God's People

Introduction:

This morning we are going to talk a lot about God’s People the Israelites, and how the Gentiles are grafted into the family of God. Growing up in spring valley my family had a tree that produced plumbs, apricots, and peaches. It was a constant reminder of the kindness of God and also His severity.

Recap:

Perviously in the letter to the Romans:

Chapter 1-3 we saw Paul deal with the pagan Gentiles, the morally superior, and the religious and legalistic Jews. Coming to the conclusion that:

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Chapter 4 Paul deals with the topic of justification through faith. and that it is impossible to be righteous before God under the pretense of works.

Chapter 5 introduced us the fact of imputed unrighteousness. Through our first father Adam. Thankfully through the second man, Jesus Christ, we have been given righteousness.

Chapters 6-8 teach of many of the fundamentals of our christian faith. That we are not to allow habitual sin and rebellion to run rampant in our lives. And that we are no longer governed by that old nature to submit to it. Ultimately Paul wraps up chapter 8 dealing with what it means to have life in the Spirit, being heirs with Christ, and the future glory we get to experience finally finishing with the fact that if you are a child of God nothing will separate you from Him.

Chapter 9-11 are where Paul takes a different approach in dealing with God’s people the Israelites. In chapter 9 we see Israel’s past and why they denied God. we also see the sovereign choice of God. Chapter 10 as we saw last week dealt with Israel’s present unbelief, and that God always has a remnant.

We have to remember that the argument that Paul is countering here is, “Paul, you claim that God will never separate us from His love, but what about His chosen people?”

Leading us to today’s study and next week’s as well. In dealing with Israel’s future.

v 1) Has God rejected His people?

Is it true, as some have taught and still teach, that God is through with Israel? That the church is now the Israel of God, and that all the promises to Israel now apply to the church?

Romans 11 is one of strongest counters in the bible of that particular view.

As we study through this letter Paul’s question makes sense at this point in the letter.

If Israel’s rejection of the gospel was somehow both consistent with God’s eternal chapter 9 and Israel’s own choosing chapter 10, then does that mean that Israel’s fate is settled, and there is no possibility of restoration?

That is, has every single Israelite been cast off?

By no means! Despite Israel’s present state, they are not permanently rejected.

God hasn’t rejected all of them. Paul is proof of that. As we talked about last week that there is a remnant of God’s people.

Whenever we want evidence of God’s work, we could and should look to our own life first. That is what Paul does here and what we should do too.

vv 2-5) The principle of a remnant

[2] Let’s look closely at verse 2 and what are the implications. God’s Word is telling us that God hasn’t completely cast away His people whom He foreknew.

You see this situation was very similar to what happened in Elijah’s time. The mass of the nation had turned away from God to idols. Conditions were so bad that Elijah prayed against Israel instead of for it.

[3] Elijah reminded God how the people, God’s people, had silenced the prophets through death. Also tearing down God’s altars. It seemed to Elijah that God had cast off the nation and that he was the only voice for God left, that there was no others serving the Lord and that his life was in imminent danger.

[4]But the picture wasn’t as dark and hopeless as Elijah feared.

If you are feeling a sense of hopelessness like Elijah, look to Jesus the Author and Finisher of your faith. It is never as bad as we might think it is.

God had kept 7,000 men who refused to follow in the nation’s rebellion against God.

[5] What is true then is true now: God never leaves Himself without a witness. He always has a faithful remnant chosen by Himself as special objects of His grace.

We often think that God needs a lot of people to do a great work, but He often works though a small group, or through a group that starts out small.

Not many Jews in Paul’s day embraced Jesus as Messiah, though a remnant would and God would use that small group in a huge way.

For Elijah it wasn’t a matter of numbers as much as the permanence of God’s plan for Israel that mattered. Elijah put his trust in God’s grace, not in numbers.

vv 6-10) God’s grace in choosing a remnant

Verse 5 closed noting that the remnant was chosen according to the election of grace.

Now Paul reminds us what grace is by definition: Unmerited favor. The free gift of God, not given with an eye to performance or potential in the one receiving, but given only out of kindness from the giver.

God doesn’t choose the remnant on the basis of their works. God’s choice is based on His sovereign, electing grace.

