Lesson 22 Romans Study Notes GOD S GLORIOUS PLAN (ROMANS 11:1-36) Imagine Imagine being a God-fearer one of the many Gentiles who admired Jews and believed in their God without undergoing the steps to conversion. If you had grown up in Rome or any other Roman territory, you would have been well aware of the Jewish communities scattered throughout the empire, and you would also have been very familiar with Roman attitudes toward Jews. You would have known that your kinsmen saw Jews as an inferior race and that they resented the accommodations your society made for them; these people from the east were exempted from sacrificing to the emperor because of their bizarre insistence on only one true God. But as a Godfearer, you would have found yourself defending them. You might have agreed that they were a little strange, but they were essentially harmless. When people began preaching that Gentiles could believe in the Jewish Messiah and become part of God s family by faith, without having to be initiated as a Jew, you received the message and the Spirit. Many God-fearers did. But would you have completely left behind your culture s perceptions of Jews as marginal and backward? Not necessarily. Many of your fellow believers did not. Some had not been God-fearers before and had little affinity for Judaism, and they could be a little prejudiced. They may have been glad that God was now turning to Romans and Greeks. The Jewish flavor of this new faith was becoming less and less essential. Hebrew Scriptures were a helpful background story, but the Jewish sense of specialness was a little aggravating. Jewish believers may have felt superior to Gentile believers because of their heritage. And many Gentile believers might have felt superior because most Romans did. These were not unusual dynamics in the early church. Romans saw Jews as marginal people, much like society looks at some foreigners today. Gentile believers agreed that God had chosen Israel and revealed Himself through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But many wondered why He had chosen them, of all people. It might have felt a little uncomfortable for a Roman to be identified with the Jewish faith. Friends and relatives would not have understood why any believer would align him- or herself with those people. A lot of Gentile Christians weren t sure how or if Jews still fit in God s plan. The Remnant (Romans 11:1-12) At the end of Chapter 10, Paul emphasized the point that Israel not every individual, but as a people had a history of falling away and being stubbornly unresponsive in its relationship with God. So the fact that the majority of Jews were not accepting Jesus at the time of Paul s ministry should not be considered a strange phenomenon. There were precedents. The natural question that arises then, at least in the minds of many Gentiles (and perhaps those in the Roman church), was whether God had had enough. After a tumultuous history of disobedience and discipline, was He now rejecting Israel finally and forever? Was the betrothal ceremony at Mount Sinai which is how prophets and rabbis had seen that event (Jeremiah 2:2; Hosea) now ending in divorce? By no means (Romans 11:1). Paul uses strong language to reject the claim. In fact, this is one of his primary motives for writing the letter and an answer to any Gentile believers in Rome who may feel superior to Jewish believers. Paul s argument has been that if Jews are now cut off from the promises of God if God has changed His mind about the means of salvation and His relationship with Israel then God has not been righteous. But God is righteous. His dealings with Israel were always by faith. It isn t possible for God to foreknow His people and be wrong about them (verse 2). Any Gentiles who suggest He has rejected Israel are essentially suggesting that He made a mistake and is now having to give up on what He started. That doesn t fit with Copyright 2016 by Explorer s Bible Study
any version of Jewish or Christian theology. As long as there are some Jews who believe God s revelation by faith, even if they are a minority, then God s plan for Israel is still intact. Paul presents himself as Exhibit A in the case that God has preserved a remnant. He is an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin (verse 1), and he believes. He is irrefutable evidence that God still is interested in continuing His relationship with Jews. So are the Jewish believers in the church at Rome, and Paul wants his largely Gentile audience to remember that God has had a long relationship with these people. In other times, in fact, that relationship has been carried on through a remnant. Paul recaps the story of Elijah s lament against Israel during one of the country s most godless times (1 Kings 19:1-18). An idolatrous king and queen ruled, and Baal worship was far more prevalent than Yahweh worship. Elijah had challenged the priests of Baal to a spiritual showdown, won when God showed up in