The Elect

Stephen Terry

 

Commentary for the December 16, 2017 Sabbath School Lesson

 

“If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.” Romans 11:17-18, NIV

In Romans 11:1-6, Paul introduces us to the Jewish question in a dramatic way. Some Christians would write off the Jews as "Christ killers," but according to Paul, appearances can be deceiving. Just as in Elijah's day, when the prophet was ready to write off the entire nation as unfaithful, God has his remnant, even among the Jews. How can this be? How can they be so invisible?

While the Bible says that Christians are known by their works, (James 2:18) these Christians are apparently unknown by such works. Perhaps this is because these are saved, not by their deeds, but by their faith. They are a remnant "chosen by grace" and "no longer by works." (vs 5-6) It is not because of our righteous works that God chooses not to reject us. It is because of His grace. Salvation is not because of whom we are, but because of whom God is. For a world of nothing but sinners, that is a very good thing.

Paul is an example of this salvation by grace. Before his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), he was without doubt an enemy of that grace (Romans 5:10), striving by mighty deeds of righteousness to eradicate that same grace that reached out to him. But he was physically blinded, perhaps as metaphor for his unwillingness to see the grace of God. But he was revealed to be among the remnant through grace, an eye-opening revelation which metaphorically was as though scales fell from his eyes. It is hard to eradicate the remnant when the executioner of those that remain turns out to belong to the remnant himself.

In Roman 11:7-10, Paul speaks first of God giving a "spirit of stupor" to the lost to prevent them seeing their need for salvation. (v 8) This is something he understood from personal experience. Then he goes on to say how that was accomplished. He says their tables became a snare and their backs were bent forever. In other words, they became so preoccupied with working to eat they lost sight of what was truly important. Perhaps this reflects the curses pronounced on Adam and Cain. (Genesis 3:17-19, 4:11-12) But Jesus seeks to set us free from the vision of the curse, telling us not to focus on these things. (Matthew 6:31-33)

We need only to look around us to see the physical results that have come from our focus on feeding ourselves. Food has become so important to us that we have taken even to defining the kingdom of God by what we eat or drink. (Romans 14:17) So many of us seem bent on using the food we have been blessed with to eat ourselves into early graves, both in the quantities of what we eat and the types of things we consume. Food has become an obsession as we constantly, yet vainly, seek satiety with some new thing. We often hear complaints about sex and violence on television, but do we even notice the number of attempts to get us to eat or drink something that we are bombarded with in every program? Perhaps this is the cause of the many rules related to food that some define righteousness by, but as Paul has been saying all along in this epistle, rules do not produce righteousness, they only reveal our sinfulness and need of a Savior.

Equally odious is our accumulation of more and more personal debt, our lives and our families are forever held hostage to the labor needed to service that debt. Our servitude also is promoted by the media just as the gluttony was both in the form of offers of easy credit and the things that easy credit can buy. Do we really need that automobile that leases for over $500.00 per month, a monthly amount greater than the annual income for many in other parts of the globe?  (We don't even get to own it for that price!) Television is there to tell us it will certainly make us happier to drive one. Look at the smiles on the people in the commercials. Isn’t that true happiness? How many are smiling as they struggle with “bent backs” to repay that “easy” credit, their families lives and futures chained to a millstone of obligation for years or even a lifetime. As a result, the ability to work that God has blessed us with becomes a snare.

In Romans 11:11, Paul reveals the reason that the Jews chose a path that continued to keep them under the condemnation of the Law. Instead of turning to the One sent to deliver them, they preferred to keep trying to become righteous by following the many minutiae of rules designed to bring them to observance of the Law and therefore righteousness. But being warned of the failure of that path, the Gentiles were able to choose a better way, the way of Jesus and grace. However, we may wish to consider the historical context of what Paul is saying here.

The early Christians did not see themselves as being separate from Judaism. That came later, mostly after the two Jewish revolts against Rome. They simply saw themselves as all siblings within the same household of faith. When we understand that, we begin to see more clearly how meaningful it is to write of being attached to the same Vine. The Gentiles, who have come in as prodigals and who have been away for millennia, are evidence that the Jews who have been away for a far shorter time may even more easily be grafted back in. It also means that all, no matter their history, may enjoy the peace of Christ by returning to the Vine God has provided through the cross. But as in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), the prodigal Gentiles were better able to appreciate the grace and compassion of the loving Father than was the son who never strayed. As a result he could proclaim the grace that had touched his heart and life, while the faithful son could only appreciate it as a second-hand experience. Nonetheless, both were recipients of the same grace.

