Romans Archives - Page 16 of 25

Romans 44: Deliverance from Zion

Joe Harby on January 31, 2010

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

Joe Harby on January 17, 2010

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.

Romans 42: Smoke in the Eyes (11:12-16)

Christ Church on January 10, 2010

Introduction

There are two dangers when it comes to the interpretation of biblical prophecy. The first, fairly common among evangelicals, is to picture the fulfillment in lurid and garish colors, filled out with a crass literalism, but which fully retains the right to be called “fantastical.” Such fulfillments, were they to happen, would be amazing. But the second error is to learn about the first error, and then to retreat into an acceptance of the kind of biblical fulfillments that could conceivably escape the notice of virtually every historian. These things were “spiritually” fulfilled, you see, and you can’t expect them to alter the flow of history in any visible way. But this is not how the Bible teaches us to think. We are not to give way to a wooden literalism when it comes to prophecy, but neither are we to dilute it all into a homeopathic nothingness. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). Eye has not seen it now, but all eyes will see it then.

The Text

“Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing?? of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches” (Rom. 11:12-16).

Summary of the Text

Paul’s argument is that if the apostasy of most of the Jews was such a blessing to the Gentiles, how much more of a blessing (to the Gentiles) will their fullness be (v. 12)? Paul is speaking to the Gentiles there at the church in Rome, and he makes a big deal out of the fact that he had been designated to be an apostle to the Gentiles (v. 13; Gal. 2:8; 1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11). The reason he does this is that he wants to provoke his brothers the Jews, and to provoke them into salvation (v. 14). And as it bends around again, this provocation of the Jews will be a blessing for the whole world (to whom Paul was sent), resulting in “life from the dead” (v. 15). Paul then argues that if the first fruits were holy, then the lump would also be holy. If the root were holy, then the branches would be also (v. 16).

Learning How God Plots Stories

This is how God works. When something negative happens, like the apostasy of the majority of first century Judaism, this is because God is working on a great blessing for the world. And we need to note that this apostasy was not just an unfortunate series of events, or a sad time. It was a disaster for the Jewish people, a cataclysm in which over a million people lost their lives. Jesus spoke of it as the very worst moment in the history of the world (Matt. 24:21). This was to be understood, in the words of Paul here, as the “reconciling of the world.” Just as the death of Jesus, another great disaster, was our salvation, so the destruction of the Jewish nation was designed to open the door for everyone else.

We think we get this, and we would reason that if that is true, then when blessing returns to the Jewish people, then that will mean that we have to see-saw back to a time when the Gentiles are excluded and cursed. Not at all, Paul says. If the Jewish fall was a great blessing for us, how much more will their restoration be an even great blessing for us.

The Jewish Nation

Just as the apostasy did not include the remnant (the one that Isaiah had prophesied, and that Paul discussed a little earlier in Romans), so also it does not include the many Jews who have come to faith in Christ over the centuries. In the first few centuries of the Church, there appears to have been a large migration of Jews into the faith. But all that notwithstanding, the Jewish people as such have not believed in the Messiah that all their sacred books talk about. Those Jews who have come to Christ have tended to lose, over the course of a few generations, their identity as Jews. For example, our family is a Gentile family, even though my wife’s great grandfather was a Jewish rabbi. Those Jews who have kept their cultural identity have been those who have kept their distance from Jesus Christ. Paul is here talking about a Jewish return to Christ that would be as public and as visible as their rejection of Him was. This was not something that a number of individual Jews could just drift into. This prophecy will not be completed until we can say that Judaism is Christian. And when that happens, there will be no middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile (Eph. 2:14).

Godly Provocation

The word Paul uses for “provoke to jealousy” in verse 11 is the same word he uses here in verse 14. He wanted to make much of the fact that Gentiles were coming into salvation, were coming into the inheritance of Abraham, so that Jews would be stirred up by this and respond by coming to Christ. This is all in Deuteronomy, and it demonstrates that we are talking about something that goes far beyond what we evangelicals consider to be a “good testimony” about how Jesus saved us. We are talking about cultures, and we are talking about cultural jealousy. This tactic of God’s was predicted in the latter part of Deuteronomy, and it is the same way that God worked when He was blessing the Jewish during the times of the older covenant. This is how God works. “Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?” (Deut. 4:6-7).

