Romans 11:22-24

DISCOURSE: 1898
THE DISPENSATIONS OF GOD TOWARDS JEWS AND GENTILES

Romans 11:22. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shall be cut off. And they also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?

AMONGST those who believe the Holy Scriptures, no doubt is entertained, but that the Jews, who have engaged more of God’s regard than any other nation upon earth, are yet destined to act a most important part upon the theatre of the world. They are at present, it is true, so scattered and degraded, that, according to all human appearance, they are, so far at least as respects them in their national capacity, irrecoverably sunk. But though for their multiplied iniquities they are cast off by God, their rejection is neither total nor final:—not total; for there is yet among them “a remnant according to the election of grace:” nor final; because God has determined, that in due season he will restore them to his favour, and unite them with the Gentile Church, as one fold under one Shepherd. This is fully declared in the whole preceding and following context: and justly is it represented as a most mysterious dispensation; so mysterious, that the Apostle, after contemplating it, exclaims, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God? how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out [Note: ver. 33.]!”

The points particularly noticed are, the rejection of the Jews; the calling of the Gentiles to fill their place; and the restoration of the Jews to their lost and forfeited inheritance. Of this complicated dispensation I propose, at this time, to speak; and, in accordance with my text, to Mark, 1 st, Its true character; and 2dly, Its final issue.

I. Let us notice the character of this dispensation—

It is spoken of by the Apostle as a mixture of “goodness and severity: on them that fell, severity; but towards us Gentiles, goodness.”
That we may have a clear insight into the subject, we will mark it, first of all, as exhibited in a plain statement of facts; and then, as viewed through the medium of a most striking illustration.

The facts which we have to mention are all plain and acknowledged.
The Jews were once God’s highly-favoured people. They had been chosen in Abraham, according to God’s sovereign will: and when they were multiplied in Egypt, they were brought out from thence with mighty signs and wonders, and taken by God under his own peculiar care and protection. There was given to them a revelation of God’s will, written upon stones by the very finger of God himself. Statutes also, and ordinances, were delivered to them, that they might know how to serve God acceptably, and to secure a continuance of his favour. During the space of forty years, God, in a cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night, guided them through a trackless wilderness, and provided them with every thing necessary for their support. At last he brought them into the promised land; and drove out before them seven nations, greater and mightier than they, and gave them such prosperity and power as rendered them the admiration and envy of surrounding nations. In the tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple, God manifested himself to them by a visible symbol of his presence; accepting their services, and communicating to them his richest blessings. In a word, he shewed that he regarded them as his peculiar people, and that he was, in a pre-eminent and appropriate manner, their God. From time to time he visited them with mercies and with judgments, if by any means he might prevail upon them to live obedient to his will. But they rebelled against him; and provoked him at last, especially by the murder of their Messiah, to cast them off. Accordingly, he gave them up into the hands of the Romans, and scattered them as dust over the face of the whole earth; depriving them, not only of his own immediate presence, but of all power to serve him according to their appointed ordinances; so that they are the only people upon earth who are incapable of serving their God in the way which their own consciences would dictate, and their own religion requires. In this state they have been kept almost eighteen hundred years, living monuments of God’s righteous indignation, and a proverb of reproach to the whole world. That, however, which most of all marks the “severity” of God towards them, is, that they are given over to judicial blindness and obduracy; so that, with the Scriptures in their hands, and with the plain accomplishment of them before their eyes, they cannot see the fulfilment of them in their Messiah, or repent of the evil which they have committed in putting him to death. “They are blinded,” we are told, “according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompence unto them; let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway [Note: ver. 7–10.]!” This is, beyond all comparison, the heaviest judgment that can be inflicted upon man in this life; because, when subjected to it, he lives only to “fill up a greater measure of iniquity,” and to “treasure up for himself wrath against the day of wrath.” This is the unhappy state of the whole Jewish nation at this time; so that it may well be said, in relation to them, “Behold the severity of God; on them that fell, I say, severity.”

