Studies in Romans Presentation 24. SUMMARY OF CONTENTS: OPENING REMARKS: 1:1-17 BAD NEWS : Universality of sin and its condemnation 1:18 - 3:20 GOOD NEWS

Studies in Romans

Presentation 24

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS:OPENING REMARKS: 1:1-17BAD NEWS : Universality of sin and its condemnation 1:18 - 3:20GOOD NEWS : A gospel that changes our relationship to God 3:21- 5:21HOW TO GROW AS A CHRISTIAN : 6:1- 8-39

Sanctification 6:1-23 Union with Christ and its implications The Place of the Law 7:1-25 Life in the Spirit 8:1-39 A SHORT DETOUR : Questions concerning Israel 9:1-11:36

Self-righteousness v Faith-righteousness 10:1-13 The restoration of Israel 11:1-36

HOW A CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO LIVE : 12:1-15:13PERSONAL GREETINGS : 16:1-27

Presentation 24

Studies in Romans THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL

Chap 11.1-36

Presentation 24

In Ch. 9-11 Paul deals with the mystery of the Jews’ rejection of the gospel and the rejection of the Jews by God. In Ch. 9, election and rejection is dealt with. In Ch. 10, we find that the Jews had themselves and not the doctrine of election to blame for their failure to obtain salvation, which is available to all. Many Jews rejected the gospel not because of ignorance, but because of disobedience and rebellion.

The question asked in Ch. 11 is "Does the fact of Israel's apostasy and their rejection by God mean absolute and final rejection?" Logic would demand that the answer "yes" be given but Paul rises beyond logic in this chapter.

The Restoration of Israel: 11:1-36

The Remnant and the Remainder 11.1-10

Presentation 24

Paul’s contention is that ‘God did not reject his people’ v2. He draws this conclusion, first from his own experience. If God had cause for rejecting any Israelite, then Saul, persecutor of the church, was surely a prime candidate. But instead God called him to be the apostle Paul.

The history of Israel, appeared to be one of rejection. Under Solomon, Israel had enjoyed a golden age. But then idolatry led to exile. Her restoration wasfollowed by the oppression of the Selucids, with its climax under Antiochus Epiphanes. Jerusalem’s rejection of Jesus was followed by its destruction by the Romans in 70 AD.



Presentation 24

How can Paul possibly say, ‘God did not reject his people’? But is not the fact that Israel has survived the ravages of history, the pogroms and concentration camps, evidence that Israel is not utterly cast off? The Jewish people continue to exist as a distinct ethnic entity. In the mystery of God’s plan, he still seems to have a purpose of mercy for the Jews. God ‘foreknew’ [v2] them. This means that any rejection of them that we may witness must be understood against this backcloth: they are God’s rejected people. God’s purposes of mercy and salvation in history are not therefore completely divorced from them. This is the subject addressed in this chapter.



Presentation 24

In v1-6, Paul argues that the rejection of Israel is partial and not complete. He reintroduces the idea of an Israel within Israel and speaks of the experience of Elijah, who was disabused of the notion that God had abandoned his people – 7,000 Israelites had not bowed the knee to Baal. In them the future hope of Israel resided. God was operating through a remnant of faith. Paul may mean that in his own day there was also a remnant in Israel who had not rejected God’s Messiah, though their identity was not obvious to the casual observer. Or, he may mean, that in the counsel of God, there was a hidden number of Jews who would yet respond when they heard the proclamation of the gospel.



Presentation 24

In v7-10, Paul reviews the arguments of Ch. 9-10. It is the ‘elect-remnant’ who have obtained the promise, and the rest are blinded. The reference to the Jews seeking, in v7, takes us back to 10:2ff. Notice their seeking was without knowledge. They wanted to find God on their terms. Whenever people do that, they end up making God in their own image. They reject revelation and cultivate prejudice. This results in a judicial hardening, blinding and deafening as God confirms them in their stubbornness. Paul substantiates this conclusion by quoting Deut. 29:4, Isa. 29:10 and Ps. 69:22-23.



Presentation 24

The reference to Ps. 69 is particularly interesting. It pictures men being overcome by their enemies, as they feast in careless security. Their prosperity, instead of strengthening them against danger, endangered them by attracting their enemies. Similarly, God’s Word, which should have been their refuge became instead a snare, in which they were caught. Truth, when resisted becomes an instrument of hardening in the human heart. The gospel brings light, but light that is refused becomes darkness [Lk 11:34].