These two principles- grace and works- are mutually exclusive. A gift cannot be earned. What is free cannot be bought. What is unmerited cannot be deserved.

Fortunately, God’s choice was based on grace, not on works; otherwise no one could ever have been chosen.

Isaiah 64:6b (ESV)

and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

If giving is of grace, it cannot be of works, and if it is of works, it cannot be grace.

[7] The conclusion, then, is that Israel failed to obtain righteousness because they sought it through self-effort instead of through the finished work of Christ.

The remnant, chosen by God, succeeded in obtaining righteousness through faith in the Lord. The nation suffered what could be called judicial blindness.

Refusal to receive the Messiah resulted in a decreased capacity and inclination to receive Him.

This should not cause us to think that we are better then the Jews because we have Jesus. But it should cause us to fall on our face before the Lord realizing that it is through His grace alone that we are able to be God’s children.

[8] The OT predicted that this is exactly what would happen.

The quotations are from:

Isaiah 29:10 ESV

For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).

and

Deuteronomy 29:4 ESV

But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

God abandoned them to a state of stupor in which they became insensitive to spiritual realities.

Because they refused to see Jesus as Messiah and Savior, now they lost the power to see Him.

Because they would not hear the pleading voice of God, now they were smitten with spiritual deafness.

That terrible judgement continues to this very day.

[9-10] David also anticipated the judgment of God on Israel.

Psalm 69:22–23 ESV

Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually.

The idea here is that men are feasting comfortably at their banquet; and their very sense of safety has become their ruin. They are so secure in the fancied safety that the enemy can come upon them unaware.

The Jews of Paul’s day were so secure in their idea of being the chosen people that the very idea became the thing that ruined them.

vv 11-14) God’s plan of salvation for Israel and the Gentiles

[11-12]Did Israel stumble that they might fall and never be restored? forever removed from God’s purpose and plan?

Paul denies such a suggestion emphatically. God’s purpose is restorative. Paul has shown that God is still working through a remnant of the Jews today, but wants us to understand that the majority living in rebellion is not lost forever.

There is a difference between stumbling and falling. Israel stumbled, but they would not fall- in the sense of being removed from God’s purpose and plan.

You can recover from a stumble, but if you fall you’re down.

You see God’s purpose in their stumbling, was so that salvation might come to the Gentiles, and because of that provoking Israel to jealousy. This jealousy is designed to bring back Israel back to God eventually.

There are many instances the gospel only went out to the Gentiles after the Jewish people rejected it. Acts 13:46, 18:5-6, 28:25-28).

Acts 13:46 ESV

And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

I want to make this perfectly clear that it wasn’t the Jewish rejection of Jesus that caused Gentiles to be saved. It merely gave more opportunity for the gospel to go to the Gentiles, and many Gentiles took advantage of this opportunity.

In this sense the trespass of the Jews has meant riches for the world. Israel’s loss has been the Gentile’s gain.

Now if that is true, how much more will Israel’s restoration result in rich blessing for all the world! When Israel turns to the Lord at the close of the Great Tribulation, she will become the channel of blessing to the nations.

[13] Paul address the Gentiles (verse 13-24). His audience is not only the Gentile believers in Rome, but in these verse he is addressing the Gentile nations.

Because Paul is addressing Israel on a national level here it is best if we look at this as him speaking to the Gentiles as such.

He isn’t speaking of the church of God here either; otherwise we face the possibility of the church’s being cut off (Romans 11:22), and that is unscriptural.

Since Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles, it was quite natural for him to speak to them very candidly. And in doing so, he was only fulfilling his ministry.

[14] Paul’s deep desire isn’t only that the riches of God would be enjoyed by the Gentiles only, but that the Jews would be provoked to a good kind of jealousy, motivating them to receive some of the blessings the Gentiles enjoyed.

“It is a matter of profound regret that just as Israel refused to accept this salvation when it was offered to them, so the Gentiles have all too often refused to make Israel jealous. Instead of showing to God’s ancient people the attractiveness of the Christian way, Christians have characteristically treated the Jews with hatred, prejudice, persecution, malice, and all uncharitableness. Christians should not take this passage calmly.” -Morris

vv 15-21) To the Gentiles

[15] Verse 15 repeats the argument of verse 12 in a different way. When Israel was set aside as God’s chosen, earthly people, the Gentiles were brought into a position of privilege with God and thus a figurative sense were reconciled

When Israel is restored during the Millennial Reign of Christ, it is going to be wild and it will be a sight to behold.

