September 7, 2003
Chapter
11 – Study Questions
1.
Is the
rejection of the Jews final and total?
The
obvious (and short) answer is no. The
obvious (and longer) answer is the following.
In chapter 11, Paul is attempting to debunk a conclusion at which his
readers might have arrived after reading chapters 9 and 10. What were the ideas of chapter 9?
1.
"Membership"
in God's people is not dictated by genealogy (although it does have to do with
it quite a bit); in this context, we saw the examples of Isaac and Ishmael and
of Jacob and Esau.
2.
God's
sovereignty in electing His people is in no way contradictory to His justice;
the two go together and are both important attributes of God.
3.
God expanded
the reach of His grace to those outside of the people of Israel, to the
Gentiles who became "sons of the living God."
What
was the main idea of chapter 10?
You
should be able to see the sequence of steps in the argument. Membership in God's people is only based on
God's sovereignty and perfect will and has nothing to do with ethnicity. Furthermore, the Jews who were God's
covenant people in the Old Testament strayed away from God by starting to rely
on their own works for their justification.
God, having no restriction other than the ones that He Himself imposes,
extended His grace to the Gentiles who were initially, in their vast majority,
outside of God's covenant people; the Jews' disobedience was the means or
occasion that God used to bring the Gentile believers into His fold.
Now,
what would be the natural consequence to all this? "Well, if your name is
Stein or Goldberg, you're in trouble, because it looks like you
are out, and we, Smith and Johnson
are in!" (Names are purely fictional; any resemblance to real life persons
is coincidental.) That is the natural
step that would follow here. The Jews
are out of God's favor and the Gentiles are enjoying that now.
As
mentioned above, Paul argues against that in chapter 11. In verses 1-10, in particular, he makes the
point that even though the Jews have lost their privileged position in God's
economy (that of sole holders of God's Word and special sign), they are not all
doomed. A remnant from them will be
called and they will still be part of God's people. Paul brings the best example that he could've brought. He talks about this fellow Saul of Tarsus,
with whom he was rather familiar. Saul
of Tarsus, a.k.a. Paul, Jew of the Jews, was a member both of God's true Israel
and the ethnic people of Israel which stood as proof that God did not "cast
away His people" [a very strong Greek verb meaning "vigorous pushing
away" (NGSB)]. In verse 2 we read that He did not cast away those whom He foreknew! In other words,
those whom God had elected would become part of God's true people; they were
not cast away from God's face.
2.
What is
the illustration about Elijah meant to show?
Elijah,
as you may remember, thought he was the only faithful prophet left, fighting an
army of false prophets. However, God
shows him that there were many more in his camp than what he had thought. As an analogy, even in the people of Israel
there was left a faithful remnant that God was going to save for Himself. This remnant was chosen, according to v. 5,
based on grace apart from works. This
remnant found what everybody else was looking for the wrong way; they found the
true source of righteousness, that is, Christ alone. By God's sovereign grace and perfect election they came to know
that relying on Christ and Him alone for their salvation was their only
escape! The rest persisted in their
misguided search (pun not intended, initially). This is an illustration both of God’s sovereignty and of His
indescribable mercy.
3.
What is
the (olive) tree that Paul mentions throughout the chapter starting at verse
11?
The answer should be fairly clear from the text. The olive tree refers to God’s true people made up of His faithful. We did discuss quite a bit what “God’s people” refers to. We established that God’s people is a concept and entity that transcends time and ethnicity. God’s people is made of His chosen children regardless of when they lived and what ethnic people they were born in. We established that from Abraham to the coming of Christ, God’s people was mainly made up of ethnic Jews and only a few Gentile believers. However, since Christ’s coming, God’s people has been made up mostly of Gentiles and a fairly small (comparatively) number of Jewish people.
4.
Why was
the Jews’ disobedience beneficial to Gentiles?
As mentioned in the answer to question 1, their disobedience was the means God used for extending His grace to the Gentiles. This is not to be taken as meaning that God needed their “help” to be able to bring the Gentile believers that He has chosen into His people. That would render God less than sovereign. Even though He is almighty and ruler of everything, God chooses to work through means and the means (or occasion) used here was that of their disobedience.
5.
Is it
significant that we were grafted in “contrary to nature” (v. 24)?
Very much so. We have once again a powerful reminder of the fact that our being grafted into the olive tree representing God’s people would never be the result of an enlightened personal choice. Our personal choice would be to rebel against God. In spite of that, God saves His people. Through His Holy Spirit, He brings them home, in spite of their sinfulness, stubbornness, and wild nature. God pursues His own and the merciful call that He extends cannot be refused.
6.
What
does it mean that “all Israel will be saved” (v. 26)?
This is a difficult question and you probably realized from our discussion that a complete answer to it is hard to give. There are at least two good interpretations of this verse.
·
ALL Israel will be saved refers to the entire
people of God being saved – Jews and Gentiles.
This is the interpretation that I favor. This has support in the text and we discussed it
extensively.
·
The only other
one that I would be willing to accept is that verse 25 refers to a future mass
conversion of the Jewish people. In
this case “all Israel” would refer to all the elect from within the ethnic
Jewish people. Even in this latter
case, their conversion would not be based on the fact that they are Jewish but
rather on the fact that God is merciful.
If
we take “all Israel” to mean literally “all Jewish people” we are faced with
the problem of explaining what will happen to the majority of contemporary Jews
who are convinced that their Messiah is yet to come. Let us not forget that salvation only comes through the Son, “the
way, the truth, and the life”. There
are no backdoors based on ethnicity.
7.
According
to verses 28-32, how were/are the Gentiles and the Jews alike and how were/are
they different?
The main similarity is an obvious one. They are both in need of salvation. The source of this salvation comes from without themselves and is based on God’s promise and election. The difference was that the vast majority of the Jews persisted (and persist) in their unbelief and rejection of the Messiah. Their disobedience, however, was the occasion for the extension of God’s people in an obvious manner to the Gentiles. In this sense, they are enemies. However, God is faithful and if He made His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob true for the Gentiles, He makes them true for their physical descendants as well. (That is the direction of the implication, not the other way around: they are saved because of God’s grace, not they receive God’s grace because of who they are.)
8.
(Not a
question) Note the superb doxology at the end of the chapter.
[doxology (Etymology: Medieval Latin doxologia, from Late Greek,
from Greek doxa opinion, glory (from dokein to seem, seem good) +
-logia –logy) - a usually liturgical expression of praise to God
(Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary)]
Paul
finishes the chapter is such an outstanding manner. In this doxology, he blends praise and amazement. The conclusion is so very telling for us
today also: 36 For of
Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Thanks be to God!
Soli
Deo Gloria!
Sorin
Voicu-Comendant
sorinvc@utdallas.edu