Romans 11:12-Paul Argues If Israel’s Rejection Of Christ Meant Infinite Spiritual Wealth Possessed By The Gentiles, How Much More Will Israel’s Restoration Bring
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday July 7, 2009
Romans: Romans 11:12-Paul Argues If Israel’s Rejection Of Christ Meant Infinite Spiritual Wealth Possessed By The Gentiles, How Much More Will Israel’s Restoration Bring
Lesson # 363
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 11:11.
This evening we will study Romans 11:12 and in this passage, the apostle Paul employs once again the logical argument of a fortiori and argues that if Israel’s transgression and failure meant riches for the Gentiles, how much more then will Israel’s full restoration bring to the Gentiles.
Romans 11:11, “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.”
Romans 11:12, “Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!”
In Romans 11:12, Paul is contrasting the infinite spiritual benefits that the Gentiles received through Israel’s rejection of Christ with that of the infinite spiritual benefits they will receive in the future when the nation of Israel is fully restored at the Second Advent of Christ and His subsequent millennial reign.
“If” is the conditional particle ei (ei)) (i), which introduces a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
As we noted many times in our study of the book of Romans, the idea behind the first class condition is not “since” but rather, “if-and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that, then...”
Here the protasis is “if and let assume that it is true for the sake argument Israel’s transgression is riches for the world’s inhabitants and their failure to accept by faith Jesus Christ is riches for the Gentiles.”
The responsive condition would say: “Of course we agree that this is an historical fact.”
Paul’s readers would agree that Israel’s transgression is riches for the world’s inhabitants and their failure to accept by faith Jesus Christ is riches for the Gentiles since they would know this first hand.
The apodasis is “(then) how much more will Israel’s future restoration result in blessings to the Gentiles.”
Paul is not attempting to prove that his protasis is true rather he is saying with the first class condition that we agree that this is a fact of history that salvation has come to the world’s inhabitants, the Gentiles because of Israel’s rejection of Christ.
The first class condition would then persuade them to respond to the conclusion that Israel’s restoration in the future at the Second Advent of Christ will result in greater blessings for the world’s inhabitants, the Gentiles.
Therefore, Paul’s audience would have to come to his conclusion if they submit to this line of argumentation.
He wants them to come to his line of argumentation because he does not want them to be prejudiced against the Jews because of their rejection of Christ.
Therefore, it is essential that they agree with him on this point since it will help them to understand that God has a future with the nation of Israel and has not rejected her as a national entity.
The basic relation that the protasis has to the apodasis is “evidence-inference.”
The “evidence” is that Israel’s rejection of Christ resulted in riches for the world’s inhabitants and riches for the Gentiles.
The “inference” is that how much more will the Gentiles experience God’s blessing in the future when Israel is fully restored at the Second Advent of Christ and His subsequent millennial reign.
Romans 11:12, “Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!”
“Their transgression” refers to the majority of Jews in Israel who rejected Christ.
“Riches for the world” refers to the infinite unmerited spiritual benefits that were received by the Gentiles through faith alone in Christ alone.
“And their failure is riches for the Gentiles” is an “epexegetical” or “explanatory” clause that “explains” in specific terms the previous statement that Israel’s transgression meant infinite wealth possessed by the world’s inhabitants.
In both statements, Paul is speaking of the same individuals, the Gentiles even though he identifies them in the previous clause with the noun kosmos, which is a reference to the world’s inhabitants.
This is indicated in that the noun paraptoma, “transgression” in the previous statement and the noun hettema, “failure” both refer to Israel’s sin in rejecting Jesus Christ.
Paul again is writing rhetorically in that he is using parallelism meaning that paraptoma and hettema are both speaking of Israel’s rejection of Christ but from different perspectives.
It is further indicated in that both statements use the noun ploutos to describe what was received by these individuals because of Israel’s rejection of Christ.
“Their failure” is composed of the genitive masculine third person plural form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (au)tov$) (ow-tos), “their” and the articular nominative neuter singular form of the noun hettema (h%tthma) (hayt-tay-mah), “failure.”
In Romans 11:12, the word means “failure” in the sense that it describes Israel not attaining righteousness because they chose to obtain it by obedience to the Law in contrast to the Gentiles who obtained righteousness by faith in Christ.
Therefore, this word looks at Israel’s rejection of Christ as a failure to obtain righteousness whereas paraptoma, “transgression” views this rejection from the perspective that it was an intentional and deliberate violation of a command of God, i.e. to believe in Christ.
Romans 11:12, “Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!”
“Riches for the Gentiles” is composed of the nominative masculine singular form of the noun ploutos (plouto$) (ploo-tos), “riches” and the genitive neuter plural form of the noun articular dative neuter plural form of the noun ethnos (e&qno$) (eth-nos), “for the Gentiles.”
We saw the noun ploutos earlier in the verse and it is used again in relation to the salvation experienced by the Gentiles through faith alone in Christ alone as a result of Israel’s rejection of Christ.
Once again it means “infinite wealth” referring to the infinite unmerited spiritual benefits that were received by the Gentiles through faith alone in Christ alone.
“How much more” is composed of the adverbial use of the interrogative pronoun posos and the comparative adverb mallon, which form the logical argument called a fortiori, which is a Latin phrase meaning “with stronger reason” and is an idiom of greater degree.
This expression emphasizes that Israel’s full restoration at Christ’s Second Advent and subsequent millennial reign will bring even greater blessings to the Gentiles than when Israel rejected Christ.
This principle of a fortiori emphasizes the certainty that if Israel’s rejection of Christ meant infinite spiritual wealth possessed by the Gentiles, how much more blessing will come to the Gentiles when Israel is fully restored in the future at Christ’s Second Advent and subsequent millennial reign.
“Their fulfillment” is composed of the genitive masculine third person plural form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (au)tov$) (ow-tos), “their” and the articular nominative neuter singular form of the noun pleroma (plhvrwma) (play-ro-mah), “fulfillment.”
In Romans 11:12, the noun pleroma refers to the full restoration of the nation of Israel at the Second Advent of Christ, which will manifest itself during His subsequent millennial reign.
This is indicated by the fact that with this word Paul is making a contrast with the nouns paraptoma, “transgression” and hettema, “failure,” which both refer to the nation of Israel’s rejection of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, in direct contrast with Israel’s rejection of Christ as a nation, the Scriptures teach that the nation will accept by faith Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah at His Second Advent, which results in the restoration of the nation that will manifest itself during Christ’s millennial reign.
That pleroma refers to Israel’s restoration as a nation at Christ’s Second Advent, which will manifest itself during His subsequent millennial reign is further indicated by Paul’s statement in Romans 11:15.
Romans 11:15, “For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”
This passage teaches that Israel will be regenerated in a corporate sense and the Scriptures teach that this will take place at Christ’s Second Advent.
There will be a national Day of Atonement or mourning in Israel at the Second Advent of Christ (Zech. 12:9-14; 13:1).
Israel will be converted as a nation (Dt. 30:4-8; cf. Rm. 11:26-27).
On the Day of Atonement, at the Second Advent of Christ, Israel will as a nation trust in Jesus Christ as Savior (Ezekiel 37; Zechariah 12:10; 14:9-21).