The Hardening is Partial

Scripture, Prayer & Intro

READ ROMANS 11:25-32

Romans 11:25–32 CSB

I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Regarding the gospel, they are enemies for your advantage, but regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs, since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable. As you once disobeyed God but now have received mercy through their disobedience, so they too have now disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they also may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may have mercy on all.

PRAY

Opening Illustration: A well crafted song with a big Crescendo like “Christ is mine forevermore”

Everyone has heard a really good song or really good soundtrack for a movie. Each excellent song needs excellent musicianship; thoughtful words; an intentional structure, flow and themes; It needs to be cohesive. It leads the listener on a journey. And the best of music stirs up an emotional response in its hearers. And there’s often an un-mistakeable point in these songs when the writer is tying together themes, building tension, and marching toward this great crescendo, a great conclusion. And in well-crafted hymns and worship songs, this can especially be the case.

In many ways, that kind of artfulness is the way that Paul wrote Romans 1-11.

In this morning’s passage, Paul is bringing in the themes, the points, the patterns of other parts of the book, building the tension, and bringing his hearers to a crescendo of doxology, or Praise to God. It’s all building, all resolving in this passage, so that we cry out with Paul, “Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways! To Him be the glory forever. Amen”

With that kind of intentionality of Paul’s writing in mind, let’s recap and head into the text.

As Pastor Kyle has been preaching through Romans 9-11, we have seen that the main point that Paul wants his readers to understand is that God is faithful. He is faithful to the promises that he made to Abraham by giving him a child of promise and descendants by faith, as we see in chapter 4 and in chapter 9 verses 6-13. We see that God has been faithful draw the Gentiles to himself as seen in Paul’s quotation of Hosea in Romans 9:25-26. And as we’ve working our way through Chapter 11, we’re seeing how God is being faithful to the ethnic people of Israel. The chapter opens with the question: “Has God rejected his people?” And the answer is the emphatic “ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Paul then gives the example that he, as an exemplary Israelite and a former hater of Jesus, was saved by God. Further, God has always kept a remnant for himself, as evidenced by, not only the Jewish Christians of their day, but the fact that God had preserved 7,000 people in the days of Elijah and King Ahab.

As Kyle preached last week, the proof of God’s faithfulness was shown in how Paul answered the question of whether Israel had stumbled so far that they were in ruin - unable to be saved and forever cut off from God. ABSOLUTELY NOT! God is still working out his plan, and we as Gentiles, grafted in by faith should not be arrogant, for God will use the Gentile believers to stir up jealousy in Israel.

But to what end? Why does God desire to make them jealous? To bring about the fullness of Israel, as he says in verse 12.

But what exactly does that mean? That is much of what today’s passage addresses.

As Paul details in verses 23-24 he makes clear that God is willing to graft ethnic Israelites into the tree of Abraham by faith, just as he has for the Gentiles. And they will be readily accepted, readily integrated, for to them belonged the covenants, the promise, the law, and by physical descent, Christ.

So, let’s go back to Verse 25 as that will give us a roadmap for our text today:

Romans 11:25 CSB

I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

So, the roadmap we see in this text is this: A call for understanding, an explanation of God’s plan for his people, and a renewed call for humility.

A Call to Understand

Paul begins his instruction, with a call to understand what he calls a mystery. Paul has called many things a mystery in his writings, but most often he relates these mysteries to Christ and the plan of God in salvation. The Gospel HAD PREVIOUSLY been a mystery because Jesus had not come to fulfill prophecy regarding the salvation of his people. Jesus and the Apostles had not spoken to explain how God fulfills his promises in Jesus, and in the case of this text, God’s plan regarding Israel WAS a mystery because Israel had so firmly rejected their messiah. So, Paul is calling us to intently listen to his explanation of God’s plan. He is giving us this call because God’s plan can be understood as we look at the prophets, in-light of Jesus, as explained by the Apostles.

As Moses said “the hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law”

So, as we have studied, and continue to study the teachings of Paul in Romans, let us diligently seek to understand God’s plan, how he has saved Jews and Gentiles, what he will do in the future, how salvation is from God, dependent on God’s choice, received through faith. And as we set our minds on these things, our gaze will be lifted up to God, in gratitude and faith to follow God and attain the righteousness Israel never could because they depended on works rather than faith.

The Explanation

So what Paul is calling us to understand is the plan of God, regarding the Church and Ethnic Israel. First, he reveals the reason for Israel’s rejection of their Messiah:

Romans 11:25 CSB

I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

“A partial hardening has come upon Israel.”