power, and then fled the wrath of Ahab and Jezebel. Depressed and feeling alone, Elijah really did believe he was all alone and that Israel had rejected its covenant with God. God had to remind him that thousands of faithful remained. Believers in the first century may also have felt that they were all alone in believing Jesus was the Messiah, but they weren t. Just as there was a remnant in Elijah s day, so was there a remnant a pretty big one, in fact in the New Testament era. The remnant was chosen by grace (verse 6-7) not because any Jews merited salvation (any more than Gentile believers merit salvation) but because God had determined that history would unfold this way. Again in verses 7-10, Paul points out with quotes from the Old Testament that it was not unprecedented for God s people to have hard hearts, and that sometimes God Himself had hardened them (Isaiah 29:10). But what Israel was experiencing now was a stumble, not a fall (verse 11). In fact, its stumble results in an open door for the rest of the world to believe the gospel and be saved (verse 12). God is using the hardened hearts of Israel to open the hearts of Gentiles for now. The Grafting (Romans 11:13-24) Paul turns his discussion even more directly to his Gentile readers. He calls himself the apostle to the Gentiles that was actually part of his original commission from Jesus (Acts 22:21) and even stresses that role in order to provoke jealousy in his fellow Jews that some might be saved (verse 14). Their rejection of the gospel was necessary for Gentiles to be welcomed into God s salvation plan. And if their rejection results in such glory, how much glory will there be in their eventual acceptance of the gospel (verse 15)? They are the firstfruits and the root of God s plan (verse 16) and therefore, the whole of the nation, at least in some sense, is still set apart for God. Paul presents a clear illustration of his understanding of the relationship between Jews, Gentiles, and God in verses 17-24. Israel is often referred to in Scripture as a vine or vineyard (Psalm 80 and Isaiah 5, for example), but here Paul uses a picture from Jeremiah 11:16 and Hosea 14:6 of Israel as an olive tree. In the first of those passages, the context is God s judgment (broken or consumed branches); in the second, it s restoration. Together these powerfully illustrate Paul s point. Israel is both judged and restored by God an olive tree with branches broken off and grafted back in. But the twist in the story is what is happening in between the breaking and the regrafting: Gentiles, non-native branches, are being grafted in too. This passage contains strong warnings against Gentile pride toward Jews (verses 18, 20), suggesting that this was a genuine problem in the Roman church. Because Romans generally saw Jews as an inferior race, it would not be surprising for that attitude to have seeped into the church (or to have been brought in as old, hard-to-break prejudices). But if God broke off Jewish branches, He can also break off Gentile branches (verse 21), and that ought to be a sobering thought. God is both extremely kind and, when necessary, very severe (verse 22). Paul envisions a time when the natural branches will be grafted back into the root to grow together with the Gentile branches that were grafted too. In other words, He is still accomplishing a master plan that includes forming all kinds of people into one extremely blessed tree. Page 50
The Times (Romans 11:25-36) One of the most debated passages in Romans begins in verse 25. Paul writes that a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of Gentiles have come in, and then all Israel will be saved. Israel in verse 25 clearly refers to Jews by heritage, and it would be unrealistic to interpret it in the next verse as a spiritual Jewish/Gentile nation that has been grafted together. It still means ethnic Israel, Jews by heritage. So is Paul saying all ethnic Jews will be saved? In the context of Paul s theology of salvation by grace through faith, so strongly presented elsewhere in Scripture (including Romans), we know he is not suggesting that every Israelite will automatically be saved. What he seems to be suggesting, however, is that there will be a time when Israel as a group turns to the Lord, when all ungodliness is banished from Jacob (verse 26) that God still has a plan for bringing this nation to salvation. Regardless of how exactly Paul envisions this happening, it is clear that he sees the time of Gentiles coming to completion. Jesus Himself referred to a time of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24) as a specific era with an end point. Paul wrote in another letter that a veil remains over Jewish hearts when the old covenant is read (2 Corinthians 3:14), and it can only be removed in Christ. At the moment, they are functioning as enemies of God s plan, but when that plan is viewed as a whole, they are playing a critical and precious part (verse 28). Their