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Romans by the Book Lesson
88
New visitors are
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that you stopped by to see what we’re up to. I also want to mention
all those who continue to faithfully follow along with these lessons week after
week and thank you for participating.
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publish these Bible lessons the current one appears first in line and then the
others follow in sequence. It may
interest you to know that all the Bible lessons have been archived on this
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We completed our
study of Romans 10 last week and now we’re going to turn our attention to
Romans 11 which deals with God’s future plan for Israel. God has an eternal plan for His people (always
has) despite what you may have heard or been told.
The majority of
Christendom holds that the benevolent God is finished with Israel mainly because
this is what they have heard or been
taught. Someone somewhere told these folks
that when Israel cried out in unison for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ God the
Father said, “You’re done” despite scriptural
evidence to the contrary.
The proponents of Replacement Theology believe and teach
that the church of God has “replaced” the nation of Israel in God’s eternal plan. They say the Jews are no longer God’s chosen
people and that He has no specific “future” plans for that nation.
In addition, they say
all God’s prophecies concerning Israel are null and void. All the promises God made to Israel will be
fulfilled in the church, not in Israel. They
go on to say all the passages in the Bible about Israel being present at the
“end” don’t mean what they say; and this
includes Romans chapter 11.
However, major
problems exist with their theory, such as God’s word to the contrary, the
continuing existence of the Jewish people throughout the centuries, and the
revival of the nation of Israel, according to prophecy, which continues to
thrive today despite the constant harassment by its enemies and their allies.
Antisemitism has
existed for generations. Nations and
peoples have been discussing or planning Israel’s destruction for centuries and
millions of Jews have perished but don’t overlook the obvious. They are still here and they are not going
away.
In fact, when asked
how he could be so certain there was a God, one theologian replied, “The
Jew.” The continued survival of the
Jewish people, no matter where they may live in this world today, despite the
numerous attempts to exterminate, them clearly demonstrates God’s existence,
His presence in the world, and His involvement in Israel’s affairs (Isaiah
42:8-9, 43:10-13, 44:6-8, 49:3, 49:5-13).
Let’s
begin. Please open your Bible at Romans
chapter 11.
Israel Is Not Cast
Away
Paul
often responds in his letters as if he’s answering a question from his audience
and he is - just like here in verse 1.
After preaching to his
brethren in chapters 9 and 10, with a sorrowful heart, rest assured that
“doubt” crept in where certainty once dwelt.
His countrymen were asking, “Are
we not God’s chosen people? Has God forsaken us?” To
which Paul now responds:
Romans 11
1: I say then, God
has not rejected His people, has He? May
it never be! For I too am an Israelite,
a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Here
our Apostle Paul answers emphatically that God has not rejected all
Israelites, although, as He has pointed out in chapters 9 and 10, God has
rejected most of them:
“THOUGH THE NUMBER
OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT
THAT WILL BE SAVED; (Romans
9:27).
Only a remnant will be saved and Paul is
saying he is included in this assembly. By
this we understand the remnant is
all those who put their faith in the
risen Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation.
Salvation by grace (alone) means that you and I can do absolutely nothing to earn or merit God’s free
gift of grace. God receives the glory;
no man may boast.
Here
are a few O.T. Scripture passages that speak of God’s Jewish Remnant:
Micah
7:18 - Who is a God like You, who
pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the (who) remnant of His possession?
Isaiah
10:21-22 – A remnant will return,
the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant within them will
return; A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.
Jeremiah
50:20 – ‘In those days and at that
time,’ declares the LORD, ‘search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but
there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for
I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.’
Zechariah
8:12 – ‘For there will be peace for the
seed: the vine will yield its fruit, the
land will yield its produce and the heavens will give their dew; I will cause
the remnant of this people to inherit all these things.
I
was wondering why Paul mentioned that he was from the tribe of Benjamin in this
verse, so I dug a little deeper. I discovered this tribe almost disappeared
from among the twelve tribes of Israel because they refused to judge evil
(Judges 21). However, “almost” only
counts in horseshoes and hand grenades as they say…Paul presented himself as a
physical and spiritual example of God’s remnant. This may be why he added it to his statement.
Let’s
go to verse 2.
2: God has not
rejected His people whom He foreknew.
Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads
with God against (rebellious) Israel?
The
Greek word for known is Ginosko (a verb) and means: come to know, perceive, feel, to become
known, understand, have knowledge of, to become acquainted with, and it’s a
Jewish idiom for sexual intimacy between a man and a woman.
Here
Paul defines the Israel (remnant) that God has not rejected: His
people whom He foreknew, or “You
only have I known.”
God
is not speaking of knowing the intimate details of their affairs, or of
pre-selecting those He wanted to preserve while casting others aside, but of
the fact that to them only had He made Himself known because they were foreknown
of Him; that is acquainted with Him beforehand (before the foundations of the
earth).
Please
turn to Amos at chapter 3. This will
give us a better idea of what Paul is saying.
Amos 3
1: Hear this word
that Jehovah hath spoken against you, children of Israel, against the whole
family that I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
2: You only have I known
of all the families of the earth; therefore will I visit upon you all your
iniquities. (The Darby Bible)
In
the preceding chapters there are a series of messages of judgment concerning
the various nations surrounding Israel.
The LORD God gives a reason for each of these judgments beginning with
Damascus (Amos 1:3); then Gaza (Amos 1:6); then Tyre (Amos 1:9); then Edom
(Amos 1:11); then Ammon (Amos 1:13); then Moab (Amos 2:1); then Judah (Amos
2:4); ending with the northern kingdom of Israel (Amos 2:6); all of this demonstrating
that the LORD God knew or had foreknowledge of their evil behavior.
