Latest / Reformed Thinking / Has God Rejected His People? The Hope of Israel’s Salvation (Romans 11:1–36)

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Has God Rejected His People? The Hope of Israel’s Salvation (Romans 11:1–36) · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine watching the very people who were promised a rescue boat
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actively set it on fire as it arrives to save them.
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Wow, yeah, that is a staggering image.
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It really is. And that was the heartbreaking
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reality the Apostle Paul faced in the 1st century.
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Welcome to reformed thinking. It is so great to be here.
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I am absolutely thrilled to sit down today and open up this
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discussion. If you are joining us, I know
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you are the kind of person who wants to be thoroughly well
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informed without feeling overloaded by academic jargon.
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Right, you want the meat of the subject.
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Spot on. You want the real theological
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substance, and you are entirely in the right place.
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Today, our mission is to investigate a dense, highly
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academic piece of writing by scholar John K Goodrich.
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Yes, the paper is titled Tobit and Romans 11.136, Israel's
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Salvation and the Fulfillment of God's Word.
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And we're going to unpack this text layer by layer, because it
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addresses one of the most massive theological dilemmas
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presented in the entire New Testament.
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It really does. In Romans, chapters 9 through
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11, the apostle Paul is agonizing over a crisis of faith
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for the early church. A.
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Huge crisis. Right.
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The Jewish people, by and large, have rejected Jesus as the
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promised Messiah. Which was completely shocking to
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the early believers. Exactly.
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Wait. I mean precisely.
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For an early Christian, whether Jewish or Gentile, this raises A
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terrifying question. Does this mean God's promises
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failed? That is the big question.
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Yeah, if the very people who received the covenants, the
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giving of the law, the temple worship, and the prophets, if
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they did not recognize the Messiah when he stood right in
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front of them, did God drop the ball?
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Right. And the implication is
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terrifying. It is because if God could not
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keep His promise to Israel, how can any Christian trust Him to
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keep His promise to them? That tension is a precise
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heartbeat of Romans 9 through 11.
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So how does he work through it? Well, to understand how Paul
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answers this dilemma, we have to look through a specifically
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Reformed theological lens, OK, Which is the actual framework
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Paul operates from. Paul solves this crisis by
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pointing to two simultaneous truths that sits squarely at the
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core of the Westminster Confession.
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Let us walk through those. Sure.
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First, God's mercy is a divine prerogative restricted entirely
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to the elect. God is sovereign and His saving
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grace is only guaranteed to those He has chosen before the
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foundation of the world. That is a massive baseline to
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establish. It is yet, side by side with
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that sovereign election, human beings remain entirely
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responsible for their unbelief. So they are not off the hook.
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Not at all. The Jewish rejection of the
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Messiah was a willing, culpable rebellion.
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We hold those two truths together.
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Yeah, that tension is so key. It is, yeah.
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But to truly grasp the logic Paul uses to defend God's
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steadfast promises, we had to step outside the New Testament
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for a moment. Oh, really?
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Yeah. We have to look at the cultural
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background of Second Temple Judaism, which is where John K
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Goodrich's research is so vital. We have to understand the air
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they were breathing essentially spot on.
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And that brings us to the twist of today's deep dive.
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To thoroughly understand Paul's logic, we are not just looking
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at the Old Testament, we are going to look at how a fictional
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apocryphal book written before a 100 BC, the Book of Tobit,
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provides the crucial cultural background for understanding the
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expectations of the Jewish people in the 1st century.
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It is a fascinating text. I know it sounds strange to say
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a piece of ancient fiction unlocks Paul's theological
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defense, but think about it like this.
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Go ahead. If you want to understand the
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cultural anxieties of the 1980s, you might read a Cold War spy
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novel. Oh, that is a great analogy.
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Yeah, because the spies themselves are fictional.
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The submarine chases are made-up, but the underlying
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dread of a nuclear standoff was a very real reflection of what
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society felt at the time. Right, it captures the mood.
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Toe bit functions the same way. It gives us a brilliant window
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into the eschatological mindset of the Jewish people.
