Chapter ten closes with an image of God holding out to people arms of welcoming grace but people choose to walk on by and reject His ways. Paul is particularly grieved that amongst those who reject the Good News of Jesus Christ are his own people the Hebrews. He begins chapter eleven, by focusing in once more on his own, asking the question as to whether God had now rejected the people He had once called His own.
Romans 11:1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life." 4 But what is the divine reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
Has God rejected His people? ‘Well, for starters’ says Paul ‘I happen to be one of those Hebrews and God certainly hasn’t rejected me. I’m an Israelite. I’m of the tribe of Benjamin. I’m one of those physical descendants of Abraham by the flesh. And I’m one of those who know themselves chosen by God, so for a start there’s at least one of us!’
He could have gone on to speak of every single one of the apostles. They were all physically of the Jewish people, as was Jesus himself. So to suggest that every Hebrew or Israelite had been rejected just didn’t make sense.
And Paul knows his scriptures. To reinforce such a claim he speaks about Elijah. The story in brief was this. Elijah has a dramatic encounter that puts the prophets of Baal to shame. But Queen Jezebel is not impressed and vows to take his life. Elijah is overcome with fear and runs and hides in a cave complaining to God that he was all alone and nobody else in all the land ever listened.
When God replies God points out that there were some 7000 people in Israel who like Elijah had not bowed down and worshiped the false god Baal. Elijah’s perspective had become out of focus. His own fear and depression was keeping him from seeing the larger picture. And as he speaks about the ‘Big Picture’ Paul is clear that one huge word dominated that picture, the word “GRACE”.
He insists that just as in the days of Elijah there may only be a remnant of the people who were remaining faithful, nevertheless a remnant was a remnant and in salvation history a remnant was often the dominant future determining force! Mustard seed faith moved mountains. So often the actions of the faithful few undid those of the faithless majority, the lone voice became the one that stood the test of time.
He points out that it is all a matter of grace. That the remnant held on because they were convinced that God had a purpose and that they were the ones who were in the center of that purpose, not because of any good or merit in themselves, but simply because God had chosen them for such a time as that which they faced. As verse 5 explains, “So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.” Or as the Message Bible reads; “It's the same today. There's a fiercely loyal minority still—not many, perhaps, but probably more than you think.”
The thrust behind this whole passage is Paul’s insistence that God is working out God’s purposes in the world. He calls us to look beyond the immediate crisis and see there is more to things than meets the eye. God was in control, as God always had been and always would be. Even in the rises and falls of Israel, their faithful and faithlessness, God was working at something, bringing something into being, working towards the salvation, not just of the Jews but also the Gentiles. And some people amongst the chosen ones got it, and some missed it.
7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, "God gave them a sluggish spirit, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day." 9 And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10 let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and keep their backs forever bent." 11 So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their stumbling1 salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel2 jealous. 12 Now if their stumbling1 means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
The image that is placed before us regarding the unfaithful majority of Israel comes from Psalm 69, 22-23, a Psalm in which David is pictured as pleading with God for deliverance. The remnant is represented by David; the unfaithful crowd by the enemy. David, using the image of a banquet complains that they, the unfaithful, have given him poison for food and only vinegar to drink to quench his thirst.
Meanwhile they sat around their richly laden tables oblivious to the commands of God, deaf to the cries of those in need around them and blind to the fate of those who were God’s servants seeking to get them back on the right track for their lives. It is with a sense of sadness and with a desire to see justice done that David cries out to God, the words Paul quotes in Romans 11:9-10, "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and keep their backs forever bent.”
The Greek word describing their darkened eyes is ‘poroun’, from the verb ‘porosis’ which in medical terms meant a callus. It is used particularly to describe the callus which forms around a fracture when a bone is broken. When a callus grows on part of our body that part loses feeling and becomes insensitive.
What Paul is telling is that just as a callus could grow on the body, it could also grow on the heart and that such is what had become of the mass of his own people, the Hebrews. They had become, as he says in verse 7 ‘hardened’. They had a sluggish spirit, ears that wouldn’t listen, eyes that refused to look.
So was that it? Were they out for the count? Would they be forever rejected? Verse 11 ‘have they stumbled so as to fall?’ and never again get up again? Paul invites us again to see things from a larger perspective. Throughout the history of Israel God had used a remnant to call the majority back into relationship with God. That was still happening. The rejection by the Jews had forced the reluctant disciples to go to the Gentiles.
We know from the book of Acts how the early Church struggled with that thought. Peter had his vision on a roof-top of a sheet filled with clean and unclean animals that changed forever the way he saw the Gentiles. One of the reasons for Paul’s initial hostility towards the followers of Jesus was because he felt that they deserved to be wiped from the face of the earth because of the way their religion broke down walls of separation that he felt were unchangeable; unchangeable that is till he was struck blind on the road to Damascus and commissioned by God as an apostle to the Gentiles.
Rejection by the Jews had opened a door to the Gentiles. As he puts it in verse 12 “Now if their stumbling means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!” Paul looks forward to a future time when his own people would have a change of heart, such as he himself had experienced. When that day came it would be the homecoming of all homecomings! All barriers between Jew and Gentile would finally be done away with. And all of this through Jesus Christ.
Paul carries on exploring that theme in verses 13-15
13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry 14 in order to make my own people1 jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead!
