God’s Future Dealings with Israel in Fulfilment of the Prophetic Scriptures
Chapter 11
This eleventh chapter is most illuminating in regard to God’s dispensational plan. We have already seen how His past dealings with Israel proved His righteousness in acting toward the Gentiles as He now does, despite the covenant made with the earthly people. Then in chapter 10 we have seen that although the nation as such is set to one side, this does not in any way hinder the individual Israelite from turning to God and finding that same salvation which He, in His sovereignty, is proclaiming through His servants to the Gentiles. In the first part of our present chapter, verses Rom_11:1-6, the subject of chapter 10 is continued and brought to a conclusion. The question is asked: “Hath God cast away His people?” By no means. Paul’s own experiences proved that this was not the case; for he was an Israelite, of the natural seed of Abraham, and of the tribe of Benjamin; yet he had been laid hold of by the Spirit of God and brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what was true of him might be true of any other. What had really happened was simply the fulfilment of the words of the prophet Elijah in a wider sense than when he spoke in Ahab’s day. The nation had rejected every testimony sent to it. As a people they had killed the prophets and defiled Jehovah’s altar. But as in Elijah’s day, God had reserved seven thousand to Himself who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal, so “at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” God rejects the nation, but grace goes out to the individual.
The great thing, however, for Israel to understand is that, if saved at all, they are saved exactly as Gentiles are saved, and that is by grace. Grace, as we have seen, is unmerited favor. Yea, we may put it even stronger: it is favor against merit. This precludes all thought of work. If merit of any sort is taken into consideration, then it is no more grace. On the other hand, if salvation be of works, this leaves no place whatever for grace, because it would take from work its meritorious character. The two principles-salvation by grace and salvation by works-are diametrically opposed, one to the other. There can be no admixture of law and grace; they are mutually destructive principles.
Beginning with verse Rom_11:7, the apostle now undertakes to show God’s secret purpose in connection with Israel in the coming day. What the nation sought it has failed to obtain; but the election (that is, those who are content to be saved by grace) do obtain it; and as to the rest, they are judicially blinded. Again he quotes from the Old Testament to show that this is in full accord with the prophetic Word. As Isaiah wrote, “God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;” and He shows that this is true unto this day. David, too, had written: “Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompense unto them: let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.” These terrible imprecations were fulfilled when the representatives of the nation deliberately rejected Christ and called down judgment upon the heads of their descendants when they cried in Pilate’s judgment hall, “His blood be upon us, and upon our children.” Rejecting Messiah, God rejected them. And many Christians have taken it for granted that He is through with them as a nation forever. This, the apostle now shows, is far from the truth. He asks, “Have they stumbled that they should fall?”; that is, utterly fall, fall without any hope or possibility of recovering. The answer again is, “By no means.” God has overruled their present defection to make known His riches of grace toward the Gentiles, and this, in turn, will be used eventually to provoke Israel to jealousy and to turn them back to the God of their fathers and to the Christ whom they have rejected. This recovery will be a means of untold blessing to that part of the world which has not yet come to a saving knowledge of the gospel. With holy enthusiasm he exclaims: “Now if the defection of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?” It is well to note the use he makes of this word, “fulness,” as we shall come upon it lower down in the chapter. The fulness of Israel will be the conversion of Israel-the fulfilment of God’s purpose regarding them.
Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and as such, he magnified his office; but he would not have the Gentiles for a moment think that he had lost his interest in Israel: rather he would see them stirred to emulation, that many might be saved from among them as they saw the grace of God going out to the Gentiles; on the other hand, he would not have the Gentile glory over the Jew because the latter was set aside and the former enjoyed the blessings that the Jew would have had, had he been ready to receive them. He continues his argument by introducing a parable, which brings out most vividly the divine plan. He says: “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” That is, if, as they wander among all the nations, a disappointed and weary people, under the ban of the God of their fathers, the message of grace is going out to the Gentiles, and an election from them are receiving the message, what will it mean to the world as a whole when Israel nationally will turn back to the Lord and become in very truth a holy people, His witnesses to all nations?