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It really does. Before we get to Tobit, though,
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we must first establish the specific problem Paul is trying
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to solve in his own time. OK, let's unpack this.
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Let's do it. We start with Pauls core
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argument in Romans 9.6, he writes.
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It is not as though God's word had failed.
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That is his thesis statement right there.
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Yeah, he is looking at the visible church, the nation of
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Israel, and seeing widespread aggressive rejection of Christ.
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Right? But he insists the promise is
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still completely intact. How does he justify that?
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Well, Paul's defense of God's Word relies on 2 main factors
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for Israel's unbelief. OK, what is the first one?
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Factor 1 is that God's promises are restricted to the elect.
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Right. Goodrich points out that in
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Romans 9.6 through 29, Paul systematically proves that
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physical descent from Abraham does not guarantee salvation.
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Which would have been a tough pill to swallow for his
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audience. Oh absolutely.
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He uses brilliant historical examples that would have shocked
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his readers. He starts with Isaac and
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Ishmael. The two sons.
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Yeah, both were sons of Abraham. In fact, Ishmael was the older
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brother and he was circumcised. Right.
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So he had the physical sign, yes.
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By all cultural logic, the blessing should have included
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him. But it didn't.
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No, because God specifically said through Isaac, shall your
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offspring be named. So that is biological
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restriction #1. Precisely, but then Paul
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tightens the parameters even further to eliminate any
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objection. How does he do that?
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He brings up Jacob and Esau here.
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You have twins, right? They share the same father, the
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same mother, the exact same moment of conception.
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You cannot get more biologically identical in terms of heritage
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than that. Spot on.
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Yeah, yeah, Paul writes that before they were born, before
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they done anything good or bad. God, said Jacob I loved, but
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Esau I hated. Wow.
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This is designed to show that God's choice is what dictates
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the outcome. And this ties directly into our
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Reformed understanding of the Westminster Confession, doesn't
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it? It does thoroughly.
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God remains entirely righteous even if He does not save every
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single Israelite. It is His divine prerogative to
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have mercy on whom he has mercy, and compassion on whom he has
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compassion. So salvation is an act of
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sovereign grace, not a biological birthright.
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Yes, therefore God's word did not fail because His word was
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only ever intended for the elect within Israel.
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There is an invisible church within the visible nation.
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Right. And every single one of those
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elect individuals is being saved.
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That is a staggering reality to confront, right?
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But then we have the second factor for their unbelief, which
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is human culpability. Yes, Paul does not just say,
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well, God didn't choose them so it's not their fault.
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He holds the unbelieving Israelites completely
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responsible. He absolutely does.
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In Romans 10.18 and 19, Paul makes it clear that the Jewish
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people heard and understood the gospel.
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Right, the message went out to the ends of the earth.
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But they rejected God's provided righteousness because they
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wanted to establish their own righteousness through the law.
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They stumbled over the stumbling stone.
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Yeah, they wanted a system where they could earn their standing
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before God through obedience to the Torah.
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They wanted control. Exactly when Jesus showed up
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offering free grace that required them to abandon their
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self righteousness, they hated. It they really did.
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But if I am putting myself in the shoes of a critic, or even
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just representing you, the listener who might be feeling
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some skepticism right now, I have to ask a hard question.
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If God is completely sovereign over who receives mercy, as the
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Jacob and Esau example shows, how is it fair that these people
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are blamed for seeking their own righteousness?
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That is the classic objection, right?
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If they were not elect, how can they be held culpable?
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Doesn't Paul's argument feel like a massive moving of the
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goal posts to a 1st century Jew? That is the perpetual question,
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the exact pushback Paul anticipates in Romans 9.
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When he says, you will say to me, then why does he still find
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fault? For who can resist his will?
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Precisely. I want to address you, the
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listener, directly on this point, because understanding
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mechanics here is vital. It really is the core of the
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issue. Reformed theology perfectly
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holds these two truths together, without any contradiction to the
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concept of compatibilism. Let us breakdown how this
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actually works mechanically, because I know that term can be
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intimidating. Sure, compatibilism teaches that
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God's sovereign decree of election does not violate the
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will of the creature. God is a primary cause of all
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things, but He ordains that human beings act according to
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their own secondary causes. And those secondary causes are
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their desires. Spot on.
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Man's Rebellion is active, willing, and completely
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voluntary. So they aren't just robots being
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forced to sin. Not at all.
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The people of Israel who rejected Christ did so because
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they loved their own righteousness more than God's
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right. They were not dragged kicking
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and screaming away from Jesus by an arbitrary decree.
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They made a choice. Yes, when they saw Jesus, they
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looked at his grace, they looked at his claims, and their own
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hearts genuinely despised Him. They were not forced against
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their will. They acted precisely according
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to their own depraved desires. Can you give an example of that
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dynamic? Think of Judas betraying Jesus.
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Oh, that is a perfect example. Right.
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God ordained that betrayal from eternity past to secure our
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salvation. That was the.
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Plan. But Judas did not betray Jesus
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because God forced him like a puppet.
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Judas betrayed Jesus because Judas loves silver.
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So his desire was his own, making him fully culpable.
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Yes. So God's Word has not failed
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because the elect are being saved by grace, and the
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reprobate are acting exactly according to their own sinful
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nature, for which they are rightly judged.
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That clarifies the mechanics beautifully.
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They are doing exactly what they want to do, which is reject God.
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Precisely. That sets the theological
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baseline perfectly, but Paul does not leave it there in a
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state of total gloom for ethnic Israel.
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No, he doesn't. He introduces what we could call
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a silver lining. He insists that Israel has not
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stumbled so as to fall beyond recovery.
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God did not completely reject his four known people.
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Paul holds himself up as the primary proof of this.
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Which is a brilliant rhetorical move.
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It is. He essentially says, look at me,
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I am an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin.
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I was a Pharisee of Pharisees hunting down Christians and yet
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God saved me. He is living proof.
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Yeah, Paul's living proof that God is still saving Jewish
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people. This brings up the concept of
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the remnant chosen by grace, which is such an incredibly
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comforting phrase. It is a beautiful concept.
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What is the historical background of that concept?
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The background is vital here. In Romans 11 all references the
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prophet Elijah from the Old Testament book of First Kings,
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The Mount. Carmel Story.
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Yeah, Elijah had just won a massive victory against the
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prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.
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Calling down fire from heaven. Right.
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But then he had to flee for his life from Queen Jezebel.
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He ends up in a cave, feeling completely alone, intensely
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depressed, and thinking he was the only faithful Israelite left
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on the face of the earth. It is such a low point for him.
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It is he complaints to God saying they have killed your
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prophets, they have torn down your altars and I alone am left.
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But God corrects Elijah's limited perspective.
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He does. God tells him that He has kept
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for himself 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to bail.
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That phrasing is so specific. Notice the specific mechanism
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there. God kept them for himself.
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He was an act of divine preservation by grace.
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So they didn't just hold out on their own strength?
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No. They did not stay faithful by
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their own superior moral strength.
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God preserved their faith. And Paul takes that historical
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reality from centuries earlier and applies it directly to his
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present day. Yes, he says so too.
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At the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
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Which means God's promises are actively being fulfilled right
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now in the 1st century. Right.
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And continuing today through the Jewish believers who come to
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faith in Christ. People like Paul, Peter, John.
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And the thousands of Jews who believed the Pentecost.
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The remnant is the tangible proof of God's steadfast
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faithfulness to His covenant. Having established Paul's
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theological dilemma and his sweeping promise that a remnant
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exists, leading up to his ultimate claim that all Israel
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will be saved, we have to ask a historical question.
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OK, what did Restoration look like to a Jewish person living
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in the 1st century? That is the key context.
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When Paul uses terms about Israel being saved or restored,
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what images come to mind for his audience?
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To answer that, we must look at the cultural expectations of the
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time, right? We are entering the world of
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Tobit now. Let us set the stage carefully.
