25 For I do not want you, brothers, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.”
27 “And this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”
28 From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; 29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. 32 For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! 34 For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? 35 Or who has first given to Him that it might be repaid to him? 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Romans 11: 25-36
Romans 11: 28-36 Beloved For the Sake of The Fathers
We left off with the "and so all Israel will be saved" from the last post. The passage also gives us key context to the meaning of this:
The timing - "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in", that will be the end of the time of the Gentiles and the trampling underfoot of Jerusalem by them. This period started with the destruction and occupation of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire.
…23How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. 25There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.… Luke 21: 23-25
…26Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed. 27And he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of the temple will come the abomination that causes desolation, until the decreed destruction is poured out upon him.” Daniel 9: 26-27
…2“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. Judah will be besieged, as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth gather against her, I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who would heave it away will be severely injured. 4On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and every rider with madness. I will keep a watchful eye on the house of Judah, but I will strike with blindness all the horses of the nations.… Zechariah 12: 2-4
The extent - What does all Israel mean? Throughout history Jews have come to Christ, but in the last days, at the end of the Tribulation, the time of Jacob's Trouble, Jacob meaning Israel, all those, minus the 2/3 that are deemed rebels to God, guilty of cosmic treason, that 1/3 will be saved. It is the greatest national revival ever seen.
7Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the man who is My Companion, declares the LORD of Hosts. Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn My hand against the little ones. 8And in all the land, declares the LORD, two-thirds will be cut off and perish, but a third will be left in it. 9This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’ ”… Zechariah 13: 7-9
The condition - This brings us full circle to the effect of election and the unilateral nature of God's promises to Abraham, confirmed in Isaac and reaffirmed with Jacob (Israel). "He will remove ungodliness from Jacob", and "this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins."
…24For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries, and I will bring you back into your own land. 25I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.… Ezekiel 36: 24-26
V. 28 Beloved for the sake of the fathers - Israel's refusal of their Messiah was part of God's redemptive plan for the Gentiles, and also part of God's plan to bring the nation of Israel back in the end. They would be moved to jealousy for the things of God, to know the Savior, to weep over Him Who they pierced. The covenant with Abraham was unilateral in that Abraham slept as God walked between the animal halves. It is a very strong and ancient blood covenant, strange to the modern ear, especially to people who buy their meat at the grocery store, but the meaning is simple. Two parties would enter such an agreement by slaughtering an animal or in this case several animals, agreeing on the terms of a covenant, like my family is selling you the land from here to the river, and we will not take anything from what is now considered your land without permission. Then the two parties would walk between the animal halves, before God and man, basically saying, "if I break this covenant so let me be like the animals we walk between." In Abraham's case, he didn't walk between the halves, God the Father and God the Son did. God is the initiator of the covenant, and also the only One Who could uphold it. God is demanding a righteousness that fallen man can't bring. It is pointing to the sacrifice of His Son and God's ability to cause those at enmity with Him, those who deny His very being, those who hate Him, to be changed, to recognize and love God, to see their fallen state and cry for mercy, beg for repentance. Christ walks between the halves on my behalf, to uphold and meet the mark that I cannot attain.
…4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me. 6In burnt offerings and sin offerings You took no delight.… Hebrews 10: 4-6
William Beebe was an explorer and a friend of President Theodore Roosevelt. Often when he visited the President, the two men would go outdoors at night to see who could first locate the Andromeda galaxy. Then as they gazed at the tiny smudge of distant starlight, one of them would recite, “That is the spiral galaxy of Andromeda. It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It is 750,000 light-years away. It consists of one hundred billion suns, each larger than our sun.” After that thought had sunk in, Roosevelt would flash his toothy grin and say, “Now I think we’re small enough! Let’s go to bed.” (Encyclopedia of 7,700 Illustrations, by Paul Lee Tan [Assurance Publishers], # 2213.)
We now know that Andromeda is 2.6 million light years away and consists of one trillion stars, about twice the number of our galaxy. And while the numbers are only estimates and they keep getting larger, astronomers think that there are at least 100-200 billion galaxies, not 100 million. A German supercomputer simulation recently put that number at 500 billion (universetoday.com). Mr. Beebe and President Roosevelt would feel even smaller!
