The Future of Israel

REVIEW QUESTIONS

QUESTION: What did Israel lack which caused them to miss Jesus?

ANSWER: knowledge about God’s righteousness. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness

QUESTION: What does it mean to confess Jesus as Lord?

ANSWER: It means a public declaration of what’s in one’s heart

QUESTION: How would you tell someone they can be saved?

ANSWER: Believe

INTRODUCTION

In chapter 11 Paul returns to the issue with Israel not believing in Jesus. We went over this in some detail in chapter 9 and Paul explains that those whom God elected were saved.

But what about the rest of Israel? Has God rejected them? To this subject Paul will return to and explain Israel’s future

1) Israel is not evidenced by a remnant of Jews being saved

Romans 11:1-2 “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.

“God has not rejected his people has He?”

This is the issue Paul is addressing in this chapter. If Israel has rejected Jesus, then has God rejected Israel?

Paul’s answer: “May it never be”

And the evidence that He has not rejected them is that Paul himself is an Israelite, a physical descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin, and he has been saved and follow Jesus.

If anyone wanted evidence that God has not forsaken Israel, Paul at least is one piece of evidence that he has not

God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew

The word “foreknew” is talking election but not as individuals, as a nation. And we know that because that is the topic of this entire chapter. In chapter 9 Paul focused on individuals, but in this chapter he focuses on the nation as a whole.

Rom 11:3-6 “Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.” But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

Israel’s rejection of God has been going on all throughout Israel’s history

Paul reasons from the Scriptures as any good Bible student should that 850 years ago Elijah thought he was the only one and that all have forsaken Him, but God says nope, I have 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

(v 5) “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.”

Paul says in the same way, God has saved a remnant for himself that has been saved.

All throughout the book of Acts we see Jews being saved

And the same is true today. Not all Jewish people have rejected Jesus and that is because God has chosen for Himself a remnant that will bow the knee to Jesus.

God hardened the rest of Israel:

(v 7-10) “What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, Eyes to see not and ears to hear not, Down to this very day.” And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, And a stumbling block and a retribution to them. “Let their eyes be darkened to see not, And bend their backs forever.

“but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened”

Those who were a part of the remnant, they believed, and follow Jesus and were saved.

But the rest of them?

They did not believe, they resisted the holy Spirit as Stephen said in Acts 7:51:

“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.”

They heard, they saw, and they rejected

And what did God do in response to that? He hardened their hearts so that their rejection became permanent. They could not change what they had chosen to do which was reject Jesus

By way of Application:

The hardening of God is a very real thing. It happened to Pharaoh and it happened to the Jews and we should not think it does not happen today in the church.

When someone hears truth and understands what they hear and reject it, they risk being hardened…and that is a terrifying thing.

So for us, what we hear and understand, we become accountable. And what we do with that could easily determine our future.

2) The partial hardening of Israel is not the end of Israel

Verse: Romans 11:11–15 “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

QUESTION: Who did Paul say the Jews stumbled over at the end of chapter 9? The Rock of Offense? JESUS

But they did not stumble so as to fall! If they fell it would imply irredeemable ruin.

The point is the stumbling of Israel is not the end of Israel.

But God even uses the hardening of hearts for good

By their transgression, salvation has come the the Gentiles.

But notice God’s plan is not just that Gentiles will be saved, but so that Israel will become jealous

When they, the unbelieving people of Israel see Gentile people receiving the riches of Christ, they will be moved to jealousy and desire to come to Him as well.

Isn’t it amazing the things that God will use to open people’s eyes to Jesus

I want to share a personal story of this with Ashley’s life which also involves my life. Before she came to Christ, she explained her life as darkness. Not being able to free herself from it. Unable to respond to the gospel. Not caring enough. Hardened by God. for 4 years.

During that Time God was working on me. Teaching me how to trust Him. Me not knowing the whole time why she was so unresponsive, but it was because God made her unresponsive.

But when I took a vacation after finishing paramedic school, that is what God used to make her realize that the the blessings I was enjoying should have been hers. And that is when God began to open her eyes.