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Go for it. The Book of Tobit is a fictional
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narrative set during the Assyrian exile, which happened
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after 722 BC. Yes, it follows a faithful
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Jewish man from the tribe of Naftali named Tobit.
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It is an apocryphal. Book.
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We need to be very clear about that.
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Yes, for anyone adhering to the Westminster Confession, that
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means it is not inspired scripture, we do not treat it as
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the word of God, and it has no authority over our doctrine.
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That is a critical distinction to make, and we must hold firmly
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to it. We read Tobit not for
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theological authority, but for sociological, historical and
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cultural context. It shows us what they were
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thinking. Right.
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It shows us the eschatological mindset, you know, the end times
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expectations of the Jewish people leading up to the time of
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Christ. What is the basic storyline?
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Well, Tobit's story is 1 of tragedy moving toward triumph,
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essentially acting as a microcosm for the fate of the
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entire northern Kingdom of Israel.
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Because the Assyrian Empire was notoriously brutal.
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Very brutal. They did not just conquer
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nations, they dismantled them, deporting the populations to
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destroy their national identity. Which was a catastrophic trauma
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for the Jewish people. Absolutely.
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The most significant part of the book for our discussion is found
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in the final two chapters, specifically Tobid's farewell
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speech to his son Tobias in chapter 14.
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Verses 3 through 7 if I recall. Spot on.
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To bring back the analogy from earlier, if you want to
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understand the cultural hopes, the anxieties, or the political
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mood of a specific era, you read the popular literature of that
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time. Tobid functions the same way for
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Second Temple Judaism. The readers of Tobit were living
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under the thumb of the Roman Empire, longing for the days of
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David and Solomon. He wanted their nation back.
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So Tobit is on his deathbed and he gives this grand, sweeping
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farewell speech to his son. He instructs Tobias to take his
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family and flee to the region of media.
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Why? Because Tobit firmly believes
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that God's judgement, which was spoken by the prophet Nahum,
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will definitively fall upon Nineveh and the entire Assyrian
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Empire. Right Nahum was an Old Testament
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prophet whose entire book is dedicated to predicting the
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violent destruction of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.
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So Tobit is telling his son to get out of the blast radius.
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Tobit is looking at the geopolitical landscape and
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banking entirely on the prophecies of the Old Testament.
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Which brings up a major theme, Yes.
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The first major thematic link between Tobit and Paul's letter
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to the Romans is this intense focus on the absolute
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fulfillment of God's Word. Tobit brackets his farewell
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speech with total, unyielding trust.
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He says I know and believe that all that God said will be
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fulfilled. Just like Paul.
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Exactly like Paul, who starts his complex argument in Romans 9
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by declaring that God's word has not failed.
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It is a striking parallel. It is Tobit is leaning heavily
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on the promises found in the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy
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chapter 32. Remind me what happens in that
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song. Well, in that song God promises
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to judge Israel for their idolatry, but then to turn
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around and avenge the blood of his servants by destroying the
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very nations he used to judge them.
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And Tobit uses absolute terms, he says.
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All will happen. None of their words will be
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lacking. He is thoroughly convinced.
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He is thoroughly convinced that God will keep His covenant
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promises to depose the Pagan nations that besieged Israel and
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to restore Israel to his former glory.
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It is really striking how similar that tone is to Paul's
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tone. Both men are looking at a
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situation that seems disastrous on paper.
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Complete disasters. Tobit is living in exile, the
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northern Kingdom is destroyed, and the southern Kingdom is
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teetering on the edge of the Babylonian conquest.
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Right. And Paul is looking at his own
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kinsmen systematically rejecting the Messiah and persecuting the
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early church. Both bleak situations.
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Yet both men plant their feet firmly on the ground and declare
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that God's Word is infallible and will come to pass.
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Yes, but Tobit didn't just have a vague, fuzzy hope that things
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would work out eventually. He possessed a highly specific
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phased timeline for how God's Word would be fulfilled.
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This is where the paper by Goodrich gets really detailed.
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Here's where it gets really interesting.
