Title: The Disobedience of the Jews
I. How ought we regard the Jews?
v28/29 (read)
Paul summarizes how the saved (both Jew and Gentile) are to view the currently non-believing Jews who are persecuting them.
It would be one thing for Paul to say, “Remember what Jesus said and love your enemies.” If this is all Paul said, we’d know what to do concerning our enemies, but we wouldn’t know why, outside of duty. Paul gives us so much more here to chew on. He gives us a further glimpse into God’s sovereign plan for the future of Israel, and, as we looked at last week, there is indeed hope for the salvation of the Jews!
That hope is centered in something very interesting: “…for the sake of the fathers” God has not forgotten his covenant with Israel. Neither should we. God doesn’t change his mind about his promises.
And in verse 29, Paul gives the theological reminder that the calling of God unto the Elect is irrevocable. No matter what background, history, riches, or age, we cannot resist the calling of God upon our hearts. And Paul reminds us that God has a plan for the future of Israel, and it’s very similar to how we, as Gentiles, were ushered into the Kingdom.
Application: You know that I believe God saves us. You also must know that I believe and preach to you that I don’t know who the elect are. We are to minister and share the Gospel with everyone. Even those who persecute us.
II. The Purpose of Disobedience
v.30/31 (read)
I could go on and on about how to dissect this, but I think J.I. Packer says it far more simply and far more accurately than I ever could.
Packer writes:
“The wisdom and sovereignty of God’s grace are demonstrated in the way in which His purposes are fulfilled:
The disobedience of the Jew leads to God’s mercy reaching the Gentiles; the mercy of God to the Gentiles leads to the reception of mercy to the Jews. There is no difference all have sinned (Rom 2:23) and God has mercy on them both (Rom 1:16).”
We cannot simply say that God is sovereign over the things that we like, the things that we see as “good.” If we claim God’s sovereignty it is over all things. Is God the author of sin? No. Scripture tells us that definitively. But God does allow sin. He has to, or it could not exist.
Let me say it another way: If there is even one speck of dust in the universe that doesn’t answer to God then this Bible is a lie.
And we struggle when we see things that are allowed to happen that we don’t like, things that we rightly call evil. But here is a quintessential example of something that is allowed to happen that is sin (the disobedience of the Jews) but there is a wonderful sovereign purpose in that disobedience.
I. A final word on “all”
v32 (read)
We see another potentially nasty theological word pop up here: “all.” It forces us to ask the question: Is Paul saying that literally all the Jews will receive mercy?
I’d like to remind us of what we looked at with last week’s sermon concerning this similar question of “who is all?”
We know from the rest of scripture that this does not indicate that the Jews will receive a massive “get out of hell” card for the entire nation, but rather, what Paul is suggesting is that a time is coming when a massive wave of revival will sweep over the nation of Israel and a huge majority of Jews will recognize Christ as the Messiah, thus the nation of Israel will be saved.
I don’t know when this time is. I don’t know if I’ll see it, or if my grandchildren will see it. But I do believe it’s coming. And, as I implored you last week, I will do so again, pray for Israel.
They are a lost people, to be sure, but they are not a lost people without hope, we are told a time is coming for a great emergence of the Spirit upon their nation, and, in the interim, like all lost people, my heart breaks for them.