Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 5 Study # 1
April 14, 2019
Humble, Texas
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1769 Translation:
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this [is] my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, [they are] enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, [they are] beloved for the fathers' sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God [are] without repentance.
30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
1901 ASV Translation:
25 For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in;
26 and so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 And this is my covenant unto them, When I shall take away their sins.
28 As touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake.
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of.
30 For as ye in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,
31 even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they also may now obtain mercy.
32 For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.
- I. Paul's Explanation of "This Mystery".
- A. The roots of the need for this explanation.
- 1. There are some "Gentiles" who have moved away from "faith in grace" to "boasting" in regard to the "rejection" of Israel. This indicates an antagonism toward the "former branches" that have been broken off of the "tree" as if those "boasting" have some basis in themselves for it, and as if those "being boasted over" will not be "recovered" at the time of "the receiving" (11:15).
- 2. There are some "Gentiles" who have moved away from "faith in grace" to "highmindedness" in regard to the "rejection" of Israel. This is a specific accusation in regard to the attitude the "highminded" are buying into in regard to themselves as having been grafted into the "tree".
- 3. The basic "point of fact".
- a. Faith in "grace" operates under one ultimate reality: salvation by grace through faith is not a matter of any individual's "superiority" even at the level of "faith".
- 1) At the level of "faith", Paul pointedly declares that the outcome is "iffy" (a cause for significant fear: 11:20) because of man's volatility in "believing" (11:22: the "if you abide" is a third class conditional phrase indicating "no guarantees").
- 2) Thus it comes back to the core of Paul's "rebukes".
- a) "You do not support the root, the root supports you".
- b) "You only stand by a faith that does not fail, so you should be afraid".
- b. It is God's "election of grace" that determines which individual's will be shown the mercy of "forgiveness" (11:5-7). Man's "faith" is, at root, the result of the operation of God on man's behalf (Philippians 1:29), not the result of either a clear-eyed grasp of the doctrine of the Gospel (the opposition clearly understood the claim of the Gospel, but hated it), nor the result of a "positive volitional response" to that Gospel that arises out of the "man".
- 1) John 1:12-13 is about as "clear" a statement about the relative impact of "man's will" as can be made.
- 2) Interestingly, the Gospel of John is decidedly "evangelistic" (John 20:31 says the entire record is given so that a person might "believe") and it is the most "grace" oriented presentation of Jesus of the four Gospels. It is in this Gospel that Jesus is recorded as saying things like "...ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep..." (10:26) and "...no man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father..." (6:65) and "...ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you..." (15:16) and "...I (emphatic) have chosen you..." (15:19).
- 4. Paul's "motivation": he is not "willing" for the (Gentile) brethren to be "ignorant".
- a. The "willingness" is expressed in a verb that has only a limited "power" behind it. It is not the kind of "willingness" that is expressed in 9:19, where the issue is a sovereign determination backed by irresistible power ("Who has ((effectively)) resisted His will?"). This is the kind of willingness that expresses "desire" only, not "determination", as in 1 Timothy 2:4 where God is "willing for all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of Truth" (a "desire" that both Scripture and reality in history denies as to fulfillment).
- b. Gentile "ignorance" is inevitable as is seen clearly in "Reformed Theology" which refuses to accept a genuine restoration of Israel to both its national status as well as its place in the love and Plan of God. And not only that, but the underlying determination of men to find a cause for "superiority" in themselves makes "ignorance" a fact, not because they have not had the "mystery" revealed to them, but because they refuse to accept it.
- 1) Some might object that all who can read Paul's revelation of the "mystery" are no longer "ignorant", just wilfully unbelieving.
- 2) However, Paul, himself, claimed "ignorance" in respect to his "blasphemy", "persecutions", "injurious" behavior, etc., in 1 Timothy 1:13, though he was completely aware of the claims of those whom he persecuted.
- 3) Thus, there is "ignorance" and there is "ignorance": the former is rooted in the absence of "revelation"; the latter in a rejection of that "revelation" because of "blindness" of the heart (not the mind).
- c. At the level of Paul's "willingness", all he can do is express the truth to his Gentile readers. What they do with it is beyond his "power" to control.
- 5. The stated reason: "...lest ye should be wise in your own conceits...".
- a. This is the third time Paul described the condition of the "Gentiles" who "believed": boastful, highminded, wise in their own conceits. This is a testament to the degree of difficulty that is involved in the "repentance" that brings down the mountains of arrogance (Isaiah 2:10-17; and 40:4).
- b. The words translated "wise in your own conceits" are, literally, "that you not be in yourselves wise".
- 1) The word translated "wise" is typically used in the New Testament to describe someone who does what is "wise" so that the "pursuit" that is guided by this "wisdom" is effective as to the desired outcome (the "wise" man builds his house upon a rock foundation so that the storms that come cannot destroy it: Matthew 7:24).
- 2) There is no word for "conceits" in Paul's phrase: his word is simply the reflexive pronoun "of/in yourselves". In the phrase, it denotes an attitude within the man who considers himself "wise" [this is the very essence of "highmindedness"] when, in fact, that very notion is "foolish" and evidence of the absence of "wisdom". This is borne out by Paul's only other mention of such an attitude with these particular words in 12:16 which have the prior context of "do not think more highly of yourself than is warranted" (12:3).
- 3) Paul is simply warning his readers to not think that any true wisdom that they may have has arisen out of themselves and their natural intelligence.
- c. There is grave danger involved in "thinking we are wise of our selves" as 11:22 pointedly declares as an element of Paul's warning against continuing in "boastfulness" and "high mindedness" (another term that points to an overweening attitude of superiority).
- B. The details.
- 1. There is a "mystery" involved.
- a. According to 16:25, this "mystery" had been kept secret (left unrevealed) since the world began.
- b. A "mystery" is, according to Paul's own description, something that God has planned to do from the beginning, but was left out of His revelation to men for long ages past.
- c. The "mystery" is that a hardness in a portion (actually a very large portion) of Israel (Note carefully Isaiah 10:22 and Paul's use of it in Romans 9:27) has been visited upon Israel because of God's unrevealed plan to extend the blessings of the root of the "tree" to the "wild olive branches" (Gentiles).
- 1) There is a time frame involved: a development from the "beginning" of this "mystery" until the fulness of the Gentiles has come.
- 2) There is a specific "goal" declared: a "fulness" of "Gentile" participation in the fatness of the root.
- a) This signals a long-term pursuit by God of many Gentiles to the end that multitudes of Gentiles are included in this great "mercy" of God.
- b) This also points back to 11:12 where he referred to a "fulness" to return to Israel after God's "riches" have been abundantly extended to "Gentiles".
- d. This is very much like God's word through Moses to Israel in Deuteronomy 9:4-6 where he declared that His reason for giving Israel the land is not because of their superior righteousness; they are simply the recipients of God's judgment upon the hardened nations of the land. In like manner, God's extension of the fatness of the root to "Gentiles" was not because of their superior character over Israel's, but because God wished to use them to "provoke" Israel's return to Him and His "tree".