The point of our discussion centers on the critical interpretation of Romans 11, specifically addressing the misconception surrounding Jewish conversion in light of Paul's teachings. It is paramount to understand that the essence of being a Christian transcends national identity, as Paul elucidates the ongoing rejection of the Jewish nation while simultaneously affirming that the Israel of God comprises all individuals who commit themselves to Him, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds.

The discourse surrounding the complexities of the election serves as a backdrop for a thorough examination of the implications found within Romans, chapter 11. The speaker elucidates the shared origins of various denominations, highlighting how this commonality has inadvertently engendered disputes without clear resolutions found in biblical texts. In particular, the speaker focuses on the juxtaposition of the Jewish experience with that of the Gentiles, articulating how the Jews' jealousy towards the acceptance of the Gospel by the Gentiles illustrates divine purpose. This conflict, rooted in their fervent commitment to Judaism, ultimately led to their alienation from the blessings of the Gospel, which, paradoxically, were extended to the Gentiles. The speaker further explores the concept of 'loss' as it pertains to the Jewish nation, positing that their rejection of Christ resulted not merely in a spiritual defeat but also in a significant shift in the divine economy of salvation, wherein the Gentiles were grafted into the promises originally bestowed upon Israel. This pivot invites listeners to ponder the nature of God's mercy and the fullness of His plan for both Jews and Gentiles alike.

Takeaways:

• In Romans 11, Paul elucidates the concept that being a Christian transcends national identity, emphasizing faith over heritage.
• The rejection of the Jewish nation led to the flourishing of the Gospel among the Gentiles, showcasing God's broader plan.
• Paul's discourse highlights that all individuals, regardless of their ethnic background, can attain salvation through faith in Christ.
• The notion of the 'Israel of God' encompasses all believers, both Jews and Gentiles, who submit to God's will and accept His grace.

Christianity is very diverse, but all denominations share a common source that by its nature has created problems for which there is no biblical antidote. Tim Glover provides an alternative. Join him each Wednesday at 10am to share his studies with you. And good morning to you. We welcome you to our study.

We're in Romans, chapter 11, and we left off last time with verse 12 talking about the Jews being moved with jealousy over the Gentiles and the fact that here they were in their own synagogues, listening to the message, accepting the Gospel. It angered them is what it did. The jealousy was the.

And course this word jealousy come from the Greek word that has to do with zeal, a burning zeal, not to become a Christian, but to pursue and to support and defend their way of life, Judaism. That's the effect it had on them. And so now verse 12. Pick up with the thought.

Paul says now, if their fall is the riches of the world and their loss the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? This can be a bit confusing, I'd say. The fall of the Jews and the.

The end of the law of Moses, it opened up the way for the blessings of the Gospel to be carried to the whole world. There's no question about that. But this word translated loss is. It's just simply a reference to their defeat.

The Jews were defeated in their effort to destroy Christ and his teaching. They thought that crucifying him would do that.

And in their efforts to destroy Christ, they were defeated in their efforts to please God by the course that they pursued.

And because of that, in all of their efforts, the riches of the blessings of salvation was offered to the Gentiles, in fact, to all the people of the earth. How much more their fullness. Fullness in what way?

Well, some people might take it to mean that he's talking about a full, complete return of the Jews in favor with God. That's not what Paul is talking about.

I do not believe Paul's reasoning in this chapter does not contemplate such a thing as the conversion of the Jewish nation. And that would be totally against everything we've already said so far and all that Paul has written.

Besides, he was speaking of the fall or the defeat of the Jews, their loss, not their conversion. So might he not then be meant their full and complete destruction, degradation that resulted in their full destruction as a nation?

I believe that's the point. Much more, their fullness.

Christ had already said that their house is left unto them desolate and and promised in Matthew 24 that he would destroy that Temple. And of course, that was a symbol of that present age.

The Hebrew writer says their complete overthrow as a nation contributed to the spread of the Gospel.

And so the majority of the Jews, both in Palestine and the other countries, they had been bitter enemies of Christianity, were the spearheaded a great deal of the persecutions. In fact, most of the persecutions were early on by the Jews. Rome wasn't persecuting Christians until years and years later.

Of course, where there were synagogues, they did all they could to stir up the people and the Roman authorities against Christians. But their active persecution of Christians ended.

That all stopped when their nation was destroyed and they lost all influence with the Roman authorities everywhere and those Judaizing meddlers who tried to stir up trouble. And all the. All the cities that Paul and his comrades went where there were Gentile members, they lost their influence for harm.

Perhaps nothing outside the people of God helped the spread of the Gospel among the people more than the full destruction, the fullness of the Jewish nation as it ended. I believe that's what Paul is discussing. I could be wrong about that. In verse 13, Paul says, I speak to you that are Gentiles.

Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles. See, Paul has talked to the Jews. Now he says he's talking to the Gentiles.

I glorify my ministry if by any means I may provoke to jealousy them that are my flesh and may save some of them. Though Paul was discussing at length the fate of the Jews and he'd been talking about that quite a while.

He would not have the Gentile Christians think that he's forgetting them. So he'd been chosen as an apostle of the Gentiles. And he gloried in that. He gloried in that ministry.

He demonstrated that he was sent off by God, by the Lord Jesus Christ. He was an apostle of Christ, and that was confirmed by the miracles that he performed.

And he hoped that his preaching to the Gentiles and his miracles among them would stir up some of the Gentiles to such a jealousy that they would investigate the testimony concerning Christ and that they would become believers in Jesus as the Christ. And by so doing he would be an instrument in saving those who believed his preaching by teaching backed up by godly life.

Any Christian, Paul, or even us today can be an agent in saving others. Paul would say to Timothy in first Timothy 4:16, take heed yourself and to your teaching. Continue in these things.

For in doing this you will save both yourself and them that hear you. Paul lived like that he didn't expect to save all the Jews. He only expected to save some which he called a remnant. They were the elect.

They were that class of people who had the kind of heart that would accept the message of the Gospel that required faith as a condition for justification.

In verse 15, Paul says, For if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, them being the Jewish nation, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? You see, the casting away of the Jews didn't bring about the reconciling of the whole world.

And it doesn't bring the receiving of them that all the Jews would be restored either. It goes both ways. The fact that God rejected the Jews didn't bring about the whole world being accepted or having salvation.

Nor does the fact that receiving them mean that all the Jews would be restored to God's favor. You see, reconciliation was offered to the whole world. And all the Jews have the opportunity to be saved. All of them. And all the Gentiles do too.

All Jews were dead to God, dead in their sin, just as were the Gentiles. And so receiving a Jew back into favor with God is as life from the dead. The conversion of any sinner is life from the dead. The Jews are now.

They're not any more God's people than the Gentiles are. All are dead in their trespasses and sins. All have fallen short of the glory of God. So what's going to change that? How can there be reconciliation?

How can we be alive from the dead? And that, my friend, is what we've been saying all along. The condition is justification is on the basis of faith in Christ Jesus.

So in verse 16, Paul says, and if the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. The word holy here some people have the idea that it just. It means that a person is just free from sin.

They're perfect. In fact, the word saint means holy ones. It's the plural form of agyoi or agios, the adjective.

And it just means a person who has been set apart for God's exclusive purpose. That's a great definition that I borrowed from We Vines.

Someone who has been set apart as if God has taken them, cleansed them, and now he set them apart for his purpose and his use. That's the meaning and the description of God's people.

The law Moses said in Exodus 23, the first of the first fruits of thy ground, thou shalt bring into the house of Jehovah thy God see, it's to be set apart for his purpose, for his use.

In Leviticus 23, it says that Jehovah, beginning in verse nine, Jehovah said to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel and say unto them, when you come into the land, that I will give unto you and shall reap the harvest thereof, then shall ye bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah to be accepted for you.

And ye shall eat neither bread nor parched grain, nor parched ears, until this selfsame day, until ye have brought the oblation, the oblation of your God. When the first fruits were brought to the priests, the whole harvest became holy to the Lord. That is, it became set apart and devoted for his use.

For their use. When God accepted the first Jewish converts, the first fruits of the Gospel harvest, then the whole nation was holy.

That is, they became acceptable to God on the terms of the Gospel. Only in that sense was the whole Jewish race holy.

The point simply is, I think, is that the first fruits of the Gospel, the first fruits of the harvest, were those Jewish remnant that accepted the terms that was laid down in the Gospel message. Only in that sense can they be holy.

And again, all these descriptive words define that class of people called the ecclesia, the called out, the elect. They all are talking about the same kind of people.

In verse 17 and 18, Paul says, but if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree, glory not over the branches. But if thou glorious, it is not thou that bearest the fruit, but the root thee. And that requires a little bit of help.

