Continue in God’s kindness
Romans 11
Key verse 11:22
Good morning. Do you remember anything from what we learned last week? Most importantly, chapter 10:9 says that you will be saved when you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Amen! Today, in the first part of chapter 11, Paul said God did not reject his people. He also said when Israel did not believe Jesus, God cut off some of the natural olive branches and grafted the wild olive shoot in among the others. I read a couple articles about the art of grafting. One thing that amazed me was there is a tree called “tree of 40 fruits”. With one tree, it produces 40 different fruits: apple, mango,. In today’s passage, we are like the wild olive shoot. But God grafted you and me into his olive branches even if we do not deserve it. Through this, God shows us his sternness to those who rebel against him and his kindness to those who are chosen by God’s grace. I pray through today’s passage, we may learn why God’s chosen people, Israel, were cut off from God and why we should not be arrogant but humble before God.
- There is a remnant chosen by grace
Look at verse 1. Paul said “did God reject his people?”. Why did Paul ask this question? What was Israel’s situation at that time? In Paul’s time, God seemed to reject his people Israel. In Politics, Israel was a colony of Roman Empire. In economics, they were oppressed severely. Jews looked down on the Gentiles but the Gentile king ruled over them. Also about 10 years later, the temple would be totally destroyed that 1.1 million of the Jews died at that time. Most of all, they rejected Jesus. They became the objects of God’s wrath. It seems that God really rejected Israel.
However, Paul said “by no means”. He said God did not reject his people. How was he so sure about this? He showed two evidence. First evidence is Paul himself. He was an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, and from the tribe of Benjamin. As a conservative Jew, he was zealous for God. He used to reject Jesus and persecuted Christian believers. But Jesus himself saved him from his sins. Furthermore, he called him as the apostle to the Gentile. Like a walking dictionary, he was a walking evidence that God did not reject Israel. Second evidence is that in the times of Elijah, God reserved 7,000 people for his name. Elijah was one of God’s servants. In his time, Israel was the most secular country in history. King Ahab married to a woman who worshipped Baal (idol). He gave up believing God and proclaimed Baal as the national religion. He persecuted anyone who rebelled against his policy. Elijah was very frustrated. He thought God rejected Israel. So he appealed to God by saying “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me?” However, in such a hopeless situation, God told him that God reserved for himself 7,000, not just 7 or 70 but 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. This showed that God did not reject his people either.
Look at verse 5. Let’s read verse 5. “So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.” Paul was confident that in Elijah’s time, as God reserved 7,000 people for his name, so at the present time, in his time, God also reserved a remnant by his grace. In his time, most of the Jews refused to believe Jesus. But there were still remnant chosen by God: such as Paul, Peter, 12 disciples, Mary, they all were Jews.
Verse 5 teaches us two things: first is that God does not reject his people. When we are very sick, when things are not going well, when we are in big troubles, we might question “does God reject me?”. “Does God forget me?”. But it is not so. According to verse 29, God’s calling is irrevocable. Once God calls, he does not cancel his calling in no matter what circumstances. People say “once a marine, always a marine”. Also when you are doing bad things, does your parents consider you are not their child anymore? No. You are still your parent’s child in no matter what. Similarly, God does not reject his people. That is why he disciplines God’s people when they go a wrong way. Second, at the present time in 2021, today, there is a remnant chosen by God’s grace. When we look around, in America, not many people believe in Jesus. Especially, young people are drifting away from God. University of Delaware is known to be a party school. However, according to this verse, there is still a remnant who seeks for spiritual life, who wants to live for God, who wants to live by faith, and who wants to obey Jesus. For his name’s sake, God reserves them in America and on campus. In a sense, we are few but the remnant chosen by God for Delaware campus ministry.
Look at verse 7. The people of Israel earnestly sought the righteousness of God. But they failed to obtain it. Why? Because they sought the wrong way: they pursued the law as the way of righteousness. The righteousness of God cannot be obtained by the works of the law but by the grace of God: through believing Jesus who died on the cross for our sins. However, they refused Jesus and insisted on their own way. As a result, they were hardened. So in verses 8 and 9, Paul quoted how Israel hardened themselves. Verse 8 is quoted from Isaiah. In times of Isaiah, Israel rejected God. Yet, God bore them with great patience. First time, he spoke to them very gently, “please, come back”, then he warned them, but still they refused to go back to God, then threatened them, but they still did not pay attention to God. Eventually God gave them a spirit of stupor that even though they heard the message of God, they could not understand it at all. Also in verse 9 and 10, in David’s time, he prayed to God that their tables might be a snare and a trap. Here, they were those who lived in a prosperous life without God. When they saw good foods and wines on their tables, they were proud of themselves. They said “where is God?”. “why do we need God?”. They hardened themselves. So David prayed that their tables might become the curse for them.
Like Israel, when we do not worship him, we become naturally hardened. According to Romans 1, when people did not glorify God nor gave thanks to him, their thinking became futile and their hearts were foolish and darkened. Then, they exchange the glory of God for idol worships. Eventually God had to give them up in their sinful nature to perish.
