Christ Church

Douglas Wilson

Romans 45: Theology and Doxology (11:33-36)

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Introduction

Paul’s response to the very dense theology he has been working through is to break out into song. His theology bursts forth into doxology. These are not two unrelated things—rightly done, rightly understood, theology leads inexorably to praise. Let’s consider why.

The Text

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen” (Rom. 11:33-36).

Summary of the Text

The wisdom and knowledge of God have deeps that cannot be comprehended (v. 33). His judgments and His ways are beyond finding out (v. 33). Who could begin to undertake such a search (v. 34)? Who has known the mind of the Lord (v. 34)? Who could dare to volunteer to walk into the throne room of God to give Him advice (v. 34)? Who is able to give to God in such a way as that God needs to repay him? Who can place God in debt (v. 35)? These are all rhetorical questions, the assumed answer to which is no one. And the reason the answer is no one is that all things are of Him, and through Him, and to Him (v. 36). He is the one responsible for all that is, and He is the one who receives glory for all that is (v. 36). And amen.

All Things

Take a glance at the number of stars revealed in a photograph from the Hubble telescope. The God we worship knows every one of those stars by name (Ps. 147:4). The hairs on every head are all numbered (Matt. 10:30)— about 7 billion people are alive today, and the average number of hairs on a head range between 90,000 for redheads and 140,000 for blonds. God numbers them all. Not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from the will of the Father (Matt. 10:29). God simply spoke and the vast expanse of heavens and earth came into being (Gen. 1:1; John 1:3). The human body contains somewhere between 50 and 75 trillion cells, each one an exquisitely made library, each with the capacity to manufacture what the information in its library tells it to. Every last bird that hops from branch to branch in the deepest wilderness is known to God (Ps. 50:11). Every raindrop is prepared by God (Ps. 147:8), and does not hit your forehead accidentally. He gives food to ravens (Ps. 147:9), and uses ravens to give food to the prophet (1 Kings 17:4). Galaxies, oceans, mountains, nations, planets, giant stars, and all such things added together are just dust on His scales (Is. 40:15). “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast” (Ps. 36: 6). His understanding is infinite (Ps. 147:5). It must be—for of Him and through, and to Him, are all things (Rom. 11:36). Never forget the Godness of God.

Mighty to Save

Now this God—can He save the Jews along with the world? Of course He can (Rom. 11: 23). God is clearly able to do this. But will He? If He is the one who cares for sparrows the way He does, what should we conclude from this? We are worth more than many sparrows (Luke 12:7). The psalm that tells us a number of these glorious natural gifts is also the same psalm that tells us that He gathers the outcasts of Israel (Ps. 147:2). The God who governs is the God who saves. We do not divide up the world—the God of nature is the God of grace. The Creator is the Redeemer, and the Savior is the one who spoke all things into existence.

Remembering Two Things

This is the doxological conclusion to a very densely reasoned passage of theology, chapter after chapter of it. But for many people, the chapters immediately prior can be summed up by “God can damn who He wants; deal with it.” With regard to His authority and power, that is true enough (Rom. 9:18). We don’t deserve His mercy. He has the strength to condemn us, and no injustice would be involved if He did. But this stretch of Romans deals with two fundamental issues. The first is the divine nature of His authority. God is God, and we shouldn’t try to pretend otherwise. The second is that this is power of the God who has determined to save the world. Two things must be remembered—His power and His intent. Can He destroy? Yes. Will He save? Emphatically, yes. We need to be humbled down to the ground, true enough. But this humbling is not the prelude to the world’s damnation. It is the threshold of salvation for all men, for all who believe. And here is the kicker—the world will believe.

Who Has Been His Counselor?

When we emphasize (as we ought to) how strong the power of His right arm actually is, we then make the mistake of believing that He is going to use that strength in order to strike the world, and all the sinners in it, such that they are blown to smithereens. Christians who emphasize God’s power tend to believe that He doesn’t really want to save anybody, but will save a few reluctantly. Those who emphasize His love (forgetting his justice, holiness and power) tend to veer off into a soupy sort of sentimentalism. We insist upon both. God hates sin, and He will make short work of it on the earth. God loves the world, and He did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world (John 3:17), but rather that the world through Him might be saved.

Now, by “saved” we mean saved. You mean saved saved? Yes—Africa, South America, North America, Europe and Asia, Australia, and the weather stations in Antarctica. All those people? Yes—red, and yellow, black and white. All those. As soon as this sinks in, what do we want to do then? We set up shop to be His counselor. We tell Him that all this is eschatologically irresponsible. We search out His judgments and bring them under review. His ways, which are past finding out, we claim to have found out.

Nebuchadnezzar came to understand that God’s hand of rule could not be stopped (Dan 4:35). But neither can He be stopped when He stretches out His arm to save.

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Romans 44: Deliverance from Zion (11:23-32)

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Introduction

We now come to the place where Paul makes his dramatic statement about the future blessedness that awaits Israel. He has shown us that Israel according to the promises must receive the blessings (by definition), but here he is saying that Israel according to the flesh will be included in them. How so?

The Text

“And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? 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 . . .” (Rom. 11:23-32).

Summary of the Text

Paul begins with a conditional, on the human level. If Israel repents of its unbelief, then God is certainly able to graft them in again (v. 23). Just consider the nature of the case. If wild olive branches can be grafted in, then how much more can severed natural branches be grafted in (v. 24). But Paul then moves from the logical possibilities to the prophetic necessities. He does not want the Romans to be ignorant of this mystery (Paul’s common word for something prophesied in the Old Testament and made manifest in the New). The partial blindness of Israel (excluding the remnant) was predicted until the fullness of the Gentiles had been reached (v. 25). And knowing this would keep the Gentiles from getting conceited about it (v. 25). So then Paul cites one of the places that tells us about this (v. 26)—which was Isaiah 59:20-21; 27:9). God’s covenant with Israel was that He would take away their sins (v. 27). So, for the time being, the Jews were enemies of the Gentile Christians, because of the gospel. But as concerns election, they are still beloved for their fathers’ sake (v. 28). How long will this last? It is irrevocable— which is why the Jews will in fact return to Christ (v. 29). The Gentiles used to be in unbelief, and were brought out of it by the unbelief of the Jews (v. 30). In a reverse twist, God will bring the Jews out of unbelief through the mercy that was shown to the Gentiles (v. 31). Put this all together, and we see that concluding the Jews in unbelief (for now) was the first move in His plan to bring mercy to the whole world—Jews included (v. 32).

The Mystery Revealed

Now Paul says that this is a prophetic mystery, now revealed, and revealed so that Gentiles would not become conceited. Salvation is from the Jews (John 4:22), and always will be. Let’s look at how it works. The prophet Isaiah laments the condition of man. Our iniquities have separated us from God (Is. 59:2). This detestable condition is applied by the apostle Paul to all men, to Gentiles and Jews alike (Rom. 3:15-17; Is. 59:7-8). Everything falters; everything fails. There is no soundness anywhere. All men are in need of a Savior. When God saw this, when He saw that there was no man, He sent a man— He sent a Deliverer (Is. 59:16). This great warrior will put on His panoply—the armor of Jesus (Is. 59:17). Remind you of anything? Of course—this is the whole armor of God (Eph. 6:11). Put on the whole armor of God therefore (Eph. 6:13-17), which is another way of saying that we are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. What does Jesus do in this armor, back in Isaiah? First, He judges the wicked (Is. 59:18). As a result, the Gentiles stream to Him. They shall “fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun” (Is. 59:19). The world will gather to Him, and He will save them. And then the Redeemer shall come to Zion—this is the place. Paul quotes with reference to his brethren in the flesh, collating it with Is. 27:9. The covenant is that Israel’s sins will be forgiven, and this is equated with the Spirit never departing from the mouths of all their descendants (Is. 59:21). And this ties Is. 27 into the mix as well. “Jacob shall take root” and “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit” (Is. 27:6). Glory to God, and may He hasten that day.

Gifts and Call Irrevocable

God has, in His wisdom and providence, tied the fortunes of the world to the fortunes of the Jews. The apostasy of the Jews opened wide the door of salvation for the Gentiles, and their eventual conversion will be a blessing for them (of course), along with the remainder of the Gentiles. This is a decision that God will never repent of—this is the mystery that He has revealed, and which we are to live out.

Now this means that it is not possible to be in sync with the purposes of God in this world without loving the Jewish people. Christians who fall prey to anti-Semitism are trying to disrupt the grace of God for the whole world. It is counterproductive; it is anti-gospel. At the same time, loving the Jews as God does, for the sake of their fathers, is not the same thing as approving of what the Jews do, or agreeing with Zionism, or agreeing with the present position of the current administration of the Israeli government. That is not the point. The point is that animus against the Jews is out, and to give way to it is rebel against God’s gospel strategy. One might say “what about the Palestinian Christians that Israel has killed?” Look, this teaching comes from Paul, who was willing to be damned for the sake of the Jews (Rom. 9:3), and he maintained this attitude while outlining their hypocrisies throughout this book, and while in full knowledge of the fact that they had spent a great deal of energy trying to kill him.

Mercy to the Gentiles

Mercy to the Gentiles has been God’s game plan to bring mercy to the Jews, and mercy to the Jews is what He is going to use to bring about “life from the dead” for all (Rom. 11:15). And so what we are called to do is preach God’s mercy in Christ to all the nations—with a view toward cultural transformation, remember—and to live it out in such a way that the Jews want to get themselves some of that. Personal conversion, certainly, planting of churches, even more. But what we are doing is building Christendom, and doing so in a way that leaves the doors wide open for the Jews. One of the great failures of the first Christendom was at just this point, and it is something we have to address. We are called to provoke emulation (11:14); we are not called to be envious.

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Some Thoughts on Life Together

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Introduction

As you may observe by looking around you, we are now worshiping together in one service, instead of the two services we have had for the last year and half. This was not a decision made lightly, and part of the decision depended upon us having a message dedicated to the various issues surrounding this kind of logistical dilemma. So here we are.

The Text

“And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:1-7).

Summary of the Text

First, notice that their problem was caused by growth (v. 1), and their solution to it resulted in growth (v. 7). Growth brings about growth problems (v. 1), in this case a particular group being overlooked. Consider how ordinary and how predictable such a problem would be. The apostles responded with a proposal to delegate responsibility for this particular problem (vv. 2-3). They, for their part, were going to keep their focus on the ministry, that which was causing the growth (v. 4). And so the congregation chose seven godly men (with Hellenistic names, note), and they were set before the apostles, who ordained them (vv. 5-6). The end result of this godly solution to a dispute was godly growth (v. 7). The early church did not float through the book of Acts, never quite touching down. They were real people, with real irritations, and, we may assume, with real comebacks that could have set off a real quarrel.

Growth and Growth

The initial thoughts are taken from this text, but we are also going to assemble some biblical principles from elsewhere. First, we must distinguish growth problems from wasting disease problems. Growth is good compared to the dull as dishwater ministry of the scribes (Matt. 7:29; Acts 13:45). Growth is not an automatic good, but it can be a great good. So we also need to distinguish growth blessings from growth curses. Not everything that grows is good. Cancer grows. Morning glory grows. False teaching grows (2 Tim. 4:3; 2 Tim. 2:17). And when growth problems occur, they don’t solve themselves (Acts 6:3). When godly leadership of one sort causes a difficulty, godly leadership of another sort is needed to address it.

Organized Solutions

A balance must be maintained between focusing on the main thing, and solving the distracting problem (Acts 6: 4, 3). Giving ourselves to one or the other is foolish. This is why a godly approach must be applied both to the spiritual side of the ministry and the practical side of the ministry. In this place, the men they appointed to address their practical problem were “full of the Holy Spirit.” They didn’t appoint the impractical sky-pilots to the spiritual stuff and then appoint “realistic” worldly men to the practical side of things. Godly principles apply to everything, everywhere, and they must be applied by men who understand this.

Basic Orientation

Koinonia fellowship is the work of the Holy Spirit. As we gather to worship God, He knits us together, and we glorify Him together. This can be intimidating to outsiders, and we should not try to make that go away (Acts 5:12-14; 1 Cor. 14:25). At the same time, in the growth of God’s community, a clear priority should be placed on welcoming visitors and outsiders (Dt. 26:11). There is a real difference between the clannish and sectarian exclusion of outsiders and the scary prospect of real community. This is why our deacons, for example, have set aside two rows for visitors.

Seating, Parking, and the Hellenistic Widows

And a balance needs to be maintained between provision for those you are responsible for (1 Tim. 5:8) and adaptability in the light of larger concerns (Heb. 13:17)—and the needs that those who are responsible for those larger concerns have. So if the deacons ask you to do something, an appropriate response would not be, “This ain’t Russia, pal.”

