God’s Amazing Plan

This morning we wrap up chapter 11. Paul said in verses 1-10 that God is not done with Israel, there is still a remnant, and Paul is proof of that. I want to read this section and go through it briefly so that we can then zoom out at look at the big picture of what Paul is talking about.

Romans 11:11–16 NIV

¹¹ Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. ¹² But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring! ¹³ I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry ¹⁴ in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? ¹⁶ If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

Paul has made some pretty strong remarks against the Jews and for the Gentiles. He stated that the Jews are not the people of God because of birth but because of faith, and therefore many who say they’re Abraham’s seed or not. He said that those who have the law are being rejected by God. So the question is, has God totally rejected Israel and are the Gentiles now the chosen people of God? The answer to that is actually no on both accounts.

Romans 11:1 NIV

¹ I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

It’s Justin brought out last week. God has not rejected his people. He has not rejected Israel, and Paul is proof of that. Paul is an apostle to the Gentiles, so he speaks first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. But he is actually proof of the promise of Abraham that even through Abraham’s descendants such as Paul, the whole world has been blessed as they share the good news of Jesus with the world.

God has not rejected them, but God has hardened them. He’s made them blind. He’s made them unable to see and to follow. Does that mean he’s given up on them?  Have they messed up so bad that God can no longer use them and will refuse to use them?

Romans 11:11 NIV

¹¹ Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.

God has kept a remnant as Justin brought out last week. So, though most have tripped over Jesus, there are some that have not. But just because they tripped does not mean they are beyond recovery. Their failure has provided something for the Gentiles:

Romans 11:12 NIV

¹² But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!

So Paul has said a lot of things against the Jews to this point. He’s implied a lot of different things about their rejection of the Gospel and their being blind. In the meantime, the Gentiles have been growing and receiving God’s word and are even now going to be used to make the Jews jealous.

Regardless of the response of the Jews, the good news, the blessing of God is going out to the nations. AND, those nations are going to be used to bring blessing back to Isreal. That is what he means by “their full inclusion” – someday, the Israel will receive the truth of Jesus.

AS Paul continues, he uses some common analogies, though he kind of flips them upside down to help paint a picture of what exactly God is doing.

Romans 11:16–24 NIV

¹⁶ If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷ If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸ do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. ²² Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. ²³ And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴ After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

Grafting is a process of adding branches to a tree trunk. This is something we still do today. For instance, there is a company out in the local area that has actually figured out how to graft successfully three different varieties of apples into 1 tree trunk.

Romans 11:17–18 NIV

¹⁷ If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸ do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

GRAFTING: Normally with grafting you take a root stock that’s hardy but not necessarily the highest quality, and you graft onto it high quality branches. So you might take a wild tree and graft on high quality pruned groomed branches that produce the type of fruit that you want.

If you could graft any fruit onto a tree, what would it be?

Paul uses the grafting analogy, but he flips it. He says the trunk is good and the roots are good and instead of grafting on the cultivated branches, the wild is grafted on. Wild olive branches are grafted onto a mature, healthy tree.

In this case the tree is Israel and the roots most likely represent the patriarchs -> Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And the wild branches are the gentiles. It’s not exactly a flattering way to be referred to as wild. Paul does it as a reminder that they were added to something that was already established and good and healthy, and that they were the ones that were outside of that and then brought in.

And Paul’s concern is that the gentiles would become arrogant and boast that God picked them to show his favor to, and God grafted them in and cut off Israel. We’re not like the Jews. We are being used by God, and God is working through us and God has rejected them. So Paul says, listen, if you’re going to boast, don’t boast about those things.

Paul says don’t boast because you’re not any better. But if you are going to boast, just remember that you do not sustain the root. The root sustains you. And that root in this case would be the descendants of Abraham. It would be the law. It would be the Mosaic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant. It would be all the things that made Israel who they are and that stem, that foundation, that root is part of who the Gentiles are now. Yes, they become children of the promise through faith. But that faith is because of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and because of God’s fulfilled promise for sending them Messiah. Without those things there is no gentile branch that produces fruit, because there is nothing but death.

Romans 11:20–22 NIV

²⁰ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. ²² Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.

They’re reminded that it’s because of faith, which is through God, that they are grafted into the tree. And they’re warned not to become arrogant, but beware. Because if God didn’t spare the natural branches but cut them off because of their unbelief, the same thing could happen to the Gentiles. Just because they’ve been grafted in does not mean that they will continue to be grafted in. They too could be cut off. Just like the Jews were.

Romans 11:23–24 CSB

²³ And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again. ²⁴ For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these—the natural branches—be grafted into their own olive tree?

