Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 3 Study # 1
January 13, 2019
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: God's "Larger Plan" is designed for the sake of "Israel", not, primarily, for the gentiles.
Introduction: In our study of the previous paragraph (Romans 11:11-12) we saw that Paul's "argument" is that God's shift of focus, in terms of audience, did not at all mean that His promise to Abraham to "make of him a great nation" is to be understood as merely a "temporary" plan in the history of man to produce "Israel" through the man whose named was changed to "Israel" from Jacob. According to Romans 4:13, Abraham was promised that he would be "heir of the world". Since Abraham died owning only an extremely small portion of "the world" (the "field" he bought so he could bury Sarah: Genesis 23), this "promise" has not yet been fulfilled as Hebrews 11:13 clearly admits. Thus, until this promise has been fulfilled to Abraham, no amount of "logic" and/or theological "spiritualizing" can justify the notion that God's "shift of focus in terms of audience" means that that "promise" is going to go begging forever.
Thus, Paul labors in our current context to establish a critical "point": God not only did not "forget" His promise to Abraham, His shift of focus to the gentiles (nations) was deliberately designed to bring about the ultimate fulfillment of it. To understand this, we must understand a more basic fact: God's turn to the gentiles/nations was not primarily "for" those nations. In other words, "salvation" was extended to the gentiles for the sake of "Israel", not those "Gentiles". This is a study big enough to deserve a series of studies all on its own, but the summary issue is this: God's "salvation" motives do not set people up as His "ultimate" objectives of "Love". "People", as Hell testifies, are "expendable". What is not expendable is His "ultimate" objective of making "Life" possible within a "creation" reality for a certain "type" of "person", a category which is divided as far as we know into two "types" of "persons" (angelic and human) and two "types" of "methods" ("performance" and "faith", or, as we also know them, "Law" and "Grace"). Thus, to make "Life" possible for both angels and humans, God is willing to bring some within both groups to an expansive experience of "Life" and others within both groups are subjected to the expansive experience of eternal death.
With that in mind, we will turn to our current text as another "new" paragraph: Romans 11:13-16.
- I. The Logic of the Context.
- A. In 11:11, Paul wrote, "Therefore, am I saying, 'Did not they stumble in order that they might fall?' ".
- 1. The actual grammar is a little tricky, but the meaning is not.
- 2. The absolute and emphatic denial insists that we see Paul setting forth a "possible", but totally "erroneous" thesis that he immediately discounts.
- a. The so-called "possible thesis" is that God has terminated His dealings with "a persistently disbelieving and argumentative" people.
- 1) It is "so-called" for two reasons.
- a) It seems to be valid from the doctrinal and audience "shifts" of which Paul is a major part.
- b) But it is impossible because of the fundamental nature of God as relating to His "glory" of "integrity" (though one could "posit" the theoretical breakdown of integrity in God, the "positing" is merely a way to argue a position, not a real potential).
- 2) That this has become a major part of the theology of "visible" Christendom is testament to its "appeal" as a "legitimate" possibility.
- b. That it is a "totally erroneous" thesis could not be clearer from the adamant denial.
- B. But in 11:13, Paul wrote, "Now I am saying...".
- 1. This means that Paul is setting forth the true "anti-thesis": what is "theoretically possible" is now revealed to be "completely impossible", not only by adamant denial, but also by greater revelation/illumination regarding God's turn in focus to "gentiles".
- 2. What he "is saying"... .
- a. Is primarily "for" the new audience: "...to you who are gentiles...".
- 1) The focus here is upon "genealogical descent".
- 2) The "new audience" is that group of humanity that cannot trace its physical descent back to any one of the twelve sons of "Israel".
- b. Is rooted in the fact that Paul is "an apostle of gentiles".
- 1) This identity is extremely emphatic as the "basis" for Paul's doctrine.
- a) This emphasis is first established by Paul's stringing a series of words together ("upon so much indeed therefore") that boil down to "a great deal of divine labor was expended to make me what I am".
- b) It is then further established by Paul's use of the personal pronoun in connection with his main "identity" verb ("...I am, I...").
- 2) The "...of nations an apostle..." does not mean he got his apostleship from "nations" but that God made him His apostle to "nations" (Romans 1:5-6).
- c. Is emphasizing his "deaconship".
- 1) His words are "...my deaconship...", by which he means "the charge he has been given by God".
- 2) His words continue as "...I am glorifying...", by which he means he is "exalting his status as God's appointed apostle to the nations".
- d. Is an explanation of his "motive".
- 1) As an "explanation", he uses the verb (translated by the NASB as "move to jealousy") that he first used in 10:19 when he quoted Moses when he claimed that it was God's stated declaration from the beginning that He would, some day, "provoke Israel to jealousy" (Deuteronomy 32:21).
- a) Paul is, here, simply saying that he not only has "bought into" God's declared intention, but has adopted it as his own "motive" for "pushing the salvation of the gentiles to the forefront".
- b) Thus we can see that this is not Paul's wisdom, but God's that is at work.
- c) But the "jealousy" approach comes across as pretty weird, because the first fruit of jealousy is typically a fairly violent attempt to stop what is going on (as Jesus did twice in the temple with a whip of cords).
- d) It is the downline reality from the explosion of adrenalin that reveals the possibility of efficacy (when the subsidence of adrenalin results in a kind of sorrowful despair)
- i. There is such a thing as being brought to repentance by "godly sorrow".
- ii. It is possibly efficacious, but fraught with initial danger (as Saul clearly knew--from the martyrdom of Stephen -- and as Paul experienced through his sufferings).
- 2) As an "explanation", he goes further to explain that he seeks the "salvation" of "some out of his fleshly kin".
- a) According to Romans 9:1-3, this is Paul's "heartbeat".
- b) But also, according to Romans 11:5, the "some" is an integral part of his understanding of the efficacy of "making them jealous" [Note also 2 Timothy 2:10].