Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Romans 11:13 - 11:15

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Romans 11:13 - 11:15


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

An admonition to the Gentiles:

v. 13. For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office,

v. 14. if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.

v. 15. 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?

The apostle in the entire section now following addresses himself to his Gentile readers. In so far as he is indeed the apostle of the Gentiles, he intends to praise his ministry. He wants the Gentiles to remember that he, in his capacity as apostle of the heathen, brings glory upon this office of his in its faithful execution also by the fact that he thereby wants to arouse and stimulate the Jews, and thus, if possible, to save some of them. The Gentile Christians should know that the apostle, in the midst of his earnest work in their behalf, always feels responsibility for the Jews also. If he can but succeed in inciting emulation among them that are of his flesh, at least some of them, bring them to the knowledge and acceptance of their Savior and thus bestow upon them the blessings of salvation: that is the apostle's earnest desire. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life out of death? With the rejection of the Jews, by their own fault, the reconciliation could be made known and thus realized in the wider circles of the whole world. The Gospel of the reconciliation of God with man, as accomplished in Christ, was carried out into the heathen world as a result of the rejection of the Jews. But if this punishment of the Jews had such a blessed result, what blessings, what life will flow from their acceptance, from the conversion of such as might still be gained through the method employed by the apostle! When the remnant out of Israel has been converted to the Messiah, then the object of God will have been realized, then will come the glorious life in and with Christ through all eternity, then both Jews and Greeks will inherit, through faith, the Kingdom which was prepared for them before the foundation of the world. Note: History repeats itself, also with regard to the reception of the Word of God and its reaction on the behavior of men. The Gospel is taken from the ungrateful and given to such as are more appreciative of its value. And in many instances the establishment of new congregations, where the first love brought forth rich fruits, has reacted favorably upon older congregations in stimulating new interest for the work of the kingdom of God.