This, while an explanation, could have caused more confusion, more mystery to the impatient person.

I imagine that the Jewish Christians might have thought something like this:

“What? Israel has been hardened? Why, Paul would you say that? When you told us that God has mercy on whom he will have mercy and will harden whom he hardens, you demonstrated that it was the lineage of Jacob, of Israel, that God had chosen for mercy! And it was gentiles like Pharaoh or hellion children like Esau and Ishmael who were not heirs of the promise! What do you mean our people have been hardened? And doesn’t that mean God did it? And if this is true, then Paul, how were you converted? How was I converted if God has hardened Israel?”

This must have been a shocking thing for the Jewish Christians to consider, even though it was right in front of their faces. And if, as we often do, hear part of a statement or an argument, latch onto the part that is most shocking and then leap to a conclusion they would miss the remaining part of what Paul was telling them:

First, yes, Israel has been hardened, but partially. Just as Paul explained at the beginning of Chapter 11, he has not rejected his people and they have not stumbled so as to fall into complete ruin. God shows his love and faithfulness to them by bringing a PARTIAL HARDENING upon Israel. It is partial, as Paul demonstrates, because there were Jewish converts to Christianity in his day (11:5). Just as God had preserved a remnant of ethnic Israel in the days of Elijah, so had God preserved a remnant for himself in the days of the early church. And we still see God’s faithfulness in this today. While the majority of ethnic Jews have rejected the Messiah, God is still saving some people of Israelite descent. So, in the sense that God had saved a remnant in the days of Elijah, in the days of Paul, and in our day demonstrates not only God’s faithfulness to his people, but also one aspect of how the hardening of Israel has been partial.

But Israel’s hardening was not simply partial in the sense that God has continued to preserve a remnant. Let’s look at what Paul said in verse 25 again

Romans 11:25 CSB

I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

“Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

Until gives us the most explicit sense of partial that Paul is communicating - that he is revealing. Not only has God preserved a remnant in the past, present, and to them, the future, but this hardness would not remain forever. It will remain UNTIL THE FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES COMES IN.

This statement points back to what Paul had said earlier in Chapter 11:

Romans 11:11–12 CSB

I ask, then, have they stumbled so as to fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous. Now if their transgression brings riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness bring!

Romans 11:24 CSB

For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these—the natural branches—be grafted into their own olive tree?

Not only is there the intellectual possibility of salvation of Israelite people, but an actual plan of God to do it. A remnant preserved, the ability to be grafted in, and an awaited fullness of Ethnic Israel with the fullness of the Gentiles comprising the whole Abraham’s offspring by faith. In Paul’s words from verse 26:

“And in this way, all Israel will be saved”

As we thought about the illustration of the song building to a crescendo: Paul is bringing together the themes, ebbs and flows, and a slow build to the great crescendo of praise to God. So he’s reminding us of the salvation of ALL ISRAEL in the rescuing of both Jews and Gentiles from sin.

And as he continues to build upon those themes, to build that tension, in verses 26 and 27 he quotes Isaiah 59 and Jeremiah 31.

The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.

In this we see a mini-presentation of the Gospel:

We have a deliverer, a Messiah, who would come from Zion, which is Jerusalem. There, the deliverer would deliver his people from godlessness and establish a new covenant, or relationship with them when he takes away their sin.

Jesus is that Deliverer. He went to Jerusalem, was sinfully arrested and tried, beaten and killed, having the wrath of God poured out on him as he was wrongfully executed. And this resulted in the removal of sin from all his people, all Israel. The Israel who are children of Abraham by faith, as Paul referenced in Romans 4:11. This is a people chosen by God as he explained in Romans 9, and those who are grafted into the one root of David as he explained earlier in Chapter 11. And he established a new covenant with this people - with All Israel. A covenant not dependent on works of man.

Lets read more about that in Jeremiah 31:31-34

Jeremiah 31:31–34 CSB

“Look, the days are coming” —this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them” —this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.

In this passage we see many themes that Paul has already touched on: We see the new covenant which was to replace the law which served as a guardian. We see the fact that mankind has sinned against God, both Jew and Gentile. We see that we need the work of God to be done in our hearts, to have his teachings put within us, and a new birth enabling us to live holy lives. And of course, we see the need for the forgiveness of sins, by faith, resulting in no condemnation for God’s people (Romans 8).

This tying of themes together is continuing to build up to the crescendo, even as he returns to explaining what is going on with Israel, what is happening in their partial hardening.

Romans 11:28–29 CSB

Regarding the gospel, they are enemies for your advantage, but regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs, since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable.

