Romans 11:7

Romans 11:7

Romans 11:7-8 says, "What then? Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for; but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded, According as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear; unto this day."

Paul is continuing with his discussion of what happened to the nation of Israel: why they are no longer in the will of God and why they are no longer the servants of God. In order to accomplish a goal, there are two requirements. First, you must have a goal. If you aim for nothing, that’s exactly what you will hit. Secondly, you must have a means or a plan for arriving at the goal: you must perceive of and conceive of a way of accomplishing the goal. To reach a goal, you must have a goal and you must have a plan to accomplish the goal.

The most worthy of all ambitions is to know and serve the one true God. That’s the chief duty of mankind. Jesus expressed that when He said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all the heart and all the mind and all the soul and all the strength. But in order to serve God and in order to be rightly related to God, there is a way to do it. There is a right way to be related to the one true God. There are many wrong ways in which humans attempt to serve God and then fail, and many of these wrong ways are associated with organized religion. The way to God is not found in a religion: it’s found in a person, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me."

The Jews wanted to serve God, but they sought to do it the wrong way: they sought to do it their own way. They had the right goal, but the wrong method to get there. The method that involves a human becoming rightly related to God is always initiated by God, and then the human reacts by cooperating with and responding positively to the great God who initiated the contact. This happened in the lives of the apostles. They did not seek Jesus first. He sought them and said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men."

Unbelief is equated to rebellion. True belief involves surrender. The biggest spiritual mistakes of any human are those secret decisions of rebellion and stubbornness against God, but the greatest spiritual victories that humans can attain to are when in the midst of a crisis, one is able to look to God and to say in the quiet places of one’s heart: "Not my will but thine be done." The Israelites did not obtain that which they sought for; but who did obtain it? Rom.11:7 says that the "election" has obtained it. The "chosen" have obtained the favor of God, and have obtained the wonderful privilege of a true relationship with God. The word that is translated "election" means chosen. In the Greek it literally refers to those who have been called by God. The goal is the favor and the spiritual relationship with God. The way to obtain the goal is to be called by God into the relationship. There is no other way. Therefore, a wise person and a blessed person is one who is aware of and sensitive to the calling of God.

What is the spiritual condition of those who have not received the calling of God, or who have not surrendered to His calling? Rom. 11:7 says that the rest were blinded. Who blinded them? God did. You may have eyes with which you see, and still be blinded. Jesus spoke to the disciples about the Pharisees, who were religious people and were actively involved in an organized religion, and Jesus said, "...they are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind shall lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." If someone is spiritually blind, then only God can give them their sight. God wants to open the eyes of those that are spiritually blind, but God will only give people spiritual perception when they come to Him on His terms. Once they do, what a difference He makes. That’s the difference between the saved and the lost. You are either spiritually blind or you have received your spiritual sight from Jesus.

There once was a blind man that Jesus healed; and the religious hypocrites came to question the man in order to find a reason to accuse Jesus and to say that Jesus did something wrong by healing the man on the Sabbath day. But the man had a simple yet profound reply for them: "This one thing I know, I once was blind but now I see." Today there are those who think they see and yet they are blind. All who truly know Jesus can at least have the same testimony that the blind man had 2000 years ago. They can all say, "I once was blind, but now I see."

In Rom. 11:9 the Bible says, "And David said, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them." In Rom. 11:8 Paul had quoted Isaiah from the Old Testament who lived over 500 hundred years before Christ; and now he quotes from the Psalms written by King David 1000 years before Christ. The New Testament is filled with quotations from the Old Testament. The New Testament is like a commentary and an explanation of the Old Testament. Because of the New Testament we can now more fully understand the Old Testament. It would be a mistake to study the Old Testament without keeping in mind the teachings of the New Testament. For example the Old Testament emphasizes the law, but the New Testament emphasizes grace. The Old Testament tells some things about the Messiah who would one day come, and then the New Testament tells about His birth in Bethlehem, the details of the great teachings of the Messiah, and then the facts of His sacrificial death for the sins of the world.

The reason that Paul quotes the Old Testament in these verses is to point out that the spiritual blindness that is now the condition of the people of Israel was prophesied in the Old Testament. It should not be a surprise. God who sees the future as He sees the present, knew that a terrible spiritual blindness would fall upon the people who were the descendants of His friend, Abraham. The human mechanism that has caused the blindness to stay with the Jews is given in Rom. 11:9 when it says that their table was a snare and a trap and a stumblingblock. The table is symbolic of the family unit. When a family gathers around a table, they relate to one another and build bonds to one another. That doesn’t sound like a bad thing, does it? Why and how could a strong family unit contribute to someone’s spiritual blindness, and contribute to someone failing to have a spiritual relationship with the one true God?

The reason is that some will resist giving themselves in faith to Christ because of their human bonds. They will be made to feel that an allegiance to Christ will be a rejection of their family, and they will want to please their family more than to please God. One time Jesus said, "If anyone loves father or mother more than me, he is not worthy of me." That’s one of the reasons that the outcasts of this world will make up a fair percentage of the family of God. Those who are not bound by human relationships to the people of this world, including family bonds, will more easily become related to God. They will have one less obstacle to having their eyes opened to the truth: at least their table will not be a snare unto them.