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Tobit maps out a three stage salvation history.
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A very clear blueprint. And as John K Goodrich points
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out in his research, this is the structural blueprint that Paul
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seems to mirror are almost identically in Romans 11.
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It is fascinating to look at them side by side.
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Can you walk us through Tobit's 3 stages?
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Let's breakdown Tobit's three stages systematically.
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Sage. One, is exile.
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OK? Tobit recognizes that because of
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the nation's iniquities, their persistent rebellion against
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God's law, all Israel is scattered, right?
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They are exiled from the good land, and the Temple in
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Jerusalem burns to the ground, lying in grief and ruin for a
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time. So this is the judgement phase,
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the physical removal from God's presence.
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Yes, stage 2 is what we can call partial restoration.
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Oh, OK, partial. Tobit says God will have mercy
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on them and return them to the land of Israel and they will
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rebuild the House of God. But he has a crucial,
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heartbreaking caveat. Notice that he says it will not
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be like the first one. Ouch, That is a heavy
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realization. From the author's historical
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perspective, this lines up perfectly with Cyrus the Great's
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decree and 539 BC allowing the exiled Jews to return to
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Jerusalem, and the subsequent rebuilding of the Temple under
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Ezra and Nehemiah in 516 BC. I.
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Remember that from the book of Ezra.
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Yeah, we know from the biblical accounts in the Book of Ezra
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that the older generation, the man who had seen Solomon's
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temple in all its gold covered glory before the Babylonians
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destroyed it, they actually wept aloud when they saw the
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foundation of the second temple. Because it was so inferior, so
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modest compared to what they had lost.
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Yes, it was a restoration, sure, but it was partial, incomplete,
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and profoundly disappointing. Wait.
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Intensely disappointing. Right.
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Intensely disappointing. It left a massive psychological
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gap in the mind of the Jewish nation.
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That psychological gap is exactly what sets up the longing
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for the final act it. Creates the tension.
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Because if you are a 1st century Jew, Cyrus letting you build a
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mediocre second temple doesn't feel like the glorious world
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conquering promises of Isaiah. Not at all.
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That brings us to Tobit Stage 3, which is restoration.
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The grand finale. Tobit says that after a certain
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time is fulfilled, a designated epoch in God's calendar, they
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all will return from their captivity and will rebuild
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Jerusalem gloriously. That is the hope.
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The House of God will be rebuilt, just as the Prophet
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said, with splendor and majesty. This is the climactic hope of
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Second Temple Judaism. Exile.
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Partial restoration, Full restoration.
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Right now, let us take that exact blueprint and overlay
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Paul's eschatological storyline from Romans 11.
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This is where Paul is so brilliant.
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Paul uses the same 3 stages, but he applies them in a radically
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different, entirely spiritualized way.
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Yes, Paul's state one is spiritual exile.
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This is a massive distinction. Huge distinction.
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Paul is not talking about geographical deportation.
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The Jews he is agonizing over are living in Jerusalem.
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They are worshipping at the temple.
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But Paul says unbelieving Israel is hardened or broken off from
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the olive tree, right? This shift from physical to
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spiritual is central to Paul's theology, and it shows the
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brilliance of how he adapts the cultural framework.
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It changes everything for. Paul Separation from God is the
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ultimate exile. A person can live in the
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physical city of Jerusalem, stand in the physical temple
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courts, perform all the physical rituals, and yet be completely
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in exile because their heart is hardened against the Messiah.
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Unbelief is the true captivity. Yes.
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So Israel's current state of rejecting Christ is their exile.
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They're cut off from the covenant blessings because they
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rejected the mediator of the new Covenant.
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Then we look at Paul stage 2 which aligns with partial
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restoration, right? We see this in Romans 11.5 where
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Paul states at the present time there is a remnant chosen by
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grace. This is the current church age
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we're living in right now. Jewish believers coming to faith
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in Christ represent the initial partial return from spiritual
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exile. So it is real restoration, but
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it is a small minority. Right, it is not the complete
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picture yet, much like the small, modest second temple in
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Ezra's day. I love how that maps over
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perfectly and that leads to Paul's stage 3 full restoration.
