PAUL’S LETTER TO THE CHRISTIANS IN ROME

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Verses 1-24: The Remnant of Israel

Paul’s problem is this: ‘Why do not all the Jews today believe in Jesus?’ God has given all of them the same blessings. Some now believe in Jesus. Most do not. Paul looks at an Old Testament idea to help him to understand this better. This is the idea of ‘the remnant’. The word just means ‘the rest’ or ‘what is left over’. We often use the word for the end of a piece of cloth when most of it has been sold or used.

Not all English Bibles will use the word ‘remnant’. You may have to look for the idea if the word is not there. In fact, the idea is there in Genesis 7:23. This is at the time of the flood. Noah and the few people in the Ark are the ‘remnant’. They are ‘left over’ when everyone else has died in the Flood. So what Paul wants us to understand about ‘the remnant’ is this. Almost everyone died in the Flood in the time of Noah. God judged that most people were wicked. God dealt in a different way with Noah. He destroyed most men. He saved ‘a remnant’. This was the grace of God at work. God is free. The idea is there, but Paul does not talk about this part of the Bible here.

So in verse 1, Paul speaks again as he did at the start of Chapters 9 and 10. Paul not only is really a Jew. He feels what it is to be a Jew. He feels for others who are Jews. Yet, he says, God feels more. Long ages ago God chose the Jews to be His people. He will not throw them away as though He had no more use for them.

Abraham is the great ‘father’ of the Jewish people. You can read about the birth of Benjamin in Genesis 35:16-18. His mother Rachel died when Benjamin was born. She called him ‘Son of my trouble’ but his father Jacob called him ‘Son of my right hand’ or ‘Son of the south’. Many years later, the kingdom of Solomon split after his death. In 1 Kings 12:21 we can see that the tribe of Benjamin joined with Judah. The other tribes in the north turned against Judah. There are some very bad things about Benjamin in the Bible. Still, we can see from Philippians 4:5 that Paul felt rather proud to belong to the tribe of Benjamin.

As we read on into verse 2, Paul begins to talk about Elijah. In 1 Kings 18:36-38, we can read how God sent fire down from heaven to burn up the sacrifice which Elijah made. This was on Mount Carmel. Verse 39 shows that the people knew that it was God who had done this. God had answered Elijah’s prayer. When God answers one prayer, it is time to pray again. Instead, Elijah tells the people to kill the four hundren and fifty ‘prophets of Baal’. They were the leaders of false worship, but the queen, Jezebel, had looked after them. She hated Elijah in any case. Now she made up her mind to kill Elijah. Only hours after God had shown His power on Carmel, Elijah was in fear of a woman. He ran away from her far into the desert (1 Kings 19:8). Yes, Elijah ought to have prayed again. When God gives us something in answer to our prayers, then is the time to ask God: ‘How shall I use this?’ ‘What should my next prayer be?’

So Elijah was in the desert at Horeb alone. There he could not do anything except think. He felt sorry for himself. This was mostly because he had nothing to do! So (1 Kings 19:9) God speaks to him. What Elijah says in reply to God is not quite fair (1 Kings 19:10). He forgets what had happened at Carmel. God tells Elijah what he is to do in verses 15-17. Then (verse 18) God tells Elijah that he is not alone after all. This brings us back to Romans 11:4. There are still seven thousand men in Israel who have not joined in with the worship of the false ‘god’ Baal. [11.1] God keeps these seven thousand men faithful to Himself. This is not for the good of Elijah. It is for God’s glory. Elijah does not know any of these men. God knows them all.

