Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 11:25-36, Part II

Read here: Romans 11

Review

• Calvin on the theme of Romans: “Man’s only righteousness is the mercy of God in Christ, when it is offered by the Gospel and received by faith.” Romans 1:17 and elsewhere.
• IMPORTANT: Paul wrote the letter to the saints (1:7), and the letter is about the gospel, which is a reminder we need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily. 
• Luther: Simul iustus et peccator = At the same time, righteous and a sinner! Romans 3:23-25
• In Ch. 1-3 Paul shows us our unrighteousness, and God’s wrath against that, and then switches to Christ’s righteousness as our covering, the propitiation of our sins (Romans 3:25) as the final sacrifice for sin, fulfilling the promise to Abraham, who had faith before any works
• Faith being “counted” or “credited to our account” as righteousness is mentioned 11 times in Chapter 4! If “none are righteous” as Paul wrote in Romans 3:10, then this saving faith must be a gift from God.
• Ch. 5, We now have peace with God, access to God, and hope, because of what Christ did for us while we were weak(v. 6), sinners (v. 8), and enemies (v. 10). Christ did this “at the right time,” (v. 6), connecting Christ’s work on the cross and God’s plan of redemption to real history (not just a myth or legend).
• Atonement(5:6-11): Jesus satisfying God’s wrath for us through His sacrificial death on the cross.
• Ch. 5 and 6 describe federalism, this idea of one man making a difference, for righteousness (Jesus) or wickedness (Adam). 
• Ch 6 ended with lots of words pointing to the new road we are now on with Christ, the sanctification road.
  • Service is the key word, “slaves” used 8 times.
  • “Present yourselves”(5), “Leads to”(5).
• Sproul: “our regeneration, our rebirth was the work of one Person, God. It was not a joint venture; but from the moment we take our first breath of regenerated spiritual life, it  becomes a joint effort.” The work of one Person is what salvation is about. The joint venture is what sanctification is about. Ch.6 ends and we continue into Ch.7 describing what this “sanctification road” looks like to walk down. We were on the sin road that leads to death, but now we are on the grace road that leads to eternal life.
• Chapter 8 is describing the assurance we have as Christians in salvation. Deus pro nobis – God for us. It is a reminder of God’s sovereignty over our salvation, and God’s infinite wisdom, in the creation, fall, redemption plan he has for not just us, but the whole world. Ultimately, God, not us, foreknows, predestines, calls, justifies and glorifies. There are many verses (Romans 2:4, John 3:16, etc) that point to God’s patience with everyone, His love for everyone, that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9), so I believe there is some free will in there somewhere, perhaps an ability to answer the call, or not. But, even if we answer the call, it is God who initiated. Even if we are crying out for God, “feeling our way to Him” like Acts 17:27 says, we are only doing this because He has already called. We are MORE THAN CONQUERORS, not on our own of course, but “through Him who loved us” from before time began. 
• Chapter 9 continues on the point of election, which, if you think about it, Paul has been discussing since Romans 1:1 when he said he was “set apart”. Paul continues to hammer the point that it is God’s free will, not ours, that matters most. It’s good to keep in mind the complexity of God, as he is not just electing, but he is doing a bunch of things simultaneously and eternally. He is electing, foreknowing, predestining, calling, justifying, glorifying, answering prayer, “giving them over to a debased mind” (Romans 1:28-32) while also being kind as a means to lead people to repentance (Romans 2:4), showing mercy to some and hardening others (9:18). It’s like God is working on an eternal and therefore infinite scale, but also an instantaneous and therefore infinitesimal scale. Pastor John Macarthur, who went home to Jesus recently, described this as a parallelism, God’s sovereign election running alongside the “whoever believes in Him will have eternal life” of John 3:16. It is Euler’s “every instant,” of God initiating, so the saved are always indebted to Him. And it’s also Paul’s “unceasing anguish” for the lost in 9:2, something we should ask God to give us, too. And something that clearly shows that God predestines us to a team, His team, and we are working with Him to save sinners. He’s just team captain and MVP. He gets all the glory!
  • Also remember that Paul references almost 50 OT verses in Chapter 9 alone. He is retelling Israel’s story in many places to serve as a reminder of God’s sovereign will over nations, but also individuals like Pharoah, Moses, Jacob and Esau, etc. Some want to say election is only about nations, or only individuals, but this is another both/and. 
  • Romans 9:6 is key (I think) to understanding a lot of Ch. 9-11. We need to keep going back to this, that “not all Israel belongs to Israel.” What Paul is getting at here is that true Israel are believers, regardless of nation or ancestry.
