Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 5 Study # 1
April 14, 2019
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: It is possible that the Gentile turn from "faith in grace" to "faith in one's own capacities" is rooted in a lack of information.
Introduction: In our studies of the former paragraph we have seen that Paul is concerned with what he is seeing and hearing among the Gentiles who have "believed" the Gospel. What he is seeing and hearing is a strong antagonism toward those "branches" of the "tree" of God's people that have been "violently broken off" of that "tree". That antagonism, he says, is being expressed in a present, and on-going, "boastfulness" (11:18), which is an "attitude of superiority", and it is rooted in a "shift" of "faith" from "the root carries you" to a "I carry the root". This is foolishness on the face of it, but it indicates that the "boastful" think their reception of benefits from the root is because of what they have done.
He is, also, seeing and hearing a strong expression of a present, and on-going, "high mindedness" (11:20), which is an "attitude of self-importance" which is also rooted in a "shift of faith" from "my faith is in the Gospel" to "my faith is in how much more important to God I am than they". This is also patently foolish as Deuteronomy 9:4-6 reveals. Paul acknowledges that God is "pleased" with the "faith" the Gentiles had exercised in the Gospel as an outworking of God's "kindness" in bringing them to "repentance" (Note the key text found in Acts 11:18), and he acknowledges that God is significantly "displeased" with the disbelief of the Jews in regard to their own "lack of the humility that is an essential aspect of repentance". But, he claims that, in the presence of both "antagonism" and an "overweening self-importance", there is a grave possibility that their "faith in grace" is being/has been subverted because "grace" is no longer in the picture.
This evening we are beginning a new paragraph, but not a new "problem". What we shall see is that though the "problem" is, basically, the same, there is a new "solution".
- I. The "New Solution".
- A. The "old solution" was "remaining focused upon God's kindness and severity".
- 1. The "kindness" points to the "repentance" that it brings in terms of both "pride" and "faith".
- 2. The "severity" points to God's reaction to the refusal to embrace the need for that "kindness" in terms of the "repentance" that it was to bring.
- B. The "new solution" has to do with the possibility that the "problem" is rooted in a lack of revelation concerning the "Larger Plan of God".
- 1. In Paul's day, there was a "mystery" that signaled a former lack of revelation for the people of God.
- a. Paul's meaning of "mystery" is "something that has not been revealed until now".
- b. He expands upon this meaning in 16:25 where he more explicitly declares that "the mystery ... was kept secret since the world began" until now.
- c. Thus, a "mystery" is something that God had planned long ages ago, but did not reveal until it was necessary for a better understanding of what He is doing.
- 2. The particular "mystery" to which Paul refers is declared.
- a. It is that God had always had it in mind to permit a partial "blindness" to develop in Israel to the point of a divine rejection in the history of the nation.
- 1) This was not a total "blindness".
- 2) This was not a total "rejection".
- 3) But it was both a "national" blindness and a "national" rejection, and the historical outworking was the destruction of the nation in A.D. 70 until A.D. 1948.
- b. It is also that God had always had it in mind that the "partial" blindness would last until "the fulness of the Gentiles be come in".
- 1) This "until" set forth a "time frame of defined beginning and end".
- a) The "beginning" was the first century and the nation's rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as God's "Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36) which brought on the destruction of A.D. 70.
- b) The "ending" is to be at the point in history when "the Gentiles who are to be saved, have been saved".
- 2) Paul's phrase is "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in".
- a) This concept of "fulness" has already been injected into Paul's teaching (11:12).
- i. This prior reference to "fulness" was in regard to a future time for Israel that was to follow an extended time of God's reaction to their "trespass".
- i) The "trespass" of Israel was to result in "riches" for the "world".
- ii) The "loss" of Israel was to result in "riches" for the "nations".
- ii. This "fulness" was to bring "life from the dead" (11:15).
- b) Thus, the "fulness" of the Gentiles is to be followed by the "fulness" of Israel at the time of their "reception" by God after His casting off of them.
- c) And, since Paul's description of the "fulness" of the nation at some future point is to result in "all Israel" being saved (11:26), we can safely assume that the "fulness" of the Gentiles is when all of those Gentiles who are to be saved (see both Acts 11:18 and Acts 13:48), have been.
- C. This "new solution" is not "guaranteed to work" for everyone.
- 1. Paul's "I do not want you to be uninformed" (NASB) is expressed in terms of "desire", not "determination".
- a. The word is Paul's typical word for "desire" that will not necessarily be realized (1 Timothy 2:4).
- b. And, Paul's use of "uninformed" or "ignorant" has, in his own experience and testimony, a strong weakness (1 Timothy 1:13).
- 1) There is a sense of "ignorance" that is rooted in the absence of information.
- 2) But Paul also taught a sense of "ignorance" that is rooted in the absence of faith.
- a) This "absence of faith" is not a matter of a lack of information.
- b) This "absence of faith" is a matter of potent resistance that is buttressed by a "reasonable" interpretation of some of the information that is available: the magnitude of the information available lends itself to being misunderstood.
- 2. This "new solution" is to the "old problem": "lest you be wise in your own conceits".
- a. The translation is "expanded" (there is no word for "conceits" in the text).
- b. Paul's meaning is "lest you think you are wise out of your own intelligence, and unto your own responses".
- c. This is simply an expansion of the issue of "highmindedness" introduced in 11:20.