Romans 11

Paul's epistles often begin with a section on Christian thinking, and then conclude with a section on Christian living. Romans has perhaps the most substantial section on Christian thinking of any book in the Bible. With Romans 11 we have the conclusion to this section. Paul started this 11 chapter treatise with three chapters on the universal sinfulness of mankind. He ends with three chapters on the sovereignty of God in solving that massive problem. The two sections are related. Because the problem of our sin is so very deep, and because sin is a universal stain, not only on Gentiles, but even on Jews, only God can solve this problem. Therefore, we should not be surprised that any work of salvation in any life would have to originate in God, and not in man. Even God's use of men in that process of redemption, as in the preaching of the Word through the church, must be understood as an expression of the sovereign power and love of our Almighty Redeemer.

In this great work of redemption, God has not forgotten His Old Testament covenant people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel is His son, and God is Israel's Father. The Lord has a great plan of blessing that has come to include the Gentiles, but He will never walk away from His glorious plan for the redemption of His son, elect Israel. God grieves. He also endures in perfect hope, so He keeps on going, of course. But we should not think that because He endures and because He continues to work that He no longer cares about His son. God loves elect Israel, even down to a thousand generations. He cares, and He is powerful to save. In this chapter. Paul, a descendant of the Jewish tribe of Benjamin, reveals some of God's great mystery of how the Lord will continue to express His love for His Israel, and how He will win back so many of the descendants of Jacob. His plan is to do this through the jealousy that they will experience as so many of the Gentiles will be adopted into the household of the Jewish Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is not to suggest that every natural descendant of Jacob will be saved, but it is to say that God is still claiming every one of those descendants that He has loved from long before Abraham was born. The foreknowledge of God is not some mere awareness of the facts of the future. It is that foreknowledge which is the intimacy of electing love. God has not rejected even one of His people whom He foreknew. God grieves not only for the son who dies. He grieves for the son who will no longer hear His Word, who rebels, and who wanders away. God will not be content with this end of the story for any of His beloved chosen children.

The Jew who already loves Jesus today may feel that He is all alone, like Elijah in the wilderness, but God reserves for Himself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. These stand for a remnant of Israel who have been chosen by God's grace. Many of the Israelites in the day of Paul were hardened against God, and pursued His favor as if they could obtain it by works. But we should not be surprised if many of the descendants of such men and women would yet one day be softened in their hearts toward Jesus of Nazareth, God's only-begotten Son. God is not planning on the fall of His chosen people just because so many have stumbled over the stumbling stone of Christ. Their momentary hardening against their Father has made room now for the Gentiles to be brought into the household of God.

God's electing love was not only for Jews, but also for Gentiles. Today is still a great day for the descendants of Ham and Japheth, the descendants of Ishmael, and the peoples of those tribes that hated Israel. They can find life in Jesus. But the day will surely come when God will cause the jealousy of His true son Israel to abound. It should be a very obvious thing for many Jews to discover a Jewish Messiah, especially when so many Gentiles have found their way into the family of the Lord our God. God has not hardened his rebellious son Israel forever, but only for a time. As the day draws near for the fulfillment of the Lord's great plan to bring life from the dead, we should expect to see the longings of God's heart for elect Israel to be wonderfully achieved.

There will be one great Isrealite tree of God, a tree with natural Jewish branches, with some wild Gentile braches that have now been grafted in, and with some Jewish branches that were once cut off that can now be grafted back in again. This is what it will mean for all Israel to be saved. The full number of the elect sons of God of both the Jews and the Gentiles will rejoice in His presence together as brothers and sisters in the kingdom through Jesus the King. The way for everyone is through faith in the Messiah who shed His blood for all the beloved. This is the way that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham.

More than that, this is the wonder of the wisdom of God: He will fulfill all of His great promises of electing love, He will save Jews, He will save Gentiles, and He will graft them all together into one vibrant and fruitful family tree. This is the plan that is being lived out before our eyes now. If there has been a time of hardening, if there has been a time of disobedience, surely it fits into a larger and better plan of God, a plan that will be full of mercy, when all of our rebellion and foolishness will be cast forever far behind us. "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" Our God has done it all. Praise to the Father for His electing love! Praise to the Son for His atoning sacrifice! Praise to the Spirit for His sanctifying power! Praise the Triune God all the ends of the earth! "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen."