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  Long Island Abundant Life Church 長島豐盛生命教會

Romans 11:1–24

8/21/2012

 
Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Of Branches and Remnants
Today we're going to be summarizing a lot - kind of getting to the point of Romans 9-11.  Here's a quick summary of 9-11 that a preaching team I was on a few years ago did:

Chapter 9
God has not gone back on His promises (v.6).  He has sovereignly chosen individuals from both the Jews and Gentiles apart from their works and heritage.

Chapter 10
Israel was so busy trying to gain their own righteousness through the law that they missed God’s provision in Jesus Christ.  The have no excuse, because the message was given to them.

Chapter 11
Gentiles have no room to boast.  God chooses whom He will, not based on merit.  The Jews still have a major role in God’s future plans.

Also, here's another chart to help us out:
Picture
Chart by Kc Myers
Basically, Paul is still trying to answer the question, "Has God broken His promise by rejecting His chosen people?"  I mean, yes - they DID reject the Messiah, but God still made a promise, right?  Paul draws the distinction between "Physical Israel" and "Spiritual Israel".  Physical Israel are those that are actually Jewish, circumcised, etc., while Spiritual Israel are those that actually believe and are therefore TRULY the children of Abraham (chapter 4).  But there is an overlap (top of the chart) - there are those of Physical Israel that truly believe and truly accept the Messiah.  Paul calls them a "remnant" - members of Spiritual Israel that are also members of Physical Israel.  Remnant or not, Paul tell us that God HAS NOT broken his promises to redeem Israel because He truly will redeem all members of the true SPIRITUAL Israel, children of Abraham because they show the faith of Abraham (again, chapter 4).  Physical Israel has no excuse - the had the message and God's word, but rejected it.

That brings us to today:  Paul basically tells the Gentiles not to get too proud that they are included, because it is not on their own merit.  Because Israel rejected God, they were "pruned" branches and the Gentiles were "grafted in".  That just means that they, a foreign branch, were brought into the "plant" by an artificial grafting process.  Paul reasons to us (Gentiles) that if we, the foreigners, can be brought in, how much easier could those original branches be brought back in?  Don't get too proud about status, lest the Gentiles make the same mistake the Jews did.

Whew - it's pretty complicated with a lot of imagery, but I hope the quick summary helps.  Let me know if you have any questions or comments and I'll try to get to them when I'm able.
Andrei
8/21/2012 05:48:39 pm

Some thoughts/questions... I was reading verses 11-15... and was thinking about what Paul has said in the past couple of chapters as well... and even with all the arguments Paul to the Jews and everything, and I can't help but to feel that maybe he should stop even trying to tell the Jews that they are somewhat special, because all of his arguments seem so weak. Like in 11-15, he says that if the Jews' failure 'means riches for the Gentiles', then their full inclusion will mean even more. I get the feeling that this wouldn't be convincing by any means to a Jew... if I were a Jew, I feel like I'd smack him in the face for even trying. It just feels like whatever he says to the Jews about their history and them being God's people isn't going to make them more receptive to Christ; it's more like... somewhat insulting... because he's like gently telling them that their history/law/lineage doesn't mean jack anymore... or maybe he's just doing his best job in telling this to them in a sensitive way where he relates to them?

Greg
8/22/2012 06:23:31 am

A few thoughts - First of all, I think we can see in Acts that Paul isn't particularly concerned with making friends with the Jews. He is the apostle to the Gentiles, and his relationship with the Jews is often fraught with troubles. Second, part of the problem with his message is that it's a hard one to sugarcoat. He's basically saying to them that their lineage has NEVER mattered and the precious Law served to condemn them. I don't think his attempts are so much to make Christ attractive to them as they are to get them to see that their lineage and Law AREN'T. He's definitely concerned - he says that if it were possible, he would surrender himself to hell in order that the Jews would get it, but they don't. I don't think the statements about how they were God's chosen people are really an attempt to win them over - I think it's more an attempt to stop the Gentiles from seeing things from the wrong perspective - just like the branch comments at the end of today's passage.

We can definitely see throughout this book that Jew-Gentile relations were probably really tense and there was a real lack of understanding about the Gospel and its relationship to the Law and the Jews. I think Paul's main goal isn't to please any particular group, but just to put the truth out there for people to accept or not.


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