If we turn our attention to the Gentile world we behold in them a no less striking display of God’s “goodness.” They were sitting universally in darkness and the shadow of death; and being given up to their own hearts’ lusts, they were living in all manner of abominations. Their very religion was nothing but a compound of wickedness and superstition. But, whilst they were in this state, altogether “without God, and without hope,” God was pleased to send his Gospel to them, and to render it effectual for their conversion; so that what God has said in reference to them, is literally true, “I am found of them that sought me not; I am made manifest unto them that asked not after me [Note: Romans 10:20.].” Thus, from amongst us idolatrous Gentiles, has he chosen to himself a people, whom he regards as “a crown of glory, and a royal diadem in his hand [Note: Isaiah 62:3.].” To us has he given a fuller revelation of his will than ever he gave to his ancient people: the light which to them was only like the early dawn, shines before us with the splendour of the noon-day sun. We, too, have a far nearer access to God than they, and a more filial spirit in our walk before him. The Holy Spirit, who was neither generally nor freely given to them, is on us “poured out abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” “He takes of the things that are Christ’s, and shews them plainly to us;” yea, the great work he has undertaken, is to “glorify Christ” in our hearts. The interpositions of God in our behalf are not indeed so visible as formerly; but they are not a whit less real, or less important; or rather, I should say, they exceed the former expressions of his love, as much as the concerns of the soul and of eternity exceed those of time and sense. If, then, we observe with awe his “severity” to his ancient people, must we not behold with admiration and gratitude his “goodness” to us? In fact, his mercies to them were mere shadows of those vouchsafed to us: so that we may well exclaim with the prophet, “How great is his goodness! how great is his beauty!”

But the character of this dispensation will yet more fully appear, if we view it through the medium of the image by which it is illustrated.
The Apostle represents the Jewish Church as an olive-tree planted by the hand of God himself, and watered with the dews of heaven. For a time, it brought forth fruit: but, after a season, it became barren, and disappointed wholly the expectations of the divine Husbandman. At last, Almighty God determined to express against it his merited displeasure, and to display in it his righteous indignation. Accordingly, he broke off, in quick succession, all its branches, and scattered them over the earth, as warnings to an ungodly world. In every place under heaven has he caused them to be despised and trampled under foot: and, from being the joy and admiration of the whole earth, they are become “a hissing and a curse,” to all who behold them.
Not willing, however, that the stem should stand in all its naked deformity, God has taken, from a wild olive, branches to supply the place of those which have been broken off. The wild olive was in itself as worthless as any tree of the field, and utterly incapable of bringing forth any fruit at all: but, by engrafting its branches into the good olive, and making them partakers of its root and fatness, God has rendered them “fruitful in the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.” Thus are the Gentiles now growing in the very place of the Jews who have been broken off, and enjoying all the privileges which in former ages belonged exclusively to them. But, to see this in its true light, we must contemplate the end that awaits them both; the scattered branches withering, and shortly to be gathered as fuel for the fire; and the engrafted scions forming a noble tree, luxuriant and fertile beyond all former precedent, and shortly to be transplanted to the paradise of God, a glorious and eternal monument of God’s power and grace. Say whether, if this image be realized in our minds, we must not adore both the severity and the goodness of God, acknowledging equally the justice of the one, and the unbounded riches of the other?

Such is the character of this dispensation, which we now proceed to consider,

II.

In its final issue—

It will be observed, that in the dispensation, as far as we have hitherto considered it, the sovereignty of God is most conspicuous. It was altogether of God’s sovereign will and pleasure that he chose Abraham out of an idolatrous world, to make him the head and father of an elect seed. It was no less an act of sovereignty in God to confine his blessings to the line of Isaac, whilst Ishmael, an elder son, was overlooked. The same sovereignty was displayed, also, in the descendants of Isaac; Jacob the younger being chosen to the exclusion of Esau, “whilst they were yet in the womb, and consequently could have done neither good nor evil,” to be the ground of God’s future dispensations towards them. It was also purely of his own sovereign will and pleasure that God chose the Gentiles to inherit the blessings which the Jewish people had forfeited and lost. It is impossible to view this matter in any other light; and we must be as blind as the Jews themselves, if we do not see that we ourselves are monuments of God’s sovereign grace, in that we behold the full radiance of the Sun of Righteousness, whilst on millions of our fellow-creatures not so much as one ray of his light has ever shone. But, whilst in these things we acknowledge the sovereignty of God, we hesitate not to declare, that, in their final issue, God will proceed altogether in a way of righteous retribution. This I conceive to be the true way of reconciling those systems, which are supposed to be so opposite, and which have produced so much contention in the Church of God. I repeat it; In its commencement, every blessing is the fruit of free and sovereign grace; but in its termination, it is administered to us, not in a way of merit indeed, but on principles of perfect equity, according to our respective characters and attainments. And the subject before us will now furnish us with a fit occasion for maintaining the latter position, as we have already asserted and maintained the former.