- To make Israel envious
Look at verse 11. So far, it seems there is no hope for Israel. But there is still a hope for them. They stumbled but not beyond recovery. How? Because God did not reject them. Because God did not give them up yet. Because God still had hope for them. Let’s read verse 11. “Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.” When Israel sinned against God, God gave the salvation to the Gentiles. In Genesis 12, God called Abraham to be a blessing. And he said “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”. This was the purpose why God called Abraham. Through him and his descendants Israel, God wanted to save the Gentiles. But Israel ignored God’s mission. They focused on only God’s blessing. When they ignored God’s calling, now God himself stepped up and gave the salvation to the Gentiles. What happened to them when the salvation came to them? God called those who are not his people as his own people. They were saved. They became righteous in God’s sight. They could call God “Abba, Father”. They had the Holy Spirit. They became prosperous too.
Then, why did God bless the Gentiles so much? According to verse 11, God did this to make Israel envious. Also according to verse 14, God did this to arouse Israel to envy and save some of them. This is God’s wisdom.
Actually, Israel was a small country. But in the times of king David and Solomon, they served God very well. God poured out his blessing upon them. Then, all people envied them. They wanted to know why the small country was so blessed. They came to Jerusalem to learn about the temple worship, the wisdom of Solomon and the God of Israel. But now when they rejected Jesus, the situation was reverse. They were in the circumstance to envy the Gentiles. In Luke 15, a father has two sons. The youngest son did not like to live in his father’s house. So he demanded his estate from his father. The father knew what would happen to the son. Nevertheless, he gave his son his portion. Then, the son squandered all his wealth and became broke. Then, how did he decide to come back to his father? Luke 15:17-20 say “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants. So he got up and went to his father.”. He decided to come back not because he missed his father, but because he envied his father’s hired servants. While he had no food to eat, even the servants had enough food to eat. He did not want to starve to death. That envy made him return to his father. Historically, in Paul’s time, only a handful of Jews believed Jesus. But since then, many Jews have believed Jesus and came back to God. According to one site, currently about 20% of the Jews believe that Jesus is the Christ. Also there also many active website to preach the gospel to Israel.
When we look at history, we can see the same pattern: Once Europe served God faithfully, God blessed the Europe. People used to say “The sun doesn’t set on the British Empire”. But when they rejected God, there is no more the great British empire. America is the same. Once America worshipped God and sent out many missionaries to overseas, God blessed her abundantly. So many people came to America to learn about the God of America. However, these days America has sinned against God. God’s blessing is now moving to other countries (South Korea or Brazil) which worship God faithfully. I pray Americans envy them and come back to God once again.
- Continue in God’s kindness
Look at verse 16 and 17. Paul warned the Gentile believers. He said to them “do not be arrogant”, “do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches”. Why did Paul warn them? There are two reasons. First, in nature, they are not holy. However, they become holy because Israel is holy before God. Paul explained this by using the dough offering. In the OT, when people bring the dough as an offering to God, they take the part of the dough as first fruits to God, since the part is holy, the rest of the dough is holy and acceptable to God. in the same analysis, as God’s people, since Israel is holy, the rest of God’s people, the Gentiles are also holy and acceptable to God. In this sense, there is nothing that the Gentiles boast about. They should not be proud. They should not be arrogant. Second, according to verse 17, the Gentiles are the wild olive shoot, God is the olive root and Israel is the natural branches. When the natural branches were fruitful, the wild olive shoot just watched and envied the natural branches. But because of Israel’s unbelief, God broke off some of the natural branches and grafted the wild olive shoot in among others. Then the wild olive shoot shared the nourishing saps from the root. As a result, they began to bear good fruits. Actually, God did not need to graft the wild olive shoot into the natural branches. Nevertheless, by his mercy, by his kindness, he grafted them in the natural branches. Also the root supports the wild branches. In this reason, the Gentile believers should not consider themselves to be superior to the Jews. Rather they should tremble (meaning fear and respect) God. Because when the natural branches were arrogant, God did not spare the natural braches. Similarly, if the wild old branches are arrogant, God will not spare them either.
Then, what kind of attitude should the Gentile believers have? Look at verse 22. Let’s read verse 22. “Consider 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”. We need to consider the kindness and sternness of God. When Israel did not believe Jesus, God was stern to them. Without any mercy, he broke off some of the natural branches from his tree. But by his kindness, he grafted us into his tree. So we need to continue in his kindness. Otherwise, we also will be cut off. Then, how can we continue in God’s kindness? There might be many ways, but one thing I can think of is from John 15. In John 15, Jesus said “remain in my love, remain in my words, obey the commands which I teach”. We can stay in God’s kindness through obeying the commands of Jesus.
Look at verse 24. In the physical nature, when you graft an apple branch into a peach tree branches, from the branches, an apple comes out. But in the spiritual nature, when a wild olive shoot is grafted in a cultivated olive tree, it does not produce wild olive but choicest olive. How could this happen? Because the tree itself is so good. Jesus says “the good tree bears good fruits”. So it is important for us where to be grafted. If we are grafted in Jesus, we will bear good fruit. But if we are grafted in something else, we will bear bad fruits.
In conclusion, God does reject his people. He does not give them up. He reserve a remnant for his name. We should be humble before God and continue in his kindness. Otherwise, as he broke off his people Israel, he will also cut us off. So let us stay in God’s kindness through living by faith in Jesus.