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About one hundred years ago, Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, was having a discussion with his chaplain about the truth of the Bible. Frederick asked, "If your Bible is really from God, you should be able to demonstrate the fact simply." The chaplain replied, "Your Majesty, it is possible for me to answer your request in one word." Frederick was amazed at this response. "What is the magic word that carries such weight of proof?" he asked. "Israel," said the chaplain. The survival of Israel as a distinct people throughout the four thousand years of her history was the evidence he used for the Bible being the in errant Word of God. God has preserved these people through their many dispersions and persecutions because He cares for them, and because He has a plan for them that will unfold in blessing in the last days. Paul begins this lesson by explaining an important biblical mystery. A biblical mystery is something that was hidden but God has now revealed or made known. The mystery is that God has not failed in His promise to Israel. God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12:3 was for the whole human race. The Savior would come through him, and God would bless all the people of the world through this Savior. (see Galatians 3:8, 16) In Romans 11:25 Paul explains, "Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in." Paul goes on to describe a time when Israel will be saved, and further develops the concept from Isaiah that, "He will take away their sin." God's love for His chosen people, Israel, has never changed, for God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. (Romans 11:29) The Jewish people always knew that God would provide a Savior. That was clear in Old Testament scripture. The "mystery" of salvation was the way in which the Savior would be provided. The Old Testament gives us an illustration of substitutionary sacrifice, in the blood sacrifice of animals for the cleansing of sin. In Genesis 22:13, we also see how God Himself provided the sacrifice for Abraham on Mount Mariah. In the New Testament we have God Himself providing the sacrifice at the incarnation. We see God humbling Himself to be born as a baby. He came for one ultimate purpose, to die in our place. Unfortunately many Jewish people of Christ's day and nonbelievers of today still cannot fathom the depth of God's love. The prophet Isaiah and many of the minor prophets portray a time when Israel will see Jesus as their Messiah. Isaiah's prophecy of the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42:1-9, 52:13, and chapter 53 are vivid pictures of the Jewish Messiah who was to come. The prophet Joel (3:17) tells of a time when, "You will know that I, the Lord your God dwells in Zion, my holy hill. Jerusalem will be holy, never again will foreigners invade her." These verses point to a time of future blessing for Israel. A time when God will "turn godlessness away from Jacob." A time when He will take away their sins. As Zechariah 12:10 states "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 first born son." Zechariah 13:1 says, "On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from impurity." Zechariah 13:9 continues with this prophecy, "they are my people, and they will say the Lord is our God." In Romans 11:26, Paul states that all Israel will be saved. Paul was not only prophesying this event, he was also helping to clarify the character of God. God is unchanging. Therefore, His plans for Israel are also unchanging, and His call, which put His plan into action, is irrevocable. God chose Israel to be His special people, and nothing that has happened since, or will happen in the future, can change that choice or relationship. God will continue to work with them as a covenant people. He will bring them an understanding of the new covenant, "the new covenant in my (Jesus') blood, which is poured out for you." (Luke 22:20) God has promised, in Romans 11:27, to "take away their sins." The taking away of sin is done only by the blood of Jesus Christ. This is what the book of Hebrews emphasizes. In that book the author is writing to the Jewish people. He shows that God has replaced the old covenant, which required faith and obedience, but not the power to obey, with a new covenant that is mediated by Jesus and accomplished by His death. This fact warns us never to think of Jewish people as somehow having a separate salvation track, as if they are saved merely because they are Jewish. As Paul writes to Timothy, "There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." (1 Timothy 2:5) One day God's promises to the Jewish people will be complete. They will come to know Jesus as their sacrificial Savior. The misinterpretation of Romans 11:32 has led to the false concept of universal salvation. That is not what Paul is teaching, for, if he did, it would be a contradiction of Romans 9. Paul is addressing Jews and Gentiles as groups of people, not individuals. He is emphasizing God's mercy. Although neither Gentiles nor Jews deserve God's mercy, God is merciful to both. God's very character is "merciful" and He will save all who come to Him for it. God has never turned a deaf ear to anyone who has turned from sin to Christ. Do we as Christians believe that? What should our response be? We should tell others that God is exactly who the Bible declares Him to be, the God who saves all who come through Christ. As Paul's understanding of God's love and mercy begins to flow through his mind, he breaks into a great doxology of praise. Paul understood that God is not like us. In fact, God is not like anything we can actually experience or know. God's ways can never be known to us apart from His revelation to us. Where does this leave us? We are to trust God. As Proverbs 3:5-6 teaches, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight." Paul has been teaching that we have nothing to add to who God is or what He does. God is utterly sufficient in and of Himself in all things, in all places, and at all times. We must abandon any thought of bringing God down to our level in which He becomes answerable to our ideas of what is wise or just. We must also give up any thoughts of earning something from Him by what we would 'give' Him. Then we are ready to live the Christian life as He has planned. We will begin to understand what it means to live by grace. At our best we are unworthy servants as Jesus described in Luke 17:10, "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'" But we must also remember that Jesus said, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends." (John 15:15) Before all time, God, the
great "I am that I am," existed and was as perfect, glorious and
blessed in His eternal existence as He is now. We will never fully
understand God, for He alone is God. But he has revealed to us what we
need to know to live for Him now and throughout eternity. All things
are from Him. Both creation and salvation are, for there is none other from whom they could have come. (John 1:3-4)
The way of salvation is through God and for
His glory. Paul praises God, knowing that He alone deserves the glory.
Glory to God alone! To those who do not know Him, that is perhaps the
most foolish of all statements. But to those who are saved, it is a
wise, true, inescapable and highly desirable confession of faith. "For
from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to Him be the glory
forever! Amen!"
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