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The big finish. In Romans 11.26, Paul makes the
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staggering declaration and in this way all Israel will be
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saved. That is a massive statement.
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He anticipates a future massive fulfillment of God's covenant
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promises to ethnic Israel. Think about the difference
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between Tobit and Paul this way. Tobit's view of exile is like a
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physical eviction from a house. You get kicked out of the
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building and the end goal is to get back into the physical
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building, renovate it, and make it look nice again.
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Right, highly geographical. Paul's view of exile is like a
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severed relationship. You could be sitting in the
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living room of the house, surrounded by the furniture, but
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if you are totally estranged from the father who owns the
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house, you are in exile. That is a great way to put it.
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The physical location does not matter at all, Paul, if the
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spiritual connection to the Father is broken.
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Restoration for Paul is reconciliation with God through
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faith in Christ. The house is irrelevant.
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The relationship is everything. That analogy perfectly captures
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the shift from the Old Covenant shadows to the New Covenant
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reality. The physical land and the
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physical temple were always meant to point toward the
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spiritual reality of dwelling in the presence of God through
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Christ. But when we read Paul saying all
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Israel will be saved, it raises a massive theological red flag,
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especially for anyone adhering to the Westminster Confession.
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It certainly sounds sweeping. The phrase sounds incredibly
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absolute. Does full restoration mean
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universal salvation? That is the fear some people
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have when reading it. Right.
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Does every single person of Jewish descent automatically
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receive salvation at the end of the age regardless of their
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faith, simply because of their genetics?
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We have to look closely at the conditions of salvation in both
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texts to answer that definitively.
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Right, I want to ask that point blank because representing the
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listener, if I hear all Israel will be saved, my first thought
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is universalism. Sure.
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When Tobit says all the sons of Israel who are saved and Paul
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says all Israel will be saved, are they saying every single
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person gets a free pass in the end?
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Are they teaching universalism for the Jewish people?
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The answer to that is a firm and absolute no.
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OK, good to clarify. Both texts, Tobit and Romans,
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strictly mandate repentance and faith.
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What is fascinating here is how Tobit outlines his specific
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conditions within his fictional narrative.
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How does Tobit do it? Tobit says that only those who
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are truly mindful of God will be gathered together and dwell
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safely in the land of Abraham. OK.
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Furthermore, he explicitly states that those who do sin and
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injustice will depart from all the earth.
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So it is not a free pass, no. Tobit's vision of full
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restoration includes a severe purging of the wicked from among
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the ethnic people. Salvation is restricted strictly
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to the righteous, to those who genuinely turn to God in faith.
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Right, it is not a blanket amnesty for anyone with Jewish
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DNA. And Paul is even more explicit
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about the conditions of salvation when he uses the
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phrase all Israel will be saved. We have to understand how he is
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using the word all. Yes, context is key here.
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He is using all Israel in a collective corporate sense.
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He is implying a massive future conversion.
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A large number of Israelites turning to Christ at a given
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moment in time. Right?
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We see this collective use of all Israel everywhere in the Old
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Testament. For example in First Samuel 7.5
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the prophet Samuel says gather all Israel to Mizpah.
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He didn't literally mean every single person.
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Exactly, I mean spot on. He did not mean every single
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man, woman, sick child and elderly person without exception
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was going to physically walk to Misbah.
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Right? He meant the covenant body as a
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whole, the representative group. Paul clearly states in Romans
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11.23 that the broken off branches will be grafted back in
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if they do not persist in unbelief.
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Faith in the Messiah is the non negotiable requirement.
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There is no back door into heaven based on ethnicity.
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This connects Florida State to our reformed understanding of
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covenant theology. Walk us through that connection.
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A mass conversion at the end of the age does not negate the
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doctor of individual unconditional election.
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OK, when Paul says all Israel, he's referring to the covenant
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body as a whole experiencing A sweeping movement of God's grace
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in that future time, the visible church, you know, the physical
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descendants of Abraham and the invisible church, the elect will
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align in a staggering way among the Jewish people.
