God's Saving Purposes

I was once coming back from London on the train, and found myself sitting at a table opposite one of the rabbis of the Gateshead Jewish community. I had some preparation to do so I got out the New Testament (NT) in Greek. And he obviously had some preparation to do because he got out the Old Testament (OT) in Hebrew. And I told myself that once I’d done my work, I’d try to get into conversation with him. My plan was to say that I was due to preach from the OT, on Isaiah 53 (which I was), and that I’d love him to explain it to me. I thought: if Philip and the Ethiopian could get onto Jesus from that passage, maybe so could the rabbi and I. Well, an hour later I was done and I looked up only to find him slumped fast asleep over his Hebrew. And he didn’t wake up until we pulled in to Newcastle – so I’d prioritised wrongly and missed the opportunity.

But many people would say you shouldn’t even try to talk about Jesus to a Jewish person – because it’s offensive, because it implies that Judaism can’t put you right with God. But the truth is: it can’t. Now people who object to that often argue like this: ‘But a Jew actually believes the Bible (at least, the OT) – believes in the OT promises and the law. So can’t they still relate to God that way, without Jesus?’ But the answer is: no. Because although OT believers were really saved, and will be in heaven, the OT contained no solution to the problem of sin. It could only point forward to the solution – the death of Jesus. And what OT believers didn’t know is that they were actually being forgiven on the basis of an event future to them – the cross. But now that event is past, and we know it’s the only basis for forgiveness, we have to say: no-one can relate to God without it. ‘No-one comes to the Father except through me,’ said the Lord Jesus to his original, Jewish disciples. (John 14.6)

So, many people would say you shouldn’t try to talk about Jesus to a Jewish person because it’s offensive – but also because it’s pointless. ‘After all,’ they’d say, ‘Haven’t Jewish people by definition made up their minds that Jesus was not the Messiah? So isn’t it unlikely they’ll be interested or that you’ll get anywhere?’

Well how should we think about Jewish people, and about trying to share the gospel with them? That’s what Paul tackles in this morning’s passage of our series in Romans 9-12. So would you turn with me in the Bibles in the seats to Romans 9. And let’s re-cap what we’ve seen so far. Look at 9.2-4. The apostle Paul writes:

2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4the people of Israel.

So the painful fact behind Romans 9-11 is that most Jewish people in Paul’s day are rejecting Christ. But if they are then rejected by Christ on the day of judgement, it begs the question, ‘Hasn’t God been unfaithful to them?’ After all, he promised Israel repeatedly in the OT, ‘I will be your God and you will be my people.’ Well, look over to 9.6, where Paul starts out by saying:

It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.

And as we’ve seen, he goes on to explain that God never promised to bring to faith every Israelite in each generation, but only an inner circle of some of them. Then he explains that, since the coming of Jesus, God has been bringing to faith many from among the Gentiles to be his people, while the Jews have largely rejected Christ. Which begs the question we saw last time in chapter 11 – look at 11.1:

I ask then: Did God reject his people?

Ie, has he given up on the nation of Israel, and decided to bring people to faith in him solely from among the Gentiles instead? Well, read on in vv1-2 – Paul says:

1…By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew.

And Paul re-asks that question where we pick up this week. Look down to v11:

Again I ask: Did they [the nation of Israel] stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?

Ie, is there really no hope, now, of Jewish people responding to Christ? Should we ‘write off’ outreach to them as pointless? Well, read on and it’s the same answer again, too:

Not at all!

Which brings us to my first of three headings:


First, GOD IS STILL WORKING TO SAVE PEOPLE FROM AMONG THE JEWS – AND SO SHOULD WE BE (vv11-15)

Look again at v11:

Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression [ie, Israel’s majority-rejection of Christ], salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.

So if you read Paul’s missionary journeys in the book of Acts, the first thing he did was always to go to the Jews, to speak at the synagogue. And when they rejected him, he’d go off to the Gentiles. And that’s what he means in v11 by saying, ‘because of [Israel’s] transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles.’ But that’s not the end of the story – look at the end of v11: salvation goes to the Gentiles – why?: ‘to make Israel envious.’ Ie, God causing Paul to go off to the Gentiles because the Jews wouldn’t listen was not his way of withdrawing the offer of salvation from them. Quite the opposite: it was his way of provoking them to envy the Gentiles’ experience of salvation, and to respond to him out of the wish to have what the Gentiles had.

