Sermon Tone Analysis

Romans 11

As we get into this 3rd and final chapter dealing specifically with Israel it is important to remember that in the original letter that Paul wrote, there were no chapter breaks.

Verse 1 of chapter 11 picks up right where chapter 10 left off and is still in the same thought.

Verse 1

It is important to know as we get into chapter 11 that there is a horrible and dangerous teaching in some parts of the church that has existed for many centuries that today is called replacement theology.

That is the teaching that God is done with the Jews completely and that He is now only concerned with saving Gentiles, and as such the church now replaces Israel.

Now, hopefully you have been here long enough to know that is not true.

There are many promises that God made specifically to the Jewish people that could never make sense being applied to the church.

Though it is clearly obvious from this chapter that God is in fact at work through His Holy Spirit in bringing the Jews to salvation in Jesus Christ, there are some who would still teach otherwise.

The idea of replacement theology has many holes in its approach and is steeped in antiSemitism.

The idea has in part been attributed to different parts of the church since the 1st century church fathers.

It stems from the misunderstanding of the Old Covenant Law being fulfilled perfectly by Christ and thus the New Covenant of God’s salvation by grace through faith.

We have seen however over and over in our study through Romans that God offers this way of salvation to the Jew and the Gentile.

That not one is above the other, and if anything the gospel throughout the Nt is preached to the Jew first then also to the Greek.

There have been a surprisingly large amount of influential church leaders who have held to this idea of replacement theology, and many more who have rejected the idea and taught against it from the scriptures.

One of the most influential was the man who is most credited with the reformation when he nailed his nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517 - Martin Luther who is unfortunately on record as saying

“What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews?

Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming.

If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and blasphemy.

Thus we cannot extinguish the unquenchable fire of divine wrath, of which the prophets speak, nor can we convert the Jews.

With prayer and the fear of God we must practice a sharp mercy to see whether we might save at least a few from the glowing flames.

We dare not avenge ourselves.

Vengeance a thousand times worse than we could wish them already has them by the throat.

I shall give you my sincere advice:

First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them.

This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians.

For whatever we tolerated in the past unknowingly ­ and I myself was unaware of it ­ will be pardoned by God.

But if we, now that we are informed, were to protect and shield such a house for the Jews, existing right before our very nose, in which they lie about, blaspheme, curse, vilify, and defame Christ and us (as was heard above), it would be the same as if we were doing all this and even worse ourselves, as we very well know.

Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.

For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues.

Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies.

This will bring home to them that they are not masters in our country, as they boast, but that they are living in exile and in captivity, as they incessantly wail and lament about us before God.

Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.

(remainder omitted)

Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb.

For they have justly forfeited the right to such an office by holding the poor Jewscaptive with the saying of Moses (Deuteronomy 17 [:10 ff.]) in which he commands them to obey their teachers on penalty of death, although Moses clearly adds: "what they teach you in accord with the law of the Lord."

Those villains ignore that.

They wantonly employ the poor people's obedience contrary to the law of the Lord and infuse them with this poison, cursing, and blasphemy.

In the same way the pope also held us captive with the declaration in Matthew 16 {:18], "You are Peter," etc, inducing us to believe all the lies and deceptions that issued from his devilish mind.

He did not teach in accord with the word of God, and therefore he forfeited the right to teach.

Fifth, I advise that safe­conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews.

For they have no business in the countryside, since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like.

Let they stay at home.

(...remainder omitted).

Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping.

The reason for such a measure is that, as said above, they have no other means of earning a livelihood than usury, and by it they have stolen and robbed from us all they possess.

Such money should now be used in no other way than the following: Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest.

With this he could set himself up in some occupation for the support of his poor wife and children, and the maintenance of the old or feeble.

For such evil gains are cursed if they are not put to use with God's blessing in a good and worthy cause.

Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam (Gen 3[:19]}.

For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat.

No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.”

With that in mind let’s proceed.

As we read verse 1 it makes sense that Paul would bring up the question considering that chapter 9 tells us of God’s election, and chapter 10 speaks of the Jews rejection of Jesus Christ their own Jewish Messiah.

But, asPaul typically does he answers his own question, and his answer is firm - By no means!

Then he explains how this idea is preposterous to begin with.