And I would really encourage you to read from some other translations on this. Some of you may not like me saying that, but it's a little bit difficult.

In the King James rendering of it, it says, for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they're all under sin. Romans 3:9. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23. Many Jews broken off from God's favor have had been grafted in again. How?

Through their faith in Christ. So the wild olive tree represents the Gentiles. These Gentile converts had been grafted into God's favor.

They weren't the natural vine they were grafted in. And thereby they had become partakers with the believing Jews. Partakers of the root of the fatness of the olive tree.

The unbelieving Jews, they were not partakers. They were cast off. They were not partakers of the root of the fatness of the olive tree, any more than the unbelieving Gentiles were.

They had been broken off because of unbelief. They had been broken off for good reasons. They had broken the covenant that gave them national existence.

They had killed the Messiah, they had rejected the Gospel and unmercifully persecuted the Lord's people. And even so, the Gentile Christians shouldn't glory over the broken off branches, you see.

Neither should they glory over believing Jews, because believing Jews are acceptable to God as, as are believing Gentiles. The illustration, the figure. It seems that Abraham is the root. All Israel sprang from him.

He gained God's favor by faith and he becomes the example of faith. He's the father of faith. As, as Paul presents him early on in this book to the Roman letter to the Roman.

So by changing the figure, Abraham is said to be the father of all them that believe. I believe that's Romans 4, somewhere around verse 9 or 10, verse 10. And so in the true sense now, unbelieving Jews are not the seed of Abraham.

We've already looked at that. There are those who are of Israel, who are Israelites, that are not of Israel.

In other words, just because they were Jews by descent, Jewish blood in their veins, and they could somehow prove their descent and their progeny that they were from Abraham, seed meant nothing. You know, this is one of the arguments that John the Baptist makes. He says, don't think to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father.

He said, God is able to these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. But I say to you, he says, bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. And so his message was that of repentance because the Messiah was coming.

And that's a similar message that we find throughout the New Testament in John chapter 8. Unbelieving Jews, they were not the seed of Abraham because they weren't like Abraham. They were like their father, the devil.

And so they couldn't pride that even though they prided themselves in being Abraham's seed, that was only physically. And that's all they were trying to point to. They were still very carnally minded.

And thou standest by thy faith. Be not high minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

You see, because of what was said in verses 11 and 12, the Gentile Christian might conclude that the Jews were rejected just for the purpose of granting salvation to Gentiles. He says, wait a minute. Just, you know, they were rejected because of unbelief. And the same thing can happen to you.

The rejection of the Jews that resulted from their sins and hastened the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles. No doubt about that. But they were not arbitrarily rejected for the special benefit of Gentiles.

The term unbelief here stands for all their sin, all their rebellion. In reality, they cut themselves loose from the relationship with God. And by their faith, the Gentile Christians, they stood in favor with God.

So they didn't obtain God's favor through God's partiality to them, nor through any merit of their own, but by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jews could obtain that favor in the same way. There was therefore no grounds nor occasion for their glorying over the fact that the Jews had been rejected, as if to make room for them.

Besides, those Gentile Christians might also be broken off from God's favor as a result of unbelief. So by a natural birth, all Jews had been God's people. They had been born into that covenant relationship with God.

But that covenant ended, or it was ending, let's put it that way. And that left the Jews in the same condition as the Gentiles. For they continued not in my covenant, the Hebrew writer would say, in Hebrews 8.

And I regarded them not, says the Lord. So this should be a warning to Gentile Christians then as well as now to all members of the new covenant.

If God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare you. So that shows, I think, pretty conclusively, that Christians may conduct themselves in such a way as to be cut off and be severed from God's favor.

In verse 22 and 23, Paul would continue. Behold, then, the goodness and severity of God toward them that fail. Severity, but toward thee.

God's goodness, if thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou shalt be cut off. And they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, they shall be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. Isn't that great?

So even though some of the Jews, any individual Jew that rejected the Messiah, rejected the Christ, even though they were cut off, they can be grafted in again. This saving some through faith and cutting off others because of their unbelief.

It just shows both the mercy and the justice of God, the goodness and the severity of God. And that leads Paul to exclaim, behold, then the goodness and severity of God. God dealt severely with the Jews because of their unbelief.

His goodness would be extended to the Gentile Christians so long as they didn't fall through unbelief. And in his goodness and in his severity, God is neither tyrannical nor is he a whimsical God.

