Romans 11:11-24: The People of God seen as an Olive Tree

Part 2

Gentile Christians have no grounds to boast about their inclusion in the New Covenant as if they were now superior to the Jews (Ethnic Israel). The Jewish branches were broken off because of unbelief. God grafted in the Gentiles because of their faith in the Messiah. Salvation is by grace through the gifts of faith and repentance that both Jews and Gentiles exercise as they surrender to the Lordship of Jesus the Messiah. Boasting about salvation is not permitted!

I. [God is still saving a remnant of Jews from Ethnic Israel according to election vs. 1-10]

II. God is now saving a multitude of Gentiles to wake up Ethnic Israel vs.11-24

A. Salvation has come to the Gentiles (the world) because of the temporary rejection of Ethnic Israel vs. 11, 15, 30

1. God’s work among the Gentiles should awaken many in Ethnic Israel to the relationship they have forsaken vs. 11

2. The stumbling of the Jews was not a permanent fall vs. 11

B. Blessings came to the Gentiles through the stumbling of Ethnic Israel vs. 12

C. Blessings will be even greater through the restoration of Ethnic Israel vs. 12, 15

1. View # 1: Paul is just discussing all the elect Gentiles & Jews that will be saved over time

2. View # 2: Paul is just discussing the Jews that will be saved over time until the end

3. View # 3: Paul is discussing a future mass conversion among those who are part of Ethnic Israel [the correct view]

D. Salvation coming to all nations is good for the Gentiles and the Jews vs. 13-16

1. The more Gentiles the Apostle Paul and the church can reach with the gospel, the more likely Ethnic Israel will be awakened to the truth vs. 13-14

2. Ethnic Israel comprises fellow countrymen to the Apostles of Christ vs. 14

3. Ethnic Israel’s rejection was part of the reconciliation of the Gentile world

4. Ethnic Israel’s future acceptance will be like a resurrection for the entire true church of the Lord Jesus Christ vs. 15

5. Paul gives two illustrations showing transference and inclusion: bread dough and an olive tree. If a sample of dough is pure, the source lump is pure. If a tree’s roots are healthy, then the branches will be healthy vs. 16

E. Salvation coming to the Gentiles does not justify pride or prejudice against, or hatred for, citizens of Ethnic Israel (The olive tree Illustration) vs. 17-24

1. Do not arrogantly pretend that you Gentiles, the grafted-in branches, gave life to the Jewish olive trees’ roots. The roots gave life to the branches

2. Christianity’s roots are Jewish. All the prophets were Jewish men. All the Apostles were Jewish men. All the NT writing prophets were Jewish men (some debate Luke’s Jewishness, but he may have had a Jewish mother, like Timothy). Jesus, the Messiah, was Jewish. The first church in Jerusalem was initially only Jewish. The Gentiles are the branches, not the root. Kill the ethnic pride

3. Some branches thought that the Jewish branches were broken off because they were so much better, wonderful Gentile wild olive branches. Arrogantly thinking we are special and others are not special is sinful vs. 18-19

4. The original branches were removed because of the unbelief among Ethnic Israel. The same warning applies to the visible church. If the majority are full of unbelief, that church will be broken off like Ethnic Israel was. In both cases, the remnant will still be saved vs. 20-21

5. Gentile church members need to take faith seriously and revere our holy, awesome God. Our covenant community stands only by its faith—it remains connected to the tree trunk by faith, not ethnicity vs. 21

6. God will not tolerate disloyal unbelief anywhere He finds it. He will judge the visible church just as He did Ethnic Israel vs. 21-22

7. Make sure you understand God’s kindness and severity, His love and holiness, His mercy and justice vs. 22-23

8. Ethnic Israel will be restored to the people of God after they come to Him through Jesus the Messiah in faith vs. 23

9. Ethnic Israel’s restoration to the true people of God will be easier than it was to transform and include former wicked pagan idol worshipers to the people of God vs. 24

III. God will save multitudes from Ethnic Israel in the future vs. 25-32

IV. God has planned this salvation in His wisdom and power and deserves all the praise for His awesome plan vs. 33-36

Rom 11:1-10: God is Still Saving a Remnant among the Jews

 Rom 11:1-10

Since Ethnic Israel has not completely understood the gospel of grace and has rejected the gospel of grace, what will God’s response be? Will God completely reject, replace, or cast away Ethnic Israel? Did He not call Ethnic Israel “My people” in the Hebrew Scriptures? Paul, what is going on here then, since Ethnic Israel is not receptive to the gospel of grace through Yeshu’a the Messiah? Paul answers the question, ‘Has God rejected His people?’ with the term we can translate as ‘NO WAY,’ don’t even think that. God has not totally rejected all Ethnic Israel during any period, and He has a plan for mass salvation for Ethnic Israel. Complete rejection of Ethnic Israel is impossible. God is righteous in His handling of the Jews and the Gentiles in every era.

