Romans 9-11 was written to explain the past, present and future of Ancient Israel. A profound change occurred on the day of Pentecost. Up to that point in time God's plan for mankind had been seen in terms of a revealed kingdom; Messiah would come, re-establish the independent Nation of Israel, and from that base, ultimately rule the world.
There was a change, really a delay, in that plan. A whole new plan for God's dealings with mankind came into existence. On Pentecost, the Spirit of Truth was poured out on all people, once and for all (He doesn't have to be repoured). A new gospel of salvation by grace though faith alone was offered to all men and the age of the Church began.
As the Church began to grow, a question remained. What happened to the promises made to ancient Israel. Where did the Jews fit into the picture?
Roughly, in Romans 9 Paul makes the case that the Jews were elected by God. In chapter 10 he continues with the story of their (at that time) rejection and in chapter 11 continues with the case for their ultimate acceptance and redemption.
Chapter 11 is of critical importance because it explains in some detail the wall that exists between the Jews and the Church (a wall built by God).
We aren't the Jews and they aren't us. The OT Law continues to hold the Jews together as a separate and distinct people. The Church is not under the law. Under the old covenant the Spirit of Truth worked through a limited number of infallible individuals to reveal truth. In this age, the ministry of the Spirit of Truth is available to all men (Luke 11:11). The hope of ancient Israel was the reestablishment of a physical Kingdom inhabited by the flesh and blood descendants of Abraham. The hope of the Church is not in this world but in the resurrection of the Church. See 1Co 15 and 1Th 4:13-18.
Ro 11 is the story of 2 GROUPS of People:
1) The Jews, the people of Ancient Israel
2) The emerging predominantly Gentile Church.
The first key to understanding the text is to CONSISTENTLY identify who is who. I have noted the two groups of people in () below. As it may be a little difficult to follow along where the text ends and the commentary begins in this file, please compare the text here (NIV version) with your Bible.
Paul begins:
1 I ask then: Did God reject his people (the Jews)? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God did not reject his people (the Jews), whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah-- how he appealed to God against Israel: 3 "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"? 4 And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
First Paul clearly states that the Jews are not a rejected group of people. He points to himself as a proof. As he says later, Paul considers himself (and the rest of the Jews who founded the church) to be the "first fruits" of an Israel that will ultimately be restored to fulfill God's promises. Paul reaffirms here a core teaching of his gospel, that salvation is by grace through faith alone and not of works. No one deserves grace, it is a FREE GIFT.
Paul makes it clear earlier in his teaching that it is the grace that enables the faith, and that God can (and will, in the case of the Jews, overcome their lack of faith).
Note the following:
1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
3 What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: "So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge." (Romans 3 NIV)
Paul is clearly looking to his own conversion. (Acts 9) Paul started out hating the church and persecuting it. But God sovereignly and dramatically chose him for a great purpose in the service of the Church.
Continuing from Romans 11:
7 What then? What Israel (the Jews) sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect (the Church) did. The others (the Jews) were hardened, 8 as it is written: "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day." 9 And David says: "May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. 10 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever."
A curse was placed on many Jews, effectively locking them out of the Church. Many of the hardened unconverted Jews, (but not all), perished in the Roman war of 70-135 AD. But the hardened are still with us to this day (A miracle of God given the continuing efforts of the church throughout history to get rid of the Jews).
Paul continues his discussion of hardened Israel...
11 Again I ask: Did they (the Jews) stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their (the Jews') transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel (the Jews) envious. 12 But if their (the Jews') transgression means riches for the world, and their (the Jews') loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their (the Jews') fullness bring!
The church didn't fall, yet. The church didn't transgress. So the fullness here is not about the church. It is the Jews' yet future, fullness that is in view here. The church is a part of Israel, the ingrafted branches. The Jews are the natural branches that were cut out, the Israel that transgressed and fell.
It is the Jews who fell and the Jews who have a fullness that is yet future.
Continuing:
13 I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry 14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people (the Jews) to envy and save some of them.
15 For if their (the Jews') rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their (the Jews') acceptance be but life from the dead?
God's rejection of Ancient Israel made the gospel available to all mankind. In v 13 Paul speaks of his hope that envy of what the Church has, will bring Jews into the church. There is an exhortation here to do that which would make others envious. The exhortation is to reveal the Love of God to all men.
Sadly the persecution of the Jews by the Church has not created that envy, quite the opposite.
For most of the last 1900 years, the visible church hated the Jews, despised the Jews and tried to exterminate the Jews. The Nazi holocaust was the culmination of a long history of Christianity's hatred toward the Jews. The Nazis were not Christians. But much of their philosophical view of the Jews was clearly defined by Christian teachers such as Martin Luther.