God will ultimately deal with us, us Gentiles, according as we improve, or abuse, the privileges vouchsafed unto us. His goodness will operate to our ultimate advantage, only on the supposition that “we continue in his goodness; for otherwise, we also, like the Jews themselves, shall be cut off.”

To enter into the full meaning of these words, let us consider what we ourselves should expect of a scion which we had engrafted on a fertile stock. We should expect it to produce fruit answerable to the advantage conferred upon it. In husbandry, indeed, we engraft a good scion on an inferior tree; whereas God engrafts a worthless scion on a good tree. But the ultimate effect is to be the same: we expect it to bring forth good fruit. Now what are the fruits which God’s people of old produced? They may be comprehended in these three—repentance, faith, and obedience: and these may therefore most justly be expected of us. It may well be expected that we humble ourselves before God for all our former unfruitfulness, and mourn over all the corruptions of our nature, and all the evils of our lives. This we should do like the Prodigal: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.” Even if we had been as holy as Job himself, we must, like him, “abhor ourselves in dust and ashes.” Under a sense of our guilt and desert of condemnation, we must cry to God for mercy, and “flee for refuge to the hope that is set before us,” even to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Saviour of fallen man. We must renounce utterly every other hope; and desire, like St. Paul, “to be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith in him.” We must also surrender up ourselves to God, “living not to ourselves, but to Him who died for us and rose again.” As the scion ceases to be connected with the stock from which it has been taken, and lives wholly by that into which it is engrafted, and for the use of him who has separated it for himself, so must the true Christian be, in spirit, dead to the world; and must live for that Saviour, to whose grace and favour he owes every blessing he enjoys.

But this is only a part of what is comprehended in the words of our text. By “continuing in his goodness,” there is intimated a danger of apostasy, to which we are continually exposed. A scion, however favourable its situation may be, is exposed to storms and tempests, which may break it off; or to unfavourable seasons, which may prevent the ripening of its fruit. But the person that is engrafted into the good olive must suffer nothing to prevail against him, nor any thing to destroy his fruits. On the contrary, every thing that has a tendency to endanger his steadfastness, or impair his fertility, must cause him to cleave the more steadfastly to Christ, and to receive the more abundantly, out of his fulness, the grace which he stands in need of. In this way he must “endure even to the end, if ever he would be saved:” for it is only “by a patient continuance in well doing, that he can ever attain eternal life.” This is fully declared in the passage before us: Yes, the Apostle Paul, who is so often and so justly referred to as maintaining the doctrines of grace, is certainly not a whit less strenuous in asserting our liability to fall and perish, if we be not constantly watching against temptation, and crying daily to our God to hold us up. “Be not high-minded,” says he, “but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God: on them that fell, severity; but towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise, thou also shalt be cut off.” What can be plainer? And how do all human systems vanish before such declarations as these [Note: It is worthy of remark, that whilst Calvinists complain of Arminians as unfair and unscriptural, in denying personal, though they admit national, election, they themselves are equally unfair and unscriptural in denying the danger of personal apostasy, whilst they admit it in reference to churches and nations. It is lamentable to see the plain statements of Scripture so unwarrantably set aside for the maintaining of human systems. Happy would it be for the Church, if these distinctions were buried by the consent of all parties, and the declarations of Holy Writ were adhered to by all, without prejudice or partiality!

The Author’s views of this subject are simply these. All good is from God, dispensed by him in a way of sovereignty according to the counsels of his own will, and to the praise of the glory of his own grace. All evil, whether moral or penal, is from man; the moral, as resulting from his own free choice; the penal, as the just and necessary consequence of his sins. The Author has no doubt but that there is in God’s blessed word a system: but it is a far broader system than either Calvinists or Arminians admit. His views of that system may be seen in the Preface to this Work.

]! And says not our Lord also the same? Yes, precisely the same: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned [Note: John 15:6.].” Here is precisely the same idea as in my text. Our Lord speaks of all his people as engrafted into him. The fruitful branches he purges and prunes, in order to render them more fruitful: but the unfruitful branches are broken off, and cast into the fire. Thus it is, and thus it shall be: and it becomes every person, who professes to have been engrafted into the true olive-tree, to look well to his ways: for if he improve not duly the Lord’s goodness to him, or, having begun to do so, continue it not to the end, he shall surely perish; and the very profession that he has made, and the advantages he has enjoyed, will only aggravate his final condemnation. If an unbelieving Jew must perish for rejecting Christ, much more shall the disobedient Christian, who “crucifies him afresh, and puts him to an open shame.”

