Romans 9-11: Paul’s Insights on Israel’s Salvation

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So now let’s do a summary of Romans chapters 9 through 11. We’ve come to the end of it, and some of you might be saying, thank goodness. Others of you might have found this study enormously important and interesting. It is very important. Whether it’s interesting or not to you is another matter. The truth of the matter is that right here in Romans 9-11 we are discovering the destiny of Israel for eternal life. We’re discovering that because Paul is deeply concerned. The Holy Spirit has put upon his heart this deep concern for his own brethren because he’s told us in Romans 8 that nothing, if God is for us, nothing can be against us. He’s fully persuaded that things present, things to come, famine, nakedness, sword, nothing at all in all creation can separate us from the love of God. And yet why then hasn’t God saved Israel? And he wants to understand that. Paul starts off by saying it’s not as if the Word of God has taken no effect. And then he says, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel. And some people misunderstand this and think Paul is launching into a study about spiritual Israel, the church replacing Israel. That is not the case. He’s talking about his own brethren. That’s made clear at the beginning of chapter 9 and made clear also in chapter 11. onwards, let’s see, chapter 11, verse 26 onwards. No, Paul is saying here that God is working the faith life into various people. He’s not simply talking about saving physical Israel. He’s talking about redeeming them into men and women of faith. How does he go about that? He goes about that by election, and that scares so many people, but this book is going to make it very, very clear to us, that is, these three chapters, that election is not God choosing some people as opposed to others, but choosing people who are already elect and then calling them to various missions. He is calling Isaac, and the statement there is that in Isaac your seed shall be called. That’s verse 7. What does that mean? It means that the child that is the child of promise, the child that did not come through the natural way of giving birth and conception, but by a miracle of God, that is the faith that we have, the faith that trusts that when God says to Abraham in Christ, You, all families of the earth, in your seed, all families of the earth shall be blessed. That seed is a miracle seed. It did not come from Abraham’s potency, his sexual potency, nor Sarah’s ability to give birth, to conceive rather. It came from the miracle of God. That’s why God waited until Abraham was a hundred years old before he fulfilled the promise. showing that it was a miracle child. Now, when we trust in the same God who creates miracle, and we believe in the one who promises blessing, not on the basis of our works, but on the basis of his generosity and mercy, then we become children of Israel. So then he talks about the fact that this election demonstrates that it is God who wills to save a person. It is not the person himself that wills to be saved. Yes, he may desire it. but he has no way to get there because he’s in bondage. Paul says it this way, So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. In other words, you may will to be saved, but you can’t do it. You don’t have the willpower. You don’t have the spiritual power to raise yourself from the dead. You don’t have the power to believe. It is God who wills. It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, that is, has endurance, but of God who shows mercy. We are saved because God moves upon the human race and calls various ones. They are elected. Everybody is elected. We’re going to see that. But the ones who are elected, he calls various ones of them to witness to the world. And that calling is from God. It is not, I choose to become a missionary or I choose to serve God because I’m in bondage with my choices. I don’t have the strength of will to fulfill them. But God can fulfill his decisions because he is free. He is not in bondage. He is pure and holy. Now then, Paul says this way. What is the purpose then of these people who are being called? Listen to this. If God, wanting to show his wrath and make his power known… endures with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand, even us, whom he called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Now that’s a pretty convoluted sentence, and even in the Greek it is not clear, which is one of the reasons why I left out the word what at the beginning. What Paul is saying is that God could show his indignation and wrath against sin and the suffering that the world has brought upon itself, but instead he has long-suffering on vessels of wrath, that is, those who have not yet saved. They are filled with judgment. Well, why does he have long-suffering on them? Because he is preparing a group of people who are vessels of mercy, that he might show his glory in them. Well, show his glory to whom? To the vessels of wrath. In other words, this is part of God’s plan in electing, in calling various people who have already been elected. All the world is elected, as I said, we shall see. But why does he call certain ones and fills them like vessels with his mercy? Because he is showing his glory in them to vessels of wrath, that is, to those filled with judgment at this time. But wait a minute, it doesn’t say that he’s showing that glory to vessels of wrath. Well, it says it later. Listen to this. For as you were once disobedient to God, referring to the Gentiles, this is chapter 11, verse 30, yet you have now obtained mercy. How did they obtain mercy? By the good news of Jesus Christ dying for their sins. But how did that come about? Through the disobedience of Israel, who handed Jesus over to the Romans for crucifixion. And therefore, the Gentiles are receiving mercy from the disobedience of the Jewish people who handed Jesus over to the Romans. Wow. Well, listen to the next verse. Even so, these also have now been disobedient, who have now been disobedient, that’s the Israelites, that through the mercy shown you, you remember the Gentiles got mercy by the crucifixion of Christ. they also, that is the Jewish people, may also receive mercy. So God has this incredible plan, more than a plan, he’s operating through it. It is his policy, his love policy, to bless one group, and put his glory in them so that the next group who has not yet received salvation becomes jealous, becomes envious, and wants to receive the same blessing. How do I know that? Because it says in verse 11 of chapter 11, I say then, has Israel stumbled that they should fall? Absolutely not. They’ve stumbled all right. and they’ve fallen in a certain limited sense, but to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. In other words, God has made the plan that he will redeem others and then boomerang that redemption back onto Israel so that they may be jealous and be saved also. Because, you see, according to verse 26, all Israel will be saved. Well, what does that mean? Does that mean Israel, a few of them, and Gentiles, the rest of them, equaling Israel? No, it doesn’t. The fullness of the Gentiles will come in, and this means now and in the final judgment, so that envy and jealousy and longing may come upon Israel as they look upon him whom they have pierced. And God will send, listen to verse 26, a deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. You see, It must be literal Israel he’s talking about, and not just a few, a remnant of Israel plus the Gentiles equals all Israel, because he’s talking about a deliverer coming out of Zion, that’s Jerusalem, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, that’s the literal children of Israel, and they were the covenanted people. So God is going to bring them all in. and it says he will do that because they are elected. Concerning the gospel, verse 28, they are enemies for your sake because they have not received Christ yet, but concerning the election, they are beloved. Well, they are elected still, even though they have turned away from Christ. Nevertheless, they will receive Christ. They don’t get in by a special concession. No, they get in by faith also, because God is going to bring that faith to them, for a deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Well then, yes, but you say, okay, Israel’s elected, but what about the rest, all the world? Listen to this. For God has imprisoned them all. The word them isn’t in the Greek. For God has imprisoned or committed, imprisoned all to disobedience. that is, he’s handed them over to their bondage of disobedience, that he might have mercy on all. That, in other words, in the end he might have mercy on all, because his plan is to bring one group in and then make another group jealous by that first group until everyone longs for the glory that God has in store for them. That includes you. Lift up your heart. Thank you so much for listening today. This is Colin Cook and How It Happens. Or… you can send your donation to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160. Thanks so much. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.