This morning we are at the end of Romans 11.  Which is the bottom line of where Paul has been going for 11 chapters. 

Next Sunday we are in chapter 12 which begins what can be called the practical application part of Romans.  Meaning that starting next Sunday we are going to begin looking at how Paul applies everything he’s been teaching us for the last 11 chapters.  But, that’s next Sunday.

What we’re looking at today is the end of what Paul has been driving at for 11 chapters.  We’re going to look at these 11 verses in 2 parts.

The first part comes in verses 25 to 32 - what can be called The Mystery.

Let’s read together and then we’ll unpack Paul.  Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers:  a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,  “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob;” “and this will be My covenant with them when I take away their sins.”  As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake.  But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.  For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.  For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.  For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all.

Let’s unpack Paul.

Paul begins with a mystery.  Verse 25:  “I want you to understand a mystery.”  Which is not about what we can’t understand.  But about what was hidden and now we do understand.

It’s a little like playing Clue.  Any of you ever play this game?  Somewhere in this mansion someone murders someone with some weapon and we have to ask questions and think about the clues we’re given and then guess at who did what and with what and where.  Solve the mystery first and win.

God - in the Old Testament - God has laid out clues for His people - God’s prophetic word spoken through His prophets - insights into what God is doing in history.  God’s plan and purpose of redemption - salvation - completed and offered to mankind.  In the Old Testament God tells His people what He’s doing and why - even some of the how.

For example God tells Abraham - Genesis 12:3 - through you and your descendants I’m going to bless all the nations of the world.

In Isaiah 49:6 - God tells Israel:  “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

God clueing His people in that He’s going to use them to let the nations know that He loves them.  Loves us.  God’s desire to save us from our sin.  To bring us into a restored relationship with Him.

Specifically there are hundreds of prophecies that look forward to the coming Messiah.  How to identify the Messiah.  What the Messiah will do.  How He will do it.

But up until Jesus coming into the flesh and blood of humanity there’s is a mystery - parts of what God is doing - that God’s people didn’t understand.  Not until Jesus do we actually see the reality of all those clues coming together - and we can understand the realization of what all those clues we’re pointing us to.

So, instead of Mrs. Peacock with a lead pipe in the Billiard Room we see Jesus on the cross in Jerusalem.  The gospel.  God revealing - giving us - the answer we need in Jesus. 

Quick review.  Pop quiz.

“Creekside, have you heard the term gospel?  If so, can you give a brief explanation of what the gospel is?”

A good starting point - a good verse to focus on is... John 3:16 - a concise explanation of the message of the Bible:  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life”  (John 3:16 NASB)

Good News:  God loves you.  We are the world.

Bad News:  We’re perishing.  We need to understand and agree with God that we sin.  We’ve all - each of us - has done what separates us from God.  The holy God is perfectly justified and sending us into eternity in punishment forever without Him.

Good News:  God sent Jesus.  God taking on the flesh and blood of our humanity - Jesus dying on the cross in our place - Jesus took care of everything that needs to be taken care of between us and God.  Which really really is good news.  Yes?

You Choose:  “whoever believes” - means that we need to individually choose to respond to what the sovereign God by His grace has done.  Your choice is...?

If you - if any of us - agreeing with God about our sin - if you’ve by faith - welcomed what God - Jesus - has done for you - made that choice - know that beyond any doubt God makes right your relationship with Him.  You are saved from perishing.  You have the assurance of life with God today and forever.  That is the really really good news of the gospel.  Yes?

Jesus on the cross in Jerusalem.  Our desperation for God’s love.  God’s mercy.  God’s grace.  Is where Paul has been for 11 chapters.  Mystery solved.

Then - verse 25 - Paul goes on to say that “a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

Let’s walk through that.

Israel rejected her Messiah.  A partial hardening of the spiritual arteries means that not all of Israel has rejected her Messiah.  Some Jews have come - by faith - to trust in Jesus as their Savior.   Some have not.  There are Jews today who are trusting in Jesus as their Messiah.  There are some who have rejected Him.

Paul writes that that partial hardening is going to stay hardened until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  Fullness meaning that God knows the exact number of Gentiles who will be saved.  God knows the exact date and hour and nanosecond when that Gentile’s choice will be made.  When the full - or total number - of Gentiles who will come to faith in Jesus will have come to faith in Jesus then God is going remove that partial hardening and the rest of the Jews who will be saved will be saved.

