In this thought-provoking episode, we delve into the Apostle Paul’s profound insights into the salvation of Israel and the overarching theme of divine election. Drawing from Romans chapters 9 through 11, our discussion reveals the tension between righteousness by law and righteousness by faith, and how God’s unyielding promise to His people unfolds in the grand narrative of redemption. Paul explicitly asserts that despite historical struggles and disbelief, God has not abandoned His people, Israel, but continues to extend His grace and election.
So we continue with this theme, this great theme that Paul is covering for us, the issue of the salvation of Israel. And we’re going to go to chapter 11 now. Chapter 9, remember, Paul says he has great heaviness of heart about his brethren, his people, Israel of the flesh. And he says, but the plan of God hasn’t failed because God has elected people. And he goes about electing people throughout various stages in history and in the lives of individuals. When he’s elected people, he calls them. And the calling reveals that these people who have been called believe in Christ as their righteousness. That’s Romans chapter 9. So the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness, they have received it, righteousness by faith, but those who pursued it by law did not receive it. But now, does that mean they’re lost? No, because the law, the point of the law, is to bring us to our knees, as it were, not to save us, not to make us righteous. The law is there to reveal our brokenness and our sin. And so Paul says, for they, in chapter 10 now, being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. So submitting to the righteousness of God is yielding by faith to Jesus Christ. He is our righteousness. He is not our way to righteousness. He is our righteousness. And Paul says that this righteousness comes by expressing in your heart that you believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind and the Savior of your soul. And in that expression, You also, that is, let’s see how it says it now. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And so Paul is stressing how simple it is, and yet so frustrating because we look for the complicated, how simple it is to believe and receive Jesus Christ as the Savior. But then Paul says, goes on now to ask another question, or rather the same question in a different way. Chapter 11, verse 1, Now, this should be fundamental to our understanding of Romans 9 through 11. people, some Christians assert that God has cast away his people, he’s saving just a remnant, and he’s saving the rest as Gentiles. Well, that’s not what Paul concludes here, is it? He says, certainly not, and that is God forbid. I say then, has God cast away his people? Certainly not. Now, This is really very curious because, and I will bring the texts to you tomorrow, but if you were to read 2 Kings and the history of the fall of the northern tribes and then the fall of Judah just by the Babylonian captivity, you would see it said there that God rejected his people and cast them away. So then, if you read only certain portions of Scripture, you will discover or you will find that you’ve got a lopsided view. It says there that God cast away His people. How strange, because Paul is here saying that God has not cast away his people. And this is why, and how, why, I should say, we need to pull all the opposing verses, the antithetical verses, the verses that seem to contradict one another, and we need to pull them together and find the unity in them. This is what has damaged the Christian church for so many centuries. There seem to be contradictory verses on different subjects. And one group of Christians takes one side of the picture and another one takes the other side and develops a whole denomination over it. But what we need to do is to bring these contradictory verses together, these antithetical verses together, and see how they harmonize. And they certainly do in most cases. Well, let’s say right away then that God has not cast away his people, and Paul has used the strongest term he can, God forbid, At the very thought, I say then, has God cast away his people? Certainly not, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. In other words, Paul is using his own existence and his faith in Jesus Christ as a Jew, a Benjamite Jew, as evidence that God has not cast away his people. Well, how could Paul possibly be proof that God has not cast away his people? We’re going to see that in the next few verses. Verse 2, God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Wow, now look at that. This is about foreknowledge. It is about predestination. It is about election. In fact, Paul says of the Jewish people later on in this chapter, verse 28, concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, because they haven’t come to believe in Christ yet, but concerning the election they are beloved. So the people of Israel are still elected, and if they are elected, then that certainly means that they will be saved. What we’re going to see, as I have said several times now in these chapters, is that God is electing, in fact, the whole world. the Trinity, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit have set their hearts on saving all humanity and the sample the example the type of all humanity is Israel as goes Israel so goes the world the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the atonement of the sins of Israel was also a sacrifice for the atonement of the sins of all the world So what goes on in Israel goes on in the world. Now then, it is true that God has not cast away his people because he foreknew them. Now look at the next portion. Or do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what does the divine response say to him? I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Now look, some people look at these verses and they say, well, God’s only going to save an elect, a remnant. He hasn’t cast away his people, he’s just saving a remnant. That is not what this means. What we have here is Paul using the evidence of a remnant to prove that the whole of Israel will be saved because he says later in this chapter, verse 26, so all Israel will be saved as it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn ungodliness away from Judah. for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. God is taking away and has taken away all the sins of Israel at the cross. when it talks about a remnant in this first part of chapter 11, it is not saying that God is going to save a remnant and destroy the rest. It is saying that that remnant is a representation of the rest. that the remnant is not only the last few, but also the evidence that the whole will be saved. Because that is what Paul later on says in verse 16, for if the first fruit is holy, that’s Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, The whole lump is also holy, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And God is going to save all Israel because he made a promise through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that they would bless the world. So you have to very carefully… understand what’s going on here. Yes, certainly God has judged Israel. You have that in Ezekiel chapters 36 and 39, well, the whole history of Israel in Ezekiel, and also in Jeremiah. They did not listen to God, and he brought them into captivity and took away the temple and all the rest of it, and many died and were slaughtered. But those same people, according to the book of Ezekiel, will be raised from the dead. That’s chapter 37. And so what we have here is the marvelous atoning work of Christ applied to Israel, and thus, by extension, applied to all the world. That’s in Ezekiel chapter 16. And by that atoning sacrifice to come, that is Jesus Christ himself, All Israel will be saved. All their sins will be forgiven. And that is what gives hope to you and me. That’s why Israel is a type of how God works with all the world. If Israel could have departed from God so miserably as they did hundreds of years before Christ and then rejected Christ and yet find forgiveness, we shall see that in a bit, then there is hope for us who have rejected Christ, us Gentiles who have followed after idols just as Israel did. And yet God provided an atonement for their sins. Ezekiel chapter 16, at the end of the chapter there, and you will never open your mouth again, he says, when I forgive you for all that you have done. And so we need to take heart from this, don’t we? God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life. But what does the divine response say to him? I have reserved for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal, even so then at this present time. There is a remnant according to the election of grace. And that election is evidence that God has not cast off Israel, that God is going to save all Israel. As it says in verse 26, so all Israel will be saved. Just think of the encouragement that this brings to you and me. We are sinners. We have failed him. We have wandered off in our own pathway. We are sheep that don’t know where they’re going. But the shepherd comes and he comes for us and he looks for us. And you may find yourself wandering around because of addiction. And you used to be a beautiful Christian and now you’ve fallen into an addiction. You are not cast away. God is showing you that through this addiction and through the darkness, how much you need him. And that is why you call upon the name of the Lord, for the word is in your heart and in your mouth, that Jesus Christ is the Lord, has died for your sins, and has risen again for your resurrection. Thank you. You can also hear it online, however, any time of the day or night. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
In this thought-provoking episode, we delve into the Apostle Paul’s profound insights into the salvation of Israel and the overarching theme of divine election. Drawing from Romans chapters 9 through 11, our discussion reveals the tension between righteousness by law and righteousness by faith, and how God’s unyielding promise to His people unfolds in the grand narrative of redemption. Paul explicitly asserts that despite historical struggles and disbelief, God has not abandoned His people, Israel, but continues to extend His grace and election.