The display of either his goodness or his severity will depend upon the individual's attitude toward him and his message. So let's not get one sided view of God. I know we, we can, you know we can quote First John 4. I think it's verse 8.

Their only hope therefore was to come back to God through faith in Christ. And they could be grafted in again. Any among them could be grafted in again into God's favor if they continue not in their unbelief.

That's what he says, specifically says if they continue not in their unbelief, that means they've repented, they've changed. So God was able to graft them in again. The only hindering cause would be their unbelief.

But now in verse 24 he says, but if thou wast cut off or cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and then was grafted contrary to nature, into a good olive tree. How much more shall these which are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive into their own olive tree?

Well, that illustration seems to be pretty clear. You know, a wild olive tree is an uncultivated olive tree, a tree just native to the woods. Its fruit would be inferior.

And it would not be natural to expect to improve its fruit by grafting it into a good olive tree.

But the fruit of the Gentiles, here represented as the wild olive tree, would be improved by their being grafted into this good olive tree, into the favor, into the service of God. And if a branch of the wild olive tree is grafted into the good olive tree, how much more natural is the grafting in of the natural branches?

You see Paul's olive tree illustration and the first point that I'd like to make with regard to that number One, this is an illustration like parables. They're illustrations of God's, in this case, God's dealing with the Jews and the Gentiles.

And so so to make an illustration do service beyond the point that's used to illustrate is to do violence to the language and the and the reasoning that's being presented. People do that with the parables quite frequent. There's a reason for the parables, there's a reason for the illustration.

Illustrations do not preach, do not prove that or anything. It's not illustrations, just illustrate what you're trying to illustrate. It doesn't prove or demonstrate the truth.

It just illustrates whatever it is you're trying to to argue. And that certainly is the case here.

And so a parable must not be pressed, or any illustration or figure must not be pressed beyond what the writer meant to teach. God's goodness may be seen by giving attention to verse 22. As a people, the Jewish people had been the special object of his favor.

They were his chosen people. He had been good to them many, many years, till they were broken off because of unbelief and thereby they fell under the severity of God.

Gentile believers, they were grafted into God's favor, into his goodness. But they also must continue in God's goodness or be broken off.

In all the parables, nothing is said about anything other than illustrating that it demonstrates individual devotion to God. It's a choice that must be made.

And if you choose to put your faith in somewhere else other than God, or you question God and you do not do as demonstrate your devotion to him and put your faith in Jesus Christ, then of course you can be broken off because of unbelief. Verse 25. He says, I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits.

But a hardening in part hath befallen Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. In the New Testament, the word mystery usually refers to things that are not revealed. In other words, it hadn't been known before.

Things too great for finite minds to comprehend are mysteries. And the mystery of this verse 25 is that a hardening in part has befallen Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.

That statement itself is somewhat of a mystery. Paul doesn't reveal to us what the coming in of the fullness of the Gentile is.

But what Paul does not say, some people seem to fill in with their own assumptions.

It's assumed by some that the fullness of the Gentiles means that all the Gentiles will be finally converted to Christ, and that will be followed by the conversion of the whole Jewish nation. Some people who believe that the kingdom will come in the near future.

Those advocates interpret the fullness of the Gentiles as the full count of the Gentiles.

When the Lord gathered out of the Gentiles the fall, the full number he wants for rulers in this supposed future kingdom, then evangelism among them will stop, and the Jews will then turn to Christ. This is the assumption.

It is assumed that the preposition until shows that this hardening of a part of the Jews would continue only until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. Then the whole Jewish race would turn to Christ.

But the preposition until does not tell what what will follow the event or the events that are mentioned in this phrase. You know, think about a few examples. In Genesis 8. 5, the waters decrease continually until the 10th month.

Well, does that not indicate any change after the 10th month? The record shows that the waters continued to decrease for some time.

Well, that implies nothing as to what Samuel did after the death of Saul. You see, in John 5:17, my father works even until now, of course, he kept on working as he'd always done.

And then in Romans 8:22, for we know that the whole creation groans and travail together until now. But Paul didn't mean that any change would would follow the writing of that letter, and they would, they would not be groaning after that.

But the whole creation continues to groan and travail even now, just as they did before Paul penned these those words. And so if we must deal in suppositions and draw conclusions about until, why not suppose things that are in harmony with what actually occurred?

