For I speak to you Gentiles inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, (14) if by any means I may provoke to jealously those who are my flesh and save some of them.(15) For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?….(29) For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (30) For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, (31) even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. (32) For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul. He devotes chapter 11 to deal with the matter of the future of the Jews in light of God’s promises to that nation. Relatively few Jews believed in Jesus Christ as savior while many Gentiles were believing and coming into the kingdom. This is the dilemma in our verses today – God made many promises to Israel and could God’s promises fail? Paul writes that Israel’s rejection is temporary, not permanent. And God used their present rejection of Christ to spread the gospel among Gentiles. Then He will use the Gentiles reception of the gospel to bring the Jews to faith.
Israel was given special privileges as gifts from God and He will not withdraw them. Even while Israel resists God’s plan centered in the Messiah, the Lord is at work bringing the Gentiles to salvation. This salvation of the Gentiles not only magnifies the grace of God but will also provoke Israel to jealousy and lead that nation ultimately to return to the Lord. Paul makes the point that Israel’s rejection is partial, not total; there is a remnant of believing Jews, Paul being among them. Israel’s rejection is temporary, not permanent. The Jews said no to Christ so the gospel was offered to the Gentiles and many gladly accepted. God has designed and guided history to display the reliability of His promises – He controls how things turn out to accomplish His purposes.
The themes in our verses are disobedience (disbelief) and mercy. Paul is NOT saying God will save every one but is addressing the Gentiles and Jews as nations, not individuals. It is God’s great plan of redemption – God’s sovereign choice to save whom He chooses and not up to man’s free will. Looking at history and God’s dealings with Gentiles and Jews as groups we see both groups cut off from God’s mercy because of disobedience but both groups will experience His mercy as history unfolds. The gospel came from the Jews to the Gentiles and so it is to return from the Gentiles to the Jews.
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