Presentation 24

But what of the great mass of the people of Israel? Has God finished with them? Paul indicates that their fall is temporary and not final. He argues that the ‘fall’ of the Jews proved to be an integral element in the salvation of the world, and indeed in their own ultimate salvation.

Paul asks, ‘Have they stumbled that they should finally fall?’ Is this the great climax of their history? Has evil triumphed over grace? Paul answers that the Jews’ rejection led to the salvation of the Gentiles, which, in turn, will provoke the Jews to jealousy leading to their eventual salvation. Paul’s words have been interpreted in at two unsatisfactory ways:


Engrafted Branches 11.11-24

Presentation 24

1. The Jews rejected the gospel and were rejected by God. Then God graciously overruled this and used it to advance his own purposes of grace. This view presents God patching up a state of affairs that he had not originally envisaged, and which had caught him unawares. It questions both God’s omniscience and his foreknowledge.

2. The Jews’ fall was essential, and God arranged events in this way because he needed a rejected people through whom he could bring about his purpose of salvation. This view calls into question the reality of the Jews responsibility for the matter of their own rejection.



Presentation 24

There is mystery here that finds a parallel in Jesus’ words about Judas Iscariot: ‘The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.’ Matt 26.22-24. There had to be a Judas to betray Jesus, that is true but it is also true that he was a free agent. Both Judas and the Jews are a part of the same mystery of Divine grace and redemption. Both are vessels of mercy through being vessels of wrath. The Jews rejection of the Messiah, which led to the climax of the cross, was the means of the world’s salvation. Their loss means riches for the Gentiles. Paul speaks of the result, not only in terms of the rejection of the Jews but of their ‘acceptance’ which brings ‘life from the dead’ v15.



Presentation 24

The expression ‘life from the dead’ seems to point to the restoration of Israel, signalling the ushering-in of the new heavens and earth thus indicating that the conversion of the Jews will immediately precede the return of Christ.

When the Jews first came to the promised land they were heralds of the coming of the Lord’s anointed. Their presence there was part for the preparation of the coming of the Redeemer. Could their return to Israel after almost 2000 years foreshadow the return of the King of Glory? Paul is encouraging us to watch the Jews because all that happens to this people is of divine significance.



Presentation 24

How are we to understand the phrase ‘provoking the Jews to envy’ v14? Paul sees his mission to the Gentiles as having an indirect bearing upon the Jews. The more successful his mission is, the more likely the Jews will be provoked to envy.

The salvation of others is often a stimulus to non-Christians. Many have come to faith by observing the joy of Christians and thinking ,‘I want what he/she has got’.



Presentation 24

In v16-24 Paul provides another proof against Israel’s final rejection. The patriarchs are described as the firstfruits. The term ‘first fruit’ comes from the OT. and refers to the portion of food /harvest that was offered to God so sanctifying for use the remainder.

Here the first-fruit stands for Abraham and the patriarchs, through whom the rest of the nation would be sanctified. Cf also the relationship between the root of a tree and its branches v16.



Presentation 24

Paul’s point about ‘the whole batch being holy’, and the branches being ‘holy’ though significant, must not be misunderstood. Israel is not ‘holy’ in the sense that all her members are righteous but in the sense of having been separated to God.

God’s choice of them, in his choice of Abraham, is once for all. Paul is not rebuilding the argument he demolished in Ch 2-3 where Jews felt secure because, ‘We have Abraham for our father’. The Jews’ relationship to the patriarchs does not effect their salvation, but affirms a destiny that they will enter into by faith. It is this idea that is developed in the ‘olive tree’ analogy.



Presentation 24

The ‘olive tree’ describes the church of God from the time it was first instituted. Paul views the N.T. as a new growth from the original body. He warns the Gentiles who’ve been grafted into the olive tree [the church] against pride and complacency. It would be easy for Gentiles to assume that the Jews had been cut off forever, and themselves become complacent.

The grafting procedure described here is horticulturally wrong – it’s always the cultivated branch that is grafted into wild stock - but Paul’s argument rests on the unusualness of his illustration. Since the grafting-in of wild stock is contrary to nature, it reveals both the power and grace of God.



Presentation 24

Now, if the procedure is contrary to nature, then two further possibilities exist. First, the action can be reversed, the Gentile branches can be taken out again and the original branches can be grafted in again. The operative factor in each case is faith.