• Chapter 10 also discusses election, as well as Macarthur’s “parallelism”, or even the “3 strands are not easily broken” analogy in Ecclesiastes 4:12. That’s more what some of Chapter 10 is describing, because God could just yell the gospel down from heaven if wanted, but he chooses to use us, weak on our own but strong in Him. Ch. 10 describes a deep, personal bond God has with believers. Paul also describes Israel’s history of disobedience, how they did not hear the gospel, but in Ch. 11 again reminds that God preserves a remnant.

Intro

• Key words: God, mercy, disobedience, all  (4); come (3); Israel (2) . This is about God’s mercy in spite of man’s disobedience, for Jew and Gentile alike, for all God’s chosen. 
• Review of Verses 25-27
  • In Part 1, we only covered verses 25-26. There is evidence in these verses and the preceding ones that God is not finished with ethnic Israel. That there is a partial hardening now, but that a future opportunity awaits. That this hardening isn’t permanent. But why is this the plan, of going back and forth between hardening hearts and softening hearts? To answer that, I think we need to read the rest of the chapter, AND connect it back to Romans 9:20-24 in particular(who are we to answer back to God?). 
  • The mystery is that God has hardened Israel’s hearts, but not completely, and he suggests that it is for a season, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. So, this partial hardening has an end. 
  • Paul is saying here the partial hardening will end once this God-ordained fullness of the Gentiles has been met. Sproul says this interprets as “plentitude”, or like a saturation point, and at that point, His relationship with ethnic Israel will change.
    • Sproul reminds of the destruction of the Jewish temple in AD 70, which put an end to the sacrificial system for good. Many scholars see a parallel in Romans 11 and Luke 21 and the predictions made there, when Jesus prophesied of this event. Paul is basically affirming here that that is going to happen, but also that there is a future for ethnic Israel and the city. And he is saying the hardening will be lifted, as if to say the Jews will repent en masse and rebuild a Christian church in Jerusalem. 
    • Sproul says the destruction of the temple in AD 70 is the clearest proof of all that Jesus was a prophet sent from God. It’s the absolute best example of foreknowledge and predestination, which is ultimately what prophecy is about.
    • In Part I, we discussed the complexity of what all Israel means here, whether Paul was specifically referring to the elect of ethnic Israel, or all elect, Jew and Gentile. In light of all of Romans 9-11, I think Paul meant all the elect here.
    • In Part I, we also discussed the Olivet Discourse of Luke 21, briefly covering different views such as pre- and postmillennialism.
    • While there is some disagreement on what all Israel means, and the timing of the Second Coming of Christ, some “for sures” we gathered from this passage included the need for missions to Jewish people everywhere, respect for their history and keeping of Scripture for so many years, and to remember God is not done with them. As verse 27 concludes, God will take away their sins.
    • Sproul: “God has the power, authority, and will to turn people away from their disobedience. Had God waited in heaven for us to turn from our sins and come to the cross, He would still be waiting. In His sovereign mercy and grace God does not wait for us to turn or incline ourselves; God brings us away from our disobedience to respond to Him.”
    • And God is going to do the same for ethnic Israel in the future.
• Verse 28
  • To Gentiles, Jews are enemies for your sake, but beloved for the sake of the fathers of the Jews. And enemies here means enemies of Christ. Sproul retells the story of David and Saul’s handicapped son, Mephibosheth, who David showed kindness to for Jonathan’s sake (2 Sam 9:1). The rest of Saul’s family had fled in fear, because as was normal in the day, the conqueror would kill the conquered king’s family in order to prevent an uprising. So they found Mephibosheth and brought him to David, and he was terrified, but David treated him as a son. He honored Mephibosheth, not for Mephibosheth’s sake but for the sake of Jonathan. Sproul says the story illustrates the history of redemption. Mephibosheth was saved because of the King’s love for his brother, Jonathan. Mephibosheth was included in David’s kingdom because of Jonathan in the same way we are included in God’s kingdom because of Christ. “Our election, our adoption, is always in Christ Jesus.” 
• Verse 29
  • You can’t lose your salvation, it’s irrevocable. Remember that!
• Verses 30-31
  • Gentiles received mercy through the disobedience of the nation of Israel. This is inexplicable. I have absolutely no idea why God made things work this way, but He did! Paul concludes chapter 11 by expressing the unknowable. That we can’t know the mind of God. Why does he call, elect, give gifts to some and not others? I don’t know, but He does!
    • Referring to calculus again, how does it work, that when a change gets infinitesimally small, meaning too small to humanly observe, that we get our most accurate answer? Calculus rests on the foundational idea that something can be zero and not zero at the same time. AND, this actually works when we apply it. This makes absolutely no sense, how can something “be something” but also “nothing” simultaneously?