The Jew Thing

One of the great tragedies in the history of the Church thus far is that we have not understood the evangelistic potency of cultural identity and cohesion, rightly held and rightly understood. Instead of provoking the Jews to jealousy, which is God’s game plan, we have been envious and jealous of them, falling into the anti-gospel of anti-Semitism. And then, when we are feeling bad about that (as we ought to) we as a result abandon all attempts at building biblical culture and cohesion, believing that this sort of thing results in things like the Holocaust. In all this, we are refusing to do what our Master told us to do. We are being like that servant in Proverbs, the one who is smoke in the eyes of the one who sent him (Prov. 10:26).

Romans 41: And The Rest Were Blinded (11:7-11)

Joe Harby on November 29, 2009

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Introduction
So we have learned that there are two Israels, formed as a result of two different ways of “hearing” the Word of God. One hears the Word in a way that quickens true faith, and the other hears (after a fashion) in a way that hardens the heart in a persistent but wrong-headed pursuit of God—because it is a pursuit of God on our terms, instead of on His.

Text
“What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always. I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy” (Rom. 11: 7-11).

Summary of the Text
What then is the result? Israel has not obtained it (v. 7), but the election has obtained it (v. 7). This means that the election here were those Israelites who heard to the salvation of their souls. Those who did not hear were Israel in the other sense, Israel according to the flesh. And so the election (which included Paul) obtained, while the rest were blinded (v. 7). This fulfilled the Word from two places—Deuteronomy 29:4 and Isaiah 29:10, quoted in verse 8. David also points to the same reality in Psalm 69:22-23), quoted here in vv. 9-10. This being the case, Paul asks if they have stumbled past the point of no return (v. 11). Is the apostasy final? His answer to this is his standard may it never be, rendered here as God forbid. This answer sets up the discussion to follow, where we learn how Israel according to the flesh will eventually be brought back, to be grafted back in. In the meantime, they have stumbled for a time, and that stumbling resulted in salvation coming to the Gentiles, which in its turn will provoke the Jews to jealousy, and cause them to return again to the true Israel (v. 11).

In Every Age
Israel was “going about” to establish her own righteousness, and they were ignorant of the righteousness of God. This means that they were seeking something—righteousness—which they were not really seeking. To use the words the Lord used, they already had their reward. They got what they were seeking, but they didn’t get what they were seeking. This is because they heard without really hearing. This is because they were sons of Sarah who were really sons of Hagar, sons of Abraham who were really sons of the devil. They were Jews who were not Jews. This is the dividing line that separates the believer from the unbeliever in every age.

Chosen By Grace
So the election obtained it, and as Paul has just emphasized, they obtained it by grace. They were the remnant chosen by grace. This means that God was the one doing the choosing, and that they were not the ones doing the choosing. When men choose God, it is not really God they choose. When men choose righteousness, it is not really righteousness they choose. When men do the pursuing, they soon veer off in another direction entirely. Paul was chosen by God, and not another of his classmates in Gamaliel’s school, entirely and solely because God determined to do it this way, and He made this determination according to “His good counsel and will” (Eph. 1:11).

The Rest Were Blinded
Those who were not chosen were left to their own devices. Those who were not sought out by God were left to their own pseudo-seeking of God. The Bible calls this a blinding. When God lets men go, God is giving them something—He is allowing them to eat their own cooking. Remember that in chapter one, the wrath of God is described as God “giving them up.” Here God is striking them with a judicial blindness, a spirit of stupor. And in that stupor, what do they see? They see exactly what they insist upon seeing. God gives them over to their own vision of things. They see what they want.

In Deuteronomy 29:4, the Israelites had not been given a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear, despite the fact that great miracles had been done for them (v. 3). Isaiah 29 is a chapter that is filled with this truth—God gave a stupor to their prophets and seers. And in Psalm 69, we see that the whole thing relates to Jesus. In Psalm 69:4, those who hate Christ hate Him without reason (v. 4; Jn. 15:25). In v. 8, rejection by His brothers was prophesied (John 7:5). In verse 9, we see the zeal of the Lord for the Temple (Jn. 2:17) and Paul applies the latter half of this verse to Christ as well (Rom. 15:3). A prediction is made of the gall Christ was offered on the cross in v. 21 (Matt. 27:34). The context swirls around the treatment that the Jews gave to their Messiah, and in that context, David says “let the table set before them become a snare” (vv. 22-23). And verse 25 is applied by Peter to the fall of Judas (Acts 1:20).

So we should see that the counsel of God’s will in this had been settled 700 years prior (Isaiah), 1000 years prior (Psalms), and 1400 years prior (Deuteronomy). God’s gifts and His refusal to give those gifts stand outside the give and take of history. History cascades from His decrees, and not the other way around.

