GOD’S PLAN OF REDEMPTION INCLUDES ISRAEL – PART 1 (Romans 11:11-24)
INTRODUCTION:
Over the past several weeks I have spoken repeatedly about Israel’s part in God’s eternal plan of redemption which did not look promising in chapters 9 and 10 due to Israel’s rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Savior. Not only did they reject Him and not believe in Him, but they thought that through their own works righteousness they could be acceptable to God, but Paul showed us over and over that the only righteousness that God accepts is the perfect righteousness that He offers by His grace through faith. It is the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ that is ours when we put our faith in Him and in His death and resurrection on our behalf. So, from this understanding it does not look like Israel, because of her unbelief and rejection of Jesus Christ, could have any part in God’s plan of redemption.
Two weeks ago we began chapter 11 where Paul gives the nation of Israel a glimmer of hope and shows how God’s rejection of Israel is partial and temporary and that God’s eternal plan of redemption includes Israel, seen first in that God has always preserved for Himself a remnant of believing Jews, and at this time during this dispensation of grace, or the church age God is working with Jews and Gentiles individually to bring them to faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. But as we will discover in the weeks ahead that God has an even greater part for the nation of Israel in His eternal plan of redemption, this morning we will see that God had a purpose, a two-fold purpose for setting the nation of Israel aside for a time. Let’s pray and then get into our passage of Scripture for this morning.
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans 11:11-24, the passage that we will begin today but not finish. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Romans 11:11-25,
“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 TWO-FOLD PURPOSE IN SETTING ISRAEL ASIDE (Romans 11:11-15)
As we come into this new section of Romans 11, we must understand that as I said before, Israel’s unbelief and rejection of Jesus Christ did not catch God by surprise. He knew it was going to happen, God had foretold it through the Old Testament prophets. And because God knew, as He knows all things, we must understand that His setting aside of Israel was not plan B, it was not an afterthought, nor was it because of a sudden outburst of anger, God did it because He had a determined and definite purpose for doing it, as we will see.
Much like verse 1, Paul begins this section with a rhetorical question and that same strong negative response that he gave to his first question in verse 1. Paul writes, “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be!” (Romans 11:11a, NASB95)[2] Paul’s question is asking if God has allowed Israel as a nation to fall beyond recovery because of her rejection and unbelief? Last week we learned that God had hardened the heart of Israel to His grace. We read that He had given them a spirit of stupor, and let their eyes be darkened to see not. God is doing this for a predetermined time, He is allowing them to wander around in spiritual blindness and darkness. But understand this blindness is temporary and the darkness is not permanent and was never meant to be.
Israel stumbled over the stumbling stone, which we learned was Jesus Christ, when they rejected Him as their Messiah and Savior. Their rejection did not make God have to scramble to come up with another plan because He was caught off guard. The very opposite, God used the transgression of the nation of Israel to fulfill His predetermined purpose and that purpose was two-fold. Paul continues to write in verse 11, “But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.” (Romans 11:11b, NASB95)[3] God’s two-fold purpose was to bring salvation to the Gentiles and to provoke the Jews to jealousy that they too would turn in faith to their Messiah and accept God’s offer of grace.
PURPOSE ONE: SALVATION OF GENTILES (Romans 11:11b)
Because Israel stumbled by their transgression of rejecting their Messiah and the grace offered by Him through His death and resurrection, God’s salvation by grace was offered to the Gentiles. What was lost to Israel temporarily as God hardened their hearts to His grace, became for the Gentiles an eternal blessing. Jesus predicted this exchange of the kingdom and the salvation that it represented in His teaching and His parables. Jesus had a Roman centurion come to Him to ask for his servant to be healed, this centurion did not feel worthy to have Jesus enter his house to heal the servant and asked Jesus to just say the word and he knew his servant would be healed, Jesus marveled at the faith of this Gentile and then said to those who were with Him in Matthew 8:11-12, “I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:11–12, NASB95)[4] Those coming from the east and the west would be believing Gentiles like this Roman centurion, the sons of the kingdom that will be cast out into outer darkness are the unbelieving Jews, the very ones to whom the kingdom was offered will be banished permanently into outer darkness because of their unbelief and rejection of Jesus as their Messiah. The nation itself will one day be restored through their belief, but because of their present rejection, the kingdom and the salvation it represents, God has offered it to a people called out from among the Gentiles. This is just one occasion in which Jesus taught that because of their rejection of Him that they were rejected by God and the despised and hated Gentiles had been invited into the kingdom though it was not originally promised to them.
All this being said, it must be understood that even though this salvation being offered to the Gentiles because Israel had refused the offer of salvation and rejected her Messiah, this offer of grace to the Gentiles was not as I said earlier plan B, it is not what God decided to do after the nation had rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. When God first called Abraham all the way back in Genesis 12, it was even then God’s plan that His chosen people would be the means of bringing salvation to all people on the earth. God said to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3, “And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2–3, NASB95)[5] Israel was to proclaim the greatness of God and the salvation He offered and announce the coming Deliverer to all the nations, that through them all the families of the earth would be blessed. Through Israel the world would know about the One true God and about the Deliverer, the Savior that He had promised to send, the ultimate blessing to all the families of the earth. When God led the people of Israel out of Egypt and brought them to Mt. Sinai He told Moses to tell them in Exodus 19:5-6, “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” (Exodus 19:5–6, NASB95)[6] As a kingdom of priests and a holy nation they were to be a witness nation to all the peoples of the earth. But they failed in this and instead adopted the pagan religions around them, and God sent them into captivity and when they had the opportunity again, they rejected their Messiah, the Deliverer and crucified Him in their unbelief.