I was talking to someone who’s come to faith this year, and that was how it happened for her. She came from a very churchy, legalistic background with no understanding of the cross and of grace. But one of her children had moved away from home, gone to a different church, heard the gospel clearly and been transformed by discovering grace. And she told me she looked at this daughter – at her faith, her joy, her Christ-centred marriage – and wanted what she’d got. Well, that’s the ‘envy process’ that Paul’s describing here. So do remember your whole life is a witness, as people look at what you’ve got in Christ. And remember your life can speak to people even if they won’t let you speak about the gospel. And remember this process takes time – even a lifetime. It can take years as someone outwardly closed to the gospel quietly watches us and, by God’s grace, begins to feel envious, wistful – begins to want what we’ve got.

And that’s the effect that God meant the salvation of Gentiles to have on Jewish people. And vv12-15 really repeat that point. Look at vv12-15:

12But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! 13I am talking to you Gentiles [ie, the Gentile Christians in the church in Rome – who may well have been the majority]. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry 14in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. 15For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

So that’s the first point: God is still working to save people from among the Jews – and therefore so should we be. Let’s not be put off by those who say it’s offensive or pointless. But if we do ever have the opportunity to share the gospel with Jewish people, we need the right manner and attitude – so that the only possible offence comes from what we say and not the way we say it or the way we treat them. Of course, that principle applies to sharing the gospel with anyone, but Paul is concerned here with our outreach to Jewish people, so my second heading is:


Second, WE GENTILE CHRISTIANS SHOULD TREAT JEWISH PEOPLE WITH HUMILITY (vv16-21)

Now I’m not assuming there are no Jewish Christians here – I’m just guessing most of us are Gentile Christians, and that’s who Paul has in his sights, here. So look on to v16:

If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

So Paul uses two pictures to describe the nation of Israel – a batch of dough and a tree. And since they teach the same truth, and Paul majors on the tree, I’m going to skip the dough and explain the tree.

Paul is saying, ‘Imagine the nation of Israel as a tree, growing up through the centuries of history. So the root would be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and then Moses and the people God brought out of Egypt. And Paul says in v16, ‘if the root is holy [ie, set apart by God from others], so are the branches.’ Ie, just as Israel back then was set apart by God from other nations, and special to him, so it is, in some sense, today. So although the church is now God’s means of spreading saving knowledge of himself, we should communicate to Jewish people that we believe that they’re still privileged with much true knowledge of God, that they’re still special to God and that we’re indebted to them for the OT Scriptures. Read on, vv17-18:

17If some of the branches have been broken off [that’s a picture of Jews currently rejecting Jesus], and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root [that’s a picture of us Gentile Christians], 18do not boast over those branches [or you can translate that, ‘Don’t be arrogant towards them.’].

So how could we be arrogant towards Jewish people? Well, one way is to be judgemental towards their heritage and culture. Take the Gateshead Jewish community and the strict way they try to keep the OT law – eg, in dress, or in the way one of its rabbis ruled that their men and women should shop at different times to avoid improper mixing. It’s easy to be judgemental of that and proud of what we think is our enlightened lack of legalism. But look again at v18:

do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Ie, don’t be judgemental of their heritage and culture, because it’s the root of our faith. Eg, the law was given to point us to Christ and to what holy living in him should look like – living that wants to be really careful to please God and to avoid any situations that could lead us into sin. And our Gateshead friends are still pointers to that life in Christ – even though, sadly, they’re missing what they’re pointing to.

Let me also make the additional application that we should be reading our OTs not just our NTs. To say, ‘I’m a Christian so all I need is the NT’ is to think I can sit on my branch and cut it off from the tree. But we can’t understand Jesus and grow in our knowledge of him without the OT. Eg, what does it mean that Jesus is the Christ, or the Lord, or our high priest, or the propitiation for our sins, or the Son of Man or the son of David? Only the OT will tell you.

OK look on to v19-22:

19You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." 20Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 22Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.

So another way we could be arrogant towards Jewish people is to think we’re somehow superior because we’ve accepted Christ whereas they’ve rejected him. And of course it’s possible to feel that superiority towards anyone who’s not a Christian. But look at v20. What does it say is the fundamental difference between a Christian and a non-Christian? It says to Christians, ‘you stand by faith.’ Ie, the difference is simply that a Christian has faith, saving trust, in Christ.

And there are two things we need to realise about faith. One is that the Bible says it’s a gift from God. So if you’ve come to see your sin as it really is and to see the cross of Jesus as the way you can be forgiven, that is because God has opened your otherwise spiritually blind eyes. You didn’t have more innate humility or spiritual openness than all those who currently don’t believe. God opened your eyes; he gave you faith. So to feel superior about your faith is as perverse as feeling superior to the next physically blind person you see with their guide dog, on the grounds that you can read a car number plate at 100 metres.

