah was exhausted and had become public enemy #1, and Queen Jezebel’s personal target of rage. So, Elijah decided to get out of town.

He was depressed and worn out. He was fed (by God’s direction) by ravens and then God said He wanted to talk to Elijah. So Elijah stood at the entrance to the cave and waited. A storm came and Elijah looked for God’s voice in an earthquake, a terrible driving wind, and then some fire but there was nothing. Suddenly, in the stillness, God spoke to Him in a whisper. God asked Elijah, “What are you doing here?” That is when Elijah said, “I’m tired. I’m the only one left who is serving you and now they are trying to kill me too.”

I imagine God may have shaken His head and said, “I know this is how you feel, but you are not the only one left, in fact there are 7000 who have never deserted me!”

Paul said, the same is true today. It seems like the Jews have deserted the faith, but God has preserved a remnant. These are seeds that God will use to begin to regrow the faithful. Paul says this is all by God’s kindness . . . not because of good works.

The rest of the Jews, according to Paul (v. 25) are experiencing a “partial hardening.” We saw this same kind of idea in chapter 1 when Paul said,

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (1:21-23)

Paul quoted two Old Testament texts to confirm this hardening in Israel in verses 8-10. The first (Isa 29:10) is this one,

“God has put them into a deep sleep.

To this day he has shut their eyes so they do not see,

and closed their ears so they do not hear.”

The other text is from Psalm 69:22-23. The point is the people were ensnared by their own religious observance. They started to live by tradition rather than by a healthy and vital relationship with God. We have seen it in the church in Europe that is just a shell of what it used to be. America may not be far behind. Has the church become more concerned about having an enjoyable worship rather than a reverent one? Are we people who know what to do in the Christian faith but we never actually do what He commands?

Anyone can be lulled to sleep. Anybody can start adopting a form or godliness instead of the real thing. We can feel we are close to God but are really drifting away. It would be like someone getting on a raft on the Mississippi river feeling life is good. So, they fall asleep. Without being aware of it, they start drifting down the river and awake the Fort Madison Bridge as a barge is bearing down on them! Just because someone sounds like a believer doesn’t mean they are a believer.

The people of Paul’s day became calloused and hardened and no longer able to see and embrace the truth of God. And this is exactly what happened to Israel. And I am afraid, that unless things change in America, the same thing could happen here. We are religious, we love our Christian worship music, but much of it is shallow and has little to do with honoring the Lord. We have the appearance of godliness but are becoming immune to the real thing.

Think about what would happen if you stood up for Biblical truth today (sex is for marriage, marriage is for a man and a woman, children should be disciplined, laziness should not be underwritten, justice should be the same for all, and so forth). You would be shouted down . . . by many, even those who profess to be followers of Christ. This is evidence of a hardening coming into our “Gentile” world as well.

The Hope of Revival

Now Paul asks a second question: Is this a permanent condition?

11 Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. 12 Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.

Paul does not say the gospel message to the Gentiles)was a back up plan. He says the falling away and the hardening by many in Israel was the means God used to open the door to the Gentiles. And this open door to the Gentiles is not God giving up on the Jews . . . on the contrary, it is the way God plans to awaken many of those who had turned away among the Jews. Paul looked forward to a day when, it appears, there will yet be a great revival among the nation of Israel.

Paul does not say every person in Israel will eventually be saved (v. 26). What he is saying is there is going to be a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Jews, and many (all of those chosen by God) will come to faith. It is possible and maybe even likely that God will work through Gentile ministries to bring this to pass. Paul goes so far as to say, “One of the reasons I am so excited about reaching out to the Gentiles is because I hope it is going to be the way my countrymen see the power of the gospel and embrace it for their own lives!”

Are you not provoked to greater faith by seeing God transform those who we once thought were lost? Isn’t the great transformation of a life something that stimulates faith in us? That’s what Paul believes God is doing by the spread of the gospel among non-Jewish people.

But Paul carries a warning for us. He says some of the branches from Abraham’s tree were “broken off” so that we “wild olive trees, could be grafted in.” It was known that dead and uncultivated branches could be grafted into a vine to make them fruitful again. The nectar from the healthy “tree” infuses these dead branches with life. We are the dead branches in need of life!

When we embrace the God who reveals Himself to Israel in the Old Testament, we are in a sense grafted into that tree of faith. But Paul carries a warning in verse 18-20.

“But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root.

19 “Well,” you may say, “those branches were broken off to make room for me.” 20 Yes, but remember—those branches were broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. 21 For if God did not spare the original branches, he won’t spare you either.

On occasion you hear people say “We blame the Jews for the death of Jesus.” They conclude the Jews are rejected because of what happened to Christ. They would say that some of what seems to be constantly taking place in the middle east is God’s punishment on the Jews for the rejection of Jesus. That is like blaming all white people in America today for slavery!

Here is what these people are forgetting.

1. Jesus did not die because of the lack of faith of the Jews. Jesus died for the sin of all mankind. We were just as responsible for the death of Jesus as those Jewish leaders were. In fact, the Jews didn’t actually kill Jesus. The Romans did. They may have been the agents of that death, but we are equally the cause.

2. The great number of people in the early church were Messianic Jews (Jews that embrace Christ as Savior.) I read one report that said the census in the Roman Empire around the time of Jesus showed a large drop in those who professed the Jewish faith after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Why? Because so many Jews identified now as believers! There would be no church without the Jews!

