God Will keep Israel By His Choice of Grace
by James Lincoln on August 13, 2006
The prophets spoke of a day when God's own Son would come to Israel and the world. He would be from the tribe of Judah, born in Bethlehem and born of a virgin. He would preach good news to the afflicted and bind up the broken hearted. He would be Immanuel or God with us. And yet, He would be like one from whom men hide their face, despised and rejected. Isaiah said, "We (Israel) would esteem Him not." He would come as the lamb of God who was pierced through for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. He would be one who was cut from the land of the living for the transgressions of the people and buried with a rich man and yet death wouldn't hold him. David said they would cast lots for his garments. He would also open wide the gates of hope and salvation to the nations. Jesus came and was all these things and yet, Israel as a nation, rejected Him. It broke Paul's heart. He couldn't shake it off. Of all people, his kinsmen, Israel...Israel... rejected her Messiah, Jesus, and the gospel.
Paul gives a reason for that rejection in 10:3: "For not knowing (or not embracing or laying hold of) God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God." The fundamental message of the gospel is that we are too lost and sinful to provide a righteousness on the basis of our own record. But in His mercy, God, provides His righteousness for us as a gift received by faith in his Son Jesus. He calls us to yield to this good news and give up the idea that we can somehow merit God's favor and blessing. The Savior of the world came and Israel, who knew more about this than any nation, rejected it.
Now, at the end of chapter 10, Paul raised two questions that might have gotten Israel off the hook. Perhaps Israel didn't hear the message clear enough (18). Maybe God failed to make it clear. Paul's emphatic here. Indeed, she did hear. That excuse won't do. He quotes Ps. 19. "Their voice and words went out to the end of the world." Just as the witness of nature testifies universally to God's existence, so God has testified extensively to Israel about Jesus. No, God and Jesus didn't fail to get the message to Israel. Jesus carried on a sustained ministry for three years and made the gospel clear. It wasn't a lack of hearing. Instead, the word says Israel would not submit to what Jesus and the prophets said about God.
"But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "LORD, who has believed our report?" Rom 10:16 (cf.10:21) NKJV
It wasn't because she didn't hear nor understand? He says it was because she didn't want things to be this way. She didn't want to obey God when He sent His son to her. Jesus said, in Mtt. 23:43, "Therefore I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits." Paul doesn't let Israel off the hook here.
But then notice what he doesn't say next. I would have expected him to write, "Ok, now that Israel is unwilling, obstinate and disobedient I'm now going to a people who will be willing to seek me and ask for me." Is that what he says? No! He says, "Israel disobeyed and rejected Me so now I'll be found by those who didn't seek me nor did they ask for me." Verse 19 says, "I will move you to anger by a foolish people not a wise people." Look at what God has to work with. He's got defiant Jews who disobey Him on the one hand; and indifferent Gentiles on the other who don't seek for him nor ask for Him. None are worthy of His favor! Outside of the miracle of His grace, everyone is lost; dead in trespasses and sins and in need of his healing grace. Even our seeking and asking for God is the work of His grace.
So, the next time you point your finger at the unbelief of the Jews, you have four pointing to your innate indifference. Someone might say, "Well I sought and I asked." Yes, but only after God put it into your heart to do so. We'll see this with Abimelech in a few moments.
Paul is concerned here about the Gentile believers, having a sense of superiority toward the Jews. He makes it explicit in v. 18 "Don't be arrogant toward the branches.."
Several years ago, a contractor came into my office with a pencil, rubbing of a grave headstone. It was mostly done in Hebrew. He asked me to translate it for him. He was excavating a site and, by law, if a contractor hits a grave stone; they have to stop and get permission from the state to continue. So, he wanted me to tell him what it was. This turned out to be a very interesting assignment. The Hebrew name was Ben Yitzhak or Son of Isaac. The English translation was Jackson. During the huge immigration to America in the 19c., many Jews changed their names to avoid prejudice. The easiest way to do this was to change Isaac's son to Jack's son or Jackson. I told this story to a relative by marriage who's last name is Jackson. He wasn't at all pleased. Why? He was offended that I was implying that his ancestors might have been Jewish. But let mea ask this. Where does the offence come from? It can only come from an innate sense of superiority or prejudice against Jews.
Paul says, Look Israel by nature is disobedient and obstinate and the Gentiles by nature are foolish, unseeking and indifferent. Here's Paul's point. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and stand in need of God's grace.
Chapter 11: Two Questions Now, in chapter 11, Paul raises two questions. Here's the first. Does all of this mean that God is finished with ethnic Israel? Does her disobedience mean that God has rejected Israel completely? The second question is similar to the first. In v.11 Paul asks, "Have the Jews in their rejection stumbled and fallen so much that it is final and permanent?" Two questions: Is her rejection total or is it partial? And second, is it temporary or is it permanent? Paul's answer to both of these questions is, "No, it's not complete nor is it final."