In Romans 11:11-24, Paul writes of the grafting process which brings God's people into a healthy relationship with the true Vine. He says that this is only possible through faith. (v 20)  Some who were removed placed their faith in themselves and their own judgment of what is right as opposed to having faith in God. Since faith has always been the only way to be joined to that Vine, works have never played a part in that union. Unfortunately, those who follow after their own righteousness may use that impossible standard to judge the righteousness of those who have remained grafted to Jesus as well as those newly grafted in. They do this even though they themselves have never attained to the righteousness they promote.

Interestingly, the very act of grafting demonstrates that our own works are useless in attaining to righteousness for no branch is able to graft itself onto the vine. It relies entirely on the skill of the Gardener to have a successful grafting. When the graft is complete, the branch can leaf out and even bear fruit. Even though the branch may have been created to do these things, it cannot without the life blood of the Vine flowing through it. Similarly, even though we may have been created to do good and glorify God, we cannot do so by any means except the blood of that true Vine shed upon the cross. It is God that must work in us, not we ourselves. (Philippians 2:13)

Have you considered that it is because of disobedience we are saved? (Romans 11:30-31) After all, those who are righteous, those who are not disobedient, don't need saving, do they? (Mark 2:17) If someone is swimming in the pool, it does not matter if there are no lifeguards if he or she is a good swimmer and has no problems. But if we are drowning, the lifeguard can make all the difference between life and death. Christ pointed out the reason for salvation and why some miss out. But His audience, too often, relying on their own righteousness failed to understand the simple truth Christ tried to make plain and Paul so eloquently presents in his epistles.

We are all drowning (disobedient) (Romans 3:10-12), so we all need a Lifeguard. However, like a swimmer in a rip tide, we may be oblivious to our danger until it is too late. A sign (the Law) may warn us of the danger before we go into the water, but it cannot save us after we do. No amount of admitting that the sign was right will save us from the deadly current. Salvation only comes from the grace of a Lifeguard who enters the water, facing off against death, to give us life. It is because of our ignoring of the signs that lifeguards exist. Since we all ignore them, we all need saving. Thank God that because of our disobedience, He has made that possible. The universal need for salvation has found a universal answer in Christ.

In Romans 11:28-29, we read an astounding promise, "God's gifts and his call are irrevocable." (NIV) This means that no matter how far we may drift from the safety of the shore, He does not stop seeking us and calling to us. We too often think that God is like us and once a certain point is reached, His love dies and there is no longer any hope for salvation. This passage sets aside all of that nonsense.

Some might ask, "What about the unpardonable sin?" (Matthew 12:31) It would seem that Jesus is saying there is no redemption for such a person, but Jesus used this kind of extreme language elsewhere when he spoke about the possibility of a rich man entering heaven. He compared it to a camel's ability to pass through the eye of a needle. (Mark 10:25) The disciples, who rightly understood Jesus to be speaking of a literal camel and needle, then questioned how anyone could be saved if that were true. Jesus answer to them, which can also be understood in our passage in Romans, revealed that no one is truly beyond the pale. He said simply, "“With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (v 27, NIV) "All things" doesn't seem to leave out any situation. God's love is truly irrevocable. It's hard not to love a God like that.

When Paul closes Romans, chapter eleven, with a doxology, he is saying that God overrules everything. Because He is God, even scripture is subservient to His will. That same God, who the Bible says commanded stoning for adultery, did not take King David's life after he committed adultery and even murder in the case of Bathsheba; else Solomon would not have been born, producing the lineage that Jesus would eventually spring from. This was a hard concept even for the Disciples to grasp, for in Matthew’s Gospel we find the author unwilling even to mention the name of Bathsheba. (Matthew 1:6) Lest we be tempted to see this as a simple cultural prejudice against women, it can be seen that Matthew freely names other women in Christ’s genealogy, just not Bathsheba.

In another example of God’s will reigning supreme, even though the Bible says no Moabite could enter the congregation of Israel for ten generations, nonetheless we find Ruth welcomed into the arms of Boaz and she brought forth a great grandson whom God endorsed to be King of Israel and founder of the messianic dynasty.

This same God, whom the Bible tells us commanded the Israelites to slay all the Canaanites (Deuteronomy 20:17), spared Rahab from Jericho to become the great, great grandmother of David. So she also was uniquely preserved. All of these women were seemingly chosen, in spite of the guidance of Scripture, to contribute their DNA to that line that would produce Jesus. The impossibilities perhaps foreshadowing the impossibility of a virgin conceiving a child, a child that would make every impossibility possible by pursuing the lost sheep to the ends of the Earth in the hope of bringing each to safety.

The Bible has many instances where God and His people have gone contrary to the "clear" word. Perhaps this means when someone tries to tell us that God's word "clearly" says something, we should remember it is God we worship and not the Bible. He may overrule every understanding to accomplish His purposes. As Paul says "How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out? Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" (v 33-34)