The first thing he highlights here is that the Israelites have become enemies regarding the Gospel.

There are multiple demonstrations of this truth.

Enemies in their rejection of Jesus and his teaching while on earth

Enemies in their crucifixion of Jesus

Enemies in their rejection of the Gospel of Jesus as the fulfillment of messianic prophecy

Enemies in their persecution of the Christians - Abraham’s children by faith

Being enemies in this way brought about the salvation of the Gentiles:

The rejection of Jesus by the Israelites and by Saul led to the Gospel leaving Jerusalem and the land of Israel and into the world

The rejection of Jesus by the Israelites and removal of Paul from synagogues led to a gentile-dominant ministry in which Paul called himself the Apostle to the Gentiles

This was something Jesus told a parable about to tell his disciples and the pharisees what would happen:

Matthew 22:1–10 CSB

Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come. Again, he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ “But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city. “Then he told his servants, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests.

These things: The rejection of the Messiah by Israel and the Lord’s discipline upon them, Paul says, was for the advantage, or benefit, of the Gentiles. According to Jesus, the Gentiles were the people who were from outside the city, those who were not the initially invited guests - people who were along the road. And God had invited them, invited us in! He has brought us in to celebrate his Son! To be part of His special people! What a wonderful blessing! What a great benefit to us that resulted from the sin and rejection of Israel!

Remember, the people of Israel being enemies of the Gospel is a partial hardening, and Paul reminds us of that in the use of the word “but”.

Regarding the Gospel, they are enemies for your advantage, BUT regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs, since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable.

What this statement reveals to us, as we look closely, is that while the ethnic Israelites have been enemies of the Gospel and enemies of the Christians, God does not view them in their totality as enemies - Rather, they are loved. Loved because of the Patriarchs. What does that mean?

Well, if we think back to Romans 9, Paul speaks of Israel’s rejection of Jesus and asks the question of whether God’s word - his promises had failed. He says “no,” answering that not all descended from Israel are Israel. And from there, he uses the Patriarchs as examples of how God has chosen only some of Abraham’s offspring to receive the promise, the covenant, namely Isaac and Jacob. It is out of love and the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that God loves ethnic Israel.

What does this love look like?

God never completely destroyed Israel in judgment despite their covenant unfaithfulness

God saved Israel from physical and spiritual enemies

God gave Israel time to repent and embrace Jesus before the Judgment on Jerusalem that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 22-24.

As Paul Said in Romans 2, God had given Israel “every advantage” spiritually, and Paul gives us a list of specific advantages in Romans 9:4-5

Romans 9:4–5 CSB

They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises. The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.

Finally, God has given this blessing: “regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs, since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable.”

All of these things are expressions of God’s covenant faithful to Israel. God always held up his end of the relationship. He has always preserved a remnant, out of love for the people, and out of love for the patriarchs. He made promises to them about their offspring how their children, and chiefly Jesus the Messiah, would carry forward the promise to inherit and bless the world. He promised that the nations would be blessed by Abraham’s offspring, and that the Law, which included instructions on how the foreigner could join the nation of Israel. And where Israel failed Jesus has succeeded. They were not a light to the nations, as God commanded, but Jesus and his people have been. They failed in drawing the nations up to the mountain of God by their witness, But where Israel failed Jesus has succeeded. IN THIS WAY, GOD FULFILLED HIS PROMISE TO ABRAHAM THROUGH JESUS CHRIST! HE WAS FAITHFUL TO PRESERVE A REMNANT OF ETHNIC ISRAEL BY FAITH, UNITED WITH PEOPLE FROM EVERY TRIBE TONGUE AND NATION, BECAUSE HIS PROMISES ARE IRREVOCABLE AND WILL BE FULFILLED! PRAISE BE TO GOD FOR HIS IRREVOCABLE PROMISES!

A Renewed Call for Humility

This brings us to the final movement in this text: the renewed call for humility. While Paul said that the necessity for understanding the mystery of what God is doing with Israel is necessary “so that you will not be conceited,” his explanation for why his gentile hearers should not be conceited is boiled down to this: we have all disobeyed

Read verses 30-32 with me

Romans 11:30–32 CSB

As you once disobeyed God but now have received mercy through their disobedience, so they too have now disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they also may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may have mercy on all.

Again, Paul weaving together the themes, teachings, and patterns of what he has written already. He’s tying everything together. And this time, he’s repeating the rhythms and themes of Romans 1-3.

Romans 1 - In Romans 1, He goes into great detail about how the nations had chased after false gods, dove headlong into sin and were handed over to a depraved mind as judgment and still deserving a greater judgment from God.