Paul understood that he was set apart by God to be a witness to the nations. His custom when he came into a new city was to go first to the synagogue or search out individual Jews if there were too few of them to have a synagogue and preach the gospel to them. Some would respond in belief but the majority rejected his message and resisted it and sought to stop him from preaching it. At which point Paul would tell them that he was taking the message of the Gospel to the Gentiles. Listen to his words to the Jews in Pisidian Antioch after they rejected his message in Acts 13:46-47, “Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. ‘For so the Lord has commanded us, “I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles, That You may bring salvation to the end of the earth.”’” (Acts 13:46–47, NASB95)[7] Paul quotes in the end of this verse from Isaiah 49 applying it to himself and Barnabas. Paul would go first to his own kinsmen and at their rejection he would turn his focus to the Gentiles and preach to them the message of the Gospel, and in this way the church became the new people of God, called from among all the nations.
PURPOSE TWO: SALVATION OF JEWS (Romans 11:11c-15)
The second purpose of God’s two-fold objective was to make the Jews jealous of the Gentiles. That is what he writes in the end of verse 11, “But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.” (Romans 11:11b, NASB95)[8] We do not usually consider jealousy to be a good thing, but God’s intention was that the Jews jealousy of the Gentiles would be a positive incentive to draw them back to Himself. This would be a big step for the Jews since they already considered the Gentiles below them and outside of God’s grace. To be told that they had lost their special relationship to God was hard enough to hear, but then to hear that God had offered what they forfeited by their unbelief to the Gentiles was even more difficult to hear or believe. But this is what Paul had told them earlier in this book, he had quoted God’s revelation to them from their own Old Testament prophets, first through Moses God said, “’I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation, By a nation without understanding will I anger you.’ And Isaiah is very bold and says, ‘I was found by those who did not seek Me, I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me.’” (Romans 10:19–20, NASB95)[9] Because of this as Gentile believers we should desire to reflect the majesty and the beauty of Christ in our life and the righteousness and the blessing of walking with Him that would draw unbelieving Jews to belief in our Lord and their Messiah because of a jealousy for what we have in Christ.
Until that time Paul writes that God has used the transgression of Israel to fulfill His purpose, he writes, “Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!” (Romans 11:12, NASB95)[10] How is Israel’s transgression and failure riches for the Gentiles? Paul is speaking of the spiritual riches that were brought to us because Israel rejected their Messiah, through their transgression and failure God’s ultimate purpose concerning the Gentiles was fulfilled, all the families of the earth were blessed. Israel failed miserably to be a witness to the world in righteousness, and because she failed in this way God caused her to witness to the world in unrighteousness. Since Israel refused to be faithful to the Lord, God used her failure to bring riches, spiritual riches to the Gentiles. Her unfaithfulness and failure were our gain, through it we received what Israel forfeited, salvation by grace that had been offered to her was offered to us who are Gentiles when she rejected it. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places with Christ. As Mercy read this morning from Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13, NASB95)[11]
Paul says if this is what we have received because of Israel’s transgression and failure, how much more will their fulfillment be! In other words, the riches that we have because of Israel’s transgression and failure will not even compare to the blessings the world will receive from God when Israel turns to Jesus Christ in faith and He ushers in the glorious millennial kingdom.
Read through Zechariah 12-14 and you will find the great blessings that will come when Israel turns in faith to the Lord Jesus repenting of their sin and proclaiming Christ as their Lord and Messiah. Following that the Lord Jesus Christ will be king over all the earth, there will be no more curse, any who are left in the nations will go up to Jerusalem year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts. Israel will reign with their Lord and Messiah and will be to the rest of the world the faithful witnesses they were always to be, and she will bless the world as God intended her to do. At that time Satan will be bound and thrown into the bottomless pit, the heavens and the earth will be renewed as the curse is lifted. The Lord Jesus Christ will rule in justice and righteousness and there will be universal peace. This will be the richer blessings that the world will experience when Israel repents and puts her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION:
I am going to stop here, I certainly intended to get through more than two verses this morning, but the rest will be there for next week at least. This morning we learned that God’s eternal plan of redemption was not thwarted when Israel rejected her Messiah and refused God’s offer of righteousness by grace through faith. God knew this would happen and He set the nation of Israel aside temporarily and offered what she had forfeited to the Gentiles. Now in faith we can agree with God that we are sinners unable to do anything to make ourselves right with God, but if we believe that Jesus suffered God’s wrath against sin, the wrath we deserved, and paid the penalty for sin, death, the penalty that was ours, then we can be forgiven for our sins, justified or declared righteous because of Christ’s death and resurrection on our behalf and we will be saved from God’s wrath and judgment against sin and become His sons and daughters by God’s grace through faith and experience every spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. These blessings and our relationship with the God of the universe is to provoke the Jews to jealousy so that they also repent and put their faith in the Lord Jesus, recognizing Him as their Messiah and Savior. The blessings that we enjoy today will not even compare to those that God will pour out on the earth when Israel realizes they crucified their Messiah and turn to Him in repentance and faith. Praise God for His two-fold purpose in setting Israel aside for a time, the first half of that purpose was that salvation would come to the Gentiles and the second half of that purpose was to make the Israelites jealous that they too might put their faith in Jesus Christ and enjoy the spiritual blessings of salvation.
[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]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[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.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.