Verses 5 and 6 in Romans 11 bring this Old Testament story up to ‘the present time’. Perhaps some Christian people in Paul’s day thought: ‘This is the end of God’s purpose for Israel‘. No, Paul says, it is not. There is still now ‘a remnant’. God has chosen them.
(Verse 6) God’s choice is never made because of what we do. His choice or ‘election’ is a matter of grace. ‘Where fallen man chooses God; it is thanks to God who has chosen fallen man’. [11.2]

In verse 7, Paul moves on from the story of Elijah. Paul does not tell us this! Yet we know what he means. Israel tried to get righteousness from God. But all their trying was done in the wrong way. They tried works and the Law. Sadly, they failed. But ‘the elect’ did get this righteousness from God. He chose them by grace, and so by His grace they received righteousness. (Verse 8) What Paul says is that they are ‘a remnant’.

This is often true of the Christian Church. Often there is only ‘a remnant’ whom God has chosen by His grace. Often we see that great parts of the Church are ‘hardened’. They do not really pray. They do not want to hear God speak in His Word. They cling on to things in church life which ought to change. God had hardened them. [11.3]

Now Paul adds some words from the Old Testament. In verse 8, he uses words from Deuteronomy 29:4 and Isaiah 29:10. These are dark words. Paul seems to have left behind even the hope that the idea of ‘the Remnant’ gave him.

From verse 11, this changes. Paul says first: ‘Yes the Jews did trip up and fall down. That does not mean that they will never get up again.’ So Paul teaches that God still has a great future for the Jewish people. Remember 9:32. Jesus was the stone which tripped them up. They have taken ‘a false step’. This is what ‘transgression’ here means. That ‘false step’ was bad. It was bad that the Jews mostly did not believe in Jesus. Yet the grace of God is so good that it can make what is bad good. Here, God brings something good out of what is bad. The Jews did not believe, so the Good News about Jesus has been preached to other nations. This is ‘salvation’, that is, God calls the nations to be saved. All the good things that God has for sinners in Jesus come to the nations. These good things are the forgiveness of sins, new life, fellowship in the church. There is love to God and the hope of glory and much more.

So at the end of verse 11, Paul says: ‘The Jews see that other nations enjoy the good things which God gives to them. You would think that the Jews would want their share too’. Sadly, the Jews did not.

In verse 12, Paul says much the same thing twice over.

1. The Jews have taken a ‘false step’. So the riches of God’s salvation now go to all the world.
2. The Jews have lost their special place as God’s people. So the riches of God’s salvation now go out to the nations. [11.4]

The Jews did not believe, and this has had a great effect. The Good News has gone out to all nations. Now, says Paul, God will one day do something much greater. He will bring the Jews back into their special place as His people. This is ‘their fulness’. We still have to wait for this to happen. Paul says that ‘their fulness’ is much greater than ‘their false step’. The greater cause must have a greater effect. So what God will do for the Jews will bring far greater riches to all nations. This riches is not money of course, it is good of every kind.

In verse 13, Paul says he does not mean to say these things to the Jews. God has sent Paul to preach the Good News to people of other nations. Yet he is still a Jew and he has strong feelings for other Jews. (Verse 14) Paul hopes that when God uses his work among the other nations, Jews will see what happens. Then they may wake up. They will see that they have missed God’s goodness. None of us can save anyone else, of course. At the end of the verse, Paul hopes that he will be the means of saving some of the Jews. He will bring them to the Christian faith.

Verse 15 really follows from the end of verse 12. Paul says:-
a) God has thrown the Jews on one side. This is because they do not have faith, and we know it is only for a time.

b) The result of this is that there is a new peace between God and the world.

c) God will receive the Jews again, and this will have a much greater result.

d) This will be as though the Jews had been dead, but they come to life again. It will be really wonderful.
We should perhaps think about the story of the father with two sons which Jesus told. See Luke 15:11-32 for the parable of the Prodigal Son. Twice over the father says that his son was dead but is now alive (verses 24 and 32). The son had been far away, dirty, in rags and weary. Now he was at home rested, clean, eating well and had good clothes. That is the sort of change which Paul speaks about. The thought is not here of the dead who will rise at the last day.

In verse 16, Paul goes back to Numbers 15:20. The Jewish people are like the lump of dough. People make bread from a lump of dough. When the Jews made some bread they had to give part of the lump to God. Part of Israel was faithful to God. Perhaps Paul means ‘the remnant’, or even Abraham.

