Romans 11:7-10, “Hardness of the Heart is Cured by Faith in Christ!”

Bible Text: Romans 11:7-10 | Preacher: Pastor Mike Hale | Series: Romans

We have previously studied about Israel’s continued rejection of God’s Grace;

although God continued to love Israel, while at the same time, reaching out to

those outside of Israel [Gentiles] with His loving kindness.

Read 11:7-10… Paul considers why most Jews were rejecting Jesus as their

Messiah. Did their unbelief cause God’s promises to fail? Did their rejection of

Christ mean that God was through with the Jews forever? “No!” There always has

been a remnant of saved Jews (Paul is one), this shows that God is definitely not

done with Israel.

Verse 7 considers what the hard reality that God sovereignly chooses some for

salvation [the elect], while holding all mankind responsible to acknowledge and to

respond to God’s authority, and eternal plan [free will].

This is indeed a difficult doctrine, because we do not want to consider that some

are saved, most are not! Believe me, I have a hard time getting my mind and

heart around this truth, just like you do; but let me encourage you to put your full

confidence in Who God is, not in what you are able to understand about Him.

God has provided everything we need to know about Him in Christ: the Almighty

God of Creation put on flesh and walked among humankind in order to illustrate,

exemplify, proclaim, and provide God’s greatest expression of love toward us — He

took our punishment and paid our sin debt, in full, so that we could receive

forgiveness and eternal life.

Within the context of this wonderful truth of what God has done for us, is the

sobering reality that those who are saved are saved because God chose to save

them, and those who are lost are lost because they rejected God’s sovereign gift

and they refused to repent and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Concerning Israel (v. 7), it sought to earn its own righteousness through

ancestral heritage and religious devotion; but as we have read over and over, it is

singularly by the grace of God that anyone is saved.

If you seek to obtain a right standing with God [to justify yourself] on the basis

of your ancestry, your religious activity, or your moral goodness, you will be

hardened toward the grace of God, and you will come under God’s judgment; but

the thing about grace is, if you call out for forgiveness, trusting in God’s provision

[Christ], you will be saved.

Having been committed for the past 30+ years to the deeply demanding, often

frustrating, sometimes overwhelming, and yet always supernaturally fulfilling work

of pastoring, I must honestly say, there are times when I struggle with some of the

truths revealed in God’s Word – and this is one of them!

Verse 8 is taken from Deuteronomy 29:4;Isaiah 29:10, which clearly tell us

God hardens the hearts of those who themselves harden their own hearts toward

God. Let us consider two prominent examples in the Scriptures, one from the OT

and one from the NT.

Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 4:21; 9:12; 10:1, 20) was hardened by God, so he

would not let the Hebrews go; but (Exodus 8:15, 32; 9:34) says Pharaoh sinned by

rejecting God’s authority, hardening his own heart.

Judas (Matthew 26:24-25) was told “woe to that man who betrays the Son of

Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” ”Surely not I, Rabbi?”

Judas asked. ”Yes, it is you,” Jesus answered. By rejecting God’s Messiah, Judas

hardened his own heart toward God.

This is difficult to understand and accept- but God’s hardening of a person’s

heart is never separate from that person’s hardening of their own heart toward

God.

And so, Israel, seeking righteousness by works, not only did not obtain it, they

hardened their hearts toward God’s Messiah, the Christ, for they had heard, seen,

and experienced many demonstrations of God’s love and power, and yet they

continued to reject His Son.

In verses 9-10, Paul quotes from Psalm 69 :22-23, this Psalm is one of the

richest passages in the OT concerning the Messiah – it tells of the Messiah’s

suffering, it pronounces a curse on the enemies of God and judgment on those who

reject Christ.

Here Paul quotes David, speaking of a dinner table, where most of us would

consider ourselves to be in safe, enjoying food together with family and friends that

is both beneficial and flavorful; but Paul says for those who are wicked and self-

righteous (the nation of Israel), their place of safety and enjoyment has become a

“snare and a trap,” i.e., a place of imprisonment and punishment.

You see, Israel once highly praised the Word of God, considering it to be spiritual

food that nurtured them; but because they began to more highly value their

legalistic responses to the written law, rather than their spiritual responses to the

Living Word, their place of safety as the Nation of Israel, became a judgement on

them (v. 9), “a stumbling block and a retribution,” (See 9:30-33).

All those who seek to be saved [made righteous] by any human works —

whether it be a claim to some blood ancestry, religious practice, or feeble attempts

at moral goodness — are really enemies of God, because if you can be justified by

your works, then the crucifixion and resurrection of God’s Son was unnecessary.

Salvation is by faith in God through Christ alone.

This is one of the reasons I get so angry at false teachers and counterfeit

religions, for they promote the devil’s lies. The more that people accept, feed on,

or adhere to such damnable heresies, the more unlikely it is that they will hear and

turn to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul (v. 10) expresses what happened to Israel as they continued to reject

God’s Messiah; they became more spiritually blind, “their eyes were darkened so

they [could not] see, and their backs were bent forever,” i.e., like a blind person

haunched over, trying to distinguish whether the path ahead is safe or not safe,

groping around in the darkness, fearful of what cannot be seen, unaware of

dangers, not to mention having no idea where the path they are on is leading them

(destruction).

But the thing is, like Pharaoh and Judas, the Nation of Israel (unbelieving Jews)

hardened itself toward God, just as unbelievers today (Jew and Gentile) continue to

harden themselves toward God, even though they have no excuse.

Romans 1:18-20, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the

godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it

plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–His

eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from

what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Ephesians 1:3-7 tells us God chose for Himself a people to be saved and set apart for His purpose, plan and pleasure -“He predestined” means “He marked out ahead of time,” i.e., “He predetermined” those who are His; 11 times in this section (vv. 3-7) Paul uses [He, Him, His] to specify God’s personal action.

So, if God predestines those who will be recipients of His grace in receiving salvation, can we then infer or assume that God has also predestined those who will be recipients of His wrath, to remain lost and separated from the love of God in a place of eternal judgement? No!

Scripture does not allow such a presupposition, for nowhere in the Bible are the words “predestined,” “foreknew,” or any of their derivatives, used to imply that God sovereignly “marked out ahead of time,” people to be eternally damned, separated from God, and destined for hell.

God does not predetermined that certain people go to Hell; however, God does sovereignly chose some for heaven, according to His own good pleasure and will.

There is no one so bad that they cannot be saved by the love of God which has come through Christ, and there is no heart so hard that it cannot be softened by the sacrifice of God’s Son.

God is loving, merciful, gracious and kind, and He wants everyone to be saved: 1Timothy 2:3-4, “God our Savior wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 2Peter 3:9, “[God] is patient not wanting anyone to perish, but for everyone to come to repentance.”

The only hope for a hard heart is faith in Christ!

Ephesians 2:1-10, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”