Day 344 (Romans 11-13) - Year 6
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

When we left off yesterday, Paul was explaining that we must talk about the gospel of Christ because people can't believe in a God whose truth they've never heard. And since God has promised to save people from among every nation, then his people have got to start spreading the good news. There's been considerable focus on getting the word out to the Gentiles, so Paul opens chapter 11 with some details about the future of ethnic Israel. Has God written them off? Paul says absolutely not.

The elect among ethnic Israel have been preserved as a remnant, just like God did in Elijah's day. Those who know God will be preserved. But, as always, the people who know God aren't divided along ethnic lines, but along faith lines. In verse 2, Paul says God has never rejected his elect in the past, and that remains true in the present. In verse 5, he says, "...so too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace." Salvation has always only come to us by the grace given by God.

Some received it, and sadly, some didn't. And because God wants his kingdom to be full and diverse, then their rejection is the opportunity to spread the gospel to the Gentiles. But even with that, God's using it as an opportunity to entice ethnic Israel back to himself. He loves them.

Paul compares this relationship to a branch, which is a familiar image. In John 15, Jesus said, He is the vine and we are the branches, and here Paul continues the metaphor. He says the original branches are made up of ethnic Israel, but those who rejected Christ and proved to be dead branches, like Judas, for instance, they got trimmed off.

And in the vacancy they left behind on the branch, God the gardener took some wild branches, the Gentiles, and grafted them into that empty spot, making the vine lush and full. But Paul warns the Gentiles, don't you dare get boastful about this. You didn't graft yourself in. You didn't earn this. You were a wild branch. You're only here because of the gardener's kindness. He says to pay attention to the kindness and the severity of God.

His severity is displayed in those who are cut off, and his kindness is displayed in those who are grafted in. This branch metaphor can be a bit confusing because when Paul talks about people being cut off, it might sound like he's talking about losing our salvation, but that's not the case. The terms some theologians use to help distinguish and clarify this situation are the body visible and the body invisible, or the church visible and the church invisible. For example,

Judas had the appearance of being a follower of Jesus because he was literally following Jesus, but his heart wasn't in it. Judas was part of the body visible, what could be seen by human eyes. But God, who sees the heart, sees who really is a part of his body, the body invisible, and Judas wasn't in it. In probably every church, there are people who are members but who aren't believers, and only God knows.

These are the ones he'll trim off from the vine in the scope of eternity. He's not trimming off anyone who truly believes. So Paul uses this metaphor as a reminder to the Gentiles. Hey, don't think you had anything to do with this. You're here by God's grace, sustained by him. If you think you contributed to this, that's evidence that you don't get the gospel, which means you might just be dead weight on this vine. Perseverance in the faith is what reveals our hearts over time. So it's never too late for anyone who has been cut off to be grafted back in.

Paul says God's overarching plan is for many of the Jews to resist him until all the Gentiles have been reached. Then the hardening of the Jews will be brought to an end and he will show more mercy to the Jews. He doesn't give any details about how or when this will happen, but we see again that God has a plan and a process for everything he's doing. Part of that plan is that a remnant of Jews will continue to be saved throughout history and future.

There are three or four major perspectives on what 1126 means when it says, all Israel will be saved. Some believe this refers to all believers, both Jew and Gentile, but that doesn't seem to fit with the way Paul uses that word in the rest of the context here. Some think it means all Jewish people for all time ever, but that doesn't fit at all with what God has said about salvation elsewhere in scripture. Most theologians believe it refers to a vast number of Jews at some point in the future when God brings the partial hardening to an end.

This is actually a pretty big doctrinal conversation, so if you want to read more about it, check out the eight articles we've linked to in the show notes. Paul acknowledges that all this is hard to comprehend with our human minds because God's ways are so different from ours. But he trusts that God is working in all these mysteries to do what is ultimately best. And he says, therefore, that connecting word like we talked about yesterday, we should offer up ourselves and our lives to God.

to resist getting caught up in the current of culture and to seek God's glory instead. He says that is how we will discern God's will. This requires a lot of humility. Not only do we have to resist thinking that we have better ideas than God, but we also have to resist thinking we're better than other people. That is hard. We're all really different in gifts and even in the measure of faith God has divinely assigned to us. But his plan is to work through us all individually, yet in unity as well.

We are both God-dependent and interdependent. Our gifts are given by Him and used to build up others. In the back half of chapter 12, Paul gives us a beautiful list of what that looks like as it plays out.

Chapter 13 starts out by addressing God's sovereignty over authorities. If you were with us in the Old Testament, we saw this referenced over and over again. Even with evil authorities who defy God and His ways, He's always working out His plan, bending their evil back on their own heads while ultimately saving and preserving His people. So no matter who is in charge, God and only God can be trusted. And no matter who is in charge, somehow their position is working out God's goodness toward you in the long run.

As people who trust God, we should be subject to those who are in authority, even if we don't like or respect them. This idea is addressed explicitly in two other spots in the New Testament. Titus 3 says, God makes no commands about how to feel about their position, only how to behave toward their position. So, in a way,

Our actions toward authorities demonstrate how we respond to God, not to the rulers themselves. And it's fitting that Paul would follow this up with a reminder to love each other. Because in a body as diverse as the church in Rome was at the time, Jews and Gentiles, new believers from pagan backgrounds and Jewish believers from Pharisaical backgrounds, there was sure to be a wide variety of opinions about the local authorities. It's hard for us to imagine what this might be like today. Just kidding.

Paul reminds them of the words of the higher law, love your neighbor as yourself, which reminds me of the words of Christ in John 13, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. He says the time for complacency has ended. It's time to put to death the deeds of darkness and walk in the light.

My God shot today was in 1133. It says, You guys, the idea for the Bible recap came to me because I love God and His Word and wanted to help other people love them both too. I'd read through the Bible ten times and felt fairly comfortable with the idea of teaching all the way through it in a year. I cannot tell you how humbling it has been.

Things I thought I knew that I had to unlearn, paragraphs and pages I typed out that I had to delete when I studied further, it's been so humbling. And at the same time, it has been so beautiful. The more I get to know him, the more I want to know him better. He's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I don't always understand him, and honestly, I'm grateful for that. A God who can fit inside my tiny brain is no God at all. I'm so glad he's so knowable, yet so unsearchable.

that I can always be knowing him better yet never quite plumb the depths of him. And I want more. I'm 344 days more confident that without a doubt, he's where the joy is.

Do you have a copy of the Bible Recap book yet? Or is there somebody on your Christmas list who is that person who is so hard to shop for? We've also heard repeatedly that this is a very popular item to steal at those secret gift exchange parties. Hopefully they'll read the part about not stealing and feel convicted about it later.

But seriously, this is the gift that keeps on giving because not only can they use it every single day, but they can keep using it year after year. And it not only impacts them today, but hopefully eternally. We want to get this book into people's hands where it can get into their eyes and where hopefully God can use it to draw their hearts nearer to him. And you can help us do that.

Pick up a copy wherever books are sold or from our TBR store, and we've got lots of sizes and colors available for you. Just click the link in the show notes.