What Paul is getting at here is that - even though part of Israel is rejecting her Messiah - God will fulfill His promise - His covenant - to Israel.

Paul quotes Isaiah - God giving His people clues through the prophet Isaiah - what God is promising His people and how God is going to accomplish that.

“A Deliverer will come from Zion” - is about Jesus.

What Paul is quoting from Isaiah is God speaking to His people about how messed up Israel is - no justice - no righteousness - and because Israel was suppose to be God’s witness to the world - everything else is messed up.  So God - tells His people through Isaiah - that God Himself is going to step in and do what needs to be done to fulfill His promises to Israel and through Israel.  “Banishing ungodliness” and fulfilling “His covenant” and taking “away their sins.”  (Isaiah 59:20,21 and 27:9)

What will be an amazing future time for Israel. 

Meaning God hasn’t forgotten His people or His promises.  The fullness of the Gentiles is still coming.  We’re not there yet.  And God will still accomplish the salvation of Israel by faith.

But there’s hardness now.  Why?  Verse 28.  For the sake of the Gentiles.  Paul writes that Israel which has rejected her Messiah - they’re enemies of God.  Still “beloved” because of the promises God made to “their forefathers” - meaning the patriarchs:  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But enemies for the sake of the Gentiles.  Us.  Why?  So that the fullness of the Gentiles will come in.  So that we might come to salvation.  Gentiles who - verse 30 - are also disobedient and in need of God’s mercy.     

If Israel doesn’t reject Jesus - then Jesus isn’t crucified and we’re all toast.  If Israel doesn’t reject the gospel - then the gospel doesn’t go out to the Gentiles and we’re all ignorant toast.

Let’s be careful.  Paul goes on to say - verse 31 - that the Jews who currently are disobedient - think hardened to the gospel - God will show mercy to them by the mercy He has shown the Gentiles so that hardened Jews will also receive mercy.

Backing up to earlier in chapter 11 - at verse 11 - Paul wrote that Gentiles coming to salvation - the blessings that God is pouring out on the Gentiles - is something that God is going to use to bring the Jews back to Him.

Putting all that in a nut shell:  God in His sovereign way of doing things - gives us - Jew and Gentile - the freedom to choose how we will respond to what God has done in Jesus on the cross in Jerusalem - and God holding us accountable for our choice - is using the choices of the Jews to reject Jesus - God is using their choice and actions to reach the Gentiles and using the choices of the Gentiles - to by faith accept Jesus - and God blessing the Gentiles - God is using that to reach the Jews.

So that - in the fullness of time - everything that God promised to do - putting together all the clues of the Old Testament and even all the clues of New Testament prophecy - God will accomplish everything God has said God will accomplish.  Meaning - those who will be saved - Jew and Gentile - will be saved.

That is a lot to take in.  Isn’t it?  Let’s make sure we’re together.

Remember the parable of The Prodigal Son?  Yes?  What Paul is writing here parallels the parable of The Prodigal Son.

The Gentiles are like the younger brother who is openly rebellious.  Off worshiping other gods.  Living apart from the law and what it means to live right with God.  The Jews are like the older son who’s obedient.  Stays at home.  To the best of his ability is living obedient to the will of the father.  The father is like... God.  God - like the father in the parable - leaves His heavenly home to go out to where the son is.  It’s like Jesus at the incarnation entering into humanity.  Jesus on the cross meeting us at our point of deepest need.  God welcoming us home.  Bringing us to Himself.

We know how this goes.  Right?  The younger son - think Gentiles - come to their senses about what the father offers.  Leave behind the stuff of the world and head back home to the father.  The father sees him coming.  In an unexpected act of pure love and grace and mercy the father heads out to where the son is coming down the road.  The father lavishes his younger son with gifts, a banquet, blessings upon blessings. 

The older son - the Jews - at some point become aware of all of what the father is lavishing on their younger brother.  They get jealous of all that.  They start whining and complaining to their father.  How unjust.  How unfair.  How totally wrong of the father to threat him - to treat them - that way.

The father - God - uses the opportunity - uses the example of the younger son - think Gentiles - to reach out to the older son - think Israel - to help them understand what His true love and grace and mercy is all about. 