But the Jews are still here because God isn't finished with hardened Israel. The Jews were the only allegedly false, non-christian religion from apostolic times that survived the European Christian empire. The pagans were destroyed or were forced underground.
Paul, writing of himself and other Jews who founded the church, continues:
16 If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy (Paul and the other Jews who founded the church), then the whole batch is holy; (All of hardened Israel, the Jews) if the root is holy, so are the branches.
The root, the Lord, is Holy. So are the branches both ingrafted (the true church) and even those which have been cut out (the Jews) as follows:
17 If some of the branches have been broken off (the Jews ), and you (the church), though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others (the Gentiles who came into the church) and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not boast over those branches. (The Jews. One should note that the church has done that boasting now for 1900 years. In blood). If you do (as the church has), consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off (the Jews) so that I (the predominantly Gentile church) could be grafted in." 20 Granted. But they (the Jews ) were broken off because of unbelief, and you (the church) stand by faith.
21 For if God did not spare the natural branches (the Jews ), he will not spare you either. (He will not spare the church either).
22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell (The Jews ultimately fell in a war with Rome that lasted from 70-135 AD ), but kindness to you (the church), provided that you continue in his kindness.
Note that the above is conditional on continuing in that kindness. Men should soberly reflect on how they go about doing that because:
Otherwise, you also will be cut off. (That day may be VERY SOON)
Here are the kinds of things men should watch out for:
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. (1 Timothy 4:1 NIV)
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3 NIV)
For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. (2 Corinthians 11:4 NIV)
14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. (2 Corinthians 11 NIV)
The true Church that perseveres in the faith cannot fall. But 2Thessalonians 2 clearly points to a rebellion/falling away in which MUCH of the VISIBLE entity CALLED the church becomes a counterfeit of the truth, by throwing truth to the ground to follow miracle and wonder as a guide to truth.
Paul continues:
23 And if they (the Jews) do not persist in unbelief, they (the Jews) will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them (the Jews) in again.
Note: They won't persist in unbelief and they will be grafted in again. Here is how that happens:
And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. (Zechariah 12:10 NIV)
Continuing from Romans 11:
24 After all, if you (the church) were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches (the Jews), be grafted into their own olive tree!
25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited (But the church did become conceited): Israel (the Jews and the Church) has experienced a hardening in part (the Jews being the hardened part) until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
Here Paul speaks of a mystery, (a part of God's plan that had not previously been revealed). Israel is divided into 2 parts. The church is one part the other part is hardened Israel (the Jews).
Note the conditional nature of the time here; UNTIL the full number of the Gentiles has come in. Speaking of the Jews the Lord said:
They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. (Luke 21:24 NIV)
Here the Lord goes from the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD until the end of this age. The only piece of Jerusalem today trampled on by the Gentiles, is the site of the Lord's temple in Jerusalem.
Something is happening. Who has eyes to see? We are one very small piece of real estate away from the end of this age (a very special piece of real estate, the mount where the ancient temple of God once stood).
So what happens to _ALL_ Israel (hardened and not)....
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
That is ALL Israel. All that has been hardened and all that was not. This is not to say that every physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a part of the true Israel. But it does say there is a remnant of that HARDENED Israel (within the Jews, if not all Jews) that is a part of the true Israel.
Continuing:
27 And this is my covenant with them (the Jews) when I take away their (The Jews' ) sins." As far as the gospel is concerned, they (the Jews) are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they (the Jews) are loved on account of the patriarchs,(Romans 11:28 NIV)
Every person who has been part of hardened Israel over the last 1900 years will be with God in eternity. God's grace is not a matter of one's confession of faith, but of God's grace alone. (Back to Romans 3:1).
29 for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.
Unlike men, God does not make idle promises.
One might argue that salvation cannot come apart from faith in Christ. That is true. But note Romans 3:3 and that life does not end at the grave for any man.
Paul concludes his discussion of Israel:
30 Just as you (The Gentile church) who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their .(the Jews') disobedience, 31 so they (the Jews' ) too have now become disobedient in order that they (the Jews') too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you.
31 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. (Romans 11:32 NIV)
God is a God of mercy. God is Love. Paul at v 32 pushes the envelope beyond the unconditional election of hardened Israel to all mankind. God has handed ALL men over to disobedience that He might have mercy on them ALL (By charcoal broiling the vast majority of ALL men in Hell for all eternity? A strange definition of mercy if there ever was one). But God's love is not the sugar coated poisoned pill that is usually served up in His name. God has, and can again, move brutally against the people called by His name. That has happened to the Jews in the past--first at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, and again at the hands of the Romans.
