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Charles Spurgeon once said:
A little faith will bring your soul to heaven; a great faith will bring heaven to your soul.
—Spurgeon
And that is what we are finding in the book of Romans.
Righteousness is extended to the unrighteous through faith in the Gospel.
Friend, the only requirement to bring your soul to heaven is child-like faith in Jesus.
However, as you deepen your walk in the word and learn of the truths of God, it transforms your perspective.
The reality of God bringing you to deeper faith in Him will indeed bring heaven to your soul!
You see, that’s how we can walk in the midst of the tragedy and pain of this life and joyfully remember this is not all there is!
We began a few weeks ago in Romans 9 and learned of our merciful God.
As Paul is writing of the perplexing truths of the past.
present, and future realities of the Jews, we are also learning of the perplexing nature of God.
In Romans 9, we learned of the dual truth of God’s Sovereignty and Human Responsibility.
Because God is God, he is completely right and good to extend mercy to whomever He pleases to extend mercy to, and to harden whomever He hardens.
God is God, and I am not.
Likewise, in Romans 9-10 we see how God extends a genuine invitation to whoever will call on the Lord Jesus will be saved.
You see, it is not my works, my zeal, or my past that makes me right with God.
A right standing with God is only given to those who place their faith in Jesus.
And with this dual understanding of God’s Sovereignty and Human Responsibility, we find God’s perfect plan of reaching those who have yet to trust in Jesus.
God uses broken people to reach broken people.
We affirmed last week:
The only hope for those without Christ is to hear the Gospel and believe; and how they will hear is through someone like me.
Paul was passionate about reaching non jews for Jesus.
In fact, that was his main responsibility was to go to the unreached areas of his corner of the world and preach repentance and faith.
However, as Paul mentions in the first verses of chapters of 9 and 10, he was passionate about Jews coming to Christ too.
In fact, he was willing to take their punishment in hell for eternity if he could.
And so he was willing to give his life to reaching people with the Gospel.
And Paul addresses the elephant in the room when dealing with Israel’s past and present failure to submit to God’s revealed plan.
Paul begins:
Romans 1 with the question:
I say then, has God cast away His people?
It is no secret to this point in Romans that Israel as a nation has missed the point of God’s good choice in them.
They were to submit to Him and be beacons of His plan to the other nations.
But they turned their position to be all about them and their righteous religion and missed God altogether.
In fact, as Romans 10 states.
they rejected the Gospel and crucified Jesus.
So, Israel as a whole had rebelled and in turn was rejected, but Paul asks in v. 1
Has God cast away the whole of His people?
Paul’s response, certainly not!
And then he proceeds to give himself as an example of this rejection not being total.
Paul was a great example of God’s longsuffering to the Israelites.
Remember who Paul was.
He was of premium Israelite stock.
And he was a Proud persecutor of the church against the cause of Christ.
Road to Damascus.
Paul is an example of God not rejecting Israel in total.
But Paul also gives an example from the times of Elijah.
Elijah had experienced a magnificant victory by God on mount Carmel when the prophets of Baal (a false god of his day) were defeated and killed.
Elijah then was threatened by Queen Jezebel and so he ran.
Many miles of running for his life, he stopped to rest and got discouraged to the point of being ready to die.
But God responded (v.4)
He had reserved for Himself a remnant.
God has always been working behind the scenes, working His will.
And what Paul is informing His readers of is God’s Sovereignty.
God was in the midst of the chaos and although the whole of israel rebelled and were rejected, God was still at work, in the hearts of a few, to fulfill His big picture plan.
And Paul ties God’s past working according to His will to His present working.
Just as God was dealing favorably with those who didn’t deserve it before, Paul says, God is still at work, choosing those who don’t deserve it.
In fact, if they deserved it, based on their works, then it would cease to be based on grace.
But we know that God’s gift of salvation is by grace and not works...
Jews and non Jews are made right the same way, through faith in Jesus.
And Paul expands this as he gives a summary of all of Romans 9-11 in vv.
7-10
The heart of Israel was to pursue the favor of God on their own terms.
They thought they could bring God’s favor by how good they were at keeping the law.
and in turn, their hearts were hardened and their eyes darkened to truth.
And when Christ showed up, they didn’t recognize Him.
And judgment has come.
As a result of their pride and rejection of Christ, most have missed the Gospel.
But not all.
Not only is God’s rejection of Israel not in total, but it is not final.
Romans 11:11 asks, have they stumbled that they should fall?
In other words, has God declared the nation beyond recovery?
Paul responds, certainly not!
And in the next several verses we find the antonym of antisemitism.
Those who say they follow God, yet express a hatred to Israel must study and reconcile Romans 11.
Paul says:
God is at work in the Gentile world, bringing Non-Jews to himself, and in turn provoking some Jews to jealousy.
As they see the “unchosen” in their minds being “chosen”, they must wrestle with what God is doing.
And what they will come to the conclusion of is that God does not give righteousness to the unrighteous through any other means than faith in the Gospel.
v. 12 - Paul mentions that rich blessings have been extended to the rest of the world through the failure of Israel.
And in all of the riches that have been made available, how much more will these riches be when they are restored.
Then Paul emphasizes again the importance that God’s rejection is not final in vv.
13-15
Paul’s focus on Gentiles is a cause for jealousy too.
The one who promoted the persecution of Christianity is now taking the message to non-jews.
And just as When Israel was set aside as God’s chosen, earthly people, the Gentiles were brought into a position of privilege with God and thus in a figurative sense were reconciled.
When Israel is restored it will be like worldwide regeneration or resurrection.
Paul again is emphasizing that God is not done with ethnic Israel.
And to maintain His position, Paul gives two metaphors.
The first has to do with the firstfruit and the lump, the second with the root and the branches.
The firstfruit and the lump speak of dough, not of fruit.
In Numbers 15:19–21 we read that a piece of dough was consecrated to the Lord as a heave offering.
The argument is that if the piece of dough is set apart to the Lord, so is all the dough that might be made from it.
William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed.
Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1725.
The second metaphor is the root and the branches.
If the root is set apart, so are the branches.
William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed.
Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1725.
Here we find in this metaphor a set of roots that represent the OT promises of God to the Patriarchs.
God promised the patriarchs that through them, God will bless all nations.
And he did in Christ.
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