    I. God is still saving a remnant of Jews from Ethnic Israel according to election. vs. 1-10

A. Evidence # 1: Paul is a saved Jew. Tribe of Benjamin, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, thus a true and ‘full’ Israelite from Ethnic Israel. vs. 1

B. Evidence # 2: A remnant from Ethnic Israel is currently being saved by God’s sovereign plan and gracious choice. vs.2-5

1. God has loved beforehand and ordained beforehand certain Jews out of Ethnic Israel who are entering the new covenant.

2. God has not totally rejected nor bypassed everyone in Ethnic Israel.

3. God’s working with a remnant inside Ethnic Israel is nothing new.

a. Elijah’s pitiful prayer, I am the only one who loves Yahweh. vs. 3

b. God’s answer, I have preserved 7,000 men loyal to me who will not worship the false god Baal. vs. 4

4. God is still graciously choosing and calling out a remnant today from Ethnic Israel (Paul’s day and our day). vs. 5

C. Evidence #3: A remnant from Ethnic Israel is saved by the sovereign gracious activity of God despite the majority in Ethnic Israel rejecting God’s grace and gospel. vs. 6-10

1. Grace-based transferred righteousness is the exact opposite of works-based self-righteousness. Deliverance from sin’s penalty and authoritative control is by grace-based righteousness alone. The opposites cannot be mixed.

2. Once we understand salvation by grace, we no longer try to earn salvation by works and merit. The Pharisees, Judaizers, world religions, and modern-day ‘Christian’ legalists have no logical basis for trying to mix the two opposites. Grace is unearned, unmerited favor. Works are earned and merited. vs. 6

3. Ethnic Israel could not achieve right standing with Yahweh by their works. vs. 7-10

a. God still selected individual Jews to receive grace-based salvation. They were saved ‘by the election of grace’ (NKJV), not by a choice based on foreseen works: past, present, or future. Even faith is a gift (Eph 2:8-9).

b. God allowed the other Jews to continue in their sin, and they became more resistant to the truth (their hearts were hardened).

c. Ethnic Israel’s works-righteousness mentality brought about spiritual callousness in most of the Jews. Agents of callousness or hardening are most often: sin, Satan, unbelief, the world system, error, and selfishness. This coming callousness was prophesied. In the covenantal curses it is written:

‘Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, you have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his entire land. You saw with your own eyes the great trials and those great signs and wonders. Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear (Deut 29:2-4 HCSB). Isaiah said, stop and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with beer. For the LORD has poured out on you an overwhelming urge to sleep; He has shut your eyes—the prophets, and covered your heads—the seers. For you, the entire vision will be like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to one who can read and he is asked to read it, he will say, I can’t read it, because it is sealed (Isa 29:9-11 HCSB)

David wrote: Let their dining table before them become a snare; when they are at peace, let it become a trap; ²⁴ let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see, and let their bodies always be stumbling (Psa 69:23-24 CJB). Paul applies this prayer of David to those Jews still rejecting the Messiah in his day after clearly hearing the gospel and his answers to their objections.

 

II. God is now saving a multitude of Gentiles to wake up Ethnic Israel. vs.11-22

III. God will save multitudes from Ethnic Israel in the future. vs. 23-32

IV. God has planned this salvation in His wisdom and power and deserves all the praise for His awesome plan. vs. 33-36

Romans 10:14-21: Ethnic Israel Rejected the Gospel (part 2)

 

Romans 10 part 2

Ethnic Israel (Rom 9:3 Fleshly, racial, bloodline, DNA-based) focused on behavior-based righteousness and rejected the gospel of grace that changes the hearts first through regeneration and conversion and then proper behavior follows in the believer’s life. It is spiritual suicide to get these two backwards. Good works result from true salvation; they never produce salvation. When you hear and see the gospel and reject general and special revelation, your guilt before God increases significantly.