The Whole Point

And last, but also first, the task before us in establishing a worship service is to worship God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear (Heb. 12: 28-29). Just as we want to sing songs that God wants to hear, and not those which we want to sing, so also we want a service that is acceptable to Him in the first place, and our convenience occupying a subordinate place. This does not mean that two services dishonor Him (it depends, right?), but simply means that given our particular circumstances at this point in time, we should be largely focused on what would glorify God the most. Then we labor to make that happen. We want to do this across the board—with the fellowship, with the music, with the energy, with Word and sacraments.

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Romans 43: Warning To Rome (11:17-22)

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Introduction

When we fall into the trap of thinking of the Bible as a book to aid us in our personal devotions, we often miss the larger context. We need to remember that this is a letter to a particular church in a particular city, and Paul gave the warning because he saw certain kinds of arrogance developing.

The Text

“And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Rom. 11:17-22).

Summary of the Text

Those Jews who had not believed in their Messiah had been broken off from the olive tree—the tree of covenant continuity (v. 17). But Gentiles, wild olive branches, were grafted in (v. 17). The newcomers are exhorted by Paul not to boast about it—they don’t support the root (v. 18). There is an answer to this—weren’t they cut out to make room for us (v. 19)? Paul says that may well be, but they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Paul says that highmindedness is out, and fear should be there instead (v. 20). If God did not spare natural branches, why on earth would He spare grafted in, wild olive branches (v. 21)? There are two attributes of God that must be kept in mind—severity for apostates and goodness for those who stand by faith (v. 22).

Olive Tree Imagery

The image of Israel as an olive tree is a common one in the Old Testament (e.g. Hos. 14:5-7). The root is obviously the grace of God found in Christ (John 15: 1-7), but the ancient manifestation of this root grace was found in Abraham (Gal. 3:29). The Jews had been cultivated for so long that they were considered the natural branches on this tree, and the Gentiles were the wild branches. Normally, the grafting practice was to graft a cultivated branch onto a wild root, but Paul reverses this. Here the blessing comes on the Gentile branches who were privileged to be joined to the ancient covenant promises.

Notice in this image that we find a biblical illustration that ties everything together in one unified covenant throughout the Scriptures. The apostle does not call the Jews an olive tree, and then say that with the Gentiles we have a newly planted peach tree. No, it is all one tree, with one glorious story. This illustration, by itself, overthrows many common ways of understanding the relationship of the Church to Israel. But in this analogy, the Church is the renewed Israel.

Words of Warning

This is not a letter written to generic Gentiles. These words are given to the saints in Rome. “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints” (Rom. 1:7). When he cautions them against hubris, why would he do this? He did it because he saw the first stirrings of it. Remember that Paul characteristically argues “one of you will say then,” and he does this because he knows how the Q&A sessions usually go. And what happens here? “God cut out the Jews to make way for us Romans” (v. 19). Remember that this was the capital city of the most powerful empire in the world. Anyone who thinks that Christians don’t get caught up by this kind of reflected glory need to ask more pointed questions of their sinful hearts. The Lord spurned the devil’s offer of all the kingdoms of men in their glory—His followers have not always been so successful.

The Problem

Classical Protestants, following Paul’s teaching in Romans 8 have long held that nothing can separate the elect from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8: 33). We hold to the final and complete perseverance o f the elect because God will not fail to complete what He has begun (Rom. 8: 38-39). In contrast, the Church at Rome has ignored and set aside the letter than Paul wrote to them, not only on the question of faith alone, but also on the question of whether their church can fall away. The Roman church teaches that the salvation of no one is secure in this life—three popes in a row, and ten cardinals in succession, if they commit mortal sin, could all die and be condemned eternally. But they also teach that their church is incapable of falling away, that it is “unfailingly holy,” to use the words of their catechism. Paul reverses this, and so must we. Any church can fall away (Rev. 2:5), and the elect of God cannot cannot fall away (John 10:29).

Take Heed

We must face up to our constant temptation to draw contrasts between our position as Christians and the Jews’ position in the Old Testament. The New Testament consistently draws parallels, and we (for the sake of our traditions) want to draw these contrasts. But the way Israel fell into sin is set before us regularly (1 Cor. 10: 1-11; Heb. 3: 7ff; 4: 11; Rom. 11:17ff), and we are consistently warned against doing the very same thing. This means that the fact that Rome received this letter two thousand years ago does not make the warning less relevant, but rather far more relevant. How long before Paul wrote these words had the Jews been called through Abraham? Two thousand years—that is what created the temptation for them. And we should take care as well. Eventually the Westminster Confession will be two thousand years old.

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