This morning, let's take his first question and see how he answers it. Has God written ethnic Israel off completely? Here's his answer. It's "No." and here's why:
First, Paul says, "Look, I'm a Jew and I've been included with you in the blessings and GRACE of the Gospel. Rom 11:1-2
"By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew." NIV
Paul says, Look, don't forget that the early church was almost exclusively Jewish. Paul was a Jew, Peter, John, James and Mary were all Jewish. So, Paul is saying. "Look don't think that because the nation as a whole rejected Jesus that Jews are by necessity forsaken by God. Indeed they haven't been. I'm a Jew and as much a part of the church as anyone else who believes on Jesus. And if you are in doubt about that -and unlike many- I can trace my ancestors back to Abraham through the line of Benjamin." So, Paul stands as living proof that Israel has not been rejected completely. So don't start any rumors that Jews are beyond the pale and reach of God's grace.
Paul is concerned here. He doesn't want to happen in Rome what happened in Antioch in reverse. In Antioch, the Jewish Christians had a superior attitude toward the Gentile Christians. At one point even Peter wouldn't eat with Christians who weren't Jewish. Antioch was Paul's home base for missions to the east. He planned for Rome to be his home base for missions to the Spain and the west. He didn't want the Gentile believers in Rome to become arrogant toward the Jews and create the same problem in reverse. Here's the point. And it was found on the wall of young boy's club house, "No body act big. Nobody act small. Everybody act medium." Your ethnic background or nationality is nothing to brag about no matter who you are.
Israel's rejection doesn't mean that God is done with Israel. No, Israel doesn't deserve it but this is about grace not works. Paul's history wasn't unknown. Paul was bent on wiping the Christians out. He wasn't seeking Jesus nor asking for Him. He was on his way to kill Christians when God intervened and saved him. His own life is evidence of the grace that God is not done with the Jews. Paul goes on to a second reason in v. 2 and that is that...
The Prophets said that God wouldn't reject His people (v. 2 & 1Sam.12:22)
Here Paul's quoting 1Sam.12:22 where Samuel says, "God has not rejected His people." Then Paul adds, "whom He foreknew." Did you notice that Paul continues to call Israel "His people" even though the kingdom had been taken away from them? He doesn't update Samuel. You would think God's foreknowledge of her rejection would cause Him to cancel that status. Could God be more gracious? He's reminds me of Hosea pursuing his wayward wife. Again, His reason for calling Israel "His people" isn't that Israel deserves it or that anyone deserves the title (This is all by grace cf. 6.) Samuel gives us the reason in the same verse.
"For the LORD will not forsake His people, FOR HIS GREAT NAME SAKE because it has pleased the LORD to make you His people." NKJV (cf. Deut.9:4)
Why does he not forsake Israel completely? It's because God has attached His name, His fame and his reputation to them. God is zealous for His name and His reputation. Out of zeal for His name God won't completely forsake Israel.
Our hope in the fulfillment of God's promises is in the assurance that God will glorify His name and make the glory of His name fill the earth as the waters now cover the sea. In Christ, God has folded His church into this promise and attached His name to His church and folded us into that same promise.
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1Pe. 2:9 NAS
God still calls Israel His people. Even when she was unfaithful Hosea treated his wife as his wife. Israel is in a state of unfaithfulness but because God has attached His reputation and name to her He will not reject her completely. By grace a day will come when ethnic Israel will ultimately bring glory to the name of God and Jesus. But there is only one thing we can point to that would justify such a thing and that is the grace and kindness of God and His faithfulness to make His name and mercy known.
Paul gives one more reason that God has not rejected Israel completely at the end of v.2 through v. 6.
Out of His GRACIOUS CHOICE (v.5) God has chosen to KEEP a remnant (2-6)
"God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 "Lord, they have killed Thy prophets, they have torn down Thine altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life." 4 But what is the divine response to him? "I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice." Rom 11:2-5 NAS
Paul reaches back to Elijah in Israel, to prove from the O.T. the workings of God's grace. Elijah thought he was the only believer left in all the land and there was a good argument for that belief. Notice in v. 2 that Elijah wasn't pleading for Israel. He was pleading against Israel. Listen to God's answer, "I have kept for my self seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. (v.4, see 1Kgs. 19:18) Notice that God didn't find seven thousand men who didn't bow to Baal, He kept 7,000 men from doing so. There's a huge difference. Left to themselves they all would have followed Baal. Fertility worship was just too seductive. Did God keep the remnant because they were they were the ones who faithfully kept the covenant? No, Paul says in v. 5 that it was because God kept them by His gracious choice and then he makes the point about grace in Rom 11:6
"But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace." NAS
The 7,000 didn't merit God's favor. They were on the keeping and restraining end of God's grace. I can't count the number of times I've been on the restraining end of God's grace. At times my heart has been so bent on sinning and yet, time after time He intervened and kept me from doing what I really wanted to do.
God Kept Abimelech From Sinning Against Him Can you remember when Abraham gave his beautiful wife Sarah to Abimelech saying that she was his sister? Abimelech took Sarah home. But God was determined to keep Sarah pure before the birth of Isaac. One night He comes to Abimelech in a dream and says to him, "Abimelech, you're a dead man because you have taken Sarah for she is married." Now Abimelech had yet to touch Sarah. So he said to God, "Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Abraham lied to me saying, 'She is my sister'? And she herself said, "He's my brother." In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.' God said, and please listen carefully, 'Yes, I know that you've done this in the integrity of your heart, but it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I did not let you touch her (Gen.20:5-6)."