      • And calculus isn’t the only “unknowable.” We still don’t know 100% what light is, is it a particle or a wave? Or both? If it’s both, how in the world is it both? Why does an electric current through a wire generate an electric field, but also a magnetic field at a 90° angle? You don’t know why, and neither do I. Why is white light made of an infinite number of colors? Why do all living things contain DNA and need water, why isn’t some stuff made differently? I don’t know, and I’m okay with not knowing. Well, maybe not “OK”, because I really would love to know the answers to these questions, but maybe a better way to describe this is that I’m trusting God’s purposes over my understanding of things. I’m seeking to understand His designs in His word and His works, what he truly means and how he made it, and not just my own understanding. 
• Verse 32
  • Paul returns to Romans 3:23, the truth that all have sinned and fall short of His glory. And I think by all here, Paul is referring to the elect, because he just referred to God’s calling in v. 29, which is another way of describing His election. Who does God have mercy on? The elect.
• Verse 33
• Paul says Oh. Sproul refers to this Oh as a “holy groan”, Paul bearing his emotional response to these things of God.
  • Calvin said of this: “finitum non capax infinitum,” meaning, “the finite cannot grasp the fullness of the infinite.” Interesting that this is what I was just referring to in a mathematical sense! Also interesting that Jakob Bernoulli said something similar: “What joy to discern the minute in infinity! The vast to perceive in the small, what divinity!”
    • Side note: Jakob’s brother, Johann was Leonhard Euler’s math tutor, and Euler is know as the best mathematician, ever. The Bernoulli’s (and Euler) were protestant Christians, and also famous for their findings in math and science. 
  • Sproul says one thing Calvin is reminding of here is that we will never be God, even with eternal life. “Even in eternity we will be [finite] creatures.” We will know more, many verses allude to this. But, we will never become “omnis” like God. Omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, etc.
• Who can reach the depth of God’s riches, Paul wonders? Nobody. Spurgeon made note of all the Bible verses that refer to riches like gold and silver, and how they have to be refined by fire to obtain a higher level of purity. How interesting that we also have to be “refined” through suffering and persecution. These things refine us, bring us closer to Him if we are Christians, and further if we are not. Spurgeon also mentioned how you can throw garbage into a fire and it just gets burned up, not refined and purified like gold. In our souls is garbage but in God only riches.
  • God is an infinite well of wisdom and knowledge. Even the smartest, wisest human doesn’t come close. 
  • Regarding prayer, Sproul says to keep two things in mind:
    • 1) remember to whom we are speaking
    • 2) remember who we are
    • Verse 33 helps us with this, as we consider the infinite depths of His wisdom and knowledge, and how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable His ways!
      • Inscrutable: impossible to understand or interpret.
        • Good word to remember as we try to interpret what Paul is saying here regarding God’s future plan for Israel, and just how to connect this to other verses. 
      • Sproul reminds that God, through the Holy Spirit, does search the depths of His wisdom and knowledge and reveal some things to us. It’s like we have the absolute best built-in search engine, except this search engine doesn’t probe the depths of the human mind, but the mind of God.
        • Read 1 Cor 2:10-12. It is an amazing passage on how the Holy Spirit in us helps us understand the mind of God. 
        • This is why we should pray, not in a “I’m gonna change God’s mind” kind of way, but in a “please reveal more of You to me so that You will be glorified greater” kind of way. I think the Bernoullis and Eulers of history understood this. I imagine their prayer life was amazing, their time in the Word was amazing, and through that they better understood God, His creation, and their purpose during their short time on Earth. 
• Verse 34
  • Who has known the mind of the Lord or counseled him?  As Christians we should want to know His mind, but this is more like who has FULLY known the mind of God? Nobody. That is one point Paul is making. We can never fully know God’s motives, his judgments like v. 33 described. He is our counselor; it is NEVER the other way around. Paul here quotes Job 36:22-23, where Job’s friend Elihu is describing God’s greatness.
    • Sproul: “Because we are sinful, we attribute the worst possible motives to people who injure us, and when we hurt others, we impute to ourselves the best motives.” This is how humans get radicalized left (and right). We see this playing out in real time, with cowards who see a difference of opinion as a massive threat, and instead of agreeing to disagree, become filled with hate, devaluing another’s humanity to the point of murder (think Charlie Kirk assassination).