Towards the Jews, also, will God proceed upon the same principle of equitable retribution. In the days of old, he always returned in mercy to them, when they sought him with penitence and contrition: and at this very hour would he restore them to his favour, if they would “look on Him whom they have pierced, and mourn.” The Apostle affirms this in our text, saying, “And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in again.” We are apt to imagine that the blindness and obduracy of the Jews are utterly incurable. But there is nothing impossible with God: “He is as able to graff them in again,” as ever he was to graff in scions from amongst the Gentiles. Indeed, whatever we may imagine to the contrary, the restoration of the Jews is a far easier matter than the conversion of the Gentiles: for the Gentiles are altogether ignorant of the very first principles of religion: they have every thing to learn: they do not so much as know that there is one supreme God; much less have they any idea how they are to find acceptance with him. But the Jews have a perfect knowledge of the unity of God: they are instructed also in relation to his will, having in their very hands a transcript of his law. They possess also the prophecies relating to the Messiah, whom they confidently expect. Nothing is wanting to them, but to have the veil taken from their hearts, so that they may see their prophecies accomplished in the Lord Jesus. The very moment their eyes are opened to behold him as the true Messiah, they will possess all that the most favoured of the Christian world possess; and in a moment, as on the day of Pentecost, will the work of grafting them into their primitive stock be effected. This we are apt to overlook; but we are told it plainly in our text: “If they abide not still in unbelief, they shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou, thou Gentile, wert cut out of the olive-tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed, contrary to nature, into a good olive-tree, how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own, olive-tree?” No one need be told this in relation to the engrafting of a natural scion: it carries its own evidence along with it. If a scion will grow on a foreign stock, much more will it, if graffed into its own parent stock. Such, then, is the advantage which the Jews possess over every other people upon earth. It is to their own stem that they are to be restored. The recollection, therefore, of what God has done in the conversion of the Gentiles should dispel all our fears in reference to the Jews, and encourage our efforts to restore them to God.

But, before we proceed to enforce this duty, it will be proper to bring the subject home to ourselves; and to urge on all a due improvement of the privileges which we ourselves enjoy.

We all profess to be branches of the good olive-tree: and we are entitled to regard ourselves in this light precisely as the Jews of old did, and as our blessed Lord has taught us to do, when he spake of himself as the true vine. But he distinguished between fruitful branches which were approved by him, and barren branches which were to be broken off and burned. Consequently, our external privileges will be of little service to us, if they be not improved in a way of fruitfulness. Let us, therefore, examine our fruit from day to day, and see whether it be such as the goodness of our God entitles him to expect? Let us inquire, whether in heart, as well as in profession, we are separated from the wild and worthless olive, on which we originally grew. We all acknowledge, in our Catechism, that we were, “by nature, children of wrath;” and that, at the time of entering into our baptismal engagements, we were “made the children of grace.” Let us inquire, therefore, whether this engrafting have really taken place, not in profession only, but by an actual union of our souls with Christ? Are we living on him, and receiving daily, out of his fulness, such communications of grace as are really productive of the fruit which he himself, during his sojourning on earth, brought forth? In him we find a perfect deadness to the world and all its vanities. Is there the same in us? It was his meat to do the will of his heavenly Father. Is there “the same mind” in us? Have we a resemblance to him in our whole spirit and conduct? and are we “walking in all things as he walked?” I ask not, whether we are perfect; for there is imperfection in the best of men: but, are we aiming at perfection, and panting after it, and labouring to be “pure, even as Christ was pure?” If we be living branches of the true olive, we must of necessity, in these matters, resemble Christ; and to imagine ourselves vitally united to him, whilst in the general course of our lives we bear fruit altogether different from his, is fatally to deceive our own souls. We know assuredly, that, as Christ inspected the barren fig-tree, and denounced a curse against it on account of its barrenness, so will the heavenly Husbandman inspect our fruit, and deal with us according to it. It is in vain, therefore, to deceive ourselves: for his judgment will stand; and it will be according to truth. We may “call darkness light, and evil good:” but he will not do so: and if, notwithstanding all his warnings, we will continue to expect his approbation in any other way than that of continued fruitfulness in the fruits of righteousness, we have nothing to expect but a speedy and everlasting excision. Let any one go to Shiloh, and see what the Lord did for the wickedness of his people there: or let him go to Palestine and the Seven Churches of Asia, and see what an unfruitful olive has reason to expect. Shall we say, ‘But this was done to Churches only, and not to individuals?’ What, I ask, are Churches, but congregated individuals? And who is authorized so to limit what God has not limited; or rather, I should say, Who will presume to deny what God has so frequently and so plainly affirmed? Woe be to that man who shall rest his soul on any such distinction as this! I declare, before Almighty God, and in his sacred name, that every soul amongst you who either continues barren, or, under any circumstances whatever, ceases to be fruitful after the example of his Lord and Saviour, “shall be cut off,” and cast into everlasting fire. This warning is, in the first place, given by the Apostle to the Christian Church: and let every one of us receive it as addressed to his own soul in particular. And may God of his infinite mercy so impress it on our minds, that we may never cease to tremble at it; and seek that fruitfulness which will be our best evidence of union with Christ, and the surest pledge of our ultimate acceptance with him!