You know, when God's people became more and more made up of Gentile members, hardness among the Jews increased until God's people became almost, if not entirely Gentile in membership until the fullness of the Gentiles came in. Then the hardness among the Jews apparently became complete.

In verse 26, Paul says, and so all Israel shall be saved, even as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. All right, well, so is the adverb of manner. It.

It is here translated of a Greek word which means in this manner or in this way.

So under these circumstances, Paul had shown how Gentiles had been grafted into God's favor, and how the Jews, broken off branches, might be grafted in again. And so in this manner, or in this way shall all Israel be saved.

Paul had just said that they would be grafted in again if they continued not in unbelief. You see. So the Spirit did not expect all Jews to turn away from their unbelief.

Paul did not therefore mean that every person of fleshly Israel would be saved. Many since then have died in unbelief and are unsaved. And Paul did not say that the time would come when all Jews then living would be saved.

And yet some speak as if that's exactly what he said.

Jacob, in this verse here stands for the descendants of Jacob. And so Jesus came to turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and he did that for all who accepted him.

They were to turn from their ungodliness, their impiety and their irreverence, and he would take away their sins, and that was his covenant with them. And then finally in verses 28 and 29, Paul says, as touching the Gospel, they are enemies for your sake.

But as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake, for the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of. You see, the Jews considered the Gentiles so far beneath them that they considered themselves unclean.

If they even touched a Gentile, they they had to go through some plenitous ritual from the very start. The Jews opposed the Gospel because of that, because it did not meet their expectations and because it condemned them as sinners and as murderers.

And so to be told that they were no better than Gentiles, that just intensified their enmity, just like it made Pharaoh all the more mad when Moses said, let my people go. When Paul told the Jews in Jerusalem, that the Lord had told him to depart from them and go and preach to the Gentiles.

They said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live. You can read about that in Acts 22. The preaching of the Gospel to Gentiles and their acceptance into God's favor, it hardened them.

It hardened them from giving it any consideration. Of course, no proud Pharisee would think of becoming a member of the body of Christ that is made up of Gentiles also.

And so because of the Gentile Christians, the Jews were enemies of the Gospel. God had selected the fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their descendants as the line through which the Christ would come.

And he had not repented of that election, that selection.

And even though these descendants had so sinned as to be broken off from his favor, they were beloved on account of the fathers, but not on their own account.

In verse 30 and 31 he says, for as ye in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you, they also may obtain mercy. It seems that Paul speaks especially to Gentile Christians here.

And though the Gentiles had not been under the law of Moses, yet they had been disobedient to God.

The truth is, all people are, and have always been under God's eternal moral law, a law inherent in the very nature of our relation to one another and to God as our Creator. The Gentiles, in disobeying this law, had sinned against God.

Paul discusses that in Romans 1, and you can look at a list of their sinful practices beginning in verse 18 of that chapter. They were therefore under the condemnation of God, as much so as were the disobedient Jews. But mercy had been extended to these Gentile sinners.

The opportunity to turn from their sins and be saved had been granted to them in the Gospel. And this was a guarantee that disobedient Jews could also obtain mercy.

In verse 32, Paul ends, For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.

That doesn't mean that God had shut up all, both Jews and Gentiles, under such conditions that they had to be disobedient, but that he counted all as disobedient, because he said he laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they're all under sin, Romans 3, verse 9. For this reason he commands all men everywhere to repent Acts 17 says, so Christ came. He came to save sinners, not to cause men to be sinners.

People are not made sinners by hearing the gospel, but the gospel is preached to them because they are sinners and people are sinners. They need to realize that they're under the wrath of God, and that they may obtain God's mercy. It is within the scope to receive it.

In this verse, Paul ends his argument on on the same theme that he began that the gospel is the power of God unto Salv. And then he says, oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past tracing out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor? Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again.

For of him and through him, and unto him are all things to him be the glory forever. Amen. Wonderful word.

And they refer to the provisions that God has granted for salvation as revealed in the gospel, and it includes God's use of men and nations in the development of that plan. In the Bible, we use the term knowledge of God.

That phrase does not refer to what God knows, but it refers to what is known, or what may be known about Him.

Here are some examples of the use of the phrase so we're not talking about what God knows any more than the phrase the knowledge of mathematics refers to what mathematics knows. For all things are of him, through him, and unto Him. We cannot therefore enrich him by giving him that which is already his.

But we can say with Paul, to him be glory forever.