04.32. LESSON 32

LESSON 32

Romans 9:1-33, Romans 10:1-21, Romans 11:1-36 has been called the noblest theological argument ever written. The ninth chapter portrays God as the absolutely independent Ruler of mankind, exercising his sovereign right to use, or set aside, individuals and nations according to their fitness to serve his ends and further his program. God, and only God, is God. Men must know they are creatures, and act as creatures.

Romans 10:1-21 shows that God never abuses his prerogatives, but that he always makes legitimate use of his almighty power and limitless resources; that instead of his dealings with his subjects being arbitrary and corrupt, as the dealings of men lifted up in power almost invariably are, all his decisions and works rest on a foundation of justice, righteousness and loving kindness.

Romans 11:1-36 witnesses to the utility of the judgments, measures, and methods God uses in presiding over the progress of the Abrahamic covenant. It reveals his consummate administrative wisdom and skill in adapting means to ends, in balancing one thing against another, and in turning loss into gain, as he irresistibly advances according to schedule in fulfilling his promise to Abraham, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Under his infinitely wise, able, and good management, everything is grist to his mill. The Abrahamic Covenant As An Olive Tree The promise of a Savior is coeval with human sin. This promise makes known that the Savior was to be a human being—the Seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15). After many centuries, God chose "Abram the Hebrew" (Genesis 14:13) to be the father of "a great nation" which would produce this Seed of the woman, without a human father. Hence, the Savior was to be not only a man, but a man of the Hebrew race. This divine choice constituted Abraham a man set apart and made holy for this special purpose. "Hebrews,’ "Israelites," and "Jews" are three scriptural names for Abraham’s descendants, or branches. Paul’s statement, "If the root is holy, so also are the branches" means, I think, that Abraham as the "root" and his posterity as the "branches" are the holy, dedicated race for God’s bringing Christ into the world. "Salvation is from the Jews" (Christ—John 4:22).

God added his limited provisional Mosaic covenant of law to his earlier universal, permanent Abrahamic covenant of grace, not however to annul the older covenant, but to let men learn by experience that, inasmuch as they could never earn justification by perfect obedience of law, they must accept it as a free gift of God’s grace. When this temporary, parenthetic covenant of law had served its purpose as a tutor to bring men to Christ, as their only hope of justification, "God took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross" (Galatians 3:15-19; Colossians 2:14). But since the Jews refused to give up their national covenant, and hardened themselves and rebelled against God, as Pharaoh did, they forced God to set them aside, and go with his fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant without them. This is the gospel Peter preached on Pentecost so effectively that he persuaded a remnant of about 3,000 Jews of the "crooked generation" that crucified Jesus to go on with God in order to escape being left behind. In his next sermon, Peter, after telling the Jews that Moses and all the prophets from Samuel onward had foretold the Christianity he was preaching, continued: "Ye are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant God made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham, in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Acts 3:25). As a result of this sermon, the Christian remnant that elected to remain in the Abrahamic covenant of grace increased to "about five thousand." To Gentile Christians Paul writes: "But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree; glory not over the branches: but if thou gloriest, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee." As Peter was the chosen apostle to persuade Jews not to fall out of God’s advancing program, he was likewise the chosen man to make the first graft (Cornelius—Acts 10) from the Gentile wild olive into the Abrahamic stock, so that all men might be "Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:29).

Gentile Pride

Paul to Gentiles again: "Thou wilt say then, branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. Be not high-minded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee. Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee God’s goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." Note that Paul makes human cooperation absolutely indispensable—God’s goodness unmixed with man’s faith and obedience simply will not work in religion (Hebrews 4:2). As unbelief was the cause of Jewish branches being broken off, so must unbelief cause Gentile branches also to be broken off. Furthermore, since Gentiles have much more faith-creating evidence than ancient Jews had, their unbelief is much more blamable. Human reason, pride, and prejudice must bow before faith. The Holy Spirit knowing the deceitfulness and corruption of the human heart, warns Gentile Christians lest they repeat the fatal pride and presumption of the broken-off Jewish branches. Does not remembering that this warning was sent directly to Rome, the very city in which Gentile pride and presumption as they grew into the powerful, arrogant hierarchy of Roman Catholicism was to reign over Christendom many centuries (and the end is not yet) emphasizes its divine foresight and providence, and put Gentile Christians on their guard against an insidious, perpetual, deadly peril until their fullness be come in.

Why should Gentile Christians be high-minded and glory over Jewish Christians? Paul reminds them to be a graft is nothing of which to be proud. Since the whole church springs from a Jewish root, Jewish and Gentile Christians, sharing Christ’s eternal life in common, are organically one. Christ "Abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commands contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross... and preached peace to you (Gentiles) that were far off, and peace to them (Jews) that were nigh: for through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father" (Ephesians 2:15-18).

Questions