Romans 11:11 Gentile Salvation - For The Glory of Jesus

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Gentile Salvation

Are you a Gentile? This it for you. Read about how Paul, a Jew, recognized that God had extended the invitation for you to be accepted into the family of God.

This is a Bible Study. Have your own Bible handy to look up the references mentioned.

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Romans 11:11-24

11. “When the Jews rejected the gospel, God sent it to the Gentiles and they believed and were saved…God promised that the Gentiles would be saved (Romans 9:25-26), and He kept His promise. Will He not also keep His promise to the Jews?” (Wiersbe, Warren W, The Bible Exposition Commentary New Testament Volume 1 Matthew-Galatians. [Colorado Springs: David C Cook, 2004], 551)

Provoke…to jealousy [NKJV]. “God intends to use His offer of salvation to the despised Gentiles to draw the nation back to Him (vv. 25-27).
Salvation…to the Gentiles [NKJV]. Something the OT had long prophesied (cf. Genesis 12:3; Isaiah 49:6; Matthew 8:11-12; 21:43; 22:1-14; Acts 13:46-47; 28:25-28).” (MacArthur, John, The MacArthur Bible Commentary. [Nashville, Thomas Nelson Inc., 2005], 1541)

12. Riches for the world [NKJV]. The rich truths of salvation (Genesis 12:3; Isaiah 49:6; cf. 2 Corinthians 8:9).
Their failure [NKJV]. The refusal of the Jews to acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah and to be God’s witness nation resulted in the Gentile church being given that privilege.
Their fullness [NKJV]. Their future spiritual renewal (Revelation 7:4,9; cf. Zechariah 8:23; 12:10; 13:1; 14:9, 11, 16). Israel’s ‘fall’ and ‘failure’ is temporary (vv. 25-27). (MacArthur, 1542)

Gentiles

13. “In writing to the Gentiles, Paul laid great stress on his office as ‘the apostle to the Gentiles.’ (Mounce, Robert H, The New American Commentary, Volume 27, Romans. [Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995], 219)

14. “His hope was that in this way he might stir his countrymen to envy with the result that ‘some of them’ might be saved.” (Mounce, 219)

15. Life from the dead [NKJV]. “Not bodily resurrection, but the passing from spiritual death to spiritual life (John 5:24). This phrase also describes the future spiritual rebirth of Israel (cf. vv. 25-27; Zechariah 12:10; 13:1).” (MacArthur, 1542)

16. “The ‘firstfruit’ evidently refers to the origin of the nation: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “Holy’ has no reference to any moral quality, but to the fact that it was set apart of God.” (McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible: Volume IV. [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983], 724)

“Since Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were set apart for God, what about the nation? It all belongs to God you see. God is not through with the nation Israel.” (McGee, 724)

The Olive Tree

17. “Many of the Jewish people did not believe. Paul pictured them as branches broken off the tree. But he saw an amazing thing taking place: other branches were grafted into the tree to share in the life of the tree. These branches were the Gentiles.” (Wiersbe, 551)

18. “Now the Gentiles ‘share the rich and nourishing sap from the olive root.’ The root, which supplied the rich and nourishing life to the cultivated olive tree, represented historic Israel, specifically the patriarch through who God brought the nation into existence.” (Mounce, 321)

19. “God does not look on the members of Christ’s body and see them as Jews or Gentiles. The olive tree illustrates the relationship between Jew and Gentile in the program of God.

20. Unbelief…faith [NKJV]. “Branches were broken off and others grafted in based solely on the issue of faith, not race, ethnicity, social or intellectual background, or external morality. Salvation is ever and always by faith alone (cf. 1:16-17; Ephesians 2:8-9).” (MacArthur, 1543)

“Paul admonished his Gentile readers not to view themselves as somehow superior to the former branches. After all, they owed their spiritual existence to Israel; it was not the other way around.” (Mounce, 221)

Jewish Unbelief

21. “If Israel (the ‘natural branches’) was not spared despite being God’s covenant nation, who should Gentiles, strangers to God’s covenants (Ephesians 2:11-12), expect to be spared if they sin against the truth of the gospel.? (MacArthur, 1543)

22. “It would be well for the Gentile believers to consider that God is both kind and stern. Any adequate doctrine of God must include both his kindness and his sternness.” (Mounce, 221)

“These two sides of God need to be revealed today: the judgment of God against the rejection of Christ and against sin, and the grace of God to those that will trust Christ.” (McGee, 725)

23. “Paul said of Israel that if they did not persist in unbelief they would be grafted back into their own olive tree. God certainly had the power to graft them in again (Matthew 19:26).” (Mounce, 222)

25. “In the future, Israel will repent of unbelief and embrace the Messiah (Zechariah 12:10). In the terms of Paul’s analogy, God will at that time gladly graft the (believing) Jewish people back into the olive tree of His covenant blessing because it was theirs originally (9:4)—unlike the wild branches (the Gentiles; cf. Ephesians 1:11-12).” (MacArthur, 1543)

References

In this article Scripture quotations taken from KJV.

McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible: Volume IV. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983
MacArthur, John, The MacArthur Bible Commentary. Nashville, Thomas Nelson Inc., 2005
Mounce, Robert H, The New American Commentary, Volume 27, Romans. Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995
Wiersbe, Warren W, The Bible Exposition Commentary New Testament Volume 1 Matthew-Galatians. Colorado Springs: David C Cook, 2004

Israel Rejection Mystery

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