The next two verses are very powerful. It’s saying that if the Jews should change, if the nation should have faith in Christ, that they too will be grafted back in. If God is willing to graft back in a wild olive, why not? Would He also be willing to graft back in the natural branches into their own olive tree? In other words, why wouldn’t He approve of bringing the Jews back into his plan if they would accept and believe?

Romans 11:25–32 CSB

²⁵ I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶ And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. ²⁷ And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. ²⁸ Regarding the gospel, they are enemies for your advantage, but regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs, ²⁹ since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable. ³⁰ As you once disobeyed God but now have received mercy through their disobedience, ³¹ so they too have now disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they also may now receive mercy. ³² For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may have mercy on all.

There’s a lot of discussion on these passages of what all this means, but it appears to be a passage about end times. We prefer to often in the church world as eschatology, when God ushers in his kingdom eventually and there is a new heaven and a new earth as we read about in the book of Revelation.

but what Paul is saying significantly is that there will come a day when “all of Israel will be saved”.

Romans 11:25–26 NIV

²⁵ I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, ²⁶ and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.

I want to be clear that that is does not mean every single Israelite. It does not mean every man, woman, and child will at one point be saved past, present, future. It’s not referring to some great privilege that they have just because they’re Jews. This is talking about a time when as a whole, the group of people referred to as Israel, the nation as a whole, will turn back to God. And believe in the Messiah through faith.

I believe this is the only passage in the New Testament that refers to all of Israel or all Israel. All of her other references go back to the Old Testament, and they certainly do not refer to every man, woman, and child. For instance, when all of Israel went out to war, I can assure you the children were not included. Or when all of Israel showed up to announce David as their king, and then two months later, other tribes who had not been there showed up, it certainly did not mean all of Israel. We’re talking about people groups. Not all of the Gentiles will choose Messiah. Not all of the Israelites will choose Messiah. But as a whole, Israel has rejected the Messiah, and God has therefore rejected them as his tools to use to reach the nations. The Gentiles have received that calling, but we too can have that stripped away from us due to unbelief or rejecting God’s plan and God’s way of salvation through faith in Christ. And God could just as quickly strip that from us and give it back to the Jews.

Israel is still the chosen elect of God for a particular purpose. They continue to be God’s chosen people. Though we’ve been grafted in through faith, God still has a specific purpose in calling and election upon the nation Israel.

A poll from last September by Infinity Concepts and Grey Matter Research shows  that while American evangelicals are still strong supporters of Israel  and the Jewish people, unfortunately, younger generations are  increasingly disconnected from those foundations. The report titled,  “The Crossroads of Belief: Evangelicals and the Jewish People,” found  that only 29% of evangelicals under 35 believe the Jewish people are  God’s chosen people. That statistic should concern anyone who values the  historical and biblical roots of our nation.  ~  https://www.fidf.org/america-250-supporting-israel-founding-values/

THE BIG PICTURE

Antisemitism

As Christians, there is really no good excuse for discrimination against anybody. If Christ died for all, then all are equally valuable in God’s eyes that He would pay the same price for each. If all of mankind is made in the image of God, then everyone has the same intrinsic value. That value given by God. Well, we certainly should be against those that attack God and his reputation and his name and make a mockery of him, We should be careful not to discriminate against an entire people group just because of their ethnicity such as the Jews. There is no way to be a Christian without the foundation of the Jews. The tree and the roots are Israel. The tree and the roots are the word of God from the Old Testament. The tree and the roots are a New Testament founded on the Old Testament. The tree and the roots are the prophets. The tree and the roots are the Law of Moses. You cannot have Christianity. Apart from the tree and the roots. We are grafted in. To be anti Jewish, to be against Israel is to fall into the same folly that Israel felt against the Gentiles. We were called, we are called to be a light to the nations now in Israel’s place, and that means being a light to Israel, so that we might be a part of God’s work of seeing all of Israel come to know him. To be anti Semitic is to be anti Christian. To curse the people that God has chosen and elected as his people is to invite cursing upon yourself, as God made clear to Abraham when he made that covenant years ago. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. Friends, the greatest blessing we can be to our Jewish brothers and sisters is to share the good news of Christ with them and pray that God opens up their eyes and lifts the blindness that they have.

Election

These verses about being cut off and grafted back in are significant verses to point out that this passage is talking about God’s use of these nations, not individual salvation. It’s talking about how God has chosen to 1st use the nation Israel, the descendants of Abraham, to be a blessing to all of the earth. Then after they rejected the Messiah, God is choosing to use the Gentiles as his instrument to bless all of the earth. But at some point he will choose to go back and use the Jews again, which is what he’s saying here. Our chapter started out talking about election, and we need to see and understand this chapter in light of the election meaning not individual salvation but God’s choosing whom He will use to accomplish His plan, which is what this whole chapter is about.