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That is a beautiful thought. It is but that salvation is
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predicated entirely on faith in Jesus Christ, which as we know
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from Ephesians 2, is a gift granted by the Holy Spirit to
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the elect. God will sovereignly draw a
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massive multitude of ethnic Israelites to saving faith,
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regenerating their hearts, and fulfilling His covenant promises
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to the patriarchs without ever violating His eternal decree of
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election. Precisely, the word all refers
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to the fullness of the elect among the nation at that time.
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So we have seen how perfectly Paul mirrors Tobit's 3 stages.
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Exile, Partial restoration. Full restoration.
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He borrows the structure but changes the meaning.
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But Paul is not just copying Second Temple Judaism and
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changing the labels from physical to spiritual.
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He introduces A radical divine plot twist regarding the rest of
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the world, the Gentiles. This is where the theological
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depth of Romans 11 really shines.
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It shows a brilliant strategic maneuvering by God.
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Can you walk us through the major difference between Togut's
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timeline and Paul's timeline regarding the Gentiles?
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Sure, Tobet presents a very linear sequential view of
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eschatology. It is highly ethnocentric.
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Step One. Step 2.
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Exactly right. First, Israel is fully restored
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to the land. The Temple is rebuilt
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gloriously, and the wicked among them are purged, and.
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Then what? Second, only after Israel's
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restoration is complete, then the nations of the earth, the
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Gentiles, abandoned their idols, turn and fear God.
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So they are at the back of the line.
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In Tobit's mind, the Gentiles are an afterthought, A secondary
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blessing that occurs only after Israel is entirely settled,
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comfortable, and glorified. The blessings trickle down from
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a fully restored Israel. Paul completely upends this
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sequence. Completely.
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He introduces A cyclical, interdependent view of salvation
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history that would have been shocking to a 1st century Jewish
27:16
reader. How so?
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For Paul, Israel's partial hardening is the actual catalyst
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for the Gentile mission. So what does this all mean
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mechanically? It means God intentionally used
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the unbelief and the aggressive rejection of the Jewish nation
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to swing the doors of salvation wide open for the rest of the
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world. Because the majority of Israel
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rejected the Messiah, the apostles turned and took the
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gospel out to the nations. Right.
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The rejection by the Jews was the spark that lit the fire of
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global evangelism. That is amazing.
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Precisely. Paul details what scholars call
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the jealousy motif, which he pulls directly from Deuteronomy
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42, the same song of Moses that Tobit relied.
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On Oh Wow, the same song. Yes, in Romans 11.11, Paul asks,
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did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?
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Not at all. Rather, because of their
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transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make
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Israel envious. God's strategy is brilliant.
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Salvation goes to the Gentiles. The Gentiles who were previously
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alienated from the covenants of promise, suddenly experienced
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the blessings, the peace, the forgiveness of sins, and the
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indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit that were originally
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promised to Israel. And what is the goal of that?
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The goal is that the Jewish people will look at the
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Gentiles, see them enjoying the covenant blessings of Abraham,
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become jealous of what they forfeited, and be drawn to
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saving faith in the Messiah. It makes me think of a parent
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dealing with two children. Oh, let's hear this.
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Imagine a parent buys a massive, beautiful, highly coveted train
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set and offers it to the older sibling.
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But the older sibling turns their nose up at it, says I
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don't want it, I want to build my own toys and completely
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refuses the gift. Very typical child behavior.
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Right. What does a parent do?
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They turn and give that exact same beautiful train set to the
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younger. Sibling.
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The plot thickens. The younger sibling is
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absolutely thrilled they start playing with it, the lights are
29:11
flashing, the whistle is blowing and they are enjoying it right
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in front of the older sibling. Suddenly the older sibling who
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didn't want the gift 5 minutes ago sees the cure, joy and the
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reality of the younger siblings experience and desperately wants
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the gift back. That is a perfect analogy.
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It is a divine psychological masterpiece.