This knowledge should promote humility in the life of the Gentile believer. It was spiritual pride that led to the Jews’ downfall. They assumed that because of their special relationship with God no moral laxity or spiritual waywardness on their part could endanger it! There are moral conditions associated with both being broken off and of remaining secure.



The grafting-in of the Gentiles depended upon faith. The ability to remain there, also rests in faith.

Faith excludes boasting cf. 3:27. Paul’s illustration not only serves as a warning to Gentile presumption, secondly, it promotes hope for Israel. If God were able to graft wild branches into an olive tree, how much easier it would be for him to restore the natural branches to their original place!



Presentation 24

In v25ff Paul unfolds the mystery that there is a day coming when the blindness that prevents the Jews from believing the gospel will be removed, and they will be enabled to believe.

When will the great tide of blessing for the Jews, that Paul has been unfolding, become a reality? The operative word in v25 is ‘until’. Not until the full number of Gentiles has come in. Paul is not thinking of a day when the whole Gentile world is converted, but of when every Gentile destined for salvation has come to faith. Then the blindness will be removed from Israel and the restoration will take place.



Presentation 24

In other words, when the rejection of Israel is no longer needed in the purpose of God for the world’s redemption, then Israel will be gathered to her God and be saved v28. But what does ‘all Israel’ in v26 mean? Some, like Calvin, have suggested a ‘spiritual Israel’, others suggest ‘a remnant of Israel’. Some claim every single Israelite is intended, but that would make nonsense of everything the Bible teaches. The context presses us to consider that ‘all Israel’ refers to a mass movement - the period of hardening is over and the Jewish people will move from a position of unbelief to one of repentance and faith. The climax of Paul’s thought is the restoration of Israel once the Gentile church is complete without implying that every single Israelite will be converted. Historically, the church’s Mission to the Jews has been motivated by this expectation.



Presentation 24

In v28-32 Paul underlines the wonder of God’s dealings with his people in a series of striking paradoxes. They are both ‘enemies’ and ‘loved’ by God. Their refusal of the gospel means they have ridden out to face God on the field of battle but their hostility has not destroyed God’s love for them, and more importantly, his election of them for ‘his gifts and call is irrevocable’. The Gentiles have received mercy through the unbelief of Israel in order that, prior to the consummation of the age, Israel in turn might receive mercy through the mercy shown to the Gentiles. So that one of the significant features of human history is that ‘God has bound all men [Jew and Gentile] over to disobedience so that he might have mercy on all’.



Presentation 24

The doxology in v33-36 concludes not only the chapter but the block of teaching on Israel that began in 9:1ff., and it possibly looks back on all that Paul has been saying since 1:16.

Paul has recognised that there is a conscious purpose in the universe that far transcends all human thought. There is a depth in the riches, wisdom and knowledge of God that stretches well beyond the tiny galaxies of human thought.

The trail of God’s riches that Paul has been unfolding [see especially 2:4, 9:23 and 10:12] leaves him spellbound and enraptured.


Doxology 11.33-36

Presentation 24

As he considers God’s character, he recognises that he cannot begin to plumb the depths of the ‘wisdom and knowledge of God’ cf. Col. 2:3.

The most intrepid explorer would return from his voyage of discovery and admit his failure to penetrate the forest of the ‘unsearchable nature of God’s judgements’ cf. Isa 55:8-9. In v34 Paul republishes the findings of Isaiah [Isa. 40:13], who, having set the deductive power and reasoning of man over against the solitary majesty of God in the counsels of his perfect will, concludes there is ‘no contest’ [cf. Deut. 29:29].


Doxology 11.33-36

Presentation 24

In v35 Job is called to the stand, and we hear the words, recorded in Job 41:11 which argue that, since God acts in sovereign grace, men can do nothing to earn or merit salvation. Indeed, God does not need anything that man could give him. God is Creator, Sustainer and Director of all that is seen and unseen.

How foolish to try to put him under the microscope of our puny intellects, and hope to understand his greatness! Better we humble ourselves before him in sheerest wonder and adoration. That is what Paul does!


Doxology 11.33-36

Presentation 24

Documents

Studies in Romans Presentation 24. SUMMARY OF CONTENTS: OPENING REMARKS: 1:1-17 BAD NEWS : Universality of sin and its condemnation 1:18 - 3:20 GOOD NEWS