Having thus endeavoured to enforce a due improvement of our own privileges, permit me now, in a respectful manner, yet with Christian fidelity, to ask, whether we be not called, by a sense of gratitude to God and of compassion for man, to make somewhat of an united effort for the restoration of the Jewish people to the privileges they have forfeited?

We have heard from God himself, that the obstacles to this are far less than those which have been already overcome in reference to the Gentiles; so that there is no just ground of discouragement on that head. He who has been able to graff in the branches of the wild-olive, can easily re-instate the natural branches: and in the same way that he effected the one, he will effect the other. It was by the instrumentality of holy men of old that God wrought effectually on the Gentile world: and it is by exertions of a similar kind that he will restore the Jewish people [Note: Isaiah 62:10.]. We know what self-denying efforts were made by the Apostles and the primitive Christians for our salvation: and such are the exertions which we should make in behalf of our Jewish brethren. Indeed, if it were possible, we are bound by tenfold greater obligations to labour for them, than ever their ancestors were for us: for we actually stand in their place, which has been vacated by them, in order that we might fill it. Hear what is spoken in the chapter before us: “Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well:” ‘it is true,’ says the Apostle: ‘and however mysterious the fact may appear, I cannot deny it.’ What a view, then, is here opened to us! The Jews were broken off, in order that we Gentiles might be grafted in. What, I would ask, should be our feelings at the sight of a Jew? Should we not be filled with compassion towards him? and should not the contemplation of our own privileges cause our bowels to yearn over him? Should not that truth be instantly brought to our minds, “Thou wast broken off, that I might be graffed in;” and I am occupying, as it were, the place which thou hast vacated for me? Who can entertain for a moment such a reflection as this, and not pant for an opportunity to bring him to a renewed enjoyment of his lost inheritance? Methinks, every one of us, surveying the branches scattered over the face of the earth, and contemplating God’s assured purpose to restore them to himself, should say, “God helping me, I will never cease to labour till I have been the happy means of reinstating one withered branch in its own olive-tree. For this I will labour: for this I will pray: for this I will combine my exertions with others, that, by united efforts, we may accomplish what cannot be attained by individual exertion.” Is not this reasonable? Is not this what God may well expect at our hands? Is it not a duty which we should have performed long ago? Is not the deplorable state of the Jewish people at this time in a great measure owing to the grievous neglect of Christians, who, for seventeen hundred years, have acquiesced in their rejection from God, without any serious efforts for their restoration to him? As for the excuses which we make for this neglect, we know, and our own consciences tell us, that they are only a cloak for our own supineness. If we even believed the impracticability of human efforts, should we not, at least, implore for them the interposition of their God? But our prayers in secret have been as true an index of our minds towards them, as our efforts in public. Let us take shame to ourselves on account of our past neglect; and let us now address ourselves to our duty; determined, at least, to obtain this testimony both from God and from our own consciences, that, whether successful or not in our labours for them, “We have done what we could.” Our every effort will be pleasing to God: and, though he should refuse to confer on us the honour we affect, of raising up the tabernacle of David that is broken down, he will at least accept our pious inclinations, and, in the presence of the whole assembled universe, will say to each of us, “Thou hast done well, in that it was in thy heart.”