Therefore,
when God says concerning Israel, “You
only have I known.” He is referring to
a “fore-acquaintance” with Israel. This foreknowledge is best described in
Romans 8:29, and therefore must include the foreknowledge of the Jewish remnant, according to the election of
grace.
The
Apostle Paul conveys this same message to the church at Galatia: but
now, knowing God, but rather being known by God, how do ye turn
again to the weak and beggarly principles to which ye desire to be again anew
in bondage? (Galatians 4:9) (See also Romans 8:29)
When
Paul speaks of the Jewish remnant, he
is contrasting Jews who believe and Jews who do not believe. Put another way, he is saying there is a
subset of true Israel within the nation of Israel. Although Israel in its entirety is obviously
the physical seed of Abraham, meaning Jewish, not every individual Jew is
considered by God to be the authentic spiritual seed of Abraham as well. For this to be true faith is required! (See Romans
2:28-29).
Let’s
move on to verse 3.
3: “Lord, “THEY HAVE KILLED YOUR PROPHETS, THEY
HAVE TORN DOWN YOUR ALTARS, AND I ALONE AM LEFT, AND THEY ARE SEEKING MY LIFE.” (1 Kings 19:10, 14)
4: but what is the
divine response to him? “I HAVE KEPT (preserved) for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT
BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL.”
(1 Kings 19:18)
Israel
had turned away from worshipping the LORD God under King Ahab and Jezebel to
worshipping the pagan god Baal. They
killed His prophets, and destroyed His altars.
In fear Elijah fled believing that he alone remained and they were
seeking to kill him!
However,
the LORD responded to his prayer at Mt. Horeb telling him, “Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not
bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18)
At
that time in history, there were approximately 7-8 million Israelites living in
the land and out of that number the LORD God preserved 7,000 faithful men. Now that’s not very many. By my calculations that works out to be
.001%. But as Scripture teaches us the
faithful have always been low in number.
For example: after God destroyed
the population of this planet with the flood, He worked with Noah and his
family; they numbered 8 people. When the
LORD called to Abram of the Caldees out of all the people on the earth, he was but
one man and the remnant. After Jesus
Christ’s ascended, all of His followers were gathered together as He commanded
them waiting for the promised Helper. Although He had miraculously healed and fed
thousands of people during those 3 years, even though He had taught the Scriptures
to just as many, even though He had performed countless miracles, signs, and
wonders before the chief priests, and elders, how many of His followers were
there to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost: At
this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren (a gathering of about one
hundred and twenty persons was there together), (Acts 1:15). These 120 people give or take, were the remnant.
Scripture
also teaches us that God chooses to accomplish His work here on earth through
His remnant. Elijah is an example of this truth. He opposed the false prophets who claimed
Baal was the only god - with the people watching. Elijah gained a great victory for the LORD on
that day, and the people shouted, “The
LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God.” (1
Kings 18:39)
Paul
follows up on this thought in the next verse:
5: In the same way
then, there has also come to be at the present time a (what) remnant according to God’s gracious choice.
6: But if it is by
grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer
grace.
I’ve
been teaching God’s Word to people of all ages for 18 years and I’ve learned a
few things during that time. One common characteristic many people share is they don’t understand God’s grace. For example: I worked side-by-side with a gentleman in BSF
who admitted to me that he didn’t understand God’s grace or its implications and
we were teaching the book of Romans that particular year. As I’ve pointed out to you many times during
this study, the book of Romans is Paul’s masterpiece on the subject of God’s Grace.
But he struggled to understand it while teaching it. Each
one of these individuals were absolutely convinced they had to do to “something,”
“they needed to keep busy,” in order to earn God’s favor so as to gain
salvation despite what this book says - that grace is a free gift
from God.
Therefore,
I’m going to spend some time on the “ABC’s” of this subject.
The
channel of grace is Jesus Christ: grace and truth were realized through Jesus
Christ. (John 1:17b; 14:6)
The
instrument of grace is faith:
For by grace you have been saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves, it
is (what) the gift of
God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
From
these two Bible passages we understand that salvation is centered on the cross
and Jesus Christ’s resurrection; and God’s Grace is a free “gift.”
If
a person received salvation in exchange for doing good deeds (works), then
salvation is just another word for “wages.” If salvation is given in exchange for
“benefits” bestowed, then it is merely a “reward.” It goes without saying then, if a person
received salvation as wages or as a reward, then salvation wouldn’t be a
free gift but something that they
were entitled to, and therefore is not Grace.
The
definition of Grace is “undeserved
mercy.” Jesus Christ died in our place;
He paid a debt He did not owe so that all those who choose to believe in His death, burial, and
resurrection, according to the Scriptures (plus nothing) will be saved (1
Corinthians 15:1-4). I know it sounds
too simple, but that’s it.
It
is human nature to want to “add” something to God’s plan of salvation. There is this “sense” based on our human
logic that we must do something to earn God’s favor, to be accepted, or to even
be noticed by Him, so that we may gain access to His heaven.
However,
if you think like this you’re missing it just as the nation of Israel did and
still are actually. The Gospel of Jesus
Christ declares that Jesus is absolutely essential for salvation, and that He
is enough for salvation. To come back
and say, “Yes, I know Jesus Christ died for me, but I have to ___________ (Fill
in the blank) in order to be right with God.”
Those who believe that “works” are necessary for salvation are in effect
saying to God, “Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was incomplete or unsatisfactory.” They’re saying Jesus’ final words, “It is finished” have no particular meaning as it
pertains to them. They are stripping the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator God, of His deity and glorifying humanity. They are declaring themselves to be their own
savior before God the Father who sent His Son to die for their sins.
(To
be continued)
©
Copyright 2011
GJ
Heitzman’s Ministry
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Rights Reserved
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