The other thing to realise is that faith is not something we do that makes God accept us – it’s not a ‘work’. Faith is receiving what God has done for us – receiving his mercy, and the work of Jesus who paid for it at the cross. So the difference between a believer and an unbeliever is not that the believer’s done anything better or more worthy, but simply that he’s held out an empty hand and received mercy. So again, to feel superior about your faith is as perverse as feeling superior to the person having a ticket put on their car just after the traffic warden’s let you off the ticket you deserved.

So, look at the end of v20 again:

... you stand by faith. [So:] Do not be arrogant but be afraid.

I guess you or I would have finished that sentence, ‘... but be humble’. Whereas Paul says, ‘Be afraid,’ meaning, ‘Be afraid of God –have a healthy sense of his judgement’ – because that’s the only thing that will really keep us humble, really keep us believing we’re as hell-deserving as anyone else, and really keep us depending totally on God’s mercy for our acceptance with him. That’s how to avoid feeling arrogant, and communicating arrogance.
And Paul warns us here that it’s possible for those who profess to be Christians – for churchgoers – to miss mercy just like the Jewish people he’s been describing. Look at vv21-22:

21For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either [that is, if you also miss mercy].22Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.

Now is he saying that genuine Christians can lose their salvation? No. He’s asking each one of us, ‘Are you a genuine Christian? That is, are you continuing in God’s kindness – ie, continuing to trust in God’s mercy through the cross, trusting in that right now, as the only thing that makes you acceptable to him?’ Because if not, if underneath the surface you are in fact trusting in your own goodness and churchgoing and Christian identity to put you right with God, it will fail you, and you’ll ultimately find yourself cut off from him and find that you were never really part of this tree at all.

So, we Gentile Christians should treat Jewish people with humility – as we should non-Jews, as well. And my third and final heading is:


Third, WE GENTILE CHRISTIANS SHOULD TREAT JEWISH PEOPLE WITH HOPEFULNESS (vv23-32)

And I mean hopefulness about their salvation. Look on to v23:

And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

So never think of Jewish people as terminally unbelieving in Christ, as hopeless cases. And by extension, never think of anyone like that, however closed they’ve been over however many years. You may be thinking of a particular person you’re concerned for spiritually. Well, v23 is a reminder that the story is not over yet and that God is able to graft them in to his people if he so chooses. We often talk as if it gets harder for someone to turn to Christ the more time goes on, or the more they get into a non-Christian or even anti-Christian lifestyle. But do you remember what the Lord Jesus said after the rich man walked away, unable to face the implications of having Jesus as Lord of his life? He said, ‘With man this is impossible.’ Notice: not ‘hard’, or ‘increasingly hard’, but ‘impossible’ – human beings never have it in themselves to turn to Christ. ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God.’ (Mark 10.27) So keep praying for that person, keep living the Christian life before them, keep taking any opportunity they give you to speak about Christ, trusting that God is able to graft them in if he so chooses, trusting that all conversions are possible with God.

And in the case of a Jewish person, remember v24:

After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

Ie, while it’s tempting from one point of view to think that a Jewish person is perhaps the ‘hardest case’ to try to share the gospel with, remember that from another point of view there’s nothing more natural than for someone rooted in the OT to recognise Jesus as its fulfilment.

So then Paul sums up the burden of chapters 9-11. Look at vv25-26:

25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26And so [literally, ‘in this way’] all Israel will be saved...

Now more ink has been spilt on those verses than you would believe. I take it: they simply describe God’s program for salvation from the first coming of Jesus to his second coming. In that period, Israel has experiencing a partial hardening – not total, so some Jewish people are still being saved – but partial. That in turn has led to the gospel going out to the Gentiles until the full number of Gentiles God has ever planned to save has come in. And, v26, in this way, all the members of Israel that God has also ever planned to save will be saved – comprising OT believers plus all the Jewish people converted this side of Jesus’ first coming.

And that last bit, v26, is Paul’s point here. He’s underlining again that Jewish people will continue to be converted, and that we should therefore be hopeful for the salvation of some of them, as well as involved – whether directly, or indirectly, eg by praying for and supporting an organisation like Jews for Jesus. And to back up his point, he quotes some OT prophecies that predicted how Christ would work among the Jews, vv26-27:

26And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.

So let me now just read to the end of our passage, vv28-32:

28As far as the gospel is concerned, [the Jewish people] are enemies [in the sense of largely rejecting of the gospel] on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. 32For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Which doesn’t mean that God will ultimately have mercy on all without exception – that hell will not be populated after all. Rather, it means that his plan in every generation is to have mercy on all without distinction, on all kinds of people – among Jews and Gentiles, to the ends of the earth.

And if that’s what God is like – not just able to graft in anyone, but willing to graft in anyone – then we are not to think or act as if anyone is beyond the reach of his mercy.