The way Jesus tells the parable - we don’t know if the older son ever did come back.  According to Paul - and the promises of God - hardened Israel - jealous of the blessings of the Father poured out on the Gentiles - that older son - the Jews will come back.  Something still yet to come.  (Luke 15:11-32) 

Let’s be clear.  The point of Jesus’ parable is not the actions of the two sons but the love and the grace and the mercy of the Father.  The attitude and actions of the Father which compels the response of the two sons.  What God is doing through the Jews.  Through the Gentiles.  Loving and saving each of them.

We’re somewhat together?  The mystery of the gospel through which God - our Heavenly Father - is revealing His love and grace and mercy for us - for both Jews and Gentiles.  And as our Heavenly Father - the sovereign God works and uses even our free choices - God is working to fulfill His promises and bring us - Jew and Gentile - to salvation.

Now we need to be careful.  Paul begins verse 25 with a warning.  “Lest you be wise in your own sight.”  We need to understand the mystery of what God is doing - why and how - in order to keep us off our pedestals of pride.  For getting all wise in our eyes.

That is a very serious warning that we need to be careful to pay attention to.  Because - like the Jews - like the older son - we as Gentiles can become wise in our own eyes.  Focused on ourselves and our own special relationship with God.

Do you remember what it was like to choose sides?  Two team captains - usually the popular kids or the athletes - and a bunch of us kids standing around waiting to be picked.  The one thing we’re thinking is I don’t want to be a left-over kid.  The one kid the captain has to take because there’s no one left.  Been there?  If not, you really missed out on something special.

The issue with all that - why we’re all stressed out - isn’t the issue  because we’re making comparisons with the other kids?  I want to get picked before so-and-so who’s a real dweeb that nobody wants.  If I get picked after him it means that they all think I’m a total failure.  And probably they’re right.  Our self-image based on what other people think of us or what we think other people think of us or what we think of ourselves in comparison to other kids… or adults.

But isn’t the bottom line issue really the importance of being picked?  Chosen?

Think about it.  What if there was only 1 team and some kids didn’t get chosen?  What if the consequences of not be chosen was pure hell?  Wouldn’t all the comparisons be pretty much worthless in comparison to the importance of being chosen?

And… one step further, wouldn’t you be really really grateful to be chosen even if that meant getting chosen first or last?

Jesus told a parable about a man who owned a vineyard.  Early in the morning he goes out and hires some day laborers to work for the... day and agrees to pay them 1 denarius for the... day.  What would have been a reasonable wage for 1 full day’s work.  1 day - 1 denarius.

At 9:00 that morning the vineyard owner goes out again and hires some more workers and tells them, “Go work and I’ll pay you what’s right.”  At noon he goes out - hires more workers - same arrangement.  At 3:00 he hires more workers - same arrangement.  Finally at about 5:00 - just before the end of the work day - he goes out and hires more workers - agrees to pay them what’s right - meaning what he chooses to pay them - and sends them out into the vineyard.

At the end of the day - when it comes time to pay the workers - the vineyard owner starts paying the last ones he hired first.  So the ones who worked the least amount of hours still get 1 denarius.  And so it goes.  Everyone - regardless of when they were hired still gets 1 denarius.

We know how this goes.  Right?  The laborers hired early in the morning - who’ve worked a long full hot day - they get only 1 denarius.  The same as the guys who only worked about 1 hour.  So they grumble.  They complain.  They whine.  This is so unfair.  So unjust.  Comparisons.

The vineyard owner tells them, “Isn’t that what we agreed on.  It’s my choice to pay the last workers what I’m paying you.  Why are complaining about my generosity?”  (Matthew 20:1-16)

Are we tracking?  In Jesus’ parable the older son - think Jews - complain because the father chooses to show love and grace and mercy to the younger son.  They complain:  “We’ve been obedient.  We’ve been here all the time.”  A full day’s being a son.  The Jews are jealous because of the Gentiles.

We complain so easily about what God does.  “God why do I have to go through this?”  “God, why don’t you do something about this?”  “Why am I working so hard at this and everyone else is doing whatever.”  “God, why am I so short?  So tall?  So poor?  So rich?”  “Why can’t I have the life so-and-so has?  They have better kids.  A better spouse.”  “Why do I have live here and work there and…”  on and on it goes.  Questioning God.  Complaining.  Grumbling.  Choosing sides, we get stressed over the order in which we get picked.  Comparisons. 

And yet, isn’t the bottom line the attitude and actions of the father - the generosity of the vineyard owner - the significance of God’s love and grace and mercy in choosing us?  Regardless of the order and process of that choosing?  What if there is no other team?  What if the alternative was eternal separation from God forever?

