Transcript

A foreigner once visited Jerusalem. He hailed a taxi. Getting in, the driver asked him where he wanted to go. The man replied, “Take me to that place in Jerusalem where everybody cries.” The taxi driver said, “Okay,” and then he dropped him off at a tax office.

In 2018, I traveled to Israel for a tour with a group of pastors and church leaders. And my father-in-law, who pastors a grace church north of Green Bay, Wisconsin, also came along. We roomed together for the trip.

One of the tour days we went to the Western Wall, or the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. The Western Wall is very significant in Judaism because of its proximity to the Temple Mount.

As a result of the Temple Mount entry restrictions, the Western Wall is the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray.

The day we were there, there were many Jewish men praying at the Wall. They are many pulpits and chairs there where men read and study from the Torah or the Talmud. And there was a bar mitzvah ceremony being celebrated the day we were visiting the Wall.

It stirred my heart looking at all these Jewish men caught up in their religion, who have put themselves under the law, and rejected the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was reminded of Paul’s words that “my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” And I thought to be truly Pauline, we should have a heart for the Jews and a desire for them to be saved.

My father-in-law and I worked our way together through the crowd of men to go up to the wall. We saw the papers with prayers on them stuffed in between the stones.

Standing there in the midst of all these devout Jewish men practicing Judaism, my father-in-law looked around, and then about as loud as he could say it, shouted, “I’m so glad to be a Gentile under grace!”

It startled me, and for a second I wondered if a riot might begin. But then I thought about what he said, and I thought he’s right.

What a privilege we Gentiles have been given to have a relationship with the living God by grace. And it’s because, after temporarily setting His program with Israel aside because of their unbelief, God chose to have a program with the Gentiles by grace.

Without God doing this, we would have remained in the condition of Gentiles in the past, as Ephesians 2:12 explains, being “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”

Romans 11 has much to say about what happened to Israel, and what will happen to Israel in the future. We’ll be looking at this chapter in this episode.

Romans 11:1-6: “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.”

Paul asks the question here, “Has God cast away His people Israel?” The words “cast away” mean to push off or drive away from one’s self. Paul is asking if God has completely and permanently pushed Israel away from Himself?

And his answer, by the Holy Spirit, is very clear: God forbid. Certainly not. Then Paul uses himself as an example and proof of this. He says that God has not cast me away.

This was a very personal question to Paul, an Israelite, about God casting Israel away.

The fact that Paul was saved and belonged to God was testament that Israel was not cast away personally and not cast away permanently. And this showed to Paul, and to us now, that the door is wide open under grace for Israelites to be saved by God’s grace.

Paul says very plainly in verse 2 that “God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew.”

God has planned and purposed many things for Israel. Some have been fulfilled, many have not. God has not permanently cast Israel away, and He is preserving Israel because He must and He will fulfill all His promises to her.

In verse 2, Paul asked a question, “Wot [or know] ye not what the Scripture saith…” With the question of what happened to Israel, God’s Word is where we need to find the answer.

We need to be careful to not allow our thoughts, opinion, or observations about Israel’s current condition to influence the answer to this question. God’s Word is the authority and is where we must turn.

Paul uses the example of Elijah here to show that God is not finished with Israel and has not permanently cast her away.

Because of Israel’s worship of the pagan god, Baal, Elijah thought Israel was done, lost, beyond hope. He thought he was the only one left, and that God had cast away all Israelites. But God told Elijah about the remnant of 7000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal and who believed in Him and were faithful to Him.

Even during Israel’s darkest periods, such as in the time of Elijah, God has never totally cast aside His people. It was true in the past, and it is true right now.

Showing that God has not cast aside His people, Paul points out that there was a remnant of believers in Israel in the past in Elijah’s day, and that there is a remnant of Jewish believers even “at this present time” who are saved by the grace of God.

This is according to the “election of grace,” or God choosing to have a program of grace in which He is giving all the opportunity to be saved by His grace through faith.

Paul was part of this Jewish remnant according to the election of grace. And there are and have been a remnant of Jews saved by the grace of God throughout this dispensation.

They are members of the Body of Christ and have a heavenly hope like all do in the Church today under grace.

Both Jew and Gentile are saved by grace apart from works today. Paul adds that grace is not grace if mingled with works. There is no part for you or me to perform or do to be saved in this dispensation. Salvation is the gift of God’s love to be received by faith alone.

Romans 11:11-15: “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.

“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?”

Paul wrote, “Have they stumbled?” This calls our attention back to Romans 9:32-33 to the Stumbling Stone, “For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” In their rejection and unbelief of Christ, Israel stumbled and she fell.

Paul asked, “Have they stumbled that they should FALL? God forbid: but rather through their FALL salvation is come unto the Gentiles…” The word “fall” is found twice in this verse and they have two different meanings.

The first word “fall” in the original Greek means a permanent fall, to fall under judgment, to perish, come to an end, or fall beyond recovery.

Paul asked if this is how Israel fell? Have they stumbled in their unbelief of Christ and fallen permanently? In other words, “Is God finished with Israel?” And Paul’s strong answer is “No! God forbid.” Paul doesn’t deny the fall of Israel. But he vigorously opposed the idea that God is through with Israel forever.

Instead he wrote, “But rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles.” The second word “fall” is a different Greek word from the first word “fall.” The second “fall” means a temporary fall and to fall alongside.

Israel has fallen and been set aside only temporarily. She will get back up. One day, she will recover from her present fallen condition and rise to great glory when God fulfills His promises to and through her.

And falling alongside is interesting, because Israel has fallen from her place of supremacy over the Gentiles, from Israel being the apple of God’s eyes, from Gentiles having to come through Israel to be saved, to now having fallen alongside the Gentiles so that today they are on the same level and there is no difference between Jew and Gentile.

No longer does the Gentile need to come through Israel to be saved. With Israel set aside, God is dealing with people individually today.

As Paul wrote in Romans 10:12-13: “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Paul points out in these verses that Israel’s fall and loss was the Gentiles’ gain because through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, or the nations. God has temporarily set Israel aside, in order to have a program of grace with the nations of the world.

And Paul said that it was for the purpose “to provoke them to jealousy.” This goes back to Paul’s heart for Israel that they might be saved.

Seeing Gentiles saved by the grace of God, apart from Israel, apart from the law or works, showing that God’s plan had changed, that God had turned to the nations, was and is to provoke Israel to jealousy by the Spirit that they might turn and seek the Lord, that the Jews might be drawn to faith in Christ alone through the gospel of grace.

In verse 12, Paul wrote that the fall of Israel has resulted in “the riches of the world,” as in and through this dispensation, God chose to lavish the world with the riches of His grace, making salvation available to all by grace thru faith and blessing believers richly in Christ.

Paul speaks of Israel’s “diminishing” resulting in the “riches of the Gentiles.” Her place of prominence and supremacy in God’s program and dealings with mankind has diminished.

In the past, God’s plan was to bless the world through Israel’s rise, and this will take place in the future in the kingdom on earth. As Isaiah 60:3 says, “And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”

But today, through her temporary fall under grace, blessing and riches has been poured out on the Gentiles by the gospel of the grace of God and God offering grace and peace to all so that we might be saved and have a personal relationship with the living God as His child.

Notice though what Paul teaches at the end of verse 12, that if the world has received God’s riches in His salvation through Israel’s fall, imagine how the world will be blessed when Israel rises to her fullness. This will take place within the millennial kingdom.

Far from saying that God is through with Israel, Paul speaks of her “fullness,” when Israel gets back up from her fall after the Rapture, when she rises to her fullness as the head of the nations, and God fulfills all His promises to her and she is a bright light to the world.

Paul says he is speaking to us Gentiles, because he is the apostle of the Gentiles. This is in light of the context of the riches of the Gentiles and salvation coming to the Gentiles.

Paul’s ministry as an apostle was to the Gentiles. He took God’s salvation to the Gentiles, the nations, as an apostle. And the Apostle Paul made known in his letters the spiritual riches in Christ that are ours as Gentiles in the Body of Christ.

Paul is the apostle of the Gentiles. We are Gentiles, people of the nations. Paul is our apostle. When Paul is writing in God’s Word he is speaking “to you Gentiles” under grace. He is revealing God’s will and God’s plan for us Gentiles in the Church, the Body of Christ.

Paul magnifies, not himself, but his office to which Christ called him. But sadly, in the church as a whole, Paul’s apostleship is not magnified, it is minimized. No matter the denomination, Peter’s apostleship is the one magnified by the church today.

But if we want to know the mind and will of God for us Gentiles under grace, we need to look to the apostle of the Gentiles, who is speaking to us, which is the Apostle Paul.

Paul points out a purpose of his apostleship here: “if by any means I may provoke to emulation [or jealousy] them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.”

Paul’s heart never strayed far from his desire for Israel to be saved. Paul’s prayer was again that by his ministry to the Gentiles, with Jews seeing Gentiles saved by the grace of God, that it would make Israel so jealous that some would wonder why and how these Gentiles are being saved, and desire the truth and find it, and be saved.

Paul had said in verses 11 and 12 that Israel’s fall has resulted in salvation of the Gentiles and the riches of the world. In verse 15, he wrote that the temporary casting away of Israel has resulted in reconciliation and God saving people from the nations by the Cross.

Reconciling the world doesn’t mean that the whole world is automatically saved by the death of Christ. It means that God has done His part in removing the enmity, and all barriers, in paying the price for sin by the death of His Son and our Savior. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself” 2 Corinthians 5:19 teaches.

Now anyone in the world can be reconciled to God. But to make the reconciliation complete, you must make the personal decision to trust what Christ did for you as your Substitute, that He died for your sins and rose again. At that moment, you are reconciled to God.

Casting away Israel for a time has resulted in the message and ministry of reconciliation under grace and all the world having the opportunity to be saved and reconciled to God by faith alone in Christ.

But then Paul adds, that if Israel’s fall resulted in this incredible blessing, just think what the future “receiving” of Israel will result in. When Israel is restored in the millennial reign, it will be like worldwide regeneration and resurrection.

The world will burst forth into new life when her Messiah, the Resurrection and the Life, reigns and when Israel is restored to their favored position and they reign with Him.

God’s current setting aside of Israel is national in nature. He has set aside the program He had with national Israel for them to be a blessing to all the families of the earth and to establish His kingdom with national Israel as the chief and foremost nation on the earth.

But the teaching of these verses is that Israel’s fall is not final, not total, because God will resume His dealings with Israel after this age of grace is completed at the Rapture.

A day is coming when God’s set aside, diminished people will rise to her fullness and will be received and restored by Christ her Messiah and be glorified in Him. And Israel will receive everything that God promised to her.

Romans 11:25-29: “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.

“And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

“As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

A question pertaining to what happened to Israel, is what happened in 1948 when the state of Israel was established? How I would answer that is Israel being back in the land today is not the fulfillment of any Bible prophecy.

We live in an unprophesied age and dispensation in which national Israel is set aside and no prophecy for Israel for the future Tribulation or earthly Kingdom is being fulfilled. After the Rapture of the Church is when prophecy to Israel again will be fulfilled to the letter.

Having said that, after personally visiting Israel, I could see how their presence in the land could be used by the Lord.

Their partial presence in the land could be setting the stage for the fulfillment of future prophecy and God could use it for fulfilling His Word after the Rapture of the church.

But Israel is not back in the land the way they’ll be back in the land according to prophecy when their Messiah regathers them there for His millennial kingdom.

When Christ gathers Israel back into the land, Matthew 24:31 teaches that “He shall send His angels…and they shall gather together His elect [or believing Israel] from the four winds” to bring them to the promised land for His kingdom.

While some of Israel is back in the land today, it’s like what Paul said in Romans 9:6-7: “they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children.”

Israel is a spiritually dark country today who continues in their rejection of Jesus Christ.

They, like every other nation today, need Christ. They need the gospel. They need missionaries and the Body of Christ to reach out to them with the saving gospel of grace.

In verse 25, Paul points an aspect of the revelation of the mystery, which had been kept secret since the world began, and it is “that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”

The “mystery” is not Israel’s fall. Her fall according to prophecy was supposed to result in the Tribulation, the time of Jacob’s trouble. The “mystery,” what was never made known before Paul, was that after Israel’s fall how God would turn the Gentiles and usher in a dispensation of grace. That was a secret and absolutely unknown in the past.

Paul points out here that blindness for Israel under grace is only “in part,” because not all Jews are blind. There are believing Jews in this dispensation who have trusted the gospel of grace. Those who have trusted Christ were blind but now they see.

Israel’s national blindness after her fall is only temporary though. Paul writes that it is “Until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.” “Until” is a time word. This period of blindness in part for Israel is only until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

This refers to the completion of God’s dispensation of grace to the nations. When the Body of Christ is full and complete, the Church will be caught away at the Rapture.

After the Church is caught away to heaven, God’s program with Israel will resume. God will restore Israel. And the prophecies concerning Israel, the 7-year Tribulation, and the 1000 year kingdom on earth will all be fulfilled.

“And so all Israel shall be saved” Paul wrote. Romans 9:6 says, “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.” All Israel being saved refers to the believing remnant which survives the Tribulation when unbelievers are purged out of Israel and when Christ, the Deliverer, returns to the earth at His Second Coming to save Israel and establish His kingdom.

And all Israel being saved also refers to believing Israel from God’s prophetic program prior to the dispensation of grace, who are raised from the dead to enter Christ’s earthly kingdom. In that day, “all Israel shall be saved.”

And “There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” Jesus Christ, Israel deliverer will reign in Zion in Jerusalem in His literal 1000-year kingdom on this earth. With Christ reigning as King, Israel will be the apple of God’s eyes, a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, and a blessing to all the nations of the earth.

Paul wrote in verse 29, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” God cannot and will not change His mind or go back on His Word and promises to Israel.

The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. They cannot be rescinded. Israel will be restored. All prophecy for her will be fulfilled. Nothing can change His purposes. God does not revoke His promises. He does not recall the gifts He has given. He is faithful.

What happened to Israel? God’s program with that nation was temporarily set aside because of her unbelief. God then turned to the Gentiles to have a program with the nations by grace. After the Rapture, God will restore Israel and His program with her and fulfill everything in His Word concerning Israel.

Because of God’s mercy to us Gentiles, because of the wisdom and greatness of God’s plans and purposes, and because of His faithfulness to Israel, we should break out in praise like Paul praises God at the end of Romans 11:

“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.”