God intervened directly into the life, into the thoughts and intentions, the desires and actions of Abimelech's life to ensure Sarah would remain pure in this matter. God says to Abimelech, "Look you thought you were innocent; you thought that your will and intentions were pure...but the only reason you were was because I kept you from doing what by nature you would have done. Sometimes we think that just because we chose to do good over evil that proves we're good and moral people. God says to Abimelech, I WAS THE ONE who kept you from crossing the line with Sarah. Your innocent actions were due -not to your own innate righteousness- but to my keeping power and grace.
In the same way God intervened to ensure the faithfulness of the 7000. Paul affirms in Romans 11:5, So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. Grace is unmerited, unearned and unearnable favor. Paul says of grace, "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. (v.6) Grace is not a measure of the relative merit of those who receive it; grace is a reality regarding the one who gives it. Grace is given freely, without regard to the merits of those who receive it.
Jesus' taught that grace won't make any sense to those who think well and feel good about themselves (the healthy). But grace will make sense to those who know themselves to be sick sinners (the sick) hopeless and in desperate need of mercy. When churches get filled with people who feel good about themselves and think well of themselves, they are in great danger of becoming satisfied with themselves, impressed with their own righteousness, and unconcerned with grace. Their table as David says in v. 9 becomes a snare. Over satisfied and filled they have no needs and begin to think they don't need God or grace.
So, God has not rejected Israel completely because -in His gracious choice to reveal His grace- He will keep a remnant starting with the apostles and Paul and ending with a national revival that will spread the reputation and glory of His name. History will not end without a remnant of Israel being kept by God to honor his gracious name and the glory of His Son Jesus.
Judgment Now, of course the other side of grace is judgment. God shows mercy and God hardens. In v.7 he says, "that which Israel is seeking for it has not obtained (you can't get God's favor by your nationality or the record of your own righteousness) but those who were chosen by this grace obtained it -that's grace- the rest were hardened- That's judgment. V.8
"just as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, Eyes to see not and ears to hear not, Down to this very day." 9 And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a trap, And a stumbling block and a retribution to them. 10 "Let their eyes be darkened to see not, And bend their backs forever." NAS
This is God's judicial hardening of those who persistently reject the gospel. Notice that God is the one who does it. He seconds the motion their hearts have already made. There comes a time with those who persist in their rejection that God Himself actively hardens the hearts. He sends a spirit of stupor or sleepiness, dullness and inattentiveness. "Sleepers in the hands of an Angry God." It's as if God says, "OK you want it your way...I'll leave you to yourself to see and hear only what you want to see and hear. You're prosperity and feasts will be a stumbling block and deceive you into thinking you don't need God." Either their backs are bent in stubborn unyieldedness or they are bent over in the slavish service to the appetites of their own ambitions and hearts. Perhaps both. Without the grace of God this is where we would all be. So, we don't exalt ourselves; we exalt Jesus and His goodness to save sinners like us by His grace. God wants His name and reputation to be connected to his compassion... so He is gracious.
So, By His grace and zeal for His name sake, by His promise to save and keep a remnant of sinners saved by His gracious choice from among His people, by His faithfulness to these things Paul says that God is not yet done with Israel.
OK. Why study about this ancient people and their relationship to God? We do so because Israel is a microcosm of how God deals with the rest of us. He deals with Israel historically and publicly the way He deals with the rest of us privately and spiritually. So we need to ask what about our hearts? How do we respond? These verses make me tremble, for the facts of my own sinfulness, of the often hidden and stubborn rebellion in my own heart, are raised up before me. I can hide my sin as well as you can. I sinned against a brother two weeks ago. To put it bluntly I was an ass. He graciously forgave me. But, will God forgive me and cleans me again? Will he use a sinner like me who has known Him for years but who still has rebellion and stubbornness in his heart? Will His grace be sufficient for me? This chapter reminds me of my great need for the grace of God for my salvation. Will God forgive me? Yes! Oh, not because I deserve to be. But for the spread of His fame and a reputation of being gracious and for the glory of His Son Jesus He will.
The chapter strikes me afresh with the greatness of God's love, its purity and goodness. It flows like a fountain of sweet and life giving water from the depths of His love. When I drink again from this fountain I'm refreshed, renewed, cleansed, restored to joy, all in Christ and in Christ alone. These verses tell me there is hope in God alone. So I look again to God and have hope. I repent of my sin and strive for holiness and goodness and righteousness not for my pride's sake but for the spread of His glory and His love's. I appeal, beloved, that all us would do the same.
There is more to say about Israel. Lord willing, we'll talk about that again next Sunday. For now, hear God's warning: if you delay to repent and fail to cast yourself on His mercy-- you run the risk of a point of no return where your heart will be harden. Don't be foolish. Run to Jesus...receive His grace and live for his praise.