GOD’S PLAN OF REDEMPTION INCLUDES ISRAEL – PART 4 (Romans 11:11-24)
INTRODUCTION:
This morning is our fourth Sunday in this section, and I promise we will finish it this morning. We have three more verses to go. Next week we will begin the third and final section of Romans 11 which when we finish will bring us to the end of the three chapters that Paul has devoted to the nation of Israel and her place and part in God’s plan of redemption.
Last Sunday we began to look at an expanded version of the illustration that Paul had used concerning the root and the branches of an olive tree. The original illustration was to show that because Abraham and the patriarchs were declared holy to God, set apart to God, then, they being the roots and the foundational part of the tree, if they are holy then what they produce, the branches, representing their descendants, must be holy to God also.
Then Paul expanded on this illustration to show that some of the physical descendants, some of the nation of Israel, represented by the branches were broken off and set aside because of unbelief, and a wild olive branch was grafted in among the remaining branches, these remaining branches represent the believing remnant of Jews that God has preserved for Himself. This wild olive branch represented the Gentiles being grafted into the tree and receiving the blessing of the covenant of salvation that God had made with Abraham. The Gentiles grafted in became joint heirs with the believing Jews of the covenant blessings of salvation. We became spiritual descendants of the father of the faith, Abraham. Paul then used this illustration to warn us not to become arrogant or conceited because some branches were broken off and we were grafted in. He reminded us that those broken off were broken off because of unbelief, and the Gentiles were grafted in because of faith. We were warned to fear God and not fall away from the faith because of arrogance and conceit, because if God broke off some of His covenant people, He will not spare Gentiles who fall away from the faith, this refers to those who are apostate. Remember again that the wild olive branch grafted in does not refer to individual Gentiles who are saved by grace, but to the Gentiles who make up the Gentile portion of the church as a whole, and that is why they can be cut off because some in the church have departed from the truth they professed to have. As I said last week, this apostasy of the church is predicted in the New Testament and we are seeing it happen rapidly in our day as more and more denominations and independent churches depart from the truth they once professed to have, the truth which their denominations or churches were originally built upon. When the true church is raptured only the apostate church will be left.
This morning we want to first look at the kindness and severity of God, the end to my only point last week, and then look at the promise to Israel that God gives at the end of this passage. Let’s pray and then get into our passage for this morning.
--PRAY--
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans 11:11-24, I will read the whole passage again to pick up the context, but we will only be looking at verses 22-24 this morning. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
Romans 11:11-24,
“I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’ Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?” (Romans 11:11–24, NASB95)[1]
GOD’S KINDNESS AND SEVERITY (Romans 11:22)
Paul had already spoken of the breaking off of unbelieving Israel and the grafting in of the Gentiles in these three chapters devoted to Israel and her place and part in God’s plan of redemption. He had spoken of it, but in different terms. He wrote in the end of chapter 9, verses 30-32, “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,” (Romans 9:30–32, NASB95)[2] In these verses just as the verses we looked at last week, Paul is clear that to be righteous before God, to be a part of God’s olive tree, to experience the spiritual blessings of salvation can only be obtained one way, that is through faith in Jesus Christ. You can pursue a law of righteousness your whole life, but you will never attain the righteousness that God requires unless you come in faith. Jesus Christ offered to give us His righteousness by faith, and He became the stumbling stone over which Israel stumbled because they thought they had to attain their own righteousness which is nothing more than self-righteousness and Isaiah said that this righteousness in God’s eyes is nothing more than filthy rags. The only true righteousness that is acceptable by God is by faith. Paul has pounded home this truth over and over in this book, salvation and true righteousness which God accepts as far as man is concerned is by faith, and faith alone. This is with the understanding that as John MacArthur says, “It is, of course, God’s sovereign grace that makes faith possible, acceptable, and effective, but His grace will not save apart from faith.”[3]
Paul goes on in verse 22 to speak of the kindness and severity of God. He writes, “Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.” (Romans 11:22, NASB95)[4] The apostle in speaking of the kindness and severity of God begins with the past, God’s people, the nation of Israel, experienced God’s severity when they fell because of their unbelief. This word that is translated “severity” is only used here in the New Testament as a noun. Its root word means to cut or to separate something from the whole, those who fell because of their unbelief, were cut off from the tree, metaphorically it speaks of falling under judgment. To experience God’s severity is to fall under His judgment and it speaks of a profoundly serious spiritual condition. Because they rejected God’s offer of salvation through faith they came under God’s judgment.