Hear how Eugene Petersen captures the sense of these verses in the Message Bible
“But I don't want to go on about them. It's you, the outsiders, that I'm concerned with now. Because my personal assignment is focused on the so-called outsiders, I make as much of this as I can when I'm among my Israelite kin, the so-called insiders, hoping they'll realize what they're missing and want to get in on what God is doing. If their falling out initiated this worldwide coming together, their recovery is going to set off something even better: mass homecoming! If the first thing the Jews did, even though it was wrong for them, turned out for your good, just think what's going to happen when they get it right! “
Until nearly the end of this chapter Paul continues to teach that God had not rejected the Jewish people. Many had rejected God, but not all. There had always been and still were a faithful remnant amongst them. That remnant were defined by their faith. The true believer was one who did not live by their works, but by placing their wholehearted trust in the mercy and grace of God. God always had worked on that basis and nothing had changed. Salvation was by grace, through faith.
Paul cautions Gentile believers not to get ahead of themselves. The story of salvation hadn’t started with them anymore than the Gospel had begun with the coming of Jesus. As we recall at Christmas time Jesus was the One who was heralded by prophets and welcomed by angels in the fullness of time. There could be no New Covenant without there having first been an Old one!
The Gentiles were inheritors of promises given to those who came before them. It was, as we have seen, a great sadness to Paul that many of his own people rejected those promises, but even that rejection was something God was using for the salvation of the entire world. To illustrate this point to the Gentile believers Paul uses the imagery of a vine and its branches.
16 If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree, 18 do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 You will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you.
Maybe the key verse in this section is the second half of verse 18; “remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.” If branches had to be broken off in order to graft new branches in, then the new branch should recognize that the reason for the old branch being taken out was because it was dead wood. If the new branch becomes become dead wood they should surely expect no different action to be taken by the one doing the pruning.
It was an awesome thing to be grafted in, an action that could not be achieved through ones own efforts but so entirely dependent on the gardener. To be grafted onto such a rich plant was just such a privilege. And comfort could be found in the thought that the sap that ran through that old plant was now running through the new branches, bringing life and vitality.
I can’t read this passage in Romans without thinking of the words of Jesus in John’s gospel;
John 15:4-8 “ Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
One of the things that fascinates me about Paul is trying to understand what he knew of the gospel stories themselves. He never explicitly refers to Matthew, Mark, Luke or John in the way we do. He never speaks of a canon of Scripture or a New Testament in the way that we today understand those terms. Yet gospel stories and the teaching of Christ so underscore what Paul teaches that you really can’t understand Paul without some acquaintance with the gospels. These passages in John and Romans about the vine and the branches complement each other so well.
Both passages give us the image of God being the one who tends the vine and grafts who He will and cuts away who He will. Both judgment and mercy are rooted in the salvation work of God. Images of kindness and severity are those which Paul now moves on to consider as he talks about the possibility of branches being grafted back into vine and again cautions the reader not to think them selves wiser than they were. The purposes of God remained shrouded in mystery. But that should not cause despair, rather called all the more for trust that God is in control!
22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And even those of Israel,1 if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree. 25 So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters,1 I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, "Out of Zion will come the Deliverer; he will banish ungodliness from Jacob." 27 "And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins."
These verses again call us to trust God that God knows what is going on in our world, that God is working it all out and that one day there will come a time when all will be will for both Jew and Gentile. The overarching theme of chapters 9 thru 11 has been the question, “Can we trust the Gospel? Can we be sure that putting our trust in Jesus Christ is the best option amongst the many we could pursue?”
In Chapters One through Three Paul has told us who needs the gospel, we all do! Jews and Gentiles alike. In Three through Four he’s explained how the gospel comes to us, through faith in Jesus Christ. In Chapter Five he has told us the results of the gospel, that it brings to our lives forgiveness and peace, In Chapters Six through Eight he has spoken of the nitty-gritty of Christian living, that it is something achieved through reliance upon the power of the Holy Spirit. Then in these latter chapters Nine through Eleven, he has been giving us the bigger picture, calling us to see how God has always worked through those God calls to be His own, even when people have been unfaithful… God has turned it to good purpose. A reminder of our structure....
28 As regards the gospel they are enemies of God for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors; 29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now1 receive mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
Again Paul is stressing that what may appear to be the worst thing can turn out to be a better thing. It was a terrible thing that the chosen people should reject the One God had sent, but God wasn’t giving up on them. Actually their disobedience had opened up a whole doorway of opportunity for grace to impact the lives of Gentiles. Pails hope is that as his own people see the effect of the Gospel upon the Gentiles, they will realize just how much they had underestimated the love of God and will desire to follow a higher way for them selves.
‘But you know what?” he seems to say, (going back to his very first chapter… and in the Adrian version) “You know what? Jews, Gentiles, we’re all in the same boat. We’re all up the creek without a paddle. We’re all held captive by ways of life that are keeping us from being what God wants us to be. Verse 32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all. But look… here is the Good News… here is the great mystery… despite who we are and what we do God won’t give up on us. It’s mercy, upon mercy, upon mercy, upon mercy that he showers down upon us! It makes no sense! I can’t explain it. But I believe it with all my heart. Our God is an awesome God!”
So Paul’s closing paragraph is one of exuberant praise to the God he can’t fathom, One whose grace and mercy had overwhelmed all that he ever had been or would become.
The Message puts it likes this:
[33] Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It's way over our heads. We'll never figure it out.
[34] Is there anyone around who can explain God?
Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do?
[35] Anyone who has done him such a huge favor
that God has to ask his advice?
[36] Everything comes from him;
Everything happens through him;
Everything ends up in him.
Always glory! Always praise!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
To close please read this passage along with me; Romans 11:33-36
33 O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" 35 "Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?" 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.