Being chosen - saved - having God’s grace applied to our lives - should knock us off our pedestals of pride - keep us from our temptation to think of ourselves as wise and worthy of being chosen - comparing ourselves to others and what their lives are like - being chosen of God should humble us to the point of eternal gratitude that God has chosen us.

Pause.  Take a moment and thank God He choose you.  Imagine the alternative if He hadn’t.  With all our crud.  The depth of our depravity and sin.  Enemies of God.  He choose you.  Take a moment and thank God He choose you.

If we really got that - His choosing - how we order our days would be so dramatically different.  If we really understood God’s - by His love, grace, and mercy choosing of us - wouldn’t that change how we invest our time - our resources - our grey matter.  What we let into our lives - our minds - our hearts.  What we saturate ourselves with.  What we commit ourselves to - or not.  The importance we’d give to prayer and Bible study and worship and fellowship and being the Body of Christ.  To live our lives - not by our wisdom and ordering of our lives but by God’s.

In chapter one Paul began his - 11 chapters long - teaching with this:  “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”  (Romans 1:16,17)

Thinking about the world we live our lives in today - the culture - the issues - the technology - the struggles we have with life - the busyness of what we cram into our days - there’s a - perhaps well deserved - perception that we have to choose between intellectual integrity and faith - between science and Christianity - between compassion and holiness - between church and how life is really lived.  Sometimes it seems like the only way the gospel is relevant is if we can pick and choose how it relates to our lives.  Comparisons of what God gives us verses what we in the world around us.

Paul is not ashamed.  He’s not holding back on his faith.  His commitment.  Trying to figure out how the gospel fits into his life.  The question is:  How does life fit into the gospel?  How can I fit following Jesus into my life?  Verses:  How does my life fit into following Jesus? How can I fit Church - being the Body of Christ - how can I fit that into my life?  Verses:  How does my life fit into being the Body of Christ?

The bottom line truth that transcends all of life - in all that we search for - long for - are desperate for - at the heart level - the essential deepest need of our lives can only be met by God.  That’s what Paul has been driving at for 11 chapters.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s answer to our greatest need.  The only answer to what separates us from God and what living life is all about.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God applied to our lives - to save us - to restore us - to empower us - to life.  Real life that is the only way to live life now and forever.

Paul says that we enter that life - that righteousness - that right - restored - relationship with God by faith.  Then we live that life - from here through eternity - by faith.

That’s not about comparisons.  That’s not about us.  How we think our lives should go.  If we knew what comes next.  If we we’re orchestrating that.  If we could somehow tell God what to do and He had to listen to us.  That’s not faith.

When we’re wise in our own eyes life is about us.  But life is about…  God.  God who is sovereign.  God who is loving - gracious - merciful.  God who gives us the choice to come to Him by faith and to live by faith in Him.  Period.

Verses 25 to 32 are the mystery - the gospel which humbles us and empowers us.  The sovereign God graciously - mercifully - at work.

Verses 33 to 36 are The Glory.  Paul answering the question:  Who gets the glory for what God has done?  Answer:  God.

Read with me starting at verse 33:  Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!  “For Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?”  “Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?”  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be glory forever.  Amen.

The bottom line of Paul’s argument to knock us off our pedestal of pride is simply to say:  “Look at God.”

Look at God who is omniscient - all knowing.  The measureless depth of the riches of God’s wisdom and knowledge.  We don’t even begin to begin to begin to remotely approach plumbing the unfathomable depths of what God knows and how God has wisely applied His knowledge to His creation.

We can boast all we want about what we accomplish.  Our great technology.

Example:  Our outer space exploration.  Last week Cal Tech announced that they’d found evidence for a 9th planet out beyond Pluto - what used to be planet number 9.  10 times the mass of earth and 20 times farther from the Sun.  The new planet 9 takes about 20,000 years to orbit the Sun.  Guess who put it there waiting for it to be discovered?

Try counting the stars.  The galaxies.  The vastness of what’s out there.  All that is there because of God.  God who created it.  Upholds it.  God who knows all of it when we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of it.

We can boast about our exploration of inner space.  Someday we’re going to get down to the smallest of the smallest thing in creation and it’s going to have a label on it saying:  “Created by God.”

It isn’t just that God knows all of what is out there is out there or in here.  The idea of God’s wisdom is that God know all of why all that is there because He’s the One who’s given it all purpose and meaning.  He knows how it all works together and for what end.  God knows the greatest mysteries and purposes of creation because He created those mysteries and purposes.

