“Concerning the Gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Now listen to this, “For as you were once disobedient to God.” I want you to raise up your hand, okay? Okay, watch this. “For when you were once disobedient to God.” Can I see your hand? Yes, yes. Keep them high. You were disobedient. Okay, “Even so these also have now been disobedient that through the mercy shown you,” hands up, “they also may obtain mercy.” See, that’s the mystery. They hardened their hearts. God opened His arms.
The Gentiles are believers, and now the Jews are looking at you. And now you show them that there is one way, one truth, one life, and His name is Yeshua. He’s their salvation. And they need to believe in Him in order to be saved. “For God has committed them all to disobedience that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.” Not of man. Man’s ways are foolish. God is wise. He says, “How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be the glory for forever.”
We live in a time where many feel as Elijah did, asking where are all God’s people? Where are the Bible-believing Christians? Where can I find a Bible teaching church? Yet, as was true in Elijah’s day, God has people all over the world who have not bowed to the world system and they are made up of those from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people, including Israel.
Romans 11:1-5
I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, “LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”? But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
This is what Paul was reminding the Gentile Christians of in Romans 11. Yes, blindness in part has come to the Jews through their disobedience, yet in the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, He continues to show mercy on those from all nations, tribes, tongues, and peoples who were also disobedient.
We need to be mindful of what Paul said when living in such a time as this – a time where the remnant church exists in an unprecedented season of global blindness in part, a time where those who have not bowed the knee to Baal – meaning become idolatrous – are far outnumbered by those who have.
Romans 12:1-2
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The context of the statement here cannot be separated from the content of chapter 11, since there are no chapter divisions or verse numbers in the original manuscripts. This tells us that the church has the divine responsibility to prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God to all the world, including, and maybe even especially, to the Jews.
This can’t happen by saying God has cast the Jews off forever. This can’t happen by saying the church has replaced Israel. This can’t happen if we are conformed to this world and live like those who have bowed the knee to Baal.
Paul says that while the Jews are generally opposed to the gospel, they still constitute a mission field for the church because their blindness is only in part. God is still saving Jews today by the blood of the King of the Jews, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the true and living God.
Romans 11:25-27
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”
This glorious event is recorded in Zechariah 12:10 when at the Second Coming of Christ all Israel will look upon Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. And they will mourn for their own, and their ancestors, rejection of Him as their Messiah, the Holy One of Israel, their Savior.
We live in times where it seems like the church has followed the pattern of Israel. The word of God is rejected as divine and inspired by many who say they are among the chosen of God – a royal priesthood who are called the church. However, you cannot separate the word of God from the God of the word as Jesus is presented as the “word made flesh” in John 1:14. To reject the word of God is to reject Jesus, and, sadly, many do just that today.
So what do we do in times such as these? We do not conform to the world, we do not bow the knee to Baal, even when we feel alone like Elijah did. We stay the course, we keep the faith, and we do not deny His name. Instead, we present our bodies, not as the dead sacrifices that the Jews were accustomed to, but as living sacrifices that prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 11:13-15
For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
When we live as we should in a loving personal relationship with God that is visible to others, especially to the Jews, the difference between religion and relationship becomes evident and provokes those who see it to want the same for themselves.
God is still saving Jews today and He has not cast them off forever. There might be few among them who are saved during the time of the Gentiles, but the fact that God is still saving them in this time of national disobedience should be a reminder to us all that no one is beyond the reach of our mighty and merciful God!
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus