Romans - Lesson 44

Romans 11:11-15

Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring! I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 

A. Israel Will Become Jealous of the Gentiles: 

In our last lecture, we looked at Romans 11:1-10 where Paul’s focus is on the present status of Israel. Romans 11 in general is the place where Paul having explained why so many Jews are not entering the kingdom, takes a more positive tack, developing the theme he introduces in verses 1 and 2. God hasn’t rejected the people whom He foreknew. God entered into a certain kind of relationship with Israel, Paul is saying; that is going to continue to be valid. God is not just going to bail out of those commitments. 

So, in Romans 11:1-10, you have this idea of a remnant that Paul develops. God, even now, is bringing Jews into a saving relationship with Christ. They are becoming part of this new people of God. God is now working in Israel. 

Let’s look at that summary verse in 11:7. “What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain.” There is again that generalization we see Paul using in Romans 9 - 11. As a whole looked at in the generality, there has been no great movement of the people of Israel to embrace Jesus as their Messiah. So that is the general summary. But then Paul breaks that down, almost correcting it somewhat, saying that the elect among them did. Some of those Jewish people whom God has chosen are part of the remnant by grace, by faith; but the others were hardened. 

This leads to the question that brings us into the next section of the letter. “Have they stumbled so as to fall beyond recovery?” (Verse 11) This hardening has taken place. Many Jewish people seem to be excluded; is that situation, Paul is asking, a permanent one? Not at all. Here we have the familiar mē genoito, by no means. Paul says, “Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.” Remember that it was back at the end of chapter 10 that Paul introduced the idea of envy or jealousy, as some of your versions may translate? Paul quoted from Deuteronomy in verse 19, “I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.” So, Paul picks up the Deuteronomy concept, this idea where Moses in the Song of Moses talks about how God is going to use those who are not part of the people of God to make Israel envious. Paul says that this is becoming true in his day. 

B. There Are Greater Riches to Come for the Gentiles and the World:

That is the fulfillment here. “But if their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much more riches will their full inclusion bring?”  

Here we have Paul a couple of times introducing what is going to become the key sequence; that he is going to play with and repeat, varying it but remaining faithful to through verse 32. This is kind of the key building block of what Paul is teaching in this whole section. 

First, there is the Jewish rejection of Christ; look at verse 11, “because of their transgression.” The word ‘their’ refers to the people of Israel in the context. So, because of their transgression, second stage, salvation comes to the Gentiles. But that salvation coming to the Gentiles in turn will bounce back to Israel. Salvation coming to the Gentiles has the purpose in God’s providential plan to make Jews envious. 

In verse 12, Paul repeats the same thing; “If their transgression means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles,” he says the same thing twice, “how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring?” You see how this is grounded in the text? What you have here is Paul clearly talking about what is happening in his day. As he and the other apostles have preached the Gospel, there has been widespread Jewish rejection of Christ. Their transgression or loss as he describes it later on; that has however in God’s providential plan led to salvation for the Gentiles. 

Remember the story in the Book of Acts how this happens again and again. I think Paul is reflecting a little here on his experience in preaching the Gospel. Remember how he would go to a town and usually try to find a synagogue; he would talk about Jesus as the Messiah for two or three sabbaths. A few Jews would respond and eventually the Jewish leaders would ask him to take his message somewhere else. And so Paul would say, alright, you don’t want to hear what I am saying, I am going to turn to the Gentiles. Then he would begin proclaiming the Gospel among the Gentile population to usually a much greater reception. So, Paul’s history in preaching the Gospel has been with some Jewish response but with a much great Gentile response. He has seen this sequence himself in his own experience. Jews reject Christ; salvation comes to the Gentiles.

C. Being Apostle to the Gentiles Doesn’t Preclude Paul’s Concern for the Jews: 

So, this is where Paul is now located, it seems. He says that all this has the design to make Jews envious and then ultimately have Jews included again in the Kingdom. So, look at verse 12; “their loss means riches for the Gentiles; how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring?” Their full inclusion and the greater riches, this is language of life from the dead we’ll see him using in a moment. He uses various things to talk about that. Do you understand the way the sequence is working? We will see this sequence again and again and so we need to understand what it is doing and appreciate where Paul is going with this. 

In verses 13 and 14, you have Paul doing something that is pretty rare in Romans. As we have seen, Paul in Romans develops his argument with very little direct application. He sort of puts the burden on us to figure out what the application is. He is developing his teaching and his theology as he talks about the Gospel and its significance and he doesn’t usually pause to say in light of what I’ve been saying, here’s how you need to respond, or here’s how you need to change your behavior. 

But here we have one of those places where Paul does in fact stop and provide more explanation. He sort of steps aside saying that he was talking to the Gentiles; “in as much I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.” We touched on this in the last few lessons. Paul is known in the early church as the apostle to the Gentiles. Even in his call back on the Damascus Road, while Paul is called – if you look at Acts 9 – clearly to preach to his fellow Jews, the focus tends to be on his preaching to the Gentiles. The Book of Acts shows again and again how Paul was used by God to bring the Gospel to the Gentile population. 