At the end of verse 16, Paul starts to say: ‘God’s people are like a tree’. The root of the tree is surely Christ. The people of God are now people from all nations who believe in Jesus. Once, they were all Jews. This has now changed. Now God’s people mostly belong to other nations, not the Jews. In God’s purpose, this can change again. Indeed we believe that it will change.

So in verse 17 [11.5] Paul begins to say: ‘This tree is not just any tree. It is like an olive tree.’

People used the fruit of the olive tree to make oil. It was the great source of oil in the world of the Bible. The Old Testament speaks about the olive or its oil about 200 times. Psalm 128:3 is one to think about but the first is in Genesis 8:11.

We know much more about ‘grafting’ apple trees. We do not know very much about grafting olives. There are many kinds of apple. Some are ready early, some late. Some we cook; others we eat as they are. It is natural for each kind to grow on its own tree. [11.6]. Grafting makes it possible to grow as many as seven kinds on one tree. This is not easy. The grower must do his work just right. He takes a small branch from one tree. He finds a place for it on a branch of another tree, and fixes it in place. If this is done well, the new branch will not only grow but it will have apples of its own kind.

In this way, one tree can produce several kinds of apple. The grower has to watch the tree as the years go by. He has to cut it or ‘prune’ it. One kind of apple may grow strongly. It may take over the whole tree. The other kinds may be lost from the tree.

Now Paul speaks not about apples but about olives. In verse 24, he may mean that all ‘grafting’ is against nature. He may mean rather that it is ‘against nature’ to graft a piece of wild olive on to the olives that we grow. We do not even know whether this would work. The olive tree which we grow may live for hundreds of years. If the root grows old and tired, the farmer may graft in a new young root. This will grow strongly and may make the old root work harder again. It may be that farmers grafted a new root on to an old root to make it strong again. We are not sure whether this happened.Paul only speaks about grafting branches.

So, now, we can see what Paul wants to teach us in verses 17-24. The root is Christ. (Verse 17) The olive tree is the people of God through the ages. God has broken some branches off the tree. These are the Jews who do not believe. In fact such branches would soon dry up and die. Paul seems to forget this. The ‘wild’ olive shoots are the Christians from other nations who put their faith in Christ. God in His great grace grafts them into the olive tree. So they are united with the people of God. They now have a place among other people who have faith. Much more, the goodness or ‘sap’ rises from the root through the tree. This gives life to all the branches. The wonderful thing is that the graft joins together. It ’unites’. So the life or sap of the tree goes into the branch which the grower has grafted in. The word ‘broken’ here is a little strong. Anyone who wants to graft a tree will have to do more than break wood off. He must cut off the old branch with great care so that the new wood will unite with the old.

Paul’s main purpose so far has been to tell the people who are not Jews how God works. Now he turns this into a warning. Whether we are Jews or not, we stand before God only by faith. God has broken the Jewish ‘branches’ off the olive tree. If the other nations do not have faith, God will break off their branches too (Verses 18-21). God can be very just and firm as well as very kind. In verse 23, Paul says that if the Jews have faith, God can unite them again with the people of God. Verse 24 adds that this will be simpler than what God has already done. Our branches are ‘wild’. The Jews are ‘natural’ and will unite more readily with the people of God, the ‘olive tree’.

The words at the start of verse 22 are words which we can think about for a long time. God is often very kind and gentle with us. We know that he is gracious and full of love. He is also holy and pure. He is also wise and strong. So sometimes He may seem to be hard. He is so great that our little minds can never take in more than a part of the truth about Him.

Notice that Paul has not used the name of Jesus since 10:17!

Verses 25-32: Israel’s future.

