ROMANS:ROAD TO RIGHTEOUSNESS

Unbelief does not frustrate the purposes of God

Romans 11:1-12

Jerry A Collins

5/23/04

SCC

Has God completely rejected the nation of Israel?

Has God permanently rejected the nation of Israel?

What role does the church play in Israel’s salvation?

This past winter my wife, Ruth, asked me to stop by a neighbors house and pick up a large snowman she had seen in their trash-pile on the end of their driveway. She said it looked like it was still in good condition and thought it could be used with her snowman theme at the school library. As I drove up to the trash-pile, I made a beeline for the snowman wanting to get it out of there as swiftly as possible. It is an uncomfortable thing to pick through your neighbors trash and sure enough by the time I had gotten to it, there were a few heads crooning out of the front picture window watching me do this. Actually, that snowman was in decent shape. We popped a new lite bulb into it and it lit up. Placed some glue on the carrot nose and it was a good as new. Now it looked as if this snowman had been rejected and abandoned. But it still had use. It’s rejection was not complete nor was it permanent. So, too, Israel had been rejected by God. In her past, Israel had been elected by God as a tool to honor Him Romans 9. But Israel rejected God by refusing the testimony of Jesus Christ so God had rejected her Romans 10. However, even though Israel was sitting in the trash-pile, God reveals His future plans for this nation Romans 11. Their rejection, though actual, was not complete nor was it final.

1. GOD HAS NOT REJECTED ISRAEL COMPLETELY 1-6

11:1 How do we know this is true? First, he points to himself as evidence that God is still using the Jewish people even tho they are small in numbers. Paul id’s himself as an Israelite who was a believer, descended from Abe and ethnically of Benjamin’s tribe, the smallest but significant tribe (1^st King Saul). If God could save Paul, he could save other Jews. In fact, the core of the church at this time, particularly the apostles, were Jews. Like a starting athlete who has been pulled from the game due to his ineptness, he is still on the team, he is just not on the field. So, too, God had equipped the Jews for a role but due to their refusal to obey, God has pulled them from their starting position and now uses Gentiles in their place.

11:2 So he declares positively that God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. God’s scattering and setting aside of Israel was not once for all time. This was not to be a permanent arrangement. Eventually, Israel will come back onto the playing field. They will be taken from the trash-pile and used again. God had entered into a special relationship with them by covenant that can never be destroyed.

11:3-4 He gives as his second proof that God has not rejected Israel, the ministry of Elijah. There had been many times in her history when it seemed their rebellion so complete there was no hope of recovery. One of those times was during Elijah’s ministry. He believed it was so and complained to God that he was the only one left faithful to God and they were trying to kill him (1 Kgs 19:14). However, God informs him that he has 7000 in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal. In other words, God still had a small number, a remnant, to work through and fulfill His promises even in worst of times 11:5 The same thing is till true even today. There may not be many believing Jews, but there are some. And if this is true it cannot be said that God has failed His promises to Israel or has completely rejected His people. Were these few saved because they worked harder at it? Or because they were able to keep the Law better? The real reason for the presence of this remnant was God’s gracious choice that it be so.

11:6 It is the grace of God, not the works of the believing few, that is the ultimate cause of their deliverance. God will keep a remnant of Jews and a believing remnant will come from them (vs 14). They will have gotten the message and will be delivered. It has always been and always will be the conflict between something I have to do to be saved verses believing that something has been done to deliver me. It is still the same challenge today.

2. UNBELIEVING JEWS HAVE BEEN REJECTED BY GOD 7-10

11:7 What happened to Jews rejecting grace of God in Christ? Why can Jews be so resistant to the gospel today? They had zealously sought to be accepted by God on the basis of their works (10:3). Ironically, these were the very ones who were not accepted by God. Only this remnant had been chosen by God because of His grace. The rest were ‘hardened’. They resisted receiving spiritual truth in the same way that hardened ground is resistant to planting of seeds. Nothing can grow because nothing can penetrate the hard soil. In this case it is hard hearts. This hardness makes the person more difficult to get thru to from then on. Like a callus built up over the Israelites making them less sensitive to God.

11:8 This spiritual resistance and blindness is the result of God’s punishment. They had been unfaithful to God even tho they saw miraculous deliverance from Egypt, preservation in wilderness, heard warnings of prophets—failing to respond with their eyes and ears their hardening involves spiritual drowsiness, blindness and deafness (Deut 29:3-4; Isaiah 29:10).

11:9-10 This OT quotation records David’s desire (Psa 69:22). He wished his enemies tables (blessings) would become something that they stumbled over. Here Paul explains that God had brot upon the Jews what David had prayed would happen to his enemies. It would be like a person losing his appetite for steak because he eats steaks everyday. The very promises and favor of God that should have gotten Israel’s attention became the occasion for their rejection by God. Like Romans 1, God had given over Israel to the natural consequences of her actions. Sometimes the judgment of God is letting us have what it is we desperately want. So their spiritual blindness remains as they live out the consequences of resisting God by rejecting His Son. The imagery of their backs bent under the weight of guilt and punishment continually.

3. GOD HAS NOT REJECTED ISRAEL PERMANENTLY 11-12

11:11 Is God threw with Israel? Is it too late to use them as He promised? No! The stumbling of Israel was not beyond recovery. It was not a permanent fall but a stumbling. They will be placed back into the starting lineup. And even their rebellion can have good purpose. First, God uses Jewish rejection as springboard of gospel to Gentiles. A wonderful way for God to take something bad and make good out of it. Second, to make Jews envious, provoke them to jealousy of the gentiles as recipients of God’s favor so Israel would turn back to God.

11:12 Now if God could do something so great and wonderful with Israel’s rejection of Jesus, imagine what He can do with her acceptance of Jesus. Certainly the world has been so enriched because of gentiles coming to Christ but even greater riches will be enjoyed by Gentiles after conversion of Israel at Lord’s return. Then more than a remnant will believe and Christ’s kingdom on earth begins.

(1) While God does discipline us when we stray spiritually, the purpose is to get us back on the right path not to punish us continually. (2). If we resist God by going our own way, we can expect that He may let us have what we want and it’s consequences as His judgment against us.

(3) God’s gracious favor makes it possible for me return to Him and His favor in my life once again.