Romans - Chapter 11
11:1-10 Preserving a remnant in Israel
The long history of Israel's rejection of God and their constant stomping on His grace naturally makes one think that possibly the Lord will arrive at a time when He will say, “enough is enough” and end His relation with His chosen people. Paul raises that question and gives the answer.
Paul declares that there is not the slightest possibility that the Lord will end the relation despite the fact that Israel has rejected the Savior sent to them. Knowing all things in advance, God has the advantage of seeing the end from the beginning, and with this knowledge His determining the outcome is sure. There seems to be no chance the Lord will remove those predestined by Him and foreknown by Him to be His.
We remember that Elijah, one of God's greatest prophets, became most discouraged and fled from Jezebel who had promised to kill him after he destroyed the prophets of Baal. Elijah held small hope for his own survival. So he told God that he was the only one left to serve God in Israel. But God pointed out the Elijah was not alone and that God still retained 7,000 faithful believers who had not bent a knee to the false god. These were a perfect example of the faithful remnant, always surviving because God, having chosen by grace Abraham, the father of all who believe, was the beginning of God's promise which will never end. There was a believing remnant who had eyes wide open and ears wide open and hearts of faith and this remnant was proof positive that God does not cast away His people.
11:11-15 God's purpose as Israel turned away.
The nation of Israel at the time of Paul's ministry was a stumbling nation that had not yet completely fallen. What then, was the purpose of God in allowing Israel to openly reject His messiah, and live on in the darkness and hardness of their hearts? Paul's answer is striking. God is making Israel jealous by turning to the Gentiles to offer them what Israel has refused. Paul knew this was true from his own experience in evangelism in places such as Corinth. He made this quite clear in Acts 18:6 when he said:
“From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
The day is still in the future when Israel will seen to be the people of God AND Christ through faith.
Here Paul speaks warmly of the privileged position of the Jewish people and he also reminds the Gentiles of their relatively inferior position and then he gathers both Jews and Gentiles together by the use of one two-fold statement in verse 16.
He says if the root is holy then so are the branches.
The first expression is from the old tradition of first bread baked and given to God from the harvest and the second is an extension of that consideration to the branches of that root. Jesus made this comparison when he told His disciples He was the vine and they were the branches, drawing their life in the Spirit from Him.
Despite all her faults, Israel has never been less than God's chosen means of bringing blessings to the world. Paul makes this truth very clear when he develops his picture in words of Israel as the vine.
11:17-25 God's power with Israel.
Paul speaks here of God's power to establish Israel as the vine only on the basis of His own choice. At the same time God seems to have no reluctance in taking wild branches and grafting them into old stock of the vine, provided that the wild branches would do what the natural branches had refused to do, which is to come to Him in faith.
Gentiles should not presume that they are more highly regarded by the Lord and His goodness than the people of Israel, because God has the power to graft in any people who believe and to break off from the vine any people who will not, either Jew or Gentile, and He will indeed use this power as He has shown.
11:26-32 God promises to restore Israel.
Once the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, there will be a revival in Israel, and they will come to faith in Jesus Christ.
The fullness of the Gentiles (verse 25) refers to the time when the full complement of non Jews will have come to belief in faith and have therefore found their way into the kingdom. This fact is significant for Israel in that Israel's hardening gave opportunity for Gentile blessing so the conclusion of Gentile blessing will give rise to the new day of opportunity for Israel which will be so great that “... all Israel will be saved...”.
The exact timing of this predicted revival is not given, and neither is the meaning of the phrase “all Israel” revealed. (Romans 9:6-8 is our clue)
In His divine wisdom, God chose to use the rejection of Christ by His people as a means of reaching Gentiles so that through His abundant blessing of grace to them, Israel will be brought to realize the true value of that grace. Israel's unbelief is used by God to bring about the victory of Gentile evangelization, which will, in turn and time, lead to the restoration of Israel. God has not altered His plan, His principles, or violated His law, nor forsaken His chosen people (or the Gentiles) even in the face of rebellion. He can and will use all things to bring about His eternal purposes.
