Paul continues his discussion of God's work among Paul's ethnic group, the Jews. In this passage he warns the Gentiles against complacency and arrogance.
Romans 11:1-6
I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew.
Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah--how he appealed to God against Israel: "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"
And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
As in times passed, God continues to work through a remnant of Israel, including Paul!
The quote in verse 3 is from I Kings 19:10,14 and the quote in the next verse is from 1 Kings 19:18.
Romans 11:7-10
What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written: "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day." And David says: "May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever."
The Old Testament quote in verse 8 is from Deut. 29:4; Isaiah 29:10 and the quote in verses 9 & 10 is from Psalm 69:22-23. In each of these passages, the writer describes God's judgment and chastening of the Jewish people. Paul argues that this has not changed.
Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!
Paul looks forward to his countrymen embracing their Messiah!
Romans 11:13-18
I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy 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 part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.
If arrogant Gentiles are tempted to think, "God loves us more than the Jews!" then Paul responds that the Jewish people are the "root" of God's work.
Romans 11:19-21
You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
If Jews could be moved aside to welcome Gentiles, then these new guests could be moved aside even more so! This spirit of this passage should confront any anti-Semitism appearing in the thoughts of a Gentile Christian.
Romans 11:22-24
Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!
When the Jews embrace God by faith, how much better and natural will be that long-planned relationship!
Romans 11:25-27
I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins."
Ultimately, says Paul, the Messiah will be welcomed by his people.
The Old Testament quote in verse 27 is could be from Isaiah 59:20-21, Isaiah 27:9, or Jeremiah 31:33-34.
The Old Testament quote in verse 27 is could be from Isaiah 59:20-21, Isaiah 27:9, or Jeremiah 31:33-34.
As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
Paul returns to a theme: all people, whether Jew or Gentile, are disobedient and in need of God's mercy.
Romans 11:33-36
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
"Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"
"Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Paul has concluded the theological-philosophical portion of this letter. In the next chapter, he argues that this knowledge leads to new life and new actions.
The Old Testament quote in verse 34 is from Isaiah 40:13 and the quote in verse 35 is from Job 41:11.
So I'm going to comment on this one (looks like I'll have to do it in 2 parts). There are 4 verses in particular here that have changed my thinking with regard to the relationship between Israel and the Church: v. 12 "if their trespass means riches for the world, how much more will their inclusion mean?" v. 15 "if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" v. 17 about Gentiles being grafted in, v. 26 through regrafting in "all Israel will be saved." To do this right would require detailed exposition of the whole passage, but there are a couple of things to note.
ReplyDeleteThe first is the progressive expansion of redemption to encompass the entire inhabited world and all the elect in it, first in reconciliation, then in resurrection and renewal of creation--the culmination of the regrafting of the people of Israel into the elect people of God. This is parallel to the theme of Acts 2 as illuminated by I Corinthians 14, where Paul explains that "tongues are a sign not to believers but unbelievers." In that context, which harks back to Isaiah's interpretation of a curse on faithless Israel predicted in Deuteronomy--"by a people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people" (Isaiah 28:11)--the rejection of Jesus as Messiah results in a continuation of the curse by which people of foreign tongues continue to dominate Israel. But, at the same time, this curse on Israel spells salvation for the people of the foreign languages in which the Gospel is proclaimed at Pentecost. It is a glorious realization of an ultimately cosmic reality. And according to Paul here in Romans, the trajectory is still ascending toward renewal of creation.
The second is that the Gentiles are grafted in to the promises--the elect people of God. In this respect, I find it almost impossible to support the sharp distinction my teachers at Dallas Seminary tried to draw between Israel and the Church. In fact, even Ephesians 4 says the Church brings Jews and Gentiles together in one body. I don't find complete biblical support for Calvin's notion that the Church existed from the beginning of Redemption with Adam, Eve, Abel and Seth as its first members, but I think it gets closer to the reality depicted here in Romans--the promises of God to his elect are the root into which everyone is grafted. Israel is not completely cut off--there is a Remnant (v. 5)--and the Gentiles are grafted onto these promises. And when the Covenant People as a whole are grafted back in at the end of history, "all Israel will be saved." I take that to include the grafted Gentiles. Back in 9:6-8 he said "not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel," and "it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of promise are counted as offspring."
So the children of promise--whether Jew or Gentile--are grafted into the root of the promises of God as one elect people. So, on this interpretation, Israel is the Church and the Church is Israel. It's all a matter of the angle at which you look at the tree formed by the grafting of various branches onto the root promises of God. There's a distinction, to be sure, undeniably in this text, but in the end, at the time of final ingrafting, "all Israel," all ingrafted branches together as one elect redeemed people, will be saved.
ReplyDeleteI think it is much truer to the Bible to read it this way. It makes for some apparently messy details, but it helps me approach the Bible more on its own terms than on a set of foreign hermeneutical assumptions shipped in. You find biblical writers themselves--prophets, poets, and even Jesus--reading the Bible as an organic whole where one concept often blends into or grows out of another in ways that don't conform to our logic-chopping, post-Enlightenment modes of analysis. Among many other things, it suggests very strongly that a literalistic (I don't say literal) approach to every single text the Bible is the wrong way to go. On this matter of the relationship between Israel and the Church, I think that literalism is where the dispensationalists went off the rails.