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November 2008
Rightly
Dividing the Word of Truth
(2
Timothy 2:15)
This
is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to
be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1Timothy 2:3-4
Romans by the Book Lesson
94
I thank the Lord
Jesus Christ for this day and for the opportunity to teach His Truths to those who
demonstrate an interest in understanding the things God has revealed to those
who love Him. I also thank the Lord for
each one of you.
Since there are no
questions from this group, I can assume we’re all on the “same page,” as it
were and prepared to press on toward
the goal. Our
brother Paul explains: Brethren, I do not regard myself as having
laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do:
forgetting what lies behind
and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward
call of God in Christ Jesus – (knowing that) God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God,
to those who are called according to His purpose
(and what’s God purpose for those
who love Him – that they be conformed
to the image of His Son). (Philippians
3:13-14; Romans 8:28-29)
Let’s
start today’s lesson with a brief review.
Through
chapters 9 and on into chapter 10 our Apostle Paul discusses the important
issues of God’s choosing and His mercy, (the potter and the clay), how
the nation of Israel stumbled over
the chief cornerstone laid in Zion,
and then he goes on to discuss the righteousness
that is by faith (alone) and why Israel did not understand God’s prophetic
program.
Moving
into chapter 11, Paul speaks on the subject of God’s Good News going out to the
nations and its effect this has had on
his brethren - the Jews. This leads into
his clarification that God did not reject His people, although a Divine partial hardening has come upon some of them and as a result of their
transgression (crucifying God’s Son) salvation has come to the Gentiles. Once again this hardening is only partial, and temporal; partial in that it is not a permanent condition and it’s not on
every individual Israelite. The Book of
Acts account clearly demonstrates that most of the converts to Christianity at
this time in history were individual Jews – Paul was one of these.
Paul
magnified his ministry to the
Gentiles, as he is the Apostle to
the Gentiles, so that he might move some
of his fellow countrymen to jealousy in order to save some of them. Paul then warns the Gentiles repeatedly about
reaching the wrong conclusion concerning their salvation vs Israel’s rejection
and becoming conceited or
high-minded. In the same breath, Paul
warned them not to lose their fear of
God, and not to forget the kindness of
God, otherwise (this is the
flip-side) you also will be cut
off. For unbelief leads to
destruction and damnation or as Paul put it, severity. In short, Paul
says the same fate that befell the Israelites, which you think so little of, is not to be scoffed at… (Romans 11:17-22)
Please
open your Bible at Romans 11:23.
Romans 11
23: And they (the individual Israelites) also, if they do not continue in
their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to
graft them in again.
In
verse 23 there is change from Paul’s usage of the word “you” (10 uses addressing Gentile Believers) to the word
“they/them” (meaning Israelites). Now it
isn’t just the possibility of Israelites being saved, as Paul continues his
analogy, “grafted in;” Paul broaches the subject of
Israel’s actual salvation by faith being a future reality.
Verse
23 asserts there’s a day coming when the blindness
(or veil) will be lifted for some (like Paul for example who came to believe in
Jesus Christ) and these Israelites will
be grafted into God’s Kingdom Tree by faith for God is able to graft them in again. God has left the Door open for the
unbelieving Jewish people and as this book puts it Jesus Christ is that Door.
The
problem in Jeremiah’s day was the same as in Paul’s day. The Israelites believed that their covenant
with Jehovah God was based on their heritage and their religious traditions
rather than upon one’s faith. However, Paul
preached that faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ for your sins is the only
way to be saved. Therefore, this makes Jesus
Christ the one and only Door into
the Kingdom: “Truly,
truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and
robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and
will go in and out and find pasture.” (John
10:7-9; 14-6, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
Despite
the numerous prophecies that reveal true Israel will not continue in unbelief
these individuals will need to “see” to believe and Scripture accounts for this
fact: “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will (what)
look on Me whom
they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son,
and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10; 8-14).
Verse
23 is not saying there will be a corporate
redemption of Israel in the future. There
isn’t even a hint of this in Paul’s remarks.