God’s Plan in Action

What Paul says in this chapter has a lot to do with God’s BIG PICTURE plan. Even  through  Israel’s rebellion, salvation has gone to the world.

That was God’s plan all along. That was the promise to Abraham:

Genesis 12:1–3 CSB

¹ The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

“all the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you”

The blessing of God does not mean money, or fame, or possessions, or good looks… the blessing of God is

• KNOWING God
• being ADOPTED into his family
• being FORGIVEN
• having the punishment for my sins taken from me and placed in Jesus
• having the SPIRIT of God in me
• being ACCEPTED by the father

These are all of the things we have because of Jesus, who was a descendant of Abraham. God’s plan is being accomplished even if it is not by Israel at this time.

God’s Character

These verses are the closing of an argument that began in chapter 3.

• Chapters 1-2 = the condition of mankind in relation to God.
• Chapters 3-11 = the defense and explanation of the statements from chapters 1&2

This is the last of 10 “meganoitos” in Romans. We talked about them when we first started in chapter three. And we’ve been tracking them through the entire book. But they paint a bigger picture and a bigger theme of the message Paul has from Chapter 3 all the way into the end of Chapter 11. They present an outline, if you will, of the teaching that Paul wants his listeners to comprehend.

Romans 3:3–4 “3 What then? If some were unfaithful, will their [Israel’s] unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Absolutely not! Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar, as it is written: That you may be justified in your words and triumph when you judge.”

Romans 3:5–6 “5 But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I am using a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? 6 Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world?”

Romans 3:31 “31 Do we then nullify the law through faith? Absolutely not! On the contrary, we uphold the law.”

Romans 6:1–2 “1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

Romans 6:15 “15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not!”

Romans 7:7 “7 What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet.”

Romans 7:13 “13 Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.”

Romans 9:14 “14 What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not!”

Romans 11:1 “1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.”

Romans 11:11 “11 I ask, then, have they stumbled so as to fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.”

God is faithful

Good is just

We are justified by faith and not the law

the law matters but does not save

grace is not an excuse to sin so we can keep getting grace

you cannot ignore the law just because of grace

the law is not evil but points out what is evil

the law does not kill… sin does

God us just

God is faithful

Even if people are unfaithful, God is still faithful. Faithful for what? To keep his promise and accomplish his plan. What was his plan?

That through the seed of Abraham all the world would be blessed. That the Chosen One (Messiah/Christ) who would save people from their sin would come from a descendant of Abraham. God’s plan had always been for ALL NATIONS to come to him, the Jews were just his chosen people to do that. So, now that the Messiah came, is God done with them and just going to get rid of them because of their unbelief? μὴ γένοιτο! Absolutely not!

God is faithful to keep his promises to Israel and he is just to punish them. He is just in offering mercy to the Gentiles and faithful in keeping his promise that all the nations of the world would be bless through Abraham.

And the summary of these first 11 chapters is about the nature and character of God, because that is what this is all about:

Romans 11:33–36 NIV

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ³⁴ “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” ³⁵ “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” ³⁶ For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Paul finished his argument with a triplet of triples:

Oh the depth of…

the riches of God

the wisdom of God

the knowledge of God

they are so great that we cannot fathom them or comprehend them all.

who has known the mind of the Lord?

who provides counsel to God?

who has ever out-given God?

• We don’t understand all of what God does – who can fully grasp the mind of the Lord?
• We don’t get to tell God how we should do it. – who is capable of giving God advice?
• We don’t ever get to do enough or give so much that God owes us anything, how can we outgive God?

Instead, as a loving God he chooses to give us all that we need from his riches and from his wisdom and from his knowledge. His plan was to bless the people of the earth by provided freedom from sin through faith. If you have accepted that gift, then you are part of the branch that has been grafted in to be used by God to bear fruit -> to help others come to know Jesus.

FOR

• From him (are all things)
• Through him (are all things)
• For him (are all things)

to Him be glory forever.

Amen.

Through him and for Him, everything exists. You exist, I exist. Our eternal existence and our earthly existence. And it’s designed to be for his glory, both now and forever.

You have been grafted in as part of God’s plan to be used by him and for Him, and that He can work through you to help more people come to know Him to see what you have and be jealous for it, whether Jew or Gentile, so that they can be reconciled to their Father so that he can receive the glory.

What a gift we’ve been given. What a privilege we have.

MY PRAYER: My God receive glory through YOU as you remain faithful to him and join him on his mission of blessing all the people of the earth with redemption through Jesus our Lord.