I. Ethnic Israel does not understand the true gospel of grace vs. 1-13

II. Ethnic Israel has rejected the true gospel (all but the remnant) vs. 14-21

A. The prerequisites (required conditions) to salvation for Israel and all humans vs. 14-15a

1. God must send a person with the gospel message

2. The sent person must proclaim/share the gospel message

3. The people must hear and understand the gospel message in their language

4. The person must believe the gospel message that they have understood

5. The people must call on the name of the Lord

a. To pray in repentance, requesting forgiveness and salvation

b. To surrender to Jesus as Master, King, Boss, LORD

B. The blessing of obediently sharing or proclaiming the gospel message vs. 15b

1. Beautiful feet carry the good news that the Babylonian captivity is over and Israel will be restored (Isa 52:7) and now that sins captivity is over and spiritual Israel will be expanded. Because the message is itself a precious treasure bringing joy, the messenger can run, leap, and skip for joy—his feet (body language) can match his message

2. Those who do not pray, give, send, and go must realize the destiny of those who have never heard. Look at the prerequisites. Foreign Missions is not optional. Salvation is exclusive to belief in Jesus the Messiah (John 14:6; Acts 4:12)

C. The two results that occur when the gospel message is proclaimed vs. 16-17

1. Some will not obey the gospel call to surrender to the Messiah as Lord. Often this is the majority, but not always in every era or every location

2. Even the Old Covenant prophets’ message about faith in the coming Messiah and the need for heart-produced loyalty and faithfulness was rejected by the majority in Ethnic Israel (Isa 53:1; a verse in a Messianic prophecy)

3. Some will obey the gospel and repent, believe, and surrender to Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God

4. Faith cannot be produced in the heart of a sinner apart from the message about Christ. (Two textual variants to choose from in vs. 17)

a. The word of Christ, a specific message about the Messiah, Jesus

b. The word of God, the gospel, a specific message about the Messiah

5. Hearing and understanding the written Word of God and the specific gospel message about the Messiah contained in it is absolutely vital for salvation

D. The first three prerequisites for Ethnic Israel to be saved have been accomplished by God vs. 18-20

1. Israel had never heard the gospel. No one told us that Jesus was the Messiah who came to save us from our sins. Paul is using irony and literary sarcasm here vs. 18 (see Ecclesiastes)

2. Yes, ethnic Israel has been told. Those in Israel saw the evidence that Jesus was God in the flesh. Disease was almost removed from Israel for three years. Paul preached to the Jews first in the synagogues throughout the Roman Empire that Jesus was the Messiah

3. Evidence # 1: General revelation reveals to all humans God’s design and glory. The Hebrew Bible says, “Their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world” (Psa 19:4a HCSB). All men have known about God since creation. The Jews cannot plead ignorance. They knew

4. Evidence # 2: Special revelation: Noah found grace in the eye of the Lord, Abraham lived by faith, the prophets told them of the coming Messiah and that works could not save them. The sacrifices told them that blood must be shed for human sin. John the Baptist came in fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy and told them the Messiah was present. Jesus preached and demonstrated that He was the God-Man. The Apostles of Christ preached and died rather than deny Jesus’ resurrection. Yes, Israel had heard the gospel message accompanied by irrefutable evidence

5. Evidence # 3: Special revelation revealed that during the Messianic age the Gentiles would receive God’s righteousness. This was happening before their eyes

a. Moses in the curses of the covenant predicted the future salvation of the Gentiles would occur to incite jealousy among Ethnic Israel. Why? So, they will awaken to what they have missed and respond by believing the gospel message and surrendering to the Messiah, Jesus (Deut 32:21)

b. Isaiah declares God was found by those who did not seek Him and revealed Himself to those not seeking Him (Isa 65:1; Rom 9:30). This is in his final prophesies that are concerned with the Suffering Servant, the Messiah and His coming age. The Gentiles will enter into a covenant relationship with Yahweh during the Messianic age. This was happening before Ethnic Israel’s eyes and continues to this day

E. The last two prerequisites for Ethnic Israel are the responsibility of the Israelites themselves vs. 21

1. In Romans 9, God is 100% sovereign, Romans 10, man is 100% responsible

2. Spurgeon said human responsibility and divine sovereignty are friends that work side-by-side, so they do not need to be reconciled like two people in a feud

3. Because of the limitations of human intellect, there is a mystery here that is beyond our full comprehension and explanation. We are not omniscient. God is

4. Isaiah labeled the real problems: rebellious attitudes and an obstinate will. All men have a bad record and a bad heart. Their love of sin and obstinate will guarantee their coming judgment (Isa 65:2)

5. Ethnic Israel had heard the gospel message, understood what it claimed, and they rejected and opposed the gospel message

6. Ethnic Israel willfully did not obey the gospel and willfully rejected the true gospel of everlasting salvation

7. Am I like Ethnic Israel, refusing to fully comprehend the gospel and embrace Jesus the Messiah by repentance, faith, and full surrender, or am I like the remnant of spiritual Israel that has surrendered to the Lord Jesus in repentance and faith?

8. Future good news for Ethnic Israel is in Romans 11