Paul is a Jew and was one that could brag about being the most strict kind of Jew...

And yet God saved him while being the most strict type of Jew on his way to persecute Christians.

IN fact Paul’s conversion was told and retold a total of 3 times in the Book of Acts (Acts 9, 22, 26).

The idea here in answer to the question in light of the last 2 chapters is that God has obviously chosen Jews who have likewise responded by faith and chose Him back.

Besides all of that if God is done with the Jews, then Paul is hopeless and by the way so were the vast majority of the Apostles!

Verses 2-4

The idea of verse 2 is summed up or reconciled if you will in verse 5

God has not rejected the Jews, and in fact there is a remnant presently.

Notice that these are God’s whom He foreknew.

The same word we saw back in 8:29 that speaks of foreordination.

God knew exactly what He was doing and what He was getting into when He chose them, including their rejection of Christ.

But at the same time that rejection wasn’t total.

There were plenty of Jews in Paul’d day and plenty today who have recieved salvation in Jesus the Messiah.

Paul then goes on to express how frustrated Elijah was with his fellow Jews who were also rejecting God and His plan for the Jews in his day.

So frustrated was Elijah that he was praying against them and calls out their specific rejection.

But even then God had a word for Elijah found in verse 4. That word was that God had not rejected the Jews completely, nor did they completely reject God.

Instead there was still a remnant of 7,000 men who had not abandoned God and worshipped Baal.

Verses 5-6

The word in the Greek translated as time is not chronos as we are used to seeing, but rather the Greek word kairos.

Chronos is used to time in a general sense such as the seasons or time of day, but Kairos is decisive (foreordained by God) or crucial period of time.

The idea being that this particular time that will continue until what verse 25 calls the fullness of the Gentiles has come.

It is now during this time (Kairos) that a remnant remains who worship God through their fulfilled relationship in Christ.

I saw fulfilled because the Israelites or Jews as they are also called have been the people of God since he called Abraham to follow Him and promised to be not just his God but also the God of Abraham’s decedents that would not be able to be counted.

So the Jew already has the right God, they were just waiting to come into a fulfilled relationship with Him through Messiah Jesus.

Remnant = that which has been left

The way Paul writes this is to say that the remnant was simply chosen out of the motivating factor of God’s grace.

Since it is God’s grace that is the reason for the remnant of Israel that is saved, it cannot also be works that caused their salvation.

The 2 are distinct and separate from one another, and so it has to be one or the other, and it is clearly stated to be grace.

Verses 7-10

the elect = the elect of Israel recieved salvation as they responded to God’s gracious offer, while the rest were hardened in their rejection of His grace.

Paul goes onto to quote Isa 29:10, Deut 29:4, and Psalm 69:22-23 to show that God can and will give these things to those who reject Him and His grace in their state of hard heartedness toward Him.

However this does not take away from those whom God saved by His grace.

If that is God’s plan for the Jews whom He foreknew during this time, then that is God’s prerogative.

But even this seems to work alongside the arrogance and hardheartedness of the Jews as we see in the Gospels as they speak to Jesus as well as what we see in the Book of Acts as they reject Paul and others who preach the good news of the Gospel of Christ to them.

Remember that many of the Jews in those days as well as in ours were under the impression by what they had been taught by the Rabbis that they were already guaranteed salvation because they are God’s chosen people.

The problem is that they are all incomplete outside of Christ.

Verse 11

Stumble - almost fall

Fall - in this case to fall and be unable to get back up

With this question Paul introduces the thought that we will see him discuss through verse 24 of salvation being available to the Gentiles through the rejection of the Jews and how God has a plan for both Jew and Gentile through all of it.

In fact Paul will in this section reiterate again that God loves the Jews, has a plan for their salvation, and that the Gentiles should not come to the conclusion that they are any better or more preferred to God than the Jews.

What we will see in the section is that God’s plan is to make the Jews jealous for Him again through the salvation of the Gentiles.

You know what this tells me besides the fact that God desires all Jew and Gentile alike to be saved?

That it is a fantastic thing when a Gentile get saved because God uses it to spark jealousy for Him in the hears of the Jew, and it is a fantastic thing when a Jew gets saved because God’s plan of action has succeeded in drawing the Jew to a completed or fulfilled relationship with Him through Messiah Jesus.