Romans 11:13-16

Passage

And I speak to you Gentiles.  Therefore, upon as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my service, if I should somehow provoke jealousy in my race and I should save some of them.  For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what is acceptance except life out of the dead?  And if the first fruit offered to God is holy, so also is the whole batch.  And if the root is holy, so also is the branch. 

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Again we come to a very deep passage in Paul’s letter.  Paul is looking to the Gentiles to explain the whole plan of God.  Paul is going to the Gentiles to invite them into relationship with God.  He hopes that either the Jews will see his work as wisdom and join him or else they’ll become jealous over his work and strive to be closer to God on their own.  Either way, his hope is that it will draw them closer to God.  Either they’ll get closer to God through genuine understanding of God’s hand at work in the whole world or else they’ll draw closer to God because they believe they deserve it more.  But the point is that Paul is preaching to the Gentiles hoping that his own people will come closer to God through one reason or another.

Can you follow Paul’s point here?  Have you ever used this same logic in life?  Have you ever worked hard hoping that others would either join you or at least work hard themselves to prove you wrong?

Second Thought:

Then Paul lays out the end goal.  He asks whether or not there is a bad conclusion in either of these scenarios:

• Should some Jews exclude themselves from God’s work, the world can come to God, and
• Should some Jews come to God in Christ by their inclusion they might know life. 

Either way, people are drawing closer to God.  Granted, it is better that both Gentile and Jew come to relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  But Paul cannot control who comes to God.  All Paul can control is that he invites people into relationship one way or another.  Gentile or Jew, what is important is that there is a possibility of people coming to know God.

How easy do you think it was for Paul to have such an open-ended mission focus?  What perspective did Paul need in order to focus on anyone who was willing to listen as opposed to only looking among a specific sub-population?

Third Thought:

Paul ends this text with a fairly confusing pair of analogies.  If we’re not careful, we can take these analogies out of Paul’s context.  What Paul refers to the “whole batch” or the “branch” he isn’t intending to speak of biological Israel.  If we are mindful of verse 14, Paul clearly says “save some of them.”  Remember that when speaks of Israel he is trying to focus on the Hebrew people who are genuinely spiritual.  When Paul says, “if the first part is holy, so is the whole batch” what he means is that if the patriarchs and the prophets and the faithful Jews who came first were holy, then those who follow in their pattern and rhythm are also holy.  The spiritual Jew truly after God’s own heart is never excluded just because the spiritual Gentiles are now being included!

How great is God that in spite of including additional people He continues to include the spiritual Jews?  What can this say to us about the breadth of God’s love?  What can this say about our need to resist being jealous among God’s people?

Passage for Tomorrow: Romans 11:17-21