As the apostle Paul sums up Romans 11 in our text, he wants us to feel appropriately small in the presence of the Sovereign God who moves all of history according to His unfathomable ways for His own glory.
Pastor John Piper (desiringGod.org, “God’s Design for History: The Glory of His Mercy,” italics his) sums up,
“Romans 11:30-32 is the summary of the main point of this chapter, namely, that God has designed and guided history—both its disobedience and its obedience—so that in the end it will most fully display the reliability of his promises and the magnificence of his mercy—to prevent human pride and produce white-hot worship.”
Douglas Moo (The Epistle to the Romans [Eerdmans], pp. 729-730) points out that Ro 11:28-32
“recapitulate and wrap up the argument of Ro 9-11 as a whole. Paul’s assertion of Israel’s dual status in v. 28 succinctly summarizes the dilemma that drives the whole argument of these chapters: the Israel now at enmity with God because of the gospel is nevertheless the Israel to whom God has made irrevocable promises of blessing.”
Paul’s point is: We should stand in awe of God because He designs and controls all of history to display His faithfulness to His promises and the glory of His mercy to sinners.
Paul has been gazing through the telescope to get a glimpse of just how big God is, and he invites us to take a look for ourselves. - Precept Austin
V. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable - God does not speak just to hear Himself. His words brought the world into existence, and so His promises are not mere noise but a directive. He sees it through.
6“Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed. 7Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts. “But you ask, ‘How can we return?’… Malachi 3: 6-7
…18Then Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Arise, O Balak, and listen; give ear to me, O son of Zippor. 19God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill? 20I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.… Numbers 23: 18-20
Vs. 30-32 For God has shut up all in disobedience - There is none righteous we are told, not even one. In this Jews and Gentiles are all alike, that all have sinned.
Shut up (4788) (sugkleio from sun = with + kleio = shut, close) means to shut together with, to shut in on all sides, or to close up together. Sugkleio was used to describe enclosing of fish in a net in (as in Lk 5:6). All mankind is like those entrapped fish for all are caught in God's net which demands perfect righteousness. This truth is similar to Paul's statement in Galatians regarding the effect of the Scripture (Law) (Gal 3:22-23, see study of Galatians 3). - PA
John MacArthur - Man’s sin, manifested in his willful disobedience, provides a means for God to demonstrate the magnitude and graciousness of His mercy. Were there no disobedience, there would be no need for and there could be no expression of God’s mercy. To reveal Himself as merciful, He permitted sin. He has shut up all—the whole world, Jew and Gentile—in disobedience and unbelief in order that He might show mercy to all who repent of their sin and turn to Him for gracious salvation. By His nature, God is a Savior, as seen in Paul’s uses of the phrase “God and Savior” in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. He could not display that feature of His person without allowing for sin and hell. In His sovereign omnipotence, God has allowed man intellectually, morally, and spiritually to fall into a state of sin to the extent that, on his own, he is unable to be convinced of God’s truth, specifically the truth that he is lost and condemned and that he is powerless in himself to change his condition. God allowed man to fall into sin in order that his only hope would be divine mercy. It must be noted that this saving mercy is shown to all. The perfect, satisfactory work of Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection has met the demands of the justice and holiness of God, and thereby has removed every barrier to forgiveness for all, and any person who seeks forgiveness and salvation will receive it. As John Brown observed, God’s revelation of mercy in the gospels refers to men as sinners, not as elect sinners. (Romans. Chicago: Moody Press) - PA
8Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say, “Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved! 9What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin. 10As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.… Romans 3: 8-10
Vs. 33-36 Who became His counselor - God did not need man, nor does He seek man's approval. He didn't require our input in order to call the Universe into being. He doesn't need us to know who to show mercy to and who not to. Men would hold God in contempt because there is such a thing as sin, as evil, but they never want to see themselves as guilty of evil.
…7Were you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills? 8Do you listen in on the council of God or limit wisdom to yourself? 9What do you know that we do not? What do you understand that is not clear to us?… Job 15: 7-9
…12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills with a balance? 13Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor? 14Whom did He consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the paths of justice? Who imparted knowledge to Him and showed Him the way of understanding?… Isaiah 40: 12-14
