The Epistle to the Romans: Romans 11, Part 2

From: Young Christian: Volume 29, 1939

Epistle to the Romans, The: Romans 11, Part 2

Romans 11 • 5 min. read • grade level: 8

Chapter 11 Part 2

The fig tree, for which turn to Hosea 9:10¹⁰I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved. (Hosea 9:10); Matthew 21:19, 20¹⁹And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. ²⁰And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! (Matthew 21:19‑20); Mark 11:13, 14, 20, 21¹³And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. ¹⁴And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. (Mark 11:13‑14)
²⁰And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. ²¹And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. (Mark 11:20‑21); Luke 13:6-9⁶He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. ⁷Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? ⁸And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: ⁹And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. (Luke 13:6‑9), represents the people of Israel as a nation, cultivated by God, but in vain as far as any fruit for Him was concerned. The fig tree’s fruit appears before its leaves come out; Christ, in the Scriptures referred to, came to the fig tree, which under its foliage should have had a full yield of fruit developing for the coming harvest, but not a fig was there. Abounding in the appearance of life before men, (but it was only outward profession), Israel had no fruit for God, and was now rejected.

The olive tree, for which see Psalms 52:8⁸But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. (Psalm 52:8); Jeremiah 11:16¹⁶The Lord called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. (Jeremiah 11:16); Hosea 14 (particularly verse 6) and our chapter in Romans, refers to the promises made by God to Abraham (Gen. 12:2, 3; 13:14-17; 15:5, 18-21; 17:1-7²And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: ³And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:2‑3)
¹⁴And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: ¹⁵For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. ¹⁶And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. ¹⁷Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. (Genesis 13:14‑17)
⁵And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. (Genesis 15:5)
¹⁸In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: ¹⁹The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, ²⁰And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, ²¹And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. (Genesis 15:18‑21)
¹And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. ²And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. ³And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, ⁴As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. ⁵Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. ⁶And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. ⁷And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. (Genesis 17:1‑7)), and treasured by his descendants, the natural trunk or branches of which Abraham was the root. But the Jews rejected Christ, and were in consequence set aside; the Gentiles on the principle of faith were grafted into the tree of promise in the place of the broken off natural branches. And how have the Gentiles treated the singular blessing of God which has accompanied the spreading of the gospel? Has their course been better than that of Israel, when they enjoyed God’s favor? Surely not; and the end of it will be reached when the natural or Jewish branches are restored to their own olive tree of promise, and the Gentile or wild olive branches are cut off under the government of God. Christendom is on trial now, as Israel was of old, and it will issue in the apostasy, foretold in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12³Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; ⁴Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. ⁵Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? ⁶And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. ⁷For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. ⁸And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: ⁹Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, ¹⁰And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: ¹²That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:3‑12). This event will be shortly followed by the reception of the Jews, and the lost ten tribes—the new Israel, born again.

Now in all this that we have been considering, the subject of the believer’s eternal security has not once been touched upon. The theme all the way through is the responsibility of man to God. Thinking little, if at all, of that responsibility, the Gentiles in large numbers look down upon the Jews, and they are hated and persecuted, but the day is coming when the tables will be turned, and the Jews will have the first place in the world, as of old. Blindness, or hardness, in part, is happened to Israel, until the fullness, or full complement, of the Gentiles—all the Gentiles whom God purposed to have part in the blessing—will have come in (verse 25); and so all Israel shall be saved. This is part of the determined purpose of God which the will, and the works of man cannot alter.

You will notice that the expression, “all Israel” in the 26th verse is in contrast with God’s present saving of a few Jews among many Gentiles who are saved. In the coming day, Israel as a nation will turn to God and be saved. This has never been the case heretofore, but when His judgments have been executed in the earth at the beginning of Christ’s Millennial kingdom, there will be no unsaved ones left among the children of Israel. Among many passages which tell of God’s dealings with Israel in a day now surely very near, we need name only two, Zechariah 13:8, 9⁸And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. ⁹And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:8‑9), relating to the two tribes known as the Jews, and Ezekiel 20:33-44³³As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: ³⁴And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. ³⁵And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. ³⁶Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. ³⁷And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: ³⁸And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. ³⁹As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols. ⁴⁰For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. ⁴¹I will accept you with your sweet savor, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. ⁴²And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. ⁴³And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. ⁴⁴And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 20:33‑44), which speaks of the now lost ten tribes. When the unrepentant have been purged out of the two tribes, and out of the ten tribes, all Israel, reunited in the land of their forefathers, will be saved.

In verses 26, 27 the quotation is purposely not an exact one; chiefly taken from Isaiah 59:20²⁰And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. (Isaiah 59:20); it expresses the substance of what several Old Testament passages tell, of a deliverance, or rather a Deliverer, to come for Israel. This is the third ground of assurance that Israel has not been finally rejected. Bitterly opposed to the gospel, as we may readily see in the Acts, they became open enemies of the believers, but, because of God’s purpose to bless a chosen (elect) remnant of them, the Jews are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. The gifts and the calling of God are not subject to repentance; that is, He does not repent of His purposes. On this faith rests.

A rather more exact, and more readily understood translation of verses 30, 31 and 32 follows:

“For as indeed ye also once have not believed in God, but now have been objects of mercy through the unbelief of these; so these also have now not believed in your mercy, in order that they also may be objects of mercy. For God hath shut up together all in unbelief, in order that He might show mercy to all” (N.T.)

God had acted in grace toward the unbelieving Gentiles; the Jews had no taste for this, and the consequence was that they lost all right to the promises made to Abraham. For them, therefore, the effect of the promise could only be known through God’s mercy, the same for them as for the Gentiles.

Now the consideration of all these marvelous ways of God leads out the apostle’s heart (verses 33-36),

“O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”

You and I, dear young Christian, do we not enter in heart into this outburst of praise?

“For of Him and through Him, and for Him, are all things; to Him be glory forever. Amen.”

(To be continued, D.V.)

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