I think Jonah might illustrate what Paul is saying rather nicely. Jonah being a figure of the nation of Israel.

When Jonah was cast out of the boat during the storm, it resulted in deliverance or salvation for a boatload of Gentiles. But when Jonah was restored and preached to Nineveh, it resulted in salvation for a city full of Gentiles.

[16] The firstfruits can either represents the first Christians, who were Jewish, or the patriarchs of the nation of Israel. There conversion was something holy and good for the church (the body of Christ). After all, each of the apostles and most of the human authors of Scripture were Jewish. If the conversion of the firstfruit was good for the Gentiles, how much better will it be when the complete harvest is brought in!

Many commentators take the firstfruit here as the patriarchs, Abraham Isaac and Jacob, It fits better i believe to see it as the original core group of Christians- who were jewish.

[17] Paul continues the metaphor of the root and the branches.

The branches that were broken off picture the unbelieving portion of the 12 tribes of Israel. Because of their rejection of the Messiah, they were removed from their place of privilege. but only some of the branches were removed. A remnant of the nation, including Paul himself, had received the Lord.

The wild olive tree refers to the Gentiles, and viewed as one people.

In this illustration it is important to note that the root and the main trunk of the olive tree is not Israel, but God’s line of privilege down through the centuries.

If the trunk were Israel, then you would have the bizarre picture of Israel being broken off from Israel and then grafted back into Israel again.

And likewise the wild olive tree branch is not the church but the Gentiles viewed collectively. Otherwise we face the possibility of true believers being cut off from God’s favor. Paul has already shown that this is impossible.

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

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.

With the metaphor that Paul is using of the tree and it’s branches, Paul reminds his readers that it is only by God’s grace that they can be grafted into the “tree” of God- the “root” of which is Israel.

“When an old olive tree had lost its vigor, it seems that one remedy in antiquity was to cut away the failing branches and graft in some wild olive shoots. The result was said to be the invigoration of the failing tree.” -Morris

“Some trees have very desirable fruit characteristics and weak roots. Others have strong roots but small or no fruit. Grafting can combine the strong roots and good fruit into the same tree. In addition, some root stocks increase disease resistance or make the tree better able to survive in some other way. In order to be successful, the two varieties must be compatible.”

The Jewish Talmud speaks of Ruth the Moabitess as a “godly shoot” engrafted into Israel.

[18] The Gentiles cannot take a holier-than-thou attitude towards the Jews, or boast of their superiority.

The Gentiles being grafted in is a privilege by the grace of God. Lets remain humble

[19-20] Paul admits that the statement made in verse 19 is partially true. The reason the Gentiles were grafted in was because of Israel’s unbelief, not because the Gentiles had any special claim on God.

There is an interesting comparison here between Israel and the Gentiles. Israel trespass was because of their arrogance and reliance on the law to save them. While the Gentiles can stand by faith.

Salvation is through faith alone and not by works or merits, we know this. If Gentiles are unbelieving, they will be cut off just as much as unbelieving Israel was.

vv 22-24) The kindness and severity of God

Through the example of the olive tree, we see two great contrasting facets of God’s character- His kindness and His severity.

His severity is manifest in the removal of Israel from being the primary tool that He uses and subsequent favor.

His kindness is seen in His turning to the Gentiles with the gospel. but that kindness cannot be taken for granted.

Paul stresses here the need to continue in His kindness; not in the sense of salvation by works, but continuing in God’s grace and goodness to us- A relationship of continual abiding.

This idea of a continual abiding in the “tree” is also expressed in:

John 15:1–8 ESV

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

Israel’s severance needn’t be final. If they abandon their national unbelief, there is no reason why God cannot put them back into their original place of privilege.

It is evident that some Gentile believers were tempted to think that there was no future for Israel. After all they had rejected the gospel and it had now passed to the Gentiles.

This was the kind of pride that Paul is opposing.

Family if the Gentiles seemed to graft into God’s tree easily, we know it won’t be hard for God to graft the natural branches back into the tree.

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.