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God gave the covenant blessings to the uncircumcised Gentiles to
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wake up his ancient covenant people.
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That analogy captures the relational and psychological
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dynamic Paul is describing. The timeline is beautifully
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cyclical. It loops back around.
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Think about the progression. Israel's rejection leads
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directly to Gentile salvation. Gentile salvation leads to
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Israel's jealousy. Israel's jealousy leads to
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Israel's repentance and salvation.
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It is an amazing circle. This is why Paul writes in
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Romans 11.25 and 26 that Israel has experienced a hardening in
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part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in
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this way all Israel will be saved.
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That phrase the full number of the gentiles.
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God has a specific ordained number of elect Gentiles.
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He knows precisely who they are. When that full number is brought
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into the fold, when the last elect Gentile crosses the
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threshold into the Kingdom, the partial hardening on ethnic
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Israel will be lifted by God's grace, and the mass conversion
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will occur. This intricate, surprising
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timeline exists to showcase the greatness of God's mercy.
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As Paul concludes in verse 33, oh, the depth of the riches of
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the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments
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and his paths beyond tracing out.
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The delay of Israel's salvation was not a failure of God's Word.
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It was a divine mechanism to save the entire world.
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Spat on. Let us summarize the main
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takeaways from this deep dive. We started with Paul's
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theological defense of God's steadfast promises in the face
30:59
of widespread Jewish unbelief. Right?
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We saw that through a Reformed lens.
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God's Word never fails because His saving mercy is sovereignly
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reserved for the elect, and human beings are fully culpable
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for their willing rebellion, acting on their own sinful
31:13
desires. Holding both truths together.
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Then we looked at the Book of Tobit to understand the cultural
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blueprint of Second Temple Judaism, which expected a three
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stage salvation, history, physical exile, partial
31:25
restoration and full glorious restoration.
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The background context. Paul adapts its exact structural
31:31
blueprint, but shifts the focus entirely from physical exile to
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spiritual exile. We learned that the current
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Church age is the partial restoration, a remnant chosen by
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grace, and that we await a future mass conversion where all
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Israel will be saved through genuine repentance and faith,
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not just biology. Not universalism.
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Right. Finally, we saw Paul's radical
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departure from Tobit regarding the Gentiles.
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God used Israel's spiritual exile as the catalyst to bring
31:59
salvation to the nations, with the clear goal of provoking
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Israel to jealousy and drawing them back to Himself.
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I want to address you, the listener, directly on the
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application of this theology. Please do.
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We often look at history, or even the timeline of our own
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personal lives, and expect a linear, straightforward sequence
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of events. We really do.
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We expect A to lead to B&B to lead to C, but God's sovereign
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timeline is vastly more layered and dynamic than our linear
32:26
expectations it. Rarely goes the way we.
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Plotted out exactly right, the delay in one area of history,
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the apparent failure or frustrating set back might be
32:35
the precise catalyst God has ordained to bring grace to
32:38
someone else. That is a comforting thought.
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Just as God used the tragic hardening of Israel to save the
32:43
Gentiles, he works through the difficult, often bewildering
32:47
realities of our world to accomplish his eternal decrees.
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We have to trust him. We must trust the unsearchable
32:54
judgments of God, knowing that His covenant promises are secure
32:58
even when the immediate evidence seems contradictory.
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He is always working on a scale we cannot fully comprehend.
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That is a truth we can rest on entirely.
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As we wrap up this deep dive, I want to leave you with a final
33:11
thought to Mull over. OK, we have seen how God used
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the temporary spiritual exile of His covenant people to fling the
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doors of salvation open to the entire world, orchestrating
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human rebellion into a mechanism for global grace.
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If that is how God operates on a macro historical level, what
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perceived failures or delays in church history today, whether it
33:32
is declining attendance in certain regions or cultural
33:35
marginalization, might he actually be using to set the
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stage for his next great gathering?
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That is something to really think about.
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Thank you for joining us on this deep dive on reformed thinking.
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Keep reading, keep trusting His sovereign grace, and we will see
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you next time.