As he writes to the Roman Christians; they are going to know that this is his reputation. You could imagine some of the Gentile Christians in Rome saying, “Oh! Paul is one of our guys! He knows that history has moved on, he knows that God is no longer concerned about the Jews. Israel is past history. Look at Paul, he is one who is focusing on the Gentiles, that’s the new thing that God is doing. We are the center now of what God is doing in the world. It is we Gentiles, not you Jews!”

D. The More He Preaches to the Gentiles, the More He Hopes the Jews Will Come to Christ: 

So what Paul is saying here is I am proud that I am the apostle to the Gentiles. I take pride in the ministry; I glory in it. But in light of what Paul has just said, my ministry to Gentiles ultimately has the goal of dealing with the Jews again as well. The more I preach salvation to the Gentiles, the more Israel will become envious and some of them are going to be saved through my ministry. 

Student:  
I just saw this as almost a personal reflection by Paul, some of the stuff that he is just working through. I know God called me. I know for a fact that I needed to leave behind the Israelite roots and become Christian. Then it’s almost like he says, but I can’t say that all of my loved ones are lost. It almost appears that he is evolving in his thinking during some of this time. Much like a convert of today does when they say, I’m no longer going to be in my childhood church; they are totally wrong. But then two years later they go, well maybe God is going to save some of those people too. Do you allow some room for that, where he is working through some of that?

Dr. Moo:  
I think to some extent, yes, that is true. Paul obviously is someone as a human being even though inspired by God as he wrote the letters that we have, who developed in his thinking and theology. It wasn’t all given to him in one moment on the Damascus Road. His theology evolved and developed over the years as he had to think about the different pastoral situations he was faced with. He tried to figure out what is God doing now? How is he using me? I’m sure there is some of that. 

However, I don’t think Paul ever saw himself as someone who, as you say, left his Israelite roots. I think that there is evidence from the first letter of Paul to his last that he never gave up thinking of himself as a Jew, having a concern for his Jewish brothers and sisters. Partly again, because of his roots in the Old Testament itself. This is the difference in the analogy you were giving there. Paul is dealing with Scripture which talks a lot about Israel. He knows that very well so as he tries to work out the implications of the Gospel, as he says yes, Gentiles are obviously being brought in and God is using me to do that, but that can never mean the abandonment of Israel because that would mean the abandonment of the Old Testament in some sense. 

Student:  
I am really mystified by the “stir them to jealousy.” Every time I read that, I think, yes, he is stirring them to anger, hostility, but not envy in the sense of do we want this?

Dr. Moo:  
I think that is one of the more difficult ideas to flesh out here. Every time I teach Romans 11 someone asks the question because it is a little puzzling, isn’t it? But Paul does use the word envy, jealousy. I don’t think we can get around the idea that Paul thinks that some Jewish people at least are going to see Gentiles enjoying the blessings of God as the New Covenant people of God and are going to want that for themselves. They will be jealous of the fact that Gentiles are enjoying it and they aren’t. For us, in terms of cashing that out, we look around and we say I don’t see a whole lot of Jews who think that way today. There are some, there is a significant Messianic Jewish movement that we are all familiar with, but there isn’t a lot of that going on. I agree, but this seems to be the idea. I don’t know any other way to explain it.

Student:  
Could it be the idea of stirring them up to the boiling zeal, so that he could at least get their attention? At least they are not oblivious. 

E. Life from the Dead: It’s possible. In Scripture the idea of zeal and jealousy are closely related; sometimes the same vocabulary is used for both. Sometimes, it does get to be a challenge to know what it is in any given text; is the text talking about zeal for God or jealousy for something else. But as Paul uses the language here, it does seem to be the jealousy or envy idea that he is talking about. 

So, you have here Paul’s personal reflection but also you begin to sense Paul’s concern in his theology here. What he is writing here at least at this point in Romans 11 is for you Gentiles. We would expect maybe that Paul is talking to the Jews here. But he says, no I am talking to the Gentiles. My concern is that you Gentile Christians are getting the wrong idea about what God is doing. We will see him coming back to that. 

Meanwhile in verse 15, we have another repetition of a sequence. “If their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” 

This phrase ‘life from the dead,’ is a kind of critical linchpin in what Romans 11 ultimately is teaching. “Life from the dead” can have at least two different senses. One, it can refer to present spiritual life, or two, it can refer to future resurrection life. So, is Paul saying that Jews being included in the kingdom is a sign that there is a new spiritual life and vibrancy happening? Or is he saying that Jews being included in the kingdom is the signal for the end time resurrection of the dead? 

You see that in the second view, the inclusion of Jews again would be something future, something eschatological, rather than something present in our own day. Life from the dead can go either way. You could make good arguments on both sides of this. 

Clearly this is language that is used in Scripture and in Jewish writings that talk about the resurrection. However, it is also language that is very similar to the language Paul used back in chapter 6, verse 13 says “do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness; offer yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life.” That phrase is very close in wording to the phrase we have here in Romans 11, where being brought from death to life in Romans 6 clearly is talking about our present spiritual having come to life in Christ.