Romans 10:18-21

Justification-National

18 The proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, beginning in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, spread to the limits of the land (Act_1:8), and reached beyond it to the Dispersion. Israel was not disobedient through lack of tidings.

CONCILIATION

NATIONAL

1 It would seem from the foregoing that God was through with His ancient and beloved people and was thrusting them away. But the apostle hastens to deny this assumption. God is not thrusting away His people whom He foreknew. Their apostasy is only in part, and the term of it is temporary. That not all of Israel are thrust away is evident from his own case. He, of all Israelites, most deserved to be thrust from God's presence and blessing. Yet he is not included in the national defection. And he is not alone. Elijah thought that he was the only one in all Israel who did not bow the knee to Baal. But God, in His sovereign dealings, restrains seven thousand from worshiping the idol. Neither was Paul alone, for there was then, as always, a remnant reserved by God. These, however, are not those who are more faithful than the rest, or more deserving than the mass of the nation. If it had not been for God's choice in grace, there never would have been a remnant.

6 Grace and works will not mix. The moment works are merged with grace it becomes mere mercy and loses its essential nature. You cannot earn or deserve grace any more than you can do anyone a favor by paying him for services rendered. The sinner or saint who seeks to buy or deserve the favor of God will find that it cannot be purchased. Grace is only for those who merit the opposite. Paul's is the pattern case. As he excelled all in persecuting God's saints, he deserved the direst doom. Yet he received the greatest grace!

7 Israel sought blessing through law keeping, but did not get it. Those chosen in grace alone found it.

9 The blessing they coveted on the ground of law keeping blinded their eyes to grace, and loaded their backs with legal burdens.

11 The temporary nature of Israel's defection is strikingly illustrated by the figure of a man who trips yet recovers himself before he falls prostrate. Israel has not fallen. The book of Acts is full of the jealousy of Jews whenever they see the nations receiving God's gifts.

12 Israel is God's appointed channel of blessing to the nations. If, then, their failure brings the storehouse of God's grace to the world, what will occur when they take their true place? Then the world will be blessed far beyond what is possible now. Now only spiritual blessing comes to the nations. Then, through Israel, physical blessing will flow out to them, as well.

15 With Israel aside, God no longer puts barriers between Himself and the nations, but is conciliated to the whole world. When men receive this conciliation, then there is mutual reconciliation.

17 It is a remarkable fact, generally unknown, that a very old olive tree, no longer capable of bearing, may be rejuvenated by a wild graft. This has been done only in those Mediterranean countries where the olive has been cultivated for many centuries. Israel is the old olive tree which becomes almost incapable of bearing the olives from which the light-giving oil was obtained. Some of the branches were broken out and the nations were grafted in, and, through living contact with its root, become God's testimony in the earth. The light of God is now no longer with Israel, but with the nations. But all the light is derived from the Scriptures which, came through Israel. Apart from the sacred scrolls, the nations shed no light.

19 The apostle is dealing with Israel and the nations- not individuals. No individual believer will be broken out of the olive tree. The nations, however, as such, no longer believe, and are due to be cut out of the olive tree. Jehovah is already gathering Israel back to their land with a view of once more grafting them into their own olive tree.