Paul then moves from God’s severity to His kindness and warns those in the present who have identified themselves with the saving Gospel that having received God’s kindness, they must continue in His kindness, so that they will not experience His severity and be cut off like those in the past who were near the blessing and fell. What does Paul mean here? Is He saying it is possible to lose your salvation? No way or as Paul would say, May it never be! For the person who has truly come in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation continuing in, or remaining in, or abiding in God’s kindness just confirms the reality of true saving faith. This might also be termed the perseverance of the saints and it is the work of God to save us and to preserve us until we go home to be with Him. Just as He has preserved a remnant of believing Jews through all of history, He will truly preserve those who are His children by faith until He takes them home to be with Him. We see other places in Scripture that tell us to continue, or remain, or abide. Our Scripture reading this morning read by Mercy spoke of this abiding, Jesus said in John 15:4, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:4, NASB95)[5] He continued in verses 9-10, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (John 15:9–10, NASB95)[6] How do we continue in God’s kindness? By knowing Jesus’ commandments and keeping them by the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us, when we do this we abide in Christ. Paul put it this way when writing to the Philippians in Philippians 2:12-13, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13, NASB95)[7] Here Paul tells us to work out our salvation, but then immediately tells us that it is God who is at work in us, preserving us until He brings us home to be with Him.
Because of God’s covenant relationship with Abraham that then extended to the nation of Israel, there were many Jewish unbelievers that shared in the blessings of the covenant, in the same way there are many Gentiles unbelievers that have shared in the blessings that God has poured out on the church because of their association with the church, but those blessings received by association will count for nothing when those unbelievers must stand before God’s judgment seat, they will be cut off from God for eternity and condemned to an eternity in the lake of fire. Because they refused to believe in God’s kindness and instead just enjoyed His blessings by association, God will cut them off and they will suffer the severity of God. What about you? Are you enjoying some of the blessings of the church today because you attend week after week, but are those blessing only by association or are they because you have come to faith in Christ and you are continuing in God’s kindness. Again, the key issue here is faith in Jesus Christ.
GOD’S PROMISE (Romans 11:23-24)
Paul ends this section with a promise made by God to those Israelites who were cut off because of their unbelief. It is a reversal of what God had just said to those who do not continue in God’s kindness, those who are not truly saved but believe they are by their association with the church, God said they will be cut off. Now in verses 23-24 God makes a promise to the nation of Israel, Paul writes, “And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?” (Romans 11:23–24, NASB95)[8] Again, God’s plan of redemption includes Israel, the condition of this promise is that the people of the nation of Israel will not continue in their unbelief. Just as God had predicted through the Old Testament prophets that Israel would reject the Messiah and be temporarily set aside and that salvation would come to the Gentiles, He also predicted that this condition of not continuing in their unbelief would be met as well. God through the prophet Zechariah spoke of this condition being met. Zechariah 12:10 records these words of God, “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.” (Zechariah 12:10, NASB95)[9] God says that when this happens, He is able to graft them in again and this is exactly what He will do. Just this week I was reading through the book of Ezekiel and came across a passage that spoke of the future salvation and restoration of Israel in the millennial kingdom, Ezekiel wrote in Ezekiel 37:21-28, “Say to them [the nation of Israel], ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God. My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.” ’ ” (Ezekiel 37:21–28, NASB95)[10] In this Old Testament prophecy God promises to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant and the New covenant and God will do this through three promises that He made in this passage that summarizes His future plans for Israel, first is their restoration in the land, second their unification as one nation, no longer divided, and third purification or salvation, they will become the holy people God intended them to be, they will be His people and He will be their God.
Paul reminds his Gentile readers that they had been taken from a wild olive tree and contrary to nature had been grafted into a cultivated olive tree. Paul referring to his illustration is making clear that when the Gentiles were grafted into the covenant of salvation and became spiritual descendants of Abraham that this is not how it naturally works. A wild olive branch would never be grafted into a cultivated tree, a branch from a younger cultivated tree would always be used. Paul is showing us the wisdom, sovereignty, and power of God, if He is able to do something that is contrary to nature, He can surely graft branches cut off from the tree back into their own tree so they once again become partakers of the rich root of the olive tree, but this time by faith and not simply association. The physical descendants of Abraham will also become his spiritual descendants and Israel as a nation will once again be God’s chosen, holy people of blessing.
CONCLUSION:
We finished this section, but it had a whole lot of information packed into those few verses. Next week Lord willing we will begin the final section of Romans 11.
God’s plan of redemption includes Israel, as a nation she has been partially broken off and set aside because of her unbelief, but the day is coming when as a nation she will recognize her Messiah that she crucified and she will no longer continue in unbelief, but will repent and put her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as her Savior, Lord and Messiah. Then God will pour out the millennial blessings on the earth, the curse will be lifted, and the nation of Israel will become the holy people of God that He intended them to be.
For the church we have days of struggle ahead of us as apostasy grows in the church. We as a local church must be on guard and alert to keep the lies of deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons from infiltrating our ranks. We must stand on the Word of God and that means doing what it says and making it the only and final authority in all things. We must never allow experience or feelings or even conscience to have more authority in our life then God’s Word, written to us to guide us and lead us through life. If we are to make it the final authority that means we must know what it says and to know what it says we must be reading it and studying it. If you are doing neither then you need to start by reading it. Is the Word of God more important than your social media or your games? If you are spending more times on those and less on God’s Word, you need to evaluate your time. Apostasy is growing rapidly do not get sucked in because you do not know what God’s Word says.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Romans 9-16. Chicago, IL : Moody Press, 1994.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.