Romans 2 - And in Romans 2, Paul essentially turns to his Jewish converts and says, “But don’t you dare get puffed up, for you had the law, and you also rebelled. You stand condemned as well.”

Romans 3 - Therefore, the conclusion that Paul puts forward in Romans is that there is no one righteous, no one good. No one seeks God, not even those to whom he gave the covenants. And this conclusion brings us to the truth that all must be saved by grace, through faith apart from works.

But now the script has been flipped. In Romans 1-3 Paul addressed the plight of the gentiles first, tempting the Jewish converts to become arrogant. But Here, Paul addresses the rejection of the Gospel by Israel first, and them being broken off. And as he speaks of the grafting in of the gentiles, they also have an occasion to become Arrogant, or conceited. So now to the Gentiles, Paul is warning, “Don’t you dare get puffed up either!”

Just as in Romans 2 and 3 Paul reminded the Jewish converts that they could not keep the law, therefore everyone needed a salvation by grace through faith, So here, Paul is reminding the Gentiles that ALL MUST BE GRAFTED IN TO THE ROOT OF CHRIST.

Not only have we all disobeyed, but we were imprisoned - we were enslaved to sin and condemnation. To the Jew, held captive by sin under the law. The gentile held captive by sin under the law we became to ourselves. We were all imprisoned.

And just as all must be saved by grace through faith according to Romans 3 and 4; that all who will be saved are chosen as vessels of mercy by God according to Romans 9; just as all true children of Abraham must be grafted into Christ by faith according to Romans 11; So also must all be delivered from disobedience by the mercy of God, as we see here in Romans 11:30-32.

And it is in the light of this message which puts Jew and Gentile on the same playing field, receiving the same mercy from God that Paul reaches the Crescendo that he’s been building to and cries out:

Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways!

For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? And who has ever given to God, that he should be repaid?,

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.

Application and Conclusion

And this brings us to our application this morning, just before Paul is about to begin the application he has for the church in Rome in Chapter 12.

The first point in application, particularly as we think back on the themes of the first 11 chapters is look on God in awe and wonder. We ought to be in total shock and awe as we finally see and understand the radical fallenness of man and the many facets of God’s plan of salvation for his people. If all our church-going, our Bible reading, and our Bible teaching consumption does not lead us to awe, wonder, and praise of God - a love for God, what are we even doing? We were dead, helpless in our sins and needing to made alive by the mercy of God to the praise of his grace. If we don’t see that, if we don’t feel that - we, like Israel, have become numb to our need for grace and mercy.

Second, as the lion’s share of the church today is gentile by physical descent, we must heed Paul’s warning. We must not become arrogant. It’s not like we did anything to save ourselves. We must remember all that Paul has taught throughout Romans about salvation: It is by grace, through faith, apart from works so that no one can boast. God saves according to his sovereign mercy, having mercy on whom he will have mercy, not because of anything we have done or will do. We all must be grafted into the same root, Jesus, by faith. Finally, we all were imprisoned in disobedience, needing to be delivered. So whenever we come across someone who is hard-hearted, whether Jew or Gentile, we must not be conceited. We must not think highly of ourselves. No matter what we see, how hard the heart is, God may yet rescue that person for whom WE have no hope. Whether it is someone of Israelite descent, a wayward child, or a scoffing enemy and persecutor of Christians like Paul was. God is saving a remnant of ethnic Israel. God Saved Paul who was a persecutor. And God may yet save that person you know.

Finally, we must not become like Israel had in Jesus’ day. They had the appearance of godliness, but their hearts were far from God. They rejected their own Messiah and his teachings. The religious leaders in particular tried to make excuses for the ways in which they disobeyed God, for why they did not need to show mercy and kindness to others. They had, as Jesus said, become white-washed tombs, but still were filled with dead men’s bones. While our gathering here this morning is for the purpose of worshipping God and growing in love for Him, one of the main applications of that worship and growth in love to go out into a world that is full of people who need to receive the same mercy that we have! We cannot be so concerned with our church programs, our families, our jobs, that we don’t think twice about our neighbors, our co-workers and our grocery clerks who will face the wrath of God if they die tonight! We must not become like Israel did, keeping the light of the revelation of God to ourselves, thinking of ourselves as being something so unbelievably special because we are chosen. No! Israel was supposed to put that light on display to draw the nations to God. And that is our mission too. As Jesus said, the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. So let us love God for his amazing mercy and love our neighbor by sharing the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, just like someone shared the good news with you, with and me.

Let’s Pray.