These verses bring to an end what Paul has said in Chapters 9, 10 and 11. He still speaks to those of the Roman Christians who are not Jews (Verse 25). He has shown already (verse 12) that God does have a great future for Israel. Still, not everyone believes this even now. [11.7] When Paul says ‘I do not want you to be ignorant’ he means ‘I want you to know’. A ‘mystery’ is not truth which God keeps from us. All Christian truth is there to be known, not to be kept secret. A mystery is truth which God has kept for us. There is a danger. If the Christians in Rome know about the mystery, they should be safe. The danger is that they will think they are very wise. They may have a high opinion of themselves or be ‘conceited’. They may think that they were so much wiser than the Jews who did not believe. To think at all like that is to forget the grace and mercy of God by which alone we came into His kingdom. So Paul says three things:-
a) True, most Jews do not believe the Good News. Their hearts are hard. Yet some do believe.

b) This will not continue for ever. It will only go on until the full number of non- Jews - Gentiles - has come into the Kingdom of God. This is the full number of those that God has chosen from the other nations.

c) It is just because the Jews do not believe that the other nations come in. So God will open the door of faith in a new way to the Jews (verse 26). God will save all Israel (verse 26).

In the rest of verse 26 and in verse 27, Paul uses words from the Old Testament. You can look at these verses: Psalm 13:7; Isaiah 27:9 and 59:20,21 and Jeremiah 31:33, 34. Paul seems to put together thoughts from all these places. We do not find all that he says in one place in the Old Testament. Paul may have found this in a book which he used, but which is now lost. So Paul says:-

1. The people of God are in danger. The ‘Deliverer’ is Jesus. He rescues the people of God from their danger. Zion is the City of God. See 9:33. We do not know why he comes ‘out from Zion’ rather than ‘to Zion’.

2. Then Paul calls the Jewish people ‘Jacob’. This is a name of less honour than ‘Israel’. In the Book of Genesis, we read about the life of Jacob. He often tricked other people and wronged them. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, and as an old man he suffered because of what he had done years before. So there is a good deal about the Jewish people which does not honour God. Jesus will turn this away from ‘Jacob’ that is, the Jewish people. In this way He will save them and also make them holy.

3. So God says that this is the agreement which He will make with the Jewish people. And He will do it when He takes away their sins.
We do not know when that will be. We do know that God will take away their sins by the death of Jesus.

Verse 28 may help us as much as all the rest of what Paul has said. We can look at the same thing from different angles. These are different ‘points of view’. Two people could look at the same thing from different angles. They could each tell us what they saw. They would not say the same things. So now we look with Paul at the Jews. We look from the view point of ’the Good News’. That means our preaching of the Good News and whether people believe it or not. Mostly the Jews do not believe. Because of that we preach the Good News to other nations. Many of them do believe. Yet the Jews who do not believe become enemies of Christian people who do have faith in Jesus.

Now God has a very different point of view. God can look back through nearly four thousand years to the fathers of the Jews. We think of people like Abraham. God looks at all this from the view point of the choices which He has made. He chose great Abraham, quiet Isaac and tricky Jacob. God gave promises to them. He called them to be His men in the world (verse 29). God will not go back on that.

So in verses 30 and 31, Paul says this:-
1. At one time, his readers in Rome did not obey God.
2. Now, God has given them His mercy.
3. This was because the Jews did not obey. They heard the Good News but they did not believe it.
(Verse 31)
4. God has shown His mercy to non-Jews who had no claim to it.
5. So the Jews do not believe and do not obey God. But if God can show mercy to us, He can also show mercy to His own people, the Jews.

Verse 32 is like Romans 3:9 and Psalm 143:2. Psalm 130:3 and Galatians 3:23 are other verses. We are all sinners. God has every right to judge us whether we are Jews or not. God has the right to say that there is nothing in us which is good enough for Him. We are wrong and we cannot claim any reward from God. We have no rights. God must show mercy, and He does this whether we are Jews or not. Salvation is all by God’s grace.

Verses 33-36: Praise to God
Paul has come to the end of what he had to say in Chapters 9-11. There he spoke about the Jews and the fact that most of them did not have faith. At the end of Chapter 8, Paul gave praise to God; see verses 38 and 39 and other verses there. The burst of praise in verses 33 to 36 finishes off the first main part of the Letter. This was Chapters 1-11.