“For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.” If the regenerated remnant in Israel be indeed a people set apart to God, so eventually will the nation be to which they belong. And if the root of the covenant olive tree be holy (that is, Abraham, who believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness), so are all those who are really linked with him by faith. They were natural branches in the olive tree-Israelites by birth but not by grace, who were broken off. And in order that the promises of God to Abraham should not fail, “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” the branches of the wild olive tree-the Gentiles-were grafted in among the remnant of Israel, and thus Jew and Gentile believing together, partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree. But now the grave danger is lest the Gentile should rest on mere outward privileges, and while linked with the children of the promise, should fail to appreciate for themselves the gospel of God, and so prove unreal. In that case, God will have to deal with the Gentiles as He had dealt with the Jews. And so we get the solemn warning: “Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.” Some might say, “Well, but the natural branches were broken off, that I, a Gentile, might be grafted in.” The answer is clear and distinct: “They were broken off because of unbelief, and thou standest by faith.” Therefore the admonition, “Be not high-minded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.”
Do we need to pause to ask whether the Gentiles have valued their privileges? Is it not patent to every observing spiritually-minded person that conditions in Christendom are as bad to-day as they ever were in Israel? Do we not see apostasy from the truth everywhere prevalent? Are not the characteristic features of the last days, as depicted in 2Timothy Chapter 3, everywhere manifest? If so, may we not well be warned that the time is near when the unfruitful branches will be torn out of the olive tree and the natural branches, at last turning back to God, be grafted in again to their own olive tree?
In these dispensational ways we see manifested that goodness and severity of God, which has already been so clearly brought out in the ninth chapter: on those who fell, who refused to believe the testimony, severity; but toward ignorant and unworthy Gentiles, goodness, but this goodness only to be continued toward them if they continue to appreciate it, otherwise they, too, shall be cut off. Who can doubt that the day of the cutting off is near at hand, when the true Church having been caught up to be with the Lord, judgment will be meted out to unfaithful Christendom, and then God will turn back in grace to Israel, if they abide not still in unbelief, and they shall be re-grafted into their own olive tree, according to the power of the God of resurrection?
I recall an article by a well-known “higher critic,” which I read some years ago, in which he was ridiculing the idea of the apostle Paul’s inspiration because of his apparent ignorance of one of the first principles of horticulture: “Paul,” said he, “was actually so ignorant of the art of grafting that he speaks of grafting wild branches into a good tree, evidently not aware of the fact that it is customary to graft good branches into a wild tree.” It is clear that the reverend critic had never carefully read the apostle’s own words, as given in the next verse, or he would not have been caught in such a trap. Paul clearly indicates that his illustration is one which he well knew to be opposed to that which was ordinarily done. He says: “For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?”
No; Paul was not ignorant of horticulture, nor was the Holy Ghost ignorant, who was guiding him and inspiring him as he wrote. That which is not customary to man is often in full accord with the divine plan, as here.
And so, in verses Rom_11:25-32, we see just what must take place before this re-grafting, and what will follow afterwards. “I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved.”
This, then, is one of the secret things hidden in the mind of God until the due time for its revelation: Israel will be blinded in part, but, thank God, only in part, until the present work of God among the Gentiles be completed. Here we have the second use of this word “fulness.” “The fulness of the Gentiles” is the completion of the work among the nations which has been going on ever since Israel’s rejection. This “fulness,” as we know from other scriptures, will come in when our Lord calls His Church to be with Himself, in accordance with 1Thes Chapter 4, and 1Corinthians Chapter 15. It is then that, “all Israel shall be saved.” We are not to understand by the term “all Israel” everyone of Israel’s blood, for we have already learned that “they are not all Israel who are of Israel, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” So the remnant will be the true Israel in that glorious day when, “There shall come out of the Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob,” for God has said: “This is My covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins.”
So then, the apostle concludes, they are enemies of the gospel for the present time; but through their enmity grace goes out to the Gentiles. Nevertheless, according to the divine plan, they are still beloved for the fathers’ sakes, for God’s gifts and calling He never retracts; the promises made to the patriarchs and to David shall and must be fulfilled. Study carefully the 89th Psalm in this connection. And just as the Gentiles, who in time past had not believed God but have now obtained mercy through the Jews’ unbelief, so, in like manner, when the Gentiles prove unbelieving and are set to one side, Israel will obtain mercy when they turn back in faith to God.
Whether Jew or Gentile, all alike are saved on the same principle, “For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all.”
The last four verses are in the nature of a Doxology. The apostle’s heart is filled with worship, and praise, and admiration as the full blaze of the divine plan fills the horizon of his soul. He exclaims: “O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!”
Apart from revelation none could have known His mind, just as no created being could ever have been His counsellor. No one ever earned grace by first giving to Him, in order that blessing might be recompensed; but everything is of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