Application:

Do the riches of Christ displayed in your life make the world desire Jesus? If we truly have what Paul says we have “riches for the gentiles” then surely he is implying that the world should be able to notice this.

QUESTION: What riches are on display in your life? What are some things you could change?

Gentiles are grafted into the Abrahamic family tree

Verse: Romans 11:16–20 “If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith.”

Paul uses the metaphor of a tree and the branches to describe the relationship between the Jews and the Gentiles.

The metaphor is from the OT and used of bread. If the first part of dough was offered to the Lord then the entire loaf of bread was holy.

The same then is true about the root and the branches. If the root is holy, then the branches off of that root is holy too.

Now what is the root?

Most scholars think that the root is Abraham and the patriarchs and the point is that since the root is holy, that Israel as a whole is still holy to the Lord and God has a purpose for them.

We are the wild olive branches that were grafted in and became part of God’s people.

Ashley has a tree in the yard that has four different kinds of fruit: a cherry, a plum, and two other things..

But the root is just a plum tree or cherry tree

They took those branches and grafted them in

Notice the direct warning to us: “Do not become arrogant toward the branches”

In other words, we must not boast that we are superior to the Jews because the foundation of the church is believing Israel. And if those Jews believe they will be grafted in again!

And what evil it is to be arrogant toward God’s Old Covenant people and think we are somehow better

QUESTION: What is the reason some of the branches were broken off and some were grafted in?

ANSWER: Belief OR Faith

Faith is the essential requirement to be a part of the people of God. Without faith we will be removed. The Jews who did not believe were removed. the Gentiles who had faith were added

Rom 11:20-24 “Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?”

Some may read this and see a fall from grace or a salvation that we could lose.

But that is not Paul’s point here!

The point is that we must continue in our faith. We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Yes our faith does save us and when we are saved, we are saved permanently…and the evidence of that is that we will continue to live by faith until we draw our last breath.

This is why we must never stop pursuing Christ, never think that we can drift away and veer off the narrow path and still think we arrive at the same destination we set our hearts on.

To fall away, to go and live in unrepentant sin, to stop trusting in Christ and start trusting in ourselves, to stop living by faith and begin to put our trust in works will only reveal that what we began with was never the real thing.

One of the evidences that what you have is real is your faithfulness to Jesus.

Because real faithfulness is empowered by God and never fails and human faithfulness always fails.

Col

At the end of history there will a large number of Jews who will be saved

Romans 11:25–32 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” “This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” 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; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 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. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.”

““For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery”

A mystery is a secret part of God’s plan that God has kept hidden until this point in history.

What is the mystery? It is that God is going to save Ethnic Israel (Israel as a nation…not every single individual but the majority of Israel as whole) after the fullness of Gentiles have come.

The fullness of the Gentiles is the number of Gentile believers that God has planned to save has happened.

How will they be saved?

The same way that we will be saved. By faith in Jesus. That is the only way. (v 26) “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob”.

God will remove the partial hardening from Israel, He will give them eyes to see Jesus as their Messiah, and the majority of them will turnt to Him and be saved.

The question of when?

It will happen at the return of Jesus or near the return of Jesus at the end of history. The text does not give us those details.

Application

This test implies salvation to the Gentile world will come to an end. One thing we do is take Jesus for granted, time for granted, the offer to be saved for granted…

But time is limited and this should create some urgency in our hearts to try to reach as many people as we can with the gospel.

Its an urgent work with a limited time. Now it may be 1,000 years from now, or it may be 10 years from now. We do not know but the work is urgent!

The Unfathomable ways of God

Romans 11:33–36 “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

Just a quick comment here on the unfathomable ways of God

Maybe this is where they get that saying, “God works in mysterious ways”?

I think it does remind us of the eternal truth that god does things differently than we would, and unexpected, radical, and in ways that make huge impacts

He sends Jesus to die on the cross not rule in earthly power and glory

He offers salvation to those who believe apart from works whereas people naturally default to earning it

He hardens Israel by a simple form of salvation, so that He can offer it to the whole world, while still planning to save Israel in the end

Don’t even try to figure out what God is doing in your life. Its probably nothing like you think its going to be

But I can promise you it will be much better if you continue to live by faith and trust Jesus each and every day