The nation of Israel cannot be “grafted”
in only individual Israelites (like Paul) can. He continues this argument in verse 24.
Romans 11
24: For if you
(Gentiles)
were cut off from what is by nature a wild
olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive
tree, how much more will these (individual Israelites) who are the natural branches be
grafted into their own olive tree?
I’m
not a horticulturalist but as I understand the process, normally, you graft good olive branches upon a wild
olive stock in order to produce good fruit.
However, here God does it contrary
to nature. He takes the wild
olive branches (Gentiles) and grafts them
into the good olive stock (Jesus Christ) on the condition of one’s faith. It’s their faith that changes these branches
from wild to cultivated. This is contrary to nature.
This
teaching is not exclusive to Romans.
Please turn to Ephesians 2:11.
For the sake of time we’ll drop in at verse 13: But
now in Christ Jesus you (Gentiles) who
were (what) formerly were far
off have been brought near by (faith in) the blood of Christ.
When
taken in context with verses 11-13, the phrase “But now, you who were
far off,” refers to being “far off” from God’s people (the nation of Israel), the
covenants, the Law, their religion, and therefore from God - and not just far from God, as many people read
it. The “heathen” Gentiles were most definitely
“wild” olive branches, grafted in, by
faith to the cultivated olive tree (Jesus
Christ) making them able to produce good fruit.
Let’s
move on to verse 25.
Romans 11
25: For I do not want you, brethren, to be
uninformed of this (what’s
the next word) mystery – so that
you will not be wise in your own estimation – that a partial hardening
has happened to Israel (now read carefully) until (the word “until” is a time indicator; in this case
it’s referring to a future event which the Holy Spirit names) the fullness of the Gentiles
(or the filling up of God’s Church) has
come in;
In
verse 25 Paul is providing some significant new information to this
assembly. Information that wasn’t
revealed in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ didn’t speak of it during His
earthly ministry, and Peter and the other eleven apostles knew nothing of it.
Please
turn to Ephesians 3:1-9: For this reason I, Paul, the
prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles – if indeed you have
heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by
revelation there was made know to me the (what) mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can
understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other
generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed
to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of
the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the
gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which
was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this
grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,
and bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for
ages has been (what) hidden in God
who created all things; (1
Corinthians 2:7).
Once
again we have another example in Scripture of a poorly translated word and in
this case it’s truly unfortunate because all it’s done is confuse people. I’m speaking of the word “mystery.” When most people come across the word “mystery”
they automatically assume it means: an enigma,
something weird, or something deep, dark, and puzzling. It does not mean any of these things.
The
Greek word for mystery is Musterion, meaning: a hidden or secret thing, not obvious to understanding; a hidden purpose or
counsel.
Now
let’s return to the place of “first mention” in Scripture to see what it says
about the secret things.
Please
go to Deuteronomy 29:29: “The (what) secret (Mysterion)
things belong to the LORD our God, but
the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe
all the words of this law.
It’s
certainly God’s prerogative to keep a secret until He’s ready to reveal it, but
what man needs to understand is that once He reveals the secret or Truth He expects obedience.
We
also have this from Scripture regarding the
secret things of God: It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,
But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. (Proverbs25:2)
And
this: It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; (Daniel 2:22a)
1
Corinthians 2:10 provides us with a N.T. confirmation of Deuteronomy
29:29: For to us God revealed them through
the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. Because of this Truth we can understand a
great deal about God and ourselves.
Our
Apostle Paul received the stewardship of
God’s grace by revelation of the “mystery”
which had been kept hidden in the mind of God, since before the foundations of the earth. All these Grace
Age doctrines we’ve been studying, the previously hidden things, Paul addresses
as secrets for that’s what they
were. Peter, James, John and the others
knew nothing of them. Here’s what Peter
had to say about Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles: Paul,
according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these
things (What things - the revelation of the mystery of God’s Grace) in
which are (read carefully) some
things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable
distort, as they do also the rest of
the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
(2 Peter 3:15b-16)
(To
be continued)
©
Copyright 2011
GJ
Heitzman’s Ministry
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