Reformation from God
So how much of Israel was really Israel was in the palm of God’s hand—so that grace might be really grace. And in every age of the Church, it has been the same. How much of the Church is really the Church is in the hand of God. And so we must turn to Him.

Romans 40: Seven Thousand By Grace (11:1-6)

Joe Harby on November 15, 2009

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Introduction

In times of spiritual declension—which we are certainly in—it is very easy to fall into the trap that Elijah fell into. Flatterers and false teachers always tell us that things are far better than we think, but when we work our way past their lies, we often have to be reassured by God Himself that things are not nearly as bad as we think. This is not blind optimism; this is faith.

The Text

“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work” (Rom. 11:1-6).

Summary of the Text

If there are two ways of hearing, what conclusion may we draw? If there are two ways of being Israel, what conclusion may we not draw? We may not conclude that God has cast away His people (v. 1). Saul speaks as a member of the remnant—he is a son of Abraham, an Israelite, of the tribe of Benjamin. Those whom God foreknew have not been cast off (v. 2); this means that the promises were fulfilled in and through the remnant. Elijah prayed against Israel (v. 2), but he was praying against one Israel when God had preserved another. Elijah’s complaint was that they had killed God’s prophets, they had thrown down His altars, and they were trying to kill Elijah, the one man still remaining (v. 3). How did God answer His prophet? Paul then quotes 1 Kings 19:18. God said that He had reserved to Himself seven thousand men that had not bent the knee to Baal (v. 4). Paul says that the first century had a remnant according to the election of grace in the same way (v. 5). And if by grace, then the seven thousand were not preserved by their works (v. 6). He plainly says that works and grace cannot abide together; one drives out the other (v. 6).

God Reserved the Faithful to Himself

There is a profound question created by two Israels, two ways of hearing God. What are we to say when judgment falls on one way of being Israel, because of that Israel’s apostasy? Has God cast away His people? God forbid. God’s word will never return to Him void (Is. ). Note that God is the subject of the sentences. God has not cast off. God has reserved to Himself seven thousand faithful men. Paul anchors the point beyond all dispute. The remnant of Israel that remained was a “remnant according to the election of grace.” There were seven thousand according to the sovereign and free determination of God. Reformations that are not grounded on the free and unalterable gift of God are not reformations at all. That is the foundational point that Paul is making here.

Grace and Works

And note that Paul argues that the difference between grace and works is not one that admits of compromise. You cannot split the difference between these two. Introduce any element of works into the equation, and it drives out grace. And true grace, faithfully preached, will drive all works of the law before it. And it is important to remember that we are not talking about grace on paper, but rather grace in action.

A Typical Encouragement

Elijah and Elisha were the leaders in a renewal movement, located in the midst of a wicked and apostate Israel. They did not constitute what we might call a “free church” movement, but neither were they lap dogs for the kings and corrupt priesthood. The schools of the prophets were simultaneously part of and separate from the wicked nation they prophesied to.

Applications For Us

We live in comparable times. We do not live in a time that would be typified by the conquests of Joshua, or the rise of David, or the established glories of Solomon. We live in a time when idolatry and syncretism are largely accepted, even within the evangelical church. We live in a time when other gods are exalted in the public square in the name of diversity. We live in a time when wicked men appear to be able to do as they please, egged on by the Jezebels behind them. We live in a time when children (by the million) are being caused to pass through the fire. And we live in a time when, if we held a conference to protest these monstrosities, we could get at least seven thousand to come. Not very much, but our God can work by many or by few (1 Sam. 14:6). Here then are three basic principles for us to apply to our day:

First, if any “saving America” is to be done, then the true God will do it through Jesus. He will not share His glory with another, and we are not permitted to offer to share it for the sake of building coalitions. God reserves the seven thousand, and we must reserve the right of God to be God.

Second, worship is the key. Worship is the litmus test. How does God identify the good guys? He speaks to Elijah about what they did and did not do in worship. He didn’t say whether they were registered to vote, and He didn’t say whether they paid any of Ahab’s taxes. The watershed issue is always worship, and the downstream issues, while important, are not the place to begin. They are not where we place our trust—even though we must get there as well. The thing God mentions to Elijah is where the seven thousand have not bowed, and what they have not kissed.

And third, the relationship between faithful communities and apostate larger communities is a complicated one. There is a delicate balance here that only the Spirit of God can enable us to achieve. The faithful communities are distinct but not detached. In our day, we have to struggle with the misunderstandings of Christians who fail to get this principle right. They are either “distinct and detached,” which is an escapist religion, or they are “not distinct and not detached,” which is muddle and compromise.