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Chapter 11 teaches us that God has a plan for the Jewish and Gentile nations that will be accomplished. Paul is revealing more of God's character concluding with the doxology in verses 33-36. All of us have ideas about how we want God to be, but the Bible tells us how God really is. There are places in the Bible that we sometimes wish were not included because they make us uncomfortable. Some people find the teaching about hardening of hearts difficult to believe about God. But we must have a full picture of God. The Bible assures us that God is loving and never does things without reason. We do not need to defend God. He is sovereign and has a right to do whatever He chooses. His decisions and His ways are perfect. God has shed His grace upon this earth and given us undeserved favor. We are a sinful people but He has given us Jesus Christ for salvation. He has also given an open invitation to the gospel in which all are invited to turn from sin and turn towards God. He has given us election to take away our pride, and much more that we will only fully understand in heaven. If you are having difficulty accepting who God is, will you pray to God and humbly accept what He is teaching you now? Perhaps He is allowing some difficulty to help you know Him better. Trust God and He will show Himself faithful. One of the underlying questions in Romans 9-11 is, "How can we believe in the eternal security of Christians if, as we can clearly see, Jewish people as a whole are not responding to the teaching of the gospel?" Romans 11:1 asks, "Did God reject His people?" Paul answers, "By no means. I am an Israelite myself, a descendent of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin." Using the example of Elijah from 1 Kings 19:18, Paul points out that there always has been and always will be a remnant of true believers. God had saved 7,000 in Elijah's day. Although the number of Jewish believers since the church began has always been proportionally small, there are, nevertheless, many who have believed. We remember the 3,000 who became believers in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and from that time on, "The Lord added to their numbers daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:47) God is doing the same today. Christianity was begun by Jewish believers who knew that Jesus Christ was their Messiah. It was moved forward by a remnant of God's people who preached the gospel in power and strength. It continues today to move forward by those who refuse to bow their knee to false gods but instead stand with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Baal was a god of the Canaanites. The worship of Baal consisted of child sacrifice, sexual acts of worship, and materialism. There is much of the same corruption in society today: worship of self to the extent of child abuse and neglect, idolatry of sex and pornography, and the chasing after things. As we look at our own culture, Christians might be tempted to grow weary as Elijah did. Some may say, "I might as well give up, nothing is going to change." But this is not the time to grow faint. We are to put on the armor of God and pray constantly. (Ephesians 6:10-18) The battle is the Lord's and has already been won! We have our victory in the Lord Jesus Christ who said from the cross, "It is finished!" and who rose from the dead three days later. We know that "the one who is in (us) is greater than the one who is in the world." (1 John 4:4) Did God harden the hearts of the Israelites in Paul's day? No, He allowed them to go the way of their own desire. Jesus' public ministry in Jerusalem and the surrounding area left no doubt about the power of his ministry and the validity of His claims. As He reported back to John the Baptist, "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." (Matthew 11:4-5) Jesus was fulfilling the Old Testament prophesies about His ministry. (Isaiah 35:4-6, 61:1) The people of Paul's day knew the power and truth of Jesus' ministry but chose to follow their religious leaders instead. Jesus sternly denounced the hypocrisy of those professing to serve God and yet rejected His Son. He said about them, "they loved the praise from men more than praise from God." (John 12:43) In verse 11, Paul refers to the Jews, "Did they stumble so far as to fall beyond recovery?" The answer is, "Not at all!" Paul knew the power of grace. He held on to the words of Romans 10:13 and Acts 2:21, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." The Jewish nation has not stumbled beyond recovery, but because of their rejection of the Messiah, salvation has come to the Gentiles. God is using the Jewish rejection so that salvation might come to the Gentiles. God is now working through Gentile salvation so that the Jewish people might look to Jesus as the Savior and Messiah. Verse 11 tells us, "...salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious." The Biblical use of envy includes, 'wanting what someone else has'. Christians are to live so that others, including Jews, would want Jesus Christ as Lord. The emotion of envy used improperly will lead to covetousness, bitterness, and death. But understanding envy in a biblical context will help us uphold our relationship with Jesus Christ for the sake of others. Unfortunately, for the most part, Gentile Christians do not live in a way that would provoke the Jews to envy what we possess. The problem is not entirely on one side, of course. Christians who have talked with Jewish people about Jesus might be surprised and amazed at the blindness that has settled over many of them. Even if they know the Old Testament well, they go to incredible lengths to deny clear teaching about Christ. But the Christian's responsibility is greater. We know the gospel. We have the power of the Holy Spirit to live like Jesus Christ and show His love to all. But instead of showing love to the Jewish people, many Gentiles have shown indifference, prejudice, and even hatred. Verses 17-24 is a troubling
passage for many Christians because it can mistakenly be taken to imply
a loss of salvation. That is not what these verses are teaching. That
would contradict teaching elsewhere in the Bible. Paul uses the
illustration of grafting branches to speak of the Jewish and Gentile
peoples as a whole. The Jewish nation is the root from which salvation
comes. When the majority of Jews rejected Jesus Christ as Messiah they
were cut off from the root. Gentile believers have now been grafted in
because of their faith in Jesus. The warning comes to the Gentile
nations that if the Jews were cut off because of unbelief, God will
certainly reject Gentiles for the same reason. We know that God works
in individual lives grafting us in one by one. This illustration
reminds us of both the kindness and sternness of God. He has opened the
way for Gentiles now. We are not to take that gift for granted. We are
to teach our children and those we know the truth of God's grace.
Remember, there is only one people of God, based on true faith in His
salvation. Unbelief does exclude us from the tree of life. We must take
our responsibility as Christians seriously and gratefully.
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