Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 2 Study # 2
January 6, 2019
Humble, Texas
(Download Audio)
<099>
Thesis: Israel's two-fold "fault" led to God's two-fold outpouring of "vast goodness" as a prelude to the actual experience by all concerned of over-the-top benefits.
Introduction: In our last study we considered the unexpected results of "Israel's" over-the-top transgression against God, particularly as it related to Jesus of Nazareth. The first result concerned "Israel": God did not react to the transgression as expected by consigning "Israel" to eternal perdition. The second result concerned "the nations": God opened the way for them to participate in eternal life.
As we move into the next part of Paul's presentation, it will likely be helpful for us to put together Paul's uses of "Israel" so that we follow his reasoning. The first use of "Israel" is found in Genesis 32:28 where God changes Jacob's name. Then, the second use of "Israel" has to do with God's promise to Abraham that He would make of him "a great nation". Thus, we have the word "Israel" used when the offspring of Jacob/Israel are considered a national entity made up of the twelve tribes that descended from him in the genetic sense of descent. Then, we have the third use of "Israel" that indicates a small segment of the "nation" that, according to Romans 9:6-8, comes from God's promise to Abraham that He would give him a "seed" and consists only of "the children of promise" as distinct from "the children of flesh". Thus, we have a "true Israel" that are both the physical offspring of Jacob/Israel and the "remnant" (called The Election of Grace) which God creates by His own actions (as in His preservation of 7,000 in Elijah's "Israel" who "believed in Him" as opposed to the gods of the false prophets in Israel) because of His promise. The fourth use of "Israel" indicates the larger segment of the "nation" that consists of those who are the physical offspring of Jacob/Israel who consistently reject Jacob's/Israel's God as in Romans 10:21. Thus, we have an "Israel" that is known as The Hardened whose destiny is to be judged by the Law of Moses and consigned by God to eternal death. And, then, we also have the word "Israel" used to identify the "kingdom" that resulted from the fragmentation of the Davidic kingdom because of the foolishness of Solomon's successor to the Davidic throne. Thus, we have an "Israel" that is a fragment of the Davidic Kingdom as distinct from the other fragment, known as "Judah".
Now, as concerns our current text, Paul's use of "Israel" in the question of whether "Israel's" behavior has resulted in a "fall into eternal rejection by God" is a use that refers to the "Israel" that is the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham to make of him a great nation. That promise began with the renaming of Jacob, so that God's promise was to be accomplished through the man, "Israel". Then, that "nation", which had that beginning, developed into a "nation" made of both "children of flesh" and "children of promise"; two segments. Later, that "nation" fractured into two separate kingdoms (Judah and Israel), but there were "children of promise" in both segments, as well as "children of flesh". At the time of "Israel's" great transgression (the first century rejection of Jesus of Nazareth of God's Lord and Christ) the "nation" was mostly "Judah" after the return from Babylon, but it still contained both a large segment of "children of flesh" and a small segment "children of promise" whom Paul identifies as those "elected by grace". The conclusion here is that Paul's declaration that God did not "reject His people" and that the "transgression" of "Israel" did not lead to God's condemnation of "Israel" is rooted in the original promise to Abraham of a "nation".
- I. The Unanticipated Reaction by God.
- A. That it was "unanticipated" is rooted in the prevalent mentality of first century Judaism that saw God as, primarily (and as it turns out Theologically, exclusively), Just.
- 1. That this "just-ness" would automatically insert a great lack of integrity into the "glory of God" was completely unseen.
- a. Integrity has its roots in the doing of what is promised.
- b. Justice has its roots in the retribution upon what is done.
- c. When what is promised is denied by what is done, integrity dissolves.
- 2. Thus, the lack of sight regarding Grace automatically resulted in a total lack of anticipation in respect to God's reaction to the national sin of "Israel".
- B. This unanticipated reaction by God had a two-fold impact.
- 1. It was two-fold because the action by Israel was two-fold.
- a. Israel is faulted by Paul for a massive "transgression" (the word actually used in 11:12 in describing Israel's action).
- b. Israel is also faulted by Paul for "failure to achieve its goal of acceptance by God".
- 1) The word Paul used for this "fault" is only used twice in the New Testament (Romans 11:12 and 1 Corinthians 6:7), but its meaning is given by the English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains as "a lack of attaining a desirable state or condition".
- 2) This "lack of achievement" has already been introduced into Paul's reasoning by his claim that "Israel...hath not attained to the law of righteousness" (Romans 9:31) as a major conclusion we were supposed to draw from the material in Romans 9 because of Paul's "What shall we say then?". [Note the proximity of the same thesis in 9:29 as is found in 11:5-7.]
- 2. God's two-fold reaction.
- a. In an "umbrella" form, Paul narrows it down to one: "salvation to the nations".
- b. But, in the following verse he expands it to two.
- 1) The "salvation" is called "riches".
- a) The word "riches" in Romans invariably means "the vastness that exists in the measure of God's gracious goodness".
- b) The word "riches" is used twice in this verse as Paul expands "salvation" into two aspects.
- 2) This "salvation" is called "the riches of the world" and "the riches of the nations".
- a) In both cases, the "riches" are what God grants as a vast measure of His provision of Life.
- b) In the first phrase, the focus is upon the "riches" that are poured out onto "the world".
- i. In this context, the "world" is most likely the extent of the geographical domain of Christ's coming kingdom.
- ii. This "domain" issue is raised by the final part of Paul's sentence: "...How much more when their fulness comes to pass?"
- c) In the second phrase, the focus is upon the "riches" that are poured out onto "the nations".
- i. Again, in this context, the "nations" are most likely those national entities that are granted an extension of life into Christ's kingdom because of the way they treated Israel before its "fulness" (Matthew 25:32 and following).
- ii. This shift from geographical domain to the individual segments of that geography that are taken up by "nations" is Paul's way of bringing his next statement into sharp focus.
- 3. The contrast.
- a. It was Israel's transgression/failure-to-achieve that brought about these "riches".
- b. Thus, the question is what will Israel's ultimate exaltation bring?