It is wrong to blame Israel for the death of Christ and consider them enemies of the gospel. The New Testament stands on the teaching of the Old Testament. The Law of God is not the problem, the problem is when people believe they can obey the law of God sufficiently to be saved. Our faith has its roots deeply in the Jewish faith.

Paul gives us a sober warning in verses 22-24. We should learn from what happened to Israel. He warns us that if we stop trusting in him, we, like Israel will be ‘cut off’. And if Israel repents and turns to Jesus as their Savior and Lord, they will be grafted back into the “people of god.”

But these words raise a bit of a problem, don’t they? We talked a couple of weeks ago about the promise of God that “nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.” I argued that the Bible is clear that God will finish the work He started. No one can ever snatch us from his hands. Yet, it sure sounds here like Paul is contradicting himself. It appears if we do not do the right things we too can lose our salvation.

There are several principles that we need to keep in mind when there appear to be contradictions in the text.

1. We must never base our belief on one single passage. We must compare Scripture with Scripture.

2. The Bible does not contradict itself. It is the Word of God so there is an internal consistency. Apparent contradictions reveal apparent errors in our interpretation

3. Always interpret unclear passages in light of clear and plain passages.

Genuine believers disagree on whether or not we can be sure of heaven. I believe the Bible is emphatic that we can be sure of Heaven if we have placed our trust in Christ alone for our salvation, because it is God who saves. Paul said “NOTHING can separate us.” Jesus said “No One can snatch us out of His hand.” “And he will lose none of those the Father has given to Him.” I believe passages such as this are very clear.

So why is it that it seems like some people “lose their salvation?” To understand, we have to go back again to that verse in Romans 9 that has been underlined several times already. “Not everyone born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people.” (9:6-8). I would contend Paul is warning us (by extension) that not everyone who sounds and looks like a follower of Christ is truly a follower of Christ.

There will always be some who have learned the catchwords and are good at mimicking what true followers do. However, they are not trusting the work of Christ, they are trusting their knowledge, their intellect, and their ability to look like a true believer.

As was true with Israel . . . false believers will eventually become so arrogant that they will drift from the faith and eventually be cut off from the true vine. They have not lost their salvation . . . they never had it! A true Christian is not merely someone who recites a particular prayer and has certain experiences! A true believer relies on Christ for every breath! That new life starts now! We know apart from Him, we CANNOT be saved. False faith will eventually lead to arrogance and a trust in yourself and your superiority for salvation. THAT is a false gospel!

So what are we to do? We must examine ourselves to make sure that we are resting in grace and not in a perceived superiority of character or insight. We must remind ourselves daily that only in Christ can we be saved. What we deserve is eternal destruction. If we have put our hope in Christ as our Savior and our King, we can rest in the great promises of eternal life. In verse 29 we are reminded again that God’s gifts and His call are IRREVOCABLE. The true Child of God needs to fear nothing. But . . . we must examine ourselves to make sure we are trusting in the true gospel and not a personal hybrid of our own liking.

Paul ends the discussion in verse 28-32 with words that sound very confusing but are not. He is saying both the Jews and Gentiles are His people and He will illumine some to be saved and He will harden others to serve His purpose.

Applications

Let me give you some quick applications that I think should take from this text: First, A true believer will never be arrogant.We should not feel superior to the Jews or anyone else. We are saved by a divine mercy not by a divine reward! Don’t miss this: We are part of the family of God ONLY because of what Jesus did for us. We do not deserve even a moment of grace! Do not look down your nose at others! Those who do, show they do not understand the true nature of faith. It is so much better to stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. We need the Old Testament as well as the New.

Second, we must soberly understand that God’s patience does not last forever. We are told when the “full number of Gentiles have come to faith” God will once again turn His attention back to the Jews. So . . .if you think you will always have time to get serious about your faith . . . you are a fool. Time may run out, or you may begin to harden and become unable to believe. If you are not sure about your relationship with Christ . . . become sure today! Stop putting Him off. You are doing so to your own peril. This isn’t about simply saying the “right” prayer. It is about acknowledging our sin, turning to Christ for forgiveness and then following Him as Lord.

Third, God is not done with the nation of Israel. It is apparent from Romans 11 that God has not renounced His promises to the Jewish people. We are told there will be a revival in Israel and “all of Israel will be saved.” I do not think this means the entire nation of Israel. I think it likely means all those that God has chosen to save among the Jews. It strikes me that this will be a significant number.

This understanding is what has informed much of the foreign policy of the United States in years past in regard to Israel. No one believes the nation of Israel is without fault as a country. However, what believers have always understood is that the nation of Israel will still be a focal point in God’s plan. We believe this explains why the nation of Israel has survived these many years. I believe the United States has not wanted to be on the side of abandoning God’s people. Therefore, we have chosen to stand as one of her trusted allies.

As America becomes more and more godless, protests renouncing Israel become more pronounced. I believe that is short-sighted. Christians and Jews are related. Again, this does not mean we agree with everything Israel may choose to do (or what our government chooses to do in our name).

So you see, Romans 11 may seem like it is of no value to us. But I hope you see it stands as beacon of God’s grace and a warning to walk in Him. It is intensely relevant to us today.