One needs to ask why God allows any bad thing to happen to any person. This life is a blink of the eye in comparison to eternity, and man wanted to know the difference between good and evil. We learn that difference by experience.
Some things of eternal value can only be learned in the difficult world of testing in which we live. Our hope was meant to be in the resurrection, not this world. Life in this body, is a time of preparation for our real glorified eternal life.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those .who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. .(Romans 8:28 NIV)
So should men sit, fatalistically waiting? Not at all. Men are called to act in accordance with 2Peter 1:3-11 that they might never fall. But part of that calling is to understand God's plan.
Men who think a God of Love won't allow terrible things to happen to those called by His name are deeply deluded. He has judged those "in his house" in the past, and when the house of God gets into deep trouble it runs the risk of being judged as the Jews were by Nebuchadnezzar, and the Romans. There is a warning to the church in both of those events.
Again:
For if God did not spare the natural branches (the Jews), he .will not spare you either (an apostate church). (Romans 11:21 .NIV)
One should consider that the transitions of ages happen with most of the people called by God's name in deep apostasy. Consider Rev. 3:
14 To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of .God's creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, .because you are lukewarm-- neither hot nor cold-- I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need .a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
God can and does judge His own people brutally. He has done it before--and if we are in the transition from one age to the next, there is every reason to believe He will do it again.
Still the eternal promise stands:
For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may .have mercy on them all. (Romans 11:32 NIV)
The story of Romans 11 is a story of a split in Israel. There .were two groups. The "first fruits" of the Jews included Paul and the other Jews who founded the church and their followers. The second group was the hardened, but elect, of Israel who would maintain the physical race that started with Abraham and continues to this day.
It was out of the "first fruits" that the church was born and .God's family was expanded to include the gentiles. But a ."fullness" remains for those who are part of the hardened .Israel. Why? Because (the as yet unfulfilled) promises remain to .be fulfilled. The foundation of all of those promises is found .at Gen 15:18-21.
A permanent physical kingdom was to be established and inhabited .by the descendants of Abraham. It is true that the Church was .founded on better promises than those offered by the covenants with Abraham, but the old unconditional promises to Abraham were never repealed either.
We AREN'T the Jews and they aren't us. Yet we are both a part of .the true Israel of God.
A footnote....
Any honest reader of the Old Testament and the New will clearly see that something profound changed after Pentecost. The most obvious change was the abandonment of the law as an obligation of the Church. See Acts 15, Romans 8-11 and much more of Paul's teaching. How does one then reconcile that with the Lord's .teaching here:
17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the .Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. .18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not .the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any .means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. .(Matthew 5 NIV)
The Lord Himself fulfilled the law in two ways. First in his teachings at Mat 5-7, he gave it's fullest expression. Mat 5-7 explains what it really means to Love God and love your neighbor .as yourself. One is called to absolutely perfect self-sacrifice:
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. .(Matthew 5:48 NIV)
But all men fall short of this standard, because our biology is inherently selfish (which is why it can't inherit the kingdom of God). So the Lord Himself became the perfect sacrifice for all of our sins. So that:
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." .(Romans 10:13 NIV)
But not all is yet accomplished, thus the Lord emphasizes the very long time that would remain until heaven and earth pass away. Today the Law serves a critical purpose in holding the Jews together until the time of the Gentiles is complete.
But we aren't the Jews and they aren't us. The two different covenants under which we live cannot be merged together. See the Book of Hebrews in particular on this. It's not that the old book is obsolete, to the Church. It is filled with shadows and types, warnings and exhortations. But it is not the pattern of life to follow in this age.
Many curses have fallen on the Jews. But some teach that the blessings are ours. That is a mixing of the covenants and cannot work. Perhaps the most prominent of the new teachings of this type is the Manifest Sons of God doctrine. That doctrine teaches that through some transformation of the flesh, this side of the resurrection, our human flesh and blood will inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul in 1Co 15, (esp v 50) explicitly refuted that error. See also 1Th 4:13-18. Here Paul makes a clean break with the hope of ancient Israel, the establishment of a world wide kingdom of God on this earth. Paul doesn't deny such a kingdom will come to this world. In fact one has to white out a tremendous amount of Old Testament prophecy to reach such a conclusion. But Paul clearly teaches that our part in that Kingdom lies on the OTHER side of the resurrection of the Church.
There are 2 peoples (Jews, and Church), 2 covenants (Old, and New), 2 hopes (Literal kingdom, and Resurrection), and 2 ways of operating (Law, and Grace under the Spirt of Truth) and 2 books (Old Testament and New).
The new way is built on the old but is fundamentally different from the old. A failure to see that clearly inevitably corrupts the new WAY for this age and at the same time denies the people of the old way as their place in God's plan as well.
.Jim
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