”The Gracious Nature of God’s Love,” Romans 11:1-6
Last Sunday I sought to encourage all of us to earnestly and urgently seek to
trust and to serve God; the reason being that God is faithful and He always fulfills His promises, even to those who turn away from Him.
God’s grace is so much greater than our sins! Let’s consider the Jews for a moment: the nation of Israel rejected their own Messiah, and therefore God has temporarily removed them as the object of His love.
See Romans 9:32-33... Israel “stumbled over” or in other words, they were offended by Jesus Christ. They would not believe in or trust Him, even though He was clearly sent by God to them (Isaiah 7:14; Micah 5:2; Matthew 1, Luke 2).
The Jews sought to establish their own righteousness (Romans 10:3-4), and in doing so they rejected God’s Salvation (Romans 10:9-10), even though they had been told (Romans 10:20; Isaiah 65:1) that God would indeed offer Himself to the Gentiles, while continuing to reach out to Israel (Romans 10:21; Isaiah 65:2).
God would have been justified in turning away from Israel forever, for she rebelled against God repeatedly, but God had promised not to forsake her. Jeremiah 31:31-33, ""Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Even though Israel rejected God’s Messiah, God would faithfully fulfill all His promises to Israel.
Now, look at Romans 11:1a... Paul makes it clear that God has not rejected the nation of Israel. Paul uses the strongest negative in the Greek to express a response to his own question: “By no means!” [May it never be! God forbid!]
Paul has used this expression eight other times already in the Book of Romans (3:4; 3:6; 3:31; 6:2; 6:15; 7:7: 7:13; 9:14) exclusively to scold or rebuke wrong understanding about God’s righteousness and faithfulness. God was gracious to Israel.
Psalm 106:35-46, “They mingled with the nations and learned their practices, and served their idols, which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with the blood. Thus they became unclean in their practices,and played the harlot in their deeds. Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against His people And He abhorred His inheritance. Then He gave them into the hand of the nations, And those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies
also oppressed them, And they were subdued under their power. Many times He would deliver them; They, however, were rebellious in their counsel, And so sank down in their iniquity. Nevertheless He looked upon their distress When He heard their cry; And He remembered His covenant for their sake, And relented according to the greatness of His lovingkindness. He also made them objects of compassion In the presence of all their captors. ”
God’s grace will always be more than sufficient to absorb and absolve the sins of those who belong to Him, because God’s grace surpasses all His people’s sins, and God’s love will never fail.
And so (Romans 11:1a), Paul says God will never cast Israel aside completely; but God has temporarily removed them, as a nation, from their place of favor, because of their own rejection of Him.
But individuals who turn to God from Israel are accepted and granted God’s marvelous favor of grace, for Paul (Romans 11:b) makes it clear, he himself is an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the Tribe of Benjamin, and yet God has shown him mercy.
Most of the early converts to Christianity were Jews, and although Paul was one of the most zealous in his enmity toward Jesus and those who followed Him, God brought Paul to saving faith in Christ, and therefore, any Israelite could be saved — that proves that God has not completely rejected Israel.
Read Romans 11:2-6... The True Church of God, with Christ as the Head, has always had believing Jews from the nation of Israel; and although, the majority of Israel (Romans 10:21) were, “a disobedient and obstinate people,” Romans 11:2 says God foreknew [not just knowing ahead of time, but sovereignly determining]. I don’t understand that, but clearly, God’s foreknowledge of those who will obey Christ, is the same as His predetermination or predestination of those who will be saved (see Romans 8:29-30).
Israel is the only nation that God predetermined to be a recipient of His love and grace; and so, because that is true, God can never totally reject Israel.
When Elijah (v. 3) was fearful, thinking he was the only faithful one of Israel left on earth, God reassured him (v. 4) that 7000 others remained faithful; most of Israel, however, under Jezebel’s influence, worshipped Baal.
A few centuries later, during the Exile, while Israel was captive in Babylon, the majority of them would not turn back to God, but there would always be a few who remained faithful to God, reminiscent of Ezekiel, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Mordecai, and Esther.
I have no doubt that these above names, and many more from Israel, are included in the Book of the obedient faithful of Israel, mentioned in Malachi 3:16-18, “Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in His presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored His name. "They will be Mine," says the LORD Almighty, "in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare
them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
400 years passed before God spoke to Israel again, concerning the coming of His Son. Yet, before Christ’s birth there were a few faithful in Israel - Zechariah and Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary; and at the Savior’s birth there were a few shepherds near Bethlehem who came to worship Him; just a week after Jesus’ birth, we are told of Simeon and Anna who praised Him - these were faithful citizens of Israel, but more importantly, they were citizens of God’s Kingdom because of their belief in God’s Son.
During Christ’s ministry there were a number of Jews who believed in Him as Lord and Savior; by the end of the first day of the church’s birth (Acts 2:41) there were 3000 believers (mostly Jews); shortly afterward (Acts 4:4) another 5000 were added, and the number kept growing.
Romans 11:5 says there was a remnant of Jews chosen by grace, not by ancestry, religious ritual, or moral goodness, but by grace. Paul states (v. 6) that righteousness from God is made effectual through Christ, exemplified in one’s faithful obedience to God, because of God’s loving grace, not by any kind of works.
All true believers are spiritual ancestors of Abraham, not through human blood line, but through the shed blood of Jesus Christ through Whom we received forgiveness for sins and eternal life.
Galatians 3:26-29, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
We can trust our God to be faithful because we have both the revealed and the historical record of His faithfulness to Israel, and this is made effectual by the character and nature of His being, for He is a loving and merciful God who wants (1Timothy 2:3-4), “all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth,” and He is (2Peter 3:9), “patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
1Corinthians 15:57, “thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2Corinthians 2:14, “thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.”
Therefore, we Gentile believers, along with all those saved from the nation of Israel, proclaim (2Corinthians 9:15), “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”
Pastor Mike