Saved by Envy. Romans 11.

When was the last time your heart was broken by the unsaved?

Here in Romans 9-11, we have a powerful example of what it feels like to grieve for those who have rejected God. And in Paul's case, the people doing the rejecting are his own people, the Jews. Paul's love and desire for his own people never left him. And when he writes to the multi-cultural church in Rome, he wants to make sure that they know that neither he nor God has given up on Israel.

How gut-wrenching must it have been for Paul, a lifelong Jew, to finally see that Jesus is the real Messiah, only to have the rest of his people reject the very notion. Then, incredibly, Paul finds himself living and ministering amongst the Gentiles, the very people who have always been incapable of living correctly in the eyes of Jews.

The culture shock must have been pretty intense. But it must have been even more shocking, as a Jew, to ever find yourself in the position of looking at a Gentile and saying, "I want what he's got!" Of course, that's exactly what happened.

As you read through Romans 11, notice a few things:

1) Paul uses the OT example of Elijah and the prophets of Baal to show that God intended to keep a faithful "remnant" for Himself in order to make the same point now: God intends to choose some of Israel to receive by grace what they couldn't earn by works. The fact that He allowed some to be hardened is not an argument that God chose some to go to Hell. It's a method by which He helped save those who wouldn't have been saved otherwise by showing how impossible it is to keep the law. And, even despite their hardness, the Jews have not stumbled too far to be rescued by the mysterious grace of God.



2) Because of the stubbornness of the Jews, the Gentiles were allowed to become partakers of the Gospel. And so, the hardened Jews saw that those who had no business being holy were suddenly called holy and "grafted" in to the family of God. Imagine what they must have thought to see idol-worshipping, heathen Gentiles suddenly understand themselves to be "children of God." If the Gentiles could do it, surely the Jews must be able to accept the Messiah. And so, as Paul writes, "salvation came to the Gentiles to make Israel envious."



3) How will God save all of Israel? Could it be that Israel's response to the Gentiles' inclusion will make them turn away from godlessness?

"Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all." (11:30-32)

In other words, our disobedience leads to God's mercy. And of course, Paul has already said that this mercy doesn't give us license to sin more. Instead, this mercy leads us to repentence and obedience.



4) And just to make sure that he makes it clear that a) he doesn't fully understand why God is doing what he's doing, and b) it still seems a bit crazy to him, Paul includes his "doxology." "Who has known the mind of the Lord?" "How unsearchable are His judgments." It makes so sense for God's chosen people to reject Him. It makes no sense for idol-worshipping Gentiles to be made holy. And it's crazy that God would use envy to bring His people back to Him.

But when God's heart is broken for His people, He doesn't hesitate to use any means necessary to get them back.

One final note: I totally agree with Gerry about the question of figuring out who's chosen and who's not. That's not our job. Scripture is very clear that Paul doesn't spend any time trying to figure out who's in or who's out. He takes the Gospel to every one without regard of their culture, history, or even their attitudes. And we should do the same.