forefathers are still beloved by God, and the gifts and calling given to their people are irrevocable (verse 29). Both Jews and Gentiles have had times of obedience and disobedience. Clearly the hardening and softening of hearts the eras of openness and resistance to the gospel among particular people groups, both Jewish and Gentile are temporary. There are seasons in the salvation story. For every group to experience God s mercy, every group at some point had to have had a season of disobedience (verse 32). Why Not Both? Why couldn t Jews and Gentiles be Christians together? Because of the deeply held beliefs and traditions of Jews, it was too big a jump for them to believe Gentiles could become believers without also entering fully into the law of Moses. This was one of the biggest disputes in early Christianity Paul s letter to the Galatians is almost exclusively about this issue, and the first council of church leaders met in Jerusalem to hash it out (Acts 15). From these and other passages, it is clear that if all Jews had become believers, most segments of the Christian church would have been exclusively Jewish and would have presented a huge barrier to Gentiles coming to faith. Most Gentile believers would have accepted Jesus as Savior but found it extremely difficult to be fully initiated into Judaism and its laws. The church would have remained largely a Jewish movement. So after centuries of cultivating Israel as the chosen nation calling, blessing, instructing, disciplining, and even judging God has pulled them back for a designated season. Why? So that Gentiles can enter into the new covenant, and so God can show His mercy to as many as possible (as verse 32 says). He is waiting for the gospel to reach into every corner of the world, into every other people group, before fully regrafting Israel back into the original tree (Matthew 24:14) although, in many ways, the regrafting has already begun in our time. A Doxology Paul ends this section of Romans with a doxology a praise for the depths and riches of God s wisdom and His ways. Who could have foreseen this amazing turn of events? It s evident in Scripture in retrospect, but who could have discerned it ahead of time? In fact, God s plan of salvation was much bigger than the Jewish nation, much bigger than a remnant, and even far beyond the horizons now visible to Paul. God s judgments have been vindicated, His promises are still true to all who have received them, and the glory will always and forever be His. Page 51
DAY 1: Review Daily Study Questions 1. True or false? God has rejected Israel and now turned to Gentiles. 2. What do the olive tree root, the broken branches, the grafted foreign branches, and grafted natural branches illustrate about how God is building His kingdom? 3. How does God s plan for Jews and Gentiles enable Him to show mercy to as many people as possible? 4. What will happen when the time of Gentiles is fulfilled? DAY 2: Read Romans 12:1-2 5. How do you think the beginning of Chapter 12 relates to the end of Chapter 11? What is the connection between the two chapters in Paul s argument? 6. What kind of sacrifices were used in the Old Testament? What sacrifice does Paul call for in verse 1? Why does Paul call this worship? 7. What is the difference between being conformed to the world and transformed with a renewed mind? Page 52
8. How do you think we can have our minds renewed? What does a renewed mind enable us to do? DAY 3: Read Romans 12:3-5 9. In light of Paul s previous discussion (see especially Romans 11:18 and 20), why do you think he tells his readers not to think more highly of themselves than they ought to? How do you think our self-perception changes with a renewed mind? 10. What do you think Paul means by a measure of faith? 11. What does Paul s body illustration teach us about the relationship believers have with each other? What does it teach us about our relationship with Jesus? 12. How do you think the one body idea would go over in a church where Gentile and Jewish believers are in conflict? DAY 4: Read Romans 12:6-8 13. What gifts does Paul mention specifically in verses 6-8? What attitudes does he mention? 14. How do you think these gifts are received? Page 53
15. Read 1 Corinthians 12:7 and 1 Peter 4:10. According to these passages, for what purpose should we use our spiritual gifts? 16. Why do you think God gives different gifts to each person? DAY 5: Reread Romans 12:1-8 17. How well do you think Christians today fulfill the spirit of this passage? 18. How does a fellowship with these characteristics reflect God s nature? 19. In light of verses 6-8, what would some believers be missing if they did not relate well to another group of believers? How does this need for interdependence fit Paul s purpose in Romans? 20. What parts of our identity does Paul address in this passage, either directly or indirectly? (Check all that apply.) (a) body (b) mind (c) spirit (d) will (e) emotions/attitudes Page 54