Paul writes that God’s judgment are unsearchable - which means that we can examine God’s judgments - pour over them - search through them - study them - argue and debate them - and we still won’t even begin to begin to begin to understand God’s choices.

Paul writes that God’s ways are inscrutable - meaning that there is no way that we can comprehend why God chooses to do what God chooses to do - being loving and gracious and merciful instead of vindictive.

Paul quotes Isaiah 40:13 - at a time when God’s people needed to be reminded of just who God is and their need to turn to Him - God inspired Isaiah to write about the greatness of God.  I’d like to read just a part of Isaiah 40 so we can get what Paul quotes in the context of God describing Himself.  Listen and grab a glimpse of God.

“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?  Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?  Whom did He consult, and who made Him understand?  Who taught Him the path of justice, and taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?  To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare Him?  Do you not know?  Do you not hear?  Has it not been told you from the beginning?  Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?  It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; Who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.  To whom will you compare Me, that I should be like him?  Says the Holy One.  Lift up your eyes on high and see; who created these?  He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power not one is missing.”  (Isaiah 40:12-14,18,21-23,25,26)

Then Paul quotes Job - Job 35 and 41.  Job is a tough book to chew through.  A very humbling book.  Job’s friends thought they had the inside track on how God does things.  Sometimes we think like that - even to the point of judging and condemning others.  Job thought God owed him and explanation.  Sometimes we think like that.

But reading Job, God owes us nothing.  At the end of the book - where Paul is quoting from - God chooses to answer Job - clarifies for Job just who Job is and who God is - what Job knows and what God knows - what God has done and is doing and what Job is capable of doing - what amounts to a long list of embarrassing questions about what goes on around us and who we are and who God is in all that.

God asks Job, “Can you do any of these things?”  Answer:  “No.”  “Then what right have you to call me to judgment?  What right have you to complain about the way I’m running your life?  Or running anything else in My creation?”  It’s a very humbling experience.  Should be.  For all of us.  (see Job 35:7; 41:11)

C.S. Lewis - famous quote:  “To argue with God is to argue with the very power that makes it possible to argue at all.” (1)

Paul’s quotes are questions to help us keep us in our place and God in His rightful place.  Question #1:  Do you know the mind of God?  No.  Question #2:  Are you able to advise God?  No.  Question #3:  What is it that God owes you?  Nothing.  That’s humbling.

Verse 36:  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. 

The source, means, and destination of everything is... God.  To God alone belongs all the glory.  It all testifies of Him.  Forever.

Bottom line:  Who are you?  More importantly, Who is God?  We got nothing.  God is everything.  Life is about… God.

“To Him be the glory forever.  Amen.”

Amen.  Meaning, “Make it so.”  “May it be so.”  “We agree with the commitment of our lives.”

Processing all that…

Paul’s doxology is more than just a hymn of praise and worship about the unsearchable inscrutable greatness of God.  What Paul writes here is more than just an expression of what Paul was feeling as he contemplated God at work in His creation.  What’s here - chapters 1 to 11 - summarized here is a statement about the insanity of living life apart from being - by faith - under the complete control of the Sovereign God.

Ultimately there are two ways to live life.  The world’s version of life is something like:  “My life is my own to live as I please.”  That runs into conflict with what Scripture teaches:  “My life is God’s to do with as He pleases.”  Either our life is about God or it isn’t.  There really isn’t any grey area in between.

The idea that we’re somehow self-sufficient by ourselves.  That we really don’t need God.  Or, we can determine how much of God we need and when and where.  Verses Paul - unashamed of the gospel - seeing himself as a vessel made of clay - molded by the potter God - for God’s purposes - totally and utterly useless without Him.

This is a reality check we all need:  Which perspective on life are you living?

Are you living trying to fit God into your version of life or are you trusting God with your life?  ...to conform your life to His choice for your life?

Looking at your life:  Who gets the glory?  Does your life testify of God - or you?

What would it take so that your life isn’t about you but about God?

_________________________

1. Cited by Ray Stedman:  “Our Great and Glorious God” - Romans 11:25-12:1, 02.27.1977 - quote is from C.S. Lewis:  The Problem of Pain

General References:

Scott Grant:  “Mercy For All”: - Romans 11:1-36, 04.01.2007

Ray Stedman:  “Discovering the Will of God” - Romans 11:33-12:2, 10.28.1962

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.