Rom. 11:11 says, "I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy." Again Paul quotes Moses from the book of Deuteronomy. He had also quoted this verse in Romans Chapter 10. It comes from Deut. 32:21. Before the people of Israel moved into Palestine, God announced through Moses that the nation of Israel would one day be set aside; and that the blessings and promises of God would then take effect for those who were not of the nation of Israel. It did not happen until over 1000 years later, but to God a day is as 1000 years and 1000 years as a day. Almost 2000 years have now passed since Paul wrote this passage of scripture, and we still live under the same spiritual conditions that Paul lived under: Israel is set aside and to the Gentiles are offered the blessings of the promises of God.

In the setting aside of Israel, there was a good result. The rest of the world was blessed. What appeared to be negative: the spiritual failure of Israel, turned into something that was good: the spiritual blessing of the rest of the world. Because God is good, He is able to create a positive result out of what otherwise would be a negative. God will do the same thing when the Gentiles fail, which they ultimately will do. When the time of opportunity for the Gentiles is over, God will turn the blessing back to Israel: and then through that blessing the entire world will be blessed even more than it had been before. That’s what is meant by Rom. 11:12 that says, "Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?"

We now live during the time of the fall of Israel and during the time of the diminishing of Israel, but it won’t stay that way forever. One day things will change. We don’t know when that day will be, but it will happen. It may be hundreds of years from now. But when it does happen, Paul says that it will be the time of the fullness of Israel. It will happen because God will cause it to happen, and He will cause it to happen because He promised it to Abraham and to David.

But until it does happen, the Jews as individuals are in the same spiritual circumstance as the Gentiles: they need to be saved by Jesus the Messiah. They need to have their spiritual blindness taken away, and they need to enter into a personal relationship with God. And so Rom. 11:13-14 says, "For I speak to you Gentiles, insomuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office: If by any means I may provoke those to copy me who are my flesh, and might save some of them." Even though Paul’s primary work was to the Gentiles, he never forgot that he was a Jew, and he never stopped hoping and trying to persuade other Jews to believe in Jesus the Messiah.

It’s a good thing when Jews believe in Jesus Christ. It can happen. One day it will happen on a national level for the nation of Israel, and the consequences will be good and wonderful for the rest of the world as well. If the rest of the world was blessed so much when Israel was set aside, then it will be blessed even more when Israel is accepted back into fellowship with God. Rom. 11:15-16 says, "For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches."

In a certain sense Christianity is not a different religion from Judaism. Christianity is a part of Judaism. It came from Judaism. It owes its origin to Judaism. Jesus was a Jew, and most of the first Christians were all Jews. In that sense Christianity is a branch of the one, true religion: which is the worship of the one, true God. One characteristic of the branch of a tree is that it can be cut off from the tree. Another characteristic about a branch is that after being cut off, it can be grafted back on to the tree.

The Gentiles who are saved are now like a branch that has been grafted on. Through faith in Jesus and dedication to God through Jesus, the Gentiles are made a part of the family of God. On the other hand, in failing to believe in Jesus the Messiah, Israel has been cut off from the family of God. But this circumstance is not necessarily permanent. The opposite could happen. What if the Gentile church stops believing in Jesus the Messiah, and at the same time the nation of Israel repents and begins to believe in Jesus the Messiah. What then? The principle of the branch of a tree would take place. The branch that is now in place would be cut off. And the branch that is now cut off would be grafted back in.

Rom. 11:17-20 says, "And if some of the branches be broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were graffed in among them, and with them partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if you boast, you bear not the root, but the root bears you. You will say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well, because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Be not highminded, but fear."

The Bible warns about the eventual failure of the church. The falling away from the truth by established churches began even during the lives of the apostles themselves. Many of the epistles were written to combat errors that had entered into the churches: errors of practice, errors of doctrine, and errors of attitude. Paul wrote to Timothy and said, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come." And he said that some people would have "a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." In the book of Revelation the apostle John wrote what God said about the church of Laodicea. He said, "I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. Because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spue you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."

There has never been a human organization that has endured the test of time. Every government, every business, every religion eventually fails from within. There is an inherent weakness to every human organization. The seeds of their own destruction are always within them. The qualities that made them great eventually weaken and dissipate, and then something else comes along to take its place. That’s life. It happens. It will also happen to the Christian church, and is actually happening right now. The apostle John said that it would happen because of losing their love for Christ. And of course that which is closely associated with love for Christ is faith in Christ, and the apostle Paul said that the falling away of the Christian church would take place because of a lack of faith.

How is it possible that a Christian religious organization would lose faith? Faith involves two things. It is a belief in the doctrines of who Christ is, such as Peter’s great confession when he said to Jesus, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Faith also involves a confidence in and a dependence upon the Lord. If you depend upon your own abilities and your own efforts, then you will lose faith and you will not live by faith. Some Christian churches will fail in the area of doctrine: they will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. Other churches will fail even though they retain sound doctrine. These will fail because their rituals and their traditions and their ceremonies will take the place of faith in God. If Israel was cut off as a branch is cut off from a tree because of unbelief, it can also happen to the church. Rom. 11:21 says, "For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee."

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