Now we shall look at these verses to see what the words mean. Yet Paul says most of all that our God is too great. No words we can find are big enough for Him. Still there is something more. God is great and we are small. What we can say about God’s greatness does touch us. So we shall have to see what Paul says in 12:1-2 as the truths at the end of Chapter 11 touch our lives.

So first (verse 33) Paul speaks about the ‘depth’ of God’s ‘riches’. We find it easier to think about God as ‘high’. So He is, of course. Paul could not know just how deep some of the seas of the world are. He could not know as we do now what strange fish live in these great deeps. Still, he worships God Who is both high and in the deeps. See Ephesians 3:18 and Psalm 103:11. In that verse, we should understand that God’s love is not just great or strong. It is deep. See too Job 11:7 and 8, and Psalm 139:8.

Then we may think about God’s knowledge. Men work so hard to gather knowledge, to share it and to store it. God knew it all from the start. We fill books and computers with knowledge. No one will ever use much of it. When we work to get knowledge, we need wisdom as well. But we do not have it. Some knowledge is good. Some is bad. Some is just useless. God has the wisdom which we need. Yet more is needed so that knowledge and wisdom can work. God is never without the power He needs to do His will. That is what ‘riches’ or ‘resources’ means here. God may work in strange ways. (See Isaiah 28:21). We have seen here in Romans an example of God’s strange work. He used the unbelief of the Jews to spread the Good News to the nations.

God’s judgements here are His decisions. We may think of these as what He decided in the past. We cannot search them out. Then we may think of God’s ways. These lead into the future. We try to work out what God will do. Often we can be fairly sure what other people will do. They do not surprise us. With God, we cannot guess at all the way that He will work things out.

Then in verse 34, Paul uses some words from Isaiah 40:13. We hardly know our own minds. We really do not know God’s mind well enough to give Him advice! There is only one answer to the two questions in this verse. God is one, but He is also Three God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. See Romans 8:27 or John 1:1-30 and 1 Corinthians 2:10-12. [11.8] There are verses like Psalm 40:6-8 and Psalm 110:1-4 where we can hear a little of what goes on between the Father and the Son.

In verse 35, Paul uses some words from Job 41:11. We may know someone well for 50 years. We will know their mind. Yet we may still not know what to give to them. Maybe there is nothing that they need. Or perhaps there is nothing good enough to give to them. Or again we may know what we would like to give. But we cannot get it or it would cost too much. Now many people think that they know the mind of God. They think that if they give to poor people, they can make God pay them back. They think that they should make a long journey to worship God in distant places. They think that they should join in worship several times a day. The Christian knows that this is not right. We cannot store up ’merit’ with God and then claim a reward from Him. The only ’merit’ we can ever have is Christ’s. We shall never be worthy of God’s love. We shall always be sinners.

No one will pretend to know all that verse 36 means. Other places like this are 1 Corinthians 11:12, Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews 2:10. The place which helps me more is 1 Corinthians 8:6. There, Paul says (in verse 5) that whether there are other ’gods’ is not the point. If there are other ’gods’, they have nothing to do with us. We have nothing to do with them.

A person who worships several ’gods’ may say: ’This trouble has come to me from ’god A’. So I will make an offering to ’god B’. Then I will pray to ’god C’ to make the trouble go away again‘. They can try to play one ‘god’ off against another. We know that God is One. His work is one. Paul says that what God does is rather like a circle. The Christian is in the middle of the circle, and he is safe in God’s care. All things come out from God. All things return into God. In between, all things pass through God. We try to find answers to the questions in our lives. We try to find answers to the problems in the world. We try to find the answers in ourselves. Yet we can only find the answers in God.

So Paul adds:- ‘To Him be the glory forever!’ This should be our purpose and desire. We are saved by God’s grace. It is by faith that we receive His salvation. We must live for His glory