Romans 11:11-32 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come to the Gentiles… In the section now before us we find the apostle passing from the judicial blindness which had come upon his countrymen to its providential purpose. For God can make the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of that wrath he can restrain (Psalm 76:10). Hence the blind course pursued by the Jews is made the opportunity for the Gentiles. Paul, when the Jews would not receive the gospel, turned to the Gentiles, and had his success as apostle to the heathen. But the Gentiles, in their turn, are to contemplate the restoration of the Jews to God's favour, and to work for it. Israel is to be yet gathered into God, and when this desirable consummation comes, it will be as life unto the rest of the world. The future of Israel is what the apostle consequently in this paragraph discusses. And - I. THE FALL OF ISRAEL OPENED UP A WAY FOR THE SALVATION OF THE GENTILES. (Vers. 11, 12.) There is a strange unity in the human organism, so that when one part suffers another part is saved. How often, by applying a blister to an external part, the inflammation of an internal part is relieved! We have the same law of vicarious suffering obtaining in the human race. It is an organic whole on a vastly larger scale. And so we find one race suffering for the benefit of the others. Take the case of France, for example, and do we not see in it a nation which has been suffering from governmental experiments since before the Revolution, and becoming thereby a beacon and a blessing to the other nations of the earth? In the very same way, the Jewish nation, through rejecting Jesus, led to the evangelization of the Gentiles; and, as the "tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast," the children of Israel have been among the most precious proofs of the Divinity of our Scriptures. Their fall has thus been the riches of the world; the diminishing of them has been the riches of the Gentiles. The sad fate which made exiles and aliens of Israel has led to the acceptance and sonship of the Gentiles. Moreover, the apostle argues that the fulness of the Jews, when this comes round, will be the condition of still more abundant blessing to the Gentile nations. A suffering nation leads to the blessing of other nations; when the suffering shall cease, still more abundant blessing shall be the result. II. THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES HOLDS BEFORE THEM THE HOPE OF STILL MORE ABUNDANT BLESSING WHEN THE JEWS ARE GATHERED IN. (Vers. 13-15.) As's skilful apostle, he wants to play the one against the other. He would stir up the Jews to jealousy by showing them how much the gospel has benefited the Gentiles; in this way he would try to save some of them. On the other hand, he would hold before the Gentiles the hope of far greater blessing when the Jews would be gathered in, and so set the Gentiles upon the enterprise of saving the Jews. Israel will thus be a stimulus to missionary enterprise. A great revival of spiritual life is to be expected through the ingathering of the Jews. So great will it be as to be properly compared to a resurrection, "life from the dead;" consequently the Gentiles, as a matter of spiritual profit, should seek the salvation of Israel. In this way Paul promotes the amity of the nations. He shows that in mutual good will is to be found their very highest good. III. FROM THE HOLINESS OF THE JEWISH FIRSTFRUITS, AND OF THE JEWISH ROOT, THE APOSTLE FURTHER ARGUES TO THE HOLINESS OF THE LUMP AND THE BRANCHES. (Ver. 16.) Now, the apostle here speaks of the benefit and blessing which the Jewish stock had already been to the world. Some take the reference in the firstfruits and root to be to the fathers referred to in ver. 28; the idea being that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were "holy," that is, set apart, and so are their descendants to be. Others take it as referring to the elect Jews, such as Paul and the eleven, who, being saved, rendered hopeful the salvation of their fellows. But we think the firstfruits and root can only apply fully to him who was the real Firstfruits and "the Root out of the dry ground." The apostle's argument in this case would be this: If Jesus, the seed of Abraham and real root of the true Israelitish race, has been such a pre-eminent blessing to the race, how much may we expect when the Jewish lump and the Jewish branches get consecrated to God as he has been! In this way the apostle follows up his suggested hope, enlarges it, and makes it the fountain of enterprise, with a view to the conversion of the Jewish race. We should not forget that the most influential and life-giving individual who ever lived in this world was a Jew; and, while we can never expect any of his countrymen to come up to his standard of blessing, we may and ought to expect that the conversion of Christ's race to God must be of pre-eminent service to all the other nations of the earth. And as a matter of fact, Jews like Neander, who have got converted and consecrated, have become mighty blessings to their fellow-men. And so we hope great things from the first fruits and the root. IV. THE APOSTLE WARNS THE GENTILES THAT THEIR ENGRAFTING INTO THE OLIVE TREE OF CHRISTIANITY CARRIES WITH IT SERIOUS RESPONSIBILITIES. (Vers. 17-24.) The Jews who have rejected Christ are branches broken off the real Root. In their place the Gentiles have been engrafted, so that the "eternal sap" proceeding from Christ the Root, and which should otherwise have sustained these Jews, passes over to the Gentiles. But now a fact about the olive tree is utilized by the apostle. Van Lennep tells us, in his work on the Holy Land, that "the olive tree grows to so great an age that the old wild root sometimes conquers the better graft, so that the fruit deteriorates, and the tree must needs be grafted anew" (p. 125). It is this fact which the apostle makes the ground of his warning. If the Gentiles, forgetting that it was solely through God's grace they had been grafted in, got infected with Jewish pride and self-righteousness, so that their fruit-bearing deteriorated, there would be nothing for it but through a new engrafting of the better Jewish stock to restore the olive tree to fruitfulness. God's severity to the broken-off Jewish branches should make the Gentiles very humble and very earnest, lest it come round upon themselves. They should continue in the enjoyment of God's goodness by exercising humble faith and ardent effort. If they will not discharge their responsibilities, they may expect likewise to be broken off. Unfaithful nations have been cut off - the candlesticks and Churches have been removed. V. ISRAEL'S PARTIAL BLINDNESS IS PERMITTED UNTIL THE FULNESS OF THE GENTILES IS COME IN. (Ver. 25.) To prevent the Gentiles being wise in their own conceits, the apostle explains the mystery that Israel's blindness has been permitted that the fulness of the Gentiles should be gathered in. The Gentiles have now their chance supplied. Their ingathering into Christ's kingdom is God's great present purpose. Missions to the heathen, the continuance of Paul's work, are to be prosecuted m the hope of abundant ingathering. The privileges of the gospel are thus laid at the door of the heathen. In this way the great pioneer missionary, St. Paul, would foster the twofold missionary enterprise; he would have the most earnest effort put forth that the heathen nations should be gathered in; he would also have the saved Gentiles to seek still greater blessing through the ingathering of the Jew. VI. ISRAEL AS A NATION IS TO BE SAVED AS THE CROWNING ACT OF GOD'S MERCY. (Vers. 26-32.) When it is said, "All Israel shall be saved," it cannot mean that every individual Jew is to come right at last. Paul's doctrine is not "That not one life shall be destroyed, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete;" but evidently that Israel in its national capacity shall yet be gathered home to God. As touching the election, the Jewish nation or race is beloved for the fathers' sakes. And God's gifts and callings are without repentance. Consequently, we ought to entertain the hope that the Jewish nation shall yet be restored to God's favour and be saved. And this is to be done through the mercy extended to the Jews by the saved Gentiles. In other words, the Jewish problem is to be solved by a mission to them from the Gentiles. In this way God has overruled the unbelief of Jews to the conversion of the Gentiles, and the conversion of the Gentiles is next to be utilized for the ingathering of the Jews. When the fulness of the Gentiles is followed by the conversion of the Jewish people, we may expect that unprecedented spiritual life and power and energy shall then be experienced over universal Christendom. May the consummation so desirable be hastened! - R.M.E. Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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