      • We need to be careful about assigning motives. When someone says, “I am muslim,” we shouldn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that they have a suicide bomb under their shirt, but we shouldn’t just not assume that either. We should ask questions, get more information. If, on the other hand, we see someone waving a sign that says “Charlie Kirk deserved to die,” then we can begin to assign motives. If they are outside waving a sign like that, who else do they think deserves to die? We have become far too complacent as Christians, too concerned with niceness and empathy, while a large portion of the population celebrates the murder of Christians and others. We need to pray for more wisdom and discernment on when to assign motives and when not to. The best way to gain wisdom is to love Christ and love others. The deeper we search His ways (through the word), the more we understand His motives, and the more we understand the world, and the spiritual battle we are in.
        • Sproul: “That is why I love the Bible-it reveals the mind of God to us.” He also says the Bible is the one book he doesn’t analyze and critique, but lets it critique him, for the very reasons outlined in this verse, that we cannot counsel God.
• Verse 35
  • Do we really think we can give good gifts to God, as if he needs something from us? No, it’s always Him to us, Him giving us gifts, Him counseling us.
    • James 1:17-every good and perfect gift is from above. His grace and mercy is His gift to the elect, to those “set apart” as Paul describes in 1:1.
• Verse 36
  • TGBTG! To God Be The Glory is the acronym. Sproul has an entire chapter on this one verse!. Sproul titles his chapter “All Things”.
  • Chapters 1-11 have been primarily about the doctrines of grace, and we are coming to the end of that section. Ch. 12-16 focus on application. Sproul makes an excellent summary of Romans so far:
    • Ch 1&2-exposure of entire human race to God’s wrath, the result of repressing His revelation. 
    • Ch 3-All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, v 23.
    • Ch 4-7 are about the doctrine of justification by faith alone, followed by the treatment of sanctification.
    • Ch 8 described the providence of God over all things in v. 28, in that all things work together for good to those who love God (which is not everybody). 
    • Ch 8-9 after 8:28 go into great detail on election.
    • Ch 10 was about the Church’s missionary enterprise, about sending people throughout the world to preach the gospel.
    • Ch 11, and really 9-11, have described ethnic Israel’s future place in God’s redemptive plan, that the current “partial hardening” will be lifted. This amazing future plan is culminated in the doxology of v. 33, which is really a deeply humble expression of amazement by Paul of God’s ways and His judgments. We can understand some things, and that is what His word is for, but it is a drop in the bucket of His true “omnis.” 
  • All things are from Him– or “of” him. It’s a description of ownership of everything, a Colossians 1:16 “by him all things were created” truth. It’s the first words of the entire Bible, that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1). It’s the description of who God is in John 1:1-4.
    • God is the source of all truth. And what is truth? Sproul says “truth is that which corresponds to reality as perceived by God.” So, when God says He created male and female, and science confirms this too, it really doesn’t matter what science says ultimately. God said it, and that is truth. This is what the world rages against, they can’t stand that God owns truth, so when He sent his son to live here for a time, they killed him out of envy. Thinking they won, they were shocked when He rose from the grave, defeating death. They thought death was the ultimate truth, since everyone dies, it’s the one thing that happens to all of us and is inescapable. Death seems like the ultimate truth, but then Jesus defied it for himself and now for us too. Even today, they think they’ve won when they kill one of Christ’s followers, but it never works out the way they think. Never. Because death isn’t the ultimate truth, God is. Jesus defeating death is. His righteousness imputed to us is. He is the foundation of truth, a truth He has asked us to uphold and to preach. 
    • God is the source of all goodness. Sproul: “the ultimate norm for ethics and righteousness is the character of God Himself.” We look to the law of God to reveal the source, and to the nature of good and evil. “Woe to those who call evil good” Isaiah 5:20. How do you know what is good and what is evil? The Bible.
    • God is the source of Beauty. A quick search of “beauty” reveals 110 uses of the word in the BIble(ESV version). Sometimes it is temporary, like Ecclesiastes 3:11 describes, but sometimes it is imperishable, like the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit in 1 Peter 3:4. Or the beautiful feet that spread the gospel, Romans 10:15. And where does that beauty come from? The Holy Spirit in us. It comes from God.
  • All things are through Him– describes God’s sovereignty, yet again. All things come to pass THROUGH him. It’s not me and my free will over here making things happen, telling God what to do next, “inviting Him into my presence”, etc. This is part of that objective reality, the ultimate truth. Sproul: “All things that come to pass in this world ultimately come about through the sovereign agency of God Himself.”
  • All things are to Him-It all points back TO him. Where is all this going? What is the ultimate purpose of history? God is.
    • Sproul says we often ask how can evil things fit into the purposes of God. He doesn’t really give an answer to the “how”, but instead directs us to conclude like Paul does here or Psalm 115:1 says, that it’s not about us. So, Glory to God. TGBTG!
• Up next: Romans 12:1-2